Original Link:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zGiuYnnl2ulFW8vIvgij2dYP1hRnIRosBYhhBkICZd4/edit?usp=sharing

Like the throne room, Blueblood’s chambers were just another place for self-aggrandizement. All the windows exclusively portrayed him as a mighty, god-like being, either hovering over his cultists, holding the entire world in his hooves or displaying himself as equal with the demon queen. He even had four statues of himself in here. Merely a single BloodClaw banner hanging from the ceiling gave just so much as an indication that he was more than a self-absorbed monarch. With all this junk around, it actually surprised Twilight a bit that there was still room left for a few small flower pots and planters containing ferns. But while the purple mare was stretching out the tension and silence, apparently not fully willing to even speak to Blueblood, the others found themselves having difficulties to keep it together. Some, like Fluttershy, Derpy and Luna, just wanted to attack him straight away. Others, like Cadence, Shining Armor, Rarity and especially Celestia, had to give it all they got to remain silent. There was a lot they had on their minds and they would have loved to just let it all out in front of him. King Blueblood himself was still just laying on his bed casually, his personal Rarity clone lying just in front of him. He smiled, calmly and confidently, just letting his ‘visitors’ take their time. Eyes were frequently focusing Blueblood’s neck again and again. Nightmare’s Eye, the necklace they had been coming for, was staring back at the group, sometimes looking up to Blueblood to observe his reaction to all this. Finally, it seemed like Twilight had had enough of the awkward silence and refocused him.

“I guess you know why we are here, then,” she assumed.

“Of course. You want the throne back. Why else would you be here? I have given you quite the thrashing over the years and no matter how close I was to getting you, I never managed to kill you or get you to surrender. But honestly, did you think you could sneak up on me like that? Your magic radiates almost as intensely as the sun itself and if you think I'm so blind as to not see what is going on with the demons, you insult me. I never expected of them to be loyal. It was just a matter of time before they would eventually try to betray me,” Blueblood confirmed.

“Don’t talk yourself down like that, your majesty. You did manage to kill this one, it seems,” the clone spoke, giving off a grin that was just as arrogant and sadistic as her master’s. “Looking at that little zombie over there, I am actually really glad I made the right call.”

“I prefer to be undead over being a slave,” the real Rarity growled.

“You never learned your lesson, did you? I heard what you did to my king, years ago. That is the reason you got into this miserable condition in the first place. You brought this to yourself and all you ever had to do was to admit you were wrong. You only had to apologize to him, then he would have spared you. Like he spared me,” the clone argued.

“Is that how you are still alive? There actually is a cure?” Derpy wanted to know, still keeping a tense expression despite her curiosity.

This caused Blueblood to chuckle a bit, greatly infuriating Rarity and making her bare her teeth in tension. Hearing that there truly was a way Twilight could have saved her friend’s life and have spared her of this suffering she was and still is going through… It made the purple mare tense up and tremble slightly in rage. He was hiding the cure from them all this time. Another unforgivable crime for which Twilight wanted to see him die the most miserable way. Yet, she remained silent. For now.

“Toxica gave the disease and Toxica can remove it again. I requested a slow and painful one to be placed upon you on purpose, so you had all the time in the world to think about your actions and make amends. But in your pride, you never even considered apologizing. You would rather die a painful death and live an even more painful unlife than ever say: I’m sorry. To think it actually took a clone of you, who knew nothing about anything that had happened before she was born, to do this for you is actually quite the testament for your poor manners and judgement,” Blueblood mocked.

“Unbelievable… You did this to her just for getting covered in cake? You are a monster,” Cadence couldn’t help but comment, complete disgust written all over her face for his actions.

“Am I? I could have killed you, you know. Right there when I gained my powers. But nopony should ever say I’m not merciful,” Blueblood mocked.

“Those powers aren’t yours, you thief!” Luna called out in anger.

Fluttershy walked up to the former princess immediately, trying to calm her down again. Rarity, though, couldn’t take it anymore. She took a few steps forward, standing right next to Twilight. Her slightly mummified face never showed this much rage before, be it in her current state or when she was still alive.

“This is what you call merciful?!” she shouted.

Twilight reached out a hoof in front of her to symbolically hold her back. Though it was not easy for her to do this, since she was completely on Rarity’s side. To a large part, she just wanted to rip the necklace from his neck this very instance. It took Twilight even more of her composure to not just blast him into pieces. After all, she was hoping that, at some point in all this, she would find a way to negotiate with him. As for now, the purple mare decided to just stay passive, giving her friends the chance to finally speak out their minds.

“Keep it together, Rarity,” she requested, obviously having to force herself to follow her own advice.

Again, a short moment of silence followed. Both Blueblood and his slave seemed to struggle as well, but they were trying to not burst out in laughter. The corrupt king quickly seemed capable of recollecting himself, even though the clone still had to cover her lips with the bottom joint of her right front leg to hide her expression. During all this, Twilight couldn’t help but feel how the eye-shaped gem stared at her. The intensity of dread coming from it was just all too familiar.

“You were my enemy, Rarity. Up until that point, your sole focus was to stop my cult and prevent my reign. That never changed. You still are my enemy. So tell me, what do you think I was supposed to do instead? Letting you go, unpunished? I let all of your friends go, sparing them of any harm. But with you, I had a personal score to settle. Honestly, did you think I, as royalty, would not expect of a lowly peasant as you are to serve me? I had to punish you for your insolence,” Blueblood stated.

“I am not a peasant! Even back then, I had status in high society!” Rarity shouted again, then turned her head to the side and gave him the most dismissive glance she had in her. “But I suppose some things never change. You were a royal pain back then and you have only gotten worse now.”

“You just had to play along,” the clone started again. “What are a few demands here and there in comparison to a lifetime of status? What is the status of a popular designer compared to being a princess, or as in my case now since you completely ruined that chance, a king’s favorite slave? You could have had it all, Rarity. All your dreams could have been fulfilled if only you hadn’t been so stuck-up and fussy. Just look where it has gotten you. You have nothing anymore, not even a beating heart, while I have everything.”

“Enough!” Celestia shouted suddenly, drawing all the attention to her. “Enough. I can’t stand to hear any more of this!”

Luna herself was very close to snapping at Blueblood. But even she did not expect of Celestia to suddenly explode like that, considering how silent she had been all this time. The corrupt king seemed indifferent, though, simply smiling and caressing the cloned Rarity’s mane as if caressing a pet.

“Old habits die hard, I see. Still just as dominant and demanding as back then. Some things really never change,” he commented casually.

Celestia bared her teeth and seemed incredibly tense. She looked like she was just about to pounce Blueblood, even though her current form wouldn’t really get her anywhere with that. It was obvious she had a lot on her mind and was unable to hold it back any longer.

“I have raised you as if you were my own child. I cared for you so much. Was that not enough for you? Despite everything I have given to you, you still had to betray me like that?” the former princess of the sun wanted to know.

“And here we go again. Always the same talk. Betrayal here, betrayal there. Feels like that is the only relevant topic to even talk about,” Blueblood spoke in an annoyed tone, rolling his eyes. “Sure, you raised me after my parents died. But you never even told me anything about them. I don’t even know their names and any information on them had been completely erased from all documents. I could throw the ball right back to you, auntie. I could ask you why you did this, why you kept such a big part of my life in the dark and why you betrayed me. But there is no need for that anymore now. I know why you did it. You never wanted me to find out that they were murdered by demons. As I came to know this, I realized it was only the tip of the iceberg. The deeper I dug, the more I realized just what a despicable liar you are. So many secrets, so many dead subjects. You were a miserable ruler. So I took it upon myself to be a better one. I wanted to approach everything differently than you did, so I refused to immediately condemn the demons, even though they killed my mother and father. Now, just look at what I have accomplished while sitting on the throne. You could barely keep Equestria together, while I conquered nearly the entire world. Just face it, auntie. I’m a better leader than you could ever dream to be.”

“How dare you mock my sister!” Luna suddenly shouted out herself.

She was quickly walking forward with clear intentions to get physical. The others could barely hold her back in time before she just straight up punched him. Even though her failed attempt, prevented by Luna’s own friends, amused Blueblood, she would not be held back on her words.

“Celestia was like a mother to you and you trample on her like this without a second thought! Without her, you would have nothing! You would have ended up just like any other orphan, waiting for a family to adopt you! I, myself, have never once been treating you poorly since the day I came back! Never would I have thought you would turn against us like this! There is nothing, nothing, you could say to justify your actions!” she kept on shouting.

Again, Blueblood could only chuckle a bit, letting his focus wander back to Celestia.

“Say, auntie. Since when do you need your sister to stand up for you? Interesting how a few years of banishment can switch the roles of sisters around,” he commented, causing Celestia to become even more furious.

“Are you serious with any of this?” Shining Armor questioned, stepping forth himself. “No pony in their right mind would turn against their own family for such low reasons! You pushed her off the throne, simply because she was trying to hide dangerous knowledge? Are you really that arrogant and stupid that you can’t see she was trying to protect you from misery? You kicked everything she had given to you with your hooves, you ungrateful, spoiled brat! You are a disgrace!”

“Says the lowly guard with no royal bloodline at all who won over a princess of questionable origin to become prince himself. I am pure. I was born with this title, while you are nothing but filth. I don’t expect for such lesser creatures as you and your wife to understand my choices,” the corrupt king retorted casually.

Shining Armor now began to bare his teeth as well, growling like a wolf. Cadence looked just as grim, confirming she had the same thoughts, while she placed a front hoof on her husband’s back to calm him down. But while he didn’t seem to have anything else to add, his wife wasn’t finished, yet.

“What meaning does a title given from birth even have if you waste it like that? Shining Armor earned this, even if he is not an alicorn. You started out the same way, Blueblood, so don’t pretend to be any better than him. But all you ever did was living on the cost of others and stealing what you wanted. You never earned anything yourself,” she argued.

“Your words are meaningless to me, Mi Amore Cadenza,” the King of Corruption immediately returned, grinning at her with his head raised. “What would you know about what it truly means to be of royal bloodline? It doesn’t actually surprise me you married somepony way below your status. You, too, started out as a peasant and just worked your way up to the status of royalty. There is not one single drop of blue blood in you. I, on the other hoof, am so pure, even my name is Blueblood. How can you argue with that, hm? So tell me: Exactly why shouldn’t I just take what I want? I don’t have to earn anything. I was already born with greatness. You will never be able to understand that. You will never come near to having anything close to that.”

“You may be pure-blooded royalty, but that doesn’t make you any less of a scum,” the pink fallen alicorn growled.

“Are insults and insolence the only things you have in you?” Luna shouted out again, once more trying to get to Blueblood and having to be held back by the combined efforts of her friends. “In any other age, you would have become an outcast for turning against your family! How something like you can even be considered a worthy king defies any reasoning and logic!”

“Just how could you turn into this heartless monster? This is what I feared would happen if I told you! I wanted to protect you and to prevent you from going down a path of destruction and insanity. This rule of yours… How can you even compare it to mine? Yes, I admit many died under my command. But never, not even once, did I commit mass murder like you have. Never once did I declare war to our neighbours like you have. The sheer hypocrisy! To call me a tyrant after all the blood you have spilled, even during the early days of the BloodClaw Cult already. How can you honestly believe that anything you do is justifiable?” the white fallen alicorn wanted to know, her voice constantly switching between sadness and fury.

“Well, ask my subjects. Those who still remain are completely loyal and agree that I made the right decision to rid Equestria from all non-believers. This is what separates me from you, auntie. I am actually capable of making the hard choices. I don’t care how much blood I have to spill in order to fix everything you have messed up. If Nightmare Moon wants souls, then souls she shall have. You really don’t see what I’m trying to do here? This world is going to end if she doesn’t get her way. I am in constant negotiation to bargain the value of this world down more and more, until I can pacify her just by sacrificing most of the world, not everything. If things would still be going your way, you would just continue to fight with the same pointless strategies you have been using for over one thousand years now. Strategies which lead nowhere and only make the price of revenge skyrocket more and more. Never changing. Never adapting. Everything you ever did made this war only escalate more and more. Do you even remember what you were fighting for? Do you even remember what Nightmare Moon originally wanted? My approach to saving the world may be horrible, but it is the only one which will work. And if I, completely on the side, just happen to end up becoming an eternal emperor of the entire world, then that just suits me quite well,” Blueblood elaborated, looking at Nightmare’s Eye as he let it dangle on his right front leg, emphasising his indifference about Celestia’s feelings and her sense of morality.

“Is there no limit to your arrogance, you insane fool? What is next after that? Do you believe yourself to be so far above any rules that you think you can even overthrow the demon queen? I am stunned to have to admit this, but I am really starting to understand why the demons want you gone!” Luna yelled out once again, her rage nearly uncontainable at this point.

“Perhaps. I certainly would be far more appreciated,” Blueblood spoke casually with a sleazy smile.

“Quit it already with your pretentious good intentions!” Celestia screamed, putting her entire world of emotions into these words. ”I never would have believed the little, sweet colt I remembered would grow up to become like this. I thought you had just fallen under poor guidance. But now I can see what you truly are! Nopony, nothing matters to you! You think of yourself as the center of the world and everything has to go exactly your way, or not at all! No matter with which words you attempt to cover up your true intentions, there is no way you honestly believe there is one good thing in your deeds!”

Even Twilight had to simmer down a bit as she saw her former mentor go off like that. She had never seen her this angry before. Was she finally letting out everything she had been carrying in her soul all this time? As the purple mare looked to her friends, she saw that they were just as surprised about her become this vocal now, after entire years of speaking barely a word.

Luna in particular seemed aghast, but also had a slight glimmer of happiness in her eyes. She had been worried sick about Celestia throughout most of the rebellion. To see her finally turn around was an enormous relief to her and it couldn’t have happened at a better timing.

The words also affected Blueblood. It seemed like Celestia hit a sore spot on him, as his arrogant smile vanished. His front hoof lowered, letting the necklace hang from his neck again and instead, he stared at his aunt with a very serious look.

“Once again, you are wrong, Celestia,” the Rarity clone started again, her pose, gesture and expression all provokingly confident. “He cares about me! I’m his favorite slave! So much so that he barely even looks at the other ones by now. Isn’t that right, your highness?”

Blueblood’s expression shifted into a stoic one. Then, as he looked back to his slave, he began smiling again.

“Actually, no. She is right about that. I honestly don’t care,” he confessed unexpectedly.

The clone went wide-eyed, surprised to hear him say that. Blueblood then suddenly grabbed her shackle with both his wings and forcefully ripped it open. The clone was absolutely shocked, her pupils shrinking and her ears dropping. She opened her mouth to gasp or speak, but no noise could escape her in time before her head began to slide away from her neck and a second later fell off to land on the ground. Spurts of blood sprayed on the bed and the corrupt king, flowing down the whole bed and onto the carpet.

The group of friends all could not believe he just did that. Such a seemingly completely random act of cruelty. Why? Why kill the only living Rarity clone left, even though she belonged to him? Was this really just to emphasise how indifferent he truly was and how the only thing that mattered to him was himself? At last, Blueblood climbed out of the bed and towered before the group of friends, staring down on them with an angry, murderous expression.

“So you think you know me? You think you can do it better? Prove it! Because all I have seen from you so far is nothing but failure! Never before in history had there ever been a point where demons did not want to kill ponies on sight! But look outside the window right now! Demons and ponies, hoof in claw. You could never claim to have accomplished anything like that! So what if I am arrogant and cruel? So what if I stain the world in blood? I will be whatever I want to be, do whatever I want to do! I deserve this! Everyone and everything has to do as I say, because I am the solution! Because I can end this war! And because I can simply do everything better than any of you! I am the prince, the king, the emperor, the god this world deserves!” Blueblood spoke, louder than before.

At last,Twilight put herself into the center again. She knew they were about to lose every chance to form a kind of negotiation, though she did not regret missing out to interfere. She valued her friends more than she valued the unlikely chance to come to a deal with the King of Corruption. Everything they just said needed to be said. Now, judging by the looks on their faces, the purple mare understood that there was nothing anyone had left to say and they all felt much better and more confident. Still, she would give it one single try to get him to cooperate. She would try to elicit that maybe still existing tiny glimmer of decency left inside of him, even though she already believed it to be pointless. She had to do this, mostly for herself. To prove that she was better than him and to show him what mercy truly meant.

“It doesn’t have to be this way, Blueblood. All this bloodshed doesn’t have to be. There is another way. There is always another way. As you figured out yourself, the demons are just waiting for us to defeat you, so they can deliver their own judgement on you. We can still turn this around, but you need to help us. Give us Nightmare’s Eye. Give Celestia, Luna and Cadence their powers and immortality back. Help us drive the demons back underground. This could save Equestria. It is not too late. You can still do what is right,” she offered.

“I already made my choice long ago. What you just suggested is not one bit different to what Celestia is trying to do. You, too, Twilight Sparkle, have never learned a thing. Your methods of handling this war don’t work. I will save not only Equestria, but the entire world, by burning down most of it. So long as just a few survive when it all is over, I have done my job right,” Blueblood rejected.

Nopony should ever be able to say Twilight did not try. Even though he refused, she still did her part in leaving a moment of sense and morality in history.

“If that’s the case…” Twilight started again, finally lowering herself to a fighting stance, all of her friends immediately doing the same. “Then you leave us no other choice.”