A FINAL SACRIFICE

It was late in the evening, and Twilight was alone in the library. Spike had gone off to 'guard' Rarity's store overnight, as he usually did - even though everyone involved knew that just meant that he'd be spending half the night fucking her, and the other half sleeping with his cock lodged deep in her ass. Spike had told her - quietly - that Rarity's tastes were becoming increasingly dirty, too. Apparently, she liked it when he took his morning piss like that - insisting that it was just to save water and time by supplying her morning enema in that way. That, however, did not quite explain why she also preferred to clean his cock with her mouth afterwards, instead of a wet towel or something. The memory of that conversation stood starkly clear to Twilight as she writhed on the floor, biting down hard to keep from screaming in agony.

She had thought that she'd never again feel pain. However, as she had worked a spell that cleared her mind and protected it from outside influence, she had been swiftly reminded that it was only her BODY that had lost the ability to feel pain. The tearing agony she felt now came from the depths of her soul, as she finally saw clearly - and realized what she had become. What her FRIENDS had become. It all fit together so neatly that, even in her present state of despair, she could piece it together. The ancient civilization which had left behind records of the first Apocalypse - they had been spared through the sacrifice of their princess. But why, then, was a few scattered tomes all that remained of it? That question should have occurred to her earlier, but she had been too desperate, too eager to grasp at straws. Ponykind had survived, after all... just not their civilization.

But now she understood. This creeping corruption... it had started with her, then spread to her friends, and beyond. All of Ponyville was caught in its spell by now, obsessed with sexuality, overwhelmed by lust, abandoning all restraint and leaving behind any limitations. As she tried to stagger back to her hooves, wiping the tears from her eyes, she glanced over at the display-case that contained the empty fittings of the Elements of Harmony, left behind when the jewels themselves had been returned to the Tree of Harmony. She knew how it had spread so swiftly, so deeply, without anyone noticing. She and her friends had wielded the power of the Elements for years. That power remained intertwined with their spirits even after the Elements had been returned. When they had been corrupted, the Elements had been too... and through them, the Tree of Harmony, whose roots formed the very foundation of Equestria. Well, the fact that the rituals had taken place directly on top of said tree had probably helped too.

Pushing the pain away, she staggered to her hooves. Time was of the essence. She needed to act, NOW. The corruption was spreading from the Tree of Harmony - that was the epicenter. Places further away from it would take longer to be affected. If she could get to Canterlot, warn Princess Celestia and the rest, then maybe something could be done. Mind whirling, she wandered over to the display-case that held the golden fittings that had once contained the Elements of Harmony, gazing at them as she remembered all the times they had saved Equestria, wishing they could've done so just one more time.

As she looked down at them, however, she noticed something. A faint glimmering around the edges of the fittings. Squinting, she recognized it - gem-dust. Microscopic fragments of the Elements of Harmony, left behind when they were torn from the fittings to be returned to the tree. They probably still held a tiny part of the Elements' old power... and since they had been separated from the Elements themselves, and wouldn't have been able to maintain any real connection to her OR her friends, they probably hadn't been Corrupted. Maybe she could use that somehow... she was grasping at straws, and she knew it, but her highly-ordered brain was already working the numbers.

But then, it all started to click together, forming an image that made her aching heart sink so low, she was surprised her rib-cage didn't creak under the weight. Yes, those tiny fragments probably COULD fight off the Corruption, to a severely limited degree. And they almost certainly already WERE, and HAD BEEN since the whole thing started! The current state of affairs in Ponyville made it clear that the pittance of power they contained was nowhere near enough to hold off the corruption - but it would definitely be enough to slow it down in the local area. Her calculations all said the same thing - however bad it was in Ponyville, it would already be WORSE elsewhere. Her hopes, thus, were dashed. Canterlot was almost certainly a lost cause already.

But perhaps, there was a silver lining - however dim. If she hadn't realized this, she would've wasted the rest of the night flying to Canterlot and finding out the hard way. Now... she still had time. Time to find another way, or at least try. Her own library wasn't as extensive as those in Canterlot, but she DID have a very eclectic collection of magic-related literature, including a couple of Starswirl the Bearded's tomes. Gritting her teeth, she dragged everything she could think of down from the shelves, wishing that her 'faithful assistant' was there to assist her, instead of shacking up with Rarity... but how could she blame him? He was just as much a victim of the corruption as anyone else.

Her research took several hours, despite pushing her speed-reading skills to their limit. Of course, a PROPER research-project would take days, weeks, maybe months... which she didn't have. She needed to still have enough juice left in her horn to actually CAST whatever spell she found, and the mind-barrier was a constant drain. So, when she found a partial, far-from-perfect solution in a potential combination and slight modification of two separate spells - including yet another gem from old Starswirl - she immediately realized that she had to run with it. The odds had been against her finding ANYTHING usable in time - despite the terrible consequences for herself and several others, she had to take this. She simply didn't have the time to try and find something better.

With a pair of spellbooks and the jewelry that had once held the Elements hastily stashed in her saddlebags, she galloped from her library into the Everfree Forest. She could have flown, but she was already exhausted from the mental exertion, and whatever time she lost by sticking to the ground, she more than made up for in the energy she saved. It wasn't a long way, anyway, and there was a (poorly-maintained) road nearly all the way to her destination. Normally, she would've been leery to venture into the Everfree at night without some backup, considering the number of unpleasant creatures that lived there, but she hadn't forgotten her activities from earlier that day. Fluttershy - poor, corrupted Fluttershy - was probably busy pleasuring those wolves right now. And due to her constant hard work, there were no predators in the area - natural or magical - who would attack a pony.

Thus, unmolested by the local fauna, she reached the overlook. Before her, on the other side of a deep crevice, stood the Castle of the Two Pony Sisters. Looking at it, the memories of those dread rituals that had taken place there assailed her mind, making her shiver - but her destination was not there. Rather, it was inside the crevice, and with the light of her horn illuminating her path, she made her way down the steep stone staircase that led there. Down there, in a small cave, the Tree of Harmony awaited her. And even before it came into view, she knew that her theory about the corruption's main vector had been correct. Once, the Tree of Harmony had exuded a pure, white light - now, the light that flowed from the cave was a surly, purplish-red color.

The view only got worse as she entered the cave. The crystalline branches of bright-blue and white bore clear marks of corruption, their colors and contours warped into strange, disturbing angles and shades. The five 'fruits' that adorned it, and the large, central star were the worst off, pulsing with an unpleasant, dark-red light that somehow reminded her of exposed, yet still-beating hearts. The odd, gem-like chest that had sprouted in front of the tree when she and her friends had returned the Elements of Harmony to it was all but gone, having shrunken and collapsed like a desiccated fruit. Taking a deep breath, she emptied her saddlebags on the ground before it, opened the spellbooks to the relevant pages, and began piecing the spell together in her mind.

Magic whirled around her as she called up the primal, arcane force she had always been so well attuned to, drawing directly on the tree's own nigh-inexhaustible supply of power to supplement her flagging energy. A whirling aura in all the colors of the rainbow surrounded her, and her eyes glowed white. Finally, she spell was released and six beams of magic struck from her horn, to the five points on the Tree of Harmony that held the Elements. The tree responded, and its dark, red-and-purple glow began to fade... draining up and out, towards the 6 points of impact.

When the spell was finished, Twilight Sparkle collapsed to the ground, sweating and out of breath after the severe exertion. Before her, six sharp, tinkling impacts could be heard, and before her tired eyes, the Elements of Harmony hit the ground. They had the same shapes as when she and her friends had originally worn them - apple, lightning-bolt, balloon and so on - but their once-clear colors had been replaced by a sickening whirl of red, black and purple. The spell had created a form of magical convection, pushing all of the power out of the gems and into the tree itself, sucking the corruption into them instead - and then forcing the tree to reject them.

Now, above her, the tree glowed quietly as it had before - bright-blue crystal shining with pure, white power. The connection between the Elements and the Tree had been severed for good, leaving it untouched and unassailable, and with all the old power of the Elements drained back into the Tree, the unfortunate events that had led them to return the Elements in the first place would not repeat themselves. With the source thus removed, the corruption should begin to drain out of Equestria - it might take weeks, even months, but everypony would go back to normal.

Well... not quite EVERY pony. The Elements still had their original connection to her and her friends, after all. And they were no longer the Elements of Harmony - more like the Elements of Corruption. With all their old power squeezed out of them, they could do nothing to spread it - but the powerful concentration of corruption they contained would provide a constant flow into them. Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash and herself... whatever they had become already, it would only get worse. And she'd had no chance to ask them, or even warn them, before sacrificing their minds and souls for the greater good.

They wouldn't quite be alone, though. She'd seen the new Cutie Marks worn by Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo and Apple Bloom. They wouldn't be the only foals who'd received their Marks during the month when the corruption reigned. There would be dozens of colts and fillies all across Equestria who shared their fates. And even with the source cut off, destiny was not so easily altered - those corrupted Cutie Marks would endure. They, along with her friends, would remain corrupted, perverted, and consumed by dark desires, even as the rest of Equestria recovered its sanity.

She watched sadly as the corrupted Elements shivered on the ground, then started rolling across it towards the empty fittings they'd once been part of, slotting themselves neatly back into place. How long would it take, she wondered, before the services that she and her friends had provided Equestria was entirely forgotten, and they became nothing but shunned outcasts, the subject of dark gossip, due to their abiding perversions? It was a horrid thought, yet she knew that she would not have it for much longer. Already, her mind was buckling under the strain of maintaining the mind-clearing spell. Her energy was running out, and the redoubled strength of the corruption now flowing from her own Element was only making it run out faster.

Yet, there was one more thing she needed to do, before her mind was lost to her again. The crystal chest that had flowered before the Tree of Harmony stood there again, revived by the cleansing of the tree... and half-open. Peering inside, she found it empty, as expected - whatever it had once contained had long-since been consumed by the corruption, but it would still serve a purpose - namely, protecting Equestria... from her. The Elements of Corruption no longer held any power, but the right spell might still release their terrifying contents. She, who had once been the Element of Magic, could certainly do that - after all, she'd sealed it there in the first place. And when her mind was consumed by the corruption... and she found herself an ostracized pervert, wallowing in the most demented pleasures of the flesh on a daily basis, she could not say that she wouldn't be tempted to spread her taint to others.

So, with a final exertion of her exhausted mind, she lifted the Elements of Corruption into the empty chest, and closed it with a final *Click*. They had never found the keys that were supposed to open it. Most likely, whatever magic that had been supposed to generate them had been blocked by the arrival of the Apocalypse, or the spreading corruption - or both. And neither she nor Celestia had been able to open the chest without them. Thus, with any luck, the chest would now remain sealed forever, preventing anyone - including herself - from using the twisted Elements to corrupt others.

Bone-weary, she then collected her tomes, and wandered back towards Ponyville, the sky growing lighter with the first signs of dawn as she left the cave. She wasn't certain if she'd be able to make it all the way back there before her defenses buckled and exhaustion claimed her, dragging her into a deep sleep that would no doubt be haunted by perverse dreams. But she felt strangely sure that, when she woke up, she would not remember what she had just done. She'd be far too busy thinking about her next sexual escapade. With bowed head, she climbed the stone staircase that led up from the crevice, knowing that nopony would ever know the sacrifice she had made that night. And considering that she had sacrificed not just herself, but also her five best friends AND an unknown number of foals... perhaps that was for the best.

BAD END