A Tale of Shadows and Chaos

by cuddlyluna

Chapter 10

The heroes would be suspended in a realm of blinding light. As it cleared up, they saw themselves before the student six's Castle of Harmony. Standing near them was the transparent Twilight that saved them prior.

Rainbow Dash stood up and walked up to her. "Hey Twilight, I appreciate the rescue, but when did you become all ghosty sparkly?" She asked, waving her hand through the figure.

"Rainbow, I'm over here. That isn't me." The real Twilight stated from behind. Rainbow Dash backed away to the group a bit freaked out.

The transparent Twilight began to speak. "This is the form I have shown before to your students. However, since the event of you bringing the world together in harmony, I have obtained enough power to reveal my true form."

The figure closed her eyes and glowed brightly. From the light came what seemed like an alicorn, but was much more majestic than anything they have ever before seen. She had a shining silver coat, crystalline horns, and the mane that consisted of all the colors of the rainbow.

"I am Harmony, the Spirit of Order."

The group struggled to find words to say for the event. Celestia slowly approached her, never expecting this to happen. "I have speculated your existence for years. I never once expected to meet you face to face."

"You and your sister have done well watching over the world in my absence. I would like to thank all of you for your efforts. Equestria would have surely fallen if you did not hold courage and faith in your hearts."

Twilight would be hyperventilating again. Applejack patted her back, but even she locked eyes with the figure as she did so.

Fluttershy was shaky as the stepped toward Harmony. "You and Discord... were a family once?" She asked with a face that reflected the sorrow she had been feeling.

Harmony looked at her, feeling Fluttershy's emotions inside of herself. Despite all of her power and wisdom, she had to decipher how to explain her complex emotions regarding the subject. "Discord has caused many disasters over the years. Because of you and your friends, you have changed him for the better. Those days are behind us, time is of the essence."

Harmony would turn around and point to the sky with her hoof. "As you all know, our world is being destroyed. Algea will be here any moment to deliver the finishing blow."

The group looked out with fear in their eyes before Harmony approached the group once more. "I require the aid of all of you. I can hold the reality we know together as you face the enemy. It will be difficult, but I have complete faith in you. I ask, will you help me?"

Twilight took a long breath to get her head together. She stepped to the front and nodded her head. "We will do whatever it takes to protect what those we love."

The spirit of order smiled upon seeing the justice they held. "You truly are the Guardians of Harmony." The moment was interrupted by loud cracks of thunder. Black lightning split the sky as ponies could be heard fleeing in the distance.

Harmony would ignite her horn in light and shoot at the sky with a constant beam. "Go, I will keep the shadows at bay."

The team rushed through the Everfree forest as there was a battle between light and darkness in the sky, pieces of time falling where they collided. Upon clearing the trees to end up in the fields between Ponyville and Canterlot, Tirek would smash down in front of them.

A large evil smile filled his face. "Same place as last time, what a coincidence." He would begin cracking his knuckles as he approached the group. "Last time, we won before your friends stepped in. You don't stand a chance this time, princess."

Rarity spoke up. "How is he here? Did Algea really have to bring other villains back?"

"He is not the only one to return, dear Rarity," Sombra said arriving behind Tirek.

"She brought ALL of us back!" Cozy said as the other shadow villains revealed themselves. Cozy hovering above Tirek with her alicorn wings stretched out wide. ".... Except for the storm king but as you can see, we already have plenty of storms." She said as she smugly pointed at the shadow lightning behind her.

The unicorns and alicorns of the group had their horns lit up. They talked amongst themselves about possible options. Twilight was very nervous, as just 3 of them without shadow powers got the better of them a few months ago. Sunset was whispering to Starlight about the amulet, but Starlight admitted that it would magically combust trying to battle against that much power.

Celestia would turn her eyes to Luna, giving a small smirk and a wink. Luna looked back thinking Celestia was crazy, but as she stirred for a real fight too, she smiled and nodded along.

The white alicorn began to confidently stride forward. "If you surrender now, I will consider not making you all into lawn accessories."

The villains erupted into laughter, all except Grogar and Eris as they weren't aware of what as funny. "Oh no, Celestia is gonna get us, better magically summon a white flag." Chrysalis joked. "What is she gonna do, kindly convince us to stop?" Cozy added.

"Perhaps we can recruit some bunny rabbits to deal with her. Maybe one or two, but three seems a bit excessive." Tirek snarked.

Cosmos decided she would control Celestia to make her do something humorous. As the invisible wave of chaos energy approached her. A quick yellow forcefield swiped around her for a moment. This reflected the energy back at Cosmos.

Cosmos eyes went wide for a second before she started acting odd. "Hi I'm Celestia, I can't even block basic spells - Wait something isn't right - What body am I in - I FORGOT HOW TO STAND ON TWO-" she said as she spun her arms rapidly and plopped on the ground.

Seeing this made Eris double-check her idea to just turn them all into guinea pigs and call it day. Staying well behind everyone else next to Grogar seemed like a much better idea suddenly.

Celestia flipped her hair and watched the rest of them, spreading her wings out wide as she did so. Tirek turned to her furiously, blasting her with an immense amount of energy, blowing chunks out of the ground as the trees got sent miles away from the force. From back behind Celestia, the laser seemed to be redirected upward.

As Tirek halted the laser, he saw Celestia and the rest a good distance back, perfectly fine. Even the animals in the blast zone were teleported to safety behind Fluttershy.

Tirek was infuriated as he raised his hands making a crushing motion with them. Celestia whistled across the distance. "It's coming down, you might want to move." Pointing at the sky with a hoof.

"What's coming down!?" Chrysalis yelled. The rest would look up in the sky and scatter in different directions. By the time Chrysalis glanced up, it was too late. Tirek's blast bombarded her, leaving her scorched and covered in ash with only her eyes being distinguishable.

". . . oh." Chrysalis muttered, followed by a coughing fit. Celestia flicked her tail at her as she walked through the scorched grass around Chrysalis. "I may or may not have adjusted the sun to bounce it at you. You could just be incredibly unlucky. Karma I guess." She chuckled.

Those who remained were now scared of the white alicorn. When she approached and pointed her horn at them, they made motions to signify that they had backed off. "Enough is enough. Where is Algea?" Celestia took a quick look around. " ... on that note where is my sister?"

"THE LUNAR PRINCESS HAS ARRIVED!!!" Luna exclaimed from over the horizon.

Before anyone could truly register what was happening, Luna would start to become visible. She would be riding atop a gigantic tidal wave on a surfboard, using her magic to keep it narrow and channeled. As she traveled along, she levitated the moon dangerously close to the earth to draw in as much water as possible.

Before anything could be done to stop it, the wave crashed atop the villains. Temporarily flooding the entire area between Ponyville and Equestria's Capital.

Luna used the moon's gravity to bring the water back to the ocean and then to its rightful place in the sky. Now that everyone and everything was soaked, Luna would be standing there with a big grin on her face. "I always wanted to do that."

Celestia just looked at her, also soaked, with her disappointed big sister face. Luna didn't seem to mind, so Celestia just rolled eyes and turned to face the villains that were knocked over like bowling pins.

"Where is Algea?" Celestia said, more annoyed this time.

Cozy spoke up in the most defeated voice she has ever used. "We give up. Algea said she'll come to face Harmony after we dealt with you."

"Hm. Well now I suppose all that's left is to wait for her to arrive and then friendship blast her. Let's tell the girls to get ready, Luna."

The former princesses began to walk back to the group, all of them looking relieved that the situation was so effectively handled. As they did so, a purple and black circle appeared above.

Algea smashed into the ground halfway between the sisters and her alliance of villains. As she rose to stand up, she faced them with her eyes narrowed. "You couldn't even beat one of them? We have two chaos empresses here, what happened?"

Cosmos would look away as she spoke. "Well I mean I didn't know that she could block chaos energy."

Algea would just look at her for a minute. "Then aim somewhere else and manipulate that to stop her, you two have near-infinite power and you can't beat a mortal pony!"

Cosmos would raise a finger up, and then slowly move it to her chin as she thought about the errors that were made. Eris would walk past Cosmos placing her hands behind her back.

"Mistakes were made. At the very least, we can assist you directly now."

"Don't bother, Hopefully, you all with be less pathetic to watch in the new world," Algea said, approaching team friendship who was ready to combat her.

Algea would stare down Celestia who stood in the front of the pack. Algea could magically sense that she was well equipped with magic. "You hold great power, Celestia. It is a shame that you never became Daybreaker, this entire world could have been all yours."

Luna spoke for Celestia, allowing her to focus on keeping the group safe. "There is no way you can win now Algea, Harmony may spare you if you help put time back together and leave our world alone."

"Do you really think you have won? Do you believe that the rainbow blast those six in the back are charging is going to solve anything? I implore you to try it, really put all you got into it."

From behind Celestia, the eyes of Twilight and her friends would turn white. Twilight spoke as the power flowed through her, lifting her and the rest of the main six off the ground. "Everyone, if she wants all that we have, let us give her all that we have."

Cadance joined beside Celestia and Luna, her horn glowing fiercely. Followed by her was Flurryheart, Star Swirl, Sunset, Starlight, and Stygian. Spike was also there to give it his all with fire breath. As soon as the friendship rainbow came out, they all fired at once.

The power behind the blast was on a scale never before seen. The shadows in the sky in that direction were incinerated upon contact. Far back from Algea, the shadow villains stood surrounded by light in every direction other than the ground.

They believe they had lost, but far ahead they saw a figure remained. The blast seemed to be going around her, which was the reason they all didn't all turn up like Chrysalis.

The blast would slowly die down. Upon examination, Algea remained in front of the group. She had teleported in the Eclipse Sphere at the last second to block the blast from hitting her. The heroes couldn't believe what happened.

Algea ran her clawed finger along the Eclipse Sphere. "That would have worked if not for this right here. It seems you have failed the spirit of order in protecting the world. Shame."

Algea had the sphere levitate next to her as she approached the group, her hands leaving a trail of energy as she walked. Before she reached them, a figure teleported between the two.

"I'm going to need you to stop right there." Discord said with his arms folded. Everyone behind him was relieved that he had shown up to save them.

"Discord, so you arrived. From what I can sense, our powers are evenly matched. Is it even worth the effort? If I were you, I would just bring all my friends to the chaos realm and live there. It is only this world that will be destroyed by the shadows."

"Perhaps we are on the same level. That's why I did not arrive alone." Discord said, as Harmony flew down next to Discord. "This ends here Algea." She spoke with her wings outstretched.

Algea looked at both of them. "... hm, it's strange that you would refer to me like that."

"What are you talking about?" Discord replied, doing his best to stay ready for any surprise tricks.

"I know that enough shadows can obscure one's true self," Algea said with her head facing the ground as the shadows began to fade from her face. After they vanished, she looked back up to them with the face of a human.

"Though, I thought you would recognize your own daughter."

"Megan?" Discord said softly to himself. Both of the spirits stood completely still as they witnessed this. This was Algea's chance. The Eclipse Sphere lit up and targeted Harmony.

Upon striking her, the light in the sky fending off the shadows was absorbed. The spirit of order slumped over on the ground with pale eyes. "Harmony!" Twilight called from the back. With no one hold reality together, time began to fall at a rapid pace.

Discord focused all his energy on preventing time from raining down. Using chaos to prevent dimensional collapse instead of light and harmony was much harder. Discord fell to his knees doing his best to save his friends.

Algea approached him holding a shard of time in her hand. "Forgive me, father. You and mother will forever remain in what is left of my heart." Discord looked up at her unable to speak, his attention focused to the shard which began to glow.

Suddenly, high up on a hill, silhouettes of almost every creature of Equestria appeared. Several ponies were floating in the air, with an alicorn shining brightly in the middle. Discord realized what was happening. It was the moment where the world pulled together to stop the Legion of Doom. Except they were not aiming at the Legion of Doom...

... they were aiming at him.

Twilight began to gallop forward. "Discord, no!" However, it was too late. The rainbow beam fired from the silhouettes and struck Discord directly. When the light cleared, Twilight saw Discord as a grey version of himself. He struggled to stay up as his eyes turned pale. The draconequus fell forward completely drained of all power.

Twilight and the others rushed forward to tend to him and Harmony. They were both limp and expressionless, despite any effort to bring them to their senses.

Twilight looked up to Algea, who was staring back down at her with a serious expression. Storms of shadow grew as time fell more and more rapidly. Visions would grow blurry as Equestria fell to darkness.

The age of shadows has begun.