My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

Discordian Troubles

Chapter 14

Palace in the Sand

“DDDDDDDDDDDDYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Everyone connected to Eris felt a shot go though their heart and soul.

Discord felt something horrible happen and disappeared.

The CMC all felt a dreary weight add to their shoulders.

Celestia felt dread come over her.

And Rainbow Dash felt a part of her self shatter into pieces.

Dash fell to her knees and gasped every time she took a breath.

“………. you all felt that, right?” Edge asked.

“a shot go though your heart and soul?” everyone replied, all feeling dread and despair.

“so it wasn’t just me.”

“something… Something terrible happened.” Dash gasped.

“think we all felt that.” Req said. “we better hurry.” she told the driver of their little sand vehicle. He nodded and put the skiff into overdrive.

The crazy lady back at the town said something about a palace to the east which housed a tome to get them all back home to stop Discord and Eris. Unfortunately, the journey on foot would take them more then 30 years and that’s not time they have. Thankfully, they have things that can cut the journey to mere minutes.

little Sand Skiffs the size of Orion that can go so fast, a journey to the other end of the Afterworld would take 6 hours rather then 600 years. And the occupants don’t feel it. No, they see it with the scenery blurring right by.

Satoshi stayed behind to make repairs to Orion and reattach it’s wings. By all accounts, he should be done by the time they all got back.

“there it is.” Soarin’ said. The driver slowed the skiff down enough for everyone to get a good look at the crystalline palace.

It stretched high up into the sky with the only clouds in the entire Afterworld swirling around it at 300 feet up.

“wow.” Twi gasped. “it looks just like the Crystal Empire palace. Except much bigger, of course.”

“where would we even find that book?” Gourry asked, feeling like this was going to take a long time. “that thing is so big.”

“knowing our experience…” Ash said as he took over. “… it’s probably at the top, guarded by some monster.”

“yeah right.” Lloyd scoffed.

“care to make a bet then?” Ash smirked. “30 gold coins says it’s at the top.”

“deal.”

Cynder sighed and pinched the bridge between her eyes. “boys. So clichéd.”

The volcanic island that Eris had taken Scootaloo and Babs is long gone. There’s no trace of it left; nothing except a big smoldering crater that’s quickly filling up with sea water.

Scoots and Babs are all alone on a deserted island with nothing but a palm tree. (how’s that for a cliché?). They have no hope of getting back home and are most likely to spend the rest of their days on the island, which is slowly losing ground to the rising water level.

“never thought I’d go out like this.” Babs said, kicking some sand into the water.

“neither did I.” Scoots sighed. She thought back to Eris freaking out and going crazy. “Babs? why did Eris freak out like that?”

“I don’t know.” Babs kicked the tree, causing a coconut to fall. “could be a number of reasons.”

Just as Babs was about to crack the nut open, they heard moaning coming from the other side of their little island. They both looked to see a unconscious Eris lying in the sand, body still pulsating and energy coursing all throughout it.

“Eris!” Scoots exclaimed. She ran over to her and tried to touch her only to have her hoof meet a invisible barrier that burned her. “Ow!” she pulled her hoof back and put it into the water to get rid of the pain. She looked back to her sister with worry. Her eyes were snapped shut and her mouth bared her teeth as she tried to deal with the indescribable pain with each gasping breath. “Eris…”

The skiff rolled up the palace’s base. Everyone jumped off to the sand below.

“whoa!” Riku whistled. “it’s even bigger up close.”

“it’s probably big inside too.” Lina sourly joked. Riku rolled his eyes and mimicked her.

“and you think it’s at the top, Req?” Spyro asked as he strained his neck looking up. “cause I don’t think we can fly that high.”

“I’m sure this place has a elevator or something we can use; Pulley system. Whatever.” Req replied.

Dash, still shaken by the shot though the heart and soul, glanced back to her brother and mother, hoping to get some more intel. “Do you know what’s inside?”

Both of them, plus Adolf, shook their heads no. “not a thing.” he said. “we had no reason to go inside before.”

“now you do.” Dash said with a smirk.

Jax strode on over to the large doorway and knocked on it. “Hello?” the doors suddenly shook for a second, making her jump a bit.

With no help from anyone or anything, the doors opened wide on their own accord, which was nothing new to the earth-based heroes of the group. For everyone else, however, this was new.

The doors opened wide, revealing a large audience chamber on the inside. Touches on the wall lit on their lonesome, adding light to the otherwise dark room.

“well…” Sora started with a slight pang of fear. “that’s welcoming.”

Jax glanced around the place, taking it in when she noticed sand already inside. The odd thing was, they look like hoof prints. “is that…” she leaned down for a closer look. “I think someone already beat us here.” she said back to the others.

“beat us?” Emil asked in confusion. “who could’ve beat us here?”

Jax looked on ahead and found a spot where the sand reached a big part then continued on as hoof prints. “a certain missing klutz.”

A missing klutz? Ash counted those who were there and he, along with everyone else, remembered that they were missing a gray mail mare. “Derpy!” they all exclaimed.

Eris shivered as she curled into a ball. Her body still pulsed and energy still coursed though her. Scoots and Babs tried cooling her off with water from the sea but it evaporated before it even got close to her. To make matters worse, a small area underneath her burned into glass and started to spread out, gradually emcompassing the whole island.

“what’s going on with her?” Babs worriedly asked.

“I’m not sure.” Scootaloo said with concern for Eris.

With every strong fiber in her being, Eris was able to open her eyes. “Scoot… Scootaloo…” she weakly said. What surprised the Pegasus was that there were tears forming in her eyes.

Scoots didn’t know what to do here. She never heard of anyone suffering like this. She doubts that even the princess’ can do anything about this. “Eris…”

Eris whimpered for a moment before her body began glowing again. “make… it… stop…” she whined. She doesn’t want to experience it again and tried to hold it in. “gh…. Gy…. Gyah….”

“h-how?” Scoots depressingly asked.

Eris‘ reply was something Scootaloo didn‘t want. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

From the coast of Equestria, where the town Coltdon was, a large nuclear like explosion could be seen erupting out of the ocean. It was the second one in a hour and from the same location.

Just before everyone entered the palace, another shot went though their hearts. This one did it for Dash and she just fell down to her knees, crying for no reason.

“just what the hell is that?” Bahamut said with a shiver.

“whatever it is, it isn’t pleasant.” Halo gasped.

Soarin’ noticed his sister crying and walked over. “are you okay?”

“y-yeah.” Dash wiped her eyes. “Just don’t know where this came from.”

Twi and Req looked at each other with concerned expressions. “we better hurry.” they both said. Everyone nodded and they went in.

The Audience Hall, as everyone expected, was big. VERY big. There was enough room to fit 2 Orions and have room for a X-Wing from Star Wars.

“Wow.” Rarity gasped. “how long do you think it took them to build this fabulous palace?”

“how should we know?” Soarin’, Shine, and Adolf asked.

“We’ve only been here for a few years.” Adolf added.

“right. Well, is there anyone……. Older?”

“the oldest person in our little hamlet is that crazy lady you all met.” Soarin’ said. “she’s supposed to be over 10000 years old.”

Req whistled. “now that’s old.”

“benefits of living in eternal paradise.” Adolf chuckled.

After some exploration, the group was able to find a hidden button on the walls of the hall. Spike pressed it, revealing a hidden passage behind the throne. It retracted up into the ceiling, revealing a large spiral staircase behind it. It went up into the palace, which was good enough for them. They climbed up it, eager to get that tome.

Half-way up the stairs, Garble had a thought. “are you sure it’s at the top? It could’ve been down there in the hall.”

“it’s a force of habit these old places have.” Ash said. “it’s either in the highest point, the deepest cellar, or the most dangerous dungeon.”

“ugh. That’s something I can agree with.” Lloyd said with distain.

“I’m more curious about that thing the old lady said.” Spike said.

“what thing?” Rarity asked.

“she said something about facing our worst fears. What could she have meant by that? Our worst dream, our worst fear like snakes or spiders, or… what would tear apart our selves?”

That was a good question. She never did give anything useful to go on, just ‘face your worst fears’. some are fearing the worst of this and prepared for the worst to happen.

The gang reached the top of that flight of stairs to see another large door in front of them, as well as the grey Pegasus that had been missing for quite some time.

“Derpy!” Jax exclaimed. She and Req ran over to her. As they neared, they heard her sobbing. Tears fell from Derpy down into a puddle. She must’ve been crying for a long time for there to be a puddle.

“it…… it’s all my fault.” she cried out loud.

“your fault?” Req asked.

Derpy didn’t reply; just kept on crying. “I’m so sorry, eTu`nes! I’m so, so sorry!”

“eTu`nes?” everyone muttered. Who was this eTu`nes? Jax heard Derpy say it quite often. Dash and Shine knew who he was but didn’t want to say anything.

“eTu`nes! Don’t leave me… please… don‘t go…”

“okay, what happened to her to make her like this?” Sora asked, keeping her distance.

“how should I know?” Jax asked. “I heard her mention the name a few times. I thought it was a pet or something.”

Emil looked up at the door and cocked his head to the right. There was the image of a snake wrapped around a body on it. “what the…?” odder still, it was at arm level. Curious, he walked over and pressed it.

The door unlocked, cracked open, and swung wide, revealing a bright white light on the other side. It was bright enough to force everyone to cover their eyes. Knowing what Derpy is currently going though, they had a very bad feeling about this.

“you must face what you fear most…”