Conclave of the Clairetti

by Talidin1337

Changed Loyalties

Chapter 11: Changed Loyalties

Nightmare Moon, disguised as a dark cloud in the sky, spied on Luna from way up high in the sky. Nightmare had to be carful how she approached. If she did anything wrong, it could be the last chance she'd have at bringing balance to the world. The part of the battle she was worried about was the information gathering. Day and night, she will watch Celestia and Luna go about their daily tasks, and try to find when is the best moment to strike. Celestia seemed to go to bed after the sun went down, and Luna takes over, but Nightmare didn't actually know what Celestia did after Luna takes over. For all she knew, Celestia could just be taking a break, and living her life, like reading a book or dealing with other royal duties.

Speaking of royal duties, Nightmare should be looking after her kingdom. Even though they wouldn't recognize her. She would have to at least protect them. That thought never crossed Nightmare's mind as she peered at Luna, trying to mold a plan. Nightmare's current goal was to reconnect herself with Luna, but exactly how, she didn't know. The Elements Of Harmony obey the dictates of the conscious mind, which is why when the six colorful ponies tried to banish her, it separated her from Luna, because they only wanted to banish Nightmare, and Nightmare alone. The Elements Of Chaos obey the dictates of the sub-conscious mind, which is why it is said to corrupt the user, because the sub-conscious mind becomes stronger than the conscious mind, and will execute it's desires. That was the true difference between the Elements of Chaos, and the Elements of Harmony. Another requirement is that the user or users of the Elements of Harmony must be in harmony with themselves, thus that is why those Elements were called Harmony. The Elements of Chaos, likewise, need to be controlled by a hurt, lost user. It was rightfully named Chaos, because it requires chaos to control them. The Elements of Harmony and the Elements of Chaos are equal in power, and so when a user of one fights a user of the other, the battle turns into a contest of wits, not sire power. It's like a chess game, where neither you nor your opponent has the immediate advantage, but depending how you play your pieces, you still can win. But if Nightmare got ahold of Luna and re-achieved the full power of the Moon, with the Elements of Chaos, she might just have that immediate advantage that will win her the battle against the Elements of Harmony.

Nightmare waited long throughout the night, Luna only walked back into the castle twice all night long, and Celestia had come out to her once. This proved the Celestia barely slept, so she wasn't sure what to do about that. Maybe she could somehow get Luna to come to her, but exactly how was a mystery.

The sun peeked over the horizon. Soon, the weather ponies will be up and try to move her out of the sky in order to achieve their goal of a clear sky. To her advantage, there where other clouds in the sky in random places just like her, so it won't seem peculiar that she was up in the sky. Nightmare decided to wait until the weather ponies cast their magic to move her out of the sky. Besides, she looked like a rain cloud, and they wouldn't want that.

Nightmare watched as Luna and Celestia changed spots, and Celestia now stood out on the porch to watch the land. Luna will either continue the work Celestia wasn't able to finish, or will go to bed. It didn't matter to Nightmare at this point, because soon, she will be herded out of Canterlot. Like she expected, she found a group of Unicorns point up at the different clouds, and one by one, the clouds were caught by an aura of magic, and moved out of the way. Nightmare made herself loose so that she would be easily manipulated by the magic the unicorns shortly would cast. In ten seconds from when the cloud nearest to her was moved out of the way, she was caught by some unicorn's magic, and moved out of the way. Nightmare watched the castle shrink in her view, and then turned to see where she was going. Cloudsdale, they were taking her in the direction of Cloudsdale. Nightmare always wondered what they did with the rogue clouds. What Nightmare was curious of was how did the weather ponies have this much range on their magic to do this, and then she looked down. Below her, and below all the other clouds, the unicorns were following their clouds all the way to Cloudsdale. Shortly, Cloudsdale came into view, it's factories working endlessly, and pegasi everywhere hustling around to get things done. A group of pegasi intercepted the clouds from the unicorns and waved them off, then the unicorns gathered together and started to head back to Canterlot, laughing and talking with one another. The system was beautiful, the ponies here lived in harmony with each other, and lived happily. Nightmare would support this country's peace, if it wash't because they were brainwashed. It made Nightmare's heart ache. At least in her realm, ponies experience happiness and peace like the ponies here do, but her ponies are ready to fight a war if the call is needed, and doesn't rely on her abilities only.

The pegasi pushed Nightmare into a vacuum that went inside the facility, and Nightmare materialized as soon as nopony could see her. She hid behind and inside other clouds as they went through inspection, and were cleared to go on with the rest of the weathering system. Nightmare found a hole somewhere she could slip through, turned into a ghostly mist, then creeped into the hole. It led her to the outside, and she was free to fly away. She was about to do so, but some pegasi were approaching from around the corner. Nightmare turned back into a cloud, but this time spread herself thin enough that she couldn't visually be seen. The pegasi flew right past her, and were outside fixing the hole in the wall. Nightmare floated out into the distance, and materialized when she was far enough. Nightmare then flew off into the direction of her castle. If Luna was still in Canterlot after all that had happened since the Tenth Millennial sunday, she wouldn't ever go back the castle in the Mountains of Prevalence. Nightmare could claim it as home again.

After flying much distance, Nightmare made it too the castle. The citizens were a little worried about Luna, because they hadn't seen her in a long time. Nightmare landed on the porch she would often stand on to look out into the distance and protect her land, and three Night Guards were waiting in the Princess Chambers. These were among the elites of their army, the equivalent to the Royal Guards for Celestia. They had bat wings, thin black eyerises like a serpent, and their eye color was either yellow, green, or red. The tips of their ears had little extensions of fur. Tiny, but visible fangs protruded from their mouths, but can extend to a threatening size when in battle. They were Vamponies, descendants from the original race, and lethal. Their armor was either purple or dark blue, their coats grey, all a color combination in order to hide them easier in the night. Among them was a mare named Night Watch, Luna's private guard, and her favorite. Night Watch visually was different, she having hot pink eyes instead of red ones.

The Night Guards without hesitation attacked Nightmare Moon. They drew their weapons quickly and efficiently, as if they didn't draw their weapons at all, but were holding them the whole time. One Night Guard had a Sword, another had a dagger, and Night Watch had her spear, an interesting weapon that curved outward like a crescent moon, and the actual blade sticking out from the middle of the arch. Nightmare lit her eyes with power and began defending herself from her attackers. They came from all directions, and attacked at different distances. Nightmare would summon a force field somewhere to block the strike of a weapon, use her armor that she also summoned to block another weapon, and use power to push back one of the guards so she could pay more attention to the other two. She couldn't help but be proud of the Night Guards, because they were giving her a chalenge, given that she wasn't trying to kill them, but they were hard to defend against. Night Watch stopped her attacks and starred at Nightmare, almost in shock, as the other two Guards continued their assault.

"Stop" She said lightly, and then she said it again but louder. The Night Guards backed down, but still had their guard up. Night Watch approached Nightmare. "Why do you have Luna's cutie mark?" She said, and the other two guards looked at Nightmare's hind legs, and they began to wonder the same thing.

Nightmare looked up with confusion at the sudden halt on her attackers, "Me and Luna are the same, which is why we share the same cutie mark."

Night Watch didn't understand, "What do you mean?".

"I am Luna's Sub-Conscious mind, set free." Night Watch was aware about the relationship between conscious and sub-conscious mind, considering she was a saint to the ways of the Night, but she also knew that the sub-conscious mind was something that resided inside a pony, not outside. But she did remember Luna talking to her about something like that, how she was able to talk to her sub-conscious mind, but Night Watch didn't think she meant in person.

"That makes no sense, the sub-conscious mind resides within somepony, not outside, so what are you?"

"My situation in unique Night Watch" Night Watch perked up her attention, she hadn't told Nightmare her name yet, "it was a gift from the stars. The barrier that separates the conscious mind from the sub-conscious mind was destroyed between me and Luna. We are the same, but separate. My name, is Nightmare Moon."

Night Watch nodded in understanding, she had heard Luna refer to her sub-conscious mind as Nightmare Moon in their conversations, and now it all clicked in her head. Nightmare Moon was Luna's sub-conscious mind, and because of the power of Galaxia, she was free like any normal pony.

"But, wound't Luna cease to be affected by your influence?" Night Watch asked. Nightmare frowned mostly in sadness, but she was also angry.

"We used to share a body, being able to change who was controlling it at a moments will. She still guided me with logic, and I still guided her with feeling; until recently." Nightmare's feelings of dread were coming back. She had no control over her emotions, or how strong she felt them. If she didn't get Luna back inside of her, she might hurt somepony someday if she ever went out of control, and she didn't want that.

"What happened?" Night Watch asked.

"The Elements of Harmony tore us apart. Luna currently is a slave to the day, and I stand here before you now."

The Guards gasped at the news, and Night Watch looked conflicted. She was trying to be angry and sad at the same time, like Nightmare Moon was. She had spent her whole career protecting Luna, and the day she is given a break from duty, is the day that she fails.

"So you, Nightmare, are the only ruler we have?" Night Watch said with a tear running down her face. She wasn't upset that Nightmare is now their rightful ruler, she was sad about Luna's unfortunate fate.

Nightmare nodded her head, answering Night Watch's question. "But I am plotting how to bring Luna back." Nightmare said, walking past the guards, "I may need your help".

Nightmare walked down the hall way in the castle, the three Night Guards followed closely behind her. Nightmare exited the main entrance and out into the court yard that lay in front of the castle. The ponies were out and about in the light of day. Night Guards and Pegasi alike were moving dark rain clouds into position to hide the sun and the blue sky, and somewhat return their land to the darkened state that the night would bring them, but it would't ever come close.

Citizens of the Lunar Republic stared at Nightmare as she walked through the streets. Nightmare was heading to the announcement pedestal in the middle of the town. The pedestal was used for multiple meetings, celebrations, and anything that required a gathering to proceed. Even the foals played on it occasionally as the unicorns practiced using their magic by creating a playground. The unicorns would change the form of the playground as the foals would play on it, making game creating easy, and fun. It was a great activity that the unicorns did for the kids as a service project, and it is actually required that they aid in the event at least once to graduate from the magic academy Luna had allowed to be built in her kingdom.

Luna was known as a protector, and allowed any race to do whatever they wanted throughout the land. Unicorns were among the first to migrate near her castle, but each race here in her kingdom have their own leaders, and their own government. All creatures within the Lunar Republic love Luna though, and recognized her as their ultimate ruler. Even the political leaders of the other races view Luna as their superior. The only property she truly owns is the castle, but the entire land, near and far, is under her protection. She could've lived alone in the Mountains of Prevalence, but other races settled near her, and have created few cities in her honor. The Lunar Republic was a name the races had created, and placed Luna at the top as their leader. All of the royal powers Luna has was given to her by the Lunar Republic, and Luna exercises those powers daily as she watches over the land.

Nightmare Moon stepped onto the platform, and the three Night Guards stood next to her. The other ponies approached, but they were fearful.

"My dearest ponies" Nightmare started with, "I am Nightmare Moon, the sub-conscious mind of Princess Luna. I understand that you are worried for the well being of your Princess, and I am sorry to announce that she is no longer with us at this moment." The ponies started to murmur among themselves. "I was within Luna, me and her were the same, and we talked with each other. The stars allowed that to be possible, and severed the barrier between us. But behold, the Tenth Millennial Sunday had come, and as you have seen, the Mare on the Moon is gone. The power was transferred into Luna and I, and we began to create the eternal night, and attacked Celestia. But the Elements of Harmony ripped us apart, to where we are separate beings now. I stand here before you now, safe, but Luna has become a victim of the Day" All the ponies gasped. Their worst fears had come true. It is better that Luna die then become a slave to the Day.

"No!" Someone from the crowd yelled, and the rest of them roared in a clamor of anger and sorrow for their poor Princess.

"I am the only Princess you have now to lead you." Nightmare said, and the other ponies returned their attention onto her, "and I will do everything in my power to bring Luna back home. She is my other half, more of a sister to me than any pony else in this world, and I will not rest until I have her back. We will have Luna back." The ponies cheered with the promise. Appointed representatives of each race approached Luna. The Vampony leader, the Unicorn High Mage, Commander Windblast of the Pegasi, Halweigh the Griffon, and Chancellor Earth Bud of the Earth Ponies all bowed before Nightmare.

The Unicorn spoke to Nightmare, "We surrender ourselves, and our loyalties to you, Princess." He then lifted his head to look Nightmare in the eyes, "Please, bring Luna home."

Nightmare bowed herself before them, "It is my duty" she said, accepting the job they had given her, but she had given it to herself before this meeting anyway. All this formally had proved was that the Lunar Republic citizens supported her, and now they will follow and obey her as if she was Luna.

The Kingdom is now hers, as well as Luna's. They now were both equally recognized rulers of the land, and had the same jurisdictional powers as one another. Nightmare Moon was accepted as Royalty, even though she already was. She, as much as Luna, is responsible for the creation of the Lunar Republic, but the ponies had never acknowledged her, until now.

***

Pinkie woke up in the hospital. She starred up at a mint colored unicorn she had met briefly, but had seen around Ponyville often. The unicorn smiled at her, when she awoke. Pinkie sat up slowly, and looked around the room, Rainbow Dash and Rarity were asleep on the floor next to her. 'The sun is out, why aren't they awake?' Pinkie thought.

"Good morning Pinkie" The mint colored unicorn said,

"Uuggh" Pinkie groaned, "What happened?" she said.

"Your forgot to control your emotions, nothing big." Lyra said with a smile, "It happens to all of us at least once."

"Where's Zecora?" Pinkie asked,

"Oh, her? She's out in her cabin, I think. She's coming back later today when your friends are gone." Pinkie tried to shake Rainbow to wake up, but Rainbow continued to calmly breath in and out. "Hehe, they won't wake up until we leave silly" Lyra said,

"What do you mean by that? And why did you say leave?" Pinkie asked, her head still aching from the event,

"There's someone I want you to meet!" Lyra said with excitement, "You'll love him! Common, let's go!" She said, grabbing onto Pinkie's arm. Pinkie yanked her arm out of Lyra's grasp.

"I don't want to go anywhere, I want to star here with my friends." Pinkie's hair was still flat.

"Well, I guess we could stay, but I've been waiting all night long for this. Are you sure we can't go now? You can come back."

Pinkie thought about it, "Well, alright I guess." She said.

"Perfect!" Lyra said, grabbed onto Pinkie, and ran through the wall with her. They went right through the wall without any harm, without a scratch, as if the wall didn't exist. They were on the third floor, and fell to the bottom. Pinkie screamed on the way down, and Lyra laughed. The landed on the ground upright without getting hurt either.

"What was that!" Pinkie screamed, "Who are you?"

Lyra drug Pinkie as she ran with incredible speed right into the Everfree Forest. They made it to the creepy forest when Pinkie finished asking the question, and they were flying through the forest with the same speed.

"I'm one of Voodoo, like you!" Lyra said, excitement swelling up inside of her with every ten feet they traveled. They then disappeared in a burst of speed, a sonic boom erupting from where they stood. In twenty seconds, they were out the other side of the forest, the trees parting into an open clearing the same way the forest near Ponyville ended. But Lyra didn't stop there, she kept going on and on to no place Pinkie knew of.

Pinkie, in her entire life, had never left Equestria. She had never been on the other side of the Everfree Forest, and curiosity took over her want to go back home. She looked around as she and Lyra zoomed past everything, and she could barely get a god glimpse of anything. Pinkie didn't know what was going on, but she did know one thing, she felt calmer, more relaxed like she did the night of Nightmare's attack. What was this difference she was feeling, and why did it feel so good?

Lyra stopped abruptly in front of a castle after about fifteen minutes. The castle was short, but long. It had a single tower in the middle, and interesting architecture all around. The only castles she had ever seen were Celestia's castle, and the one they had fought Nightmare Moon in somewhere in the Everfree Forest. Lyra lazily walked inside the Castle, and motioned for Pinkie to follow. Pinkie assumed that she might as well, they did come all this way to meet this one person Lyra was so excited to introduce Pinkie to. They walked through multiple hallways and corridors until they made it to the throne room. Lyra pushed the door open, and above the throne chair, rested a picture of a Red and Black centaur, the same one Pinkie has seen in her vision with Zecora. Discord appeared behind them, and they didn't even know it.

"And who, pray tell, is that?" Discord said,

Pinkie was startled and jumped to the side. Lyra laughed.

"That's Pinkie Pie." Lyra said, trotting over to the frightened pink puff of bouncy happiness, er, used to be happy.

Discord starred at Pinkie, "Where have I seen you before?"

Pinkie looked up at Discord, and her eyes widened at the sight. "H-he's, real?" Pinkie asked,

A lightbulb in Discord's head then turned on, "Ah, yes, you're that Voodooist I sensed a long, long time ago now aren't you?" Discord asked, his interest coming to a peak.

Pinkie didn't know how to respond. "Um, yeah, I think."

"How, how did you see the past? Or are you going to?" Discord said, floating above Pinkie,

"Uh, um. I, I already did, I saw you with, with…" Pinkie was trying to put her thoughts in order, "I saw you with a grey pegasus, and you said that Zecora was a fake, and that I should find you instead."

"Yes! I remember now!" Discord said, "And what did Zecora say?"

"She said that you were evil, and that I shouldn't listen to you."

"Hmm, I figured. Where is this Zecora now?"

"I don't know, we think she's in her hut in the Everfree Forest."

"And who's we?"

"Me and Pinkie sir" Lyra stepped in,

"Oh, excuse me Lyra, I forgot about you." Discord said floating over to her. "It's been a while since I've seen your face, what have you been doing?"

"I've been watching Pinkie here." Lyra said, pointing a hoof towards Pinkie Pie.

"Did you know I sensed her almost 6000 years ago?"

"No… how could you sense someone who wouldn't be born in 6000 years?"

"Time watching my dear Lyra, they watched me as I trained Clairetti, and I sensed them standing there, even though they never would actually be there."

"That's incredible master! Do you think I would ever become that powerful?"

"We will see, Clairetti was my finest disciple yet, until she betrayed me. You wouldn't betray me would you Lyra?"

"No, never, I said I will stay by you forever, and I meant it."

"Indeed you did, but you can't blame me for wondering."

Discord then turned back to Pinkie, "This is Lyra, my disciple for the past 4000 years." Discord said, as if trying to introduce them, even thought they already knew each other.

"4000 years?!" Pinkie said with surprise.

"Yes, 4000 years. I have taught her the gift of immortality, Pinkie, something the grey pegasus wasn't able to learn because she abandoned me." Discord said, shifting his voice like he was trying to get Pinkie's sympathy. He exaggerated his sadness. "I just wanted a friend to be around forever, and she couldn't even give me that."

"That's sad, I'm sorry."

"Now I have Lyra, and she helps me get my friend back." Discord then went silent for a while, then turned back to Pinkie. "Have you thought about my offer, to train under me instead of Zecora?" Discord said, growing more interest in what Pinkie might say.

"Well." Pinkie's heart told her no. Discord bore Chaos, and Pinkie represented an Element of Harmony. "I've decided no, I don't want to train with you."

"Oh pooyey!" Discord said, throwing his arms in the air. "You could become immortal Pinkie." He said with his back turned away from her.

"I'll pass, thanks."

"Wait! Discord offered you power and you refused him?" Lyra looked confused. "You need to train with Discord."

"Yeah!" Discord replied.

"Why?" Pinkie asked.

"Because, that's just what you do when Discord offers you something. Look, he's not evil, I've known him for 4000 years, I should know."

Pinkie just stepped away towards the door, "No, I think I'm good." She said, trying to laugh, but now succeeding.

Discord gave a look of un-approval. "You mean, you're not staying here with me?"

"No" Pinkie replied. She started to leave, but Discord stood in her way.

"But you can't leave now, you haven't even had some cake yet" He said, making a delicious looking chocolate cake appear in his hands.

"I said no, now please let me go." Pinkie said.

"You will not leave!" Discord said, then with him powers he pushed Pinkie into the far wall next to the painting.

Pinkie tried really, really hard to get out of Discord's grasp. Discord walked slowly towards her. Pinkie struggled, and tried to move, but it wasn't working.

"Pinkie, imagine yourself escaping, and focus on that thought" Lyra said, speaking into Pinkie's mind so that only Pinkie could hear.

Pinkie did as told, and she focused as hard as she could to get out of Discord's trap. Then, with a slip, Pinkie phased through the wall, free from Discord.

Discord came flying through the wall as well, and was a little glad to see that Pinkie hadn't run off. He then used is abilities to raise Pinkie from the floor and into the air. "You think it's so easy to escape me now do you Pinkie Pie" Discord said,

Pinkie then thought really hard about shoving Discord away from her with just power, and after a while, Discord laughs at Pinkie's effort. He then through Pinkie to the floor, and Pinkie slowly stood up. She was caught in another wave of power that kept her from moving at all.

"You foolish girl" Discord said,

Pinkie thought about phasing though the floor, considering that that was something she figured out how to do, and it happened. Pinkie slipped through the floor and into the room below. She then ran away from where she stood, and off into the next room. Discord followed her, and caught up with ease. Pinkie ran and ran, but no matter what corner she turned, Discord was there waiting for her. Pinkie started to get really stressed, closed her eyes, and imagined she would disappear. When she opened her eyes, she couldn't see her hooves, and almost let out a squeal of surprise. Discord came around the corner, and looked confused. He then looked right at Pinkie and smiled. Discord ran in and snatched pinkie from the ground, and she materialized back into view.

"I sensed you 6000 years ago, you think you can hide from me like that?"

Pinkie then thought harder about pushing Discord back like she did before, and this time, she actually did. Discord went flying into the next wall, and Pinkie ran away. She phased through one wall, then another, then turned right, and then phased through yet another wall. She kept at this until she was outside. Pinkie then started to run away into the distance. She turned her head to look back at the castle, and didn't see Discord come after her.

"You sure are a slow pony now aren't you" Lyra said, running backwards in front of Pinkie so she could talk to her face to face. When Pinkie looked ahead and at Lyra, she drug her hooves into the ground and stopped running. Lyra stopped at the same time.

"Go away!" Pinkie said, running towards Lyra in an attempt to phase right through her, but Lyra kept pace. Ever direction Pinkie ran, Lyra followed, all backwards, like as if she was mirroring Pinkie's moves.

"Now now, don't be mad at me, Discord is the one that tried to kill you. He hates having Voodoo competitors."

"I don't want this, leave me alone!"

"You can't change the fact that you are Voodoo Pinkie, it's a fate you must accept." Lyra changed from being the pony that joked around too much to the pony that was wise beyond her years, like she was with Twilight before disappearing. "You either learn from Discord and learn how to win against him, or you die right now."

Pinkie stopped running around, "Win against Discord?"

"Why do you think I brought you here? To feed you to Discord? No, it was so you can become as strong as him." Pinkie breathed heavily in and out, "Wha- what do you mean?"

Discord in the distance could be seen approaching, and he was approaching fast. He was weaving through the air like a snake would if it could fly.

"Discord has only had two disciples in the past, a pegasus named Clairetti, and Me. All the others he has destroyed. He used to not be that way, it only started about 2000 years ago when he used the Elements of Chaos."

"The Element's of What?!"

Lyra looked over Pinkie's shoulder, and saw that Discord was almost on them. Pinkie wasn't aware of Discord's approach.

"I just wanted you to grow strong, but I guess I'd have to train you myself." She said, pushing Pinkie out of the way with her hoof. Pinkie turned around to see what Lyra was looking at, and saw Discord right as he made it within punching distance of lyra. Lyra, using her Voodoo powers, stopped Discord cold. Discord's body collapsed inward from the impact, and Lyra thrust that same power she used to stop him, forward, pushing Discord away. Discord looked up, shock and sadness filled his eyes.

"I trained you!"

"And you tried to plunge this world into darkness! I know why Clairetti left you! Because you ceased to be a saint to the old ways, but decided to destroy this world's beauty instead!"

"And you stood by me, the whole way!" Discord said, a tear exiting his eyes. He loves Lyra like a daughter, and he felt the same way about Clairetti.

"No, I fed off of your knowledge, your teachings, until I was strong enough to face you."

"I stopped training you 3000 years ago, I said that any progression you made from then on will be your own! Why did you stay with me?"

Lyra smiled, "For the right moment"

Discord grimaced in anger and lunged after Lyra. Lyra waited for Discord to strike, and when he was close enough, she focused a lot of power into striking Discord with invisible force. Discord teleported behind Lyra at the right moment, and was about to eliminate his old student once and for all, if it wasn't for Pinkie.

Pinkie used her own power to thrust just as much power into her attack as Lyra had with hers, and Discord fell to the ground in pain. Lyra Twisted around and folded the earth like a sheet onto Discord, burying him into the ground. Discord phased through the earth, and launched a shock wave of power in all directions that pushed back Pinkie and Lyra. Pinkie flew back, but Lyra stood still, as if nothing happened. Lyra then disappeared in a burst of speed, and tried to kick into Discord's head, but she phased right through Discord, and Discord turned around to grab onto Lyra's leg. When he did, Lyra phased through him, and then separated their space between themselves. The battle couldn't be won with physical attacks, so supernatural ones were required. Discord summoned a large black box. It was made entirely out of black steel, and was decorated with swirls and designs unique to itself. The box was fashioned with a key pad on the top. The box looked ancient. Discord pushed a series of buttons on the top, and the blue dot on the top of the box turned red.

Discord presented a sickening smile, and opened the box. When he did, and irresistible force pulled on Lyra, and she started to be drug towards the box. No matter how much power she put into standing still, the box wouldn't let loose on it's grip, and continued to drag Lyra anyway. Lyra left a trail dug through the dirt where she was being dragged, and she tried to get away. She couldn't close the box with her power, and she couldn't attack Discord.

Discord's grin widened, "Pandora's Box" is all he said.

Lyra then lit her horn with magic, and used her unicorn given abilities to lift the ground around the box up into the air, carrying the box with it, and threw it out into the distance. It drug Lyra with it, and she went flying too. Lyra and the box landed somewhere out in the distance, and Discord teleported near her

"Ha Ha Ha, Ho ho." Discord laughed, "You fool, you think you can escape the Pandora's Box that easily. If it was that easy, nothing would be stuck inside it now would it?" Lyra's terror began to swell as she was being pulled towards the box, she now being only three feet away from it's mouth.

Pinkie Pie then teleported next to the box, and closed the lid before Discord knew she was even right there. Lyra stopped being pulled towards the box.

"Why you!" Discord screamed and attacked Pinkie with a stream of fire. "That box won't open for another 100 years!"

Pinkie crumbled into a ball, expecting to be hurt by the fire, but Lyra was using her abilities to make the fire phase right through Pinkie. Lyra then teleported the fire she was phasing through Pinkie, and put it back into Discord's face. Discord wasn't expecting that to happen, and he screamed in pain as the fire burned into his head. Discord quickly started letting the fire phase through him. Normally, he would just heal, but that fire was made from Voodoo, and wound's made by Voodoo cannot be healed with anything except natural healing capabilities your body has, not even more Voodoo.

Discord grasped at his face, and blasted an invisible force at Lyra. Lyra jumped out of the way, and the ground she was standing on exploded into a crater from the invisible force. Discord was blinded, and was shooting random forces of power in random directions.

"Run Pinkie! Run!" Lyra said, running into the direction of the Everfree Forest as quickly as she had been when they got there. Pinkie started to run, but wasn't running fast enough. Lyra came back, grabbed onto Pinkie's arm, then dashed away into the distance, the scene of Discord kneeling on the ground clutching his face was quickly disappearing behind them, and sooner then Pinkie anticipated, they couldn't see Discord anymore. Pinkie and Lyra continued onward for the fifteen minute and twenty second trip back into Ponyville.

Trees, mountains, and hills of all shapes and sizes flew past them as Lyra ran. Before long, they made it into the Everfree Forest. Pinkie's vision became blurred as they ran past hundreds of trees a second, until they finally made it into Ponyville. Lyra ran right up to hospital and ran up the side of the building. They made it up onto the roof, and Lyra settled Pinkie right there where they stopped.

"We're safe here Pinkie, Discord can't come into the Day" Lyra said trying to reassure Pinkie, but she was anything but reassured.

"Wha-wh-what's going on?!" Pinkie asked, she was so afraid. It's weird, because she didn't feel afraid earlier before, it all started when they made it to the Everfree Forest, and she started consciously think about what happened, not feel about what happened. When she followed her feelings, she knew Discord couldn't win, but here in the Day, she didn't know what would happen. Lyra was unaffected by the Day, she learned how to use her Voodoo abilities to keep the Day out of her head, and it had worked, for the one thousand years she lived in Equestria.

"Everything is fine Pinkie just…" Lyra didn't have time to tell Pinkie what to do, and decided to lock away Pinkie's memories about what happened instead. Pinkie's eyes turned white as Lyra hid the memories about what happened deep within her mind. When Lyra was finished, she whispered into Pinkie's ear, "We can talk later." Lyra then disappeared right as the door to the roof opened, and Pinkie's eyes went back to normal.

"Hey! I found her!" the pony on the roof said, screaming back into the building. A group of five other ponies ran up onto the roof, and Pinkie turned to see them.

"What are you doing up here Pinkie?!" Twilight asked, she came running as soon as she heard Pinkie was missing.

Pinkie looked around in confusion, and her hair sprang back up into a curly, goofy mess. "I have no idea" She said with an exaggerated shake of her head, a bright smile, and a laugh; but then her hair fell flat again and she collapsed onto the ground. Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and two nurse ponies all came running to her side to bring Pinkie back into the building.

Author's Note:

Just something to point out about the Elements of Chaos that I couldn't write in the actual chapter because the event hadn't happened yet, Trixy became evil when she put on the Alicorn Amulet because that was the desire of her sub-conscious mind. Trixy's pride was hurt, and she personally wanted to defeat Twilight once and for all, but her sub-conscious mind wanted to dominate Twilight, not just defeat her, and overly prove that Trixy is stronger than Twilight. Because the sub-conscious mind feels stronger emotions that are filtered through the conscious mind, when the Alicorn Amulet let all of those emotions flow through, Trixy had little control over what happened. Trixy had no conscious control, and she didn't want any conscious control. Trixy simply sat back and watched all she would do unfold, and she enjoyed it. It wasn't until she took off the Amulet that she started to realise how wrong she was for doing it, and that leads to the rest of what happens in that episode.

I always check to see how many people read my latest chapter, and it always make me so happy to see an average of about 20 people who have made it to that point. You, my readers, always make my day, and it encourages me to keep on writing. It's a little cruel that I'd be the only one who knows what happens in the end, so I will do my best to complete this story, and allow anyone, and everyone, to read through the story and not have to wait for the next chapter like I'm regretfully making you do.

I hope you have a wonderful day! Thanks for reading.