Author's Notes:

For those who'd made it past part two, congratulations for getting hooked onto the story and thanks for returning to it; since y'all are wishing for more, this is what I am going to give: le poisson course du jour that is Night Six.

As such, this chapter will now contain the fire and flames and take place at the near end of the dark as usual: a difficult task to accomplish in the lost time spent writing arduously; besides, this one is going to be longer than the other parts before it but has been finished nonetheless.

For those still wondering what the next part will be bringing, this will finish the story off completely for the most part; after all, this is nonetheless a Mature fanfic, dealing with heavy subject matter unsuitable for those under eighteen, easily offended, and/or quickly nauseated.

“Dearest denizens…!” a voice bellowed, belonging to a blue alicorn mare standing out and about from nearby the stone structure.

Within the dead of the starry night all around the way, a large crowd had started to gather around her, coming forward from all walks of life as they soon heeded the call already. Many of them were all mares but there were also some stallions in the audience too; even more, there were other beings of a different species aside from ponies: donkeys, griffons, oxen, and even a few dragons as well. For what it was worth, many of them were a bit worse off to wear, regardless of their current attires or lacking thereof; even so, out of many that were dwelling within the sea of people, only a few of them wore a face that shone bright like a crazy diamond in the darkness altogether.

In fact, further compounding the gravity of the situation was a lone timid voice that spoke quietly, “Princess… Luna…?”

“Friends, Equestrians, Denizens, I ask that you loan me thy ears…” the eponymous figure spoke out, this time at lower decibels, “tonight, we meet at a urgent time: many of us have watched atrocities go on and spent many moons partaking in them, including some who are amongst us at this moment. They hast bore witness to such crimes far too often; we now continue to face adversity on the account of that tyrant who hast made things worse than when Discord was in power, when I as Nightmare Moon terrorized the land. There art dangerous beasts still roaming all across the land along with everything else that has been supported by his peers and their ideals.”

“AD AVERNUM…!” the crowd cried out in venomous fervor, raising their hands skyward almost instantly.

The blue alicorn took a deep breath and continued onward at once, “we've now realized that in spite of the intolerable acts that Dainn's regime has committed against us, Equestria still remains strong enough to be graced by a miracle no less. Had it not been the sudden retribution that dealt a blow to the regime, we wouldn't be here to cherish this moment; nevertheless, the quest for peace hast just begun, real peace: rather than the absence of war, ‘tis the presence justice be remembered onward. This millennium hast seen many obstacles that came our way on that very quest thereof: should these challenges failed to arise, beings like Chrysalis and Sombra would've never came to light; conversely, even an era of inequality that they made wouldn’t have last this long.”

“HEAR HEAR…!” the audience cheered as several of its members soon began to flash a smile, “LONG LIVE EQUESTRIA…!”

“If there was one lesson to be learned from the return of the Crystal Empire, the first nation conquered was none other than the Crystal Empire itself: Sombra’s influence was proof of how tumultuous Dainn’s grip upon the land could have been and why many red collar natives came to be…” Luna spoke up as well.

At this point, there were still many that were grumbling angrily amongst themselves: one of them, a simple peach coated pony with a black collar in simple silk poncho said, “but, your highness, the Elements of Harmony that we had relied upon were also red collars: even our Princess Twilight has fallen prey to such influences thereof; why must we allow them to live?”

“‘Tis simple, thy fair maiden…” the blue alicorn began to answer firmly as she looked at the commoner with but a tender gaze, “we must remind ourselves of how we'd all fallen prey to the tyrant’s evil and the fact that like many were influenced by the desire to protect their families and friends. The fact that they’d suffered at the hands of their cruel actions wouldn't be used as an opportunity to simply end their lives; no amount of blood in whole wide world is going to make the pain go away, especially not theirs. Besides, the true monster behind the scenes wasn’t even Discord himself, let alone alive to say the least: even now, the monsters themselves that are lurking within the land art a byproduct of his influence; therefore, ‘tis time for that evil to die already.”

“Agreed, I’m sick and tired of losing sleep day in, day out and waking up in strange places all throughout Equestria because of bastards like Dainn; tonight, this shit ends here and now so I have one thing to say: are y’all fucks with me?!” a loud voice came about as it belonged to a unicorn stallion with black crescents underneath his eyes.

At first, the sudden declaration from one random bystander had caused only confusion and delay throughout the sea of people; of course, they all had unanimously voiced their approval and agreement: one of whom, a beige pegasus mare who had said, “I’m with you; fuck this mess and fuck him too…!”

“AD AVERNUM…!” the crowd cheered on once more with gusto, raising their upper limbs in support towards the nighttime sky before dispersing all at once, “LONG WITH EQUESTRIA…!”

It wasn’t long until they assembled away from Princess Luna, charging onward and about with thunderous furor that slowly faded in every single hoofbeat of the way. Every single being that had been in attendance earlier all throughout the blue alicorn’s line of eyesight started to shrink up at once within several seconds. The light of their collective newborn fury was soon becoming replaced by that of the singular moon and countless stars shining above them all from long before.

“Princess Luna…!” a voice shouted, causing the titular listener to turn around and find the speaker directly nearby: a cyan pegasus was currently within eyesight, armed with only a torch in hand.

The blue alicorn then looked with a smile and said calmly, “Rainbow Dash, I was just about to seek for thy presence; pray tell what has become of the remaining five allies were with before…?”

“Not so good, I’m afraid: it seems that we weren’t fast enough in getting the band back together; we may have gotten lucky enough to see the bastard tyrant fall but we’re still having problems…” the aforementioned bystander called definitively, “Twilight hasn’t come out of her room, Rarity still refuses to even put on some underwear, and Fluttershy went back to sleep. The only people that are still out and about are Pinkie and Applejack themselves other than myself; still, I can’t help but constantly remember the situation we’re in: Equestria is, pardon me for being harsh, a failed state now. I can even imagine that there are still others out and about wanting to end us after all is said and done, not that I don’t blame considering they’re similar to how I had acted before ever since.”

“Thou detests thyself for events beyond one’s own control…?” Princess Luna asked, earning a nod in the process from the cyan pegasus.

A small teardrop escapes from Rainbow’s eye as she began to answer, “when the caribou came here to this city long ago, I left my own friends at the mercy of these trickster bastards; aside from myself, only Twilight was lucky to escape from the madness of that so–called king Dainn. Before she'd ended up like Cadence, I could sense the fact that she'd been through much worse than me: for fuck’s sake, she watched Princess Celestia lose to that guy; at first, I thought Twilight was joking about it but the way she was shaking up, it looked like she was about to cry again. I'd felt bad for her before because of what had happened at Canterlot earlier but I'd never expected that it would end up so fucking badly when they came to Ponyville; it was a whole hot damn mess the caribou had served us: rape, torture, suicides, murder. Ever minute of it spent in that town was making me sick to my very stomach; it was as if I could see what was behind all of Ponyville within a thousand yards despite being obscured by buildings no less.”

“I could even reminisce that similar ordeal from the thousand years I hast spent on the moon: fatigues, melancholy, and lethargy doeth not glad tidings for a normal being, let alone a pony…” the blue alicorn replied to the cyan pegasus, “giving in to vengeance and ambition even made things worse for my health.”

“I knew that: no offense but that made you become Nightmare Moon in the process; everypony has been told of that story…” Rainbow interjected at once, cutting sharply into the deadening atmosphere.

Princess Luna soon took her gaze off of the cyan pegasus and looked upon the nighttime sky, sighing about, “yea, yet thou and thine friends were able to purge such feelings and aid me into redeeming myself since that day a year ago.”

“Now, I wish that would be easy to do the same with the mess that Dainn and his cronies left us with…” Rainbow groaned as she turned away at once, “why did that bastard had to come all this way to screw us repeatedly…?”

“That has been the question everypony had been asking since he took over; even without my horn, I could still hear their cries ever since from everywhere past the capital: Manehattan, Cloudsdale, Ponyville, even Vanhoover…” the blue alicorn had replied to the cyan pegasus at once.

Rainbow scoffed lightly and said, “please don’t remind me of it; I already know who a few of these voices belong to…”

“I knew them all well too, dearest Rainbow…” Princess Luna said to the eponymous bystander, “besides, I recommend that thou goeth to where thy friends remain; their help is most needed from you.”

“Okay then; besides, Fluttershy needs my help more than ever and leaving her be has left me with a lot of work to be done about it…” the cyan pegasus replied, turning to walk away from the blue alicorn already.

At this moment in time, Rainbow had found herself trotting away in the moonlight, going in the adjacent direction where the audience had dispersed. The light of the cyan pegasus' very torch had given its owner additional guidance as to give out a clear and present path to tread upon without the fear of trouble. There was also a fire deep within her magenta eyes, albeit colder and smaller than the one upon the consumed wood; nevertheless, it had persisted on without anything to snuff it out.

Rainbow soon started to catch sight of three ponies nearby, each with a fair share of differences: the first, a straight green maned earth pony in a hazelnut coating; the next, a spiky blue maned pegasus with a taupe coating; the last, a purple afro maned unicorn with a gunmetal coating. The cyan pegasus was quickly aware of the observation of the trio standing front of the doors: the lacking of certain functional attributes within the two and their faces had deemed them all to be of the same gender as the former. All of the three mares in question were clad in heavy steel armor, sharing the same style as Rainbow herself; of course, they had little of it compared to the latter that had arrived in front of them.

Already in the same light, one of them, a unicorn no less, had came to speak up about calmly, “oh hey Rainbow, we were wondering when you’d have been back; any word on Princess Luna…?”

“Not much, Starburst: she had this speech about what had happened already; saw a few griffons in the audience too…” the cyan pegasus answered as she spoke to the titular individual in an instant, “gotta admit, it reminds me of what Twilight used to be before they got ahold of her months ago; anyways, how is she though…?”

“You mean her: no improvements according to the nurse; of course, after what they did, it’s a miracle that she didn’t end up with a matching collar like my mom…” the unicorn said at once already.

The nearby pegasus opposite of Rainbow interjected, “a miracle; how can you call a Princess coming to her senses a miracle…? I mean look at me: I used to be an up and coming flyer in all of Vanhoover; now I’m nothing more than a fucking slab of meat that the caribou had enjoyed and passed around like a gift basket…! Having Celestia take in two new ponies as Princess was a mistake, no offense: I mean Twilight I could understand being a hero and all just like you but Cadence; that damned traitor ought to count herself lucky we’re not in the same room with one another…!”

“I see what you mean by it, Zephyr; even I’d wished to see her and Shining Armor burn for this…” the cyan pegasus said to her peer slowly, looking farthest away from the very three in the process, “still, I couldn’t help but feel that this is partially my fault for what had happened long ago…”

“What do you mean by that…?” an earth pony asked, staring at Rainbow with a curious gaze no less.

The cyan pegasus began to reply, “about over several months ago, Twilight told me to go and get some help in Ponyville; I didn’t want to go but with all the caribou and the stallions swarming the city, I had no choice. During the time I'd spent flying away from Canterlot, I couldn’t help but cry about all these ponies who were left behind in there, including my own friends no less; in fact, I’d wanted Celestia to save them all. Seeing these three being caught after what had happened made me sick to my stomach; the only one that made me shocked the most was what they did to Fluttershy: having these warbeasts fucking her up and down like the whole world just lost their damn minds.”

“Don’t remind me about the warbeasts…!” Zephyr started to whimper, her faltering now causing the three to focus in on her, “it’s just too fucking much…!”

“Calm down; they’re not here anymore…” Starburst began to whisper softly into the taupe pegasus’ floppy ears.

Sure enough, Zephyr ended up shedding a few tears and sobbed about, “I know, it’s just that I still keep getting these nightmares about them from the farm: every single one of them ganging up on me like a bunch of ants. It was absolute madness down over there: they had us making that awful milk by having these damned freaks fuck us day in and day out like we were completely nothing but toys to be passed around. I just wanted to die because of what they were doing to ponies like me; of course, I nearly got my wish a few days ago when that fire broke out: ponies, caribou, and warbeasts were running from the blaze like their own lives had depended on it while others didn’t make it.”

“You’re telling me; I was there: saw the whole tree burn down myself…” Rainbow said, earning some gasps in the process from the remaining two, “there was a rainstorm that followed a few hours later; never expected something like this to happen but as well: at least we won’t be seeing anymore of them now afterwards.”

“Heh…” the third associate choked out, struggling to say something but stopping herself in the process.

The gunmetal unicorn noticed this and said, “Brass, what’s wrong…?”

“It’s nothing, Star: I was going to say something but I don’t want to cause Zephyr some pain again…” the aforementioned earth pony answered about at once, “not that I do blame her, of course…”

“I’ll say; anyways, where can I be able to find Pinkie…?” the cyan pegasus had now suddenly asked.

Brass ended up giving Rainbow a rather straightforward answer almost instantaneously, “last time that anypony has seen her, she was in the third door on the far left hallway past the entrance…”

“Thanks…” the cyan pegasus said, walking past the three at once, “I’m sorry about what happened though…”

“Don’t worry about it; no one ever said it was your fault anyway, unlike some ponies though…” Starburst quickly replied as Rainbow entered the stone structure only slowly but surely nevertheless.

Before making her way across, the cyan pegasus spoke to the hazelnut pony, “I’m aware of that…”

At this moment, Rainbow found herself away from the moon and stars above; still, there was some light in that new location, giving her a reason to put out the torch. As the singular flame were being snuffed out, she could recognize the numerous scraps of paper and fabric that had clung unto the walls like they were dying leeches. Hanging far from the ceiling above was a chandelier with some abundant crystals, each of them coming in many different colors reminiscent of the cyan pegasus’ mane and tail. The flooring had numerous patches dug into the surface, each varying in shape and depth: one of them even had possessed the shape of a sundial imprinted into there. More importantly, there was a small series of doors that stood on each side for Rainbow to observe instantly, complete with a hallway already after the fifth door no less.

Taking heed to the advice that Starburst gave out earlier, the cyan pegasus started to find someone approaching from the left: a pink pony clad in a comforter wrapped over her body from the cleavage to the hooves.

“Oh, Rainbow…” the inhabitant spoke to the eponymous traveler calmly, “you look like that there’s something on your mind; are you alright…?”

“Yeah, Pinkie; I am…” Rainbow answered tiredly.

The titular individual slowly walked past the cyan pegasus and said, “can I ask you a favor, please…?”

“Sure Pinkie…” Rainbow agreed with a simple tender yawn, “what is it that you want me to do…?”

“It’s simple: please look after my family in case I don’t return…” the pink pony had slowly choked out, causing the cyan pegasus’ eyes to widen.

Rainbow felt her heart skipping several beats and said to Pinkie rather quickly, “huh, what do mean ‘in case you don’t return’ here, Pinkie; you’re not suggesting that you’re going to… d–d–d–––”

“Look, I understand your concern about my wellbeing but this isn’t about me anymore; it’s my family now, something I should have protected a long time ago…!” the pink pony interjected at once, “after what they did to me, I was unable to focus on my parents or my sisters since they sent me back to Ponyville. Seeing them again has given me more than enough tears to go crying out from there; I may no longer care about what happens to me but I don’t want them to suffer any further because of my actions. Therefore, I would like for you to do so: you’re the only pony I know of that could do this; besides, I have a feeling that they would be better off without me around when this is all over.”

“Stop thinking such things like that; I’m pretty sure that she’ll still understand you anyway, that’s all…” the cyan pegasus had said as she slowly placed a hand on the pink pony’s shoulder at once.

Pinkie looked away and replied, “but she’s also a pony just like you and me; there’s so much that everypony can to take, willingly of course: what that minotaur did to her the night before along with what she had gone through just this morning made me feel even more sorry for my mom, Dashie…”

“You don’t seem to know that…” Rainbow responded quickly at once, “we talked yesterday about you when we attempted to reach the hideout: she had felt very worried when she found out that you’d left the house; she was even afraid you would've became a purple collar just like your sisters.”

“Yeah, I’d already found out about them on that day; I just wish that my disguise didn’t get burned in the process…” the pink pony sighed sadly to the cyan pegasus, the former’s blue eyes on the verge of tears.

Rainbow then asked, “what did you mean by that…?”

“Never mind, just focus on keeping my family safe please; I’m going to be heading out now…” Pinkie interjected, shaking her weary head away at once, “my Pinkie Sense tells me that something bad is going to happen soon; no use in ignoring it this time after what the caribou did to everypony.”

“Is it that bad…?” the cyan pegasus asked.

The pink pony looked at her hand and exhaled at once, “that’s something I don’t even want to know but I can’t sit around any longer; anyways, if my mom wakes up again, tell her that I’m sorry…”

“You’re not suggesting that you go out on this alone, are you; have you forgotten that they caught you yesterday?!” Rainbow exclaimed at once, “what if something like this happens again or worse they–––”

“Don’t worry about me; I’m sure that things will turn out great in the end but I feel like that I must handle this alone…” Pinkie interrupted instantly, leaving her friend alone as she walked away only slowly.

As the pink pony was sliding away from the cyan pegasus’ line of eyesight, the latter started to think silently, “sounds like she the real deal after all; wait, what in the name of Celestia am I saying?! Pinkie wouldn’t just go and risk her own neck by going out alone again; she may not have her head screwed on tightly like Twilight did but not even she would think of something like this. Besides, I can’t keep quiet about it; I gotta tell Applejack about this anyway: there’s no way in Tartarus I’m gonna live with this mistake if something happens again, not after what they did to her of course.”

“READY… AIM…!” a loud voice declared in an instant, cutting into the dead nighttime air, “FIRE!!”

At that moment as if on cue, a full salvo of javelins were thrusted into the air, launched from the ground with rigorous vigor no less. The bladed objected were drenched in a burning flame as they soared into the open air before descending back to the solid earth at once. When they did, many beings were waiting below, each in various shapes and sizes thereof; what had happened next was rather predictable to say the least.

The targets that had made contact were a horde of amalgamated creatures slowly catching ablaze from the sudden impact. Many of them were starting to scream loudly in the process as the weaponry were poking into their bodies, blood spilling outward. Each of the afflicted beings were writhing about in a sea of confusion and delay, besieged by the fire and flames that were delivered to them. Every one of the members within the very horde had taken substantial damage from the initial onslaught at once.

“BULLSEYE…!” another voice cried but rather than belonging to the targeted beings, it had came from a teal pegasus with a charred denim mane.

On the opposite end, there were many ponies of all shapes and sizes being bound together in a large cluster all at once. Each of them were packing some tools that had the potential to end the life of a sentient being with swiftness and ingenuity. Many of the ponies were mares but there were also some stallions thrown in the mix as well, wary of the situation thereof. Despite this, the full frontal force of fury was flying firmly at their newfound foes that falter about within a few seconds no less.

As one of the unscathed creatures started to charge forward at the innumerable equines, one of the mares, a buttery maned unicorn, said, “THERE’S A STRAGGLER CLOSING IN ON OUR WAY…!”

“Finish them off; don’t let these beasts get anywhere near you…!” a yellow earth pony had declared while tossing a glass bottle at the monstrous runner, “we mustn’t allow their presence to overrun Equestria…!”

“LONG LIVE EQUESTRIA…!” the crowd bellowed at once as the straggling invader burst into flames upon contact.

As the small explosions took place amongst themselves, Pinkie was roaming the streets armed with a bow and arrow at her side. Although the pink pony remained calm on the outside, the rather uneasy look upon the visage left her thinking all throughout the way. Her face was moist but showed patches of dryness upon the owner’s coat as she was wiping it freely against the gentle breeze.

Pinkie looked around and watched the art of fighting unfold from the shadows: ponies like herself of many different backgrounds squaring off against the horde; as she did so, she started to think only silently, “look at everypony go: I never seen them defend Equestria like this; they may not be the royal guard or even Princess Celestia herself but they’re still at it. I can’t imagine how we have managed to fight back again after we had popped the pinata up with Dainn and his meanies; we’re still in a war… I’m fighting in a war. My family and friends had almost gotten destroyed because of ponies like me; what kind of a hero am I to let something like this happen to Equestria no less? If I had just taken my Pinkie Sense seriously, then we wouldn’t have to be in these collars; if I had just gotten Fluttershy and Applejack to follow me with Twilight, then we would have been able to save everypony from this damned mess. One thing is certain though: I can’t let what they, my friends and their families along with my family be in vain because of the evil the caribou did to us; I have to find out what’s causing my body to shake and finish this once and for all.”

“HEY, I HAD JUST FOUND SOMETHING…!” a harsh voice invaded the pink pony’s ears, causing her line of thought to be stopped at once, “PLEASE HAVE A LITTLE LOOK AT THIS…!”

“Oh no, what if it’s the caribou who are still lurking around ready to rape me back into a purple collar like before…?” she whimpered to herself, attempting to ready the weapon at once as a precaution.

Some hard sudden hoof beats made their way to Pinkie’s current location as she had silently started to hypothesize the potential identity of any wayward observer who'd cross paths with one another. The true blue eyes were locked in a squint and the ears standing on endwise as the possibilities of who could it be now swished and swashed throughout the rather troubled mind that belonged to the pink pony herself. She slowly started to shake about near the edge of the shadows as the sounds nearby seemed to have increased in decibels; at the same time, beads of sweat were pouring from the forehead.

Pinkie’s answer then came in the form of several ponies, each with their own choice of weaponry: amongst them was a simple mare with a pink mane and tail, just like the former; of course, that’s where the similarities ended. Unlike the pink pony, the visitor possessed a pale but tan coat, bearing a long trenchcoat with a color so jet black it reminded them of the dark void thereof. A pair of golden rimmed glasses was instantly found to be donning upon the owner’s visage, already overlaying the deep blue irises that were peered far throughout the framework all at once.

The tan mare took a good long look at Pinkie and said, “it’s alright, it’s just her; stand down, my little ponies.”

“Madame Mayor; I wasn’t expecting you to pop up…” the pink pony spoke up, “I thought you were one of th–––”

“Not at all; I almost thought the same thing…” the eponymous witness had quickly interjected instantaneously.

Pinkie eased up on the bow and retracted her weapon, finding the time to speak to the Mayor, “is everything okay though…?”

“Barely…” the tan mare answered calmly, holding her sword and slingshot away as well, “we may have managed to regain control of Canterlot but we're still dealing with some major trouble approaching from the south; we believe these must be the beasts that came from Froggy Bottom Bogg the night before.”

“Any way we can stop them from at the source…?” the pink pony asked, putting the bow and arrow away at once.

The Mayor took a deep breath and replied, “if you mean at Ponyville, then it's possible; the only way through to the swamp would be by train but we're severely understaffed: aside from the fact that our main method of operating it is, for the lack of a better term, uncomfortable, there's a likely chance the locomotive would be besieged by attacks at this rate. On the other hand, the city still has some hot air balloons sturdy enough to carry at least seven ponies but only few of them are left though; even so, they too stand the risk of being attacked as well aside from the darkness itself to. Of course, even walking straight onward from Canterlot to here is obviously out of the question, considering the inherent risks of that option in the context of the situation alone.”

“I see then…” Pinkie said before walking away towards the others, “then we should take the balloons; I'll provide cover fire support from here…”

“How are you going to do that; do you even have enough to take this many head–on…?” the tan mare said to the pink pony at once.

Pinkie then turned to face the Mayor instantaneously, pointing to the large batch of arrows upon the owner's back and said with a faint beam, “don't worry about it; it's about time I should be fixing to make amends for what I did: no use in sitting on the sidelines while everypony suffers in silence.”

“I understand then; there's no use in arguing about what happened any longer…” the tan mare had spoken up firmly in response, “we'll have to head on out to Ponyville now; the horror stops tonight…!”

“YES, MA'AM…!” the other ponies responded, following the two along into the very city at once.