Over 1500 years since the Discordian War, old threats are beginning to resurface - including the deadliest, most ruthless foe Equestria has ever faced.
1,500 years ago, Celestia and Luna led the ponies of Equestria in a war against Discord and his allies, the Diamond Dogs, who sought to rule Equestria. At the height of the war, they found the Elements of Harmony, and sealed away Discord, and the leaders of the Diamond Dogs, the Twelve Arcana and their master, who the princesses only knew as Diamond.
Now though, prisons are breaking and spells are failing, unleashing many old threats upon modern Equestria. Including Diamond and his Dogs.
Every night, when Celestia lowered the sun, the stars came out. Few ponies knew the stories and reasons behind the precise placement of the many glimmering lights that were scattered across the sky, and most didn’t care. Only a handful dedicated more than a passing moment to study of the stars, and so most missed the fact that thirteen were most unlike the rest.
While others moved and shifted and brightened and darkened night to night, the thirteen that made up what the learned few called the Dog’s Head constellation remained perfectly still, glowing harshly compared to their brethren that danced around them. Twelve in various hues formed the outline of a hound’s head, snout pointed firmly at the Mare in the Moon, with a thirteenth emerald sparkle giving it a glaring eye.
For many centuries, these remained, rising and falling with the moon, the dog ever angry in its chase.
Then, came one summer solstice, where the Mare in the Moon disappeared.
Twelve stars flickered and fell, burning their way through the upper atmosphere.
As Nightmare Moon cackled and crowed before the crowd in Ponyville, Celestia was agape in horror, her eyes tracking the descent of the stars.
“No...Not the Arcana...Not now!” She gasped. She spared but a moment to glance at the green glowering glow of the thirteenth, sighed in relief, and charged her horn for a spell - only for a harsh snap to blast her head back, a spray of chocolate milk splattering across her coat and splashing across the walls. “Argh! Cursed anti-magic!” With a snort, she reignited her horn, disappearing in a golden flash.
As six destined mares raced through a deadly forest, the Princess of the Sun followed a blazing comet as close as she dared. Heat radiated from it as it burned through the sky, sparks and spurts of anti-magic scattering busts of chaos behind, coming close to breaking Celestia’s natural heat resistance that protected her from the aura of flame that shrouded the star.
Then, the object impacted. A thunderous crash shook earth and sky, a plume of choking dust and debris filling the air around the impact site.
Celestia risked a small spell, creating a brief gust around the area to guide the dust into settling quicker. It worked - for a few seconds. Then it fizzled, producing a series of pops that spawned a torrent of toads that croaked before dissipating into noxious-smelling gas that made Celestia cough for a few moments before she gave a hard flap of her wings and cleared the air.
Landing delicately and approaching the lip of the crater, Celestia peered down at the steaming center. In that deep hole, she saw a form of metal, beaten, folded, almost three times her size. Celestia studied it for a few moments that, for her, stretched into hours.
No movement.
A relieved sigh left her lips -
And the ground shook. The bottom of the crater fractured and fell, bringing the metal shape down with it into a pit so deep, the bottom disappeared into shadow.
Spikes snapped up from the ground, and the crater lips atop which Celestia sat quivered.
She leaped up and out, wings flapping to bring her out of the reach of the spikes as the crater snapped together like the jaws of a manticore. She ascended a few feet more as the shut maw rumbled, sank, and flattened into an unnaturally smooth surface, into which sunk imprints that formed grooves, lines, all coming together into the shape of a gem around a dog’s head.
“Oh no.”
A Few Hours Later
It was dusk again, many hours after Nightmare Moon was confronted, and purified, with the Elements of Harmony, Celestia’s disciple and her new friends bringing her beloved sister back.
“It’s so good to have you back Luna!” Celestia cried as she nuzzled Luna, the smaller, darker alicorn returning the affection and tears.
“‘Tis nice to be back dearest sister...but...you seem somewhat disturbed…” Luna drew back slightly, studying her sister’s face. Celestia sighed, stepping back and facing her sister head-on.
“When Nightmare Moon escaped...the Arcana fell from the sky.”
“What! No! Did The Diamond -”
“No, thankfully. That beast is still bound. And as far as I could tell, the Arcana are still kept asleep by the Elements’ magic. However, I was unable to recover any of them before the dogs took them.”
“I see. That is most troubling...why didn’t you inform your student and her friends?”
“I…” Celestia sighed, “I didn’t want to bring them down after they brought you back. And the Arcana...I don’t feel they are prepared to deal with foes of that ferocity. And if I’d told Twilight about the Arcana...they would try to track them, and I fear what might happen if they succeeded.”
“Whatever do you mean?”
“The Elements have found new bearers, and I’m afraid that that means all the spells we cast with them...will cease to function. Meaning…”
“- That all the villains and fiends we ensnared with them will be freed!?” Luna’s eyes seemed to bug out of her head as she voiced the horrid thought. “Sister, we must -”
“I’ve already taken action with most of our old foes Luna.” Celestia interrupted. “I’ve expanded Tartarus and had them imprisoned in special cells within. It should hold many of our enemies quite well - the only exceptions being Discord, and of course, The Diamond.”
“Yes, Discord would hardly be stopped by the protections on Tartarus, and aside from being unable to reach him, imprisoning the leader of the Diamond Dogs underground…”
“Quite. But my point about Twilight is that, as the new bearer of the Element of Magic, if she learned of the Arcana and found them, I fear that she might only serve to hasten their release in an attempt to forestall their threat.”
“I...do not know enough of your student to say differently…”
“She will only seek to aid, but the chance of her accidentally aiding the Arcana...it’s too great to risk. So we shall simply do what we can from here, as she learns in Ponyville.” The two sisters nodded in agreement, and left to raise the moon.
From the balcony, Luna, for the first time in a thousand years, cast the spell that took hold of the great body in the sky and the world, and shifted. The sun’s rays sunk behind the horizon, and the moon began to rise to prominence over the earth - an eerie emerald star following close behind.
Rarity couldn’t believe those three...mongrels had dared to drag her in these tunnels, these dark, filthy tunnels after ponynapping her!
“Where are you taking me!?”
“To Pack of Hierophant Alpha!” The lead Dog chortled as he heaved her alongside, the smaller and larger - and both apparently, dumber - of the trio at his heels.
“Who is that?”
“You will see soon pony!”
Rarity could barely see by the light of the gems on the Dogs’ collars that glowed faintly, as the rough and broken tunnel walls began to become smoother, more worked, and glowing gems like those in the Dogs’ collars began to appear, set into the walls.
The tunnels progressed to clearly, professionally worked and fashioned, clear floor, walls, and ceiling emerging from the bare, unformed stone, and sconches bearing metal torches that, instead of wood, oil and flame, were lit with unnaturally shaped and powered gemstones that blazed with light bright enough to make it seem like it was day.
Rarity was, for a moment, caught up in the beauty of the halls, as murals began to appear. Wonderful artwork, carved into the stone and set with bright, shining metal of gold, silver, bronze and more, with gems inset at points to represent stars or eyes or any number of things. She could only catch glimpses as they rushed past, most of the murals dissolving in blurs of gleaming color and sparkling light.
Soon though, they came to a rest, the three dogs skidding to a halt in front of a pair of dogs in heavy metal armor, before a pair of enormous stone doors.
Rarity studied the guard dogs, covered snout to paw in heavy-looking plates of dark gray metal, with runic silver patterns and gemstones inlaid into them. She was sure Twilight could tell her what, if any, significance this had, as well as any real magical effect, but all she was concerned about was the overall style - which was tribalistic and brutish. Especially combined with the spiked halberds they held in their paws.
The guard dogs heads followed the three who had captured Rarity as they crept closer, and she noted the helms were not open and clear, but rather possessed visors of chipped ruby that Rarity couldn’t possibly tell how the guards saw through.
As the three dogs with Rarity came within a dozen feet, the guards growled, a harsh, guttural sound that sent shivers down Rarity’s spine, and made the three dogs with her drop to all fours and bow their heads.
The guards barked and snarled at the three, who responded with barks and whimpers - a conversation that Rarity couldn’t follow. After a minute of back-and-forth, one of the guards howled.
The stone doors rumbled, and moved, the grinding of their bases against the stone floor sounding like the snarls of a thousand dogs. A wave of heat seemed to blast Rarity in the face, a hot breeze blowing through the doors and ruffling her mane.
Behind, four guard dogs clanked up to her and her three...escorts, taking up positions around as they moved forward. As they passed the doors, they ground back shut, but Rarity didn’t notice, as taken as she was by the sight before her.
Surrounded on one side by a moat of lava, and the other by one of water, both fed by falls of their respective substance, was a city of granite and gems. Buildings carved in intentionally harsh angles and brutish styles out of granite of white, pink, and gray colors, all under an enormous diamond that shone like the sun. And right under that diamond, a tall black tower of a building, that the dogs were dragging Rarity to.
They passed over a bridge that kept the lava and water from meeting, traveling on roads paved with smoothed stones, past crowds of dogs in all sorts of garb who turned at sight or sound or smell of them to stare, glare, and growl at Rarity.
They were at the tower within minutes, Rarity becoming more and more cowed as passing dogs snarled, barked and growled at her, a cacophony of derision and loathing. The tower had doors similar to the ones around the great cavern this Diamond Dog city resided in, if only smaller, and carved with stoic visages of dogs. Unlike the doors outside though, their opening was whisper-quiet.
Within, the tower and its twisting stairs and chambers were as quiet as a tomb. The dogs that had taken Rarity had fallen ever more silent since they entered the city, but now she imagined she could hear their heartbeats they were so quiet.
Even the guards took to moving slower to prevent their armor plates from clanking, going from a hard march to a careful tread.
Eventually, they reached their destination. A room atop the tower that held twelve alcoves around its perimeter, and a platform in the center where stood a tall dog, dressed in robes and bearing a staff with an enormous gem topping it, a large black crystal Rarity identified as a spinel.
As the tall dog turned and approached her, she saw that under robes of linen and silk, there was a shirt, tattered and threadbare, patched with paws both novice and trained. Only with her trained seamstress eye could Rarity spot the oldest remnants, barely keeping its original tanned desert camouflage, around a patch of a dog’s head, with the smallest diamond Rarity every saw serving as the dog patch’s eye.
“Pony.” Rarity snapped her head up from her study of the tall dog’s clothing to realize her escorts had disappeared.
“W-what? What do you want with me?”
“Want? What I want, pony, is the resurrection of the great land of Romulus! What I want is to see the spires of Remus scratching the clouds! I want Diamond Dogs to have the glory that ponies stole from us!” Spittle splattered Rarity’s face, and she reared back in disgust.
“Ugh! You uncouth -”
“Silence.” The staff’s butt slammed into the ground under Rarity’s front hooves with a crack, splitting the basalt floor. The dog withdrew the staff, and the floor creaked and groaned and sealed shut again. “You in and of yourself cannot give that to me, pony. But, you can be the key to it, through this!” The dog gestured with the staff towards one of the alcoves, and Rarity gasped as she saw within.
An enormous metal shape, a great huge machine in the form of a Diamond Dog. Metal items, weapons obscured the form somewhat, but the overall shape was that of a fifteen-foot metal Diamond Dog curled up into a ball.
“Behold pony, the gigant machina of the Hierophant Arcana! Within it, is sealed my predecessor, the Hierophant of ages past, cursed many, many, many tens of tens of years ago by pony magic. Pony magic that has only recently returned.”
“Wait...you don’t mean…”
“Yes...The Elements of Harmony. And the Pack of Tower has seen it, seen you, Rarity, the Element of Generosity.” The dog leered at Rarity, looming over her as he backed her into the alcove with the machine. “Would you be so generous as to release my honored ancestor?”
“I-I would love to dear, but ah,I don’t have -” Rarity is interrupted by a grinding shake of the floor, and a pedestal emerging, bearing atop it what appeared to be the Element of Generosity. However, Rarity could feel it wasn’t it. A flawless replication of the Element as it appeared presently, with a blue diamond much like her cutie mark, and charged with an impressive amount of magic, but not the same as the Element itself. “That’s nice, but it’s not the Element...and even then, I couldn’t possibly do anything without the others.”
“You will try.” The dog growled, taking the fake Element off of the pedestal and thrusting it at Rarity. Hesitantly, she took the necklace, her magical aura enshrouding it and bringing it around her neck. She moved to the ‘gigant machina’, the giant metal dog, and probed it with her magic.
And then her face was covered in chocolate milk.
“What are you trying pony?”
“I’m not trying anything! I just tried to probe it and UGH, this milk is rancid!”
“Bah! Useless pony...use Element magic!”
“I told you! I can’t do anything without the real Element and the others! Not that I’m sure the Elements can even do anything about this...they’ve only been used to banish Nightmare Moon and then cure her from what I know.”
“Pony will try harder, or I’ll -”
The threat was cut short by an explosion of purple magic, followed by a flash of rainbows.
Later
“- and that’s when we busted in and rescued her!” Rainbow belted out, much to the amusement of her friends and Celestia.
“And a very impressive rescue it sounds like Rainbow Dash.” Celestia allowed the pegasus a moment to bask in the glory, before she turned to Rarity. “Now, Rarity, can you tell us exactly why the Diamond Dogs ponynapped you?”
“Oh yes, it was quite strange. They wanted me to break an old spell on these horrible metal things they had -”
“Metal things?” Celestia interrupted, a frightful look taking over her face.
“Um, the Alpha dog called them gigant machina? And said they held the...A-arcana?” Celestia’s look only darkened in response. “And he said that the... Elements of Harmony were used to cast the spell?” There was a moment of silence as the current bearers of the Elements looked awkwardly at one of the previous bearers. After that, Celestia gave a deep sigh, before turning and walking for the door out of the throne room, gesturing with her wing for the others to follow.
“Almost 500 years before Luna became Nightmare Moon...before we became the rulers of Equestria...the kingdom was ruled by Discord, the Spirit of Disharmony. Eventually, the time came when we raised a rebellion against him and threw him out. However, Discord waged a war against Equestria to conquer it, and his soldiers were Diamond Dogs. They wielded strange and powerful weapons and magic, with machines far beyond what any at the time could comprehend that they called machina. The most dangerous and powerful of those were, of course, the gigant machina.”
As Celestia spoke, she paused to gesture at stained glass windows, showing images of a bizarre creature, a serpentine being composed of random creature parts, in one window dangling ponies over a pit, in another being chased by Celestia and Luna, and in a third, surrounded by devastation wrought by giant metal dogs.
“That was the start of a war that lasted some thirty years, with many hundreds of thousands suffering from Discord’s wrath. The Arcana were twelve dogs in their gigant machina that were the most dangerous, capable, and ferocious warriors of all Diamond Dogs. And every time we took to the battlefield personally and were not met by Discord, we were instead fought back by the Arcana.”
More windows were shown, of twelve very specific giant metal war machines being shown fighting against Celestia, Luna, and any number of pony soldiers, Discord depicted in a laughing fit above the conflict.
“We were unaware, however, of a Thirteenth Arcana. It only appeared at the end of the war, when it and the twelve other Arcana attacked us at our castle - the Castle of the Two Sisters in what is now the Everfree.” A new window, showing a gigant machina taller than the rest, near four times Celestia’s height, and bearing a bipedal form unlike any other, with a head adorned with an enormous v-shaped crest. “We learned from Diamond Dogs later that its gigant machina was called ‘Gundam’, and it was the most powerful of them all, and was operated by their leader, whom the Dogs only ever called ‘The Glorious Shining Diamond’ or ‘The Great Master’. This, we assumed, was the second-in-command of Discord. And it wreaked untold havoc.”
Another window showed the ‘Gundam’ standing before a force of ponies with a magic shield covering them and the Castle of the Two Sisters - only for a beam composed of scintillating emerald shards to break through the shield and the ponies in another part of the window.
“When the attack began, many of our more talented guards and magicians were assaulted and kept away by the Twelve, while the Gundam pursued us relentlessly. The greatest asset of the gigant machina was the powerful magic shield that protected them from spells - direct magical blasts and any attempt to telekinetically grab them or teleport them failed, without question, unless a large number of unicorns gathered to perform a spell on one machina, or a single very powerful spellcaster - which usually came down to me or Luna - performed it.
The Gundam, however, was impervious even to both me and Luna’s spells, and in turn could annihilate any of our magical defenses. It hounded us in a running battle that saw many ponies dead in our wake, and it was only through a chance of fate that we survived, when the Elements of Harmony appeared to us.”
This window showed the sisters side-by-side, the Elements surrounding them, arrayed against the thirteen gigant machina, the Gundam and the twelve Arcana.
“That was the very first time the Elements were used - to banish Diamond and his Arcana from Equestria. They were sent to the sky, in the form of the Dog’s Head constellation.”
“Wait, the same constellation that disappeared when Nightmare Moon returned!?” Twilight’s eyes bugged out as she began to comprehend the enormity of that constellation.
“The very same. The twelve stars that outlined the head were the Arcana, and fell just before Luna was purified by you six. The single remaining star is Diamond, and thankfully, it remains in place. And it seems the Arcana remain asleep even now, many months later.”
“B-but why?”
“I can only assume that the spell the Elements bound them with is only partially broken - and so long as Diamond remains bound in the sky, the Arcana will sleep.”
“Sounds logical enough.” A new voice chuckled, a male voice, with a menacing undercurrent that brought a spark of fear to Celestia as her gaze darted around the hall of windows. The voice continued to laugh, and finally she saw it, the Bearers quick to follow her sight - the last window, depicting Celestia and Luna blasting Discord with the Elements. The stained glass composing Discord’s image was shivering, shaking, as it moved and laughed.
“Discord! How -”
“Dear Celly, it’s obvious! You and Luna don’t have those tawdry pieces of jewelry anymore, so everything you’ve done - it’s all coming apart! Why, I bet good ol’ Danny boy will be down here any day now!”
“Danny?” Twilight chimed in.
“Yes, Danny. Ruler of the Diamond Dogs. A fun enough chap, but I imagine he’ll be a bit miffed at you all when he comes down. Especially with you Celestia. I bet he’ll want a bit of payback...I know! I’ll tell him all about these new Bearers, like, say, Twi-” A blast of magic shattered the glass, Celestia’s horn smoking from the sudden burst of power.
For Discord, this, of course, didn’t hurt in the slightest. He withdrew slightly, leaving only a shard of his awareness there as Celestia hurried the Bearers to where the Elements used to lay as he reached out magically to the unseen star that glared at Equestria from the sky.
Tch! Ow! He hissed to himself, nursing an intangible magical appendage that didn’t physically exist in any sense, but was still stung by the sparse shell of harmony that surrounded the Gundam. He made a bank of cotton candy clouds burst into existence around Canterlot to mark his irritation, a downpour of chocolate rain drowning out some noble mansions. He carefully studied the magical shell keeping the Gundam suspended, even as a part of him taunted Celestia and the Bearers, delivering his riddle.
Sensing things with magic was much like sight or hearing in some ways, relying on the reflection or disturbance of some medium to translate the existence of the reflector or disturber. However, for magic, that very medium was magic...which is a problem when one is composed entirely of one kind of magic, attempting to discern that of another kind that is, in a very basic elemental sense, anathema to oneself.
The sensation of Discord lightly brushing his chaos magic across the sphere of harmony that hung near the moon was much like the sensation of a human running his fingertips across a hot stove. Searingly painful, that is.
However, Discord’s magic was infinitely more sensitive and complex than the nerves of a human fingertip, and was able to find the intricate curves and whorls in the surface of the magic shell, despite the pain.
He smiled to himself, as a talon of carefully molded chaos nipped at the orb of harmony, which began to unravel.
Slowly, to be sure. The Gundam would not fly back to the earth in hours, days, or weeks, and perhaps not even months. But eventually, it would fly again.
Discord returned the bulk of his awareness to Equestria, parts of him messing with the Elements, while a large portion seeped into the space and time around Celestia.
“Do you remember, Celestia?” His voice oozed out, causing Celestia to peer around suspiciously. “How you were so afraid of dear ol’ Danny’s dreadful Diamond Dogs? How you were so paranoid how they seemed to know your every move? Well guess what? They did.” A sweep of magic passed through the room, one which Discord seized upon and distorted and warped, sending a loud bang and bright flare that dazed Celestia.
“You see, you and your sister control the very sun and moon - a task you took over from the unicorn councils to spare them their precious magic. But did you ever stop to think, if there was someone who had the same connection to the earth? Because there was.”
“Every hoofbeat on the ground, he felt. Every mine you dug, he heard. Every armor plate and sharp blade you forged, he smelt. Every farm you kept, he tasted. And every gemstone you dug up, shined and admired, he saw through. Your troops never made a move he didn’t know, so heavy their hoofbeats and clanking armor were, so glimmering and gold were their gem-studded regalia.”
Celestia swept another wave of magic through her surroundings, a wave of heat and light that burned fabric and cracked stone.
“You suspected it, but I’m here to tell you Celestia, that there were only two reasons you even survived the war, much less won it. Danny’s mercy...and a twist of chance, a bit of chaos that just so happened to be in your favor. And now, I’ve gotten rid of that harmonious bit of chaos, and...well, I imagine Danny won’t be quite so merciful when he comes back.”
And Discord left her with that, with a smouldering room and a scent of fear.
Mere hours later, his schemes against the Elements would first succeed, and then fail, leaving him encased again in stone.
However, instead of the fearful pose he would have assumed in another time, here he was frozen with a vicious smirk, and a single pointed claw, aimed at the sky.
Now, a unicorn gathered her friends, completing a spell that was long left unfinished.
The spell's energies radiate throughout the world - and beyond. The cascading waves of magic, composed of almost every kind imaginable - unicorn, pegasus, earth pony, and even the basic elemental magic of harmony itself - reach to a green star high above.
The harmony shell surrounding the orbiting Gundam, which had frayed and splintered since Discord’s initial outbreak, shatters completely.
The giant machine twitches, and ports breath plumes of emerald green just once, and weakly.
It begins to fall, ever so slowly, towards the earth below.
Underground, buffered by huge mazes of stone tunnels that constantly shifted and changed under the paws of their masters, sat the City of Hierophant Pack. The Alpha kneels in contemplation at the pinnacle of the Black Tower, long repaired from the Elements’ incursion nearly a year ago, centered between of all Twelve Arcana’s alcoves.
And with a creak of ancient metal, a hiss of gas, and a flare of magic, the Gigant Machina raise fists simultaneously.
With Twilight
It’s flush with success and more than a little uncertainty that Twilight leans on her balcony, after her coronation.
She had just been trying to fix what she had broken - her friends’ cutie marks and destinies swapping so randomly because of her spell.
And when she’d finished the spell to help fix everything -
A flash of light, and there was nothing. Just her, and the stars - one bright and gleaming green.
She faced it, studied it as it flared for a moment - and it became a skull, huge and horrifying, and unlike any she had ever seen in any museum or lab. It was rounder than pony skulls, bore four huge canine teeth, and had green diamonds for eyes.
Its maw gaped wide and flew at Twilight, making her shriek in fear - until a familiar voice called.
“Twilight?”
And the skull disappeared, as Celestia faded into view.
With a shudder, Twilight glanced at the sky - and saw the green Dog’s Head star moving noticeably.
For a moment, she gaped, and then rushed back in.
“Spike!” She called, and almost ran into her number one assistant dragon as he stood up, rubbing his eyes blearily.
“Wha-”
“Spike! Emergency message to Princess Celestia!”
“Oh! Uh, right, right -” Spike shook himself a little more awake, and found quill and parchment. “- uh, ready!”
“Princess Celestia, I was resting on my balcony just now, and I noticed the last of the Dog’s Head stars moving in the sky -”
Later
“- and after I thought about that strange vision, I looked up in the sky and saw Diamond’s star moving. That’s when I wrote you.” Twilight looked up at her mentor and her mentor’s sister, both Celestia and Luna with tense expressions, eyes darting around the room - which now that Twilight was studying it, was bare of almost any metal, and...built with wood paneling over the marble and stone?
“Oh my...the...decor is quite...rustic…” Rarity chimed in, following Twilight’s gaze. She and the rest of the Elements were arrayed beside Twilight, all of them still a little woozy.
“I’m afraid the...unusual style serves a purpose beyond decoration. When Discord broke free, before you performed so admirably in reforming him Fluttershy, he saw fit to...inform me… of his ally’s abilities. Suffice it to say, this ‘Danny’ is as powerful and connected to the earth as Luna is to the moon, and I to the sun. Twilight’s vision during her ascension only lends some credence to the idea. Should he touch the earth again…”
“Shouldn’t we hit him now then?” Rainbow asked. “Just fly up there and WHAM! Hit him with the Elements again?”
“No Rainbow Dash, we cannot.” Luna responded. “Where Danny and his Gundam falls from now is an airless void. It would take too much magic to sustain your lives long enough to muster the Elements there.”
“Well then we’ll hit him while he’s falling in the air!”
“No.” This time Celestia. “He will be moving too fast and the air around him too hot to confront him as he falls. To follow him close enough to use the Elements as he falls, would result in the anti-magic shell around the Gundam disrupting any of our magics we use to defend against the heat and speed.”
“So...we need to hit him after he’s done falling...but before he hits the ground?” Applejack mulled the thought around, as did the others.
“Well, it would be ideal, but I believe so long as we ‘hit him’ again before he musters his strength, the Elements should seal him away again before he has a chance to act.” Luna advised. “The only difficulties are his point of impact, and if the Arcana are active again.”
“Oh, he’ll hit just outside of Appaloosa.” Everyone turned to Twilight. She looked up from a book that she’d whisked out of nowhere. “Oh. Orbital mechanics. I brushed up on them...a month ago? Yes, a month. Calculated it as I was dictating the letter to Spike.” Everyone exchanged glances, shook their heads, and readied to move out.
Within the hour, they were on chariots drawn by guard pegasi, surrounded by more pegasi and guards in heavy transport chariots, racing towards the city of Appaloosa. Above, the green star began to burn, growing a trail of silver flames.
“He’s entered the atmosphere!” Twilight called to the rest, pointing at the falling star, only to nearly fall out of the chariot when three giant forms buzzed the formation.
“No! The Arcana!” Luna cried.
“The Chariot, the Star and...the Hanged One.” Celestia listed off, glaring at the three as they circled back to face the ponies.
Chariot was bronze-colored machine, designed with solid armor plates and two red glowing eyes that matches the flames belching out from the back-mounted devices that allowed it to fly.
The second, Star, was colored in blued steel, of a lighter build, and had bright white-blue eyes and flames, but with six of the devices attached to feet, hips, and back.
And leading them was the Hanged One, a nearly skeletal machine, colored black with strange curved patterns on the surface, and a light eerie green color to its eyes and two flight devices’ exhaust.
“Well, what have we here? The Pony Princesses, Celestia and Luna...and with a new one…” The Hanged One’s voice growled like the approach of a thunderstorm, bringing hairs to stand on end. Twilight huddled closer to Celestia as the three machines leered at her, the arrow-sharp gazes of green, blue, and red burning into her fur.
“Enough Hanged One! Reserve your ire for me, and leave her alone!”
“Oh, but that is something I cannot do Celestia. For you’ve given her the weapon that defeated us 1500 years ago. Whatever befalls her as a result, is on you.” The Hanged One growled harshly, a grasping paw clenching into a crushing fist accentuating its words.
“And what might that be? When did the Arcana become monologuing villains of foalhood tales with naught but words in place of action?” Luna challenged the three Gigant Machina, drawing a snarl from Chariot, who reached for a large weapon on its back before Hanged One raised a paw.
“Indeed, this buzzing and spouting of words would never have come in the past. Before, all you would have heard of us would be the snap of gunfire and the howls of beams...but as you surmise, we are forced to be more sparing in our conflict.”
“And why’s that hah!? You too chicken to come at us!?” Rainbow Dash shouted. Chariot growled again, and angled to dart forth, only for Star to grab at its shoulder and hold the giant flying metal dog back.
“No, merely an efficient use of resources. Why use rare magics and valuable bullets, when simple words will suffice?” At the Hanged One’s words, Twilight’s eyes widened and darted to the falling star, which was just beginning to come into view - behind the three Arcana.
“Look! They’re stalling us!” The others started, glancing at the star as the Dogs flew away, howling laughter left in their wake. With a scream of anger, Rainbow leaped out of her chariot to go dashing after them - only for Celestia’s magic to grab her and sit her back in it.
“We cannot afford for the Elements to be separated!” Celestia said to Rainbow Dash’s barely controlled outrage. “You six are the only answer we have to Danny and his Gundam! If you become separated and vulnerable and the Arcana take any one of you, all of us will be at his mercy!”
At that, the six collectively gulped in fear, as the convoy resumed its flight. As they approached, the star fell ever further and further, until an enormous thunder sounded with its impact. The shockwave burst through the air, shaking the chariots and their escorts.
“Ah think he’s landed.” Applejack remarked dryly.
The pegasi rushed ahead, and the convoy of ponies arrived to find the three flying Arcana circling the dust-strewn impact crater. The three Arcana noticed them and arrayed themselves between the crater and the ponies, landing with rough thuds, and assuming wide and low stances, hands out with diamond-tipped claws glinting threateningly in the twilight.
The pegasi and those with chariots carrying guards landed first and foremost, the guardsponies arraying themselves in defensive formations opposing the Arcana as the chariots bearing princesses and Elements landed behind and unloaded their precious passengers.
As the princesses and Elements formed up behind the guards, all present ponies were buffeted by a wall of noise as the three Arcana growled at them. And as they flinched, the ground rumbled, and the other nine Arcana erupted out of the earth.
It was an array of machines bearing colors from all across the spectrum, and wielding various instruments of war with ease and practice. The Arcana, all twelve now present, took a step forward, looming over the ponies, who took an instinctive, step back.
Even as they did so though, unicorns lit horns with magic, earth ponies set spears in place, pegasi readied bow and arrow, and the Princesses’ magic glared like sun and moon had set among the gathered forces.
The two forces, one larger in stature, the other in number, and neither quite sure how the other measured up in terms of raw power. The air was tense, filled with anticipation at the battle to come, one sure to be filled with danger and destruction like none had seen in millennia.
And then with a snap, all found themselves shifted to the side, set in chairs - especially enormous mahogany ones for the Arcana in their Gigant Machina - and with sets of tea before them, ponies arrayed to the left, and dogs to the right.
“Oh come now! We can’t have anypony - or anydog - messing up Danny’s return!” Discord popped into existence, a red carpet rolling from his feet up to and over the lip of the crater.
“Oh no. Discord.”The simultaneous sound of many appendages slapping over many faces sounded - becoming especially thunderous with the Arcana slapping their metal paws over their muzzles. For a brief moment, pony and dog shared views.
“Hey, come on guys, I’m trying to help here! We had a whole episode about it, right Fluttershy!?”
“Right…” Fluttershy, shrinking behind her mane, murmured in response.
“Right! Now, after that whole bit, I came to a realization! While Fluttershy there is the first one who actively tried to become my friend, there was one being on this earth that had treated me like a friend for a long time: Danny! Right guys?” Discord waved to the Arcana.
“Well, he called you many things…” One Arcana at the from said, one Rarity recognized as the very one the Hierophant Alpha had tried to get her to revive, even wielding a larger version of the same black spinel-topped staff. “Acquaintance -”
“Buddy!” Another, with hefty build of dark iron and hammer slung across its shoulders called.
“Random-ass jerkwad!” Chariot shouted.
“ADD-afflicted dick!” Hanged One added.
“Filthy ramen-thief!” The last was a tan machine with a black arm and a white arm, a long curved blade sheathed at its hip.
“Yes, yes, yes, all terms of great endearment from him!” Discord gleefully proclaimed, eye twitching. “Anyway, I figured as the only one who had friendly relations with both sides -” Celestia facehoofed, and several of the Arcana made gestures that the ponies could only assume were insulting in nature. “- that I would be best suited to ensuring he came back and everything went in...ugh...harmony. If everyone is amenable?”
“If...if you are sure you can convince him to act peacefully...I’ll allow it.” Celestia spoke.
“We follow the Great Master’s will. If it is peace, we will follow him in laying down arms.” The Hierophant Arcana spoke, tapping its staff against the ground for emphasis. “But if the Shining Diamond calls for war…” A cacophony of clicks, whirs and snaps sounded from the Twelve, bringing reflexive shudders from the ponies.
“Right, well, I’m sure I’ll be able to talk him into it!” Discord snapped his fingers, and the crater smoothed itself out.
“Oh. Oh dear.”
The Gundam...was not intact.
Where the Gigant Machina of the Arcana had come through the atmosphere unscathed, preserved down to the paint by the magic of the Elements that kept them sleeping, the Gundam had suffered severely from re-entry.
The Gundam’s head was gone, along with the V-shaped crest. One arm gone as well, and the hull was warped and molten, steaming in the air. The legs couldn’t be seen, but judging by how the torso rested against the ground, they were presumably missing too.
All present were interrupted in their staring by loud clanks from the Gundam, as two objects rose from the back. They were two tall, bipedal machines, one as tall as Celestia, and the other a head above that.
“Hey! Spyglass, Briareos!” Discord called out happily, waving at them. Both machines looked up, revealing heads with one central eye. Spyglass was the smaller, with flatter shapes and fins off of his head, and just the one eye. Briareos was the larger, with smoother plating and several smaller eyes around his central one.
The two then proceeded to ignore Discord, moving to the front of the Gundam’s torso. Discord frowned, snaggletooth pricking out of his lips and gnawing on the lower, and drifted closer to them.
Briareos reached up and grasped something near where the collarbone of the Gundam - if it had a collarbone - would be, and pulled.
The molten neck-stump and back-plates folded away from each other, unleashing a horrible stench among all gathered - one heavy with death and decay.
“Oh...Danny...no…” Discord’s voice quavered, something none of those present had ever even conceived of hearing from the Spirit of Disharmony.
Briareos reached into the Gundam, and lifted out a skeletal structure of metal surrounding what could only be a long-dead corpse - the ponies had never seen any creature that matched the body structure, but they could tell it was dead, from the empty eye sockets, to the wispy white strands of hair waving from a withered scalp, to the parchment-dry wrinkled skin.
After a moment, the Arcana simultaneously raised their heads and howled, a long note of grief and sorrow rumbling the very earth beneath the ponies’ hooves - causing Spyglass to snap its head up.
“Arcana! At ease!” The barked order snapped the Arcana out of the howl, directing their attention to the smaller machine, with its stilted speech and mechanical voice. “Father has died. We are enacting the Lazarus protocol.”
The announcement only drew confusion from the Arcana, as the eyes of Spyglass and Briareos dimmed, losing the emerald glow of life. Then an aura of deep green surrounded their bodies, snapping open panels and withdrawing some small blocks from the machines.
The glow proceeded to engulf them, and the body lying between. Shocked gasps came from the ponies as the body began to move, climbing to its feet - until Twilight noticed something.
“He’s not moving himself! The magic is moving the exoskeleton!” The onlookers looked closer, and saw the truth - the emerald magic that covered Spyglass and Briareos’s bodies was also engulfing the metal skeleton around the body, moving it instead of the corpse, whose head flopped lifelessly side to side as it moved.
The smell of burning meat arose then, making ponies retch as the metal of both the exoskeleton and the machines’ bodies began to glow. The bodies of Briareos and Spyglass walked into the corpse, and their bodies began to melt apart and merge with the exoskeleton, itself beginning to melt into the corpse.
The horrid smell increased, as the glowing, silvery metal engulfed the body head to toe, removing flesh and hair, and searing bone. The liquid metal condensed, forming fibers connecting the metal-covered bones that congregated into artificial muscles, then covered by armor plating.
Soon, an armored skeleton of a machine stood before all. Its head, a silver skull, raised to look up at the sky, with twin gemstone-like eyes glowing bright green. It looked down, raising a claw-tipped hand that shook, and slowly clenched into a fist. Then it relaxed it and tested each finger individually, curling and uncurling and moving them around.
Soon enough, it finished its tests and straightened in posture, and its head swiveled around, gaze locking on the princesses. A single hand raised, one finger extended in a clawed jab of a point at the three.
“Celestia. Luna.” The voice was deep and emotionless, with virtually no unnecessary inflections in it. “How nice of the killers to visit the deceased.” At that, the Arcana instantly rose, growling as the ponies collectively gave shocked glances at the two princesses. Discord, uncharacteristically, seemed at a loss for words, his look switching from the skeletal machine and the princesses.
“D-Danny, we had no intention of -”
“What you intended has no bearing whatsoever.” The mechanical voice interrupted Celestia. “All that matters is that you and your sister imprisoned my Arcana in space for 1500 years, ripping them away from their families and friends - and consigned me to a slow, dreary death. One hundred years to starve and die, and fourteen hundred to rot.”
The princesses’ jaws dropped in horror at the thought of such a drawn-out demise - mirrored by the Elements beside them. As they did so, the skeleton - Danny, crouched down and plucked the small blocks that had been taken out of Spyglass and Briareos, holding them in hand. Luna shuddered and acted again, stepping out of her chair and moving to stand before Danny. As she approached, the Arcana gave off thunderous snarls, but she ignored them. Close up, her horn came just to Danny’s chin.
“Danny, we are sorry for the terrible -”
“Sorry is not enough.” Danny interrupted, free hand coming up to point accusingly at Luna. “My nation is ruined, and many, if not most of my dogs have died as a direct result of you and your ponies. And if I recall correctly...neither me, nor any of my Diamond Dogs, ever surrendered to Equestria. Meaning…” The Arcana rose to full height, having formed up directly behind Danny so that they loomed over Luna. “That strictly speaking, Diamond Dogs and ponies are still at war.” A vast array of weapons came to bear - a scythe with a blade of chipped obsidian, a steel hammer with a glowing gray emerald set in its head, two enormous black iron revolvers, a gigantic gold gatling gun, and many others, all prepared to be put to use.
Luna’s expression hardened.
“Very well. If it’s war thou wishes for, it is war thou shall have! Elements!” Luna vanished in a flash of teleportation, as guardsponies rushed to assemble into formation. Quickly enough, the Elements were front and center, Celestia and Luna just behind and guards on the flanks and sides.
The Elements glowed and their bearers lifted into the air as the magic engulfed them. The Arcana moved to bring their weapons to bear on the six ponies - only to be halted by the raised hand of their leader. The light reached a crescendo, as the Element of Magic gathered all the powers of the others and blasted forth the almighty power that banished, then purified Luna, twice imprisoned Discord, and once ensnared the thirteen before it. The beam engulfed Danny and the Arcana, raging for a full second before slowly dissipating.
Revealing a wall of stone. A craggy barrier half again as tall as the Arcanas' Gigant Machina, which sunk into the earth a moment after, revealing Danny and the Arcana behind it, completely unaffected.
The ponies gaped in shock, mouths dropping open all across the Equestrian force, before Danny lifted a hand, clenched it into a fist, and brought it down.
Every pony wearing or holding anything metal was thrust into the ground then - even the princesses. The only ponies left standing were the Elements - right up until skeletal arms of stone reached up and grabbed them, forcing them to lay on the ground, legs splayed out as with the other ponies of the Equestrian forces.
Parts of the earth turned silvery and liquid, crawling over the ponies and engulfing their bodies, leaving only the face uncovered before solidifying into a lawn of pony statues, with pegasi wings firmly bound, and unicorn horns capped with metal.
“I would not advise any unicorns to try to attempt magic.” Danny warned. “The metal you are bound in will drain it away and turn it into heat - I would be especially careful of the alicorns attempting any spells, unless you want to cook your friends alive.”
Several of the unicorns scoffed and lit their horns - only to stop when they felt a notable rise in heat around their faces.
The skeletal machine returned to the broken remains of the Gundam, holding the two blocks in its hand, as a rumble shook the ground and sent dust into the air.
By the time the dust had cleared, Danny, the Gundam, the Arcana, were gone.
