//------------------------------// // The Power of Love // Story: Daughter of Discord // by DisneyFanatic23 //------------------------------// "No!" Discord shoved Chrysalis off him and was instantly at Fluttershy's side. He took her limp body in his arms. She felt so lifeless. "No, no, no, no, no!" he uttered, desperately stroking her mane. "Fluttershy, speak to me! Please!" He held his paw over her chest and closed his eyes. No matter how hard he concentrated, nothing happened. "Come on!" he grunted. "Work, you stupid magic! Save her! Come on!" After a while, he sighed in defeat. It was no use. He did not have enough power to heal her. His ears perked up when he heard a soft moan. "Discord?" He glanced down at her. Her eyes were open, but weary. Discord smiled and gently lifted her head. "Yes, Fluttershy! I'm here!" "I feel so..." she said in a dry voice, "so..." His happiness faded. "No, Fluttershy! Please! Don't leave me! We'll find some pony to heal you! You'll make it! I can keep trying!" He moved his paw to her chest, but she stopped him with her hoof. "No," she whispered. Tears formed in the draconequus' eyes. "Don't die, Fluttershy! I love you! I need you! We're supposed to be together forever! I...I can't live without you!" She smiled up at him. "You'll have to." Discord held her tighter as she coughed. "Take care of the children. They...need you." He took her hoof in his paw. "Don't talk like that! You'll live, Fluttershy! You must live! My life has no purpose without you! I...I forgot that for a moment. But never again, Fluttershy! I promise you! I will never doubt you again! Just please! Live!" He sniffed. "Forgive me." Fluttershy looked at him solemnly and slowly reached her hoof to his face. "I forgive you." She winced in pain. "Just know that...you are the only stallion I've ever loved." Discord could no longer hold back the tears as he ran his fingers through her mane. "I'm no stallion." She struggled as she rose and kissed him softly on the lips. "You are...to me." He felt her hoof slipping from his face and Discord watched as Fluttershy closed her eyes and collapsed in his arms. For the second time that day, his heart shattered into millions of pieces. "No," he uttered. "No! NO!" Discord shook her, but she did not respond. Finally, he buried his face in her fur and sobbed. His wife, his sweet, loving wife, the thing he adored more than chaos, was gone. The others looked at the heartbreaking scene. Applejack removed her hat as Spike put his arm around her. Pinkie cried into Red Shoes' shoulder while the triplets embraced each other. Rainbow Dash held Prism as she sobbed while Rarity and Twilight hugged sadly. The others shared embraces and wiped away their tears. Screwball was the saddest of the bunch as she threw her hooves around Dinky's neck. "Now you know." Every pony looked up as Chrysalis spoke. "Now you know how it feels...to have your heart ripped out of your chest!" Discord lifted his head and turned it towards the Changeling Queen. His tear-stained eyes were burning with hatred and fury. "You," he whispered. He put down Fluttershy's body and rose to his full height. He then erupted into flames. "YOU! YOU KILLED HER! YOU KILLED THE ONLY MARE I EVER LOVED!" Chrysalis shrugged. "Too bad." He growled as the flames grew stronger. "Stealing my power is one thing, but THIS!" He held out his claw and created a ball of fire. "YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS, YOU MONSTER!" Discord let out a cry as he threw the fireball at her. Chrysalis dodged out of the way, letting it hit a group of changelings. The fire in Discord's eyes frightened the queen, though she did not show it. She bolted into the air and he followed her. Screwball rushed to her mother's side. She gazed at her still body and flung herself across her chest. "Mom," she sobbed. She felt a hoof on her shoulder. Screwball looked up to meet Twilight's eyes. "Can't you do anything?" the filly begged. The alicorn shook her head sadly. "No magic can bring back the dead, sweetie." Meanwhile, high above them, Discord continued to fire at Chrysalis, only to narrowly miss every time. His blood boiled with vengeance. Never in his life had he been so infuriated, nor had he had such a desire to kill someone! His anger made the sky turn red. "YOU'VE GONE TOO FAR THIS TIME, CHRYSALIS!" Discord shouted, throwing another fireball at her. "YOU WANT THE LORD OF CHAOS?! I'LL GIVE YOU THE LORD OF CHAOS!" He was about to fire another one when Chrysalis smirked. "It doesn't have to be this way, you know?" His fire slowly extinguished as the queen changed form. Floating before him was a beautiful yellow pegasus with pink waves cascading down her shoulders. Her eyelashes fluttered over her brilliant teal eyes. She smiled sweetly at him. "Fluttershy?" The fake Fluttershy nodded as she laid her hooves on his shoulders. "It will be like she never left," she said in Fluttershy's sweet, angelic voice. Her hooves moved around his neck. "We could be happy, you and I. It will be the way you've always wanted: you and Fluttershy, together forever..." she whispered in his ear, "for all eternity." Discord was fixated on those brilliant teal eyes he thought he would never see again. As she leaned forward, her eyes flashed green. That broke him out of his trance. He angrily pushed the poser away. "No!" he exclaimed. "You're not my Fluttershy. You may look and sound like her, but you'll never be her!" The imposter glared at him as she changed back to Chrysalis. "Why her?! What could you possibly have seen in that...that...that wimpy pegasus?!" Discord scowled as his fists ignited. "DON'T...EVER...CALL HER THAT!" Screwball's head shot up as she heard a groan and saw her mother's head move to the side. "She's alive!" Screwball exclaimed. The draconequus was about to strike when he heard this. He turned and looked down at the ground. "She's alive?" "So it would appear." Chrysalis took advantage of his distraction and shot Discord with a powerful beam. The blast made him lose consciousness, causing him to fall. Every pony gasped in fright. Pinkie and the Tri-Pies rushed into their house and came back with a mattress. "To the left!" Pinkie commanded. "My left or yours?" Blueberry asked. "Right!" "So we go right?" Cherry inquired. "No, left!" "Which way is left?!" Raspberry exclaimed. Lightning Dash smacked herself in the forehead. "Oh, give us that!" She and Thunder swooped down and grabbed the mattress. They positioned themselves under the falling draconequus and flew straight up. Every pony sighed in relief as he landed on the feathered bed. The twins lowered him to the ground. Screwball raced to his side and shook him while Twilight checked his pulse. "He's still alive," she confirmed. "But not for long," Chrysalis said, landing in front of them with a thud. "If at first you don't succeed..." Screwball stood on her hind legs and gripped her hooves into fists. This mare had kept Mothball away from her, kidnapped her brother, stolen her power and now practically murdered her parents! She had had it! Chrysalis grew quiet as pink clouds covered the sky and thunder sounded. She looked at the young mare. Lightning struck behind her, her spiral purple eyes glowing between flashes. "Uh oh," Lightning Dash uttered, pulling her siblings behind a barrel. The other teenagers and foals ducked for cover, knowing what was to come. "You," Screwball breathed, "have messed...WITH THE WRONG MARE!" A series of pies appeared beside her and rocketed towards the queen. She dodged them as best she could, but one hit her square in the face. "Cherry?!" she cried. "I HATE CHERRY!" "Hey!" Cherry Pie exclaimed. As Chrysalis aimed her horn at Screwball, Twilight and her friends quickly moved the unconscious Discord and Fluttershy out of the way. The Changeling Queen shot a beam at her, but Screwball avoided it with a tilt of her head. "Don't waste your breath, brat!" Chrysalis snapped. "I have your power and your father's! You cannot defeat me!" "You may have the Power of Chaos," Screwball said, "but I've been using it much longer!" A shadow cast over the queen. She looked up and saw a piano falling towards her. She gasped and blast it with her horn, turning it to bubbles. She smirked. "Silly, but effective. I could get used to this." "Well, you're not going to get a lot of time!" Screwball declared. "By the way, meat sauce or alfredo?" Chrysalis blinked. "What?" She yelped as acres of spaghetti dropped on her head, followed by a flood of meatballs. She growled at the filly. "So it's a duel you want, eh? Well, a duel you shall have!" She used her magic to get rid of the pasta and scraped her hoof in the ground. Screwball got down on all fours and mimicked the queen's movement. The changelings stood loyally behind their ruler, but she motioned for them to back away. The ponies watched with worry and anticipation. "Draw!" Chrysalis fired her horn and a flock of buzzards appeared. They charged towards Screwball, but she smirked and turned them into winged oranges. Then she summoned a giant mallet, but Chrysalis saw it in time to move out of the way. Screwball continued to try to wack her with the hammer, but the queen turned it into rubber. "Is that all you got?" the changeling taunted. "A bunch of childish tricks?" "Okay," Screwball said with a shrug. "You asked for it!" The water in the Ponyville fountain suddenly turned brown and burst upward. The water-spout spun in a spiral, eventually forming a hurricane. The cyclone blew towards Chrysalis. She jumped in the air to escape it, but it caught her by the tail and whirred her around. When it dropped her, the hurricane fell apart and soaked the queen in the brown liquid. "Had enough, Queenie?" Screwball ridiculed. Chrysalis groaned and slowly returned to her hooves. "How did you get your power back so quickly?! It should have at least taken a week to..." "I'm stronger than you took me for!" Meanwhile, on the sidelines, Rarity had her head on Fluttershy's chest, checking her heartbeat. "Fluttershy's fading fast!" she said with terror. "Thunder, Lightning!" Rainbow Dash commanded, putting her hooves under Fluttershy's forelegs. "Help me get Fluttershy inside!" "But we want to watch the fight!" Lightning complained. "Now!" The twins each took one of Fluttershy's hind legs and helped their mother carry her into Derpy's house. Rarity followed behind, levitating a first aid kit she had summoned from home. Screwball saw her mother being carried inside and was not paying attention when a giant red boxing glove punched her in the face. She was knocked backward into a pile of hay. The others rushed to help, but Chrysalis blocked them out with a ring of green fire. "This is between me and the halfling!" she bellowed. "There will be no interference!" She advanced toward Screwball as she sat up to rub her head. "Give up, girl! You may have had time to recover, but you're still weak!" The young mare glared up at her. "I'm strong enough to defeat you!" The queen smirked. "You have spunk, child. No one said we had to fight. Join me, Screwball! Together, we could rule Equestria! I will gain power, you will gain your own chaotic playground! You can even have my son and inherit my throne!" She knelt down to meet her eye level. "No longer will you be an outcast. No longer will you be mocked. You will be respected, worshipped! You can take revenge on those who have shunned you! And no pony, no one, will ever spoil your fun again!" Screwball's eyes widened at the queen's words. Then they narrowed. "What you're offering me," she said, "I've already gotten. And frankly," she rose to her hooves, "I don't want that kind of life!" Chrysalis did not show a glimmer of surprise. "Then you must die." As she powered her horn, something appeared between the two. "Screwy! Finally!" "Mothball?" Screwball gasped. Chrysalis had not seen her son and cast her spell without hesitation. Screwball hastily pushed Mothball out of the way, landing on top of him. His eyes were wide with shock. "Am I late?" Screwball panted. "Where have you...?" She trailed off as she saw what he held in his hooves. Zany opened his mouth in a smile at the sight of his sister. Screwball looked at her brother and then at Mothball, who was wearing a nervous grin. "Surprise?" Chrysalis finally noticed Mothball and dropped her jaw. "How...how did you get past the guards? And how did you get the boy?!" The prince recalled how he and Zany were cornered back at the hive. He was sure they were goners, until Zany had a magical surge and teleported them out of there. Unfortunately, they reappeared in the frozen tundra and since changelings were cold-blooded, it was not a pleasant experience for him. It took several teleportation spells from Zany before they finally arrived at the battle. "Well, doesn't matter!" Chrysalis shouted. "You have disobeyed me for the last time!" Screwball took Zany and teleported him to the other side of the flames onto Twilight's back. Then she stood firmly in front of Mothball. The queen paused at this action and felt the love pass between the two. She could sense its power and that instead of it transferring to Mothball, it was bouncing back to the filly and growing stronger each second. This frightened the queen, but she covered her fear with a smirk. "Oh, my son," she said, shaking her head. "Have I taught you nothing? Love is weakness! Besides, you have no heart to feel it!" Mothball stomped his hoof. "You're wrong!" Chrysalis jumped at his assertive tone. "What?" "You're wrong! I do have a heart! I've felt it! You've known all along, haven't you?" "Mothball..." "Haven't you?!" His mother stared at him for a moment and then grunted. "Alright. I suppose since I'm going to destroy you anyway, you might as well know." The couple tightened their grip on each other as the queen circled them. "You are right," she began. "You are more different from your siblings than you appear. You see, my dear, making a common changeling is simple. Making a royal changeling is a...two-creature job. Unlike your half-siblings, you have a father." Mothball stiffened. "W-what?" "It was a one-night stand with some random fool who thought I was his wife." Screwball gagged. "That's just sick, lady." "I was shocked to discover a prince had come out of it. At first, I was thrilled at the idea of having an heir, until I realized just how much of a pony you really were. Seems your father, along with giving you life, gave you a heart. "So I tricked you into believing you didn't have one. I intended to shape you into a cold, cruel changeling so you would become the evil tyrant you were born to be! I almost succeeded too, until this meddling halfling captured your interest!" "So it's true then!" Mothball exclaimed. "You've lied to me all these years!" "Oh, Mothball, Mothball, Mothball. I lie to everyone! But don't worry, my dear. I will put you out of your misery." She fired her horn at him. "No!" Screwball cried. As she moved in front of him, a golden bubble formed around the pair that caused the green beam to bounce off. "What?" Chrysalis uttered. The two looked around the magic they were encased in. It reminded Mothball of something and Screwball was thinking back to her mother's story. "What is this?" the prince wondered. "I don't know," Screwball said. "I...I was just thinking about saving you and..." Mothball then recalled the image of the two ponies in Zecora's cauldron and the zebra's words: That is what happens when two become one, when they possess a magic more powerful than the sun. What you think as a weakness is not so. Strength is what comes with the glow. "Love is strength." "What?" Screwball said. Their forcefield did not last long and Chrysalis took her chance. Screwball quickly used her magic to seal her and Mothball in a steel box, hoping to buy them time. "Zecora!" he exclaimed. "When she was talking about balancing powers and strength, she was trying to tell us that our love is creating some sort of magic that could possibly defeat my mother!" "But that makes no sense!" Screwball insisted. "She gains power from love! How can it be used to defeat her?" Then she remembered who had defeated Chrysalis in the first place: Cadence and Shining Armor. Those two were in love. Cadence was the Princess of Love. Maybe... Screwball gapsed suddenly. "Chocolate milk!" Mothball blinked. "Screwy, this is hardly the time for a snack!" "No! Hear me out! You've said so yourself that chocolate milk is like love, right?" "I said it tasted like love, but..." "Well, chocolate milk is the best thing ever and it makes you feel great, but if you drink too much of it, you get a belly ache. If chocolate milk is anything like love..." "...excess of it can make you sick!" The prince gasped and gripped her shoulders. "Screwy, you're a genius!" She batted her eyes and flipped her hair. "Yeah, I know." Their moment was interrupted when Chrysalis' horn burned a hole in the steel wall. The queen was growling in frustration. "Enough is enough!" The couple glanced at each other and stepped out of the box defiantly. "We agree, Mother!" Mothball exclaimed. "This has to end now!" They stood on their hind legs and squeezed each other's hoof. Mothball whispered to her. "How are we going to do this?" Screwball spun him around to face her. "Kiss me." "WHAT?!" Queen Chrysalis panicked for a moment but quickly reverted her expression to one of anger. "Quit stalling and meet your fate!" "Kiss me," Screwball repeated, pulling her love closer. Mothball flinched away. "I...I can't." "You have to." "I don't want to hurt you!" He tried to pry out of her grasp, but she held him firmly. She looked at him sincerely with those purple swirls that enchanted him so. "You won't," she whispered. She did not savor the moment. There was no time for that. Instead, she was straightforward. Their lips met before he could protest. He expected her to feel pain. He expected her to slip away. He expected her power to transfer to him permanently. Instead, he felt warmth, not just from her, but deep within himself. He found himself liking the kiss. Her soft lips tasted of chocolate. Her gentle hoof caressed his face. He at last closed his eyes and flung his forelegs around her in surrender. Their manes blew in the wind. They rose into the air as golden mist swirled around them. Chrysalis looked up in terror. "No," she said. "NO!" On the other side of the flames, Discord was recovering from his concussion. He rubbed his head as his vision came into focus. He squinted above the green fire and made out the figures of two ponies within a ball of golden light. His eyes popped open once he realized who the ponies were. "He's kissing my daughter." He scowled. "HE'S KISSING MY DAUGHTER!" The others nodded dumbly, watching with their mouths agape. "WELL, DON'T JUST STAND THERE LIKE IDIOTS!" Discord bellowed. "DO SOMETHING! GET THAT CREEP AWAY FROM MY..." He trailed off when Zany jumped onto his stomach, gurgling happily. "Dada!" "Zany?" Discord said, taking the infant in his hands. "Is it really you?" A tiny pink cloud appeared above the boy and dripped chocolate milk. The draconequus smiled. "It's you, alright! But...how did...?" The baby pointed up at the floating couple. The light around them grew brighter as they rose higher. Then the two opened their glowing white eyes. The bubble burst and expanded towards Chrysalis. The queen cried out as the magic pushed her back. The other changelings attempted to flee, but the force field was too fast for them. The army screamed as it was sent hurdling to the Changeling Forest, not to be seen again for a long, long time.