The heat, the pain, and the emotional turmoil going on inside of Dust were the only things he was aware of in his last moments. Having Gaius drop himself into the pit of lava that was coming up to consume Dust had already fractured his already broken and tattered soul, even if Gaius had slain thousands of innocents, nobody deserved to die in a volcano like he was about to. And then there was the exchange between him and Fidget that had hurt him even more than anything so far, not even the pain of failing Bopo could compare to seeing Fidget and Ginger cry like that and knowing that he couldn't do anything about it. Maybe it was that pain that ultimately saved him, the pain that caused his fused souls to finally crack and have a falling out, or maybe it was just dumb luck. Dust opened his eyes one last time before the lava swarmed over him and found a light shimmering over his skin, and then he was under the lava.
"This is grave my dear sister," Celestia muttered as she looked though the telescope in Luna's room.
It was about midday in Equestria and the two celestial rulers of the land were currently gathered in the younger one's room. Luna's mane looked as though a bird had tried making a nest in it and her eyes had dark circles under them, giving the impression that she hadn't slept long.
"What is it Tia," Luna grumbled, standing behind her older sibling. Well, standing wasn't exactly the right word to use for what Luna was doing, she seemed as though she was about to fall over at the slightest breeze that ran through the room.
"Right there, just look," Celestia said, stepping back from the telescope and offering the sight to Luna.
Luna stepped up to the telescope with a soft sigh, looking through the eyepiece just to get it over with and to get her sister to leave so she could sleep in peace. What she saw though made we pause and look as her sister. "Do my eyes play tricks on me," Luna asked, more to herself than her sister.
"Nope," Celestia replied hurriedly, "both Twilight Sparkle and Cadence have seen it."
"What is it," Luna asked, looking at her sister.
"We don't know."
Discord had been having a rather normal day, or at least as normal as things could get around him, with Fluttershy accompanying him on his random list of daily activities. And random it was.
"So, um, why do we have to get these Tai berries, If you don't mind me asking that is," Fluttershy asked as the two of them hovered down the rocky road high in the mountains.
"Of course not, Fluttershy dear. I am baking a pie sometime tomorrow and the berries go perfectly with it," Discord replied.
"Oh, well I can't wait to taste it," Fluttershy replied, offering him a smile.
"Can't wait to taste what," Discord asked.
"The pie," Fluttershy replied, giving him a curious look.
"Oh...we have pie," Discord asked with something of a laugh in his voice. Then again that laugh never left his voice.
"No, you said you were going to make one," Fluttershy replied, thoroughly confused now.
"Well I don't remember anything about a pie," Discord replied.
"Oh, well alright then," Fluttershy replied, trying to keep the disappointment out of her voice. She was really looking forward to that pie.
"I'm just joking Fluttershy, I am making a pie and I promise you'll get the first piece," Discord said after bursting out into laughter.
Fluttershy laughed weakly and turned her head to the horizon where the sky was slowly turning orange due to the setting sun. Or at least it should have been turning orange. Instead there was only darkness where there should have been a clear sky.
"Discord, what is that," Fluttershy asked, stopping and trembling a bit as fear creeped into her voice.
Discord followed her gaze, the colour literally draining out of his face and leaving him white. Accompanied by the bleak look on his face, it didn't look as though the darkness was there for a tea party.
"Fluttershy, we have to leave. Now," Discord said, his voice missing the eternal laugh, replaced instead with genuine fear.
Before Fluttershy could say another word she was in Celestia's throne room, surrounded by the confused faces, and worried in Twilight's case, of her friends. Celestia sat on her throne, blinking in surprise at the sight of so many ponies, accompanied by the Draconequus, simply appearing in her throne room.
"What are you doing here," Celestia asked, quickly recovering her composure.
"The darkness," was all Discord said.
Celestia responded instantly, narrowing her eyes at Discord. "What do you know of it?"
"I created it, a few thousand years ago," Discord said. "The history of it isn't important but what is important is that we've got to stop it."
"How," Twilight asked.
"I don't know," Discord replied honestly.
"What do you mean you don't know," Rainbow Dash practically shouted, flying in front of his face. "You made it!"
"Precisely, I made it, doesn't mean I know how to destroy it," he replied to the mare. "The line, 'I made you, I can take you out of this world as well,' isn't always true."
"Well then what do we do," Rarity asked.
"I don't know, Element of Harmony it up girls," Discord said.
"Can they even do anything against it? From what I've gathered it's pure darkness," Twilight said, "I doubt that the Elements could even penetrate it?"
"What do you mean, of course they can," Discord replied, giving Twilight a harsh glare for doubting him, "they're pure harmo...ny..."
"Exactly," Twilight replied.
"Uh, could somepony explain what exactly they're talkin' 'bout for those of us who don't know everything about magic," Applejack asked.
Twilight cleared her throat as if she was preparing to give a speech, "Well when Discord did th-"
"Discord made our Elements partly chaotic so now they're not pure harmony anymore," Pinkie cut in, realizing that with Twilight explaining it would take hours and nopony would understand.
"So there's a chance that if we went to fight it then we wouldn't do anything," Rainbow Dash asked. "...Well so what, it's our duty to either save Equestria or lose our lives in the process, we are the Elements of Harmony after all!"
The other five mare's of the group murmured in agreement and Celestia asked, "So you're all in agreement to this idea?" After each mare voiced that she was Celestia sighed and turned to Discord. "Are you sure there's no other way?"
"I don't know, I banished it to another universe before, but I can only assume that it's learned how to cross universes on its own," he replied, crushing the hopes of everyone in the room.
"So, I suppose we should get the Elements now," Twilight said. "Discord, if you wouldn't mind."
Discord snapped his claws and the Elements of Harmony appeared around the neck of each ones respective wearer. That was when things essentially blew up. Discord was in the center of the circle of mares when a beam shot out of each Element, each adding to the circle that was now enclosing Discord and drawing energy from him. He could feel the energy being pulled from him and he faintly recognized the feeling of the magic that was being activated.
"Guys, something's coming to our world," Discord yelled, trying to slam his way out of the ball. The mares on the other side tried helping, accompanied by Celestia, but none of them could cause a single break in the circle of multicoloured light. Discord suddenly felt a piercing pain that stabbed through his head, right behind his eyes, and left him screaming on the floor of the ball. The girls backed away from the ball and after a few seconds everything grew quiet. The revolutions of the ball grew slower until it eventually stopped and came apart in pieces that floated up into the air and dissipated. "Guys," Discord said as his claws touched the ground, "may I present you with Dust, Ahrah, and Fidget, the three creatures who are going to help us destroy that darkness."