After leaving the gentlecolt party, Discord went to prepare the party canons for another firing to declare the beginning of the climax of his party. However there has been no trace for him thus far. The princesses feared the worst, while everypony else got a mixed feeling about this; with the exception of Fluttershy, no pony particularly liked Discord, he is the most annoying creature around, always spreading mayhem, creating more work for the ponies that get involved with him, and that is after he had been reformed. But to go so far as wanting him dead, now that is just wrong.
“So this pony wants to kill Discord?” Applejack asked through the telepathic relay, which is basically a magical walky-talky inside everypony’s mind, that Celestia cast in order to coordinate everypony’s efforts, she and Rarity took the east side of the party to look for either Discord or Draco Sparkle. "Is that even possible?"
"In a normal situation, Discord is far more capable to handle any attack being thrown against him, even from a hafling like Draco." Celestia explained in details, she knew if her ponies were to get up against Him, they need all the information they'll get. "However, after their first encounter, somehow Draco's cutie mark got altered, and he gained an ability to suppress magic in all it's form, rendering Discord and everypony else defenseless against his onslaught." Luna and she were searching the north side of the festivities.
"Suppress all magic? How can we fight against somepony like that?" Shining Armor didn't like the odds, nor did he liked the princesses's behavior, he needed to formulate a plan before things could get any worse. Cadence and he took the south side of the party.
“We never said he was invincible," Luna went against him more time than she could count, she knew his weaknesses better than anypony, alive or dead. "His magic suppression predominantly resides in his scythe, which has an exact range of 97.85 hooves in a spherical proportion, he can also transfer the suppression effect from his scythe to his chains, which only seemed to be controlled telepathically, but is not. He's just too good at maneuvering it. Anyway the maximum range of the suppression from the chain is 6.37 hooves at the entire length of the chains."
“Those are some pretty precise figures,” Twilight complemented, Pinkie pie and she were in the west side of the party.
"Thank you. If you have spent half the amount of time trying to get away from him as I have, you do pick up on every single detail of his abilities."
"And how exactly are we suppose to fight somepony like that?" Shining Armor did not like his dwindling chances at all.
"He is strong, underestimating him means defeat, if not death." Celestia's voice was surprisingly calming, even if her words were foreboding. "But there is hope my little ponies. For one, he never fights with the chain and the scythe together. He has three personalities, and each personality prefer to use a different weapon. Be mindful of which personality you are fighting. There lies his weakness and his strength."
“Then what are we waiting for, let’s find him and stop him before anypony gets hurt.” Rainbow Dash cheered, while scouting the air with Fluttershy and the wonderbolts.
“Can we enlist the help of the rest of the royal guard?” asked Rarity, “I’m sure we can find him quickly if we had more help.”
“Unfortunately that won’t help, mainly because we do not want to create mass panic,” Celestia replied, “I’m sure if we asked nicely enough he will calmly comply.” While a picture of her choking a certain blue pegasus appeared in everypony’s mind, causing all under the relay to cringe.
“Serve’s him right.” Affirmed Applejack.
“Actually, he’ll break your hoof like he did last time.” Just on cue, Luna sent an image of a the same pony holding Celestia’s hoof in an uncomfortable, and a rather compromising position, which spun a large wave of complaints from the searching squad.
“What’s up with you?” Pinkie Pie have had enough angry ponies for one day, “You are all too grumpy for ponies who were suppose to have partied all day!”
“I don’t know about the princesses,” Rarity started her tease, “I do know that Applejack is upset because the stallion that we met kissed Big Mac and not her.” Eliciting a blush and a jab from the farm mare.
“Wait, there were two Stallion kissing? EWW.” Soarin remark irked Cadence.
“Any pony can love any pony.” She scolded, “There is no shame in that.”
“I’ve read in a book that in the old kingdoms of Equestria, two kisses on the cheeks were a sign of gratitude.” Intervened Twilight.
“Well whatever it was, Big Mac have been shock from it ever since it happened.” Applejack burst out, causing more gasps throughout the relay.
“He is in shock from being thrown by that pegasus a few hundred hooves in the air and landed on his head, not because he was kissed in public.” Rarity replied with more annoyance than anger.
“Oh my. Is he going to be ok?” whispered Fluttershy.
"He's going to be fine my dear," Rarity replied, "we placed him in the same room as Daring Do, Cheese Sandwich remained with them for entertainment."
“Can you all be quite?” yelled Trixie, who was the only pony monitoring the main square of the party/ carnival, “You are all giving the great and powerful a great and powerful headache with all this rambling.”
“Trixie’s right, we have to concentrate on finding him instead of just chatting.” Twilight gave a stern command amid different grunting, sighing and giggling sounds.
Only to have all the different responses interrupted with Trixie’s “EEEEP” that emanated loudly through Everypony’s mind.
“Is something wrong Trixie?” Asked Princess Celestia.
“Some creep brushed my tail.” Replied Trixie. “And now he is standing in front of me,” she paused, “A giant blue pegasus with slit eyes.” Her voice shrieked at the end.
“Everypony, to the center square.” No one was paying attention to know who gave the order but every pony within the relay started trotting and flying as fast as they can to that square.
“Wait, what are you doing?” Trixie's scream caused the alicorn sisters to turn to each other with a "uh oh."
"What is it?" Twilight asked frantically.
“Don’t touch my horn, Don’t Touch My….” Came Trixie's plea before the entire space suddenly turning black with all the noise disappearing from the background. Promptly, everypony inside the relay can see each other clearly, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and the two wonderbolts were flying up high, and each pair was standing, there was Celestia and Luna, Pinkie and Twilight, Applejack and Rarity, and Cadence was alone in her corner. And in the middle was a giant pegasus placing his hoof on Trixie’s horn.
"We forgot he could do that." Luna shook her head at the rookie mistake she and her sister made in using a telepathic relay with a pony that can enter other ponies' consciousness.
“Tutti attenzione1,” the pegasus declared, “This is only an illusion, don’t move much because you’ll be fumbling blind.” He lifted his hoof off of Trixie and peered at Cadence, “Impressive, your companion was able to avoid being trapped, you ought to be quite proud.”
Shining felt a surge of magic coming from the relay and manage to cut his connection from it just in time. After he recovered from the mental disorientation that accompanied breaking a telepathic link abruptly, he found his wife just standing there. Cadence suddenly exclaimed: “So this is just an illusion?” He then realized what the surge meant and what is going on; he was thankful for his training in the royal guard that prepared him for something like this. He knew that he had to go to the center square and stop the pegasus before he does anything rash.
Something is definitely wrong here, he thought to himself as he made his way toward the square,the princesses didn't say anything about magic, yet this guy just casts an illusion on an alicorn. Not to mention, he managed to hijack a telekinetic relay with a simple touch. No matter how many times he reviewed these facts, something just didn’t add up. I’ll have my answer when I face him, I just hope he doesn’t do anything reckless before I get there.
But before he manages to finish his thoughts, Discord’s voice boomed in the speaker: “Hello Everypony, hope you are all having a great time, because now is the time for this party’s climax. Come all to the center square to watch the firing of the party cannon brigades.”
Oh buck, Shining started to trot faster.
Back inside the illusion Celestia turned to the blue pegasus: “Good to see you again, Draco.”
“Sempre un piacere2 Tia, Lu.” He replied with a smile on his face, “I have been traveling Equestria for the past couple of days and I can’t help but notice it being returned to normal, I am guessing the elements worked then?”
“Yes they worked,” Luna replied, “but there is something you need to...”
“Bene3,” Draco interrupted, “Then all that is left is to behead the beast and be done with this war.” He says ignoring the sisters entirely.
Before anypony can object however, Draco released the illusion which shattered the relay, cutting the connection between them.
Trixie saw him looking at the center stage where Discord is teasing the audience, who apparently were cheering for him. “Stay here, Fräulein4, this will be over quick." Draco said before disappearing in the crowd.
“Well now, let the countdown begin.” Discord said enthusiastically, as the screen appeared behind him.
“Five.” The audience screamed.
Rainbow Dash and the wonderbolts arrive at the center square.
“Four.”
They spot a large pegasus approaching calmly the stage while Rarity and Applejack appear from the east.
“Three.”
Everypony start to converge toward him, but it’s too crowded to reach him in time.
“Two.”
The pegasus disappear from view just as Twilight and Pinkie Pie reach the square.
“One.”
Discord’s expression turns to fear, as the scythe wielding pegasus suddenly appeared in front of him on stage. “Aufwedersehen5.” He said before bringing down his scythe. The stage exploded upon impact.