With determination in his eyes, Arrow sought to put a stop to Discord. Originally, Arrow just wanted answers, but now, Discord was dangling the knowledge Arrow so desperately craved just barely out of grasp. Like how a child torments animals with food from behind a glass wall. But that glass wall would be broken in due time, especially now that Discord had come into view. Discord was going to be a tricky foe, so Arrow would have to stay 2 steps ahead of him.
“Well, it took you long enough.” Discord remarked, “I was just about to get back to pestering those ponies.”
“You cannot defeat me!” Arrow boasted, “Tell me what I want to know and I will spare you.”
“You? Think you can defeat me?” Discord laughed in a mocking tone, “That pride of yours is only rivaled by your anger. You would make a great addition as one of my beasts of chaos.”
Discord coiled around Arrow, like a serpent that would devour its prey. Raising his griffon claw into the air, Discord poked the top of Arrow’s head in an attempt to brainwash him with chaos magic. When that didn’t work Discord was honestly surprised, there wasn’t any creature in Equestria that was immune to chaos magic. Discord tried again and again, before he accidentally impaled Arrow(?) with his claw.
Why is there pillow stuffing inside an owl?
Suddenly a white puff of smoke revealed the true form of the thing he was trying to brainwash. It was a green plush toy that vaguely resembled a dinosaur.
“Take this! Peck!” the real Arrow cried from above Discord.
Hurling down towards Discord like a meteorite towards the earth, Arrow slammed himself into the back of Discord’s head. Rebounding off of his own attack, Arrow readied himself to counter whatever Discord was preparing.
Discord rubbed the back of his head, where a knot was begging to form. “I expected you to be an easy opponent. I guess I thought wrong.”
Meanwhile, not too far away, the bearers of harmony had all returned with the elements of harmony and were heading as fast as they could to stop Discord.
“Discord! We have come to put an end to your reign!” Twilight yelled at the draconequus.
A bright flash of light appeared, forming a clone of Discord in a referee outfit. “I’m sorry but you’re going to have to wait your turn.” He said, “As you can see I am very very busy at the moment dealing with a Grudge Match against a sentient owl. Though it shouldn’t take too long.”
The Discord clone snapped his fingers making a ball cap and flag appear that both said ‘Discord #1,’ but the text was printed upside down. “Go me! Wooo!” the Discord clone yelled as he waved his flag in the air.
“So, um,” Fluttershy stammered, “so what are we going to do now? We’re obviously not allowed in there right now.”
“I say we stay here and watch the fight.” Rainbow dash said, “If we can’t be a part of the action, then we might as well watch it.”
“And I even brought popcorn.” Pinkie said as she passed out bags of popcorn to all her friends, somehow she had also acquired a ball cap and flag that both said ‘Go Arrow!’ with an arrow piercing the word ‘arrow’. “Go Arrow! And make sure to kick his flanks!”
Taking advantage of his small size, Arrow dashed in between each and every attack Discord threw at him. But it was only because of Arrow’s sheer force of will that he managed to keep up with the draconequus. No matter how much Arrow dodged, Discord didn’t seem to be tiring out at all. Perhaps it was time for Arrow to switch up his strategy to be a little more aggressive.
“You’ve done well so far, but let’s see how you fair against this!” Discord channeled his chaos magic into lightning
“Behold, Ominous Wind!” Arrow summoned a bone chilling gust of wind that managed to deflect the lightning enough so that only the weakest part of it struck him, but it still hurt far more than what anyone could have described it.Having regretted taking such a powerful foe head on, Arrow fell to the ground barely able to move.
“Looks like I’ve won,” Discord cheered, “You should’ve really considered bringing back up if you wanted to fight me, especially with the state you are in.”
“You haven’t won anything yet,” Arrow growled as he threw himself back into the air, “Ominous Wind!”
Mustering all of his remaining strength, Arrow launched his most powerful attack and struck Discord down to his very soul. The air that emanated from him had grown into a sinister purple hue, with the stronger parts of the wind looking like dark purple streamers. When he had used this attack something at the very core of Arrow’s being had activated, luring the dark purple streamers towards him. Oddly enough, a feeling of restoration washed over Arrow as the streamers wrapped themselves around him, making a solid barrier between him and the outside world.
With terror in his eyes, Discord had become paralyzed with fear as he tried to assess the situation as the menacing winds continued to blow. Discord could tell that with each passing second Arrow kept growing stronger without ceasing. When he thought Arrow’s strength finally capped, bright beams of blue light pierced the cocoon making his power skyrocket.
Having new found strength, Arrow broke free of his cocoon and realized what had happened, he had just evolved into a Dartrix. At first Arrow was a little worried if Luna would even recognize him, but he didn’t have time to worry about that right now. Discord was still his target and Arrow was more than willing to continue where they left off.
“RAZOR LEAF!” Arrow fired hundreds of razor sharp leaves at Discord who was too terrified to move
After sustaining such a powerful attack, Discord collapsed to the ground “I surrender.” Discord summoned a white flag and began waving it with his lion paw.
“If you want me to spare you, then you will restore my memories.” Arrow demanded, “You were the one who erased them, were you not?”
“I wish I could, but the only way for erased memories could be recovered is with time,” Discord explained, “but there is no guarantee with that.”
“Then could you tell me what my name was from my previous life?” Arrow asked, “If nothing else, that is the least you owe me for what you have done.”
“Your old name was Astraeus, which was soon shortened to Astreo.” Discord said, “You were originally brought to Equestria as a young human child, and Luna gave you that name when you said you didn’t have one. That is everything I know about your life before we met, I swear on it.”
Arrow watched the Draconequus, looking for any indication that he could be lying. Even if that name was Arrow’s old name, it wouldn’t help him immediately recover any of his lost memories. Maybe Luna would know a little more about this, because if what Discord said was true, then she gave him that name. But despite all this, Arrow had a nagging feeling that there was still something off.
“I see,” Arrow said as he prepared to return to canterlot, “If what you said is true, then I am grateful for your help, despite what you have done to me.”
When Arrow's back was turned, Discord created a red boxing glove around his lion paw. Once Discord saw the right moment to strike he threw a spring loaded punch at Arrow, transforming his entire arm into said spring when he punched. Knowing that something was up since Discord surrendered, Arrow turned around and grabbed Discord’s boxing glove in his talons.
“Hey! Give me that back!” Discord yelled as he tried pulling back on the spring
“Okay.”
It was at this moment that Discord knew, he messed up. Arrow released the glove from his grasp, sending it hurling towards Discord’s face. The collision that transpired wasn’t pretty, Arrow even winced when he saw Discord K.O. himself. Deciding that it would be best if he started making his way back towards canterlot castle, Arrow spread his wings and took off. Leaving the unconscious draconequus to be turned to stone by the six ponies who bore the elements of harmony.
On his way back to Canterlot, Arrow finally had a moment to admire his new evolution. For a long time Arrow wasn’t sure if he could evolve because of his previous life as a human. It was a long flight before he arrived at Canterlot castle, it was about an hour before nightfall. After Arrow squeezed back through the window he flew out of this morning, which felt significantly smaller than when he was a rowlet, Arrow heard Luna pacing back and forth while Celestia tried calming her down.
“Luna, please! Arrow will be fine.” Celestia said, “He is probably on his way back right now.”
“But what if he gets lost? Or gets captured by rare bird hunters?” Luna asked, “Or worse.”
When Arrow found Luna pacing back and forth down the hall, she was obviously quite worried about Arrow. It was cute how much Luna cared for her little owl friend, even the point of getting scared when being separated from him for a long time.
“Kroo.” (I am back, Luna.) Arrow said as he flew towards the lunar princess
“Arrow? You’re back!” Luna said excitedly, before she recoiled at the sight of the blue two toned owl, “Arrow, what happened to you?”
At first Arrow was going to say something, but he quickly realized it would be much harder to explain then he initially thought. “Brr.” (I don’t know.) Arrow shrugged.
Luna looked concernedly at the large owl before she pulled him into an unexpected hug. “I’m just glad you're alive, I don’t think I could lose another friend.”
As he stayed within Luna’s embrace, Arrow thought about what Discord said. After some time, it was finally time for Luna to raise the moon and bring forth the night. Even though there were so many questions Arrow wanted to ask, there was not enough time left in the day to ask all of them.
Getting ready for bed, Arrow looked at his old bird stand. While he thought he could’ve made himself fit on top of it, it didn’t look comfortable because of how much smaller it seemed because he evolved. Looking at Luna with an unsure expression on his face, Luna couldn’t help but giggle when she saw his predicament.
“Well it looks like we have a problem,” Luna joked
“Mhmm.” (Oh really?) Arrow sarcastically responded
“We can fix that later, you deserve some rest.” Luna said as she picked up the owl and carried him to her bed.
It had been quite some time since they both shared a moment like this. As tranquility came upon them, Arrow snuggled into bed with Luna as they both drifted to sleep.