You Wouldn't Believe Me if I Told You

by PinkiePiedPiper

Chapter 21: Fire and Ice

I don’t own MLP: FiM. That belongs to Lauren Faust and Hasbro.

You Wouldn’t Believe Me if I Told You

Chapter 21: Fire and Ice

It was dark. It had been ever since she came there some time ago.

At first, Luna had thought she had made a wrong turn somewhere in inter-dimensional travel. She was in a realm of absolute blackness, unable to see anything in front of her, which is precisely why she had walked directly into a flat and incredibly smooth wall. Following the wal had quickly resulted in another wall at 90 degrees. Following the new wall produced similar results, again and again.

Being the Princess of the Night, she was used to darkness. Her night vision was immaculate and acute, her mind sharp and agile. She often felt more comfortable at night alone in the dark than in a brightly lit room during some sort of royal to-do.

But this was no ordinary darkness. There was no light here, no cool evening breeze, no stars, no moon. Worst of all, there would be no dawn, and no escape. Luna had long ago given up trying to escape.

She had tried to leave the dimension altogether, follow her brief trail the way she had come. When she tried summoning the spell, her horn refused to glow to live with magic. Again and again she tried magic, any magic, if only to alleviate the dark box she was contained within. Again and again, she was utterly unsuccessful.

Beaten and dejected, scared and alone in the dark, she lay on the cool, flat surface of her prison and sobbed lightly to herself, cursing her choice to follow Pinkie through dimensions.

She missed her home, Canterlot Castle, where she had become so well loved by all of her subjects in the past few years. She missed her family, her sister Ti, cousin Cadence and her husband Shining Armor, and his sister Twilight. Twilight and her friends had become like sisters to her as they had to each other. And now, in an effort to rescue her surrogate sisters, she had sealed her fate as securely as the box she found herself in was secure.

And this was all because she had not trusted Pinkie Pie and followed her, despite her brief and cryptic warning.

She pulled her legs in around her tighter, trying in vain to fall into the comfort of sleep.

* * * * *

“Look out!” Pinkie shrieked.

Sauron’s torso was hurtling downwards toward them in an effort to crush them. Instinctively, Pinkie Pie grabbed Cherry Topper and launched her serpentine form to the left. Party Favour, the draconequus formerly known as Discord, rocketed to the right, snatching up Twilight Sparkle under his arm.

Sauron landed moments later, and the spot where they had been standing was under the massive body of an obsidian dragon. As he lifted himself back to his feet, the jagged terrain below him had become a gravel filled trench.

The draconequines angled upwards, arching far above the malevolent being to regroup. Twilight marvelled at the sheer size of their new foe. This thing was far greater than any living creature she had ever heard of, let alone seen. Without any references nearby by which to judge, she speculated that his head alone approached the size of a fully grown Equestrian dragon. She would not have been surprised if her tree-house could fit inside of his mouth.

Sauron turned his flaming eye upwards, scanning the skies and roaring his displeasure in their escape.

The ponies were shifted onto their rides’ backs to free up their hands. As they got within speaking distance, Twilight was the first to speak up.

“How exactly do you all know each other?”

Cherry Topper cleared his throat, “Allow me to explain things as I now understand them, Miss Sparkle.”

“Many years ago, Lady Pie and Lord Favour ruled over our land in a time of party and prosperity unmatched in all of history. Random occurrences occurred randomly, parties and fun abounded, and life was good. But a darkness had been growing; a cold, joyless darkness. Not in our realm so much, but in others. Perhaps twelve hundred years ago by now, my Lord Favour felt this oppressive negative energy growing, and he left our realm just 200 years before he was scheduled to be married to Lady Pie to search out its cause, and combat it with all of his powers of chaos to spread joy.”

“Several realms down the road, he encountered Equestria. A pony-based dimension, just like our own, but rife with order and unhappiness. He tried to spread randomness and cheer, but was met with growing hostility and further depression. Eventually, he was confronted and defeated-”

“and turned to stone by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna with the Elements of Harmony!” Twilight interjected.

“Precisely!” Cherry applauded, “but not before the lack of friendship warped his mind and physical appearance into the Discord you knew and combatted just a few years ago.”

“Some three hundred years after his departure, Lady Pie tried desperately to find him, but his trail had long gone cold, and his stone form was next to untraceable.”

“About a decade ago, Lady Pie came across Equestria herself. Something about it told her he was there somewhere, so she decided to start calling for him. Eventually, it was those calls that laid the first cracks in his stony prison. It was only when he managed to break free that she knew where he had ended up. But unwilling to jeopardize your friendship and your realm’s safety at the hands of a mad draconequus, she helped you encase him once more in stone using the Elements of Harmony.”

“But this was merely an encasement, and not the full transmogrification that took place a thousand years ago. He then began tentatively searching for his foe once more, the source of the darkness. And might I say you have done an excellent job in finding him, sire!”

Party replied, “That I did, Grapes! But tell me, how fairs our fine land? Still as random and happy as I left it?”

Cherry shook his head sadly. “No, sire. After you left, the dark force gained a foothold; and by the time Lady Pie had begun her search nine hundred years ago, she was wholly unable to halt its advance without you help.”

Both Party and Pinkie looked next to tears.

“We tried to resist it and carry on as normal, but it wasn’t long before the colour seemed to leave the streamers, and the flavour from our cakes. There… there has not been a party in almost 500 years… and recently, evil creatures; horrible, twisted abominations have been creeping out of the forests and attacking our cities. Several have been lost, but only because of mass evacuations to the capital due to the safety of her walls. Lives have been lost, sire. Moonchaser, Camomile Biscuit, Peanut Brittle…”

“NO!” Party erupted. “Not Little Peanut! He never did anything to deserve such a fate!”

“There was nothing any of us could do…

“Then we know what we must do now!” cried Party Favour, shaking his fist at the ground, his face donning a snarl. “We must defeat the darkness here, and free our realm from his interference!”

Bursts of flame and enraged roars emanated from the beast below, shaking the ground and setting the stones on fire in an instant. The sounds of a thousand forest fires crackled, and deafening rhythmic whooshing sounds began to pick up.

“I believe Sauron has become airborne, Miss Pinkie!” Cherry warned, worriedly.

Twilight, still taking in Cherry’s tale, spoke up. “We don’t have much time before that thing finds out where we are. Any ideas as to how to fight it?”

They paused for a few moments, still ascending into the ash clouds to avoid detection for as long as possible.

Twilight looked at the group, and was greeted by blank stares.

“Alright, fine. Let’s just… umm… gather what we know so far.”

“Ooooh! Ooooh! Pick me, Twily!” Pinkie strained as she threw up her griffon claw.

“You don’t need to raise your… hand, Pinkie.”

“Okie dokie!” she replied cheerily and smiled.

“Umm, Pinkie?” Party asked.

“What’s up, sugar?”

“Are you not going to tell us your observation?”

“Oh, silly me!” she said with a face-palm. “He’s really big!”

The others simply stared at her satisfied smile.

Twilight face-hoofed and sighed, “Anypony else have a nugget of wisdom to share?”

Pinkie re-raised her hand.

“We know he’s full of fire, too, Pinkie,” Twilight said.

Her hand lowered slowly.

Cherry placed a hoof under his chin thoughtfully. “He does appear to move and react rather sluggishly, which probably relates to his massive size.”

“Good, good!” Twilight said excitedly. A smile crept across her face. “Then I have a plan! Just do exactly as I say, and this should work! We don’t have much time…

* * * * *

“Everypony know what they have to do?”

They all nodded at Twilight. The roars and crackling had continued as Sauron scoured the skies for them.

“Alright then! All we have to do now is to get below these clouds and get his attention.”

Pinkie’s eyes went wide, pupils fully constricted.

“Gemini Split! Hit the deck!”

Both draconequines launched themselves in opposite directions and downwards, nearly losing their passengers in the process. Just as Twilight looked behind her, all she saw was a massive burst of flame, followed closely by their enormous enemy. Flames trailed behind his wings to about the same length as his tail, leaving a distinct smoke path thereafter.

Realizing how close he had been to his prizes at long last, Sauron roared loudly and banked his wings, turning slowly in pursuit.

Twilight noted his sluggish course correction and nodded in satisfaction.

“Remember the plan!” she shouted, magically transmitting her voice to her friends’ ears.

Even had he been close enough, Sauron still would have not heard her. The only thing he could hear was the flapping of his wings and their crackling fires. but even had they been silent, the pure burning rage flowing through his molten core blinded him of all but his targets. Whatever they were saying would be of no consequence once he had burned them alive and devoured their flesh.

Pinkie and Cherry raced through the sky, dipping in and out of the clouds near Sauron’s gargantuan head. Pinkie threw in a little tongue waggling and a short raspberry. Sauron’s pupil narrowed to the point where Cherry swore it was no longer there. The dragon unleashed a jet of fire and molten rock at the pair, but she was too quick. She continued to zig-zag and dipsy-doodle around the base of the clouds for a while, before disappearing into them completely.

Blinded by hatred, Sauron beat his wings and lifted himself into the broiling ash-smoke clouds. Focused on the pink draconequus and her purple rider, he readied another searing blast.

Party Favour and Twilight shot from the left and cut directly past his view, the unicorn launching a bolt of frozen lightning into the obsidian dragon’s single, burning eye. Maintaining a magical tether to the bolt and coupled with the sudden pain, she wrenched his head to one side, causing the molten death to be launched in the totally wrong direction. Releasing her hold on the bolt, they looped around quickly, allowing for her to shoot another one into his exposed chest. The shrieking roars of pain rent the air, shattering their wits for a second. Twilight had to focus all of her strength on just holding on as Party struggled to remain airborne.

Sauron thrashed his wings violently for a minute, dissipating nearby cloud cover. Recovering, he hovered in one place and grasped the unmelting frost bolts in his chest and face, tearing them free along with several large obsidian boulders of his armor. Within seconds, however, the holes in his armor had refilled with new black stone forged from his molten innards.

As he tossed the projectiles aside, Twilight stared in disbelief.

“I don’t know how many times I can do that!” she yelled to Party Favour. “And it doesn’t look like we even hurt him!”

“So what do you propose we do?” he asked, glancing back at Sauron just as he was starting to move again.

Pinkie and Cherry had lost their cover during the dragon’s flailing, and were headed back for the safety of the clouds. Sauron saw them, however, and sprayed a violent storm of liquid flames wildly in their direction.

Acting quickly, Twilight created a shield of magical ice around them. The ferocity of the flames compounded on the difficulty of the spell, and factoring in the distance between them left Twilight with next to no energy left. Her spell failed just as the last of the stream hit the wall of cold, newly formed stone. The last trickle leaked through and splashed against Pinkie’s tail, setting her curly pink mass ablaze instantly.

She screamed in pain as the flames of her tail licked against her slender, scaled lower body. She and Cherry Topper plummeted in a wide arc towards the jagged ground far below.

“Pinkie Pie!” Party yelled frantically, as he started to follow.

“…Stop…Look at…Sauron…trap.”

Party Favour tore his eyes from Pinkie Pie, who had landed on the ground roughly, but not fatally. Both she and Cherry were attempting to smother the flames with pebbles and dust. Sauron was not watching those two, however.

He was watching them.

Party growled. “He wants us to check on them, and get us all in one place to finish us off. He probably also knows that you are out of magic, Twilight. …Twilight?”

She had passed out from the strain and exhaustion, not only from the high level spells she was using, but also from the Battle Royale before that. Her hooves were firmly locked around Party’s neck, her grip magically sealed just before she had lost consciousness.

Party Favour hovered in place some distance from where Sauron did the same.

“Looks like it’s just us again, you overgrown eyeball!”