“You know, Mister Bellybird McMafersson the Seventh, there is something cosmically unfair about our situations,” I said, staring at him.

The absurd crack in the veil of Reality stared back, making a grunting noise akin to an annoyed sigh. As further sign of its sentience, it glowed ominously in pulsing waves of red light.

“Yeah, yeah.” I rolled my eyes, grabbing a rogue muffin running the streets and biting into it. Its flesh easily crumbled under my fangs, and the delicious taste of grape touched my forked tongue. “Hmmmm… juicy. Anyway, you’re stuck between dimensions, with me as the only creature able to see or hear you, while I have just tripped on a blade of grass. And eaten a banana muffin.”

Instantly, a mute sound reminiscent of whale cries filled the air, leaving me blinking at the windows around us that were cracking and breaking. The impression I got was that he didn’t care!

“Oh come on, McMaffersson! I’m bleeding!” I raised the wounded limb in the air, showing off the cut that had been created by the blade of grass.

An arc of blood followed my movement, explaining my ire and the throbbing pain that had me rolling on the floor in a childish manner. This rolling went full circle, leading me to collide with a walking pony.

“Hey, Miss,” I greeted her politely. “Can you tell my friend here that a serious injury like this does warrant whining of the first degree?”

That charming grey mare, whose trench coat was sloppily resting on her shoulders, gave me a blank look. “Do you know King Sombra?”

Taken aback, I paused, giving it some thoughts. Had I met the guy? It was hard to tell what’s with the crack in Reality next to me. So, sheepishly, I offered my best apologetic grin. “Huh… you mean, personally? I mean, there was that one time when I thought I saw him, but it was in fact a camel with severe back problems and a dragon sleeping on its head, so I guess it doesn’t really count.”

For a moment, the pony blinked at me. Slowly. Actually, scratch that, she was staring at me with the most neutral face possible and the blinking seemed to be only an aftereffect.

Without a word, she turned around and left.

Screams of abject terror do not count as words, do they?

Ears drooping, I felt my shoulders slouch a little. “Well, there was no need to run away screaming like that…”

But not everyone felt that way.

For the first time in my life, I was given the chance to hear Mister Bellybird McMaffersson the Seventh laugh. In all honesty, he sounded like one of those beach balls, you know… ‘boing boing boing…’.

The thought of my misery amusing my new best friend admittedly made a fire spark in my chest, the actually quite sane realization of my pathetic state stinging harshly.

“Shut. The. Everloving. Pudding. Up!” I hissed. “I had enough trouble with the giant flying fortress made of clouds to tolerate an imaginary friend laughing at me.”

The noise intensified, pulsing in synch with the beat of red light, not unlike a giant bloody heart. That was floating in midair. And apparently was sentient.

I’d say it made me see red, but that was too literal for me to express in thoughts. My pupils shrunk into the thinnest lines, I sent the entire intensity of my anger toward McMaffersson’s hilarity. The fur on my body rose, bathing in the light, making even the gray patches appear blood red.

Blood.

Phantom sensations slid down my throat, the lost impression of that delicious nectar of life that couldn’t be refused. From the neck of mad gods – DISCORDDISCORDDISCORDDISCORDDISCORDDISCORDDIS – to the paws of unpleasant cats, it was the best! In my guts, there was already a growing pit that demanded to be filled, like a curled up dragon-nothing that screeched a song unheard in the pyres of madness!

So, yeah, I was really craving blood now. And an itsy bitsy tiny morsel of flesh too. And organs, those tasted great. Oh, and there was that thing with bones, when they make a sweet sweet ‘crunch’. Mmmmmh…

That sounded like fun. FUN!

“Fun!” I made the word roll on my tongue, grinning. Voices in my head started to chant, one of them sounding surprisingly like Pinkie, about all the glorious things to do here! The bubbles of hilarity started to burst in my brain, while I started stotting around. “Fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun!”

Oh, why hadn’t I done that sooner? Everything really was better with pronking. Pinkie Pie, you endless pool of wisdom and cupcakes!

“Isn’t that right, oh friend of so little compassion?” I twisted around, facing the crack in the mortal planes that had strangely gone silent.

It was still there. There was still this giant line of white in the midair that did nothing but cause all sorts of creatures to look at it and scream in abject terror. That couldn’t have been good for its self-esteem.

Except, it wasn’t really that sort of feeling I got looking at it. There were no winces of sympathy from me, nor the annoyance scratching my nerves like I thought I would get. No, at most, staring at McMacffersson left me with the impression of looking at a colt crossing his legs petulantly over his chest and pouting, just because he couldn’t understand something.

“Oh, McMacffersson, you naïve child of autumn.” My paw went to the entity, passing through it entirely as I tried to pat its head. Figuring he was probably shy, I just went on, taking on a benevolent tone. “You wouldn’t get it if I explained it to you.”

All too suddenly, the edges of McMacfferson dimmed, losing their luminosity in favor of a greying light, that shrunk smaller and smaller. The rays swirled, twisted into a small whirlpool that grew too small to be seen.

With a wet ‘pop’, my newest friend ceased to exist.

For the briefest of moment, I felt the entirety of my being slump down with blackened hopes dashed once more. I was to be alone, right? That was the fate I had given myself, through thoughtlessness and being such a complete ass.

Slowly, I went back on my way. With one more friend lost, I simply didn’t have much to do. The girls would zap the bastard, call it a day and… what?

“I haven’t given this much thought, have I?” I asked a mirror.

The reflection within nodded, then rolled its eyes at the insane guy that would try to talk to an inanimate object, namely me.

Huffing, ignoring the sudden smell of smoke that filled my nostrils, I turned my head left and decided that it was the best direction to follow. And, as my legs carried me forward, I noticed the sparser animation in this area of the town.

It was strange, or so I felt. There were little to no living beings, and just as few non-living beings. One winged frog flew gracefully through the air, chasing a giant mosquito, one that was ridden by an old stallion in a butler uniform.

As they passed me by, a strong gust of air hit my sides, lifting me on my left legs. The world tilted with me, the ground suddenly in an abrupt slope, but with just a flap of my wings, it went back to its normal spot in the universe.

Just another minute in jackass papa’s precious little chaos capital. Eurk.

“Good day to you, sir!” An old raspy voice rang to my ears.

Surprised, I span, intent on seeing the being that had snuck up on me. Except, there wasn’t anything or anyone. The path was deserted for a few buildings worth in length. Thus, the only logical answer was that the butler on the mosquito had greeted me when he was close and the sound only just now decided to exist. How nice of him.

“Happy pumpkin day, sir!” I shouted back.

“Follow your heart!” was the only echo I got in return.

That was too bad. I liked the old guy. He felt like a friend.

Sighing, I trotted back toward the empty zone. There was just something about that place…

The roads were all joined into one big escalator that circled the only building in a five hundred meters radius, which was the model of sanity. Thus my intuition stemmed from elsewhere.

But what could it be? Surely the ominous shadow casted over the street had a link to it all. Maybe. I turned my eyes in the direction opposite to its source.

And saw something that made my heart soar.

Dark clouds floated lazily underneath this beauty of the evil overlord catalogue, occasionally sending bolts of green lightning upward and illuminating the whole thing in a glorious purple light. Spires of obsidian stones, oozing red liquid that emitted the faintest blood-like mist, a general architecture that was as impractical as it was intimidating… The perfect evil lair.

A high-pitched giggle rose from the back of my throat. My limbs were shaking with admiration, small twitches flexing and relaxing all my muscles. I could not fight it any longer, the impulse was oh so strong. I wanted to own that library of doom! The steps would be taken to ensure that I would succeed, starting from the steps that would take me closer to the physical building up till the cliff.

But too suddenly, the grip I had on the edge loosened, with a chunk of rock giving out under my weight. Most of my front half started to tilt forward, and my eyes fell unto the pit of thunderclouds waiting greedily for a victim.

“Whoa nelly!” I yelped, throwing myself backward as quickly as I could.

Pain burst into my backside and my tail, as was normal for flesh hitting solid ground. I took comfort in knowing it could have been a lot worse. Wouldn’t have wanted to fall, right? Falling into the sky sounded so much like not a fun thing. Or didn’t sound like a fun thing.

Plus, what would happen when you hit the ground after falling in the sky?

“Hummmmmmm…” I stroked my chin, letting my mind come up with the fascinating possibilities.

Oh, it would probably cause a complete spatial paradox, resulting in the duplication of the universe where one choice had been different, something that would then be repeated infinitely. And that’s how the multiverse would be born!

Chuckling, I stood up. “First on the list is to enter with the obvious method.”

However, when I looked up toward the magical stairs leading to the castle, I noticed the danger immediately.

“Wait… there’s a door?” I blinked at the hole at the top of the stairs, where one half of a door still hung feebly on its frame. “Ah, that won’t do! That won’t do at all! Who uses doors nowadays? That is such an obvious trap!”

Flapping my wings at the beat of drums in my head, I took off in an uneven, messy flight, with the height stability of a rollercoaster. Thus, the Universe in its entirety shook with shock when the impact with great solid walls of rock blindsided me.

It was my plan all along to crash into a random wall! The pain might have been excruciating, but it remained a necessary suffering for the sake of… whatever I wanted to do here.

Groaning, I pushed myself off the bricks, hating their spherical shapes that made them so awkward to grip. My claws barely sank in between them. It was shaky, but enough to keep me from falling.

Good enough.

“There should be a secret passage here, in this spot I did not even choose,” I muttered, running one of my hooves against the surface. “Probably a massive air vent that is too big to be useful except for sneaking in.”

And because my logic was true, I was rewarded with a satisfying click as my hoof sank into the wall. Seconds later, every brick in front of me disappeared in the blink of an eye. In their places was a gaping hole, filled in all-compassing darkness beyond the first meter, from which came the reassuring soundtrack of a horror movie.

Seeing the perfect opportunity when it was presented to me so clearly, I did not hesitate and threw myself into the secret passage.

“Oh, sweet secret entrance!” I whispered lovingly, stroking the bottom of the aeration conduct with my front hoof.

The cool touch of the metal seemed tailor-made for being as uncomfortable as draconequusly possible. In itself, that would not be very surprising. D did love his clichés, the poor old fart. Ah!

The lingering sensation on my skin gave me a pause. I would be entering the famous something something oak library that Twiley the Spark had lived in for some time. It had to be a great source of knowledge, regardless of affiliations.

“I wonder if they have books that teach you how to be fucking sane again?”

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.

P.S The bearer of the Element of Loyalty has personally sworn to beat up anyone foolish enough to share this information.

A blast of wind threw her off her hooves, with enough strength to send her barreling. Its suddenness was enough to stun her, leaving her gasping for air on the ground. Pain flashed through the side of her head, and a strong ringing deafened all noise in her surroundings.

‘W-what the…?’ She thought confusedly. ‘What just happened?’

The impact had blurred her vision, she could not see beyond a fog of broken colors. Her body rested against a half caved-in wall. Broken planks hung at the top of her field of vision.

“Hay…” She grumbled, pushing herself up. “That hurts…”

She blew back the multicolored strands of her mane away from her eyes. Slowly, her eyesight returned to normal.

And she froze at the sight presented to her.

Fire. There was fire, of a strange shade of green, eating at the rooftops of the town. Pillars of smoke were rising from the epicenter of it, and in-between the shadows and the light, she saw the shape of a tower toppling over.

The ground shook, tremors reaching even her bones as if to tell her that it was truly happening.

Ponyville was burning to the ground.

“No!” She shouted, deploying her wings and shooting through the sky. “Nononononononono! What’s going on?!”

What had happened? Why was the town on fire? What could have done all this?!

From her right, another burst of wind came with an unearthly roar and plucked her out from the air. In panic, plummeting toward the ground at high speeds, she used every ounce of experience and talent she had to make an emergency landing, only to stumble and trip when her legs couldn’t keep up with her speed.

Pain erupted in her forehead and in her limbs, but it dulled the next second, silenced by the adrenaline pumping in her veins. The fur on her neck rose when the rhythmic rumble of two immensely heavy feet grew stronger. The one responsible was coming.

Darkness fell from the sky, covered the street. Her own colors dimmed to a darker shade that the flames didn’t reach, and before she could look, a thunderous voice boomed all around her.

“Ah! And here comes Rainbow ‘I’m-a-cocky-bitch’ Dash!”

The insult was so petty, so… childish, that for a moment the desire to save and avenge her hometown took a back seat.

She had to look up, her eyes had to shoot to the figure looming over her.

A dragon stood tall in all of his reptilian fury, from tail to head, greater than the trees and houses around, his jaws unlocked in a mocking grin. His fangs glistened under the light of the disaster he had caused; green reflects giving him an almost ghostly appearance.

Yet, it was not fear that made her resolve crumble.

There was no mistaken those purples scales, not combined with those brilliant green eyes and frills. The realization made bile rise up her throat, and an uncharacteristic tremor shook her wings and limbs.

“S-Spike…?” She said with some difficulty. “What gives, lil’ guy?”

In no time, he was reeling, throwing his upper body forward, as the force of his shout pushed her back further. “Oh, I WONDER ABOUT THAT!”

She scrambled to her hooves, an instinctive fear reeling in her mind as strongly as the ringing in her ears. Too suddenly, she wanted only to fly away from this threat.

Lightning fast, a large purple claw struck the ground, cutting off her escape route, and she was forced to look upward, toward his figure and the scales on his chest that ripples with every searing breath he exhaled.

“I’ve been used, time and time again by you all, without so much as a word of gratitude sent my way. You ignore me when it is time for the rewards, but sure are quick to call when there’s a mess to clean up! I’m just the butt of the joke, and you of all ponies would know it more than the others, isn’t that right, Rainbow Crash? You just want to make fun of other ponies, rub in their face that you’re naturally talented while slacking off as much as you can, leeching off the hard work of others! To think they call you the Element of Loyalty…”

Her lips curled, and already her wings flickered with indignation. It didn’t matter how big and strong he was at the moment, nopony talked to her like t-!

“And I’m not the only one thinking it,” he said with a softer voice.

She was not given the time to ponder, for another familiar friend shouted from her side. “Where have you been?!”

But the question didn’t ring of relief. Not the relief of finding a friend in the middle of a disaster-zone. Not the relief of seeing her well and alive, as much as it was possible. There had been fury expressed through the words alone.

“Y-you guys…” She called after the five mares assembled.

So close to her, in the shadow of an alley, the five of them had gathered without her notice. When she got to see them clearly, she found herself wishing they had stayed hidden.

Applejack’s eyes couldn’t be seen behind her Stetson, but the trails of tears rolling down her cheeks were clearly visible. Her mouth moved again and again, with only choked sobs coming out, though the one word she was trying to say conveyed already too much anguish. ‘Bloom’, she hissed through the pain, and, as if it was a summon, a delicate white hoof pulled her into a hug. Rarity seemed disheveled, her mane completely out of place, dark lines of make-up smearing her face. A haunted look to her eyes denied any serenity her words were trying to give her friend; her usually pristine coat was now sullied by patches of sooth and ash. Neither had the guts to look at the destruction around them.

Fluttershy, on the contrary, could not stop looking. Her gaze was lifeless, devoid of any warmth, compassion, shyness, anything at all that made her Fluttershy. Both her wings were blackened and covered in cracks. Her hoof was held by Pinkie, whose mane had deflated and hung limply, half burned off her face. There was no joy or energy in her.

A part of her died just witnessing what they had gone through. An even larger part of her fell into agony when her gaze met Twilight’s and she realized…

She realized, through the disdain and the barely constrained tears, that Spike wasn’t the one they blamed.

“Good riddance,” Twilight only said, and one by one, they turned their back on her.

She stared, eyes wide and jaw hanging low. She stared, frozen on the spot, an incredulous voice whispering to her how this could not be, how this could never happen, and yet that voice was so feeble. All five mares were already gone, not even a glimpse of their tail could be seen. They had all left.

Years spent together, all forgotten in the time it took to say a few words. The mad gods hadn’t mattered, nor did the dragons or the desperate saves, not the countless sacrifices, not even her giving up on a shot at her dream in their defense. It had all been swept under the rug.

And Rainbow Dash’s chest started burning with flames hot enough to kill a dragon.

(Against that fire, the Element of Loyalty faltered.)

“How could you do this to me?!” She shouted. “After all the times I’ve saved your rumps, THAT’S how you repay me?! HOW COULD YOU?!”

She paused in the middle of her tirade, her chest heaving equally with lack of air than her pure rage. Already, her mouth was opened for a greater spilling of wounded fuel venom, when her ears picked up a sizzling noise, barely giving her the time to fly away from the fireball that crashed behind her.

Seething, her wings flapping quickly to maintain her airborne, she snarled at the traitor. She snarled at his anger, at playing the victim when he had already taken so much from them all, at being the trigger for this. A nameless, pitch-black emotion surged through her mind, demanded the worst of his fate, and she was only too eager to answer that command.

On reflex, she looked back, half expecting to see AJ, Rarity or Pinkie ready to mindlessly charge into the fray with her. But, of course, there was only an empty spot where she had imagined them to be.

She was alone.

They left her. They went their way and left her alone to die at the hands of a rampaging monster.

Close to her chest, where the Element of Loyalty rested, there was no ruby, but a gem of a sickening gray.

She did not notice.

Her heart pumping with fury, she leaped into the air toward her target: her gigantic dragonic ex-friend. First, she’d rip those emerald eyes of his, tear his wings apart, beat him up until he was blue, LEAVE HIM FOR DEAD…

…And THEN…

Then she would take care of the others…

Are you sure you want to keep reading on? This is not going to be pretty. Hehe… hehehehe… hahahahaha… HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAA! Oh, why am I writing this? You don’t really want to hear it. Well, you don’t have much of a choice now.

A purple hoof stomped next to the head of a pink alicorn.

Purple mist flowed out of green tainted eyes.

And bubbles of black magic grew in preparation of the final blow.

Author's Notes:

Yeah, I have nothing else to say. Sorry.