//------------------------------// // My Harmony // Story: Eljunbyro // by Imploding Colon //------------------------------// I was dragging thunder through the clouds, flying faster than screams, and yet I could already hear his laughter as I closed in on Ponyville. I headed towards it, my heart palpitating with the raw memories afforded me by the harmonic link. I hoped that it was just a delusion, a fantasy inflicted upon my spiraling mind just like his curse had done. When I reached those golden thatched rooftops, and when I looked down upon the center of town, I felt the air around me distorting. Before I knew it, I was braking in mid-air, my wings threatening to rip off. I had no breath to give; all of it was dragged out of me in a mute scream. There were five piles of ash, conjoined with the brittle metal filaments of royal pendants that no longer existed. There was a sobbing sound. I looked down past a floating chunk of chaotic rock to see Spike. The little whelp hugged his legs to his chest, rocking back and forth. He wore the pendant—the only pendant—and its glinting shine burned through my soul. I watched his slitted eyes stare through a brimming curtain of tears at one ashen pile in particular, blowing away in the wind like a lavender cloud. Then I heard laughter, heavy chortles of deep bass hilarity. I looked across the holocaust to see him standing tall, a hand held over his hairy chest as he spat further guffaws out from his muzzle. "My my... how interesting!" he said in a chuckling tone that shattered me to the core. "Unexpected, but interesting!" He turned and blinked towards me, his red on yellow eyes crooked and amused. "Oh! Hello! Fancy meeting you here. I'm afraid you've missed one heck of a show!" Ash and grass kicked up in a straight line towards him as I landed on the ground with a vicious slide. "You!" I shouted as loud as I can. I had to hide the shaking in my voice. I had to. "You bring them back!" "What?! Bring them back?!" Discord laughed even more. "My little fruit fart, I can't rightly bring back what I didn't destroy! It's your benevolent horse queen's friendship laser that did the unthinkable!" He frolicked upon the outskirts of the unmarked grave. "If you have a bone to pick, take it up with her. She's got several of them—bones, that is. She seems to be rather short of friends lately. Hmph—Maybe you two can keep her company now?" "Nnnngh!" I hissed, feeling the veins tensing up along the edges of my face. "You friggin' monster! I'm gonna—" "What?" He gazed at me with bored eyes. "Wonderbolt me to death? Make me twenty percent deader?" Lethargically, he examined one of his talons. "Face it, buckaroo. That ship has sailed; the Elements of Harmony are no more. Granted, if all they could do was destroy themselves, then I doubt they would have posed much of a threat to me anyways—but who's keeping score? Certanily nopony you care about. And if you wanna keep that list from becoming even smaller, Angstbow Dash..." He folded his arms and smirked. "Then I suggest you back off from a fight that you know your little ol' self is bound to lose." I looked at him. I fumed and fumed. My hooves scraped the ground. He raised an eyebrow. I was galloping away from him and towards Spike. The dragonling gasped as I snatched the pendant from his neck. "R-Rainbow...?" He stammered. "Twilight. Our friends." He sniffled and choked. "They're... They're..." I didn't listen to him. I didn't think. I swung the pendant over my neck, coiled my wings, and shot straight up in a prismatic blur. Down blow, Discord was tilting his head up. "Hmph... She chose to be cowardly over stupid. Guess the world's a lot more chaotic than I thought." The dragonequus shrugged his shoulders. "Oh well! Plenty of centuries left to improve a masterpiece!" That said, he began "skating" across the center of Ponyville towards some unknown destination. "I think I'll start by turning every squirrels' tails into edible tofu—" There was a gigantic, thunderous salvo of noise directly overhead. Discord gasped, reeling off his rear limbs as a huge flash of light emanated above. He looked up, having to squint, in time to witness rivuleting bands of color spreading towards every horizon. In the center, hottest of all, was a blue shape hurdling down towards him. I gritted my teeth, sailing earthward like a missile. Pockets of air exploded behind me on several occasions. I curled my ears back, deaf to the cacophony I was making. My ears teared, fogging the image of the monster at the last second. I pulled up. "Aaaaugh!" he shouted, nearly being thrown off balance as my swooping dive ripped a literal swath of earth out from the ground. He regained his footing in time to shake a fist at me. "I don't know what you're trying to accomplish! But it could stand to be less noisy—" Thunder exploded into his side; I had spun around for a return sweep. Flying in long arches, I came back around again and again, buzzing by him faster and faster. The force of my velocity was ripping the air into a vortex. Soon, he couldn't move, for a tempestuous cyclone had formed around his body. Gnashing his teeth, I saw him preparing to snap his talons. I flew even closer and rammed into his side before he could even contemplate teleporting. "Ooof!" He stumbled onto all fours, struggling against the wind to stand up. "Okay! This is starting... nngh... to get really annoying, pony!" I had no response. Only speed. I sped over the rooftops of Ponyville. I sped over the chaotic destruction he had wreaked. I sped over Spike's shivering form and the ashes of my dead friend. The distorted air around me heated up, and the vapor trail solidified with a colored streak. First it was blue, like my coat. Then it shimmered with lavender. Soon gold and violet joined the mix, along with green and pink. A bulb of light pulsed beneath my neck. The Element of Loyalty was coming to life. I paid it no attention. I paid nothing any attention. I was anger, I was purpose, I was sorrow. I was harmony. "Mmmmf!" He hugged himself, imprisoned by the blurring winds that solidified brighter and brighter around him in mesmerizing color. He opened his eyes, and his red pupils shrunk. "No!" he shouted into the maelstrom. "No! Impossible! The Elements! They are destroyed! They're gone! Finito!" I gnashed my teeth, spinning at an endless curve. My right wing pulled at its sockets, begging to rip off in the twirling wind. Regardless, I kept circling, faster and faster, until my eyes convinced me that I was seeing ghostly trails of my past and future self ahead of me. Soon, the whole world blurred into one rainbow streak, the color of the Elements, the colors of my friends, the colors of all the life that he had just robbed from me. Everything came together, and everything melted apart. I saw a brief flash of white light as the colors combined, and in the middle of that spinning crucible, I unleashed my fury. "Nnnngh-Haaaaugh!" he screamed. He twitched. He convulsed. I became faintly aware of a crackling noise. I saw a phantom sight through my peripheral vision, of an agonized dragonequus turning to stone. Not until his entire body became gray—as he had so damned me—did I finish my assault. I ended with a hideous tumble across the dirt. The ashes of my friends scattered around me. I heard Spike gasping. Looking up through my sweat and tears, I saw why. Discord was frozen. He stood like a demon statue in the middle of Ponyville. His wide eyes were wrenched in pain, and they were locked on me. I gazed at him. I lurched. I clenched my eyes shut and bowed my head as a deep hiss rose through my lungs.