Opposition, 11 AM – Twilight (Opposition)

"Twilight! Rarity! Applejack! Wake up wake up wake UP! Rarity's store is on fire!"

Twilight went from groggy rage at Pinkie for waking her up, to cold wakefulness, the moment she heard the word "fire." "Pinkie. What is on fire?"

"Carousel Boutique! It just went up in a huge fireball!" Pinkie was leaning out the window with binoculars. "Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh!"

"My BOUTIQUE!" Rarity screamed. "Oh, this is the WORST. POSSIBLE. THING!!!" For once, she was close to right about that, Twilight thought.

"Now don't go fainting on us, we're gonna need your help taking care of that fire," Applejack said. "Even if we can't save the Boutique, we gotta keep it from spreading to the rest of Ponyville."

Twilight agreed. The Ponyville fire department was useless. Too many Ponyville first responders had had their minds broken when they tried to save other ponies from disasters Discord had caused. She could still remember the chief of the fire department skipping merrily through a flood of flammable alcohol that had once been stored water in a water tower, singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", as she had tried desperately to get him out of there before one of the random exploding spinning-top dolls falling from the sky could land and blow up in the alcohol flood. "Where is Spike?"

"He went to Sweet Apple Acres to check if Big Mac was gonna need Applejack to wake up and go help!"

"Well, nice to see the kid being useful for once," Applejack said, "but that don't help us a hill o'beans right now. Trust the fireproof critter to not be around when there's a fire."

"Why are you all standing here talking?" Rarity wailed. "My livelihood is going up in flames! Help me!"

For a moment, Twilight considered going into her workroom and ordering Discord to quench the flames. But he'd likely do so in a way that would cause almost as much damage as the fire would have, and she wasn't confident of her ability to phrase the order in such a way that he couldn't find a loophole. "Let's go. Meet me outside," she said, and teleported. As little as she really wanted to help Rarity, failing to do so might shatter what remained of their friendship, destroying their ability to harmonize and keep Discord under control. And as much as he claimed he wanted to die, Twilight didn't trust that he wouldn't take advantage of the situation if he suddenly found himself free of the spells binding him.

As she raced toward the Carousel Boutique, she heard the others behind her, galloping toward the same destination. After the incident she had barely managed to save the fire chief from, Ponyville no longer used water towers, so she couldn't do what she'd done with the ursa minor and simply grab a water tower and dump it on the Boutique. This was going to require more finesse.

---

Opposition, 11 AM – Fluttershy (Harmony)

When the roof of Carousel Boutique caught on fire, Fluttershy's heart caught in her throat. She hadn't seen Rainbow Dash leave the building yet. She bit her lip and pressed her hooves to her cheeks, nerve-wracked, until she finally saw the streak of blue shoot out of the side of the burning building.

A moment later, she saw Twilight, Pinkie, Applejack and Rarity run out the side of the library. If she hadn't already known that they were the enemy counterparts, she'd have been able to tell from the fact that Twilight was a unicorn and Pinkie and Rarity had their normal mane colors, not the ones they'd been dyed to. Time to go.

She flitted down from the tree branches as soon as she was sure the mares couldn't see her anymore. In her world, Twilight often left the windows of the library open, especially on the top floor, for Owlowliscious to come and go, but this Twilight seemed more security conscious; the windows were all closed, and seemed locked. The door, however, wasn't.

Carefully, Fluttershy flew forward, the soft flutter of her wings almost silent, her hooves never touching the wooden floor to make a single sound. Where would Twilight be keeping Discord?

She checked the basement – nothing there but the usual equipment and research materials Twilight had always kept. Kitchen – no, and it was probably a silly idea anyway. Bedrooms – no. Bathroom – no. Golden Oaks Library just wasn't all that large a place, and the huge central room that was the library took up most of the space on the ground floor and a significant part of the second story as well; as with her own home, the central room was two stories tall, with balconies. Where could Twilight be keeping Discord?

Wait. Was that a door?

Now that she thought of it, she had never been in the room beyond that door. She'd seen Twilight or Spike come out of it with books, and go in it with books, but she'd never been in there herself, nor had she ever seen any of her friends go in aside from Twilight and Spike. She knew what it was, of course – it was the book-sorting room, where huge piles of books accumulated for re-sorting and reshelving. All returned books went there, and new books for the library, as opposed to new books for Twilight or Spike to read, went there as well. But because it was part of the operations of the library proper, and Twilight never asked for help with the library itself, Fluttershy had never been in it.

She pushed the door open... and gasped. An action she regretted immediately, because it smelled awful in here. Fluttershy was no stranger to the smells animal biology produced, but normally when she walked into what she'd thought was a book sorting room, she didn't expect to smell the effluvia of a sick creature.

She also didn't generally expect to find her missing friend sleeping on a stone floor, inside a circle etched with runes, with seven raised posts around the circle, each with a metal ring at the top.

"Discord," Fluttershy whispered. She wanted to fly over to him and embrace him right away, but there was always the possibility that the evil Twilight had booby-trapped that rune circle. Fluttershy was no mage, but she knew that rune circles were nothing to be messed with.

He was so thin. The horror she'd expected to see of his wings wasn't there; they appeared to be intact from here. But he was so very, very thin. She could see his spine poking out of the skin of his neck, the feathered ridge he had in place of a mane spotty on top of it, with many feathers missing. Where his coat was supposed to be thick and furry, the brown fluffy fur that covered most of his body, it was drastically thinned, to the point where she could see the dull red glitter of the tiny dragon scales he had under there in some places. It was brushed and well-kept, but dull, none of the gloss to it that Discord's fur should have. His tail was in similar condition, the red dragon scales paler than they should be and lacking any iridescence. And she could see his ribs – even through what should have been thick, fluffy fur, even through what had once been enormously powerful muscles, she could count the unevenly spaced ribs of his chest, the random extra floating ribs that he had at irregular intervals spaced out across his entire torso and abdomen to provide extra support for his length. Like a snake, Discord had far, far more ribs than a pony – though not as many in proportion to his body as an actual snake would, and most of them were cartilage. Fluttershy could see them all.

His beard was gone. His cute little goatee... there was nothing left of it but a patch of white on the coat of his chin.

Fluttershy tossed a few feathers into the rune circle, and watched, holding her breath. Nothing. She landed, and swished her tail into it. Still nothing. Slowly she edged her hoof over the line forming the circle, until her entire lower leg was over the line, and still nothing.

It wasn't booby-trapped. She could go to him. With a few flaps, Fluttershy landed by his head and neck, where the collar around his neck was attached to a metal chain that in turn was locked to a post, and threw her forelegs around him. "Discord, oh, Discord, I've finally found you," she said, whispering because she still wasn't sure if Spike might be in the library somewhere, tears welling in her eyes. "Wake up, please, wake up... it's going to be all right, I've found you, we're going to get you out of here and get you home..."

Dark lids opened, and yellow eyes focused their mismatched red pupils on her, blearily. "Fluttershy?"

"Yes, Discord, it's me, it's the real Fluttershy. Your friend. I've come to rescue you!"

"Oh, Fluttershy," he said softly, closing his eyes again. And then he started to chuckle.

Fluttershy frowned. It wasn't a pleasant, happy chuckle. It sounded... bitter, somehow. "Discord?"

Then his eagle limb shot out and grabbed her by the neck, his talons digging into her flesh hard enough that she could smell her own blood. "Discord?" Fluttershy near-shrieked, grabbing at his talon with her hooves, trying to pull him off her neck – uselessly. Even starved and weak, he was still much stronger than she was. "Discord, what are you doing? Let me go!"

"I don't think so," Discord said, eyes opening again as he shifted position, his upper body up as if he was sitting, resting on his lion paw, even as his lower body still lay in a reclining position. He was still chuckling, but his eyes were very, very hard.

"Discord?" Fluttershy whimpered. "Discord, it's me. The Fluttershy from your universe. Your friend!"

"That old lie? I'm terribly sorry, but that won't work anymore." His voice was hoarse and not very strong, but his grip was unwavering and his eyes were fixed on hers. "But I'm glad it turns out you did come to find me, my dear. Even if it was probably because Twilight doesn't want me being turned and going on some sort of rampage across dimensions, and certainly not out of anything like actual friendship. Because now that I know what a liar you are, I can tell you I'm wise to you now... and I can kill you before I die."

No. No, no, no. What had Fluttercruel done to him? In all of her imaginings of the worst possible thing that could happen, she had never thought Fluttercruel would manage to convince him that her friendship with him was a lie. But it made sense – she knew he was vulnerable there, she knew how much assurance he'd needed that they were really friends. It had never helped that he knew perfectly well she'd reached out to him because Princess Celestia had told her to reform him. He'd never understood – she wasn't capable of lying and manipulating to that extent. If there'd never been anything in him worth saving, worth befriending, he'd have gone back to stone.

Tears welled in her eyes – a combination of physical pain, fear, the feeling of betrayal that he was turning on her, and grief for him because she could only imagine what Fluttercruel had done to him to make him feel this way. "Not... a liar..." she choked out. "Am... your friend..."

"Still lying about it? Even now?" His paw tightened. "You're committed, I'll give you that. Why don't you just come clean? Maybe I'll kill you quickly if you're honest, instead of taking my time."

Fluttershy started to cry. "Sorry... so sorry..."

Discord raised an eyebrow. "So you do admit it? You were lying all along? You hate me, and you pretended you didn't just to control me, because that's what Celestia ordered you to do?"

She shook her head frantically. "No... never... sorry I'm... bad friend... y-you'd know... if... was better friend... you'd know I care... I'm... sorry..."

The talon around her neck let up slightly. "Wait. You claim you care... but you're saying you're sorry you were a bad friend. What exactly are you admitting to here?"

"Can't... talk... please... Discord..."

He didn't let her go, but his paw released enough pressure that she could breathe, deep sucking breaths through her sobs. "I cared... I always cared... never lied, I wouldn't... I wouldn't, I couldn't... if I hated you... even if I – I was too – too scared, even if I j-just didn't like... couldn't lie like that to you... couldn't say I was your friend... if I didn't care..."

"Even with Celestia demanding you reform me?" He pitched his voice high. "Dear Princess Celestia, I'm sorry I'm disobeying your orders and I'm going to get imprisoned or banished or imprisoned in the place I'm banished to, but I just don't like the way Discord smells so I can't reform him, signed Fluttershy."

Despite everything Fluttershy had to fight down the impulse to laugh. Even now, even in the depth of such psychological torment he thought he'd never had a friend at all, Discord was still funny. But she was fairly sure he'd take it wrong if she laughed right now. "You f-forgot? If – if you'd been – if you'd been so mean you wouldn't – you wouldn't fix it... we wouldn't be friends. That... that was honest. I wanted t-to be y-your friend but, but not, not if you were j-just mean and cru-cruel."

"You wanted to control me."

"No! Wanted... wanted you... not hurt me. Or – or anypony... any crea-creature. But I..." The sobs came harder. "But I... wasn't good enough... if – if I'd – if I'd been a bet-ter friend... you wouldn't b-be here..." Fluttershy closed her eyes tightly, squeezing tears out. "Should've... let you... the light rain... should've made y-you feel welcome... ac-accepted... should've... tr-tried harder to... to get the others... accept you like I d-did... I'm so sorry, Discord, I'm s-sorr-ry..."

His talon released her neck, but slid up the side of her face and buried itself in her mane before she could pull away. He wasn't choking her anymore, but he was pulling her mane, and it hurt, and she couldn't get away. She wanted to hug him, to bury her face in his coat and sob; she wanted to pull free of him and retreat to a safe distance where he couldn't hurt her. She couldn't do either one. "You expect me to believe this."

"It's t-true." Fluttershy tried to focus her tear-blurred vision on Discord's eyes. "I came t-to rescue you, why would I—"

"Because I'm useful to Celestia," he sneered. "Or because when Twilight read my letter she realized she didn't want me being turned into a weapon of mass destruction. Not because of me."

"Yes... yes to save you. I don't c-care... about... any of that... just you. None of us... cared... about... that. Wanted to s-save you because... right thing to do... no one deserves... but that's them, I, I wanted t-to sa-save you. My f-fr-friend."

"Why?" He pulled her closer. "If you expect me to believe this, tell me why. Why would you care about me? Why would you want me for a friend? She said—" His own voice caught. "She said you hated bullies. And I am. I'm cruel, I'm a jerk, I torment ponies for fun. Why wouldn't you hate me?"

Even through the fear and grief and pity for him, Fluttershy felt exasperation. "Sh-she l-lied, Discord."

She couldn't be crying like this. She needed to be able to talk to him. The Stare had never worked on him before and almost certainly wouldn't work now, not if he believed she was a liar who was manipulating him, but if she was to have any hope of saving him, and herself, she needed to be able to talk him down. With the hiccups and the stuttering caused by sobs, it was taking her too long to say the things that needed to be said. She pressed her hooves against her muzzle, breathing only the small amount of air that was cupped within, trying to get her sobs under control.

"She says you lied. Who am I supposed to believe, the pony who was ordered by Princess Celestia to reform me, who had every reason to lie to control me and no reason whatsoever to actually be my friend, versus the one who freely admits she both hates me and loves me?"

Fluttershy took a deep, shuddering breath before she spoke, the sobs mostly gone now. "Which one of us would tell a lie just to hurt you?"

His eyes narrowed. "Both of you would tell a lie to control me."

"I wouldn't—" She took another deep breath. "I never hated bullies. I don't know if she's lying on purpose or if being corrupted makes her remember wrong, or if she was never truly me in the first place, but I never did. I – I always fantasized about how I would do something for them so wonderful and kind, they'd – they'd be so grateful to me they'd be my friend, and stop being bullies, to me or anypony. It only worked t-twice, though. Rainbow was the first."

"Rainbow? Rainbow Dash? Protector of your honor? Bullied you?" He snorted. "Now I know you're lying."

"No, she – foals are cruel. I couldn't fly; she thought flying was everything. And – and she didn't know how badly she was hurting my feelings. She didn't even think about it when she made fun of me. But then – her grandfather died. I found her crying, and she didn't want anypony to see her cry because she thought, she thought we'd think less of her. I held her, and I told her everypony gets sad, and if she doesn't cry because her grandpa died, that – that wouldn't make her cool, it would make her a pony who doesn't feel anything, even for the ones she loves. I said, if her grandfather deserved her love, then he deserved her tears, and it was okay. I didn't know she was Loyalty, then, but what I told her – I made her feel like it was safe to cry because it was disloyal not to, if that was how she really felt inside. After that, she protected me and always tried to stop other ponies from bullying me."

"And that was your greatest ambition? To convert your tormentors into your protectors?"

"Maybe not protectors. Just friends would have been okay. But yes. It never worked with any of the other pegasi or any pony in Ponyville. I tried, but most bullies just thought, me being kind to them meant they could, could walk all over me. The only other time it worked..." His talon had eased only slightly on her mane, but she'd run sharp, hair-pulling detangling brushes through that mane a minimum of a hundred strokes a day, most of her life. She could handle a little scalp pain. So she pulled against his talon just enough that she could reach him, that she could go to him and hold him, pressing her head against his fur. "...was with you."

He didn't let go, but his talon relaxed its grip on her mane further, allowing her to continue to hold him without her mane being pulled. She looked up at him. He wasn't saying anything, but his face was a study in sarcastic skepticism, an implied "Oh, do go on" in his expression... except that his eyes were suspiciously bright.

"All I wanted to do was be your friend and try to help you. I knew you were suffering – even if there wasn't anything else, I remembered what it had felt like when I'd almost turned to stone. I used to have nightmares because we did that to you. Why couldn't the Elements have helped you the way they helped Princess Luna? Of course I was glad we did it immediately after we did it, because so many other ponies had been suffering because of you, but then it sank in later and it started to hurt. You said it was lonely being in stone. I knew Twilight and Elizabeak didn't feel anything after they turned to stone all the way, but what if it was different for you? What if you could feel? How could it be lonely in stone if you weren't conscious to feel it?"

"I was," he muttered.

"I know. So when Princess Celestia asked me to reform you... I wanted to help you. I wanted to make it so you didn't have to be turned to stone. I wanted to be your friend because it seemed like you needed one, and I thought, if I'm kind to him and I befriend him, then he'll be my friend. Just like I always wanted to do with the bullies. But they didn't need me. You needed me. I felt so sad for you when you said you'd never had a friend before."

"So I was your charity case?" His voice was rough. On the edge of breaking, she thought. "Befriend the poor friendless draconequus because he hasn't got friends? What do they call that, a pity friendship?"

"No, that's just why I was looking for things that were good about you. Because normally when somepony is upsetting somepony else, the upset pony doesn't see anything good or nice about the other one. They don't want to. They just want to see the negative, because that's what being angry makes us do. But I wanted to try to befriend you, so even though you were trying to make me angry, I knew I had to be patient with you and look for the things in you that were good. And I found them."

"L-like what?"

She nuzzled her face against his fur again before looking up at him. "Even then, even when you were trying to irritate me and my friends, or set us against each other. You were funny. You were energetic. You were imaginative. You did what I asked about putting the house down and having a dinner party, even though I knew you didn't really want to and even though I knew you were just planning some other way to be disruptive."

"And th-that's all? Doesn't ssound like m-much..."

"That's all I needed to know it was worth making friends with you. When you first meet a friend, you don't know all of their good qualities. A lot of the things I love about you, you only ever showed to me, and only after we became friends."

He let go of her mane entirely, his talon resting on her withers instead, and sagged to the floor, his lion forelimb giving out. Discord pulled at her, not violently or maliciously as he had before, but pulling down against the back of her neck to bring her closer to his head, and she obliged, kneeling down and laying her head on his neck.

The sobs he'd been holding back finally escaped him. He curled around her and cried, holding her tightly and no longer hurting her, and she held him as well. "It's going to be all right," she murmured to him. "We're going to get you out of here, and get you home, where you'll be safe."

"This isn't real, is it," he sobbed. "I'm dreaming. Luna's taken mercy on—no, no, Luna's dead here, that's right. I killed her. Other me." She stroked his mane, trying to calm him. "But it can't be real. I'm hallucinating, or dreaming."

"You stop that right now," Fluttershy said, sitting up and putting just a little sternness into her voice. "This is absolutely real."

"But it can't be."

"Why not?"

"Because you're here."

"Discord, do you know how long ago you sent the letter asking for help?"

"I... I don't know... a week? Two?"

"We got it the day before yesterday. Spike received it very, very late at night. We spent the day making preparations to come here, and then we came here, as fast as we possibly could."

"Oh... oh, right. It was just... just two or three days ago? I don't know anymore, I don't know how much time is passing, they never even let me sleep, I don't know..."

"Well then." She touched his cheek gently, looking directly into his eyes. "Isn't it reasonable to imagine that we could be here to help you, a day or two after you sent your letter? Isn't that why you sent it, so that we would come to save you?"

"But why would you?" he cried, anguished. "Why would you want to save me?"

"I don't know about the others, but I came because you're my friend," Fluttershy said firmly. "I would never let a friend of mine be held prisoner and be hurt, if there's anything at all I could do to save them."

For some reason this set him off even harder. He clung to her and cried brokenly, as she stroked his mane and his forehead and the back of his neck.

 "Will you give me another chance, Discord? I know—" Her own voice caught. "—If I'd been a better friend, if I'd been kinder to you, you wouldn't have had to come here, and if you had, she wouldn't have been able to lie to you and convince you that I was lying. I know – I know nothing can prove to you that I'm telling the truth, except time. Will you give me the chance to show you that I'm not lying?" Her own eyes were filling with tears again.

"I... I guess I have to believe you," he finally whispered. "Because when it wasn't true... I wanted to die, so... so if there's any chance I might live through this... I have to believe you..." More sobs broke loose. "But if... if it's not true... if you're lying... don't tell me, don't ever tell me, please, if there's any part of you that's truly kind, even if you hate me, please don't tell me..."

"I'm not lying. But I know it'll take time to prove it to you. You don't have to believe me now, just... just give me the chance to prove myself."

"I—I do have to," he said. "Don't I?"

"You don't have to, sweetie," she said. "You don't—"

Discord stiffened. "Don't call me that."

A sudden rush of shame and a feeling of failure enveloped her. Of course the other one would call him pet names, too. "I'm – I'm sorry. I didn't know."

He shook his head. "How would you?"

"What I was saying... you don't have to do anything, not for my sake. But I hope you want to. I – I'm not going to let her just... If she's hurt you so much you can't believe anypony would care, or that I would care – she doesn't deserve to win, Discord. She doesn't deserve to defeat you. Or me."

"I'm not going to survive it, if you're lying," he said, breathing raggedly, apparently trying to get his tears under control. "I have to believe it. Even though I probably won't survive anyway."

"No, you're going to survive. You're going to be fine. We're going to get you out of here and get you home." Fluttershy moved up along his neck to inspect his collar. The chain that held it seemed to be permanently welded. She tried following the chain back to the post it connected to. There didn't appear to be any clasp, any openable links. But there had to be, if he hadn't been kept here the entire time. "Do you know how this unlatches?"

"It's locked with a spell," Discord said, his voice hoarse but no longer crying. "Try your hoofprint, she might have set it to open for Fluttercruel."

Fluttershy pressed her hoof against it in different positions. Nothing happened. "All right. Well, even if we can't unlatch the clasp, it's the collar itself that's blocking your magic, right? And that's made of leather. I should just be able to cut through that and—"

"No," Discord said, sitting up. "Firstly, I'm not allowed to let you do that, so unless the command wears off, or somepony countermands it, you'll have to be able to knock me out or something to take it off. Secondly, if you do it now it'll kill me."

Fluttershy's eyes went wide. "Kill you?"

"Twilight – their Twilight, the one from over here – booby-trapped it. She made me drink a glass full of tiny crystals that feed on chaos magic. They're suppressed by the collar, but if it stops working, then the crystals will feed on my magic, and grow. And I wouldn't be able to get rid of them with my magic, because using chaos magic on them to try to teleport them or disarm them or something would just feed them."

"Oh, no!" Fluttershy couldn't stop herself from pressing hooves to her cheeks in horror. "Does – does that mean you'll never be able to use your powers again? Does that collar have to stay on forever?"

He smiled weakly, trying to be reassuring. "Don't be silly, Fluttershy. Just get me a handful of laxatives and I'm sure it'll be taken care of in a day or so."

"...Why laxatives?"

"They're in my stomach. Well, my intestines now, I threw up before and they didn't come up so I guess they're only coming out the long way. But they will come out, eventually. We just – we can't go home until they do. The collar won't work at home, it's powered by these Elements and their power won't cross dimensional boundaries, and they're too corrupted for our Tree of Harmony to honor any reciprocal agreements."

"Oh." Fluttershy swallowed. This was bad, but not quite as bad as she'd feared. "Oh, I – I was hoping we'd be able to get your help, but... I guess Rainbow and I will have to make do."

"My help? With what?"

"Well, um... we think Twilight and the others were captured? There was a big fight between everypony and their counterparts, except for me – Spike was pretending to be me, but Fluttercruel wasn't even there, Rainbow says – and after Rainbow got away from her counterpart, she found some of the others' saddlebags in the forest, and no sign of them. So we were hoping we could get you free and then just have you teleport them to us, but I guess that won't work..."

"You were right. Spike said they were captured, but I didn't believe him because I didn't believe any of you would really rescue me." His head drooped. "You could try giving me an order, but I don't think it will work..."

"Oh – oh, right, you can use your magic if they order you to. Would that work for us, though?"

"I doubt it, but it's possible. Twilight tested with a Changeling impersonating Applejack, one time. It worked when I didn't know it was a Changeling, and stopped working as soon as I was told. I know you're Fluttershy, but I also know you're not that Fluttershy."

"Um, I guess we can try," Fluttershy said. "Discord, I order you to teleport Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie and Spike, just the ones from our universe, here."

Nothing happened. Discord shook his head. "No. It won't work."

"What if... what if, uh, you pretended I was her?"

"You dyed your mane," Discord said dryly. "I saw Fluttercruel just a little while ago. I know her mane's not purple."

"Oh... well, maybe then it would work with Rainbow! She didn't dye anything. I'm going to have to go get her anyway; I'm not strong enough to operate the kind of bolt cutters we'd need to cut through these chains."

"Nopony told me not to damage the chain," Discord said. "I'm allowed to help you, as long as they don't think to order me not to."

"Okay. So then, I just have to regroup with Rainbow Dash, and we have to find some bolt cutters, and then lure this Twilight out again..."

"You have to go to Canterlot," Discord said, head drooping even farther. He laid down, pillowing his head on his forelimbs. "Spike said that this Twilight recommended that Celestia execute them. Don't muck around with trying to find bolt cutters. Rescue your friends. And then run."

"Run?"

"Don't come back." He closed his eyes. "Leave me. Head for the portal and get out of here."

"No! Why would I do that?"

He looked up at her. "Twilight's going to kill me tonight, in a ritual that she thinks will give eternal life to ponykind. But what it's actually going to do is kill this entire planet. I don't think you have time to save me and save your friends, and once it happens, if any of you are here, you'll die. You've got to rescue them and get out."

Fluttershy stared. "If it will kill everything on this planet... why don't you tell her so?"

"Then she'll figure out some way to modify it so it does something different... and I know her, or rather, I know what she's been turned into. What she wants isn't possible, but if she tries really hard, she can get something close to it... but the thing she would actually accomplish would be to stop time. Which is honestly worse. Being devoured by creatures from another dimension is a much kinder fate than being frozen in a single moment of time for eternity."

Fluttershy wasn't sure she agreed; they both sounded bad, but being frozen in time would mean your consciousness would be frozen as well, so you wouldn't suffer. But that wasn't really the point. "Why? Why is she doing this now? Is it because we came over?" Oh dear Celestia, if this Twilight was going to murder him because of what Fluttershy and her friends had done...

Discord laid his head directly on the floor, arms encircling his muzzle rather than supporting it. "I, uh... I told her about it."

"You did?" It was like a blow from a sledgehammer of horror. "Why?"

"I wanted to die," he said softly, almost whispering. "Because I thought you weren't my friend and I didn't have any friends and nopony was going to rescue me and even if I got away I'd never have any friends..."

She took a deep breath. "Discord. When you said it will kill everything on this planet. Did you know that when you told Twilight about the ritual?"

He looked up at her. "Of course I did. If I'd just wanted to kill myself I could have ripped my own throat open. I wanted her and her friends to go down with me."

"And did you ever think about how many billions of innocent creatures there are on this planet? Creatures that have had nothing to do with what was happening to you? That did you no harm at all? It was okay to kill all of them, kill everything, on an entire planet, just because you wanted revenge?"

Discord's eyes went wide, and he shrank back. "Um... no, actually, I... I never thought about that..."

"Of course you didn't," Fluttershy said, trying to hold back the fury in her voice. She couldn't unleash it on him, not right now. It wasn't entirely his fault. Discord always had had a hard time thinking of others, even when he was healthy and safe, but in his right mind he would never have come up with a plan that caused genocide. Not even genocide, planetcide. Was that even a word? She thought about how he'd spoken of the spiders that went extinct because Saddle Arabian pegasi took all the water they'd otherwise have gotten; how he'd been careful to create pollinators that could survive the downpour of his light rain, more butterbats than butterflies really, and how he'd sent them to the Everfree after they were done their task so they'd survive better than if he'd left them in the desert. Discord cared about the survival of living things. Except, apparently, when he was starved, beaten and emotionally shattered. She had to show compassion, she had to remember that this wasn't who he truly was.

But enough of her anger must have shown in her face to make him shrink back from her in fear. "I'm sorry... I, I didn't think, I really didn't... I was just..." His face started to crumple again, as if he was about to start crying once more. "I don't deserve to be rescued. Save yourself and your friends. Just leave me."

"Discord, what you foolishly set in motion has made it impossible for me to do that," she said. "Even if I had any desire at all to leave you here, which I would never want to do... now I have to save you, and I have to do it before tonight, because if the other Twilight kills you in this ritual then millions and billions of innocent animals will die! Not to mention all the ponies who don't deserve this!" She was breathing hard. "I'm going to have to go for the bolt cutters first, because even if my friends are in danger, preventing the death of this entire planet is more important than their lives, or my own, so I have to get you away from this... this evil Twilight."

"Or you could cut my collar loose," he said despondently. "I could save your friends then, and then I'd die before Twilight can perform the ritual, so everyone would be safe."

"Except you. I'm not going to do that, Discord. I came here to save you."

"You shouldn't save me. I was—" There was guilt in his voice. She hardly ever heard that from him. "I didn't even care, Fluttershy. I didn't even think about it. And I hurt you!"

"It's all right, Discord."

"I tried to kill you!"

"Shh." She reached for him and stroked his mane again. "You're... not in good shape. You're not thinking clearly. It's all right, no one could expect you to be fine, right now. But I'm going to have to go now, all right? I have to go meet up with Rainbow and find some way to free you."

"Don't go," he said plaintively. "Please don't go."

"I'm sorry, sw—I'm sorry, but I have to. This Twilight and her friends will be coming back eventu – Eep!" She shrieked and flapped her wings backward as the door opened.

Spike stood in the doorway. "They're coming back," he said, with very little emotion in his voice. "You'd better go."

"I – oh! Are you—"

"You believe me now, Discord?" Spike asked.

Discord closed his eyes. "I'm sorry."

"Princess Celestia says she won't execute them. So that's good."

"You have a letter from her?" Discord asked. When Spike nodded, Discord said, "Let me see it."

"Why?"

"You wanted my help because you didn't want them to die. If they're really here... they're my friends. Let me see the letter."

"Go fast." Spike handed it to Discord, who squinted at it.

"Fluttershy, could you read this to me?"

"Do I have time?"

"Two minutes, maybe," Spike said.

Fluttershy read. "Dear Spike, There's no need to worry. I have no intention of executing a fellow alicorn simply because Twilight fears her. I have a use for Twilight's counterpart, and so long as she agrees to help me, I see no reason why any of her companions should be harmed. Please don't tell Twilight this; I don't want her to be frightened. I know she's afraid of her alicorn counterpart, but this alternate Twilight won't be a threat to us. Trust me. Sincerely, Princess Celestia."

She looked down at Discord, who was still sprawled on the floor. "Well, that sounds..." She trailed off as she noticed the expression on his face.

"Save Twilight," Discord said. "Our Twilight. She's in danger."

"But this says she isn't going to be executed..."

"No, it says she's not going to be executed just because unicorn Twilight's afraid of her. And it says that Celestia has a use for her, and that she's going to use the safety of the others to make her comply, and that just... I know Celestia. I know more about Celestia's dark side than any of you possibly could. Rescue Twilight."

"I have to save you first," Fluttershy objected. "Because if I rescue our Twilight and our friends first, and run out of time to save you, the entire planet will die."

Spike's eyes widened at first, and then narrowed, focusing on Discord. "I knew it! I knew you were lying to me somehow!"

"I can't lie, Spike," Discord said tiredly. "I'm just... very good at telling the truth in misleading ways."

"What did you tell him?" Fluttershy said, trying not to get angry. But Discord had lied, or done the closest he could to lying, to the face of someone who would be killed by his actions, someone who hadn't done him personally any harm? This Spike might have killed the other Discord, but the fact that he'd come to warn her the others were coming back said that he wasn't on their side, either.

"You don't have time," Discord said. "Fluttershy, they're coming back. Go."

"I – all right. Spike, can I leave here safely?"

"Don't go out the door. Fly up the stairs and out the window."

"All right." She turned to Discord. "Tell Spike what's going on. He deserves that much, for the warning he gave me."

She left the room then, flying, went up the stairs, and got to the second floor just as she heard the front door opening. Once she was outside and hidden within the tree branches again, she took a deep breath. That had been much too close. She shouldn't have delayed as long as she did.

Now to find Rainbow Dash. The news that Discord couldn't help rescue the others was disappointing, and the pressure of the time limit on them now was making her chest hurt with anxiety. Get bolt cutters, get Discord loose so the alternate Twilight couldn't sacrifice him, then rescue their Twilight and the others. And hope desperately that Twilight could manage to stay alive that long. But if she tried to do it the other way around, and failed to rescue Discord before nightfall, an entire planet would die. Including herself and all her friends if they couldn't get to the portal in time. So she had to trust that Twilight could take care of herself, at least for a little while.

---

Opposition, 11 AM – Twilight (Harmony)

Bring Luna back to life?

Twilight's hackles raised. Her Princess Celestia had taught her that necromancy was never, ever, ever a good idea. "Princess, with all due respect... my Celestia taught me that there's no way to cast a successful resurrection. You can't even open a path for a dead spirit to travel back to the land of the living without killing somepony, and the odds of you getting the particular spirit you're trying to get are next to null."

"These things are true," Celestia said, nodding. "But the rules are somewhat different for alicorns. We are each bound to some sort of principle, some concept, that governs us in life – for Luna and I, it was the Moon and the Sun; for Cadance it was Love. Do you know your own?"

It was Friendship, or else Magic, because friendship was magic, or a cornerstone of harmonic magic at least. But Twilight didn't want to give away information if she didn't have to, not to this Celestia. "We're not really sure."

"Because alicorns are bound to something outside themselves, it is possible to call them back from the lands beyond," Celestia said. "But you are correct, there must be a sacrifice. More importantly, there must be a body for them to return to, and Luna's... is far too long dead. If I could have performed the spell right after her death, it would have been another matter, but I didn't even know that there was one. I had to do the research myself; I couldn't take my Twilight's attention from her own research, firstly in finding a way to stop Discord and then her work on finding a way to reverse the corruption and free her friends."

Twilight was not liking the sound of this. "You said you needed another alicorn to cast this."

"I did." Celestia nodded. She leaned forward. "You see, Twilight... she must have an alicorn body to return to. The spell can only summon her back on the basis of her alicorn nature if she's coming back to an alicorn body. I would have willingly given her my own – but if she doesn't have the strength to manage both the sun and the moon immediately upon her return, our world would be doomed if I sacrifice myself. I need another alicorn who is willing to give up her body for Luna's sake."

"Willing?" Twilight asked, trembling slightly, wondering if this Celestia had gone completely insane to imagine that anypony would ever be willing. She cared about her own world's Luna... but not enough to die to bring her back to life, unless by doing so she could prevent her own world's Celestia from falling into the amoral apathy that this one seemed to have gone into. She certainly didn't care enough about this world's Luna to give up her life to save her.

"Yes. The sacrifice has to be willing; the ritual can't work, otherwise." Her voice was just like Twilight's Celestia, calm and smooth, even though what she was talking about was an abomination. "Twilight, I am prepared to release your friends, and give orders to have Discord released and to have them escorted to him, to take him back to your world... if I can have Luna back by my side. But the only way that that can happen is if you give yourself up to the ritual, and allow me to bring Luna back, in your body."

Twilight had to know precisely how awful this was, how fallen this Celestia was. "Would – would that also be the sacrifice that opens the gate, or would you have to kill somepony else, too?"

"No, your sacrifice would be more than sufficient. I would separate your life from your body, painlessly, doing your body no damage, but that separation would be enough to open the gate."

Okay. So she was only talking about sacrificing one pony. It was still awful but it wasn't as awful as it could have been. Not that Twilight was going to go along with it. "Princess... I have a world to go back to. I have another version of you who's expecting me to return. I have a version of Luna who's expecting me to return. I'm sorry, but I simply can't do this. I can't give up my life to bring your Luna back."

"I thought you might say that," Celestia said. Still much too calm. "Were you aware that your counterpart recommended to me that you and all of your friends be executed?"

"What?"

"She believes you're too dangerous. I concur. As long as we cannot risk giving Discord up, I know that you and your friends will stop at nothing to free him, because you see yourselves as rescuing a friend in desperate straits, regardless of how inaccurate it is to describe Discord as a friend to anypony. I cannot release any of you if I still need Discord. In fact, I would conclude that my Twilight has made an accurate assessment. If we cannot release Discord... then I need to execute you and your friends. You are simply too dangerous, and there's too much at stake."

Twilight felt ice cold. "How – how long do I have? To decide?"

"There's no time like the present," Celestia said. "Your friends may be plotting some sort of elaborate escape attempt, even now. I know how resourceful they are; they've already halfway convinced Shining Armor that he should let them go. The longer I wait before making a decision, the greater the odds that they will escape, or hurt somepony while trying, or both. So I would say that I can't realistically give you more than five minutes or so to make your decision."

What if she's lying? What if I say yes, and she kills my friends anyway?

No. She wouldn't want to have to explain that to Luna. If she brings Luna back, it'll be an uncorrupted Luna, free of Nightmare Moon, and without having lived through all the horrible things all of these ponies have lived through, Luna would never be okay with executing innocent prisoners. Especially not alternate versions of her friends.

She doesn't need Discord to manage the sun and moon if she has Luna. Our mission here was to save Discord; there's no way we would willingly leave him here, any of us, so she's right. We're dangerous to her unless she can afford to let go of Discord, which she thinks she can't do unless she has Luna, so...

I don't see a way out of this. I don't.

"I'll do it," she said, quietly, so her voice wouldn't break. "You promise me that you'll let all of my friends go, including Discord, and that they can all go home again, unhurt, and I – I'll let you s-sacrifice me to bring back Luna."

"I thought that was what you would say," Celestia said, in what Twilight was now perceiving as a parody of her mentor's pleased tone. "We won't be able to do it until moonrise, of course; we need the moon to call to Luna. I'll release them all and free Discord as soon as the ritual has been completed and Luna is restored."

"Can't you let them go before the ritual starts? So I can see that they're safe?" Twilight's voice shook.

"Twilight, they will never go home if they believe you're in danger," Celestia said. "I would prefer to let them go home right now, but they simply won't. And if we don't tell them, then they'll demand that you go with them, and they won't leave without you. So we have to let them go after the ritual. But we'll tell them of your decision in plenty of time for you to say your goodbyes."

Please, Twilight thought, anguished, trying to press against the bonds that held her magic in check, to no effect. Please, escape and get Discord free. She can't hold you hostage against me if she doesn't have you. Please, I don't want to die. Save yourselves, so I can save myself.

Though she wasn't sure how she was going to go about doing that. If her friends escaped, she would still be bound by horn and wing and hooves. Would simply withdrawing her consent be enough to prevent the ritual from happening, or would Celestia just kill her outright then for saying no?

She didn't know. But one way or another, she had to buy time. And if her friends didn't manage to escape by nightfall... then she had to buy their lives, with her own.

---

Opposition, 12 PM – Rainbow Dash (Harmony)

Rainbow was really, really good at wrecking things when she put her mind to it. She didn't really want to know what that said about her as a pony.

It had taken evil Twilight and her evil pals forever to stop the blaze at Carousel Boutique, during which time, most of the place had burned to the ground. Including everything in Sweetie Belle's room, which Rainbow felt a little bit sorry about. Rarity wouldn't stop shrieking and wailing, but that, Rainbow didn't feel bad about at all.

Then, they'd noticed the column of smoke in the distance that was Fluttershy's house. So then they'd gone to deal with that. Rainbow Dash followed, stealthily. Obviously they were going to untie evil Fluttershy once they found her, but the longer Rainbow could buy for her own Fluttershy to talk with Discord, the better. Seriously, though, what was so hard about "we've come to rescue you, now let me get this collar off you and have you rescue our other friends?" It wasn't like Discord was going to need to be talked into being rescued, was he? One time Daring Do had tried to rescue a pony who didn't want to be rescued because she thought that Dr. Caballeron was her boyfriend, despite the fact that the stallion had kidnapped her in order to use her talent for finding gold to find the Lost City of El Trottado, but first of all, that was because that character was an idiot, Stockholm Syndrome or no, and secondly, Rainbow totally couldn't see Discord falling in love with anypony but especially not a captor that was torturing him.

Well. He wouldn't be Discord if he wasn't causing trouble, even on a mission to rescue him. So Rainbow Dash privately decided that as soon as she had a good shot, she was taking evil Twilight out. The unicorn was fast, faster than their Twi was, but she had to have limits, and being distracted by a fire at her friend's house after she'd just fought another fire at another friend's house, and also rescuing her friend who was tied up... sounded like that might fall in those limits. A super-fast kick to the back of the head and it would be night-night for evil Twilight. Without her in the picture, Rainbow was a lot more confident of her ability to, if not take out all the others – Applejack in particular would be a rough customer, and this version of Pinkie was kind of scary – at least keep them distracted a good long while.

She knew where they were going, and in the air she was faster than any of them, but not particularly stealthy. Hey, a mare had to know where her strengths and weaknesses were, and stealth did not lend itself to spectacular awesomeness. So she split off from the group as soon as she was confident that that was the way they were headed, and went directly to Fluttershy's house.

The blaze had consumed the tree, and was spreading over Fluttershy's yard. The evil one was tied to a tree on the other side of Fluttershy's little creek, a good distance from the fire, so she was probably safe, mostly. Rainbow didn't really want her to burn to death even if she was totally evil; killing in combat might be a necessary, if horrible, thing to do, but letting your helpless enemy burn to death was pretty much always beyond the pale. Still, that fire was spreading pretty well – Fluttershy's yard was only bounded by the creek on one side, and there was nothing to stop the fire from spreading in the other directions.

Fluttershy wouldn't want to have started a forest fire, would she? Rainbow was still planning on attacking evil Twilight when she showed up, but that just meant that evil Twilight and her evil pals wouldn't be able to fight the fire, because they'd be too busy getting knocked out by Rainbow's hooves. It would probably be a good idea to try to stop the fire herself, or at least slow it down. There were a few clouds nearby that would be perfect for the job.

She flew a short distance, grabbed a cloud, towed it to the backside of Fluttershy's house, and kicked it into a downpour. That was good. If she could box the fire in with small rainstorms, it wouldn't spread, but it would still be burning so it would still occupy evil Twilight's attention.

Rainbow headed toward the second cloud she intended to grab – and felt something slam into her, hard and fast enough that it drove her down to the ground.

"Nice trick," her counterpart said. "Faked me out real good, didn't you."

"Not... hard..." Rainbow wheezed. "'Cause... you're really... dumb." She used all the strength in her hooves to rear, knocking the other one off of her, and then took off. The other one followed.

"Surprised to see me?" the other shouted. "Maybe you shouldn't've sent Scootaloo to my house!"

Oh horsefeathers. It had never occurred to her that the other one would just go home after their fight. "Napping on a cloud's too good for you now?"

"Not secure enough. I'd say you'll find out the hard way one of these days why not to sleep on a cloud in the open, but since I'm gonna kick the living daylights out of you, I don't think you're gonna have that problem!"

And there were the others. Rainbow decided to try for knocking down two pins with one throw. She pivoted in air and divebombed for unicorn Twilight, who was galloping toward the fire and paying absolutely no attention above her. Rainbow's counterpart shouted something, but she was too high and the crackling of the fire would drown it out for anypony who wasn't a pegasus – pegasi had much better ability to detect words against a background of natural noise, like the wind or the rain or the crackle of a fire.

And then, as if in slow motion, she saw Pinkie Pie pivoting and leaping, with a frying pan in hoof, but she was completely committed to the charge and couldn't change her trajectory in time. The frying pan impacted her head at full speed. Rainbow had crashed head-first into so many things, being hit over the head with a frying pan in flight didn't knock her unconscious, but it stunned her, causing her to plow into the ground uncontrollably rather than actually slam into Twilight like she was trying to do.

Before she could get her bearings and get up, she was yanked up into a telekinetic grasp. "Rainbow, this is the alternate you claimed to have defeated?"

"Yeah, turns out she's a tricky one. She faked being unconscious."

"This is why you check."

"Oh yeah, like I want to fly down into the heart of a raging Everfree storm just to see if some lame ripoff of me went splat. It's not like I was expecting her to try some kind of trick. I'm usually more straightforward than that, myself."

"Yeah, but because you didn't check she was gonna kapow Twilight! If I hadn't had my Pinkie Sense to warn me who knows what would have happened!"

"Well, she won't be faking unconsciousness this time," evil Twilight said, and her horn glowed.

Rainbow had extensive experience with struggling to stay awake when she was much, much too tired to want to. She held out long enough to see evil Fluttershy, presumably untied by the others, standing over her. "She didn't disguise herself," the evil Fluttershy was saying. "It ought to be easy to trick the other me into thinking you're this one, and then we'll have them both."

No. No, Fluttershy! I have to stay awake... warn her... have to...

But the sleep spell was too strong. It won, and bore Rainbow down into the darkness.

The last thing she heard was the evil Pinkie saying, "C'mon, just one little taste?"