First Tale - A Trek Through Those Broken

“I write this for I don’t know if I will survive; if you can try to find my wife Jonica and my daughter Ruby Carbuncle, please tell ‘em I’m sorry for all this trouble. But, for the others… I write this because somepony must know about the things I’ve seen. One within, and the truth about what happened to ‘em; to the Elements of Harmony (that I’ve seen) and in Celestia herself.”

A note attached to a crystal recovered by the PHL.

“So, you gonna ask me questions now? Or am Ah just gonna sit here and wait longer then?”

“That depends; are you willing to cooperate with us?”

“Do Ah have a choice? Ah need to tell my story somehow.”

“Fair point, you may begin by first introducing yourself and stating who you are.”

“Alright then, my name is Rockwell; Ah’m a simple Earth Pony that worked and lived in the mountains on the far side of Equestria; Ah’ve managed to get my full potential going and its made me stronger, faster, younger and able to do some Unicorn magic; mostly simple stuff really. My wife is Jonica Jonagold of the Apple Clan and my daughter is Ruby Carbuncle; most precious thing Ah’ve ever got.”

“How did you get the attention of the Tyrant?”

“Ah did some things; Ah protected my kin from getting under her spell… at a cost. Ah attended a dinner with Jonica for that misguided group PETN… saw Celestia for the first time and all, also saw that bucking bag too. After that, Ah soon realized that it’d just be a matter of day counting till they came for me; Ah eventually sent my wife and daughter off to protect them, stayed home to work off debts caused by arranging the trip and other things… they came two days later, and Ah thought them Pinheads and Nzambi pretending to be Royal Guard thinkin they came to kill me. So Ah fought ‘em, kill some of ‘em, and got taken anyway to the Tyrant.”

“I see, what happened next?”

“Ah saw her, Ah hated her for what she was now and for things back then; she didn’t care about that… matter of fact there is a good chance she never cared. Ah thought Ah was gonna die there and then so Ah hyped myself up as some kind of mean motherbucker and mouthed off to her like the Tyrant she is, got her angry and then…”

“She used the Bag of Tirek on you?”

“…Yes, yes she did.”

“Can you describe it”

“It was horrifying to just see it that first time, Ah thought it looked back at me when Ah looked at it; couldn’t sleep for a week just cause of that. This time though, it opened up and showed me all sorts of Tartarus, in retrospect Ah think it may have been fixing to take control of me too; make me just another one of its puppets.

“My magic it… reacted to it, things went wild… *pause* Ah remember getting pulled into something, and then… that's when things started to happen.”

The library Rockwell stood in was crumbling; books and shelves rotted while walls were decaying into dust, there was an unidentifiable scummy sort of mulch on the floor with brown grass poking between the stones of the floor boards. But there was a prickling along his spine, a feeling that he was being watched.

He’d never felt so unwelcome in his long life. Every muscle in his body screamed at him that this wasn’t for him, that he had to get out.

There were voices all around. Screams, exultations, sadistic joy… along with another crying, but it was fainter than the others. So faint, in fact, that he couldn’t even tell where it was coming from. It seemed to switch directions at random, swinging around to his left, then, bizarrely, coming from… from under him?

Even though Rockwell was a pony that lived in the mountains way off on the outer borders of Equestria (close to the Badlands in fact) for most of his life, he wasn’t that much of a “hick”. He had been to libraries before and he knew for a fact that normally places like those were kept clean and nice. This one, however, this looked like something had ransacked it. No, not ransacked - that implied they’d seen something worth taking. No, the impression he got was that some vandal had walked in, and smashed it up for the fun of it with no regard for anything.

“What… what is this?” Rockwell asked himself, looking around, but paid no heed to the orange aura around him or his glowing cutie mark; as if he wasn’t even aware of it.

He took some steps forward, Rockwell trotted up a flight of stairs that was nearby and opened a door, revealing a narrow corridor that went seemingly on and on forever with countless more doors running along it.

Curious, Rockwell opened some nearby doors only to show yet more seemingly endless corridors that were lined with unlimited doors. Seeing that this would get him nowhere, Rockwell absentmindedly went to one such door and leaned against it; trying to collect his thoughts… yet unintentionally causing it to change its shape. Before his mystified eyes, it morphed into a dark door that could not be truly said to have a color.

It was certainly an old oak door, yes, but it was covered in so many layers of paint that one could guess it had become weakened due to it.

He soon noticed something was up, and he turns to see the door had changed; it had writing on it that read:

Seeing how the door was different than the others, Rockwell opted to go through it… only to find its locked shut. Raising an eyebrow, the earth pony focused his magicks into his left hoof before forcing the door open, it flying across before crashing against a bookcase and limply falling to the ground. Rockwell trots inside, scoping things out seeing that it was nothing but dark halls of bookshelves.

‘Okay… what’s with endless libraries?’ Rockwell thought, an uneasy expression present as he continues forward… however he’d soon see something possibly worse.

Whatever it was, it kinda looked like the Element of Magic… but wasn’t. It was like the Element, too much so to ever truly resemble it. It was so close and yet so far, falling in such a great precipice before her likeness that it hurt his eyes to look at. Its eyes were too small and close, the horn was too long and had a jagged look instead of looking like a pin, the mane was too stringy looking, and the legs looked too thin to support its body. However, it seemed to be next to a bookshelf before it collapsed, a purple book right next to it at the bottom of the bookshelf.

Rockwell simply gave it another glance before almost throwing up, and opting to keep moving through the strange library bookshelves… until he came across a clearing. Dry grey grass seemed to blend with the rotting wooden floor; giving an impression that it had grown out of it for some reason yet in the center laid an equally dead tree stump that was curiously placed there.

Quietly he trotted over, Rockwell quickly saw that the stump was more than it seemed; there was dirty purple fur coming out of its dead muddy side, and instead of rings there was some kind of violet gem that was surrounded in a white area that had views of a ruby streaking through it and-

It blinked…

Rockwell did a double take and witnesses as the apparent bloodshot, tired purple eye explored him up and down, the floor beneath him and then his face before staying there… it was kinda like looking into his person and asking for mercy... or for death.

“What the buck!?” Rockwell gasped, staggering back as a single foreleg clawed its way from the stump, with little more than patchy gray-purple fur, bones and a hoof reached out as if it was crawling out of a grave. He watched on with morbid curiosity as a second came out with the first and both hooves placed themselves firmly on the ground and heaving a body out of the stump.

Twilight Sparkle, the Element of Magic, the Tyrant’s eager suck up and creator of the potion… stares straight into Rockwell’s eyes, hers full of sadness, remorse, guilt and… curiosity?

He couldn’t help but to look into her eyes, despite the overwhelming desire to turn around and vomit due to the fact that the mare’s body was skewered with black thorny vines… one of them was even piercing her heart.

“What… is this?” Rockwell asked no one in particular, horror appearing on his face while Twilight kept her focus on him.

Her expression became one of desperation. “You… you’re different... how are you here? What did you do?” she asked, her voice hoarse and barely managing a rasping whisper.

“Uh, Ah uh…” He was struck speechless, Rockwell didn’t have anything to say about this… any of it.

“Whatever! Listen to me! There’s not much time to explain. That bag is the cause of all this! It’s imprisoned me and my friends and is driving our bodies around to commit atrocities in its maker’s name! Please, you have to stop this madness! Kill the Elements of Harmony! It’s the only way to end everyone’s suffering!” she cried out in an incredibly desperate tone, fresh tears escaping from her eyes.

“What…?” he replied flatly, still trying to process this. Did she just ask him to kill her?!

“W-why?!” Rockwell sputtered.

“We… we’ve done so many horrible things…” she sobbed, Rockwell suddenly seeing flashes of all of the atrocities that thing in her body had committed. Her exploitation of Stalwart Heart, something called Camp 731, the Potion Trials, and countless more.

“We… we can’t stop, we have no… no choice but to keep going like this… please, help us,” Twilight Sparkle begged with every fiber of her being.

Rockwell was at a complete and utter loss; this wasn’t the same pinhead that had a two bit human looking like a pinhead for her pleasure while also dictating orders to have him apprehended for no good reason… this mare here was just another victim of Celestia’s, as shocking as that sounded, given Sparkle was Celestia’s Most Faithful Student (if the rumors were true).

“Now now, it’s not nice having uninvited and unwanted company in your head. Especially if they’re rude traitors,” a somewhat patronizing but familiar voice called out, and then suddenly, before either could react, something struck the grass in front of Twilight, causing the vines around her body to stiffen and pull with an unrelenting speed and force which shoved the now screaming Element of Magic back into the stump.

After that, Rockwell almost immediately got knocked in the back of his head with a book that forced him into unconsciousness… his last sight being that of Twilight’s eye peering through the stump.

It was a look of devastation; for her hope for freedom was cruelly snatched away from her.

A forest full of decaying trees and rotten apples, an overgrown road leading to a decaying farmhouse practically plastered with ‘CONDEMNED’ signs.

Rockwell tried to compose himself and find his balance after what he had just been through, only one thought came to him…

WHAT. THE. BUCK. WAS. THAT?!

He just saw Twilight Sparkle crawl out of a tree stump, half dead and upset over something… awful! And then he… he heard her beg to kill him before that book came out of nowhere and hit him in the head and now…

“Where the hay am Ah?” Rockwell asked to no one in particular, seeing the rather… well dead farm; he could only guess where he was now if what he just experienced was right.

Rockwell began his descent into the rotting, dead, and condemned Sweet Apple Acres; he just knew that he would probably see a corpse somewhere of something that looked like Applejack since Twilight’s mind had one of hers in it.

He couldn’t see where the light was coming from, and the shadows between the trees were so dark that they almost looked solid. Something darted between the trees, watching him. Waiting.

The trees whistled, shaking, and a swing hung off a tree, wobbling ever so slightly, and yet Rockwell could feel no wind blowing through his fur.

He walked forward cautiously, climbing up a hill, turned around, and saw…

He saw Ponyville in ruins. All around, half-dead ponies with missing limbs and patches of torn-off skin walked through, smiles on their faces, unmindful of the devastation. This all reminded Rockwell of what he felt every time when he looked into a Newfoal’s eyes; something that was just dead inside without a mind yet still moving and going about business like it was still alive.

He looked down at the land and saw that it was… it was dry. Parched of moisture and any nutrients, the grass had gone yellow.

He walked into the barn, shivering from the cold.

“What is this? Just… Luna, or Discord tell me what the buck is going on here?!” Rockwell yelled, shivering not from just the cold but from fear after seeing something that… that just LOOKED like it was from one of his nightmares; especially the one with that THING that tried to take his younger brother.

At that moment Rockwell heard something, his head whipping over and saw nothing behind him. He brought up his left hoof which began to glow with his magic.

“Ah know you’re there! Applejack!” Rockwell called out, “It’s me! Rockwell! Remember? Ah married your aunt, Jonica Jonagold! She’s a part of your family, you met her at the Summer Sun Celebration that one year when you became the Element of Honesty. We’d come more often but we live farther than your cousin Honeycrisp; we can only do so much, filly!”

He got no response, the silence even more unsettling than any screams of pain and death could be. His eyes searched the darkness, trying to find Applejack. He called out to her again, “Just give me a sign so that we can talk!”

The barn door creaked. Suddenly, movement! Rockwell tensed, eyes darting from side to side as he charged his magic, only to -

Cart. It was just a cart… rolling by itself… and going by him.

As it passed, he gasped, staring at the fields, which were populated by… Were those ponies? Humans? What were those creatures, working the fields? They were so covered with scar tissue it was impossible to tell if they had fur or skin, so stooped and beaten, that it was impossible to tell what they were.

The bad news was that they were; trying to stop him from his objective… however, the good news was that the Earth pony managed to get the house door, open it, get inside and closed it before any of them could either follow him or get in.

He heard angry shouts and banging on the door behind him, as they were trying to force their way in.

“Oh no you don’t!” Rockwell growled, his back against the door trying to hold it; he tapped into his magicks to reinforce the door and then push those things away from the other side. Thank Luna for that quick thinking.

‘Just what were those things meant to be? Newfoals? Those humans Ah heard about?’ Rockwell pondered, unsure of what he saw, ‘Maybe something else… Ah better not look into it right now, Ah need to find Applejack.’

With that he focused his attention to the house, which was in one piece it seemed…

Barely. The place looked like it had suffered through a storm and an earthquake. Maybe. But there looked like there was intent behind this. Wild party? No. Active vandalism? What kind of vandal could do this? Either way, somepony had trashed the place, splattering condiments and food on the ceiling, destroying the furniture, leaving gouges in the walls, burning seemingly random photos, leaving furniture in splinters. On top of that, the family photos (which lined seemingly on every surface) bore either accusing, ashamed, or angry glares, when the ponies inside the photos (many of whom Rockwell recognized as members of the Apple Clan) had their backs turned to her as they walked away. Still others had family members in the process of flaying humans alive, peeling off their skin with rusty knives to reveal ponies underneath, as Applejack looked on approvingly. Sometimes, the positions in the latter type of photo were reversed, with other ponies looking on, approving as Applejack flayed the humans.

What the BUCK was this?! More importantly, he couldn’t remember Jonica saying that Applejack had that many photos. Not like it’d be out of character for her, but she shouldn’t have that many.

He heard something in the hallways nearby, looking off in that direction, to find that the hallways stretched off into the distance, far beyond where they should have by all rights ended.

Knowing that so far he’d seen a decaying Sweet Apples Arcs, a destroyed Ponyville with dead ponies in it, a run down farm, creatures that were made of nothing but scar tissue, and photos of family members either turning their backs on this place or of them and Applejack gleefully killing humans… Rockwell knew that hopefully he was getting to the end of this insane maze and he could finally talk to Applejack this time.

Gathering his wits, Rockwell slowly stepped into the hallways seeing more broken frames and destroyed photos of the Apple Family that hung on the walls, and he could tell that these photos were meant to be something else; they were supposed to be of the good times Applejack had with her family instead of what he saw back there.

‘This needs to stop,’ Rockwell thought grimly as he continued on his path, ‘Ah pray to Luna, or whoever, that this will end and things will go back to the way they should be before everything went to Tartarus.’

“Rockwell?” He heard Applejack’s voice ask weakly somewhere within this house. “Ah… HELP! Ah think Ah came free! You gotta get me out of this! Ah’ve been tryin for years, but Ah just can’t­-”

“Applejack?” Rockwell pondered out loud, looking around his environment; trying to figure out where the hay she is.

“HELP! You gotta help! Ah can’t go back!” Applejack yelled, stronger this time. “Ah HATE WHO Ah-No Ah don’t-SHUT UP, DAMN YOU!”

“Where are you?!” Rockwell screamed, running, throwing open every door in his way. None contained Applejack, and hours, minutes, weeks later, who could tell honestly? He soon found himself before a door, clearly marked Abigail Jacqueline on it; this had to be her room and hopefully this time she’d be in it because the screaming seemed to be the loudest behind it.

Taking a breath of air, Rockwell forced the door open… but was soon confronted by a horrific scene that awaited him

He saw Applejack, restrained by some kind of massive rotting apple tree that bled sickly-colored sap, it seemed to have punched through the floorboards, and its roots piercing her skin. Yet she struggled against it, the branches leaving great tears in her barrel. Her eyes were similarly as bloodshot as Twilight’s and she looked half-dead as well.

“NO!” the tree shrieked, and, in a wholly incongruous hammock in the tree, Rockwell could see another version of Applejack, this one like a crude caricature, a lasso in her mouth as she struggled to keep Applejack imprisoned.

Without a second passing, that graphic dream popped into Rockwell’s mind (something that had been rather present in his mind during this period of time) and he springed into action, his left hoof glowing with an orange ball of magicks as he grabs the crude Applejack duplicate by the head and forced it out the hammock with the intent of ripping its head off but the thing was glued on pretty tight.

“Ah know what you are now,” Rockwell said grimly, glaring at the mockery of Applejack standing before him. “You’re trying to control everypony; you didn’t take my brother Stone Edge and now you ain’t having Applejack anymore!”

He jumped, punching at the doppelganger with his front hooves. He poured every bit of strength he possessed into these punches, beating the ever loving hay out of this thing until its face was nothing but a swollen, bruised and pulpy mess. The real Applejack watched as Rockwell, with a feral animalistic rage, wailed on her captor… and just kept beating it until he thought it was dead (or should be).

“Buck the Tyrant, buck you and buck all them Newfoals!” he roared before spitting on it. He took several deep breaths to calm himself as he then turned to Applejack.

“Applejack? Is that really you?” he asked.

“Uncle Rockwell… Ah remember you… how did you… get in here?” she whispered. Her voice amounted to a croak, like her throat was utterly parched.

“It don’t matter right now, you look as bad as Twilight Sparkle does; though her thing looked kinda dead instead of walking around.” Rockwell said quickly, scanning the tree and trying to find a way to free her. “There has to be a way to free you and get that thing outta here.”

“Uncle Rockwell, listen to me!” Applejack coughed out. “We don’t have much time! That bag Celestia used… it’s gotten to all of us… we’re all stuck, trapped, no way out! And even if ya tried, you’ll get stuck here too!”

“No!” Rockwell cried out, ignoring the hopelessness that Applejack was giving off; there just had to be some way to-

However, the creature that was impersonating Applejack arose, smirking. Any blows Rockwell had landed on it had completely healed over, and she looked rather amused.

“You poor thing,” the homunculus said in a very fake sweet tone. “You actually think you can kill me?” She started laughing.

Rockwell snarled, pointing with one hoof to the caricature. “You ain’t gonna win. Ah’m gonna free Applejack, then Ah’m gonna-”

“NO!” the fake one hissed. “SHE IS MINE! IT’S ALL MIIIIINE!” She then lunged at Rockwell, pouncing on him like a hungry timberwolf.

There was no time to fight. No time to resist.

“You’re not takin’ him, ya monster!!” Applejack screamed, and Rockwell felt the buck of Applejack’s hooves in his snout, and he felt himself falling, falling backwards through endless black, the floorboards above his head, a series of rooms floating in a black void…

Before it all went dark, he could hear Applejack sobbing, “Oh Granny, Big Mac, Applebloom… Ah’m so sorry!!”

Rockwell soon recovered to find himself in yet another new area. It appeared to be a clothing store… however it looked abandoned with the windows boarded up, the sign reading “Out of Business”, and there were all sorts of torn, dusty clothes loosely hanging off the display mannequins. As if to add insult to injury, the clothes were decades out of date, horribly color-clashing things that made a pony wonder why they were ever considered a good idea. Just looking at them made him go cross-eyed.

But he could barely register this. He had failed to free Applejack from that thing that wasn’t her… at all. And the last thing Applejack said before he blacked out.

‘Oh Granny, Big Mac, Applebloom… Ah’m so sorry!!’ Oh, Granny Smith… he remembered how she had been such a strong and resilient mare, taking in her grandfoals when her son and daughter-in-law tragically passed. Rockwell wouldn’t be shocked if she too felt the dark corruption that had been poisoning Equestria herself. He regretted not being able to attend her funeral regardless of the distance, and from what he could hear, Applejack wasn’t even there to be there for her ailing grandmother during her last days. Seeing that cruel, evil caricature that was in her head, controlling Applejack’s body, he could understand why.

Poor Macintosh and little Applebloom too. Rockwell wished he could say something but he honestly had no clue; truth be told he’d only met Applejack a couple times, first when she was a just a foal and the second was during her parents’ funeral, and it broke his heart to see the state she was in, and failing to save her when she was so close to getting free.

It’s just… horseapples, he wished he could have freed her; she was family, even if it was a distant relation through marriage. Maybe he could have more of a chance with the others, or, if something was willing to give him a chance, Celestia herself so that everything could stop and go back to the nice, peaceful and loving Equestria that Jonica grew up in and lived up to its ideals, and without those bucking nzambi walking around either.

Rockwell gave a tired sigh as he got up on his hooves.

Stupid mannequins. He’d never liked them. Were they… Oh, Luna. They were. They were all staring at him! The painted-on eyes moved, following him wherever he went! And… was that one with the pink ballgown where he remembered it last?

They didn’t seem to be doing anything. They couldn’t. Could they?

Still. Only an idiot would stay in this room.

Rockwell got moving, if he wasn’t able to help the Element of Honesty (something that Equestria was lacking recently) then maybe he could help an Element that represented something he didn’t get much of from the pinheads as a colt… even if she herself was a pinhead.

‘If Ah could wager Ah’m probably gonna see another one of those things, this one pretending to be the Element of Generosity,’ Rockwell thought, starting to quietly trot through the store and passing more mannequins that had eyes. ‘Better get ready then, maybe Ah should punch its head in, instead of pounding it this time.’

He soon passed by a dead cat, and doesn’t give it a second thought… only that it was an odd point; maybe Miss Rarity had a pet cat at some point.

Rockwell soon came upon a door, and heard a rustling sound. He tapped into his magic, cracked open the door to see…

It looked somewhat like a dressing room, somehow; Fine dresses, burnt and dirtied, lay everywhere. Jonica would have loved the things, and while Rockwell was no devotee of high fashion, he could almost weep at what he was seeing there.

And in the middle of it all was Rarity. Standing before a massive sewing machine the size of a steam locomotive, (it actually bore some resemblance to one, being so huge, oil-stained, burnt, and dirty, more of an insult to Rarity’s ever-so-valued dignity) sewing a dress. One would expect the dress to be something beautiful, but no! It was made of a strangely pale leather, and it was the most insultingly gaudy thing Rockwell had ever seen. Rhinestones! Flowers! Swirly patterns! There were simply so many flourishes that his eyes felt like they burnt, it was so tacky … and…

Oh, by Luna, Rarity was not working on the dress. She was being sewn into it, dragging herself out even as the needles left blood and runnels in her forelegs, colored thread dangling from her legs. Struggling to get out but unable to leave. All she could do was scream.

“I have been far too lenient, you know,” another Rarity sneers from atop the machine.

Rockwell paused for a second at the strange… thoughts he had at seeing articles of clothing ever since he’s been in here. Maybe their personalities are rubbing off on him a bit, still could be worse given that it’s the REAL ones instead of those… things.

An important question to ask however is this, what to do now? When he tried to throw down last time, he failed to free Applejack, this time the pin- Element of Generosity is being drawn into a sewing machine with another one of those things watching her like a Timberwolf.

Rockwell looked back to that dead cat… and started to get an idea.

Meanwhile…

Rarity cried as her forelegs were getting painfully sewn into the fabric. Oh to be so close to getting away with Spike and then getting caught despite his best efforts… she was lucky the first time getting away for if Spike wasn’t there she’d probably be trapped earlier instead of later.

The worst part to this whole thing was that she didn’t know what happened to Sweetie Belle, she didn’t remember where she went or what had happened to her before she got captured.

If only-

*Mrrrow*

What was-

*Mrrrooooowww*

Was that Opal? Rarity (and the Homunculus) heard the doors open as the white cat began to walk into the room, she seemed to be ignorant of Rarity’s current issue and apparently wanted food.

“Opal?” the Homunculus asked. “Opal, darling! I didn’t expect you to need food! Not least because you don’t technically exist here…”

Nonetheless, questionable existence aside, Opal was very insistent, her rolling meows incessant enough to almost drown out the sewing machine.

“Alright, alright,” the doppelganger sighed, trotting down from the machine, having no care for the beautiful Rarity-made dress that she was wearing. Already, it was burnt and dirty; as if somepony had taken a painting by some great Equestrian master and contrived to “improve” it by adding random splotches of paint.

Opal lead the Not-Rarity to the door, and once the Homunculus's head was through, Rockwell immediately hit her with his left hoof before his magic enhanced right hoof whacked the thing onto its back and to the ground. He then quickly galloped in and jumped onto the Homunculus punching it repeatedly in the head while using his magicks to enhance his strikes to the point of being able to shatter boulders with just one hoof tap.

Soon enough he ran out of steam and gave a final punch before getting up, and bucking the Homunculus out of the room and using his magicks to lock the door.

Rockwell took a deep breath; a bit winded from the assault, and ran over to Rarity, trying his hardest not to vomit over seeing the ‘dress’ aka, the mockery was working on.

“Listen, Miss Rarity Ah’m going to get you out of this… thing!” he said to her, trying to find a weak point to free her.

“I don’t know who you are, but thank you!” Rarity gasps, still struggling to remove herself from the ghastly creation. “The thread it uses is terrible, by the way.”

“Hey, Ah’m not a fashion lovin’ elite,” Rockwell comments, observing the giant machine. “How about you tell me what the buck happened? Ah saw Sparkle and Applejack in similar cases like you and – ”

Rarity cut him off, “If you want to know, get me out before she comes back! You can get your explanation when we’re safe! I’ll gladly tell you everything when I’m not being…” she strained one hoof. “THIS!”

“Oh, right!” Rockwell focused and started to break the sewing machine with his magic. And yet, despite the damage he was causing to it, the thing was still functioning. “Horesapples!” he swore. “That didn’t work! Maybe…” he looked to see Rarity’s hooves getting sewn in. “Can Ah?”

“Don’t worry about it. My hooves aren’t real here anyway,” she said.

“A-alright,” Rockwell took a deep breath and focused his magic to break Rarity’s hooves off. Soon enough there was an orange light and a sickening crunch as her right forehoof was snapped off by Rockwell’s magic.

Even though this was mental, there was still a pain to be had and it hurt worse than hell for Rarity after experiencing that.

“Stay with me!” Rockwell ordered her before getting to work on the left forehoof, “can you say something though? Something about your family before everything went south of Tartarus or maybe about yourself?”

“My little sister!” Rarity hissed through the agony. Rockwell was amazed she could talk – the pain, which may or may not have existed, and the shock of seeing that must have been terrifying enough that many high class unicorn would of been on the floor in a fetal position, all the while crying their eyes out.

Although clearly, Rarity wasn’t just any mare.

“Wanted her to know… I’m not a monster,” Rarity said. “I didn’t want to destroy art and culture, leave ponies and humans as slaves… I wanted…” she drew in a sharp breath, “to make something beautiful!” She exclaims

“Ah hear that.” Rockwell comments, his thoughts going towards Stone Edge in the sense that they both have a younger sibling before finally, finishing his work and causing yet another crunch to be heard as Rarity’s left forehoof is snapped off.

She then falls back, blood coming from the stumps where her forehooves used to be; it seems Rockwell has freed her. The Earth Pony stallion quickly catches her, and sets her down, working even quicker to patch things up.

“This here is a trick my brother taught me, if you got an amputee; you make sure its rounded out.” He says, to not only distract her from the pain, but to focus on cauterizing her wounds.

“Don’t worry. It’s my mind, not that damnable caricature!” Rarity shouts. “I think… I think I’ll be able to keep them safe. Just keep me from bleeding out!” She requests

“And what was that about your hooves not being real?” He comments, lifting Rarity onto his back.

“I’m very imaginative,” She responds, a hint of humor present in her voice.

“Ah can tell, this is vivid.” Rockwell started to move towards the door, Rarity was almost freed; things may be starting to turn around! “What happened to your sister?” He asks, making sure she is securely on his back.

“Right after the launch of the Great Equestrian, Celestia called me on a… special errand of some kind,” Rarity answered. “Turned out, she didn’t like that I liked the humans’ arts and fashion designs… so she made a Rarity that wouldn’t challenge or disagree with her.”

‘That explains a lot…’ Rockwell thought; he had heard from Igneous Rock that Pinkamena did send a note to Maud… but it was weird looking, gave the impression there was something written in between the lines like some kinda contract; he never did get to talk to Maud about it before she up and left.

“Well; what happened? Did you escape?” He asks, slowly using his magicks to unlock and open the door.

“I tried to,” Rarity sighs. “Spike managed to keep me from being turned into one of Celestia’s puppets, and we got out of Canterlot.”

“Then what happened after that?”

“I had guards running after me,” She explains. “Every guardspony in Equestria was ready to slaughter Spike and find me. But… I found Sweetie Belle at Carousel Boutique, and I… I told her I would always love her; I wiped our memories of anything other than that so we couldn’t find each other, then I fled. I have no idea what’s become of her, but she can’t be happy with what my impostor has done.”

“Ah hear that,” Rockwell commented, starting to trot through the door and through the run down store. ‘She did what she could to protect her, but in the end things went bad. Ah guess that’s somethin’ that we’ve got in common; protecting the ones we love regardless of what things happen to us.’ He thought.

“I couldn’t completely protect them.” Rarity chokes out, “Sweetie Belle… Spike… I’m so pathetic.”

They soon reached the front doors of the Carousel Boutique and oddly enough the outside was boarded up… probably to keep Rarity in. Focusing his magicks into his left hoof again, Rockwell worked on busting the two doors down; not an easy task, all things considered.

Eventually the doors gave way and were busted off their hinges, Rockwell and Rarity began to move through to see a white void that stretched onward for miles on end… however, a chill then ran down Rockwell’s spine; this was too easy. Still, it was either ‘leave with Rarity’ or ‘stay and be doomed’ so he kept moving eventually breaking out into a full gallop as if a dragon was on his tail.

“Okay mare,” Rockwell began, trying to figure out why this felt to easy; reason for that being the fact that the last time he commented on it, he almost immediately got captured. “Got any ideas on what to do next? Cause if I bring you with me outta your body, wouldn’t that leave that copy of yours in control of it all the time?” He asks, before adding “Even if its still breathing.”

“Just… just keep running,” Rarity breaths, gritting her teeth as she stares at the stumps that used to be her forelegs. “Keep running until-” she suddenly pales. “Oh no.”

Rockwell’s expression turned grim once he spotted the cause, it was the Homunculus Rarity… and she didn’t look too happy with either of them while most of her bruises have healed.

“Ah buck,” Rockwell swore, putting Rarity down gently behind him and getting ready for a fight; he wasn’t gonna let what happened back in Applejack’s mind happened to him again… this time he was gonna succeed, for everypony’s sake; Pinhead or not.

“Well, you’re really overstayed your welcome, you ruffian,” Not-Rarity declared, her face starting to recover from the last bruise Rockwell gave her earlier. “You really aren’t helping yourself, Rockwell.”

“Who says this is for me? Ah heard her cries, her pain and saved her from your torture machine!” Rockwell shot back, “Besides, Ah think the fact that Ah’m willing to put my life on the line to give one of the Elements a chance is rather… what’d you call it, uh, generous of me?”

“…Truly you don’t understand the word ‘generosity’,” The homunculus states bluntly. “She’s clearly not generous enough-”

“The bucking element of Generosity?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME, YOU PINHEAD?!” Rockwell yelled, interrupting her.

“As I was saying,” Not-Rarity continued, “She doesn’t have it in her heart to help those apes, which is why I’m here. All those petty little questions about whether or not they want it… Who cares if they do or they don’t? They’re happier anyway.”

“Happier? You… do you have any bucking clue at how lifeless they are?!” Rockwell shouted, his rage starting to reach its peak. “Ah may have never got much generosity from pinheads in my youth, or most of my life for that matter! But, this mare,” he pointed to Rarity, “she was willing to sacrifice not only herself but everything she owned for her sister’s safety! THAT is what it must mean to be the bucking Element of Generosity! Those bucking nzambi aren’t happy! Besides, help is something you ASK others; to be generous is to make sacrifices for others, that way they can have a chance. What Celestia - no, THE TYRANT, is doing ain’t harmony! She’s forcing herself on others; she’s not giving them the chance or asking them if they wanted it or not!

“Besides, Ah’m done talkin to you Pinhead,” Rockwell says, his focus on the Not-Rarity. “Go die in a ditch like the whorse you are.”

“And what are you going to do, huh?” she asked with a nasty smirk.

“The smart thing!” Rockwell quickly stomps his forehooves into the ground which creates a tremor that knocks Not-Rarity off balance and to her back. After that, Rockwell quickly gets the real one back onto his back and bursts into a full gallop.

“Where’re we going?” Rarity asked.

“Somewhere she ain’t!”

“But… this is a…”

“What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her!” Rockwell yelled, galloping across the seemingly endless white void, “Ah ain’t gonna fail like Ah did with Applejack.”

“Wait, what do you mean ‘with Applejack’?” Rarity asked, puzzled.

“Ah popped into her’s and Sparkle’s heads earlier; didn’t have enough time to save Sparkle due to shock and Applejack… well, she bucked me out before Ah could free her either.” He explained.

As for Rarity though, she slowly came to a realization; this was pointless, Rockwell may have freed her and stopped the Homunculus for now… but there wasn’t a way out for them to run to, they were in her mind and he couldn’t run away from that thing forever. There was only one way to help him.

“R-Rockwell,” Rarity began, “promise me that if I see you again, you will be able to do me one favor.”

“Uh, sure… what is it?” he asked, confused.

“Answer me this question, ‘is my sister safe?’ Can you do that?” Rarity asked, tears starting to well in her eyes.

“Yeah, but why would you-” Rockwell then got cut off when Rarity hit him with a spell that sent him into unconsciousness; he was right about generosity earlier, you must be able to both make sacrifices for others and be able to give them a chance, like she’d done for Sweetie Belle and now for him.

As Rockwell’s body falters and hits the ground, the real Rarity falling off his back. His mind drifted off with him feeling himself falling into the abyss; he was helpless to watch as the Homunculus immediately appears from out of nowhere and sneered, the real Rarity’s eyes narrowed at the Homunculus.

“I got free of you imposter!” She declares with a dramatic flourish, “That just proves your hold is weak! I will resist you even harder now and will be soon free of you!”

However, as for the Earth Pony…

‘Oh no, where am Ah gonna end up next?’ Rockwell thought in his panic as the darkness consumed him once more.

He recovered slowly this time, feeling like that morning after he saw a newfoal for the time; had a Tartarus-level hangover that a gallon of stern, strong apple cider could do but not erase his memories.

Rockwell looked down to be greeted by the sight of a barren, dirt-filled terrain with a small rock in front of him; quite a peculiar thing really.

Getting back on his hooves, Rockwell notices a thick mist of sorts; he could see at least. Looking up, he notices some partially destroyed paper lanterns hanging from streamers whose coloring had faded long ago.

‘Oh great,’ Rockwell paled knowing where he was now, ‘Ah must be in Pinkamena’s head, it has to be; only she would have both rocks and, well… colors on the skull.’

He tried to get a better look… but to his surprise there was a shattered dome of sorts. It was broken and originally had covered what looks like a property that had both a diner and a farm on it… what didn’t help was the fact that there was a busted stool of sorts that was trampled on right in front of the dome.

Getting even more cautious, Rockwell began his trot into the strange mindscape of Pinkamena Diane Pie… unsure of the horrors that might await him.

As Rockwell started to slowly trot towards a door on one of the Rock farm buildings, his mind drifted towards specifics about Pinkamena; she wasn’t too happy originally, a sad little filly who had a coat that didn’t match her family all too much… until she saw that, what was it? ‘Rainbow Boom in the sky’? She was different after that, making sure that everypony was smiling and having a good time.

Though she hardly came by the Rock Family Reunions, her personality always did seem to be a sharp contrast to Maud’s… but then again, propaganda had her being just as enthusiastic about that ‘potion’ nonsense. Was he afraid of the homunculus in Pinkamena’s mind? No, he was more scared of what torture that thing was putting her through.

Rockwell soon reached the front door.

“…Ah have to go through that, don’t Ah?” he sighed. “Ah don’t, Ah’m stuck… Ah do, Ah’m bucked. Choices, huh?” Rockwell remarked dryly before he summoned his magicks to slowly open the door… and then suddenly a body limply fell before him.

It appeared to be an Earth Pony stallion, who had a bucket full of turnips for a cutie mark. One of his legs looked badly broken, his coat appeared to have been ripped out in several spots and his whole body was covered in black, blue and greenish bruises. One of his eyes was tightly shut, and the other just looked up at Rockwell. Just what hap-

“Rocky…” the stallion hoarsely croaked out. It took Rockwell a few moments to register that he was talking to him, apparently mistaking him for another stallion it seemed. Or maybe they had met before and he didn’t remember this pony.

“Uh yeah, it’s me. What happened?” Rockwell asked him, deciding to go along with the confused identity.

“I… I’m sorry…” the earth pony apologized, “I tried to help her… tried to stop that monster… I tried so hard… I’m sorry,” was all he could say before the air came out of his lungs, his body going limp and… disappearing.

“What the buck?” Rockwell muttered, although given all he’d seen so far… he should be used to this kind of thing right now; best to move on.

Rockwell entered the building and to his surprise, within was a cafe of sorts… though it was run down like that store in Rarity’s head; windows boarded up, thick layers of dust, cobwebs and spiderwebs and a… oh Luna…

There was a filly on the ground, beaten as badly as that earth pony from earlier; all caution was thrown to the wind as Rockwell moved towards the filly and picked her up. To his surprise, the filly’s coat was pink, her mane was straight though and her flank was blank… she looked like Pinkamena before she had that change in outlooks.

“Pinkamena?” Rockwell asked, supporting her body in his hooves, gently prodding her awake. “It’s me, your uncle Rockwell; you remember me right?”

She weakly opened her eyes and looked at him, giving him a small smile out of relief. “Rockwell…? Uncle Rockwell… I remember you, you… you came to the rock farm sometimes and gave us rock candy,” she weakly muttered.

“That’s right…” he said, a smile coming to his face as he pulled the filly onto his back. “Can you tell me what happened? Can you tell me why… everything is so strange here?” Rockwell asked the filly.

“After Pinkie Pie saw the sonic rainboom, she wanted to feel different, she needed to focus herself and made parts of herself into their own ponies,” the filly answered, “I’m her memories of when she was young at the Rock Farm. I’m called Pinky. Or Little Pinkamena. Nopony really agrees on this sort of thing.”

“… How do Ah know you’re not some kind of horrible trap?” he asked her warily as the question flashed through his mind.

“You don’t,” Pinky (or Little Pinkamena) said. “But I’m definitely not that thing. It’s a monster, a caricature of all that Pinkie Pie ever was or will be.” She shivered. “And it’s hungry. It’s maybe the most monstrous of the Tyrant’s creations. All Pinkie’s joy, channeled towards ponification and murder… It’ll be a miracle if Pinkie and the others don’t experience the Mark Fracture soon.”

“What do you mean?” Rockwell asked her. He had heard of Mark Fracture. It was the most dangerous (and deadly) cutie mark related malady - a psychotic break caused when one was unable to fulfill their talent. “She… she could cause them to undergo mark fracture, and she’s doing this anyway?!”

“Yeah, and she doesn’t care,” Pinky shrugged. “She could even find a new world, get more Elements, rinse and repeat until the homunculi have worn them out or they’ve killed themselves.”

“Ah need to stop this, this is getting bucking repetitive and no matter what Ah do, Ah keep getting set back to square one!” Rockwell complained, starting to head towards another door while Pinky rode on his back.

“What’d’ya mean, Uncle Rockwell?” she asked.

“Ah’ve been through three of the other Elements’ heads already before getting here, Ah’ve seen Sparkle, Applejack and Rarity getting dragged through tartarus by creatures that ain’t them,” Rockwell explained. “When I see Pinka-” he stopped, considering the fact that he was with an embodiment of Pinkamena’s fillyhood at the Rock Farm, “Pinkie Pie, Ah’m gonna get her out of this mess and take down the tyrant… somehow.”

He reached a door, opening it slowly. On the other side was the Pie Rock Farm. “Pinky, how come these doors lead to just about anywhere?” Rockwell asked her.

“They’re like this now, ever since that Homunculus took over, everything is messed up… these doors could lead anywhere in Pinkie Pie’s mind, and they change constantly. You could go from Rainbow Dash’s birthday, to scenes of the war crimes the Homunculus is doing, then open that same door you came in and see her singing in the shower instead,” Pinky answered.

Rockwell began to think on this for a moment. “Alright, Ah got an idea,” he said, closing the door. “This door leads to where Pinkie Pie is being held!” he declared before slowly reopening the door to find that it still led to someplace on the rock farm but this time, the scenery was different… and they come across another body, this one a pegasus mare with a cutie of a sack of flour; she was in horrible shape, her wings mutilated and her body riddled with stab wounds, blood soaking her white fur. Her face was twisted into an expression of deep pain.

“Oh no, Madame La Flour!” Pinky choked out, starting to cry after identifying the body.

“Who’s she supposed to be?” Rockwell asked.

“P-Pinkie Pie made up imaginary friends to give us company… she, Turnip and the others were gonna try to free Pinkie Pie from the Homunculus but…” she started to break down, sobbing, “I never thought it’d be this bad! At this point, she’ll be lucky just to die!”

Rockwell put a hoof to Pinky to comfort her, gently telling her, “There, there, Pinky, it’s okay; just let it all out little filly.”

It didn’t help much, the filly kept sobbing, “We’ve seen so much! We… ponies driven to madness, Pinkie Pie having to laugh at it! The ponification trials, Celestia at her worst… I don’t know if you’re the right one to ask, but I need you to promise me, you’ll make her suffer! Promise me somebody, human or pony or something, will make her pay for what she did!”

“Ah don’t know if Ah can… but Ah’ll do my best,” Rockwell said to her.

She looked up at him, tears still streaming down her face but her expression hopeful. “You mean it?” she asked with a sniffle.

“Cross my heart, Pinky,” Rockwell said to her with utter determination.

“Good. Whatever Celestia’s become… isn’t anything like the Princess you might know. She’s not reasonable, she’s not… she’s just a force of destruction now.”

“Well, it’s a good thing then Ah don’t know much about her to begin with…” Rockwell said a bit grimly, as they came across a door that was broken down, its paint chipped and frame loosely hanging to its side. He took a deep breath to steel himself and walk through…

And, he’d immediately wish he didn’t.

They moved like automatons, wind-up toys with the fakest of wide eyed smiles painted on. Stallions, mares and foals just trotting about while the party was going on. But it could hardly be called a party. The decorations were torn and old with the colors faded, the food looked stale and dirty… and were those maggots in the cake?

But, those weren’t the worst of what could be seen here.

At the center, he saw what he could only assume was Pinkie Pie’s homunculus, carrying out the festivities. It was similarly distorted, like someone tried to draw Pinkie and got all of her proportions wrong.

Pinky whimpered, “That’s her. The thing that Tirek’s bag created.”

“Shush now,” Rockwell said to the filly, “Gonna be okay. We just need to get past her and find the REAL one. After that, Ah’ll make it all stop; Ah promised you Ah will.”

Rockwell’s hooves glowed as he tried to concentrate his magicks into rendering him and Pinky invisible, something that he never had much success with due to a lack of training in more complex spellwork or having a unicorn show him the ropes. Nothing short of a miracle would happen if they manage to get past it.

As soon as Rockwell could no longer see his and Pinky’s hooves, he slowly tiptoes around the… ‘party’ and into the kitchen to get past the fake Pinkie Pie; though he soon saw on the counter was a pie that had a strange crusty look to it; somehow it reminded Rockwell of that weird leather dress from Rarity’s mind. He shook his head; best to keep moving forward and try not to alert that thing to their presence.

They were almost to the door leading outside when-

*Clank*

A frying pan fell and hit the floor, Rockwell’s eyes widening as he silently cursed his luck; quickly moving, he turned a corner, because almost immediately the Homunculus Pinkie Pie entered the kitchen. This time Rockwell got a closer look at the monstrosity; her coat’s colors were grossly desaturated, leaving only ghostly traces of them on her. The sparkling eyes the real Pinkie Pie would usually have were utterly contradicted by the vicious mouth full of nearly animalistic razor sharp fang-like teeth. She even had Pinkie’s poofy mane too, yet it seemed stale in a sense.

He and Pinky watched as the creature looked around, probably searching for them.

“I know somepony is in here!” it shouted, the voice it used barely sounded like Pinkie Pie’s… more like some kinda mix of a screech and a growl. She trotted over to the pan, scanning the room as she put it back up on the hook, her head then whipping to the corner. “I know it’s you Pinky! Makes me wonder why you keep trying to stop my party; you should know you shouldn’t try to stop my fun, you silly filly.”

The homunculus then gave a harsh, cold laugh as her gaze met the corner Rockwell and Pinky were at… could she actually see them?!

Much to Rockwell’s relief, no. The monstrous doppelganger just slowly backed away, eyes darting like Pinkie Pie’s did, but with clear malicious intent. She left the kitchen, heading back into her party; that was strange… but, it was best to move on and get the hay outta here.

They soon reached the outside of the building. Rockwell quickly undid the invisibility enchantment. The two let out a collective shiver, one that was held in due to that all too close call.

“Uncle Rockwell, look, over at that tree!” Pinky said to him.

He looked over, seeing two figures beside it. “It’s got to be Pinkamena over there! Come on, let’s get her out.”

Once he got there though… his blood really started to boil while his expression struggled to balance between horror and rage.

The first one was definitely Pinkie Pie, her mane still bouncy and curly. Out of all the other Elements he had seen over this ‘trip’, she had to be in the worst shape of them all (and that was saying something, all things considered). She was suspended in the air by a rope hanging around her barrel like a noose off the tree branch. Her coat was covered in bruises and blood, no doubt from the homunculus having pinata sessions prior. Her cheeks looked stained with dried tears.

The second figure appeared to also be Pinkie Pie, but her mane was pin straight and her coat was slightly duller. She was just as beaten up, but looked more… level headed and composed; kinda like how Pinkie Pie was originally.

Acting without prompt, Rockwell immediately used his magicks to break off the two branches and slowly lowered both mares to the ground.

Rockwell made quick work to undo the rope tied around Pinkie Pie’s barrel so that she could finally speak. However, her eyes were tightly closed shut and she whimpered; she was consumed by fear.

Seeing her like that, a shuddering terrified wreck just… just made Rockwell break a little inside because it immediately reminded him of himself as a young colt; never seeing an end to it, finding all your hopes destroyed while your prayers are just ignored.

This had to stop.

“Unbelievable,” he whispered. Sparkle, Applejack, Rarity and now Pinkamena. All victims of this corruption.

Pinky just quietly climbed off Rockwell’s back, choking out to him, “She loves to use them in her ‘party games’. That thing would drag Pinkie Pie and Pinkamena out here with the newfoals and play… pinata with them.”

“Figured as much; if she’s basically a bad version of Pinkie Pie, that makes sense for her to do,” he growled before turning to the filly. “Pinky, go help that… uh… other Pinkamena while Ah help Pinkie Pie.”

She nodded, immediately getting to work helping the other mare, leaving Rockwell alone with Pinkie Pie; the stallion came up to her side.

“Pinkie Pie,” Rockwell whispered softly, using the gentlest tone he could summon, yet she just recoiled away.

“N-no more… please…” Pinkie Pie cried brokenly in response, “I can’t...”

“Pinkie Pie,” Rockwell repeated, “it’s me, Uncle Rockwell; the mountain stallion, remember? You once said Ah had pebbles in my coat. Please, open your eyes.”

Slowly and steadily her eyes did start to open, their once bright and innocent blue no longer held that sparkle it once had; they were simply bloodshot, tired and full of guilt. “Un-Uncle Rockwell?” she croaked, trying to focus on the stallion before her.

As soon as he nodded and answered, “Yes sweetie, it’s me,” she started to tear up and embraced Rockwell immediately, crying into his shoulder; for once in a long, long time she was… happy to see somepony she knew.

“That’s it,” Rockwell says, running a hoof through her mane. “Just let it all out.”

Eventually, Pinkie Pie broke from the embrace and took several deep breaths to get some composure as Rockwell sat on his haunches before her.

“I… I’m so sorry,” she coughed out, looking down to the ground. “Everything I’ve done, a-all t-those innocent humans. It… it’s not a smile.”

Fresh tears sprang from her eyes, dripping down her face and landing in the ground. Rockwell put his hooves to hers, trying to comfort her.

“Pinkie, it’s-”

“IT’S NOT A SMILE!” Pinkie Pie shrieked at the top of her lungs, a breakdown apparent. “They are not… it’s not… I’M NOT MAKING THEM SMILE!”

She only sobbed harder, and Rockwell could only watch. This was worse than what Pinky had said earlier; even he had reached a point of hopeless before, twice even, but this?

She was completely and utterly destroyed.

“Shhh, it’s gonna be alright, Pinkie Pie,” Rockwell assured her, embracing the sobbing mare once again, trying his best to comfort her. “It’s all over now, Ah’m gonna make it stop.”

“You…” she stopped to wipe a tear away, “... you really mean it?”

“Cross my heart. Hope to Fly. Stick a cupcake-” Rockwell paused, closing his eyelid, “in my eye.”

In that moment, Pinkie Pie smiled; for the first time in a long time she truly felt happy again.

“T-thank you,” she whispered, “Thank you so much.”

Rockwell gave a warm genuine smile to her in return, saying, “Anything for you Little Pink, anything.”

Getting up, Rockwell turned to see Pinky getting hugged by Pinkamina, the mare probably grateful to see the filly still alive.

“Alright, now you three stay close; Ah’m gonna go back in and crack some skulls.” Rockwell instructed, “This ain’t going to happen anymore.”

The darker Pinkamena’s eyes narrowed, and she grunted, “That’s really not a good idea; she-”

“Ain’t gonna get away with this no more!” Rockwell interrupted, cutting her off, “I promised this is gonna stop… and I meant it.” With that, he turned to head back in and crash that monster’s party…

…Only to run barrel-to-barrel into the Homunculus itself.

“Well hiya, Uncle Rockwell!” she greeted cheerfully, her lips forming a twisted grin that showed off her razor sharp teeth.

Rockwell reflexively gasped, jumping back somewhat, while Pinkie Pie, Pinky and Pinkamena all paled in terror at the sight of monsterosity.

“Awww, look at this!” she cooed, her tone giving the Queen a run for her money in terms of its sickening sweetness. “You four are having a party! And you know what you should have at a party? A pin-”

Rockwell cut her off by socking her right in the jaw with his left hoof, her jaw snapping from the blow, shattered teeth falling out. She didn't even seem to notice the hit, the sound of her jaw snapping in place and new razor sharp teeth taking place of the old ones. Rockwell could only step back in utter horror as she gave him a wide smile.

“-ata,” she finished, before her eyes moved to focus on Rockwell. “Awww, that’s not every nice Uncle Rockwell; you won’t get any cake, acting like that.”

“Shut your bucking trap, you… freak!” Rockwell snarled, struggling to regain his composure. He then bucked her with his right hoof but she simply ducked underneath it and pirouetted away from him.

“That isn’t nice either!” she chided as she spun, keeping the derange smile on her face. “You’re acting just like that imaginary friend Pinkie made… Rocky, I think his name was. He was a real meanie pants about all this and kept trying to ruin everything.”

Rockwell tried again to hit the Homunculus, but she would just dodge, block or avoid each blow he sent out. Worst of all, the thing just kept talking.

“But I don’t have to worry about him anymore! Isn’t that nice?” she grinned, all the while, the three Pinkie Pies looked on with horror and rage.

“You… you didn’t,” Pinky choked out breathlessly.

“Oh please, you don’t need him anymore!” Not-Pinkamena said dismissively, waving a hoof. “Besides… I was hungry.” She gave a twisted grin, “And come to think of it, I’m getting hungry right now.” Rockwell didn’t like that look in her eyes towards him.

Suddenly, in an instant, the Homunculus punched him right in the barrel so hard, it sent him flying into the tree, the wind getting knocked right out of him.

“Ugh, son of a haridelle...” he groaned, his head and back hurting bad; it was getting hard to see. When he opened his eyes, he saw Not-Pinkamena descend on him.

“Dinner time!” the homunculus declared... but then both Pinkie Pie and the darker coated Pinkamena grabbed onto her, restraining her as Pinky ran up to Rockwell to help him up.

“Get up!” the filly cried, trying to move the stallion with her forelegs. “Come on! Get up, Uncle Rockwell!”

He really wanted to, but just couldn’t. His head was spinning and and his vision blurred. His whole body felt like it was being crushed; he couldn’t even speak.

‘Ah’m so sorry, Pinkamena… Ah really tried,’ he thought as his eyes started to close. ‘Ah can’t… Ah can’t do this no more.’

With that, he felt himself being pulled away, the last thing he saw being Pinky desperately screaming for him not to go as the Homunculus started to turn the tables on Pinkie Pie and on the darker Pinkamina…

“Motherbucker.” Rockwell growled, everything starting to come back into focus again; his head was killing him, probably due to that punch that thing gave him.

His eyes slowly started to open and he could see an alleyway of some kind that was covered in shadows. But he could barely pay it mind as his anger took over.

He had failed yet again to save somepony that could help end this madness; first Twilight, then Applejack, Rarity, and now Pinkamena…

Just… just why? Why the hay couldn’t he SAVE anypony!? Stone Edge was stuck in a coma, Jonica and Ruby were Luna knows where on that other world, and the Elements… every step forward was just another two steps back trying to help them.

‘Ah just don’t get it,’ he thought to himself bitterly, sitting upright and looking at his forelegs, ‘Ah’ve got some fancy pinhead magic on me, Ah’m stronger and faster than anypony else… so why can’t Ah do a bucking thing when Ah actually try to do somethin?!’

A brief feeling of rage took over as he began to smash into the ground before him, venting out the frustrations that had been building up for a long while now.

After a few minutes of venting, Rockwell settled down, seeing that he’d split the earth and made a big old crack in the land before him. It would do no good just sitting around throwing a tantrum and feel sorry for himself. He had to keep going on, probably look around in here and figure out whose mind he was in this time.

If this was the Tyrant’s brain he had been thrown in, maybe he should just destroy this place.

After all, anything can be possible if you put your mind to it.

Shaking his head to get rid of that spinning feeling, Rockwell trotted out of the alleyway and saw a familiar, but not very welcome sight. Canterlot Castle.

“So Ah am in the Queen’s head now...” Rockwell said to himself out loud.

‘Well, this may be my final chance; Ah better make it count,’ he thought before starting to make his way to the castle. This however proved to be difficult because the other ponies that were also walking were going in practically the exact paths, only breaking off when their destination made it necessary to move. Rockwell kept accidentally bumping into ponies for either trotting too slow or going too fast.

When it happened for the twelfth time however, he lost it.

“Hey! Watch it!” Rockwell yelled… only to, almost immediately, have a scream die in his throat at the pair of black sockets that whipped over to see him.

“Oh sorry!” the newfoal apologized, a… whatever it was, that wasn’t a smile on his face. “I shouldn’t have dilly-dallied in your way.”

Rockwell cut him off, grabbing the Newfoal’s throat and strangling the slave corpse using his hooves; if Celestia had newfoals on the brain then this just got even worse.

‘Oh buck, this place must be crawling with those Nzambis!’ Rockwell mentally ranted as the Newfoal went limp in his hooves.

And yet, everypony just kept moving in an orderly fashion without even paying any heed to the act of murder Rockwell committed in broad view. Were the newfoals really this unimportant?

Taking his chances, Rockwell just left the body there on the street and continued his trot towards the castle… yet soon he would see that this version of Canterlot’s center had… well…

It had a skeleton there, a huge one that was charred and had some dark purple hide on it still… regardless of the decomposing state it was in.

What was worse was the fact that there were ponies there laughing at it, making jokes and cracks over it.

“That… that ain’t right,” Rockwell whispered at the sight. Sure the dragons were always said to be nasty, greedy little bucks that could fry anypony they didn’t like. But this? This was… way past wrong, having its corpse propped up like a tourist attraction.

Deciding to ignore it, Rockwell just immediately turned away from the horrific site… only to trip over something and crash into another propped up corpse display, this one being some kind of black chintin creature that was hollowed out.

To the stallion’s horror, the entire center had multiple corpses propped up like art exhibits; a slain body of a familiar looking reindeer, a female griffon whose body was so bloody and mutilated she looked unrecognizable, a minotaur that was practically crushed, and so on.

But, when Rockwell turned to see what he tripped over… it was something he had never seen before; it had peachy, hairless skin and looked almost like a mixture of a minotaur and an ape, blood covering its body.

‘Is… is this a human?’ the stallion asked himself, tilting his head at the corpse that had clearly been trampled over beforehoof, Rockwell got up to better inspect i-

Part of it moved!

The human’s chest started to rise.

What… what was going on?

The human’s mouth seemed to be set in a grimace, a plea for… something. For what? Rockwell couldn’t guess. He half-wanted to ask, but… it couldn’t be, the human was dead.

And yet its chest undulated as if it was breathing. The wounds were too horrible, the blood too widespread for it to be anything but dead.

No, it wasn’t breathing. The ribcage was expanding too far for it to be anything like breathing, as it went in and out… It expanded, to the point that it looked to almost look like the mammaries of a female minotaur, then shrunk again. It was grotesque, and Rockwell could see veins pulsing as the chest grew and shrunk.

And then-

Blood exploded out the human’s chest, splashing against the ceiling, and a thing came out. A thing the crimson red, stepping out of the massive bloody hole with some strange limb.

Oh sweet Luna, was that a hoof?!

Indeed it was; Rockwell could only watch as a pony’s foreleg literally came out of the human’s chest and then another, until… a newfoal emerged from it! Like a perversion of a mare giving birth to a foal, the dead human was giving birth to that hollow mockery that only looked like a pony to take its place in the world. Blood exploded everywhere as the newfoal came out, wearing that infuriatingly not-really-an-actual-smile on its face, singing songs of being uplifted and free to love its Queen… This was, without a doubt, the sickest and most wrong thing he’d ever laid eyes upon.

Having seen enough, Rockwell went into a full gallop away from the sight and straight to the castle; this had to stop!

Eventually he reached his destination, the entrance of Canterlot Castle… it was time to end this madness once and for all.

As Rockwell began his entrance, he couldn’t help but notice the lack of Royal Guards present, however, that was far from the only thing on his mind. There was everything he’d been through and seen; things ranging from those fancy pinheads that always picked on him for being an Earth Pony when he was a colt, Stone Edge almost getting lassoed into slavery by that spell, the Elements of Harmony being forced to do all levels of atrocities against their will, and all the acts of hypocritical sins that had occurred throughout both Equus and that other world.

He busted through every door, not seeking any subtlety this time; his anger fueling his actions and giving him strength.

Until finally… he came upon the front doors of the throne room, Rockwell just gave one look at the two doors before bring up his left hoof and charging it with an orange ball of Magicks.

With a grunt, he forced the twin doors off their hinges and flying to the floor of the throne room. Directly ahead was Celestia sitting on her throne; she wasn’t even phased by the sound of the twin doors being forced down.

“TYRANT!” Rockwell roared, “Ah’VE GOT SOME WORDS TO SAY TO YOU!” He began storming into the room, seething with rage. “YOU’VE DONE SOME REAL MANURE HERE!”

“Them slave corpses were bad enough! But what you’ve did to the Elements of Harmony and those… THINGS?! That’s just… just… RRRRRRAAAAAAGGGGHHHH!” he roared, his voice echoing in and out, loud enough to rival the Royal Canterlot Voice. “YOU DESERVE TO BE PUT SIX FEET UNDER YOU… you… ”

And then he trailed off, as he realized that Celestia was… eating a slice of cake? Was she ignoring him!?

“HEY!” Rockwell shouted, “Ah’m talking to you, Tyrant!”

And yet, she just continued to eat her cake, her horn lighting up as she used her magic to levitate the plate and her fork; her expression calm and content as if nothing was wrong at all.

Rockwell let out a low growl to the disrespect she was giving him, trying to ignore the migraine building up in his head.

“PAY ATTENTION DANG NABBIT!” he yelled again, his left hoof glowing with a ball of magicks, directing it right at the plate of cake, making it fly off and hit the wall with a crash. Admittedly, a very stupid and rash decision, but hopefully she should pay attention to him now.

Indeed Celestia’s eyes did open, their bruise like color however were more focused on the destroyed fine glass and slice of vanilla cake that was smeared on the wall.

“What a waste of perfectly good cake,” she commented dryly, before her eyes turned towards Rockwell. “Oh, where did you come you from, my little pony?”

“The front door,” Rockwell deadpanned, “Now, you better listen good and start explain-”

“Hmm, that’s a shame; it’ll take some time to get it fixed,” Celestia said, cutting Rockwell off. Her voice was so devoid of any of that tetchy anger that he’d heard when her agents brought him to her; like she was just expressing annoyance over some rain or something.

“HEY!” Rockwell shouted again, “Ah’m trying to talk to you! You better give me a dang good explanation for all this, or Ah’ll break your head like these fragile little rocks here.” He stomped his forehooves on the floor, causing it to fracture and break to emphasize his point.

“About what exactly?” Celestia inquired, the sun still shining in the sky.

“The slave corpses, of course!”

“The what?”

Rockwell growled, “The nzambis.”

“I still don’t quite follow, the what?” Celestia asked, trying her best not to grin.

“THE NEWFOALS!” Rockwell snarled. “The bucking human-born freaks! Ah’ll admit, when Ah first heard about all that nonsense with the barrier and the potion Ah thought nothin’ of it; humans need a way in, we give ‘em one til that barrier is dealt with But when Ah first met one…”

He stopped, shivering out of reflex from the memory. He ranted on, “It was just plain lifeless! Tried to talk to them about the human world cause Ah was curious about some of them inventions Ah’d heard about them making… but all he just kept doing was jittering on about you!” Rockwell pointed a hoof at Celestia as if accusing her of murder.

“So? I’ve already told you that they are loyal subjects; helpful, hardworking, happy, loyal and honest. It doesn’t quite matter if they are so faithful to me for helping them shed their previous flawed forms,” Celestia stated, the rather high-and-mighty tone of her voice only infuriating Rockwell further.

Yet something else also nagged at him. There… there was something wrong with this, but what? The lack of guards here? The lack of defenses? Why would he be able to get so close to her and yet have such trouble with the four Elements heads he’d been through before?

‘Why’d she give me a free pass?’ Rockwell wondered momentarily, before refocusing on to Celestia and giving a response “There’s that point again; your ‘HELP’... if that’s what you think helping is, Ah’d hate to see what you actively plot. And speakin’ of which; what have you done to the Elements!? More importantly, WHY?! Were they not too happy with your pile of horseapples like me? Or were you afraid that they were gonna go against you like that Sombra pinhead did?”

To Rockwell’s surprise, Celestia gave a smile at the mention of Sombra’s name. Why? ‘What’s she smilin’ about?’

“Well, why should I explain it Rockwell? You saw my creations, four of the perfect servants that I require,” the sun alicorn replied, her phrasing… a bit different than the false sweetness from before. “True it would’ve been better had the Elements of Harmony originally been more cooperative, Twilight, Rarity and Fluttershy in particular, but I digress; with them under my sway I have nothing to fear… especially now that she’s out of the way.”

Her right wing extended out to point towards something, Rockwell turning his head to see that one stained-glass window he didn’t remember seeing in the actual castle. Curiously, it depicted what looked like one of those humans, probably a female due to the soft facial features and long mane (or was it hair?). She was impaled to a wall, large spikes driven into those things called hands, and tears of blood were streaming from her eyes.

‘What’s so special about her?’ Rockwell pondered, a feeling of dread coming over him. There was something here; something very dangerous, and yet it was just the two of them in this throne room, right?

“I did fear Little Megan catching on and using the Rainbow of Light,” Celestia stated. “However, it seems that fortune smiled upon me, when that day came that I no longer sensed the Rainbow of Light’s presence. Oh how things work out.”

This was very, VERY wrong; whoever this was, this wasn’t Celestia. There wasn’t even that fake sweetness that she used to have in her voice. And that feeling of danger; it was screaming at him at this point, to run. Hide.

“What’s with you?” Rockwell whispered, feeling utterly sick from the feeling of dread creeping over him.

“Beg pardon?” Celestia asked.

“Ah asked, WHAT’S WITH YOU?!” Rockwell yelled. “You’re not Celestia, so who are you?”

He stood tall once more, glaring into Celestia’s eyes to stare her down, demanding the truth. “So tell me; WHO THE BUCK ARE YOU?!”

And then, there was a smirk… a smirk that deeply disturbed the Earth Pony; was this supposed to be some kind of joke? What-

“Alright then, I’ll tell you,” she said, her tone very sinister. “I am not a Homunculus, but I am indeed Celestia or at least what she is now; the old one is here somewhere, being eaten away and disappearing for me to thrive.”

Her horn then lit up as the sun began to move, its positioning done so that the light would shine through the stained glass, Rockwell moved a hoof to cover his left eye from the light.

‘Ugh, talk about bright,’ he mentally groaned, but then, out of the corner of his right eye, he registered something important; their shadows.

His shadow was normal, a regular pony shaped one; nothing different about it. Celestia’s however… it was different, it wasn’t in the shape of an alicorn; it was some kind of massive shape, like half of a pony with something like a minotaur’s upper half body attached to it.

“You see, once Celestia’s spirit no longer posed a threat due to her need for order, I made my move; keeping her content no longer was of my concern,” Not-Celestia said, the voice getting deeper. “After that little bug Sombra was disposed of, well… the charades were definitely over.”

“Well…” Rockwell tried to regain some composure, yelling, “you messed up! You done told me your secret! And Ah’ll…”

The words just died in his throat, that feeling of dread in his gut growing more and more.

“Oh, you’ll do what?” the Queen mockingly asked, “You’ll bust out of here, gallop across Canterlot screaming that the Ruler of the Solar Empire is nothing more than just a puppet? Or are you going to try to fight me, rescue what remains of the original in the vain hope you can stop me and end the war? Just like that?”

“Well, may-” Words were failing him, what was this feeling?

She gave a harsh laugh, “You foolish little earth pony.” Her shadow was doing something, was it coming out of the floor? “Do you really think that you can contend with the likes of me?” Her voice started to either change or mix with something… something dark, deep and utterly horrifying. “I have existed long before your race. In fact through my actions, your tribe came to be.”

The shadow was no longer just a shadow. It had taken a solid form, standing side by side with the Queen. Its form was shrouded in darkness, and it stood tall and massive. Rockwell could see the shadow figure’s eyes, a terrible sickly yellow. He could feel them piercing into his soul...

Rockwell finally knew what this feeling was, one he hadn’t felt in a long time; the feeling of being small, of being afraid for your life in the sight of a predator.

“Your actions through the mindscapes of my puppets were meaningless, and did NOTHING,” they both said in unison, however Celestia’s voice died down while the giant shadow just grew bigger and bigger.

“My biggest obstacle is no longer present, and the fools opposing me are just little ants in a futile struggle against fate. Your journey has only led you here for me to simply tell you this: You are nothing before me,” a voice of pure evil said to him, its eyes narrowing at the terrified Rockwell who took a step back. “Nothing.” Its claws then began to reach out to grab him.

If this was anything else; a dragon, a minotaur, a diamond dog, a griffon… Rockwell would’ve fought back and made sure to resist as hard as he could. This time though? No, he was paralyzed by this thing’s presence and simply couldn’t focus.

Thankfully, the orange glow around him stopped the shadow’s claws from touching him, flaring up and burning them away.

“AGGGGGHHHHH!” the shadow figure screamed, recognizing that type of magical signature. This was his old enemy’s work; it seemed even in death, she would interfere.

However, unbeknownst to the voice’s owner, Rockwell would subconsciously collect some of his memories… of his battle with the alicorn Faust, his defeat at the hands of the human girl and the brave ponies of Dream Valley, and of his comeback, when the so-called “greatest traitor to the Solar Empire” Lyra Heartstrings found his little Bag, using her and other unfortunate souls to carry him over to Celestia and getting his revenge on those that crossed him...

“Wha-” Rockwell’s mind snapped back into attention, his shock no longer keeping him dazed. “What just happened?!”

“You are more protected than I thought,” the shadow growled with annoyance, “However, it will not save you from this.”

The shadow’s eyes and Celestia’s horn both glowed brightly, and then Rockwell felt himself getting burned away; the air around him was heating up. He could even smell his coat and mane charring, but he couldn’t see anything; the entire world had gone white. The Earth Pony stallion collapsed in pain, a string of profanity present all the while he yelled out in confusion and pain.

It was amazing that he was still conscious after all that.

The shadow then reached out once more, and Rockwell could only watch as the world went black.

“Your suffering has only just begun, you will hold all that you have seen… and you will have all that they have shown you, and given you.”

And thus, that was it; Rockwell finally blacked out.

“Why do you think he let you go?”

“He thought Ah was nothing to worry about; not worth his trouble, better for me to suffer for all that Ah’ve been exposed to from my travel through their heads… probably thought it’d be entertaining. The stuff he put in my system though, his magic… it was foul and made me very weak.”

“So they sent you to the prison camp north of the Crystal Empire?”

“Yeah. Ah spent that time broken… if it’s all the same to you, Ah’d appreciate it if we could end this session. Ah need some… Ah need some alone time.”

“Of course, I understand you would need a break. We can resume things later.”

“Thank you Miss Cheerilee, thank you kindly.”

Author's Notes:

Well, that took forever and more than a month to do and was one difficult number to get through. If none of this gets recognition on the TV Tropes page, or sub pages I will be sad; we worked hard on this filler chapter. Also as for the next chapter its gonna also be a filler, but not a flashback one. Til next time everyone.

P.S. Also, I based Pinkie Pie's sequence on the story One Whole Pie from the Reharmonization POV series; I recommend it based on a subjective opinion stating that it's a rather unique story and idea... also TCB!Pinkie Pie has the Multiple Personalities Canon Pinkie Pie doesn't. Just wanted to clear that up.

P.S.S. The chapter is meant to have two different titles, its official one is to be "Rockwell's Travel Through Darkness" while as an Unsung Tales entry its to be "A Trek Through Those Broken"