//------------------------------//
// Discovering the Truth 
// Story: The Elements of Disharmony 
// by Damien Helvian 
//------------------------------//

The Elements of Disharmony

Part 4

Discovering the Truth


The trek down the mountain was as long and droll as the trek up. Discord, back in his pony form of Star Dusk, simply walked down the side. Lunar Glow, though her magic was strong, she didn’t have the same reality defying capabilities as the deity. Thus, she had to take the actual path down the mountainside, but at least she didn’t have to deal with the other’s bothersome ways. She had her thoughts to herself for the first time since they started this little adventure, and it made her happy as can be.
Happiness can’t last forever though, and eventually the pair met up again at the base of the mountain, “Luunnyyyy, I missed you so very much!~” Star stated with feigned drama. He wasn’t too good at this though, since as soon as he said it he burst out laughing like a hyena, which earned him a spiteful look from his partner, “Can we just get on with it already?”
“If you’re so impatient Lunar Glow, then we’ll take the quick way.” Before she could respond, the brown pony had an arm around her, with a hoof stomping into the ground. In a flash of bright light, the duo vanished without a trace, reappearing all the way in the middle of Sweet Apple Acres. And as soon as they got there…”YOU IDIOT! WHAT IF SOMEPONY SEES US?!” Lunar slapped Star right across the face, growling in fury.
And he just giggled away without a care, “We’re in the middle of the orchard, and it’s not even harvest season. The odds of anypony being out here are slim to none. Relax my dear, and cast your spell so we can get out of here quickly. Since this orchard is so big, I’ve decided that it’d be a good idea to enhance your spell.” A quick glance around, and he transformed himself into his true Draconequus form, holding the Element of Dishonesty out.
With a groaning sigh, Lunar cast her spell on the necklace, hearing a snap of claws as Discord enhanced it. A few moments later, the Element tore itself out of his talons, lifting up in the air and spinning about before racing off into the apple trees. The pair chased after it, weaving around tree after tree. It was quite easy for the deity, his serpentine body snaking its way through with easy. But Lunar had to stop a lot, almost running into trees constantly, her focus on the Element ahead.

Following behind, was a small, cream colored filly, a red bow right atop her head. Apple Bloom had heard the pair landing in the orchard. She had been sleeping, but the sound of Lunar Glow shouting had awoken her. At first she was just curious as to what they were doing, but when Discord transformed, she thought best to follow them. The more she knew, the more she could tell her sister and the others.
As quick as her little hooves could carry her, the young filly chased after Discord and his strange marefriend. It was easy for her, knowing her way around the orchard, just like the rest of her family. The hard part was keeping quiet, her inherent nature wanting to speak up against them, but fear helping keep it in check. She remembered well what happened the last time Discord was out, and what he was capable of.
After so very much running, Discord and Lunar finally found themselves at the top of a hill, somewhere in the middle of the orchard, with a single tree resting atop it. The Element was hovering near the base of it, waiting for the next spell to be cast. And with a snap of the claws, Discord conjured up the replica of Applejack.
“Sis? Why’s she lookin’ so gray?” Apple Bloom watched from behind a tree at the bottom of the hill, “And how’d Discord get her element?” She continued to watch as the pair of villains vanished in another flash of light, “Ah’ve got to go tell sis!” As quick as she could, the little filly headed for home.

Back at the castle ruins, four disharmonized replicas were duking it out, attempting to steal the other Elements of Disharmony from each other. Anti-Rarity had managed to get all of them, and was trying her best to keep it from the others. With Anti-Applejack yanking at her tail, Anti-Pinkie Pie gnawing at her legs, and Anti-Fluttershy stomping on her back, that was quite difficult.
A flash of light coated the area, followed by a booming voice, “CHILDREN! STOP, OR YOU’RE GROUNDED!” The four ponies stopped and stared at Discord, with Anti-Rarity quickly returning the Elements to the others, trying to look as innocent as possible. “It’s almost time, there’s just one of you left to go. So stop fighting, clean up, and get yourselves ready for an even bigger fight.”
Each of them nodded and saluted their chaotic creator. With that over, Discord transformed himself into Star Dusk, and headed back outside the castle to meet back up with Lunar glow on the edge of Everfree forest. Since this area was so close to Cloudsdale, they figured walking would be best, too much risk for being spotted.

Meanwhile, back at Sweet Apple Acres, “Applejack, Applejack, ah have somethin’ ta tell you!” Apple Bloom was running about, looking for her big sister, wanting to warn her about Discord’s return and the strange copy of her she saw, “Where are ya sis?”
“Ah’m right here, ya silly filly, what in tarnation are ya goin’ on about?” Applejack made her way out of the barn, carrying buckets of rotten apples, “If’n ya wanna talk, help out a bit.”
Apple Bloom frantically ran up to her sister, “No time for work, Discord’s back! Ah saw him with some odd mare out in tha orchard. He used a weird spell, and ah saw you there, but you were all grey and quiet…they vanished and ah came here ta get you.”
“Discord…but he’s a statue Apple Bloom. Me and the girls turned him back to stone with the Elements, remember?” This was her sister though, and she wasn’t one to lie, “But if’n it’ll make you happy, ah’ll go talk to Twi, ok? But you have to do mah chores while ah’m away.” She set her buckets down, and her sister picked them up with a quiet nod. 
Applejack hurried off to town, hoping her sister was just seeing things. If Discord was back, things would get real bad, real quick. Along the way she remember the last time he broke free. The chaos he spread, being disharmonized, and losing her friends. She never wanted to go through that again.
Being the powerhouse that she was, Applejack was in town pretty quick. And on the way to the Library, she spotted Pinkie Pie, twitching and spazzing about. Curious, she stopped to ask her friend what was wrong, “What in tarnation is goin’ on with you?”
“I’m really not sure what’s going on. I just started twitcha twitchin and I just cant seem to stop.” She was talking in her crazy fast voice, a sign that her Pinkie Sense was going haywire, “Been stuck here for so long can you drag me to Twilight’s? Something super bad is coming super duper bad!”
AJ nodded, grabbing her shaky friend by the tail and dragging her all the way to the library. In most cases, other ponies would stop and stare, but this was Pinkie, so the just glanced and carried on their merry ways, unknowing of what was going on.

At the Library, Twilight was freaking out. She’d just received a letter from Celestia telling her that the statue of Discord in the gardens was a fake, which only meant one thing, HE WAS FREE! The purple mare had already contacted Rainbow Dash, who grabbed Fluttershy and Rarity, and they were already there.
Her messages to Pinkie and Applejack hadn’t been answered, and thus she was freaking. When she spotted the pair coming through the door she nearly screamed, “Thank Celestia you two are here. I’ve got big news Dis-.”
“Discord’s free, right?’ Her sister was right, “Ah already knew, ah just had hoped it wasn’t true. Apple Bloom spotted him and some strange pony back at the farm. They’re doing something weird…she said she saw me, and that I looked like I did when he made me into a liar. You got any ideas Twi?”
Twilight was silent for a moment, but quickly composed herself and started scanning through her books. Rainbow on the other hand was ready to go, “Who cares what he’s doing, we should just hunt him down and take him out before he can do it. It shouldn’t be that hard, Pinkie Pie’s like a bad stuff detector…we can use her to track him down.”
“No, no, no, no, NONONO!” Twilight wasn’t even paying attention; she just kept looking through her books for any possible shred of information. “Wait…” she dropped all the books she had in her magic, “Strange pony? There were two of them in here earlier…they had necklaces that looked like the Elements of Harmony.” She went straight to her book on the Elements.
After scanning through it a few times and finding nothing, she threw it to the wall, “Nothing! And the only other book with information is in the Archives, there’s not enough time!” As if on cue, Spike belched a large fireball, an ancient tome dropping out of the flames, “I’ll never understand how the Princess does that..”
The tome looked like an even older, bigger version of the one she had. It must’ve been the original book. There was no title, simple a picture of the elements on one side, and a picture of the inverted elements on the other side, “These are what he was wearing. So they weren’t just replicas, that pony must’ve been Discord.”
All her friend waited in intense silence as she read through it, “Well, this book has quite a bit more information, but not a lot about those things on the back. It doesn’t even have a name for them, just this little quote. ‘When Harmony is Broken in the midst of Chaos, it shall bring forth a new power, the likes of which Equestria has never seen before.’ Do you think that means, when we used the Elements while we were all grey, it made him stronger?”
“We never used the Elements while like that.” Rainbow stated. She didn’t even know it happened, because she had been replaced by Spike. Nopony told her though, they promised Spike because he was afraid of being hurt.
“Actually…we did.” Twilight confessed, “You were on that little cloud, so we used Spike in place of you….” She paused, “Wait…maybe….” She looked through the tome again, “Aha! Since you weren’t present, he doesn’t have your power! And you said you last saw him at the farm, right AJ? The mountain is closer, so he would’ve gone their first. And Cloudsdale is the furthest away, which means he’s heading there now. Let’s go!”
Before any of them could respond, the unicorn sprinted out the door. They quickly followed, all of them heading for Cloudsdale. On the way, Twilight hoofed out the Elements of Harmony. Celestia had determined they’d be safest with Twilight, since nopony would expect them to be in Ponyville.

With the occasional burst of teleportation from Twilight, it didn’t take too long for the six friends to make it to the area where Cloudsdale floated. And there, hovering in the sky was Discord, and the dark blue mare from before. The Element of Disloyalty was glowing softly, and drifting around as they sought out Rainbow’s energy.
A quick blast from the Element of Magic caught their attention, “Give it up Discord!” Twilight shouted, “Did you forget? Rainbow wasn’t there during our first attempt at sealing you, so whatever you’re doing won’t work! And whoever your friend is better reveal herself!”
Two flashes of light, Discord and Lunar teleported to the ground. Another four flashes, the anti-ponies appeared with them wearing the Elements of Disharmony, “I guess we’ll just see how things go without the final element. Unless you’d donate your power Nightmare….” Discord looked to his friend.
Lunar laughed sinisterly, dark clouds of energy surrounding her, transforming her into Nightmare Moon, “We meet again, girls. It’s been far too long…” she smirked, her mere presence causing dark clouds to roll over the area.
“Discord AND Nightmare Moon? This is bad, very, very bad.” Twilight looked over at her friends. They thought it was going to be easy, just Discord, right? But with Nightmare Moon in the picture, things looked like they would take a turn for the worse.