Discord The Element of Magic, and Princess Cozy Glow's personal student, goes on adventures with his friends.
Discord, Princess Cozy Glow's personal student, goes to the city of Ponyville to prepare for the Summer Sun Celebration. He was not prepared to go after ancient artifacts with a group of friends and defeat an ancient evil. This is only the beginning, isn't it? Good thing Opalescence, the dragon he hatched, is always good company.
A long time ago, there were two siblings, an elder brother and younger sister . The elder brother raised the sun, while the younger sister raised the moon. Eventually the elder brother grew jealous of his younger sister, afraid she would take the love of their subjects for herself. The elder acted on his jealousy, Becoming a being of greed and fire. Taking all he thought he was owed or wanted. He attempted to take the throne for himself, and bathe the land in the eternal light of the sun.
The younger sister with a heavy heart was forced to use the Elements of Harmony, the strongest magical artifacts known to pony kind, and banish her brother. The elder brother was sealed away in a place unknown to all but the siblings...
"...And peace has rained ever since." Read out the voice of a stallion. "Hmm, The Elements of Harmony." He said, hoof on his chin. "Where have I herd of those before?"
The gray coated unicorn with a black mane and tail rose from the ground "I'll go take a look in the library, i should be able to find something on them there." He said, his golden red eyes shining with excitement at something he didn't know. Putting the book in his saddle bag he took off to his room in the palace.
"Discord!" the voice of a mare called out to him.
Turning around he saw Fizzlepop Berrytwist "Hey Fizz, how are you?" Discord asked the earth pony mare. "No wait, let me guess." He said putting up a hoof to stop the overly cheerful mare. "You just couldn't bare to be away from me" His trademark smirk on his face.
"Yeah riiight," Fizz responded rolling her eyes. "I came to make sure you don't miss Starlight's party Dissy"
Sighing Discord muttered "Miss ONE party and they act like I'm gonna miss them all." Looking her in the eye he said "Of course I'm going to be there. It's not till five."
"It's fore fifty right now and it looked like you were going somewhere else." She retorted with a raised brow.
Casting a quick spell to tell the time Discord confirmed what she said. "So it is." He looked back at his bag deciding he could do any research on the Elements later. "Give me a moment to take my things back to my room-"
"You mean your library." Fizz interrupted with a look of satisfaction at the slight annoyance on Discords face.
"-my room, and to grab her present while I'm there." He finished "I'll also make sure to grab Opal."
"I saw her on my way here, she's already on her way." Fizz told him.
"Alright, I'll be there shortly." And with that he left.
Discord and Opalescence were on their way back to their shared room in the castle. Starlight Glimmer's party had not been particularly of note, but he did hope the pegasus would enjoy the gift he got her, books on pegasus magic were particularly hard to get a hold of. Especially when they were written before the unification era, and by a pegasus and not an overly racist unicorn.
Opalescence was asleep on his back, thanks to the party, showing just how much smaller the young dragon was compared to him. Which was not much as she was only about half a head shorter than him, and only four years from getting her wings.
When they got back he made sure to tuck her into her bed, and then proceed to the research he put off earlier. "Let's see," Discord wondered aloud searching his books. "Gide to Griffish, No. Gide to The Everfree, Didn't know I had that. Aha, The Elements of Harmony, A Reference Gide."
Taking the book off the shelf he brought it over to a large reading cushion and sat down. Opening the book to the table of contents he looked through it marking the chapters of interest in his head. Turning to the chapter that seemed most useful, he stopped and stared at the picture that was there. It was a group of six gems, five of them surrounding the sixth. But that was not what made him stop.
The image of the center gem, and the other five it had around it, was familiar to him. Specifically the center gem was a six pointed star. He turned his head to look at his own mark, or as filly's like to say (especially the young ones) his cutie mark. Which was a large twisting six pointed star with another one behind it and five multicolored five pointed stars surrounding it spinning as if in a tornado.
"Okay that is either one Tartarus of a coincidence, or there is something else going on here." He stated flatly. "For now in order to save my sanity, what little of it there is, I'll assume the former." He then turned back to the book and began to read through it.
"There are six Elements of Harmony all of which have multiple aspects to them and can be used for great goods or great evils, as Harmony is a source of balance. The most common aspects are Kindness and Cruelty, Generosity and Greed, Honesty and Deceit, Loyalty and Betrayal, Laughter and Despair, while the last Element is a representation of all Magic." He stopped reading at this point in order to skim the rest and get to the important part about the Elements themselves. "Blah, blah, blah, yadda, yadda, yadda, ah here we go."
"The Element of Kindness and Cruelty one of the more direct Elements it is capable of healing grievous wounds even bring others back from the brink of death, or controversially it is capable of inflicting such wounds. One of the most famous wielders of this element did not actually wield it for either of the said aspects but, instead, wielded it for hope and thus was able to inspire entire armies on his own."
"Huh, that's kinda awesome. Anyway onto the next one."
"The Element of Generosity and Greed is more subtle. Often passively influencing others to act the way the current wielder does. This element often grants an affinity with gems or precious metals. The most famous use of this element was by Adagio Dazzle and was wielded for beauty and used to spread the aforementioned aspect across Equestria."
"Ugh, boring, Next."
"The Element of Honesty and Deceit capable of being extremely direct or passive is known to make the wielder capable of knowing when someone is lying or being truthful, and has even been rumored of granting an ability similar to the changing's ability to shape shift. It's most famous use was by Sonata Dusk (who is also famous for being one of the few to ever wield more than one element) for its capability of making her deceit nearly imperceptible, even to magic."
"Wait, more than one element. Hmm, interesting."
"The Element of Loyalty and Betrayal is quite direct in it's use having a similar passive affect as the Element of Generosity and Greed. It is also known for its ability to grant unwavering courage and an immunity to fear, its most famous use was also by Sonata Dusk. Her betrayal against her sisters was most unexpected and bloody, granting her the title The Great Betrayer."
"Ohhh, she's the mare from that story. I see, I thought the name was familiar."
"The Element of Laughter and Despair known of spreading happiness and laughter throughout the land, or the opposite, sadness and despair. It is also famous for boggling the minds of those who do not wield it as it seems to grant the ability to break reality. The most famous wielder being Aria Blaze, also Known as The Immortal Jester, she spread cheer across all of the world and many claim to see her spirit during the holiday of Jester Day April 1st"
"Oooo, I love Jester Day! I'll have to do some research on her appearing during it."
"The last Element, The Element of Magic, is said to be the most power of the elements. Where this claim comes from is unknown, but not far from the truth. The Element of Magic is precisely as it sounds enhancing the magic of who ever wields it, for better or worse. Unlike the others it has had far more wielders that can claim the title of most famous for it out right enhances what ever magic is in use, be it necromancy with Pipsqueak, erythromancy better known as blood magic with Prince Blueblood, faunamancy with the druid Sapphire Shores, floramancy with Granny Smith Apple, or pandemancy with Twilight Sparkle even tho she never wielded the element openly it is theorized that the chaos mage was the last to ever wield one of the Elements over two thousand years ago."
Discord snorted at that last one as he knew that Twilight Sparkle was all nothing more than natural talent. The benefits of having your personal magic teacher being the princess who has ruled for nearly ten thousand years, if the history books were to be believed. But then those same books say that she has only ruled alonefor just about one thousand years ruling side by side with her brother before then, who seems to still be in the books but written off as a myth any more.
His curiosity satisfied he put the book back in its place and went searching for another book, this one on Princess Cozy Glow's supposedly mythological brother. Eventually he found one, though he was skeptical about how useful it would be as its title was Predictions and Prophecies By Zecora. Reading though the book it was exactly as the title said, nothing but predictions and prophecies. However a rather large number of both have actually come true so he decided to read the one prophecy that seemed to be about Princess Cozy's brother, the Day Breaker.
"The breaker of day The banisher of night After one thousand years His return a guarantee He will have his way He shall have his fight The land he will sear Shall none end his spree On the celebration of day Everyone he shall slay"
"Well... that's ominous." Discord said, thinking of the implication "Wait, the celebration of day. That would be the Summer Sun Celebration... I think."
"What are you still doing up?" Discord heard Opal yawn behind him.
Turning to her, Discord said. "Oh, I didn't wake you did I?"
"Please," Opal snorted out. "I could sleep though the end on the world. Now out with it, what are you still doing up?"
"Just a little bit of research." he responded. "I was actually planing on going to bed soon. But, before I do, since your awake I would like to ask a favor for tomorrow. If that's alright?"
"Oh no, how terrible. A favor, for tomorrow." She said rolling her eyes. "Of course you can, it's more of a question of whether or not I'll do it. Is it not?"
"Can I get you to send a letter to the princess in the morning?" Discord asked.
Beneath Canterlot, deep under Mt. Canterhorn, and far below the forgotten crystal mines, a soft sound could be heard echoing off the carved out hallways connected to an ancient antechamber the size of Canterlot Castle.
On one side it sat the entrance of a maze of hallways many collapsed by time. On the other side sat a giant pair of stone double doors nearly as tall and as wide as the room itself.
The doors held a depiction of a faintly glowing magic circle, in the center was a six pointed star of light lavender and at the points six gem like shapes of different colors, light blue, purple, pink, red, orange, and green.
A loud boom followed closely by a crack could be heard in the chamber echoing and petering out to a soft barley heard sound. The doors now holding a large jagged line diagonally through there center, the magic circle flickering. Then came a light chuckle that got stronger and stronger, and with it came an angry orange glow from the crack and the seems of the doors fading fast.
A whisper could be heard through the an silent antechamber. "Soon dearest sister" And the orange light flared again with another crack and a manic laugh.
The next morning, Discord wrote a letter asking the princess about the research he did the night before and if she knew anything about the proficiency. After Opal had sent it via dragon fire it was only a couple of minuets before he got his response. Of course Opal took the liberty of reading it out loud to him instead of just handing it over so he could read it.
"Ahem, Dear Discord,
You simply have to stop reading those old books so far into the night. But I digress. Yes I know almost everything there is to know about the Elements of Harmony. I was one of the last ponies to wield them, something that should be in those books you read, be the way.
As for the prophecy you asked about, I've never heard of it.
Now with that aside, I am sending you to the city of Ponyville in order to make sure the preparations are all well and taken care of. I know you will, with out a doubt, drag Opalescence with you. Therefor if you have any other friends you wish to take with you I will make sure that their schedules are clear. I'm sure you all could use a small break from school after all.
Sincerely, Princess Cozy Glow"
After reading Opal let out a loud sigh. "Great, you have to go do something and that means I have to go with you!"
"You're not the only one that has to." Discord stated with a grin, getting a confused look from her. "The princess said that I could bring along any of my friends, and she would make sure that their schedules were cleared." His grin tuning sightly more evil.
"You'r going to drag Fizzle and Star along aren't you." Opal more said then asked, seaming to understand what he was getting at.
"You know it. Here give me a moment" Was his response.
"What are you doing?" Opal asked, Getting a flat look with a raised brow from Discord.
"I'm writing a letter letting the princess know who I'm bringing with me."
"Right, should have guessed."
Later at the Train Station
"Remind me why I'm going with you?" A slightly irate pink pegasus asked her head feathers ruffled in irritation.
"Because, Starlight, he likes to annoy us, and the Princess gave him permission." Responded a highly annoyed maroon earth pony her long leonine tail flicking back and forth.
"Yeah, Star, shouldn't that be obvious by now?" Asked a slightly amused dragon with white scales and violet spines.
"Oh shut up Opal." Starlight sighed. "Anyways, Fizz you have any clue why he's, and therefor we, are going to Ponyville?"
"Aside from something to do with the Summer Sun celebration? No, no I do not." Fizzlepop answered her.
"Alright lady's," Rang out Discord's voice. "Our things are packed and we're ready to go."
"Discord," Said Starlight.
"MMM'Yes?" He drawled out.
"The Summer Sun Celebration isn't for anther week. Can't we go like a day or two before instead?" She asked.
"Nope." Was his short response, then continued right as she was about to say something else. Effectively cutting her off. "There are many things to do while we are there."
"Such as?" Asked Starlight.
Discord put one of his cloven hooves around her shoulders and said "Well, for one I have to check on the preparations for the celebration and Ponyville is rather large. Two, the Princess specifically stated that this would be a break from school. Might as well take advantage of that, right?"
"Well I do have family there so it will give me a chance to visit them." Fizzlepop added.
Before anyone could say anymore there was the loud sound of screeching metal on metal as their train came to a stop in the station. They waited for the signal from the conductor, then proceeded to bored the train. Having their own personal car, courtesy of the princess, slightly mollified the two mares.
"Well, at least we get to travel in style." Starlight stated.
"You're just happy you don't have to ride in coach." Discord said.
"Yeah, and?"
The train ride was filled with casual small talk to waste the time until they got to Ponyville, which only took about an hour, and when they arrived they proceeded to make their way to the house that was set aside for them at the edge of the city.
Walking through Ponyville revealed that the small city was quite interesting. It had large buildings that, at their largest reach up to about four stories. An area that was dedicated as the Old Equestria District, which had houses and buildings that had thatch roofs. The rest of the city was more modern, If a bit strange. One building was made with tile in the style on a gingerbread house, while another was built in a way that made it look like a very large tree.
The house that they were going to stay at belonged to Fizzlepop's family and was three stories tall and wide enough to cover half of a city block in the residential area, if it was in the residential area and not on the edge of town with a giant vineyard behind it.
"Whoa" Three of them said looking up at the mansion while Fizzlepop just rolled her eyes at their reaction.
"Since when where you rich?" Starlight asked "And why didn't you tell me- I mean us?"
"You make it sound like you've never heard of the Twist's candy company," Fizzlepop Berrytwist said "Or Berry Vine Wine."
"Huh, when you think about it, that makes a lot of sense." Opal said with a contemplative expression.
Before anything else could be said a young teen sounding voice was heard calling out "SIS!!!" one blur of cream and red color later there was a young mare hugging Fizzlepop around the neck, a little to tight if her face was anything to go by. "YOU'R HOME, YOU'R HOME, YOU'R HOME"
"Yes Pep.. I'm home." Fizzlepop struggled to say. "Can you.. let me.. breath now?"
With that said the young mare, now known as Pep to the others, looked at her sisters face to see it turning blue. Under her fur that is.
"Oh, sorry" Pep said a little sheepishly, then the glasses wearing mare turned to the others and introduced herself. "Hi, my names Peppermint Twist!"
"Hello, my name is Discord Swirlstar." The aforementioned name introduced himself politely. "And these are my servants." He added with a smirk that could only be described as shit eating one.
"Hey!-" Starlight started but was cut off by Peppermint
"Oh, your the pony that sis alw-" She started only to be cut off as well when a maroon hoof shoved its self into her mouth.
When the others turned to Fizzlepop they saw a alarmed look on her face. ">>What she means is that she already knows about all of you because of the letters I sent home.>>" She said with enough speed that the others had spend a couple seconds deciphering what they just heard.
Opal was the one to decipher it the fastest and gained a knowing look upon her draconic face. "Alright if you say so." She then continued before anyone else could finish thinking about it. "By the way because he didn't introduce us properly I'm Opalescence, and she's Starlight Glimmer."
Peppermint extended one of her forhooves for a hoof shake with a large grin on her face, and when Opal grabbed it she almost had her arm torn off with the speed and force of the hoof shake.
"Bwahahahaha" Starlight burst out laughing at the poor dragons very shaken looking face. With Discord and Fizzlepop just barely holding back as well.
"Come on," Peppermint started "We have tons of spare rooms and it's only thirty minuets till lunch!" And as she started to walk away she added. "Just no boys and girls sharing the same room. Or at least that's what dad is going to say." Causing her older sister to blush profusely.
After lunch and getting settled in, with Peppermint's prediction about her father being correct, Discord set off to check on the perpetration's for the Summer Sun Celebration. "Alright, lets see. First is Catering, then Decorations, Music, and I can check the weather scheduled and have it changed if needed." He read off to himself. "Who's doing the catering?" Looking at the list told him that the Pearapple family would be who he needed to talk to, so he took off to the address to their home.
The home of the Pearapple's turned out to be a farmstead, specifically an orchard growing the fruits advertised in the name. Discord proceeded to the farm house, as he didn't see anyone in the fields or orchard, and knocked on the door. He waited a short while and was about to knock again when he heard a voice from the other side of the door. "One moment please!" Came the slightly muffled, but very deep, voice of a stallion.
A couple moments later the door opened to reveal a large deep red stallion with a grayish white mane. "Hello stranger, what can I do for you?" He asked in a deep gravelly but polite voice.
"Hello my name is Discord and I'm here to check on the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration."
"Ah. Well where are my manners, my name is Tirek Pearapple. A pleasure to meet you."
Tirek took Discord on a short tour of the farm and introduced him to a number of family members, two of which stood out as they were the ones to unite the Apple and Pear family's. After the tour Tirek showed him what was being prepared for the celebration.
"Wow, that's a lot of pear and apple based foods." Discord stated looking at the spread before him, which covered three whole tables. "But should you really be making all the food this soon? There is still a week before the Celebration."
"None of this is fer the Celebration." Tirek said."This is all practice for it to make sure that we're all on our best when the time comes."
"Ah, alright then." Responded Discord. "Well everything seems to be in order so I'll be on my way then."
"Why don't you tell me where you'er going next?" Tirek asked. "I can give you directions to the place."
"Well, I was going to go check on the music next. Which the list I was given said was being done by someone named Antijam Kick Yearling."
"Ah, you'll likely find A.K. at Opera Beats music store. She works there during the day and at Beat Droppers Night Club at night."
Later at Opera Beats
Discord walked into the music store and looked around. When he set eyes on the counter he saw a tanish yellow pegasus with monochromatic feathers wearing a pair of orange glasses and blue-violet head phones bobbing her head up and down with her eyes closed.
He went up to the counter and rang the bell that was there, which was thankfully enough for her to open her eyes and take her head phones off. "Hello and welcome to Opera Beats music store. How can I help you?" She said with a smile.
"Yes I'm looking for a pony named Antijam." Discord told her.
"Well your talking to her. What ya want?"
"I'm here from Canterlot to check on the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration. I was informed that you were responsible for the music, correct?"
"Yes I am, my shift ends in an hour and I don't work Beat Drops tonight, I can show you what I've been working on when I get off. Deal?"
"Works for me."
One hour later Antijam and Discord left the music store and headed to a music studio, in which she led him to a recording room and began to play some of the music for the celebration that she made. The music was a mix orchestra and dubstep that was, in Discord's opinion, decent. It wasn't bad, but it was also not quiet good. In other words, perfect for the celebration.
"Hmm, it's not bad." Discord said. "It'll work." he added with a nod.
Antijam smiled at him and said. "Of course it's far from my best work, but I'm still working on it."
"Well it's to late to go check on the decoration preparations, I'll do that tomorrow I guess."
"Ah, yes, the decorations. Chrysalis Flutterbye has been nonstop talking about her plans for those." A.K. Yearling said with a roll of her eyes. "Anyway, you got any plans for tonight? Cause I don't." She added with a smile and a wink.
"Well... no, no I guess I don't." Discord answered. "But I would prefer to be up early tomorrow morning to check the decorations and weather schedule. But I guess we could meet up to do something tomorrow."
"Alright, I work at Beat Drop's tomorrow so as long as it doesn't go to late that's no problem for me." She said while handing him a peace of paper with her number on it then proceeded to leave before she could get a response.
"... Did I just get a date?"
The next morning Discord checked the weather schedule and was happy to see that everything was in order there and proceeded to the city hall as that was where Tirek said he could find Chrysalis.
In the city hall everything was chaos, ponys were running back and forth carrying what appeared to be decoration. Just as he was about to stop someone to ask where he could find Chrysalis he heard a voice shouting out orders at someone. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! The tapestries are supposed to go on the side walls! NOT over the balcony the Princess is going to stand on!!"
Turning towards the irate noise Discord saw a black coated unicorn with blue-green "socks" and a dark blue main and tail glaring up at two pegasi carrying a large tapestry with sun designs on it.
"Sorry, Chryssie-er I mean Chrysalis." One of them responded and they proceeded to move the large piece of art.
Chrysalis continued to glare at them or more likely, Discord guessed, the one that called her Chryssie until they were done moving it and were instead hanging it up on the wall. He decided to go and talk to her before something else grabbed her attention.
"Hello! You'er Chrysalis, correct?" He asked over the noise of the crowd.
She turned to Discord and looked him up and down. "Yes, I am." She said her voice carrying an air of high class. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't you one of the princesses personal students? Discord, right?"
"Yes I am, I take it you've heard of me." Discord said more than asked with obvious pride.
"Nothing good, chaos mage." She said her deep green eyes glinting with hostility and a frown firmly planting itself on her face. "Now, what do you want?"
Discord's pride having been deflated he told her. "I'm here to check on the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration."
"Really? You?" She responded with a skeptical look.
"Yes, me. If you have a problem with that you can take it up with the princess." Discord said testily.
Rolling her eyes Chrysalis and said. "Alright calm down, as you can see every thing is on scheduled here and I just got done checking on the other areas of the city that I'm responsible for."
"Very well then, I'll be on my way."
Discord went back to Fizzle's house in order to grab the others and force them into going out with him, mostly for his own amusement. What he found when he got there was, by anyone else's standards, strange. What he came back to was Starlight on the ground laughing like a hyena, Opal just barely keeping her self from laughing, and Fizzlepop in an orange dress with navy-blue frills that was reminiscent of Old Equestria. Of course the first thing he did was pull out his phone and take a picture, then burst out laughing as well.
"That dress dose not suit you Fizz." He said around his laughter.
"I-its not like i'm wearing it because I want to!" Fizzlepop announced with a large amount of embarrassment. Showing a side of her that none of those present have seen from the royal legion tribunus laticlavius. "My parents always make me dress up in fancy clothes when I visit."
"How do your parents force you to do anything? You'er the second in command of the royal legion." Starlight choked out.
"At least I have a military rank." Fizzlepop stated proudly.
"HEY! I'm working on my entry into the Bolts!" Countered Starlight.
"The Shadow Bolts, Lighting Bolts, or the Wonder Bolts?" Fizzlepop asked the last part snidely. "If either of the first two, congratulations they are actual military. If the Wonder Bolts, congratulations, you're a glorified show pony."
"They may be show pony's but they are also a group of the most skilled flyers in the world!" Starlight responded. "But to answer your question, I intend on joining the Lighting Bolts. The fastest flyers in the world."
"Oh please," Opal intruded on the conversation. "You just have a crush on their captain Lighting Dust."
"I do not!" Starlight said while her face was doing an impression of a tomato.
"Yeah? What's with the giant blush then?" Discord added his two bits.
Glaring at Discord she shouted. "I am NOT blushing!!"
"Of course you're not." He said with a roll of his eyes. "Now come on, lets go out and do something."
"Yeah, lets go out and do that." Starlight added happy for the change in subject
"Alright, I'm good with that." Fizzlepop agreed.
"Umm, don't you want to change first?" Asked Opal.
"No time, lets go before my parents come out of nowhere!"
Their time out on the town was surprisingly calm considering who was involved, until they came across a pony standing on a box preaching about the evils of dark and chaos magic and how it should be outlawed. It was a common thing that all of them have heard before because of the corruptive quality's of magic.
Something that these ponies liked to ignore how ever was that all types of magic was corruptive. All types of magic tended to bend the mind, and even body if used to much, of those who used them to match the over all way the magic worked. It is also the reason that all legal mages were required to go to mental and physical check ups at least once a month, the more powerful and active users like Discord often went once a week.
And even ignoring those facts the world works on a system of balance, meaning that all types of magic have to have equal use or the harmony of the world would be thrown off. The Everfree Forest came into being because both dark and chaos magic used to be illegal.
This form of ignorance was one of the best ways to get under Discords skin as he was primarily a chaos mage but was also an active practitioner of all types of magic, and has had personal experience with almost all types of corruption. Hence what happened next.
"Do you even have any idea what your talking about?!" Discord shouted out cutting off the young preacher. "All forms of magic have there own forms of corruption, it doesn't matter if it's light, dark, chaos, or healing magic. They all have there own affects on the wielder. All that matters in the end is what kind of person the wielder is!"
"Oh?" the preacher started. "Then how do you explain The Day Breaker? Or Blazing Torch, Sombra? How about Pandemonium?"
"Day Breaker is a legend and in his story he never used dark or chaos magic, Blazing Torch was a Pyromancer, which means she used fire magic, Sombra is another legend and used Shadow magic and was the GOOD gut in his story. And last but not least Pandemonium is a statue in the royal gardens so to show the dangers of using chaos magic to much. The same way Guiding Light, a HOLY magic user and the worst tyrant and terrorist in the history of the world, has a statue to show the corruption of holy magic." Discord spouted out like water out of a broken fire hydrant.
"W-well, you see... U-umm, I-" The preacher tried to respond but cut him self off and ran, leaving the box he was standing on behind.
"That's what I thought" Discord snorted.
"Well you showed him what for." Fizzlepop stated. "Now where are we going?"
"I don't know." Discord shrugged. "I was following you."
"What? But we were following you!" Starlight all but shouted.
"Oops..."
After getting reoriented, thanks to Fizzlepop, they found their way to the local open air mall. Then proceeded to drag Discord everywhere and make him pay for everything as punishment for dragging them on this trip with him, not to mention he was also carrying almost everything as well.
"Uhg, mares am I right or am I right." Discord heard a voice say from next to him. After he moved the bags so he could see he saw Antijam walking next to him with a cocky grin.
"What are you doing here?" He asked her.
She cast a suspicious glance back and forth then whispered "I'm a secret agent working to bring down a drug lord."
Discord raised an eyebrow at her, still with a cocky smug grin on her face. "Suuurrrre, and I'm here to bring down an ancient threat to pony kind." He said with a roll of his eyes.
"I know. Fun, right?" She responded without missing a beat. "Anyway, I was in the area and saw you and your girlfriend," She paused looking ahead of them. "Or should I say girlfriends walking around and figured I'd say hey."
"They/I am not their/his boy/girlfriend!" Discord said with amusement, while the two mares and one dragon shouted as they had noticed the addition to the group and started listening in on the conversation.
"He hatched my egg and practically raised me! Why would I think of him like that?!" Opal continued on.
"Yeah, and I have my eye on someone else." Starlight finished.
Everyone was expecting something from Fizzlepop as well, but, when nothing came they turned to see her doing an impression of a tomato instead.
"Y-yeah and he's really a-annoying." Fizzlepop added when she noticed everyone looking at her.
"Well if he's free then I'm taking him with me." Antijam said, flicking his horn to make his magic aura drop the items he was carrying, and swiftly guiding him away with a wing before anyone could argue.
"What just happened?" Starlight asked speaking everyone's thoughts.
"Well, I suspect that AK took an interest in Discord." A deep rumbling voice answered. They all turned to see Tirek standing there looking out in the direction the other two walked off in. "Hello, my name is Tirek." He said holding out one of his fore hooves for a hoof shake.
"Ah, Discord said something about you when he got back yesterday." Opal said shaking his hoof. "Names Opalescence or Opal for short."
"And how did he come to know a dragon?" questioned Tirek
"He hatched my egg and more or less raised me." Opal said with a shrug.
"Well since they've gone off already would you care to hang out? They'll probably be busy awhile."
Tirek and the girls spent around an hour getting to know each other before they found Discord and Antijam.
Antijam doing what Tirek called her usual, attempting to get someone who caught her attention into bed. In this case, Discord was her target.
"So, I think we should get to... know each other a little better." Antijam stated, a lustful look on her face. "Maybe go back to my place, what do you think?"
Discord being used to such proportions, usually at nightclubs or bars, didn't miss a beat in countering her offer with a mischievous glint in his eye. "Why ever would we do that when we can simply get to know each other here and now?"
Antijam's face quickly turned from a tan yellow to red with a blush and found herself spluttering trying to say something. "I-I ... y-you h-here... now..."
"Why of course. There's so much we don't know about each other. You'r a musician that works a day and a night job, but I know almost nothing about you." Discord said, Starlight knowing exactly where this was going as she had seen it plenty of times when they went out together. ">>What's your favorite color? What's your favorite food? Do you prefer classical or dub-step? How old are you? Do you like cake? Stallions or mares? And finally, do you spit or swallow?>>"
Antijam's blush had mostly gone away when she realized what he was doing only to come back in full force with the last of his rapid fire questions. "I u-umm..."
"What? Did I throw you off your game?" Discord asked with a smug shit eating grin plastered on to his face.
"Call me impressed." Came Tirek's voice laced the laughter. "Not many are capable of throwing her off like that."
"Impressed? Please." Scoffed a rather haughty voice. "It's just another way for him to drag his already besmirched reputation through the mud."
Looking toward the voice they saw Chrysalis standing there, her green eyes boring into Discord with a glare that could turn a cockatrice into stone. "Well if it isn't miss wanna-be noble herself." Tirek said earning a glare from her as well.
"I am simply here to inform my roommate that it is her turn to go grocery shopping, like she said she was going to do when she left the house earlier." Her withering gaze landing on Antijam who merely brushed it off.
"Calm down Chryssie," She said with a roll of her eyes. "I haven't forgotten. I'm just having a little fun."
"Fun? Just like last time you decided to have 'fun' and I had to get the groceries? Or maybe you mean the time before that?" Chrysalis said anger apparent in her voice.
Discord and the others, aside from Tirek, decided to dip out as they could see that this was an ongoing argument and was likely to not end soon. "So who was that?" Questioned Opal.
"That was Chrysalis, the pony in charge of decorations for the Summer Sun Celebration." Discord answered.
"And what did she mean about your reputation?" Starlight asked.
"She apparently heard of me before now and simply told me it was 'nothing good'. But other than that, I have no idea."
The next couple days passed without much incident, aside from Discords occasional interaction with those in charge of the preparations. The night before the celebration at Fizzlepop's as her family was hosting a party that went til five thirty am, half an hour before the celebration so everyone could gather in city hall.
*Yawn*"I know it's tradition to stay up all night, but couldn't I have at least taken a nap?" A very tired Opal asked. "I am technically *yawn* a baby after all."
"Your just lazy." Fizzlepop answered her.
"Yeah? You just have a crush on-hmmuf" Opal attempted to say before she had a nearby apple shoved into her mouth by Fizzlepop. "Seriously? He's not even near us cause he has to make sure that this all goes smoothly." She continued after removing the apple.
"Shush, it's starting." Starlight said.
The music started and up and the three of them cringed at Discord's choice of music. On the balcony sat the pony that they knew as Chrysalis who was trying to keep her anger at the music off her face, and at the crescendo of the music pulled the curtains to reveal the princess.
Only for her to not be there.
A gasp ran through the room as the sun outside continued to rise and as the light from the windows focused on the balcony and burst into a column flames. The alicorn revealed when the flames cleared was not the princess.
He was at least a head taller than the princess with a golden ivory coat and flames for his mane and tail. However the most eye catching part were his own eyes, his sclera were a dark orange and his irises were a fiery golden yellow with slit pupils. "Well hello my little subjects." He said with a mix of smugness and anger. "It is good to see that the day is still worshiped properly."
"Who are you? What have you done with the princess?" Starlight shouted jumping into the air and ready to charge.
"Who am I? Who AM I? I AM THE SUN! I AM THE RIGHTFUL RULER OF THIS LAND! I AM THE RIGHTFUL RULER OF ALL THE WORLD! I AMDAYBREAKER!!" The alicorn yelled in anger, casting a spear of fire towards Starlight. "DIE FOR YOUR IMPUDENCE!!"
Starlight dove out of the way, but was not fast enough and took the spear of fire to her right wing and crashed no top a table. "Now then, I have a capital to conquer." Daybreaker said disappearing in another column of flame more destructive then the one he arrived in. The balcony burning away, sent Chrysalis falling to the ground and Antijam dashing out of the musicians booth to catch her.
Discord appeared out of nowhere to check on Starlight while Tirek went to check on Antijam and Chrysalis. "Aside from the obvious, are you ok Star?" Discord ask going over her with a medical diagnostic spell.
"Aside from the obvious, I'm fine." She said getting off the broken table, the snark still in her voice.
"Alright, let me see your wing." He said while using his magic to pull her wing out to see, making her wince in pain.
"Ouch, seriously? Be gentle and get a medical license." Starlight whined.
"I'll have you know that I know quite a few healing spells." Discord responded testily
"Yeah that you had to learn from your test spells going awry." Opal interjected getting a light glare from Discord.
"Would you all stop bickering." Chrysalis' voice cut in. "Some one needs to do something about Daybreaker and get the princess back."
"Why thank you for volunteering Chrysalis, now lets go." Fizzlepop said taking off towards the door.
"Wait, WHAT!" Chrysalis shouted as the others pushed her along.
Thirty minuets later at the Berrytwist mansion
"What are you doing Fizzlepop? I thought we were going after Daybreaker." Antijam asked only to go silent when she came out of her room dressed in full plate armor.
"We are going after him, just not without being prepared first." She responded.
"Hey, I have a better idea." Discord said. "How bout we go after the Elements of Harmony instead? You know, that why we actually have a chance against a fucking alicorn?"
"Ok, good point. But you wanna explain how we're suppose to find them?" Starlight asked.
"Really? They're in the old Everfree Castle." Discord said.
"Ok and how do you know that?" Asked Antijam.
"Books." Discord responded with a deadpan.
"Alright then, lets go!" Opal said.
"Oh no you don't, you'r staying here Opalescence." Discord said sternly with the others also having concerned looks on there faces.
"Yes it is best that you stay here young one." Tirek told her gently.
"Oh yeah, while you all run off to do something highly dangerous and deadly?" She said incredulously and crossing her arms.
"Opal," Fizzlepop said getting her, along with everyone else, attention. "I am the second in command of the Royal Legion, Discord is the princesses personal student, Starlight is in the ranks to join one of the Bolts Regime, Tirek is one of the largest earth ponies I have ever seen, thanks to my training I can feel the untapped magic flowing off of Chrysalis, and Antijam has shown that she at least has incredible reflexes when she caught Chrysalis earlier. You might be a dragon and only a couple of years younger than us, but as you said earlier, you are a baby dragon. We are not going to let you put yourself into danger when we don't have to. Now lets go."
Edge of The Everfree
"Are we really going in there?" Questioned Chrysalis.
"Well unless you would rather go fight Daybreaker directly. Yes, yes we are." Antijam said with an uneasy chuckle.
The six made it through the Everfree with surprising ease and quickly found themselves at an ancient and decrepit castle. The moat of the castle was empty and bridged by a fallen drawbridge that looked ready to fall apart.
They made their way across the bridge one by one for fear of it falling out from under them and met at the entrance of the throne room. "Alright, where are the Elements at in here?" Asked Starlight.
"Well I would assume that such important artifacts would be kept in the treasury." Chrysalis said with her ever present disdain.
Making their way to the treasure vault, while trying not to get lost, Antijam chose to voice a question that was bothering her. "Anyone else think that this has been to easy so far?"
"What do you mean?" Tirek answered her question with his own.
"She means is that we are in the Everfree Forest, something created by the natural balance of the world from 'evil' magics, and the only creature we have encounter has been a Jackalope that fled at the sight of us." Fizzlepop said obviously on edge as the entrance to the treasury came into view.
"Well it means one of two things," Discord said as they entered the treasury. "One: we are extremely lucky. Or two: We have-"
"Just walked into a trap?" A voice said as a cloaked figure dropped down in front of them.
The door slammed shut behind them and when they looked they saw five more cloaked figures though none of them had there hoods up and revealed them to be a light green Earth Pony with a seafoam green mane, a pink Hippogriff with a light blue mane, a Yak with long braids on the sides of her head, a Changeling distinguished from others of her kind by a pink frill and oppressively bright blue eyes, and an adolescent orange Dragon with dark pink spines and upwards facing horns.
"You know how hard it was to make sure you didn't run into anything that could kill you?" The figure in front of them said gaining their attention, his hood now down to reveal an unusually colored blue Griffin. "I'm not sure why the boss wants you alive but he dose. Something about a connection to a powerful weapon or something like that."
>>"Yeah, there was a Bugbear, a giant Manticore, three Chimeras, a Cipactli, a Hydra, a tribe of Pukwudgie, a full pack of timber wolves, and four Cockatrices. Or is it Cockatrici? Cockatrices, Cockatrici, Cockatrices, Cockatrici, Cockatrices, Cockatrici, Cockatrices, Cockatrici...">> The pink Hippogriff practically vibrating with energy said and continued to say as everyone tuned her out.
"Yeah, now make this easy on yourselves." The dragon spoke up while pulling out a battle ax and putting a helmet on her head, an action the others copied with their own weapons.
"The boss wants you alive, he never said anything about how many pieces he want's you in." The Changeling said as they all began to circle the six ponies.
The six ponies shared looks with each other and seemed to come to a silent agreement.
With out warning Discord threw his fore hooves in the air and yelled "WE SURRENDER!" at the top of his lungs throwing their aggressors, and the three who didn't know him very well, off guard as they all looked at him. Providing a distraction for both Starlight as she charged at the Dragon and Fizzlepop as she used her Earth Pony magic to dive below the ground and come up underneath the Griffin with a devastating buck to the ribs.
The highly trained group, and Antijam, swiftly shook off the shock as Discord began to cast a spell. The four unoccupied ambushers charged at the four still in between them with their weapons at the ready and had to dodge each other as Discords spell teleported them to the other end of the room.
The distance between the two groups of four gave the three civilians time to prepare to fight. Chrysalis charging her horn with one of the few useful ones she had for such situations, Tirek bringing his magic out to surround his massive frame and increase his already incredible strength, Discord charging his horn with a dark purple bubbly magic with streaks of black electricity and green bubbles that gave off an uneasy feeling and his eye changing to red and green with a purple smoke coming from them, Antijam pulling a number of devices from her bag the most notable being a pair of wing blades and a pair of hoof blades that she attached with practiced ease in less than two seconds.
Fizzlepop stood upright before the Griffin in one of the Minotaur hand to hand, or in this case hoof to claw, combat stances that she had learned over the years.
"I've been bucked by Bar and many others over the years, but I don't think any of them have hit me as hard as you just did." The Griffin said rubbing his side as his cloak fell away to reveal he was wearing a light armor, his metal breastplate having a large noticeable dent in it, showing that he most likely had a few broken ribs. As the Griffin looked up ready to continue his monologue he was instead met by the sight of the Royal Legionnaire flipping through the air with one of her rear hooves spinning towards his head and just barely managed to avoid it.
Starlight was strafing through the air around the Dragon who was hovering in one spot swinging her battle ax when ever Starlight got close and breathing fire when she wasn't. Starlight didn't have any weapons or armor, but she did have exceptional speed and skill fighting at such speeds. The Dragons armor and scales protected it from most of what she could do and she could easily avoid the Dragons attacks, so their fight was more one of endurance and stamina.
The Hippogriff, Changeling, Yak, and Earth Pony were slowly approaching Discord and allies. They had ditched their cloaks showing what armor they were wearing and what roles they likely played in combat. The Yak was wearing heavy and thick Cold Iron and had Cold Iron blades attached to her helm that went over her horns. The Changeling was wearing Mithral, likely enchanted so as to change shape when she did, and was carrying three spears, two swords and two daggers in her magical grip marking her as an Orochi style fighter. The Hippogriff was not wearing armor but was wearing belt after belt of enchanted daggers, having at minimum a hundred on her. The Earth Pony was wearing typical battle mage armor and his hooves were glowing a sea green with his magic.
"It's not illegal," Discord said as he finished charging his spell and cast it. "I have a license." His spell dropped to the ground as a blob of animated tar, it began to sink between the stones of the floor before spreading around him in a bubbling and boiling circle of dark violet and green, arcs of black electricity shooting out and around it and connecting his horn to the circle. His eyes unchanged.
Chrysalis, Tirek, and Antijam moved away from him so as not to get zapped by the Dark Magic and to avoid the sudden spikes of rock rising around him in an attempt to impale him. "I got the Dark Mage." The Earth Pony said and used his Geomancy to fully separate the opposing four and approached his selected target while the other three each went after one of the precious moon lovers.
