Wind howls around the six Elements of Harmony, whipping their manes and tails in a manner eerily reminiscent of Celestia. Twilight’s eyes shine a bright white as she concentrates, boring into Discord exactly like she wants the Elements of Harmony to. In fact, if they turned him into stone and then kept on boring, that would be just fine, too. This fiend has gone far enough, and whatever he did, or is going to do, needs to be stopped!
Lemon and Meringue exchange awkward glances, glancing down and briefly considering whether or not they would escape if they jumped like rats fleeing a sinking ship. Shrugging nonchalantly, they brace themselves, holding tight so as to not be blown away. He did give them candy, after all.
Celestia smiles proudly, standing regally, gleefully watching as her protege and her Friends slowly rise into the air. Dull light flashes around them, beams in every direction that illuminate the courtyard as broad daylight.
Discord scratches his head as he frowns. He counts, slowly and obviously, “One, two, three, four, five… nothing happened to number six? No matter. Your demise is at hand.” He pops back down to a more reclined position, bored. He materializes a bag of popcorn, tossing the fully popped kernels up to the two fillies while he chops down on the unpopped ones.
“Let’s get this over with!” Twilight shouts. She concentrates hard, her Element of Magic glowing brightly. All six close their eyes, waiting for the rainbow light to shine forth from each of them.
They wait, the only sounds of popcorn being idly munched. Discord scratches the back of his neck, yawning.
And then the light peters out, all six mares roughly dropping to the ground.
“W-what?” they exclaim shakily, Applejack and Rainbow Dash pushing to their hooves while the others struggle to find their balance. A bit more color drains out of each of them, leaving them a pale imitation of the vibrant mares they were before tonight.
“We… we lost,” utters Twilight Sparkle bleakly, collapsing to the ground. She pulls the crown off her head, despondently staring at the Element of Magic. Her eyes well with tears as her head drops, crying into her foreleg. The crown clatters to the stone as Twilight’s lavender coat dulls, now gray like her Friends.
“Oh, dear. I expected so much more. At least your failure was spectacular.” Discord’s disdain is plain as he looks pitifully down at the six mares, sighing unhappily. Discord stands, raising one arm in the air as if some sort of gauntlet is in his paw, and he just got to place the sixth gem inside. His fingers close. “Very well. Oblivion awaits.”
A ball of black, blue, and purple chaos magic forms between Discord’s paw and claws. It quickly expands, going from the size of a hoof to the size of one of the mare’s heads. Discord ignores Lemon’s hoof pressing into his head as he cackles madly, about to chuck the ball at Twilight Sparkle before a blast of gold energy knocks it clear.
“You shall not harm her!” thunders Celestia, her horn flaring gold. Her eyes burn with righteous anger, the stomp of her hoof echoing amongst the entry hall. She snorts, clouds of black smoke escaping and wreathing around her.
Discord merely laughs. “Is this a challenge? Hah! Of course not.” He sneers at Celestia’s wrath. “Your kind lacks the fortitude for such a thing.” He casually motions to the six mares, ignoring another poke from Lemon. “Why honor those who fall in battle? When the glory goes to those who win.”
“They will prevail!” Celestia turns to Twilight, roughly pulling the mare to her. “Quickly. You must find a way to reatt-”
Discord snaps his claws, several things happening at once. The golden light of Celestia’s horn winks out as she screams in anguish, her high pitched cry brief but piercing. The moon disappears off the far horizon, the stars along with it. The light in the entry hall instantly turns to day as the sun rises, zipping across the sky far more swiftly than it has any right to.
In Luna’s tower, the Princess of the Night briefly cries out, collapsing back to the floor, as her moon is wrenched from the sky. Footsteps thunder back up the steps as Doug returns, though there is little he can do except cradle Luna’s staggered head.
“None shall stand before me,” Discord deeply intones, striding over to the downed alicorn. A wave of his claw sweeps Twilight away from Celestia, knocking her into her five Friends. He picks up her head, a claw caressing her chin as her eyes try to focus on the sun.
“What… have you done…” Celestia barely manages to eke out. Her horn dimly lights, her eyes tracking the sun’s position even through the ceiling. “You have… doomed…”
“You have brought this upon yourself, your Highness.” Discord practically spits the last word out. “Soon, you will be but smoldering ash, if you cannot contain your sun.” He lightly prods her horn. “I might work on that, instead of trying to interfere.”
Celestia slumps in his claw, focusing the entirety of her efforts on slowing the sun as it spins through the heavens.
Discord laughs, scornfully. He stands, addressing the mares helping each other up, sneering. “Run. That’s what you’re good at, anyway!” He cackles as the six mares hobble away, each in a different direction.
“Ahhh,” Discord says to himself, finally relaxing. A lawn chair materializes out of nothing, the draconequus taking the opportunity to settle down. The chair levitates into the air, zooming circles around the room. Everywhere he looks he snaps his claws, chaos unfolding - random limbs of the animals grow to triple their normal length, the lampposts come alive and chase after anypony that comes near, and the roads turn to ice, making escape even more difficult.
Discord laughs uproariously at the flailing, panicking ponies, though he frowns as Lemon pokes him in the head again. He glares upwards, an eye poking out of his skull to stare directly at the filly. “I’d be more careful when poking me if I was you. A little prick can be quite the annoyance.”
Lemon nods, motioning towards Celestia.
The white alicorn is struggling to get to her hooves, her horn glowing a soft gold. Every breath leaves her shuddering and wracked with pain, eyes clenched shut, though the faintest of smiles can be seen on her muzzle.
Discord frowns. He looks outside; the sun has come to a near stop. The moon is slowly rising again, a third of the sky turning to night. More and more darkness fills the sky, the sun slowly creaking down to its appropriate location out of the sky.
“It appears I underestimated you,” Discord concedes. “But, I’m afraid, your efforts are all for naught.”
Celestia merely smiles, her breath slowly becoming easier. Her eyes open, locating Discord after far too long a search. “It doesn’t… have to be... this way,” she forces out.
Discord nods. “The difference between us, Celestia, is that you use long-winded speeches to reach the hearts of your warriors.” He pulls off his blue goat horn, the one Lemon is clinging to. He fingers the tip like it is a blade, slightly wincing at the sharpness. “We use… well, it doesn’t seem to matter what we use, now does it?”
Discord glares as Celestia continues resisting. “Ah, yes, I see that you need an opponent to rival you for control of your sun. Ipso! Fatso!”
“Those aren’t our names,” Lemon remarks dryly.
“The time has come for you to serve your Highlord. Need I remind you, that traitors receive no welcome here. Prove your worth to me!” Discord flings his arms forward, one pointing at Celestia while the other points directly to a wall. His horns shoot off like rockets, complete with trailing fire. Meringue rides the deer antler, disappearing into a blue portal, while Lemon blasts at Celestia.
Celestia’s horn flares, but no shield forms between herself and the incoming rocket. In fact, nothing at all seems to happen. Except that the blast from the rocket slamming into her knocks her down, sending her and Lemon skidding across the floor. Both groan painfully, collapsing, barely moving except for brief breaths.
In Luna’s tower, a blue portal opens. Meringue bursts through, knocking into the cobalt alicorn’s head and disrupting her own casting.
“Meringue!” Doug shouts, though neither her nor Luna respond any more. “Come on…”
Celestia slowly comes to, looking around a bright, white, featureless room. Definitely not anywhere she recognizes. She tries her horn, nothing coming out. She can feel her Sun, rapidly rotating around Equus. But her control is gone!
“Hi!” comes a high pitched voice from in front and under her. She looks down, spotting Lemon sitting across a nineteen by nineteen board, checkered in black and white, though every single space looks like it can be flipped over. Seven pieces, all a different shape, sit on each side of the board. Her own a stark ivory, Lemon’s a bright yellow.
Celestia looks to the left, unsure what she is supposed to do. She blinks once in surprise. “Luna?”
Her Sister turns her head, blinking likewise. “‘Tia? What is going on?” Across from Luna sits Meringue, at a similar board. Meringue’s pieces are a dull yellow, Luna’s cobalt.
“We’re supposed to play a game!” Lemon motions towards the board. “White goes first!”
Meringue moves a piece forwards, a yellow piece to a white square, then stares up at Luna.
Celestia frowns at her side of the board. As does Luna.
“Discord didn’t specifically tell me I’m not supposed to tell you this, but if you don’t play, the sun and moon will just go faster and faster.” Lemon’s voice drops to a near whisper. “I think that’s bad.”
“And if we do play?” Celestia asks as she duplicates Meringue’s move. A crude strategy, but hopefully it will work at least until she gets a feel for how the pieces move. And with the move, she can feel the tug on her Sun decrease. Still spinning so fast to make a three minute day, but better.
“It’ll be… manageable? Not world ending.” Lemon shrugs. “You know, it's to give you some incentive to play. Oh! And if you win, then you’re free! But if you don’t win after five games, then Discord wins.” Her face falls, distraught, a look very out of place on the normally boundlessly optimistic filly.
“I don’t suppose you can let me win?” Celestia asks with a small hint of a grin.
“Unacceptable.”
Lemon mimics Meringue’s head shake. “Discord said we have to play our best. Sorry." She whispers as an aside, "And I'd lose my streak."
Celestia sighs, “Rats. I thought that might be too easy.”
A disembodied voice chuckles from nowhere in particular. Then it is joined by Discord's disembodied head. “Ah, I see you have already attempted to tempt the loyal away. But they shall not succumb to your temptations.”
Celestia looks down at Lemon, feeling the sun speed up again. She makes another move, almost at random, as Luna and Meringue’s play has progressed far quicker than her own board. She raises an eyebrow; several of their tiles have been flipped. She sighs in relief as the sun slows again. “I don’t suppose you can tell us the rules of the game?”
"On one condition," Discord's voice says. "What spell did you cast before you were sent here?"
"I merely gave Twilight a message," Celestia coolly replies.
"Ugh, fine." Discord's disembodied head disappears.
Lemon explains, "It's pretty easy. You move as many spaces forward or to the side as you want, as long as it's a straight line and your own color, and then one more if you take a piece. Or, you can move one space onto your opponent's color, and flip the tile to your side. If you take a piece, that piece can't be taken next turn. You can only move backwards if you flip the opponent's color. And the goal is to take all their pieces or get one of your pieces to the other side of the board."