Part 6: The Battle (I)

“You… MONSTER!”  Rainbow Dash shouted as she reared up as if to attack the Draconequus.

“Dashie, wait! Calm down!” Pinkie Pie shouted in order to calm her friend. However, her warning had fallen on deaf ears as Rainbow Dash took off at an almost blinding speed and, with a mighty swing of her right fore-hoof, struck Discord across the face, sending him flying through the castle wall and down to the field below.

“Whoa…” The rest of the group collectively murmured in complete surprise. Rainbow Dash was far from done, however. She was trembling with a mixture of sorrow, anger, and adrenaline, clouding any rational thought in her mind. She then immediately charged after her foe in blind rage, leaving the rest of the group in shock.

“Did… that really just happen?” Rarity asked, wide-eyed.

“Yes… Yes it did.” Pinkie Pie responded with an equal amount of surprise.

“We need to get down there and help her. There’s no way she can beat him alone.” Fluttershy stated with concern for her filly-hood friend. This served to shock the rest of the group even more.

“Are you kidding?” Shining Armor asked with disbelief. “She knocked that Discord guy a new one! How could she not be at least a challenge for him?”

“Trust me; he’s much craftier than he looks…” Fluttershy responded with great worry. “Now let’s get out there and help her! We don’t have much time!” the yellow Pegasus exclaimed in her less-than-usual authoritative tone.

“Right,” responded Celestia, as she magically formed an orb around everyone and levitated the group, including herself, out of the castle and into the battlefield.

“What’s wrong, little Dashie?” Discord taunted as he slithered through every kick the cyan Pegasus tried to land on him. “You’re getting sloppy. Would it be better if I stood still like I did in the castle?” The Draconequus was purposefully goading Rainbow Dash into going all out.

“You have… hah… SOME nerve…! Hah… talking so big… hah… when you haven’t even thrown a single punch this entire time!” Rainbow Dash retorted defiantly after pausing her assault, though clearly fatigued by her wrathful overexertion. “Besides… hah… That black eye and those bruises… hah… tell me a whole different story…” Rainbow smirked.

“These injuries are nothing. You actually think you’re winning this fight? Hah, that’s a laugh! I’m not even breaking a sweat, while you seem just as tired as…” Then it dawned on him. “…as Twilight Sparkle was before she died…” Discord smugly grinned at his statement.

“How… DARE YOU!” Rainbow Dash screamed as she blindly charged the Draconequus in pure rage. Discord’s battle plan was working to perfection. He was provoking the rainbow-maned Pegasus to attack without a hint of rational thought in order to tire her out and gain the upper hand. Expectantly, Rainbow’s attacks had begun to slow down in their frequency and decrease in strength, fatigue firmly setting in as she continued her ill-fated barrage of kicks and hoof-punches until she was almost entirely depleted of energy.

“Done already? How sad…” Discord taunted some more. “Now, it’s my turn…” At that, Discord had begun assaulting the tired Pegasus with a flurry of punches, kicks, and tail whips. Rainbow Dash was unable to defend herself as the assault went on, grunting and screaming in pain with each hit the conniving Daconequus landed on her.

“Oh, no! Rainbow!” Applejack screamed in horror as she caught sight of her friend’s losing effort from Celestia’s magic orb. “We’re a-comin’ sugar-cube!”

Celestia dispelled the orb as soon as they touched the ground. Immediately, everyone, save for Spike, Celestia, and Cadence, rushed to the scene of the battle. Discord had wrapped his tail gently around the neck of the semi-conscious, battered Rainbow Dash and lifted her up high as he cackled in triumph.

“Get your wretched, filthy tail off of her! NOW!” Rarity shouted in frustration at the sight of her defeated friend as the group arrived.

"How rude! My tail is perfectly clean…” Discord responded, offended by the white mare’s demand.

“You heard ‘er! Let ‘er go!” Applejack demanded, as she got up close to Discord, turned around, and gave him a powerful double hind-leg kick to the stomach. “OOF!” Discord winced and doubled over, but his tail’s grip around Rainbow Dash’s neck still holding strong.

“Rgh!..” Discord growled as he clutched his belly in pain. “Okay… you want her…? Then…” as he twisted his upper body full circle. “TAKE HER!” He shouted as he jumped high into the air and, with a swift spin of his lower body, launched Rainbow Dash towards the mountain on which Canterlot was settled.

“Rainbow Dash!!” Fluttershy cried as she immediately took flight as swiftly as she could to save her friend from certain doom. Fluttershy, with an extensive, straining effort, managed to catch up to her hurtling friend and take hold of her, and tried to hinder the momentum of their beam towards the mountain. She then cradled around Rainbow Dash so that she would absorb more of the impact of the collision with the earthly structure. She had only managed to slow them down enough that the impact would not do any severe lasting damage, but the two Pegasi had slammed into the mountain very hard, leaving an indent in the craggy structure. Fluttershy had let out a loud, agonized scream as the impact had broken her right wing. Both Pegasi had landed onto the ground with a thud, semiconscious and injured.

“Fluttershy… Thank you…” Rainbow Dash managed to whisper to her friend as she slipped into unconsciousness. Fluttershy could only muster a weak smile as tears began to pour from her eyes as a result of the intense pain of her damaged wing.

“Fluttershy! Rainbow Dash!” Spike shouted in horror as he witnessed the grueling impact.

“I’ll get them somewhere safe… You stay and watch the others, dear Aunt,” Cadence quickly said as she rushed over to the two injured Pegasi and telekinetically lifted them onto her back to carry them off of the warzone and back into the castle. Celestia nodded warmly towards her caring niece, then turned back to the direction of the battle, clenching her teeth in outrage at Discord’s ruthlessly manipulative tactics.

“I see that a little something called ‘honor’ isn’t a very familiar concept with you…! Is it?” proclaimed Shining Armor, clearly irritated by the degree of Discord’s underhanded tactic.

“Given that I do not recognize you, I’ll assume we haven’t met,” Discord calmly replied, recovering from Applejack’s kick and gently grounding himself after the throw.

“No, we haven’t,” the white stallion said sternly. “But I’ve heard enough about you, and FROM you to know that, for the sake of Equestria, you can’t be allowed to live!”

Discord laughed at Shining Armor’s proclamation. “You saw what I did to the little blue one and her yellow friend, didn’t you?” he bragged.

“Yeah, I saw…” Shining Armor replied with agitation at Discord’s cockiness. “But what I saw was you playing dirty trick after dirty trick, you coward! I’d say fight like a stallion, but seeing as you’re apparently the ‘Spirit of Chaos,’ I see that the chances of you fighting fair are highly unlikely.”

“The Spirit of Disharmony,” Discord corrected. “And you’re ri—“

“NOW!” Applejack suddenly shouted from behind the unicorn stallion. At that moment, Rarity shot a beam of magic squarely at Discord’s blackened left eye. “OW!” The Draconequus shouted as he threw his head back while moving his lion’s paw of a right arm to cover it.

“Nice shootin’, Rarity!” Applejack praised her classy friend.

“Naturally,” boasted Rarity, giving Applejack a look of regal confidence. “‘Precision’ is my middle name.”

Applejack smirked. “Remind me ta ask ya what’cher last name is when we’re done here,” the orange Earth pony quipped.

Meanwhile, quickly following suit after Rarity’s attack, Pinkie Pie rushed behind Discord and tightly clenched her teeth around the area a few inches away from the tip of his tail. Discord shouted in pain again. He then began to violently swing his tail in an attempt to shake the pink party mare off.

“Good job, Pinkie!” Applejack cheered. “Now keep holdin’ on! We’re a-comin’!”

Applejack then turned to Shining Armor, who was stunned at the unfolding of the Earth pony’s plan. “Heya, partner. We’re gonna need one uh those protection orbs for this next part,” Applejack said with a wink. Shining Armor regained his composure and nodded in agreement.

“Everypony in position!” Shining Armor announced. Rarity and Applejack lined up on either side of him, and all three took a readied stance. Shining Armor then created a large magic force-field around the three of them.

“Ready!” announced Applejack.

“Set!” announced Rarity.

“GO!” shouted Shining Armor as the trio began to run in unison, quickly picking up momentum as they ran full speed towards Discord.

“Pinkie! Let go!” Rarity announced as the trio had approached their target. Pinkie Pie immediately let go and ran out of the way of the attack.

“Bleagh! Your tail tastes terrible! Not like licorice at all!” the pink mare complained as she fled to safety. Discord, unaware of the incoming attack, grabbed his tail and blew on it. He then noticed a large pink orb containing three ponies barreling towards him. He tried to move, but he was too late as the orb steamrolled him into the ground. The orb dispersed shortly after, with the three ponies inside reveling in their successful maneuver.

“I can’t believe that actually worked!” Shining Armor stated in blissful surprise. “I gotta give to ya, Applejack. I’m impressed with your ingenuity!”

“Aww shucks,” the Earth pony sheepishly responded. “T’weren’t nothin’. Besides, I wouldn’t-a pulled that off without everypony here!”

“I wouldn’t celebrate so soon if I were you…” Discord menacingly interjected while getting up and nonchalantly brushing himself off. Everypony was dumbfounded that he seemed unharmed by the attack.

“B-but how are you still STANDING after that!?” Rarity queried in shock.

“While I will admit that you DID shake me up a bit,” Discord began. “You’re forgetting that I can break the laws of physics at will. I simply transformed into a puddle of chocolate milk as you were rolling over me with that oversized gumball.”

Shining Armor shot Discord a confused look. “…Chocolate milk?”

“Yes.” Discord replied bluntly. “But now the time for fun is over. I admire your craftiness, though. It almost rivals mine. Almost. Any who, I believe it’s my turn again…” Discord stated, grinning evilly as he took flight and spawned twelve glasses of chocolate milk that hovered over him.

“Really…?” Shining Armor asked with skepticism.

“Prepare to be surprised…” Discord replied, still grinning.

“Bring it on! I bet I could drink ALL those glasses of milk, and STILL want more!” Pinkie Pie shouted at Discord, daring him to use them.

“As you wish…” Discord calmly replied, falling into a fit of laughter as he threw a glass towards the pink Earth pony. The glass landed upright in front of her. She leaned forward to take a sip, but as she got close, the glass tilted towards her, and chocolate milk shot up at her like a volcano, sending her flying high into the air and landing hard on her back a few feet away.

“Another cheap trick, I see…”  Shining Armor muttered, sneering at the Draconequus. Discord, not hearing Shining Armor’s comment, snickered at his prank on the pink Earth pony. Pinkie Pie slowly picked herself up, bowing her head as she rose to her hooves, her body drenched in chocolate milk.

“You’re going to pay for that…!” Pinkie growled through clenched teeth.

“Aww, can’t take a simple joke, Pinkie Pie?” Discord teased.

“Not the joke… This milk…. It tastes like rainbows…!”

Discord abruptly stopped laughing and gave Pinkie a puzzled look. “Rainbows?” he asked curiously. “That doesn’t exactly sound like a bad thing...”

“Rainbows are spicy… I HATE SPICY!!!” the party mare roared as she finally picked her head up to reveal a most threatening wide-eyed glare at the Draconequus, a vein visibly protruding from her forehead. He, shocked by the uncharacteristically angry glare he was shot by the pink mare, dropped the other eleven glasses of milk, spilling them on himself. She then charged at him in blind fury, not realizing she was making the same mistake that Rainbow Dash had made when she attacked him earlier.

“Pinkie, no!” yelled Applejack, seeing her friend about to put herself in extreme danger.

“Calm down, sweetie, please!” begged Rarity. However, Pinkie Pie was more wild and unpredictable in her current straight-haired state than her usual puffy-haired one. As the orange Earth pony and white unicorn mare had expected, their pleas fell on deaf ears as Pinkie Pie began swinging haphazardly at Discord. Consequently, given that she was putting herself in the same situation as the cyan Pegasus had earlier, Discord was able to avoid every predictable attack the enraged Pinkie had launched.

“As much as I’d love to toy with you, I’m running low on patience. I’m far behind schedule on chaos production.” Discord stated flatly. With a quick whip of his red dragon tail, he batted Pinkie Pie to the ground. Immediately afterwards, he wrapped it around her waist and lifted her up. “Oh, and before you get any ideas about biting me again…” he said as he stretched his tail as high as he could before slamming Pinkie Pie to the ground, knocking her out cold.

“Alright, THAT’S ENOUGH!!” Shining Armor shouted, fed up with Discord and his shady tricks.

“That tears it!” Applejack added in an equal amount of frustration. Rarity merely narrowed her eyes at Discord, bowing her head slightly and brushing her fore-hoof against the ground as if to charge at him herself. The others saw Rarity’s motion and lined up next to her, replicating the movements. The three then quickly charged at Discord, who, when they got close enough, raised his tail, still holding the unconscious Pinkie Pie, in front of him forcing Applejack, Rarity, and Shining Armor to stop in their tracks.

“You wouldn’t want to hurt your little friend here, would you?” Discord mockingly asked. “Yes, please, oh please don’t hurt me! I’m your friend,” He continued in a high-pitched tone while moving his tail to make an intentionally false image of the pink mare agreeing with him.

“You’re despicable…!” Rarity rasped in anger.

“Oh, I know,” Discord replied matter-of-factly. “And you know what else?” Discord asked. However, before anypony could give a reply to his question, he swung his tail, using the pink party pony as a weapon to knock the two unicorns and orange Earth pony away and onto the ground. He then began to cackle loudly in triumph as he stood over the checkmated trio…

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