Chapter 22
Well, never thought my day was going to go like this. Not only has some weird pony lizard deer thing, just randomly appeared to ruin everything, but he seems like he’s going to get away with it.
At first, it seemed like Sunny and Loony had a plan to stop this jerk. It was bare bones, but still a plan, relying on a few civilians with skill sets seemingly unrelated to the task. However, from my current position, being forced to stare at the floor by my precious Loony, it feels like it may have been a complete failure. Shocking, I know.
It took me a large amount of effort to tilt my helmet up towards the chimera, Loony still apparently unwilling to look at him. What I saw was quite puzzling. Discord, the omnipotent chaos being, from the look on his face appeared to be almost disappointed. However, he did still have that malevolent smile. “Wow… if I’d known how much of a slacker you two had become, I’d of spent more time with your little friends.” Oooo, too soon.
Off to my side, Sunny still held her stoic expression. The only sign Discord’s remark had affected her, was a slight flick of her right ear. Is she trying to think of a plan? I hope so.
Relaxing my pull, Luna again returned to looking downwards similarly to her sister. Wonder if she looks as resigned? Maybe I can check somehow. With little else to do, thanks to this weird stalemate, I focused on looking inward. Upon success it was pretty shocking to be staring into Loony’s eyes. They didn’t look stoic; they didn’t even look resigned. They actually appeared to be filled with a fury I’ve never seen before. Should have known from the heat of her face something was up.
Thinking about the look on her face got me to pay more attention to the rest of her. While she may have outwardly appeared submissive, her muscles felt tightly coiled as if preparing to do something, especially those in her wings. Okay, it’s probably a good thing I’m concealing Loony’s form so much, otherwise Discord might have continued to egg us until Loony did something reckless.
After paying a little too much attention to my wearer, I returned to viewing the outside world and the apocalyptic threat it held. Said threat, appeared to be playing with a yoyo apparently waiting for something to happen the same as me. Wish this was how our distraction played out, then we’d have won for sure.
Sadly, all good things come to an end and Discord decided enough was enough, raising a paw in our direction with a tired expression. “Well little princesses, it appears time grows short and my disloyal subjects need some one-on-one time with me. If you’re done, maybe you can serve as my new gardens first ornaments?”
At the statement, a subtle shift occurred in Loony’s posture, causing her legs to bend even more. She then slightly tilted her head towards Celestia who quickly looked back. In unison, both sisters nodded at one another, before staring turning back to the dragon thing.
It took me a moment to connect the dots, but when I did, I put every bit of effort into helping Loony with her next move. At once, she violently lifted her wings, while I tried to jump as high I could. Loony’s follow up flap had us rocket straight through the already teleported chimera’s position and continuing towards his new one outside the castle.
From Discord’s slightly widened eye’s, it appeared he was actually taken by surprise, but not as much as when a solid blast of golden light collided with his chest.
After a slight tumble, the chimera snapped causing a large sign with an 8.5 to appear within his grip. “Well Princesses. You get an 8.5 for that attack. The cooperation was exceptional, but the results were a bit lacking,” Discord laughed out. The crazy weirdo is probably ecstatic we’re attacking him. This does not bode well.
Celestia quickly flew up to join us, as determined as when she faced the changelings. Already lighting her horn for another attack.
Loony didn’t turn to greet her sister and instead simply said two words, “Eclipse, boost.” Oh damn, that’s me having to do things. Okay, just like we practiced. With admittedly a small amount of hesitation, I began sending magic into the pegacorns wings. For a moment, I felt a smile grace her lips as we were propelled towards our enemy.
This time, the lizard couldn’t quite click fast enough, seeing as we probably breached the sound barrier, allowing my shoes to smash into his stomach and knock the wind out of him. Loony wasn’t done however and continued flying in a straight line for a good twenty seconds. All to the tune of Discord’s laughter.
I was about to suggest we do something a little more effective, when the moon suddenly shouted, “halt!” Give me some warning! The moment my magic stopped flowing, Loony let go of the creature and focused on bringing us to a safe stop. Discord however maintained his momentum and hurtled towards the ground. To likely everyone’s disappointment, instead of smashing straight into it, he hit a cake shaped like a tree which bent unnaturally before flicking back up, launching him into the air like a catapult.
When Discord came to a stop he whistled in an impressed manner, before waving at us. “Now isn’t this more fun?” Well, at least Loony managed to get us out of the city. No ponies are going to be collateral damage, no matter what happens. Still, he looks completely unscathed and we’ve left Celestia behind.
In response to my worry, a golden flash occurred to our right, followed up by a sudden intensifying of the sun. Sunny had teleported to us with her horn already ablaze and was doing something with her celestial object. To be honest, I really wished she hadn’t cast whatever spell she had, as it took a monumental effort for me to just hide my mist from it’s burning touch. That being said, the effect it had on me was mild compared to the effect it had on the area below Discord. The grass appeared to die while the trees just immediately combusted. Wow, Celestia could really ruin me if she wanted.
Discord on the other shoe was a different story. Simply putting on a pair of sun glasses seemed to suffice in preventing the expected third-degree burns.
“Erm Sunny, can you try something else?” I shouted. This is probably helping him against me more than anything else so far.
To my surprise, it was Discord who responded first quickly snapping his talons, while saying, “it is a tad bright out today isn’t? Don’t worry, I’ve heard it’s going to rain soon.” As he spoke, pink clouds began to form above us, blocking the sun in it’s entirety. That would have been great if they hadn’t started raining that same sticky brown liquid as before, drenching both princesses in the stuff. Well, this is disgusting, or it would have been if Loony hadn’t decided to lick a few drops that had dripped through my helmet. Mmm, sweet stuff.
From across the way Discord shouted, “does that sweeten your disposition?” Before casually grabbing a pink cloud to munch on. He really thinks we’re just a joke.
With the newfound cloud cover, Celestia’s horn winked out before she looked apologetically in our direction. She then quietly said, “the longer we distract him, the less chaos our little ponies shall have to endure.” Hold on, is the plan still to hope the elements somehow come through? Wow, we are so screwed. At least we now have his full attention, until he turns us into something anyway.
In contrast to the hopelessness I felt for the situation, Luna valiantly shouted, “’tis over fiend, thou cannot defeat our harmony.” Well, you’ve got to give Loony credit for doing her best in a bad situation.
“Defeat you? Why would I want to do that?” Discord replied in mock surprise. “It’s been so long since we’ve danced.”
To highlight that fact, he snapped causing a black tux to appear upon his form before doing a couple dance moves in the air. These dance moves just so happened to coincide with a simultaneous blast from the sister’s horns, causing both beams to miss their intended target.
“Honestly, why do I bother? You two are just so boring and predictable. You’ve even dragged my new friend into your little crew,” he said, while shaking his head disapprovingly. The chimera then rolled up his new found sleeves, before saying, “seems like I’ll have to step up our game a little quicker if you’re just going to spoil it.”
For the first time since the fight began, Loony had a shiver run down her spine, before again bravely charging forward. It was well warranted, as the hybrid lifted a claw in our direction and snapped. Let me tell you, there is a lot of magic in those snaps. When his strange spell hit me, and by extension Loony, I couldn’t help jerking my limbs in an attempt to push it away, while losing almost all focus on anything but the attack. There was so much magic, it took me a good few seconds to absorb it all and when I returned to the land of the living, Loony’s flight had lost a good few metres of height. Not only that, but almost my entire external surface was now covered in black flames. Seems I couldn’t absorb it all in one go.
“Eclipse! What art thou doing?” Luna was basically repeating in a panic. Probably due to the fact she could only now once again use her wings and was partially on fire.
“Sorry, I’m trying my best.” I complained, before turning our head around in search of the fiend. “Did we get him?” Really should stop asking that, of course we didn’t. Loony was to busy avoiding hitting the dirt.
A familiar cruel laugh echoed behind us, prompting Loony to spin around. There was Discord floating outside of a giant golden bird cage in the sky. “Aww, look at the little canary,” Discord goaded a clearly irritated trapped Celestia.
“You have not defeated us yet,” Celestia said back, while charging her horn.
Seeing her sister in trouble, Loony began flying back towards the two with her hooves outstretched. “Eclipse, thou must pull thyself together. Our sister needs us.” In the process she eyed the fire curiously. I’m so glad this isn’t burning her. Maybe I can angle them? Just before we reached our enemy, the layer of flames that coated my form was easily moved to my fore shoes. There, hopefully that’s useful. That fireball might be a tad overdone.
“Oh, these birds have such a beautiful singing voice. I wonder if the other one is just a pret…,” Discord didn’t get chance to finish his sentence, as our inferno engulfed him. For the first time the snake cried out in pain, as Loony held onto him. He then responded as he had to most other threats and snapped. This time with him in such close proximity, I managed to absorb some of the magic. When I say some, I mean some, which was enough to prevent the teleport, but the backlash caused us to lose hold of the creature. As we spun apart, I started to absorb the remaining flames into myself. Can’t let magic go to waste now.
“That… hurt. Lulu, that wasn’t very polite,” Discord said, in a more strained version of his jovial voice. It was the first time Discord had actually appeared to see us as a threat. That probably isn’t good. Another snap had the lizard wearing a fireman’s outfit with a water hose in his grip. “It seems someone needs to call the fire brigade,” he said, while unleashing the water hose upon us.
Seeing how close he was to us, there was no way Loony could dodge and there wasn’t time for a shield. Thus, we were blown out of the sky and propelled at full speed into the ground, landing awkwardly on Luna’s side. An audible crunch with a spike of pain, enlightened me as to a negative impact on Loony’s health. That and the scream she let out. That was quite the giveaway.
As the pain seemed to be distracting my friend, I quickly stood us up and readied for another assault. In the process, I found Loony’s left wing was hanging limply at my side, dragging along the ground as I stepped. Seeing that as a problem, I grabbed her wing with more mist and folded it within my chest piece. That gained me another cry of pain from the pegacorn. “Sorry, Loony.”
“Nay, ‘tis necessary. Our wing would have been a hinderance,” Loony said reassuringly, while attempting to rub her now concealed ruined wing. Seeing as we were now a wing down, I reformed my misty wings into the metallic feathered ones in the hope of better protecting the remaining flesh one. Wish I’d done that earlier. One day I’ll have to ask Loony to train me for these situations.
A loud pop signified the arrival of our enemy and he appeared much more irritable than earlier. “Where’s your cage? I designed it special to be all night themed and everything. No matter, let’s try again.”
Another snap followed quicker than I could react, once again dropping me into my little pit of magical torment. This time I only spasmed a little, producing a smaller quantity of flame and Loony even managed to keep us pointed defiantly at the attacker. Discord’s eyes narrowed at our continued freedom followed by yet another snap, followed by another and another.
The continuous magical assault was too much for me and I couldn’t help seizing up and convulsing with each additional snap. Part way through one, I was sure I heard Loony call out my name, while attempting to blast Discord. It was hard to tell, as by that point we were now on the floor, while I had to fight off this insane barrage.
“Please, do not fall now,” Loony cried out, while struggling to stand back up.
“It hurts Loony,” was all that escaped my mouthless helmet.
“We are sorry. Thou hast to hold on, We cannot do this without thine assistance,” She followed up remorsefully.
At one point, it seemed almost better to give up, but mercifully the flow of magic stopped, allowing me to once again experience the outside world in all its horrifying clarity. “Oh, thank goodness, it’s over.”
“We shall both make it through this,” Loony said, while standing ready to again assault the overgrown lizard.
Said lizard, was by now positively livid at the apparent lack of his magic’s effectiveness and had begun poking accusations at us. “Well, I can’t believe this. First you stop my fun and now you cower behind my good chum. Do you alicorns have any honour at all?” Hey, the only cowering has been done by me, leave Loony out of it.
“Eclipse is our loyal protector. He would gladly stand by our side, as I would his, against any who threaten us. He would never befriend one such as you,” Loony shouted in response through what felt like teary eyes. It seems my spasming didn’t really help her injured wing all that much.
In response, Discord raised his claw in our direction once again, causing me to cower brace in fear preparation. At the last moment he lowered his claw before saying, “Is that so?” The creature then decided to spin around us, while giving us an appraising look, even taking a picture. “Well, your new armour is positively dashing. You’ve set a new fashion trend today and I think I might just pick up something similarly protective. Can’t have you upstaging me. I’ll be right back.” He then clicked, causing a golden zipper to appear in his grip, before flying up into the sky.
I would have gladly fallen over at this point and watched that chimera fly away if it wasn’t for Loony’s determination. As he flew, she began galloping as fast as she could, trying to keep below his position. Mid gallop she desperately asked, “Eclipse, hast thou recovered?”
No, “a little. Maybe you should take a few minutes to recover, while he does his eccentric thing?” I replied. If the lizard wants to help us waste time doing a wardrobe change, that’s fine by me.
“Nay We cannot, our sister is in peril,” Luna said with apprehension. As she spoke, her head was not pointed at Discord, but his destination. The golden cage that housed Celestia. Oh, damn it. Give us a brake man. “Dost thou have the strength to get us up there? We know Discord has injured thou.”
Maybe? “Sure, I think I’ve got this.” With my confidence lacking remark, we left the ground and began steadily floating towards our comrade.
“Thou can do this. Our sister is counting on us,” Loony encouraged, all the while continuing to kick her legs, probably in the blind hope that it would somehow help. Who am I to rob her of hope?
In the distance, the golden cage started to steadily get larger faster, while Discord got smaller. He was able to float way faster than me. To be fair, he’s been floating a lot longer than me. His increased speed, resulted in the snake reaching the cage first, which rewarded him with the chance to dodge numerous arrows of golden light. This only delayed Discord for a moment, as he expertly serpentined between each shot, before opening the cage to likely attack one of the few friends I had.
An impressive jet of flame rushed out of Discord’s entry point, rapidly followed by a call from Celestia, “Lulu! I need you!”
The sound of Celestia’s peril and the continued encouragement from Loony, actually seemed to help me get to a decent speed. As a result, it wasn’t long before the two of us reached the cage’s door. What we found made me wish I’d decided to pass out on the dirt when it was possibly an option.
“Sister we are here for thou,” Luna shouted with determination, before also faltering at the scene.
The cage held no sign of Discord and only had Celestia, which you would think would be a comfort, seeing as the goal was to save her from the beast. The reason why this wasn’t comforting in the slightest, could have had something to do with the familiar golden zipper Celestia was casually zipping up, present upon her back.
“Sister?” Loony asked cautiously, while slowly stepping forward. My shoes tinging lightly on the metal cage with each step.
In response, Celestia turned around to face us wearing a disturbing smile. What’s more, her usual kind, purple eyes had taken a sinister red colour with a sickly yellow tinge instead of white. She then stood up and stretched, while Loony for the first time took a nervous step back. It was Loony’s hesitance that finally summoned Sunny to speak in an entirely uncharacteristic tone, “What’s the matter dearest sister? Fairs fair, isn’t it? You cannot hit me and I cannot hit you.”
The realization that Discord had somehow possessed Sunny, seemed to stupefy my wearer into inaction. To be honest, I wouldn’t really have known what to do either. Anyway, Celesticord took full advantage of Loony’s surprise, by lighting her horn and firing a golden blast, which Loony only attempted to dodge at the very last minute. Seeing as it was definitely going to hit us, I unfurled a metallic wing and held it in front of us, deflecting the blast away. The usual pleasant taste of Sunny’s magic, was sadly marred by what can only be described as having my tongue severely burned. Needless to say, but ouch.
Celesticord’s act of aggression, was enough to break Loony from her funk, causing her to cry out, “leave her alone!” Before we started to gallop straight for her, or is it him? Anyway, seems Loony is perfectly willing to fight the serpent currently donning her sisters form, despite Discord’s assumptions.
Rather than repeat Sunny’s patented Solar blast once more, Celesticord reared up on her hind legs and clapped her front hooves together. A familiar powerful magic rippled out across the golden cage, incidentally causing the surface we were running on to disappear.
For a moment, Loony continued galloping in the air like something from a cartoon, before gravity decided it once again existed. We only managed to drop a couple metres, before I got my act together, preventing any further descent.
Above us, Celesticord had put on a pair of sunglasses, before asking with her horn a glow, “So Lulu, doth thou wish for a free sun tan?” After her statement, Celesticord’s horn went out and she stood fully upright in a manner completely unpony like. That’s got to kill her back legs. The possessed pony started clearing her throat, “sorry, got out of character for a minute. How does it go again? Oh yes, friendship, harmony, sharing things. Sister, would you like a free sun tan? Ha, see that? I was born to play this role.”
Loony, once again stared at the display and cheerlessly said, “Discord, this is not a game.”
To help reinforce her words I followed up with, “look, your actions are actually hurting people. Doesn’t that matter to you?”
“Sure it is. All of life’s a game. My little ponies are just too boring to see that,” Celesticord said, while conveniently ignoring my words. Her constant malicious grin suddenly seemed to increase as a thought crossed her mind, “Say, how about a real game to remind you of old times?” With that, she once again tapped her hooves together causing a wide flat surface of black and white checkerboards to appear.
Now this looks familiar. It’s almost like that chess board from Sunny’s room. Not only that, but we appear to be standing in the king’s position. Is he going to make us play life sized chess? Suppose that’ll be a pretty long distraction. Hopefully taking the king doesn’t result in death. This will be one of the parts I highlight to Sunny when explaining how terrible being the distraction is in combat, if she’s okay anyway.
Rather than joining me and Loony on the board, Celesticord chose to float further upwards, landing upon a sun lounger that just happened to be floating there. “Ah just like old times, ey?” she shouted down to us. “You know, I always wanted to spend more time with you,” casually revealing Celestia’s desires.
Instead of willingly playing Discord’s game, Luna asked, “Is it possible for thou to get us up there?”
“Sure.” I made it to the weird bird cage in the sky, so why not a floating chair? That is if I don’t get shot at or something. To my dismay, it wasn’t shots fired from Celesticord that halted my progress, but the strange properties of the board. As we gained more than two metres of distance, the board began to rise with me, while Discord’s chair floated higher. This kept me perpetually within reach of the board and out of our prey’s. “Erm, sorry,” I said while awkwardly landing.
“It cannot be helped,” Luna bitterly said, as she began taking a few steps forward across the board.
“Ah, ah, ah. Lulu, have you forgotten the first rule of chess? The white pieces move first,” Discord admonished after sipping a cocktail she just so happened to be holding.
“There aren’t any other pieces,” I shouted back.
“Oh, my mistake,” Celesticord said, clicking her hooves together thanks to my big lack of a mouth. A line of statue pawns appeared that resembled the day guard occupying the opposite side. They then each started to advance on our position.
“Thou art breaking thy own rules Discord,” Loony shouted “Thy pieces are taking more than one move and we have none of our own.”
Celesticord just laid back on her chair at that and casually said, “Well the rules might need mixing up a little. Chess isn’t very realistic. Now, you two have fun, while I catch up on my tan.” The sun’s brightness seemed to slightly increase with that final declaration, which really made me want my own sunglasses for everywhere.
“Loony, what should we do?” I asked. The only idea I could come up with, was to jump off the side of the board. That could possibly get us away from the death game, but wouldn’t save our precious Sunny.
“For now,” Loony said, while pawing the ground, “We play the game.” Well, this is just great, how do you play chess with one piece anyway?
Luna seemed to know, as she immediately began galloping across the eight square wide board towards our enemy. Simultaneously her horn lit up and fired a beam through the centre two pieces vaporising the faux guards in their entirety.
In response, each of the advancing pawns started firing small blasts from their stationary heads. Now this is a major rule change.
The ranged attacks of the pieces might have taken me by surprise, but they didn’t Loony, who easily dodged around the slow-moving, tiny bolts before smashing into the left most group of pawns. This action shattered the middle of the three and gave me a chance to shine. Unfurling both metallic wings, I swung out at both pawns, cutting each in half. Whoops, may have made those feathers sharper than I thought.
Across the way from us, three pawns remained. Each one was steadily making their way towards our starting edge, while continuing to fire upon us.
If some of the old rules remain, they might level up! “Don’t let them reach the end!” I called, while blocking a stray low power shot. “Huh, these projectiles taste pretty good.”
Luna probably didn’t really need my encouragement, as she’d already started traversing the distance. Upon reaching them she neglected to slow down, crashing into the closest pawn and using her momentum to push all three off the board’s edge.
“That wasn’t so bad,” I couldn’t help saying, as Loony peered over the edge at the plummeting pawns.
“’Tis likely not the end of Discord’s game,” Luna stated, as a distant snap was heard. Me and my big lack of a mouth, ruining the moment again.
This time only two chess statues appeared, one in each opposing corner. The first resembled a very determined apple pony and the second an excited party one holding a balloon. Seems they’re mimicking the value Celestia has for real ponies. Does that mean the elements are way better than her actual military forces?
My form suddenly violently dived to the side, breaking me from my musings. The two apparent rooks, had begun rapidly moving across the board in our direction and Loony had only just managed to avoid a hit. As she recovered from dodging the Pinkie, she fired a beam at the charging Applejack. This met its target, succeeding in causing it to change direction and chipping it slightly. We weren’t hit, so that’s a victory in my book.
“It does appear that our adversary has stepped up their efforts,” Loony observed, once again narrowly dodging the caricature of Pinkie. Taking the opportunity, I decided to try and damage the next rook by holding my tail in its path. As Luna expertly dodged the Applejack my tail caught it and I managed to wrap around it once.
The moment I had hold; Loony was suddenly violently pulled backwards to the sound of scraping metal. It’s a good job her own tail wasn’t involved or she might have been a bit cross with the sudden hair loss. Instead of being cross, Luna tried her best to anchor us in place, while I simultaneously constricted and drained the chess piece. Cracks quickly started to form on Applejacks likeness and it wasn’t too long before it’s attempts to move away resulted in its top half shearing from the bottom, thus rendering it inert.
“Excellent work,” Luna congratulated, while watching our remaining adversary move into position ready to charge. “Prepare thyself for a second round.”
“Righto,” I said getting ready along with Loony. Hopefully these things are pretty dumb.
Luckily, Pinkie’s likeness appeared not to learn from Applejack’s demise and continued to charge towards us. This time Luna decided to ignite her horn, producing and icy path in front of the piece simultaneously to her last-minute dodge. This meant when my tail caught the statue, rather than having it drag us backwards, I was able to pull the Pinkie piece over. The moment it hit the ground; Loony decided to stamp the statue into dust, rather than wait for me to slowly crush it like last time. Each to their own.
She then turned to look back at my now free tail, which prompted me to wag it at her in acknowledgment. That gained me a half-hearted smile, before we again turned to the opposing board edge. “We believe ‘tis now time for bishops, yes?” Luna then said, while giving Celesticord’s chair the side eye.
Celesticord had apparently gotten board of our game and was now playing an apparent solo game of table tennis, somehow using the sun as the ball. Celestia must be hating this.
Anyway, Luna’s assumption was proven true, as two more chess pieces materialized. One of Twilight reading a book and the other of Rarity pointing a dangerous tiny sewing needle.
“Should we try the same strategy?” These pieces don’t behave that differently to the previous on a real chess board. They both move in straight lines, just one moves diagonal while the other moves vertical.
“Only if their actions permit it. A creation of Discord could do anything,” Loony replied, while this time waiting for the bishops to make their move and make a move they did. Same as with the rooks, they moved across the board rapidly, just diagonally, but what was puzzling was how they didn’t move towards us. In fact, they both moved to opposite corners of the board, as far from us as possible.
Before I could wonder as to what the animate objects were thinking, both statue’s horns lit blue and purple, before firing individual projectiles at us. I lifted a wing as before, but Loony was already ready and dived forward, dodging both bolts in the process.
“See Eclipse? ‘Tis always best never to assume when it comes to combat,” my wearer schooled while heading towards the Twilight piece. I’m pretty sure she was working off of an assumption a few seconds ago. Suppose it doesn’t change the fact she was right.
While I internally debated if Loony was applying the mid combat education she had provided me, she’d almost closed the gap between the Twilight statue. I felt a familiar charge of magic in her hooves as we were about to enter striking distance, which immediately dissipated when the bishop sped off in the opposite direction.
A frustrated yell followed the fleeing piece along with a dark blue blast, which bounced off of a newly formed purple shield.
“Can thou drain magic from a distance?” Luna asked, again dodging a volley of large blasts from the two distant pieces.
“I’d have to touch them, I think.” She probably wants me to disable their shields. Shame I have no way of increasing my range. Wait a second, maybe I can? A quick look to my metallic wings gave me an idea. “Just try to get as close as possible, I’ll give it a shot.”
Getting near these things is a feat easier said than done. The high-powered projectiles they periodically fired, coupled with their tendency to retreat will probably make for slow progress. Nevertheless, Loony, after dodging a volley, immediately bolted towards the nearest of the two statues, which just so happened to be Twilight.
As she ran, I readied my makeshift idea, loosening the connections between some of my outer most metallic feathers. You’d think it would be pretty difficult to do at a dead sprint, but I technically wasn’t doing anything allowing my work to complete by the time we were three spaces from Twilight. The irritating pony’s statue, as previous, sensed our threatening closeness and made an attempt at escape.
Just as it started to move, I unfurled my left wing and violently flicked it forward while disconnecting my feathers. This resulted in effectively a shotgun blast of about twenty metal projectiles that went every which way. Twilight’s bishop put up a shield as it did to block Luna’s magic, but this time it was markedly less effective. Seeing as half the ones that collided with it passed straight through embedding in the piece bringing it to a halt, while the other half bounced off after shattering it.
Luna wasted no time rushing the piece, as I debated the attacks effectiveness. Huh, that was pretty good, four on target. Probably shouldn’t use that when collateral damage is a thing. Then again, most of the feathers that missed are just floating five metres away. What a terrible range.
“Is thy wing salvageable?” Loony asked after dispatching what remained of Twilight. It was then I realized my vision had been filled with my now mostly bare wing. Seems she thinks I damaged myself.
“Yeah,” I said while pulling my floating feathers back to me. I then presented my fully reformed wing, which immediately took a light blue energy blast. “Owww. See good as new.” That smarts, probably should refrain from distracting Loony like that.
At the moment the projectile made contact, my wearer turned to our one remaining aggressor and this time made a steadier approach. This allowed her to more easily dodge the identical shots. Once we were within four meters of our target, Loony stopped and stood ready. Seems the statue only starts to retreat at three meters. Well, there Luna goes, winning with assumptions once again. Taking our stationary position as my que, my left wing once again flicked out throwing the same projectiles.
With the stationary position, a whole five of my feathers made contact disabling the chess piece. Before Luna could again inflict retribution upon the thing, my fifteen floating feathers gave me an idea. Do they have to fly back to me? A further Four direct hits into the statue’s back answered that.
Rather than pulverizing it like the first, Loony just pushed the now inert piece off the board’s edge. “Who would have thought, our bejewelled wings held such useful tools,” Loony said once again moving to the boards centre. “Can We also use thy throwing knives?”
“I’d need some warning.” Then again, if they were already loose maybe she could throw them similarly? “We’d probably need to practice a bit.” There isn’t really time to do that now, the final representations of the element bearers are already materializing.
These two statues consisted of a mid-flight Rainbow and a Fluttershy hiding behind an angry rabbit. “These magical constructs are quite frustrating,” Luna said under her breath, as both took to the air, moving two spaces before slamming down with a magical blast. As with the previous bishops, the knight’s blasts seemed to contain an even larger concentration of magic.
After witnessing another move from the pieces, Luna decided to make a move towards them. “Erm, Loony. These ones only seem dangerous up close, maybe staying back is the best idea?” I tried to advise. That is my actual job after all.
Rather than following my idea, Loony moved us to within four spaces of the closest piece. “These creations have a simplistic attack pattern,” Luna began, as the Rainbow Pegasus flew into the air. “Prepare thyself, We shall need to be quick.” Wait, what’s the plan again? I must have missed something.
Once the statue landed, causing a blast wave ending just beyond our position, Loony jumped forward and gripped onto the piece. “Eclipse, drain this creation!” she commanded.
“Okay!” no need to yell, I was already doing it the moment we made contact. The welcome snack was abruptly cut off, when my wearer decided to jump off of the piece a moment later. I would have protested, if the second piece hadn’t immediately landed on top of it a moment later, crushing it flat.
Without a pause, I suddenly found myself tightly gripping onto the second statue, wait sixth statue. Consuming Fluttershy’s magic became my new focus. “Hurry Eclipse,” Luna said breathlessly, as it began lifting into the air.
“I’m trying my best. Maybe we should jump?” We could just jump back on the thing after it lands after all. No point risking being blown apart. That probably wouldn’t be too bad for me, but Loony is probably a lot harder to glue back together.
It seemed my worries were unfounded, as the constructs excessive magical supply seemed to suddenly stop. Thus, causing the piece to fall, with us still attached, to the board below. When it made contact instead of causing a blast, it shattered. Really felt like that thing had more magic than that. Above us, Celisticord had taken a moment to stop playing around with the sun to look at us. I swear she winked at us, before returning to her messing with sun, now changing the glowing orb to various different colours.
“Just the prince and princess to go,” Loony said, gasping for breath. All this running is probably taking a toll.
“Yay,” I responded dryly, while reviewing her plight. Maybe more magic would help? Sending her an increased level of magic seemed to noticeably reduce her exhaustion, aiding her in preparing for the finale. Well, the finale of this part of Discord’s games.
The next materialized piece immediately offended my wearer. “That does not look anything like us,” she growled at the lone chess piece. What appeared was a much taller version of Loony, with dagger sharp teeth and slitted eyes, wearing what I would say is inferior armour. Just saying. Suppose Discord is trying to mock us a little bit.
A distant voice called down to us, “Well Loony, maybe you should look in a mirror.”
What’s that supposed to mean? Before I could vocalize the thought, our doppelganger opened fire with a wide blue beam as dark as Loony’s had become. Despite her irritation, my wearer was still on the ball and dived to the side of the blast. This only delayed the inevitable, as the beam was constant and only took a slight alignment change to collide with my wing barrier.
As it continued to burn against my wing, I tried to instinctively move out of the source of pains way. This was met with the same failure as Luna’s dodge and only succeeded in putting Loony off balance. She did however try to rectify my situation by igniting her horn and producing a blue shield, blocking the attack.
“Thanks Loony,” I couldn’t help saying in newfound relief.
“Do not thank us yet,” she responded through gritted teeth. Her shield began to crack under the persistent barrage.
“Oh, sorry.” Really should continue to help. Ignoring the blistering pain in my side’s, I began feeding more magic to her horn specifically. Glad I’ve had so many chances to snack.
Immediately, her shields colour darkened, followed by the cracks steadily receding. Best of all, Luna seemed to stop straining to maintain the shield. For some reason she even started to laugh in quite a worrying way. She then stopped smiling and began pulling more of my magic herself, causing the shield to push in the construct’s direction. “Have at thee, swine. We detest thy appearance.” Luna remarked, as the shield met the constructs own. The two shields seemed to battle it out before the enemies finally failed. With nothing stopping it, our shield pressed further until Luna’s faux mirror image fell from the platform.
“Huzzah, we are victorious,” Luna shouted happily as her horn winked out. Maybe all that magic’s going to her head? We clearly haven’t won anything.
The sound of hooves clapping together interrupted Loony’s revelry. For some reason, Celesticord was applauding our victory. “Well done Lulu, now for your reward. Let’s make it night time,” the possessed mare grandly proclaimed. A large dial suddenly appeared next to her, which she carefully adjusted. As it clicked down, the suns position rapidly shifted from midday, to afternoon until finally it ended at midnight. “Ah, now you get to gloat about getting what you want,” Celesticord finished, while leaning back on her chair. Let’s hope they stay up there until the hopefully still living Twilight returns.
“Thou should not mess with our moon in such a way. The scheduled day is sacred,” Loony shouted up to her not sister. Good thing she probably wasn’t paying attention to what was happening to the sun earlier.
At my wearer’s shout, Celesticord sat up in mock shock and said, “by jove, your right. How can we raise the moon if you haven’t even won the game?” I’ve got a bad feeling coming on. “I mean, what’s a game of chess without the king?” Please don’t come down here.
Paying no heed to my silent pleading, Celesticord jumped from her cloud and landed gracefully upon the board. “So Luna, do you think you can checkmate me?” Celesticord said, as she attempted to pose similarly to the previous chess pieces.
Luna’s horn started to glow dark blue for a few seconds, gathering a large quantity of my magic, before it suddenly went out once more. The overwhelming return of my borrowed magic was a bit of a surprise, but not as big as what Loony said next. “We cannot possibly fight our sister, she would not wish to harm us,” Luna said a little shakily. Seems the reality of the situation might be dawning on her.
Seeing her distress I tried a little pep talk, “you know as well as I do, that she’d want you to do whatever was necessary to save your people.” She’s probably thinking there’s no way we can knock out Discord. To be honest, I don’t really have any idea how we are going to pull this off.
Looking to her sort of sister, Luna asked, “what would it take for thou to let Our sister go?”
Luna’s question caused our adversary to pause and put a hoof on her chin in thought. “Hmm, I’m not sure. As with all my unplanned acts, this little spell of mine has so many fun opportunities. I mean, whos’ going to question the words of the almighty sun horse?” She then smiled at us before charging her horn, “Anyway, does this bring back memories of the good old days, when the two of us didn’t quite see eye to eye?”
After narrowly dodging the sun, Loony shouted, “thou hast never been an ally of ours.”
A mock tear fell down Celesticord’s cheek, “Are you trying to hurt my feelings? We were getting on so well.” This guy really wants to get under Loony’s skin. A stamp of a hoof summoned a wall of fire behind us, before abruptly following the Moon, forcing us to run.
There has to be a way we can attack Discord directly. My magic absorption might do something, but he’s probably got so much spare I’d need to hold on for an age. That’s time Loony clearly doesn’t have, made clear by another wall of fire coming from the other direction. Maybe I could try to get myself onto Celesticord somehow? I made a sigh escape my wearer at my terrible plan. Well, it’s worth a shot.
“Oh Lulu, I thought you were fitter than this,” Celesticord laughed at my wearer’s plight.
Without breaking her stride Loony shouted back, “it takes a while to get back into the swing of things.”
As Luna was being herded around, I formed a hinge down the back of my chest piece and a seem on the front. That should make my removal easier. Now how to get Luna near to my corrupted friend without the plan being revealed? Luckily, it seemed the fire walls were on my side in that regard as Loony was being steadily forced to approach the jester in Queen’s clothing.
“Eclipse, dost thou have any ideas?” Luna called desperately as we neared our foe. Her horn was ignited in preparation for a spell.
“Just the one.” And it’s the new dumbest idea I’ve ever come up with. Even worse than that time I jumped out the window in Griffonia. Okay, I can do this. It won’t go horribly wrong.
Just as we got into what was hopefully range for my attack, Luna let loose one of her own that collided directly with Sunny’s forehead. All it did was cause the pony to squint for a moment before yawning slightly, “a sleep spell? Come on Lulu, you even said it yourself. The day isn’t over yet.”
With Celesticord hopefully slightly debilitated, I had my chest piece spring open before throwing it in her direction. She didn’t even try to move as it clamped over the top of her own. In fact, Celesticord gained an incredibly large grin.
“What art thou doing!?” Luna shouted into my helmet, as my leg armour accidentally tripped her over. Seems she was going for a drive by sleep spell. “We beseech thee not to abandon us!?” she continued as I removed my leg armour. Once her legs were free, Loony attempted to hold onto my helmet with her hooves. “Discord shall not take thee as well.”
“Loony it’s part of the plan,” I said, while trying to pull off my helmet. Hmm probably need to stop Celesticord removing my chest piece. Removing the hinges seemed like the best way to do that. To be honest though, it was entirely unnecessary.
Celesticord, in her infinite wisdom, decided to remove her own shoes and casually put mine on. “Oh Luna, forever the Loony from the moon. Did you really think ol Eclipse didn’t want the freedom I can offer?” she gloated as I began draining her strange mix of magic. Hopefully I can avoid stealing Celestia’s.
On hearing my new wearer’s words, Loony loosened her grip on my helmet, allowing it to return to me. It also gave me a decent view of her, which was both disheartening and interesting. Disheartening because her wing once again hung limply at her side and her now red slitted eyes seemed on the verge of tears. The interesting part was the rest of her form. Not to mention the eyes, her fur had changed to almost jet black, while her height had increased to above that of Celestia’s. Whoops, seems Discord had a reason for saying we needed a mirror.
For a moment, she looked pretty defeated before managing to pull herself together and bare her fanged teeth at my wearer. An act that didn’t really seem to intimidate Celesticord in the slightest, as she smugly approached Loony. Wow, I thought Luna was strong, but I can’t even slow this guy down. Is this how Celestia feels right now?
“So, dearest sister, would you like to join me as well?” Celesticord asked while emphasizing dearest sister. “I’ll even let you keep the moon up as long as you like, provided I can do the same with the sun. Can’t have chaos without witnesses after all.” As Luna took a step back, she continued, “Come on, wanna be my Queen? Now that would confuse everyone.”
“How dost thou propose We could be Our sister’s Queen?” Luna asked, clearly biding for time.
“Oh yes silly me. How can you have two Queens on one chess board?” My wearer said as if it were an afterthought. She then sat back and raised her front hooves, “it’s okay ol sissy will sort it out for you.”
Okay, I’m ready, I’m ready, I’m not ready. The clapping of her hooves caused that same massive build up in energy, which I tried my best to absorb. The incredible sum of summoned power, though slightly less than earlier, still overwhelmed me and probably would have had Loony collapse under my involuntary twitching. Celesticord on the other shoe, didn’t even notice. Well, she did notice when nothing, but a small poof of confetti left her hooves.
She then quickly looked at her forelegs before a feeling of warmth occurred on her face. “Ahem, well that usually works,” She began in an embarrassed tone, before becoming apologetic, “seems you can’t live out your fantasy of dating prince Solaris.”
I’m a little ashamed to admit it was a little amusing to see Loony stick out her tongue in disgust. She’s probably having some horrible images in her brain right now. Whatever was crossing her mind seemed to pass quickly, as she suddenly rallied. “We may have lost those closest to us due to thy wickedness, but We shall never stop fighting for them,” she proudly proclaimed, once more preparing for Discord’s next move.
“Wooow, is that because you’re so used to them abandoning you that it no longer hurts?” Celesticord began in mock sympathy. “As your apparent friends would say, Luna you really are a Loony.” This is really ruining my nickname. It was supposed to be endearing not insulting.
I couldn’t wallow in guilt for very long, due to the sudden build-up of magic within Celestia’s horn. Right, battle stations. This time the magic tasted like Celestia’s own and was much easier to consume. Really hope Sunny has some magic left after this. Luna for her part, barely flinched as a small puff of smoke escaped my wearer’s horn. She even started to smile slightly. Hopefully that means she knows I’m trying my best.
Celesticord was the only person who seemed surprised and even then, it was only a little. “Celestia really is a temperamental pony. Sometimes she’s this all powerful being capable of anything, other times it’s like poof, nothing. It’s almost like she’s only as powerful as the plot demands,” she began musing to herself. She then turned back to Luna while raising her hooves, “no matter, you’ve lost your little hostage so…”
At the clapping of her hooves, Lulu again winced as another burst of magic was sent through me. This time, there wasn’t any outward sign at all that magic was cast. Seems I’m getting a little better at this, or hopefully Discord’s magic is decreasing. There’s still a constant stream of it coming in thou. I’d be afraid of getting fat if that were possible.
Seeing the confused look on her sister’s face, Lulu taunted her, “Whatever is the matter Discord? Dost thou not enjoy the feeling of thine mortality?”
“Oh boy, you trixie alicorn. You’ve gone and got some other macguffin haven’t you? What is it, the elements of nature? The one ring, no not that one. ooo ooo I know, is it a set of ruby slippers? Come on, you have to satisfy the curiosity of an old draconequus,” Celesticord rattled off in an amused tone. This really is a big joke to him. He doesn’t even care when things don’t seem to be going his way.
“’Tis nothing special,” Lulu began while inspecting a hoof, “We are just utilizing our greatest weapon.” Hope she doesn’t think I’m that good at this.
“Well, it is really something, but it does seem to be causing you some issues,” my wearer pointed out. This was when I noticed the chess board we were standing on, high in the sky, had started to crumble. Oh no, this isn’t good. Should I stop draining his magic? If I do that, he might get stronger again. What to do, what to do? Wish I could just possess this guy, but that doesn’t seem to have happened.
Celesticord waited for Lulu to inspect her damaged wing and laughed the moment she uselessly flopped it about. “Oh Loony, seems your plans are crumbling beneath your hooves.”
Luna took a moment to review her options, before looking at us in trepidation. I really don’t know how to help. Luckily, Luna knew exactly how to use my help. Just as the crumbling chess board reached her hooves, she leaped forward and grasped us around the neck. This resulted in the three, I mean four, of us floating in mid-air under my power. Fearful Discord would throw Luna to her death, I floated as fast as my mist could carry us to the surface, for an approximation of a landing.
It seemed however; I needn’t have worried about Celesticord murdering my best friend. She didn’t just let Lulu hold on, but actually held onto her as well. Seems he isn’t that evil.
Once we neared the ground, Lulu pushed out of our grip causing me to lose focus and drop myself onto my back unintentionally atop a giant cake. “You know Eclipse, you’re quite the handy fellow to have around when things go wrong,” Celesticord began, while picking up a slice of the cake. “However, you aren’t half restricting, especially around the rear. Is that how Loony likes it?” she finished while easily kicking her legs in the air against my will.
Okay, how to play this? “Oh, I’m really sorry. I was designed with a smaller pegacorn in mind.” There is no way he’s going to buy me just changing sides.
“Ha, pegacorn,” Celesticord began, before standing on her rear legs and reviewing her stomach. “Hmmm, it does appear, I’ve been packing away the cake, doesn’t it? Oh well, no sense in stopping now.” The slice of cake she’d picked up quickly disappeared into her mouth before being spat out as wood chips. “Seems this cake isn’t quite done. Meh, I’ll never get what ponies see in plants.” Celesticord continued dropping the once cake, tree branch to the ground below.
Our once stable cake platform soon followed the slices lead, returning to that of a regular tree. As my wearer was apparently too distracted with the cake, she failed to regain her hoofing causing us to promptly fall to the ground below.
After brushing us down, Celesticord looked up to the waiting Lulu with a slight gulp. “Well, it seems I’d best be leaving. It’s been fun Loony,” she said while starting to casually walk away, “but I must be off. Say hi to my subjects for me. Hey Eclipse, what do ya think we should do later?”
A sudden weight upon my back caught Celesticord’s attention and prevented my reply. “Thou will not take our family. Celestia has suffered thy transgressions long enough,” our newest passenger shouted into our ear.
She remained our passenger for all of a few seconds, as Discord’s superior strength practically shrugged her off. Still, she’d made it obvious that she wasn’t going to give up. “Hey, I may look like it, but I’m no beast of burden,” Celesticord complained before sighing, “seems we’ll have to handle this the old pony way. Put em up.” She then began shadow boxing the air in front of my friend.
For the longest time, Luna just watched us fight the air in front of her face. Clearly the wild swings at nothing were pretty confusing. Maybe she’s waiting to see if I take Discord out myself?
That assessment proved wrong, as Loony suddenly lunged out when she perceived an opening. Allowing her to immediately knock us onto our rear. Forever the drama queen, Celesticord then rolled onto her back letting her tongue flop out, before declaring, “oh no, I’ve been slain!”
“Thou may think this is funny, but thy defeat has already occurred,” Luna sighed out, “if Our sister is freed, We may be more lenient in thy sentencing.” Huh, offering an olive branch? Suppose she’s trying to follow in Sunny’s hoof steps as well.
A distant sound had Celesticord’s ears prick up and a large grin began to form on her face. “The game isn’t over yet. There’re still more players.”
“Told you guys the Princesses were over here,” came the call of a familiar Rainbow maned pegasus. Behind her five more familiar mares were running to catch up. Well, look who it is. The cavalry, shame they’re way too late. At least they aren’t dead I suppose.
“Princess, we’ve got the elements, where’s… Discord,” Twilight said in a more and more unsure tone as she took in the scene. Oh dear, this doesn’t look great. To her, Celestia has been beaten up and Luna’s got some weird magic affecting her. Saying that, her fur has started to lighten up a bit more, I’m glad that isn’t permanent.
Before Luna could great the element bearers, Celesticord jumped to her hooves, “Excellent work my faithful student. Now quickly, you must banish my sister. Discord’s magic has corrupted her.”
“WHAT!!! The nave lies, she is the one taken by Discord. Do not use the elements,” Lulu said in desperation. She started taking steps towards the newcomers, but they started to back away in fear.
“That varmint has probably cast a spell on em both, the same as he did us. Twi, whats the plan?” the orange farm pony asked urgently. This does look pretty bad. Not to mention Celesticord’s attempts to make it look worse.
“Woe is me that my sister, my own flesh and blood, falling to the dark once more. You were supposed to destroy chaos not join it. Bring harmony to our ponies, not leave them in discordance. Loony, you are my sister and I love you, so it pains me greatly to ask the elements to banish you,” Celesticord rattled off. During the entire speech, her eyes never left the strange crown Twilight was now wearing.
The group of our apparent saviours just looked between the two bedraggled sisters in confusion before gathering into a group huddle. They’re probably discussing who’s the real princess.
As they began discussing, Celesticord turned to Luna, who was glaring daggers in our direction and winked. “Do not try it,” Lulu warned the desperate draconequus.
The warning fell upon deaf ears, as I was suddenly launched at the group of ponies. Straight towards Twilight’s head. We would have made it if it wasn’t for Luna somehow managing to get in between us and bucking my helmet with some force. Really hope that didn’t get through to Celestia. Brain damage isn’t something I’d wish on anyone.
Twilight’s huddle quickly dispersed, as her mother landed once more on the ground and refused to get back up. “Wow Loony. I was starting to think you didn’t have it in you,” was the last thing Celesticord said before resting her head on the ground.
“We are sorry sister, but thy ordeal is almost over,” Luna said remorsefully, while approaching our prone form.
“Celestia! Luna, you can’t do this,” Twilight cried out, while her comrades gathered together, “I know this isn’t you, we’ll help you.” It was then that I became aware of the new jewellery each of the other mare sported begin glowing.
“Wait, We are not corrupted. See for thyselves,” Luna pleaded with the mares.
Okay this is worth a shot. “Twilight wait, I’m the one Discord has taken. Let me try and escape.” I managed to speak through Celestia. The confusion again returned, but the elements quickly pointed at me instead.
Right, maybe we can save Celestia now? Discord does seem incapacitated. To the surprise of the watching mares, I carefully removed my chess piece and fore limbs from Celestia revealing the golden zipper. Hopefully this works like any other zip. Using my mist, I grabbed it and pulled, creating an opening within my friends back within which a brown furry body could be seen. To surprised gasps, I managed to pull out the hidden draconequus within.
“Awww, that was fun while it lasted, but to be honest I could do with another thousand-year nap,” came the now tired voice of Discord.
After a moment of stunned silence, Twilight tilted her head and simply said, “Eclipse?” Obviously, who else is a suit of armour?
“Twilight, Celestia still needs help.” I called to her. If they are Equestria’s elite, they can arrest this guy.
“Right, girls you know what to do.”
The seconds steadily ticked by as the girls charged up their gem weapon. Is this going to send Discord back to prison then? In answer, a strange bright light emitted from the six of them and hit my prisoner. It took quite a lot of effort not to try and eat it, as the magic within looked amazing and for some reason, weirdly familiar. When the blinding magic had finished and I’d only eaten a small amount, the draconequus was once again trapped in stone.
“Is… is it over,” came the quite words of my wearer, “I can’t move my rear legs.”
“That’s because you have a statue in them,” I said while struggling to free my wearer. “Glad to see you’re okay Sunny.”
“Yes, though if even Discord is going to call me fat, I may have to consider that diet Luna wants me on,” Celestia said tiredly, before turning to her daughter, “Thanks girls. Without your brave actions, Equestria would have been doomed to an eternity of Chaos.” I like to think I helped too. A throat clear from Lulu showed she felt the same way. Still, she got Celestia’s attention, “Sister, what happened to you?”
Luna at this point had dropped to the floor in exhaustion, likely due to carrying our entire offensive against that chaos spirit. “We are just tired Celly; our wing will be fine.”
“Not that, your fur, it is like when, when you first left me,” Celestia said in a quivering tone. Seems having a chaos spirit mess with your head is what it takes to break Celestia’s composure.
In response, Luna looked over her now just slightly darker fur and appeared to run her tongue over her teeth. She then eyed my helmet for a moment before looking down at Celestia. “Do not worry sister, the discordant magic effecting us appears to be wearing off,” She replied. Ah, at least she doesn’t blame me for that. “Now we must take thou to the hospital.”
“And you, your wings broken after all,” I interrupted, before she tried to stand up.