The Guardians of Harmony had been defeated.

Surprise hid in an alley between buildings, cradling a still-unconscious Pinkie Pie. After the fight with that blue magician and her friends, everypony had been down. She had grabbed Pinkie and escaped. Surprise didn’t understand how the power of friendship could have been beaten by evil. She also didn’t understand why Pinkie hadn’t woken up yet. Maybe it had something to do with that seal Princess Luna was talking about being broken. The world was becoming darker…more dangerous. Before the stars started going out, Pinkie could have taken an anvil to the head and sprung back up in seconds. Now she lay in Surprise’s arms, murmuring softly.

“What was that?” Surprise asked, leaning down close.

“Mmn…sorry, Surprise. Couldn’t…tell you the truth…”

Surprise felt something cold slither in her stomach. What had Apple Bloom said? That Pinkie lied to her about something? But no, not Pinkie. She would never lie to her. Why not? It’s not as if she’s the Element of Honesty, a dark part of her mind whispered.

“Because we’re sisters,” she said aloud. Come on, Pinkie, wake up…

Pinkie did not wake up. Surprise was too scared of being captured by the silver ponies to try leaving the alley to get help. But she had to do something, she was the only one left. It was up to her to try to warn the others, to get somepony like Twilight Sparkle to come and rescue her friends with her magic. But she couldn’t leave Pinkie.

She didn’t know what to do.

Soft, shadowy laughter came from out of nowhere. “Now, now, what have we here?”

Surprise looked up. On the cloud wall in front of her, inky lines were drooling, forming crooked rivulets of darkness, then pooling into a circle, which opened up into a gaping black hole…

…which Discord slipped through, smiling at her the way a timber wolf smiles.

Sudden terror gripped her and Surprise gasped. “N-No! Pinkie and her friends defeated you!”

“Not defeated,” said the draconequus. “Never defeated. Only hindered. Nothing can truly defeat me. Everything comes to chaos in the end.”

Surprise shivered. What would Pinkie Pie do right now? she asked herself. Ha! Probably laugh right in his big, scary face, that’s what! Then she and her friends would unleash the power of Harmony on his scaly flank, and he’d be nothing but a harmless statue again. But Surprsie didn’t feel like laughing. And she didn’t have the power of Harmony. She wasn’t a hero. She was a scared pony who felt like crying out for help. But she couldn’t even do that. If she did, the silver ponies would find her…

“Wh-Why are you here?” she asked, her voice barely rising above a squeak.

“Because I was getting bored tormenting your precious Ponyville. And because I have a bit of unfinished business here. You see, last night I started a band. Just a few talented little ponies. I’m calling them the Guardians of Ruin…I believe you’ve met.”

He means the ponies that fought Pinkie Pie and Rarity and Rainbow Dash, she realized. The blue magician, the one playing the music, and the three fillies, the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

“What did you do to them?” she whispered.

“I made them heroes, just like the Guardians of Harmony themselves. The Elements of Despair, Deception, Greed, Cruelty, and Loneliness. But look, there’s an Element missing. The last piece of the puzzle as it were. Can you guess which one it is?”

Surprise didn’t want to guess. She kept her mouth shut and shook her head.

“Treachery,” Discord crooned. “The most important dark Element of all. And do you know why?”

She shook her head again.

“An act of betrayal can break even the most powerful of friendships. If I could only get one of the Guardians of Harmony over to my side…then the circle would be broken and the power of Harmony shattered.”

A tiny flame of courage ignited in Surprise. She held her sister’s sleeping form tighter. “No! I won’t let you get Pinkie! And she’d never betray her friends for you anyway.”

“Are you sure? We have more in common than she cares to realize, Pinkie Pie and I…”

“She’s nothing like you!”

Discord laughed his horrible soft laugh. “Oh, you are hilarious! If you could only see yourself right now!”

Surprise felt anger rising in her. She grabbed onto it, like a lifeline. It was better than the terror she had been feeling up to now.

“I don’t care if you are the big lord of chaos or…whatever! You won’t get Pinkie to join you. The Guardians of Harmony share a friendship so powerful that nothing can break it!”

“Once you may have been right, but things have changed. I don’t need Pinkie Pie anymore. The one I came to invite to join me…is you.”

All the defiance she felt for the sake of her sister drained out of her. What did he mean, he wanted her?

“I’m not a Guardian of Harmony,” she said.

“You’ve been saying that a lot recently, haven’t you?”

“No…I…well, it’s true.”

“It hurts, doesn’t it? Being the only one without an Element, having a sister who is so much more than you could ever be…”

“P-Pinkie loves me!” She said it like a magic spell to ward off evil.

“Yes she does,” said Discord. His eyes glittered with pleasure. “And that is what this is all about, isn’t it? But will you still love her once you find out her dark little secret?”

“She lies…” said Surprise. She was talking about Apple Bloom, the Element of Deception.

Wasn’t she?

“Yes she does,” said Discord. “All in the name of love.”

Surprise tried to get her courage back, looked for that thread of defiance she had felt in her only moments ago. She forced out the words, “I…won’t ever…join you.”

“Yes you will,” said Discord. He said it the way you would say, ‘water is wet.’ It was a fact, not something that could even be argued. “In fact, once you see what I have to show you, you won’t even need to join me. You will realize you’ve been on my side all along.”

He touched her forehead with one claw, almost gently, and there was a flash of white light. Then they weren’t in the alley anymore. They weren’t even in Cloudsdale.

They were in the Great Hall of Canterlot Castle. Princess Luna paced restlessly in front of an empty throne.

“Princess!” Surprise cried.

The Princess did not even look her way.

“She cannot hear you,” said Discord. Surprise looked at him. His body was translucent and glowed a ghostly blue. She looked down at her hooves and noticed that she was the same. “Nopony can see or hear you…or me. Just watch. I am showing you why you are going to join me.”

No matter what he shows me, I’ll never join him, thought Surprise. She couldn’t imagine anything the creature could show her that would make her want to betray her sister and her friends. She felt a twinge of shame as she realized she was genuinely curious what secret Discord thought would change her mind so completely. He had seemed as certain of her joining him as she was that she never would. Why was he so darned sure?

A handsome stallion dressed in a uniform entered the Grand Hall. Luna stopped her pacing and went to greet him.

“Shining Armor,” she said.

“My Princess.” He gave a short bow. “Your army stands ready.” He said the words with obvious distaste.

“My army…” the princess repeated colorlessly. “Has it really come to this?”

“The enemy has taken Cloudsdale. It is an act of war.”

“War…” the princess echoed. She sighed.

“Has Twilight…have you any news of my sister?” A desperate hope glowed in the stallion’s eyes.

The Princess shook her head. “Not yet. I do not believe she has vanished, though. Two of the other Guardians of Harmony went missing when she did. Neither of them have star cutie marks. I can only trust them and believe that wherever they are…they are doing all they can for us.”

Shining Armor nodded. “And the other Guardians of Harmony…the ones that went to Cloudsdale?”

“The last scroll arrived hours ago. It seems they have been taken prisoner. Two of them at least. Pinkie Pie is…unaccounted for.”

Silence stretched between them.

“What are we going to do, Princess?” Shining Armor asked at last.

“All we can,” said Princess Luna.

Discord chuckled darkly. “Did you notice anything strange about that conversation? Hmm? Did it seem to you that they…forgot something?”

Surprise felt two emotions touch her at once. One was a pang of sadness. Princess Luna had forgotten about her. She only mentioned the Guardians of Harmony in Cloudsdale. The sister of a Guardian…wasn’t important enough to notice, she guessed. The other emotion was a happy kind of triumph. Is that all he’s got? she thought. So the Princess forgot about her. So what? She was preparing for war. Her subjects were vanishing all around her. Whatever that seal was that protects Equestria, it was starting to break. Who cared that she forgot about one little pony while the world was coming to an end. Certainly not Surprise.

And she told Discord so.

His smile did not even waver. “Oh, this is just the warm-up, my dear. I’ve got so much more to show you. More than you could even imagine. But before we go, I just want to let you see this one last thing.” He gestured with one clawed hand. Surprise looked.

The Princess and her Captain of the Guard stood in solemn silence for a moment, then Shining Armor gasped. “Princess!” There was fear in his voice. A faint glow surrounded him, as if a magic spell had been cast. Princess Luna watched, eyes wide, as pale light engulfed him. Then he was gone.

“No…” Luna trembled. “No no no no no!” She threw her head back and screamed. The only witnesses to her despair were Surprise and Discord. And he was munching loudly on a handful of movie popcorn, just enjoying the show. Surprise’s heart ached for the princess. She had lost her sister, then the Guardians of Harmony, and now her Captain of the Royal Guard.

All on the eve of battle.

“Right then,” said Discord. “Moving on.”

There was another flash of white light, and they were back in Cloudsdale. Only, they weren’t in the alley with Pinkie. They stood before a huge golden cage. In the cage was Rarity and Rainbow Dash.

“My friends!” said Surprise.

“No, not yours,” said Discord. “Pinkie Pie’s…”

“I can’t believe what that little creep did to me,” said Rainbow Dash.

“And Sweetie Belle…” Rarity said quietly. “She was just…awful. What do you suppose happened to them?”

Rainbow Dash shrugged. (A mistake which made her wince.) “Could be like what happened to us that time with Discord. Something’s gone and scrambled their brains.”

“Do you…” Rarity hesitated. “Do you think…it can be fixed?”

“Of course!” said Rainbow Dash confidently. “We just need to get all of the Elements of Harmony together. Everything will be set right: the fillies, the star ponies, Cloudsdale. Even…” she shuddered, “…Princess Celestia.”

Rarity nodded. “You’re right. Pinkie Pie will come save us.”

Rainbow Dash flashed a cocky grin. “No one can stop Pinkie Pie.”

Is that all he’s got? Surprise thought. Or, more accurately, Surprise forced herself to think. But some small part of her (the tiniest little, not-even-worth-considering part of her) felt a flash of quiet anger. Why is it ‘Pinkie’s gonna save us?’ Why not Surprise? Why don’t you believe in me? You’re supposed to be my friends! Or maybe you really are just Pinkie Pie’s friends…

“Of course they put their hope in Pinkie,” said Surprise. “They’re her friends! That’s the whole point of this, isn’t it? You’re trying to break up their circle of friendship because it’s so powerful. I know I’m not a part of it. Not really…” Though I wanted to be, she thought sadly, I wanted to be so much… “But that’s okay. The only friend I need is Pinkie Pie. She loves me. Even you admitted that much. So there’s really nothing you can show me that can make me betray her, as long as she loves me.”

“Just wait…we haven’t come to the good stuff yet.”

In a flash, the scene changed.

They were still in Cloudsdale. A throne had been set up under the open sky. The blue magician, Trixie, sat in it, proudly looking on as a crowd of silver ponies gathered around her. At her right hoof was Princess Celestia in silver. At her left was her musician, standing as still as a statue, tears running down her cheeks. The Chaos Mark Crusaders loitered at the front of the crowd. Surprise noticed a silver Shining Armor standing near them, looking dully toward the throne.

At the back of the crowd loomed the constellations. Ursa Minors and Ursa Majors filled entire streets with their mass. And others, constellations that Surprise did not know the names of, fierce and terrible, were all waiting, watching the one on the throne.

Trixie looked up. A silver light, shining and flashing even in the brightness of day, descended through clouds and flying rings of silver pegasi, until it hovered over Trixie.

It almost looked like a pony.

“The Great and Powerful Trixie,” a cold voice spoke from the light. It dripped with sarcasm and distain. “Look how far you have come.”

“You…promised Trixie power,” Trixie said weakly. Her arrogance and bravado were gone.

“I did indeed,” said the voice.

“Ooh,” said Discord, “I can’t watch this part.” He covered his eyes, then peeked between his clawed fingers.

Trixie looked into the light, and beyond it, into the shadow that nopony else, not even Surprise and Discord in their ghostly forms, could see. It filled her. She felt like something precious was being stolen from her while she stood idly by and let it happen.

She could do nothing to stop it. Once, long ago, a princess offered herself to this thing. Trixie made no such offer, yet it took her.

“No…” Trixie whimpered as she realized what was happening to her.

I require a vessel, the voice said. The words were in her head, spoken only for her. It had to be a special vessel. A star. And you are, Trixie. Look at where you are. Princess Celestia herself bows before you.

“But Trixie…” said Trixie.

There is a power in the word “I” that poor Trixie never understood. When somepony says “I” and “me,” she names herself from the inside. Trixie had only ever seen herself from the outside, through the eyes of others. That was why she had tried to be a star in the first place. Getting everypony else to love her was the only way she could love herself.

Deep inside, she had no Self to stand against the voice. Once it had gotten past the façade she put up, the flashy cover called The Great and Powerful Trixie, it found that there was nothing inside her to resist it. It did not need her to give herself willingly, as Princess Stella had done.

What are you? she thought as the cold and the darkness filled her, washed everything she was away into oblivion.

Now, answered the voice, I am Trixie.

The onlookers only saw a corona of light surround the blue unicorn for a moment, then fade. Trixie smiled down on them. She cast off her cape and tossed her hat aside, letting her starlight-colored mane flow free.

“My lights,” she said, looking on the crowd. “Kneel.”

Hundreds of silver ponies bowed. So did the Chaos Mark Crusaders and the other Guardians of Ruin. So did the constellations. Even the great Ursa Majors fell to their knees before her.

“She always did have a way with the stars,” said Discord.

“An army,” whispered Surprise.

“Behold the enemy of all that is good. Isn’t she something?”

“What just happened?”

“Something just put your little Trixie on like a costume…and just in time for Nightmare Night.”

“What is she?”

Discord smiled. “Let me show you.”

A flash of light, and they were somewhere else. It was night. Thousands of stars littered the night sky. A blue alicorn stood on top of the highest tower in Canterlot Castle and stared out over the sleeping city. It was Princess Luna. She looks so young, thought Surprise. Not quite a filly, but not yet a mare.

“Good night, my little ponies,” she whispered.

None of her subjects heard her. They were all asleep.

“They love your sister more than you,” said a voice.

“Who’s there?” Luna demanded.

There was nopony.

“Look how they laugh and play in her day, but sleep through your beautiful night.”

Princess Luna did not answer right away.

“That was the beginning,” said Discord. “It had tried to bring all of Equestria under its shadow years earlier, but it had failed. Some group of ragtag “heroes” stood up to it and defeated it…though it cost them dearly. But the important thing is that the enemy survived. And it was not idle. It came to the Princess of the Night as a voice speaking soft things in her ears, bending her light to its will, filling her with its dark power. And…you know how that story ends, don’t you?”

In a flash, they were in another place. A dark castle. It was not Canterlot, but it somewhere almost as grand, a city on the edge of a wild forest. It was cold. Frost covered everything. A black mare looked down on her grim little kingdom and was pleased.

“Sister,” called a voice.

The Princess of the Sun stood before the black mare. She was so young! Just like Luna had been. The frost melted where she walked, striding up to her sister. Shivering ponies watched the meeting, whispered prayers passing their lips in foggy breaths.

“Celestia,” said the black mare. “I have been expecting you.”

“Please, Luna, end this madness. It’s not too late.”

“I am Nightmare Moon!” the black mare howled. “And the night will not give way to the sun. Never again.”

“Then you leave me no choice,” said Celestia. There were tears in her eyes. She closed them, blinking them away, and when she opened them again, they were blazing with white magic.

Around her swirled six jewels. Each one glowed a different color.

“No! You cannot wield them all!” Nightmare Moon screamed.

Rainbow light exploded in all directions. A beam of light connected the earth with the moon, shining up like a beacon. When it finally faded, Nightmare Moon was gone.

The Elements of Harmony turned to grey stone and fell to the ground. Princess Celestia looked up at the moon, where a dark silhouette now marred its face. She let out a wail of such unfathomable loneliness that those who stood by trembled. None dared approach her. Then she spread her wings and rose from the earth. And with her, the sun.

Discord’s expression was unreadable. “You know, between the two of us, I think spending the next thousand years as a statue would have been preferable to her.”

Surprise said nothing.

“The power of Harmony was broken,” said Discord. “Nightmare Moon was right. There’s no way Celestia could have wielded them all by herself. Somewhere deep inside Nightmare Moon, dear little Luna had to have helped. But the damage was done. Both princesses were cut off from the Elements. It warms my heart to know that while I was trapped in stone for a thousand years, so was the power of Harmony.”

Why is he showing me this? wondered Surprise. How can showing me how evil used Nightmare Moon to break the power of Harmony make me want to betray Pinkie and her friends. I hate him more than ever!

Discord seemed to know what she was thinking. “You will understand soon enough.”

Another white flash.

This time they stood in Ponyville, in front of the library. It looked just like Ponyville did in Surprise’s time.

“Over a thousand years, the shadow tried to slip into the world countless times,” said Discord. “Each time it was withstood. All the while its power grew. Until that night, after a thousand years had passed, when it realized it once again had the power to move the stars.”

A young unicorn looked out the window of the library. Surprise followed her gaze. Four shining stars moved across the night sky. They descended on the moon like flies.

“And you know how this story ends as well, don’t you?”

“The stars helped Nightmare Moon escape, and she tried to bring eternal darkness to Equestria again. But Pinkie and her friends used the Elements of Harmony to stop her. And Princess Luna turned good again.”

“Now listen, because this part is important,” said Discord. He leaned over to whisper in Surprise’s ear. “When Princess Luna turned good again, what happened to Nightmare Moon?”

Surprise blinked. “But Princess Luna was Nightmare Moon.”

“No,” said Discord. “Nightmare Moon was born in the shadow. Would you like to see how she was made?”

In a flash, they were in the Great Labyrinth of Canterlot.

“After Nightmare Moon failed, the shadow freed me from my prison of stone. And I put my own plan in motion.” Discord sighed. “The Chaos Capitol of the world…it would have been beautiful. But the Elements of Harmony put an end to that. Still, I did have my moments. Like this one.”

“That’s Pinkie!” said Surprise.

She watched as Discord corrupted her sister, took all her colors away. All of the Guardians of Harmony were turned into grey ponies with evil personalities. Seeing them all act so wrong was hard to watch.

“They defeated you, though. Their friendship was stronger than your corruption.”

“Yes it was. But tell me, where do you think those grey ponies came from? The lies and the cruelty and meanness…where were they born?”

“Evil?”

“Close. Shadow. They came from Outside, from a universe of worlds where everypony lives grey lives untouched by magic. And here, they were given life. Then they were destroyed by Harmony.”

“So what? What does this have to do with anything?”

“Everything. Because there was this one little Guardian of Harmony that didn’t quite hate the chaos the way that all the others did. She couldn’t help it, you see. She is…ha, even I don’t know what she is. But I know chaos when I see it, and she is pure chaos.”

“Pinkie…”

“She laughs at plans of Discord and Harmony both. And do you know what she did when she was touched by the grey corruption of the Outside?”

“No!” a voice cut him off. “Don’t say it!”

It was Pinkie. She was glowing the same ghostly blue as Surprise and Discord.

“How did you get here?” asked Discord. “Ha, what am I saying. Of course you would find a way. I was just telling your sister a story about you.”

Pinkie was panting, exhausted. “Don’t listen to him!”

Surprise was scared. Pinkie wasn’t acting like herself at all. She was acting…guilty. And frightened. Did she really do something so bad that she didn’t want her own sister to know about it? How could she? She was Pinkie Pie. There wasn’t an evil hair on her mane.

“It’s okay,” said Surprise. “Whatever it is, I can handle it.”

“No,” sobbed Pinkie. “Not this. Don’t listen to him. Just come with me. Please.”

Surprise turned to Discord, who was watching the two of them with amusement. Surprise hated him for what he was doing. She hated herself even more for having to know.

“Whatever she did, it won’t make me want to join you,” Surprise said. “Go ahead and tell me. There’s nothing she could do that is so bad I would ever betray her.”

Discord laughed with glee. “That’s just it. She didn’t do anything bad. She just did what she does with every single thing she meets. All the other Guardians of Harmony shed the corruption of the Outside. But Pinkie Pie…she had to go and make friends with it!”

“What?” Surprise didn’t understand.

Pinkie was weeping.

“Imagine if you will something like Nightmare Moon, maybe not as powerful, but a being born in shadow. Six grey beings born to lie and covet and be mean. And just like Nightmare Moon, they were destroyed. But not all. One survived.”

Surprise’s heart was pounding. She had that same feeling of terror that one experiences standing on the edge of a cliff, looking down, afraid to fall, yet, perversely, wanting to jump.

“What does this have to do with…have to do with…”

“Tell me, can you ever remember one of Pinkie’s friends ever calling you by name?”

“What? Ha ha. Of course they did…I mean…they had to have…I…”

No. Only Pinkie had ever called her Surprise.

But…

“Why haven’t you ever used your wings?”

The world seemed to spin around her. Why didn’t she fly? She could fly, couldn’t she? She had wings…

“What…are you…saying?”

“I’m saying that you are a creature of chaos, just like Nightmare Moon. Pinkie Pie made friends with a joyless grey being. No, she didn’t just make friends with it, she made a sister out of you. But what you really are is a shadow, a confused little lie, the greyed-out side of Pinkie, born in chaos. This is why the Princess and the other Guardians of Harmony never mention you, why nopony calls you by name, except the one who named you, why you can’t fly even though you think you have wings. You don’t even exist to them. There is only Pinkie Pie. And if Harmony wins, you will be destroyed just like Nightmare Moon was. You cannot exist without the shadow. It is what you are.”

Discord smiled wickedly and spread his arms out to her.

“Surprise!”