Pony POV Series
Dark World Part 19 1/2
Love Hate Bedlam

"Fair ye well, oh Valeyard, you were a charming, witty, clever, fun-to-be-around type who was a blast at parties and really knew how to destroy ponies with their own flaws! You will be missed." Discord put a paw over his black hole of a heart, speaking to a tiny picture of the Valeyard with a black ribbon. Discord wiped away a nonexistent tear.

"Good riddance to bad rubbish!" Angry Pie said, meaning every word.

"I didn't like his attitude, but at least he knew how to have fun," Fluttercruel said.

"Had the biggest passions I've ever encountered," Rancor said, with a straight face. "It was a real shame he had to go, but for the greater cause, sacrifices must be made."

Discord's two living purple plastic music box ponies mimed weeping tears since they didn't have tear ducts. The dirt maids also politely, one of them playing a funeral dirge on a kazoo.

"Well he's not getting any deader." Discord flicked the picture over. He turned around happily clasping his hands, "Well, Traitor Dash failed me, again. And that stupid Time Lord has gotten his Doctorate back for good.. And Tragedy and her minions are being unfashionably late to the party I've invited them to! Such rudeness. So everyequus ready for round three?"

"So who fights next?" Rancor asked casually.

Discord grinned. "All three of you."

The three looked at him, surprised.

Discord looked thoughtful. "Hmm, six against four, odds are too even for my tastes. Fluttercruel, call upon.... THE CATERING SERVICE!"

Fluttercruel produced a remote control and pressed a button, causing a wall to raise up dramatically, revealing...pony skeletons in intimidating bad-flank outfits sitting around a suitably ominous table labeled 'Daemones Ex Machina: League of Auxiliary Minions.'

Discord tapped his chin. "Huh, I could've sworn I made them all agelessly immortal."

Fluttercruel face hoofed. "Bloodthirsty psychotic ponies still need AIR, Master!"

"I'd recommend reanimating the corpses... then again, there's that ONE foal in their ranks who has a way with logic..." Rancor noted.

"Meh, they were all B-Listers anyway." Discord rubbed the back of his head. "I suppose that's why I can never keep my goldfish alive..."

"This is why I never let any of my foals join that stupid club!" Angry Pie said.

Discord's eyes focused on Angry Pie, "Let's have a chat just between us, my pretty." The two vanished.

"Hey! What about me?!" Fluttercruel shouted. She pouted, "I honestly don't know what he sees in her."

Rancor said, "As your auntie Pandora would say: to embrace the intangible, to look into the eyes of the blind."

"What?"

"He's a fire trying to hug kindling."

"Enough with the metaphors!"

"You'll get it when you're more mature."

"You don't know me!"

" . . . then talk to me."

"Huh?"

"Tell me about yourself, niece. I read up on Dissey. But I didn't read up on you. Tell me your life from your point of view."

"What?"

"Is it so weird that I want to know about you?"

"No it's just . . . no one ever cared to listen before." Uncertainly crossed the gray pegasus' face, feeling like a fish out of water.

Rancor patted her on the shoulder. "First time for everything, and we have time to kill before the killing starts."

"All . . . All right then. . . . The first thing I ever heard was, 'Time to be cruel.'"

++++

We teleported from the throne room right into-

"My room!" I got ready to rip his throat out! "No one has a right to be in here but-"

Discord flicked me into a wall, leaving a big circular crack. And no, I did NOT leave a stupid outline like in a stupid cartoon!

"This is my room! You have no right to-" A metal plate riveted itself over my mouth.

"Technically I own the world and everypony in it, so technically, I have the right to be anywhere I please my dear."

He leaned against my exercise equipment that Liarjack had helped me move in. Jerk, acting like he owned the place. He picked up something from my dresser.

My vision turned red as he recklessly played with it. "My-my-my, this little crystal music box, it belonged to your what? Third apprentice? Fourth?"

I tore the metal plate off and leapt at him with my good rear leg, "Get your filthy fingers off that you ugly-" He slammed me down with his tail, dark matter blocks landed on each of my hooves, crushing them and the floor underneath. I growled trying to pull my limbs off to get free. I'd rip them off if I had to!

He put Bomb Pie's music box back on my dresser. He looked around like my room was his personal art gallery. "I must admit I'm surprised how spartan it is in here. I was expecting walls of weapons, trophies, and is that A BED? You know you don't really need to sleep. Dreaming of your children you had to watch grow old and die? Gray walls, gray bed. How droll. But my-my-my, all these toys gathering dust. This rubber chicken for instance, it belonged to Pumpkin Cake, if I'm not mistaken."

That was it. I rammed into him like a pink comet, the dark matter blocks flying as I roared, my head rammed into his gut, making him stagger back a step.

Jackass just smiled, how dare he! "You and my Cruelty have always been my favorites."

"You don't have favorites."

"I beg to differ! You and I have a past, my dear Angry Pie, it's only because of me you exist."

"Like I care!"

"I think you'll care about this." Discord snapped his fingers.

I startled in confusion. I felt the bones in my rear leg rearranging themselves, fitting back into place, growing the way they were meant to, tendons reconnecting, nerves growing. For the first time in over five hundred years. I had four functional legs again.

Discord leaned in close, grinning at me.

I flipped kicked him in the face with my repaired leg.

"Not bad, my dear, but you kicked me in the wrong spot, I'm already missing my tooth on that side."

"I'll be sure to make them match next time!"

Discord sighed. "You wouldn't be the first." He snapped his fingers.

I couldn't stop myself from gasping when I found where we teleported next. I couldn't stop myself from shuddering. Tears slowly formed in my eyes as I took in the faint scent of old flowers and bones.

I slowly looked around. There was a skylight which I stood right underneath. I didn't want them to be alone in the dark when I built it.

The walls were lined with shining marble blocks. I polished them myself whenever I was in here. Each stone was engraved with a cutie mark. Each had a small mantel-shelf which a few centuries old flower lay in. Their names, the date they became my foal, and when they left me alone again, were all engraved too.

The only laughter I could trust that wasn't directed at me. The only smiles I knew weren't hiding a sadistic lie. The only thing worthwhile in this selfish world that no one took seriously except when they were forced to. These victims of this selfish mocking laughing world who I could share, just for a tiny while, and make the mocking laughs just for a little while stop.

I could tell you each of their names, the color of their eyes, their favorite color, their favorite cake, the different warmth their smiles each gave me.

The mausoleum and skylight was made in a circle, my Element of Rage, engraved on the floor. What was supposed to be the only way in still locked. There used to be statues for each of the pony races with some weird cutie marks along the walls when I first found this room smashing down a random wall. Apparently Princess Celestia had used it. Celestia. How many times had she pranked or laughed at her own subjects? Toyed with them like they were . . . toys! All to make her laugh at them!

I hope she's conscious as a statue, I bet she doesn't think it's a laughing matter now!

"Look at'em go, Mom!"

"I told you I'd be strong as you someday, Ma."

"Those white bugs won't be laughing at anyone again, Mother!"

"It's okay, Fuse Box, you can cry if you want."

"Auntie Angry don't!"
"WHAT?!"
"Please! Don't . . . don't hurt her . . she's . . . she's my grandmother."
" . . . . . . FINE!"

"Don't be dumb, Powder Cake, I'd never hurt you."

"Bomb Pie, don't worry! Mommy's here! You're-You're just taking a little nap! Mommy will be here you, when you-wake up-you, don't need to worry!"

"A heart so full of brimming anger, boiling at anything she lays her eyes upon . . . but tell me my little pony, have you ever hated yourself?" His dirty claw was on my shoulder. I bit it.

"If you so much as TOUCH THEM, I swear to everything I HATE that I'LL KILL YOU!" I snarled at the monster looking him in the eyes.

Discord waved his pulsing claw, he looked angry at me. Good! I hate that sick selfish smirk!

Discord breathed in deep. "I asked, have you ever hated yourself? For having to watch them all die while you went on?"

"I HATE YOU for that!"

"Is that so? You know I'm the one who woke you up to the dark side of laughter, of no pony ever taking you seriously."

"What do you expect? Gratitude?! Forget it! Do you think I like you for that?! I'm only angry that it took YOU for me to wake up! And that I can't make you stop laughing, you pig!"

"Why do you stay here then? You don't need little old me to punish the world, do you? You've got your Element of Chaos and four good legs, you could keep punishing the world yourself, why not just leave and let the Elements of Harmony wipe this smile off my face if you hate me so much?"

"Because THEY'RE here," I look at my foals tombs, "And I won't let you toy with the only ponies who don't deserve it!"

Sometimes I remember past the fog, past the beginning. All I do remember is that I hate it. I hate it each letter in the word 'hate' make up of smaller words 'hate' hate it! Being here, I reach further through the fog than ever before.

Parties. Birthdays. Parties. Smiles. Parties. Rocks. Parties. Song. Parties. LAUGHTER!!!! The big fat lie!

There are ponies out there still laughing at me, still not taking me seriously, still treating everything like it's just their toy. My anger boils at the thought.

"What if it could be different?"

"WHAT?!"

"Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye, Anger. I swear to Havoc, Emperor Of Phobias, Home For Infinite Losers. I'll resurrect to full health and youth, and curse with immortality, all of your students upon the elimination of the rogue Elements Of Chaos. I'll even give them their own private protected bubble community, yours, all yours. As an added bonus, I can make it like Sky Ocean; so the outside world is nothing more than a legend. Just you and your students."

I charged at the Pegasus, at the last moment he held out a little earth pony foal, tears trickling from her eyes. I stopped, feeling calmer than I had been in decades and spoke to her. "... Did someone laugh at you?"

She nodded unhappily.

"Do you want to come with me?"

She nodded more enthusiastically. I hugged her.

"Okay! But first, sit and watch Auntie Pie trample the hay out of this nasty stallion who tried to bribe me with you, okay?"

She clapped her little hooves and laughed while I beat the tar out of the Pegasus.

I looked at each one, all their names calling to me. I gently placed my
front hooves against Pound and Pumpkin's cutie marks.

"After Twilight and the rest are all dead and you've kept your word I'm coming for you next," I rumbled looking over my shoulder.

He smiled at that, he SMILED at that! A invisible wall came between us that I smashed into.

Discord made a toast with a gray stone chalice overfilled with chocolate milk. The base resembled a griffon's clay, with the cup was carved to look like four pony skulls facing outwards in different directions. One looking enraged, one filled with sorrow, the third soulless indifferent, and the last one consumed with madness. Discord DRANK THE MILK from the cup! Not the cup from the milk!

"I look forward to it my dear, it has been eight billion years since I danced with somepony whose beauty was only surpassed by mine."

With a snap of Discord 's fingers, I was teleported away.

++++++++

And when it's just you, me, and my little princess, we shall have our happily chaotic ever after at last. One handy-dandy finger snap, and it's 'bye-bye, giant chip on your shoulder!' and 'welcome back, laughter!' ...And my biggest, WARMEST welcome to my brand-spanking-new unbridled, red-hot, accept-no-substitues queen-of-insanity! Oh, Pinkie Pie, I knew there was a reason I spared you during the Lost Third Age!"

+++++++++

"And I've been doing my hardest to be everything I was born to be ever since." Fluttercruel finished.

Rancor patted her on the head. "You have such fervor in your brutality, girl. I like you."

Fluttercruel looked at her in shock. "You-you do?"

"You didn't think I was one of the 'goodie two-shoes' did you? I'm Violence incarnate."

"No it's just . . . even Master thinks I need to learn some new tricks."

"I'm not saying he's wrong, girl. But you don't need to give up the core of who you are to do that."

"I-I know, Dad has said that before but-"

Rancor smiled, "But you felt he was encroaching on your individuality and that he was trying to force you to be what he wanted you to be. Trust me. I went through the same thing with my Dad. But you gotta realize he only wants what's best for you, and no matter what he says or what he does, he's only doing it because he cares about you. Not that he'd admit it, but he likes to hide a lot of his emotions from even himself, trust me, its my job to know."

"I . . . I guess I already knew that but-but-"

"You didn't want to give ground by admitting you were wrong, you really are like him."

Fluttercruel eyes narrowed. "Don't push it."

"Heh, okay, that's never the right thing to say, but seriously, you two complete each other. What if something happened to him?"

"That's never going to happen because no one can defeat Master, and even they could, I wouldn't let it happen, I'd protect him to the end."

"So you do care about him."

"Always."

Discord and Angry Pie had each entered the room, the former trailing slightly behind the latter.

"Look whose back!" Rancor grinned.

Angry Pie trotted away from Discord, she didn't look at the others.

"Good luck kiddo," Rancor kissed Cruelty on the forehead.

"Hey-hey-hey." Rancor floated next to Anger.

Angry Pie didn't respond.

"It's alright, I can actually hear your heart. You and Cruelty are actually alike like that."

Rancor caught the hoof.

"HEY!" Fluttercruel gasped, "How-her leg!"

"I fixed it."

"Why?"

"Felt like it."

"Now don't be like that, cutie. No, I am taking you seriously. Seriously girl, ponies take you LESS seriously when you're like that! No, I'm not joking! Sheesh you have issues. But honestly, you spread violence, so does Cruelty, and you're both so PASSIONATE about it, and both of you are more than willing to commit revenge. Which all happen to be things I embody! So of course I think you BOTH are fun to be around! You just need to open up some. WOAH! Almost caught me off guard with that one. Angry Pie, here's some free advice, you need FOCUS for all that anger. Aimless anger doesn't go anywhere, it just floats and that's just wasteful."

'Daddy Discord' jingled on Discord's pager. "All right everyone! SHOW TIME!"

"Aren't you joining us?" Rancor asked.

"Hey! We're protecting Master! He's not protecting us!" Fluttercruel declared. She waited for Angry Pie to mutter 'Coward,' or something to that effect, but no noise came. Eh? Fluttercruel looked at the Earth Pony confused.

'And he's not stealing my foals from me...not again!'

Discord spoke to Fluttercruel. "Cruelty... be careful."

"Don't you dare fail me Fluttercruel."
"Don't disappointment me Fluttercruel."
"Give them Pony Hell Cruel!"
"Goodluck Cruel."
"Do your best Cruelty."

Cruelty startled, and nearly fell over, Rancor caught her. 'What . . . what was that?' She shook her head. Didn't matter. She had traitors to crush and threats to Master to turn into red paint. "I don't need to be Master." She smirked at him.

She startled at the look on his face. Not angry or annoyed at an order not being followed but, sad? Cruelty shook her head again, she'd show Master he had NOTHING to worry about. She was the only one he needed to be happy.

Cruelty's ear flickered to Angry Pie . . . what was the mad pony muttering to herself now?

"Pound Cake and Pumpkin Cake, Fuse Box, Bomb Pie, Powder Cake, Grenade Pie, Short Fuse, Little Hex, Hatchet and Latchet, Spring Dew, Morning Light, Stormy Night, Apple Sauce . . ."

And for the first time in her life, Fluttercruel was for a split moment scared of her. Those insane eyes. They were so, focused. Like when she had one of her nasty little apprentices.

Rancor meanwhile felt it, the gray murder pony's passion, her raw power, climbing like storm factors. Heat actually began to build up around the pony. Rancor approved.

+++

"So the Memory Spell didn't work," Applejack said.

"On the Valeyard, it didn't." Twilight replied. "But it was intended for the Doctor, not the Valeyard. But it should have healed the Doctor's persona for when he regenerates."

"It probably ought to say something that the Valeyard hasn't reappeared for Round Two, when, as a time traveller, he could literally ambush us at any time." Rarity observed. "Including five minutes ago. Or indeed, five CENTURIES ago."

"Yeah, so either the Doctor's back in business... or that cat's finally ran clean out of spare lives." Spike scowled.

"Let's try to keep a positive outlook, shall we? Morbidness doesn't suit you, Spike." Rarity said, frowning at the darkening expression on the dragon's face. "Is there something wrong?"

"Oh, nothing at all. Except that it's been It's been a thousand years since I first met you, Rarity, and I'm proving just as useless in battle as when I was a BABY."

"Spike, you're being absurd," said Rarity.

"Ya've been plenty of help in battle and out!" Added Applejack.

"A giant dragon thinks he can't help, that's-" Derpy gave Apple Pie a look. "-Not funny."

"You have been PLENTY of help!" Rarity insisted.

"Don't be so sore simply because a creep who prepares for everything came PREPARED to swiftly kill a dragon who could bite him in two!" Twilight scolded Spike like a mother.

"You are a force of nature, Spike, dear." Rarity said.

"So I'm just dumb muscle?"

"Don't you ever say you're dumb again!" Derpy flew up to him eye to eye. "I know what it's like for everypony to think you're retarded, to think you're 'special ed.' I got put into those classes and missed out on learning things I SHOULD HAVE learned! No pony's ever thought you were dumb! Me, Rarity, Applejeack, we all know you're clever."

"So far all I've done is take orders. How much 'cleverness' does THAT take?" At this point, Spike's voice started to choke up a little. "And... and if I'm so smart... that Dragonsbane dart of the Valeyard's... how come I didn't see that coming?!"

Twilight facehoofed. "None of us saw that coming Spike! Discord prefers to toy with his victims, not kill them. We had a thousand years of experience working against us!"

"And if it happens again? If Fluttercruel decides to take that page out of the Valeyard's playbook? Is there a way to protect myself?"

"See? You thought ahead to if a repeat happened! THAT'S smart!"

Spike lowered his head, uncertainty in his eyes.

Rarity said in solemn tone, "You think yourself uncreative, Spike? You think you're dim-witted? Tom, I imagine, would gravely disagree with you on that score."

A part of Rarity was genuinely angry with Spike. And with that for Spike came shame. "I'm sorry Rarity. I apologize. I really was being a complete jerk just now."

"Not a complete one, dear. You just need to stop selling yourself short."

"Any yah helped with the turrets! Yah were tearin' through 'em like Dracozilla!"

"They still have Dracozilla in this day and age?"

"Dracozilla will never die!"

Spike couldn't help but laugh a bit. Rarity gave his neck a caring nuzzle.

(Twilight, please, you can't afford to cater to Spike's self-worth issues, right now. Save it for after Discord's slain.)

'I can't afford NOT TO. Discord's too good at destroying others with their personal demons. It's one of his all-time favorite weapons.'

(Then you should quit, walk away, and find Element embodiments who don't whine and angst every five minutes.)

'Are you suggesting I mail-order replacement friends? Even if I could do such a thing... EVERYONE has their share of psychological baggage. And the more impurities we hammer out now, the stronger our bond will be forged when we face Discord.'

(You should remember that being able to stand on your own four hooves is not a sin.)

'You sound like the Valeyard.'

(Just because an enemy is an enemy, does that mean he has NO good ideas? All his opinions, knowledge, life experience... they automatically amount to garbage? Such an outlook strikes me as the epitome of vanity. And I think Traitor Dash would agree with me on that.)

And Twilight went cold as Dash's voice floated back into her memory: "Doesn't anyone... anyone at all... think my words... are worth... worth listening... to...? Just once?"

(If you can't stand on your own, how do you ever expect to support your friends?)

Twilight had no logical retort to that.

"Everypony. On Spike. If we're lucky we can force our way in from one of the upper floors. I'd teleport us there, but I'm not wasting a drop of mana. We're going to need every last bit of our strength we can."

"Wait one second!" Rarity interrupted. "Much as I hate to disrupt such an exciting moment... might I propose an alternative to storming the castle?"

Twilight cocked her head quizzically.

"Consider this: when we took out the Valeyard, we deprived Discord of his most effective tracker, (save for Discord, himself.) The six of us could elude the likes of Fluttercruel and Angry Pie... or fight them, if need be."

(There's very little 'if' about it.)

"Regardless, Discord wants for us to come to him, to the castle."

Their eyes all flicked to the red carpet.

"The way I see it: why play into his hands? Again? The castle is LOADED with deathtraps. Minions. Portals to bad places. We could just NOT go there. Wait him out. Inevitably, Discord will grow bored, all cooped up in that castle of his. Maybe he'll come to us... and we fight then! Or maybe he'll go somewhere else... to 'play.' And we just find out where... and ambush him!"

"That's...practical! And logical." Twilight said, with an thoughtful nod. "But Discord will see right through it. What's to stop him from "playing" on one continent on Monday, then warping over to a different continent on Tuesday? How do we even keep tabs on his movements? Anticipate where he'll strike next? No matter how hard Spike flies or I teleport, we could very well be chasing Discord all around the world, until poor Apple Pie here, dies of old age! So I'm sorry, Rarity, but our safest bet is to stop this, here and now, even if it means braving the castle."

Rarity sighed. "How I wish I could say you were wrong."

++++

Don't ask us how our flight took us over Ponyville. It was Discord's 'Capital Of Chaos' there was little in the way of 'logical' about it. Yes it was painful. Last time we were there, we were Discord's little minions. And Apple Pie had seen three or more of more her friends die.

It was also where I heard Apple Pie laugh for the first time, and Discord had spared her solely for that laugh. And my curiosity for the 'why' of her laugh had brought about all this.

++++

Puella. Caster. Magica. Ah promise, Ah'm gonna help save the world. Just ya watch.

++++

Last time I was here, I saw a town full of diamonds, and wanting them all, discarding everything ELSE that had value that went beyond mere things. Is that where my dress shop was? It's been so long. I'm sorry Old Rarity, I think even after everything is over I won't be able to go back to making dresses, I'm sorry. But maybe, maybe my talents can help me be an artist of a different kind. For now, I desire this nightmare to end, for my friends to be together again.

++++

This is Ponyville? Where's our house? Where's the post office? Where's SugarCube Corner? A thousand years. All that time I spent going around the castle. I didn't think how much Ponyville would have changed. I knew everypony else was gone. Carrot Top. Everypony. But . . . muffins, mommy promises, if our old home isn't here anymore than we'll make a new one.

++++

Me and RD, we sure did our hardest to spare as many ponies as we could here didn't we? If ya really thought their lives weren't worth livin', ya wouldn't have tried so hard to save'em. And here Ah am. The invisible Saint Applejack. Let's hope this saint can pull off a miracle. Father of All Alicorns, if yah are listenin', please help us. We're gonna need every bit of help we can get.

++++

Spike didn't care much for Ponyville itself, everything that mattered about Ponyville to him was riding on his back right now.

"Hey gals, check out down below, that's new."

Twilight turned around. After what had happened with the Dragonsbane dart, she'd been spending the flight injecting Apple Pie, Derpy, and Spike with a number of antitoxins and anti-venoms, just to be on the safe side.

"What is it, Spike?"

"Look down, I swear we've left crazy town and gone just plain weirds-ville!"

The others looked too, Applejack let out the first gasp.

"What in tarnation?"

"Why do all the ponies look so strange?" Apple Pie asked.

Over half the ponies, virgacorns, hippogriffs, and others, instead of being gray or having grayed out colors, were colored in painfully bright tones, grinning brightly and their eyes outright sparkling.

The few changelings about looked gorged or drunk on the feast of positive emotions.

But that wasn't the capper. A pony with a racing cutie mark had an entire car, track, and lights and bleaches covering his entire flanks and legs. A pony with a painting cutie mark had an entire art museum on the rear half of her body. The images of the cutie marks weren't simply 'zoomed' to take up more space, but looked like an artist had taken the simple straight forward design and had expanded them into ornamentations of several dozen cutie marks' worth.

A grayed-out mare whose cutie mark was a puzzle cube, was looking at the ground, one of endless number of ponies who had lost the will to live. She bumped into one of the grinning bright colors ponies, and their eyes met.

Her eyes began to swirl a familiar pattern, and her colors went from gray, to bright enough to hurt Apple Pie's eyes. The mare grinned as her cutie mark became an entire puzzle pattern that covered half her body. She giggled as she obsessively and compulsively began drawing puzzle designs into the patterned dirt and began taking apart and putting things back together giggling happily the whole time.

"Was bound to happen some day." Spike said, "Discord ran out of ways to make ponies miserable so he's seeing what it's like to make them insanely happy instead."

Rarity picked up on the tiny detail, "Their eyes, they're all spinning the REVERSE of how ponies under Discord's geasses normally do."

"At least they're not hurtin' themselves or each other," AJ said.

"If those strange colors spread by lookin' at each other . . . this'll spread to our family when they go to market next?" Apple Pie asked.

"Not if we beat Discord before then," Twilight stated, with more conviction than she felt.

"I hate to look a gift-horse in the mouth, but why aren't we going insane by looking at them?" Rarity asked.

"Inside Elements of Harmony?" Derpy asked.

"Works for me."

"The bright colors are weird lookin', but Ah wouldn't mind havin' a super cutie mark like that." Apple Pie said.

"It doesn't look that bad," Derpy agreed.

"Do we stop ta help'em?" AJ asked.

"They're not hurting each other for now. So let's focus on our real goal." Rarity said.

(Yes. Let's.)

"Agreed." Twilight said.

++++++

My name is Twilight The Unicorn, and we're now flying towards Discord's palace of chaos. He didn't just remake Canterlot Castle and Canterlot City, he made his castle out of the entire mountain! Not that you could tell that this had ever BEEN a mountain.

The fortress was deceptively logical, that's to say it looked like it could actually exist, not that the design plan followed any rhyme or reason for more than one or two sections. Discord's choice in colors for his fortress were like everything else about him: one part garish, ugly, over the top, and one part dark, depressing, and gray. I never said it made sense. I can see Applejack's castle garden from here. It may be chaotic, but it one of the few actually beautiful things in this horrid place, I hope it stays.

+++++++

"Spike, stop! Everyone! Prepare for formation!"

"Eh?" Spike raised an eyebrow as he slowed his approach.

"We should be close enough now. We're going to hit that house of horrors with the Elements here and now!"

"What?!" Everyone said.

"That castle rearranges itself on Discord's whims and its own. I am NOT letting us get separated again by another hedge maze! So we're going to hit hard and take one of Discord's biggest advantages out of the fight! If we're lucky it'll restore Princess Celestia too and cure Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy and petrify Discord! I'm done playing by his 'rules.'"

"Uh," Derpy meekly protested, "Won't that kinda show 'em that we have 'em? The Elements, I mean?"

"Discord's not stupid. There's six of us. Dash and the Valeyard identified most of us... and you can trust Discord's been monitoring our fights. He'll know I wouldn't have come back unless I had a way to beat him. The jig is up."

"Alright," Derpy sighed.

"To the end, Twilight," Spike simply said.

"Ah trust ya, Half-Light."

"If it can save everypony without a fight, count me in," AJ added.

"You better know what you're doing, Twilight," Rarity said lowly.

(I fully approve. The look on Discord's face would be lovely.)

The six ponies tapped into their inner selves, thinking about what their own personal truths meant to me, and what they all meant to Twilight.

The symbols of Harmony appeared on the heroes, and the rainbow of light formed from them, and the love and tolerance death-ray came crashing down.

The castle stones gave a giant groan: a muffled panicked scream. The castle grew legs and hustled out of the way of the beam of harmony, leaving a 'scorch mark' of normal brown dirt in its place, amidst the surrounding checkerboard pattern.

"NOW THAT'S NOT FAIR!" Derpy shouted first.

"Oh no you don't! Fire two!"

The castle skidded backwards, trembling in fear.

+++++

"WHAAA!" Cruelty fell on her face.

"My good china!" Discord cried out.

"This may look funny, but it's not," Anger grumble upside down on her head.

"Anyone catch the number of that bus?" Rancor shook her pounding head from the stone block that fell on her.

+++++

Discord floated up, "Seriously this castle needs to learn to dodge much more gracefully, I think I overpaid for this dump."

His collection of record players, turntables, and 8-tracks fell over and buried him. He excavated himself. "Where were we? Screwball! Mad Tiara! Uncle needs you!"

"Who, Master?" Cruelty looked confused.

"Don't be rude, Cruelty! You know Screwball and Mad Tiara, your... oh right I guess you wouldn't."

"Master, are you feeling alright?"

"Of... Of course I am."

++++

"Let me guess, you helped design that too?" Spike asked.

"Nope," Twilight answered.

Rarity said quickly, "Twilight, we can't keep firing the Rainbow Of Light all day! It's a serious drain on our magic reserves!"

"It's scared," Applejack whispered. "The Castle's scared.

"You're joking," Twilight and Spike said together.

"No Ah'm not. It . . . " Applejack remembered little fairy ponies. "It doesn't want to die."

"It's a castle! It's made out of stones and bricks! How can it be afraid to die when it's not even-" Rarity glared darkly at Twilight, followed by Derpy. "-never mind."

"Twi, spell me with that Royal Shout Magic," Applejack said.

"'Royal Canterlot Voice.'"

"Whatever just enchant me!"

Twilight did so.

"Howdy! Chaos Castle! Ahem."

"She isn't really," Twilight whispered.

"She is," Rarity answered.

"Greetings and how do you do, good Chaos Castle. It is nice to see you again. How thoughtful that you have kept my lovely garden safe for me." Abigail Jacqueline said in tones as polite and formal as when she let herself go alone with Rarigreed. "I am terribly sorry we have returned under these dreadful circumstances, darling. Your decor is as spontaneous and expressive as ever. But we seem to be at an impasse, I presume you do not wish to continue to keep ducking and dodging, and we do not wish to keep firing rainbows at you. I do deeply apologize for all our inconsiderate, uncalled-for behavior. Twilight, in particular, showed no consideration for your feelings on the matter and I apologize for her."

"Apologize for me? Ow!" Applejack kicked her.

"I hope we are able to move on. I am certain you are an upright, intelligent, reasonable, and rational castle who makes good decisions. But darling, I fear we must share some very harsh words with your Master. Now I am certain you have a vested interest in these affairs, but you should realize your Master cares not a whit for you. He would just as likely blow you up if he found another place to live. If you would but let us through, and not take sides, act as a neutral noncombatant, we promise to hold no grudge against you. And should we prove victorious in our endeavor, we'll have the maids switch duties from dirtying you to cleaning you instead. And you shall have two new owners who genuinely care about all life, including yours.

Now doesn't that sound positively smashing? If this arrangement is to your liking and agreement, please Pinkamena Swear on it darling."

Two of the castle towers (one containing Cruelty's collection of kicked puppies and the other one million pounds of Hearth Wearming's Eve fruitcake from Ponythulu), then mimed the Pinkie Promise, using one of the windows as the 'eye.'

Abigail turned back to Twilight and said, "There darling that should, erm- that oughta do it partner!"

Twilight brought her hooves to her ringing ears.

"Oops!"

"Let me ... just fix that," Twilight removed the enchantment.

Apple Pie stared at Applejack her eyes huge. "Saint Abigail... Applejack... which one is the real ya?"

"The one whose yer family and yer friend. Darling," she kissed her on the nose.

"Done hiding?" Rarity asked calmly.

"Ah wasn't hidin' nothin'."

Rarity made a sleigh bell laugh. "Heh, liar," she said with endearment.

+++

Holding a tiny portable TV in one paw, Discord and co watched the scene outside.

'So they CAN use the Elements, now I know for sure.' "Cruelty, if they charge up the Elements, retreat at once, understand?"

"Sure-sure."

"Understand?!"

"... Yes Master."

"I saw Strife's stone paw. You don't need to tell me twice," Rancor jeered. She looked to Cruelty.

Angry Pie however, was looking at the floor. "I hate traitors. Bad Castle." She stomped the floor so hard it cracked from one end of the grand hall to the other. The castle whimpered.

"Now now." Rancor patted Anger, "That's not the way to go about it." She pulled out her spear. Rancor grinned shark's teeth. "This is how your extract revenge on traitors!"

Rancor stabbed the black spear into the castle floor. It cracked down, and down, to the castle's foundations, the castle moaned in agony as the black spear pierced the very idea of it existing. Raw chaos leaked from the stab wound as the castle bled, thick, red blood.

"You see? You don't just them a slap on the wrist, you make them hurt, you make them feel it, eye for an eye, both of them theirs! That is revenge in its purest undiluted form," Rancor said with something not unlike pride.

Angry Pie hated being confused, "Isn't that supposed to be 'eye for an eye?'"

"'Eye for an eye, and no more than an eye for that eye? No, you're thinking of justice. Revenge is the beauty of stabbing out both your enemy's eyes for your eye!"

Angry Pie grumbled. "Well don't you dare break your promise either." she said lowly, narrowed eyes at the castle, getting a whimper.

"You just told it you hated it for being a traitor!" Fluttercruel replied.

"Promises should be kept. It'd better do its best to live up to it or I'll blow it up."

Rancor smirked. "And that's passion for something you believe in, also beautiful."

+++

That promise is so stupid. But it's a promise on MY name. It's one of the only things anypony ever took seriously about me. And I'm going to make sure they KEEP taking it seriously.

Pound, Pumpkin, Hex, Bubbles, all of you, we'll all be together soon. Discord and these jerks will be gone. And we can all be happy together forever.

++++

"Did ya hear that?" Apple Pie asked.

"Hear what?" Derpy asked.

"We Earth Ponies hear the land same way Pegasi hear the sky, and unicorns hear the leylines." AJ said.

"So what did you hear?" Twilight asked.

"The castle's pain," Rarity said, "Discord I think didn't take kindly to it agreeing to stay out of the fighting."

"That's not nice!" Apple Pie said.

"Let's have it be the last 'not nice' things he does," Twilight said.

Everypony nodded. Spike didn't need to be told to zoom towards the castle windows.

A saw cut around the window Spike was headed for, the piece of stone wall fell forward, to reveal an anti-chaos tank-cannon charged up and ready to fire aimed right between Twilight's eyes. There was no time to think as Twilight teleported them away, the synapses in her brain barely having time to fire before the weapon did the same.

Spike's mass landed with a grunt on top of AJ as he teleported on top of her in the air. Derpy reappeared upside down and righted herself with her wings before her hard head could make contact with the ground. Rarity reappeared with one leg fused with the ground. She screamed at the unimaginable pain before grimly amputating it, her new leg growing.

Apple Pie's eye nearly got impaled on Twilight's horn before Twilight was magically able to catch her. Twilight instantly hugged the filly and made sure she was safe.

"Beautiful landing, Twilight," AJ said.

"I had literally nano-seconds to teleport a dragon and five ponies out of the line of fire, I wasn't going for elegance."

A megaphone emerged from the castle wall. Out came Discord's voice. "Twilight Sparkle! I hope you liked the one gun salute in honor of your return home. I have prepared a bachelorlet party in honor of your future status as my queen."

"SAY WHAT-?!" Twilight wailed.

Everyone looked at her.

"Eh? You remember that 'Be My Queen Arena Battle Royal' you all had? Your runner up was Smarty Pants."

"THAT NEVER HAPPENED!!!"

"It didn't? OH! I see. Well, we'll, I've still put together for you a lovely welcoming committee."

Violet flames exploded on three balconies overlooking the heroes.

Fluttercruel took up the center one, while Angry Pie and Rancor flanked her on the other ones, the auras of purple flames casting shadows.

"Now Traitor Dash, here's your chance? Eh where are you?" A servant's bell jingled.

+++++
Miles away, Dash sprang up in bed, "COMING!"

The pie pan was a thousand years old, handed one from one generation of the pie clan to the next, and now Rainbow Dash met its warm embrace, impressing, for all time, her visage upon it. "Or maybe I'll just go back to..." She fell back over out before she hit the pillow.

Minty Pie looked at the pie pan, she wasn't sure why, but she could swear she had fulfilled its destiny.

++++

"We already knocked Rainbow Dash back to her senses ya psycho!" AJ shouted climbing out from under Spike.

"You did? Oh! Yes! Of course! My bad! Still! My little princess is all dressed up for the occasion. Doesn't she look pretty?"

Twilight felt sick, around Fluttercruel's neck was a necklace of unicorn and virgacorn horns. And a small cape of patchwork cutie marks.

Apple Pie felt worse, one of those foal horns had a white and purple spiral to it. "Magica?" Her teeth clenched. "MAGICA! THAT'S NOT FUNNY!!"

Twilight lifted her off the ground. "I'm angry too Apple Pie! Don't let them bait you!"

"You're angry? I am Anger." Angry Pie stomped her rear hoof, making the battlements shake. The heroes gasped.

"Pinkie Pie, yer leg, it's healed."

"That is not my name."

"I am Cruelty!"

"And I'm Rancor again by the way, boo-yah!"

Twilight, Applejack, Derpy Hooves, Apple Pie, Spike, and Rarity, stared at the two Bearers of the Elements of Chaos.

Apple Pie shouted, "Miss Rancor, we ain't got no hay with you! We don't wanna fight ya."

"Sorry kiddo, this is family."

Twilight pleaded, "Fluttershy! Pinkie Pie! THIS ISN'T YOU!!! You're not monsters! Can't you see Discord's taint is warping how you think and feel?! Search your memories! You KNOW you'd never do any of this before he hurt you! We don't want to hurt EITHER OF YOU!!! Let us help you! We're your friends!"

Angry Pie snarled stomping her restored hoof again. "The past is dead Twilight Sparkle."

Twilight Tragedy had seen Angry Pie like this for a thousand years, To Twilight the Unicorn, who wasn't soulless, those words hurt.

"Pinkie Pie, try to remember please, Minty. She's your friend. Your best friend. Before everything. I know a part of you remembers. She's been reborn in this world, and she remembers now too. She wants you to come home. All the Pie family is waiting for you. They're willing to be there for you. Just let go of all this hate. Remember. Please? Everything Is Positively Pink!"

"Minty? . . . A past that never happened is deader than dead. You're living in a dreamworld. I'm not an empty headed doll of a broken fantasy-land. And I'm not friends with a doll. I am pure! I'm FREE!!! Pinkie Pie was a broken mess, I pulled myself back together piece by piece the hard way. I gave those stupid ghosts the hard knocks they deserved for trying to turn me into somepony I'm not. A thousand years and nothing has changed. My sisters and parents still want me to be somepony THEY want me to be. I didn't listen to them when they were alive. I can't believe they thought I'd listen to them now that they're dead."

"Pinkie Pie . . . " Tears formed in AJ's eyes. Rarity's heart ached.

"There is no Pinkie Pie! I am me!"

Apple Pie slowly shook her little head in horror.

Derpy looked at the gray curly maned pony, and saw a stranger.

Spike had figured this all our centuries ago. "Twilight, there's nothing left, she's gone."

"NO!" Twilight stamped her hoof. "I refuse! I refuse to believe she's gone, just like YOU refused to believe RARITY was gone, Spike! Discord's taint is twisting her logic, she can't help herself!"

"Squawk that all you want. Believe what you want to believe," Anger said.

"Fluttershy! Remember tha real ya! Ya like helpin' others! Ponies and animals! It makes ya happy! It wasn't just somethin' ya were good at, ya were great at it! It's yer talent! Bein' kind ain't weak! Ya had the courage to cow ah dragon and a cockatrice! That's the Fluttershy Ah remember and that's the Fluttershy whose gotta still be there!"

"I'm so happy to disappoint you too, sweet Applejack dearest, because I'm afraid the Fluttershy you remember ceased to exist a LOOOOONG time ago!" Cruelty said in a sing-song, she grinned as she took two out bloody bladed weapon out of her wings. "She's long gone!" Then she blinked and hide her face with her mane. "Um . . . that is, if you want to. . . ."

Rarity let out a small gasp taking a tiny hoof forward.

The pegasus blew a raspberry. "HAHAHAHHAHAHH! THE LOOKS ON YOUR FACES! 'Look at me cute innocent Flutterface!' You actually BOUGHT IT for a second there! HAHAHAHH! Gah! My stomach! HAHA!" She then said coldly devoid of all humor. "Now do you get it?"

AJ didn't want to believe what she was seeing. Apple Pie moved closer to the older Apple. Spike sighed, he had seen this coming a mile away, but had hoped he was wrong. Derpy only shook her head. Rarity's face was like a statue.

Twilight's legs trembled.

"If that's the truth. Then so be it. No more lies to myself anymore," Rarity said simply. "But Greed is straight foreword and honest. And what I want more than anything now, is to no longer be Discord's slave! SO WHERE IS MY BEST FRIEND YOU, BITCH!!!"

Spike gasped at Rarity.

Fluttercruel simply said, "Huh?"

"YOU WERE LYING WHEN YOU SAID SHE'S CEASED TO EXIST! But you were telling the truth when you said she was long gone! Meaning she's not here!!! NOW WHERE IS SHE?!?!?!" Rarity roared.

Angry Pie cooly turned her head.

Cruelty actually took a hoof step back before collecting herself. "I have absolutely no idea where she is. She could be anywhere. After I killed her."

"DON'T EVEN TRY LYING TO ME YOU LITTLE NAG! You don't know where she is but you didn't kill her!" Rarity's voice was like thunder that vibrated off the rocks themselves.

"Better stop lyin'," Applejack said, a glare in her eyes. "Yah got two livin' lie detectors standin' right in front of yah."

" . . . That pink beotch! . . . That pink Alicorn beotch! She STOLE HER! She was the one who stole her!!!!"

I grumbled, sitting in my room. Eating Cadence wasn't quite as agreeing with me as I'd expected it to, and most certainly didn't make up for being pulled out of the fight early. I got a smirk. 'I know just how to blow off some steam.'

I concentrated, my copy of my favorite playroom appearing in my mind, entering the part of my soul I so loved to enter.

"Hey mom! Ready to play?" I called, walking in...and finding the blood-stained table mysteriously empty. "Hehe, oh you want to play hide and seek! Fine, you know I love that game!"

I drove a spear through a table, looking under it to find no pony. "You've gotten better." I grinned. "You can hiiide, but you can't ruuun mommy!"

"You will not find her."

I turned and gasped, falling backwards over the table. Queen Cadence stood there, glaring daggers at me. "You?! What are YOU doing here?! We killed you!" Fluttercruel snarled. "How did you get in here?!"

"Maybe when my horn pierced your shoulder, I split a tiny piece of my spirit off, which now stands before you. Maybe devouring the flesh of a goddess was not a very wise decision on your part and carries a remainder of my essence. Maybe now that I'm dead there is nowhere I can not be. Regardless of how how I got here, I've been searching your soul."

"For what?! You gonna take over my body now like Master did?!" I asked, then fear entered my mind at that thought.

Cadence's face turned to one of pure hate and disgust. "No, I'm her for a rescue mission."

My eyes widened as I noticed a motionless yellow and pink shape on the Alicorn's back, covered in wounds. "No! She's mine!"

"Her light does not belong to the Draconequi," the pink Alicorn said, "Your own kind will judge you, but you will never torture your mother again," she said, looking back to my mother on her back.

I drew a massive sword. "Give her back!"

Before my sword reached the Alicorn, she and Fluttershy vanished in a burst of light, the sword hitting the floor of the mental room. The look mother gave me in that moment made my heart skip a beat.

"'Your own kind will judge you, but you will never torture your mother again.' AGH! THIEF!!! So what if I ate her leftovers?! It's not like she was using them anymore!!!"

"Mother?" The heroes all echoed.

Cruelty took the cloak off. It wasn't three butterflies on her flanks any longer. Had it ever been? Like the memory of a dream, a phantom cutie mark.

Her real cutie mark was criss-cross heart design made with blade edged shaped lines like scimitars. It was based on the ancient symbol for 'Dream-Eater.' "Every cut I make in the flesh of you ponies is a sonnet to the love I have for my father."

Rancor clapped. "Beautiful Cruelty."

"F-father?" Applejack gasped. Suddenly. Many things were starting to make sense. The shock of the reveal left the ponies speechless.

All but one. "You . . . you're . . . then Fluttershy . .. and Discord . . . . to Fluttershy.... daughter! DISCORD! I SWEAR YOU'RE DEAD!" Rarity snarled her eyes on fire.

Spike looked in concern at the unicorn of his life.

"Meh. Like I haven't heard that one before."

Rarity blew up the megaphone. A new one emerged.

Twilight mind was spinning out of control.

(TWILIGHT! FOCUS! FOCUS! REMEMBER WHY YOU'RE HERE! REMEMBER WHAT YOU'RE DOING!)

'But, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy-'

(FOCUS!!! YOU HAVE TO! Or everyone is going to die! Remember your mission! Your purpose!)

' . . . Life is full of magic and tragedies . . . I will break my way through them all.'

(That's the spirit! Don't lose it! That shred of doubt is all he needs! Let there be NO DOUBT! Remember the ones in front of you are not your friends! They're the enemy!)

AJ shed a tear. "Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Ah'm so so so so so sorry." Derpy put a hoof on her shoulder in front of the three killers. "...At least we know Fluttershy's with the Big Alicorn now."

"That's stupid, and you're stupid," Angry Pie deadpanned.

Fluttercruel laughed. "Oh man, five hundred years of pretending I had that marshmallow's Cutie Mark was so worth it! You should see the looks on your faces!" she exclaimed, then gave a disturbingly familiar grin. "Priceless."

"That's my girl!"

"And you...you TORTURED HER?!"

"It was mother/daughter bonding time."

"Before we get started." Angry Pie looked at Derpy, "I'll say I honestly feel sorry for you. The last thing I want is to kill a retarded mare-filly who barely understands the world around her."

"I am not-" "She is not retarded, Pinkie!"

"I don't need you agreeing with me, Liarjack-"

"I WASN'T LYING! Shame on ya! After ya've been so angry so long at ponies who thought ya weren't whole in the head-?! Shame! Judgin' a pony from how she looks? Ah'm so disappointed in you!"

"Like I care what you think!"

"YES, YA DO CARE ABOUT WHAT AH AND EVERYPONY THINK! THAT'S ALL YA CARE ABOUT! WHY ELSE DO YA GET SO MAD?!"

"Geeze!" Cruelty said, You're supposed to be the 'heroes' here, but we're having a lot more fun than you! And we're certainly nowhere near as unhappy! I'd say YOU'RE the ones with the problem."

"THERE IS NOTHING HAPPY ABOUT HOW DISCORD TORTURES THE WORLD! No, EVERYONE!" Rarity snapped.

"About time you all realized that," Angry Pie said.

"Why do ponies always bitch and whine about me killing their friends? Everyone dies someday, it's nature. They should just enjoy the time they have together instead of moaning about it like a bunch of spoiled brats."

"Yer not a part of nature! Yer just a sick killer!" Apple Pie snapped.

"Hey, sure you've lost your friends and family, but you didn't start out with your buddies and sister. So it's not like you actually lost anything."

"She was mah twin! Ah did start out with her!"

"That's besides the point. you started out with nothing, and so what have you lost when you end back up with nothing? Nothing! Always look on the bright side of death! Ha ha ha! Laugh with me, Element of Laughter!"

"That ain't funny! That's bein' mean!" Apple Pie declared.

Rarigreed retorted, "That's not looking on the bright side! That's making light of what she's lost!"

"Don't ya EVER say those words again!" AJ shouted. "The only bright side ta death is they ain't sufferin' no more."

"No! Ha! Always look on the bright side of-AAGH!" Cruelty now had a bucked rock going through one eye.

"Bright side of 'AAGH?' Works fer me!"

Discord's voice rang out. "Let's get this game started! Rancor! Anger! Cruelty! . . . tear them apart."

"Well it's about time." Rancor took out her spear, and dropped it, it seemed to ripple in the air as it sank and vanished into thin air. 'My petard isn't for hoisting thank you.' She assumed a martial artist pose, her claws bared and ready. Rancor grinned like a shark, her eyes like a wolf's. "Let's see how well you do against me! I'VE WAITED A GOOD LONG WHILE FOR A GREAT FIGHT!" She said with bloodlust. "DON'T DISAPPOINTMENT ME!"

"READY!" Wings made of levitated stone formed on Rarity's back, face serene, but eyes blazing with fury.

Anger narrowed her eyes. Slowly saying names under her breath only she could hear. And . . . the calm that settled over her, was more frightening than her rage.

"I won't run away," Derpy said.

"Who wants to be ashes first?!"

"We're here to save the day for Magica, Half-Light, and everypony else!" Apple Pie declared.

"For Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy!" AJ said.

"For my friends!" Twilight shouted.

"For everyone!" the six all declared.

"Enough with the bantering!" Cruelty screamed, "Let's get to the killing!"

She flew off the balcony screaming bloody murder. She came face to fist with Spike's fist and impacted into the castle wall. "You upset Rarity!" Spike reached back for another punch when Rancor flew across his chest clawing him, going right through his scales and bleeding.

"Keep your wits about you niece!" Rancor was caught in the telekinesis of Twilight and Rarity. Derpy charged fast at her.

Angry Pie leapt down right at where Twilight was faster than freefall. Twilight had to dodge and broke her concentration. The impact of Anger's hoof with the ground created a pillar of debris as tall as the battlements a giant cloud of dust exploded from the point of impact.

Rancor kicked Derpy in the face making her spin backwards like a cart wheel as an red glow surrounded Rancor, Rarity felt like her horn suddenly was on fire she broke her grasp on the draconequus.

AJ and AP crashed into Anger at the same time, knocking her out of the smoke cloud, having used the vibrations in the ground to sense where she was.

Fluttercruel pushed herself out of the wall as Rarity created stepping as she went right at the pegasus, her faux stone wings coming down at her legs as sharp as knife as Cruelty brought up her own knives to knock them.

"If you're really Fluttershy's foal how can you be so horrid?!"

"All comes naturally! Maybe she wasn't the saint your fuzzy memories paint her as!"

"That's not the whole truth!"

"Oh will you give a rest and FIGHT!"

Rarity's eyes narrowed into a look of pure hatred. "You'll regret that. Fluttershy's free, you're just a monster wearing her skin. I can end you with no regrets," she said in a completely calm tone that actually made Fluttercruel recoil slightly.

Then she grinned. "At, LAST you get it!!"

"No, I don't 'get it' you sad filly. You kill for thrills. I'd do nothing if you just stopped. I'm nothing like you. And that hurts, doesn't it? To know just how alone you really are."

"Moron! Daddy's always with me!" Rarity felt the chains that had snaked around her back legs grown from Cruelty's tail hairs. Rarity let out a gasp as Fluttercruel swung her into the castle wall like drumsticks again a tambour. "And you all talk too much! You stupid, stupid, stupid muscle nag!"

When Apple Pie touched Angry Pie, it was like a fire brand had touched Anger's skin, but she had plenty of experience of being burned! She grabbed the smaller filly and tossed her into AJ as an unwilling projectile.

Then vanished into thin air.

"Oh no you don't." Anger hammer blowed her front hooves into the ground, creating a shockwave that left for a short instance the outline of two earth ponies. She rammed into them like a freight train sending then flying backwards. AJ grabbed Apple Pie and used her immortal body to shield Apple Pie's as she hit the dirt.

Spike's tail wrapped around Angry Pie and slammed her head first into the ground. The rest of her tore into past scales into flesh making him cringe, it was like a pony holding a hot coal!

A second later Rancor landed and bit into Spike's tail at a nerve cluster forcing him to let go.

"Come on, big boy! Show me what you got!"

Derpy four-hoof slammed herself into Rancor's face from above.

Rancor grinned shark's teeth, "You didn't announce your attack, you're an improvement over the old Loyalty."

"I don't care!"

Cruelty was caught off guard when a castle stone with Rarity's glow slammed into her head forcing her to let go, Rarity didn't waste breath as she counterattacked.

Angry Pie galloped at the two other Earth Ponies, Twilight teleported in front of her, then teleported Angry Pie upside down, making her skid along the ground. She suddenly found herself in a bright green field with a blue sky and wavy grass. She startled. Birds sang in the trees and bees buzzed on the flowers. She screamed in pain as an invisible fire monster hugged her from behind. She folded her ears, closed her eyes, refused to smell the sweet scent of the flowers, and ran like a mad pony, her sense of pain the only thing she could apparently trust as the fire ghost fell off her and she immediately leapt back to crush it. The illusion ended as AJ intervened to knock her off course.

Twilight was dodging a rain of knives as Cruelty released them from her wings over the battle field almost randomly as Rarity chased after her with single minded icy fury, using her telekinesis to create stepping stones for herself as she went.

Angry Pie kicked a mess of dirt into both Earth pony's eyes, "BRINGING YOU ALONG WAS STUPID!" Angry Pie hissed at Apple Pie before instead of attacking taking a flying leap at Twilight, ignoring the knifes of Cruelty that got into her but Twilight again teleported. And Anger suddenly found herself boxed in by a triple layer force field.

Angry Pie punched it, and all of them shattered, and the force of the punch actually blew against Twilight's mane.

'We outnumber them two to one, but I can't form any strategy in this bedlam!'

"You think you can just contain me? You think you can just brush me aside? --brush me aside-?!-- Taken any parasprites as pets lately?"

Twilight stopped. "What? Pinkie Pie? Are you saying . . . you remember now-" But nothing else did. Anger's fist shattered her jaw.

"I remember how much it's pissed me off every time you thought I was playing a game. Who's random now?"

Spike couldn't use his flame breath because Derpy was constantly coming at Rancor again, like an indestructible gray comet! Cuts and bite marks covered her but wasn't even slowing down! Spike's sheer -force- however was keeping Rancor off balance. Rancor eyed the two Earth Ponies coming to their unicorn friend's aid. Rancor seemed to SLIP OUT OF HER SKIN like a snake, and shot out between the earth ponies and their leader.

"No way! You two are part of the melee types! I want you to fight me!"

"Nopony cares what you want!" Applejack said.

Rancor shrugged, "Hey, I'm just here to fill in the gap, why so serious? It's not like this fight means anything. Just cut loose and let the inner savage out and let's have at it!"

"Ah ain't a savage! Ah'm helpin' mah friends!" Apple Pie protested.

(Your taste for battle is going to destroy you. Thrill seekers like you on the battle field always get full of themselves and end up on the business end of a horn. Discord is going to lose no matter what you do. You should just turn around, and go home. It's not like you draconequus actually have feelings.)

'Huh?! Who're you?! You're not using telepathy, not precisely, and you're certainly not using air to make sounds!'

(What? This isn't possible.)

'What isn't possible? Oh. Me asking you question? Is that it? So who are you?'

(Someone who enjoys every moment Discord rightfully suffers for his crimes and loves seeing his so-called carefully crafted 'plans' fall around him as he sees as he has nothing, he is nothing.)

'Wait a tick. A huge grudge against my brother. You don't feel like some left over consciousness of Destruction, thank Dad for that. You don't sound like a guy, so you can't be what's left of Mini-Dissy. Are you Wind Whistler or Galaxy?'

(Huh?)

'I'll take that as a no to both. I read up my brother's early days before coming here. You really should too, lots of interesting things.'

Apple Pie jumped off Applejack, Rancor blocked the illusion, then the real Apple Pie kicked her in the face and leapt off only to land on Applejack again.

"OH YEAH! OH YEAH! COME ON! COME ON! Strife you're right! This is fantastic!"

(You bring your own destruction with your blind seeking of childish thrills!)

'Ha! That's the best insult you got? Geeze! You're not used to taunting others! I can tell! Well, maybe just not me! I mean Pandora's as mean as a swan and she's stabbed deeper than you!'

(YOU'RE WORSE THAN PINKIE PIE!)

' . . . Wow. So that's it. I'm surprised it can work out that way. Now I know your voice Mi'Lady. I mean, wow. I got some crash courses on this sort of thing, and I actually ran into this once already while here, but whoa, just whoa. Aren't we sorta alike here?'

(WE'RE NOTHING ALIKE, WITCH!)

'Meh. Says you. Now I get why no one likes you kind of ponies.'

(BUt I'd say I distracted you well enough.)

'Huh?'

A giant dragon fist came down, with enough course to turn a rock golem into fine powder.

The dust was blow away by a quick wind. Rancor floated, brushing herself off.

As they stared, it finally hit them. In the moment of calm they saw. They wasn't a mark on her.

Spike's fists shook, feeling like somewhere someone was laughing their tail off at him and his friends.

"Are ya indestructible?" Apple Pie asked.

"Huh? Oh no no no nothing like that. I'm a growing girl, so I'm not as tough as say big sister Strife. My family's diverse on how tough we are." Rancor explained as she stretched. "But oh, wow, attacking the spirit of violence, with physical violence, no way that could not work." In a flash she was in front of Derpy and Spike, then flicked her away at missile speed and Spike into the ground to leave an impression. "Morons."

"Miss Derpy!" Apple Pie called.

Spike breathed fire. "Nuh-uh, counts as violence since it's a natural part of you. Sorry. You're gonna have to try some different than drown an ocean with water!" She elbowed Spike in the gut, it felt like being hit by a battering ram.

AJ would have traded every apple she had ever bucked for her good lasso right now. She looked at her tail. Desperate times.

Fluttercruel mentally cursed 'Stupid stones! I can't regenerate if something is in the way!' Flying was getting harder and harder, and Rarity was on her like the tail on a pony. Rarity had been firing stones into her body that seemed to dig almost with a mind of their own and refused to be pulled out easily. Rarity kept drawing up her own stepping stones, creating her steps as she galloped. And kept glaring right at her with a cold anger.

Cruelty let out a cry of frustration and tore off her own tail, it turned into a spiked chain and flew upwards which Rarity followed forming her steps into a staircase then folded her wings and dove down, wrapping it around both of them, and dove right into the castle, smash through at least two floors.

"RARITY!" Twilight teleported straight to where the hole was. Less than a moment later Anger rammed her in the side, skidding her across the castle's rooftops and towards the castle's inner garden.

Each time Twilight bounced, she was kicked again, and each one carries enough force to break bones, the bursts of new pain making it impossible to teleport, she bounced off the roof, and her head collided with a safe that seemed to have no other purpose than for her to hit it, she fell downwards into the inner garden and her head collided with an anvil. She got up, literal every bone in her body broken as she felt a stick of something shoved into her mouth, she saw the letter 'T.N.T.'

Managing to spit it out in time, the explosion was still deafening and knocked over one of the acacia trees that made up the garden, it fell into a shallow mucky empty pond.

"This is the place Gummy died. So I figured this fits as a place to kill you." Angry Pie was suddenly in front of her, but her face, her eyes were burning with rage but her face was so calm, her restored back hoof slowly tapped behind her, like she was repeating a mantra in her head.

"This is where," Twilight asked as her jaw regenerated and she got her wits back together, everything was happening so fast, too much, too quickly, too much information, too many revelations, she was so confused! "You, you . . . killed him?"

She back hoofed her. "I DIDN'T KILL HIM! I could never kill him. He never judged me. Never laughed at me. He never didn't take me seriously. He never treated me like a joke. But you! You all went and assumed I had killed my only real friend. I hate all of you. By the way . . . tail twitch-twitch."

Twilight gasped and rolled out of the way as piece of stone from above fell where she had just been, only to be kicked by Angry Pie who hadn't been there a moment before. "There's no reason for us to fight Pinkie pie!"

+++

"VICTORY!!!" The bad-flanked villains all cheered. The dirt maid had just finished making their new chairs. Made out of the carapace of five different colored changelings: Blue, Yellow, Pink, Black. Fluttercruel had taken the Red one and added it to her trophy room.

"THE MOST BADFLANK OF BADFLANK FIGHTING!" Solomon Gallop cheered downing a tankard of soft-rock cider. "THE WAY I TORE OPEN THEIR GIANT ROBOT!"

"And the way I clean sliced their heads in two their helmets! Not leaving one drop of incor my unholy blade!" Azure Lapis Lazuli Stone declared polishing his samurai sword.

"Combining their weapons together into big canon was no match for my pistol!" General Raven Nest boasted cleaning her mountain shattering six-shooter.

Makarov Pistol-Whip said, "Now now darlin', let's not go forgettin' the help we had from this little darlin'." He swatted the teenage filly on the rump. Making the four super-villains laugh. The filly's face burned.

"AND ALL! For the glory of the Master Of Masters! Supreme Lord Discord himself!" Solomon Gallop boomed so loud the meeting room shook.

The filly spoke up. "I was protecting mom! Not Lord Discord! OR any of you!"

"Show some respect brat!" Pegasus General Raven Nest snapped.

"Aren't you part of the Discord Youth? I'd say you owe plenty of respect to'em, and us." Pistol-Whip stroked her flank forcefully over her firecracker cutie mark.

Then Pistol-Whip's face was smash into the table from above.

A vicious gray pony with curly hair on top of him, his horn stuck in the table.

"YOU NAG!" Pistol Whip hissed.

"HOW YOU GET IN HERE?!" The giant Solomon Gallop gasped at her hurting his best buddy.

Angry Pie ignored them. "THere is no 'Discord Youth!' My foals are mine. Not his! They aren't robots like Tragedy, or lapdogs like Fluttercruel, or slaves like Traitor Dash. They're my family!"

"YOU are nothing but an attack dog!" The octuple-hybrid Azure Lapis Lazuli snarled. "A mad animal that Discord tolerates the existence of!"

"DON'T YOU TALK THAT WAY ABOUT MY MOTHER!"

"Adults are talking mewling!" General Raven Nest said in the filly's face back hoofing her.

Angry Pie punched General Raven Nest into a wall.

"Firecracker are you okay?"

"Yes mother."

"Ya know." Pistol Whip said. "Ah was all thinkin' us all just havin' yer filly fer fun. Make ah mare outta her. Give us adults some pleasurable company. But since yer so close. Ah think the four us outta give ya the same!" Several machine guns magically lifted around him as a he took a spiked whip as well.

"Time for you to learn that animals shouldn't act like they're people." Azure Lapis Lazuli helping his dear Raven Nest to her hooves.

"Firecracker. Don't worry. Mommy Angry Pie won't let the bad ponies hurt you!"

***

"Ya didn't do what?!" Liarjack exclaimed.

"And you're going to help me make sure Discord doesn't find out."

"Ya ain't jokin'!"

"You're going to. Because if you don't, I'm going to break your face! Discord's not learning Firecracker is why I did what had to be done!"

"Ya know, if ya told me it was about makin' sure Firecracker gets hurt real bad, I'd have helped ya easy."

A bit later LJ had helped Angry Pie clean up the mess from the fight, rearrange the bodies, and close the barrier to Discord's secret elite's chamber.

***

"Firecracker. . . . Mommy wants you to know you're free to go. I'll just steal a corpse from 'Cruel and tell Discord it's you. Gummy'll make sure you get out of the castle okay."

+++

Angry Pie breathed in deep. "I have a new future I plan on grasping. And I can do that only by killing my past. Namely, you. Twilight. And all of your friends. Good-bye."