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Pony POV Series Season Six: Dark World/Shining Armor

by Alex Warlorn

Chapter 33: Episode 98: (Dark World) Off Da Rails!!!

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My Little Pony: Friendship of Magic Friendship
Pony POV Series
Dark World Part 22 "Off The Rails"

"This is not Discord's room," a crayon message on a piece of paper taped outside my door said. Similar messages were taped on every door in the castle. Each with its own accent and voice.

My great and really great self lay on the side of my bed curled up in the sheets. My pillow was wet for some reason.

I was looking at my tiny personal TV showing the Elements of Harmony currently with their guard down. Socializing on my doorstep. Completely unprepared for a surprise attack, like turning the roof they were on into acid-jello.

I didn't even try. What was the point? It always ended the exact same way, no matter what I chose to do.

I snapped my fingers. Those nice clouds above Pinkie and the rest turned into acid, radio-active goo, and anti-matter. But hippogriffs who had been hiding in secret all this time dove in, heroically taking the hit, and buying Team Atonement & Pals the split-second they needed to get away.

I snapped my fingers. A giant mountain fell on Twilight and her friends as they were on their way to my castle. But the tunnel the diamond dogs had dug millimeters right under their hooves gave way at just the right instant. But I assumed they were dead, and went on assuming they were dead for the next several hours, right up until they burrowed up from right underneath my feet while I was in the middle of refereeing the Freestyle Orthopedic Surgery Olympics, catching me by surprise.

Rancor tapped on my door with that spear of hers, "C'mon, big brother! This is your little sister speaking! If you're feeling vulnerable, let me in!"

I ignored her. I had so hoped she could change things.

(I was worried about that, myself. But thankfully she's done nothing too disruptive.)

I ignored her too.

"I made Rosedust immortal! Why not her? Why can't I? Rosedust WANTED to die and I was able to keep her alive. It doesn't make any sense." I laughed. "Dang it! It's supposed to be -FUN- when things don't make sense!"

(The answer to that is simple. If you could render her TRULY unkillable, how could you ever lose her? And if you could never lose her, why, what else would you suffer bereavement from?)


"You know, there are so many things I like more than you. Morning Star. By Dad's love spike tendrils, if I divided how much I like Venus and Rota Fortuna by half it would still be more than you. Even Grogar was preferable to you! I thought there was a you within you that I finally brought out. But in the end, you disappoint me even worse than Celestia disappointed me as a girlfriend."

(Disappoint -you-? You sicken me.)

"You're not my mother, either of them, so that's just noise to me darlin'."

(How's this for noise: you're an idiot who creates his own worst enemies.)

I sighed.

"It's strange, after all this time I don't regret saving her. Why can I never make her fall her in love with me, though? I've even, blech, read books on the subject." I gestured at the aquarium, where submerged copies of 'The Collector', 'Beauty And The Beast,' and 'The Phantom Pony of the Opera' were kept.

"If THOSE are suppose to be examples of classic romance literature, then Twilight ought to thank me for curing her book addiction.

"So he's in here?" I heard from outside.

Rancor's voice answered: "Huh? Who are-, oh didn't recognize you for a second, sorry." The door opened. "Hey, thanks, I've been trying to get, hey I want in too!"

"Sorry. This is between us."

"I'm family too, so-" The door slammed shut.

"I'm sorry." My room's new arrival said genuinely.

I don't turn to look at her. I didn't expect her to come here.

"She's dead."

"Huh?"

"Angry Pie. They've killed her."

"What! . . . What are you talking about? She looks alive to me. . . . Or did you mean, 'dead to us' since she's finally gotten over her anger issues?"

"They killed her. How can she be so happy around them after they've killed her? Did she really want to die all this time? I don't get it."

"Uh, she's right there. True, she isn't a lovely shade of gray anymore, but you can just fix that, right? If they broke her, you can just fix her!"

"I can't if she's dead."

"But she's right there! And even if she did die, you promised to bring all her brats back to life, so resurrecting her should be easy-peasy right?"

"Yes, you'd THINK that's how it would work! But I can't. She's an exception, somehow. It doesn't make sense, which isn't fun for me, which makes even less sense, which still isn't fun, which is . . . Distortion."

"It's a distortion?"

"My first child with her, I was going to name him Distortion. I KNOW that future exists SOMEWHERE, why can't I find it?"

"Don't do this to yourself! Please! You just fought your way out of one depression, please don't fall into another! I need you! I don't want to live in a world where you're not here! I'm here for you! I'll always be here for you! Can't you see-?!" Said the pony mare.

"Stupid Laughter! Where does something so fun get off being on the side of Harmony anyway? I laugh all the time and it has nothing to do with harmony."

OW! What a splitting headache, did she really have to bisect me -like a G-rated cartoon character, not a gritty anime. Leave the gore at home this time!- I push myself back together.

"Are you all here now?"

"You know I'm never all there."

She laughed. "Sounds like you're back to abnormal."

(Heh. When chaos becomes normal, it ceases to be chaos. It becomes expected. Defeating itself. But that's the nice answer. 'Chaos', the very thing you were born to bring into the universe, doesn't exist. Everything is cause and effect, down to the tiniest detail. There is no 'unpredictability', there are no 'surprises' only those without enough wits and psychological insight to figure out what comes next. Ponies, hearts, weather, dice, all trapped in predeterminism. There is no free will. There is no chaos. The outcome of everything was decided the moment creation came into being, including every tiny bit of your 'spontaneity' as well. You fall into patterns the same as everything else.)

"I still can't believe it. How can she abandon family like this just to hook up with them?!" She says looking at the screen, feeling betrayed.

"It's not that surprising. When Traitor Dash fought alongside Tragedy to keep the Valeyard from stealing her kill, she outright admitted how good it felt to fight along side her, ick, real friends again. Then, of course, Tragedy had to go and kill her in self-defense. Rarigreed got a nice Element out of it though."


"Huh? What are you talking about?" The purple pony asked. "Dash wasn't killed. Plus, the Valeyard fought them SECOND, after Dash!"

"Oh! She did? They did? Oh right right. Of course. That's what happened. Must've gotten mixed up."

(Why don't you try to explain it to her? Again? Maybe things will be different this time. Maybe. Heh.)

" . . . so now it's down to us three . . . but I'm not scared. Because I'm fighting for you." She nuzzled me on the face, I look into her purple eyes. They look good on her. "You are more important to me than anything in the world. You are the world. I'm sorry everything keeps going wrong. Those losers should have never gotten this far. Don't worry, when I'm done, they'll be soaking wet and clueless in their own blood!"

I chuckle at her good humor. "You always had a way with words, my dear. You know. It is us three. Maybe the game isn't over yet."

(Don't bet on it!)

"Well, it IS over.... for them! Watch! Me and Rancor will take care of them! We'll be awesome! Just you watch!"

"No . . . I won't."

"Huh?"

"I've hidden behind you for too long during this whole..."

"You weren't hiding! I was protecting you! What happened wasn't your fault! And it turned out to be okay so-"

"I love you, my dear."

The phrase is like battery acid in my mouth. Strange, since I normally find it delicious stuff, especially when chilled. Once, I made a mare have every liquid she drank taste like battery acid. Offered to put her taste buds back to normal if she and her foal each drank half a bear-sized bottle of whiskey. The mother ended up drinking all of it by herself, not letter her foal drink a drop and died, how greedy. Oh? Heheh. Oh right. I think the 'I love you' bit burned so much because it was true.

"You are precious to me as well. Even if it took a few times for me to realize it. About the only thing that's been precious to me." I hug her as I say it. She presses her body against me, rubbing against me, and kisses me.

I did what I had not done in, well, not since I'd been with a pink maned sun Alicorn. I sang.

"Looking down on the ponies
Can't they see I'm so lonely?
Watching them try so very hard to run
My wonderful world.
As my chaos unfurled
Why couldn't they join me in my fun?"

She sang back.
"None understands how you feel
They only see a heel
But trust me I understand you
The smile that you make
When your life is at stake
Is the same as my own, oh it's true!"

"We are two of a kind
A little unsound of mind
Like two pieces of a puzzle, oh how true.
And if one were to leave
The other would only grieve
I know it
I'd be lost without you.
I'd be lost (I'd be lost)
I'd be lost (I'd be lost)
I know it.
I'd be lost without you!"

*Why Discord? Why do you spend so much effort into trying to NOT understand? Part of love is changing yourself for others.*

Heh. So you're here at last. About time. I've been waiting for . . . well that's kinda meaningless isn't it?

(Who are you talking to?!)

Hey, did you know, the shrill banshee first accused you of being ME?

*Discord think. When were you the most happy? When were you the most appreciated? When did you not NEED to twist the world every few moments to keep from feeling hollow?*

Appreciate the efforts, beautiful. I really do. Never thought you'd grow up to be as lovely as Celly. But a draconequus has got a reputation to maintain, a self-image thing. After being stuck on all these filler arcs, I have to see how this all finally ends.

*CHANGE how it ends! You can!*

I appreciate that beautiful...But I think it's a little too late for that now.

++++

"So why can't you copy Discord's magic again, Twilight?" Pinkie Pie asked. "Isn't it all just one simple Do-Whatever-You-Want Spell?"

"Believe me, I've given it a lot of thought, and I've come to the conclusion that, no: it's not just one 'Anything Goes' spell."

"Is it because Discord needs to do that finger-snap thing? You could probably conjure yourself fingers of your own, if push came to shove."

Twilight sighed. "I've narrowed it down to two possibilities. Either Discord creates all-new spells just before he casts them: an 'anvil appears above Twilight's head when she's in front of my throne right now' spell, a 'Fluttercruel grows fifty-feet tall when facing an Ursa Minor' spell... all as various and specified as the many, many twitches of your own Pinkie Sense."

"Or...?" Pinkie prompted.

"Or Discord's magic is just so crazy that you'd have to BE as crazy as him to get it."

(Or so uniquely sane your logic is incomprehensible to others so you appear insane.)

*I concur.*

"The only spell of Discord's I've been able to learn is his Destruction spell... and it seems different from everything else in his repertoire."

"Oh," Pinkie Pie said lowering her head a bit, "I see. . . . I, I guess we can't go for the quick-fix solution then."

"I'd have let Rainbow Dash kill me if I was all about quick fixes."

*You also wouldn't have had a single friend along with you to watch your back; not even Spike.*

"What Ah'm more concerned about, darlin'," AJ butted in, "is what them ghastly black threads were."

"The ones you said were covering me when I almost killed Pinkie Pie?"

"Frankly, we're all shocked that YOU weren't aware of them," Rarity added.

"I almost don't want to know. All I know is that I liked hurting her." Twilight shuddered.

"Ya think it had to do with you . . . getting replacements?" Spike asked. "A replacement horn and a replacement Element of Magic?"

"No. If anything they helped stop it. Magica and Trixie weren't evil souls, after all."

"Who?" asked Apple Pie, about Trixie.

"Who?" chorused Spike, about Magica.

Twilight quickly explained about both the dead ponies.

"So that really is Magica's horn?" Apple Pie asked, gently touching it.

"At least until my head gets blown off again."

Derpy didn't like how Apple Pie didn't so much as flinch at that statement.

"The thing about the Elements is -- with the strange exception of Rarity -- they can't be TAKEN, they have to be given."

"I was able to take the Element of Magic from you." Pinkie pointed out. "I'm not PROUD of it, but I was."

"Perhaps so. Still, it wasn't quite as compatible as you were probably expecting, right?"

"Point taken."

"Ah still find it surprisin' that an empty boaster like Trixie had Magic in 'er. She was the last pony Ah'd think would have it. No offense."

"Not if you've read the rest of the seasons," Pinkie Pie said. They all looked at her. "Never mind."

"I don't care about any of that." Derpy said, "We're all together. We can save Everypony and Sparkler still! That's what matters."

"Agreed." Rarity said.

Pinkie Pie hopped up and nuzzled Derpy. "That's the spirit!"

Spike asked, "Pinkie Pie, if your colors are all back and you're you again, why is your mane still all straight?"

The mares looked at Spike for what they considered a tactless question.

"Maybe I'm finally growing up? Becoming a mare?"

"And a very fine mare ya are, darlin'." AJ hugged her.

"We are all proud of you," Rarity said.

"Thanks." Pinkie Pie hugged her too. "Uh, when you say 'we,' do you mean all us Element Bearers, or 'us' as in all the souls housed inside you?"

"Oh right, that." Rarity's ears wilted. "Both. And before anypony asks, it's all consensual between me and the ghosts."

"Nopony was suggesting it wasn't, darlin'."

"Applejack … can I ask you something?" Twilight asked. "What was it like having a big brother? And was your heart stronger for it?"

"That's a surprisin' question."

"It's just... I've never had any big brothers or sisters, I've had my parents and Spike, but not any siblings to look up to. To be there while I had my muzzle buried in a book trotting down the street. What it's like?"

"Look at us, darlin'." AJ smiled.

"Eh?"

"You've looked out for us, you've brought us back together, you've protected and cared about us, you've been alongside us, ya've been an older siblin' ta us, it's a part of you."

"Except you'd have to have a blue mane, if you became a big brother," Pinkie Pie said, "Blue's more a colt's color than a filly's."

"Hey! Purple is too a guy's color!" Spike protested.

"You'd make pink look manly, dear." Rarity smiled up at Spike.

Pinkie smiled and laughed. "Well, we better get a move on before Discord works past his 'curses foiled again' phase."

"Yer right, we don't have that much time ta burn." AJ nodded gently nuzzling Pinkie's side.

"Alright then Elements of Harmony," Twilight declared, "Then the 'big brother' inside me is gonna continue to shield us."

+++

Minty flailed in the fiery mane of the giant unicorn/pegasus, her body burning endlessly.

Pinkie Pie watched from the gray ground, trying to help her, but was always pushed back by a horde of other foals.

"Why are you hurting me?" The little green filly begged in confusion.

The purple pony in armor answered: "Any hurt on you is reflected on her several fold. I need no other reason."

Then the foals all attacked Minty, kicking and biting her.

The giant purple unicorn/pegasus had gave them all masks of Pinkie Pie's face. They all laughed at Minty. They put a collar on the real Pinkie Pie's neck with the spikes inwards and chained her to the ground, making her watch.

"Pinkie Pie!" She cried underneath the vicious horde.

Pinkie futility pulled at the chain, "Miiiinnty! Miiinty!"

*STOP! THAT IS ENOUGH!!*

The world shattered. Leaving only little Minty and little Pinkie Pie. The damage to them was gone.

*I'm sorry. Please. Enjoy one kind memory before awakening.*

Suddenly they were in the park again. The two friends nuzzled, and Pinkie Pie introduced Minty to her six other friends. Minty was disappointed none of them were green. What? She liked green.

"Wish you could have been a bit younger," Scootaloo said looking at the older filly.

"Scootaloo, that's a selfish wish," Cheerilee said.

"Yes big sister," The orange Earth Pony replied sullenly.

"Don't worry, I'm a unicorn and I don't mind another Earth Pony in the herd," The smallest of the fillies said, Sweetie Belle, smiling.

"Hello, I'm Rainbow Dash, who always dresses in style," the earth pony filly said with a hint of dramatic flare. "What's your dress size?"

"Green."

Rainbow sweat-dropped. "That's not a dress size darling."

Minty tilted her head. "It isn't?"

"Let me get the camera!" Toola-Roola said, "I can't wait to paint this! This is great! I'm gonna need to paint your picture later! But let's get a new group shot first!"

"I'm Cheerilee, this as you heard, is my little sister Scootaloo," Cheerilee said, "You look like a filly with lots of interesting stories to tell."

"Oh I do about green socks, green flowers. Heeey, have I seen you before? I think you were a unicorn."

"Hehheh. That would be a fun story, but since Scootaloo is an Earth Pony, it only makes sense I am too."

"And I'm the beautiful Starsong Melody!" The pegasus fluttered above the group. Flutter? Was she a flutterpony? Naw. She was a pegasus. "I'm going to have to come up with an extra line to the group song for you!" She smiled at the challenge.

"Group song?" Minty asked.

"Sure! It's starts like this,

"My little pony, My little pony,

---

I opened my eyes. I looked at my green hooves and cutie mark, three rock candies, not three peppermint candies. That Minty sure loved green.

I looked at Rainbow Dash, the adult pegasus, not a filly earth pony, still sleeping. I hoped she woke up soon. Uncle Apple Computer was trying to figure out how to feed her through her coma. Maybe immortals didn't need to eat?

I thought about the Earth pony I just dreamed about, from the memories of the Minty who existed before me. So beautiful. So different from this athletic pony. I gently stroke the rainbow pegasus' mane. I listen to her breath rise and fall. I remember Twilight's memories, of this pony. Remember how graceful she was in the sky. Maybe some of that Rainbow Dash was still here after all.

Rainbow Dash. Cheerilee. Sweetie Belle. Toola-Roola. Scootaloo. Starsong Melody. I'll never forget you.

Pinkie Pie. I want us to meet again, the real you, not a monster. I'm sure Twilight will save you.

++++

"Halt! You shall not pass!"
"Halt! We shall defend!"
"Halt! We really like saying 'halt'!"

"Hiiii-yaaaaa!" Rarity let out her battle cry. Followed by Spike, Derpy, and Twilight. AJ covered Apple Pie's eyes.

"Halt! OW!"
"Halt! I've fallen and I can't get up!"
"Halt! We surrender!"

All in all, the ninja-pirate-mutant-killer-bees weren't that much of a challenge.

"Everypony is kung-fu fighting! We were as fast as lightning!" Pinkie Pie hopped along, taking up the rear.

She fired her party cannon the opposite direction of the fight, taking out the Shadow-Beast-Of-The-Third-Unresolved that had been sneaking up behind them. Its remaining thirteen arms beat a hasty retreat.

"Harmony detected. Must protect vee chaos of lord Discord. Destroy all harmony."

"Hey, wait a minute. You're supposed to destroy harmony, but protect chaos," Apple Pie observed. She then gave a laugh. "But Half-light, Rarity, and Aunt AJ all have chaos AND harmony in 'em, so how can yah protect them and destroy them at the same time?"

The head of the giant-cyborg-spider-vampire that had suddenly risen up beside them suddenly exploded spectacularly from the paradox, followed by its body, Twilight shielding the mortal members of the group from shrapnel, then rubbing Apple Pie's mane.

"Why do paradoxes always make robots explode?" Rarity asked, confused. "Shutting them down I understand but exploding?"

"Knowing Discord, he probably designed it that way," Twilight remarked.

The Magnificent 300 Goblin-Cowboy-Samurai swarmed the heroes from all both hallway directions. "LEEEROY-PINKEENS!"

"So, Applejack dear, have you thought about what kind of world we'll make once Discord is no more?" Rarity asked as she threw diamond blades in every direction, not one hitting her friends.

"Ah figured it would be Celestia's call what kinda world we'll make." AJ replied, Magnificent Goblin-Cowboy-Samurai #172 or 'Clyde' going through an illusionary AJ and getting clothslined by the real thing.

"Really Applejack. Ponies have been doing their hardest to live without Celestia for a thousand years. We can't simply go back to the way things were."

"Doesn't mean we can't try." AJ slammed MGCS #119 'Bob' and MGCS #113 'George's heads into each other with another decoy. "I know we've all changed, but it shouldn't ALL be about making a clean slate! There are SOME things from the good ol' days I'd like to bring back."

"Really, Applejack? Like your apple farm? We don't even know if rocks will still be edible after Discord is gone. Yet you promised not to force them to farm apples again."

Derpy rammed head first through MGCS #180 through #185. Tom. Dick. Larry. Olson. Terry and Tim.

"Pinkie Pie's half of the family could do it, so can we."

"What I'm saying Applejack dear, is ponies have worked with the sweat of their flanks even with parasprites like Discord hovering over them."

Apple Pie had finished talking MGCS #009 into taking up knitting. "Big Lamppost Discord ain't a parasprite."

"Figure of speech, dearie." Pinkie Pie said, who was playing evasive rather than offensive.

"Pinkie Pie! I need a party cannon barrage!" Twilight shouted.

"Uh. I'm feelin' a little tired, and, these guys aren't-OW! That mean. They're just doin' their duty, right?"

"UGH! Pinkie! Spike! Full spread! Everypony down!"

"So as I was saying," Rarity continued as she hit the floor, "These ponies have earned what they have. Why should they swear their loyalty to Celestia after all this time?"

"Cause she's the rightful princess that's why! She's always been kind ta us."

"She might be kind Applejack, but really, Applejack, she and her sister merely have the job of raising and lowering the sun and moon. That'd give them legal shares to farming, lumbering, and countless other businesses that is only rightfully theirs, but that doesn't automatically grant right to rule."

MGCS #111 Gus was emptying shots at Pinkie Pie, but her Pinkie Sense told her where every bullet was going before he even took aim.

"Ya can't go on speakin' 'bout economy in Discord's world! Everythin' gets twisted about so often it's a wonder we ain't reduced to livin' in wigwams."

"We were, for a year or two that one century," Twilight pointed out.

"I'm talking about after Discord is gone and society rebuilds. Equestria's government of old is completely gone. You can't just expect ponies to latch onto an old system once the corrupt current one is gone."

"HA! Our cloaks of invisibility protected us!" Shouted the MGCS together having avoided incineration.

"That's ninjas!" Pinkie Pie protested.

"We borrowed them." MGCS #199 'Megan' said sheepishly.

"Maybe, but ponies will need somepony to look up, somepony they can love and believe in, and Celestia's always been able to fill that there role. Princess Luna just wanted ponies ta notice she existed."

"Ponies should turn to and look up to themselves."

"BANZAI!" MGCS #259 'Awesome McCool' engaged in epic sword to hoof combat with Derpy, and lost. "But at least, I was awesome . . ."

"Rarity, when all ya look up to is yerself, ya find ya don't reach all that high. Ever hear the story of the King Of Dot Land?"

"Oh oh oh!" I know this one!" Pinkie Pie said throwing pies at MGCS #038 'Simon' but her aim was off and she had to climb the walls to avoid his sword. "He was a dot in a zero-dimensional world, and since he had nothing to compare himself to, he thought he was all powerful."

"Exactly," AJ said, MGCS #201 Alfred nearly took off her head. "Ya cut mah hat!"

"You've knocked out several dozen of my buddies!"

"Oh right. Just tryin' ta save the world. Nothin' personal."

"Ditto." AJ kicked him through the ceiling.

"Now, Rarity, Ah agree that ponies deserve what they get through their own sweat blood and tears, you don't get to be a farmer without seein' that. But it ain't just about ourselves. It's about others too. We're our strongest together, not just lookin' out for what each of us wants."

"Then why look up at a single pony?"

"Rarity, I'm with Applejack here, no offense," said Derpy, dizzying one of their opponents with a tornado.

"None taken, your honest opinion please."

"Me, and Roseluck for a little while, we both looked up to the Doctor, he inspired us both. I wouldn't be here right now if he wasn't there to light the way. We both worked hard and even saved the world once or twice… one time was an accident, I didn't know sitting there would make the entire assembly line blow up, but we did our part to help BECAUSE he inspired us. Is that what you mean, AJ?"

"Somethin' like that."

Rarity asked deflecting bullets, "Derpy, no offense, but how many of those dangers would you have been in if not for him?"

"Uh . . . one?"

"And who did you have lined-up to look after Dinky if something happened to you?"

"The Doctor said he was a good caretaker."

That lie was so big Rarity was able to detect it through the pony it was told to!

"Another thing Ah learned as a farmer was respectin' those with more experience than ya. And Celestia's got tons more than even us. She wasn't Princess just 'cause she held the sun hostage over it, or whatever."

"Ladies, it's a fascinating discussion you're having, but why not save it for after we beat Discord?" Spike said as he rolled around in Goblin-Cowboy-Samurai.

"Spike." Rarity was surprised then said, "You're right. Liberate the world first, debate politics later."

MGCS #300 'Shane' fired his six shooters at Twilight, whose barrier sent them back, but Shane's sword deflected them all. Then his watch beeped. "Okay boys! And ladies! Wrap it up! Time to leave."

The Magnificent Goblin Cowboy Samurai 300 immediately withdrew taking their injured and fallen with them.

MGCS #300 waved, "Ta-ta."

"What do you mean 'Ta-ta?!'" Spike exclaimed.

"Oh. Well, our contract with Discord just expired. So we're no longer under any obligation to defend the jerk. But it's dishonorable to attack someone whose contract you just fulfilled. So we'll be seeing you. Maybe we can get turned back into hot virgacorn super-models after we leave the castle. Bye-bye."

The MGCS gave an honorable bow then vanished as quickly as they came as ninja tend to do instead of Samurai.

Spike just stared while Pinkie and Apple Pie waved. "Maybe we should escort them out."

"Spike, are you forgetting I'm the only hot pony with a horn you need?"

"Yes, dear, I was just... curious."

++++

"You've made smashing progress, dearie, and I love the rainbows, they're wonderful!" Said the mare Earth pony Rainbow Dash to me.

I look at the massive drawing across the clouds. "But . . . but there's so much left to do." I said looking at how much of the picture wasn't colored in yet.

"You've started, it would be wrong to just stop now." The pink pegasus with the blue lightning cutie mark said to me.

"But I'm so tired. It's taken this long to get this much done . . . maybe I should just go play with the others." I see Gildie, and Scootaloo waving at me.

"You're free to do that if that's your choice, Rainbow Dash."

"Posey?" Firefly blinked. "When did you get wings?"

"I'm sorry, Posey is... part of my family, but my name is Fluttershy." In front of me was a beautiful mare. She was in a white flowing dress, flowers in her mane, with blue birds chirping and flying around her. Light shining behind her making her look like she had a halo.

"Ick. Yer all girlie," I said right at her.

Big Rainbow Dash puts a hoof on my shoulder, "Now don't be rude, darling. I know you don't mind being pretty."

"Hey! I'm the toughest, raddest flyer there is!"

"I'm not saying you're not, darling, but you can't deny you like being pretty, especially compared to how Applejack was in Ponyville."

"That's not true! We were both badflank!"

"Now dear, didn't you like the dress Rarity made for you? And you wanted to look your prettiest for Princess Star-Catcher, I meant Celestia."

"I . . . I guess."

"So just cause you like . . ."

"-Experiencing danger and seeing just how high we can fly," Said Firefly.

"Yes, doesn't mean you can't enjoy looking pretty for others and yourself. So please don't deride others for wanting to put effort into their appearance."

I look up at Fluttershy, "I'm sorry for callin' ya 'all girly.'"

"It's alright Rainbow Dash, think nothing of it." She knelt down and hugged with me forehooves. "I am pretty girly, after all."

That was when I finally noticed. "Fluttershy, you have scars on your legs . . . wings . . . Celestia, they're everywhere."

She smiled at me, "It's alright, Rainbow. These were... ill-conceived gifts from somepony who honestly tried to say she loved me."

"Who could be so stupid to think that hurting you is loving you?"

"Don't call her stupid, please, Rainbow Dash she . . . I won't say she was 'born wrong,' but she was born sick, drew on another's memories for who she was, and as her sickness got worse, her nastiest impulses were encouraged rather than curbed. It was like she was born in a straightjacket, and grew up thinking the straightjacket was a part of her. She thought love was 'lame.' She thought those who rejected love were 'cool,' yet at the same time she craved love. She still does. In the end, I accepted that she was loving me, in her own maladjusted way. But she wouldn't see, couldn't see. . . or maybe she could and was simply never taught to care, that ponies around her had value beyond just entertaining her and her father."

"So if she really did love you, why didn't you try to help her? Teach her?"

"At first, she didn't even know I was there. At first I didn't know I was there. We thought we really WERE the same person. Then, when that stopped, she thought I was a ghost, or a disease that was supposed to just fade away. When we both realized the truth, I tried to take the reigns from her, but the grayness was like a wall of smog, choking my voice. And she was so powerful. I couldn't stop her from doing anything.

" . . . I wanted to die, Rainbow Dash. Being powerless, it was the only way left I could think of to get the nightmare to END. Wash my hooves of the shame of all she was doing in my name, of the hopelessness state of our world. I saw all of you, and you were just horrid strangers to me. Then after Avalon was destroyed, Queen Cadence came, and she took me away. . . . but I don't hate my baby . . ."

"I hate her. She's a monster."

"Maybe she is a monster, because foals can be the cruelest of all monsters. I want to believe, if I could have broken through the grayness, spoken through the smog, I could have saved her, and all of you . . ."

Fluttershy was crying.

"Oh . . oh look at me, look at me. Rainbow Dash I came here to help you and here I am explaining to the filly inside you my pain shouldering my burdens on you. I'm still selfish. And I'm still weak."

I look at her, it felt so horribly, so horribly wrong to see her crying like this. I looked back at my friends, wanting me to play with them. The two other mares only closed their eyes and lowered their heads, the pegasus folding her wings.

"If you really couldn't do anything, then you couldn't do anything, you weren't given a choice. I always had a choice staring me in the face, but I was too buried in myself to ever see it. You kept trying your hardest. Me? I folded like paper. I went from abandoning you all for Cloudsdale's sake to doing anything Discord could think of while he held whoever he felt like hostage. It's . . . it's not right to compare my choices to yours but . . . Fluttershy I wouldn't be a friend if I chose to ignore your hurt."

I nuzzled her, she nuzzled me back, she folded her wings around me. "I . . . I'm sorry. . . I'd have come sooner but . . . you wouldn't let me in before."

"I didn't even know you were knocking. I wasn't letting ANYONE in before. I'm sorry."

"Look at me, I came here to help you, and you end up giving me strength instead."

"It's my 'strength' to give or whatever."

"But you're just a foal here, you still have a lot of learning and growing to do yet. You need all the inner strength you can get . . . were you about to give up and just stay here?"

"Of-of course not! No way I'd ever do that!"

Firefly whistled innocently. Big Rainbow Dash hummed to herself.

"Of course you wouldn't." Fluttershy smiled. "After all, when I was hurt just now, you were willing to give me strength, even when you needed it too. Only a friend would do that. Only a friend willing to take the right way instead of the easy way would do that. Only a pony who still has inner strength could do that."

"I . . . I guess you're right."

"There you see?" She patted me on the mane, "That wasn't so hard was it?"

"Wait. You talked so much about being hurt, but, but you pick me up with just a few words?"

"Rainbow Dash dear, would you want me to spend even longer talking? You're the pony of action remember?"

I blushed till my blue fur looked purple. "I . . . guess yer right."

"There's a good filly." She hugged me again. I returned her hug at once. I feel so safe with her now, so warm, so open, she's so different from how she was a second ago, I feel her scars, but I don't mind. I'm surprised when big Rainbow Dash and Firefly join in the hug too. I feel happy. I don't really notice Gildie and Scoots are fillin' in the picture behind my back. I don't mind.

What do I want? What do I really? If I'm not being forced to do something because of 'loyalty' if it isn't an 'obligation' if I'm really actually given a choice. What do I actually want?

My friends all choose to spare and try to save me, but what choice do I want to make?

++++

"Did you see that? It was great! It was so exciting! I thought it was exciting! Did you think it was exciting? Of course you thought it was exciting! Cause it was exciting! Whoo-hoo!" The butter-scotch dragon had surrendered after Twilight's brilliant plan, Spike's fire-breath, and Pinkie's tongue had reduced the dragon to action figure size.

"Well they say imitation is the highest form of flattery," Pinkie Pie said tilting her head at Twilight, herself walking at a calm steady pace a little slower than the rest. "Want a piggyback ride, Apple Pie?"

"Sure, Aunt Pinkie!" Apple Pie said, and clamored atop the back of the mare who'd tired to kill her three times.

Twilight continued to hop along like a hyperactive frog. "And we're all back together again! It's so great! Like a thousand years ago! This time we're going to do it right and everything will be okay!" Twilight cheered.

No one had the heart to bring up the fact that Dash still hadn't explicitly SAID she was on their side now. (Maybe she'd fled to a foreign land? Was she still unconscious?) And as for Fluttershy, well... Rarity and Applejack looked at Twilight, then at Pinkie Pie, then at each other, sharing a knowing glance.

"So Twilight," Spike said, looking worried, but trying to hide it. "Now that you're not immortal, don't you think you should stay closer to our healers?"

"Oh don't be silly, Spike, I'm still immortal."

"But . . . don't you have an Element of Harmony instead of an Element of Chaos?"

"Magic is special among the Elements, Spike. It's Tragedy AND Friendship. Since I've awakened to both sides, the Element of Magic is Chaos and Harmony at the same time!"

Nopony commented on the catwalk of soapboxes that had appeared underneath Twilight's hooves. Apple Pie couldn't help laughing at the apparent paradox of what she said.

"How can you be so sure?" Spike asked. "Did . . Trixie tell you or something?"

"Oh nothing like that! You see, Pinkie Pie was right when she . . . was with me before. The spell keeping us immortal is a constant spell, like a piece of clothing you can take on or off or the settings on a machine, not an instantaneous spell where the result is the subject's new natural state. So I returned to my physical prime, because when I inserted the Element of Magic, I effectively put the spell back on. I don't have any information on what long-term exposure to the Element of Harmony would do to a subject though. We've seen Derpy, Spike, and Apple Pie don't instantly heal from anything like us. But we've already seen the Harmony Elements aren't as . . ." She glanced at Rarity, "Forceful."

"Then maybe we could have waited to draw Discord out? And Apple Pie isn't going to die of old age?" Rarity asked.

"Ah'm gonna, we're gonna live forever?" Apple Pie asked suddenly feeling a tiny bit excited.

Applejack pushed her hat down to hide her disappointment.

"I never said that. I simply don't have enough data to form a proper hypothesis."

"Heads up!" Derpy warned, interrupting the tender moment. "We got company!"

Everypony and dragon was instantly on guard.

Twilight counted about ten ponies in total, all mares, mostly Earth ponies.

"Whadda bunch of funny-lookin' ladies," Apple Pie said.

They were all wearing filthy maid uniforms of different styles, colors, patterns, and designs, ranging from garish colors, plaids, polkadots, to ever shape shifting two-layer colors.

"Oh, it's just the dirt maids," AJ said.

"Ya guys got maids? Whoa," Apple Pie said.

"I think I've seen them dirtying the outside of the castle before." Derpy said.

"Now would be a good time to remember I had the dirt-maids act as sparing partners and babysitters for my apprentices... whenever I needed to leave them at home."

"Oh right." Rarity said. "I feel so not right doing this. Still . . . " Rarity bit her foreleg and created a diamond rapier she floated next to her. "For the higher cause, sacrifices must be made."

"Don't you mean 'maid?'" Pinkie Pie asked.

"Not now, Pinkie Pie."

Then the herd stopped in front of the heroes, completely unarmed, and politely bowed together smiling and echoed, "Good day, Mistress Twilight Tragedy!"

The pony who stepped forward had a faded pink Mane with brown roots and a faded grey blue coat and her cutie mark was a paper with a contorted and crazy quill dipped in multi-colored ink. She curtsied in front of the heroes and the maids behind her a moment later did the same. "Greetings Mistress Rarigreed. Mistress Liarjack. Miss Dizty Doo. And Noble Steed Kenbroath Gillspotten Heathspike The Seventh. Mistress Angry Pie, is this a new apprentice you have taken under your wing?"

Pinkie Pie blinked and the two looked at each other.

"They sure aren't, so worry tons about her," AJ said quickly. "Her name isn't Mapple Pie."

"A pleasure to meet you, Mistress Mapple Pie, I hope your stay at Awesome and Totally Awesome Discord's Castle of Chaos is a happy one for you. I am Head house-maid Espi Lion."

A green pegasus (or appeared to be) mare with a brown mane and a teddy bear cutie mark bowed next, "I am Nursery maid Before Four. I'd assist you in anything you wish mistress Mapple Pie."

Another maid with a light green coat,but with a bright blue mane with a braid. Her mark was a swirl of water dotted with flowers. "Kitchen Maid Evangelian."

The next had a Golden mane and tail and black coat, with what looked like a lump of gold (but actually iron pyrite) for a cutie mark. "Lady's Maid Air Dasher. Good . . . . well, it isn't day or night right now, is it Mistress Rarigreed?"

"'Evening,' Air Dasher. The term you're looking for is 'evening.'" Rarity said.

"Good evening, Mistress Rarigreed."

Dark blue eyes, dark blue mane, dark blue coat, the only thing not dark blue about her was the dice on her flanks. "Chamber Maid Buddy."

Next (appeared at least), to be a unicorn with light purple hair light blue body and a maid outfit cutie mark. "Chamber Maid, Laundry Maid, and Palor Maid Untitled Work."

Blue coat, orange mane, and cutie mark of a microscope. "Still Maid Quick Silver."

A plain earth pony; light brown coat and slightly darker mane/tail, and hazel colored eyes. Her Cutie Mark for writing was a a quill and scroll. "Housekeeper Dragon Twilight."

The penultimate mare had a medium dark red coat with an orange yellow mane. She had a red hooded cloak for her cutie mark, "Between Maid Game Master."

The last one looked like a pegasus, had had blue fur, purple eyes, and dark blue mane, and a campfire for a cutie mark. "Scullery Maid Alexi."

Espi Lion shook her head, "Sadly we can't acquaint you with the castle today, Mistress Mapple Pie."

'We've all come to destroy you.' Twilight expected the maids to chorus.

"We've been given the . . . evening off." they said.

"What?" The bearers all echoed.

"Great Window Wiper Discord has warned us that evil chaos hating jerk-losers are invading the castle, and this world will be destroyed soon. So he's asked us to evacuate to Mr. Ponythulu's abode for the, er, evening." Espi Lion said all this in a perfectly happy and ladylike tone. "He told us there is a castle he has put aside for us that we can then go to and dirty up and keep ready all we want waiting for new Ladies of the House. But I'm sure Master Pizza Box Discord will be able to save the world. Master can do anything."

The other nine maids all smiled and nodded.

"Are you sure none of you wish to become what you were and go back where you came from like the rest of the maid staff?" Twilight asked.

"We thank you again for the offer Mistress Twilight Tragedy. But we have found happiness as we are, and we would never abandon each other. And Master Discord has never treated us wrong."

"If you don't count the kidnapping and the brainwashing," Spike said under his breath.

"Kidnapping and brainwashing were included in our contracts. In point zero zero one font," Air Dasher said smiling sincerely.

"I . . . I guess we'll be seeing you later, then."

"We hope to serve you later, Mistress Twilight Tragedy." Espi Lion curtsied, her nine sisters did the same as they passed the Element of Magic, marching to the Inverted Vortex and gateway to Ponythulu's realm (where he had already baked cookies and heated some tea in anticipation of his house guests).

(Annoying Ponythulu.)

*He's nice once you get to know him.*

(Nice but annoying.)

The castle might have always been changing shape and configuration, but Twilight could still apply some maverick logic. Twilight knew how lazy Discord could be, he always kept his bedroom and throne room and the kitchen always close together. And Discord never let those ever be on the top or ground floor, or next to any of the outer walls. Usually. Often enough. They also always kept their distance from the gardens. So Twilight just had to crunch the numbers to figure out the most likely of spots that Discord would have retreated to.

'Discord loves his theatrics way too much. He'll want a big showdown in his throne room. And that's where he'll be. Or maybe the hedge maze, for irony. But best to check the throne room first.

Pinkie Pie choose to take the rear instead of Spike, still walking calmly and deliberately instead of with her energized bouncing, now favoring her formerly broken leg a little bit. She also had Apple Pie trot alongside her instead of carrying on her back now.

Several loud and annoying talking crayon notes later, the ponies and dragon entered a room Twilight and Applejack remembered very well.

"Mother! Is that you?!"

Derpy's heart skipped a beat. "SPARKLER!"

Galloping and panting, in came Sparkler. Derpy knew every detail on the unicorn. Amethyst eyes. Violet coat. Dark lavender mane with a lighter color going through her mane on one side and through her tail. Her three diamond cutie mark.

Derpy flew straight towards her, Rarity and Twilight both caught the pegasus in their telekinesis; AJ caught her by the tail, and Spike grabbed her from behind in his claws. "OW! LET ME GO! SPARKLER!"

"Mother, it's you! It's you!"

"We've been fooled by Discord before." Twilight said. Her horn glowed. "Hmmm... I don't sense Discord's mind control… Or bombs inside her."

"She smells like Sparkler," Spike said.

AJ said, "That's no illusion, it's her."

"There's a soul there, it's not a construct, or Discord shape-shifted," Rarity said.

Apple Pie said, "So that's . . . that's yer other daughter, Miss Derpy?"

"Yes . . ." Derpy whispered, "Yes it's her." She felt tears in her eyes.

Sparkler came up to the heroes but stopped at a safe distance under Rarity's stern look.

"First question, Sparkler." Rarity said, "What happened to you?"

"I . . I was, the statue I was, was in the castle gallery and . . . a yellow spirit with a pink mane and blue eyes came inside, and we touched. And I was flesh and blood again!"

Twilight whispered, "Fluttershy, I knew it, I knew she'd be there for us!"

Twilight released Derpy from the other's grip all on her own. Derpy didn't hesitate to fly to hug her daughter, who seemed startled by the show of affection. "Mom?"

"It's okay dear, I promise, I won't let that awful Discord do anything else to you. Dinky is waiting for us. She'll be so happy to see you again." Derpy whispered, folding her wings around her and gently nuzzling her. Sparkler shivered.

"T-Thank you." Sparkler said, her voice almost…conflicted.

The two of them looked as lovely together as a statue in a museum.

Was Sparkler crying?

Then Pinkie Pie kicked Sparkler in the jaw.
A floating pistol, enveloped in purple magic, fired off a shot.
The bullet just barely missed Derpy.
Derpy punched Pinkie Pie in the eye, blackening it.
The bruise around her eye didn't vanish.

Diamonds as sharp as knives materialized and fired in every direction, zeroing in on the Element Bearers like guided missiles.

In a quick montage, Pinkie Pie assembled a barricade of mattresses, got into a labor dispute with herself, renegotiated her own contract, and finished the barricade with no time to spare. She panted heavily. The barricade fell apart into nothing.

Rarity cut herself and sent a steel spear right at Sparkler. Derpy dove to take the shot for her daughter.

Sparkler was caught in Twilight's magic.

"Dammit, I'm too slow!" Sparkler cursed. "Shouldn't have hesitated!"

Twilight had to break contact as a diamond dagger came right at her throat.

Spike and Apple Pie could only look on in shock.

AJ and rushed to Derpy's side. Instead of taking the spear out and opening up the wound, Rarity created another one and threw at Sparkler full force.

Sparkler bit into her fetlock. A diamond wall blocked the new spear. "That was too close."

Spike exclaimed. "He made Sparkler an Element of Cruelty?! How?!"

"I won't let you hurt Daddy Discord."

"DISCORD IS SPARKLER'S FATHER?" Twilight heard herself gasp.

"WOW HE ISN'T!!!!!" Derpy roared.

"He's remote-controlling her body!" AJ gasped.

"Alternate reality doppelgänger!" Apple Pie suggested.

"No!" Pinkie Pie shouted, "Look at her back!"

Glowing on Sparkler's backside, was a symbol similar to theirs, shaped like a heart made out of curved swords.

"No . . ." Derpy's ears and wings fell flat. Her eyes went into totally different directions as her eyes widened in saucers. "Muffin, needs won't we wrong. Blue wrote so card two met here."

"Impossible." Rarity whispered. Then shouted. "I KILLED YOU!"

"You killed mother's body. I hate you for that. And you were able to swipe a piece of jewelry, you klepto-rock witch, but my soul and mind remain!"

Rarity growled, "I should have known from the start, I am such a fool! When I absorbed the other Elements, I took in the lingering echoes of their old master's spirit. I felt nothing inside yours. I should have realized it meant something!"

Apple Pie whimpered and huddled next to Pinkie Pie.

Spike's jaw dropped causing a tremor.

AJ shook her head in horror.

Pinkie Pie blinked away tears.

Twilight felt her hooves shaking.

"What? No self-righteous quips? No low dark vows to kill me where I stand? No declarations to steal my new body back? Seriously I was expect more."

"No. It's honestly, really, truly, sincerely not fair!" Spike snapped at her.

"I didn't hear any of you bitch and whine when Tragedy cheated death."

Twilight found herself lost for a retort.

"Well, uh..." Pinkie Pie started, then decided to shut her mouth.

(WHAT IS THIS?! THAT'S NOT HOW THINGS ARE SUPPOSED TO GO AT ALL! YOU SHOULD BE DEAD, YOU WORTHLESS NAG!!!)

"How did YOU BREAK OUT of Hell?!" AJ asked.

"I didn't 'break out.' I never entered Hell. A Thestral TRIED to escort me there, and I fed him his own wings for his trouble."

"WEAVE ME RACK BY MUFFIN!" Derpy snapped.

"This is impossible!" Twilight shouted. "How did Discord do this?! Did he leave Sparkler dying in Fluttershy's body and place you in hers?!"

"What a fun theory, Twilight, but no. To be honest, I was kinda surprised myself. Dad sure was impressed and relieved. Apparently, our family has a handy anti-death failsafe. If our physical body is killed by a non-draconequi, our spirit lingers. And then we can take any NEW body we want!"

"Why my Sparkler?! Give her back!"

"Not happening, jumble-mouth. After five hundred years that little empty room in my soul is gonna be full again. With a playmate who can never die!" She giggled like a hyena on helium (or a lobotomized first grader), grinning with wild eyes. "After five hundred years I'm not alone. When we're together I'm going to love her with all my heart!"

More gasps.

Twilight felt dizzy. "Discord would . . . if we killed HIM he'd . . . "

Spike said confidently, "Fluttercruel's just feeding us a cheap lie, right, Rarity? AJ?"

The two mares silently shook their heads. Spike's face fell.

"Dad said it was alright for me to spoil that part," 'Sparkler' said. "Goes to show, the best you can hope to do is contain chaos. Eventually, it'll always break free. You never had a chance to win. Not for good. A thousand, ten thousand years as stone? What does that matter to an immortal Concept? All your hopes, and beliefs, are utterly worthless."

Rarity narrowed her eyes.

"STOP SAYING THOSE AWFUL THINGS WITH SPARKLER'S MOUTH!" Derpy flew at 'Sparkler' a gray and blond wild beast with a bubbles cutie mark.

"MY GRANDPA!" Sparkler spat, the way Twilight had once heard Cadence swear, 'My Auntie!'

Sparkler screamed in shock as she frantically dodged Derpy's attacks, used to a faster pegasus body. "This is your own daughter here, Herp-a-Derp! Don't you even care?! You're betraying her!"

"I won't let you hurt her!!!!" Derpy retorted almost madly.

"What kind of lousy mother are you?!"

"I'm sorry, Sparkler! If you can hear me: Mother's sorry! She's just so sorry! But Dinky, and so many other mothers and daughters out there are counting on me! Mommy loves you! And she's just so sorry!" Then her angry eyes fixed on the wretched thing wearing her skin. "And Mommy will FREE your soul from being this monster's forever-plaything, WHATEVER the cost to myself!"

"My mother would never have never done that! If she had to choose between Equestria and me she'd have made the choice any mother should!"

Applejack snapped. "Fluttershy'd never be that selfish!"

"I lived with my mother for five hundred years, you DARE think you know better than me? I was born with every last one of her memories of her life! Noequus knows her better than me!" 'Sparkler' roared, indignant and insulted.

"You didn't learn a thing from her if you think it's alright to hurt ponies!" Pinkie Pie shouted.

"You mean like how Twilight hurt you, Angry Pie?!"

Pinkie Pie trembled as 'Sparkler' dodged Derpy's attacks, getting the hang of the unicorn body quickly.

"My-My friends stopped that bad version of me! Because that's what friends do! They protect each other and help each other when they fall into a black place!"

"And how many times did I try to make friends with you, Angry? Only for you to throw that all back in my face, time and time again?"

(Who'd want to be friends with a mad animal like you?)

She looked at Twilight, "So you like to rant against hypocrisy, huh? Try this on for size: Traitor Dash and Angry Pie kept trying to kill you, same as me and auntie! But you just kept asking them and got them to betray my dad!"

"'Your dad' has killed how many ponies? And how many have YOU killed, Cruel?" Rarity snapped trying to look for an opening in the flurry of gray feathers. "All for just your selfish, sadistic enjoyment?! Did you ever try to make friends with THEM? What flimsy sense of 'right and wrong' you possess can be boiled down to one simplistic slogan: 'Draconequui rule, everything else drools!"

"And did you ever show any compassion towards ME, Saint Rarigreed? The moment you learned I wasn't my mother, it was 'Okay, I can kill her with a clear conscience!'"

"You're a murdering psycho who doesn't even feel sorry for what she's done!" Spike shouted. Derpy was too close for fire breath.

'Spakler' bit back, "And that the 'murdering psycho who doesn't even feel sorry for what she's done' wasn't somepony you knew meant kill'em not disable or reason with them?

"How 'sorry' was Angry Pie when she tried to massacre you all?! How badly was she trying to kill you AFTER she'd 'killed' Tragedy?! And you were still trying to save her! But because I wasn't who you thought I was, my death's okay!"

AJ wanted to form a flurry of illusions to confuse the monster possessing Sparkler's body. And yet. . . what Cruel was saying gave her pause. . .

"Ponies like you TALK about mercy and compassion, TO PONIES YOU LIKE or have a connection to! Conscripts of the Big Bad Overlord? Dispose of without a second thought!"

"SHUT UP!" Derpy snapped.

"Tell me Element of Generosity, where was your sense of giving when Angry Pie 'killed' Twilight? See bad guy, kill bad guy, win hero medal!"

"I DIDN'T kill her though! I got over my initial instinct, unlike you! I helped hold Twilight back when SHE was ready to murder her!"

"No! You didn't do it because Rarigreed told you not to!

"Friend of mine betrayed our community? Tried to kill me twice? Tried to kill my other friends? Tried to kill my love interest? Joined the enemy? Tried to destroy our home? Joined our NEW enemy? She's just hurting inside! Hold back! Twilight, the moment she nearly killed you, what do you do? You were no different than me. You tortured her and enjoyed every second, didn't you? Only I did it to show love, what was your excuse, Miss Holier-Than-Thou?

"My teacher is a bigot, tried to kill me and my other teacher, and used me to steal something? BEAT HIM TO A BLOODY PULP LIKE THE ANIMAL HE IS! . . . You think your morals DON'T come down to who's closest to you too? You are a self-righteous deluded loser!"

Derpy managed a blow that sent her backwards skidding. 'Sparkler' got up and wiped the blood away, "Go ahead, give the self righteous speech about how completely wrong I am. Or just kill me where I stand and pretend I didn't say a thing. Whatever makes you feel better about yourself!"

Rarity sighed sadly. " . . . The cruel truth of the friendship of magic is . . . that you're right Fluttercruel."

Everypony and dragon looked at the Element of Honesty. They couldn't believe it. Had she really just said that? How could she?

"We as ponies do hesitate and make excuses for those we know more readily than those we don't. I am selfish like that. I was angry and hurt that our chances to save Fluttershy were lost five centuries ago. I didn't even try to think of saving her daughter who had committed sins just as ugly and murderous as ours. Spike was hungry for revenge after being so stubborn about wanting to save me, when I could have murdered Twilight in my mania just as easily. I was the only thing that stopped him from trying to kill Angry Pie."

Spike lowered his head, he had no words.

"And Twilight was selfish, begging and pleading with Rainbow Dash her entire fight, then embraced her rage like a lover as soon as Angry Pie succeeded where Rainbow Dash and I had both tried and failed. That is the cruel truth of the magic of friendship: we form double standards to those not connected to it."

Apple Pie looked in shock, AJ and Pinkie Pie hugged her. Pinkie Pie sighed. Derpy heard these things spoken with her daughter's voice, and couldn't just dismiss them.

Twilight spoke, "Yes, I was selfish like you said, Fluttercruel. But that doesn't mean what we've been fighting for or believe in is a lie. Nor does that make selfishness the whole story. It means we're flawed beings."

Spike rose his head.

"And we're all here to cover each other's flaws, as we all strive towards the light." Applejack said.

"That's part of the magic of friendship too," Twilight said.

Rarity said calmly, "I wasn't lying when I said I felt only Fluttershy could have ever saved you, and none of us are strong enough to. But maybe there's a part of your mother, if your soul really was born from hers, that can still save you. Maybe. The truth is that it's completely uncertain."

"But the reality remains that as long as Discord reigns, he will continue to cause the world far more misery and madness than happiness. And I'm willing to go through my best friend's wayward daughter to topple him. And Derpy will put her own innocent baby out of her misery if you make her."

"So go for the 'feel sorry for yourself' route instead? Sure. Whatever makes you comfortable. But I've seen your real faces! Cry me a river and jump into it!" Fluttercruel swore angrily with Sparkler's face.

Spike growled. "The difference between us and you, Cruel, is that yeah, we were went astray, but at least we STARTED OUT good..."

*Spike, please don't!*

"Twilight was able to save us BECAUSE she was able to remind us of the good people we were in the past."

*SPIKE! STOP!*

"You? You've been evil from the minute Discord MIS-conceived you; and you haven't stopped being evil for one moment since. A bad seed that blossomed into a poisonous monster weed!!"

(Hear that clapping, Spike? That's me. You're a poet with words, my friend...truly, you are. You have never ever been not useful for me.)

"I AM NOT A MISTAKE!!!" Sparkler's voice echoed off the walls.

Derpy just cringed.

Then she laughed like a Windigo after drinking a tankard of liquid nitrogen at a 'Unicorn Supremacy' rally.

"So...So those who started out...start out your definition of good are the only ones who CAN BE GOOD at heart? Those who start out your definition of bad can only BE BAD at heart?" She moved drunkenly, "...well...then I have nothing to be ashamed of. I don't have to feel negative about anything I do. Because there's no chance of me ever betraying my cutie mark, no chance of me being 'redeemed' anyway. I don't have to fear going astray because this is the only path I can walk whether I like it or not. Thank you."

*Congratulations Spike. You just convinced the confused serial-killer in her moment of doubt of fatalism and determinism and that free-will is an illusion and therefore she can ignore her budding conscience. Are you happy?*

The look Rarity gave Spike in that moment...

Spike strangely felt like a baby dragon for a moment, he had a strange flash back to a thousand years ago when he tried to frame Owlowiscious out of jealous and had only succeeded in gaining Twilight's disappointment.

"Ya know, Auntie Pinkie Pie was a lot like you," Pinkie Pie said everypony looked at her, "She thought she had to have 'Party!' or 'Prank' or 'Pastry' be the solution for everything, or she wasn't following her cutie mark. She became very narrow minded. She was terrified her friends might leave her. She didn't want to face being sacred, angry, or sad. So when she finally had to face those feeling, she broke."

"Fluttercruel." Applejack said, stepping up, with a diplomat's gentle smile. "You've made yer point. Allow us ta make up for our past mistake, and our bias against ya. Do ya honestly WANT to turn over a new leaf?"

"You're asking to be betray my cutie mark and my father!"

"Couldn't you tell your dad to just give up please?" Pinkie Pie asked politely. "Maybe if he fixes everything he changed and then leaves us all alone, we won't even need to fight?"

"The draconequi always go down fighting!" 'Sparkler' snapped assuming a fighting pose.

(Sure! Wonderful! Go down fighting, as long as you GO DOWN.)

Rarity turned to Sparkler. "Now, I believe it's my turn to ask questions," said Rarity, simply, narrowing her eyes. "When you thanked Derpy for her show of compassion, that wasn't a lie."

"I...c'mon...that isn't...!" 'Sparkler' stammered.

"If you truly believe the proper way to show affection is through mutilation, then why did you genuinely thank Derpy for showing you compassion?"

"For the love of Granddad! Do I need to be like you, Miss 'Did I Mention My Ghosts Are Willing' Every-Five-Minutes? Showing love with blades is my special talent! Not Derpy's, not Auntie's, or anyequus else's!"

"Has your father ever shared in your special talent by you torturing him?"

"I told you already! Geeze! Cutting PONIES is my love sonata to him!"

"Discord's shown no interest in flat-out mutilation or murder for its own sake. Come now, you're not that dense. That isn't a dead pony on your rump. And you're a pony, yourself, Fluttercruel! Have you ever cut yourself for him? You're immortal, it's not like it would kill you. Have you ever asked him to do it to you? Never have I seen it. And judging by your general reaction to being truly hurt, you don't have the pain tolerance you to be on the receiving end of torture. And why did you hesitate with your attacks? I know you're not THAT sloppy."

"You expect me to take anything my own killer says seriously?! You're blowing smoke!"

"You've attempted to kill me, you're aiming to kill us all, right now! Again! And yet, here we all are, honestly trying to take YOUR words and feelings seriously, same as with Rainbow Dash and Angry Pie. And since when do you honestly, yes honestly, care about ethics? You've reveled in having the moral low ground! You've hated moral high ground that's so hard to keep. But suddenly, you want proof to yourself that you're on the right side. I'm guessing something happened between my killing you and now, hmm? Can Sparkler be pulling control from you?"

"Not a chance," Fluttercruel said honestly. Derpy was nailed in the heart again.

"So it was your tear then."

"What!"

"Just before you tried to kill Derpy, you were crying."

"No I wasn't!"

"You can't lie to me. Why were you crying?"

"I...I don't know!"

Twilight took a trot forward. "You said you were born with all of your mother's memories?" Twilight's horn glowed.

'Sparkler' took a hoof step back. "W-what? That didn't work with Yard-Sale, what makes you think it'll on me?"

"I'm wondering...if you're seeing them all clearly."

Exploding yodeling turnips crashed down from above between Fluttercruel and her opponents, the wall of destruction pushing the ponies and dragon back. Fluttercruel cheered and clapped her hooves.

"LADIES AND GENTLEEQUUS! PUT YOUR HANDS TOGETHER! FOR THE ONE! THE ONLY! DISCORD!!!!!" Confetti sprinkled down from the high ceiling as an invisible crowd cheered.

"AND PRESENTING! THE ROCKING! THE AWESOME! THE RADICAL! AND ABSOLUTE TWENTY PERCENT COOLER THAN YOU! RANCOR!!!" Pony Metal music blared as colored lights flashed among theater smoke.

The voices bellowed like announcers at a wresting match.

The heroes tensed, Discord, the real target, had finally shown himself.

"That's enough now, Tragedy, come back to me and destroy your friends." Discord snapped his fingers, nothing happened.

"YOU CAN NO LONGER CORRUPT ME!" Twilight shouted.

Discord shrugged. "Meh, didn't think that would work anyway."

Rancor snapped her fingers, and her black spear with its pink bow and skull chain appeared. She twirled it expertly in her claw and paw. "At last! It's finally time! I've waited too long for this! It was great and all, meeting you guys and fighting you, but it's time to finally end this farce of a conflict."

"AND LAST BUT CERTAINLY NOT LEAST, HEIR APPARENT, THE SWEET AND WONDERFUL, VICIOUS AND CRUEL, MY PRINCESS FLUTTERCRUEL TYPHON!"

Fluttercruel ran up to her father and kissed him.

"Charge up Elements and blast 'em?" Spike asked pragmatically.

"Pinkie Pie can you keep them distracted?" Twilight asked.

"I could keep maybe two of them distracted, but not all three at once."

"Then we need to take one of them out first!" Twilight said. "Derpy, I hate to say it, but Fluttercruel, in Sparkler's body-"

"She's the most vulnerable one. I understand. We'll focus on her." Derpy said in an even voice even though her wings were trembling.

Discord pointed at Rarity, "You hurt my daughter."

"And how many daughters did you bring madness and ruin to?"

Discord rolled his eyes. "Let's not bring statistics into this, please."

"Indeed," Rancor said, "Ponies tend to get more charged up over the loss of somepony close to them rather than a million strangers. So focus on the ponies you know who my brother has had his fun with if you want self-righteous fury. But yes, those who hurt family MUST be punished." Rancor's eyes practically glowed with blood lust.

"I don't suppose, my sweet Pinkie Pie, you'd be interesting in becoming my Queen of Chaos?" He bent down on one knee before Pinkie Pie, and opened a box. Pinkie could not help gasping at the enormous, shimmering paperweight of a diamond upon the engagement band. Rarity eyed it enviously. "Marry me, Pinkie Pie! My echoing void beats for you! You don't need to die! Only you can seduce me over to the Light Side! I'm a fixer-upper!"

"I think I could live to be one zillion years old, and my life would still be too short for me to change your ways." Pinkie Pie replied, very politely. "Sorry. Not interested."

The diamond melted like a stick of butter in a microwave as Discord's smiled turned upside down.

"Good! Seriously, Angry Pie, having you as a stepmother would be too weird! And I'm the only one my dad needs!"

Discord said nothing.
+
*In an alternate universe a zillion and one years later.*

"I offically give up all nasty pranks and sadistic chaos in the name of joyful accidents and happy surprises!" Discord declared, his pink queen nuzzled him.
+
"Any equus or anydragon or anypony else have any other pre-battle banter they want to get out of their system, before it all ends?" Rancor asked casually.

"Now that you say so," Discord took out a pair of tiny reading glasses and unfurled a cross that went all across the room, "My lovely Elements Of Chaos, in the first place, to begin with. Secondly, in the second place..."

Spike fireballed the speech into ashes. Discord looked on drolly, removing his melted glasses, "Alright, fine. I guess our audience has waited long enough."

AJ said, "Give up, Discord."

Twilight said, "We've come this far, we suffered for so long, and caused so much suffering, it's time to make up for it, even a little."

Rarity said, "We'll atone by trying our hardest to do what's right every hoof-fall of the way! You can either do the same, or face the consequences of your own actions!"

Derpy shouted, "Give Sparkler back her body!"

"I can't give it back anymore than you can give back a heart transplant...But there's no time in the spirit world, so I'll grant you all the reunion Auntie Rarity wanted so bad to give me."

"Since your mom isn't here, Auntie Pinkie Pie is gonna haveta give ya a spanking for her!"

Discord sighed, "Nothing's worse than others who tell you how to raise your kid. Some chocolate rain before the end, Pinkie?"

"Naw, I'm good. I ate earlier."

Apple Pie said, "Ah've somethin' ta say. When Magica, Puella, and Caster all died in Ponyville, so soon after ya took Poison Apple from me. Ah thought, Ah felt, Ah KNEW, Equestria would be a better place without any ya ponies here, except Auntie Saint Abigail. Just bad rocks that needed takin' out of the barrel. The end. But then Ah met Half-Light…"

(And you played your role to awaken Twilight perfectly, good flly.)

*And you've been a great friend, Apple Pie. I only wish I there was more time to get to know you.*

"And Mr. Spike and Miss Rarity. And Ah saw...Ah learned...monsters can come from anywhere, and things ya take for granted from Sky Ocean's lights to rocks they can...not be so sure . . they're...Ah'm really not sure how ta say this...well, but Ah made some friends with some ponies Ah never thought Ah would andthat'swhatcounts!" She panted.

Discord burst out laughing. "Forgive and forget from a pony who's only known my world! What a contradiction!"

"Thank ya kindly."

"You've made me laugh again, little pony. Thank you again. I'll resurrect you as my royal jester. Fluttercruel, have fun. I'll watch your back. Rancor, watch my back."

"What do you think I've been doin' all this time, big bro'?"

Twilight's mind galloped a hundred miles an hour.

'Mathematically, the odds are seven to three in our favor. But six of us are needed to charge up the Elements, and I doubt Discord is going to stare at us slack-jawed like Nightmare Moon did since he already knows we have the Elements. Rancor and Discord are spirits, so Apple Pie can't logic bomb them.

'Pinkie Pie is our ace in the hole. Can Rarity animate her...allies while charging up Honesty? Pinkie Pie said she can keep two of them busy but not three. SO our main goal has to be to take Fluttercruel out first. I'm sorry Derpy. But if Fluttercruel can steal bodies more than once? I can't gamble that death will do a better job of catching her this time. What if she can fully regenerate with her new body? Trapping her is going to be a lot harder since Discord will do his hardest to free her... Perhaps it's Rancor we should focus on, Spike's been spending all this time figuring out how to beat her, and Spike said she's not as powerful as Discord assuming she wasn't lying, but that new weapon she's carrying, she never used it before, that makes it a question mark. And I doubt we can just mob Discord or that would have worked ages ago.

'Think of the solution Twilight, not the problem. Spike lures Rancor with what she wants, but keeping his distance, and keep his eye out for that spear no matter what. Or it could just be a decoy-ugh! Don't double guess yourself now Twilight! THINK!

'...Don't fight the way they want, don't fight the way they expect. Having Rarity's ghosts fight Rancor from all sides. Have Spike and Derpy rush Discord under the cover of a fire-blast and AJ's illusions, and have Apple Pie do her thing on Fluttercruel and I'll hammer away at her with my magic like...like I did with Pinkie Pie, and Pinkie causes havoc where needed. This'll lure Discord to Apple Pie if she begins to effect Fluttercruel, and I should be able to teleport in at close range with the destruction spell if I force it. If it killed Cadence, maybe it'll do the same to Draconequi. Anything more complex than that Discord will just pick apart!' "Alright! Let's go!"

"It's about time," Discord said focusing his attention totally on the ponies before him and his child.

"Agreed," Rancor said, giving her shark toothed grin and lunging with her spear...right into Discord's back. Her spear drove straight through Discord's heart, and clear out the other side, black and yellow blood seeped out from the hole.

All the world went silent.

In Sky Ocean, the seaponies' gasped in alarm but they knew not why.

For a moment it was like a still photograph had been taken and none could move or speak.

(This wasn't supposed to happen!!!)

This did not compute in anypony or dragon's brain. Their minds pathetically struggled to make sense of the sight.

Fluttercruel's mind couldn't understand what she was seeing, her eyes were like saucers, her centers pinpricks, her entire body felt numb, like she had been disconnected from her body, no thoughts could form.

Twilight saw all her plans, thoughts, ideas, predictions, anticipations fade away, leaving her in a void.

Apple Pie felt a sense of unrealness. No attack on Big Beer Tankard Discord ever got through, no betrayal ever worked, no move ever succeeded, and he certainly was never hurt, legends of Grogar and Cadance being able to do so where just that to her, legends. They'd come here to beat him yeah, she was gonna dance later on, but seeing it like this...it was like it wasn't real.

(This is wrong! This is all wrong!!!)

Pinkie Pie only whispered, looking with her one good eye, feelings old, "Everything just changed."

Applejack tried to tell herself she was seeing an illusion, this was an 'fake easy victory' that wasn't really Discord, Rancor was playing them for idiots, after all, she hadn't seen through Fluttercruel's cutie mark. But...but, she could sense it, she knew deception, she knew lies, and this was no performance.

Spike couldn't believe what he was seeing at all. What happened to the epic battle they were about to have? They were going to settle things right here and right now! Not...this wasn't supposed to happen. He had been ready, he had been preped, the final battle, and he'd be one of the big heroes for Twilight and Rarity. He was ready to give up everything he was and who he was, if he could give the world to them. He...felt cheated.

Derpy knew Discord was the bad guy, a moldy muffin in the basket of Equestria: who was the one who had raised Fluttershy's foal into a monster, who had cursed her babies, destroyed their home, made her say such horrible things to Dinky, who had tortured her endless just for the fun of it? But...there was something so fundamentally wrong about this. Getting betrayed by one of your own teammates? A member of your own family? When they needed you most? It...it wasn't right.

Rarity knew the reality that Discord for all intents and purposes likely deserved this several times over. He had lied and manipulated how many just to get what he wanted? How many broken minds? She knew a quick backstab meant one less deadly battle where a friends of theirs could be lost. She couldn't resist the sense of satisfaction. All the same, she knew the end of a tyrant, didn't always mean the end of tyranny's evil. And what Rancor had done WAS shockingly evil.

Discord looked around in surprise and confusion, then looked down at the black spear poking out of his body covered in his fluids, he whispered. "Will this?...Finally end it?"

(This is completely wrong!)

Thrill, greed, and triumph were carved into Rancor's sharp grinning face. "Destruction's power, mine at last!"

The ponies didn't know how to describe it other than Discord somehow becoming lesser in their eyes, he didn't become smaller, or he didn't become more frail, but Twilight's (and Rarity's) senses felt something that had become an integrated part of his being torn out of him like a single thread being torn from a tapestry, leaving the rest damaged. A power, an existence ripped from his body, leaving his spiritual essence a mangled mess.

And what was torn out of him, was being absorbed by Rancor like a dry sponge does water. No, it was being brutally clawed out of him, and being inserted neatly and perfectly into her, like it had been made for her, or she had been made perfectly for it. Red flames danced from Discord, along the spear into Rancor, the shapes of howling half-formed draconequi faces in the fire, pulled into her like a maelstrom.

"Yes...yesssssss." Rancor hissed in ecstasy, her body, her very being beginning to pulsate in preparation for…something, "I, am, whole." She kicked Discord off her spear, he fell to the floor, catching himself, coughing and bleeding.

"No...no." Somewhere inside her, Fluttercruel felt herself shatter. "Family isn't...family can't...Auntie..."

"Yes, my little niece?" Rancor said simply like she had finished watering the plants.

"How...how could...PAPA!" Fluttercruel wailed, going to her father's side. "THIS IS A BAD DREAM! THIS IS A JOKE! THIS ONE OF LIARJACK'S ILLUSIONS! STOP IT RIGHT NOW, LIARJACK! STOP IT!!!"

"Ah...Ah can't. It ain't mah doing!"

"LIAR!!!"
+
Ah knew that mix of sorrow and rage. It had been inside me the day mah folks...mah folks, when Ah saw'em for the last time a thousand years back, all still, not movin', fadin' away.
+
"Auntie! Help!" Fluttercruel begged insanely. It strangely didn't occur to the heroes to use the Elements when their enemies was their most vulnerable.

"Sorry, Cruelly," Rancor shrugged like she couldn't help Fluttercruel with her homework. "but I have an appointment with grandpa and the rest of the family, and neither of you are invited."

"Auntie! You said you came here to help!" Fluttercruel hissed.

"Silly filly. I said never who I was here to help. You know that twisting language around is what our family does best. That's what you get for living in that meat-sack your entire life." She gently admonished, as though Fluttercruel were a child who still thought Vikings had horns or cats could resurrect eight times.

"You...you came...to..."

"To stab your dad in the back? Yeah. He had something I was literally 'born to get.' Wasn't about to go toe to toe with'em when had Destruction's, Dad's, and his own magic beefing him up and a half dozen little mares watching his back," She said like she was explaining fixing a roof.

"Welcome...That is..." Apple Pie managed to get out, "Ah get ya were fightin' for 'em ya could get the bad guy, read about that all the time, so welcome ya all to the good-guys."

Pinkie Pie put a hoof between her niece and the draconequus still standing.

"Tch. Who said I was helping you? I've helped myself to Big Brother Destruction's essence that Big Brother Dissy has been holding inside him since before you knew 'em!"

Twilight had enough of this madness. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN? Destruction's power?! His father's?!"

"Oh? Did you know? Did they know, Fluttercruel? Never heard of Destruction? Ya see, after the war between my family and the Alicorns, big brother ATE Big Brother Destruction!" Rancor slammed her hoofed leg into Discord's back, creating an impression from the impact. "Didn't you, big brother?"

Only Derpy looked sick, only Apple Pie looked shocked. After a thousand years, the ponies and dragons had long since stopped believing there was any line Discord wouldn't cross.

"Yeah...neither of us were in the best of shape after the 'last battle' and...I might have been a little crazy...-ier than normal myself...can't remember it all that well. Except he tasted like Hiroshima."

Ranor causally kicked him again.

"STOP IT!" Fluttercruel sprang forward.

(HEHEHE.)

Rancor kicked 'Sparkler' in the abdomen, sending her flying across the room in a blur and nearly hitting a wall, but Derpy caught her. Fluttercruel shivered at the caring warm touch and quickly broke contact. She felt a fever coming on, which was wrong, since she never got sick.

"Auntie's not done with her story time, niece. And Dad's Avatar, who had gone kinda off the deep even by our tolerant and understanding standards, told the rest of the family to let ya gobble Destruction down. Then he told you to eat up himself too, well, his Avatar. You can keep his Avatar's power, by the way, it was a gift."

Discord tried to get up, Rancor pushed him back down staining him in his own blood. It wasn't healing.

"So yeah, I think I've used up enough time expositing all of that. Thanks for letting me finish my errand for Dad. And by all means, try to disrupt what comes next, I bet you'll make it a real blast for your Equestria and most of the universe."
+
I-I already knew about Uncle Destruction, how he was always reluctant to do what Grandma and Grandpa told him to do. How he and dad had been so messed up after Queen Cadence blew up Grandpa's Avatar that neither of 'em were gonna make it and dad did what was natural and chose to live.

*And if it had been you instead of Destruction? Would you have just let him do it?*

...Yes. I would. Because...because that's family...family doesn't...family wouldn't...family loves, family doesn't hurt...

*You hurt Fluttershy.*

It's love when I do it! Why does no one understand that?! Like if I was good at arranging flowers or bowling...I would've just arranged flowers for Mom or gone bowling with her! And it wouldn't have even had some kind of psychotic, homicidal twist to it, either! Honest!

*Did Discord show his love for you by twisting you like he had everyone else?*

I-I don't stab family in the back, family doesn't stab family in the back, family is...Auntie Rancor didn't just...Papa, he's bleedin', he's bleedin' all over-
+
Fluttercruel screamed her lungs out. She pushed her hooves against her head so hard she nearly bled, her eyes were like a wild pony's. The ponies winced. It hurt Derpy to see her foal's face so twisted in torment.

"Meh, builds character. And now might be a good time to hit the 'record' button on your cell phones, because cause you won't see anything quite like this again! Watch me go all Dragon Egg Z!"

The red flames from before engulfed Rancor, the very earth shook, lightning tore down through the roof around her, allowing the sky above, now a viscous thunderstorm to be seen. It was like the fury of nature itself was showing its approval at the transformation. And she grew.

The ponies all felt it, the fires of passion, revenge, violence, destruction, the flames as they consumed all in their path, never quenched, never put out, always the flames.

The seaponies of Sky Ocean hugged each other as their water risked boiling.

She became larger, more muscle on her bones, bones lengthening and rearranging with sinking sounding cracks, her figure became more 'shapely' if that was even the right term for a chaos spirit. Her proportions matured as she became taller. She was now only a bit shorter than Discord.

"Follow your passions, let the fire devour you, become the fire itself. Let loose the savage that exists inside each of you. And bring destruction on those who you crave revenge against."

"I take a name worth of my family: all of us have at least one alias that starts with the letter 'D': call me Disruption."

"...you look good..." Discord breathed out, tasting blood in his mouth.

"Thank you," Rancor replied with a smile and nod. "Oh and...Twilight The Unicorn?"

Twilight was startled at being addressed by name by her. "Y-yes?"

Rancor moved like lightning, she teleported behind Twilight and flashed past her, the black spear cut along her side. Twilight felt it cutting into her flesh, her spirit, her existence like somepony had slashed through the name Twilight. She screamed.

Fire-breath, lightning, and diamond projectiles all followed, behind her an instant later, but Rancor's spear as she spun it like a propeller dispersed them all.

Twilight looked, to see the cut she knew she had felt as she knew she existed, was gone.

"That's for later. Don't waste it." Rancor said sternly. She took the ribbon off the spear and placed it in the back of her mane.

She held the spear in her left claw. A pulsing red ball of light grew and quivered on her right paw. She tossed the spear in the air, an instant later the sphere flooded into a torrent of ruinous red light, taking out every floor above it, and poking a hole in Sky Ocean above.

The black spear broke apart and dissolved into nothing in the outpouring of annihilation.

"So long Concept Killing Spear, don't need you anymore." She looked at the ponies like they were an audience. "No, seriously, I wasn't leaving that thing laying around so I can get stabbed by irony, thank you!...and MOM AND POPS, WHAT A RUSH! Destruction's power is everything I imagined it would be and more!" Rancor broke into maniacal laughter, stopped abruptly and waved at the bearers and her niece. "Well, tootles."

She drew a glowing line in the air behind her, and it the air split open. A portal or injury in existence tore open, looking like the maul of a beast. Air began to be sucked inside. Pinkie Pie took hold of Apple Pie. Fluttercruel held onto her hair. The temperature dropped like a stone. Frost formed around the gateway.

Spike's eyes just grew wider, and wider, and wider, his blood might have turned to water.

Applejack put up the illusion of a brave mare for her friends. But the real her was screaming inside. Her Element of Chaos stopped beating at the sight. She recognized that passageway. But there was no plague of pony shadows to block the view.

Pinkie Pie closed her eyes and covered Apple Pie's vision for all she was worth before Rancor could finish opening the gateway. And a cream pie in her face just to make sure she couldn't peek.

Derpy actually folded her wings over her face.
+
Oh Celestia, Celestia, Celestia. I took a step back, several, the souls inside me all shrieking in fear and all my instincts telling ne to run away as fast as I could as far as I could. A part of me feeling like the room would turn vertical any moment, and I'd fall forever through that.
+
What is that place? I feel a sense of wonderment. It's calling to me. I've never been to that place. But it feels so familiar. I can hear it. It's wants me to come home. To be with it. To be one with it, so we can both be whole. I can feel fear and void inside me calling out, wanting to be there too.

Something inside me want to run away and never look back. I crush it.

I trot forward. Just a few hoof falls away. What's beyond is what I'm a part of, what I'm meant to be. Nothing else needs to matter. Nothing else should matter. I'm coming. I'm coming. Yes, Grandma. Yes, Grandpa. I'm coming. I'm coming. I'm-something gets in the way of my hooves taking me to where I need to go. It's...

"Dad."


And the spell is broken.
+
Fluttercruel hung onto and hugged her father.

On the other side...on the other side, Twilight saw, oh sweet Celestia she saw she saw! She could feel it trying to suck the life out of her even as she watched, her Element restoring it as it was stolen.

It hated her. It hated her for thinking. It hated her for feeling. It hated her for living. It hated her for existing. One of a centillion criminals who had dared disturb on the silence. Pure. Still. Peaceful. Calm. It didn't want her dead. It wanted it to be that she had never existed at all.

A chilling blasted landscape under a blasted chilling sky, a unfeeling moon looking down all. Little hollowed out buildings, decayed rock formations that were one part rubble. And shadows, shadows that were not cast by any natural light, shaped like strange ponies. And all of them, all of them were looking right at her. They wanted what she had. She had light. Why should she be realized while they forgotten? What right did she have to exist while they were forsaken and forgotten? Why did she exist in the new world while they were abandoned? Two would glare extra hatefully at her if they had emotion. Her memories from the first Minty stirred. Toola-Roola and Starsong Melody? No! No!

Rancor didn't turn her back, she simply back-stepped inside, the silence and the dark welcomed her, she too disturbed the silence, but she was born of the silence, and the silence could not be turned against itself. So it embraced her instead.

"HEY! WAIT! Where are you going?" Spike bellowed.

"Home. Bye."

"You're not even going to try and finish Discord off?!"

"Why would I? Get a clue, I have what I came for. I have no reason to kill my own brother."

"YOU CAN'T JUST GO!"

"Looks like that's just what I'm doing. Sorry, big boy. I don't have time to dance anymore, got a party to attend in my honor, or I'd stay for your girlfriend's lovely singing voice. Very happy for you both, you know. So long." Rancor slowly backpedaled inside the schism.

Spike stampeded after her, Rarity and Twilight's telekinesis grabbed hold, AJ and Pinkie Pie's earth pony strength slow him down just enough, that the rift in existence healed over before Spike could enter after her.

"We still have round three! You don't get to just leave!" Spike fell on his knees and elbows with a tremor. "But, but that's not fair! That's not fair at all! THIS ISN'T FAIR! NO!"

"Believe me, I know exactly how you feel." Discord said, face-down on the floor before 'Sparkler' strained her muscles and magic to lift him up into a sitting position.

The whirlwind of confusion didn't stop coming. Rancor had impaled her brother, but there was nothing visible in the hole but blackness like an ocean at night, the edges of the wound looked to be slowly crumbling granite. Discord swept his paw over the ghastly wound, and it didn't vanish. "Well...didn't see that-" Discord coughed.

(This is absurd! This is illogical! This is irrational! Totally unscientific!)

I know...it's almost refreshing.

"PAPA!" 'Sparkler' screamed and her horn flashed, and suddenly, both were gone.
+
"You're...you're going to be okay, Papa, I promise, you'll be okay, nothing bad is going to happen to you." The hole wasn't getting larger, the gray and the cracks weren't spreading. Her father wasn't dying. He was a Concept, immortal, that was just silly, silly-silly as Auntie Angry Pie would say.

She carried him over to his throne, a trail of yellow and black behind them. She placed him on the giant plush throne. What was she supposed to do?! She knew how to take flesh apart, it was part of her special talent, but putting it back? Mama's memories! Right! They could help! Remember! Why did it hurt so much to remember? Remember!

She...created some bandages using Sparkler's magic.

"Fluttercruel...those won't do anything, nothing can do anything."

"Don't be silly, Papa! OF course this'll work! Pleaseworkpleaseworkpleaseworkworkdammit!!!! No! Work!" Fluttercruel blinked then said plainly. "Papa, eat me."

"WHAT?" Discord coughed. "Have you finally gone more crazy than me-" Discord broke into hacking coughs.

"You got better when you ate Uncle Destruction, right? Here, eat me, EAT ME!" Tears were in 'Sparkler's eyes. "Devour me! I'll become one with your flesh! You'll be all better! Please!" She flew onto the throne, fell flat on her muzzle when she remembered she didn't have have wings anymore, and galloped onto him and tried to stuff her foreleg down his throat. "Doesn't pony flesh taste good? Things made with love taster better, so I'm extra tasty!" She began trying to stretch his mouth wider. "Eat me all up-"

With more Herculean effort than Discord had put into anything in a thousand years, he knocked 'Sparkler' off his throne and out of his mouth. "NO!" Discord voice boomed into several echoes off the throne room wall, followed by another hacking fit.

'Curses...I forget how heavy my body feels without Destruction's raw power...Ugh. Dangit. Without Destruction's magic I can't powerhouse the magic from Dad's Avatar...then again, I did just have open spirit surgery, heh-heh-Ow! It's no fun when I'm in pain when I laugh. You think I'd enjoy the change of pace.'

"Just...just make the choice to live, like you did before...it's..."

"I SAID NO! Besides, I'm absolutely certain it wouldn't work anyway. Our spiritual essences are too different."

'I think that's the first time I've ever lied to her. Where's my normal happy feeling that lying brings me?'

"I...I understand, maybe if I was more like you...I could help you more...W-what what am I saying? Heheh. You'll...you'll be fine." She turned on the TV. "You...just sit and watch, I promise, I'll take care of those backstabbers all by myself. I'll...I'll show them for you."

"Cruelty… just LEAVE!"

"What?"

"Ditch this castle and me."

"Never."

"I order you."

"I refuse."

"Please."

"I won't abandon you, ever. I'll protect you."

(Your mother never loved you.)

'Shut up,' Discord thought.

(The moment she learned what you were, she wanted nothing more to do with you. Unlike Mimic with her daughters. Face it, no one could love a loser like you. As soon as she was free of your influence, she went and had other children. I wonder why. You never had a chance at redemption. Even if you did honestly want redemption, you'd fail. Like you fail at everything! You couldn't even make your mother smile once during your first thousand-year rule of Equestria! Even though you pampered her worse than Fluttercruel! Now THAT is a worthless son!)

'Be quiet.'

(And Rancor's the proof your other Parents don't care about you either! Giving birth to a girl like her, for the explicit purpose of stabbing you in the back! Ha!)

"D-don't worry, Papa, I'll deal with those losers, and we'll figure out something. Maybe if I get all the Elements of Chaos together, they can save you! I'll take them back one by one!"

(Guess who you have to watch die next? Helplessly? Like an anamatronic robot in a theater that's caught fire, you'll both follow your script even as the stage burns around you.)

"Cruelty, don't go."

"I won't let them near you. I won't let them hurt you."

'My own magic and Father's are too much of a mess inside after losing Destruction's...if I could just...'

"Please don't leave me, Cruelty."

"I'll be back...and I'll save you."

(Take a good look, this is the last time you'll see her in person here.)

'Give it a rest. We both know you're tiptoeing around the real issue, babe.'

(Ehhhh?)

'Your insults don't have your usual level of acid wit. Something's different. Rancor just torched your nice little script to ashes, didn't she? Disruption, I wonder if she knew how fitting a name she chose. And you can't stand that, can you? So you're attacking me with every little thing you can think of to distract yourself. You're trying to make me feel worse so you'll feel better. I understand how it goes.'

(I'M NOTHING LIKE YOU!!!)

I felt like I was making my spirit hemorrhage internally as I constructed my chaos to do as I desired.

(Just what are you doing?)

"Cruelty...all of my power and...all the power of Your Grandfather's Avatar is yours...take it..."
+
"And so it is with great pleasure, that I give Manehatten back to you...the people." Discord said on top of a soap box to the crowd, "The hardworking ponies, not those ponies in their plush houses who don't work a minute a day. Leeches who feed off your hard work. Give them the justice you feel like giving them."

-

"Mr and Mrs. Orange!" Grinned the scruffy Earth pony with glasses, his cutie mark was a scarecrow. It was covered by a sticker of a pair of glasses with swirl eyes. "You have been found guilty of having more than your fellow ponies! Of feeding off the work of others! Of doing no labor in your life yet stinking of wealth...how do you plead?" He looked down from the judge's seat. The courthouse's real judge beaten to a pulp and left tied up with several other 'fat pony elite.'

The 'courtroom' was a mad house, the 'jury' was a lynch mob, and the bailiff was Screwball with a giant wooden hammer (wearing a 'I HEART MH' T-Shirt).

"This is insane! I want my lawyer!" Mr. Orange knew it was futile, but he'd call out this performance every step of the way.

"There are no lawyers. We killed them all and made the world a brighter, happier place as a result."

"YOU ANIMAL!" Mrs. Orange snapped.

"Contempt of court!" said Screwball, hitting her on the head, hard.

"ENOUGH!" Traitor Dash smashed through the window on top of the judge's station. "These proceeding end now! By order of Master Discord!"

The crowd gasped.

"There are no laws in Master's kingdom! Therefore there are no laws to be guilty of! Therefore this trial, for the punishment of breaking laws is, of itself, a crime! Who here wishes to break Master's no-law law?!"

She crackled with red lightning. The mob shrunk from her. After all, wasn't she one of the Chaos Six?

"And as for YOU!" Traitor Dash narrowed her eyes at the two orange ponies. "Time to die."
-
Liarjack hugged her Aunt and Uncle. "Whao kay, everypony thinks yer dead. Ya'll be okay now. Cadence is keepin' Discord from spreading out from Equestria, don't ask me how them fairy ponies are doin' it, but there doin' it."

"That was...a very vivid illusion." Uncle Orange said, a bandage was now on his wife's head, "Couldn't you have told us before, Abigail?"

"Am'm sorry, Ah'm still gettin' the hang of this, and ya needed ta truly look scared. Ah'm sorry. Head for Neighpon, they love oranges there and it's as far from Equestria as ya can git."

"But what about you, Abigail?" Mrs. Orange asked.

"Ah still have mah friends here."

-

"Traitor Dash! You faked my authority! You pretended to be on my orders! You deceived and manipulated with permission you didn't have! All to get what YOU wanted..." Discord gave her noggie. "You've made me so proud my little Traitor Dash!"

Traitor Dash felt worse at the praise. But, at least for one little moment, even as her world turned to ash around her helping Discord hold the flame thrower...she'd been a hero again. Like the kind her friends had believed in.

I drop the crayon box out of my mouth, my entire muzzle tastes like wax. I look from one end of the Junior Flyers CloudBall Field to the other. I see me. All of me.

"Awesome, kiddo," Firefly hugged me.

"It's a beautiful rainbow darling. Made of all of you. All of us."

"I knew you could do it Rainbow Dash." Fluttershy kisses me behind the ear.

"It's almost big enough to show how awesome you really are." Scoots said flapping her tiny wings.

"I'd say it's just about right darling," big wingless me said.

Gildie laughed, "Took ya long enough. Ya couldn't of done it without us."

"You're right. I couldn't have." I said calmly.

"Because you needed the whole of you, and your friends are a part of you." Fluttershy said, "Just like the colors of a rainbow."

"Er, yeah." I said embarrassed, blushing.

"That was beautiful darling, simply dashing!"

"Just who are you two anyway?" I asked at the two other adults.

"We're all you've been Rainbow Dash, what you remember, and what you don't and what your heart remembers." The classy mare said.

"Uhhhh..."

"Don't go cofusin' her. Kiddo, we're you, you're us. And we were BOTH friends with who makes up Pinkie Pie. That's all you need to know!" Said Firefly. "Now go get'em winner!"

"Come back soon! YA GOT IT?!" Gildie hugged her.

"Ditto," Scoots joined in.

"Now now, don't rush her girls, she'll come when she's good and ready." Fluttershy said assertively.

"Yes mam," the two said folding their wings.

"But you're still free to just stay here Dash if that's your real choice. No one here will ever judge you, or compare themselves to you. You'll be completely free."

"You ready?" Firefly asked.

"No darling, but I love Minty and Pinkie Pie too much not to. I look forward to when beautiful rainbows arc in the sky again." Before Firefly would respond to that big piece of bluff, mare me hugged her. They glowed an I was looking at ... myself? Except she was big, and a mare with full bright colors.

"Alright ya little fireball," She looked down at me and nuzzled me, I began o glow too. "Ya ready? Not because it's expected of you. But because it's what you chose to do."

..."I choose to help my friends." I nuzzled and I started to glow.
+
"PINKIE PIE!" Dash woke up. Where was she? Sweet Apple Acres? Was she dreaming still? No. That green pony with the rock candy cutie mark was too plain for any of her dreams.

"You're awake!"

"Where are they?! Where's Pinkie Pie?! I dreamed about her..."

"You dreamed about her too!? Twilight and the others all said they were going to Large Sundae Discord's castle to cure her."

"Gotta go!" Rainbow Dash struggled against the ropes.

"You've got to rest! You just woke up! And the sky . . the sky is still weird!"

Rainbow Dash peered out the window. "That's just twilight!"

"What's Twilight got to do with this?"

"Agh!" Dash flapped her wings like mad, then dislocated a few bones...she figured the whole farm knew she was awake after screaming like a little boy pony.

"Wait! If you're going to Pinkie Pie, take me with you!" Minty begged. "What am I saying...you can't go! Stay down!"

"Sorry no time to chat, gotta dash!" She flew through the door, stone door, zipped like an overcharged firefly, and forced her way outside. Making a beeline for the castle.

And that was when she ran into another flight of dragons. "Do you really have to start paying me back NOW, karma?" Dash moaned.
+
The bearers had all been racing towards Discord's throne room, not sure what else to do after their entire mission had seemingly been turned on its head or simply made much much easier. It felt impossible to tell which anymore.

'Sparkler' teleported in front of them.

(She's garbage spawned of garbage. Dispose of her.)

She looked at Apple Pie, "I'd finish with you, filly, what I began with your twin, but I have more important things to do. Go Home. Go get a new giant orange-apple fruit salad for a cutie mark and be happy, go practice yoga with diamond dogs or write changeling poetry. I don't care! I'm paying back these scum for impaling my father through the heart!"

Spike shouted, "Rancor did that, you IDIOT! You were there! Watching!"

"Heheheheh, 'Rancor,' you say? You think I'm stupid? That was one of Auntie Liarjack's illusions. There's no way family would ever do such awful, unforgivable, evil things to each other. You all want me to just give up, roll over and play dead. But it's not going to happen. I'll never give up! My father's life is on the line! I'll give all of you what you don't deserve in the least: a quick death! So be thankful! Stuck-up Auntie Tragedy! Thieving Aunt Rarigreed! Venomous, ice-hearted Auntie Angry Pie! Weepy Auntie Traitor Dash! Fat Auntie Spike!"

"AUNTIE Spike?!" balked the dragon.

"Lying Aunt Liarjack!"

"That make us all cousins then?" Apple Pie asked. "Since everyone else is your aunt? Then shouldn't we not be fightin'. After all: 'family isn't mean to each other!'"

"Will you just suffer a tragic death already to show how serious everything is, you clown?"

Apple Pie spoke to one of the killers of her friends, this creature who had taken so much from her and so many others. "...Ya said look on the bright side of death, that losin' those ya love ain't nothing cause you end up back with nothin' when ya started...that cryin' when yer back where ya started is silly...but ya wanna save yer dad same as anypony would..." Her voice wasn't baiting or mocking, it was, pleading? "Half-Light, Aunt Pinkie, Miss Dash, Miss Rarity. Yer pa locked ya in a cage inside the same as yer friends were aren't ya?"

The cleaver almost bisected Apple Pie along the line of the scar on her forehead Fluttercruel had given her in Ponyville, instead it went into Pinkie Pie's back. AJ and Rarity began healing her.

Spike and wondered why they weren't attacking yet. But it seemed like he was the only one eager to get the monster out of the way.

"My father would never do that to me! You will never say that again you awful brat!!"

"You all were mom's friends, so I'll show you all the love I built up for her! Plucking her feathers out one by one, slicing into her hide until I cut bone slitting my wrists so our blood could mix, cutting off her tail extensions, sawing open her torso like a cow, placing my head against her heart feeling it beat..."

"Shut up." Twilight blasted her face, knocking her down. Her expression completely even.

(THANK YOU, TWILIGHT. About time you showed some truly righteous rage.)

"Envious of the closeness we shared, Twilight? The closeness she never shared with you five losers? At least I SHARED my special talent with her!" She pointed a hoof at Derpy, "You stink as a mother, Derpy Hooves! You never once dove into a icy cold river with your foals chained to you! You never once shared almost-drowning with Sparkler or Dinky! What kind of coldhearted mother doesn't share her special talent with her foals!"

Rarity held the pegasus back, "She's not trying to bait you, Derpy, she really does believe everything she just said."

(Maybe so...but Rarity, surely there must be a way you could phrase that, that DOESN'T make it sound like you're taking Fluttercruel's side?)

"You need serious therapy!" Derpy spat at Cruelty.

"Auntie Angry Pie at least SHARED her Element of Chaos with her foals!"

"Oh? Is that why you tried to hurt Grenade Pie when I let her leave the castle?" Pinkie Pie's old crippled leg was quivering. She sounded sad instead of angry.

"Grenade Pie? Was that your second foal you let go?" For a moment, she sounded like a lost and confused foal, "I honestly don't remember why. Dad didn't give me any orders. Maybe I needed a new toy and I thought you didn't want her as a foal anymore. Maybe we got into a fight and I wanted revenge. Maybe I wanted to practice for mom. Did I know about mom yet? I honestly can't recall. I've cut so many ponies and I don't keep records, or all THAT many trophies. Sorry, Auntie Pinkie Pie."

"And Gummy?"

"Now that part I do remember. He tried to eat me when I tried to express myself on Grenade Pie."

"Yes, I tore your foreleg off and smashed you through several walls. Gummy was bleeding but I still escorted Grenade Pie outside the castle, to safety. He was a couple hundred years old and the size of a tour bus. He had watched Pound, Pumpkin, Fuse Box, Bomb Pie, Powder Cake, and Fire Cracker all die of old age himself. He sure had gotten giant! After I was done with you and Grenade Pie was safely away...I took him to the pond in the castle garden where he could enjoy what time he had left after you hurt him for protecting Grenade Pie."

"I was going to tear you apart for that if Dad hadn't stopped me. We let you keep the skin. And it's not like I managed to actually DO anything to her. Dad told me to leave her and all your other students from then on. She died of old age. A grandmother." She pointed at Twilight. "I didn't so much as touch Spring Dew. It was Tragedy who killed Spring Dew when you forgot to tell Master that she was leaving. Tragedy assumed Spring Dew was deserting."
+
My Element of Chaos stopped, I felt sick. Not again. Not again. Not again. No more dark memories! No more hidden sins buried over reset memories over reset memories! No more! No more! Please no more!

(Focus! The past is the past! You can't change it! Focus on the now! You've already accepted all you've done as Tragedy, remember?!)

*You can't change the past, but you can make up for it in the future.*

Apple Pie lowered her head as did AJ and Derpy.

"Pinkie Pie..." I look pleadingly at the pink mare.

Pinkie Pie shed tears. "It's...it's alright, Twilight, old Auntie Pinkie Pie forgives you, and...I'm sure Spring Dew has forgiven you too..."

"So ya never did kill Gummy," Twilight said, "I'm sorry for thinking that."

"I told you," Pinkie Pie said, "Even at my worst, I could have never hurt him. He never once tried to hurt my foals, he was a second protector to them. He was a hero."

"You're an irredeemable mess, Fluttercruel! Get a clue already! You hurt others enough, you're gonna get hurt back sooner or later!" Spike snapped cupping his claws and wings protectively around me.

(Very good, Spike, you've always been reliable.)

"Screw you. Father's approval is the only one I need."

Rarity shouted. "Even with Discord's poison, how could you turn into THIS with your mother, WITH FLUTTERSHY alongside you? Why do you kill? No, how did you come to be so eager to kill when it's clear Discord isn't obsessed with it?"

She blinked in confusion. "...I've never thought about it before...I think when I found out I was father's child, and what he had made me for… He told me 'Time To be Cruel' was the first thing he ever said to be. I vowed I'd make him proud. That I'd prove he had made me right! So… I chose to be horrid and cruel, for him. Then… he began to think that I should cut back, diversify, try being NOT-cruel, every now and then… in other words, he didn't think I was good enough at my special talent! So I redoubled my efforts! I'd be the embodiment of cruelty he had made me to be! And he'd know I was worthy of him. Your death and suffering today will be what I need to prove that I truly love him!"

Rarity looked dismayed, "You made yourself a worse and worse monster thinking it would win your father's approval?!"

"And Mom's. I was born from her too. That must mean the potential for everything I've done had to be inside HER from the start. Which means she must have wanted it too. I think? I haven't really thought about..." Suddenly she seemed to look unsure.

Rarity said, "The cruel truth is that you really are just a foal. You really don't see this is all the opposite of what your mother would want?! Your father wants chaos, your mother wanted kindness, where does cruelty and intentional meaningless murder come from?!"

Fluttercruel looked like she had a headache. "Not murder. Yes, it is murder, I'm a dirty murderer WAIT! WAIT!It's just a game! They're toys they exist to be played with! You can't murder toys! Papa creates new toys - full-grown adults! - with a snap of his fingers! Why does everyequus in the world have to be so absurd?"

Three auras surrounded Sparkler's body.

One was a sickly yellow aura twisting and turning in on itself, unpredictable, random. It felt perfectly familiar in every way and detail. "The world is nonsense!" She shouted.

An ominous red aura, the shapes and shadows almost forming somethings I couldn't tell what, but it terrified me, it brought memories of monsters under my bed, the illusion trees in Everfree, of nearly being eaten by a hydra, of Ponyville in dread over Zecora's 'almost-a-pony-but-not-a-pony' appearance. "Everypony fears then hates what's different from they are!"

The last one was pink, shaped with half image of thorns, butterflies, and hearts all shaped with sharp edges. "The world belongs to father! I'll cut to shreds anypony who hurt him!"

They twisted and mingled with each other. It was like someone poured ice water on her as she stature became calm.

"It's creepy." She said in a no-nonsense tone. "I no longer care. Maybe I AM a bad filly. No, no, I'm not. Because I'm doing what a good daughter does! Saving her father! After I rip out and feed your Elements of Chaos to him, I'll save him!"

"CAN'T WE TALK ABOUT THIS RATIONALLY?!" I screamed, hoping beyond hope we could avoid a battle that could get our non-immortal friends killed.

(Are you SERIOUSLY asking this question to FLUTTERCRUEL?!)

"Fluttercruel, look, if yah and yer dad just swear on his mother tah leave Equestria and go somewhere yah ain't hurtin' anyone, leave the universe in peace, we'd GLADLY heal him," Applejack pleaded. "I promise!"

"You think I'm STUPID enough to trust the Element of Deceit and an Element of Honesty who lies?!" All three auras flared, mixing into one and condensed into her.

(Watch out! That is Discord's, his father Havoc's, and Fluttercruel's spiritual essences, all combining!)

"Know the true horror of the Draconequi's wrath! Of Nature's fury!"
+
Ah saw 'em. Shadows, dozens of 'em, more than that? So many of 'em! Comin' out of da floors, da wall, da ceilin'! Just like them nasties who tried to drag me off ta the big black nothin' when I was in the white nothin'! Ponies. Dragons. Changelin's! So many!

Me and Pinkie Pie flank Apple Pie.

But the shadows ain't comin' fer us. They go straight for Fluttercruel, inside poor Sparkler. They crush and claw towards 'er. And they gonna try and fight 'er?

The first one gets close, a baby dragon. An' she eats it! She rips it apart and stuffs it in 'er mouth! Ah'd say 'Sweet Celestia,' but Celestia ain't got nothin' to do with this!

They keep comin', like they want ta get eaten! A lot look at Rarity, like she's a Heart Warmin' Eve Turkey (hey, meat eatin' hasn't been taboo in centuries). But they keep marchin' right towards Sparkler's body. They give Twilight a big leg's length.

"MUFFIN!" Derpy tries ta reach her foal's body, but for every five she knocks away with lightning, five more rise up to take their place; it's like swimmin' up a waterfall. Spike, Twilight, and Rarity all fire away at 'em, but there were ALWAYS more.

Fluttercruel keep rippin' them to pieces and stuffin' 'em in her mouth, Spakler's teeth are like a shark's now. They practically cover 'er. The pile gets smaller as she eats her way out.

The whole castle is shakin'. I feel sick. Like a big 'Not Wanted Here Sign' is being jammed in me. Kindness was not welcome, Kindness was a impurity, I was an impurity.

The entire place turns pitch black, even suckin' the light from Twili' and Rarity's horns and Spike's fire. Or maybe just cancelin' it.

Ah feel like a rabbit in a timber wolves den. Ah keep Apple Pie close ta me. Ah heart her heart poundin'.

Ah felt like we were all in that awful nowhere place we saw Rancor mosey off to. Them shadows tried to drag me into! I was suffocatin'! All the warmth in the world was gone, there was a huge invisible black fire that was somehow even colder!

Ah see Pinkie Pie ripping up Rainbow Dash with a smile on her face.

Ah'm on a farm with a broken leg, I can't move, some strange monkey puts ah gun to mah temple whisperin' she's sorry and pulls the trigger.

I'm a little filly in some third world country with a gun in mah mouth, with a bunch of other little fillies under a hot sun, killin' adults and other foals because their impure race needed to be scrubbed out of existence.

Ah was a little girl in a deep dark pit with a giant bag full of rabid animals tearin' their way out.

Be vicious. Be cruel. Family is the only thing that matter. That can matter. Should matter.

Then everythin' shatters.
+
As long as I can protect father, I don't need to be a pony.
+
The faded-yellow furry body of a snake, faded yellow head, fangs in her jaws, blue slit eyes, faded pink mane, one horn that resembled her father's, the other looked almost like a piece of her mane flowing backwards.
Tail of a scorpion.
Back rear claw of a Komodo dragon.
The rear hoof of a pegasus pony.

One wing was of a Hooded Pitohui.
The other was the wing of a lovebird.
The right forelimb of a lioness.
And a black webbed limb with a barb at the elbow.

They all came into into a chaotic mess of a creature, in other words, a true draconequus.

(This...is has never happened before...I've never seen...Draconequusification doesn't exist! This can't be happening...did seeing Discord harmed give this creature strength? How? HOW?!)

"I am...Odyne Tulasi 'Fluttercruel Cruelty' Typhon. A Concept."

(Impossible. Illogical. This feeling. She's...she's as powerful as Discord?)

Apple Pie knew fear.

Pinkie Pie didn't think this was a ghostie who could be giggled away.

Derpy eyes were red with tears. "Where's my muffin?"

Rarity felt sick looking at the mass, like she had when she'd witnessed a cow slaughtered and processed into a hamburger, for the very first time.

"Even if the whole world becomes my enemy, all worlds, I won't give up the fight if that's what it take to protect him. To the grave with all of it."

"Don't do this kiddo..." AJ asked. "There's no point to this."

"There is every point to this."

(You are treating Fluttercruel as though she is a RATIONAL BEING. Fluttercruel, whom you've known for a thousand years. You might as well be begging a shark not to bite. )

Spike thought, 'Aren't you supposed to feel better when the bad guy you have to kill shape-shifts into a big monster form that doesn't look like a pony anymore?'

*No Spike you're supposed to be scared!*

(Agreed!)

"If this is what you really want." Twilight said trotting forward, "Then come here and get us. We're right here."

Cruelty shouted, "AIR TO STONE!" All the air in the de facto arena turned to solid rock. "I don't have time to play games."

Cruelty felt Rarity began to try and animate the stone, but there were no cracks, no irregularities. To be on the safe side she laid several ghost traps underneath the stone block that filled up every nook and cranny of the grand hallway. She wasn't joking when she said taking this body was like a heart transplant, not a typical possession that could be shook off so she wasn't worried about them effecting her. She also reactivated the 'Do funny things to teleportation' curse her father had placed over the castle and hundred mile spherical radius.

"And I know you can't negate Dad's magic, Tragedy. And if you try to just blast your way out, you'll kill your teammates who aren't immortal. Sorry, you won't stuff defeat into the jaws of victory this time."

A giant boxing glove punch into her from behind, smashing into the stone concrete mass in front of her, not hurting her, but leaving cracks.

"Auntie Angry Pie." Cruelty scowled.

"Auntie Pinkie Pie, actually niece." The straight haired pony panted, looking heavy. "Figured that wouldn't hurt you, but figured you'd hurt the rock. I'm a rock farmer, remember? I know better than anypony where to hit a rock to make it break."

The cracked mass of stone exploded in a myriad of force fields, telekinesis, Earth-Pony muscle, and heat-cold bombs.

Four ponies and one dragon broke their way out of the mess and onto the draconequus who cut up the stone like it was styrofoam.

"You're good for never having done draconequus magic before," Twilight said coldly.

"Father is a very good teacher."

AJ (who had used herself as a cocoon for Apple Pie) kicked a large piece with the filly's help (or vice versa) of concrete shattering it to reveal a gray and blond pegasus.

"You should have suffocated by now," Cruelty said to the pegasus mare.

"I've been holding my breath since I was a filly at the bottom of that river. Do you think that would kill me as a mare when I survived it as a filly?"

"And if you've think I'm a one trick straw giant, then you're all about to receive a very rude awakening. You don't want quick and painless? Then say goodnight with this chaos magic barrage! Two, three, one, GO!"

Next Chapter: Episode 99: (Dark World) Ruined Pearl Necklace And Crushed Pearls Estimated time remaining: 34 Hours, 34 Minutes
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