The Elements of Salvation

by Slick Dash

Canterlot invaded

“Your majesty please! This way, we need to get you to safety!” The doors to the throne room burst open and two tall slim alicorns burst in from the chaos outside. Countless hordes of changeling drones bore down onto the quickly dwindling Canterlot guards. A single unicorn followed suit, protecting the princess’s, his armour glinted in the light, shined even. A drone threw itself onto him but he quickly tossed it aside with a swing of his mighty neck muscles.

How had they gained such a strong foothold so quickly? It had almost been as though they had poured out from nowhere. To have such a strong and prepared fighting force, they must have waited somewhere nearby to the city to have such vast strength against the trained guards of Canterlot. How had they gone undiscovered!

“To the throne my ladies! Please!” He yelled as he took a shot of two of the black little creatures mauling his fellow guard close to the entrance.
“There is nothing here captain!” Princess Luna called to him from beside her sister. He glanced over his shoulder at the two waiting royal family members. Then back at the chaos in the hall, he was torn between his duty and his honour.

“Eeerraaaagggghhh!” He screamed with frustration. Turning to the doors to the throne room. His horn exploded into a mist of moderate purple magic, coating the doors and dragging them shut. Shining Armour stared as he saw his fellow soldiers being slaughtered as he closed their only means of escape.

As soon as the echoing boom of the slamming doors ebbed away, he heard it. The screeching cackling of the creatures invading the city. He turned to the high windows of the throne room, outside of which hundreds of the little creatures gazed into the room, each one with a devious smile on their faces. His jaw dropped in horror at the mere sight of so many of them. Even with the hundreds pouring into the halls outside this room, there were at least a thousand simply staring at them through the tinted glass.

Armour rushed to Princess Luna and Celestia’s side. Keeping his eyes on every possible threat he could find. There were a lot! Silently as he rushed to the waiting princesses, he gave a quick prayer of thankfulness that Cadence was oversees on royal business, if she hadn't been, she'd be in the middle of this horrible mess!

“Why did you bring us here captain?” boomed Luna as she backed up against her sister and the captain causing the group to face out in three different directions, ready for a fight.
“This!” Armour shouted, he pounded the stone slab he stood on with his forehoof. For a moment nothing happened, and then with an ominous metallic click, the slab sunk an inch into the ground.

Behind the two princess’s the grand staircase that lead to Celestia’s solar throne, collapsed. dust erupted from the ground, causing all three to splutter and cough. Before the dust had even cleared, Shining Armour led the royalty through cloud towards the wall where the stairs had lent against.

As they reached the wall, the dust dispersed, leaving only a gaping hole in the wall, a passage way! “Secret security escape route!” The armour clad captain yelled; he stood by it, poised to rush ahead. “Once we go through, we can close it, no one can get to us.” He paused. Glancing nervously around at the hundreds of little invaders watching them through the window. Why hadn’t they come through? Why didn’t they attack? Their malicious waiting unnerved him.

Celestia spoke for the first time. She sounded surprisingly calm for one in so much danger. “But there’s something else isn’t there?” Shining Armour nodded apprehensively.
“Once we close it, anyone who gets here won’t be able to access the exit, any survivors who make their way here will be trapped.” He looked at the princess beseechingly, begging for her guidance.

BANG!

The three survivors turned to the door. They were coming!

BANG!

Celestia took charge, “Armour, take point! Luna, between me and him, I’ll close the way!”

BANG!

The door’s began to creak ominously, splintering near the hinges.

“Eearrghhh!” Armour yelled, frustrated beyond belief with his inability to help his men outside. He turned and charged down the dark passageway, descending down into the murky depths of the Canterlot caves.

Luna followed suite, chasing after the captain. She heard her sister follow, and then the quick sounds of rubble collapsing behind them. The door was shut! Luna glanced over her shoulder, looking for her sister, ensuring she wasn’t falling behind.

She wasn’t there.

Luna stopped dead in her tracks. “TIAAAAA!” She screamed, running straight for the settling wall of crushed bricks and stone. She threw herself against it, trying to dislodge any of the pieces of rubble. She used her magic, tugging as hard as she could at the chunks of cold stone, but none of the yielded.

She panted, trying to catch her breath from the running through the entire castle, her lungs were too empty for her to scream her sisters name again! She fell against the wall, her ear pushing into the cracks of the immovable wall, praying to hear her. She heard the hoofsteps of Captain Armour return behind her. Then there came a gasp as he realised what had happened.

Silence for a moment, then a muffled explosion could be heard. The sound of wooden planks falling to the floor could be heard, along the ecstatic cries of the drones that had obviously penetrated their way into the throne room.
The two survivors in the escape tunnel listened hard, just able to hear a voice, Tia’s, from within the throne room.

Speaking to some unknown entity, but the wall between them was too thick! After a moment there came the smashing of glass, as the changelings obviously began pouring through the windows into the throne room. “Your majesty, we need to leave.” Armour took a hoof and pulled Luna’s shoulder away from the wall.
“NO!” She protested, clinging to the debris with all her might. “NO! TIA!” She tried to call out, but her voice broke. Bitter tears sprung to her eyes as she tried in vain to keep a hold of the wall as the strong Stallion forced her away.

Armour began to shout at her now! “If you want her to die, then stay here and get captured!” Luna froze at his words. Armour panted, his chest rising and falling without cease. “If we stay here, we risk them finding another way around! Then Princess Celestia is worthless to them, but if we escape, she will be of value to them! She could know where we're heading, so she will be safe, If we GO NOW!” He pleaded with the dark coated princess. The ailicorn looked at the captain, doubt obvious in her tear filled eyes. “Your majesty please. I need to keep you safe! Run! NOW! And you can save your sister!”

Another moment of silence, then Luna brushed past the captain silently and rushed down the steps towards the catacombs. As his head followed her pass him, Armour saw a single drop of a tear glisten and fall through the air as the dark alicorn bolted away. Armour followed silently, not wishing to dwell on the princess he had already lost, only praying, that by some miracle he could save this one!

........

“Armour, take point! Luna, between me and him, I’ll close the way!” Celestia glanced back at the main door furtively, she knew what she needed to do to ensure her little sister got away. She spotted the lever from just within the entrance to the passageway. As quietly as possible -to ensure she didn't alert Luna- she stopped running, and pulled the lever with her bright cloud of magic as her sister passed under the entrance.

Immediately, the wall surrounding the exit began to crumble and fall. And without pause, Tia moved into the centre of the room, ready to face every changeling she could that came through that door.

Silence.

Then with the force of a sonic rainboom, A green ball of magical energy tore its way through the door and exploded, causing the large wooden panels to splinter and fall to the marble floor. Tia took a strong stance, charging up her first magical spell. But as the smoke of the explosion cleared, a voice spoke to her. Low, feminine, and all too familiar.

"Well Princess, I'm glad to see you kept my castle clean for me!" She figure fanned the smoke away with her green dragonfly wings, then glanced down at the splintered wood of the doors strewn across the floor. "Well... mostly anyway." The changeling Queen laughed, and as she did, the swarm of her children from behind began to pour in. They scurried around the walls like roaches, and poured in like a constantly flowing black liquid.

"This is not your castle!" Celestia cried out angrily. "This is the castle of Canterlot, and it will never fall into changeling's hooves!" The challenge made the queens laugh intensify, she grew wilder, and flung her head back, flicking her limp and lifeless mane back as she did.
"Oh really?" She looked around madly, taking in the sight of her changelings pouring out around the castle walls. "I'm sorry to say this, WHAT AM I SAYING? I LOVE IT! This castle is well within our..." She raised her foreleg, displaying her foreleg, tattered and hole ridden. "Hooves!" She finished ecstatically.

Celestia opened her mouth to argue, but the gesture of the queen had obviously been a signal, as the changelings outside the windows all screeched with joy and smashed their way through the stained-glass. The shards rained down, upon the princess, and she shielded her face as best she could from the sharp and lethal missiles. "This is the end of Equestria!" The queen sang happily to the symphony of destruction all around her.

"NO!" Celestia cried again defiantly. "As long as my sister is"-
"Alive?" Interrupted the Queen giddily, cutting the princess short and leaving her in horror at her malicious tone. "Oh trust me princess, if she still is..." the queens pale eyes drifted to the collapsed exit. "She won't be for long!"

........

"This exit leads underneath the Canterlot caverns! Even the Changeling Queen won't know about this passage, it's been abandoned for centuries!" Armour shouted as he over took the dark princess on the stair case. "If I think about it I'd say the only ones who know about it are"-
"The one who built it?" Finished a cool and soft echoing voice as the two escaped into an enormous crystal fissure.

The walls were purely made of gems, nit a single inch of rock could be seen, only gleaming, shining crystal. The two stopped on the simple jagged pathway and began to search for the source of the voice.

"You forget, this castle wasn't always yours pony! It was once home to a far greater race!" Suddenly with a flash of red, the crystal walls seemed to ripple, and a huge face could be seen. So large was the figure, all that could be seen through the cracked clear walls was its eye. The image distorted as it passed over the uneven wall but the speaker was easy to recognise.

"Your majesty! We're safe!" Armour cried in relief at the sight of the mismatched red eye. "It's only Discord!" The eye twinkled with joy, and vanished from sight. Only seconds later, the chimera walked into view from behind a column of crystal. "It's the changelings, they've overrun the castle, we need to get out of here!" Armour explained quickly, taking a few agitated steps towards the slim god. But he merely took a claw and began to pick at a spot just behind his long sharp tooth.

"Do excuse me dear boy, this thing's been bugging me all day!" The draconequus said offhandedly. After a moment he found the source of hi annoyance, and picked it out. From where he stood, and the limited light from around him, Armour could only just catch a glimpse of glinting purple. The chimera sighed and flicked it towards the stallion.

Behind Armour, the silent princess of the night gasped in horror. Armour spun around wildly. "My lady? What's wrong?" Luna pointed to the little fleck of gem that had fallen to the floor just before the white unicorn's hooves.
"T-t-that stone! It's energy is... is..." The chimera began to laugh, catching both their attention.

"Is the energy f the element of Harmony 'Magic' yes!" He took his paw to his lips and kissed the tips of his digits melodramatically. "Delicious! Dragons aren't the only ones with a fondness for gems you know!" The chimera's demeanour began to fade, he grew more serious and his gaze grew darker. "No more Twilight coming to the rescue!" He said coldly. Armour couldn't believe what he was hearing. This chimera, the one they had finally accepted into their lives as a friend, was now acting like the dark monster of legend once again!

"W-what have you done?" Armour ordered, trying to still give his voice some glimmer of authority in his moment of blind panic, if he wasn't here to help, then it meant Discord was here to stop them. Armour knew he stood no chance. The chimera arched a curious eyebrow at the stallion, and then to Luna.
"What I've done, is brought an end to Equestria as you know it!" He paused for a moment, savouring what his next words would do to the two. "Ponyville now lies in ashes!" Luna gasped in horror, and Armour stumbled back in shock.

'Twily' Armour thought in horror as he searched for some sign of Discord's words being lies. Luna finally spoke up, her face was one of complete fury and she began to move to the draconequus with the sole intent of retribution! "And now you've come here to the job Discord? To end Equestria's monarchy?" She tried to pass shining armour, but he held her back with a strong forehoof.
"Please, stay back your majesty!" He said through a cracking voice. He took a deep breath to calm himself and looked to the slim figure, who had begun to walk over to the other wall that created the corridor.

"Oh no, Dearest Luna, you think this was my doing? How wonderfully dense of you!" He placed his paw against the wall, and beckoned Armour to come closer. "Come over here captain, take a look at your true attacker." Armour stared in surprise, him? Why? Whatever the reason, he wouldn't dare abandon the princess, if the chimera thought he would, then he really didn't know anything about his enemy, fool!

Then, a nagging little voice cried out to Armour, almost like Cadence's it pleaded with him, and begged him to look, to determine why all his men had been forced to die, who was to blame? Armour took a step towards the waiting crystal wall, almost in a trans as he forgot why he was there in the first place.
"CAPTAIN!" Princess Luna shouted horrified at the act of thoughtlessness, he'd been the one who insisted they ran, now he was wasting time on an obvious trick of the chimera. She glared at the slim figure, the one who had tricked them all. But the draconequus simply placed a claw to his lips and let a gentle "Shhh." as she watched him mocking her, she felt a breath on her neck. She glanced back to see two red eyes staring back at her mere millimetres away.

Luna gasped in surprise, and glanced back to see that Discord was now gone from the side of the wall. He had used his magic to teleport to her side, completely avoiding the captain who still made his way to the gleaming wall.

The stallion could see to the other side of the layer of crystal. The slight gray of the rocky wall far on the other side glistened and twinkled as the approaching captain's perspective changed with each sep he took. Finally, he spotted movement! He froze, and watched as a glimpse of white fur streaked past a small even window of crystal.

He approached again, slower this time, ready to spot the slightest movement. But the glimpse of white fur didn't streak across his vision again, was it possible he'd imagined it? Or... His head snapped over to the princess, and saw that the chimera was beside her, floating on his back watching with an air of distain across his face. "Don't worry dear boy." The chimera explained, biting down on one of his tiger claws, cutting away at the tip gently. "It's not a trick. The one who made this attack possible is in there, just look." He gestured at the patch of crystal straight ahead of Armour, who sighed and glanced back.

His eyes took a second to adjust to the sudden clarity of the image.

Armour stared into the crystal, and saw himself. The same armour, the same pale blue streaked mane, everything. He leant in, and so did the other Armour. He relaxed, just a reflection... but as he opened his mouth to speak, the reflection didn't. Instead, it winked. When the eye opened again, it was no longer a beautiful blue, but a pale sickly green. Now the mismatched eyes narrowed as the other Armour smiled wickedly back.

"Just as promised!" The chimera shouted, clicking his fingers and causing the sheet of crystal between the two stallions to shatter. As the shards showered down, he continued and the green eyed stallion began to walk slowly towards the captain. "Both of you! Shining Armour, this is the commander of the forces destroying your beloved Canterlot. Son of the Queen of changelings."

Armour's heart stopped for a moment, what?! The queen? After eighteen years, she had returned to try and take over again! And this...thing was what was obviously winning the battle for them. The 'thing' continued to step forward. As it did, its other eye shifted to the same pale green as the other. His fur began to darken, and his mane began to grow longer, and darken to two shades of deathly green. As he smiled, his teeth began to become far more pointed, as did the horn on his head, which lengthened and began to curve into a similar shape to the Changeling queen.

Finally, from beneath his black fur, a small light material began to push out. It was a light green, like the highlights of the figures long limp mane. And between the thin vein like sinews a clear dark tinted sheet of skin spread over the surface, creating long fly like wings. Finally the transformation seemed complete. Discord smirked. "Luna, Shining Armour... meet 'Dying Armour' Son of the changeling queen..."

The chimera's eyes gleamed with malicious intent as he savoured the moment, his lips opened, and his forked tongue licked them slowly. With something, barely more than a whisper, the chimera continued.

"Dying Armour... Meet you father."

The silence that followed these words was palpable with the horror that emitted from both the princess and the captain. Discord licked his lips again, savouring he moment of chaos he'd created within the stallion's heart. Discord could see into his mind, that dark fear that had always been threatening to creep into reality, the repercussions of what he had done in his blind ignorance eighteen years ago.

Both stallions stood head to head, staring the other down waiting for the other to make the first move. While Shining Armours face showed nothing more than shock and horror, Dying Armour's expression was one of pure loathing. As the two began to circle, the draconequus on the outskirts of the alley straightened, and leant into the ear of Princess Luna. "Now princess, let's leave these two to catch up." With a flash of light, and a scream from the dark princess which was cut short. The two of them vanished into thin air.

Armour realised only too late, he bolted towards the two figures, only in time to see Luna's horrified face disappear before his very eyes. He called out to her and stretched out his hoof, but before he could rush to her aid the changeling stallion leapt across his path. "No, you're going to stay down here, with me..." he said coldly, then his lips curled into a menacing grin "Daddy."

Armour was speechless, he couldn't possibly believe anything this creature -or the damned chimera- was saying. His son? That was absurd! How could it... unless...

"That's right!" Dying Armour purred, as he began to circle the now stationary captain. "It's starting to come to you isn't it." Shining Armour stared into the blurry gloom of the crystal alley, his mind racing in memories, searching for a scrap of reassurance that it was impossible. Yet a small part him could see the possibility of truth. And that small part was quickly growing in strength. Dying Armour continued to speak as he circled the captain, like a bird of prey waiting to strike.

"Even forgetting about the past, and if it's possible, just look at me! The perfect specimen of a changeling warrior, far more than a mere drone, I have a mind, a voice, a soul all of my own. Have you ever seen one like me? Other than my mother?" The pony simply stared into the shadows, unable to speak, his lips moved, trying to form the simplest of words, yet his lungs seemed to have frozen over in horror.

"Still unsure?" The changeling stopped before the captain and stared at him with obvious dislike. "Fine! The night before the wedding, the night before you betrayed my mother, you laid with your beloved, remember?" Shining Armour could remember, it was the event that had been playing on his mind the entire time. No one was sure when Chrysalis abducted Cadence, but it was obvious it had been far earlier than the day before the wedding.

Armours darkest secret -the night with a changeling in the form of the one he loved- had finally come back to haunt him after eighteen years.

"And so he accepts it." Dying Armour said coolly, "Good, I wouldn't want you to die not knowing..." Die?! Armour shook from his dark morose thoughts just in time to see the changeling commander lunge for him with his bladed horn. The captain jumped back just in time, the horn pulled up short, but nicked one of the straps holding the captain's armour in place. The contact severed the strap, but more than that, a dark green fire began to etch away at the tips of the now severed leather. It burnt away slowly and Armour quickly disposed of the chest plate before the fire burnt through the metal.

The changeling smiled, his horn glowing with a dark green hew. "The strength of a changeling queen, and the magic of a unicorn captain... you can't win father."

Once again, the commander lunged for the captain his horn glowing darkly, and his mouth sneering savagely! Shining Armour swung his horn up, and the two smashed against each other, causing a shower of green and blue sparks to explode from the contact.

Comments

[SuperPinkBrony12]

So Discord IS a traitor, if I didn't know any better I'd say he planned everything from the beginning to ensure the mane six would trust him enough to let their guard down and then he would team up with Chrysalis and finally conquer Equestria.

[White Wolf]

Discord isn't a traitor. He never left his evil ways behind him. He just changed tactic.

[Star Plasma]

Noooo! Damn these cliffhangers!

[Telly Vision]

Discord when the story is over and pinkie wants to talk to you dont accept the cupcakes

[Evil-Lovieness]

978974 But why did he have to bring PINKIE into this.... WHHHHHHY!!?!???!??!

[TheDreamActualizer]

the battle of the Armours is giving me a kind of Vader vs. Luke vibe... but with an evil Luke and good Vader (which, by the way, would also be awesome)

and I really like how much justice you're doing Discord; most other fics I've read recently have left him embarrassingly nurffed, and you're making him straight up scary in the way that he talks and interacts with the other characters. I'm exited to see where this goes! :D