//------------------------------// // The Reveal // Story: My Little Pony: Harmony and Chaos // by AlphaToothless95 //------------------------------// Night Time, The Crystal Brighthouse For some reason, Zipp couldn’t sleep. She just had something in her head nagging at her, she didn’t know what but… she did know she had to do something about it. She gets up, puts on a grey sweatshirt and shorts and her running shoes then flys out of the Brighthouse through one of the windows. She soars high up into the sky, flying through and around the clouds for a bit before diving for the ocean by Maretime Bay. She closes her wings to increase the speed of her fall, waiting till she gets very close to the water to open them again and glide just a few inches above it. She continues to glide for a bit before flipping forward, closing her wings and using her momentum and powers to literally sprint along the water. She smiles a bit before flying back up into the sky at top speed and reaching above the clouds in little to no time at all. After just hovering in midair for a bit, she starts letting herself free fall back down towards the ocean. It actually feels good to finally have time to fly just for the fun of it again. Everything’s been so stressful lately and it all seems to be getting worse. It didn’t help that Pipp, due to clinically dying for a few seconds then being shocked back to life with lightning magic, was weakened and was having complications. Her super form helped make things easier for her but if she didn’t go through training and exercises and other things that were supposed to help her get back to peak physical condition, the complications could get worse and worse until she can’t use her powers, fight, or even sing at all. So Pipp was currently away, training with Artemis, Thunderbird, and the Wings of Equestria. Sure, they had assured everyone that Pipp was in good hands but… she was still worried… and she missed her sister already. She’s broken out of her thoughts when she remembers that she’s currently free falling and getting really close to the ocean. She quickly turns over and opens her wings, managing to just barely avoid landing in the water but she has to pull up to also avoid slamming into the beach or the railing on the edge of Maretime Bay. She bumps her foot and loses her balance a bit, starting to unintentionally fly towards the Brighthouse. She suddenly closes her wings and flips forward again to try and direct herself and right as she gets close to the ground, she opens her wings and glides a few inches above it before landing and sliding all the way to a bush next to the Brighthouse. “That… could’ve been way worse.” She says before leaning forward and sighing in relief. She just barely sees something in the bush and reaches in… pulling out a bag. She may be crazy but… this looks very similar to the bag that Misty came in with. She looks around before standing up and bringing it into the Brighthouse. She looks at the couch where Misty is soundly sleeping before walking into the basement and placing the bag on a table. “Hm…” She hums, looking towards the bag Misty brought and seeing they really are the exact same. “Misty, you just became that much more interesting.” She says before unzipping the bag she found… and finding the armor and mask of the pony that Misty was supposedly “attacked” by. “I… I knew it… Oh, you’re so done Misty. Wait till the others find out.” She says before she moves to get out of the basement… only to find out the door is locked. She’s about to break it down until she hears something and looks to see… that the bag is gone. The lights in the basement start flickering… and then turn off and Zipp tries to turn them back on but nothing happens. “Shit…” Zipp says as she readies her powers and looks around. It was now suspiciously quiet. Zipp frantically checks her surroundings, making a small ball made of lightning to create some light. She hears noises left and right and this reminds her of her fight with Ragnar when they fought in Maretime Bay. He was using the same strategy that Misty’s using now… but she wasn’t falling for it this time. As soon as she hears a noise, she sends the ball of lightning in the direction of it and it doesn’t hit anything, but it does explode, electrocuting anything or anyone near it, and thankfully, that included Misty. She tumbles over a box and Zipp takes the chance to charge at her but Misty unexpectedly gives her a kick to the stomach before using her other foot to kick her in the face and knock her away. Misty then gets up and lunges at Zipp, preparing to stab her until Zipp kicks up, making Misty fall to the side, giving her the chance to get above her and start punching her in the face relentlessly then shock her with her powers. Misty grunts in pain before stabbing Zipp in the leg with her blade, making her yell in pain before Misty punches her off. Misty then gets up and readies the magic inside the blade, glaring at Zipp. “You just couldn’t… mind your own business, could you Zipp?!” Misty asks angrily, a bit out of breath since Zipp caught her off guard a few times. “Well now you’re gonna pay for it! And the worst part? You’re dragging everypony else down with you.” Misty says and that… that angers Zipp. She’s about to charge at her until Misty sends a wave of fire down onto the floor, making a wall of fire between them. Zipp stops then glares at Misty for a bit. “I knew I was right about you… if only I had trusted my instincts! If only everyone else had, we’d have stopped you from the very beginning! So many ponies would still be alive!” Zipp shouts angrily as she paces back and forth, never taking her eyes off Misty. “Hmmm I’m not so sure. This was always gonna happen one way or another. You would wind up dead first, then your little friends and your sister. Then your mother. And it’d just be a much better repeat of what Midnight and Ragnar did to break you guys in the past… only we’d break the rest of Equestria. Piece. By. Piece.” Misty says and Zipp grits her teeth. “You know? Ragnar was right… you should definitely work on being a good sister. The rest of Equestria could really benefit from it.” Misty says before chuckling and Zipp just grows angrier and angrier until she feels the same rage she feels towards Ragnar and for a second, with help of the fire, Zipp doesn’t see Misty… she sees Ragnar. She screams in anger as lightning suddenly starts coming off of her wildly and she charges through the fire, making a sonic boom instantly and tackling Misty into the wall behind her. The tackle stuns Misty long enough for Zipp to get a few good hits in and even break her mask, knocking her to the side. “This is your last betrayal Misty!” Zipp shouts angrily, planning to do to Misty what she should’ve done to Ragnar so many times when she had the chance. Misty notices that Zipp doesn’t even really sound like herself anymore. This wasn’t the same pony she was just fighting… Zipp's changed. Well… two could play that game. Her eyes glow more and she kicks Zipp’s feet from under her and sends her blade into its whip form, making it slide under where she was gonna land before jumping over Zipp, using the magic in the whip to make it wrap around her before slamming her back and forth between walls wildly, all in one smooth move. She then brings Zipp towards her and kicks her away into one of the shelves, breaking it and making it fall on her when she falls forward. She notices the fire she started had been put out by the sonic boom that Zipp made… no problem. Misty smirks when it looks like Zipp isn’t gonna get up in time, then proceeds to make her way to the door. She puts her blade next to the knob and makes it heat up just enough to melt it so it stays locked. Just in time too as she hears footsteps. Misty walks back to where Zipp is and glares down at her. “Don’t think I forgot about your friends. I may not get to kill them yet, but at least you’ll be dead long before they realize what’s happened.” Misty says as her blade and eyes glow. Zipp tries even harder to get up but Misty stomps on her hand to reduce her movement a bit. “Don’t struggle, it’ll just make this more painful.” Misty says, slowly raising her blade. Zipp notices that… Misty looks like she’s struggling. Her arm is shaking and her face is showing signs of… hesitation. Maybe this was her chance. “Misty… don’t do this. You’re not truly a bad pony, are you? If you have any little part of your conscience left, you have to see that this isn’t right!” Zipp says and Misty's eyes widen… then narrow and she brings the blade down, prompting Zipp to close her eyes and flinch… but when she doesn’t feel anything, she opens them and what she sees confuses and surprises her. Misty is using her other hand to hold the one with the blade in it back, keeping it just inches away from her face, close enough that she can feel the heat. Zipp takes the chance to move her body so fast that she’s building momentum without Misty noticing. “I don’t… want… this!” Misty shouts, struggling mentally and physically. “I never wanted… any of this!” She shouts again, struggling even more until her eyes glow more and she yells as she steps away from Zipp then makes another wall of fire. “But… it’s too late to turn back now.” She says as she hears the others trying to get in. She uses the same teleportation spell as always to start cutting open a portal but she screams in pain and holds her head as the mental struggle continues. Suddenly, the door is knocked off its hinges by Sunny and her, Izzy, Solaris, and Sky Blazer all run in, looking around frantically. They notice Misty holding her head and Zipp on the ground, pinned beneath a damaged shelf. “Zipp!” Sunny yells, but Zipp holds a hand towards her and the others and shakes her head. “Stay back and shield yourselves!” Zipp shouts and Sunny nods and shields herself and the others just as Zipp’s eyes and wings glow. Just as Misty recovers, Zipp unleashes all the energy she built up in a powerful burst of lightning from her own body. The blast knocks Misty back into the wall behind her, also causing her to accidentally cut open a portal since her blade was still in the process of making one. Misty struggles to recover but once she does just enough, she rushes towards the portal but Zipp is right on her. Zipp yells and tackles her just as she jumps for the portal and they both end up going through it. Luckily, it only takes them to the top of the Brighthouse. They smash through the windows of the room where the Unity Crystals just happened to be and tumble to the other side, now both dawning cuts on their bodies. They could handle the pain though. Zipp looks towards her right leg and sees the stab wound Misty left already halfway healed. Seems like Opaline's magic didn’t have the same devastating lasting effects as Midnight's did. Good. Zipp gets up and glares towards Misty, who’s also returning the glare with one of her own. “You might as well give up. There’s nowhere to run.” Zipp says and Misty growls and looks like she’s about to charge forward… until she pauses and seems to look confused. Meanwhile, Opaline was talking in Misty’s head. “Change of plans Misty. Since they all know who you are and you can’t take them all on yourself, your new mission is to report back to me and fetch something for me. Next time, we’re all going to Maretime Bay and putting an end to those ponies and everything they hold dear.” Opaline says and Misty hesitates but then nods. Before she can give a verbal answer, Zipp tackles her and she uses their momentum to kick Zipp through another window and into the railing on the outside. She gets ready to send a wave of fire at her and just as she does, Sunny appears and blocks it, charging through the fire, knocking her blade out of her hands then grabbing Misty's arm with one hand and grabbing her head with the other. However, as soon as Sunny does this, she’s suddenly in the woods. She looks around and sees that it’s storming hard and… she hears crying. She looks around more until she sees a little blue unicorn filly on the ground, curled in on herself, but not just any filly… “Misty…?” Sunny asks as she steps closer. She notices the filly flinch at the sound of her voice before looking at her, showing her tear-stained face. “S-Sunny…?” The filly asks, confused and obviously scared. Sunny slowly lowers herself to be at eye level with her and Misty suddenly jumps at her… only to pull her into a hug as she cries more than she already had been. “I’m so sorry… please… please get me out of here… I can’t take it anymore…” Misty cries and Sunny frowns and hesitantly hugs her back. “Misty… I don’t understand what’s going on. WAS it you who did all those horrible things? Have you been… in here the whole time?” Sunny asks and Misty shakes her head. “Whenever I have to do something bad… I’m usually not the one in control. I let Opaline put a spell on me so I would be ready… but I think something went wrong. It would always taunt me or torment me and whenever I gave up control… it would bring me here, to Maretime Bay… or to Opaline's castle.” Misty says, shivering at the memories of whatever this spell showed her. “Usually I could decide when I wanted control back, but earlier… Opaline did something to me and now the spell is in charge… I was able to fight back and give Zipp enough time to recover, but not fully.” Misty explains and Sunny tries to think of a way to save Misty. This had to be similar to when she saved Solaris from Midnight. So if that was the case, then there also had to be… “Sunny, look out!” Misty shouts but before Sunny can react, Misty’s whip is wrapped around her and she’s pulled away and slammed through a tree. She groans in pain and looks towards her attacker… only to see Misty but she had her armor and mask on and she had a dark aura coming off of her. Suddenly the location changes from a forest to what she assumed to be Opaline's castle. “You’re not welcome! If I see you again, I’ll kill you!” 'Dark Misty' yells before pulling Sunny forward. “Let her go!” Misty yells before she tackles her dark self and starts punching her and pulling her hair until she pulls her off and throws her into a wall hard enough to crack it. “Misty!” Sunny yells, worried but also angry. She breaks free, grabs the whip and spins around with it, pulling Dark Misty along with it before letting it go and sending her into a wall. She lands on it with her feet though and seems to charge magic into her legs before jumping at her, causing a huge shockwave when she does. Sunny fires a blast towards her but she manages to maneuver her body around it in midair before kicking her in the face, sending her sliding back. Sunny recovers fast enough to duck under a wave of fire before she grabs the whip again when it’s swung at her. Sunny then charges her own magic into the whip, allowing it to combat Opaline's own magic. It continues for a bit until the whip glows more and more… then finally explodes. “Sunny!!!” She hears Misty yell as she’s blinded and sent flying. When she opens her eyes, she’s back in the Brighthouse, set down on the couch as the sun shines through the windows and straight in her eyes. She winces and covers them and slowly sits up. She feels somepony tackle her into a hug as soon as she uncovers them and recognizes it as Izzy. “Oh thank hoofness! Are you ok Sunny?!” Izzy asks frantically, looking her over for injuries… or at least ones that hadn’t been patched up after Misty’s escape from the Brighthouse. Sunny nods then looks towards the other couch and sees Zipp laying there with her own wounds either bandaged up or fully healed. Sunny tries sitting up again but winces when she feels a sudden sharp pain in her stomach, back, and a few other areas. She lifts her t-shirt up a bit and sees bandages wrapped around her midsection and sees a few on her arms. She’s about to question what happened until Izzy answers as if she was reading her mind. “Misty… She got away but not before she left a few good hits on you and Zipp. She mainly burned you and I tried using my ice powers to cool you down and lessen the burns while Solaris and Sky Blazer patched you up.” Izzy explains sadly and Sunny could tell she had been crying after everything, especially finding out the truth about Misty. Sunny frowns and gently pulls her into a hug, allowing her to hug her back and shed a few more tears. “It’s ok Izzy… it’s ok. We'll get her back. We'll fix this… all of it.” Sunny promises and she feels Izzy nod into her neck. They pull apart when they hear something and they see Solaris and Sky Blazer coming back with food and water for all of them. Zipp wakes up after a few seconds and after talking for a bit, they eat and decide that once they’re done, they need to meet up with Hitch and Pipp so they can all come up with a plan and discuss what they found out. They were gonna get Misty and Sparky back… no matter the cost. Opaline's Castle As Misty walked the halls of the castle, she couldn’t help but notice that… she was back in control but she could feel the spell lingering and struggling to take over again. Thanks to Sunny, that wouldn’t happen for quite a bit… at least not until she found a way to free herself from all this… she hopes. She stops right in front of the door to Opaline's study chamber and walks inside, seeing everyone gathered there and also seeing Sparky inside a magical bubble, unconscious… his scales lacking the same brightness and colorfulness they had before. Just by looking at him, she could tell Opaline had managed to drain quite a bit out of him already… poor little guy… he didn’t deserve this. Opaline notices her walk in and she frowns a bit before she gets straight to explaining. “As you all know, due to me being a fire Alicorn, I can absorb fire from living beings, but also control it, no matter what or where it’s from. However… before we can begin our attack on Equestria, I need something that will make this process a lot easier… and I know just the thing.” Opaline says before using her magic to create an illusion of a stone with ancient markings and symbols carved into it. A second illusion is created after a few seconds, showing a staff with a red crystal in the top of it. “The dragon stone and the dragon lord staff. With these, I’ll easily be able to absorb the fire from every dragon all at once and make them all fight for me. With dragons on our side, we will be unstoppable.” Opaline says before chuckling evilly. “So prepare yourselves. Later… you’re all going to the dragon lands.” Opaline says before dismissing them to allow them to come up with a plan and walking out. While the others are forming a strategy, Misty looks at Sparky and feels so much regret and guilt. None of this was right… she knew that… and now she was finally gonna do something about it. “I’ll get you out of here Sparky… somehow… but if I’m gonna help you… I can’t do it on my own.” Misty thinks, knowing exactly what she had to do. She silently makes a promise to herself and to Sparky…. The same promise that her friends had all kept in the past… That she’d do her part… hoof to heart.