//------------------------------// // Rain // Story: Fire and Reign // by Shakespearicles //------------------------------// Discord's ominous laugh came from nowhere, and yet it seemed to come from everywhere. "Ah, Celestia," Discord said, materializing out of nowhere. "It's so refreshing to see you in this rare form once more." The past millennium of 'benevolent rule' was really just so boring to watch as a statue in your garden." "DISCORD!" Celestia shouted, "I should have listened to Twilight. It was a mistake letting you free again." She reared up, dashing at him in a flying leap, her massive sword swinging in a great arc through the air! It struck him just above the shoulder, carving through his torso and coming out the other side, slicing him in half in one fell swoop. His two halves fell into a bloody pile on the ground. Celestia touched down on the ground, adding a Draconequus to the dead dragons. Suddenly his top half sprang to life, "Egad, I have been bisected by the great Celestia! What an end! Goodbye cruel world!" In a snap his two halves vanished and reappeared as a whole once more in his original position. "Well, that escalated quickly don't you think?" "You sent these dragons to attack Canterlot, burning my city and killing my citizens!" Celestia bellowed. "I'll have your head for it!" "Tsk tsk, such temper your highness." Discord scolded. "If you would conduct a census, I can assure you that nopony has died here today. I am not a killer. Death is so still, permanent, unchanging. Boring. So un-chaotic." he smiled. "But I see that you, oh benevolent princess, seem to have no problem with muuurder." he emphasized the last word with a low growl. Celestia looked down at herself. The blood spattered on her armor. She suddenly felt very dirty and ashamed. She had not taken a life in centuries. She looked at Twilight. Wearing the skin of a fallen foe. "And I see the mentor has taken to teaching her most faithful student the lesson of the day." he said looking at Twilight also. Twilight also felt ashamed, taking off the dragon scale armor, but still keeping her magic ready. "Your words are as empty as your heart!" Twilight said, "You're just up to your old tricks trying to drive a wedge between friends. Well not this time! I'll always be loyal to the princess!" Twilight's horn glowed brightly, ready to attack Discord. Celestia watched the gesture, fruitless though it was. But she would never say so. Discord just smiled. "You see Celestia," he started, "You who claims to abhor violence. You, who refused to pick up a weapon for centuries." he looked back to Twilight, "You take those around you, your royal guard, your sister, and even your students. You craft them into your weapons." Twilight listened, slowly lowering her magic. Celestia fumed at Discord, that he would mock her and her student like this. Her anger blazed. "Ah, there's the real princess of Equestria. This is my final victory. I have shown you your true self." "But why?" Twilight yelled out, looking at all the destruction around them, "Why do this? We had a deal. You promised!" "Why?!" Discord asked back incredulously. "Excuse me, are you attempting to apply logic to ME? Are you seeking a reason? Who cares!? I can do whatever I want, whenever I want! I'm Discord, the master of chaos! You think you can boss Discord around? You think I'm just going to turn all this back because you say so?" he snapped an inside out umbrella into his hands, pink clouds coalesced in the sky, "Tough cookies my little ponies. It looks like we're in for a big ol' storm of chaos! MUAH HA HA HA!" his eyes glowed green with power as he laughed before vanishing again. Pink clouds filled the sky above them. The chocolate rain began to pour. Celestia's horn glowed, sending out a pulse. "Twilight, you must get back to Ponyville and gather the others to use the elements again. My spell is still in effect over them so they will remain beyond his reach." she began removing her iron armor. Her once pristine white fur was matted wet and soiled brown with the rain. She put a hoof to her forehead, "Captain Armor, shields!" she said, seemingly to nopony. A moment later a great magical shield formed around Canterlot, Shining Armors signature spell. Inside, the rain stopped. Twilight watched the chocolate rain stream down the sides of the dome. Celestia addressed twilight once more, "The shield will protect Canterlot from Discord for now, but it won't last long. He'll figure a way around it soon. Time is of the essence!" A chariot arrived in response to Celestia's beckon. "Make haste my student, he will move against Ponyville and the bearers of the elements next." Twilight got on board and they sped off into the air, bound for her home town. "Shoot!" Twilight cursed, "I forgot to give her my letter..." _ _ _ "Really Celestia?" an image of Discord's face appeared, shimmering on the skin of the magic shield. "Really? That's your ace in the hole? A magic shield?" Celestia was unmoved. She walked closer to his taunting image. She needed to buy Twilight more time. Discord continued, "You really think you can stop me with this?" he said tapping on the shield like a glass window. "I could come in there at any moment and turn your castle into marshmallow." Celestia called his bluff. "Then why don't you?" Discord stared at her a moment. "Hmm. So impulsive you. Even after all this time." he smiled whimsically, "You know if its one thing that being trapped in stone for the last couple of millenniums has taught me its patience." His eyes glowed green again, "My victory is at hand, princess. It is not a matter of if. It is only a matter of time." _____________________________________________________________________ Twilight held on to the chariot as it tore through the sky. Her pilot Pegasi drivers had difficulty flying through the heavy rain. The chocolate was sticking to their fur and feathers. Her first trip from Canterlot to Ponyville was calm and leisurely. This was an urgent rush. She double checked her bag, feeling at it though the material for the letter, and to ensure it was still securely strapped to her. It was. She was thankful that she had made it water- er liquid proof a while ago. Her mane on the other hand was a sticky mess. She still had the letter, and soon she would be with her friends. This would all be over soon. But as they neared Ponyville, it was as she had feared. Discord had taken up his old reign here as the chaos capital of the world. She disembarked before they even came to a complete stop. The Pegasi left at once to return to their princess, only to be turned into mice, scurrying away from the relatively giant chariot. As for the chariot itself, it sprouted unwieldy propellers and wings. The flying machine was unstable and came careening toward Twilight, out of control. She dodged it as it came around for another pass. 'Flying machines now,' Twilight thought. 'that's a new one.' It came at her again. She grabbed it with her magic, disabling it. It fell out of the air as it crashed in pieces on the ground. Twilight made a bee line for her library home. Inside she immediately retrieved her element of harmony from its hidden location in a carved out book. It was the once place nopony would look, an old copy of Equestrian tax code. As Celestia had said, It was untouched. She put it on right away. She could only hope the others had done the same as soon as things started to go haywire around town. She checked on Spike. Thankfully, he was still sleeping off whatever ailment he had. She heard a knock at the door. "Twilight open up!" she heard Applejack call out. "Yeah, we need your hel- Pinkie get over here!" Rainbow Dash yelled. Twilight opened the door. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were glad to see her. Pinkie was laying on the ground a ways away enjoying the chocolate rain. To Twilight's relief, all three of them were wearing their element, though they were also soaked in chocolate milk rain. "It's good to see you guys too." Twilight said, "But where is Rarity and Fluttershy?" "We don't know." Applejack said. "We came here to meet up with you, as per to the plan if things with Discord went fubar. But we haven't seen them yet. "Well, let's go get them!" Twilight said, "Come on Pinkie, there'll be time for that later!" Pinkie bounced up from the puddle of chocolate rain to her feet, joining the others, "Okie dokie loki." The group arrived at the Carousel Boutique first. Looking into the window, Rarity was nowhere to be seen. They went inside. Her element was sitting on the small coffee table in her living room. In the center of the necklace was a marshmallow. "Ooh a marshmallow!" Pinkie said, snatching it up. help "Pinkie wait!" Twilight shouted, halting the pink mare "Did you hear that?" help Pinkie looked at the marshmallow in her hoof, "It's a talking marshmallow! I bet that means it's twice as tasty!" she said, tossing it to her mouth. Twilight snatched it from its trajectory. "Pinkie wait!" Twilight said, placing the marshmallow on the floor. She cast her anti-chaos spell on it, and it expanded and morphed back into Rarity. "Oh, thank heavens!" Rarity exclaimed, "That was simply awful, being all sticky and sugary and fattening! Oh and being almost eaten was not good either." she said looking at Pinkie who just shrugged apologetically. "Rarity!" Twilight said, hugging her, "It's so good to have you back! Now grab your element and lets go get Fluttershy!" _____________________________________________________________________________________________ Celestia walked to the center of the hedge maze in her castle garden. Certainly she could have simply flown to the center. But there was a certain calming therapy to the ritual of walking through the maze. Even still, she had memorized the path long ago. She arrived in the center with ease. She sat and looked at the empty pedestal where Discord's stone form once stood. "Looking for someone?" a voice said, as Discord materialized, sitting on the pedestal. "Did you miss me? Is that why you brought me back?" Celestia looked away. The chocolate rain continued to run down the outside of the magic shield around the city. "I told you this insipid shield would not keep me out." She looked back at him. "So tell me," he said, "Did you miss me?" "I miss who you once were." She said with a sad tone. "I thought you could be reformed. Be who you used to be before you turned into..." "A monster?" Discord finished. Celestia felt a tear roll down her cheek. "Have you ever considered, Tia, that all of this, all of it... is your fault?" Celestia turned to answer but the pedestal was empty once more, and she was alone in the garden. She did not like being alone. ______________________________________________________________________________________ In Ponyville, the five friends arrived at Fluttershy's cottage. The tree in her front yard threw an apple at them. Applejack took exception to that. "Why I oughta-" "Applejack, focus." Twilight said. "We still need to get Fluttershy and her element." They opened the door to her cottage, finding it vacant of all except Angel, her pet bunny. He had Fluttershy's Element of Kindness necklace and ran out the door with it. He ran out to the tree, jumping up and down. The tree threw another apple at the group. "Why in all the- that tree nearly hit me!" Rainbow Dash yelled, about ready to fly over and bash the arboreal offender. "Rainbow Dash, wait!" Twilight said, grabbing her tail with her magic, "Angel is trying to tell us something." The rabbit jumped up and down, pointing furiously at the necklace, and then to the tree. Twilight approached the tree, casting her anti-chaos spell on it. Its leaves and limbs shrank down to the form of the yellow Pegasus. "Oh. my." was all poor Fluttershy could get out after the experience. "Fluttershy! Are you okay?" Twilight asked. "Oh yes, I'm fine." she answered. "So what was it like being a tree?" Pinkie asked. "Oh, it was like living the dream." Fluttershy said immediately. "Wait, what?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Oh, I meant it was awful. Just awful." Fluttershy corrected. Angel handed her the necklace. She put it on, completing the six. "That big dumb meany broke his promise. We were friends! Well no more!" "We need to get back to Canterlot and fight Discord." Twilight said. "Oh ho ho, this is juicy!" Twilight heard a voice come from her bag. "The fire of my heart. The flame of my soul? Twilight you never struck me as the poetic romantic type." Discord's voice said from within. Twilight scrambled to open her bag strapped to her. In a flash it vanished. Discord appeared up ahead in the clearing, with her bag in hand. Next to him appeared a giant Blendtek wood chipper. He held the bag over it. "Oh we can't be letting this seeing the light of day. Or rather, the day Princess!" he taunted. "Will it blend? That is the question!" "Give it back!" Twilight demanded. A bright flash of light appeared. Princess Celestia had arrived. "Twilight!" she yelled, "I know what he's planning to do. Whatever you do, don't-" He dropped the bag. Twilight dove after it. She was caught in Celestia's magic, grabbing her and planting her back on safe ground. Her bag and love letter were shredded into a fine mist that snowed all around. Twilight's eyes went pure white, as she levitated into the air. The others joined her, as the Elements of Harmony unleashed upon Discord. As the green magic was expelled from his eyes, he cried out. "Fluttershy! It... was... Chrys-" was all he got out before he was a stone statue once more. The blast radiated out and fixed everything in Ponyville. Aside from Twilight and the princess, it left the the others unconscious from the experience. Princess Celestia inspected the statue. Satisfied that he was once again no longer a threat she turned to Twilight, hugging her tightly. "Twilight, what was so important about that letter that you were nearly ready to die for it? What could it possibly say?" Twilight was in tears. "It was just- It's just that- I- Princess..." Twilight struggled as the memorized words of the letter escaped her. She was so scared of Celestia knowing. But even more afraid of her never knowing. Just as with writing the letter, she tried to speak from the heart, and say what really mattered. She took a deep breath. "...I love you."