In the midst of their celebration Mayhem noticed Nega floating off in the distance, and all his joy faded away.

He had won. With his friends by his side they had done the impossible and conquered the darkness. But if he had succeeded then why was Nega still around? Didn’t that mean he hadn’t really overcome the past?

As Mayhem’s emotional state deteriorated and doubt assaulted him all those feelings transferred over to Nega, making him grimace.

He put his hands to his head, panting as the pain escalated.

All their attention was directed to Nega as the ground began shaking and an explosive aura of darkness shot up into the sky.

The crystal ponies ran off in terror once again, thinking that Sombra had survived even the power of the Crystal Heart.

“W-wha-” Spring said. “I… he’s…”

“I thought we beat him,” said Sweet Pea.

Peppermint was trembling. “T-this is nuts! So much power.”

Nega slammed into the ground in front of the group, his body twitching. “I warned you, Twilight!” he said angrily. “I told you I wasn’t going to live with this pain forever.

“I gave him a chance just like you asked, and it came to nothing! I’m hurting even more now!” He growled. “It’s just like I said at the start: the only way to make the pain stop is to take out the source of it. He has to die! DIE! DIE! DIE!”

Twilight was shaking slightly. She could see Nega was dead serious. In this state he might very well cause collateral damage, and pumped up with all of Mayhem’s negative feelings she wasn’t entirely sure she had the strength to defeat him.

“Please, Nega. Just give me a little more time.”

The whole area shook hard, knocking them to the ground as volcanoes erupted in the distance. “I’ve given you more than enough time. Now either move aside or kill me. Either way there’s going to be one less draconequus in the world. One of us is going to die here.”

She teleported as he raised his claw to fire, appearing right in front of him as she grabbed him in a hug. He tried to pull away, but she kept her grip tight. “I know you’re in pain, and I also know I can’t stop the two of you from settling things. You have to fight it out.

“But please… just give me a few minutes. Please just hold yourself back for five more minutes so I can talk to Mayhem. I still believe today can end without any deaths and be resolved peacefully, but you have to have just a little more faith in me.

“Please.” She sniffed. “I don’t want things to end this way, and I know you don’t either.”

The dark aura surrounding him got a little smaller as he hugged her back so hard it hurt. She winced hard as his claw dug into her and he bit her, growling loudly. Her eyes closed from the pain, but she didn’t push him away. She didn’t believe he was intentionally trying to hurt her. He was just so immersed in his pain that he couldn’t control himself.

Muffled sobs came out of him, the darkness getting smaller and smaller. Twilight quietly bore the pain until his tense body finally relaxed enough to release her.

“Did you calm down a little? Are you giving me some more time?” Twilight asked.

He panted for a bit, before looking up into her eyes and pulling away from her. “NO! I told you I’m not waiting anymore.”

“You owe her!” Flurry said sharply, making him look over at her. “Do you even realize what you did to her? Just look at your claws.”

“Look at my-AHHH!” He looked in horror at the blood on them, then quickly up at Twilight, seeing the blood staining her coat and the pained grimace still on her face.

He quickly snapped, healing her injuries. His hands clenched, then he snapped again, a clock appearing above him. “Three minutes. I’ll give you that, and not a second more.”

“Thank you,” she said as he flew off into the distance.

Mayhem hung his head. “What do we do, Twilight?”

He glanced at Spring. He had wanted to inspire her with victory, but if he couldn’t overcome Nega she might start to doubt she could overcome her own darkness.

While everyone else was starting to feel their own doubts Flurry kept her head up. “Pay attention!” she said to the group. “We don’t have much time and Aunt Twilight seems to have a plan, so trust her.”

After a moment they all turned to her. “Why didn’t we succeed?” asked Sweet Pea.

Twilight let out a sigh. “I thought just beating the game might be enough, but it’s clear you need something more.

“Mayhem, I believe that you created a Tantabus.”

“What’s that?” asked Plum. Most of them looked confused as well.

She didn’t have time to explain the story. They had already used thirty seconds of their limited time, so she just used a memory spell to implant her memories of it into their minds. She included Mayhem in it so the memories would be fresh to him.

Spring had a heavy look on her face as she processed the memories. “It hurt enough just living with the guilt of what I did. I couldn’t imagine making something specifically to make myself feel worse.”

She got nods and agreements from the others.

“Except you didn’t need to create something to do that,” Twilight said meaningfully. “When you were alone you relentlessly attacked and belittled yourself. You had the strength to influence your inner darkness. You fed it self-hatred, which in turn made it stronger and stronger until it got to the point you couldn’t see anything good about yourself anymore.

“As you saw, the Tantabus is basically just an outer manifestation of one’s inner darkness. It feeds on all your negative emotions to grow more powerful, and then it uses that strength to attack back. the two going back and forth.”

“So,” said Flurry, “it’s just like a cycle?”

“He feels bad,” said Pound, “and that makes Nega more dangerous, which makes him feel worse and only makes Nega even more dangerous."

A bead of sweat came down Twilight’s cheek. They had already used up half their time. She had to make sure Mayhem was prepared or else things would turn out disastrous. “That’s correct. The only way to overcome that darkness is to do like Luna did and forgive yourself. That will reduce both his power and his pain. If he isn’t in pain he won’t be aggressive and his temper will come under control.

“You went through this whole adventure, seeking the light. You spent all your time ‘studying,’ and today was meant to be the big test to see if you were truly ready to move on with your life.”

Mayhem bit his lip. “I was feeling really happy when we triumphed, but when I saw Nega still there afterwards I thought it meant that I failed.”

“It’s not that you failed,” said Twilight. “You just didn’t have the time to use your victory feelings to change your inner thoughts before descending into despair.

“You’re still in control here, Mayhem. It all comes down to making peace with yourself. You have to embrace your inner feelings.”

Chocolate’s eyebrow rose. “You want him to be pals with his misery?”

Twilight shook her head, painfully aware of their dwindling time. She was straining to keep a neutral look on her face so as not to panic the children. “It’s closer to accepting yourself for your flaws.

“If Mayhem can conquer his inner thoughts using all the positive experiences he’s had since the superhero adventure then the inner peace he feels will neutralize his inner darkness, and thus Nega will no longer be a threat.

“No matter how much you push around a mess because you don’t want to deal with it, it doesn’t make that mess go away. It will still always be there, whether in the corner of your mind or the corner of your room.

“Nega is like a reflection of you, and whatever affects one of you affects the other. As I’ve said before you can’t defeat hate with hate. You can only conquer it with love.

“When you went bad did your friends give up on you and dismiss you as just an enemy? Of course not. Up until the point you messed with their memories they were determined to save you. And, even without their memories, once they found out you were friends they forgave you. So just act as they did back then.”

“I… I don’t know if I can!” Mayhem said despondently.

“You can!” said Flurry, her eyes blazing. “When I first met all of you I was just a weakling, losing myself in all my bad feelings and living each day in fear. Because of the connections I formed with all of you I grew strong.” She turned to the side, showing off her cutie mark. “You can do it too, Mayhem.”

“It’s like we told you at the start,” said Pumpkin. “Today isn’t like back then. You’re on our side this time, and all of us are behind you.”

Mayhem felt a lump in his throat, tears coming down his eyes.

Twilight could feel Nega’s impatience. They now only had thirty seconds left. “Time is almost up. When you’re struggling just remember that the hearts of all who love you are always there supporting you. Okay?”

The other children made noises of affirmation.

“You’ve spent the last few months reforming yourself into a new person. You’ve done so much good for all your new friends. You’ve done all the studying you need to. Now-” she pointed her hoof towards Nega “-go pass this last test.”

Mayhem took in a shaky breath. He glanced around at all the encouraging faces of his friends, and took in a more steady breath, composing himself. “Okay, Twilight. I’ll do my best.”

“That’s what I want to hear.”

“Ten seconds,” said Twilight. “You’d better get in the air or get some distance from us. I'm sure Nega isn’t going to wait to go on the attack.”

Mayhem nodded. He didn’t want them to get caught in the crossfire. He teleported thirty feet in the air. He still felt uncertain, but he had a determined look on his face. If he failed here then he might never see his friends again.

If being destroyed by Nega just sent him back to Discord and didn’t change any of Nega’s feelings then he might go on a rampage. If it came down to that Nega might just decide he wanted to cause him as much suffering as possible by going after his friends.

He might be the only thing standing between his friends and their destruction. He had to win this.

Author's Notes:

Well, out of one pit of darkness and right into another.