//------------------------------// // The spell // Story: Discords renascent // by Vidhwansak //------------------------------// The spell (Alright, and now we're back on to the dual chapter release, again, I'm sorry for the filler chapter last time! I still feel like this chapter is unfinished and could use quite a bit of work, so I may chose to redo this chapter as well sometime in the future.) After having receiving his permission, Celestia went about preparing the spell. She went about, making sure the Elements of Harmony were in the right places for the spell they were going to cast on their older brother. Discord and Luna simply watched her move about, giving slight nudges to the Elements in various places. Celestia then motioned with a hoof for Discord to come over and stand in the middle of the circle of Elements. Giving her sister the benefit of the doubt, Discord walked over lazily, and sat down inside the circle. After doing so, Celestia walked over to Luna, and gently nudged her over towards the circle. "Luna, stand near, but not inside the 'circle' of Elements on that side, at least until you're ready to give up your memory. I shall be on the other side, watching. The important thing is to not step inside the circle until we've gathered up enough energy. Doing so might cast a premature spell, and I really don't want to see what would happen. Discord, please don't distract us while we're doing this, I'd rather you not let us get killed from losing control of our magic. In order to return you back into an Alicorn, you'll be put into a sphere of magic, and yes, this is needed for the spell, so don't panic and fire off a spell of your own." Discord rolled his eyes, but nodded silently, giving into his sister. As much as he would've liked to mess them up, now that he thought about it, it probably wouldn't end well in a spell like this, especially for him. So he wouldn't, for all their sakes, but mostly his. Sighing, Luna nodded over at her sister, signifying that she was ready. As ready as she was ever going to be, she thought dryly. "Alright, Celly, let's cast the spell." Celestia wordlessly nodded back at her, and together, the two sisters began to gather their magic, letting it flow around them. Soon, the two royal sisters had their own individual spheres of magic encasing them. Then, by an unspoken word between them, the spheres drifted off towards each other, seemingly melting into one another to form one sphere. Discord watched, impressed with his sisters and their magic. They've certainly come along a long way since being those tiny fillies he looked after, once upon a time. The thought made him smile. As the spheres combined with each other, the Elements of Harmony start to glow and resonate with their own magic, adding it to that of the sphere. Interesting, the combined magical energy of his sisters and the Elements would be more than enough to power many high-level spells...All this was required for one spell, for him? The amount of sheer power here was overwhelming, and he could feel panic rising up in his chest. This could go wrong, so very wrong. His thoughts soon turned to other...Possibilities. He could end this, with one simple spell, just enough to distract them. He could rule over Equestria, and eventually, the world, if he got rid of his sisters. With great exertion, he managed to drive away such thoughts. What was he thinking? Firing off a random spell now of all times would be disastrous, and in no way whatsoever was he going to kill his sisters. The chaos was getting too close to his mind and affecting his thoughts. Instead of blasting his sisters with some form of his magic, he watched as their magic continued to flow from the Elements to the sphere, then winced as the gigantic ball of energy started to float towards him. This could get very, very bad for him. The sphere was easily three times his size, and was continuing on it's path towards him. As the sphere drew closer, Discord saw his own reflection, and he made a few goofy faces at it to hide his discomfort of having to be enveloped in the sphere. Hopefully this wouldn't hurt him too badly. Any other thoughts he had were lost as the sphere enveloped the draconequus completely. Opening his eyes, he realized that he was still alive and well. Discord looked around with interest inside the sphere. It was a dull grey in color, and seemed to stretch out as far as he could see, without anything else worth nothing. Just a giant grey void, with nothing besides himself in it. At least he wasn't dead yet. Not yet, anyway. There was a chance Celestia had made another mistake and he would be turned into something far worse, but he refused to think such thoughts for long, and instead, examined the sphere, moving around experimentally. While it encased him, he didn't feel trapped at all inside the sphere. The magic sphere seemed to adjust to any movements he made, and it felt like being submerged in water. Outside of the sphere, meanwhile, Celestia held her breath. Luna was preparing a memory to use for Discord's renascent. Which memory Luna was going to give up would determine if Discord would come back as a full Alicorn. It had to be a particularly strong memory, otherwise, Discord could end up as a fragment of himself. While that would be amusing to see, she didn't particularly think he would appreciate being half of what he once was, if not less. Celestia continued to watch her sister think back to her memories, until, finally, Luna looked up at her older sister, and nodded at her. Luna sighed. Although she had her chosen memory, she was worried about what she was about to do. Her sister and brother were expecting so much from her. What if she messed up? Celestia never told her anything about doing something after 'letting go' of her memory. Shaking herself vigorously, she erased these thoughts out of her mind. 'No matter,' she thought, 'I have a duty to fulfill, and I shall undertake it! But...It'd be nice if this worked out, please?' Slowly, but surely, she stepped into the circle of Elements, and released her chosen memory of Discord. Luna gasped in pain; she swore she could feel the memory being ripped from her mind with an amazing, brutal force. What happened next was nothing short of an explosion of violent light skyrocketing towards the heavens, so bright, that even the princesses themselves had to look away from it. Luna immediately backed up, careful not to trip over any one of the Elements, lest she break the spell and cause a massive magical whiplash that could potentially kill all three of the royal family. The Elements themselves, once Luna had left the circle, started to vibrate and levitate at roughly the height of the draconequus. A rainbow colored beam of light, coming directly from all six Elements, started to swirl slowly around the sphere, as if Element bearers were using them. This colorful beam of light started to grow bigger and go faster around and around the sphere, making a loud humming noise. Then, the colored beam of light shot up into the skies...And came crashing down on the sphere with a terrifying explosion not a moment later, kicking up quite a bit of dust between the princesses and the sphere. Celestia coughed as she tried in vain to see through the dust clouds. Although the rainbow beam of light was expected to happen, the explosion and massive dust clouds weren't an expected part of what was going to happen. Did things go wrong, or was everything alright? She honestly didn't know if what she was going to see was going to be in her favor. If Discord was an Alicorn once again, all would be well and good, but if it failed...She shook her head. The Elements haven't failed yet! She doubted they would fail her this time. Observing what she could through the dust clouds, she realized that she couldn't see the sphere anymore. Was that a good thing? She was about to walk towards the general area of where the sphere once was when she noticed a shadow coming near her. Could it be Discord, or Luna? Celestia waited until the shadow presented itself, and sighed in disappointment as she saw Luna emerge from the clouds of dust. Well, so much for Discord. Luna, upon hearing her older sister cough, started walking towards the sound. Of all things, she didn't expect an explosion, never mind two of them. The spell had disoriented her, ripped a memory from her mind, and this dust cloud wasn't helping her either. As Luna approached her sister, she noticed that she couldn't see the silhouette of the sphere through the dust. That could either be a good or bad thing, although Celestia would probably know which of them it was. As she approached Celestia, she stood right next to her, and just barely heard a sigh escape from her sister. Luna's heart sank. So it didn't work, and Discord was still a draconequus...Or worse. The dust had begun to clear, and Luna sighed deeply. "Well, once the dust clears, we'll know just what happened to him, 'Tia..." Her older sister simply nodded, and both waited for the dust clouds to clear away to reveal...Whatever happened to Discord. His vision wasn't straight and his eyes hurt. He winced as his eyes tried to adjust from seeing the dull grey interior of a sphere to an explosion of rainbow light, and back to the dark center of the labyrinth that he had been in for the past few thousand years. Discord didn't know what happened outside while he was moving around in the sphere. One moment, he was trying various things inside it, the next, the sphere started to shake and rumble, disorienting him. If that wasn't bad enough, just as he regained his sense of direction, a second explosion, infinitely more powerful than the first, happened to break through the sphere and directly impacted him. He sighed. He didn't feel any different, and he was upset that he had to get hit by another beam of rainbow light, all for nothing. Every single time, he just had to get hit by a rainbow colored beam of light, when his sisters first encased him in stone, then the second time, and now by this spell that was supposed to bring him back into his former self. He swore that if he never saw a rainbow again, he'd be the happiest draconequus around. He groaned as he tried to rise back up. That was a mistake, as his first attempt at balancing on the hooves he missed after thousands of years was very, very bad. He fell down with an audible thud, and sighed. He tried again, and managed to unsteadily balance himself. Smiling, he was about to take his first shaky step when he looked down in shock. He had hooves?! He fell down in an ungraceful heap as he tried to process the fact that he was an An Alicorn once more while taking a step. Needless to say, he failed at doing both things at the same time. Ignoring the pain that came from his fall, he quickly made sure that all of him was with him. Turning his neck around, he looked at the two majestic wings on his back, and he sighed, seeing how bad his wings looked. He'd have to preen them later. Ignoring his wings for now, he jerked his gaze upwards, and he could make out the tip of his horn. It was true, he realized, he was an Alicorn once more. Celestia rolled her eyes as the dust finally cleared away. "Finally. Luna, let's look for..." She trailed off as her eyes took in the dazed looking Alicorn that was in an unceremonious heap inside the circle of the Elements of Harmony, looking up at his horn. His coat was of pure white, and his messy mane was of the darkest black. He was about as tall as Celestia was, but his wings were more powerfully built, his horn sharper at the tip. She felt herself grow a little weak as she saw her brother's true form after thousands of years. The spell worked, and her brother was back. Discord...No, Neutrality, the Alicorn of Neutrality (At this, Celestia took a moment to think about how dumb it was to name yourself after what you represented. Sure, there was her sister, Luna, but that was an entirely different matter.) was back. "He's back, Luna...Our older brother." Luna smiled, and walked forward towards the Alicorn. Celestia followed after her, and waited as Neutrality was reoriented with who he was now. Discord...No, he thought. He wasn't what he was before. He was himself again, before the poison joke incident so long ago. The thought of him finally becoming an Alicorn once more brought tears to his eyes, and he wiped them away shakily with a hoof. He noticed his sisters standing a few feet away from him, and he made a valiant effort to stand up, which succeeded. He looked both his sisters in the eyes, and spoke softly, as he did so long ago. "I, Neutrality, Alicorn of...Uh, Neutrality, am back in Equestria."