Chapter 19: Inside the Silence
“Now then, Twilight Sparkle,” Discord’s voice cut the air in its chaotic pomp. “I hope you’ve all taken a few lessons from your friend the Professor. I’ve laid out a little bit of a game for you all. But first of all...” A very familiar stone descended from the ceiling. “I’d say you know what this Sapper Stone does, yes? Until your friends can solve my little teasers, this will take your precious magic.” Right on cue, the stone started absorbing the magic from Twilight’s horn, causing her to writhe uncontrollably on the floor. The remaining ponies looked on in abject horror.
“Twilight!” Applejack screamed. “Let ‘er go, Discord!”
“Or what, Applejack? You’ll buck me into submission? If you want to save your friend, I suggest you play along.” The earth pony sighed in resignation.
“Fine. Everypony get to a challenge!” The room lit up, with five pillars arranged in a semicircle around a large wooden door. Everypony ran to a pillar each, but as they positioned themselves, a cylindrical force field rose around each of them.
“Oh, and just one more thing... Nopony is going anywhere until you’ve won my challenges. Let’s play! Heheheh...”
“Such boisterous behaviour, Discord,” Rarity remarked off-handedly. “Regardless, I must solve this. For Twilight!”
Puzzle 049
“Something simple for you, Rarity. You need to enter the letters A to E in the grid. There is one condition, however. There can only be one of each letter in each row, column, long diagonal and marked section.
“It shouldn’t take you too long. Get to it!”
“Ah, this is a simple case of deductive reasoning, I should say. Now, where should I begin?” A few keen strokes of the quill later, and the puzzle was solved. The pillar crumbled, revealing a golden necklace with a pink diamond cut gem set in the front.
“Magnificent, but if only generosity could aid my friends at this moment...” Rarity looked out plaintively at Twilight, who was still thrashing about on the ground.
At the next pillar, a normally timid yellow pegasus was becoming angry.
“How dare that meanie hurt Twilight! As soon as I solve this, I’m going to make him sorry for what he’s doing!”
Puzzle 050
“A puzzle perfectly suited for you, Fluttershy: A spider’s web. This particular spider must turn at any thread it comes across.
Just one more thing: It must reach the edge of the web in the very same direction it left the centre. Which exit should the spider reach? Have fun!”
Fluttershy pressed her hoof to her chin.
“It’s one of those, but which one?” She panicked for a moment before gathering herself. “Okay... stay calm, Fluttershy. You can’t panic if you want to help Twilight...” After a little more thought, she pressed one of the thread ends. Immediately, the pillar broke into pieces, startling the wits out of the poor pegasus. She looked out from under her hooves to espy a gold necklace, emblazoned with a pink gem carved in the shape of a butterfly.
“Oh! It’s my Element. That must be Discord’s game. I hope the others are okay...” Fluttershy cast a worried look across at the other force fields.
Rainbow Dash was fairing worse than any of the other ponies, save for a drained Twilight.
“Argh! I’m going stir-crazy in here! I wanna break Discord into tiny pieces! I’ve gotta solve his lame riddle, instead...”
Puzzle 051
“This should keep you occupied, Rainbow Dash. Remove two lines to make two letters. Enjoy!”
“Huh,” the blue pony told herself. “That doesn’t seem too hard. Let’s see...” She scratched her head, thinking about the task as hard as she could, until...
“Of course!” Rainbow triumphantly pressed on two of the lines, before standing back. Much like the ones before it, the pillar fell apart, revealing the necklace of Loyalty, golden with a red thunderbolt gem adorning the front.
“A-ha! The Element is mine! Now, I need to get out of here...” She threw herself against the inside of the tubular force field, bouncing straight off on impact.
“Hurry, everypony!”
Applejack, meanwhile, was less than pleased with her situation.
“Well, ain’ this jus’ swell? Stuck inside a tube with a pillar and apples in a barrel! It’s like Big Mac’s las’ party. An’ what the hay are these scales for, anyhow?”
Puzzle 052
“Let’s put your business-pony skills to the test, Applejack. You have three balancing scales in front of you. Can you find how many apples you need to balance out the last scale? Oh, and I suggest you hurry up. Your magical friend’s contortions are amusing, to say the least!”
“That Discord is nothin’ but trouble! I oughta buck ‘im in the jaw! Ah’ gotta solve his little game iffin Ah wanna get out.” The savvy earth pony juggled about the loaves of bread and the pots of jam, swiftly coming up with an answer. She scooped a number of apples from the barrel and dumped them on the bare end of the third scale.
“Alrighty, that oughta do it.” The scale’s base sunk into the pillar, splitting it clean into two. The two halves fell aside, revealing another necklace. The crest of it was an orange gem in the shape of an apple, with a fine triangular emerald placed as the apple’s stalk. Applejack donned her Element, readying herself for her escape.
“Ah hope Pinkie Pie can keep still long enough to figure hers out...”
Applejack couldn’t have called it better. The vibrant pink pony was ricocheting off the inside of her force field.
“Whee! This is fun! Aw, I’ve gotta get Twilight to make one of these for me when we get back to Ponyville.” Then it hit her. “Oh, right, Discord’s riddle!” She dropped stomach first to the ground, before staring at the puzzle on the plateau of her pillar.
Puzzle 053
“Let’s see if this can keep your attention, my dear Pinkie Pie. All you need to do is fill in squares. The numbers on the side and the top tell you how many squares need to be filled in, with gaps between numbers meaning gaps in the line.
“Get to it, you annoying puff ball of positivity!”
“Ooh! This is fun! Let me try this!” The crazy mare proceeded to slam her snout onto the pillar in a seemingly random fashion. After several hits, she stepped back.
“Ooh, he’s good...” The pillar quickly fell to pieces, chunks of rubble parting ways and revealing the Element of Laughter, a gold necklace with a balloon shaped gem, in baby blue, sealed into the front.
“Aha! I found it, I found it!”
The chaotic voice of Discord boomed out across the cavern.
“Well done, everypony! You five have passed my challenges with flying colours!”
“Yeah, that’s great an’ all,” Applejack yelled into the darkness. “Now, how’s about you let us out of these tubes?”
“Oh, I’m not letting you out just yet, Applejack. You see, there is one more test. It was designed for Twilight Sparkle who, as you can see, is a little busy at the moment. As long as she’s busy rolling in the dust, none of you are going anywhere!”
“Hey! That’s not fair!” Rainbow shouted, angered by the disharmonious beast’s two-faced trick.
“Need I remind you who you’re talking to, Rainbow Dash? Fair is not how I play, being who I am.”
“In which case, you have greatly underestimated our friendships!” Rarity was standing proud against the invisible monster.
“Oh, really?”
“Of course! We believe in Twilight. That is a prime position of friendship.” The ivory unicorn turned to face her fellow magician. “Twilight! I know you can defeat this! I believe in you!”
“Yeah, Twilight!” Pinkie bounced around in her force field with her typical enthusiasm. “You’re a super-smart smarty-pants. You’ve got him!”
“If anypony can teach Discord a lesson, it’s you, Twilight,” Rainbow joined in on the encouragements. “You’ve gotta do it. For us, for yourself!”
“You’ve got more power than he has, Twi!” The farmpony Applejack added. “Show ‘im you ain’ Magic’s bearer for nothin’!”
“Please, Twilight...” Fluttershy was full of worry. “Please don’t give up. You can stop him!”
Twilight, whilst writhing on the ground, had processed her friends’ encouragements. What happened next had only occurred once before in the unicorn’s life. Her eyes began to glow a blinding white. She gritted her teeth, before regaining balance on her hooves.
“Nopony... messes... WITH MY FRIENDS!” The mare began to levitate, her body burning brightly. Suddenly, an unprecedented surge of magical energy was released from her entire body.
Celestia sat outside Discord’s bubble, looking on in shock at her student’s full and horrific power in effect.
Oh no, the Princess thought to herself in panic. The binding on her magic has broken completely. She could turn Canterlot to dust! Celestia could only look on in terror as Twilight grew more potent.
Within the bubble, Twilight’s unleashing had reduced the Sapper Stone to mere atoms. The shields restricting her friends cracked and shattered, dissolving among the chaos that poured from the purple pony. Her magic was becoming out of control.
“Twilight!” Applejack screamed at her airborne friend as she held onto an embedded rock in the ground. “You can stop now! We’re safe!” Twilight’s voice became scary, like a more demonic Royal Canterlot Voice.
“DISCORD STILL EXISTS. I MUST CRUSH HIM. FOR THE SAKE OF PONYKIND.”
“And wipe out half of Equestria while yer doin’ it? That’s not the Twilight I know.”
“THIS IS ME, APPLEJACK. I’M LOSING HERE. I NEED HELP.” The poor mare’s voice was tinged with pleading.
“Twilight, this is not you! Yer kind, smart, gentle. Ya can’t just destroy Discord, that’s not mah Twilight! Please... please stop, Twilight... yer scarin’ me...” Tears ran freely from the frightened farmer, clearly enough for Twilight to see.
“I... I... understand... I’m... sorry...” The unicorn descended to the ground, collapsing under the sheer effort she had just expended. The remaining magic returned to her horn. It was several minutes before Twilight woke up again. She stood up woozily, barely able to see straight.
“Wh-what happened? Applejack?”
“Right here, Twi...” Applejack’s eyes were welling up.
“Oh, Applejack. I’m so sorry... it’s never happened before.”
“It’s highly probable,” Rarity interjected gently, “that it occurred for you to help us, my dear.”
“Yeah!” replied the blue pegasus. “Even I couldn’t break out of that thing!”
“We never knew that you had so much ability,” Fluttershy continued, smiling softly.
“Well, that settles it!” Pinkie Pie answered. Her fellow earth pony looked at her quizzically.
“Settles what?”
“Well, duh! That having lots of friends is the best possible thing!”
“I hear that!” responded Rainbow Dash.
“Well, I’m so sorry to break up your pity party,” Discord’s voice cut into the conversation, “but the game’s not over yet, my little ponies!”
“Shoot, he’s right,” Applejack conceded. “You okay takin’ this one, Twi?”
“I think so. Here goes!”
Puzzle 054
“Your magic is mildly impressive, Twilight Sparkle. Let’s see if your brain is half as switched on.
“Six buttons lie in front of you, leading up to the final pillar and the door. All you have to do is have yourself and your friends stand on a button each.
“You must arrange yourselves by the names of your Elements: HONESTY, KINDNESS, LAUGHTER, GENEROSITY, LOYALTY and MAGIC. How do you do that? I’m so generous that I’ll tell you! Arrange yourselves so that the highest value Element is closest to the door.
“First of all, in each Element’s name each of the five vowels has twice the value of a consonant.
“Secondly, no pony of the same type, earth, pegasus and unicorn, can be directly before or behind each other.
“Finally you, Twilight Sparkle, are most certainly at the front of the queue!
“This will keep you busy! Now, it’s time for me to rain more chaos upon this pitiful land. Tchao!”
Twilight stood for a while, puzzling through the final hurdle.
“It doesn’t make sense... This has to be a trick!”
“You mean we’re stuck here?” Rainbow responded, angry at what Discord had done.
“Whatever shall we do?” Rarity chose the wrong time for her amateur dramatics, earning herself a clip around the ear from Applejack. “Oh, you are so uncivilised!”
“Let’s jus’ focus on helpin’ Twilight!” Applejack retorted with a look of underlying contempt.
“It just doesn’t seem to add up...”Fluttershy further added to the group’s concern.
“Wait, what are we doing again?” Pinkie popped the bubble of seriousness with her complete obliviousness. Suddenly, a look of glee crossed the purple unicorn’s face.
“Of course! What else was I expecting from Discord? The Professor said that every puzzle has an answer, and this one is no different! Ooh, Discord’s good. But I’m better!” In her administrative role, Twilight motioned her friends onto the buttons leading to the pillar. Finally, she stepped on the leading button.
“This is it! I just know it!” As her first hoof pressed on the button, the pillar fell apart like the five before it, revealing a gloriously decorated golden tiara, a six pointed magenta star taking pride of place at the front. Twilight levitated the jewellery onto her head. “Get ready, everypony!” The giant doors before the group of friends shuddered loudly, before swinging rapidly inwards, the interior being revealed by a hole in the ceiling. The friends trotted inside, being greeted by the appearance and cackling of the mad draconequus. Discord was a complicated amalgam of multiple creatures, living up to his name in form at very least.
“Oh, you are clever, aren’t you? It’s such a shame that I have to turn you six circus clowns to dust now. You could have just run, but no! You had to interfere. Well, that’s your mistake! Now, giddy up!” Discord gathered malevolent energy in his mismatched claws, readying to strike.
“You do not touch my friends!” The lavender mare felt a familiar surge in her body, her eyes shining white and her body emanating pure magic. She charged head-on into her enemy, winding him. Energy waves pulsed from her body, forcing Discord to the ground. Every hit knocked his body into a peculiar contortion.
“HOW DOES IT FEEL, DISCORD? DO YOU FEEL THE PAIN? THE HUMILIATION?” Twilight screamed demonically. Discord could only utter pained grunts and gasps in being subdued by this much smaller creature.
“How is she doin’ that?!” Applejack could only look on as Twilight reduced the goliath of a creature to a quivering wreck. “Twilight! Now!”
“Huh?” Twilight turned around to her friends, before realising their intention. “Oh, right.” She galloped over and joined the herd. The six of them hugged each other tightly, strengthening their bonds, before turning to their nemesis, still wriggling on the floor.
“Now, come, Twilight Sparkle... Surely, you wouldn’t attack somepony as defenceless as I am right now...”
“It’s over, Discord,” Twilight replied sombrely. “You brought this on yourself, and it must be done! Goodbye...” All of the ponies rose into the area, the deep and arcane forces bringing them into a formation. Imprints of their Elements zoomed around the room, gathering around the debilitated draconequus. As the last action, a brilliant rainbow formed around the pony posse, before arching under the hole in the ceiling, casting colours across the ground. The rainbow sent a branch of itself up through the gap, shattering the bubble to pieces.
All across Equestria, sound returned. Every screaming foal, every thunderclap, every clopping of hooves on stony roads was music to the ponies’ ears. Wings were freed out of being invisibly tied to the sides of pegasi, and magic roared back into the unicorns’ bodies. All of this relief was felt across the land, saddening the cruel creature that wobbled before Twilight and her friends.
“No... No! Why?!” Discord’s protests went unheralded as the prismatic flow spun around him, slowly rendering his body immobile inside the statuesque prison. He screamed louder and louder until the stone rose to his head, when he accepted his defeat.
“Oh... I’m going to need a bigger pedestal...” The spell finally covered the tip of his nose, blinking him from real-time existence. The team descended gently to the floor, landing squarely on their hooves. They smiled at each other, safe in the knowledge that Equestria could rest easy again.
“I think it is time for us to make our departure,” the white mare announced. “The dust and mould in here is starting to play havoc with my sinuses.”
“I hear that,” the multicoloured pegasus added, whizzing in all directions through the air.
“It’s always a scary enemy... I want to go home...” Fluttershy’s head drooped, her eyes showing her rattled nerves.
“Let’s head on back, sugarcube,” Applejack answered in a maternal manner. “We’ll git ya back to Canterlot first. Come on, y’all!” On the cowpony’s command, the group headed for where they fell in, leaving behind one pony. Twilight stood over the frozen form of Discord, her mind running in fear.
“Am I... too powerful?” She questioned herself quietly. “I overwhelmed him, alone. What have I become? What will the Princess do?”
“Ah reckon,” replied Applejack, “that big ol’ wave a’ magic was you defendin’ us.”
“But... why hasn’t this happened before? I mean, it has happened before, but... not like this!”
“Ah’m not up on mah unicorn magic, but if anypony knows, it’s the Princess. C’mon, Twi. Let’s get outta this place. It’s givin’ me the heebie-jeebies.” The two close companions shared a chuckle, trotting side by side through the crumbled pillars, back to the world outside.