A Tale of Shadows and Chaos

by cuddlyluna

Chapter 3

Somewhere inside a dark ancient-looking palace, the statue that contained Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow would be teleported into the center of a throne room by the power of a shadowy force. Without another hint of magic, the group would slowly revert from stone to their normal selves.

Chrysalis would continue snarling until she went wide-eyed and plopped onto the floor from not having any limbs on the ground; Cozy looked around removing her hands from her face; and Tirek eventually set his arms down to get a glimpse of the room.

Cozy would be the first to speak. "Does anyone remember what happened after that rainbow laser hit us?" Tirek would comment as he looked around the room. "I suppose you aren't aware of the environment around you when you are stone. Par for Discord, though he plays by his own rules."

Chrysalis would snap to face Tirek's direction. "Speaking of Discord, if you hadn't fired at him we would have won and wouldn't be waking up in some murky ruins!" Chrysalis would take another look around. "Though calling it ruins is a bit harsh, this place seems very well-kept." Cozy glow would fly in. "Now is not the time to play the blame game, maybe we are getting a second chance here."

As she said that, a shadowy pony would form not too far from where they were standing. It would be Sombra, shaking his head from confusion and then turning to look at his almost-allies. Cozy would just wave cheerfully. "Back from the Ether, I suppose," Tirek said. Sombra approached them, speaking as he did. "Perhaps it was foolish to fight Twilight and her friends alone, I do appreciate being returned, and thus accept to follow through with Grogar’s plan."

Cozy flew up to him. "Long story short. We think Grogar was Discord all along for some reason, and then we lost to Twilight and her friends, and then we got turned to stone, and now we are here." Sombra had to take a minute to register the situation. As he was piecing his mind together, a familiar ram was teleported in from behind Sombra.

Chrysalis narrowed her eyes and shoved Sombra out of the way, her horn glowing as she walked towards Grogar. "Drop the disguise Discord, just tell us what you want." Grogar shook his head rapidly before confronting the former changeling queen. "What are you on about, I'm not Discord!" Tirek walked up next to Chrysalis, keeping his arms at his side as he wasn't going to try to fight without any magic. "We saw you turn out to be Discord when we shot you with the bell."

Grogar closed his eyes and huffed. "Well that Grogar wasn't me at the time, I knew you three had the bell all along and we're going to betray me as soon as you got the chance." The two in front looked surprised, Cozy landed on Tireks shoulder. "So why didn't you just snatch the bell from us and go to take over Equestria?"

"Because I was sure that I couldn't do it alone, so I planned to wait until you attacked Equestria yourselves and then follow up afterward with the Alicorn Amulet," Grogar answered. Tirek rubbed his chin in thought. "That does sound like a solid plan, so what went wrong if I may ask?"

"Discord caught me in the act, stole my magic, and caged me in Tartarus. Apparently afterward he acted as myself." Sombra stepped up to comment. "Perhaps we have underestimated this Discord creature, and that is where our faults lie."

They would hear a sound and could tell another creature was being teleported into the room. "Ooh! Another member to the group!" Cozy exclaimed as she leaped off Tirek onto the floor. Before them appeared a creature that most of them have never seen before. "Eris?" Chrysalis let out after having to jog her memory. "You know her?" Tirek asked. "She invited me to her crazy casino once, I declined her offer because I was too busy plotting revenge against Equestria."

Eris stood up towering over the quadrupeds intimidatingly. "I DEMAND THAT-" Tirek, the only one to match her size, cut her off. "None of us know where we are or who brought us here, save your breath." She squinted her eyes at them and focused on the room she was in. "Actually, this place looks familiar, though I can't say I have ever been here before. I suppose it beats floating through your own realm indefinitely." The tall bird-like creature said as she folded her arms.

The strange sound was heard again. "And here comes number seven!" Cozy Glow said excitedly. "And hopefully the last," Chrysalis stated. Appearing on the floor was a being that bore resemblance to Eris, though less bird-like and more reptilian. She was curled up and asleep until she slowly perked up and did a heavy yawn. The pink reptilian creature was instantly in full alert as she rapidly snapped her claws, no magical effect happening as she snapped. "WHERE-" Chrysalis cut her off, sounding annoyed at this point. "We don't know anything."

The girl was shooting her head left and right trying to figure out what was going on, Eris decided to speak to her. "Who are you, you look familiar?" The reptilian glared at her. "Cosmos, why do you want to know, crazy bird lady?" Eris kept her arms crossed as she replied. "You sort of look similar to me and my cousin, Discord."

That sentence instantly grabbed the attention of everyone in the room, especially from Cosmos. “Discord!? Is he here!?" She began to run around the palace full speed on all fours.

“Discord my shining hero, you have changed your mind and saved me from my imprisonment, where are thou so I may-"
"Oh no, Discord isn't here, unless Grogar is still Discord, but I don't think he is," Cozy said, Causing Cosmos to slide to a stop from realization, seeming upset by the news.

"Well, I hope that you have gotten acquainted with each other." A new voice spoke from all directions.

Everyone was shaken up a little, Chrysalis gritted her teeth and walked forward with her horn glowing once again. "I don't know who you are or what your plan is, but I am not teaming up with a ragtag group of idiots again!"

"Oh come now, Crystal Princess, I thought you were always up for one last attempt at revenge." the voice replied. Chrysalis' eyes went from narrow to wide open as she said that, her horn dimming down.

"Though, if you must know who I am, allow me to introduce myself." A cloud of black mist would appear, slowly revealing the one behind the mysterious voice. "I am the Spirit of Shadows, Queen of Darkness, Empress of Shade. I am Algea." Before them was tall dark draconequus like female, she had large black wings and a curved horn protruding from her head. A cloud of darkness concealed her face, with only her eyes being visible through the darkness.

A majority of them stood speechless. "That sure is a lot of titles," Cozy said breaking the silence. "Indeed it is, Cozy Glow. Now, I am aware that a majority of you have never heard of me before, though you might be aware of my creations. To list two examples, I was the one that convinced dear Princess Luna to become Nightmare Moon. I was also responsible for converting useless little Stygian into the great Pony of Shadows." Algea stated.

Eris spoke up to the Shadow Queen. "Your Pony of Shadows managed to spread across dimensions and drain my powers, because of you I have spent countless years trying to cause enough chaos to have them restored." The dark figure turned to her and bowed her head. "My apologies, Princess Eris. Shadows and Chaos have not always fit together so neatly, though with you and Cosmos here, that will soon change. Rest ashore, I will have your powers restored. That offer goes to all of you, I would not want my loyal troops not being prepared on the battlefield."

"Except we are not loyal troops, what is stopping you from disposing of us after whatever plan of yours is complete?" Grogar asked. "After my plan goes through, I will have accomplished all I have set out to do, what remains in the world is between all of you settle over." Algea calmly responded.

Cosmos would cough loudly to get the room's attention. "You are aware that with my powers restored, I can shift reality with a whim. Why do we need these pests?" she said, gesturing at the rest of the group. Algea approached her, and Cosmos could feel an unshakeable fear that she had never felt before in all of her existence, despite Algea not being hostile at the moment.

"You have yet to see the full potential of Harmony. Despite that, your lover will be your greatest obstacle. You will need the aid of those who are here to succeed." Cosmos would back down, accepting her word as truth.

"In case you don't know, I have an entire casino full of villains across multiple dimensions that would gladly help," Eris added. "I am afraid this plan will destroy dimensions as we know it, even now, your castle is likely empty and full of nothing other than the restless shadows of its former inhabitants," Algea responded to her. Some of the group turned to look at each other, feeling that this whole scenario was getting more serious by the minute.

"So, what is this plan?" Sombra asked the shadowy figure. "I am glad you asked. As Eris pointed out earlier, shadows have been conquering dimensions since the beginning of history as we know it. At the moment, we are very close to having enough power to devour all of existence and replace it with shadows." Algea began.

Cozy raised her hand frantically, Algea gestured her hand to her. "Can you describe how close very close is?" Cozy Glow asked. "Roughly thirty years, give or take a few depending on Harmony's interference." Algea casually replied. Some of the group rolled their eyes and put their hands on their face.

"Do not worry, we will not wait that long. Since I have directly taken command, I have arranged to use the power we have to destroy time itself." The room was deathly silent for a minute. "That sounds awfully extreme, I don't believe there will be anything left to rule over," Tirek said.

"In a world of Light, as most of you are accustomed too, time is a necessity. In a world of Shadow, time can be broken and you would hardly notice any difference in your lives, aside from the fact that you could no longer travel through time." Algea explained.

"All we need to go through with this is to make sure everyone here is on board." Algea finished, everyone in the room was simply looking at each other, not knowing to respond or not.

"No objections? Excellent." She spoke. Suddenly, everyone in the room would be surrounded in dark energy, they began to panic as shadows slowly engulfed them.

All that could be heard was wicked, maniacal laughter echoing throughout the palace.

Author's Note:

I am aware that the season finale specifically says that Discord was the one that assembled Sombra, Tirek, Chrysalis, and Cozy. Though in the premiere Grogar says that it was his own doing. Putting two and two together, most people might agree that this suggests Discord was Grogar the entire time.

However, for the sake of this fanfiction and not having to rebuild Grogar's character from scratch, the story is that Discord simply brought Grogar back, and it was Discord anonymously convincing Grogar to assemble the team he did to attack Twilight.

If you like this theory then you are free to use it wherever. The reason I'm putting it here is I can't fit that tidbit anywhere in the story, and even if I could I feel it would be a little late to address a fact that is more plot hole avoidance than it is interesting or relevant.