“Praise the Lady and pass the pamphlets, you slowpokes!” A beautiful and terrible voice boomed through the street.

So, of course, it perked up my interest.

Twisting my neck around, forgetting about the wince of pain and the unenthusiastic reactions of my passengers, I came face to face with an impressive stand like the ones used by merchant ponies.

This one appeared made out of solid gold, with an intrinsic design of scriptures and different solar symbols, reaching a height of three or four meters.

“Whoa… shiney…” I whistled, or tried to. As it turned out, it’s not easy to do with fangs.

I stood still for a moment, taking in the splendid architectural work done there for a simple stand. I wanted to burn it to th-

My thoughts came to an abrupt stop, as horror crawled from the back of my mind.

‘I really need to stop thinking like that. That’s getting a little scaryyyyy.’ I tilted my head at the structure. ‘Even if it would be so much more New Age efficient with fire and pony sacrifice...’

Somehow, that idea made me snort.

“Praise the Lady and chant about her grace!” Somepony repeated, with a more vindictive attitude than before.

“I don’t want to…” Sweetie Belle muttered sullenly.

“It could be fun, Sweetie!” I jumped a bit, almost shaking them off.

With great care, I managed not to, using my wings, but that action hurt like hell.

“Eh…” My breath hitched. “Let’s not try that again, okay?” I said, voice strained.

“Sure. Can we stop doing stuff now?” Scootaloo asked in turn, sounding bored out of her mind.

“Does talking count?” I looked at the fillies with a curious expression. They all looked shocked.

Then they each covered the other two’s mouth.

“Is that a ‘yes’?” I frowned.

They refused to move a muscle.

“We’re not going to get anywhere without good communications, girls!” My lips formed a pout, which was ridiculous considering how much my lower lips hurt at the moment. “Unless the show was wrong, you can’t do telepathy.”

However, the fillies were spared from answering me, as a powerful voice boomed all around us. I swore I saw windows cracked in the distance.

“Who dares not bow to the image of the immortal and ever graceful Celestia?!”

I lifted my paw to scratch my head sheepishly, but the sudden burning pain stopped it short. Instead, I was left staring at the enormous golden thing. “I have to admit I’m not so sure myself.”

“It matters not to this priestess, fool!” Again, the voice rang out of nowhere.

A familiar sense of doom inched toward my guts. Were my imaginary friends coming back from their imaginary graves to avenge their imaginary fiery executions? If so, I sure hoped my backup plan would work.

Blame the cake… The cake is always the mastermind!

Yup, I was safe from their vengeance.

“So… Mika the singer, I presume?”

For a single, the sense of doom disappeared. In fact, a dead silence took place between the golden stand and me. Somehow, it gave me the impression someone or somepony was calling me an idiot.

I chuckled under my breath. ‘Good, the fools shall underestimate me… they'll never see my terrible plot coming.’

“We know not of this… Mika you speak of, but we demand that you bow to the image of Celestia, our sister!”

That got my attention.

“Excuse me?” I called to the empty air, looking around at the sky. “I thought Luna was her only sister…”

That was a mistake on my part. Apparently. It was hard to tell when a gust of wind born from a furious shouting voice was threatening to send you flying. “HOW DARE YOU SPEAK OF THIS ACCURSED NAME?!”

The old me would have called it a miracle I had not been obliterated on the spot. The new and improved me snickered like a hyena, sprayed all over the dirt road, with the weight of four foals keeping me down.

Oooooh, my ribs were killing me.

“Do not laugh, strange creature, and worship the ground Celestia the divine walks on.” The voice ordered again.

“But she’s not walking!” I protested loudly. “She’s lying in a crater, probably in a coma, with nopony to help her!”

Wait…

“Nonsense! The divine Celestia would never fall into a coma! The fact that the sun is still up in the sky is proof enough.”

“Oh geez." A sudden feeling of urgency gripped my heart. "I completely forgot to mention that before, didn’t I?”

“Celestia’s injured?!” Three little fillies screeched in my ears, mouth hanging out with shock.

My face remained frozen in an expression of pain, as the ringing overwhelming my hearing. To add insult to the injury, three pairs of hooves were pushing forcefully on the back of my neck and three adorable faces were invading my field of vision.

“Yes. Wanna go see her and help?”

Instantly, their faces lost all colors and emotions and they fell back between my wings. “Nah.”

“For the last time, you heretic, the divine Celestia cannot be unconscious, as she is perfect in every way.”

Well, that wasn’t wrong, per say, but…

“I remember seeing that.” I looked up, eyes falling on a rather pretty drawing of Princess Luna. “I was kind of wandering where you were when I wasn’t talking to buffalos and clocks, best pony number seven.”

“I am the high priestess of the Order of the Sun, creature,” the figure replied harshly.

“That’s nice.”

“Yes.” Luna’s image nodded, golden face showing a small smile. “As such, I present you a petition to send to the Great and Powerful Celestia so she’ll make it day forever. There is no need for the useless night.”

“That plot rings a bell…” I scratched my chin, lost in thoughts.

“ETERNAL DAY!” Luna shouted, before devolving into evil laugher. “IT SHALL LAST FOREVER!”

“Man, I know I heard this before…” I muttered, looking down.

“APPRECIATE YESTERDAY NIGHT, CITIZENS OF PONYVILLE, FOR IT WAS YOUR LAST! ONLY CELESTIA IS ROYAL ENOUGH FOR YOU!”

“It’s on the tip of my tongue…”

“H-huh…” A sleepy, confused boyish voice reached me from my back. “What’s going on?”

“Oh, Princess Luna is ranting about bringing eternal day.” I shrugged, continuing to ignore the lancing pain any movement caused me. With a last wave to the golden stand, I turned around, going on our merry way. “But before that, you decided to get into Rarity’s boutique where you fell unconscious.”

“…I’m still with you?” Hiding Armor’s voice fell flat, as if terribly disappointed.

“Yup. Happy?” I asked cheerfully.

“I’m not going to answer that,” he deadpanned.

“Who are you?” Sweetie Belle chipped in. “I’ve never seen you before.”

“That’s Hiding Armor, my sidekick!”

“Stop calling me that!” The colt reached forward, before a dull pain erupted at the back of my head. At this point, painkillers would be a nice thing to have. “My name’s Shining Armor.”

“Hi Shiny!” The little unicorn filly greeted him.

“Yeah, that…” Scootaloo shrugged.

“What she said,” Applebloom added.

“Hum… hi…” From the tone of his voice, it was not hard to guess he was blushing like crazy.

“Awwwww, that’s so cute!” I giggled. “It’s like puppy love! Careful, Hiding, Caddy might get jealous.”

“Who’s Caddy?” Sweetie Belle inquired, rather curious. For a second, it seemed as if… well, she was not as indifferent as she had showed me so far.

“His wife!” I said, jumping over a puddle of pink water.

For some reason, I could imagine it, Rarity’s adorable little sister, being unbearably jealous of the best babysitter in the whole wide world. Even the tantrums would be cute. A lively little filly that would open up to the world again.

It… kind of crushed me to hear her next response.

“Meh…” She shrugged.

I froze, staring at the ground.

N-not that this was surprising. O-oh no, I sort of… expected this… I guess… She had been discorded after all.

For the first time in a while, any and all thoughts of smiling, of taking in the irony and the cruelty like the big joke the world was, disappeared. In its stead was a terrible feeling of guilt. Weighting down on my chest just as much as my wounds were crippling my legs, it kept me nailed to this spot.

“Huh… weird guy?” Hiding asked, shifting onto my back, moving through the mass of the three fillies with adorable clumsiness.

‘All my fault…’

“A-are you okay? W-wait, is that blood?!” The colt’s voice cracked, like he was trying to win an award and if I had not been so miserable, I would have given it to him.

“Yeah, he got that when he jumped through the window after you.” Scootaloo replied with a bored voice.

“Quiet!” Applebloom hissed. “Are you trying to get a story-telling Cutie Mark?!”

This was all my fault, right? Those cute little fillies… they were a shadow of their former selves, because of me…

“H-he did?”

Why was I being happy over stupid stuff like giant pillows that smother disobedient gravy boats? W-why did I keep fooling myself?

“Yeah…”

W-what was her name already? Ora- no, not that one… Lemon Glass… that was me… well, the stallion… the father…

Golden Bud.

“That’s…”

That was her name… that filly that had been my daughter. That Discord had killed and brought back, for the sake of his freedom. Would he pay her special attention once his power were back to its full strength?

I could not let that happen.

This time, no tempest or wildfire roared in my chest, demanding his blood.

There was a stone. A petrified piece of sanity imbedded well within my very being.

Some things were just too horrible, insane man or not.

This had to stop.

I might have a faint idea of where to find Discord, but there was at least one thing I had to try first. Reason be damned, this was the least I could do.

Without a word, I turned on my hooves again, almost shaking off the poor foals perked up there. Hiding even stumbled and fell onto my draconic wing.

The leathery skin stretched under his weight, sending waves of pain over his single cry of indignation.

“What now?!” Hiding yelled, finally getting truly fed up with my antics.

“Please bear with me just a little longer,” I asked quietly, eyes focused on the road ahead of us.

Taken aback by my sudden seriousness, the little unicorn closed his mouth and said nothing more.

That was probably a good thing. I needed a lot of focus to keep going. Without the support of an unwell mind and no sense of priority, my brain was taking the full force of my pain. It was enough to hazel my vision. From times to times, I would trip on an irregularity in the street, simply because they seemed to appear at random intervals. Every time this happened, I would seal my lips, lest I let out a pained grunt and consider resting.

But, well, I already knew…

“No rest for the wicked, no peace for the guilty…” I whispered, voice twisting into a scary demoniac sound.

None of the foals in my company bothered to reply. To them, this was getting normal or they simply couldn’t care less. They thrived for nothing and were just apathetic little bundles of flesh. This wasn’t right.

Heck I could get used to a green sky as it started to appear over Ponyville, Celestia knows I could go through a truckload of crap before truly breaking, but this crawled under my skin.

Fortunately, my mind wasn’t quite beyond repair yet. I knew one way… twice before it had worked. For a moment, I had been allowed the experience of a pony’s life, fully expressed through a group. If I could get those fillies to feel that… maybe…

Beyond a façade of cold determination, I smirked. How lucky that I knew just the place for such a purpose.

Alright, as disturbing as that was, I had almost been pulled back into a manic moronic mad state at the sight. T-this was just that incredible. Transfixed, my eyes were locked onto the goal I had given myself. That was the problem.

I could not stop drooling.

Heck, judging from the wet sensation on my fur and my wings, neither could Hiding Armor and the others! Also, EW!

That chocolate stage was just that glorious.

Glittering under the sun, sparkling with savory goodness, the whole thing seemed like the work of angels that had decided to bake.

Pillars of a light brown oozed with a golden substance that filled the air with the most delectable of scent. The scene seemed sturdier, incorporating various mixes of chocolate, its swirling pattern captured the gaze and refused to ever let it go. Intricate, the structure seemed the very image of any sane creature’s most obvious dream.

The buffalos dancing on it in pink tutus kind of ruined the effect though.

Shaking my head, I finally managed to break out of the trance, long enough to join the crowd of hypnotized ponies humming the musical number’s melody.

I could recognize a few, with my anguish growing every time a familiar face could be seen through the crowd…

‘Sorry Berry…’ I averted my gaze, trying to stay focus on the task at hands.

Pushing through the crowd with great difficulties, I managed to make it to the feet of the stage, right below the musicians.

“S-sorry, Sir?” I poked a blue stallion hesitantly, hoping not to get him to flee at the sight of a weird mutant pony.

“Yes?” The pony replied cheerfully, pausing in his next stroke against a violin’s strings all the while taking my appearance in strides. It wasn’t that surprising though, now that I could see the spirals in both his pupils.

“When will their performance end?” I asked, pointing toward the ballet dancers.

“It won’t.”

I rammed my head into the splendid wall of chocolate in front of me.

I should have seen that coming. I really ought to use less logic in my actions.

Time for some good ol’ stupid. I should have no problem dishing that out.

Stretching my front legs, I climbed up on the stage, ignoring the lancing sensation spreading through my limbs and the uncomfortable pull at the fur on my back. Healing magic might come in handy again. I hadn’t looked at that head injury yet, had I?

Meh, I’d do that later.

With some struggles, I managed to stand on the stage, all four foals still in place thanks to a combination of luck and solid jaw power. Ouch.

Staring at the stoned audience, I felt a twinge of nervosity at the expecting looks in their eyes. Collectively, they reminded me of a bunch of sunflowers. Yeah, really. They just turned toward the shiniest thing. Luckily, that wasn’t me.

But the sun had really taken a crappy moment to change position in the sky and illuminate the whole place with the strength of a thousand spotlights.

Doing my best to ignore the burning sensation in my eyes and the bouncing buffalos not too far away, I focused my attention on the zombies that bobbed their heads on a rhythm of triangle and violin.

“H-hello, crazies of Ponyville!” I shouted enthusiastically, almost standing on my hind legs just for the added effect.

“Hi Honest Havoc!” They all replied in unison.

My eyes widened.

Okay… the creepy factor had been tripled.

Mouth dry, I swallowed what little was left of my certitudes and tried to roll with it. “I’ve got a bunch of nice foals to present to you! Wanna meet them?”

As I said that, I tilted my body left, making the Cutie Mark Crusaders and Twilight’s B.B.B.F.F. roll onto the stage.

“YES!” Their creepy hive mind thing was still in effect, at least.

“Sure thing!” I plastered a fake smile on my face and lifted my paw in their direction. “Those three are Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle.”

“HI!”

“Meh.” The fillies shrugged, planting a seed of doubt in my mind.

What if this wasn’t the right answer? What if I was just wasting time that could be used more intelligently?

“A-and this is Prince Shining Armor.” I went on, trying to sound confident.

And because he was such a nice stallion, Shining whelped and tried to hide behind the fillies, making me look like Iron Will.

The corners of my mouth started to hurt, stretched as they were. “Now that the presentations are done, I’d like to sing you ponies a song!”

‘Please, please, please, let this work…’ I begged anything that was willing to listen to make at least this worthwhile.

“Colts and fillies…” I turned to the musicians on stage. “Hit it!”

With a nod, they started playing.

The notes were low and the melody hesitant, expressing the same unease I felt. I couldn’t quite tell whether they were reading my emotions so well or just unable to decide what kind of beat this should have.

Eyes closed, I slowed down my breathing, inhaling and exhaling deeply to calm my maddened heart. I searched for a sensation I had long forgotten, that of the inherent magic within this world.

‘Oh please, let that flyer not be a load of bullshit.’

There was nothing.

I-I couldn’t find it. Was it gone with Discord’s return? Was he powerful enough to destroy this law of the ponies’ world? There certainly hadn’t been a musical number in his episodes…

Rising beyond my control, an abject guilt started to drown my senses. This probably was the only way I could ever get the Cutie Mark Crusaders out of that horrible state of nonbeing.

I… I just wanted them to be back to normal… I wanted them to be good lively fillies again. I wanted to see them go crusading again. N-no, not even that. Just knowing they would go on would be more than enough. I wanted the true Ponyville back, not this pale imitation, so they could have safe fun again. I wanted them to remember.

A fire ignited.

Eyes shot open, I stared ahead at the crowd, waiting patiently for the song to pick up.

My smile became genuine. Standing on my hind legs, I opened my wings, as broken as they could be, disheveled but still smiling.

“Welcome to Ponyville!” I snapped my claws together.

Click. Click.

“It’s a ni-i-ice place to be!”

Click. Click.

The musicians started to pick up the pace.

“Why don’t you come over here and enjoy it with me?” I grinned toward the foals on the stage, motioning for them to join me with my right hoof.

They refused to move, but that much was expected. I would not let this attempt fail so easily.

“Welcome to Ponyville!” I shouted louder, joined by the hypnotized crowd.

“Where all the ponies are CRAZY!” I got down on all four, rapidly moving to the very edge of the stage, grinning and looking more than a little loopy.

“Come on, colts.” I raised my hooves in the air, male ponies standing up in waves at my words. “Come on, fillies!” The mares did the same, cheering loudly. “It is time for you to see-ee-ee-eeeeee!”

Oh dear, I just lost one dancer to the assault of a violent anvil. This really should weird me out more. No time though, gotta keep the crowd entertained… and hope.

“The fun to have in this magical city!”

From the corner of my eyes though, I could see the foals I had been watching over were not quite… uninterested. Of the four, Sweetie Belle seemed the most alert.

Encouraged by this discovery, I felt my grin widen and my singing voices turned mischievous.

“Do you know Ponyville?” I tilted my head at a brown earth pony, who shook his head. “Well, I’ve heard it’s a beautiful place.”

“Do you know Ponyville?” I asked another. “It really seems to be an amusing place.”

“YEAH!” A white muscled pegasus yelled.

“Well, ponies, it’s time you hear about Ponyville too!”

The musician’s beat slowed down almost to a halt, creating a dark atmosphere. My voice even dropped a few octaves, only carrying the most sinister of them.

‘Ponyville was founded by the Apple family or so the legend says,
By a green Apple mare, who got herself out of a pretty bad jam,
From the jaws of the wolves, yes, the great TIMBERWOLVES!’

I reared back, roaring and howling, at once through a miracle of my larynx I’ve never managed to explain.

To my delight, a small squeak came from the discorded foals.

‘But fear not, for the family of the Rich made good to their names,
And the settlement grew… and so many ponies showed up their manes…
That’s how, with the years, Ponyville got its fame!’

The music picked up again, coming closer to a happy melody. In response to that, I started to shake my flanks a bit. It was just infectious!

‘But fear not, for Ponyville is still the most charming, welcoming, heartwarming…
It is the town where Disaster strikes twice and Harmony thrice.
Oh yes, for Ponyville is the most charming- ’

“WELCOMING!” A young voice cut me off.

With a delighted grin, I turned around, seeing a shocked unicorn filly staring at her mouth, agape as her friends could not believe their own ears.

“Sweetie Belle?” Applebloom muttered, unsure.

“I-I…” She looked around, trying to figure out why she had done this.

“Sweetie Belle?” I asked, capturing the foals’ attention. “Would you like to sing with me?”

I offered her a hoof and tried to look as non-threatening as possible, but the filly seemed less than thrilled anyway.

“N-no…” She gulped down nervously, shooting glances at the audience, as if finally realizing there was one. “I’d rather not…”

Normally, that would have sent me spiraling into despair. Except seeing the gray in her mane fade into livelier colors sent all sorts of fuzzy feelings straight into my heart.

Tapping my hooves discreetly onto the stage, I started beating up the rhythm of the song again.

“Are you sure?” I asked, to which she replied with the negative.

The attention of everypony was on her. I could understand her anxiety, not to mention the tremendous peer pressure she must have felt.

“Ponyville is the mooooost…” I hummed, starting the song again, the ponies around feeling the words on the tip of their tongues.

For a second, Sweetie Belle bit her bottom lips.

“Oh it is the mooooost…” I turned to the crowd, leaving the end of the line hanging.

With a slow, deliberate movement of my hips, I playfully bumped into one of the buffalos.

The giant just raised an eyebrow at my behavior, before catching on to my game.

His arms slipped under my chest, gentler than I had expected from such a strong animal, and a brief pressure was followed by a sensation of weightlessness. It lasted only a second, as I blinked and found myself standing on the buffalo’s shoulders.

The position was uncomfortable, at best, but as I stole another glance toward Sweetie Belle, it seemed to me as if her cute eyes were filled with envy.

I sang deliberately slowly, leaving everypony with the natural compulsion to complete the line. “Truly, Ponyville is the mooooost…”

“…fun place in the whole wide world!” Sweetie Belle jumped in unashamedly, running toward another buffalo dancer.

She went from one side of the stage to another in less time than it took me to go insane, her innocent demeanor growing more apparent with every step.

And, as if to reflect that transformation, her coat lost its unnatural state, gray being gradually replaced by pure white fur.

My heart skipped a beat when I realized my idea had succeeded. I even missed half the lyrics she sang, not stopping to breathe or compose herself when the buffalo to her left threw her on his back.

I watched, just as her friends watched with growing interest and increasing liveliness, the rise of that talented filly who would shake her brainwashing with just her own passion and her desire to make the most in life.

She sang about Nightmare Moon and Discord, which, even if she hadn’t quite understood what it had all been about, she knew was so important from her sister’s retelling.

She told the crowd about Hearts and Hooves Day, when stallions and mares play. She chirped about Winter Wrap Up and the Apples’ cider season, the summer vacations and of course, the Summer Sun Celebration.

For a second, the little filly appeared disturbed by the lack of recognition in her audience’s eyes. However, that was too small of a setback when she had so much energy stored within her chubby legs.

“Hey, Mr. Stallion! Those ponies don’t know the same Ponyville we do!” She turned to me with an obviously fake anger.

Eh, the acting classes would come in later.

“Well, we can’t have that, can we?” I smirked, to which she nodded enthusiastically.

“No, Mr. Stallion, because Ponyville is full of fun things to do!”

“Like fending off Parasprites!” I snickered, just imagining Rainbow Dash’s moment of weakness as she fled the swarm.

“Or inventing a cream against mosquito bites!” Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes, a bit annoyed at my nonsensical line.

“It is fun in Ponyville.” I laughed. “Nice and friendly, warm and cozy, cold and frisky, what’s a pony to be?”

“Oh yes, I like Ponyville…” Sweetie stepped forward, bringing about a chorus.

“Yes, I like Ponyville…” I repeated, raising my paw in the air in a mirror image of Sweetie Belle.

“There’s plenty of friends around!” The filly glanced at her awestruck friends.

“Love and tolerance abound!” I thought of another time I had sung like this. I wished it would not stay just a dream…

“Oh Ponyville is the ideal place to find our DES-TI- NYYYYYYYYYYY!”

I blinked. The whole crowd blinked as the filly perfectly hit the note, carrying it on and on, with a simple passion that was as cute as it was touching. It seemed as if she had no need for trivial things like breathing, even if we were shocked into stunned gasps.

Finally, her voice started to lose in volume, lowering in a timed decrescendo that sounded… perfect.

When silence truly fell, Sweetie Belle had a whole bunch of hypnotized ponies staring with wide eyes and slackened jaws. Mine only truly dropped when a light suddenly appeared over her flanks.

‘I-is that…?’

I barely had the time to formulate my thought that the light dimmed, revealing a Cutie Mark decorating those previously blank flanks.

A silver bell over a musical partition.

I nearly got diabetes at the sight of the little unicorn squealing with pure unaltered joy.

“YES!”

However, my senses were overwhelmed by a powerful vertigo, as everything started to spin and my balance was replaced by a feeling of lightheadedness.

P-perhaps I should have paid more attention to that head injury…

The assembled ponies certainly did not seem to pay much attention to me now that I had stopped performing for their entertainment.

The crowd seemed however disturbed, seconds later, when a furious white blurred shape cut right through the mass. I… I was unsure, but that looked like white and deep purple to me. Huh… a rampaging pony?

~ Moments earlier. ~

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.

They had known right away something had gone wrong with Rarity’s boutique – the broken window being enough of a hint –, which was precisely why they barged right through the front door, with a lack of etiquette that would have appalled the unicorn in other circumstances.

As it stood, they were more concerned about the possible presence of the Lord of Chaos.

But as they made their way through the entrance, they realized it was empty, for the most part. That alone was a fact that deeply troubled the bearer of the Element of Magic.

A part of her had told her about chaos and madness being strong in her friend’s home. I-if she concentrated enough, she could feel residual traces of his magic in the air.

Earth ponies and pegasi followed right behind them, in turn taking the abnormally empty place.

With the exception of…

“Opalescence?!” The prim unicorn exclaimed with horror. “Hold still, Mama’s coming!”

With a speed that would (and did) make her competitive friends jealous, Rarity sprinted toward her pet, nonplussed by her unusual size. All she could see was an injured cat, her injured cat.

She was quickly followed by Fluttershy, answering her own nurturing instincts.

“W-what happened?” She asked, in a panic.

The resting monstrous thing barely stirred at the voice of its owner. At most, it moved its paw away from its forehead.

Fluttershy let out a sad squeak at the sight of the injury, flying to Opalescence’s level and trying to get a good grip on the offending limb.

To the surprise of her friends however, she paused in her action.

“Shy?” Rainbow Dash tilted her head, puzzled by the reaction.

The shy pegasus was staring at the bleeding wound with a frown. Her hoof reaching for the bite mark, she seemed unable to push the words out.

“Fluttershy?” Twilight stepped in, doing her best to sound encouraging. “What’s wrong?”

“I… I don’t know any animal with that kind of jaw shape… it almost looks like it was done by a pony with fangs.”

One could hear a pin drop. The yellow pony’s words had created an instantaneous, heavy, uncomfortable silence. Five mares stared at each other with uneasy grimaces, while deliberately avoiding the last one.

Nopony wanted to look directly at Rarity as she took in the information. Her concerned look slowly morphed into a frightening snarl.

“I’LL DESTROY HIM!”