Chapter 3
"SILENCE!" the syllables echoed and rang through the statue garden, so loud that birds atop the nearby Canterlot castle were spooked to take flight. The fighting immediately ceased and every eye was upon her. Luna did not notice the fear beginning to stir within their hearts. Of course, neither had she noticed that she was standing, wings spread, and shaking with adrenaline. She was aware only of the crumbling statue.
"It … It was her!" Snips accused. "It was Nightmare Moon everypony! She used her dark magic to make all this bad stuff happen!" Luna did not believe they would be so stupid as to believe the little idiot, she could not believe. Sure enough however, whispers of "Nightmare Moon" began to build to as they collectively backed away from her.
"Children please." Cheerilee pleaded.
did not have time to plead. "THOU MUST DESIST!" she roared at them. "THOU ROUSEST A CREATURE FAR DARKER THAN THOU CANST POSSIBLY KNOW." That only caused their voices to heighten hysterically and their bodies to start quivering.
"Every pony for herself!" Scootaloo screamed. Cheerilee cried as her students went scattering off in all directions. Luna did not bother to chase them. She was racing towards the statue of Discord, horn crackling with magical potency, as the last flecks of stone fell away. Just before she was upon him there was a flash of blinding white light that left her unable to see. When her vision returned, he was there in all his disgusting glory. Head of a pony, tail of a snake, limbs stolen from a menagerie, Discord, the king of chaos, was doing squat thrusts.
"Oh that feeeeeeeeeeeels good!" Discord cried to the heavens as his horse and lizard legs contorted beneath his disgusting body. He spied Luna staring at him and smiled. "You have no idea, and I mean no idea, what kind of crick I have in my neck right now." True to form, Discord took hold of his head and gave it a 180 degree twist, releasing an array of sickening cracks. He did the same in the reverse direction.
"DISCORD!" Luna challenged, teeth bared. "HOW DIDST THOU ESCAPE THY PRISON?"
"Beats me," Discord chuckled. He had switched to doing pull-ups using an invisible bar. "As far as I can tell however, you and your sister's spell stopped working because you two got disconnected from the elements. After that it was just a matter of stirring up a little chaos, and here I am." Gravity seemed to reverse upon the Draconequus and he was now using his snake tail to do … pull-downs. "Now the more interesting question in this little chain of events is why you and your sister should be disconnected from the elements. What possible reason could there be to take a weapon that can only harm evil from the hooves of those who can only do good? My guess is because suddenly one of you wasn't so good, and they needed to use that weapon against you. And I doubt of the two of you it was goody-goody Celestia."
Discord looked her square in the eye and smiled his best crooked tooth smile. "You were always my favorite Luna. You can be so naughty when you put your mind to it."
"ENOUGH OF THY BANTER FOOL! WE ARE GLAD THOU HATH ESCAPED, WE HATH ALWAYS REGRETED NOT MAKING SURE THY END WAS PERMANENT." Luna lowered her head and charged Discord, but he slithered out of her reach before she could gore him.
"Eager as always my dear, but I'm afraid I'm still a little sore. Our dance will have to wait." Discord's mismatched wings began flapping. Luna took to the air and followed him easily.
"WE FIGHT NOW!"
"Now now now, my impatient little princess," Discord tutted, "don't think I was going to leave you empty hoofed." he snapped the claws of his talon and a groan emitted from the statue garden. Stone limbs slowly loosened, and the blunt faced sculptures began to step down from their pedestals. They began to pursue Ponyville's colts and fillies as they ran about in panic.
"You'd better go help them," Discord said, "I'd hate to see the ones who helped free me come to harm." He laughed that horrible Discord laugh as he flew off into the autumnal dawn.
Luna was at an impasse. Tactical strategy dictate she leave the little ones to their fate and engage Discord while he was still weak from imprisonment, perhaps ending his threat to Equestria before it began. She would not be able to defeat him once he had regained his full strength. Ethically speaking however, she had a duty to defend the weak when and where she could, not to sell their lives as bargaining tokens. It was the little voice that reminded her of what her old self would have done that drove Luna to dive down toward the statue garden.
"It's okay children, just stay behind me." Cheerilee tried to comfort her students. Cheerilee was gathering her ponies fleeing imaginary demons when the true nightmare started. The statues she had always wanted to see had lurched to life and started to come after her and the kids. She had managed to gather them, but now the statues had backed them into a corner against one of the unyielding iron fences encasing the courtyard.
"I told you these were stupid rocks!" Scootaloo sobbed.
They were all crying now. Truth be told she wanted to cry too, but she didn't. She couldn't. Cheerilee had to protect her students. Now she, a little purple earth pony with smiling flowers on her flank, was all that stood between them and the faceless sculpture of Commander Hurricane lumbering forward, its big stone wings flapping in slow viscid beats.
Luna landed in front of Cheerilee, taking a fighting pose against the animated stone. "AND THOU STAYEST BEHIND US!" she lowered her horn and launched a wave of telekinetic force at the abomination. The millennia old statue flew backwards and shattered into a thousand pieces as it hit the ground. Luna turned to comfort Cheerilee and her students. "See, thou hath no reason to fear; thou shalt be safe under the protection of thy princess."
Luna's words were short lived, as she was soon slammed in the side by a giant Starswirl the Bearded. She was thrown a solid five feet and landed hard, skidding an extra two. Cheerilee and her students screamed in terror as the pre-classical wizard approached them in granite and lichen robes. Luna winced through the pain and worked another spell. Pure dark energies came spilling forth to engulf the statue. One second it writhed as the dark energies consumed it, and the next it was simply gone.
Luna continued in this way for five solid minutes, fighting off Discord's monstrosities and ferociously defending her subjects. Her injuries and the heavy use of magic began to take their toll however, and Luna found herself becoming faint. Her mind was slowing, and her movements were becoming sloppy. Just when she thought she could take no more, she caught sight of salvation. The silhouette of dozens of pegasi showed bold and heroic against the sun. As they came closer, Luna smiled to identify her sister and the bulk of her royal guard. The gilded pegasi dropped from the sky like holy fire, chopping the remaining statues to pieces with the razor edge on their wings.
Celestia came up to Luna, mane cascading color away from a body of burnished white. Luna smiled. Her sister looked beautiful in the shine of her rising sun.
"I'm afraid you were right sister," Luna said, dropping exhausted to her belly. "I was not prepared to give this tour."
Celestia turned to one of the guards beside her, his golden armor glinting. "Escort these ones out of here." She said, gesturing to Cheerilee and her class. A parameter of guards formed around the citizens of Ponyville and began to march them out. That hardly seemed necessary at this point however, as whatever remained of the possessed statues were being ground into a finer and finer powder. Cheerilee cast one final grateful glance at Luna before being led away.
"Oh Luna, you're injured," Celestia sighed, looking at Luna's ruffled wing. "I am sorry I did not realize what was happening sooner," Her horn began to glow with healing magic as she fixed her dark sibling's side.
The mending hurt, but Luna made no complaint. "He's back sister," she said.
Celestia was quiet as she knit flesh and feather and bone back into place. "Yes, I feared as much."
When she felt the healing was finished Luna got back on her hooves, a little unsteadily at first. She was still light headed and a little pained, but she snapped herself to clarity in an act of pure will. "You must summon the new holders of the elements," Luna said.
Celestia nodded. "I can have a letter to them within minutes."
"Good," Luna said. She gazed up at the sky in thought, in the direction that Discord had fled. It would start soon.
"You should rest Luna," Celestia said. "You were hurt badly, healing or no healing."
"That's a luxury I don't have sister. Our kingdom will need what help I can provide it."
Celestia sighed under the burden of being an older sister. "I cannot presume to command you. What are you planning to do?"
Luna continued looking skyward. It was a crisp autumn morning, and sticky pink clouds were beginning to form in the sky. This much was a fact.
"Damage control."