//------------------------------// // Chapter 31: The Tower // Story: Dissonance: A Hidden World // by Braininthejar //------------------------------// "How much longer?" asked Aurora, trying to fight off claustrophobia.  Below her, Jingles pushed up, holding onto his plungers to stop everypony from sliding down.  “My magic is weak here. Even simple tricks take time. Not the easiest, climbing up a pipe with you for a hat.” “I’m doing what I can,” hissed Aurora, “But mine don’t stick at all. This place still repels magic…” The rest of the team below made a series of grunts of effort. It was fortunate that the pipe was horizontal from time to time. Otherwise the climb would have been truly insane. As it was, they were sweaty, black with soot, and tired, but so far, unnoticed. We’ve managed to disable that… thing in the basement before it could raise an alarm. We vented the fumes out without anyone noticing, and climbed all the way up here - but Vengeance won’t be away forever, and sooner or later somepony is bound to notice something. We can’t stop and rest now, or our luck will run out. “Could you give me a bit more light here?” asked Aurora, trying not to be too loud. A glowing orb of silver light flew up the pipe to illuminate the way above her. It was flickering, visibly requiring some effort from Aquila. Aurora looked up. “I can see another bend, some fifteen feet above us,” she said.  “I think it should be high enough,” said Jingles. “Now, let’s not keep the security waiting.” “Ha, ha, very funny,” grumbled Cristal from down below. She was in her changeling form now, using her own climbing ability so as not to tax Jingles’ magic. Aurora didn’t waste breath on further talking. The pipe was too tight for her to fly, but she could use her wings as extra limbs to push against the walls. She scowled with disgust at how greasy she could feel her feathers were becoming.  Just a moment more… She reached the bend and pushed up, finding herself in another horizontal pipe. Suppressing her instinct of taking a deep breath, she scampered forward, making more space for her friends to climb up into. She closed her eyes and calmed down, while the rest of the team took places behind her. Finally, everypony was ready to continue. “Sauti?” asked Whisper. The old mare touched the pipe with her front hooves. “This is the inwards wall. There is still a foot of brick on the other side.” Whisper turned around. “Aquila?” The unicorn looked at the metal wall, and shuddered. “How do you want it?” she asked. “Silent would be best,” answered Whisper. “If we haven’t risen an alarm yet, we might avoid attention for a moment longer.” Aquila swallowed loudly. “I was afraid you’d say that.”  Then she closed her eyes. The light motes she had summoned flickered and disappeared, leaving everypony in complete darkness for a moment. Then Aquila’s horn lit up, and the three Elements followed suit, lending her some of their power.  Aquila pressed her horn to the metal, grunting with effort, eyes squeezed shut. For a moment, nothing happened. Then the soot started peeling off the wall, sliding away from her horn, followed by the metal and stone. The circle glowed soft silver, and silently fell inward, the magic stopping the bricks in the air and setting them gently on the floor in the room beyond. Jingles hopped out of the hole, somehow avoiding Aquila’s snout. He rolled silently, landing at the opposite wall, and looked around. “The coast is clear,” he whispered. One after another, the team got out through the hole, taking deep breaths as they did so. Cristal exited last, shifting into her old pony form as she did so. She looked around. “Where are we?” she asked in a whisper. They found themselves in a corridor, slightly curved to match the outer wall of the tower. It was all grey concrete with a tiled floor, featureless except for small half-spheres shedding dim light from the ceiling. “Doesn’t look like office space to me,” said Aurora, shaking her wings with irritation, trying to get at least some greasy dirt off them. Jingles looked at her, dug under his coat and handed her a bottle of foamy liquid. “Let’s look for a door,” said Whisper. “They wouldn’t make a corridor going nowhere.” It took them walking a quarter of the tower’s circumference clockwise before they found anything. The thing turned out to be a stair leading down, the corridor itself ending with a blind wall.  “We can’t waste time like this,” said Aquila. “Sauti, can you silence us?” Sauti nodded, and her power spread to the others, putting a film of magical aura around their hooves. The whole group turned around, and galloped in the opposite direction.   “This all looks like a delaying tactic,” said Whisper. “Sauti, can you feel any secret entrances?” Sauti closed her eyes in concentration, without breaking her stride. “None that I could feel.” Then she smiled. “But I think I feel a familiar presence here. I can’t pinpoint the other Elements, but they are here. You were right. “ The statement brought everypony new energy. They hastened their gallop, running around the tower until they saw the opposite end of the corridor, which caused them to slide on the floor as they tried to stop, barely avoiding crashing into each other.  There was a metal door there, leading inwards.  “Jingles?” said Cristal.  Jingles put a stethoscope to the door. He listened intently for a moment before packing the instrument away. “It's locked, but there are no traps. Not even an alarm…” “How do we get in?” asked Aurora. “Do we just break it down?” “No need to,” said Jingles. “We’re out of the pipes now, so I can use all my power.” He reached under his coat, and pulled something that looked like a circle of black cloth. When he put it on the door, it became pitch black, and then suddenly it was a hole. Jingles folded his wings, and slid through it. “What in the…” Aurora got in right behind Jingles. She flapped her wings, and rose into the air to give more space for the others to get in. Behind the door, there were more corridors, splitting off in different directions, all grey and dimly lit by the lamps in the ceiling.  What was unusual, was the uneven floor. And the ceilings. Aurora blinked, trying to clear her head - she was feeling weird looking at the place. “There isn’t a single right angle here,” she said.  Aquila walked in and looked around. “What is going on here?” she said. “It look’s like Discord’s been here.” “I don’t think it’s his work,” said Sauti.  “Then whose?” replied Whisper. “I can’t imagine Vengeance coming up with something like this.” “There is no chaos here,” said Sauti pensively. “We’re meant to see this. Otherwise, what would be the point of the light? This is a maze, and it has been designed to confuse.”  “Though it be madness, yet there’s method in it,” said Jingles. Aquila looked up at him. “So, she’s trying to drive us crazy with maths?” “Let’s not let her, then,” said Aurora, flapping her wings for emphasis. “Sauti, where do we go next?”  Sauti hesitated for a moment before pointing into one corridor. The group walked in that direction, Whisper and Jingles flanking the half-zebra, using their own powers to scan for traps.  *** Ten minutes later, they were no closer to their goal, and worse, had no idea how to find the exit. At first it had seemed that knowing the right direction would let them get through the maze relatively quickly - there were only so many corridors that could fit within the circumference of the tower. But at no point did a corridor lead directly to their goal. It was always slightly to the left or to the right, then suddenly above or below, as the slanted floors brought them to a different level without them noticing. Sauti tried to scan through the walls, but found them full of piping and various objects, few of which she could identify. Several times they had to stop to avoid traps, Whisper’s intuition warning him of one floor tile or another. They couldn’t run, they couldn’t draw a reliable map, and all of them could feel that they were running out of time. “We’re lost,” said Cristal. She had shifted into a pegasus form to be able to fly, but it didn’t do much for the mobility of the group as a whole. “We let the haste make our decisions.” “I’ve changed my mind,” said Whisper, “Only a Shattered would have the kind of crazy mathematical thinking to design something like this.” “What do we do now?” asked Aurora. “We don’t even know if we still have the time. We wouldn’t hear the alarm from here.” “Perhaps we should just go through the walls?” said Aquila. “The Elements must be here somewhere, but Vengeance would never need them. Perhaps there is no route to reach them with. Jingles, do you have any more of these portable holes?” “I do,” said Jingles, “but my magic grows weaker when I repeat the joke. And these walls are pretty thick. I can try though.” “I’ll do it then,” said Aquila. You just be ready to cover me. Sauti, which way is it?” Sauti sighed, then turned around, pivoting like a ballerina, before pointing her hoof forward. “There,” she said. Her hoof was pointing at a wall, at about 45 degrees. “Okay everypony, we’re done being subtle,” said Aquila, bracing herself. “Get behind me.” She focused her power, her friends supplying theirs to aid her. A lance of blinding silver light erupted from her horn, boring through the concrete.  “Watch out!” shouted Sauti suddenly. Her bubble erupted around the team just as the wall suddenly exploded, the shock wave washing over them, filling the corridor with black smoke. “What was that?” gasped Aquila, scrambling back to her feet. “A trap,” said Whisper, “Don’t breathe the smoke!” He closed his eyes and his aura expanded, forming a spectral, rotating fan in front of his friends. The wind started blowing the gas away down the corridor. “They thought of it too,” said Jingles. “If I’d opened a hole on it, it would go straight in my face.” “How’s the ceiling?” asked Whisper. Jingles looked up. “Stable,” he replied. “It was designed for this to happen.” “Well, there’s no way they didn’t hear that,” said Cristal. “Did we get through the wall at least?” Aquila squinted through the remains of the smoke. “No, not yet. I think we need another shot.” Then the lights on the ceiling turned red. *** They heard the sound of hooves just as they emerged on the other side of the wall. Somepony came running from around a corner; a white unicorn filly, just a bit older than Aquila, skidded sideways as she lined a shot. It hit Whisper’s barrier in a shower of sparks. Aquila shot back at her, only to be blocked by another barrier - a second white unicorn appeared, ready to support his companion. They’re wearing breastplates and white uniforms, noticed Aurora, but I don’t know this formation. They look so young too… “More are coming!” shouted Cristal, dropping her disguise to prepare for a fight. A trio of pegasi had just flown into the corridor from the other side, taking the sharp turn as if they’d spend their whole lives flying in cramped spaces. They were wearing thin, curved blades on their wings. “What do we do?” shouted Jingles, flying into the way of the oncoming pegasi. They flew by him, slashing from both sides, showering everypony with candy as the Jingles-pinata exploded. “Keep them busy!” shouted Aquila. “Sauti, which wall now?” Sauti pointed in the same direction as before. “Wait, no!” she said suddenly, moving her hoof sideways. “This part of the wall is safer!” Above her, Whisper leapt into the air, the jump taking him onto the level of a flying pegasus - he headbutted him with enough force to send him flying down the corridor. As he was falling back to the floor, amber aura covered his body, absorbing the shots from the two unicorns. Another pegasus flew straight at Sauti. The mare projected a barrier, but before the attacker could test it, Aurora flew into his path, blocking his blades with her own. The colt pushed forward and snapped his teeth, almost catching Aurora's face before kicking her in the chest, breaking the blade lock. Before he could stab her however, Jingles appeared beside her and spun, the giant mallet he was holding in his teeth slamming into the soldier, sending him flying after his fallen teammate. Aurora caught movement in the corner of her eye. She turned just in time to see a white shape fly past her, the extended wing at the level of her neck. Cristal shot a blast of green magic, forcing the third pegasus into a dodge that took him out of melee range. Aurora twisted away, but still felt something graze against her. When she checked her neck with a fetlock, she felt a stinging sensation - there was a blotch of red on the fur of her foreleg. “More are coming,” said Sauti. That was true. More galloping hooves could be heard, three white earth ponies with heavily armored forelegs running into the corridor, followed by a pair of unicorns, who shielded them with a barrier as they charged. On the other side, the two unicorns found their shooting ineffective against Sauti’s magic shielding the team’s flank, and decided to combine their efforts. Their next spell was a ball of energy that slammed against the shield and exploded with blinding light and deafening noise. For a moment Aurora couldn’t see anything. She then caught a silhouette against the ceiling - another pegasus falling down on her. She barely blocked the first blow and flipped back in the air, frantically bucking the assailant away to buy herself more time to recover. Around her, shots ricocheted, and bodies collided, the white ponies appearing faster than her friends could take them down.  “How much longer?!” she shouted, ducking out of the way of a lance of magical fire. It hit the wall beside her, showering her with stinging pieces of red-hot debries. “Almost there!” shouted back Aquila. “Don’t let them divide us!” called Whisper. He was fighting with two earth ponies now, trying not to let them flank him.  Aurora charged in a low dash, the blade on her foreleg stabbing just over the edge of the soldier’s metal breastplate, the impact sending him reeling, blood spreading over his white collar. Whisper turned, and bucked the other one away, slamming him into the wall. “Watch out!” shouted Aquila. With a mighty crash, a section of the wall fell, opening a path for the team to run through. “Once more, into the breach, my friends!” shouted Jingles, throwing his latest opponents off him before flying in, the others right behind, with Aquila forming a shield to cover the rear. Behind the wall, there was a large chamber. It was similar to the rest of the maze, although notably the walls and the floor were even for once. The whole floor was covered in intersecting lines of runes, soft light spreading around, forming round bubbles where the lines met. There were several dozen ponies in the chamber, all white, in identical white uniforms with silver trims, standing like statues inside the bubbles. From what it looked like, they were in the process of waking up, many already free and heading to the exit just as the Elements made it pointless by making a door of their own. The act of breaching the wall must have disrupted the magic, as at that moment the light of the floor went out, all the gathered ponies suddenly turning their heads to look at the intruders. “Not quite what was planned…” said Aquila smiling nervously, her ears dropping. “Barrier,” said Whisper sharply. His own power spread out to protect his friends, a dozen shots hammering into it a second later. Sauti sighed deeply. “Enough bloodshed.” Everypony froze where they stood, some blinking in surprise, some trying to regain balance, as their charge was suddenly robbed of its momentum. Slowly, the dust settled, exposing the whole scene: the six ponies near the newly made entrance to the chamber, surrounded by about thirty guards. Everypony looked at each other. “Sauti?” asked Whisper softly. The old mare was standing still, as if in a trance. “They are determined, and hateful, horribly hateful. But I can keep peace for the moment.” “What do we do now? asked Aurora. “Surrender,” said a young unicorn female at the forefront of the group. “You have no route of escape, but you can still manage to die a swift death at our horns.” “You can’t hurt us,” grumbled Aquila, looking at the guard. The unicorn shook her head. “I can. Your magic makes me not want to. Still, it is futile. We won’t let you pass. You either accept our kindness of swift death, drop the spell and bleed out in combat… or wait for Lady Justice to arrive, and see how merciful she will be to invaders of her home.” “You’ve seen us fight,” said Aurora. “Even if you take us down, most of you are going down with us.” “That’s a calculated cost,” said an earth pony colt behind her.  Aurora shot him a shocked look. “You’re willing to die to kill us? For her?” “Such is our purpose,” said another guard. “We do our duty.” Aquila turned red on the face, taking place beside Aurora. “You’re all crazy! You’re just like those fanatics in the district below! Whisper, tell them!” Whisper took a deep breath, the gem on his neck coming to life.  “You are all slaves to Vengeance! Chosen only to die for her schemes! Where are your real homes? Your parents? You’re all barely past foalhood. And you spend your time here in stasis, waiting for your time to die? You could do so much more with your lives!” He paused, waiting for a response, his magic spreading through the chamber. The guards looked back at him with stern faces, nothing but scorn in their eyes. “You speak from your heart,” said the female unicorn, “You do not lie, but you’re wrong. You think it matters what we want, you think we’ve been mislead and brainwashed, and you can just make us ‘see the truth’. You don’t know what you’re dealing with.” “That’s why the likes of you spread chaos, disrupting the proper order of things that our Lady designed.” The other guards joined the unicorn, taking their turns to speak. “We aren’t disobedient like you. We serve our Lady, proud to live and die for her, because that’s who we are.” “You’re all brainwashed,” said Whisper. “No,” answered a guard, “Remade. We want to serve, because we’ve been designed to want to. Our Lady spent long days making each of us who we are, free of your flaws, the future of ponykind. We’re nothing like those poor, crazy fools outside. We’ve been truly chosen, and if it is for death, we’ll gladly do our duty.” Whisper swayed on his hooves, the impact of the words hitting him like a physical blow. “But you used to be normal ponies,” he said, “with families and loved ones. You used to know what harmony means.” “Those ponies are gone, raw materials to forge us from,” snarled a pegasus guard. “Don’t insult us by listing their weaknesses.” “I see now,” said Crystal unexpectedly. She talked like a disapproving teacher, her voice attracting everypony’s attention. “You’re all just past the testing age. The stasis spell preserved you just after you’d finished your training. You’re the ones that tested positive, aren’t you?” Aurora shuddered. Are they? Is this what Whisper saved us from? Being remade into weapons? She looked at her sister, and found her equally shocked. “So, any ideas?” asked Jingles, bringing them all back to reality. “It won’t matter who they are, if we don’t get out of here.” “We… could try to teleport out perhaps?” said Aquila. “We have a lot of power between the six of us.” “We’re not going to let you, even if you could,” said a guard. “Besides, the tower’s screening… you disabled it, didn’t you? It seems we’ll have to withdraw our offer of swift death.” “Are you sure?” asked Aurora, “There’s a lot of walls in the way.” Aquila snorted. “I know, okay? A lot of walls. And after walking through this maze, I don’t even know which direction I’m facing. I’d just have to aim out and hope you three with wings catch the rest of us.” “That’s…” started Whisper, before visibly biting his tongue, “... the only plan we have. How much extra power do you need?” Around them the unicorn guards nodded to each other - lines of magic shot out, connecting their horns, forming a rough circle around the six ponies. The guards looked at Aquila with determination. “You may have extraordinary powers,” said one of the pegasi, brandishing his wing blades, “but you’re not getting out.” “Okay,” said Jingles, “First thing if we get out of here alive, we’re finding a way to communicate silently.” “If you want to boost her powers,” said Cristal, “I have an idea.” The guards looked at her warily. “Feed me,” she said. “What?” asked Aurora. Cristal smiled. “You want all the power for her, don’t you? If you let me, I could suck more power out of you than you could willingly give. The whole emotion-eating monster thing has its advantages.” The chamber fell silent, both sides considering the implications. “You’re a traitor to your race,” said one of the unicorns, “and that won’t be enough. We’ll prove that our love for our Lady is stronger.” Cristal glared at him. “I’m a pony, and your love is an artificial construct, nothing like the real thing.” “So, what do we do?” asked Sauti. She was still standing focused, with her eyes closed, beads of sweat appearing on her fur. Cristal stood right next to Aquila. “Just calm your mind, and think of those you love, those you’d give anything to protect. Focus on this image, and then let me in when I tug at you. Just be ready to channel your regular magic when she starts, right?” “So, you’re going to blind jump through a disruption spell, and meters of concrete, and you think such tricks will help you?” asked one of the guards. Aquila gulped, but met his gaze. “I am, and I do, for everypony I love." The six ponies focused, their power flowing around, creating a swirling nimbus around them, with Aquila in the middle. Aurora didn’t have any magic she’d know how to contribute, so instead she followed Cristal’s advice. Ignoring the surrounding guards, she closed her eyes, and focused.  She thought of Aquila, her dear sister, fighting at her side for everypony, of her determination, and of her smile when she was happy, the smile she wanted to keep seeing for the rest of her life. She thought of home, of the faces from her town, ponies she hoped to save from the yoke of tyranny. She briefly felt a pang of regret at barely remembering the faces of her parents - so much time had passed since mother passed away.  She felt slightly light-headed, and knew Cristal had begun draining her. She shifted her focus to the friends currently at her side, the ones she now fought together with, the ones she’d performed a sonic rainboom to save. Faces flashed in front of her mind’s eye - The ever calm Sauti; Jingles, the sad jester, always ready to give to others the laughter he never had for himself; Cristal, so determined to help everypony, to defy her new nature, outwardly cold, but with so much warmth that expressed through her actions rather than words. We’re so damaged, thought Aurora, so hurt, but we keep going because we’re together - we soothe our pain, and support each other. She thought of Whisper then. She expected, felt deep inside, that this could give Crystal a little extra boost, that’s why she’d left him for last. She thought of his courage, his warm encouragement, of how his body moved in the gym when he spent months teaching her how to fight. She thought of his charming smile, which he had once used to trick greedy ponies off their coin, but which his friends had long learned to associate with one they could all depend on and trust, regardless of circumstances. For a moment Aurora could barely stay on her hooves, energy leaving her body. Then suddenly came a feeling of euphoria, and new determination. She heard shouts and gasps of surprise, causing her to open her eyes and look around. A part of the floor in the center of the room was glowing bright, multicolored light. The guards scattered away from it, and then it exploded, weirdly, the expanding ball of fire and shrapnel slowing down to a crawl, the exploding trap suppressed by some invisible force.  From inside the cloud, a trail of crystal shards flew out, snaking through the air. It split into three colors, two flying towards Aurora and Cristal, while the last headed for Aquila. Aurora looked at the red pieces flying towards her. Somehow she knew they would not harm her - they turned right in front of her face, and then snaked around her neck, filling her mind with a sense of familiarity, as if they’d always belonged there. In a flash of light they shifted shape, melding together into a warm metal object. Aurora didn’t need to look down to know it was a large golden gorget with a glowing red gemstone in the center. Already she could feel new magic filling her, the love she had projected towards her friends suddenly becoming a solid, tangible connection. She could feel their minds as surprise gave way to calm focus, all six now working as one, the teleportation spell growing in power around them. The nimbus of color grew into a blinding halo, first rainbow-hued, then white. The six Elements disappeared, the explosion of the trap continuing in their wake, as reality reasserted itself. *** "That was so cool!" shouted Scootaloo, flapping her wings excitedly. Aurora looked down at her, and gave her a sad smile. “It was to us too. Though now that I can watch it from the outside perspective, it all looks so cliche.” “The world is made of cliches,” said Obsidian, “especially legends. You did a good job, considering the circumstances, though I’d never accept  this set of bearers. It’s almost as if someone had chosen them to-” Twilight put a hoof in front of his mouth, shooting him a dirty look. Obsidian shrugged, and relented. Behind them, Rarity twisted on her cushion, trying to turn her mane to hide the discomfort visible on her face. “So, this is how the Elements met in your time,” said Twilight with a smile. “What happened then?” Aurora extinguished the vision. When it returned, it was a kaleidoscopic blur of images, appearing one after another. “A lot of things happened. We practiced with our Elements until we learned to use them. We then used their powers to help the resistance. We saved ponies from mines, or from being sent to Deception’s labs. We fended off Discord - he’d stick around to watch the show, but never challenged us directly. Still just his presence created enough madness that we often had to save ponies from him. We created hidden enclaves outside of the cities, clearing out monsters, so ponies could live free. While doing all that, we all gradually awakened to our Elements’ full potential.” “We also fought the Shattered, usually Hate, Arrogance, and Envy. We didn’t have the confidence to take on Vengeance, and Deception was always elusive. As for Guilt, we learned that he’d became disillusioned with the other Shattered, and abandoned them, disappearing to parts unknown. We never got to meet him in our time.” “Did you manage to seal any of them?” asked Obsidian. “Not at first,” replied Aurora. “We’d heard legends of how the Elements had been able to do it, but we didn’t know where to start. A couple of times we just used the Elements to turn them to stone, but it never lasted - somepony would always manage to shatter the statue before we could hide it away, and when they died, they’d just return a couple days later, taking over the body of one of their chosen guards.” “Then Bubble Burst heard of some tomes of forgotten lore that had supposedly been found. We helped the resistance recover them, then followed the clues within to find more forgotten knowledge. Working with the unicorns from the resistance, we recovered a lost secret of sealing creatures within specially prepared gemstones. With that, we thought, we  finally had the means to end the tyranny of the Shattered. It was high time too. It seemed we’d been the most successful Elements for centuries, and the showing signs of rebellion were causing Vengeance to grow even more insane, her edicts more tyrannical by the week.” *** The seven ponies were sitting around a round table in a dimly lit basement, the space between them filled with maps and notes. It was clear that years had passed - Aurora and Aquila were now adult mares, and Bubble Burst had the first streaks of grey in her mane, though in her case it was probably more from prolonged stress than age itself.  More importantly, the Elements’ eyes were all transformed, pupilless pools of color to match their gemstones, only slightly paler for Sauti’s blind ones. “So, we’ve managed to seal Arrogance,” said Bubble Burst, looking at a large tear-shaped diamond between her hooves, a smile Aurora hadn’t often seen from her spreading across the resistance leader’s face. “Now we just need to find some obscure leyline node to put her in, so that her power does not erode the magic of the gem.” “We’d also killed Envy,” said Whisper, “And with how much magic we’d put into him, he won’t be back in a while.” “That leaves three of them,” said Aquila. “If we want to strike them hard, this is the time to do it.” “We don’t know their whereabouts,” said Crystal. “Except for Vengeance, but I’d really like to get rid of Hate before taking her down. Still, we can’t waste such an opportunity.” “So what do we do?” asked Jingles. “Just doing anything for the sake of doing it is asking for something to go wrong. But we can’t let the occasion slip either.” “I wish there was a way to get Deception,” said Crystal. “If we don’t deal with her, she’ll just hide again, and then it’s just a matter of time before this whole mess starts once more.” “You know what?” said Aurora. “Perhaps we can use this chance to make a statement?” “What do you have in mind?” asked Bubble Burst. Aurora smirked. “Envy is dead right now. But he should be playing a concert tomorrow, and it’s unlike the Shattered to cancel a regular event and advertise their defeat. They’ll need to come up with something to cover it up, like a changeling perhaps… and we can use it to show everypony that the Shattered can be beaten.” Everypony smiled, except for Bubble Burst and Jingles. “What if they expect it?” asked the resistance leader. “If one of them shows up to ambush you, lots of ponies will be caught in the crossfire. Do you really want to battle Hate amongst the audience? These ponies aren’t fans of Envy, just some unlucky workers herded in front of his palace once a week to feed his ego.” This dampened the mood considerably. “We’ll observe the situation,” said Aquila. “And if we do act, we’ll take the stage. If anything happens, it will be focused on us, and between me and Jingles we should be able to catch any flying shrapnel.” “We have one more gemstone ready,” said Sauti. “What about the one for Vengeance?” “Still a day or two,” said Bubble Burst. “We need to make sure all the cuts on the gem are perfect, or the binding spell will be useless against a power of such magnitude. We were lucky to find a black diamond big enough, and we can’t let the chance be ruined by haste.” Aurora smirked. “We’re taking the most risky route once again. Aren’t you going to talk us out of it?” Bubble Burst slumped heavily, but returned the smirk. “Was there ever any point?” *** The night was cool, bringing some relief to the tired ponies, as they left their workstations to converge in front of the stage. The sky was dark, even without the clouds - between the lights of the city, and the smoke in the air, the stars would not be visible. The audience was silent. The ponies knew better than to annoy the guards with too much chatter, so they just let themselves silently relax, their faces going through the motions of fake enthusiasm. Behind them, high society gathered on the balconies overlooking the square - the few ponies brought there by snobbism rather than fear, willing to listen to their ruler play, but not to mingle with the commoners. “Uh, excuse me,” mumbled Aurora pushing through the crowd. She was wearing a trench coat, a fedora, and a ridiculous pair of glasses with a fake nose and a moustache. Behind her, her friends followed, similarly disguised, Jingle’s magic maintaining the ruse, and keeping everypony hidden. “It’s about to start, get ready,” said Aquila behind her. Aurora turned to look, and rolled her eyes at her sister’s appearance - her tiara had pierced through the top of her hat, and the golden prongs were now clearly visible. Suppressing a snicker, Aurora turned towards the stage. A nervous-looking announcer had just disappeared behind the curtain, a clear sign that the show was about to start. The curtain parted, and a green alicorn with intricately styled mane walked onto the stage, a silver lyre levitating beside him. He smiled brightly, and waved, eliciting a well practiced loud cheer from the crowd. “Good evening, everypony!” he said, his smile stretching into a grin. Aurora and Aquila looked at each other. “Well, that’s definitely not him,” projected Aquila through their link spell. “Do we step in now?”  “Let’s give him a moment to start,” replied Whisper from her other side. Meanwhile, the fake Envy walked to the very edge of the stage. “It’s such a pleasure to see you all on this fine evening!” he loudly proclaimed. “I must say, seeing ponies happy to see me is one of the true joys of my life, all the more on the rare occasion when it is actually sincere!” His smile disappeared, and an awkward silence fell over the square. The audience exchanged confused looks, some of them downright frightened by what was unfolding. Finally the alicorn continued. “But, I’m not here to make you listen to rants about my personal feelings, am I? You’re here to listen to some music!” He grinned again and spun around, the lyre floating in front of him, the strings beginning to move on their own. Everypony fell silent, not daring to disrupt the music. The piece sounded complicated, more fitting for a concert hall than for a crowd of factory workers, technically perfect, but devoid of emotion, like a sequence following a complex mathematical formula, rather than a work of art. Aurora’s train of thought was disrupted. Something was wrong. Everypony looked confused again. It took a moment for her brain to register what exactly had happened.  A false note! It was a false note! The alicorn looked at his instrument in mock confusion, and then continued playing. A few seconds later, he played another false note. The cringe in the crowd spread like a visible ripple, but nopony dared speak. “What’s going on?” asked Cristal. She listened intently for a moment. “It’s like… guard your thoughts!” Aurora blinked rapidly, the sudden warning bringing her back to reality. The music had changed. It was now fast-paced, and more like the kind of dance music one would hear on a small village wedding. But there was another rhythm within, the false notes disrupting the music, horrible, cringe-inducing, purposeful, set in regular intervals that made the audience shudder in a rhythm, the ripples moving one after another, until the whole crowd moved like a stormy sea. Aurora’s stomach went up to her throat. It wasn’t just the mind magic either - the ponies in the audience didn’t just move together. As the wave passed through them, they became taller and shorter, shifting, melding together, melting… “It’s Discord” projected Aquilla, gritting her teeth. Her tiara lit up, and in an instant, all six Elements were standing on the stage, with their backs to the curtain, their disguises cast off. Six gemstones burned brightly, ready to unleash their magic. “Discord!” shouted Aquila, “Stop this at once!” The alicorn froze, the music stopping abruptly as one of the strings snapped. He then looked at the Elements, very slowly, his head turning around until it was facing completely backwards. “Oh, it’s you! I was wondering when somepony would have the guts to interrupt me. These ponies here are too polite for their own good when it comes to ponycidal tyrants. But what a great audience they make!” He spun around, his body stretching and deforming as he took his natural form, and grinned off-stage. He was answered by a cacophony of painful groans. The audience had fused together, the VIPs slowly dribbling off the balconies, while the mass of limbs and mouths below the stage kept rising and falling in waves despite the music no longer playing. “We don’t have an extra gem,” flashed Jingles’ voice in Aurora’s mind. “We just stone him,” she signalled back through the link. She felt Aquila’s nod of agreement, followed by the others. Discord turned just in time to see all the Elements power up. He snapped his claws and disappeared, popping up right in front of Aquila, level with her face. He looked at her pensively.  “Why are you doing this, actually?” he asked. Aquila hesitated, startled, She then glared at him, light flowing from her tiara to her horn. “What do you mean, why? Because you’re a monster! Look what you’ve done!” She waved her hoof in the direction of the audience. Discord looked behind himself. “And you care about it… why exactly? None of them are your family, or friends. They couldn’t be of help to you, unless you enjoy grovelling. Bah! Some of them would even try to arrest you, for all the good it would do.” He teleported again, reappearing in the air above the stage. “And yet you feel compelled to play the hero. Why?” Aquila flushed with anger. “You seriously need to ask that? I’m doing it because no one should do… this to a pony.” “She’s doing what’s right,” said Cristal. “And why do you do this, Discord? Why hurt ponies for your amusement? Have you ever thought of that? Or do you only question others?” Discord stopped smiling, giving her unamused look. “Are you trying to psychoanalyse me?” He snapped his claws and lay down on a couch that appeared. “Well, you see, I think it all started with my mother.” The Elements looked at each other, their auras actually dimming as the sudden absurdity of the situation disrupted their focus, all except Aquila, whose horn kept pulsing with power. Discord meanwhile continued talking, seemingly oblivious to the magical power still aimed at him. “Ever since I woke up in her lab, I knew she wasn’t happy with me. I know I might have broken some things there in my first moments, but the face she made? It’s as if I was just a failed experiment to her. She never once smiled at me, you know?” “She?” asked Cristal, “You mean Deception is your mother?” Discord wiped a non-existed tear with his paw. “Why, yes, she is. I mean, probably not in the traditional sense. She probably just dumped a pile of random body parts onto the table, trying to make a better unicorn or something. Do you know she didn’t even name me? I had to name myself. And so I made myself who I am. I guess you could say I did it all to spite her.” Aurora looked at Whisper. “Is he telling the truth?” Whisper sighed. “No idea. He does believe all he’s saying, but that’s not very telling for him.” Discord had closed his eyes, absorbed in his monologue. Now one of them shot open, glaring at Whisper. Discord teleported, appearing right over the Element of Honesty. “You want the truth so badly? Well, here is some truth for you. You see this huge city here, crowded with ponies? The factories with their smoke so thick, you can almost see the air here? It’s all because of me. The Shattered herd their property together, to protect it from me.” “If not for me, things would have been very different. Perhaps it would’ve worked out even. What do you think? Everything clean, set in neat rows, all well organized and predictable…” Discord turned green, and made a loud retching noise. “Perhaps nopony would need you ‘heroes’ anymore. Do you think you’d be happy just living as their slaves? It’s thanks to me that you get to play heroes, but as always, nopony shows me any gratitude… wait, are you trying to trap me?” “This time, he’s being full of himself,” transmitted Whisper. Discord looked at Aquila with raised eyebrow. The unicorn met his gaze, a sheepish smile spreading over her muzzle, as her horn stopped pulsating. “Yea? I was trying to stop that thing where you snap your claws, and randomly disappear.” Discord scowled. “Really, this is what I’ve been talking about. Never any gratitude. And to think that-” Aquila looked left and right at her friends, who all nodded her heads. The light of the Elements instantly intensified into six pillars of radiance. Discord’s ears drooped. He snapped his claws just as the spreading wave of magic washed over him. There was a white flash, but nothing happened. Discord looked at his claw in confusion, lifting his gaze just in time to see a blinding beam of magic falling upon him. He was left frozen like this, his body turned into cold stone, his face stuck in an expression of dawning realisation.  The Elements looked around. The wave of magic was still spreading, returning the ponies in the square back to normal, then going further, clearing the tainted clouds from the sky, and finally washing over the factory chimneys in the distance, dispelling the fumes with a force that blew away the chimney tops. The six friends found themselves facing a confused audience, the guards at the edge of the square fumbling for their weapons in what was very clearly panic. Whisper was the first to react. Taking initiative, he trotted past the statue of Discord and to the edge of the stage. “We’ve defeated Discord!” he said aloud, his magic hammering the simple truth into the audience. “We’re taking him away to seal him for good now!” Behind him, Aquila was still staring at the statue. “It was so… easy,” she said to Aurora. “I couldn’t figure out how to pin him down, with that weird magic of his. But the Elements did the trick just with brute force. If I had known we’d be so much stronger than him, I wouldn’t have let him monologue…” *** The air in the abandoned top floor apartment was hot and dry. The setting sun was peeking through the shutters, casting thin rays on the wooden floor and the peeling wallpapers.  "Sorry it took so long," said Whisper, walking through the door. He headed towards the kitchen without even taking his cloak off. "There was a search, and I barely made it back. So, what's the decision?" Sauti turned her head towards the sole opened window, allowing the wind to blow in her face. “We’re as ready as we’ll ever be,” she said. “As soon as we have the gem, we need to take action. The other five ponies in the room nodded silently. They had discussed the situation since coming back to Iustitia. The factories still smoked, maintaining the illusion that everything was under control, but everypony knew the previous night had changed everything. The threat of chaos responsible for the ponies’ current way of life, the source of endless malformed monsters that roamed the wilds, forcing the population into the crowded cities was gone. But it weren’t their rulers and self-proclaimed protectors who removed the threat, it were the Elements of Harmony, dangerous, wanted rebels. That turned out what would have been a boon to all ponykind into an event of potentially catastrophic consequences.  “They’ll likely be scanning for teleportation,” said Cristal. “We need to get as close as possible before announcing our presence.” “I’ll lead you in through the sewers,” replied Charcoal.  She had grown surprisingly little since her previous appearance, now looking about as old as Aquila had been when the vision began. She even seemed to still be a blank, until one took a closer look - there was a darker outline of a black cat sneaking, barely visible against her coat. “This is the most stealthy route,” she said. “We can get as far as the inner city, and then either go up, or dig to the basement.” “We’ll go in topside,” said Whisper, “You should be able to get back to base on your own.” “What? Why?” asked Charcoal, looking pleadingly at Aurora. “You’ve taken me with you before.” “We did,” said Aurora. “But we needed a guide then. No point putting you in danger in an open battle.” The filly flapped her wings, flying up and into Aurora’s face. “I can take care of myself! You know that!” “Know your limits,” said Cristal. “You’re great at what you do. We’re all here now thanks to your help. But we can’t keep you safe if the entire tower comes down, and we can’t afford any distractions.” “She’s right, Charcoal, you know it.” said Whisper gently. There was a tiniest glint on the surface of Honesty, and Charcoal, who was puffing her chest ready to say something, visibly deflated. “I know, I know,” she said, dejected, avoiding Whisper’s eyes. “I just wish I could help you, guys. You’ve done so much for us all.” “You shouldn’t,” said Cristal.  Aurora gave her a shocked look. “What? Why?” “Because,” said Cristal, “There are very few ponies that could do anything to help us fight Vengeance. So you better all wish that we can take her on on our own.” “Ever the optimist,” said Jingles, picking himself from the floor. He grabbed a coat, and a silly hat from the hanger and headed for the door. “I’m going to get some food. You need anything?” “No, Nope, I’m good,” sounded the responses. Jingles headed out and down the stairs, humming a melody under his nose. “Go ye heroes, go to glory…” The humming disappeared in the distance. Aquila made the door close, and then said, “I’ll be on the roof, if you need me.” She then teleported away. “I’ll go meet Bubble’s unicorns, see if our diamond is ready yet,” said Whisper. “Charcoal, you’re going?” “You’ll do fine without me,” grumbled Charcoal. Sauti turned towards her and smiled gently, gesturing for the filly to come closer.  Aurora didn’t feel like listening to the conversation. “I’ll be up, she said, flying up a stepladder leading to the attic. When she got to the roof, she found Aquila sitting there, leaning against a chimney, and looking off in the distance. She had probably used a spell to cling to the roof tiles. Aurora landed next to her, and put a wing around her withers.  “You’re worried,” she said. Aquila looked at her sister, and then, very slowly rolled her eyes. “Well, duh. Of course, I’m worried. We’re about to face our greatest enemy. It’s something right out of legends, and I’m just a pony.” Aurora hugged her tighter, letting Aquila relax under her wing, and then released her hug and playfully bumped heads with her. “Sis, the legends are all about ponies. Just yesterday, you sealed a lord of chaos, didn’t you? And it was so easy, you yourself were surprised.” Aquila huffed with irritation. “I know, I’m powerful. You know that’s not the problem.” “Then what is?” asked Aurora. “This is Vengeance were talking about. It’s not about power, it’s about what she’s able to do with it.” Aquila turned, and looked into Aurora’s eyes. For a moment, she was once again the scared filly, being taken away from her home town by armoured guards. “We’re supposed to be stronger than her,” she said. “If the legends are true, I should be stronger than her. But she’s still deadlier than all of us together. She’s killed generations of Elements, and the things she knows how to do with her power-” There was a bright flash, far on the horizon, Aquila turned her head. “I think that’s Portus,” she said, surprised. She kept looking in that direction. The light disappeared fairly quickly, but the evening sky turned redder than usual, as if there was a great fire far in the distance. Soon, a bulging dark cloud blossomed where the flash had been. The sisters’ mouths opened in shock, as their brains recalled the old stories, both coming to the same conclusion at the same moment. “She… didn’t…” stammered Aurora. There was another flash on the horizon, further north. Aquila stared at it in silent horror, still like a statue. “Sun and Moon…” she gasped, “That was Sapientia.”