I sat there, stunned. “Spike?” I thought at him. “As in, Spike the dragon?!”
“The one and only,” he said.
My mind started to short out. “But what are- I mean, how are you- I mean, is this even possible? Or-”
“Not right now,” he said, cutting me off, mid-ramble. “I have something to show you, and I promise it will answer all your questions, but we have to get started right now, because it’s really really important. Now, just relax and pay attention.”
As he spoke, I could feel his presence tugging at my mind, dragging me to the newly expanded corner of my brain, where, for the past twenty years, Spike had apparently slept, dormant. The tugging grew more intense, until it was almost like a force of gravity, sucking me down, deeper and deeper into the black depths of my own mind. My vision faded away, everything going black, only to be replaced with different scenery. I was in an ornate, round room, a study. The wall to the right of me was a half-circle of bookcases, packed with books, rising to the ceiling. The wall to the left of me was a half circle of windows, all looking out over a garden that I’d seen before. A garden that I’d only seen in animated form. The Canterlot Castle Gardens.
I tried turning my head, but found that I had no control over my actual body. As I struggled to move, the scene before me seemed to mist over a little. “Quit struggling, will you?” said Spike. I stopped, and the scene came back into focus. I guessed it was a memory, played out Harry Potter style. Not much to do but observe.
It was a very unnerving experience to see my body doing things of its own will. As I watched, Spike walked over to the desk that stood by the far end of the room and started rummaging through the drawers. He pulled out a pen and ink, but was interrupted by a large belch and a cloud of smoke that erupted from his mouth. From the instant the letter materialized, I could tell something was wrong. The letter looked rumpled, as though it had been written with great force and speed. The seal, a six-pointed star containing the letters TS, was very crooked. Spike frowned and popped the seal open, unrolling the letter.
It was written in neat, tidy, slightly loopy handwriting. The writing was shaky though, as if its author had been in a great hurry. As Spike started reading it, his counterpart in my head read it with him. He was completely caught up in the scene. I could feel the emotion pouring from him, as he relived what seemed to be one of the most traumatic memories he had. His emotion poured over to me, and I could feel it almost as if it were a memory of my own.
The letter began like this: Spike, as soon as you get this letter, it is imperative important that you do exactly what I tell you to do right away. Don’t even finish reading this letter. There will be time for that later. Princess Celestia is dead.
The line had been dotted by a tear splotch. I need you to get the Elements of Harmony. Now. Go.
Ever the number one assistant, Spike dropped the letter and bolted from the room, his mind blazing with cold fear. The princess... dead? It couldn’t be possible. He hurried to the Canterlot vault, home to the Elements ever since their unstable reaction in Ponyville before the Coronation. He ran up to the sealed door, accessible to only a few in Canterlot, including him. He ran his clawed finger down the crack in the door, leaving it glowing emerald green. A hole appeared in the center of the wall, and he breathed flame into it. The doorway shone and pulled back to reveal the chamber within. An empty chamber. The Elements were gone.
Spike stumbled back in shock. No. It was impossible! Only he and the Princesses could open the vault. He ran from the room, back where he had come from, towards the main hallway. As he entered the entrance hall, the doors burst open. In struggled a ragged group of soldiers. Spike recognized them immediately as the back-up contingent that Celestia had brought with her to fight the Tartarus monster. They were battered, soot-stained and exhausted. And each one of them had bitter, tear-streaked faces, despair etched in every line.
Spike stared at them, not wanting to see the truth in their eyes, but unable to ignore it. He left the room, running down the hallway that led to his study, the door at the far end holding his focus. He burst, through the door, running to the desk at the end of the round room. The letter was still there, curling back in on itself. He snatched it up and started to read again.
The Princess is dead. I saw it with my own eyes. She’d asked me to monitor the fight, so that whether she won or lost, Equestria could be prepared. I saw her get hit and fall by a volcano. She asked Discord for help. He killed her instead. He pushed her into the lava. As soon as it happened, a forcefield appeared around the library. I can’t get out, not even with teleportation. All I can do is send this message. Discord’s coming for me. I know it. He plans to try and take over again, and he needs the Elements of Harmony out of the way. You need to get the Elements of Harmony and find my friends.
The writing grew shakier, and more and more tears dotted the page. You’ll also have to find a new Element of Magic, too. Spike, I wish I could tell you to leave. I wish I could tell you to run and hide and never come out until this whole thing is over. I wish I could even tell you not to be scared, but I can’t ask you to do something I can’t manage to do myself. Discord’s here. I can hear him knocking. My own forcefield won’t hold for long. I don’t know what will happen. I may or may not survive this. It may be years until we meet again, or never at all. But, before I go, I just want you to know that you are, always were, and always will be my number one assistant.
Forever your friend,
Twilight
The letter became impossible to see through the stream of tears. Spike dropped the letter, his despair total. He cried out, a cry filled with sorrow and denial. He collapsed against the desk, sobbing.
I don’t know how many hours we sat there, just the three of us: The shadow of the past, the watcher from the future, and me, the spectre in between. Eventually, I heard a sound, the sound of hooves hitting tile. Someone was coming this way. Spike was still leaning against the desk, eyes closed, so I couldn’t see who it was. The hoofsteps grew louder, until they were right next to us. I could hear the letter on the desk being flattened out, then a little bit later, a sigh.
“I am so sorry,” said a voice. “Really, I am. This whole mess is my fault.”
Spike sat up, wiping his eyes. He opened them to find a tan pony with brown hair kneeling in front of him at eye level. “What are you talking about?” Spike asked.
The tan pony sighed again. “I knew Discord was up to something. I knew he hadn’t reformed so easily, but no one would listen to me. I should have tried harder,” the pony’s face grew pained. “But, I guess some part of me wanted to believe it, wanted to believe that, just this once, people could change.”
Spike was confused. “But who are you? Why would the princesses have listened to you?”
The tan pony gave a half-smile. “I’m not surprised you haven’t heard of me,” he said. “I’m a bit of a well-kept secret. The princesses call me in when stuff goes wrong. Very wrong. I’m a bit of an impossibility. Someone who can do things other ponies can’t. Just call me The Doctor.”
Spike slumped back against the desk.”It doesn’t ma-matter,” he said, his words stuttering. “We can’t do anything. The Princess is dead, the Elements of Harmony are gone, and Twilight... Twilight...”
His eyes started welling up again, and the Doctor grabbed him by the shoulders “Listen to me,” he said firmly. “This is no time to go falling apart. Equestria is in the middle of a crisis. They need help. They need some impossibility. They need someone who can do things other ponies can’t,” he looked intently at Spike. “They need you. Twilight Sparkle’s final wish was to ask you for help. Equestria needs you. I need you. She needs you.” The Doctor raised one eyebrow. “Or do you intend to let Discord get away with this?”
Spike grabbed the Doctor by the throat. “DISCORD!” he yelled. “WHERE IS HE!?” his eyes dilated, and his pupils became slits. “I’LL TEAR HIM TO PIECES!!!”
The Doctor batted Spike’s hand away and jumped to his hooves. “There we go!” he said. “That’s the energy we need! But we’re not going after him yet, oh no. We’ve only got one shot at this, so we’re going to make it count. To the TARDIS!” the Doctor bolted out of the room, and Spike hurried after him. The Doctor ran down the hallway and into an old, empty meeting room on the left. Except it wasn’t empty.
Standing in the middle of the room was a large blue box. It was tall, about three and a half ponies high, one pony wide and it had frosted windows decorating each side. A yellow light at the top was glowing faintly, bathing the room in a soft light. Spike was majorly confused. How had the box gotten in here? The doorway was too small for it. And how would this help them fight Discord?
The Doctor opened the door, beckoned towards Spike and stepped inside the box. Slowly, Spike walked up to the box and stepped inside. He found himself standing on a metal walkway in a cavernous room, with silver steel walls. The walkway led to a center platform, which held a circular console surrounding a pulsating energy source that filled the room with a dim blue light. Runes comprised of circles decorated rings that connected to the ceiling above the power source. Occasionally, a rushing sound could be heard, as if some ethereal wind blew through the machine.
Spike gaped, his jaw dropped in astonishment. “The inside...” he breathed. “It’s... It’s...”
“Yes?” asked the Doctor, his head cocked to one side, eyes half closed.
“It’s magic!” Spike gasped.
The Doctor frowned, as though put out by something. “Well, yes,” he said, moving to the control console. “I suppose you could call it that. In any case, welcome to the TARDIS, Spike. That’s Time And Relative Dimension In Space. This baby can take us anywhere and anywhen in the universe you could possibly imagine.”
“Can it take us back in time to save Twilight?” Spike asked eagerly.
The Doctor bit his lip. “Well, yes it could,” he said. “In the same way that it could rip a hole in the fabric of space and time, which is what doing that would cause.” He sighed. “Think of it this way. By the time Twilight sent that letter, Discord was upon her. It was already too late. If we saved her now, she wouldn’t be there to send a letter to you, which means you wouldn’t have gone back to save her, which means she would be in danger again, which means you would have saved her, which means she wouldn’t be there to send a letter to you, which makes time rip itself apart out of the sheer impossibility of it all. I’m sorry, but it can’t be done.”
He looked at Spike’s crestfallen face. “Don’t worry though. I have a plan that will save our friends, stop Discord, and turn everything back to normal.”
Spike looked up at him. “What’s the plan?” he asked.
The Doctor gave him a smile. “To trust me,” he said, “I’m the Doctor. Can you do that?” he asked the dragon. Spike nodded. “Good,” said the Doctor, clapping his hooves together and dashing to the center console. “Then that’s all I need. First things first, we need to pick up some items.”
“What items?” Spike asked, trying to follow the fast-moving Doctor.
The Doctor looked up from his console. “The Elements of Harmony, of course!” He yanked a lever, and the machine lurched into motion, knocking Spike off of his feet. The whole room jerked violently from side to side, as if being tossed about by the waves of the sea at high wind. Then, as suddenly as the shaking had begun, it stopped. Spike got to his feet as the Doctor hurried to the door. He strapped a nearby hanging saddlebag to his side, flung the door open and ran out with Spike following in his wake.
They stepped out into the storage cupboard they had entered minutes before. As they entered the hallway, Spike saw early morning sunlight streaming through the window. “Where- I mean, when are we?” he asked.
“At the beginning of the day, about twelve hours earlier,” the Doctor called back. “Now hurry, we need to get to the Vault. It’s locked, and I need you to open it.”
“But earlier- I mean, later- I mean, before we left the future, I checked the Vault and it was empty,” Spike said, puffing as he tried to keep up with the Doctor’s sprint.
“Exactly,” said the Doctor. “Because we’d already collected them in a second now.”
“Okay,” said Spike, trying to make sense of the confusion. “So because we collect them now, they won’t be there in the future for us to collect back then.”
“Precisely,” replied the Doctor. “Getting the hang of it now?” he asked.
“No, not really,” said Spike.
“Good, you’re smarter than most,” said the Doctor as he slid down a hallway, coming to rest in front of the door to the Vault. Spike opened it to reveal the six Elements of Harmony, gleaming softly on their pedestals. The Doctor took a sack out of his saddlebags and scooped the Elements into it. He turned to leave.
“Wait,” said Spike, a thought occurring to him. “How did you know that we’d been here and taken the Elements though?”
The Doctor stopped. “Oh, you’re right. Thanks for the reminder.” He fished a stamp out of his saddlebag and marked the empty pedestal with it. The stamp left no mark. “Infraviolet ink,” he said to Spike. “Very outdated. I’m the only one who still uses it, so my sensors can still detect it. Kind of like a message to myself. I noticed it when I was in this room in the future.”
Spike hopped up onto the Doctor’s back and they dashed back to the TARDIS. “So, what’s next?” the dragon asked as the door closed behind them. He hopped off the pony’s back.
“Now, we need to find some reinforcements if we’re going to get this thing to work.” He strode over to a screen on the console and tapped a few buttons. He looked at the screen and let out a sigh. “Well, nothing for it now,” he said.
“What is it?” asked Spike.
The Doctor looked away from his screen. “There’s only one place to visit.” He flicked a few more switches, yanked a lever, and the TARDIS began its rattling ride again. Once they’d landed, the Doctor strode over to the door and looked back. “Stay here,” he said. “I should be back soon, and please please please for the love of all that is good, do not wander off!” The pony opened the door and strode out.
About twenty minutes later, he returned with Shining Armor and Cadance in tow. Spike could tell from their faces that the Doctor had broken the news to them. Cadance’s eyes were rimmed with red and tears were still busy streaking down her face. Shining Armor’s eyes were completely dry, because the inferno that raged in them completely boiled away any moisture that might happen to leak from them.
Their faces changed as they seemed to take in the inside of the magical machine. They stared in astonishment, and Spike thought he got a pretty good reflection of what his face must have looked like.
“It’s... It’s...” they began together.
“Yes?” asked the Doctor, his head cocked to one side, eyes half closed.
“It’s bigger on the inside!” they intoned.
A wide grin spread across the Doctor’s face and his eyes lit up. “That it is, my friends, that it is. And with it, we can travel anywhere and anywhen we need to go in order to stop Discord’s chaos. Now that we’ve gathered Equestria’s strongest forces, we can put our plan into action.
“Wait,” interjected Cadance. “I know you said that Celestia and Twilight were... gone.” She gulped. “But what about Luna? Can’t she help us?”
The Doctor grew somber. “I scanned Equestria for Alicorn power signatures,” he said. “Yours was the only one that showed up.”
“Oh...” she replied. More tears ran down her face, but they did so silently.
The Doctor hesitated. “My scanners also showed... the Element bearers have all disappeared. Discord’s gotten to them all. We need to investigate their crime scenes. See what happened to them. Then we can get working on what needs to happen next. The good news is that they aren’t dead.”
We all looked at him with surprise. “They’re not,” he confirmed. “First off, killing isn’t Discord’s style. Only an act of extreme anger or vengeance would drive him to that. Second of all, the TARDIS would still be able to find the Bearers even if they were dead. The fact that it can’t detect them means that something else is going on.”
Having reassured us, the Doctor began racing around the console, pressing buttons, programming in a new destination. He yanked a lever. So began a series of erratic and uncomfortable rides. Each stop we made, the doors opened on a new location. Sugarcube Corner. Empty. Carousel Boutique. Deserted. Sweet Apple Acres. Destroyed. Fluttershy’s Cottage. Annihilated. We even opened on an blank stretch of sky, the clouds around it warped and scorched, as if burned by some terrible magic. At each location, the Doctor leapt out, scanned around with mysterious machines, and then returned to the TARDIS, intent on the next scene. At the last one, Cadance and Shining Armor even had to hold him out of the TARDIS with magic to get him where he wanted.
Finally, we made one last trip. Even before the door opened, Spike had steeled himself for this. He was determined to see it, no matter how much it hurt. The TARDIS touched down, and its doors opened on Twilight’s library. Nobody spoke. One by one, they quietly made their way to the entrance, the door having been blasted off of its hinges. We entered the tree. The Doctor began poking around with his machines, while the rest of us took in the scene.
The library was completely trashed. The books were all in disarray, tossed off of their shelves and scattered on the floor. The edges of all the pages were singed and several of the stairs on the staircase were broken. The room smelt of the burnt-metal smell of magic. There was another scent there too, one that Spike didn’t recognize. An acrid, sour, burnt smell.
Once the Doctor had finished his investigations, we retreated back to the TARDIS. “Well, at least Twily didn’t give up without a fight.” said Shining Armor as we walked from the library.
“How can you tell?” Spike asked.
“The smell.”
“All the magic?” Spike asked.
“No, the other one,” Shining Armor replied.
“I smelled that one too,” said Spike. “What was it though?”
Shining Armor gave a bitter half-smile. “Burnt goat.”
Once we’d returned to the TARDIS, the Doctor went straight to the center console and punched in the data he’d received from his machines. After it was all analyzed, the Doctor stared at his screen for a long moment. Then, he shook his head slowly and let out a long breath. “What is it?” asked Cadance.
The Doctor looked at us. “He’s changed them,” the pony said. “He changed them and sent them to another universe. And to a planet. One I know well, very well indeed.” The Doctor paused. “He’s sent them to Earth.”
There was a long silence. Spike, Shining Armor and Cadance looked around at each other, nonplussed. “Is that name... supposed to mean anything to us?” asked Cadance after a while, looking at the Doctor quizzically.
“Oh. I suppose it’s not.” said the Doctor, frowning. “But it does mean that I know what he’s doing and how to reverse it. To do so, we need two things: the Elements of Harmony, and Discord. Luckily, my ship’s locked onto his energy signature, so we can track him.”
“Alright,” said Shining Armor, in a down-to-business tone. “We’ll need to work fast if we want to stop Discord before he can sink his teeth into Equestria.”
The Doctor smiled. “Why work faster when you can work earlier?” he asked. He started running around the console again, pressing buttons and flicking switches.
“Where are we going this time?” Spike asked.
“To about a week ago,” replied the Doctor. “This plan needs quite a bit of setup.”
******************************************************
The sun didn’t set on Discord’s Empire. That wasn’t due to the Empire’s size or its length, nor was it an abstract metaphor for the power Discord wielded. It was simply due to the fact that, for the first five days or so, the sun just didn’t go down. It stayed where it was, stubbornly shining in late afternoon position. The moon had taken to revolving around it, like an electron orbiting the nucleus of an atom. Gravity went wonky, the clouds changed color and the sun kept on shining.
It shone on the sky. It shone on the draconequus swimming through the sky. And it shown on the clearing of trees where, down below, four pairs of eyes watched the draconequus approach. They all nodded to one another. As Discord flew onwards, he was unaware of the movement down below. He was unaware of the plot made against him.
He was unaware of the dual-cast stunning bolt, right up until the moment when it hit him in the back. From his hiding spot down below, Spike saw Discord plummet towards the ground, straight towards them. For Twilight, he thought grimly. About fifty feet before he hit the ground, the stunning spell lifted. Discord tried to fly away, but two beams of magic caught him and they, with the help of gravity, slammed him down against a stone platform that had been set up in the center of the clearing.
Instantly, before Discord could react, a purple force field shimmered into place around him, containing him. Six of the trees in the clearing had their disguises torn away, to reveal six pillars, cunning combinations of stone and machinery, each with an Element of Harmony set at its core, with wires connecting them each to a large glass globe set on top. At the push of a button, power surged through the wires. The Elements glowed softly, filling the glass globes above them with colored light. The globes fired their beams at Discord, each one hitting him directly. He howled in pain and dropped to the stone.
Immediately, three ponies and a dragon leapt from the bushes and rushed to the writhing draconequus. Each member of the quartet was wearing goggles to protect them from the bright lights of the machines. “Are you sure this will work?!” asked Shining Armor, yelling to be heard over the roaring of the Elements.
“Of course!” yelled the Doctor. “These machines convert the arcane energy from the Elements of Harmony into an electromagnetic form, which should reverse Discord’s spells, bringing the Bearers right here, next to both their Elements and Discord, ready to kick his hairy-”
There was a bright flash. Discord leapt to his feet, the energy from the Element rolling off of him like a wave. That wave swept through the clearing, knocking the four off their feet. The pillars were no longer firing their beams, and were instead sparking erratically. Discord stood inside his purple prison, smiling maliciously.
Shining Armor sprang to his feet. “You’re not going anywhere!” he cried.
“How boring,” Discord said, and yawning, he snapped his fingers. Shining Armor’s horn disappeared, and the forcefield winked out of existence. Discord floated over to where the Doctor was struggling to get to his feet. “Well, well, well, Doctor,” said Discord. “I see, you’re still around, meddling in other ponies’ business.”
He looked around at the six pillars that surrounded the clearing. “I take it this is your attempt to foil my latest plans?” He burst out laughing. “Honestly, a Filly Scout troop with water guns could have picked your plan apart. The Elements you once knew might have been able to work with machines. Might. But that was a long time ago, and these Elements have been tamed, controlled. They only respond to a bearer who is worthy of them, not a heartless machine.” His face turned serious. “Unfortunately, I’m afraid this can’t go on any longer. You’ve messed with my plans one time too many, and I intend to pay you back for that.”
He advanced towards the Doctor with a claw crackling with black energy. The Doctor backed up until he was against one of the mechanical pillars. “I’m afraid I can’t include you in this little game I’m playing with the other ponies,” Discord said. “You’re simply far too dangerous. So I’m afraid it’s good bye, Doctor. Forever.”
“Stop,” the Doctor said. “You don’t have to do this.” Discord paused. “You could see so much more,” the Doctor continued. “You could see beauty.” He looked up at the sky, where stars were twinkling, despite the afternoon light. “With a mind like that, we could appreciate the stars. Because you don’t need to twist the universe, just see it. To have the privilege of seeing the natural chaos that is the whole of time and space. That’s entertainment enough. There’s enough out there without you having to shape it on your own.”
Discord paused for a moment. “No...” he said finally. “I have my plan and I’m going to stick to it. I’ll do things my way.” His cruel grin returned. “Besides, my way’s much more fun.” He raised his hand to strike.
“Well, if these are my last words, I suppose I’d better make them count,” sighed the Doctor.
“Oh? And what would they be?” asked Discord, amused.
“Never let me talk!” cried the Doctor. He kicked out with one his back legs and hit a button on the machine behind him. The machine, already damaged from Discord’s maltreatment, went haywire. The globe on top of it burst in a brilliant flash of dazzling light. The quartet, already wearing protective goggles, were unharmed, but Discord was blinded.
“Run!” yelled the Doctor, and the four burst into motion, leaving the cursing draconequus behind to recover his sight. They dashed through the forest, weaving through the trees. They followed the Doctor’s lead, hearing Discord crash through the brush behind them, searching for their trail. They burst into another clearing, where the TARDIS sat, waiting. They all ran through the doors and inside. Once there, the Doctor raced over to the console and pressed a blue button. There was a high pitched sound and all the light in the room dimmed, to the point where we could barely see one another’s faces.
“I’ve turned the shield into an invisibility field,” said the Doctor, who was still busy pushing buttons on the console. “It should buy us some time. I had to disable the converters on the TARDIS to use them for our plan, so I’m afraid we’re sitting ducks. But there’s still a way out of this. We can still survive.” He grabbed Cadance by the shoulders and pulled her over to a screen. “But it all depends on you, Cadance. I need you to learn this spell. It’s a variation on Twilight’s memory spell, and I know the princess taught it to you to use in emergency Discord cases like this. Can you do this variation?”
Cadance studied the diagram. “Yeah,” she said. “It doesn’t look too difficult, but it will take a while. What does it do?” she asked.
“Discord’s going to turn us into humans,” the Doctor replied. “I know, you don’t know what that is. It doesn’t matter. When he does, we’ll lose all our memories. This spell will ensure that, at some point later on, we’ll regain those memories in force. They would return on their own eventually, but if we’re going to stop Discord, we’ll need them as soon as possible.”
“But what about you?” Shining Armor asked. “Discord won’t curse you, he’ll kill you!”
“I need to make him curse me,” said the Doctor. “Fortunately, I know just how to do that.” He pressed another button and the diagram on the screen changed, He looked at Cadance. “What about this one?” he asked. “Can you do this spell?”
Cadance blinked in surprise as she saw the spell. ‘Oh!” she cried. “I already know this one!”
“You do!?” cried the Doctor.
She nodded. “Yeah, I learned it a while back.”
The Doctor grabbed her and kissed her on the forehead. “Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you,” he said “Thank Celestia for you. Now, there’s one last thing to take care of.” He pressed a button on the console and a helmet descended from the ceiling. At the same time, he pulled a pocket watch out from a panel underneath the console.
“This helmet is called a Chameleon Arch,” he said. “Discord will change me into a normal human. I can’t let him do that while I’m a Time Lord. A Time Lord mind plus a human body is a fatal combination. So, I’ll use the machine to turn myself into a normal pony and store my mind in here,” he held up the watch. “I’ll lock it, so it isn’t opened at the wrong place and the wrong time, and I’ll write down how to open it, but you three need to find it. I won’t remember. Cadance’s spell won’t work on me, because all my memories will be in the watch. I’m trusting you guys with this. Now, here’s what we do next...”
******************************************************
Spike stood in position, just as the Doctor had instructed. He heard a heavy noise cut through the darkness. It was Discord, flying towards us. A voice cut through the darkness. “The invisibility won’t hold us for long. He’ll find us very soon.” A monitor flickered to life a few feet in front of me. By its light I could see the Doctor’s face. He looked around at the three of us. Cadance stood off to the left, deep in concentration. Her horn was glowing intensely, and a light glow shimmered around us too. “This is very important. Pay attention. The psychelock won’t last forever, but my new body wouldn’t survive this mind, it would kill me.” We heard a crash as Discord slammed against the doors of the TARDIS.
The Doctor looked at the doors. “He’s here. We’re out of time,” he said. Panic started to fill Spike’s mind. “Don’t panic,” said the Doctor, looking at him sharply. “Stay calm. And remember, find the Journal of the Timekeeper.” Spike nodded. Another boom shook the doors. The Doctor bent down and placed his head in the helmet. “Alright,” he said. “Begin.”
The lights in the room blazed to life. Electricity coursed through the helmet. The Doctor began to scream. He was obviously in excruciating pain. The doors burst open, and Discord entered the room, adding to the existing chaos. Spike launched himself at Discord. No, this wasn’t right. It was too soon. Cadance needed more time. Spike stood between the group and Discord. “No!” he cried. “I won’t let you hurt them!”
Discord chuckled. “A little pipsqueak like you? Stop me? That’s just too funny.” His voice turned low and cruel. “Fine, if you want to go first, I won’t get in your way.” He looked back to where Cadance was still struggling in the throes of magic. “I’ll have plenty of time to fix you and deal with that princess before her spell’s up.” He raised a claw filled with white energy and fired it at Spike. The bolt caught him square in the chest. Discord cackled and began to speak.
For Five Score! Divided by Four!
Your memories removed! Your bodies confused!
For Chaos’ sake, a game we’ll play!
Cast off to a land far, far away!
To crush all resistance and annoying persistence!
To sink in despair in a land unaware!
In retribution for acting the fool,
So begins Discord’s new rule!
Discord’s mad cackle rang in Spike’s ears, but the cackle stopped abruptly. “What’s going on?” he said. “Why is it taking so long? You should have been gone by now.” The magic kept pouring from his claw, building up slowly, agonizingly slowly, around Spike.
Spike smiled grimly. “Magic resistance,” he said. “Quite the useful talent.” He looked over at where Cadance was continuing her spell. “I guess you won’t be able to get to your other plans as quickly as you thought.” Discord snarled and moved to pull his hand away from the spell.
“Ah, ah, ah.” said Spike warningly. “You know as well as I do what happens when you try and cancel a spell this strong mid-cast. You know where that energy goes. Boom. So it’s either plod along with this spell here, or risk disintegration.”
Discord roared in frustration. “You will pay dearly for the time you bought!” he hissed. “This magic resistance comes with a price! I was going to send you to the human world quick and easy, but you’ve bought yourself a snail-mail seat. Who knows, it could even take years to make the journey. Hope you brought a few books.” Spike stared at him, resolution in his eyes.
Finally, after a solid minute, the spell was complete. Spike’s body began to fade away slowly, starting at his toes. Discord ripped his gaze away from the dragon to look at Cadance. Just in time to see her finish the spell. There was a blinding flash of light. Discord, wise to the trick, covered his eyes with his hands and looked away.
Spike looked down. His knees were starting to vanish now. After, five seconds, the light faded. Discord turned to look at the others. Shining Armor charged at him. Contemptuously, Discord swatted him aside. He sailed away and smashed into the center console. Discord shot him with a blast and chanted the same spell he’d used on Spike. In a flash, Shining Armor was gone.
He turned to Cadance. She was wearing a saddlebag and standing, looking extremely bewildered. “What... Who... Where am I?” she said.
“Confused?” said Discord. “I can fix that. I won’t, but I could.” With a wave of his hand, Cadance was blasted with the same spell as her husband. Spike glanced away. His waist had disappeared.
Discord stalked towards the Doctor, who was huddled against the center console. He reached out and grabbed the Doctor by the throat, lifting him into the air. His claw crackled with black energy again. “Wait,” said the Doctor. “Just-just let me-”
“Just let you what? Talk your way out of this again? Not likely. It ends now.” Discord hissed. He raised his claw to strike. The Doctor relaxed. Pink fire started at his middle and spread all the way down his body. Wherever it passed, it left pink fur in its wake. As it passed over his back, wings appeared. A horn and a bright, multi-colored mane appeared as the fire spread over his head. In seconds, Discord was left holding Princess Cadance.
“What is this?!” cried Discord, confused.
Cadance grinned. “Did you think I’d go through an entire changeling invasion without picking up a few tricks? I’ve been working on that spell for quite some time, and I must say, it’s one of my favorites.”
Discord shook the princess. “Where’s the Doctor?” he growled.
Cadance didn’t stop grinning. The spell was up to Spike’s arms now. “The Doctor isn’t feeling too well,” Cadance replied. “In fact, the last time I saw him, he was looking a little pink.” Cadance’s grin broadened as the truth dawned on Discord. “We switched places during the flash.” she said.
Discord’s smug grin returned. Cadance’s disappeared. That grin meant bad news. “So, what you’re saying is that my princess is in another castle, eh? Well, don’t worry. I have a few cheat codes. I like this one. It’s my very own homemade tracking device,” he said. The energy in his hand turned white, and he stabbed it into Cadance’s chest. She screamed. Discord began to speak.
For Five Score! Divided by Four!
Your memories removed! Your bodies confused!
To act as a stake, to gather together,
The other rebellors, the birds of a feather!
Like moths to a flame, to you they’ll be drawn,
Go into the world, my unwilling pawn!
A link to the others, from you to the rest,
So go ahead ponies, put me to the test.
Cadance continued screaming as the light engulfed her. Just then, the spell reached Spike’s eyes. My vision faded to white. The memory ended, and I knew no more.