The Forest was instantly bathed in red light. The Adamantasus holding Fluttershy released her, dropping her onto the grouond, coughing. It took several steps back, and Rainbow Dash could see its conflusion as its arms and metal shell began to disintegrate as the condensed red magic surrounded it. She watched as its chest was violently torn open, exposing a pair of hearts: one a quickly beating heart of flesh, and one a stationary heart of crystal. The red light plunged into both hearts, and both of them were reduced to dust.

The Adamantus took another step, and seemed to look down, not understanding what had just happened or how it was even possible. Then its white eyes flickered out as it fell, its body consumed by the magic that surrounded it.

The light immediately arced through the web of Order, cutting through it and passing into the other Adamantasi. They attempted to defend themselves with various shield spells, but each spell was countered with deafening force as their bodies were consumed and ripped apart. The light moved through them like fire, spreading between them until all of them had collapsed to the ground as charred bone and fragments of inert armor.

The Order network dissipated, and the red light surrounded them, drifting in a slow-moving vortex around the stump of the Tree of Harmony. Rainbow Dash could feel it touching her, like some kind of powerful magnetic field or a kind of fire that might at any second choose to burn her.

Then, all at once, it drew inward, condensing into a single unit. The mass of fog-like energy immediately shifted, bending itself into the shape of a tall, translucent pony. It resolved itself quickly into a realistic form, and then stood, spreading a pair of enormous flaming wings. Its glowing red eyes looked down upon them from beneath three long horns, and Rainbow Dash recognized them. They had been the eyes that had sat within the golem that had killed Gell.

The condensed magic looked out over the dead Adamantasi, and it laughed. That laughter made Rainbow Dash shiver- -the light-pony’s face did not change or shift in any way. Her mouth did not open, and her expression remained wooden. “It worked,” she said, still without moving her lips, “it actually worked!”

“Thebe,” said Rainbow Dash. She did not feel better that the Adamantasi were dead. Instead, she felt that the situation had just gotten worse. She spread her wings outward to protect herself and Brown.

Thebe’s translucent red body shifted, her face turning toward Rainbow Dash. Her vertical pupils stared down at them unblinkingly. “What are you?” she asked.

“I’m Rainbow Dash. You killed my friend Gell!”

“I have killed more than one of your friends, if you are Rainbow Dash.” Thebe seemed to consider for a moment, and Rainbow Dash saw her eyes shift toward Brown. “An Exmoori,” she said, almost in awe. “That is not possible.”

“And yet I am here,” said Brown.

“Indeed. But not for long. If only you had come so much sooner.”

“Thebe,” spat Fluttershy, standing. Rainbow Dash had never heard so much hatred in her friend’s voice before.

Thebe’s construct turned toward Fluttershy. “Vale,” she said, her own voice sounding terribly bored.

“Why are you here? What do you want?”

“She did just save you,” said Discord, standing.

Thebe reacted instantly. Part of her body separated and formed itself into a long spike, impaling Discord through the chest.

“Discord!” cried Fluttershy, clapping her hooves over her mouth.

“Eh,” said Discord, visibly in pain. “It’s okay. She missed all my vital organs…eeef…mostly. Almost. Not at all. On the plus side, I have a newfound sense of solidarity with shishkebabs.”

“Move and, and Vale dies,” said Thebe, slowly.

“Even after you went through all the trouble to…oh, my spleen…save her?”

“I did not,” said Thebe, shaking her head. “That was incidental. These creatures are my enemy. This was a test of my newfound power. Look what I have done, Vale.” She turned slowly back toward Fluttershy. “My body is permanently inactive, thousands of miles away. And yet I can see everything. I can feel everything. I can do anything. I am limitless and unstoppable.”

Fluttershy smiled. “And yet you never could take the Forest, could you?”

Vale paused, and looked down at Fluttershy. “You actually don’t understand, do you?”

“Understand what?”

Fluttershy was knocked backward with a sudden surge of red magic and slammed into a werewood try. Rainbow Dash heard a crack, and Fluttershy cried out as blood escaped from her mouth.

“You didn’t just do that,” cried Discord, struggling against the red spike holding him in place. His own Chaos magic surged against it, but it remained firm and unrelenting. The King, meanwhile, stayed perfectly still. Nothing was holding him, and Rainbow Dash almost urged him to fight- -until she realized that he understood the situation far better than the rest of them, and that staying still was the only way to protect his master.

The red light floated around Fluttershy, and she cried out as the ends of her wings were singed by its presence. Thebe’s false body stepped across the clearing toward her, every step corroding the moss and grass below into blackened, rotting material.

“You exist because I allow you to exist,” said Thebe. “This Forest exists only by my will, because until now I have not seen fit to level it. Did you seriously believe that you had any real power? That any being aside from me has any real purpose in existence?

“You leave her alone!” cried Rainbow Dash, surging forward.

Thebe shifted, and Rainbow Dash suddenly accelerated, driven forward by red magic. She slammed into Thebe’s hoof, and felt the much larger projection of an alicorn hold her tight. Thebe lifted Rainbow Dash to eye level, and they stared at each other for a moment.

“This is all your fault,” said Thebe at last. “You hold more blame than any of them.”

She threw Rainbow Dash backward, and Brown caught her.

“Oh yeah?” said Rainbow Dash, scrambling off Brown. “I’m going to tear you a new plothole!”

“Really?” said Thebe, once again sounding bored. “Considering that this body is really more than accumulated magic, I find that threat hollow.”

“Rainbow Dash,” said Fluttershy, weakly. “Don’t!”

“But Fluttershy!”

Fluttershy smiled. She looked up at Thebe. “You’re lying,” she said. “You can’t really hurt me, can you? Not with the Tree of Harmony here. Even injured, it will protect me. Or you would have killed me already.”

Thebe looked down at Fluttershy, and then raised one hoof toward the remnants of the Tree of Harmony. With a burst of red magic, the Tree shattered into microscopic fragments of Order.

“NO!” cried Fluttershy.

Rainbow Dash watched as the bioluminescence of the Forest suddenly faded. The trees seemed to quiver, and then their leaves blackened, falling to the ground, their trunks tightening and their bark breaking away. The clearing darkened as the blue and green light disappeared, replaced only with Thebe’s own red.

“Harmony is an anachronism,” said Thebe, now sounding as though she were on the verge of laughter. “I gave you the Tree to protect it. But now there is no need for it, not anymore.”

“You…you have no idea what you’ve done…”

“Yes. Yes I do.”

The red magic released Fluttershy, and she dropped to her knees. She said nothing, but kept staring at where the Tree had been, tears slowly running down her face.

“Thebe!” called Rainbow Dash. The light-based pony turned toward Rainbow Dash. “Why?”

“Why what? The Tree? A demonstration of my power, I suppose. To show that I own it, and I can take it at will. Just like I own all of you, and all of Equestria. Or why am I eliminating ponykind? Because sentient life is a blight on my planet. Only I deserve to exist, because only I am eternal.”

“You made Fluttershy cry!”

“Do you really believe that there is any amount of ‘Fluttershy’ left in that thing?”

“I’m going to kill you, Thebe,” swore Rainbow Dash.

“Really?” said Thebe. Even though her face did not shift, she sounded like she was smiling. “Perhaps you really are Rainbow Dash.”

Her form suddenly imploded violently, and then vanished. Thebe was gone.

Discord immediately dropped to the ground. A large round hole was visible in his chest.

“Discord!” cried Fluttershy, awakening from her stunned daze at seeing the Tree of Harmony destroyed. She limped across the clearing and took Discord in her hooves. “You’re hurt!”

“Holey moly!” cried Discord, noticing the gaping wound. “I do feel a bit empty inside. But nothing you can’t fix.” He hugged Fluttershy, but his jokes did not stop her from crying.

“Discord!” she cried. “I’m sorry! I couldn’t protect you!”

“Protect me? Oh, my, you have it backward. If anything, it is myself who should be apologizing!”

“And the Tree! She destroyed the Tree of Harmony!”

“No, she didn’t,” sighed a voice from the darkness.

Rainbow Dash recognized it and turned suddenly as a new, pink-violet light emerged from between the trees. A subtle but profoundly sickly and rotten smell filled the air, and Shining Armor emerged from between the trees.

Discord and Hastur immediately took defensive positions, surrounding Fluttershy.

“Don’t bother,” said Shining Armor. “You are already surrounded.”

More figures emerged from the darkness, ones that had once been ponies. Their stitched together and perverted flesh was dark and corrupted by the steel bolted to their undead bodies, and they came bearing guns and swords, prepared to attack.

“Oh yeah?” said Discord, who was now suddenly behind Shining Armor, holding a banana to his head. “This thing’s loaded with potassium, and if it goes off, it’ll blow your mind!”

“And mine is filled with Order fallout,” said Shining Armor. There was a rustling sound of armor as an oversized necromantic construct appeared behind Discord, several of its arms gripping a large rifle pointed at Discord’s head. “I don’t know what that will do to a Chaos entity, but…it might be interesting to find out.”

“Oh,” said Discord. “Well…yours may be bigger, but I have two!”

Another Discord appeared behind the construct, its banana pointed firmly at its head.

“Stop!” cried Rainbow Dash. “This isn’t getting us anywhere!” She stepped forward. “Shining Armor, why are you here?” she demanded. “You said you weren’t going to help me.”

“I did,” he admitted. “But then I learned what she did to Brown. I may be dead, and I may not have real emotions anymore…but I once loved. What she did to him, and to you, it was unforgivable.”

“Shining…Shining Armor?” said Fluttershy in disbeleif. “You’re Shining Armor?”

“In the flesh. So to speak.”

“What…what happened to you? I thought you died!”

“I did. And then I came back.”

Discord took several large steps back. “You’re a lich!” he cried.

Shining Armor only nodded.

“And I see you did not do anything at all with your army,” muttered Brown. “Perhaps you intended to watch us die?”

“No,” said Shining Armor. “But it is not possible to fight Thebe. Believe me, I have tried. Are just in case you tried to attack me. Then I would kill you all.”

“The Tree,” said Fluttershy, ignoring that last comment. “What did you say about the Tree of Harmony?”

Shining Armor looked at her. “Fluttershy,” he said, recognizing her. “You have not aged well. Looking at you makes me sick. You are a disgrace, an abomination. But no. Thebe did not destroy the Tree. I doubt she even could. That was a teleportation spell.”

“But…you mean she stole it?”

“Or retracted it from your incompetent management.”

A buzzing sound suddenly filled the Forest, like a horde of thousands of enormous bees that could almost speak.

“Late guests,” sighed Discord. “Oh, my, I simply did not make enough cookies.”

“Um, Shining, I think we have a bug problem.” Rainbow Dash was momentarily highly confused, and her head twisted to one side and then the other. She heard Fluttershy’s voice, but had not seen her mouth move. The voice- -which sounded far more demure than that of the modern Fluttershy- -came from behind.

Proctor emerged quickly from the darkness between Shining Armor’s zombie soldiers. The vibrating accelerated suddenly, and Rainbow Dash saw the angry gohh flitting about between the far trees. Fluttershy glared, first at Proctor and then at Shining Armor. Proctor, despite being an equidroid, seemed frightened and hid behind a heavily mutated walking corpse.

“You brought an equidroid. Here?!” cried Fluttershy. “To this place, of all places?!”

“Are you not the Element of Kindness?”

“The only kindness that thing deserves is a quick death.”

“Unfortunately, no. I need it.”

“For what?”

Shining Armor looked down at Rainbow Dash, and then at Fluttershy. “Thebe killed my sister,” he said.

Fluttershy gasped. “No! Twilight’s death was a suicide!”

“No. I think Thebe may have killed her. And now she is killing Equestria.” He looked down at Rainbow Dash. “You said you would kill her?”

“But you said nopony could fight Thebe,” noted Brown.

“I have a way,” he said. “A former associate of mine was constructing a device, an unfathomable weapon powered by the Elements of Harmony.”

“But there are no Elements,” protested Fluttershy. “Only Rainbow and me are left!”

“No. She collected the others as well. She only lacked you. Which is why I need your help. Both of your help. I want her dead. I want her dead so very badly.”

“One problem,” said Rainbow Dash. “Five will never let us use it.”

Shining Armor produced something from within his body, and showed it to Rainbow Dash: a small metal vault handle.

“The- -you stole the Pocket?!”

“And her bird. I gravely injured her, but she escaped into the Gloame before I could capture her. Even I cannot follow her to there.” He looked to Fluttershy. “The device is incomplete, but I have the skills necessary to finish it. Proctor is the core, and I will replace Twilight. But I need you. Both of you. Please, Vale. Please help me.”

Fluttershy stared at Shining Armor for almost a minute, saying nothing. Then her wings shifted, and the buzzing in the grove slowed and tapered off. “You are a machine,” she said. “I don’t like you. But if doing this will save my Forest, and my friends, then I will help you.”

Shining Armor looked down at Rainbow Dash.

“Well, if Fluttershy’s doing it, so am I!”

Shining Armor smiled. “Thank you,” he said. “Thank you so much.”