Twilight stepped out onto the projected, colored shadow of Big Macintosh, staring out into the bizarre negative space that was the realm of shadow.  His shadow-realm body, the extension of blackness that sat up against that of a tree, was clearly snoozing in the cool light of the late morning.  Down on the ground, his body in the material world showed itself as an image on the ground, eyes closed and a single straw dangling out of his mouth threatening to fall onto the ground.  Twilight cocked her head and examined the black, formless mass sitting before her.  She reached out a hoof, brushing the back of her colored, material wrist against his cheek; it felt cold and yet solid, much like concrete that hadn't been touched by the sun.  She couldn't help but smile as both the material and the shadow Big Macintosh reacted to her touch, pulling away clumsily in their sleep.  He'd look good in black.

Twilight looked up and at the black, shadowy tree.  She could vaguely make out a cluster of young apples, so she grabbed one with her telekinesis and ripped it off of the branch.  With the orb floating in front of her, she couldn't help but take a bite simply out of curiosity; it too was cold and had absolutely no flavor.  The texture was almost like water vapor, yet still solid and crisp like an apple, and instead of dripping with juices it simply cast off a thick, black smoke into the world.  She swallowed the shadow apple, feeling the chill of darkness permeate her body from the inside out, making her shiver almost in pleasure.  It reminded her of the beauty that she saw when a pony died; that hollowing of their eyes as their heart stops and their brain slowly fades away like an old candle flame.  

With a final glance at the apple, vapor rising off of the gaping bite that she took out of it, she pulled it back and dropped it onto her upturned hoof, throwing forward as hard as she could and bouncing it off of the shadow Big Macintosh's forehead.  This, of course, woke him up; both the real, material him as well as the shadow him.  He looked down and at the apple, spotting the thing with a bite missing from it and tilting his head in confusion.  This was the reaction Twilight had hoped for; she had tilted her chin down as well and was staring into his green eyes down on the floor.  As she stared in through the veil between material and shadow, Big Macintosh found himself entranced by something; a swirling darkness beneath the apple.  Twilight, on the other hand, knew exactly what she was doing.  She felt her body start to disconnect and her consciousness move out toward the ground.  Gravity ceased, her senses failed, and all that existed as far as Twilight was concerned were the barriers that Twilight quickly broke through.  First was her own mind; she was forced out, by Iago undoubtedly, and hurled into the shadowy veil.  Next, she burst through that dimensional wall, feeling (even with a lack of any sensation of touch) the very spatial third dimension shatter as she exited and then rapidly entered it once more.  Finally, Big Macintosh's mind didn't stand a chance: her consciousness entered his mind and forced his away, bottling it up somewhere deep and dark in the recesses of his mind so that Twilight Sparkle could take over the lumbering stallion.  

Sensation flooded back to her, first touch, then sound, then scent.  She could taste the gritty, natural flavor of a straw still in her new mouth.  She could smell the bitten and browning apple on the ground, surrounded by the natural, earthy smell of grass and dirt and air swirling together.  The touch of bark on her back and grass against her rump, the sound of a bird chirping somewhere in the tree above her, and the soft glow of light being reflected from the world around her eyes, none of which were present in the shadow world, all stimulated Twilight's mind.  Big Macintosh's body was hers to command, and her body was still in the shadow.

The apple, however, oriented itself upright and the shadow beneath it began to extend.  Twilight's body, her actual body, pushed its way out of the darkness with her hoof holding onto the apple.  She promptly finished eating it the instant her entire form was present in the material world again.

"Hello, beautiful."  Twilight Sparkle said as she watched herself eat.  Big Macintosh's voice carried her words, however, and she almost blushed from the surprising depth.

"Ahhh, I don't quite know how I feel about the hooves...  But I must say I do enjoy the way this body supports itself.  You can stand up so tall, it's no wonder the equine frame has been associated with royalty for so long."

"I'm glad you like it, Iago, but remember that it's a rental.  Don't do anything I wouldn't do."  Twilight stood up and stretched herself, trying to get used to the girth of her new body so that she didn't walk into things too much while she was out 'driving it around.'

"Oh don't worry...  I won't destroy anything unless you need me to."

"Good, now if you'll excuse me I have a mare to visit."

"I'll give you a half hour before I go anywhere.  Don't worry, though, Applejack will be there exactly when you need her to be."

"Thank you, Iago...  Shouldn't take me too long, I've seen the way Rarity looks at this big lug."

Twilight Sparkle's body bowed her head and held her hoof out in the direction of Rarity's boutique, letting the apple fall down to the ground to join with the rest of the insignificant mulch.  Twilight, or rather Big Macintosh, walked away in that direction, still retaining the girly walk that she had developed all her life.  For once, however awkward the new body was, Twilight finally had her mind to herself and the feeling was beyond liberating.

Naturally, Twilight spent her walk over to the Carousel Boutique thinking about how to kill Iago.  Her first thought was to simply force him into another body somehow and then kill that, but (seeing as how he was a being without any real ties to the natural world) she wasn't sure that would work on him.

Beyond that plan, she thought of another possibility; the very thing she did to Big Macintosh.  If it were possible, maybe she could force his consciousness into a small space and either destroy it or lock it up; however she knew that he was much more powerful than she in that regard.  He had leverage, she wouldn't deny him that, but she had ambition and was notoriously persistent.  She'd get him, but first she wanted to get Celestia.  One problem at a time.

Noon approached and Twilight felt Big Macintosh's strength carrying her all the way down the road; she could only revel in it.  She had knocked into a few passing ponies on the way, getting a few odd looks from many of them (sultry ones from a mare or two) but simply ignoring them after voicing a quiet apology.  Twilight eventually came up to the fence around the Carousel Boutique.  A crow sat atop a far away fence post, singing his song out of key and casting a brief air of sorrow into the atmosphere.  Twilight, quite some time ago, may have found that romantic, and even then without the oppression of Iago dangling over her mind she found it somewhat pleasing.

She plodded up the walkway, letting her heavy hooves clunk down on the solid ground and knocked on the door.  Nobody answered, though Twilight spotted the familiar bold type of a "Closed" sign off in one window.  She knocked one more time to try and get anyone's attention, hoping that Rarity hadn't picked today to go out to the spa with Fluttershy or some other prissy nonsense like that.  Nothing but echoes replied, so Twilight reached out Big Macintosh's huge hoof and clicked open the door; it was unlocked.  She stepped inside, glancing around and seeing her body's reflection in the tri-view mirrors off in one corner of the absurdly pink room.  Twilight wondered what Big Macintosh was thinking while his consciousness was compressed into a tiny little space.  She didn't, however, have any way to detect that, nor did she have any of his memories like she expected.

Twilight managed to hear something from upstairs: the sound of running water.  Twilight turned to look at the staircase and focus; Big Macintosh's hearing wasn't quite as sharp as her own body's, so she could only just barely detect the noise.  She stepped on over, letting the sound get louder and louder as she slowly hefted the big frame upstairs, listening in for any sign of Rarity's little sister.  She should have been at school, but Twilight wasn't about to take any chances at ruining the plan.  A weak will makes suggestibility easier.  Emotions make willpower fail.  Twilight held the key to Rarity's desires and was just waiting to see the unicorn's face when she ripped them all away.

Rarity was a remarkably quiet shower-taker; no singing or humming, nor much clunking around from frantic, rushed movements.  She just stood there, letting the water wash over her and enjoyed the warmth.  Twilight rounded the corner of Rarity's staircase, looking in through the cracked door of the bathroom and spotting her quarry.  There she stood, behind the steamy glass of a sliding door shower, mane draped down her back and forelegs up, supporting her body in a standing position so that the shower head was much closer to her scalp.  Twilight knew from personal experience how good that felt (as well as the fact that it rendered you as good as deaf) so she moved in and lightly pushed the bathroom door open, not making much of a sound besides the clunking of her heavy surrogate hooves on the floor.

Rarity's contours were the only things that could truly be seen through the glass; everything else was muddled up into blotches of white and purple, with three light blue entities where her cutie mark's colors shone through.  She really did have a beautiful body, and the drape of her soaking wet mane down her back left only more to enjoy.  Catching her when she wasn't dolled up as usual was a rare treat, and Twilight felt a small twinge of desire; real desire, not just the want to strip away Rarity's emotions and render her as a tool, but a physical want for her.  This was somewhat distressing; Twilight didn't want those kinds of distractions.  She even thought that she was rid of them for good, but perhaps it was Iago's absence that allowed her mind to wander into such basic and primal wants.  That notwithstanding, Twilight figured that it would only make her job easier: she was here to seduce Rarity after all, and a genuine desire might snip away any hints of falsehood from her countenance during the act.

Iago's gone... Really gone!  I could get used to this.  All of the power without the leash...  Without the 'puppet master'.  Twilight thought to herself, loving that she could let her thoughts echo through her mind and fade away without prompting a snippy response.  I only wish I could keep it this way...  Perhaps I can run.  Twilight continued through the bathroom as she thought, making sure to avoid running into anything; Rarity still didn't notice the big stallion's approach.  Twilight started to see the unicorn's body a little better as she got closer, specifically noticing that her eyes were closed.  I could start a new life, bring Rarity with me...  Take on the form of Big Macintosh...  But Iago has my body...  I miss it... love it... He can't have it.  That is what he wants, after all...  A powerful body.  Twilight found herself staring through the glass, hungrily eying Rarity's form even as blurred as it was.  What she started to realize was that her old body gave no physiological responses to anything: Big Mactinosh's body, however, had hormones flowing through it and a heartbeat that was a thrall to his brain.  Twilight was starting to feel excited, though she certainly didn't realize it right away.

He only fears Celestia...  I can get Celestia to kill him...  She won't kill me, and then I can kill her.  I'll let them fight until there's a victor and then kill whoever survives!  They'll be weak...  They'll be easy...  Big Macintosh's eyes dilated, though they were enslaved to Twilight's mind, and his big heart started to pound in her chest like a sledgehammer on a strong wall.  She started to breathe more heavily, feeling the involuntary responses to physical excitement once more and finally noticing that she hadn't felt this way since she woke up after a rather inappropriate dream several months ago.  Her new body had more control over her mind than she knew, and she reached out, pressing her hoof quietly against the glass.  I'll be the last mare standing...  I can rule without Iago, I can have everything I've ever dreamed of...  The sun and moon will bow to me...  Each thought only stimulated her further until Big Macintosh's body was beyond even the description "hot and heavy".  She slid the glass doorway open; Rarity stifled a shriek, covering herself with her mane and tail and whipping her head around to see who was there.  She wasn't quite sure how she felt about it, but the form that entered her vision was that of Big Macintosh staring at her and clearly anticipating something.

Rarity's face immediately burned red hot with blush and she couldn't tear her eyes away from the big stallion, though she certainly didn't try to do so.  She just couldn't find any words to say, and Twilight didn't need her to say a thing.  Twilight smiled: she gave, to the best of her ability, the big, soft smile that Big Macintosh was almost famous for around town.  Rarity seemed to calm down a bit, though she never let herself come out of the startled position that she was in.

"I thought you might like to see me...  Y'know... if the store wasn't busy."  Twilight said, still amazed at the depth and carry of Big Macintosh's voice.  

"I-I-I-I..."  Rarity stuttered, not quite prepared for such an invasion of her privacy.  She had been harboring feelings for Big Macintosh, however, and this almost seemed like one of her fantasies coming true, but it was so absolutely random that she couldn't handle it as smoothly as she thought she'd be able to.

Twilight didn't wait for her to sort everything out, though, and leaned forward, locking Big Macintosh's lips with Rarity's and feeling every single second of it.  The blood pumping into the big stallion's face from his elevated heartbeat made everything more sensitive; she could actually feel Rarity's lips flush with heat from her own embarrassed reaction.  She didn't fight, however, and Twilight took the opportunity to join her in the shower, standing on the big hind legs that she controlled and pressing Rarity's back against the tile.  

Big Macintosh's body reacted just as one would expect to the situation, and Twilight wasn't exactly used to the equipment that the male body provided her.  The feelings were both alien and familiar: the feeling of engorging, of anticipation, of arousal, she knew what was happening but was still surprised at the very slight differences.  She looked down, examining Big Macintosh's pride and joy: the rumors that seemed to endlessly circulate the internal female gossip line, unfortunately, were a little bit off.  He was about average objectively speaking, though the size of his body made it look much smaller than it actually was.  Rarity seemed a little disappointed, but no less excited from the moment, so Twilight distracted her gaze with another kiss.

This time she was more into it, pressing her lips back and wrapping her forelegs around Big Macintosh's neck.  The heat of passion overtook them both, sending them into the throes of a heated sexual encounter.  Twilight, dressed in Big Macintosh's body, mounted and pushed, grinding her belly against Rarity's and driving in what she had to offer as far as it would comfortably go.  Rarity didn't fight at all, rather worked back and bucked her hips, helping along the interaction so that Twilight's surrogate genitals slid into her at just a slightly different (and more exciting) angle.  

Things were going very smoothly for the two; even though Twilight was just as inexperienced with sex in a mare's body as she was in a stallion's body, Rarity seemed to make up for it with her own brand of expertise.  It wasn't too long before Twilight started to feel a certain contraction within Big Macintosh's groin.  Her finer muscle controls started to dwindle, making her movements feel wild and out of control (which, of course, was only welcomed with open arms by Rarity).  Twilight held back, holding fast on muscles she had never held before, keeping back the inevitable for as long as she possibly could.  Rarity, on the other hand, reached her conclusion at around that same time.  Twilight felt, through the extremely sensitive flesh that she had set inside Rarity, several contractions as the white mare let herself melt into orgasm.  The contractions, firm as they were, signaled Twilight (who could readily identify what they were) to stop holding back.  

A flood of endorphins reached Big Macintosh's brain, immediately stimulating Twilight's consciousness as the body it occupied drifted into bliss.  Rarity didn't seem to mind, but Twilight had done everything the natural way; finishing up inside and leaving both of their bodies pressed hard against each other, basking in the steam and warmth of the water falling over them.  Both of their bodies could feel the individual droplets as they impacted their fur; the sensitivity of afterglow kicking in almost immediately just brought out the smallest details.  Rarity, still blushing and panting, looked up slowly into Big Macintosh's eyes, though unbeknownst to her Twilight looked back.  Rarity's beauty, now filtered through the lens of a testosterone saturated mind, hit Twilight much harder than she expected.  She caught herself staring hungrily at her, forcing back a repeating urge to take her and run.  Instead, she brought up Big Macintosh's hoof and gently stroked it down Rarity's cheek, smiling once more and just cherishing the moment, knowing that it was doomed to end violently.

Rarity smiled back and relaxed, using her magic to shut off the water so that she could lay back in the bathtub and let Twilight lay with her.  The two of them found a comfortable place and snuggled for a few minutes, though eventually Rarity's ears perked up at a sound that Twilight had missed.  She seemed distraught, however, and Twilight quickly remembered her plan:  Applejack was here.  Muffled voices, one being Twilight's own and the other being Applejack's, crept their way up the stairs and brought Rarity on the verge of an anxiety attack.

"What's the matter?"  Twilight asked in his heavy, deep male voice that was Big Macintosh's.

"T-that sounds like your sister..."  Rarity's choice to omit Applejack's name actually interested Twilight; she was clearly afraid of the earth pony, which struck her as a little strange for such 'good friends.'

"You're not ashamed of me are you?"  Twilight fell onto an old habit of guilt tripping, taking more than a little delight in flustering someone with that little attack.

"N-n-n-no I j-...  I just..."  Rarity's eyes glanced back and forth between Big Macintosh and the bathroom door; she was trying her best to find the right words to say but, in the end, came up short.

"Tell me why we're in Rarity's home again?  I still ain't quite clear on this whole...  breakin' and enterin' thing."  Applejack's voice snuck out around the door frame, making Twilight smirk and Rarity cringe.  Twilight Sparkle's old body followed close behind.

"It's not breaking and entering, AJ, Rarity told us we were always welcome in her home.  Besides, I'm sure she's in here somewhere and I need to talk to you two about some things."  Twilight was amazed at how well Iago represented her voice.  Frightened, actually, since he drew on the memory of Rarity inviting both her and Applejack inside.  That was back during their slumber party, long before Twilight encountered Iago.  

"If you say so...  I just--"  Applejack turned her head into the bathroom as the pair was walking by, spotting Rarity and her brother lying in the bathtub together; her jaw may as well have hit the floor.  "What the f..."  She had to stop herself from cursing, though she certainly came closer than normal to doing so.

"Applejack!  I...  I was just..."  Rarity sat up with a start, covering herself up regardless of the fact that she rarely wore clothes.

"Is that...  What are you two doing in the bathtub?"  Iago, wearing Twilight's face, finished his question by flashing a grin to Big Macintosh's body in the bathtub, signifying that he was satisfied with the awkwardness of the moment.  Just his presence seemed to make the room colder.

"I fell!"  Rarity spouted, unable to realize the absurdity of that idea.  "I fell and Big Macintosh was just helping me."

"Mmmhmm, and I'm sure Big Macintosh fell in there with you, is that it?  Or did he actually fall into you too?"  Applejack was clearly getting angry with Rarity, though it seemed to be the lie that set it off.

"Well... I... I just..."

"Don't even say it, Rarity.  I don't wanna hear it.  Mac, of all the gals you could pick around town, why in Equestria would you pick... her?"  Applejack flashed a frustrated, quizzical look to her brother.

"Now what ever is that supposed to mean?"  Rarity interrupted before Twilight could respond, much to the unicorn-turned-earth-pony's delight.  Less work, and they were already getting riled up.

"It's supposed to mean you're a snobby, inconsiderate, lying tart!  My big brother deserves somepony who's actually done a day's work at some point or another in their life, not some... doll that sits around all day makin' up drama."

"How dare you!  After all I've done for you and your family!"  Rarity forced herself out of the bathtub, not for a single second paying attention to the quality of her mane.

"Like what?  Any time I need your help paintin' somethin' or fixin' up one thing or another you have some kind of 'appointment' that just conveniently makes it so you can't come over.  Now why is that, hmm?  It certainly ain't cuz you're screwin' my brother, that's for damn sure.  He actually helps!"

"Oh and what about your curtains?  The ones that Apple Bloom and Scootaloo ruined while you were out, the ones I went out of my way to fix for you free of charge?  Not to mention all of your nice placemats and rugs and other such things around your house.  Those would look like rats had been living in them for two decades had I not been there to fix them up.  All for you because, I thought, you were a close friend of mine!"

"Wull Lah-dee-fuckin'-dah, you made my curtains look all purdy, I just dunno what ah'd do if'n ah couldn't get the sunlight outta mah house."  Applejack made sure her sarcastic caricature of a ridiculous southern stereotype irked Rarity every single way she knew how to.  Rude body movements, obnoxious voice intonations, and just about every other thing that Applejack knew about to push Rarity's buttons.

"Fine then!  See if I ever do anything else for you out of the kindness of my heart."

"My family doesn't need your kind of kindness, 'Miss Rarity'."  Applejack cocked her head side to side, miming along the syllables of her sarcastic projection of the name.  "We've been doin' just fine on our own since this town was founded."

"Oh right, I forgot that being stuck in agriculture for twenty generations gave you some kind of tenure that meant nopony's supposed to interact with you.  Silly me."  The angrier Rarity got, the more her Canterlot accentuation came out.  To Applejack, however, this was just an offensive gesture of 'talking down' to her.

Between spits of argument, Twilight stood up out of the bathtub and walked over towards her mentor.  The two mares between them didn't even seem to notice.

"Well at least my family's given something back to this town!  I don't even remember the last time I saw anypony that wasn't one of us six wearin' any of your clothes.  I swear you just make them and then disassemble them back into fabric again or somethin'."

"Oh please, I contribute more in income tax every year than you have your entire life!  This town needs me just as much as it needs the ponies that operate the dam to keep the water from flooding us all out."

"Pfft.  I'd take a flood over you any day."  Applejack had run out of things to say (and was deeply offended by the monetary remark) so she simply snapped the meanest thing she could think of at the moment.

"Hah, well apparently your brother didn't mind taking me."  Rarity, in kind, had that witty remark just waiting to be thrown out.  Though she certainly didn't anticipate the severity of Applejack's reaction.  She did indeed set out to make her angry, but not to literally coax a lunge.  Applejack, in a fit of rage, hit Rarity as hard as she could right on the jaw; you'd have thought she was a professional boxer.

Rarity yelped and crumpled to the ground, clutching her face and hiding from Applejack's imposing stature.  

"Don't you ever say that again!"  Applejack refused to back away, keeping herself hovering just above Rarity so that she could yell directly into her ears.

While the two had their eyes averted, Twilight gazed back into her own body's eyes and felt her consciousness separate from Big Macintosh's brain.  Though the feeling of disembodiment was always unsettling, it was absolutely worth it to be back in her own body, and certainly to be back in her own gender.  Big Macintosh, however, didn't quite reconnect to himself as easily as Twilight did, and collapsed onto the floor in a semiconscious heap.  

The sound of her brother collapsing brought Applejack's attention back around and away from Rarity.  Twilight gazed into her eyes and saw the absolutely perfect cocktail of emotions: anger and fear, the two most primal and raw of them all.  Both at their height; the anger from the argument with Rarity and fear as her brother's possible injury sunk in, so Twilight reacted immediately.  The two locked eyes and Applejack found herself absolutely frozen.  Twilight wasn't invading her mind, rather she was just holding her there.  Iago, on the other hand, did all of the work.  Twilight could almost hear Applejack's thoughts as she gazed into those big, frightened green eyes.  Iago was rearranging them, screwing around with them, trying to break something inside Applejack so that she'd bend to him, but the invasion didn't seem to be going as planned.  

Aarrgh!  She's a fighter...  Iago's voice came back into Twilight's mind as if it had been literally outside.  It flooded in first as an echo, and then as a more resonant tone, eventually returning to its full force.  I don't like fighters...  Kill her.

Kill her?  But we need the elements of harmony together to break Celestia.  Twilight protested Iago but never stopped staring into Applejack's eyes.  On the surfaces, she could actually see memories: specifically ones about Rarity, good ones of course, though they were all being readily broken down by the current situation.

Take a look in the hallway, I brought the pendents that she and the white one wear.  Oh, and I took the liberty of carving that set of runes that you like so much into them, just in case.  They'll still be the elements of harmony, but they'll be yours.

Do you need me to kill Rarity too?

Not yet, let's watch and see what happens.  Iago didn't even hesitate to respond after Twilight asked him.  Clearly he knew more than he let on, but was willing to keep Twilight's disbelief suspended just a little longer.

Twilight stepped forward, glancing down at the unconscious big Macintosh.  The instant her gaze had broken with Applejack's, the earth pony sprang to life and dove down to her brother's side.  She called out to him, slapped his cheeks to try and wake him up, but absolutely nothing came of it.  Twilight stood by her side, staring down at the twitching body for a while before glancing over to Applejack.  She looked up at the purple unicorn with fear and pain in her eyes, pleading for her to do something to help, but Twilight's goals were elsewhere.  In one swift motion, Twilight slashed her hoof across Applejack's neck, slitting her throat all the way to the spinal column with an atom-thin blade: Applejack immediately stood up, tried to gasp, took several steps back (choking and bleeding the whole way), and tripped over Rarity, ending her fall by landing hard in the damp bathtub.

Blood from that encounter had gotten everywhere; the walls were splattered with it, the floor had a trail leading from Big Macintosh over to the tub, and even the ceiling received a splotch or two.  Most of all, though, was Rarity: her white coat readily soaked up the crimson fluid and she, being somewhat disoriented, took a minute to realize what had just happened.  She let out a loud, horrified scream, lifting her front hooves up and examining them; only finding that blood had started to seep in.

"Rarity..."  Twilight said in as menacing a voice as she could muster.  "Are you okay?"

Rarity slowly tore her gaze away from her bloodied hooves, staring up at Twilight half in disbelief and half in terror.  "W-w-wha-..."  She just couldn't think of a single thing to say.  She had been punched by her best friend, seemed to have lost all recollection of the past few minutes, and then woke up with Big Macintosh collapsed on the floor, Applejack lying stone-still in the bathtub, and covered in blood .  For all she knew, she was responsible, and Twilight could see that in her frightened little face.

"You lost it, Rarity...  You killed Applejack."  Twilight knew that the ruse wouldn't last forever, but she figured it would be fun to use for the time being.

"No!  No I couldn't have!  S-she... She was my friend!"  Rarity threw her head over to the bathtub, glancing in and spotting Applejack's body.

"Friends don't hit each other like that...  It was self defense."  Twilight let her sentences trail off at the end, watching Rarity's reactions closely.  She was believing every single word that Twilight fed to her.

The white unicorn just couldn't bring her eyes away from the tub, however, and she witnessed the most horrible thing she had ever seen.  The basin of the tub was starting to fill with the earth pony's slowly draining blood, and Applejack's blonde mane quickly soaked it up, making her look far more wounded than she truly was.  The body was in awful shape: her eyes and cheeks were wet with tears, mouth was agape and blood leaked from her nose and between her teeth.  The last look on Applejack's face was one of pain and horror, and Rarity's sheltered lifestyle had never prepared her for the sight of a dead body, never mind that of a close friend in such a state.  Her resolve tore to shreds and she broke down, blamed herself, and began sobbing into her forelegs.  The raspy, dreadful din of Rarity's cries of mental anguish set Twilight into a very happy mood, so she gleefully (though she tried her damnedest to stifle her obvious happiness) trotted over, making her actions seem like she intended to comfort the white, bloodstained unicorn on the horribly stained bathroom floor.

"It's going to be okay, Rarity.  I can bring her back."  Twilight rested her foreleg around Rarity's withers, pulling her into a hug and letting her cry.  The unicorn gladly accepted, burying her face in Twilight's shoulder and pressing hard into her soft fur.  The added pressure helped, but the sentiment just drew more tears from her, prolonging the frightened reaction for a few seconds longer.

Rarity tried frantically to decide where her emotions would stay; her mind was in absolute turmoil.  She was hyperventilating and, through the chaos of a completely shaken world, open to suggestion far wilder than most ponies would normally be.  "W-what do you need?"

"I need you to make me a promise, Rarity, can you do that for me?"

"Yes... Yes, yes of course I can, what promise?"  Rarity's eagerness to help Twilight undo the mistake that she thought she had made was so pleasing to Twilight that she actually cracked a smile, one that didn't go unnoticed by the white unicorn.  

"You have to promise me that you'll trust me, and that Celestia will never... ever hear of what goes on today.  Can you promise me that?"  Twilight looked down into Rarity's eyes, helping her sort out her emotions one by one, calming them and giving her peace.  Rarity took this as a simple comfort that she found from being held by Twilight, the same kind that she got from Big Macintosh's touch.

"Yes, I promise...  I'll never speak to Celestia about this.  I swear on my life."

"Not only will you never speak to her about this, but you'll join me in fighting her if I need you to."

"What?"  Rarity was taken aback by this, but was still willing to listen.

"Celestia would rather see Applejack dead than brought back with my magic.  She doesn't agree with that sort of thing.  Not only that, but she'd see me hanged or imprisoned for practicing such a thing, and see you executed for the murder.  Now we don't want that, do we?"

"No, no not at all..."  Rarity started to sound more and more hypnotized as Twilight spoke.  She had fallen into her trap and was slowly losing herself to Twilight's agenda.  For all intents and purposes, Twilight was the spider that had just injected its victim with those horrible enzymes.  Poor Rarity was the unfortunate fly about to be devoured after its insides had liquefied.

"Good, and if Applejack stays dead, many ponies in town will starve.  Big Macintosh and Apple Bloom can't handle the farm all by themselves.  They need her."

"They need her..."  Rarity couldn't break the gaze.  Everything she had ever wanted to feel seemed to come from staring into Twilight's beautiful eyes.  To Rarity, even the purple unicorn's eyes seemed more beautiful each passing second, though not in such a way to inspire jealousy.

"You and I need her."

"We need her..."

"We don't need the Princess."

"We don't need Celestia..."

"We can stop her from halting the life changing progress of healing magic, can't we, Rarity?"

"We can stop her..."

"We can kill her."

"We can..."  Rarity nodded, mouth still open and mind still traumatized.  Applejack's body had been broken and would be pieced back together by Twilight's ancient magic.  Rarity's mind had gone through the same fate; broken into splinters by an earth shattering event, only to be put back together just the way Twilight and Iago wanted it to be.  Loyal, subservient, and unquestioning.  In a swift and violent motion the elements of harmony had been destroyed, thrown into dissonance by the fragility of the lives of the ponies whose shoulders they rested on.  Harmony had died with Applejack.