Pinkie Pie's eyes gleamed in the gentle torchlight as the trio of ponies made their way down the hall, “Of course I’m not fibbing Rarity! Why would I fib about something as super sparkly as that?”
“Because Pinkie, darling,” the mare on the opposite side of Applejack flipped her hair to the other side of her head, “it's not a real horn, merely a fake. A sham. Something that I only have out of necessity. In fact, it's not even really me.”
“Please!” Pinkie rolled her eyes as she continued to literally bounce down the hall. “You can't tell me that your old horn was as amazing as this one!? I mean, sure, the old one was the original, but this one is special! Its sparkly and shiny and positively superb! And its totally you! Just ask Applejackie!”
Applejack looked at Pinkie, her ears twitching at the mention of her name, “Huh? Wha'? Oh yeah, Ah'm gonna have to agree with Pinkie on this one Rares.”
The white unicorn looked at Applejack, and even if Rarity was good at hiding what she was thinking, confusion showed through those blue eyes of hers, “You do?”
Applejack nodded, “Eeyup. Ah gotta say that that thin' looks mighty fine on ya. 'Sides, if Ah may voice mah opinion, Pinkie is spot on when she said it suits ya.”
Looking down, Rarity hid her face with her hair slightly, but even with the concealment, Applejack saw the small smile forming, “You're just saying that...”
“Think 'bout it Rares. Your special talent is doin' all those crazy things with those gems, righ'? Well, now your horn itself is a gem. Ah can' think of a more fittin' horn for a unicorn with a talent like yours.”
The excited mare to her right seemed to float as she nodded in agreement, “And it's shiny!”
For her part, Applejack rolled her eyes, “An' yes, Ah reckon its shiny.”
“Well then, why didn't you two dears tell me before how much you liked how it looked?”
If it wasn't for the fact that she was walking, the orange pony would've brought a hoof to her face in frustration, “Rarity, that's wha' Ah have been tellin' ya for the past two days since Pinkie an' Ah got back. In fact, Ah thin' that's all Ah have been tellin' ya.”
The alabaster mare looked back into Applejack's eyes, “I... guess I've been so worked up over everything, I couldn't imagine anything except my own image of myself, which I am not going to lie, I still think I will never look as good as before. Regardless, I have ignored you two too much, and you are both owed an apology. Do you accept?”
Pinkie stopped her hopping, causing Rarity and Applejack stop as well. Applejack watched as the brightly colored mare brought a hoof to her chin, and with a overly dramatic 'hmm', acted like she was thinking heavily on the subject. Finally Pinkie shook her head, “Nope!”
Applejack could swear she heard Rarity cock her head in confusion, “Wha? No?”
“Of course nope you silly filly! Me accepting your apology would be saying you needed to give one! No apologies needed here, so I shouldn't accept any of your apologies!” Pinkie stood on her hind hooves, and threw out a forehoof in a sort of mock punch, “So take that you nasty fake apology! We don't want you here anymore!”
“Well,” the orange mare chuckled. “Ah'm gonna have to agree with Pinkie yet again. No apology needed.”
A dainty giggle escaped Rarity's lips, “Then I take back my apology then. Oh, and I must ask, do you know what Twilight has been up to for the past two days? Ever since a little bit after Sarlaka came back in his... injured state, I haven't seen that mare at all other than late at night when she goes to bed, and even then, its like she only sleeps for a few hours.”
“Ah can' say tha' Ah know. All Ah know is tha' she's always mumblin' 'bout some book she found when she was tryin' to find somethin' to help with Sarlaka's injuries. Ah didn' catch any of what she was mumblin' other than tha' though.” The mare turned to Pinkie, “Ya know anythin' 'bout it?”
“Oh... umm... no...” Pinkie's previously bright mood quickly soured as her head turned away slightly, “I haven't spoken to her in a few days either...”
The three ponies stood next to each other, a silence slowly starting to creep over the group as the mood soured started to spread to them. Out of of the corner of Applejack's eye, she saw the confused face of Rarity as she tried to dissect the situation and find out why the previously excited mare in front of them was now so downtrodden. Of course, the party pony in front of her didn't appear to be in any kind of giving mood at the moment, so the best that the unicorn could do would be blind guesses. Rarity was smart though, and given enough time, Applejack was certain that the designer could figure out what was going on.
Of course, that sort of time wasn't needed, since Applejack already knew what was wrong.
“Hey there,” she approached Pinkie and smiled, “Ah'm sure it'll all end up alrigh'. Alrigh'?”
Slowly, Pinkie nodded. A smile still on her face, Applejack heard the unicorn behind her finally speak, “I don't mean to be rude, but can somepony tell me what's going on?”
Applejack place a hoof on Pinkie's shoulder, never facing the mare behind her, “It's a long story, Rares. Ah'll explain some of it a little later, if Pinkie says it's alrigh'.”
A few seconds went by, before a loud and exasperated shout broke the three out of their standoff. Their previous subject forgotten for the time being, the three only took a moment to glance at each other before they all ran in the direction of the voice, the shout coming from the direction of the foyer. The three mares passed through the door in front of them, the foyer filling Applejack with a sense of discomfort from the recent memory of their draconian host bleeding all over the floor, and they soon passed into the tunnel leading to the dining room. It wasn't too hard for Applejack to pull ahead of her friends, her body being the most fit of the three, though she had to admit that she almost wished that somepony else would get there first.
The three mares burst through the doorway, only to find a very disgruntled looking lavender unicorn sitting at the table with a small spread of various books open all around her. Before the orange mare could speak, the angry unicorn ignited her horn in a powerful glow. A wind started to pick up all around her, the spell that Twilight was trying to summon obviously requiring a vast amount of energy. The breeze quickly intensified by several magnitudes, until in only a few seconds time, Applejack was forced to lower herself slightly to make sure she wasn't sent flying across the room.
Over the swirling wind, the blonde maned mare heard Rarity yell, “What in Celestia's name is she doing!?”
“Ah have no idea!” she yelled back, her hooves slowly slipping on the ground as the wind threatened to push her over.
“Maybe she's trying to turn into her final form!” Pinkie Pie squealed.
Applejack felt Rarity bump into her as her friend lost her hoofing, “Pinkie, tha' doesn' make any sense at all!”
As quickly as it came, Twilight's horn sputtered out, small sparks erupting from the tip as the spell she was attempting quickly died off. A soft groan emanated from Rarity throat in exhaustion just as a much more agitated one spilled out of Twilight's in frustration, “How does that make any sense at all!? Come on!”
Twilight started to ignite her horn again when Applejack yelled, “Twiligh'!” Unfortunately, the lavender mare didn't seem to respond, and the tell-tale glow of magic formed around the mare's horn, a slight breeze starting to pick up again in the room around all of them. Again, the orange pony called out, “Stop tryin' to blow us away you crazy pony!”
Suddenly, Pinkie Pie appeared right in front of Twilight, and with the softest of touches, placed a single hoof on the mare's shoulder, “Twi-Twi...”
“Ahhh!” Twilight scrambled back in shock, tumbled over the bench she was sitting on, and very quickly found herself on her back. Unable to think of anything to do, Applejack watched as Pinkie just settled to watching the fallen unicorn lay on the ground, heavy pants emanating from the lavender mare's throat. Twilight opened her eyes to cast a single glance upon Pinkie before the earth pony averted her own gaze, and with heavy slow steps, turned, and made her way back join her two friends. It was painful to see the normally happy pony in such a saddened mood, but Applejack had no idea what to do.
Rarity took a slow step forward, “Pinkie Pie?”
With a slow turn, Pinkie cast her blue eyes onto Rarity, the look she gave was one of the most pitiful that the orange mare had ever seen. Pinkie didn't need to say anything for Applejack to know exactly what she was thinking.
Before Rarity could completely change course with what was going on, Applejack took a few steps forward, “Twilight, wha' in the name of apples are ya yammerin' about!?”
Slowly the lavender unicorn caught her breath, and her heart was obviously still racing, she was finally able to stand. Twilight took an extra second to calm her nerves one last time, “It doesn't make sense! It won't let me go back. Every single time that I try, and trust me, I've tried more times than even I am proud of admitting, it's never worked! Sure, it's complicated, but something like this is nowhere near crazy enough to-”
Applejack's orange hoof soon found its place inside of Twilight's mouth, the yammering unicorn still trying to speak through the appendage. Slowly, she felt the jaw motions slow, until they stopped completely. A moment later, Applejack removed her hoof, and before Twilight could even try to start again, she spoke, “How 'bout ya start from tha beginnin'.”
Twilight took another few breaths, “From the beginning. Right. Well. After Sarlaka got back two days ago, I wanted to help him get better faster, so I looked at some of the books that he had in the back of the storage room to see if there was some kind of healing spell that I could find, or if there was anything to speed up the natural draconian healing process.”
Rarity cocked her head, “Books in the storeroom? Twilight, I don't recall more than one or two in there.”
“That's because we didn't really look in the entire place. In the very back, there's half a library worth of books in there. Not really on shelves or anything, but in crates and containers.”
“Ah see...” Applejack made her way to the other side of the table, and making sure there weren't any cups of cider near Twilight, sat down across from the lavender mare, “So is tha' what's goin' on? Tryin' to fix up Sarlaka? Maybe ya need him in tha room to complete tha spell?”
“Oh! No no no. I never found anything like that in any of the books there. As I feared, since adult dragons are highly resistant to magic, there was no real effort in creating healing spells for them. Sure, maybe a unicorn with my power might be able to affect a dragon half of Sarlaka's age, but with his age, even if there was a spell, I don't know if I could even use it on him.”
“Alright... but then dear,” Rarity, who had joined both Applejack and Twilight at the table, looked at the small spread of open books before the group, “what are all of these for?”
“Well, while I didn't find anything about healing dragons, I found a particular book that was written by Star Swirl the Bearded himself!”
“Star Swirl the Weird?”
“Star Swirl the Bearded, Rarity. He's an ancient unicorn that created a lot of very important spells, including spells pertaining to Amniomorphology!”
Applejack raised an eyebrow, “Animal-phony?”
“Amniomorphology. Anyways, that's not important. What is important is that one of his last discoveries was in the field of Choronology, or the study of time. From what I read, he theorized that time wasn't just something you could travel one way through, but something you could stop, slow down, and even go backwards in.”
“So you can join Rainbow and Pinkie in pranking ponies by stopping time.” Rarity flicked her hair to the other side of her head, “Darling, I’m not sure what you're getting at.”
A smile on her face, Twilight was nearly bouncing in her seat, “You're missing the point! While I guess that's true, if we could go back in time, that would mean-”
Pinkie, who had at some point sat next to Twilight, spoke in a soft voice that barely broke through, “We could go back and defeat Discord before any of this ever happened.”
“Well Ah'll be a monkey's uncle,” Applejack smiled as she stamped a forehoof into the table, “Twilight, we don' have to worry about gettin' any of the other elements at all!”
The lavender mare's smile faded, and with a sudden lack of enthusiasm, slammed her head into one of the open books in front of her. With a heavy sigh, she mumbled just loud enough the orange mare to hear, “Except I can't get it to work.”
Rarity leaned forward, “Could you speak up dear?”
“It doesn't work. I cast at least three different kinds of time manipulation spells, casting each at least a dozen times, and each time, the spell fails! It just doesn't make sense!”
“Darling, while I don't doubt in the slightest that you are the most talented unicorns I've ever met, but maybe you aren't casting it right?”
Twilight raised her head, shaking it as she came up to face her counterpart, “That's what I thought at first, err... the casting it wrong I mean, but then I realized that these spells require such a large amount of energy, that even if I were to somehow cast it incorrectly, which I know I’m not, then something would still happen. For instance, instead of going back in time, I would maybe... slow it down instead, or go forward, or flash through a dozen points in time at once! Anything! But I’m just... stuck... here!”
Applejack leaned back, put a hoof to her chin, and tried her very best to wrap her mind around the whole concept. Her brain whirred in motion, until it finally spat out her conclusion, “Ah don' get it. Ya mean somethin' is... blocking ya?”
Twilight raised a hoof to rebuke the idea, only to just as quickly lower it in thought. There was an awkward silence for a few moments as the unicorn thought about the theory, “I... guess that's possible. In theory, if there's a spell that is interfering with my soul's chonostreamscape, or cosmic clock if you will, then I guess that it would prevent me from traveling through time at will. However, the amount of power that would be required to not only cast and sustain such a spell, let alone keep it covert enough to remain undetected, is astronomical! I’m not even sure that Princess Celestia can... could do it.”
“Maybe Discord is doin' it then.”
The unicorn shook her head, “I doubt it. If he could do something that powerful, why would he bother? It would be much easier just to kill us or turn us into gibbering idiots. But that's not even the strangest thing though!”
With a stifled sigh, Applejack spoke, “Wha' is then?”
Dramatically, the frustrated unicorn waved her hoof across the table, eventually settling it so that it pointed straight at Applejack, “You are!”
Completely caught off guard, Applejack looked behind her, almost expecting somepony to be sneaking up on her. Obviously, there was nopony behind her, so she turned her head back around to look straight into Twilight's eyes, “Me? Me how?”
Dramatically yet again, Twilight slammed her hoof onto the table in a fit of passion, “Your hat is how!”
“Umm... sugarcube. Ah have no idea wha' your talkin' about in the slightest. Could ya actually start makin' sense?”
“Twilight, darling, I am going to have to agree with dear Applejack here.” Rarity fidgeted in her chair in a vain attempt to get a little more comfortable, “You aren't making any sense at all.”
“Ugh!” The lavender mare brought a hoof to her face, “Alright, how do I explain this... okay. Rarity, when we were sent forward in time, the elements were left behind, right?”
“Well of course, dear.”
“According to these books,” Twilight lifted a few books into the air with her magic, the sparkling magenta aura around each bringing them all to attention, “there's two kinds of time traveling spells: permanent ones and temporary ones. The permanent time traveling spells sends a pony permanently into the past or future, but the catch is that not only is it exponentially more demanding of a spell the farther from your starting timeline, but you can't bring anything that isn't physically a part of you. The temporary spell, on the other hoof, is not only much less demanding, but you can also bring other objects with you! However, the catch is that the spell only lasts for a few minutes, an hour at most. Not a month! So naturally, what we went through had to be the permanent kind of time traveling spell, which is why the elements didn't travel forward with us.”
Applejack nodded, “Because those things were only bits of metal.”
“Not exactly, but in this situation, its close enough. Well, if that's the case... then why did your hat come with you?”
“Well... umm... maybe 'cause tha thin' is made of wool, which is part of a creature?”
Twilight shook her head, “No. Remember, it has to be a living creature. Sure, the wool came from a sheep, but when it was removed, it's no longer part of that creature, so it shouldn't have come with us when we were sent here!”
“Huh... Ah got nutin'.”
Rarity leaned forward, “So let me get this straight. When we were sent forward in time, permanently as you say, all of the dirt and grime on our coats was completely removed because it wasn't a part of us, so that we were cleaner than we had ever been our entire lives. Do you think we could do that again if we get filthy again?”
There was a moment of silence while the other three ponies just stared at the alabaster mare. The orange pony's mouth moved slowly, words never forming in her throat, no matter how many she wanted to say. Pinkie Pie continued to be uncharacteristically quiet as well, her face showing a slight downtrodden look as if Twilight had literally took that pony's pet alligator and stole it from her. It was a depressing sight, especially considering the mare that was the subject of it. Twilight, for her part, was mimicking Applejack, her jaw working uselessly as she tried to form works.
For better or worse, it was that moment that Lord Sarlaka walked into the room, “I see that someponies are doing a bit of light reading. Make sure to do it in adequate light. You don't want to hurt your eyes.”
Their former line of conversation interrupted, Applejack looked up to see the wounded dragon walk through the doorway that the ponies had passed through just a few minutes ago. Taking a closer look, the mare could see that even in the two short days that Sarlaka was able to rest, many of the more superficial wounds were mostly healed up, the scales covering the healed over hide in the majority of places. Furthermore, while the many severe wounds were still visible, the worst of them had appeared to have been well on their way to healing up nicely. Not only that, but the dragon's limp was mostly gone, and while the injured right foreclaw was still slightly favored, it was only a little bit.
Slowly, the dragon made his way to the head of the table, and with a sigh, released his weight, causing a hard thud as his body hit the ground. Out of the corner of her eyes, Applejack saw the slightly trembling figure of Rarity, the mare either angry, scared, or both at the same time. The orange mare stole a glance over to where Twilight was sitting, and saw that, while Rarity was shaking in anger or fear, the lavender unicorn appeared to be sagging just like Pinkie was just a few seconds ago. Twilight looked positively defeated, but why the mare looked as defeated as she did was an entirely different question entirely. As for Pinkie... well... she was relatively unchanged, her eyes giving the table in front of her far more attention than it deserved.
As for the dragon, Sarlaka closed his eyes, and released all the pent up tension in his body as he relaxed. It was an interesting sight to see his serenity, and if it wasn't for the fact that the image of the monstrous creature standing there after slaughtering so many ponies two days ago was burned into Applejack's mind, she would've thought that there was a side to him that she needed to get to know better.
The orange pony scrunched up her face. Of course, all of that was a lie. In fact, everything about the dragon was some form of lie, stretch of the truth, or convenient inconsistency. His dealing with the elements were lies. His introduction to the six of them started with a lie. His somewhat peaceful facade he had tried to put up at first was a lie. His friendship to them was surely a lie. All lies!
Sarlaka finally sighed for a moment, before beginning in a monotonous tone, “The silent treatment, I see? That's fine. I didn't want to talk anyways. At least I can-”
“Wha' in the name of Celestia is wrong with ya!?”
The dragon, startled at the sheer force of the voice, blinked for a few seconds, “Honesty, I have no idea what you are talking about.”
Applejack nearly jumped onto the table from the intensity of her yelling, “Ya know wha' Ah'm talkin' 'bout! Firs' off, no matter wha' Lord Xavier did, tha' doesn' excuse you to go an' kill 'im. Not only tha', but with how ya looked when ya came back, Ah reckon that ya killed a lot of other ponies while you were at it, so don' you dare try an' say that you didn' kill nopony else. An' even if you didn' kill nopony else, that monster didn' deserve death, he migh' have deserved to be imprisoned forever, bu' nopony deserves death.
“Second, wha' is this I hear 'bout ya moving all of your armies all across of Equestria, or whatever this place is called now, committin' genocide!? Ah can' think of a single damned reason, good or not, that ya could have for doing such a thing, other than tha' you are the most evil creature tha' Ah could imagine ever has existed. Ah would've never imagined Discord himself doin' this, but you, you apparently have no problems with killin' everythin' that ya can get your dirty claws or army on.
“An' don' even get me started on how stupid your little excuse for not givin' us the Elements of Loyalty and Honesty is. Ya make us run 'round like a bunch of chickens findin' all of tha elements, an' ya say tha' ya can jus' go and get ours, jus' like tha'? Ah think tha' there's no other way to put it than by saying tha' your story makes absolutely no sense, an' ya thinking tha' we would fall for it is laughable at best. Wha' are you hidin'? Hmm? Plannin' on killing us like everypony else that you've killed? If you think we'll go down that easily, you've got another thin' comin'!”
Applejack was heavily panting when she finished, the amount of energy she put in her fiery rebuke stronger than she imagined putting into it originally. The rest of the room was deathly silent, the ponies and dragon still trying to recover from her long tirade. While the orange mare couldn't see the ponies around her, she could see that Sarlaka was trying his best to speak, multiple times failing. Inwardly, the mare felt two things: satisfaction that he put that scaled monster in his place, and fear that he would finally say 'buck it', and torch the four of them.
Surprisingly enough, it was Rarity that recovered first, “You know what, dear Applejack is right. All of the things you've done have been acts of cloak and dagger. While I admit, you were very generous in giving me a new horn, and many of the things you've done have appeared to be nice at face value, a great multitude of your actions are undoubtedly deplorable. That is not bothering to mention how many times you have promised to tell me very important details, and went against your word. I think it is time for you to drop the facade, and come clean, Sarlaka.”
The room went silent for a moment before the dragon, now with a neutral look on his face, turned towards Twilight, “Magic, do you feel the same way?”
Twilight never met his eyes. Instead, she made sure to turn her head away, “I... agree with my friends.”
Sarlaka looked to Pinkie to find any sort of difference in opinion against the ponies, but from the way that the mare was looking away, he knew that none of the ponies were going to join his side. A few more tense seconds passed and the fear that the dragon would finally show his true colors and turn on them grew more and more as the dragon thought to himself. Sarlaka gave the statements a few final thoughts, before he sighed, “You ponies really want to know what's really going on?”
Not expecting that kind of response, Applejack merely nodded slowly.
“Alright. Well... where do I begin,” the ancient dragon brought a foreclaw to his chin in thought. Several agonizing seconds passed as the information Applejack sought was about to be revealed to her. “Alright. Well, many centuries ago, I-”
Sarlaka looked up, his fin-like ears perking up as if he had heard something from elsewhere in the cavern. The pony's host sat eerily still for a few seconds more, before the most horrifyingly look of sheer dread, and possibly fear, formed on his face. Quickly Sarlaka turned his head back to the girls, and while standing back up, spoke in as much intensity as a whisper could make, “Ponies, into the storeroom, now!”
Instantly, Rarity retorted, “Oh no you don't, not that again. I expect answers to our questions, and don't think that simply throwing us into that room again will get you out of any of this.”
The purple dragon shook his head, “No! Its not like that, its-”
“It's wha'? Huh? Is it tha' ya jus' got a visit from another murderin' general from one of your armies?” Applejack stared down the dragon many times her size, “Ah already told ya we ain't stupid!”
“Keep it down!” Sarlaka motioned his foreclaws down, as if he could physically push the volume of their voices down. “There isn't much time! You need to-”
“To what, you big brute? Shove us away so that you can plan the deaths of more innocent ponies, zebra, and everything else out there? Dear Applejack is right, and I have half a mind to-”
“Shut the buck up, you stupid ponies!” Sarlaka yelled in a whispered hush, stopping all protests from the two mares. Rarity instantly slammed her jaw shut as if her mind finally registered that the thing she was previously threatening had scales that were as big as her. Pinkie and Twilight, who had remained silent for the entire exchange, jumped at the hostile outburst, Twilight in particular shaken to the point that her eyes wide as saucers as she stared at the dragon. As for herself, Applejack mimicked Rarity, and made sure to shut her mouth, and keep quiet for fear that the creature before them would resort to more... physical ways to make sure they did what he said.
The situation now firmly in his control, Sarlaka moved his head towards the storeroom, “Now will you four please get in there.” The four mares nodded, and with all due haste, made their way to the storeroom. Before they could make it the last few hooves of distance, a gentle foreclaw swept the group into the room, eliciting more than a single yelp in surprise. Finally, they were inside, and with a sigh, the dragon spoke again, “And Magic, cast any and all protective and concealment wards you can, and don't you dare drop them till I give the signal.”
All of them inside, Twilight nodded towards the dragon, “O... Okay...”
“Good. Under no conditions should you leave this room until I return. I promise that I will keep this as short as possible,” and with a short nod, the dragon shut the door to the dining room, leaving the mares with nothing to look at except the four walls of the storeroom, plus whatever wares were inside.
“Did... did he just shove us into here!?” Rarity shouted in shock, her eyes ablaze with anger as she turned towards Applejack.
For her own part, she wasn't any happier, “Ah reckon he jus' did, Rares.”
“Why... the nerve of that creature! I never! We're not going sit here and take that from such a ruffian, are we?”
“Of course not!” Applejack turned towards the lavender colored unicorn, “Twi, ya with us?”
The unicorn flinched at the attention that was drawn to her, her head quickly snapping to face the orange pony. While her movements were quick, her response was not, and for several seconds the mare shifted her eyes between Rarity and Applejack. Finally, she sighed, “Yeah, I’m with you. Just give me a few moments so that-”
“Oh Sarlaaaaaaka? Lord Sarlaaaaaaaaka? Where aaaaaaaaaare you? Don't you want to play?” a mock-playful voice echoed through the entire chamber.
Any thoughts of confronting their host were instantly squashed as the voice entered each of their ears, the source of the words leaving no doubt as to who the owner was. While Pinkie, Applejack, and Rarity became statues at the voice, Twilight's horn went into overdrive, an intense glow emanating both around the horn and the walls of the room as dozens of spells were frantically cast. Applejack had no idea what any of the spells were, the nonmagical pony unable to identify any of the spells the mare was shooting off as well as incapable of reading any of the dozens of runes that blinked into existence on the walls for the short moment they were visible. Thirty seconds of furious casting, and the powerful unicorn was done, save for a pair of spells, which she cast on the door to the foyer.
“Wha' is tha'?” the shaken and bewildered pony whispered.
Rarity slowly stepped forward, “Scrying portal.”
Not entirely sure what 'scrying' meant, Applejack did know that the window-like object had a view of the entire main chamber. For now, there was only one thing of note in the room. Sarlaka was standing tall, his wings folded to his sides as he stood over the glittering gems his hoard. It was obvious that he heard the voice as well, though why he wasn't either hiding with them or taking any sort of fighting stance slightly confused Applejack. What was that dragon thinking?
Applejack felt a hoof carefully placed on her back, the mare jumping at the touch. Turning quickly, she saw the frightened, yet reassuring, face of Pinkie smiling at her. It was only then that the orange mare realized that she was violently shaking in fear, only the gentle touch of her friend making that fact known to herself. Slowly, the mare took in a deep breath, held it for a few moments, and released the breath, along with a lot of the pent up fear and emotion. Pinkie kept up her smile, and after Pinkie let her hoof drop back down, the two squeezed up next to Rarity and Twilight, and once again peered through the portal.
There was nothing for a minute or two, enough time so that Applejack almost questioned whether all of the anxiety over everything was warranted. Of course, before she voiced those concerns, that voice returned, “Sarlaaaaaaka? Why won't you talk to me? Hmmm?”
The dragon narrowed his eyes, “What do you want?”
Suddenly there was an audible 'pop', and in the center of the room appeared a notoriously familiar draconequus. The God of Chaos looked as though he was genuinely smiling in happiness, “Oh can't I just come and visit my good friend? My compatriot? ¿Mi amigo?
“I've called you many things, Discord,” Sarlaka deadpanned. “My God. My liege. My omnipotent ruler. My excrement. Never my friend.”
“Oh don't be so much of a spoiled sport.” Discord popped out of existence for an instant, only to appear laying down on a pool lounger on top of one of the larger piles of gems. The draconequus stretched out his limbs in relaxation, “Anyways, what's wrong with chatting? There's just so many marvelous things to talk about! The weather. Local pony gossip. What you did in X-Town. By the way, love what you did to that place! I mean sure, it was a little messier and blunter than my MO, but to each their own. Besides, the dramatic entrance made up for it in spades! A massive creature of old swooping in to exterminate the population, wipe out the military, kill the lord of the realm, and destroying half the city in the process? Why, I couldn't have asked for more!”
“Destroyed half of the city?” Pinkie whispered, sorrow in her voice.
Applejack softly placed a forehoof on Pinkie's back, stroking the soft hairs to comfort the troubled mare. Never once did any of them stray from the sight of the conversing creatures in the foyer for long. If possible, Sarlaka's glare was even less amused than at the start of the conversation, “I had my reasons for ousting Xavier's soul from his body. Besides, he was weak, and he outlived his usefulness by at least twenty years. The only reason he was still in power was because I allowed it.”
“This is certainly true,” Discord propped himself up on his elbow as he licked an ear of corn in a waffle cone, “Either way, nice to see you working off that flab that's been building up over the years!”
“Discord, I will ask again, what brings you here? Give me your reason, or begone.”
“Oh, come on Sarly! Don't tell me that not only am I not your friend, but you don't love me anymore.” The draconequus popped again, Sarlaka did not even flinch when he found himself holding the bridal gown wearing Discord in his foreclaws. Behind a veil, Discord batted his eyelashes, “Have you gotten over the honeymoon period of our relationship already?”
Sarlaka just glared.
“Is it because I threw a tornado at your army in the Zebra lands?” Immediately, Sarlaka's eyes got wide, and Discord put a single claw to his mouth, “Oops! Did I let that one slip?”
The dragon threw the creature in his arms, the creature merely flipping through the air and landing on a dirt bike, sunglasses over his eyes. With fury in his own eyes, Sarlaka pointed, “You! You killed them!?”
“Oh come now, Sarlaka! I didn't kill them. I merely put them...” Discord smiled as he put on a second pair of sunglasses over the first, “... under the weather! Yeeeaaaah!”
To Applejack's surprise, even with the several deep injuries still not quite healed, Sarlaka took a threatening step forward, “Why!? You yourself told me to invade the Zebra Tribes!”
Discord's bike made a loud noise, and with incredible speed for something that moved on land, ramped the machine off of one of the piles of gems. The bike flew, and with a terrible crash, exploded against one of the several columns along the foyer. As the fire and smoke cleared, all that was left was a flying draconequus playing yo-yo with a oversized spork, “Because Sarlaka, where's the fun in that? You winning goes against everything I stand for!”
“You told me to do it! You said that the 'chaos will be splendid'. And how is destabilizing an entire nation not chaotic!?”
“Tisk, tisk, tisk. And here I thought you of all beings would see the big picture. See, you were doing exactly what I told you to do, but too well! Chaos is a wonderful thing, but even in chaos, you need to find a proper...” he thought to himself for a second, before eating the spork yo-yo in a single bite, “balance.”
Sarlaka glared, “What do you mean?”
Discord turned away from Sarlaka, “Lets put it like this, my precious little dragon lord. Right now, I have the power to turn off gravity, turn the sun into cotton candy, or maybe even turn the ground into chocolate pudding! Can you imagine how brilliant any of those pranks would be? The delightful screams of ponies, zebras, griffins, and all the others would be everywhere at once... but then they would all be silenced forever. Where's the chaos in nothingness? I mean, I guess you could argue that nature without ponies would be chaotic too, but that's not a fun kind of chaos.”
Sarlaka narrowed his eyes, “I seriously doubt after what the late Night Princess did to you that your power could even come close to performing any of those feats.”
“Oh, you'd be surprised at what I can still do.” Smiling, the draconequus turned towards the dragon, drinking something from snifter glass. With a snap of the fingers, he turned Sarlaka's entire hoard into piles and piles of stuffed pony toys, “Anyways, what if instead of doing any of that, I set up a bunch of evil, intelligent, greedy, and downright ruthless rulers for various territories I draw out, make sure they all hate each other, make everypony's living conditions barely livable, and let them do whatever they want? Now that game is downright hilarious! Sure, chaos is sacrificed for a little bit of order, but in the long term, the possibilities are endless. I mean just think about it: villages exterminated, crops burned, entire civilizations brought to their knees by civil revolts over and over again! Why, its a wonder I didn't think of this earlier!”
The dragon took one last look at what remained of the many piles of gemstones before he looked back up at the God-like creature that was in front of him, “What do you want?”
Discord rolled his eyes as he reached into the snifter, and the remaining liquid turned into a sock puppet that looked very similar to the purple dragon. “What do you want, what do you want, what do you want,” the draconequus mocked in Sarlaka's voice. Lowering the puppet, he smiled, “Really? You are that forgetful? Its not what I want from you, my draconian loon, its what you want from me!” His smile remaining steady, Discord snapped his claws. A sparkling flash bloomed from his talon, and with a smile, the creature tossed an object that had appeared.
“Is tha'...” Applejack, flabbergasted, whispered.
Pinkie whispered back, “The Element of Honesty...”
“How did he get a hold of it? I mean... I don't...” Twilight stuttered.
“I guess that explains how Sarlaka was going to get at least one of the other elements,” Rarity slightly nudged Applejack.
Sarlaka caught the piece of jewelry, and after inspecting the artifact, looked back up, “Where is the Element of Loyalty? The deal was on giving me both of them.”
“I am altering the deal. Pray I do not alter it any further,” Discord's voice was deep as he looked at Sarlaka with a frown on his face. A few seconds went by before the God of Chaos smiled again, “Besides! This way is far more fun!”
Sarlaka gripped the necklace in his claw, agitation on his face, “How is any part of this fun? I need those elements.”
“You see! That's the best part!” Discord disappeared, only to reappear sitting on top of Sarlaka's head, his feet dangling down just between the dragon's eyes. For a moment, Sarlaka was cross-eyed before he stared off into the distance. Smiling, Discord continued, “Its like a game you see. You obviously need the elements for something? So that got me thinking: why would Lord Sarlaka 'the Butcher' need the Elements of Harmony?”
Discord teleported again. This time, he appearing just in front of the dragon's head, his arms crossed, “He must be trying to get the Elements of Harmony to their bearers so that they can use them on me.”
Sarlaka chuckled, “Please. You are the embodiment of chaos sure, but even you aren't that insane. I was the one who told you that the bearers had fallen into my lap. Besides, you know what I am planning, and why I need all six of the elements for it.”
“Yes yes. You've told me how you were going to make sure that the bearers of the Elements were not only killed, but removed from existence forever, ensuring my dominance of this world until the end of time, yaddy yaddy yadda. It's a very sound plan, however, there's two problems with it. The first, is a certain yellow pegasus mare.”
Sarlaka raised an eyebrow, “Kindness? What do you mean?”
Discord floated down, and strangely enough, actually acted like a normal, nonmagical creature for longer than a few seconds, “You see, when I was on my way over here, I saw a pegasus flying in the direction of your cave. Naturally, I was surprised, and when I took a look, I realized that the lone pegasus was very familiar to me: Fluttershy.”
The god of chaos bent down, and out of the thousands of pony dolls, pulled out one that looked identical to the real Fluttershy. Holding the doll up to his face, he smiled as he combed the toy's tail, “It was somewhat interesting really, a mare like that on her own, its like-”
“Wait,” Sarlaka interrupted, “she's alone?”
Rarity tensed up next to Applejack as Discord continued, “Why yes. The mare was all by her lonesome, a risky move even for the most combat ready stallion I might add. Of course, from the way she was frantically flying and the way that she kept dipping in her flight, it didn't look like she had much of a choice, but that is all besides the point.”
Discord approached Sarlaka and held out the Fluttershy doll in his clenched paw, a maniacal grin on his face, “What's stopping me from ripping her out of the sky right now?”
“Because,” Sarlaka sighed, “the plan that you just said that you remember-”
“Do I really look like a guy with a plan?” Discord grinned wildly, and the doll he was holding burst into flames, “or at least one that ever followed one in all of his existence?”
To that, the dragon didn't say anything. The two parties, as well as the four ponies, were silent for several seconds as the God of Chaos let that final implication stew in their minds. Several times, Sarlaka looked like he was trying to voice some sort of opinion, some sort of rebuke, or even some kind of snarky response. Each time, however, the dragon stopped short, and remained silent. The only movement in the room on the other side of the portal was the heavy breathing of their dragon host, the flexing of the dragon's free claw in agitation, and the flames that burned the Fluttershy toy.
“Still,” Discord smiled, the fire around the toy suddenly going out, with no apparent damage against the toy in the slightest, “if you were trying to usurp me, I should at least give you a fighting chance. Don't you agree? Hmm? So here's the deal, not only will I let the pegasus live, but I'll also give you the Element of Honesty as we agreed on as, as well as letting you keep... her.”
Sarlaka looked down at Discord, the draconequus tiny compared to the dragon, “And the Element of Loyalty?”
Discord teleported right up next to Sarlaka and nuzzled his cheek in a mockingly affectionate gesture, “Not quite yet, but no worries, I'll give it to you when the moment is just right. The only thing I ask is that when I give it to you, you let me watch you deal with those six ponies, at least as long as you are intending on remaining loyal.”
Chuckling, the dragon smiled, “And if I’m not loyal?”
The God of Chaos sank down slightly, so that he was now running a single claw down the purple dragon's scaly neck, slowly inspecting the various wounds and tears in the nearly invincible scales, “Then the moment I give you the element will be marvelously entertaining to say the least. However, I do ask you of one additional thing in return, my most favorite lord.”
“Oh, and what would that be, my omnipotent ruler?
A second later, Discord somehow wrapped his right paw completely around the dragon's thick neck as he violently grabbed onto the dragon, lifted him off of the ground completely, and with a sudden surge forward, slammed the dragon into the back wall, causing the entire mountain to shudder under the impact. Applejack jumped at the sound, the shaking nearly sending Rarity onto her side. Slowly, the chamber stopped rumbling, and with the exception of a few fallen shelves close to them, Pinkie and Rarity were alright. Applejack didn't bother checking on Twilight before she peered back into the portal.
Neither party had moved, Discord because he was finding joy in the new activity, and Sarlaka because of the paw firmly against his neck. The dragon's head was forced to face straight up because of the angle he was braced against the wall in, and after he let go of the necklace in his right foreclaw, he tried to blindly get a grip with either of his claws on the small creature that was choking him to death. No matter how much he tried though, every time that he would come close to gripping Discord, the draconequus would easily dodge the lumbering attack, the monster smiling the entire time he was slowly killing the dragon. If it was possible, Applejack could have sworn that he was Sarlaka's purple face turn a shade bluer.
“Applejack! Help me!” Rarity whispered as she was holding an enraged Twilight back, the lavender mare was somehow holding the scrying portal in place as she attempted to burst through the door in front of them. Quickly, both Applejack and Pinkie joined in on the grapple, but even with the three mares working together, it took all of their strength to hold Twilight back. Tears streamed down Twilight's face as her eyes glowed white, and while Applejack had heard stories of the unicorn's power when the mare was completely unhinged, she always feared seeing that kind of immense power firsthoof. It was only the mare's habitual sustaining of the dozens of wards and spells that kept her from blowing the three of them away in a fit of fury.
After nearly three minutes of holding the dragon to the wall, Sarlaka stopped trying to get out of the death grip, the dragon's foreclaws going limp, his wings unfurling under their own weight, and his eyes rolling into the back of his head as he started to lose consciousness. Discord, still smiling in glee, dug one of his talon's claws into one of the deeper wounds the dragon sustained two days prior, the pain pulling the dragon slightly out of his stupor. Pulling himself closer to the dragon, the draconequus smiled wider, “My favor is simply to have fun, no matter what you decide to do.”
The draconequus laughed, and with a snap of the claws, he teleported away, leaving Sarlaka to limply fall to the ground. Furthermore, the transformed pile of toys turned back into the previously luxurious hoard of assorted gems. A split second later, and the mares released the struggling unicorn from their grip, and Twilight burst through the door in front of her, all of the spells she was maintaining dropping, and tore through the foyer towards the dragon. The other three mares followed at a trot, and watched as Twilight galloped towards Sarlaka, and in the last few steps, skidded to a stop right next to his face. The mare, still panicking, looked into Sarlaka's eyes as she looked for some kind of response.
Twilight leaned up against Sarlaka's cheek with her forehooves, and with all of her strength, nudged it, “Please wake up. Please? Don't do this to me,” the mare cried, tears streaming down her cheeks.
There was a muffled groan in response, the dragon in front of all of them cracking open a single eye in response to the persistent shoving. Still not entirely alert, Sarlaka's only movement was a single claw reaching out in front of him. The object barely in his reach, he gripped the Element of Honesty, and brought it close to his chest. Slowly a small grin formed over his face. “You know, its rude to spy on others,” the dragon coughed.
Through tear soaked eyes, Twilight let out a single chuckle, and hugged his snout as tightly as she could, “You stupid stupid dragon. Loyal to the bitter end.”
“If you say so, though I don't feel very loyal for keeping you girls out of the loop.”
“Umm... Sarlaka...” Rarity kicked the ground a little bit with a hoof, “I don't want to ruin the mood, but what was that about when you said you had some kind of... plan for us?”
Still grinning, Sarlaka raised himself up slightly, moving a foreclaw so that he was comforting the grief stricken lavender unicorn in front of him, “Some stupid story I made up for that accursed creature. Pretty much any excuse I can think of to keep him from trying to get to you mares. Would've rather had him given me Loyalty's element as well, but its not like its the first complication in the plan so far.”
“Well then.” Rarity continued to kick the ground under her, “I think I owe you a sincere apology. It was wrong of me to assume that, after all you have done for us, myself especially, that you were simply going to turn on us.”
“Me too. Ah reckon tha' if mah family were with us righ' now, they'd be fussin' at me righ' now.” Applejack nodded, a small smile on her face.
Sarlaka looked down at the ponies before him, “There is no need for apologies. I am a being of many secrets, many of which can be misunderstood as... oh...”
The dragon stared off into the direction of the cave entrance, a look of dread once again on his face. Confused, the four ponies looked over at the same time, only to see the completely wrecked image of Fluttershy in front of them. Her mane was completely destroyed, eyes were bloodshot, ribs were slightly showing through her coat and skin, feathers were completely out of sorts, and her coat was closer to a large mass of tangled hairs than anything else. That wasn't even mentioning both the cracked hooves that were slightly bleeding on the rug she stood on and the horrifying gash on her left wing that had obviously been bleeding for quite some time, the mare's normally yellow coat spotted generously with red all along the mare's side.
“... Kindness?”
The five could only look as the mare in front of them trembled on her hooves, somehow standing in the face of all of the physical strains. Fluttershy moved her mouth, the mare's voice so quiet with exhaustion, that if the room wasn't as quiet as it was, none of them would've heard the three words.
“... its... Rainbow Dash...”
Her message delivered, Fluttershy lost the will to stand, and with a quiet thud, collapsed onto her right side as her body gave out. His injuries and near death forgotten, Sarlaka leaped into action, and after dropping the Element of Honesty to the ground, jumped over the four mares around him to carefully scoop up the broken pegasus on the ground. Like a child, he gently picked up the weak yellow creature, and with determination in his eyes, he looked back at Applejack and the other three, “Stay safe you four, and hide if anypony comes. I'll be back as soon as I can.”
Applejack watched as Sarlaka dropped down, and while cradling Fluttershy in his right foreclaw, he ran out of the cavern on three limbs, the vibrations of his steps on the ground slowly fading as he left the cave, until they stopped completely. For the mares, there was nothing to do, except look at the tunnel that the two just left down, and wonder what had just happened.
A/N: Enjoy the 4th longest chapter I have written to date, because the next couple are going to be shorter... unless short chapters are your preference!
A/N #2: I can't tell you how many times I messed up it's and its. Seriously. If I a few are still messed up, I don't care.