The Powers That Be

by Anthri

Sunrise

Pinkie Pie was at the large gate of the city with the large yellow dragon, Huxio, who seemed deeply interested in all the assortments of foods he was unfamiliar with and how to make them. The dragon just nodded at all the talking the pink pony did. She told him about her life in Ponyville and living with another family. Describing the parties and the jokes she did with Rainbow Dash, the dragon couldn't help but laugh at the simplistic life that made these creatures happy.

“So you made a cake, put it on a train and came out with a deformed creation of sweets?” Huxio smiled at this.

“Pretty much! My friends just could not help themselves.” she giggled.

“I've had a moment like that. I accidentally stepped on a group of living things and I had a mass of-”

“Woah woah!” Pinkie quickly stopped him. “You gotta stop eating innocent creatures! I mean, once you've tried more sweets that is.” she laughed.

“Maybe. That's a tall order for someone like you.” he frowned.

“I don't mean to interrupt but Pinkie you are needed on isle nine.” said a familiar voice coming from above.

“What the- isle nine?” she looked up and saw Discord. He unzipped the sky and chocolate rain poured out of the hole.

“OPEN YOUR MOUTH HUX!” she screamed at him.

The dragon was seriously confused but did so. His mouth filled with the dark liquid and he swallowed. He didn't stop and like a statue, did not move from that spot.

“Pinkie”, Discord continued, “Grab my paw.” he held out his paw for her to touch with her hoof. In doing so, she vanished and appeared on his back. They rode through the castle gate with Huxio still standing there in the chocolate rain, tasting more of the foreign substance in pleasure.

Discord saw Ryalon and Aj still talking about Spike when he flew by grabbing Aj's hoof. “Come a long dear, time to go!” he told her as she appeared on his back as well. Ryalon couldn't help but watch the group disappear into the castle door. She quickly took flight to the top of the castle. Alexandra and Fluttershy were still in the stare contest when Discord came flying through. He slapped Fluttershy on the flank with his paw causing her to appear on his back. The dragon was free from the standoff and looked at Discord trying to get him under her power. He looked back at her with wonder on his face. “Uh, I'm not spending the night with you.” he said and looked at her with dazzling eyes that put her to sleep instantly. She lay snoring, echoing her noise through the entire tower.

“Up we go!” Discord yelled, the ponies holding on tight.

“Weeeeee!” Pinkie screamed.

He took off up the ramp at a rapid speed not stopping until he got to the top of the tower.

When he got there Discord saw Rarity talking to Skadholm and Fhil.

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Meanwhile, Twilight Sparkle had landed inside the the broken window of the other tower. It looked to her like the royal bedchambers. A huge room with a dangling chandelier that was swaying in the direction of the tower. The leaning tower had made the room uneven so Twilight stayed flying above the floor. A giant bed had crashed against the wall where gravity had called to it. Av was there flapping his wings too and looking smug.

“Glad you could make it, alone.” he said.

“We managed to hold off your friends!” she pointed a hoof at him. “Noponies been hurt at all.” Twilight told the white dragon with pride.

“This was on purpose. We dare not under-estimate the Elements of Harmony. We saw what you did to that creature and we witnessed that it was the combination of you six that made it possible.” Av grinned.

A females voice sounded from nowhere.“So cliché, I know it's been done before by the other draconequus. He didn't do it right though, I learned from his mistake!” Discordia appeared beside Av and smiled at the impending victory. “Harmony dies with you, dear.”

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Discord grabbed Rarity and put her on his ever extending snake-like form. Skadholm the purple dragon, nodded at Discord's actions and looked on as they crossed the gap between the towers.

“What about Rainbow Dash?” Rarity yelled at Discord.

“She's coming.” his eyes focused on the broken tower.

Above the throne room, on the highest pillar, Rainbow Dash sat on a curled up Atlas whose body snaked around the structure. She had clearly won the race at any cost. Both heard the tale of Spike the dragon and witnessed Discords arrival. “They need me too.” she said to the red one.

“I know. You won that race so I'll allow you to go. You're going to die if you go though.” he told her.

“Why?” Rainbow asked with worry.

“Discordia is in there and even though your friend Discord has arrived, she can still stop him because she knows how to take advantage of his weak points.”

“Well, Discord's up to something. I'm going anyways and if we have to, we'll stop both dragon and draconequus.”

“Be warned pony! If Av see's fit to call on us, we will come crashing down on you all.” he said.

“Well find a way to make it out of this alive, all of us!” she grinned that arrogant smile of hers.

She flew off towards the tower after Discord. “This is the last time we see each other, master of the skies..” Atlas whispered.

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Twilight was worried now with the appearance of Discordia, she had no chance. “Two on one doesn't seem very honorable!” she tried to talk him into a one on one fight.

“All my dragons followed my plan, all but one. Alexandra wanted to try killing you all even though I told her not to. She never listens so we laughed after we watched her fail.” he shook his head. “It was all of you versus each dragon you happened upon. So you tell me whats fair and what's not fair.”

“Oh, well, you guys are much larger?” she frowned.

“Fine, come to the roof and fight me.” he blasted a hole through the roof with a super charged fireball and flew through it. Twilight followed him through the hole onto the roof just as Discord arrived with the other ponies on his back. They got off his back and at that moment, Discordia readied a chaotic spell to counter the other draconiquis. But as she did, Discord flew into her forcing them both into the bed against the wall. She opened her eyes and saw that he was kissing her.

She started blushing at this gesture. She pulled away from his face, “What are you doing? Get off me!” she said to him angrily stuttering a little, blush still apparent.

“Not until you tell me you love me dear.” he winked at her. “That fight we had was very romantic.” he cooed.

“You're crazy!” she screamed at him, kicking him off of her. She got to her feet and started throwing green balls of chaotic energy at him.

“You're blushing. I know you like me, I can see it in the way you try to kill me.”

“You're crazy”, she repeated, “and you need to get over yourself.”

“I get that a lot but you will see it my way. You're so cute when you're mad.” he laughed.

Where they had landed in the window, the other ponies couldn't stifle laughs at Discords bold advances.

Twilight was flying on the roof after Av. He shot flaming breath at her causing the roof under her to ignite for a short time. She shot purple magical energy beams back at him from her horn. He dodged them easily. “I think if you were a better flier, you would hit me.” he mocked.

“I just got these wings not to long ago, give me a break!” she screamed. It was true, flying and shooting beams in accurate succession was really hard, not to mention on a moving target.

“Try learning this!” he swallowed a great amount of air, put two fingers in front of his mouth and breathed all of it out in the form of fire. The two fingers caused the fire to separate into many directions filling the area's with flaming particles at a high pace. Twilight formed a protective force field from magic to keep her safe. One of them hit Twilight causing her shield to ignite. She tried rolling in midair trying to put it out without landing on the already ignited roof.

She couldn't handle the heat anymore, she started falling unconscious while still in danger of being burned alive. Av laughed victoriously while watching her suffer but suddenly it started raining real hard. It put out all the fire and Twilight felt the first relief since she got on the roof. They looked up and saw Rainbow Dash above a cloud. “I hope you liked the rain this time Twi!” Dash yelled.

The other ponies came up from the hole using Discord as a step ladder. Discordia lay on the ruined bed, holding both lions paw and eagles claw over her eyes. “He got me out of being serious by flirting with me. Damn him, damn him!” she mumbled.

Av, still flapping his wings above the wet roof mocked the ponies. “So you've all come to help your poor friend.” he smiled flying above them all.

“It's over Av! Give up on your hope for war and your bitterness towards the gods!” Twilight yelled to him still managing to keep her flight.

“No. This world will be mine! Not because the gods said so but because I will make it so!”

“Then Harmony will decide your fate!” Twilight told him.

The six bearers started glowing and floating around each other, a massive power started to form. “I'm not a fool, ponies. I will dodge your spell and then I'll kill you all if my kin doesn't do it before me!”

Av opened his mouth to yell for his fellow alpha dragons but he was stopped mid roar. “Eh?” Av said looking down at his feet. Discord smiled at Av because he had made his body large enough to grapple onto the white dragons feet to hold him in place. The harmonious spell went off. A light engulfed him and blinded all that looked on. The flying dragon started turning to stone from the feet up.

He stared at the ponies, the determined look on their faces. “ We were meant to lose to fate, to the gods.” A single tear rolled down his cheek as it and the rest of his body turned to stone.

Discord had let go before the petrification set in as to not get caught in it. The statue fell from the sky landing on the roof of the tower bursting into pieces. Discord looked down at the broken form. “Whoops.”

Twilight rolled her eyes at his comment. Discordia appeared beside the broken statue picking up some of the pieces. “What do I do now?!” she started to cry. “My purpose in this world has come to a dead end once again!”

Discord teleported beside Discordia putting his eagle claw around her shoulders. “You know, Celestia is very tolerable of our kind. Maybe there is a place for you in our world.” he nodded to her.

“Whatever.” she replied.

“We need to get back to Fhil, we left him over there with Skadholm.” Rarity confessed with a frown.

Discord snapped his finger and they all teleported back to the throne room. Skadholm was sitting on his throne as normal with Ryalon beside him. Fhil stood in front of them anxiously waiting for one of the victory parties to return. A flash of light lit the area and the winners were revealed, Discord has brought everypony back.

“So Av is dead?” Skadholm asked frowning.

“I'm sorry Skad.” Rarity said to him.

“He gave us no choice.” Twilight finished.

“That's fine. Although he was like a brother to me and we ran this dragon invasion together since the beginning. I will truly miss him.”

Ryalon looked at Discordia. “What are your plans? You're welcome to stay among us.”

“I don't know just yet. I may check out this Equestria place.” she looked at Discord smiling.

Discord smiled in return.

Skadholm looked on at the scene and stood up. “Enough. It's time for me to decide what happens to the dragons now. Time for 'us' to decide.”

At this, the other dragon leaders flew up surrounding the broken throne room. As usual, Huxio was first, “Av is no more. We should regroup and decide the fate of the world after what we have learned.” He landed on the floor and bend down for the pink pony that talked to him earlier. “We will not cause you trouble for a time but until then, I look forward to having more snacks made by you.”

Pinkie laughed hard at this. “Well, I'll arrange something for you but keep your promise about not eating anymore ponies!” she screamed at him.

“You purge me of fine taste little lady. I'll try though.” he admitted.

“I guess I'll take that answer.” she said seriously.

Huxio walked over to the side of the tower he always stayed on and Alexandra flew down and placed herself on the floor before the ponies.

“This little yellow pony matched me and my stare.” the green dragon confessed to the others watching. They all laughed at this and Alexandra continued. “It says a lot that she was able to do it.”

“I uhm.. thanks..” Fluttershy whispered hiding behind Applejack.

“Can't wait for a rematch.” she smiled, her green eyes visible through her black bangs. She turned around and flew off.

“Yea..” the yellow pegasus said.

The next dragon to come out of the group was Atlas. He didn't bother landing but curled around a nearby pillar close to Rainbow Dash. “Master of the sky, I will also require a rematch in the future.”

“Yea, anytime buddy!” she smiled big.

Atlas smiled back and stayed in his position watching them all intently. Ryalon, still standing next to the throne of pony skeletons, looked at Applejack. “Thanks for the talk. I think it helped to vent my frustrations and learn to trust your kind, if by a little bit more.”

Applejack took off her hat and bowed to the blue female dragon. “Your mighty welcome Mrs.”

Skadholm nodded and called forward Rarity with a beckoning claw. They all were hesitant to let her approach but she didn't care. She walked in front of the sitting dragon wondering what he was about to say.

“You are the crush of my son Spike. You have a unique opportunity, to guide our species and yours into a co-existence, or else history will repeat itself. But be aware that his frustrations and your dismissal will lead to nothing good.” Skadholm told Rarity.

“I know Skad. But I'm not sure if I can like him that way, ever. He is like a kid brother to me.” she confessed.

“Then I hope one day he changes that title and becomes something more to you.” Skadholm suggested.

Rarity didn't say anything but she had a sad look about her.

“The future is yours Rarity.” Ryalon said.

Rarity slowly nodded, still saddened by the incumbent truth.

“Now you all must go and never return here.” Skadholm cut in.

The ponies didn't argue. Twilight took one last look back at the broken tower where she did battle. Together, she and her friends were allowed to ride on the draconequus backs all the way to Canterlot. They talked to each other about the future and what they would say to the princesses as they rode off into the sunrise. The two creatures in unison started glowing a green color and together along with their passengers, blinked out of sight.