For several moments, Twilight just sat there staring at the Changeling Queen and the draconequus, her mind trying to process what she was both seeing and hearing. Discord allowed her those few moments to let his words sink in before speaking again.

"Oh, you don't need to worry, this isn't the real deal, just an empty lifelike husk I whipped up, though I can make it talk," Discord said, spotting the wary, fearful look on Twilight's face. He waved a paw in the face of the changeling queen, who only stared ahead blankly with that same fanged smile, "the real Chrysalis is far too busy to deal with this and I'm sure her actual appearance would... complicate things."

Twilight suddenly felt very cold.

"Discord, what did she do?" she asked, her throat dry and her head feeling slightly too heavy, "how did this even happen? She can change her form... to anypony? Anything? That... that's..."

She wanted to say unfair—and it was, but just saying that wouldn't help anypony. Whatever the changeling queen's abilities, the damage, as Twilight understood it, had been done ages ago. Saying her abilities were unfair would do nothing more than make her seem like a petty foal. Hundreds of scenarios played out in Twilight's head; thousands of ways Chrysalis could've gone about manipulating events behind the scenes.

Twilight didn't know Chrysalis, but she didn't have to. Just from what she'd seen and heard alone she could tell how easy it would've been for the queen to worm her way into their lives and wait for the right moment to bring peace crashing down around her. Twilight knew she was a smart mare; smart enough to know exactly what she'd do if she had this ability and was so inclined to use for nefarious purposes.

"I could lay out Chrissy's brilliant master plan in some long winded villainous monologue," Discord replied, stroking his goatee thoughtfully. He shrugged and gave a wicked grin before snapping his talons a second later, "but, why hear it from me when we could hear it straight from the changeling's mouth, as it were?"

As he snapped his talons, Twilight saw Chrysalis give a sudden start, as though she'd jerked awake moments before falling asleep. She blinked and her eyes focused on Twilight. Her grin widened and she stepped forward with a deep chuckle that made the lavender mare shiver in her seat.

"Oh, Twilight," Chrysalis cooed, moving closer and seating herself in Discord's chair across from Twilight. She leaned forward over the table and smirked at the still stunned mare, "poor, desperate, innocent little Twilight. You have no idea how much joy it brings me to be able to lay out my victory and the utter failure of you and your friends."

Twilight looked at Chrysalis, then over to Discord who was lazily reclining in mid air, his arms folded behind his back. He saw Twilight was watching him and shrugged before pulling a bag of popcorn out from behind his back.

"Hey, this is her show from here," he said through a mouthful of popcorn, "right now I'm just here to watch said show."

"It was a painfully easy process you know," came the bug queen's voice once more. Twilight turned her attention back to Chrysalis, who continued to give her that haunting smirk as she spoke, "I thought about invading Equestria before certainly; I had the numbers to do it, but I figured the payoff would be all the sweeter if I took my time and made sure to do it right.

"We feed off of emotions, Twilight Sparkle—love in particular is our main nutrient, and Equestria has quite the abundance," at this, her smirk fell into a serious frown, "my children are capable, of that I have no doubt, but they were starving, and I had to make sure this plan went off perfectly without risk to the hive. We literally couldn't afford to fail."

Her arrogant smirk returned.

"For a plan as risky as this, I knew discretion and patience were the better part of valor, so I snuck into Equestria on my own, then into Canterlot itself as a tourist come to see the big city. I took the role of the scout myself and learned everything I could, and that's when I found out the Princess of Love herself was in town," she gave a giddy chuckle that sounded horribly out of place, "and getting married no less!"

"Cadence," Twilight croaked out, "if you feed off love, then—"

"Oh yes, Twilight Sparkle," Chrysalis interjected, "I've had my eye on that buffet for quite some time, but many a circumstance has never allowed me to get close, and I was far too cautious to try anything... overt, at least until that day.

"But the time for hesitation had long since passed, and I vowed to make her an endless source of food for my hive before this was all over," she leaned back in her seat and sighed wistfully, "it took time, Twilight. It took so much time before I got everything I wanted, but it was worth it."

"What did you do to them?" Twilight asked, dreading the answer but unable to keep from asking the question anyway, "what happened to Cadence and my brother?"

"I'm so glad you asked," Chrysalis replied, clopping her hooves in mock joy, "well, after a bit more reconnaissance, I managed to isolate one of the flower fillies, drain her to refill my own meager reserves of love, and take her place. The only flaw in my shapeshifting ability is that the color of my magic doesn't change with me, so little Sweetie Belle was a bit of a boon in that her magic was more or less the same color as mine. Happy coincidence, that."

"So that's why you went after Sweetie Belle," Twilight muttered numbly, "and when you say you drained her, did you... did that..."

"Did it what? Kill her?" Chrysalis finished with a hint of amusement, "no, you stupid mare. If I had, that would've blown my cover eventually, and I wasn't planning on posing as the little brat for the rest of her life. I had other plans to implement," she shook her head, "no, I drained her of most of her love, wiped and replaced her memory and sent her on her way. To you ponies it just seemed like she was tired from all the preparation for the marriage."

"Of course," Twilight muttered, embarrassed that she'd asked such a dumb question, but relieved all the same to hear the filly hadn't suffered a worse fate, "at least she wasn't hurt... not that it matters now I guess."

"It really doesn't, does it?" Chrysalis agreed with a small chuckle, "anyway, things got much easier from that point onward. A little mind control and memory tampering here, some shapeshifting and subtle deceit there, and before I knew it I had the blushing bride and strapping young groom wrapped around my hoof."

She laughed again and Twilight grit her teeth in anger, grounding her hooves into the table as she stared daggers at Chrysalis. Apparently whatever Discord had done earlier was still in effect, because a moment later the growing fury slid away like water off a duck's back.

"What about Princess Luna?" Twilight asked, knowing it was a pointless question but curious despite herself, "she's a cautious mare. Surely she would've known something was off?"

"The Moon Princess?" Chrysalis laughed, "she was the easiest problem to take care of! She was already asleep in her chambers. All I had to do was sneak into her room and cast a spell to keep her that way during the day. She could do whatever she wanted at night, because I didn't stay in the castle then."

"But... but I know for a fact that Luna kept spells—wards active to stop intruders from breaking into her room," Twilight argued, "she showed me the spellwork! Each spell was incredibly complex and precise! Are you saying you managed to bypass all of that?"

"Yes," Chrysalis replied with a smirk, "it wasn't easy, but I'm just as old, if not older than both Princesses and know a thing or two about complex magic myself," she tapped the side of her head with a hole riddled hoof, "we changelings are masters of infiltration as well as deception, so it's only natural that I went to great lengths to learn how to get around all kinds of wards and the like. It wasn't easy, but I did it in the end, and as far as I'm concerned, it was worth the trouble."

Twilight could only stare back, dumbstruck and horrified at how easily they'd all been fooled. From the way Chrysalis spoke, it was like she'd barely had to put in any effort at all. Were they all really so blind? Had so many years of peace really dulled their sense of danger so much as a nation?

Off to the side, Twilight could hear Discord's raucous laughter and it only dug the knife that much deeper into the wound. It was then, staring at Chrysalis that Twilight remembered where she'd heard about—or rather seen changelings before. She thought back to Salvatore's memories; specifically, she thought back to his memories of the 'show' that was My Little Pony and the 'canon' he'd seen.

The thought that her life and that of her friends were just some silly form of entertainment in his world had caused her some very real emotional distress. She and Salvatore had had to sit down and talk about that for hours before she started to come to terms with the notion, and even then it took a few more days after that to completely accept it.

Still, it did give her insight into at least one universe that wasn't horribly twisted like the ones he'd been to, not counting Discord's own Equestria. Now that she remembered that particular universe, three key differences between that universe and hers stood out in awful clarity in her mind.

The first was that in her own universe, she'd already known about Discord and the fact that he was imprisoned. The second was that he'd never been freed that first time, so she and her friends never had to deal with him. The third difference was just how inept Chrysalis had been in infiltrating the capital during her brother's wedding compared to what she'd accomplished in her own universe.

How had things changed so drastically? Based on what she'd seen in Salvatore's memories, Chrysalis should have been an idiot, and yet the divergence of her character from that 'canon' was so profound. Twilight found herself wondering just what had changed in the past to make such a difference in the outcome of what happened at the wedding.

Now, more than ever, Twilight was growing more and more curious about all the other universes she now knew were out there. She didn't get a chance to dwell on the matter for long as Chrysalis continued to gloat over her victory.

"Nothing much interesting happened after that really," Chrysalis was saying with a shrug, "the Princess of Love and your brother had their 'happily ever after' wedding with none the wiser to my meddling and I gained two very rich sources of food for my children and I," she hummed in thought, "I could've stopped there; taken all the power I'd gained and love I'd collected and left well enough alone.

"I could've gone back to the Badlands, fed my hive for months, and returned periodically to start the process all over again. It would've been easy now that I'd gotten to know the layout and ponies of Canterlot... but that wasn't enough for me," she grinned at Twilight, showing off her fangs, "why stop there when I could rule all of Equestria from the shadows?"

Twilight shuddered, took a deep breath and tried to calm herself before looking Chrysalis in the eye. She might have been devastated, but the mare had had just about enough of the queen's boasting. It was time to take control of the conversation; she figured she had enough information to guess the rest of Chrysalis's plan anyhow and the rest was more or less just common sense.

"And so you figured you'd stick around," Twilight continued, "since you had my brother and Cadence under control, there was no real threat from them."

Chrysalis's smile slowly faded into a frown, but Twilight ignored it and pressed on.

"I'm guessing you went after the other Princesses next," she tapped her chin in thought, "you probably disguised yourself as somepony close to Celestia. Somepony who saw her on a daily basis, nearly always by her side. Maybe... Raven Inkwell?" she watched the Queen's face for any sign of recognition and gave a small smile of her own at the slight twitch of one of her green eyes, "thought so. I'm also assuming there was some more subtle mind control and memory tampering at play as well, do I have it right so far?"

Chrysalis gave the lavender mare an appraising look and her smile slowly returned a moment later. She gave another small chuckle and shook her head.

"I know what this is, but very well, I'll play your game, Twilight Sparkle," she cleared her throat and leaned forward, her shiny black hooves resting on the table and that same self assured smirk on her face, "indeed you are correct. Over the course of several months, I bided my time, letting my power from all the love I'd collected grow and sending that love back to my hive every so often.

"I learned everything I could about Equestria's strengths and weaknesses. I got close to the Princesses and twisted their thoughts by degrees; slowly turning them against all possible threats to my plans... threats like the ones you, your friends, and the Elements of Harmony posed."

The bottom fell out of Twilight's stomach and her face grew pale.

Her mind ran through each and every memory she had of Princess Celestia after the wedding, and with a growing sense of horror she realized that something had been off. While she'd acted the same on the surface, Twilight remembered feeling like there was less depth to the emotion the Princess showed whenever they spoke.

She'd chalked it up to her own imagination in the end, but she couldn't deny that by the time the Crystal Empire incident had happened, Celestia had grown much more distant. Twilight hadn't believed it, she didn't want to believe it, and when she'd been sent off to the Crystal Empire—when she'd gone down those steps, when she'd activated that accursed door with dark magic...

Twilight blinked.

She couldn't remember how she'd gotten past that trap. One moment, she was standing before the door, casting dark magic in an attempt to bypass it, and the next, she and Spike were racing up the nearly endless stairway in order to get to the Crystal Heart. There was something there at the back of her mind, but she couldn't quite grasp onto it.

The more she thought about it, the worse her anxiety grew, making her think that whatever happened may have best been left in the dark, as much as she wanted to know. New suspicions began to surface then; suspicions involving Chrysalis and the Crystal Empire.

Suspicions that Chrysalis was all too eager to confirm.

"Originally I'd planned to just have Celestia and Luna dispose of you and the Elements of Harmony, but at the time I had no way of doing so discreetly without causing a panic," Chrysalis continued before glancing in Discord's direction, "that is... until a little voice whispered in my ear one day."

Twilight furrowed her brow and followed Chrysalis's gaze to Discord. The draconequus looked between the two for a moment before frowning in bemusement.

"I don't know what the two of you are looking at me for," he said, letting a large amount of popcorn spill from his bag as he crossed his arms and raised a brow, "I'll have you know I had no part to play in this little tragedy."

Chrysalis stared at him for a moment longer before returning her attention to Twilight. Twilight however, continued to watch Discord with a contemplative frown even as Chrysalis spoke again.

"One day, as I was passing through the Royal Gardens, a voice called out to me—"

"It was Discord's voice, from when he was still a statue in the Gardens," Twilight cut in, her tone low and thoughtful as she slowly put the pieces together, "together you two made some kind of plan that would end up with him freed from his prison and my friends and I out of the picture."

She turned back to Chrysalis, her face a mask of calm, but her hooves trembling with barely suppressed emotion.

"He was the one that told you about the Crystal Empire and Sombra, wasn't he?" she asked quietly, her eyes never leaving Chrysalis's own, "I wouldn't put it past Discord to have known about the Empire's return beforehoof, and I'm right, aren't I? He knew about it, he told you about it, and you two made a plan to set me up and... and... Spike..."

Twilight trailed off, unable to continue as her mind replayed that horrible event.

"I guess you're not quite that stupid after all," Chrysalis pouted, "but yes, It was Discord that spoke to me. He told me of the rise of the Crystal Empire and Sombra's return. At first I was wary of the creature, but he can be... quite a persuasive character," she smiled giddily, "with his insight and the knowledge I'd obtained of you and your friends, we made a plan, and oh what a brilliant plan it turned out to be!"

Twilight said nothing in response, letting Chrysalis talk while the events played out in her head.

"When the time came, I disguised myself, boarded the train, and followed you all into the Crystal Empire," she chuckled again in amusement, "none of you had any qualms about Fluttershy dragging her little white rodent along for the ride, and why would you? The rabbit is a little demon, but that sniveling coward loves it to death anyway," she shrugged, "not that I was complaining, more love for me to feed on is never a bad thing after all."

"You disguised yourself as Angel Bunny," Twilight said almost absently, "rabbits thrive in cold weather and we all trusted Fluttershy to keep him safe, so none of us were against it. And since you already had Shining and Cadence under control, there was no need to worry about them getting suspicious either."

"Exactly," Chrysalis confirmed, "it all worked out splendidly," she grimaced in displeasure, "well... until that little mental break of yours."

Twilight, whose gaze had idly wandered to a point in the distance, snapped her eyes back to Chrysalis.

"Mental break?" she asked, sitting up a bit straighter, "what do you mean 'mental break'? I don't remember that... happening..." she paused and slumped in her seat as the realization struck her like a hoof to the face, "...the door beneath the throne room. I... I don't remember, but... something happened with that door, and you made me forget."

"The door was a trap set by Sombra," Chrysalis explained, her expression oddly grim, "it was meant to show you your worst fears. While I was still disguised as the rabbit, I followed you down that staircase and to the door. I saw you activate it, and I don't know what you saw, but whatever it was broke you—perhaps more completely than I ever could."

The two stared silently at each other, both ignoring Discord's constant giggling in the background.

"You ponies are fragile things," Chrysalis said after a minute, "you're all weak willed when it counts and wear your emotions too openly, but you? You have some very powerful insecurities, Twilight Sparkle. Your despair made me physically ill. Me, the Queen of the Changelings," she eyed Twilight, looking almost impressed, "not even what happened next compared to the trauma that door put you through. I admit I'm honestly rather curious as to what you could've possibly seen."

Twilight didn't know what to say to that. She didn't remember what happened below the throne room, and if Chrysalis was to be believed, that was most certainly for the best. The dark implications alone made her heart beat a little faster and the skin crawl beneath her fur.

"There was no way I could leave you like that," Chrysalis continued, "not then at least, it wasn't time yet. For the sake of the plan, and my own health, I wiped the last few moments from your mind. The drakeling caught me in the act, but subduing him was simple enough, and with that, I sent the two of you on your way."

She sat back in her chair, closed her eyes and let out a deep sigh of satisfaction. She opened her eyes once more and grinned at Twilight—grinning wider still at the dull resigned look in her eyes as she stared back.

"I'll be completely honest with you, I had my doubts about this plan," Chrysalis mused, "it had by far the most risk of failing out of anything I'd done. There were too many variables, too many things that could have gone wrong if I'd acted too quickly or hesitated."

"Many times I thought of simply waiting until you all got back to Equestria and concocting another, safer scheme, but that was before I saw what a wreck you'd become in front of that doorway," she leaned forward again and tapped a hoof on the table, "this—"

With a loud poof, Chrysalis suddenly vanished in a puff of smoke, her empty seat taken up instead by an impatient looking Discord. It all happened in an instant, leaving Twilight to fumble with her emotions for a moment. Eventually she settled on anger, as it was the least painful emotion to deal with at the moment.

"I love dramatic monologues as much as the next guy, but that was getting to be a bit much for me, so I cut it short," Discord said, ignoring Twilight's glare, "you don't mind if I summarize the rest, do you? Not that there's much left that you don't already know."

Without waiting for Twilight's reply, Discord snapped his talons and the two were once again back in his cottage. He snapped his talons again and an old fashioned slide projector appeared in the middle of the room, complete with a large screen placed on the wall.

"You see, Chrissy's role in the Crystal Empire was simple," he began as he slithered over to the projector, "being the cute and cuddly empath that she was, Chrysalis knew what made all of you tick, and was supposed to use that to render you emotionally vulnerable," his paw hovered teasingly over the projector and he turned to Twilight with a grin, "I'm sure you can guess how she accomplished that?"

Twilight didn't have to guess; now that everything had been laid out before her, a few things she found odd about that day began to make sense. She'd felt inexplicably weaker as she climbed the tower up to where the Crystal Heart lay—as though all the energy had been drained out of her.

She now realized that Chrysalis had most likely done more than erase her memory of whatever had happened with the door. She'd barely had enough magical strength to break free of Sombra's other trap around the Crystal Heart's pedestal. She had escaped just in time to see Spike slip off of one of the dark crystal spires, and though she tried to catch her assistant, her horn did nothing but spark uselessly.

The memory was all too clear—as clear the day it happened.

She was left with nothing; forced to watch helplessly as Spike fell with the Crystal Heart. All she could do was scream out his name before he was impaled on a dark magic crystal Sombra had conjured.

The shock of what she'd witnessed was enough to sap the last of her energy and she blacked out, but not before she caught a glimpse of Cadence and her brother, both as stoic and impassive as statues on the balcony far below her. Back then she wasn't sure if she'd imagined it, and they were just as distraught as you'd expect once everything was said and done.

But no, she hadn't imagined it at all. They'd watched Spike fall; they'd stood by and did nothing about it because they couldn't. They were in a perfect position to save Spike when Twilight herself couldn't but because of Chrysalis's meddling, they did nothing. Sure they were weakened, but they could've come up with something, some kind of plan to save Spike.

Twilight had blacked out, but the Crystal Heart had still been retrieved by her friends, Cadence and her brother. Sombra had still been defeated. If that had happened, why couldn't they save Spike?

Why did he have to die when everypony else got to survive to see the Crystal Empire free of Sombra's reign? Why was Twilight still alive when she couldn't do anything to help? When she didn't do anything to help? None of them did. They all could've done something and not a one of them. Not her friends, not her family, not the Princesses, not—

"No, it wasn't their fault... it wasn't my fault," Twilight muttered, desperately trying and failing to convince herself, "it was Chrysalis. She got to them first... twisted their minds... controlled them..."

"Ah, you're doing it again," came an inappropriately jovial voice. There was a loud snap and just like that, the dark fog over Twilight's mind vanished. She blinked in confusion before looking up to see a smiling draconequus standing over her, "you're spiraling again, and we can't have that, can we? Come on, try to pay attention now."

Twilight yelped in surprise as her chair slid away from the table of it's own volition and snapped to an abrupt stop before the large screen—the sudden stop nearly throwing her off the seat. As she regained her bearings, Discord poofed into existence behind the projector and flipped it on. There was a flash of light and a faded image of a despairing lavender mare and a lifeless bloody drakeling surrounded by five other equally despairing mares appeared on the blank white screen.

Twilight sucked in a sharp breath, snapped her eyes shut and shuddered violently her seat. She broke out in a cold sweat and it took every ounce of her will not to empty her stomach right then and there.

"Whoops, perhaps that wasn't the best one to start with," Discord muttered, quickly swapping out the picture for another, "ah, here we go!"

It took a long moment, but Twilight finally opened one eye, then both when she saw that the next picture was far less distressing. On the screen was an image of a pony shrouded in a dark cloak standing before a familiar statue in the Royal Gardens of Canterlot.

"I'm sure you remember this, don't you?" Discord commented from behind the projector, "now I wonder who this naughty little filly could be, hm?"

"Enough, Discord!" Twilight growled, rounding on the chaotic being in question, "I get it, alright? Chrysalis succeeded in breaking me down, and not too long after that, I started to get strange ideas I normally wouldn't have—not even..." her breath hitched slightly, "not even in the face of what happened to Spike."

Twilight took a few calming breaths and, with titanic effort on her part, pushed back the memories of the Crystal Empire. After a few more seconds she continued on in a more measured tone, completely ignoring the image behind her.

"I started getting ideas about bringing the dead back to life, and I ignored them at first, but they were persistent," she frowned deeply, "it started to sound more and more like a good idea, and I bet that's exactly what the Discord of my Equestria was trying to accomplish."

"Spoil all my fun, why don't you?" Discord huffed, poofing away the projector and screen and folding his arms in a childish pout, "very well then. When that whole debacle in the Crystal Empire took place, the positive and negative emotions mixed together in a mass of chaotic energy large enough to crack the seal holding that Discord.

"Some of his power leaked out and he was able to use that to influence your thoughts slightly," he smirked, "the bug queen isn't the only one with crazy mind control magic, and my spells are far more potent... well, when most of my magic isn't sealed with me in stone anyway."

"Get to the point, Discord," Twilight sighed, slouching in her chair. She wasn't sure if the Chrysalis she talked to had been real or not, but she wouldn't have been surprised if the changeling managed to suck away some of her emotions during their chat. She certainly felt drained emotionally, "I've had enough beating around the bush. Just tell me what you want to tell me so I can get back to Salvatore before it's too late."

Discord harrumphed, but shrugged all the same.

"It's probably already too late, or maybe not. Don't really know, time is weird here," he summoned a cozy looking armchair directly across from Twilight and flopped down into it with a heavy sigh, "so as I was saying, your Discord was the one that planted the idea in your head, and another idea that he could give you what you wanted.

"It was like a seed that grew the more you dwelled on Spike and how you could bring him back. Eventually you took a little midnight stroll into the Royal Gardens for a secret rendezvous with a certain handsome draconequus and the rest as they say, is history. Oh, and if you're wondering about what Queeny was up to during that time, she was hanging out with Sunbutt, plotting all sorts of delicious schemes and punishments just for you and the other Elements."

"So that's it then," Twilight replied after a long pause. She groaned and rubbed at her temples, "that was her grand plan to get rid of me and my friends, and she used Celestia and Luna to do it."

"Yup, pretty wacky plan if you ask me," Discord mused, "a bit convoluted sure... but what brilliant evil plan isn't? The important thing was that it worked, and it worked well. Your friends are gone, your family and the Princesses abandoned you, your Discord is free to war with Chrysalis over who gets to rule Equestria with countless ponies caught in the middle."

"Wait, what?!" Twilight cried, suddenly very awake and alert, "is that what's happening outside the barrier?"

"Oh you didn't know?" Discord replied in mock surprise, "it's just terrible! Equestria is an absolute mess right now, and the rest of that world isn't too far behind really. Lots of chaos," he frowned, "...and not the good clean fun kind either. Not anymore," he sighed again at Twilight's stricken look, "everyone's more or less forgotten you and your friends even existed, it's that bad. I told you it was too late to save your Equestria and I meant it. There's no one and nothing left to stop your Discord or Chrysalis now, so I'm only going to say this one more time..."

He leaned forward, his jaw set and his face grim. His mismatched red and yellow eyes pierced Twilight's own from beneath his bushy white brows. Not once breaking eye contact, he raised a talon and snapped it. In an instant the cottage fell away; the world spun and twisted and folded in on itself. Colors blurred together in a mess of blacks, purples, greens, blues and reds.

The only constant was Discord, Twilight, and the chairs they sat on—Twilight herself feeling more and more ill from terrible vertigo and general sensory overload. Then all at once, the world snapped back into focus and Twilight immediately wished it hadn't as she looked around her.

They'd forgone the madness of Discord's Chaos Realm for an entirely different madness altogether. Twilight didn't know where she was or what was going on, but the sights, the sounds, everything was wrong. The sky was bright green, clouds that were supposed to be white and fluffy were charred black with literal flames and the terrain never stayed the same for long.

Cottages, shops, and other buildings slid around on the ground and drifted lazily in the air, barely recognizable as they constantly stretched and molded into fantastical and nonsensical shapes. In some areas it was impossible to tell where the ground itself ended and the sky began.

Then there were the creatures.

Ponies galloped and flew every which way some of them with armor and weapons, some not but all of them terrified without a doubt. Their eyes bulged and rolled with fear. Endless panicked and agonized screaming assaulted Twilight's ears from every direction, and the sound of rending flesh made her stomach turn.

They had every reason to run as far as Twilight could see, because those that weren't running were being hunted down, torn to shreds and devoured alive by massive black beasts. They wore feral, snarling expressions across their vaguely equine faces. Most quickly shuffled along on long, oddly bent legs, easily catching up to their would be prey with only a few strides.

Some were the size of houses but couldn't fly with their tiny shriveled insectile wings, and others were smaller, bearing down on fleeing pegasi through the air with their thin sleek bodies and rapidly buzzing, perfectly working wings. All of them chittered and screeched mindlessly, their chitinous forms were riddled with holes, and they bit and tore into ponies with gaping mouths full of long, ugly, serrated knives that might've once been teeth.

There were hundreds of them—thousands, and the worst part was that Twilight recognized them vaguely. She remembered the black, hole ridden chitin, the gnarled bug like wings, and the filmy blue eyes. These things, whatever they were now, had once been changelings.

Had it not been for the ponies, Twilight wouldn't have recognized this place as Equestria... her Equestria. It had to be, or else why would Discord show her such a thing? Somewhere in the back of her mind, Twilight knew Discord had been right, and it seemed he'd wanted to hammer the point home.

This was nothing like what'd she'd seen past the barrier. It had been so calm, so quiet, so... empty. Was this all fake or had the quiet world beyond her bubble been an illusion this whole time? Twilight didn't know, but what she was certain of was that she didn't want to see anymore.

Discord snapped his talons and the scenery changed.

Suddenly they were floating above a poisonous looking bog full of ravenous changeling beasts, dying ponies, and even a few struggling griffons. Another snap and they were in a ruined city, large swathes of the streets broken up by pools of magma and the countless bodies of ponies and changelings.

Yet another snap and they were in a forest of whimsical looking trees that impaled unsuspecting victims with sharp branches, the victims in question ranging from changelings to ponies to griffons and even the elusive race of deers that lived in some of the forests around Equestria. One last snap and Twilight was floating over what remained of Canterlot.

The castle had crumbled at the bottom of Mount Canterhorn and the rest of the city was in shambles. Ponies and changelings alike tried to escape the slimy tentacles of titanic unseen horrors that snatched up any living creature that got too close and dragged them screaming into the black abyss of the many pits scattered about.

Just when Twilight thought she couldn't take anymore; just when she was about to scream and cry and beg Discord to stop, she heard another loud snap and all was quiet once again. With a start, she realized the horrible vision or whatever that had been, had only lasted a few moments, and she was once more back in Discord's cottage.

She sat safe and sound in her chair across from Discord, who held her gaze with a steely look. She sat visibly shaken and silently crying in that chair as Discord spoke with brutal finality.

"...give up on your world and let it die, Twilight Sparkle. In my opinion, the Princesses and Chrysalis did you a favor by sticking you and your friends in that bubble—monstrous assistant or no, but that's still no way to live," he leaned back in his armchair and gave Twilight a level look, "I actually brought you here to offer you a way out of that nightmare, so I suggest you forget about your Equestria and hear what I have to say."

I think this is the most exposition I've ever shoved into one chapter, for any of my stories. I'd rather not have to exposit that much all at once again if I can help it, this chapter was kind of draining.

In any case, due to the length and my own mental exhaustion, the other half I meant to put in is being pushed back to the next chapter.