Chapter Twenty-five: Weathering the Storm
Ace, Twilight, and Night Scroll sat upstairs in the library; Ace and Twilight rested flank-to-flank upon her bed while Night Scroll laid on Ace’s circular one. Night Scroll was looking around the small room, a smile on her face as though she had never seen the inside of another pony’s home before.
“What news doth thou bring from Canterlot, my sister? Has there been any minor disturbances in the kingdom that can be attributed to the chaos spirit?” Night Scroll brought her eyes to gaze at the pair again, her features portraying a more serious look now.
Night Scroll shook her head. “There were a few leads, but the Shadow Sentinels have declared they are nothing worthy of mine attention; if the spirit has returned since his departure, it hath not been in Canterlot.”
Ace held a hoof to his chin as he nodded. “Likely, the elements are not yet charged. I must say, I know not how long it would take them to do so in a dimensional shard created entirely of Chaos. It could take only days, or maybe take weeks,” Ace shrugged as he shook his head. “I just don’t have any way of knowing, no way of testing.”
Twilight nodded, pulling a piece of parchment and an inkwell and quill from the writing desk downstairs. “So, the plan so far is-“ Night Scroll’s horn lit in a black aura that matched Ace’s as the same glow wafted around the parchment as it burned in a brilliant blue flame. Twilight nearly jumped away, but Ace rested a hoof over her back to reassure her as well as hold her in place.
“We must not allow the plan to be written, my dear Twilight,” Ace said as Night Scroll moved the ashes to a waste bin. “As I mentioned to Rarity, the plan is reliant on the Chaos Spirit knowing nothing about it.” Twilight only managed to nod in reply as the quill and inkwell found their way back to the writing desk.
“Okay… Well the plan so far, is that we wait for Discord to appear,” she said, which caused Ace to laugh slightly as Night Scroll shook her head with a sigh. “What now?”
Twilight looked to Ace, his laugh persisting as he shook his head now as well. “We had been avoiding calling the Chaos Spirit by name to ensure he wasn’t paying attention, but it would seem that ship has sailed.” Twilight’s cheeks tinted pink as she realized how little attention she had been paying.
Night Scroll sighed once again with a nod as she spoke, “The plan requires finding the spirit as he appears, trapping him in an anti-magic trap, and then triggering my brother’s magical overload. Once he has overloaded, Twilight Sparkle is to teleport in with her magic and take the elements…” her hoof met her face before she continued, glaring at Ace as she said the final word, “’elsewhere.’”
Twilight nodded at the mention of her role in the plan. “Princess Luna is going to help Ace reach the overload by flooding him with her magic, since she knows the most about it and too much magic could cause the overload to kill him.” They both looked at her for a moment with their eyebrows raised before they both shared a sigh.
Twilight was only growing more and more confused as the pair had apparently set their own rules and made their own code for the conversation, and Twilight appeared to be breaking every one of them. Ace pulled off his glasses and laid them on the nightstand by his bed.
“After the overload, Night Scroll and I are going to find a way to… make sure that the chaos spirit doesn’t pose any more… problems in the future.” Night Scroll nodded, the serious look almost appearing to deepen. “I’m going to go and double check Rarity’s progress. Wait here.”
With that, Ace teleported away in the black flash of his magic. This left Twilight alone with Night, who stretched with a yawn. Before Night had finished her stretching, Ace reappeared next to Twilight in the same black flash. “As she mentioned, the nets will not be finished until later tonight.”
Everypony was quiet for a moment, both of them looking at Twilight as if they were expecting something. Twilight looked between the two trying to think of what it was. “So, um, you’re Ace’s sister? Are you as old as he is?”
This seemed to make both of them relax as Night nodded with a smile. “Indeed I am, as I am the older sister. In fact, Ace is the youngest of us. Ace and I are not related by blood, if that was meant to be your next inquiry.” Twilight nodded, remembering that Ace had said he was the last of his bloodline.
“But you are able to speak Al Bhed fluently enough that you don’t realize that you’re doing it. You must have been speaking Al Bhed for a very long time.” Ace and Night both nodded in synchronicity before Night smiled sheepishly.
“Yes, Ace taught me a long time ago while we were adventuring together. It’s actually a cypheric language in regards to Equestrian. For example, the letter ‘D’ in common Equestrian is the letter ‘T’ in Al Bhed.” Night Scroll nodded as Ace smiled and continued the story.
“Each night when we stopped to rest, I would teach her the glyphs, and once she had memorized each of them, I started to teach her the pronunciations. In total, it only took a week or two,” Ace shrugged before he continued. “A day to learn and a lifetime to master, however, as it took quite some time before she was able to speak it entirely fluently.”
Twilight thought about the beautiful script of the language that was like artwork in its own right. “Does that mean that you could teach me how to speak it as well?” she asked, looking between the two. They nodded in unison again, but this time it was Ace who smiled nervously.
“Certainly. Once the chaos spirit is taken care of, we could likely start lessons as soon as you ask. There may be other pressing matters that come into view, but as of now I can see no reason not to, my student,” Ace said as Twilight beamed at the thought of not only learning a new language, but her special somepony’s mother tongue.
“So you and Ace use to travel together? What was it-“ before she could finish, they both looked to the town as if they could see straight through the walls that blocked their view. “What is it? Is there something wrong?”
Night Scroll was already leaping from the bed as Ace was affixing his lenses. “There is something right, my student. Discord is about to appear, and he has come to us. It is time to begin the plan.” Twilight’s mind started racing at a mile a minute. Her mouth started to work, but Ace only shook his head. “Nets or not, we must confront the threat now. We won’t get a second chance. Come, my dear student.” With that, he was chasing after Night Scroll as Twilight followed close behind him.
They raced through the small home and towards the marketplace. As they arrived, coming alongside Night Scroll who was already scowling at the air, a dimensional tear began to open. As it did, Night Scroll’s size magnified, her coat’s color changed to a dark sapphire blue, and a black peytral plate bearing the crest of the moon appeared as he cutie mark changed to that same crest with a black splotch over her haunch. When she had reached her full size, a pair of wings gave a powerful flap that kicked up some of the dust around her before they folded back to her sides.
As she changed, Princess Luna kept her gaze solid on the tear, awaiting the eventual appearance of their foe. “Twilight, this is the part of the plan where you retreat; do you not recall?” Twilight’s face paled at her own incompetence as Luna’s horn began to glow, gifting a visible stream of magic to her brother as his body started to shake.
Twilight teleported herself back to her house, standing upon the terrace with her arms over the banister as she fought for the best view she could afford. She managed to see the pair, but it was such a distance that she could only tell they were there and little else. The dimensional tear, however, was quite easily visible – as was Discord, who could be seen stepping out of it with a clawed hand reaching towards Ace as he did so.
The Draconequus appeared to be laughing, Ace appeared to be hurt and Luna appeared distraught. It was then that Twilight realized that Discord’s hand was feeding a stream of magic into Ace as well, causing him to over-overload! The white sphere that expanded from Ace before began to appear as his coat turned a brilliantly white and his mane and tail appeared to be aflame.
Not long after the sphere had begun to expand, however, it turned a solid black color while the lighting that arced from it was stark white. Instead of expanding, the black sphere was retracing, imploding; Ace looked to be in a great deal of pain as the blackness closed around his body. Parts of Ace’s body begun to disintegrate as Luna did her best to stop Discord, but the demon of a spirit only deflected her attacks the way one would bat away a fly.
Discord, draped in the six Elements of Chaos, was far stronger than even Luna could hope to be. Knowing that her magic could only fail her, she charged her horn full of magic and attempted to charge at the foe, but he only grasped her horn with his lion’s paw and shook his head as he threw her over a shoulder.
Discord’s stream of magic that flowed into Ace’s being halted, and the black sphere collapsed fully, causing a small explosion of magical energy that left only a charred mark upon the ground. Twilight’s hooves hit the flooring of the terrace hard as she watched the event unfold before her very eyes, and could do nothing to stop it.
Luna rose to her hooves, regaining her senses with a shake of her head. Once her vision had cleared, she saw Twilight standing where Ace had fought Discord. Luna trotted to the pony and came to a halt alongside her.
Twilight’s eyes overflowed with her emotions as she stood over the black streak – here in this very spot was all that remained of her special somepony. She could think of nothing. All that flew into her mind were the few memories she had of the pony. It was as though her life was flashing before her eyes, now ended after so very brief a time.
She felt something touch her shoulder, and she turned to see Luna standing over her. Sniffling, she tried to speak to the princess, but was only barely able to manage a blubber of a voice, “He’s…. Luna, he’s… Ace is dead…”
Before Luna could even open her mouth to reply, Twilight’s body became encompassed in a brilliant white glow. “He can’t be dead! There’s no way that Ace could ever die!” Twilight’s glow passed over the ground as her body buckled under the force of the powerful life magic.
Luna lifted the hoof off of her shoulder, but swiftly redelivered it across the tormented mare’s face. Twilight flew across the ground, her face swelling before she ever touched the earth.
“I know not for what purpose Ace has taught you to harness Life Magic, but this is not the time for you to offer your life for nothing in return, Twilight. I am certain that Ace has told you the very same.”
Twilight rested on her back, a single hoof supporting her as she angrily glared at her aggressor. “I have to save him! He would do the same thing for me!” Princess Luna only approached the injured Unicorn with a disdainful look on her features.
“Such was Ace’s way – Ace would give his right hoof to save the life of a stranger, if needs be. Be that as it may, Twilight, there is still an enemy that we must face. We know where he is likely to head next, but we cannot fight this foe on our own. Come with me, and together, we will finish what Ace could never do on his own.”
Princess Luna offered a hoof to the mare, who stared at it for a moment before finally nodding and taking it in her own. As she did, she was thrown onto Luna’s back as her wings spread wide, beating once before she leapt into the air. She flew southwest of the town, her speed causing Twilight to wrap her hooves around her neck for safety.
Discord tore a hole in space with his clawed hand, which bore the Element of Treachery. He stepped into the spacious underground room with a stretch, reacquainting himself with the weight of his beloved accessories. They were no longer the necklaces they were when he had stolen them from the vault, now taking on the form that most befitted their host.
As he was doing so, a pair of floating rocks flew over his head, spreading a purple light over himself. Once the light had crossed over his entire body, red lights shot on as a klaxon alarm soon followed; filling the room with both offensive light and sound.
Discord pressed his lion paw, which bored the Element of Lies, to his throat, just above the Element of Tears. As he spoke, his voice sounded precisely like Ace’s, “Subject: Discord Draconequus. Class: Assistant Unicorn. Clearance level: Five. Authorization: Ace Deus Fenrir. Confirmation: Two-seven-six-six.”
The alarm halted as the harsh red lights returned to a soft blue glow and the stones returned to their recesses. ’Welcome to the Workshop, Discord Draconequus, and may the moon grant its divine blessing upon you. Noblesse Oblige.’
Discord only laughed, commenting, “This is far too easy…” in his normal voice as the paw fell away at the voice in his head. As he did so, however, one of the doors in the lab opened. A Unicorn came through with a red-and-black amulet around his neck and a silver bracelet over his right shoulder that mirrored the pouch over his left.
“Override: Intruder! Belay previous order indefinitely! Deny Access: Discord Draconequus is an intruder!” As the Unicorn spoke, the alarm and lights returned, a sour face falling upon Discord’s features.
“My, my, my… You truly are full of surprises, aren’t you?” Discord said with a shrug as the stones from before flew out of the holes in the wall. His temper flaring, the Elements of Disharmony began to glow sharply. “Just what does it take to kill you, Wolf?!”
The lab tilted, bringing the equipment stacked against the back wall sliding past as the Unicorn’s hooves glowed – That is, all but one of his hooves glowed – in a spell he used to keep himself from losing his footing. As the equipment flew past, it started to come alive and attack the Unicorn.
A desk lounged at him, but the silver bracelet pulsed and a sword flew into his hoof in time to cleave the desk in two before it ever came within harm’s reach. As a pair of beakers flew towards the pony’s eyes, the sword changed into a shield as he deflected the projectiles. The bracelet pulsed again, this time beginning to form a suit of armor around the pony.
As the Unicorn was getting geared up, the stones of the lab attacked the Draconequus on their own, at first catching him off guard from behind with a short concussive blast that knocked Discord forward as he floated in the air.
Discord turned to assault the stones in his anger, but as he did so, he felt a pair of piercing pains in his back that tore through his being. He looked down to see two javelin heads peeking through the front of his chest. With a snarl, he tore them out through the front, crying out in pain with a howl as the javelins turned into large, jagged blades. The expanding of the metal tore at his insides.
The chaos spirit blasted a concussive force throughout the room, knocking the metal from his body as it fell to the bottom of the room. When he turned to face the opponent, the Unicorn was directly behind him, greeting him with a swing of a sword that caught him across his face as he reached a hoof toward the Amulet of Tears. The clasp of the amulet gave way under the force of the pony pulling it and the spirit recoiling from the normally lethal blow.
The Unicorn’s horn lit up and teleported the amulet away as he assumed his fighting stance against the floor-turned-slanted-wall with his hooves glowing, his silver armor glinting in the blue light. “Face it, Discord! So long as I wield the Amulet of the Alicorn, I am as strong as you even with the Elements under your command once more! Admit your defeat, and you may yet live to see Celestia again!”
Discord glared at the pony, his wounds healing rapidly in an orange glow. “I already told you, Fenrir, that Celestia means nothing to me! She is a pawn to server my schemes and nothing more!” The last of his injuries healed as he spoke, and as he did so, he snapped his clawed hand with a clack as the room filled with a pink mist.
“Do you think that your tricks will save you, Discord? I can still see through my magical senses, you fool. You have already lost and you only work to prolong the inevitable!” Discord’s laugh filled the room as his body darted all about the topsy-turvy room.
As he did so, he left duplicates of himself that then spread and started to do the same. Knowing that even he could not hope fend off countless Discords, Ace’s bracelet, the Loki’s Key, pulsed and released countless shards of metal at each of the doppelgangers. When they neared their target, they expanded into various types of swords. Many, but not all, of the swords found their mark, others chased after their foes.
’I can control only one hundred and fourty-two swords while maintaining my magical senses, the armor, and the wall-tread spell.’ Ace thought to himself as the battle carried on. ’If he makes too many clones, I will be far too distracted to fight properly. I must not allow that to happen!’
Despite his best efforts, however, it did happen. One of the Dis-clones appeared behind him, and before he could leap away, tore a hole through the back of his armor. As he leapt away, another clone was waiting behind him, tearing more holes in his defenses before a set of swords found their mark in the clone and destroyed it.
Ace brought some of his attention to his armor, attempting to mend the equipment, but before he could, one of the desks crashed into him and sent him sprawling. Ace’s horn lit brought, recasting the wall-tread spell. Using the opportunity, another clone tore through the silver armor as though it were paper.
Shredded as it was, the body plate and peytral plate fell from his body as he cursed. Before he could reform the armor, one of the clones appeared through a tear and tore the loosely-clasped Amulet of the Alicorn from his neck.
As the artifact was torn away from him, a number of swords in the room fell to the ground before dissolving and eventually disappearing into a cloud of steam that flew back into the Loki’s Key.
Discord’s laugh filled the room as the clones all merged back into him and the pink mist all coalesced around Ace, turning into what looked like cotton candy, yet had the resilience and feel of solid steel. Ace was fully entrapped, leaving only his helmeted head free.
The Draconequus appearing before the Unicorn, no longer fearing the opponent. “Well, look what we have here,” he said as he dangled the Amulet of the Alicorn in a single claw. “I wonder what would happen if one were to bear five of the Elements of Power in addition to such a powerful relic! Can you imagine the chaos, Ace?” Ace’s jaw dropped at the poor situation he found himself in, muttering another curse.
No sooner than he had, however, the door to the workshop opened, revealing Twilight and Princess Luna. The two attempted to enter the room normally, and nearly fell as they set hoof on the steep incline. Princess Luna’s hooves lit with the glow of her magic as she cast the wall-tread spell, Twilight watching and lighting her horn to mimic the spell as well.
“Ace, we’re here now! Just tell us what you need us to do!” Twilight called from Luna’s side by the door, the two afraid to enter any further for fear of throwing off any sort of plan he was currently taking part in.
Discord laughed triumphantly before he spoke. “Oh, isn’t that just serendipitous! Now all of you will bear witness to my ascension to power as I don the Alicorn Amulet!” he shouted as the pink mist formed around the others as well, eliciting a sharp gasp from both of them.
“I am sorry, my most beloved ponies. I have tried to best Discord under my own strength, and have failed. Through my incompetence, Discord is now stronger than ever…” Ace said, his expression downcast as the spirit only laughed.
“As you should be! Let this be a lesson that nopony will ever be any match for a spirit of pure chaos!” he called as he prepared to put on the amulet.
The moment the clasp was cinched, the Elements of Disharmony pulsated in a bright light. Discord laughed maniacally at his good fortune. That was, however, until the elements lost their glow, and the Amulet begun to burn far more brightly than they had.
The mist-turned-metal that had formed around the ponies started to fade as the Amulet’s light grew brighter and brighter. “Wha- You, Wolf! What have you done to the Elements of Disharmony?!” Discord’s previous injuries started to open slowly as well. “What have you done to me?!”
Ace’s expression turned brighter as he smiled like he had just allowed himself the winning move in a chess game. “It is what you have done to yourself, Discord. By trying to merge the powers of the Elements of Disharmony with the power of the Amulet of the Alicorn, you have sealed your own fate.
“The Amulet of the Alicorn siphons the magic of the one who wears it to create a store of power. In a Unicorn, this is only a sense of tiredness when first wearing the necklace. In a being of pure chaos magic, such as yourself, it means temporarily becoming mortal. In addition to that, it has drained the power of the elements as well, reverting them back to Elements of Power.”
Discord, now bleeding from the two large holes in chest along with the cut across his face, attempted to laugh but only coughed up blood. “Well that still leaves me with the power of the Amulet! Your fate shall be no better than mine!”
Ace shook his head as he teleported Loki’s Key someplace and opened the pouch on the opposite hoof. From within it, he took out a large glowing stone that resembled the ACS stones that had aided him in his battle with the spirit. Luna and Discord both stared at the glowing stone in surprise, leaving Twilight clueless.
“You wouldn’t!” Discord said as his gaze was affixed to the glowing blue rock. “All of your precious artifacts! All your experiments! Your spell shop! You would dispel all of them! You’ll kill yourself overloading again!” Ace shook his head again with a wider smile.
“I have already relocated all of those things, you fool. We knew you were watching Twilight closely, so we developed our plan in secret. The Ace you killed was a clone comprised entirely of Luna’s magic.” The magic from the stone Ace held started to link its magic to Ace the way Luna and Discord had done to the previous Ace Clone.
“This Magicite is specifically attuned to my magic, and has only just enough magic to cause an overload. You are unable to interfere as your magic is still being drained by the Amulet, making you unable to command it. You have lost, Discord. Your life is forfeit.”
Princess Luna started to make her way towards the two, the room now level again as it was no longer distorted by Discord’s chaos magic. Discord struggled to his feet and charged towards Ace, raising his claws in a futile attempt to stop him.
Ace placed the Magicite in his mouth and shook his head, lowering himself down for the fight. Discord clawed at Ace’s neck, no longer protected by the armor of the Loki’s Key. Ace dodged back and took only a glancing blow, but still deep enough to draw blood before he bounced back and planted a hoof in Discord’s middle, bringing the spirit to his knees as Ace spun on his front hooves, swinging his backside around to land a bucking kick right to his opponent’s jaw.
Discord hit the floor hard, headfirst as the Element of Power that rest on his head flew across the room. Discord slid across the floor as well, coming to a stop in front of Luna, who brought her hoof down hard into his face as the Amulet glowed all the brighter.
Discord laid on the floor for a time, bloodied and unconscious as Ace’s form shifted to the bright-white coat and flaming hair once more. Twilight winced as Ace let out a howl of pain as the overload dominated his body, sending the intense sphere of white spreading throughout the workshop, and likely all the way into Hoofsdale. Electric energy pulsed harmlessly through the sphere, draining all the magic it came across. Once the blast was over, it retracted as Ace collapsed in a heap onto the floor.
Twilight ran to Ace’s side as Princess Luna took the amulet from around Discord’s neck, tossing it and the elements into a pile. She looked around the room for the Amulet of Tears – which would have remained unaffected, as Discord was not wearing it when he donned the Amulet of the Alicorn. Failing to see it anywhere, she shook her head with a sigh as she watched Discord laying on the floor, bleeding to death.
Disregarding the dying enemy, Princess Luna simply strolled to Ace’s side as well, resting a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “Worry not, dear Twilight. Ace is only exhausted, whereas any other pony would likely be dead from the trials he has faced.” Twilight nodded as she turned him over so that he may be more comfortable.
She laid on her side and rested his head on her flank, intending to stay with him until he awoke. Ace’s chest rose and fell with the laboring breaths he took. Twilight examined the stone that laid on the floor to her side.
Luna nodded at the mineral as she spoke. “’Tis Magicite; a rare mineral that is not found in Equestria – how Ace manages to find such valuable things always astounds me, but he has traveled the world over in his travels whereas I have rarely left Equestria. The mineral is valued not for its rarity, but for its ability to absorb and hold magic for an indefinite amount of time.”
Twilight could only shake her head, worried more about Ace than his rare finds. “Why couldn’t you have teleported us here? Ace says your magic is stronger than his, and yet you flew us here where he would have teleported… We could have been here sooner, he didn’t need to fight Discord alone!”
Luna shook her head before she brought herself to rest curled around Twilight as she spoke. “While my magic is stronger than Ace’s, I have not worked to train my magic – I simply am strong because of my race, where he has had to work hard for what he has. His teleportation skills are most exemplary, more so than even Celestia’s. ‘Tis a secret he keeps well from us; a secret weapon should he ever need to keep himself from us, he says.” She stifled a laugh before she continued. “Sister does find it most vexing, but has not yet found the secret out no matter how hard she has tried.”
Twilight could definitely believe that. Ace was not the type to be caught unaware should his friends become enemies. “So… Is that it? I mean, we won, right?” Twilight looked to the pool of blood that was forming around Discord with a shudder. “Discord has been… dealt with, and we have the elements back again.”
Luna shook her head slowly. “We have won the battle, but there is still much to do. After Discord is dead, the Draconequus will need to send another Chaos spirit to watch over our dimension. Apart from that, we need to reform the elements of power back into the Elements of Harmony. Furthermore, there is still the matter of Celestia that we must tend to.”
Twilight sighed as she listened to the princess before laying her head across Ace’s chest, her eyes closing. “I was afraid of that…”