Original Link:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/17CnziT4HGfMwbOcUbf0w9qT9PQiUWh8OGo60LpBZRMY/edit

It didn’t take Twilight very long to make her choice. Her expression became serious and determined when she focused the reaper again.

“I’m not going to let this happen to you, Obsidian. You have already been through enough. I will stop them, come what may come!” she declared.

“No... you can not... stop them... you do not know what you are getting... yourself... into...” Obsidian stuttered.

The reaper was barely able to hold himself upright anymore and let out a scream while trying to fight back the demons assaulting his mind. It was not a scream of agony, but one of fear and desperation.

“I can not hold them back any longer! Just kill me Twilight! Please, hurry! You will not... stand a... chance once I... once I... I...” Obsidian spoke, unable to finish.

“I will do this. I have to. The demons have taken Moondancer, Spike and many others before. I won’t let them have you as well, Obsidian! I swore to myself that I won’t let this happen to anypony close to me ever again!” Twilight concluded with a serious tone in her voice.

Obsidian wasn’t able to speak anymore. He just lay on the ground, shaking in fear and making an expression as if he was in huge pain.

Twilight understood that it would begin any moment now, so she took some preparations to make sure she had the situation under control.

The purple mare created a force field around Obsidian and herself. Large enough so she could move freely and, if necessary, avoid attacks. She also made sure he would not be able to teleport out of the sphere.

After that, she tried to calm down and gather her thoughts. Twilight had to do this all by herself, so she knew she would have to use her arcane magic. But since it was so powerful, she needed to concentrate to make sure she wouldn’t accidentally kill Obsidian.

What followed then felt like an eternity to the purple mare. Her eyes were constantly stuck at the black stallion, tension filling her entire being. He was laying on the ground, facing away from her and not moving at all. No sound could be heard coming from him besides his slow breathing. Twilight wasn’t sure how she was supposed to defeat the demons taking him over yet, but she figured she would find it out soon enough.

Suddenly, Obsidian started moving again. He slowly lifted himself up into a sitting position. Twilight reacted immediately, jumping into a battle stance.

Again, nothing happened for several minutes. It seemed like Obsidian was just staring into the emptiness of the night.

The reaper started shaking a little again and a strange, weak noise came from him. Twilight didn’t precisely understand what this sound was at first, because she never heard it coming from him before. But as it got louder, she realized... Obsidian was laughing.

“Twilight...” He suddenly spoke, strangely calm.

“Y-yes?” the purple mare replied.

“Do you know what I just realized?” Obsidian asked.

The purple mare didn’t respond. She started getting really nervous, since she didn’t know what to expect of him.

“Just now... it dawned to me...” he started explaining, slowly lifting his head up a bit to look into the sky. “All my efforts... all my sacrifices... all the things I have ever done for Equestria... it all means nothing. It was all just wasted time. Do you know why, Twilight Sparkle?”

“Why...?” Twilight asked back, very hesitantly.

Obsidian delayed the answer for several second. Then, he began to laugh lowly again.

“Because ponies are worthless,” Obsidian answered, still laughing.

He finally turned his head to the right. A chill rushed through the purple mare as she saw him grinning widely with his sharp fangs and glowing red eye, which seemed to stare right at her.

She expected that seeing him insane would be painful and creepy, but this was far more horrifying than she expected.

“They are good for nothing,” he continued while getting up. “Weak, helpless, overly sensitive... The only good thing about them is that they are so... tender.”

Twilight started shaking. It blew her mind how radically he had just changed. Still, she kept her guard up, ready to get into combat.

“It is a shame you do not eat pony flesh. They are delicious, you know... and their blood is... so sweet...” Obsidian spoke, his focus wandering around aimlessly as he fantasized.

The reaper had no control over his grin, which caused him to start drooling. Twilight became disgusted from the sight. Was this really still Obsidian Shards in front of her?

Another few seconds passed before the black stallion lowered his head and placed a front hoof on his stomach.

“I am... hungry... so... hungry...” he stated.

Then his glance lifted up to the purple mare and his grin grew even wider.

A shiver went down Twilight’s body and she started to back away. It was clear to her what he was thinking right now and his following comment confirmed it.

“Twilight... you know... you look... very... tasty!” Obsidian analyzed and started to giggle in a strangely high pitch.

That was enough. The purple mare finally decided to use her arcane magic abilities, as she felt extremely threatened now. Of course, Obsidian reacted instantly, picking up his scythe and going into battle stance himself.

It was him who delivered the first strike by teleporting himself right behind Twilight and trying to slay her. She, though, raised an arcane shield to block the attack and instantly cast an offensive spell afterwards.

Since it was her goal to save Obsidian, she tried to immobilize him. Purple chains formed out of Twilight’s arcane aura, trying to tie up the reaper. But he jumped to distance, avoiding the chains and casting several ice, fire and dark spells on the purple mare.

Twilight could block and deflect the spells, but she couldn’t continue her own spell at the same time. The chains disappeared again and while she was distracted for just a moment, the black stallion suddenly vanished from her sight.

The sphere was large, but far not large enough to hide in. Heavily confused, Twilight looked all around her to search for the reaper. Just in the last second, she realized he had flown into the air and was trying to strike from above.

Twilight could raise an arcane shield just in time to block the scythe, but the reaper was still towering above her, using his body weight in trying to force his weapon past the shield.

The pressure was too much for the purple mare. She could barely hold herself upright. As she even went down a little, Obsidian delivered a kick to her left hind leg, causing her to fall.

The purple mare was now laying on her back, desperately trying to keep up the shield which separated her from the deathly blade. Obsidian towered right above her, grinning hugely with wide open eyes while he held the scythe in his front legs, using his full body weight and own magic to increase the force furthermore.

Not even a minute after their duel began, Twilight’s attempt to rescue Obsidian had turned into a battle of pure force, which she was about to lose. She might have had the stronger magic, but he definitely had more combat skills and experience.

The blade inched its tip further and further through the shield, aiming straight for Twilight’s chest. Her eyes were glued to Obsidian’s face. She could see him staring at her in excitement and grinning wickedly while his saliva dripped on the magic shield.

Ultimately, the shield gave in. Out of panic and reflex, the purple mare used all her power into a teleportation spell, causing all other spells of her to cancel. A bright white flash saved her from certain death.

Still under stress and panic, she kept trembling on the ground and breathing heavily for a few seconds more before she got up again, trying to find out where she had teleported herself to and where Obsidian was.

Behind her was the club house. Twilight came to realize that she was still at the same position as before, confusing her for a moment. She definitely succeeded in casting a teleportation spell! But what happened?

As she kept looking around, she noticed Obsidian was gone. A strong wave of shock bolted through her body as she realized what she just had done. Instead of teleporting herself away, she teleported Obsidian.

Immediately, she jumped back on her legs and started running around in search. She didn’t even have any specific location in mind when she cast that spell, so she had no idea where Obsidian could have ended up.

Twilight’s panic grew even stronger. She could only imagine what would happen if he got away now.

Two minutes later, she saw a silhouette running towards her. Twilight instantly tried her chain spell on it again. This time, it worked. The silhouette got tied to the ground.

A scream filled the air, coming from the tied figure. But the scream was not in the reaper’s voice. It was female. As Twilight came close, she realized it was Applejack she had tied up.

“Oh gosh! I’m sorry!” the purple mare apologized and broke the spell immediately.

“What in tarnation did you do that for, Twilight? And what’s with all those noises and strange lights on the orchard?” Applejack wondered.

“We don’t have time for explanations! We got to find Obsidian! He is-” Twilight started.

A large explosion in the distance brought her out of her thoughts. As the two mares turned their focus to where it came from, another strong wave of shock rushed through the purple mare.

“Oh my gosh... He is in Ponyville!” she spoke with fear in her voice.

Seconds after the explosion, the buildings set on fire and countless screams filled the air. A force field formed around the village, muffling the screams again and causing the smoke to gather up inside.

Twilight tried to teleport herself to the village, but it seemed like the shield blocked off her spell. Being so far away from the village, she couldn’t break it either.

Now, she had no choice but to run, which would cost her valuable time the villagers would have to pay.

“What the hay is going on, Twi?” Applejack shouted in shock.

“Obsidian is running wild! I don’t have time to explain everything to you! Just run, AJ! Run!” Twilight shouted back while starting to run towards the village.

Applejack still didn’t understand, but that was not important to her right now. She understood that something was going very wrong at this moment, so she just followed the purple mare.

On their way, they could see ponies trying to run and fly out of the force field. But while the villagers desperately tried to knock through it, something grabbed them and pulled them back into the smoke again.

---

Despite Twilight’s and Applejack’s best efforts, it took them ten minutes to finally arrive at the sphere. By now, nothing but smoke could be seen inside anymore.

Twilight placed her horn against the force field, closing her eyes and casting a shield breaker spell on it. Five more minutes passed until she finally managed to let the whole force field break in.

The massive, thick gray cloud immediately began to rise, but a majority of the village would still remain fogged for several minutes more. Minutes they couldn’t wait.

The two mares stepped inside, coughing heavily while looking for ponies they could help. But judging from the silence that filled the village now, it seemed like there would not be much left they could do.

Because of the very limited sight, they had to walk carefully in order to not stumble over anything or run into a wall. Finally, they came across the first dead pony: a little colt, who seemed to have suffocated in the smoke. Several more dead or dying ponies followed.

“Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no...” Twilight spoke in a voice filled with guilt and shock.

“By Celestia’s mercy... that’s horrible... Ah can’t believe Obsidian’s supposed to be responsible for that,” Applejack commented.

Just as she finished speaking, the orange mare stepped into something warm and liquid. She lifted her hoof in order to see what it was, but regretted doing so immediately after.

Applejack let out a scream of shock and disgust as she came to understand that this liquid was blood.

Finally, a strong breeze flew through the village, blowing away the smoke and revealing the full scale of destruction to the mares. Several buildings were destroyed and burning. Dead ponies were laying widely spread, some of them even sliced in half or decapitated. It now was out of question that trying to fight Obsidian all by herself was the worst decision Twilight could have possibly made.

“Rarity!” Applejack suddenly shouted.

Twilight turned around. She gasped in terror at the sight presented to her.

The fashion diva was nailed to a wall with metal bolts in her front and rear legs. Her stomach as cut open and her entrails were widely spread over the wall, nailed to it as well. Furthermore, the skin on her face had been removed and a large mirror was placed in front of her, forcing Rarity to look at herself in this terrible condition. On the mirror, the words ‘True beauty lies within. This is how you look inside.’ were written in blood.

Nopony would be able to survive such mutilation. Neither did she. But what truly crowned this horrible act of sadism was the fact that Obsidian didn’t reap her.

By now, Rarity had woken up again as an undead, crying as she stared at herself through the mirror in complete trauma.

“The worst... possible... thing...” she whispered with the bit of broken voice she had left.

Twilight and Applejack now, too, started crying as they desperately tried to put their friend out of her misery. But nothing they attempted would work. The bolts as well as the mirror were enchanted in a way that made it impossible to remove them for both.

“Obsidian is keeping the enchantments up. There is nothing we can do for her right now...” Twilight finally realized, tears of regret rolling down her face. “I’m so sorry, Rarity... I’m so sorry...”

The white mare didn’t seem to hear or even notice her friends. Her lifeless blue eyes were still stuck on her reflection in the mirror while tears washed a clear trail through the blood on her skull.

“Let’s... let’s catch Obsidian before he does that or even worse to another pony,” Applejack suggested while wiping the tears off her face.

Twilight nodded and continued walking towards the center of the town. Applejack followed her soon after.

---

The closer they came to the marketplace, the bloodier the ground became. It seemed like Obsidian dragged most of the villagers there in order to gut them. Suddenly, a female scream filled the air.

“The horror! The ho-”

A splashing noise followed, silencing the voice again. Twilight immediately understood that another pony just lost her life due to her decision, filling her with dread and unbearable guilt.

The two mares were close now. Around the next corner was the marketplace. By now, there was enough blood on the ground to form small red rivers flowing down the streets.

Carefully, they peeked around the corner. The scene happening at the marketplace topped everything they had ever seen before.

Large piles of flesh, bones and fur were spread everywhere. The ponies had been torn apart to the point that it was hard to even recognize them as ponies anymore. The statue of Princess Celestia had been knocked over and destroyed, leaving only the pedestal for Obsidian to stand on.

The reaper stood upright on it, his eyes closed and facing up into the sky. Above him where the torn open bodies of Lily, Daisy and Rose. Obsidian stood motionless while he grinned in joy as their blood showered down on him, dying his normally black cloak and coat into a horrible dark red.

At this sight, Twilight finally understood why the reapers called one of them that had fallen to insanity a red reaper.

As the blood was drained from the floating bodies, Obsidian simply tossed them into one of the piles by magic. Then, he dragged a new victim into the air. A fairly large red stallion. Big Macintosh.

How he ended up here when he was just at the farm minutes ago was beyond Applejack. The sight shocked her so much that she lost control over her voice.

“No! Stop!” the orange mare shouted.

A moment later, she covered her mouth as she realized what she had just done. Hoping they could hide themselves again, the two mares quickly walked to the other side of the building.

Obsidian remained calm, simply biting hard into Big Macintosh’s neck and tearing open the aorta. Then, he tossed the heavily bleeding stallion into a pile, leaving him there to die.

Twilight’s and Applejack’s mouth fell open as they stared at the reaper with wide open eyes and tiny pupils, complete trauma filling their minds.

The red reaper slowly leaned his head back, further and further, until he looked right back at them with his face upside down and grinning widely with his blood-imbued fangs. A sight just as freakish as it was terrifying.

Out of this position, Obsidian summoned his scythe and turned around, throwing it at the two mares. Both quickly jumped out of their cover, dodging the scythe narrowly.

But Obsidian wasn’t done yet. Still grinning, he simply tilt of his head, causing the scythe to redirected in flight and shooting it right back at them.

Neither of them did see that coming. But while Twilight was able to dodge the scythe, Applejack couldn’t react fast enough.

The blade pierced through her chest, sending her flying along with the scythe into the next best wall. As Twilight turned around, it was already too late.

“Nooo! Applejack! No, please no!” she instantly started crying out.

The purple mare rushed over to her friend, pulled the scythe out of her body and trying to cast a spell. But it was too late. All Twilight could do was watching as Applejack’s soul rose out of her body and lifted into the night sky.

The purple mare held the lifeless remains of her friend closely and started crying heavily. While she cried, Obsidian made entirely different noises.

The red reaper busted out in laughter, gazing at the pitiful scene before him.

Soon, he calmed down again and started walking towards the purple mare, only using his hind legs and wobbling around as if he was drunk of madness and violence.

“What is the matter, Twilight Sparkle? Are you not happy that I spared her of the torture I gave to the other ponies?” Obsidian asked in a high voice.

As Twilight saw him approach, she let go of her friend immediately and started backing away.

This thing in front of her looked nothing like the reaper she knew. It was walking upright and dripping in the blood of ponies. Its fangs were bloody and the saliva mixing with the blood created gooey red string going down from the mouth.

“Obsidian... please... you have to stop this. This isn’t you. You are not a monster,” Twilight spoke, her voice hoarse from all the crying.

“This is where you are wrong, Twilight,” Obsidian countered. “Right now, I am more myself than I have ever been in my entire life! I was such a fool all these years. I never understood why demons enjoyed torturing, killing and eating ponies. But now I do. It is a joy beyond anything I ever experienced before! I feel so alive! So happy!”

The red reaper went down on his four legs again and began to giggle while staring at Twilight with his head tilted sideways.

Twilight kept backing away. Her mind was a complete mess, filled with extreme trauma, fear, shock, sadness and regret.

Obsidian’s focus fell on Applejack’s body. He used his magic to let the scythe fly back over to her. Then, he made it slice open the chest and cut out her heart, which then flew into the reaper’s left front hoof.

“I have to thank you, Twilight Sparkle. Should you have kept your promise, I would have never made this discovery. Now, I have changed my mind. I no longer wish to die. In fact, I do not ever want to die!” Obsidian explained.

After he finished speaking, he put the heart into his mouth and started chewing. Even while doing that he kept on grinning, causing the blood to flow out of his mouth along with bits of flesh.

No. That wasn’t Obsidian anymore. This beast in front of Twilight may look like him and have his memories, but it wasn’t the black stallion anymore. He was gone. All that remained now was the red reaper.

Obsidian swallowed and started approaching Twilight again, letting his scythe levitate right by his side.

“Pathetic ponies. So weak and fragile. They stand no chance against the superiority of a reaper. It is quite disappointing how quickly they die. Fortunately, I have not run out of ponies to play with, yet! Ready for a game of tag, Twilight Sparkle?” the red reaper asked in a sadistic tone.

Twilight instantly turned around and started running away. After she jumped around a corner, she teleported herself to the other end of the village, hoping he would lose track of her.

But somehow, Obsidian was able to follow. Each time she teleported, he landed right behind her just a moment later.

The purple mare screamed loudly in panic. She tried to escape the village, but whenever she got close to the border, Obsidian appeared in front of her, swinging his scythe at her.

Teleporting out also didn’t work. Obsidian brought her right back each time.

The chase went on for seven minutes before Twilight finally started getting exhausted. By now, Obsidian wasn’t chasing after her from behind, but rather hid himself in the shadows.

Twilight’s eyes jumped around constantly, hoping to see where the red reaper would be coming from.

Suddenly, he shot out of a corner in front of the purple mare, wielding the scythe between his teeth and raising it to strike. She tried to stop, but by the time she reacted, she was already in front of him.

“You’re it,” Obsidian spoke, swinging his scythe.

A black mass shot out from another corner, pushing the purple mare away. With a loud metallic sound, the strike was blocked with another reaper scythe.

After Twilight recovered from the sudden push, she noticed another elder reaper with light blue coat and white mane had appeared in front of Obsidian, using her own scythe to stop his. It was elder Crystal Blossom.

The red reaper lifted his scythe to strike again. Just as he did so, another scythe came flying to him, tearing his own out of his grip.

Directly afterwards, Derpy Hooves landed behind Obsidian, picking up her scythe again and aiming the tip against his back.

Suddenly, reapers appeared everywhere, surrounding Obsidian and aiming their scythes at him. It seemed like the moment he started slaughtering the villagers, Derpy ran away to request support.

The grin had disappeared from his face and instead, he gained a troubled expression.

“I never thought I would witness the day another red reaper would arise,” Crystal commented.

“You... you of all... how could you do this, Obsidian?” Derpy wondered angrily.

The grin on the red reaper’s face slowly returned. He moved his head sideways to look at the gray mare behind him.

“A better question would be why none of you do this! You can not possibly imagine what you are missing out! Rending flesh... spilling blood... causing suffering and terror... it is the greatest pleasure that can possibly be achieved!” he replied.

Now another familiar reaper mare stepped forth, Lady Truesight.

“Elder Obsidian Shards. You have turned your back against Mistress Celestia and gone down the red path. You have betrayed everything we stand for. Now, you will face the consequences. By the will of our mistress, you shall be executed,” she spoke.

Simultaneously, the reapers all lifted their scythes.

“No! Don’t kill him! I can find a way to turn him back to normal! There... There must be a way to undo this all!” Twilight shouted.

"No, keeper of magic. There is nothing that can be done for him or the villagers anymore, besides ending their suffering. Leave this place immediately. We can not risk losing you now as well,” Truesight replied.

She gave the signal to strike. Yet, the execution was unexpectedly interrupted.

Countless black arms grabbed the scythes and held them from striking Obsidian. As Twilight and the reapers turned their heads, they discovered Slendermane standing close to them.

Instantly, many more high ranked demons jumped out of the dark and now surrounded the reapers.

“What?! Where did they come from? Why didn’t we sense them?” Derpy shouted out in confusion.

With a swing, the reapers regained control over their scythes and jumped in battle stance, forming a ring around the red reaper. While those in the inside kept facing him, those on the outside faced the demons.

“They must have been hiding here the whole time. The aura of death Obsidian caused in this village had covered their presence,” Crystal analyzed.

Slowly, Obsidian started laughing again. Along with his laughter, the demons started grinning.

“What a pleasant surprise! Who would have thought the creatures I fought all my life would come to support me! What do you say now, Messōrēs? Even the demons are on my side!” the red reaper boasted.

Twilight looked around in panic as there were demons all around her. But something was strange. Although they were looking and grinning at her, their main focus remained on the reapers. Not a single one even seemed to think about killing her.

Obsidian slowly picked up his scythe again.

“You want my soul?” he asked, laughing a bit.

His expression suddenly became serious and he went into battle stance himself.

“Then come and tear it out of my body!” he shouted and lifted into the air.

The reapers in the inner ring followed immediately, but found their path to the red reaper cut off by demons.

A furious battle broke loose in a scale Twilight had never seen before. The demons completely disregarded her and only attacked the reapers, seemingly trying to keep them away from Obsidian.

Spells and slashes were flying all over the place. Occasionally, a demon became consumed. But none of the reapers could advance on Obsidian.

Each time one of them managed to teleport close to the red reaper, he was either able to guard himself or a demon came to his assistance.

Twilight tried to help, but whenever she attempted to concentrate in order to use arcane magic, a demon rushed to her and attacked. Sometimes a reaper came to try and protect Twilight, but the amount of high ranked demons participating in this battle was just too large.

The attacks of the demons, though, never were meant to be lethal. For some reason, they just wanted her to stay out of the battle and kept her alive.

The fight raged on for twelve minutes, in which more and more of Ponyville became destroyed. In the end, barely any houses were still standing.

The corpses Obsidian produced worked out perfectly for the demons to feed on whenever they had a moment, allowing them to regain strength.

Although Twilight was the one who set loose all these events, she now could do nothing anymore but hide and watch helplessly as the reapers fought the demons and tried to reach Obsidian.

It slowly got through to her. The demons had this all planned. Ponyville was a trap for the reapers.

Suddenly, a female scream filled the air. The battle instantly came to a full stop as both the reapers and the demons turned their focus to Obsidian.

Somehow, he managed to catch Crystal Blossom off guard and sliced his scythe from her right shoulder down to her chest. Even the red reaper had an expression of disbelief as he watched what he had just done.

As all the reapers and demons came to understand what just happened, the battle continued. While the reapers tried to charge Obsidian, all the demons formed a wall to hold them off.

Disregarding the battle just behind his back, Obsidian slowly pulled his scythe back out of the corpse and let it vanish, watching as Crystal’s soul left her body.

Seconds later, a dark aura formed around her body and the demons she had consumed slowly started to break apart, as there was no soul they could hold on to anymore.

“I... killed another reaper...” he started speaking to himself. “I have never killed a fellow reaper in all my life before...”

The other reapers used all their strength to push forward and slowly managed to fight a way through the demons. As the first came close to Obsidian, Slendermane stepped next to him and used his arms to build a sphere around him, guarding him from any attack.

The red reaper still had a stunned expression. Not because he was shocked over what he had done, but because he was impressed about his own skills. Then, the insane grin returned to his face.

“And I also have never eaten another reaper before! I suppose this would be true cannibalism,” Obsidian commented.

The reapers heard him speaking, causing them to put even more effort into reaching him.

“No! Don’t do it, Obsidian! You already have more demonic energy inside you than you can handle! If you absorb hers now as well-” Derpy shouted, unable to finish as the demons tried to silence her.

The red reaper disregarded her warning and started eating the corpse before the demons sealed inside it could break apart.

The other reapers were shocked. They knew what would happen if they wouldn’t be able to kill him very soon.

The battle reached its peak as the reapers now even disregarded their own defences for the sakes of breaking through the wall of demons that separated them from Obsidian. As the first broke through, they immediately started attacking Slendermane.

By now, the reaper cloak had flown off and Obsidian devoured a large portion of the corpse. Fresh blood coated the old layer on Obsidian’s body, which had started to dry a little.

After a while, he stopped feasting and grinned hugely, reaper blood flowing through his teeth.

“Delicious,” he commented.

Obsidian lifted his head again and started laughing out loud. Louder and crazier than the times before.

But his laugh suddenly came to an end as he had the impression to be choking. Although the air ran freely in and out his lungs, he felt an unexplainable sensation of suffocation.

His vision rapidly turned blurry and the last bit of his remaining mind simply ceased from existence.

Now even the reapers seemed to panic. More and more broke through the demons and assaulted Slendermane in order to reach Obsidian.

Finally, the demon let down his guard, enabling Lady Truesight to ram her scythe through the red reaper’s stomach.

Several more reapers followed up soon, piercing their scythes through every bit of Obsidian’s body.

Slendermane retreated to the rest of the demons and, for some reason, they now stopped attacking, just stepping back and watching.

“Come on. Come on. Let his soul escape! Let his soul come out!” Truesight pleaded.

Obsidian had a stunned expression and his mouth was open. He exhaled for the last time. But it was not air that left his body.

A red cloud rose out of his open mouth. Soon after, the same red smoke escaped through the injuries the reapers caused to his body. A sight that seemed to satisfy the demons deeply and caused them to grin devilish.

“By my mistress... Step back! Step back!” one of the elders shouted.

The reapers immediately retrieved their scythes and jumped to distance, letting Obsidian’s body fall to the ground. Even the demons seemed to react to the order as they slowly backed away.

This situation was exactly what they wanted.

“Messōrēs... prepare yourselves... we are about to face Malice again,” Truesight announced.

Many of the apprentices started shaking now. That was the worst possible thing that could have come out of this battle.

Right now, they could do nothing but watch as more and more red darkness escaped from Obsidian’s body, which slowly lifted into the air.

The dead reaper got turned back around and placed back on his four legs. Although he was just a lifeless corpse now, he stood upright, looking at the reapers with an expression only dead ponies have.

Suddenly, Obsidian’s body seemed to start rotting in extremely accelerated speed. Right before their eyes, the skin started falling off from his face, the rest of his body following up soon.

By now Twilight wasn’t doing anything more but watching the events in trauma. Her mind had failed her. Not even regret was left to steer in her. Just pure, utter fear.

The rot crept through Obsidian’s body, causing the flesh to fall off bit by bit in a matter of seconds. As even his red eye fell out of its socket, Derpy couldn’t take the tension anymore.

“You damn beast won’t come back here a second time!” she shouted while charging from the side.

Before anyone could warn or stop her, the rotting corpse reached its right front leg out sideways.

It instantly tore away any flesh that was left on it, letting a massive black and blood covered skeletal arm shoot out. It was easily large enough to fit the whole reaper mare into it, grabbing her violently and ramming the long sharp claws at the fingers into her body.

The other reapers could do nothing but stand there in shock as they watched the arm squeezing Derpy with enormous force, causing her bones to break, the claws to wander straight through her body, the mare to throw up blood and her glass eye to pop out.

Finally, the skeletal arm turned into the same black cloud only reapers are able to create and surrounded the gray mare. As it manifested back into an arm, nothing but her reaper cloak and a large amount of blood stuck to the black bones was left of Derpy.

Before he even completely broke free, Malice already devoured the first soul by using the consuming abilities his cloak granted him.

While the cloak flew away, the hand came down to the ground, pushing the rest of the body upwards.

Now the left arm of Malice tore free, helping to push the small body upright as it got torn apart more and more from the sheer size of this demon.

Obsidian’s tail fell off and revealed a long, black, skeletal tail with an extremely pointy spike at the end.

Now the legs grew to their true size, tearing through the skin and flesh and causing it to fall off, creating two massive black and blood covered bone legs with hooves at the ends.

Malice lifted himself upright and all the remaining organs fell right down to the ground, revealing a massive black ribcage.

The thin skin on the bat wings just crumbled away, revealing two giant black skeletal wings, also having incredibly sharp tips.

Even the black skull changed shape, growing a bit longer. The single horn on the forehead became split into two, which then shaped themselves like goat horns, growing from the top of the skull to the back, down a bit in a curve and back in front, creating two very pointy black tips next to the massive jaw of Malice, which was filled with shark-like black teeth.

All along with the transformation, the reaper cloak adapted to the changes, growing in size and forming sleeves, which went around the demon’s arms and creating holes in the back for the wings to fit through.

Malice towered in front of the reapers in his full size of about four to five times the size of a pony like a massive structure of black bones, red darkness flowing around him.

As the black in the empty eye sockets became replaced with a demonic red glow, they knew the transformation was completed.

The other demons, even Slendermane, bowed down to their commander while they were still standing behind him.

The reaper apprentices trembled in a fear they haven’t felt in a long time and even the elders were under a lot of tension.

Malice slowly raised his huge right hand and slid it in his cloak. Moment later, it returned with a humongous red scythe with waved blade. As soon as he fully exposed his weapon, the demon commander went in battle stance.

“All hail the demon queen,” he spoke with a thousand demonic voices at the same time.

In contrast to the reapers’ expectation, his first strike didn’t involve the scythe. Instead, he lowered himself and rammed his left hand into the ground.

A split of a second later, massive black spikes shot out of the ground below the reapers. While most were able to dodge, nine reapers became impaled.

Immediately after the strike, Malice let the spikes disappear underground again and lifted his hand, so fast that the nine reapers still kept levitating in the air.

At nearly the same moment, he swung his demon scythe the first time, slicing the unlucky reapers in half. Still in the same movement, Malice gathered the freed souls with his left hand and guided them to his mouth, devouring them.

The reapers spread out, attacking Malice from all directions. Countless spells bombarded on this powerful demon, but they had no effect on him at all.

Malice was incredibly fast and skilled. He could just block any spell flying at him with his scythe, slicing through a reaper every now and then and devouring their souls. Even the most skilled and most powerful elders stood barely a chance against him.

The other demons just remained in the background, idly watching the battle. They knew their assistance was not required. Malice was powerful enough to fight all reapers by himself, getting much stronger with each reaper soul he devoured.

One by one, the reapers fell. They attempted every trick they knew, but Malice always seemed to see them coming and had a fitting response ready.

With an ease, he sliced through the reapers not only using his scythe, but also his claws. Attacking the demon commander from behind also was completely fruitless, as he used his sharp bony wings and tail to pierce the reapers and consume them moments later.

Nearly all apprentices had been devoured by now and the remaining elders all became much more cautious, flying to a large distance to the demon. But even to that he had a swift and effective answer.

Malice imbued his left claw with a strange magic, which he then used to slice his claws through the air. Curiously, this created a tear into the sky through with he rammed his scythe immediately after.

Almost instantaneously, tears appeared all around Ponyville, sending multiple scythe blades through them in all directions and slicing several more reapers in half.

“From Discord with best regards,” Malice commented after pulling his scythe back out of the tear and letting it vanish again with the others.

“W-What?!” a few of the reapers shouted before they got killed and devoured as well.

What started as a battle now turned into a pure massacre. Reaper corpses were raining all over the destroyed village and freed cloaks were flying everywhere. The number of remaining reapers kept reducing every second while Malice grew stronger and stronger at the same time.

Another minute passed and only a handful of reapers were left. Malice now decided that he had devoured enough reaper souls to display his powers and force them to retreat.

He reached out his left hand and used Discord’s magic on it again. With a simple turn, he turned the gravity of Ponyville upside down, causing the wingless reapers to fall into the night sky and disappear.

Only the demons seemed to remain unaffected by this powerful magic, as they stood on the upside down world grinning widely into the sky below them.

Twilight was also affected by this magic. She desperately clinched to a broken wood pole which once used to be part of a house. With the void below her, she screamed in panic, finally attracting Malice’s attention.

The few reapers still alive immediately flew over to Twilight and picked her up, trying to fly her out of the spell’s influence.

Now, the demons finally reacted again, chasing after them and trying to hold them back.

But before they could reach them, a strong light beam shot towards them, followed by an arcane explosion.

Malice’s spell became broken and gravity returned to normal. Twilight was still confused and had her head spinning as the reapers changed direction, flying to the source of the light beam.

As she lifted her head, the purple mare saw Princess Celestia and Princess Luna flying towards them, both having an arcane aura around them and glowing white eyes.

“Retreat! Bring Twilight to Canterlot! Lock down the whole city and wait for my return!” Celestia commanded to the reapers before Twilight could say anything.

The reapers just nodded, flying away with the purple mare and leaving the battle to the princesses.

Curiously, the demons left their battle stances and even Malice lowered his scythe after the demi-goddesses landed before them.

“Celestia. Luna. We finally meet again,” the demon commander started.

“Malice...” Celestia spoke calmly and with a very serious expression on her face. “I hoped I would never have to face you again. But before I destroy you and protect my land once more, tell me whom you have sprouted out of.”

“It is not obvious to you? Are you truly that short-sighted, Celestia? Or has your hatred to reapers made you blind to the fact that even they have limits?” Malice wondered.

Neither Celestia nor Luna gave any kind of response and just kept glaring at the demon commander with enormous seriousness, constantly maintaining their arcane auras.

A deep, low laughter rose out of the black skeleton before them.

“Very well. Then let me show you,” Malice spoke.

With a small hand gesture, he let a piece of rotten black coat raise into the air. As it came closer, the princesses could see a skull cutie mark on it. Both Luna and Celestia became visibly shocked.

“Obsidian... no...” Celestia commented lowly.

“Yes, Celestia. Even your most powerful, most trained and most loyal reapers fall to madness...” Malice started.

Then he bent his huge body down to the princesses a bit and continued.

“...when you demand too much from them. You were aware that he knew no limits. He would have done everything for you. He sacrificed all he had, merely to serve you. In the end, he even sacrificed his mind. All just because you left him no other choice,” Malice explained.

The demon commander slowly got upright again and gazed down at the demi-goddesses with this evil red glow in his eye sockets.

“Because of this. Because of your demand, I was reborn. Now, Obsidian is gone forever. He will never find peace and with him, all of Ponyville fell victim to Nightmare Moon’s wrath.” Malice finished.

“Your kind knows nothing but destruction. All you seek is the doom of this world. How can you even dare to speak to my sister like that?” Luna asked in an angry tone.

“You will pay for this, demon. You will pay for killing my reapers, my subjects and for destroying Ponyville,” Celestia declared.

“Oh, oh, oh. Such harsh words. But from the alicorn who is responsible for all this?” Malice wondered.

Now, Celestia got angry. She stomped her right front leg hard on the ground and combined with the unleashed power that rushed through her body at this moment, she created a small earthquake.

“I am not the one who caused all these horrors! That was you! You and your whole vile species!” the demi-goddess of the sun shouted in despise.

“True. But who is to blame for creating us? For giving us the desire to end the world?” the demon commander questioned.

The expression on Celestia’s face suddenly changed into one of shock.

“What... no...” she spoke, apparently taken of her breath as she remembered the events one thousand years ago.

“Yes, Celestia. Do you remember now?” Malice wondered.

“Sister! Do not let this demon confuse you! If anypony is to blame, then it is me. But even I was merely a tool to you disgusting creatures!” Luna spoke trying to convince her sister.

“No, Luna. You were the host, but you were not the origin of demon-kind. It was you, Celestia,” Malice corrected.

“W-what? Sister. What is this demon speaking about?” Luna wondered.

Celestia had her head hanging down by now. Guilt filled her mind as she remembered precisely how everything began.

In a timespan of hundreds of years, she pushed these memories far in the back of her mind, even going so far as trying to pretend that they weren’t the reason for all the suffering that happened ever since the moment Nightmare Moon took over Luna’s mind.

“Sister...?” Luna spoke in a worried and a bit shocked tone.

The bright demi-goddess was unable to reply to her sister. Too heavy weighted the guilt on her shoulders. So, it was Malice who spoke up.

“Celestia, you saw how much your sister was suffering. You knew how lonely she was. What did you do to end this? Nothing. You knew how desperate she was and you did nothing, leaving her alone and lost in her own darkness. You were too busy posing and shining in front of your subjects. You let your sister fall to madness. You allowed Nightmare Moon to be born. And all you did when you saw what your arrogance caused was whining over your dead ponies,” Malice explained in a very blaming tone.

“No... no... be quiet. Be quiet, demon!” Celestia spoke angrily while tears began to roll down her face.

“The truth hurts, does it not, Celestia? After Nightmare Moon started taking over this land, you even made thousands of ponies sacrifice their lives so you had a few more hours to study and find a weapon to defeat our queen. Was that really worth it, Celestia? All those dead ponies? Even now, one thousand years later, is it still worth it that through your hooves, ponies continue to die the most horrible ways? Do you enjoy the blood on your hooves, Celestia?” Malice continued blaming.

“Be still, demon!” Celestia shouted in rage, her arcane aura growing three times bigger in size as she did so.

Malice, though, was very little impressed. He just laughed again, lowly and deeply, even going so far as to put Celestia back in place by casting a spell on her.

With a snap of his fingers, thickened pony blood formed at her front hooves. Celestia’s immediate reaction was to jump back a little and try to scrape it off, but the red liquid was very slimy and sticky.

Slowly, countless faces formed in the blood, representing all the ponies that died through her orders. Their expressions were of horror, suffering and desperation. Then, the faces even began to speak.

“Why, Princess Celestia? Why? Why did you kill me?”

“It hurts! My neck! It hurts so much!”

“Why did you do this to me? I thought you loved your subjects! Why did you make me watch my daughter die and then killed me as well?”

“Whatever I have done, I’m sorry! I’m so, so sorry! Just please. Please make it end!”

“What are these black creatures? What happened to me? I’m rotting! I’m dead and rotting, but still awake! What are all these black things?”

“Mommy? Daddy? Where are you? It’s so dark and cold here! I’m scared! I’m scared! Mommy! Daddy!”

“Help me! Please! Please, Princess Celestia! Help me!”

“Ahhhh!”

“What did I do to you, Princess Celestia? Why do I deserve this?”

By now, Celestia had lost her arcane aura and her eyes returned to normal. She just sat on the ground, shaking heavily while staring at her front legs, her tears flowing freely in regret and guilt.

“Celestia! Sister! Come back to your senses! This is a trick!” Luna shouted at her sister.

The faces continued screaming and begging. Celestia hung her head again, the tears still flowing.

“Oh great and divine demi-goddess of the sun. You can not escape your burden. You tried for more than a thousand years now. It is your fault Nightmare Moon was born. It is your fault millions of ponies died gruesome deaths, continuing even these days. My mere existence and all actions connected to it are your fault. Because you did nothing to help your sister, to prevent her from becoming insane. You tried to run away, made reapers receive the punishment that was meant for you. With all this, you only made more and more ponies fall to madness. Just have a look around! Open your eyes to the truth, Celestia! You caused this! It... Is... All... Your... Fault!” Malice continued, nearly shouting at the end.

“Shut up already, demon! Even if what you say is true, it is, was and always had been your kind who dealt the greatest damage to Equestria! If it weren’t for you and your lust for blood and horror, all this would have never happened! We would be standing in the lively village of Ponyville I still remember from my visit, and not in its blood and flesh covered ruins!” Luna shouted back at the demon commander.

Again, Malice laughed a bit.

“We do only what you intended us to do. We are all just the children of Nightmare Moon, the queen of demons, your hatred and insanity. We are all just a glimpse of what you once used to feel for ponies. Even though these times are over, your past feelings have manifested into Nightmare Moon and she still haunts this land,” Malice countered.

Luna started to growl now, her expression full of anger. Finally, Celestia had stopped crying and spoke up again, her focus still lowered to the ground.

“You are right, Malice... I tried to hide everything bad in the dark... Along with that, I tried to hide my guilt. I failed to protect my sister from herself and it is my fault pony-kind has to suffer, even today... that is my burden and I will have to carry it until the end of time itself...”

Celestia suddenly smashed her front hooves to the ground. While doing so, she reactivated her arcane magic, broke the curse Malice cast on her and focused him with a determined expression.

“But this suffering of my subjects ends now!” she shouted at him.

“Indeed it will. Once you finally meet your punishment, Celestia. You as well, Luna. For that you were too weak and acted as the host for the most powerful demon in this world. Both of you gave birth to demon-kind. Now, after both of you fall, I shall help my queen rise again. She shall return from the souls of your precious subjects and be stronger than ever before. Once we have her back, then we, the demons, will finally be able to drown this world in agony and despair,” Malice announced.

“All hail the demon queen,” the other demons praised in the background.

“This is not going to happen, demon! We will protect Equestria and return it to harmony, once and for all!” Luna countered.

“Harmony?” Malice asked.

Now, he couldn’t hold back a loud laugh anymore and with him, all the other present demons began to laugh as well.

“Do not be so foolish, Luna. This land never was in harmony! It was discovered in desperation, founded in distrust, taken over by chaos and conquered by madness! Because of your failure, because of your arrogance, this land is now about to break apart under its own corruption. The forces are already trying to balance themselves out. Light dominated for far too long and darkness was fought and enslaved for a too long time as well. Do you not see, Celestia, Luna? This land has to be ruined entirely. Nothing must remain... and this is what I will do, once my queen is back,” he continued.

Malice went back into battle stance, all the demons following him. Celestia and Luna as well got ready to fight.

“It all starts here, demi-goddesses of day and night. Right here... With your deaths!”

---

Roughly an hour passed until the last remaining reapers arrived in Canterlot. Malice had killed and devoured every last elder, so they came to an agreement that Lady Truesight, as the strongest and oldest one left, should take over their guidance for the moment.

Twilight Sparkle was returned to her old library tower. After all the things she had witnessed tonight, she was under trauma. For hours, she just sat there in place, her pupils shrunk to tiny beads, her mouth open, her ears dropped and shaking all over. No reaper or pony could get her to react.

It was all just too much for her. Mostly because she was the one who set loose this chain of events. Twilight could hardly believe how quickly everything went down to the point of complete destruction. None of her friends were left anymore.

Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash died weeks ago.
Rarity was tortured to death and beyond.
Applejack died before her very eyes.
Finally, Malice was created out of Obsidian’s soul while she was watching.

With the way everything developed, Twilight could almost be certain that even Fluttershy had been overpowered by demons at this point. After all, there were no tracks of her ever since the incident began.

Hours passed and Twilight recovered only very slowly. The trauma was gnawing heavily on her and the fact that she blamed herself for all that happened tonight made it only much worse. Her only remaining hope was that the princesses would succeed in defeating Malice and by doing so set things somewhat right again.

---

In just an hour or two, the sun would be coming up. Twilight had been up until now. She was tired and mentally drained from the horrors. Yet, she was completely scared of going to bed, since she knew she would have extremely gruesome nightmares.

By now, the purple mare was moving again. She started looking around the library, trying to distract herself by analyzing the place she had so many memories of.

The library looked different from the time she left Canterlot. Books were arranged differently, decor had been moved and observation instruments had been replaced with better ones. It seemed like several other students had been living here in the past years. Still, a few things were as they used to be, allowing Twilight the luxury of distracting herself by diving into happier memories.

Still, her guilt, trauma and worry resurfaced frequently, forcing Twilight to walk over to the large window she used to spent hours in front of, gazing at the stars or watching the Canterlot ponies on the streets while reading a book.

Her focus was stuck in the direction of Ponyville. The village could not be seen from here, not even the smoke. She had no chance to possibly gain any information on how the battle against the demons was developing there. Not even the reapers could help her, since they were ordered to stay in Canterlot and guard the city. She wondered if the rest of Equestria even knew about what happened to Ponyville.

Twilight dropped her head. Tonight, her life had changed radically in an extremely short amount of time. She had no idea how things were supposed to go on from this point. Even if the princesses would win, how could she live on with this guilt in her heart and these horrible images in her mind? How could she just pretend everything would be fine again and go on? How would she be able to leave all these horrors behind her when they were constantly present in the shadows?

Minutes passed and finally, a scroll appeared in front of the purple mare, containing the royal seal. A spark of hope reignited in Twilight and she quickly unrolled the paper, followed by a huge relief filling her heart when she recognized that it was written by Princess Celestia.

“Dear Twilight Sparkle, my faithful student,

I am glad to inform you that Luna and I were capable of defeating Malice and disbanding the troop of demons under his command. I can imagine that what you have seen tonight must weight on you heavily, but it is important that we find out how it could come to these events as quickly as possible. I am sorry to ask this of you, but I need you to come to Canterlot Castle for a witness report.

Please, meet me in my throne room within the next hour.

Your mentor, Princess Celestia.”

Twilight swallowed hard. Now, she was forced to tell Celestia that all this was her fault. The purple mare knew her mentor very well and after all she had experienced, she was even more convinced than ever before that Celestia wouldn’t punish her for her actions.

But still, resuming this all would be hard for her and she knew Celestia would be disappointed and angry that she completely disregarded to inform her of this important event. Yet, she figured that Celestia might come to the same conclusion as hers: that her guilt and these gruesome memories were already punishment enough.

The purple mare turned over to the front door and opened it by magic. Then she went on her way to Canterlot Castle.

---

Half an hour later, Twilight found herself walking through the long corridor towards Celestia’s throne room. It was a hall of many memories. The celebration after Discord’s defeat and the wedding of Princess Cadence and Shining Armor were just two to name here.

The large gate separating the hall and the throne room was still closed, but slowly opened up as the purple mare approached.

Since it was still night-time, it was very dark in Celestia’s throne room. But Twilight could see the large silhouette of the bright demi-goddess, sitting on her throne with her long mane and tail waving gently in the air by magic.

“I have to apologize to you, Twilight Sparkle,” Celestia began. “It is quite selfish of me to ask you here at this hour, especially after you have been through so much. But I hope you understand how crucial your still fresh memories are. Please, step forth, my faithful student.”

Twilight slowly went inside and bowed down to her mentor at the steps up to the throne.

“Princess Celestia... I... I’m so sorry... It is all my fault,” the purple mare started, starting to cry again.

“Shh, Twilight. It’s all good now. Come to me. I promise I won’t be mad at you,” Celestia offered.

Still crying, Twilight slowly started climbing up the stairs, while Celestia sat idly on her throne.

Suddenly, Twilight stopped. Something felt weird.

“Princess Celestia... where is the moonlight? Did you seal the windows?” the purple mare wondered.

“Is that of importance right now? Come here, Twilight. I want you right by my side and I want you to tell me everything you know,” Celestia stated.

The purple mare hesitated. Something just felt really weird about this situation. She just couldn’t point out what it was.

Finally, she decided to remove the wooden barriers at the windows, using a levitation spell. As the moonlight fell on the throne, Twilight came to understand with a shock what was truly going on.

The long waving mass in the air was not hair, but a cloak. The large silhouette on the throne did not belong to Celestia, but to Malice. He faked her voice to lure her into his range.

Twilight instantly took a leap backwards in fear, falling down a few stairs. Malice’s empty eyes sockets started glowing red again as he realized he was busted.

“Very smart, Twilight Sparkle,” the demon congratulated in his true voice.

The purple mare quickly got back on her legs and started to run towards the gate. But before she could escape, Malice closed and locked it with a simple hand movement.

Twilight tried to open it again, desperately casting every spell she knew on the doors to break the incantation that held them locked, but it was no use. Malice tightly sealed them with a magic stronger than her own.

The demon commander laughed again, low and deep. Twilight realized she had no choice but to turn around again.

Pressing herself against the gate, she stared at Malice in complete fear.

“Ho-how did you get here unnoticed? Where are Celestia and Luna?” Twilight asked in panic.

“Right here,” Malice replied.

In the dark, it seemed like he was grabbing a few large bags and threw them down the stairs. But as soon as they rolled into the moonlight, Twilight realized that those weren’t bags.

The purple mare collapsed to the floor as she stared at the severed heads of Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Princess Cadence and Shining Armor. They eyes were dull and their expressions full of shock.

“Your mentor was the first. She was careless enough to let her guard down in order to protect her sister. Luna became furious when she realized that my scythe sliced through her sister’s neck. An angry and desperate demi-goddess is a challenging enemy, but none a demon who already devoured countless reaper souls and the soul of a demi-goddess could not overcome. After my blade removed the head from her neck as well and I devoured her soul, everything became boringly easy. Cadence and Shining Armor stood not even the slightest chance against me,” the demon commander bragged.

With this act, Malice robbed Twilight of her last hopes. Their deaths hit her harder than the horrors she had seen earlier tonight.

With her mind failing and unable to cope with the sight before her, Twilight began to laugh and cry at the same time.

Slowly, she felt the same sensation taking her over again she felt months ago. Then, she suddenly stopped, shook her head wildly and closed her eyes, holding her head.

“No. Keep it together. Keep it together. Keep it together. You don’t want to end up like Moondancer and Obsidian. Don’t let the demon inside you win,” she spoke to herself.

Malice turned his black bony head sideways a little, apparently in confusion.

“Are you truly able to resist us?” he wondered.

Thirty seconds passed while Malice observed the purple mare and her battle against her own inner demon. Surprisingly, she stopped shaking and took a deep breath in.

As she exhaled and opened her eyes again, they turned white and a purple arcane aura formed around her body.

“Yes. Yes I can. Obsidian was right. I have become stronger and more resistant to Maledictum Insania. You are not going to get a demon out of me,” Twilight replied calmly.

“Impressive, yet disappointing,” Malice stated while getting up from the throne and slowly walking down the stairs. “It seems like your encounter with the second corrupted star did not have the full effect we wanted. But that does not matter. You, too, will give your soul to the demons.”

“I don’t care what you beasts have planned. I won’t take part in all this anymore! I’m not going to let you have my soul!” Twilight responded.

“You have no choice, Twilight Sparkle. Even if you refuse, do you think you stand any chance against me now?” Malice wondered.

“No. Most likely not. But I will still fight! I owe this to my friends, to Obsidian, to the princesses, to my brother and to all of Ponyville! Even if I stand no chance against you, it still won’t change my decision!” the purple mare explained while getting in battle stance.

The demon commander laughed again shortly.

“An amusing choice of words, Twilight Sparkle. ‘Your decision’. It was your decision that set loose this chain of events to begin with. You must be a very dull and naive mare if you do not realize what is happening right now,” he spoke.

“You... you mean...” Twilight stuttered in fear.

“Yes, Twilight Sparkle. The prophecy is coming true. By being so ignorant as to deny Obsidian’s death wish and selfishly putting all of Equestria at stake in order to try and rescue him, you did exactly what we wanted. You should have known that you would stand no chance against the red reaper from the very beginning. But your friendship to him has made you blind. In your ignorance, you believed wielding powerful magic alone would be enough to stop the unavoidable. Now, see where your selfishness has brought you, Twilight Sparkle. Because of your actions, all your friends are dead and I posses powers beyond any mortal creature’s imagination. Only one last step stands between us demons and the resurrection of our queen: the consumption of your soul,” Malice spoke while slowly walking down the stairs.

“My... my soul is the key to Nightmare Moon’s resurrection?!” the purple mare asked in disbelief.

“Your soul in me, after I devoured all the demi-goddesses before,” Malice explained. “Once I gained your powers as well, I am capable of lifting Maledictum Insania and forcing the fragments of Nightmare Moon to rejoin. It is time to face the truth, Twilight Sparkle. The sun is not going to rise this morning. Not this, or any other morning for the pitiful rest of time this world has. The end has come and we demons stand victorious as the new masters of this dying world.”

The demon commander now went down the last step and stood directly in front of Twilight.

The purple mare panicked, desperately trying to come up with a way to get out of this situation. Suddenly, an idea shot through her head.

The elements of harmony! They were not far from here, locked inside Canterlot Tower! If she somehow could reach them, she might be able to stop Malice!

While the demon commander tried to grab her, Twilight teleported to the left wall and cast an arcane lightning bolt at it. The explosion tore open a path down the corridors of the castle.

Malice instantly raised a force field at the hole, which Twilight immediately tried to break.

The demon laughed again as he watched her desperate attempt to escape.

“You can try to run, Twilight. But you can not escape. Not from me, not from the demons and not from the rest of the world,” he spoke patiently.

Malice raised his arms sideways into the air, using Discord’s reality altering magic on them again. Then, it seemed like he tried to grab the air and squeezed his hands closed with huge force.

Twilight became distracted as she noticed that red darkness was filling the room and something similar to an earthquake started to shake the whole castle. Her eyes shot wide open as she saw unexplainable cracks wandering through the air, coming from Malice’s clenched hands.

“No matter how much you run, the end is now unavoidable! Everything shall shatter and burn, beginning now and here! Face the unlimited power of Nightmare Moon’s wrath!” he shouted.

Malice pulled his hands down. As he did so, the cracks shot all across the room. Moments later, strange shards started falling out of the air, making the sounds of breaking glass on impact with the ground. A limitless red void appeared behind each shard.

Twilight could hardly believe her eyes. Somehow, Malice was powerful enough to shatter reality.

She quickly finished off the force field and started running down the corridor, being followed closely by the cracks and Malice.

The destruction proceeded rapidly in all directions. Everything around Twilight crumbled away and fell into the red void. In a matter of minutes, the corridors turned into small, crumbling stone paths, levitating in the red nothingness.

Twilight frequently turned around a corner in order to gain some distance to Malice and constantly kept an eye on him. The demon commander launched a variety of spells on Twilight that even outdid her own knowledge of magic, while repeatedly swinging his massive demon scythe at her.

So far, Twilight could dodge the spells and block of the scythe with an arcane shield. But Malice came closer every second, as it became more and more difficult to find a still levitating piece of ground Twilight could jump on.

By now, the purple mare completely lost orientation. She could see barely anything floating in the red void around her anymore.

Suddenly, she spotted a completely intact tower in a bit of distance. It seemed like the strong magic it was enchanted with prevented it from shattering like the rest of the castle. This must be it, Twilight figured.

Using every tiny fragment of floating stone left, Twilight teleported herself closer and closer to this tower while Malice simply flew after her. As he came to understand what she was aiming for, the demon suddenly stopped chasing and attacking her.

The purple mare didn’t notice his strange behavior and just kept proceeding until she finally arrived at the tower. Instantly she stuck her horn into the keyhole at the door, trying to open it.

“Come on! Open! Come on!” she shouted desperately.

The destruction of the castle had come to a stop. Malice remained in the distance, laughing as he watched Twilight’s attempt to reach the elements of harmony.

Ultimately, Twilight used up her mental strength. Her eyes turned back to purple and her aura disappeared as she fell to the tiny bit of floor stuck to the tower, breathing heavily in exhaustion and stress.

After a short recovery, her focus shot up again to look for Malice. He still levitated in the red, slowly approaching her.

“What did you expect to achieve, Twilight Sparkle? Did you honestly believe you could open this door? Celestia herself told you it was sealed with a spell only she can break. Now that she is dead, the elements of harmony are trapped in this indestructible tower for all eternity. Even if you were able to obtain them, you would not be able to use them. It requires six ponies, whose souls embody each of the elements’ powers. You are the only keeper of harmony left,” Malice explained in a scornful tone.

Twilight didn’t think this far. She just reacted in panic, but now she understood that there really was nothing left she could do.

Malice was strong enough to destroy Canterlot Castle with a single spell. The entire chase was just to his amusement. Twilight understood that if he really had wanted her dead any sooner, she would be dead. He let her run away and into a dead end to rob her of the last tiny portion of hope and he succeeded.

As the demon commander came closer, Twilight just sat there motionless. She had given up by now. There was no way she could escape and there was definitely no chance she could win against a demon who was so powerful that he managed to kill and devour the three demi-goddesses of Equestria.

“Finally. At least you understand that Equestria is doomed and surrender to your fate,” Malice started, about to grab the purple mare again. “Prepare yourself, Twilight Sparkle. For I will make your death just as horrifying and painful as... wait.”

The demon commander suddenly stopped.

“This sensation. I know it.” Malice spoke while getting upright again and drawing his scythe.

Twilight could see wings flapping behind Malice. Yellow wings.

“Fluttershy! You are alive!” Twilight shouted in happiness to see at least one of her friends survive.

“You have courage to come here after all this. But your courage will be the end of you, keeper of kindness,” the demon spoke.

He then swiftly turned around and swung his scythe. But something strange happened. For some reason, Malice stopped before he could hit. He became stiff as a statue and the red void around Canterlot Castle retreated, the shards lifting back into the air and in their position.

As the ground returned for Twilight to walk on, she quickly ran around Malice to see what was going. It was now that she realized that Fluttershy gave Malice the Stare.

The yellow mare had an expression on her face that filled even Twilight with enormous respect. She was as angry as never before in her life, tears rolling down her face while a fire of absolute hatred burned in her eyes, focused at Malice.

“This strength... this pure force of darkness... how can a simple Pegasus possess so much dark power?” the demon commander spoke, struggling to move again.

“You... you beast... you have killed Obsidian. The most important pony in my life,” Fluttershy spoke calmly but with a tone of extreme rage. “You will pay for this. Very, very much.”

Malice continued to fight against her stare, but no matter how much he tried, he could not bring the blade any closer to her neck than half an inch.

“Such power... I have slain elder reapers... I have devoured demi-goddesses... how is it that you can-” Malice started.

“Shut up, you bastard!” Fluttershy shouted in rage.

Twilight would cheer for her and encourage her right now, but the enormous desperation and anger of the yellow mare was so strong that even she found herself speechless.

The effect on the demon was even stronger. He was slowly forced to lower his scythe, get upright and out of battle stance.

“You dare to command me? Me?! Malice, the right hand of Nightmare Moon? You will suffer eternally for this,” he threatened.

“You have no idea what suffering is, you damn demon! You have no idea what it is like to lose everything that is dear to you, because nothing is dear to you! You demons are disgusting scum!” Fluttershy kept on shouting.

Malice kept on fighting against the Stare, but even he could do nothing against it.

“What... do you want, pony?” he asked.

“I want him back,” the yellow mare answered in a very serious tone.

The demon commander laughed a little in response.

“You are foolish if you think we demons return even a single soul we claimed. Obsidian belongs to us now,” he explained.

“Give him back,” Fluttershy demanded anew, tears of rage rolling down her face.

“You are not in the position to demand-” Malice started again.

“Give him back, you damn beast! Give me back my stallion!” Fluttershy shouted with full force, even more tears flowing over her face.

A silence followed in the castle ruins after her shout. Malice stood motionless in place while he stared down at the yellow mare.

Twilight was breath-taken from the scene. She had never seen Fluttershy this angry and desperate before. She didn’t entirely understand what was happening right now, but due to Malice’s silence, she knew something very strange was about to happen.

Fluttershy and Malice kept staring at each other for three more minutes. Then finally, the silence was broken.

“Fine. Have him back. I already devoured enough souls to base my existence on,” the demon spoke.

After that, he leaned his head back, opened his mouth and reached his right skeletal arm deep inside. A moment later, it resurfaced with a small creature covered in black slime. It was about the size of a pony.

Even Fluttershy seemed to be stunned that he actually gave in and carefully flew closer to the dripping creature.

The thing in Malice’s claw slowly opened its right eye. It was red.

“Ob...Obsidian?” the yellow mare asked carefully.

She flew even closer. The creature was simply too much covered in slime to clearly determine what it was.

It slowly opened its other eye as well. With a shock, Fluttershy realized that this one, too, was red.

Before she could react, the creature had formed a large sharp spike out of its left leg and rammed it into Fluttershy’s chest, piercing her heart. After it realized it succeeded, it grinned shortly and then merged back with Malice.

Twilight found herself unable to even say a word over the fact that her last remaining friend just got mortally injured and fell to the ground, quickly bleeding out.

Malice, now able to move again since the Stare was broken, began to laugh loudly.

“The naivity of ponies is simply remarkable. What made you think a soul the demons have devoured can be returned, you fool? Obsidian is gone forever! His soul has been destroyed and became a part of me!” Malice explained.

He lowered himself to the dying mare and picked her up, holding her into the air and letting her blood run down his arm.

“Do not worry about this broken heart of yours, keeper of kindness. You will not need it any longer,” the demon spoke while raising his scythe again.

Again, Twilight found herself unable to do anything to protect her friend. She just stared at Fluttershy, who glanced right back at her with the bit of life she had left.

But then, she noticed something. Fluttershy’s eyes kept jumping between Twilight and Malice’s scythe. For a moment, she just figured that she was scared, but then she understood.

This whole scenario was just a distraction! Fluttershy had sacrificed herself to gain Malice’s attention! Right now, he was completely disregarding Twilight and only aimed to kill and devour Fluttershy.

This was her chance! This was the only chance they would get to really strike Malice and stop him. Twilight’s original mistake was that she hesitated and only aimed to rescue her friend. Now, she would not do the same mistake again.

“I should make you suffer much more than this, but my queen’s resurrection has highest priority. Consider yourself lucky, keeper of kindness. I can make good use of your power. You will be with your beloved one again, in a form of none-existence,” Malice finished and prepared to strike.

At this moment, Twilight launched an arcane bolt at the demon’s hand. The sudden strike was strong and unexpected, even for him. The magical explosion tore the demon scythe out of his hand.

The demon instantly let go of Fluttershy, who by now had passed away. He quickly turned around, trying to grab his scythe again and kill Twilight. But by the time he faced her, she already held the scythe in her front hooves.

With one quick strike, Twilight used Malice’s own scythe against him, ramming it in his ribcage.

The reaper curse reacted immediately. Although Malice was a demon, he still used the scythe and cloak of a reaper, and these items were still bound to the same rules as all the others.

A black smoke rose out of Malice’s skeletal body and sunk into his cloak while he tumbled backwards and pulled the scythe out of his chest. He wanted to strike Twilight with it, but since it was no longer bound to him, the scythe just disappeared.

The cloak then flew over to Twilight and wrapped itself around her. As this happened, the world seemed to spin around the purple mare. Her tortured mind became broken apart by the curse and arranged in a new order, allowing her to abandon the traumatic experiences she made. Her body gained in strength and she could feel the darkness fusing into her soul.

Finally, she could open her eyes again. Malice stood before her, now nothing but a large black skeleton.

“You will pay for this,” he announced and started running towards Twilight.

Instinctively, she summoned her scythe and used it to block Malice’s claws. As he was about to use his tail as well, another reaper appeared and started attacking Malice.

Of course, a powerful and destructive spell like he cast on the castle did not remain unnoticed. It seemed like this whole plan was set up by the surviving reapers, as they now charged to Malice from all directions.

The battle was reopened, but in contrast to before, Malice had no longer the skills of an elder reaper, which was the key to his invulnerability.

Still, the powers he gained from devouring all the other reapers and the demi-goddesses remained, enabling him to kill and devour a few more reapers.

But just as he said himself, power alone does not make one invincible. The reapers pulled out every trick they knew and slowly, Malice found himself surrounded.

The reapers raced and jumped around him, throwing their scythes into the air, making it impossible for him to escape. After a moment, Twilight understood what they were doing. They were performing Tripudium Messōrum, the dance of the reapers.

As they started turning into dark clouds and formed a storm around him, Malice stopped fighting and began to laugh instead.

“Consuming me changes nothing, traitors. Celestia is dead! Luna is dead! Cadence is dead! My entire existence served only the purpose to kill the demi-goddesses of Equestria! I have fulfilled my purpose and by doing so, the path to my queens resurrection has been opened! The war is over, reapers! We won! The demons have won!” Malice shouted.

Moments later, the black storm closed itself around Malice. Immediately after, it became blown apart by a massive explosion of red darkness.

The reapers quickly formed back and became tossed all over the castle ruins, while all of Canterlot and the entire mountain it is built on drowned in the red fog.

It was clear now. Malice was defeated. But his defeat had defiled another place. Soon, Canterlot would become a second Everfree Forest.

---

After Twilight and the other reapers recovered from the explosion, they quickly gathered back around the purple mare.

“Welcome to our ranks, apprentice Twilight Sparkle,” Lady Truesight spoke.

She and many other of the surviving reapers succeeded in consuming a part of Malice. Due to that, they had turned into elders.

“Thank you...” Twilight replied and got up again.

The purple mare looked around what was left of the castle and Canterlot. She could hear the ponies screaming in the distance. The destruction of the castle, the massive explosion and the red darkness filling the air had terrified them.

Then her focus fell on Fluttershy. A large puddle of blood had formed around her body.

“Why... why did you do this?” Twilight wondered.

Another reaper approached her now.

“Forgive us, keeper of magic. But that was our idea. We became suspicious after Mistress Celestia did not return to Canterlot, so we sent one of us back to the ruins of Ponyville. This is when we found out that our mistress and her sister had been defeated. Between the ruins, we found Fluttershy, weeping over what was left of Obsidian Shards,” he explained.

“We took her to Canterlot and informed her about everything that had happened. We knew that by now, Malice would be impossible to defeat in a battle. Our only chance to defeat him was to catch him by surprise and rob him of the key element to his enormous power, the reaper curse,” another continued.

“But to do so, we needed to create a distraction. None of us would be interesting enough for Malice to change his priorities, so Miss Fluttershy volunteered in acting as a bait for the demon. She knew that there was a high chance she would not survive this and might even get devoured, but she still agreed. She said she owed this to Obsidian and only hoped that you, Twilight, would understand the plan and act accordingly. To our great fortune, you did,” a third concluded.

Twilight lowered her glance to the ground and slowly came closer to the dead yellow mare.

“I see... Oh, Fluttershy... I’m so sorry... I couldn’t save him. I just couldn’t. I wished I had been as strong and determined as you were,” she apologized while standing in front of the corpse.

Suddenly, the yellow mare started moving again. Now, after all the training in darkness and self-control with Obsidian, her power finally showed a drawback on her.

Due to her strength, she didn’t remain dead for very long. Not even half an hour after she got killed, she woke up again as an undead.

Fluttershy slowly rose her head, gazing at Twilight with dull eyes and an expression full of pain. Twilight didn’t need any words. She understood that she was begging for release.

“Celestia is dead... so I suppose there won’t be a book of death for me. I also doubt that your name will appear in any book of death now. But don’t worry, Fluttershy. I have learned my lesson. This all only happened because I wanted to save a friend that couldn’t be saved. I should just have followed his wish and killed him. I won’t make you go through the same suffering, Fluttershy,” Twilight explained.

She then summoned her scythe again and aimed it at her friend. Fluttershy opened her front legs widely, symbolizing that she was ready to accept death. A sight that brought a tear to Twilight’s face, despite the fact that she had turned into a reaper.

“Rest in peace, my last friend. Please forgive me,” the purple mare concluded.

Twilight sunk her scythe into the yellow mare’s body. She instantly collapsed and a small yellow sphere lifted out of the corpse and flew into the sky.

“It is over now... It is all over...” Twilight spoke to herself.

“Sadly... that is not true, Twilight Sparkle... look,” Truesight corrected and pointed out to Equestria.

Red clouds were rising all over the land and it seemed like it became overwhelmed by rivers of black creatures.

“They know that our mistress, her sister and Princess Cadence are dead. They also know that there are less than twenty of us left. Now, I finally understand what the great gray wall is I used to see coming... it is the end of everything,” Truesight explained.

“Is there... is there nothing we can do?” Twilight wondered.

“No... we are not enough and with the demi-goddesses dead, there is nothing that holds them back anymore. All we can do now is wait for them to come and devour us...” Truesight replied.

“We may have defeated Malice, but the prophecy has still come true. There is more than one way to resurrect Nightmare Moon. It is common knowledge to all of us that, should pony-kind become extinct, Maledictum Insania will also become lifted and the queen of demons will form back together out of their corpses. Tonight, Equestria will fall. Tomorrow, the world will follow...” another reaper continued.

Twilight didn’t know what to say anymore. She just sat down and stared into the distance, seeing the armies of demons coming closer and closer. In the distance, she could hear them laughing. In the mixed laughter of the hundreds of thousands of demons, she believed to also hear Nightmare Moon herself laugh faintly.

Yes, this was the end of everything. The demons have won the war. In a few moments, the greatest and last mass slaughter of Equestria would begin.

One last time, the reapers came together to speak out the vow which defined their lives, but in a version adapted to the situation.