Spike was hugging Twilight as tightly as he could. She had a foreleg wrapped around her number one assistant while she talked with her friends and the Princesses.

"I'm sorry for all the trouble I caused." she said while looking down.

"It wasn't your fault, Twilight!" Celestia said, making her student look at her. "Discord is a trickster. I should have seen this coming!"

"But I was weak!" she almost shouted. "He did the same thing to Rainbow Dash, but it didn't worked because she was strong enough to resist temptation. And I wasn't..."

"Maybe we should stop worryng about the mistakes of the past..." with a smile, Celestia placed a foreleg on Twilight's shoulder. "...and focus on introduce to the Equestrian citizens their newest Princess, Twilight Spar--"

"NO!" Twilight shouted for real this time, startling everyone in the room. "Those wings are a gift-- No, a curse given to my by Discord. I am not a Princess, I don't deserve to be called one! I am just a traitor with a weak mind..."

"Don't be so harsh with yerself, sugarcube." Applejack said, wrapping a foreleg around the young alicorn's neck. "Nopony would ever think less of ya just because a freak o' nature brainwashed that pretty mind o' yours. There was nothin' ya could do! Let's just be glad that we're all together again."

"Now that thou mentioned it..." Luna said while looking around. "Where art fair Rarity and fair Pinkamena Pie?"

The four mares looked down and sighed.

"Rarity..." Twilight started. "She... She she fell off the arena and..." Twilight closed her eyes while the tears rolled free.

"Tw-Twilight..." Spike called. "What... What happened to Rarity?"

"I'm so sorry!" she hugged the baby dragon. "There's nothing I could've done to save her. I wasn't... Myself!"

"An' we did all we could." Applejack said. "But we didn't expected the glass to break."

"What happened to Rarity?" Spike asked again, now panicking.

"SHE FELL!" Fluttershy shouted before falling on the floor and crying on her forelegs.

"She... She..." Spike's breath quickened. He started looking around at his friends, trying to find some lie in their eyes, but he couldn't.

"Ah'm sorry, Spike."

The baby dragon fainted on Twilight's forelegs.

"That's horrible!" Celestia said, covering her mouth with a hoof.

"DAMMIT!" Rainbow Dash shouted, slamming her hoof on the floor. "What the hay is wrong with you, Pinkie Pie? You changed so much!"

"And what happened to her?"

"We have no idea!" Applejack said while rubbing the back of the crying Twilight. "She simply started actin' all weird an' disappeared after the tournament!"

"Scootaloo disappeared as well." Rainbow Dash said. "But, unlike Pinkie Pie, I know where she probably is."

"And where is that?"

"D-Don't come any closer!" Sweetie Belle said, sitting on a corner of the tree house while hugging her friend Apple Bloom.

"We're not looking for trouble, Mister Ghost!" Apple Bloom said.

"Girls, it's me!" the grey pegasus filly said with its distorted voice that sounded like several males and females were talking at the same time. "Don't your remember your friend Scootaloo anymore?"

"S-Scootaloo?" Sweetie Belle asked. "Is that really you? Bu-But what happened to your coat? Your mane? And-And your voice?"

"An' Ah thought ya had died!" Apple Bloom said. "Did they lied to us?"

"No, Apple Bloom, they did not lied." the ghost explained. "I am truly dead. But I was brought back from the other side to compete on Twisted Metal. My mind was a mess then, but now everything is clear and I'm free to do whatever I want."

"You sound... Different!"

"It's because a pony's voice comes from the vocal cords, which are part of the body. Since I have no body, I speak with the voice of my soul."

"Good to know, Scoots, but Ah think Sweetie Belle meant the way ya speak. Ya sound so calm an' fancy an' stuff. What happened to ya?"

Scootaloo chuckled. "The afterlife is a beautiful place that changes a pony. You will understand when you see it!"

"Question!" Sweetie Belle asked, raising her foreleg. "If you're free from whatever was locking you, then why are you still here?"

Scootaloo stopped smiling and sighed. "Because I'm tainted."

"'Tainted'?" both fillies asked at the same time.

"The afterlife is a realm of purity and innocence. By coming here and playing Twisted Metal, even if it was against my will, I got tainted by its perversity and wickedness. If I return to the afterlife, the taint would spread and ruin the peace. Souls would return to the world of the living, bringing chaos, disorder and destruction! I cannot allow that to happen."

"A-Ah understand..." Apple Bloom said.

Sweetie Belle suddenly jumped. "I have an idea!"

"And what is your idea?" the ghost filly asked.

"First, I need to ask you something: did a tainted soul ever returned to a body?"

"Well, now that you mentioned it, some souls in the afterlife were talking about the return of Twisted Metal and how Discord would probably force pure souls to play it." she blinked and smiled. "Ohhh, I see where this is going!"

"What? What am Ah missin' here?" Apple Bloom asked. "Ah want to know what y'all are talkin' about!"

"One thousand years ago, Discord used to force souls to play his game! Specially souls of deceased players or ponies related to the contestants! A few of those souls were wished back to life and, once they died again several years later, their tainted souls were pure once again. You're a genius, Sweetie Belle! How did you know that?"

The white filly began rubbing her nape. "Well, actually, I was reading one of Rarity's novels and this happened to one of the main characters. I thought it was a good idea!"

Scootaloo giggled. "We could give it a try!"

"Who would've thought that one of yer sister's silly books would be helpful, Sweetie Belle?"

"CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS SOUL CLEANSERS!" they all shouted at the same time before high-hoofing. "YAY!"

Pinkie Pie was in a dark room of unknown location, sitting on top of her ice cream truck, Sweet Tooth; a few pieces of it were missing, many parts were smashed and the big bobbing head was cracked.

"Oh, look at you, all hurt!" she said while petting the head. "But don't worry, Auntie Pinkie will make it feel better. I wasn't watching the Princesses fix those cars all that time because it was fun, y'know!" from a toolbox, she grabbed a wrench. "It will take a while without all that fancy magic, but who needs them, anyway? They would only try to stop us from having fun, don't you agree? 'Oh, Pinkie, why are you having so much fun with such a cruel game?' they would ask." she approached her face to the bobbing head. "Obviously they don't know how fun it is to play games. Specially games you can play against your friends!" she chuckled. "Oh, but don't get me wrong, I love my friends. The thing is, some competition is always welcome. And while the main purpose of all game is having fun, winning feels great!" she chuckled once again. "Now let's start this surgery. I don't think I need to worry about time, I have plenty left. One month, actually! And then..." her pink, poofy mane, slowly deflated until it was completely flat. "The fun will begin!"

"I AM NOT GOING TO PARTICIPATE!" Fluttershy shouted from within her locked cottage.

"But Fluttershy..." Rainbow Dash called. "the Princesses--"

"I don't care! They said everything would be fine, that we could stop discord. Now my best friend is dead! And not only her, but also the stallion I... I..."

"Fluttershy..."

"Leave her, Rainbow." Applejack said, placing a foreleg on her friend's shoulder. "It's her choice! We can't force her."

"But... But..."

"A pony can only see too many deaths until they snap for good. Fluttershy can't carry on with this! An' Ah understand completely."

"Are you saying that are you going to drop off as well?"

"Hay no! Ah still have a brother an' a best friend to avenge. Ah'm not stoppin' 'til Ah feel like they can rest in peace! That freak messed with the wrong branch o' the wrong tree."

"You have no car!" Rainbow Dash reminded her. "How are you going to--"

"Rarity's."

"What?"

"Ah don't know how to explain that and it might sound a lil' crazy but, Ah took it back to her boutique, 'cause Ah felt that it belonged there an', while Ah was drivin' it, Ah felt like Rarity was there, by mah side, accompanyin' me in one last ride on her Rare Gem."

"Yeah, you were right, sounds crazy!"

Applejack glared at her friend. "Crazy or not, it's the truth! This is why Ah'll be drivin' it next time; so Ah'll have mah good friend Rarity by mah side while I crash through his front door an' wish for him to shove his whole contest where the light of Celestia's sun doesn't shine!"

"Well, we have the same goal! So, it's a promise: if either of us win, that's going to be our wish!" she spat on her hoof and presented it at the farmer. "Deal?"

Suddenly, Applejack's emerald green eyes turned into sapphire blue and she cringed. "Eww, why would you--" she blinked a few times and her eyes turned back green. "Why... Why did Ah do that?"

"I have no idea! Are you feeling well, AJ?"

"O' course! Ah'm healthy as a bull." she spat on her hoof as well and hoof-bumped her friend. "An' it's a deal!"

Rainbow Dash smiled and flapped her wing. "Well, I have things to do and places to go now. Gotta dash! See ya!" she said before galloping away while still flapping her only wing left. Applejack waved goodbye at her friend. Her eyes turned blue once again and she looked at her hoof covered in spit.

"Ew!" she said while cleaning her hoof on the grass. "That uncouth ruffian..."

Author's Notes:

My vacations are almost here, so I'll have more time to work on Twisted Metal: Equestria. Yay!