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// 27: Applejack Gets an Idea That May or May Not Turn The Tables On Malice With The Help Of Some Kind Of Dragon Thing 
// Story: Bring the Thunder 
// by Ze Guest 
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We were walking back to Pineville, cold, hungry, in need of consoling and feeling dumb. How could the Elements of Harmony not have worked? We went all this way for absolutely nothing. Although, she did say there was still a way to defeat her. But just l are we going to find out? Sorry to say this o' loyal reader if you've gotten this far, but we are ninety-nine and three quarters screwed. At least. "What now?" I asked stupidly, hoping for a answer that isn't us having to give up and leave Equestria.

"I don't know, Volt." Twilight said with her head hanging low. "I guess all we can do is just give up, leave Equestria." Just fucking splendid. 

I was just in absolute rage mode. Of course, I couldn't display that in front of everyone. I found a little rock. A little gray, stupid looking rock. What an ass, that rock. Just sitting there not giving a shit about anything except being stupid and insignificant by all means necessary. I picked it's stupid ass up and threw it as far as I could. Where? How should I know? "So that's it then?" Rainbow Dash said. "We just give up." 

Twilight shrugged her shoulders. "There's nothing more we can do, Dash." she said.

"Twilight!" Rainbow snapped. We all stopped and stared at her. "I've seen you do amazing things! I've seen you triumph over Nightmare Moon! Discord! That changeling princess I can't remember the name of! Sombra! Don't you remember that?"

Twilight looked at the dirt and the wind slowly blew it away. "You want to know why we were able to do that?" Twilight asked. "We knew what to do. Nightmare Moon? Discord? Chrysalis? We needed the elements. Those of which obviously didn't work with Malice. We had the answer for them. Not Malice, though. And I can't think of any other way to stop her."

The confidence in Rainbow Dash just drained. All other emotions just left within a second. Throughout all my days of being a wanderer, walking obliviously through Equestria, I've never seen anything go away faster than that. That right there just showed that there was no hope. It made me wonder how Malice had even gotten the elements. Did she just steal them from somewhere?

Every step drew us closer to Ponyville. I still hated that name. I remember how I first got there. I wonder where Maverick is right now. I hope he's alright. But with all this commotion going on, something bad would certainly happen to a Zebra. No doubt. That thought reminded me of something Malice said. She said that one of the reasons she started this thing was the state the world was in. All these bad things going on. I remembered how I punched her in the face and how it did absolutely nothing. When I punched her, it seemed so unreal. 

I was thinking deeper and deeper about what the whole thing was with Malice when I tripped over something and almost got killed. Applejack picked me up and I looked at what I tripped on. A root. Just a big, black with a little green, root. "Here we are." Fluttershy said.

All I saw was a huge jumble of black roots all over the place. I thought I could see a few buildings, but that was it. "This looks familiar." Rarity said.

I looked at Twilight. She- well- she looked like she was just about ready to slaughter a bunch of ponies, cook them, beat the shit out of them and force feed them to little foals five years and lower. I quietly moved my knapsack away from Twilight. Just in case she remembered I still had a knife. You know what? I don't really recall cleaning that thing. Aw man, I forgot. Now I'm going to have to clean the damn thing and the knapsack.

Twilight's hoof was driven deeply into the ground and her teeth were gritted so tightly they might break. Her horn light brightly and out of nowhere comes this-this thing. It looked like a dragon of some kind but it had a lion hand and a bird's arm or something. He was watching something in black and white and he was eating a cake. Black Forrest cake. "I'll be completely honest with you, I did nothing wrong." he said. Something about this guy told me that he was a one hundred percent, unadulterated, jerk.

"Lie!" Twilight shouted. 

The dragon-thing looked at his cake. "Well, I don't recall myself lying." he said, throwing the cake he had away. He finally looked up to see the roots covering the town "Now, what a wonderful thing you've done with the place." he said joyfully.

"Shut up, Discord." Twilight hissed through her teeth.

Discord turned to Twilight looking surprised. "Well, I don't think I've ever seen this side of you before." He snapped his fingers and the TV and the cake went away. Then he locked eyes with me. "Why, who is this?" he asked. He teleported right into my face with a smile on his face. "Have you finally opened up to some-pony, Twilight?"

Twilight's face flared and she dug her hoof deeper into the ground. "I am not in the mood to be fucked with." she said.

Discord took his eyes off me and planted them right on Twilight. "You are not a happy camper, are you?" he asked. "Let old uncle Discord fix that!" he said. He snapped his fingers again and balloons fell from the sky, confetti shot out of nowhere and Discord had a party hat on and one of those little things where it's all wound up and when you blow into it, it unfolds and makes this sound that makes you want to shove the thing down his throat and watch as he chokes on it.

Pinkie Pie was amused but not Twilight. Defiantly not Twilight. She slapped the annoying thing out of Discord's mouth and ripped the hat off his head. "Don't go that way." she said.

Discord teleported next to me and put his mouth near my ear. "Wow. She is touchy tonight, isn't she?" he asked.

"Well, after everything she's been through today, you better listen to her. And pay close attention." I suggested.

"Really?" he asked.

"She'll cut you up like leftover pork roast." I said.

"Good point." he said. He teleported back over to Twilight. "Alright. No tricks up my sleeves. I promise." He started brushing off his arms and toys and novelty pranks peppered the floor. He went to shake Twilight's hoof but suddenly pulled back. "Oh, almost forgot..." He pulled a joy buzzer off his hand and threw it behind him. His hand shot right back out and awaited a hoof shake.

Twilight reluctantly shook his hand. No tricks, no pranks, all good. Everyone lives for now. "Now, what seems to be the problem, dear?" Discord asked.

Twilight pointed to the town while keeping an eye on Discord. "I want you to clean that up. Right now!" she barked.

Discord looked back at the town covered in roots to the point where you could hardly see anything and smiled again. "But Twilight. One cannot simply take down such a masterpiece! I think it's-"

"I don't care what you think!" Twilight shouted. "Fix it!"

Discord frowned and looked down. "Oh... so I guess my opinion doesn't count. It seems my mother was lying to me after all. Oh, look what you did. Now I feel insignificant. Now I might have to go back to bulimia again." He snapped his fingers and his arms were full of marzipan and gelato and fried chicken and pretty much every food that was destined to kill you within 2.5 seconds. "Well, never start to late I suppose." He started shoving a hamburger down his throat as Fluttershy looked away.

Twilight slapped herself across the face and groaned loudly. "Alright, look. I'm sorry. I'm just very, very angry." Twilight said.

Discord turned back with a smug look on his face. "Well I understand. I guess that would have to do." He snapped his fingers and the food turned into cats with bat wings and hedgehog faces. "So you want me to clean up the town, correct?' he asked.

Twilight nodded slowly. "Yes, if you could just do that. I'll leave you alone."

Discord put a hand on his beard and stroked it. "Hmmm... I don't feel like it." he said casually.

Twilight went from somewhat tranquil to wanting to rape and kill someone. And not in that specific order either. "You- don't feel like it?" she asked. She was shaking vigorously and breathing heavily. "Well, I don't know about you, but I don't feel like letting you keep you dignity. I don't feel like letting you live!"

Discord rolled his eyes. "Okay, let me rephrase," he cleared his throat. "I don't feel like cleaning up because I didn't do it nor can I do anything about it."

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean you can't?" she asked.

Discord put a hand on his face and let it slowly fall off. "Dear Celestia, it never stops!" he said to himself. "You should remember! You already dealt with this. Just remember!"

They did it before? What was he talking about? I looked back at the rest. Applejack's face lit up brightly. "Twilight!' she said excitedly. "I get it now!"

Twilight walked up to Applejack. "What do you mean?" she asked.

"We need to put these back on the Tree of Harmony! I can't believe I didn't remember until now! Malice obviously took the elements off the tree! Causing' everythin in the world to become dark and insane, makin' Malice stronger and stronger to the point where she has enough power to take over Equestria! She had to have somethin' to do with everything bad that's been goin' on! Think of the emphasis on slavery, crime, poverty. It's been growing!"

Twilight tapped herself on the head. "Of course! Without the Elements of Harmony on the tree, Malice became more powerful which gave her the power to manipulate the world the way she wanted it to go while making herself even stronger!"

Discord smiled warmly. "Well, well, well. I guess you were able to figure it all out in the end." He snuck over to me. "What's your name? I don't believe I've heard it." he asked.

I guess the guy wasn't the absolute best guy to hang with, but he's alright. I guess. "Volt. No need to worry about wearing it out because chances are it already is." And we shook.

"We should hang out some time. Do manly things. Like hoofball, or the ladies! If you catch my drift." Discord said, elbowing me.

I smiled and laughed at the clearly inappropriate joke. "Well, I'm all for doing the ladies, but I've never played hoofball. Probably because I don't have the balls." I looked awkwardly around as everyone ignored me.

Discord chuckled at my joke. "I have a good feeling that we are going to get along famously!" Discord looked in the distance and saw Neon. Discord certainly seemed interested in talking to him. "And I say, who is that?"

Neon was hiding behind Fluttershy. Something told me he didn't like Discord. Now that he was in his sights, there was no way he could get out of this. Discord instantly teleported next to Neon. "You seem quite interesting. I have a feeling we'll be good friends, too! We'll go on adventures and oh, so many things. I wonder, what is your name?

"Uh..." Neon seemed pretty intimidated by Discord. "N-Neon..."

"Oh, no need to be afraid of me, Neon. I'm not the bully I used to be."

Discord was just warming up to Neon when Fluttershy stepped in. "Hi Discord. Um, I'm sorry, but we probably need to go now. We have very important business to attend to."

Discord sighed. "Oh well. If that's the way it is, I'll leave you. But we should hang out sometime, you two. Adventures and ladies galore!" 

Discord left and it was just the rest of us. Applejack and Twilight feeling smart and the rest of us feeling a little dumb after having tried to understand fully what they were talking about. But I had the base of it. Take the Elements of Harmony to the Tree of Harmony and the rest... bliss.