If Chaos prevails...

by The Marshmallow

22 - Celebrations - After the night, a new dawn

Her breath short, her legs tired, Twilight Sparkle finally emerged from the underground network of tunnels that brought her outside the walls of Canterlot. The wardrobe with the captive inside was still floating behind her. The dark sky that she did finally see, together with the powerful dark magic she had felt previously (and that then had suddenly vanished), left her little doubts about what had happened. When she reached the agreed meeting point, where one of her comrades was waiting for her, she was still considering how to break the news to Celestia. Although, she guessed, she would exactly know what happened already. Didn't she forecast her return and her downfall quite precisely?

Trying to push away those thoughts she quickly laid the wardrobe on the stallion's cart, sitting beside it a moment later. She tried to catch her breath, painfully aware of the fact she should have exercised more. Teleportation is so convenient one would be tempted to only use it to go everywhere, as long as one's magical supply allows for it, but it just leaves behind too many traces when dealing with someone of the calibre of Discord or even Cadence. "Let's go!"

A large red stallion wearing a dark cape was holding the cart, and hearing the voice of the unicorn he simply nodded and answered with a laconic "Eeyup!". He then started moving, and despite the load he had to drag, he did not at all seem to be slowed by it, showing a strength far above even the average earth pony. Wasting no time, and leaving barely any trace, they were swiftly going to reach safety.

Part of the lavender mare told her not to celebrate just yet, that there was an off chance that her pursuers still had a chance of reaching her. And yet, she thought that despite what she thought was the fight against Nightmare Moon had lasted just one minute, that the time Discord had lost there was exactly what would make impossible for him to reach her. She finally breather in relief, then, her body slightly relaxing, as her voice rang again, in a pleased whisper "We did it, Mac!" And as a small smile appeared on the large stallion face, Twilight received exactly the answer she expected. Not that she was going to complain.

"Eeyup!"

---

In the blink of an eye, Cadence appeared right next to Discord, called there by the Draconeequs' chaotic magic. He had landed just moments before and was quickly checking the conditions of the statue previously known as Nightmare Moon. The huge pink cushion he had made appear right underneath her had prevented her shattering to pieces, and overall (besides the horrified expression) she seemed fine. Cadence was calming down, relieved by his uncle's mercy even more than from his newly reaffirmed invincibility.

Discord, on the contrary, didn't at all seem glad of his victory. Despite all the nightmare magic dispelling as she the dark alicorn lost her ability to cast, the lingering traces of those unholy manifestations still filled both the surrounding area and his magical senses. Perceiving the much vaguer traces the unicorn she was pursuing had left was going to be a hard task already, only made worse by the fact she had been so careful at covering her traces to the point of voluntarily leaving many red herrings. He sighed. "Bring her to the castle." There was no malevolence, or even clear rage, hidden in its voice. It was kind of quiet, tired even. The kind of serious and sombre voice that was so unusual coming from his uncle's mouth, and which did not allow for refusal. "To the throne room. The nobles are in the dining room. Make sure they are calm, but tell them nothing. Invent something if you need... You are better than me at dealing with them." She nodded at the many words the Draconeequs had quickly pronounced, feeling a certain pride in the trust she put in her. But looking at him, she could see -more than the anger she was afraid of- simple sadness. The sense of loss certainly coming from not knowing the whereabouts of Pinkie, his best friend. And there was nothing she could to help, not even try to comfort him. She didn't have time to do so. "I'll be back soon."

As he vanished without a sound, seemingly swallowed by the folds of reality, the mare was left alone with her thoughts (and the statue), and a sense of guilt fell upon her. Discord trusted her completely, and she had failed him, not managing to stop the purple unicorn from running away with poor Pinkie Pie. Worst still, she had cared more about protecting that handsome white stallion than her own friends. She should have had Discord capture and interrogate him, and she had sent him away instead. He was cute, just her type, but that didn't feel like a good excuse anymore. No, she had to do everything in her power to save Pinkie, and she was going to start her own search the very next day.

What she could do at that moment, though, was simply to obey his uncle's request. The statue, although incapable of harming her in any way, still gave her chills. She wondered if that was the kind of pressure other ponies felt when in her own presence, but she pushed the thought away. With a few steps she closed the distance from it and started to light her horn, preparing a teleportation spell capable of getting her inside the castle. Long-distance teleportation wasn't her forte, and she always ended up wasting lots of magic... But thinking that average pony couldn't even teleport, let alone as far as the castle was from her, gave her some relief. She needed to calm, stable, and focused. And as soon as she had properly visualized her target, it was time to go.

A flash of light and the familiar sound of teleportation were everything that could be seen or heard, and a moment later neither of them was still standing in the street, leaving the comically large cushion as the only sign there had even been a battle moments before.

---

As the cart slid inside the cave, both the unicorn and the earth pony finally breathed in relief. The chance the Draconeequs or anypony else could manage to find his way in the tunnels hidden underneath Canterlot, especially after Twilight had so thoroughly mystified her traces, were slim. For them to be able to guess they went towards one of the many caves in the mountain, let alone which one, was functionally impossible. And even if they did, the cave complex was all but easy.

With a little help from Twilight, Big mac managed to find his way through those tunnels and after a few turns found himself in one large room that had been carved by water throughout the millennia. They weren't alone. A multitude of members of their militia laid on the ground injured, as the healthier ones performed on them some first aid. The duo slightly cringed seeing how some of them had some of their legs impossibly stretched, or turned into tentacles, or mutated in many other ways by the terrible chaos. Despite being used to fighting chaos and its consequences, fully heling them would not be easy, and in some cases that would amount to nothing more than just hiding from sight their curses, possibly without never being fully restored.

That didn't seem to matter to them, though, as those that were still conscious rejoiced by seeing Twilight Sparkle coming back safe. many of them held for her not only the regard due to the second in command but also a much deeper affection, as if she was family. A little sister, maybe? The fact she was the little sister of their general certainly helped to cement such a view. The mare was almost moved in seeing such reaction, although she was still trying to keep it together and to give them the good news.

Before she could, she noticed a heavily bandaged mare moving towards her, a movement she soon reciprocated, full of worry, jumping down from the cart without a second thought. "Sunset, are you okay?" She didn't look so, with bandages covering almost her entire body except for her right reddened eye and her muzzle. She would have wanted to hug her friend-almost-sister but didn't think it was a wise thing to do, not knowing the gravity of her situation.

Sunset Shimmer thought otherwise and threw her hooves around Twilight shoulders, just glad the lavender unicorn was fine despite the risk she had undertaken. Twilight returned the hug, a little bit relieved that her friend wasn't in a condition as dire as it seemed. "I thought you would have liked my Nightmare Night costume..." Twilight smirked slightly, but the worry in her eyes was still there. And given the way those eyes were scrutinizing her, Sunset didn't think she could avoid the question. So she sighed, and then answered "Most of my skin feels like it's burning, my vision is a bit fuzzy, and I feel nauseous. Typical symptoms of dark magic overuse, but I can deal with this." She seemed tired, exhausted really, but still confident. She was ready to bear the pain that came as a consequence of her actions, ready to go back to her duties even the very next morning if necessary, despite clearly needing to recover "Also, compared to many of our comrades, I am faring pretty well"

Twilight had already seen the conditions of many of those that had the courage to directly oppose Discord. They weren't technically hurt, in most cases, and yet she had to agree that she would have easily chosen any wound to one of those curses. "I see..." She would have liked to say 'that's good', or something along those lines. But what happened to her friends were far from good. So she let that veil of sadness linger for a moment, uncertain on what else she should have said.

Sunset took back the reins of the conversation almost immediately. "Enough talking about us, now." They had done their part, they had managed to hold Discord for a while and then he went away. All of that did barely matter, it was only a little gear in a much larger mechanism, whose result they valued much more. So there was only one question that every conscious pony among them had been harbouring, and Sunset voiced it: "Did you succeed?"

the room fell into complete silence, as every pony speaking did shut up immediately, and even the medics stopped moving. They were all waiting for the same answer, with their hearts full of hope, and after a few brief moments, she levitated the wardrobe from the cart to the middle of the room. She was as delicate as she could since inside there was their sleeping captive, sedated with magic as soon as Twilight was sure of being so far from discord grasp that no magic would be perceived. That object, and that way of dealing with it, was already a clear answer to their question, but no one dared to speak until they had heard Twilight words: "I did."

And then Tartarus broke loose, as even the most pitiful, most mutated of the soldiers laid on the ground erupted into cheering. It was the joy of success, both great and unprecedented. A success many thought impossible to reach, and that instead had suddenly materialized.

Everything they did, everything they suffered, they thought, had been worth it.

And finally, they could be the ones celebrating.

---

The many ponies that flooded Canterlot to witness the luxurious celebrations needed a place to rest. As the capital itself was unable to accommodate them all, and the pockets of many were unable or unwilling to afford a room in the capital anyways, many trains were departing that evening. Some, like those going to Baltimare or Appleloosa, would reach their destinations by early morning, while others, like those going to Vanhoover or Las Pegasus, were going to arrive much later. The luckiest ponies were, without doubt, those living in the much closer Cloudsdale or Ponyville. The first group was going to simply fly to their homes, reaching them in barely an hour, while the latter was going to get home before midnight by train.

The train was, in fact, unusually crowded, but three ponies had managed to reserve a compartment otherwise meant for four just for themselves. Just beside the window, there was a white unicorn mare with a pair of glasses sporting a long purple ponytail. Right in front of her, a white stallion with a blue mane slicked back with grease and a generous moustache and beard, both of the same colour and both styled with great care. Finally, just beside the first mare, there was a second one. An orange earth pony with the most elaborate hairstyle of them all, resembling in her own words 'a damn pineapple', although it would certainly not have looked out of place in some old-fashioned circles of Canterlot nobility. Each of them was wearing a long dress (a tuxedo in the stallion's case), which hid most of their body, cutie mark included.

The earth pony was the first to speak and she did so with a certain strain in her voice, or better, in her whisper. "Were the disguises really necessary, Rarity?" Although the makeup the Fashionista had put on all the three of them, and the dresses she had previously prepared, were in fact quite good at masking their identities, especially if some pursuer only had some description of them instead of some pictures, the likelihood of having somepony pursuing them did seem low at that point. Not only it would take a while to give the word they were likely to be implicated in the conspiration against Discord to the guards, especially now that the train already departed, but the farmer doubted either Fluttershy or Rainbow Dash were going to readily speak their name, and the same sentiment was shared by Shining Armor in regards to the princess.

"Why, yes! We can't be too careful." Naturally, she couldn't reveal the main reason behind her actions. Sure, she had some items to make the costumes prepared already, since she didn't know what their exact situation would be. What made her decide to go through with it, though, was seeing her friends terribly worried for Twilight's fate and the long time they had to wait for the train to depart, as the show ended long before it should have. What better than some nice dressing-up to distract them from their worries? "Also, you look positively stunning with that coiffure, you should consider wearing that more often"

Applejack sighed. She wasn't even sure if Rarity was teasing her or if she was serious. But that was not the main point. "Fine." Not that she wanted to wear her dress and her elaborately styled mane even a moment more than necessary. "But I still think you went overboard"

Rarity smiled, a hint of pride in her voice: "You know me, I always put the utmost effort in my job" And to that, there was little the farmer could object, the fashionista thought. Who better than the earth pony could understand her solid work ethics, and maybe appreciate it? What she noticed then was how the third of them had not spoken a word in many, many minutes. So it was time to bring him in the conversation, to avoid to have his mind wander off and be overwhelmed by worry "Also, Shining isn't complaining!", she joked, "I guess he likes his suit!"

"Mmmh?" Hearing his name brought Shining Armor back to the present moment. He was alert, sure, vigilant in that way only a soldier can be, ready to react to the smallest change in his immediate surrounding. But that was mostly a matter of instinct since his mind had not been there for a good while. He was thinking of the danger her sister could still be in, of what happened between him and the princess, of his many comrades that probably had faced discord, and even of the sudden darkness descending on the city. And there was one more question that had recently started to creep in.

"A bit for your thoughts, Sugarcube?", asked Applejack, showing some concern of her own. It was not common for Shining Armor to space out like that. While Rarity couldn't shake off the feeling there was romance in the air, although she could hardly picture where something like that had even time to happen, Applejack was just concerned for her friend. "Worried for Twilight?"

Who among them wasn't? Shining sighed, and then answered calmly "Yes, but it's not only that." Alert as he was, he had been carefully picking the talking of ponies around them. Those from Cloudsdale seemed disappointed, there was a sense of pride in having one of their own become the royal consort. Only a few of them were silent, maybe knowing what lead Fluttershy there, but most were quite vocal, wondering what could have happened. Many ideas were thrown out, spanning from the bride falling ill or Discord changing his mind to some more imaginative alternatives, such as the bride to be being some kind of spy discovered at the very last moment. The most popular by far, though, was the Idea that the powerful king had been left at the altar. It was fun to imagine a god-like being as powerless in front of the whims of a mare. A few also wondered why the night had come so suddenly, and what about the wailing of ghosts and the bad omens some swore to have felt. There was going to be much discussion about all of this around what really happened, and nopony would even come close to guessing the truth. But what f they did? "All the ponies... What would they think if they knew...?"

"Honestly?" The orange mare looked in the distance from a few moments. She agreed to the plan in the end and helped enact it, even though he certainly didn't like the idea of actually foalnapping somepony. Would the citizens of Equestria understand their actions? Would they side with them given the chance, or would they instead assume their king still had the moral high ground? "I have no idea."

"They'll understand, darling" Rarity was of a different opinion entirely, and she voiced it with no doubt to be found in her tone. She knew the values of the resistance, and she trusted the average pony to align with those. The corruption and the Chaos of Discord had no place in the Equestria she envisioned, in the Equestria that could soon come to be. "We'll only need to give them time."

---

The celebrations were over, and a deep silence had fallen over the city of Canterlot. Another dawn was soon to come, called forth by the magic of Discord himself, but for once the sun would not have shone light upon its victory and glory. The Lord of Chaos had searched everywhere, moved all around Canterlot staying quietly in the shadow, and had even found the labyrinth of ancient tunnels underneath his city. He had picked some vague trace of magic, he had even tried following them, but it was too late. Pinkie Pie was out of his reach, probably out of the city, and he had no idea where they could have taken him. He had lost.

He was grieving and floating, so far above the royal city to be functionally invisible to any observer. All the beautiful moments spent with the pink mare being played back in his mind, giving him brief surges of happiness and then precipitating him into a renewed sadness. But he couldn't go on like that for long. No, he had to go to the nobles and explain to them nothing had happened. Tell Fluttershy the marriage would go on as planned in just a few days, and telling cadence that she didn't have to worry about anything.

Discord was on the case, and the lord Chaos did not know of half measures. Not anymore. What he did to those that had challenged him today was but the appetizer, and many were soon going to taste the full course of madness. He laughed, maniacally, trying to push away his sorrow by imagining the pitiful fates of his enemies. A cruel smile took form on his face.

Everything they lived through, everything they suffered, he thought, was but a fraction of what was to come.

And once more, he would soon be the one celebrating.

Author's Note:

After two months and a half, 'Celebrations' is over. As I said previously, it was a lot of fun writing this, although it was also very challenging. Thank you for accompanying me until now, I really hoped you enjoyed this, and that you will continue to enjoy the story even in the third part!

Before that, though, I will take a long pause. Let's say that there won't be another regular chapter until the end of September. I'll rework the first few chapters of this story (the second and third soon, I hope), and I want to write two unrelated one-shots that I've been planning for a while and two or three 'interludes'.

The biggest thing I'm thinking about, though, is a spin-off to this story. I'll give more details soon, for now I'll just say that it will be about some past events I have mentioned multiple times in the story. I will build up some more lore, but above all I hope to make it a compelling story!

With love,
The marshmallow

Comments

[Venerable Ro]

So they've successfully kidnapped a defenseless mare, the dearest friend to the mad-God, and his primary voice of restraint.

Remind me, what do they think the next step here is? "Give us the throne or we execute the prisoner"?

That's not going to go over too well.

[Vaguely Demented]

I think Celestia and co might be about to find out that there is a reason you don’t pull on a tigers tail.

[duckmagee]

NO PLAN SURVIVES PINKIE PIE, it be interesting to see what happen next how celesta's react to nightmare moon being captured by discord, and how she deal with a mare that love discords and will be opposed to whatever they have planed, and the opposite beliefs both parties have to each other, and if they hope to turn ponykind against discord, this will not work for ponies who dont know who celestia is, her first action is invasion of a wedding and kidnapping a innocent mare not a good for pr for revolution against there goofy but accepted king

[The Marshmallow]

9782303
9782565

I will try to keep the tag as 'Everyone', but Discord getting progressively more unrestrained might make it a difficult job. x) I don't think it is a spoiler to say that things will get pretty bad.

About the next step... There is still a whole council governing the resistance, so they might have very different ideas about what to do next

9783237

The next part is going to have a lot to do with Pinkie (obviously), so I really hope to render her unpredictability properly. Clearly, no plan can go exactly as intended, as there would be no story to tell... But with Pinkie and Discord involved the possibilities for things to go wrong are endless!

Also, I am considering if I should do an interlude about some backstory of the resistance as an organization or leave it to the main chapters I'll see!

With love,
The Marshamallow

[Orrm]

9782303
Keyword "Mad-God"