Old Mare Luna

by Leondude

Chapter 21 - We're in the endgame

"So that's how I managed to survive all these years," Sunburst said while relaying his story to Luna, Discord and Settler "I travelled back to Canterlot and I managed to find Rockhoof and Skystar petrified within the Canterlot gardens and I knew just by looking at them they were the real deal. And since time works differently in the other world than it does here, I jumped back into the portal to the other world in order to find out how to turn Rockhoof and Skystar back to normal. But, unlike the last time I was in the other world, I was instead stranded on an island in the middle of nowhere."

Before Sunburst could continue his story, he noticed Settler snoring loudly before suddenly waking up. And in the corner was Discord getting the crystals attached to him plucked off by Rockhoof. Luna was the only that was paying attention. It appeared that everypony except Discord had their magic-inhibiting crystals removed.

"What did I miss?" Settler asked in a dazed tone.

"Not much," Discord replied, "Just how he managed to survive all these years."

Discord winced as Rockhoof pried another crystal off of him with his shovel.

"Ow! I knew this would be like ripping off a Band-Aid or two but I didn't know it would be that painful!"

"Just hold still and you will have your chaos magic back in no time," Rockhoof said.

"I certainly hope so. I don't think I could survive this world without my magic."

"Hey, Sunburst!" Skystar shouted excitedly "Could you tell them about how we're going to stop Grogar by using the power of the Elements?"

Luna raised an eyebrow at that statement.

"How do you plan on using the power of the Elements? I would have assumed they were destroyed during Sombra's conquest of Equestria."

"Oh, they are but Sunburst found a way to give everypony the power. It's a little gross so I will have Sunburst tell you. Trust me, it's a doozy!"

"Well, if you consider using the remains of the Tree of Harmony as well as a few dead alicorns to be 'a doozy'," Sunburst said.

"And where did you get these dead alicorn remains from?" Luna asked.

"Grogar's trophy room," Sunburst replied, "I snuck in when he was busy holding another public execution."

"Ooh, are you talking about those potions you asked me to deliver to the Flibbertygibbet twins?" Discord asked.

"Yes."

"You forgot to mention your way of harnessing the Elements also contained traces of my blood as well as Flurry Heart's."

Luna gave a disturbed look at Discord's direction before turning towards Sunburst.

"I believe the magic used by ponies and other creatures have some sort of symbiotic relationship that is within their blood," Sunburst explained.

Luna turned towards Skystar.

"You were right. That is disgusting."

"Wasn't there another draconequus who volunteered to give a blood sample?" Skystar asked Sunburst.

"Yes, there was," Sunburst replied, "Can't remember who, though."

"I think it may have been my cousin Eris," Discord said.

"Ah yes, I remember her," Luna said, "She once stole my magic and planned on using it to give everypony bad dreams."

"True but I thought she would represent an element to some extent so I asked her to give a sample of her blood for me. By the way, did you know she has some griffin ancestry in her?"

"That would explain why she looked less like you."

"Well now, you can't expect every draconequus to look alike. That's why history books say 'a body made up of other parts' instead of detailing the specific parts."

"Good point."

Sunburst trotted over to a chest and opened it, revealing it to be filled with vials of the potion.

"In order to harness the full power of the Elements," Sunburst explained "We mixed in the remains of the elements with the blood of those who represent the corresponding elements. Twilight being magic, of course. Cadence is kindness, since love is associated with kindness. Discord is laughter because, I must say, he is actually pretty funny when he isn't being annoying."

"Thank you," Discord said.

"You're welcome. And the rest were merely assumptions. Eris being generosity, Celestia being loyalty and Flurry Heart being honesty."

The moment Sunburst finished that sentence, hoofsteps echoed throughout the cave. Entering the cave was a dark alicorn accompanied by a quintet of ponies. While only one in the group of ponies was a pegasus, they were all dressed like darker versions of the Wonderbolts. The pegasus had a spiky dark blue mane with streaks of lighter shades of blue. Another was an earth pony with a dark pink mane styled in a ponytail with a turquoise streak. The other members were a pair of unicorns, one with a short purple mane and the other with a white mane styled in long pigtails, and an earth pony with long green hair.

"What was the old saying, Discord?" the dark alicorn said, "Speak of the draconequus and he shall appear?"

Sunburst recognized that voice. It sounded familiar but a lot more sinister than he remembered. When it hit him, he came to a horrifying realization.

"Flurry Heart?!"

---

Discord woke up extremely hungover. Another drinking bender with somepony whose name he had difficulty remembering to help him numb the pain of losing Fluttershy. He looked around and noticed he was lying on his couch in his home. He doesn't even remember coming home to Chaosville. He got up and held his head in his lion paw before snapping his fingers to spawn a blender and a plate of fried eggs, bacon, and French toast. The plate poured the breakfast into the blender, with the blender mixing the breakfast into a less than pleasant looking concoction. When the blender had done its job, Discord grabbed it, opened the blender and slurped the blender down before chucking away the remains of the breakfast. The breakfast exploded on impact.

"Ugh!" Discord moaned "Best hangover cure, my a-"

But before Discord could finish his sentence, his answering machine beeped.

"You have two new messages."

"When did I get an answering machine?" Discord asked himself.

"Hi, Discord. It's me, Settler" Settler's voice on the answering machine said "We're standing outside of Chrysalis' arena ready to storm the place. Let me know when you're ready."

"Oh, now I remember!" Discord said to himself "Settler! That's the pony I was having drinks with. Didn't he have marriage problems?"

The answering machine beeped again, playing the next message.

"Hey, Discord," Sunburst's voice on the answering machine said "It's been a while since we spoke but I found a resistance somewhere in the Badlands that wishes to join forces with my resistance! I need you to deliver the potions to the Badlands if that isn't too much trouble for you. Meet me in the usual place if you remember where it is."

Discord slumped over and fell off of his couch. He tried in vain to get up but kept falling over and knocking down some of the upside-down pictures floating on his wall, with one, in particular, falling on top of him. He picked it up and looked at it. It was a picture of him, Fluttershy and the rest of their friends having a laugh during Twilight's absence since Twilight herself was busy reorganizing her bookshelves for three days. Tears dropped onto the picture as Discord looked at it in a mix of nostalgia and sadness.

A crystal ball rolled over to Discord's side, interrupting his train of pleasant but painful thoughts. He was going to use the ball to pretend to be Grogar so he could teach his friends some friendship lessons of his own, as well as dispose of the remaining ne'er do wells that now rule over Equestria. Had he known Grogar was real, he would have chosen some other mythical overlord. He picked up the ball and within it showed Luna getting the snot beaten out of her by a pair of centaurs. Looking at his answering machine, Discord had an idea.

He was going on one more adventure with one of his remaining friends.

Author's Note:

That moment when your editor missed the deadline second time in a row:

Then again, since he was ill last time, perhaps I could cut him some slack.

Anyway, this fic is coming close to its end. Only four chapters to go. I admit, it's going to be hard accepting that my magnum opus as of this writing would be finished so soon. But hey, all good things must come to an end.

Comments

[toshibafox]

looking forward to sunburst's reaction to flurry_hearts change of character also that pov from Discord isn't giving me the hope he's going to survive this endgame plan.

[DmitriTheWriter]

Oof. I am so sorry about this. I have no excuse this week. I just straight up forgot when your story updated, so I didn't get around to editing it. You can go ahead with that swear-filled rant now.

Alternatively, this is actually just an extended test of your self-reliance and natural writing skills. Yes, that'll do...

[Leondude]

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