‘Well, they don’t call me the Element of Loyalty for nothing, I guess…’ thought Rainbow Dash as she went over to see if Discord was alright.
“Uh… you okay there Discord? You don’t look too good…”
It was true. All of the color was drained out of him, it was as if his very soul had been sucked away. The mare was not particularly fond of him, but he had never truly wronged them in the past, so her concern was (relatively) genuine.
Luckily, Dash’s voice caused the Draconequus to stir, “Huh? What? Where am I?” – he looked around the area quickly before his eyes settled on the lone pegasus – “Oh, that’s right. Rainbow Dash. I’m supposed to help you here. Well, I would of course, but it appears as if most of my power has been drained so it seems I will be relegated to a guide. This is the World of Arrogance, is it not?”
“Yeah. Vice thinks he’s being clever dropping me here, but he’s wrong. I’m not arrogant, I just take pride in my achievements. Is that really so bad?”
Discord gave her a deadpan look, “Remember that whole ‘Mare-Do-Well’ incident?”
Dash’s cheeks erupted into flames, and she attempted a glare at Discord, “T-that was one time! But I learned my lesson, and I’ve tried my best to be more humble ever since.”
“We will see. Seeing as how we will be spending quite some time here, I suppose a brief explanation of this particular World is in order. It’s my second least favorite of them all, so not a good start in my opinion—”
“What’s your least favorite?” Dash interrupted, unable to hold back the curiosity in her voice.
“… Fury. They’re just nasty in that place. You try to have just a little fun and…” he trailed off briefly.
“Anyway, I digress. The… ‘residents’ you will meet here are actually the deceased spirits of those ponies who lived their lives without a shred of modesty. They thought of everypony as beneath them, and held themselves up as perfection. Now they spend their afterlives constantly trying to become greater than each other, and even plot to overthrow Vice from time to time. Some have been here for thousands of years, while others may have just died yesterday.
“They are egotistical, condescending, and just all around unpleasant to be around. You certainly have your work cut out for you here, Rainbow Dash.”
This place sounded terrible, to be sure. Despite what that Light had said, she was beginning to doubt that she’d ever see her friends again. But then she remembered who she was: the one and only Rainbow Dash! Her loyalty to them would keep her going no matter what Vice threw at her. So long as she kept on believing in that, she knew she would prevail.
However, there was one pressing issue Discord had neglected to mention, “Alright, so this all sounds pretty lame. I got that. But how am I supposed to beat this place? The voice from before said I’d have to ‘conquer’ arrogance or whatever to become one with my Element. How exactly am I supposed to do that?” she asked. Discord paled even further.
“I… don’t know. I’m sorry.”
Dash was furious. How could he not know? Wasn’t Discord like… from here or something? She was about to dig into him, but apparently he saw this and quickly amended his statement.
“B-but I do have a guess of course! Seeing as how the sin of this World is arrogance, I think that your best bet would be to inspire an act of humility among one or more of the realm’s inhabitants. Show them the error of their ways, if you will. How you go about doing so is all up to you. I’m just along for the ride.”
‘Hmm. I guess I could try that. Kind of like that time with Lightning Dust at the Wonderbolts Academy! Putting my friends over my life’s dream was the toughest thing I’ve ever had to do, but in the end, I felt… really good. Maybe if I could get somepony else to experience that feeling… maybe…’ Dash was brought out of her musings by an over-the-top yawn from Discord.
“Any day now Dashie. The longer you spend lollygagging, the more ponies and others will suffer back on Equus,” he said.
Just when she had almost forgotten, the reminder came once again. Not only were her friends counting on her, but the world as well. If she didn’t succeed… billions would perish.
“Yeah I’m coming, hold your horses,” Dash grumbled. Time to start the long battle against Vice.
The colorful duo made their way towards what looked like the World of Vice equivalent of Ponyville. Discord was too weak to teleport and too heavy for Dash to carry, so they had to travel by foot.
Not flying bored the pegasus greatly, so she decided to strike up a conversation, “So I was thinking, it’ll get real annoying real quick to keep saying ‘World of Vice’ over and over again, so from now on I’m going to call it ‘Wov.’”
“Wov? Why Wov?” questioned the spirit.
“It’s like what you get if you sound out W.O.V, the y’know… what’s the word… abbreviation for World of Vice! Pretty clever, huh?” asked Dash, expecting validation.
“No. No it’s not,” Discord deadpanned.
He received an eye roll in response, “Yeah well what do you know? I think it’s a cool name! Well, as cool as this place can get, which is not much.”
“Oh, would you look at that? We’re here. And I was having so much fun talking with you, Rainbow Dash!”
Dash’s glare could have given Fluttershy’s trademark ‘Stare’ a run for its money, but the Draconequus was immune to such things it seemed.
Though as soon as he caught sight of the town’s spirit ponies, he wished he could go back to Dash’s painful attempts at conversation. Fate, however, was a fickle mistress, and the townsponies soon turned their eyes on him as well.
All of this World’s inhabitants appeared as alicorns. In Equestria, they were seen as the pinnacle of ponykind, having the strengths of all three pony races and none of the associated weaknesses. Thus, arrogant ponies would take on their form in death, further solidifying their beliefs in their own superiority.
One particular stallion, the biggest and oldest of them all, decided to approach the two. He had a dark purple coat, a jet black mane with yellow streaks, and an ornate mirror for a cutie mark. When he spoke, they both had to seriously refrain from gagging, “Ah, the wayward Spirit of Chaos returns after all these years. I see you’ve brought a pet as well.”
“Hey! I’m not a pet! I’ll have you know that I’m the Bearer of the Element of Loyalty, and I’ve saved Equestria more than once. What did you ever do in your life, huh?”
“Actually, I believe you’re the former Bearer of Loyalty. You and those peons you call friends couldn’t even utilize the Elements correctly, and now they’re gone,” – he snorted – “Strongest magic in all of Equus, and you squandered it. How pathetic.”
Discord could tell that the alicorn was getting under Dash’s skin with downright laughable ease, and chose then to step in. “Rainbow Dash, you need to calm down. Remember what’s at stake. If you lose yourself, it’s all over. Why don’t you remove yourself from the situation and calm down. I’ll handle these delightful fellows.”
Dash still looked furious, but luckily there was no further incident. She curtly nodded her thanks and trotted off.
He turned his glare on the black alicorn, “Now, would you mind telling me what exactly you want, Divine Reflection? You’re always up to no good, so spill the beans.”
“Want something from you? Or that filthy pegasus you seem to have befriended? How laughable. No, I have no interest in whatever it is you’re doing here. If you’re trying to defeat Vice, then go right ahead. I doubt you’ll be able to, but I certainly won’t stop you.” Divine Reflection didn’t even give Discord time to respond and walked away.
“I can’t stand that stallion…” Discord grumbled, “Well I’d better go find my good pal Rainbow Dash, she must be missing me terribly.”
He found the pegasus sitting by the town river, looking uncharacteristically downtrodden. While Rainbow Dash was far from his favorite pony, he didn’t want to see her suffering like this.
“What seems to be the problem Dashie? It’s not like you to get down so easily,” Discord said, as sincerely as he could.
“I don’t know, it’s just… I hate to lose. A lot. But sometimes I get really nervous about stuff. Like that time at the Best Young Flier Competition, and that was just over a silly trophy. Now the whole world is literally at stake and… I’m scared out of my mind, I’ll admit it. I’m on edge, and if everypony here is as bad as that Reflection guy, then I’m bucked!” Dash was not good with sentimentality, so this was very hard for her. Especially with Discord.
‘Ugh. Oh Discord, why did you sign up for this?’
“Look Rainbow Dash, one thing that we have in common is that we’re not really all that good with ‘mushy’ stuff, so I’ll spare you my half-hearted attempt at a motivational speech…
“I don’t have much magic left, but I can show you something,” said Discord as he gathered his remaining Chaos energy to create a translucent floating mirror with several images. “This right here? This is what you’re fighting for.”
Dash could see what must have been thousands of ponies all across Equestria praying for them. Praying… For her and her friends.
“We believe in you Elements of Harmony!
“You can do it girls! Show that monster what ponies can do!
“We’re all depending on you, so please win…”
All these voices served to motivate Dash, but one in particular stood out. She had to focus hard to find it, but when she did, it cemented her determination.
It was Scootaloo, the little filly she had come to regard as family, who was whispering, “I know you can do it Rainbow Dash, you’ve never let us down before…”
Dash let out one single tear before standing up, “Alright Discord, I’m ready, for real this time. Let’s do this.”
As the pegasus departed for Anti-Ponyville, Discord let out a long sigh, “I really hate to lie to her like that, especially with that adorable little orange filly, but what else could I possibly do…?”
Dash made her way back to ‘Woville’ (as she had taken to calling this world’s Ponyville equivalent) with a new aura of confidence. ‘I can do this. I’ve never failed before and this time will be no exception,’ she thought.
While walking through the streets, she drew more than a few disdainful glares, but luckily nopony tried to halt her progress.
‘Hmm. They probably see me as too beneath them to even address. As much as that gets on my nerves, it’s probably for the best.’
It was only once she had reached the Town Square that Dash realized that she only had a general idea of what to do in order to overcome her circle of Wov, but no solid plan to carry out.
“Ugh. This is why I let Twilight handle this planning junk, I hate it. What can I do? Think Rainbow Dash, think…” she scolded herself out loud.
“Maybe if I just go around to everypony in town and find the one who’s the least snooty and jerkish, I can convince them to try being good!” Dash beamed at the sheer and utter awesomeness of her plan.
Meanwhile, an almost sick looking Draconequus performed the biggest facepalm in the history of facepalms. “Must I do everything for this pony?” he questioned under his breath.
Because of the sheer and utter stupidity of her plan, Discord decided to have some of his trademark fun. He began to clap loudly.
“Bravo, bravo Rainbow Dash! That may just be the greatest plan that I have ever heard. Truly, your brilliance would make Einstallion himself green with envy. I don’t know how you could’ve—
“Shut up Discord! I know what you’re doing; I’m not that stupid! You gave me a general idea for a plan earlier but no details. Now I have to fill in the blanks, so unless you can give me something better, then zip it,” seethed Dash. She would not let herself be ridiculed by Discord at a time like this.
“Actually Dashie, I d—
“And stop calling me Dashie! Only Pinkie Pie is allowed to call me that!”
“… Very well then, Your Awesomeness, the one and only Miss Rainbow Dash, as I was saying… I actually do have a more in-depth plan, if you’re willing to listen.”
“Now that’s more like it. And of course I’m willing to listen. As long as it gets me and my friends closer to beating Vice, I’ll do whatever you say Discord… Within reason,” she said dubiously, knowing what her companion was likely thinking.
“And just when I was about to pull out the frou-frou dress and pom-poms. Perhaps next time. Alright, so here’s what we’re going to do…”