The Element of Willpower

by Redwolf15

Chapter Twenty-five: Siege on Canterlot... Again

Chapter Twenty-five:
Siege on Canterlot... Again

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I leaped into the fray of Lessers, my heart was pumping with excitement. I punched, kicked, slashed, stabbed, and burned every Lesser around me. Chex didn't seem as excited about this as I was, but why would she? This is practically a battle we can’t win. Everywhere I turn, everywhere I look, there they are. Monsters from a child's nightmare, demons meant to be forged in the image of angels. In short, damn they're ugly.

I retreated back to the center with Chex, short of breath. "This, really sucks."

"You don't say?" She asked sarcastically while letting fly another arrow,. Her quiver isn't infinite, and she's running out of arrows fast. "So what do you propose we do?"

"Fight to our last breath?"

"Not the best idea, but I guess we can't be choosy can we?" She readied another arrow.

"Heh, and here I thought this was going to be a straightforward plan." Silver Fang burst into flame and I sent a wave of fire at another Lesser. One came at me from behind. I turned around too late and froze up as rows of sharpened teeth flew towards me. This is the end, I thought to myself as time seemed to slow down. Does my adventure really end here? I watched in horror as the teeth came closer to me inch by inch. Maybe it's luck, or perhaps fate, hell, it could even be her wonderful timing. but I survived. The Lesser went from mid-air to the ground in less than a second.

Standing over him was the greatest griffin I have ever known. Sharla, she had her claws dug into its skull, and a fire in her eyes. An entire squad of griffins followed close behind, fighting as many Lessers as possible, but we were heavily outnumbered. The girls were there, Flora, Flex, thank god he made it, Shining Armor, General Swift, and a lot of griffins.

"Hot damn am I glad you guys got here!" I say as the Lesser under Sharla disappears. "I see you got the message."

"Where's Shantze?" Sharla asked ignoring our predicament last we saw each other.

"Safe, and I'm fine thank you very much."

"Sorry," she wrapped her talons around my neck and gave me a hug. "I'm sorry. I tried to save you. I'm so glad to see that you’re not..."

"Hey, easy." I push her away and look into her eyes. "I'm not dying that easily. As long as you have my back, I'll be fine."

"Think you two can wrap things up?" Shining Armor called out over the yelling. "We need some help dealing with these things!"

We gathered ourselves together and sprung into action. If I had to guess, we were outnumbered maybe seven to one. Lessers came at us in droves. We all fought with a tenacity that reminded me of the time we fought Nosferatu and his ghouls. I don't know how long we fought them off, it could have been anywhere between ten minutes to an hour. We stood side by side each other, exhausted. We took a lot of them out, but for every one that fell another seemed to take its place, and they hadn’t suffered losses alone. They've taken out more than a third of the griffins.

"So, what were you saying about fighting to our last breath?" Chex asked, long since depleted of arrows. I looked around, everyone was tired and sore from all the fighting. Shining Armor, Sharla, Flex, Flora, Chex, the girls, General Swift. All of us.

A cheeky smile passed over my face. "That I'm not going to waste it just sitting around and letting them pick me apart on their own leisurely time!" I rushed at the mob, sword on fire and at the ready. Before I knew what was happening, a cloud of earth exploded between me and the Lessers. A great big hulking blur jumps out from where the earth exploded and dives at the nearest Lesser, jamming a spear through its head. The blur came into focus and before me was a muscle bound dog standing on its hind legs and wearing heavy armour. "Hey, you're a..." Before I could finish my sentence more clouds exploded from the ground and more dogs jumped out and started picking off the Lessers. To our astonishment, the Lessers were soon overrun by Diamond Dogs.

"What's going on?" Rainbow Dash asked just as confused as the others.

"What happened?" A muffled voice is heard from under us. A paw appears from the voice's source and soon an entire body follows. "What happened is that your reinforcements finally showed up."

"Corig!" I shout in blissful surprise. He smiled back and extended his fist to me. I pounded it with my own, "It's about time you showed up, we were going to take them all out without you."

"Sorry, but it took us a little longer than expected." He pointed towards the sky with his free thumb with his other paw holding his spear with the magical stone attached to it. We looked to the sky and our reactions were a mix of horror, surprise, glee, and awe. Overhead, wiping out the Lessers that occupied the air, were dragons! The sky was ablaze with color and fire, mainly fire. A giant purple figure flew at us and landed with a great thud next to Corig.

"Dragon Lord Krinox." I said happy to see the king again.

"Hello," he lowers his head in a small bow. "I apologize on our tardiness, but the dragons of this era seem to be more beast than dragon. But they still know power when they see it, or feel it."

"Your timing couldn't be better, we need to get to that castle, but as you can see most of us have no wings."

He sighed in annoyance. "Very well. But this once only." He lowered a wing so we could climb onto his back. "Corig, when your dogs are finished with this lot, help out the ground forces at the gates." He nodded his in acknowledgement and jumped into the fray with his subordinates. The others were more skeptical about getting on Krinox. "It's fine. Now we don't have all day, either get on or get left behind."

The relented and all but Dash, Swift, Flora, and Flex get on. Dash and the General said that they preferred their own wings, the Flora just constantly refused, besides, she had her own wings so why stop her? Flex, yeah I guess he just preferred his wings rather than a dragon's like Dash and Swift.

He lifted his wings up, and with a push we were lifted off the ground and flying. We were forced to hang onto his scales or spikes otherwise we'd be blown off. "You're doin' good Sugarcube," Applejack tried yelling over the rushing wind so Fluttershy may hear her. "Just keep those eyes closed and think your getting lift from some..." She tried looking for the right word for the mare.

"Butterflies!" I yell back as my hair blew in my face.

"Yeah, you're getting a ride from a bunch of butterflies!" Applejack comforted the shaking mare. She was scared beyond paralysis. the only way we were able to persuade her at getting on Krinox was putting her in her 'happy place.' It was a dreadful experience getting her on his back, one that took much longer than it should have. But, she eventually did it and we could finally get a move on.

"How you doing Chex?" I called behind to check on the centaur.

"I'm managing," she answered. She had to laid down and gripping tightly to one of the spikes going down Krinox's spine.

The dragons made quick work of the Lessers occupying the sky, it was nice have a break. Even if it was dangerous to let our guard down. "Where do we go?" Krinox called.

"There, the tower closest to the mountain." Shining Armor pointed with a hoof.

"The one with the chocolate roof?" We confirmed his question, and he dove down towards the building, landing with a great thud and crushing a few Lessers in the process. We all slid off his back, and come upon our next challenge. there was no door.

"There's no door." Flora says voicing my thoughts.

"If I may," Krinox stepped in between us and the tower. With one great slash of his purple claws he busted a huge hole in the building.

"Dammit Krinox, think before you act! What if you hit the Princess!" I yell at him angrily. "Gah, never mind, go fight the Lessers or something."

"Jesse," he says in a calm and serious tone. "Make that demon pay for what he's done to us." I just nodded and watched him fly off.

"Okay everyone!" I addressed the group. "All we have to do now is free the Princesses, figure out how to save Twilight, use the Elements of Harmony on Discord, and then we've saved Equestria. Any questions?"

"Uh, I got one," Applejack says raising her hoof. "How are we going to use the Elements if we don't have them?" Silence fell over all of us and a typical breeze, a tumbleweed gently blew by us. Thank you Discord for the awkward wind. I look at each of the girls' neck, and sure enough, they have no Elements around them.

"Why didn't you tell us this earlier?" I shouted. "Do you mean to say that we left them back in Ponyville? DO we really have to go back and get them after all that trouble we went through to getting here?"

"Stop yelling!" Flora yelled back making things counter-productive.

"No, we didn't forget them, Discord stole them from us." Rainbow Dash flared angrily. Great, just great. Discord holds the Elements now. "Okay, new plan: we save the Princesses, get the Elements or save Twilight, whichever comes first, then then we defeat Discord."

"How do we know that we can even do it this time?" Fluttershy askde quietly.

"Because, we just gotta believe we can." I replied. "Now with no further questions, can we go save some Princesses now?" They all nodded, We marched through the tower, determination coursing through us. Shining Armor, Sharla, Flex, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Chex, and Flora; each of them have been with me through thick and thin. Some more than others, and I'd trust them all and put my life in each of their hands/hooves/talons or whatever appendage they may have. And now they look to me, with not just my life in their hands, but theirs in mine, and all of Equestria's.

We pass by cells, all empty. Nothing looks likes its been changed by Discord's influence, looks like a typical dungeon. shining Armor and I turn a corner and frantically get back behind the corner for protection. "What is it?" Chex asks.

"Lessers. Three of them." I whisper. "Too far to take them out with a sneak attack."

"What do you propose we do?" Shining Armor asked peering around the corner, careful to not get spotted.

I look to Flex and give him a wry smile. "This:" I jumped around the corner and rushed the Lessers, yelling as loud as I could to grab their attention. I grabbed my coat and spread my arms out to make myself look bigger, more intimidating. The plan worked like a charm and I grabbed their undivided attention, they all shouted and charged at me. The hallway was narrow, only allowing one Lesser at a time. I wait until we get close enough together, time for some fireworks.

"AAAAAAAAAnd distraction!" I let go of my coat and drop to the ground, sliding across the stone ground. Replaced by my presence was Flex, a great ball of fire shooting at the Lessers like a bullet. Flex flew over me and smashed into the first Lesser, sending it and the other two flying through the hall. "Heh-heh-heh, morons." I chuckle to myself.

"Jeez that was reckless and stupid of you," Sharla nagged me as Flex flew back and perched on my shoulder, he's taken care of the Lessers.

"Hello? Is somepony there?" We heard someone call from the darkness of a cell.

"Princesses Celestia?" Shining Armor called in shock. Wait what? Holy shit what? Shining Armor rand down the dark hall, stopping at one cell.

"Captain, you're back? Have you brought us help?" The same voice, whom I am 95% certain that is Celestia's, asked. The girls ran down to meet the captive.

"Shining!" A voice from the opposite cell calls. He turns around and lightens up and he moves to the opposite side.

"Hi honey, I'm home." He extended his hoof through the bars and held onto whom I'm guessing is Cadence.

"Okay, things are getting sappy and nice," I said as the rest of us stepped into the scene. I see two figures in cell where Celestia is, I suppose Luna's there with her but there isn't enough light to tell properly. "Anyway, we're the cavalry. So let's get you out of there." I cut through the bars with ease, in fact, it was too easy. Instead of hearing metal bars cling against the stone ground we hear more so a cracking, sort of like something chipped. Sharla picks up a piece and examines it.

"It's made out of candy cane." There's an awkward five second silence. Then Pinkie Pie grabbed it out of Sharla's claws and ate it whole.

"I'm not sure what's less surprising," I say, freeing Cadence in the same manner.. "That the bars aren't made from metal, or Pinkie Pie just did that. Flex, mind lighting this place up a bit? it's kind of dark." He nodded and conjured a bit of light for everyone to see..

We hear a collective gasp from the girls. "Princess, what happened to you?" Rarity asks.

"Cadence, what happened to your horn? And wings?" Wait, what's that? I turned my attention to the rulers of day and night first, and my jaw hung loose. Okay, let's knock that 95% to an 85%, because last time I checked, Celestia and Luna were alicorns. In front of us were two earth ponies that held the cutie marks of the Princesses. Cadence had the same problem.

A number of things happened in the next few seconds, let me make a list of how it happened in chronological order:

1. Celestia now had a solid pink mane with no wings or horn. Luna looked like how she did back in episode two, but again, no horn or wings.

2. I got three separate expressions of shock and astonishment.

3. Chex gave Celestia a hug calling her mother.

"Mother?" Everyone asks in unison.

"Wait wait wait, Chex do you mean to tell me that Celestia is actually Mother?" I ask stepping in as the centaur let's go of her 'mom'.

"Oh my," Celestia says staring at me. Another feature missing from her and Luna were that their manes didn't blow in a non-existent wind. "I never thought there'd be another."

"So it's true, there was a human before me, huh?" She nodded her head. "Well, that's something then, on a later note. What in high holy hell happened to you three?"

"It was Discord." Luna answered. Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity looked uneasily to what makes them special as they remember when they got their horns or wings taken. They even looked smaller than I expected. "Who might you be by the way? And how is it that you've come by this world?"

"My name is Jesse, and I can answer whatever other questions you may have while we still have time. And if you could also answer some of my own."

"Of course," Celestia nodded.

"Well for starters, it was Discord who brought me here."

"Of course it was him." Celestia says with disdain. "I'm sure you have questions for us as well. Ask what you will."

"Why are your manes different? Didn't Discord just take your horns and wings?"

"By taking our extra appendages he also took away our magic. We've lived for centuries, after all that time magic soon became a part of us, sending our bodies into a metamorphosis. Now that your magic has been taken from us we have been reverted to our original forms." Well, I can't say that it's unbelievable or unreasonable.

"Okay, so how do we free Twilight?"

"That would be a challenge, Discord has reshaped the Elements of Harmony and used them against us. Freeing Twilight Sparkle will be no easy task."

"Reshaped? What do you mean?" Shining Armor asked.

"No creature against harmony can use it." Luna answers for Celestia. "Discord is the very opposite of harmony and yet the Elements had no effect on him. He somehow found a way to mutate them and change them for his own use, yet they’re still as strong as the Elements of Harmony."

"Shit; Discord holds the Elements now, how can we retrieve them?"

"I am not sure, but if it is one thing Discord likes, it's games. We'll just have to play along and hope at beating him and retrieving the elements in the process." She paused for a short time and looked to Chex and Flora. "I'm surprised that you haven't asked me of them."

"Well I've been meaning to, but I'm not sure what to ask. I know that there are a number of half-human creatures in the world, that many of them died fighting Discord, that they went their own ways after he took her. I was even forced to kill two of them, and I know that whoever this Mother is, she's human. And I know that you've been helping her. So I guess that leaves only one question: Who is Mother?"

"And who am I?" Flora asked her in a gruff tone. "Why don't I remember any of this?"

A long silence was carried out as I stared intensely at Celestia, and her back at me. "You do not remember because you have no memory of those ever happening." She directed her attention to Flora. "You were not yet born, your mother must have been pregnant with you after the Discord fiasco."

"My mother...?" Celestia nodded her head.

"She was cunning and hot tempered." Well that explains a lot.

"Okay, but that still doesn't explain who Mother is." I interrupted them. "And why are there half-human creatures around? In fact, why are you Chex's mother?"

"Well, to say that I gave birth to her isn't an exact statement. The woman to come to Equestria was fascinated by it's magical creatures. She told me of ones I've never heard or seen before, half-human types especially. Through fascination and curiosity, we worked at trying to create them. Unfortunately, much like any creature born you need two parents..."

"And you donated your own genetic code to create Chex while Mother donated the other half. And you did the same thing for all the other half-humans. A timberwolf for Balto, bat for Nosferatu, bird for Flora's mom, and even whatever else there was like fauns and even lamias." I finish for her. She nodded her head in confirmation. Then another question comes to mind. "So how did that work?"

"Magic, science, and much experimentation." I shiver goes down my spine as she says that last word. It sounded heavy and filled with sorrow. My guess is there must have been some failures.

"Well, that answers those questions, but you've still neglected to mention one important fact..."

"The identity of Mother." Chex answered for me taking a step forward. None of the half-humans have been told their identity either.

Celestia held her tongue for only a moment, a moment that felt longer than it should have. "Lauren. She was a loving woman named Lauren Faust." The answer hit me like a ton of bricks. Lauren-Freaking-Faust?

A crack of a smile creeps across my face."Heh. Heh-heh-heh. Heh-heh-ha." I soon start laughing in hysteria as the smile get larger and larger. I put my hand over my face, not to calm me down, hell I don't even know why. It was just reaction. Everyone looks at me like I've gone crazy, and with Discord around I wouldn't be if someone didn't go nuts.

"Jesse? Are you okay?" Sharla asked me, concerned.

"That woman! I can't believe her. She lied to us by telling the truth!" I burst out laughing even harder. She told us the truth, but who would have taken her serious? A world of cartoon ponies actually exists? no one would believe it. I finally calm down, everyone still staring at me.

"Are you okay?" Applejack asks just as concerned as Sharla and the others are.

"Yeah," I wipe a tear from my eye. "It's just funny really. Chex, Celestia, I have good news for the both of you. Lauren is fine, safe, and doing very well. She's famous after all."

"My mother? Famous?" Chex asks bewildered. "How do you know that? What did she do? Where is she?" Before I'm given a chance to answer any questions, the wall beside us was torn apart creating a gaping hole. Remarkably enough, there was no dust.

We crouched into a defensive position, expecting trouble. But instead of something like a Lesser standing in the hole, there was a Diamond Dog. "Corig!"

"How ya doing?" The bulldog asked saluting us with two fingers.

"How'd you get here, how'd you even find us?" I ask lowering my sword.

"My dogs and I busted through the gates like you told us to, and now we're storming the castle. And I'm a dog, we have an acute sense of hearing and smell, it wasn't hard to find you. Did you know that these walls are made out of styrofoam? Here, look." He grabs the wall from the hole he's made, rips it off and shows it to us. Yup, that's styrofoam. I can't believe that we ran through corridor after corridor when we could have just busted through each wall with ease. "But we've got a problem." He looks at us with a dead serious expression. "Discord's made his grand appearance."

Comments

[shapeshiftingpedro]

WOAH! Did not see THAT one coming.

Wait, what if that was true?

[Redwolf15]

2272801It was a good idea, no? Because I thought it was.

[shapeshiftingpedro]

2281687 It was an EPIC idea!

So epic that...

*Whispers*It could start a conspiracy theory!

[lolz anonymous]

tripy.

[Flux Nosdal]

what a good chapter, props for adding Lauren Faust into the story like that

[BronyGamer]

2280125 Wondered when someone would post that!

[light snow]

Lauren is mother... That is one of the best plot twists I've heard in a LONG time.