Pony POV Series
"Dark World" Part Eight
By Alex Warlorn

Twilight:

My Little Pony

Our world is lost in evil's sway.

My Little Pony

Heroes have fallen one by one
This truly is the darkest day.
So dark none can see the sun.

Cadence/Trixie/Twilight's Parents/Father of All Alicorns/Applebloom:

Fate turns by our choices.
Hope is something only we can make.
If we don't raise our voices.
We'll never see the daybreak.

Twilight:

There's a light in the distance.
The light of hope will reignite.

Applejack:

Ah have found my lost resistance.
And we will grab that light.

Twilight:

Tyrants will finally fall.
From tragedy

Applejack:

-From mahself-

Both:

We won't hide again.

No longer will we stall.
It's time for salvation to begin.

Cadence/Trixie/Twilight's Parents/Father of All Alicorns/Applebloom:

Fate turns by your choices.
Hope is something only you can make.
If you don't raise your voices...
You'll never see the daybreak.

Both:

Our world is lost in evil's sway.
But heroes will rise one by one.
Hope will light the way.
As the world awakes to greet the sun.

My Little Pony...

Friends before can be friends again.

This castle loved to play games with me, Twilight The Unicorn. That's the only explanation I can give for how twisted and labyrinthine its passages become, whenever I actually have somewhere I'm desperate to reach. I've passed the gum-ball pit three times now! As well as Fluttercruel's workshop... the giant Life-Sized Chessboard with its living clockwork pieces, the Infinite Hall of Despair, (pst, that didn't take long) The Hugs And Snuggles Playroom....

Cross the in castle bridge above the vortex of inverse-infinity and, "Oh hi, Ponythulu! Sorry. I don't think your cousin's in right now but I'll be sure to tell him you came to visit. Oh, and he said thank you for the tuxedo." He waves a few tentacles and back into the vortex of inverse-infinity he goes.

I wasn't ready to take the offensive. My immediate goal was to leave the castle within twenty-four-hours, and not come back until I was prepared to vanquish Lord Discord and save my friends' souls! This would require resources, planning... powerful allies, as well... my actions as Tragedy wasn't going to make that last part easy...

But before I left, there was one person I needed to rescue first. Someone I could never do without, no matter what. Who had been at my side since the beginning. Whatever the cost, I'll find you, Smarty Pants...

JUST KIDDING! HA HA! Sense of humor check! She's safe with my parents! Of course I mean Spike! He's my number one assistant, my little brother, and my son all in one go, and I'm breaking him out! For a thousand years while I was lost in darkness, he never stopped being my truehearted friend, even as I and my other friends wandered away from each other in the dark.

Celestia may have legally been his guardian but you can bet your flanks on that I took care of him! And I'm doing that now!

(And what then? What's the next step after you free Spike?)

I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. Painstaking preplanning is a complete waste of time against a foe like Mast... Discord. In fact, the more elaborate the
6 stratagem, the faster he's guaranteed to see straight through it... and then dismantle it. Even standing a snowball's chance against Discord requires the quick reflexes and improvisational flair of a sailor surviving a hurricane out at sea.

(Spike is unnecessary. Discord's extermination does not require him.)

I need Spike! He's my friend, my family.

(You're wasting time on foalish sentimentality! Spike may be loyal, yes, but what advantage can he offer you as comrade-in-arms?)

He's a giant DRAGON.

(A dragon who's functioned as Discord's favorite beast of burden for the past thousand years! Face facts! You might as WELL take Smarty Pants, for all the good it'll do against the draconequus! Stop wasting time already and leave this castle! Discord could come down on you at any moment and ruin everything!)

+++

"Space Invaders! Only You Can Save The Earth!"

The pair of space tanks blasted away wave after wave of the incoming alien horde, coming faster and faster as their numbers were blown away but one straw shot lightly grazed the side of the space tank and it exploded instantly.

"GAME OVER PLAYER 2!"

"Stupid aliens! Why do they have to get faster when there's less of them?!" Fluttercruel cursed.

"What fun would it be if they got slower?" Discord asked glancing at her.

"Killing real aliens was funnier!"

Fluttercruel took out a buster sword to cleave the machine in two. Discord grabbed the blade with one paw, and lifted it and her off the floor, still playing the game. "Now now dear. Remember what I said about redirecting those violent impulses of yours."

"You always said impulses are a wonderful thing!"

"True." Discord dropped her on her rump. "But you need to learn to express them in a variety of different ways. Otherwise, they stop being impulses and become routine."

'I do express my violent impulses in a variety of different ways!'

'You're creative in terms of cruelty, torture and, meh, killing, I'll grant you that. To the point where cruelty, torture and, meh, killing is all that ponies ever EXPECT of you, nowadays. And therein lies the problem.'

"GAME OVER PLAYER 1!"

"Blast." Discord delivered a light kick to the arcade machine. And that was it.

"Where's the ka-boom-!? There should have been a video arcade shattering ka-boom!" Fluttercruel snarled.

"My young mare! Don't you know there is no such thing as 'should have' with chaos? Want to try Pony-Pony Revolution?"

"Sure. But I pick the song."

"I was going to suggest picking it roulette style, but you called dibs. Anything but 'Let The Bodies Hit The Floor'."

"Why not?"

"Because it's too predictably YOU."

++++

Sometimes, Discord kept Spike near the gateways. Sometimes, he's kept by his room near the center of the castle, and just opened the ceiling whenever he wanted to ride him (or rode him straight through the ceiling blowing a cavalry horn). And sometimes he just left Spike on the roof.

And I wasn't finding ANY of those places! Where could he BE?!

Then I realized... I was going about this completely the wrong way! How utterly illogical and irrational of me! In Discord's castle, the quickest way for me is to look in all the WRONG places! So I walked, and whenever instinct warned me I was going in the 'wrong' direction, I pointedly ignored it.

I crossed through the the castle's nexus: a round room ringed with passageways. Ever-changing nonsense phrases like 'Aardvark Backwards' or 'Glasses Wheel' hung above the arches in High Equestrian.

I saw Liar...Apple... Liarjack headed straight for me, head bent, galloping with intense purpose. For a harrowing second I feared I was already discovered, but quickly deduced that she wasn't galloping towards me.

"See ya, Tragedy!" She shouted as she raced right past me.

Ah, that's our Element of Deceit for you, always saying 'goodbye' to say 'hello.'

"Hello, Applejack," I greeted, then gasped as I realized my mistake.

++++

Hello... 'Applejack?' Say wha?! Ah trip and crash into one of Lord Discord's busts of himself giving a full moon... to himself.

She called me Applejack! Not Liarjack! Had she seen through me?! Had she guessed?! Of course she had! Ah washed mah hat after all! And Mah colors aren't what they used to be! But she said it all nice-like... AND TRAGEDY DOESN'T KNOW THAT NAME! So Discord must've switched Twilight over to 'Sparkle' mode. Rotten bully.

But before Ah could cook up a good lie for my change in appearance, Ah shook mah head and saw she ... wasn't bright purple, but she wasn't totally gray either. But if she ain't purple and ain't Tragedy, who is she?

The look on her face, she has a heart.

"Applejack, are you okay?"

+++++

(She's immortal. What in Pony Purgatory's the point of asking if she's okay?)

Because she's a friend.

(She's Discord's little minion!)

Cadence... long ago... she once taught me a spell that makes pony relive memories of how they acted and thought before the present. If used on a pony with a bewitched personality it can help them.

(I recall Cadence casting that very spell upon Angry Pie... back during the time of her last stand. You remember what it did to her, yes?)

Yes. It disabled Angry Pie. But either way, whether the memory spell cures Applejack or disables her... it works in my favor, right?

No response.

I quickly cloak myself in an illusion of my gray lifeless
'Twilight Tragedy' persona, and speak in my old passive apathetic tone.

"Applejack, are you okay?"

(Same mistake twice. Oh yes, Discord's painful end is certain to come about in your capable hooves.)

+++

Ah was a moron. Ah should have kept mah hat dirty and cast an illusion to make mahself look like mah tainted 'Liarjack' self. Now Tragedy found me lickety-split and fer once, Ah was without a good lie to cover mah flank.

But then... what was HER deal? Why was Tragedy trying to disguise herself as... Tragedy? She might as well not have bothered at all, really, the disguise might as well have been a transparent veil. Disguises, mock-ups, illusions, they're lies to the eyes, and ever since becoming the Element of Deceit, Ah've had no trouble seein' through 'em. Of course Ah never TOLD anypony this! Word would get 'round to Discord, and it was just too handy knowing when this castle was screwin' with me or not.

And ... it wasn't a lie when she called me 'Applejack', twice.

"Twilight Sparkle?"

++++++

Let it never be said I'm hopelessly unobservant after a thousand years. For all these centuries, Liarjack's hat had gone completely unwashed, accumulating a magnificent coat of grey dust. But today? Gone! Dustless! And what was up with the color of her coat?

"Twilight Sparkle?" She whispered at me, in an awed tone.

"I'm sorry I'm not-" I realized my grand stupidity a moment later as Bucky McGillicuddy and Kicks McGee sent me on a trip into the ceiling, headfirst.

"EEEK!" The dirt maid whose skirt I had coincidentally ended up under screamed and kicked me back the way I'd came. I landed on top of AJ.

Liarjack had never kicked me, or any of us before. Not even Fluttercruel and Angry Pie, whenever she was on the receiving end of their abuse.

Applej... Liarj... The pony in the hat said absolutely nothing.

(Are you insane? You can't trust her, Twilight. She's a liar.)

Even liars tell the truth.

(Sure! When it serves a greater deception! She's betrayed you before. Which means she will betray you again.)

I betrayed a lot of people, and I know I'm not going to betray them again.

(That's different!)

Not by much.

(Explain to me how washing a hat makes a congenital liar trustworthy!)

Because it's out of the hamster wheel!

'Hey, there? Tragedy? Sparkle? Which are ya?'

I responded without thinking.

'I'm not Twilight Tragedy! And I'm not Twilight Sparkle! Oh this is this, AAGGGH! Look! I'm just Twilight! This is totally going wrong! Please don't hit me again! Oh please let me start over! Wait! Don't have time for that!"

+++

Ah just stared in shock as she rambled to herself, and hit her head on the wall a few times, calling herself stupid. Okay... she was TOO emotional to be Tragedy, but 'Not Twilight Sparkle? Just Twilight?' What'n the hay...? One way to know if this is 'Twilight.'

"HOW DID AH PROVE TA YA AH'M HONEST?" Ah shout at her.

"What?"

"When we first met! What was it Ah did that proved Ah was an honest and truth-worthy pony? In Everfree-?!"

"You... sent me over a cliff? So Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash could catch me safely?"

++++

The awe on Applejack's face doubles. "Ya REMEMBERED. So yer not Tragedy but ... yer colors, but yer not all zombie-like either. Who ARE ya?"

"I'm simply Twilight. Long story!"

"Start talkin'!"

(Don't believe her!)

"YOU start talking! How do I know this isn't a sham?"

"Remember when for ten years Lord Discord just stared at a test pattern on TV?

"And when he made ya into a little stuffed doll, and Smarty Pants into a full living donkey for seventy-two hours, and her last words were her tearfully telling you that she'd always love you as she hugged ya?

"And that one Hearth-Warming Eve fifty years back when he gave every foal whose name began with 'S' whatever toy they wanted? And that reindeer who breaks in here every year to hoof-deliver us lumps of coal told 'im 'thanks for doin' par of his job for 'im?'

"And the next one he made us and himself all happy foals for a year. Though Angry and 'Cruel were in diapers.

"And when he had a giant flan land safely outside every town with a ribbon on it?

"And the five years we spent with his, ours, and everyone's genders flipped?"

"WAIT A MINUTE! ALL OF THOSE THINGS ACTUALLY HAPPENED! Sweet Mother of All Chaos... you've not told a single lie this whole time!

(She's proven she can tell the truth to lie before! Don't believe her!)

"And that doesn't prove a thing."

+++

That hurt. All those lies? They had always been for them. Now all my horseapplein' was bitin' me in the flanks. Well, the truth was gonna be for her now too.

"Twilight ... Ah lied before. The world wasn't perfect before Discord came along, but the Alicorns weren't tyrants, they weren't fixated on control. Never were. What ticked 'em off most was when ponies came to their help for problems they didn't need their help with, and ignored them for problems where they did need their help. The reason yer always get sad when yah look at those statues because you loved 'em both, and it hurts yah to see 'em like that, even if yer memory's not working."

She still looks unconvinced.

(You can't regain trust 'Jack. Once it's broken it's gone forever. You failed her once, what right do you have to be back in a position where you can betray her again? She'd have to be insane to accept you. You should just run.)

And she has every right TO be. Lies are what Ah've hung my hat on these past thousand years. What right do Ah have trying to convince her to trust me? She'd have to be insane to accept that Ah'm on her side. Maybe Ah should just run.

(How can you be sure she's even on your side? It's not like you'd be more than dead weight if you tried to help her anyway. Liar.)

Then again, how do AH know fer sure that SHE'S on MAH side? Discord's plays bigger mind games than this all the time. Can Ah really afford to choose to trust HER? Trust that 'Twilight Tragedy' is gone for good?

AH'M SICK OF BEIN' IN DISCORD'S PARANOID WORLD! AH'M SICK OF BEIN' DISCORD'S PET LIAR! What 'right' do Ah have? EVERY, BUCKIN', RIGHT, TO TRY!!! Ah choose to try!

... Maybe choices is what it all comes down to? Fer both of us?

Ah face Twilight head-on, with a hopeful smile.

"Twilight. We've both gotta choice. Maybe Discord's just let you off the leash temporarily as one of his games. Maybe you found a way out of the dark like Ah did. Regardless, Ah choose to do everything in mah power to keep yah out of the dark and be a true friend. Liar though Ah am, being your friend's the KIND thing to do and, the choice Ah STILL have the right to make.

"So... ball's in your court, now. Chose fer yourself if Ah'm tryin' ta trick ya or not."

++++

Since when did Liarjack ever just ask a pony to decide if she was being honest or not?

"...Is it really you? You silly pony?"

Applejack stuck her nose up. "Ah ain't silly."

"Okay, that's a lie..." I deadpanned, then grinned so wide my head almost fell off, "And it's the one lie that's proves you're Applejack!"

We hugged.

Then I looked into her eyes, "But... "

"It's gonna take awhile for meh to earn yer trust back in full?"

We're friends, she knew what I was going to say.

I nodded. "And it's going to take awhile for ME to earn yours, but if we don't give each other a little bit of trust..."

"How can we start earnin' the rest back?"

"Exactly."

I smile at Applejack, and she smiles back. My facial muscles ache. Smiling's not an expression they were used to making. Feels nice.

"So what happened to you, Applejack? I'm thrilled to pieces that you've changed yourself for the better, but after all this time, what could've possibly inspired you to suddenly... well... not hate truth?"

"Ah don't think yah'd believe me if Ah told yah."

"I'll share my unbelievable story if you share yours."

"Well Applebloom's ghost came ta me, pushed meh into somethin' called the Truth (though that part may have been a dream, not sure 'bout the details). Ah saw a bunch of other mes in other worlds. Then Ah met an Alicorn stallion, and he and her talked some sense inta me. but it took bein' dragged in an' pullin' out of Pony Hell or... somethin' like that to get it through mah thick skull. Made me see it ain't matter if yer lyin' or tellin' the truth, so long as it's the true kindest thing ta do. Oh! And Then Ah teamed up with five other mehs to take down a truth-crazy Nightmare version of me. Now Ah'm tryin' to make up for all the bad stuff Ah did so Ah can get into Pony Heaven with my sis. And you?"

I opened my mouth to say 'male Alicorns don't exist' but stopped myself.

"Remember Apple Pie? I went undercover and spoke with her and she managed in one day to innocently undermine my thousand-year-old beliefs to the point I kinda-sorta had a minor emotional breakdown and ran back here, falling asleep next to the plants that are my parents.

"Then I experienced a dream where I tried to literally beat myself up and convince myself to destroy the world while I also watched, but before I could give up Trixie came and talked to me, but it wasn't really Trixie, it was Cadence, or it was both of them, or possibly my own subconscious wearing disguises. Anyhow, talked some sense into me and I realized Tragedy and Friendship are both magic in their own ways. So now I'm just trying to heal the world of the damage Discord has caused."

"...Why do neither of those sound half as weird as they should?"

"In the world of chaos, it's pretty ho-hum."

(You are an idiot! Sitting on your flanks in Discord's castle! Do you think time just stands still while you prattle away?)

There is nothing 'prattling' about it. These words are important as the ones Cadence spoke to me. We're establishing trust.

(Fantasy! You 'establish' nothing but your own gullibility and a facade of comradeship.)

I don't think so. AJ told me her story first, and she's the one baring her soul to me.

+++++

(You said you'd finally keep your promise to Applebloom and look after your family, but instead you waste your time here?)

Ah also promised her Ah'd clean the slime off mah heart. And fixin' things with Twili' is part of that. And she owes Apple Pie too, so neither of us want anythin' nasty to happen to her.

"Applejack."

"Yes?"

"There's a spell Cadence taught me before Lord Discord broke the world. You saw her use it on Angry Pie five hundred years ago. I'd, like to use it on you."

"Ya meant the spell that made Angry Pie brain dead?"

"It makes ponies recall memories of times BEFORE they fell under personality-altering bewitchment. It wasn't supposed to work like that."

"And how do ya know it won't work 'like that' again?"

"I don't. But I do know Cadence's spell worked perfectly well on ME, remember? It might even have stuck if...if right after that..."

"It's alright, sugarcube... yah don't have ta say." Ah said, lowerin' my head a bit. That sin's gonna be hard to wash off. "...Will this spell help yah trust meh again?"

Twilight nodded.

"...Seems like Ah'm just gonna have to take a leap of faith here. Just like you did for me back in Everfree... Okay. Do it. Ah choose to leap."

"Thank you, Applejack. Please stand still. And I'm sorry, AJ. Because I think this is going to hurt."

Ah braced mahself. "Do it."

Twili' horn gently touched mah forehead, and-

Pain. Oh Sweet Celestia the pain! Flamin' knives right inta mah brain!

All the times Ah'd been honest for good or bad. Whenever ponies needed a pony they trusted to give the truth. A bullet cutting through a thousand years of hiding from truth and sayin' whatever needed sayin', just to see ponies live and die smilin'! Versus a couple decades of stubborn honesty. A drop trying to burn away an ocean! Please Twilight! Stop it! The river was tryin' to wash me away, along WITH the slime!

Because the truth was always the best. NO! Truth isn't always the best! Ah've seen cruel truths used to DESTROY ponies!

Ah cling ta when sayin' the truth made ponies smile, when it help'em, when it made'em happy, it was a rock Ah held onto in the rapids!

Aunt and Uncle Orange? Ah finally understand why ya played the game, and Ah'm sorry Ah couldn't take what ya were tryin' to teach me to heart. But Ah think mah family in Ponyville needed me more. Ah'm sorry. It was a little cruel ta ya, but it would have been even more cruel ta them. And that's a truth Ah haveta accept.

More memories. Feels like the rapids are settlin'. Helpin' Big Mac in the field. Helpin' Rarity impress that fashion designer after our selfishness darn near ruined her.

All the times Ah lied so someone else didn't get hurt. All the times Ah told the truth so someone didn't get hurt. Lettin' Applebloom go free. Tellin' someponies Fluttercruel got bored with some kind lie or another so they die happy. Promisin' Applebloom Ah'll come meet her in Pony Heaven someday.

An' it was finally over.

+++

AJ fell like a sack of potatoes.

"'Jack!" I scanned her brain and the rest of her body and was relived to find nothing life threatening.

(Idiot. She's immortal, remember? Beyond the reach of Death?)

Whatever.

She was covered in sweat. She opened her eyes at me.

"Twili?"

"Yes 'Jack?"

"Don't ya ever do that ta me again."

"I promise."

"Pinkie Promise!"

"Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my-OW!"

She smile.

I continued, "And your family calls them Pinkamena Promise now. They still use it."

And then she laughed!

"Say, Applejack? I know this is a tinny tiny bit optimistic of me, but... how good do you think the odds are that the others have all experienced similar overnight awakenings?"

"Meanin' Angry Pie's now our sweet Pinkie Pie again and Traitor Dash is back to Rainbow Dash and so on?"

"Yes!"

She was silent for a moment, I could tell she was thinking carefully what to say. "We can't bet on miracles to keep writin' us blank check. But I say we don't look a gift horse in the mouth or write our friends off! We find out how they're actin' first and make sure they aren't coverin' up.

"I... suppose that's for the best. So then... it's you and me against the world, eh, Applejack?"

"Yeah! Works whole lot better fer me than the whole 'lone wolf' thing was!"

We hugged.

(Are you morons done wasting time in the belly of the beast? Discord could be upon you any second!)

I wondered what Lord Discord could be doing at that moment.

(Whatever it is, you know it's something irredeemably evil!)

++++

"Let's see so far. I've gave that blind at birth Virgacorn radar sense. Turned all the ponies' manes in town, into those opposite on the color wheel. Healed that old lady's hip and repaired that foal's broken tooth. Made those abandoned buildings over there do the robot, then fight in the abandoned warehouse district.

"Why the abandoned buildings and warehouse district?"

"Where else do you think we'd have them? You need to watch more Pony Rangers young mare. Oh! And I rewrote the tax code, again."

"You never collect taxes."

"Makes you wonder why I'm not more popular." Discord laughed. "But now onto the main show. Ahem. Attention ponies of . . . oh right Hoofington! Your Awesome And Really Awesome Lord And Cheese Stringer has a special offer for you, and anyone else who ever happens into town." Discord snapped his fingers. He also produced attire that made him look like the host of an infomercial.

"Before you floats a giant dragon egg and a giant floating sphere of water. Step into the egg and transform into a dragon! Gain size! Wings! Scales! Hoarding instincts! Fangs! Fire breath! And so much more! You also get a free trip to Dracotopia with no travel-or-arrival hazards. For reals!'

"Step into the giant drop of water... and get onto my EXCLUSIVE ''Forbidden To Toy With' List.' Became a perky amphibious hippocampus with a instinctual affinity for singing, along with instant transportation to Sky Ocean! Plus, your choice of either a memory-rewrite, or a geass making it impossible for you to communicate any negative information about the world outside the singing aquarium. Better hurry! This once-in-a-lifetime offer is going-- I honestly don't know when!"

Discord knew none voiced it, but those who rejected his offer were doing so out of spite. Maybe he should have applied reverse psychology. However, he did see ponies run into the dragon egg. All the dragons Discord had added to Tiamat's brood over the last five hundred years... and she hadn't thanked him once? The nerve!

Others entered the giant water droplet. This included depressed ponies who thought of this as a cleaner form of suicide. Ponies who were just sick of his games. Ponies who'd rather be pets than toys. A couple who whose family members had entered Sky Ocean and changed and so badly wanted to join them (the seapony who would suddenly remember their lost love, relative, friends, whatever). And finally those who were the most precious. The ones who just wanted to sing.

Discord was going to offer a giant flower to convert willing ponies into breezie swarms, but the ones in Neighpon were still figuring out elected officials' term limits and whether to go with an electoral collage or a popular vote. He always liked politics, so chaotic.

Fluttercruel fluttered next to him, her eyes glinted with glee. "So what will they REALLY do?" She whisper.

"Exactly what I said it would." He ripped off his getup and turned it into butterflies made of various cheeses.

Fluttercruel said in a uncertain and slightly scared tone, "But in a twisted round about way, right?"

"No."

"But-But I get to slaughter anyone who doesn't take either... right?"

"Not today you don't, young mare. I'm just going to give them a personal raincloud for the day, no, not one raining knives...I'm thinking raindrops that taunt them about not taking choices, naw, did that three hundred years, two weeks, and fifty minutes ago."

"WHAT? WHY?!"

"Because the and up and up, from me, is UNEXPECTED."

"Master, you're scaring me."

"Sorry." Discord said honestly. And the world turned on its head. "Oops." Discord snapped his fingers to reverse that.

"Master!" Fluttercruel stomped her hooves in midair. "Why don't you let me thin out the herds anymore?! That was fun! Now I only get to do it to ponies practicing magic!"

"Indiscriminate wholesale slaughter is a good way to run completely out of playmates. And I only made that law " he said the word with disgust "-about executing ponies for using magic because you asked me to. I thought it would make you happy."

"But you hate it when unicorns undo your transformation magic."

"Young mare, Twilight Sparkle, the most powerful unicorn who has ever lived, couldn't undo my changes on her own. What threat is any lesser unicorn to me? And I let you toy with any pony you WANT save my seaponies."

"And now your Neighpon freaks too!"

"Temper temper, young mare. 'Freaks' is a completely meaningless word in this and every other point in space and time(I checked). I will not tolerate that word. I prefer 'custom creations'. I'm asking WHY you wanted an excuse to toy with more ponies when you didn't need one?"

"I don't need to answer to you."

"Oh yes you do!"

"I-I-I ... " Fluttercruel struggled, "I wanted, I wanted. I wanted to try and make the others see the JOY OF IT! To share it with me! Having the life of a pony in you hooves, getting to decide whether they continue to exist or not-"

"You only decide if they die then and there."

"Whatever. I just, wanted them to see the fun of it. So they'd have it with me. So they could walk alongside me. Even Anger has those foals who walk alongside her, but she doesn't see the joy in the game!"

"I . . . see. I suppose, then, I just wanted you to walk alongside me, my little princess."

"I-I'm sorry, Master."

"... We can go dragon slaying later. I promise."

"We'll be hunting for those NEW dragons, right?"

"No."

"Agh!"

"But we can hunt other dragons ... with flaming rusted butter-knives. I'll even let you choose the background music."

"Yay!"

"... My little princess, didn't you have fun in Neighpon? Can you at least try to see there are so many wonders that I have cast my spell under?"

"I-I promise, Master!"

"Give Master a hug! Without the segregated knife."

"Okay."

And the sight of that hug they gave each other made ponies question their reality and eroded their sanity more than the last double sunglasses and soft cider storm ever could.