A smouldering crater sat in the middle of Ponyville, the flicker of a few lingering flames scorching the grass around it. Discord laid in the middle, crumpled from the sheer impact of the final blow for this cataclysmic struggle.
Was he unconscious or dead, nopony knew?
Rarity, Twilight, and their friends approached carefully, their hooves crunching the glass created from the superheated nature of Twilight’s spell. The alicorn looked frayed and exhausted, yet she struggled forward, determination burning in her one remaining eye.
“Discord!” she called out, scorn dripping from her voice.
The battered body chuckled, its voice sounding hollow and wet with injury, “Do you really think you bested me that easily, Princess?”
Twilight nodded resolutely. “I know I have. Your magic is drained, your body is broken, and now all I need to do is cast you away, as I should’ve eons ago.”
“Now, now, now, you should know that every villain always has one last trick up their sleeve.”
“That’s a lie,” Applejack drawled. “You’re all out of trickery.”
“Is that what you honestly think?” A smile appeared on Discord’s lips. “I can safely assure you, this one will be quite… marvelous.”
He gingerly lifted his talons, or what remained of them, and snapped together the last two functional digits he possessed.
Nothing happened.
Another moment went by, and yet the status quo persisted.
Rarity looked left, then right, but to her not one thing had changed.
Twilight snorted. “Some trick.”
“It’s a doozy.” Discord chuckled. “I swear.”
Twilight’s horn began to crackle as she channelled a millennium of less than kind emotions into this, her final victory.
Fluttershy whimpered. “Rarity…”
“What is it dear?” Rarity asked. “We’re kinda…”
“I don’t feel so good.”
Rarity looked over her shoulder, her eyes widening. Fluttershy appeared to atomize before her very eyes, turning slowly to dust, her essence drifting away upon the wind. Within a moment, her beloved friend collapsed to the ground before evaporating to nothingness.
Discord snorted and cough, hacking up blood. “God, I love pop culture references.”