Chapters A royal throne fit for a king; He sits down in a pool of arrogance, enjoying a cup of freshly drizzled chocolate milk. “Chaos is a wonderful, WONDERFUL thing” he said, sipping his cloud-based beverage. Something didn’t seem right though... he has conquered all of Equestria and caused disharmony once again. His mind drifted into thought, that’s when his favorite gullible ponies arrived just on time.
“Not as wonderful as friendship!” Twilight said, breaking his peaceful disorder of silence.
“Oh, This again?” Taking a sip of his glass, tossing the cylindrical chocolate milk remains. With an arrogant smirk, he extended his claw, holding the elements hostage! He had the opportunity to finish his now clear objective: ridding of those six pesky ponies. Oddly enough, discord could not grasping Twilight’s element; the element of magic. With a swift flash of her horn, Twilight coddled her friends within a orb-type spell, releasing his hold on the elements. The ground under their hooves reverted to a harmonious patch of vegetation. Discord was impressed, he had never seen a pony with such strength! However, what was that element he couldn’t quite grasp?
As Twilight dragged on with her soapbox speech, Discord’s mind slipped into partial unconsciousness. Abruptly, he verbally spewed his distaste and cut off Twilight in the midst of her pride. “Guh, Gag! Fine, go ahead and try to use your little elements of ‘friendship’, I’m missing some excellent chaos here!” as he sat down with a sinister grin.
“Alright girls, lets show him what friendship can do!” A blinding stream of colors lashed out from the aura beams encircling the ponies. His life unraveled in a blur, familiar memories had suddenly reappeared through the center of the glistening light. Luna and Celestia, standing firm in that same position with those blasted elements; it was deja vu all over again. His reign of terror would end if he didn't act! With a snap of his fingers, he repositioned himself inches from the rainbow stream. He watched it fall by, levitating as the luminary waterfall deformed his architectural chaos.
He quickly regained his stature as his stubby wings balanced his slender body. Discord slowly stepped highly upon the grassy terrains where the exhausted ponies lay. The grass crunching under his feet was something unfamiliar to discord; something he despised. Staring down upon those 6 demons tasked with encasing his reign under coats of stone, he noticed the purple one was still awake. She wobbled her eyes across the malformed environment while he patiently stood for her full attention.
“Ahh good you're awake! Allow me to reintroduce myself as you think I am ‘Gullible'! Nononono, you’ve got it all wrong, remember that I’m Discord. I’m not Predictable, I’m not Stupid, and I’m definitely not Gullible.” He stated with a exaggerated grudge, “Are we clear?... Crystal?”. Twilight attempted a response, but felt a fiendish nausea overthrow her witty retort. “Good! Now, let me be clear with you: First of all, LOOK AT WHAT YOU DID TO MY THRONE! How am I supposed to watch disharmony and chaos without a proper seat!”
"You avoided it?" Twilight sputtered not fully aware of the situation.
“Not very good with keeping on subject huh? Alright then, it was simple really, it was a straight beam of light heading towards me. All I had to do was move...” Discord expressed with a slight sarcastic tone complimented with a shrug “If you wanted me to be a statue again, you could've asked.”
“But… the power of frie-“
“Let me stop you there… umm... sparkle right? how do I say this in a way that wouldn’t offend you and your unconscious friends… you’re so called ‘power of friendship’, like your elements, put up a pretty light show, but it’s the same ol' hum-drum thing I’ve seen one too many times. You should have been better prepared then that!”
“This… can’t be over…”
“On the contrary my darling, it’s just begun.”
“Pinkie… What are you doing with that needle?!”
“What’s the matter Sparkle, afraid of needles?” Pinkie said in a dark and dreaded tone. Twilight knew where she heard Sparkle before, but couldn’t quite remember. It seemed familiar somehow, but no pony ever called her that. She slowly backed up step by agonizing step till she ran into the back wall. Behind her was a decapitated head of scootaloo, still fresh with bits of meat left rotting on the bone.
“AAAAA!” Twilight screamed at the top of her lungs breaking the frightening silence. She backed up frantically from the skull only to find pinkie staring down at her with a deranged smile.
“That’s all folks!” Pinkie said with a menacing yet innocent laugh. She swung the needle, but twilight held it up with her magic.
“RRR… I knew I should have removed that damn thing from your head!!!” Pinkie said with a furious anger. She struggled to get the needle into twilight’s shoulder, but didn’t have the strength to fight twilight’s magic. Pinkie was pushed away from twilight with a bubble, the same one used to protect her ironically.
“Pinkie I need answers! Where am I, what is going on, what have you done to my friends?!”
“Oh silly, haven’t you learned? Sometimes the best things in life are the things you don’t know”
“ANSWERS PINKIE, I NEED ANSWERS!!”
“Tsk… Tsk… Tsk… you should already know that yourself twilight, after all I did leave your quill and note paper by your side. You’re not the only one taking notes Sparkle” she said with a devilish tone represented by that evil smirk of hers.
“But… how… I…”
“I noticed you were still unconscious, so I thought you could use some time to chill, too bad that infuriating door never works.”
“What about the chocolate milk?!” Twilight said in a rampaging tone.
“It was a gift, from a friend” Pinkie said laughing hysterically yet maniacally.
“If you want all the answers Twilight, you’ll have to pull them from my lifeless carcass!” Pinkie said fiercely. This time she wasn’t playing any mind games, she knew what she was doing. Using her more than famous speed, she caught up to twilight in the blink of an eye and smacked her upside the head. Twilight fell to the floor with the force of a buck from applejack. She was dazed and confused with little to rely on other than her own self morals. She shook her head and toughened her stance ready to charge.
“Alright Pinkie, if that’s how you like to party, then lets party” Twilight said with an evil grudge. Normally she would have backed out to preserve her friend’s life, but her only way to the truth stood between her and Pinkie. The chaotic silence returned with only the sounds of the ponies breathing. Their stare was menacing towards each other with a burning fury curable to death. Twilight made the 1st move after breaking the stare between them. Her horn shined dark purple and picked up the cart full of tools and tossed it besides Pinkie. Pinkie acted swiftly with only a slight cut on her left back hoof. She became furious and charged at Twilight with the needle in her hoof stampeding with feet of fury. Pinkie was swinging and throwing around the needle like a machete rather than a medical procedure. The contents spilled everywhere leaving acidic imprints on the blood stained floors. Twilight had to keep backing up, but Pinkie was catching on quick.
“It will NOT end this way, DO you hear me Pinkie!” Twilight said while desperately backing her way out of the maniac’s swing distance. Pinkie appeared not to care, her blood shot eyes showed she was too set track on finishing Twilight like she should have done a long time ago.
“It’s over Sparkle, its OVER!!” Pinkie screamed when she was close enough to swing the needle. Pinkie was inches from Twilight and was about to strike, but Twilight noticed she dropped her exacto knife. She picked up the knife and threw it at the luminary tube sitting above where Pinkie stood. The bulb broke in a chemical explosion spreading around a 10 foot radius. The contents of the light tube reacted to Pinkie’s skin like hot mercury. Twilight was screaming frantically as she watched Pinkie’s skin burn slowly and painfully. The pink pony struggled to grip onto life with her last words spurting out of her blood drenched mouth.
“It’s not over Twilight… It’s… Not… Ove-“ Collapsing on the floor next to her procedure desk. The skin on her eyes burnt to a crisp, the layer of fur melted with a slowly painful hardening of the content. Whatever that tube of light was Pinkie used for her procedures, it was beyond any ponies’ knowledge. She gasped and gave silence to her fallen friend. She passed a slight look around the slaughter room and noticed an object reflecting from the burning bright content covered over Pinkie’s face. It was located over by the procedure chair on the opposite side of the blood stains still sitting on the chair’s arm. It appeared to be a pendant of some sort with a gold plated chain and a design of a tiger’s claw. It had a pink glow to it surrounded in a blistering bright polish. She turned the pendant around to reveal some text on its back side.
“What a strange charm, why does it remind me of something…” She questioned as she stared at it more and more. She decided to read the cursive styled writing on the back of the pendant “E l e e n t of M a n s l a u g h t e r ”, which only looked like gibberish to her.
“Ele… Ell… Eleman… o… Man…Mansla…Mansl” having trouble reading the fuzzy, ill proper sized text. She read word by word, taking notes on what they could possibly mean. She wrote down every word that came to her mind as fast as she could possibly write.
“Elective of Manager… no that’s not right. Elemore is Messanger… who is elemore?” curiously writing out until she figured it out.
“Elements… of… Manslaughter… but what does that mean?” Twilight pondered until she started to realize its double meaning.
“Elements of Manslaughter… Manslaughter… LAUGHTER!” she panicked in an ingenious state. She stood taller and prepped her head up in a way a governor gives speeches.
“Manslaughter is spelled with Laughter… but why Manslaughter?!” she couldn’t quite remember until it hit her! The tiger claw’s relations, the familiarities with the elements, she remembered everything!
“DISCORD! He must be up to this, it only makes sense.” She said in a flash of confidence. She finally made sense of everything now, the chocolate milk floors, the ponies calling her Sparkle, and the messed up characteristics.
“If this is supposed to represent the element of laughter… then Rainbow Dash’s element must be in here as well.” She checked through every drawer, searched all the cabinets until she looked upon the ceiling noticing Rainbow Dash’s severed head laying front heavy on a pike still dripping the remainders of blood.
“Sigh… well here goes nothing…” Twilight said with a less than eager tone. She tried to grab the element with her horn, but her magic seemed ineffective, she would have to grab it manually. She grabbed the closest tool cart she could find and used it as a kick stand. Unbalanced and wobbly, she fell face first into the side of the pike and knocked Dash’s head off which landed right on her chest.
“AGH! GET IT OFF GET IT OFF GET IT OFF”. She tossed rainbow dash’s head across the room in panic only to notice the element fell off her neck half way across the room onto the floor sitting close by twilight. She presumed to pick it up and noticed it was discord’s body on this pendant with a blue glow. She turned it around and it read the words “Element of Misfortune ”, this time more legible than pinkies.
“The element of misfortune… yeah no kidding, poor rainbow.” She said with a depressed mood swing knowing not only 1, but 2 of her friends died. When she took both the elements, they snapped in place together like earthly strong magnets.
“The elements connect, this has to mean something!” In desperation, she thought of what pinkie said when she was about to fight her.
“You’re not the only one taking notes sparkle”. Twilight thought of pinkie’s quote and broke it down mentally.
“If I’m not the only one taking notes… then who is?!” she quickly pulled out her note page to notice it became blank.
“But how… I… how? I had all my notes in here top to bottom, where did they go?!” She checked both sides to notice on the back side was a picture of discord uncolored and unprofessionally sketched. Whoever made this picture made it in a hurry; the poorly erased lines prove it.
“Whatever this photo means, I can’t simply let go of it. I’ll take pinkie’s word.” She then presumed to slip her quill and note paper into her back pocket and walk towards the final iron door shining an aura of golden sunlight. “It’s only begun…” Twilight said as she pressed forward through the iron plated door into the wakes of light.
A burst of light broke through the cracks of the iron plated door as Twilight stepped through less than eager to see what has changed. The light through the door was very bright, but oddly enough the sky was pitch black with a lingering Smokey texture similar to that of the dragon’s fumes from episode 7. The skies were dark and putrid of lingering smoke, but that wasn’t the only thing that appeared to have changed. Every little thing imaginable discord has changed. This disorder not only seemed chaotic, but corrupted and sinister like the means of no other villain ever seen in the history of Equestria!
“Dear Celestia what happened to Ponyville?!” She asked in a shocked but unsurprised matter. She could see Big Mac and applejack arguing over which pears to sell on the right side and Derpy Hooves delivering mail perfectly without any issues flying or with vision on the left. Her eyes appeared to be centered completely with her pelt showing a brighter gray tone unusual to her normal behavior. She presumed to look around more taking in mental notes about the once luscious environment she lived in to what it has become. The once purple checkered ground is now a striped assortment of dark and depressing colors ranging from putrid brown to dark orange. Each of the buildings became built off of aluminum and poorly crafted steel like an industrial revolution only without the polish. All of the ponies were fighting each other and it almost seemed like they were okay with it. Twilight had never seen this before, there was no revolt against the idea, and all the ponies seemed pleasant arguing with each other and leaving friendship behind.
“How long have I been out?” Twilight continued to walk down the once vibrant path of PonyVille to notice the mayor and granny smith were arguing over a pocket watch once owned by the rightful FancyPants. Each of them were discolored not just gray, but close to pitch black with streaks of dark grey across their whole bodies only referencing their original colors slightly. Their eyes shifted in hue to a dark red and black, which happened to be the exact same colors she saw in pinkie’s eyes before she fell dead. Without another thought in her mind, she rushed over to the 2 mares in an attempt to break up their argument like her instincts normally would.
“Enough you two, this has gone far enough” Twilight said with a light hearted innuendo.
“Who are you?” they both asked in an irritated manner.
“I’m Twilight spar-“
“Well whoever she is she’s in the way of MY watch” said granny smith
“Your watch? I saw it first you back stabbing deriving old hag!” Said the mayor snorting what appeared to be cartoony looking gray smoke.
“Who you calling an old hag you self-centered ludicrous excuse for a leader!” Before twilight could make a comment, the 2 went at it like primitive beasts fighting for food scarcity. Twilight was both shocked and confused by this display of horrifying disruption of harmony, discord went all at it this time.
“Both of you cut it out, act like adults!”
“Quit your yacking you whimper snapper or I’ll smack you upside the head so hard your children will feel it!” Said granny smith with a furious anger.
“If you want this watch, you’ll have to pull it straight from my dead body you sack of rotten apples!” Said the mayor pouncing at granny before she could completely get up from them tussling, which caused them to start brawling again. Twilight still couldn’t get over the shock of watching her fellow ponies fueled with such anger and hatred. She proceeded to pull out her quill and note paper to take some notes only to remember that it became blank and she didn’t want it to mysteriously disappear again. She took the paper and looked at the drawing of discord again, but something was different.
“Hey… this doesn’t seem right, the image is colored!” Twilight said in a shocked expression. The picture was colored on the 2 limbs twilight currently had on her, the tiger claw and snake body. Each limb was separated by poorly drawn sketches, but they were not there the first time around. She now understood what the picture meant; it was a diagram showing her current process for the elements.
“It appears to have 6 pieces, I already have 2, that leaves 4 to be found… but where do I start?” She asked in her own mumbling tone.
“Eureka! The library, it ought to have some information on this situation.” Twilight immediately rushed as fast as she could to the library. She wheezed and hazed from the poor air quality which slowed her down dramatically. After 20 exhausting minutes, she finally arrived at the library only to discover the whole place was bordered window to window, door to door with poorly cut wood and pieces of sheet metal.
“Spike! Spike are you in there?” She said trying to peek through the small glass opening through the oak wood door. Spike presumed to snap quickly in front of twilight giving her a slight scare.
“Get out of here, we don’t accept visitors!” Spike said in a deeper, more serious tone.
“Spike it’s me, Twilight, don’t you remember me?!”
“The only person I remember is myself and it’s all I ever need” Spike said not even quoting Rarity one bit. If he didn’t describe Rarity in that sentence, he had to be serious.
“Say, how do you know my name? What do you want from me?” Spike said in a questionable tone.
“Forget that Spike, you have to let me in! The fate of Equestria depends on that information in the library!”
“If you want this information, you’ll have to pry it from my lifeless dead body!” Spike said with the same shrieking tone as pinkie once had. Twilight now knew something wasn’t right, she wasn’t remembered and everyone kept describing themselves as dead bodies… but why?!
“Equestria is fine, don’t fix a damn thing you purple prick!” This time Twilight was blown away seeing spike curse, even more so at the fact it was her!
“Fine Spike, have it your way.” Twilight said at a lower volume as she trotted off slowly with her head slightly down. She began to step away from the library only to notice minutes later the entire library blazed into a ferocious fireball! The whole place scorched into a blue and yellow flame with documents flying out of the now burned walls.
“SPIKE!!!” Is all she could scream before bolting back down to the entrance and prying the wood off the door with her own bare hooves. The heat was too unbearable for Twilight, falling back in despair watching her hard work burn down with her favorite assistant still inside. Slowly but surely inching her way across the putrid colored floor backing away from the intense heat. Within mere minutes, her only resources were burned to a crisp with Spike included. His skeleton was left dismantled across the ashes of burnt wood and documents surrounding the poor dragon. The fire never spread across the rest of the town for some reason, this fire was planned somehow.
“Oh this is bad, this is so bad” Twilight said as she began to tear.
“Spike… why did you do it?”. She began to cry until a perfectly intact letter was seen sitting inches from Spike’s once living body. She wiped the traces of tears in her eyes then proceeding to open the document in a celestial manner with shock and dread appearing on her face from what she read. She panicked and dropped the letter reading the words It’s not over twilight, It’s not over.
“This can’t be happening, this can’t be!” Twilight said screaming in sorrow.
“Discord you sick twisted being, this is madness you hear? THIS IS MADNESS!!!” She screamed for all to hear, even if every pony didn’t care. It almost seemed like they brushed off the whole library burning and her best friend dying the same way they forgot about her as they resumed to their own selfish affairs. The ponies not only ignored each other, but all morals were thrown right out of the window.
“First Pinkie, then Dashie, then Spike…. Who’s next?!” Just as she began to stand herself up weakly from the emotional trauma faced against this incident, an odd figure flew next to her and landed on the half burnt slab of wood sitting next to the dropped document. The figure had a round, semi-darkish look to it with a strong tint of green. Its eyes were pitch black with outlines of lime green surrounding its devilish looking pupils. Its eyes were big and bold sitting closely to its beak. It took a while, but she finally recognized this figure sitting next to her.
“Owlicious… is that really you?! Dear Canterlot what happened to you?!” Twilight said with less shock than before, it began to wear down after everything else she went through. She started to approach the small owl, but it didn’t seem to care much for twilight at all. She stepped closer and closer to it with the greatest of ease, but the owl flew away quickly. Twilight saw it fly off, but then noticed it wasn’t interested in her, but rather an odd looking pony figure flying high in the sky. The black clouds disguised most of itself, but it was a flying Pegasus with no true way to identify it with the lack of sunlight.
“Owlicious… you know what to do.” The pony figure told the owl. The owl nodded in agreement and jumped off the arm of the mysterious mare in the sky. It swooped down with elegant ease relating to Rainbow Dash’s flight patterns. Before long, the green owl rushed towards twilight with its talons out heading straight towards her. Twilight held the owl hostage with her magic; the mysterious mare didn’t take this quite pleasantly.
“Owlicious, stop this right now!” Said Twilight fiercely. Before Twilight could notice, the figure flew behind her with relative speed.
“I’d advise you let go of my pet Twilight” Said the figure
“This isn’t your pe-” Twilight was then bucked in the head by the mare’s back hoof, knocking her down onto the hard floor in a similar fashion to when pinkie knocked her down. She couldn’t regain her balance from the strike hitting her right in the ear lobe knocking her balance out of whack. The figure stood a slight distance from Twilight ending her own flight.
“You’ll never quite understand, huh Twilight”. The figure then proceeded to pick up Owlicious and walk through the heavy fog.
Twilight was stuttering from the kick to the head like a speech impediment. She regained her balance quite slowly watching the mysterious mare run away into the semi-dark fog.
“D… Don’t run, I n.. n… eed answers, I… NEED TO KNOW!!!” Twilight said starting to brace into racing form slightly off balance. She dashed as fast as her hind legs could go, but it simply wasn’t enough to catch up to the mare. She couldn’t get her mind off of the incident tearing apart her memories. Each time she looked back, the burnt library only seemed to tear more thoroughly into her mind. While distracted from memories, Twilight then tripped on her own sluggish legs and felt a face full of ruff black striped floor.
“Who… are you?” She whispered to herself as she leaned her head down. Her mind was starting to process that sudden burst of pain from that mare’s back hoof and recover itself. After realizing everything else that occurred over again, she started to tear. The droplets ran down her face unpredictably, fitting her feelings of everything around her. Even something as simple as a teardrop is victim under Discord’s corrupted rule. She began to think about everything that happened and process the information at a normal pace again after her remorse.
“*Sigh* enough Twilight, your stronger then this I know it” She said trying to boost her own self esteem. Her head was brought back up with a look through her shattered window of confidence and hope.
“Ok let’s try to make the best out of this situation; first thing is first, check the remains of my…. Our… library” slowly pausing after correcting herself. Tears began to slowly shed again, but she suppressed them with sheer will.
“No…. No more tears, another time.” She held her head with a slight arrogance and false reassurance trying to keep herself upbeat. It seemed to work effectively; even her hoof steps were keeping upright to her falsely proud approach. As she stepped further away from the lingering fog mixing with the black skies, her approach to the library section grew closer.
“Almost there Twilight, almost there!” Said with a more willful tone. She then presumed to walk foot among the charred area of smoldering memories. The ashes wrapped around her feet like her old pillow that sat 10 feet higher on her bed from where she stood. Memories were returning, but the task at hand was more important.
“Alright, time to take some notes.” Twilight then pulled out her quill and paper… but something wasn’t right, the paper went missing! In a panic, she looked through all her pockets to check if any of her other contents were in check. Force of habit made her pick up the messaged scroll lying on the ground from before to use as a checklist. The scroll was frightening knowing it was exactly the same as pinkie’s quote, but she turned the scroll around and tended to ignore the message.
“Pockets, pockets… ahh here we go. Ok, quill; check. Discord’s Elements; check. Note paper… not check.” She said with a slightly darkened tone. She is used to having everything, even if it’s an insignificant small piece of paper. Even ignoring the paper, something was still not right about it missing.
“No matter, the paper shouldn’t be too important to me, I should be able to still find the elements… but what happened to that sheet?” Twilight then thought and thought, tapping her hoof onto her egg-like forehead. Ideas started to form, but she didn’t know how they connected to everything as a whole.
“That mysterious mare could have taken them… that seems about right… but why did she need them?” She still thought of why that mare wanted them and how she took them. Things were starting to go off course; she still needs to set her focus straight.
“Too many questions and not enough evidence, let’s leave this whole thing behind and focus on what we have in front of us.” She said as her quill and new note pad were lifted besides her. She examined every detail from top to bottom and took notes on everything she felt, smelled, heard, and saw. She finished around 10 minutes after pulling the notes out, writing down all the details she needed.
“There, done. I’ll keep a hold on this; it might be handy later on.” She said as she slipped the piece of newly written paper into her back pocket. The scroll read exactly as quoted:
“The Library: Notes.
My first examination on this destruction seems fair weather and normal so far. The ground is slightly warm with small glowing sparks flying across my eyes from the wind blowing in all directions and all temperatures; the smoke clouds seem unaffected though. The area smells of burnt flesh and charred documents with a slight hint of demolished memories and hopes. The ashes circled perfectly around my property not touching a spec onto the street located next to it. It’s impossible to have the wind so unpredictable, yet perfectly centered ashes around where my property still stand. Guessing by the timing, the fire had to have been planned by someone; spike would never do that, would he? Why would he anyways? This library had all of my documents inside of it which mysteriously disappeared; Spike had no use for them. The fire caught on quickly and ended quickly, odd considering the entire home was made of wood; it could have easily lasted an hour or 2. Instead, the fire lasted exactly 7 minutes from what I could tell and didn’t leave anything behind except char, bones, and a perfect condition scroll reading ‘It’s not over Twilight, it’s not over’ in bold and irregular sized text. I find this odd considering the entire place burned into a smoldering heap of ashes, yet this scroll with the same quote as that once friended pink menace had was in absolute perfect condition without a single ash sitting upon it. There must be a reason this scroll was in perfect condition, the quote has something to do with it I’m sure. Discord is up to it, I’m just not sure how yet.”
“Normally the letters are sent to the Princess from spikes fire… so that means discord has ALL of my information!” Twilight said hyperventilating slightly.
“My valuable information is now in the hands of my dire enemy! Dear Celestia what have you done spike!” She started to panic and grabbed the dismantled skull of her once thriving friend and shook it as hard as she could.
“THIS INFORMATION COULD PUT AN END TO ALL OF US! WHY SPIKE WHY!!! DON’T DO THIS TO ME YOU LITTLE RUNT!!!” She screamed at the top of her lungs. She then started to regain her senses and snapped back to it knowing she disrupted his rightful grave in her anger.
“Dear Canterlot I’ve lost my mind! Oh Spike, please forgive me…” Slowly putting her head down starting the next sentence.
“Please, Please, Forgive me spike, I didn’t mean to hurt you. I love you spike and I would never do that… you understand right?” She said while oddly staring closely at the skull for several seconds.
“There I go again, I just did it didn’t I?” Sitting there waiting for a reply from the skull.
“Now I just asked you if I asked you a question, I really am insane!” She said with a bit of a panic.
“I don’t think your insane…”
“Oh great, talking voices now. Yep, I’ve lost all moral sense.” Twilight said with strong sarcasm.
“You’re not insane, I can hear you.”
“So… if I’m not insane, then who are you?!” Slightly raising her voice
“No need to raise your voice Twilight, you know who I am.”
“I don’t know who you are, you don’t sound familiar.” Twilight said taking her voice down to a library pitch she is normally accustomed too.
“Don’t worry twilight, you’re more than familiar to me” The mysterious figure stepped out from the shadows and flew herself a couple feet off the ground over to Twilight. Her mane was silky and long flowing down to her side hip following accustom by her perfectly straight tail. Her eyes shined an innocent look with a blue outline around her big black pupils. Her fur coat showed a glossy yellow shine all leading up to one pony we all know and love.
“FLUTTERSHY!!! Oh thank goodness, I thought I wouldn’t see anyone of my friends who remember me still.”
“Of course Twilight, I’ll always remember my BEST of friends like no other. Speaking of friends, all of these other ponies are acting strange don’t you think?”
“Tell me about it, they always kept fighting over each other and what they wanted.”
“Follow me; I have my own patch of sanctuary right past this marine layer of fog.” She said with her commonly soft tone.
“Wow Fluttershy, I never knew you researched the weather.”
“All Pegasus have to, you know that very well twilight.” Fluttershy said with a hoof over her mouth to muffle her giggle. Twilight then facehoofed herself in embarrassment.
“Heh… sorry, still a bit mixed up after all this chaos.” She said starting to blush with cherry red cheeks.
“Don’t worry Twilight; you’ll forget all about this chaos after you take a little trip down memory lane.” Fluttershy said with a kind and loving voice. They both headed down through the fog slowly pacing themselves ignoring the chaos around them, together.
Time seemed to slow down to every single waking moment as the two walked together in coordinated harmony. They stared into each other’s eyes with an aura of dignity and happiness that could never be separated from the two. Each moment passed as another hoof stepped in front of another, moment after moment. The dark smog breezed off of their shoulder from fluttershy’s light patting of her wings.
“Fluttershy…” Said twilight glancing over.
“Yes Twilight?”
“How did you find me in that fog? How do you still know who I am? How di-“ Twilight said before her rambling windpipe was silenced by a gentle nudge from fluttershy’s shoulder.
“No more questions twilight, it’s over.” Fluttershy said as she tapped Twilight’s shoulder with a light pat.
“Right…” Is all she could say before she silenced herself slightly moping. They exited the gated smog which enclosed around the edges of the striped land behind her, like it had a mind of its own.
“The smog seems so… alive…” Twilight said with a slight pause afterwards.
“It’s the power of discord silly; you know he controls everything now.” Twilight became somewhat suspicious seeing how Fluttershy took this whole thing in so perfectly. It’s almost like she didn’t care either that discord was under rule… yet, she was being so generous.
“Why is Fluttershy being so… generous… none of the other ponies acted this way to me or anyone else.” thought Twilight as she threw a suspicious glance at the overly friendly Fluttershy. She turned her head back towards her front view, noticing fluttershy’s home being in perfect condition. The walls were absolutely spotless top to bottom. The floors were spot cleaned as well as pinkie did with her empty hall, following up to the sinisterly sweet golden glow around the entire exterior. All these details were obvious even before stepping hooves on the property as they approached, it was perfect!
“Wow Fluttershy, your home is absolute perfection!”
“Thanks Twilight… I worked extra hard to welcome you back in the best way possible, so I spent the rest of the hours that you were ‘asleep’ spring cleaning.”
“Funny, she quoted me as asleep, how did she know this anyhow? Also how did she manage to figure out it was spring, the sky is still painted smoggy black.” Thought twilight. Twilight then braced herself slightly physically, but completely mentally, to ask Fluttershy about the home. She didn’t know the consequences she would face for this question, but it was a risk she was willing to take.
“Say Fluttershy, do you mind if I take a tour of the house?”
“NOT AT ALL! You take all the time you need, I’ll be taking care of the chickens.” Fluttershy then gracefully bonded to the winds as her wings set atop the forecast. She flew over to the back of the home where the chicken pen was located, out of sight from the face view of the home. Her flight pattern was mystically elegant, but had a slight trace of mislead order located amongst its pattern.
“*sigh* thank goodness” Twilight said as she wiped her head clean of her nervous perspiration. She glanced both ways and immediately after walked onto the porch. The floor was made of a hard pressed oak, almost the looks of a machine’s work. It was emulated to look like the old wood; somehow it wasn’t the same as before. The wooden patio was covered by a plushy door mat labeled Welcome Home Twilight .
“She even named the floor mat after me…” Twilight wasn’t sure whether to be happy, surprised, confused, or scared; but her emotions were already scrambled enough today that she pushed the thought away temporarily. The door shined a beam of light passing through the cracks as she tossed it open. The bright light pierced through twilight’s sensitive recitals having been adjusted from the darkness that overlapped the friendly sky she once knew. Her eyes refocused and readjusted from the burst of light to find what she had always wanted! The walls were covered in books among books of endless knowledge, the floors were polished and paved exactly how twilight liked it, even spike’s old bed laid front center to the back wall’s bookshelf. It was everything that twilight imagined and more within the wake of her hooves.
“It’s Beautiful!!!” Twilight said as she admired the little details made into every single piece of literature that surrounded her. The cushion of knowledge twilight had fallen into could only get better the more she studied it. Everything fell in a harmonious mental state for twilight, but she almost forgot the small details she noticed before. The floors were made from a mechanically pressed oak only a factory could possibly produce, made to emulate the look and feel of real oak wood. It wasn’t the same floor she knew, it wasn’t the same home.
“How did Fluttershy manage to do all of this?!” Twilight thought to herself as she passed a glance to every single book she saw. It went in complete perfect alphabetical order that only twilight could possibly achieve without mistake. This place was far too perfect for any single mare to do all by herself, she got help from someone…. Or something.
“Something about this place just doesn’t feel right… I can’t quite understand why…” she said to herself as she tapped her head several times. This perfect heaven of knowledge didn’t feel real to twilight, she should know better than this being the victim of discord’s vandalism.
“This library may not seem right, but it is a source of information regardless. Discord could have possibly left a hint in this place… but why is this all in fluttershy’s home?!” She said with a muted tone. Twilight checked every book, every drawer, and every single last one going in alphabetical order just as she originally intended it to be.
“A… B… C… D… There’s no D… WHERE IS D?!” She threw around all the books in the section looking for anything related to a D. Twilight knew this wasn’t right. D lead to discord, disharmony, and all related to the one thing she tried to stop, so where did this historical pieces go, especially if this library is the endless supply of knowledge it should have been.
“How can something this possibly be true?! The information was in my old library… but why not here?!” She said at a whiny pitch, complaining about the loss of desperate info she knew she needed. Suddenly, another door opened from the side of the left bookshelf located closely to spike’s bed. Her slight whining pitch was muted instantly from the sight of this door creaking open on its own. She gazed at it with a slightly confused look.
“This door doesn’t seem to fit in with the rest of the library… what is it doing here?!” She peaked inside the door, with nothing inside of it. Just then a book fell inside the darkly shaded room where the door was located. Nothing could be seen except a slight glow from a book that sat inside the dark abyss shrouding it. The book was labeled Discord, Chaos and its Control . It had a golden border with rubies, emeralds, and sapphires on all corners of the book.
“YES! Just what I needed! Oh thank Celestia its here.” She galloped into the room as fast as her hooves could take her chasing towards the fallen book. She picked it up and opened it to the index page, but nothing was there.
“This book… is BLANK?!” She lifted the book off of its rested place amongst the ground and shook it, scanning all of the pages in a panic.
“Everything… it’s gone…” She said with dread and shock smeared along her face. The door slammed behind her blocking all rays of light from entering the room, only showing the slight glow of the blank book.
“What’s going on here? Where am I? FLUTTERSHY, HELP!!!” She screamed at the top of her lungs pounding her hooves on the iron plated doors till she became sore and winded. The pain of her hooves seared through her legs up to her shoulders from the constant smashing on the door. When the pain slowly relieved, she noticed something she wish she would never have to see again.
“The iron doors… the iron doors oh dear Celestia NO!” She remembered them fondly from her last encounter, pinkie was to blame.
“Well well well…” Said a faint, echoed sound coming from afar. Twilight then snapped her head with adrenaline rushing through her blood in a state of panic.
“That voice… why does it sounds so familiar…” Twilight whispered to herself slightly shivering.
“I think you know very well who I am Sparkle” The Mysterious mare in the shadows approached from the deathly black halls in her normal stature. The shadow had a long, perfectly brushed mane heading across its head with a smoothly sinister sway. Her tail slightly swayed to the right with the tip closer to her thigh as it gently moved. On her back was what appeared to be Owlicious seen attacking twilight earlier. Twilight was still uncontrollably twitching from the rush of adrenaline she felt backed by fear.
“It’s you again… you ran away from me you coward!”
“Who’s to say I ran away?” Said the Mare with a cocky attitude slightly boasting its head higher. The figure then stepped out of the shadows into the remaining aura of light that surrounded the book laying closely to twilight. The light showed her true form with not a single hair out of place.
“I was here the whole time…”
“F…F…FL…”
“*Sinister laugh* Sorry I couldn’t catch up quick enough, had to take care of the animals.”
“But… HOW?!”
“Oh twilight, always asking the simplest questions to the mind numbingly simplest answers.” Fluttershy said with an arrogant chuckle.
“You’re that mysterious mare… the one that tried to take me out before!’ Twilight said while she slowly backed away from Fluttershy in shock.
“Who else would have wanted you dead, well, at least remember you. It must be so sad to rot away forgotten by those who once loved you.” Fluttershy said as she brushed away the locks from her head.
“Take a good look at me twilight sparkle, and tell me this doesn’t ring any familiar bells.” Twilight then swallowed roughly and looked at what she wore as she focused in. she wore a black costume with a thunderbolt sitting on each side of her hip. The mask covered most of her facial details, making her impossible to see in the dark. It was made of a rubbery-type content that had some wear and tear to it, holding stretch marks and scratches. Bits of spattered blood remained on the outfit, almost looked like it was never cleaned since then.
“The Wonderbolts?!” Fluttershy nodded her head twice over with a smirk running across her face.
“I got the idea when I needed more ponies to fuel my factory. I’d get more power from them and I get a free costume to fit the black skies, it’s a win win!”
“First Pinkie… now you?! What sick twisted trick is this?” Twilight said in a furious uproar.
“Oh no, me and pinkie ‘were’ much different. She murdered out of the sheer joy of it, It’s completely mandatory for me so I can run this factory.”
“I’m guessing you wanted me first, but pinkie got a hold of me.” Fluttershy raised her eyebrow in surprise with her sinister smirk slowly fading across her right side where her eye squinted slightly.
“Smart girl. Do you know what happens next though?” Fluttershy said as she swooped upwards with a strong beat of her wings causing an unpleasant gust below her. She whipped around from her flight staring straight down at her as twilight watched her eyes transform into a red glow. The once loving stare she first noticed was now gone, and Fluttershy knew this.
“You see twilight; this is the difference between you and me.” She said as she approached a mechanical control panel sitting 12 feet higher from twilight’s perspective.
“It’s sometimes not all about the thinking process; you also have to take action. I’ve thought my way through this, now it’s time for me to execute it!”
“What type of demented factory is this?!”
“Why don’t you find out?!” She yelled as she laughed away at Twilight’s misery. Fluttershy reached below the control panel to a polished brass looking handle with the words “Trap” engraved into it. She yanked the lever with both arms fiercely, followed by the sound of gears and motors clanking and turning. Twilight’s screams was muffled by the sounds of rotating machinery, Followed by the agonizing pain from the screeching of metal. Twilight stuffed her hooves into her ears trying to prevent the pain, but it was too unbearable.
“FLUTTERSHY YOU KNOW BETTER THAN THIS!!!” Twilight screamed at the top of her lungs. Fluttershy found this amusing, but couldn’t understand her under the loud tones of mechanisms.
“Execute Twilight, execute!” Fluttershy then grabbed a nob and turned it half way towards the right. The floors opened up from close to where twilight stood revealing 2 rotating cylinders covered in spikes and shredded guts. The mangled mess laying down there was not a fate twilight would want to face herself. The walls of the trap were painted with images of mangled flesh and bones layered with a pleasant drip of fresh blood that fell out of the marrow of the torn bones. Twilight screamed at the top of her lungs from the sheer horror of this murdering machine, only bringing Fluttershy more joy.
“Hole on a second Twilight, I’m almost finished!” Fluttershy screamed over the silver plated control panel. Twilight glanced over, but couldn’t quite hear Fluttershy over the motors. She got angry that she couldn’t enjoy twilight’s death sooner, so she sped up the process.
“IN CASE YOU CAN HEAR ME, I’M NOT WAITING ANY LONGER.” She then flipped open a transparent case containing a 6 inch wide red button.
“Discord will know, I’ll make sure of it!!!” Fluttershy screamed over to twilight, which grabbed her attention when she heard his name. Twilight now understood all of this, these weren’t her real friends, they were illusions created by discord himself.
“You sick replica of a real friend, I won’t let it end like this.” Twilight screamed loud enough to where Fluttershy could make up the muffled sounds.
“Then take some action!!!” Fluttershy screamed, proceeding to press the big red button underneath her hoof. It slammed with a concrete force that slightly penetrated the mechanical sound barrier. Front and back to Twilight, both of the walls started to move into each other. One had spikes; the other was a similar shredding machine on the opposite side of where she stood. The walls slowly moved into each other, shoving twilight forward and forward. The sounds of different metals screeching all around her drove her insane pain even worse. The walls caught up to where twilight stood and pushed against her. Inch by life ending inch she slid towards her mechanized doom.
“It’s over…” Twilight said as she put her head down. She had given up all hope and accepted her fate. The walls moved forward till she sat on her last measures of tangible land. She closed her eyes and lifted her hooves to let herself fall into her own personal grave shared by unfamiliar faces. The light of the sparks flew from the friction caused between the 2 tremendously huge razors. Her life was soon to end, but then everything stopped. She didn’t see any sparks from the mechanical pit, the walls halted, and no mechanisms were running in the factory… but why.
She got up from her stated position and looked in every which way to see why. Her attention shifted when she heard yelling and screaming of pain and pleasure above her. She looked up at the control panel, it was sweetiebelle and applebloom! Their fur was also strongly tinted of gray and black stripes like the other ponies, they couldn’t remember twilight. They were ganging up together and beating each waking breath out of Fluttershy. Sweetiebelle held onto her hind legs while Applebloom knocked the living sense out of her.
“YOU TWO, KNOCK THAT OFF RIGHT NOW!!” Twilight screamed accidentally, muffling her mouth after knowing that was her reactions speaking. The 2 lost attention, which gave Fluttershy a moment to break loose of them. She tried to fly up, but Sweetiebelle tackled her off the control desk and fell flat on the floor only inches from where twilight stood. They went at it again and kept kicking and punching Fluttershy like a gym sand bag, only with more blood and pain. The 2 knocked her mostly unconscious, giving her time to speak.
“You sick twisted little runts, I knew I should have checked if the cage was closed.” Twilight knew Fluttershy had animals… but she didn’t know that she meant it in a sarcastic way.
“Shut your mouth you little tooth fairy, before I knock each and every one of your teeth out of ya!” Applebloom screamed. Fluttershy Spit in applebloom’s eyes, the saliva mixed with blood.
“You don’t have the guts…”
“Your right, I can do much worse than that.” Applebloom said with a sinister smile forming wider around her face then Fluttershy did beforehand. She picked up Fluttershy while the yellow mare was held on her back. Applebloom then walked closer to the deactivated floor trap near where they stood and held her over it. Fluttershy tried to escape, but her wings broke when she landed on her back from the tackle, she had no way of escaping Applebloom’s grip. The yellow pony experienced an extreme rush of pain through her spine being held on her broken wings.
“Owlicious, attack these beasts!”
“Oh don’t worry; we took care of your little friend too.” Applebloom pointed up to Sweetiebelle sitting by the control panel with owlicious dead in her hoof. The little filly turned the knob and activated the trap floor causing sparks and screeches of metal rotating the mangled flesh that lies in there. She threw the owl into the machine, which ground up the creature in a matter of seconds. The green tinted blood spurted everywhere, but missed all the ponies except Fluttershy.
“OWLICIOUS!!! HOW COULD YOU?!” Twilight screamed with a ferocious tone.
“Quiet mysterious mare, were not done with you yet” Applebloom said, being slightly muffled by the turning machinery. She then views towards the control panel and nodded slowly to Sweetiebelle. The knob turned all the way around, spinning the grave garbage disposal to full speed. The spiked cylinders span at such a fast rate, pieces of metal and flesh started spitting out of the machine in all directions. Fluttershy turned her head down speaking her last words to Applebloom.
“This has only begun, this ISN'T OVER!”
“Have a nice trip” Applebloom then chucked the yellow pony into the rotary blades as she fell at an abnormally fast rate.
“TWILIGHTTTTtttttt…..” Was all she could say before the sounds of shredding flesh and bone masked the sounds of machinery. What took owlicious seconds were mere moments for poor Fluttershy. Pieces of the rubber suit floated in shreds around the edges of the machine. Just then one of the elements flew out of the machine and ricocheted off of the ceiling, falling directly in front of Twilight’s right hoof. The element was the shape of a dragon’s foot and shined a light yellow aura. She picked up the slightly scratched element and read the back of it like usual.
“Element of Corruption” Twilight read aloud. The element then snapped back into place with the others, connecting like a perfect puzzle. She then switched her attention to the 2 cutie mark crusaders walking away like nobodies business. She dashed over to them and grabbed their shoulders.
“Girls stop, I need to talk to you.”
“Get your filthy paws off of me you mutt!” Applebloom screamed, Sweetiebelle nodded in agreement. The 2 fillies stared at twilight with hatred and confusion.
“Girls listen to me, I need to-“
“What I need to do is leave, I’ve got more important things to do than talk to strangers.” Sweetiebelle said before turning her flank towards Twilight. She then noticed her flank was not blank; it actually had a cutie mark! It looked like a picture of a torn heart, while Applebloom’s was a bleeding apple. Guess they’re not crusading for cutie marks anymore.
“I need you to tell me everything you know!” Screamed twilight as it slightly echoed from the dark room.
“Or else what…?” Sweetiebelle said slightly turning her head towards twilight.
“Or else you’ll never find out what happened to Scootaloo.” They both paused in shock. She had information that they needed, they knew what they must do. They stopped to whisper to each other, working out a short plan.
“Alright, you’ve got our attention. We’ll tell you what you need to know.”
“Excellent” Twilight said as she menacingly grinned, her pure happiness was no longer there, replaced by a sickening sinister grin.
“What do you need to know…?” They both said slightly off sync to each other.
“Let’s start basic, how did you find us?”
“Well, when discord started ruling over equestria, he changed all of your friend’s personalities to their complete opposites. With Fluttershy’s new personality, she got the help of Rarity to ponynap both us and Owlicious. She stuck us in cages while she experimented with your pet, at least that’s what it sounded like from inside the cage. She was planning on using us as guinea pigs, but when she heard you scream about the missing D section of the library, she forgot to lock the cage rushing after you. That’s when we got out and took her down.” Said Applebloom, being half way cut off by Sweetiebelle who said the rest.
“How am I supposed to know this is all true?”
“You don’t know, and you never will” said Applebloom following by another approval nod by Sweetiebelle.
“Now you owe us a debt, where is Scootaloo?”
“Listen girls, Scootaloo is dead. She was found murdered in Pinkie’s procedure room, only a rotting skull remaining.” The 2 looked at each other and shrugged in disappointment.
“Predictable” said Sweetiebelle
“Oh well, It was fun while It lasted.” Said Applebloom
“Yeah we were planning on ditching her in the Everfree forest anyways” Said Sweetiebelle
“Why did you ask me for her if you don’t care?” Said twilight slightly tilting her head in confusion.
“We wanted to make sure the job was done right.” They both said in perfect conjunction. The 2 then nodded to each other and started to walk away.
“Let’s go Belle, it’s over”
“Not yet Apple, we might as well kill some more time, play it safe.” Said sweetiebelle with a reassuring tone.
“Fine…” She said as she turned to stare at Twilight as well.
“What’s your question then?” Said applebloom with an extremely irritated tone.
“Would you guys know where Applejack and Rarity would possibly be?”
“How should we know, and even if we did know, we would have made sure they laid dead before you were even conscious. They’ve been missing for days now, find them yourself.” Applebloom said as they then both ran off in a hurry. Twilight then took out the elements and stared long and hard at them in deep thought. She gripped them with an iron hold, whispering a quote from Fluttershy.
“It’s not over…”
She grasped onto the elements, their lights slightly blending from the golden plated shells shining with an elegant vibe. She stared at the carnage occurred around her, noticing the damage taking its toll. The floors were sprinkled with sweetly dotted blood stains, leading up to the death contraptions on the front and back walls facing from Twilight. The killing machines oozed with paced drips of slightly hardened blood. The remaining blood of the accidental victims showed in all directions of the room. The damage was forever scarred in this very room that Twilight stands in. She should have died if it weren’t for those little fillies.
“I’m sorry Fluttershy, but I have to keep going.” Twilight said softly as she trotted away from her occupied grave. The smell of rotting flesh and bones seared deeply into her memories, never to escape. She had learned about everything, but this was a lesson never taught before by the citizens of Ponyville. It made her reconsider the evil deeds done by Pinkie herself. She took one last glance at the mangled body parts laying in every direction of the blood splatters. She gave a moment of silence to her fallen friends, slightly tilting her head down to the blood spotted ground. She walked away without another word, heading away from the once locked iron door into the library.
“With Fluttershy out of the way, I can get back to my research.” She then took the bookshelf rolling ladder and stepped onto it, sliding in each direction searching for the book she needed. Twilight was more accustomed to using her magic to do the heavy duty work for her, but since that blow to the head from Fluttershy, her magic became disabled. Pinkie pie had also knocked her on the head once more, but not near the frontal lobe. She tried and tried, but unfortunately the magenta styled sparks never showed. With a swift change in direction, she scanned every last book ranging from A to Z, looking for any scraps of information about discord. It took hours among hours, yet the skies remained black with only a slight pitch of sunlight.
“Where is that Damn book?!” Twilight screamed at the top of her lungs! Her hooves masked her own invective tone of language. She was stunned at herself for cursing out of an informational document she once read before. The name of the book was Intergalactic Species and their Knowledge , written by Pony Paulsen. The word was believed to belong to an advanced race with no relations to the ponies and their way of life. The only proof of them was an image of this odd species and next to it was a word etched onto a tree reading Damn . It must have slipped out from the pure stress she felt looking through a vast plethora of documents.
“Oh no…. Oh no oh no oh no oh no!!! Sweet heaven above, celestia will kill me for saying that…” Just then she struck a moment of enlightenment! Celestia was no longer in office; she can’t control what twilight does anymore!
“Discord is in rule…. So that means he won’t give a damn of what I say!” She started puckering herself up from the thought of complete freedom, but she knew it would come at a cost.
“Of course…. That’s what he WANTS me to do. I can’t stoop down to those kinds of levels, I just can’t.” She said temporarily filling an emotional void she contained from all the damage done to her. Twilight took a good last look at the entire library, now a disorganized pile of mismatched papers, and trotted off. Normally twilight would have cleaned the entire place, but she began to stop caring after witnessing 2 of her once good friends being murdered. Her hooves moved further and further away from the propaganda that is the factory.
“I’ve called Pinkie Pie’s place the procedure room… A nickname would only be proper for this place.” She whispered to herself, trying to keep any mental stability in check with these pointless tasks.
“Flutter Factory… yep, that should do.” She said opening her slightly angled eyes towards the main factory. She walked across the grass lawn into the back where she last saw Fluttershy in her normal state. Peeking around a corner, the chicken coops were there, but didn’t seem quite right. The original top layered fences were now barbed wires with bits of blood still hanging onto them, which would explain how Belle and Bloom got out in the first place.
“The 2 weren’t lying, there still seems to be blood stains, relatively fresh.” With her observation skills, she took out her notepad and paper again to review and write notes. She whipped out her slightly bent feather from her back pocket and wrote down what she saw. Without any magic, she had to hold down the quill feather with her hooves while etching out each letter painfully. The letter read out as quoted:
“The Factory: Notes
Nothing much has changed from what I can see here. The skies still linger with a slight Oder of charred wood, yet seemed to be less weighted around fluttershy’s home. The back chicken coop is similar to before, but contains a thick top lining of twisted barbed wire to hold in any ‘animals’ as she calls them. This appears to be where Sweetiebelle and Applebloom were kept 2 weeks before where I was held unconscious (based on the timelines of all that was given to me). I can’t say for sure what Fluttershy was planning to do with these fillies, I expect the worst though. The grass is nice and crisp, seems untouched by fellow pony’s hooves. The coop contains 2 rooms and a portable restroom-styled bunker used for expulsion of waste products that I’d hate to get into detail with. The coop seemed clean, but not very well made. No other animals are here for some odd reason, she probably saved the fillies for last… expecting the worst of course.
Due to the causes of all these tragic incidents, I will now use this section of the page to keep a little bit of my sanity. For every note written, I will write down these numbers: 7259. If I can remember these 4 numbers for every note taken, I will know I’m still functioning properly. I hope to keep these numbers deep in memory; it’s the only sanity I can hold onto now.”
She put her quill back into her pocket and rolled the paper up as she would a royal scroll. She walked away from the scene only to notice a slight reflection in the water. With a concentrated glare, she noticed that her mane was in a knotted mess with no comb in site. Her eyes were slightly pulsating with beads of sweat rolling down her forehead. She looked like a psychotic person, but she felt completely normal.
“Wow, don’t I look like a train wreck?! Ya hear that Twilight, get a comb!” She screamed into the water, twitching her right eye rapidly.
“Right… no more fun and games, I got to get out of here before something worse might happen.” She said with a slight sarcasm breaking into her tone of voice. She trotted along the grass back into the blinding gates of the smog, which actually felt quite soothing knowing she is safe from that yellow terror’s mad house. She stepped further and further into the smog, letting it breeze smoothly across her mane.
“*Exhale* it’s so good to be back home.” She said while breathing out puffs of smoke from the hazy atmosphere. She presumed to trot away from the crime scene, never to return. Her eyes beamed with satisfaction, seeing the layer of fog slightly clear up. She saw the disorganized mess of Ponyville she had accustomed to, gleaming in happiness.
“Welcome home Twilight, make yourself comfortable.”
She gazed around the silver platter of rusted homes, feeling welcome once again. The hills were especially fresh today with a nice hue added to them as she noticed. Chaos triumphed throughout the distinctly inaccurate architecture of the land. Twilight took a gander at all there was to see, her eyes started to sparkle and grow large.
“Oh how I missed you so much!” She screamed psychotically, yet none of the ponies seemed to care. She tumbled down the hill as fast as she could, tackling the tiled ground and trying to give it a big hug.
“Come here you, hahaha” She started to roll over on her side and laugh. Twilight suddenly snapped back and remembered what she had to do.
“Discord! Right… can’t get off topic” she said relieving a breath of stressed air. The sky began to grow cold and bitter from the black clouds blocking the sun. Shivers ran down Twilight’s mane, with memories rushing back into her mind.
“*shivers* I… n..need to get.. b.b.b..back t…t..t..o Applejack!” She said struggling to keep herself warm. The breeze chilled more and more as the clouds stirred. They twisted and turned in an unpredictable dance of torture. Each waking moment of their movements toned the temperature to an unpleasant chill. Twilight got herself off the ground as fast as she could and started running to where she last remembered Applejack’s home being. With a glance of her eye, she noticed Lyra and Berrypunch arguing over the last basket of apples left.
“H… how c…c..can you two arg…argue at a.. t…time like t…his” Twilight said desperately clinging to herself for warmth.
“Well I was happily enjoying my day when THIS little prick tripped over me. She should have known better than that!” Lyra said without a single stutter from the cold.
“Me?! I was the one minding my own business; you’re the one who should watch where you walk!” Berrypunch said with an angry tone. They both didn’t seem to mind the cold, even if the droplets of warm air froze before them in a haze. Twilight quit her shivering momentarily noticing the 2 girl’s cutie marks. Lyra’s was a Baseball bat and a Baseball, while Berrypunch’s was an open bottle of wine. The 2 kept fighting and bickering at each other while twilight starred with confusion.
“Right… yeah… well I… I’ll J.. Just B..e going n…n… now.” Twilight said as she started to run. While she got her footing on the freezing cold ground, Lyra decided she was done arguing with the drunk.
“Yah well maybe if you stopped drinking so much you could see where you tripped!” Lyra said as she trotted away. As Twilight was starting to run, she collided into Lyra and fell on the floor face first. Her head pounded from pain, but she got back up and started running again.
“You can’t just trip over me then run! Get back here you little tramp!” Lyra said with an angry show of emotion. She started to become infuriated and raged at twilight, swinging her hoof around. She ran as fast as she could away from the raging Lyra towards applejack’s place. She continued to run till her hooves became sore, her stomach churning, and her lungs in major pain. She stopped for a moment to catch her breath, only to notice the area of cold was gone.
“It’s not cold anymore… what could have c-” Twilight said before she paused in shock. The entire farm was split into sections of floating matter. Each section from the barn to the home was completely separated from each other. They levitated at least 10 feet length wise from each other, varying on height greatly. She looked down the edge of the rock, but her expectations were proved wrong yet again.
“The bottom, it’s filled with smog as well!” Twilight slightly shocked at the sight of entire land piece being one big floating rock in a bundle of smoke. She shook herself out of it and refocused herself again at the big picture.
“I have to get to Applejack; it’s my only hope at finding the truth!” She said, standing proudly with an arrogant smirk reaching up to her twitchy eye. She took a look around every nook and corner of the floating rocks to find an open piece of feasible land. None seemed to be in her radius, until one of them mysteriously floated towards her in an offering gesture. The land piece held itself out in a kind and courteous manner, waiting for Twilight’s response. It sat slightly underneath where she stood, about 3 feet away.
“It’s only a couple feet away, I can still make it!” She said as she hopped in a complete circle with a slightly out of sync pace. The rock was there, the opportunity was there, Twilight had to make her move. If she didn’t make this jump, all hope of finding her way to Discord would be forever lost. With a slow pacing backwards, she prepared herself for one of the riskiest moves she would have to make.
“Ok… on the count of 3, I move, got that? Good.” She said with a nervous swiveling breath respiring from her lungs.
“Alright you lazy bum, let’s go! 1… 2……. 3…GO!” She ran as fast as her hooves have ever gone before. The pure rush of adrenaline fueled her fury as she ran like a steroid pumped bull. Her life moved at a crawl with life flashing before her eyes. Everything came down to this one moment, where she would risk it all to find what she needs. Her hooves blurred past in a fury, her heart raced, it was time to jump! She made the Jump, letting the demonic clouds flow by her as she fell to the will of gravity.
“Applejack!” She roared as her vengeance showed no limits. The cruel hands of gravity got a hold of twilight and brought her down with an aggressive pull. She fell near the rock piece and grabbed onto the edge in a desperate attempt to resist the urges of gravity. Her life was almost over, just hanging on by the threads.
“I… will NOT…. GIVE IN!!!” She moved herself inch by inch slowly onto the piece of unearthly rock, grasping her back hooves to the tangible land beneath her. Her adrenaline was still kicked in, which kept her hanging onto dear life. Twilight made progress in climbing up the rock, but another problem was there. The rock began to tip, losing its core balance.
“no… NO!” Twilight screamed at the top of her lungs in a panic state desperately trying to get up. The rock tilted more and more, taking her down to another unoccupied grave with her name on it. Fate was out to get her; there was no turning back for the purple mare. She grasped and grasped, but the rock only tilted more and more. She slid off the rock into the dark and dusky fate that she was destined to meet. Gravity had finally grabbed a hold of her; she will now meet him personally.
With her grip lost, Twilight started flying down with the unrealistic gravitational force of an anvil. Title waves of clouds crashed around her as they fluidly flowed. Her last memories passed through her mind, the train kept on rolling. Her dear memories, adventures, times of laughter all sank and drowned in her sub-conscious. A tear formed from her eye as it was pushed off her cheek from the brutal and unforgiving winds. The clouds began to clear as she saw the charred black ground holding her fate.
“I tried…” she whispered, finally giving in. She knew it was bad with Fluttershy’s encounter, but this time was much worse. All traces of hope and courage slipped away as she rushed through the masked fog. Each Individual foot, every second by mere second passed by with the winds as she fell towards her graveyard. The grave graciously greeted itself with its sugar coated knife and false persuasive approaches. Twilight almost fell for this sweet treat, but wanted to keep her mind clear before she died.
The end was near, mere moments left before Twilight’s life was locked away and chucked under mounds of dirt. She could already taste the sweet sensation of life given to her, what she had lacked before. Her last moments were the liveliest and happy yet, her torture was soon to end. She closed her eyes peacefully, and then it went blank. Not a sound was heard… not a single one. Silence brewed across the charred grounds, skipping slightly over the ashes and pain.
There twilight remained… swimming solely through her personal tub of blood. The short frizzy hairs on her mane slowly rested themselves, Twilight was at peace. No more sounds of pain, no more cries of agony, not a single sound of arguing, torture, mental disturbance. Everything was gone, only the echoes of the beating wings from the southern birds that flew low to the ground.
“Get this purple prick awake… we need her alive!”
“I’m not doing anything for you ya lousy bitch”
“Get a move on, we don’t have all day. Ya ears full of cotton or something?”
“….”
“I found a bucket of water… will this do?”
“Give me that! *splashes water from the bucket onto her face*”
“Wake up! Wake up! WAKE UP!!” The sheer volume of her voice knocked the mare awake! She looked around in desperation and despair, confusion and sorrow. She thought she was gone for; all her misery was over…
“Where am I?! What’s going on?!” Screamed twilight in a panic. The blue screwball smacked Twilight in the face as soon as she looked over.
“And THAT is for tripping over me ya clumsy loose footed jackass!” Screamed Lyra right in front of twilight. She was still in dismembering shock from what just happened, but quickly snapped back to her senses.
“Hey screwball, it’s not my fault you can’t watch where you walk!” Twilight screamed before muffling herself in self-pity. Lyra Growled before cooling herself a little and explaining to Twilight.
“Look ya selfish prick, I only helped you so you would get off my basket of apples. You fell on me and bruised MY basket, keep out of my way and no harm will come to you understand? “ Said Luna with an oddly patient sound in her voice. Twilight walked slowly away from the blue mare in an unpleasant and confused matter. She watched herself die from impact, yet she is still alive here in discord’s land. She pulled out her quill and paper to take some notes while sitting near a black spotted oak tree with pink leaves.
“The Experience: Notes
This might sound weird to you, but I’m not sure where I am or if I’m still insane. Whether that case to be, I’ve got notes to write and I’ll see to it that I keep myself going. This is day 3 if I’m not mistaken (although I haven’t taken the recordings for days, funny right?). I remember knocking my head on the ground after tripping over screwball not too far from where I stand. Applejack’s home was on a gigantic piece of floating matter, which seemed to be appropriate considering she was missing for quite some time now. She has to have information on where I am and what discord is planning. I don’t know how much longer I can keep up this act of courage, but as long as I can think straight I should be just fine. I’ll just have to watch over you twilight, simple as that. Good thing I’m such a good and responsible person that I can watch over my friend(s). Yah you said it twilight HAHAHAHA… oh right thinking straight. Forget I ever said that, I’m perfectly fine. In the meantime I’ll need to check applejack’s place to make sure it’s still the same as it was before. 7256… yah that seems about right. Well I’m off to find Applejack
Yours truly,
-Twilight.
She put away the quill and paper the same as every other time, but stuck them in the opposite pockets as she normally would. Her hooves started to move quickly across the ground as she ran past Lyra, making sure not to run into her this time. She ran as fast as she could, contempt with the feeling of dejavu. Her frantic hoof flailing ceased at the shock of what she saw.
“Now applejacks home is… GONE?!” She stood star-struck at this terrible sight. Not a single spec of the farm or its land was left, only an incomplete road leading there. She gazed in shock at this sight, looking down from where she was before. Her eyes widened even more when she noticed not a single piece of fog was down there. It was only a black nothingness with a carved out layer of rock. It was a perfect cut out with absolutely no etch lines across the sides of the carved land. She fell on her behind in shock and slowly scooted away from the edge.
“Oh dear Celestia it’s worse than I thought!” She whispered to herself, still rocketing bullets of sweat from her nervous forehead. Some of it decisively dripped down, while the rest launched far away from where twilight stood like a diversely centerpiece fountain. She shook the beads of sweat off her head and stood back up from her seated position.
“If Applejack isn’t here… then where could she be?” Twilight tried to focus on the matter, but she became somewhat dazed and distracted. Her attention shifted to an explosion of diverse colors displaying broadly across the thick layers of fog. The light beams seared through the clouds, bringing an unthinkably large smile to her face.
“COLORS! Oh thank the stars above for this, OH COLORS!” She screamed in happiness from seeing the display of brightly portrayed light bands. After 30 short seconds, the color bands ran off, leaving twilight sad and alone.
“Where did those colors come from?” She whispered to herself.
“Oh nowhere, just the most PREDICTABLE SPOT IMAGINABLE!”
“Who said that? Who’s there?”
“I’m over here twat! Right here!”
“I can’t see you! Show yourself”
“I am you, moron!” She screamed, running in circles around her standing point looking for the mare she heard. Her attention snapped back again and looked at where the bits of light still remained, completely forgetting about whom she talked to.
“Those colors, I must know where they came from!” She said, almost sounding sane. She bulleted towards the bright bands of luminary pleasure as fast as her hooves could take her. She slightly wobbled in both directions heading towards the light, but she didn’t seem to mind. Her trip ended as she gazed at the beauty witnessed.
“Oh… My… Word…” She held her hoof up to her mouth and stared at it with glossy eyes. She scaled up the walls with her focus observing every last detail of this shining building. It had vines running up the angles with the looks of an ancient architecture suited for the heavens above. It glistened with polished silver, layered with slight buffs and scratches next to the vines. It contained layers of polish upon polish to pure beauty. It was all held behind an iron-barred gate reading “Sweet Silver Acres”. Even the roads were gold plated, containing in the center ruby stuttered laminated bricks.
“It’s… Beautiful!”
“And it’s one of the things I have to offer here.”
“Oh great, you again.”
“Who?”
“You… that weird person I was talking to back near applejack’s place.”
“That’s funny… I don’t recall ya along these parts.”
“You sure about that?” Twilight then whipped around to notice the person she was looking for was standing right next to her. It was applejack! She was wearing an expensive-looking suit with white stitching made of pure leather. It was studded with perfectly rounded stones made out of the finest materials in Ponyville.
“Ok… now I know I lost my mind.” Said twilight staring oddly at Applejack.
“Sorry to be a bothersome, but apparently you’re the loony one her missy.” Applejack said as she properly placed her hoofs on the collar of her suit.
“That can’t be right.. I’m perfectly sane…” Twilight said as she slightly twitched.
“Oh trust me; it’s worse than you think.” Applejack them grabbed a mirror from her back pocket and reflected it right in front of Twilight. She screamed at what she looked like now, gasping for air after the shock.
“My goodness I’m a wreck!” Twilight shouted holding her hoof to her chest in shock.
“Don’t worry now; I’ll fix ya right up.” Applejack then whistled where 2 husky looking ponies carried a personal carriage for the 2 of them. Twilight stepped inside slowly while Applejack barged through. The 2 entered the white carriage, heading to their personal dream home inside. The carriage was made of a fine silk with drapes hanging elegantly over the open doors.
“Now let’s get back to my place where we can chat a little longer.”
Applejack and Twilight sat silently across from each other as the 2 work horses took them to their destination. The scenery crawled slowly alongside them, showing every last detailed piece brightly from the glow of the building. Closer and closer, the 2 ponies sat quietly, with no conversation active. Twilight finally breaks the silence with a loud breath and almost speaks to Applejack, but quickly quiets herself sadly.
“What’s wrong Twilight?” Said applejack with semi-big puppy eyes glaring at Twilight with unconditional love.
“Oh… nothing Applejack… I’m just somewhat on edge is all.” Said Twilight as she glared down at the seat.
“On edge? What kind of silly talk is that?” Applejack said as she put her hooves on her hip.
“Twilight, you shouldn’t be nervous, your safe now.” Suddenly, Twilight snapped stiff. She stood paralyzed from fear for about 4 seconds, then slowly turned her head towards applejack with her soulless eyes.
“I’m safe… WHEN HAVE I BEEN SAFE?!” Twilight screamed with a ravenous scream.
“Twilight, knock it off! What’s gotten into ya?!” Applejack says with sheer terror in her voice.
“You know very well I haven’t been safe, you’ve been spying on me this whole time!!!”
“Twilight this is insanity, cut it out!” Applejack screamed getting up close and personal with Twilight.
“Oh HOW CUTE! You want me to calm down don’t ya? Well it’s not happening you liar!!!” Twilight said pulling on Applejack’s weaved mane. Applejack whistles to the 2 mares carrying the carriage, stopping them in that moment. Applejack ripped loose of Twilight’s grip, pushing her away from swinging distance.
“Twilight Sparkle I am ashamed of you! I offer you my home and personal courtesies and you accuse me!? I’m sorry Twilight, but this is for your own good!” Applejack tackles Twilight out the side door while grabbing the drapes sitting by the entry way as they fall out the doorway. She rips the drapes off and wraps it around twilight’s front and back hooves. Twilight desperately struggles to get the drapes off of her mouth and hooves, but they are too tight for her. Applejack then grins in pleasure at her fallen friend.
“Alright boys, round her up!” She said waving her hoof towards the fallen mare. The 2 husky looking colts grabbed twilight around her arms and legs, tossing her back into the white carriage. They trotted back in position and waited for Applejack to gracefully return back into her carriage. She returns to the carriage and stares into twilight’s semi-focused eyes from across where she sat.
“Now I wish it hadn’t come to this, but it’s for your own good.” Applejack said as she stared down the psychotic pony with a light red glow in her eyes. Twilight noticed this again and knew this could be the true end of herself. Just then Applejack ripped off the other curtain and muffled Twilight. Unable to breath, she desperately struggled till her last breath to fight free, but fell unconscious in the process. Applejack removed the curtain off of Twilight’s face to make sure she didn’t die.
“That should just about do it… now time to head back home.” Applejack said, tipping her hat across her face carelessly. The carriage continued to move towards her home as she slept soundly. 30 minutes passed as the carriage finally arrived to her destination, where she was woken up by her employees.
“Madam Jack, were here.” The employee said while tapping on her shoulder ever so lightly. Applejack instantly threw herself out of her dream and looked to see if twilight was still unconscious. She put her hoof on Twilight’s neck to check for her pulse.
“It’s pretty slow; yep she’s still out like a bulb.” Applejack said chuckling to herself in satisfaction.
“Dennis, Mark!” She screamed, where the 2 employee ponies stood directly in drill format, front face from their Sargent Applejack. The 2 had a white coat with blue manes and a fire styled tail which leads down to their semi-dark hooves.
“Get Twilight to her appropriate place, I’ll meet you there shortly.” The 2 ponies shook their head in acceptance and grabbed twilight, taking her to where Applejack planned it to be. She followed around to the other side of the building, arriving to her destination only shortly before the employees. Applejack sat down respectably, giving a hoof signal to the employees to wake her up. Dennis held her face while Mark gave a forceful kick right in the jaw! Twilight woke up with pain and dizziness blending in unsoundly from the impact.
Twilight took a moment, still dizzy, to focus on her environment. From what she could physically see, the entire house was pure white with a leather finish. The floor was tile, the walls were wood, and the chairs were leather; all of which were colored completely white. Not much detail inside for such delightful eye candy the outside has to offer. The 2 employees ripped off the drapes from her mouth and let her speak.
“What’s going on? Where am I?” She panicked, before remembering everything that happened before hand. Her panic quickly transformed to hatred as she shifted her attention towards Applejack who sat soundly.
“Applejack, you evil scumbag!” Twilight screamed, trying to break loose of her draped hold.
“Who? Me?” Applejack said, tipping her hat slightly down.
“If it was me Sparkle, you would already be dead.”
“That’s a lie and you know it!” Twilight screams shaking around in her chair furiously. Applejack tilts her hat up and throws it on the ground, focusing on twilight with furious, yet patient eyes.
“You can’t say I’m lying if you never heard the truth Twilight Sparkle.” Applejack said with a soft tone. Twilight immediately silenced herself, giving Applejack a deceptive glare.
“Good, just what I thought. On a more important matter, have you seen everything around this home? Great looking place isn’t it?” Applejack said as she glared in every corner of every wedge in the whole home. Twilight sat puzzled as to what she found so interesting in the blandness of her all white home.
“I just find the beauty in the simplest things in life, don’t you?”
“The décor is nothing but a sugar coated lie, just like you.” Twilight said, spitting traces of blood onto the perfectly white floor. Applejack looked at her suspiciously, resuming to what she was saying.
“Speaking of all you went through, I haven’t heard back from Pinkie and Fluttershy for quite some time. How have they been?” Applejack said, pressing her front hooves against each other. Twilight only turned her head away, not uttering a single word.
“So that’s how it is huh…” Applejack said with an aggressive, yet subtle tone. She stomped her hoof, which brought the 2 employees to Twilight’s side. They stared at twilight presumably, waiting for her to make a wrong move.
“I really wish you kept away from my friends Twilight.”
“They were my friends t-“ Just then Mark grabbed Twilight’s throat and squeezed it tightly, cutting off air momentarily.
“Mark, enough.” Mark then released Twilight from his grip, giving her the pleasure to breathe.
“Twilight, I’d like to ask you some questions personally.” Applejack says waving her hoof for the 2 employees to leave. She gets up from her chair and starts to trot around twilight.
“Tell me twilight; you’re the smart one, why would you want to question me?” Applejack said with an arrogant smirk running across her face.
“I may know allot, but I don’t know everything. You’re not the one that laid unconscious. “
“True Twilight, but nothing is completely free.” Applejack said as she rubbed her hooves together.
“Tell ya what though; I’ll give you a little sampler of what I know just to make you feel better. Remember that burst of rainbow colored lights that you saw earlier?” Twilight sat silent, not even looking the orange mare in the eyes.
“Come on twilight… I need your word on this.” Applejack said with a slight sarcasm hidden between her monotone voice.
“… Yes…”
“That burst of light came from a machine Fluttershy made for me to dispose of as she quoted ‘Inconsiderate little brats’. Which is exactly what I did, but don’t worry, those 2 little fillies can go wreak more havoc in the heavens above and not my home.”
“What… about the light?”
“Oh that? Well the machine breaks down matter into pure energy, which was a great way of getting your attention as I stated before.” Applejack said as she boasted in front of twilight.
“Now tell me, do you know what happened to MY friends?” Applejack said instantly switching to a diabolical voice. She stared at Twilight, waiting patiently for her to respond, but she simply tilted her head away from her.
“Have you ever heard of a hard bargain Twilight? Apparently you don’t know anything from what I’ve seen” Applejack said, slightly grinning. Twilight starred with a silent, menacing glare; Applejack knew her answer.
“Since I’ve already given you a sample of my information, I need your side of the bargain to tell you the rest.” Applejack said as she unraveled the drapes from Twilight’s hands. As soon as she is unraveled, Twilight turns around and grabs Applejack, but is stopped by a magical hold. Applejack lifted Twilight from her seat, slightly higher than where Applejack stood.
“I’d be careful if I were you!” Applejack said, throwing Twilight to the ground with her levitation spell. Twilight speaks with a sly weakness creeping across her voice.
“Your… not a unicorn… what are you?” Twilight said holding herself awake.
“I’ll say this again, you do know what a hard bargain is don’t you?” Applejack said, staring down twilight once again.
“I’ve made ‘Agreements’ with some people. I’ll explain everything to you; all I need is a slight favor.” Applejack said, grabbing the pony once again with her magic. She reveals a contract paper and quill from her back pockets, and shows it in front of twilight.
“If you sign this little ol’ treaty here, I’ll make all your desires come true. You not only get the truth, but you also get what your heart desires, it’s still a win win for you Twilight.” Applejack said while she pushed the paper and quill in front of Twilight. She then pulled her head up and gathered the strength to speak.
“I wouldn’t write my own initials on this flimsy piece of paper if it costs me my life. That contract is the death of me; it’s obvious in the poorly made print.” Twilight said as she shoved the paper away from her face.
“That was your last chance Twilight, however, I have no intentions to kill you; it’s not my side of the bargain to do so.” Applejack said while turning twilight close to her face.
“You had an opportunity to get everything you desired, but threw it all away. Now it’s my turn to get what I want.” Applejack took twilight to a mysteriously vacant door, where she threw her in quickly without a word. Applejack grabbed the door and closed it shut, leaving twilight locked inside. Twilight got up and ran to the door, screaming and pounding.
“DAMN YOU APPLEJACK! DAMN YOU!!!” Twilight screamed at the top of her lungs, piercing the sound barrier of the door. Applejack stood silently for a moment hearing her, but continued to walk away without a single emotion. Twilight sat at the door, slightly sobbing from the shear loneliness of the pitch black room she would spend her days in. Her eyes began to leak tears of sorrow and despair.
“Oh Twilight, I just LOVE whenever you say that word, gives me such a rush.” Said the mysterious figure in the darkness, standing patiently for her to reply. Twilight turned her head towards the mysterious figure with only the eyes of sadness and despair revealing themselves.
“OH HOW WONDERFUL! You look fantastic, have I told you how much I love your mane?”
“You…” Twilight said silently, still staring at the figure without blinking once.
“Who… Me? The figure said with a modest, yet sarcastic tone. Twilight kept silent, only letting her emotionless stare work against the shadow glazed figure.
“Come now Sparkle, you must speak more properly towards your guests!” The Figure said while laughing menacingly. The figure then stepped out from the shadows to reveal its true form, leaving Twilight’s emotions unchanged.
“Welcome back Twilight!”
The room remained silent, only with the lonely sound of steps creeping through the blissfully silent room. Light was scarcely available, but what remained detailed exactly who stood in front of Twilight. Her details were obvious to the point; Twilight knew it from the start.
“Oh Twilight, how are you darling?” Rarity said as she waved her hoof gracefully in front of twilight. She was wearing an assortment of different diamonds, stones, and gems only accustomed for the wealthiest people in Equestria.
“It’s been a long time Rarity…” Twilight said as she smirked.
“Oh no doubt, I wanted to ask you a few questions first.” Rarity said as she approached closer to Twilight. Twilight then stared over at rarity, who stood a mere 6 feet away.
“Alright, what did you have in mind?” Twilight said as she stared at Rarity relentlessly.
“Let’s start this conversation simple; how have you been?” Rarity said as she looked at Twilight with caring and sad eyes.
“You can’t fool me rarity, I can see right through those make up eyes of yours!” Twilight said as she stared at rarity with blood shot eyes.
“Is that so? Well I don’t think you expected to see this then!” Rarity pulled out from behind her head the 3 elements that Twilight carried, along with the other 3 that she needed.
“My elements!” Twilight screamed, turning red from pure rage.
“Your elements? Well if that was the case dear, you really should have a better eye on them.” Rarity expressed with a sarcastic chuckle.
“Now let’s see here… Element of manslaughter… Element of Misfortune… and Element of Corruption. I see you’ve been visiting around lately.” Rarity said with a demon like smile.
“You can say that…” Twilight said, twitching from the containment of pure anger.
“You don’t mind if I ask my true friend in arms about this then do you?” Rarity said as she started to back into the shadows with the aura around the floating elements still in sight. Twilight was moments away from running to Rarity, but seized as she arrived back only moments later. Rarity returned, wielding only 3 of the elements this time, arriving with a well-known figure standing by her menacingly.
“Rarity, you wouldn’t mind if you held on to my section of the elements? I’m quite tired today” Discord said as he snapped his fingers to warp by Twilight. Rarity obeyed with a soldier-like attitude, quickly running back into the shadows.
“So… We meet again Sparkle.” Discord said as he clicked his fingers together from both hands next to her.
“Discord, what a surprise.” The 2 then stared at each other, face to face to end this conversation. Discord was just as menacing as ever, still containing the same stare he had when she last saw him.
“I’ve heard you’ve been acquainted with applejack if I haven’t mistaken.”
“I bet you would love to know.” Twilight said as she pressed her front hoof down and leaned forward slightly.
“Oh but I already knew, I know everything!”
“At what cost you sick twisted snake?” Twilight said as she stared at discord without a single blink.
“Twilight… have you ever heard of a ‘Hard Bargain’” Discord said as he slowly paced himself around twilight.
“I have… Applejack told me herself…”
“Oh did she? What a surprise, she was just on my mind.” Discord said as he chuckled maniacally.
“Well, just in case you’ve forgotten in your state of psychosis, let me explain.” Discord said with a devilish stare on twilight.
“A hard bargain is easy; one person has what the other wants and the other has what they want, so they make a bargain.
Now a hard bargain is when both sides make it more difficult to obtain these said items for each other.”
“And what does this have to do with me?” Twilight said, still staring at Discord with every waking moment.
“EXCELLENT QUESTION TWILIGHT!” Discord shouted as he snapped his fingers to teleport right above twilight.
“In fact, this is you’re grand finale!”
“Would you care to explain a little discord? Or do I have to run all the way back to pinkie’s cellar where you put me to find out again?!” Twilight screamed, stamping both her front feet.
“Oh twilight, your just marvelous at false accusations, applejack was completely right about you!”
“Can it lizard lips!”
“Oooh A feisty one! You’re quite the fighter I see, what ever happened to the peaceful librarian I’ve come to know?” Discord said while slightly turning his head and making a fake puppy dog face.
“She’s dead… with the rest of them.”
“Do tell! I guess this game was fun after all!” Discord said with a strong sarcasm breaking in.
“I need answers discord, you and your bargains will have to wait!” Twilight said with an infuriated tone. Discord then signaled Twilight with a finger over mouth hand sign, and presented Twilight’s elements in his palm. He grabbed her in his own tiger claw grip, waving the elements in front of her. She was tempted to grab them, but knew for the better that it would not end well for her if she did.
“Here is another example of your false accusations, I never took your precious elements, they were simply a gift.” Discord then took the elements away from Twilight and whistled, revealing Rarity from the shadows with her quill and paper in her grips.
“You see, I hired Rarity in a similar fashion to Applejack. She helped me get what I need, and now she has my complete permission to steal anything her heart desires, all she has to do is show them her badge.” Rarity then walked closer to Twilight, flashing her discord-shaped badge with a chrome finish. It had plating of gold and aluminum, mixed in together.
“You see Twilight? I never did anything wrong, I simply just had others get the job done. Your head is filled with nothing but lies; Celestia is nothing but a regal advertisement. I’m no bad guy; I am simply a governor who knows the right people!” Discord said, still holding Twilight in his arm.
“How dare you insult the princess!” Twilight said, struggling to break free of Discord’s hold.
“Insulting… or being honest?” Discord said which quieted Twilight momentarily.
“You see twilight, the best part about chaos is that you will never truly know what happens next, you can only simply guess. What I might be telling you is true, but it also might be false. It couldn’t be any better than that good for nothing princess, even I’m more straight forward then her! History has repeated itself, and I’ve took every last measure to assure that it will not end as it has before. Care to hear my plan? I thought it might be fun to tell you a little story.”
“And how will I know if I trust you?” Twilight then slipped through Discord’s claw, patiently awaiting the moment to strike. Discord didn’t seem to care; he only paced around slowly with his conversation.
“Did you hear me before? But to be quite fair young Sparkle, I can’t even trust myself!” Discord said laughing even harder this time, rolling on the floor in laughter. He gets back up and wipes the tears of joy from his eyes, resuming what he previously was saying.
“Where was I… oh that’s right! About the answers you searched for till your grave. You see twilight, when I told you that it has ‘just begun’; I honestly and full heartedly told you the truth… or did I? I could not grasp your element of magic, it was undiscovered back when I ruled one thousand years ago, I never took the time to perfect it. During that time, I thought to myself how I would rule equestria once again, knowing you suckers would fall for it anyways. Everything was close to perfect, but your element of magic wasn’t quite in my grasp and got in my way. I could tell you more if you so desperately want the answers” Discord said while leaning against Twilight’s side.
“What choice do I have…?”
“Excellent! Ok back to what I was doing… so, I had you all inside my grip to finish you off before the 2nd stage of development to my plan, but you’re a persistent bunch, you ponies just wouldn’t give up! I wanted to destroy you before this step so you gals wouldn’t have to suffer the ‘consequences’ of this transformation. Due to your cocky personality, you wouldn’t give up without a fight. I knew you all would use the elemental attack; I planned the whole thing myself for 1000 years. After you all passed out, I decided to leave you alone and let fate decide where to go. The 2nd stage was finally ready, as I headed back to my chair. You see why I loved my chair so much? Underneath it is a switch to activate this 2nd step of my plan. The outside was destroyed with harmony, but the important insides were all intact. All my chaos went from fun and joyful, to dark and twisted so I could regain disorder below my fellow subjects. This button causes a chain reaction type wave that spreads across the entire land. The closer the pony was to the center of the wave, the more they changed. Fortunately for you, your element of magic protected you from this shock wave, can’t say the same for your friends though. Celestia told you all the ponies were miserable under my rule, but it wasn’t from the chaos you saw before. What you’re seeing now is all under my 2nd step of complete rule, and your friends are the side effect.”
“So… *breathes deeply* what…. Does this have to do with me?!” Twilight said, breathing slowly while feeling every one of her heartbeats.
“This has absolutely nothing to do with you twilight, which is the problem completely.” Discord said in an unpleasant tone.
“You see twilight; everything that happened to you was none of my doings. This is what I was talking about before, but you never seem to listen. I made a bargain with Applejack to bring you back alive, and in return, she would get everything that her greedy little heart desired. I couldn’t do the job myself, so I drove a hard bargain with her, and she took care of the rest. Congrats Twilight, you truly are something aren’t you?” Discord said as he slowly walked on the cold hard floor.
“Why didn’t you just leave me be?” Twilight said in the gapes of her breath.
“I wanted to prove something to you twilight…” Discord then walked over to the wall and flicked a couple of light switches. The entire room became a white scorching blaze, which sizzled down when the light settled in. Twilight was shocked and oddly disturbed at the lack of content in the room.
“You like it? I made it especially for you.” The room was a white décor with pictures of every single moment she was inside of discord’s twisted rule. Each one was glued cheaply onto the wall with pieces of tape accompanying it. The walls were poorly painted with drips everywhere, matching the lack of anything. The entire room was completely empty; with only Discord, Twilight, and Rarity remaining.
“I knew you liked simple and boring, but I completely forgot you changed from my rule. That tends to happen allot, but let’s get back to the subject. Through your entire time here, your only goal was to find the Elements of Disharmony and destroy me at any cost am I right Twilight?” Discord said pointing to all the photos individually.
“…yes…”
“So your mission was to get past your friends, find the elements on your own, and defeat me… I do not see one piece of friendship in that entire context do you?”
“…no…”
“My point exactly Sparkle, The elements of Disharmony were a side effect of the 2nd stage, but I never thought they would be of this use to you. They all connect, but I have never personally used them, the elements never went through this transformation before. Your guess is as good as mine with the elements, but they seem to hold strength only for individual people, which you saw opportunity in. With this whole process, you’ve not only lost your sanity, but any moral values as well.”
“YOU LIAR!” Twilight screamed, picking herself up from the ground and charging towards Discord. With the snap of his fingers, he teleported behind twilight and tackled her to the ground.
“Do you think I’m lying? What did you prove to me with an accusation of a crime I never did? It was each of the pony’s personal lusts to kill you Twilight, not my own. I hired Rarity and Applejack here to prove just that, do you have anything else to argue on this?” Discord said in a maniacal and cruel tone towards Twilight. Suddenly, she stopped fighting and began to give up. She put her hooves down and ended her struggle against discord.
“Discord… your right… I should have never doubted you…” Twilight said as she put her head completely down in shame.
“You see? How could you ever doubt me? Now because you’re such a nice person, I can give you the opportunity of your entire life.” Discord pulled out a treaty and quill for Twilight to sign, keeping it close to where she could see it.
“If you sign here, I promise personally that I will bring back all of your friends so you can live your illusion of friendship once again. On your side of the bargain, you will have to completely give in to me and watch me destroy your only salvation of the elements in front of your face.” Discord said as he tapped the paper slowly. His dastardly nails from his hawk talon indented the finely made paper, slightly creasing the top paragraph of test.
“Well Sparkle… do we have a deal?” Discord said as he slightly raised his brow at her. The purple mare sat silent and blank, thinking about everything she has done. Twilight thought deeply about every encounter, all the pain and suffering, every last emotion drained from her soulless heart and burned in the pits of hell. Her emotions and passions started to flow in to her hopeless mind. Every adventure, every great time with her friends, all the great laughs and joys she shared with everyone around her. She picked up the quill with her mouth, and closely proceeded to sign. The quill almost touched the paper, but she dragged it away and spat it out. She stood up again with all her passion and emotions pouring back, giving her the will and strength she thought she lost.
“You know what discord? I’ve been through every torture, every mind numbingly incomprehensible pain with every waking moment of this world being a living nightmare. This world is nothing but a cruel jail, burning in the pits of the lowest lands, where scum like you live. Your far-fetched honesty proves your ignorance as a ruler and a respectable person. Celestia may not be completely honest, but she cares about us enough to know that we don’t need to know to be truly happy. What you don’t know is that the feeling of others matters more than your own! What may seem like just a false propaganda of friendship and care to you is true and real to us as the days and nights that once cycled this very land. We may be strong by ourselves, but nothing can truly be accomplished on our own! You’ve only proven how weak and low balling you are to make others do your work, you lazy bottom feeding snake!!!” Discord stood shocked and anguished! He couldn’t feel his muscles moving momentarily, but shifted his attention back to the matter at hand.
“I warned you sparkle!” Discord said as he snapped his fingers and teleported to a fold out control panel. The desk was a polished brass with gray buttons and a chrome finish around the edges. Discord flipped a switch and opened a wall panel full of molten lava. He pulled the elements from his pockets, hanging them over the panel of molten lava.
“Say goodbye to sanctuary you pugnacious rat!” Discord drops the elements, but they didn’t fall into the lava. The elements were carried by a white aura, moving over to rarity. She grabbed the elements in her back pocket, which happen to be the other 3 that Discord let her hold.
“You’re such a sucker Discord! You honestly thought I would just sit there and let you throw away such fantastic looking jewelry think again!” Rarity screamed, grabbing all 6 of the elements for her own gain.
“What about our deal?! I trusted you!” Discord screamed, reaching out to Rarity.
“I never trusted you or your false friendship. You said yourself, never trust anyone else besides yourself, well this is my day to prove that to you once and for all!” Rarity then grabs the elements and begins to put them together piece by piece with her own hooves. Discord ran towards rarity, screaming at the top of his lungs.
“Stop you selfish brat! Don’t combine them, who knows what will happen!!!” Discord screams, trying to get to rarity in time. He snaps his fingers, but realizes that the pure power coming from the elements blocks him from teleporting next to her. She begins to put each piece together, limb by limb, making the combined forces of the elements stronger.
“And you’re going to look so GOOD on me, you shiny medallions you!” Rarity says to herself joyfully. She puts the last piece on, but then they began to shake abnormally. The whole ground shook, causing all the machinery in the room to rattle. The walls start to peel, the floors start to collapse, and then the elements started to spin rapidly. Sparks and fire surged through the elements, sending bands of multiple colors throughout the room. The elements began to stretch and twist, changing shape abruptly. The sheer spinning force of the elements caused a paradox tear, ripping through the fabrics of matter and destroying rarity in the process. The elements spiraled out of control, imploding on themselves and leaving a black hole. It sucked all matter inside of it, leaving Twilight and discord on a limb. She hung on for dear life, but lost grip and grabbed onto discord’s tail.
“Get off of me, I will not die here!” Discord screams, kicking Twilight furiously until she yanked discord’s tail hard enough to where he lost his grip as well. Twilight fell into the vortex first, Discord soon after. The two of them are knocked out from the black hole without another sight to be seen. The black hole closed its vague entrance, not revealing a spec of light from inside. Everything turned black, then silent. Pure… dead… silence…
Darkness… The only thing Twilight felt, heard, and saw. It crawled around her, wrapping its entity through the outside of her body. She felt nothing… heard nothing… saw nothing… only darkness. Her eyes slowly closed at the madness retrieving her in, losing everything she worked for. She slowly passed out till the darkness had completely engulfed her in madness. She knew it was over, this time she could feel it.
Time passed as she arose to find the pure warmth of sunlight once again beaming on her forehead. It soothed her like a mineral bath she could only dream of feeling. It grasped her in a tightly woven sensation of pure happiness. She looked around, noticing it wasn’t over yet. She got up onto her hooves and looked at the fine details around her.
The land was made of a purple checkered material with still a slight plush to it. The sunlight was there to comfort her, soon leaving for the moon to show his regal appearance. She sat behind a bush with some background noise irritating her, but she started listening to it instead. She realized it wasn’t mindless noise, not by a long shot!
“That sounds like… ME?!” Twilight shouted, looking at herself in shock.
“I’m not talking to myself, what’s going on?!” Twilight turned her head around to notice she sat behind a green bush with bright blue polka dots. She moved aside the leaves and stood in shock with the site she saw.
“It’s… me… with the OTHERS?! THERE STILL ALIVE!” She screamed, jumping up and down. The ponies didn’t seem to notice her abruption and continued the conversation with Discord. Twilight quit her jumping in shock, remembering what happened before.
“Oh no… this can’t be what I think it is…” Twilight rechecked outside the bush, looking at the event taking place. Discord was getting out of his chair, talking to the girls. This was the beginning to when Discord would rule, she had to stop it.
“All my work… everything I’ve done… wasted for this very moment…” She said, falling on her behind. She began to cry as she watched in horror for history to repeat itself. She gazed in aww as the ponies formed the elemental band. The elemental beam began to form; she knew what she had to do.
“It was nice knowing you twilight… but I kept a promise and I intend to hold onto it!” Twilight said as she stared at the event occurring. She positioned herself on the side of discord near the bush, ready to attack. The elemental waterfall emanated from the luminous ponies, heading towards discord. Twilight charged as fast as her hooves could take her. She ran to discord with all her strength. Rage and fury exhausted itself from her wheezing breath, her eyes still bloodshot from emotional pain. The scratches and bruises from her hooves were agonizing, but she kept running. Discord teleported right by the side of the waterfall, the same way that he had before. She released one last tear from her once caring heart, letting it flow freely by her cheeks. With one last push of strength, she tackled discord into the waterfall. Discord transformed back into stone, while Twilight was thrown out from the waterfall.
The mane 6 fell down from exhaustion, as Applejack looking at what they thought was a hallucination. Lying only slightly away from them was Twilight… but Twilight was already with them. She was too dazed and confused to instantaneously notice.
“Applejack…” Twilight said as she struggled to get up.
“I… I’m here.”
“Help… Me…” Twilight said as she struggled for air.
“But your right next to me…” Applejack said staring at the first twilight.
“Wait… YOU ARE STANDING NEXT TO ME!!!” She screamed, hopping to her feet immediately, looking at both duplicates. The first Twilight got back on her feet with the rest, but the second one laid on the ground, winded and suffering. The ponies ran as fast as they could to the fallen Twilight twin to comfort her.
“Who are you?” Rainbow Dash said as she trotted closer to the suffering Twilight.
“Come closer… I have to *Breathes deeply* Tell you something…” Twilight said as she murmured through her last breathes. Suddenly she began to dissolve from the collision of the elements. The darkness in her heart caused her to become unprotected from the elements, which was slowly killing her from contact.
“Twilight… you don’t look so hot…” Pinkie pie said as she turned to Twilight.
“Wrong Twilight Pinkie!” Twilight said as she face-hoofed herself. Pinkie then hopped over to the other twilight and stood in shock, not uttering a word.
“Tw… Twilight?!” Pinkie said as she stood in shock for her fallen friend.
“Shh Pinkie… Twilight has something to say.” Applejack said as she stared at Pinkie with a serious glance. The ponies got closer to her, with twilight leading in front. They approached twilight as she began to evaporate, taking out her tail leading to her legs.
“Twilight… I need you to listen to me…” Twilight said as she stared at herself. Twilight shook her head, giving a caring glare to her other friends. The evaporation process sped up, already taking her legs away.
“Check… the chair…” She said as her life began to slip away. Rainbow Dash soared to the chair like lightning, searching around it.
“I can’t find the darn thing!” she said, leaning on its side, accidentally knocking it upwards. Underneath the chair was a large button, the same one Discord described.
“What’s this…” Rainbow Dash said as she stared at it curiously. Twilight’s mid body was beginning to fade, leaving only short minutes left for her to speak.
“Don’t… touch…” Twilight said as she stared at Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash stared at it, noticing the black discord face outline inscribed on it. She flew away from it in fear, returning to the rest of the gang.
“Come… Closer…” She said, staring completely at twilight. Twilight approached herself, putting her earlobe close to the dying pony. Twilight began to speak, whispering from her last breath her final words.
“It’s… not… over…” Twilight said, resting her head down and collapsing. She dissolved completely, leaving no traces of her body left. The ponies began to cry, shedding tears upon tears of sadness. Even Twilight cried for her own dead body that once lied next to her. They huddled together and hugged each other, crying for the death of Twilight. Applejack approached Twilight, patting her on the back.
“I’m sorry for your loss of… yourself.” Applejack said, slowly patting Twilight.
“I just wish I knew how this was possible…” Suddenly, Twilight looks upon her resting place with a quill and paper sitting on the grass. She presumed to pick it up, reading its contents. It was the notes Twilight took earlier with every detail intact. She took the quill and paper, putting it into her back pockets and turned to the others.
“I was right… it’s not over…” The entire crowd of ponies stood silent, not saying a single word. Not a single sound was heard, only pure silence. Pinkie Pie then jumped in front of the other ponies and shouted.
“WAIT! If discord will still rule another day… how will we know?” Pinkie Pie said, shocking the others with a logical response.
“We will wait for him… together. We will always stand strong for one another in the name of friendship and harmony. I’ve made the greatest sacrifice for everyone around me today, and I intend to do the same if that is what comes down to. No matter what happens girls, we will always stand strong… we will always stand together to fight the evils of this land. No matter how many times discord returns, he will fall. He will know who we are! He will know the power of the Elements of Harmony, of Equestria, of FRIENDSHIP!” She shouted, boasting herself on top of a hill. The other ponies put their hooves together, chanting together.
“For everyone around us, may friendship prevail!” Rarity said as they put their hooves in perfect synchronization while they moved up and down.
“TOGETHER!” They all screamed, hugging and laughing while the sun shines and the birds sing. No matter what may seem bleak or hopeless, there will always be a shining light at the end of the tunnel. When worst comes to absolute worst, we will always stand strong together.
“Weekly letter #25: Friendship Prevails.
Dear princess Celestia, today was the oddest, yet most life changing lesson I have ever learned. What we cannot understand might affect us as we may never truly understand how. The greatest selfless acts of dignity are affected to everyone around you and every single other person; even the ones who may not know who you are in the near future, but will always be thankful. Gaining personal lusts may bring you happiness temporarily, but what will truly make you and everyone else happy is what you do for them and all the others. Friendship is not only a way to express emotions; it’s also more than just false propaganda. What we do for each other will live on forever in our hearts and the many we affect with every action we take.
-Yours truly, Twilight Sparkle.
The End!
