For Love of Fluttershy (A Discord Story)

by Teddie Williams

Discord Doesn't Do Much This Time...

Discord was quick to poof everyone back to the place of eternal blizzards. Along with Starlight and Spike, since the Council of Harmony appeared to be close to them for some reason. Luna ducked her head, gritting her teeth as the sharp cold gale of this land tore into her. "How are we supposed to even get in to this Crystal Empire when there's a blizzard blocking everyone out of it!?"

Discord opened his mouth, as if to say something in response to her question, only for Pinkie to leap forward, a loud shout escaping her. "HIYA SOMBRA! WE'RE HERE TO KICK YOUR COWARDLY BEHIND!"

"Pinkie!" Everyone spluttered loudly at that declaration.

Apparently it worked, if the fact that the eternal blizzard suddenly stopped... and a large city that appeared to be made entirely of crystals appeared in front of them. An ugly pitch black unicorn with a blood red horn that was jagged in appearance stepped forward, what appeared to be red flames leaping out of his eyes... literally. "How is this even possible?! I destroyed you! Minions! Attack!"

"Why do ya always send in your innocent civilians to do your dirty work?" Applejack facehoofed herself, a groan escaping her.

Confusion clouded the others as they turned to stare at the Council of Harmony, and Discord... and the unicorn mare... oh, and the baby dragon, as they all wondered what that was about. As if reading their minds, Rarity clarified what it was that Applejack was talking about. "Sombra places enchanted helmets on his subjects head and forces them to fight for him. Once we remove the helmets off of their heads they will be turned back to normal.... and won't fight us at all."

"Okay..."

"You mean Okie Dokie Loki!" Pinkie bounced where she was standing, even as a large army swarmed towards them.

Glancing at the children that DIscord had kidnapped, Celestia moved to shield them from the fighting. Shaking her head, Rainbow Dash reached a hoof out, stopping her in her tracks. "Yeah... they can help. As Rarity just said, all we have to do is remove the helmets. Just try not to hurt anypony."

"Tell that to them!" Luna gestured frantically at the converging army that was already surrounding them.

"Just leave Sombra to us. Well... Twilly and Cadance. We'll go in and find them while you guys stay out here and free his people." Confidence flooded Applejack's voice as she laid out the plan.

"What kind of plan is that?! What if we fail!?" Starswirl the Bearded demanded as he narrowed his eyes.

Sunset shook her head, giving her mentor a flat look, before turning to Starlight. "How often does this happen?"

"Only when someone tries to break up the magic of friendship... which is ridiculous because everyone knows that friendship is the most powerful magic of them all. Reason why its the Council of Harmony, its their job to protect the magic of friendship which in turn typically ends up being the entire world since without the magic of friendship... well.... you don't want to know what it is that will happen without it." Starlight explained, and at the same time, didn't explain to the confused mare.

"Uh..." Before she could say anything else, the fight began in earnest, making her loose sight of the other mare.

Ducking a blow to the head, Sunset hurriedly used her magic to whip off the helmet her attacker was wearing. Immediately the stallion collapsed to the ground unconscious. "Okay... taking the helmets off works!" Sunset decided to holler out for everyone to hear.

Sunburst dodged nearby, irritation flaring in his eyes. "Really? Never would have guessed that! Where did the Council of Harmony disappear to anyways?"

Discord poofed close to him, casually plucking off two more helmets. "Oh that's easy. They're sneaking into the Crystal Palace to find Twilly and Cadance."

"Yeah... I'm lost on who those two are... besides relatives of that one stallion." Someone commented, though none of them could tell who it was that was speaking.

"Princess Twilight Sparkle of the Council of Harmony, and her sister in law, Princess Di Amore, formerly of Crystal Empire..."

"Formerly of the Crystal Empire!?" Sunset spun around to stare at him, positive that he had lost his marbles.

Starlight huffed loudly as she yanked a few more helmets off of the enemy. "Sombra is Cadance's father. Long story short, she ran away due to him being a control freak and refusing her to visit Shining Armor, older brother to Princess Twilight Sparkle."

"Okay... that is... um... okay then. Let's just get these helmets off of these guys and question your sanity later." Starswirl blinked rapidly, positive that he had probably made a mistake with coming along on this adventure.

Before Discord, or anypony really, could assure him that everything is just fine and normal about this entire ordeal, a colorful explosion suddenly painted the sky. Stunned, everyone stopped fighting, well ripping helmets off, turning to stare at the large palace where the explosion came from. Silence fell as, oddly enough, all the helmets melted away, as if they never existed in the first place. Before Celestia or Luna could ask what just happened, Discord, Starlight, and Spike started whooping and cheering loudly, getting the children wound up in the process. The princesses promptly glared at them.

Cloud Chaser hoofbumped Sapphire Shadow and Sandbar, acting like it was no big deal, even as he turned to hoofbump the other children. Glancing up, he looked to the surprisingly bright blue sky. "Hey! Look! There's two more alicorns!"

Shocked, they all whipped around, following his gaze. Sure enough, the Council of Harmony was fast approaching them, along with two alicorns, one purple and one pink, along with them. Starlight allowed a sigh of relief to escape her, before running up to greet them. "Twilly! Cadance!"

The two alicorns turned to face her... and promptly broke into huge smiles. "Starlight!" They quickly tackled hugged the young mare.

Discord cleared his throat loudly, before sweeping his claw in a grand gesture. "Everyone I would be very pleased to introduce you to Princess Twilight Sparkle and Princess Di Amore!"

"Discord!" Both princesses turned to glare at him huffing slightly. The pink one trotted forward, raising her head to glare at him. "You know that I much prefer Cadance..."

"And I prefer Twilight... its more personal that way."

"What she means is that it makes us seem more approachable that way and we much prefer it that way over the haughty and mighty way our names and titles imply." Cadance rolled her eyes skyward.

Celestia vaguely wondered how it was that they had somehow missed two other alicorns in their history....

Author's Note:

Hi! Next chapter will just be the aftermath of rescuing all of Ponyville and of course the Crystal Empire. Hope you all enjoyed this story so far since we are literally only one chapter away from the ending!

Teddie