//------------------------------// // Watch the Flowers // Story: Of Time To Remember // by The DM //------------------------------// It was another beautiful morning in Canterlot as Twilight descended the stairs from her chambers. She hummed happily to herself as she made her way to the dining hall. Behind her, a number of blank scrolls and bottles of ink levitated, all to be used for taking notes during the Planeswalker’s stories. As she arrived in the great hall, both Celestia and Luna were conversing with the three Planeswalkers. While it was odd to see Luna up at this hour, it was understandable, given the circumstances. “Morning Twilight!” Ziggle nearly shouted as he waved. Kayne looked to Ziggle with a frown and punched him in the side. “No shouting. Especially not this early.” Twilight chuckled at their banter and took a seat at the table. “So, you mentioned something about the story of Discord?” Donovan nodded as he set down his fork and wiped his mouth. “Indeed. I’ve spoken with these two here, and they agreed to have me tell you the story. This one is about, oh, a hundred and nine years after Luna was born. The sisters were now ruling the fledgling nation out of the Everfree Castle.” ~~~<<<>>>~~~ Celestia and her younger sister galloped down the road toward their home at the Everfree Castle. Their meeting with the governor of the small township of Manehattan had to be put on hold to deal with a more serious threat. One of their father’s worst enemies had emerged, and now he was spreading madness and chaos across the fledgling nation. His name; Discord. As the two alicorns drew closer to their home, the land showed more and more of the chaotic taint. Trees were floating in the air, rivers were flowing toward the sky, rocks were dancing and playing leapfrog with bears in top hats, the road itself seemed to be getting scaley, clouds were polka dotted and formed into odd shapes, even the sun and moon seemed to be chasing each other across the sky. Though none of this paled in comparison to what had happened to the ponies. Arranged in a massive mob around the castle walls were literally hundreds of ponies, each of them with a faint purple shimmer surrounding them. As the sisters got closer, every head turned to look at them. Every mare, stallion, and foal wore a cheshire grin while their pupils expanded and contracted at an alarmingly fast rate. Standing on the wall in front of the mob was Discord himself. “Oh wonderful, the sisters are back. I hope you don’t mind, but I took the liberty of livening up the place while you two were away at that boooooring meeting,” Discord said with a chuckle and a toothy grin. “What have you done to these ponies, Discord?!” Celestia shouted up at the mad draconequus. “Me? Why, I’ve merely freed their minds. They all looked so dreary when I showed up. Now, now they simply beam with excitement and energy. Wouldn’t you agree?” “You’ve turned our ponies into slaves of Chaos. Release our ponies, or face our wrath!” Luna shouted. Discord simply yawned. “Oh please, you’re going to have to try much harder than that.” Before Celestia could fully react, Luna charged the crowd with a warcry. However, her charge was stopped short as the first row of ponies opened the mouths, exhaling a stream of a purple gas. The young alicorn was instantly engulfed in the gas, causing her to drop to her knees and start coughing. “Luna!” Celestia shouted as she reached out with her magic and quickly pulled her sister back. Discord merely began clapping loudly. “Bravo, my dear. Excellent effort. I’m sure if you tried that again it might just work.” Celestia ground her teeth as she shot Discord a death stare, all while Luna continued coughing. The solar alicorn quickly turned her attention to Luna, if nothing else than for comfort. The ponies in front of Discord all began laughing manically at the two alicorns as Discord continued clapping. As soon as the laughing began, it stopped. Celestia looked up from her fallen sister, only to see Discord and all the ponies, had stopped laughing and clapping. Instead of the joyful and happy smiles, their faces were replaced by stoic stares and scowls. Confused, Celestia quickly looked around to see what might of caused the change. Standing behind her, were the three Planeswalkers.  “Well, Discord, I’m surprised you made your move this early. Did you get bored, or are you just feeling confident?” Donovan asked. Discord huffed as he stared at the three. “I’ve been biding my time for long enough. This “order” and “harmony” make me sick. With the king and queen out of the way, only their two idiot daughters stand in my way. Chaos will reign, and there’s nothing you three can do to stop me.” The three Planeswalkers looked at each other with bemused expressions. “Oh... kay, and what makes you think that?” “Because, Celestia would never let anyone hurt her dear little ponies. You’ll have to kill them to get at me, something I know she could never let happen,’ Discord replied with a menacing grin. Kayne nodded before leaning down to Celestia. “My dear, he’s right. We will have to go through that army if we want to stop Discord.” “No! They don’t know what they’re doing!” Celestia protested as she cradled her sister’s head. Ziggle snapped his finger. “I got a plan.” All eyes went to the red and blue robed man. “We can’t destroy the ponies, but we can reshape the land.” Donovan raised a curious eyebrow. “Meaning?” “Chaos has tainted this whole land. If we can’t destroy these ponies, then lets destroy and reshape the land. That way we can bring out the really big guns.” The insane spellcaster replied with an eager grin. All eyes turned to Celestia who only nodded. The three Planeswalkers nodded in silent response before pulling out their spellbooks in unison. Discord watched curiously as the three opened their books, causing three colored orbs to shoot from the first page, before sinking into the ground. Wishing to see what the light show accomplished, Discord sat silently as two more orbs from each book sank into the ground. Slightly shocked, Discord noticed that the nearby river was once again flowing in the normal direction, the woods nearby weren’t glowing, and the grassy hills were lush and green again. “Do you plan on boring me with landscaping? Is that your master plan?” Discord asked with a chuckle. “I promise, you’ll like where this is going.” Ziggle answered with a hint of glee. Donovan then reached out and pulled forth a blue orb, and two white orbs. Then, with the snap of his fingers, a small pedestal appeared next to him. “Need something to sit on? You could have just asked for a chair, I’m not THAT unreasonable,” the mad draconequus stated sarcastically. “Watch and learn,” Donovan replied before tapping the pedestal. “Pony citizen” In a flash of light, the hundreds of ponies that were standing in front of Discord vanished. Their only trace was a bright blue orb floating above the pedestal next to Donovan. Discord’s face dropped as he realized what had just happened. “Huh... well that’s not very nice.” ~~~<<<>>>~~~ “Wait, wait, wait. What did that spell do?” Twilight interrupted, much to Donovan’s annoyance. “The spell is called Detention Sphere. It’s used if you want to confiscate a large number of similar beings all at once. In this instance, it was used to take back control of all the pony citizens that Discord had corrupted,” Donovan explained calmly. “It was a brilliant move, really. The chaos corruption in each of the ponies was purified as soon as they came out of the sphere,” Celestia added. “Exactly,” Donovan said with a nod. “Now, the fight with Discord lasted almost three hours. All that time was spent covering for Kayne. You see, his power needs time to grow and build up. Ziggle and I both knew that if Kayne could reach his full power, we would be unstoppable.” Kayne chuckled at the compliment. “Nature conquers all.” “Anyway, so were taking a real beating...” ~~~<<<>>>~~~ “Kayne! Use Spore Flower! Now!” Donovan shouted as a massive chaos beast was preparing to swing at the vulnerable Planeswalker. however, moments before impact, a small fungus flower released a huge cloud of spores, completely obscuring the battlefield and causing the beast to miss its attack. Ziggle instantly pulled up a orb of blue mana and shot it at the hulking chaos beast, reducing it to the size of a goat. The Planeswalker chuckled as a goblin charged across the field and smashed the beast over the head with what looked like a frying pan. Discord huffed as he watched his latest creation fall. All around him the world was changing. Gone were the ever rolling hills of Equestria. Now he was surrounded by thick woods, with the sound of rushing water echoing off unseen gorges. Visible from their little clearing was a massive mountain peak with waterfalls pouring down the sides. Even more surprising were the Planeswalkers themselves. Kayne had been largely passive throughout the whole encounter, opting to throw quickly replaced fungus creatures in the way of the endless chaos aberrations. Discord knew he was building up for something, though it was impossible to tell at this point. Donovan stood proud with dozens of tiny myrs, a few larger myrs that were obviously made for battle, and an incredible ball of what looked like hundreds of the small machines glued together. Discord could have sworn he heard Donovan call it a battlesphere. However, that was not what made him worried. Ziggle stood with only a few things in front of him. A goblin that looked like it was wearing a hat made out of copper pipe, a lantern that swirled with all five colors of mana, and a wild looking old man with goggles and strange tubes leading to his hands. From what Discord had learned, Ziggle was a very powerful, and spontaneous, spell caster. The Planeswalker always seemed to have an instant counter to every chaos spell, a debilitating effect for every aberration, or even a way of redirecting Discord’s magic. It was at that point, the Kayne began to move. The a sweep of his hand, the Planeswalker pulled forth five green orbs before slamming them onto an open page in his spellbook. In a flash of light, all the small spore creatures that Kayne had been protecting and growing, vanished. In their place, stood a massive creature made of nothing but fungus. A gargantuan, bipedal monstrosity loomed over the battlefield in front of Kayne. It was at this point that Discord realised he might be in over his head. “Discord, Mycoloth. Mycoloth, say hello to Discord, with your fist.” Kayne stated neutrally. Before  Discord had time to react, Ziggle pulled an orb of red and threw it at Mycoloth. “Go get ‘im champ!” Without warning, Mycoloth quickly charged across the field and slammed a club-like arm into the stunned draconequus, sending him flying into the castle wall. As he began pulling himself from the rubble, the myr battlesphere ran into him, sending him clear through the other side of the heavy stone structure. In an act of desperation, Discord summoned up as much chaos magic as he had left, and erected a massive shield. “As much fun as this has all been, I do have other places to go... so, yeah.” Discord announced as he turned to leave. However, his retreat was quickly cut short. All around the edge of the clearing were lumbering fungus creatures and heavily armored myrs. Even the sky was dotted with myrs riding on what looked like sails. With a nervous gulp, Discord turned back to the group to see what happened next. To Discord’s relief, the massive fungus army had largely been sacrificed when the massive beast appeared. Sadly, that relief faded when at least a hundred slamm fungus creatures budded off of Mycoloth. Ziggle, now with a second goblin on the field, began rubbing his hands together. “Alright Donovan, I think it’s time.” “Agreed. Ready Kayne?” “We doing it now? Alrighty then, Ziggle, your lantern please?” Kayne asked as he flipped to a nearby page in his book. As if on cue, the small goblin picked up the chromatic lantern and stumbled over the Kayne before dropping it at his feet. With a relaxed sigh, Kayne reached down and pulled a single piece of red mana from the lantern, before summoning up four green orbs. With one last smile, he pushed the mana orbs into his spellbook. Just like with Mycoloth, the hundred tiny fungus creatures vanished, causing Discord to reconsider his decision to stay. That was when he felt it. The ground gave a  mighty shake while a deafening roar filled the air. The trees at the far edge of the woods began to viably rise as the ground swelled and buckled upward, until finally, it broke. Emerging from the sundered earth was a creature of unbelievable proportions. While Mycoloth stood at an impressive seventy five feet, the spines covering this new beast were easily the size of Mycoloth. The creature’s skin appeared to almost be made of lava as it continued to rise up and tower over everything. Kayne laughed excitedly as his final creation emerged. “Discord, may I present to you, Thromok the Insatiable. Ziggle, would you please help them get better acquainted?” Ziggle only nodded eagerly as he summoned up another ball of red mana, while Kayne pulled forth two green orbs. Together, the two Planeswalkers cast their spells. In an instant, Thromok took a single step toward Discord, only to smash straight through his shield, and even a few surviving chaos aberration before looming over the cowering chaos lord himself. Discord stammered as he looked up at the near god-like creature standing before him. At that moment, he managed to stammer one sentence. “No fair.” ~~~<<<>>>~~~ “You expect me to believe that a creature the size of Canterlot Mountain was used to defeat Discord?” Twilight asked with disbelief. “Pretty much, yeah.” Kayne answered with a smug grin. “Actually, Thromok was probably a couple dozen feet taller than the mountain.” Celestia corrected as Luna poured herself another mug of coffee. “In fact, you can visit the site where Thromok emerged. I believe you call it Rambling Rock Ridge,” Donovan added with a chuckle. Twilight simply looked at her reflection in her mug before back to the Planeswalkers. “I’m not even going to question it.” Ziggle began clapping excitedly, “Yay! She gets it!”