A crystal mare stared back at Shining Armor from the other side of the sofa. Their eyes fixed for a good minute before she left the couch and they came running to one another with magnetic attraction. She hit Shining with such momentum it swept him off his front legs, a windpipe-crushing hug ensnaring his neck. Tiny crystal tears bounced off her cheeks and pattered on the floor like pebbles.

“Shiny!” Cadence embraced him tightly, only loosening her embrace when she heard her husband start to choke.

He instinctively returned the hug, but his mind was reeling with everything from joy to denial at the sight of his wife. Her body was hard but warm from the sunlight, a living, transparent statue. Her lower jaw looked awkward, like it was painted a slightly off shade of pink and her horn glowed dimly as she talked.

“Cadence, I… Oh gosh, it’s been too long.” Shining looked over his shimmering wife curiously. He hadn't seen her like this since the crystal heart was reactivated in the Crystal Empire. Even he, his sister, and friends were crystallized for at least a short time. “What, happened to you?” She released him sullenly, her heavy hooves stamping the floor. “Is the crystal heart near here? Did you bring it with you?”

“No. It’s still in Ulthuan.” She clinked her hooves together, sounding a ping like fine wine glasses touched in toast. “Phoenix King Finubar insisted we try to unlock its full potential, and…” she sighed. “I was the only one in its chamber while the mages went for more scrolls. The heart made a huge discharge while they were gone, and... this happened.”

“This can’t be undone?”

She shook her head sadly. “No... I can’t even feel anything I touch...”

Shining Armor’s first thought was disbelief. He stepped forward and put his lips firmly to her angled cheek, losing the heat that left her for the air.

“Nothing.” she sighed, pushing him back. “Let’s not ruin this.” She pulled him further into the room with a smile, hiding her sorrow. “We have so much to catch up on!”

Retaking her perch on the sofa, the sunlight gleamed off her crystalline form. Rainbows of light reflected across the formal furniture and rug at the center. The furniture itself was arranged in a circle beside a fireplace, a sofa, two seats designed for humanoids and two for ponies. Cadence drew the blinds further closed to stop the light from reaching her and returned her book, The Adventures of Gotrek and Felix, to the middle table.

“No way! You read that, too?” Shining exclaimed with a grin, trying not to look too much at his wife’s affliction.

“It was just something I pulled from the library downstairs.” Cadence was almost embarrassed of the selection, action adventure. “Do you believe any of this? A dwarf surviving falling of a three-hundred foot cliff, getting hit with a catapult stone, and both of them gaining immortality through magic weapons; it’s nonsense!” Shining Armor hesitated, enough time for Cadence to draw her own idea. “You believe this?” she giggled.

“Well I’ve met them.” he explained, trying to provide some justification for his foolish naivete. “Felix writes down everything they do, and-”

“And what were you talking to them about?”

Even worse, but who was he to lie? “I… wanted to contract them… for a job.” Cadence looked at him with more disapproval on the verge of laughter. “But they wouldn’t do it unless I got Richter Krueger and the Cursed Company as well. I’m not hiring a skeleton army to find Twiley! That and they don’t do ‘capture’ or ‘take them alive’.”

Shining could immediately see something go off subtly in Cadence, literally. A tiny fracture suddenly came to existence in the middle of where her brain ought to be, a miniscule black spider web.

“Oh, I miss her so much! My goodness, do you remember Celestia making us have to send her reports on Twilight’s behavior? It was like she thought she was a monster disguised as a precious little bundle of joy!”

Shining rolled his eyes at the annoying memory. There was nothing wrong with his little sister in all their years, but the princess acted like one missed behavioral report and Twilight would turn into a daemon or something.

“Sunshine, sunshine! Ladybugs awake…” Cadence began to sing. Her movements were uncoordinated and haphazard.

“Uh, Cadence, what’s that going on with your head?”

She paused to glance at Shining and the crack quickly mended itself. He placed a hoof to her crystal skull and moaned slightly. “I’m sorry. It’s just something that happens from time to time. Tell me as soon as it happens.”

Shining nodded. “And your jaw.”

Cadence hesitated for a moment and hoped he was ready. Her horn lit with a prismatic glow and the fur around her jaw suddenly peeled back, revealing a glass mouth underneath. Her false jaw clicked out of place, levitating away. Her tongue flopped down in her open throat, a crystal muscle hanging way down. Shining’s experience bearing witness to worse deformities kept him from looking away but he was nevertheless struck with horror. Her breaths were squeaky, and her vibrating soft palate made it sound like she was snoring. His wife seemed even more inequine now. She hooked it back into place, her horn’s magic still moving it up and down so she could talk.

“It’s a prosthetic. It all happened when we were still in Equestria and you were visiting Canterlot. In the Crystal Empire, got news of those marauders further south and did everything we could to prepare for them. From the reports, we figured we would had to draft every stallion just to stand a chance. When they arrived, somehow, I don’t know, they brought him back.”

“Who?” Shining asked.

“Sombra. It doesn't make sense! We saw him be shattered and thrown into the tundra! How could they have put him back together? He didn’t lead them though. They had him in chains, beaten and bloody. They used his magic by force, even as it caused him great suffering. You should have seen him. He escaped from them one night and came banging away at the barrier to the city with his bare hooves, begging and pleading to be let in. We just couldn't, and they caught him again. The crystal heart kept everypony safe from him, from them - but then there came somepony who became corrupted. He’d fallen to the whispers of chaos and dislodged the heart. The rest was a massacre.

“Sombra was forced to fight, and I think he actually tried to save us! I didn’t know what to think when he said ‘This kingdom is mine and mine alone.’ Then he cast the same spell he did a thousand years ago to hide the empire. I just didn’t know he hid it in the Warp the first time.”

Shimmering, rocky tears collected as she related the town enduring hell itself. Endless daemonic hordes, often repulsed by the crystal heart, surrounded the city at all times. Once in a while, a greater daemon, most of the time a Lord of Change, would be able to overwhelm the barrier with its magic power and the daemon host would pour through the cracks and holes.

“That was when I was hit by a bloodletter’s hellblade, across my mouth. It cut my jaw clean off. The crystal ponies had to fashion a new one for me because my real one was so badly damaged they couldn’t put it back. Years passed, but thank Asuryan we made it out to Ulthuan and Phoenix King Finubar let us stay. Even then, we didn't find peace.

“Sombra was in this world too, in Naggaroth, a pet and slave of Malekith. He tried to talk to me, in the middle of leading an attack on Ulthuan. In battle, he got the two of us alone, just for a minute, maybe two. I know now why he lost. He never meant to win the battle.”

“The Witch King is watching me. I don’t have much time.” He gazed on her glassy shape, the perfect crystal. “Never have I laid eyes on such a gem.”

“He asked you to marry him!?” Shining Armor exclaimed. The image of him smashing the dark stallion to bits played happily in his mind.

Cadence well understood his rage and tried to calm Shining down. “At least just be saved from his imprisonment. But he knows I’ll never go with him.”

Shining was already thinking of over a hundred ways to do that bastard in, changed heart or not. “Does he have anything to do with what goes on with that crack in your head?”

"A side effect from when he ruled the Crystal Empire. He did something to the crystal heart in that time and now that I share a connection with the heart, it affects me too. He talks to me, asking me to come to Naggaroth. There’s little I can do to stop him from getting in my head.”

Shining grimaced, gnashing his teeth. “He’s dead if I see him.”

“We don’t know what good he could do if we can get him out of Malekith’s control. If he’s freed, he’ll work with us.”

He wasn’t buying it. A sadistic tyrant like him? Never. “One wrong look at you and I’ll smash his head in with a warhammer!”

“Can we not talk about things that make you mad? I did find Spike.”

Shining cooled down enough to pry his mind away from his lucid fantasy. “So how is scaly-butt?”

“A big boy, now.” she said. “As he got older, in his rite of passage, he lived for a month in daemon-infested woods. He came out different, more adult. Before that, he was an emotional wreck. The damage to his mind when he was a baby, being exposed to so much chaos... he never seemed to recover until then.”

“Did he come with you?”

“Yes. He’s in the barracks this time of day, always practicing his swordsmanship with other elven warriors. What have you been doing? Are you still captain of the guard?”

“Try tied for second in command of the armies of the Empire!” Shining puffed his chest out in a show-offy fashion. The markings and insignias of his vest made themselves evident.

“How did you get that high?”

Shining’s accomplished feeling faded, replaced by the memories of a nightmarish scene. “In the attack on Canterlot, everypony above me in the military was killed. I’ve had some big shoes to fill.”

Cadence immediately became crestfallen. “Oh…”

“No, it’s okay. You deserve to know.”

The crystal princess opened her mouth to speak again, but was interrupted as a bright flash popped up between them, dropping a wrapped scroll on top of the book. Celestia’s gold seal shimmered on the ribbon.

Rarity paced back and forth, on edge; her little sister, poor Sweetie Belle, was in the hands of filthy nurglites, heathens of disease and rot. Across the room, Lyra was obsessively reading a book on human anatomy and transfiguration spells. Since she acquired feminine arms, she had gained new hope for becoming “whole”.

’Was I too hard on Apple Bloom? Rarity thought. Her hand firmly clasped over her mouth, feeling as if her words to the filly signed her sister’s death warrant. Oh, what if she’s so angry they’ll eat her instead!? No, no, they’re best friends. They’re always off on some Cutie Mark Crusader nonsense-’

The door thumped angrily, startling Rarity out of her pacing.

“Sweetie Belle!” She swiftly swung the front door wide open and a white filly with many wide, toothy mouths spanning her body was shoved at her chest. Before she could look down, a hideous, half-melted face came within inches of hers. Its moldy, necrotic flesh was almost liquefied and its searing pink eyes were completely lined with sickly yellow crust.

Accompanied by maggots and molasses-thick spit flying in Rarity’s face, he bellowed, “Now where’s mah cous’n!?”

Lyra tilted back in her chair. “Who is it?”

Rarity shivered in disgust and slowly turned around with her injured sister in her bony arms. “A friend. I’m just going out for a minute.”

“Try not to get killed.”

“Will do.”

The atrophied stallion pulled Rarity out and slammed the door. “Then y’all better get walki’n.”

And she did, mostly to get away from the combined smell of him and Apple Bloom. Both and Scootaloo walked after her, a heavy train that dragged on her mind.

Only half her armor covered her, which had gotten hot and smelly from anxiety. Rarity only had one pauldron to balance her erratic magic, building like a volcano within her to burst into a fantastic and lethal lightning storm, and a few plates, secured by exposed straps and buckles. She kept watch for khornates, likely serving Vanga and bloodthirsty for the one who had helped his steed escape. Hopefully, being in less than half her suit, she wouldn’t be recognized.

Sweetie Belle whimpered almost silently in Rarity’s arms, covered in discolored acid burns, her mouths missing teeth, and areas where her feathers, mostly around her neck, had been plucked out. Rarity wondered at how her sister had been changed by Chaos. A dozen gashing tears, liked with dagger-teeth spanned her body, each producing a very warm, faint smog.

“Sweetie Belle,” Rarity whispered.

The filly jerked like a frightened dog, fearing another beating. “Rarity...? Rarity!” She jumped up, slipping from the hold that kept her up and Rarity caught her in a magic blue glow. Holding her again, she felt surprisingly light, from whatever strength her marrow arms gave her. Nuzzling at her neck, Sweetie Belle let it all out.

“What did they do to you?” Rarity asked.

Her sister didn’t speak.

“Tried ta stop ‘er from gett’n nabbed by mah boys.” Braeburn said. “They got to ‘er a couple times. Ahm almost regrett’n holdi’n em back.”

Rarity stopped. Her horns arced an angrily buzzing lightning, snapping and tangling among each other, that culminated in a single loud pop and dissipated.

“Thank you... for protecting her.” she said in a low, even voice.

“Keep goin’.” He shoved her on.

“You… you have arms!” Sweetie Belle chimed and rocked playfully in the white tree branches sprouting from Rarity’s shoulders. Her stinging burns halted the simmering curiosity as the toxins burned more harshly in her blood and she rested her head against Rarity’s shoulder. They proceeded in silence.

Twilight had a first person view of her slave cleave his way into chaos warriors with his bare claws. Inhabiting him, body and mind, she saw Kivsin tear men apart with savage fury and hungrily devour their hearts. All the while, she pondered her state, its meaning.

Daemonkind... Neverborn...

Got him now. Twilight said.

The last Khornate of the Crimson Hand that saw them, Fluttershy and the Doctor trying to get away. He, among others that fell to Kivsin’s claws, fled to alert Vanga of where they were going. Now this one remained, backed into a corner and poised, unafraid to let his skull be part of Khorne’s throne for it was the highest honor, to die fighting.

Halberd in hand, he charged, screaming a primal warcry on his way to the blood god’s throne. He promptly proceeded to die with a good chunk of his neck missing. Kivsin wiped the blood off his lips and caught the body before it fell with his other claw. He ripped the warrior’s chest open, yanked out the silenced heart, and scarfed it down.

“Master, I desire more! I beseech you. We are unstoppable together! We can kill anypony we please!”

Kivsin... I’m sorry, the daemon within him said. I’ve made you a monster.

“You haven’t done anything that hasn’t made us stronger!”

No. That’s got to be the last one, Twilight murmured woozily. Take us… take us back to the apartment. I don’t feel so good.

Her vehicle shared this sickness with bodily pains, even greater than usual. He took to the sky like a drunken bat and was barely able to stand when they reached the apartment. His eyes and gums started to bleed and his mind flooded with the cries and lamentations, the laughter and the cacophony of the Immaterium and his master. There came a point where Whooves had to get help.

“I’m not sure what’s happening. The soul energy must be wearing off.” Whooves said hastily, running alongside a decomposing Applejack who was struggling to keep up with her intestines dragging on the floor.

They came upon Twilight’s apartment, Chaos’ song being played in her screaming. Kivsin’s body was split down the middle, hanging in swaying halves and his veins and skin were slowly separating from a flaming daemon mare writhing inside him. Twilight looked back to them in burning agony and ripped a foreleg free, snapping blood vessels and tendons off, and held her hoof out to them.

“Help us!”

While the Doctor hung back, deterred by the daemon’s intense heat, Applejack sprung to the fore. The excrement of her decaying skin boiled as she took Twilight’s hoof and helped her steady as she shook off her assistant’s flayed body. The further the energy wore off, the more Kivsin’s body released her, tendons and red veins breaking off her like vines once climbing up a wall. One leg at a time, Applejack helped her out of the flayed mass. Twilight’s flames slowly died, darkening to near black, surrendering to gravity, and her bright yellow glow was buried under growing follicles of purple fur across her body. In the last couple seconds of pain, she heard the shifting of a suit of armor, turned her head, and her eyes grew wide.

He sat on the dresser, staring pensively, furiously through pale brass lenses of his bronze helmet. Twilight's eyes burned at his visage while the Eye of Sheerian in his forehead sent a museum's worth of horrors into her mind and every nerve in her body was set ablaze in throbbing anguish.

Before she finally reverted to normal, before the apparition faded away, she couldn't help but scream.

“Jeez, Twi!” Whut were y’all doin?”

Twilight was in no condition to answer, gasping for dear life as Applejack set her down. Kivsin’s bisected body steadily reconnected, blood vessels and bones fusing and snapping back into position. They pulled him back together and his skin sealed, letting him gasp and vomit the flesh and blood he’d eaten over the day. His claws shrank, fingers reabsorbing into his hooves, and his formerly possessed form receded to the skinny, artistically scarred bat-pony.

The Doctor stood over Twilight, looking firmly into her tired eyes. “Are you going to try anything like this again?” he asked in frustration. As expected, Twilight shook her head, eager to put the ordeal behind her. She groggily sat up and came to Kivsin’s aid.

“Twi, whut was that?” said Applejack confusedly. “Why were you on fire?”

Twilight’s throat was on fire with blood thirst. She levitated over a rat from the cage of the vermin she kept, and bit into it. It’s foul tasting blood sent her into a coughing fit.

“She was messing with daemonancy,” said Whooves angrily. “Extremely dangerous magic.”

He turned Twilight around and got up close. “We’re not doing sightseeing! I am just about fed up with your reckless diving into Chaos! You’re going to get us killed! The only thing I want you to work on is your abilities, no more fumbling around, understand?”

Twilight drooped with remorse and nodded.

“Jeez, Doc,” said Applejack. “Be a bit easier on ’er.”

“I’m sorry,” Whooves continued with a remorseful sigh. “It’s just that Chaos is a slippery slope. Go one step too far and you’re just another cog in the gods’ doomsday machine. We have to stay focused. Promise me you’ll do that, Twilight.”

“Okay…”

“Thank you. I don’t want to have to treat you like a filly who can’t control herself.“ He checked the clock on the desk, another trinket Twilight had raided from the market. “Applejack, it’s time to work on your condition again,” he sighed. “Hopefully Fluttershy could be a deterrent to Pinkie Pie and those other two.” At the door, he found one more caution to give. “If you go out again, Twilight, keep away from the city walls. It’s a bloodbath there.”

The closing door bid him adieu and Twilight bit her lip. She grabbed Kivsin and quickly cast a teleportation spell. After a brief flash, they were surrounded by the smell of smoke, blood, and the raucous roar of soldiers and the beat of marching columns.

”Crush, kill, destroy, burn! Crush, kill, destroy, burn!”

“I swear this is as close as we get.” Twilight said on a rooftop.

A heaving forest of spears and polearms below, tens of thousands of heretics gathered before and on the walls. At least a dozen cults and cabals made up the throng. The Purple Hand, Iron Fangs, and Vanga’s Crimson Hand were just a few. Artillery of all sizes, from stolen imperial cannons to Chaos dwarf-forged hellcannons thundered and roared, lighting up the sky in a riot of color with their deadly discharge. Flaming arrows leapt up and down across the battlements, coming in and going out. Musket fire crackled and sparked from traitor gunners and Skaven jezzails alike.

Chaos giants and trolls were herded like beasts of war to the walls to move the unholy war engines of cannons and catapults. Beyond hell’s gates were the Ork, in their millions. Who knew what machines they were building, what horrific amalgamations of iron and orkoid ingenuity?

Twilight spotted something coming over the walls, too big to be a catapult stone or arrow. As it continued moving, she saw it was an ork itself, hurdling through the air! Did they actually use one of their own as ammunition? It caught sight of her and poised its choppas to cleave deep into her head.

“WAAAAAAGH!!!” it bellowed brazenly, wide-eyed and keen for a bloody kill.

Twilight took a single step to the left, Kivsin to the right, and the ork’s thrill disappeared. It flapped its arms like a bird frantically, but to no avail. It slammed onto the roof between them with a wet *SMACK*. It didn’t move afterward. Twilight couldn’t help but giggle at its stupidity and saw many other greenskins meet the same fate across the lines of battle. They smacked into buildings, were caught and devoured by daemons in midair, or swatted out of the air by giants.

The daemon’s acts sparked a slight curiosity. I wonder what they taste like? she thought.

She rolled the ork over, its whole front ripped up and flattened. It reeked of fungus and, holding her breath, she sank her fangs deep into its neck. The liquid taste of moldy hay filled her mouth and she immediately threw the body over the side of the roof, spitting and wiping her tongue like acid had been poured on it. Her interest in them grew greater and she picked a launched ork out of the sky in a telekinetic grasp. It kicked and shouted wild obscenities as it’s fun descent was interrupted.

“Wot yoo doi’n yoo styoopid kay-oss pony git!? Lemme go so I’z can cromp ya!”

With a flick of magic, Twilight snapped its neck. She needed a fresh body for her research.

“Here we are.” Rarity fiddled with her hand, trying to remember the shape of the key to get into the apartment. The memory thankfully returned and Braeburn and Apple Bloom pushed past her to the inside, nearly making Rarity drop Sweetie Belle.

“Applejack!” the bloated stallion shouted.

Sitting in her practicing chair, Octavia hastily put her cello back into place and jumped up as the intruders rushed in. “Vinyl! Help!”

Braeburn noticed the gaping hole in the wall, barely covered with sheets and blew through it. There, he found only a brown stallion tying ropes to a bedpost.

“Uh... hello?” the doctor said.

Braeburn payed him no heed and passed back out the flaps “Where is she?” he growled at Rarity.

“I th-thought Applejack would be here! This is where we stayed before I left.” She ran down the hall to the room Octavia had fled to and found Applejack, Vinyl and Pinkie Pie bobbing their heads with sets of headphones over their ears and Octavia fruitlessly trying to shout over them. The deformed cellist ripped the devices off.

“Woah, Tavi! What’s got your plot on fire?” the DJ berated. She cast her sight on Rarity, holding a beaten filly. “I was wondering if you survived out there or not. You get pregnant in the last couple weeks or what?”

Rarity blushed. “No! This is my sister!”

“Why did you let those maggot sacks in here?” Octavia protested.

Rarity started to explain when Apple Bloom rushed by and tackled her big sister in a tight grip. Most everyone spared their eyes from the sight of them, squeezing contagious gunk from one another as they hugged. Their gurgling laughter sickened them. Rarity magically slid them out the door so they could continue their reunion outside.

“Aw, look at her.” Pinkie Pie cooed, eyeing Sweetie Belle. Her stomach grumbled quietly. “What do all these mouths do?” She slipped her tongue into one and Rarity pulled away as it snapped and let out a small plume of azure fire. “Ooh, she’s like a little firecracker!”

“Do you think you can stand?” Rarity asked.

Sweetie Belle shifted around. “I think so.” Rarity set her down. She was a bit wobbly but stayed upright.

“I need to get my things from Lyra’s. Keep her safe until I get back, okay?”

Vinyl grinned schemingly. “Sure. There’s lots of music for her to listen to, warm bed in case she has to lie down. She’s A-okay with us.”

“Oh, you’re a darling, Vinyl. I won’t be a moment.” With that, Rarity departed.

Vinyl glanced at the filly a moment before slapping back on her headphones and passing Octavia a pair. “She’s all yours, Pinkie.”

“All her’s what?” Sweetie asked groggily.

No further invitation needed, the hungry, decadent mare swept up Sweetie Belle and examined her in a way that set off every dreadful thought of pedofillya she learned to recognize in stranger danger lessons in Ponyville. But this was worse. Pinkie wrapped her tongues around the filly’s mouth and worked out her features. The black appendages searched every nook and cranny of her body, making her feel every kind of sick sensation. Pinkie interpreted her muffled disapproving shouts as consent.

Pinkie squeezed Sweetie’s soft flanks together, licking deep between them. It sent a horrifying chill up the filly’s spine and she let out a terrified scream that was barely heard.

Pinkie quickly hid her behind herself as she heard the door opened again with Scootaloo entering. “Hey, I just wanted to know if Rainbow Dash was with you guys—”

Another tongue cut the pegasus off, whipping around her neck and rapidly pulling her head into Pinkie’s widening mouth. Scootaloo choked as her neck was crushed but didn’t have to suffer that long as she was pulled deeper down Pinkie’s throat. Shoulders, hips, and hind legs were sucked down and in one powerful gulp, she was pushed down and dropped into the mutant mare’s slimy nest of tentacles.

“Mmm, oranges, and… ooh, raspberries!” Pinkie bleated as she patted her enlarged stomach with a crabby claw. She brought Sweetie Belle back to the front, smacking her lips. “I’m gonna need something to wash her down with. Think you can help me Sweetie Belle?” Pinkie forced Sweetie’s head to nod. “Thanks!”

Sweetie couldn’t look up far enough with her head held down and felt a warm wetness around her horn and several appendages firmly massaging it up and down and along the spiral grooves. Unable to scream, run, or even resist, Sweetie was helpless as the much bigger earth mare suckled on her horn, drinking her very magic. Pinkie giggled, feeling Scootaloo thrash about in the tight confines of her stomach. The indentations of her hooves pushed out against Pinkie’s torso and her shouts were almost totally obscured. The teal light of Sweetie’s energy illuminated Pinkie’s throat and torso, in which she saw her friend’s fighting silhouette, trying to rip Pinkie’s feelers off.

The forced pleasure Sweetie felt made her feel so much worse. Her salty tears touching Pinkie’s tongues were only adding to the flavor of the drink the mare enjoyed. Sweetie’s involuntary moans of ecstasy climbed higher and higher until she screamed as her horn burned superbly and Pinkie’s cheeks filled with her essence, just short of it leaking out her lips. Pinkie departed her drink’s forehead and gulped down the delicious energy. Her stomach roared as it took it in, demanding more.

“Time for a second course!” Pinkie sat back, opened her mouth and throat impossibly wide and dropped Sweetie Belle in. It was like a short waterslide, ending in a squishy, occupied pocket.

“Sweetie Belle?” Scootaloo gasped. They were both painfully cramped against each other and the feathery unicorn held her desperately.

“Scoots, she… she…”

Black snakes earnestly entwined around their bodies and Pinkie massaged her gut. “You taste like a vanilla cupcake and creamy icing! You’re a good one, Sweetie Belle!” The voice came from all around the captives, being basted and tasted in black gastric juices.

“Let us out of here! You can’t eat us!” The Scootaloo screamed.

“But I just did!” the omnipresent voice vibrated. “I did this to a lot of ponies and almost everyone ends up the same way.”

Scootaloo could guess. “...How?”

“Turned them into goo and tummy soaks them up! If they fight me...” Pinkie massaged her paunch firmly, rubbing the walls of muscle against her meal’s faces. “tummy gets really mad and works so fast they’re gone in a few minutes.”

Fear quickly took them. “Y-You’re not gonna do that to us, are you?”

“Well, you’re kinda my best friend’s sister and her friend and I don’t think Rarity would be happy if she found her sister turned into a white and orange puddle inside me. Just don’t punch or kick too much and you should be fit as a fiddle!” Pinkie jumped up and swung her hanging belly side to side. “You two feel so good!”

“Just let us out!” Sweetie pleaded. “Please! We’ll suffocate in here!”

“No you won’t, silly filly! Look!” Pinkie inhaled deeply and her esophagus opened at her stomach. A breeze blew in and the air inside started to smell a little less stale and acidic. The hole closed soon after. “I’ll let you out when Rarity gets back. Until then…” She trotted to join the musicians behind the mix table and strapped a headset over her belly, then another over her own ears. “enjoy the music.”

“No! Pinkie! Pinkie!!”

They were drowned out by the blaring noise of some garbled mess with too much drum filler.

“Sweetie Belle, can’t you make a fire in here with those mouths?” Scootaloo asked.

“I... I can’t. She sucked out everything I had!”

“I think I have an idea.”

They waited for Pinkie to funnel more air in. As the esophagus widened, Sweetie helped push the pegasus up the hole. When it started to close, Pinkie noticed the disturbance, but felt playful and let Scootaloo continue to climb up.

Scootaloo wiggled up the sticky, dark tube until she felt her hooves reach the top of the throat and just as her face caught a glimpse of outside light, a powerful contraction of Pinkie’s throat sucked her back down.

“No, no, nooo!!”

She was squeezed right back in with the unicorn and Pinkie’s belly groaned with displeasure at her escape attempt.

“It’s not gonna be that easy!” their captor giggled.

“You spit her out right now!!” Rarity screeched, her hands violently crushing down on Pinkie Pie’s throat and fury fueling her strength. The pink pony’s face turned a hotter pink, then blue.

“Can’t… choking…” she shrilly coughed.

Rarity threw her head to the side. Pinkie’s stomach roiled and rumbled as it contracted and two large bulges lurched up her neck, one after the other. Her cheeks swelled and she let out a copious amount of stomach acid, then a slime-covered pony. Rarity picked it up, ignoring the stink and muck, wiped the filly’s face , finding an orange face and purple mane underneath, gasping for breath. Another heave and another filly splashed from Pinkie’s lips.

Knowing that one had to be Sweetie Belle, Rarity clutched Pinkie Pie again and glared into her eyes, mad as hell. “You like to eat? Hmm?” She wrapped her viney fingers around a sizable stereo speaker and forced Pinkie’s mouth open. “Then try this!” She crammed it in, painfully stretching Pinkie’s mouth and half way down her throat, she couldn’t breathe but didn’t want to take it. “Swallow it!” Rarity fumingly screamed.

*Ulp*

The pleasurable feeling of her stomach wrapping around the object wasn’t enough to ease Pinkie as a bony hand pressed to her belly and Rarity electrocuted her. Her stomach attacked the speaker, churning and rubbing around it. The tentacles that inhabited the fleshy walls tore at it, ripping the speaker apart and the rectangular protrusion from Pinkie’s torso took on a more round shape as it was hastily digested. The ultimate stomach ache ensued and the taste of blood trickled across Pinkie’s tongues. Her stomach revolted, sending a blob of sharp half-digested stereo parts and several severed and cut up, bleeding tentacles back up and out.

Rarity stood back from her whimpering work, staring with cruel glee. A loud idle buzzing clicked near her. Vinyl held a large tube in her hooves, a toothy grille at the bore of the cannon. Rarity could feel the vibrations of the pure bass effect as Vinyl breathed with a wire down her throat and hooked to the tube. The chaos-DJ’s electric voice bellowed through the device.

“That’s enough,” she blared sternly. ”Get out of my room or I scream.

It was already enough to set Rarity’s ears ringing. She picked up the crying Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo and stomped out.

Vinyl disconnected the wire from her voicebox and lowered the weapon, pouting. “Damn. I wanted to use this.” Casting her attention to Pinkie Pie, she laughed. “Got you good, didn’t I?”

Pinkie Pie felt her stomach doing somersaults and spat out another flailing, dying tentacle segment. “You knew Rarity would be mad?”. The unicorn’s continued snickering spoke for her. To Vinyl’s surprise, Pinkie started to laugh too, multicolored blood trickling from the corners of the mutant’s mouth. At the same time, Pinkie felt slicing pain and tremendous pleasure. Each jolting convulsion of her shredded belly was a simultaneous heaven and hell of sensations.

“You see! It’s a win-win.” Vinyl stepped a little closer, big mistake.

In an instant, Pinkie lunged up at Vinyl, swallowing up her whole head and made quick work of the rest of her until there was but a pair of frantically kicking legs sticking from her lips. In a few gulps, they were gone too. Pinkie’s belly grew as fresh meat was plopped in.

“Now, you owe me something.” Pinkie leaned back and reclined in a fleshy beanbag chair, letting Vinyl find herself in the dark, stinking pit. “Rub my tummy to make it feel better.”

“From the inside... really?” Vinyl sighed.

Nevertheless, a pair of outward pressing hooves slid along the contour of Pinkie’s belly. She let out a little belch and squeezed her paunch. “Mmm… Maybe I should ask next time instead of just eating ponies.”

“Ya think?” Vinyl chided.

A lot of Pinkie’s toxified blood had left her and the cloud of stimulant-induced haze lifted for but a moment on her mind. She finally actually thought about what she did to the little fillies, that there was a mare inside her. She couldn’t ponder it long as the door burst open again. Rarity’s horns were an electric light show of rage and her very eyes burned with white lightning, sparking like flames of vengeance.

“What did you do to Sweetie Belle’s horn!?”

Braeburn had a trial to put his cousins through. It was a curse that almost every child of the Plague Father Nurgle had to endure that would decide them as either a warrior, or a zombie. Applejack was firmly tied to a bedpost and a piece of meat placed before her. It wasn’t long until the hex made her lapse and she viciously snapped and moaned for the flesh like the filthy undead.

“So you know something about this, then?” The Doctor asked pointedly.

“Tha’ Curse ‘a Unbelief, yeah ah remember that.” Braeburn thoughtfully reminisced. “Guys almost gave up on me. Thought ah’d be no better‘n a plague zombie. It’s like gett’n over alcohol or drugs. It’s hell.” He and Whooves saw this in Applejack as she thrashed and moaned in her restraints, snapping wildly at the cube of meat before her. “Just make sure she doesn’t eat any and she’ll beat this. Takes time.”

“We... haven’t exactly had the best luck with that lately,” Whooves admitted. “It’s not that easy to keep her under control once she gets like this. She always breaks out and gets it somehow. It’s got to be all the acids she secretes.”

“Ah never said it was gonna be easy,” Braeburn shrugged in response. “Well... it’ll be a mite more bearable if you can git somepony with magic to help ya out. Hold ‘em down with that... telly-ken-eesis, maybe. Still, though...”

The former apple farmer had been tied along the whole of her legs and head and already the ropes hissed and smoked as the acids did their work. If she had too much freedom, she’d inadvertently rip her own limbs off to get free. Beside her, Apple Bloom underwent the same suffering.

“I’ll see if Rarity can enchant the ropes; that should help some, at least.” said Whooves, departing.

Braeburn brooded over his family as he recalled what went through his mind in his trial, the pain that had ravaged him. The curse that threatened to unmake him into a mindless creature.

EAT...FEED...KILL...

But it was a labour of love from Nurgle. Pain is pleasure. Death is life.

“Like sisters.” he muttered. He looked up solemnly, hoping his words would reach the Aether. “Y’alls children are sick, grandpapa Nurgle. Ah’ll take good care of em.”

The throne room of the equine imperial palace was much like the one in Canterlot. A long, red silk rug ran from the door, up to a pair of regal thrones atop a short gold platform with tiny crystal clear waterfalls running down the sides. The long space was a dark contrast to Canterlot castle. The stained glass mosaics were very similar, but depicted the heinous foes of the Elements of Harmony in a much grimmer light. Discord, Queen Chrysalis, and King Sombra were vilely crafted in the still images, shown as hideous monsters and the bearers of the Elements as heavenly saviors.

Celestia and Luna waited in their opulent seats, the solar diarch trying to hold her sadness back, a cloud of depression over her heart. Their misty manes idly waved and glistened in the still, stale air.

Celestia felt reassured though, that Luna was back into her true appearance and not stuck in the image of the Nightmare. True, Luna could don and relinquish the look at almost any time, but Mannslieb and Morrslieb being up together, forcing The sun diarch’s sister into the image of evil, was a toll on her nerves. Luna’s abdomen was killing her, like she had eaten something massive. One of the priests said she devoured a young colt as Nightmare Moon the night before in a sacrifice, but she had no memory of this. A messenger came trotting in and bowed before the diarchs.

“Reiksmarshall Shining Armor and the Ulthuan dignitaries have arrived.”

“Let them in.” Celestia said.

“Yes, your Holiness.”

He cantered back out and Luna spied a tear run down her sister’s otherwise stoic face.

“How close were you to your student, sister?”

Celestia noticed the tear and attacked it with a hoof, wiping until her cheek ached. “I... I sometimes thought of her as my own... tried to pretend she wasn’t a monster in disguise. If her darker form has been revealed or she does not fall to the darkness, who is to say she can’t be?”

“It is risky, sister. If Emperor Franz finds out…”

“He won’t,” Celestia said firmly.

The gate opened again and the three desired individuals entered. Judging from the lively conversation, Spike and Shining Armor sounded like the best of friends. If one never knew them before, they could be mistaken for brothers. Cadence was somewhat annoyed by their boyish immaturity but it was probably her exposure to elven self-superiority making her feel this way.

“Guards, please leave us.” Celestia ordered. Their armor rattled as they saluted and trotted out the back. “Please, sit.” She said before Shining Armor could kneel. He and Cadence reclined to their haunches and Spike rested on his knees before the platform.

Celestia took a deep breath to steady her nerves. “Everypony, we have called you here concerning Twilight Sparkle.” There was a curious shifting among them. “If you recall, Cadence and Shining Armor, I had you write reports to me about her behavior, if you noticed anything strange.”

“Yes… what were those for, exactly?” Shining asked.

“It all started long before any of you, before Cadence, or even the incident of Nightmare Moon...”

Celestia and Luna could finally rest easy, as the Elements of Harmony’s energy faded just after their use. The world slowly stabilized. Furniture got reacquainted with gravity and cotton candy clouds disappeared into nothingness. The floor and walls smoldered with lightning burns and boiling magma puddles that were once metal fixtures. A stone draconequus, arms outstretched to resist some terrible power, fell to the ground, unmoving and bearing horror on its face.

“Peace, at last.” Luna huffed.

The older sister combed about the half destroyed hall. “What was he talking to before we entered?”

Both sisters heard the sound of clapping among the banging of falling items and among the wreckages, found a large mirror, with the image of a being the likes of which they had never seen before looking back at them.

“That would be me,” The winged, bronze-clad creature murmured. “Congratulations, ladies. You have successfully accomplished what Khorne and Nurgle have been trying to do for the past seven thousand years.”

“Who are you?” Celestia gaped.

“Little princess, I am Tzeentch, the Changer of Ways, Architect of Destiny, and you two…” He scanned a long, clawed finger at them, “are the puppets that will dance to my tunes.”

“Excuse me?” Luna harrumphed, “We are not some pawns! Why was Discord talking to you?”

Tzeentch chuckled, “Oh, poor Discord. Why did you have to turn my chat partner to stone? We would concoct brilliant schemes over the centuries, but he never took his position seriously. He was always wasting his power on dancing buffalo and whoopee cushions. Now look at him, a husk of former god-hood.”

Celestia’s eyes grew a bit wider. “There are more like him? Like you?”

“Why yes, a few. I am in the middle of what may be my greatest plot yet and I need you both to help me.”

“We don’t believe we are in an accepting mood after you referred to us as puppets!” Luna refused sternly.

Tzeentch’s grin held. “You don’t know who you are talking to, whelp.” He took his end of the looking-glass and turned it around. The princesses beheld a nightmarish realm. Dark castle-islands flew across space, joined to others by winding land bridges where millions of nightmarish monsters marched across and into a frenzied bloodbath with others. Lightning and fire engulfed all things and greater daemons towered over the smaller minions, killing hundreds in a single sweep of their weapons. “You wouldn’t want me to open a rift to Equestria in the middle of all that, now would you?” He turned it back, looking with satisfaction at the princesses’ horrified faces. He cupped his hands together. “Let me show her.”

The palms parted, showing a tiny thing. A bright yellow unicorn floated, sleeping, in a ball of crackling warp energy. Tzeentch tapped the ball and it dissipated, dropping the mare into his palm. It stirred, sleepily opening its blood-red eyes and great angry flames flickered to life as its mane, tail, and wings. It wiggled up, shaking like a newborn foal but, judging by its proportions, was taller than any ordinary pony.

“Say hello to your mentors.” Tzeentch whispered.

It looked through the glass at the princesses and instinctively started screaming and snarling at them. It charged and smashed its face on its side of the glass, falling back in a daze. Tzeentch put his hand back over it. Revealing it again, it was sleeping again in an incubation ball, purple fur, black mane, and vampiric wings and fangs.

“Impressive?”

Luna was almost furious by this point. “What monster is that?”

“Now, now. That’s no way to speak of your sister’s prized pupil.”

“I will not teach that thing anything!” Celestia bellowed. “I won’t let you unleash that abomination on Equestria!”

“Oh no, not Equestria - but a different world.” The raven god sat back easily among his vast library, a two-headed lord of change blabbering madly at his side.

“And the mare of fire shall be Her most prized possession, one to love-LOVE! as her own, but it will despise her in THE end.” it sputtered.

“Kairos, leave me.” Tzeentch ordered. The vulture exited, followed by eighty one smaller lords to record his every single word. Tzeentch spoke, rubbing his palms together to the sound of crunching and breaking bones between them. “Fate is a funny thing. You’re so sure you can control it, that your decisions today affect tomorrow and that destiny is what you make of it. But I have seen your futures already transpire, and they are according to my design.”

He balled up one hand and held up the other, forming a shimmering image, dominated by the sterile white of a hospital room, and occupied by a panting, screaming mare in the bed with a dark blue colt at her side, trying to comfort her as best he could. Tzeentch held out his fist, displaying a crying lavender foal where the brutish daemon had been before.

“Push!” the doctor shouted and the quivering mare clenched. Tzeentch formed a fist over the foal, opened it again, and the baby was gone. Simultaneously, the doctor drew the same little creature from between the mare’s legs, wet from the womb. “Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Sparkle, it’s a girl!”

“Can you not feel me now?” Tzeentch cawed. “Tugging at your strings, leading her and you to my will. Her parents will live in Canterlot and apply her to your most prestigious university, Celestia. You will personally admit her.”

“I will do no such thing!” Celestia snapped.

“But you will.” Tzeentch said calmly, controlled. “You will surround her with love and affection, friends and family. You will even get the goddess of love, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza to be her foal-sitter. You’ll delude yourself into loving her like family. It will become more than an act. You will make sure her heart never knows darkness unless you send her to fight against it, Discord, Sombra, even your own sister after she becomes Nightmare Moon.”

Luna was baffled. “Nightmare Moon?”

The raven laughed at her ignorance. “Enjoy your thousand years on the Moon!” He looked to an hourglass, twisting and winding in random ways. “It would appear I am late for a meeting with my counterparts.” He teleported up from his chair. “And, before I forget, Celestia, in the future, slow down with the bananas, Slaanesh doesn’t like fat mares.”

“I’m so sorry!” Cadence said quickly, her and Shining Armor both straining to hold Spike back with their magic. “He’s been a whole three years without an incident!”

“Liars! Liars! She’s not a monster! She’ll never betray us!” the adolescent dragon howled, twisting and trying to throw himself at Celestia. A torrent of verdant flame shot from his mouth and flowed around the princess’ sun-shaped shield.

Celestia knew he couldn’t take the truth, this couldn't wait for when he would be older, more emotionally prepared. Her horn flared briefly, a gold-white field of energy appearing around Spike’s head and shoulders. Cadence raised a golden necklace whistle to her lips and blew, producing an almost silent note. Spike wiggled harder, his eyes bulged and Shining Armor had to stay clear of his sweeping tail. Cadence’s lungs soon emptied and she and Spike relaxed from their torture.

“Why?...” he whimpered softly. “Why her...? Why us...?”

“Princess...” Shining said, disbelief and anger on his face. “Is this true? Twiley... My sister is a neverborn?”

“I am sorry, Shining Armor—”

“Were we just tools for you!? Damage control to keep her happy so she wouldn't blow up!? Now, the Everchosen's going to come riding down here to bring the End Times, on her back!”

He was overwhelmed with warring emotions. Daemons were literally the stuff of nightmares, given physical form by the lords of Chaos. They were diabolical, unrelenting, and immortal. Their only desire was to kill and burn everything in existence, and must be repeatedly destroyed and sent back to the Warp for the survival of the world.

But Twilight was his little sister. Her whole life, she’d been nothing but an angel. A compulsive, crazy perfectionist, but not a destroyer. He remembered when they first met, when she looked up from that book and smiled. A monster had looked up at him that day, and he had had absolutely no idea.

Was it merely affection she saw when she looked into his eyes, or were her eyes on his soul, like some kind of candied treat?

Spike was released from his magic bonds when he settled down, but still fumed with anger. “And what was I supposed to be? A pet, a plaything?”

“Her warden.” Celestia replied. “To keep her secured and locked away if she ever fell to chaos. I had hoped it would never happen, but if it came to it, you would have been grown up by then and been more than a match for her.”

Spike’s rage was already spent. He hung his head low, sinking and sinking into an abyssal misery.

Celestia was relentless in her truth; if not now, then never. “You weren’t just born from your egg. We had to make use of our deepest knowledge and magic to make sure there was somepony who would live for an eternity with her, to keep track of her.”

“An experiment?” Spike raised his head, his face twisted in anguish. “An artificial creation of magic?”

“No, no. Your egg was laid naturally and a great price was paid to obtain you from the dragon lords, but Equestria’s scholars augmented you in the egg, made you more powerful. I don’t know how far Twilight’s inner potential goes, but it rivals even my own power and I needed somepony equal or greater to look after her, should the necessity arise.”

“Princess Luna,” Cadence cut in, entreating the lunar diarch. “You were there, weren’t you? You could have been the voice of reason!”

“No, Cadence. All occurred after our internment,” Luna said. “As far as we knew, it was... Tia’s responsibility.”

All eyes were on the sullen solar princess. She took a deep breath and composed herself with a shaking confidence in her words. “I did everything I had to to prevent a horror from being unleashed on Equestria, and created contingency plans if others failed. Coming to this world has changed everything.”

“I think you’ve said everything you needed to,” Shining said despondently.

Before Celestia could reply, a drop of brown liquid landed in Spike’s eye, stinging shortly. Another drop, on Luna’s nose. It bore a sweet aroma, almost familiar. She looked up and her mouth hung open in amazement. They found the ceiling covered in fluffy pink clouds which decided to release a hard rain of the brown liquid, soaking everyone. A few drops trickled into Spike’s mouth, and his face went blank with confusion at the taste.

“Ch...chocolate?”

“Impossible.” Celestia mumbled with a thin smile.

“Oh, quite so.”

The Princess of the Sun turned her head to the source of the familiar voice; and froze, her gaze locked onto one of the stained-glass mosaics depicting the great enemies of Equestria. Everything seemed in order, except for the conspicuous absence of one misshapen creature.

“Actually, come to think of it, perhaps the universal perception of the concept of ‘impossible’ is a little off,” Celestia snapped her gaze to the other side of the room, and spotted a strange yet familiar form moving within the windows, carefully examining the artistic reliefs. “After all, it presumes that in a given situation, there are absolutely no alternative explanations, no other possible conclusions, no further paths nor ways to proceed forward.

“Indeed, nearly all mortals are in love with the idea that the universe is governed by some unshakeable laws set in stone by some equally obscure higher power,” The voice was all around them now, a low droll blending in smoothly with the pitter-patter of the thick rain.

“Or maybe...” The voice gasped dramatically. “Maybe you just believe all of these ridiculous things because you are afraid... afraid of what might be if you cannot live knowing there are some constants, universal absolutes... And if so, what would happen if everything you ever knew... everything you had grown to believe about yourselves, about the world, about existence itself...”

The words trailed off, leaving everyone in the room soaked and peering around wildly, trying to pinpoint the source.

“...Was a lie?”

Celestia felt a breath on her neck, and she wheeled about—and jumped at a wild pair of mismatched yellow and red eyes. The creature disappeared and came into existence on her back with a dainty teacup out to the rain.

“Ha ha! How long has it been, ladies? Feels like a hundred years! Would that be in Warp time or real time?” A shattered watch, cogs and springs erupting in a mess from the interior appeared on his wrist. “I really have to get this fixed. All I know is it’s probably not the best time to butt in on your little ‘intervention’, but it’s pretty important.”

“Discord, how are you still alive?” Celestia laughed, happy that at least something was going right.

“What? You thought I was dead?” he replied in a somewhat hurt tone. He vanished with a pop and they found him swimming in the chocolate milk around them. “It’s gonna take more than smashing my statue to destroy one of the gods of Chaos! Archaon actually thought he killed me! Ha! He just sent me homeward bound! Ugh, my realm is in ruins. But I guess I should expect that since I escaped from Big Red and Nurgle. You would not believe how those bloodletters can fight, cutting down my little neglected daemons.”

“Could you please turn off the shower?” Luna grumbled, severely annoyed.

Discord reluctantly snapped his claw and everything instantly evaporated dry. He flew up to the last remaining cloud, pulled it down and stuck his hand into it, searching for something. Spike growled like a feral animal. His green frills were high, tight-drawn and perceiving the massive warp presence.

“What’s got him all grumpy?” Discord asked.

Cadence gingerly petted Spike to calm him, to little avail. “He’s spent a long time being conditioned to detect chaotic energy and, different draconequus or not, he isn’t going to like you.”

“Well, no wonder he’s going nuts. I’m just too much to handle!” Discord flexed his free arm and it drooped down in the middle. “Well, anyway… Where is she?” He stuck his head into the cloud.

“No! I don’ wanna go!” A petulant little voice protested.

Discord pulled out a green and yellow propeller beanie.

“Oh, no...” Luna murmured.

“Oh, come on!” Stretching it wide, Discord put it over his whole head. “You come out here right now, young lady!”

“Nu’uh! Dere’s all th’ Inkwiziters out dere!” the little voice cried.

“What’s the hat for?” Shining Armor asked.

Celestia rubbed her forehead with the flood of sanity-blasting memories. “After Discord was reformed, he brought his… daughter to Canterlot.”

“Auntie Celly and Lulu are here,” Discord cooed.

The hat shrieked with joy and he ripped it off, gritting his teeth. A pink mass wiggled in the hat, bulging out the bottom. It fought and squirmed, getting out one leg, then another, and fell to just where the hat was stuck to the top of her head. Playful, swirling purple eyes spun round and round that would immediately invoke dizziness in anyone that looked into them. She had a white and purple mane, poofy and frizzy as cotton candy. Discord released the hat and the propeller sputtered and whirled, keeping her aloft.

“Auntie Celleshtia, Woona!” She vaporized into a pink cloud and quickly blew over to the princesses, recondensing with both front hooves around them in a tight hug. She was much stronger than she looked.

“Eh, hello, Screwball.” Celestia mumbled through a forced smile.

“You got daddy outta the stachoo?”

“Not us, but we’re glad he was freed again after the accident.”

“Yeah, don’t let me near the Elements of Harmony again, would ya? Being exposed to them too long isn’t good for my complexion. Now, you see,” Discord said, idly scratching his daughter behind the ear with a claw. “Being tied to the Warp again means I need followers in the mortal plane to supply me with astral energy. That’s where my little girl comes in!”

“I’m gonna get daddy lotsa peeple! He’s gonna be strong and beat de badder keyoss bad guys!” Screwball beamed happily.

Discord embraced his chaotic bundle of joy and spun around. “Yes, you are! Now go get daddy some cultists!” The filly squealed with delight as she was launched flying to crash through a stained-glass window, leaving a pony-shaped shatter and she buzzed off over Altdorf.

“Hey, you can’t do that! She’ll spread heresy in the capital!” Shining snapped angrily, holding a foreleg to the window.

“It’s hardly a good time to be talking about candy but, if you insist.” The draconeqqus snapped his claw and a chocolate bar materialized in Shining’s outstretched hoof, causing him to fumble in confusion. Printed across the front, in big beige print, was Hershey’s.

“Anyway, keep your head on. Remember, I’m ‘responsible’ now?” Discord assured, flinching at the word as if it were anathema to him.

Another finger flick and the glass window was restored. “On a more serious note…” he continued, now playing a teeny violin, “You guys know Sigmar, right? Founder of the empire, went for a walk one day and never came back, was declared ascended to godhood and blah blah blah. Well, they weren’t wrong.”

He vanished in a plume of smoke and reappeared, weightlessly balancing atop the princesses’ heads. “Doesn’t that remind you two of anypony? Somepony that said they’re just going for a bit and never… came… back…”

Celestia’s horn flared with white fury as she took him in a telekinetic field and slammed him to the floor, cracking a few tiles in the process. Hers and Luna’s gleaming swords pressed hard just under his chin.

“Why do you speak of our mother and father?” The white alicorn said in a low, dangerous tone.

“Easy! That’s why I’m here!”

He grabbed their hooves and Shining, Cadence and Spike were blinded in a brilliant flash followed by the absence of two alicorns and a draconequus.

Luna and Celestia rubbed their stinging eyes. The smoky smell of the throne room was replaced by a more crisp, clean air. A cool wind blew and they suddenly felt lighter as their armor faded away.

“Here they are, everypony,” Discord canted. “I can’t stay long. This whole dimension gives me the heebie-jeebies.” There was the sound of him teleporting again.

“How much they’ve grown,” A feminine voice said with barely-contained sobbing.

The tone of the voice froze their hearts with unbelief. Their eyes soon adjusted, opening wide to the sight of two alicorns and a fairly familiar man standing before them. The stallion was a perfect midnight blue, his coat dotted by the countless shimmering stars of night. The tearing mare glowed warmly with the light of day. The bright yellow of her core and face faded to orange and nighttime blue at her hooves and down her tail. The man was tall and strongly-built, but bore a grim face, hardly masked by a thin, yet honest smile. On his hip hung a hammer; both princesses knew immediately that it was none other than the iconic Ghal Maraz.

“So these are your offspring,” he said heartily to the greater alicorns. “You must be proud.”

Celestia and Luna suddenly felt young and small in the presence of the trio as the identity of the two alicorns before them became stunningly clear.

“Mother?” Celestia thought aloud.

“Father?” Luna breathed, her voice cracking.

The two figures’ smiles widened.

Author's Notes:

The scene where the princesses talk to Tzeentch had to be moved here, it fits to well.
I kinda want to do a bit with Screwball...