//------------------------------// // Finding A New Solution // Story: Through The Crack // by grimchi3f //------------------------------// Part 3: Last Story - Chapter 2: Finding A New Solution Celestia glared fiercely at Discord. "Chaos has no place in Equestria, Discord," she said. She then took the time to glance at Sonic, Tails, Eggman, and the Doctor. "And neither do any of you." "It wasn't our fault Princess," Tails replied, frowning. "We were brought here by the power of love; it sucked us through a crack in space and time." Celestia raised an eyebrow, unconvinced. "What he says is true, Princess," Twilight said, coming to their rescue. "He's told us the story and it all makes sense. Sonic and Tails were sucked through a crack by the blast Shining Armor and Cadence used at their wedding!" "Alright, I understand," said Celestia, nodding. She settled her gaze upon the other two otherworldly interlopers. "Those two on the other hand--" "You know, as necessary as this conversation is, can we please just skip to the part where you use the Elements on me?" interrupted Discord, crossing his arms. Everyone stared at the serpent incredulously. "Wow," Sonic said, letting out a low whistle, "I wish the bad guys in our universe were just as easy as this guy is." Celestia's eyes narrowed. "No, he's up to something. There's no way he'd want to be imprisoned again; it's not in his nature." "What could he possibly have planned?" asked Rainbow Dash, glancing questioningly at the Princess. "What could he possibly do?" Celestia gazed down at the rainbow maned mare. "I don't know, and that's what worries me." "You guys know that I can hear you, right?" Discord interjected. "I promise I don't have anything planned." "Do you Pinkie Promise?" asked Pinkie Pie. "Of course Pinkie Pie. Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye," promised the serpent, going through the motions a Pinkie Promise required. "Alright, good enough for me," said the pink pony cheerfully, turning to the Princess and smiling. "I don't know..." Celestia muttered, still unconvinced. Sonic rolled his eyes. "C'mon, just do it. You have no idea how good it is to have these sorts of evil gods go down without a fight. If you'd have seen the stuff I've faced, you'd understand why you should just go ahead and do it." The look that Celestia gave Sonic gave him the feeling that she had seen the stuff he'd faced. Strange. However, after a few moments, the Princess let out a sigh of defeat. "Spike," she began, "open the box." "Oh goodie!" shouted Discord, pumping his fists into the air triumphantly. The purple creature, Spike, opened the ornately decorated box. Inside were five sparkling necklaces and 1 shiny crown-thing, each adorned with a jewel of different shapes and colors. Twilight, Rarity, Pinkie, Dash, Applejack, and Fluttershy each took the ones who's jewels matched the marks on the corresponding pony's flank. Once the Elements were in place upon the ponies, they turned to face Discord, who had pinned a target to his chest. "Fire away!" cried the serpent, throwing an arm over his eyes dramatically. The six ponies stood in formation and closed their eyes. Everyone else, except Discord, took a step backwards. Twilight's eyes snapped open, emitting a bright, white light. She was immediately followed by the five others doing the same thing. They began to float up into the air, the jewels adorning the Elements beginning to glow. Once thy rose to Discord's height, beams of light shot out of each jewel, shooting high into the air before coalescing into a single massive rainbow. Upon nearing the roof of the devastated library, the rainbow instantly curved downward, straight towards Discord, at a mind-numbing velocity. It struck the serpent with a loud bang and a large explosion. The force of the explosion propelled everyone, including the Elements of Harmony and both the Doctor and Eggman, into the back wall of the library. Sonic was the first to recover. He quickly picked himself up off the ground. "Is everybody all right?" the hedgehog asked, looking around the room. The entrance was still shrouded in smoke. "Ya mean 'everypony', right?" responded Applejack, as she and everyone else began dusting themselves off. "Everypony?" questioned Sonic and Tails simultaneously, exchanging a glance. "Yeah," answered the Doctor. "It's what ponies say instead of everybody." He turned to the Princess. "You should probably change that, Princess, because it's incredibly unfair to the other sentient life here in Equestria." Celestia gave a slight smile. "I'll get right on that." She witched her gaze to the now clearing smoke. She could see the faint outline of what she assumed to be Discord's statue in the entrance. "Good job, my little ponies," Celestia congratulated. "Time to bring the statue back to Canterlot." "I'm afraid not," said a sinister voice. The smoke clouding the entrance vanished revealing a smiling and very un-stony Discord. "Did you actually think that that would work a third time? Ha!" Celestia's eyes narrowed. "I knew it!" she said in the midst of the others' gasps. Twilight's eyes widened in horror. "Bu-but how--" "YOU BROKE A PINKIE PROMISE!" screamed Pinkie Pie, who's eyes seemed to have been lit aflame and who's ears seemed to be releasing smoke. "Yes, I'm Discord; god of chaos, bringer of disharmony. Maybe you've heard of me?" retorted Discord, leaning forward and poking Pinkie's nose. "I've been known to do that sort of thing." "You won't get away with this, Discord!" shouted Celestia, fiercely glaring at the serpent again. "Oh, but I think I will," Discord said, pulling himself away from Pinkie Pie. "You see, I've grown an immunity to the Elements. After being frozen in stone the same way twice, my body developed the immunity the same way you ponies develop immunity to Pony Pox after you've already had it once. Now your precious Elements of Harmony can no longer control my chaos!" He immediately burst out laughing. "You monster!" squeaked Fluttershy. "I am, aren't I?" chuckled Discord. "Well, it's been fun, but the forecast calls for a big ol' storm of chaos and I'm just the one to cause it. Arrivederci!" Suddenly, his right hand shot out and grabbed Celestia by the horn. "You're coming with me." Then, with a snap of his fingers, they were both gone. There was stunned silence. Everyone was too shocked by what had just happened to speak. The silence stretched on for nearly five minutes before someone spoke. "Wha-what do we do now?" asked Twilight, looking around at her friends. "I say we go find Discord and teach him a lesson, the old fashioned way," replied Rainbow Dash, flying up into the air and punching with her front hooves to demonstrate what exactly the "old fashioned way" was. "I'm afraid that isn't a realistic option, darling," Rarity said, frowning. "We couldn't defeat him before without the Elements and, now that he's immune to them, we don't even have that as an option." Applejack nodded. "Ah'm gonna have to agree with Rarity; a frontal assault won't do us any good." "There's got to be something we can do," said Fluttershy. Twilight shook her head. "I can't think of anything," the purple unicorn said sadly. She turned to Tails. "Do you have any ideas?" "No," answered Tails, shaking his head. "Unless there's something in this universe more powerful than your Elements of Harmony, I've got nothing." Twilight sighed. "Well girls, I guess we won't be needing these," she said, taking off her crown-tiara-thing. The five others followed suit. The Elements each hit the ground with a tinny ringing noise. "Hold on, I've got an idea!" exclaimed the Doctor, his eyes lighting up. "Oooo, what is it Mr. Doctor?" Pinkie Pie asked, excitedly bouncing up and down, the anger over Discord's broken Pinkie Promise seemingly forgotten. "It's just the Doctor, thank you," replied the spiky haired pony, turning to face Sonic. "Anyway, I've read that you have mystical items in your universe called the 'Chaos Emeralds'. Is that correct?" Sonic raised an eyebrow. "Yeah... so what?" "Yes, the Chaos Emeralds!" shouted Eggman who, up until that point, had been sitting against the wall and staring at the ground with a distant expression. Now though, his expression was hopeful. "We can use them to defeat Discord!" "Chaos Emeralds?" Rainbow Dash asked, frowning. "Oh, hold on, Tails told me about them," Twilight said. "They're seven mystical gems that give the user untold power and, when all seven are collected, miracles can occur. But... how do you expect to take down the god of chaos with these Chaos Emeralds?" "That's easy," Sonic replied, grinning his signature cocky grin. "I'll just use the positive chaos energy to defeat him, just like I did with Chaos. This Discord guy probably only uses the negative energy anyway." "Well, how do ya'll 'spect to get these emeralds anyway?" questioned Applejack. "It's not like we can just travel to yer universe and take 'em." "Actually, we can," said Eggman, standing up and looking at the Doctor, who began nodding. "My TARDIS," he said. "Yeah," Tails began, "you said before that that was your time and space machine." The Doctor nodded again. "Right you are. I can use it to try and travel to your universe. It's going to be a lot harder than traveling between my world and this one, mostly because I've never traveled to your world before, but it should still be within the realm of possibility." "It's settled then," said Twilight, "Doctor, you go get the Chaos Emeralds from Sonic's world. Sonic, when he gets back, use their positive energy to take out Discord." Eggman put a hand on the Doctor's shoulder. "I'll come with you." "No, I don't need your help," the Doctor said coldly, moving out of Eggman's grasp. "I don't want to be tricked again." With that, the Doctor ran out of the library to go get the TARDIS. The tension inside the room instantly skyrocketed. The six ponies, Sonic, and Tails, turned their gazes upon Eggman, wondering what he'd do next. The fat scientist looked from wary face to wary face, until his gaze finally landed on the purple dragon who was out cold on the floor beside him. Eggman sighed, took off his glasses, and looked Sonic dead in the eye. "Sonic," he said, "I owe you an apology."