The following scene was extracted from the official Royal Canterlot records, cannot be distributed outside of the library and its content must not be divulged to outsiders. Offenders will be prosecuted and risk facing punishments reserved for traitors against the crown.

Twilight let out a gasp of horror. The others had varying degree of shock stuck on their faces.

The library had changed, so much that the hint Honest Havoc had given them would have been completely useless had they seen it beforehand. The building had been so radically altered that some pieces of them would have asked that they investigate anyway.

They stared at the twisted unearthed roots dancing through the air, at the brimstone walls that had replaced the calming wooden structure from before, at the crimson stained glasses adoring the library… they stared and bit back an hesitation.

Dark clouds had started to gather under the flying structure, a lake of darkness only occasionally ripped apart when lightning struck the sky above. One such lightning bolt blinded them when it erupted, its loud booming accompanying thunder shaking their resolves.

Twilight’s expression twisted with dismay. Her home had been turned into an ominous miniature castle floating over a veil of shadows. That seriously was going to take a while to clean up.

“Alright, enough gaping, girls! Let’s go!” She rallied them, with an eager nod in response from both Rainbow Dash and Applejack.

The latter was the one to make the first step toward the library. As if that had been a signal, a ray of light shot from the library struck in front of her. The mare’s eyes shrunk as she stared at the solid blade of light just inches away from her hooves.

“T-that was close,” she muttered, kicking the thing that had made her heart go crazy.

As her hooves hit the ray, it twisted, caving in. Before she could let out a satisfied noise though, the ray bent underneath her. Squarely, very stiffly, it bent, again and again, repeatedly, from them to the castle.

The mares exchanged a glance at the sight of a staircase seemingly appearing solely at their conveniences. Doubts were melting like snow under the sun in such circumstances.

With no other choices, they climbed the steps one at a time, each friend watching the other’s back, waiting for the other shoe to drop. They felt vaguely ill, simply anticipating the madness that would surely fall on their heads.

Against all odds though, while their progression was slow, they made it to the entrance of the library. They were, however, slightly taken aback by what was before their eyes.

Right on the door, between the two stone cow, was a warning sign written in bright yellow.

‘Abandon all hope, ye who enters here.’

“No, seriously?” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “Who writes that on their doorstep? You’d have to be a total egghead to even get the reference, let alone think that was cool!”

Inexplicably, the bearer of the Element of Magic felt the desire to whistle innocently. Luckily for her, none of her friends happened to be looking in her general direction or they would have seen the luminescent blush coloring her cheeks.

No, their attention was more focused on the few words at the very bottom of the warning sign.

‘P.S. Bring ice cream with you.’

Upon reading those words, Pinkie broke into a tearful scream. “But we’re all out at SugarCube Corner! The pony delivering messed it up!”

“There, there.” Fluttershy quickly went to her, patting her back in an attempt to sooth her friend’s torment.

“Okay, can we please get on with saving the world?” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “This is really getting tedious.”

Twilight turned, finding herself guiltily agreeing with her cyan friend. “Right away-”

She was cut off by a loud banging noise, as the door caved in under the pressure of two orange legs.

“Problem. Solved.” The cowpony grunted through gritted teeth, heading inside first.

Her remaining friends took a second to exchange meaningful glances. Of them, it was Rainbow Dash that once more opted to break the silence befalling them.

“Is it just me or AJ is really not in the mood?” The mare asked, surprisingly uncomfortable with this turn of event.

“Rainbow, darling, are you really that blind?” Rarity shook her head, incredulous that her friend lacked so much perception. “Of course she is in a mood; both her siblings are completely under Discord’s thrall.”

“Just asking,” Rainbow said to defend herself, shrugging.

“ARE YE COMING?!”

Almost jumping out of their skins, the bearers of the Elements of Harmony ran inside, after their friend.

The sight presented to them was plain humbling.

The orange mare waited, impatiently tapping one of her hooves against the ground, completely indifferent to the extraordinary new appearance of the library.

They collectively stretched their necks backward to take in the whole gigantesque cave they were in. Ornamented with hundreds and thousands of the bloodiest rubies, its walls ran up farther than they could distinguish. Faintly, they could make out a small white light at the very center of the ceiling, if such a thing there was in this place.

“W-whoa…”

In a trance, the mares took a few more steps inside, occasionally tripping over the stray gems or pieces of obsidian. Darker than black, the cave seemed to slowly absorb all light. The sensation was… as disturbing as it seemed, comforting. If the darkness wanted to take them now and forever, then perhaps… they wouldn’t…

“Y’all lucky there ain’t flies in here.”

The sound of their friend’s voice brought them back to their senses.

“H-how are you not affected by this?”

“By what?” Her eyes narrowed, giving off the impression of being quite ticked off. “This place is just an annoying bunch of root for us to pull out to get to the rattlesnake and beat the tar out of him.”

None of them could reply to the farmer’s question though, as the entire cave shook.

The mares felt the ground tremble under their hooves and soon, all six of them had fallen on the hard ground. The vibrations were so strong they felt them resonate with their entire beings. Lifting their eyes to the hidden sky, they became witness of a terrifying sight.

They heard slithering, cracking and breaking, from the rocks and the earth, from the unending dome, as clouds and clouds of dust erupted from the sides of the cave. Their blood froze in their veins, when they realized with horror that something had been asleep underneath the stone.

Entire sections of the cave fell off, boulders the size of a house falling close to the now petrified mares. Through the now broken walls, they could see hints of red more vivid than even the rubies littering the floor.

Rarity felt ill when she made the connection, and so did the others as they identified the creature whose slumber had been disturbed.

Twilight Sparkle would distinctively remember classifying that beast in a different category than her little assistant. Her mind simply refused the association between her Spike and that foul creature. Ancient? Yes, but also carrying an air of arrogance and terrible desires that seeped and crawled under the skin.

And finally, they were spotted. For a moment, it seemed as if nothing would happen, but, just as Twilight was about to let out a sigh of relief, a malevolent light appeared in the beast’s eyes. With movements so large they seemed almost ridiculous, the dragon’s head lowered to a closer level, enough for them to make out details.

It opened the deep chiasm one would mistakenly qualify as a mouth, exhaled air hot as the flames of the Princess’ sun, and, with a rumble of apocalypse, it spoke. “Did you bring ice cream?”

…

One acute observation might reveal that as the exact second Applejack’s blood vessels exploded from pure fury.

“No, we didn’t! NOW OUT OF OUR WAY!”

Unable to think rationally, the mare dove headfirst into what she thought would be battle, foolishly.

A light built up at the back of the monster’s throat.

Then, the world disappeared into a blinding light.

“APPLEJACK!”

The following scene has not been recorded in any shape or form. You should not know this.

It was dark.

Her body felt warm. A weight was making her movements harder.

Why?

She did not understand. Where was she? W-what had happened?

She could hear voices; muffled, distorted voices from afar. They felt… familiar.

The voice then got louder, more distinct and Applejack could already identify its owner. Sounds of scrambling and hoofsteps alerted her to the coming visitor.

“Sis? Ya awake?”

It made her heart skip a beat.

W-was it… p-p-possible? Could it actually be real?

She wanted it to.

Unnoticed by the mare, the golden necklace she was wearing seemed to lose some luster. Its glow weakened.

“Applebloom?” Applejack jumped out of bed, dashing straight for the door of her room and throwing it open.

There she was, her precious lil’ sis, staring at her with wide confused eyes. “Are ye okay, Applejack?

The poor filly was crushed into a hug. “Now, Ah am…”

“Huh… Sis?” Applebloom blinked. “What’s wrong?”

“Noth-” She caught herself before telling such a bold faced lie, even if it would have been so much easier to just…lie. “What happened here?”

The yellow filly blinked. “What d’ye mean, Sis?”

“Ah was fightin’ that no-good Dissie when Ah got knocked-out.” She placed her hooves over her forehead, feeling a bit of a headache coming. “Ah could have sworn t’was not over yet.”

Applebloom giggled. “Whoa, ye’ve been sleeping like a log, Sis. Didja have a bad dream? Yer friends finished off Discord with yer help yesterday.”

That… that was what she remembered… (She did not notice the necklace around her neck, losing its coloration with each passing second.) So they had beaten Discord after all? Great, that lying fancy smanchy snake had gotten its just desert after all.

Why didn’t it feel quite right? She couldn’t put her hooves on it.

“Aren’t ye going to come down for lunch?”

Applejack blinked. Her sister was waiting for her in her doorway, half posed to leave by herself already.

She let her kid sister guide her. She just followed in a daze, into the kitchen from where a few noises of hooves against the floor could be heard.

Applebloom entered casually, strutting inside without a care in the world, listening to her stomach. Her sister on the other hand...

She couldn't fathom her reaction if it... if everypony wasn't back to normal...

With a grimace of fear, Applejack peaked inside.

There he was, carrying Granny’s heavy cauldron in his mouth like it weight a feather. Each movement was deceptively slow, hiding care and a gentle touch. His figure obscured the light from the windows, highlighting his form, but not obscuring the shade of his fur.

Red.

“Big Mac!” The mare shouted, hurrying to her brother’s side, and, as soon as he was within reach, pull him into a bone crushing hug.

The red stallion looked a little uncertain at the sudden display of affection. “AJ?”

“Ah, let it be, big brother.” Applebloom shrugged, taking her seat at the table. “She’s been like that with me too.”

“Can’t a sister be glad to have her siblings back?” Applejack asked sullenly, though the effect was upset by her tears of joy.

She heard a low rumble, building up from her brother’s chest. He chuckled. “Course you can, AJ.”

His leg shifted, finding her back and bringing her closer into a warm embrace.

“Welcome back.”

Ponyville! It was back! The streets weren’t carrying any nonsensical shmuck like wingless birds or rotating clothes that dried up washing machines. They were just plain normal now! She was so happy she thought she could burst in tears on the spot.
E-everything was just like it was before.

But a strange sight caught her eyes.

‘That’s a joke…’ The mare thought. ‘And in poor taste too.’

Over there, right by the town’s market, there was a structure projecting a looming shadow over the plaza. She had never seen it before, barely heard rumors of it still being stored somewhere underneath the town hall on Nightmare Night.

Gallows. And there was something hanging by the rope.

Sweet mother of Celestia… had the townsfolk gone mad?

…Well, had they forgotten to take that down? Sure, there had to be lots of damage to repair everywhere, but gallows seemed to be the sort of thing that had to be high on your priority list. A foal could come by at any given time!

Something akin to a fire lit up in her chest, making her blood boil. Face crunched up, she walked up to the structure with a determined stomp. She was going to take that down herself and nopony would stop her.

A blur of colors went past her, almost running into her legs.

“Come on!” A high pitched grating voice racked her nerves, coming from a small unicorn colt.

“Yeah, it’s really weird!” The other one shouted, going after his friend to catch up.

Snips and Snails were heading straight toward that Celestia-forsaken thing.

“Hey! Get back here, boys! Th’ain’t the sorta things lil’ colts should see!”

“Aaaah, she’s onto us, Snails!” Snips panicked, accelerating.

The colts did not have a chance. She stopped in front of them, barring the way to that thing with her own body.

“Youngings like you two shouldn’t be lookin’ at that stuff!” She chastised.

The duo blinked dumbly, eyes wide and focused elsewhere. Not on her, but behind her.

It was only a reflex, she had actually meant to stand on her hind legs, front legs spread wide enough to block the morbid view. Except the strangeness of it all had already attracted her curiosity. So she glanced behind her.

Applejack wasn’t prepared for that.

Her blood froze in her veins. Her body seemed filled with solid ice. She stared at the gallows with horror. It was no puppet hanging from that rope. It was a real, solid corpse.

And one recognizable amongst them all.

Nopony could imitate that body, those mismatched unfitting, uncanny body parts stitched to a stallion’s body... except maybe his father himself.

The sight shook her to the core.

A part of her, one she was horrified to discover she had, could only think ‘Good riddance’. That alone almost drove her to tears. To find out she was such a horrible pony? It would have been enough for her to lie to herself.

The rest of her though was positively filled with dismay and repulsion. She had never seen… well, not a dead body because that, she had seen it before… no, she just never saw the remains of pony, dangled over the plaza for all the ponies to see, a grotesque spectacle for the sick of mind. She was close enough to notice details of horror. A monstrous spectacle… enough to make her sick…

His tongue, elongated and forked, was lying against the side of his face. It seemed to be missing pieces… the ending looked to be hanging by a thread… a bloody thread…

Patches of fur have been burnt off, charred and giving off the smell of ashes. Others looked damp, sticking to his body and suspiciously of a darker red than the rest of his being.

Still, the worse was the part that was the hardest to see.

His eyes, oh Celestia, his eyes! They had rolled over, so their golden irises were only half visible, but they were so bloodshot… A creepy sensation of vulnerability washed over her, as if that thing was watching, even beyond death.

“Whoa, Snips, that thing is really creepy!”

That childish voice, juxtaposed to that grotesque situation, made Applejack’ s head spin. She had to be in another dimension, another world!

(The Element of Honesty shone brighter…)

“Yeah, I’m glad it’s dead!” Snips nodded, kicking a rock toward the corpse. “Now Discord won’t be freed anymore!”

(The artifact turned grey.)

She barely heard the colts as they went on, rambling about things so meaningless to her.

That thing had released Discord… it had unleashed a plague upon their world, for no reason, and almost destroyed her entire life. It was just… right…

A strange numbness started to climb her legs. For some reason, it escaped her notice. It just didn’t happen.

She let her curiosity take her to the gallows, toward the small wooden sign planted in front of it. The message it carried chilled her to the bones.

Here remains the body of the monster that unleashed Discord upon this world, as he stands executed by the bearers of the Elements of Harmony, per authority of the Princesses. May his corpse serves as a reminder of ponykind’s triumph over Disharmony.

Applejack felt as if a bucket of cold water had been dumped over her head. W-what was that? They had killed that thing? ‘Honest Havoc.’ Her friends? They had done that to it? ‘Him...’ That was just a lie!

She heard her own voice mock her. ‘Yet it was fine when it was just a fact of life, right, me?’

“Not the same!” The mare shouted, ignoring the strange looks she started getting from passerby. “The girls wouldn’t do that! It’s not them!”

The voice replied again, but with each word, it grew less like hers. ‘It’s what they had to do to save Equestria. It’s what you did to save your family. And you did. They’re back and you have what you wanted!’

She lost sensation around her back and her chest. Her words no longer carried any weight. “It’s… a lie…”

‘Oh, it IS a lie, my dear Applejack. The one you want to believe so badly.’ She didn’t laugh like that, did she? ‘And guess what? YOU DO!’

Then everything turns black.