Applejack's body slowly rose up, her neck knitted together and her eyes seemed finally full of life once more.  Rarity, never having torn her eyes away from the body during the entire ritual, blinked several times in disbelief.  She was absolutely exhilarated to have her friend back but, having felt entirely responsible for her death, was wary of whether or not Applejack might forgive her.

The white unicorn was certainly amazed by the show of power that Twilight exhibited; she knew that Twilight was great at her craft, but had no idea that it could extend to the point of life giving.  Applejack's eyes rapidly blinked, glancing around the room and first meeting gazes with Twilight.  Eventually she bowed her head, not acknowledging much of anything, and started to walk toward the front door.

"Applejack!  Where are you going?  Do you feel okay?"  Rarity chased down Applejack and tried to get her to stop and talk.  The earth pony simply kept on moving.  "Applejack!"

The seemingly brain-dead mare turned her head to look at Rarity, then quickly glanced over at Twilight.  After a few seconds she responded to Rarity's beckoning.  "I'm headed to the library, Rarity."

"But...  Don't you think you should sit down for a while?  You've...  You've been through a lot..."  Rarity fought back more tears, worried that Applejack wanted to leave out of spite.  The white unicorn still was under the impression that she was the one who killed Applejack, so she simply wanted to hear three simple words: I forgive you.  Unfortunately for her, Applejack seemed to have her goals set and, being in the current state that she was, she didn't seem about to stray from her path at all.

"I'm fine, Rarity.  I really need to go."  Applejack's voice came out as robotic and distant, like she was having trouble figuring out where she was and was simply responding in the most default of phrases she could think of.  With that final exclamation, however, she left Rarity sitting in the bathroom and walked out the door.  Rarity could only stare in disbelief.  On the one hand, Twilight just brought Applejack back from the dead, which was miraculous in itself, but on the other hand she still lost a very close friend.  

"You might want to go with her, Rarity."  Twilight stood next to Big Macintosh, helping bring him back out of his temporary paralysis from being mentally invaded.  She gazed into his eyes, gently stroked down his mane and used Iago's help to guide the big stallion's consciousness back into its rightful place.  He seemed to calm down during the treatment, but still had the odd twitch and flail of his limbs as he tried to move them.

"Why?  She probably never wants to see me again..."  Rarity let her tears flow, though she didn't make any noise to accompany them.

"No, Rarity, she does.  She's just preoccupied at the moment."  Twilight spoke very matter-of-factly, which seemed beyond strange to Rarity, but she went along with it regardless.  "You really ought to join her."

"But what's at the library?"

"It's just a gathering place.  I'm going to be holding a meeting with all six of us, so she just wants to get there ahead of the crowd.  That's all."

"How do you know so much about what she wants?"

"Oh, Rarity."  Twilight couldn't help but laugh a little, leaving Big Macintosh's side (who had abruptly passed out after he got situated back in his own head) so that she could stand by Rarity.  "I know much, much more than you might think.  Just trust me on this one, she's going back to the library for a gathering, and if you don't join her...  Well I'll have to see what I can do to make you join her."

"W-what?"  Rarity, frightened by the power in Twilight's voice and the anger with which she said that, shrunk away and eyed Twilight with an air of suspicion and fear.

Careful, Twilight.  She's prone to suggestion, but if you order her around too much she might get wise to the manipulation.  Iago's sage advice sprang into action the instant Twilight started to screw up her plan.  This time it was welcome, but Twilight wasn't sure what she'd do if he started barking commands at her.

"What I mean to say is..."  Twilight paused, deciding to stall a little so that she could think up something believable,  "Sorry, I'm having kind of a weird day, what with Applejack and Big Macintosh... walking in on you and dealing with that whole fight..."

"I'm sorry...  I didn't mean for you to see any of that."

"Listen, it's alright.  I'm here to help and all of us have a lot to prepare for.  Please, Rarity, just get to the library with Applejack.  I'm going to run over and grab Pinkie, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash and then we can start the meeting up.

"Twilight...  While I respect the urgency of whatever it is this meeting is going to be about...  Just look at my bathroom."  Rarity glanced around at all of the blood, especially that all over her coat.  It had started to dry, leaving disgusting globs of coagulated blood amidst a slowly darkening pool of reddish brown.  Rarity's coat, however, had already stained to the point that she'd have to take an ice bath just to get the streaks and splatters of brown fur to whiten again.  "I really need to clean this place up...  Myself included."

"I'll clean, just get to the library and use my shower, please."  Twilight was starting to get impatient, but she readily masked it with a pleading tone.

"What if somepony runs into me on the street looking... like this?"

I brought one of your blue cloaks along, it's in the hallway.  Iago gave Twilight this information quickly, perhaps too quickly.  He knew too much and it was starting to bother Twilight, but for the time being she simply relayed the message.

"I have a cape in the hallway, it's blue so it should help bring out your eyes and it's long enough to cover you up.  If anyone asks just say it's a little bit of mud and you're heading in to wash it off.  Nopony's going to suspect anything."  Twilight started to gently pull all the water out of the still wet blood, drying it out quickly before it had a chance to seep into the surrounding materials too deep.

"Alright...  Please be by soon...  I'm scared, Twilight."  A moment of sincerity from Rarity's voice reached Twilight's ears.  For that brief moment she felt almost like herself again, though it was very quickly pushed away.  Twilight didn't know this, but Iago immediately crushed any kind of sentiment as soon as it entered Twilight's subconscious.  This one slipped past.

"I will as soon as I can, Rarity.  I promise."  Twilight nudged Rarity toward the door, trying her best to get the white unicorn to just leave her alone.  She gave in, resolving to just follow Applejack down the road, catch up, and hopefully get her to accept an apology.  Twilight, happy to have her gone, went about her cleanup of the bathroom.

All of the blood had been dried out by Twilight's casual removal of the water, giving her an easy way to simply use her telekinesis to scrape it all off.  With all of the blood having been pulled loose, Twilight simply balled it up and set it ablaze, burning away all remnants of it in an intense little fireball.  She figured that it would be best to bring Big Macintosh out and leave him in Rarity's bed, at least that way he'd have a hint on why he was there if he couldn't remember.  She lifted his big, hefty body up and levitated it out the door, dragging it out into the hallway and into Rarity's room.  She laid him down on the over sized, luxurious bed that Rarity had sitting perfectly organized against the back wall.  She didn't bother pulling any covers over him, but she did make sure his head was lying comfortably on a pillow.  She wasn't sure when Big Macintosh would awaken, or if he was ever aware of her presence in his mind, but he'd soon wake up and Twilight would be long gone.

After the good bit of cleaning that Twilight provided, she left the Carousel Boutique and headed off toward Fluttershy's house.  With luck, the more timid one would be an easy target and Twilight was certainly ready for something simple.  Twilight, during her walk over to the outskirts of Ponyville, once more struggled to keep true dominance of her own thoughts.  She started to see what Iago was really doing: slowly muscling her mind out of the way, making his presence more important to her decisions than her own, and trying to truly take over.  She was in too deep, and unfortunately for her she had grown bitter, cynical and stubborn from Iago's teachings, so she wasn't exactly about to admit defeat nor ask for help.  She filled her head with random information, lazily disguising it as relevant to her current situation, but really just making things up to think so that Iago's voice (if it was ever really heard) was blocked out by the mental white noise.

Twilight?  Iago's voice managed to chip its way into Twilight's thoughts.

Kill 'em all.  Going to kill them, every single one.  Damn the elements, damn them all.  The elements are useless without Celestia...  Twilight just continued to ignore Iago, trying her damnedest to block herself from accidentally detailing the plan in her own head.

Twilight!  I'm not going to play this game with you again.  Quit thinking for five seconds.  Not that that's a new concept for you at all...  

Soon as we're done they're dead.  Just gotta get them all, then get Celestia... Might kill them first, use them, dispose...  Might just not get them all.  Might kill the ones I have, kill the Princess myself...

Twilight.  This is the last time I'm going to ask.

Then don't ask.  Just let me work.  Twilight broke her train of random thought reflexively, barking back that order without a second thought.

Despite all I've taught you, you still don't seem to grasp how this relationship functions...  Iago let his voice fall into a disappointed, raspy din.  Twilight, however, passed it off as absolutely nothing.

Iago, why don't you go take a nap for a little while?  You sound like you're getting a little cranky.

Don't patronize me, girl.

Or what?  Twilight stood up perfectly straight and cocked her head, listening in for a response and, frankly, looking a little bit insane on the street.

Iago didn't respond at all, though Twilight could still feel his domineering presence inside her head.

That's what I thought.  Now if you don't mind, I have some things to do, so why don't you just... oh I don't know... go to a quiet place!  With this, Twilight did her best to replicate the invasion of Big Macintosh's mind, though instead of taking over a foreign body, she was simply taking over her own.  Iago certainly didn't appreciate this, and he voiced his distaste with a mind-numbing roar.  Twilight, however, wasn't about to give up after a half-hearted effort; she concentrated as hard as she could, pushing Iago away and condensing him into a small corner of her mind.  He was suppressed, he was removed, and he was under her control, even if only briefly.

Twilight couldn't hold this state very long, though, and after only a brief forty-five seconds or so of mental revolution she was forced to give up and release Iago back into her head.  No sooner did Iago resume his presence than did he give Twilight the feeling of a heart attack once more: it honestly felt like her heart was being ripped out of her chest through every possible direction that it could be.  Twilight collapsed to her knees on the side of the road, prompting the worried attention of one of the passersby.  The wounded purple unicorn, unfortunately, could not respond to her.

How dare you!  Iago's voice cut through Twilight's thoughts like a dull knife, ripping every single one away from her head as it entered her mind.  This time, when he spoke, his voice held a passion that Twilight had never been able to detect before: raw, unadulterated hatred.  Twilight knew that her only chance to survive was to appeal to this and to lead him on, so she did just that.

Oohhh... Oh, yes, Iago.  Let that out.  All that pent up anger, all that rage...

I should have just killed you a long time ago...  All I need is your body, I don't need your rebellious little delinquent brain!

What are you waiting for?  Kill me.  Kill me right now.  Split me in half lengthwise!  Horrify every single one of the ponies gathered around me.  Murder your favorite little student.  Get mad, Iago.  Get angry and just let those emotions take over.  Twilight writhed on the ground as she spoke inward, mouthing along a few of the syllables that she thought and kicking her legs in a way that forced her body to grind against the cobblestone street.  She had drawn a crowd of six other ponies, all of whom were staring on in shock at the frightening behavior.

Iago didn't respond, but the pain didn't subside either.  However, Twilight figured that it was a good sign that it wasn't getting any worse.

It feels so good, doesn't it?  So good to just kill something that's caused you so much annoyance.  To destroy something beautiful, to rip away a life.  Something so irreplaceable...  Twilight felt Iago calm down only trough the slight recession in the torrent of emotions surrounding her mind.  She knew she had him where she wanted him, so she kept pushing and pushing, silently hoping that he'd reevaluate his goals enough to let Twilight get away with just that one act of insubordination.  Go on, Iago.  Do it!  I'm waiting!  We're all waiting.  Twilight turned her head toward the worried mare hanging over her.  She was just another pony from around town, 'Bon Bon' was her name, Twilight thought.  The purple unicorn simply nodded, smiled, and struggled to her feet, assuring the stranger that she was indeed alright even though she couldn't really stand without almost crumbling.  

Iago's grip on Twilight's heart still didn't loosen and she started to see spots and get a little nauseous from the pain.  What are you waiting for?  If I were you I'd have killed me already.  Me and all these other weaklings.

I'll never stoop to your level.  Ever.  Iago let go of Twilight and she felt the pain recede, standing up tall and taking a few deep breaths.  She left Bon Bon behind her and started to walk away; the earth pony didn't stop Twilight and, after a few moments of hesitation, simply let it go and walked on toward her own home.  Twilight, her leash-holder finally doing as she wished for once, moved on to complete her mission.

The purple unicorn kept her thoughts almost entirely to herself, no small task considering her current 'guest' inside her head.  She simply didn't think about anything, instead focusing on various parts of her body as they trudged on toward Fluttershy's hut.  It was an old meditation technique she had learned several years ago to try and drown out distractions, though it certainly wasn't being used for that end, and Iago didn't have too much to say about it.  He simply went along for the ride, quiet as a mouse, and presumably searched or plotted or brooded or did whatever he did while he was up there inside Twilight's head.  

Eventually, after several minutes of listening to her perfectly timed heartbeats and breath, Twilight came upon the absurdly nature-ridden dwelling of Fluttershy.  Twilight scoffed at the cutesy little animals and critters dashing from branch to branch in the trees around her home; disgusting, all of them.  Iago made no comment, but Twilight figured that his cynicism was just about as rancid as hers.  

With all of the enthusiasm of a dead cactus, Twilight dragged herself up to Fluttershy's doorstep and knocked with the back of her hoof, not having to wait very long before the door was pulled open by none other than Rainbow Dash.  

"Hey, Rainbow.  What're you doing here?" Twilight asked, hiding her surprise behind her perfectly controlled, emotionless face.

Rainbow Dash glanced around over Twilight's shoulders, making sure nopony else was around, and then reached out to pull her inside.  The instant the door slammed behind her, Twilight was given a response.  "Don't get the wrong idea or nothin', but I'm helping Fluttershy clean out all of her animals' dens and stuff.  I just felt like I owed her...  Y'know, 'cuz I make her do things that she hates all the time."  She cringed as she spoke, but clearly showed a little sentiment in what she was doing.

"That's very noble of you, Rainbow Dash."  Twilight cocked her head and examined Fluttershy's home, noticing how about half of the various dens and kennels were sparkling clean and the other half looked as if they'd been lazily swept out at best.  "How long have you been here?"

"I dunno...  two hours or so?  Don't think I'm some kind of dweeb for helping out.  Like I said, I feel like I owe her a favor."

"Well don't you worry, there's no judgment from me."  Twilight stepped out toward the center of Fluttershy's living room, moving right past Rainbow Dash as if she were nothing.  "Could you go get her?  There's something I need to talk to you two about."

"Uh... Okay..."  Rainbow Dash flapped herself past Twilight, eying her quizzically.  She noticed something different about her, but just couldn't put her hoof on it.  Regardless, she went off to find Fluttershy.  The yellow pegasus was in some kind of heated debate about the state of Angel's den, but her light blue cohort quickly drew her attention to Twilight in the living room.

Rainbow Dash kept herself aloft but Fluttershy trotted in on the ground.  Twilight simply sat herself down in the rather large easy chair that Fluttershy kept across from her coffee table.  Twilight had always thought it a little odd that the most shy pony in town had such a welcoming home with room for nearly a half dozen ponies.

"What is it, Twilight?  Is everything okay?"  Fluttershy, falling into her old habits of keeping her head low and wearing that cute little worried look, stepped in alongside Rainbow Dash.  All seemed normal except for Twilight sitting down with a very cold and stern demeanor.

"No, everything is not okay.  As a matter of fact I can hardly think of anything worse.  We've all been lied to for a very long time, my friends."  Twilight was as candid as she could be, choosing to relay the 'information' that Iago had been feeding her, prepared to poke holes in any dispute that the pair could possibly offer.

"Who's been lying to us?"  Rainbow Dash asked as she landed, taking a rude, laid-back posture on Fluttershy's couch; just making herself comfortable of course.

"Our beautiful, all powerful, all knowing, fearless leader, Celestia.  Who else?"  Twilight made sure to cock her head and emphasize the sarcastic voice intonation as she spoke.

"But... but what would she be lying about?"  Fluttershy clearly didn't believe it right away, but Rainbow Dash's face curled back in disgust.  Gullible as always.

"Yeah I'm kinda curious to hear about this.  Just what has she been lying about?"  The blue pegasus adjusted her posture on the couch to a much less relaxed position.

"Don't tell me you haven't noticed the weirdly high frequency of world-threatening events we all have to deal with.  In the past three years we've all been together, all directly after Celestia's influence, the world has nearly ended, what, five times?  Before we met, has it ever happened?  Not that I'm aware of.  Doesn't that strike you as kind of odd?"

"What's your point, Twilight?"  Fluttershy sat down next to Rainbow Dash, leaning forward and listening intently, but certainly not going along with it quite as heavily as her friend.

"My point is that we haven't been doing exactly as we've been told.  We've been eliminating competition.  Celestia feels threatened by these other entities: the changelings, Discord, her sister...  They've all been out for her throne and, since she has no direct successors, she's pretty much got her rule set out for the rest of time so long as she has a special task force ready to defend it.  Sounds an awful lot like the 'elements of harmony' to me."

"So you're telling me that Celestia's just been using us to keep herself at the top all this time?"  Rainbow Dash's wings sprung up as was typical for a pegasus in an excited state.  Twilight decided to play off of that excitement.

"Yes, Rainbow Dash, that's exactly what I'm saying.  She doesn't ever really inform us of our targets, she just points us at them and tells us to defeat them.  She never consults us when she writes things into law, she never asks our opinions on her rule, she never includes us in politics...  We're just the brainwashed tip of her longest, pointiest spear."

"I don't believe this!"  Rainbow Dash sprang up from her seat, startling Fluttershy a little bit.  She hovered there above the couch, making the deadly mistake of looking Twilight in the eyes amidst the outburst.  "She lied to us all this time about why we were doing the things we did and just used us?  I hate being used like that!"  The storm in her mind calmed as Twilight took its reigns.  Rainbow Dash, with all of her anger and frustration flared up as it was, had her mind forced toward a single goal: follow Twilight against the princess.

"Don't you think you're overreacting a little bit?"  Fluttershy chimed in.  She glanced between Twilight and Rainbow Dash back and forth, though she certainly didn't make eye contact with either.  "I mean...  She could just be doing what she thinks is best for us."

"What's best for us?"  Rainbow Dash landed behind the couch, resting her front hooves on Fluttershy's shoulders over the back of the big sofa.  This made Fluttershy squeak and cringe, though she calmed down after the invasion of privacy had set for a little while.  "If she actually cared about what was best for us she wouldn't have kept us in the dark this whole time and sent us against her greatest enemies completely blind.  She never helps us fight them, the only time she even tried to she got beaten down into the freakin' ground!  We're left to fend for ourselves and fight her battles for her just so that she can stay in power and you think she's doing what's best?"  The yellow pegasus, subject to this verbal assault, huddled herself up in fright.  Even though the insemination of the idea into Rainbow Dash's mind had worked like a charm, Twilight took a different tactic in dealing with Fluttershy, who tended to be a little bit more cautious about everything.

"Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash may be a little... worked up, but she's right.  We were all picked because of our talents in a certain area; arbitrary talents that Celestia just happened to pick out.  Plus she picked me to lead the rest of you five.  Think about that for a minute, I'm her personal student, the one who literally learned everything from her and has ties only to her.  The only reason I even noticed any of this is because I've been doing a lot of deep, personal thinking and I spotted a few little holes in the story.  Celestia has complete control over the elements of harmony, and they're a very powerful force, as you've no doubt noticed."

"I don't know...  This seems a little bit... over the top."  Twilight knew that Fluttershy wasn't falling for it and it was starting to frustrate the unicorn.  Iago hadn't stepped in to keep Twilight calm, so she was falling prey to her bad habit of letting that frustration drive her more than she ought to.  Twilight stood up and looked Rainbow Dash in the eyes, tilting her head back toward Fluttershy's staircase to signal her to leave the room, which the pegasus promptly did.  Fluttershy watched her exit and only slowly turned back to face Twilight, finding that the unicorn had sat herself down in Rainbow Dash's old spot, looking her dead in the face.  

"Fluttershy, I'm here asking for your help.  I know the princess has been lying to us, I know she's been deceiving all six of us for her own personal agenda, and I know that I have the support of Applejack and Rarity, and now even Rainbow Dash.  I need to know I can count on you too.  We're going to find Celestia and confront her, convince her to make a few changes and then hopefully we can deal with this little problem once and for all.  That's what we do, isn't it?  We're problem solvers."

Fluttershy glanced around, very uncomfortable with the situation (though this wasn't exactly new), and stuttered out a question.  "N-nopony's going to get hurt?"

"My goal isn't to hurt anyone.  I just want to make sure this all gets straightened out, Fluttershy."  Twilight didn't even feel the slightest remorse for this bold-faced lie.  The closest thing to guilt she felt at that moment was in making the decision to kill Fluttershy first so that she didn't spend too much time in shock over the manipulation.

"I still don't know..."

With this, Twilight had given up completely and snapped, letting her rage form the next of her words.  Fluttershy's indecision drove Twilight to grab the pegasus' chin and force the two to look each other in the eye.  "Let me put it this way.  If you don't help me I'll burn down your home and every single fucking animal in here.  Got it?"

The fear and dread that this statement caused immediately shattered Fluttershy's mind.  Twilight was absolutely relentless in her invasion, driving Fluttershy's motives to help Twilight and avoid the loss of everything she loved.  Primal emotions hooked their roots in the pegasus' mind and Twilight effectively had the timid little one collared to her will.  With Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash on board, that left only Pinkie Pie to gather before the final front against Celestia could be started.

Everything was going according to plan.