Emerald tapped his hooves against the counter to the tune of a song he couldn't remember, idly wondering how Wisp was doing.

Just yesterday, Wisp had come home with a permission slip for him to sign, stating that the schoolhouse would be going on a trip to Canterlot and required both the permission of the student's guardian as well as money for the student's ticket, otherwise they wouldn't be going and instead receive homework to make up for it.

At least she didn't volunteer him to chaperone. There was no way he would be riding another fucking train. He wasn't sure if Wisp knew about his motion sickness or not, since he never rode trains anyways, but he didn't mind giving her permission.

So, with Wisp gone, and him down fifty bits, both for the ticket and for her to buy some food up there, he had even less to do than usual.

Business wasn't booming, but they were getting more customers than normal, so he wasn't left with nothing, thankfully. Well, that, and the absurdly irritating bell above the door. Honestly, he'd thought of it as a tad annoying before, but hearing it so often was really beginning to get on his nerves.

It got to the point where he actively glared at the thing whenever someone opened the door, though it never lasted long as it usually meant he also had a customer to attend to.

Apart from that, nothing interesting, or even of note, had happened for almost two months now. Sparky was busy working on a new spell of her own, some 'Fail-safe' spell she'd come up with the last time one of her transfiguration spells ended up blowing apart one of her tables. The others were...

Well, he didn't really know, to be honest. Aside from Pinkie, whom he interacted with daily, and Fluttershy, whom he checked in on every two days, he'd not bothered to seek out the other three.

Well, strange or not, it was still something he should do one of these days. None of them, even Dash for some odd reason, seemed to dislike him, and, though he was partial towards the other three, he didn't dislike them either.

The World Whined.

His eyes snapped open and his body burst upward, inadvertently tossing aside a set of pink blankets. His chest was heaving, his breathing came fast-fasterfasterfaster-causing his heart to pound painfully in his chest.

Suddenly, his heartbeat returned to normal, his breathing slowed, and the Terror faded away. All at once, it was replaced by a strange Warmth.

"Pinkie?" he asked, his voice hoarse, "Wh-what happened?" he asked, taking a look around.

He was in Pinkie's room, though the pink blanket probably should've given that away. The mare in question was standing by the door, her baby blue eyes staring at him and-was she tearing up?

He didn't get an answer, and instead got a face full of pink fur as Pinkie fucking jumped on him, latching her front hooves around him,

"You're okay!" she cried, "Oh, Mr. and Mrs. Cake and I were sososo worried!" she said, happily rubbing her cheek against his, though that still didn't alleviate his confusion,

"Pinkie," he said firmly, she pulled away, looking at him, "What happened?" Pinkie shook her head,

"I dunno!" she said, hopping back onto the floor, away from him, "You just passed out all of a sudden two hours ago!"

"Yeah! It was pretty scary, you know?" she asked in return, and frowned, "What happened?" Emerald blinked, and looked at her, confused,

"Didn't you... didn't you feel it?" he asked, only for Pinkie to frown and tilt her head,

"Earlier, b-before I passed out," he said, but she still seemed confused, "There was-there was... this-this feeling. I-it was-" he swallowed, his breathing beginning to pick up once again, "I-I can't-I don't-" He was cut off as a pink hoof suddenly appeared over his lips, preventing him from speaking,

"You should relax!" Pinkie said, smiling, "I dunno what you're talking about, but I'm sure everything'll be just fine!" she said, then held out a cupcake from... somewhere, "Cupcake?"

"Thanks Pinkie, but I'm fine," he said, rolling off the bed, catching himself before hitting the ground, "I'll just... maybe I'll pop over to the hospital, see if I can-"

The World Cried.

It happened once more. The weight crashed over him, threatening to bury him beneath a tsunami of overwhelming Power.

A heavy breath escaped from his lips, his sentence cut off long before he could finish. It had been only an instant, but that same Feeling appeared once more. It was not as overwhelming as it had been the first time, but it still carried a weight to it.

"Woah! What's goin' on outside?" Pinkie suddenly asked, zipping over to the window. Curious, and more than a tad afraid, Emerald shakily made his way over to her side, and peered out the window.

Pink clouds, numbering somewhere in the dozens, were soaring across the sky of their own volition, moving in erratic patterns that continued to puzzle the dozen or so pegasi chasing them.

"What the...?" he muttered to himself, though Pinkie's reaction was a bit different.

"Are those..." she gasped, a bright, mile wide smile stretching over her lips, "cotton candy clouds?!"

That was all the warning he had before Pinkie pushed him aside, opened the window, and jumped out.

He grumbled a little, and darted out the door, headed downstairs, though he paused to tell the Cakes that something was happening, and made his way outside.

Candy clouds had taken over the skies, converting the pristine white clouds into pink ones with a mere touch, and zooming around without any rhyme or reason. Of course, if it wasn't bad enough, the clouds also started raining.

He growled as an unfamiliar brown liquid started splattering against his coat, leaving him feeling somewhat sticky and unpleasant. It wasn't until a stray drop landed on his lips, which cause him to lick it on reflex, that he realized just what it was.

Immediately his eyes started flickering across the sky, taking in as much information as he could.

The pegasi were busy attempting to bust the clouds, which only resulted in them getting sticky and covered in milk. The earth ponies and unicorns along the ground were all either staring up in confusion, or peeking out through windows from inside.

"EVERYONE!" he screamed, startling the ponies around him, including the pegasi in the air, "GET INSIDE THIS INSTANT! EQUESTRIA IS CURRENTLY EXPERIENCING STRANGE MAGICAL PHENOMENA! FOR YOUR SAFETY, GET INSIDE AND DON'T COME OUT UNTIL EVERYTHING HAS BEEN CLEARED BY THE PRINCESSES!"

He didn't know if it was because he had stepped up and given the order, or if ponies were generally just that trusting, but no one even bothered to ask any questions, simply following his orders the moment he'd finished speaking.

Both the skies and the streets were empty now, leaving him, and him alone, standing in the middle of the unusual storm. He looked around for a moment, his ears on the lookout for any sound that could give something, or even someone, away, but found nothing. He cursed, and made his way back into Sugarcube Corner, grabbed his spear, and headed back out, slipping his goggles on to protect his eyes in the process.

"Dammit. What the fuck is going on here?" he muttered to himself, before cracking his back, and taking to the air himself.

He ignored the few clouds that zipped across his path, as they didn't seem directly hostile, and stopped just above the town's weather limit. He spun in place, eyes scanning every conceivable detail they could. Not even The Everfree seemed completely free from whatever odd magic was at work, meaning it likely didn't originate from there. The town itself didn't seem too badly in shape, as, aside from the milk rain and pink clouds, nothing was happening. At least, nothing was happening yet. There was little doubt in his mind that things would escalate sooner or later.

Rather annoying, but he should see if she needed any help. Who knows what this strange weather could do to the crops, after all.

He burst into motion, flashing across the sky with only a few beats of his wings, until he arrived just above Applejack's position. She was hunkering down under one of her apple trees beside the corn field, looking around wildly.

He wasn't the only one who had come around, though, as Dash suddenly appeared, chasing one of those damned clouds. It was dashing towards the ground, with Dash hot on its tail, only for it to pull off the impossible, and switch directions instantly. There was no slowing down, no turning. One moment it was going down, the next it was going up. Dash wasn't expecting this either, and didn't have time to slow herself down.

"Gah!" she shouted, crashing into the ground, sending up clouds of dirt and debris, "Dammit!" she cursed, pulling herself from the ground, "Get back here, you stupid son of a-!"

"Rainbow Dash!" Applejack shouted, "What in the hay is with all this crazy weather?!"

"Fuck if I know!" Dash shouted back, her filter evidently taking a backseat at the moment, "Places all over Equestria are getting all this freaky weather!" she said, "Cloudsdale's getting this massive cola storm, and Las Pegasus is up to their knees in orange juice!"

"Well whatever the fuck's going on, it isn't normal," Emerald interjected, landing firmly, "Whatever is doing this is powerful enough to affect places all over the fucking country. You two need to get inside!" he snapped. Applejack shook her head,

"Like hay I am! All this chocolate milk might ruin mah family's crops!" she shouted, "I gotta at least get 'em all covered!"

Before anyone could continue, the corn field, which had gone mostly unnoticed by him, suddenly started fucking popping. And not one by one either, as the quickly growing tsunami of popcorn crashed over them all, covering them in thousands of individually popped kernels, which, thankfully, were stone cold despite popping.

"Faustdammit!" he snapped, angrily bursting out of the field of corn, throwing kernels all around him. A shadow suddenly overtook him, and he turned to find that the tree Applejack had been hiding under was bending at the trunk, now overburdened with apples the size of his fucking head!

He cursed and leapt away, ignoring the muted *CRASH* as the tree and its now heavy fruit sank into the soggy popcorn.

Of course, it didn't end there, as a multitude of animals suddenly stampeded across the ground, rushing for the head-sized fruit, consuming it without hesitation.

"Consarnit! Fluttershy, control yer animals!" Applejack snapped, causing Emerald to turn, finding the mare in question helplessly pleading with one of them,

"I'm trying!" she insisted loudly, for her at least, before turning back to the nearest rabbit, "C'mon now Angel, it's not nice to- oh my!"

Oh my indeed, as partway through her attempts at negotiation there was a flash of light, and the rabbit's legs suddenly began to shrink and expand, hard hooves popping out from the bottom, while simultaneously elongating, until it was nearly three feet in length, bony, and bared only a passing resemblance to a set of actual limbs.

Seemingly unconcerned with this unusual development, the animals charged off, nearly running Emerald over in the process.

"Okay, seriously, what the fuck's going on?!" Dash shouted, throwing her hooves into the air, though Emerald wasn't too sure he was far behind.

"Goodness, things are much worse than I'd imagined," a posh voice said, just as Rarity came into view from behind the veritable mountain of soggy popcorn, wearing an elaborate purple coat and umbrella, "I suppose it's a good thing I've come along to help."

"Rarity!" Applejack shouted, sounding slightly relieved, "Thank goodness, ya got any magic that might solve this?" she asked hopefully, only to deflate when Rarity shook her head,

"I'm afraid not," Rarity admitted, "My expertise lies with dresses, not spells. Though, I'm sure Twilight has just the thing to fix this mess," she added confidently, sending her farmer friend a smile, "In the meantime, I'd be glad to help out! Well, so long as it doesn't involve me getting dirty. Or out from under my umbrella, of course," she offered with a bright smile.

"Of course," Applejack deadpanned, staring flatly at the dressmaker. They were interrupted by a loud shout from beyond the popcorn before they could argue, however,

"Don't worry everyone!" Sparky's voice cried over the rain and popcorn, "I've finally finished that new 'Fail-safe' spell of mine! Just one cast and everything will be back to normal!" she shouted.

"Well hurry up!" Dash shouted back, "There's enough chocolate milk in my feathers, and I don't want any more!"

"Aw, come on Dashie!" Pinkie's voice suddenly asked from directly behind them, causing the entire group to spin around in surprise, finding the pink mare sitting atop the popcorn pile, mane lying flat, jaw wide open and aimed towards the sky, "Why would you wanna stop this? It's raining chocolate milk!"

She was promptly ignored, as a sudden wave of purple magic washed over the area, bathing it in a deep purple glow, before a flash of white revealed-

"Wh-what?!" Sparky stammered, "My Fail-safe spell... failed?! Wh-what do we do?!" she cried, looking horribly lost as she looked around frantically.

"Panic?" Spike's voice supplied, before he and Sparky fully came into everyone's view, though he was mostly ignored as well.

"Can we figure out what's going on after we get rid of these fucking things?!" he snarled, cutting the next one to come at him in half, only for it to reform into two new clouds behind him.

"Okay, okay..." Sparky murmured, "Alright! Time for Plan B!" she shouted, "Rainbow Dash?! Can you corral these rogue clouds into one spot?" she called. Dash, who had recently been beset by a group of the deformed rabbits, knocked them aside and saluted,

"Got it!" she said, and took off, using her speed to cut off multiple clouds, forcing them to reverse direction to avoid her, until she began to form and then circle a large group of the things, effectively keeping them in place.

"Applejack!" Sparky yelled once more, "Can you use a rope to bring those high-strung clouds down from the sky?!"

"Heard ya loud an' clear!" she hollered, slipping a lasso out from underneath her hat, before twirling it around, and, with one impressive throw, managed to lasso the entire group of clouds, before pulling it down to ground level,

"Fluttershy, can you get the animals to eat it?" Sparky asked quietly, having trotted over to the pegasus, who gave her a shaky nod,

"Oh my, I hope none of these animals want to eat any of these chocolate filled cotton candy clouds! I'd hate to share!" she yelled.

Granted the animals didn't seem to notice, having immediately descended on the large mass of sugar like a starving colt at a feast.

"An' when ya'll'er done, feel free ta have some popcorn for dessert!" Applejack shouted, smirking widely.

"I can't help but feel that this is highly unhealthy for the animals..." Emerald muttered, eyeing the creatures and their snack with a critical eye, "... then again, neither are those limbs..."

"See Spike?" Sparky suddenly asked, "There's nothing we can't overcome if we just work together," she said, nodding sagely. Emerald scoffed,

"What did we overcome?" he asked, "Some odd weather? This kind of stuff is taking place all over Equestria, we've only just begun fixing shit," he said. Sparky sighed, and shook her head,

"Don't be so pessimistic," she chided him, unaware of Spike's suddenly bulging cheeks, "Sometimes things are a lot simpler than they-wah?!" she yelped as a sudden burst of green flame erupted from beside her, nearly sending her flopping to the ground as the flame's ashes coalesced into a scroll, even as she reflexively caught it in her magic.

Oddly enough, there was a second trail of ash, only this one made its way over towards Emerald, before doing the same thing, landing firmly in his own hoof.

For both a letter to be addressed to himself and Sparky at around the same time? The princesses knew that he'd likely be near her quite often, but for them to take the extra precaution of sending a letter directly to him?

It was surprising to find that, in the face of something that was distinctly bigger than anything he'd faced before, his motion sickness was effectively out of mind, as he managed to ride the train with the others with little difficulty.

He could've flown to Canterlot and been there within the hour, rather than the several hours spent on train, but if the weather was any indication, then flying was not only unsafe, but it could very well turn into something worse, and Emerald would be damned if he let anything happen to these mares before they all got to the bottom of this.

Although, with every passing second, he could feel It, growing stronger, and stronger the closer they came to Canterlot. Its Power only grew deeper, deeper, and deeper, as if he was sinking into the endlessness of the Abyss.

He began to shake, his body convulsing in a feverish attempt to get him away-awayawayaway-from Something.

"Emerald?" Sparky's voice cut into his thoughts, dragging them away from the Power, "Are you okay?" she asked, gently placing her hoof over his.

Just like that, a Familiar warmth enveloped him, and his shaking ceased, and he found himself staring, confounded, into the pair of worried amethyst eyes peering, worriedly, into his own.

"... I-I'm fine," he said, though he couldn't keep his voice straight. Sparky just frowned at him, her eyes searching his,

"Are you sure?" she asked, gently squeezing his hoof without thought. Emerald found himself nodding, and even squeezed back,

"Y-yeah... I'm doing fine now," he said, inadvertently hinting at the opposite being true a few moments ago.

"Well, as cute as this all is," Rarity's voice cut in, sounding oddly apologetic, even as the unicorn and thestral practically jumped apart, "we still have no idea what's causing all this strange weather."

"Well, whatever the fuck it is," Emerald began, ignoring the way the Power began pressing against him once more, "it's... powerful," he said, "To have managed to affect the weather of so many places all over Equestria, without being seen or detected is astonishing. Plus, the sheer amount of magic required to have done all of that within so little time, and over so wide an area, not to mention making it all resistant to everyone's attempts to stop it, is... beyond imagination."

"Well, the princesses obviously figured it out!" Dash snapped, glaring outside at the dozens of armoured ponies and thestrals darting around, trying to contain whatever the fuck was going on, "Now they need us to fix it!"

"How?" Fluttershy asked, looking despondently at the rest of them, "I-I mean... the animals wouldn't listen to me, and not even Twilight's magic worked..."

"That was jus' one spell!" Applejack argued firmly, stamping her hoof against the cushion, "I'm sure the princesses got plenty'o spells ta use!"

"Ooh! What if the princesses made all this happen? Maybe it's all just a big surprise party and this is how they got us to come!"

The mares, mostly Applejack and Rainbow Dash, continued bickering with each other, until Sparky's voice cut through all of them,

"The Elements," Sparky said, looking up at the rest of them, "I mean... we are pretty much just civilians," she added sheepishly, noticing her friend's stunned looks, "the only thing we really have to deal with something like this are the Elements of Harmony, which we managed to use once. Maybe they need us to help them use them?" she finished.

... If the princesses know who did this, and think the Elements are necessary then...

"B-but the last time we used the Elements, the whole world was in peril!" Rarity stammered, "S-surely a little bit of weather trouble isn't that big of a threat?" she asked,

... There's only one being that was so powerful that the Elements of Harmony were required to defeat... and even then, it only reduced him to a statue...

"All of Equestria is being affected by... whatever this is," Sparky continued, looking dour, "For all we know, it's happening all over the planet."

But... he couldn't have possibly escaped. The Elements were at their full power when they took him down, unlike Nightmare Moon, who was imprisoned with only three at full strength and three at... whatever they were...

"But how?!" Rarity practically snapped, looking genuinely distraught, "S-surely there's nothing out there as strong as Nightmare Moon?!"

Mother mentioned how his prison was self sustaining, and couldn't be broken by anything other than something as powerful as the Elements themselves... so what is it?

"We won't know until we find out," Sparky said, all but ending the conversation with that grim statement.

Unless someone tampered with it... but, to have actually tampered with a spell weaved by the Elements... that would take some seriously dark magic... but, if they're wanting to release him, then the mental risks of that magic are likely not their biggest concern... but, even then...

Thankfully the train suffered no complications during the rest of the ride, and they made it to Canterlot in good time.

Entire buildings had been uprooted from the ground, hovering in the air, without a care for stability of any kind, occasionally tipping over themselves, eliciting panicked screams from inside. On top of that, there were dozens of those same mutated animals running around, and even some of the townsfolk had been altered as well!

He could even spot some poor fools whose clothes had sprouted legs, and were now trying to wear them.

Ponies were running around everywhere, screaming their heads off, and it was all the Royal Guard, as well as whatever was left of the Solar and Lunar Guard that hadn't been deployed elsewhere, could do to keep everyone from getting hurt.

"Chaos," Emerald snarled, his eyes lingering on the distant castle, where he could see a swirling vortex of those pink clouds surrounding the main spire.

"That sounds 'bout right," Applejack agreed, staring around them with thinly veiled fury in her eyes, though it did nothing to quell the fear that was there as well,

"C'mon everyone!" Sparky suddenly snapped, breaking off into a sprint, "We need to get to Princess Celestia as fast as we can!"

As if she even had to say anything to get the group moving. Hardly even a second after the first syllable had left her lips and the entire group was charging after her. They charged passed animals, ducked beneath buildings, and weaved through the throngs of panicking ponies with only minor issue.

Emerald nearly cursed as they closed in on the castle. The sheer amount of magic required for all of this practically guaranteed that Discord was behind all this, but if it was Discord, then there was no doubt that he could sense the Element Bearers approaching. After all, the girls might not have the Elements on them, but they were intrinsically connected to them. The fact that he was just letting them approach meant he was planning something.

And when Discord: The Mad King of Chaos is planning something, then things were about to spiral way out of control.

It was just as they passed through the castle gate, that the sight of a series of statues caused him to remember.

"The schoolfoals!" he hissed as he came to a stop, inadvertently bringing Rarity, Applejack, and Dash to a stop as well,

"Where are they?!" Applejack asked, looking around, "Applebloom told me that they were headin' ta the Statue Garden!"

"Oh, I hope Sweetie Belle's alright," Rarity murmured worriedly, "I shudder to imagine what might've happened to her...."

"Girls! Emerald!" Sparky called, having stopped just before the castle door, evidently not realizing their absence until then, "We need to hurry! We can make sure the foals are safe after we take care of this!" she added, sounding almost desperate. Applejack huffed,

"Ya'll saw what was going on!" she snapped, whirling to face Sparky with a sneer on her face, "I don't wanna leave mah baby sister out there with this... thing messing with everypony!"

"Yeah, and I can't just leave Scoots either!" Dash shouted, clearly agitated, "What kinda role model would I be if I left my number one fan to some crazy monster?!"

Dammit! Should I go hunting for them? With Discord on the loose, who knows what could happen to them! But, I can't just leave the Bearers either... Dammit, dammit, dammit!

"W-you need to stop this!" Emerald shouted, catching the six mares' attention, "The sooner w-you fix this issue, the less danger the foals will be in!" he implored, "This is clearly something that only the Elements of Harmony can handle! If any of you aren't present, who knows how much danger the entire world could be in!"

"Wha-but-!" Applejack stammered, before snarling, "Fuckin' dammit!" she snapped, before turning to Sparky, "Let's git this over with so I can find mah sister!" she growled, stamping over to Sparky, ignoring the stunned, and fearful, looking Fluttershy,

"I agree," Rarity said daintily, though no less aggravated as she followed, "Though, perhaps I wouldn't put it in such a crass manner..."

"I sure as shit am!" Dash grumbled hotly, hovering after them. For a moment, Emerald was startled at their hostility, but pushed it aside.

"Princess!" Twilight shouted, seconds before the door to the Main Hall burst open, revealing herself and the other six behind her, "We came as fast as we could!"

"Good," Princess Celestia addressed her, as she and her sister, Princess Luna, stood atop the central stairs, "We don't have much time left, follow us," she directed, climbing the steps,

"And be on your guard," Princess Luna added ominously, before following her sister.

Twilight swallowed the lump in her throat, and moved after them, her friends right behind her.

"What's goin' on, Yer Highnesses?" Applejack asked, a tad rudely, but considering that her sister was probably in danger, Twilight was willing to let it slide, "Everythin's all crazy out there." Princess Celestia nodded,

"It's a matter of grave importance," she began ominously, "You see, my sister and I have faced many enemies in the past."

"Some greater than others," Princess Luna added, stopping momentarily at the top of the stairs, "But none of them were as powerful as the one we faced before ruling Equestria," she said.

"Yes," Princess Celestia said, "an old foe of ours has returned. One we thought defeated forever," she continued, turning a corner.

It was a massive hall, lined with arches high enough to dwarf the Town Hall in Ponyville, and a pristine, checkerboard, marble floor, with only a single blood red carpet stretching from one end of the hall to the other. The walls were a faded purple in colour, with only a few statues of pony soldiers standing beside each of the many windows. They were massive stained-glass windows as well, towering easily above their collective heights, and each one bore a different image, that Twilight only passively recognized.

Great forests, towering mountains, and bottomless oceans spread before her. Grand ponies and monsters adorned each window, as battles of ages long in the past were forever immortalized in glass.

"We're not sure how he managed to escape," Princess Luna spoke suddenly, startling Twilight from her thoughts, "We'd thought the spells and enchantments on his prison everlasting, but, alas, that proved to be false."

Princess Celestia paused for a moment, and stared up at one of the windows, prompting the others to do the same.

The image was that of a creature she could scarcely fathom, made up of a dozen different parts from different creatures, and wide, yellow and red, but still mismatched, eyes.

"His name is Discord," she said, her tone turning venomous as she glared violently at the image, "He was, or rather is, a spirit, one of chaos and disharmony. He lives for nothing other then to spread misery and sorrow wherever he goes."

"Before mine sister and I challenged him, he ruled Equestria for nearly three centuries, and placed its inhabitants in a state of permanent unrest and unhappiness," Princess Luna supplied, walking off once more, which caused the group to follow along, "T'was only after we discovered the Elements that we managed to defeat him, and, even then, it took us nearly a century to do so."

"Alright, Princesses!" Rainbow cheered, slightly easing the tension in the group,

"Alright indeed," Princess Celestia said, smiling just the slightest bit, "Luna and I aren't sure what allowed him to escape, but we believe it might have something to do with us no longer being connected to the Elements, though we can't be certain."

"No longer connected?" Twilight couldn't help but repeat, "What do you mean, Your Highness?" she asked. Princess Celestia cast a quick glance at her sister, but Princess Luna's expression gave nothing away,

"Well... when my sister became... Nightmare Moon, our connection to the Elements was broken. We're not sure if it was the distance, or the fact that I was forced to use them against another Bearer that broke the connection, but, as it is, we are no longer the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony."

"Indeed," Princess Luna added, just as they came to a stop at the end of the hall, where a door was waiting for them, "That burden now falls to you six. This is Canterlot Tower, otherwise known as the Hall of History, where my sister and I are housing the Elements of Harmony."

However, her words had been lost, as Twilight's focus immediately landed on the door.

It wasn't anywhere near as large as the doors to the throne rooms, or even the ones leading to the guestrooms. Rather, it stood about one and a half as tall as Princess Celestia, and bore a single, tricolour, metal door, with a sun in its center. The door was also framed by a large golden arch fit with several gemstones, and above the door was the white silhouette of a single, alicorn pony standing before a purple backdrop.

There was something... distinctly ominous about the door. Despite that, something... called to her from just behind it. It was faint, like an echo, but it was there.

"We need the six of you to harness the power of the Elements to defeat Discord," Princess Celestia said, starlting Twilight,

"Pinkie, what in the world are you-oh dear..." Rarity trailed off, not that Twilight could blame her.

Because right there, in front of Pinkie, was a stained-glass window with their faces on it.

It wasn't a perfect likeness, of course, but there was no way they could be mistaken as anyone other than them.

They stood together, surrounding a dark blue, nearly black, figure, whom Twilight recognized as Nightmare Moon.

"It is you who wielded the Elements," Princess Celestia suddenly intoned, her voice commanding their attention, as she stood before them imperiously, "It is you who commanded their full power," her wings spread open, making her seem so much bigger than usual, "and it must be you who defeats Discord!"

This... this was all... this was insane! She wanted them to fight some ancient horror that they only narrowly managed to beat!? She wanted them to put their lives on the line to save Equestria, when just this morning they were going about their daily lives without any hint of what was to come?!

But-but... they... they had a responsibility, right? They were the ones chosen by the Elements. They were the ones who managed to defeat Nightmare Moon, which, really, wasn't all too different. They'd all gone off after Nightmare Moon without the Elements, or, really, an idea on how to beat her at all, and yet they still did.

So what was so different about this? Sure Discord was super powerful, but Nightmare Moon hadn't lacked strength either, and yet they still managed to beat her. The only real difference seemed to be that this time, they'd be going in with an actual plan!

"I'll help too. There's not way I'm lettin' this varmint hurt mah family or mah home!"

"Wait!" Pinkie suddenly interrupted, "Are we sure we actually wanna do this, girls?" she asked, sounding genuinely worried as she turned to them, before grasping Twilight shoulders, "I mean, if we stop this guy, that means no more chocolate rain!" she said, causing the others to immediately deadpan at her, "Seriously girls! This is chocolate rain we're talking about!"

"Don't listen to her, Your Highness," Twilight immediately said, ignoring everything Pinkie just said, "We'd be honoured to wield the Elements of Harmony again," she added.

The group listened to her, and stepped away, watching as the Princess turned to the door, and lowered her head. For a moment, Twilight was unsure about what was happening, but when the Princess stuck her horn into a slot in the center of the sun and her horn glowed blue, she realized what was going on.

An unlocking spell. It was a simple piece of magic, though what Twilight was witnessing right in front of her was anything but. She might not be able to see what enchantments had been placed on the door, but the heavy wave of magic that suddenly burst out of the door when the Princess stepped away painted it as something that would've proved ill to her health if she had tried to open the door herself.

Suddenly, the doors parted, revealing a small blue box, lined heavily with gold and various gemstones.

"Ooh..." Rarity nearly moaned, "you can keep the Elements, I'll take that case!" she whispered to herself.

"Don't worry girls," Princess Celestia said, levitating the case out of the elaborate safe, "I have full confidence that you'll be able to defeat Discord, with these," she said, using her magic to open the case, revealing-

Hearing one of the princesses curse was always amusing to him, but, given the current situation, Emerald decided that it was best to push his amusement to the side.

"Th-that's not-that's impossible!" Mother almost screeched, dropping the case as though it had caught fire, whirling to face the empty vault, "That vault was laced with enough enchantments to level all of Canterlot! Breaking into it is-is-impossible! How could anyone have gotten into it?!" she muttered, beginning to pace around, a sight he hadn't seen for years now, "This doesn't make any sense!"

It was an enormous Weight, bearing down upon him from every direction at once. It locked him in place, for he knew-heknewheknewheknew-that moving would be synonymous with Death, as the air itself grew tense.

None of the girls seemed to notice the way he suddenly stiffened, all of them whirling around to find the source of that... Voice.

"Discord!" Mother yelled, as she and Luna took formation around the seven of them, and Emerald would have moved with them, if only his body would respond,

"Oh? A coward am I? Funny, I do distinctly recall that it was you two who ran from me with your tails between your legs, how many times was it? Ten-thousand-four-hundred-and-forty-six, if I do my math correctly, yet, I am the coward?"

The Voice was smooth, free of any worry. It was amused, arrogant even. Yet it pervaded every single one of his senses, bombarding him from every angle. He tried to block it out, but his body still refused to respond.

"Your taunts are useless, beast!" Luna snarled, her horn crackling with visible arcs of magic, as the very air around her began to sizzle,

Mother placed a hoof over her sister's shoulder, not flinching as Luna's gaze snapped to her, her eyes nearly glowing with a furious white light,

"Calm down, Luna," she said gently, "You know as well as I that his words are just that. Words."

They had made a mistake. Something was different. The air, so tense, suddenly began to flow, caressing every physical inch of flesh that was, so foolishly, exposed. It felt heated, nearly burning even his skin.

"Exactly," Mother continued, seemingly unaware of the changes around them-but that was impossible, wasn't it?-and turned her gaze to the stained glass image of the Mad King, "we've faced you before. You favour mental manipulations. Rarely do you ever actually do something with your own strength," she taunted.

"Hmhmhm... my, how I missed our little word games, Celestia. It's no fun being imprisoned in stone. Oh, but you wouldn't know that, would you? Because I don't turn ponies into stone."

Malice, pure and vile, poured from those words like a raging waterfall. It dripped with such concentrated venom, that his knees buckled immediately, and he came crashing to the floor like a puppet without its strings.

The girls crowded around him, with Sparky and Pinkie the closest to him. He saw, more than he felt, them grab his legs, trying to pull him back to his hooves, yet his body still refused to obey.

"Hmm? Oh, I simply borrowed the Elements for a little while. Can't have them mucking about, now can I? Unless you're talking about that interesting little pet of yours, well, I'm afraid I've no idea what's wrong with him. Ponies truly are a squeamish little bunch. It's so funny, it's actually quite sickening, really."

"Enough games, Discord!" Luna shouted, stamping her hoof, causing the floor to crater slightly, "We will not allow you to get away with harming our subjects!"

"Oh my, I forgot how utterly grim you two can be. It's so utterly boring. I don't understand how you can live with yourselves."

"Hey!" Dash's voice snapped, rising into the air, "Nobody insults the princesses!" she snarled, whirling around in an attempt to find the source of the Voice.

"Oh, you must be Rainbow Dash, famed for her Loyalty. The same as the Element of Harmony you represent."

"You're damn right I am!" Rainbow boasted, puffing her chest out, "I'll always be loyal to the princesses!"

"W-well, w-we're wasting time just talking to the air, aren't we?" Rarity asked nervously, "Surely we need to find the Elements, before this... Discord, does anything?" she inquired hesitantly.

"So what?" Applejack asked, ignoring the way Rarity yelped when the Voice indicated her, "Ya know some stuff 'bout us. It ain't a big deal!"

"You seem to know our strengths, too," Sparky pointed out from beside him, still trying to support his unresponsive body.

"Strengths, weaknesses... fears, desires... Oh yes, I know quite a lot of things, Twilight Sparkle. Just as I know quite a lot about your Element. The Element of Magic, oh yes. Quite the interesting little thing, isn't it? The youngest and most unknown Element of them all... well, unknown to you ponies, that is. I know a lot about all of you. Fluttershy is the Element of Kindness, just as Pinkie Pie is the one who holds the Element of Laughter."

"Enough stalling, Discord!" Mother snapped, getting fed up, "Where are the Elements of Harmony?! What did you do with them!?"

"Ugh, so demanding. Why ever would I tell you where to find the only things on this wretched rock that can actually defeat me? 'Oh yes, of course I'll tell you Celestia, they're just right over there behind that tree!', bah. And you ponies say that I'm the insane one."

"Yes, just as much as I fear chocolate milk. Oh, wait, I don't. I'm just not the idiot you ponies think I am. Honestly, the only reason you prancing little pipsqueaks ever managed to defeat me, was because I, in my arrogance, thought nothing could ever touch me!... Oh, but I've learned my lesson, you see. I know that I can't just lay back and bring misery to you wretched little cretins like I did once before! No, after what you all did to me, I realize that the only way to make things right-"

For the first time since his appearance, Emerald's body finally moved once more, bolting from his nearly prone position on the ground. While the others were still seconds behind, pondering the sudden change in the Voice, Emerald had already recognized what had happened, and moved accordingly.

Power.

Absolute Power.

Power Beyond Comprehension.

Power That Surpassed Divinity.

There he was, just standing behind them as though he'd been there the whole time. Long, snake-like body beginning with a red-scaled tail, slipping abruptly, but seamlessly, into a long, reddish brown torso of a serpent. Extending down, his legs were made up of a goat's leg, and a lizard's leg, the stark white and dirty green not going together with his body in the slightest. A griffon's claw and a lion's paw made up his arms, both laying harmlessly against his side. From the neck up, he bore a pony's head of gray fur, with a long white beard and bushy white eyebrows, where a set of mismatched horns jutted out from his skull, one horn that of a deer's antler, and the other a blue goat's horn. A bright blue pegasus wing and a dark bat wing spread lazily from behind his back, their small size contrasting his disproportionate appearance.

But it was his eyes that caught the most attention. Mismatched orbs of putrid yellow, with a pair of glowing crimson irises, each dripping with Malice.

Despite his relaxed appearance, Emerald could scarcely stand before him, the sheer amount of Power radiating out of the creature before him akin to a heavy waterfall, crashing over him relentlessly.

In spite of the sheer difficulty Emerald had standing, the others had no difficulty standing before him in the slightest, as though they couldn't even feel it in the first place.

It made no sense. Why was he having so much difficulty? Was he not stronger than them? Was he not more resilient than this?

Eventually, however, the others soon caught up with him, each of them turning, and subsequently jumping backwards upon sighting the creature before them all.

His eyes scanned over all of them, taking in the appearance of each individual in the room carefully, analyzing them with meticulous care.

"So you finally show yourself," Luna noted, almost clinically, her previous rage turning into cold fury.

"So I have," Discord replied, almost languidly, his gaze sliding over to them, "I suppose this is the part where you make some inane claim of how 'You're going to regret escaping' or 'Twilight and her friends will stop you, no matter what', yes?"

"You are weaker than you once were," Luna proclaimed, sounding oddly smug-why was she acting like this?-, "the Elements might not even be necessary." Discord only tilted his head,

"Really now? You must be getting old if you think that, in any way, that is true. Or perhaps... you've fallen into the same pit I fell into, all those years ago. I am, of course, talking about arrogance. It's a nasty temptress, I tell you. Really, I sympathize with you," Discord said, holding his claws to his chest, presumably over his heart-Emerald made a note of the location for later-, "Tell me, how is the Nightmare treating you? I heard the two of you had a bit of a falling out," he asked idly.

"Luna, calm down," Mother's voice washed over the angered princess, cutting off her scathing remark before it had fully left her lips. Discord chuckled, the sound sending frozen shivers down his spine,

"My my, you really haven't changed have you? Still as easy to rile up as you were back then. Though, if a little light teasing is enough to tick you off, then it's no wonder you became the Nightmare so easily. It's in your nature, I presume?"

"Enough playing around," Mother growled, having to seal Luna's mouth shut with her magic, "Tell us where you've taken the Elements, now."

"I didn't tell you before, so why would I tell you now? Besides-" his eyes suddenly locked onto them, the red of his irises practically glowing, "-we have so much catching up to do! Hmm, let's see..." he began to float into the air, tapping his talons against his chin, "what should I do? Maybe I could turn you all inside out and throw you outside for the pigeons?" Fluttershy gagged, "Hmm, no, no too obvious. Drop you all into a vat of acid? No, too cliche... Hmm... decisions decisions..."

The only warning was the brief instant of the scent of ozone, before a bright beam of blue light erupted from Luna's horn, screeching through the air faster than he could blink, zeroing in on the spot just above Discord's heart-

-only for it to splash harmlessly against his skin, fizzling out into faint sparkles against the air.

"Hmhm, did you forget what happened the last time you tried doing that?" he asked, then waved his paw, "Bah, of course you did. All that time with Moony as your roommate surely must've messed with your head. Oh! If you're mucked up in the head, I can certainly help, if you'd like," Discord offered, 'smiling' down at Luna, who started growling at his words, "I've gone insane plenty of times in my life, and let me tell you; It gets boring pretty quick, and you can only get so insane before you roll right back over into sanity!" he paused for a moment, then grinned once more, "Just like you did, actually! I never quite thought about it until now, but, my oh my, you and I are just alike, Luna!"

"SHE-!" a beam of light burst over Discord's heart once more, erupting around him in a cloud of pink magic,

"IS-!" a hundred balls of brilliant yellow light burst into being surrounding the cloud, before diving into it all at once,

"NOTHING-!" a massive white and gold warhammer appeared out of thin air, before it was sent flying into the cloud, spinning like a demented buzz saw,

"LIKE-!" pieces of the floor around them suddenly uprooted themselves from the ground and flung themselves into the cloud,

"YOU!" a final beam of pure white light erupted from her horn once more, completely encasing the cloud, and blinding everyone in the room.

Moments passed, where Mother's extraordinarily heavy breathing was the only sound. They all waited, staring as their eyes all began to adjust back to normal, before a round of gasps broke the silence.

Not to mention the entire fucking roof was completely absent as well. Not even ashes or debris were left over. It was as though the sun itself had burned away that part of the room, leaving absolutely nothing behind.

For a moment, Emerald allowed himself to believe it was over, no matter how foolish the thought was.

Emerald spun around, idly noting that the girls had long beaten him to the punch, though they seemed no more able to interfere than he currently was.

She was shaking in his grip, clawing at his talons to no avail. Mother's eyes were locked onto her sister's panicked expression, but the amount of magic she must've put into those spells kept her immobilized for the moment.

"Really, so dramatic. I'm not even gripping you too hard," he said, punctuating that by tightening his grip, causing a spurt of blood to gush from Luna's lips.

"Let.... her.... go..." Mother's voice wheezed out, deathly low, but easily heard, even over Luna's choking. Discord glanced over at her, tilted his head, and smiled.

The World Screamed.

He reared his arm back, and threw Luna at Mother with enough force to send them both careening into the far wall, dealing more damage to the already ruined foundation, as cracks ran up its surface, causing chunks, that had already been made from Mother's failed attack, to fall to the floor.

"Luna, Luna!" Mother cried, scrambling to her sister's front, where a very dark mark was left on her throat from where Discord had throttled her, "Are you alright? Answer me, Luna!"

No one dared move, not until a weak cough emerged from Luna's throat, followed by a small glob of blood,

"Tia..." she muttered, voice hoarse, eyes shut lazily as she turned towards her sister's voice. Mother's expression of worry melted into a mix of relief and sorrow, as she gently tried pulling Luna to her hooves,

"Thank goodness you're alright," she murmured, turning to face Discord, expression morphing back into fury, "there's an enemy we need to take care of," she growled.

"Y-yes.... of course," Luna muttered, her usually waving mane folded over her eyes as she hunched over, pawing at her injured throat.

"Girls, Emerald, go! Find the Elements! Luna and I will-Gah!" Mother was cut off by a burst of dark blue magic slamming into her side, sending her tumbling away, crashing into the wall beside the empty vault.

Emerald didn't blame the girls for their reaction, as he was much too preoccupied with freaking out, himself!

"L-Luna?!" Mother asked warily, wincing as she stood back up, a spot on her right side beginning to turn a faint red, "Wh-what are you...?"

"Mhmhmhm... Luna?" Luna asked, smiling, a set of dagger-like teeth-that were most certainly not hers!-glinting in the light, her bright teal eyes twinkling, "Ohoho.... I am not Luna, Ce-les-ti-a~"

The dark spot on her neck suddenly blackened, before spreading out like some demented virus, staining her pristine midnight blue coat a charcoal black, as though it had been burned away. The air around her suddenly warped, as her mane and tail began to wave around wildly, before wrapping themselves around her, contorting into a deep blue sphere as the colour in them turned dark-darkerdarkerdarker-, before it suddenly turned a searing red.

The air was thick with the scent of magic. The sky darkened, as a familiar white object suddenly began to rise from the horizon, as The Moon took its place beside its sister, The Sun.

"I..." Luna's voice suddenly spoke, the sphere shook wildly, before, in a wave of pressurized air, it expanded cratering the floor beneath her, fading away as a deep black alicorn stood up, her teal eyes locked onto Celestia, before her pupils suddenly expanded, then contracted into a pair of venomous slits, "I am so much more..."

She was taller than Luna by nearly a head, her eyes, a deep teal similar to the Moon Princess's, were complimented by a set of royal purple eye-shadow. Her horn, like a spire jutting from her forehead, was nearly twice the length of Luna's, her wings were similarly proportioned. She stood there, a helmet of blue steel cascaded down her neck, leading the eyes to the metal neck-piece adorning her form, the brilliant white crescent moon shining innocently on her chest. Her legs, so much longer than Luna's, were protected by a set of metallic greaves.

"Nightmare Moon..." Mother breathed, eyes widened in horror as she stared at her once-sister.

Nightmare Moon chuckled. Her voice was deeper than Luna's, holding a more mature quality that would have sent shivers down even the most loyal stallion's spine, had her maw not been filled to the brim with knife-like fangs, each one on display as she gave her solar counterpart a wide grin.

"Hello again, Ce-les-ti-a,~" she sang mockingly, the air beside her darkening, before a black scythe appeared, hovering in her magic, "I believe we have some unfinished business to attend to," she growled. Mother swallowed as she stared at her adversary, her eyes darting angrily over to Discord, who was lazily floating the air, watching the proceedings as though they were nothing than an entertaining drama, before they returned to the other alicorn

"Luna, you need to snap out of it," she said suddenly, causing the Nightmare to stiffen, "Nightmare Moon is gone, you know that. This is just one of Discord's tricks. Don't let him trick you!"

"A trick, huh?" she asked, tilting her head, in a manner eerily similar to Discord's, "Oh, he hasn't tricked me. He's only reminded me. You think I don't notice?" she asked, beginning to stalk to the side, circling her elder sister, "Just like all those years ago... Even now, they still fear me. Oh, they've gotten better at hiding it, yes indeed, but it's still there," she hissed quietly, narrowing her eyes.

"You welcomed me back, dear sister," she spat the word, "but you haven't accepted me back!" she stopped, waving her scythe, not bothering to care how it cut through the stone floor without issue, "You say that you've missed me, you say that you're glad to have me back, but you haven't shown me anything! You claim that we can rule together, just like back then, yet who is it that sits on the throne?!"

"I've done what I could, but they still reach for your damned Sun!" she snarled, stamping her hoof, "Only am I acknowledged when you send them my way! I desired friends-companions!-yet all I get are your sloppy seconds! Your guard, your student, your subjects!" she growled, before abruptly taking a deep breath, and straightening herself, "I have always been the fighter between us. I fought for our home. I bled for it. And all I get in return is scorn, even all these years later. There can only be one of us, Celestia," she said, leveling her scythe at the solar monarch with narrowed eyes, "I didn't fight to kill you back then out of familial loyalty. A lingering desire to keep you around to see my triumph didn't help that either. But now? Now I can't wait to gut you like the coward you are!"

And just like that, Nightmare Moon burst forward, taking them all by surprise, and planted her hoof into her elder sister's cheek, sending the solar alicorn hurtling through the wall she'd cracked earlier, before she chased after her, screeching.

The seven of them could only stand and stare in stunned silence, not one of them having expected the current sequence of events.

"Well, that was much more entertaining than I'd anticipated," he said, rubbing his chin with a talon, before he turned to them, his-wrongabnormaltwisted-amused gaze twinkling as he took them in, "So, what to do with you six?"

Then Emerald found himself hurtling straight at the draconequus, spear extended, heading straight for his eyes-!

-only for a titanic weight to crash into his chest, sending him crashing back into the ground just before the girls. He struggled to stand for a moment, his chest already aching and sore, before spitting out the blood that had collected in his throat.

"Ow..." he muttered pathetically, feeling one of the girls pulling him to his hooves, where he swayed dangerously for a moment, before steadying himself.

"As amusing as that was, what were you expecting to happen?" Discord asked, brow raising as he gave the thestral a crooked grin,

"B-bastard..." Emerald retorted weakly, earning an amused scoff from the spirit.

"You won't get away with this," Sparky said suddenly, glaring bloody murder at Discord, who only smirked,

"That line again? How boring," he complained, raising a paw suffused with crackling energy, "At least try to make this a little entertaining, won't you?" he asked, before firing a condensed ball of magic at the seven of them.

The others immediately followed that advice, scattering out of the ball range, but the lot of them were blown across the room by the massive explosion that occurred once the damn thing hit the ground.

It was quite stressful, Emerald had to admit. He'd had his fair share of chases like this, and had experienced it from both ends. But never had he experienced something even close to Discord's level.

His spells never ended. Every second that passed was filled with some sort of spell. Balls of energy racing at them, furniture coming to life, objects fucking spawning in front of them, all twisted with features like eyes, mouths, and limbs trying to reach out and grab them.

Even flying was rendered difficult, as he and Rainbow Dash painfully found out. The air would constantly switch between searing cold and burning heat, quite literally freezing and setting things on fire all at once. Miniature tornadoes and thunderstorms chased them all over the place, only causing Emerald to curse the fact that the castle's ceilings were so fucking high.

Trying to stay out in the open, away from things like dressers, banners, and other furniture was fruitless as well, as the very ground would split and reach up to grab the lot of them, often splitting open into something resembling a mouth and trying to devour them whole.

Despite this, Emerald couldn't help but notice that nothing that Discord threw at them had come even close to actually harming them. He seemed oddly dead set on capturing them rather than hurting or even killing them.

They're the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony... Killing them should be his first, and frankly only, option. Getting rid of them practically guarantees his rule, so why is he playing games like this?

It was a puzzle and, short of asking the creature himself, Emerald didn't think he'd ever figure it out.

Eventually, they reached the throne room, burst through the doors, and slammed them shut behind them, for all the good it would do. The girls were all panting heavily, with Applejack and Rainbow the least winded of the lot. Surprisingly Sparky was doing the best after them, with Rarity and Pinkie being the worst off, with the former holding a hoof against her chest and the latter laying flat on her back, gasping for air.

He felt a rush of pride hit him as he looked at Sparky, and realized just how much better she was than when she started. At least something was going well.

"Oh? Are you all done running now?" a voice from behind them asked, startling them all into turning around, where Discord sat, lounging on the throne, "Honestly, can't you do anything else? Scream? Throw something at me? Teleport even?" he asked further, inspecting his nails lazily.

Emerald felt a surge of anger, and he very nearly launched himself once more, but held back. He wasn't used to being played like this. Wasn't used to being so completely helpless against his enemy.

But was that any excuse to not try? Against impossible odds, was he meant to simply lay down and allow the spark in his heart to give out?

No! He refused such a reality! He denied its existence, denied it with every fiber of his being!

He would fight to prevent such a worthless reality! And, if necessary, he would die before allowing it to happen!

Emerald growled and brandished his spear once more, taking an offensive stance in front of the girls.

"Oh? You're going to fight me, are you?" Discord asked, rising from the throne, his voice laced with amusement, "Well... I suppose it's good to see someone with some backbone, at least," he added idly, "I'd wondered if ponykind had grown as fearful as I'd imagined."

"Emerald!" Sparky hissed in his ear, using her magic to pull him backward, "What are you doing?! You can't beat him!"

"And without the Elements, neither can you," he hissed back, narrowing his eyes at her, "At the very least I can buy you lot time to get out of here and find them!" he added, glaring over at the draconequus, who seemed oddly okay with letting them talk, simply standing there, staring at them.

"Wha-? Are you out of your mind?!" she asked, staring at him as though he'd suddenly grown a second head, "We're not leaving you!"

"You will, or I'll make you," Emerald snarled, "I'm sure he'd find it funny enough to let me chuck you lot out the fucking window!"

His senses screamed at him, and he tackled Sparky to the ground, just as a lance of energy raced over their heads, spearing through the door, with a loud explosion reaching their ears seconds later.

"As amusing as this little drama of yours is, I'm afraid I'd like to get to terrorizing this pathetic country before the day is out," he said, lowering his arm, then smirked and glanced outside, "Well, more out than it already is."

"You see now?" he asked quietly, staring deeply into her eyes, "This isn't a fight. It's a slaughter. But as long as he has a sheep to mess with, you lot can get out and put an end to it once you find the Elements. You're all connected to them, so I'm sure you'll be able to find them without issue, alright?" he asked,

"Good," he said, stepping away from her, taking place in front of the six of them, "now go."

"You heard 'im, Twi," she said quietly, making her way to the door, "He knows what he's doin'."

"What?!" Dash nearly shouted, sounding surprised, "You're just gonna leave him?!" she said, throwing her hooves out towards him,

"He's helpin' us by givin' us time ta find the Elements'a Harmony, Dash," Applejack said, not turning to look at her, "The least we can do is trust 'im an' do our part."

"Applejack's right," Rarity said, he could feel her eyes on the back of his head, "It's the only solution."

"You too, Rarity?!" Dash asked, sounding almost... betrayed, "You're kidding me, right?! Fluttershy, Pinkie, back me up here!"

"Wha-but-but Twilight...?" Dash tried to ask, before sighing, "... Dammit, fine... but I swear to Celestia, Emerald, if you die, I'm gonna..." she trailed off. Emerald chuckled,

"Right, got it," he said, smirking, "Now get going, I doubt he's going to give us any more time."

They didn't say anything after that, only nodding and bolting out the throne room doors, leaving Emerald alone with the draconequus.

"Hehe... That's quite brave of you," Discord began, beginning to float in the air once more, "but surely you realize that you can't beat me, yes?" Emerald narrowed his gaze at Discord, and lowered himself to the ground in preparation,

Emerald launched off immediately, keeping low to the ground. As he got closer, he quickly brought his spear up in a diagonal slash, only for Discord to bend out of the way at an unnatural angle. He started to correct himself, but Discord's paw shot out and caught him on the ribs. He grunted as the impact shunted him into the wall, swallowing as blood bubbled up his throat.

He shook his head and tore himself free. He'd scarcely touched the ground when Discord appeared in front of him, wielding a mallet twice as big as himself. Emerald barely managed to duck as the blunt weapon's edge swept over him, though the weapon's sheer size pulled the air along with it, sending Emerald tumbling to the floor. Discord's foot collided with his side, kicking him up into the air, just in time for a massive baseball bat to slam into his stomach. Emerald gasped, coughing out a glob of saliva on impact, before being rocketed off towards the ceiling.

He just managed to correct his flight and avoid hitting the ceiling when Discord reappeared beside him. Thankfully he was on alert for just such a thing, and met Discord's appearance with a swing of his spear. Discord's eyes widened slightly, jerking his head backward enough to prevent Emerald from dislodging his head, though he still suffered a gash along his cheek.

Emboldened by his successful strike, he moved forward to strike again but was stopped by Discord's tail, snapping around him and impacting his back, sending him hurtling back to the floor.

He cratered the ground on impact, and only stood up in time to block Discord's follow-up strike, bringing up his right hoof to take the blow from his suddenly armoured limb. Unfortunately, he'd underestimated how much power Discord could bring to bare, and ended up having his entire right leg shattered on impact.

He was further knocked into the ground, the crater around him growing bigger as Discord's strike continued into the floor, inadvertently knocking a cloud of debris into the air.

"You really should think of giving up," he said, staring into the cloud, "what's the point in dying here? A few extra seconds for those little friends of yours won't mean anything, you know?" he asked, before snapping his talons, clearing away the cloud in an instant, "Truly, you're wast-" he cut himself off once he caught sight of Emerald's now revealed form, his bracelet having shattered from the impact.

Unfortunately for Discord, his moment of surprise was short lived as Emerald took the opportunity and lunged at the spirit, driving his good hoof into the side of his face, breaking his jaw if the loud crunch was anything to go by, turning the tables as Emerald was the one to send Discord flying away this time.

Emerald fell back to the ground, having to bite his tongue to keep himself from crying out as his leg was jolted by the motion.

"We're not leaving you behind, Emerald!" Sparky's voice filled the room, "You're either coming with us, or we're not going!"

Emerald snarled, and turned around, finding all six mares standing in the open doorway, each one looking overly determined, in their own way.

"Idiots!" he snapped at them, cradling his right hoof, "You're just gonna get yourselves fucking killed!"

"And what about you, huh?" Rainbow Dash retorted hotly, "Do you honestly think we'd be okay if you died instead?! Don't be a fucking idiot!"

"Dash's right," Applejack, the mare who'd previously been on his side, said, "I thought it was the right thing ta do, lettin' ya fight 'im alone," she shook her head, "Wasn't 'till this one-" she indicated Sparky, "started yellin' at me that I realized what ya were tryin' ta do."

"I must say though," Rarity interjected, smiling warmly at him, "the idea that you'd so willingly sacrifice yourself for us is... well, quite storybook, actually."

"The point is, Emerald," Sparky began solemnly, "that you're our friend. We can't just let you do that, because... we're in this together, or not at all."

They shouldn't be worried about him like this! They should be focusing on saving Equestria, so why...?!

Dammit, why the fuck was he crying?! He shouldn't be crying about this! He shouldn't... he shouldn't...!

"F-fucking... id-idiots!" he said, ignoring the tears that weren't falling down his face, because he wasn't crying!

"It's okay..." a warm voice soothed him as a pair of butter-yellow legs wrapped around him, causing him to stiffen, "There's no need to cry..."

"I-I'm not f-fucking crying, dammit!" he sniffed, trying to pull away, only for another set of legs, pink this time, to wrap around them, keeping him locked in place, "L-let me go!"

He struggled a bit more, only for a third set of legs, followed by a fourth, fifth, and even sixth pair to wrap around him, effectively preventing him from moving.

He just shook in place as the girls held him, trying in vain to stifle whatever sounds bubbled up his throat-because they were just sounds, not fucking sobs!-each one only causing them to hold him tighter.

The seven of them, startled by the words, all broke apart and faced the one they'd come from. The seven of them found Discord, just laying there, lion paw rubbing his now-healed jaw. There was no visible sign of damage anywhere on him, as even the cut he'd gotten wasn't there anymore, the skin appearing unblemished.

"What are you talking about?" Sparky asked, taking a stance that Emerald recognized as a basic training stance, concluding that her brother must've taught it to her at one point.

"I won't make it easy for you," he said, his eyes locked on to Emerald's form, "of course not. It will be hard, and, frankly, I'll do everything I can to stop you... but I'll give you the chance," he said cryptically, before he raised his paw-

"To retrieve your missing Elements, simply make sense of this change of events. Twists and turns are my master plan, then, find the Elements back were you began."

Discord's voice faded away, leaving them standing alone in the throne room, silently.

"Whaddya reckon that mean?" Applejack asked right after, "All that 'twists an' turns' an' 'ended up back where we began' stuff?"

"A riddle..." Emerald muttered, adjusting his grip on his broken leg, "he's telling us where the Elements of Harmony are... with a fucking riddle..."

Sparky broke off from the group, staring at the ground thoughtfully with a hoof on her chin,

"'Twists and turns'," she muttered, "'Twists and turns'.... 'Twists and turns'..." she kept repeating that part of the riddle under her breath, until she paused, gasped, and spun around, "I've got it!" 'Twists and turns', he must've hid the Elements in the Canterlot Hedge Maze!"

"Makes sense," Dash said, shrugging, "I always get lost in those stupid things and end up back at the entrance..."

"That's.... a bit obvious, don't you think?" Emerald asked, turning to Sparky with a grimace, "A maze is the first thing you're bound to think of when hearing the phrase 'twists and turns', you know? It's a riddle, so you need to think about the whole thing instead of just one part of it," he pointed out, only for Sparky to shake her head,

"No, it's definitely the maze. Making the answer to his riddle obvious is something that Discord, mischievous spirit, would do to throw us off," she said, nodding firmly to herself. Emerald frowned,

"And what if it's not?" he asked, "'Twists and turns' implies that it's meant to throw us for a loop. It's more likely that 'back where you began' is the more important part," he insisted.

"Oh come on! Where is that supposed to lead us?" Dash said, irritated "A hospital or somethin'? That's definitely where I began!"

"Maybe your right, Emerald," Sparky said, ignoring Dash's comment, "Maybe it is a trick and the line 'twists and turns' is supposed to throw us for a loop. But what if 'back where you began' is what that loop is? For all we know, that line is just a red herring meant to send us on a wild goose chase! Besides, where would 'back where we all began' even be? I'm from Canterlot, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy are from Cloudsdale, Applejack and Rarity are from Ponyville, Pinkie Pie is from Salt Lick City, and you're from Nocturne!"

"I-..." he trailed off, "I don't know..." he said, but shook his head anyways, "But I do know that the Elements aren't going to be in the Canterlot Maze! It's just... just right there! I can't imagine that Discord would go through all that trouble just to place the only things that threaten him right next to where he was being imprisoned this whole time!"

"That's exactly the point!" Sparky argued fervently, taking a step towards him, her eyes skipping back down to his leg once or twice, "It would be the last place we'd look!"

"Calm down you two!" Rarity interjected, taking a step between them, "Why don't we simply split up? Some of us head into the maze, while the others head elsewhere to work on that last line?"

"An' split us up?" Applejack asked, raising a brow, "What happens when we find the Elements an' we ain't together?" she added, causing Rarity to wince.

"Applejack's right, we need to stick together," Sparky said, frowning, though it was more sad than angry this time, staring at his leg again.

"I mean... Emerald isn't one of us," Pinkie suddenly said, looking up with a hoof against her chin, "He's a super tough Guard, but he's not an Element..." she trailed off, noticing how the group had started staring at her, "What?"

"That's... true," Emerald said, not entirely certain if he was being insulted or not, "but I can't just leave you lot alone."

"Why not?" Dash asked, raising an eyebrow at him, "I mean, what are you gonna do? Discord already kicked your flank!"

"Yeah, and I supposed an untrained civilian like yourself is going to do so much better!" he snarled in return.

"Stop it you two!" Sparky yelled, stamping her hoof, "We can't be arguing like this! Look," she began consolingly, approaching him, "Pinkie and Applejack are right," she added, stopping before him, eyes flickering to his leg, "The six of us have to stay together if we find the Elements... but you're right to think that Discord is trying to trick us," she said, before glancing at his leg, again, "You've already fought him once, and you lost. Badly."-he tried not to wince at her words-"If all seven of us go at once, then you're only going to get hurt again an-"

"Like I care," Emerald interrupted waspishly, "My well-being compared to yours isn't exactly a high price to pay, not when you're all the heroines of the day." Sparky only sighed,

"You might not care about your health, and you've made that quite clear over the time I've known you, but I do. I don't want you getting anymore hurt than you already are, and even then I'm this close to freaking out!" she admitted, before swallowing a lump in her throat, her eyes darting down to his leg, before resolutely looking at anything that wasn't him, "I-I-I don't... I don't want you to..." she bit her lip, and forced her eyes back onto his, "I don't want to lose you, Emerald."

He stared for a moment, uncomprehending, before his eyes widened once the words fully reached him.

"I-I-?! Wh-what a-are you-?! D-don't say embarrassing stuff like that, dammit!" he demanded weakly, turning his head away, trying in vain to ignore the heat in his face. Sparky, equally as red-faced as himself, puffed up her chest and shook her head,

"No! I-I'll say whatever I w-want to say! If I want to tell you how much I c-care about you, then I-I will!"

"As cute as this is-" Rarity interjected once more, though she had quite the smile on her face this time, "-we absolutely must find the Elements!" she said, then spared a quick glance between the two of them, "Though, I would suggest the two of you take the time to, ah, talk about this after we've stopped Discord, yes?"

"Yeah, plus this is kinda awkward for the rest of us..." Dash cut in lowly, looking between himself and Sparky uncomfortably.

"R-right," Sparky agreed hesitantly, now fervently avoiding even glancing in Emerald's direction, "S-so the six of us will head into the maze, while E-Emerald heads out and tries to figure out what the last line of Discord's riddle means. Does everybody agree?"

"Good!" Sparky said, nodding resolutely, "Let's get going everyone!" she concluded, "Quickly girls!" she added, jogging out the front door, the other Bearers hot on her tail.

That left Emerald sitting alone in the throne room, still clutching his broken leg.

He stared after them for a moment, before cursing and hobbling over to the nearest window.

Dammit... I'm the fucking Champion, yet all I can fucking do is fucking sit the fuck around while they go and put themselves in fucking danger!

No... no... I can't focus on that right now. Alright so... 'To retrieve your missing Elements, simply make sense of this change of events. Twists and turns are my master plan, then, find the Elements back were you began.'

The first half is... useless. Nothing more than introductory information that explains the purpose of the riddle... no... no, there is something there. It specifically mentions 'your missing Elements'... that means it was directed at the girls... so it likely has absolutely nothing to do with me, which makes it both easier... and much more difficult.

So I need to know something specific in regards to the six of them, presumably to do with 'find the Elements back were you began'.

It was a easy enough conclusion, he knew. But the biggest issue, and likely the one hiding away the answer was this; Where did 'began' mean?

The word 'began', in this particular context, could mean a variety of things. It was like Sparky said, they all began in slightly different places.

But, in the end, they still wound up in Ponyville, just before they encountered the Elements for the first time.

Was it that simple? Did Discord hide the Elements in The Castle of the Two Sisters?

It would make sense, since that is where they found the Elements. Where they defeated Nightmare Moon and became a real group of friends.

They needed the Elements to defeat Nightmare Moon. Finding the Elements was their goal. If finding the Elements was their goal, then didn't that mean it was the end of their journey to combat Nightmare Moon?

He scowled, and turned away from the window-Discord's magic made sure there wasn't anything useful to see outside anyways-before making his way, awkwardly, into the right-side hall.

I need more information. I read their personal files, but those things have obviously been out of date for a while now. I need to know what happened that night, I need to see what path they took.

It was his only idea as of right now. He knew that Mother had sent Sparky out to Ponyville and that she'd run into the other Bearers over time, but he didn't know what they'd been doing, what order she'd met them in, or what exactly caused them to head out into the Everfree, a place the entire town avoids like the plague.

But he did know that Mother had asked Sparky to write a detailed report on what happened that night. She had, of course, disguised it as Sparky's first ever friendship report-and what a stupid idea that was-and placed it with the others in the Secret Archives.

It took him some time, but managed to get into the Royal Archives quite easily, noting that there weren't any guards to delay him, though he wasn't terribly surprised.

It had been awhile since he last visited the Royal Archives. The massive section of the castle featuring an enormous amount of reading material. With shelves upon shelves filled to the brim with books and tomes, Sparky probably loved the place.

Sure, it didn't have as many books as the Canterlot Public Library, and nowhere near as many as the Canterlot Royal Library, but the Archives contained more... direction than most.

Both Libraries contained great deals of information, ranging from history, to maths, to sciences, to chemistry, and even magical tomes, but very few of them were dangerous in anyway. The Royal Archive contained books with more sensitive material.

There was a lot of this information in the Royal Archives, and a lot of it had some form of instruction within, and so, had to be more heavily monitored. As such, they're kept here, rather than the Canterlot Libraries.

Not even the Restricted Section of the Canterlot Royal Library had this kind of information. That was limited to more morally sensitive things, with little to no direction whatsoever.

Emerald glanced up at the large globe that took up the geography section of the Archives. That was one thing he both liked and disliked about the Archives. The large monument in the middle of each section, telling anyone who came by what the surrounding information was about.

It was stupid and should anyone infiltrate the place looking for information on, say, time travel, then all they'd have to do is look for the giant fucking hourglass.

Each one of these large structures hid an entrance into the Secret Archives, a hidden section of the Royal Archives that only a select few individuals were even allowed to know about, much less have access to.

He approached the globe and, being careful with his leg, ran his hoof along it's platform, only to hiss slightly as his hoof was suddenly cut, causing some of his blood to dribble onto the golden surface.

Rather than clean it up, Emerald watched as the blood splatter began to shrink, before completely disappearing into the metallic surface. A moment passed, and the sound of a lock being disengaged signaled as the globe suddenly sunk into its pedestal, splitting open along the top, revealing a dark crimson platform, sitting there innocently.

Emerald scoffed at the display, not at all amused by the admittedly grandiose method of activation. Despite this, he quickly hopped onto the platform, not even flinching as the globe shut around him, encasing him in a darkness that didn't work on him.

The platform stuttered slightly, before the feeling of weightlessness overtook him for a moment as it rapidly descended, his eyes perfectly capable of seeing the grooves in the stone work slowly turn darker and more rugged, until the once smooth stone was jagged and black. This continued for another thirty seconds, before it gradually began to slow down, and it finally came to a stop, just before a large, black door with the bright white sigil of a conjoined sun and moon in the center.

Emerald huffed and approached the door, ignoring the sound of magical humming as the sun and moon spun in place for a moment, before splitting in two, allowing the door to open just as he passed through the previously occupied space.

The room was the same as it had been the last time he'd been here, as well as the time before that and, likely, ever since it was made.

Blank, black, stone walls with an equally blank, dark gray floor, illuminated by a sparse number of torches that had lit themselves upon his entrance. Each of the other three walls bore a towering bookcase on either side of a nondescript door, which blended in almost perfectly with the shelves around it. Along the shelves of the bookcases were various security measures, ranging from simple chains preventing the books from being removed, ornate cases over the row, locked firmly in place, to ominous looking markings etched onto the wood, each glowing a faint purple and absolutely reeking of malevolence.

The Secret Archives were where only the most potentially dangerous information in Equestria was stored. These shelves before him were the entirety of the magical storage in these Archives, consisting almost entirely of forbidden, banned, or outright evil rituals, most of which required a distinct number of live sacrifices, instructions on how to make dark deals with malicious entities, books crafted from the flesh of other creatures, each promising a method on how to obtain some form of false godhood, and even books about the mysterious realm of soul tampering.

Basically, the Secret Archives contained knowledge about black magic, a branch of magic severely worse than dark magic.

The only reason that most of these tomes hadn't been destroyed were, in part, due to the vast number of protections on them preventing their destruction.

The others were kept due to their... value, should Equestria ever face an all out war.

The three doors, however, contained less.... morally questionable items, though no less important.

One contained things like treaties between Equestria and other countries, established trade routes, and other legal documents too important to store in the Royal Archives.

Other things involved required information on every Equestrian citizen currently alive, and plenty on dead ones, including wills, property deeds, tax information, basic things that, in the wrong hooves, could be dangerous.

The last door, however, was a more... subjective room. It contained things that either the Princesses or the various Champions had deemed dangerous, or important, enough to place here.

Things like an enchanted set of armour that made the wearer completely impervious to all forms of damage, but demanded the user's first-born child in return, an animated tea set that poured the host's blood instead of tea, and, of course, sensitive information regarding the Elements of Harmony.

Honestly, Emerald had to wonder how some of the Champions had come across such strange items.

Regardless, it was where the report Sparky had written about that night, as well as some medical examinations the six of them had gotten after the fact, were stored, due to its close relation to the Elements of Harmony.

He slipped into the correct room, which was almost perfectly identical to the main room, with only the addition of some colour located on the box containing the reports he was looking for marking it as a different room.

Annoyed, he clicked open the box and ruffled through the papers, before pulling out the folder he was searching for.

Lazily flicking it open, he started scanning over it, Sparky's neat, tidy horn-writing making it laughably easy to scan the contents, until he'd found exactly what he was looking for.

According to her report, Sparky arrived in Ponyville early in the morning and began her rounds, checking in on all the ponies in charge of the various tasks that went in to the Summer Sun Celebration. The ones running each task happened to be one of the other girls, save Pinkie, who Sparky only met when she threw her customary 'Welcome to Ponyville!' party.

Evidently, Sparky completely ignored everyone in favour of researching the return of Nightmare Moon, which she had claimed to have been absolutely certain, likely feeling rather smug when it turned out to be true.

The report continued in that manner, detailing rather small events that led up to Nightmare Moon's return, Mother's disappearance, and the town's failed response.

Sparky reported that, once she saw Nightmare Moon, she immediately returned to the library, looking for information on the Element's possible location, where she was confronted, rather harshly, by the other five, with Rainbow claiming she was a spy of some sort. It was only after Pinkie's intervention that she found a book containing the Element's location, that she set out to find the Elements, reluctantly being forced to take the others with her.

A book. It was a book. Of course it was a book! It's Sparky of all ponies, so of course it's a book! Faust dammit...

He had to admit, it was both annoying, and mildly amusing, to find that this entire thing began, because Pinkie happened to find a book that Sparky had missed, simply because it was under 'E'.

Although, it had ended up raising a question or two. Why had Mother decided to send Sparky to the Summer Sun Celebration that year? The year that she, and five others, just so happened to find, discover, then use the Elements of Harmony against Nightmare Moon, turning the demented mare back into the little sister she'd once been forced to banish herself.

No. He couldn't think about this right now. Later, perhaps, but he had work he needed to do right now.

He didn't bother putting everything away properly, as that would eat up time he was beginning to lose, and made his way back into the Royal Archives. He hopped out of the now closing globe, searching around until he spotted the nearest window.

Wasting no time, he hobbled over to it and, after a second of adjustment, shattered it with a single, well-placed punch. With the obstacle out of the way, he hopped onto the window sill and launched off, his wings causing a massive *CRACK* to echo into the air.

He cleared Canterlot within seconds, but refrained from going much faster due to his leg's injury. The Everfree Forest's massive canopy soon appeared beneath him, dotted only by occasional clearings in the landscape.

He could see Ponyville in the distance, likely another minute or so until he could-

He had only an instant to recognize the voice, but by then a massive weight crashed into his back, directly between his wings, sending him darting towards the ground even faster than he'd been flying previously. He screamed in shock and pain for all of a second before he hit the ground, lightly cratering the surrounding earth.

He groaned, and forced himself to stand, faltering only twice before he finally managed to get to his hooves.

"My my, your kind seems just as resilient as I remember," Discord spoke, appearing in front of him in a flash of white light, idly filing his claws.

"Quite," he said, beginning to walk in a circle around him, "Though, I must admit. After being encased in stone, I was certain that someone would do away with you thestrals. Though, I suppose Celestia did try, didn't she?" he asked. Emerald only growled through grit teeth, not responding to the likely taunt.

"Oh hush," he admonished, causing a muzzle to appear over his face with a wave of his paw.

Emerald immediately froze, the-familiarpainfuluncomfortable-feeling of the muzzle bringing up far too many memories for his comfort.

Unlike before, a quick growl and he was able to set the thing alight, reducing it to ash within seconds. Discord only clicked his tongue at the display,

"Fire breathing," he noted, almost clinically, "How odd that thestrals regained that particular trait..." he muttered. Emerald's ear twitched and, to his chagrin, he found himself growing curious.

"What... does that mean?" he asked, wincing as he straightened his back. One of his wings had been dislocated from the impact, it seemed.

"Oh, you don't know?" Discord asked, immediately turning to face him. Unlike what Emerald might've expected, his voice didn't sound sarcastic, rather, he sounded actually surprised.

"You truly don't know... Do any thestrals know about your species' origin?" he asked, raising a brow. Emerald swallowed, and forced down the feeling of dread he was beginning to feel-something big was coming, he could tell-and shook his head,

"How interesting," Discord remarked, holding a claw to his chin, "Well then, I suppose it's only right that I tell you. After all, I created you thestrals in the first place."

For an instant, everything seemed to freeze in place. The very world slowed to a crawl.

Discord's eyes widened as Emerald's spear suddenly entered his personal space. Within the span of an instant, the blade had reached him. Appearing as though moving in slow motion, Discord could feel the instant in which the tip of his blade met his skin, a few centimeters below his eye. Despite the searing pain that erupted from the point, he was still able to move, dragging the blade across his face, before he managed to reach his paw up and bat aside the weapon, knocking it clear into the forest around them.

Emerald continued his journey past the spirit, hitting the ground at an odd angle. He didn't let that stop him, however, immediately getting back to his hooves and launching himself, once more, at the draconequus, his eyes screaming bloody murder.

The distance between them closed in an instant, but he was caught just as quickly, Discord's supernatural strength gripping his hooves furiously.

"Did I touch a nerve?" Discord asked, glaring at him, the blood dripping down his face beginning to evaporate before his eyes as the wound stitched itself closed, "No... I know that look in your eye. You don't care, do you?" he asked.

Rather than let Emerald answer, not that he would've, Discord's grip tightened itself around his broken leg.

Emerald's vision turned white for all of an instant, as the-burningsearingagonizing-pain-Meant Nothing-was ignored.

The pain faded in an instant, and he reared his head back, before flinging it forward, colliding heavily with the draconequus.

Discord reeled back in surprise, dropping Emerald as he clutched his forehead. Not one to let the opportunity go missed, Emerald leapt at him once more. Despite his shocked state, Discord was still fully capable of dodging his strikes.

Emerald growled as his furious attacks continued to miss, only barely scraping past the trickster every single time.

His efforts redoubled, and he finally managed to land a solid blow on Discord's gut, the shock on the spirit's face lighting a flame within Emerald's chest.

Unfortunately, he was unable to capitalize on it, as the very ground suddenly erupted beneath him, a solid fist of earth crashed against his stomach, sending him flying backward into the surrounding trees. He impacted a tree hard enough to knock the damn thing over, feeling something in his back break in the process.

He hissed in pain, the searing sensation running across his back, and over onto his still injured chest.

If he kept fighting in his steadily worsening condition, it was very likely he'd end up dying.

He tore himself free from the fallen branches and leaves, and burst through the foliage to face Discord once more. Unlike before, Discord didn't dodge, choosing instead to raise a shield-that hadn't existed a second before-to block his attack, his hoof causing a massive dent to mar its features.

Emerald's broken wings twitched and propelled him downward, avoiding the razor sharp blade that soared through the space his head just vacated.

Unfortunately, the movement left Emerald slightly defenseless, allowing Discord's long tail to curl around the shield and grab Emerald by the leg. With a twirl, fit with a skirt and pom poms on Discord's part, he was thrown vertically into the sky.

He cursed and growled, trying in vain to gain some control over his unplanned flight. Alas, his wing was far too injured, both broken and likely more than a few muscles in his back torn from his interactions with Discord.

Though he was spinning through the air, he did manage to spot Discord on the ground, most likely just waiting for gravity to bring Emerald back to him, so he could do... whatever it was that Discord did.

I-I can't beat this guy! It doesn't matter what I do! All I can do is stall for time! The Archives aren't too far from the maze, so there's a good chance she saw me. The fact that Discord actively sought me out like this proves that the Elements are in Ponyville!

Eventually, Discord tired of waiting for his fall, choosing to teleport himself right above Emerald, lashing out with a devastating axe kick of all things, sending the injured thestral rocketing back down.

He didn't bother acknowledging the way his other wing broke, or the way his chest, which had taken the brunt of the kick despite having been previously injured, began to sear, several more ribs having broken from the hit. The pain continued to grow, however, burning him from the inside out! It ripped and tore at him until-It Didn't Matter-he tossed it aside.

Every second he spent keeping Discord here, was a second more for Sparky to realize that she and the other six had been duped.

But it was clear. Try as he might, standing took nearly every ounce of strength left in his body at this point. Every motion, no matter how minuscule, sent tremors of pain through his body. Every broken bone, every torn muscle, all of it had been done within so small a span that even trying to continue this fight would be synonymous with suicide.

"The Elements... they're in Ponyville, aren't they?" he asked, spitting out a glob of blood. Discord chuckled,

"Why, yes they are. In a little book at the library, to be specific. Though you already knew that, of course."

"Right... and so you decided to attack me, to keep me from getting there. Why? I'm not an Element, I can't use the damn things, and you could easily keep me from returning with them." Discord only smirked,

"Who said anything about keeping you from the Elements?" he asked, a single elongated fang peeking out from his lip, "Why, it was mere luck that you happened to head out to gather the Elements of Harmony when I decided to pop in for a check up," he admitted, causing Emerald to frown, "Don't believe me?" Discord asked, holding a claw to his chest, "Oh you wound me so. But I'm no liar, you see," he began to float in midair, pulling out a deck of cards, "A trickster," he pulled out a card, whose image depicted him in a purple and brown robe, "A riddler," card with him in a green suit with a series of question marks, "A jester," a purple and gold jester costume, "oh yes! I'm all of those things, there's no doubt," he said, before tossing aside the cards, ignoring the way they exploded once they hit the ground, "But I'm no liar. I may twist and pull my words around, but outright lying isn't as fun. A riddle or a puzzle give me my entertainment and have the added bonus of tormenting those wretched little ponies," he finished, snarling at the end.

"You seem... particularly hateful when it comes to ponies. Is there... a reason?"

"You're trying to stall me, so your little marefriend and her pals can figure out that the maze is worthless," he said, smirking, then shrugged, "Alright then, I'll humor you."

"I'd rather not tell you my life story, so I won't. But in simple terms, these ponies took someone from me," Discord began, his, relatively, jovial expression twisting into malevolence, "Someone that meant the world to me. I understand that before that I was a bit of a monster, but for once in my eternal life, I changed. Of my own volition, no less," he threw out his arms, "And what did that get me? Her death, that's what!" he snarled, now staring at the sky, "We had a wonderful life together. My darling Nia," he crooned, clasping his claws together, his expression softening for a moment, before it snapped back into fury, "then he came along and tainted them! Their magic became a mere shell of what it once was!" he turned his gaze back unto Emerald, the furious look in his eyes replaced by something... unrecognizable, "Sirens were once gentle creatures, you know? They sang beautiful songs for all to hear, for no reason other than they loved to sing. Their music was magical. It generated positive feelings in all who heard, and their magic, in turn, was nourished by the positivity it created. Then one day," he turned around, his gaze, presumably, locking on something in the distance, something too far away for Emerald to see, "he appeared. He offered them strength, in return for the secrets to their magic, and their support for war against Equestria. My darling Nia, the Siren Queen, refused of course. She, like most sirens, adored the ponies. They, like them, were a positive race. Generally free of conflict and hate, now that they discovered the 'Magic of Friendship' or whatever," he scoffed.

"He was angry, and cursed my beloved and her kind. What once brought happiness and joy, could only bring hate and anger," Discord said, returning his eyes to Emerald's, his expression flat, "He corrupted their very magic. Like most magical beings, their lives were dependent on their magic. Without it, they shrivel up and die. There's no stopping it. No changing it. It's a simple fact of life," he looked distinctly sad now, as he turned his head down, eyes staring straight into the dirt, "but they tried," he whispered, "they tried so hard, but they just kept dying. Eventually, they had no choice but to embrace their new lot in life. Some of them began to revel in this change, but most hated it. My Nia was one of them. She begged the Equestrians for their help. She begged and pleaded for decades on end, but they never responded. And then they attacked them."

The World grew heavy, a pressure that bore down upon the World and threatened to crush them all slowly poured out of Discord's body.

"They came and killed them. All of them. I tried to stop them, but in my attempts, they saw me as the monster, and attacked. My Nia, my darling Nia, took the blow meant for me." he began to shake, causing the World around them to do the same, "She died in my arms, she died because those ponies couldn't spare a moment, a message, couldn't spare anything to help them when she begged! THEY KILLED MY NIA IN COLD BLOOD. REVENGE WAS ALL I HAD!" he roared, then suddenly froze, his voice falling into a deathly whisper, "It was sweet. To see them suffer in the way I suffered. To see their Hope fall into the deepest Abyss," he took a deep breath, and looked back up, "Of course I couldn't let that be the end. My Nia had always wanted a family, even though I could never give her one. It was easy enough, to take the bodies of the fallen sirens, and the ponies that killed them. Easy enough to combine the DNA and forcefully implant the pony's soul in them. Easy enough to create the perfect species. One greater than ponies in nearly every way. Bodies of ponies. Natures of dragons. Hearts of sirens. Little tweaks to ensure their survival, regardless of wherever they ended up. I even added my own DNA to the mix, giving them total immunity to Equestrian magic. I gave them everything I could to make sure that all that remained of my Nia would survive. But they weren't sirens. They weren't ponies. They weren't dragons, griffons, chimera, windigoes, or any other creature that had ever existed."

"Hmph... so much for not giving you my life story," Discord muttered, though he didn't seem bothered by it, "Well? Anything else you'd like to 'stall' me with?" he asked, placing his claws on his hips, or whatever passed for it on his body.

"You seem... oddly okay with me stalling you," Emerald pointed out. Discord smirked once more, and even chuckled a bit,

"Besides, you are one of my thestrals. I'm willing to give you a bit of lee way. Well, right now. Later, however...." he let the sentence hang.

"I'm surprised you're as... cordial as you are," Emerald said carefully, "I figured that, if that story of yours is to be believed, then you'd be going on quite the murderous rampage," he said. Discord stared at him, and laughed.

Emerald's eye twitched as he watched the spirit being to convulse and fall to the ground, clutching his stomach all the while.

Discord continued laughing for a moment, before finally collecting himself, standing up while wiping aside a tear,

"Oh dear, oh my, that was funny!" he said, before taking a breath, and nodding, "But yes! You're right. A murderous rampage does sound therapeutic right about now..." he trailed off for a moment, looking off to the side, then shook his head, "But no, I got all that murderous fury out of my system millennia ago. Plus, several thousand years trapped in stone with nothing to do but solve all your own mental problems can do wonders for your health," he said, then shook his paw in a a so-so manner, "aside from all the insanity of course."

"But then... why not just kill us?" Emerald asked, finally getting to something that had, admittedly, been on his mind for some time now, "The Elements are the only thing that can stop you... so why not just kill the Bearers? Why let them... try?"

"Ah! An excellent question! I was wondering when you'd get to that. The answer is actually quite simple, you see..." he said, letting the silence build for a moment, before speaking, "I can't. I can no more destroy the Elements, and their Bearers, than they can destroy me."

"It's not hard to understand, you know," he said, crossing his arms, "The Elements of Harmony come from something that the ponies refer to as the Tree of Harmony. The problem is that the 'Tree of Harmony' isn't actually its name. Ponies tend to have issues with naming things that already have names, you see."

"Quite! Its actual name is the Tree of Order. Now, the Elements of Harmony are from the Tree, that part the ponies got right," he said, wagging his finger, "but something they don't know, is that I also was born from the Tree."

"Exactly!" Discord gushed, throwing his arms out, "Is it really so surprising that I, the Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony was created by the same thing that made the Elements of Regular Harmony? Well, I say Elements, but, really, there was only one in the beginning."

"Only one?" Emerald asked, furrowing his brow, "What do you mean, 'only one'? Everyone knows that there are Six Elements, and there's always been six." Discord sighed, and shook his head,

"Oh yes, and who told you that? The ponies? Well, they're wrong!" Discord snapped, and huffed, "Honestly... can't they get anything right?"

"Anyways, yes, there used to only be one. It wasn't long after the Element of Kindness was made that I was born. Ah, to be young and stupid again," Discord said wistfully, before giving a sarcastic frown, "Took almost two hundred years before someone found out about the Element and used it to seal me back in the Tree. Honestly, I was only causing a few natural disasters, yet everyone seemed to freak out about it. Thankfully a few thousand years later I managed to break free, stronger than ever before! Ahh... such glorious chaos. I was still inexperienced back then. I didn't quite know what 'holding back' meant. It was only two hundred years before someone else found the Element of Harmony and challenged me again. Unfortunately for them, the Element wasn't strong enough. Unlike me, it couldn't gather any energy to make itself stronger without a proper Bearer. But then they had to go and awaken a Second Element!" Discord said, sounding exasperated, "I was a fool, of course. I didn't realize that the Second Element, the Element of Loyalty, made their magic so much stronger, and I was sealed back into the Tree. The next time I broke out I found that my memories had become spotty. I knew the Elements of Harmony had stopped me, but I didn't know how. Not that I cared, I was stronger than ever before!... Again. One hundred years later and the Element of Generosity appeared. And the cycle continued, awakening the Element of Honesty. Then Laughter a few thousand years later."

"Every defeat made my memory spotty. I could recall being defeated by the Elements, but I never was able to recall the fact that there was always one more that made my defeat possible. It was during my sixth stint of freedom that I ended up doing something different. I met someone, a siren named... well, you can guess what happened after that. I fell for her, she was killed, and I took my revenge on the ponies. Three hundred years. My longest period of freedom yet! I was more experienced, more... experimental during that reign. But then, of course, they had to awaken the Sixth Element, the Element of Magic."

"But.... they did something different." he said, suddenly getting excited, "They didn't seal me away in the Tree. Oh no... they encased me in stone instead! All those years encased in that wretched little prison shifted my mental state back and forth so much, I managed to break through the blocks in my memory. Now, not only am I stronger, but now I remember," he said, suddenly beginning to take a few steps towards Emerald, who unconsciously began taking steps backward, "I remember my defeats. I remember how they happened. How each new Element was unlocked... what kind of individuals unlocked them... how they were brought together. And why wouldn't I?" he asked, frowning, "After all, the Elements of Harmony can only affect their Bearers, me, and those infected by my magic, a fact I was sad to learn after Celestia banished Luna to the moon. Evidently, she didn't like the adjustments I made to her poor, impressionable, baby sister."

"Yes, me. Didn't you see me bring Nightmare Moon back?" Discord asked, raising a brow, "I assure you, it was much harder the first time. I actually had to be sneaky, and, if you haven't noticed, I'm not a sneaky individual. I do enjoy making a spectacle of things. Now, we're getting off track..."

"What track?" Emerald asked, beginning to dart his eyes around for possible escape routes. He didn't like the way Discord continued to stalk towards him, didn't like the way his eyes focused on his own, didn't like being helpless.

"I told you," he began, his claws beginning to spark wildly, as the air became saturated with the taste of magic, "I know how the Elements work. I know how they're brought together. How a new one is made and, quite frankly... I won't allow a Seventh one to appear," he snarled, raising his left paw over his right shoulder, "Die."

The World Shrieked.

A wave of harsh, overflowing light erupted into the World, cascading over the injured thestral. In the brief instant where sensation existed, his entire Reality was set alight by burning pain.

The Champion of Harmony

by Voxum

The Return of Harmony: Prelude to Chaos