Applebloom could only think What in the hay are you thinkin’‽ as they leapt toward the alicorn villain that had taken their friend. As soon as they were within inches, the aura around Sweetie Belle’s horn grew to encompass both of them, and they went straight into the body of the figure of nightmares, disappearing within.
Scootaloo resigned herself to believing that this was her destiny. She may as well get her cutie mark in failure. Perhaps it would be a giant red F. It was the only thing she knew how to do. The sadness, and the darkness, the self-hatred, and the anger, they all drug her down. The bubble around her grew even darker, and Scootaloo watched the ever dimming green orb floated ever more feverously around her.
It was the last thing she would know of this world was the green little light that reminded her of her two friends… if only she could see them once more. It seemed like in front of here were the faces of the only two friends she really had in the entire world. Sure, there was Rainbow, but she was more like a big sister. The unicorn and the earth pony were the two she spent every day with, and they did argue, but that was typical, wasn’t it? Was it so uncommon to have disputes with your friends?
Still, she doubted that she would ever really see her friends again. These apparitions before here were just that, apparitions. There was no hope in her heart, no light. She was doomed to lie here, in some unknown place, to end her pitiful existence.
Sweetie Belle and Applebloom looked at the real Scootaloo, trapped in a sphere of darkness. The green aura tried again and again to resonate Twilight’s Friendship Spell within her heart, but it was to no avail. The sphere gave off such a negative energy that it drove away the green aura every time it tried to approach.
“Well, what now?” Applebloom asked. She was the one used to having all the answers, but now she was so baffled. It happened every now and again that she was confused, but almost never was it about what they were going to do. Of course, they had never really been in this great of peril before.
“Don’t you remember what Scootaloo said before we assaulted Night Mare Moon?” Sweetie Belle asked, her horn starting to glow a brilliant blue instead of its normal green.
“All Ah remember is you asking me if Ah trust ya.”
“She said she needed some love, and well,” she looked back at Scootaloo before returning to finish her statement to Applebloom, “we love her, don’t we?”
“She’s like a sister!” Applebloom exclaimed.
“She’s one of the best friends I ever had!” Sweetie Belle said. With that, the aura escaped her horn, floating up to the green aura and combining with it. It then let out a brilliant light. “Scootaloo, if only you could hear how much you mean to us.”
Scootaloo didn’t bother looking up at the apparitions in front of her. They were just figments of the memories and wishes she had. She just wanted to end this already. Why had the darkness not finished her off? What could it possibly be waiting for?
“She’s like a sister!” came Applebloom’s voice through the darkness. Scootaloo knew how much Applebloom loved her siblings, but there was no way that she could love the little mess that she was. Scootaloo was imperfect, and by that, she was unloved.
“She’s one of the best friends I ever had!” Sweetie’s voice called out. How could that be true? Sweetie Belle had Applebloom. She didn’t need little, flightless Pegasus Scootaloo. If there was anypony that should love her, it would be her mother, but Scootaloo couldn’t even remember her face.
“Scootaloo, if only you could hear how much you mean to us.” There was a sadness in Sweetie’s voice. Perhaps there was actually some attachment between them all after everything. She had to find out, but she couldn’t move from under the oppressing darkness. It seemed to have gained physical form and was crushing her with all of its weight on one hoof. The pain rose in her back as the hoof gained more and more pressure. This was it, when she had finally decided that she wanted to continue, everything wanted to hold her back.
She needed some strength from those she cared for most.
Sweetie and Applebloom looked upon the dark sphere. They could barely make out their orange Pegasus friend deep within the sphere. She was struggling to get up, trying with all her Pegasus strength, but it wasn’t enough. Then there was something else in there with her. As they watched, a dark blue hoof formed out of the shadows, flowing up into a body before forming the other legs and hooves. The darkness drained from inside the sphere until it formed none other than Night Mare Moon herself, pressing ever harder onto Scootaloo.
“Scootaloo!” both of them called in unison, and with that the bubble that had been holding back the green orb, and now the blue orb, shattered like a ball of glass.
A true, true friend helps a friend in need,
A friend will be there to help them see,
A true, true friend helps a friend in need,
To see the light that shines from a true, true friend.
Together we are one,
And together we are friends,
When our destinies are united,
There is magic without end!
Suddenly, Scootaloo disappeared from beneath Night Mare’s hoof, and reappeared in a bubble of magic next to Sweetie Belle wearing a golden necklace. On that golden necklace was a gemstone that Sweetie had never seen before, but she recognized the pieces that designed it. In the foreground was a lightning bolt, surrounded by butterfly wings, and flanked by a moon. The whole gem was purple-red to match Scootaloo’s mane. But this wasn’t the only change. Another flash, and there was a necklace around Applebloom’s neck. It was yellow to match her coat, bearing a apple on a balloon with a sun in the background. Once more, magic created an element, placing it around Sweetie’s neck, bearing a lavender gem in the shape of a diamond inside a crystal heart, surrounded with the very symbol of magic itself: a six-pointed star.
“Are we ready, girls?” Applebloom inquired, already sure of the answer.
“Let’s go!” Scootaloo said. This energy coming from her friends fed into her. It excited her and gave her reason to fight. She knew now that she wasn’t useless. She was essential to her friends. Without her, there would be no Cutie Mark Crusaders. It would just be Applebloom and Sweetie.
“I feel like it’s about to burst!” Sweetie Belle said as her eyes took the glow that so often had appeared in Twilight’s eyes as she was about to defeat a foe with her friends by her side. A rainbow of colors appeared from Sweetie’s crest and fired at Night Mare Moon, dissolving it and all the shadows around them.
Exhausted, they fell to the ground, and fell into a deep sleep.
“I still don’t believe they are ready,” the voice of Discord said. It sounded like it was in her head, but Applebloom knew that couldn’t be true. Even Discord couldn’t make it in there.
“Granny Smith’s gonna have Big Mac buck me into next year, Twilight. Ya need to bring her back!”
“Where did they even go?” Rainbow’s voice never carried this much concern.
“Mum and dad are going to kill me!” Rarity exclaimed, no doubt pulling over her drama couch.
“Calm down, my little ponies.” Was that Princess Celestia? What was she doing in dreams?
With a sudden surge of magic, Applebloom felt her hooves hit the ground. Is this how Teleporting always felt? If it did, she would have to decline if Sweetie ever wanted to use the spell on her. Soon after, there was the sound of two more teleportations. She opened her eyes to find herself in the Canterlot gardens, standing next to the two best friends she could ever ask for in the entire world. There was her sister, all her friends, the three other Princesses, and none other than Discord.
Then she started recalling what had happened. They were given the memories of the ponies before them in the hopes that they could retrieve the long-lost left fang that once belonged to Discord. She ran up to her sister to realize that she was wearing something across her neck.
“What’s that ya have around yer neck, Applebloom?” Applejack asked, but she had already recognized the design of the necklace, even if she didn’t completely understand the symbolic gem set into it.
“You have one too, Scoots!” Rainbow said, swooping down to scoop up the filly-aged-into-mare that was her mentee. The hug only improved Scootaloo’s mood.
“That is such a beautiful necklace,” Rarity commented when she saw Sweetie’s.
“You knew this was going to happen, didn’t you, Celestia?” Discord inquired, turning to the Princess of Day.
“I knew that these three little ponies were friends the likes I have only seen a few times before, all of those cases are standing in this garden now.” She smiled at Discord before waving a regal hoof at all of the attending ponies to this little reunion.
“I only said ‘Friendship is Magic’ to appease you, Celestia. I still think it is rather… girly.”
“It worked on you, didn’t it? Twice, if I’m not mistaken.”
“Harmony is not the way of the World, Celestia. And if I don’t get my left fang back, it never will be again. You cannot be rid of chaos forever. Even if you have me control it, it still needs to be present. It is what makes those serendipitous events that cause the friendships that you cherish so much.”
“What are you saying, Discord?” Twilight asked.
“That Sonic Rainboom that united all of you six in destiny, it was an event of pure chance. And that, my little ponies, is the work of chaos.” He pranced around the garden before continuing. “You see, if the world worked in such a harmonious way that you all seem to think it does, then little, rare chances like that would never happen. The rare would never exist because harmony would say it is too unpredictable. It is chaos that lets this unique events exist.”
“So you’re saying that it’s because of you that we’re all friends?” Rainbow asked incredulously. “That’s not very likely, Discord. It was my Sonic Rainboom that made it happen!” She gave a stern look at the Spirit of Chaos.
“Maybe not an effect of my direct influence, since I was imprisoned in stone by your glorious leaders, but it was chaos never the less. Tell me, how many of those precious friendship lessons involved something from the Everfree forest?”
All the Elements of Harmony chattered before looking back at Discord.
“The Everfree forest is the core of what chaos existed in my time as Celestia’s lawn decoration. And while I don’t appreciate being a gnome, I do know a few things about chaos spreading. Listen closely, because this is going to be a valuable lesson for when the fillies head into the Chaos Continuum.
“You see, I only left one of my scales behind in the forest. I knew two things: the scale would provide chaos to support all your little mishaps and that it would lead to my eventual release. Why do you think those little sisters chose to move away from their old castle? They can’t handle a bit of chaos. It was like the other day when I tried to liven life up here in Canterlot by—“
“Discord, now is not the time to be sidetracking,” Celestia said, fairly agitated about how this explanation was going off on tangents.
“Very well, down to business then. The scale grew its chaos into what is now the entirety of the Everfree, whereupon the Sisters made the ponies a little settlement on either side. One is your precious Ponyville. The other no one even remembers, because the great Princess Celestia only ever talks about her prized pupil and how she lives in Ponyville now. My point remains that they used your little towns to stop the spread of the Everfree.”
“So is that why you had mah granny and her kin start Sweet Apple Acres where they did?”
“There is truth in what Discord is saying,” Celestia responded. “Your grandmother figured out how to stop the spread of the Everfree, but not the chaos that it develops. She has some control over the Zap Apples, and I have long wondered if those controls could be applied to other things in the Everfree.”
“Celestia, Celestia, have you not been listening? You cannot stop the spread of chaos! It is in the very nature of Chaos to envelop everything! If it doesn’t, then you end up with boring, dull lives that drag on forever without friends and memories. The things that make life worth living are at least in part caused by chaos.”
“Is that why the Everfree is so… freaky?” Rainbow asked.
“Certainly an interesting way to describe it, Dash, but nevertheless, that is the truth. The things that happen in that forest are all caused by chaos of some form or another. The bear that you give chiropractics to, there was once one like him in the Everfree. He was the first Ursa Major. All of the animals in the Everfree were created from the normal animals that you care for. And the weather? That is pure chaos.
“The point is, my little ponies, that you cannot destroy chaos.”
“And you can never destroy Harmony!” Twilight responded. She expressed some resentment over Discord’s statement. It felt to her like a direct attack, that he would one day win a war waged upon ponies. She would have none of it.
“I would never dream of it, dear Twilight Sparkle. You see, there needs to be the little flicker of Harmony to keep everything from destroying itself. That is why I sent away the Left Fang. That is why I kept you and your little friends alive.
“The very existence of this world is the result of the balance of my chaos and you ponies and your harmony. To think otherwise would be foolish.”
“Then what are you getting at?” Twilight wondered.
“You’re choking out this world by forcing Chaos away. It is only going to get stronger. There’s only so much suppressing Chaos will take before it completely explodes.”
“Then what do you suggest, Discord?”
“I have enough power to send four to the end of the Chaos Continuum. You have chosen three champions.” Discord gave a smile away from Twilight as he knew what was coming next. A small thought had been playing through his mind ever since he considered doing it. But he mustn’t let any one of these ponies be any the wiser.
“Very well, Discord. You shall go with the Cutie Mark Crusaders.”
“I want your promise,” Fluttershy said, “I want your word that you’re going to behave yourself the way that I taught you to.”
“I promise,” Discord dredged.
“Promise on the sake of our friendship.” Fluttershy was showing her assertive side. She had to with Discord, there was no other way to deal with him.
Discord gave a serious pause after that, to which he responded, “I promise on the sake of our friendship.”
“Very well,” Fluttershy replied, “I trust you.”
“Then you will need some of me to reopen the gate back to the real world,” Discord mentioned. “We need to fetch my scale from the Everfree forest. This will be a perfect test to see how well the newly christened ‘Elements of Harmony’ will work together.” He looked at the Cutie Mark Crusaders as he said that, and each of them in turn swallowed hard before giving concerned expressions to their mentors.
They would have to venture into the Everfree and retrieve the very source of the chaos that made the Everfree so scary and unwelcoming. Even Applebloom, who made frequent visits to Zecora, was unsure she wanted to take on this mission.
They had to, though, for the Fate of Equestria.