You would be troubled by your 'job' no longer.

Paul wriggled his fingers before his fists clenched. "Even ponies need jobs, right?"

Bubbles snorted. "Flippin' yeah. I have a job." She pointed at Jim. "I'm just gonna bet your friend does too. Part of life."

But it won't be that job. Why, think of it. Magic at your hooves. Respect, maybe a little fear even, but mostly admiration. Your job would matter.

Jim held up a flat palm at the floating text. "We shouldn't even be considering it this far. Just say no, man."

Paul frowned at his friend. "What? You're not even tempted? You're that happy where you are?"

Or. Perhaps he simply hopes I will ask him next, should you prove to be an invalid target.

The yeti thrust his spear forward, clenched powerfully in tense fists. The jagged teeth at the end crashed into the words, shattering them across the void. There would be no words, and the yeti had none to spare.

I am a concept. I am divinity. You

Those words were also shattered.

Though brave and fierce, Dark could see that was having little true effect on the being. The crawling horror of harmony being defiled wasn't lessening. She closed her eyes, trying to feel for the source of that unwholesome energy.

Words appeared in her mind.

I could give you a mare worth worshiping, who would eventually return your attention.

Her eyes snapped open, concentration ruined. "Blasphemy! I only serve one, and I am unworthy of her." She stomped a hoof down, magic crackling around the edges of it. "You will be struck down."

One of us will

The words were smashed by the yeti.

Bothersome.

Those words too were crushed to fading fragments. Far above them, new words appeared.

Try as it might, the monster was no match for the force of inevitability. It had tried to ignore the old wound, but it refused. It fell.

The yeti suddenly toppled, intense pain throbbing from its ankle where it had broken it many years prior. Despite it, the yeti pushed to a knee. It couldn't stand on the abused ankle, but it was upright. With a mighty shout and a heave, it threw the spear through the floating words. As they fell to pieces, the yeti rose on shaking legs. The pain was ebbing, just a little.

Your champion will be your end.

The words were dashed, not by a spear, as the yeti had thrown that, but by a dazzling display of angry unicorn magic.

Do it.

The new words appeared just in front of Dark Vision.

The yeti saw those words, right in striking range. It lunged with jagged claws, tearing them asunder. They seemed more... resistant than others. As the fog laid across its vision faded, it saw its fingers ran red with blood.

Dark staggered back, wheezing and choking. It had been a terrible blow that left her entire front bloodied and raw. But, she wasn't dead.

This is a fight you cannot win.

The words taunted, hovering in the air beyond the monster's reach. It wasn't out of Dark's reach, however, and she dashed it in a colorful spray of magic. That magic wasn't as smooth and straight as normal. Showing her pain, it pulsed in horrible spasms as it worked to erase those words.

Luna would be ashamed of this performance.

Dark clenched her teeth, against the pain and against those words. She had to fight smarter, not harder. She felt a little tickle, almost lost in the haze of pain and frustration. She thrust a hoof. "That way."

The yeti charged forward without hesitation. Dark didn't move in as straight a line. With horn glowing, she snatched his (was it a he? She chose to assume so until proven otherwise). She grabbed his spear. It was... heavy. It was an immense weight for its size. The idea that the beast had so swiftly and easily attacked with it was a bit terrifying. It was good that the beast was on her side.

Very kind of you. Put it down and I'll give you a reward.

"As if I'd deal with the likes of you." She dashed those words with an angry burst of magic and began slowly dragging herself towards the center she felt but could not see.

Tabitha settled in front of her television, which played some music coming from her computer. It was time to relax.

Razz snuggled in at her side, a happy partner in the relaxation. For a moment, Tabitha thought about meanings and implications, then she threw them out. It was relaxation time. She and Razz were a 'thing'. Forget everything else.

She rolled a little and pulled him in tight, and they began snuggling their pony bodies together with a fervor that only ponies seemed to have.

There was no sexual energy in it. There were no demands for more or less. They were snuggling, and they enjoyed it, and each other, and that was all there was to it.

It was perfect.

Where his friends saw trouble and dismay, Paul was seeing possibility. "So, hey, real talk."

As if I have any other variety.

"Right." Paul looked away from Jim. Jim didn't know. Sure, he had a clue at least, but that was all. "Can I pick what I am?"

You can be the best kind of pony.

Bubbles raised a brow.

A unicorn.

Bubbles shrugged. "Can't argue that."

Paul couldn't either.

Unicorn master race, am I right?

Bubbles frowned. "Hey. Don't get creepy about this. Unicorns are best because I happen to be one. If I was a pegasus or an earth, you'd see the difference."

The monster found something. He grabbed a portal that couldn't be seen and began to struggle against it, heaving and flexible mighty muscles obscured under dense fur.

Dark reached and could feel it. It was a door. She wrapped her magic around it tight and wove a magic of terrible destruction through it.

It shattered like glass. As the fragments of wood and metal fell to the ground that wasn't there, the yeti fell back a step. Beyond it was a room.

Inside that room were two humans and a unicorn. Dark recognized two of the three. "Jim, Bubbles! We're here to assist."

Look, Paul. Look at what you could have.

Paul looked over and saw Dark Vision. She was a vision of graceful loveliness. He didn't, or couldn't, see the injuries on her. He didn't see the limp in her staggering gait. He saw her at her prime, proud and powerful. She was everything he was not.

Jealousy welled, and his choice became crystal clear. He took a step towards that vision of perfection.

Dark knew not what awaited for her. She tapped the ground. "Move, quickly, get away from there!" She thought the new human was just another victim she had to evacuate. She would defend harmony. She would make Luna proud of her deeds. She would prevail!

Those thoughts came to an abrupt hiccup as pain exploded through her body as words manifested literally through her.

It was a cruel trick, cheap, some might say. Cheap or not, she lay dying.

The words faded away, allowing Dark to collapse to the ground, consciousness fleeing her.

The yeti charged with a deafening roar, even if Paul never heard it. The monster charged right past Paul and grabbed an empty place that resisted his claws even as he wrenched it left and right, tearing at it without remorse or delay.

Jim glanced at Bubbles, but she was already making a break for that sudden escape, so he broke into a run as well. Even Paul was heading that way. It was time to get out!

Paul reached Dark's fallen form and he knew who he would choose. Jim had been right. He didn't need to choose Jim or Bubbles. This pony. Yes, that one. She was clearly the choice. He dropped to a knee and took her by the cheeks. In his eyes, she leaned in and pursed her lips.

He kissed her bloody lips and shared her final breath.

She died. So did he.

The decision had been made.

His vital force was seized. He barely had time to jerk before he was torn asunder by countless hungry zephyrs. His very essence was liberated from his destroyed form as Dark Vision's own essence was kept trapped in her dead body. The two were brought together in that broken vessel and it began to glow intensely, brightest where the skin was broken and the damage could be seen.

Bits of both essences were used to mend it, to make that body usable once more even as they began to bleed and run together.

From two, one, in a marriage more complete than most others. There would be no divorce clause.

The yeti's howl reached a new level as he wrenched his hands apart as if tearing something in half.

The darkness was gone. Jim and Bubbles were standing in the hallway. Dark was sprawled out in the doorway. The door was wreckage, littered about.

The monster turned to the others. "The danger has passed." That was all he felt the need to say, and he slowly walked past everyone on the way to the elevator.

Bubbles moved in front of him in a scurry. "You just wait a moment! What was that? Tell us, straight. No games."

Jim looked around in little jerks. Where was Paul? What was that? Did he survive?

Of the last, he was fairly certain. He didn't see Paul though. "Paul? Man, where are you?" He moved back for his door to find a downed Dark Vision there. He sucked in a breath. "You alright?" The whole thing was a huge cluster... "Hey..." He gently shook her at the shoulder, hoping to rouse her.

The yeti scowled at her a moment, then turned and grabbed his spear where Dark had dropped it. "You are in my way."

"You don't scare me none with that, pfft. You should see what humans can do." Compared to what she saw in the movie, a sharp stick did seem childish in comparison. "Tell me."

The yeti turned back to her. "Humans are capable of much. Their worst would destroy you completely even in the imagining. Their best would lift your spirit high. Ponies have their own capabilities, they just don't sway as far, typically." He directed the spear at her, but it seemed more of a point than a threat to skewer her. "You have faced the dark traces of one, given far too much control, far too little contentment. See that your other human associates do not follow."

Jim frowned up at the yeti. "Hey, man, not all of us are... whatever that was."

"I never said you were." The yeti moved to walk around Bubbles, but she darted in the way again. "You are in the way. Move aside."

Dark stirred. Or was that Paul? She/he couldn't remember very well. "I am..."

Jim looked down at the rousing pony. "You alright?"

Dark sat up, blinking at Jim. Friend? No, just another soul she was charged with guarding. She was... "What is my name?"

Jim frowned. Was he being tested? "I wasn't hit in the head or anything. You're Dark Vision, right?"

Dark nodded. Yes. Dark Vision. That was obviously her name. It seemed extremely obvious as that portion of Dark's essence settled, confident in at least that shred of her identity. She could feel... so much. How had she not noticed how amazing it was to be a pony? She stretched out each leg one at a time, enjoying the sensation of each motion, and the sight of her horn if she looked up at it. "Is everyone intact?"

Jim made a wave down at the debris. "My door is fucked. Can you explain this to Tabitha so she doesn't sue the hell out of me?"

Dark nodded slowly. "I will explain the situation." She looked past Jim to the monster and Bubbles.

Bubbles refused to budge. "No more games! Look, whatever that was, we deserve some answers. You're about the only thing here that seems to have it. Speak."

Author's Notes:

Well... that happened.

How did it come out? I always get nervous around action sequences.