My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
Pony POV Series
Dark World Part 23 "Broken Pearl Necklace"

I think I've finally gone crazy. Finding out all at the same time: that out you and a thousand-year-old redeemed minion of Turtle Panel Discord were two halves of the same pony in a previous reality, we were both best friends with the cheery version of the Pink Inferno herself, and our ideal world was erased for being too perfect...it must have driven me crazy.

I am Minty Pie. And I don't have the same accent as most of my family, here at Sweet Rock Acres.

My accent's different because my parents are...my parents were...don't sweat it, it's normal. Here at Sweet Rock Acres, we accept what we've lost and move on. I think after finding out what I know now, it's even harder…

Well...some of us more easily than others. I'm a weirdo like that, too. It's harder for me to accept when we lose part of our family again.

I couldn't stand how everypony else just accepts that -oh, well, they're gone, back to harvesting the dolomite!-

*That's not completely true you know Minty Pie.*

Okay, sad and hurt foals see the world differently, I admit it. Maybe I'm a little bit different from the rest of my family.

*Everypony is a little bit different from the rest of their family.*

I guess. Everypony is excitedly waiting for Apple Pie to come back the big hero. We'd have all marched off to help if Twilight hadn't said numbers can't beat Purple Helmet Discord.

I couldn't stand how everypony else just accept they were gone and moved on.

Don't get me wrong, I still love them all: Banana Pie, Cream Pie, Apple Pie, Orange Burst (little guy is so cute), Apple Juice, Uncle Crab Apple, Blackbird Pie, Red Jack, Black Jack, Fruit-Of-The-Knowledge-Of-Good-And-Evil (I don't care if she's not related by blood), Cherry Apple, Cheery Pie (yes she's a hippogriff and yes we're related), Rocky Pie, Grandpa Rock Pie, Humble Pie, Uncle Apple Computer, and Aunt Apples N. Oranges.

Hey! Memorizing our family tree is a sacred tradition! Of course I'm not going to leave anypony I love unmentioned!

Especially since, many times, it was like I was the only one who even REMEMBERED those who're not with us. Poison Apple, Apple Bucker, Apple Cake, Orange Cake, and all the rest of them. No one deserves to be treated like they never existed.

*Then why do they keep their pictures up? If they really wanted them gone, those picture would be gone too. And they don't hesitate to speak their names.*

I get that, now. I think Twilight's memories give me a better perspective.

I used to think of those dreams as nightmares, but after touching Twilight, I'm grateful for them, I remember the wonderful friends we both had once upon a time. They left their mark on me, I didn't want them to be forgotten, any of them.

What was it that made me think I'd have gone crazy? Oh that's easy! I asked Cream Pie and Banana Pie for some of their bombs and weapons, and after they gave them to me, I began trailing behind Miss Traitor Dash, no, Rainbow Dash, following her towards Chaos Castle. I have to see them. Apple Pie AND Pinkie Pie both. I just have to. Twilight promised she'd protect my sweet cousin Apple Pie. And I do trust her.

But maybe I can help. Or maybe I'm being crazy. I'm sorry Twilight, you told me to sit still, but I think 'kooky Minty' is slipping into me.

YES, I KNOW IT'S CRAZY! Why do you think I said I've finally gone crazy-?!

I didn't exactly tell my family what I was doing. I just made sure to tell them all that I loved them very much in each their own way and snuck out before Cream Pie and Banana Pie figured it out and decided to tag along. Sorry girls, I know you love Apple Pie too, but I'm not dragging you into my craziness.

I try to tell myself if I die, they'll just keep on farming the schist and the pumice and the gabbro and the mica, with nary a tear in their eye. But that's a Discord truth, inside their hearts will crack like graphite. Thanks for helping me see that Twilight, Minty.

I'd elaborate more on the details, like how much I love them, and how much they love me, and how I know deep down, they are grieving their own way too, but if I did, we'd be here all...twilight? Whatever!

Apple Pie...I know she's tough, but...I'm still worried, she's my cousin. I have to make sure she's okay.

Twilight! Rainbow Dash! Pinkie Pie! Apple Pie! Here I come!

The ground crumbled and I fell in. Diamond Dogs need to plan their tunnels better...huh? This is no diamond dog cave! I keep falling and, THUNK!

The cave goes on for miles. There are giant mosaics on every wall. My way is a hundred hooves above me and hundreds away from any wall. I've landed upon a giant mass of ancient hay. Don't ask me what that's about. Or any of this. At least none of my legs are broken. But nopony knows I'm down here!

"HELP!! I'M HERE!"

I don't think my screams reach the hole.

There are statues of 'things' everywhere. From ponies, to monsters, to monster-ponies and pony-monsters. A lot are broken and worn. A river splits right down the middle...water? I can't remember when I'd last seen a river made of WATER! This is just plain weird! Guess I shouldn't complain. At least I have something to drink.

I just barely see a passage...several miles away at the far end of the cavern. With no clue if it leads anywhere.

"This...is going to take a while."

"Forsooth! The chosen one has arrived!"

"Our deliverance from the lemon-ponies is assured!"

That was when I realized I was surrounded by miniature ponies in tribal garb who looked like they were made of winter winds.

"Why do I have a feeling things just got a lot more complicated?"

++++

:Song - L'Impeto Oscuro, Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance:

A dozen mirrors were thrown at AJ who shattered them with kicks, releasing the reflections inside, "Howdy all!" They echoed and didn't hesitate to gang up on the original. "Face the truth!"

A swarm of bees, snakes, bats skunks, and bat-wings snakes with bee stingers who stank of skunk mobbed Twilight all at the same time.

"Eat the great devourer!" Roared a battalion of giant spear-toting fanged muffins with cartoony arms and legs armed as they encircled Derpy, grappling hooks pulling her down.

A collection of foal-sized dolls trapped Apple Pie. Each had a giant fruit for head: a pear, an orange, an apple.

"Love you."
"Love hurts."
"And we love you so much."
"We love you to death," they chorused in grainy voices like a pull-string recording.

Her kicking the orange head off one didn't even slow it down as it hugged her from behind so tight it was crushing her skeleton.

"We love you into paste," the orange head spoke from the ground.

"H-hey! Dolls are supposed to be played with, but you're-" The headless doll jammed a cupcake in Apple Pie's mouth, and another, and another, until all that could get out was muffled noise.

"Now, now, no talking with your mouth full." said the headless doll.
"You'll have perfect manners as a plastic dolly," said the apple doll.
"You be pretty forever," said the pear doll.

And they beginning to snap plastic coverings over Apple Pie's body.

A clearance sale's worth of oversized perfume bottles crowded Rarity, spraying a choking quantity of fragrance upon her, enveloping in her in a cloud of pink. Rarity coughed and gagged.

"Give-give-give!" The bottles sang.

A cache of bloody kitchen knives flew at Pinkie Pie which she kicked away and blocked with a cutting board when they tried a return approach. "Ha! Have to get up earlier in the morning to-"

A smiley-faced rubber ball struck her head like a cannonball, followed by a second brightly-colored ball in the stomach. And another smiling ball in the back. They hit with the sound of rain against glass.

"Smile smile smile!" The balls laughed, and kept laughing.

Spike opened his mouth to simply incinerate the swarm of conjured adversaries, when several floating fire extinguishers sprayed him with chilling C02. Spike coughed. "Dirty cheat!"

"Moron! I'm saving my family!" Cruelty snapped. "Anything goes."

Spike threw strategy to the wind and choose to simply crash into his teammates to break up the gang-bangs. A giant STOP sign clonked him on the head.

"Bad dragon! Bad! Bad BABY dragon!!"

Spike suddenly found himself the shortest creature in the room, even more so than Apple Pie whose two forelegs were now encased in plastic.

Spike felt his wings missing. "Ah, crud. I thought I was done with these horse apples."

Fluttercruel quadrupled in size and began stomping on the dragon with her pegasus hoof. "Diediediediediediediediediediediediediediediediedie!" And Spike knew how mashed potatoes felt.

Twilight sparked a fireball at ground zero, enveloping both her and the swarm of beasties. Yet Twilight could regenerate and Fluttercruel hadn't given her swarm the same ability.

Spell-Copy

A fireball exploded from the cloud of pink perfume going up like a mushroom cloud. While the perfume had been self-replicating, they couldn't refill if the perfume was completely gone. The empty glass bottles continued to mindless chant, "Give, give, give!"

"Ah shut up!" Rarity said as she smashed the bottles into each other, shattering them. "Thank you for the spell, darling."

'In retrospect, it probably would have been smarter for me to give Rarity a rounded out spell list now that she an and Element of Magic, right?'

*Yes.*

(Indeed.)

Twilight blasted Spike with the very first spell she had ever used on him within seconds of his being hatched. The bruised and beaten dragon was suddenly eye-level with Cruelty again, wings flared.

"So, Spikey, how did it feel to be all cute and cuddly again?" Rarity asked slyly.

"I felt weak, small, and squishy!" He punched Fluttercruel through several walls, and fired breathed in her general direction for good measure leaving melted stone. The castle shuddered in pain.

Pinkie Pie ran, the bouncing balls following her like magnets, singing, "Smile, smile, smile!" Her Pinkie Sense was of no help against these balls. She fled straight into the crowd of Applejacks. The true Applejack leapt to shield Pinkie Pie with her body. "Face the truth!" The fake Applejacks yelled as they continued to pummel her.

It was then Pinkie and Applejack learned two things. First, that the smiley balls weren't programmed to bounce around obstacles, they were programmed to shoot through them. Second, the Applejack reflections were programmed with zero sense of self-preservation.

"Smile, smile, smile!" The balls hit harder and harder against the backs of the fake Applejacks who just continued their onslaught on the genuine article, even as their bodies were hammered mercilessly.

Eventually, then the mindless reflections shattered into glass shrapnel. The shards stuck into the smiley balls, which popped like balloons.

"Smooth moves, Pinkie."

"Actually, I was running like a big scaredy-pony. UGH!"

"Let me heal that."

Derpy now lay on a silver platter, an apple in her mouth, with hooves and wings bound. The giant muffins sprayed whipped cream on her. "Eat the great devourer! Eat the great devourer!" They chanted.

Derpy squirmed insanely, the rope burns were nothing compared to all she'd suffered from the crows. Spike stepped on the muffins. Rarity's diamond knives cut the ropes. Derpy spat out the apple. "Sorry."

"For what?" Rarity said.

"You had to save me."

"Don't start that now!"

"You'll be a happy, happy doll," the fruit dolls promised. Apple Pie was now encased in plastic from the neck down. Somehow, she was beginning to feel hollow inside, as though everything within her skin were disappearing.

The pear doll and apple doll each carried a left and right half of a plastic replica of her own head -- which they meant to snap together onto Apple Pie's head like the two halves of a plastic toy egg. Apple Pie felt water in her eyes.

A blast of magic turned the dolls to plastic potted plants. A precise wind spell sent them both flying across the room, into a fire. Twilight and AP got the dough and wrappers out of her mouth.

"It's okay, Apple Pie, I've got you."

"Half-Light? A-Ah'm, Ah'm-"

"Shuuush. Keep your head together..." Twilight peeled all the plastic off Apple Pie's body: the filly could feel organs and muscles return within herself. They hugged.

(Take a look at this web of events, Twilight. The only reason over half of these groupies are still alive is because you play bodyguard to them all. Is this really the best use of your time? Is this fair to THEM?)

'AGAIN, with this go-it-alone nonsense!! Does it even have a point anymore?'

(Yes! If Princess Celestia could wield all six Elements at once against Nightmare Moon, then so can you!)

'She's Celestia! I can't be Magic AND Honesty AND Laughter AND all the rest!'

(And I say you can! Why do you doubt your abilities this much?)

Cruelty flew out of the molten hole, back to her normal size and covered in soot. "You broke my jaw!"

"Which means you're NOT indestructible like the rest of your family!" Spike shouted.

"ALL GO SPLAT!"

The ceiling came down. AJ, Spike, Derpy, and Pinkie Pie all managed to catch it in one concerted effort. Cruelty fired a silo's worth of anti-personnel rockets at them. Twilight shielded their friends while Rarity telekinetically flung the missiles back at Cruelty.

(Remember the Ursa Minor, Twilight! There is nothing you can't do with your magic!)

Twilight added her telekinetic force against the collapsed ceiling as well. 'Heh, I'm using Trixie's Element of Magic to do what she couldn't before.'

(Trixie was a talentless lying sadistic cowardly blowhard who could never learn her lesson.)

Rarity joined the group effort and, using Twilight's original Element of Magic, they all flung the ceiling out of the castle. The twilight sky shined.

Pinkie Pie panted, her legs shuddering. "I could use a nap."

"BONES TURN TO GLASS!" And as Cruelty commanded, so it was done: her enemies' bones were all now formed of glass instead of calcium.

"QUADRA-ZILLION SONIC RAINBOOM PUNCHES!"

Spike's superior body mass proved an asset as he threw himself in the path of Cruelty's blitzkrieg. Twilight and Rarity cringed at the sound of shattering glass cutting into Spike's flesh from within. Twilight took advantage of Spike's sacrifice right away.

She may not have been able to negate the effects of Discord's magic, but she could still turns glass into bones the old-fashioned way. No normal unicorn could do this, Twilight was no normal unicorn. And with Rarity's help they were able to double the speed at which their skeletons were restored, all while Spike took Cruelty's wrath.

"Hey! How do you KNOW it's a quadra-zillion Sonic-Rainboom Punches?! Did you count 'em?" Apple Pie called out.

"Huh?" Cruelty stopped in confusion. Pinkie Pie slammed a scorched plastic fruit salad in Cruelty's face from above and leapt off her, while Twilight and Rarity restored Spike and healed his bones. The full adult dragon punched Cruelty in the gut, sending her flying backward.

Pinkie's eye widened in alarm and her body twitched everywhere. She kicked Apple Pie into the air.

"BLADES!" Scythes sprang out of the floors and walls and what was left of the ceiling.

Spike roared as he was stabbed through his feet, hot dragon blood spilling. Derpy caught Apple Pie before she could hit the spiked floor as Pinkie Pie had hoped, herself standing neatly between the scythe blades.

The three immortals weren't so lucky, Twilight, Rarity and Applejack found themselves stuck on the scythes. The curved shape meant it was harder to simply push themselves off them and it was difficult to regenerate themselves properly with the blades impaling them this way.

"FLOOR! BE ACID!"

Pinkie Pie screamed. Twilight's telekinesis caught her before anything other than her hooves could be eaten away at. Spike roared in pain again, but the hole in the castle enabled him to take to the skies, and bring Apple Pie and Pinkie Pie with him. Pinkie Pie's hooves were a mess as she cried tears of pain.

The scythes began to lower neatly into the now acid-floor, dragging the immortals with them.

"That acid will only leave your Elements of Chaos for me to claim!"

Twilight tried the gossamer wing spell, which fell apart on contact with the acid they were sinking into.

Pinkie Pie shoved a giant beaker off Spike's back. It was full of liquid; the beaker, itself, was simply labeled 'BASE.' She collapsed to her belly the moment gravity took hold of the beaker, closing her eyes, catch her breath.

Cruelty caught the giant bottle of base before it fell to the acid floor, but took her eyes off Spike in order to do so. He breathed flame in her face again: she reflexively crushed the beaker in her palm, and its contents mixed with the acid.

The explosion sent the immortals skyward. AJ was able to regenerate faster with her Element of Kindness, she created a herd of illusionary decoys while making the real ones invisible. Dragons could handle swimming in lava as babies, so the acid was painful to Spike, but not fatal. Derpy and Apple Pie were using him as a shield. AJ was caught by Spike and she began healing Pinkie Pie also maintaining her illusions, she had gotten experience during the Rancor fight.

Spell Copy

Every illusion-decoy of Twilight changed to Half-Light Noon, while all the Rarities cast the gossamer wing spell on themselves. It was an ugly thought, but Twilight found herself suddenly empathizing with every mage who'd ever grumbled that
Twilight's spell copy ability was a plagiaristic cheat.

(Focus on Cruelty! She has power, but no experience, she's clever but not far-thinking, and you can break her concentration. Use that!)

*You also have numbers, you're a TEAM versus an individual. Work together. She can't focus on all of you at once.*

This was when gravity went wonky for a few seconds; and they floated like astronauts in space. It didn't bother the airborne ones, but that wasn't the point. The point was seeing that none of the illusions reacted to the sudden loss of all gravity as AJ had been caught by surprise. That was all Fluttercruel needed to know.

She strapped on a headband, pulled out a gatling gun and began to blaze away.

"Why do we fight when no equus wants to fight and our nations abandon us once the war is over?" She shouted in a macho, badass voice, over the roar of gunfire.

Pinkie managed to call out, "You call that a Metal Gear Pony parod-yeow!" A spray of bullets cut through her mane where her head had been a second ago. "An infinite-ammo headband?! But you only get that on consecutive playthroughs!"

Spike was forced to take evasive maneuvers, which broke AJ's concentration, which revealed the real Half-Light Noon and Rarity. Rarity didn't miss a beat as she released a flash bomb spell, but used her wings to reflect all the light right at Cruelty's face.

"NOT AGAIN!" Cruelty yelled, dropping the gatling gun.

Half-Light Noon landed on top of Spike's head and shifted back to Twilight, horn glowing ready to fight.

"HORNS, WINGS, DISAPPEAR! INTERNAL ORGANS TO GUM BALLS! SKIN, BLOOD, AND BONES TO SOAP! BRAINS TO PENCIL SHARPENER SHAVINGS! There!"

Her dead opponents splattered upon the castle floor: large blobs of liquid soap in which gum balls and wooden shavings floated.

"Now you're all dead. The end! Now I just take the Elements of Chaos from your corpses, and then hunt down Traitor Dash and rip Treachery from her. I save my father, and we live happily ever after, and you're all still dead! GOOD-BYE!"

Twin barrel Magic-blasts, dragon breath, lightning, diamond kunai, and pieces of rubble overwhelmed her an instant later.

"Ah don't need a horn for mah illusions!"

Cruelty created a horde of medieval shields around herself floating up from the smoking ground zero of the combined attack. "I did NOT just fall for the same horseapples as the School-Yard! I took away your wings and horns first! You shouldn't have been able to do anything! AND YOU SHOULD ALL BE DEAD!"

Twilight said, "Soul-binding matrix, like the kind cockatrice naturally create when they petrify victims so they can feed off their life force at their leisure. Which gave me time to restore the rest of us to flesh and blood who aren't immortal."

(Thank you! for not mentioning it only works if the victim isn't smashed to bits.)

'Nor tell her since she didn't technically turn half of us into Earth Ponies, just erased parts of our bodies, they just needed a epic-level regeneration spell. Give just enough information to frustrate her. See? I can learn.'

(Oh I never doubt that believe me, and your greatest lesson is waiting beyond this zoo exhibit!)

"But I REMOVED YOUR HORNS!"

Twilight's white and purple horn glowed, "This is't my horn."

"Thank you, Magica," Apple Pie said.

(You stupid blabbermouth! NOW you're just telling her how to win!)

'I didn't say how big a chunk it ate out of my mana reserves,' Twilight meekly defended like a scolded student. 'And I didn't bait her to try it again.'

(One right move and two wrong moves doesn't make three right moves!)

"A For effort dear, but that's it," Rarity said.

"That was the worst experience of mah life," Apple Pie whispered. Derpy and AJ hugged her.

Cruelty sigh, "That's it, party's over. Deck of cards."

And all present transformed into cards. Not nice, neat squares of fifty-two, either. Rather, it was as if an artist had bought several millions decks of playing cards and had glued them together to form life-sized statues of five ponies and a dragon. Cruelty flapped her wings and the card statues all fell like sandcastles.

Cruelty began shuffling through Rarity's cards. "Let's see... 'Love For Spike,' 'Love For Self,' 'Love For Tom,' 'Materialism,' 'Foalhood,' 'Love For Sweetie Belle,' 'Priorities,' oh, here we go! 'Greed,' 'Cruelty,' and 'Magic!'

She looked downward with a sigh: cards were spread across the floor like autumn leaves over a backyard. "Talk about needles and haystacks!"

At that moment, a card in Twilight's pile flared blue.

"MINE!" Rarity jabbed her horn into Cruel's face.

In a flash of azure light, the seven heroes had been restored.

"Oh well, so much for a Yu-Gi-Hoof tribute." Pinkie Pie sighed.

"You see, Fluttercruel, Trixie's special talent focused on stage magic, and I have her Element of Magic, and cards are directly related stage magic."

"And how skilled was Trixie at chess?" Cruelty interrupted sweetly.

"Chess? Huh? Well, I don't know if she even played-"

"CHESS PIECES!"

Fluttercruel picked up the king piece Twilight had become. "Now what do you have to say to that?! Nothing?! GOOD!"

Somepony tapped on her should, she turned and Pinkie filched the Twilight piece from Cruelty's paw. Pinkie Pie was now dressed in a magician's top hat and cape. She placed Twilight with five other chess pieces on a small table. "First, they're one thing..." She pulled a tablecloth over the table, and waited five seconds. "...Now another!"

The five ponies and one dragon all looked at each other very confused under a tiny crushed table.

"Pinkie Pie, HOW DID YOU DO THAT?!" Twilight exclaimed.

"Yes, Angry Pie! How?!" Cruelty screamed.

"Well, ya see, it's just, ya know, Abracadambra…ack…" Pinkie gasped and clutched her chest, her eyes wide. The magician costume vanished, along with the props. "I think...did too much..." She gasped out, her left fore hoof shaking. She was on her knees.

Cruelty was panting heavily, completely baffled by Pinkie Pie.

(Now's you're chance! Use the Elements and...)

"Spike, Derpy, with me! Twilight, AJ, AP, help Pinkie!" Rarity shouted.

(Morons. Erm, no Twilight, I won't argue this point: lousy move.)

Rarity, Spike, and Derpy, all came at Cruelty then scattered, then came at different direction, the draconequus suddenly finding herself on the defensive as Derpy's attacks kept coming too fast and too sudden: her attention divided between three opponents.

"You're just a clone of your father!"

"And why is that a BAD thing?! Foals are supposed to have their parents as their role models!"

"Like Fluttershy was yours too?"

"Maybe she'd have been if the changeling queen hadn't kidnapped and murdered her!" That was when she got a combo of a knee to the stomach then a hammer blow to the back both from Spike as she had focused on Rarity for their verbal duel and had forgotten their physical one.

While Cruelty was preoccupied, AJ healed Pinkie Pie carefully, unset Rarity had taken their lightning rod and Rarity could have simply stolen this from Pinkie Pie.

"AJ...the pain in my chest has stopped, I can breath again," Pinkie Pie whispered.

"Great ta here darlin'," AJ hugged her, "Pinkie Pie, don't do that to yerself, ya know ya shouldn't push yerself like that ya hear?"

Pinkie Pie just smiled. "Well, with how things are goin', I figure I'd give everything I had since we really don't have a fight with Discord to worry about."

"Don't jinx it!" Twilight said automatically, before frowning at Pinkie in worry. "What's happened to you?"

"Don't worry Twilight," AJ said putting a hoof on her shoulder, "Pinkie Pie is gonna be just fine, and we'll all be together again, just like ya said. And nothing is gonna stop that from happenin', right?"

Twilight nodded bravely. "Right."

"Yer really okay, Auntie Pinkie Pie?"

"You bet! I just need to take things a little bit easier, I just pushed myself a little too hard," Pinkie Pie said smiling and nodding.

The entire castle rumbled. Cruelty looked as surprised as they did, but she didn't care as three heroes' hard and fast tactics kept her from focusing, 'Ugh! Did I use too much power at once? I thought gods were supposed to all powerful. But that's not the only power I have!'

"Alright then, let's do this mommy, for daddy."

Rarity's eyes widened. "Oh no. Everypony! Look away!" Rarity fired a flash bomb spell, but Cruelty had grown used to the spell and fired a ball of black sludge covering the small condensed ball of light and mana just before it went off.

The next move didn't come from Cruelty, it came from everywhere else.

"GAZE INTO THE ABYSS!"

The world turned black. The sound of chains binding rattled through everypony and every dragon's minds. From the absolute black, blue eyes, opening vertically, all of them identical, all of them familiar to nearly all present.

You. How DARE you!
-
I, I feel like I'm back with mom, my first mom, the way she scowled me, looking down at me, I wanted to become smaller and smaller until I didn't exist anymore, the way I wanted to so badly apologize for something, anything. I knew I had been a bad filly, that was the only reason mommy would be upset with me, and I'm a stupid filly for not knowing why mommy is upset with me, so mommy is right to be upset with me. Mommy loves me, so everything mommy does is good, so anytime mommy is upset, I'm a bad filly, Derpy's sorry for being a bad filly, mommy!
-
I hoped my previous experience with The Stare could help me, but this, this is, this is, this is several, several, times worse. I'm so much stronger. But Tom can't, can't, can't, help me this time. She's everywhere, everywhere, everywhere, and nowhere. I grasp for a solution, any solution, but none comes. The cruel truth is that my magic can't save me this time.
-
(Twilight!)
*Twilight!*
I'll stay still like a good filly.
(Don't stay still!)
*You have to move!*
I'm staying still like a good filly.
(YOU CAN'T LOSE LIKE THIS!!!)
*Twilight THINK! Don't be afraid!*
I think I'm going to stay still like a good filly.
*This isn't being a good filly!*
(This is being a scared and cowardly filly!)
*There's nothing there, Twilight! Remember! Giggle at the ghosties!*
(There is no LOGICAL or RATIONAL reason for you to be scared right now!!!)
The ghosties are giggling at me.
(Ignore them!)
*Laugh WITH them then! Laugh at yourself!*
A good filly must be silent.
(That's a weak filly!)
*Celestia NEVER punished you for asking questions! A good teacher WANTS their student to ask questions!*
I...I...I...
-
Rarity! Twilight! That's it! I am done! No way! No how! I am not being made helpless again! You hear me?! The color black and some eyes aren't stopping THIS dragon! I! Am! Not! Taking this lying down! Look into MY eyes and-YesIamyesIamyesIamyesIam. Sorryma'am! YesIamsorryma'am! I'll just put my body around Rarity and Twilight so they'll get a few extra moment of sweet sweet life more than me! Please? Sorry!
-
The eyes! The eyes they're everywhere! Outside! Inside! Sideways! All my bones are rattling, my heart, no heart! Please don't! Don't give up on me now! We've still got so much to do! Don't fail me now! Is this how that dragon felt when hit by Fluttershy's stare? I can't blame him for being scared. The eyes. Make me go away already! I can't move! I can't think! Wait yes I can! But I can't do anything about it! "All of you stay still and accept your deaths." I am going to stay still and accept my death. "You are not going to try anything clever." I am not going to try anything clever! "Screw exposition. This time you all just vanish." Screw expo-site-eon. This time we all just vanish.
-
Dangit! Ah can't think! Ah am not thinking. Ah am not having any thoughts. There is nothin' in mah head. Nope. Nothin', notta thing. No thoughts at all.
Kindness comfort me.
Deception block-out the stare.
Ah can't see where the others are. Ah can't hear where the others are. Ah can't find 'em.
Illusions within. Block out the eyes. But Ah'm still in the dark! Dangit. Ah've cut the signal. Come on, earth ponies are connected to life, so let me figure out where they are. Would be easier if this whole dang castle didn't radiate life. Come on!
-
Ah'm scared ta pieces, and Ah ain't got a clue why. So Ah'm being scared of nothin', kinda funny. Do ponies feel more scared at things they know or don't know? Ah guess it's depends on how good an imagination ya've got. If yer not creative, then whatever yer scared of but don't know what, could be a lot worse than what yer thinin' of. But ya are creative, then whatever ya think of, is gonna be not as bad as what yer scared of but don't know what. Well. Ah like ta think Ah'm a creative pony, and Ah don't know what Ah'm scared of, so whatever it is, can't be quite as bad as what Ah'm thinking of!

(And once again your insane diamond dog logic makes a mockery of reason and rational thinking.)

What do diamond dogs have ta do with this? Ah'm still super scared. But Ah gotta help Half-Light. And Aunties. And Mr Spike, and everypony! It's scary ta move mah hooves, it's even scarier to think. That ain't make a lick of sense, but Ah can't deny what Ah feel! It's all one big contradiction. Heh. Heheheh. "HA-HA-HA-HA!" Ah still can't move! Not gonna do anything clever. Just gonna accept mah death. But at least it's funny! "Ha-HA!"
-

Cruelty stared at the filly. "Laughing when your friends are about to die... wow. Think I finally understand why they called that depraved."

The filly was clearly still scared out of her wits but still, "I have no reason to kill half of you. Get up and turn around and leave." Dragon, pegasus and filly stood up, their legs acting on their own. They wobbly turned around, and beginning to mechanically march the way they came, their bodies ignoring their comrades. The staring eyes in the dark were everywhere.

Then she was shocked when AJ began moving about, wobbling like a blind mare! Wait...

"You created an illusion over your optic nerves to sever your vision with The Stare? Clever. But it's not going to save you."

"Wanna bet? Ah can take ya! Ah can give a spakin' ta a spoiled brat like ya! Take me first if ya think ya can!"

"...I know that you trying to use reverse psychology, Element of Deceit. Nice of you to admit that you are helpless and you want me to take your buddies out first. Dad is perfect, and Dad loves betrayal and manipulation. Wish I could talk him into sparing you."

"But if yer Dad loves backstabbin'... why ain't he happy? After all, all his old buddies have turned on him," Apple Pie managed to speak. "Or this one of those, 'it's-okay-for-ponies-ta-eat-rocks-but-not-for-rocks-ta-eat-ponies' situations Pa's always talkin' about?"

"But I need your Element of Chaos!"

AJ heard was several dozen whooshing sounds all at once, all coming straight towards her Element of Chaos.

Just as a deafening explosion broke her concentration, more than broke it, utterly shattered it and ground it into dust that was blown to the four corners of Equestria. Applejack's self-imposed illusion shattered, and so did the Ultimate Stare. The several dozen lances thrown at AJ shattered too. The rumbling stopped. Bones and mortar rattled and ears were covered.

"FINALLY!! I thought when those Apple dragons let me through, I'd caught a break! You guys could've left a note, you know! I've been ripping this castle apart looking for you! Didn't know Discord got more bedrooms than a hotel! NOW WILL SOMEPONY TELL ME WHAT THE FRICK' IS GOING ON HERE?!?!?!"

"I'm not EVEN SURPRISED that you'd barge in NOW, Traitor Dash! Like a bad self-insert!"

(Her massive ego wouldn't have it any other way.)

*And neither would I.*

Rainbow Dash gaped at Cruelty. "OH, MOTHER OF EVERYTHING! A THIRD DRACONEQUUS?! OH, COME ON! NOT ANOTHER ON, PLEASE! AREN'T THINGS CRUDDY ENOUGH!?"

Cruelty was currently engulfed in angry flames. "ENOUGH WITH THE FIRE BREATH!" A metal muzzle materialized over Spike's snout, and an railroad spike drove itself through the center.

Cruelty created a giant mirror that reflected the magic attacks from Rarity and Twilight that came a moment later until that got shattered by a rock, but that just let the shards of the mirror move independently in the air.

"Where's the other one?!" Dash asked, looking around. "Rank-Core or whatever!"

"Rancor stabbed Discord in the back, stole a bunch of his power, leavin'em with a hoof in the grave, and left! It's all she came for!" Applejack called.

"WHAT?! YOU'RE KIDDING! Whooopie!" Dash looped through the air like a first-class roller coaster, "Let's have cake! Drinks are on me, girls!"

"SHUT YER HOLE!"

Rainbow Dash suddenly found herself dodging machine-gun fire from every direction, until Twilight set up an adequate force field so they could talk more.

"GUYS! WHAT HAPPENED TO PINKIE?! ARE YOU ALL STILL THE 'NICE' YOUS? WHERE IS FLUTTERSHY?!"

"Mother's been gone for over five hundred years!" Cruelty answered, as hundreds of floating hammers beat upon the force field. "An Alicorn kidnapped her soul and dragged her away to, whatever soulless boring place they lord over!"

The image of a yellow filly falling from Cloudsdale flashed in Dash's mind. "I… I wanted to save you this time, Fluttershy. Forgive me," she murmured, then frowned at the draconequus before her.

"So just who are YOU supposed to be anyway, stranger? Discord's stalker girlfriend?"

Cruelty frowned looking visibly upset, "You don't recognize me Dashie? It's me, Fluttercruel."

"F...Fluttercruel???" Rainbow Dash squeaked.

"Ta-da! But I'm still the same hatchling of Mommy Fluttershy and Daddy Discord!"

"What?! FLUTTERSHY?! A-and Discord?! Then he must've… poor, innocent Fluttershy... I'LL KILL THE BASTARD!"

"YOU'LL HAVE TO GET THROUGH ME FIRST, TRAITOR DASH!"

Then the force field shattered, and Dash got treated to a knuckle sandwich. Derpy flew like a mad bee around Cruelty again, 'stinging' faster than the draconequus could react, her Element shining. AJ broke open Spike's muzzle and healed the dragon.

"Wait, though," Dash said, as Twilight cast more shield spells on her. "If Fluttershy's been dead for five-hundred years, then what's been controlling her body?!"

"Fluttercruel was!" Twilight screamed, "Right from the start! Discord couldn't poison Fluttershy like us! So he conjured a separate intelligence-thing to take over her body! HER!" She pointed.

"I am not a thing! I am the child of Mommy's true feelings and Daddy's magic!"

"THIS IS ALL CRAZY!!!!" Rainbow Dash screamed. One of Rarity's Hippogriff golems (Horus) had to fly in front of her and shield her from machine gun fire.

Twilight and Rarity's magic made systematic work of the machine guns.

Spike grabbed Dash, and flew her to the far end of the room.

Spike knew if anyone but him tried to explain it they'd drive poor RD completely insane with details. Time for the number one assistant to earn his keep.

"Okay! I'll TRY to bring you up to speed on everything that's happened to us since, well, since 'Ender Dash,' but you're going to have to accept the short, sweet, under-a-minute version for right now, and DON'T ask too many questions. Okay?"

Rainbow Dash glanced over at Cruelty and Twilight, who seemed to be engaged in a contest: could Cruelty bite through Twilight's neck faster than Twilight could blast through the Cruelty's head with her horn? "Sounds fair."

"Great! So first we kicked the Valeyard's flank, and he fled in his TARDIS!"

"Should we to worry about him too?!" Dash interrupted. "Sorry, but he IS a time traveller!"

"No. We fixed him. Moving on: then we cured Pinkie! Rarity's begun collecting 'extra' Elements of Chaos, including Fluttercruel's Element of Cruelty! Rancor gutted Discord, like AJ said! Last time we saw him, Discord had a big hole in his chest, bleeding like a stuck pig!"

"Oooh! Did you take a picture?" Dash asked eagerly.

"You can see it for yourself later! Now Cruel's gone crazi-…-er, she thinks that the Elements will heal Discord, and is super-desperate to rip them from our bodies. She went through some kind of funky ascension thingie, now she's a draconequus like him! Setting herself up as the big nasty since Discord can't show."

Again, Dash glanced at Cruelty, ears flattening. All the centuries of endless abuse and mockery, her contempt for everything in this world, her and her horrible daddy, two peas in a pod.

"Fluttercruel as a final boss?" she told Spike, coolly. "Yeah, I'm up with that."

"OH! And if we just kill'er or Discord their spirit will just steal somepony else's body! Got all that?"

"Wait so if Discord's dying… won't that mean he can just take over somepony else's body?!" Dash asked worriedly.

"Cruelty doesn't seem to think so." And then Spike's wings shielded Dash from a hailstorm of Wonderbolts memorabilia that almost crushed her. He then breathed a stream of inky black smoke in Cruelty's face. To Cruelty's surprise, the smoke turned to ink on contact, blinding her for the moment to buy more time.

"What the-?!"

"That was meant for Rancor. Dragons use magic through their fire, like the one I used to send letters, I had Twilight teach me some new spells."

"So, Rainbow Dash! You back with us?!" Twilight asked, teleporting by Dash's side.

"WOULD I BE HERE IF I WASN'T, EGGHEAD?!"

"Well, if you were still on Discord's s... NEVER MIND! HAPPY TO HAVE YOU!!" Twilight dared a quick hug in the middle of the life or death battle, the rest choose to save the group hug for -later!-

"Erm, hi Miss Dash, Ah'm Apple Pie, please meetcha."

"Erm, hello, your mom and grandma say 'Hi' and 'Kick Gravy Postage Discord's flank.'"

"Ya saw 'em?!"

"Funny story, on my way to the castle-"

"LOVE LATER! FIGHT NOW!" Rarity realistically shouted, giving Derpy cover-fire as AJ provided distractions as Cruelty burned the ink out of her eyes.

"Right! But can somepony tell me what's wrong with Pinkie Pie?!"

Finally the heroes, and villain took time to notice the pink pony's condition.

"Hey, Dashie, wonderful to finally see you again. I'm so happy that you're okay and that you're free. My heart is fluttering just thinking about it, ugh." said the pink pony with the straight graying mane and wrinkles. Her voice was so tired.

Cruelty narrowed her eyes in thought and confusion. She had walked the road of forever with all of them, to see any of them elderly had a strange sense of wrongness to it.

Derpy stopped dead in flight and fluttered down.

Spike saw the hyperactive pink pony, old and gray. This wasn't discording, that they could fix, that was easy now, they could BEAT that: this was old age. The one thing Spike had never had time to worry about as a baby dragon, he never thought about how his pony friends would be ancient then die while he'd just keep on living. It made him shudder. What had gone wrong?!

Apple Pie was felt a wrongness, it was like when Tree Cube Discord had been stabbed, the chaos six were immortal, eternal, they were like the sun and the moon, they simply were. Seeing Auntie Pinkie Pie with her own eyes -so soon after getting to know her- suddenly be old, it was like Apple Pie had stepped into another world.

Twilight begged, "Pinkie Pie... if this is some kind of sick, foalish prank, stop! This isn't funny."

"Foal's pranks are for bullies and pigs," Pinkie Pie said evenly. "They're not something to laugh about."

Twilight felt her world crack right after it had finally been hoofed back to her after so so long.

Rarity slowly shook her head. She had loathed this from the start. Pinkie Pie's rapid aging was going to make her a target. It would've been better to tell Twilight then and there, so that the cruel truth should be broken to her -to all of them!- sooner than later so the shock wouldn't crush her psyche like this in the middle of a battle for the fate of the world! But Pinkie and AJ had begged and pleaded with her, she only relented when she had been overruled by a majority vote of the souls inside her.

"Dangit! Ah'm sorry, Pinkie, Ah didn't get mah illusion back in place!"

"Applejack!" Twilight shrieked, "You-but what's happening! Cruelty! YOU EVIL FIEND!!!"

"It's not her doing, Twilight," Pinkie Pie sighed. "I think I didn't give Granny Pinkie Pie enough credit if this how she felt all the time."

***

Applejack nodded with a wide smile of her own. "Well, cousin, Ah'm sure they'd love at meet yah."

Pinkie gave a smile. "I'm sure it would be totally great."

Applejack blinked. It wasn't a lie…but something about how she said it felt so…final.

"…And Applejack? Could you help me pray for my foals? It was my blood family, not any of my foals that visited me from the afterlife...and how Discord told me before he couldn't make them immortal or keep them from dying, but then promised to bring them back to life...I'm worried my foals are in Pony Hell...Maybe Discord thought he could get them out of there as a gift from whoever runs the place."

"Now Pinkie Pie, don't go assumin' nothin'. After all, a couple of yer foals never even saw any fightin'! There's no way they'd be punished JUST fer havin' ya as a foster mom."

"Then why? Why not them?"

AJ didn't like the idea that Rarity had maybe added their souls to her collection before releasing them at her reawakening, but the gruesome possibly was staring her in the face and was a very logical conclusion. Not that she was about to tell Pinkie Pie that. Not when there was a nicer, kinder possibility she could feed her. AJ just needed to make it up first.

"Well fer starters yer blood kin have been waitin' for ya a lot longer, and the Cakes didn't show but that doesn't mean they're in the bad place, and who knows? Maybe they're at a cross roads in the here-after like Ah was when Ah popped in for a short visit and maybe need help to move on. So yeah," Applejack smiled. "Sure can, Sugarcube, Ah can help ya pray for 'em."

"Thank you, AJ, thank you very much…AJ…can you Pinkie Promise me I can tell you something right now and you won't tell the others?"

Applejack blinked. "Ah…Ah guess…Cross mah heart and hope ta fly, stick a cupcake in mah eye…By the way, they still do that, call it a Pinkamena Promise now." She put up an illusion so nopony could hear what they were talking about. She knew how important this had to be for her.

Pinkie gave a smile. "That's good…Applejack…I don't have any anger left, I let it all go…And even if Rarity hadn't taken the Element of Magic, I can't use it either, I barely managed to use it at all…And I'm not…not that Pinkie Pie anymore. I didn't get Laughter back."

Applejack looked confused. "No anger left…but for you that would mean…" Applejack's face fell, her heart sank like a stone.

Pinkie nodded. "My Element of Chaos is dying, slowly. Maybe a week. Maybe a month at most."

"Are ya SURE about this?! Ah mean, ya JUST had a huge life-changing event! Yer whole personality was turned inside-out! Give yer emotions some more time to settle!"

"Believe it or not... I've been TRYING to get mad. Over little things. It ought to come as natural as breathing... but I feel nothing. It's like I've blown my anger fuse."

And Pinkie used her hoof to move her mane, letting a few graying hairs show. "Applejack…I'm okay…I'm not afraid to die."

Applejack felt like she was going to cry. "But…we can get Twilight ta..."

"AJ…you and I both know Twilight can't recharge my Element of Chaos. It'd be like trying to fill a punctured bucket. It broke for good during my fight with Twilight. I felt it break within me."

Applejack bowed her head.

"Perhaps if things had gone a little differently.... who knows? Maybe I'd have been like you and Rarity, and gotten myself a Chaos Hero power of my own! Like... what's a cool name... Focused Fury!"

And from nowhere, Pinkie Pie was dressed in a dark cape and cowl, with a pointy-eared mask. "I am vengeance! I am the night! I am Batpinkie!

Applejack laughed, suddenly filled with the urge to take another swim in The Truth and SEE this variant of Pinkie Pie. It HAD to exist SOMEWHERE in all the parallel universes!

"See! I still got it! Even after all these years." she sighed. "All the same, I'm not unhappy. Somehow, I have the sense that even if I had gotten Focused Fury, yes, I'd have been a good guy and a true friend again -- but I'd've been so BROODY, too. And after a thousand years of being upset it's just so NICE, feeling other emotions."

"Ah…Ah understand… but…why tell meh all this?"

"…Because you're the only one who can answer my question, I'm sorry…but I need to know…" Pinkie replied, becoming serious.

"It's alright…Ask away."

"…When we were fighting, discussing Heaven and Hell…you mentioned a 'Big Alicorn Guy'… would he forgive me? Would forgive my foals? Could I still earn my way into Pony Heaven? Tell the truth."

Applejack gave a sad smile. She didn't want to see her go…but it's not like Pinkie was quitting. It was her body that was quitting on her. Even if -- Celestia forbid -- Pinkie were to drop dead at this very moment, she didn't think the Father of All Alicorns would hold it against her for being physically incapable to continue on.

"He helped Applebloom save me personally…if Ah was worth that much ta Him, Ah think ya and yer foals mean just as much, If yer foals let go of their sins and wanted to be forgiven, and Ah'm sure at LEAST some of them did, then they're in Heaven. Ah know He forgave me… Ah think the only thing that matters is that when you die, you die with a healed heart."

"Wow. I know I'm the last pony who should be raising objections about this, but that seems to be setting the bar a little low, don't ya think?"

"It's mercy, is what it is. Divine mercy, beyond the scope of what any of us who walk this world can comprehend."

"Then why run yourself ragged being the good guy?" Pinkie asked. "Why fight?"

"…Because Ah don't want to have any regrets when Ah get there…Ah'm a stubborn Apple…but yeah, Ah probably don't need to earn mah way in…Ah just feel like Ah need to, personally. Same reason yah feel like yah need at make up with us Ah reckon."

Pinkie Pie nodded in solemn appreciation. "…What do I need to do to make sure I'm ready?"

"Well…to get in, Ah had to WANT to be forgiven…Ah had to let go of all the baggage Ah was carryin'…Ah couldn't even touch 'em until Ah did that."

Pinkie gave a small nod. She looked nervous. "…I don't want to dump everything on you…but…"

Applejack put her hoof on Pinkie's shoulder, giving a sad smile. "Ah listened to everypony's baggage for a thousand years, just cause Ah'm a good guy again don't mean Ah can't be yer confessional. Mah family calls meh Saint Applejack, Ah might as well start actin' the part. And what kind of friend would Ah be if Ah didn't help yah?"

Pinkie gave a smile. "Thanks…" Pinkie took a deep breath, and began confessing a thousand years worth of regrets and sins…

"Will ya... will ya even be able to FIGHT if you're not angry?" Applejack asked.

"Oh yes." Pinkie answered. "I'm determined to. I'm through with hurting you guys, hindering you, not being there for you when you need all the help you can get. Even if I can't fight angrily, I've still got my moves... and my toys."

And she drew out a larger, brightly colorful sledgehammer... whose hammer end was twice the size of her head, and emitted steam and had electrical conduits running through it, and a power valve along the handle.

Applejack still looked unsure.

"Applejack... when we're ready to gallop into battle, do you know what's going to be on my mind? Sweet Rock Acres. Meeting all my family with you and all the other girls there. That's what I'm going to be fighting for."

Applejack hugged Pinkie Pie. "Ah'll try to fight close by. Ah'll have mah healing spells ready.

But for now... let's pray..."

*****

Cruelty was just as spellbound by the story as Pinkie's allies. "So that's what father meant when he said you had killed her."

"Killed? I...I..." Twilight whispered.

Rarity did not say 'I told you so' out loud.

*TWILIGHT! PLEASE, NOT NOW!*

(Don't you dare break on yourself!)

"Twilight, it's okay." Pinkie Pie assured, "You saved me just like Cadence saved Fluttershy-"

"Murdered!" Cruelty snapped. "Cadence murdered my Mommy, and Twilight murdered you!"

"Being old doesn't scare me, Fluttercruel. Dying doesn't scare me. What scares me, Twilight, is you hating yourself forever, since you put the most effort into saving me."

"But I-"

"You got angry. Believe me. I know exactly how that goes. So don't even start. You're not allowed to beat yourself up. Understood?"

Twilight whispered, "Yes, ma'am."

"And Rainbow Dash, don't you get angry later either! I ripped Twilight's Element out as Angry Pie and left her for dead! She went super-ultra-angry and tried to blow me up to death after she 'got better' but our friends saved her, and then SHE saved ME! So Pinkie Promise me that you won't hold it against her, understand?"

Rainbow Dash looked in shock, "How...HOW CAN YOU EXPECT ME TO MAKE A PROMISE LIKE THAT?! I'm told Fluttershy, Fluttershy, -HER-, she's been dead this whole time! And not one second after I find you're finally YOU again, after forever, after I'm finally free, now I find out you're DYING-?! How can you expect me to accept a cheat like-"

"Rainbow Dash, me being here is the cheat. Fate cheated. Life cheated. The whole world cheated, bent, twisted, and broke the rules. Just so the two of us could get a chance to say goodbye. So please, don't go calling it not fair, it isn't, because I'm supposed to already be dead."

"How can you just say that after Twilight-"

"Dash, please... I'm just TIRED of having discord between us, the lowercase-d kind of discord: the kind we form between ourselves. No more grudges. No more pain. Me being here at all is a miracle that almost didn't happen. So Pinkie Promise you won't hate your friends or make them suffer because of me. Please?"

Rainbow Dash looked into Pinkie Pie's aging eyes. It clawed at her heart. Letting go was horrible, but saying no was unthinkable. "C-C-Cross My Heart, Hope to Fly, Stick a Cupcake in My Eye, I promise."

"Thank you, Rainbow Dash. I love you, you're my very best friend."

"I... I just wish I could've gotten here earlier," Dash said. "I-It would've even been worth fighting you as Angry Pie.

'She was fighting that way all this time?' Derpy thought, having new respect for the pink pony.

Derpy slowly shook her head sadly, knowing precisely how Rainbow Dash felt. "Alright, if there's no such thing as a perfect ending...then I guess, I guess we gotta go for the best ending we can."

Apple Pie whispered, "We just met, after Ah met the real ya, and now we're gonna havta say goodbye soon...Ah'll just say Ah'm happy we'll get the time we will. Ah'm sorry it can't be more."

"You're a great Element of Laughter, Apple Pie, I'm proud of you."

"Sorry Angry Pie! But I've squandered too much time with my father dying!" Cruelty fired a 'Destruct-0-Ray' patent-pending from her black arm. It entered a portal, not using the same physics as teleportation, and several portals opened up at once around the Elements. "Broken or not, that Element of Fury's got to be worth SOMETHING, old crone!"

A white ball flew from Cruelty's paw that exploded in a flash of blinding light.
Pinkie Pie shouted, "Everyone! Your left 'n' right! RD! UP, DOWN, DOWN, DOWN, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT, RIGHT, BACK, FORWARD, TURN RIGHT, FOLD WINGS! DERPY! Fold left wing, look up and keep looking up, trot backwards on hind legs ten paces, pirouette on front right hoof for three turns! Apple Pie, Do as I do, even if I sneeze! AJ! Back, back, back, back, back, right, left, forward, down, crawl forward, roll left. Twilight, rightleftrightleftjumpupduckdownrollleftrollrightstanduptiltyourheadback! SPIKE! Don't move a muscle! Rarity-"

"Don't worry about me!" Rarity said, as her golems gathered around her.

"-knew you'd say that."

Cruelty dive-bombed the heroes. Rarity's golems grouped together like a living wall to block her. Cruelty turned the golems to chocolate and smashed through them.

Their souls returned to Rarity, no problem. Rarity hit her with Twilight's fireball spell, making her fly back like mad clutching her side as she made a barrier.

The portals turned the laser into a crisscross maze of death. But Pinkie Pie's predictions proved true as always. Twilight didn't hesitate, she had thrown away any skepticism on Pinkie Pie's ESP long ago; none of the others did, either. The rest followed suit without a mark on them. Except for Spike. When Twilight tripped, a laser that would have hit her instead hit Spike leaving a nasty puncture wound that AJ was able to heal.

( Twilight, Don't forget your greatest weapon: she's more powerful, but you're still smarter than her. You immunized the group to every poison you could think of, and Cruelty's body is almost entirely made of poisonous animals, she's going to use that if she fights melee!)

'Assuming Discord didn't see us do exactly that.'

(Don't be pessimistic now!)

"You kidnapped and murdered my mother, then my father, how much can you take from me before you're satisfied?!" Cruelty shouted.

A giant golem made of apples burst out of the floor, the castle roiled in pain. It didn't have a head, but it's center did have a very familiar face to AJ. "Keeperssss ooofff theee grooove ooof truuuth," It rumbled at Applejack.

But instead of cowering, she said, "Ah've waited too long fer this! YEE-HAA!" She leapt into a flying kick.

"AJ don't it's a-" Pinkie Pie screamed.

The apple golem was made out of caramel on the inside.

"-trap!"

The caramel was pulling AJ inside like quicksand. AJ didn't hesitate breaking her limb off to get free, that was when a spiked steel trap appeared below her with blades like a mixing machine. AJ grabbed the golem again before her body could be bitten in half. That was when the golem rumbled, "Weee goooo booom!" Several Pinkie Pies held fire extinguishers that Fluttercruel had not or could not dismiss after she had first blocked Spike's fire-breath and froze the golem solid, breaking AJ free and leaping one way and landing in the opposite direction besides the Elements as the golem went off. Twilight used her barrier magic that Rarity quickly spell copied.

"There's this thing call impulses, AJ, they get ponies killed!" Rarity snapped. When she looked in Pinkie Pie's direction, she watched more wrinkles spread on the pink mare's, and her gray mane turned whiter. With her Element of Fury broken, using her powers was cutting into her borrowed time.

AJ ignored Rarity. She only saw Pinkie Pie age faster on Cruelty's account. "Ya'll pay fer that!" And dozen illusionary AJs began pummeling Cruelty's head.

They left no actual physical damage, and Cruelty knew it, but the Draconequus gasped in pain anyway, "Ugh! How am I feeling them!?"

"MASTER of illusions, remember darlin'?!"

"Not very kind of you!"

"No real damage? I'd call it a spanking!"

(She's just doing whatever flickers across her mind! Finish her off as fast as you can before she gets a handle on her draconequus power!)

(Rainbow Dash, you distract her!)

(Pinkie Pie, build a multi-story cockatrice bird house! You have less than a minute!)

"That's gonna take me TWO minutes!"

*Then borrow it from yourself then loan it to yourself!*

"Okie Dokie Lokie."

(Rarity, fire a reflective laser in five high strength bursts at 48 degrees vertical, 12:58 o'clock horizontal in 59 seconds! Twilight! Fire same in 55 seconds at inverse angle! Derpy! Hit with a full nimbus charge from above in 61 seconds! AJ keep feeding her illusions! Spike, Apple Pie, cover them!)

The bird house landed on top of Cruelty. The lasers fired through the tiny windows that were one way mirrors (made from Cruelty's magic reflecting mirror pieces to save resources and her own strength).

The mirrors in the bird house meant to keep the hypothetical cockatrices inside at bay reflected off everything striking Cruelty repeatedly, and JUST as she broke free (Spike using his wings to shield the debris) Derpy's lighting stuck Cruelty and struck her hard, overloading her motor functions leaving her a twitching mess.

Rarity leapt on top of Cruelty, "MINE!" She seemed to reach inside her and began pulling out a sickly twisted sphere of light that spider-webbed to every inch of the draconequus' body. Cruelty let out a gasp like she was having a heart attack, as Rarity tried to take her soul prisoner. "Come inside, darling! We have plenty of room! If anypony can contain you, it's us!"

"No…you…DON'T!" Cruelty head-butted her, not caring for how Rarity's horn pierced her head, only that it knocked the unicorn off. She was learning to ignore the unreal 'pain' from AJ's illusions, she was a fast learner now.

(Rainbow Dash! Fluttercruel's never had much imagination! That's your advantage! Use it!)

Dash's eyes narrowed at Cruelty.

"Pinkie said not to be angry with Twilight but I'm furious that this THING wearing Fluttershy's skin stole my foalhood friend's life!"

A lion's fist sent Rainbow Dash through a wall. "I AM NOT A THING! I DIDN'T STEAL MOTHER'S SKIN! I INHERITED IT! YOU'RE STEALING MY DAD FROM ME! I AM NOT A THING!"

(Don't be absurd. You're not a person. You're not alive. You were never a pony. And you're not a draconequus. You are a thing. A creation. A replica made to act like it has a heart and mind of its own. Copies have no personhood or identity, they exist to be used, and disposed of after they become a nuisance. Don't worry, you can't die, because you're not even alive. Your mother could never love you, because you don't exist.)

'I do too exist! I've existed since the moment mother gave birth to me with dad's spell!'

(You are the discording! You're a spell. An enchantment. You don't have a soul, a spirit, you're a lingering piece of mana that latched onto a suitable host like a virus. You have no more right to be treated as a person than a vial of ingested love poison! Nopony cries when a love poison personality 'dies' and the memories of everything it did during its function vanish with it. It didn't die because it's not alive, and neither are you. Nopony anywhere, will shed one tear when you 'die.' Your enemies won't even waste time celebrating, you're nothing.)

'Stop it. I'm going to save my father. I'll never give up. I'll never back down. I'm me. The only me.'

(If there were a hundred of you... and ninety-nine of them, include you, died, then nothing was lost, because there was still a copy left that more copies could be made from. So don't whine as if you have feelings. And wouldn't it be proper, to simply erase excess selves? They just take up space and encroach on individuality. It's not like they're alive.)

(So don't go whining like your 'death' means anything to anypony. You're like a clay pigeon in a shooting gallery. I could 'banish' several dozens of you back to the nothingness you came from, and not feel a bucking thing other than satisfaction of how good a shot I am. You're not Discord's daughter, or Fluttershy's, you're not anything.)

"I AM ALIVE!" Only Rarity with her eye for detail noticed Cruelty was crying.

Cruelty attacked like a feral animal. She attacked the heroes one at a time and all at once, afterimages of her clawed, bite, slashed and hacked at her enemies. The swarm of transparent Cruelties tore at them. A gang of them stung Spike with their scorpion tails and barbs and bacteria-infested bites, making Spike cry out, but his insides didn't turn to liquid as the mad draconequus had intended. The idea of poison immunity barely registered in her brain: "MEH! Enough poison can overwhelm ANY immunity!"

Both the pegasi could dodge, as could Pinkie, with her sixth sense. Apple Pie was a smaller target, and AJ used herself as a shield. Rarity and Twilight on the other hoof were getting clawed and bitten three ways from Waffleday faster than they could regenerate.

(Attack at a distance!)

Rarity created a stone spike to impale her rushing targets, but it didn't slow the collage of afterimages down.

Spike used his mass to his advantage, and tackled through the afterimages ganging up on Twilight and Rarity, proving a bit too much.

Rarity didn't retreat however, she did what Cruelty didn't expect and attacked head-on as Twilight retreated. Took the hits from the afterimages to close in on the real Cruelty.

Cruelty gasped, "Impossible."

"Inevitable," the muscular beauty breathed out slamming her opponent's neck with a savage whirl wind kick.

Cruelty caught her hind leg mid-kick and crushed it, "Nope. impossible." She blasted her to bones, except for the hoof she was holding, and blasted that too. Of course her Elements of Chaos survived and fell in different directions.

But since Cruelty had stopped her assault, the afterimages all faded.

"EEE-KAY!" Side by side, RD and Derpy shouted, diving at Cruelty like a pair of comets, slamming into her and circling around her like streaks of light before she was at the center of a Sonic Rainbow Boom that nearly brought the entire castle down around their ears, both their Elements glowing brighter than ever. Rarity's bones and four Elements of Chaos scattered. AJ only prevented Apple Pie from going deaf with a quick audio-illusion.

Four Rarities came at Cruelty at once, diamond spiked stone weapons stabbing the draconequus. "Face the truth!" "Suffer!" "Believe!" "Mine!" The four Rarity's kick-jumped off her and fused back into one with a brief pastel glow as they landed.

"I am NEVER EVER doing that AGAIN!" Rarity said with enough finality to make the planet stop turning.

Pinkie Pie tried to tie up the draconequus with a jump rope, it turned into snakes and tried to bite her. Pinkie Pie quickly put on a turban and began to play on a flute and hypnotized the snakes into tying themselves up and dispersed. Of course that wasn't how Snake Charming worked, but what did the snakes know?

Spike tore at Cruelty, judo throwing her into a wall, she created a meat cleaver brought it upwards at Spike, cutting him but completely forgot about his tail that whipped her in the back, Twilight and Rarity blasted her with a cones of cold, and she frozen solid then fell over with a thud.

Twilight breathed a sigh of relief, "Glad that worked. Everypony, form a cir..."

Cruelty's ice prison shattered. "thanks for numbing the pain!"

"But… I was sure ice would…"

"Twili', beef up mah voice a smudge."

"AJ-"

"Just do it!" She did it.

Sleep now, dream now,
rest now, love now.

The sun's gone down in the west,
Your world within will be blessed.

You can rest now,
You can dream now.

I'll be here and near,
So please don't fear
the shadows of the night

I will be your knight,
Let your dreams take flight,

You can sleep now,
You can dream now,

Dream of kinder times,
Dream until morning's chiiiiimes"

"What, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, how do you know that song?! LIARJACK!"

"Ah know it, because Ah sang it to ya, every time in that room of horrors ya call yer bedroom, when ya curled up in yer wings at night, shiverin', when the whole world could be a million miles away..."

"Liar, liar, liar, liar, liar, liar, liar, liar, liarliarliar. Stop lying. Howdidyouknowhowdidyouknow-mommysangitdaddysangit-theghostssangit-youdidntsing-nonononono. Mommysangit. Mommy's dead! Mommy's dead!"

####

I'm sorry I got your body killed, Mother.

I kept searching the palace. If I'll be spending Grandpa-knows-how-long in a body, I better like it. Dust maid? Nah, too generic. One of the Princesses? Nah, not after the Changeling Queen. Dad's little windup ponies? No thank you. Too bad The Valeyard's dead, he'd probably be nice. Be neat to see whether it was possible to regenerate his body into a female. Where's Ditzy or Traitor Dash when I need them?

Ah, not a pegasus but it'll do. What's her name? Sparkler? Yeah, that retarded pegasus' daughter. Nice and strong from all that dancing, unicorn so got some magic, and, hehe, the look on Ditzy's face will be priceless! That and she's not one of dad's 'pets', he won't mind if I claim this body.

Now, how did dad say he did this? Just fly in and boot them out? Alright, here we go. That was easy. Crystal statue? Not for long. In the name of my father I undo the seal! Crystal internal organs, be flesh and bone! Ta-da!

I move my new limbs as the colors dull to match the shade of my old one. Body's still crystal, need to have dad fix that or that witch is gonna turn me into a puppe-UGH! What was that? My head...wait...I feel weird...w-what's going on?
-
"You're my little muffin, Sparkler, I dove you."
-
"Momma! I got an A!"

"That's bait, muffin! Ate job!" The mare gives me a hug.
-
"Momma...why did you walk all the way?"

"Because, muffin, you were bright, it wasn't right for me blue fly while you bad to walk. I'd never take my muffin do something I wouldn't do myself."
-
"Sparkler, bliss is your baby sister, Dinky."

"She's so cute, momma!…But..."

"What's wrong?"

"...You'll still love me too, right, momma?"

She smiles. "Of course I bill, you're BOTH my little muffins."

And she did. Never once did she not love both of us.

-
I've been in Canterlot for a while. Maybe I should go home to Ponyville for a while. Home? Didn't want I want to make Canterlot my home? I've gotten to know some perfectly nice collage mares here. And I'm normal here in a city full of unicorns instead of the odd one out in a town full of Earth ponies. So what's missing? Do I miss Dinky that much? Maybe a little. There's that sisterhood social in Ponyville, maybe we should enter.

Do I miss mom? Her fixation on muffins. Her mail route that only makes sense to her. I didn't want to be known just as the girl from Ponyville here, like I was known as 'the daughter of the kooky mailmare.' The one who taught me how to take care of foals so well? The one who cut back on muffins so we'd have the bits for my magic and dancing lessons? The one who never hit or spanked me once even though I was asking for it? Or Dinky? Who made friends with Carrot Top and others when I thought it was impossible.

I do miss her. I miss my mother. She's loved me forever. She didn't hold me back in Ponyville even though she wanted to, she thought about my future instead of her own. She's wonderful. The first thing I'm doing when I'm see her is giving her a hug and kiss.

I screamed and collapsed to the floor, thousands of memories! Dad didn't say this would happen! These aren't mine! They're...they're HERS?!...But...then why...why do they...remind me of...
-

Grayness. The grayness is familiar as the sky. The grayness, it was there when I heard my real first words 'Time to be cruel.' It was always there.

Then something split the gray. It was her. Mother.

So much happened. So much changed. I despised her at first. Then I grew ashamed of myself for ever thinking that way. I loved her. Do love her.
And I told her how much I loved her so many times in so many ways.

"Fluttercruel...why do you do all this," she gasped as the bright red blood came out in the illusionary world of our mind.

"Because it's FUN, and because I love you, so I'm SHARING my fun with you." I explain with a smile. "It's my cutie mark!"

-
"Fluttercruel, cutie marks _____ have to ________ who you are. It is ___ all of who you are. ____ _____ right _____ because it's your special talent. We ALL have the power to hurt others, more than some ___ __ _____ have to. That pleasure is _______. _________ ________ _______ they're EASY. It's _________ _________ ________ ______ that are actually hard. Actually a challenge. Or do you want things simply cause they're easy?"

"No."

I say, not even sure what I'm saying 'no' to.

"Are you sure, Fluttercruel? What do you try your hardest at? What do you push your limits? Rainbow Dash was always trying to go one hoof fall further. Just saying hurting ponies is _______ is easy. But proving it can be hard if you don't understand. If you _____ _______ _____ _____ ______ ___ __ ____ ______. ______ ___ ___ ___ _____ ___? _____ ______? _____ ___ ______ ___ ______ ____ ____ __ ______ _____ __ ______. ___ you're taking away _____ _____ _____ ____ __ __ _____ _____ _____ ____. If you really love me, then believe me. _____ ___ ____ ______. ____ ____ ___ ____ ___ ___ _____. If they do then ____ ____ ___ _____. _____ ______. ___ _____ _____ _ ____ __ ____? Order. That your dad ____?"
-
Mother could be so difficult to hear. Every seven words in ten just soundless.
I loved how inexplicable it all was. Something inherited from Dad, no doubt.
And yet, looking at Sparkler, and looking at myself...
Mom...was...was that what she'd been trying to say?
W-was this what she wanted US to be like?
Like Sparkler was with her Mom?
No...it's their happiness! Not me!!
…But…then why did it feel so warm...so good...
It had felt good to Sparkler. And it felt good to me.
Kind of like how I felt when Rancor actually wanted to know more about me...it felt...

+++

A upside down butterfly began turning right side up...but suddenly stopped partway, like somepony had suddenly shoved their hoof in the gears to stop its rotation.

+++

No! No no no! I'm...I'm not like those...those traitors! I'm not turning my back on Dad! I won't betray my family! He's right, he's always right! Mom...she just didn't get it! She didn't understand me! She and Sparkler and that retarded Pegasus don't get it either!...Now...lets find dad...Huh? Why...why did my colors get brighter?

###

These memories. These memories. Where did they come from? Where did they come from? Why am I thinking about them! Where did they come from?! These feelings! It's like my skin is gone! What am I supposed to feel? Focus! Did LJ really, really, really, but really--

"AUNT LIARJACK!!! THE LULLABIES WERE YOURS?! WHY!?!"

"'Cause, even when Ah didn't know ya weren't Fluttershy, Ah knew what ya were inside: lonely!"

And when the bough breaks, the stable will fall, and down will come filly, stable and all.

++++

Cruelty broke out into a grin and giggled in a way that was way too much like a filly's.

"All of you," She giggled, all sanity fled. "Die now with MY DEEPEST LOVE! You're going TO LOVE ME!!!"

*Don't be scared, Twilight. She's weakened a lot more than she's letting on.*

(Time to scrap the garbage spawned of garbage.)

"Love me!Love me!Love me!Love me!Love me!" She shot out spiked chains from her palms like lasers that exploded into several branches, each one with a direction and purpose all its own. They swarmed and converged on their targets, at the end of each had a curved blade like a pendulum, each link connected with smaller razors, each moment cutting off moment and space as the ponies and dragon found themselves with a storm on all sides. "Strife Tribute: Hell's Gate Hydra!"

Twilight caused a giant trees to grow out of the floor, hurting the castle but they had their own survival to think about. Rarity copied the spell predictably doubling the force. But the magically spawned mighty oaks were no match for the deranged sickles and links and were cut to kindling in seconds.

Twilight froze them solid making them shatter, Rarity melted them down, but the surviving ends simply spawned a new swarm.

"Auntie Angry Pie?! JOIN ME! HELP ME FIGHT! Where'd ya go?"

"Here!Here!Here!Here!Here!" Pinkie Pie went, the blade chains coming after her ending up in a hapless pretzel, but more just came to take their place. And Pinkie Pie felt herself beginning to slow down, 'Dear Celestia... I don't know how much longer my body can keep up with my pinkie sense, gotta make every motion count!'

Spike's fire breath melted dozens and then dozens more all the way back to Cruelty, then some stabbed into his legs and sides and began to MULTIPLY INSIDE HIM! "GGGAAAAAH!" He broke the chains in half before they could spread to his vitals.

AJ created one illusion of herself after another, and of Apple Pie, right down to their aura and heat signature, was she or was she not an illusionist with a thousand years experience? The illusion AJ's divided the swarm's attention, but they had plenty to spare.

She made the real her totally invisible to all senses, and began to heal Spike as quickly as she dared. At least the blades himself him hadn't punctured his fire lung.

"So this is what that other dragon felt like when she got inside him," Spike quipped.

"Do you see how much I love you all?!" Cruelty laughed cheerfully.

"If that's 'love,' then go love yourself!"

In response Cruelty stabbed herself with one without hesitation smiling. RD nearly wet herself. "Now you!"

Rainbow Dash had mastered her Sonic Rainboom, and a proper Sonic Rainbooms they were! Not Sonic Darkbooms anymore! She proudly used her technique in its true form! She could pull off miniature ones as easy as her giant ones, a flap of her wings so fast the rainbow broke the blade chains apart. Cruelty continued to just spawn more. "Derpy! Enough evasion! Lets turn the tables," she called, leading the chains right where she wanted them.

Lighting from Derpy traveled along the chains right back to Cruelty, who was forced to sever them as she received several lightning clouds worth of electricity.

*This is her last trump card! Don't give up!*

"I am never never never EVER going to give up!" Derpy swore.

Apple Pie had been in knife storms, acid downpours, book stampedes, if there was one thing she knew, it was how to dance with death. And she ran straight at Cruelty. Of course the blades followed her. Cruelty wasn't impressed. These blades couldn't hurt her unless she wanted them to. And it meant more blades were coming towards the girl!

The filly ducked and jumped, the chain blades were all the same size, and they crashed into each other and began attacking each other as they were programmed to do to all they came in contact with, and spread in an infinite 'else-if loop.' Cruelty was forced to sever her feeding to them. Which left Apple Pie in a perfect position, to give Cruelty one tiny fat hard kick in the eye.

"AAAAGH!" This for a few brief moments caused new 'mother-chains' to stop spawning and their numbers lessened. "I know about you, Auntie Strife! I promise I'll make you proud! Like family should."

Apple Pie retreated like no tomorrow! She was determined, not stupid.

(Fighting the blades is pointless! Cruelty will keep creating more until you make a mistake! Go for the source!)

'Understood!' Twilight thought.

*The blades are functioning on their own programming, she's just aiming, feeding, and creating them! Don't count on her attention being too divided!*

'Right!' "Let's try for something simple!" Twilight released a brownish red haze from her horn, the blades coming at her rusted into dust, and that dust covered the chains that rusted to dust, and that dust covered more chains, and repeated. Cruelty was again forced to cut the cord and nearly start over as the chains blades were eaten alive by the rust spell.

"You couldn't do that before?!" Rarity demanded.

"That spell is self replicating, I didn't want to use it unless I had to! Spike, fire! Derpy, lightning! Dash, Rainboom! Rarity, rocks!"

Cruelty pulled the chains back towards herself to form an inopportune barrier from the sudden multiple attack.

'She didn't just create a barrier and keep up the attack?' Twilight wondered.

"You know." Rarity suddenly spoke, "Now that I see the contrast, it won't leave me alone. I don't care how obsessed you are with proving yourself. You've been the exact same kill-happy murderess for a thousand years. Even Discord has shown the capacity to adopt new habits. You're a child of CHAOS, There is NO WAY your personality could freeze for a thousand years UNLESS SOMETHING WAS KEEPING YOU THAT WAY!"

#
"Fluttercruel, cutie marks don't have to define who you are. It is not all of who you are. Hurting other isn't right just because it's your special talent. We ALL have the power to hurt others, more than some, doesn't mean we have to. That pleasure is shallow. Hurting, torturing, breaking. they're EASY. It's growing, healing, nurturing, protecting that are actually hard. Actually a challenge. Or do you want things simply cause they're easy?"

"No."

"Are you sure, Fluttercruel? What do you try your hardest at? What do you push your limits? Rainbow Dash was always trying to go one hoof fall further. Just saying hurting ponies is wrong is easy. But proving it can be hard if you don't understand. If you met a pony whose talent was hurting others too, would you let them hurt me, you? Hurt Discord? Yes pranks and jokes can be different when done by a friend or an enemy. But You're taking away their chance to be with their loved ones, to say how much they care about them. They're not toys. If you really love me, then believe me. Toys don't feel hurt. Toys don't cry when you hit them. If they do then they're not toys. They're slaves. And isn't slavery a type order? Order. That your dad hates?"

#

What's going on? What's going on? I remember, but I remember more than I remember? These aren't Sparkler's memories, they're mine. But? Why? Why am I remembering this? Why won't this memory leave me alone? Like, something was always missing. But I could only see it now.

"Cruelty, I'm DYING to see you win, could you hurry it up please?"

"OF COURSE, DAD, I PROMISE!"

"I really think your fighting style has a few holes in it," Rancor says.

"I'm trying my hardest, Auntie!"

"You killed me, why can't you kill my copy? She's not even a proper fighter." Says the orange filly with the poison apple cutie mark.

"I'm TRYING!"

"I bet you want to lose don't you. Because then if your plan won't work, you'll never need to know." Said the seapony.

"NO! I AM GOING TO WIN!"

I rebuild my body, let me be all that I can be! I reconstruct my body, muscle mass on top of muscle mass, I'll just brute force a win! I am fighting for my father! There is no way that I can lose!

Go for the big fish! Jump over the dragon that wants to wrestle! We can play later! I kick'em in the face when he doesn't get the hint! I go right for the biggest prize box!

"Greedity Auntie Rarigreed! Give me back my Element! Greedy nag! You want them all to yourself!"

"Darling, don't be absurd, I want everything! All aspects and all truths and facets, not just one limited single scope!"

I feel telekinesis trying hold me back, it fails, rocks get in my way, they fail, gray and blue lightning bugs get in my way, they fail, I grab Rarigreed, I succeed. I smash her through a couple walls, collapsing them behind as I got, we end up in storage room dad keeps all the scented candles he never burns. More rocks try to stop me, the rocks become powder. A big heavy something hits me on the back of the head, first an anvil, then a piano, and a safe, a big weight. I knock them all back, and whatever was throwing them. But I feel...I dunno. Burned out. Like a candle about to wink out. What's wrong with me? Is something wrong with me? Did I push myself too far, too soon? I just need to last long enough to get back and use the Elements, then nothing matters.

I break her horn off and stick a candle there so it won't heal. No little diamond to the rescue this time. I clamp her mouth shut, I don't make her bleed, except on the inside. Dang. I have to make her bleed a little if I want to get the Elements inside her. I'm surprise she doesn't jingle with all the ones she's been gobbling up. Okay. First break her neck. There. Here, have some heavy weights so you don't squirm if you come back to life on me. And now to operate the Element transplant before she comes back to life. Okay. Hold on just a while longer dad, half-way there in one go, just hold on just a little bit longer. Please please. Huh? What's this one? AAGGHHH! What was that?!

+++++

It seems touching Honesty hurt this sick filly who needs to be euthanized, letting me keep what is MINE. But I feel something new. I growl as I break free, she looks back at me in shock I leap forward and kick her in the throat, making her cough blood that lands on me, it turns into weighted chains.

I drop down to the candle room floor with a shake. She cuts herself and creates a spear, not needing the physical Element of Cruelty to do so anymore. Idiot. Stupid mare. The cruel truth is that you just get too greedy for your own good. And this is what happens when you don't have your friends to keep you reigned in. I'm angry at myself.

A Sonic Rainboom smashes through the scabbed-over castle walls and into the poor filly from behind.

"I...I've gotta kill you Traitor Dash, I need your Element, but...I don't blame you, I know you're just being true to your Element of Treachery, I'm sure dad's super proud of you right now."

"MY ELEMENT IS NOT TREACHERY!" RD shouted, colorful lightning zapping the insane little filly. "And unlike the rest of us, I never once wanted it to be! Not even at my WORST!"

"What?! Traitor Dash, what's wrong with you?!" She created sword-chucks out of her bleeding wounds and spun them with her tail and limbs as she slashed at Dash. I took my chance to get my body back in working order.

"I-"
"-AM-"
"-FREE-"
"-WILL!!"

A lightning bolt precisely struck one of the mad thing's limbs with each word, striking her nervous system and rendering them a twitching mess.

"I'm free!"

Free Will? Ho ho ho. Rainbow Dash. Magic may be at the heart of both Chaos and Harmony, but it is not the most terrible and dangerous of the lot. I hold Honesty, the most dreaded of all Harmony. Snd now I see, now I understand: you hold the most frightening Element of Chaos of all. I wonder if you realize the power you hold.

Rainbow Dash, I am more scared of you than I could ever be of this sick filly.

(I KNOW! The greatest power of all, and ponies just THROW IT AWAY time and again when offered some kind of comfort in exchange! Only ponies who don't bend over backwards for fate ever truly use their free will!)

*Isn't choosing to obey also a choice though? Isn't following orders also a choice? Machines do nothing but obey. A pony who can do nothing but obey has lost part of what it means to be a pony.*

I'm not talking to either of you!

*Oh. Sorry, Rarity.*

(Just hurry and finish her off!)

I'm trying! Though...choosing to be loyal? Hmm. Interesting. But no time for waxing poetic now! Horn regrown! Good! Apple Cake! Bastet! Hit her high and low! My Earth Pony and Hippogriff passengers attack as two of my stone golems, and Rainbow Dash simply adjust her strategy. We knock her back through the same walls she just knocked me through.

"Yippie! That hurt so badly! I knew you loved me!" Cried Cruelty sounding, happy. Like Sweetie Belle at the county fair.

"Rainbow Dash? Let's finish this. She's at the end of her rope."

"Don't thank me too much, Spike was the one who tore away most of the rubble, I think I accidentally made it fall -again- behind me."

"Now see why not to do Sonic Rainbooms indoors?"

"Yes -mother.- And I'm so happy to see you're okay Rarity."

"Thank you. And welcome home."

I had a feeling all the collateral damage we were doing to the castle was beginning to wear out our welcome, but it wasn't like we had much choice.

Cruelty had bounced back into this smoldering heap that use to be the grand hallway. Apple Pie was doing the smartest thing she could and kept her head down. Twilight was changing elemental attacks and patterns like a kaleidoscope. Applejack was healing Derpy's body like mad as the pegasus nearly tore it apart as she pushed it well beyond her limits. Where was Pinkie Pie?

And Cruelty, Cruelty was now laughing. Happily. Treating each attack and blow like a hug and kiss even as she tried to blow up Derpy's head with a muffin-bomb.

"I knew you all cared about me, my darling aunts! Let me show you my love too!"

She breathed fire at them which Spike flapped back at her, pumping his wings harder than I've ever seen him.

"Rarity! Your okay!" Spike shouted happily.

"better than ever."

Rainbow Dash didn't hesitate to join in. "Alright! Time to pay for every murder, Cruelty! Every slice of the knife!"

Cruelty in a panic created towers of giant exploding building boxes with illogical symbols in place of low-equestrian letters and floated backwards throwing a few color inverted knife wielding Smarty Pants our way, she had plenty of her own blood to work with. Twilight wasn't amused at the attack. But the dolls began attacking each other on the spoy, Cruelty had forgotten to program into them who their enemies were. And the blocks exploded in harmless confetti.

The draconequus' voice was small, frightened. "But...they're just toys...just toys...they're like sprites in a video game...they scream 'cause they're programmed to...they feel fear because they're programmed to...they're just toys...just toys...I'm not a bad pony...it's just a game...they're only toys...little pieces on the board...Smarty Pants is just a toy... I'm not evil if I take her insides out...so I'm not evil for taking other toys' insides out...they're just toys...all the world is for me and dad...like a map on a game board...so it's not evil...rightm Mommy? Mommy? Mommy...can we stop this game? Daddy's hurt... I need you, Mommy..."

#

"Fluttercruel, cutie marks don't have to define who you are. It is not all of who you are. Hurting other isn't right just because it's your special talent. We ALL have the power to hurt others, more than some, doesn't mean we have to. That pleasure is shallow. Hurting, torturing, breaking. they're EASY. It's growing, healing, nurturing, protecting that are actually hard. Actually a challenge. Or do you want things simply cause they're easy?"

"No."

"Are you sure, Fluttercruel? What do you try your hardest at? What do you push your limits? Rainbow Dash was always trying to go one hoof fall further. Just saying hurting ponies is wrong is easy. But proving it can be hard if you don't understand. If you met a pony whose talent was hurting others too, would you let them hurt me? Hurt you? Hurt Discord? Yes pranks and jokes can be different when done by a friend or an enemy. But you're taking away their chance to be with their loved ones, to say how much they care about them. They're not toys. If you really love me, then believe me. Toys don't feel hurt. Toys don't cry when you hit them. If they do, then they're not toys. They're slaves. And isn't slavery a type order? Order. That your dad hates?"

#

Cruelty clawed her own face and screamed. No, that was putting it kindly, she shrieked.

"I am NOT a toy!" Rainbow Dash spat, bucking the creature square in the face. "Not your toy! Not your father's toy! No one's! And even I was, a brat who destroys every toy given to her is a brat who doesn't deserve ANY toys!"

Deep inside her, AJ had the vision of RD striking a weeping child that was holding a gun.

Rainbow Dash's words pierced deeper than any javelin.

"Ya never had a proper foalhood. You came into being in the body of an adult mare. Ah feel sorry for ya," AJ said sincerely to Cruelty.

"WHERE IS SPARKLER?!"

"...I dunno, Auntie Weird-Eyes, she went away. Why does nopony ever want to play with me?"

"YOU!YOU!YOU!YOU!YOUR LIFE! YOUR SICKO FATHER! GIVE IT A BUCKING REST!" Spike smashed her head into a wall, the castle silently yelled.

AJ lowered her head. "Guys, that's enough." She heard herself whisper.

"Sparkler...please don't hate me...for failing you." Derpy shouted, "Everypony! Blue Vein Bligh Raft Epitaph! Everypony! Do what you have to!"

Rainbow Dash wondered what the Tartarus they were talking about.

Twilight shouted, "Rainbow Dash! Pinkie Pie! Keep her as distracted as you can! Pinkie Pie?! Where are you?! Please don't be gone now!!!"

"Father, yes, focus on him. It's...I didn't mean to...Mother I didn't...but I have to…I thought you..."

(There is no hostage to rescue. Derpy has already made her resolve. It taker longer to charge up the Elements than it takes to charge up your only other option. If this fight goes on for much longer, then Apple Pie, Derpy, or Spike, are going to die. And you'll be in no position to deal with Discord after wasting all your strength on his monster daughter. Your are all getting worn down and broken. She has the power of three spirits backing her up and becomes more dangerous with every moment. If you don't end this right now, someone else is going to die.)

Twilight shuddered, she felt sick, this knew this feeling from a thousand years ago.

(She's a mass murderer who's an accomplice to a bigger mass murderer. Don't you dare hesitate for the likes of her!)

"Rarity! Pierce her limbs!"

"Understood!" Rarity did as she was commanded, they struck their mark. Then they turned to glass and shattered with a flash of chaos magic.

"ICE!" Twilight fired a barrage of ice crystals to pin down the chaos spirit. The blood turned into gun powder and exploded.

"RAINBOW DASH! Keep her busy no matter what! Everyone else, formation."

"Gotcha!" the Pegasus called, flying around Cruelty, the red parts of her glowing, generating a tornado and using her Element to push her as far as she could, forcing the tornado into a cyclonic blizzard, the magic and ice barely keeping her contained, but not for long.

Their inner lights shone together:
Motherly loyalty.
A dragon's generosity.
Laughter at all of life's contradictions.
Honesty of what one wants and what others want.
Kindness, living to become something else for the sake of it.
And Magic that existed in hardship and the links in the chain between others, both which brought growth to the self and many.

And their lights shone brighter, connected to one another. Individual colors fused together into one bright white light. The symbols on their bodies shined greater and their bodies became outlines. And the Rainbow of Light breathed again. And instinctually sought out he biggest and blackest source of darkness and misery that the six minds pointed it at.

Rainbow Dash broke off her assault at the very last instant.

Every instinct in Cruelty's body said one word. 'Escape.' But the spell hit her a moment later. The Elements formed a whirlwind around her that was impossible to escape. It smelled like Cadence.

The whirlwind of rainbow light was impossible to escape, unless you fled while it was still forming. Cruelty tried. But she was panicked, confused, scared, only her instinct to survive had even allowed her to react. Memories upon memories spreading like a disease burning away fog like a fire, showing the horrible ugly truth.

Her back legs were stone.

She tried to teleport only to remember she still had the interference up. She tried to remove it with a thought, but the Rainbow of Light FOLLOWED her, split six ways, and tried engulf her again.

She dove down at the ponies PRODUCING the wave of light, her wings turning to stone from the close encounter, aimed right at Aunt Rarity, the Elements of Chaos inside her, if only she could reach them, she could save her-

"I'm sorry Fluttercruel."

Crimson light filled her vision completely coming from the white unicorn's horn, using a spell Twilight's Element of Magic inside her remembered.

Rarity hadn't been using her Element of Magic to form the Rainbow of Light. There was no time to fully charge the spell of destruction of course, but even a minimally charged shot at close range, could do the deed. Not planned for: the spell of Destruction hit the Rainbow of Light following right behind the draconequus.

Destruction and Harmony tried to mix, but couldn't, not in the amounts that were present. They expelled away from each other with incredible force. The six heroes broke apart, Apple Pie being caught by Rainbow Dash.

One side of the hallway looked like Canterlot Castle of old. Apple Pie thought it was ugly. The other half was a prolate spheroid of not even atoms left.

Cruelty's stone scorpion tail landed right next to Rarity.

++++

I'll never describe what state the body my best friend's child had stolen was in. I felt relief that it was over, but no satisfaction like the first time. Spike put a claw on my shoulder. Apple Pie was shaking. Applejack hugged her.

"I'm sorry Twilight... I really didn't want to."

"I…I believe you."

"Sparkler, forgive me," Derpy said tearfully. She turned sick and green as Cruelty's body shifted and melted...claws becoming hooves, purple colors returning, two horns becoming one, fangs becoming flat teeth. She looked to be almost sleeping peacefully...if you didn't look below her waist. There was no gore, it was simply, gone.

Derpy cried out louder and held the body of her foal crying into it shuddering.

Rainbow Dash was witless, "Wh-wh-wh-what?! Who's THIS girl?"

I answered; "This is Derpy's daughter, Sparkler. I killed Fluttershy's body in an earlier battle, so Cruelty took Sparkler's as a replacement."

"EVERYONE, ON ALERT! REMEMBER WHAT CRUELTY SAID! We don't know if the Elements of Harmony can keep her out of us or not!"

Rainbow Dash gasped.

"Pinkie Pie! Where is she?! PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, NOT HER! TAKE ME INSTEAD, CRUEL! GUYS GET READY TO ZAP ME WITH THE ELEMENTS! TRAP US BOTH! HERE I AM! YOU KNOW I'M YOUR ONLY PICK WITHOUT HARMONY INSIDE ME! YOU DON'T WANT AN OLD MARE'S BODY!"

Something transparent and unearthly formed, like smoke, like the reverse of a cloud dispersing. Floating in the air.

It was a foal. A filly, to be precise. Mostly gray. Slitted blue eyes. One rear leg was a Komodo dragon's claw. One foreleg was a lioness' paw. One wing was that of a large love bird rather than a normal pegasus which if mentioned above, was all the filly was. She had to be about the age Sweetie Belle was when Discord ruined the world and everyone's lives. She was transparent. Coldness exuded from her, or maybe warmth was absorbed by her.

"...Mother, I'm sorry. I didn't hear you before. I'm sorry," She whispered. "I was wrong. I…maybe I was always wrong."

I pulled in a gasp.

"BUT HE'S STILL MY PAPA, DAMMIT!!!" She flew straight for Twilight screaming in rage, loss, shame, hate, sadness, confusion, and pain.

Rainbow Dash zoomed to intercept her. I knew what she was planning to do.

It was like my own blood felt a horrible sense of repetition.

"Shoryuken!" Old Pinkie Pie took Fluttercruel by surprise and gave her an uppercut, sending her back reeling.

"PINKIE PIE!" We all shouted, Rainbow Dash louder and happier than all of us.

Before the filly could move, chains came from behind her, wrapping around her body tight enough that she couldn't even budge her wings. Her eyes widened.
We all looked to the source.

"Another Fluttercruel?" Apple Pie said aloud.

"BANISH HER NOW!" shouted the ghostly yellow pegasus in a white dress, holding the chains around her hooves. It had been a thousand years. But I'll never forget my best friend.

"FLUTTERSHY!" Rainbow Dash screamed, and so did I.

"USE THE ELEMENTS NOW! I CAN'T HOLD HER FOR LONG!"

*DON'T WASTE TIME! PLEASE!!!!*

The filly began to struggle more against the chains, slowly breaking them.

"Fluttershy," Twilight whispered.

I wanted so badly to say a thousand thousand things to her. To hear a thousand thousand things from her, but the cruel truth was, we had no time to spare!

"ONE MORE TIME!" Twilight screamed at the top of her lungs. "ALL TOGETHER! ONCE MORE!"

"DERPY!" Rainbow Dash shouted.

The grey pegasus was shaking. "Purgatory, prison, RPG, new game plus, endless spiked wheel..."

"Alright then!" Rainbow Dash grabbed her in a dive loop and brought her close to us as we scrambled faster than I thought was possible for most of us. "I'LL HELP YOU!"

"LET'S ALL LAUGH AGAIN!" Apple Pie screamed.

"Find the joy in the darkness." Pie Pinkie whispered putting a hoof on her shoulder.

"Shy!...ALRIGHT!" Applejack yelled.

"WHATEVER IT TAKES, I'LL GIVE!" Spike snarled.

"Derpy, remember loyalty is staying true when it's not easy!" Rainbow Dash reminded her. Light shone from within both pegasi.

I'd yell at the top of my lungs until my heart gave out what I saw was impossible. But the truth was right in front of me, and my senses pierced all deceit, and I knew that Rainbow Dash spoke from her heart.

It even gave Fluttercruel pause. "OPPOSING ELEMENTS IN THE SAME HEART?!?!?!"

"Even when we think our friends aren't there, there's still in our hearts, THAT is part of the Magic of Friendship!" Twilight spoke her own words to awaken herself.

"Mother...why?" Cruelty whimpered like a small child, "Why...why do you hate me? I...I tried so hard to let you know I loved you."

"I don't, dear. I love you too."

"A... are you going to cut me?"

"No. Nothing like that. My love for you is the sort of love OTHERS share. The love you've always wanted to know in your own heart."

"But-BUT, then WHY-?!" Cruelty wept. "Why are you stopping me from saving Daddy if you love me?!"

"Because I failed you, I won't fail you here."

"I don't understand! Mommy…I'm scared."

"Shuuuush. It's okay, baby, Mommy is here for you."

Fluttercruel cried. She glowed yellow and pink.

A ghostly image, more like a line drawing than something transparent, like a red sketch on reality, rose up out of Cruelty's shadow. It was, something serpentine, countless limbs along it, horns mighty and frightening, maybe more than one, and eyes that made me think of the night Sweetie Belle was sick with a fever when I was small and I saw the dress I put so much soul into be devoured by parasprites. The more It tried to make out details the worse it became.

"HURRY!!!!" Fluttershy cried at the top of her nonexistent lungs. Fluttercruel cried harder, the snake thing got bigger.

"...Fear...Fear...Fear...Fear...Fear...Fear..."

"Hearts as one, lights as one!" Twilight cried out, "Pierce the darkness!!!"

And it did. And the Rainbow of Light from our Elements of Harmony shot forth once again!!

The Rainbow of Light enveloped them both. The thing was torn to shreds and was made nothing.

Cruelty was swept away like a toddler in a raging river, "…Daddy…please don't hate me...for failing you…"

"I'll be back with you soon, Fluttercruel," Fluttershy whispered.

++++

"Heh. That Was Unexpected. This Might Turn Out Different After All. I Need To Really Give My Daughter-In-Law A Hug When I See Her," Havoc said in a causal tone lounging back looking at the tiny burned away piece of himself.

++++

"But...I was finally beginning to understand, it was almost making sense at last," the gray filly mumbled to herself.

"I do not wait for souls to sort out their problems. I come when I come."

"Yes Mr. Mortis."

++++

Desires fulfilled.

The souls that Fluttercruel had spent a thousand years torturing left me. So long Apple Cake, and all the rest. Thank you.

"Is it really over this time? Fer real?" Apple Pie whispered. Several of my departing souls circled her before leaving, she couldn't see them, but I could tell she felt them.

"It's not over until Discord's dealt with... but yes, we beat Fluttercruel."

"We did it Poison Apple, we did it," she said. I let her have her moment of joy.

"Rarity. It's wonderful to see you face to face again." Fluttershy's shade floated in front of me. My Elements skipped a beat.

"And it's...it's wonderful, to see you again too."

++++

Derpy sighed, hugging herself, tears in her eyes.

*Don't worry Derpy, you'll be reunited with Sparkler soon. I promise. You and Dinky together with her. You'll be happy together in the alicorn's realm.*

Applejack hugged Derpy, nuzzling her, "A'm right here if ya need me darlin'."

"Thank you too." She nuzzled back.

"FINALLY! FINALLY FINALLY!" Spike gasped out, "FINALLY! We did it! Hahahaha! And Discord is next! Then we can all enjoy a party with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna!"

"I'm looking forward to it, Spike," Twilight said breathlessly. "Master, we're coming for you."

"PINKIE! WE DID IT! WE DID IT! HEY TWILIGHT LOOK! WE'RE ALL TOGETHER! ALL OF US! HAHA! THIS ROCKS! THE WHOLE GANG BACK TOGETHER!" Rainbow Dash tried to hug her...only to pass right through her.

"N-n-no." Dash whispered.

"Auntie?!" Apple Pie gasped.

"Boo!" Pinkie Pie laughed a little. "I'm sorry guys, I was helping Rarity and...I ran out of steam. Did the best I could, and gave her my Element of Chaos, it was empty anyway."

"No no no no! Come on! Let's bring you back from the dead! I know the Elements can do that right?!"

Fluttershy shook her head.

Pinkie Pie pulled at her coat and brought out a dial, on a little device. Its settings were: 'Casper', 'Boogy-Mare', 'Nightmare Before Hearth Warming's Eve.' She spun the knob from 'Sixth Horse-Sense' to 'Return Of The Jedi' and became transparent and glowing like Fluttershy.

"There. It was wonderful that I got to spend more time with you thank I ever thought I actually would. Apple Pie, I love you. Rainbow Dash, I'm just happy that I got to see you be yourself again. Spike, I'll be with you, partying, even if you can't see me. Rarity, I trust you can deal with your anger a lot better than I ever could. Derpy...you can bet Sparkler knows how much you love her but don't forget your LIVING FRIENDS need you too. Applejack, that goes DOUBLE for you, young lady, got it?"

Applejack shrank a little from the ghost, "Yes ma'am."

"Pinkie…tell Sparkler I said I love her, and Carrot Top I miss her," Derpy said, looking up to her.

"I will, don't worry…Twilight…Old Discord's a big dumb meanie, and he deserves everything you do to him. Just make sure you're doing it for the right reasons. And those right reasons are right."

"...I won't forget."

Pinkie Pie hugged Rainbow Dash. She hugged the ghost back. Apple Pie mimed hugging the ghost too.

"So is Fluttercruel...gone?" Rarity asked. "Fluttershy, look at all those SCARS... she did this? That horrible foal."

"Yes she's horrible, because her father was horrible, don't blame a little foal for what her parents made her. If I hadn't buried some of the monsters inside me so badly, maybe Discord wouldn't have-"

"Fluttershy you are never to say that, to go down that train of thought, suggest it, or speak of it ever again, is that clear? We ALL have hidden some monsters inside ourselves, it's not a sin. You are a wonderful pony, and I will not stand for you berating yourself after saving us and everything else you endured, is that understood?"

"...yes." Fluttershy squeaked.

Rarity hugged the spirit. "That's a good girl."

"And Fluttercruel is gone from this world, yes, but she's not obliterated. Maybe now I can start healing her."

"She doesn't deserve it."

"But she does need it. And I'm her mother… and she can finally hear me."

"Forgiveness ain't deserved or earned. It's a gift," Apple Pie said in support of Fluttershy, getting a smile.

"Very well, Fluttershy. I once said you were the only one who can save her, and I believe it still."

"Thank you, Rarity. If you believe in me, I know I can do it." She began to flicker. "Oh no. Fluttercruel was the only that kept me anchored here. I knew I wouldn't have much time but... EVERYPONY LISTEN! I FORGOT TO TELL ALL OF YOU!" Everyone turned to her. "Twilight, we are all Apple Pie's hamster!"

"Huh?" Apple Pie and Twilight said together.

"What I mean is that this, what is happening, except for Rancor coming and changing things, everything up till then, it's more than it seems, or maybe less than it seems!" She faded away, "I love all of you!" Was the last thing they heard from her.

They all looked at each other. None of them had a clue what she had meant, or could have meant.

"Goodbye, Fluttershy," Rarity said.

Pinkie Pie sighed, "I think I'll be going soon too. Guys, you're all great, the best friends I could have ever hoped for, Derpy, you're a great pony. Apple Pie, you're the best Element of Laughter I've ever seen. I'd stay here with you and see you through but...there's somepony very important I want to say hi to while I can."

Twilight whispered, "Go Pinkie, I promise I understand."

+++

Fate has been...unbelievably magnanimous to me. I've gotten my mind back. My soul back. I've been able to restore so many of my lost friends. Renew our friendships. Make new friends. We're a united force for good again, strong enough to bring the bad guys down.

And forgiveness! Oh, how I've been DELUGED in forgiveness, what a WINDFALL of forbearance and goodwill! My friends have forgiven me. The mortals I've victimized have forgiven me. Cadence...that Big Fellow that Applejack mentioned...even the Alicorns in Heaven seem to've granted me a clean slate! Heck, I'VE forgiven myself!

Ha ha ha...I think I'd actually come to believe all I needed to do was continue fighting the good fight. That somehow, in exchange for me trudging through battle after battle, enduring the slings and arrows and napalm of outrageous combat, all the rest would just rearrange itself into a bright, shiny golden ending.

Oh Pinkie...what a grim wake-up call this has been, what a brutal reminder that for all the forgiveness in the world; ACTIONS STILL HAVE CONSEQUENCES.

Pinkie...I saved your soul, but I also CRIPPLED you. Physically. Emotionally. Unnecessarily. There was no reason you should've been cut off from ANY of your emotions. Not even anger.

THAT HALLWAY! That hallway in the castle leading to Rarigreed's room! Spike had stepped on you! Applejack had dropped a pillar on you! You'd been knocked out! Practically gift-wrapped! I should've just held off on Rarigreed for five more minutes and cast the memory spell on you then! Two for the price of one! Purified you AND your Element of Rage! Our whole fight could've been avoided! Why didn't I do it?! Why, why, WHY?!

No.

If only...if only I had reined in my own fury...if only I had not quit believing that you could be saved...you could've bounced back from such a weak attack.

I'll have to carry that with me forever.

+++

"TWILIGHT! No beating yourself up remember?" Pinkie Pie admonished.

"Oh, heheheh, right." Twilight blushed.

The spirit patted her on the head, "That's a good pony."

"Don't go yet!" Rainbow Dash begged.

Pinkie Pie kissed her on the nose. "I promise, Dashie, we'll see each other again. Cross my heart hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye. Might take a while. But it'll be nothing compared to how long we'll have after. Don't worry. Remember, smile smile smile.

These days of darkness seem so black
But that's okay, we'll take home back.

Know that that I won't be sleeping
But I will be dreaming of all of you.

Come everypony smile smile smile.
But it's been too long a while.

Just turn the frown upside down.
Your love is my most enchanting gown.

The distance might seem be broad,
But I'll be there besides the clown of god.

+++

Rarity listened to Pinkie Pie's song as she moved on. Rainbow Dash cried, Applejack hugs her, as does Apple Pie, who is crying too. Then the rest of them joined in hugging the pegasus too.

Inside Rarity, within her gala of souls, much more empty than before, she welcome in her new guests of Surprise and Princess Rarity. Along with a modest earth pony named Posey.

++++

Where was she? She had been with the big adult with skeletal wings. Now where she was?

It looked familiar, the way her own hooves were familiar. Black sky. Frozen ground. Shadows with nopony casting them everywhere.

"Welcome home."

"W-where is this?"

"This is home."

"DAD!"

"Will be here soon enough, if he's lucky, or he'll never come back here, if he's really lucky or really unlucky, hard to say."

"I have to help him!"

Rancor stomped her into the frozen ground leaving an imprint.

"Sorry, not happening, you're staying put."

"YOU!!!!" she snarled, finally recognizing her. "It's all YOUR fault! You harpooned him!!! Get out of my face!"

"You have a lot to learn kiddo. A lot. And the lessons are gonna be vicious, and yeah, cruel, for a half-breed like you. Gonna beat the pony right out of you."

"Get your filthy paw off me, you two-faced double-crossing sidewinder!"

Rancor ground her foot harder down on her harder. " Don't worry, you'll thank us when it's over."

"Us?" The little gray filly looked up, her head throbbing from where she was hit.

Rancor picked her up by her tail, it hurt.

"Yeah, 'us.' Don't worry, we'll show you the proper way for you to grow up."

"Indeed," said the Concept of Darwinism,

"Don't worry, it's just a little initiation." Said the Concept of Revolution. "It's for the best."

"...it's what Mom and Dad want for you... that is to say, your grandparents... just... just please don't struggle, it'll hurt worse, please." Said the Concept of Imagination.

"So hold on, because I promise you kiddo, this is going to hurt." Said the Concept of Violence as she extended her fangs and claws.

Then the most terrifying thing she had ever seen rose over the frozen ridge, the adults around her were bugs in comparison.

"You Should Consider Yourself Lucky, My Precious Granddaughter, You Get To Be Tried As A Minor And You Get The Insanity Plea On Top Of It. Also, The Advantage Of Nepotism. You Really Are Lucky. But My, My, You Have So Many Birth Defects. You Were Born Wrong. The Taint Of Fauna Luster and Buddy Reek On You From Your Other Parent. But We'll Fix That Right Up. Don't Worry. So Know The Pain's For Your Sake."

"Just as I did for my children." Said the Concept of Darwinism.

"P-p-p-please."

"It's just like old Cadence said!" said the Concept of Revolution. "You'd be judged by your own kind." Claws extended. "Consider yourself judged."

A less than a minute later Fluttercruel screamed… And kept screaming.

"STOP! SHE IS NOT JUST YOUR KIND!"

The filly turned her head, "Mhuu-mah?" She managed to get out.

Fluttershy noticed the red claws marks on 'Cruel, and looked at the scars on her own 'body.'

"This is family business, get lost," Rancor said.

"That Is No Way To Speak To Your Sister-In-Law."

"Yes, Father." Rancor bowed at once, dropping Fluttercruel who hit the ground with a sickening sound, her wings in no shape to catch the nonexistent air.

None of the Draconequui tried to stop Fluttershy. It was like she was radioactive. The shadows kept an even wider distance from her.

"We have so got to invest in some gatekeepers," Anarchy said.

Fluttershy looked up at Havoc, bowing. "Havoc, Emperor of Phobias, King of Nightmares, Forger Of the Survival Instinct, I beseech you to allow me to speak."

"You Willingly Entered A Draconequi Realm? Color Me Impressed. Hehe, Speak."

"Fluttercruel is my daughter, I love her. I hope you can understand that."

"Of Course I Do. Even My Lovely Bride Understands Love! Isn't That Right, Honey?"

"YES, I UNDERSTAND LOVE. LOVE IS CREATED FROM NOTHING, WHICH IS ME, SO IN A WAY I AM LOVE."

Fluttershy shuddered at that logic.

Havoc returned his gaze to Fluttershy. "You Were Saying?"

"I want to help recondition her, but…with all due respect, I don't think removing her pony side will help. No offense."

"None Taken. One Of Us Has To Be Able To Have Thick Skin Or We'd Not Have Any Children Left. You Will Continue."

"She already understands this part of cruelty, the part that hurts. I know you see this as tough love, but she won't. And she was already humbled by being killed by my friends twice. I ask: aren't all you Draconequi at least SOMEWHAT multi-dimensional beings? Or do you only obsess over one single aspect of the Concepts you are?"

Anarchy rubbed his head. "She has a point, Dad, you don't see me being focused ONLY on the bloodshed of rebellion. I try to free ponies from oppression and all that."

Fluttershy nodded, gratefully. "And I…well, don't have a right to speak of You and Your Wife, but are You not Complete Concepts as well?"

A smile formed on Havoc's face. "You Are Smarter Than Most. So I Will Answer That Question; Yes. After All, If I Didn't Know, And Enjoy, That Fear Can Also Save Lives, Then I'd Simply Be Throwing The Universe Into A Constant State Of Meaningless Blind Terror. While That'd Be Funny, It Would Also Get Boring Quickly, And It's Counterproductive."

Mass Hysteria lowered His massive head to look Fluttershy head-on. He saw the her quake with terror before him, but not avert her gaze, or move from her protective stance near her daughter. Havoc smiled approvingly. "I Don't Care Much For Ponies Who Don't Have The Common Sense To Listen To Their Fears." One of Havoc's many claws came down on Fluttershy, she never moved. The claw stopped after cutting within a fraction of a millimeter of skin. "Heh. You Fear Losing Your Child More."

"Yes."

He said, rising back up. "You Will Continue."

"I think right now, what Fluttercruel needs to learn is how her Concept can help life grow. She knows everything there is to know about hurting others. You'd not be teaching her anything new."

Havoc gave a nod. "Hehe, You Are A Smart One, I'll Give You That. It's Been Eons Since I've Seen A Pony Who Actually Respects What My Family Does. I Respect That. She's yours."

Strife looked at Rancor. "And that is why I said said you should never judge a pony by outside appearances."

"Got big wings fer protectin' 'Ruelly, I'll give her that. But no angery cries for retribution?"

"SHUD YER MOUTH!" Fluttercruel snarled. "YU DUN GET 'ALK SMAC' BOU' MAH-" Her maimed body broke into coughing fits.

Fluttershy knelt down looking at the mangled filly, the snow around the filly was no longer white. "Huh, dear. It's okay. Mama's here, Mama won't ever leave you again if you don't want her to. Mama will help you. She'll protect you. She promises." She picked her up in her mouth and placed her on her back and spread her wings, staining her backside and feathers in blood. She looked at the Draconequi. "She'll come back to you when she's ready. You're all going to have to simply wait. If any of you besides Discord come before then, you'll face the Tarot of the Queen of Cups."

She flew away. "It's okay, baby, you're free."

"Hush now, quite now,
it's time to go to bed.

"Lay your sleepy head.

"Let the butterfly turn herself upright,
Her wings will carry you to morning's light."