Five times they’d done this simulation, this mockup of the final battle. It all felt so real to Celestia and Luna; the blood, fire, the roar of the four corners of the world in arms come to one spot. Three of five times, the princesses succeeded. The other two, not so much. It was worse than hell the first time, but necessary. Even though it would be mixed up each time, whatever the storm of chaos was actually breeding was beyond anyone's knowledge.

There were some things their parents couldn’t replicate, however; Archaon’s image could not be forged in the Ley, nor could Tenebris and Solianna recreate his strength, cruelty, and unholy power. He was the will of the Dark Gods, put into a single man.

Recreating Twilight was another matter. Celestia couldn’t bear to see the monster, the daemon she had deluded herself into feeling for as if it were her own. Discord’s impersonation of a bloodthirster was the next best thing.

The High-Handed Slayer swung it’s axe and whip with blurring speed at the alicorns, only to strike the makeshift army below, taking twenty or thirty warriors in a single swing. The demigods circled around it, searching for a weak spot, a chink in its armor, whilst trying to avoid its unholy wrath. They kept it busy, taking turns firing magic blasts while the other fervently scanned it in an attempt to gain any sort of advantage. Its armor was ravaged, in shambles; but it never tired, never slowed down, and kept fighting with an anger and bloodthirst beyond mortal comprehension. The sisters were beaten, their suits half-dismantled and scarred barely within recognition. However, their speed kept the foe’s weapons from striking home.

Luna saw an opening. Just a split second; nay, nanosecond opening as the bloodthirster swung at her sister. Luna’s horn flared brightly before discharging a brilliant azure beam at the chain binding the axe to its arm. The junction exploded and, as the weapon whizzed by Celestia, she too fired at the greater daemon’s hand, forcing it to release its weapon without the chain to guarantee it was within reach. She threw it across the battlefield, and the monster roared with indignant fury. It beat its leathery, tattered wings with such force it launched into the sky and took after its weapon, snapping its whip to fend off the pursuing diarchs.

The iron tendrils cracked and popped thunderously and spun as if alive. Luna heard the high-pitched scream of helstorm rockets and saw their white contrails in the distance. She took them in a blue aura and steered one into the bloodthirster. It went down in a thunderous crash, throwing up dust and killing dozens of marauders. Despite the massive bleeding cavity in its armor, it still managed to rise to its feet; only to find eight more rockets screaming toward it.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

As the smoke cleared, Discord stood where the bloodthirster was now absent, wiping off soot and dirt from his fur. He looked uncomfortable, but still smiled wanly as if he’d enjoyed himself.

“That definitely would have brought down a Bloodthirster.” he grunted, rolling his neck. “But I swear your dad sent those rockets!”

The legions of chaos disintegrated. The grass blew into sand and dust and the visage of the Ley’s mighty arena rose around them.

“And what are you doing? You broke character!” the night king shouted from the balcony. “And I did not!”

“Helstorm rockets aren’t that reliable! They have a better chance of flying backward than forward!”

The king couldn’t help but shrink back a bit in guilt. “Tenebris!” Solianna scolded him, disappointed.

In a flash, Discord appeared between the two. “Ya know, a half-century with their mom and dad must have been fun for you all; but maybe, just maybe, it’s time they go back to real space. They’ve tried this a plenty times already, and I think that some ponies in the materium might be getting nervous as to where they are by now. Time might pass differently between here and there, but it still moves.”

Almost simultaneously, a white and a black flash erupted nearby, and the two siblings emerged from their teleportation with expressions of denial and objection. “Father, not yet—”

Tenebris raised a hoof, his horn glowing a nightly purple. “Shining Armor is responding to a letter from Emperor Franz. They’re both wondering where you are. There is also something else... I can’t tell what they are through this droning, buzzing...” He frustratedly relinquished the spell. He sighed, and Celestia’s and Luna’s faces mirrored his growing sorrow.

“It is time.”

“No, please; just one more day...” Celestia pleaded, though even a thousand years wouldn’t be enough.

“Girls... listen to me, both of you,” he said fondly, laying a hoof on Celestia’s shoulder. “This isn’t easy... for any of us, I know. Being reunited after so long brought joy beyond measure to your mother and I... We’ve watched your progress for countless eons, as you’ve grown so strong and independent, triumphed over countless threats and obstacles, and forged a strong kingdom through sheer force of will and strength of heart. You’ve made us so proud...”

“Oh, my babies...” Solianna choked, and finally the four of them closed the distance and wrapped each other in a tender hug. “We’ll always be here, looking out for you. Remember that.”

“But will we ever see you again?” Luna said with glassy, reddened eyes; then her ears shot up at an idea. “Would Discord be able to convey us back?”

“I could, but I’m not some taxi driver!” He pointed a firm finger at her, suddenly wearing a blue chauffeur's suit. “Alright, kiddies, time to get back to reality. There’s another time shift rolling right now, and Franz is about to blow it.”

“Just a minute,” Tenebris said. “Girls, there is a spell you can learn that will let you return here; not in body, but spirit.” They were still encouraged by the chance to see their parents in the future. He teleported a book before them. “It is called ‘Cast Soul’. I couldn’t teach you because you were already here. It will take some time to learn, but—”

A lion’s paw snatched it from the air. “Yeah, yeah. They’ll figure it out.” Discord put his arms around the princesses. “Arrivederci, Tenebie!”

“We’ll learn it as quick as we can.” Celestia added.

And in a blinding flare of light, the three were gone.

It was the crystal princess’s hour for unwind, for some time to herself from the multitudinous tasks she performed in the Ulthuan immigrant district. Cadence took a sip of tea, made with leaves from a special plant native to Ulthuan, to calm the mind and release some good hormones and she really needed it after the last few days. The birthdays, the school tutoring, the times spent in the park. Did being her foalsitter all amount to nothing? The next time she would see her, she might have a rack of skulls down her back and wondering what her blood tastes like.

No, no. She’s strong, she thought to reassure herself. Maybe not physically, but a tough nut to crack.

Cadence’s lips puckered at the bitter aftertaste of the tea. I’ll have to remind the brewer how much sugar is supposed to be in this. She set the cup down and took up her book again. Before she could begin reading, she heard quick scuttling just outside her door and some very discomforting words flying between her guards. One voice was raspy, gasping.

“We have to get inside. We’ll have the element of surprise that way! We don’t have much time!”

“Soldier, calm down,” a more stern, controlled voice replied. “What happened to you?”

“I-I cannot describe it. A shadow, perhaps. It ended the lives of all downstairs so silently. I managed to strike it, but it only got angrier.”

Cadence warily left her seat as the door flew open and her two crystal guards rushed in, one supporting a battered imperial soldier stallion. Blood stained his coat and armor plates, and he bore the look of one who’d been tortured.

“Princess Cadenza, we apologize for the intrusion,” Idris Flare said. “but we have reason to believe there may be something hostile in the building. We must prepare to face the intruder here.”

The broken appearance of the imperial unicorn brought no protest from the princess. The door was locked, the guards braced themselves off to the sides, and Cadence covered just behind the sofa, her horn charged to strike.

She’d spent many a day with the Phoenix King. Not only did a monarch have to know how to rule, but also how to fight. The battered unicorn was brave. Despite his injuries and fear, he still held a half-broken sword in his telekinetic grip. They waited for the moment to come, waited for the door to be bashed down and they would unleash hell on the intruder.

Cadence heard the window curtains flutter. She turned to the panes but found they were unchanged. The glass was still closed, and the curtains were still open. Behind her, she heard a couple of startled shouts, a wet splash, and felt a biting cold and green glow. She found her guards pinned to the floor, covered in a green net-like slime, and the injured unicorn burning in the verdant flames.

His skin charred off, exposing a hard black surface underneath and his horn grew long and bent at awkward angles. His body grew, shakily rising to stand on two legs and sprouted a second pair of what were now claw-brandishing arms. When the firewall vanished, Cadence was confronted with a towering, bipedal monster, three meters tall. The same green ooze dripped from its sectioned mandibles and its ribcage visibly protruded in its chest. An iron-black chitin carapace plated its form, and organic smokestacks down its back released dark green fumes into the confined air. In awe, her spell cut out.

Its claw clamped over Cadence’s muzzle and forcibly lifted her head back, opening wide the flaps of its mouth. The princess started to feel lightheaded as a pink aether trailed from her glassy body and into the beast's maw, bringing the feeling of an uncontrollable tightening of all her muscles. After it appeared to consume its fill, its jagged horn glowed a sickly green and thrust it straight into her chest.

Hissing and crackling arcs of magic coursed between them and a titanic pressure crushed Cadence as the horn burned into her heart. It thudded frantically, fighting the insect’s influence, but the monster was winning out. A light blue glow started to overtake the green light, trailing back into the monster’s malevolently grinning face.

The process took some time; it appeared to make progress, but suddenly the creature shouted in pain, releasing Cadence and recoiling back. The princess found that the magic spell didn’t seem to harm her physically, but she was still in a cyclone of dizziness and her heart sounded like pulsing thunder in her ears.

An elven spearman who had heard the commotion yanked his polearm out of a crack in the monster’s carapace. In retaliation, it’s forearms opened, dispensing toothy bone-swords into its four hands. In an instant, all the blades cleaved through the elf’s raised shield, and shredded him into a quartered corpse.

In control of herself once more, Cadence brought forth all the power she could muster into her horn and sent a sizzling blue-hued beam toward the giant insect. The blast sent them both flying to opposite ends of the room. Cadence anticipated the shockwave and used her wings to slow herself while the surprised beast crashed through the windows and vanished with an increasingly distant shriek, followed by a cracking boom.

Clutching her pounding chest and her vision coming in and out of focus, Cadence tried to stay on this side of consciousness. With the broken tip of the slain elf’s spear, Idris took it in his teeth and cut enough of the goop to get a hoof free, then proceeded to free himself and Cambrai.

“Princess, are you alright?” he said crisply.

“I think so,” Cadence gasped, her eyes tightly shut so she didn’t have to see the world tumble. She was still trying to grasp what had happened.“Cambrai, Idris, see what happened to the creature.”

“Aye, milady.” The gem-skinned stallions acknowledged and made for the stairs.

Alone, Cadence took some steadying breaths and, when the world stopped spinning, she flew down to see what the creature was.

It lay still on its back, in a ring of wood splinters, shattered glass, and a congregation of frightened residents. They were surprised to see that all the snaps and cracks were from the beast breaking the cobblestone road under it. Not a single chitin plate on its body was broken, but the area Cadence’s knockback spell hit was clearly evident with a small pool of green goo welling up in the speedily healing crater in its chest. It was still alive, breathing, but unconscious.

Elven soldiers quickly arrived through the crowd and surrounded the beast. ‘What in the name of the gods is this thing?’ was on every lip.

Cadence saw four silky wings splayed under it. It must have tried to fly as it was in a whirling freefall. She came up to the giant insect’s feminine face, finding a tiny antennae-crown atop its head and on close inspection identified the knocked-out bug with extreme doubt as to what she first thought.

“Chrysalis...?”

“What I wouldn’t give for wings...” Spike grumbled.

The dragon climbed up the side of an apartment complex, his powerful claws and flexible-toed boots sinking into the wall. His wings were still coming in, at the moment they were just bumps at his shoulder blades, but taking to higher ground seemed logical as his target could fly. At length, he reached the top and took a look out on the cityscape. He’d always wondered what the city looked like, not the fantasy-like Canterlot or Crystal Empire, but like Manehattan or Las Pegasus. Altdorf was the closest thing, this depressing pile of slums and a few affluent areas trying to look royal throughout.

He drew a deep breath to pick up Screwball’s chaotic scent and detected an unmistakable cotton candy aroma that made his green frills tingle.

“Bingo.”

As he strode across the tightly packed roofs, he thought of what Celestia had said. Nurtured, enhanced, made stronger. It made him feel manufactured. Rare, yes; but unnatural. He fostered a growing dislike for her. Living with Twilight, she expected him to grow up with her and keep her locked up if she ever fell to the Great Enemy. Did the princess never once think of how he would feel, having his entire, supposedly immortal, life pre-planned? Did she think he would just be her little soldier and turn against the mare that raised him like a son at her command? He took off his glove and inspected his hand. Though he couldn’t clearly see it, each and every scale was imbued with the stuff of magic. He wondered what he would have been without this, and what his limits were now.

Replacing his glove, he felt he had to take his frustration out on something, and sending Discord’s little hellspawn to oblivion seemed to be the best outlet. His sense of smell took him to eye a store, sunk among the buildings with a sign above the door bearing a picture of a writing quill and sofa side by side. A certain memory popped into his head.

”But the store is called Quills and Sofas! You only sell two things!”

“Sorry junior, all outta quills till monday... Need a sofa?”

“Ngaaah!”

“Davenport...” he growled.

Spike jumped down, landing with pounding force on the street below and frightening the citizens out of their skins at a dragon falling from out of nowhere, but he paid them no heed. He heard crying from inside the store, drew both sword and shield, and forced entry.

A sobbing mare was in the embrace of that very Davenport, sitting on the largest piece of furniture in the store. They both stopped their episode on seeing the very tall dragon. The chaotic cotton candy smell came strongly from the disheveled, tan mare. Her mane, tied in a poor excuse for a bun, was in total disarray and her eyes were manic and hopeful. She seemed to be happy Spike was there.

“You! I saw you through her eyes. You can end it for me!” She came lunging at Spike, apparently trying to throw herself onto his sword. He pulled back, not sure of what was going on. “Please! Before she comes back!”

Davenport clutched the mare, holding her back. “No, Button!” He held her lovingly as she sniffled into his shoulder. “No... we can find another way. And even if we can’t find anything, I’ll never abandon you.”

Spike put his shield away, believing he came in on something he shouldn’t have. “What do you mean, ‘before she comes back?’”

“Davenport... I don’t think I can stand to see you following her. She’s a little monster.” A pink hoof came between them from out of the blue. The mare looked to where it came from, her own shoulder. “No, no! I want more time!” she cried.

The rogue hoof quickly shoved itself into her mouth, choking her and started pulling up what looked like a pink pony’s coat from her throat. Before her lover or Spike could intervene, in a comedic snap, she yanked herself inside out, into a pink filly with poofy mane and swirling whirlpools of madness for eyes who twisted her forelegs bashfully.

“Daaaawww, I wuv yuu too, Davy-poo!”

She planted a fat wet smooch all over his face, and a split second later, a massive sword came slicing through her torso. She fell with a heavy thud to the floor, cleanly bisected in two. Davenport’s face sizzled like boiling water was thrown in his face and he stumbled screaming into the back room.

Spike looked victoriously on the slain spawn; at least until she leaned up on the remainder of her torso and regarded him with mild annoyance. “Ow! That hurt!”

His brain stopped. The sliced area bubbled and quickly popped out new legs. Her disembodied legs appropriately grew a new upper body. Two fillies, each half the size of the original, playfully spun around each other, examining their clone. With a giggle and headbutt they melted into one another.

“Bad dragon!” she shouted, zipping up to spike. She slapped him across the face, her hoof popping into a cloud of pink feathers on impact.

In turn, Spike grabbed her head to the sound of a squeaky toy, tightly squeezing it like a ball of putty with her eyes bulging between his fingers. He slammed her to the stony floor, smashing a few wood boards and roared a waterfall of emerald flame. As quickly as it came down, the filly pulled a water gun from her hat, hosing into Spike’s mouth and sending him gagging and stumbling back.

Her water gun morphed into several ramshackle, poorly built black powder guns, four attached to each of her hooves. She looked as giddy as an ork with a new choppa.

She screamed in an orkish accent, “Dance, draggin! Dance!”

The guns rattled and sparked, popped and clattered like mad. Spike was engulfed in a thundering storm of lead. His silver lamellar armor was shredded in seconds, but, against his thick scaly hide, he just felt like a pinata. Screwball was too enwrapped in the orgy of smoke and sparks to notice it wasn’t working.

“DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA!”

’Is this what Celestia meant by ‘enhanced’?’ Spike thought, shielding his face with his arm. He powered up to his feet and staggered forward through the wall of lead, then suddenly,

click click click!

Screwball shook her guns in confusion. “Dakka? Why’d you stop?” She looked up to the furious dragon, covered in nicked scales and lead dust marks, cracking his knuckles with an expression of cruel eagerness.

“Oh, zog me...”

“How many y’all think there are?” Braeburn said quietly.

The group hid low along the treeline, observing a tiny village of at most twenty buildings. The shanty hamlet was almost barren. A few impoverished inhabitants could be seen working, tending to small vegetable gardens, but their constant movement made them difficult to count.

Twilight’s mind wasn’t concerned with that. Her thirst grew more intense as she pieced together what was among the structures. Sylvania was ruled by vampires, which meant that their subjects had to pay tribute to their rulers, which meant...

’Blood...’ She unconsciously extended her fangs.

Braeburn noticed Rarity sitting in a meditative posture, her eyes half closed in a ‘Nopony’s home’ stare and with her horns faintly glowing. “Whut’s she doi’n?”

“Shh...” said Lyra with a finger to her lips. “Projection. She’s counting them.”

Among the villagers, invisible to their eyes, a light blue ghost weightlessly strolled, gingerly making small pointing gestures to each inhabitant. “Twenty-three, twenty-four...”

She spotted in a window, an elderly mare operating a cloth spinning wheel and a filly bringing another roll of black thread to the woodwork machine. The mare gave the little one a pat on the head and they sat with foalish intrigue as to the workings of the spinner.

Rarity pried her eyes away. “Twenty-six...”

She continued her search and came across a dashing suit of armor in the town’s meeting hall. Blood red and screaming of medieval Romanean style, Rarity found she could actually pick it up, even as a spectre away from her body. Enviously she wanted to just take it, at the very least study it further before a man came down the stairs and froze in befuddlement at a floating suit of armor.

“Oops...”

The man blinked a few times to confirm what he saw. “Ugh. The Spirit Hosts must be at it again.”

Before she caused another little incident, Rarity cut off the projection spell, letting the suit heap to the ground. The alabaster mare soon came back to reality, holding her head and fighting back a wave of nausea. “I think there are thirty, thirty-four at most. They have some swords and bows, but no armor or undead warriors.”

“Music ta mah ears.” Braeburn said with a cold smirk.

The Doctor flinched at his malicious tone. He had to keep the girls from falling too far into Chaos, and that included indiscriminate killing. “Maybe we could just bunch them up. Keep them restrained and take what we need, because somepony ate most of our supplies.”

“A mare’s gotta eat.” Pinkie Pie smacked her lips lewdly.

“Doc, lemme tell ya somethin’. The gods want souls, and mortals have souls in ‘em, so we kill ‘em to get ‘em out.” Braeburn nudged his chest, leaving a pus stain. “They’re in you, in me, in them.”

’You’re not even supposed to be with us!’ Whooves thought with exasperation, wiping his coat. “Just hear me out. We might draw the attention of the vampire counts if they find their subjects dead, and I’d rather not have to deal with a tireless horde of undead all calling for our blood. We can’t fight them.”

It was a bitter truth to swallow, but he was right. They could easily overcome zombies and skeleton warriors, but then would come the cairn wraiths, spirit hosts, grave guard, perhaps an actual vampire lord come to deal with them himself.

“Keepin’ it clean, then. You three,” Braeburn pointed to the three hedonists, “Go ‘round the village ‘n cut off any other exit. Birdbrains, round the west side. Fluttershy, go in from tha east.” He saw her eyes widen and shake in fear. “Ya don’t have ta kill nopony, just give em a good scare.”

“Annnnd break!” Vinyl squawked, and she, Pinkie, and Octavia took off along the trees.

“Doctor, could you... please stay with me?” Fluttershy entreated.

He blinked and looked at her for a moment, before nodding. “Of course. Don’t worry, Fluttershy; we’ll make sure this gets finished right smart, and we’ll be on our way.”

“Thank you.” she replied with a shaky, yet grateful smile.

Braeburn kept Apple Bloom and Scootaloo close and waited for the others to get into position. Twilight was starting to slip, her head throbbing with thirst. Her mouth felt like it was full of dust and she started to growl.

The signal came when Lyra cast a series of small fireballs at the village, igniting bales of hay that burst into furious pyres. Everyone burst from the woods, the slaaneshis eating up distance faster by their nature, performing almost acrobatic, dancing maneuvers to avoid projectiles. They hooted and jeered and called out wildly, sending villagers running screaming for cover.

Many people panicked and fled from one edge of the town only to find more chaotic spawns on the other end. Some harder men fired arrows at the assailants but were easily countered by magic shields, a skin of iron, or Braeburn and Apple Bloom just letting the shots stick deep into their unfeeling, rotten bodies. The stallion merely laughed at the shots and yanked them out of himself.

“Ya can’t kill what’s already dead!”

When she was close enough, Vinyl screamed into her sound cannon, blasting two men ten feet backward. Of course, on Fluttershy’s end, hardly anyone gave any resistance. A giant spiked metal monster isn’t very easy to stare down, and when arrows simply ping off, the little voice in the back of your head starts whimpering, “oh shit, oh shit...”

Twilight worked fast, teleporting through the different structures, looking for the stash among the frenzied villagers.

*poof* “Bedroom...” *poof* “Latrine...” *poof* “Food storage...”

Her throat was on fire, and her lungs burned. The thirst resorted to devouring her sanity and forced her more wildly to her search.

*poof* “Meeting hall...” *poof* “Water well...”

An unsettling thought came into her head. ’Just bite the villagers! Slake yourself more easily!’

’No!’

She was on the verge. The last twists of the valve that would release a flood of bestial bloodthirst were being made. Then she heard, from two men outside:

“Secure the barn! The sacrifices’ blood must be kept safe!”

“Jackpot.” she grinned.

The noose tightened around the village until everyone was corralled in the center. To the people’s confusion, the mutants weren’t ripping them apart or trying to sacrifice them to their wicked gods, but merely penned them in like cattle. Braeburn wanted to kill them, spill their entrails across the ground and splay the corpses along the pathways, to hang intestines like streamers for Nurgle’s carnival of death, and snack on one or two of them. But it would have to wait. He slurped back a fat worm that was about to fall out of a hole in his cheek and chewed up that instead.

While he and a few others rummaged the hovels for supplies, Fluttershy, Vinyl, and Kivsin kept watch over the captives.

“Always wanted a captive audience.” the mutant DJ chimed. She looked over the scared faces of the people, a couple ponies in the mix, and turned her magic hoof cannon to its lowest setting; 10. A sharp pain shot through her hoof then she touched the dial and found a bloody arrow, half way impaled through her leg. "Would you lookey here," she said curiously. With a magic yank, the arrow was puled out with a grunt of masochistic pleasure. She licked at the trickling wound. "So which one of you shot me earlier?" All the villagers were silent, but one was fidgeting more than others. "Looks like I got a fan!"

Fluttershy kept her head hanging down, unable to bear the terrified glares from the people on her machine like visage. She wanted someone, anyone more to not think she was a monster.

She held her bladed paw to one of the young boys who scuttled back in fright.

“Please don't be afraid’,” she whispered. “I’m nice. Really, I— hmph!...”

She felt something bubbling up her throat and her chest burned. Suddenly a flaming, glowing goop started trickling from her mouth. The daemonic artillery she’d absorbed was accumulating too much power to contain, and it showed it through her. Its taste was unfathomable and the iron pegasus frantically looked around for something to let the building shot go on. Putting blind faith in luck, she just pointed herself away from the people as her cheeks puffed up to blocking her eyes.

Blah!

A bolt of tortured soul energy streaked straight into a house, detonating with a massive, screaming force that lit up the night in a brilliant, fiery flash. Many parts of the structure vaporized, others liquefied, and the remains burned brightly. Debris and wood planks drizzled down while Fluttershy stared dejectedly at the destruction. Her molten heart felt ill, and she heard the corralled people gasp and mutter. It certainly wasn’t good.

“Good one, Flutters!” Vinyl beat her chest and let out an obnoxious belch. “I win!”

A young boy, sounding six or seven, wept into his mother’s ragged dress. That must have been his home. The juggernaut lifted her head to speak, but found a metal object painlessly panging against her head; a shield with a fang-bearing bat’s face on it. It was Fluttershy’s last chance to show the people she didn’t mean it.

She wiped her mouth, slipped a blade of her other paw through the arm straps and dropped it before the weeping boy, forcing herself to smile. He wiped his eyes and snatched up the shield. Fluttershy was tired of apologizing, knowing there would be more follies ahead, but at least the boy stopped crying and clutched to all he had left of his home.

Lyra stopped her rummaging and stared into the flames. The pyromancer entrancedly watched with a sick, widening grin. “Ohh...Sweet destruction,” she said wickedly. Her arms burst into flames and it didn’t take long before she laughed madly. “Let it burn! Waste everything!” She aided the flames, spreading them over every surface of any structure that wasn’t yet ablaze.

“YEEEAAAHHHH!!” Vinyl screeched, cranking her weapon high. She put the bore to the wall of a house and shouted, “WOW!” The amplified shockwave crushed the wall inward and shattered many windows. Her friend, the paraplegic cellist formulated, composed a symphony of chaos based on what she saw and Vinyl was coming up with her own song too.

“Burn it down! Burn it down baby, burn it burn it down. Yeah, burn it down!”

In a matter of minutes, the whole village was ablaze and reverberating with chaotic laughter. Lyra telekinetically picked up Sweetie Belle and brought her over. “Hey, you remember the ‘living grenade’ trick we talked about?”

The filly nodded sheepishly, closing her extra mouths. “Y-yeah, but I don’t think I can control--waaaaah!”

Lyra hurled Sweetie through a broken window. A second later, flames exploded through every opening of the upper floor. The filly soon opened the ground floor door, pouting angrily. “Some warning next time, please!”

“If it’s not one thing it’s another,” the Doctor groaned, dragging his hoof down his face. He had hoped to avoid any unnecessary trouble, but his companions always seemed to have other plans. He sighed with resignation, reasoning that they shouldn’t be in too much trouble as long as...

’Oh, no...’

“Twilight!” he called out. His voice bounced between the buildings but elicited no response. “Twilight!”

He came across the barn, where a terrific racket of hysterical screams from cows, horses, chickens and pigs was sounding from inside. One by one the animals’ voices died out, until a bull came crashing through one of the weaker points in the wall. Before it could right itself and flee, it was wrapped in a purple glow and yanked back into the darkness. Its last frantic moo tapered off to a gurgling fluid sound.

The Doctor peeked his head in slightly, just enough to see the interior. Strewn about were at least twenty shriveled, contorted animal bodies, every drop of liquid drained from them. They stared out into oblivion with dusty raisins for eyes and identical pairs of holes punched in their necks.

Illuminated by her horn’s glow, Whooves saw the purple pony with her mouth tightly clamped just below the bull’s head. Her black mane fell matted, ragged over her face and each clenching of her lips on her victim’s neck made it more and more withered and skeletal. She took one final, long draw until it appeared as if the bull would pop into a cloud of dust, and finally dropped it’s gangly corpse with a hollow thud. She panted and licked her lips tentatively, looking angry, tired, but still so thirsty, scanning around for anything else to feed on. There was nothing save the brown stallion staring at her frightfully.

The daemonic former unicorn took a step forward, her horn charged to pull in the Doctor so she could sink her teeth into him.

“W-wait; Twilight, it’s me! Remember?”

Twilight stopped, regarding him with a mix of curiosity and feral bloodlust. Finally, she lowered her head slightly, the baleful glow of her horn fading out.

‘Well, at least she still recognizes m--’

Whooves’ sigh of relief was cut short as Twilight’s eyes flung open as if recalling something, then she abruptly turned around and dove straight for a nearby stack of barrels.

“Twilight, what are you doing!?” he exclaimed, treading carefully between the broken bodies. “We’re supposed to leave as little a trace here as possible!” ’And we’re already doing a pretty bad job of it...’

She didn’t even acknowledge his presence as she levitated one of the many twenty-gallon barrels down, ripped off the lid and plunged her head into the thick red fluid. Whooves didn’t know where to grab her to pull her away, as her armor was covered in spikes and bladed protrusions. The liquid quickly sank in the vessel and when it went below Twilight’s mouth, she raised the barrel up like a giant mug. The doctor held her by the neck and tried to wrestle her back but she was stronger and kept her ground, telekinetically crushing the empty barrel into a golf ball-sized wad and bringing up a new one.

“Twilight, if you don’t stop, the vampires will be after us! Think of everypony else here, your friends!”

She paused for a second; and then continued chugging the barrel. Whooves ran to the hole in the wall, but was halted by a magic force on his back. It held him with crushing force, throwing and pinning him down on the ground in a dark corner of the barn. There, under Twilight’s telekinetic hold, he was forced to watch as she proceeded to drink every last barrel.

Even as the last one dripped its final morsels of ichor, she was not satisfied and looked like she would go mad. She feverishly shook the barrel over her dripping, blood-soaked face. ’It can’t be gone! I need more! MORE!’ And then she remembered.

’Souls...’

She took off the front of her armor, and the souls from Mordheim she’d hidden rolled around in the bowl-shaped metal sheet.

’Twilight, no!’ The Doctor was unable to speak with the weight of her magic on his head and helplessly lay still. As the mare took the first chomp, he saw the makings of a monster, a beastial, snarling face and tongue as long as a bloodletter’s. The image of a beast of Chaos.

’Twilight, what are you doing...’

“Etsi nihil occultans, tamen aliquid timeretis. Lex de imperio absolute, et applicabitur ad retributionem mali justo...”

A massive cart rolled along as the litany was chanted, into the largest holding cell of the Imperial Martial Court. Atop the wooden carriage was borne the changeling queen, bound in wrought iron chains and a magic suppressor on her horn. She stared out into nothing with a vacant, bored expression, though signs of pain and hunger could be easily seen. Everyone helping move the cart wore cloths or crude, alien-looking gas masks over their faces to hold back the noxious smog she emitted.

Shining Armor and Cadence came in after. “Let’s get her off this thing,” the reiksmarshall commanded. “Lift!” The guards heaved one end of the cart up far enough for Chrysalis to slide off to the hay below. She sneered in disgust at all these lowly, soft meat things touching her, rolling her onto her back and leaning her against the wall.

The queen looked to Cadence dolefully, waiting for an assault of scorn and disgust; however, Chrysalis barely seemed to acknowledge her. “If one of you could just kill me, it would make my journey back to the hive much faster.”

Cadence ignored the request. “Why are you here?” she asked flatly.

The queen suddenly snapped her eyes to the princess, hunger and misery swilling her voice. “Cadence... my children starve.”

“Why. Are. You. Here?”

The taste of her anger was painful on her tongue. “For your soul.” Now came the flavor of confusion. “My children have lived on nothing but hatred, anger, and love from those serving the Dark Prince. We are not made to live on it forever. Look at me,” she said, shifting her spiky, mutated exoskeleton, “This is the product of it. That, and these... mood swings.” Her lips almost twitched into a smile before sinking again.

Cadence moved closer, on the fence between rage and despair. “What do you mean, my soul? What were you doing to me!?”

“You’re the goddess of love, Cadence,” Chrysalis said, leaning forward hungrily in her chains. “You’re unlimited. With your being, I could feed my subjects forever and end our madness, but clearly, you’ve evaded me.” she gave a rueful chuckle.

“Your madness?” said Shining.

Chrysalis rolled her weary head, wanting to drop into the arms of unconsciousness, or death, no matter how distant the latter was. “In my attempt to strike in your wedding...” She immediately regretted bringing it up as the couple gave off a pang of anger. “We were overcome in starvation, our hivemind was decaying, as well as our collective psyche. Imprisoning Cadence and brainwashing you...” She rolled her eyes in hesitation. “That was part of the plan, but taking over all of Equestria, I’ll admit, was beyond our means.”

“How did you come here?”

Chrysalis raised a brow and stared at him in amusement. “You figure it out.”

The reiksmarshall mentally facehoofed. ’Right. Changeling.’

“Your essence, Cadence, it brings smiles to my dying changelings,” the queen said wantonly. “I can hear them now... they cry for more. Please, come closer.”

“I don’t think so.” Shining’s brows furrowed under his mask. “You and your kind are too dangerous. Maybe we should just let her starve, see what else happens and maybe even put an end to their whole nightmarish, pony-napping race for... Cadence, what are you doing?”

Shining started, looking back and forth between them with disbelief on his face. His wife was actually moving closer to the vermin! Chrysalis and Cadence knew more about emotions than anyone else in the room, and Cadence saw true pain and emerging joy in the insect’s bioluminescent eyes as she sat just close enough.

“And she shows mercy. Well within your nature, isn’t it?” Chrysalis said. Cadence didn’t answer, but glared with cautious contempt.

The queen parted her sectioned maw, and like an aethereal vacuum drew out the feast of energy from the princess’s smooth, gemstone frame. The love was telepathically sent straight to the changeling race’s crumbling hivemind where the last few hundred flickers of changeling consciousness noticed this, and began to feed.

Cadence tensed tightly. It wasn’t necessarily painful, but the contractions of her muscles were involuntary, and it felt like a great pressure was bearing down on every part of her like being deep in an ocean. After a minute, she mustered up the coordination to step away, which brought a flash of anger to Chrysalis’ face. “That’s all you’ll get for now.” she said. “We’ll find out what to do with you later.”

“Maybe even get the Inquisition involved.” Shining threatened.

The queen sneered. “Ah, the Emperor’s personal army of raving, lunatic mad men. I look forward to what your pretty little head comes up with. What are they going to do, read scripture at me to death?”

“You have no idea what they can do. They turned Mordheim inside out, then purged it because of heresy.”

“Ooh, so scared,” the queen mocked. “You have no idea of the pain I’ve felt. What I feel even now is a thousand fold more than what they can do to me. I can feel it. Cadenza is getting sick just looking at me. Now go away before you make me sick.”

Chrysalis looked tired, her antennae drooping and glowing dully. The royal couple knew she wasn’t going anywhere and Cadence was first to leave. Shining looked over Chrysalis’ bonds once again, satisfied that she could barely flex a wrist in those chains. A pair of mercenary ogres, fat ten foot giants, stood guard as the cart crew and reiksmarshall left. As he turned away, he tensed up for but a second and looked back to Chrysalis finding her inhaling a blue mist with a wry grin.

“You’re still my favorite, Shining Armor.” He didn’t respond, but trotted away a little quicker. She drifted, seemingly into a sleepy daze. “I remember the dance we shared, the nights in bed together...” anger crept onto her face. “Until those little Elements of Harmony showed up. They took you from me.” In an instant, she burst into rage, barking and thrashing like a mad dog. “THEY TOOK YOU FROM ME! MY SUBJECTS ARE GOING MAD AND BECOMING MONSTERS BECAUSE OF THEM! THIS IS THEIR FAULT! RAAAGGHH!”

Shining caught up to his wife at a window overlooking the court’s execution square, and street beyond. A hundred torture and execution devices lay waiting for victims. Chrysalis’ screams still echoed faintly through the stone walls.

“Cadence, Why did you give in to her? Without even a word!”

“She really looked penitent, Shining,” she mumbled pensively. “Besides, I let her take very little.”

“I still don’t trust her. At least she didn’t manage to do too much damage to you.” Shining reclined beside her. “Well... We can’t just let her die, because she’ll likely just be reborn in whatever hive she was talking about, and we don’t know where that is.” Shining grunted, “If only the princesses were still here, I could have just sent Chrysalis to them. If the changelings are still in any decent number, we can’t hold her forever. They’ll find a way in here.”

“I wonder if we can get her to help us.” Cadence mused.

“After what she did earlier, what she did at our wedding?” Shining hissed. “Not a chance. I wouldn’t let her even if she really wanted to. She’s just here to feed on love and doesn’t care about anypony but herself and those carbon-copy drones.”

Her attempt at what seemed like assassination weighed heavily on Cadence’s opinion, but the anguish she saw, it had to mean something. And Chrysalis came personally. She didn't send any drones or infiltrators. She wanted to be here for something. Cadence was distracted from her thoughts when she noticed the clouds shifting oddly, and curiously pointed to the disturbance. “Shining, do you see that?”

He squinted in focus, and indeed he did see. “Yeah. What are the weather pegasi doing?”

But he couldn’t see any pegasi, nor could they make the clouds swirl and rumble so quickly to begin with. The darkening blooms arched up into the unseen heavens, rumbling with thunder, forming a great cone into the sky. Shining and Cadence covered their eyes as a column of bright yellow, like a pillar of fire came streaking down to the platform roof of the palace. the yellow tornado was soon accompanied by one of dark blue. Both whirled and raged, arcing lightning between them. Countless denizens leaned out their windows or prayed at this divine event. As the columns dispersed and the clouds slowed, the streetful of citizens began streaming toward the palace.

“What was that?” Cadence asked in awe.

Shining didn’t have a clue. They hastened to reach the exit of the courthouse and, right behind Cadence, Shining told the ogres to keep their eyes on Chrysalis and they’d get an ox each to devour at the end of the day. They nodded eagerly, and the royal couple sped off.

Like flipping a light switch, Chrysalis’ fit had ceased when she saw and heard the show from the tiny window high on the wall. The tiny aperture was specifically placed so prisoners could barely see the outside world. ’Yellow and blue...’ she thought. Rapid-firing ideas went off in her head that made her lips curl into a devilish grin. ’Hm, I need a look at this.’

Chrysalis leaned her head forward and quietly spat onto her chains. The green slime hissed and boiled away at the links. She covered it with her hand to mask the sound, keeping an eye on the guards. The bought-off leadbelcher was leaning on his cannon, picking his ear. She slowly untied herself when the chain link snapped, lifting and lowering the chains to make as little noise as possible. She stood and tiptoed behind the guards, letting her bone sabres slip into her hands from her forearms, and thrust them into the ogres’ heads. With little more than a confused grunt, they fell almost silently, leaving chunks of meat and brain-matter on the barbs of her blades.

She reached between the bars and stopped the leadbelcher’s cannon from falling over and lowered it slowly against his back and then pried the suppressor off her horn. After a burst of green fiery magic, a scribe pony started licking the iron bars of the cell, leaving more acid spittle to quickly eat away at the metal. Once a sizable hole was melted away, the disguised changeling queen strolled out, through the building and into the rushing river of people and ponies, melting seamlessly into the crowd.