https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KTHL9M_Cv4

Fear had told his family everything and the reactions had common themes.

Saway had been surprised, solemn, then violent. Needling Fear to get his act in gear and take Breiker out. Realizing what a threat she was to everything. Saway demanded that Fear become the soldier he was always meant to be and remove her from existence, to tear away her very being from everything and ruin her. The mare was scared, terrified even. Down to the core of her heart she felt fear the likes of which she'd never experienced. Sure she had once believed herself the destroyer of everything but nowadays she knew... she knew better. She was afraid to lose it all, to finally die. And even if she'd still be alive, she did not regret where she came from, and where she was. She did not regret what she had, and therefore she supported Fear with all her heart.

Luna was in shock, another pony lost from her powerlessness. She was shaky and pale, trying to come up with an excuse as to why it wasn't her fault, but she knew in essence it was. It was because she had not been the Princess she had set out to be. Luna wondered where her dearest sister was. Why had she died? Why had she abandoned Luna? Just like Saway, Luna may have had great sorrow, and at one time great loneliness, but she didn't want to lose everything she'd experienced. She didn't want it to be null and void. There were always moments you wanted it all to just end, moments where emotions were at their high point. But when you calmed down you realized how important your existence was. Even if no one ever watched it, ever learned from it, was ever inspired by it, it still meant something to you. And somehow she knew it would always mean something to her.

Amelio knew that well enough. That connections lasted beyond time and space. She had spoken to Neur once before, though she'd never admitted the encounter with anypony because she didn't want them to think she was crazy. Still, learning about Freiya's sacrifice was... perturbing. And exhausting. What was going to happen to Fear? That one question rang in her mind like a holy bell, the divine query becoming her everything as she hid in her safe space, in her room of recovery, within the treasure room. It was probably a self-fulfilling prophecy, but Amelio couldn't help but lack faith in her brother. He was young, hesitant, and weak. Sure maybe he could take on a king, but how could he ever take on what had essentially become a goddess without preparation? He couldn't even take on an alicorn at full power. Amelio shuddered from head to hoof, like a tremor was rumbling through every cell in her body, calling out to the powers that be for something, anything.

Nothing responded to her. But Amelio felt eyes on her. Less on her, more on her destiny. As if something with a predatory gaze stared deep into her.

Nyx had been beside himself, though it didn't show. He just stepped in place a few times, lifted a hoof, wiped his brow, and closed his eyes. Preparing himself for the end of everything, and the birth of something new. The stallion wasn't sure he wanted to forget everything he'd ever been through, to be severed from it. No that’s not true; he knew inherently he didn’t, but he wasn't sure he had a choice in the matter anymore. This threat had gone unchecked for too long. What could possibly fight against it? This gathering force of nature? A force of change? No. Fear and Amelio were explicit forces of change, he was an explicit form of change (his cutiemark doubled as a ripple), and Discord was especially a force of change, he reminded himself. This Linebreiker was a force of entropy, the death of death. But nothing of past nor future would remain. That made him... sad.

Sim merely pursed his lips and looked off to the side. His heart pounded in his chest like it was hammering in a nail, about to rip apart from the force. Sim's gut clenched up and he tried to hold on tight to anything and everything. Suddenly he knew what his purpose was, or at least one of his purposes. He had spoken with Storm many times about the Seer's Eye, during some of the happiest moments of his life, aside from when his foals had been born. He knew that one of his iterations would have become the one to fulfill this task, whatever it was. The one that would have been forced to confront something so maniacal as Linebreiker. It chilled him to the bone marrow, leaving him wiping the cold sweat from his brow. He'd have to fight harder than he ever had before. He was confident in himself. After all, he'd saved some ponies and changelings in Chicoltgo. If he could do that, surely he could do anything? It was a tentative hope.

Faith was numbed, all the way down into her nerves. It felt like every muscle in her body had fallen asleep, and so had her consciousness. She was so done with everything, so afraid. There was too much emotion from Fear's explanation that she didn't know what life held in store for her. She'd spent all her life building up a resume of actions, and now due to one megalomaniacal pony all that was going to go to waste? No, she wouldn't allow it. She was going to push onward and remember everything anyway. She wouldn't let it all go to waste, she wouldn't let it all just... stop mattering. Because it was supposed to have meaning. Faith was here with the slayer of a science experiment, the destroyer of a king. How could she possibly lose when she had her hero right beside her the entire way? He was a conduit of peace and prosperity, even if he was still too young to inspire everything around him. She knew Fear had potential, and she wouldn't give up as long as he was here.

Gentler whistled long and low, unsure of what to make of any of this. It struck him, leaving him trembling from the sheer enormity of what he was up against. Suddenly the wasteland itself didn't seem like it was what he was supposed to be saving with his life. Now it just seemed like he was meant to be saving past and future? Sure if there was no past the wasteland would have never come to be, and something better could replace their current selves. But there was no... relevance to it. It wouldn't mean anything. How could he live with himself knowing he hadn't achieved his goals, and was simply living on someone else's efforts? The answer was: in Breiker's world he could. But that didn't mean he had to live with it right now. He would rebel.

Upon arriving at Stable 47, everything blurred for Fear. Suddenly no one was excited about visiting a real life stable for once in their lives. Sim wasn't concerned about living it up. Gentler wasn't concerned about learning more, and Faith wasn't concerned about preaching. The only thing Fear could focus on was the cold, still body laying in front of the open entrance to the Stable.

It infuriated the colt. Fear's jaw snapped shut.

It enraged him beyond belief. His brow furrowed, entire face creasing in animosity, teeth gnashing.

Acidic anger bubbled up from the depths of his being, burning through his entire body like a volcano, erupting into his brain and making everything tingle, especially his hooves. He stomped on the ground repeatedly, charging over to the lifeless body of Freiya Song, his grandmother. Dead Seer’s Eye around her neck. Why could Fear not feel the slightest bit of magic dwelling in it? Was it because Grandma used it in a last ditch attempt to get him out of there in a hurry? Had Beiker taken the power from it? Every memory popped into his head at once and fizzled. It hurt, it hurt so much. He was losing everything, all to a half sister. Fear nudged Freiya with his muzzle, trying to get her to move a lot like Simba trying to wake up his dead father. It was just as useless. Freiya's vibrant lime green eyes gazed dully, vacantly at the wall as she was pushed and prodded.

Fear was hurt, afraid he'd never hear Freiya's mellifluous voice again, that he'd never experience the joys of living, nor the miseries. That everything he'd overcome would be in vain, for naught, leaving him in the dust with nothing but the present. The past and future mattered, damnit. “I'm gonna murder the shit out of that Celestia-forsaken bitch!” Fear growled out, his eyes flickering between red, violet, and blue. “I'm gonna stick my hoof so far up her ass I can grab her heart and yank it out!” The colt was livid as ever, his brows slanting downward, eyes sharpened to points.

Sim put a hoof on Fear's shoulder, and the colt's eyes stopped on sapphire. “The next leap will be the leap home.” The confidence in his voice invigorated Fear, but it wasn't enough. They had to actually do it, and make it permanent.

Fear was going to make sure that no erasure of the past, nor future, would ever make Linebreiker come back from the dead once he was through with her. He was going to obliterate the very concept of what made disastrous Linebreikers who they were. Everyone supported him. Dim Nova and others might be against him, but he'd fight them too. Because others were counting on him. Breiker was going too far with her ideals! She was shattering everyone indiscriminately.

With saddlebags on his back, the colt charged into the stable. The others followed.

It took a fretful hour of searching for something, anything that would help them find a way to put an end to this threat, to the point they were all becoming worn out from stress, everyone except for Fear at least. He knew, just knew there would be something. And he wasn't giving up until he found it. And they found it in the Overmare's office, which was a wreck. It looked like a typhoon had hit it. It was depressing, but Fear couldn't focus on that right now. All he could concentrate on was the swirling portal in front of him that made his heart leap into his throat. This was it. He sensed both Breiker and... himself? On the other side of that portal. It would take him there, to where everything mattered. Fear didn't hesitate in this case, lunging into the portal.

The others looked at each other worriedly, with tense expressions all around, not knowing what to expect, figuring it was a trap, but they had no other options. They dove in after the colt.

==========================================================================================

The group was separated. It was indeed a trap. After all, Breiker might've been a villain to the point of making sure she had one final showdown with her destined enemies, but why would she be so sure of herself she didn't craft something with her expectations?

Gentler was the first to fall into place, glancing around wildly and positioning himself for a fight, fists in the air, legs parted, his left side facing any who'd come at him, guarding his chest and keeping his legs loose so they couldn't be easily attacked. The Abyssinian jumped back like a frightened cat when everything swirled around him, taking another shape, the shape of his home. It was a place full of almost patronizingly cattish structures, with buildings formed out of what were essentially scratching posts, or at least they had the shape of them, with spiraling architecture and towers that belonged to a domesticated feline. It was home alright, and... Gentler recognized some of the Abyssinians traveling along the streets. Something about it felt... familiar. He rushed toward one of them, putting his paws on the shoulders. The silver tabby looked surprised to see him, nearly jumping out of his skin.

“Gentler!? What are you doing back? How'd you get back?”

“Silken, why are you here!?”

“Hey I asked first!” The other cat looked a little annoyed. “What are you doing back in Abyssinia?”

“I don't... I don't know.” Gentler looked around. “I shouldn't be here. I went through a portal and I just... popped out here?”

“Portal? What are you talking about.” Silken looked over Gentler's shoulder, looking for whatever he could be talking about, the golden streets shimmering in the sun. The sky was clear. Gentler hadn't seen it for so long. It even smelled like Abyssinia. “Well, at any rate, welcome home. You should go see the king and let him know you're back.” Silken pointed toward the palace in the distance.

Gentler was at a loss for words, standing limply in the middle of the road with jaw agape.

“Here, you don't look like you're in any position to be walking on your own, let me help you.” The silver tabby put a paw on Gentler's shoulder and guided him toward the palace. “So what've you been up to anyway? What brings you back?”

A debilitating sense of deja vu settled over Gentler. Something about this seemed very familiar. It was like he was experiencing something that had already happened. It was terrifying, and suddenly he knew where this was going. “I don't...” Gentler's hackles rose beneath his cloak and tattered shirt. “I was chasing this pony named Linebreiker and I ended up here. I shouldn't be here! I should be in Stable 47!”

“Relax Gentler, calm down! I don't know what you're doing here but I'm sure everything's fine.”

“Everything's not fine!” Everything about this felt too real to be real, but something about it told him it was more real than anything he'd ever experienced. He was somewhere else. Sometime else. The tom began hyperventilating, his chest rising and falling at an alarming rate, breathing heavily, rapidly, his paws feeling like static was tickling them. But despite it he couldn't bear to push Silken away. He needed something, anything with him right now. Everything was slowly clicking into place. Fear had told him about the exoverse, how it showed things that could happen, that might happen, that would happen if you didn't change it.

It felt like an icicle was trailing down Gentler's spine at the realization, as if a light switch was flicked on. Why was he being shown this? His jaw dipped as he saw something in the distance. It was right on time, something off. It was a zebra, black and white stripes and all with a pair of plain saddlebags trotting toward the palace. It wasn't totally abnormal to see a zebra in Abyssinia, but something about it was more than suspicious.

Gentler ran as fast as he could to catch up. Silken followed him, shouting after him. “Hey! What's going on!? What's gotten into you Gentler!?”

The traveling Abyssinian reached out a hand. “Stop that zebra! No!” Despair gripped his heart. In that saddlebag, it couldn't be. That bulge. It was as if the nightmare was just coming to him, everything falling apart. This was something that would happen if he didn't stop it.

The zebra glanced back, a wild look in his onyx eyes. Panic pushed into his mind and he reached toward his saddlebags.

“No! Stop!” Terror gripped Gentler's soul. His home!

The zebra pulled out a green balefire bomb, complete with glowing core. With one fell swoop he lifted it up. It wasn't the proper place but now was as good a time as any. He slammed it down into the floor. The energy was released. It was like a sun going off in front of Gentler. Buildings and citizens around the cat were vaporized.

Gentler lifted his hands up to shield his body from the hellfire, he felt the heat even though it was so far away. The blinding light. As everything was torn away from him, his body was whisked away, as was, in that moment of frailty, his past and future. He couldn't hold onto it.

==========================================================================================

Faith was back in Friendship City, everything... seeming normal. She was already too on edge, especially when she realized Fear was no longer with her. Not knowing what was going on, but feeling the very real soil beneath her hooves, she traipsed toward the entrance at the base of the emerald pony statue that rose up into the air, situated on a base that had a whole city built into it. It was unusual being back on the island all over again. No one seemed to realize she was there, hardly anyone recognized her, they were all too busy with their own lives. But Faith knew it was still her hometown.

Maybe she should visit the orphanage? The thoughts came simply like a lubricated machine. She was susceptible to the influence. It hardly seemed strange to be back home all over again. What was she doing? Something about a dangerous mare...

As Faith trot, she heard a sound above her, and looked up into the sky. The cloud cover wasn't parting, but something was certainly bulging out from under it. An ebony bulkhead, something that looked like a giant battleship with numerous propellers on the back of it holding it aloft. It hummed as it lowered to the ground. Other ponies around Faith stopped what they were doing to look up, especially the guards protecting the entrance to the city. The first thing Faith heard was a shout.

“The Enclave are here! They sent a Raptor!”

Faith glanced with a dumbstruck expression, and that's when the chaos started. Energy weapons trained on the city fired swiftly upon it. They were all perfectly aimed. It only took three or four bolts of energy before they hit their target with a vengeance. First to go was the bridge, breaking apart into a million metal shreds, explosions sounding off everywhere incessantly, deafening Faith and leaving her in a numb panic. Her face creased as she looked around, seeing ponies all around her turning into ash, pieces of settlement turning into wreckage, and the statue city being reduced to rubble without mercy.

As Faith's stomach fell out from her, the weakness in her heart was born to the surface as energy lasers peppered the area around her, sizzling the earth and leaving it charred. Her body was yanked out of the timeline, and her past and future were pulled out from her head leaving her more a doll than a real pony.

==========================================================================================

Sim was just as victimized. While it was similar to the others, it was more complex, seeing the deaths of all he loved, everyone he cared about falling from him like sand through fingers. He couldn't hold onto anything no matter how hard he tried, and the wasteland was falling apart around him. The zebras had come back to finish the job they'd failed at, warlords taking over the wastes in a matter of years, and the Enclave, fearing eventual retribution, used their cloudships to blast the striped menace from the face of Equus. Going on to war with the zebra nations, leaving not even the innocent zebras alive.

Nothing was left. And neither was Sim's hope. Seeing a potentiality play out in front of him he no longer knew what was real and what was just illusion, he couldn't tell what was going to happen and what wasn't. He couldn't tell if he was being shown the future or some possibility that was farther from him than Storm was in death. Not that it mattered, because Sim's past and future were scrubbed from the stallion as easily as stealing an apple from an orchard. It didn't matter any way if this was his destination, what did he have to fight for if he couldn't put a stop to something like this?

==========================================================================================

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9etGBYMYsI

BAM!

BOOM!

CRACK!

Spearheads of thunder and lightning erupted from the ground surrounding Blue Fear, pumping into the air and lancing outward like arcing webs, electricity spanning like an umbrella, splinters and crumbling crags of asphalt flying into the air and falling down everywhere, dust made of consciousness flitting about and whirling around. The colt was dodging erratically, following the conductor's baton that was Red Fear's, the stallion's intent.

Orbs of flame fired from the stallion's horn, searing through the air and cooking the void until it was simmering, exploding against the cement and other materials, barraging against walls of concrete and rebar, magic in its primest form unleashed, elemental energies fluctuating as it was pulled from timelines all around Red Fear, an arsenal of ether baring against Blue Fear.

“Get fucked you stupid adult me!”

“Just die!” Red Fear cried out.

Blue Fear's head was ringing from the multitude of explosions, a cascade of water gushing out of Red Fear's horn and blasting like a pressure hose at the ground, following his swerving movements. The colt was using every bit of training, everything from the calisthenics with Chirp to the dancing practice with Mirage to waltz around the city as road was ripped apart behind him.

Breiker might have told the colt that she only brought one of him with her because overkill wasn't graceful or elegant, and she hardly wanted to kill the colt, just weaken, but right now Blue Fear wasn't sure his alternate self agreed with any of those sentiments.

Red Fear was clearly missing something integral, and had something unusual in its place. He had an obsession for Breiker that Blue Fear could feel leaking off of him into the air. He could see it in those crimson eyes – what had he been through? Was this what it was like to look at himself? All scarred inside and out? Blue Fear hardly wanted to kill himself and that extended to other versions of himself. He was hesitating as he danced around the field, avoiding all sorts of elemental attacks, from ice shards that plunged into the streets and then melted immediately into amorphous water that flooded after him to try and grab and freeze around him, all the way to the very earth upheaving under him and trying to crush him.

Anyone without empathy would have been dead long ago. Blue Fear's mind was frizzy with sensory input, following along and trying to just survive the entire time. During it he'd been leeching off of the stallion's love, trying to tire him out, but it was barely doing anything. It was like the stallion wasn't powering himself with love, but something far more abrasive and slimy. Obsession.

Blue Fear glanced behind him as the ground broke apart, pulling open like a canyon. He jumped to the side as he reflected on his statement that if he was really predestined to come here then everything would be easy, he would have already won, and not only that but there'd be other hims there to help! He just happened to be here. Maybe one of him was guided, sure, but it was his choice to fight back.

And right now he didn't want to fight back. He couldn't kill himself.

But Red Fear certainly wanted to murder him.

Blue Fear had wanted to kill Breiker, but now he was reluctant. After killing so many creatures before, why was he finding it hard to do so now? Finding it hard to discover that murderlust? He had to awaken it again. He had to pull on it. It was in him. He could do it. Blue Fear dodged another lightning bolt that charged up out of the ground with speed he couldn't follow, the side of his body sizzling, a few furs catching alight and burning the flesh from the proximity, the rest of his fur standing on end from the static. The colt wasn't yet breathing hard thanks to his endurance training with Chirp and Faith, but he knew that'd be changing soon if he didn't do anything.

The next attack was a burst of air pressure that gust out of Red Fear's body like a violent hurricane, slashes of wind lancing through the atmosphere and busting against every single little thing. Blue Fear tried to take cover behind a wagon, but both were quickly lifted up into the air, the object and living creature rolling and tumbling through the sky as the colt's legs flailed under him, eyes wide. His saddlebags nearly slipped off his body but Fear reached out with his telekinesis and yanked them against him, holding them there. Reacting on instinct he melted his body and gear into the shadows, attaching himself to the underside of the wagon that was thrown across the road, crashing into the ground, wooden parts breaking off, axles going flying, the entire caravan skidding along the ground and popping into the air, spinning and twisting as more wreckage was sent careening into buildings. Eventually the wagon bashed against a structure at the end of an intersection and Fear waited for everything to go still before popping out, completely unharmed but cringing from the sound of chaos surrounding him.

Blue Fear had to do something. He looked deep inside of himself, pulling on the monster within with a roar, his face darkening as everything was shrouded in a miasmic acrimony. Red Fear entered it and was instantly shaken, hesitating as he trembled in the air, floating via thought alone, a technique taught to him by Breiker. Blue Fear yanked his sword out from the sheathe on his saddlebags, the lunar blade shimmering in what little light there was being given off by the various strings of time surrounding them. The colt charged toward the stallion, brandishing the sword at the ready. Adding onto the nightmare pressure as he grew closer, using every ounce of murderlust inside of him to paralyze Red Fear. Blue Fear hopped into the air, put a telekinetic platform under his hooves, and jumped again, leaping from magical construct to magical construct. It was far more efficient than levitating himself with magic, and it relied on his physical muscles as well as his thaumic gland.

The colt swung the sword for Red Fear's neck, who floated backwards when he'd finally gotten a hold of himself. He then leveled his horn at Blue Fear. The colt responded by dancing to the side with a pulse of telekinesis as a shotgun burst of shredding snowflakes fired out of his horn in an arc, melting as they got further away, and during his twirl brought his sword around, attempting to hack through Red Fear's limbs from the back.

Red Fear lifted up and tried to blow the colt away with another explosion of air pressure but Blue Fear reacted by latching onto the stallion's shadow, fusing to his body and coiling around him in his entirety, trying to strangle him. Red Fear countered by setting off a light elemental spell in his hooves, causing them to glow with white molten brightness, bringing it to his neck and trying to burn away the shadows.

Blue Fear retreated away, still fused with Red Fear's shadows, and tried to pump transformation magic into the stallion, attempting to create lethal lumps throughout his entire body, inside and out, wanting to use cancerous bulges to mess up his nervous system and interfere with his circulatory system.

Red Fear screamed and reacted on instinct, shunting transformation magic into his body, and then into Blue Fear to try and do the same to him.

Blue Fear unlatched from the stallion, popping off of his body in alarm and winding the sword around to chop off Red Fear's tail, the same tail which immediately flicked away and transformed into flames, a combination of morphing magic and elemental spell, forming into a whip of fire and striking out for Blue Fear, trying to crack against his fur and set him ablaze. Blue Fear attached himself to Red Fear's shadow again, before popping off the other side and swinging his sword around for Red Fear's neck.

Red Fear ducked, flowing into a forward somersault, his tail still a lashing incinerator, causing his entire body to become a roaring inferno wheel.

Blue Fear backed away, falling toward the ground, and pumped magic into the air, as much as he could spare, breathing heavily. Shadows surged around him, filling the air, coalescing into an orb surrounding the two Fears. Blue Fear hit the ground with an 'oof' and rolled onto his legs with a balletic flourish, the sword sweeping around him. Using the sword as a conduit, the colt crafted a light spell in his horn that glinted off of the blade and refracted into tiny dots everywhere around the abyss of darkness.

Starlight Shredder! Blue Fear screamed out in his mind, the incantation sending a surge of raw emotive energy flowing into his thaumic gland and pulsing outward from his horn. Immediately the pinpricks of light came to life, divebombing Red Fear from every angle, slashing through the air at him.

The streaks of light brightened as more magic was pumped into the spell, with Blue Fear letting out a scream as he borrowed the light from the timelines surrounding them in order to increase the size of each star. Red Fear let out a cry as a multitude of balls of fusion gas, tinier than a baseball, careened straight for him, slicing into his body and cutting into him. Red Fear struggled, trying to dodge them all.

But as Blue Fear screamed for vengeance, putting his all into the spell, even more pinpricks of light formed, the colt drawing from every single source of inspiration he could find, pumping emotions into his thaumic gland like there was no tomorrow, using every single iota of violence within him to power through it, magical miasma surrounding his body, the air taking on a hint of ozone.

Soon enough the stars were impacting with Red Fear's body, slamming into him and exploding on contact instead of melting away like snow. The stallion's body was exploding into showers of gore that rained down everywhere, getting swallowed up by the void of shadows drowning him.

Blue Fear gasped for air as he let the spell go, the void dispersing in an instant, Red Fear's remains falling through the air, tumbling around and slamming into the road, splattering on impact. A smile graced his lips, tilting his head into the air, puffing out his chest, his breath coming out in heaves.

“Bravo! Encore!” Breiker's voice sounded out from nearby, her clapping forehooves echoing in the air. “Very well done Fearei! I didn't think you had it in you to kill yourself.”

Fear huffed, shaking his head wildly and stomping toward the soaring Linebreiker. “Shut the fuck up you stupid bitch!” Fear snarled out with a wicked expression engraved into his face.

“No, no, I don't think I will, you deserve all the credit for taking down a version of yourself. Of course I never intended you to lose, but hey, whatever? You killed yourself! Congrats.” Breiker commended the tense colt.

“I said shut up! He wasn't me!”

“Oh, but of course he was, all yous are inherently you. I know you know that as well as I do. We both believe it in totality. Stop fooling yourself.”

Fear lunged forward, snapping his teeth at her. “Whatever! I won! And now I'm going to thresh your body apart and leave your head on a pike!”

“My my, what violence. You certainly went out of control didn't you little Fearei?”

Fear brought his sword to bare, holding it next to him as he rocked back and forth on his hooves, battle ready just like Gentler had taught him.

“Now now, little Fear. What kind of host would I be if I hadn't prepared a gift for you?”

“Gift?” Fear's pupils quivered at the insinuation Breiker had anything for him.

“Indeed. Come on out you three.” Breiker clopped her hooves together three times, like snapping fingers in order to call a waiter.

From buildings surrounding Fear came three figures, three figures the colt knew way too well. It was damaging just seeing them, his knees buckling under him, nearly collapsing onto his belly at the sight.

It was Sim, Faith, and Gentler. All staring at him with a vague, subtle hint of malice that was not lost on the colt.

Fear took a few steps back, every ounce of murderlust draining from him like the color in his face. “What...? What did you do!?” He demanded.

“Oh, nothing really. Just mix and matched some timelines to get a specific result.” Breiker stared at one of her forehooves with disinterest, eyes lidded. “You'd really like it honestly. It's very fun! Almost like cooking. It feels good to make a pony do whatever you want, even if it's only temporary.”

The colt's snarl left his face as he backed up further. With every step away he took, the three around him closed in.

“You can't run away Fear. Just accept your fate. You're mine now. Your pasts, your futures, everything about you belongs to me. It's futile to keep fighting.”

Fear rubbed his head violently, mussing up his mane more than it already was as he sat on his haunches. He wasn't going to give up. He couldn't give up. But he also couldn't kill them.

Faith hefted her weapon up, sitting back, and charging it up, a gentle 'vrr' filling the air as energy flowed into it from around her.

The colt knew then and there that it was his hesitation that caused this mess. He should have been searching for them, helping them. He'd played into Breiker's hooves. Fear's ears flattened against his skull as he cowered away from his family.

“Come on Fear, just die already. It's okay to die. It's like a little pinch and then everything goes away. That's kind of how it feels to have your past and future excised from you, or so I hear.” The chirpy melody in Breiker's voice was disconcerting.

“Like Tartarus I'd ever give you myself!” Fear charged at Breiker, intending to use his telekinetic platforms to get to her.

Unfortunately Gentler and Sim were also coming for him, with the stallion's carapace knife brandished and Gentler's gauntlets at the ready as they threatened to collide with him.

Equally unfortunately, Fear felt Faith's intent when it was nearly too late, as if she knew exactly what he'd do. The colt's face fell as he figured out who the mare was aiming at – his father.

Fear didn't think before acting, twisting to the side and lunging at his father, right in the way of the bolt of arcane energy that erupted from the tip of Faith's weapon, surging through the air like a knife through butter. It slammed into him, then shot through him, right through his barrel, creating a huge hole that couldn't be healed no matter what Fear did.

Breiker laughed. It started out as a sort of hiccup, before breaking into full blown guffawing. “Oh my dear Celestia you are such a fool! Fear! I never knew you had it in you! So this is the you that you're always going on about, the self-sacrificial lamb! You should've figured out long ago that those under my sway don't die! Without a past, without a future, how can you?”

Fear's mouth gasped and spasmed like a dying fish, his eyes wide and dull. He could feel organs missing, he felt so much lighter. Everything was dimming. It was a fast death, but not before his hope completely drained from him.

==========================================================================================

The next thing Fear knew, he was standing in the middle of another void, a much different one. This one completely bereft of every single living thing except...

His mother. Storm was standing in what he could only define as the center of something. She twisted around to see him, her vibrant lime green eyes lighting up upon seeing him. “Oh! My little Nightlight!” The snow white mare trot over to her son, pulling him into a hefty embrace that none could compare to. “Ohhh I missed you! I've seen you die, I've seen you live, I've seen you struggle, and I've seen you thrive. But I never thought I'd see you here, finally.”

Fear struggled, his eyes wide, trying to remember what was going on. The last thing he could recall was diving in the way of his father so he wouldn't be shot. Then he was here. “What is this place, Mom?” He was too numb to all of it, feeling like he was asleep, but more than ever before – his eyes heavy. It was like he was living in syrup. There was a sort of metaphysical humidity he couldn't get over. It felt thick and sticky.

“Oh honey. We're dead.”

Fear nodded singularly, disheartened. “Yeah, I thought so.”

“It's fine though. I'll be reincarnated soon! This me at least. It's this whole thing you see. Fate calls it the Ring of Fate. Really egotistical and arrogant I think, but that's just how he rolls. He was laughing when he told me.” Storm squeezed Fear, who looked around.

“Well, where is everyone else? Why am I only seeing you?”

“I don't know honestly, honey! I've seen lots of ponies, sort of. Pieces of them. Everyone ends up here eventually when their iterations reach the center of the circle of life. Everyone starts at a different distance from the middle, and we're all walking toward it, with pieces of us breaking off as we go, as if we're slowly disintegrating from a black hole.”

That was way too complex! Fear creased his eyes shut. “That makes no sense Mom.”

“Eh, I did my best. Can't blame me for trying. You'll get it someday. But anyways, new souls are coming in all the time, and others are resetting with new bodies, new identities, new destinies, repeating over and over until they grow and they see the true meaning of... everything.”

Fear was getting a headache from all this philosophical mumbo jumbo. He just wanted to go back. “I want to go back. I need to go back. Linebreiker is trying to end everything. She's... unnatural. She's trying to kill something important. I can't... let her do it.”

Storm sighed. “Oh, my little Nightlight. I'm sorry to say but it might not be your choice anymore. I know what she's doing. Well, a piece of me does. So all of me does.” Fear let out another gut wrenching sigh, this was way too complicated. “Here, how about I sing you a song that pieces of me were making for you? Many of me always wanted to express my true feelings, how I felt about you, and how I felt about myself. It's important you understand how important you are to me, even if you end up never remembering in life.”

Fear pushed away from Storm.

“I'm sorry, what?”

Storm grinned. “I said let me sing you a song – a different song, my little Nightlight. You'll... probably remember someday.” The mare wrapped Fear up again and stroked a hoof through his mane. “Just relax, you're going to come back to life soon and forget all about this. But if everything goes well, it won't be the end.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kdxUY9_vns

Fear listened intently to the gentle hum, the admiring lyrics that were just for him. As Storm swayed with him in her embrace, he closed his eyes gently, and swayed with her. He had left his plushie back at Dryfield, not wanting her to get damaged for some reason while he was out and about saving the world.

He never expected he'd have his real mother right in front of him. All sorts of emotions welled within him. Hatred, anger, love, regret, happiness, and ambition. The ambition was the strongest thing of all. But he knew? It was probably too late. He'd had his chance, and he'd messed up big time. As Storm sung to him how she really felt, Fear's consciousness began to fade. In a way. He was being pulled away, toward a bright light.

As Storm finished, she grinned at her son. “That's a different light than the light of the afterlife!” She sounded like she was helpfully supplying new information, but to Fear it just sounded like a foreign language. Fear gazed into its depths as he was pulled towards it, as if magnetized, drawing closer and falling in. “See you later honey! Another time, another life.” Storm waved to her son as if she had lost all the anxieties that once plagued her in life.

Fear just waved back, remiss and vacant.

==========================================================================================

Coming back to life should normally be a very disorienting, brutal affair. But it wasn't for Fear. He'd felt the pinch, but he was feeling another one as he opened his eyes. His body was back to normal, but his mind was corroding, something integral leaving him. The last thing he saw before everything faded from relevance to his here and now was Breiker smiling down at him, her hoof held against his forehead. There had never been so much clarity, and so much fog, in Fear's head at the same time as the sickly green tendrils rooted around in his brain. He could hear a hum and various shlucking noises as things were being pulled from him, tentacles digging into everything that made him who he was, tugging on the chains of his destiny, and pulling out bits and pieces, tearing away himself.

At first it felt utterly joyful to forget everything, like coming up for the cleanest air imaginable, everything that had ever held him down falling off and crashing into the ground like taking off a set of weights. But soon enough, he knew he was forgetting something. There was a noticeable gap in his consciousness, something important was missing.

And unlike Dim Nova, he wasn't content to just let go. Whatever he was forgetting was important, he knew. He wasn't going to be swayed by... who was this again? It didn't matter, but that feeling of forgetting something important, it made him angry. It made him violent. He was full of pent up rage. As Breiker finished the process, Fear lashed out, swinging a hoof for her face, trying to deck her across the snout.

The hoof connected, and it caused her snout to cascade off to the side, breaking apart. She yelped, falling backwards as the colt lunged at her, attempting to get on top of her and beat her brains out, anger being the only thing driving him in that single moment.

Fortunately, Breiker knew how to deal with ponies like this. She knew Red Fear would have wanted to do the same. She immediately collected magical power within her hoof and slammed it into Fear's chest as he got on top of her.

Fear shuddered, coughing up crimson and staggering backwards, his ribs hurting. Before he immediately reset, he was back to peace, and then back to anger.

But by that time Breiker was already back in the air where the colt couldn't reach her while she teased the everloving fuck out of him, taunting and tricking him, only for him to return back to a peaceful state, then return to anger.

Over, and over again. An ephemeral pair of emotions that didn't end.

Breiker, more enthralled than ever as she played with her toy, couldn’t help but gleefully think to herself finally, now the only one who can stop me is that smarmy bastard Fate, and there’s no way it’d ever interfere directly. I've as good as won.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbSCyP5sfvg