//------------------------------// // CH 3 // Story: Discord, Mania And Charlie Mare // by plotdotgif //------------------------------// “Well, that was much quicker than I had expected.” Discord said as he finished off the last of those delicious steamed puddings one of the humans had made for him. In the space of an hour, Discord had taken over half the continent some of the humans had shouted ‘America’. Nice name, nicer steamed puddings. He was just about to pour himself another glass of chocolate rain when Victor stumbled into his throne room. “Boss, something terrible has happened!” he roared “Well spit it out man!” Discord squawked “You made me spill my drink!” “The ponies! They’re here! And they have your sister hostage!” “I HAVE A SISTER?!” The plan was working perfectly. With Mania bound to a tree the ponies were dragging, the ponies were striding through Discord’s massive army of horrid, misshapen creatures. The ponies were striding to Discord’s surprisingly brightly coloured tower of solidified Chaos. Though something felt very wrong for Veil. As the ponies entered Discord’s throne room, they saw him smacking Victor the Yeti around the head with the closest thing he had at hand, his throne. “What in tarnation…?” Applejack began “Long story. Don’t want to bother you with the details.” Discord said casually “So where is this Draconequus claiming to be my sister?! I never had a sister! I recall having two brothers and a walking kumquat for a pet, but that’s beside the point! SO WHERE IS SHE?!” “Right here Discord.” Said Mania cruelly, “Sorry my little ponies, looks like you’ve been double crossed!” As she said this, chains appeared around all the ponies’ necks. When the chains were attached, all the colour drained out of them. They struggled at first, but then they began transforming. All the ponies grew long, savage teeth that were chipped and notched. Their manes and tails grew wild and untamed. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershys wings grew to huge proportions, while the horns of Twilight and rarity elongated and split, and soon they had a near forest of horns on their heads. Even Pinkie Pie and Applejack weren’t safe from Mania’s evil chaos magic. Pinkie Pie’s wild mane became perfectly straight and razor sharp, while Applejack’s hind legs became huge and muscled. The ponies had been turned savage, wild and barbaric. So this was the power of Mania. Mania held the chains holding the straining ponies back from tearing Discord limb from limb. Their mouths were foaming and even in Mania’s strong grip, it looked like she couldn’t hold on forever. She didn’t say a word, but instead motioned for Discord to evict his throne. Discord was off like a flash. Mania sat on her throne, and nailed the chains of the ponies to the ground, surrounding her throne from any attack. Then she spoke in a new, infinitely more commanding and powerful voice, FEAST YOUR EYES ON THE NEW RULER OF THE REALM OF HUMANS! I SHALL CAST A TERRIBLE REIGN, WHICH WILL BE EXTENDED TO ALL OF EQUESTRIA, AND THEN, OH AND THEN, I SHALL SHAKE THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE CHAOS REALM! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! BUT A FITTING TITLE MUST BE MINE. NO LONGER SHALL I BE MANIA, BUT NOW, ALL WILL TREMBLE BEFORE DEMENTIA! Veil was at a loss. The entire world was plunged into even more chaos than it was before. Veil cantered out of the chaos tower. Even chaos was changing. The bright colours of Discord had now become dark, gloomy and foreboding. Discord himself was sitting upon the steps, wallowing in self-pity. Veil was about to attempt to comfort Discord, when he noticed a familiar rainbow mane. Celestia was fighting her way through the hordes of chaos creatures when she noticed Discord on the stairs of his palace. She flew into the air and dived to the steps. She landed with grace and poise, and trotted over to Discord who was- no, he couldn’t be, he was weeping! “Great. Now you, of all ponies show up now. What now? Turn me to stone again? Torment me on how I lost my entire kingdom in the space of five minutes? Because I’m sick of it! This world was already in complete chaos! All I had to do was make myself known!” he wailed. “No.” Celestia said simply “Dementia now threatens the human realm, Equestria and she has set her sights on the Realm of Chaos. We cannot allow her to destroy these worlds!” “WHAT?!” Discord yelled “I don’t get it. What will happen if those three realms are destroyed?” asked Veil. “Yes, there are millions of other realms, and many gateways to them.” Discord explained “However, The Human Realm, The Chaos Realm and Equestria are the only three realms who keep all the other realms together. That’s why they are called Guardian Realms.” “So essentially, if all of the Guardian Realms were to collapse, all of the other universes would collapse too. It would be the end of everything. Worse than any Doomsday.” “We need to stop her!” Veil yelled “We have to do something! Anything!” Celestia and Discord both looked at each other and nodded. It had seemed that they had come to an unspoken agreement. “Well, I do have one hidden power I can use. But it’s a biggie, and even harder to use.” Discord said “I could make you my champion. It will lend you my powers, but only for fifteen minutes.” “I can also give you something. I never thought I would have to use this.” Sighed Celestia. She lowered her horn and summoned a sword, with a shining alabaster blade and golden wings for a handle guard and a small golden shield as a pommel. “It is a dark thing, created by ancient ponies long ago.” She explained “Created only for destruction, this foul weapon was locked away for centuries in the palace. It was never meant to see the light of day, but I’m afraid it is a very dark day.” “Thank you Celestia for your sacrifice, but how will I use it? I have no magic, and I don’t have hands!” Veil moped. Discord put his hand on Veil’s shoulder. The same tingling sensation arose through him as when he was pushed through the Rainbow Veil. Bones shifted, hair receded, fingers grew and soon enough, there was standing Charlie Mare. Dementia was plotting. She had a massive army, unlimited resources of chaos and some of the most powerful ponies of Equestria corrupted and at her command, but where, oh where did she attack first? Equestria, or the Chaos Realm? Both were VERY good choices, but she was afraid that she would need a much bigger army to attack Equestria, and a veritable galaxy of soldiers to attack her home realm. So invading another realm sounded like a good idea. But where to start? And how could she find a portal? Her train of thought was interrupted as a human slammed open the door, startling her guard ponies. Charlie Mare was furious. He remembered everything. The mocking laughter of Dementia was burned into his memory, and the fact that he may never see the only friends he had ever had again fuelled his anger even more. He brandished the sword so tight, his fingernails gut into his hand and made it bleed. But Charlie didn’t take any notice. FOOLISH MORTAL! WHO DARES CHALLENGE MIGHTY DEMENTIA? SPEAK THY NAME SO I MAY KNOW WHO I AM SENDING TO THEIR OBLIVION! “My name is Charlie Mare!” he cried, emphasising every word with a heavy foot fall “And I will NOT stand by as you destroy my world! I will NOT watch as you collapse the very fabric of our world! And I will NOT STAND BY WHEN YOU TAKE MY FRIENDS AWAY FROM ME!!!” To this, Charlie was met with yet more mocking laughter YOU LITTLE FOOL! YOU ARE WEAK AND PATHETIC! EVEN WITH YOUR PUNY WEAPONS YOU ARE NO MATCH FOR MY CHAOTIC POWERS! “That’s where you’re wrong Dementia. Discord! Now!” Charlie yelled defiantly. Discord rolled up his imaginary sleeves and threw all the magic he could muster to the young boy. He had to admit, that kid had some guts. Charlie Mare was beginning his transformation. Discord’s chaos magic felt rough and sharp. Almost dangerous, which it probably was. He grew to match Dementia’s immense size, his teeth nails became sharper than an eagle’s talons, his muscles bulged and twisted beneath his thin t-shirt and coat and a magical set of armour was placed on him. It was a haphazard piece of work, but what good bit of chaos wasn’t? It had multiple iron, steel and ebony pauldrons, a helmet thicker than was humanly possible to wear, an incredibly heavy pair of steel boots, a chainmail neck protector, an intricately decorated breastplate of a glossy black metal and a blood red cloak lined with even more chainmail. All to do now was to wait for Celestia’s magic. Celestia’s magic was very different from Discord’s but one would expect it to be. It felt flowing, natural and soft. He felt a magical horn protrude from his forehead, and huge feathered wings sprouted from his back beneath his cloak. The Champion’s Armour Discord had granted him was now glowing in a rainbow variety of colours. Charlie Mare was now not just a young boy, but the protector of many worlds he never knew existed. But this wasn’t the time for speculation. He was now the product of enemies working together to face someone they both could not face alone. He was The Knightmare. WHAT IS THIS? I CAN SEE NOW THAT YOU ARE NO MERE MORTAL. VERY WELL. YOU SHALL HAVE YOUR FIGHT! BUT FIRST, YOU MUST PROVE TO ME THAT YOU ARE WORTHY! DESTROY THESE PONIES! THEY ARE OF NO USE TO ME. This was obviously a trick by Dementia. She thought that he would fight fair against her. She thought he would destroy his only friends in his search for revenge. She wasn’t dealing with a stupid boy. The Knightmare uprooted all the chains from the ground and smashed the spikes into a wall. The savage ponies dangled there, forced to watch. Knightmare struck at Dementia, clawing her on the cheek. She fell to the ground and shrieked in pain. HOW DARE YOU?! YOU SHALL DIE HERE AND NOW! Knightmare wouldn’t stand for it. He drew back his sword and swung at Dementia who dodged back but slammed into a wall. Knightmare tried to slam her further into the wall, but she rolled over and smacked the back of his helmet. Discord and Celestia were watching the battle from a safe distance, but Discord wasn’t treating it very seriously. He had summoned a row of movie seats and a bucket of popcorn for him and Celestia. Only his side had more butter. The ponies that were stuck to the wall were still raging. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were struggling and pushing to fly away, but the chains holding them back were too strong. But something happened. Twilight Sparkle was watching the two titans fight and she began to wonder. Why was he doing this? He had nothing to gain from fighting her. He could lose his life fighting her. Why? Then she remembered. He was doing it for them. The chain around her neck began to steam. GIVE IT UP FOOL! YOU CAN NEVER DEFEAT ME! Cried Dementia. Knightmare was in a bad way. He was bleeding heavily from his shoulder, his vision was blurry and he had nearly nothing left. He raised up his hand in a feeble attempt to block what should have been the last blow, but Dementia’s hand was stayed. Everything stood still. Dementia looked up to her hand to see what was wrong. A purple particle cloud surrounded her hand, which could only mean one thing. Twilight had broken Dementia’s spell! And sure enough, she had freed her friends too. They looked at Knightmare with a grim look in their eyes. They knew he was doing what had to be done. They just had to help him. “Discord! We need the Elements of Harmony!” Twilight yelled. Discord was so bowled over by excitement, he almost fell over in his rush to stand up “But they won’t work in this realm!” Celestia yelled “Ah, but the one fundamental, unshakable thing about chaos magic my dear princess is that anything can happen at any time for no reason. Essentially, it is completely unpredictable.” He smiled wickedly. He clapped his hands and in a flash of white light, all the ponies were wearing their Elements of Harmony. They activated, and a rainbow beam of light was shot directly into Knightmare. He was so powered at this point, he became like a god. Knightmare rose into the air, wind rustling his cloak about him. He then spoke from beneath his gleaming helm Dementia, for your wicked crimes, I hereby banish you… to oblivion! Knightmare raised the sword, and out of it shot a blinding white light. It twisted around Dementia, Snaking between her arms and legs and covering her in white light. The light slowly pulsed and expanded as she cried out. But then it stopped. Fifteen minutes had passed. It was all over. The glowing armour evaporated, his teeth and nails became reasonably sized again and his muscled form shrank and twisted Knightmare back into the young boy Charlie Mare. Dementia laughed triumphantly. YOU FOOLS! NOTHING CAN STOP ME! I AM INVINCIBLE! I WILL DESTROY THE ENTIRE MULTIVERSE, AND EVERY SINGLE LAST THING IN IT! STARTING WITH YOU! She lunged at the small boy. He stood up. The world had been slowed. Discord was using the last of his magic to save Charlie. He gave Discord a nod, and the raised the sword. He raised it far above his head and brought it down with a thunderous yell. He heard the blade sink into the flesh of Dementia, and then, she started to change. It was slow at first, then gradually, from the hilt down, the sword turned to stone. Dementia reeled back in shock as her face slowly turned to stone. She tried to scream, but only a muffled gasp of air came out, but somehow, it was scarier than any scream. In a few minutes, it was all over. There stood a perfect statue of Dementia. But then, cracks appeared. The cracks quickly spread and soon, the whole statue was crumbling. All that was left was a small pile of dust. Charlie collapsed and became Veil Otherworld once again. There was a small flash on his flank, and there appeared a pair of golden swords crossed behind a shield. The ponies carried Veil back to the portal, while Discord was made to clean up the mess he had created by Celestia. Hopefully with all the blanked memories of humans, none would ever believe this happened. When he awoke, Veil was back in the library again. He slowly sat up, but Fluttershy told him to lie down again. His injuries had not been able to heal completely. Twilight, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Celestia walked into his room. “I think I stirred up a bit of trouble when I came here. I’m sorry.” Veil moped “It’s not your fault Veil. It never was.” Fluttershy reassured him “Yes. You were only doing what you had to do.” Rarity said “If anything, we should apologise to you.” “Yeah! And it was so awesome when you took on Dementia!” Rainbow Dash squealed ecstatically “And then when you wooshed across the room to tackle her, a rainbow appeared behind you! It was soooo cool!” Pinkie Pie bounced up and down “It was a very brave thing you did Veil Otherworld.” Celestia said “It takes great courage to stand up to your enemies, but even greater courage is needed to stand up to your friends.” “Thank you Princess.” Veil said as he bowed his head “In fact, I think we all learned a valuable lesson about friendship. Even Discord.” She said amusedly “But now, it’s time to PARTY!!!” Pinkie Pie squeaked as she wheeled out her party cannon. The party was an amazing success. Even Discord was invited. He was showing magic tricks to some of the young fillies while the cider drinking contest was underway yet again, and it was down to Veil and Applejack. Pinkie Pie was dancing with what looked like multiple copies of herself, along with other ponies who were watching with amazement, confusion and happiness. Many of the other ponies were playing games and eating the delicious cakes and pies from Sugar Cube Corner and most importantly, everyone was having fun. Celestia decided that it was time. She walked over to Veil who had just won the cider contest and was now celebrating by taking a long sit down. “It’s time to go Veil.” Celestia said “Go? Where?” Veil managed “Home.” Charlie Mare woke up just outside the portal. Celestia had made it quite clear. It was a shame. He hated to say goodbye to his friends. Pinkie Pie was crying a river that almost washed away Ponyville and Rarity could barely hold back her tears. Even in times of great sadness, she had an image to protect after all. Veil was about to step through the World Veil when Celestia tapped her horn on his head. He stepped through the portal into the human realm. But he remembered everything; before entering the portal, his stay in Ponyville, defeating Dementia and all of Pinkie Pie’s fantastical parties. This last memory is what made Charlie smile the most. He shed a single tear and felt something fall out of his pocket as he stood up. It was a photograph. It was all of them, smiling together, laughing together and playing together. It also had a small note in the corner. It read: Thank you for being another friend to us Veil. We’ll never forget you, and we hope this will never let you forget us. Signed, Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack Pinkie Pie And Spike And written on the back of the photograph was another small message. P.S: If you ever want to send us a letter, just send it to 14 Apple Street.