//------------------------------//
// Chapter 8 
// Story: The Elements of Discord 
// by Midnightshadow 
//------------------------------//



The Elements of Discord



Chapter 8


An MLP:FiM Fanfiction by Midnight Shadow

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic © Hasbro and Lauren Faust. Please support the official release





The chambers under the library were fetid, cramped and dark. The firefly lamps glowed sickly and wan, barely illuminating the scores of malnourished bodies huddling for warmth and mutual protection.
“Isn’t it glorious? See what my sister’s reign has produced. Squalid suffering.” Selena stood back, sarcastically spreading her wings and oh-so-proudly displaying the mundane horror of day to day life under a merciless tyrant.
“Woah Nelly, this is bad - how... why?”
“I fear it is partly my fault, Applejack,” said Selena in a sad half-whisper, “I escaped from my prison of a thousand years. She thinks I will usurp her throne and banish her in likewise fashion.”
“But you won’t?” asked Luna, a confused expression on her muzzle.
“Oh I will, but it is not that simple. I do not know how it is for you and your sister, Luna, back in Equestria, but here for our poor abused land? Well look around you. Think back on the happy little hamlet of Poniberg as you skulked through it’s streets. Does it look like it prospers?”
“It looked simply awful!” declared Rarity
“That is what a goddess can do. The queen and her land are one, my friends. As my sister grows sick with paranoia, fear and despair, so too does the land itself - and the ponies within it’s borders suffer in kind.”
“But you can change all that? Can’t you defeat her?” asked Rainbow Dash, stamping a hoof, pawing the ground, her wings half-extending as adrenaline ran through her lithe body.
Selena shook her head, “If your wing is sprained, little one, do you seek to fly a marathon to heal it? I tread softly upon this world for fear it would break. I must not face my sister directly, we are too similar.”
“So you need us to do your dirty work, huh?” asked Rainbow, staring up at Selena with a hard expression on her muzzle.
“I do not ask you to do anything you would not attempt were I never to have shown myself. You may take Fluttershy and leave if you wish, now that you have found her,” said Selena stiffly, pointing with a wing back out the way they had come, “or you may accept my help to save your friend Twilight also and thereby gain a slim chance over certain defeat..”
“If it weren’t for Twilight, Sugar, I think we might just have taken you up on that. This ain’t our world, and truth be told, I don’t know if’n I can trust you.” said Applejack, chewing her lower lip thoughtfully.
“My friends,” said Luna, “for what it is worth, I believe her tale. You may leave, I will do my best to aid Selena and return to Equestria thereafter.”
“What kind of filly would I be to run out on my princess?” asked Applejack rhetorically.
“Quite,” said Rarity, “I for one could not abandon Twilight without at least attempting her rescue.”
“And I couldn’t let you girls do it alone!” cried Rainbow Dash.
“It wouldn’t be much of an adventure party without the party pony, would it?” giggled Pinkie Pie, “Who else would sing rousing songs to keep your spirits up?”.
“I will help. I will do it for everypony in Poniberg... and Twilight.” said Ditzy Doo.
“I couldn’t let you go home without Twilight,” said Fluttershy, “and Selena really has been very kind.”
“Then it is decided.”
“Good,” said Selena, “for I have a plan. Walk this way.”

Selena led the way deeper in to the crypt-like underbelly of the library. The Equestrians idly wondered if Twilight’s library back home was anything like this. If Luna knew, she showed no sign.
The way was led to a locked door; heavy, barred. Whatever was inside was meant to stay right where it was. Two guards - their armor mismatched and in disrepair - stood warily outside, scowling darkly at the approaching group.
“It’s alright, my friends, your work here is done. Stand aside.”
“Your will, milady.” said one, bowing. They backed off as Selena worked her magic on the huge beam, lifting it into the air as if it were made of paper. It looked solid enough to have withstood a buck from Applejack. The locks were next, creaking and clunking fearfully loud in the murmuring restless silence under the library. The door swung outwards, to reveal a small, orange pony with a blonde shock of mane and tail, quite the worse for wear but uninjured. She had a trough of water and something that looked like food, and a pile of hay for sleeping on. Her quarters were in need of mucking out - the sanitary options being nonexistent in such a jail cell - but she was nonetheless hale and hearty.
“Ah see ye came back to finish me off, huh? Killin’ mah brother weren’t enuff fer ya?”
“Amanita,” said Selena sadly, “I’m not here to kill you. I never was. I’m here to change your mind.”
“Y’all cain’t change mah mind.”
“Watch this one, friends, her cutie-mark as you call it is not just for show. She has a quick mind, a quick body and strong hooves. My sister chooses her minions carefully. Unwisely perhaps, but carefully.”
“What would you have us do?” asked Luna.
Applejack screwed up her muzzle, “I ain’t gonna lay into no pony y’all got helpless like this, e’en if she been terrorizing my kinfolk.”
“Oh no,” said Selena, “I just want you to show her kindness. We are protected under here. The Elements of Harmony had a hoof in creating your world, but their power can be wielded like the most subtle of blades. Encircle her, search inside yourselves. Go now, I will talk you through it.”

The ponies spread out, Amanita in the middle hissing and spitting, ears splayed back and eyes wild as she jacked to and fro, spinning in the air on the spot, “What’re you doin’? Get back! Back I say!”
“Feel inside your hearts,” said Selena, unfazed by threats, “she’s a helpless foal, led astray by a power greater than any one pony can take. Led to evil by the miasma of a goddess fallen sick with her own imagination. All that she has done... it is terrible, great evil, but it is not of her own doing.”
The room slowly lit up with six dancing lights - the pelts, manes, tails and even clothing of the six Bearers started to glow the colour of their necklaces, a rainbow of warmth.
Luna answered first, “A thousand years ago, I did a great wrong. I was forgiven. A thousand years for a goddess is but the blink of an eye. I can forgive. I do not forget, but I can forgive.”
“Quite,” said Rarity, “when we vanquished Nightmare Moon, when that facade was removed - dear Luna, you were so helpless. How could we hate? I forgive.”
The cry went up, one by one, “forgive.”
Selena nodded, “Such is the way of harmony and friendship.”
She tapped a hoof, and the dancing lights exploded in a glittery wave of power that swept over the room. They converged, seemingly a solid wall of light, that broke heavily against the cowering form of Amanita. As the light faded, the six watched. The form of the turncoat earth-pony stayed shivering on the floor in the middle of the room. Presently they realized she was sobbing. It was Ditzy Doo who trotted up to her first, and bent down to nuzzle at the forlorn pony.
“Leave me alone,” she wailed, looking up, “I’m not worth it.”
“Everypony is worth friendship,” said Ditzy Doo softly, “my sister was. I couldn’t bring her a muffin until it was too late. I can still bring you one.”
“Why would you give me anything? I... I killed my ma’ and pa’! I poisoned them!” Amanita’s eyes were wet with tears, “How can it hurt now? I gloated! I laughed! I spat on their graves and danced! Why does it hurt?”
        Ditzy Doo bent down and enfolded the earth pony in her wings, “Because you finally know you did wrong.”


***


“So,” asked Applejack as they returned to the cellars proper, “what's the rest of the plan?”
“I cannot take this land by force, I fear for it's stability.” repeated Selena.
“So..." asked Applejack again, “what's the plan?”
“I cannot take the land,” continued Selena, glaring Applejack into silence, “but one of you can. A Bearer of an Element of Harmony – it's not just some fancy jewelry, it's something special, deep inside of you. You don't carry it, you are it. I thought you would understand now that you had seen.”
“Twilight said something similar. The night she freed me,” said Luna thoughtfully, “I believe her.”
“I was going to use Fluttershy here, but now one of you may take her place if it suits the rest of our plans better.”
“I can... I can do it.” said Fluttershy in a small voice, looking down at the ground.
“No!” said Ditzy Doo, “I won't ask you to do that. I will do it. I'm... I'm just a mail-mare. You, Fluttershy, you faced down Nightmare Moon! You took on a dragon! You stared down a cockatrice! Take this necklace off me! I don't want it! Take it back!”
Ditzy Doo fussed and jumped, prancing around until Rarity could pull off the necklace with her magic. She floated it over to Fluttershy who demurely lowered her head as it was clasped closed. When it did, a bright flash lit the room and just for a moment all the colours of the dishevelled ponies within the dark complex grew powerful and warm. The foals stopped whimpering, old mares and stallions huddling together stopped shivering. Just for a moment, their eyes grew bright and young again. It was like a breath of summer, the exhilarating feeling after a cleansing thunderstorm. It was freedom.

Selena laughed triumphantly, “That will have got her attention. Come, Ditzy Doo. This is our night!” The moon princess breathed deeply, inhaling the last glow from the glorious colourful flash, “My little ponies, rejoice! Come one, come all, follow me! We are done skulking about in this prison! Tonight we fight! Tonight we will be free!”

The cry went up as the masses got to their hooves. The murmuring became a flood of noise that quickly became a roar as the news passed through the throng. Selena stamped a hoof and the wan light flared up with a burning intensity that caused many a pony to avert their eyes. She turned around and reared up against the doors that had served as a barricade, keeping them safe, keeping them prisoners for so long. She slammed her hooves into them and they burst, exploding outwards. She led the way through the corridor with wings half outspread as the herd of bedraggled ponies all but stampeded behind her, streaming past the astonished bearers of the elements of harmony. When the complex was empty they were left blinking as one by one the lights were extinguised.

“I think that's our cue, sugar.” said Applejack.
“What's she going to do?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“She's going to give Poniberg to Ditzy Doo.” answered Luna, “She’s going to call forth the full wrath of her sister and direct not at herself, but at us.”
“She's going to what?” shouted Rarity, her head turning from her friends to look out through the shattered wrecked frame and pile of splinters that had recently been the doors, “How is that supposed to solve anything?”
“If her evilness is too busy fighting us, I guess Selena can sneak in and relieve her of her burdens.” suggested Rainbow Dash.
“I... I don’t think that’s how it works,” said Fluttershy quietly, “I think we have to... split up.”
“I don’t get it though,” asked Rainbow, gaze shifting back and forth between Fluttershy and Ditzy Doo, “how’s making Ditzy Doo the Mayor Mare gonna change anything?”
“She's... she's the queen. She can appoint anyone she so chooses as ruler of the land.” said Luna, thoughtfully, “My sister and I... we don’t go into things much but... the land, Equestria... it reflects our spirit, our hearts. When I... when Nightmare Moon spread her wings of darkness across the realm, the hate in my heart was reflected in the spirits of my people. Celeste is... sick, the way I was sick when I was Nightmare Moon.” Luna broke down, tears staining her cheeks.
Fluttershy turned to her and the pair embraced, “That time is past, Luna.”
The princess nodded and took a deep breath, “If Ditzy Doo, one of us, is made ruler of even a small part of Estrosia, it will become Equestria. I suppose that would get her sisters attention, bring her out into the open.”
“Neat! Can you do that too?” asked Pinkie Pie, “I mean, to parts of Equestria? That’d be superly-duperly neato!”
“Why yes, I... I do it all the time!” said Luna, nodding her head and fluttering her wings nervously.
“When was the last time?” asked Rainbow.
Luna looked downcast for a moment, and then hurried outside, mumbling, “About a year ago..."
“What's she mean?” asked the pegasus, watching her go with a confused expression on her muzzle.
Rarity rolled her eyes, “Last summer solstice, I distinctly remember we had a little bit of a... situation with a recently-returned moon princess?.”
“I think she means nightmare moon, silly Dashie!” said Pinkie, giggling as she followed Rarity.


***


Outside was bedlam. Like ants swarming a damaged nest, the inhabitants of Poniberg were out in force with a blank snarling look on their muzzles as they were driven by Celeste’s anger against her older sister.
“For the Lunar Republic!” was the common cry as young and old, stallion, filly and colt used whatever weapons they could to force their way to the town square. Selena strode through the mass like an equine battering ram, bolts of power from her horn throwing aggressors from her like silent meaty missiles. Where her horn and magic were not enough, her wings and hooves provided ample backup.

Finally she stood in the middle of the square and raised her head. She began to glow with a powerful ethereal light that formed a visible barrier around her. Ditzy Doo, who had been following her closely, squeaked in surprise as she felt it slide across her flank.
        “Equestrians! To me! Release your powers, drive Celeste’s minions back and we can strike the first blow!”
        The Bearers joined Selena in the circle of glowing moonlight, each shivering lightly as they passed through the barrier.
        “So... how do we..?” asked Rainbow.
“Search deep inside, remember that feeling the last time you used the Elements and bring it forth.” said Luna, already glowing.
One by one the ponies closed their eyes and searched deep within. Eyes opened to a new world as their Elements responded to the call and sent forth a wave of harmony and light that washed over the drab and dreary town like tidal swell. Selena herself, caught in the backwash, gasped at the gentle touch of the foreign magic and touched her horn to Ditzy Doo’ head.
“I dub thee Mare Mayor, rightful ruler of Poniberg, with all rights, privileges and responsibilities thereof.” were her simple words, but the effect was far greater. Like a silent, slow explosion, the strange barrier that had surrounded the eight ponies swelled and frothed, expanding outwards in a relentless spurt of growth that soon encapsulated the entire town. For the followers of Selena it was like a weight had been removed from their shoulders. For those still afflicted with their queens’ madness it sent them into fitful slumber, their eyes rolled back in their heads and they fell to the ground, twitching and moaning. Slowly, ever so slowly, peace fell upon the town.

        The citizens of Poniberg, unused to such a thing, were awestruck.
        “Is... is it over?” came the whispers, “Have we won?”
Selena visibly relaxed, her flaring aura dropping to a faint glow, “No, dear subjects, we have not won the war. We have won the battle. Rejoice, for your fallen brethren are once more amongst you. Watch now, watch what the goddess of the night can do for those returning to the fold. You are an army now, my friends - a small army, an untrained army, but an army nonetheless. And these ponies have joined you, or they would not be here. I give you, and them, my blessing. Arise, soldiers of the Lunar Republic!”
Selena closed her eyes, and the shimmer roared into a balefire flame that enveloped the land in a bright green fireball of soft, blinding light. Where it passed, the flanks of those who stood with the Lunar goddess changed. Whatever their cutie-mark, or even if they had none, what adorned their hides now was the symbol of their new queen, a crescent moon where the tips caught a stylized diamond-like star in perpetual embrace, “Behold my new legion. We are one, the healing may begin.”
Applejack looked up in the night sky, fearfully, “If’n she went and poked the queen hornet, the healin’ better be quick.”


***


Celeste shook with anger. Her sister was abroad, she should have seen it! She stormed up the cold stone stairs to the second level of her throne room, high above the ballroom. Her gaze cast across the design set in the marble that had lain dormant for so very, very long and she sneered at the memories of her sister that it brought forth. She screamed in anger and raised her wings, slamming through the door in an explosion of splinters as she emerged into the night air.
“Where are you! WHERE ARE YOU!” she yelled, her mad voice stolen by the wind. As if a sudden flashbulb had gone off, her senses told her great magic was being woven in - of all places - that wretched hive of scum and villainy known as Poniberg. She knew the spell, she had cast a version of it many years ago. The spell of ascension. Her sister was claiming the land for her own.
“NO!” she shouted, “I will not have it!”
She leaped off the parapet and with a single great downbeat of her wings soared into the night sky, spitting venom and shedding balefire as her barely-kept-in-check emotions ran amock.        

The bonfire had burnt lower now, with the ponies stomping and chanting around it. Tagalong hurt. Tagalong Tiara - it wasn’t her name but it had stuck - was doing her best to join in, to be a part of the herd. She shook with fear. At least now she belonged, like Lilly Ladle. She heard the three alpha ponies speaking, they were laughing cruelly and looking into the forest. They had something planned for somepony, she galloped away as fast as she was able before they decided it would be her.
“She’s perfect. Always wanting in, always so hopeful..." the yellow earth-pony was all but rubbing her hooves together with glee.
        “Callisto, you gonna make her do it?” asked the white unicorn filly
        “Sure Sour Note, Creepabout, she’s just right. Go get her.”

Twister, a hopeful unicorn pony wannabe member of the dark herd was brought to the three in a muzzle - the usual attire for pledges.
        “You know why you’re here, Twister?”
        The foal nodded, mutely.
“We want you to do something for us. We want you to sneak into the Everscream Forest and get us something from Zacora’s house. Anything. A mask. She loves those masks. Bring it here and burn it, and you’re in.”
        “Who knows,” laughed Sour Note, the proud young unicorn foal, “maybe you’ll find your mother in there.”

The raucous laughter stung Twister to the core - her mother had indeed gone missing in the Everscream Forest several days ago and had never returned. As she headed into the undergrowth she started shaking. Life in Poniberg had never been fun but this... this was madness. Strange noises everywhere, the feeling of being watched... Twister couldn’t shake it off. She headed deeper into the undergrowth, tears streaming from her eyes. She wasn’t afraid. She was a big pony. She was a brave pony. She was also very small, and very, very alone.

“Little one..." came a soft voice as she trudged as silently as possible through the dark forest. She stopped, heart pounding.
        “Who’th there?” she said.
        “Ahhh, nopony you need to worry about, little one.”
“Wh-what do you want?” Twister was scared now, very scared. Her tail bolted itself to her hind quarters and her ears pinned back. Her eyes were white and rolling.
“Ohhhh no, come now, that’s no way to treat a friend.” there was a rustling in the undergrowth and a purple unicorn stepped into the clearing.
        “A friend?” Twister was suspicious.
        “Greetings, young Twister... you can call me Twilight.”
        “How do you know my name?”
        “Oh, I know many things, but your name... your mother told me your name.”
        This was... this was too good to be true! “My mother? Mother is safe?”
“Oh, I know where your mother is. I can take you to her, in fact. Would you like that? Would you like to be with your mother?”
        “Would I! I miss mommy... is she okay?”
“She’s nearby.” the purple unicorn seemed... somehow odd, thought Twister, but she knew where Mother was, so she had to be okay.
        “Are you taking me to her?” asked the now-hopeful unicorn.
“Oh, it will be a while yet before you see your mother... I’m sorry to say, first I need a favour from you. One teensy little favour, and then you can be sent to be with your mother.”
        “One favour?”
“Only one,” the purple unicorn, ‘Twilight’ she had said she was called, seemed to laugh, “just follow me, step up onto that tree stump.”
        “And then you’ll take me to mother?”
“I promise, little one, that when you have finished doing me my favour I will release you to your mother, but first you must promise to do as I say, until I let you go.”
        “But..."
        “Say it.”
        “I... I promise.”
“Good..." said Twilight Doom, her outward face not displaying a patch of the inner turmoil and screaming going on inside her head as Twilight Sparkle raged, trying to find a way to tell Twister to Run! Run for your life! Don’t stop! Don’t look back! Don’t get up there! No! No don’t!

It was too late. The screams of the dying foal that reverberated into the night air were cut off, mercifully, suddenly. Twilight Doom was laughing now, a great bubbling cackle, as streaks of lightning tore the bloody ash-laden stump apart, the ground bulging obscenely as if some great creature were beneath it. A furious roar sent wildlife scattering and a glowing claw dripping with lava tore itself free and dragged the form of a burning skeletal dragon out from the nether deeps. It snapped and snarled at Twilight who stood her ground and stamped a hoof, “WE HAVE A CONTRACT!” she bellowed, “You will do as I say until I release you! Your mother is dead and I’ll send your soul to her when I’m finished with it!”
The beast raged but was impotent to do more than fell trees and belch flame into the night. When it was over, Twilight gestured with her horn, and the beast, snarling still, extended a claw for her to clamber onto.
“My dark herd is ready, and it’s latest member, whilst a bit unorthodox, is perfect. We attack, Twister, and you shall be my fitting steed.”


***


Speedy raised his head from behind the water-trough carefully. The dark herd were about. They’d taken most of the younger colts and fillies, Speedy figured whatever they did when they branded their herdmates, it branded them somehow inside too. He didn’t want to find out, but they were anxious he share their bounty.They’d already got his unicorn-friend Crusher; somehow the friendly, pudgy little foal had been turned into a mean enforcer for their ranks. Speedy still remembered the plaintive screams as they’d branded his friend. He shuddered; life in Poniberg had been awful as long as he could remember - as long as he’d been alive - but it had gotten far worse when Celeste returned from... wherever it was she’d gone to.

There was a hiss and he turned to see Creepabout and Sour Note advancing on him from the flank. He jumped to his hooves and was determined to show them the meaning behind his name. He was relatively quick of wits, but even fleeter of hoof. As he sped off towards Selena’s hideout he heard the hue and cry taken up.

        “Get him!”
        “The last one!”
        “He’s ours! For the dark mistress!”

        He ran. He almost didn’t care where to, the object was what from. He could feel hot breath on his back, felt hooves and teeth snap at his tail...  and then suddenly he heard the meaty thud of ponies hitting some sort of barrier or blunt object. Risking a look back, he stopped. Several members of the dark herd were standing in the lengthening shadows as a fiery, pearlescent barrier glowed faintly between him and them.
        He stood there, breathing heavily, as with a loud thump the winged unicorn-creature he’d seen so long ago pushed her way through the crowd.
        “So, little one, you are under her protection? She thinks she can keep you from me?”
“I... I don’t know what you mean,” replied Speedy, looking right and left. The barrier extended around the town, from what he could see.
“You wouldn’t, would you? Pathetic mewling little wretch. Your precious Poniberg...  destined to be a warzone. That harpy has cast her pieces into play, has she? Well, it’s time I made my move then.”
        “What... who are you? I just... why do you want me?”
        “Oh I don’t want you, little meatball, I want the world. All of this shall be mine. Everything. And when it is, I will crush it beneath my hooves and burn it to ashes.”
“Why?” whimpered Speedy, ears flat against his skull, “Why? You... you can’t though, can you? Selena... she’s done something, hasn’t she?”
        The creature spat, “Empress Doom fears not your feeble night princess. Her magics are nothing compared to the Elements of Discord, and this... soap-bubble is nothing compared to a great dragon.” Twilight tapped a forehoof disdainfully against the magical barrier and sniffed, “Last time I used Shadow. This time I’ll not choose something so... insubstantial.”
Speedy looked up, horrified, as a glowing, burning, skeletal dragon-shaped monstrosity slammed into the ground, demolishing the few shops still standing outside of the barrier. It roared. Speedy christened the cobblestones beneath him and took several steps back, almost slipping in the puddle.
“Meet Twister. She looked... different... last time you saw her. Pathetic foal, useless to me. So I... gave her a gift, in return for a favour.”
        “Yo-you changed a foal into that?”
        “Oh yes, little Speedy, and I can do the same for you. Just think of the power you’ll have if you join me.”
        Speedy shook his head, heart racing - she’d killed his friend Twister and made her into this... thing before him. He turned and fled.
“Weak-minded foal. Nevermind, he’ll live to regret his decision. Just.” Twilight Doom turned to the dark herd, watching them silently. Their eyes glittered in the gloom and she sneered, “My faithful subjects. Watch now the true mistress of this world. Twister, torch it.”