//------------------------------// // Return of Harmony, part 2 // Story: My Little Titan // by Tatsurou //------------------------------// 19. Return of Harmony, part 2 Celestia flinched back from the flash of light right in front of her, but relaxed when she saw the body of her former student and the other Harmony Bearers. She managed to maintain her composure, barely, although the sorrow that - after all this time - her true faithful student had not yet returned burned inside her like a fresh wound. "Twilight Sparkle," she said calmly. "I am...surprised at your timely arrival. I was just about to send for you." Raven smiled at her. "I figured as much. So, what's this all about?" Celestia frowned. "Come with me." She led the Titans into the Castle interior. "An old foe of my sister's and mine has returned. A terrible King of great madness and fearsome power, a ruler under whom all of Equestria suffered until we acted against him. His name..." She swallowed convulsively. "...is Discord." Raven quirked her eyebrow at her. "Sounds like a terrible foe to have to face," she said, giving her words a sardonic twist. Celestia flinched inwardly. She hoped that, while Raven had caught the hesitation, she had not deduced the reason for it. "Indeed. Luna and I were unable to defeat him with our powers alone. We were forced to wield the Elements of Harmony against him." Celestia closed her eyes against the painful memories. When she opened them, she was once more stoic. "However, the Elements have now bonded to the six of you." She paused, blinking, as she noticed that Beast Boy - in the body of Spike - was here as well. For some reason, something felt off about that. She shrugged it aside as she continued. "As such, we cannot wield them anymore." Having led them to the vault she'd prepared specifically for the Elements, she opened it and levitated out the chest. "However, I am sure that all of you will be able to defeat him..." She paused for dramatic effect. "...with these." She opened the chest to reveal...nothing. Raven yawned. None of the others so much as blinked. Celestia dropped the chest. "This doesn't make any sense!" she said in shock. Maniacal chuckling echoed around the chamber. "Make sense?" a menacing voice said in a stage whisper. "Where's the fun in making sense?" "Discord!" she snapped, suppressing the mixed surge of emotion that sprang from her heart at his return. "Show yourself!" With another chuckle, the image of Discord in the stained glass window came to life. "Did you miss me, Celestia?" he asked as he flowed from one window to another. "I know I missed you." Celestia steeled herself, privately thanking a millennium of dealing alone with selfish, spoiled nobles for giving her near perfect emotional control. "What have you done with the Elements of Harmony?" she demanded. "Oh, I've just borrowed them for a-" He paused, turning to glare towards Raven. "Where are you going?" he demanded. Raven turned back from where she was walking out of the chamber, leading the others. "Home. We'll be back when we've got a real threat to deal with...one that isn't so boring." Celestia wasn't sure what was more shocking: hearing Discord called boring, or seeing him rendered speechless because of it. "BORING?" Discord demanded, incensed. "How dare you-" "Let me guess," Raven interrupted. "You've hidden the Elements somewhere. You're going to tell us where in a riddle. The only way we'll get them back is if we play your game, and you're going to salt our path with obstacles?" At Discord's nod, she shrugged her shoulders. "As I said, boring." "So you're just going to let me run rampant?" he asked, plainly shocked. Raven smirked. "Well you aren't exactly a threat. Seriously, with the reinforcement we've given the town to be on the safe side, Ponyville hasn't even taken any structural damage." Robin smirked. "And them giant apples ya gave me sold wonderfully, thank ya kindly." Starfire bounced happily. "And let's not forget the chocolate rain!" Discord's jaw dragged on the floor. Leaning back, he chuckled. "So you're saying I'll need to be a bit more vicious to get your attention?" He started to rub his paw and talon together. "Or you could just ask us to play with you," Cyborg said calmly. "Cause, let's be honest, it really just sounds like you're bored. And if that's the only problem, I really need to introduce you to this little thing called a Gamestation 3." Discord chuckled. "Well, let's play the game anyway. I wonder if you can solve my riddle." He cleared his throat. "To retrieve your missing Elements, just make sense of this change of events. Twists and turns are my master plan. Then find the Elements back where you began." He leaned back, smirking. "Well?" Raven smirked right back. Her horn glowed. "Trixie, are you in the library?" A voice came out of the air. "Yes, Twilight, I am." "Is the library's copy of 'Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide' there?" "Yes," Trixie replied. "It's right here on the table." "Could you check its contents?" "Alright." There was a moment's silence followed by a gasp. "Twilight! The Elements of Harmony are in here!" Raven smirked. "Thought so. Can you teleport the book and its contents to me in Canterlot?" "I think so." There was a long pause, and then the book appeared in a flash of light in front of Raven. She caught it in her magic. "Well done, Trixie. I wasn't sure you'd be up to the range." "I wasn't sure I could, so I had Zecora mix up a brew that I used to draw a circle to boost my magic," Trixie admitted, sounding a bit down. Raven smiled. "A very clever use of available resources. Also, the first step to true mastery of magic is to recognize your own limitations and find a way to surpass them. I'm very proud of you, Trixie, and I'd expect nothing less from my top student." Trixie's blush could be felt - and practically heard - through the spell. "Thank you," she said quietly. "Keep up the good work." With those words, she cut the communication spell. Discord grumbled, "Well, if you're going to cheat..." Smiling, Raven opened up the book and levitated out the Elements, handing them to their respective bearers who, following her lead, held them in one hoof. "So, these are the Elements you swiped from that chest?" "Yes, yes they are," Discord said grudgingly. "Very well d-" With a quick motion, Raven ripped the gilt wrapping of her Element off and took a bit of the chocolate revealed within. The others mimicked her actions exactly, although Starfire ate her entire element once it was revealed to be chocolate. Both Discord and Celestia were in a state of absolute shock. Even the sense of the Elements power had faded when the gilt wrapping was torn. "What?" they said in unison. Raven smirked. "You really thought I'd put the most powerful relics in Equestria - the last line of defense for the country - where they couldn't be easily accessed by the only ones who can wield them?" As Celestia stared in shock, Discord began to chuckle. "Well, that's quite clever of you." Seeing Celestia's expression, he laughed aloud. "And you didn't tell her either, huh? Well done." He applauded. "But what if I'd thought of that, and went looking for their real hiding place?" Raven smirked. "You'd have been distracted by the three other fake sets scattered throughout the country which had the proper spell on them to suppress the magic of the Elements beyond detection, much like what is on the vault here." Discord's eyes widened again. "Well, aren't you the tricky one." With a flash of light, he manifested physically in the room, no longer confined to the stained glass windows. "Since you seem in the mood to brag, why don't you tell me where you hid the other fakes?" Raven chuckled. "Why not? The first set - made of iron - is hidden inside solid rock in the caverns beneath Canterlot-" "There are caverns under Canterlot?" Celestia couldn't stop herself from asking. Raven rolled her eyes. "Yes, Celestia, there are. Shining and I used to play hide and seek in the caves near the entrance in the city proper until Mom and Dad found out." Raven turned back to Discord. "The second set - made of copper - is back in the Palace of the Pony Sisters, where the Elements sat for a thousand years, complete with a spell that makes them look like they're made of stone again. The third set - made of arsenic-" "Arsenic?" Discord asked, raising an eyebrow. "Really?" Raven smiled. "Hidden inside the Ponyville herb merchant's safe. And you know how jealously a merchant guards their gold." Discord chuckled. "Well done. But what would have stopped me - or anyone else - from checking any of those three sets and discovering they were fake?" "Each set's suppression spell - which would have to be dispelled to tell they were fake - is keyed specifically to my magic. If anyone else dispelled it, it would trigger the trap spell." "Traps? Oh my, what sort of traps?" Raven grinned wickedly. "Well, this one would have trapped the victim in an ordinary stasis spell. Easily breakable, bit it would have drawn a lot of attention." She chuckled. "The iron one would have trapped the victim in a massive pile of Gak." Discord laughed uproariously. "Ingenious!" "The arsenic one would cause every plant in the shop to spring to life, entrapping the subject and preventing movement." Raven smirked. "Then it would determine the song that would cause the most aggravation to the subject, and play it on endless loop." Discord pulled out a notebook and jotted something down, causing Celestia to internally wince. "The copper one would force the subject to live through their worst nightmare...or the most traumatizing moment of their lives...endlessly." Discord stared at her. He let his notebook fade out. "I'll admit," he said calmly, "you are truly a crueler spirit of chaos than I could ever hope to be." He smirked at her. "Admittedly, I should expect nothing less..." He snapped his talons. Celestia stared as Discord, Raven, and the others vanished in a flash of white light. ----------- Raven blinked at the area in which they reappeared. She imagined this must be Discord's private dimensional space, in much the same way Beast Boy had told her about the Solar Retreat, but it was...oddly plain. The bed was a perfectly ordinary bed without color. The walls were gray. An ordinary bookshelf empty of books sat in one corner next to a large chest. There were two windows, one giving a view of space, the other a view of the world on which Equestria sat, as seen from space. The only unusual configuration of the room was what looked like a large table with a massive game board in the center of the room. Discord smiled as he finished his sentence. "...from your father's daughter, Raven." Raven flinched. She didn't like being compared to her father. However, obviously Discord held all the cards here and now - as far as he knew - so she decided to play his game for now. "You brought us here. I assume you know who took Twilight and the others?" Discord turned to the chest and opened it, pulling things out and tossing them aside, except for the occasional item he set carefully on the bookshelf. "Your father, of course," he said, shrugging his shoulders. Raven felt the blood flee her face as she turned pale. "What?" she gasped in fear. "Trigon took them? Why would you prevent me from learning that?" "Because if you found out, you would have tried to summon him to retrieve Twilight and the others. If you succeeded, it would have broken the seal I placed that kept him locked out of MaTerra for the past 10,000 years." Discord continued to ignore Raven's emotional reactions. "And as important as it is to rescue Twilight and the others, I cannot risk Trigon gaining control of MaTerra and absorbing its magic." Raven blinked. "Why?" "As of right now, Trigon has to find some way to slip into the dimensions he's trying to conquer: a child portal, followers, a summoning..." Carefully, Discord placed a glass vial containing a glowing purple smoke on the shelf. "However, the magic of MaTerra is especially potent, as it is rather close to Source." "Source?" "The center of existence," Discord replied calmly. "The point from which all magic - all reality - springs. The details aren't really important, but here's the gist of it: if Trigon absorbs the magic of MaTerra, he won't have to sneak into other dimensions anymore. He'll be strong enough to tear the boundary between his world and others apart, and walk in fully manifest. If MaTerra falls to Trigon, all other worlds will soon follow." Raven was silent, deep in thought. Discord turned back. "I'm the only one who knows about this, and I have already taken action to prevent that eventuality." He held out a small circle of unknown metal. In the center was a small red spark. "When I sealed Trigon out of MaTerra, I knew he'd left things here as backdoors to get back in...so I left a backdoor to his dimension, just in case I need it. But I put a trick in it. All I have to do is crush this...and Trigon's dimension and everything in it will be obliterated, along with all worlds already under his control." "Then why haven't you done it?" Robin asked, shocked. "Because it would also destroy MaTerra, completely and utterly." Discord stared at them all. "And before any of you think about evacuation or anything like that, 99% of the life forms of MaTerra are so well adapted to its higher magic concentration that they won't survive anywhere else. Eventually, when the civilizations of my world reach for the stars, a solution will be discovered...but in the meantime, this is an absolute last resort." He smiled. "On the other paw..." He shifted the circle to his lion's paw. "It makes an excellent portal once expanded." "A portal to where?" Melvin asked nervously. "To Trigon's own dimension...where he's had the souls of Twilight and the others all this time." Discord's face was completely serious. Raven gasped. "WHAT?" She flung herself forward in the aura of her power. "You mean you've left them in his clutches all this time?" Snarling, Discord smacked Raven back. "You think I had a choice? If I'd sent you in immediately, he'd have killed you without pause. The best you've managed is banishing him, but in the seat of his power you'd never be able to beat him! Only one weapon in all of history has ever caused him physical pain, and thus is the only weapon that will work against him in his own dimension. I had to wait until that was available, and by then my paws were tied." Jinx' eyes went wide. "You're talking about the Rainbow of Light, aren't you?" Discord smiled. "Indeed. Speaking of which, where did you hide the Elements of Harmony? You'll need them." Although Jinx was confused, Raven smirked. "Right under our noses," she said smugly. "Well, over mine." Discord blinked, then smirked. "Clever. Leave them there for now. You'll need them." Taking the edges of the small circle in his claws, he pulled it wider, expanding it into a circle large enough for the entire group to pass through abreast. "I hope you're all ready to fight." Raven glanced at the others. They all nodded. "We're ready." Discord stepped aside, holding the gateway - the red spark now a wide curtain of red light - up so they could enter. As each of them passed through, Discord reached his paw out to Beast Boy. "Wait," he said simply. Reaching up, he popped his snaggletooth out of his mouth and handed it to Beast Boy. "You'll need this. But I'll want it back when you're done." As Beast Boy held the tooth tight, he followed the others through the portal. Discord leaned back, staring at the gateway. "It's tough being a god," he mumbled to himself. "You have no one to pray to."