The next five hours were gut wrenching for Havoc. He had killed, maimed and injured many in the war, but he often did it and continued fighting, never looking back. This time he had no option but watch the results of the fight between Discord and the humans, if what Discord had done with them could be called fighting. Nearly a hundred humans had attacked Discord, and he had played with them like a toddler who can’t control his strength and ends up breaking his toys. The first human they found was Daniel Garino, the skeleton. His bones had been turned into several different materials, many of them too weak or brittle, so he had collapsed and couldn’t move without feeling pain. He had been luckier than most others. Some of them had been brainwashed into fighting each other to the death. Others had been turned into strange creatures. A few had been maimed or outright killed. Havoc even found one who was stuck in a time loop, repeating the moment when he painfully broke a leg over and over and over again.

The damage caused by Tirek paled in comparison, as he had only killed a few guards who had been brave or fool enough to insult him after their magic was taken. Most of the ponies were fine, save for the missing magic and cutie mark part. It seemed like Tirek wanted to keep as many of them alive as possible so he could rule over them or something along those lines. Fortunately, neither Tirek nor Discord had paid any attention to the dozens of diamond dogs who had moved to Canterlot over the last year. Havoc soon found himself organising them, making sure each of them was helping.

“Ugh, is that what I think it is?” Knightbane muttered, drawing Havoc’s attention to a fire that was making a lot of black and acrid smoke.

“Shit, it’s Plastic Pinocchio,” Havoc added as he made a fire extinguisher appear to put out the fire.

Most of Plastic Pinocchio’s body had turned into a black puddle, but his head was mostly intact. His mouth suddenly opened, surprising both humans, and large quantities of white smoke came out of it. Havoc felt shivers all over his body as the smoke continued to exit the remains of Plastic Pinocchio’s body, and a quick glance confirmed that Screwball and Knightbane were feeling the same. After ten seconds, Plastic Pinocchio’s face crumbled into dust as the small cloud turned into a human face that quickly blinked and licked until it faded completely.

“That was weird, even by our standards,” Screwball said.

“Let’s just forget it ever happened,” Knightbane added.

“Agreed.”

A huge shockwave drew their attention, just in time to see a massive mushroom shaped cloud in the distance.

“Looks like the final fight is taking place,” Screwball said.

“Yup.”

“Do you want to see it?”

“Hell yeah!” Havoc exclaimed.

“Wait, what about all the ponies who still need help?” Knightbane asked.

“I think there’ll be more ponies needing our help where the MASSIVE MAGIC EXPLOSIONS are taking place! Now let’s go before we miss it!”

“... Alright you’ve convinced me!”

Using all the magic he had gathered from the chaos that had taken over Canterlot, Havoc made a huge catapult appear and teleported himself and the other two to its bucket. The catapult propelled them with a force that should have killed them instantly. But, luckily for them, chaos magic’s tendency towards cartoon physics saved their asses. In just under ten seconds they landed on a barren land near Ponyville, just in time to see Twilight Sparkle being thrown by Tirek’s magic towards a mountain in the distance.

“Wow! So that’s where the princesses put their magic!”

Tirek, who had grown at least twice as big as he was when he curbstomped Havoc, Draken and Knightbane, then jumped, his empowered muscles propelling them towards Twilight’s location.

“HOLY SHIT!”

“We are going to die,” Screwball muttered.

The three of them watched the fight, cheering whenever Twilight landed a hit on Tirek. To their disappointment, the exchange of insanely powerful magical attacks was quite short, with Tirek using Twilight’s friends as hostages so she would give him her magic. As soon as he stole the magic of alicorns from Twilight Sparkle, he grew larger than any other creature Havoc had faced before. He dwarfed even Abaddon, the humongous black dragon he faced during Aio’s last stand. The element bearers and Discord, who seemed to have also been drained by Tirek, could do nothing while Tirek tested his new powers on a nearby forest.

“We are so going to die.”

“I’m starting to feel worried about this,” Havoc admitted. “If Tirek was strong enough to steal Discord’s magic BEFORE he took the alicorn magic, we’re on a whole new level of fucked. Like, look at the magic attacks they threw each other, it looks like Dragon Ball here, and we’re the Yamchas. We are the Yamchas, Knightbane, and we just lost Goku Sparkle.”

“Everything will turn out fine, just wait,” Knightbane said.

“We are going to die so fucking much,” Screwball muttered.

For the next minutes, Tirek roamed around, blasting trees and stuff with his insane power. “How long is he going to keep doing that?” Screwball asked.

“At least he’s not blasting people.”

“Yet,” a new voice said.

The three of them turned and found a female draconequus standing a few meters away. “Disharmony,” Havoc muttered, recognising her even though her body parts didn’t match the ones she had the last time they met.

“Hey! You’re not supposed to be here!” Screwball said.

“Discord was dumb enough to lose his powers to that beast, who’s going to stop me from talking to my champion now, you? Or maybe you?” she added, looking at Knightbane. “Now that would be rich. Now, leave us alone, I want to speak with him in private.”

“Do as she says, you don’t want to get on her bad side,” Havoc said.

“What do you want?” he asked when Screwball and Knightbane were out of earshot.

“I told you we’d meet again, and this is a very good moment. I’ve been thinking about this game, us and everything in between for the last few weeks.”

“But it’s only been-”

“Time works differently in the Nexus,” she said, cutting him. “Now, it’s not often that I get a chance to speak to you, not since Discord put that ugly horn on your head to keep me out of your mind. I have realized that I’ve been a total bitch. You’ve been doing well on your own, all things considered. You didn’t get yourself killed, fought in a war, earned a lot of renown and respect. All the others are jealous of me because of how fast you’re climbing ranks. You did way worse when all you could think of was the terrible, terrible things I’d do to you when you died, so it seems that positive reinforcement works better for you than threats and punishment.”

“What?”

“Yes, Martin,” she said, placing her hands on his shoulders and looking at him in the eye. “I can be merciful if I want to. Keep up the good work and you’ll be properly rewarded when this is over. I’ve realized that being mad at you and punishing you for failing is a waste of my time.”

“I… I don’t know what to say… Thank you?”

“Now, I should probably leave. Tirek has grown ridiculously powerful, maybe enough to use this projection of my thoughts as a waypoint to reach the Nexus and steal all the magic there, destroying all that exists. The sooner I leave, the better. One last thing before I leave,“ she said, suddenly grinning like a devious kid. “The Game will end as soon as a piece kills a player, and that piece will be the winner. That reminds me, you did well killing Tirek’s piece, else he would have made him kill one of the defenseless alicorns to win the game and become one the strongest beings in the universe. But back to the point at hand… Isn’t it convenient that Discord, who is a player and has betrayed all of you, is laying powerless right over there?”

“Tempting, but I thought you wanted to get back at him with your own hands?”

“Honey, at this point I don’t care how it happens as long as he dies,” she said, her body phasing out of reality. “And having my piece strike him down is almost as good as doing it myself.”

“What did she say?!” Screwball asked, sprinting towards him as soon as Disharmony was completely gone.

“Lies and empty promises, I think,” Havoc said, questioning Disharmony’s words. “One thing was true, though.”

“Huh?”

“I can end this right here and now,” Havoc said, his dragonbone hammer appearing in his hands.

“What are you doing?!” Knightbane said when Havoc began to advance towards the main six and Discord.

“I’m going to kill Discord and win the Game. It’s the only way to be sure that she’ll leave me alone.”

“You won’t do that,” Knightbane said, unsheathing his flaming sword. “You’re not the only one who needs to win. I’ll be the one to kill him.”

“You’ll have to get past me first, both of you,” Screwball said, glowing with what little power she still had.

“Why, Screwball?” Havoc asked. “After all he’s done to you, I thought you’d actually help me kill him.”

“When he turned me into a chaos pony he linked my life essence to his. I’ll probably die if he’s killed. I’m not planning to commit suicide anytime soon.”

That gave both of them pause. Gritting his teeth, Knightbane steeled himself. “An innocent’s life is worth the safety of this world, I’m sorry.”

“Fuck that, fuck you,” Havoc cursed. “I couldn’t care less about Discord, but I won’t let you kill Screwball.”

“Havoc, listen to me. I am Celestia’s piece. If I win, she’ll gain the Prize, and become the most powerful being in this world. With that power, nobody will be able to threaten Equestria again. Not monsters like Tirek or the dragons, or bloodthirsty nations like Gem Fido. She won’t allow the losers to take it out on their pieces, so you’ll be safe.”

“I’ve already made my mind. Just give it up, Knightbane. You can’t beat both of us, and you could end up badly harmed or worse if you try..”

“So be it,” he said as his horn shone with a sickly green light. Before Havoc could react, Knightbane’s changeling magic began to take control over him.

“Martin, stop daydreaming!” Knightbane said as he turned into a teen human girl.

“What?” Havoc said, his eyes turning green as he fell under Knightbane’s influence. “I’m sorry Jane! I got distracted..”

“Of all the people in the world, I had to get you for a big brother,” Knightbane said with fake annoyance. “Now, we have to hurry. Discord is going to get away and we’ll never return home if we don’t get him!”

“Eh… Right! Hop on my back and we’ll get this over with once and for all.”

Just as Havoc was about to take off, Screwball got in the way. “Havoc! Snap out of it! That’s not your sister, it’s Knightbane using his changeling magic!”

“What are you talking about?”

“Oh no!” ‘Jane’ exclaimed. “Discord must have taken over her! We can’t let him get away with this, Martin!”

Nodding, Havoc tried to push Screwball away, but she didn’t budge. “Knightbane, I can’t believe you would make such a mistake.”

“What do you mean?”

“You should have hypnotised the stronger one out of us,” she said as she focused her power, turning into her draconequus-like form.

“Martin, don’t let her get close to me! I’ll go after Discord!”

“Are you sure? You’re just a human.”

“He’s lost his powers, I can handle him. But remember, keep a low profile or Tirek will notice us,” he added as he turned back to his original form and flew away.

Havoc stared at Screwball with his green tinted eyes. “Screwball, this is going to hurt me more than it’ll hurt you.”

“Well, duh. I’m going to beat you senseless and then kick Knightbane’s ass. Oh, about that…”

Pointing at Knightbane with her left hoof, Screwball released a fast beam of magic which hit him square in the chest, turning him into a plush toy. “That should give me enough time to beat you.”

Screwball began the fight by breathing fire on Havoc. He blocked it with his dragon wing and advanced on her, trying to hit her with his hammer. She levitated around the attacks while wearing him down with low power lightning attacks, not daring to use magic strong enough to be felt by Tirek over his own massive display of power. Using her smaller size to her advantage, Screwball slipped through Havoc’s attacks all the time, until she found an opening and gouged his eyes out. To her surprise, Havoc’s blood turned into liquid nitrogen as soon as it touched her, freezing her on the spot. Desperate, she tried to heat herself with magic before Havoc could regrow his eyes, but he was faster. Grabbing her neck with both hands, he headbutted her several times until she was near unconscious.

“Stay down, please,” he said, not noticing how the spell she had placed on Knightbane wore off and the changeling flew towards Discord and the mane six, who were currently running towards the Everfree Forest.

“No… Dead...” she muttered, unable to form coherent sentences. “Changeling...”

“What are you talking about?” he asked, Knightbane’s mind control stopping him from realizing what was happening.

Thanks to her improved body, Screwball mostly recovered from the concussion in a few seconds. “Havoc! Think! Your sister has never been in Equestria! You are being fooled by changeling magic! I’m not going to do the magic love thing on you, so you better snap out of it right now!”

Groaning, Havoc dropped Screwball and held his own head with both hands. Finally, he noticed a strange magic that was working on his brain, so he fought it back with his own. When he opened his eyes, they were back to normal. “Fucking Knightbane! I’m going to kill him!”

Noticing the black speck that was Knightbane flying above the Everfree, Havoc teleported in his direction, too enraged to remember about Tirek. Thankfully, Tirek was still too busy blasting trees with his magic and laughing, so he didn’t notice.

Knightbane’s field of vision was suddenly covered in brown fur as Havoc appeared right before him. The impact made Knightbane’s head go through most of Havoc’s torso, but he didn’t particularly care as he dislodged the changeling from his body with both hands.

“How did you break my mind control so fast?!”

“It was shit, some fighting and a quick reality check was all I needed to get over it. Still, you used my love for my little sister towards me,” he said as he ripped Knightbane’s wings off. “You shouldn’t have done that.”

Havoc let Knightbane free, only for him to free fall the thirty meters that separated them from the ground while crying in pain. When Havoc landed besides him, he found that his changeling body had managed to survive the crash without sustaining injuries. Knightbane attacked Havoc with his sword, but without his wings there was little he could do.

“I’ve been thinking about all this Game stuff for the last few weeks, you know?” Havoc said as he avoided most of Knightbane’s attacks and healed the few ones that got through. “Like, there’s so many of us living in Canterlot, in some sort of happy community of borderline autistic humans. But we’re supposed to be fighting each other. I think I have a good understanding of just how this game is played: only one of us wins, either by being the last one alive, killing a god, or doing something similarly epic and world-changing. How is any of that supposed to happen while we tend to our gardens and have BBQ parties in Canterlot? Since I came here, I’ve grown complacent in my power. I have stopped developing myself, and it’s only a matter of time before I find myself at the bottom of the power ladder. It’s taken me too long to see Canterlot for what it is: a safe haven for those who have lost all hope of coming out on top. If Tirek is defeated and everything returns to normal, I’m leaving Canterlot as soon as I can.”

“Why are you telling me all this?” Knightbane said, panting.

“Because the dead can’t talk.”

Havoc allowed Knightbane to stab him in the stomach, and then grabbed his head with his left hand while he tried to pull the weapon out. Since his changeling exoskeleton was too durable for his bare hands, Havoc summoned Infernal Soul with his free hand and prepared to beheaded Knightbane with a swift slash.

“Havoc!” Screwball shouted, stopping him.

“What? I’m in the middle of something here!” he replied as she galloped towards him.

“He’s Celestia’s piece! She’ll fuck you up if you kill him!”

Havoc hesitated, which allowed Knightbane to pull the sword free and use it on Havoc’s hand, forcing him to release his head. Havoc began to heal his wounds, but frowned when he realized that he had almost no magic left inside of him. Worried, he used what was left to heal as best as he could, hoping to be able to beat Knightbane without magic.

Luckily, Knightbane was busy staring at something in the distance, “Hey, what’s that?” he asked as he pointed at the sky.

Havoc and Screwball turned to see what Knightbane was pointing at. A white sphere of rainbow light and magic rose from a cliff near Tirek, with six suspiciously pony-like shadows inside.

“I knew they would save the day,” Knightbane said.

Tirek attacked the sphere with a beam of magic powerful enough to level a city, but it had no effect. Tirek exchanged a few words with the ponies inside the sphere before he was blasted by a magic so powerful that Havoc almost wet himself when he felt it. The magic shrank Tirek, depowering him and making him look old and frail before he disappeared. Then the sphere rose high and exploded similarly to a Sonic Rainboom, the magic stolen by Tirek returning to where it belonged. Havoc roared in delight when the rainbow returned him his magic, fully charging him.

“Now this is more like it! If I have my powers back, Discord has his, too. You lost your chance, Knightbane.”

“Because you stopped me! How many more are going to die before the end?”

“I honestly don’t care,” Havoc replied as he flew away with Screwball floating next to him. “How much did you listen?”

“Most of it,” she replied. “What are you going to do?”

“First, I need to find someone to take over my job at Canterlot. That means going to Gem Fido. Again. If they don’t need me there… I don’t know, there’s a lot of places I have never visited. Maybe go south of Equestria? Everyone who’s been there has nearly died several times, so it can’t be a boring place.”

Suddenly, a rainbow burst from the ground a dozen meters away from them, with a strange item inside of it. The rainbow landed on the other side of Ponyville, and a massive palace shaped like a tree made of crystal grew from it. Surprised, Havoc and Screwball saw the element wielders go inside along with the other three alicorn princesses, Spike and Discord.

“Welp, now is the best time to pack my stuff and leave the country before people start asking me about stuff.”

“No, wait,” Screwball said. “I have to know what’s going to happen to Discord.”

“Fine, let’s find out,” he replied, wondering why Screwball would need him to be around for something she could do on her own.

Havoc and Screwball waited outside until something would happen. After a few minutes, several ponies gathered around the palace and began to sing. “Ugh,” Havoc gagged. “I hate when ponies start singing all of a sudden. Now we’ll have to wait until it’s over.”

When the song stopped, both of them went into the palace and soon found Discord, who was speaking with Celestia while everypony else happily chatted.

“Sir Havoc, I’m glad to see you alive and well,” Celestia said when she noticed him. “I feared for you and your companions when Tirek reached us.”

“Sadly, Draken didn’t make it,” Havoc solemnly said. “In any case, I just came to accompany Screwball.”

“Screwball?” Celestia asked while looking at the strange pony before her. “I don’t think we’ve ever been introduced.”

Screwball bowed. “Princess Celestia, I would like to know what will become of Discord after all of this.”

“Oh, don’t you worry about me,” Discord said, trying to keep a neutral face. “After all this ordeal, I’ve learned my lesson. I was a fool for trusting Tirek instead of my real friends.”

“That’s it? Not even a slap on the wrist after you betrayed everypony?!” she exclaimed, her power turning her into her draconequus form and making everypony shut up and watch in surprise. “Twenty years, Discord! You have been using me for twenty years! You poisoned my mind with your lies and promises, only so I could speed up your release! Then you turned me into this, using mind magic to make me think just how you wanted me to! You thought I wouldn’t realize? I learned how to undo that spell weeks after you put it on me! But you had done your job well, I could undo it but I didn’t because I was still stupid enough to think you were doing it for a good reason. Then you decided to make friends, and suddenly all the promises and the ideas you filled my brain with were null and false! You had the audacity to ask for my forgiveness, and just when I was coming to terms with all of this, you BETRAY ME AGAIN! AND EVERYPONY IS FINE WITH IT!”

Screaming in blind rage, Screwball released all of her magic through her mouth as a torrent of destructive purple energy aimed at Discord. He stopped it with his bare hands, the similarity between their magics creating a resonance that made the whole room vibrate. “Screwball, stop! You will hurt yourself!”

Screwball’s eyes shone with yellow light as she kept on pouring magic. Havoc approached her, and he gasped when he saw blood seeping from her nose, eyes and ears. He tried to stop her, but her overloaded body blasted him away as soon as he touched her. Screwball’s draconequus body began to melt, leaving her pony body behind.

“I can’t use my magic on her!” Discord shouted above her screams. “The resonance will destroy everything around us! Stop her before she kills herself!”

Luna’s horn glowed with her dark blue magic and Screwball fell asleep, her magical onslaught stopping. “Discord, you viper. You promised you wouldn’t create more chaos ponies,” Luna spat.

“Oh, but I didn’t. I created her when I broke free, before I made that promise.”

“And you didn’t consider it necessary to tell us,” Celestia said, her tone dangerously cold.

“I was going to. Eventually.”

“I agree with Screwball,” Havoc said. “I can’t believe you’re letting Discord get off scot free after everything he’s done. None of you have seen Canterlot, you have no idea what he’s done to everyone who tried to stop him. He’s killed at least ten people, and there are dozens who will never recover from what he’s done to them.”

“Pray tell, Havoc. Why would you and… Screwball think that Discord won’t be held accountable for his actions?” Luna asked.

“Wait, what?” Discord said, but his surprise turned into resignation soon enough.

“We’ll deal with that later,” Celestia said. “We must return to Canterlot and assess the damage. Even with all the stolen magic returned to their owners, there is much to do. Sir Havoc, you have earned some rest after your heroic efforts. Take the day off and meet us tomorrow at dawn.”

“Take care of her,” Luna added, looking at Screwball. “With chaos ponies, one never knows how they’ll react to spells such as the one I placed on her.”

The three alicorns and Discord left, leaving a very confused lot behind.

“Talk about a mood-killer, jeez,” Rainbow Dash said.

“So this is the pony you warned us about when we first met,” Twilight said, eyeing Screwball with curiosity. “With everything that happened after that, we never tried to find her.”

“She almost killed me that same day,” Havoc said, smirking at the memories. “I tried to teleport out of the Crystal Empire, but she managed somehow to hijack my teleport while it happened so I would appear before her outside of Ponyville. We fought until we were on the brink of death, but I managed to leave her so weak that she couldn’t finish me off. Instead, she turned me into stone and let me sink in that small lake you ponies go to swim from time to time. I was there for at least a month before the chaos created by all the Mirror Pool clones released me.
The only reason I’m alive is that she had to leave Ponyville in case you placed a spell that could detect her, so there’s that. Now that Discord doesn’t want me dead we’re besties.”

“That’s… Interesting. I would like to know more about chaos ponies, it’s the first time I’ve heard about them.”

“Maybe she’ll tell you when she’s not too busy trying to kill herself. Now, you’re not the only one who’s fought Tirek today, and I was nowhere near his power level when I tried to kill him. So, if you all will excuse me, I’m going to take a very long nap.”

That said, Havoc curled up next to Screwball and promptly fell asleep.