(Hi, guys. And welcome back to my next chapter. Now comes the part where they confront Stygian.)
The very next morning on a train ride back to Ponyville, the girls, the humans, Spike, and Discord were itching to head for the Everfree Forest to find Stygian and retrieve the book that belonged to Discord.
"I sure hope we can get that archive from Stygian, I mean he is a former student of the Princess." Twilight told the group.
"And he has Discord's book." Applejack added.
"Correct, if I can get it back he won't have as much power as he does to have summoned those creatures before." Discord said.
"Well, it can't be as hard as the other major bad guys we faced in the past, can it?" Rainbow asked the group.
"If this Stygian didn't have Discord's book I'd say it wouldn't be." Twilight answered.
"Well, we have to get it back otherwise we'll probably be stuck here for life." Cody said.
"Wait, if it was a spell in Discord's book that brought us here, then can't Discord send us back?" Jeremy asked.
"I'm afraid I don't know which spell he cast from it to do so. I've haven't looked at it in over a thousand years." Discord answered.
"Well, when we get it back I'm sure you'll find it." Fluttershy said.
"We're back." Spike said, as the train pulled into Ponyville's station.
When they got off, they started walking, "So do we even have a plan on how to stop Stygian?" Sabrina wondered.
"I say we storm his lair and put the kibosh on him!" Rainbow pumped her hoof up.
"Really, however did you come up with that ingenious plan?" Rarity asked sarcastically.
"Actually I like it." Jeremy admitted.
"With both mine and Discord's magic I don't think he should have the power to combat both of us." Twilight added.
"We can hope." Spike said, as they continued onward into the Everfree Forest.
As they proceeded, Twilight spoke up, "Stay close, anything can happen when you least expect it."
Suddenly there was a screeching sound, and flying right for them was a swarm of bats, "Bats!" Jeremy screamed, as they started flying around them.
"Look's like Stygian's already onto us." Cody called, as he tried swapping a bat away from him.
"Well, we won't get anywhere dealing with this," Discord snapped his digits causing the bats to turn into butterflies, "That's better."
"If he's already attacking us now then we must be getting close." Sabrina said.
"Or he already knows we're here." Twilight put in.
"Either way we're on the right trail." Discord said.
"Then let's keep going." Cody said, as they pressed on.
When they reached a clearing in the forest, things looked very quiet, "I got a bad feeling about this." Fluttershy said, while quivering.
"Yeah, he could be anywhere." Applejack agreed.
"STYGIAN!" Pinkie screamed which frightened the group.
"Thanks, Pinkie, you've cured me of the hiccups for life!" Twilight said in sarcasm.
Suddenly eyes were flashing all around them through the trees putting them on edge, as they huddled close. Suddenly stepping out from the bushes was Stygian, "Welcome, everypony. So nice of you to join me."
"Stygian." Cody and his friends said, with frowns.
"Well, nice to see you my old friends." Stygian greeted them pleasantly.
"We are not your friends." Sabrina replied, while giving him a glare.
"You used us like puppets with those amulets you gave us!" Jeremy called him out.
"It was nothing personal. I just needed you three to do something for me. If I asked you it straight to your faces you would've flat out said no."
"For good reasons." Sabrina said.
"You brainwashed us into stealing the Crystal Heart!" Cody called him out like Jeremy did.
"And it would've worked if your friends didn't get in the way." Stygian grumbled.
Discord approached, "Stygian Desolate I presume?"
"Discord, my greatest idol. I honor your presence." Stygian bowed in respect.
Discord frowned and spoke, "You have something of mine, and I want it back."
"Oh, you mean this?" Stygian levitated the book up, "You should really take better care of things like this."
"I'll take that now." Discord used his magic to try and bring it over, only for Stygian to activate his own magic to repel him.
"Whoa, he repelled Discord?" Rainbow gasped.
"I've assimilated enough chaos magic from the underworld to use the spells in the book very effectively." Stygian explained.
"Well, we've now got our hunches that you used that to bring us here." Cody stated.
"Yes, that was me indeed." he admitted.
"Why, though?" Jeremy asked, "Why'd you bring us here?"
"Why?" Stygian asked followed by a laugh.
"What is so funny?" Rarity asked.
"Because they asked 'why'." Stygian laugh.
"Answer us!" Sabrina demanded.
"Silly girl, you think there was a reason why I summoned you here, that you three were special or something? Well newsflash for you, it was all an accident."
"An accident?" Cody asked.
"Yes. For you see I was trying to translate one of the spells archived to summon up some creatures. But by a slip of the tongue while reciting the spell it ended up transporting the three of you here. So you see your being here is nothing more than an unfortunate accident." he snickered.
Jeremy lashed out to him, "You ruined our original summer plans all because of a mistake?!"
"How many times do I have to admit it?" Stygian asked rhetorically.
"Stygian, you will hand over that book now and turn yourself in." Twilight ordered.
"You think I'm afraid of you, Princess Twilight Sparkle? You may have learned under Princess Celestia like I have, but you fail in comparison to me and the magic I've learned."
"We'll see!" Twilight started blasting at Stygian with her magic, while he jumped aside and launched an attack of his own.
Twilight and the others took cover, while Discord joined in using chaos magic blasts at Stygian, who used his own, "You may have learned how to use chaos magic in the underworld, but you cannot surpass my magic!"
"Out with the old and in with the new, Discord!" Stygian answered, before Crowl and more shadow creatures like himself emerged from the shadows and piled on Discord.
"Get off me!" Discord struggled.
"Help him!" Fluttershy called, as the girls ran over the remove the shadow creatures off him, allowing discord to get up.
"So I see you released some of the shadow creatures I've also stored inside the archive. Crowl, have you forgotten who your master is?" Discord asked in disappointment.
"I serve Stygian." he answered.
"You see, he who controls the book controls all that comes with it." Stygian added.
"Enough of this!" a voice bellowed, as they looked above seeing both Celestia and Luna touch down onto the forest ground.
"Princesses!" the humans gasped.
"We wouldn't even think of letting you do this alone this time." Luna said.
"I especially had to come." Celestia answered, as she looked ahead seeing her former student.
"Princess Celestia, you look as pathetic as the day I left." Stygian smirked.
"Why you..." Rainbow was about to attack, but Celestia held a hoof to stop her.
Celestia spoke to Stygian, "Go on and have your laugh, Stygian. I deserve as much for failing to see the kind of pony you were turning into. But I warned you countless times years ago of the dangers of trying to incorporate only chaos magic to revolutionize Equestria. Is this really what you were hoping for?"
"All that and more," he answered, "I told you that my data and research was infallible, and it was the key to bringing about a new age here in Equestria. I thought you'd be proud of me, but all you've ever done since day one was hold me back. It's not your fault though, I completely understand it. Unlike me, you are bounded by limits. You fear of going beyond what nopony would dare ever try to find or even do. I not bounded by such fears proved that when I jumped into the portal to the underworld to retrieve the Tome of Chaos."
Celestia once again seeing he was far too gone, could not be reasoned with like before, "Stygian, you've still learned nothing even after all this time."
"On the contrary, I've learned plenty." he activated his chaos magic and attempted to blast at the two sisters.
They flew aside to avoid the attack that hit a tree causing it to fall, "Look out!" Applejack called, as they all took cover.
"Sister, we must attack now!" Luna ordered, and Celestia nodded.
They crossed their horns and fired a combined blast of magic at Stygian, who was reading from the archive creating a chaos barrier around him that knocked him backwards but left his body uninjured.
"Good try, but not good enough!" he recited some spells in the tome to bring the forest to life making all the trees come alive.
The trees started throwing stakes from wood at the good guys who were taking cover, "Maybe we should try giggling at them again?" Pinkie suggested to her friends.
"I don't think that's gonna cut it this time, Pinkie." Twilight answered.
"So what can we do?" Jeremy asked the group.
"We have to get the Tome of Chaos from him." Celestia ordered.
"How?" Rainbow asked, as Crowl and the shadow creatures were trying to get to them.
Cody thought before an answer suddenly came to him, "We rock chaos!"
Sabrina, Jeremy, and Discord looked at him, before smirking when they caught on. Cody turned to the ponies, "You all distract Stygian and his army."
"What're you going to do?" Twilight asked.
"We're gonna put on a show." Cody answered with a smirk.
The ponies and Spike, while confused at what he said had no time to debate and went to hold off Stygian and his army.
Twilight joined her fellow princesses in attacking Sytgian with their magic against his chaos magic, "I see it didn't take you that long to replace me with a new favorite pupil, Princess." Stygian called to Celestia.
"I did not replace you. I always thought about you even when you betrayed my trust!" Celestia answered, "I cared for you like a son, Stygian. My heart ached when you left to pursue this dark path!"
Stygian scowled, "My heart bleeds for you. Now you just bleed!" he sent a blast of chaos magic at her.
"Sister!" Luna shielded her and took the attack.
"LUNA!" Celestia and Twilight cried, as Luna fell to the ground looked weakened. They frowned at Stygian and continued their assault on him.
Meanwhile Crowl, his shadow brethren, and the Everfree trees were attacking the rest of the ponies who were dodging and using whatever abilities they had against them. Crowl ordered his brethren, "Leave nopony unharmed!"
"Hurry up, Cody!" Rainbow called, as she was dodging some shadow creatures trying to jump her.
As Stygian and the other two princesses were about to go all out, Cody spoke into a mike, "Hello Everfree!"
They all looked to see Summer Fun on a stage with their instruments ready, "We're bringing you a special concert with a little number going out to our guest of honor Stygian Desolate! We call this one Chaos Concert Crush! HIT IT!" they played their instruments that were powered by Discord's chaos magic. The jam they played released a massive blast of Discord's magic that knocked Stygian off his hooves, and causing him to drop the Tome of Chaos. Stygian screamed as the blast propelled him backwards and he landed into a nearby pond.
Discord took the book, "And now to fix this," he skimmed through the book and with a snap caused all the trees to return to normal, "That's better. And as for you..." he turned to Crowl and the other shadow creatures, "Back you go!" he snapped again and they were assimilated into the tome.
"I'm sorry!" Crowl pleaded as he was assimilated.
Discord nodded as if understanding, before the girls went to help Luna up, "Are you ok, Princess?" Applejack asked.
"Don't worry, I'm fine." Luna said, as she recovered.
"Come on!" Cody called, as they ran to the pond to see Stygian surface.
"I shall destroy you all!" Stygian powered up his horn.
"I think not." Discord snapped, and suddenly a metal shackle was locked around all of Stygian's horn and locked.
"What is this?" he demanded.
"A special magic proof lock that can negate all magic of a unicorn, even one infused with chaos magic," Discord chuckled, "And for good measure." he snapped his digits again, and suddenly Stygian was out of the pond and on land locked in a cage.
"Let me out of here!" he ordered.
"Sorry, Styg, but you got to do the time." Jeremy answered.
Stygian looked at Celestia from behind the bars, "So what're you gonna do to me now, leave me here like this, banish me to Tartarus, the moon, oh, or better yet the sun?" he asked in sarcasm.
"None of that," she answered with a shake of her head, "You will simply spend the rest of your life in the dungeon of Canterlot castle. Where I pray this time you will reflect on your actions."
"Don't get your hopes up." Stygian frowned at her.
"Oh, that's enough out of you." Discord used his magic to send the caged Stygian into Canterlot castle's dungeon.
"We did it!" Pinkie cheered.
"We won!" Rainbow high hoofed with Applejack.
"Yeah!" the humans cheered, as Sabrina kissed Cody smack on the lips making Rarity and Spike smile.
Twilight noticed Celestia still looked dismal, "Princess Celestia?"
"Am I really a good mentor Twilight?" she asked.
"What do you mean?"
"Once again you've found out another one of my many fails," Celestia explained, "I couldn't save my sister from becoming Nightmare Moon and banished her to the moon because of that, I couldn't help Sunset Shimmer understand what was truly important besides all of Equestria's magic, and now you know of my failure with Stygian." she sighed.
"Princess Celestia, it wasn't your fault. Maybe you didn't have the strength alone to save your sister, but Sunset Shimmer and Stygian are another case. They were just so obsessed with wanting what was out of their reach. Though Stygian has not been reformed, Sunset Shimmer had learned her lesson thanks to me and the lessons you and my friends taught me. I think maybe if Stygian had friends like them, he might've been different." she motioned to all her friends, and her three human friends who were dancing around in victory.
Celestia smiled, "Yes, though I may not have been as successful with Sunset and Stygian you had truly made me proud." the two hugged, and decided to join them in their celebration.
(And there you go. Stygian has been stopped, Discord's got his book back, and the trio of humans are this close to getting home. Don't miss the finale.)