//------------------------------// // Chapter 49: Chaos Under Control // Story: Harmony and Courage: Running Parallel // by SSJRandomMaster //------------------------------// Chapter 49: Chaos Under Control --------------------- The griffon swung out with yet another fire-infused punch, only to find his unicorn opponent putting up yet another reflect spell, knocking him back. Shining Armor looked up, breathing slightly hard now. Bronclav, meanwhile, spread his wings, stopping his backwards momentum. The white unicorn gave a small snort as his opponent rushed back in, the unicorn’s horn glowing with a purple hue.   A shield appeared where the griffon attempted to make his strike, blocking the strike, cracking severely. Bronclav swung his talons for another strike, more shields popping up to defend from the attacks. The griffon’s attacks continually cracked Shining’s shields, more so than before.   “Has Shining been hurt that much?!” Rarity called out.   “No,” Blitz shook his head, “He’s been fighting him one-on-one for a while now…I think the captain’s starting to run out of steam.”   Virid stood to the side, gritting his teeth, “Yet the griffon doesn’t seem to have lost too much steam…”   “Either that, or he’s too crazy to care he’s running out of it…” Blitz said.   Shining backed up a step, his shield appearing over his body again. Once again, Bronclav’s hit was deflected by the defense. The griffon cocked his fist back, fire appearing over his left talon. The white unicorn erected yet another magical barrier in response. However, this time, the empowered enemy’s fire punch shattered the shield completely, and kept going with enough momentum to strike the captain.   Shining coughed as he was lifted off his four hooves, landing on his side on the swampy ground. He lay still for a few moments, doing nothing. Rarity let out a shrill gasp.   “Not good…” Blitz said. Bronclav turned to Shining, who was in the middle of recovering.   “Is this the extent of your ability?” Bronclav asked, beginning to advance on him. “It was fun…probably the best fight I’ve had in my life…But now, it ends…”   Shining didn’t bother with a retort, shuffling his way to his feet. As he did so, Bronclav rushed in, seeming to increase his running speed. However, before he could successfully make good on his statement, a large wave of pressure slammed into the griffon’s back, knocking him off balance. He fell into a crouch, his eyes wide and bloodshot. He turned, seeing a wide, angry-eyed Virid looking at him.   “You…” Bronclav growled, his attention now on Virid.   “Virid!” Blitz called out, “You of all people should know what your orders are…”   “Yeah, but Celestia knows she’d never forgive us if something happened to him…” Virid muttered.   “She…?” Blitz asked, “What are you—“   “You intend to interrupt a one-on-one fight…” Bronclav grumbled, before his face once again twisted into an insane visage of cruelty, “Fine! I don’t care! Go ahead and throw whoever’s left at me! I’ll go through all of you like tissue paper!”   The griffon whirled around, spreading his wings and charging Virid. Virid braced himself, fully ready to take over the fight—   Three purple laser bolts suddenly slammed into the back of the griffon, causing him to once again stumble. Virid looked up, his face only having concern.   “C-Captain?!” he shouted. Shining was visibly breathing hard now, likely from fatigue.   “Virid…what’d I tell you?” Shining asked, “This is my fight to finish…”   Bronclav turned, seeing that his former opponent had in fact managed to get another hit off, “Yes, that’s right…but it won’t be going on much longer…”   “Then why don’t we end this, already?” The unicorn continued, scraping his hoof across the swampy ground, his horn lighting up once more.   “Fine…” Bronclav said, “I’m going to give it all I’ve got…Don’t forget! Once I’m done with you…” His talons cracked, igniting in fire as he raised both arms together, readying what looked like a fearsome attack, “They’re next!”   “I haven’t forgotten…” Shining said, “But I promise you, you won’t be going any further than this…”   For a few more moments Bronclav remained there, charging his fire fists. Shining remained still, seeming to focus. At last, the tension broke, the griffon rushing his unicorn opponent.   “Captain, watch out!” Virid shouted, “He’s definitely giving it all he’s got!”   Shining didn’t respond. Bronclav continued to draw closer, his beak once more adopting a crazed grin. Eventually, Bronclav reached his desired range—aiming to bring down his blazing fists onto Shining, he shouted:   “This is it!”   Shining looked up as the attack came down. A large purple shield appeared over the point of impact once again—the reflect spell. Bronclav’s fists remained against the barrier for a few more seconds, before an explosion of force and fire went off, knocking both fighters back. Bronclav went flying back left, his chest gem seeming to fissure a little more under the pressure. Shining flew backwards until he hit a tree, gritting his teeth and lying down, breathing harder still. Bronclav eventually slid to a halt, grabbing at his chest, where everypony knew the gem was at.   The griffon continued to clutch his chest, a faint glow radiating from under his talon. Bronclav lurched forward, hacking violently, blood coming out. It was only after he removed his hand that the others could see clearly what had happened: his gem had not only cracked, it had cracked severely; there were deep fissures, hairline cracks, and other deformities in the jewel—it was a wonder it was still together.   “It’s over!” Shining shouted, soon as he realized what exactly had happened. Bronclav looked over, then back to his shattered gem, unable to believe it himself.   “I…I…lost…?” Bronclav asked, more to himself than anything else. He looked down, towards the ground, looking more like a lost child than an enemy. However, he mumbled something guttural, and the other ponies suddenly felt uneasy.   “What’s this pressure...?” Virid asked, looking around, “The air…feels heavy, for some reason…”   “No…” It was here, the ponies realized Bronclav was still on his feet and he was hyperventilating, bad. He looked up, his eyes growing wider, veins becoming more and more visible. “No…”   The air around Bronclav began to ripple, like a fire was being lit on his very body. The general area seemed to become sweltering, like the group had suddenly stepped into a lit oven.   “No!” The griffon shouted, gritting his beak so hard that blood was beginning to leak out of his mouth. A powerful shockwave came from his body, causing the ground to crack beneath him—the mud that was at his feet before was hardening, despite the fact the group was in a swamp.   “I refuse!” The ground beneath Bronclav, and the griffon himself, engulfed in flames, his eyes white with fury.   The others could only watch in shock. “Burn…Everything burns!”   Orbs of fire shot out of Bronclav in all directions, setting more of the swamp ablaze in the process.   “He’s gone completely mad!” Shining called out, taking a step forward. However, he noticed an orb of fire was coming down at him, forcing him to jump back. As soon as he landed, he’d prepared to charge again, but he realized quickly that he wouldn’t get the chance to move, not this time.   Bronclav was charging him, through the fire, talons extended. Shining didn’t have time to do another reflector, and quickly put up the most powerful barrier he could muster. But the moment the griffon’s talon made contact, he knew it wasn’t enough. The next, the shield had shattered under the force of the attack, carrying enough force to send him flying backwards.   Shining hit the ground hard, rolling to a stop, limp on the ground.   The attack didn’t even hit me…and yet he was able to knock me back… Shining thought, C’mon…get up!   Shining looked up, hearing the sounds of footfalls approaching him. He looked up into the face of his adversary. It was clear to the captain now what was going on.   His sanity has all but eroded… he thought to himself, And I’m his only target right now…He’s only guided by pure, white rage…!   “Burn to ashes!” Bronclav’s beak broke into the most wicked grin he had ever seen, raising a talon. His wings and lion tail were starting to singe from the sheer heat he was letting off. But even if he had known, it was pretty obvious he wouldn’t have cared.   At this rate…!   “Enough!” A shadow dropped from the sky—a pegasus pony at least, judging from the wings and height, positioning itself between the insane griffon and the injured unicorn. Shining lifted his head off the ground, trying to see who had intervened. He saw it a few moments later: canary yellow coat and feathers, pink mane, pink tail, butterflies…   No!   “F-Fluttershy,” Shining groaned, trying to get himself to move, “You have to get away!”   Fluttershy didn’t even seem to hear him. As Shining continued to struggle to try to get himself back into shape, he realized something: Bronclav had stopped moving, his fiery aura having somewhat diminished. His pupils had returned, though they had shrunken to pinpoints. Here, Shining realized something was off with the griffon’s eyes.   Is that…fear?   “What…is this…?” Bronclav asked, seeming to have regained some frame of mind looking down at the mare any living creature would usually regard as meek and gentle. Yet, here she was in front of them, her frame now looking more rigid, rough. Yet, she never once raised a hoof, instead starting to raise her voice.   “Now listen here!” Fluttershy was in full Stare mode now, “You think that just because you’re big and can use magic that you can just do whatever you want? Well, you can’t!” Fluttershy took only a single step towards Bronclav, who, to everypony’s shock, actually seemed to be taking a step back.   “How is she doing that…?!” Blitz wondered aloud, utterly stunned at this development.   “As we told you before, there is nothing more terrifying than Fluttershy’s Stare,” Rarity said, for the first time since Rainbow and Pinkie got knocked out, sounding confident.   Bronclav’s eyes were slowly beginning to regain their pupils as Fluttershy took yet another step. His eyes quickly narrowed once again.   “No…! I will not be defeated by you!” Bronclav’s fire reignited, and seemed to get hotter than it had been before Fluttershy stepped in. The heat was enough to singe some of Fluttershy’s feathers on the tips of her wings, but she didn’t falter, even as Bronclav continued to make his threats: “I will burn every last one of you!”   “Stop it right now!” Fluttershy raised her voice just a little higher, stamping one of her forehooves down. Bronclav took another step back, the fire lessening in intensity once more, “You are going to put out this fire, give us the Element, and then, you’ll leave us alone! Have I made myself clear?!”   Bronclav was trembling now, and he didn’t like it. His own body was trembling, in fear from something that by all rights couldn’t even hurt a fly.   “No…” Bronclav said, his pupils vanishing again, “I won’t accept it!”   The fires burned brightly once again, Bronclav’s eyes once again blank, his body becoming more and more burned as his own magic seemed to fail him. He didn’t care though, raising his talons, roaring like an eagle.   Everypony could only gasp in horror, watching as the talon became covered in even more intense flames.   “The Stare didn’t work…!?” shouted Rarity.   “Get out of there!” Virid barked.   Fluttershy stood her ground, even though she clearly wasn’t the one using an intimidating look anymore.   However, before anything could happen, before Bronclav could bring down his attack on the frail pegasus pony, a loud boom filled the air. A mere moment later, something struck Bronclav square in the center of his chest, where the already heavily damaged gem was. The griffon could only let out a pained howl as his eyes were pure white, no veins to speak of. His gem shattered into several pieces as he flew backwards, crashing clean through a tree. The source of the magical fires destroyed, the fires Bronclav had created began to die out.   Fluttershy released the tiniest squeak as her back legs finally gave out, her wings pinning themselves to her sides, now that the crisis was over for now. This was then followed by a heaving sigh of relief.   “Fluttershy!” Rarity called out, running over to Fluttershy. However, she stopped as soon as she realized somepony beat her to the punch. It was Silver, who had managed to rush up to Fluttershy, and had pulled her close for a hug with one of his forelegs.   “You okay?” asked Silver, turning his blind eyes to the pegasus.   “I-I’m fine, thanks to you,” Fluttershy said, turning her head to try to hide her blush with her mane.   “Sorry that took so long, I couldn’t find an opening ‘til the last moment,” Silver said in apology.   “That’s okay…I know I could trust you…” She slightly turned towards him at this.   “Well, what do we have here?” Rarity asked, unable to contain herself any longer at the sight. Fluttershy let out a small “eep” in response, taking a small step away from Silver, growing even redder. Silver only smiled at Fluttershy’s timidity over the whole issue. However, he only held his gaze on Fluttershy for a moment longer before turning to Rarity.   “Is everypony okay?” he asked.   “Nothing too major, though Rainbow and Pinkie will be sore after today, without a doubt…” Rarity responded. ------ A short time later, the group gathered together. Rainbow and Pinkie were finally up and ready again. The Element of Chaos had been retrieved. Bronclav was still out cold, but he’d live.   “You did well, both of you,” Shining said, addressing Fluttershy and Silver, “But it’s not over yet. We still have the dragon to take care of…”   “Maybe not…” Silver said.   “What do you mean?”   “Take him with us,” Silver nodded to where he remembered Bronclav was knocked to, “I have an idea…” --------------------- More fire soared at Azure, whose horn sparked as he put up a barrier to defend from the fire. Strangely, though its nature was magical, it appeared to melt under the heat of the blaze. Azure grit his teeth.   “His wings were destroyed a while ago…” Twilight noted, “Yet,” she nodded to Tack, “He hasn’t made a single move towards us. His attention is entirely on Azure…”   “It may be how Az wants it,” Applejack commented, “But I don’t like it…”   Tack rushed in, the cyan unicorn matching his charge. His weight lowered, allowing him to travel faster. However, as he and Tack began to get in range, once again, Tack’s much larger reach was rendered moot as he and Azure skidded past each other. Azure leapt up, putting both his back legs into the dragon’s back, knocking him off-balance.   The headband-wearing pony proceeded to stand up straight—on his back legs, taking up his cousin’s posture. A short moment later, a magical shockwave expanded out of his hooves, knocking the dragon back. A few moments later, Azure began to fire laser shots at Tack. Some of them missed when Tack did a ground recover, the others making their mark.   The dragon stood up quickly, however, and began to breathe more fire, directing his stream at Azure, who made sure to once again stand still and defend from it with yet another shield spell.   Moreover…how is Azure not completely drained of his magic? Twilight noted, His magic’s been surging up since this fight started, his horn and eyes haven’t stopped glowing at all…What could it be about?   Tack sustained the fire for a bit longer, walking closer to Azure as he did so. By the time he stopped sustaining it, he was a step or two from being in punching range from Azure, whose shield definitely appeared to have melted from the heat of the dragon’s flames. Tack threw a punch, shattering the weakened shield and continuing on to hit Azure back, who rolled to a halt.   Tack stopped for a moment, watching as Azure began to rise once again. The dragon scoffed, “Don’t you think this has gone on long enough? We’ve been practically at a stalemate this whole time…”   “I won’t give up,” Azure remarked, fully rising to his feet, “It’s just not what I do.”   “Az!”   Azure blinked; Applejack and Twilight were running over to his sides, Twilight standing just a little closer than Applejack was.   “I…I thought…” Azure started, confused.   “We can’t just stand by and watch a friend fight,” Twilight said, “You don’t need to put it all on yourself…I don’t know how you managed to go it alone this long, but…I think that’s enough…”   “So you’ve finally decided to use your strength in numbers, again?” Tack asked, with a sigh, “Fine then—“   “Hey!” A familiar voice rang out.   All the ponies and the dragon stopped, turning to the source of the voice. Silver, with the rest of the retrieval team, stood there. What was most surprising about the picture, though, was what was floating off to Silver’s right: the unconscious Bronclav, his chest gem clearly missing.   Tack looked over, spotting his unconscious partner and letting out a scoff.   “So that’s how it is, huh? I back down, or you finish off my comrade?” asked Tack.   “No.”   Tack’s eyes widened at the blind pony’s words, and more so when he saw that Bronclav was being gently floated towards him.   “We have what we came for. We only wanted the Element of Chaos. There’s no need to keep fighting.” Silver continued.   Tack knew what his orders were. But his opponents outnumbered him twelve-to-one no matter how beaten-up and worn down they were.   “You want me to believe you’re just going to let me take him and go?”   “Silver?” Twilight asked, not quite understanding the point either.   “That’s right, you can take him and leave. We won’t follow or attack you. Not unless we’re given a reason…” Silver continued onward in response to Tack’s question.   Azure looked back, confused at what was going on. Eventually, though, he made a single comment.   “I understand…”   “Az?” Applejack asked.   Without another word, Azure walked to join the rest of the group, his horn and eyes finally no longer glowing. Twilight and Applejack, slightly confused, followed his lead.   “The choice is yours,” Azure said, standing with the rest of the group, “What will you do?”   Tack stared at the group blankly, in clear disbelief. He looked down towards the injured griffon—even with all that had happened, he was only unconscious. Eventually, the larger dragon made his decision. He picked up his injured friend, and flapped his wings hard, lifting the two into the air.   He looked down towards the group for a while longer, before flying away. --------------------- “You sure we’re alright just lettin’ them off like that?” Rainbow grumbled, hovering low to the ground with a hoof pressed to her forehead.   The group was making their way back to town, not intending on stopping until they got to Dodge Junction, at least.   “The griffon wasn’t a threat anymore,” Shining said, “And Silver...”   “I noticed there was some kind of…indecision, deep down.” Silver spoke up, “I’m not sure what it was, but he didn’t seem to be as into it as any of the other members of his group, at least, judging from the ones I’ve encountered so far.”   “That sound magic of yours give you that kind of insight?” Azure asked.   “Always does…”   “More importantly, we now have two of the Elements of Chaos,” Twilight recapped, “They still only have one…”   “Right,” Azure said, “There’s still three left out there somewhere…”   “We don’t even know where any of them—“ Spike tried to point out there was a flaw in the group’s plan, when suddenly, he burped out something in a burst of green fire. The fire took the form of a scroll before too long, which Twilight caught using her magic.   “It must be Princess Celestia…” Twilight said, “Maybe she’s got information about where the next Element of Chaos—“   She stopped short as her eyes fell on the scroll for the first time, her eyes wide.   “What is it, Twilight?” Pinkie asked.   “It’s addressed to…Shining…” Twilight revealed.   “Me?” Shining asked.   Twilight handed the letter over to her brother, who looked over its contents carefully. Once he did, his eyes widened.   “Well, everypony…” he finally said, his voice betraying none of the confusion or worry that was deep down in him, “Things just got a lot more complicated…”