//------------------------------// // Chapter nine // Story: Love for all // by Thestoryteller //------------------------------// Rainbow was frustrated, more than frustrated, she was infuriated. Due to Lightning Dust using the enchanted sword to make her stay stuck to the ground, literally grounding her. Despite her constant struggling, she could not free herself from the ground. She tried flying, she tried digging, she even thought about chewing off her own rear if it would allow her to move even just an inch. Unfortunately, the magical bind placed on her prevented her from doing any of those things. Rainbow looked up into the trees and noticed some of the guards that were keeping watch over the whole event. “Hey!” Rainbow shouted, gaining the attention of some of the guards up in the trees. “Don’t just stand there, help me out!” The guards didn’t respond to her, instead they just kept still and continued to observe the match. “Don’t you dare ignore me!” Rainbow shouted. “As soon as I get my hooves on you guys, I’m gonna beat the tar out of all of ya!” “Thought I recognized that shouting.” A familiar voice said. Appearing from a side of the woods emerged Soarin, who was drawn to the clearing thanks to Rainbow’s shouting. “What the heck are you doing sitting by yourself?” Soarin asked, “if this is a trap then it’s a very poorly constructed one." He stated. "Soarin!" Rainbow exclaimed, her angry expression turning into joy. "Boy am I glad to see you! Hurry, help me get out of this thing." "Um..." Soarin scratched his head. "You know that you're not trapped, right? Like, there's nothing keeping you here?" Rainbow rolled her eyes. "No, featherbrain, Lightning used some kind of magic on me with her sword-thingy and now I can't move." "Ohhhhhhh." Soarin said, now fully understanding Rainbow's predicament. "Well...I'm afraid that there's no way of getting you out of the command enchantment." Soaring began to explain. "See, the only way to remove the spell is if the game ends or if someone else tags you and makes them join your team. Speaking of which," Soarin paused, walking up to Rainbow and tapping her on the head with a foam sword, "welcome to my team." Rainbow stood up and was very pleased to be able to move around freely again, doing a few somersaults in the air. "Aw yeah!" Rainbow hoof-pumped the air in exhilaration, before sending a murderous smile to the guards still standing in the trees. "Remember what I said about beating the tar out of all ya?" Rainbow asked, cracking her hooves which caused some of the guards to flinch back in terror of the cyan pegasus. "Rainbow, no beating up the guards." Soarin ordered. "Awwww, come on Soarin." Rainbow whined. "Just a little bruise?" "No, we have bigger concerns than them for right now." Soarin said. "For starters, we need to gather more teammates because there's no way we'll be able to take on King Discord by ourselves.” “Hey,” Rainbow landed in front of Soarin, “off-topic question, but this has been bugging me for a while now. Why do some of you guys call King Discord ‘King Discord’ and some of you call him ‘Father’?” “Whatda ya mean?” Soarin asked, confused by Rainbow’s question. “Like, you and your brothers and sister,” Rainbow began to explain herself, “some of you call King Discord 'King Discord’ and the rest of you call him ‘Father’. It’s been bothering me because you guys keep on saying something different.” “Do we…?” Soarin muttered to himself, rubbing his chin in thought. “I guess I never really paid too much attention to it. Although, I think the only reason me, Johnny, and Cheese call King Discord by that name instead of “Father” might be because all three of us already have parents.” Rainbow scrunched her face and pinched her nose in frustration. “But…you guys are the sons of King Discord, doesn’t that make him you father?” “…wait a minute.” Soarin paused, realization dawning on him. “Did you think Discord was my biological father?!” “Well…” Rainbow exclaimed, trying to defend her point. “You are the prince of Chaosville because you are the son of Discord right?” “Adoptive son.” Soarin corrected. “May I remind you that I grew up with both you, Lightning, and Spitfire in Cloudsdale?” “yeah,” Rainbow huffed, crossing her hooves, “it’s not exactly easy forgetting when your best friend leaves." Silence fell between the two, Soarin’s ears fell flat and his gaze turned away from Rainbow. “Yeah…sorry about that.” That was all Soarin had to say since he was unable to bring himself to say anything else. Soarin was born in Cloudsdale, which, during the time he was little, was an independent city state and was owned by no one. Soarin was the son of a single father, his mother passed away during childbirth. His father never blamed him for her death, but struggled to raise him on his own. However, Rainbow Dash was the daughter of the two rulers of Cloudsdale and both she and Soarin became friends due to Soarin’s father being a General. However, when the Great War began, Cloudsdale relinquished its independence and joined the Lunum Empire. Rainbow’s family joined Luna’s family and Rainbow became a daughter of Princess Luna. However, Soarin’s father caught a deadly disease and was unable to serve in the Lunum Empire, but Soarin’s father had a connection with King Discord and begged him to take in his son until he got better. King Discord accepted and both Soarin and his father left Cloudsdale and moved into Chaosville. Soarin became a knight within the castle and rose through the ranks to become one of the guard members. Unfortunately, Soarin’s father passed away and thus Discord adopted Soarin as his son. However, Rainbow wasn’t all too happy with Soarin leaving Cloudsdale and although the two tried to keep in touch with their usual visits, those same visits were becoming less frequent and as a result their relationship became more and more strained. “How are things back in Cloudsdale?” Soarin asked. “Better,” Rainbow sighed, “it’s improved a lot thanks to the Lunum Empire. Still though, it took a major hit after the war. The griffons banged it up pretty bad.” The Griffons were dead-set on conquering all known sky islands and independent states during the Great War. When the war ended they had claimed the most territory and suffered the least of the other countries thanks to their military might. However, the one state they could not conquer was Cloudsdale, for months they laid siege to Cloudsdale, but it never surrendered. “Yeah…” Soarin said half-heartedly, “you know, I did try to convince King Discord to lend aid to Cloudsdale but-“ “Forget it.” Rainbow dismissed, standing up. “The war’s over, all that matters now is that I win that wish and use it to repair Cloudsdale.” Soarin smiled at the sight of his friend’s confidence. “You got it, and if I win then I’ll be sure to wish for Cloudsdale’s repairs as well.” “aw, that’s real sweet of you.” Rainbow teased Soarin. “Now come on, we don’t have a moment to lose.” Rainbow declared, before taking flight with Soarin following her. As she flew, her smile formed into a worried look as she thought to herself. ’You need to tell him, he deserves to know.' Yona, wearing all of her plastic armor, stood in a clearing of the woods. She was carrying all of the weapons that were laid out at where she had been teleported. It was difficult to move with all of the weapons she was carrying as every now and then a weapon would drop and she would take a while to pick it back up. There was the sound of a twig snapping that made Yona ready herself. “Hiya, Yona.” A wild Cheese Sandwich appeared and greeted the young Yak. Yona, startled by the sudden appearance of the party pony, tripped on the excessive amount of weapons she had and fell on her back. Her weapons all flew off of her, in particular her bow landed straight up and a foam sword was caught on the string of the bow. The string stretched back before launching the sword, which soared towards Cheese and landed just inches away from him. He looked to the turtling Yona, who was struggling to get back on her hooves, to make sure she wasn’t looking. Cheese touched the foam part of the sword, then said, “Oh no!” Cheese gasped in exasperation. “I have been tagged by Yona and now I have no choice but to join her team.” “Yona got you?” Yona asked, still on her back. “Yep you sure did,” Cheese nodded, “here, let me help you up.” Cheese walked over to Yona and helped her back onto her hooves. “Thanks.” Yona thanked. “So, I’m assuming it’s just you and me on a team right?” Cheese surmised, to which Yona nodded. “Dang, that’s not really fair. Knowing King Discord, he would at least make things just a little bit fair.” “This is fair,” Yona protested, “Yona has the strength of ten ponies.” “I wouldn’t doubt it.” Cheese grinned before his ears perked up upon hearing a sudden noise. “Hold that thought for one moment Yona.” Cheese said, picking up the foam sword and pointing it at an edge in the clearing. The bushes which Cheese was pointing at began to rustle before a fearful Fluttershy came darting out of them. Before she had time to react, she ran straight into the sword and was instantly tagged. “Stop running.” Cheese ordered and Fluttershy came to a grinding halt. A shiver went down Cheese’s spine when he gave the order. “Ugh,” He grimaced, “that was very unsavory.” Cheese didn’t feel all too comfortable giving orders like he was some kind of dictator. “Anyways, welcome to the team miss…um, what’s your name?” Fluttershy didn’t answer as she was too frightened by the whole situation. “Hey, it’s all right.” Cheese said reassuringly. “Nothing bad is gonna happen to you, I promise.” Futtershy, believing what Cheese said, calmed down and answered his previous question, “M-my name is Fl-Fluttershy.” She stammered. “Well, Fluttershy, it’s nice to meet ya and have you onboard our team.” Cheese greeted. “Unfortunately I doubt we’re gonna beat King Discord with what we’ve got.” Cheese began pacing as he began to ponder in thought. He started observing the area around him; the sand, the trees, and anything else around them. When Cheese looked up into the trees a brilliant idea came to mind. “Yona, would you be so kind as to pass me that bow and arrow?” Cheese asked. “I think I’ve thought of a way we can win this game, and I’m ten-billion percent certain it’ll work.” Meanwhile, in another part of the forest, specifically the part where the Griffons had all teleported, the Griffons had all teamed up and were acting as a whole unit. Unfortunately this lead to their downfall as Sunset Shimmer was able to use her magic and tag all four of the Griffons. Now she stood in front of the four Griffons who had all been ordered to sit in time out. “This is so unfair!” Gallus complained. “Quiet Gallus,” Vox ordered bluntly. “Come on, we didn’t even have a good start in the game before we got taken out!” Gallus cried out. “I mean, there’s gotta be something in the rules against this, right?” “Be quiet.” Sunset ordered, and Gallus’ mouth closed shut. “Before I leave you four here, you’re going to answer my questions.” “We won’t be telling you anything.” Gilda glared at Sunset. “Yeah, especially about the operation-oops!” The griffon known as Gabby blabbered before shutting herself up by clasping her talons over her beak. “What’s this about an operation?” Sunset asked with newfound curiosity. “One job, Gabby.” Gilda groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose. “You had only one job.” “I’m sorry, Gilda.” Gabby apologized with a ‘sorry' look in her eyes. “I didn’t mean to, but sometimes I just can’t help myself. You know me, once I start talking then I can’t help but keep talking about it. Like, remember that one time during the secret meeting when-“ “Jivoha.” Vox stated, and upon saying that Gabby’s eyes rolled back into her head and she collapsed onto the ground. Sunset, shocked and startled by what just happened, thought that the poor Griffon had been silenced, but her worries were put to ease when Gabby started snoring, indicating she had fallen asleep. “What did you do to her?” Sunset demanded an answer from Vox. Compelled by the magic, Vox reluctantly answered. “A code given to me to put Gabby in a state of unconsciousness in case she begins revealing too much about the operation.” Vox grimaced. “Damn this foul enchantment.” Whatever suspicions Sunset had of the Griffons multiplied upon hearing that. Before she continued her questioning, she gave an order. “None of you can say any code or suggestion that could prevent any of you from speaking.” Sunset ordered, and once the command was in place she continued her questions. “Now then, tell me everything about this ‘operation’ of yours.” Sunset ordered. Gilda, despite her resistance, spoke first, “We are a special group of Griffon Operatives known as Shadow Ops, our job is to find and suppress any potential dark magic that exists. We are here in Chaosville because recently our superiors detected a large about of dark magic surging here.” Sunset rolled her eyes. “I’m afraid you’ve wasted your time.” Sunset’s eyes glowed green with purple mist flowing from them. Magic surged from her horn and shot at the ground, from the mark arose a black crystal. From it branched other black crystals like branches on a tree before they stopped growing and then began to recede back into the crystal, and then the crystal itself receded back into the ground. “Dark magic isn’t too uncommon here.” Sunset stated, rubbing the ache on her temple. “Practically every unicorn and magic user has used dark magic at some point in their lives.” “We are aware.” Vox spoke up. “However, the massive surge in dark magic originates from a singular being. One who we fear is the cause of the Great War and all of calamity that occurred because of his actions.” “Not possible, the Great War only occurred because of political issues and conflicts that were building up since the countries met one another.” Sunset stated. “Yes, you’d think that.” A new voice spoke. All eyes looked up to a tree branch to see the yellow furred unicorn Stallion known as *Malt Cetio* leaning against the trunk of a tree with his legs strung across the branch he stood on. “But, then again, you are under the mind altering spell.” Sunset, her eyes as wide as dinner plates, stood in shock and in confusion. She opened her mouth to speak but she yelped as the unconscious body of one of the guards watching over them fell from the tree and crashed right in front of Sunset. She looked up to where the guard fell and her horror increased when she saw the numerous amount of unconscious guards hanging from the trees. “Sorry about that.” *Malt Cetio* apologized as he jumped down from the tree and landed on the sand. “But I couldn’t have them interrupting what I’m about to do.” He said as his eyes and horn glowed red. “Sorry about this, sis.” “I said I was sorry.” Spike apologized once more to the irritated Garble. Spike, Ember, and Garble had made their way towards the beach, or at least that was where they wanted to go but they got lost due to Garble’s directional skills. Along their trail they had accidentally stumbled upon a quicksand pit which Garble had gotten himself stuck in. Thankfully both Ember and Spike were able to pull him out, but instead of being grateful, Garble was furious that Spike knew about the potential sand pits and had not informed him about them. “Sorry’s not gonna cut it.” Garble growled, knocking the sand out of his armor. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were trying to lead me into that sand pit.” Garble pointed an accusing claw at Spike. “Come on, Garble,” Ember protested, “There’s no way Spike would do that. How could he have possibly lead you to that pit?” “Isn’t it obvious?” Garble exclaimed. “He’s a servant of Discord, that means he knows the ‘ins’ and ‘outs’ of this whole island.” As Ember and Garble argued, Spike watched carefully just in case Garble did anything that appeared…evil. The truth was Garble was correct, partially correct but still somewhat correct nonetheless. Spike did know the entire layout of the forest as well as where certain hazards were. However, he didn’t lead Garble to the sand pit but he also didn’t warn him about it either. His reason was to see if Garble would use some kind of magic to help him escape. Unfortunately before anything could happen, Ember showed up and she and Spike had to pull Garble out. So, all in all, Spike's plan failed, but he couldn't help but feel guilty for acting as a deciever, it just wasn't who he was. Then again, Garble wasn't really showing any signs of being some type of magic user. Perhaps maybe, just maybe, King Discord was wrong about his supicions of Garble. Spike shook those thoughts away from him, he couldn't turn his back on the one that saved him when he was just an egg. He had to see this task through no matter how twisty or rocky the path was. When Spike brought his attention back to the group, he looked to see Garble glaring at him. Ember, still yelling at him, failed to stop him as he readied himself in a running position. In the blink of an eye, Garble leaped towards Spike, his claws open wide and his wings keeping him aloft. Spike, bracing for the swift release of death, put his arms in front of his head to shield himself. Garble grabbed Spike and tackled him and to Spike's surprise, Garble handled him like a football runner with a football; carrying spike with one arm while the other was extended. When Spike looked over Garble's shoulder he saw the reason for Garble's sudden action. Standing where Spike once stood was a large wolf shaped creature made entirely of pale while branches with a green glow eminating from its eyes, mouth, and from the cracks in its body. Its tail, made out of an assortment of leaves, swung back and forth to show its hostility. "Friend of yours?" Garble asked sarcastically, as he put Spike down. "That's...impossible." Spike said, flabbergasted. "Looks pretty real to me." Garble stated matter-of-factly. "No, you don't understand," Spike began to explain, "that thing is a Timberwolf, and it's-" "Getting ready to attack." Garble interjected as the now identified Timberwolf pounced on the two dragons. Both Garble and Spike ran in opposite directions to avoid the Timberwolf's attack. It landed, jaw first, into the sand and as it pulled its jaw out it spitted out a stream of sand. It pawed at the ground as it glared at Spike, letting out a low growl, but before it could do anything it was caught off-guard when Ember jumped on its back. It wirthed around as it tried to buck Ember off but it was to no avail as Ember sunk her claws deep into the TImberwolf's back. She lifted her head high and took a deep breath before unleashing a fury of flames down onto the Timberwolf. Fire scorched the Timberwolf's body, it yelped and cried out in pain as the flames danced along its wooden body. Ember, thinking she had vanquished the timberwolf, flew off of the Timberwolf and landed next to Spike, standing triumphantly as the Timberwolf burned. But to their dismay the Timberwolf, still aflame, stopped crying in pain and started growling. The bright orange flames changed green and the wood that had been scorched changed back to its original pale wood. The Timberwolf, now covered in green flames, slowly made its way towards both Ember and Spike. "That's...not possible." Spike stated, completely confused by the sight before him. Timberwolves were the manifestation of an animal spirit that was trapped inside of the body of a wooden creature. They were native to Chaosville but only on the other side of the country where there were plenty of natural forests. However, they stayed far away from civilization and from the beach thanks to King Discord's magic. For one to be here, and to be fireproof, was completely abnormal. The Timberwolf leapt at the two dragons, Spike, his instincts kicking in, put himself in front of Ember to absorb the full brunt of the damage about to occur. But then the Timberwolf gave out a loud yelp as the green light and flames began fading from its body. The green magic flowed from the Timberwolf's body and was sucked into the open mouth of Garble as he chugged down all of the green flames and magic like a delicious beverage. Once the green magic and flames were fully consumed by Garble, who gave a loud burp to state his satisfication, the Timberwolf's body became a hollow wooden figure which collapsed into a pile of sticks and logs. "You're welcome." Garble stated to the shocked Spike and Ember. "Hey, Flash?" Twilight asked, gaining the attention of Flash Sentry. "Yes, Princess?" Flash responded. "Since we have to tag King Discord, do you have any advice on how we can do that?" Twilight asked. Flash thought for a moment as everyone in the group made their way closer and closer to the beach. Thanks to the directions given by Flash, they knew exactly which way to go. "If I had to come up with some way I'd say we would first have to find some way to incapacitate him, or overwhelm him." Flash began to say. "Knowing him, he won't use his full power to take us down so we'll have an advantage there, his magic is strong but it has its weak points too." Flash stopped as he thought of a plan, when an idea came to mind a grin spread across his face. "Okay, I think I might've found a way to do this." At the beach, Discord sat in his throne leaning his head against his hoof while tapping the other one against the throne. He waited patiently for something, if anything at all, to happen. He glanced back over to Luna every now and again only to see her casually reading a book, paying Discord no mind at all. Thankfully, Discord's boredom came to an end when a foam arrow came flying towards him. He darted his head to the left to avoid the flying projectile as it bounced off the throne. Then another arrow came flying towards him, this one from the forestline instead of from the sky like the first one, which he deflected by grabbing the first arrow and throwing it at the second one. The two arrows collided and bounced off of each other. "Nice try, Soarin, but you'll have to do better than that, and as for you, Flash, surely you can think of a better strategy than that." Sure enough, both Soarin and Rainbow landed on the beach a good ways away from Discord and emerging from the forest was Flash and Rarity. "It was worth a shot." Soarin shrugged. "Yeah, we have to try something." Flash stated. "But it wasn't even creative." Discord sighed, although he shook his head he couldn't help but smile. He clapped his hooves and two black foam swords appeared and a white plastic shield appeared, both floated next to him. "These swords are called Agedus, if they tag you they will freeze you and immobilize you." Discord indicated to the swords before indicating to the shield. "This is Zeadil, if the shield touches you then it will propell you back with incredible force. Begin!" With that, the swords came to life as the launched at the four poines, one of the swords swung at Rainbow and Soarin, who flew upwards to avoid getting tagged by it, while the other sword swung at both Flash and Rarity, Flash, using his own sword, to parry the oncoming floating one. Soarin, still in midair, fenced with the flying sword, and with the sword preoccupied, Rainbow made a dash at Discord with her foam sword aimed directly at him. But unfortunatly, the shield intercepted Rainbow's attack, the second Rainbow made contact with it she bounced off of it and was thrown backwards at the same speed she flew at Discord with. "Rainbow!" Soarin cried out, unintentionally letting his guard down. The sword, seeing an opening, stuck Soarin and he instantly turned into a stone statue of himself. The now stone petrified Soarin floated back down to the ground, curtisy of King Discord's magic, and the foam sword flew towards Rainbow. With Rainbow, still disoriented from the shockwave of the shield, she was unable to prevent the flying sword to strike her and turn her into a stone statue as well. The two swords converged on Flash, both skillfully striking and slashing at him and despite the decent parrying he was doing the swords kept forcing him back inch by inch. Rarity, not wanting to feel helpless in the situation, took up her own sword thanks to her magic and joined in the fight. "Miss, you don't have to fight," Flash panted, "I've got this." "Your protection is much obliged, Prince Flash Sentry." Rarity thanked. "But a proper lady must be able to defend herself every now and again." Flash grinned at the new partner by his side, readying his foam sword. "Together then." Flash said as both he and Rarity began fending off the two swords and making their way towards King Discord inch by inch. Suddenly, from the left of Discord, a magical beam shot from the edge of the forest. The plastic shield quickly intercepted it, deflecting the beam. Discord, making his eyes grow so that he could see better, saw that the magical beam was eminating from none other than Fleur De Lis. Then, from the right of Discord a bright lavender light shined, Discord looked and saw a flying Twilight with her horn charged and ready to fire a spell. From her horn a bolt of magic shot, and headed straight at Discord. Flash smiled as all of the pieces of his plan came together, and it didn't take long for King Discord to figure out what his plan was. 'Well played, kiddo, you knew I wouldn't use my full power so instead you distracted me and made me lower my defenses completely. If I move any of my swords then you'll have an opening and if I move my shield then that magic beam from Fleur will strike me. If I didn't know any better I'd say you've checkmated me, but little do you know that I still have a reverse card up my sleeve.' As the magical bolt from Twilight closed in on King Discord, he clapped his hooves and the statue of the Stone Mare appeared. Flash and Twilight were both immediately shocked by the sudden appearance of the Stone Mare, and even more shocked when the magic collided with the statue. The magic bolt was absorbed into the statue and it glowed for a moment before a somewhat slightly larger lavender magical bolt shot from it and towards Twilight. Unable to dodge or deflect the bolt it collided with her and Twilight became frozen in a block of ice which slowly fell back to the ground, which was indeed thanks to King Discord's magic. "Princess Twilight!" Flash cried out when Twilight became frozen, repeating the same mistake as Soarin he left himself open which the sword exploited and tagged him, turning him into another stone statue. The two swords then converged on Rarity and, despite her best attempts, was unable to deflect both of them and was tagged and turned into a stone staue. Then the swords flew over to Fleur and tagged her with ease, and just like that all six poines had been tagged. Discord's ears perked up to the sound of clapping coming from the edge of the woods, his swords and sheild returning to his side. "Wow, you play dirty." Cheese Sandwhich joked as both he, Yona, and Fluttershy emerged. Discord's eyes would so often glance at the timid mare pegasus before returning to Cheese. "I couldn't make things too easy for you, otherwise it wouldn't be fun. Keep in mind, this is a wish you all are competing for." "Fair enough," Cheese shrugged, pulling out his foam sword, "although I guess I'm not one to really critique since I don't play fair either." Cheese said, raising his sword high in the air. "Attack now!" All of the sudden numerous guards, both Lunum and Chaosville, charged towards Discord. "WHAT?!" Discord did a spittake from a glass of water he magically created. His swords and sheild went to action as they tried to pick off the guards one by one but there were too many of them and they easily overpowered the floating weapons. Discord then decided to use his trump card, the Stone Mare, but before he could use it he was suddenly embraced by Fluttershy who wrapped her forelegs tightly around King Discord. Due to Fluttershy touching King Discord, his magic was cancelled and stopped working. Panicking, he tried to get Fluttershy off of him but it was to no avail as Yona closed the distance between her and King Discord, foam sword at the ready. When she was close enough she began swinging her sword mercilessly, hitting King Discord a lot. "Um...Yona." Cheese interjected, gaining Yona's attention as she stopped swinging. "I think you got him." Yona looked back to see a tall, cartoonish, pulsing welt on Discord's head as an indication of where Yona had struck him. King Discord pushed the welt back down and his head returned to normal. He sighed as he couldn't deny the outcome before him, he had been defeated and the game was over. "Well played kiddo, you win this round. So, what is your wish?" "You're asking the wrong guy, King Discord," Cheese stated, pointing to Yona, "the one who tagged me and is the leader of our team is none other than Yona, so she's the one who gets to make the wish." King Discord directed his attention back to Yona, "Very well, and what shall your wish be?" Discord asked, hoping that it wasn't something too difficult to acomplish. "Your majesty," Yona bowed, "if you could...I would like my wish to be the solution of the starvation problem in the Yak Kingdom." "Considerate it done." King Discord stated. 'Phew...thank goodness it was a wish that was easy. I already have many of my scientists working on a solution to the starvation crisis in the Yak Kingdom.' "Um...excuse me, miss Fluttershy, but would you be so kind as to let go of me?" King Discord asked the timid pegasus as she was still holding onto King Discord tightly. "Oh, um...right." Fluttershy, her entire face turning red from embaressment, released King Discord and flew back from him. With his magic returned, King Discord clapped his hooves and all of the guards vanished, teleported back to the location they were taken from, as well as the Stone Mare, the two swords, and the shield. All of the ponies that had been turned into stone statues returned to normal and Twilight unfroze from prison with a blanket wrapped around her to heat her back up. Everyone in the forest was teleported back to the beach, King Discord addressed everyone. "Ladies, gentlemen, and those of unspecified gender, we have a-" King Discord's announcement was cut off when his eyes widened in horror. Before him, lying on the sand, was his daughter, Sunset Shimmer, her mane a mess and her body covered in cuts, bruises, and, more importantly, blood. "Sunset!" Flash cried out as he rushed to her side. There were numerous gasps, some of them weren't for the sudden appearance of the injured Sunset but instead of the four injured griffons. All four of them were covered in cuts, bruises, and also blood and were all unconsious. "G-Gilda...?" Rainbow, both horrified and confused by the sudden sight of someone very familier to her. "Stand back." Discord ordered as he teleported next to Sunset, he used his magic to heal her wounds but his magic was having no effect on the injuries dealt onto Sunset. "We need to get them to the infirmary," Discord stated, clapping his hooves as everyone vanished from the beach.