"I highly doubt that you and I have anything to talk about, however I'm certain my dear sister would be tickled pink by the idea," Princess Luna said curtly as she dismissed the stained glass apparition and continued to trot to her room, shutting the door behind her and sitting at her vanity mirror where she began to brush her hair. However the visage of Discord would not be ignored so easily. It manifested itself in her mirror mimicking her action by brushing his stag horn. Princess Luna sighed, knowing that unless she put forth great effort in blocking the Lord of Chaos's ability to project himself from his stone statue, she would have to listen to him. "Well out with it then, I don't have the time to deal with your mad ramblings and the sooner you finish the sooner I'll be rid of you."
"My, my, such a temper and I have done nothing to deserve it."
"I'm waiting."
"Well, you see I'm in a bit of bind and I could really use a very special somepony to help."
"I shalt not crack open thine statue and set thee loose upon our world. If that is what thou wishes, see if thou can cozy up to Celestia."
"No, no, no, you misunderstand, I don't need your help to be freed from my stone prison. Especially since I've been free of that infernal cage for quite a few months now."
"WHAT?!" Princess Luna blurted out, and then with flash of deep blue she vanished from her room, reappearing outside in the castle courtyard before the Discord statue. It was hidden, to keep safe from accidentally being smashed open, yet upon her arrival Princess Luna found it to be shattered into hundreds of pieces. "B-but how?" She stood bewildered, before teleporting herself back into her room to see Discord's likeness in her mirror painting a picture of himself that also happened to be reaching back and painting him.
"That took too long," He mused as he continued to paint while being painted.
"Explain villain! NOW!"
"Gladly," He grinned as he set fire to the painting as the other him screamed in agony as it burned alive to ashes which he scooped into his hand and smeared on the mirror in a big circle. As he spoke, images appeared in the ash smear to help explain what he told her.
"You see Princess, a few months ago there was an exceptionally large spike in chaos energy in our world, normally I would need hundreds and thousands going absolutely mad to break free on my own, but alas, Lord Graywing and your stuck up sister keeping everything running so smoothly I have been largely unsuccessful at escape attempts, until this little ball of madness shows up." The ash displayed a forest setting for a moment or two then with bright flash of light two figures appeared out of nowhere. Princess Luna was unable to identify them, but noticed that one of them resembled the image of the monster Prince Fenrir had displayed them, the other, though similar to the other, it wasn't blue at all, instead he was colored black with red stripes on his spines. "Now these two fellas right here teleport in out of nowhere, but not using magic, the make the jump using Chaos! Pure unadulterated Chaos energy. The likes of which I've never seen, the amount was so, great I was able to burst forth merely by its arrival," he chuckled giddily.
"Chaos Energy? where did such beings come from that can manipulate it so!?"
"I never cared to ask, but watch closely would you? The blue one must have taken quite a walloping, because he passes out right on the spot, but the black one...well let's watch shall we?" Discord said playfully as he gestured to the mirage made of ash. Luna gazed as the picture focused on the black and red creature as its breath slowed and his squirms grew stiller until there was no movement what so ever. Luna was perplexed as to why Discord wanted to show her this poor creature dying until the unthinkable happened.
The black and red animal rose up with a start to its knees, back arched as far as it would go, hands raised to the sky balled tightly into fists letting out a sky shattering scream before slamming both of his fists back into the ground crumbling the earth around him and then being enveloped by a violent golden explosion that sent the blue one flying off into a pile of brush and debris. Once the smoke and brilliance of light receded, the creature stood, however no longer black and red, the being seemed to be made of fire! Blinding yellow flames that lapped off of his body, his eyes pulsing with red rings of energy as it let out a maniacal laugh that sent chills down the Princess's spine. Then in an instant the creature's laugh stopped, and look of surprise came over it as another flash of light teleported away.
"Annnnd cut!" Discord said cheerful. "That last bit was my doing, you see, I sealed that fiery little bundle of joy away, deep in the recesses of a chaos void."
"What...what is that thing?!" Luna said terrified of what she saw.
"Not sure, I can tell you this though, that thing, whatever it is, is bad news. I tried to look into its mind and there is nothing there but death and destruction. No rhyme or reason well, its pure chaos!"
"Then why would you seal it away? I would think you would invite it over for afternoon chocolate milk clouds or whatever it is you eat."
"Ah, I see your wit has not dulled in those thousand years up there in the moon. You see, yes I love chaos, I love anarchy, but you know what I don't love?"
"What?" Luna said with a roll of her eyes and an exasperated sigh.
"WHEN SOMEONE STEALS ALL THE FUN FROM ME!" Discord's roared. His voice grew loud, deep, and violent as his comical appearance shifted into a menacing demonic form which sent Princess Luna tumbling backwards in fear. Quickly he regained his composure and returned to his normal form. "Sorry about that it's just that I can't have any fun if this guy kills everybody. You understand don't you?"
"Why, why do you need my help?" Luna asked, still fearful from the transformation of the Lord of Chaos.
"It is taking a great deal of my power to keep him contained, that's why I haven't had any fun lately. What is worse is he is growing stronger as I grow weaker."
"Why?"
"Now this is a real doozy. A few months ago we have yet another visitor," he spoke and gestured to the ash again. Luna saw their world from a solar view, and witnessed a comet hurtling to strike its surface, as it drew near the comet slowed to a stop and revealed to be another creature, blue like the other. Then Luna realized it was the monster Prince Fenrir had revealed. Then she saw Discord approach it in an incorporeal form and reach into the monsters chest. "Now this is where it gets interesting, this one here, while he may look like the others, is different right down to the core. While the other two well at least the one before it turned into that yellow raging death machine, are like you and me, are made of flesh and bleed when cut open. This one has steel for a hide and has lightning coursing through its veins. His mind was filled with numbers and logic. So all I did was introduce a little Chaos to all that logic. I had hoped to have this one defeat the yellow one. He was easy to persuade, he is now entirely devoted to stopping the yellow devil. However, I fear I may have corrupted him a little too much, I think all the logic when swirled around seems to have driven him a tad coo-coo."
"A tad! It's responsible for the war in the east!"
"Well, it seems to think it needs to build an army to defend the world. Clever little thing does it by controlling the minds of others. Problem is, as he does this, he imposes strict order over them. No chaos. For every soldier he gets, I get weaker."
"So now your little pet is killing you and you want me to stop it?"
"Not stop it, just mend its corrupted mind a little. I can only introduced a tad more chaos then intended, if you can bring just enough order to control him, that would be peachy."
"And for what reason in all Equestria would agreee to do such a thing for you Draconequess?" Luna demanded.
"Because you must my dear," The draconequess in the mirror responded gleefully as he moved towards the center of her vanity mirror as the reflection behind him grew dark and filled with a myriad of stars as well as their own planet. "These three strangers to our world have become intricately woven into the very fabric of this worlds future," As he spoke the visage of the yellow devil, the blue monster that plagued the the lands in the east, as well a the third, also blue creature that arrived on her world all appeared and stared menacingly back at the princess. "Their actions would see your lands razed and all of Equestria consumed darkness and fire if you stand idle. You must act to alter to the course of what may become of this world and bring the blue monster to aid us in our cause. We need you to be the princess...neigh... the true hero that Equestria needs!"
"If such a thing were true," Luna scoffed, however the certainty in her voice wavered, "How would such a task be possible?"
"Magic, duh. Zap him with your horn, get in his mind, and undue a little of what I did. Nothing to it."
"You speak of a mind meld! Your plan is absolute madness Draconequess! We would need to be in close contact with the monster to do as you ask!"
"Mmhmm, yep."
"How our We supposed to accomplish such a goal?!"
"Not my problem. If you want to be the one to single handedly end the war and stop the world from a certain fiery annihilation by turning the monster against the yellow devil making you the undisputed hero to your people, then I simply must insist that you do a little legwork on your own." He said stretching and yawning.
"Fine, but answer me this. Why did you come to US, and not my sister, Discord?"
"I don't like her." He said flatly before instantly disappearing, leaving Luna to contemplate.
The sunlight poked its way through the trees as morning came to the woods and found an exhausted Rainbow Dash dragging herself through them. She had bided her time in the cave until the monster had fallen asleep; luckily he snored allowing her to slink out in the middle of the night. Her twisted foreleg burned and her wing protested loudly in the back of her mind, but she was undaunted in her desire for escape. She had limped, pulled, and strained her way as far from the cave as she could. She was able to locate a small clearing and plopped down to recover. Her wing was mending, but she estimated it would be another two days or so before she could take to the air.
As she sat, she desperately tried to get her bearings on just where in the woods she was and how she would ever make it back to the Equus. She also couldn't understand how the monster, this Sonic the Hedgehog was behaving. The only reasonable assumption she could make was that he was clinically insane. Leaving her to die one moment, saving her life the next, and not remembering anything added up to mean this guy was one crazy psycho that was really dangerous. She closed her eyes and buried her face in her hooves trying to make sense of it all, this guy didn't seem like a world conquering dictator type, but he sure did the other night. How could somepony's personality change so abruptly? It didn't matter anymore though, she had escaped and spent the whole night putting some ground between them. She raised her head to the sky and took in a deep breath. She heard the rush of leaves and felt strong gust of wind in her mane. It hadn't been long but she already missed the feeling of flight. She slowly opened her eyes to gaze at the morning sky above her.
Green emerald eyes stared back at her as Sonic held his face inches from hers, a big grin across his face. The unexpected arrival caused Rainbow Dash to yelp with surprise at the abruptness of his appearance.
"Wha?! How did you!? Where did you come from?!" Rainbow Dash stammered at the monster.
"Well I woke up in the cave, found out you were gone and followed your trail here." He said pleasantly while pointing the ground which Rainbow Dash realized had heavy drag marks along it. "I just can't believe you would up and leave without a goodbye, or at least until you had a healed wing. I was planning on making this a bed and breakfast and everything. I'd figured you'd be as hungry as a horse!" He said, grinning ear to ear finding his own joke a little too funny.
"Look I don't know what your game is monster!-"
"Sonic."
"Whatever! You're insane! You tried to kill me!"
"Are we back on this again? I thought accusing your hero of being the monster was sooo last night. Looks like I was wrong and this fad is here to stay."
"Can it jerk face! Are you or are you not Sonic the Hedgehog?"
"Course I am, I told you that last night."
"Well then, let me just jog that short term memory of yours!" Rainbow Dash blurted out as anger swelled in her voice. She quickly coughed and cleared her throat and tried to mimic herself the best she could ""Who...just who do you think you are anyway?" then she did her best to mimic the one called Sonic. " What you see is what you get, just a guy who loves adventure. I'm Sonic the Hedgehog!" She looked at him after she finished seeing if it had an effect, and was a little surprised when his smile quickly faded into a puzzled worried look.
"Wait a minute how did you-" The hedgehog tried to interject but was cut off quickly as Rainbow Dash continued to drive her point home.
"Oh and I'm on to you and your little voice changes you little blue butthead!" She cleared her throat again and attempted the raspy grizzled voice. "It all starts with this, a jewel containing ultimate power."
"How do you know that?!" Sonic yelled at her as he became visibly upset, "That's what Shadow said when we first met, how in the world do you know that! Where is he?! What did you do with him!?"
"You're out of your mind, you told me that when attacked us and took the Element of Loyalty!"
"I told you I never saw you before and I certainly don't know anything about your stupid loyalty thing!"
"Oh so there is just another Sonic the Hedgehog flying around here wearing a shiny blue suit of armor?!"
Now Sonic's fists were balled tightly and he began yelling through his clenched teeth, "Now you look here Pony! I have just about had enough of you and your accusations! First and foremost, I CAN'T FLY! Also I don't have any shiny blue arm-"Suddenly the hedgehog fell dead silent, his eyes danced back and forth for a moment in thought. He spoke again in softer tone, "Wait, was this suit of armor I was wearing rocket powered?
"What powered?" Rainbow Dash responded coming down in volume to match Sonic's "I dunno what that even means but you were shooting fire out of your butt whenever you took off."
Sonic thought hard for a few moments, "Did I have red eyes?"
"Yeeeaaahhh," Rainbow Dash said with a long cautious breath.
The blue hedgehog thought for a moment more. "No, it can't be. It just can't be," he muttered to himself balling his fists again and pacing in a circle getting more and more upset kicking at the ground with his bright red and white shoes. "He already won. What more does he want from me?" He yelled at no one in particular, grabbing at a rock on the ground and throwing it as far as he could before sinking down on the ground, his back to the blue pegasus. "This...This is all my fault. I brought him here," his voice now sad and defeated.
"Now what are you talking about? Brought who here?" Rainbow Dash said once again confused by the hedgehog's behavior.
Sonic sighed deeply, "Metal."
"Are you crazier than a sack of cats dropped in bath tub of cold water?" Applejack shouted in protest. "You really think cousin Braeburn is gonna gallop on over here all the way from Apploosa to look after Sweet Apple Acres jus' cuz you wanna tag along with me and my friends?!"
The large bright red stallion that was the target of Applejack's nagging raised a hoof to his chin in thought. After a moment of consideration he came to properly deduced conclusion. "Eeyup," was all he said with a simple but firm conviction. He stood several hands higher than any other pony Applejack had known, his height was only dwarfed by his strength from years of service at Sweet Apple Acres. To make matters worse for the orange mare, she knew once his mind was made up he was also as stubborn as the day is long and became nearly impossible to persuade.
"Listen, I know you're worried about me, an I reckon that's mighty noble of ya to offer to help us, but somepony has got to look after the apples." She pleaded with him.
He lifted a fore hoof and hugged his sister tightly, almost choking her with it. "An I reckon that's what I intend to do." Then he pushed his way onto the airship, hauling a large bag with a faded Equestrian Military logo stamped on the side.
"Big Mac those old hunks of metal you wore back when you was in the Calvary prolly' don't even fit cha'"
"I ain't done no growin' since then AJ." He said as he made his way onto the ship.
"Yer plum set aren't cha?"
"Eeyup."
"Ain't nothing I can say to keep you home?"
"Nnope."
Applejack followed her brother and continued to try and convince him to stay, however Twilight Sparkle had witnessed their sibling squabble and knew that AJ wouldn't succeed. Truth be told she was glad Big Macintosh had decided to help, she was worried sick about Rainbow Dash and knew they needed all the help they could get. Despite the warning from Derpy they had brought, the Elements of Harmony. The plan was to save Rainbow Dash and see if their combined powers could stop the monster and end the war. It was risky, but so was taking on King Sombre and at the end of the day people were getting hurt and needed their help so they had to try.
"Twilight," a cheerful voice called out to her snapping her back to reality. Spike was gently pulling on her mane to get her attention and continued to speak when she gave it to him. "Everypony's ready to go, even Rarity, I had to make like seven trips to get all her bags but she is set. Fluttershy is in her room tucked safely under the bed, the Apples are ready if you disregard their highly articulate bickering and Spitfire are primed for the trip. It looks like we're ready to take off."
"Excellent Spike, I'll go inform the pilot we're prepared to take off."
"Wait!" A deep voice called out from the airship ramp. Twilight turned to the sound and found herself looking at a tall, strong looking, and handsome unicorn trotting up the ramp to board the airship. He was clad in what appeared to be royal armor which glistened in the sunlight in stark contrast to his dark cobalt coat. Twilight found her heart fluttering at the sight of the stallion as he boarded.
"Who's the stud?" Spike joked noticing the goopy look in her eyes earning him a swift stamp on the foot from her rear leg.
"Hello," Twilight said fighting the urge to blush. "I'm not sure we've met, I'm"
"Twilight Sparkle, I am Midnight Tracer. I was sent by Princess Luna to ensure the success of your mission."
"Oh, but we already have the Captain of the-"
"Spitfire, yes," the Unicorn looked unimpressed at the name of the Wonderbolt Captain, something unheard of in Equestria. "Be that as it may, I will be accompanying you. It seems that the natures of certain details in your quest have changed dramatically, and my services will be required."
"Oh okay," Twilight eagerly welcomed him aboard without her normal inquisitive nature kicking in. However Spike was unaffected by the stallion's looks and was quick to question the event.
"What sort of details?"
"I...uhh, I am not permitted to speak about it. Princess Luna has briefed me privately on the matter."
"Is that so? I've never seen you around the castle. Why would the Princess trust you with this information and not Twilight?"
The stallion leaned in close to the little dragon and with a mischievous smile whispered into his ear. "The one she trusts before all others."
