//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5 
// Story: The Equichronicus 
// by InkBlotBolivar 
//------------------------------//


Blood and Fire



It was to be a day of violence for Equestria.


It was dawn over Appleloosa when the residents spotted the roiling cloud of smoke spreading from the sky over the badlands. Many returned back to their homes, while others stared in awe at the roiling cloud, crackling with unnatural red sparks as if ushering a storm of fire and blood.

From the tower overlooking Appleloosa, the garrison of earth ponies began to prepare for the coming battle, the sentry flew to investigate the disturbance, and the unicorns casted the flare to alert the other towers of the occurrence. In what seemed like one of the greatest sky shows ever seen over Appleloosa, a pillar of blue light was released from the tower’s crystal into the sky.

A couple of seconds later, another pillar of blue light rose from a tower in the distance, and then another, and then another, until the grand tower of Canterlot illuminated the skies over the royal city in blue. Celestia and Luna were in the throne room when its stained glass windows began to glow blue with the light of the towers. They knew the time had come.

In the lands of the buffalo, Chief Thunderhooves looked towards the sky over Appleloosa. ‘Today I uphold the promise of my ancestors,’ thought Thunderhooves as he readied his totem, ‘today, I make Titan proud. ’ As he departed for Appleloosa, a faint glow began to emanate from this totem.

The sentry of the Appleloosa tower, a pegasus mare by the name of Spitfire, flew towards the source of the smoke, the Gloom Volcano. In spite of her revered experience in the sky, flying through the choking cloud of smoke, made it almost impossible for her to approach the summit. As she descended towards the edge of the summit, the smoke oddly enough began to not just dissipate, but return back into the volcano.

Before Spitfire could take any more time to investigate the strange occurrence, a rumble began to shake her hooves. She ascended to the air in order to keep herself from falling and saw the rocks and pebbles of the volcano begin to physically shake themselves apart. As she saw not just the rocks, but the entire mountain shake and quake, Spitfire thought to herself, ‘I have to get away, this whole thing is going to blow at any moment!’

As soon as she finished that thought, an ear-splitting explosion sent her flying back a dozen feet. As she regained her composure, she saw that the explosion was but small volcanic vein that had burst beneath her. ‘This volcano is not just going to erupt,’ thought Spitfire as she flew back to Appleloosa faster than she thought herself possible, ‘this whole mountain is going tear itself apart. If one vein could that, the explosion from full volcano erupting would be felt all the way to Canterlot.’

Spitfire took one last look back towards her previous spot on the volcano, and saw that out of the small exploded vein, a skeletal hand began to claw its way out of it. Spitfire stopped in spite of her brain screaming at her to fly back to safety, and stared in shock as something came out of the vein. It looked like a sickly green, bipedal skeleton, robed in purple and black, and holding what looked like a steel rod in its bony fingers. But whereas most skeletons had only two eye sockets, this one had six, and it was moving towards her. Not wishing to see what would occur next, Spitfire flew back to Appleloosa in a panicked hurry.

The garrison of earth ponies had finished their preparations, when a thunderous explosion shook the very ground they stood on. Appleloosans and guards alike were fell to the ground, while the unicorns within the tower quaked in fear alongside the foundations of their post. Those that kept enough of their footing, bore witness to an enormous eruption of ash, fire, and smoke, courtesy of the Gloom Volcano. It was as if the entire mountain had just split in half, with one half  now descending in a rolling cloud of fire and brimstone towards Appleloosa.

Celestia and Luna had been over the eves of Ponyville when they saw the explosion in the distance. The volcano itself had just torn itself apart, and now a massive cloud of destruction was headed the way of Appleloosa. Celestia and Luna pushed themselves to fly even faster to reach the town before the cloud engulfed it, but it seemed that they would not arrive fast enough.

As they flew with speed unmatched over the Everfree Forest, Celestia and Luna were becoming more resigned to the horror that the ponies of Appleloosa would pay for the Princesses’ mistake with their lives.

With the immense cloud of super heated ash coming towards them, the citizens of Appleloosa began to run in fear and panic, sometimes into each other. Chaos broke out in a matter of seconds as the earth pony guards desperately attempted to quell their panic. Everything was spiraling out of control in Appleloosa until a brilliant green light could be seen in the horizon of the city.

As Chief Thunderhooves arrived at Appleloosa, another figure arrived as well but in a very dire state. Having received terrible burns to her wings and coat flying away from the cloud, Spitfire crashed near the base of the tower overlooking the Appleloosa, too exhausted to even stand up and too wounded to keep herself aloft. As the unicorns carried Spitfire into the tower, all Spitfire could think before she fainted was how she had not been fast enough to warn them.

The cloud of fire and brimstone was not a half mile away from the tower when the Elder Titan steeled himself to halt its advance. Placing his pronged totem on the ground in front of himself, Chief Thunderhooves chanted an ancient incantation. The totem began to glow even brighter as he continued his incantation. On the last word of the chant, the totem drove itself into the earth, and created an angling fissure in the ground that glowed with green energy.

The fissure snaked its way around Appleloosa in a ring as the cloud of superheated ash and fire was but a meter away from the chief. As it reached the fissure, the glowing energy of the earth began to pull the spreading cloud towards itself, into the ground. Everyone was awestruck as the immense cloud was literally being sucked into the very earth; not a single part of it seeped into Appleloosa. The ponies of Appleloosa stared in awe as they saw the fire and smoke of the cloud around them, being sucked into the ground, never to be seen again.

When the cloud was completely absorbed, the fissure clapped itself shut in a thunderous smash and a spark of green energy. The ponies of Appleloosa were saved from being smothered in blanket of ash thanks to the efforts of a once estranged ally. As everyone cheered Chief Thunderhooves for single-hoofedly saving Appleloosa, two figures approached the town from the sky.

Princess Celestia and Luna arrived soon after the smoke dissipated. They were astounded that the town was not only in one piece but that Chief Thunderhooves had managed to save it on his own. As the Princesses approached their buffalo ally, Chief Thunderhooves spotted something approaching Appleloosa from the volcano. Before they could greet him, the sisters spotted it as well.

Princess Celestia gave the order to evacuate the remainder of the town to safety, and the earth pony garrison replied by swiftly moving the ponies of Appleloosa from their homes into the town’s train, as Celestia knew that a fight with the Element of Chaos would not be a clean conflict. As Celestia and Luna stood alongside the tower overlooking Appleloosa, the unicorns carried a wounded Spitfire from the top down to ground level, who had asked if she could speak with the Princesses.

Carried in a levitating sheath by the unicorns, Spitfire saluted the Princesses and described to them what she had seen. While Luna was concerned over the skeletal being that Spitfire spoke of, Celestia felt another wave of regret in the pit of her stomach over the news; she knew exactly what that thing was. Signaling to the unicorns to carry Spitfire to safety, and to return to their posts afterwards, Celestia and Luna praised Spitfire on her brave actions, and  Spitfire saluted again as she was carried away to the train.

Focusing her gaze on the desert again, Celestia began saw them more clearly now. As the figures from the desert approached the town of Appleloosa, its defenders steeled themselves for the coming conflict.

Discord strode alongside the same sickly-green skeletal figure that Spitfire described, but he approached Appleloosa waving a comically short white flag. Not to be deceived again, or to just kill Discord right then and there, Luna charged forward to attack the pair. She did not get far as she felt her body slow down, her vision become blurry, and her extremities turn an ethereal shade of green. Before Celestia could help her sister, Luna was hit by an explosion of green fire and gas that blew her body towards the tower, where it slammed against its base. As Celestia ran to help Luna, she turned her head and swore she saw a smirk on the skeleton’s jaw.

“Now, now, if any of you wish to be somewhat civil, I suggest that you treat a sign of peace with the proper niceties,” chided Discord mockingly. “Now listen, dear sisters and not brother. I wish to offer you a deal. You and your people can live in your land of harmony and happiness, while I move onto other places to spread my image. If you wish to comply, I will spare this town from my most humble reshaping, but if not, Hydia over here has been more than excited to give you what is owed dear Celestia.”

Celestia helped Luna to her hooves as Discord finished his offer. She turned to the first wagon train filled the ponies of Appleloosa, departing to lands safer. ‘But how many places would be safer if Discord could just be allowed to have his way?’ thought Celestia. She knew that once corruption spread, it would not stop until it engulfed something completely; whatever Discord’s deal was, it was a blatant lie that even he probably did not believe.  

“Two-thousand years ago, I made a mistake in this world,” said Celestia, she knew that a fight would be imminent now, “today, I right that mistake, Discord. Today, you answer for all that you have done!” Celestia signaled to the tower to launch a magical volley at her brother, as he now eyed Celestia with a look of contempt.

“Fine then,” spoke Discord burning the white flag in his hand, “to the void with niceties and civility.”

Celestia prepared a wave of light to hit Discord while Chief Thuderhooves charged towards Hydia, attempting to disrupt the two adversaries. Discord countered her efforts by creating a portal to close the distances between himself and Celestia, and proceeded to drive her back across the town with erratic strikes. Luna, now recovered, rained a beam of night from the sky at Discord, which drew his attention to the other princess. 

With the Elements of Reality battling in the middle of Appleloosa, the unicorns of the tower began to fire a barrage of magical bolts at Discord. Too distracted with keeping both adversaries at bay, Discord was hit by the barrage and crumbled to the ground. As Celestia and Luna approached his body, it dissolved into nothingness.

Knowing Discord had pulled this trick on them before, Celestia and Luna scanned the area for signs of chaotic being, but soon found their surrounding becoming shaded.

“Above you, sisters!” yelled the voice of Discord. As Celestia and Luna looked up, they saw the sky filled with thousands of Discords, all illusions but containing enough of his power to do as much harm as the real one. They all charged at the sisters, who took to the skies to battle the chaotic monster’s illusions above Appleloosa.

In the other side of town, the Elder Titan was having a fight for his life. Hydia littered the field with glowing, steel mines that would sap away the strength of Chief Thunderhooves every time he called to his totem’s power. In spite of this, Hydia seemed to be taking a ton of punishment from this his physical attacks.

The chief’s attacks were wide and fast enough that the skeletal monster could not dodge or evade them effectively. The ponies of the tower also lent their aid, now focusing their attacks on the chief’s foe instead of the cloud of Discords over Appleloosa. Hydia seemed to be reeling back from the combined attacks to the tower and Chief Thunderhooves, until she extended her skeletal palm towards the chief.

Before Thunderhooves could react, he felt short of breath as an angular beam of rippling green energy seemed to suck the life out of his body and feed it into Hydia’s. With a blast of green fire and gas, Hydia blew back Thunderhooves to the tower’s bastion. Thunderhooves lay heaving for a second, and then fell back behind the tower and took his time to recover from the attack. The tower did not stop its attack on Hydia however, and continued to keep the skeletal sorceress at bay, in spite of her malefic magic beginning to corrode its very foundation.

Celestia and Luna were outnumbered in their fight against Discord’s clones, but not outmatched. Using massive waves of light, which took on the forms of galloping stallions, Celestia managed to thin the ranks of Discord’s horde until only the real one remained. With his powers outmatched, Discord created more copies of himself to cover his escape towards a more vulnerable target. In the blink of an eye, Discord lunged for the second transport train, with all of the passengers still inside.

While the earth pony garrison still remained to guard the it, they proved no match for Discord’s chaotic powers and were slaughtered in seconds. Celestia and Luna saw what Discord was about to do and desperately tried to fight off the remaining illusions, but the blows that they had suffered at the hands of the illusions had severely slowed them down. Once they finished destroying them, it was already too late.

Discord launched a barrage of chaotic energy at the train which caused it begin to melt away like fondue, along with all the ponies inside of it. Celestia and Luna could only look in horror as the chaotic blasts liquefied the train and listened to the screams of the ponies that were inside of it, desperately trying to escape but just causing their bodies to leak out of the malformed windows. Discord gazed at his sisters with a mischievous grin and with the flick of his wrist, caused the train’s remains to explode in a fiery and corrosive blast that spread to the buildings of Appleloosa.

Half of the town’s population was engulfed in the fiery explosion, and now their remains coated the buildings roofs and buildings of their once peaceful town, now engulfed in flame.

Celestia and Luna looked dumbstruck at what had occurred, but their gaze shifted from one of regret and sorrow, to one of absolute fury towards Discord. In a flash of light and darkness, the eyes and bodies of the princesses were illuminated. There would be no more holding back, and no more chances for Discord to escape.

On the other side of town, Chief Thunderhooves was unaware of what had occurred, as he was still being assaulted by the onslaught of green fire, which almost made away with the foundations of the tower. The unicorns continued to fire but to no avail. Hydia had managed to negate the assault of the tower by using the spell she used on Luna previously, making herself ethereal to the tower’s attacks. Chief Thunderhooves had not yet recovered from her assault, but attempted to use his totem’s power to keep the tower stable, as the earth beneath it attempted to give way after so many emerald conflagrations.

The mines however had done their job, and they sapped the chief of nearly all of his energy making it unable to him to call upon the Totem’s power without killing himself. “Stop firing!” he shouted to the ponies, “you must get down, this tower is going to crumble!” His warning came too late. As soon as they stopped firing, Hydia let out an especially large explosion of green flame and the tower collapsed, dropping the unicorns from its roost.

Too tired to help, Chief Thunderhooves could do nothing but watch as the unicorns fell and landed crippled to the ground amongst the rubble of the tower. Hydia approached the barely conscious unicorns, held them both by their heads, and proceeded to drain their lives to herself and throwing their lifeless bodies back into the rubble. Then Hydia began to approach Chief Thunderhooves, now attempting to stand up but too tired to attack.

As his death drew closer with every passing second, Chief Thunderhooves felt something within his totem, almost like a heartbeat. In spite of his wounds and exhaustion, Chief Thunderhooves rose to his feet and, did the one thing most people assumed buffalo did, he charged blindly at Hydia.Unprepared for the attack, Hydia could not retaliate fast enough and found herself gored by the chief’s horns.

As the chief charged blindly through the town, he found his horn impacting against an apple tree on a hill that overlooked hundreds of other apple trees, no doubt the orchard of the Apple family. Hydia attempted to wriggle away from the impaling hold she had been held in, but felt herself unable to move. Chanting a malefic incantation, Hydia’s body began to burn the hide of Chief Thunderhooves, but he did not let up his hold, until the fire began to form. Letting go of her, the chief witnessed Hydia’s body burst apart in a flash of green fire, no doubt attempting to take him with her, and creating a nova of green fire that seemed to engulf the orchard in a malefic green flame.

Despite Hydia detonating in a green nova of fire, Chief Thunderhooves could still feel her presence in her now charred, but intact bones. As he sat tired in the middle of the burning fields of the orchard, he could only look at the terrible battle taking place within the town; a single apple tree somehow surviving and giving him shade underneath.

Celestia and Luna were completely relentless in their assault, no longer caring about damaging the town nor themselves, only caring about seeing Discord dead. Beams of darkness and bursts of light seemed to engulf Appleloosa as Discord attempted to evade the magic of his enraged siblings, but for every spell he dodged six were there to take its place. Not a hundred clones summoned could stop the princesses’ attacks, and it seemed that Discord was beginning to slow down. With a massive burst of light, Celestia threw the now worn down Discord onto the ground, where he proceeded to do the unthinkable.

“S-sisters! Let’s not do anything we’ll regret now,” begged Discord with a look despair etched across his face, “we are still siblings are we not!? I can change, I promise, just give me another chance, I swear I’ll make myself better!”

Neither Celestia nor Luna believed an iota of what Discord spoke, but before they gave him his coup ’de grace, Celestia spoke to him.

“No, you are something that can never change,” said Celestia in a tone of finality, “in spite of chaos lacking a definite form, your mind is set nothing but destruction and misery. No, you are no longer our brother, you gave up that title when you murdered our own kin in your insane attempts at freedom. And no, I have already done something I regret, and that was letting you live, a regret that will be righted now.”

As Celestia readied a scorching beam of light to incinerate Discord, Luna watched as their brother did not move a muscle, not even blinked. Something was wrong, he would at least attempt to cover his eyes in vain, but he just lay motionless. It was then when Luna realized what had occurred.

“Celestia!” shouted Luna, “it’s not the real one!” Celestia shot a look at Luna, and then back at Discord who then disappeared in puff of chaotic smoke. As Celestia and Luna attempted to look for him a loud cackle was heard from the apple orchard. During their blind rage to kill Discord, they did not see him create another illusion after Celestia had knocked him down. The real Discord had opened another portal to the location of Chief Thunderhooves, where he now held the chief up by his horns. Celestia and Luna rushed to his aid, but Discord’s hands began to glow with chaotic energy. The sisters stopped in their tracks, not wishing to provoke him against the wounded chief.

“Dear sisters,” laughed Discord, in a mocking tone but still panting from exertion, “it has been a wonderful experience to see you all once again, but I must bid you farewell, for there are other places that need my attention. But before I go I will leave you with a simple choice.” Still holding Chief Thunderhooves, Discord’s hand began to form a familiar orb to Luna. In an explosion of red and black, Discord detonated the chaotic orb onto the buffalo’s head, and threw him into the burning apple orchard, smashing his body through several trees.

“Follow me and he will die, unless you are willing to make that sacrifice for revenge.” uttered Discord, “Just remember, don’t do anything you’ll regret!” Discord then flew away from the scene, his mad laughter dying in the wind.

“Quick we must follow hi-,” before Luna could finish that sentence however, Celestia threw herself into the fire of the orchard and tried to telekinetically pull the massive buffalo from the burning trees, but to no avail.

“Luna!” shouted Celestia, “please help me, I cannot lift him by myself!”
Luna stared at Celestia, and then at Discord getting further away. In the end, too torn from having to see anyone else die, Luna helped Celestia move the great buffalo from the fiery rubble and put him out on the dirt. Chief Thunderhooves had been badly wounded, a terrible burn covered the left side of his face, and along with several patches of his hide from being trapped within the burning trees.

“Thank...you,” muttered Chief Thunderhooves weakly, “but I fear that I failed my ancestors…The Element of Chaos still draws breath…and I fear this will not be the last time we see him again.”

“You have done more than we could have asked for,” spoke Celestia in a soothing voice, “even if he still lives, Titan’s legacy was not dishonored. You made your ancestors proud today Chief Thunderhooves.” The chief smiled, but coughed up blood attempting to respond to the princess’s kind words. The sisters needed to return him to his people before he bled out.

The sisters would need to fly towards the lands of the buffalo, the chief deserved to be tended by his people. As they left for the lands of the buffalo, Luna gave the now scorched town a final look. They had failed, and no amount of soothing words or apologies would change that. ‘I do not care if you cannot hear me Discord,’ thought Luna as she lifted the chief alongside her sister, ‘but nothing will keep me from killing you next time, nothing at all.’


The day that was meant to bring peace, only managed to bring the shadow of war ever so closer to a land that did not know it.