Alternate POV Series: DWW 1, Loyalty part 2

Alternate POV Series: Discord World War.
Written by James Sylar (myself) with the help of Drake Epsilon and Astum Legancy.
Edited by Louis Badalament.
Idea original by Alex Warlorn.
MLP: FIM is owned by Hasbro (?).

Loyalty’s chords. Part 2.
v.2

*Unofficial Opening Song: Key plus words by Shihoko Hirata*

++++Rainbow Dash++++

Yes, I did come back to save them… even after I left them on their own.  Do you want to know why I left them?  First of all, it wasn't easy; even Twilight would have problems lifting that pillar with her telekinesis. I don't know too much about construction, but I'm pretty sure that someone mixed too much iron and concrete in that pillar!

Secondly, I was needed in the castle with the other girls.  We had a second holder for the Elements of Magic and Kindness... but not for Loyalty!  So I wasn't expendable.  If Discord somehow managed to capture me, the other girls wouldn't be able to use the Elements of Harmony at all until a replacement could be found... and who knew how long THAT would take?  

And the worst thing of all was that Discord could certainly use me against them! He only need to told me he was going to do something horrible to Scootaloo, or that he was going to make Cloudsdale's inhabitants mad again -while- dropping the city from the skies!  (I… was also worried about Discord hurting Gilda…)

Twilight have assured me that all those fears were unsubstantiated (that's the word she used), Scoots and everyone in Ponyville would be fine thanks to her last-minute plan. And Cloudsdale would be protected by at least two or three unicorns using the cloud-walking spell.  Honestly, that didn't ease my mind at all. We're talking about Discord, after all. But I knew I needed to be strong, for the good of everypony.

And then I meet this stubborn mare who won't abandon her friend even when she had no chance of freeing her. (Let me clarify something; if I was entirely sure that Discord wouldn't just appear behind me with a puff at any moment, I would have helped them without a second thought.  I was so paranoid at that time... I figured the BOTH of them could've been Discord in disguise!)  And then, she had the guts to tell ME what Loyalty was!

After our last encounter with Discord, and all he left in his wake, I'd learned to have a more realistic view of what my element meant. Most of the time, to be loyal to something you have to abandon something else, but you are supposed to choose what’s better of those two options, not the worst!
And she was willing to just throw her life away, knowing that neither her friend nor she would gain anything in exchange!
I understand heroic sacrifice, but this was totally pointless.
"She's just a dumb filly without real experience, how can she try to teach me about my own element!"  I said to myself when I was flying away at top speed. She was the same as… myself, before the… you know what.

That made me think, and I saw an image inside my head. It was myself… but still under the influence of Discord's magic. Twilight never fixed me, even worst; she was still drowned into her own darkness.

There was a voice, coming from the very core of her… myself… from T-Traitor Dash, telling her that she could fix the world, fix my friends and fix the world.

--You just need to trust in yourself! Everyone else needs you! That's what loyalty truly means!--  

But to Traitor Dash, these words were just dust in the wind.  

--You're just a dumb filly without real experience, how can you try to teach me about my own element! --

I woke up from that daydream just in time to avoid hitting a tower, with the realization that if I abandoned those two, I will be not better than Traitor Dash. And as long as that were true, even if I were always surrounded by my friends, and we beat Discord one hundred times, I would always have the shadow of betrayal over my heart.

That's why I went back to help them: to not betray myself.

++++Vinyl++++

"TAVIE!"  I yelled.  "What were you thinking?! Just look how you ended up! You're bleeding and badly hurt!"

"I won't apologize for that.  At least you're no longer trapped.  She answered before collapsing in front of me. I manage to catch her with my hooves.  "But I apologize for making you cry...” she added with arrogant grin on her face.

"I'm not crying!"  

Except I was, a little.  And this may sound a little selfish, but I was happy to have a friend who was willing to do all that for me...

Then something warm came from Tavie's chest; something that shined so strongly that I was blinded for a second even though I had my shades. They were broken, by the way.


"For Celestia's sake, this has to be a bad joke!” we heard Rainbow Dash say, while watching that phenomenon from afar.

"Vinyl...? What's this?"

"It's a..." It looked like a ghostly golden collar, with Tavie’s cutie mark surrounded by six purple jewels.

"It’s an Element…" said Rainbow, disbelieving of her own words.

"A what?!"  It was maybe the third or fourth time in my life that I've seen Tavie overwhelmed. And that was doubly impressive when you take in account all the blood she has lost.

"Let's go!  We're not safe here!" interrupted Rainbow. "Twilight will explain everything to you when we get to the castle."

Tavie tried to walk by herself (stubborn as she is) and, of course; she ended up tripping and falling. The only thing that prevented her nose smashing against the roadway was that I remembered the fact that I had a horn in my forehead.
Rainbow offered to carry her on her back and the only objection Tavie made was about me.

"I'm more than capable of carry two ponies with ease." she bragged, but we preferred to improvise with a carriage (thankfully, there was an abandoned cabbage cart that was conveniently nearby, only partially destroyed.)

"Hold tight, we will arrive in exactly ten seconds flat!"

"Isn't that catchphrase a bit overused?" said Tavie with a deadpan tone.

For the record, it was 9.8 seconds, actually. You would be surprised how much the perception of time slows itself when you are flying at near sonic speed and you don't have the necessary limbs to hold to something appropriately. Goddamn evolution… would some opposable thumbs have been too much to ask for?

Tavie endured the voyage pretty well, even better than I did, but the poor mare ended fainting when we landed in the castle's garden.  A group of soldiers came to us very quickly, followed by the other holders of the elements, and the three princesses of Equestria.

"Rainbow! You were only supposed to check that everypony had evacuated!  Not bring wreckage back!" said the Element of Honesty, Applejack.

"Forget about that, what happened to these two?"That was Rarity, the holder of the Element of Generosity, the first of them to notice the two of us were INSIDE the cabbage cart.

"There's no time for explanations!  We need to take them to the infirmary!"

"You are right, Rainbow Dash."  Princess Celestia looked even bigger and majestic in person,  "Guards, please take these two to the infirmary."

An unicorn named Gateway took a step forward.  His horn shone bright, and then an orange portal appeared out of nowhere. At the other side were a couple of beds and some shelves full of medical stuff.  

"Two?"  I repeated in confusion.  "Er... forgive me, princess, but you're overreacting.  I ain't injured; Tavie's just bleeding on me."

"Look at your hind leg," the Princess replied, "Close to your cutie mark."  

Huh.  Guess I *was* hurt.  Right where I had been hit by the pillar.  Ugly, gory little thing too... but I didn't feel any pain at all.  

I would later learn that I had lost all sensation in that leg. But don't worry, thanks to a regenerative spell I regained it back!  The pain was straight-out unbearable
for two days straight. Yay…

And so, we were finally in safe territory. But I still could not forget that thing that appeared on Tavie chest, it really WAS an element? Weren't they supposed to be only six? I knew that a big storm was brewing... and this was only the beginning.

++++????++++

Twilight Sparkle stood in the center of that room, with her eight friends behind her forming an arc. The three princesses of Equestria where in front of them, each one placed below a flag that represent them; Day, Night, and Harmony.

"You can speak now" said Luna using a lesser version of the Royal Canterlot Voice.

"I have summoned this meeting to tell you my plan to fight Discord: We are going to find the second holders of the elements of harmony."

It's said that keeping secrets is the most important thing in a war, but that's pointless when your adversary is the embodiment of chaos.

"The seconds?" Asked Candenza, who knew little about Trixie and Fluttercruel. After all, although Trixie went as the partner of Twilight to her wedding, the holders of the elements didn't have any chance to use them against the changelings. She also hadn't seen the fight against Nightmare Whisper, and spent almost no time with the holders to notice the slight differences between Shy and Cruel.

Twilight explained -in summary- about these two new holders to Cadenza, and though she had some problems accepting the idea that the "daughter" of Discord would have become the element of kindness, she accepted Cruel with ease.

"But how do you know there is a second holder for each element? Maybe these two are a special case…"

"I also considered that possibility, but just a while ago, Rainbow found the second holder of the Loyalty, Octavia Strings. And the fact that we had found 3 of 6 increases the odds in our favor."

"And maybe there are more than two for each element!" Said Pinkie, bouncing in her place "…and maybe there are some new and unknown elements!"

"Come on, Pinkie, that's just silly" Alleged Rainbow Dash, trying to hold still her friend "Everyone knows there are only six elements of harmony."

"I know, but that would give chance to make sequels, spinoffs and parodies, you know we need to increase our sales of DVD's"

"Pinkie, I think you eat too much sugar on breakfast…" whispered Rainbow to her friend, whose only reply was a smile.

"And even if we are unable to get the 12 holders, each ally we can make will help us to defeat Discord" add Cruel.

"Certainly" Said Celestia after being quiet all the time "But the second holders could be scattered all over the world, how do you plan to find them?"

"I had already taken that on account." Twilight used her horn to float a compass from her saddlebag to where it could be seen by everypony "I enchanted this compass to point beings that have traits that represent the elements. When we were in Ponyville, it pointed towards this place, but I thought it was pointing to both you and Luna. Now I think it was pointing to Octavia as well."

The three princesses gave each other a couple of looks.

"Very well Twilight, you have our approval and support. We will give you whatever you all would need to this travel." Said Cadenza with the most formal voice she managed to do in that moment. She wasn't doing a very god job.

"But remember, this mission is very dangerous, you cannot force the second holders to put their life and sanity at risk if they do not want to do it. And that includes Miss Strings.

"I agree. Thank you very much."

The princesses called the meeting off, but Twilight trotted close to the stage where Celestia was.

"Teacher, may I speak to you?

"Of course Twilight, what's the matter?"

"It's… about Pinkie…"