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// 18 - Celebrations - A long, long time 
// Story: If Chaos prevails... 
// by The Marshmallow 
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Sunset Shimmer had been training for a long, long time. More than anypony else. She had trained to ignore the fatigue, so she could once and again cast one more spell against her target, despite well knowing how easily he could dispel them all. She had trained to ignore the scorching pain her own magic was inflicting her, as her irises were becoming progressively redder and the purplish smoke emanating from her eyes thicker, as the dark magic kept corrupting her body and mind. And she had even trained to look at her fallen comrades in the eyes, as she used her magic to make them rise again and attack once more, despite how much it hurt her to see them suffer.

What Sunset Shimmer didn't train for was the burning feeling of humiliation that the Draconeequs was continuously inflicting upon her. The way he was still smiling despite all the effort of the resistance, the way he disrespected their sacrifice. And despite her knowing that him taking the situation lightly was their saving grace, she couldn't avoid being dissatisfied. He was focusing on fun over efficiency, and although some of his chaos was going to irreversibly affect some of her comrades there was no will of hurting or even killing them. Seemingly, he was actively avoiding that. Why couldn't he be that careful so many years ago?

As such a thought passed through the mind of the unicorn, her horn was lit once again, and a light green bolt manifested itself in the purplish mist which was now surrounding the battlefield. It was so sudden and so quick that Discord would not have managed to stop it in time, and it was so wide that no small movement would have brought him outside its range. So he seamlessly teleported just a few meters away, still sporting the same irritating smile, still without even breaking a sweat. "That one was pretty powerful. Chapeau!" And to add insult to injury, he started to softly clap, all while easily sliding among the attacks of the other unicorns and avoiding the tackles of a few earth ponies still able to fight. A burst of soft laughter was the only interval between the previous set of words and the new: "I'm glad you are never actually going to hit me!"

Sunset clenched her teeth, her eyes opened even further in surprise at the words that were being said to her, which were like knives piercing her heart "Just..." She collected once more a large amount of magic into her horn, despite her breathing now becoming heavier, and once more she started to give it shape and substance. In the mist, right above Discord, she conjured a few small spheres of pure green light "Shut..." And then they suddenly descended like beams of light, trying once more to scorch the body of the draconequus. "UP!"

"You should be thanking me, really." Discord answered without missing a beat, a comically small, pink umbrella already in his hands, as if to shield his body from the incoming attack. It was absurd to expect such meagre protection could have worked, but the Lord of Chaos thrived on absurdity, and the beams of light slightly converged towards the umbrella, hitting it instead of the desired target. "You are using hatred as the source of your dark magic, aren't you?" But the beams didn't just stop. On the contrary, they bounced towards Sunset's allies with unlikely trajectories, willingly missing them by mere millimetres (and leaving some slightly burned fur here and there) before hitting the ground leaving deep, burning holes in it. "The more I laugh at you, the stronger you get." It was not especially relevant to the plan, but the way Discord realized the fact so easily bothered the unicorn deeply. Not satisfied, Discord tapped for a moment on his chin, before adding a few more words while showing a little condescending smile "Not the most stable source, but it makes for some pretty powerful magic."

Sunset was now actively trying to slow down her breathing, to calm herself down. She had to balance herself on the subtle line between deep-seated hatred and blind rage, as falling in the domain of the second was the fastest way to self-destruction. She wanted more power, and she wanted to hit him, but her priority was always to keep him interested long enough to let the plan run its course smoothly. She had to create expectations, and what better way thank mimicking overconfidence, showing a brazen smile while preparing her horn to fire off once more: "You haven't seen the half of it!"

But the smile that she got back was even larger, sharper, creepier. "I hope." It was little more than a whisper, but it was enough to make most of the ponies that were still conscious shiver visibly, as a new barrage of chaotic curses started to rain on the crowd, making many try to quickly distance themselves from their nefarious effect. But Discord's eyes were now for Sunset only. "Try not to burn out too fast, though!"

he wanted his fun to last for a long, long time...





Twilight Sparkle had been studying for a long, long time. More than anypony else. What else could she do, surrounded as she was by so many extraordinary ponies? Following Sunset's lead, she had learnt so much about the magic one could use to overpower a foe. Following her own mother's, she had learnt devotion to a just cause. From her brother, it was the value of hard work and unrelenting effort, and from Applejack, it was loyalty and honesty towards family and friends. Together with Moondancer, she had perfected her studies of mathematics, astronomy and all the sciences. And about Celestia... Well, she didn't even know where to begin. But now she needed to apply what she had learned from Rarity, trying to mimic her ability to hide her feelings, maintaining a poker face, and keeping her cool even in the worst situations.

So, when almost without a moment of hesitation, she smiled at Cadence and moved the contentious wardrobe closer, saying softly "Sure, Princess!" She could finally see some confusion in the alicorn purple eyes, in the way she quickly blinked twice, making her gorgeous eyelashes dance. And as the other's attention was shifted towards the object, she could slowly and carefully start to cast her magic. Given the alicorn's magical attunement, which she already had the chance to verify, it was necessary to hide the flow of her energy behind that of her levitation spell, being extremely careful that the spikes in power associated with the complex spells she was preparing would coincide perfectly with the natural hikes in the previous one. Her studies and training came in handy, as the operation required an impossible amount of control and precision, and only due to having exercised this kind of skill -which Sunset had, mistakenly, judged a waste of time- she could now gain an essential advantage over the princess and her two guards.

Still, she wasn't just preparing one spell, but two. First, she had to cast a charm on herself to be protected from love magic. And a fraction of a second after, before the princess could react to the completion of the first, she had to attack. She could think of three main options. The first was attacking one of the guards first, removing him from the equation and then trying to win the ensuing fight quickly. It seemed fairly easy to her, but the battle might have been long and painful, letting Discord reach them. The second was attacking the princess first, to gain the greatest possible advantage for the following fight. Still, it was extremely risky. Her hearth pony strength and the natural amount of magic flowing around her body would hardly have let her go down in a single shot, and she would have to worry about all three. Finally, she could use a wider attack, putting all of them in danger, and using the moment in which they would have to defend themselves to teleport away. She could teleport enough time to make it almost impossible for but the most trained and skilled unicorn to follow her still. But the exact degree of perception of which cadence was able was impossible to estimate accurately, making the plan especially risky. The fourth option was to open the wardrobe, revealing Pinkie Pie to the princess, then beg for forgiveness. The beautiful goddess was certainly also merciful, and kind. And probably, she would have welcomed her in her bedroom tonight, if the unicorn was to plead long enough...

A bolt of light, accompanied by the roar of thunder, shook her away from the cursed train of thought. In front of her, the pegasus guard's body fell to the ground. Burns of various degree lining on his fur, and smoke coming out of his mouth. Before fully realizing what was going on, in a fraction of a second she managed to finally complete the protective charm, preventing herself from falling under Cadence's spell a second time, and then a bolt of light similar to the previous one  departed from her own horn, hitting the earth pony guard right in the chest, the magical energy passing through his whole body overcharging his nervous system, and making him pass out immediately. And finally, under the astounded gaze of the princess, a large white unicorn hit the ground near them. Twilight smirked: "You took your sweet time!"

With a confident smile, Shining Armor softly punched back: "Sorry, Twily, but I didn't think you would get caught so easily!" Ignoring Twilight sticking her tongue out, his gaze moved quickly to the two guards, to make sure they wouldn't be able to fight back, and then it moved to the still astounded Cadence. Twilight didn't lose a single moment and quickly started to cast the very same charm on her brother. She couldn't afford him to be caught under the same spell, especially since she would have never forgiven herself for hurting him.

Luckily, when it came to real battles the Princess had no experience to speak of, so it took her a few too many moments to recover from the shock of seeing her servants fall. When she finally managed to open her mouth, emitting a slightly shaken voice, the charm was already in place, to her great displeasure. "W-Who are y-" And even before she could complete her question, a large fireball thrown at her by twilight had already reached her, and so did an electrical discharge conjured by Shining Armor, both capable by themselves to knock out even a well-trained earth pony.

When the Princess revealed to be completely unaffected, protected by a magical barrier which was head and shoulder above any other magic she had previously shown, Twilight couldn't help but be surprised, and Shining Armor was if nothing else impressed. They were both much less so when, a moment later, she cast a barrage of small fireballs against the two which did exhaust themselves ineffectively against a large shield quickly conjured by the white stallion. It was clear that somepony had taught her how to protect herself excellently, and that the same somepony valued attacking much less. An actual fight would, therefore, have been relatively safe, but painfully long. "I can't deal with this now", exclaimed the lavender mare, starting to channel her magic in her horn, and then enveloping herself and the wardrobe "Please, Shiny, be safe!"

Shining barely managed to reply with: "I'll try!", and she was gone already in a flash of light and the familiar sound of teleportation. And as Cadence looked at the now empty spot, obviously trying to pick the magical traces the unicorn had left behind, a new beam of light bolted towards her, accompanied by the stallion's remark "You shouldn't look away, princess!" Although he cringed slightly when, though unsurprisingly, a new barrier rose to nullify completely the attack, soon followed by a large hoof-shaped lump of magic appearing right above the stallion's head, which quickly descended trying to stomp over him. But as his own talent, well portrayed by his shield-shaped cutie mark, was actually defensive magic, he had no trouble defending himself once more.

As the offensive capabilities of the two were vastly overshadowed by their defences, the following few exchanges of magical blows ended with neither managing to cause any harm to the other, and with a large amount of magic being wasted, especially by the princess. But as her reserve seemed functionally endless, both would have been able to go on for a long time. The main result of the skirmish, though, was that both were finally able to observe their enemy with more care, trying to figure out some weak point. What Shining Armor did figure out was just that she was the most beautiful mare he had ever seen. He did find his white cheeks tinged with a slight shade of red, and although he didn't relent with his attacks, he couldn't avoid questioning his enemy "Is... is this love magic?"

The Princess was legitimately taken aback. She knew perfectly that the answer was negative. She had tried, and the charm seemed to be extraordinarily solid, she doubted she would have been able to break it even if she had all the time in the world. and she definitely didn't, as more and more white bolts of magic aimed at her, and she was forced to conjure many new barriers to protect herself. But what really confused her was the fact that she actually understood what he was saying, and she understood it more than she would have liked to. It was not without a slight blush of her own that she finally answered, while a new powerful wave of magic was released from her horn "I was just going to ask you the same..."

It was just for a few moments, just a few more ineffective exchanges of spells, but to them it seemed such a long time, as their eyes met again and again, timidly at first and then allowed to rest longer in the other's gaze. And for a little while, they felt like there was no one else in the whole world but the two of them, now playfully enjoying what was previously supposed to be a fierce, deadly battle.

But that was obviously not the case.