"I only want to end the fighting to the west, Miss Rose," Princess Celestia replied. Her smile unwavering even though the base of her tea cup hovering just below her lip was slowly freezing over. She took a sip before its contents could ice over and placed the cup back down on the table. "All that work that Discord put in as well as yours. It would be a shame if it all came crumbling down."

I paused mid sip of my poisoned tea, staring quizzically at the deranged Princess. Ideas of the fucked-up dragon-snake pranking and humiliating my sheep lingered at the forefront of my mind, but him helping construction? That very thought didn't sit right with me, then again. Music magic never left a good taste in my mouth either. I took the sip.

"You make it sound like he helped the construction rather than hinder it, which I find unlikely."

The princess nodded knowingly, but her eyes surveyed the others. Twilight especially, who looked like sleep was starting to creep on her as well as the others. I planned accordingly to pretend that I've fallen to the sleeping poison alongside them.

"True, but after some persuasion, I was able to learn that he used his magic to speed up the process rather drastically," she explained. "Normally, that mountain fortress of yours would have taken years to complete, but with the aid of Chaos magic, it merely took months."

'Well, that answers one question.'

"Did Discord say why?"

"He never gave me a straight answer, only that it was essential for the future," Celestia shook her head.

'Of course.'

"Sister, are you implying that Discord has been pulling strings in the background again?" Luna questioned, earning several tired, sidelong glances from the others. Fluttershy especially looked distraught a the notion that all her work on the fucked-up dragon-snake was all for naught, but she couldn't say anything as a yawn prevented her from doing so. "Because if that troublemaker is out of our control again, then he needs to be stopped! Just imagine what other things he could be doing at this moment!"

"I understand, Luna, however, your worry is misplaced," Celestia promised with lethal certainty, but the others were too tired to notice nor take heed of the venom in her voice. "Discord won't be a problem anymore."

"W-Why—Is that, Princess?" Applejack yawned. Her eyes were barely able to stay opened for much longer just like the rest of the elements of harmony. I let out a yawn of my own and nodded my head up and down a few times to pretend that I was succumbing to the poison as well, but stayed awake enough to not draw suspension to myself.

"Why, he is dead of course. I threw him into the Void, the realm of Pure Order, and his kryptonite, as it were," Celestia chuckled darkly just as the Elements dropped one by one with Fluttershy the first to go. "He will never harm my little ponies again, nor will Rose after I purge her taint from Equis."

"WHAT DID YOU DO?!" Luna boomed, just like we planned. Her hooves slammed down on the stone table, causing it to crack. Celestia wasn't phased by this, not at all. She merely tilted her head in mock confusion as Guards walked into the room and began picking up the Elements and took them to Solaris knows where.

"I needed them asleep so that I can purify the taint from them. So do not worry dear, S̷̸̡̕i̴͠s̨͏̶͝t̸̕҉è̢́r̵̕̕͟͏, all will be fine in a few hours," Celestia calmly replied.

"They are pure!" Luna rebuked with more anger in her voice as she prepared a spell. "You are the one that is tainted, Sister! I can smell the stench of the Windigos all over you!"

"Soon we all will be together again like the family we were before the arrival of the Trinity Seven."

"Do you even hear yourself!? Stop this madness at once!"

"The Trinity Seven has taken my Twilight, my Sunset, my, S̷̸̡̕i̴͠s̨͏̶͝t̸̕҉è̢́r̵̕̕͟͏, seven times now. Each time I reset the cycle, it's always ṫ̨̛̟͚͉̺͕̙̱̠̰̜͉̽̏ͤ̽̋͌̆̚̚͝h̴̢̧̞̞̞͕̬̹̤̮̙̩̯̻̪̥̻͖͕̤̑ͩ͒ͩͤ̉ͧ̐ͨ̓͟͡ĕ͔̭͙͕͔͉̗͐̏̓̋ͮ̃̅́ͦ̋̐͊̔ͤ̚͞ͅm̡̱̥̻̬̗̉̈͒̾͒̇͗͐̈́̂̀͞, that take you all away from me, but not this time," Celestia let out a cackle, much to the horror of Luna and myself. "This time I will end the cycle! Then we can all be together again! Just like Father wanted!"

"You are not my Sister, and I will stop you with or without the Elements of Harmony!" Luna promised. She activated her spell, teleporting her out of the room before Celestia and her guards could stop her.

'On to phase two,' I thought, closing my eyes and flopped over in my best attempted of acting, which, let's be honest, I was horrible at when it called for it, but what Celestia said frightened me, and if it was true...Then I don't have much time to stop her from destroying everything, but I had to wait for my chance.

As I fell, I felt the familiar touch of telekineses carrying me out of the room, followed by the scene of ozone from an emergency teleport. With Luna out of the way to coordinate her part, I cracked an eye opened to see Celestia smiling a deranged smile, one that sent shivers down my spine as she stared at me with venomous hatred.

"Soon, Winter Rose. Soon you will join Discord in eternal nothingness," was the last words I heard before the doors to the War room closed without a sound.

Corridor after corridor I was carried through, each one I studied so that I wouldn't lose my way. Each hall had very few doors, windows and even castle staff like they were taking us to the dungeons. Acting like I was asleep like the others allowed me to see where my captors were taking me, but it won't be long before the poison of Misty Vale entrapped me with its dreamless slumber.

At most, I would have five hours before I would succumb to the effects of the poison, my immunity training was worth it in the end, but that meant that I only have five hours to find the Balefire Bomb and stop Celestia from destroying the world.

'No pressure, Right?'

The deranged Princess was far more dangerous than I would have anticipated. Never would I have made the connections that she would try and destroy everything. I figured that she was only after my head, that she only wanted to make me suffer, but after hearing that revelation about her true insanity, I'm having second thoughts.

Seven cycles of spending thousands upon thousands of years reliving everything and destroying it all when nothing changes with the desperate hope that everything will be different? She is insane! If the Elements of Harmony can't save her when Luna traps her in the cell and I stop the bomb, then that only way forward is to kill her.

'Poor Discord, I bet Fluttershy will be heartbroken to learn of his demise. I will never be able to thank him for the countless times he helped me... If he helped me.'

I placed my lingering thoughts of the recent past behind for the moment and focused on the now. The guards knowingly took us down a strange hall. Cracking my eyes just a tad, I saw that we were now underground; no windows only solid stone with wires hanging from the ceiling with lamps attached to them at wide intervals. The clip-clopping of the guard's hooves echoed loudly the further we traveled down the hall.

I couldn't gage if we were going up or down since I was floating in the air like a ragdoll, even the angle of my vision made it difficult, and the magic surrounding me threw my internal compass off.

After a few minutes of staring down the hall, watching the metal door that we came through grow smaller and smaller, the sound of another door, but much more rusty, opened ahead of me.

"Take them to confinement," I heard a familiar voice ordered. It had the same light ruggedness that Shining Armor had, but I couldn't confirm it without revealing that I was still awake.

"Yes your, Highness!" my captors replied, this time with the sound of a set of hooves moving away from the group.

'Well, that confirms that Shining was leading the charge. Now where is Cadence?'

Once the leader was far enough away, I cracked my eyes opened again. Walking down a hall like the one before, but with the odd steel door that one would find in a Submarine—Riddle with rivets with a wheel acting as the latch—Spaced out every few meters.

Every now and again, we passed an intersection that had signs leading to the many areas of the underground bunker. We passed by four before turning down one of them, and I caught a sign that pointed to the armory, the prison, and the indoctrination chamber. I shudder at the thought of the unlucky ones that wound up there.

'Alright, Winny, the hall to the Launch Site is the third from the entrance. There was little to no guards, but it wouldn't hurt to stop at the armory. Get something small, and sneak your way down to the Bomb and disable its Warhead,' I rehearsed in my head as the guards opened door after door, placing the Elements in their own separate cells. 'Good plan, Winny, just don't forget to profit...And a towel.'

With the perfect plan ready to be enacted, I waited for the guards to open my cell. That wait didn't last long, however, as I watched Twilight get placed in a cell of her own, leaving me the final victim. The other guards walked away once they were done with their cargo, the color of their armor disappearing down the hall towards the Armory.

With the other guards gone, I felt myself being lowered down to the ground like a feather. I cracked a small smile as my captor foolishly let me go from her telekinetic grip to fiddle with her keyring for the right key.

Slowly, and quietly, I stood up and stepped behind her while she was distracted. I raised my left hoof and sent a stream of lightning into my bracelet, morphing it into a claw. Waiting for the right moment, the guard finally found the key she was looking for and rammed it into the armored keyhole. With a quick turn, the door opened, revealing a small, windowless, gray box with a single bed, toilet, and sink. She let out a sigh and just stared into the cell with a look of sorrow on her face, causing me to pause from killing the loyal cunt.

"I should have left when Snowball gave me the chance to run with her," the guard whispered to herself.

'Snowball? Did this mare help her and Sunset escape?'

"A-At least then I could have been with my sister Cloudchaser in Arcadia when the world ends, but I was so...so..." the mare chastised before falling back onto her haunches, tears falling to the ground with regret. "I-I was an Officer of the Lunar Guard before she left. I was going to finally pop the question to Black Titanium. She was such a cute Thestral with her fluffy ears and timid, emerald eyes." she choked out.

'So this is Flitter, Luna's prized Captain of the Lunar Guard. If she is good, then maybe she can help me with the Bomb and return to her family without the fear of the world ending.' I sheathed my claw and sat down in wait for Flitter to notice me from behind.

"I should have left then too—" she froze, her eyes stopping at the general location where I should be sleeping. I watched with slight amusement as she slowly turned around to face me with her wings begging to take flight, and once she laid eyes upon me.

They shrank.

"Hello, Captain, how are you?" I smiled nonchalantly. "By the way. How were you levitating me? Were you using a catalyst or was it something else?" I asked the trembling mare, then frowned at her wings. "You aren't an Alicorn, are you?"

"Catalyst. I-I was using a Catalyst," She gulped, shaking her head very, slowly.

"Good, now then," I pointed down the hall, causing her eyes to switch between back and forth between the door at the end, and myself. "Can you help me, Captain? I need to get into the armory then I'm off to save the world, rape all the virgins, then crawl up Luna's ass and call her mama."

"Thud!"

"Or faint. That works too," I groaned at the passed out mare that laid halfway into the opened cell. Rubbing my temple from the slight inconvenience, I grabbed Flitter by the collar and dragged her fat ass into the opened cell. Once inside and safe, I plucked one of my primaries and gave it to her. Before I left, I grabbed her keys and paused at the door. With a quick look back, I made the promise to return her to her sister and her fiance, then closed the door.

'Someone will free you, but it won't be me.'

With keys tucked under my wing, I trotted down the hall towards the door and activated my claws again. Grabbing the wheel latch, I learned that it wasn't locked like I thought it would be, which was fortunate for me, but I don't want to push my luck further than it already has.

I cracked the door opened a tad, listening for anything that would tell me that there was someone in the next room. After a few long seconds with not a single "peep" of sound, I opened the door fully and slithered my way down the hall straight towards the armory.