Note:
Extremely sorry for the delay. I had to rewrite this chapter because when I went to work on this chapter a few days ago from me typing this, everything was gone. I was able to salvage a tiny bit from a sneak peak I done, but the rest was just gone. The chapter had to be rewritten and isn't the original text I had it to. Sorry for any inconveniences this causes for any readers.
Sabre, Elemental Steve, Genesis Steve, Dream Steve, the mane 6, Starlight and Star Swirl are at the location Discord was discovered.
"How did I not notice him..." Fluttershy had been struck hard by guilt. Where Discord had been missing was just behind her cottage. Close to 4 days, Discord has been corrupted.
"Fluttershy- Look- You didn't know, okay. I'm sure Discord will understand. We'll save him and get him outta there alright," Sabre said lightly.
"He- He was behind my cottage... I should've known- But I didn't- It's all my fault..." Fluttershy weakly murmured.
"This is what Dread Steve wants. He wants us to give in, but we won't, because we're stronger than he thinks we are. We will prove to him how strong we are and not some push over," Starlight said with determination.
"Well what are we waiting for? Let's go and uncorrupt this guy," Said Genesis Steve.
"Even with my powers combined with Star Swirl's magic, we can't send you in Genesis. Only those eight can, go," Said Dream Steve.
"Well if that's the case, I'm gonna chill," Elemental Steve spoke as he creates a tub made of stone bricks filled with lava. He gets in and sits down, then looks up while tossing pufferfish as vertical and high as he can.
"Even from here I'm sweating- I'm step away a little bit," Genesis Steve takes a few steps back, away from Elemental Steve's lava hot tub.
"Right, you eight ready?" Dream Steve asked the 8 as he gets ready to teleport them while Star Swirl's horn glows white.
"Alright, this is it, send us in," Sabre replied.
"Okay. Three... two... go," The combined power of Dream Steve and Star Swirl casting his spell is successful as the 8 began to flash white while lightning strikes them.
Sabre, the mane 6 and Starlight are now inside Discord's mindscape. They are in a dark blue hallway with several oak doors on each side. The carpet below is red and there's nothing but the vacuum above.
"Seriously? He's scared of hallways!?" Rainbow Dash exclaimed.
"There has to be something to it. I don't think it's hallways literally," Twilight pointed out.
"Yeah- Ah don' tink so eitha."
Everypony else instantly glances at Applejack. For the first time in 4 days she spoke normally.
"What in the name of- Is... is wrong with you!? Poor Apple Bloom has been worried for you- And you're fine! This isn't a funny joke!" Sabre exclaimed.
"It's th' mindscape, ah can speak how ah usuall' would... but I can't. Somethin'- Stoppin' me- Somebody's stoppin' me," Applejack clarifies why she can speak normally now.
"Tell us who done this to you and we can go and confront who made you go crazy," Said Pinkie Pie.
"Ah ah ah ah ah ah! I don't think I'll let you say anything," A ninth voice interrupts the conversation.
"Dread..." Sabre muttered as he turns around. The mane 6 and Starlight frowns as they turn around. They all see Dread Steve standing there.
"What are you doing here? We've found Discord, we're gonna uncorrupt him. You can't do anything now Dread," Sabre confidently stated.
"I was having fun toying with Colle. I haven't seen him for a long time. But I had to let him go, because I can't let you all uncover my plans now, can I?" Dread Steve chuckled while remaining where he is. He's just standing there, menacingly.
"Whatever it is, we'll stop you. Friendship and harmony will prevail over fear. Friendship always wins," Twilight sternly said as she steps forward, keeping her friends else behind her.
"Ah yes, friendship friendship friendship. But you're in my territory. My rules apply here, and you can't do anything about it," Dread Steve responded, walking a few steps forward to Twilight.
"Oh we promise you, when we rescue Discord, he'll turn you into a nice bowl of tomato soup, Dread," Rainbow Dash said confidently.
"Tomato soup does taste really nice," Pinkie Pie grinned.
"I think Rainbow meant something very very different, Pinkie," Sabre pointed out.
"Where did he go- Come back here!" Rainbow Dash hovers up and went to fly down a seemingly endless hallway, but gets pulled back down by Starlight's magic. Dread Steve had instantly vanished.
"This is Discord's mindscape. We can't just run round willy nilly."
"Yeah, Starlight is right there. Especially with it being Discord's, we could easily get lost. So many things can happen. I say we stick together," Sabre nodded.
"I guess we just start looking in these doors," Starlight said as she opens the nearest door on the right. There is nothing but a pitch black empty vacuum. She closes the door back up.
"Hmm... nothing."
"I'm getting back room vibes," Said Pinkie Pie.
"Well, what about this door? Surely not every door will have nothing behind them," Rainbow Dash opens the nearest door on the left. Again, there is just an empty vacuum. She closes the door back up.
"I think every door has nothing behind them at this rate," Sabre responded.
"Fluttershy, do you know what this could be about? You are the closest to him out of all of us," Sabre asked as he turns to the yellow pegasus.
"He never really said what he's scared of, but he always worries about keeping us safe. Maybe these doors leading to nothing is linked to that. Maybe he's scared that something happened us and he can't find us," Fluttershy hypothesized.
"Maybe? Don't you mean... definitely?" Rainbow Dash corrected.
"Look- We can't just be standing about. Come on, let's start searching these doors," Sabre began opening and closing random doors. The mane 6 and Starlight starts doing the same.
"Discord? Hello? Discord? Are you here?" They repeated several times with every door they opened. But they have no luck.
(A long time later)
"Alright, we need another solution. We're clearly not getting anywhere- Wait, I may have an idea," Said Sabre.
"Any idea- We've been searching for ages!" Pinkie Pie moaned, letting herself fall to the floor.
"Fluttershy, act as if you're in some kind of danger. Maybe that'll get him to come looking for us," Sabre suggested to the yellow pegasus.
"That ain't a bad idea. Ah tink that'll work too," Applejack nodded in agreement.
"But I don't know how to... pretend being scared," Fluttershy pointed out.
"BOO!" Pinkie Pie screeched loudly, making everybody flinch.
"AHHHH!" Fluttershy screamed, who also flinched the most.
"Fluttershy!? Is that you!? Where are you!?" Discord is heard yelling in complete panic upon hearing his beloved pegasus is in danger.
"We're here!" The 8 yell out to Discord.
"You okay Fluttershy?" Pinkie Pie double checked.
"Yeah I'm fine... made me jump a little, but I'm fine," Fluttershy replied.
"Hey Discord- We've come to save you- Woah uh, what happened?" Sabre sees Discord running towards them, but he's almost completely faded, being mostly see through.
Discord went to put his arms around Fluttershy, but as he's mostly faded, his arms go through the yellow pegasus like a ghost.
"Discord, this isn't real. This is Dread's doing," Fluttershy calmly spoke.
"Oh it's real alright!" Said several dark-toned voices.
The voices startles everyone. They can recognize the voices. But it startles Discord the most.
"Who else's there!?" Twilight yelled while frowning.
"We are!"
Coming from behind Sabre and the 7 ponies look like the mane 6, but darker. They aren't as dark as the mean 6 for example, but their colours are less saturated.
"It's your mind denying it all!" The fake Twilight yelled at Discord.
"No no- Please!" Discord cried.
"Denying what!?" Sabre's voice boomed angrily at the fake alicorn, stepping over to her. The fake Twilight frowns back at Sabre.
"The mistakes that lead to nothing but chaos!" The fake Pinkie Pie shouted.
"That's not true," Starlight frowned back.
"I'll tell you something that's definitely true though, you enslaved your own village! You only moved out because you were and still are a coward!" The fake Rainbow Dash spitefully retorted. The light pink unicorn shudders and steps back.
"Don't you dare mock her like that! She's changed- We won't let you dig under us!" Fluttershy came to the hurt unicorn's defense.
"But have you changed?" The fake Fluttershy questioned the real Fluttershy.
"What ya did ta poor Pinkie n Rarity when assertin' yerself years ago ain't Dread's doing. You don't deserve tat element," The fake Applejack nastily remarked..
"We still haven't forgot it, nor have we forgiven you. You always avoid the action by you using your past trauma as an cowardly excuse. Other ponies have gone through much worse than you and yet they are doing better than you. You're so useless you didn't even notice Discord was right by your cottage. Yiu are nothing but a pathetic useless pegasus," The fake Rarity spoke very harshly. Even though she's fake, her words really gets at Fluttershy.
"This is just Dread Steve, this is just Dread Steve..." Fluttershy kept repeating to herself. But she wept, because what if it was true? True or not, the words hurt.
"No darling- Don't listen to them!" Rarity walks to the yellow pegasus, who continues stepping further back. Fluttershy, very hurt, cowers away from both the fake and real friends.
"Okay you crossed the line!" Pinkie Pie, enraged by the fake Applejack, the pink earth pony went to punish her severely. The fake orange earth pony steps back and the fake Twilight went to blast Pinkie Pie with a beam of dark purple magic. Twilight pushes her friend out the way and blocks the dark beam with a bright purple shield, then lowers it.
"Stop denouncing my friends!" Twilight begged.
"Look at you, pleading in desperation, you're so weak. No wonder you're incompetent as a ruler. Celestia would be ashamed of you right now," The fake Twilight chuckled.
"No- She's a great leader and a friend!" Starlight angrily shouted at the fake alicorn. The unicorn comes to her real friend's defense. But the fake alicorn ignores the unicorn.
"Even Celestia's incompetent leadership is better than your circus of a leadership. Celestia stopped many enemies over her thousands of years of ruling. Since you took over Twilight, you had let Madness Steve scar several ponies, adult and filly, and I bet Starlight and Derpy felt deep down betrayed by your failure. Now you had let the Demon Steve's invade Equestria and your allies. All of this happened within the space of less than a year! You try to make Equestria ready for anything, but you're just bad at it. You use your friends around you, just to save yourself! You try so hard, but you don't succeed."
Twilight steps back, taking in the demeaning things. The words hurt her so bad it felt like her heart had been stabbed.
"You'll pay for this Dread, mark my words! What you have done will be your last mistake!" Discord pulls himself together and confronts the fear. He has his real friends with him, and has discovered that everything he has been seeing for 4 days was all fake. He instantly overcomes his fear. Lightning bagan striking as the mindscape's background began changing.
The background of the mindscape changes to the surroundings of Fluttershy's cottage. Discord is now uncorrupted. Sabre is happy the draconequus
"Good to have you back Discord- And there's him and Fluttershy instantly hugging. Glad to see they're reunited."
"I'm so sorry I didn't find you! I really am pathetic..."
"No you're not pathetic my dear Fluttershy. Everything is all fine now. Dread is going to get what's coming for him," Discord reassured as he let's go.
"Also Fluttershy darling, what you did was an accident. We both made up and we're still friends. I hold no grudge against you, I understood you had troubles back then," Rarity comforted the yellow pegasus.
"What's this about?" Sabre asked.
"Oh, Fluttershy tried to be more assertive when she was still super shy. She was just influenced by the wrong creature, Iron Will- All is good and dandy now, nothing to worry about Sabre," Pinkie Pie replied.
"I still feel very awful... what I did was still wrong..." Fluttershy murmured.
"Whatever it is, I'm sure you corrected your errors. You're always super kind and polite when I see you, Fluttershy," Said Sabre.
"Yeah Fluttershy, and you helped me so much as well as Light in recovering from... what happened... a few months back," Starlight added to Sabre.
"Anyway- Discord, what was this fear?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"It was... no longer being your friends... and I'd become just... nothing. I feared one day you all would cast me out, because I am too chaotic for everybody around me," Discord replied.
"Why would you think that!?" Fluttershy exclaimed.
"Because... I created the whole issue with Tirek, Chrysalis and Cozy... and I feared you all had a grudge against me since. I just wanted you all to be ready to face the worst, but it backfired horribly," Discord sighed in a low pitch tone.
"The idea was terrible, but I knew you had good intentions in your own way. You wanted us to be ready... me to be ready... but I keep failing..." Twilight murmured.
"No Twilight, you're not failing. Like I said before, it's impossible to exactly determine what will happen. I get you want to be ready for the worst case scenario. There will be fights we'll lose, but we always win the battle," Sabre responded in a light tone.
"Thanks Sabre, it means a lot these words. Even the nice words, it helps... but lately I feel I have taken advantage if you. I feel I do not appreciate enough the things you've done for us Sabre. If it weren't for you keeping us in strong spirits, Madness Steve would be torturing all of us for an eternity- I feel that I haven't returned enough to you... I feel I haven't shown much appreciation of you. Your willpower Sabre, it is... divine. I- We owe you so much Sabre," Twilight spoke from her heart to Sabre how she is feeling. She really wanted to do something for Sabre.
"Woah uh... don't worry, Twilight, you haven't taken advantage of me. Don't let Dread Steve get to you, alright,"
"Remember everybody, we aren't doing this because we can, it's because we must. We do this not to get something in return, it's because it's the right thing to do. We are all working on this situation as a team. I understand you all want to show your appreciation of me, but I really value our friendship, and for me, friendship is enough appreciation and I can't ask for better friends. You all, the steves, you have all taught me so so much. I know you all appreciate me, and I appreciate you all too, remember that," Sabre light-heartedly said to everypony as well as Discord. They smiled at his heart-warming comment.
"That's a sweet comment darling- Come here, Sabre."
The mane 6 and Starlight gathers around Sabre for a group hug, each having a smug smile. Discord choses to have his space. He knows Fluttershy is okay, and that's what he mainly cares about. He's okay, Fluttershy's okay, everybody else's okay. The draconequus snaps his eagle claws and wakes up while everybody is teleported to the real cottage in the real world.
Dream Steve spots the corruption disappears on Discord's eyes and everybody else suddenly appears.
"Welcome back... Discord, was it?" Genesis Steve asked.
"Why yes, Genesis Steve," Discord replied.
"How do you know my name? We literally just met," Genesis Steve asked.
"He's just... Discord, chaos and whatnot. I wouldn't question it. But he's good, so no need to worry," Sabre responded.
"Either way, it's good to meet you Discord. I am Dream Steve, and I was created to combat against Dread Steve," Dream Steve introduced himself to the draconequus.
"Just a quick update concerning recent events. Elemental said that he's recieving these distress signals from Time Steve. So he's over there seeing what's the issue," Star Swirl brought Sabre, the mane 6, Discord and Starlight up to speed.
"Is he corrupted too!?" Sabre worries when that thought came to his mind.
"I don't know, but Elemental said he had to go and check what's wrong," Dream Steve replied.
"If Time is sending out these signals. I think he's alright Sabre... apart from whatever the issue is, of course," Starlight calms down Sabre.
Lightning is heard striking on the left side of the cottage. Once the lightning died away, Elemental Steve is seen, running in a crazed frenzied panicking state.
"GUYS! MAJOR PROBLEM- TWO MAJOR PROBLEMS!"
"Uh no uh no- Elemental, what is wrong!? Is Time okay!?" Sabre is very concerned. The way Elemental Steve came back, he know's whatever's happening can't be good.
"The Red Kingdom is under attack by a dragon armoured with that stupid netherite stuff!"
"Don't tell me that the dragon is the same one I think it is..." Genesis Steve quietly mutters to himself.
"Okay, a dragon, no biggie- So what's the other problem Elemental?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Something happened to Derpy," Elemental Steve bluntly replied.
"Oh no no no no no no no! Where is she!? Where is she man!?"
"She's alive and is at her house. Doctor Whooves is there at the moment too- You won't believe what I will say. You will have to see for yourself," Elemental Steve replied to Sabre.
"Is she corrupted by Dread and Sombra, Elemental?" Dream Steve asked.
"Yes- But she's awake- And the fear is in the real world," Elemental Steve explained. Sabre shudders as did everybody else. This ability Dread Steve and King Sombra boasted about wasn't a hoax, and this sort of ability can cause huge problems.
"Sabre, you know her well enough- What is her worst fear?" Pinkie Pie asked. Sabre is still shuddering, unable to answer with a clear non-stuttering voice. Whatever the fear is, it's horrible as those that are corrupted sees their worst fear. But this fear of Derpy's in particular must be very bad as Sabre doesn't stop shuddering. After a minute, he eventually pulls himself together and replies.
"Her worst fear is... Madness Steve returning." Everybody shivers and steps back.
"So what you're trying to say is that Dread has... created Madness Steve- What!?" Pinkie Pie faints.
"Is he the one that you talked about... the one that made the sky them weird colours?" Genesis Steve shuddered.
"Yes," Elemental Steve replied to both Genesis Steve and Pinkie Pie.
"Okay- Forget the dragon- We must go to Derpy's and help her NOW! Even if the Madness copy that Dread and Sombra created isn't as powerful, he's still going to be a huge problem- We need to go over there now!"
"Sabre... I... I don't feel comfortable going..." Starlight is petrified to see the mere appearance of Madness Steve again, even if it's a fake. Sabre understood why, as he remembers the horrific state Madness Steve left Starlight's body in as well as Light Steve's, back in the Yellow Kingdom, at the Colourless Guard outpost.
"Okay Starlight, you can go to the Red Kingdom- We have no time to chit chat- Elemental, send us to our locations!"
Elemental Steve nods to Sabre. He summons lightning and teleports Sabre, Genesis Steve, Dream Steve, the mane 6, and Star Swirl to where Derpy is. Discord snaps his eagle claws and teleports with them. Elemental Steve summons lightning and teleports Starlight to the Red Kingdom.
