You're All Alone, Sweetheart

by TheApexSovereign

When the Death Belle Tolls...

"Alright, now this is gonna hurt for just a second." Twilight told the despaired Rarity. The tip of her horn glowed a bright orange. Slowly, the lilac unicorn pressed her horn against Rarity's gushing wound. It made a sizzling noise on contact, making her release a pained hiss. "I know, I know, but I needed to cauterize the wound." Twilight turned her attention to Spike, who was doing his best to mop up the blood stained carpet. "Spike, take up a letter." The large dragon sifted through the Boutique's front desk and found a quill and paper.

"It hurts so much....." Rarity whispered as Fluttershy tearfully wrapped a bandage around her lacerated flank, circling around her back left leg.

"You're okay Rarity...Really,...it's fine." Blatant lies were heard in Fluttershy's panicked tone. The remainder of the hot sticky liquid instantly seeped through the white gauze, causing the horrified pegasus to cover it over several rounds of bandages. After burning through at least several feet of gauze, not a single splotch of red was seen.

Fluttershy let out a sigh of relief as Rarity struggled to get up on all fours. She flinched the very moment she put pressure on her leg, alerting Rainbow Dash to rush to her side for support.

Rarity let out dazed sigh and said, "Thank's Rainbow Dash, sorry about your lovely uniform."

Her gaze fell to Rainbow's Wonderbolts uniform, which had a long tear running along the side revealing her sky blue fur. When Sweetie so suddenly let go, Rarity's surprisingly sharp horn sliced through Rainbow's suit. "Nah, it's okay. Spitfire's got warehouses of these things. But really, you should dull that horn or something. It could poke your eye out." She gave a joking smile.

Rarity gave a hesitant laugh, still feeling like she ruined everything, ruined Sweetie Belle, and possibly ruined Equestria. Once she got comfortable maintaining her back left hovered above the ground, she nudged Rainbow to step away. Rarity hobbled over to the red leather couch and laid face down. "I'm sorry girls. This is all my fault." She mumbled into a pillow.

Applejack sympathetically placed a hoof on her friend's back. "Now don't go thinkin' that! It ain't your fault!"

Rarity picked her head up, revealing fresh tears rolling down her cheeks. "Yes it is! I should've shown Sweetie Belle more love and care! Not making her that stupid little dress! She hates dresses! If I was more of a sister and listened, then she would still be the cheerful little filly that I single-handedly destroyed!" She buried her face into the golden laced pillow and released a series of muffled cries.

The orange pony rubbed her hoof along Rarity's ruffled violet mane. "Shut yer trap, Rarity! You know it ain't your fault! Those horrible kids at the school bullied her relentlessly, from what Applebloom told me. It's nopony's fault!"

Rarity reseted her chin on the arm of the couch and said, "But I....I should've been there! She-She always tried t-talking to me 'bout it, but I always pushed her away! Generosity, HA! I'm the reason for turning her into a monster!"

Rainbow Dash fluttered overhead and landed on the back of the sofa. "She was possessed by Discord! She told us that herself!"

Rarity shot daggers at the brash pegasus. "She really hates me! I saw it in her eyes! She wasn't possessed by that horrid brute!"

Fluttershy knelt down next to Applejack. "I'm sure if you explain that you didn't want to get sick from touching her, I'm sure she'll eventually understand."

The pearl white unicorn let out another round of tears, frightening the soft spoken pegasus. "That was a lie! A horrible ugly lie! I never wanted to touch her! She's just so gross!" Rarity stopped to choke on a sob. "Listen to me! I'm saying this about my own sister for Celestia's sake! I'm a horrible pony! I love her! I really do!" Seeing Rarity like this unnerved Fluttershy. Though she's been over-dramatic before, it's very clear that she's being serious right now. But the timid pony knew she had to be strong, for Rarity.

Applejack, whose nerves were wearing thin, slammed her hoof on the coffee table, making the sobbing unicorn flinch. "Get a hold of yourself, partner! A true sister wouldn't lie on her victorian fancy couch and cry about what could've and should've happened! What's done is done! But we can still get our Sweetie Belle back before she does something she'll regret!" Her words had a sharp edge to them, but her expression looked sincere.

Rarity whipped her red and blue eyes. "You're right Applejack! We must get to Canterlot and save my little sister from that possessive brute! I may be a terrible sister, but Discord is just using her to overthrow the Princess! It's time to set things right!"

Rainbow Dash shot a hoof in the air and cheered, "All right! Now we're talkin'!" Applejack smiled proudly and Fluttershy gave a meek, "Yay!"

As if on cue, Spike's massive claw held a raveled scroll between two fingers. He took a deep breath and gently blew a tiny green flame onto the scroll, causing it to vanish in thin air.

To his left, Twilight Sparkle turned to look at her friends and said, "We've already sent a warning to the Princess. Pinkie Pie's dropping her kids off at an old friend's house, Cranky, and she went to Fluttershy's to feed the animals."

"Wonderful." Fluttershy whispered, feeling like a huge weight was lifted off her shoulders now that Rarity's happy and her animals are fed.

Twilight continued, "Spike, you stay here and help put the fires out! Come on, I can see market street burning up from over here! Let's go! Let's go!" She ushered the large dragon out the door as he said, "Okay! Okay! I'm going!" Once Spike was out the door, he sprang open his seven foot wings and took off.

"Alright girls, once Pinkie gets back-"

"I'm here!" The pink pony cheered as she hopped through the doorway.

Twilight looked around awkwardly, "Okaaaaaaay. Let's head to my place and get the elements!"

The ponies all cheered as they marched out the fashion boutique, Applejack allowing Rarity to use her as support.

---

"You did great in there, child! Absolutely astounding!" Discord gave a slow clap as he descended from the sky.

I grimaced at him as he landed softly on the coarse sand of the lake shore. What took him so long? I've been waiting here for ten minutes! Hang on a second, "How'd you know what happened?"

He gave a shrewd grin. "I was the punch bowl!"

"Ew!" I gagged, remembering I actually drank some of that.

"Oh, quit your whining! It's time to make history my friend! Now, hold on tight!"

Without even telling me, he wrapped his tail around me and teleported us away from the beach in a blinding flash.

I recuperated slowly, trying to blot out the high pitched ringing in my ears. When I opened my eyes, I found myself standing right in front of the the Canterlot gates, on top of the stone bridge lined with several different gargoyles of famous ponies. The gates were sealed shut, as if somepony already told us we were coming. But how? Aside from feeling numb form the teleportation, I also felt suddenly lighter. I turned to discover my saddle bag was gone.

"Hey! Where's the bag!? And the ingredients?!" I snapped.

Discord's yellow marble eyes shifted down towards me. "The sacrifices were destroyed the moment we passed through the barrier, destroying it. But why the rush? Let's have some fun, shall we?" He turned his back and shot out both fists, firing a green laser at one of the waterfalls down below.

The waterfall was turned into molten hot lava, creating an ear-piercing shriek of steam and a thick cloud of mist engulfed the lake surface . Laughing, he disappeared in a red flash. Dozens of colored flashes in different points around the city below spread like a virus. In just a matter of ten seconds, he reappeared beside me, laughing.

"Oh, child! You should've seen what I just did! I turned the streets into flypaper, turned a toupee store into a colony of spiders, And-And I made one fellows salad come to life! He-He thinks it's aliens! Ha-ha! Isn't that great?!"

Discord was certainly enjoying himself, but I wasn't. In an irritated tone I said, "Let's get on with this."

The spirit slouched his shoulders. "You're no fun." He folded his arms like a child and pouted. With a flick of his wrist, the steel gates were turned into soap, falling apart under the afternoon heat in thick sloppy chunks.

Then a sudden, urgent thought entered my head. "What about Rarity and her friends?"

Discord wrapped his serpent tail around my shoulders. "Relax my child! Enjoy life while you can! It's a short but beautiful struggle! After what I did, the Elements will certainly be held up for an hour or so."

I quirked a brow. "What'd ya do?"

---

"No! Get away! None of you are laying a single hoof on my Tom!" Rarity held a book close to her chest.

Twilight let out an exasperated groan. "No! Not this again! Fluttershy, hold her down!"

A dull yellow and pink pegasus floated by and smacked Twilight in the back of her head. "Why? So you could have old Fluttershy back?"

Twilight turned towards the drab suited pegasus lying on a bookshelf. "Rainbow Dash? Please help!"

She gave a lazy yawn. "Not my problem." She shifted the transparent blue goggles over her eyes.

Twilight smacked herself in the forehead and collapsed to the ground.

---

"You're not one for originality, or you?" I asked in a pensive tone.

Discord shrugged. "Eh, it's kinda my thing."

We marched through the ruins of the blue soapy gate. Before we pushed open the massive wooden doors, Discord snapped his fingers and it began to rain chocolate milk from fluffy pink clouds.

---

10 minutes earlier, Celestia's P.O.V.

Let's see here, I have that speech to make tomorrow morning, I have to visit Las Pegasus, and then Luna has her Modernization Lesson after lunch.

As I checked tasks off of my list, a rolled up parchment appeared beside me and fell to the ground. Ah, another letter from my faithful student, Twilight Sparkle, telling me about another thing she learned about the magic of friendship. She's such a good kid.

I levitated the scroll and unraveled it.

Dear Princess Celestia,

This is a warning of great urgency, and I know it will be a bit hard to believe, but please hear me out! Discord, the God of Chaos, has been freed from his stone prison and is now on the loose to plunge Equestria into darkness forever. But there's more! He's done something to my friend's little sister, Sweetie Belle! She talked about bringing Equestia into a new Utopia and she thinks killing you will make that happen! Please don't brush this off as some petty assassination! She's gotten really powerful and seems to have some sort of plan. My friends and I will be there ASAP with the Elements of Harmony, do whatever you can to protect Canterlot.

Please be careful,
Your faithful student,

Twilight Sparkle

I dropped the scroll and bolted out the door.

---

"Luna, please wake up!" Celestia nudged her sister's shoulder.

Luna lazily brushed the Princess away and wrapped herself more tightly in her constellation patterned blanket. "Luna, this is an emergency! I order you to get out of bed!"

"I order you to get outta my room!" She snapped, still half asleep.

Celestia tightened her jaw. "I know you get cranky if you don't get your sleep-"

The dark Alicorn levitated a pillow and tossed it at her sister. Celestia simply took a small step aside, barely missing the projectile. "Damn it, Luna! Stop acting like a stubborn filly and look at me!" Her voice echoed throughout Luna's chamber, stacked high with books on modern speaking, behavior, and communication text books. Her star patterned curtains were drawn, concealing the day time light she used to sleep. A series of dark blue carpeted steps led up to her queen sized bed with the enraged Celestia leaning over it.

Her older sister's enraged tone made it clear that Luna had to get up, now. Her wavy blue hair, not being brushed in two years, was messy and unkempt, giving her a rather tomboyish look. "What do you want, big sister?" Her aqua blue eyes were half closed.

"Read this letter." She slammed Twilight's note in her face.

The note glowed a dark aura as Luna quickly skimmed through the lines, her eyes slowly widening at the seriousness of the situation. "What do we do?" She rested the black crown over her ruffled mane.

Celestia explained as her younger sister hooked the black necklace above her shoulders, adjusting it so that the crescent moon was in the center. "I want you to alert the royal guard."

"Is that it?" Luna asked in disbelief as she slipped on her silver hoof covers.

"Of course not." Celestia gave a wry smile. "Knowing our old friend, Discord, he'll probably cause some chaos along the way. Resolve the issues, save civilians. I'll protect the castle."

"Gotcha." Luna gave an enthusiastic nod. Unexpectedly, Celestia wrapped her forelegs around her neck. "Be safe, little one."

Luna, maturing allot from the humble princess she once was three years ago, rolled her eyes and returned the hug. "Yeah, you too."

Together, the princesses rushed out of Luna's room, ready to take on whatever challenge may lie ahead of them.

Comments

[TheMyth]

Hmph... guess Rarity got what she deserved

[Mr. Haze]

FUCKING AWESOME! I'm on the edge of my seat, literally! MOAR!

[Dan50]

Can't wait to see what Discord has in store haha.

[Fiddlebottoms]

Celestia should probably wrap her forelegs or something around Luna.
Otherwise, I liked the whole "Not this shit again"-tone of the reDiscored-elements. Disappointed by the diminishing casualty count, though, but the next bit looks like it should fix that.