Cross-examinations were required for the reconstruction of this scene. Three scribes admitted an incapacity to follow the bizarre recollection of one of the witnesses and subsequently quit their jobs. If you cannot appreciate their sacrifices and mine by keeping your mouths shut… You… you… YOU’LL RUE THE DAY HE WAS EVER BORN!

A magnificent piece of jewelry floated over the analytical eyes of a white unicorn. Though she did seem quite fond of the artistry, of the metalwork and the gems, her smile expressed but one thing.

Hers. (Greed) It was hers. (Greedy) Did she not deserve the very best of it all? (The greediest of all)

Ah! Was it even worth asking that question? Of course she did, and those that thought otherwise would understand her fury. She wanted it ALL, and would not stop before it was all hers.

Laughing, the bearer of the Element of Generosity threw herself in a pile of gold and precious gems, completely ignoring the stabs of pain that plagued her body then. She was queen, she had it all, ALL!

Oh no, no, that was not enough. She needed to have more. And the thought would have made her giggle, had it not been for a sound she had not expected to hear.

Percussions.

From some spot she could not see behind the mountains of gold, gems and jewels, somepony had to be beating up drums. In her treasure room, that just so happened to be hidden in another dimension through a series of complex identification and warping spells.

The concept struck her as so out of place it gave her a pause from her greedy thoughts. That small hesitation was enough for her to hear the rising, smooth, tenor voice of a stallion. His was a song of celebration and happiness. All to the same repeating rhythm of drums.

To the first beat was added another, though one more fitting what she would call an ‘espionage’ play, like the one her little sister had tried creating. More puzzling was the fact that this one seemed sung by a little filly, precisely. The beat was rhythmic and rapidly approaching a crescendo, to which an old stallion added his voice.

And it did not stop! The songs kept piling on one another, echoing from every pipe and every corner of the treasure room, into something of a bizarre concert! The notes added themselves together, came in contradiction and the voices would not stop, until finally… there was a moment of almost silence… with only a single pony humming softly.

~ …ake yourself belieeeeeve! ~

‘Above!’ she thought, and looked up on the spot.

Her pupils shrunk in shock.

“TADAAAAAAAAH!” A bizarre being shouted, stretching his wings and forelegs wide. Then, in one fell swoop, dropped down from the ventilation system, onto the golden floor.

He seemed proud of his entrance, so to speak, as his mouth was twisted into a grin that showed all his fangs. For the shortest time, the corrupted mare hesitated in front of that mouth that looked like it belonged to a dragon. But already the pangs of envy and desire clouded her mind. And no longer did she care about the mismatched wings and the flicking lion tail, or the reptilian eyes. She only cared about what was hers.

“What are you doing here?”

He ignored her, suddenly taken aback by the majesty of her treasure. “Shiny!”

A spike of protectiveness went through her mind and soul at the thought of anything else trying to depart with what was hers. “Don’t you dare!” she shrieked, a blast of magic flaring from her horn and hitting the thing straight on its muzzle.

The blast pushed him back with a whiney yelp, and it took it a moment to get back in a normal non-twisted position. Then, he started acting up even more, in ways not quite expected. He licked his lips, opening and closing his mouth quickly, and clicked his tongue pensively. Not what she thought would happen. “That was kinda blue.”

Slowly, Rarity came to the realization that this thing was stretching her sanity in ways not dissimilar to Pinkie Pie – why was her chest suddenly painful? – and that she could not let it play its games. Scrunching her nose, she talked as if swallowing a bitter pill. “Who… are you?”

He took no note to her qualms; he just scratched the back of his head sheepishly, chuckling while a blush spread across his face. “That’s easy. I’m a saiyan!”

Rarity blinked, unable to process what that declaration was supposed to mean.

So did the [censored]. Then, quite suddenly, he half-lunged, his front legs lifted in a moment for patience. “No… wait! I meant to say that I’m insane.”

Rarity blinked again, though her eyes started to narrow.

“There! That makes more sense.” He chuckled. “Can you imagine? I’d have sprouted yellow hair and turn into a giant monkey looking at the full moon.”

The idea seemed indeed amusing, to him to say the least. More than a little in fact, and his barrel swelled with laughter greater and greater by the second.

The horrid noise broke Reality a little.

She shot him a look, so full of disgust that he shivered.

--

Her cold icy gray eyes went over my form, passing a silent judgment that made me unexpectedly nervous. There was just something about the way the gray of her fur and her mane and her eyes made it all as fun as being a kid caught stealing cookies. But there were not even hints of affection in there, as you would expect a guardian to feel toward their child, just the disdain and the disgust that comes with being confronted with a particularly unpleasant person. Bubbles of fierce shyness exploded in my brain, spreading as a blush over my face while she was grayingly deciding if I was worth her gray time.

…Rarity was definitely gray all over.

…Oh… noooooo…

A little high-pitched squeak left my mouth.

“Please don’t be mean? I have the willpower of a teapot. And a non-talking one to boot. If you know what a boot is. Do you? Because it’s a thing you put on your feet, or maybe hooves here, though paw also works somewhat for me. Then again, I was also told by a really charming workshop with a most elegant hat that it would be a gauntlet if I were to put something on my paw. So you get what a boot is, right? Huh, well, okay, let me start over-”

A magical aura sealed my lips shut, and four worlds cried out in relief and were suddenly silenced.

“Humph, I suppose you would make a decent accessory,” she claimed with a roll of her eyes.

‘Little old me? An accessory? But I was so dashing,’ I thought with a smidge of pride. ‘A carpet is a better thing! I must tell her!’

So, opening my mouth, I prepared to tell her exactly why I was much better suited for decorative purposes than those of a warrior. The wind was beneath my sails, I could feel it. It would be a speech for the ages!

“Gargle!”

‘Oh I’m just so eloquent…’

“Aren’t you eloquent?” she replied dryly.

“You’re a mind reader!” I gasped.

A pang of fear struck me when her voice dropped another pitch and a growl forced itself out of her throat. My ears flattened against my skull; already I was falling on my rump with my front legs raised and shouting “Sorry!” as loudly as possible. I had the intimate conviction that a discorded Rarity would still want to punch my face in, but nothing came of it. A gigantic speaker appeared out of nowhere in a cloud of puff pastry and confetti, right between us.

And if before I thought I knew horror, nothing prepared me to seeing an unfazed Rarity covered in pink ice cream.

Oh for the love of a random fruit!

Then, while the need to chastise myself for my profanity became great, an old man started to blast from the speakers. Still, why did the voice seem confused?

“Wait… Honest... What are you doing here?”

‘Oh, that’s why.’

“I was playing spy, then I fell,” I said, then leaned forward to whisper, “because of fridges and astral alignments.”

“Oh, spoken like a nice little madthing. And things are not going as planned, that’s fantastic! I may grow fond of you yet, [censored].”

“Awww,” I cooed. “You’re just trying to make me vomit.”

“I assure you, boy, that I have no intent to see the content of your secondary stomach.”

“EXCUSE ME?” Rarity yelled, trotting up to the speakers. “Can I know why you seem to be giving all your attention to somepony else? I’m here, in the room, hellooooooo!”

And for good measures, she bucked the thing once or twice.

“Oh, of course, my little greedy horse.” Discord chuckled on the other end of the line, the same old despicable crap he always pulled. “All in due time. Which should be now.”

There was the sound of someone clearing their throat. Then, a few seconds of silence to create suspense.

…

“I’ve decided that only one of you will be allowed to stay here. The other will have to fall.”

‘Fall?’ I found myself asking.

My legs started to sink into the ground. With a yelp, I jumped back and saw the floor collapse, exactly where my hooves had been before. Already, my wings were spreading wide but a bolt of pain struck my sides as a metallic strap forcefully folded them back.

‘Can’t fly, can’t fly, can’t fly!’

Things started to unravel too quickly. A fissure circled my position, cracking the ground in two. Everything not on my side fell, as if there was no longer anything to support it. At once, piles of gold started to tilt, shriveling in rivers and torrents of precious metal into that gaping pit, while Rarity could only shriek in anger. Precious items and worthless junk alike started to floated, lifted by her telekinesis over the fuming hole that had swallowed the entire room but ourselves. And with the red hue that came from below, and the rising currents of hot air, it felt as if the gates to Tartarus had opened.

My vision blurred, its edges becoming naught but worthless information as every parcel of focus available to me had zoomed around the room, looking for any possible exit. But there were none. Rarity and I were standing on floating rocks that somehow had not joined the rest of the treasure into the burning hole. The claws on my paw were deep in the ground, and it was all I could do not to slip and cry. Every beat of my heart was faster than the last, every pulse of blood in my veins made my sight jumped. It beat on my temples, on my head. My mind started to break under the rising panic.

There had to be a way to get out of here! Surely a random event would help us, like a wizard bringing to life a sixty-five millions years old fossil of a dinosaur to combat zombies! There! T-that should DO THE TRICK, RIGHT?! RIGHT?!

Nothing worked.

All my strength leaving me, my knees buckled and I fell to my sides painfully. “N-no… I… I don’t want to die…” I cried, my voices breaking into sobs.

Then, for the first time since I had met her, Rarity’s eyes shone with a familiar light. In spite of herself, in spite of the discordance in her mind, she moved one hoof in my direction, as if she wanted to comfort me. But… wasn’t that…?

A shiver ran through her fur, like a ripple of pale gray that washed away half of her colors. She jolted, startled, and it seemed her reaction was echoed by a sudden flash of light from the necklace around her neck. Understanding dawning on her, Rarity’s glance went to the pit below, then back to me.

“Y-you took care of Sweetie Belle, didn’t you?” she asked, her voice so decidedly fragile, unlike anything I’d heard before. “Even with the world this way, you did it, right?”

It surprised me. Just a while ago, she wanted to beat me up, and after that she thought I would be dashing placed on somepony’s mane – not that I wouldn’t be, of course, but still! Now, there was almost a supplication.

Without knowing why, I nodded.

For a second, Rarity remained silent, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. It seemed as if the mortal danger we were in had disappeared, for in that moment she commanded my whole attention. When finally she looked back, her voice was of steel.

“Tell them…” Her eyes had never shone with so much determination before. “For the love of Celestia, swear you will tell them how much I love them all!”

My mind came up with a blank. I didn’t understand what she had said. It didn’t register! She was just there, with her magic around the Element on her neck, and I could just stare with no idea of what was happening!

“What are you doing…?”

“Taking somepony’s life?” she repeated, incredulous. “It wouldn’t be very generous now…”

As if some outer influence had reign in my deranged mind, things clicked into place.

“I’ll regret this splendid jewelry, but it’s not something we can afford to lose.” She flickered her head to the side, and her mane followed. With a small shaking, her hoof ventilated her face. “Catch!”

A blue light went through the distance over the pit.

There was a clink of metal as a golden necklace clattered to my hooves, and I understood. Eye widening, I stared at the Element of Generosity given to me. Everything clicked, and a monstrous beast started to claw at my insides, making me dizzy, making the world spin. I would have never thought that relief could be such a horrible thing.

But through the haze, I picked up on the sound of hooves against granite, only for it to die down as fast as it had appeared. My head snapping up, I saw her standing at the edge.

Her eyes had taken on a humid glint, and the muscles on her neck were tensed. “T-tell them…”

And she stepped over the edge, falling, falling, falling, her mane started to swirl and batted her face, she’s falling, she’s going to die! She wasn’t even using magic! No, no, no, not Rarity, not like this, I didn’t want-! , her eyes closed, with pearling tears glinting in the red light of the molting lava. GOD NO!

“RARITY!” I shouted as I jumped over the edge, my binds breaking.

But I know I didn’t reach her. The light blinded me before that.

--

Dear readers, it always come back to this with you, doesn’t it? DON’T SPREAD THE WORDS!

Her breathing was heavy, a series of guttural pants that came as misty as the magic that came from the corner of her eyes. Her hooves burned, with pain and numbness from repeated contact with the body beneath her. She could not think clearly.

All she knew was the BITCH was trapped underneath her, black streams of magic holding her in place. Her enemy could not move or speak. She didn’t want to hear anything that could be said. It was time for her to show the world what happened when you messed with Twilight Sparkle’s loved ones.

E-even if you were one of those same precious persons…

Ah! She shook her head, grunting. Why was she thinking about that now? Clearly, someBITCH had made her choice, there was nothing more to be said. Time for payback!

Yet her mind supplied her with another memory.

There had been another time… another moment in time when she had had Cadence at her mercy. She remembered dampness, a dark cave and crystals… She remembered the thoughts that had come to her at that time. How it had almost possessed her. But that time…

~Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake…~

The magic around her horn flickered.

~Clap your hooves and do a little shake!~

Frizzled. Shorted out.

“Cadence…”