The New Substitutes

by Chemtest

Sunset

Discord pushes open the external door of the school, finding himself within the courtyard. Sombra, Tirek, and Chrysalis follow right after him. They all stare into the sky, as Sunset Shimmer starts to transform. Twilight also stares into the air, knocked onto her back.

But she isn’t the only one who transforms. The four substitutes also find themselves surrounded by light, and floating into the air. Chrysalis is surrounded by green light, Tirek by red, Sombra by purple, and Discord by polka dot. They all start to change their forms right along Sunset.

Chrysalis sprouts two insectoid wings from her back, and her skin turns coal black. Her skins also seems to be hit by a hole puncher, as holes sprout throughout her. Her eyes glow a bright green, and her horn sprouts from her head.

Sombra melts into the dark purple, his form disappearing entirely. He then is pieced together by shadow and mist. His body reconstructs itself, his metal armor replaced with a dark crystal. His suit he was wearing turns into a bright red kingly cape on his back. His hands grasp around a dark spear with familiarity. His eyes bleed a purple fire, and his teeth have turned to metal fangs. The meter stick that he carried on his back shifts forms into a greatsword of shadow. The pencils all around his body morph into shards of crystal, ready to dig into the flesh of his enemy. And a red horn slowly constructs on his head, ready to cast the world into shadow.

Tirek grows bigger. He breaks through his suit, showing off the black tank top underneath, with his now huge muscles shown off. His beard grows longer, and his mohawk stands straighter. Two horns burst from atop his head, with a everpresent ball of fiery magic hovering between the two.

Discord starts to change almost instantly. One hand stretches and melds itself into an claw. The other congeals and spreads until it forms a paw. A single tooth grows so far that it sticks outside his mouth, and his goatee grows to an acceptable length. An antler sprouts from one side of his head, and a horn from the other. His body elongates, growing him taller, and making him look more lanky than before. Two wings also burst from his back, changed from his equestrian version. Now, he has an oversized angel wing and a undersized demon wing. The most obvious change is the tail that tears itself from his shorts, with a flexible end to it.

The four all float to the ground as Sunset finishes her transformation. The four of them look like a mashup of their natural forms with their human forms. Discord steps to the front of the group as Sunset becomes a demonic version of herself. She starts to rip the wall from the school, until a single shout fills the air, “Hey! Bacon Hair!” The name instantly catches Sunset’s attention. Discord holds up his talons, poised to snap, “One thousand years seem like much now?”

She instantly understands what he means, “You! You were an Equestrian!? Fine. Now I have a worthy opponent!”

She picks up some of the rubble, and throws it towards Discord. He snaps once, causing the stone to turn to cheese with opposite gravity. It goes floating up into the air, until Discord snaps it to aluminum, and looks over at Tirek.

Tirek nods, and grabs hold of the rubble with his magic, throwing it towards Sunset. Sunset just shoots through it with a magical beam, rendering the attack useless. Tirek looks towards his others, “Get her on the ground, I can attack her down here!”

Chrysalis and Discord take to the air with a flap of their respective wings. Sombra disappears into the shadows all around him on the dark night.

Sunset instantly lets free a magical beam, which Chrysalis easily dodges past. She also decided to turn into a replica of Discord, and switches position with him. Discord stops yet another beam by turning it into chocolate milk, and creating a giant glass. With the glass filled, he turns it into a cannon, and the milk into fire. He fires it at her with little effect.

Chrysalis takes Sunset’s distraction to move right up next to her ear, and clap as she turns her hands into cymbals. The ringing echoes through Sunset’s ears, causing her to be disorientated enough to miss a retaliation attack. As she flails in the air, Discord decides to teleport behind her, and attaches a piece of paper to her back. He then somehow does a backflip in midair over her, and floats away.

It’s at this moment that Sombra jumps through the veil of shadows behind Sunset. He comes flying from just above her back, his leg meeting her spine and spiking the two downwards. Sunset hits the ground, hard, with Sombra’s heavy crystal boot pushing her down. Sombra holds his hand in the air, and summons his crystal spear from the veil of shadows. He uses Sunset as a jumping board to jump into the air, and he comes crashing back down with the spear where his boot was. The spear pins her to the sidewalk, going right through the piece of paper. Written on the paper is ‘kick and maim me!’ in Discord’s handwriting.

Sunset is done though. She manages to push herself up, rising up until she has gone through the pole of the spear. She spins around, trying to slap Sombra around. But her hand is stopped by one that is a bright red. She follows the muscled arm until she comes face to face with Tirek. Tirek smiles, “Hope you have some painkillers. Cause this pain is going to be killer.”

He flips her around, and slams her on the concrete hard enough to crack it. He then takes her arm, and bends it in the wrong direction. The bone breaking can be heard even within the Fall Formal, and all involuntarily cringed. Except for Tirek. Tirek is too busy moving onto his next move.

He picks Sunset up by her head, and throws her against the ground with all his strength. He then stomps her face into the concrete with his boot. He jumps a good foot or two into the air, and comes down with both feet on top of Sunset’s head. Now, Sunset’s head is buried so far into the concrete that she looks more like a flagpole than a human. Tirek then grabs her by her waist, and moves her to the ground like flipping a lever. This causes her neck to break at a ninety degree angle. Tirek makes use of her now exposed neck to stomp down on it one last time, breaking the bones that just healed back.

Sunset raises herself from the ground, livid and seething. She tries to blast Tirek with her magic, only for him to absorb her magic with his bracers. She finally loses it, and summons a firey sword of plasma. She swings it forward, only to have it be blocked by Sombra’s own sword.

Sombra then hits her with an attack powerful to send her sliding back even with her blocking. She slides two meters away, giving a perfect space for Chrysalis to land. Her arms are morphed into sharp blades, and she moves with a flurry of blows against Sunset. Sunset has to create a second sword just to stop all the blows headed her way.

But Chrysalis hesitates for a single second, changing her blades into chainsaws. Sunset uses this moment to strike with her own blow. She moves forth with her swords of plasma, expecting to have fried bug in a second. But, the fire decides to snap freeze, and Discord decides to do the snapping. He lands between the two, and catches each of Sunset’s blades between his talons and paw. He moves up his tail, and snaps the ice into oxygen. He rubs his talons together, creating a spark, and igniting Sunset’s arms.

Sunset backs away a bit as he arms go out. She looks at the four villains with fear in her eyes. She narrows her eyes, “Why are you fighting me? You aren’t heroes!”

Discord smiles, and all four of them seem to lift into the air once more. He laughs, “Of course we’re not the heroes. That should be obvious.” He looks over at the fallen Twilight, “But when the heroes fall? When the innocent adventurous are laid out? We’re not the heroes.” He looks back at Sunset after sharing a look with his three friends. He grins, “We’re the Substitutes.”

The Elements pick up the existence of the four, and decide to go to them instead of their proper bearers, for this one time. Laughter and Generosity float around Discord. Honesty and Loyalty takes it’s place at Sombra’s side. Magic floats into the orange ball between Triek’s horns. Kindness sees the intentions behind Chrysalis’s actions, and floats around her. They tap into the deep, hidden spirits of the former villains, and summon fourth the harmony from them. From them comes a beam, one that isn’t rainbow. Green, red, purple, and tan. This quartet of colors strike Sunset, and Harmony works it’s magic.

Sunset is slowly changed back into human form, now allowed a chance to see her mistakes. They float down into the relatively undamaged courtyard. Sunset looks up at the four, and looks down. She prepares to be executed for her crimes.

Discord picks her up, and snaps with his tail. The damage done to the school, and to the courtyard, fixes itself. Discord smiles at Sunset, “Harmony has allowed you to see, hasn’t it? So come on, there’s a dance, and you aren’t missing it.”

———

Those at the Formal listen closely as Sunset apologizes to Twilight. They all accept her right back as Twilight forgives her. They saw what happened outside, but trust the Substitutes when they say that Sunset is better. So, the dance kicks back into full swing.

Tirek looks over at Sombra. Their eyes meet, and both realize they still don’t have a partner to dance with. Sombra internally sighs, and moves over to Tirek. They both start to dance, right after Sombra made sure to clarify, “No homo.” Tirek’s heavy boots move in time with Sombra’s crystal armor.

Chrysalis tries to get back in her corner. Her darker skin allows her to blend in better, yet those from the Changeling clique still find her. What wasn’t expected, however, was one of them offering a hand to her. The student smiles, “Dance, my Queen. You are always to serious, let go for once.” Chrysalis smiles at the student’s bravery, shrinks down to his size, and takes his hand. The student wasn’t the best dancer, but Chrysalis made up for that.

Discord walks over to Celestia, who looks at his strange form, “So this is what you looked like in the other world?”

Discord looks down at himself, “Some elements of it.” He then raises his talon, and snaps. He shrinks back down, his extra limbs disappear, and he returns back to his human form. He smiles, “But that’s not who I am anymore. That Discord is long gone.”

Celestia smiles, “And what Discord is this.”

Discord grins, “The one you know.” He offers a hand, “The one who wants to know if you will dance with him.”

Celestia looks at his hand, outstretched towards her.

She takes it, “Then allow me to enlighten you.”

—(End of Act One)—

Comments

[rikusorasephiroth]

So, what would happen if they tried to follow Twilight through the mirror?

[Late_Night]

not bad
some minor spelling errors, but those are overlookable

[Venerable Ro]

Hmm, not bad. At the risk of harping on a old line, it needs less telling and more showing.