(12)
A vibrant and bright sun casted its rays through a royal blue, midday’s sky. The winds were quite calm in the high air and the clouds lofted themselves to and fro along the airways. In the fair distance of the atmosphere loomed the incredible flying floating city of Cloudsdale, home of the Pegasi and alike. It was about half past lunch hour and the city was dying back down into its routine pattern. The Weather Control teams were sent out from their main stations to the sub-stations located in other high traffic areas in Equestria such as Canterlot, Manehattan, even Ponyville. Not every pegasus worked in weather control, however a numerous of them did. Other main jobs in Cloudsdale consisted of working in the Rainbow Factory, the sporting arenas, restaurants, businesses and the like. The city itself wasn’t that much different than any other city in Equestria, the only real difference was that it was a floating city and was the leading producer of all weather activity and control in the land.
Cloudsdale is also known for their sports and entertainment side. Pegasus pony’s were once a warrior race, showing great bravery and acrobatics in the air during combat. Now though, they channel their instincts into more efficient activities. Mainly when ponies thought of Cloudsdale, they thought of the headquarters for the Wonderbolts or perhaps Friesian Sister’s Flying Circus, both are very renowned entertainment groups. Though the Wonderbolts divide their regimen between racing, acrobatics and the such; but they were not always entertainers.
The original team that created the Wonderbolts (once known as the Firebolts, but changed the name to cope with the times) were created for the sole cause of being Equestria’s foundation for aerial combat and defense. The group was created by both the Princess’ to maintain Equestrian Security; however, after Luna’s banishment, the team was gradually disassembled and turned into a more crowd pleasing team of preforming artists. The thousand year reign of peace Celestia had maintained meant that there was no real need for an active military. To show her full support, she broke apart many of the active armed forces, showing her subjects that there would be no need for such things. Thus, the denizens of Equestria were at true peace, but the Firebolt’s activity were still in the dark to the general public.
Firebolt missions and operations were and have always been kept in secret. Only the highest knowledge in Equestria knows of the troubling dilemmas the team had occurred over the course of their activity. Not only were the Firebolts a defensive force, but an offensive strike team. Rumors had spread of their daring operations through the Griffon Empires and even farther beyond the comforts of Equestria. They had shattered many bandit formations that held the crippled Griffon Empire together and on numerous occasions undermined illegal rebellions and activities of not only pony kind, but beyond. This overly offensive group was assigned to do this by Celestia herself in order to maintain peace throughout the kingdoms and empires for as many years as she could.
Celestia had numerous secret bands of forces for battling and damaging every sort of group that opposed her laws of peace and prosperity. To spies, to even secret martial operative teams, she demanded to know all information regarding homeland issues to foreign quandaries–even if it meant spying on her own citizens. She had to know in order to maintain further peace. Though over time, even her own organizations came to dismemberment over the fact they had become sickened by the ways they had betrayed their own kinds. However, not every organization Celestia created knew about the other’s existence, and when they did, they realized they all took a part in bringing Equestria into a silent and orderly police state.
Not everyone in the organizations left after the discovery, a few faithful remained and the organizations were never truly brought to light to the public. Near the ending years of Celestia’s reign of peace, the martial groups were hardly active, but still remained in the shadows, tinkering and meddling with odd affairs. Celestia knew of this, but not everything the organizations she had created told her every detail and had purposely remained partially country locked, leaving outside actives in mystery. They had become rogue, in a sense, but not enemies of the Equestrian Kingdom; they were simply observers and would sometimes go into the public to handle affairs that would get too out of hoof.
Concerning the Firebolts, most of the original members had faded off now, pursuing personal goals, traveling the world, or dying of old age. One remained however, a sole survivor and witness to the mysterious past activities of her former team. She was young when she joined, but highly talented. Now she was old now, though still very strong and very fast; not many could guess her age from her looks, but she had seen quite a fair amount of action in her wild yesteryears. She now trained a new generation of Wonderbolts, far more in number than the Firebolts, but not for ariel combat and espionage, but–of course–for entertainment.
She, along with a handful of others from the Firebolts, Ivory Guards, Composers of the Ballad and more had been chosen to appear in Celestia’s court after multiple events that needed extraordinary efforts. These very few members were chosen specifically by the Princess herself because of their valiant actions in the face of overpowering odds. Whenever one was called forward, it was done in secret; only the Princess and the member chosen will know what had happened. This ancient ritual is forbidden knowledge to the pubic, and highly kept in the closed chambers of Canterlot Castle.
Celestia chooses one pony or other species during every generation to give them a secret that is beyond all other secrets. This, she bestows upon the one she chooses, is the omnipotent elixir of nature. This Elixir is known as the Silver Water of Aeteraeon. A single drop is produced once every one hundred years from a sacred fruit-bearing tree, deep in the Farlands. Its location has never been revealed and is by far the greatest treasure on could possess in any lifetime. The water of Aeteraeon grants a single being immortality upon the taste of the droplet.
They may live forever and shall stand forever as guardians of Equestria; though they still can be killed by mortal injuries, they are blessed with eternal youth, unceasing stamina, and unrelenting protection from all diseases. This grand achievement can only be bestowed upon those who have accomplished eternal greatness and beyond in their lifetimes. Only Celestia knows who all have been blessed by Aeteraeon, but only ten exist to this day, and those ten do not know of each other.
The final member of the Firebolts remained in her home, alone, but more or less happy with Celestia’s reign of peace. She has endured many hardships, but risked so in order to protect her home and loved ones. Her name is Spitfire, and she has been a denizen of Equestria for seven hundred and twenty-three years, and counting. As she looks over her home, she senses something dark coming in the far winds. Something that will shake the city and begin a domino effect throughout the peaceful lands Celestia has strived to maintain. She knows Equestria is not prepared for this coming storm.
A lone pegasus flew into the busy white streets of Cloudsdale. She landed into a trot and marveled at her old home. It had been too long since she had last seen it, but still the magnificent sights and art of the city sent shivers of awe down her back. She held this city as her own, her home town in the sky. Too many wonderful memories reentered her mind once more, times of laughter, times of joy, even times of hardship and sadness broke through her limelight of inner splendor. Though these few pervasive thoughts only made her pride for Cloudsdale increase ever more.
Though Rainbow Dash wasn’t here to be stopped by the gleam and glory of a nostalgic past, she was here for business reasons. It wasn’t such a fun activity of hers and she certainly didn’t look forward to it every year. On this day, the last day she could do so, she had to renew her Weather Control permit for Ponyville to stay an active member of the Weather Pegasi. Rainbow had to get it over with and she knew this was going to take most of the day away; however, she tried her hardest to remain happy about the mandatory procedure.
From across the open air street, she finally saw the building she was looking for. The Department of Weather Ascendency (or the D.W.A.) was a government building with high cloud columns holding up its pyramid shaped roof. The cumulus yard in front of the building had a great obelisk positioned in the middle of the court with a nimbus-shaped pegasi atop it. All of these tall features swayed with the continual updrafts Cloudsdale was known for. All the tall buildings did this and the pegasi were use to it.
Most vacationing citizens of Cloudsdale were quite shocked from the buildings and towers back on the ground had a general uneasiness about the ground itself. Most, if not all who lived in the clouds, pegasi stayed afloat their entire lives, hardly touching the ground below. Some even had a fear of the ground and the bizarre world beneath them. It is estimated one out of fifteen pegasi who call their homes in the clouds experience a neurological disorder where they fear the earth below. They were classified as experiencing terraphobia, the fear of ground. Rainbow Dash had overcome her fears during her filly years, but not all are as brave as her and continually live in a state of terror.
The cyan pegasus slowly fluttered her way across the cloud yard to the stoop of the building. Grievance was building up inside her and soon dread had pushed her away from entering the door. She knew though if she didn’t go through with this procedure she would have to retake all six months of classes in order to regain her license, which Rainbow knew she didn’t want to do. However, she didn’t want to waste her weekend off on a beautiful day like this, she wanted to spend every bit of her time in the air or with her friends back in Ponyville. She longed for an escape from this unusual punishment and continually thought of what she would be doing with her friends right now. This impasse weighed on her entire being, immobilizing her body to even reach out and open the front door.
Then a sudden notion came to her from the blue, through the reminiscing of friends and merry times. She thought of Zack. Though she never spent a great deal of time with him, the times she did spend with him were quite incredible, even if they weren’t for long. For the greatest time, she was a bit taken back by his oblong and awkward bipedal appearance, though she was an accepting pegasus and overtime grew to enjoy his company. She had had her fair share of strange creatures that would drift into her cloud city and accepted the fact that the world was much bigger than a city in the sky.
From days at the swimming hole with her friends and him, to camping trips with her girls and Zack, those days seemed so long ago when she began to rekindle her mind while sitting on the steps of the D.W.A. building. One day stuck out the most in her memory, a day in which she spent an entire afternoon with him. She never took the surreal opportunity of it until it was too late, but remembered it so keenly. She thought about it often and would continue to do so for days to come. He had spent a fair amount of time with every member of the Elements of Harmony over the six years he was in Ponyville, (much so more with Pinkie Pie) but this one moment she continually thought of burned in her mind like a comet in the deep of space.
The day they spent mostly together was a day which only occurred in a few numbered times during a lifetime. A day in which one could say one was truly in the epitome of paradise and bliss. Where every wrong and every problem could be blown away like tuft seeds on a dandelion. The day to her then was a lost experience she desperately tried to hold onto. She felt as if she was lost in that paradise the day gave to her and only found the way out by accident. A price in which she would soon have to pay.
They laid upon an open hill overlooking a part of the valley in which Ponyville rested in. They were alone as they gazed upon the sun seeping under the mountains beyond and watched the colors of the day melt into the beauty of night. Cool winds blanketed the two as they rested their heads and upper bodies on an oak. The warm air and scent of nature and flowers allured the senses of the two and brought them into a tranquil state of mind.
The purpose for this visit wasn’t to chat, (at first) but because Zack offered to help keep time while Rainbow Dash performed laps around Ponyville. The whole gang eventually showed up, all five and Zack eagerly watched the cyan pony zip across the landscape over and over again for hours at a time. As the day grew, one by one each of her friends would leave, the last of which was Pinkie Pie, whom one would think would have sat there forever watching her best pony friend do what she loved. Eventually, she remembered that she was called in to work at a specific time and jetted off back to the village.
Then after a few more minutes, Rainbow Dash stopped and was surprised to see Zack still remained, faithfully holding her stopwatch. As soon as she landed, he gave her her time. Rainbow discovered that she was unsuccessful at breaking her previous record for one thousand laps over Ponyville, but it didn’t worry her the slightest as she fell over onto the soft grass and rested her tired body at the base of a tree, the same which Zack had been standing under. He joined her and the memories began.
For hours they talked, not moving from their shared location. A day at first Rainbow Dash disliked, knowing that it wasn’t a day of success for her and more or less a waste of a day; but gradually her mind unwound into a strange, hypnotic repose only Zack was able to do to her. They chatted about all sorts of things, casual things, personal things, it was a time they both really got to know each other for whom they really were. Zack would tell her about his interests, what his world was like, his hobbies, passions, hopes and dreams. She would talk to him about things such as that, and after some time, she even told him about her insecurities and her past and present hardships. She eventually fully opened up to him, as he did much earlier before her. Zack even began to tell her things even ponies like Pinkie Pie didn’t know, which was difficult for him to even preform.
It was in a instant when the light shinned right and the wind blew in just the right direction. When the stars far beyond aligned themselves and all the sadness and pain and agony in the world were silenced in that few seconds Rainbow Dash witnessed. She looked upon Zack and he looked upon her; though she knew nothing of what he was thinking, just the appearance Zack gave was such an uncanny and subtle expression who he unintentionally gave to her that it opened her eyes. She felt a rising sensation build up within herself, a secret fire began to burn from a small tinder pile to a roaring bonfire. A feeling that almost sent her into a dizzy, happy and sickening experience she had yet to find words to describe it for. His relaxed smile, his powerful jawline, his deep, brown eyes that graced over her body, his wavering hair in the evening wind, it was too much for her handle at once; but through some, (now reluctant) power, she hid her overbearing feelings from him. Somehow she succeeded in this, she hid her true emotions.
Love was what she discovered it was after many hours had passed and she found herself alone again in her bedroom. Such a foreign and perplexing feeling she thought of it. Did every mare feel this way? Was it even possible to fall in love so quickly and deeply that it suffocated her very being? She wondered if she would ever experience such an overpowering sense like that again in her life. She wept for that sensation to happen for days, she sobbed aloud and mercilessly for Zack. She was confused, angry and happy all at once. She allowed her emotions to flow out in the safety of her home as she fell upon her cirrus bed sheets and cried. Rainbow Dash thought she knew it all, that she knew her body and mind better than anyone else and was the strongest, fastest and greatest of all pegasi in Ponyville, but in solitude she wallowed in a pitiful sight, crying over someone she hardly knew yesterday.
Her mind then fooled with her to avoid him, to try and not to mess up her opportunities with him. She began to think that maybe soon she would be able to tell him, to sing it from the highest peak or the tallest tower. She waited and battled with herself internally for days. The power which tried to claw itself from her mind and out her lips relentlessly struggled with the cyan mare. The painful and saddening days turned to days, weeks, then months. Twelve of those months she had built herself a secret sanctum within her mind to shield her sweetest, deepest feelings and most agonizing, painful fears. Over the year, she saw and knew that Pinkie was the one in his eye, and she ever so desired him as well. She loved that pink mare as much as a friend could and hardly blamed her for what had befallen herself. It wasn’t her fault after all.
So she now remained alone, defeated by the inevitable wall that Pinkie had built up long before she could even begin to tear it down from its foundations. The pieces were already in motion for their final strike before she even knew how to play the game. It was unfair, unsportsmanlike perhaps; but through the silence and darkness, Rainbow persisted, even though she knew she had already lost. She kept her priorities ahead of her broken, inner self for those years, never revealing her true feelings. She acted like a friend to everyone, even when she met with Zack again, but everyday she would feel that lingering pain gnawing at her core. She sat on this thought that day, she sat and never even entered the building, accepting defeat once more.
“H-How has he escaped,” Luna clamored in disbelief. “Nothing of this world can escape...”
“Precisely," Celestia answered, "He is not of this world.”
“The signs! The signs said we would have time to prepare for this! We cannot fight him. We have not prepared for this.” The two fell silent, now knowing that something was watching them from behind.
This something spoke out, “You surely cannot, my dear alicorns.”
The sisters turned simultaneously to meet face to face with their old nemesis. Luna gasped in horror, flash backs of days drenched in madness and mayhem overtook her; she dared not speak in front of such a powerful entity. Discord hardly budged from their actions. They found him leaning on the door post with arms closed and a sneer expression across his face. He lazily blinked, giving them the hint that they were hardly a threat to his master plan. Celestia’s horn suddenly glowed violently, giving a golden aura that filled their end of the room with a blinding blast of light. Her eyes even burned with the same intensity as she stepped in front of her sister and shielded her with her wings and body mass.
“Discord,” she exclaimed aloud. She trembled, trying to hold back the raw magic she produced from within herself. There was, by far, enough magic built within her horn at that moment to shatter the castle around them, sending it off of the mountainside in burning and crumbling rubble. The magic might she was producing could easily be felt by every unicorn in Canterlot and they knew something terrifyingly powerful was in their presence. This was planned by Celestia, to warn her kin that something terrible was in their kingdom.
Luna noticed something strange and alerted her sister, “Stop! Something isn’t right...” Her words had no sudden effect on Celestia and she began to plead with her, “Sister, please! Just sense his energy for one moment and you will see he isn’t himself. This isn’t the Discord we fought a millennia ago.”
She narrowed her vision and sensed Discord’s presence. Luna was right, something was very off about the draconequus. Celestia subsided her power gradually and remained in her upright stance, still ready to protect her kingdom and everything she loved.
Discord let the two sense his being and remarked on Celestia’s outburst, “My my, isn’t somepony in a tizzy over an old buddy? Can’t we all just be friends again?”
Discord levitated himself to the center of the room, hearing the stamping of the entire Royal Guard in the castle a ways behind him. He allowed them to enter and encircle him from all directions. Unicorn and earth pony guards pressed their shoulders together with spears aimed for the beast before them while pegasi guards floated above, pointing spears down at him. Valiant and Shining Armor walked in behind the rest and stood amongst the Princesses. Discord looked about them, almost as if counting the number of guards that circled him.
He said to the multitude, “The cavalry has arrived!”
“I know all about you, Discord,” Valiant stated with firmness.
“And you are?”
“The Six Star General of Harmony, Valiant Steed. And my good colleague here is Captain of the Guard, Shining Armor. We’re here to ruin you plans.”
Discord gave a toothily smile towards Valiant and chuckled, “Well, isn’t that a cute title, friend?” Valiant remained confident with his head held high, unaffected by the insult and showing no emotion towards him.
A lone guard spoke to Celestia while keeping eye contact with the enemy, “Give us the word, my liege, and we will gut this ‘thing’ for you in a heart beat!” He then silently conferred with himself, “How did this guy even get past us this far into the castle?”
“Better yet,” Luna broke in, “what’s happened to you, Discord? You’re not yourself!”
“Aren’t you the cleverest pony in the room! Everypony, give our youngest Princess a round of applause for her obvious findings!” He merrily clapped away while the rest in the room were still somber and ready for an imminent attack. Seeing that no one else was clapping, he abruptly stopped and huffed in annoyance.
“Well allow me to give you stone dead ponies a monologue to clear things up before I ruin everyone’s fun.” He then grabbed one of the guard’s spears and folded it into a ball of metal in his hands. He pressed it, twisted it, and smoothed it quickly, then handed it back to him in the shape of a flintlock pistol. The earth pony had no idea what it was and still pointed it at Discord.
After that little bit of humor he gave himself, he started to explain, “My name, ‘Discord’ shouldn’t even be used now for what I’ve done. You see, I’ve split my powers, so to speak, with a buddy of mine. Hexarch, ring a bell? Any-who, I gave him my chaotic powers to cause as much devastation with his seven thousand children as his heart could handle. And by that, I mean to go around and feast off of all the 'love and friendship’ in Equestria... And once they’ve feasted, they will grow strong enough to take the rest of this little dust ball in a blink of an eye.
He went on, "So I know you’re asking yourself, ‘Well if Discord doesn’t have his powers of chaos anymore, what’s stopping us from stopping him?’ Well I’m glad you asked, because here’s the thing: Do you really believe such a petty, dimensional tearing power such as chaos was the only tools I had up my sleeve? You, my two sister’s, should know well enough that before I was even endowed with chaos, that I was of greater power than you! That I was a completely different being than anything this world had ever lain eyes on! Before chaos took over me, I was invincible, but when it did fully take me, I became weak, soft hearted, a silly and measly excuse for a previous ruler of the cosmos. But now, I’ve willingly given that power to Hexarch. My, who know’s how that’s going to eventually change him, but now I am my old self again. I have all the experience of my previous powers and now can fully be a devastatingly, all-powerful threat to every-single-creature in this entire universe!”
With that final shout, he flung his arms out and a blast of dark energy overcame the the guards around and above him. Celestia, Luna, and Valiant were quickly shielded from the raw magical power by Shining Armor. When the four unshielded themselves, Discord was seen standing alone. Around him were piles of black ash, dust, and the melted metal the guards wore as armor.
“My word...” Valiant stammered in disbelief as to what just happened, “y-you... you bastard!” Shining’s mouth was gaped open from what he just witnessed.
With burning rage, he fumed, “You’ll pay for what you just committed!”
Celestia finally spoke up, “Cease! He will only kill you two as quickly as our guards. He’s toying with us...”
Luna took stand and asked the draconequus, “If you want us, then take us, Discord! No more need for this violence!”
Valiant looked back at Princess Luna shocked, “You can’t give yourselves up so easily! I will fight to my death to protect you two from that monster!”
Discord interrupted on that remark Valiant gave, “Now that was a little uncalled for.”
“Silence,” Shining snapped back with ferocity. “Now tell us, what do you want! We beg of you! We do not need any more violence or casualties today!”
The draconequus slipped in between the four and made his way over to a large, stained glass window in front of them. He leaned against the glass with one paw and folded the other arm behind his back. The four dared not to attack him while his back was turned; Discord was cunningly clever and even more so now that his original, malevolent persona was untainted by pure chaos.
“What I desire,” he began slowly, overlooking the Canterlot streets below, “Now that is something I’ve been dying to get off my chest.” His insane and malicious behavior had subsided into a more somber and serious one. “I am looking for the one you’ve been keeping right here in this castle. The one who hasn’t showed his cowardice face yet. Does he mock me by doing so, Celestia?”
Instead of Celestia responding, Luna spoke up again and replied, “He isn’t here! Sense his power, he is no where near here.” A moment of silence fell over the room and Discord tried to feel out for a few seconds the power Zack usually gave off.
“Where did you hide him? You know... I will tear this castle apart to find him.” No one responded back and Discord was displeased by this action everyone took.
“No worries,” he said with rising laughter, “I see you all are very strong and won’t tell me a single thing... not that it means anything. I'll still kill you all and everything you love. I will turn every mountain upside down to find him! I will murder everyone who opposes my desires! I will search every corner of the world until my hands find their way around his neck–!”
“–Why are you afraid of him, Discord,” Celestia finally spoke up. With that question, Discord turned and gave her a quizzical look. He didn’t expect that question and knew that he was somewhat afraid of this dimensional traveling being. Yet he hid his fear with a figurative mask and remained as serious and terrifying as he once was.
He responded, “Do you know why I search for him? You surely know why... And I know exactly what I’ll do to get his attention.”
He pointed a talon at the window and a beam of red energy shot forth from its tip. The beam collided with the glass and the tint of the window swirled into a mirrored image of Cloudsdale. It was as if looking through the clearest window out towards the city. Discord turned again and rose his paw out in front of him with his palm facing the floor. The ground shook and from the area his paw was facing a throne rose up from the floor. His own personal throne, a coal and red leathered seat with a back that rose high above him. The throne’s head curved outward and from it sported two deer antlers. He sat himself upon his chair and crossed his legs, facing the magic window to Cloudsdale.
“Why are you showing us Cloudsdale,” asked Valiant.
Discord pivoted his head around and gave the pegasus pony a faint smile, “The fun’s about to begin. You might as well kick back and relax, I know I am.”
Celestia approached Valiant and instructed, “You have to go to Cloudsdale, warn them before it’s too late! I’m not sure what Discord is planning, but you must try and protect the city. Me, Shining Armor and my sister will watch over Discord. Now hurry!”
“My Princess, I don’t think we’ll have enough time to gather enough aerial troops to–”
“You must go, alone! They will aid you when they arrive!”
“But–”
“Fly, you foal!”
On that last order, he took flight out of the door, out of the castle and into the sky towards Canterlot. From the distant mountains, beyond Valiant’s eye sight, a large, dark cloud hovered closer and closer towards the city in the sky.