• Published 19th Aug 2012
  • 8,732 Views, 568 Comments

PonyFall: The Dawning of Twilight - MrBackpack



Twilight Sparkle was more than confident that Discord was going to reset into his stone prison

  • ...
31
 568
 8,732

Chapter 13: The Last Twilight

I was on my feet the moment that F.A. hit the tree.

“Grab Luna," I shouted, my hand snatching up the hatchet without me fully realizing it. “We’re leaving!” I caught Doug’s eye for the briefest of seconds before whirling around to watch Michelle vanish into the tent.

I could hear another male voice shouting something behind me as I dove through the open flap.

“Forget it,” I shouted at Michelle as she tried to stuff several things into her bag. “We have to get out of here.” I snatched Noodle off of the ground and pulled Michelle out after me.

As we emerged from the tent we saw Luna start to run towards the other tent, the tall man had vanished and Fluttershy was over near where the man had collapsed after being stabbed, it looked as though she was trying to comfort the woman next to him.

Michelle beat me to Luna and swooped her kicking and screaming form up off the ground and turned back to me. We locked eyes for the briefest of seconds before I turned about and took one step-

-and found myself sitting in another tent, chained up and immobile, along with everyone else, and had been rendered mute.

“It is a bit cramped in here, isn’t it?” said the thin man with an evil grin on his face. “Very well. Let’s take it outside, then.” He snapped his fingers and we all found ourselves outside, around the firepit.

“Well now, isn’t this quaint?” he asked. “The gang’s nearly all here!” He prowled around us, my eyes followed him, trying to figure someway out of this mess. “But what’s this?” he gasped dramatically, pausing behind Fluttershy and putting both hands on his cheeks. “We seem to be missing a few! Now, how could you possibly turn me back into stone without gathering all of your friends and using that pretty pony princess,” he grimaced and deflated for a moment, “Celestia, to put me in my place.”

He stopped pacing and glared at us, the moment, all hints of joviality gone from his entire demeanor.

“That is your plan, is it not,” he mocked. “To use the ‘magic of friendship’ to defeat villainous old me, and send my fellow Equestrians back home.”

He turned his back on all of us and stalked over to the man that he had blasted into the tree and was snarling with rage. I took the opportunity to squirm and wriggle with all of my might, trying desperately to get myself free but to no avail.

“Oh yes,” the man all but squealed, again switching moods instantly. “But I am getting ahead of myself, aren’t I? Let’s see now, who are we missing?” He paused for a few moments, putting a finger to his lips. “Oh, yes. How could we forget about-” he snapped his fingers and a teenaged young man and rainbow-haired girl appeared “-Rainbow Dash!”

I did my best to fight my way through the sudden blast of images and sounds that all but blocked off the world around me. By the time that my mind was able to return to the world the man had locked the two newcomers up like the rest of us and was summoning the next on his sadistic list.

After Rainbow Dash came Applejack who was followed by Rarity, each of them accompanied by their own slideshow of images and sounds.

Now the gang’s all here,” the man gushed with glee. “We have Twilight and Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Applejack, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and even Princess Luna.” He rolled his oddly colored eyes and indicated Angel. “Oh, and Angel Bunny’s here, too. Every Equestrian on this planet you call Earth is right here in this very spot.” He looked around at each of us. “Ah, but of course! You all have questions. Very well, very well. Let’s just remove that little silencing spell and–” the moment he released the spell, everyone began shouting at him, I swore with all of my anger at him “–oh dear. This won’t do at all.” We were immediately silenced again. “Let’s play a game! You each get one question that I must answer. Let’s start with… you!” He pointed at Rainbow Dash.

“Why don’t you go shove a horn up your–”

“Tsk tsk!” he admonished, snapping his fingers. Rainbow was immediately silenced. “There are children present. You forfeit. Next!” He pointed at Rarity.

After a moment’s hesitation, she asked, “How did you find me? How did you find any of us?”

The man sighed. “Now you see, you’re breaking the rules. That was two questions. But!” He raised a finger. “The answer is the same for both, so consider this a freebie to make up for Dashie over there. I found you because I can sense magic. Oh yes, you might think your magic disappeared, but a tiny little sliver remained. Not much, but, when you place something that is barely magical in a land with no magic at all, well…” He held forth his hand, which was sporting a red thumb. “You get the idea.”

He pointed to Applejack. “Next!”

Applejack narrowed her eyes. “Y’all said that every Equestrian on Earth is right in this here camp.” She looked around. “But Princess Celestia ain’t here!”

The look he gave her was one of utter disappointment. “Applejack, Applejack. We both know that wasn’t even a question.” He snapped his fingers to prevent a retort. “Next time, don’t try to be so… fancy with your words.”

Discord’s eyes rested on Twilight Sparkle. “You’re up.”

“Where is Princess Celestia?” Twilight demanded.

“I dealt with her already,” he responded with a shrug. “But if you really must know, she’s in Equestria. You see, I couldn’t have you turning me into stone again, so naturally I had to eliminate the strongest of the lot.” He feigned a look of despair. “Imagine my surprise when she told me she’d leave willingly. Then again, I guess Equestria is doomed with nopony to raise the sun or moon. Not to mention the little chaos fissure that was left behind when we came here. From the look of it, it has swallowed half of Equestria! I suppose she felt it her duty to step in and save the day.”

A bored look came upon his face, watching his face was a study in non-Euclidean geometry, it was human one moment and something very different and otherworldly the next. He pointed to Fluttershy. “You’re next.”

Fluttershy looked down at the ground in silence. The thin man grinned, and looked as if he were going to skip her, when she suddenly said, “Why?”

“Beg your pardon?” he asked, putting one hand to his chest.

“Why are you here, doing this?” she clarified. “If Princess Celestia is back in Equestria, then you know we can’t defeat you. Yet here you are, and you’ve even chained us up. Your actions aren’t adding up, Discord.”

Everything clicked the moment that she said his name. Of course this was Discord, everything fit into some demented puzzle and I was just now seeing the bigger picture.

“Do they ever?” he replied with a giggle. “Oh, but you do have a point. Why should I waste my time coming here and talking to you?” He walked back over to where F.A. lay and jabbed a finger at him. “This is the reason. Sure, playing the reset game can be fun at times, but only when I’m the one pulling the reset switch.” His face grew dark. “I don’t find it amusing when lesser beings think they can manipulate me. What’s worse, he resorted to killing. There’s no chaos in that; it’s order of the highest kind!” Discord blinked, returning to his train of thought. “But yes. I have no intention of being reset by this thing,” he said, pointing at F.A. “The problem is, all he has to do is kill one of you here, and we’re all going to reset.” He glanced over to the body of the dead man. “Well… most of you.”

Discord hovered over to address Doug, I could see some hint of emotion in his face. “Friend or foe, if I had foreseen such a thing, I would not have allowed it.”

“So then,” Discord said quickly as he whipped around. “I find myself in the most unfortunate situation of having to protect my newest friends from harm.” A small flag appeared in his hand, though he waved it without enthusiasm. “Yay me.” He pointed at Pinkie. “Your turn.”

Much like Fluttershy, Pinkie sat in silence for a while. Though Discord made a show of yawning, she was unperturbed. Finally she looked up, strong emotion was on her face and in her tear-filled eyes..

“This is our loss,” she said quietly.

Discord frowned. “You know the rules about statements, Pink–”

“No,” she said as she looked at Doug. “This is our loss. The sacrifice we have to make to save two worlds. Earth and Equestria.” She turned to Discord. “You’re going to separate us all, aren’t you?” Her voice broke. “Permanently.”

For the briefest moment, a look of pity flashed across Discord’s face.

“Congratulations, Pinkamena Diane Pie,” he said softly. He snapped his fingers, and the spell holding all of us was released. “You’ve won the game.”

Everything was silent for several moments. Soon enough, voices arose from all around.

Voices broke all around us but I immediately went to Michelle and helped her to her feet, my eyes scanning her for any injuries that she could have possibly sustained. I could see Luna out of the corner of my eye, the diminutive princess was watching Discord like a hawk.

“Are you alright?” I asked her as she leaned into my embrace.

“No…” she sobbed into my chest. I could feel her fear as her hands tightened their grip on my shirt. I wanted more than anything to say something, to say anything to make everything better, but the words died on my lips every time that I opened my mouth.

I pulled her closer into me with my arms as I looked around us just in time to see F.A. plunge his dagger into Discord’s chest from behind, the blade jutting out from the front of shirt, blood staining the white shirt red.

“You expected me to attack one of the others and try for a reset,” he told Discord with a sneer. “You of all people should know that you can’t predict chaos!”

“Leave him alone!” shouted a Luna from just near Michelle’s leg. The next second, Michelle was thrown into me and I had to fight to keep my feet as a huge torrent of dark blue energy blasted F.A.’s chest as Discord’s body melted into a pool to evade the princess’s attack.

Luna stood with her hands extended out in front of her, a faint shimmering blue outline of blue formed the image of a horn on her forehead and wings on her back.

“Oh but I was expecting that” Discord mumbled through a mouthful of blood as he rematerialized. He looked up at Luna, his face serious, “We must hurry. He’ll be back very soon. Luna, we must work together to open the portals. There’s no time to pick and choose locations, just open them all at random.”

“Wait, you mean this is it?” the teen who had arrived with Rainbow Dash asked. His question drowned out by the magics that Luna and Discord summoned. Chaos and harmony combined; the only magic that could open portals between worlds.

“It is done,” Discord announced with uncharacteristic seriousness. A large, dark purple blob of energy shimmered in midair. “You,” Discord said, pointing to the man who had arrived with Applejack. “Grab a pony and go.”

“How about you make me?” the man asked with a familiar Southern drawl, I didn’t like him. “I’ve done what I promised to do, and now me an Applejack here are gonna’ kick the living shi–”

We don’t have time for this!” Discord bellowed. He raised his hands and a massive gust of wind blew the man, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash, who’d just happened to get caught in the blast, through the portal.

“Applejack!” Apple Bloom cried. She rounded on Discord. “Ya didn’t even let us say goodbye!”

“Goodbye, Apple Bloom,” F.A. said, rising from directly behind her.

“No!” Twilight screamed and, with a flash of purple energy, she teleported to Apple Bloom and F.A.’s dagger plunged into her shoulder before she teleported away again.

“Run!” I shouted at everyone as I grabbed Michelle’s hand and, together, we sprinted for Luna.

Pandemonium erupted all around us as we ran.

“Come on,” I cried as we got closer to our royal charge. “We have to get you out of here!”

“Not yet!” she shrieked, the outline around her was growing stronger by the second. “I have to hold the spell, if I don’t he will win.”

I clenched my fists, my teeth grinding in my mouth, and looked back at the battle behind us.

F.A. was bashing Doug’s head into the ground while Discord had changed into a football helmet around the older man’s cranium. There was blood pouring down Doug’s face and bruises were beginning to blossom along one side.

Rarity, Sweetie Belle, and some kid jumped through one of the purple portals together; Apple Bloom and Scootaloo tried to follow to find the portal closing behind the other three.

Twilight and Discord had gone on the offensive and were chasing F.A. through the forest, taking it in turns to blast him with various energies. Trees fell and explosions boomed as the others did their best to gather into groups and get through a portal before they closed.

I made towards Doug, to apply some kind of first aide, but Michelle held me back with all of her strength; a wild fear in her eyes. I was forced to watch the battered Apple Bloom all but drag Doug’s much larger frame to his feet and through a portal all by herself.

With the last of them through the portals, Luna collapsed to her knees only to be swept up into Michelle's waiting arms.

I wanted to be angry with my fiance, there were people and ponies right in front me that needed my help and he had kept me from doing my duty. But looking at her cradle Luna to her bosom, crushing the small girl to her with a fierce strength that I hadn’t ever seen in her before, my anger bled out of me.

After a few moment of silence there was a flash of light and Twilight was unceremoniously dumped at my feet by a very perturbed looking Discord.

“We lost him,” he grunted as he brushed twigs and leaves out of hair. “Miss super magic had to go and pass out on me.”

I was already inspecting the large wound that the dagger had inflicted on my companion, it was deep and blood continued to pour from the gash, but she had gotten very lucky, that dagger had been long enough to go straight through her shoulder and then some.

I cleaned the puncture as best as I could and butterflied it together and wrapped it in gauze.

“Here,” said Discord as he threw his stained shirt over my head and pulled another one out of nowhere. “You can use that, it’s ruined anyways.”

Twilight began to come around as I finished tearing the shirt and tying a haphazard sling around her wounded arm.

I helped her to sit up and, after much coaxing, to her feet. She was as wobbly as the day she first arrived but was able to stand.

“What now?” I heard Michelle ask Discord as I surveyed the wreckage of the campsite and surrounding forest. There was no way that this kind of destruction would go unnoticed for very long. In all probability, some kind of armed response was already scrambling and on their way.

“It is obvious isn’t it?” groaned Discord in exasperation. “We can’t simply leave the six of us all together.”

“Six?” I asked as I counted only five of beings of various degrees of wear and tear.

“Six,” came the tired voice of Pinkie Pie from behind us. I whirled around, half expecting to find F.A. behind her or her dying somehow. But it was just Pinkie, battered and bruised, but still very much Pinkie.

“Pinkie,” cried Twilight breaking away from the group to throw her arms around her other friend. Pinkie took Twilight into her arms and the two of them held each other for a long moment.

“No,” said Discord before I could say anything. “You cannot.”

“How do you know what I was going to ask?” I fired back at him.

“You?” he sneered at me. “You’re easier to read the Twilight Sparkle, you’re a pop-up book compared to her.”

My mouth snapped shut with an audible click and I glared at him.

He waved me off with one hand and addressed everyone. “We cannot put this off any longer. With every passing second we give him a chance to come back and try to reset everyone again.”

I looked at Michelle and Luna before turning to Twilight and Pinkie. Their embrace had ended and they were arguing about something.

“We don’t have time for this,” Discord snarled when it became apparent that neither of the two mares were going to calm down. “Lets go!”

It was another long moment before either Twilight broke away from her friend and lead her back the the group; both had been crying very hard. I stepped away from Discord to embrace Twilight but Discord held me back by the scruff of my shirt.

“You and your sentimentalities,” he drawled looking at all of us. “Have wasted too much time as it is.”

Twilight gave a determined nod and, taking Pinkie by the elbow, made to stand with Michelle and Luna.

“Ah…” sighed Discord, dropping his hold on my shirt. “This isn’t going to work like that, you aren’t going to be going anywhere together.”

Shock and panic gripped my heart and I could see the fear blossoming on everyone else’s faces.

“Again with the melodrama,” groaned the draconequus, throwing a forearm over his face dramatically. “I swear there is not a funny bone in any of your bodies.”

I ignored him and went over to Michelle and took her into my arms as Luna took ahold of my pant leg.

“And you’re being cruel,” snapped Twilight with a growl. “Hasn’t there been enough chaos for one afternoon?”

“Enough chaos?” he gasped, putting a hand over his heart, before grinning evilly. “Never.”

“What more do you want from us?” Twilight fired back as she stalked towards the thin man. “You’ve won and you know it. What more could you wring from us? What? Huh? What?” With every step she jabbed him in the chest with her finger, forcing him back until he found his back to a large tree.

“My dear Twilight,” Discord cooed, taking her hand in his and walking her back to the rest of us. “I don’t want anything from you. That’s why this is happening! I want nothing from you ponies ever again! With all of you out of the way, I can live chaos to its fullest right here and there’s nopony on this planet that will be able to do anything to stop me.”

With a twirl of his arm, he sent Twilight spinning into Pinkie and he pirouetted over to stand in front of us all.

“That’s also the reason that I can’t let all of you go together,” his voice had lost the whimsy. “You’re too smart for your own good Twilight Sparkle. Now, pick.”

We all knew what he meant.

Twilight met all of our gazes in turn before taking Pinkie’s hand and walked toward Discord. Pinkie resisted for the briefest of moments before surrendering.

“Twi,” I said breaking away from Michelle, “Wait.”

“What now?” asked Discord in frustration. I ignored him.

“Take this,” I said as I held out the first aid kit. “You’ll need this more than I will.”

She looked at the kit before throwing her arms around me and kissing my cheek. “You’ve been a good friend Matt.”

“You too,” I said with as much of a smile as I could muster. “We’ll see you again.”

She nodded and, after letting me go, returned to Pinkie’s side and said: “We’re ready.”

The magic was slower in coming but the portal opened in front of the two other ponies, and with one last tear filled look at the rest of us, Twilight and Pinkie vanished into the swirling purple blob, leaving Michelle and I alone with two of the three of powerful Equestrians.

“Now, where to send you three,” asked Discord gleefully as he rubbed his hands together. “How about-”

“I want to go home!” Shouted Luna, cutting the draconequus off.

Ugh,” groaned Discord, deflating. “That’s so bo-o-oring! Why not somewhere exciting! Like a universe of-”

“Home. Now.” growling the tiny princess in a deeper and darker voice than I would have ever given her credit.

“Tch,” the thin man sighed. “Fine.”

“And you’re coming too.” I interjected.

“What?” gasped Michelle and Discord at the same time. “I/He most certainly am/is not!”

“Yes you are,” I continued, ignoring the look on my fiance’s face as I got into Discord’s. “If we leave you here, you’ll still be a target for F.A. won’t you? What happens if and when he does get to you? Won’t we all be reset again. Won’t this all be for nothing?”

A heavy, uncomfortable silence fell over us as the two of us glared at each other.

“You…” he snarled, raising his hand to strike out at me. “You make a point that I did not see before.” He sighed and the angry look melted off of his face. “Ugh, now Celestia and Luna are actually make me do work. It’ll be all order and no chaos, how drull.”

Yet, despite his complaints, there was a surge of magic and one last portal formed, the swirling purple fluid-like cloud was mesmerizing.

“Hurry!” shouted Luna breaking me from my trance as she took my hand and Michelle’s in hers and all but dragged us to the portal. “We can’t hold it open for long.”

I turned my head and Discord was, in fact right behind us, I could see his human form beginning to melt away into the form that I had known him to assume on the show

I paused on the cusp of the portal and looked through the purple clouds to the other world that I was about to be thrown into.

Equestria, or what I assumed was Equestria, was a beautiful and terrible sight to behold.

“What happened?” I heard Luna gasp.

“We happened my dear little princess,” cooed Discord, still behind us. “Now, I believe that you have some catching up with you sister to do au revoir! Arrivederci!”

“Wha-”

The three of us were thrown bodily through the portal and onto the grass of Equestria. I was on my feet fast enough to see the portal slam shut, Discord laughing at his trick.

The bastard.

Author's Note:

Here it is. The final chapter in Twilight's story under my guidance.

If you're wondering, it is unedited but TheSlorg and I decided to release it anyways to keep the ball rolling. We'll get to editing it ASAP.

Thanks for reading and keeping up with the journey.

We'll see you in part 2!

Comments ( 20 )

Interesting!:twilightsmile:

Interesting. Especially since Twilight and Pinkie don't seem to have a human with them to act as a perspective character. Either they're slipping into Chekhov's Armory for a while, or there'll be a PonyFall story that technically isn't a self-insert. Will wonders never cease. :raritywink:

In any case, thank you for this installment. I look forward to the next arc of the story.

We're going from PoE to HiE now.

~The lizardman loves duality :heart:

Nice thusfar.^^ You planning on doing another after this, or are you gonna wait for the sequel for that?

Oh man, you're the luckiest author out of all of them. You actually get to live in Equestria for a little while... Until F.A. Kills Discord and resets everything, or the princesses find a way to fix everything, and get everybody back to their right places,

Well. See y'all in part two we will. :pinkiehappy:

Dragon:moustache:

Hype train is pulling into the station!

Wow, you traveled to e]Equestria. I was not expecting that. Good chapter though can't wait for the others to FINALLY catch up. :derpytongue2:

This is all nucking futs but ok.

4705328 I was making a guess. I don't know what's going to be in the next chapter for sure.

4478363
I'm sure that you can figure out that I will have the royalty side of PonFall now, and will be continuing with part 2.

As for anything else, I have several ideas, but I can't seem to really get a good grasp on a story that I may or may not want to do.

4720286 WAIT A GOD DAMN MINUTE!
*reads over the pairings again*
What for Celestia's sake happened to Scootaloo?
Sweetie went with Rarity, the portal closed and AB and Scoots where left behind, then AB went with Doug through one portal.
The group that's left is Luna, the couple, Twilight, Pinkie Pie and Discord, who separated in Pinkie plus Twily, and the couple plus Luna and Discord.
...
WHERE DA HELL IS SCOOTALOO?!:scootangel:

4720286 Ah. Understandable. Well, if you want any inspiration, got plenty of ideas. But, up to you there. And until you end up making a decision, all I can say is, best of luck.^^

4720874 Scootaloo is with John and Fluttershy.

Have you made any headway into the Worlds Apart arc of this story?

5388154

yes and no.

I have ideas as to what is going to happen and that sort of thing jotted down.

Have I actually started anything the even resembles a chapter? Not even close.

I should, I really should. I need to write something, but I'm coping with depression and work at the moment, so I don't know when anyting will get updated.

5469002

You're the first person to have noticed it, but yes.

5388154
its six years late at this point but Worlds Apart: Unity has been started

...Okay, I'm pretty sure "Mxxxxx" isn't a real last name. Was that intentional?

10443609
a couple of people figured out who I was IRL, I just finished going through the entire story and removing my last name.

Login or register to comment