If Chaos prevails...

by The Marshmallow

15 - Celebrations - Three minutes

Sunset Shimmer was not an arrogant pony. She really didn't want to be one. And yet, the battle unfolding around her felt like little more than a warmup. The battle against the best of Discord's troops, for which her fellow rebels had been training for years. The battle that they were clearly winning, but not without a few of her friends getting hurt or injured. The battle on which, arguably, rested the very fate of Equestria. But in her perspective, when somepony gets used to fighting the consequences of Discord's Chaos every week, then everything else feels like a warmup. Especially since, right afterwards, they would have had to fight the lord of Chaos itself. So she was focused not only on her immediate surrounding, not only on the bolts of magic flying around, or on that earth pony soldier ready to tackle her (both were easy to avoid or deflect), but also on the whole area, trying to observe even the most subtle signs of Discord's presence. She knew very well he could appear at any moment, without any warning, and start using his magic. Not noticing him in time was a recipe for disaster, so she couldn't afford to be distracted. She had no idea of how sneaky that monster could be.

Suddenly, a metal pole loudly sprung out from the ground, about thirty meters ahead of them, reaching a height of about ten. Then, akin to a flower blooming, a loudspeaker popped on top of it, and from it came Discord's voice. "My dear soldiers, you have done enough. Fall back." The vast majority of the troops simply ran away as fast as they could, glad of the order and only thinking of themselves. A few tried to take one or two of their knocked out peers with them, in a show of friendship and loyalty that even the rebels couldn't but respect. And although they could easily have tried to catch them, or to stop them, they didn't. They had no interest in attacking a fleeing enemy. Also, they had now to focus on Discord. It was safe to assume that he must have been close. "And you, my dear foes... I'm sorry..."

This startled Celestia's militia quite a bit. Gave them a sense of unease that was difficult to just shake off. In the first place, the word 'sorry' felt somehow out of place in the King's mouth. And also, although it was difficult to read the emotions in his voice, it really felt like mockery. "Close your ranks!" Sunset Shimmer was trying to be a good leader, keeping the situation under control. her orders were simple and clear, and they really were the best she could do at that moment: "Don't let your guard down!"

After a brief, dramatic pause, Discord spoke again: "I understand you didn't manage to afford the tickets!" Every word that came out of his mouth was just offputting. The somehow neutral, somehow serious tone with which he pronounced each of them made it impossible to be sure whether he was joking or he really thought that was the problem "But worry not!" Just behind the pole, a large wooden stage was emerging, although whatever was on it was still hidden by a bright red curtain. The only clue about its nature came from the music of a somehow discordant waltz coming from it. "Because I brought the show to you!"

---

"Twilight, dear, can you bring me the comb? The brush is just not enough." There was a fairly obvious note of irritation in Rarity's voice, as she was trying to tame Rainbow Dash's mane. A seemingly impossible task. The lavender unicorn fetched it quickly, levitated it to Rarity, and then (making sure no one would notice but her friend) quickly lifted and the touched ground with her right forehoof twice, a sign they had previously agreed on. "Thank you."

And as Rarity tried again to accomplish her duty towards the rainbow-coloured mane, Twilight started walking towards the two wardrobes, calmly "Let me know if you know anything else." Rarity wouldn't have, that was the plan. it was more and more apparent that her moment was getting closer. She needed to focus, to prepare, well knowing the difficulty of the task ahead. And so she simply stood there, trying to clear her mind. Not that it would have been easy, with what was going on around her.

"Ouch!" As rarity started to comb Rainbow Dash's mane, trying to untangle it, the latter started to complain. She really thought her mane was fine, and yet she still had to endure that torture. At least the fashionista could have tried to be more delicate! "Careful with that... Thing!"

"it is called a 'comb', darling. I guess you have never seen one!" Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and snorted, annoyed. Without missing a bit, Rarity went on: "Also, I'm being as careful as I can. If you had taken better care of it, your mane certainly wouldn't be this full of tangles!" She couldn't believe that a mare, especially one with the potential to be quite pretty, would let herself go like that. It was probably the last time Rarity would have met the pegasus. Otherwise, she should really have tried to take her to the spa. Celestia knew how much she needed it! Anyways, the least she could do was to put all her effort into her delicate job.

---

"for the first act, a nice ballet!" The curtain finally opened, revealing a complex choreography of dancing buffalos, hippopotamuses and elephants, each with its own pink tutu and its pair of matching ballet shoes. the levity with which they moved around the stage was awe-inspiring, although the whole picture was, to be fair, absolutely hilarious. "Boooring!" But Discord wasn't at all satisfied. And he was quick to identify the problem; it had to be that the Choreography was still to orderly, the stage bounding their freedom and their potential for chaos "This needs some more... 'Swing'!" Suddenly, the tempo of the music started to increase and the huge dancers jumped down from the stage. Still dancing, although noticeably more quickly, they started to charge towards the rebel with their mad pirouettes. And their speed and their mass alone made them fearsome enemies.

"Unicorns, keep up the barriers!" Sunset Shimmer was still trying to command her fellow rebels. She had long learned that only with order one can prevail against Chaos. "Earth ponies, stand strong and brace for the impact!" It was a fairly standard formation: having two-thirds of her army stay on the defensive to protect the last third and ensure them freedom of movement and of action "pegasuses, prepare to counterattack!"

The impact was devastating. The magical barriers, despite slowing them down and overall protecting the group, cracked and then fell apart. The army barely managed to keep the core of its formation stable, but more than a few were flung a few meters away, some even injured. It was difficult to expect a very different ending, being on the receiving end of a two-tons hippopotamuses and five-tons elephants charge. Still, the effort was overall successful and they effectively managed to push back the animals, throwing many of them off balance. Without missing a beat the pegasuses, with the support of their fellow unicorns magic, managed to surround the dancers, depriving them of any chance of charging further. Despite the creatures resilience, there was little they could do at that point; the skirmish was brief, and as more and more of those animals fell to ground incapacitated the victors were made clear.

Finally, the music of the waltz stopped, all the summoned creatures popped out of existence, leaving the rebel army the chance to catch their breath, now in front of an empty stage and to the megaphone. It didn't last but a few seconds, though, and then the King spoke again: "Now, that was a nice show!" The sound of hooves clopping in a sort of applause was broadcasted by the loudspeaker, although it hardly encouraged them. It was way too obvious how it was all a game to Discord "For the second act, what about something more exotic?" A large flute appeared on the stage, paired with a huge wicker basket, both tall and narrow. And as the harrowing flute's music spread in the are, and the instrument was waved around, a creature started to emerge from the basket, and this time there was really nothing to laugh at. It was a huge snake-like creature, with a green colour and a semi-transparent body. A few stars lined up along his body, and a large one was right in the middle of his cold, reptilian eyes. Only Sunset Shimmer fully understood what it was. And it was for the best since if more realized its nature, they might even have fled in panic. It was an Ophiucus, a creature that in an ancient past fought toe to toe with Ursa Majors. It was supposed to have gone extinct millennia prior, well before the age of Celestia, and was now no more than the content of legends. But clearly somepony as ancient as Discord remembered them quite well, and with his powers, it wasn't too hard to recreate one more. Luckily, it was no longer than twenty meters, meaning it wasn't a fully grown adult. Meaning they still had a chance.

"Pegasuses, move around it and distract him!" The little information the orange unicorn had, combined with her considerable experience in battle, allowed her to elaborate a simple plan. Loudly, she tried to broadcast it at her fellow fighters, hoping they could start to act before the creature started attacking them. At that moment, it was still looking around, as if trying to choose its first prey "Hearth ponies, stay close to the unicorns and be ready to protect them!" The large bodies of the earth ponies, combined with their natural resilience and the heavy armours their stamina allowed them to wear were a powerful asset, even against an enemy they couldn't comfortably reach with their attacks. "Unicorns, aim at the eyes!" That was the only way of dealing with the Ophiucus: depriving him of his senses and then beating it senseless. She knew quite well that, if it was a snake, then his main sense would not have been the sight, but actually the smell... but she could deal with that personally. "keep moving, and NEVER stay in front of his mouth!"

As it was natural, the previous three teams ended up splitting into smaller groups, all of them focused on evading the creature assault and counterattack whenever a chance arose. The large number of pegasuses moving around it managed to confuse it a bit, slowing his reactions as the unicorns started aiming their magical bolts towards its face. He seemed able to shrug them off with ease, even those that actually reached their intended target, but it was apparent that they were slowly starting to wear it off. That's not to say he wasn't still unbelievably dangerous. The huge body was by itself a weapon that it flailed around liberally, forcing those nearby to dodge quickly, otherwise they would be trampled. But its most dangerous asset was actually its mouth, as suggested by Sunset. Not because of his bite, which he avoided to throw around too much, but instead due to his acidic, toxic spit. Nopony was hit fully, but just being grazed by it damaged visibly the armours of the pony, and left a few burns on the less lucky of them. it was, still, apparent that his aim was getting worse and worse as its eyes kept getting hit. And, finally, he was forced to take out its tongue more and more, as its reliance on the sense of smell increased. And at a certain point, it became truly an easy target for a well-trained unicorn.

Sunset didn't lose the chance, and her horn quickly lit up. She didn't 'attack' the tongue directly. Instead, she focused on the ground nearby, and teleported a large amount of dirt all around that tongue, making it impossible for it to perceive anything else, effectively depriving the creature of all its senses. that was, in many ways, the difficult part. Now it was thrashing more and more, still dangerous, but now the militia could more easily attack it without fearing retaliation. And so they did, again and again, slowly increasing the amount of damage dealt. it only became a matter of patience, and they certainly didn't lack it. Discord did, and so both the flute and the snake soon vanished into thin air, before the whole thing became too boring.

But as the creature vanished, and Sunset quickly glanced around to check if her comrades were still fine (at least most of them), she noticed one thing. If she remembered correctly, there were plenty of enemy soldiers on the ground just two minutes earlier, and now most of them seemed to have vanished. She could understand if a few of them managed to rise and run away, or even bringing one or two of their own with them as they fled. The commotion would have allowed that. But so many? She couldn't conceive a good explanation... Until she found the unequivocal cause of the event. her eyes widened considerably, while her mouth was for a moment left agape. The figure of the draconeequs himself was moving around the last few soldiers, and just by pointing at them he made them vanish. And he seemed quite relaxed while doing so, completely ignored by the ponies so focused on the fight.

"And now, for the third act..." Discord stopped, noticing an astonished Sunset Shimmer looking at him. A little flush on his face became apparent on his face "Oopsie... You found me!" Non that he was doing a great job of hiding himself, nor he looked especially bothered by it. As if nothing had happened, he quickly pointed to some more knocked out soldiers, making them vanish just as before.

"What the buck are you doing?" Sunset Shimmer, on the contrary, was quite clearly bothered by the fact. Seeing the soldiers they had defeated vanish was eerie enough, but seeing Discord taking his time was somehow even worse "Everypony, turn around!" Also, she still had to coordinate the whole operation, and it was quite apparent how having the enemy behind them was not good. they were still managing to keep an orderly formation, though, so even turning around didn't take long at all.

"Oh, it's simple!", Discord said casually, shrugging his shoulder and letting them getting into position as if it didn't matter at all. "Before getting in the fight myself, I thought of teleporting my army to safety." His sharp teeth became fully visible in the devilish smile he now made, and his hungry gaze now moving across the rebel army made more than a few of them shiver. The excited note in his tone in his voice was more than enough to have them all stand on edge. "Because now things are going to get messy..."

---

"Aargh! Your mane is positively a mess!" Rarity was started to sound really desperate. Despite her considerable progress, she still couldn't manage to get to the end of it. "When was the last time you brushed it?"

"Fluttershy used to help me with that, once in a while..." She had done that since they were young, and thinking back at it she couldn't help but smile "But these few weeks have been a bit... Busy..."

Rarity didn't wait a moment before replying, seemingly shocked: "Weeks? I hope you are kidding!, darling" Among its many advantages, unicorn magic allows to always keep one's hoof free. This allowed her to facehoof dramatically, and all without needing to stop what she was doing.

"Ouch!" And once again, some more knot was being untangled. But the process wasn't pleasant for the blue pegasus, which once again snarked at rarity "Fluttershy was more delicate than that, you know!"

"Oh, I'm so sorry, 'princess'!", she teased, making the pegasus roll her eyes once again "But I'll agree on the fact I shouldn't be the one doing this. How does the castle not have a coiffeur?" Fluttershy and rainbow dash looked at each other for a moment. It was obvious even to them how critically understaffed the castle was. After all, Discord could sweep almost any problem under the rug with his magic. Which didn't make for an efficient system whenever he was away. "I should be fixing Fluttershy's Dress right now, and I don't have all night!"

"I-if you want I can help...?" Timidly and tentatively, Fluttershy finally tried to enter the conversation. Standing beside them was getting really awkward, and she just felt bad relaxing when other people might have needed a helping hoof.

"Oh, no no no" Rarity almost felt bad for venting away her frustration. And it must be said that Fluttershy's way of acting was much more effective in making her feel bad, compared to Rainbow dash annoying complaints "Don't worry about a thing, darling." She tried to reassure hem, to have her relax, while she went back to focus on the multi-coloured mane "I'm almost done, I hope!"

Applejack was just a bit further away, closer to the stage and to the props, just as involved in her job, which was to get everything on the stage at the right time, in the right place. She wasn't the only one doing so, obviously, but that didn't make the affair easy. She was there because, from her position, it was easier for her to know exactly what was going on in the show. needless to say, the duty of giving Twilight 'the signal' fell on her. The unicorn was sitting near the wardrobes, in the meantime, still trying to clear her mind. She only had to wait, now, as everything was going as planned, and everypony was in the right position.

---

Order? When The Lord of Chaos was on the battlefield there was no place for such a thing. It was his speciality and his pleasure to dismantle it ad to prevent it from coming back. More than a few unlucky pegasuses found their wings turned upside down and quickly lost control crashing to the ground, while many unicorns and earth ponies had their legs grow four times as long as they should have, making balance impossible. If that wasn't enough to throw chaos in their formation, and making most lose their proper position, he also threw a few inoffensive curses in the mix. A few ponies grew rabbit ears and oversized front teeth, colourful polka dots appeared on the mane of others, while some suddenly had all their whole fur fall down. The effect on morale was immediate. Not only they felt humiliated, but some realized the ease with whom he could have done much worse. Still, no one dared to run away, and they still seemed responsive to Sunset's orders. "Surround him, and start attacking. He won't be able to attack if he has to defend!"

Discord smiled as the rebels mustered their force of will and tried once again to follow the plan, despite all the humiliation he had already put them through. The pegasuses, as usual, were the most responsive, and soon started to move around Discord like a bunch of flies. The unicorns were instead fully on the offensive, trying to zap Discord with all they had. They didn't even think of the defence, as they knew how ineffective their barriers would be against chaos. Earth ponies were moving around the King, quite closer to him and always looking menacing, as if they were ready to tackle him any moment. That didn't worry him at all, though, and he was even thinking how naive the plan was, and waiting for the right moment to counterattack, shattering all their hopes. He needed something impressive, exaggerate and fun. And in the meantime, for a few more seconds, all he had to do was to snap his finger a few more times and turn every magical outburst around him in soap bubbles, or other visual effects. "Whoa!" But just as Discord got used to the situation and was ready to counterattack, a much more dangerous, dark-coloured bolt appeared just beside him. To his surprise, he actually had to move away to dodge, since he wouldn't manage to dispel it in time. His gaze quickly moved towards the presumed origin of such a spell.

Sunset Shimmer was a few meters to his left, her horn still lit. Lit wasn't the word, though. Dark purplish bubbles were floating around it, and an eerie greenish glow accompanied them. The same combination of colours was in her eyes, and especially in the long smoke-like purplish trails that departed from the side of each eye. Her gaze was intense and hateful, much more than Discord expected: "Little pony, where did you learn to do that?" he was now speeding up a bit, still cancelling the ponies spell, but also trying to thin their number too with some random course of various nature. and so an unlucky earth pony found his head and his rear switched, while a unicorn suddenly grew two more pairs of legs. "I thought that magic was long forgotten..." With Sombra sealed somewhere in the frozen north, Luna on the moon, and Celestia probably dead, he thought nopony should have even remembered it, the Draconeequus obviously being the exception.

"Oh, wouldn't you like to know?", she teased. The expression on her face was enough to make anypony shiver. But to Discord, it felt like a fun challenge. Her dark magic was faster and more powerful than the attacks of anypony else, and she was able to prevent even Discord's from noticing an attack was coming until it was really close to his own body. Not that he couldn't dispel it, or dodge it, but her ability to cast her magic right when Discord was dealing with other attacks was impressive, and so were her quick and calculated movements around the battlefield. Not only her armour was extremely light, allowing excellent mobility, but her teleports were perfectly executed, making her an even more difficult target.

Discord's superiority was hardly in doubt, though. More and more of the rebels were being incapacitated by his curses, that he was now throwing around seemingly randomly, as if hoping to hit her by chance. Not that she would let him, though. instead many other ponies ended up facing the consequences of those chaotic outbursts "You are good at running, aren't you?" Now he was trying to provoke her, but it was clear the whole thing wasn't bothering him. No, he was having fun, for the first time in who knew how long. "it's a pity that isn't enough to win!" To this, Sunset simply smirked, and another dark bolt materialized just beside Discord. This time he neither dodged nor he repelled it with his magic. No, he teleported away, vanishing for a moment from sunset's perception. "Gotcha!" hadn't he spoke, he would have appeared right in front of Sunset, so that she would run towards him. And his talon moved fast, trying to capture her foe, to then apply to her some fun curse.

"Nice try!" But she, instead, vanished. Not teleporting away, she possibly would have had time to do so before being touched, but instead turning her own body in a black mist, and then quickly surrounding Discord. A greenish glow pervaded the whole cloud, which soon manifested in powerful electrical shocks naturally aimed to the Draconequus. "How's this?"

But before any of them could actually reach her body, he had already teleported away, leaving a life-size plush of himself in his place, which quickly became dust under the intensity of the attack. "Now, that was impressive", he admitted, slowly clapping his hands "But, far from me to judge, it doesn't look healthy!" And as he was saying so, all the ponies were still trying to reach him, and without even focusing too much on the fact he won't on dodging their attacks and enveloping them with his magic. His focus was now only on the one unicorn capable of interesting him.

She manifested again, a few meters away. her irises were becoming redder, her pupils stretching and becoming dragonlike. "You think I don't know?" her horn and eyes lit again, in a new and more powerful outburst of dark magic. this time it wasn't aimed at Discord, though. "But we are all ready to make sacrifices!" Some of the knocked out ponies around the King of Chaos quickly arose, their eyes now fluorescent green, and they tried to tackle him quickly, forcing him to teleport away. Sunset looked disappointed, but without losing time she tried to have more and more of her fellow soldiers rise again. "AREN'T WE?"

Slightly more than half of the rebels were knocked out already, Some by the previous foes and some by Discord, and about another fifty had difficulties moving due to the consequences of Discord's weird spells. But about twenty found the strength to rise again by themselves, and a few of the pegasuses with the inverted wings, of the ponies with the exaggeratedly elongated legs and with other similar problems, were somehow getting used to them, and ready to fight again. They all answered with a sonorous "YES!" to the exhortation of their leader. About another thirty, though, were completely knocked out, but their body was still in good shape. Those were the ones Sunset had revived with her magic, and was now controlling. She didn't want to put them in undue danger, obviously, but she just couldn't let such an important asset go to waste. She had to, to be sure the plan could be enacted.

It was now becoming painfully clear that three minutes wouldn't be enough. Not by a long shot. Wasn't he so focused on the fight, and on having a lot of fun, Discord would have realized that almost five minutes had already passed, and that at least a few more would be required, were he to keep playing with them as he had. But, again, it was the first chance to actually fight and let his chaos loose he had in such a long time... The only thing he could do was to smile, lick his lip, and anticipate the fun. "Bring it on!"

Author's Note:

I feel like there is a lot to unpack in this chapter. I don't want to bore you, so I'll just go with my main thoughts.
First, thinking of 'Discord-like' magic was not easy, especially since I needed a lot of it. I'm especially proud of the 'Ophiucus' idea. Like... If there are ursas, why not have more constellation-inspired creatures?
Second, I love the irony of having Discord send away the knocked out soldier for their safety, while Sunset makes her comrades rise again with dark magic! It has a lot of potential, thematically.
Third, the interactions between Rarity and Rainbow Dash took longer to write than I'd like to admit. Overall I am satisfied, but I'll say that writing Rarity, to me, is almost as difficult as writing Pinkie Pie. I'm under the impression that if one messes up their dialogues and gets slightly off-character it is not even super obvious (like it would be with Discord, or Twilight), but it just gives an eerie feeling. Overall, I hope I managed, and that you liked the chapter!

With Love,
The Marshmallow

Comments

[Venerable Ro]

So then Sunset, the ends justify the means? Did Celestia teach you that?

[Vaguely Demented]

9679253
I rather get the impression this Celestia has fallen far from grace if she even let her students near dark magic.

[Venerable Ro]

9679291

Well to be fair, "our" Celestia did teach Twilight the absolute basics of dark magic before sending her to the Crystal Empire. But really, Sunset is definitely not someone I would have given that kind of magic to. Not unless I intended that they should die, taking their enemy with them.

[Vaguely Demented]

9679297
Oh I know cannon Celestia did that, but she only did it contextually so I can’t see a good reason for this Tia to do it without the belief that it is a necessary weapon to use.

[The Marshmallow]

9679297
9679310
I think that for this conversation it is important to understand how bad dark magic is in this world. If used irresponsibly, just seeking power and while obsessed with something, it is definitely pretty bad. If used responsibly, instead, it has its specific uses and the cost for using it is not even that high.

Now, you might think that the definition of using it irresponsibly matches 100% what Sunset is doing in this chapter. You would be right. This seems to leave Celestia as either dumb (She really expected her to actually only use it responsibly) or evil-ish (She just doesn't care... The end justifies the means etc). It will take a while to actually get to the definitive answer, but I plan to show a bit more about Celestia way of thinking in her next two appearances (one should be about 4 or 5 chapters from now, the other in the next interlude).

So... Stay tuned!

[Theresa]

9679297
She taught her one spell which isn't exactly getting everything she might need to know in her head.