//------------------------------// // The Only Option // Story: We Fight as One // by chaos2012 //------------------------------// We Fight as One Written by chaos2012 Edited by SapphireLibra3, Dirty Bit, FlimFlamBrothers, Thardoc Pre read by Seven81493, RainbowBob, Pony Vegeta --- Confusion. That was the first feeling that went through Celestia's mind when she felt the strange power radiating throughout the air. The odd magic had been coming almost nonstop for the last ten minutes from the direction that Ponyville was located. From her balcony outside her large bedroom, she could see a single column of white light shoot up every few seconds in the sunny sky. “What is happening there?" She asked herself. The sound of her bedroom doors opening broke her train of thought. Flipping her head around, she watched as her younger sister Luna quickly galloped onto the balcony and stood next to her older sibling. "Tia, you felt the it as well?" Celestia nodded. "Yes Luna, it has been happening for a small time now. I cannot get a good sense on what it is." "It woke me up just now. I can only tell that it’s some sort of strange magic, but I can't get a full reading on it. Have you gotten a report from Twilight about it?" "No..." Celestia quietly responded, "I have sent her several letters just now asking if she knows anything on the matter, but I haven't gotten a response back." Luna looked back out to the flashing in the distance, becoming more curious every second it continued. "Maybe we should go ourselves to see what the disturbance is?” she asked. “Perhaps Twilight’s already there and hasn’t gotten your letters." Wanting to figure out what was happening, Celestia nodded as she opened up her massive wings. Luna followed suit by opening her broad but shorter wings outward. Both royal alicorns flapped and pushed themselves off the balcony with a powerful thrust. Wanting to reach the strange occurrence as soon as possible, the princesses decided to fly themselves instead of waiting for the chariots to carry them to the destination. The land passed by in a quick blur, the forest trees whistling by as the pair of alicorns flew rapidly. After several minutes, they came upon a large grass clearing set between a pair of mountains. Sensing the disturbance coming from there, they banked to the side and dropped their altitude until they were several feet off the ground. When they came to the center of the field, what they saw was not what they expected. "Discord?" The draconequus was lying down on his side sipping on a glass of chocolate milk. Done with it, he slapped the glass onto the ground with his tail, causing the magic burst into the sky, the same bust that the princesses had been seeing. Glancing to his left, Discord smiled at the new arrivals. "Well it is about time you both showed up! I knew that you would want to come and try to to find out what was going on." Folding her wings into her side, Luna eyed the spirit curiously. "What are you doing here, Discord? Why were you doing that magic there?" "Well I had to get you two out of Canterlot somehow,” he said. “If I were to do what I plan to do in that city, it would have been quite messy. I also figured Ponyville would be annoying little spot as well." Hopping off the grass, Discord's large tooth glinted in the light as he grinned, "Having you two here alone also makes it easier without your pesky guards wanting to interfere." The princesses exchanged concerned glances at each other hearing the words leave the spirits mouth. "What are you talking about?" Celestia asked. "Isn't it obvious? I am about to rid myself of the two ponies that originally imprisoned me in stone!” He laughed. “Why live under the shadow of you when I have the power to flip all of Equestria over on itself?" "What!?" Luna gasped, "You plan on returning to your past ways? You agreed to abandon that horrid way of life and serve myself and my sister." Discord chuckled as he turned his back to the two alicorns and walked several steps away. “Oh, so you think that I turned all good because I learned the magic of friendship? I must say I did find it quite nice to actually have a pony that wanted to call me their friend. That, however, was only amusing to me for about fifteen seconds. My true calling is what I was born to do, to create chaos, mishaps and chocolate rain.” He stopped and turned to face them once again, a sinister grin plastered across his face. “No matter how hard you try to control it, the very thing you are attempting to bend to your order will break free, just like I did.” Celestia glared up at the tall spirit. “I gave you the chance at redemption so that you would be able to live free and-” “Oh shut up with your lies about wanting to use my powers for good and all of that.” Discord snapped back at her. His tone had shifted from his usual carefree attitude to an angered release in moments. “I am clever enough to know that the real reason you set me free was because you knew that I was to escape again soon. I was sealed away for a thousand years when you two, the royal princesses themselves, wielded the Elements of Harmony with much more control and power.” Luna’s eyes went wide when she heard that. “You… you knew?” “Oh Lulu, did you think that I couldn’t tell the difference in the power surge that struck me? With you together, the elements were much more powerful than the use by six pathetic little ponies. How long do you think I would have been held this time, hmm? A hundred years? Ten years? Eight months? No, the truth is that you two were afraid that I was to be released even faster because the bearers, while still representing the elements, do not contain the same level of energy that you two do. Just to be careful though, I took precautions with those little ponies.” Celestia felt her heart jump a beat when she heard him say that. “Precaution? What do you mean? Where… where is Twilight and the others?” Grinning, Discord snapped his talons together, causing a bright flash to appear around his feet. When the light dissipated, both Luna and Celestia gasped. Standing frozen in stone were the six bearers of the elements. Twilight stood in the center, poised with her head in the air as if she was preparing a spell. Directly behind her was Spike, his eyes wide in shock and terror. To the left was Applejack, her face scrunched up in anger as her body was crouched down in an attack position. Cowering behind the farm pony was Fluttershy, curled up into a little ball so that she didn’t have to look at her attacker. Pinkie Pie was the first one on Twilights’ right side, standing on her hind legs with her standard party cannon still held between her hooves as if to use it as a physical weapon. Rarity was off to the side, also on her back legs with one of her forehooves draped over her face as she prepared to faint backwards. The final statue was of Rainbow Dash, who was lying on her side with her wings flared out since she had been frozen mid flight. A powerful shaking overcame the legs of the white alicorn as she stared at the imprisoned form of her prized student next to her friends. Seeing her reaction caused a loud laugh to escape Discord’s throat. “Oh Tia, you put a spell over the elements that kept me from touching them, yet you did nothing to keep the element bearers protected. After only a few days, they felt that I had become safe enough to not wear the elements all the time thanks to this little one.” He chuckled as he bent down and patted Fluttershy on top of the head. “Don’t worry, they aren’t dead, only sealed in stone just like I had been.” Luna stepped forward towards the spirit of chaos, her eyes burning with anger and hatred. Streams of electricity began pulsing around the length of her horn as she charged her magic. “Discord, you will pay for what you did to all of them.” “Now now, Lulu, do you think that you two alone have the power to challenge me? You both probably realize by now that when one tries to control chaos…” Discord lifted his lion paw up in the air as a blue aura began to pulse from the tips of the claws, “it only grows stronger!” music link Slamming his paw into the ground, the energy rushed outward through the dirt all around him. Moments later, several large boulders were pulled up from below and lifted into the air. Chuckling to himself, Discord snapped his talons, which caused the floating rocks to become enveloped in bright flames. Moments later, the burning boulders were flung through the air towards the two princesses. Opening their wings, they jumped up above the rocks moments before they crashed into the ground where they had been standing moments before. Luna charged first, flying up into the air and quickly focusing the magic in her horn to conjure a swirling ball of blue energy and launching it at the draconequus. Discord chuckled as he watched the attack coming towards him. “Something so simple will not stop me, Luna. You will have to do better than that.” Holding his arms out, he reached out and caught the magical sphere. Spinning around, he clutched the ball and launched it back and quickly followed with a shot of his own blue energy. Dropping down, Luna barely evaded her own technique when the second attack came too fast to dodge. Summoning a shield, Discord’s magic struck the barrier with the force of a train, knocking Luna back several feet in the air. As the smoke cleared, she deactivated her magic to look for her opponent, but was shocked to not see him there. Moments later, the bright flash behind her revealed Discord charging her with claws extended. “Lie down and make way for chaos, my dear!” He yelled out ecstatically. Celestia’s beam of yellow magical blast forced Discord to conjure his own defensive shield. Frowning, he turned to see the sun princess barreling his direction. “That was not nice of you Tia, trying to sneak up on me while I was busy.” Turning back to Luna, he snapped his claws and summoned a large glowing silver ball of magic and threw it at the lunar princess. It burst into a mass of ice, freezing her wings and dragged her down as she fell helplessly to the ground below. Conjuring a fireball, Celestia shot it out at Discord. While it was still flying through the air, she focused her energy and teleported high above him. As Discord used his magic to blow apart the incoming fire, Celestia used this chance to try to strike with another light stream. Before she could however, Discord disappeared in a flash and ended up above her. “Peek-a-boo! Here comes my tail!” Discord did a summersault her direction followed by his tail smacking over her head and sending her spinning out of control to the land with a hard crash. Crawling off the ground and out of the small crater she formed, the white alicorn shook the dirt off that collected across her fur. Celestia watched as Discord slowly floated down to the ground between both she and her sister in the clearing, a grin spread across his smug face. “You two certainly aren’t done already are we? I almost felt like I had to break a sweat back there.” Luna glared at the cackling spirit as she stepped is direction. “I must say Discord, you really have lowered yourself with this display here. Never in the past would you have had the audacity to physically attack us like this. Does this make you feel so much more powerful than before because of what you are doing?” “Hahahaha! Oh Lulu, this isn’t because I am trying to prove something!” Discord paused as he put a talon to his chin, “Well now that you mention that, I am proving that I am stronger than you.” Slapping his knee from his joke, Discord took a breath to compose himself. “No, I am doing this because it will guarantee my freedom. I cannot simply turn you into stone like I did to the bearers. No, both of you are much too powerful even for my magic to simply do that. I have to make sure that you are completely out of my way.” “And killing us will be the way to your total freedom?” Celestia questioned him, “You are fool to ever think that. Even if you were to eliminate us, all of Equestria would rise together and come to confront you. Control is something that will be out of your grasp even if we were-” “Control?” Discord interjected, “Control is never a thing I ever intended to have once you two are gone. And that is the point I’m trying to make; you two were what kept this land in order and in harmony, not those precious little elements of yours. All of the ponies that crawl about their miserable lives all look to you for guidance and wisdom. Even if I were to free little Twilight and her band of misfits, if they saw that you two were gone, they would panic and lose all form of hope in ever trying to return to the way things were, because nothing could ever go back.” Both princesses glanced at each other from their spots and stared for several long moments before simultaneously giving a nod to the other. Seeing that Discord had no intention on negotiations, they knew they had to do what was necessary to protect their home from this beast. From Celestia’s horn a bright golden cloud billowed out from the tip, shifting and condensing itself until it formed her large sword. Luna did the same as well, except her aura split itself into two smaller units until they formed her preferred dual blades. music link Discord lifted an eyebrow out of amusement. “A weapon’s duel? Oh please, I am surprised you would ever want do something so barbaric. But if you insist…” Clapping his palms together, a large red battle axe formed between his claws, the massive head of the weapon over three feet across. Unlike the weapons of the princesses, which shifted slightly as they moved, his weapon was much more condensed and solid due to the level of magic that he could conjure and still fully control. Slumping the axe over his shoulder, Discord pointed a free claw in Celestia’s direction. “I am going to get medieval on your flanks!” Bursting forward, Celestia swung her long blade around at Discord, who in turn casually used one of his arms to swing his giant axe outward and strike the assault to the side. Jumping at him again, the sun goddess grit her teeth as she swung over and over, side to side at the cackling spirit as he easily countered each one of her blows. Luna quickly jumped in as she brought both blades down from above. Using the hilt of his axe, Discord, blocked both of Luna’s swords as he used his tail to reach up and wrap around her ankles. Yelping, she felt herself get ripped out of the air and thrown to the ground with a hard thud. Crawling back up, the blue alicorn lifted her blades back up and charged again. Both Luna and Celestia simultaneously went at Discord, The colliding magical blades creating blinding flashes of vibrant light with every hit. Working together, they attempted alternating their strikes with one another; when Luna would attack from the right with a flurry of wild slashes, Celestia would bring her sword down from above to crash down onto the spirit’s head. With that failing, Celestia would bring her sword over her head and bring it down with all her strength attempting to knock him off balance while Luna struck at him from behind. With every combination that they tried however, Discord continued to counter them without trouble. Even with his massive weapon, he was able to move it with the same level of speed and agility of a small dagger. Focusing on Luna first, the draconequus over powered her smaller blades with ease, making her stay on the defensive. Swinging and using his tail to trip her ankle, Discord used his chance to swing his axe with both arms at her head. Bringing her swords up, Luna felt the massive blow catapult her forty feet back and crash into the side of the nearby mountain. Turning to Celestia, Discord teleported behind her and tossed the axe into air and caught it with his tail. Panicking, Celestia spun around and lifted her blade as fast as she could, deflecting the axe away from her. As Discord spun around, he caught the princess by surprise with the ball of red magic he formed in his claws and launched it into her chest. Screaming out, the white alicorn bounced across the dirt and skidded to a stop near the base of the mountain by her sister. Laughing at his success, Discord snapped his talons once again, causing his axe to disappear in a flash. “I do say, that was more fun than I expected from the two of you, but I have had enough of this little game.” Flying high into the air, he opened up both of his palms and began charging up his magic in each. “I believe now is the time to end all order to this world and allow chaos to be the force that rules. Forever!” (End music) Crawling back up from the hole she formed in the mountain, Luna ran over to her sister’s side and helped her off the ground. Standing up from the dirt, Celestia spit out a small mouthful of blood and ash, she cringed from the burn mark on her chest. Before she could thank her sister, a gust of energy rushed past her and blew her mane backwards. Turning forward, her heart dropped. The elder sister watched in horror as Discord floated high above the ground, the energy leaving his body causing the atmosphere to shift around him. The sky grew dark as the clouds pulled together high above the spirit, shifting from white to near black as the energy inside of them changed. Lighting began escaping the clouds, the bright flashes streaming across the sky and illuminating the entire area with every strike. Luna felt like everything in her life was falling apart; she had come back from the moon after a thousand years of banishment and was able to be free of the dark power that held her. After time, she had overcome the emptiness in her life with the feeling of rejoining her sisters sided and wonderful friends she had made. Now, this one being that floated above her was about to destroy everything that she had. "This can't be happening. We have to try again." She exclaimed. Celestia wanted to agree, but she knew it was pointless. "Luna, it... It's over." She solemnly said with her head hung low. "No, don't say that! We can work together! We will stop him!" “I wish I could agree with you Luna, but no matter how hard we tried, our powers do not compare to Discord." Celestia paused as she looked up to the sky above, watching the aura grow brighter from Discord's claws, "I wanted to believe that reforming him would give us the way of not see having to face him again. I was a fool for ever thinking he would change. I should have never have released him. Now he is about to destroy the very world that we had worked together to keep in balance and- Celestia's eyes snapped wide open when she realized the words that had escaped her mouth. "Together." She whispered. "Together?" Luna questioned, "We are already fighting him together." Not responding, Celestia used her magic to unclip the left earring she wore, a small golden jewel attached to a thin golden chain, and levitated it over towards her younger sibling. Seeing what it was, Luna felt her chin drop in shock. "Th-the earrings of Solaris?" The blue alicorn stuttered. Celestia nodded. "It is the only way for us to defeat him, Luna. We have to use these." "Tia, you know exactly what will happen once we use those! There is no turning back once it’s done." "I know that, and I am willing to do that if it is you that shall be the other half." Luna stared in disbelief to what her sister was offering. The earrings of Solaris, one if the greatest pieces of magic ever developed in the history of their world. In the entire time of them living, the princesses had always kept the earrings close, but never once ever tested them out since the effects were permanent, never able to reverse back to normal. "You are willing to give up your life for this Celestia? You or I will never be the same after we choose this." A loving smile spread over Celestia's face. "You are my sister. If I were to use the Earrings of Solaris with anypony, I would rather it be you. This will not only help us defeat him, it will push our bonds to the next level. Never again will we ever be apart." Luna chuckled at hearing that as she used her magic to grab the floating jewelry. "Together in spirit and body." Clipping on the earring to her left ear, she nodded to her sister. "I am ready." A lone tear dripped down Celestia's cheek as she nodded to her sibling. "I love you Luna." "I love you too." Luna responded. Standing facing each other, both alicorns enveloped their bodies in their bright aura. The glowing magic pushed outward until the gold and blue masses were nearly touching. Celestia tilted her head up into the air to allow more of her magic to mix into her area as she spoke the opening lines to the enchantment. “Abandon the life I have had as one…” Luna did the same with her magic as she continued the second line. “To be alone in this body I will now be done…” “In soul and in body I choose to give…” “to begin anew a way to live…” The magic around each of the alicorns grew higher into the air, the mass of energy pushing outward and whipping the grass backwards. The earrings on each of them began glowing brighter as they began saying the lines in unison. “Forging this bond will last all time, and drawing together our bond divine. Combine our bodies, souls and our minds for use, forever together as one we fuse!” In a blinding flash, the two masses of magic suddenly crashed together, shifting all around and pulsing out from the center. As the bright light in the center began to fade, the spinning mix of golden and blue magic began to blend together to form a beautiful sea of green. A moment later, A massive column of energy burst out from the top of the mix, rushing up into the sky and tearing a large area of clouds apart. As the magic began to dissipate, Discord watched in confusion as the sun moved itself to the hole in the cloud cover. After a moment, a dark shape eased its way into the path of the bright star until it completely blocked the sun out. Looking at the solid black dot in the sky, Discord realized what it was. "The moon? Why would it be out right now and blocking the sun?" music link Turning back to the ground, Discord stared intently to something he saw moving in the dissipating cloud of dust. Curious, he snapped his claws to cause a small gust of wind to blow away the troublesome dirt out of his view. What he saw truly did surprise him. It was a tall alicorn, about a full head taller than Celestia was. Set behind the long horn on the forehead was a flowing mane of shifting hues ranging from a shimmering pink, royal blue and a light green all surrounding a single thick section of sparkling midnight blue. Its coat appeared so bleached white that it was almost translucent to the eyes. Set on the new figures back was not one, but two set of long wings that tucked in one on top of the other. The ending of each long primary feather was a deep blue which would be seen on the clearest of nights. Set on its flank was a cutie mark of the sun partially eclipsed by a crescent moon. Lifting an eyebrow at the new alicorn before him, Discord noticed the pile of mixed gold and blue royal jewelry piled on the ground at the hooves of the bare covered being. His eyes then followed to the golden earrings that dangled at the side of the alicorns cheeks, realizing exactly what had happened. "The earrings of Solaris? Hmm. Now this is something I’ve never expected to ever see happen. The last time I saw those used was between two unicorn mages over a thousand years ago. You have chosen to fuse together." The new alicorn opened its eyes, revealing radiant emerald colored irises that sparkled in the light. The focused gaze of the new figure stared intently at Discord with no form of emotion on her face. "We are no longer the princess of the day or of the night, but now are one." Discord took a step back at hearing the calm yet powerful voice that left the mouth of the new alicorn. The loving and soothing tone of Celestia was perfectly synchronized with the stern and demanding voice of Luna echoing behind. Working together, the dual toned speech of this being was the perfect blend of both princesses. Sneering, discord crossed his arms across his chest and glared at the figure. "So, fusing together you believe that you will have a chance at defeating me? I am sorry to disappoint you, but I doubt doubling your strength will help in the least." "You do not know the extent of the abilities that we have attained now, Discord. Combining the powers of what we once were has given us the level of strength needed to stop you." Grinning, discord flapped his small wings to lift his feet off the ground, "So, you wish for another bout? Alright then, I at least would like to know the name of the pony that stands before my way of power." Tapping his chin, he thought of a clever name he could call her. "What should I call a Celestia and a Luna? I think Celuna is something cute for you." The tall alicorn closed its eyes as she trotted forward a few steps. "We are the ruler of the light of day, and the goddess of the dark night. We represent the combination of the sun and the moon." Reopening her sparkling eyes, she smiled up to Discord. "You can call us Eclipse." To be continued...