Chapter 21

The Mask Strikes Back

(Takes place during “The Return of Harmony”)

Discord yawned loudly and propped his feet up on top of a mound of cotton candy. A victorious smile took up his equine face. He had tricked Rainbow Dash into forfeiting the game he had set up for the Elements, corrupted almost the entire populace of Ponyville, and, to top it all off, had tricked The Traveler of Good into vowing not to use his powers against him.

“Oh, it’s such fun to use the good guys’ morals against them!” he chortled. “Now there’s nothing that can stop me from turning the rest of Equestria into my own personal playground! Who knows? I might jus-”

A loud, warbling screech filled the air, shattering the coconut Discord was just drinking from.

“What the deuce?!” he asked in surprise, lowering his sunglasses. “What is this? I didn’t authorize this chaos!”

Before he could go on, there was a blinding flash of light that filled the area for miles around. Out of nowhere, a cheap pay phone, similar to the ones you can find in cities, materialized in front of him. It was covered in chipped green paint with an orange base supporting it.

The phone started to ring.

Curious, Discord snuck up to the phone and slapped his fist onto it, flipping the phone up to his ear. “Hello?” he asked, pulling a nail file out and going over his lion’s paw with it.

“HI! Is this the Dagobah system?” the voice on the other end of the phone chirped out. “Can you put master Yoda on?”

“Sorry, wrong number,” Discord answered.

The phone started to vibrate wildly in Discord’s hand, forcing him to let go of it as a green orb started to force its way out of the receiver. No, not an orb…a head?

In almost no time at all, an entire body had managed to slink out of the phone. What came out wasn’t what the draconequus was expecting.

For one, it was human. Tall and slender, it would have looked like an ordinary person…had it not been for the tweed suit it was wearing and the fact that it had an impossibly large smile on its lime green head.

“Ah, jolly good show then!” it cried, dusting off the sleeves of its coat. “I say, I didn’t expect to be brought here!”

Absently, it reached into a pocket and pulled out a plastic bag filled with something that reminded Discord of gummy bears.

“Who are you?” he asked, eying the human warily. “You’re not Omnius, are you?”

“Me? OH NO! I’m only borrowing his body for a moment! Would you care for a jelly baby?” He held the bag out to Discord, who swatted it out of his hands with an oversized flyswatter.  The green-faced human harrumphed indignantly and said, “Old bean, that was incredibly rude! I’m afraid I’ll have to use my sonic monkey wrench on you now.”

“Your sonic what?”

The lime-faced man reached into another pocket, and dug around furiously. “Now I know it’s here somewhere…AHA!” Triumphantly, he pulled out a sleek silver wrench that had two laser pointers glued to the top of it. At Discord’s confused expression, he gripped the instrument tightly in his hands and swung it over his head.

“Allons-y!” he shouted, before swinging it like a golf club…right into fork of Discord’s legs.

The draconequus bent over in pain, before snapping his fingers. A catapult appeared underneath the human and launched him into the sky.

“There, that ought to keep that twat busy,” he squeaked, putting a cold glass of chocolate milk onto the sore spot. “Ooooohhhh, that’s the ticket. Still, I wonder who that was. He said he had Omnius’ body, but he never went into detail. Meh, another mystery I suppose.”

“Indeed,” the human said, aiming a tanning mirror at his own face. “Be a dear and pass the coconut?”

“Sure.”

Discord handed the human sitting next to him a coconut with a straw and umbrella in it and went back to putting cold glasses of milk on the sore spot. After he had reached an upside-down pyramid that was ten glasses high, his eyes widened in realization.

“Wait a moment! You’re back!” he shouted, grabbing the human’s throat. His suit had changed now, morphing into an odd yellow suit of some sort. He wore an orange and black polka-dotted tie, with an oversized yellow hat adorned with a white feather on his head. “Blast it, TELL ME WHO YOU ARE!”

The Mask grinned wickedly and said, “Well of course I’ll tell you, since you asked so nicely!”

A drumbeat filled the air, as The Mask spun about wildly, throwing off Discord’s arm in the process.

“I…gots ‘em with my winning smile,

I’m a living lesson in flair and style!

You just can’t help but stare at my soivoir-faire!”

He shoved a bunch of cigars into Discord’s mouth and lit them all up with an oversized lighter. Almost instantly, they exploded in his face, prompting the Mask to laugh wildly. Snarling in anger, Discord lunged at The Mask, who spun gracefully out of his way.

With a snap of his fingers, Discord had summoned a giant mallet and was attempting to flatten his foe. All the while, The Mask kept on singing.

“I'm nouveau, Deco, Roman-Greco, Rococo, Barroco, be-bop, uh, hip-hop, and flip-flop!” He paused for a moment to take a deep breath and half-laughed, “SSSOMEBODY STOP ME!”

“If you’d stop moving, I WOULD!” Discord shouted.

“Pretty viridian faces like mine~

Don’t come a dime a dozen,

I stand out in a crowd!”

He grabbed Discord in a romantic fireman’s carry, and swung him around a bit.

“Babe when they made me, yeah they broke the mold!”

Discord and The Mask leaned towards each other passionately…before Discord got tossed away unceremoniously. The Mask quickly changed his suit to that of a preacher’s and bowed to the audience.

“Wholesome and kind,

Staid and refined.”

His eyes bugged out of his head spontaneously and a wide goofball grin appeared.

“TOTALLY OUT OF MY MIND!”

The preacher’s outfit ripped open to reveal the normal yellow suit. Still wearing that manic grin, he grabbed a microphone, and jumped on top of a building, still screeching his lungs out.

“Arch-villains and ne'er-do-wells,

had better learn to decorate prison cells!

Green goes with anything if they ask, see!”

By now, a crowd of ponies, some corrupted some normal, had gathered to watch the spectacle that was The Mask.

“Well there’s one last thing I gotta sing about!

Open and wide and REALLY SHOUT!

OOOOOOooooohhhh, LOOK OUT!”

He jumped off of the building, and into Discord’s arms.

“THIS IS THE MAAAAAAAAASSSSSSK!”

All of the ponies started to clap wildly for the Mask. Even the buffalo stopped their dancing for a moment to politely applaud for the performance.

Discord himself sniffed dramatically, deciding to go along with it. After all, he was getting rather bored of simply taunting the ponies. Here, he had a real challenge. He even forgot about those others, who could probably stop him if they were returned to normal.

“That was beautiful, my green-faced enemy,” Discord cried, burying his face into The Mask’s shoulders. “I’m almost inspired to go straight! I could clean up pet shelters, donate your liver to cancer research, or kick a smurf!”

“There there, Dissy-poo!” The Mask said sympathetically. “We can still have our chaos based battle to the finish if you want.”

“Really? You mean it?” Discord asked, giving The Mask huge puppy-dog eyes. When he nodded, Discord dropped him onto the ground and clapped his hands together excitedly. “OH YIPPEE! Let’s start round one with something good then, shall we?”

He snapped his fingers and suddenly the two of them were inside of a wrestling ring, the crowd still watching them eagerly. Discord strapped on a set of heavy red boxing gloves and gave a couple of experimental jabs.

“Float like a Pegasus, sting like a Manticore!” he chanted to himself, doing a quick two-step. “Come on, come on! What’choo got against me, huh? NOTHING!”

The Mask spun about once more in his signature tornado, using its magic to morph his clothes into something else entirely. When he finished spinning, he was now wearing a pair of tight fitting black pants, with a sleeveless red shirt hugging his now bulging muscles. A bright yellow wrestling mask with green glitter on it adorned his face. He let out a loud, piercing “AYE-AYE-AYE!”

A large Earth Pony ran into the center of the ring and shouted out over the noise of the crowd, “Lucharaaaaan a dos de tres caidas~!”

He quickly high-tailed it out of there as the two combatants started circling each other slowly.

Discord made the first move, going for a swift uppercut to the chin. The Mask took it in stride and grabbed his opponent’s arm, flipping him over onto the mat. Before Discord could pick himself back up, The Mask climbed the ropes and then jumped off of them, aiming his elbow at the chaotic deity’s gut.

Discord saw it coming from a mile away, and he quickly rolled out of the way, barely avoiding the blow. He jumped up and started pummeling the Mask rapidly, shouting, “Atatatatata!” while he did so.

The Mask grunted in pain, feeling his bones come close to breaking. He let himself get pushed back to the ropes, where he stretched them out to impossible lengths. When the ropes refused to stretch any further, he had almost reached the edge of Ponyville itself.

Discord gulped as he realized what was about to happen.

With an insane cry of, “PULVERISING PINBALL!” The Mask let go of the ropes, curling up into a tight ball as he did so. He shot forward with the force of a bullet, straight at Discord’s face. The draconequus yelped in surprise as he ducked his head. The Mask shot over him, missing entirely, and causing Discord to howl with laughter.

“Ha! You missed!”

Then The Mask ricocheted off of Sugarcube Corner and came hurtling back at the unaware target.

WHAM!

He slammed into the back of Discord’s head and kept on bouncing off of walls and the poor unfortunate God of Neutrality multiple times. Snarling in anger, Discord finally conjured up a ping-pong paddle and smacked The Mask away from him.

“Fiend!” The Mask cried out in a Spanish accent. “Feel the wrath of El Maskadore! I will defeat you for HONOR!”

He jumped into the air and wrapped his arms around Discord’s neck.

“FAMILY!”

With a mighty heave, he flung the villain into the air.

“TRADITION!”

His powerful legs let him fly up into the air, just about even with his foe’s body. He grappled with Discord, spinning him faster and faster in mid-air, before letting go.

“AND DOUGHNUTS!”

The Deity of Disharmony sailed through the air at the speed of sound and then CRASHED into the ring, leaving a draconequus shaped hole in the ground.

The Mask landed on top with a cocky smirk on his face. One small tussle later and he had him pinned underneath his massive muscles. The same pony that started the match jumped back into the ring and slammed his hoof on the ground.

“Uno! Dos! Tres!”

The pony lifted the Masked Mask’s arm into the air and shouted, “Los Luchadore de Mask!”

The audience went ballistic with hearty roars of approval and cheer, screaming their lungs out for the strange creature that had just beaten the tar out of Discord.

Discord feebly lifted an eagle’s talon of a hand out of the hole he had landed in and wheezed out, “Best two out of three!”

“Eh, why not?” The Mask shrugged, pulling the flattened patchwork monster out of the ground. Noticing that he was still comically flattened into a pancake, The Mask pulled a bicycle pump out of his now-returned pocket and inserted it into Discord’s mouth.

Discord gave him a 2D thumbs up for approval.

Furiously, he began to pump air back into him, restoring his 3D appearance bit by bit, until he was full to bursting.

“What’s that? You want MORE?” The Mask questioned, holding a hand up to his ear. “Well, OKAY THEN!”

He kept pumping air into Discord, turning him into a living balloon. Discord finally spat out the tube in anger.

“You shouldn’t have done that~!”

The air rushed out of Discord’s body, spinning him around through the air at speeds that would make even Rainbow Dash envious. Finally, he slammed into a weather vane that halted his unwanted joyride.

“I’m okay…but that’s not important! ROUND TWO!” Discord yelled, snapping his fingers once more.

A small puff of smoke later and they were on top of the town hall, standing on an extended balcony.  Fog and steam billowed all around them, sending strange shadows onto the ground. The balcony had metal bits of railing surrounding them that looked surprisingly normal when compared to the rest of the town.

For his part, Discord had elected to drape himself with a long, flowing black cape that rested on his shoulders. A black plastic bucket had been placed over his horns, and a long red balloon was clutched in his hand.

The Mask spun about, changing his own outfit into a simple suit of dark colored cloth. He extended his hand, and a green balloon sped into it.

“Join me, Mask. And together, we can rule Equestria!” Discord breathed out in a deep voice.

“Never!” The Mask heroically cried, taking up a battle-stance. “I’ll have you know that my pretend-Father was an undefeatable Jedi!”

“But Mask…I…am your FATHER!”

He took a deep breath and gasped out, “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” When he stopped to take yet another breath, he looked at Discord quizzically and asked, “Really?”

“No, I just wanted to mess with you,” the wily creature admitted.

“Oh. Okay then!”

And just like that, they had started their epic balloon-saber duel. Their sabers squeaked violently every time they came into contact with each other, as they sliced, weaved, and diced their way through the ancient and graceful dance of the swordsmen. Every time Discord would strike, The Mask would have an elegant counter prepared, and vice versa. Yes, these two titans of chaos were far too evenly matched. Neither of them could gain the upper hand.

Until…

“Discord, I’m afraid I have something to tell you,” The Mask said after evading a particularly close strike of his.

“And what would that be?”

“I…AM NOT LEFT HANDED!”

In a blur of motion, the Mask switched sword hands and went on the offensive, pressing Darth Discord back in a flurry of unavoidable attacks. Desperately, Discord tried to block all of the attacks, before his balloon was torn away from him.

Disarmed, he held his hands up in a gesture of surrender…and then realized something.

“Wait a second, that’s only a balloon!” he muttered. He pulled a pin out from his teeth and popped the Mask’s balloon-saber.

“Hey!” The Mask shouted, looking at the tattered remains of his once proud weapon. “What was that for?”

“This.” Discord then reached back as far as he could with his fist. When it reached the apex of its length, he unleashed what is to this day widely regarded as one of the best sucker punches in all of Equestria history.

The Mask was sent flying into the air, and he landed in a ditch not too far from Carousel  Boutique.

“Round two goes to me!” Discord cheered, doing an improvised cheerleader routine.

That didn’t fly well with our lime-faced hero.

“Okay, that’s it,” he growled. “NO MORE MISTER NICE GUY!”

He reached into his pockets and started pulling out the mother of all weapons.

“Say hello…TO MY LEETLE FRIENDS!”

An entire armada of bazookas, machine guns, tanks, and satellite lasers slowly extended in front of him. Missile launchers and harpoons soon joined the mix, only adding to its massive size. Soon, two columns of weapons the size of booster rockets extended out from his hands, aimed at the soon-to-be pile of ash that was Discord.

“Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait,” Discord said, slinking up to the Mask’s side. He wrapped an arm casually around his shoulders, lowering the guns with his free hand. “We’re obviously too evenly matched to do any lasting damage to one another, right?”

“Maaaaybe?” The Mask said, puzzled.

“And if you blast me, I’ll blast you, and that would just be a HUGE waste of ammo, riiiight?”

“Yeah.”

“Well then, I suggest we settle this in the ancient and time honored method of Japan,” Discord gleefully responded. “This trial shall test our honor, our dedication, endurance, and most importantly of all, it will make sure that we are truly balanced.”

Thoughtfully, The Mask rubbed his head with one of his weapon pillars, accidentally pulling the trigger on it. An entire barrage of deadly weaponry shot out, heading for the general direction of Canterlot.

XHXHXHXHXHXHX

Prince Blueblood was taking his daily stroll through the gardens, fuming over how one of his incompetent maids had spilled a dash of wine on his favorite suit (which he had ten more of). Of course, he had fired her on the spot and sent her home crying.

“Serves her right. I mean, this suit is one of my most prized possessions!” he vented, fondly stroking the collar.

And then, without any warning whatsoever, the world around him burst in an apocalypse of explosions. The snobby prince cried out in shock and huddled on the ground. When he dared to get back up, everywhere around him was peppered with small craters and smoking bits of scrap metal. He was indeed, very lucky to be alive.

His suit and fur coat, however…

“AAAAH! MY SUIT! IT’S GONE!”

A passing gardener glanced at him amusingly.

“That’s not the only thing that’s gone, ya naked mole rat.”

“NOOOOOO!”

XHXHXHXHXHXHXHX

Back in Ponyville, Discord and The Mask had set up the field where they would hold their final duel. Ponies watched in silent awe, as the two warriors set themselves up to do battle. Even the chaos in the air had died down in anticipation of what would undoubtedly go down in history as the greatest confrontation of all of Pony kind.

The Mask stepped onto an iron platform, and Discord did the same on a separate platform. The two entities glared daggers at each other…

And then The Mask tapped the start button on his dance pad.

Loud frantic music filled the air. The Mask gave his Equestrian counterpart a final smirk. Before anything could be said, the giant screen in front of them lit up. Arrows started to flash across it, and the two players started to move their feet.

Each of them stole glances at their opponent when they could afford to, wanting to try and see how they were doing in comparison to each other. Sweat started to run down The Mask’s face in small rivers as he danced his heart out. Discord wasn’t doing too well either. In fact, he was panting from the effort of competing against something that was nearly as chaotic as him.

“Give up yet, Masky?” Discord taunted, ignoring the burning sensation in his lungs.

“You kidding? I COULD GO ALL DAY~!” The Mask retorted, suddenly spinning on top of his head and managing to still get every point.

Not wanting to be outdone, Discord started spinning on the tip of his tail, while playing the bongos. Somehow, he managed to make it sound like he did that every day.

Eventually, the show-off battle escalated. The Mask would play the xylophone with his teeth, while using his hands to manipulate the dance pad beneath him, and Discord would make some stir fry while using his tongue to manipulate his dance pad.

Everything was falling into complete chaos for the two combatants.

Finally, The Mask jumped off of his pad and grabbed Discord. Together, the two of them started moving in a refined and sophisticated tango. Their very movements screamed grace and elegance. As they danced, somepony had the sense to throw a rose at them, which The Mask easily caught in his teeth.

“Ah, mi amigo es muy bonita,” The Mask muttered around the rose.

“Oh, stop it you,” Discord replied, coyly blinking at his dance partner.

A pink hoof tapped on The Mask’s shoulder.

“Mind if I cut in?” Pinkie Pie asked him, before she gently pushed him away and started dancing with Discord. She also managed to snatch the rose out of The Mask’s mouth with a well placed chomp.

“Well, excuse me!” he sniffed, wiping away a tear. “And here I thought I would finally be the Belle of the Harvest Festival! BUT IT LOOKS LIKE SOMEPONY HAD TO TEAR THAT AWAY FROM ME!”

He crossed his arms and glared at the rest of the ponies watching.  One angry look from him was enough to send them scampering for their homes.

“Omnius!” a lavender colored unicorn shouted. “Is that you?”

“No! Well, yes. I’m The Mask but I’m using his body,” The Mask responded while Pinkie and Discord proceeded to waltz around them.

“Well, give him his body back! We need him if we’re gonna beat Discord!” said Applejack, giving The Mask an odd look.

“Awww, do I have to? I was just starting to have some real fun!” he whined. “I wanted to-”

“LET HIM GO, NOW!” Twilight angrily shouted, stomping her hoof. A bright spark shot out of her horn and lit a patch of grass on fire.

“…When you put it that way, I think I’ve had my fun!”

The Mask lifted his hands up to his face and started to peel himself away from his host. Green lightning shot through the air, a physical representation of the chaotic magic that fuelled the sentient artifact.

XHXHXHXHXHXHXHX

My head was POUNDING. It felt like there was a dwarf trying to play a Dragonforce song in my head.

Lamenting the loss of my glasses, I glanced around where I was standing. A bunch of multi-colored blurs met my gaze…that didn’t do any good.

“What happened?” I asked. Squinting, I realized Twilight was standing just a little ways away from me with the rest of the girls behind her and I smiled. “Did it work? Are we all friends again?”

Applejack wrapped her forelegs around me in a tight embrace. “That answer your question, pardner?”

“Good enough for me,” I laughed. Everypony was wearing their Elements around their necks with a sense of pride and duty. Not only that, but they were restored to their normal colors, not the monochrome grey that signified Discord’s corruption.

All of us gave each other a quick hug (Pinkie Pie too, once we got her away from Discord) for good luck, and I walked up to Discord with the girls standing by my side.

“Ah, chaos is a wonderful, wonderful thing!” Discord laughed, as he prepared to down another glass of chocolate milk

“Not as wonderful as friendship!” Twilight shouted, regaining his attention.

Discord groaned in annoyance at the sight of all seven of us standing together. “This again?”

He drank the glass holding his milk and tossed the rest behind him, where it went off like a grenade. That just makes me wonder how well The Mask held up against him.

“That’s right! You couldn’t break apart our friendship for long!” Applejack proudly stated.

“Oh, Applejack, don’t lie to me,” Discord chided. His lion’s paw glowed menacingly. “I’m the one who made you a liar.”

She lifted into the air, her Element gripped in Discord’s magic. The rest of us, Twilight excluded, were lifted alongside her. “Will you ever learn?” he mockingly said.

He looked into my eyes especially, giving me a look that said, “Remember our deal, little Traveler.”

I’ll be honest with you all. I was terrified. None of my powers could be used, or he’d send me away, ruining our hopes of beating him. Literally, I couldn’t do anything against him. He was a God, and…

No…

He might be a God…

But we’ve got something better than that right now.

In a surprise burst of magic, Twilight teleported into the air, directly in the middle of all six of us. Instantly, she cast a shield spell around us that cut off Discord’s magic, setting us all free. The bubble shield gently floated towards the ground, away from the devilish trickster. Strangely enough, where the bubble hit, it banished some of the chaos magic in the ground, restoring it to its normal state.

Discord gave us all an amused look, as Twilight retorted to his earlier comment.

“I’ll tell you what we’ve learned, Discord. We’ve learned that friendship isn’t always easy, but there’s no doubt it’s worth fighting for!”

I stepped forward, and threw in my own two bits, saying, “And I learned that no matter how impossible things may seem, that there’s always a way to overcome them.”

“Ooh, gag! Fine, go ahead, try and use your little Elements. ‘Friend’ me. Just make it quick,” he commanded, warping over to a throne that I had failed to notice. “I’m missing some excellent chaos here.”

Twilight looked at all of us confidently, back in her leadership role. “Alright everyone, let’s show him what friendship can do!”

“Wait, wait, wait!” Pinkie interrupted. She ran over to a cloud of chocolate one last time. She savored every last drop of it in chocolaty bliss.

After she was done, she rejoined the rest of us with a ready snarl on her face.

“Oh, did I mention that I know about what happened the last time you did this?” Discord dryly commented. “His so called, ‘Super Aura’? Did you also know that he’s not allowed to use his powers against me right now? I made him promise, or else I’d force him to leave this world.”

To his surprise, I started laughing.

“Discord, I don’t care about that. Wanna know why? It’s pretty simple. I’m not gonna need my powers to beat you.”

He raised an eyebrow, as the Elements’ glow became almost unbearable to look at.

“I’m not using MY powers to beat you.”

The Elements of Harmony shot out their rainbow and crashed into me, granting me their strength.

“I’ve got something better. See who’s wearing those Elements? Just like The Mask used my body, and granted me its powers, it’s the same with them.”

My eyes began to cast bright blue lights onto the ground. Slowly, my clothes started to change colors, going from their normal appearance to a shimmering gold and white pattern.

“Now? I’ve got Kindness, Generosity, Laughter, Loyalty, Honesty, and Magic backing me up. And you, Discord?”

There was a loud crack of thunder as my shift into the Super Aura finished.

“You’ve got no hope.”

XHXHXHXHXHXHX

Hey everyone! I just wanted to take a minute to tell you all about the separate story I put up for any future crossovers or side stories that won't directly tie in with this one. Currently, it has the "Le Retour" "How Did I Get Here" and "Living The Dream" chapters, alongside the new crossover I'm working on at the moment.

Omnius' Travels: Tales From The Other Side

Alongside side-stories and crossovers, I'll also just put up extras like deleted scenes, or original concept ideas that I had for this. I might also use it for the next side-story, where we'll explore the origins of Torrentican, or a couple side-story chapters. Who knows?

-Traveler out! Next Chapter: Return of The Traveler Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 9 Minutes