• Published 14th Jun 2012
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Through Storm and Snow - Phoenix Quill



Ever wonder what Ditzy was doing when Discord was loose?

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Ch. 5. The Disco Diarch!

Ditzy continued to watch as Celestia danced to the music. She felt as though she should shield her eyes, and yet was entranced with how she swayed with the hypnotic beat. "It's like a train wreck, I want to look away, but I just can't..."

Aquilinus quickly shook his head and moved his hooves back and forth to silently silence Ditzy, when Luna began marching over to them. "What hast thou just spoken about our sister?!"

Ditzy stood still as she started to tried to come up with anything other than the truth, as Aquilinus slammed a hoof into his helmet. "I, er, that is to say, that I said..."

"We are not hard of hearing! We herd what thou hast spake!" Princess Luna shouted back, "What do you think gives thee the right to speak ill of our sister! In my time, we would hast hung thee to have fruit thrown at from a cage!"

Ditzy shook her head and tried to clear her ears from the deafening blast of Princess Luna's voice for a few moments. "I'm sorry your majesty, I couldn't hear anything past that you are not hard of hearing!" She stumbled for a few moments as she tried to get her breath back from shouting to hear herself, then pulled the envelope out of her delivery bag. "I have news about Twilight Sparkle and her friends for Princess Celestia!"

Princess Luna leaned back from Ditzy and the envelope, she took it in her magic and turned it over a few times and saw that it had a proper seal for an emergency delivery to the castle before nodding and opening it up. "Let us see here, all six defeated, under Discord's spell, Ponyville in ruin, Discord claims victory?! GUARDS!" Aquilinus stepped forward, along with a few others from various divisions, and ranks. "We need volunteers to help in Ponyville while we try to find another way to defeat Discord without the elements of harmony, or try to recover them. Gather anypony you can, even civilians if you must!"

Celestia continued to sing with the music, grabbing a guard as her dance partner and pulling him into a Manehatten Hustle. "Oh come on Lulu! Join in on the fun!"

"Sister, now is not the time for," she stopped, and looked around her at the guards, the few ministers and advisers that stayed at their posts, and finally at Ditzy Doo. Luna sighed deeply as she straightened her crown and walked away. "Guardians, keep an eye on our sister. She can dance if she want's to."

A guard stepped forward and saluted before addressing his question. "You'll leave Celestia behind?"

"We are afraid so. For we don't dance, and she's in a trance."

"Well you're no friend of mine!" Celestia piped in before she continued singing with a new song.

A guard threw a hoof to his face, as did a few others before the rest of the room followed suit, making the slap echo across the room over the loud music. "Princess Luna," Aquilinus said as he lowered his hoof, "I can't believe that you walked into that one."

Luna looked as confused as ever before continuing to leave the room. "Walked into what? Ponies these days, we just don't understand them." She muttered a few things under her breath about the youth of today before noticing Ditzy was still watching Celestia dance. "YOU! Mail mare! News is slow coming in from outside these walls. Walk with us to our library, so you may tell us everything that thou knowest."

Ditzy tilted her head at Luna's archaic speech before Captain Aquilinus tapped her in the side. "Follow her and tell her everything you know."

"Oh!" Ditzy exclaimed as she followed Luna out of the throne room. "Why didn't you say so?"

"We believe that we had."

The princess lead the way into the hall, followed by Ditzy Doo and finally trailed by Captain Aquilinus, still shouting orders to a few of his guards. "You, I want you to gather the night guards, I don't care if they are still rookies, get those bat ponies to straighten up and fly right. You! Get a hold of Sergeant Skyfall and have him gather his platoon for Ponyville. I want those troops there yesterday! MOVE!"

The guards following him saluted before running off, leaving Luna and Ditzy able to talk. "So tell us, how did thou come across with such vital information."

"It's a very long story Princess."

Luna turned down another hall before ascending a staircase. "We are short of time, please give us a very brief description of everything you know."

"Well, I was having a bad day, but after work, Discord came forward to me with a deal saying he would fix my life if I promised to stay out of Canterlot. Next thing I knew, my eyes were normal, and I was a member of the Wonderbolts living in Cloudsdale. But Discord did something to shatter my illusion, he went too far when he cast a spell on a pony that was helping me out."

"He cast a capitulation spell on somepony near you?" Luna asked as she lead the ponies behind a tapestry. "That is one of his oldest tricks, and most common. As you may have noticed, our sister has fallen prey to his capitulation."

"If by capitulation spell you mean changed who he was entirely, then you would be right," Ditzy said as she followed the twisting secret passage. "Anyhow, he seemed to go back to normal when I struck him hard enough."

They exited the passageway through a bookshelf, they looked around and discovered a very cluttered library with no windows or other visible doors. "If that's the case, then there may be hope yet for Twilight Sparkle and her friends. However, unless you can manage to strike all six ponies at the same time, it may prove to be hopeless." As she spoke, several scrolls and books flew to Luna's side and she began checking them. "Discord's magic is unlike anything anypony can cast, he may have been careless with the pony in your case, but with the elements, or our sister..." She trailed off as she read a scroll for a few moments before casting it aside. "We doubt that he would not have contingencies in place."

As Luna continued to search the shelves, Ditzy and Aquilinus began looking through the shelves as well in hopes of being able to help at all. "Come on Captain, help me find something about Discord or capture, er, capitu, whatever that spell is called spells."

The captain grunted in response before he went to another shelf to dig through the massive archives. Luna continued to mutter under her breath as she would read, and toss aside information that lead nowhere, leaving Ditzy Doo to search on her own. After several moments of searching, she came across several bound books with different dates written on them. Curious, Ditzy picked one up and saw it was filled with old newspapers. "Princess, what is this place, and why are there old newspapers here?"

"This is the castle's private archive. Few ponies know about it, but within we try to have a comprehensive history of our country's most important spells, weapons, and events so that we may use them later if need be. Some of it seems useless to most, but may be of use in the future. Some are forbidden to most ponies now, but may be free knowledge some day."

"Oh," Ditzy replied before she placed the book back on the shelf. She started to leave for another set of shelves, when she noticed a book with a familiar year on it. "That's the year I fell out of Cloudsdale, when Rainbow Dash caused that accident."

She looked around the bookshelves to the center clearing of the room, and saw Aquilinus passing a few scrolls to Luna, only for her to slap them away. "No! These war plans would not be useful against Discord! Now please, keep trying to find some sort of a counterspell."

Ditzy turned back to the bound tome, fully within curiosity's grip, she opened the cover and began searching. "Something as grand as a sonic rainboom by a filly should be covered by the papers. I need closure, I have to know for sure if she is the reason I wound up the way I am today."

After going through several months worth of newspapers, there was still no mention yet of the rainboom. Finally, a headline caught her eye, with an image of Cloudsdale's weather factory on fire. "I don't remember this happening." She pulled the paper out of it's holder, unfolded it. and began to read.

Cloudsdale's weather factory disaster!

Today, the jewel of the Equestrian Weather Corperation, Cloudsdale's weather factory suffered a terrible disaster. During a company wide strike, that has been ongoing for this past week, a group of young pegasus stallions broke into the part of the factory where Rainbows are chemically made for special events, and decided to create some of their own.

The three ponies, not named or shown to protect their identities, had mixed two very volatile chemicals resulting in a small fire. Shortly after several failed attempts to put out the fire on their own, these young ponies left the spreading fire, saving their own lives. However, the unchecked fire spread, causing an explosion that could be seen and felt for hundreds of leagues around Cloudsdale, costing millions of bits in damage, and injuries.

"It was like nothing I had ever seen before," eye witness Thunderstrike said on the incident. "It was like the sky was alight with an explosion of color. Nopony could have seen this accident coming."

Ditzy quickly folded the paper and placed it back into the book, and began to desperately search through the rest of the papers. When she found one from a week later, she discovered a picture of Rainbow Dash. A very old one, but one none the less as the second half of the front page.

Could this filly really have been the first one to break the color barrier? Experts try to debunk this filly's tall tale.

She pulled the paper out, and read what it had to say, and followed through to another page to finish reading, as she did another article caught her attention.

Heir to the house of Doo still in Canterlot ER.

Ditzellia Doo, daughter of Baroness Esmerelda, and Baron Von Doo, and heir to the Doo fortune is still in an unconscious state. Experts claim that she may never recover, even as Von Doo empties his banks in a bid to keep his daughter alive.

As mentioned previously, Ditzellia was one of the few ponies that was caught by the blast wave of the explosion at the Cloudsdale Weather Factory last week. She was discovered by a passing stallion on the road below the Cloudsdale Summer Flight Camp several hours after the fires had already been put out.

It is unknown at this time if she will ever awake, and if she does how deep the damage extends to. Ditzellia Doo, is of course the heir to the Cloudsdale Weather Corporation, owned by Baron Von Doo. Both Esmerelda and Baron Von Doo spoke about to the Los Pegasus Times about the status of their daughter, quote, "Even if we exhaust every bit we have, we will do whatever it takes for our little girl to recover."

She dropped the paper, and hastily threw it back into the book as a flood of memories came back to her, causing her eyes to pool with tears. "Father, he was a strong stallion. I remember what happened when I woke up. Before the accident, we lived in Cloudsdale, very near the factory. When I woke up though, the house was gone, and we moved from one cheep hotel to the next. I remember that he lost the factory, but he never told me why. He worked so hard to keep us happy."

Everything suddenly clicked into place for her, and Ditzy felt both her sense of sadness for figuring out a missing piece of her life, and the unbridled joy of realizing the solution to the current problem. "That's it. That's it! Princess Luna! Quick! Look into the effects of strong emotional ties on ponies with that spell on them!"

Luna and Aquilinus dropped what they were doing as Luna scrambled for a set of scrolls on a shelf. After looking at, and tossing several of them away, she finally came across something that seemed hopeful. "Yes! Here it is, Capitulation spells, even the strongest one can be broken fully, ONLY by the caster undoing the spell, a counter spell, blow to the head, or very strong personal memories! There are measures that a caster may use against all methods of breaking a capitulation spell, except for emotional responses to personal memories! Ditzellia you are a genius!"

Ditzy smiled as she followed Luna out through the same passage behind the bookshelf. Soon enough, the three of them were flying through the hallways behind Princess Luna. "First, we must break our sister of Discord's spell, then we can use her connections with the element bearers to undo this curse upon them!"

"Huzzah! Chocks away!" Ditzy and Luna then looked at Captain Aquilinus in confusion. "No? I can't use ye oldie caps lock?"

Luna raised an eyebrow before continuing on down the halls. "Thou art not refined enough for the Traditional Canterlot Tongue."

"I would like to think I'm plenty refined for that."

"Silence, we are here." Luna quickly threw open the door to Celestia's bedroom and began searching everywhere. "We must find something that looks personal that would strike an emotional response." Ditzy and the Captain started looking on a shelf and grabbing some small items and framed pictures, while Luna slid open a drawer, only to slam it shut again and turn bright red. "Not that personal," she mumbled before looking elsewhere in the room.

Soon between the three of them, there was a small pile of things, ranging from letters to jewelry. There was a small collection of things that only somepony that lives as long as the princesses could manage to find value in, such as a simple yo-yo, or a rusty sword and shield. Luna quickly levitated the items and made for the exit. "Make haste my ponies, we must break the spell over our sister, so she may help us do the same for the element bearers!"

Aquilinus nodded and galloped out the door after her, and Ditzy began to do the same, when she noticed a great double door cabinet, hidden in the corner of the room. "What's so special that Princess Celestia would lock it inside there?" She silently made her way to the cabinet, and pulled open the doors, only to find it filled with scrolls. "These look important, maybe I shouldn't touch them. But then again-"

"Mail Mare! Where art thou? Hurry back, we must not delay!"

"Coming!" Ditzy looked back at the scrolls for a few seconds, then grabbed one and found that the seal was broken. She unrolled the paper and began to silently read it. "Dear Princess Celestia, I am writing to you from the most delightful party. I'm not only having a great time with my friends, but also was given the opportunity to learn a valuable lesson about friendship. Always expect the best from your friends and never assume the worst. Rest assured that a good friend always has your best interests at heart. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle. This is one of Twilight's letters to Celestia!" Without a second thought, Ditzy rolled the letter back up, and went running after the princess, and guard.

The journey from Celestia's room to the throne room was a very short, and direct path, and soon the repetitive thrum of disco music filled their ears. "We hope that there is still time, and that our sister has not done anything foolish since our leave." They stopped before the doors, and Luna signaled for the other two to halt. "Be on your guard my little ponies, for our sister, may become rash after we begin our work."

Ditzy and Aquilinus nodded, he then threw open the doors and they galloped in only to find that Celestia was no longer alone on the dance floor. "Do the hustle! Boop do doop ba do ba doo boop! Do the hustle!" Everypony that was left to look after Celestia, had decided to join her on the dance floor, and were all dancing with her, as she sang along to the lyrics.

"Alright, we have had enough. This party is OVER!" The full force of the Royal Canterlot Voice shook the room, causing the needle to skip off the record.

The combined groan of everypony resounded through the room as they cleared the center of the throne room, leaving a distraught looking Celestia. "But, we just were having some fun."

"Sister, I am sorry, but you are not yourself."

"Do you know how long it's been since I had any fun?" As she spoke, her mane, which had been a dull streak of flowing monochromatic hues, suddenly caught ablaze. "I SHALL DESTROY YOU!" Celestia suddenly screeched like some sort of primordial monster before thrusting herself at Luna. "Give me back my music!"

"Everypony, RUN!" Luna quickly tossed the objects aside as she tried to cast a shield to block Celestia's attack. Celestia was fast, but sloppy as she threw herself over Luna, and rather than cast spells, simply jabbed at her with her flaming hooves, or attempted to drive her horn into Luna.

The room was quickly cleared out of almost everypony. Other than Luna and Celestia themselves, only Aquilinus and Ditzy Doo themselves stayed behind, taking various stances to prepare to fight if they had to.

Luna cast a spell, and quickly threw Celestia back against the far wall of the room, shattering one of the stained glass windows and letting in the chocolate rain. "You will regret that little sister, nopony throws the dancing queen!"

"You are not a queen! Article 2 clearly states, no queens allowed!"

Celestia quickly got up and lowered her horn to charge. "You forgot about sub article b two, Queens of Dance and or Drag are permitted!"

The three ponies looked at Celestia with confusion, and as they were shrugging their wings, Celestia charged. Luna and Aquilinus saw it coming and dodged. Ditzy however, soon found just how hard Princess Celestia could ram into her, sending her, and the scroll flying into the air. "I start with you little pegasus. You shall learn what I do with ponies that side with my traitorous sister."

"This is it, the end of the line for me," Ditzy thought as the flaming Celestia pressed down on her. Just as her vision began to fade, she suddenly felt the pressure disappear, as Luna and Aquilinus both threw Celestia off of Ditzy.

"You would have to go through us if you wish to harm this delivery pegasus!" Luna yelled as Celestia slid across the floor. As Ditzy got up, she noticed something, the flames that were radiating off of Celestia began to lick the letter on the floor next to her.

Ditzy got up as quickly as she could, but was too late, the letter was fully engulfed in flame. "Well that's one thing burnt away, what else do we have that could jar her memory?"

Aquilinus looked at the pile of random things behind them, as Celestia began to make her way closer. That's when Ditzy noticed something. "That smoke curl, it looks like whenever we send something out with dragon's fire." Sure enough, the smoke curl had a distinct green sparkle of magic around it, and flew quickly out the open window. "The flames must be connected to Spike still." She suddenly got an idea. "Princess Luna, get Celestia into her bedroom."

"Why would you wish to bring her there delivery pony? There is no room to protect ourselves if she should attack!"

"Trust me, bring her, all of us there, now!"

Luna raised an eyebrow at the demand, and looked at Princess Celestia as she charged the three of them once again. Quickly, Luna did as she was bade, and cast the teleportation spell, sending all four of them into Celestia's chambers.

When Ditzy's vision cleared from the flash, Celestia was still running toward them. Quickly, the three ponies ducked away from the charging princess as she screeched once again, and ran headfirst into the open cabinet full of letters Twilight had sent to her. The effect was instantaneous, as the letters burnt, sending out the mist of letters out the open door as fast as they could go. "WHAT IS THIS?! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!"

Ditzy grinned wide as Princess Celestia began to break down, finally realizing what she had done. "It's a special delivery."

Celestia's flames began to die down, and her normal colors returned as she scrambled out of the cabinet, and tried to put out the burning scrolls before they disappeared entirely. "Somepony, help me put them out!"

Luna stepped forward, but Ditzy held a hoof out and shook her head. "Let them burn, I think somepony else could use them better."


Spike had finally got the library as neat and orderly as he possibly could, short of getting a construction crew to fill in the two new holes that the Library had acquired. As he finally went upstairs to relax, a familiar feeling of nausea suddenly struck him as he belched out a letter. "Oh, is Celestia asking for a progress report?" He reached forward to check, when suddenly the nausea struck him again as he belched out another letter, then another, then several more.

Spike quickly fell doubled over in pain as the nausea grew stronger and he continued to belch letters out. Spike barely registered what was going on around him as Twilight came into the bedroom. "Pack your things Spike we're leaving." He responded simply by groaning as he tried not to belch out the next letter. "And don't ask where we're going cause, I don't know yet. Just not here."

Spike groaned as he turned over and tried to explain to Twilight what was going on. "Can't, move! The Princess, has been sending these, since I came back upstairs!" He then belched out another letter and felt that he reached the breaking point. "Make it stop!"

Twilight quickly picked one up and looked it over. "These are all the letters I've written to the Princess since I've lived in Ponyville. But, why would she send them back?"

Spike groaned in response before belching out another letter, and she began to read them out loud. As she continued to read the letters, hope started to creep its way back into Twilight's heart. As hope found it's way back to her, so did her normal colors, and an understanding of how to save her friends to defeat Discord!


"So that last thing that you knew of, Twilight and her friends fell victim to Discord's spell?"

Ditzy Doo nodded at Princess Celestia as Princess Luna passed another box of tissues to her sister. "That's right. When I found out that your letter from Twilight returned to sender when burnt, we had you lead back here to see if that would help."

All three of the mares looked out the window at the deep purple sky as it continued to rain candy upon the castle at this. "I only hope that Twilight actually managed to receive the letters, or that your plan actually worked."

Aquilinus trotted back into the room and gave a sharp salute to the princesses. "Your majesties, I just received a report that the troops are at the border of Ponyville, and are ready to evacuate citizens if needed. What are your orders?"

Celestia thought about it for a few moments, not sure how to respond when suddenly a wave of bright white light radiated from Ponyville, destroying the chaos and leaving harmony in its wake, as if Discord had never existed. Celestia smiled softly as she raised a hoof. "Tell the troops to make sure they have chariots ready to transport Discord's statue back to Canterlot, along with the element bearers."

Author's Note:

Aquilinus is of course from the ask blog, Ask Aquilinus, and I did get permission from the author... Three years ago, when he was still making this blog.

If you haven't checked it out yet, you can find it here. Ask Aquilinus's Tumblr.