Spike's Nameless Brother

by Cold Spike

Chapter 25: A Chaotic Plan

Discord was not having a great day. To start off with, he would have to do actual work and corrupt some ponies (among other creatures), instead of having fun. Not that causing chaos wasn’t fun, of course; it’s just that he would have truly preferred to let chaos run its course. To do things randomly and perhaps with a bit of class; but when being forced to confront someone with an actual plan, it just made things feel off. Planning wasn’t chaotic at all!

To be fair, though, neither he nor Dee exactly had a real plan. The situation could still be chaotic, it could still be fun! If those wretched creatures don’t ruin things for me first! Discord saw Dee soaring past him, they saw countless ponies and other creatures scattered through the city of Canterlot. The place was in shambles, buildings were barely standing (if not permanently altered thanks to a bit of added fun). However, the ponies were not acting civil, or civilized or normal. He almost felt like singing.

Feeling distracted from Dee’s plans, he witnessed ponies acting like dogs, cats and all manner of animals. Of course, animalistic changes were not the only occurrence. Stallions acting like mares and vice versa, children directing adults (and what comes with that), unicorns attempting to fly and earth ponies trying their hardest to use magic. That last one is quite the sight! he noted while watching a few bang their skulls into items they wished would levitate, but of course never would.

Perhaps this is a bit too obvious. Maybe if I-- He made a noise is similar sounding to ‘oof’ as he collided with Dee’s back.

“Watch where you’re going, you buffoon!”

He crossed his arms and hovered away from her a bit. “Well! I’ve never been so insulted in all my life!”

She paused and gave him a flat look that said ‘really?’. He sheepishly smiled and then cleared his throat. “Anyway, let’s keep moving.”

The mare (if she could be called one) in front of her took a deep breath as it became clear that Discord was not paying attention. “Discord, this is very important.”

“Mhm… that’s whatever you were talking about for ya…” He trailed off and continued to marvel at the fruits of their ‘labor’. Like a creature focusing on the perverse nature of their ‘vice’, Discord could not look away from the chaos. Any pleasure he was feeling was torn away as he felt his neck being grabbed and his whole body was yanked backwards to face her.

“Focus, we need to defeat them. I have risked far too much to simply watch it all fly away and be forced to leave this realm! If that happens, I’m dragging you down with me, you get it?!”

Discord wanted to point out that leaving Equestria and its realm wasn’t technically being defeated, and thus her saying of getting dragged down didn’t work here; but he held his tongue. For the first time since their partnership the (practically) Element of Chaos was having doubts about it. I’ll have to be careful around her… He nearly hacked and coughed at the thought of being careful, but continued to float onwards.

The actual way through to Canterlot was sectioned off by a rather large hill, almost a mountain in size. A large staircase had been built out of stone that went through the middle, in that it both went up the hill and in some cases through it with the aid of some tunneling done in the past. When they neared the end, they found themselves floating over a large dirt path and were now watching the most bizarre sight they had witnessed yet. For Dee and indeed Discord, that was saying something. Dee used a bit of magic and lowered the shield, the on they had put up originally and the two flew through.

Watching what could only be described as his opposites, his enemies act like total buffoons nearly broke something in Discord. It was as if he had just witnessed something so hilarious that for a single solitary moment, he could not laugh. He could only witness Twilight, the Element of Magic, prancing about like a bratty, too spoiled to even know of responsibility. Rainbow, the so called Loyalty, appeared to be having a standoff with nopony at all, decked out in full jeans and cowpony looking gear. Fluttershy, the kind one, appeared to be tap dancing for all to see. One of the tiny brat unicorns, a sister of one of them, was currently imitating Fluttershy. The list went on and on, when he got to Princess Luna he nearly lost it, but managed to keep his composure. Creatures all around acted like fools, all trapped in Discords chaotic… trap.

Organized chaos…

Thunder and lightning erupted from Discord's power as he cackled loud enough for the very gods to hear. Dee thought he had lost whatever sanity he had left, as he pounded his claw over and over again on the ground. Finally, after what seemed like eons, he shed a single tear and sighed. “Oh, Tia, how marvelous. A show, now where’s dinner?” He snapped a paw and a plate of only he knew what materialized. “Always good to have some entertainment before you stomp your enemies.”

Most of them had stopped acting at this point and he quickly started to disrobe their alternative appearances. Discord quickly grabbed Fluttershy’s top hat and cane, causing her to stop and fall on her flank. “You can stop that now, it’s clear none of you entered the gate.”

Princess Celestia sighed. Gotta stall him, shouldn’t be too difficult. “How did you guess?’

Discord snorted. “Please, nothing is this perfect, this… orchestrated, and especially not chaos.”

The sun goddess sighed and then promptly backed up in shock when she found herself face to face with a rather large Draconequus floating in front of her.

“Now, what to do with you…” Dee pondered out loud, ignoring everyone else in the area.

Celestia backed up a few steps and looked around frantically. She spotted Pinkie Pie, wearing an odd get up that appeared to make her seem like a fortune teller. Rested atop her head was a purple wrapped turnum and in the middle rested a familiar gem. Somewhere in the recesses of her mind, Princess Celestia felt a very vague memory stir. One she had not thought of since her younger days, when both she and her sister wielded the elements together. She smiled which caused Dee to pause momentarily out of sheer confusion.

“Sister, perhaps you shouldn’t…”

Celestia could only watch as a large blast was shot out of an elemental stone, one that had just been licked by her younger sister.

Luna looked up at her older sister and smiled. In her telekinetic grip was the element of laugher, dripping with drool. It shined brightly, apparently enjoying the presence of some ‘fun’ and reacting as such. Though why it put a hole in a tree, Celestia and Luna would never know. It was simply chaotic.

Fight fire with fire… Princess Celestia looked up and squinted at her sun. They will need to be signaled, I trust that little dragon, but something extra couldn’t hurt. “Pinkie Pie! Quickly! Lick your element! Uh, you’ll know what to do after!” Celestia called out and for a moment the princess wasn’t even sure if she heard as the pink pony continued to stare off into space, unmoving. Then she heard it, quite possibly the most audible gasp ever uttered by ponykind. Pinkie quickly removed her ‘hat’ and did just that, only instead of licking she went the extra mile and popped the gem in her mouth.

She began to suckle on the element as if it was a lemon drop. Her smile slowly vanished, yet her suckling remained. “Uh, how long do I have to suck on this?” She yelled out, her question directed at Princess Celestia.

Celestia smacked her front hoof to her face, and Dee quickly turned back to face her with a menacing smile. “Now then--”

“Woah!” Pinkie Pie literally shot high into the air and then promptly fell down onto her flank. Then something peculiar happened. To both pony princesses the event was not unforeseen, though. A female draconequus had flew up in the air in pain, everyone was staring in shock and Pinkie Pie’s eyes were glued to the smoldering spot where a pink beam of harmonic energy had just struck. From her mouth.
“How dare y--” Before Dee could even finish, Pinkie rounded on her. Ever the quick to adapt, Pinkie Pie’s mouth formed an ‘o’ shape and she breathed out. Dee was forced to dodge in the air over and over, her large body made her defensive antics seem quite skillful as her frame twisted and turned in all manner of directions. Pink beam after pink beam fired continuously, never stopping.

Twilight Sparkle stared in awe. “That’s… not possible…” she breathed. She had recognized the magical energies immediately. All of a sudden Celestia’s chaotic plan, her friends, and even the fact that everyone was pretty much out in the open and in mortal danger no longer mattered. In that single moment, Twilight’s world had been flipped on her head. A concept she thought she understood held untold powers; like her friend bouncing in the air, firing magical beams of harmony without the assistance of the other elements, for example.

Discord was in a similar state, though his reasonings for it were different. He was mesmerized in pleasant way. Before, the nasty elements that had imprisoned him had always rubbed him the wrong way. They seemed too easy; but this, this looked fun. He could make things a party, far more than the pink pony could ever dream. He snapped his talons and chuckled. “Game on, pink one.”

“Enough!” In Dee’s fury she released a magical spell so powerful, it interrupted Discord’s. Whether it had been on purpose or not, Discord did not care. He simply gazed as Dee used quite a bit of magic to open a familiar portal in space and time (or whatever it was, Discord never bothered to ask). Pinkie was sucked inside and was soon in the clutches of Dee. Literally.

“What is she doing?!” Rainbow shrieked in fear. She flew fast toward Dee, but somewhere in the back of her mind she felt that she wouldn’t be fast enough.

Pinkie’s face turned blue as tiny pink sparks fired from her mouth, only to fall and hit nothing. She was being choked.

“You will not get in my way you freakish thing! Die!”

A final spark came off her gem, this one much larger than the rest. It was aimed directly at Dee’s eye. The result exactly what Pinkie needed, though, in her dwindling state of consciousness she could barely think. Pinkie fell like a stone as Dee shrieked in horror, clutching her eye and flying away from her.

Rainbow caught Pinkie just as she was about to smack into the ground. The pink mare took a few moments to breathe. “She- she’s a meanie.. Dashie.”

“Killing? Well, I never!” Discord exclaimed then snapped his talons causing both Rainbow Dash and the still panting Pinkie to appear floating in midair before him, trapped inside a bubble. “I think our partnership is now over.”

Dee’s eyes widened a bit, though, she didn’t seem overly surprised.

Discord continued, “These creatures deserve a master of chaos!” His voice boomed over all, rippling what appeared to be reality, but only for a moment. When it was over with everything remained the same, except for Rainbow’s tail, which had started to change color randomly. “Hmm, I’ve gotta work out more.”

Dee chuckled, feeling confident that the pink menace was momentarily contained. “Oh, I knew you would betray me eventually. Did you think I didn’t read up on my history about this place? Ha! You’ve betrayed everyone you’ve ever known!”

Discord snorted. “Hardly, what about Sir Daniel… what’s his name? He was fine!” He waved his claw and then took a good moment to think about it. “Well… okay, bad example.” Chuckling quickly faded to nothing as the ‘lord of chaos’ felt something familiar begin to pull him and the bubble of ponies along with it. A portal had opened up. “Oh my…this should be interesting.” He casually exclaimed, not bothering to resist it for he knew it wasn’t going to stop. He turned to Rainbow and Pinkie, still pounding on the forcefield. “Down the rabbit hole, shall we?” he asked jovially as they all were sucked in.

---

“Why isn’t pony helping digging?”

The group froze and almost immediately all ‘digging’ activities ceased.

One of the other dogs leaned over and whispered furtively. “You don’t say that to the nice white pony!”

Rarity exhaled as she saw the shimmering forcefield.

The same dog who was whispering stared in astonishment at what they unearthed. “Ooh, pretty!”

Rarity swatted his paw away. “Do you want to be caught?” she hissed. “Stay down and keep digging.” The others growled, but they swiftly dug around the forcefield, which was difficult since others popped up. They all quickly grew tired and perhaps, just as serious, dirty! However, they strived to keep going except Rarity who was barking out orders and watching the dogs dig. A wall caved through, forcing light upon everyone. They shielded their eyes while the hole quickly caved away, revealing a large hole for everyone to climb through.

“Finally, out of that dreadful place and back in… Canterlot…” The mare trailed off upon seeing the state that the city was in.

“This grand pony city?!”

Rarity’s eyes did not know where to begin. For starters, the city appeared to be in several states at once. Daylight, nighttime, dusk and even early morning, all separated by obvious seams which split the place depending on where you looked. As if that wasn’t chaotic enough, there were buildings and other ponies floating in midair, giant bees floating around attacking everypony, the occasional random cotton candy cloud would cease raining chocolate milk and instead began to randomly zap ponies who were unfortunate enough to get in its path and finally things that should be made out of wood, stone or other building materials had been replaced with editable items.

Raritys eyes and ears twitched. This was supposed to be the city of class and sophistication. A beacon that stood for all pony kind. A place she not only adored, but looked up to. Somewhere to set the standard of living. Not this…

“We must track down our destination immediately.” A chocolate milk puddle had been forming around her hoof, she sighed and raised it. A few drops came off, but through her milky white coat she feared it would stain. “Er, watch your step.”

Using the castle as a point to stay away from, they began to aimlessly search around. Things were not to be so easy, not a few steps away from the tunnel and the entire group had all tripped simultaneously onto a soap road. Standing up seemed impossible while the group hurried toward a large building in the middle of the street. Their journey came to a sudden end upon entering as their speed slowly subsided.

“Pony okay?”

“Get off me!”

“That voice!” One of the dogs screamed and left the group in a hurry.

Looking around, they appeared to be in the abandoned kitchen of a restaurant, though the tables and chairs were covered up and looked as if no one had eaten in decades. Rarity did not like the sight, smell or feel of the place. “We should go, let’s just walk slowly out-- eep!”

She spun around, realizing all of the diamond dogs were behind her. She had bumped into somepony. Looking up (and gulping) she eyed a stiff looking stallion, who appeared to be a waiter or perhaps the maitre d. “Heads or tails?” His bold voice asked. She nodded, then screamed bloody murder and dashed out before anything else could happen.

The dogs and pony made their distance from the creepy ‘restaurant’ (most of them wondering if it was even there) only to slow down and stop. Rarity looked left then right and sighed. “We will find a way-- Hey! Stop that! I am not ruining my mane by going through this… monstrosity!”

The dogs quickly got away from her and she growled in frustration. “Oh, they will pay dearly for my ruined mane…” She sighed and then jumped through what could only be described as a self contained floating pool of chocolate milk. I was tall and wide enough that the thing had been blocking their only way through to the other side of the city, it was their only hope.

Moments later, Rarity was panting on the ground for all the air she could muster. She felt cold, dirty and (if not more serious) her coat looked and seemed ruined. “It’s going to take weeks to clean this out…” She whined, and did her best to get any and all traces of the chocolate stuff off her fur. “Please let the… nooooooo!” She screamed upon the sight that greeted them.

---

“Uh, Dashie. I don’t think that’s helping us… maybe you could lay off just a tinsy bit?” Pinkie pleaded, watching her friend pound her hoof over and over into Discord’s face.

The chaos god shrugged them all off, not feeling a single bit of it. “You know--” He paused to accept a few more punches. “We could be findin’ a way out of here--” A few more was swiftly delivered. “Or you could just keep on punching I suppose.”

“You work for that slimy… evil… she tried to kill… Pinkie…” Pinkie Pie floated over to Rainbow and gently lowered her hoof, which had stopped pounding.

“Rainbow, it’s not like Discord choked me…”

Dash looked to Pinkie and sighed, she glanced back at Discord and found he was frowning and looking away into the endless void of wherever they now resided. “Yeah… I guess.”

“And Discord, you overthrew Princess Celestia and Luna and took our elements away. That wasn’t very nice!” Pinkie waved her hoof at him, as if scolding a naughty child.

Discord scoffed. “If it’s any consolation, I knew it was never going to work. You goody two shoes... or is it four shoes? Whatever!” He waved his claw and sighed. “To quote a book I’m sure was written by some very dead stallion: ‘Good guys always win’.”

“Then explain to me why we’re floating in the middle of nowhere!” Rainbow tried to float away from them, but only came out the other end of the sphere, bumping into Discord’s back.

“Hmm…” Pinkie took the element in her mouth and spit forward, it shot at the sphere and for a split second she saw light creasing through the endless void. “I’ve got it!” She began to spit faster and fast, almost causing a hole to appear, but it was in vain. Pinkie’s power wasn’t fast enough to counteract wherever they were. “Dashie, give me a hand!” Without waiting for a reply, Pinkie jumped onto Rainbow’s back and held on. “Discord! Uh, don’t get in the way!”

“Pinkie what are you…” She trailed off and listened to Pinkie whisper in her ear.

“I can try.”

“Pinkie, why aren’t you being… Pinkie?”

Pinkie raised an eyebrow at her. “I’m always Pinkie, Sillyhead! Now, ride! Ride like the nonexistent wind!”

At first Rainbow Dash found it particularly difficult to even gain any momentum, but soon the magic around her wings kicked in. The duo found themselves passing Discord dozens and then hundreds of times over and over. Each ‘pass’ Pinkie would spit out even more pink energy from her harmony gem. Eventually a hole in the void opened up.

“There! Fly there!” It took over thirty passes for those three words to get out, they were floating so quickly that Rainbow was worried what would happen on the other side, would they crash? Stop? They were about to find out. The two entered the hole and light swallowed them whole.

“Oh sure, just leave the ol’ Lord of Chaos behind.” He quipped. Discord looked to his talons and then smacked his head. “Why do I keep forgetting that I can teleport at will? Hmm, I really should see a doctor about that.”

---

“W-what do we do now?” Shyfrost’s question was never answered.

Dee rose high above them, striking a powerful pose. In an instant any creature that would stand against her was encaged. Literally cages of twisted steel and bar appeared out of thin air and surrounded Twilight and her friends, the princesses, the dragons, minotaurs, gryphons, pegasi and other ponies.

“Princess, there was never a chance you could win. I have won. Your world, your dimension is now mine. No, that isn’t quite true. It always was, from the moment I came here. From the very moment I saw my first inhabitant of it.” Her eyes came down to meet Spike gaping stare. “Oh, those Elements are strong, but not strong enough. So I hatched a little plan, funny considering it came from a dragon of all places.” Her smile wavered when her eyes lingered over to Shyfrost. “Of course it didn’t work, first plans never do. A dud, as it were.”

“Dud?” Shyfrost asked, feeling completely confused.

“Oh, you came to be in those ponies’ care… eventually. Took you months.” She shook her head and sighed. “I suppose it was my fault, mostly.” All eyes were on her at this point, Twilight and anyone else with magic had given up trying to break the cage. “It wasn’t until I grew bored that I finally decided to free that buffoon, Discord. His extra chaos power gave me just the edge I needed.” She began to laugh and almost cackled in glee. “To think, this all started with that stupid filly, Blaze Wings.”

Scootaloo stiffened upon hearing her real name.

Dee floated over to the tiny cage that held the three Cutie Mark Crusaders. “Oh Blaze, if you hadn’t come here- well, if that spell hadn’t gone off- I’d still be stuck in my own dimension, plotting worthless schemes.” She saw the confusion on the other two fillies and giggled. “You didn’t know? You didn’t tell them? Well, looks like you three have a lot to talk about!”

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle slowly turned around to the now blushing Scootaloo, who was doing her best to sink into the cage. Everyone was quite confused at this point. A few moments later, Dee joined the pact when a hole in the fabric of reality opened and she wasn’t the cause! She braced herself for any manner of creatures to come through.

“Weeeeeeeeeee!” Pinkie’s voice echoed through the cages. “Slowwwwwww dowwwwwwn, Dassssshiiiieeee!”

Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie shot through the hole in a swirl of mixed colors of Pink and Cyan. The hole had been faced several of the cages, cages which within moments contained smoking holes where a swirling rainbow ‘boom’ and shot through.

Dee looked over and was about to refill the holes, when she felt something tap her shoulder. She turned around and was smacked in the face with what could only be described as a giant yellow rubber chicken. Her body went down like a stone in the sky, only to smack face first into a massive metal disk. A disk, she felt, that had some kind of sticky substance on it. She tore herself off and took a step forward to face her attacker, but whatever she was going to say died in her throat. As she’d stepped, her foot clicked on something. She looked down, then back up at (who she suspected the whole time) Discord. “A confetti mine?” she breathed angrily. “Now, of all times?” It was something Discord had been experimenting with back at the castle, he had annoyed her enough with them to know exactly what it was.

“You’re awfully confident that that's confetti in that popper,” Discord said airily.

Dee looked down to the mine. She knew teleporting away would do nothing; he had designed them with a homing mechanism.

Discord took the opportunity to snap his talons and destroy a few of the cages at random. One of them dissolved into a large pile of bubbles, only to reveal a gray colored pegasus mare who was looking around confused. “All this killing business—that's not very chaotic. That's not fun at all. It's… boring.” He said the word with distaste. “When you're dead, you just sit there, all… lifeless and such. Ugh. No fun at all,” he repeated. He then took a few more cages out. “I may like ruling things, but total rule? Of this plane of existence? Of everyone’s lives? Bleh, may as well just sit there and declare yourself ‘ruler of everything’. No challenge? Boring, boring, boring!” Discord looked behind him and saw Princess Celestia of all ponies giving him a shy smile, a knowing smile. He growled, knowing full well that he was willingly helping them out. Whether it was guilt for the pink pony’s pain, or mere boredom, he wasn’t sure. For the moment, though, he simply did not care.

Dee growled. “Fine. You cast your fate with them? Then you can die with them!” Her claws glowed with arcane power, power so vast that even the sun seemed subdued in comparison. She shifted her weight to cast the spell…

And in doing so, took her foot off the mine.

It exploded, and everypony (and all the other creatures) had to shield their faces from the light and force of the explosion, and then shield themselves from the chunky, red liquid that came raining down quickly afterwards.

Dee’s magic fizzled. She was too surprised to do anything but just stand there as the thick, red liquid dripped off her body.

“See? It wasn’t confetti; it was jelly!” Discord proclaimed proudly, throwing his arms wide as if expecting applause. “Surprise!”

Dee’s eyes narrowed, and the jelly on her body began to steam as she grew hot with rage.

Discord’s eyes widened. “Oopsie,” he muttered, before he vanished.

---

“All right,” Rarity said, shaking off a hoof and the vivid images that would give her nightmares for months. “This is the Canterlot Dump. A distasteful place full of refuse and junk, but know this: treasures are hidden here, treasures that could save Equestria as we know it, and it is up to you to retrieve them and restore harmony, order, and our lifestyle!” She struck a heroic pose with her head and chin tilted high.

One of the Diamond Dogs scrubbed out his ear with a filthy paw. “Huh?”

Rarity exhaled. “There are nasty things here, but the Elements might be here, so split up and find them.”

The Diamond Dog grinned. That he could understand.

The dogs wandered around, diving in and out of the piles. Rarity wandered around and supervised. Feeling a tad guilty about not actually helping, but not much. “Remember, they’re golden necklaces, with jewels inset in them. One is shaped like a diamond, one like an apple, one like a butterfly…”

One of the dogs came back, a sheepish look on his face. “Uh, miss Rarity?” he said, raising his paw like a young pup in class.

“Yes?” Rarity said with exaggerated patience.

“There’s a pony over there.”

“Ah. Excellent,” Rarity said. She trotted forward. “Maybe she’ll have seen something.”

“Uh…” The Diamond Dog raised his paws to stop her, but he hesitated. He didn’t want to offend this pony. Not with all those rumors flying around about what she could do.

Rarity stepped forward and looked around, but saw nopony. “Is anypony there?” she asked.

“Who are you, that you dare come before the princess unannounced?”

Rarity turned around, and her jaw dropped.

The pony who had spoken sat on top of a large mountain of trash. Old mattresses, ice boxes, furniture, and boxes had been piled high underneath a discarded, overstuffed chair, to simulate a throne of some kind. She held a plunger in one hoof, which was supposed to be her scepter. Her tiara had been lost; she had replaced it with an open tin can. But there was no mistaking the three toned mane and pink coat (though now both were ratty and unkempt) and the presence of both wings and horn.

Princess Mi Amore Cadenza glared down and pointed her plunger at Rarity. “I asked you a question!”

“Oh my,” Rarity murmured. “It’s worse than I thought.”

“I grow impatient!” Cadence intoned.

Rarity cleared her throat. She could play along. “Well, your highness, we’re here on an important quest. We seek the Elements of Harmony…”

“The L mints? Who is Harmony, and why does the shape of her mints matter?” Candence’s eyes had loooked wild and dilated the whole time; Rarity suspected a certain lord of chaos being behind the change.

“El-e-ments,” Rarity emphasized. “You know, large, shiny necklaces, inset with jewels?”

Cadence’s eyes widened. “They’re after the royal treasure!” She slammed her plunger against the side of her chair. “Guards! Destroy them!”

Rarity dropped into a defensive stance, but relaxed as she realized that the ‘guards’ Cadence referred to were actually a discarded ponnikin with stuffing leaking from the seams, wearing a sash that looked like it was made of burlap; and a threadbare suit of clothes that had been knotted at the ends and stuffed with crumpled newspaper so it could stand, though askance; and had for a head a half-stuffed pillowcase with a face drawn wonkily on in lipstick.

“Uh…”

One of the Diamond Dogs poked at the ponnikin curiously, and it wobbled briefly before it unbalanced and fell over. He quickly placed his paws behind his back and whistled nonchalantly as he scooted away.

“Defeat!” Cadence wailed. “My guards have been defeated! The Crystal Empire will fall! But not completely!” She began to laugh maniacally. “I’ll flee! I’ll escape! And I’ll repopulate the empire by myself, if needs be!”

Rarity opened her mouth, and then closed it again. “But… your figure,” she managed to squeak.

Cadence threw her plunger, missing the closest Diamond Dog by a good fifteen feet. Then she turned and ran.

Of course, as she was seated on an old sofa on a pile of junk, her hooves hit nothing but air, and she tumbled flank over teakettle down the hill. She quickly popped up and resumed running.

Rarity exhaled. “Seize her, please,” she said pleasantly.

Diamond Dogs appeared to be good at finding their way around piles of junk, thankfully. Within seconds, Cadence was trapped under a large dogpile.

Rarity took a moment to watch her squirm then scoffed. “They must be around here somewhere…” She muttered to herself.

“You’ll never get the royal treasure! Never!” Cadence was quickly silenced as one of the dogs clamped her mouth shut. “N-Nffffevr!”

If I were… Rarity tried to think of a polite term of Cadance’s condition, then shrugged. That, where would I put them? The mare noticed that there was plenty of trash surrounding her “throne”. It looked to be practically a mountain of the stuff. She narrowed down key aspects of it, the throne, a discarded bed, and a rather large toilet which sat on top. Rarity grimaced at the thought. Great…

Feeling guilty for using the dogs so much, Rarity took an experimenting grasp with her magic. For a few seconds she thought the toilet wouldn’t budge. However, her magic felt something else, inside. She smiled in glee (hoped it wasn’t what she thought it was) and willed her magic to firmly hold what was inside. Now or never ol’ mare. Rarity started to pull, only to sigh when she felt the objects failed to move much at all.

“What wrong?” One of the dogs inquired.

Rarity glanced over and then pointed up to the toilet. “I believe the elements are in there, but they feel stuck.”

The dog nodded and examined the strange object, then a flashback of epic proportions came back to him. It involved a pony room, a handle and lots and lots of water. He smirked. “Try jiggling handle,” he said in his broken version of the Equestrian language.

“Why didn’t I think of that?” She questioned sarcastically. She humored the pup and used a bit of magic to do just that. What happened was not what she expected at all; the toilet began to vibrate wildly. “Oh… no…” Her eyes shrunk as small as pinpricks, then she snapped to attention and ran as fast as she could away from the trash pile. “Please no! Please no! Please no!”

Like a geyser, water shot upwards high into the air, carrying with it four familiar items. An apple, diamond, butterfly and a massive star all connected to golden regalia shot high into the air. Rarity looked back worryingly, then noticed what was about to hit her wasn’t what she thought. That’s not nasty toilet water! The Elements!

Suddenly Cadance broke free from the pups, as most of them were distracted by the sight of the Elements. “They are mine!” She shoved Rarity out of the way and the very second they touched her skin everything went white. A wild glow shot out from all four elements; for the once princess everything became quite clear again.

Frighteningly clear.

She pushed herself to her hooves, feeling anger and rage like she had never known in her life.

“Discord!”

---

For a moment Dee felt as if she had already won. Her inner rage built up and up as she thought about every stupid creature surrounding her. The second she visualized Discord’s smirk, she felt she had enough inner strength to destroy all opposing forces, anyone who would defy her. Then she tried to move her claw, things didn’t feel right. “What?!” Her eyes nearly popped out of her sockets upon noticing the sickening change in feeling and color of the red goo. It had turned black, and slowly but surely it was no longer a gel substance. They were vines, black vines covered in black thorns. Quicker than she would have ever imagined the vines twisted around her body almost like a rope being tied in various knots.

She struggled for minutes, but despite her inner rage feeling more powerful than it ever had, her struggles were in vain. Hopelessly she watched a horrific scene play out before her. She watched Twilight Sparkle re group with her friends, all dawning the very items she thought were mostly powerless to begin with. Impossible…

Back on the ground Rarity and the pups and Princess Cadance came climbing out of the tunnel they had dug through and successfully covered up. Twilight looked back and then beamed. “Cadance!”

Twilight ran up to the growing group, ignoring Rarity and quickly helped Princess Cadance onto her hooves.

“Twilight!” Cadance exclaimed, happy to see a long lost friend amongst the crowd. The two bent down playfully and then broke out into a chant.

”Sunshine Sunshine, Ladybugs...”

Dee’s eyes literally snapped open as if a muscle was being stretched. No… Using all the strength she could muster up, which was a lot in her opinion, she burst through her sharp prison. She quickly wrapped the black plants together and fashioned them into a quick whip. So… stupid! She was not going to stand for such childish behavior, in her presence no less! She was Dee, all should fear her, all should worship her (as long as she hadn’t killed them). Prancing about like some school children! Despicable!

She whipped the whip back and then forward, aiming directly for the pink princess. “Die!”

Midway through their chant Twilight noticed the black whip on a direct course for them. Thinking quickly, Twilight summoned up just enough magic to teleport both of them out of the way. The whip missed the princess narrowly. Dee searched for them in the crowd, but couldn’t spot them from such a high distance. Too many… Rage fueling her, she swooped down and wildly banged the whip in every which direction, not caring who it hit. So long as someone was hit.

Twilight had teleported Princess Cadance away from the action, promising to go back for her when things had calmed down.

---

She remembers I can fly, right? Cadance looked at her wings, fluttered them a bit, then shrugged. At least the view is nice. She surveyed the mountain she was on, overseeing Canterlot in its entirety. Though, she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was being watched.

---

Twilight re-grouped with Rarity quickly, her eyes never left Dee’s sight. Making sure various creatures and friends alike were avoiding the rampage of her black whip. “Rarity! Did you get them?”

Rarity winked and smiled, then quickly summoned three elements floating in mid air. She put on her own, making four. “Do you have a plan?” Rarity’s eyes frantically scanned all over the place, looking for a certain marshmallow colored filly.

“Yes! We use the elements on her. If anything we have to at least try.”

Rarity looked up fearfully and saw an entirely different creature than before. Instea of a female mixture of Discord, she looked to be a monster. Thorn injuries littered her body. She had an insane chaotic smile on her face. Lighting practically coursed through her veins (Rarity wasn’t exactly sure how that one worked) which were threatening to burst at any moment. This was no, whatever she was before, she was a bloodthirsty monster. Worse yet, she was positively dirty!

Suddenly Rarity wasn’t so sure of Twilight’s plan.

Comments

[More Dakka]

Huzzah for updates!

[Cold Spike]

5513993 Well, to be fair you are reading my first attempts on this site way back in chapter 2. I promise my writing gets much better as time goes on. I did plan on going back and re-writing those early chapters. That was almost 3 years ago Unfortunately chapters 1-7 or so need some tender loving care. Anything beyond that I was improving quite a bit.

I do have an editor at this point and I have learned quite a bit about writing style's grammar and everything else.

[Kichi]

those "full edit" change the history in something? you add something important? or is mainly a couple of corrections?

[Cold Spike]

5534448 Just grammar edits mainly. Some of the early ones changed sentences to flow better too.

[Cold Spike]

5642967 *steals Scoots cookie*

[Spirit Shift]

5642967 See, I get that. I really do because I'm the same way. I really really dislike people who steal. But you also have to take into account the amount of that thing of which you have. If someone took 4 pennies out of the dozens or so scattered around my room, I wouldn't be as mad as I would be if someone stole one of the three cans of soda that I just bought.

Stealing is stealing, no if ands or buts, and will always be met with punishment. I just feel that how many you have of what's stolen should be taken into account when you verbally assult someone in anger.

[Cold Spike]

5646153 An actual critique...

*checks myself to make sure I'm not in the Matrix*

In all seriousness I appreciate this comment, more than you could ever know. I enjoy criticism, I just rarely seem to get it as of lately.

As for the pacing and experimentation, in a way you could argue that. This story has been written throughout the entire time I've been here. It is one giant experiment, it just didn't start out that way. Overtime I've learned new tricks in writings and gotten better at pacing the story as well as myself... unfortunately this can have the unintended side effect of messing with the pace of something much older. At least, I think that is what's going on. I do appreciate you being honest, taking the time to comment and even suggestion you will give it another chance in the future. I'm also glad to hear that you enjoy my other works and that we are, apparently, unofficial comment buddies

Quick question, though, is the pacing going too quickly or slowly?

[Cold Spike]

The ending is coming...

[Albert Manhattan]

5800652
I think you meant, The end is neigh…