You Wouldn't Believe Me if I Told You

Chapters

Prologue: The Stage of Nightmares
Chapter 1: The Wall
Chapter 2: Question Period
Chapter 3: A Meeting of Partners
Chapter 4: The Calm
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Chapter 5: Dark Horizons
Chapter 6: Meeting the Players
Chapter 7: The Storm Hits
Chapter 8: Let the Game Begin... With a Wardrobe Malfunction
Chapter 9: Of Princesses and Pinkie
Chapter 10: Speak Softly, and Carry a Sharp Blade
Chapter 11: Revenge and Reunion
Chapter 12: Under the Knife
Chapter 13: Discovery and Respite
Chapter 14: Revelations
Chapter 15: Dimensions
Chapter 16: The Fellowship Fails
Chapter 17: Tricksy Trixie
Chapter 18: Adrift
Chapter 19: Out of the Frying Pan
Chapter 20: Lost and Found
Chapter 21: Fire and Ice
Chapter 22: Room Service
Chapter 23: Trial by Fire and Friendship
Epilogue
Continuation Note

Prologue: The Stage of Nightmares

Ok, so I have never actually written a fanfic before, but I have done some editing. A large chunk of this story is a dream I had, so I hope I can keep this story going with pure conscious imagination.

Aaaaand here is the disclaimer: I don’t own MLP: FiM, aside from my Pinkie, Rainbow, and Applejack figures. Oh, oops! I don’t own the RIGHTS to MLP: FiM. That belongs to Lauren Faust and Hasbro.

You Wouldn’t Believe Me if I Told You

Prologue: The Stage of Nightmares

He could not believe it.

She was dead.

After all he had done to delay the inevitable. Everything he would have done to delay it further, perhaps save her.

His wife was dead.

Sven was on his knees in the middle of a small field, embracing the slightly broken, bloodied, and still smoking body of his wife, hoping to the gods that Camilla was safe in Savengarde. He hoped she was there, or at least, somewhere other than where he still was.

He hated this place, although he was not sure of where this wretched place actually was. Although the field looked similar to the one just outside of Riverwood where they had been having a picnic by the river, there was no longer any river. There was only the field, perhaps 500 foot square of it. And then there was nothing. Not even a cliff leading into the abyss. It was a flat square field, suspended over a dark, cloudy nothingness. A few miles away, there was one object he could see that broke up the emptiness. One lone structure he wished to the gods either was not there, or would collapse into itself in the very near future. He tearfully glared at it with all he had, trying to accomplish its downfall with sheer willpower.

It was a tower, and no small one, either. It was a huge, black, jaggedly menacing tower. Sven knew buildings could not be evil in and of themselves, but if they could, this would be a tower constructed of pure malice, evil, and hatred. It must have been over a mile tall!

The tower itself was not even the worst part. It was the top, the pinnacle of the tower that showed the true evil of that massive creation. Between the two thin, needle-like protrusion on the top of the tower was the Eye.

This Eye was wholly unnatural. Despite it being entirely disembodied from, well, a body, it was also wreathed in red and orange flames, seemingly flowing from the slit of a pupil and connecting to the tips of the twin needles on either side. This Eye could speak; it had no mouth, but it could speak. It had spoken, it must have spoken! Otherwise Sven knew that he could never have done the things he had. It had called itself Sauron. It told him to do evil things, toying with him, bending his mind, doing its will. The same could have been said for the others who were gone now, so many people gone now. At first it had been just him, Camilla, and Faendal. He had always hated Faendal, still did. Faendal was still here. He was always trying to steal Camilla away from him, asking passing adventurers to send her nasty letters in the guise of being from Sven. Granted, he would have done the same had the adventurer come to him about it first, but that did not make it right!

Then came the others.

It seemed like the whole population of Riverwood had just shown up here, no buildings, just people. One by one, those poor fools had died. Some gave in to Sauron’s will; some were killed, by others or by Sauron’s horrid machinations and traps. They had been here for days, or what certainly must have been days, possibly weeks. They never felt hunger or thirst, unless that was part of the test. When that happened it hit them hard, and there was little to eat other than grass and the other contestants, and the grass disappeared and the dirt turned to stone for those rounds. Early on that stupid blacksmith had denied the possibility that they were truly over nothing, that there was ground just underneath the smoky, black clouds. He decided to jump.

He screamed for an awfully long time before he died.

Or did he die? Perhaps he was just too far away to be heard.

Suddenly, Sauron began to speak again. It did not quite sound like a sound, more like an invasion into his head. A voice, deep and slow, harsh and maniacal, echoed through Sven’s brain. And, as always, he and Faendal were forced to remain motionless as the Eye flooded their vision without them even looking anywhere near the tower.

“Well done, Faendal. You managed to get past Sven and kill Camilla. I commend your determination to escape my nightmare.

In fact, I commend both of you. You have shown great resilience to my powers, and have outplayed and outlasted everyone else in this little game of mine. By this point, you both know that there is never a winner of my game until no one is left. Yes, that is right. I am the winner. I always have been, I always will be. Neither of you will escape, neither of you will survive!

But I shall not end this yet! This game shall continue in place of formulating a new one with fresh challengers. Say hello to your new inmates! Make them feel at home!”

With that, the Eye in their vision faded out. Sven and Faendal were released from Sauron’s hold, collapsing to the grass from the sudden return of autonomy. Sven immediately noticed that Camilla’s body was gone. No trace of her was left, not even the stains of her blood that had been on Faendal and himself. He did not even care anymore. He just wanted it to end.

It was then that he noticed something was off. Tower, Eye, grass, dirt, Faendal, me, and…!

That is where the checklist now should have ended, but it did not. Sven let out a startled cry, which alerted Faendal to the newcomers to their little slice of hell.

The first one they saw looked relatively normal. It was a tall, strongly built young man, no older than 20, with short blonde hair. He was wearing the strangest clothing, certainly not any clothing, robes, or armor they had ever seen before, as they had never encountered blue denim jeans, a black T-shirt, or Converse All-Stars shoes. But that was the least of their attentions

The other two were smaller, about 4 feet tall, standing there stark still, not yet aware that they were there yet. But that was not the odd bit.

They were ponies. Unlike any they had ever seen before, but distinctly pony-ish. The first one was a bright purple colour. It had a darker purple mane and tail with a stripe of pink that ran lengthwise through both. It also had a horn and a starburst mark on its flank. The other one was a sky blue with a brightly coloured rainbow mane and tail. This one had wings and a multi-coloured lightning bolt on its backside.

The tall human came to his senses, reeling after the sudden transportation. He would have stumbled off the edge of the platform had not Faendal, the quick thinking and moving wood elf that he was, grabbed him by the wrist and yanked him back towards the center of the arena. The new guy, looked around him, taken aback by the surroundings, but Sven noted a look of recognition in his eyes, almost as if he had seen this before in a picture or heard of it in a story. He took in the tower, Sauron, Faendal and Sven with what could almost be described as bewildered excitement. But when he spied the two horse-like creatures, he nearly doubled over in joy.

“Holy crap! Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash! This is incredible! Whoa, is that Sauron and the dark tower? That’s crazy cuz I just watching Lord of the Rings! Are you guys Sven and Faendal?! From Riverwood in Skyrim, right? Dude, I must be dreaming!”

They just nodded, shocked and amazed by the odd reaction this guy was having, and not so much by his familiarity with them personally.

He must be a powerful being to have all of this foreknowledge, thought Sven. I should probably stay on this one’s good side. Those cute, colourful pony things must be on his side already or something. I wonder if they are powerful, too…

Faendal merely thought, I wonder if he has been here before… and who will I kill next of these four…

Chapter 1: The Wall

I embellished the story a bit, but I haven’t really made a dent in the dream itself. Let’s see how this goes…

Aaaaand here is the disclaimer: I don’t own MLP: FiM, aside from my Pinkie, Rainbow, and Applejack figures. Oh, oops! I don’t own the RIGHTS to MLP: FiM. That belongs to Lauren Faust and Hasbro.

You Wouldn’t Believe Me if I Told You

Chapter 1: The Wall

“Oh, shoot! Where are my manners? Where am I, for that matter? Never mind. First things first, I’m Steve!”

He offered his hand for a shake to Sven and Faendal, trying to be friendly to the two minor characters from his newest favourite video game.

Faendal just stared at him, not trusting this big, apparently crazy guy enough to even get near to him. Sven, on the other hand, was always on the lookout for an ally in this insane game they were trapped in. This one, assuming he had the support of the multi-coloured mini-horses, was as good a candidate as any.

“My name is Sven,” he replied as he took Steve’s hand in a strong clasp. He gestured to his enemy. “And this is Faendal, a backstabbing son of a hagraven who just barely finished killing my wife, Camilla, before you got here. Welcome to my nightmare.”

Steven turned his attention to Faendal with a look of betrayal and horror in his eyes. And to think I helped you in my game! “I thought you loved her…”

Faendal glared daggers at Sven, noticing exactly what game Sven was playing at, and he tried to defend himself.

“I do. Or I did! It isn’t like that! You don’t understand! Sauron made me do it! He gets in your mind and makes you do things that you don’t want to! He whispers things, horrible things, and he poisons your mind. You’ll see, mark my words! All of Riverwood was here at the start, and we are all that’s left! We will all be dead soon enough. I was doing her a favour by ending it for her!”

Steve then realized that this was some sort of Battle Royale, or like the recent remake The Hunger Games that had boosted in popularity on the Internet recently. But instead of Japanese officials or the American Government, this one was run by Sauron, selecting random combatants from multiple planes of existence just to amuse him.

Luckily he didn’t choose Master Chief, or I’d be screwed!

Then Steve remembered the ponies. I will never hurt My Little Ponies! Ever! But between Twi’s magic and Rainbow’s speed, I don’t really stand a chance against them anyways.

Forgetting all about Camilla, Steve asked, “How long have they been standing there?”

Sven replied, “Since you got here, or pretty close to then. I’m not sure why they haven-“

“Welcome to my arena, Steve… Twilight Sparkle…Rainbow Dash.” Sauron interrupted, freezing the three humans in place and flooding their vision with himself. “I see Steve has made your acquaintances, and if I’m not mistaken, his alliances as well. Good… very good.”

Faendal felt a pang of fear, and something inside of him seemed to let go.

“I have summoned you here to battle one another because, quite frankly, my war on mankind is going well, and the Ring is within my grasp.

“This next round will be fun, for I will place two spiked walls on either side of the ponies, who shall remain immobile. It will slowly close together and crush them. I assure you that they will be quite conscious when this happens, and it is very painful. You three must choose one of the ponies to save by dragging it her to safety. One must die. Choose well!”

Upon release from his grasp, Steve ran between the spiked walls, which were about 20 feet long, 10 feet high, and 20 feet apart. He shouted to Sven, “You grab Rainbow Dash! I’ve got the other one!” Steve vaulted over Rainbow to get Twi, as she was further away and he had a head start on Sven.

Sven yelled, “Sauron said only save one!”

“Screw Sauron! I’m not about to let anypony die because of some stupid floating eyeball!”

Makes sense, I guess…

Without warning, Faendal leapt at Sven, tackling him to the ground between the closing spine barriers. “I can’t let you do that, Sven! You mustn’t disobey the Eye! I’m gonna do something I should have done a long time ago. Kill you.” An evil grin spread over his face.

This was promptly punched by Sven, so hard that it knocked him out cold.

15 feet

Sven rolled Faendal off of him, and painfully rose to his feet.

Steve, oblivious to the combat behind him, picked up Twi, who was somewhat heavy and was very awkward to carry. “Quit messing around and grab Rainbow or I swear I’ll kill you myself!”

10 feet

Sven stepped over a bleeding, motionless Faendal, and ran to Rainbow and picked her up. She, being a Pegasus built for speed and flight, was much lighter than Twi the unicorn, so Sven had little trouble.

5 feet

Steven reached the far side of the walls’ reach, dropping Twilight on her feet and panting from his efforts. She’s gotta weigh about 150 pounds! Guess I shouldn’t be surprised. They just look so small and light on the Internet!

A small tear welled up in one of the purple pony’s eyes, not of sadness, but of fear and thankfulness to this odd and valiant stranger, to whom she owed her life.

One of the spines put a slice in Sven’s leg as he ran, adjusting his course for the last few feet. A split second decision later, and he was soaring through the air, paralyzed pegasus on his back.

CLANK! SCREEEEeeee

He landed roughly just outside of the spines just as the spikes clashed with the other wall. Rainbow tumbled away from him for a few feet before landing like a tripod on her head and outstretched wings. She, too, felt grateful, but it was tempered by the fact that she was upside down, and she still could not move.

Sven considered his luck, sweating profusely and thankfully bleeding much less severely. By Talos, that was close! If only Faendal hadn’t… Faendal!

About 2 feet in, between the walls and skewered by many foot-long spines, was Faendal, head towards Sven. He feebly lifted his head and looked straight at Sven.

“You… bastard…”

Then his head slumped down again, catching his chin on an angled spine. It rested at an uncomfortable angle as blood spilled down the spike. He was dead. His eyes were still open, lifeless, and trained on Sven, unnerving him.

It’s odd, that after so much death, it still gets to me. And I hated him! Why do I feel horrible?

Steve, too, saw Faendal between the spines. Despite being so close to the death, he had to suppress a slight chuckle. That is so coincidental! In his Skyrim play through, his Faendal had perished by a swinging spiked trap wall. He had not saved in a while and did not deem him important enough to get back, so he had finished the quest and replaced him with Lydia.

Each of their views were suddenly shrouded by a dark black pupil spewing forth waves of flame to form the semblance of an eye.

“Tsk, tsk. Why did you go and save both of the ponies?” Sauron said reprovingly, gaining anger to his speech. “Did I not say to get only one? How many ponies were there? 2? Well, I spy with my little eye two living ponies! Apparently SOMEone thought it would be a GOOD idea to save BOTH of them! How DARE you DISOBEY ME!”

Sauron flared in anger, burning hotter and brighter in their eyes. He even seemed to sprout black spines similar to the deadly walls, which felt like they were jabbing and burning into their eye sockets. The pain was so intense that Steve thought Sauron would burn a hole right through his head, and he could do nothing to stop it..

Slowly, however, Sauron began to cool down and retracted the black needles, seeming to regain his composure.

“Perhaps,” he began slowly, “perhaps you did follow my rules to the letter, if not the spirit of the law. I did say that one must die, and so one did! You are clever little mortals. You are such skilled loophole exploiters I am shocked that neither of you are lawyers!”

He paused, cooling down back to his regular burning self. “The more I think on it, the more I enjoy the results of this latest round. For such a display, I shall reward you all with some momentary peace. Get to know one another, because it is much more enjoyable to watch you kill the others when you care for them!

“The ponies are now free to move about, but do not think I have forgotten anything! I can see that plan in your head Rainbow Dash. I will take your wings, and Twilight’s magic while I am at it! Have a pleasant afternoon!”

And with that, each was their own man again; or pony, as the case may be. Twilight and Rainbow crumpled to the ground in agony, Rainbow more so as she landed square on her back with the loss of her wings.

All four of them lay on the grass, holding their eyes and writhing in pain. Each was glad that that had passed, but they all dreaded what was yet to come.

Chapter 2: Question Period

Alrighty, so that’s how my dream went, essentially. At first I was going to use this as a cheap way to get Steve into Equestria, but the overwhelming support for an actual Battle Royale with fighting ponies convinced me to really flesh this thing out. Added a tragedy tag, too.
I may be evil…

Aaaaand here is the disclaimer: I don’t own MLP: FiM, aside from my Pinkie, Rainbow, and Applejack figures. Oh, oops! I don’t own the RIGHTS to MLP: FiM. That belongs to Lauren Faust and Hasbro.

You Wouldn’t Believe Me if I Told You

Chapter 2: Question Period

“What the hay was that!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, understandably confused and distraught, still rubbing her eyes. They all were.

Sven spoke up first, “That Eye you saw lives at the top of the tower a few miles away, and he is the one who brought us all here. Faendal and I… erm, I have been here for weeks already, I think. He summons people from all over to fight and play his sick games for his own amusement. I am the sole survivor of my whole village. Most everyone I ever knew is dead now…”

Twilight and Rainbow gasped in shock.

“Who could possibly do such a thing to innocent civilians?” Twilight asked, incredulous. “Does Princess Celestia know about this?”

Rainbow opened her eyes first, and, bitterly pleased to be the quickest to recover from their agony, stood up slowly and responded, “I doubt that, Twi. No way she’d let someone like that stick around Eque-“

She stopped mid-sentence as she suddenly began to process their surroundings.

Steve remarked, “Just figuring out you aren’t IN Equestria anymore, Rainbow?”

She ignored him, or perhaps failed to hear him at all. “You gotta see this, Twi. You know science, is this even possible?”

By now, the remaining three had recovered, mostly, from their most recent ordeal, and were also getting up. Twilight’s eyes seemed to bug out of their sockets as she noted the physical impossibility she was standing on.

“Not normally, but so far very little around here has been normal.” She stated matter-of-factly. “It’s not magic, that’s for sure. It must be pure power doing this! That Eye must be extremely powerful to manage to maintain this platform! And that tower! Why, I wouldn’t be surprised if his power is all that is keeping that massive structure up!”

Steve then finally realized the true reason the tower collapsed once the ring was destroyed. And to think it took a pony 30 seconds to figure out something I couldn’t in all the years I’ve been watching it!

Sven was merely marvelling at the pastel purple talking pony. One who was far smarter than anyone he had ever encountered.

They both then noticed that the walls, and any trace of Faendal, had vanished.

Twilight continued, “It must be power, because if it was magic then I would be able to… MY MAGIC!”

Sven and Steve reeled back at the sudden outburst. Rainbow Dash’s mood fell like a rock. A wingless, flightless rock.

“MY LIFE IS RUIIIIIIINED! I’ll NEVER be part of the Wonderbolts with NO WINGS! This is even worse than Discord!”

Sven looked from her to Steve, quizzically.

“Long story. A few actually.”

“Will they always be this loud and moody?”

“Off and on. You’ll get used to it.”

Steve walked to the two wailing ponies he knew so well from his favourite show. He put both his arms around them, trying desperately to console them.

“Don’t worry you two,” he cooed. “Sure you had your powers and wings removed and are in a different dimension with no way back being forced to fight to the death against each other and total strangers for the pleasure of an ancient, evil burning eyeball. It can’t get any worse, can it?”

They both stopped sobbing abruptly and glared at him.

“Who the buck are you?”

* * * * *

I really wish there was a night here…

Twilight, Sven, and Rainbow Dash were all curled up near the center of the platform, sleeping. Steve sat at the edge of the grassy knoll, his feet hanging over the nothingness below, facing the fire adorned tower far in the distance. He couldn’t sleep, not so much because of the excitement, but because it was perpetually dusky; much too bright for him to manage sleep at this point.

Introductions had gone rather smoothly. Well, as smoothly as Steve could have expected.

Sven took in the stories of other dimensions rather well, once he managed to understand the concept. He could not, however, grasp that his universe was at the basis for a video game in Steven’s reality, and that another one was populated and ruled by colourful, magical flying ponies. Steve had noticed the strain that this was having on his brain by the pained, confused look in his eyes.

Oh well, he’ll get over it. Maybe.

The girls were also rather shocked to learn that they were also known in his home dimension. But that their lives were broadcast publicly in a children’s television show? That had even sent Twilight’s head for a spin! They did accept it as true, eventually, if only because of his uncanny knowledge of their lives in the past two years.

I’m just glad they never asked why I was watching it. Steve snickered. Closet brony through and through. Can’t even admit to the actual ponies that I like their show.

Wonder if I’m messing up the dimensions by revealing all of this? Meh, doubt it. Like we’ll ever get out of here to actually use this information!

He remained there for the whole night, according to his watch, staring into oblivion, kicking his feet, humming various tunes from his iPod back home, most of them Skyrim, Lord of the Rings, and pony related.

* * * * *

Twilight was the first to awaken. She yawned and stretched, glancing casually and Rainbow, and bolted upright at the sight of Sven’s back, lying right next to her. Quickly her mind caught up with her, filling in the blanks as she grudgingly verified for herself that that the day before had not been a dream.

She then noticed Steve sitting by himself on the edge of their square little world. It dawned on her that he had saved her live the day before, and she had never properly thanked him, or thanked him at all. Righting herself to her hooves, she slowly walked over to him, clearing her throat so as to announce her presence without startling him.

That could end very badly. She grimaced at the thought.

Steve turned his head to face her. “Good morning, Twilight. Sleep well?”

“How do you do it?” she asked, sitting on her haunches beside him.

Steve paused. “Do what?”

Twilight elaborated. “How are you so… so… happy? You know as well or better than anyone of us here what is going on, and what is going to happen to us.” She gestured to the two sleepers, growing quieter. “To all of us.”

Steve paused and thought for a moment, looking away from his favourite pony and back into the void. “The way I see it,” he began slowly, picking at stalks of grass and dropping them over the edge, “Nobody and nopony here is gonna be around for much longer, and that would be enough for anybody to be depressed. In my case, I guess I’m just content. I’ve met a character from my favourite video game, been tortured by the villain in my favourite movie, and met the two greatest ponies in Equestria.” Steve smiled. Twilight blushed lightly. “If my life is gonna end soon, at least it ended interesting.”

Twilight looked at the tower miles away, sitting quietly in thought for a minute, mulling it over. “You know what? I guess this is the most interesting way to go. Beats getting old and boring, eh?” She smiled weakly.

Steve snickered. “Yeah, who wants that? That is sooooo overrated,” drawing out the ‘o’ for blatant sarcasm.

They sat in silence for a while, smiles fading into more neutral expressions, staring into the abyss and enjoying each other’s company. Suddenly, Twilight turned to him and gave a little nuzzle on his cheek.

Steve turned in surprise at the display of affection. “Thank you. For saving me the other day, I mean,” she said somewhat awkwardly. “I am really glad to have met you. I just hope we all won’t have to fight one another like Sauron said.” She drooped her head slightly and gave a shudder at the idea.

Steve put a hand under Twilight’s chin, raising her eyes to his. “I will never hurt anypony, especially you and Rainbow Dash. Shoot, I couldn’t even if I wanted to! Nobody’s gonna hurt my little ponies, I’ll make damn sure of that! We will all get through this, I promise you, somehow or other…”

“You can’t promise that.”

“Oh yes I can! Look, I’ll even Pinkie Promise!” He went through the motions. Twilight smiled. “Now I have to do it! If I don’t Pinkie will come here, and then Sauron will have to watch his back!”

“Funny thing is,” Twilight giggled, “is that I don’t doubt she would come here! There is no way Sauron would be able to contain that crazy ball of energy!”

They both laughed quietly at the thought of Pinkie encountering that evil Eye, either annoying him to death or throwing him a party, both of which were satisfying mental images. But our thoughts were cut short by a sudden gasp from Rainbow Dash behind us.

“Umm… guys?” She began shakily. “I think you had better come over here.”

“Why? What’s up R.D.?” Steve asked tentatively.

“I’m no expert on humans,” she paused, “but I think Sven is dead.”

Chapter 3: A Meeting of Partners

Here is the disclaimer: I don’t own MLP: FiM, aside from my Pinkie, Rainbow, and Applejack figures. Oh, oops! I don’t own the RIGHTS to MLP: FiM. That belongs to Lauren Faust and Hasbro.

You Wouldn’t Believe Me if I Told You

Chapter 3: A Meeting of Partners

“Yup. He’s dead alright.”

Steve only had to look at Sven’s face to see that. His face was extremely pale, and he had no pulse and was not breathing. He was also very cold.

The girls looked on slightly shocked that he was dead so suddenly. They had just been talking to him last night, and now he was dead as dead can get.

“Do you know how he died?” Rainbow Dash asked.

Twilight answered this one. “I would say judging by the way that scratch wound on his leg has swollen that it was from poison. That spike from the wall that pierced his leg must have been poisoned! And judging by the temperature of his body, I would say that he must have died very shortly after we all went to sleep. I can only hope he did indeed fall asleep before succumbing to the poison; that would have been horrible!”

“He died to save my life…” Rainbow half-whispered. Different feelings swept around in her mind. She felt bad that someone had died for her, but even though he had saved her life, there was only so much sadness that could be found for him. She had, after all, only known him for a few hours at most. Despite that, she felt somewhat guilty for not being more distraught that he was dead.

A few silent minutes drifted by. No one said a word, barely any move was made. They all remained still by Sven's corpse, not able to look away, yet unable to continue for much longer.

“What do we do now?” Steve said to break the trance-like state they had fallen into. “I mean, it’s not like we can bury him. I wonder why Sauron did not take him yet…”

Twilight said, “Because this is a survival situation, I think that we should check him for anything useful and dispose of his remains off the side of the platform. That is about as good of a burial as we can muster.”

“And by ‘we should search him’ you really mean me.” Steve pointed out. “I mean, neither of you are winning any dexterity awards with those hooves of yours, and magic is no longer an option, either.”

They nodded slowly. Twilight was visibly irked by the reminder of her removed powers. The two Equestrians shuffled over to the edge of the arena to leave Steve to his duties as undertaker, and, as he saw it, grave robber.

* * * * *

Only a few minutes later, Steve walked over to the girls, Sven over his shoulder. He placed the corpse next to the edge of the square plot of land furthest from Sauron’s Tower. Instead of the customary practice of throwing dirt on the coffin, they all played a part in rolling it off the side.

Nobody watched it fall.

They stood in respectful silence for a minute, each paying their respects silently for the a man that none of them really knew. To Rainbow Dash, he was a self-sacrificing rescuer of a certain pegasus in distress. To Twilight he was a brave soul from another dimension who stayed pure and sane in this twisted game as everyone he knew was killed off around him. To Steve, he had just been an annoying character from a video game at first, but now he saw Sven as an O.K. character from a video game. But he was still annoying.

“All he had was a few gold coins, a silver necklace, a lockpick, the clothes on his back, and the key to his house,” Steve reported. But still no one moved. “I figured we couldn’t use any of that stuff so I just left it in his pockets.” They both nodded their heads slightly.

That was almost everything he had had, minus an iron dagger, Steve mused inwardly. But that went over the other side as soon as I found it. No sense having a weapon around to make killing each other easier.

Part of him had wanted to keep the dagger. A very strong and convincing part, in fact. Just for self defense, of course, he had thought. No! This must be Sauron talking! Well I’ll show you! With that he had flung the small weapon as hard as he could in the opposite direction of his two pony companions, fittingly in the direction of Sauron himself. That had made Steve smile.

“So,” Rainbow began, “not to be a downer on the mood or anything, but how long do you figure until that’s us rolling off lifelessly into nothingness?”

“I’d really rather not think that far ahead,” said Steve. Twilight could do nothing but agree wholeheartedly in the short silence that followed.

So Rainbow Dash, who really hated these long pauses, spoke up again. “Ok then… so now what?”

Good question, thought the other two simultaneously.

* * * * *

“Now what?” said Sauron to himself, perched atop Barad-dur in all his burning ocular glory.

He had succeeded, to his delight, but not to his surprise, in introducing more players to his little battlefield to finish off those last two from Riverwood in Skyrim. He had not planned, however, for both of them to be finished off in such a short time, and as such he had not made any new plans for the three remaining combatants.

“None of them have started killing one another yet! I need more players and a plan for them when they get here. But who shall I get? What do I really need to get the most fun I can out of this?”

Because he had known the instant that Sven had died, he had spent most of the time they had been asleep trying to devise a plan. But after doing the same sort of thing over and over with only slightly different situations and unwilling participants, the whole idea was beginning to wear a bit on the thin side.

“I cannot merely release them, and I also do not want to simply kill them. There is no fun in that. What do I need? Who should I ge-“

His thought was cut short when he felt the sudden intrusion of some powerful being. He was not sure what it was, but it certainly was not from anywhere in Middle Earth.

“Show yourself, worthless cretin! How dare you intrude upon my tower! I shall find you, and when I do, I will-“

He was interrupted mid-sentence yet again by the entity, but this time by a spine-tinglingly maniacal laugh. Well, mortals would call it that, but Sauron merely labelled it as annoying.

“Mu- hahahahahaha!” it chortled in its throat. “Whatcha gonna do, you overgrown eyeball? Glare me to death? Look at me funny? Oh no! I don’t think looking at me funny would do more than just make me laugh! I do so love to laugh”

In all his years, Sauron had never encountered a being that defied his power so openly. The worst part of it, for him, was that he had yet to find where the voice was coming from.

“I am warni-“

“Interrupting you is so much fun! I do believe we could become quite fast of friends, you and I.” The being paused, “I also think that I may prove to be of assistance with your little quandary. The solution does tickle me somewhat pink. Not literally, of course, but then again not far from it. But if you so insist on finding me, I suppose I will just have to reveal myself, party-pooper.”

Suddenly, there in Sauron’s midst he appeared. Sauron had never seen the likes of this creature before, and that was saying something.

The beast had a long, grey, snake-like body with mismatched… everything. Its arms, legs, wings and horns all seemed to have been removed from different creatures and assembled Frankenstein style into one dragon-like entity. Sauron marvelled that such a chaotic being could exist.

The dragon-thing was reclined on an upside-down beach chair on top of an umbrella with its bell top upturned the wrong way. It was wearing a pair of dark sunglasses, also on the wrong way, and holding a martini glass with an orange liquid inside.

All of this disappeared from around the creature, which remained lounged in the air, as it began speaking.

“Greetings from Equestria, foul overlord!” it greeted cheerily. “I would shake your hand, but you seem to have misplaced them. I have done such on occasion, and they can be the greatest pain to find!”

Sauron’s mind blanked on a response.

“Silly me, I have not introduced myself, yet, have I? I am Discord, Dragonequus and God of Chaos! Pleased to make your acquaintance, Sauron, Burning Ball of the Spiky Tower, Lord of all Gloomsville.”

He then proceeded to shake a lone hand he had manifested in front of Sauron. “Now, isn’t that a firm grip you’ve got! Now if you’d let go, we can get down to business.”

Releasing the hand as it dissolved, Discord whipped out a pipe and reading glasses, and sat in a newly conjured armchair, puffing the wrong end as he began.

“First off,” he said, grinning, “we are going to need a lot more ponies…”

Author’s note: More pony characters are going to be introduced sometime in the next few chapters. If you have one in particular from the show that you want to see, leave a comment and I’ll be sure to try to incorporate them as much as possible.
Thanks for the support so far! You all deserve a big Pinkie Pie hug! Or a Fluttershy hug, whichever you prefer.

Chapter 4: The Calm

Here is the disclaimer: I don’t own MLP: FiM, aside from my Pinkie, Rainbow, and Applejack figures. Oh, oops! I don’t own the RIGHTS to MLP: FiM. That belongs to Lauren Faust and Hasbro.

You Wouldn’t Believe Me if I Told You

Chapter 4: The Calm

“So, Dashie, you got anypony special back in Equestria?”

Rainbow Dash abruptly looked up at Steve from the bare spot in the grass she was pawing at. The three of them were sitting near the center of the grassy patch in as close to a circle as you can get with three people/ponies.

“That’s kind of a personal question, don’t you think?” she replied awkwardly, blushing slightly in embarrassment. “I mean, it isn’t like I have known you all that long.”

“Well, yeah… but it isn’t like there is anything else to do around here, and I am kind of curious. Back on earth there is a lot of conjecture about which pony you have hooked up with in Ponyville.” Steve paused for a moment. “A bunch of people say you have your hooves on Applejack…”

Both Rainbow and Twilight sat in stunned silence for a few seconds, looked to each other, and broke into fits of laughter.

Between bursts of laughing, Rainbow managed to squeeze out, “Bwahahahaha! Really? That’s ridiculous!” and other such exclamations. Twilight regained her composure first.

Rainbow managed to calm down, and, seeing the confused look on Steve’s face, she decided to elaborate. “I’m not sure how accurate this show of yours is, but the last time I was in Equestria Applejack was happily married to Fancypants for going on 2 years now!”

It was Steve’s turn to be stunned this time. “Really? Fancypants? I would never in a million years have guessed that! Aren’t they, like, polar opposites of each other? What did Rarity have to say about this?”

Twilight answered this one. “For starters, Rarity never really thought seriously about Fancypants. He was more of a passing foalish crush. So far as I know she is still single. Anyways, getting back to him and Applejack; they first met at the Grand Galloping Gala 5 years back, but because of Rarity’s crush on him, she decided to steer clear of him as much as possible to avoid… confrontations with Rarity. They met again at the Garden Party during my birthday party. This time Rarity was encouraged to introduce each of us to nearly every guest present, starting with Fancypants.”

Steve simply nodded at her, taking in all of the canon-shattering news with a calm that surprised himself.

Twilight continued. “There must have been some sort of spark when the two of them met, because from then on Applejack and Fancypants sent each other letters at least once a week. I only know this because a certain mailmare delivered his letter to my door instead.”
She shook her head slightly. “That Ditzy. Loyal and committed as anything to her job, but a little clumsy at times.”

“After making sure that she didn’t ever give one of Fancy’s letters to Rarity, I went down to Sweet Apple Acres with the letter in tow. Applejack told me everything, and we all know she couldn’t lie if her life depended on it.”

“The third time they met was at Shining Armor’s and Princess Cadence’s wedding three years ago.” Steve smiled and nodded knowingly at the reference to the epic season finale that had occurred no more than a week beforehand. Twilight continued without much pause. “For at least an hour after the whole changling fiasco, Rarity stuck close to Fancypants, who was looking rather uncomfortable being so close to a mare that obviously had a crush on him, and who also happened to be best friends with his penpal.”

Rainbow interrupted, “Oh yeah! It was so awkward, it was hilarious! I hope I still have that picture kicking around in an album somewhere.”

Twilight glared slightly at her for the interjection. Steve made a motion towards her and eagerly encouraged her, “Go on. What happened next?”

“Well,” she resumed, “Fancypants had quite enough of that atmosphere surrounding him, so he gently led her aside and explained the situation; that he and Applejack had been exchanging letters for a few months, and they would like to officially go out on a date. But he would not do so if it meant that Rarity and Applejack might stop being friends over it.” A Good-Guy-Fancypants meme floated through Steve’s head.

“She told him she would have to think about it. Only a week later, after a harrowing adventure that ended up in a friendship letter to the Princess, she and Applejack had a heart to heart, and Rarity admitted that she had gotten over Fancypants, and that he was ‘all her’s’ as she put it to Applejack.”

“Applejack and Fancypants went on dates time and again, in both Canterlot and Ponyville, until he popped the question to her while they were in the orchard bucking apples. He had even hid the ring in the one she was having for a snack with a Class 3 Inanimate Translocation spell. Rather impressive, really, for a pony who never was accepted into the gifted unicorn program. I was able to do that one since-“

“Umm, Twi?” Rainbow broke in, “You’re rambling. Get back to the story already!” She motioned to Steve, “Can’t you see he wants to hear the rest?”

Although he would not admit it just then, Steve did not really mind Twilight’s off topic verbal meanderings. He found them rather cute, even a little attractive. I never thought that I would ever think that a pony was attractive! Never was comfortable with those human-pony relationship fics. Or pony-pony clopfics, for that matter. I will never see Luna the same way again… He shuddered inwardly.

Twilight recovered quickly. “Oops! Sorry.” She scratched her head. “There is not much else to say, really. Applejack, after nearly choking on the ring, said yes. They got married in Sweet Apple Acres barn at Fancy’s request, turning down Princess Celestia’s offer of Canterlot Castle. And now they live out on the farm together with Applebloom.”

“Whoahwhoahwhoah!” Steve sputtered. “Fancypants turned down Canterlot Castle and lives on a farm?!?” He asked incredulously.

Rainbow, bored of the story she had lived through, heard, and told, spoke up in response. “Yeah, he did. Applejack said she’d marry him on the condition that she never got pulled away from the farm. Turns out Fancypants didn’t have any sort of actual job in Canterlot, he had just been living off of the interest of the family fortune and was eager to do something for a change. Who’d have thought he would take to bucking apples so enthusiastically?”

Steve said, “Well, I guess he does have the size for it. Now that you mention it, I can see him in a straw hat and ratty overalls with a sprig of wheat in his mouth.” They all giggled at the mental image. “But Twi, you said they live with just Applebloom. What the hay happened to Big Mac?” Steve relished the opportunity to actually use ponified lingo out loud with someone who would know what he was talking about.

Twilight gave a little giggle, much to Steve’s delight, who couldn’t help but smile back. “I guess I’m gonna have to tell you the relationship status of the others, aren’t I? Well, Big Mac ended up with Fluttershy, surprisingly. The biggest stallion in Ponyville and the shyest mare in Equestria. Who would have guessed?”

Steve grinned. He always had liked the fics that shipped those two together. “They are kindred spirits, if you ask me; they’re both kind, gentle, and soft-spoken at heart.”

“I’d say so, now that you mention it,” Twilight considered thoughtfully. “Anyways, they got married just a few weeks ago and they are still away on their honeymoon.”

“Rarity is still searching for the right colt, as I said before. Pinkie Pie is, well, Pinkie Pie as usual. If she is in a relationship of some sort, she must have promised to keep it a secret because I don’t think anypony has heard a word to confirm or deny if she is or not. And Rainbow Dash has a crush on-“

“Nopony! Rainbow Dash has a crush on nopony!” Rainbow blurted out suddenly, cutting Twilight off just in time.

“I think somepony is lying,” Steve observed. “If that was true, you would not be such a deep shade of purple right now, would you?”

Twilight gave a laugh, and Rainbow’s blush continued to deepen. She hid her head in her hooves, lying face first in the grass to avoid eye contact.

“-Soarin.” Twilight finished. “She has a mad crush on her senior officer, even though she isn’t supposed to!” Twilight clopped her hooves together and smiled gleefully. Steve laughed at the girls’ display, and nodded knowingly about the character in question. Rainbow moaned loathingly at the purple unicorn, thinking of some sort of retort with which to get some dignity back.

Steve leaned in nearer to Dash’s ear and whispered, “I guess you got into the Wonderbolts after all?” She nodded slightly, face still in the dirt. “Congrats.”

“Why,” Twilight continued, “just last week when I came over for a surprise visit to show off my new self-levitation spell… you should have seen it! In her house she has a whole room full of pictures, posters, plushies-“

“Oh yeah?” Rainbow spat vilely. “Well, at least I have somepony! All you have are your dumb books!”

Twilight’s face fell immediately. Steve sat, shocked at the outburst. Rainbow quickly clopped her hoof over her mouth, but it was too late. They sat in silence once again.

All three of them regretted that that had been said.

Author's note: There is still time to vote for ponies that you would like to see in later chapters, either because you like them, or maybe because you don't. Post in the comments and I will see what I can do.

be back to update in 2 weeks

ill be back from cambodia to continue updating in 2 weeks. in the meantime vote on a pony you would like to see in later issues. see everypony later!
sincerely
PPP

Chapter 5: Dark Horizons

Here is the disclaimer: I don’t own MLP: FiM, aside from my Pinkie, Rainbow, and Applejack figures. Oh, oops! I don’t own the RIGHTS to MLP: FiM. That belongs to Lauren Faust and Hasbro.

You Wouldn’t Believe Me if I Told You

Chapter 5: Dark Horizons

Suddenly, as they sat in sullen silence, a fourth figure shrouded in a plume of green and red smoke made an appearance in the center of their circle. They would have reared back in surprise, but not one of them could move.

As the smoke cleared, they all recognized the newcomer, who promptly broke into a maniacal laugh.

“Muahahahaha! It is so nice to see you two again, Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash! I have missed playing with you these past few years. We simply do not catch up often enough.”

Twilight and Rainbow could only motionlessly glare at him.

“Oh bother that Sauron and his paralysis spells; takes all of the fun out of gloating.” Discord continued, frowning emphatically and stroking his beard. He then turned to Steve, who had been sitting behind him the whole time so far.

“You and I, on the other hand, have not met.” He moved toward Steve, placed one arm around his shoulders and pressed his head to the side of his own. A sharp pain shot into Steve’s head as he felt a vile, foreign presence enter his mind. It groped around his thoughts and memories slowly, searching for and discovering ever deeper information. The presence voiced distinctly in his head, “I simply love making new acquaintances; you never know what they will do or how they are going to turn out. It’s beautifully chaotic, don’t you think?”

Do you find chaos in everything?

“Yes, indeed I do. Chaos can make even the dullest of situations and people more interesting. You humans base all of your entertainment on chaos as I do. Your video games, movies, shows; everything begins boring and orderly until something extraordinary disrupts the peace. That is chaos, and chaos is wonderful!”

Before Steve could think up a response, Discord severed the mental link and shifted back to the center of the 3 friends. Steve noticed that he had left his arm around his shoulders. This did not seem to faze Discord, as he would often leave various limbs in different locations just to mix things up.

“I am going to give you two ponies your beloved distinguishing body parts back, but mind you they are just for show. I’ll have no magicry or flying around. It won’t work, so you may as well not even try.”

Twilight’s horn and Rainbow’s wings reappeared immediately, returning the comfortable and familiar weight of their presence to their respective owners. Rainbow nearly cried again.

“Now listen up, my little ponies, and brony of course. Sauron and I have come up with a fun little game we can play. To be totally honest, it was nearly all me; that guy lost his imagination around the same time as the rest of his body. Anyways,” he continued as he conjured a cushioned stool with one leg and perched on the top, “here is the game!”

He motioned as if he was attempting to clap, but he currently only had the one arm. With a snort, he detached his left leg and placed it where his wayward limb should have been and continued.

He clapped his mismatched appendages together with the sound of a foghorn, and a puff of flower petals enveloped the three immobile participants, blocking out their view of anything else. When the petals cleared, they were no longer sitting on their square of floating sod, but rather were standing on the edge of a forest at the top of a rolling hill. Steve, noticing he could now move, looked around himself at the new surroundings. Beyond the hills and the forested area, he saw a huge ring of jagged stone cliffs, effectively trapping them in a gigantic bowl. On the upper edge of the rim stood the huge black tower still holding its sole ocular occupant.

While Steve was noticing this change, Twilight and Rainbow were occupied with an even stranger, more worrisome sight. Lying prone and unconscious on the grass just down the hill from them were ponies. More ponies. Lots of ponies, perhaps two dozen of them.

“Rainbow, are you seeing this?” Twilight inquired worriedly.

“I wish I wasn’t, Twi. They look as if they were summoned right out of their beds! This cannot be a good thing for anypony of us.” She replied.

The nearest tree at the edge of the forest made a shuddering sound. The three spun and stared as the bark peeled off, and the wood split in two down the middle. Amidst the carnage was Discord, upside down, doing single handed push-ups.

“Oh, but it is a good thing, my dear Rainbow Dash,” Discord said with a twisted grin. “And now it is time to explain why, after these lazy ponies get up that is.”

With that, he sank into the ground, only to emerge as a large flat sheet underneath the sleeping ponies. He then raised his head suddenly and brought it back down right after, sending an undulating wave along his length, sending two dozen abruptly awakened ponies sprawling and screaming into the air. Each one landed rather softly, however; bowing the ground they hit as if it were a stiff version of a trampoline.

“No sense in injuring anypony before the game has even started, am I right?” Discord said with a laugh, collapsing into his regular form with a quack.

All of these sound effects make it really hard to take this guy seriously, Steve thought.

As the various ponies found their balance and some form of stability, Discord whipped up a podium and lectern higher up on the hill than Steve, Twilight and Rainbow, with everypony else just slightly behind them.

“Hello everypony! As you may remember from a few short years ago, I am Discord, the very Spirit of Chaos, rightful ruler of the land you call ‘Equestria’.” He made a bit of a grimace as he spat out that last word. “Welcome to Battle Royale.”

An uneasy chatter broke out in the crowd as none of the ponies in attendance got the reference; even Twilight had a confused look on her face. Steve did get it; he got it all too well. A heavy weight fell in his gut as he realized just what was going to happen to all of these peaceful, loving, and friendly ponies he had become so fond of in the past year on earth. But they would find out what lay ahead soon enough.

He felt like throwing up.

Discord continued, the sound of his voice silencing all other chatter. “Each pony is to receive a pack of supplies containing the following: some food, water, first aid, a random weapon, and a neck belt adorned with a star. Everypony will then be sent to a random place in the valley to begin the game.”

Suddenly, everypony felt a weight on their backs as they each received a set of saddlebags, and tightness as a belt cinched itself around their necks. A single golden star sat sparkling in the center. Steve stood awkwardly as the saddlebags fell off and the belt hung loosely around his neck, as his neck was much thinner than a pony’s.

“Now you may be wondering what the point of those belts are.” Discord went on with little pause. “Those stars signify your points. Should one of you ponies kill another, the victor must touch the belt of the fallen, and he shall receive all of the loser’s accumulated stars. As the game is set to be over in a week, only the three ponies with the highest number of stars at that time will be allowed to leave alive.”

A revolted murmur swept through the crowd. Murder was not a common thing in Equestria, almost unheard of. In fact, Twilight had read the newspapers every day for the past 10 years, and only one account of murder had been recorded in that time. Princess Celestia had seen to his punishment personally with a one way trip to the moon, and regular ponies cannot survive there for very long.

It was then that Discord noticed that Steve was fumbling with his unwieldy equipment.

“Oh my, that will not do, not in the slightest! We simply must do something about this. What do you think, my little brony?” Discord said with a grin.

Steve, unable to think of anything clever to say, or anything stupid for that matter, nodded dumbly.

“Excellent!” Discord clapped once again and Steve was enveloped in a black cloud of vapour. Everypony took a step back, their jaws hanging open in fear and surprise. Twilight and Rainbow cried out in fear and worry and took another few steps back due to their proximity to the happening; both dreading what was to come next.

Steve on the other hand was not aware of anything at the moment. As soon as the black fog had blocked out his vision he had passed out entirely, totally oblivious to the changes he was undergoing.

Discord let loose a good laugh as the dark mist dissipated, revealing an unconscious steel blue male pegasus with a red mane in the place of their friend Steve. The colt was wearing a black vest and black shoes on his hind hooves. A set of saddlebags and belt rested easily on his form.

Realization dawned on Twilight, and she sped across the short distance towards the downed stallion. Rainbow followed close behind.

“That colt didn’t replace Steve,” shouted Twilight to Rainbow Dash, “that IS Steve!”

They both stopped by his side, and Twilight prodded him to get up.

Rainbow blurted “He’s cute.”

Twilight froze and glared at her.

“What? Can’t a single mare call a colt cute?”

“But he’s not a pony, Dash, he’s a human!”

“Not anymore he’s not.” She said with a grin “HE is a cutie… and YOU are blushing!”

“I am not!” she said with a swing of her forehoof.

…which connected with Steve in the ribs.

“Ooomph! Oww! What was that for, can’t a guy get some sleep around…”

His voice faltered as he looked up at the girls. “What’s up?” he asked as he got up. But he did not get up as far as he was used to. His eyes stopped just higher than theirs were. He looked down. He saw hooves. He began breathing quicker.

Rainbow put a leg around his neck. “It’s OK. Calm down, don’t panic. We can figure this…”

“AWESOME!” Steve exploded in happiness, taking a leap into the air and knocking Rainbow off to the side. “I’m a pony now!” He landed on the ground once again and focussed on his forehead. No horn. Oh well. So he proceeded to glance behind himself, only to be greeted with a set of steel blue wings. BOOYAH!

“No freakin’ way! I’m a red and blue pegasus! This is way too cool!” He turned to Rainbow and Twilight, who were not only still shocked by his transformation, but also by his unexpected response to the revelation. “How do I look?”

“You look good, I guess.” Rainbow said reluctantly. Twilight shot her a smug look. “I mean, relatively speaking. You know, like, better than a human kind of good,” She finished awkwardly.

“That’s a relief!” Steve said smiling, letting out a sigh and a chuckle. “I’d hate to be a pony and end up as an ugly one!”

Discord, pleased at his handiwork, resumed with his announcement. “The games will start in one hour. Do not look inside your, or somepony else’s bag until after the game has started, or you will be eliminated, and we all know what that means.” He paused and smiled maliciously. Everypony gulped nervously. “In the meantime, you ponies get acquainted. I’d suggest making alliances now, and size up the competition! So long, my little ponies!”

And he was gone.

Chapter 6: Meeting the Players

Here is the disclaimer: I don’t own MLP: FiM, aside from my Pinkie, Rainbow, and Applejack figures. Oh, oops! I don’t own the RIGHTS to MLP: FiM. That belongs to Lauren Faust and Hasbro.

You Wouldn’t Believe Me if I Told You

Chapter 6: Meet the Players

It had taken a few minutes for Steve to calm down after his transformation, even with Rainbow and Twilight trying to restrain him. Which brony on earth would not love to be transported among ponies and to become one? Twilight wanted him to calm down because he was scaring the other ponies, who all still had little grasp of what was going on.

But now he was calmer, if still a bit giddy, but settled enough to think clearly.

“Now that we are all ok,” Twilight started, “what do we do now?”

“Now wait a minute!” Rainbow interjected. “Who made him the leader?”

“Well, the way I see it, he is the only pony here who knows something about what is going on and what we are up against. Between this Sauron guy and the ‘Battle Royale’ he has us in, I for one am way out of my element…Element! The Elements of Harmony! If the other girls were brought here we could combat Discord and Sauron with the Elements!”

The revelation seemed to make both girls perk right up as they got up and headed to the nearby group of confused ponies, and Steve followed behind. Steve really wanted to see the Elements used up close and personal, but he wanted to meet the other ponies slightly more at the moment.

“Don’t you need the actual Elements and the bearers present to use them?” Steve asked.

“Duh!” Rainbow responded. “But ever since that changling invasion, Twi put a spell on the Elements to make them invisible and inco- incorpi-“

“Incorporeal, meaning you cannot touch them.” Twilight interjected.

“Yeah, incorporeal,” Rainbow recovered, “so that we are all always wearing our Elemental ornament and don’t have to worry about finding or getting to them. So as soon as we need ‘em, then Bam! we got ‘em!”

“Cool! I bet that’s come in handy on a few occasions!” Steve praised.

“More than you know,” Twilight grimaced.

Twilight noticed Applejack and Rarity near the other side of the crowd and headed straight over to them. On the way, Steve got a good view of lots of well-known and well-loved background ponies and supporting characters. He saw Lyra and Bon Bon chatting with Cheerilee and Berry Punch. They seemed to ignore him in general, as they did not know him at all. Lyra, however, gave him a creepy, piercing glare, as if to say, ‘I know what you are.’ Some fanfics told Steve to avoid Lyra, as she was known for her fanatical following of humans which could lead to experimentation and dissection. Others, more liked by Steve, were far more gentle in their approach, such as her befriending humans or even becoming one.

I wonder if I will figure out which ones are true, if any, he mused.

Steve also saw Flim and Flam; Flam is the one with the moustache if you were not sure, conversationally double teaming on Sapphire Shores the pop star and Fleur de Lis the supermodel. Flim and Flam seemed to be talking about something or other really excitedly, while both Sapphire and Fleur were awkwardly trying to back out of the conversation.

Beyond them were Trixie and Ditzy Doo, not talking to anypony. They both seemed a bit left out, and Steve was just about to talk to them, when Twilight called out.

“Steve! Hurry up slowpoke! Come over here and meet the girls!” She waved him over from among her friends from a good 10 meters out from the rest of the group. Steve saw no sign of Fluttershy or Pinkie Pie, the most adorable and the most random of the Mane 6, respectively.He hurried over.

“Applejack, Rarity, this is my new friend Steve. He is a human, or was one, from another reality!” Twilight introduced. Steve gave a big smile and a little salute, something he was used to doing back home as opposed to waving. Not because he was in the army or anything, saluting was just more fun.

“It’s nice to meet you, Applejack. I’ve… heard so much about you.”

He shot a glance to Rainbow, who gave a knowing smile.

“Well howdy there, Steve!” Applejack replied, tipping her hat. “Twilight here was sayin’ that y’all saved her life before y’all had even met! The way Ah figure it, anypony who helps another pony out who they don’t even know is a right good pony in mah books!”

“If it’s possible, do you think I could come down to Sweet Apple Acres and try my hoof at apple-bucking?” Steve asked hopefully.

“A’ course y’all can come down to the farm! There’s always somethin’ ta do, on account of it bein’ a farm an’ all.” She said, matter-of-factly.

Steve, not wanting to be rude, turned to face Rarity. “Bonjour, Mademoiselle Rarity. It is a pleasure to finally make your acquaintance.” He reached down and scooped up her hoof, giving it a light kiss.

“Oh my!” Rarity smiled and giggled lightly. “Such a gentleman! Twilight, dear, you never mentioned that he has such proper manners.”

Twilight rolled her eyes, giggling as well.

Steve released her hoof gingerly and, breaking the pleasant introductions asked, “Now, has anypony seen Pinkie Pie or Fluttershy?”

“Eee-yup.”

On cue, Big Mac came trotting up to the group with a trembling Fluttershy on his back. Her mane and tail were disheveled a bit, probably from her quaking.

Or they were summoned in the middle of something. They WERE on their honeymoon…, Steve thought dirtily.

They girls issued their greetings to the pair, and Steve gave his belated congratulations to the newlyweds. Upon hearing the voices of her friends, Fluttershy became bolder and revitalized, stepping off of Big Mac’s back and into the group, which became a group hug. Steve was introduced to both Fluttershy and Big Mac, but on account of her usual shyness and his usual inarticulate-ness, they were very brief introductions indeed.

“Nice to meet you!”

“…hi, I’m …Fluttersh(squeak).”

“Hey there Big Mac. Nice meeting you.”

“Eee-yup.”

Big Mac then lifted his head up and called out towards the edge of the forest, “It’s OK to come out. It’s safe.”

And like that, the three Cutie Mark Crusaders, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Applebloom came out of the darkness like a shot, screeching to a halt just short of a collision with Big Mac’s hind legs.

“Rarity! I’m so glad you’re here!” Sweetie Belle cried as she ran to her big sister, who each gave the other a big hug. “I was so scared!” she buried her face into Rarity’s shoulder fur.

“It’s OK now,” she soothed, “I’m here now.” Small tears fell from her face, and a growing wet spot appeared on her shoulder as Sweetie sobbed lightly.

Applebloom likewise was clinging to Applejack for comfort, and Scootaloo to Rainbow Dash.

Steve cheered inwardly. Tears welled outwardly.

Big Mac said, in his low, slow tone. “Found ‘em wanderin’ around a small ways in the forest, all lost and scared like. They weren’t cryin’ then, so it musta been that Discord fella an’ what he was sayin’.”

Steve noticed that even the CMCs were wearing their neck belts and saddlebags, and a piece of his heart exploded. And sudden realization hit him.

Everypony he had seen had only one star on their necks. Each of the CMC had 2.

Discord, you mother f-

* * * * *

“Princess Celestia!”

The royal alicorn sister of the day looked up suddenly from her work desk. Visiting hours were officially over, and so she had been trying to relax by writing her memoirs. By now it was a very long book with no release day in sight.

She looked behind her just in time to spy Pinkie Pie come rocketing out of a tuba propped against the wall while riding a large toothless alligator. Before the impending collision, all she managed to think was:

I don’t remember having a tuba.

Chapter 7: The Storm Hits

Here is the disclaimer: I don’t own MLP: FiM, aside from my Pinkie, Rainbow, and Applejack figures. Oh, oops! I don’t own the RIGHTS to MLP: FiM. That belongs to Lauren Faust and Hasbro.

You Wouldn’t Believe Me if I Told You

Chapter 7: The Storm Hits

“What do you mean, ‘half of Ponyville is missing'? Are you certain?”

Pinkie, who had just finished untangling herself from Princess Celestia, took a deep breath and replied, “YesPrincess!YouknowhowyesterdayIhadawierdPinkiesensefeelingthenTwilightandRainbowdissapeared?WelltodayIfeltthesamethingonlystrongersoIwenttoPonyvilletomakesureeverythingwasalrightbutawholebunchofponiesevenApplejackRarityandFluttershyaremissingnow!EvensomefromCanterlotaregoneandIcamestraightherewithtuba-portationtotellyou!” she ended with a series of gasps for air.

Celestia nodded and sighed in acknowledgement. Although most ponies would have been boggled by the pink ponies unnatural speaking speeds, she had learned to decipher its meaning over the months since hiring Pinkie Pie as the Princesses’ Royal Baker and eventually she had earned the title of Head Chef at the Equestrian Culinary Academy. This generally kept her very busy, so in order to see her friends at a moment’s notice, or indeed no notice at all, she had invented tuba-portation: a Pinkie-Pie only transport system that nearly sent Twilight into a coma trying to understand. The phrase ‘I’m Pinkie Pie’ was the only explanation that made any sense.

Luna lowered her book, closing it beside her after noting her page. “Ti, (pronounced ‘tee’) don’t tell me you got all of that!” she said incredulously. She had been reclining on a nearby couch reading a history book, still casually catching up on what she had missed while in exile. This one read easier as it was focussed on more recent events, and it was the last one she needed to read to be ‘current’.

Celestia smiled. Luna had gotten the hang of the current terminology about a year ago, no longer using the royal ‘we’, or Old Equestrian ‘thee’ and ‘thou’. Even the Royal Canterlot voice only came out in times of dire distress, such as when she lost a round in one of her online games.

The smile faded. She closed her eyes somberly. “Pinkie here was just saying that a group of ponies from both here and Ponyville have disappeared, and nopony seems to have any idea as to what has happened.”

Luna opened her mouth in shock. “Surely, somepony has to have seen something! Does no one have any idea of where they went?”

Pinkie piped up once more, somewhat slower for Luna’s sake. “That’s just it, Princess, I DO have an idea! That’s why I was riding Gummi! Tuba-portation is always faster on an alligator.”

Celestia cocked an eyebrow at the reptile, who was no longer a small, cutesy baby, but about twice as long as an average pony and half as tall. His eyes were sharp and focussed now, but he still had no teeth. This was most likely because he was fed only pastries and sweets. Nopony minded the diet, because alligators were unsurprisingly much more pleasant with no teeth. Not that he would hurt anypony without cause, of course, just more comforting.

“And what is this idea?” Celestia inquired.

“Discord.”

A shudder went down the three mares’ spines simultaneously. Both alicorns stiffened at the name, recalling some unpleasant memories and experiences at the hands, paws, and claws of the Spirit of Chaos, some significantly more recent than others.

Luna got onto her feet, still on the couch, and gazed out the window. “How can you be sure? The statue is sound, as far as I can see.” She narrowed her eyes further, her piercing gaze focussed on the randomly assembled character in stone.

“Well,” Pinkie began, “when he got free a few years back, I got this one Pinkie sense combo I’d never had before or since. Until yesterday, that is. But I didn’t know it was the Discord combo because it was coupled to the suddenly-gone combo. It didn’t click until this morning when I had it again!”

Celestia stood up and flared her wings, a serious, stern look in her eye. “Luna. Pinkie.” She looked to each in turn. “It would seem that we are taking a little trip to the statue garden.”

* * * * *

Discord, significantly not encased in stone, paced back and forth atop the black tower of Barad-dur off to the side of its sole tenant and ruler.

“Must they really kill one another?” He posed to Sauron, who was almost gleefully staring down at the circle of confused ponies. How Sauron would appear when gleeful is anybody’s guess.

Sauron turned his gaze at Discord. “Explain.”

“I’m up for a good, sporting competition as much as the next villain, but would you not rather to turn them against one another and destroy their friendships and relationships, and then make them do crazy, random things? Wouldn’t that be more chaotic?”

“I care not for your chaos, Discord the Dragonequus of Chaos. That is why I have limited your powers and dampened your influence upon my domain. I create chaos only when it leads to my order, my rule. I truly have no more need of you here; you have served your purpose. Leave. Stay. I care not. Simply do not interfere with my game.”

“Limited my powers, have you?” Discord paused and gave his beard a stroke and a twirl. Nothing happened. Discord gave Sauron a nasty glare. “So you have. Why?”

“Not only is your damned chaos a constant nuisance, but, though I am loathe to admit, your powers had rivaled my own. I used the time while you were preaching to the players on the field to cast a limiting spell on you. I am the one, true ruler of this land, and I shall not share any of it with the likes of you!”

“My! Aren’t we the trusting one?” He said with a sneer, the dripping sarcasm in his voice was painfully obvious. You certainly know how to make friends! It’s a wonder why everyone dislikes you so much… boggles the mind… simply stunning…” he drifted off into a grumble.

Sauron merely maintained his gaze into the walled off canyon as if he had not even heard Discord’s malcontented ramblings. It is very likely that he did not. When he set his mind on a single task, almost nothing would tear his focus from it.

“Their hour of respite is ended. The game has begun!” Sauron voiced evilly.

“Yes,” Discord plotted in his head, “yes it has.”

“More than you know.”

* * * * *

“Whadda y’all mean by a ‘target’ painted on ma li’l sis, Twi?” Applejack asked, worriedly. She looked over to where the three of them were talking, closely watched by Big Mac and Fluttershy. The couple were leaning on one another, Fluttershy was shaking slightly, Big Mac, with one foreleg around her, tried to remain calm and strong for the both of them.

“What she means, darling” answered Rarity through a slight quiver of her lips, “is that our beloved Cutie Mark Crusaders, here, all have an extra star value on their collars. This literally makes them a target for other ponies with an incentive to … win the …game!” Rarity broke into quiet sobs, and was immediately comforted by Rainbow Dash.

Twilight spoke up next. “I don’t see Pinkie Pie anywhere, so the Elements of Harmony won’t do us much good. And I analyzed the numbers. There are 20 ponies in all, and 23 stars total. At the end of this game, should everyone refuse to participate, the CMC will be the only ones allowed to leave.” She paused, closed her eyes. “And should we try to end it in a tie of sorts, which would have been easy with one star each, each pony would now need 2 stars.”

“But with 17 ponies with one star, 8 would have to…get one from another pony. But 8 ponies times 2 stars equals 16, plus the 6 from the CMC, which equals 22. The final pony with one star would also lose the game. Of course, this is assuming Sauron would actually accept an 11-way tie as the end of the game. Who knows if he will even let the highest three go afterwards…”

She, too, trailed off her sentence, ending in tears. And as Steve, who had remained relatively silent, was next to her, he felt it was only right that he comfort her. So he took a step or two sideways till he was alongside her, and placed a reassuring hoof across her shoulders. Twilight opened her eyes slightly at the contact, looked Steve in the eyes briefly, and put her face into his shoulder, crying softly and shaking with each sob.

Applejack, feeling like the odd one out, moved over to Rainbow Dash to see if she was alright.

“We will get through this.” Steve said suddenly, and with a surety that he did not feel. The four Elements of Harmony raised their eyes to him as he spoke. “All we have to do is keep our heads and stick it out toge-“

Chapter 8: Let the Game Begin... With a Wardrobe Malfunction

Here is the disclaimer: I don’t own MLP: FiM, aside from my Pinkie, Rainbow, and Applejack figures. Oh, oops! I don’t own the RIGHTS to MLP: FiM. That belongs to Lauren Faust and Hasbro.

You Wouldn’t Believe Me if I Told You

Chapter 8: Let the Game Begin... With a Wardrobe Malfunction

“-ther.”

When he had started his sentence, he had been surrounded by his beloved little pony pals, but now he was all by himself in the midst of a deep, dark wood. And he could not see or hear anypony.

Classic move, Discord! Teleport a pony in the middle of his sentence! Should have seen that one coming.

Steve, not knowing exactly what to do first, began walking in an arbitrary direction, hoping to Celestia that he would find Twilight, or Rainbow Dash, or really anypony that did not wish to hurt anypony else.

If it comes down to it, I will have to defend myself, no matter how much it pains me to admit it.

He suddenly realized that since the game had started, he was finally able to check out the contents of his bags. He had originally set all curiosity aside when the threat of death loomed over him, but now that he could look freely, the desire to rummage through them burned brightly in his mind.

As if it were a pre-planned, cruel joke, Steve, not yet used to his ponified body and its limitations, was at first wholly unable to get it off. He grunted and twisted, rolled on his side, and even tried bucking it off. It was then that he realized, to his embarrassment, that it was cinched together around his body. Sitting on his rump, he first attempted to use his teeth. But teeth are not meant for the kind of precision he needed to get the little metal tab through the belt to undo it.

His hooves proved just as useless, leaving him to wonder just how regular ponies managed to do anything at all, especially non-unicorns.

Suddenly remembering an episode of MLP involving saddlebags, he realized that it was wholly unnecessary to take them off. All he needed to do was twist his neck and stick his head in the bags. He attempted to do so, but could not quite reach them. He assumed that he must stretch his neck muscles out, as he had never tried this particular movement before, and the ponies in the show had been doing it all their lives.

A good set of pushing his limits from left to right, and left again, proved highly useful, limbering up his neck and twisting further around with each consecutive try.

After a good couple minutes of this, he was finally able to stick his muzzle into the left bag. A sense of vast achievement washed through him as he did so. He grasped whatever it was between his teeth and pulled it out for examination. It was a small bundle made with a sheet, containing some gray tensor bandages, a canteen full of water, and a map of the area. Figuring he might need the bandages at any moment, he decided to wrap them, with some difficulty, around his forelegs for easy access.

Not only that, but it will protect my forelegs from scrapes from this underbrush! I am a genius.

Hastily wrapping his meagre but precious possessions up in the sheet and replacing them in the bag, he whipped his head around to his right saddlebag. Inside it was a package labelled ‘rations’ with a picture of a carrot on it, and what looked like a high-tech wrist watch at first, until he remembered one of his favourite video games.

“Dude!” he called aloud, “I got a freakin’ Pipboy!”

This was only partially true, as he realized that it only had the map function, but that isn’t what held his attention at that moment. It was the 20 dots adorning the map, spread out across it.

“It’s a collar tracker!”

And it appeared as if a few dots had already found other ones.

* * * * *

Berry Punch, a plum coloured pony with a mulberry mane, lay next to a large tree, not far from where she had been teleported to. Wholly unable to comprehend what was going on, coupled with the threat of death and being alone in the woods, she had broken down in tears and collapsed beneath said tree.

She was not sure how long she had been laying there, but she really didn’t care. Suddenly, from the bushes off to her left, she heard a frantic rustling and the snap of branches, coupled with a loud cry. Forgetting her fear and concern for her own well-being, she bolted towards the noise.

As she neared the site, she heard soft groaning and curses from a familiar voice. As she burst through the foliage, she encountered a misty-eyed Rainbow Dash, who had twigs sticking out of her mane, cuts and scrapes on her body, and a wing hanging at an odd angle.

“Oh, Rainbow!” Berry exclaimed, rushing over to help the distraught and injured pegasus. “Are you OK?” she asked habitually and, as she realized, stupidly. So she followed up with, “What have you done to yourself?”

As she whipped out her bandages to bind up the wing for proper setting, Rainbow sobbed, “I tried taking off from ground level... (sniff)... and even with a OW! ... running start I just couldn’t take off!... so I thought OOOWW! That hurts, you know!... (sigh) ... I figured if I started from a tree, then...” she trailed off, leaving her current condition to tell the rest of the story.

Berry, who was trained in first aid as a necessity for her daycare business, was finishing up her handiwork on the pained pony. She bound the wrapped wing to Rainbow’s side to hold it in place for proper healing.

“That should do it,” she said with satisfaction. “Regularly, I'd say to get a doctor to look at it, or get some bed rest, but I suppose neither are really an option.” She smiled weakly.

Rainbow gave a pained smile in return. “Thank you, Berry! Thanks alot. I don’t know what I’d have done if you weren’t such a nice pony.”

Berry, now filling with a sense of purpose and usefulness, shoved all fatalistic thoughts from her mind. She was ready to see this thing through. She even had a strong and loyal Element of Harmony at her side! She decided to take control of the situation.

“So, Dash, we should probably check what other kind of stuff we have in these bags.” She twisted around and checked both bags. “I still have a sheet, canteen, map in this bag, and... what is this thing?!”

Rainbow watched as she withdrew her head from the saddlebag holding a wooden handle with a vicious, curved blade on it. Rainbow knew what it was.

“That’s a sickle,” she explained, “I’ve seen Zecora use one to harvest herbs and ingredients for her potions to sell at her alchemist shop in Ponyville.”

Berry continued to hold it in her mouth, tilting her head in confusion. “Buh wha yo we nee ahemy inhe-eins ou heea?”

“We don’t. That one isn’t made for herbs.”

Berry, in sudden realization, dropped it immediately in revulsion. “Get it away from me! I’d never use it to... to...” she let it hang at that, shaking her head and shuddering slightly. “I’d never hurt anypony...” she whispered.

“We should probably take it with us, anyhow,” Rainbow suggested and shrugged. “If we don’t have it, then we won’t have anything to defend ourselves, and whoever finds it may not be as level-headed as we are, and somepony could get hurt. Could you check what’s in my bag for a sec?”

Berry Punch nodded, and carefully picked up the cruel utensil and hooked it onto a metal ring on the side of her bag, which she swore was not there before. She walked over behind Rainbow, who was still seated in the same spot as where she had found her, and gingerly reached into the saddlebags so as to avoid disturbing her sensitive wing. Aside from the standard survival equipment was a bundle of sharp sticks and a thick, odd wooden shaft with a bent stick on the end and a taut string between the ends of the bent stick. Berry voiced her confusion.

Rainbow turned and immediately perked up. “Oh. My. Gosh.” She grabbed the instrument from the plum pony. “This is exactly like the one on the cover of the newest Daring Do book! I’ll look just like her with my very own crossbow!” She held it in an outstretched hoof and struck a heroic pose, aiming her new weapon in the distance.

“Daring Do uses a crossbow?” Berry asked. “You read violent books!”

“She doesn’t use it on anypony, duh!” Rainbow snorted. “She uses it mostly to make rope swings and bridges by tying a rope to the end. I bet you I am a wicked shot with this, what with me being so naturally talented and awesome! Hand me a bolt and watch me hit that tree way over there.”

* * * * *

Far away, another pony was practicing with her new weapon. But she had a darker intent.

She swung her pickaxe with all her might, keeping her jaws tightly clenched on the handle and allowing herself to spin in place to absorb some of the force. She was not sure exactly how it fit in her bag in the first place, she just knew it would not go back in. Being a powerful magician, Trixie knew that such a feat of putting a large object in a small bag was nearly impossible, so she had held it either in the metal loop on her bag, or as she had it now in her mouth. With every swing, she envisioned it embedding itself into the cocky little head of the one who had ruined her career. She never thought of her or called her by name, as she did not wish to ever hear that name again. She would not speak that name until she read it in the obituaries.

She had heard that regular ponies almost never held such grudges or vendettas for so long, but then again, the Great and Powerful Trixie was no normal pony. She was better than all of them, she knew they were all jealous of her powers. And that purple upstart of a ‘prodigy’ had stolen her titles and pride that night so many years ago. She would show them all; she would survive this contest in first place. There was no top three in her mind. It was one or none. Up until recently she had managed to keep some semblance of sanity about her, but the current circumstances pushed her over the edge. She was out for blood, and when a pony goes looking for blood, they often find it.

BANG!

“EEEKK! Now what is a lady like me supposed to do with this horrid little machine!”

Trixie froze briefly at the shriek, but by the end of the outburst she had already hit the ground, pickaxe in mouth, and crawled towards the source. She KNEW that voice!

She gingerly peered through the bushes, taking care to be silent. There she saw a light tan pony with a sapphire mane standing with a white unicorn with an impressively maintained purple mane.

That white one is one of HER friends! She thought evilly.

“Sapphire Shores, if I had any sense at all, I would simply throw this abominable little pistol into the bushes right now!” She appeared very ready to do so.

“But Rarity, please!” Sapphire countered, “I’ve been your friend for some time now, and I know that in your boutique you never throw away anything if you can manage to use it somehow! Like that one time you made that ground-breaking dress set for my tour, and it was made out of bits and pieces you had been refusing to throw away, and that any other pony would have!”

Trixie, impatient of waiting, was about to lung into the clearing, when a small metal 6 chambered revolver landed in the bush squarely in front of her face. For me? You shouldn’t have!

“I’ll hear no more of it.” Rarity said, satisfied with her decision. “You can hang onto that nasty machete of yours, but I am perfectly happy to be rid of that evil thing, thank you VERY much!” she ended with emphasis.

No, Rarity... thank YOU!

With an abrupt about-face turn, Rarity began marching in the other direction. Sapphire followed closely behind, not wanting to be left alone. Just as Rarity was nearing the path out of the clearing, Sapphire shot a fleeting glance back to where the pistol had landed. What she saw was a light blue maned blue unicorn levelling the pistol at them. She never had the chance to warn her seamstress friend, and Rarity never had the chance to react to the first shot.

Trixie lowered the smoking gun cooly. She popped it into the holster on her bag, mysteriously present and well-fitted for her new toy. Retrieving another 6 rounds from Rarity’s bag and the machete from near Sapphire’s blood-dripping mouth, Trixie surveyed her handiwork. Double kill with headshots is an impressive feat, but her mind, or what was left of it, was not focussed on that. She was, rather, transfixed by the stark contrast of the deep red blood spattered on that impeccably groomed pure white coat. It seemed to her... strangely beautiful, in a twisted kind of way.

She stood there, staring for several minutes, transfixed by the sight. Suddenly, she remembered about the stars she needed so desperately, and reached out for the one embedded in Sapphire’s collar. On contact with the red-flecked golden metal, the tan pony dissolved into a cloud of brightly glowing red flakes, evaporating almost instantly. in the reflection from the machete held in her hoof, she saw that a new star gleamed on her own collar, this one with an engraved seashell in its center; a seashell that matched the cutie mark of the recently deceased pop star.

“Can’t wait for one with diamonds on it.” Her face twisted into a pleased sneer.

* * * * *

Steve heard the sound of distant gunshots, and his eyes shot to his wrist, counting carefully. A tear dribbled down his steel blue face.

Only 18...

Chapter 9: Of Princesses and Pinkie

Here is the disclaimer: I don’t own MLP: FiM, aside from my Pinkie, Rainbow, and Applejack figures. Oh, oops! I don’t own the RIGHTS to MLP: FiM. That belongs to Lauren Faust and Hasbro.

You Wouldn’t Believe Me if I Told You

Chapter 9: Of Princesses and Pinkie

“Why did that happen?”

Discord continued poking at a small bundle of warped time-space he had been staring into for the past few minutes. He had managed to create it with the power he had, and although it was not terribly useful, he found the tiny window into utter chaos and nonconformity calming and relaxing.

He glanced up momentarily at the flaming embodiment of evil, slightly irritated. “Why did what happen, oh great and powerful Occu-lord?”

Sauron flared at the jab. “You know precisely what! That sparkling display of dissolving pony players. What are you up to?”

Yawning and stretching as if he had just been woken up, Discord got to his feet. “If you really must know-“

“I must.”

“-I am merely trying to liven things up for myself and those involved. I don’t plan on doing the same flare for all of them, you know. Besides, this also clears up the field, in a spectacular way, of all of the corpses, which would have otherwise clogged up the game.”

“I see your reasoning, although not the necessity for this to occur. However, I did find this enjoyable. It adds, as you said, a flare to the game as a whole. Proceed with your ... alterations as you wish. Just do not interfere with the gameplay itself.” Sauron turned his focus back on the game at hand. “I shall not warn you of it again.”

Discord paused, smiling to himself.

“Promise?”

* * * * *

“Pinkie! Slow down! We must act cautiously!”

Luna and Celestia galloped after the pink blur, which had been streaking towards the statue garden. They would have been there somewhat sooner had they flown, but they decided it was most prudent to approach Discord’s statue as stealthily as possible. For if he was indeed free from his prison, and because they did not have 5 of the Elements of Harmony, they would only stand a chance if they had a totally separate element; the element of surprise.

Pinkie, exasperated at her Princesses’ pace, reluctantly circled around back to their sides, and easily maintained a steady pace with them. She was not truly upset with them in particular, but rather the whole situation. Her friends had vanished from the face of Equestria with no warning, right on the eve of Rarity’s birthday party bash at the castle no less, and coupled with all of her daily stress of her jobs around the palace and elsewhere, she was in no mood for shenanigans from Discord this time, chocolate rain or no chocolate rain. Years past and responsibilities gained had taught her the valuable lesson of “time and place” for her eccentric behaviours and excessive gleefulness. She was not happy, not happy in the slightest.

She was an angry Pinkie. And she meant business.

Luna signalled a halt of the group as they neared the final bend before Discord’s stone prison would be in plain view.

“Pinkie Pie,” Celestia began, “allow for Luna and myself to lead around the corner. We can shield you from him with our wards should he attack suddenly.” Pinkie nodded.

“Luna,” she continued, turning to face her younger sister of the night, “prepare your wards and attack spells, but nothing too draining for now. We must not weaken ourselves before the battle even begins. However, if you can get the shot in, do it.” Luna also nodded, her horn already glowing in preparation for her spellcasting. Celestia had already begun doing so as she spoke.

“And,” Luna whispered, “he may still be posing as a statue to throw us off our guard. Be prepared for any eventuality.”

“Spells at the ready, Sis. And you?”

“Done and done Ti. Are you ready to go, Pinkie Pie?”

“Party cannon locked, loaded, and eager for action.” Pinkie replied shortly with a rap on her trusty pink wheeled contraption, a cross look on her face, mane in a ponytail, and extra rounds of some kind of large, package-like ammunition had appeared in a sash over her shoulder. She gestured with her foreleg, “After you.”

Celestia and Luna needed no further invitation. They dashed around the corner, side by side with Pinkie hot on their heels. The statue was indeed still there in plain view; his face still as contorted as it had been a few years back when the group had made him such after his brief escape. Nevertheless, horns were glowing furiously with their spells, and cannon fuses burned brightly, hopeful for the chance to fire the payload.

They slowed their pace as they neared it, gaining confidence as they did. Spells began to dwindle from their horns in spite of their owners, and the cannon remained unfired. Celestia ran a scanning spell on the statue, but Pinkie piped in first, dousing the fuse on her heavy artillery.

“It’s the strangest thing,” she stopped in front of both alicorns and next to the statue, and paused to think, scrunching her face at the same time. “He is there, but yet not there. Like in body, but not in spirit.”

Luna and Celestia both froze in shock as they realized the implications of their pink friend’s statement, but again she beat them to saying such.

“This is not good. He is dimension jumping.” She pulled the pink scrunchie free from her tangled mane. “He could literally be anywhere, or anywhen for that matter!” Pinkie fell to her haunches, hair deflating significantly. From behind her, Luna and Celestia did not need to see the tears in her eyes to know she was crying. Her head was hung low, and her shoulders were stooped over and racked with soft sobbing.

Luna approached her slowly from behind, and, placing one leg over her shoulders, said, “But my dear friend, do you not do the same thing, such as for tuba-portation and other such feats?”

Pinkie shook her head dejectedly. “No, this is different.” Her voice wavered as she spoke. “Tuba-portation only works by bending space within the same dimension. Discord has broken the fourth wall and entered a new dimension altogether, something I haven’t done for a few years now.”

“And why have you not?” Luna inquired.

“Because,” Celestia began, “I forbade it. Every time she did it, she left a small rift in space-time, which, might I add, are a pain in my royal plot to fix. Not to mention the things that sometimes came back through.”

Luna looked at her sister with wide eyes. “Such as?”

She shrugged. “Mostly harmless humans from various times and places, very few monsters of any consequence.”

Pinkie gave a smile through her tear-dampened, distraught face. “I may be out of practice with this dimension jumping by now, but I think... no, I can! Or, I should be able to track his signature through his rift in space-time to wherever he has gone!”

The princesses looked at her with growing hopeful smiles. “Are you sure, Pinkie?” Luna asked.

The pink pony scrunched up her face with concentration and closed her eyes. “Wait... yes! Found his essence trail. It looks like he dragged all of the ponies he abducted through this very portal. That should make this a bit easier. Now I’ll need some time to follow his footsteps through dimensions and...” She paused.

Celestia leaned in eagerly. “Yes Pinkie? And what?”

“Bad news, Ti,” she said without altering her expression. “Looks like he made a few stops along the way. In some rough neighbourhoods, too. You two better go get some snacks, this could take awhile, maybe a few hours depending on just how many stops he made.”

Luna, somewhat let down by the news, shrugged her shoulders and replied, “If you say so.” She looked to Celestia, “Do you wish to come with me?”

Celestia nodded, and with a glance at the now sitting, but still focussed pink pony, they teleported into the castle’s pantry. The pantry was chock full of some of the finest ingredients available in all of Equestria; from fresh farm produce to premade meals and baked goods. Evidence of Pinkie’s experimentations into the culinary world was everywhere. They each grabbed a basket and began to fill them with various fruits and munchies.

“Ti?”

“What is it, Lu?”

“How does she do things like that? Those are some pretty intense powers for a regular Earth pony.”

Celestia looked at Luna, who also stopped gathering food to return the gaze.

“That’s precisely it. She is not a regular pony.” She paused, debating on how to continue. “Before I accept anypony to work in the castle, I have a background check done. No records exist of Pinkie Pie beyond 8 or 9 years ago. She literally just appeared in Ponyville one day and began a career as a confectioner.”

Luna sat down at a nearby table and set her basket down. “So you have no clue as to where she came from?”

Celestia shook her head. “Some down in Ponyville seem to think she was a rock farmer somewhere in Equestria with a rather drab family, but no records of any rock farms ever having been in existence could be found. After I heard that, I confronted her mare to mare on the issue and, after much persuasion, I got the truth.”

“And?”

“She isn’t form Equestria at all. She is from another, more chaotic dimension. A dimension full of enough sweets and candy and varying rules of possibility and physics to make a sane pony go mad.”

“Why would she leave such a place?” Luna wondered aloud. “It sounds like a paradise for her.”

“It was, but then she learned of other places with less parties and laughter, and this made her upset. So she vowed to travel to new planes of reality to spread smiles and laughter and cakes to beings in these sadder realms.”

Luna dawned in realization. “Which landed her here, of all places. I must say she does have a knack for making ponies smile.”

“Yes,” Celestia nodded in agreement, “yes she does. Now, back to gathering refreshments. We mustn’t stay here too long.”

“I agree, Ti.” Luna replied as she got back to her feet, scooping up her basket in the crook of her foreleg. “We must be there with her and prepared to depart at a moment’s notice.”

And with that, they continued about their task.

* * * * *

Twilight was wasting no time getting organized. No surprise there.

She had already taken inventory of her bag, in which was a pair of binoculars.

“These should come in handy,” she had said to herself, absent-mindedly.

Not only that, but she had divided the forest on her map into a grid, and was systematically searching for other ponies to team up with. She had already recruited Bon Bon with a paper fan, and a broken up and mildly singed Ditzy Doo with her belt of five hand grenades. It had been 6, but Cheerilee had been curious about the devices, and had discovered how they worked by holding the grenade in her mouth and pulling out the pin with her hoof. Ditzy had been too absorbed in studying Cheerliee’s weapon, a semi-automatic Uzi with 30 rounds, to have witnessed the tragic incident.

And for that she was thankful beyond words. “I... I just don’t know what went wrong...” she repeated to herself for the 15th time since.

It was that explosion that had attracted Twilight and Bon Bon, who had met unexcitingly enough. And it was Twilight who checked on the smoldering pony’s corpse for anything useful, and had ended up obtaining a new star for her collar with three flowers etched into its surface. The body and its missing appendages evaporated into small clouds of chocolate bubbles which popped in confetti.

The three walked along in silence, aside from the occasional regret muttered by Ditzy. Twilight was in the lead, constantly referencing her map and using her binoculars to scout ahead of them.

“Don’t you worry, you two,” she said to her followers. They looked up at her. “We just need to keep rounding up the survivors and find my friends, and then we can find a way out of this mess. I promise.”

Neither felt reassured. Ditzy looked down at her hooves again as she repeated her depressed mantra. Bon Bon, aside from the general feeling of despair, was missing her home, her sweet shop, and her roommate, Lyra. She wondered if she was still alright.

Chapter 10: Speak Softly, and Carry a Sharp Blade

Here is the disclaimer: I don’t own MLP: FiM, aside from my Pinkie, Rainbow, and Applejack figures. Oh, oops! I don’t own the RIGHTS to MLP: FiM. That belongs to Lauren Faust and Hasbro.

You Wouldn’t Believe Me if I Told You

Chapter 10: Speak Softly, and Carry a Sharp Blade

A grenade explosion sounded off in the distance.

A certain pink maned, yellow coated pony gave out a loud “Eeep!” and launched herself into the nearest tree out of fright.

Fluttershy, up until this point, had not done much more than creep around in the bushes and underbrush, looking around nervously in the hope of finding a friendly face, and shaking as if she were one with the leaves she was surrounded by. She had found a fully loaded 12 shot automatic shotgun in her bag, but that had just made her all the more jittery.

Now that she was off of the ground, however, she began to calm down. She scurried into a cluster of leaves growing out of the branch she was on, and lay down quietly.

“O-ok, Fluttershy, old girl. P-pull yourself together, now. There is nopony there, and nopony wants to hurt you. Just remember what Macky told you; ‘Everypony has a good side, if yer willin’ ta take a look.’ “

She stayed there for a few minutes, waiting for somepony to walk by to help her. Preferably Big Mac, obviously, but at the moment she was anything but picky.

Peering out of the foliage, she noticed that the bush a few meters from the base of the tree was shaking. Slightly, but more than is natural without any kind of wind. She stared at it, wide eyed, again apprehensive of who may be emerging from those bushes.

Her heart rate rocketing, she took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, and said again to herself, “Calm down, silly! It’s ok. It’s probably Twilight… or maybe the CMC. It’ll be fine. Nopony’s gonna hurt you.”

Suddenly, there was a strong jerk on her tail, which she had left hanging out of her cover. With a shrill, startled shriek she was yanked out of the tree and onto the ground below, landing with a thud on her chest and stomach with legs outspread. But before she had a chance to look around, something landed on her, securing a twisted headband in her mouth and pinning down her limbs.

“You can come on out, brother! I got her! And a pretty cute one, to boot!” said a disturbingly familiar voice.

A familiar looking stallion came out of the previously disturbed underbrush. He had a tan yellow coat, and a red mane with a white stripe down it. Even without his pinstriped get-up and round brimmed hat, he was unmistakable.

“Nice work Flam!” congratulated Flim (the one without the moustache), clopping his hooves on the ground in applause. “Excellent form on the mount! I always said you would have made a stellar show pony! Good use of that headband you got, too.”

“Why thank you, brother!” said Flam (the one with the moustache).

“You weren’t kidding when you said she was cute! She’s adorable!”

By now Fluttershy had begun to sob to herself, not entirely sure of exactly what was going on. Tears welled up in her eyes, and she shut her eyes tightly to dispel them. She tried to shake free, but her legs were firmly planted spread eagle on the ground under Flam’s hooves. She was already beginning to bruise from the treatment.

Flam, noticing her tears and discomfort, lowered his head down to her ear and spoke softly. “Hush now. We aren’t going to kill you; not yet, anyways.”

She looked up at him hopefully, but with some effort, craning her head back to hit him with her heart-stoppingly adorable face and large, round eyes. Her tears did nothing but make her even more precious.

Flim leaned in as well. “The next part is much more enjoyable when they are still alive.” He paused, narrowing his eyes and grinning nastily. He reached into his saddlebag and withdrew a long bladed dagger. “Not so much for you, however.”

Realization dawned on her suddenly, her eyes shooting wide and her heart stopping with a drop into her stomach. She began thrashing with all her strength, whimpering desperately. But the hoofhold was too strong, Flam too heavy, and help too far away to save her from the whims and pleasures of the two stallions.

Flam gave a nibble to her ear. He spoke in a low voice to her again as he lowered himself onto her writhing body. “Let’s begin. Shall we?”

Fluttershy wished fervently that Big Mac would come charging through the forest and lay these two perverted ponies low with a bone-crushing buck to the jaw.

But he did not.

Nopony did.

* * * * *

“Raaaarityyyy!”

The general silence of the forest was disrupted by the shrill call of a panicking young white unicorn, who was careening through the forest at top speed down an overgrown path. A large katana was hanging from a sheath fixed to her saddlebags, positioned down her side and bouncing as she ran.

“Raaaarityyy! Where are you!” she panted breathlessly. Her exertion and need for oxygen forced her into little more than a quick walk after a short while.

“I’m… just so scared…” she said quietly, allowing her voice to trail off slightly at the end.

“Who iz dere?”

Sweetie Belle froze in place, not entirely sure of whom had called out to her.

It came again.

“Allo? I tought I had heard somepony over dere.” The mare repeated casually, laced with a heavy Prench accent (from the country of Prance).

Sweetie remained rooted to the spot as a tall, thin light pink unicorn mare appeared through the bushes. She gasped at the beauty of the model in front of her, instantly familiar with the face.

“You…” she stammered, “you are the famous model, Fleur de Lis, right? I recognise you from the beauty product ads all over Canterlot! I love your work!” Sweetie had always wished to look even half as gorgeous as Fleur, but she was not all that hopeful. Not to be mistaken, Sweetie Belle was a good-looking filly in her early teens, but she just could not measure up to the mare before her. Now she was breathtaking!

“Why, oui! I am! Unt I am flattered zat you like my pictures. Zey are lovely. Unt zat iz because I am lovely!” she emphasized her last ‘I’ with the strike of a pose and a toss of a hoofful of her luxurious mane over her shoulder, glistening in the sunlight as it swooshed elegantly and perfectly into place.

Sweetie nodded in simple agreement, awed by her model and icon. All thoughts of finding her older unicorn sister were forgotten by this point. She was totally enraptured; captivated by the beauty of the unicorn she had found.

“But zen zere iz you!” Fleur started, advancing toward her admirer. “Are you not ze pretty young singer from Ponyville? Ze one unt only Sveetie Belle, ze vun vis ze voice of ze angels zemselves?”

Sweetie’s jaw dropped. Although they had never met, her idol knew her name from the mediocre fame she had won from the previous month’s singing competition, Equestrian Idol. She had recently gone viral on PonyTube, and was in the process of recording her first album. Her talent was singing, as evidenced by the chiming bell and treble clef adorning her flank.

At the moment, however, she was having a hard time speaking, let alone singing.

“Um... uh-huh,” she struggled to say.

“Vonderful! I vas dying to make your acquaintance sometime.” She put on a displeased face and waved her hoof in the air. “I only vish it vasn’t in such horrible circumstances.” She looked back to the young mare. “Come ‘ere, young Sveetie Belle, you must be so frightened by all of zis!”

Sweetie approached the shimmering unicorn with the reverence most would use to approach a lower god. She raised both of her front hooves in the air and embraced the tall, perfect figure, running her dirty hooves in the pristine mane and fur at the base of Fleur’s neck. Fleur made no motions to discourage the action. In fact, she put one foreleg around Sweetie’s neck as if to comfort her. Sweetie shuddered with restrained sobs, dampening the light pink coat of the perfect image of a unicorn mare.

Fleur adjusted her weight slightly and lowered her head to rest against Sweetie’s, and said, “Vould you mind terribly to be singing for me?”

“”R-right… (hic)… right now?” she stammered through tears. “I… I don’t think I’d be any good right now.” She smiled weakly through her teary face.

Fleur lifted her head and sighed. “Pity.”

The hoof over Sweetie’s shoulder grasped the hilt of her katana, and, in one swift, fluid movement she buried it deep in the chest of the unprepared filly pop star. So far, in fact, that it came clear out the other side, protruding from her back like a curved horn, glistening a deep crimson gathered from its journey.

The shock and the pain of the impact left her with her eyes and mouth gaping wide. She struggled to take in a breath, but she could not draw in any air. She tried again and again with no success. All she could do is stand there and grasp Fleur’s neck tightly as she bled out through her chest and back. Her strength was quickly failing as the world began to swim in front of her eyes.

“I vould have liked for me to be ze last to hear zat vonderful voice, but I guess ve can’t get everysing ve vant,” she loosed the gasping unicorn off of her and thrust her off with a burst of force on the sword’s hilt. Sweetie tumbled backwards, sheath clattering, body bleeding and useless. The bloodied sword remained in Fleur’s hoof, which was also drenched in blood.

“Look vat you did,” Fleur tisked, frowning poutily. “Now, after I ‘ave gotten ze stars, I must be vashing my beautiful hooves.”

Sweetie’s body went limp, and the world went black.

“Zey are beautiful, are zey not?”

Chapter 11: Revenge and Reunion

Here is the disclaimer: I don’t own MLP: FiM. That belongs to Lauren Faust and Hasbro.

You Wouldn’t Believe Me if I Told You

Chapter 11: Revenge and Reunion

Back and forth, back and forth…

Tears stained the dirty cheeks of the blue pegasus with a bandaged wing. She had forgotten her sadness over her inability to fly rather quickly once she had discovered her crossbow. As with everything else she had ever done, she had been determined to master this cool gadget.

To and fro, to and fro…

Berry Punch, the mare who had bandaged her, was a reluctant helper, fetching stray bolts as Rainbow Dash fired at her chosen tree target. She quickly got rather proficient at aiming, firing, and reloading, despite her hooves.

A breeze ruffled her mane, and dried the last of her tears, leaving only their stained trails.

Confident as always in her abilities, she convinced Berry to hold up an apple for her to fire at.

Her confidence was ahead of her skills, however. Unfortunately, Berry never learned whether Rainbow had hit the apple or not; because she did not. The bolt had neatly gone right into her left eye and into her brain, a small portion exiting out the back of her skull while the feathered end remained protruding from her now bloody face. In fact, she remained lying right by the tree where she was killed, apple still near at hoof.

The breeze was slightly chilled, cooling down her skin. She did not notice.

Rainbow had not been able to move for near a full minute, her brain unable to comprehend what she had just done. When it did sink in, however, her heart sank lower. She had run to the downed mare with tears streaming down her face.

“Nonononono! This didn’t just happen! Berry! Berryberryberry!” She slid to a halt beside her, already on her knees. She picked up the damage, lifeless head of the pony who had healed her, who had helped her, and who she had carelessly killed.

All hope had left her. No flying, no friends, and a dead pony she had never really even known in her hooves who had died at her hoof helping her. Disregarding the star on Berry’s neck, she made up her mind then what she had to do next.

She had climbed back into the tree she had jumped from before, only this time she tied her bandages to the tree branch to stop her fall before she hit the ground, crying the whole while. But she had not tied the other end around her waist or chest. It was around her neck. It was tight. She did not notice at the time. She continued crying.

Back and forth, to and fro…

She had taken a deep breath, and jumped. The knots did not slip. The bandage did not break. She did not struggle. Suspended between the sky and the ground, she imagined she was flying again. Her last flight.

She had cried until the end.

She had stopped crying some time ago.

* * * * *

“No! Run! Don’t look back and run!”

Lyra, standing on her hind legs as she was liable to do, held a pot lid in her left hoof, and a Taser in the other. She refocused on her attacker, a familiar blue unicorn mare with a machete. Trixie took another wild swing at her head. Lyra again blocked the swipe again, as the dents in the pot lid suggested she had. There were also some other dents; round wounds in the steel made by Trixie’s pistol shots.

There were some round wounds in her, too, as well several cuts from failed dodges. Many oozed dark red blood, some had clotted with dirt.

After the block, Lyra swung her sparking, crackling Taser in retaliation, missing again due to her comparative lack of reach versus a machete. Lyra was worn out from the blocking, defending, and dodging; along with weak from her injuries and blood loss. Trixie noticed, and her crazed face twisted into a cruel, satisfied sneer. Her light blue mane was in such disarray, with sticks, leaves and dirt clinging to it, that Lyra was sure she had gone completely nuts.

“You’re going down,” Trixie taunted, “you know you are. And when you do,” she paused to nod her head behind Lyra at the other pony, “I’m coming for her next.”

Lyra risked a glance back at the orange filly with a purple mane, who was scared stiff by the brutal combat she was witnessing. Scootaloo, who had ‘donated’ her pot lid to the battle, could not find the courage in her to move, let alone help or run.

She turned more, shouting and curling her lips against the pain that racked her whole body. “Scootaloo! Run! Now! Or I swear if I don’t die, I’ll kill you myself!”

That did it. Startled out of her stupor by the outburst, Scootaloo turned on her hind hooves and bolted into the underbrush. Scared out of her mind, she had no attention for the sticks slapping against her face, scratching long, narrow red furrows in her face, and pulling out hairs from her tom boyishly unkempt mane.

Lyra, now certain that Scootaloo was well on her way, turned back to the duel at hand, only to find a large machete pressing against her chest. She had used the last of her pistol ammunition on the two before the fight had begun, and due to her degenerated state of mind, most shots missed or were deflected by the pot lid shield. She regretted the loss of her firearm, but it had served its purpose. And machetes never run out of ammo.

“Your move, loser.” Trixie said with a grin.

Lyra smirked weakly. “Good thing machetes aren’t designed for stabbing.”

Suddenly spinning herself around on a single hoof, she brought her pot lid shield against the machete, knocking it aside but not out of Trixie’s grip. The spin had left a lightly bleeding ring around her middle, but compared to her other wounds it was nothing. Her other hoof brought her Taser against the left side of a slightly shocked face (no pun intended).

Trixie`s grin evaporated into contorted agony, the device delivering dozens of volts of electricity sparkling into her face, sending the underlying muscles into spasms. The fine fur on her face caught fire from the energy surging through it, further increasing her pain. The shocks made it impossible for her to breathe, or even make a sound. Her eyelids also were locked shut due to the surges of electricity, so could not even see her opponent.

But she could still swing her arms.

Using all her available control, she swung her deadly blade as hard as she could.

She felt that she connected. She felt a warm liquid spatter her face and arms. She heard a thump.

She did not feel the Taser.

Slowly she opened her eye; the right one. Her left eye would not open.

First she saw a heavily bloodied machete in her right hoof. Next, on the ground at her hooves, was the face of a mint unicorn, sightless eyes glazed over in death. Finally, next to that, she saw the headless body to which it had until recently been attached.

Bloodthirsty satisfaction crossed Trixie`s twisted, mutilated face. Nearly one whole side of her face was badly burned from the Taser and the fur that had burned off, bits of which were still smoldering and smoking. Her left eye had been essentially destroyed, and the lid fused closed. Luckily for her, the shock had burst her sensory nerves in that area, otherwise she would have been writhing in unbearable pain from the wounds sustained from the encounter.

Painfully, she stepped over and kicked the bloodied star on the fallen mares collar with her fore hoof. Both Lyras body and head instantly began to swell and bubble, as if she had become some sort of gory water balloon. Trixie, intrigued, did not flinch. Quickly, the skin was drawn so tight that it burst violently, releasing a wave of clear water outwards, soaking the nearby area and drenching the grotesque unicorn beside it. Her face sizzled quietly as the last embers were snuffed out by the disturbing waters.

Her machete now clean, she used it as a mirror to admire her new star with an etched lyre on it, nestled snugly beside her own star, blank as they all start as, and the stars of both Sapphire Shores and Rarity.

She caught a glimpse of her face in the blade. Burned, mutilated, drooping skin remained where it had once been immaculate blue fur. Her eyelid was still locked shut, but she knew that the eye behind it would not work anyway, as she could not feel it move in sync with her right one. She gave herself a disgusted look, which immediately took a turn for the cruelly pleased. She saw how revolting she looked; how scarred and frightening she had become. Her twisted, tormented soul now oozed through to her face, now equally twisted.

She liked it.

She had a filly to catch.

* * * * *

“I quite enjoyed that! How about you, Brother?” asked Flam, adjusting his mane with one hoof and wiping his mouth with the other.

Flim was wiping his knife on the grass, cleaning it of the blood it had accumulated throughout their violent, perverted pastime. “Yes, Brother, it was rather enjoyable.” He made a motion with his hoof. “Do you think we should put her out of her misery now?”

Fluttershy lay broken in the clearing nearby the two stallions. She was bleeding from the many cuts and gouges Flim had inflicted over the last hour with his blade. Her face was a mess, mottled heavily with tears of fright, pain, and sadness. At least two of her legs had been broken, she was not sure which, as none of them would move. She had several broken ribs, which made breathing very laborious, not aided by the pain in her throat sustained from other activities. Fluids trickled from nearly every orifice, but mostly blood, and that most noticeably from her eyes.

Or where they had been.

At one point, she had attempted and nearly succeeded in staring down one of the brothers. But the other one had figured out her strategy, and had shoved both front hooves deep into her sockets, bursting the tender, loving, but currently stern eyes within.

She would cry, but she had no tears left to shed

She would flee, but she was far too shattered to budge from the pool of her own blood.

She would call for help, but all she could manage was breathe. And even that was almost too much to ask from the pegasus mare.

“I believe I’ve had enough; as has she, for that matter,” remarked Flim, advancing toward her, knife in hoof.

“Alright, but do make it quick,” Flam said, already walking off through the bushes noisily.

Flim reached the pitiful, red and yellow mare. Over the sounds of his brother in the underbrush, he said to her, “Well, it’s been a blast. But we have to go now.” He placed the knife across her throat, shuddering from her breathing, flinching from the contact and his voice. “And so now do you.”

The rustling in the bushes had stopped. Flim raised his head and called out.

“Are you sure you didn’t want to finish her off yourself, Brother?” He paused. “After all, you did catch her, and you know how much I dislike killing another pon-”

CRACK!!

A large, red hoof bucked him squarely in the jaw, crushing his skull and ending his sentence very shortly before ending his life.

Two, large, strong forelegs grabbed at Fluttershy’s limp body, embracing it gingerly. Fluttershy, still barely conscious, heard and felt the restrained sobs coming from the oversized stallion, knowing exactly who was there.

“Ah’m too late. Dear Celestia, Ah didn’t run fast enough!” Big Mac moaned to himself quietly, sitting in Fluttershy’s blood. “Oh, Shy! Ah’m so sorry…”

Mac rocked them back and forth, crying over his dead wife.

“Ah never even got to share mah love with you, we were both so shy… And now we can’t, because of those sons of a horse! Oh Shy! Please forgive me!”

Fluttershy, with her last remaining strength and breath, managed to close her eyelids and whisper out her final words.

“I… do.”

Big Mac, feeling her life leave her body with that breath, began to shake her. “Shy? Shy! Talk to me! Ah love yah! Ah can’t live without yah! Come back!”

Although he said it, he did not really want her back in that world in the state she was in, not after what happened to her. Deep down he knew she was better off wherever she was now. And wherever that was, he knew he had to follow her to try to make it up to her.

He gingerly placed her back on the ground, this time in a patch of clovers by the base of a large tree. He retrieved Flam’s body from the bushes; exactly where he had fallen when his battle-axe had cloven his head in two, axe still embedded in his neck between the halves of his head, and threw it on the corpse of his brother.

He then sat down on his flank beside the body of his beloved, and embraced her with his strong front legs, crying. Scooping up Flim’s knife, he then looked at the sky; eyes clouded in tears, as he plunged it deep into his chest and severed his heart in two.

His eyes fell to his wife who, in his dying moments, no longer looked to him like a mutilated corpse. Instead, he saw her as tenderly beautiful and radiant as the day he had walked down the aisle and received her hoof in marriage. Her mane was done up in an elegant wrapped style, a veil draped down the back of her head, and she was wearing a gown made by Rarity herself, green and yellow with flowers and butterflies adorning it. Live, growing flowers and real, delicate butterflies asked to participate by Twilight. She was the most beautiful sight he had ever beheld.

And the last sight.

* * * * *

Moments later, a new pony entered the scene. She stopped dead still; startled by the sudden level of carnage she was confronted by in the clearing. Applejack first saw the two Flimflam Brothers piled awkwardly on top of one another, one head sickeningly crumpled and bloody from some sort of blunt force, and the other with his head chopped in half and an axe embedded in his neck. She remembered how those two had tried to swindle her and her family out of their farm years back, and she had to force down an evil smirk at the sight of them in such a state.

Advancing into the clearing, she noticed a large pool of blood. She was puzzled by this initially, because it was evident that this blood did not come from either stallion. Neither had enough blood on their coats to suggest one had been laying in it. Rather, their still slightly stained hooves indicated that they had been standing in it. Why, though, she did not know yet.

Noting the presence of the stars on their necks, she became even more curious. If somepony had killed them, why had they not taken the precious stars? She gave both stars a tap. Flam began to turn a dark black colour, with cracks running over his body that glowed bright red. Flim, gave a crackling noise as he turned into a light grey statue, as if he became stone. A breeze picked up suddenly, tearing off particles of the two as if they were formed of sand. Soon enough, there was nothing left of them save some spatters of blood that had run from their mangled faces. Weapons remained on the ground relative to where they had been before the bodies had been removed. She noticed a shotgun, a bandanna, and the battle-axe.

Suddenly fearing that they had been placed there as a trap to lure ponies in, Applejack retrieved her rope from her pack and glanced all around her for anypony lurking about.

A red hoof sticking out from behind a tree caught her eye. She ran for it, carefully skirting the blood puddle; recognizing it immediately as the hoof of her older brother, Big Mac. As she neared the tree, she could start to see his leg and side. She slowed to a walk and prepared herself for the worst.

She was not prepared.

There he sat, in a patch of clovers, eyes closed and leaning against the tree; blood still trickling from a mostly congealed wound in his chest. The bloody knife was resting against his limp hoof on the ground beside him. His other hoof was wrapped around the body of his wife, and one of her best friends. She had cuts all over her, with old blood trails from most of them and from her eyes. Her whole underside was thick with dark blood from laying in it in the clearing for so long. But despite the obvious pain and torture she had undergone, Applejack swore she saw a small serene smile on the originally yellow pegasus’ face.

Applejack collapsed right there and cried loudly. She mourned for the passing of her brother and one of her oldest friends and newest family members. She wept to her exhaustion, emptying her of her tears.

Eventually, she picked herself out of the dirt. Still sobbing lightly, she gave them both a hug, uncaringly covering herself in blood, and a kiss goodbye.

“Ah’m sorry…” she whispered. “Ah’m sorry Ah wasn’t here to save y’all.” She paused, wiping the tears clinging to her fur with her fore leg. “But Ah still gotta find Twilight… and Applebloom… and figure a way outta this Celestia-damned mess!”

She lowered her head solemnly, closing her eyes. “Ah’ll always love ya, Big Mac; and y’all will always be one of mah best friends, Shy.” With a deep breath, she reached out and tapped both of their stars.

Immediately, the tree behind them began twisting and groaning. Applejack jumped back in alarm, rope automatically at the ready. It appeared that a hole was forming in the tree’s trunk. Applejack looked on in amazement as roots began popping out of the dirt around the two, and eased them backwards into the ever-growing cavern. Once they had both been moved entirely inside of the tree, the roots slowly moved upwards, intertwining and effectively sealing the opening.

They were gone from Applejack’s sight, and immediately two more stars appeared on her collar besides her own and the Flimflam Brothers’ two.

She turned away from the tree. “Ah promise y’all. Ah’ll find her. Ah’ve gotta find Applebloom… before it’s too late.”

She looped her rope around her neck, and she scooped up the battle-axe and placed it in a convenient loop hanging from her bag. She ignored the unfamiliar shotgun beside it, dodging it purposefully. She started to run.

* * * * *

Steve was worried and nervous. He had not yet found any other ponies, despite his collar tracker. It seemed that whenever he would head towards the nearest blip, it would either disappear or head off fast in the other direction from him. But this time was different.

A big blip was heading straight for him, and had not altered course for about half an hour. This meant he was on an imminent collision course with a small group. What worried him was that he did not know who was in that group, or, more importantly, what their intent would be once they did meet him.

That was why he was in a tree, out of sight. Unarmed and slightly uncoordinated, Steve doubted his ability to fend off a single, similarly unarmed opponent. But a handful of possibly well-equipped equines? Not a chance in hell.

They were very close now, so close he figured he should be able to hear them.

“…told you. There’s nothing you could have done. It was an accident. Alright?”

Steve perked at the familiar voice. Part of him wanted to call out, but he cautiously stayed put for the time being.

“I’m sorry, Twilight. I’m just kinda confused by all of this. All I want is to go home…” said Ditzy, coming into sight out of the bushes beside Bon Bon and Twilight.

That does it! Steve thought. I’m coming down!

“That’s OK, Ditzy,” replied Twilight sympathetically, “I want to go home, too. But first we have to find my friends; Fluttershy, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and even that new guy Steve I mentioned earlier. I wonder where they- AAAAUUGHH!”

Steve, who always loved a good prank, had tried to drop out of the tree and land directly in front of Twilight to startle her mid-sentence. In this he almost entirely succeeded.

He just never landed. Instead, he ended up face to face with her, hanging upside-down from the branch by his tail.

“Hey there, ladies.” He said, smiling casually. “What’s up?”

Twilight smiled, Ditzy giggled, and Bon Bon rolled her eyes at the pun.

“You, apparently!” Twilight cracked back. “Good to see you, too, Steve. What are you doing in that tree?”

“Oh, nothing.” He paused, debating whether to say it.

“Just… hanging out.” He smiled comically, made even more ridiculous because he was upside-down.

Twilight giggled, Ditzy laughed, and Bon Bon rolled her eyes again, shaking her head and muttering.

“Everypony’s a comedian…”

Chapter 12: Under the Knife

Here is the disclaimer: I don’t own MLP: FiM. That belongs to Lauren Faust and Hasbro.

You Wouldn’t Believe Me if I Told You

Chapter 12: Under the Knife

“Applejack!”

She stopped running abruptly when she heard her name. it was not so much what the voice had said that made her halt, but rather the voice that had said it.

“Applebloom?” she replied, looking back frantically. “Applebloom, where are yah?”

“Ah’m in the big bush y’all just passed.”

She turned around and retraced her steps, analyzing the bushes on both sides as she passed.

“To yer left,” Applebloom clarified, sticking a yellow hoof into the open, beckoning for her big sister to follow. “Come in here!” she whispered urgently.

Not willing to argue, Applejack crouched down and crawled her way into the shrub. Inside was her little sister, huddled against the main trunk in the center. She had her forelegs wrapped around her knees, and in one hoof she grasped a small switchblade, blade extended. Her large pink bow was torn from crawling through the underbrush.

“Oh, Applebloom. Ah’ve been lookin’ every which place for ya!” she said quietly, fraught with emotions as she gave her sister a big, reassuring hug. Applebloom, teary eyed with fright and happiness, returned the embrace with both hooves, resting her head on her sister’s strong shoulder. Applejack was also wet-eyed, she was so happy she had found her lost sibling. “Ah thought Ah’d be too late to save you, too…”

Applebloom lifted her head up slightly. “Wha- whadda ya mean, by 'too', sis?”

A sudden crackling of twigs from somewhere outside of their foliage fortress made them both start. Applejack made a shushing motion with her hoof.

“She’s back!” Applebloom whispered, painstakingly quietly now. Applejack held her sister at arms-length and looked at her questioningly.

“Fleur de Lis,” she continued, struggling to keep her voice as low as possible through her emotions. “I saw her… she- she killed Sweetie Belle! She acted all innocent, but when they got close she took Sweetie’s sword and ran her through!” Applebloom’s facade began to break down into tears again as the grief resurfaced.

Applejack’s face was creased in horror and anger. “Hasn’t there been enough death out here fer one day?” she mumbled to herself.

“Ah couldn’t do nothin’ about it, sis! Ah came out with mah knife here, but then she just laughed at me. Then she recognized me as yer sister. Ah think she’s still mad that you took her coltfriend, Fancypants.”

Another twig broke, nearer this time. Applejack swivelled her head in the direction of the sound. A few meters off down the path Applejack had been heading earlier trotted the figure of the tall, white unicorn in question. But she was not all white, however. She had not had the time to wash off the blood of her earlier kill from her shoulder and hoof. Her katana in her mouth for easy access, she drove it into the underbrush periodically, even lopping the entire bush in half with a single swipe, ever testing for soft ponyflesh.

Applejack knew they would be discovered by one such maneuver, and if either of them tried to run, their position would be forfeit anyways. Breaking from Applebloom’s grip with a quick twist, she readied her rope.

“No matter what happens to me, y’all stay here in this bush, ya hear?” she ordered almost silently.

Applebloom shook her head nervously. “Don’t leave me here, sis! Ah don’t wanna lose anypony else!”

Fleur de Lis grew ever nearer, thrusting as she went, effortlessly severing branches and leaves from their stems with her immaculately sharp weapon.

Applejack paused and turned back to her younger sister with tears still in her eyes. Solemnly she replied. “Me neither…”

With a single leap, Applejack left the confines of the shrubbery and landed in the center of the path, obviously angry and facing off with a startled Fleur de Lis.

Recovering quickly, she reached up with her bloody hoof and removed the blade from her mouth to speak. “Oh! ‘Allo Applejack!” Her mouth perked up deviously. “I am… so glad to see you one last time. I vas hoping to be ze one to kill you out ‘ere!” She swung her long, curved sword a few times before resting it on her clean shoulder.

Applejack scowled. “No beatin’ around the bush fer you, huh Fleur?”

She took one end of her rope in her mouth, and, with an expert flick of her head, flung the looped end of her lasso around Fleur’s neck and pulled it tight. There had not been enough time for Fleur to realize what was happening before she was already caught, slowly being deprived of oxygen.

Panic subsided quickly, and Fleur quickly severed the rope with a flick of her still aloft katana, leaving a relatively tight noose around her neck above her three starred collar.

“Non, dear Applejack,” she replied a little hoarsely, “I ‘ave ‘ad quite enough ‘bush beating’ for one day.”

Quickly covering the distance between them, Fleur swung at her opponent. Applejack leapt backwards; using the time she had bought to draw her battle- axe, a long pole with a double-sided head adorning the end. Between the halves of the head was a single protruding spike.

“And now, ve are ready for ze fight! En garde!”

Again Fleur lunged, driving in for her heart. Applejack, forced onto two legs to operate her axe, awkwardly deflected the blow, utterly unaccustomed to her weapon and its use. The taller mare had had practice with hers, and was also able to remain on three hooves, giving her an even more distinct advantage.

Things were looking grim for the orange farm pony. And she knew it.

Unable to get a swing in herself, Applejack was forced to remain on the defensive, blocking the frenzied blows of the jealous mare, one hoof on the shaft and one on the flat of the head. It was obvious from Fleur’s eyes that she was hungry for her blood, and lots of it. All traces of her former serene grace had evaporated since her first attack, now just a rain of fury and steel poured on Applejack without relent. Despite the rapidity of attacks, Fleur showed little sign of tiring.

So far.

All Applejack needed to do was bide her time. Attacking took more effort than defending, and she knew she had to be stronger and greater in endurance than this supermodel. Not to mention that makeshift noose digging into her neck restricting her airflow. Although Fleur had speed, height, and her weapon choice in her favour, Applejack knew she just had to outlast the barrage. But then she noticed the shaft of her axe.

Fleur had been hacking at the sturdy pole by the head of the axe, slowly chipping away at the steel-wrapped wood. Realization dawned on her that if she did not act quickly, her weapon would be chopped in two, leaving her with a stick in her hooves.

Fleur gave her next swing most of her remaining strength, bringing her notched blade deep into the groove she had created. It hit with such force that it knocked the axe back against Applejack’s head, the sword giving her a small cut on her forehead. Fleur gave her sword a yank, but it would not come free. Applejack recognized her opening and, with a mighty shove, pushed the unicorn back a few steps; leaving the sword in the handle of her axe. She twisted the axe around in her grip, and with a quick swing, she dislodged the sword into a tree trunk, driving it in deep tip first.

The sudden blow, however, also caused the weakened shaft of the axe to break, sending the deadly end careening into the forest. Now left with a stick with a jagged metal sheathing on the end, Applejack advanced towards the drained unicorn, gripping it like a pike extended at her foe.

“Fer yer information, Fleur,” Applejack said, panting slightly and advancing steadily, “Fancypants told me everything. About him, about you; the whole thing.” She smiled. “He said that he was only with you to help your career, to advance you as a model. He was only trying to use his influence to help you.”

“He never loved you.”

Fleur’s face fell in shock and despair, some moisture clouding her eyes. “Zat is not true!” she spat venomously. She screamed, “You are lying to me srough your teeth, you lying ‘orse! You stole my love from moi!”

Applejack, now within range, shook her head and winked. “Nope, sorry. Element of Honesty,” she said, tapping her chest, ignoring the pain in her head from the blow earlier. “It’d be real obvious if Ah were lyin’.”

With that said, and a final scream from Fleur, Applejack plunged the crude spear deep into her chest; her eyes bugging with agony. Her scream went silent, but her mouth remained open. Looking down at Applejack, she saw the small cut on her face, blood running lightly past her eye. She smiled disconcertingly at Applejack, prompting her to push the shaft clear through her body.

Fleur collapsed, dead before she hit the ground. Applejack released the shaft with contempt for both the object, the deed done, and the recipient on the other end of it. Her head was pounding, and she felt sick in her stomach. She called for Applebloom to come out as she checked Fleur for anything salvageable. In her bags, aside from the standard supplies, was an opened bottle. Curious, she looked in. it was filled with over a dozen liqui-gel pills. The label was just as confusing to her, so she tucked them under her left foreleg and hit the center star on Fleur’s collar.

Fleur’s body lifted a meter off of the path and began glowing radiant white, made all the brighter because the sun had begun to set. It continued to brighten for a second or two before collapsing in on itself with a whoosh, ending with a tinkling sound.

Applejack’s headache grew worse from the light, so she did not bother watching. Instead, she called for Applebloom again, only to be interrupted by her own retching. When she opened her eyes, she saw only red.

Blood. Her blood.

She had just vomited blood all over the path in front of her. Suddenly dizzy, she stumbled towards the bush where she had instructed Applebloom to wait.

Once inside the bush, Applejack tripped over a branch and landed next to Applebloom’s leg.

A leg which was no longer attached to Applebloom. Applebloom had not moved, so Applejack could make out that her wildly flung axe head had embedded itself into the trunk of the bush right where her leg met her shoulder. Applebloom, barely conscious from shock and blood loss, reached out to her sister with her other hoof. Applejack grasped it weakly and together they pulled one another close.

Applejack, her eyes clouding over, looked up at her sister. “Ah- Ah love you, sis… Ah’m sorry… Big Mac… Flut…shy…”

And with those words, she passed away in her sister’s arms. Applebloom, barely alive, passed out.

* * * * *

Scootaloo charged through the forest, practically blind in the diminishing light.

She did not know what lay ahead of her. She did not really know exactly what was behind her, for that matter. Except for Trixie. She knew that she was behind her. And that is why she was running.

She slowed suddenly, noticing something out of the ordinary some meters off to her right. Something coloured sky blue and hovering off of the ground…

“Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo shouted to her idol, bolting in her direction. “Help me, please! I’m being chased by Trixie! She’s gone nuts and she-”

She saw that Rainbow was not hovering. She was hanging. Scootaloo almost threw up. When she got near the base of the tree, she found Berry Punch. She was still in the same position as she had been when the crossbow bolt had pierced her brain through her eye. Blood had long since stopped flowing from the wound, crusting on her face and on the ground below. The smell was horrible.

This time she did throw up.

Recovering slowly and crying unabashedly, she wailed at her role model.

“Why’d you do it?!” she screamed, angry at the dead pegasus, angry at the world. “Huh? Why’d you go and kill yourself? Something doesn’t work out so you hang yourself? What about me, huh?!” she yelled, punching at her dangling hooves in rage. “Who’s gonna help me now, huh? You killed yourself, and now you’re gonna kill me! This is what I get for my years of devotion? Thanks for nothing. You selfish…”

Her curses died in her throat, choked by tears and a need to inhale. She looked again at the suspended pegasus. “I loved you like a sister,” she began again softly. “I tried everything to be like you…”

And she had. Unfortunately for her, she had never been able to fly under her own power because she had been born with underdeveloped wings. It was a rare occurrence, to be sure. It was even rarer for a newborn pegasus to leave the birthing room of the Cloudsdale hospital alive with such a deformity, with doctors even suggesting such a course of action and claiming a still-birth.

But she had been born in Ponyville. Her father had hated her for it and had attempted to kill her right then. The nurses had restrained him and security had dragged him out. He had spent a few months in jail for the assault, but had managed to escape. In a late night attempt on the infant’s life, her mother had killed him in protection of her, but had herself gained mortal injury and died soon after.

She had been adopted by Cheerilee, as Ponyville had no orphanage, and had loved her as if she had been her own. Nopony mentioned the incident anymore, as if trying to forget it had ever happened.

Years later, utterly dejected that she could not fly, she had resigned herself to a life on the ground. That is, until the Cutie Pox incident taught her about hang-gliding. Ever since then, she had been leaping off of cliffs near Ponyville with her hang-glider, using her small wings to help keep her aloft longer than would otherwise be possible. She had even gotten a hang-gliding cutie mark and begun a gliding tour business with a rental shop to let other earthbound ponies to have the chance to fly. She was immensely proud that her unique business had ‘taken off’ lately (she used that pun constantly on the subject).

A sudden left hook to her jaw jerked her back into reality, and sent Scootaloo tumbling to the side. Trixie had caught up, and she liked what she saw.

“Well, well! Look at what we have here!” she remarked vilely, looking around her. “Two freebies! Present company excluded, of course,” she said, now focussing her eye on the sprawling pegasus. “You, I earned, fair and square. I lost my eye trying to get you… so I’m gonna have to make you pay for that one.”

She grinned maliciously with her deformed face, and trotted over to the recovering young pegasus. Scootaloo shook her head as she started to push herself back onto her hooves, but was socked in the gut. Devoid of breath and racked with pain, she collapsed again, moaning at the familiar sensation of a bruised rib.

Trixie straddled her and seated herself in the middle of Scootaloo’s back. Her machete, now somewhat dulled and notched from its blows on the pot lid and on Lyra’s spinal column, had returned to her right hoof. She enjoyed the feel of the wooden handle, the weight of the blade; the feeling of power she had when she wielded it. She loved this weapon more than anything. Except, perhaps, using it.

She wondered why she had never gotten one before.

Scootaloo struggled under the unicorn’s body weight, but she could only just barely budge her from her prone position, unable to get her legs under her.

“Well, this is no good! How am I supposed to have fun with you constantly moving around?” Trixie put the machete`s point under her chin and scratched. Suddenly she had an idea.

She gave a quick wind-up swing and chopped Scootaloo`s right foreleg down to the bone, just above the hoof. She screamed in agony, writhing involuntarily. Another swing landed in the same spot and the hoof came off entirely. Trixie twisted herself to the side and hacked at her left hoof, severing it as well. She dismounted the maimed filly and admired the scene momentarily.

Scootaloo, blind with pain, curled up screaming, drawing in her injured legs to herself in a vain attempt at relief. She rocked herself in the mud below her, made with the blood flowing from her cleaved arteries.

Despite her condition, she made an attempt at escape. Trying to get up again, she placed the stubs on the ground beneath her and buzzed her wings to lighten the pressure on them. Trixie laughed as Scootaloo again doubled over from the new shots of pain from trying to walk on the tender ends of her forelegs. Now she was sure that her prey would not get away from her as she had some real fun.

Scootaloo vaguely felt Trixie grab her small left wing, ending abruptly with a sharp, piercing pain of the machete separating it from her back. Her throat gave out on her as she tried to redouble her efforts of screaming. It had become totally dry and hoarse, so she could only moan and utter croaks at her tormentor. Her eyes bugged out and she opened her mouth in a soundless scream as the second wing was unceremoniously ripped out of her back.

Next, Trixie moved around behind her and gave her tail a hard yank paired with a solid swing of her weapon. This was more for humiliation sake than to inflict pain, as the tail itself was only long hair with no nerves in it. The nerves were in the skin at the base of the tail; and that is precisely where she landed her next blow. It went in deep, but was stopped by the pegasuspelvis bone. Scootaloo spasmed and froze at the sudden pang, and continued to spasm as the blade was drawn up her back all the way to the base of her mane at the nape of her neck. Another few well- aimed hacks on her rump, and Trixie held Scootaloos prized hang-glider cutie mark in her hoof. She regarded it briefly, but quickly grew bored of it and cast it aside.

Scootaloo was delirious now, unaware of anything in the world other than the agony she was going through. Nothing else mattered; nothing else existed. That, and the face of her torturer, her mutilated face imprinted on her mind, scarring her mentally as the real thing worked on her physically. She was so absorbed in her world of hurt and affliction that she did not notice Trixie roll her onto her back.

A strong thrust forced the end of the machete deep into her gut, ripping through flesh and tissue with its dulling and nicked edge. The wound would have made her vomit, but not only was her stomach essentially empty, but the blade had cut the connection between her stomach and her esophagus. Another plunge and a pull at the machete opened the contents of her gut to the open air, spilling blood, fluids, and bits of organs on the ground around her. Bleary from torture, agony, blood loss, and now the inability to breathe, Scootaloo fitfully and violently died under Trixie`s bladework, with which she was quite pleased.

For her finishing touch, she rammed the dented machete into the pegasus`skull. This final duress caused the blade to snap clean off at the handle, leaving a bloody wooden handle quivering in her hooves. A tear fell from her eye.

At least until she remembered the other two ponies, and the crossbow and sickle resting on the ground nearby. Tossing the chunk of useless wood aside and grasping the sickle in her right hoof, she grinned once again. She tapped the razor-sharp tip to Scootaloo`s hide. It entered effortlessly.

She had found a new friend.

Chapter 13: Discovery and Respite

I don’t own MLP: FiM. That belongs to Lauren Faust and Hasbro.

You Wouldn’t Believe Me if I Told You

Chapter 13: Discovery and Respite

It was dark. Nights usually are.

The whole forest had gone quiet; no more fighting, screaming, gunshots, or explosions were heard now. It had been a very busy day, and everypony just wanted to rest for a few hours. Even Trixie, with her half-sane mind, knew that at some point she would need rest. When everypony else was asleep was a good enough time for her.

Claiming the stars from Berry Punch and Scootaloo had been simple enough, each body disappearing in some way or another. Rainbow Dash, however, had not gone quietly. Literally.

As soon as her star had been tapped she had begun to glow. Trixie had heard a humming noise coming from the brightening pegasus. As she grew more radiant, the humming sound shifted into a loudening high-pitched squeal. Trixie dove for cover just as the still hanging corpse burst into a rainbow-coloured explosion and engulfed the tree in multi-coloured flames. The heat was intense, and Trixie was not entirely out of the blast radius. She could feel it as her tail and what was left of her mane were singed.

Within seconds the tree was absolutely gone. The ground was scorched in radiating concentric rainbow rings. Trixie was shaken and lightly toasted, but otherwise alive. She checked how much damage had been done to her mane, this time using her new sickle as a mirror. The flames had imbued her ragged mane and disheveled tail with their pigment, giving them a colouration not unlike the scheme of the late Rainbow Dash. That gave her an idea.

She emptied out her saddlebags and wrapped her bandages around her middle. She took her map, crumpled it, and stuffed it under the bandage to simulate the presence of a wing. Her water bottle was crushed and used on the other side. For all intents and purposes, she now looked somewhat like a badly damaged and burned Rainbow Dash.

She settled down in an unburned bush. After consuming the various vegetable contents of her rations bag, she placed her new sickle and crossbow next to her. Secure in her shelter and satisfied with her full belly and eight stars, she fell asleep almost instantly.

Some distance away, a group of four ponies were also settling down for the night. Twilight Sparkle, using the knowledge gained from several camping and survival guides she had read, had started a fire in a clearing, expertly set up and executed as per her habits.

Bon Bon and Ditzy sat on the opposite side of the fire from Twilight, munching half-heartedly at the last of their food supply. Before they had stopped for the night, Steve had checked his life-signs detector, or LSD as Twilight had renamed it, much to Steve’s amusement. It indicated only two other blips from their big one. This had affected them all deeply. Steve hung his head, wishing he had been out there defending other ponies rather than hiding in a tree. Not that he had been up there for all that long, but still he beat himself up for it. Bon Bon and Ditzy cried. Twilight, realizing the uselessness of future efforts to reunite the Elements of Harmony, decided that the only thing left for them to do was survive, and to defend themselves if necessary.

“When it’s necessary,” Steve added.

Steve had attempted to build a shelter from branches, but with no tools, rope, extra materials, or fingers, he quickly gave up his endeavour. The sticks he had collected were instead used to fuel the fire. Twilight quickly assigned him the duty of firewood-gatherer and sent him off to get more.

It was dark in the forest. Steve had a hard time finding more wood. It was pretty much everywhere, but he just could not see it. The only time he found some was either when he stepped on it or accidentally kicked it, forcing him to grope around for where it had gone.

He was trotting back to the fire through the forest with a sizeable load of wood in his teeth, wrapped in his bandages for ease of transport, when he found a rather large branch with his front hoof. It did not budge. His momentum carried him head over hooves into the bushes. He opened his mouth and gave a yelp of surprise, both releasing the wood bundle and alerting the camp to his situation. He landed on something cold and soft.

All three mares were instantly sitting up and on alert. Twilight scooped up a burning branch from the fire and put it in her mouth.

“Stay here, girls. I’ll be right back, but keep the gun handy just in case.”

Bon Bon nodded, raising her uzi in one hoof.

She ran in the direction of the sound, fearing that some other pony had sprung upon him.

Steve suspected approximately what he had landed on and sprung back to his hooves and called out. “I’m alright, I’m ok. But I think I found something...unpleasant. Bring a light!”

Twilight slowed down to a safer pace when she heard him, adjusting her course slightly towards the source. “I have one!” she replied, somewhat muddled by the stick in her mouth.

She pushed away the outer branches of the bush and stuck her head in the hole. The fire illuminated the whole inside, revealing a grisly scene. Twilight dropped the burning stick in shock. The thing Steve had landed on was none other than Applejack, who, minus the blood-stained fur on her chest, oddly seemed as though she had not been injured except for a few cuts and scrapes. She was still grasping a white bottle, her hoof obscuring the label. The collar on her neck was bejeweled with eight stars. Just in front of her was a very pale-looking Applebloom, who had stopped bleeding from what was left of her left foreleg. The axe head was still there in the trunk, coated in blood, and just above the severed limb itself. She still only had her two stars.

Twilight dove into the bush to Applejack’s side and began to desperately search for any sign of life. She was cold and stiff, utterly unresponsive and unyielding to Twilight’s efforts. Steve likewise checked Applebloom. Although she was dead, she still felt relatively warm. A quick study of his LSD showed that there was now only one other blip from their own.

Steve looked at Twilight and shook his head. “She must have died in the last few hours. She is still warm, and the LSD isn’t registering one of the blips from before.”

Twilight bent down and, though teary eyes, studied the symbols in the stars.

“Hers, Big Mac, Fleur, Sweetie Belle, Flim, Flam… Fluttershy…” She stopped for a moment to regain her composure. “How did you get so many?” she wondered aloud. Raising her head to Steve, who was laying the deceased filly by her older sister, she asked, “You… you don’t suppose that she… that Applejack-“

“No way!” Steve burst out. “No way in hell Applejack would attack and willingly kill any of her friends and family. She may not be the Element of Loyalty, but she would never do that!”

“But how would you explain all these?”

“Same way you did, I bet,” Steve replied, gesturing at her own extra star bearing Cheerilee’s cutie mark. “She must have found some old battle scenes or something, or at least got them in self-defence.”

Twilight mulled it over briefly, her mind clearing from her emotional fog, and nodded her head in agreement. “Of course! She must have been protecting Applebloom when she died. Now the only question is: what the hay happened here?”

“You look for clues in here,” Steve replied, “and I’ll check around out there.”

As Steve left the bush, Twilight moved straight for the bottle. Upon opening it, she noted that half of the contents were missing, leaving a half-full bottle of liquid-gel pills. Recapping it, she studied the label by the firelight. She gave it a confused look.

Steve, meanwhile, had just about poked an eye out on the handle of a long curved katana protruding from a tree trunk. Grasping the hilt and bracing one leg against the tree, he pulled at it with all of his strength wiggling it slightly to get it loose. Once it began to budge he lessened his efforts to avoid losing control when it came free. He grasped the hilt in one hoof and brought it back into the lighted area in the bush.

“Find anything?” Steve asked.

“Yes I did, this white bottle of pills. How about you?” Twilight asked without looking away from the bottle.

“I got this sweet sword! It was just stuck in a tree over there.”

“Wow! That must be an old silver blade! Look at how it’s tarnished!”

Steve placed it on the ground to be safe. In the light, the pointed end of the sword was gleaming and bright, but the end by the hilt was significantly darker and tarnished.

“What kind of pills did you say they were?”

“Not sure,” she said, “I don’t understand this label. Have you ever heard of ‘arsenic sulfide’ before?”

Steve’s eyes widened in realization. Grasping the hilt of the sword, he drove it down into the ground until only the handle remained visible.

“Silver tarnishes in contact with compounds containing sulfur. On Earth, people used to use silver utensils and cups to detect poisons, and many poisons contain sulfurs. Whoever was using this sword must have also owned that bottle and poisoned the blade!”

Twilight dropped the bottle, suddenly aware of the pills’ purpose. It did not take much imagination at this point to figure out why Applejack had died with seemingly so few wounds.

“So somepony poisoned the blade and cut Applejack with it,” Steve voiced their thoughts. “But whoever it was, Applejack must have beat them, because there is nopony else nearby that could have done it, and they would not have just left her here without taking her stars. Whoever it was must be one of the stars on her collar, because we both know it wasn’t Applebloom.”

Twilight continued the trail, “Well, I know it couldn’t have been Sweetie, Big Mac, or Fluttershy. That I know for sure. That leaves Fleur, Flim, or Flam.”

They both stood for a moment and considered the options. But given the lack of further evidence, they decided it was best to not assign any blame. Looking at each other simultaneously, they both knew what needed to be done. Steve stood by Applejack, and Twilight by Applebloom, and they touched the stars on their dead friends’ collars.

Immediately, the fire flickering on the stick behind them leapt violently into a frenzied burn. Both Twilight and Steve dove out of the bush, which was soon engulfed in flames, spreading unnaturally quickly and sequestered to that bush. The blaze ended as abruptly as it had begun. There was no dying down or fizzling; it was just gone. As was the bush, corpses and all. Steve now had nine stars. Twilight had four.

Steve recovered his bundle of sticks, and they slowly walked back to camp, much to the relief of Bon Bon. Ditzy was asleep. Twilight told Bon Bon what they had found, distressing her again. They decided it best to leave Ditzy asleep and oblivious. She had had quite enough distress for one day.

Twilight took a look at the LSD. Aside from their group blot, there was still only one other blip out there some distance away. Judging by who’s stars were unaccounted for, the determined it had to be Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Trixie, Sapphire Shores, Lyra, Berry Punch, or Scootaloo. Whoever it was, she had eight stars of her own, so there was a chance of her being extremely dangerous. Twilight laid down several feet from Steve and tried to get some sleep.

Steve thought about everything that had happened in the last few days. It was almost too much for him to take in. Just two days ago, he had left his family’s seaside cottage for a walk down the beach. It had been a little stormy, so he had promised his parents that he would be careful.

And he had been, even up until he had found that sea cave. He had not been sure why he had decided to explore it in such bad weather by himself. He had felt as though there was some kind of force drawing him in, calling him to enter despite the danger. No sooner had he turned to leave the cave behind when a large wave had come crashing into him, tossing his helpless body deep into the cavern. Next thing he knew, he was on the floating plot of grass with video game and cartoon characters in a book villain’s game. Stoking the fire in silence, Steve looked up to the sky absentmindedly.

“Call me crazy,” he began slowly, still focussed skyward, “but isn’t that a cotton candy cloud?”

It was indeed a cotton candy cloud, zipping to and fro across the sky. And it was not alone. There were about a dozen that Steve could see at any given moment, but they were too fast and it was too dark to get any sort of accurate count. They were not yet raining chocolate, thankfully, and nothing else seemed to be out of the ordinary.

Why now? Why has it taken so long for them to show up? What changed since we started?

“Ummm…Bon Bon? Twilight?”

Bon Bon, however, had dropped off to sleep, and Twilight had probably not been too far behind her.

Ditzy stirred awake. After a stretch and an adorable yawn, she cracked open one eye and directed it at Steve.

“Steve?” she said groggily, peering through a half-closed lid.

Steve turned his head to face her, “Yeah? What’s up?” He decided to avoid mentioning the clouds, as there really was nothing anypony could do about them anyways.

“So is it true what Twi said?” she asked. “Are you really a pony from another world?” By now she had managed to get both eyes open and seemed more awake.

“Well,” he replied, “I am in fact from another world, not this one or Equestria. I’m not even a pony, or I guess I wasn’t one before today.”

“You weren’t?” she asked incredulously. She gave her chin a rub, “What were you, a dragon? A griffon?”

Steve smiled and shook his head. “Not quite. I am actually a human.”

Ditzy’s eyes skewed with confusion.

“Humans stand upright on their two legs, and have two arms with hands.”

“So like… a dragon with no tail or wings?”

He gave a hushed laughed, “I guess you could say that, but we don’t have and scales like a dragon, either; just bare skin. That’s the reason why humans wear clothes.”

Ditzy, proud of her analogy, began to look sleepy again. “One more question.”

“Fire away.”

“Why is your name ‘Steve’?”

“My parents gave it to me. Why?”

“What does it mean?”

“I’m not sure. I don’t know if it has a meaning other than as a name.”

“Oh…” she looked confused again, but was only barely conscious this time. “Do all humans have weird names that don’t mean anything?”

Steve paused for a second. He knew some names had meanings behind them, but they never really described a person for who they were. In this area pony culture made more sense to him than the human one he had been raised in.

“I guess we do, Ditzy.” He replied at last, glancing up at her from the fire.

She gave a light shrug. Then she looked him in the eyes and nodded her head in Twilight’s direction, careful not to wake Bon Bon, who’s head was rested on her shoulder and was pressed against her side for warmth.

Steve looked at Twilight. Her mane and tail had some sticks and leaves in them from earlier and were moderately disheveled. Her legs were curled up under her for protection against the chill of the night, and she was shivering slightly. In normal circumstances, Steve would have given her his blanket or a coat, but he had no blanket and the only coat he had was part of his skin. His black vest did not offer much insulation, being mostly decorative.

He looked back to Ditzy, who gave a tired smile and nodded again. With a falsely begrudging sigh, he hoisted himself onto his weary legs, tossed the rest of the wood onto the fire, and walked over to the lone unicorn. Easing himself down, he pressed against her side gently so as not to wake her. He then remembered that his supplies had been wrapped in a light sheet. Steve slowly turned his head around to his saddlebag and extracted the sheet with practiced skill. He gave it a shake and tossed it over his shoulder and over both of their backs. It was not much, but it helped. He heard a light sigh come from the lavender mare, and he noticed her small mouth curl into a slight smile. Personally grateful for the warmth already building at his side, he tucked his head to the opposite side and attempted to sleep. He was quickly successful.

Chapter 14: Revelations

I don’t own MLP: FiM. That belongs to Lauren Faust and Hasbro.

You Wouldn’t Believe Me if I Told You

Chapter 14: Revelations

“I never should have let you stay here!”

Sauron glowed brighter red than usual for a second and unleashed a short concentrated beam of red energy from the center of his eye. It hurtled towards Discord, who was levitating at an equal height to him above the edge of the tower. Discord, calm and collected as ever, unworriedly raised his lion paw in defence. Once the beam was within a metre of his palm it appeared to collide with a circular force-shield. Red energy bolts scattered around him harmlessly.

“Oh, you and I both know there wasn’t much keeping you from getting rid of me,” Discord retorted, his mischievous smile growing. “But now you have no choice in the matter. Even with my original powers mostly blocked, I now rival your full strength yet again!”

Conjuring a palm-sized ball of chaotic energy in all four appendages, he spun himself in a rapid cartwheel and launched them at terrifying speeds. They, too, collided with a defensive force-shield, exploding on impact in a loud cloud of swirling darkness. They would have been showier, but in a clash of titanic powers, style points only serve to weaken the spells and the caster.

Sauron had been so intent on watching his pony-centric death match that he had almost entirely forgotten Discord’s presence, and neglected to monitor his rising power levels. But as for why he had become so strong so fast, Sauron’s imagination which was shoddy at best could not help him figure it out.

The signal had finally ventured into his mind around nightfall with Rainbow’s rainbow explosion. The power required to perform a spontaneous eruption of that force was far greater than he had allowed Discord to maintain. But at that point it was too late. A powerful being is only capable of negating the power of another up until the level of his own. The negator can still utilize his full strength after such a maneuver while the negated party can only use what is left of his after the negation. This is the First Law of Potent and Magical Combat.

Sauron, who had managed to cast his negation first and technically had instigated the duel, had by then negated Discord’s power in equivalence of his own. But for some reason he had regained his strength to be equal again, and this meant that Discord’s uninhibited power was twice that of Sauron’s.

Sauron charged his eye laser more this time and fired again. Despite the increased energy and duration of the projectile it was blocked with similar results.

The Second Law is more of a courtesy gesture and states that in a duel, opponents must take turns exchanging blows. Failure to comply with this Law would result in a forfeit. Other potent beings would come from other realms to uphold the Law, and they would not be happy. These measures to enforce this law only exist among immortal beings, because a mortal’s lifespan is short enough as it is, and, frankly, they are relatively so insignificant it is not worth the time.

Discord formed two larger orbs of chaos between his hands and his feet. Whipping himself around again, he fired them even faster than before. Again they impacted the shield and burst into light-absorbing flames. Defending from an attack in this form of combat is much easier than attacking, and such clashes have been known to last for days as a test of power, prowess, and sheer endurance. Mortal magicians have been known to emerge victorious from a duel because their opponent died from starvation or dehydration.

“I’m sure you are dying to know how I became so powerful so quickly,” Discord teased.

“Such information would be nice to remember you by,” he retorted as he fired another attack. This time it was much brighter and oddly ionized in an attempt to bypass the shield.

Casually raising his griffon claw in defense, he closed his eyes and turned his head to the side. His other hand stifled a yawn as the beam was deflected in a dozen various streams. His display made Sauron blaze with fury, who was barely able to keep himself from immediately launching another one. Sauron immediately thought better of it, realizing that that was probably his strategy.

Discord, who was no longer threatened by an attack until he made his own, lowered his force-shield to minimal levels so Sauron could view him clearly.

“The secret to my success,” he said slowly, gesturing to his red, dragon-esque tail, “lies right here.”

Sauron noticed that his tail was not entirely red as it had once been. It had become spotted with scales of varying colours, each with a unique symbol in the middle. One was yellow with a butterfly, one mint green with a lyre, one white with a diamond…

“Those… those are the colours and marks of the ponies who perished in my game!” Sauron recalled aloud. “But why then-”

Discord raised a hand to stop him. “Slow down there, baldy! I’m getting there.”

“Now I have never liked killing, still don’t. My thing is manipulation and mind tricks,” he stated, tapping his head. Stretching his arms out in a wide gesture, he continued, rotating himself on the spot slowly as he talked. “Everypony here has been duped into thinking they had been brought here for the sole purpose of killing each other. This is what I told them, and you, for that matter.”

He paused dramatically, grinning widely and pacing to and fro in the air. “But that is not entirely true, it only looks like it is. Every time a pony ‘dies’ out there, I am actually siphoning their essence into my scales to contribute to my power! The dissolving bodies adds their physical magic to me to further increase the pool!” He gave a hearty cackle. “I've been growing stronger this entire game of yours! Well, I suppose it’s my game now, isn’t it?”

Sauron mentally took a step back, as doing so physically was wholly impossible. He berated himself for neglecting to monitor his guest. He had become utterly absorbed in watching ponies, forgetting most else; a common problem for beings in a number of dimensions.

“So that means, when the final players eventually clash…” he voiced his thoughts in somber revelation.

“Exactly right, my friend!” He gave a slow clap in derision. “With the power of whichever ponies fall next, I am sure to defeat you. You had best look out if the next one is Twilight Sparkle! She’s a real magical powerhouse! I doubt it matters who it is in the end; you look like you need a breather already!”

Sauron was weakening slightly, as he had not needed to duel in some hundreds of years. Even if no other ponies were added to Discord, he was not certain he could hold out for more than a few days. They would merely be nails in his coffin.

He blocked a few sneakily thrown chaos projectiles that curved and twisted as they approached. Before he charged up another laser, he thought to the Ring on its way through Mordor at this very moment in the hands of a hobbit, hopeful to regain it before it was too late.

* * * * *

“Wow, that sure made finding them easy!” Pinkie burst out suddenly.

Celestia jumped, badly startled. It was early morning. She and Luna had stayed out in the garden with Pinkie all night as she had searched the dimensions, mentally probing for Discord’s signature of chaos. Celestia had been sitting quietly on the picnic blanket and munching on some carrot cake. Now she was sprawled on her back, mysteriously and disappointingly devoid of her cake.

Luna was the exact opposite, because she had been fast asleep. Now she was sitting upright, mysteriously and annoyingly having acquired a half-eaten piece of carrot cake in between her eyes. She gave Celestia an evil glare.

Celestia, upon the discovery of her missing delicacy, developed a large grin. Between giggles, she managed to ask Pinkie what she meant.

“What I mean is I found them!” she clarified, not even pausing for a moment when she saw the cake on Luna’s face. Cake face was a perfectly acceptable style in her mind, having used it often enough.

“Well done, Pinkie!” congratulated Luna as she wiped the cake off with a napkin. Celestia got up and nodded in agreement.

“I had been getting closer and closer all night, I just wasn’t sure how much farther it was until I found him. Luckily for me, Discord popped out of hiding and began to rain chaos. It was like a huge neon sign if you know what to look for!” she said, emphatically reaching her forelegs out to simulate the sign size.

“Are we ready to depart then, Pinkie?” inquired Celestia. “We should leave as soon as possible, and hope we aren’t too late to stop him.”

“That’s the thing,” Pinkie puzzled. “I had an idea while I was out there. I followed up some leads and contacted a few old friends, and I think I know what we have to do. And,” she continued, “I don’t know if stopping him is in our best interest right now.”

Celestia and Luna gave her questioning looks.

“Why ever not?” Luna asked.

“Because he’s in Potent Combat with another guy; a far more evil bad guy and Discord appears to be winning. But we do have a problem with your ‘defeat him’ idea.” She let it linger for a minute.

Celestia bit. “What problem now?”

“He has control of four of the Elements of Harmony. How or why isn’t important, just know that I have a plan and trust everything I say. Everything. To. The. Letter.” She emphasized each point with a pause and a stomp.

The princesses were shocked by both the news and by Pinkie’s cryptic knowledge.

Celestia broke the silence. “We… we trust you, Pinkie.”

“Yes, Pinkie my friend, we both do. Now what is it we need to trust you in doing?”

“Don’t follow me.”

And she was gone.

* * * * *

A dull explosion echoed in the distance. Ditzy and Bon Bon had woken up at dawn and gathered some flowers and berries for breakfast. Steve, still mostly asleep, tried to shut out the noise and light by curling into a tighter ball under his sheet. As he curled, his muzzle bumped into something soft and warm. Ditzy gave a giggle. Steve slowly eased his eyes open to see Twilight opening her own eyes. He had connected with her muzzle. Steve blushed immediately.

Grabbing the sheet, she jumped up shrieking, and gave him a reflexive clop to the side of his jaw. Instantly, he was unconscious again.

Chapter 15: Dimensions

I don’t own MLP: FiM. That belongs to Lauren Faust and Hasbro.

You Wouldn’t Believe Me if I Told You

Chapter 15: Dimensions

“And you let her go by herself?” asked Cadence incredulously.

Celestia closed her eyes and pushed her hoof against her forehead in frustrated thought. She was seated on her throne in the Royal Audience Chamber with a distraught Luna at her side.

“No, Cadence,” she replied, “we did not ‘let her go by herself.’ She just left; no warning or anything! She simply disappeared. There was nothing Luna or I could have done to stop her.”

Luna nodded in agreement. She was sitting in her own throne recently reclaimed from the long-term storage rooms in the castle basement. The restoration was a success, and it felt old and familiar while having that new chair smell.

“Well, I for one am going to follow her!” Cadence stated and stomped her hoof emphatically. “That mare is practically family to us here in Canterlot; not to mention the best baker in Equestria, the Element of Laughter, and one of Twily’s best friends!”

Celestia shook her head while still smiling at her enthusiasm. “You for one are certainly not going, dear niece! Not in your condition.”

She gave a gesture of rubbing an invisible extended stomach. Cadence knew full well her aunt was referring to her being 9 months pregnant (out of 11 by the way). She knew she was right and kicked the ground in brief annoyance.

Luna nodded again. “You know full well how important this foal is, not only to you, Ti, Shining, and me, but to all of Equestria. It is a rare thing indeed for an alicorn to become pregnant with any kind of pony, let alone an alicorn foal!”

Cadence looked shocked for a moment. Luna clopped her hooves over her mouth as Celestia gave her an inquisitive look.

Celestia turned back to Cadence. “So the ultrasound showed an alicorn, did it? Strange that your dear old Aunt Ti was not told of it, oh say… four months ago when you had it done!”

Cadence looked at her apologetically, but with a hint of disappointment and annoyance. “Well, I did want it to be a surprise when it’s born, but apparently somepony couldn’t wait for the news.” She shot a glare of full on annoyance at Luna. “How did you find out, anyways?”

Celestia raised an eyebrow at her sister. “This should be good.”

“Well… you see, um…” Luna stuttered sheepishly, blushing slightly and scratching at the back of her neck. “A few months ago, I kind of snuck into Shining and your room, and… performed my own ultrasound. With the machine; jelly, and everything.”

Cadence gasped and raised a hoof to her mouth. Celestia raised the other eyebrow and smiled.

“Wow! That was good!” she exclaimed. She looked back at Cadence and was immediately serious. “And in light of this new fact, I am assigning a pair of castle guards to remain at your side at all times; minus the obvious private moments, of course.” She raised a hoof to silence her niece, who had opened her mouth to interject her opposition, and continued. “I do not want to hear any arguments on this.”

She clopped her hooves together twice to summon two of the guards positioned along the walls of the chamber. “8 hour shifts, one of you starts with a four, then get a replacement. One of you must be with or near her at all times. At. All. Times. Are we clear?”

One guard stood at attention on either side of the swollen young alicorn. “Yes, Princess!” they barked in ritual response. Cadence’s displeasure was obvious from her sour countenance.

“Is that all, Aunt Ti? Or must I also be restrained and confined to my quarters?” she muttered in a semi-sarcastic tone. She began turning to leave.

“No, that shouldn’t be necessary. And no, that is not all.”

“What now?”

“You are to take Luna’s place at my side while she is gone.”

“But I thought Pinkie said-“

Luna interrupted. “Yes, Cadence. She did tell us not to follow her. But as strange as her ways may be, she doesn’t have the authority to command princesses in matters that directly involve the safety and well-being of our little ponies. I will trail her and be there merely to observe, and intervene should the necessity arise.”

She stood up and spread her wings. With a glow of her horn, she was gone to the garden to follow their friend through the small dimensional distortion.

“She certainly is good at clandestine operations…” Cadence muttered as she gingerly sat down in Luna’s plush throne.

* * * * *

Dimensional travel is not an instantaneous thing for the unaided individual. Granted, some races have developed technologies to shift between them with relative ease, and some can do so seemingly at will. Those who can do so by mental means know the dangers involved. One must keep their objective in the forefront of their mind with little deviance. This is not an easy task, as every layer one passes through presents the shifter with new colours, lights, scenes, creatures, smells, and a myriad of other distractions. Although they cannot hurt you directly, they can still be a problem.

Due to the nearly infinite dimensions and alternate realities, any stray thought could lead you into a similar dimension to the one you wanted, but it will result in a slightly off coordinate. Usually, however, the traveller just dies smeared in the fabric of space-time. This is precisely what Pinkie was trying to avoid as she hurtled through the layers of realities.

But she was not heading to Sauron’s realm; not yet anyways. She had to make a stop in an old, familiar universe to pick up the very same contact mentioned earlier to the princesses.

She just hoped she would have enough time.

* * * * *

Steve groggily opened his eyes for the second time that morning. This time he had a vicious headache.

He groaned as he sat up on his haunches and gave his head a shake as if to reposition his brain after the hoof blow to his cranium.

Mental note: hooves are way harder than hands. Avoid being ‘slapped’ at all costs.

Ditzy was already at his side, encouraging him to eat some of the herb and vegetable soup they had managed to piece together for a warm breakfast. He thanked her for it, grateful for the heat and energy the food gave him. It was still pretty cold out, despite the almost noon position of the sun.

A far off explosion caught his attention immediately, almost causing him to spill the delicious broth on himself. His eyes darted around for the cause of the disturbance.

“There.”

Steve turned in the direction of the voice. There he saw Twilight seated behind him, sitting near the fireplace and wrapped from head to hoof in the sheet from earlier. She was pointing past him in the opposite direction. Following her gesture, his eyes landed on the miles high tower of Barad-dur overlooking the valley in the distance. What really surprised him was the activity on the top.

Glowing orbs were situated some distance from each other. One large red one was in the middle of the summit between the twin spikes, and the other yellow one was suspended in the air just off to the side, slowly circling. Both orbs would occasionally emit searing bright lasers or other forms of powerful attacks. It was fairly obvious to him what must be going on.

The enemy was divided.

“I hope they kill each other,” he said contemptuously.

“Twi says that might be a bad thing, Steve,” Ditzy said.

“And why is that?” he asked and looked back to Twilight. She looked away quickly.

“She said that Sauron’s power might be the only thing keeping this dimension together.”

“What!”

“Yeah, I didn’t really believe it either,” Ditsy took a few steps toward the edge of camp, “until this happened.”

She gestured at a large crack in the ground just along the tree line of their clearing. Cautiously approaching the chasm, Steve noticed something really odd and unsettling about this particular canyon.

It was not a canyon. It was a tear. Canyons have walls and a floor. Here, the edges of the ground went down about a foot, and then there was just a swirling sea of blacks and dark purples, and occasionally highlighted by brighter dashes and blotches of random other colours.

“This is not good. Not good at all,” Steve said in a low voice. After a few moments of thought while peering into the maddening pit, he turned to Twilight again.

“Maybe that’s why it’s so cold! Temperature regulation must take up some of his focus, or power, or something. What do you think will happen when he decide he needs the power of upholding this dimension to fight Discord and just pulls the plug on us?”

Ditzy shuddered.

Twilight did not answer, or look at him for that matter. She did not even speak for a few moments.

“Why did you… kiss me this morning?” she said, still looking to the side.

“That was a kiss?!” he exclaimed. “That was nothing like kisses back in my dimension. I just thought I accidentally hit your nose!”

Steve did not know how to handle this situation. He had never accidentally kissed anyone before, let alone an Equestrian from another universe in another third universe while he himself was also a pastel coloured pony.

She did not reply.

“In that case, I am truly sorry,” Steve apologised. “I promise it won’t happen again.”

An awkward silence ensued. Twilight looked at the ground, Steve at Twilight, and Ditzy at both them and at the forest.

Suddenly, Ditsy asked in an alarmed voice, “Where is Bon Bon?”

The other two ponies jolted into reality. They both looked around them, but she was nowhere to be seen.

Twilight shrugged worriedly, and Ditsy looked at Steve expectantly.

“Don’t look at me! I was unconscious!” he defended. “But I do know how to find her.”

He held up his wrist with the LSD strapped tightly around it and began to study the green display. The two mares closed in on him to get a look.

“Well, here we are,” he began, picking up a small unburned stick to point at the display. Hooves had a tendency to block out most of the screen. “It looks like this dot here to the east is headed straight for us, and that it is coming from the last dot out here.”

Ditsy put her hooves to her mouth. “Is Bon Bon being chased?” she asked worriedly.

“It doesn’t look like it,” Twilight interjected. “That other dot isn’t even moving. Either way, we have to go see what’s up. Let’s grab our gear and head out!”

Ditsy scooped up her grenades and bolted into the bushes.

“Ditsy! Other way!” Steve called.

“Oops! My bad!” she replied, bursting back out of the bush and galloped to the far side of the clearing.

Steve chuckled lightly as he began to follow, but was stopped when Twilight tapped his side. He turned to look back at her.

She had removed the sheet and held it balled up in one hoof, outstretched to him.

“Umm…thanks for last night… for the blanket, I mean,” she stammered out, blushing mildly.

“Oh, uh… no problem,” he replied, opening his pack and inserting the thin fabric.

After a short silent pause and an awkward cough, she reared up and charged after the gray pegasus into the bushes. Steve gave a sigh and followed closely behind.

Remembering, he called out one of the strangest things he had ever said.

“Watch out for holes in reality!”

Chapter 16: The Fellowship Fails

I don’t own MLP: FiM. That belongs to Lauren Faust and Hasbro.

You Wouldn’t Believe Me if I Told You

Chapter 16: The Fellowship Fails

The battle atop Barad-dur continued wordlessly. They say actions speak louder than words, and there were plenty of those.

Neither side was willing to give an inch. Both launched attack after attack, each one strong enough to devastate a large number of less powerful beings. Fragments of energy and waves of heat radiated from the smoke-concealed fray. It looked very much like a fireworks display going off in the clouds during a thunderstorm.

Discord anxiously awaited the addition of more pony essences to his ever expanding collection. He was glad he had selected so many of them, and that he had altered the minds of some of the more vengeful ones to help in wiping out the docile ones. But because he only had a highly damaged Trixie left up his sleeve, he decided he needed one more pony on his side to mix things up a bit. Satisfied, he turned his full attention back to the task at hand. Soon enough he would get more power. Then he could end this.

He did not know it yet, but he was winning.

Meanwhile on the other side of the battle, Sauron could feel his diminishing power over the realm, sensing the holes forming across the battlefield as he choked off the power siphon. Using a fraction of his focus, he had started to keep the area around the combatants as stable as possible. He hoped that keeping them safe that way would buy him enough time to regain his Ring of Power and destroy Discord. Those hobbits thought that they were so sneaky. He had maintained a nearly constant vigilance on them ever since one of his Riders had discovered them in the Dead Marshes. They kept an eye on them from above the clouds all the way to the Black Gate, down to Minas Morgul, and up the staircase. He had almost lost it after the orcs had reported that the Baggins did not have it, but it re-emerged with the other one shortly after.

Turning part of his consciousness back to Middle Earth, he scoured the blackened volcanic ground for signs of life. He heard the call of his Ring just as his gaze fell on the Baggins himself, who promptly collapsed. The Ring was at the base of Mount Doom. After some seconds of thought on the matter, he looked to his front gate where the last great army of men waited on his doorstep. They had tried to distract him with their little ruse to give Frodo some time. Little did they know, both they and the Ring were precisely where he wanted them. Soon he would have his Ring, both Discord and the human armies would be destroyed, and both realms would be securely under his power once more.

Soon…

* * * * *

Twilight galloped as fast as she could manage through the rough, overgrown terrain. Steve was no less than a length behind her. He accelerated slightly and came up beside her. Both were not used to quite so much exercise and were beginning to pant from exertion.

Steve gave a few awkward hops as he tried to get a look at the LSD.

“From what I can tell,” he called over the noise from their charge, “is we should see them any second now-”

His sentence died in his throat as the two of them entered into a small clearing where they saw Ditzy and Bon Bon some meters away. The odd thing was, Bon Bon had Ditzy in a headlock with an uzi against her head. They skidded to a stop.

“Back off!” Bon Bon shouted at them, briefly waving her semi-automatic in their general direction. “This kill’s mine! Go find your own!”

Ditzy whimpered in fear, utterly confused by Bon Bon’s sudden attitude change.

Steve asked nervously, “Bon Bon, what’s gotten into you? What in the world are you doing?”

“Put the gun down. We can talk about this,” Twilight said calmingly, raising and lowering her hooves in the ‘calm down’ motion. “Nopony has to get hurt.”

“Open your eyes!” Bon Bon shouted. “We all have to get hurt! That’s the whole point of the game, isn’t it? Nopony is getting out of here until there are only three of us left. By my count, there are five right now, and I am nowhere near being in that top three!

“You think you can save us?” she mocked. “Who have you saved so far? Sure, you found Ditzy and me, but who did you save? Not any of your friends, that’s for sure! Not Applejack, or any other Apples, and not Fluttershy or Cheerilee or Rarity, either! They all died! And you know as well as anypony that two more here have to die!”

She paused briefly, staring down the purple unicorn and blue pegasus.

“Wait,” Steve said slowly as to avoid any rash panic, “You said Rarity… how do you know…”

“Because I saw the other pony just back there. The lone survivor…” she paused with a tear, “is Rainbow Dash. She’s just over there, passed out under a big tree, and it ain’t pretty.”

Both Steve and Twilight were excited to hear that Rainbow was ok. That feeling was dampened, however, by both the implications of who else had died and by their current unresolved situation.

“Not any of MY friends survived! No, of course not! Just your friends! It’s always you and your friends, the Elements of Harmony!” Bon Bon was in a full-fledged rant, growing more and more agitated as she shouted. The muzzle of her gun was digging painfully into the side of Ditzy’s head. She had shut her eyes and was grasping her grenade belt to brace against the pain.

“My friends! MY friends are gone! Lyra; dead! Berry Punch; dead! Oh, and we already knew about Cheerilee, but let’s not mourn over her! No! Let’s look for YOUR friends! They are the only ones that matter, aren’t they?!”

Bon Bon was hysterical, with tears running down her face. Twilight was crying from the cream-coloured pony’s accusations. Ditzy was still frozen in pain and fear. A trace of blood trickled down her temple from where the muzzle was slowly cutting into her skin. Steve was starting to get angry, and absentmindedly took a step forward.

Bon Bon whipped the gun from Ditzy’s head and in his direction. Steve turned and dove on top of Twilight as Bon Bon sprayed a small barrage of bullets. Despite the wildly inaccurate gun control, several bullets embedded themselves into his soft flesh.

Steve yelled in agony as the hot metal burrowed in, setting his nerves on fire. He rolled off of Twilight, bleeding from his side, flank, and his neck. Twilight, who had only sustained some small scrapes and bruises, jumped to her feet to examine his wounds.

“Steve! Are you ok?” she asked without thinking.

He just looked at her, gritting his teeth against the pain.

“Nevermind.”

She unravelled the bandages from his forelegs to wrap around his neck.

“I TOLD YOU TO STAY BACK!” Bon Bon shrieked.

Twilight looked up at her. “That doesn’t mean you had to shoot him!”

“Maybe not, but I’m starting to think maybe I did. Maybe I should just kill you both, and Rainbow back there! With your stars, me and Ditzy here can get back to Equestria and live long lives; all thanks to your sacrifice.” She leveled the gun at them purposefully and smiled. “Looks like you saved somepony after a- mmmph!”

As she was completing her last word, Ditzy sprang into action. Unhindered by a gun at her temple, she yanked two grenades from her belt, activating the ten second delay and leaving a pair of lonely pin hanging in their place. She twisted in Bon Bon’s loosened grip and shoved one grenade into her mouth and the other she pressed against in between them. She held Bon Bon’s mouth shut with one hoof under her jaw and the other on her head.

“Looks like I’m the one saving them from you.”

It was Bon Bon’s turn to be afraid.

Ditzy looked over her shoulder at Steve. “Hear that? You’re not allowed to die, cuz I just saved you. Take care of Dinky for me, ok?”

Steve did not manage to reply, but instead said hoarsely to Twilight, “Get down!”

She ducked in behind him and he rolled against her side with his forelegs over her head just as the grenade went off. Although neither was watching, Bon Bon’s head blew apart nearly instantly. Both ponies were ripped apart from the second grenade which went off a millisecond afterwards. That one caused the remaining three on her belt to ignite and explode in perfect unison. Pony flesh and metal shrapnel radiated from the epicenter and showered the two cowering ponies just five or so meters away.

As the force, sound, and heat of the explosion died away, skyward debris continued to clatter to the ground. Twilight poked her head up slowly from beneath Steve’s hooves.

All that remained of the deranged Bon Bon and the brave Ditzy were their collars, neatly undamaged by the explosion and sitting in a shallow crater. She got up and looked at Steve’s back. It was riddled with cuts and shrapnel and coated with dirt. Steve gave a painful cough and groaned.

“Steve!” she cried, kneeling do his face. “Are you ok? Say something!”

His body shuddered as he took a few painful breaths, coughing a few more times.

“What… what’s with you…” he struggled breathlessly and made a weak smile, “…and that stupid question?”

Twilight picked up his hoof and held it against herself. She squeezed her eyes shut and purged a few hot tears. She immediately felt a jagged metal object press against her chest. She saw that it was the LSD, which had been struck by a bullet and some shrapnel. The display was shattered and a blank dull green. Blood and oil oozed out from underneath it and down his leg.

Something glowed off near the crater. Twilight was about to check what it was, but Steve placed his free hoof against her face and looked into her eyes meaningfully.

“Go,” Steve coughed, “go find… Rainbow Dash. You two have to… get out of this… this place.”

Twilight shook her head sadly. “I can’t leave you! And the LSD is busted, so I don’t know where she is…”

“I’m right here.”

Twilight and Steve looked back towards the crater. Before where there had been two collars with one star apiece, was one collar with ten stars; worn by a burnt black-and-blue one-eyed pony with a rainbow coloured mane, a badly scarred face, and a bandage around her middle. She had a crossbow on her back, and was brandishing a gleaming sickle.

Her face twisted into a grotesque smile.

* * * * *

Pinkie flew through interdimensional space, faster than she ever had before and far faster than was safe. Her contact, whom she held in the firm grasp of her hoof, had nervously voiced as such several times since their departure. She tried ignoring him.

“All I’m trying to say, Miss Pinkie,” the thin, spectacled purple stallion warned, “is that we are both in grave danger if you maintain this speed of travel!”

“Are you done, Grapes?” she replied flatly, glancing back to her semi-willing passenger.

Grapes, whose real name was Cherry Topper, was called such due to his purple colour and a cutie mark depicting a bunch of grapes in a golden goblet. His parents had wanted him to decorate cakes for a living, but he had found his passion in grape juices and wine making.

He still preferred his real name, however, and scowled at the nickname in a playfully emphasized manner. “Perhaps, Miss Pinkie.”

Pinkie smiled and continued her flight.

Chapter 17: Tricksy Trixie

I don’t own MLP: FiM. That belongs to Lauren Faust and Hasbro.

You Wouldn’t Believe Me if I Told You

Chapter 17: Tricksy Trixie

Twilight and Steve remained motionless. Neither of them knew what to say. The mutilated pony in the crater some meters away just smiled back at them. It appeared to be a genuine attempt at a friendly smile, but with her face looking as it did, any expression would look unnatural and disturbing.

The fur on the left side of her face had been burned right off, revealing the skin beneath, which had become loose from the destroyed facial muscles. Dark scabs had begun forming in various areas where the skin had fallen off, mottling the redness of the remaining skin. Spatters of dried blood were also evident across her face. Pus had begun seeping from her dead eye socket under her fused eyelid, and was now frozen in streaked drips down her cheek. Scabbed cuts and scrapes dotted her body, presumably obtained from running through the underbrush. Her mane and tail were burned black at the tips, but were a vibrant rainbow colouration up and down their length. Both were twig-ridden and badly dishevelled. There was a bandage around her middle concealing two wing-shaped lumps at her sides, and her saddlebags were positioned on her flank, blocking out her cutie mark. A crossbow was hooked onto the one side of her bags, and she had a dangerously sharp, curved sickle in her blood-stained hoof.

“H-hey guys,” Trixie coughed, struggling to speak through her damaged vocal cords.

“Rainbow!” Twilight gasped, raising a hoof to her mouth, “What happened to you?”

Despite her urges to run to her friend’s side, she remained transfixed to the ground on the far side of Steve. Trixie’s physical appearance robbed all strength from her limbs for a moment, forcing her so sit down. Steve’s jaw still had not closed.

Trixie began to slowly limp towards them, hobbling on her leg which grasped the sickle. “It was horrible!” she croaked weakly. “They were all crazy! It took everything I had just to fend them off, one after another…”

She motioned to the ten stars adorning her collar and shook her head. “They aren’t my fault! There was nothing I could do. I had to defend myself…” Her voice betrayed a pain deeper than just in her vocal cords as she worked her way through her sentences.

Twilight got up and went around Steve’s battered body to greet ‘Rainbow Dash’. Trixie mentally prepared for battle and tightened her grip on the handle of her weapon.

Steve tried to respond to her and tell her it was all going to be fine, but with damaged cords of his own, all he managed was a gurgled whine and a croak. The effort sparked up immense pains in his throat and reignited the sensation from the rest of his wounds. He writhed uncontrollably and moaned in agony. The moaning did nothing but make it hurt even more. He contorted in pain as he tried to stop making sounds.

Twilight turned to him and rushed back to his side opposite the advancing Trixie. She grasped his head in his hooves and looked him in the eyes. They were searching wildly, darting around randomly as he fought to control the pain.

“Steve! Steve, look at me!” she commanded frantically.

His eyes took a second to comply, but they did eventually land on hers. The look of care and concern in the lavender unicorn’s eyes was enough to dull the pain to manageable levels. It still hurt like hell, but his spasms had calmed down into a shudder.

“Is he gonna be ok, Twi?” Trixie asked with feigned concern.

“I don’t know, but what I do know is we have to get him back to camp,” she responded decisively. “We have some food and water and a campfire, and I think we could all use it.”

Upon mentioning the campfire, Twilight and Trixie both remembered just how cold it was getting. Twilight was suddenly aware that she could see their breath. She grabbed Steve’s right foreleg and looped it over her shoulders. Steve stiffened and exhaled sharply at the unwanted movement, the foggy burst of air curling briefly before dissipating entirely. Having learned from previous experience, however, he made no sounds beyond that of his loud breathing. Twilight motioned for Trixie to do the same.

Soon, Trixie… Soon…

She sheathed the sickle in its holster with some reluctance and picked up his left leg. Hoisting him up elicited further foggy exclamations of pain, and brought the slightest smile to the far side of her face. Her good side was facing towards both Steve and Twilight. She suspected Twilight had oriented herself as such on purpose.

The two mares began walking towards the campsite, carrying the broken pegasus stallion between them, his back hooves dragging on the ground limply as his body racked in waves of willfully stifled pain.

Luckily for them, pegasi are magically lighter than other pony morphs. This made the journey to the campsite much easier than it could have been had he been a unicorn or an earth pony. Trying to take her mind off of the cold, she decided to strike up a conversation.

“We are the last three ponies here.”

Trixie looked at her over Steve’s hanging head. “How can you be sure?” she said. Her voice was less croaky than before.

“Steve used to have a device to detect where ponies were in the valley. We counted how many of us were left shortly before you met us, and according to the stars on our collars, everypony is… accounted for.”

“If we truly are the last three, doesn’t that mean the game’s over?”

Twilight sighed. “I suppose, but assuming Sauron and Discord were actually going to send us home before, it would appear that neither of them are paying all that much attention to us anymore.”

Trixie gave her a quizzical look.

“They’re fighting, using all of their powers and focus against each other. The world is coming apart at the seams. If this continues much longer, the whole area could collapse into nothing.”

Trixie turned her gaze forward again and mulled the information over in her head, weighing up her options. On the one hoof, she had won the competition and was eligible for a trip home. But on the other hoof, she was still here and so was the one pony she had dreamt of taking out this whole tournament. Just a few hours ago, she would never have been so conflicted; however a few hours ago she had been solidly under Discord’s influence. His battle had greatly turned his attention from individual manipulation, and, since he had obtained the last two ponies’ essence, he did not need her anymore.

Hence her battle raged within. She could claim her revenge and guarantee her victory by claiming the stars from Twilight and her dying friend, or she could hide her actions over the past two days, wait to get out of this, and gain a few powerful friends back in Equestria; friends such as Twilight herself and the Alicorn Princesses.

“Well, here’s camp,” Twilight said suddenly, shocking Trixie out of her soul-searching reverie. “Let’s lay him down by the fire and stoke it up some more. I’ll divide up the rest of our breakfast soup.”

Walking over to the fire, they laid him down on the cold ground. Their packs were removed and placed off to the side. Removing their sheets from their packs, they laid one flat on the ground and repositioned Steve on it, on his stomach with his legs set up comfortably at his sides and his head near the fire. The second one came from Steve’s pack in a ball, and Twilight placed it under his head. Trixie draped her sheet over him and herself, with her on his left, keeping her damaged facade on the far side. Twilight began scooping out bowls of soup to each member of the group. Once done, she took her place on the other side of Steve.

A magical prodigy, a human, and a homicidal murder huddled under the same sheet, all seeking warmth and basic comfort in a hostile world gone mad. Large portions of the sky had now opened up to the swirling purple and black darkness of interdimensional fabrics of space-time. The distant hills and forests had all but disappeared. The only distant object visible was the embattled tower of Barad-dur. The realm was dissolving, and it was just a matter of time before there was nothing left between them and maddening mixtures of nothingness and everything simultaneously.

Trixie looked over at her pack, at her sickle, and thought about the things she had planned for it. Part of her longed for it, but a growing part of her was repulsed by it, the things she had done, seen, and planned. She was suddenly sickened by her thoughts of torture and revenge against this kind unicorn mare. She almost couldn’t stomach the soup in her hoof.

Almost, she thought as she gulped the last of the warm liquid down greedily.

Resigning herself to their fate, Trixie looked over at Twilight, who gave her a small pained smile. Trixie could not manage one in return. As Twilight returned her gaze to the dark, smoky rifts, Steve opened his eyes and looked up at Trixie. He also managed a quiet smile.

Unsettled by her earlier thoughts, she nervously ran her hoof through her mane.

Then Steve saw her horn. Analyzing her stars, he saw that she had her original blank star… and one with a lightning bolt coming from a cloud. He immediately knew this was not Rainbow Dash, but Trixie.

Trying to remain calm, he glanced over to Twilight, who was unassumingly staring in front of her into the steadily approaching ominous cloudy abyss in the distance. He turned back to Trixie and motioned for her to come in closer. She leaned down until her head was nearly touching the ground and expected him to try and whisper something in her ear. Steve raised his head despite his body’s painful objection.

He opened his mouth. She leaned in closer.

He bit her horn.

The sensitive nerves in her horn felt like they had been set on fire. She leapt up screaming, throwing the blanket off of them. Leaping was immediately evidenced as a bad idea, as she had a determined pegasus clamped onto her head. She ended up dragging him around for a few moments. The pain induced on him by her movements just made his teeth clench harder.

“Steve!” Twilight yelled angrily. “What do you think you-” She stopped dead when she saw what it was he was biting.

Trixie screamed louder and gave her head a sudden thrash, yanking her horn from his grip. Blood trickled from the fresh wounds and teeth marks on her now exposed horn.

Racked with fresh pain, Steve lay on the ground once more. He spit in satisfaction, purging the small amount of her blood from his mouth.

“I- I can explain!” Trixie stammered, desperate to stay on the pair’s good side.

And then the world outside of their camp was gone.

Chapter 18: Adrift

I don’t own MLP: FiM. That belongs to Lauren Faust and Hasbro.

You Wouldn’t Believe Me if I Told You

Chapter 18: Adrift

Sauron was in real trouble now.

He had been before, but now it was just that much direr. Discord had just increased his power with the addition of those two last ponies, and given that he had been stronger than Sauron already, it was merely icing on the cake. Discord was winning, and this time he knew it.

But still they fought, firing chaotic orbs of dark energy and scalding beams of destructive energy. The beams, however, were not as powerful as they had once been. Sauron had begun focussing his efforts into a more defensive approach and enforcing his wards and shields, waiting for the reclamation of his Ring of Power. It was literally the only thing that could turn the tables in his favour now.

Neither combatant spoke any longer. Sauron did not have the spare focus to come up with anything biting or witty, and for Discord there was no need. He had already won in his mind. He had learned in his last battle against the Elements of Harmony that monologue-ing is a totally unnecessary time delay and leaves you open to defeat.

All unnecessary land had been reclaimed to boost his power reserves. Even the sky had become swallowed up by the dark, swirling black and purple inter-dimensional smokes and clouds. The only things that remained stable and corporeal in the entire realm were the two combatants and their tower, and the three ponies with only the ground they were standing on. There was no other ground left, and the sky was gone. There was no sunlight for there was no sun to provide it, yet it was not dark. The swirling energies of space time seemed to filter in their own light from other nearby planes of existence. The exact science of this is unknown as it is extremely difficult to study.

Just as Sauron had begun to lose hope, an alarm went off in the back of his mind, set off by the triggering of an ancient spell he placed long ago. He smiled inwardly. That spell was a tripwire ward placed in the entrance to Mount Doom, and it was set to only detect one thing.

The Ring.

The hobbits had crossed into the heart of his mountain with the Ring.

He increased his focus on defence once more; just as another orb of chaos came crashing into his shield.

* * * * *

“Trixie?” Twilight asked incredulously. “Trixie, is that you?”

The three ponies had just barely gotten over the fact that their universe had just shrunken down to about the size of them. Each of them was on a separate small plot of ground just big enough to stand on. Steve was laying on his, however; his hooves hanging a few inches over the edges of the turf. Trixie was on a slightly larger plot with the saddlebags of weapons and supplies.

Gravity in general no longer applied to this realm. There was some force holding each onto their individual platforms, as if it had gravity only for the things in contact with it, but by definition it could not be described as gravity. This held true as Steve’s saddlebag, which had been sitting entirely on top of the other two bags, was now drifting away slowly through the abyss. They all gripped their grass tightly.

Even the platforms seemed to be drifting randomly. Up and down were relative. Their orientation slowly shifted; their occupants rotating and slowly gyrating in relation to each other, sometimes nearly parallel to one another, and sometimes they appeared to be upside-down. The abyss moved all around them in every direction, but clouds never crossed between them. They could all clearly see the embattled tower in the distance. It was as if the abyss swirled only at the edges of reality, though it appeared nearby. It looked like you could reach out and touch it sometimes, but then a stray rock some ways away would cross between you and the cloud. It was disorienting to say the least.

It was in this ephemeral madness that the ponies now found themselves.

“Yes, Twilight! It’s me!” she cried out.

“What did you do with Rainbow Dash? Did you kill her?!” Twilight accused angrily.

Trixie shook her head violently, spraying a few lonely tears from her good eye. The tears continued to fly without slowing down in perfectly straight trajectories. “No! I didn’t kill Rainbow! She was dead when I found her! It looked like she… like she had hung herself.”

Steve and Twilight were shocked. Twilight voiced her disbelief at the revelation. Steve tried to, but again sent himself into a convulsing fit of agony. Blood from his throat dribbled out of his mouth.

“It’s true!” Trixie restated. “I found both her and Berry Punch dead in the same place, just like Bon Bon and Ditzy. But every other pony I found …I killed.

“Yes, I killed them!” She continued, screaming her admission as if to alleviate her guilt. “I killed them all! I shot Rarity! I shot Sapphire Shores! I beheaded Lyra with a machete! And I disemboweled, yes, disemboweled Scootaloo! And you know what the worst part of it is? I enjoyed it! I enjoyed every second of each kill, savouring every ounce of pain and suffering I gave them!

“Oh, I got some of my own, don’t get me wrong,” she cried and gestured to the left half of her face, “but I’m still here, and they aren’t!”

Tears were streaming from her eye, running down her face and spinning off into oblivion when they fell off. She began to calm down, and collapsed onto her turf with her eye clamped shut to drive away the burning tears.

“…oh Trixie…” Twilight whispered.

“I couldn’t help myself. All I could think of was getting revenge against you for ruining my career…” she sobbed. “It’s like I wasn’t even in full control. My rage took over and did those… horrible things to innocent ponies…”

“Trixie!” Twilight shouted. “That wasn’t you! It was Discord! He took the worst in you and amplified it to spread chaos! The same thing happened to me and my friends when we faced him years ago! I saw it happen again with Bon Bon just before we found you!”

Trixie slowly got to her hooves and gave Twilight a forced smile. “That’s nice of you to say, but that’s not gonna bring them back. It’s not gonna change what I did…what I remember…what I saw myself do.” She picked up both remaining saddlebag sets, including her crossbow and sickle and shook her head lightly. “No, there is only one thing that can end this nightmare. I have an idea. Don’t try to talk me out of it, cuz that’s not gonna work.” She looked past Twilight into the distance.

Twilight followed her gaze and landed her sights on the slowly rotating tower. It was slightly closer now, as if they had been gradually drifting towards it this whole time. She turned back to Trixie, ready to tell her not to do it.

But she already had.

She had launched herself in the direction of the tower, sending her turf gyrating from the group.

“What are you doing?!” Twilight yelled worriedly as Trixie sailed past her a few feet over her head.

“I’m gonna end this, one way or another!”

“Why do you have those bags?”

“Course correction and acceleration!” Trixie replied.

As if to enforce her point, she threw Twilight’s bag as hard as she could straight behind her. The force propelled her even faster toward her goal. Twilight ducked to dodge the useless bag.

Steve was unable to move. The bag hit him directly in one of his bullet wounds, reopening his world of pain and sending him into an agonizing fit of writhing. The force of the bag coupled with his movement slowly lifted him off of his plot of earth. Blinded by pain, he was unaware the danger he was suddenly in.

Suddenly, Trixie gave a horrific scream. Twilight’s gaze shot over at her just in time to see the disfigured and discoloured unicorn get violently rent asunder by unseen forces. Still screaming, her parts dissolved into a fresh purple cloud, which immediately seemed just as distant as the rest of them. The saddlebag with her weapons and her collar were all that was left, maintaining their former trajectory in the direction of the tower.

Twilight was already on the move. She had to time her jump perfectly or she would be in just as much trouble as Steve. Waiting for her platform to hit just the right angle, she ran some complex physics calculations through her head quickly. With a deep breath and a short prayer to Celestia, she launched herself at Steve’s platform.

A short flight landed her on the platform with Steve still not all that far away. The impact caused the turf to begin spinning and drifting away from Steve’s helpless form. She was now almost too far to reach him while remaining in contact with the ground. Resolved to save him, she stood on one hind hoof and stretched to grab one of his legs.

“Grab my hoof!”

Snapping back into reality, or what was left of it, Steve fought the pain and extended all of his limbs in hopes of contacting with the lavender unicorn.

Twilight stretched herself as long as she could get and managed to grasp his back leg. Her joy at success was quickly overruled as she felt the grass go out from underneath her hoof.

“Steve!” She yelled. “I can’t touch the ground! We’re both gonna die!”

Fighting off all of the agony in his body and throat, he managed to draw her in close. Twilight looked down as the ground lifted away from them. He pulled her up to his eye level. She gave him a pained smile, acknowledging the fact that they were both doomed. Steve mustered all of his strength, placed his hooves against her body, and battled through the pain to smile and gargle out a few words.

“…No… just me.”

Twilight’s eyes widened in realization just as Steve extended his limbs and shoved her back down to the ground she had just left. Her grip on him broke and she crashed into the turf, her leg punching a hole straight through. She struggled to get her leg free, but by the time she did Steve was already some distance away.

“NO!” she shrieked as she stared up at him. “NONONO! Don’t leave me alone!”

Steve stared back into her eyes and smiled a genuine smile. He winked at her and closed his eyes, his body strangely devoid of pain.

He died shortly before his body evaporated into a deep purple smoke cloud, leaving his collar to spin slowly into the void.

Twilight collapsed onto the small plot of grass and cried.

Everypony was dead. Everypony except her.

She was alone.

Chapter 19: Out of the Frying Pan

I don’t own MLP: FiM. That belongs to Lauren Faust and Hasbro.

You Wouldn’t Believe Me if I Told You

Chapter 19: Out of the Frying Pan

“That’s weird…” Pinkie said and scrunched her face into a puzzled look.

She stopped moving, relatively speaking. She and Cherry Topper were floating in what seemed to be just another section of trans-dimensional space. Pinkie looked around quickly and grew more confused.

“What is weird, Miss Pinkie?” he inquired. “Why have we stopped? You really should not do this in the middle of-”

“That’s just it, Grapeydoo… this shouldn’t be the middle of nothing.” She paused and rubbed a hoof against her forehead, closing her eyes to concentrate. “I followed his signature here. This should be the realm he and my friends are in.”

“But there is no realm here, Miss Pinkie,” Cherry pointed out.

She looked at him derisively. “Thanks, Grapes. Good thing you’re here to tell me things I already know.”

He grinned trollishly, “Anytime, Miss Pinkie.”

“Grapes?”

“Yes, Miss Pinkie?”

“Stop that!”

“Stop what, Miss Pinkie?” he asked with feigned innocence.

“How many times have I told you to stop calling me that?”

“At least once more, Miss Pinkie.”

Pinkie glared at him in a remarkably similar fashion as he does to her when she called him Grapes. Cherry looked off into the void to dodge her icy gaze.

“Miss Pinkie?”

She sighed in exasperation, “What now, Grapes?”

He extended a purple hoof and pointed in the direction he had been looking. “What do you suppose is the significance of that cluster of rocks over there?”

She shrugged. “Worth a shot, I suppose. Good spying!”

“Anytime, Miss Pinkie.”

Pinkie twisted to face the debris formation and glided in its direction, Cherry Topper still in tow. In barely anytime at all, they had reached the cluster. Pinkie noticed Cherry reach out and grab something. She turned around to get a better look at it.

“Looks like a belt or collar of some sort, Grapes. We should hang on to it; it could be important.”

It was indeed a collar; a collar adorned with nine golden stars. Cherry puzzled over its significance as Pinkie continued piloting them through the dirt and stones.

“He-hello?” a voice called out weakly.

Pinkie halted immediately, her ears perked at the familiarity of the sounds. Cherry swung in front of her due to his inertia, almost losing the collar in the effort to hang on to her hoof.

“Twily?” Pinkie called out, whipping her head about and frantically searching for her lost friend. “Twily, is that you? Where are you?!”

“Pinkie Pie? Is that really you?” Twilight’s voice grew stronger as her hopes of rescue increased. “I’m over here!”

Some distance away, on the other side of the debris field, Pinkie spotted the lavender unicorn on a small circular ring of grass and dirt. She was waving her front hooves emphatically. Pinkie sped towards her friend with as much speed as she could muster while still safely maneuvering the debris. As she got closer, she began to see just how distressed she looked. Twilight’s mane was a mess, out of place and riddled with various twigs and leaves throughout. It was not until she had landed on the patch of turf that she noticed the stained wetness on her face and the spatters of blood on her coat.

Setting Cherry Topper on his feet, Pinkie raced to her friend and embraced her with all of her might. “Twilight…” Pinkie said slowly and quietly, “what happened to you? Are you alright? What’s going on?”

Twilight began crying again as she explained her experiences: the wall, Sauron, Discord, the game, death, pain, and sadness. She could barely bring herself to tell Pinkie about what had happened to their friends; to Rarity, to Applejack, to Fluttershy, and all the other ponies.

But she did. She told her everything she knew, even about Steve and how he had sacrificed himself for her.

To Twilight’s surprise, Pinkie seemed to take it all in stride. Breaking from their prolonged hug, she grabbed the collar from Cherry and handed it to Twilight.

“Was this Steve’s?”

“Yes, yes it was! It has his nine stars on it!” She held it close to herself, remembering how he had saved her several times near the end of the game. As she did so, the stars rubbed against her chest. The collar immediately dissolved, and hers reached a total of 13 stars. She looked back to Pinkie.

Pinkie had her back to her, regarding the still-drifting collar and saddlebag that Trixie had left behind, and the embattled tower beyond that.

“Umm… Pinkie?”

“We have to get that collar and get to that tower.” She was speaking uncharacteristically calmly for somepony of her… well, for her.

“Pinkie?”

“Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing.”

“PINKIE!”

“What is it, Twilight?” she said cheerily as she turned about.

“Who’s your friend?” she asked, extending a hoof to the silent purple stallion.

“Oh, hello! Miss…Twilight Sparkle, was it?” he responded in a friendly manner as he shook her hoof. “Do forgive me! Where are my manners? My real name is Cherry Topper, but everypony calls me Grapes for… obvious reasons.” He gestured to his purple coat and his cutie mark of a bunch of green and purple grapes in a golden goblet.

He puffed his chest out proudly and continued. “I am the owner of the best vineyards and maker of the finest wines in the realm. I am also the official-”

Pinkie interrupted him unceremoniously. “No time for chit-chat. We have got to move now!”

“Why’s that, Pinkie?”

“Something’s happening here… something sinister. My Pinkie sense is going crazy. It’s gonna be a doozy. No, a doozy of a doozy! Not the good kind, either. Grab hold of my back legs, you two! We’ve got a lot of ground to cover, and not much time!”

Twilight and Cherry looked at each other, both understanding the implications of the Pinkie sense. They latched themselves on to Pinkie’s legs just as she took off.

Soon after they left the ground, it, and all the rest of the debris, disappeared.

* * * * *

Sauron’s flaming corona had shrunken considerably in the last few hours. Removing the physical aspects of his game realm had not helped him quite as much as he had originally hoped. All that was left for him to do now was to wait for him to regain the Ring. Only It could save him now.

Discord paused with his next attack.

“Good luck with that,” he snickered.

Sauron was taken aback. “Are you reading my thoughts? That is not in accordance with the rules of engagement!”

“Oh, on the contrary!” Discord laughed. “I don’t need to be a mind reader to know you want that ring of yours back, thereby regaining your full power; not to mention a body to go with that eye of yours! I got the basic backstory from that human, Steve, hours ago!”

“And yet you did nothing to keep it from coming to my domain?”

Discord guffawed heartily “Wrong again, bucky! I am the reason it got there! Did you honestly think that two little hobbits would get there way deep into the most forbidding landscape without the help of a little chaos? I guided them! I gave them strength! I helped them get into Mt. Doom, and now they will destroy your precious Ring, and you along with it! As we speak, it is sitting on a small patch of cooled lava in the fires of Mt. Doom! The fires from whence it came!”

“I know you did…” Sauron said slowly, “I let you, I wanted you to.”

This time it was Discord’s turn to be taken aback. Stroking his beard, he puzzled aloud in a deriding tone, “Now why would you want me to destroy your Ring? That’s how the rumour goes, right? Chuck it in the volcano and you burn along with it?”

“And who do you suppose started that rumour?”

Discord froze, breaking out in a cold sweat. “What are you saying?” he asked with a newfound nervousness.

“I have no physical form anymore, and therefore a physical Ring is no use to me. Melting down the Ring will release its essence, and it and I shall reunite as essences.” He flared brighter in elation. “Destroying the Ring is exactly how I planned to regain my power! Thank you ever so much for hand delivering your head to me on a platter!”

Discord readied his attack once more, drawing on as much power as he could muster and depleting his reserves. He fired off a gigantic ball of glowing chaos sprinkled with subspace. This attack alone was nearly as powerful as the rest of his projectiles had been added together.

Sauron raised his shields just in time to block the massive orb of unstable energy. The entire tower erupted into a smoking fireball, shattering it to pieces. The force of the explosion blasted Discord backwards some distance, past the three ponies.

Twilight had already claimed Trixie’s stars. She now had all 23.

And Discord had all of the other ponies’ full essences.

Discord regarded them with a triumphant air, and looked back to the devastation wreaked by his latest attack.

As the dust and smoke cleared, what they saw caused them to drop their jaws in awed silence, Discord included.

“I-is that y-your doozy, P-pinkie?” Twilight stuttered.

“Y-yup,” she replied shakily.

“Nice try… bucky!”

Chapter 20: Lost and Found

I don’t own MLP: FiM. That belongs to Lauren Faust and Hasbro.

You Wouldn’t Believe Me if I Told You

Chapter 20: Lost and Found

Cherry Topper gasped, “My word... That does not bode well for us at all!”

The plume of black smoke and dust had all but cleared, revealing a large, swirling mass of obsidian black shards and chunks of the old tower. Even the dust appeared to be consolidated into the steadily shrinking orbit. Through the cracks, they could see the blazing red Eye of Sauron. It looked bigger now, and disconcertingly less like an eye.

Twilight noticed something else. “Pinkie! Look there!”

Underneath the ball of debris, the ground was reforming and extending in every direction. This ground was different, though. No longer was it the dense, lush forest, or even a grassy plain. Instead, it was black with obsidian and volcanic ashes. Sharp and jagged boulders peppered the landscape. Active volcanoes appeared in the distance, barely visible though the ash fall that had begun to clog up the air. There was no visible sky, just a long, continuous black cloud obscuring the purple darkness of inter-dimensional space. In just a few short seconds, both the ground and cloud cover extended far beyond the limits of their vision.

And the ground was getting closer. Fast. Twilight and Cherry screamed.

“Whoopsy!” Pinkie exclaimed “Looks like we have gravity again!”

Using her Pinkie powers, she tried to slow their descent with limited success. Just before they hit the jagged landscape, Discord flew underneath them. The impact slowed the group significantly, but not enough to prevent all of the bumps and scrapes that they gathered when they tumbled onto the ground.

The three ponies and the draconequus groaned as they picked themselves off of the ground, and brushed off the shards of black stone and ash. Twilight looked at Discord questioningly.

“Why- why did you save us?”

Discord crossed his arms and lifted his snout in offence. “Oh, come on! I’m chaotic, not evil! I had only brought all you ponies into this to get you and Rainbow Dash out of here in the first place!”

“How could you have known that she and I would be in the top three?” she inquired, still not believing him. “And how could you justify condemning other ponies to save us?!”

“Calm down, Twily,” Pinkie interjected, “they aren’t dead. Discord has their essences stored in his scales.” She walked over to Discord and tapped the variously coloured scales adorning his tail. “He only did all of this to beat Sauron and get you out of here alive.”

Discord and Twilight both gave her startled looks. Discord responded first.

“Very good, Pinkie Pie. But how did you know?”

Pinkie closed her eyes and looked at the ground. Twilight thought she saw tears escape from beneath her lids.

“Because,” she said plainly, “I could sense what you were doing from Equestria; and because I knew somepony who had done so before. Somepony who I had been really close to, a long time ago...” She opened her moist eyes, and stared directly into Discord’s.

Twilight became even more confused. Cherry Topper nodded in agreement. Sudden realization dawned on Discord’s face.

Flecks of white light began to swirl around the pink party pony. The three of them watched in wonder. Taking a few steps backwards, Pinkie began to glow as more luminescent particles filled the air. Her body began to elongate. Clawed fingers formed on one foreleg, and a paw on the other. One of her hind legs became like that of a dragon. Her fluffy tail became round and longer, maintaining the poofy hairs only on the tip. Mismatched wings sprouted from her back, one like a pegasus and the other like a bat’s wing.

The glowing subsided, revealing a pink draconequus with a blue scaled tail and blue wings. Pinkie looked sheepishly at Twilight.

“Yes, Twily, I am not a pony. I am, however, still the one whom you have become so well acquainted with over the years. I’m sure you have a lot of questions for me right now, but now is not the time.” She walked towards Discord once more.

“Actually,” Twilight managed to reply, “in a weird sort of way, this answers way more questions than it raises!”

Discord still had not closed his mouth in awe. Pinkie stood directly in front of him, slightly shorter than he, with eyes still running with tears.

“I have found you at long last... my love...”

Discord immediately stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her in a strong embrace, which she heartily reciprocated. They both cried and intertwined their long necks. Discord’s horns slowly retracted into his head. His one large fang also shrank, but was met halfway by another on the other corner of his mouth. His white tail plume, eyebrows, and beard tuft turned a bright blue.

“Oh, Pinkamena!” Discord sobbed. “My dearest fiancée... the last 1000 years have been the longest of my life! Can you ever forgive me for-“

“Hush now, dear. I already have, a long time ago.”

Cherry Topper blew his nose noisily on a handkerchief, carrying the motion into a sweeping bow. “It is ever so nice to see you once again, Lord Particus Charles Favour.”

Party Favour dried and opened his eyes. “Oh, Grapes! You old coot! How are you?”

Cherry Topper mocked a scowl. “Fine until now, my lord.” They smiled and chuckled in unison.

Party Favour broke his embrace with Pinkie Pie and handed Twilight a red present wrapped in a blue bow. He smiled warmly.

“I believe this is yours.”

Unsure, Twilight removed the lid. A small cloud of confetti burst in her face, but otherwise the box was empty.

“I don’t get it...” she puzzled.

“It’s your magic, silly!” Party laughed. “I’m sure you can use it better than I can.”

Twilight was delighted, and leapt up to give the much more colourful and younger-looking draconequus a large hug.

Cherry nervously cleared his throat. Twilight and the draconequines turned their attention to him immediately.

“As touching as this reunion is, my lord, are we not forgetting someone?” He shook as he motioned behind him.

The ball of black stones was no longer there, but underneath where it had been stood a huge black obsidian dragon. Fire glowed out from between the cracks in its rocky skin and from its huge mouth bristling with shining jagged teeth. It had two sturdy hind legs and two sets of thinner forelegs; each equipped with spines and viciously curved talons. Its flared wings were composed of a rocky skeletal frame, and the webbing was a blazing sheet of solid flames. Razor sharp ridges and spines ran down its serpentine body, ending in a tail bladed similarly to a two sided battleaxe. Its head had five horns; three of them faced backwards from the crown of its head. The middle one was straight and flanked by two curved ones. The other two horns sprouted from the corners of its mouth and curved forwards on either side of its gigantic maw. In the middle of its vast head, directly below the middle horn, was a familiar fire wreathed eye.

Sauron raised his new, massive head, lifted his giant form onto his hind legs, and bellowed out an earth shaking roar. It sounded like a mixture of a dragon, lion, volcanic eruption, and an avalanche during an earthquake. Molten lava oozed from the corners of his mouth. From his upright position he regarded the tiny ponies and draconeqines with superior indifference.

Before they had been useful pawns, and now they were merely insects on his road to power. The game was over, and the board needed to be cleared.

Chapter 21: Fire and Ice

I don’t own MLP: FiM. That belongs to Lauren Faust and Hasbro.

You Wouldn’t Believe Me if I Told You

Chapter 21: Fire and Ice

It was dark. It had been ever since she came there some time ago.

At first, Luna had thought she had made a wrong turn somewhere in inter-dimensional travel. She was in a realm of absolute blackness, unable to see anything in front of her, which is precisely why she had walked directly into a flat and incredibly smooth wall. Following the wal had quickly resulted in another wall at 90 degrees. Following the new wall produced similar results, again and again.

Being the Princess of the Night, she was used to darkness. Her night vision was immaculate and acute, her mind sharp and agile. She often felt more comfortable at night alone in the dark than in a brightly lit room during some sort of royal to-do.

But this was no ordinary darkness. There was no light here, no cool evening breeze, no stars, no moon. Worst of all, there would be no dawn, and no escape. Luna had long ago given up trying to escape.

She had tried to leave the dimension altogether, follow her brief trail the way she had come. When she tried summoning the spell, her horn refused to glow to live with magic. Again and again she tried magic, any magic, if only to alleviate the dark box she was contained within. Again and again, she was utterly unsuccessful.

Beaten and dejected, scared and alone in the dark, she lay on the cool, flat surface of her prison and sobbed lightly to herself, cursing her choice to follow Pinkie through dimensions.

She missed her home, Canterlot Castle, where she had become so well loved by all of her subjects in the past few years. She missed her family, her sister Ti, cousin Cadence and her husband Shining Armor, and his sister Twilight. Twilight and her friends had become like sisters to her as they had to each other. And now, in an effort to rescue her surrogate sisters, she had sealed her fate as securely as the box she found herself in was secure.

And this was all because she had not trusted Pinkie Pie and followed her, despite her brief and cryptic warning.

She pulled her legs in around her tighter, trying in vain to fall into the comfort of sleep.

* * * * *

“Look out!” Pinkie shrieked.

Sauron’s torso was hurtling downwards toward them in an effort to crush them. Instinctively, Pinkie Pie grabbed Cherry Topper and launched her serpentine form to the left. Party Favour, the draconequus formerly known as Discord, rocketed to the right, snatching up Twilight Sparkle under his arm.

Sauron landed moments later, and the spot where they had been standing was under the massive body of an obsidian dragon. As he lifted himself back to his feet, the jagged terrain below him had become a gravel filled trench.

The draconequines angled upwards, arching far above the malevolent being to regroup. Twilight marvelled at the sheer size of their new foe. This thing was far greater than any living creature she had ever heard of, let alone seen. Without any references nearby by which to judge, she speculated that his head alone approached the size of a fully grown Equestrian dragon. She would not have been surprised if her tree-house could fit inside of his mouth.

Sauron turned his flaming eye upwards, scanning the skies and roaring his displeasure in their escape.

The ponies were shifted onto their rides’ backs to free up their hands. As they got within speaking distance, Twilight was the first to speak up.

“How exactly do you all know each other?”

Cherry Topper cleared his throat, “Allow me to explain things as I now understand them, Miss Sparkle.”

“Many years ago, Lady Pie and Lord Favour ruled over our land in a time of party and prosperity unmatched in all of history. Random occurrences occurred randomly, parties and fun abounded, and life was good. But a darkness had been growing; a cold, joyless darkness. Not in our realm so much, but in others. Perhaps twelve hundred years ago by now, my Lord Favour felt this oppressive negative energy growing, and he left our realm just 200 years before he was scheduled to be married to Lady Pie to search out its cause, and combat it with all of his powers of chaos to spread joy.”

“Several realms down the road, he encountered Equestria. A pony-based dimension, just like our own, but rife with order and unhappiness. He tried to spread randomness and cheer, but was met with growing hostility and further depression. Eventually, he was confronted and defeated-”

“and turned to stone by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna with the Elements of Harmony!” Twilight interjected.

“Precisely!” Cherry applauded, “but not before the lack of friendship warped his mind and physical appearance into the Discord you knew and combatted just a few years ago.”

“Some three hundred years after his departure, Lady Pie tried desperately to find him, but his trail had long gone cold, and his stone form was next to untraceable.”

“About a decade ago, Lady Pie came across Equestria herself. Something about it told her he was there somewhere, so she decided to start calling for him. Eventually, it was those calls that laid the first cracks in his stony prison. It was only when he managed to break free that she knew where he had ended up. But unwilling to jeopardize your friendship and your realm’s safety at the hands of a mad draconequus, she helped you encase him once more in stone using the Elements of Harmony.”

“But this was merely an encasement, and not the full transmogrification that took place a thousand years ago. He then began tentatively searching for his foe once more, the source of the darkness. And might I say you have done an excellent job in finding him, sire!”

Party replied, “That I did, Grapes! But tell me, how fairs our fine land? Still as random and happy as I left it?”

Cherry shook his head sadly. “No, sire. After you left, the dark force gained a foothold; and by the time Lady Pie had begun her search nine hundred years ago, she was wholly unable to halt its advance without you help.”

Both Party and Pinkie looked next to tears.

“We tried to resist it and carry on as normal, but it wasn’t long before the colour seemed to leave the streamers, and the flavour from our cakes. There… there has not been a party in almost 500 years… and recently, evil creatures; horrible, twisted abominations have been creeping out of the forests and attacking our cities. Several have been lost, but only because of mass evacuations to the capital due to the safety of her walls. Lives have been lost, sire. Moonchaser, Camomile Biscuit, Peanut Brittle…”

“NO!” Party erupted. “Not Little Peanut! He never did anything to deserve such a fate!”

“There was nothing any of us could do…

“Then we know what we must do now!” cried Party Favour, shaking his fist at the ground, his face donning a snarl. “We must defeat the darkness here, and free our realm from his interference!”

Bursts of flame and enraged roars emanated from the beast below, shaking the ground and setting the stones on fire in an instant. The sounds of a thousand forest fires crackled, and deafening rhythmic whooshing sounds began to pick up.

“I believe Sauron has become airborne, Miss Pinkie!” Cherry warned, worriedly.

Twilight, still taking in Cherry’s tale, spoke up. “We don’t have much time before that thing finds out where we are. Any ideas as to how to fight it?”

They paused for a few moments, still ascending into the ash clouds to avoid detection for as long as possible.

Twilight looked at the group, and was greeted by blank stares.

“Alright, fine. Let’s just… umm… gather what we know so far.”

“Ooooh! Ooooh! Pick me, Twily!” Pinkie strained as she threw up her griffon claw.

“You don’t need to raise your… hand, Pinkie.”

“Okie dokie!” she replied cheerily and smiled.

“Umm, Pinkie?” Party asked.

“What’s up, sugar?”

“Are you not going to tell us your observation?”

“Oh, silly me!” she said with a face-palm. “He’s really big!”

The others simply stared at her satisfied smile.

Twilight face-hoofed and sighed, “Anypony else have a nugget of wisdom to share?”

Pinkie re-raised her hand.

“We know he’s full of fire, too, Pinkie,” Twilight said.

Her hand lowered slowly.

Cherry placed a hoof under his chin thoughtfully. “He does appear to move and react rather sluggishly, which probably relates to his massive size.”

“Good, good!” Twilight said excitedly. A smile crept across her face. “Then I have a plan! Just do exactly as I say, and this should work! We don’t have much time…

* * * * *

“Everypony know what they have to do?”

They all nodded at Twilight. The roars and crackling had continued as Sauron scoured the skies for them.

“Alright then! All we have to do now is to get below these clouds and get his attention.”

Pinkie’s eyes went wide, pupils fully constricted.

“Gemini Split! Hit the deck!”

Both draconequines launched themselves in opposite directions and downwards, nearly losing their passengers in the process. Just as Twilight looked behind her, all she saw was a massive burst of flame, followed closely by their enormous enemy. Flames trailed behind his wings to about the same length as his tail, leaving a distinct smoke path thereafter.

Realizing how close he had been to his prizes at long last, Sauron roared loudly and banked his wings, turning slowly in pursuit.

Twilight noted his sluggish course correction and nodded in satisfaction.

“Remember the plan!” she shouted, magically transmitting her voice to her friends’ ears.

Even had he been close enough, Sauron still would have not heard her. The only thing he could hear was the flapping of his wings and their crackling fires. but even had they been silent, the pure burning rage flowing through his molten core blinded him of all but his targets. Whatever they were saying would be of no consequence once he had burned them alive and devoured their flesh.

Pinkie and Cherry raced through the sky, dipping in and out of the clouds near Sauron’s gargantuan head. Pinkie threw in a little tongue waggling and a short raspberry. Sauron’s pupil narrowed to the point where Cherry swore it was no longer there. The dragon unleashed a jet of fire and molten rock at the pair, but she was too quick. She continued to zig-zag and dipsy-doodle around the base of the clouds for a while, before disappearing into them completely.

Blinded by hatred, Sauron beat his wings and lifted himself into the broiling ash-smoke clouds. Focused on the pink draconequus and her purple rider, he readied another searing blast.

Party Favour and Twilight shot from the left and cut directly past his view, the unicorn launching a bolt of frozen lightning into the obsidian dragon’s single, burning eye. Maintaining a magical tether to the bolt and coupled with the sudden pain, she wrenched his head to one side, causing the molten death to be launched in the totally wrong direction. Releasing her hold on the bolt, they looped around quickly, allowing for her to shoot another one into his exposed chest. The shrieking roars of pain rent the air, shattering their wits for a second. Twilight had to focus all of her strength on just holding on as Party struggled to remain airborne.

Sauron thrashed his wings violently for a minute, dissipating nearby cloud cover. Recovering, he hovered in one place and grasped the unmelting frost bolts in his chest and face, tearing them free along with several large obsidian boulders of his armor. Within seconds, however, the holes in his armor had refilled with new black stone forged from his molten innards.

As he tossed the projectiles aside, Twilight stared in disbelief.

“I don’t know how many times I can do that!” she yelled to Party Favour. “And it doesn’t look like we even hurt him!”

“So what do you propose we do?” he asked, glancing back at Sauron just as he was starting to move again.

Pinkie and Cherry had lost their cover during the dragon’s flailing, and were headed back for the safety of the clouds. Sauron saw them, however, and sprayed a violent storm of liquid flames wildly in their direction.

Acting quickly, Twilight created a shield of magical ice around them. The ferocity of the flames compounded on the difficulty of the spell, and factoring in the distance between them left Twilight with next to no energy left. Her spell failed just as the last of the stream hit the wall of cold, newly formed stone. The last trickle leaked through and splashed against Pinkie’s tail, setting her curly pink mass ablaze instantly.

She screamed in pain as the flames of her tail licked against her slender, scaled lower body. She and Cherry Topper plummeted in a wide arc towards the jagged ground far below.

“Pinkie Pie!” Party yelled frantically, as he started to follow.

“…Stop…Look at…Sauron…trap.”

Party Favour tore his eyes from Pinkie Pie, who had landed on the ground roughly, but not fatally. Both she and Cherry were attempting to smother the flames with pebbles and dust. Sauron was not watching those two, however.

He was watching them.

Party growled. “He wants us to check on them, and get us all in one place to finish us off. He probably also knows that you are out of magic, Twilight. …Twilight?”

She had passed out from the strain and exhaustion, not only from the high level spells she was using, but also from the Battle Royale before that. Her hooves were firmly locked around Party’s neck, her grip magically sealed just before she had lost consciousness.

Party Favour hovered in place some distance from where Sauron did the same.

“Looks like it’s just us again, you overgrown eyeball!”

Chapter 22: Room Service

I don’t own MLP: FiM. That belongs to Lauren Faust and Hasbro.

You Wouldn’t Believe Me if I Told You

Chapter 22: Room Service

A bird chirped.

Twilight moaned lightly, turning over in her bed and tangling up her sheets. The let out the kind of sigh one makes after a restful night’s sleep as she rolled to face her window. Opening her eyes slowly, she looked out her bedroom window on the top floor of her treehouse library home, which was half open and letting in a glorious summer morning breeze smelling of flowers and baked goods. The bright red bird which sat on the windowsill chirruped happily another few times before flitting away suddenly. The sun streamed in through the large window, casting warm rays across the room.

She slumped back in her bed, enjoying the warmth of the sun, the comfort of her bed, and the scent of the air. Not used to sleeping in, she revelled in the experience, not remembering if there was something she needed to do today. She could hear the sounds of the other townsponies talking and laughing outside, obviously having their own good times out and about on such a gorgeous day.

She also heard somepony downstairs in the kitchen. Glancing at the bed opposite her, she noticed that Spike was not there, and figured he was the one fixing some breakfast for himself. Twilight reflected on the young dragon assistant of hers, who had just last year outgrown his beloved basket and taken up residence in her spare room. Sometimes, however, he still liked to sleep up in her room for old times’ sake and the comfort of her company. She did not mind in the slightest, as the young dragon was her best friend; a little brother to her more than an assistant or colleague.

Just then something broke her reverie; hoofsteps on the stairs up to her room.

Hoofsteps.

Wondering who would need to see her so urgently as to approach her bedroom, Twilight sat up slightly and regarded the door curiously. The handle jiggled lightly and the door swung gently open, revealing a steel-blue pegasus stallion with a red mane. She recognized Steve immediately and smiled. He was carrying a tray in his mouth bearing an assortment of savoury breakfast foods. He set it on her bedside table so he could speak

“Good morning, Twi! I didn’t know you were up yet. I hope you don’t mind, but I just whipped up breakfast for you.” He smiled and gestured to the tray.

Twilight glanced outside again for a second and returned her attention to him. “Breakfast in bed? That’s certainly a surprise! Of course I don’t mind! Would you care to join me?”

Steve smiled back at her, blinking in the sunlight flooding into the room. Jumping up onto her bed, he stepped over her to the window side. Playfully, he gave a light kick to her ribs as he went. As he plopped himself down, Twilight giggled and shoved him in mock disapproval, all the while with a big grin on her face.

“It was an accident, I swear!” Steve surrendered.

“Sure it was, Steve. And so was this!”

Still half beneath the covers, she twisted and tackled him against the wall her bed was sidled up against. They wrestled playfully for few minutes, laughing softly and hopelessly tangling themselves in the sheets in the process. When they stopped, Twilight had Steve pinned underneath her, his forelegs wrapped tightly to his sides and unable to escape. They paused, panting from mild exertion; still smiling.

“We really have to come up with a better name than Steve. It sounds… odd.”

“What do you suggest?”

Thinking, she looked around for inspiration. From her elevated position, Twilight could see the ponies milling around in the square outside her house through the window. Many of them were not out of the ordinary; a common sight around Ponyville. But it was some of the others, such as Sapphire Shores and Fleur de Lis, who really caught her attention. Puzzled, she wriggled herself out of the blankets and leaned on the windowsill to get a better view. The breeze had turned, and now it smelled more unpleasant, as if the baked goods had become baked bads, and then burned. She saw Ditsy talking with Bon Bon and Trixie, and something in her mind clicked. She looked at Steve with wide eyes. The sheet was gone, and Steve stepped up beside her.

“Aren’t you dead?” she asked in shocked quietness. “And if you’re here, does that mean I’m…”

Steve wrapped his forelegs around her in an embrace, which she reciprocated. He made soothing shush sounds in her ear as tears welled in her eyes.

“No, you aren’t dead,” he said gently, “and neither are we.”

Suddenly, they weren’t in her room anymore, but in the square amidst the other ponies. She looked around at her friends and acquaintances, all of whom looked back at her with genuine smiles, some smiles were coupled with tears. The sky had clouded over with menacing black soot clouds, and the smell of sulfur was rising almost as fast as the temperature.

Twilight tried to let go and give them all a hug, but her hooves were locked in place around Steve’s neck. She jerked a few times to get free, but they were magically sealed.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you. The dream world we created for you is dissolving, and in reality you are unconscious a few kilometers off the ground on Disc- Party Favour’s back.”

Twilight looked around panicked. The whole town, her library included, were wavering and vanishing with startling rapidity.

“No, we aren’t dead. Party Favour absorbed our essences in his scales to save us and gain our powers to fight Sauron from the very beginning. Everypony here is fine.”

“We talked some things over before you went unconscious, and we agreed that you have to use the Elements of Harmony on Sauron. We tried to contact you before, but your waking mind was too busy and active for the message to get through. We think they should still work, because all six elements are here, in a sense.”

The ground below them had begun to disappear as well, the whole group slowly rising towards the clouds and standing as if they had remained on the grass. The wind was picking up as they rose perfectly vertically, their manes and tails thrashing around. The smell of burning earth and sulfur continued to sharpen.

“But how will we get enough time to use them? He isn’t exactly standing still like the rest of the times we’ve used them.”

“I thought of that, too. I just so happen to have watched a movie involving a very similar scenario to this one. I’ll have to skip the plot and go right to the end; we don’t have that much time…”

* * * * *

“Sound good?”

“Yeah, I got it.”

The wind howled around them, blasting right in Twilight’s face. The other ponies had gone rather quickly, leaving only Steve and Twilight rocketing through the clouds. The sounds of Sauron’s crackling wings and enraged roars had begun filtering into her mind as she neared wakefulness.

“Good. Just remember we all believe in you. You can do this, you have to.”

She nodded, still wrapped around his neck, which had begun to elongate as he twisted around to face forwards.

“Anything else before I go?”

“I’ve been thinking of a name for you, something having to do with protection, or safety.”

“While I was telling you the plan?”

“I’m a smart girl, I can think about two things at once.”

“Granted,” he conceded. “So what, like… Force Field? Or maybe to be more accurate: Meat Shield?”

She laughed, closed her eyes, and shook her head, “No, those are horrible. I was thinking more along the lines of a wall, or tower, or a bastion. Hmmm…bastion…. Yes! That’s it! That’s the perfect name for you!”

“What is?” Steve inquired curiously.

“Bastion, Stalwart Bastion.” She mumbled, grinning proudly.

“What are you saying back there?” Party Favour asked, somewhat breathlessly.

Twilight opened her eyes. Instead of Steve, or Stalwart Bastion, rather, she was again clasped around Party’s neck. They were hurtling through the air just under the clouds, with a huge, angry obsidian dragon bearing down on them. It let out a terrifying roar, mimicking the sound of burbling lava, grating boulders, forest fires, and thunder; all amplified a hundredfold.

“Have a nice nap?” Party asked with a feigned nonchalant air. He was getting tired from flying at high speed for so long, not to mention with a passenger. Twilight looked at what Discord was holding underneath him.

Make that three passengers. Pinkie had passed out herself, her tail badly burned and her body speckled with cuts and scrapes. Cherry was in similar condition, minus the degree of burns and being very much awake. Both were under separate arms of the grey draconequus.

“Any chance you could cobble together some sort of plan?” Party strained. “I’m just about to be done here.”

“I do, in fact. It’s just a little something I… dreamed up.”

“…Clever girl…”

* * * * *

“Clever girl, indeed…”

Chapter 23: Trial by Fire and Friendship

I don’t own MLP: FiM. That belongs to Lauren Faust and Hasbro.

You Wouldn’t Believe Me if I Told You

Chapter 23: Trial by Fire and Friendship

The massive obsidian dragon roared in anger again. Party Favour, who was still carrying the unconscious Pinkie Pie, Cherry Topper, and Twilight Sparkle, had loop-the-looped around his head to annoy him. It worked.

Despite how often they heard that roar; there was no getting acclimated to the sound and sheer volume of it.

Suddenly, Pinkie’s eyes shot open and she screamed in pain and shock. The searing pain from her tail burns was excruciating, almost losing consciousness again immediately. It was the fear of her situation that kept her awake; hurtling past the head of an enormous bellowing demonic dragon-creature thousands of meters above the ground.

Twilight used some of her slightly recovered magical reservoir to deaden the pain enough for Pinkie to regain a clear head.

Party twisted his head around to look her in the eyes and smile. Pinkie managed a weak smile in return.

“I realize this may be asking a lot of you, all things considered,” Party began, “but I’m going to have to ask you to take Cherry for a while.”

“Wh-what?” she stuttered. “I don’t know if I can-”

“You have to.” He shook his head. “There’s something I have to do, but given my current condition, I can’t manage it while carrying the lot of you.”

Pinkie looked scared. “What are you going to do?”

“It’s probably best you don’t know Twilight’s plan. I don’t need you trying to talk me out of it.”

Now Pinkie was worried. She looked at Twilight.

“Don’t worry, Miss Pinkie,” Cherry assured her, “I overheard their plan. I don’t only think that it will work, but that it is also all of our best chance.”

“OH, CELESTIA!” Party burst out.

Spotting an orange glow growing in the clouds directly in front of them, he rolled over to the left, veering just in time to miss the jaws of a very angry Sauron. Behind the head followed the huge, spine-riddled body and flaming wings. Party dipped back and forth, narrowly dodging each deadly obstacle. Just as the tail began to pass them by, he spied the wide axe-like protrusions at the terminal end. Darting straight upwards he tried to escape the bladed tail.

Just as he thought they were clear, Sauron flicked his tail after them, catching him with the flat side and sending them spinning upwards above the cloud cover. The sudden blunt force of the impact wrenched both Pinkie and Cherry from his grasp. They both started screaming, but Pinkie, remembering her ability to fly, righted herself and shot downwards after Cherry, catching him in seconds.

Party, who had taken the brunt of the glancing blow, took a little longer to regain his composure. He staggered in the air dizzily as he searched for his missing cargo.

Twilight was still securely wrapped around his neck, all thanks to her hoof binding spell. From her perch, she could see Sauron’s wing breaking the cloud layer below them as he turned slowly to prepare for another attack. She magically transmitted her voice to her three friends.

“Pinkie and Cherry, you get below the clouds to ground level and head for that large volcano to your left. Party and I will get his attention and enact the plan. Go!”

Hesitantly, Pinkie ducked under the cloud layer. Just as she disappeared, Sauron’s massive head broke the surface, searching for his prey with his burning eye. Twilight prepped and fired a small ice bolt, missing his head by mere meters; an impressive shot for such a distance. He quickly traced its trajectory back to them, propelling his gargantuan bulk through the air with unnatural acceleration in their direction.

“Here we go…” Party mumbled.

“We have to buzz him!” Twilight projected into his head. “Get all of his attention on us, and keep him close!”

“Roger that, Captain Suicide!”

Adjusting their heading, he launched himself through the air towards the volcano. Sauron noted their direction and veered to intercept them, but because of his mass, he turned just too slowly to catch them as they whizzed a few dozen meters from his face. Roaring in frustration, he continued to turn laboriously. Achieving the proper heading, he turned all of his efforts to speed, something he was better at then his prey. He began catching up to them immediately.

Startled by the dragon’s velocity, Twilight yelled frantically, “DOWN! Down into the clouds! And don’t look behind us!”

“My, my! That’s…comforting.”

Sauron chuckled gravelly. “Fools! Have you not discovered by now that the clouds cannot save you! They may seem inpenetrable to you, but for me they are a mild obstacle. I saw where you’re friends went. They shall be next.”

He then dove into the clouds as well, still rapidly gaining on them despite Twilight’s urgings for more speed.

“I see you!”

“Just a little longer, Party! You can make it!”

“Let’s hope!”

Twilight, suddenly struck with inspiration, began channelling her meagre magical energies into the draconequus. Slightly revitalized, he lunged deeper into the clouds with even greater speeds.

But still they were losing ground.

Laughing at their vain attempts to flee, Sauron decided it was time to end them.

He spewed liquid flames at them as he pursued, but due to the sheer speed and wind resistances, the flames merely curled around his own head and set his face ablaze. Although it did nothing to hurt him, it made him ever blind with fury. He flapped his infernal wings harder and continued to vomit white hot lava streams.

Twilight smiled and yelled, “We’re gonna make it!”

Then she looked back over her shoulder. The smile vanished and her eyes exploded wide with fear.

Flames were licking just twenty meters behind Party’s tail, and behind that was an enormous fireball with blazing wings and a piercing red eye. It was belching molten death constantly, and was steadily getting closer.

Party squinted against the smoggy clouds and vicious winds from his speed, fighting to see while still flying far above his top speed. He suddenly broke through the clouds. Then he saw it; the volcano.

The really, really close volcano. His pupils dilated.

“HANG ON!” he yelled as he strained to veer upwards. He hoped he hadn’t waited until it was too late.

It was too late for Sauron, however. After his prey had suddenly left his direct line of sight, he did not even have the time to register what it was that was now in front of him before he hit it.

And he really hit it.

Pinkie and Cherry closed in on the scene about a kilometer away, watching with awe as the massive form of the obsidian meteor crumpled into the huge volcano. The resulting sound and fireball was unimaginably impressive. Imagine an oil tanker and a fireworks factory colliding into a burning brick wall made of 1000 tonnes of lead bars. Now imagine both times a thousand.

Close enough.

Party continued along the surface of the volcano, dodging plumes of lava as the mountain began collapsing in on itself. The very fabric of the molten mound had been destabilized, glowing cracks and crevasses splitting across the mountain face like cracks in a window. It was blowing itself apart with internal pressure and from the force if the impact. Much the same thing was happening to the back half of their former pursuer, erupting into shards of red-hot stone and fire that showered the whole area and bombarded them.

A huge fissure suddenly opened up directly in front of them. Party slowed as much as he dared to pull up once again. The heat from the lava and the explosions singed their coats as they rocketed upwards from the maelstrom, leaving a streak of smoke and obsidian dust in their wake.

Still too tense to cheer, they looped back around, pulling up right beside Pinkie and Cherry. The former of which was cheering enough for all four of them anyways.

“WOOOOO! Alright Twily! You go, Party!” she cried enthusiastically, the remains of her mane puffed to the max and bouncing around more than she was. “That was totally awesome! I need to throw you a party! A party for Twily and Party! A Party party! WOOOOOO!”

Cherry would have cheered, but he was busy plugging his ears and holding on to the dancing draconequus. Not that anyone would have heard him over Pinkie.

Party and Twilight smiled at their boisterous friend, both thoroughly exhausted. Looking at each other, they shared a mutually knowing chuckle.

A large cracking emanated from the ground below, instantly drawing all of their attention.

The mountain, which had been more like a thick stony shell full of lava, still stood. The gaping wound in its side was emptying out its stored magma reservoir. One more crumbling crack was produced, and the top cone broke off and fell towards the bubbling pool of magma still sitting in the volcano.

Just as it was about to hit, a molten mound burst from the lake of liquid stone and punched the stone cone to pieces. The four hovered slowly backwards in horror and shock as the mound split itself into multiple thinner parts; he claws of an enormous draconic forelimb. They hung there for a second, allowing themselves to harden before coming down and grasping the still intact rim of the volcano’s side. It was followed by another dividing mound, and a third one which besides being much more massive, bore a single burning eye.

“I WILL END YOU ALL FOR THIS!” Sauron voiced. “YOU WILL ALL PERISH SLOWLY AND PAINFULLY IN MY FIRE!"

At first, none of them could say anything. Slowly, Cherry managed to stutter out, “Sh-shall we leave him f-f-f-for a spell? P-p-perhaps we c-can talk this over once he’s c-c-cooled off?”

A sparkle shimmered in Twilight’s eyes as they widened, as they are apt to do when she has an idea.

“Cool off!” she exclaimed. “Cherry, you’re a genius!”

“I am?” he responded quizzically.

“He is?” the draconequui chimed.

“Yes! Party, while I was unconscious, I saw all of the ponies you have stored in your scales. They are awake and active, including all of my friends; each having their respective Elements of Harmony with them. Do you think you could bring them out here so we can use them against Sauron?”

Party shook his head. “Not an option, Twilight Sparkle. I have an escape spell on my scales. I made it so if anything were to happen to me, all of the ponies would end up back in Equestria with little memory of their time here.” He paused. “Even if I willingly release them, they will be in Equestria, and they could never get back here in time to help. And we can’t leave to regroup with them or show them the way.”

“What if...” Cherry started, scratching his chin. “What if you don’t have to, my lord? What if the Elements can still be used by them through you? From what I’ve heard, all it takes is for the wearers to be present and holding their Elements and the bearer of the Element of Magic to instigate it, and we do have them all here, in a sense.”

“You’re right, Twily,” Pinkie said, “Grapey-doodle is a genius!”

“So you want me to use four of the 6 Elements?” Party asked incredulously. “We don’t exactly have a good relationship thus far. Besides, what if they don’t work because I’m not one of your friends?”

“The way I see it,” Pinkie replied, “we are friends! You have saved us from falling to our death; you have saved the lives of everypony in the games, none of whom even liked you, while combating the strongest evil force we have ever encountered by yourself! And you have been toting Twilight around on your back while dodging an enormous dragon for who knows how long. Not to mention that you and I go waaaay back.” Pinkie winked.

A roar burst from below. Sauron had half formed and hardened, slowly extricating himself from the volcanic pit as he worked on his mid-section.

“That, and we don’t have time to argue!” Twilight shouted, preparing her magic and focussing the stone formation spell into the crystal on her now visible crown.

“Good point” Pinkie nodded, and her Element of Laughter necklace appeared around her long neck.

Still worried, Party called out a warning.

“Remember, turn every aspect of him to stone, not just his body. It was your shoddy job on me that allowed me to escape. Turn his very being to stone, and all his powers will be negated!”

Twilight nodded to him as her eyes opened, shining bright with white radiance. Her hooves came unclasped from around Party’s neck, and she hovered up above them. Pinkie Pie and Party Favour were drawn to Twilight’s sides by an irresistible force. Cherry continued hanging around Pinkie’s neck, wondering why he had not requested to be put down before now. The power of the Elements grew larger, burning brightly in response to the task ahead of them.

Four of Party’s scales tingled and glowed; a white one bejeweled with diamonds, an orange one adorned with apples, the yellow one speckled with pink butterflies, and a blue one emblazoned with a rainbow-coloured lightning bolt. As they, too, shone brighter, they radiated a light in colour to the residents’ coats, projecting the image of those ponies around the luminous group; each of them wearing their Element, limbs outstretched and eyes closed.

Sauron, who had gotten his hind legs free at this point, stood on the ground under his own power. Looking up at his troublesome pests, his pupil narrowed in a combination of fear and fury. He quickly opened his maw and unleashed all of his fury in one enormous blast of molten white-hot rage, managing an ear-splitting roar at the same time.

In no time, the group was enveloped in flames. Cherry, the only one of them not engrossed in Elemental powers, cracked open one eye. The flames were passing around and amongst them, but he did not even feel the slightest lick of heat or pain. The fire felt smooth and cool; the lava burst like a spattering of rain, peppering each of them with tickling droplets that cooled to obsidian on contact. All heat seemed to be absorbed by a magical film just barely above his skin.

But Cherry was the only one to even notice. Sauron continued to shower them in pleasant feelings and refreshing temperatures.

Finally, the six Elements of Harmony erupted in a wave of blinding, rainbow light; emanating from them as an expanding sphere of brilliant chromatic colours. Cherry watched in wonderment as the flames were forced back with ease. And much to his enjoyment, he was the only one of them to watch and laugh as Sauron’s single eye widened in sheer disbelief.

Upon contact with the expanding wave of colour, his skin hardened a darker black than Cherry thought possible. The internal inferno was extinguished immediately as it contacted the rainbow force field. His head entirely enveloped, his jaws gaped noiselessly and firelessly as his eye began dwindling. Sauron was trying to incinerate them, but the fires within his throat had died. By the time his midsection was hit, his eye was half the size. The rainbow washed through him and the rest of the plains of fire with growing speed.

Another smaller and faster blast of coloured radiation shot from the glowing group, two draconequui, one with a purple pony around her neck, a lavender unicorn with glowing eyes, and four pastel ponies that appeared as incorporeal as ghosts.

Verifiably the weirdest collaboration of beings ever assembled to use the Elements of Harmony. Ever. Of all time.

The brightness of the group subsided. The projected ponies dissipated into nothingness, and the others regained control of themselves. Party plucked Twilight out of the air just as she had begun to sink down to the steaming plains below.

The group regarded Sauron. He remained frozen to the spot where he had been standing; his tail paused in its still dripping state as it had not had enough time to form. They watched tentatively as his eye socket cooled down and its last glow petered out into cold stone.

Congratulations and high-fives were passed around, despite none of them having five-fingered appendages.

At least until the world began to end. Again.

Wordlessly, Pinkie and Party vanished from the clouded skies, taking their jockeys with them. The clouds, ground, and mountains quickly began evaporating, being rapidly replaced with inter-dimensional clouds of swirling black and purpleness.

Because his being had been turned to stone, his power was unable to maintain his surroundings, or even himself. As far as he knew, the group was still hanging above him in the sky as he raged. He was incapable of preventing, or even noticing, as the ground under him dissipated, followed quickly by his tail and legs. Within seconds, he had entirely evaporated into the void as just another victim of failed inter-dimensional travel; his very being erased from existence.

* * * * *

Twilight gazed around herself in amazement, trying to ascertain the laws that governed her impossible surroundings. After Pinkie’s brief explanation, Twilight became even more confused and decided it prudent to not worry herself on it any longer.

“Not like I can think straight in my current state...” she muttered.

The four of them were exhausted; Party and Twilight just about ready to collapse. At one point in the journey, Party had to grasp Pinkie’s paw in his claw to keep himself from fading into inexistence due to negligence.

Each of them were cut and bruised to various degrees, burned, and coated in dust and fragments of obsidian. Occasionally someone would cough to get some soot or dust dislodged from their lungs, but otherwise they were silent.

Twilight, who’s consciousness was entire optional at this point, fell asleep gladly, but not before re-applying her hoof-clasp spell.

Then she dreamed; dreams once again steered by her friends; the whole gang, almost half of Ponyville, plus her newest friend, Stalwart Bastion. She enjoyed their company, filling in details of the battle, answering questions, and just overall being happy in their reunion.

She smiled in her sleep.

* * * * *

Princess Celestia and Princess Cadence sat in the throne room of Canterlot Castle, mulling over recent events, both sick with worry about their friends, subjects, and in Cadence’s case, her sister-in-law. She had fired off a letter back to Shining Armor in the Crystal Empire with all of the details she had gotten out of Celestia and Spike, who had gone back to Ponyville to update them on any more abductions, or hopefully appearances.

Suddenly, the tuba in the corner behind a curtain tooted a loud note. Cadence yelped in fright. As it blared, it spewed out a sizable clout of dust and soot. The princesses coughed, and were joined by four other coughs immediately. As the dust settled, they peered expectantly.

They were not expecting what they saw.

They watched as a pink and blue draconequus with a trademark mane got up and placed a purple elderly earth pony on the ground. They were joined by an altered Discord, devoid of horns and bearing a light blue tail with matching beard tuft and eyebrows. As he let down a lavender pony from his back, his tail glimmered with many colours before turning back to its regular red.

Before either princess could react, not only Twilight emerged from behind him, but every other missing pony appeared throughout the throne room. Both bolted from their thrones and tackled Twilight in a hug, a very uncommon move from an ancient princess such as Celestia, and they were soon smothered in the rest of her friends. Jokes and laughter rung out from Everypony in the room, and smiles were a common commodity. Party and Pinkie stood off to the side, again paw-in-claw, with Cherry.

“My dearest student and friend!” Celestia said with deep affection. “I am relieved beyond words that you are safe; that all of you have returned to us safe and sound!”

She looked around the room as she spoke. “But where is Pinkie Pie? And Luna? Has anypony seen them?”

Pinkie gasped. She quickly grabbed an imaginary zipper and pulled it down. Reaching into the darkness, she pulled out a curled up dark blue alicorn with a star-spangled mane and tail. She was shivering and blinking in the blinding light. Luna shielded her tear-dampened, light-sensitive eyes for a minute or two before she could begin to see through squinted eyes.

Pinkie looked Luna in the eyes. “I’m sorry for trapping you in that place, but I had to be sure nopony would interfere or get in harm’s way. I did warn you not to follow.”

Party Favour reached behind his head and revealed a pair of red sparkly sunglasses, and placed them on Luna’s face, very much to her relief.

Luna sniffed and smiled sheepishly but said nothing.

Celestia looked from Pinkie, to Party Favour, to Luna, and the rest of the ponies.

“Would somepony care to explain exactly what is going on here?” she asked with mock exasperation and honest curiosity.

“Princess,” Twilight began, “you wouldn’t believe me if I told you!”

Epilogue

I don’t own MLP: FiM. That belongs to Lauren Faust and Hasbro.
You Wouldn’t Believe Me if I Told You
Epilogue

It was dark. Nights usually are.

This night, however, was not spent in fear or pain, as many ponies had last night. No; tonight was a peaceful Equestrian night, governed by Princess Luna in a realm of relative safety.

Ponies are not the kind of creature to hold a grudge. Despite what had transpired in the other realm, very few had any hard feelings to carry with them. It had been so short of a time ago, but already it felt to them as but an unpleasant nightmare; one that you wake up from in a cold sweat and a cry of alarm but soon realize that you are still in one piece and at home.

Some ponies had no clue as to who had removed them from the game, such as Rarity, who had been taken out rather quickly and abruptly from behind. Others recognized that the offender had been possessed by Discord’s chaos mingled with a hearty dollop of Sauron’s hatred.

But some had been wounded deeply by the affair. Fluttershy, though she would never admit it, loathed the twins Flim and Flam for what they had done to her. Even though she had been physically restored to her former state of being, she could not shake the feeling that they had not needed as much goading by higher powers than they admitted. Needless to say, Big Mac hated them as well, staring them down as they apologized to the pair for their misdeeds. They backed away slowly as both ponies glared them out of the room.

Applejack never really cared much for Fleur de Lis. Her opinion of her had not changed. Fleur, however, had been given much to think about as she absent-mindedly mumbled a sorry to Sweetie Belle, and shuffled towards the door.

Scootaloo, too, held some reserve against a certain blue unicorn mare. She had always been sensitive about her wings, but the horrible things that had happened to her at Trixie’s hooves still made her shudder. She leaned into Rainbow Dash’s side for assurance as Trixie made her rounds and apologized for her behavior.

Trixie approached Twilight, her mouth open to begin seeking amends for wronging her yet again. Twilight placed a hoof against her mouth gently.

“There’s no need,” she reassured. “I know how those two villains can get into your mind, warping who you are and making you do things you might have only dreamt of before and would never do.”

Trixie smiled gratefully as Twilight continued. “You have never been the kind of pony to want to hurt anypony. You’re a show-off, erm, were a show-off. You’ve become a friend to lots of ponies in Ponyville since that Alicorn Amulet incident a few years back, and I’m sure they would all hate to see you up and leave your magic trick shop. Snips and Snails mostly!” she ended with a chuckle.

“Well, they are my best customers,” Trixie smiled thoughtfully. “Maybe I should give them a job at the store. By now they probably know how to use my tricks better than I do!”

The two giggled at the thought of the troublemaking duo. They had really smartened up lately, both mentally, magically, and behaviorally. Secretly, Twilight figured it was due to Trixie mentoring them after her reforming.

Trixie calmed down slightly, and looking around, commented, “Have you seen that steel-blue pegasus around? You know, the red-maned one that had been hanging out with you? I wanted to say goodbye before I caught the next train to Ponyville.”

Shocked, Twilight looked around at the dwindling crowd. “No, I haven’t! I should probably go look for him.” She about faced and bolted in the direction Party, the Princesses, and her best friends had gone.

“Need any help?” Trixie called out.

“No thanks!” she replied. “I have a hunch; you just catch your train!”

* * * * *

Twilight burst into the banqueting hall, where the aforementioned group sat around the table and partook of the leftover spread that had been laid out for their sudden influx of guests. Party Favour was cracking jokes and performing mild amusing parlor tricks, much to the delight of the others. Nopony seemed to take notice of the purple unicorn until Party looked over his shoulder to greet her.

“Ah! There you are, Twilight! I was just about to come and find you! You’re missing all the…”

The urgent look in her eyes told him that she was not in a humorous mood. She motioned for him to join her outside.

Party nodded and turned back to his crying audience, who had just begun to get a hold of themselves. “It appears that I am needed elsewhere. We will now take a brief intermission.”

He stood up and bowed. Spinning on his heel, he waltzed over to the other side of the door, which Twilight closed behind him.

Before she managed a word, Party started, “I know what this is about; the human, right?”

“Yes, and his name is Stalwart Bastion. Where is he?” she whispered harshly.

He conjured up a chair for himself and a cushion for her, letting out a sigh.

“Don’t worry, he’s fine. In fact, he is still here.”

“Where?”

Party began wringing his tail nervously; a tail with a single blue scale on it. “Remember when I said that everypony would go back to where they came from?” She nodded. “Well, it turns out… I have no idea how to get there. There are hundreds of realms inhabited by humans, so I would never be able to determine exactly which one was his! And because the realm he had been brought to was destroyed, and without the original trail to follow…”

“Then you can’t send him back. But why don’t you just let him out here?” she inquired.

“Think, Twilight! I’ve already told you this. My scale entrapment spell limits where I can send them. I honestly had not even considered the consequences for somepony who wasn’t originally a pony from Equestria. I can only give him a body if I can get him out of there. And quite frankly, I don’t know how to do that!”

Party waved his hands as his voice grew more frantic, still being careful that the revelers in the other room didn’t hear them.

Twilight closed her eyes in thought, searching her brilliantly learned mind for a solution.

Then she had it. She knew one way that she could both extricate Bastion from the scale and give him a body; the solution to one of those problems required a lot of magic; the other, time.

She held out a hoof. “I got it. Give me your tail.”

Unsure, Party flicked his mostly red scaled tail onto her waiting hoof. Twilight readied the extrication spell, her horn glowing furiously. She placed her other hoof on top of the blue scale.

“Wait,” Party said, the truth dawning on him, “are going to-“

A quick shush from Twilight silenced him as she bit her lip from strain. Party also bit his lip, both out of fear of disturbing her and for what she had in mind. He did his best to weaken his wards for her, and tried to help release Bastion’s essence.

Within seconds, a blue mist emanated from the scale, leaching red back into its colour. The small cloud did not travel far, as it was immediately absorbed into Twilight’s hoof.

Twilight made a small whimpering noise from the sudden needle-like pain that slowly worked its way up her leg, past her shoulders, and eventually settled in her gut. Only once the pain had stopped did she dare to cut off the spell, collapsing onto the cushion behind her and releasing a lungful of pent up breath as she did so.

Party knelt beside her and placed his paw around her shoulders. He stuttered, “Did you…? I mean, is he…? Are you…?”

He picked her up and cradled her in his arms on her back, her limbs curled in. He saw as the last glow of magic faded from her stomach. She placed a hoof on the spot.

“My, my!” Party whispered softly. “He must have been some kind of friend for you to do something like this for him!”

“He saved my life, a few times,” she said weakly. “He sacrificed himself to make sure I’d be ok. And even then, he gave us the means to defeat Sauron. That baiting into the mountain plan was his, by the way.”

Party grinned. “I thought I detected a hint of human ingenuity…”

She nodded. “He saved us; me, you, Cherry, and Pinkie. Not to mention all of the other beings in realms where he was influencing, including your own!”

She looked down at her slender mid section. “He saved me, and I figure I should return the favour.”

She waggled her legs helplessly in the air. “Now, if you don’t mind putting me down,” she said with a smile. “Oh, and do you think you could keep this a secret for now?”

Party placed her back on her own four legs and motioned out the binding contract of a Pinkie swear.

Blushing lightly, Twilight nodded and said, “if you would be so kind as to lead the way, I would like to get my hooves on some of those h’orderves in there. I’m starving!”

Bowing lightly as he pushed the door open, he ushered her in. Twilight heard him say in a low voice, “Of course, milady. You are eating for two now, after all.”

Author's Note

Well, that was fun, eh? I probably made every one of you angry at some point, but thanks for sticking it out. You guys (and girls, collectively) are the reason I ever managed to finish this thing.

Now, although this story is complete, I have one or two further story arcs that will continue to build off of these characters in this universe which will be released as new stories. If you want to follow the stories as they appear, watch me! PinkiePiedPiper! as I continue writing tales about magical, multicoloured, cartoon ponies.

Continuation Note

I have started a new story arc based off of the so far established alternate universe. this one will have a lot more personal struggle and emotionally darker themes. It is called "Welcome To My Life". Check it out, eh?
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