Chapter Twenty-Three: Finale

Once the group had been fully out of the sanctuary, the fountain slid back into place, concealing the sanctuary once more. Why did it do that? The group's attention turned to the two statues that stood where Discord's had, the ones that had been the princesses Luna and Celestia.

"Do you think the Elements could free them?" I asked Twilight. I thought they probably could, but I couldn't be sure.

"I suppose. Let's give it a try," she answered. She turned to face the rest of our rather large group. "Let's save the princesses!" she said in a corny fashion. Of course she says corny stuff, she's a character from a children's cartoon. Or was she?

This whole experience had changed my perceptions of the characters as well as the show, and I was confused, not knowing what to think anymore. Now I was part of this world, one of the controllers of one of the most powerful weapons in this universe. It felt like I had a nuclear missile launch key, one that had to be activated with six others to fire this weapon. I was important in this world. Why the Elements gave me my own Element, I had no idea, but the one thing that was clear was that I had a job to do. The other Element-bearers arranged themselves in a crescent around the two statues, and I joined them.

"Uh, how exactly is this going to work?" I asked.

"Trust me. Just focus on the statues," Twilight answered.

I complied, and soon I was lifted into the air by a magical force. I saw the rainbow-colored beam come from Twilight's headpiece, this time with a gray band along both sides, representing my new Element. It split into two, and hit both statues simultaneously. There was a flash that persisted until we were on the ground again. Then we saw the two princesses standing where their statues had been.

"Twilight, you saved us!" Celestia was pretty happy, and then surveyed the scene. Luna noticed the peculiarities before her sister did, however.

"Zach, is that another Element of Harmony?" she asked, half-surprised, half elated. "Who are these ponies?" She glanced at the three ponies that had joined our quest.

"Time Piece, your majesty, at your service." The stallion was pretty psyched to see the princesses, and even more psyched by the fact that he had helped save them.

"Derpy, your majesty." The pegasus saluted somewhat clumsily.

"Trixie, the magician, at your service." Had Trixie just shown a bit of humility?

"They've all helped us, and are just as worthy of your thanks," Twilight said.

"Oh, we were just returning the favor. Zach and Twilight went to the human world to bring us three back. We owed them," Time Piece said modestly.

"You went to the human world, Twilight?" Celestia looked at her student with a look of what could have been awe, but I may have imagined it. "I'll be looking forward to your letters when this is done. Discord is still on the loose, correct?"

"Yes, princess, he is. But we're about to go correct that," I said with confidence.

I then thought of Discord's actions, something that I had deemed a waste of time earlier, but made sense now. He had sent me back to my world without disarming me, made it suspiciously easy to get to and through Canterlot, let us enchant my gun with the energies required to banish him, let me out of a mind game in which he probably could have made much more difficult while we were in in the dreamscape, let me free some of my compatriots from the same thing, then pitted us against each other, causing my injuries as well as the loss of our weapon, causing my subsequent volunteering to serve as a channel for the Elements of Harmony, leading to this. He could have destroyed or stopped us in dozens of ways, but he hadn't. This had been a charade, Discord wanted to put us on a believable, perilous quest to stop him so the barrier could be restored. He had said he was here to help us, but I hadn't expected this. How twistedly noble of him.

"I bid you good luck," Celestia said, then surveyed the castle grounds. "Discord has taken a few decorative liberties, I see," she remarked with her characteristic humor. The two parted with us after issuing another encouraging statement.

"Let's go find Discord," Twilight said.

"Gee, it sure was cool to meet the princesses," Derpy said. She had said little, and was obviously more inclined to listen than to talk.

Discord made a sudden appearance, coming from a stray pink cloud overhead. All the others gave him very dirty looks, but my face was expressionless, as far as I could tell. They were angry at him for a number of things, especially for pitting us against each other in a battle that could have killed me. If Twilight's horn had penetrated a bit further or had impacted a few inches to the side, my abdominal cavity would have been penetrated, causing a likely fatal wound. I felt pretty lucky. Discord's appearing here was to give himself in, with a convincing battle to complete the illusion, if my assumptions were correct. The first thing he said was directed at me.

"Zach, how has your little adventure been, hmm? Piercingly eye-opening, hasn't it?" He let out a laugh.

"Very funny. Tell me, Discord, why have you just let us defeat your efforts so far? You could have stopped us easily." The others looked at me questioningly. None of them had connected the dots.

"Oh, you saw that, did you? Well, I guess it's been fun, but there's no point in continuing this little game now, is there? I did this because I wanted to repair the universal barrier, and I needed help, and I didn't see the harm in having a bit of a game in the process. You served this purpose nicely, and I thank you for that. Now, you can blast me with your gaudy jewelry and get it over with. But, I have left another surprise for you. The other humans that were sent to Equestria? Oops, I sent them to other universes. I bid you good luck in finding them. Here, take this." I found myself wreathed in an orange glow for a moment, and felt a slight tingling sensation for a moment, and the aura disappeared.

"What was that?" I asked.

"Oh, I was just giving you the ability to travel between universes. Quite useful, you know. Just think about it and open the zipper. Now, get on with it." He came to the ground, and held up a target with a bullseye on it. The ponies arranged themselves in a hexagonal formation, with myself in the center.

"Ready, girls?" Twilight asked, rhetorically. Discord looked unhappy to be turned to stone again, but this time he had taken on a more dignified pose instead of a surprised one. The beam shot out, and the chimera that was Discord was once more a statue. All that had been changed turned back to normal, guards reappearing at their posts, confused. The ponies cheered in unison, except for Twilight, who remained silent.

"What does this mean?" She asked me.

"It means that we're done here," I answered.

"But we should go see the princesses first, they'll want to congratulate you."

"Congratulate me? For what? If anything, Discord deserves praise. He is the one that sacrificed his freedom to atone for his actions in the past, even if those actions took place thousands of years ago."

"I suppose, but what he did to us, to you, was not excusable. He pitted us friends against each other, and I see nothing that could possibly be more cruel."

"I agree, but that was just part of his ingenious little game. A sick, twisted game, to be sure, but he didn't mean any harm, or we'd have failed, or worse," I replied.

The other ponies had stopped their vocal celebrations, and were now looking to the entrance to the garden, in which the princesses stood. I thought about what Discord had said about sending the other humans to other universes, and how he'd given me the power to get them home. 'Maybe my adventures weren't over yet,' I thought as the princesses approached us.