//------------------------------//
// Chapter 6: The Stand-Off 1/2 
// Story: The Curse of Discord 
// by Creative Charmer 
//------------------------------//

	Ever since the chocolate tidal wave, the chaos cloud had been spreading more chaos than before. It gave tongues to rocks, had clumps of leaves turn into miniature tornadoes, made daisies shoot fire, and made nearby flying birds fat, causing them to plummet to the ground, unable to fly back up.
As the ponies and Spike were catching up with the cloud, they passed by the trail of chaos left behind by the cloud.
"This is gettin' crazy!" Applejack said. "That cloud just won't let up with causin' all this ruckus!"
"I'm gonna make sure it stops when I catch it!" Rainbow Dash said with angered determination as she pounded her hooves together while she was flying.
"Well, just don't try to hurt it too badly," Fluttershy said softly.
Rainbow looked down at Fluttershy and gave her a mean look, but when she saw Fluttershy's worried face, she sighed. "Fine," she said sternly.
"Well, hopefully, there won't be too much fighting, as I want to stop all this chaos with the utmost speed!" Twilight said.
"Well, we're all right behind yah, Twilight!" Applejack said. The other ponies all wholeheartedly agreed, making Twilight smile.
"I'm right behind you, too!" Spike said with readiness. "I'm feeling better again, so now I'm ready to show that cloud what it gets for making me sick so much!" he said boldly.
"Well, here's your chance! Look!" Applejack said as she pointed with her head. Up ahead, everyone could see the chaos cloud, still on the move and spreading chaos. The cloud zapped another one of its lightning bolts at the ground, which made everyone stop moving.
Spike cowered a bit when everyone stopped. "Uhh...now that I think of it, it might be better for me to wait here, so I don't slow you guys down," he said as he chuckled nervously.
"You can't leave!" Twilight shouted at Spike as she turned her head back towards him.
"May I wait instead, please?" Fluttershy asked.
"No!" Twilight exclaimed. "Nobody's leaving! And that's why!" Twilight pointed in the direction the cloud was going, and everyone could see that Ponyville was in sight! "That cloud is almost to Ponyville! That's why we have to stop it now! We can't let it hurt any innocent ponies!"
"You mean besides us?" Rarity asked.
"Yes, besides us. Now let's go!" Twilight began running again, and the others followed her.
The ponies and Spike were once again catching up to the cloud, and luckily it did not seem to notice them this time, as it kept on spreading chaos all around it. Unfortunately, Twilight could see that running to the cloud was taking much too long, and the cloud would reach Ponyville in only a short time. 
“I don’t think we’ll be able to catch up to it in time!’ Spike said with worry.
“Oh, yes we will!” Twilight exclaimed. “It’s not getting away this time!” Twilight then used her magic and teleported herself and Spike in front of the cloud’s path. Twilight skidded to a stop after she had teleported, and turned around to face the cloud. "You're not getting one inch further!" she shouted, and the cloud stopped moving. "I won't allow you to spread chaos any longer!" she exclaimed.
"Me, neither!" Spike shouted.
"Neither will we!" The other ponies shouted, having just arrived, and were facing the opposite side of the cloud that Twilight was facing.
"...umm, me too," Fluttershy said shyly.
The cloud remained where it was, not doing anything.
"What's it doing, Twilight?" Spike asked. "It's not doing anything."
"I think it may be assessing the situation to try and determine what methods it should utilize to prevent us from defeating it," Twilight replied.
Spike looked confused for a few seconds. "...you mean it's thinking of a way to stop us before we stop it?"
"Yes," Twilight replied. "And thank you for understanding what I said," she said as she turned her head back towards Spike.
"Hey, no problem," Spike said as he smiled.
Twilight then heard a noise. She turned her head back around and up towards the cloud, and could see the cloud was shaking. Twilight could tell the cloud was getting ready to do something, so she quickly tried to think of a plan. "Think, Twilight," she said to herself. Twilight looked over at the other ponies, and then she got an idea. "Applejack!" she called out.
"Yeah??" Applejack shouted back.
"Do you have your lasso??"
"Of course!" Applejack then proceeded to take her hat off, pull out her lasso with her mouth, then place her hat back on her head.
"Pardon me for asking," Rarity said. "But why do you have your lasso in your hat?"
Applejack took the rope out of her mouth. "Just in case."
"Of a lasso emergency??" Pinkie Pie blurted out.
"Uhh...sure, Pinkie."
"Then quickly!" Twilight shouted to Applejack. "Lasso the right side of the cloud from where you're standing!"
"Right!" Applejack placed the rope back in her mouth and ran towards the right side of the cloud. As she ran, she started twirling her lasso around to get it ready to grasp the cloud. Applejack then hurled the lasso with all her might, and the rope latched onto the right side of the cloud, holding it firmly.
After roping the cloud, Applejack wrapped her rope around a nearby tree so as to give it more hold with the cloud.
The cloud pulled against the rope, but it was staying in place. Applejack smiled as she held the rope with her teeth, feeling proud of herself. But then her prideful face became horror-struck as the cloud began focusing its lightning on the rope, getting ready to zap Applejack!
"Hey cloud! Over here!!"
The cloud stopped charging its electricity when it heard this noise. On the opposite side of the cloud where Applejack was, Pinkie Pie was bouncing up and down, waving her front legs around in the air. "If you want a pony to zap, try me! I'm way better at being a target than anypony! Now, c'mon! Try and zap me! C'mon! C'mon! C'mon! C'mon! C'mon!"
Pinkie Pie kept shouting, and the cloud actually began to grow irritated. It re-directed its lightning at Pinkie and tried to zap her, but she swiftly dodged the cloud's attack, either running or hopping to get out of the way.
Whenever the cloud tried to zap Pinkie, it zapped the grass when she dodged, turning the grass into paper airplanes that flew around in the air.
As the cloud kept missing Pinkie Pie, it tried to move closer to her to get a better shot, but it was still being held back by Applejack, and she was not letting up. The cloud pulled against the rope harder, as its power was focused on Pinkie Pie, so it did not try to use any of its magic to get rid of the rope. But then, the rope started to very slowly move, with the cloud pulling with all its might.
Applejack was befuddled when she felt herself moving. She looked at the part of the rope wrapped around the tree, and could see that the rope was unfurling. Applejack now became frightened, and began pulling the rope back to try and stop the cloud from moving any further, but the cloud was much too strong for her.
Applejack looked towards Rarity, whom was standing the closest to her. "Rrrty! Ah ned hlp!" she shouted with the rope clenched in her teeth, making her words barely audible.
"I beg your pardon?" Rarity asked, feeling puzzled. "I cannot understand you, Applejack. Could you say again?" Rarity lifted her hoof to her ear to listen for Applejack's response.
"Ah sed, HLP me!!" Applejack said louder and in a more irate tone.
"Oh! Why didn't you say so?"
Applejack gave Rarity a quite nasty look.
"Ahh, yes, right. Well, I am on my way!" Rarity dashed over to Applejack and used her magic to hold the rope, giving it a much firmer grip on the cloud.
Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy watched from where they were.
"We gotta help 'em out, too!" Rainbow said to Fluttershy.
"Oh, I don't know; they seem to be doing pretty well on their owwwwn!!" Fluttershy was pulled off by Rainbow Dash before she could finish talking.
Rainbow took Fluttershy over to the side of the cloud that was opposite of where Applejack and Rarity were.
"Okay, Fluttershy! Help me push!"
"But that cloud might zap me and do something horrible!"
"That's just a risk that you and I are both going to have to take to help our friends!"
Fluttershy looked around at her other friends who were risking their own selves to stop the cloud, and she sighed. "You're right Rainbow Dash. Let's do this!" she said in a much sterner voice. She then rammed into the side of the cloud, helping to keep it back, with Rainbow Dash looking proud of her friend.
The cloud was shaking violently, with small bursts of its magic coming out from all sides. With so much happening around it, the cloud could not focus its magic on any one target, and was thusly at the mercy of the ponies. Twilight was the one pony there who could see this weakness in the cloud, and she knew that now was the one perfect time for her to strike.
“Spike, there is something I want to try, so I am going to need you to stand back so you won’t get hurt, if you please.”
“Gotcha, Twilight,” Spike got down off of Twilight’s back and ran behind a nearby rock. From there he watched so as to see what spell Twilight would use on the cloud.
Twilight faced the cloud, and spread her legs apart. She took a deep breath, and prepared herself, for this spell she was going to cast was going to be one heck of a doozy. Twilight began charging up the magic in her horn. Her horn illuminated with purple light flashing around her horn, glowing brighter as her magical energy levels increased.
The cloud suddenly stopped its twinges of spurting energy. It was now sensing something: magic. A very large, very high, and very powerful level of magic.
Because this concentration of magic was so high, the cloud quickly detected it to be coming from Twilight. The cloud now knew what to focus on, since because Twilight's magical power was so great, she was quite clearly the cloud's number one threat right now, and she had to be taken care of.
The cloud pooled together most of its power together in a single spot that was in the perfect position. Twilight was just about complete with charging up her own power, unaware of the cloud's forthcoming attack.
In an instant, the cloud blasted a bolt of lightning at Twilight, far stronger than any of its previous attacks. At the same time, Twilight reared her body upwards to launch her own attack, but right as she came back down to fire her own magic beam, the cloud's magic lightning struck her horn.