My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Pony POV Series
Dark World Part 27 "Beating The Bucking Horseapples Out of Discord!!!"
By Alex Warlorn

Discord...

It was...jarring, no, it was disturbing.

Over half his body had to be stone, much of it was crumbling. The hole in his chest had gotten larger. One side showed an inward-turning blackness, frost caked around the edges, and the sick feeling that some thing was watching them through it. It reminded the ponies of the other side of the gateway Rancor has passed through.

There was a mirror set up behind Discord's throne. Via the impossible physics of Discord's Equestria, they saw the other side of the hole. This end showed an outward-churning redness, the more they tried to take in details, the more they didn't want to, the more their instincts inside them screamed in irrational fear. And...where there tiny black hands reach out of the hole? No no! They had be imagining that part!

Forcing it out of her mind, Twilight stepped forward. "You're all alone, Discord."

"Alone, am I? What else is new? No matter how many times it happens, the pain doesn't lessen, you know...meh, never mind."

"You turned my magic of friendship to tragedy, Discord! But I grew through it with the help of my friends."

"Ya made me turn mah back completely on the truth, but now it's the kindness tah others in them lies Ah care about, not the lies themselves!"

"You stripped away my mask of generosity I wore, but all I did was ignore OTHER truths, never again! Cruelty, deceit, greed, anger, free will, magic, are all truth!"

"You made me a monster like you! Then my muffin freed me! Then tortured us for that! For her I'll never gave up. For Dinky, for Sparkler, I was loyal, I never gave up. And for my new friends. I won't give up either!"

"Grexessle Anti-Taxation Baimcat Vuvuzela Discord! Ah just wanna say, yer jokes are funny, but whether hurtin' others is funny or not ain't the point. It shouldn't be funny!"

"Before I clean your clock, I have one thing to thank you for: letting me be a man with Rarity! And now it's time for yer just rewards for all the rest!"

The Element Bearers just gaped dumbly.
None of these words had come out of ANY of their mouths.
Discord had spoken them all. Impersonating their voices. Saying it just before they thought to say it!

"We're not falling for you tricks, Discord! Trying to confuse us won't work! You have nothing left!"

Spike declared, Discord echoed it, no, he didn't echo it, he said it at the exact same time!

Discord yawned. It made the cracks in his body spread faster.

"Always the same speeches. Couldn't you vary them a little? Before you smite me with righteous fury, I think I'll ask you a question, my three former minions, my ride, and our consummate round-the-clock jogger. How did it feel to do the same action over and over whether you wanted to or not? Stuck in the same cliche routine for a thousand years like non-player characters in a video game? Oh never mind! So how do you want to do it this time, Twilight?"

"'This time?' What do you mean?" Discord and Twilight chorused at the exact same time.

"It doesn't matter. Nothing does. Whenever you WANT to do something different, you're just pushed forward and the choices are made for you, no, they're not made for you that implies you're involved somehow, oh I guess you still are, but you're never allowed to change anything! How did that feel, Twilight? You're about to make a different choice, change your destiny, and SNAP! You're handed back control, maybe, after everything has happened to where you can't change a thing! And you're not even sure what choices were made! I imagine it was as awful for Fluttershy too, speaking inside but never heard, clawing on the inside but no one listening."

Rarity growled.

"Believe it or not that was my reaction. No matter how many times she saw me commit crimes against the living, she never judged me even where Pinkie Pie would. How can such a pure pony exist?! It really IS all like a cheap video game... what a fabulous metaphor for my life! The type of games that claims to grant the player free will, but no matter what, it's always the same ending, same final boss, none of the cutscene dialogue ever changes. You want to make a completely different choice? Ha! Not happening."

"The game's opening sequence involves you destroying what you want most, what you love the most. Try to move on without doing it? Up pops a text message: 'No You Can't Do That!'

"Maybe there's a golden ending hidden in the game, provided you meet some absurd prerequisites. So you keep playing, one playthrough after another, the game cheats; you're not fast enough, the game continues if you lost that boss fight anyway, that character betrays you no matter how hard you try to be their friends until you just give up on it. I think the only reason I've continuing playing at all at this point, was to see how many ex machinas could be dropped on my head at once to force me to lose... and force me to lose her."

"Those kinda video games can suck after a while," Apple Pie observed.

"You eventually give up on ACHIEVING your golden ending, and decide to aim for just one teeny victory in the whole nihilistic player-hating ordeal. End the game with a positive karma meter. End the game knowing that the green haired filly with the bonnet on disc 2 lived when she was scripted to die. For the sake of that minor victory, you give up on even pretending to care about anything else. But the game can't have you breaking character. So it takes away your choices when you try and go off the rails. No playing a game called 'Overlord' and expect to win by making friends with teamates who betray you. Even if you do, they're programmed to betray you anyway since if they don't the story stops and the game's story can't continue! It skips you ahead, then hands you back the controller for the fight sequences."

"That sounds like a game ya should have just walked away from," Apple Pie said.

"Believe me, I tried Apple Pie. Several times. Thank you for trying to help."

"Help?" Apple Pie tilted her head.

His paw shaking, he managed to summon a glass of half-empty chocolate milk. He downed the milk, it went straight into the black hole in his chest never to return, and threw the glass at the heroes. They ducked, it just hit the floor and dissolved into nothing.

"You expected it to explode, didn't you?" Discorded asked, with melancholy. "There is no chaos when the outcome is predictable."

The mighty Discord boomed on top of his throne, thunder, chocolate rain, tap-dancing spiders, a hail of windigos, spinning robots, Lyra playing with a yoyo, upside down soda cans floating, impossible geometric shapes melting all around the heroes. Trixie and Twilight held onto Firecracker as AJ and Rarity moved back to back and Derpy and Spike flew above the heroes defensively.

"YOU WORTHLESS HORSES! You harp on about 'be yourself!' 'Be true to yourself!' But as soon as being yourself gets in the way of what EVERYONE ELSE wants, 'don't be yourself!' 'Keep it to yourself!' 'Be a different self!' My brother Destruction, the one I ate? He tortured himself his entire existence, trying to deny his nature, suppress what he was! I looked at him, I promised myself I'd NEVER hide from the real me! Mom and Pops made me the way I am, shouldn't THEY be punished if what I am is so wrong?!

"You know it's stupid. I was fully prepared to rule over my little Planet of Chaos till this universe died of old age. Always coming up with new tricks! New games! New confusion! New ways to traumatize vulnerable minds! But what's the point if you're actually a slave among slaves?

"Endless cycles, endless cycles. I keep thinking if I threw myself totally into it, I can just live for the moment until it inevitably ends... the way all you mortals OUGHT to. But... my little princess. She's become the only thing that makes this prison worthwhile! Why ...why is no matter how many times I see her perish... WHY DOES THIS PAIN IN MY CHEST NEVER GO AWAY?! TRAGEDY! You're the smart one! The literal Element of Tragedy, itself! TELL ME! Why does she have to die, EVERY TIME?! IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE! AND I DON'T LIKE IT! WHICH MAKES EVEN LESS SENSE!"

He threw up his hands, and it all turned to speckled dishwasher detergent which splattered on the floor.

The ponies and dragon startled. The chaos was gone, had it ever been there? There was Discord, bleeding and dying. Twilight. Spike, AJ, Apple Pie, Rarity, and Derpy. Check. Was this a trick?

"Don't you hate it when they throw in stock footage to make up for a dying actor?" The broken Discord sigh and began coughing again.

Rarity said hesitantly, "It can actually be rather beautiful when the proper effort and care is taken into it."

"I-I suppose so. Too bad it wasn't, maybe this would be more pleasant."

Spike came to Rarity's side, "Don't you dare touch her mind ever again you filthy degenerate bucket of pig swill! I didn't come all this way and fight all these fights just to hear you whine about video games! Time for you to be erased for good! Everything you've done to hurt others! All the misery you've caused! It's gonna go with you!"

Discord groaned, "Question: don't you all ever get sick of the whole 'first we shall verbally beat you to a pulp, THEN physically beat you to a pulp!' shtick? Oh, it doesn't matter. Nothing matters now that she's gone. Nothing to do now but play through the end, then sit through the painfully long credits sequence full of Japanese names that you're not even allowed to skip."

the mighty Discord said, "Still... if you think I'm just gonna hand out golf clubs and quietly let you ponies clobber me to death, you've got another thing coming! I have my pride as a showman!"

He draped himself in a long purple poncho. He stood up proudly sticking out his chest and assumed a pose befitting Trottsylvania counts, wiggling his eyebrows and claws at them. "Velcome to your doom!"

The mighty Discord transformed into a giant Ax. "Look at me! The axe! He 'axed' crazy!"

Pinkie Pie giggles in spite of herself, even as Discord brought himself down in rapid-fire chops, like he was trying to make coleslaw out of them.

Then the broken Discord was suddenly back on his throne, the cloak already gone, coughing up black and yellow blood. The cuts in the carpet weren't even there.

"Remember that, guys? I like to think that one was clever. Or how about the one when my individual body parts turned into complete animals, which I had you fight one-on-one? Or the one where we decided the fate of the world on a game of Tetris?" The broken Discord asked.

"WHAT ARE YOU GOING ON ABOUT DISCORD?! WHAT IS HAPPENING? WHAT KIND OF GAME ARE YOU PLAYING THIS TIME? WHY?!" Twilight demanded at the absurd whirl of confusion.

The mighty Discord growl slamming his chest, "Why? I hate 'why!' I wish I could annihilate 'why!' Reasons are window dressing! I once came close to deflowering and murdering 'Why!' And my one regret is that I never finished this honorable goal! 'Why' enslaves us! It chains us! The world is nonsense! 'Why' pretend otherwise! SHE'S the real monster!"

The broken Discord on his throne tried to smirk, and failed. "Heh, so how was that Evil Speech of mine?" Had he spoken, with disgust? "Oh wait, I already know how you're all going to respond! Ahem:

"Rarity: My word, only a fool blames fate for his own choices darling.'

Applejack: If this here is yer idea of free then yer even more screwed in da head than Ah thought.'

Apple Pie: Ah think 'why' ain't all that bad. Separates ponies from the unsocial-like rocks.'

Spike: 'I don't care about you pseudo-philosophical horseapples! I'm not playing your games! Stop saying what I'm saying already!'

Derpy Hooves: 'Why' is something I had a real hard time understanding for a long time. But I was proud of myself for when I finally understood why! And I sent my fillies to school so they'd get 'why' too!'

Twilight: 'You're right that our decisions affect others in ways we never see, and theirs affect us in ways we never fully realize. Maybe we're all puppets. But we all have our hooves in the strings, Discord.'"

"...Master."

(WHAT?!)

Everything gasped and looked at Twilight, her allies ready to clobber her without a first thought if she suddenly transformed back into Twilight Tragedy.

"That...that was different," whispered Discord, who then smiled, "Heh. You still call me Master even as you seek to dispose of me?"

"Celestia taught one side of magic. You taught me the other. I won't bury my head in the sand again. As much as you're a disease Equestria needs to be cured of, as much as your bottomless cruelty turned me into an emotionless killer... I can't deny you DID teach me something that's really helped me grow, these past few days. Thank you."

*It sickens me that you needed this Twilight. I am so so so sorry. If there was another way. I'd have shown it in an instant.*

"Heh," the broke Discord let out a laugh, "Seems that way doesn't it? Who'd have thought?"

"Now Discord... allow me now to ask YOU a question. Why are you so focused on just Equestria? Just this world alone?"

"...So you finally noticed? Heh."

A planet, then a solar system, then a galaxy, then thousand of galaxies appeared, or tried to, they actually just fizzled out before the image could even form.

Discord spoke, "Between the alien invasion attempts... and good folks like The Valeyard... you are all already aware that other lifeforms exist, beyond the reaches of this puny sphere.

"Equestria. One measly little planet. HA! Riddle me this; Why oh why oh WHY do I consign myself to it -- just one speck of dust on a bubble in an ocean -- when I'm the fifth most powerful being in existence? When there are ENTIRE GALAXIES OUT THERE JUST WAITING FOR ME TO PLAY SHUFFLEBOARD WITH!?" The broken Discord instantly broke down into cough fits, he brought his paw up to his face and it was covered in yellow and black blood when he pulled it away.

Twilight whispered, "Because the rest of the universe is outside the borders of the game map isn't it?"

"Bingo. The reason I do not leave the world of Equestria is because I CANNOT leave it."

"I finally understand why you kept us around, Master. We were the only things keeping your non-chaos from being lonely."

"I can't even remember why I kept you around. At first, I think I just found you entertaining. Then I just didn't want to admit losing. Then I think... we've all been together so long, you and my nieces are the closest things I have left to family."

"It must be horrible for you. To put your trust in so few and for those few always to be the ones who betray you. I am sorry for you... my teacher."

*You understand, Twilight.*

(YOU DARE CALL THIS FILTH BY THE MOST HONORED OF TITLES?!)

"Your efforts to connect with me on an emotional level... BORE me, my faithful student. Maybe I should just hand you the win and call it day. BUT I CAN'T LET IT BE SAID A DRACONEQUUS EVER WENT DOWN WITHOUT A FIGHT CAN I?!" The mighty evil overlord Discord boomed with a deafening echo.

The broken Discord's body moved jerkily. He put a rainbow pastel tie-dyed bandage over the giant hole in the center of his body and rose up, the stone parts of his body fractured more. His musculature first doubled and then tripled.

"You have to be joking," Twilight said not even reacting as the other ponies got ready to fight. "I'm not playing this game Discord."

Discord stamped his stone hoof, cracking it. "Oh come on! We need to do -something- or we'll disappoint the audience!"
Twilight just raised an eyebrow. "You've already lost. You're DYING. No longer a threat to anypony. Your show of aggression is perfunctory. You couldn't even beat ONE of us as you are now."

Discord slumped to the floor. "No need to rub it in."

"Everypony. Attack him." Twilight had never sounded more cool or collected, like a proper army general. "We've come all this way. Fought all these battles. He's caused us so much anguish. But we triumphed over the odds.

Twilight looked from ally to ally. "I know every one of you are good peace-loving souls. But if ever there was a time where it was right and just for us to give into wrath and vengeance... it's now. So enjoy it. Make the most of it. You've earned it. Do whatever you've been itching to do to him whenever you envisioned reaching this moment. Leave just enough for your comrades. Beat him down until all your hatred for him is SPENT. We're sending this monster to Hell."

"NO!" Twilight shout startling her confused friends as she had stared off into space for a moment. "I... AM DONE! Being a part of ANY SCRIPT!"

Discord thought, 'This is different too, hehe, it's almost fun!'

Twilight whispered, " ... Hatred isn't ever spent, it isn't anger, it isn't spent, it festers. Pinkie Pie, you showed us better than anypony. Thank you. Huh?! Girls?! What the Pony Hell are you doing?!"

Rarity fell upon him quickest. Some of the crumbled bits of Discord's own body reformed together into a stone dragon paw and slapped him multiple times in the face, with bone-shattering force. "How many murderers did you create Discord? How many murderers flourished under you? How many were maimed or killed in the crossfire of your games and you didn't even flinch? How many ponies' lives did you end or ruin just to entertain you and your child? Do you even know?"

(Uh, I think they might be doing what you told them to do.)

'But I never said that!' Twilight thought in horror. 'Did I?'

Applejack did double bucks to what was left of his stomach. Her back legs actually went numb from kicking him so close to the void in his chest. "How many are dead because of ya? How many crippled fer life? How many hopelessly insane? How many were foals? How many would have embraced yer world of chaos if ya hadn't treated 'em like toilet paper?"

"GIVE ME BACK SPARKLER!" Derpy hit Discord in the face with an electrified drop kick, sending electric sparks all through his body. "How many fathers committed suicide when they came back to reality just long enough to realize they'd killed his own foal while laughing?"

"Discord you've made millions of ponies, billions die or wish for death! How many happy moments, how many advancements could we have achieved, how much togetherness could we all have enjoyed with one another... if not for your twisted corruption?!" Spike punched him square in the face making him topple over with a resounding thud.

Even the little filly got into the spirit of things. "How much did ya hurt mah friends to make 'em yer timberwolves, and how much did ya do just to hurt 'em!? How many lies did ya tell 'em? How many truths did ya turn sideways like Saint Aunt Applejack was made ta? How many hearts did ya crush like Auntie Pinkie Pie's?! How often did ya play on their weaknesses like Miss Rarity? How many did ya just cheat when they were stronger than ya like Miss Fluttershy?! How many did ya break in two while laughin' like Miss Rainbow Dash? HOW MANY-DID YA-MAKE THEIR OWN FRIENDS HURT 'EM LIKE HALF-LIGHT?!"

"Lost...count," the dying draconequus wheezed.

The little filly trotted away having said her piece, feeling a little ashamed of herself for losing her temper. Not having laid a hoof on him. Discord was surprised.

Twilight looked at her friends, and for a terrible spark of a moment, didn't recognize them. 'Or... are they too familiar?'

"STOP IT!" Twilight shouted, using the Royal Canterlot Voice to its full volume.

The ponies startled and looked at Twilight in total confusion.

"You don't need to stop them," Discord said, his ruined body even more destroyed, "They're right, I am an unforgivable, selfish, worthless monster, anything worthwhile I've made I just recreated from something I destroyed, or I ruined from the start. I've snuffed out more candles than you'll ever know. I deserved every last bit of that and more."

"Don't you dare Derpy," Twilight said seeing Derpy ready to kick a stone shard of Discord body back at the Draconequus.

"Twilight, promise me, you won't do this to Screwball and, or Mad Tiara," the broken Discord begged.

The poinies felt their brains threaten to crash. Had Discord asked for something on somepony ELSE'S behalf? What kind of last game was he trying to pull?

"I'm not using the Elements of Chaos to heal you Discord." Rarity said.

"Thank you," Discord said.

Now Rarity's mind threatened to completely crash.

"Where are they anyway?" Twilight asked seeing the music box empty.

"Do you promise?"

"Don't ya be stupid! We'd never be savages like--" AJ stopped, and looked at the black and yellow blood on her hooves.

"You have our word Discord," Twilight said.

Twilight trotted between her friends and the dying monster they had wanted to see fall. "Look at you! Look at yourselves!"

The ponies did so, it was like waking up from a dream, or an enchantment, like it was something that somepony else did, something that happened to somepony else. But there had been no geass here.

They saw the blood on their hooves, the dust from shattered stone limbs. Apple Pie did, and, she was reminded of when she had seen the Chaos Six last as Discord's servants in Ponyville.

"Apple Pie, please come here with me," Twilight asked calmly. The filly obeyed.

"Do you feel better? Did it make you feel good? Doing that to Discord?" Twilight asked her other friends.

The dragon and three ponies nodded, Derpy the most eagerly.

"So tell me, what exactly did beating the Tartarus out of an already helpless, defeated, powerless, and dying enemy objectively ACCOMPLISH?!"

The three ponies and dragon looked at each other in confusion.

"Making him pay," Derpy said lowly, almost darkly.

"So are you doing this as tick for tock? OR ARE ALL OF YOU JUST FRUSTRATED THAT RANCOR BEAT US TO THE PUNCH?!"

Spike's eyes widened at the question, "Twilight, please, not now. Remember, Discord. He's just playing for sympathy points! He's the guy we've been fighting AGAINST all this time."

"Because Discord's the BAD GUY that makes it alright to pummel him to sludge to just make ourselves feel better?!"

AJ took her hat off placed it over her heart and lowered her head, then she trotted away from the others and stood next to Twilight, not saying a word.

"Did you all come all this way just to get your licks in-?! Or did you come for the sake of those you love?"

"They... they can't be one and the same?" Rarity asked, feeling sick inside.

"And did what you just do CHANGE A THING? We came here to liberate the world from Discord, to make sure he'd never have the chance to harm a living thing again! Mission accomplished!"

"He's still alive," Derpy said.

"And won't be for much longer no matter what we do! What does hurting a monster who's already dying and no longer a threat to anything DO? Payback? Retribution? He's ALREADY as helpless as he's made everyone else! He's ALREADY lost everything like he took from everypony else! He's ALREADY never going to get the chance to harm anypony ever again! This . . . this . . . " Twilight then said sadly, "This is just selfish revenge."

"And... what about you Twilight?" Discord wheezed, "What about Cadence? What about your parents? What about the mares from magic school who tried so hard to get you to socialize? Pinkie Pie? Fluttershy?"

Twilight spoke in a calm, even, nonjudgmental tone. "I cannot forgive you teacher, but I cannot condemn you either. What we do we do for our survival and those we love you've murdered and hurt. But a mortal has no right to pass judgement on a spirit. So I'll do what Cadence did, and leave for your own kind to decide the consequences of your own actions. May they do with you as they will. You're no longer our business." Twilight looked at her friends, "We are better than this!"

"Yeah. We are," AJ said simply. "This ain't nothing kind about revenge. It ain't make the life of the pony hurt better, and it ain't justice."

Derpy had one thought. She imagined her hate taking a shape, it took the shape of the same endless circle around the castle, never ending, never stopping. Never to be free. "I won't hate. Sparkler, I won't shame you by turning into a monster because of you."

"Twilight," Rarity said formally and politely, "You speak the cruel truth."

Apple Pie looked at the blood on the floor, and took some, and rubbed it on her hooves.

"Apple Pie!" Twilight gasped.

"Ah didn't try ta stop ya girls. So Ah, Ah'll carry the burden with ya."

"Apple Pie! Twilight!" Spike said, he didn't sound angry or ashamed, he was speaking to Twilight like she was the one who needed saving, "Don't get lost in this! Removing evil is not the same as creating evil!"

"And it's not the same as creating good either Spike," Twilight said sadly, "And removing evil, isn't the same as making someone who is evil suffer.

"Apple Pie is the only one WITHOUT blood on her hooves right now. She was willing to say her piece and LEAVE IT at that...are we really that foalish that a little filly is more mature than we are? Yes, WE, because when we stormed in here I wanted to blow Discord in half every bit as much as you did...Ponies say to stop being foalish, to grow up, but there are SOME parts of foalhood that we SHOULDN'T leave behind. One of them is being innocent enough to listen to what her grandmother said about not giving into grudges...We tend to think as we grow up that kind of thinking is naive, but is it really? It's only because the Apple Pie family thinks that way that we're even HERE. They could've driven us off with explosives instead of accepting us. Who has more of a reason to hate US than they do? Than Apple Pie does? How EASY would it have been for her to say 'you killed my sister, you killed my friends, I don't want anything to do with you!' But instead they GAVE us their forgiveness and mercy when we DIDN'T deserve it...Discord doesn't deserve forgiveness or mercy, but neither of those things are things you should HAVE to deserve."

"Twilight," Spike whispered, "Please, don't waste your pity on him, please, I can't stand seeing him make you suffer again!"

"He makes a very good point Twilight," Discord slowly got up, his eyes unfocused. Then he fell to one knee. "What are you waiting for? Use the Elements! It's what you're supposed to do now! Blast me to oblivion!"

"No."

Again, EVERYONE looked at Twilight.

"That black hole in your chest, Discord... it's grown so much wider!"

Discord looked down at it. "So it has."

The other Element Bearers backed away from Discord, gathering behind Twilight. "Go back, go back to the chaos you were born from! Draconequus!"

"AT LAST! Finally, you truly ARE deviating from the script!" Discord laughed joyously, if feebly. "A joke on me, and I'm finally laughing at it again. Maybe I finally am free. But YOU'RE not free. Not yet, little ponies."

Black threads had spread from the hole and were now slowly wrapping their way around his body parts.

"...Twilight...what would you say if I said I never had a choice?"

Twilight looked back. "...I'd say you were wrong. You always have a choice."

Discord looked thoughtful for a moment, then a look of realization formed. "...I guess I do. Mind granting a condemned criminal one last request?"

"No!" said Derpy.

"You've had a thousand years getting EVERY weird thing you wanted!" snarled Spike. "All you've done is take! Take! Take! When did you last GIVE to somepony?"

Rarity remained silent.

Apple Pie tilted her head. This didn't look much liker Plastic Drumset Discord anymore, just a mass of broken stone and fur slowly being eaten by darkness.

"What request?" Saint Applejack asked.

"Twilight, use your famous memory spell on me."

"WHAT?!" Was the unified reply.

Discord laughed then coughed up chunks of frozen rock, he didn't want to know what they had been.

"Forgive me, it's been a while since I've had to come up with this kinda sales pitch on the fly, and I'm kinda, well, what you mortals call it? Oh yeah, dying, so please bear with the mangled, dying psychopath. Ahem.

"For starters, the entire time that your memory spell is active, I vow, upon my Mother and Father, that I will enter a state of complete non-combative inaction, total passivity. Which won't be hard, as my fighting power is 0.00001 to a bunny, right now."

"Twilight?" Derpy asked. "What's with that look in your eyes? You're not seriously thinking of...?"

"No minion of mine will attack you, not that I have any left. And if you're worried about a repeat of becoming 'Valelight,' or 'Twicord' or something WORSE lying in wait, I also vow that you will encounter nothing BUT memories in my mind."

"Twilight! Ignore him!" Spike gave her a rough shake. "Remember your own advice! Just before we left the rock farm! 'Don't trust a word he says. Even when he's being honest, it's just so you'll do what he wants. Anything he tells you is only *PART* of the picture!'"

"As a bonus, I promise that for exactly five minutes AFTER your memory spell has been cast, I will continue to remain inactive, for the sake of allowing us both to discuss what you learned from peeking into my memories. Not that I'm actually going to LAST five minutes..." He cough up more frozen rocks. "Or three minutes after. This was gonna be a long speech. Sort of like this story-arc."

"Don't play by his rules." Rarity added, continuing to quote Twilight's words. "We made that mistake and it cost us everything. Just keep your wits about you. And if he sets some kind of challenge or contest... anything where he acts as judge, referee and rule setter..."

"...Ignore him completely." She smiled at all her friends. Then she conjured a set of super-strength earplugs into being. Then tossed them so far away and with such force that they left cracks in the wall. "THE RULES HAVE ALL CHANGED!"

"Even I wasn't born bad, believe it or not! Neither time, actually, second time I was actually a pretty sweet kid for awhile."

"He's telling the absolute truth," Rarity said.

"That there was no lie," AJ added.

Twilight remained stock still. Visions of Angry Pie, of Fluttercruel, of Pinkie... they were all flooding her head.

"Maybe jogging my memory of the Good Old Days would be just what I need to bring me back to the light side!"

"LIGHT SIDE?! YOU?!" Spike let out a wild, overwrought, incredulous cackle.

"He's not lying about any of that," AJ whispered in awe.

Discord laughed too, and began coughing again, "Yeah . . . sounds absolutely stupid doesn't? After all. There's never been any redemption for creatures like me."

"You're lying to yourself Discord," Rarity said sternly.

"It's been a comforting lie." Discord sighed. "Then please don't play hoofball with my severed head for this one, but maybe didn't your fight with Angry Pie teach you it's wrong to automatically assume that someequus is unsaveable when the hero hasn't tried EVERYTHING?"

"Hoofball time!" Derpy and Spike snarled together trotting forward. Rarity stopped Spike while, and AJ and Apple Pie stopped Derpy. Apple Pie couldn't help laughing a little bit. Big Banana Discord had been...good once?

"...Ah didn't think it could happen...but hey, who are we tah talk?" the filly asked, giving a smile. "Yah ain't done one thing to earn forgiveness, I want ya gone, but it ain't earned, it's given."

Discord actually laughed...with a surprising lack of malice. "That's a new one."

"If this is a mistake, Rarity, blast us both to oblivion. No hesitation, no mercy."

"TWILIGHT NO!" Spike protested as Rarity nodded.

"Half-Light!"

"My choice, My risk, you're wonderful family Spike. Girls, Spike, I love all of you. Apple Pie, thank you."

"Half-Light...just be careful. Give 'em your forgiveness if yah want tah."

Twilight nuzzled the filly. "I will. And thank you so much for teaching me so much," she said, if Celestia ever got her memory back, she'd be getting plenty.

Twilight awoke the classic spell once again, and touched it to the head of the spirit of disharmony, as promised, he simply lowered his head to accept it. There was a flash.

Twilight shook her head, so many images, so many, so many, so many. SO MANY. But there was no alien presence. No trace of chaos magic. Indeed, only memories. She put a triple barrier to prevent any memories of Discord looking in the mirror with his hypno eyes from being shown, just in case.

"The remote server download might take a bit," Discord told her. "Sorry for that. But here's the verbal shorthand: This isn't your Hell, Twilight Sparkle. It's mine, it always been mine...she's made all of you exist only so..." the black threads then exploded from the hole, wrapping around every piece of Discord at once, like a mummy.

The ponies and dragon gasped.

"Typical," Discord tutted, as his arms, tail, legs, all began to bend inwards in ways that weren't supposed to be possible even for the draconequus, then his head and neck began to do the same. "You have the worst sense of timing, don't you Mother?"

Derpy was open-mouthed in shock. AJ covered Apple Pie's eyes. Spike kept a straight face though his stomach's inner fire felt sickly cold for some reason. The mass of Discord began to get smaller and smaller, no, it was being CRUSHED.

"Discord!" Twilight move towards the draconequus.

"STAY BACK!" Discord cried out. Rarity stopped Twilight. The tyrant of Equestria smiled. "Heh. Good luck earning your golden ending, my little ponies."

*Thank you Discord.*

The implosion shook the throne room, a wave of desert heat and desert cold swept over the heroes. Then all was silent. Where Discord had been, lay the cold dead body of a blue pegasus mare with pink hair and purple eyes, on her flanks were a set of blue and pink whistles.

Derpy nudged the body first, and confirmed, yes, the mare was dead. There wasn't a mark on her body. She almost looked like she was asleep. Almost. There was no breath in her lungs, she was empty.

"Whoever you were, you're free," Derpy nuzzled the corpse.

"It's done," Rarity breathed in and out, "It's done. It's over. It's over. We're alive. We're free."

"You sure?" Spike asked. "It feels like... this victory's been handed to us on a silver platter. There's a difference between fate being generous, and, well, you being a passenger to your own story."

"Please don't even start!" Rarity snapped. "You're sounding like Discord did!"

"Sorry! Sorry. It's just... "Nothing's changed."

"That's because we haven't used the Elements," Twilight replied.

"Oh right," Spike let out a relieved breath.

"So..." Apple Pie looked around, feeling like she had stepped off the edge of the universe. "We win? HALF-LIGHT WE WIN! WEWIN!WEWIN!WEWIN!WEWIN!"

Applejack took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, "He's gone, we're not, yeah, we win."

"Dinky, Sparkler, we win." Derpy spread her wings gracefully.

"What do we do with her?" Applejack asked looking at the dead body.

Twilight thought. "I don't know....I think there's room in the inner garden for one more grave. I just wish we knew who she was."

"Her name was Wind Whistler." Rarity said.

"The echoes again?" AJ asked.

Rarity nodded.

"So who's for cake and ice cream back at Sweet Rock Acres?" Spike suggested.

"AH AM!" Apple Pie raised a hoof dancing around happily like the floor was made of rubber. "Oh! And pizza from the pizza tree!"

"Ditto. Add cider to that mix." AJ said.

"...MUFFINS!" Derpy added. She wasn't going to let Discord take away ANOTHER thing she loved from her.

"Fine wine, darling." Rarity said. "A good pinot noir, I think. Chilled. And cider is good!"

"I'm gonna stuff myself on gems until my belly aches," Spike smacked his lips.

"Maybe I can find some tea." Twilight said and looked at Apple Pie, "And lots and lots of rock candy."

Apple Pie cheered.

"But first let's get the Elements out, and clean up Discord's mess," Spike said.

"Sounds like a plan." AJ said.

"This ain't gonna hurt no pony is it?" Apple Pie asked.

"The Elements of Harmony would never kill," Twilight said calmly and peacefully.

Derpy merely nodded.

+++

All across Equestria, not a single dragon turned into a pony (which would've killed many ponies, since a number of them were in flight), nor did one breezie swarm fuse back into one pony(which would kill the individual sapient Breezies made from the original pony), nor did the descendants of the first generation seaponies suddenly find themselves underwater without gills or their home falling form the sky.

Though...it did start raining water instead of anvils. And every zombie everywhere just collapsed into dust. The seaponies and breezies experienced a strange sense of being orphaned. The amazon ponies also felt the odd feelings of being alone, as the mist around their island began to vanish, the Amazon ponies began to debate why the universe was expanding.

And countless ponies suddenly found themselves with a clear heads, some for the first time in their existence. Some cried, some hugged their loved ones.

In Ponyville, the inversed-Discording faded, coloration settling on a middle ground rather than brightening or dulling on either extreme: leaving the ponies sane and rational again... though they did keep the extra sized cutie marks. As they were generally nice looking, most ponies didn't really complain.

At Sweet Rock Acres the Apple Pie clan looked out as the cotton candy clouds began turning into 'rainclouds.' Cheering broke out at the realization of what this must mean.

"I hope this doesn't ruin the rock crop," said Cream Pie, "Hey, where's Minty's Pie?"

Inside a purple castle on the clear other side of Equestia next to Mount Shady, two purple ponies were weeping, along with a collection of maid ponies.

+++

"Mom...the game stopped," the filly said, blinking, looking at the screen.

Pinkie Pie watched Morning Light play her video game. The sign 'Fourth Wall Studios' hung on the room's wall.

Bomb Pie blinked still holding his controller. "But ain't there supposed to be credits? Or somethin' tellin' us what happened after?"

Pinkie examined the game's box as her foals all looked at her. It turned out there was a third disc in the back. "...Looks like their princess is in another castle..." she said, slowly picking it up and inserting it in the console.

They looked at her adopted mother confused.

"I'll explain later." 'Twilight...good luck.'