//------------------------------// // Chapter 12 // Story: The Day It Began // by Dyon //------------------------------// The world swirled in its endless cycle. It was created and then destroyed over and over again, countless revolutions of the cycle took place until everything just melted into one. In the skies overhead clouds raced by, some large and carrying copious amounts of water, others were small wisps that clung to each other, hoping one day that they too could become a cumulous. The earth broke open and poured forth its molten blood, which destroyed the ground as it swept across the skin of the planet. The land would dry, and life would once again begin to crawl back upon it to start anew. Eventually, the planet would once again be cut, and the events would transpire once more. A man pounded his hands desperately against a metal door as all life began to leave him. In his fear and desperation his hands were broken, but still he continued to beat the door. On the other side a small girl hugged herself while she cried and begged for forgiveness. Canterlot stood pristine on the mountainside, a beacon of light that shone throughout the world. The city would collapse in upon itself once corruption managed to take root, only to be rebuilt once more when the cancer was cut out. Monsters appeared and were vanquished by heroes that came to answer the call of need. They would pass into legend and inspire the next generation to be stand against the turmoil that they were fated to face. The first legend lost forever as the sands of time continued to cruelly flow. The sand turned to grass, and the grass to forest. Creatures scurried through the trees eating each other and growing larger, just to perish at the hands of yet a larger creature than themselves. The oceans swept across the trees, corrupting and choking out all life that had called the forest their home. Now at the bottom of the sea a new kind of dessert came into being, before it would one day also be replaced. The world changed and yet it stayed the same. The endless cycle kept moving forwards, and in doing so would repeat the past with near certainty. The night would turn to day, and the day would once again become the night. Evil would triumph over good just so that good could one day reclaim what it had lost. Life would be born into the world so that it could die, and in doing so give purpose to all that lived. The earth was made and unmade before the eyes of Twilight Sparkle as the last bits of consciousness left her. She was being emptied out, but felt the power of the tempest that she was floating in fill her up. She couldn’t tell what had changed, but she knew that things were different. She was the same person, but because of that she couldn’t possibly be. She felt at one with everything, and noticed the absence of unity between all. It was all connected, but the connection went unnoticed by all but her. They were either unable or unwilling to see it, but because they lacked such clarity they were able to achieve a small amount of happiness. She felt all of their pain and sorrow pass through her for one terrible instant, and the weight of it all threatened to destroy her. She saw all planes leap into the forefront. Great storms of emotion swirled around the creatures of the land and spirit, threatening to invade the realms of their minds and tear them asunder. Magic helped to bulwark the walls of thought and reason, but far too often the flooding could not be stopped. Some could remedy this themselves, and were able to bilge the excess. Others turned to those whose bonds they shared, and would eventually be able to recover. Others still drowned in despair and fury; one day they too became parts of the storms that raged across the vast expanse of creation waiting for fate to finally deal them their merciful finality. The Source, for now she truly knew what that meant, filled her with the emotions of creation itself, and pulled away from her all ignorance she might have once had. The veil she had never felt was lifted from her eyes, and she was struck blind by the terrible light that filled her vision. It shined so brilliant in the blackness that no matter which way she looked it beared down upon her. She watched as the span of the universe passed before her eyes until she could finally stand it no longer. With a cry that mirrored the very song that first spun order into the chaos of the universe, Twilight broke free of it all and fell into the loving embrace of unconsciousness. _____________________________________________________________________________ He stood on the banks of the pool that stretched out hundreds of feet before him. The water, if that was even what it was, was just as calm as it had always been. Nothing in this world could disturb the peace that The Source maintained. At least he really hoped nothing could. It had been nearly three hours since Twilight had slipped into the waters, and sunk into the depths of the pool. Three hours was a long time to wait when their enemy was gathering his strength. Discord was seriously injured for now, but with enough time he would be at full strength again. Apollo tapped his foot impatiently as he waited for the transformation to finish. The air billowed around him, and changed direction to the north. The soft wind began to pick up speed, and with it carry sand across the desert dunes. A ripple broke the surface of the water a hundred feet away from the man that stood upon the shore. His eyes immediately darted to its epicenter as something began to slowly rise out of the water below. The purple form of a pony silently broke the surface of the water, but refused to stop. The water continued to expel the unconscious unicorn until it completely rested atop the calm surface of the pool. Without any further movement or indication, the calm face of the water could not be told apart from a perfect sheet of glass, and Twilight was lying on top of it. Hesitantly, Apollo stuck his foot over the lip of the pool and lowered it until it touched the surface. The water beneath him was solid, and wasting no more time, he quickly strode across the surface to where Twilight continued to slumber. He made it to her in short order, and bent down to inspect the mare. She looked very much like she had when she first entered the pool, the only visible difference being the six-pointed star that was imprinted on her forehead, just below her horn. Satisfied that his experiment had been a success, Apollo reached down and tried to rouse the pony. It took a moment, but eventually Twilight began to return to the realm of the living. Groggily, she opened one eye and scanned her surrounding. When her vision fell on the man that was standing over her, her eyes shot open and she scrambled away as fast as she could. Much faster than any mortal should have been able to. “What did you do?” Twilight asked, pointing at Apollo who was gazing at her with his unfaltering smile. “Exactly what I said I would,” he replied innocently. “You didn’t say you were going to do anything!” “Exactly!” Twilight cried out in frustration. This only caused the man to laugh lightly to himself before he took a step towards the distraught mare. Seeing this, Twilight continued to back away until he eventually stopped. “Stay away from me!” she screamed. “Aw, Twilight, I thought we were becoming friends.” He actually managed to sound slightly hurt. “You stabbed me!” “You’re welcome.” His reply shocked the unicorn into silence. She managed to do an excellent impression of a fish. Apollo sighed and brought a few fingers to the bridge of his nose. “Okay, this is how it works. Being reborn in this way causes the body to change, and since a new body is that which emerges from the process, a new name must be taken. However, since you were dead as you entered the pool a new life was created within the already existing body, and as such you can keep your former name. I was only thinking of what you would want.” Twilight continued to stare at him incredulously for a moment before she regained the ability to speak. “Why didn’t you just tell me that in the first place!” “Would you have gone along with it if I had?” “Of course not!” her glare was growing angrier. “Well there you go. The pool doesn’t work without consent so it was better that I didn’t tell you.” Twilight was about to reply, but he held up a hand to stop her. “As much as I would love to debate this with you for an eternity, which would be possible by the way, we are on a schedule. Now take up your name and power so that you can go and defeat Discord.” “Wha… what do you mean take up my name?” “I thought Celestia explained this to you already. You now are to name yourself, and by doing so will accept all of your power, and the responsibility that goes with it. You may choose to keep your old name if you wish.” Apollo pointed a long gloved finger at the mare in front of him. “So, what is your name?” “My name is Twilight Sparkle like it ha…” She was unable to finish her sentence as a massive weight came crashing into her mind like a torrent of water. She almost fell onto the surface of the pool again as she lost her balance momentarily, but she managed to catch herself. She held her eyes closed for many moments while she collected herself. She had always been able to sense her own pool of mana swirling inside of her, but this new ball of power in the back of her mind was like a caged beast. It wanted to be used, for either creation or destruction it didn’t matter. The power wanted to be released in a beautiful display that would shock the dead and cause the gods themselves to weep. It took all of her willpower to restrain herself. Luckily, Twilight had been battling against her desires to perform fantastic feats of magic all of her life. She opened her eyes again to look at the world around her; everything shined with an unnatural clarity that it hadn’t before. If she tried, she was able to count the specks of dust that floated through the air a mile away. She wondered if this was what everything looked like to Celestia. Her sight had gained an unnatural edge, but it seemed that her other senses had heightened only slightly. Her hearing had increased drastically, but was still not as good as a canine’s. She continued to scan her surroundings to see what else was different, but stopped when she noticed a light emanating from beneath her. Twilight looked down into the pool that she was standing on top of and gasped at the beauty she saw. It no longer looked to be a clear well of water that calmly rested beneath her. Twilight saw the most powerful magic in the world swirl beneath her in a magnificent tapestry that was impossible to replicate. The spiraling vortex of color was truly majestic, but the deeper that the water went the darker the colors began to become. Near the bottom they faded entirely to black, and became menacing tendrils beckoning her to join them. Twilight tore her gaze away from the pool before it could affect her too deeply. She looked once more to the man that stood in front of her; what she saw shocked her. Apollo looked much like he had before, only now magnificent wings of black smoke billowed in the air behind him. The tips of his fingers glowed an eerily green color, as if they were talons made of pure energy. On his forehead several runes of the same color stood out against his pale skin. “What’s the matter, Twilight? Do I have something on my face?” Apollo asked, as he brought a hand up to his cheek, attempting to wipe off an imaginary blemish. “No, it’s just… wow. Is that what you really look like?” She managed to finally blink, and began to rub her eyes to clear them. “Hmm? Do you mean my true form? Can you see it?” Now his interest was peaked. “The big smoke wings? Yea I can see those.” She motioned to the wispy appendages behind him. “Now that certainly is interesting. Brace yourself when you take a look in a mirror,” he said with a light chuckle. “What is that supposed to mean?” “Don’t worry about it.” He waved off the question. “Now we have work to do, or more precisely you have work to do. You no doubt have noticed that your power has increased exponentially, and if my theory is correct then you should be a match for Discord. At least in his current state anyways.” “I don’t know about that. I can feel an enormous power inside of me now, but Discord is nearly omnipotent. How am I supposed to beat that?” “How should I know? I am just the big picture guy; you are supposed to worry about the details. Now,” he pointed at Twilight again “can you sense where Discord is?” Twilight was momentarily confused by the question, but tried anyway. Her magical senses had increased an insane amount, but she was still unable to feel any other presence other than Apollo that stood a mere ten feet in front of her. Twilight sighed, “No I can’t sense him.” “Perhaps you should try a tracking spell?” he suggested with a shrug. Before Twilight could even reply the spell already made its way to the forefront of her mind, and was cast. She felt her mind’s eye soar across the world to a beaten field, where she saw Discord reclined in a chair sipping a glass of tea. “Yes, I can see him now. That is amazing I have never been able to pull off such an advanced tracking spell before.” “Do you think you can teleport all the way there?” “Mayb…” The rest of her reply was unheard as she disappeared in a flash of purple. Apollo stood there for a moment, before he saw her reappear hundreds of miles away. A smile graced his lips at her expression of disbelief. “Very interesting indeed.” _____________________________________________________________________________ My disdain was evident on my face for all around to see. There was no way that I could possibly hope to hide my foul mood from anyone in the room. Equestria was a nice place sure, but it was distinctly lacking in things that are essential to human life. One such thing would be meat. The dining hall was lined with guards that ate their minimalist meals without a word. They would walk in and pick up a tray before getting in line to receive their salads. They all received the same salad without a word of protest, and would take it to an open seat where they ate it quickly. I watched in awe as the lunchroom functioned without a word spoken. Did these ponies not care for variety? We were in a castle; surely they would serve something other than just a plain salad. Of course, I had received the same thing as everybody else. The plain pile of leaves sat in front of me menacingly, daring me to taste it. God I hate salad. I have been here for more than a week, and had no meat in all of that time. I felt like any moment I would go into withdrawal, and start seizing on the floor. Fortunately, ponies liked fruit or else I would have starved a long time ago. Fantastical visions of cheeseburgers and steaks filled my vision, and I felt my mouth begin to water. I stretched my hand towards the juicy burger just to have it pass through the phantom representation. I sighed and stared back down at the bowl of weeds. God I hate salad. I picked up a fork, and stabbed the foul creation. A satisfying crunch emanated through the cafeteria as the leaf was pierced. Slowly, begrudgingly, I lifted the piece of lettuce before my eyes to examine it. The food workers were kind enough to put some sort of dressing on the salad, but I had never seen this kind before. It smelled sweet, which struck me as odd. From my experience most dressings were supposed to be tangy, or something along those lines. Hesitantly, I inched the piece of salad towards my lips, and with a courageous gesture took a bite. I chewed for a moment as all of the tastes melded together and delivered their intended effects to my taste buds. I had to admit that it was probably the best salad that I had ever had. The dressing was actually very sweet, which overpowered the earthy flavor of the lettuce leaf. The small tomato that I had also impaled with my fork was extremely juicy, probably the freshest one of those I’ve had in a long time. I still hated it. There was just something fundamentally wrong about eating leafs. Humans are omnivores and are the highest thing on the food chain. We shouldn’t have to eat leafs and grass when we can have anything in the world to eat that we want. I would kill for a steak now. A thought struck me for a moment, but quickly left me. It was true that I could probably find some wooded area where there were deer or some other game and hunt them. The ponies would probably see such a thing as barbaric though and resent me for it. I really didn’t want to earn their scorn since there was no telling how long I was going to be here. “Well there you are.” I nearly choked as someone spoke behind me. My fist pounded on the table as I tried to swallow the vile plant that was attempting to end my life. It knew how much I despised it. “Are you okay?” I gasped for air after finally clearing my esophagus. I looked behind me, and glared daggers at the mare that had startled me. Luna stood in the middle of the dining hall smiling down at me. I noticed that several of the nearby guards had stopped what they were doing, and were bowing before her. I stabbed my fork into my salad and turned in my seat so that I was facing her. I motioned for her to continue with whatever had brought her here. “Yes well, Tia wanted you to come back to the throne room with the others,” she explained. I rolled my eyes; I really had no desire to stay in a confined space with the alicorn ruler who had told me herself that she didn’t like me. Luna must have sensed my reluctance. “Can we talk about this someplace else?” She turned away before I could give my silent answer, and began to walk away. Left with the choice between eating a salad and having a one sided conversation with a god, there was little competition. I jumped from my seat and began to follow the blue alicorn out of the hall at my own sedate pace. Following around Luna had its perks. For one, none of the guards could be bothered to give me odd glances as we passed by since their heads were to the floor. That had to be really bad behavior for a guard. What if an assassin attacked as they were giving their bow of reverence? I know if I had guards I wouldn’t want them to distract themselves with trivial things like bowing. Another positive was that Luna’s strides were much longer than an average pony so I didn’t need to slow down any to match her speed. We passed through many halls before coming to a large set of doors that I remembered. A blue glow surrounded the doors before they swung open. I would probably never get used to that magic stuff. After the doors opened we found ourselves once again in the Canterlot gardens. Everything looked very different during the daytime than it had at night. I hadn’t been back to the gardens since that night when Porosis escaped and pretty much wrecked the place. Everything seemed to be back exactly it had been the last time I had seen it. The trees were immaculately pruned, and swayed slightly in the light breeze. The flowers we walked by each gave off their own unique fragrance, most of which I had never smelled before. The concrete path that ran through the entirety of the garden had been completely mended in the last couple of days, and showed no sign of the destruction it had seen not a week prior. We calmly made our way over to the bench that we had been sitting on the last time we were in the gardens. Luna took a seat, and turned back to look at me; no doubt waiting for me to seat myself next to her. I took the opportunity to walk over to an orange tree, and pick one of the juicy fruits from it. Even the produce looked exactly like it had last time. I began to peel the orange as I walked back to the bench and sat down. I wasn’t reduced to scavenging fruit anymore since the ponies seemed to have figured out what my diet consisted of, but the orange was still the best thing I had eaten in this world by far. I took a nice juicy bite of the fruit, and savored the flavor that rushed over my tongue. Once I was done relishing in its juicy goodness I turned to Luna and motioned for her to begin speaking. “Oh yes, I wanted to speak with you about something didn’t I?” Had she already forgotten what she wanted to talk about? “Yes, I remember. I wanted to talk to you about this animosity that seems to be growing between you and my sister.” This distinctly felt like it was going to be more of a lecture than an actual conversation. Not that I could carry out an actual conversation, but sometimes it is nice to be heard. Not that I can be heard but… whatever. “I have noticed that you and Celestia do not seem to be getting along? Has something occurred which I have no knowledge of?” That question caught me off guard. I could somehow try to communicate to her that her sister had locked me in her room and nearly scared me to death, but if I did even manage to get that across to her what would that mean for me? That would undoubtedly just dig me an even deeper hole than I was already in with the alicorn princess. I don’t think that she would like me bad mouthing her behind her back very much. I sighed and took another bite from my orange. I continued to think it over as I chewed and eventually decided that the best idea would be to keep quiet about it. I looked back to Luna and shook my head to indicate a no. “Then I do wonder as to the reason.” She was probably talking more to herself than me. Her eyes refocused on me again, “Do you know why this rift is between the two of you?” At this I couldn’t bring myself to lie again so I nodded to her question. Luna sighed and looked pensively into the trees for a moment before speaking again. “I fear my sister has an ingrained fear of the unknown, and you are very much an unknown. She had ruled this kingdom for a thousand years alone during my banishment, and I think that she is only trying to look after everypony’s safety. You understand this, yes?” She looked back to me and took note of my nod. “Though… I feel that there is something more to it than that.” She shook her head to clear away whatever ridiculous thought was occupying her mind. “It matters little. We must still join the others in the throne room.” I gave the loudest sigh I could manage, which to my surprise was quite audible. I was torn between scowling at the situation, or smiling at my own personal triumph. In the end I settled on a scowl, which Luna took note of and also mimicked my frown. “I hate to say it, but you will be coming whether you like it or not. Do not make me get the leash.” She turned away, and once again began to walk into the castle. It took me a moment to recover from what she had said, but in the end I decided not to risk the great amount of shame that a leash promised, and followed her inside. _____________________________________________________________________________ A flash of purple pulled Discord’s gaze away from his mostly empty glass of tea, and to the pony that was standing in front of him. He recognized the mare immediately, and began to look around for the rest of her entourage. After a few seconds of searching he came to the realization that she had decided to show up alone. “Twilight Sparkle, it really has been too long hasn’t it?” He crumpled the now empty glass like an aluminum can and threw it into a recycling bin, which was conveniently placed behind him. Twilight took a moment to study the draconequus. Apollo had been right in his assessment of Discord after the battle she quickly came to realize. His lion arm was completely missing along with a good amount of his shoulder. Twilight could make out the red phantom of an arm that marked where the missing one had been, but it seemed the ghostly appendage was of no use to Discord at the moment. She didn’t know how she knew, but he was almost completely out of energy at the moment. “You should just surrender now, Discord. There is no reason to drag this out any longer.” “Oh ho ho, what is this? Does little ole Twilight think she can play in the big leagues?” Discord’s amused smile didn’t fade as he stood from his seat, and made it disappear with a snap of his fingers. He towered over the unicorn in front of him still wearing his wicked smile. He was about to attempt his basic form of hypnotism that had almost been the element’s undoing in the past, but stopped as he noticed something. She didn’t seem afraid of him in the least. In fact, she didn’t even seem to regard him as a threat at all. Discord’s eyes traced over Twilight, and eventually settled on the six-pointed star that was now engraved on her forehead. He squinted for a moment before he suddenly broke into rapturous guffaw. “So that is his plan,” Discord bent over and held his stomach with his one remaining arm. “Good show. I have to give my credit to the maestro this time.” he began to slap the air with his talon, which gave rise to a thunderous applause. “Are you done?” Twilight had to refrain from rolling her eyes at the idiotic sight before her. “No, Twilight, we are just beginning. Do not think that I will just go down without a fight.” Discord leaped back as red electricity began to crackle from his fingertips. “I had wished to avoid fighting.” Twilight’s horn started to glow, and her eyes turned white as she began to channel her magic. Discord shot forth an arcing beam of lightning that flew at the unicorn at the speed of light. A millisecond before it reached the mare however, it detonated on an invisible shield that stood between the two. The shield pulsed a thick purple for a second as the electricity bled into it before it returned to normal. When the moment field became transparent once again Discord realized that Twilight was no longer standing behind it. A massive force struck him in the side of the face and sent him spilling across the ground. He rolled a few times before he was struck in the gut from the opposite side, causing his tumbling to come to an end. Another impact smashed him into the ground, sending a spiderweb of cracks through the hard dirt that had been cleared of vegetation during the previous battle. He tried to make it back to his feet but another wave of force smashed him once again to the ground. The hits began to increase rapidly until they were coming dozens of times a second. The impacts weren’t enough to seriously injure him, but they were enough to keep him immobilized, and in a great deal of pain. As suddenly as they had began, the waves of concussive force ceased, and Discord shakily pulled himself to his feet. His bloodied face turned up to see Twilight Sparkle standing a few feet away horn still aglow. On her face rested a smirk that would have drove the draconequus insane if he wasn’t already. His face fell into a deep frown as he started to charge energy once again. He was unable to actually see Twilight’s attention shift to his hand as his magic once again began to funnel into it. She could see so much more now than she ever thought was possible. What he was doing was as plain as day, and she wondered briefly if he knew how much he was advertising his intentions. Red energy washed over his remaining arm, and into the palm of his hand as he continued to gather his power. What was but a few seconds seemed like minutes to the godling unicorn. She studied his intended spell intently and came up with several ideas for what he was trying to accomplish. Her own mind brought forth several counters for each of his possible intentions, and she put into place anything that she might need. All of this took place within the span of time it took Discord to blink. Thinking that he would catch her off guard, Discord channeled the power he had collected into the ground where it snaked through the dirt towards his opponent. Once again the attack was nullified as it split in two, three feet before reaching its target and was bent around her. It continued to travel through the dirt until it reached a boulder on the outskirts of the clearing that it blew to pieces. Twilight began to calmly walk forwards towards him as she dropped her magnetic field. Discord took a hesitant step backwards, and found his foot connecting with something very sticky. He looked down, and found the ground below him had turned to glue and he ineffectually tried to pull his foot loose. He looked back to Twilight and growled at her, which only caused her smirk to become more pronounced. A blow of telekinetic force whipped his face to the right where it was promptly greeted by another blow. Constant impacts beat against him as his head whipped back and forth, and Twilight continued to advance on him slowly. Her smirk quickly transformed into a full smile as she witnessed the god before her being humbled. She finally stood a few feet from him, and the blows came to an end. No longer supported by the waves of force pummeling him, Discord fell forward and caught himself with his talon before he could hit the ground. He tried to pull his hand free, but it had also been caught in the glue beneath him. He tried to channel magic into the ground below, but the strange substance just absorbed his weakened energy as it came to him. He looked up once again to Twilight that stood before him with a manic grin plastered on her face. She raised a hoof, which quickly became emblazoned with a dark violet energy before smashing it into Discord’s face. His already bruised face took the hit, and he even lost a tooth as the strike struck him squarely in the jaw. Twilight laughed as she saw him almost buckle under the weight of her hoof impacting him. It took a few seconds, but eventually he was able to bring his gaze back up to meet hers. Twilight reared back her hoof again and hit him in the face with much more force this time. He was unable to stop himself from hitting the ground with a mighty crack. Twilight was undeterred by the sound of his jaw breaking, and continued to rain down blows on the back of his skull as her laughter continued. She continued for several minutes before she had to stop momentarily to catch her breath. She pulled her hoof back to see Discord’s head deeply imbedded into the earth below him. The red substance splattering against the rock beside his skull pulled her out of her manic glee, and into the dark reality of what she had done. Her eyes ceased their glowing as her pupils dilated to pinpricks. She was struck hard with the memory of seeing an unknown alicorn lying on the cold stone floor of the cavern with his head completely crushed. Luna leaned over him, examining the corpse as Twilight stood back trying to hold down her lunch. “Am I becoming like that monster?” the words left her mouth before she could stop them, and the realization of what she had done really hit her. She had nearly killed somepony while laughing her head off about it. It felt good to have that kind of power over somepony else, and she had reveled in it. In fact, it had been pure ecstasy, and Twilight knew that something within her had changed deeply. Shaking her head, she began to backpedal as fast as she could from his unconscious form. She couldn’t allow herself to be like the monsters drunk on power that she had defeated before. She wouldn’t! She had defeated Discord like it had been child’s play, but now she had to do something. She searched for the answer to the current situation, and it eluded her for several minutes. Twilight continued to stare at the draconequus until finally inspiration struck her. Something in the back of her mind, behind the giant wall she had erected between her mind and the massive well of power she now held called out to her, and she answered. Her eyes began to glow white once again as she charged the spell. ____________________________________________________________________________ I was leaning against one of the many support beams in the room while strumming lazily on my invisible guitar. I didn’t really have any music in mind, and just played out small tunes that would come to me. Much to my dismay, my phone had finally run out of battery, and I had no way of listening to my music any longer. The instrument I held in my hands would change from acoustic to electric to acoustic again. It was actually a little bit disorienting to hear the soft melodies I strummed out changing so often. The ponies in the room didn’t pay me any mind as they continued their conversation. “Are you sure about this?” Celestia asked the small brown unicorn that had skittered into the room less than three minutes ago. “Yes your highness.” The poor guy couldn’t even bring himself to meet her eyes. I honestly couldn’t blame him. “We don’t know how she got all the way to Zebrica in such a short time, but that is what our scryers are telling us.” “It is not a matter of how, but one of where. Have you pinpointed her exact location?” Celestia’s wings flared as she continued to talk to the stallion in front of her. I could tell that she was ready to take off as soon as she knew exactly where Twilight was. “Not exactly. It will take more time to have her exact location. I apologize your majesty.” He bowed his head as Celestia continued to stare down at him. “How long?” “At least thirty minutes more.” He flinched as he expected some outburst from the princess, but it didn’t come. Hesitantly, he looked back up at her stoic figure. “Please continue to lend assistance to the mages, Vision. Inform me as soon as an exact location can be determined.” With another bow the stallion hastily began to back out of the chamber. The doors, which had been reattached to the walls, closed quietly behind him. “I want a chariot readied for at least eight ponies by the time that Vision is done locating my student,” she informed a nearby guardsman who saluted and flew out a nearby window to complete his task. The princess turned back to the other six mares that were quietly talking amongst themselves. I also took my attention off of the white alicorn and turned it to the other ponies in the room. It was odd, but it seemed I could hear their conversation clearly from all the way across the large room. “So wait, let me get this straight,” Rainbow Dash said, halting whatever Luna had been currently saying. “Some bad guy broke out of prison, and started to gather an army so that he could wage war on Equestria. So Princess Celestia let out another bad guy to fight that one since they had some super old grudge match going on. Then some third, but not so bad guy, came and foalnapped Twilight to do something that none of us know.” Luna seemed to think for a moment before nodding. “Yes that essentially sums it up.” Rainbow groaned as she started to rub a hoof against her temple. “This whole thing is just way too confusing for me to follow.” “You forgot about that other other other bad guy that broke out of prison also, Dashie,” Pinkie Pie reminded the group. “Oh yes,” Luna smacked her hooves together, “I had almost forgotten about that.” Rainbow groaned much more audibly before she laid down on the ground and buried her face in her hooves. “Anything else that I should know.” Pinkie Pie stuck her tongue out for a moment as her face scrunched up in concentration. “Nothing I can think of,” she said after a moment. Rarity looked up from her spot next to the sleeping Fluttershy. “So are we really just going to wait here? I feel we should be scouring some ancient tomes or something trying to find a way out of this mess.” “Ah don’t think that is in the cards, Rare. The Princess said that we have to wait for those unicorn ponies to find Twilight so that’s what we are gonna do.” Out of all of the ponies in the group Applejack seemed to be taking the current situation with the most grace. “The mages have said that she is in Zebrica,” Celestia said as she walked to the group. “We will be leaving as soon as they have narrowed down her location.” “I do not think that you should be fearing too much, Celestia. You know as well that I that no harm will come to Twilight.” Luna stood from her seat and approached her sister. “You are far too trusting of him. You always have been.” It seemed that Celestia would not even dare speak his vile name. “He is not a monster, sister. I know that you two have your differences, but I believe that this situation will resolve itself soon.” “It is so nice to hear someone stand up for me,” a voice spoke right next to me. All eyes in the room, including mine, turned to the man in black that was reclined against the same column I was. I almost jumped out of my seat, but I thought better of it. I simply rolled my eyes and continued to play my broken melodies. “What have you done with Twilight!” Celestia raged as she thundered towards him. “I only did what had to be done.” He stood and held his hands before him submissively. “Don’t go killing the messenger.” Celestia’s face had started to turn a bright shade of crimson and I was afraid she would burst into flame if he said anything else. “Very well then.” Luna nudged past her sister and put herself between the two. “What exactly did you do with Twilight then. We will decide if it was necessary or not after we have been informed.” “I made her like us,” Apollo leaned against the column and began to study his nails like they were the most interesting things in the room. “What exactly is that supposed to mean.” Celestia spat from where she stood behind her sister. “Oh you know, Tia, immortal and all-powerful. Well maybe not all-powerful, but pretty damn strong.” He grinned as he refused to even look up at her disbelieving stare. “How is that even possible? The Well won't work correctly on a nonhuman.” Luna was the one who chimed in this time. “There are many things that you don’t know, Luna.” Now he did shoot a glare back at Celestia, but still he kept his small smile. “Now what is that supposed to mean?” Now Luna seemed to be the one getting frustrated. “Oh you kn…” Apollo stopped talking and stared at a spot behind the two alicorns. The three of us quickly followed his gaze across the room to where the necklace Applejack was wearing began to glow white. A moment later each of the necklaces the five mares were wearing began to glow as the looked at each other anxiously. The mares began to lift into the air for a moment, which would have scared the shit out of me, but they seemed to know exactly what was going on. After a few moments of glowing in the air the necklaces suddenly stopped shining white light, and the mares slowly floated back to the ground. Everyone else seemed too entranced by the odd magic that seemed to be going on to notice that Apollo’s smile deepened into a scowl for a second before he wiped it away from his face. The five Ponyvillians seemed to be completely unconscious once they reached the ground, except for Fluttershy of course, who hadn’t woken up during the whole ordeal. I looked around the room to see if anything had changed due to the weird events that had just transpired, but everything in the room seemed to be exactly how it had been before. My attention was pulled back to the man that was still standing beside me as he spoke to the two alicorns in the room. “You two need to come with me.” With a wave of his hand some strange portal opened between him and Luna, and he quickly vanished into it. Luna looked at her sister for a moment before shrugging and following him. Celestia rolled her eyes as she sighed before she also followed into the portal. A second later the strange thing had disappeared, leaving me the only conscious person in the room. I looked around a moment and studied the five mares that were passed out on the floor. The guards would be coming back any moment now, and I would probably have one hell of a time trying to explain what had happened. I closed my eyes and put my head back against the stone pillar I was seated against, and began to play the saddest music I could think of. Just another day in Equestria. ___________________________________________________________________________ Apollo stepped out of the tear in space and onto the harsh ground that crunched beneath his boots. He looked around and studied the scene for a moment before he strode to the middle of the clearing where Twilight was staring at a stone sculpture in front of her. He barely registered Luna and Celestia stepping out of the portal behind him. It didn’t take long before he was standing beside the distraught mare gazing at the petrified form of Discord. The image brought forth some unpleasant memories, but he quickly pushed them to the back of his mind as he tried to figure out how to proceed. He shrugged and looked down at the mare he stood next to. “You need to finish this, Twilight.” Though he was being incredibly vague, both of them knew exactly what he was referring to. The two sisters quickly made it over to them, and had to take a moment to understand exactly what they were looking at. Twilight looked up to her mentor, barely holding back tears as she did so. A cold wind blew through the clearing and around the four that stood in silence. The air smelled of ozone and burnt wood, but none of them could be bothered to care at the moment. The situation at hand was far too tense. “Twilight,” he began again, “you have to finish what you started here.” A single tear rolled down the unicorn’s cheek as she continued to look to Celestia for the answer. Celestia however, was not going to tell the mare what to do. She didn’t have the right to. “I don’t think I can,” Twilight finally said after a few minutes. “You are the only one that can, Twilight. It has to be you to finally end all of this.” Apollo stooped to a knee so that he could look at her directly. “We don’t have to do anything. He is trapped in stone again and can’t hurt anypony.” Twilight looked once again to the stone form of Discord, he was in the same pose that he had always been, one that showed pure horror displayed on his face. “He will just get out once again someday. When he does there might not be anyone around to stop him. You can end this here and now once and for all.” He stood and backed away from her. There wasn’t really anything else he could say to persuade her at this point. Twilight looked to the faces of her princesses once again, and tried to find the answer. Celestia’s face was just as stoic as it always was, but she was able to catch a hint of sadness in Luna’s. She looked to Apollo who stood a few feet away glaring at Discord. “I… can’t.” She dropped her gaze to the ground. “Dammit, Twilight this is not a game!” Apollo’s mood shifted drastically as he exploded at her. “You have to kill him or else who knows what could happen!” Celestia finally stopped standing on the sidelines as she moved between Apollo and her beloved student. “That is quite enough. You have heard her answer, and I will not have you bullying her into settling your own personal vendettas.” The two glared at each other for what felt like minutes, but was probably only a few seconds. Eventually, Apollo was the one that broke the staring match. His anger was evident on his face as he walked to the statue and put his hand on its surface. He moved his hand back and forth over the cold stone before he finally let out a long sigh. “Fair enough.” Before anything more could be said, he and the statue of Discord disappeared into a cloud of black smoke, which was quickly blown away by the wind. The three mares stared for a long while at where he had been standing just a moment before. The entirety of the situation finally settled on them, and Celestia looked down once again to her student. “Let’s go home.”