All the Elements for Disaster: Darkness Arc

by radicool223

When a confused blue pegasus seeks help from Princess Celestia and gets sent for memory help to Twilight Sparkle right before the MLP FIM TV series, what could possibly go wrong? A lot, that's what.

25. The Return of Harmony Part 2

Galaxy Sonic: ONE SHRUG LATER

Wolvmbm: Looking forward to that, already got the Pokemon X & Y Anime theme to listen to as I type it.

ash the pokevenger: Do not question my methods!

Frozen Turbo: You can get used to me nailing it. It seems to happen a lot.

RandomPerson65: I had the same idea… sort of.

RainbowDash and Tia 4EVR: You should be enjoying it for a long time to come, so long as I live!

Guest: Well, I'm not a fan of puppeteers, but I'm also fine with changing status quo, so…

We shall resume where we left off.

Cobalt Spikes was miserable. Sitting in the labyrinth, he couldn't stop the tears that constantly kept flowing. He felt like he was choking on his own heartbreak that Rainbow Dash, his only love, had abandoned him in hate. Though he'd been slightly depressed at times before now due to his mental instability, which was in turn caused by memory loss, he had never been this sad. He'd always had the knowledge that his friends would be there back then, but their new attitudes seemed to be contradicting that ever happening.

Fluttershy seemed to be tuned out of the usual kindness she usually showed to everypony. The gray-yellow pegasus instead laughed at his state of mind. "Honestly, this is funnier than you, Pinkie Pie… but I guess that's not hard to do."

Pinkie Pie narrowed her eyes, confused. "But don't you laugh at me?"

Fluttershy gave a gasp of mock surprise. "Oh, I meant your jokes. You make yourself look like so much of a fool that it's almost impossible to keep a straight face."

Pinkie growled in anger. "Oh, is that so?!" she leapt on Fluttershy, ready to fight, and the two started wrestling in an intense fight.

Applejack, on the other hoof, seemed to be very uncomfortable whenever she talked. "Umm, yeah… a fight… yay…"

Rarity appeared to be talking to her giant rock. "Yes… they won't touch you… I won't let them! They won't take my precious!"

Twilight Sparkle seemed to be the only sane one in the bunch. She kept muttering to herself, "Something's wrong… something happened while we were alone." After a moment, she noticed the gray that tinged her friends' coats. "How did you get that gray color?" she demanded of Applejack.

Applejack laughed nervously. "Um, heh, ya see, Ah was always gray like this and ya just didn't notice till now."

Cobalt had finally stopped sobbing, and now only had the occasional sniffle. "What's even the point in wondering like this? Just accept it. You've lost. Not trying is so much easier. I just want to go home and get to sleep. Maybe I'll feel better then."

Twilight nodded. "Things will be much clearer back in Ponyville rather than in the middle of a maze." She yelled at the fighting ponies, "HEY! BREAK IT UP! We're going home…"

BACK IN PONYVILLE

Twilight raised her head as she walked down the path and gasped in shock at what she saw. The entire town was in chaos. Gravity seemed to be disagreeing with itself above the library, which was turned upside down, and the whole place was infested with chocolate milk cotton candy clouds and long legged rabbits. The ground had turned into a chess board, and little pop up ads appeared all over the sky. The sun and moon were duking it out for supremacy over this land, constantly switching it between night and day. "What the… what happened?!"

Discord appeared with a new top hat and cane and a billboard that read ME in big letters pointing down at him. "Oh come now, Twilight, you're not that stupid, are you?" he scooped her up in his arms, holding her with one and gesturing widely. "Look at it! Isn't it glorious?"

Twilight squirmed uncomfortably. "Put me down!"

Fluttershy flew up so that she was at Twilight's level. "I bet you wish it was Shadow holding you like this instead, don't you?"

Discord dropped Twilight. "Well she's cute, but you're just adorable, aren't you." He cooed mockingly at Fluttershy.

Fluttershy blushed, crossed her forehooves and turned her back to the god of chaos. "Humph, as if."

"I guess I'll just settle for depressing one of you for now." Discord laughed. "Ah yes, affection makes it so easy to hurt ponies."

Cobalt shook with anger, turning black with rage. "I swear to you, if you insult my feelings one more time… I'll… I'll…" he stomped on the ground, causing it to crack. He slowly calmed down, turning gray-blue once more. "Whatever… I don't know why I had those feelings anyway…"

"Well, I guess I'll just let you try to figure out how to stop me then." Discord shrugged indifferently, popping out of existence.

BACK AT THE LIBRARY

"Come on, there's got to be some sort of book here!" Twilight complained flusteredly, pushing a confused Spike out of the way. "Like, I don't know, The Idiot's Guide For Finding Elements of Harmony or something!"

"You'll probably need the extra-simple moron's guide." Fluttershy sneered.

Cobalt sighed. "I'll probably regret this…" he muttered. "But I found something interesting you might want to see." He opened the cover of a large book from his vantage point in the air and let the contents spill out of its hollowed out pages.

"The elements!" Spike exclaimed. "This is great! Now you guys can beat Discord and get everything back to normal!"

"Hey stupid!" Fluttershy snapped. "If you didn't realize, we're down one!"

"Frankly, I think it's better here without Rainbow Dash." Rarity sniffed. "One less pony trying to steal my precious."

"Yeah… who needs her?" Applejack lied.

"Don't mention her!" Cobalt wailed, setting down on the ground and laying there like a dying turtle.

"Fine," Twilight glanced around hurriedly, clasping the element of loyalty around Spike's neck. "Okay, Spike. You're the new Rainbow Dash."

Spike gulped. "But what if Rainbow Dash finds out that I'm pretending to be her?"

"Get over it!" Twilight shouted. She started to laugh, edging on insanity even more than Cobalt ever was. "This will work." She giggled. "We're going to do it right now." She put the rest of the elements on their respective bearers and the tiara on herself. "Come on, let's move!"

"Why?" Pinkie Pie asked.

Twilight groaned. "Look, the faster we defeat Discord, the quicker we never have to see each other again."

"Okay then!" the rest charged out of the door gleefully.

Twilight muttered as she exited as well, "Wow, this sucks."

Cobalt sighed. "I guess I'll come too. Maybe watching this will cheer me up. Probably not, though."

AT DISCORD'S THRONE

Discord laughed as he zapped another pony into a random household object, this time a lamp. "Oh, such fun!"

"Hey Discord!" he heard Twilight yell, standing in a leadership pose in front of the rest, who were looking tough, as usual… besides Cobalt, who was slouching against a tree and taking careful observation of the bark. "We've got something for you!"

"Oh goody! Have you come to zap me into stone?" Discord laughed at their resistance. "Here, let me make it easy!" he summoned red paint and marked his chest with a bulls eye.

Twilight growled and tried to use her power as the leader of the elements to initiate the rainbow of harmony, but it didn't work this time. She then realized that the elements required all their wielders to be of the same state of mind in order to create its most powerful weapon.

"See, I told you it wouldn't work!" Fluttershy complained, peeling off from the rest of the group. "I swear, you're all just losers! I'm gone." She stomped off, the rest doing the same in different directions, leaving only Cobalt, Spike, and Twilight standing in front of Discord.

"Could ya please bring Dashie back?" Cobalt asked, now that the seed of his troubles was in front of him feeling a little more hopeful, slight bits of his color returning.

Discord took a deep breath, like he was going to say yes, but then gave the fateful answer. "No."

Cobalt glanced downward the last little bits of blue draining out of him, turning a color closer to black rather than gray. "S'what I thought…"

Twilight sighed, the last of her hope draining as well as her color.

She turned and took the long way home, followed by Cobalt. After a while, she turned to him and asked. "If you're so sad, what keeps you going?"

He laughed bitterly. "No matter what that bastard does to my head, I still love Dash. It's the thought that she might come back that fuels my desire to live… for now."

Twilight started a little, she'd never heard Cobalt use mud-slinging terms like that to describe anypony, even one of his hated enemies. But what surprised her the most was the knowledge that even after abandonment and mental abuse, he could still have feelings for Rainbow Dash. It was inspiring… if she'd been in the mood to be inspired. "Fine… you do that. I'm going to go and sit around. Spike, are you coming?"

Spike was as depressed as the rest of them. "Sure, why not?"

BACK AT THE LIBRARY

Twilight tapped her quill despondently on a piece of paper, searching her head for something to write that might help her situation. Spike sat with his head in his hands, waiting for something besides the dull chaos that surrounded them. Cobalt was napping on top of a bookshelf, but was writhing around in a fit, deeply perturbed (disturbed) by something in his dream.

Spike suddenly felt a huge wave of nausea and burped out a scroll. "Urf… Twilight, you've got mail."

Twilight dully used her magic to open the scroll, but was surprised when she read words she'd already written. "What the?" It was one of her friendship reports, apparently re-sent by Princess Celestia.

Spike burped so loud that it actually woke Cobalt up. "Who? Wha?"

Spike rolled his eyes and replied sarcastically, his words occasionally interrupted by vomiting up more and more scrolls. "Oh, nothing. Only spewing writings."

"Fine then… don't be mean about it… it's game over anyway." Cobalt muttered. "Now why do I get the feeling I've seen that before." Spike gave a final heave and upchucked a small package.

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "These are all my reports! That's weird… oh, here's something new. Twilight Sparkle, things are bad here." She read. "I desperately need you to remember what your friendship stood for. It may be the only thing that can save us. Remember!"

Spike looked at her expectantly. "You heard your princess, remember already!"

Twilight scrunched up her eyes and tried to recall what she had once found in her friendship. Slowly, reluctantly, the gray disappeared from her horn and worked its way down her body, finally vanishing for good when it got to her tail tip. "I remember!" she gasped. "That's it! Discord is just distracting us! Memory is key! I have a memory spell that will work! Guys, stay here! I've got a job to do!" she dashed out the door.

Cobalt eyed the little package that sat unnoticed warily. "What's that?"

Spike read the label. "It says not to open it until the elements are back to normal."

"Fine, I'll wait." Cobalt sighed, rolling over. He let out a sardonic laugh a second later. "Like that'll ever happen."

AT THE APPLE FARM

Twilight Sparkle galloped over to the barn, ignoring Granny Smith, who now donned a cape and flew through the air, and Big Mac, who licked her face like a dog, and pinned Applejack on the ground.

"What the? What in tarnation are ya doing?!" Applejack protested.

"Remember!" Twilight shouted, casting the spell. Applejack's eyes played the hypnosis sequence one more in reverse, and her coat returned to normal. "What in the name of…"

"Quick, what's two plus two?" Twilight demanded, wanting to see if Applejack would lie about the answer.

"Four, but… sweet Celestia! What the heck was Ah doin'?! Ah can't believe Ah lied like that! Ah just couldn't take the truth… so Ah kept tellin' lies to stop mahself from facin' the truth… can ya ever forgive me?"

Twilight snorted. "Psh, it's fine. Come on, let's find the others."

AT FLUTTERSHY'S COTTAGE

Applejack busted down the door with a power kick. "Sorry, 'shy!"

Twilight shot the spell like a laser gun and nailed Fluttershy, who was training Angel Bunny to perform elbow drops on innocent animals, right in the chest. Her fur turned its normal creamy yellow once more, and she held her head. "Oh my, I had the most terrible dream!"

AT RARITY'S BOUTIQUE

This time, Fluttershy meekly opened the door and let Twilight fire her spell. Rarity got hit dead center in the back, as she was washing her boulder. Her fur turned white once more, and she kicked the boulder away, since she now realized what it was exactly. "Let us never speak of this again."

IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET

Applejack tackled Pinkie Pie, who got the spell cast on her almost immediately. She got her color returned and started laughing, hesitantly at first, but then more loudly. "Can you believe it? I was gray!"

BACK AT THE LIBRARY

Finally all that was left was to fix Rainbow Dash. As the five walked in the door, Cobalt raised his head. "Huh, I guess you've almost done it…"

Spike glanced up. "Sorry Twilight. I don't think he's fixable with the memory spell. He remembers everything just fine. He's just… broken."

Twilight got an idea. "Say Cobalt… if we got Rainbow Dash to come back and apologize… would you come back to us?"

Cobalt rolled over. "I'd consider it."

"I think that might be the best answer we can get out of him." Rarity shrugged.

"She's comin' back." Applejack assured him.

"Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." Pinkie Pie promised, using her special rhyme.

"I'll believe it when I see it." Cobalt muttered.

UP IN THE SKY

A big purple balloon crested over a section of clouds. Pinkie Pie glanced through a telescope and pointed at Rainbow Dash, who was sitting on a small cloud. "Thar she blows!"

Twilight facehooved. "I thought you said you wouldn't do that." Snapping into leadership mode, she started giving orders. "Okay, Fluttershy. We need you to hold her down while I try to get a clear shot."

"Hold her down?" Fluttershy fretted. "Oh, I don't think I could do that."

"Just do it, please."

"I'll try…" the yellow pegasus flew over to Rainbow Dash. "Hello."

"Hey guys." Rainbow yawned, seeming no different than before, which gave her friends a little hope.

"We've been looking everywhere for you."

"That's nice."

"We need your element, loyalty, to defeat Discord! And just so you know, Cobalt's really sad without you."

"Loyalty schmoyalty." Rainbow grunted. "I'm staying in Cloudsdale, where everything is awesome." She narrowed her eyes. "And don't even speak about that sorry freak. If I never see him again it'll be too soon!" she hissed.

Fluttershy gulped. "Oh, well I was just wondering if you'd let me hold you down."

"Hold me down?" Rainbow asked, confused. "Oh, I see what you're doing. I won't let you!" she grabbed 'Cloudsdale' and jetted off.

Twilight thought fast, glad she'd brought some rope. "Applejack, I need you to throw a rope at Fluttershy. Pinkie Pie, secure that rope and another to the balloon." Applejack quickly tied two ropes into lassoes and hurled one at Fluttershy, calling out, "Catch!" the yellow pegasus grabbed the rope in her mouth. "Now fly!" Twilight yelled.

Fluttershy took off, and gained ground on Rainbow. Very surprisingly, the blue pegasus seemed to have forgotten her speed, and was going slower than Fluttershy.

"Now!" Twilight yelled, and Applejack hurled the second lasso around Rainbow's neck. Rarity and Pinkie Pie's hooves caught in it, however, and they were ripped out of the balloon and dangled in midair.

"I thought you were supposed to secure the rope!" Rarity screamed.

"Do you trust me!?" Pinkie yelled back.

"No!"

"That's very good, 'cause I didn't!"

Thankfully, the combined weight slowed Rainbow down just enough to give Twilight a clear shot. The spell nailed Rainbow dead center, and she immediately stopped and hovered, letting the others catch up.

When they got there, she had some very important questions. "How's Ponyville? Where are the elements? Where is Cobalt?!" she shook Twilight by the shoulders. "I need to know where he is!"

"There's our Rainbow Dash." Twilight chuckled.

BACK IN THE LIBRARY

Cobalt let his head fall back on the ground, not able to summon up enough energy to even lift it off the ground. After the rest had mentioned Rainbow Dash, his condition and color had only gotten worse. So when the door opened, he didn't even look up. "Did it work?"

A warm feeling blossomed in his chest when he heard a familiar voice. "You tell me, Spikes."

Cobalt scrambled to his hooves, almost ecstatic when he saw his love standing in the doorway. "Y-you're back."

"Yeah." She smiled warmly. He galloped to her and held her in his forelegs. "I thought I'd never see you again." he whispered.

"I'm so sorry I did and said those things." She murmured, a tear trickling down her face and her voice taking on a worried whimper. "Can you ever forgive me?"

"Does this answer your question?" he asked, pressing his lips against hers in a tender, loving kiss. They were lost in their own world for about thirty seconds, until Pinkie's voice interrupted their show of affection. "Well finally!" they broke apart and stared at the pink mare, huge blushes appearing on their faces. "I mean seriously, I was beginning to wonder how long it was gonna take!" Pinkie continued. "Hey, you're turning blue again!"

Cobalt glanced down at himself, and realized that the dark gray was receding from his fur and disappearing at his tail. "Cool!"

Twilight and the rest squeezed through the door. "Ah, see? What did I tell you?" the purple unicorn asked Applejack. "I told you this would happen!"

"Ah concede," Applejack sighed. "Ah believe Ah owe ya ten bits."

"Wait, you bet on…?" Rainbow protested.

Spike spun the small package on his fingertip. "I think it's time to open this!" he interrupted purposefully.

"Oh yeah!" Cobalt remembered, grabbing the package and ripping the brown paper off with his teeth. "Whoa… no way!" he was staring down at none other than the white emerald. He glanced down as it appeared on his cutie mark as well, finishing the circle. "Sweet!" after some time, things seemed to be finally going his way.

Spike picked up the note inside and read it. "I know I dissuaded you from using this before, but I'm sure you can find use for it now."

"Isn't that great, Cobalt?" Twilight asked the dark blue pegasus, but he was already facedown on the floor, unconscious in memory recovery. "Oh, yeah."

COBALT'S DREAM

Cobalt landed face first on the ground, getting the vaguest feeling of deja-vu. "Ow… my nose…" he muttered in pain. He stood up and, through the vanishing spots in his eyes, saw a black splotch of color. "Are you here to restore my memory?" he asked. The figure advanced on him, and he gained an overwhelming sense of dread, provoking him to step back a few inches. "Okay, maybe not." the creature came at him faster, and he pressed up against an invisible wall. Oh crap. "S-say, something! You're creeping me out!"

The creature gave a large, white, grin, two red eyes appearing and narrowing where its face may have been had it had one. "I am here to bestow a power, and deliver a warning. Super Cobalt Spikes," the creature's grin was unwavering, not even moving as it spoke and used a small tendril of darkness to prod the terrified pegasus on the forehead, leaving him with a chill in his bones. "You don't WANT to remember me!"

BACK IN REAL LIFE

Cobalt awoke with a start, gasping and catching his breath. "Oh crap! Holy crap!" he shouted in a panic. "It touched me!" he was vaguely comforted as he realized the cold that had just penetrated deep into his skin was replaced by a warmth that enveloped his body.

He glanced down and realized that Rainbow Dash had wrapped him in a tight hug and was murmuring, "It's all right. Everything's all right. You're fine."

He gulped, swallowing the knot of worry that had festered in his throat. "Gah. Okay… I'm good. Sorry about that, guys." he reassured the worried faces that surrounded him. "Just… bad dream…"

Rainbow let him go. "You were shouting things about staying away, and then you started sounding really creepy and talked to yourself… and then you screamed really loud, and I'm sorry… I just got worried." she apologized. Cobalt noticed the choked back nervousness in her voice, and realized that she really did care about him as much as he did her.

"So, Super Cobalt Spikes?" Applejack asked warily. "Are ya gonna start bein' all weird and wearin' capes and stuff?"

"Super…" Cobalt muttered. "Super! I remember now! I can use the chaos emeralds to turn into a pure chaos entity!"

"Hopefully not like Discord?" Rarity fretted.

"No, not at all!" he stood up and paced across the floor, thinking. "I remember a little. Not a lot, but enough to tell me that a positive chaos force can counter a negative, weakening it enough–"

"To create just enough of a chink in the defenses that pure harmony can blast through!" Pinkie Pie finished for him, gaining weird looks from all the others. "What? I have approximate knowledge of all things."

"Roll with it!" Cobalt shouted, prying up the floorboard that the emeralds were hidden under. He gathered them all and set them in a circle, then sat in the middle. "So, do I have to…?"

"Oh for the love of…" Rainbow grumbled. "Chaos control!"

The emeralds hovered into the air around Cobalt, and spun in a rapid circle until they blurred into one ring. Suddenly, they stopped in midair and slammed in on Cobalt with enough force to crush a small horse, which he was. Fortunately, he wasn't crushed and instead emerged from a giant white explosion, now colored gold and shimmering with radiant positive energy. His mane was entirely spiked up, and his eyes turned red and his wings extended to look longer and more angelic. "Okay, let's stone some evil chaos god!" he seemed to realize what he'd just said. "That sounded much better in my head."

AT DISCORD'S THRONE ONCE MORE

"Discord!" the god of chaos heard a defiant shout and saw the elements of harmony running up, bearing the physical elements.

"Oh hooray." Discord muttered. "Them again." he called out toward the six. "Your power isn't strong enough even with your friendship restored! Give up!"

Twilight smirked. "Yeah, we know. Meet plan B!" a golden streak broke the sound barrier and left a golden sonic boom behind as it slammed into the ground in front of Discord's throne and created a crater. "Sorry about that, guys!" the one responsible for the sonic boom yelled. "Little overboard?"

"Very!" Rainbow Dash answered.

The golden creature dusted himself off. "All right Discord." the thing said. "Looks like you're in for a big ol' storm of chaos!"

Discord looked mildly amused. "Okay, by all means, shoot me with everything you've got."

Cobalt flew up into the air and summoned golden energy to his hooves. "Chaos… blast!" he shot an orb of pure chaos straight at Discord, who sat there smugly and took the brunt of the attack, surprised when he had to flinch away in pain. "What?! I was supposed to absorb that!"

"Sorry, chaos god, but that blast was of pure positive energy, which counteracts your negative energy, and should create just enough of a weak point to… girls, now!" Cobalt ordered, giving the signal.

Twilight initiated the beginning of the rainbow of harmony (which actually worked this time) and fired the new, updated laser beam look at Discord, who immediately felt his hands turning into stone. "NNNOOOOO!" he glared at Cobalt, who was looking just slightly the other way. "I'M NOT DONE YET!" he used the stone on his fists to smash the blue pegasus into the dirt, and then accepted turning into solid rock, satisfied that he'd at least managed to take out one of them.

ONE CHAOS GOD STONING LATER

The rainbow of harmony ended, the chaotic world shattered like glass to reveal a normal, unchanged Ponyville, and the six stopped with that weird glowing white eyes and creepy smile thing.

Rainbow Dash, who had seen everything that had gone on, disregarded the defeated Discord for the moment and ran over to the lifeless blue form of Cobalt, smashed into the dirt. "No, no, no, no!" she muttered, desperately checking for signs of life as the others ran up behind her. "Please no! I… I never even got to t-tell him that I l-love him." she whimpered, beginning to sob into his chest.

Cobalt's eyes blinked open. "That's all I was waiting to hear." he said. "I love you too, Dashie."

Rainbow immediately pushed off of his chest and glared at him, though the effect was ruined by her tear streaked eyes and overjoyed smile. "You're alive?!"

"Sure I am." he grinned, but then recoiled as Rainbow punched him across the face. "Ow!"

"That was for tricking me into thinking you were dead." she said angrily, but then her face took on a much softer look, most accurately described as pure love. "And this… this if for loving me back." she pulled his face up and kissed him, happy when his suddenly tensed muscles relaxed and he hugged her back.

It was like that for about ten seconds. Applejack glanced around. "Should we…?"

"No, let them enjoy their moment." Twilight dismissed her friend's concerns. "They've waited a long time for it. What our main concern is, though, is that Discord's defeated, the emeralds have scattered again, and the chaos is dispelled." as she spoke, a pink cloud drifted across the horizon and a few long footed rabbits chased a herd of giant field mice across a roof. "Well, mostly."

Well, I know that that might not've been the epic combat scene you were looking for, but I promise I'll do better in All the Elements for Disaster: Unleashed. Yes, I drew it out for as long as humanly possible, but I finally got in some Cobalt x Rainbow, and hope to have a lot more in Unleashed, which will be up as soon as I can get it there (expect two days maximum).