Path up to The Ruler

Nighttime. All Twilight’s new friends were sleeping in a guest room. Twilight finally was sleeping in her own room.

Somepony silently broke into the castle. “Ah think this ain’t good idea,” Applejack whispered to another invader. She and Pinkie Spy were invading.

“Don’t worry, I done this with Twilight before.”

“You mean this ain’t yer first time kidnapping Twi’?”

“No, silly, I never done that to a dead pony. Now shush, we don’t want to attract attention.”

Pinkie and Applejack reached Twilight’s room. They grabbed her and brought out of the castle undetected.

Then they dragged her to the Sweet Apple Acres barn, put her in the coffin and buried there. Applejack worried, “Ah don’t think this was a good idea.”

“Don’t you worry, nopony will know this happened,” Pinkie tried to cheer Applejack.

“Yea, but this ain’t normal.”

“This isn’t murder, silly, she’s dead anyways. We just brought her where she belongs while anypony else didn’t.”

“I guess you’re right, Pinkie. Ah just don’t know how to feel ‘bout this. What if ponies tried searching and questioning me about it? Ah can’t lie to them or pretend everything is okay.”

“Well, then don’t lie, just don’t tell the truth.”

“But that’s the same thing.”

“Hey looky here, madam. This is our secret, and if you’re smart you’ll keep it a secret. Pinkie Promise?”

“Cross mah heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in mah eye,” Applejack performed Pinkie Promise.

“Splendid. See you tomorrow.”

-

“Where’s she?!” Trixie was enraged while searching the whole castle in and out for Twilight.

“I checked everything, she’s not here,” Sombra provided bad news.

“How is this possible?! I locked every door and window!”

“I did notice opened window near the entrance, outside pile of boxes resembling stairs.”

“Are you saying that somepony kidnapped her?!”

“Yes. Also I found this yellow hair piece.” Sombra gave evidence to Trixie.

“Oh! I know whose it is! I’m going to say Big hello to them.”

“How do you expect walking around freely in Ponyville?”

“Unlike you, I can do that. I’m citizen of Ponyville as much as anypony else living in it.”

“Very well.”

-

“Howdy there, Trixie. How can Ah help you,” Applejack greeted angry Trixie.

“Where is she?!”

“Whom?”

“Don’t act like you don’t know! Where is Twilight?!”

“Ah really don’t know what you’re sayin’. If you keep shouting I’ll have to ask you to leave.”

“Don’t play dumb with The Great and Powerful Trixie, you peasant!”

“Hey, that’s offensive. Ah ask yer arrogance to leave my farm.”

“I’m going to choke truth out of your bloody mouth.” Trixie was just about to attack Applejack, but Discord interrupted her.

“Now that’s not a nice way to treat dear Applejack, Trixie.” Discord zipped Trixies mouth and imprisoned her in a big jar.

“What you’re doing here?” Applejack was confused.

“I was just searching for her, and with her shouting, I just couldn’t not find her.”

“That’s all?”

“Yes.” Discord snapped his fingers and disappeared out of Applejack’s sight.

-

Discord returned with Trixie to Twilight’s castle and her friends. Trixie was boiling in pure anger, but unable to scream with zipped mouth. Everypony else were rather confused.

“Where’s Twilight?” Sombra asked Discord.

“She’s buried under the barn of Sweet Apple Acers.”

“What?! And you did nothing?”

“I did, I saved Applejack from Trixie.”

“Whose side you’re on?”

“Our.”

“Doesn’t seem like so.”

“This strange opportunity is perfect for us to act. Remember others telling you the plan? Now with your excellent mind manipulation powers, with Chrysalis infinite energy reserves and my chaotic nature, we can begin. Twilight never knew about the plan. This is our gift for her.”

“Very true. How about Twilight? She’s going to suffocate.”

“Nah. She’s an alicorn. Besides, Luna spent a thousand years on the moon.”

“Then we begin,” Chrysalis suggested.

Sombra began performing powerful mind control megaspell. His eyes went pure red emitting purple glow. His horn emitted a few layer purple and green overglow. He was draining Chrysalis energy, her body, piece by piece, began to crumble creating new holes in it and enlarging existing ones. Trixie was melting in a jar from pure anger because she was forgotten and not included. Amethyst was admiring the “light show”. Luna was casting a camouflage around the castle so that nopony could notice anything suspicious (She had read the forgotten books and knew most of the spells, this one was one of these spells).

Negativity surrounded Equestria.

-

Within days everypony gradually developed hate and jealousy towards other pony races, and heightened supremacy of their own race. Within first days it was curse words and occasional clashes (hoofights) with the opposite races. Later ponies started creating blockades to protect “their racial property and services”. Finally armament began thus war and death. War raged across all Equestria, even between royal guards who abandoned their duties and betrayed Celestia and Luna.

Earth ponies – physical strength, innovative weaponry and use of the surroundings in the fights to their advantages allowed their race to survive and not die out instantly, but they were losing most fights. The lack of time and preparations pushed their complex ideas for weapons to abyss—if only they had more time, they would had presented themselves as a bigger threat—Most used weapons were lassos for dealing with pegasus, rock traps (a lot of traps with heavy rocks) for unicorns, nets against pegasus and stationary siege versus both.

Pegasus ponies – agility, flying abilities and aerial advantage allowed their race to avoid most devastating injures between battles. Defense was unnecessary for them, they thought, as other races had nothing that could access their bases in the clouds. They attacked with all of their forces and won most battles against earth ponies and all battles against unicorns with almost flawless one-sided victories.

Unicorn ponies – magic, only magic. Most unicorns were highly inexperienced with their magic. They mostly used basic levitation spells. They were throwing sharp projectiles at their enemies.

All of the three races hated each other a lot, but they hated alicorns even more. They questioned Celestia’s dictatorship. Celestia and Luna had to flee and hide. Cadence and Shining Armor broke up.

Megaspell had no effect on Celestia, Twilight, Twilight’s friends and Element carriers.

-

“Rainbow Dash, stop slacking. We need everypegasi on the battlefield, that includes you too,” Spitfire demanded Rainbow Dash’s support.

“I can’t, this doesn’t seem right.”

“Ugh! I understand why Fluttershy doesn’t, but you, Dash, you’re very important in this war. With your help we can win faster, you’re one of the strongest and fastest of us.”

“I’ll have no part in it!”

“Join us and I’ll make you one of the Wonderbolts, I promise.”

“No, I will not let you manipulate me with your promises. If becoming a Wonderbolt means to kill others, I refuse.”

“What?! How can’t you understand? From birth you were destined to live your life for this moment. This is the prime of our existence. Victory in this war for pegasi means Equestria. There is no place for inferior races to roam free in Our Equestria.”

“Inferior? Everypony is equal.”

“How dare you degrade Our perfect race. You’re useless, you refuse to participate in a war for racial supremacy and on top of that you humiliate Us. Death to you! Pegasi, take her to the rack, make every bone in her body crack.”

“No!” Rainbow Dash tried to escape, but failed. To prevent her struggling she was hit to unconsciousness.

“Soarin, bring me Fluttershy here.”

-

“Sister, I don’t like this place. It reminds me of Nightmare Moon,” Luna whimpered. Celestia and Luna returned to their Castle of the Two Sisters (ruins) in Everfree Forest.

“I know. But this is the best place to settle for now – nopony will track us here. Besides, they are fighting each other to the death and we can’t do a thing about it. Our presence would only make things worse. All we can do now is wait.”

“All of this is happening after Twilight’s death. I believe her connection with The Elements disappeared after her death thus disharmony reoccur. And I’m the pony responsible for it – I killed her.” Luna’s eyes went blurry with tears.

“It’s not your fault, it’s mine – I ordered you to do such a thing. I should have been smarter, I should have taught her better, I should have used other means to stop her. She’s the very pony connected to the world itself, if she’s dead – our Equestria is as good as dead.”

“We’ll live through it.” Luna gave a hug to Celestia.

-

“Rarity, may I have you for a few moments?” Prince Blueblood called for Rarity. They were in Canterlot’s sewing workshop.

“Well yes, of course.”

“I admire your dressmaking skills, but I would like you to join us in battle.”

“I can’t, I’m not that strong, and who would make all the clothing besides me?”

Prince Blueblood raised his forehoof and struck Rarity with it, sending her falling to the ground. “Do not act stupid. I know what you are doing – you are avoiding participation in this war. I was ok with that at first, but now we need you in the front lines, or we will lose.

“I think your clothing is the reason we are losing. Basically – your clothing makes us look like targets. I admire all the fancy colors and designs you are making, but it is useless in the battlefield. You are the reason why we are losing to these inferior races. Unicorns are the future for Equestria. That being said, you are fired.”

“What?! Why?”

“Just now I explained why.”

“You can’t.”

“I can. I’m the highest ranked figure around here and a Prince. If you refuse, I am going to kick you out of My Canterlot without hesitation. Choose wisely because I don’t care about individual unicorn. Through unity we can achieve victory. Unlike you, everyunicorn else understands that.”

“But-but… Is there another option? Anything else I can do?”

“Yes, there is.” Blueblood surrounded Rarity’s body in his levitation spell, then sent her crashing through window into air, far enough to disappear out of sight. “I do not tolerate you.”

-

“Why’s this shield so strong? Everypony once more, clop yer hooves and ram that castle,” Braeburn was becoming furious. Everypony charged Twilight’s castle, but got knocked by the shield surrounding it. “Horseapples, this is useless.”

“Why don’t you stop? Let everypony rest, we need them rested,” Applejack suggested.

“Ah know, but there’s the last unicorn in Ponyville. Gettin’ rid of her would provide us a hub for our operations, it’ll be perfect finalizing our schemes for weapons n siege. Ah hate damned pegasus that destroyed my home, Appleloosa. We need this castle.”

“Ah don’t feel right attacking anypony who did nothing to us.”

“But they did. Don’t ya remember that these darned unicorns killed yer Granny Smith and Big Mac, also destroyed yer whole farm with trees?”

“Well yes, I do, but Trixie did nothing.”

“It’s not about the individual pony, it’s ‘bout race. We mustn’t share Our lands with bullies like pegasus, or unicorn hierarchy-wannabe’s. They’ve biological advantage over us, that’s why we need this.” Applejack seemed like crying. “Listen ‘ere, AJ, Ah don’t like this either, but if we do nothing, we’ll become extinct. Every chance we get is a possibility to save Our lives.”

“Ah think we can reason with ‘em.”

Suddenly Rarity fell flat onto shield attracting attention of everypony around. “Ugh.” Then slowly slid down.

“Unicorn scum. Everypony surround her, don’t let her escape,” Braeburn reacted with a command.

“Hold yer horses, everypony,” Applejack interrupted. “Let me talk with her first.” She approached Rarity. “You okay? Can you speak?”

“Yes,” Rarity nodded with a whimper.

“What happened?”

“Prince Blueblood kicked me out of Canterlot because I refused to join him in war.”

“She ain’t hostile fellas! Rarity, can you open a gap in the shield? Ah wanna meet Trixie. Alone. Well, with you, but without them. Ah believe she’ll be keen to talk with us.”

“Yes, sure.” Rarity used her horn to open two pony sized holes in the shield. Rarity closed the holes as soon as both got in.

“What’re doin’? It’s suicidal, AJ,” Braeburn warned, but it didn’t stop Applejack with Rarity entering the castle through unlocked castle door.

Applejack and Rarity walked slowly and cautiously inside, it was empty and quiet. They checked most rooms finding nothing, until they opened Twilight’s bedroom and saw Trixie sitting in chair, near Twilight’s bed, and starring into it. They approached Trixie, her mane was messy and unwashed, her face was tired, eyes red from tiredness.

“Are you okay? We would want to speak with you,” Rarity suggested.

“Leave,” Trixie responded heavily.

“Please, we don’t want any harm. Look, I’m here with Applejack and we came here to discuss a plan to stop this nonsensical war. We’re sure you would like that, since you haven’t participated in it.”

“Sit.”

Rarity and Applejack sat on Twilight’s bed to face Trixie, up close she looked even worse, evidently she was casting that shield for days and hadn’t slept. “Talk,” she encouraged her visitors.

“Listen, Trixie, we want to end this war, but the two of us won’t be enough, we need yer help,” Applejack explained.

Trixie hysterically giggled for a moment, then quickly stopped to respond, “Funny you’re seeking my help, the ponies I hate so much came here uninvited for my help, don’t tell me you don’t even have a plan of any sort, but ok, I have a plan: go die.”

“I think she’s crazy,” Rarity whispered into Applejack’s ear. “Let me try.

“We do hope we could find more followers that seek peace and racial equality. We don’t have many ponies as of now, but we do have to start from somewhere.”

“I lost everything: my fame because of this racial war, respect because I refuse participation in it, strength because I must keep shield up at all time to save myself from it and its absurdity of what this war is all about, but worst – I lost my best friend, she’s dead, even Applejack buried her away from me.” Trixie wasn’t crying and her voice was unemotional at all time. Her eyes exposed massive hatred towards Applejack. “I would love to strangle you for that, but it’s as pointless as everything else.”

“I think we can’t convince her to join,” Rarity whispered. Applejack agreed with a nod.

Then they left outside. All the earth ponies were waiting them with grim or angry faces. “So you failed?” Braeburn asked knowing the answer was yes.

Applejack and Rarity nodded then proceed through the shield, closing behind as they pass. Other earth ponies seemed hostile towards both mares. Applejack noticed it and tried to explain what happened, “We did what we could. Reasoning with her is useless.”

“That’s what you can expect from other races, they have no integrity. They are ignorant hierarchy or bullies, unlike us – hard working ponies who are the future of Equestria’s prosperity.” As Braeburn gave a speech, other ponies were slowly getting closer to the two mares. “Listen ‘ere, AJ, Ah know what you want, Ah want that too, we all want our Equestria as it always been in the past, but times are different. We can’t live by our imagination, or else we extinct. Now we must eliminate oppressors. To be honest, Ah don’t ‘ave bucking idea how Equestria got to that point, but Ah’m assure it was the fault of these two other races, and now we suffer as well. That is also why this castle is essential for us. Please Applejack, understand.”

Applejack hid her disappointment as much as she could to respond, “Ah know, Ah well darn know this, you don’t need repeatin’, but unlike you, Ah haven’t lost hope for peaceful negotiations. Ah believe Ah can find a way to stop the war without the need of killin’. Ah ain’t joining you. If that castle is so important, you’re in luck, the mare casting the shield is exhausted to death. It won’t take days before yer free to raid.”

Every earth pony was tense in a battle stance waiting Braeburn’s command to attack. Fortunately for Applejack and Rarity, Braeburn gave no such order and allowed the mares to leave, “Go, you are as good as dead anyways, no need to get our hooves bloody over nothing, Ah rather know you suffered. Applejack, I’m most disappointed in you. Yer family was nothing to you after all.”

-

“Welcome to Cloudsdale, Fluttershy,” Spitfire welcomed. Fluttershy was dragged there against her will. “I personally apologizing for the inconvenient trip here, but there are important stuff to discuss concerning everypegasi, including you – we are losing some ground and we need all our troops to overpower the enemy,” Spitfire lied.

“I… Um, don’t know… how could I help?” Fluttershy was still frightened by the trip to Cloudsdale.

“We need you on the battlefield.”

“No… I can’t… I don’t want…”

“I don’t take no for an answer. Everypegasi that disagrees will meet the same punishment your friend there did.” Spitfire pointed at clearly dead Rainbow Dash near the most noticeable place in Cloudsdale – billboard. Her body was stretched beyond the limitations of limbs and joints. Right forehoof was detached from the rest of her body. Rainbow Dash died either from unbearable pain of the rack.

Fluttershy wanted her friend alive. At the sight of her dead friend she froze like a stone by cockatrice’s gaze. It was too terrifying for her to faint.

Above Rainbow Dash’s body in the billboard, there were ads inviting every pegasus pony to join the war in the front lines, promising honor and material rewards for the bravest. Other ads mostly included disgusting propaganda about other two pony races and glorifying their own.

“What’s your answer?” Spitfire encouraged her. Fluttershy didn’t responded for good two more minutes then suddenly tried to escape, screaming and crying. She was too slow and got caught.

Spitfire gave threatening smile to Fluttershy. “I suppose that’s a no? To the rack her!”

-

Pinkie Pie dug Twilight’s coffin out, it wasn’t easy with all the debris littering around. Inside the coffin was empty. “Where’s she?!”

-

Applejack’s and Rarity’s journey from Ponyville to changeling’s castle through San Palomino Desert was consuming: no clean water, high temperatures and buffalo aggression, but t was a necessary route to avoid pegasus patrolling town ruins that used to be Appleloosa.

As they were approaching Chrysalis hive-castle, they were attacked by changelings. These changelings were slightly different than before – their insect-like wings were dark purple. Both mares dealt with changelings easily, there were very few of them, but such hostility meant that changelings weren’t welcoming anypony. They proceed inside anyways.

Castle looked like ruins. The thought of somepony (Changeling) living there haunted shivers up Rarity’s spine.  She was dodging all the filth on the floor making Applejack annoyed as they wondered around the mazes for a long time and nothing attacked them.

They reached center of the hive. Manny cocoons with not yet hatched changelings filled inside big room. Amethyst was sleeping in the embrace of Chrysalis (what shell was left of her). Chrysalis was missing most of her horn, three of her legs crumbled into immobile state, fourth seemingly soon would as well, her eyeballs grey (she was blind), wings, tail and mane: no more.

Chrysalis sensed the invaders and greeted them, “What brings you here? If you were to attack, I’m sure you would have done so by now with a lot of noise. Come, sit. Tell us your names.” Amethyst was waking up.

“What happened to you? I’m sorry, I’m Rarity and this is Applejack.”

Amethyst trotted behind Chrysalis. “Mama, these ponies will hurt me?”

“No, don’t worry. These ponies are good. They are friends of your Papa. Rarity, Applejack, why won’t you sit near us? Tell us how are things. I wanted to share some stories with pony folk for the last few days now. I don’t have anything to offer, you know, we don’t eat ‘your kind’ of food.”

“Oh it’s ok, we’re not hungry,” Rarity lied. She hadn’t ate a thing since morning. “We’re here to seek help.”

Chrysalis chuckled, “Sure, like we’re able to help you in any way. You see we’re at the edge of extinction if Amethyst here doesn’t learn to rule over the hive. I, as you can see, am not in any shape to do that, nor that I would be able even if I was at my best. All I can do is share my wisdom with Amethyst until I’m ceased to exist. But I’m interested what help you need us for.”

“There is war between earth, unicorn and pegasus ponies in Equestria, and we are seeking help to stop it.”

“Well, that’s impossible. You see, the state I’m in is because of the war. Sombra casted strong megaspell to stop it,” Chrysalis lied, “and he needed a lot of power so he used mine. He failed and consequently got evaporated into ether. Me? Well, you can see yourselves.”

“Um, Wawity, pwease stop bad ponies. I can’t defend yet.” Amethyst poured a tear from her big green eyes with purple flares burning within. She had tiny, common size for her age, horn and wings. Her wings surprisingly weren’t like Chrysalis insect-like ones, Amethyst wings were princess-like feathery wings.

“We will, I hope. Sorry to disturb you, we’ll be going.”

“Have you forgotten what I said earlier? Please stay for a night, I’m bored and I don’t want to die being bored. I know I can’t help, nor does Amethyst, but I can suggest seeking help from griffons. If the war is only between ponies, you might be in luck, but I warn you – you must offer them something or else they won’t care.”

Rarity,  Applejack, Chrysalis and Amethyst spent the remaining of the day and night sharing stories with each other, mostly about Twilight. Rarity was hungry, very hungry.

-

“Trixie, no! You look horrible.”

“Twilight.”

“Don’t tell me you were holding this shield all this time? I’m so sorry. It was my fault that I was hiding from these ponies. I should have stayed here with you and used that shield myself.”

“Twilight, I’m happy to see you.” Trixie’s voice was slow and weak.

“I’m going to deal with all this war myself, for you, for everypony.”

Trixie hobbled slowly towards Twilight and gave her a weak hug that looked more like she was attempting to hold on Twilight’s neck to not collapse. “Save yourself, find friends. You can’t do that alone. We wanted to help you, clearly we weren’t strong.” With every word Trixie’s voice was slowing down. “You’re strong, you must be strong, be strong for us, remember us, let that strengthen you, but never do everything by yourself, find friends. I want you succeed, we all, your friends, want you to succeed. Where we failed, you must not.” Trixies last words were really slow. “My last wish to you is to create the perfect Equestria we dreamed of.”

Twilight saw through the window that the shield was going down in cracks. Trixie stopped breathing and holding on Twilight, she collapsed. She used everything, only through sheer willpower she managed to keep the shield on. Twilight held her in her hooves covering Trixie’s body with her wings and tears. Loud echoes of ponies galloping in the castle forced Twilight to escape.

She teleport away, out of sight, with Trixie. Twilight felt a rush of emotions striking through her whole body: sadness, regret, hate and revenge. She wanted to kill everypony for what they did – peace through death. Then she could form a new life, once again, and guide it away from repeating mistakes that became this war, she thought. But her mind defeated corrupted emotions, she knew – death and suffering solves nothing, friendship does, she had to reunite everypony.

She buried Trixie beneath Sweet Apple Acers Barn, in the same coffin and hole that Pinkie dug out. “I’m sorry I can’t arrange anything magnificent that you deserve, but I promise I will when I’m done with this corruption.” She left her.

Twilight never noticed red and green (Fluttershy’s and Rainbow Dash’s) Elements on her cutie mark.

-

Rarity and Applejack left early the next morning. As they reached one of the hills near Badlands and gave a glimpse at Changeling Wasteland, they saw earth ponies from Oxford and unicorns from Manechester fighting each other near the hive-castle, clearly deciding which race would annex its territory. Changelings (what few of them there was) were defeated. Rarity hoped that Chrysalis and Amethyst (or at least just Amethyst) managed to escape. There was nothing they could do.

Applejack’s plan was to reach Baltimare, then borrow a ship and reach Griffon Port by sea. Baltimare was controlled by earth ponies, it was the safest town in this war so far – nopony attacked it and nopony from there participated in the war. Unicorn Rarity wasn’t a problem, her headwear was enough to hide her horn, nopony there met her before.

Mares passed through dangerous Badlands, avoiding lava and rock debris. They reached Hayseed Swamps. Swamps were dense, disturbing vision. Rarity despised dirty water and was whining all the time making Applejack annoyed and hostile with her.

They finally reached Baltimare. It was heavily guarded with ballistic engineering Applejack and Rarity never saw before. Electric fences and earth pony patrol prevented them from proceeding in without guard inspection. “Right: Applejack, mare, earth pony from Ponyville.” Stallion guard was checking documents. “Second: Rarity, mare, unicorn pony from Ponyville.” Rarity forgot to fake her documents (but she wasn’t aware that she would have needed of them). Guard knocked Rarity’s hat and spotted her horn. “Unicorn, what business ya got ‘ere?”

Rarity was sweating in horror, unable to respond. Applejack responded instead, “You see, we need a boat to Griffin Port.”

“That doesn’t explain that unicorn ‘ere.”

“She’s with me. Ah’ve got a task.”

“Yea? Who sent ya?”

“Commander Braeburn,” Applejack lied.

“Never hear of ‘im. Never mind, Ah don’t care, ya can go in. If she’s a spy and yer a traitor, Ah still don’t care. Ah’ll be transportin’ ya straight to the Bay so ya can’t see anything much of our town. Do anything dumb and Ah’ll make sure one of them ballista’s pierced yer skull.” Guard had terrible accent, but was convincing enough to make Applejack and Rarity not fool around with him.

“Open the gates!” he shouted, and the gates slowly opened. Inside was small, but crowded: Small, but tall, three to six storey wooden buildings without glass windows (just holes), beaten by age and lack of treatment. Streets were full of young foals and elderly ponies trotting about their business, some gave a glimpse at the visitors, but mostly didn’t care. “What ya scoutin’?” Guard asked seemingly suspecting Rarity, since she was looking around the town passionately.

“Oh nothing, I’m sorry,” she got startled.

“Ah suggest ya lookin’ at the ground until Ah tell ya otherwise.”

Rarity did as she was told. This wasn’t something she wanted to risk her life for. Meanwhile Applejack spent every second inspecting the surroundings: town was tightly locked up as much from inside as outside, few shops selling very little, decayed furniture and vehicles, a five-on-one hoofight in the narrow walkway, few not functioning fountains, overgrown with grass, and a lot of random wreckage.

The state town was in made no sense for a town port. “Why is this town so buried?” Applejack asked.

“Pirates,” Guard answered. “Them were raidin’ us even before the war. Cut down our trade roots and destroyed our economy to crap yer seein’.”

“Pirates? And we’re sailing? We’re gonna die.”

“Yea, Ah’m sendin’ yer to death. Oh, and Ah’ll charge ya twenty bits for privilege.”

“No! We don’t need the ship, we can find another way. Sorry to disturb you.”

“Ya ain’t goin’ anywhere, turn around and ya’ll be shot. Ah don’t care if ya die now or later, but Ah’ll rather take yer bits.” They arrived to the Horseshoe Bay. Applejack paid guard the price, he pushed both mares into raft made out of some rotten logs then he bucked the raft and set it sailing.

-

Battle between Manechester’s unicorns and Oxford’s earth ponies had ended in a victory for earth ponies, but huge losses delayed annexation, battlefield was full of dead ponies, they retreated.

Twilight took that opportunity to enter hive-castle. Temporary barricade wreckage littered every room up to the heart of the hive. Every cocoon was devastated and destroyed, unborn changeling bodies lying everywhere, most decapitated or crushed.

Amongst changelings Twilight found Chrysalis (what was left of her). She was in even worse condition as when Applejack and Rarity visited. “There is nothing you can do,” she spoken, her voice was slow.

“Not here too. What are you ponies doing?!”

“Suffering the reality of this world.”

“No, but… But Equestria was never like this. This doesn’t make sense, why ponies are doing this.”

“It’s no different – ponies seek their perfect Equestria.” Chrysalis began choking yellowish-green fluids (changeling blood). “I wanted Equestria for my children to grow in, Discord needed Equestria as his playground, others – their own reasons. None succeeded.”

“But you were the most powerful being in Equestria. How could you end up like this?”

“I never killed a pony, I never would, even Celestia.” Chrysalis tone kept slowing by every sentence. “I claimed she must be killed, but if I had the chance and free will to kill her myself, I wouldn’t. Sombra tried to perform a powerful megaspell on ponies – he used my magic, that ended in his disappearance, and me – what you see now of me.”

“W-why would you do that?”

“Because you inspired us to become a better ponies, and at the time like this, we stood against it, just like you would if you could.”

“I killed you all.” Twilight couldn’t hold tears any longer and opened the flood gates.

“True, but don’t blame yourself, that was our decision.” She caught spilling again. “You allowed us to change, change for the better. You taught us to seek our dreams with friendship. These ponies fight for their own dreams of their perfect Equestria. These ponies aren’t any different than us. They need your help and guidance, Princess of Friendship.” Chrysalis vomited all yellowish-green fluids and died. Twilight felt like Chrysalis's gifted magic faded.

Twilight was losing her friends, dying before her eyes. She wanted to kill everypony even more so than ever before, but by doing so would cause a disservice for her friends. They sacrificed themselves for Twilight to help create their perfect Equestria, even if they wouldn’t be there to see it, the thought that she could succeed was enough to risk their own lives for.

Twilight levitated all the bodies of changelings, including Chrysalis, into one pile, then with a spell set everything on fire. “Your dreams will never leave my heart. Your ashes will fertilize Equestria, your perfect Equestria. I promise, you all, I will not fail your dreams, my dreams.”

-

Applejack and Rarity were floating above the sea within thick and quiet mist, waves softly splashing their raft

“This is pathetic – at this pace we won’t reach Griffin Port in days,” Rarity was disappointed.

“Quit yer whining and help me pull,” Applejack encouraged.

“I’m not whining, I’m complaining.” Rarity was also hungry and weak.

“Ah don’t care. Help me if you want this to end faster, or do you want pirates catching us instead?”

Suddenly huge shadowy ship slowly appeared into sight then began shooting cannonballs at the raft, nearly missing it. Pirates roared their battle cries as they were shooting (but mostly missing) and closing in.

“This is it Ah recon,” Applejack whimpered as one of cannonballs hit a hole in the raft (but raft wasn’t drowning yet). “Rarity, Ah did so much wrong to you and my friends, last few week went completely to hell, starting with Twilight then war.” Another cannonball hit the raft (less devastating). “But Ah’m happy to say Ah’m not dying alone. If we failed that doesn’t mean we haven’t done everything we could.” One more cannonball hit the raft and obliterated it into pieces.

-

Twilight was standing at the peak of mountain in Badlands. Hostile dragons flying around her, but smart to not attack her. Her eyes were burning with rage as she was lost deep in her thoughts, yet again, questioning her next approach in fixing the problems in Equestria, or just destroying it and starting new.

-

Applejack and Rarity woke up in pirate ship. It was pink? “Good you’re awake,” Pinkie Pie bounced around them.

“Pinkie, I’m glad you saved us, but what are you doing here?” Rarity asked.

“I’m searching for Twilight.”

“Here? But she’s dead isn’t she?”

“Somepony stole her body from the grave. Without digging it out!”

“We should get to Griffin Port,” Applejack suggested.

“Griffin Port? Well, we’ll be there soon,” Pinkie said then trotted to the steering wheel of the ship.

The mist dissipated and Griffin Kingdom was visible: huge skyscrapers and sheltered mountains piercing the clouds, even the Griffin Port, being just above sea level, had tall buildings.

Armed griffons approached the ship. “What business do you have here?” one of them asked.

“We’re here seeking help with the war. We want to end it,” Rarity explained.

“This again? We said numerous times before that we’ll take no part in it. Now turn back before I hurt anybody.”

“What do you want for your help?” Applejack remembered Chrysalis telling that they needed to offer something for griffons to get help.

“Your head.” One of the griffons attacked, knocking Applejack from the upper deck to lower deck. Other five griffons who weren’t talking also attacked. Their brutal force, speed and maneuverability prevented anypony from counterattacking thus inflicting mortal injures.

Unexpected rays of magic hit all of the attackers from within the mist. Later it was clear that Twilight had unleashed these rays and was flying closer to the ship, her facial expression revealed anger. Upon arrival she managed to scout the ship: griffons blasted to unconsciousness, Applejack mortally impaled into ship wreckage that her falling impact had caused, Rarity was torn apart, Pinkie Pie missing lower half of her body, but alive. Twilight flew closer to Pinkie.

“Here you are,” Pinkie greeted Twilight. “These necromancy books surely were in use.”

Twilight said nothing. Soft tears in her big eyes.

“I was wondering where were you. I took a sail to find you, and I did find you, or was it the other way around?” Pinkie tried to giggle, but it was too hard for her, instead she coughed.

Twilight said nothing. Her tears dripping on the ship deck.

“We were trying to fix the war, but as you can see, this happened.”

Twilight said nothing. Closed her eyes, tears trickling.

“You know, it would have been great if we were all here, you know – the six of us, or better – your new friends as well. There is nothing we can’t overcome together.”

Twilight said nothing. Slowly moving closer to Pinkie, her own tears flowing along her body.

“What were you doing the past few days, you know – during the war and such? I bet you and your friends were planning something special to stop it all. Besides, you stood against Celestia yourself in their aid and—” Pinkie Pie got interrupted by Twilight’s waterfall that was her tears.

“I failed everypony, my friends, everypony… My friends, all, all of them dead.” Twilight gasped for words. “We should have done everything together. I should never distanced myself from you. The bond we share isn’t just The Elements. Why was I so blind?

“Every time I tried my best to help you, all of you, even when I shouldn’t… And I shouldn’t have used that spell on you. I knew that I did wrong. I thought that if I distanced myself from you, you would be safe, that I deserved the suffering, and that my place was with others – the ones who suffered the same thing as well. They are my friends, yes, but they should never be your replacement. Never.

“Now they’re dead, you’re dead. I’m alone, all alone. They failed fulfilling their dreams. How would I succeed alone?” Twilight collapsed next to Pinkie, saving her from drowning in Twilight’s tears.

“You’re not alone.” Pinkie pointed her hoof at Twilight’s cutie mark, five out of the six Elements on it. “They are with you. You’re not alone, never alone anymore. I’ll be joining you soon. I’ll be with you forever. Together we can overcome anything, My friend. Please, invite me in.”

Twilight struggled to get up. She scrubbed her tears. She rose her hoof above Pinkie’s neck, she was smiling—for the last time—With a lot of hesitation Twilight smashed Pinkie’s neck, killing her. The last Element appeared on her cutie mark.

She stood there for an hour lost in her thoughts. That time she was remembering everything she did with her friends: adventures, pitfalls and uprisings of their and her lives together as friends. All of them wanted this war to end, after that Twilight could form a new Equestria, her perfect Equestria. In this quest she wasn’t alone – she had friends. Forever.

-

“Luna, do you think there is any hope for Equestria anymore?” Celestia asked Luna while both of them were watching from a safe distance how ponies were fighting to the death.

“We can always hope.”

“Then I’m hopeless.”

“Sister…”

“Just look what they are doing, what they are using – weapons of murder. We couldn’t interfere before, how can we do that now, since they are using even more devastated weaponry now? I have power, but only to destroy, kill, annihilate all of the ponykind, but what good does that do? Luna, they are going to destroy each other, they don’t need me to help them. I rather stay hidden until it’s safe to roam once again.

“We can only raise and lower the moon and the sun, even if because of the war they completely forgotten that’s our doing. I actually hope they did. I’m glad they aren’t hunting us, they probably are, but hadn’t found us yet.”

-

Twilight flew into Baltimare. She was met with hostility: ballistas were shooting at her, but there was nothing her shield couldn’t handle. “Ponies listen!” she began to speak, her voice heard across the whole town port and beyond. “I’m here to announce that I’m ending this war. No more suffering.”

“We’re not suffering ‘cause of war, you tyrant,” somepony shouted from the crowd of listeners, others agreeing. Another set of ballista bolts hit Twilights shield, it wasn’t very effective.

“No matter what’s the cause, I’m willing to fix it. You will live your perfect life. No starving, no poverty. All I ask you is your cooperation with me – treat me like your friend and I’ll treat you as mine. I’m not asking anything more.”

“Horseapples, yer want us worship yer plot,” another shouted, others agreed. More bolts came Twilight’s way, still useless.

Twilight surrounded whole city with her magic, scaring its citizens. Wreckage slowly fixed itself and transformed into a more pleasing and durable things (buildings, stalls, furniture and vehicles). Dead grass growing swiftly once again. Twilight fell softly, the spell requiring a lot of her strength.

Town citizens trotted around her looking disorientated. They had mixed feelings: hate, fear, happiness, but mostly confusion. “There are also berries in the swamps near,” Twilight added.

Guards aiming ballistas at Twilight ready to shoot, but hesitated. Some bright light lightened their corrupted hearts, a familiar feeling – friendship. “Ah shucks, yer got us. We’re willing to follow ya.”

“Please tell every earth pony about what happened here, about me.”

-

Entering Cloudsdale was rather easy. No other pony race could fly, and even if it was princesses flying, their figure would reveal themselves. Twilight – pony sized mare, with wings and small horn that’s hardly visible while flying.

Cloudsdale was pretty empty, there was only Spitfire shouting at pegasus fillies. Twilight landed silently behind Spitfire. “Can I have your attention?”

“What is it, private? Why aren’t you down there? Name!”

“Twilight Sparkle.”

“I’m not in a mood for silly jokes. You’re in a big problem.” Spitfire wasn’t looking at the mare she was taking with. The facial expressions of the fillies encouraged her to eventually look behind her. She saw Twilight smiling and grimacing at her. “A princess? Fool, you’re in my domain now. There is no way for you to win, not even escape. Guards! Intruder alert!”

She got no response. “Guards! Intruder alert!” she tried once more. Only a few fillies hesitantly approached Twilight and started unwillingly bucking her legs. Spitfire facehoofed herself. “Stop! Ugh, what do you want? Considering you’re not attacking me there is something you seek to discuss.”

“Well yes. Earth ponies will be withdrawing from the war because I asked them to and provided a compromise for such action. I’m asking you do the same.”

“And why would I do that? Why would I believe you in the first place?”

“Firstly, you’re lucky I’m not doing the same to you what you did to Fluttershy and Rainbow there.” She pointed at the two brutally bullied pegasus ponies on the billboard. “Secondly, I can fulfill any of your offers, anything you desire and all pegasus want.”

“Equestria free from inferior pony races.”

“Then there will be no more ponies in Equestria, only princesses.”

“What are you saying? Pegasi are the supreme race.”

“Every race has its advantages and disadvantages: Pegasus – flying, air and weather control, unicorns – magic, earth ponies – physical strength, alicorns – all of that and more.”

“And you’re here to tell me that? There is no convincing. Leave! Hide before my troops return.”

“Heh,” Twilight chuckled. “Thirdly, if you win the war by wiping out other races pegasus will suffer too. There’s no way your race could possible do what other races can, and I’m not even talking about unicorns and their magical abilities, even earth ponies – farmers are necessary. I can’t imagine any pagasus as a good farmer.”

In a distance Twilight saw a swarm of pegasus returning. “If you value your racial supremacy then do so, but don’t attack and destroy other races. Treat them as inferior, but if you destroy them, you will destroy yourselves as well. I’m willing to create perfect Equestria for everypony. Ending this war would be the first step towards that goal. All I ask is your cooperation. What’s your answer?”

Spitfire said nothing. She was waiting for all of the pegasus to reach Cloudsdale. As they did, she rose her hoof ordering them to hold. “What can you do?”

Twilight smiled. She focused her magic on Spitfire then they both teleported away from Cloudsdale. They appeared in dead cropland. She used her magic to revive it. It was slow process and Twilight was burning herself rapidly by doing so. “I can manipulate life itself to some extent. I can fix everything overtime, but I want you all to stop this war.”

Spitfire was amazed, “I see. Ok I’m giving you a benefit of a doubt. Anything goes wrong, you’ll hear from us first. Loud.”

-

Convincing unicorns to stop the war was easy. They were losing – basically they had only Canterlot and Manechester under their control left, not yet destroyed or lost in battle. Fighting wearing nothing yelled more devastating losses, clothing Rarity was making weren’t just for fashion and looks, but also provided moderate protection to some degree.

Other news from earth ponies told that truce had been established.

Twilight was now searching for princesses to deliver the good news. She knew where she could most likely find them. She arrived at Castle of the Two Sisters ruins. Without long searching she found both of them.

Celestia wasn’t happy, “This world is already in distress, we don’t need you helping its doom.”

“I fixed everything. Ponies stopped fighting, war is over,” Twilight announced happily, but that didn’t help cheer Celestia at all.

She stood into a battle stance. “This was your plan from the beginning: fake your death, somehow start this war, act as if you were fixing it, all of that just to make me look like a tyrant. I hate you!” Celestia pushed herself into attacking Twilight, trying to knock her with her ramming attack, but all her attempts got dodged by Twilight’s teleportation.

Then she launched several chains of rapid strikes with her horn, all got deflected by Twilight’s shield. Everything was being repeated like when they fought trapped in the spell few weeks ago. Twilight knew how it would end.

She surrounded Celestia’s body and horn (but not face) with heavy crystallized rocks, immobilizing her. “What’s with you? For past weeks you were acting like I’m your biggest nemesis. Where your love and care disappeared? You would go to the lengths of destroying all ponykind, just to obliterate me. I’m not releasing you until you explain yourself. Talk!”

“What’s your game here? Why don’t you imprison everypony already? What’s with the shady tricks you’re attempting to pull?” Celestia was struggling to get out.

“I know that it’s not about me you’re upset about. What is it that’s concerning you?”

“It’s the same, every time the same. All of my previous students failed, met with the same conclusion – lost to the influence of evil forces. You’re the same, but unlike them your influence outgrown theirs, so now you possess a greater threat than they could ever did.”

“I can see in it your eyes – that’s not the truth you talk. You might believe that it is, but it’s clearly false. You only try to believe it because it’s easier and it allows you to hide the truth from your own self. It’s about something deeper. I want you to explain it to me.”

“There’s nothing wrong with me.” Celestia’s pale face was becoming red. Flames were leaking through the cracks of crystallized rocks and melting the rocks. Luna fled in horror.

Twilight knew where this was going. She imprisoned Celestia in the shield, then another, and many more. Shields weren’t strong enough to hold Celestia’s outburst and slowly melted. Twilight pushed her to the limit trying to contain the shields. Her eyes began glowing pure while, her mane and tail extended and colored itself with additional stripes of yellow, her hooves sparkled with her original cutie marks – Rainbow Powers returned.

Twilight’s shields became thick and strong, but it wasn’t enough. Celestia’s eyes glowed pure white, her whole body turned into solar flares, she was bringing the heat of sun itself.

Twilight was pushing herself to the limits trying to hold the shield (she didn’t wanted to cut Celestia’s horn, choking wouldn’t have been effective either as Luna spent a millennium on the moon without air and Celestia was no different), Celestia as well trying to bring the heat of the sun itself. Destruction of the shield would have meant incineration of Equestria and beyond.

White glow of Twilight’s and Celestia’s eyes intensified and was surrounding everything around it in its purest white. Both princesses disappeared within.

-

Twilight was floating on familiar pure water in white void. Most of her upper body and face was burned black. She couldn’t move, feel or talk, hardly could hear. Her eyes were stuck on Celestia who was approaching her walking on solid ground. She looked like her own self and unharmed, crying.

“This is it, I did it, I defeated you, but why are you here? This place isn’t for you, only the purest hearts can travel it, you’re nothing like that,” Celestia said. “But why am I crying then? Probably because I hate myself for what I did, but it was a must. Still, why are you here?”

“Because she does have a pure heart, Tia,” voice from behind her announced. “And you surely took her down, hard.” With jingling sound voice slowly approached. “But her wounds can be healed with time. This mare has indestructible will.”

Celestia took a glance at mysterious stallion behind, he was Star Swirl the Bearded. “Nice to see you again,” he said with a fake smile.

“Mentor? I don’t understand why do you sympathize her?”

“I’m not. She is truly with a pure heart, she cares about everypony, including you too, even if her methods you find are vile. She was here before, asked me how could she help you, not only as means to prevent you from bullying her, but also to help you overcome whatever it is that bothers you. She’s your friend, and beyond that, she respects you the most of all up to unhealthy levels.” Star Swirl pointed at Twilight, she painfully nodded to the best of her ability, barely.

“You refused her help, but will you accept mine? Please tell us what’s troubling your soul,” he requested.

Celestia looked at him, then at Twilight, then down at her own shadow, then up. “I’ll have to tell the whole story then: Real alicorns are the foundation of ponykind and all of the universes in the infinite galaxy. All alicorns are born from the original two, my, Luna’s and other real alicorn’s parents – Life and Soul.

“Every single alicorn has a planet to rule. I and my sister were not exception. But before we did that, we had to learn basics. We were very bad at it, the worst. Our parents were disappointed in us, but they still loved us, so they gave us ownership of the smallest planet, this one. We were truly terrible, we couldn’t control all of the planet together, so we settled in Equestria, the third of the planet’s dry surface.

“Despite all of these flaws and weaknesses, I promised myself that I will protect my planet from any threat. We found help and established a semi-stable peace in our world, but it wasn’t enough for me. I strived to create absolute harmony.

“Through mine and Luna’s efforts Tree of Harmony grew. We had no idea what it was, but we knew we had a connection to it. The Tree had three symbols, later we understood these were of cutie marks: first, mine – the sun, second, Luna’s – the moon, third, Twilight’s – the star. Three of us now are the essence of harmony.

“I feared that with all the vile knowledge Twilight consumed she would destroy the planet itself. Not by force, but by disruption of harmony in our world.”

“You love your planet too much. I don’t say that’s a bad thing, not at all, but you’re suffering paranoia. You’re too distant from everypony, but you’re not bad. Why don’t you try fixing your problems with your friend here? I’m sure she’s more than willing.”

“No, I’m irredeemable. I cannot be trusted.”

“Or maybe you need rest from your princess duties? Go explore your world, meet other caring ponies.”

“How about my royal duties? Luna won’t handle it alone.”

“You can pass it on this young princess. Don’t you think she more than deserves it, gone through what she did?”

Celestia said nothing. Twilight began to evaporate, leaving the white void and returning to reality.

-

Their battle left devastating results: huge molten crater around where Twilight held shield on Celestia, massive incineration of Everfree Forest behind where Twilight was lying. Around her many earth, pegasus and unicorn ponies gathered. “She’s alive!” one of them screamed, others cheered. “You saved Equestria. She exploded and you contained most of that explosion."

Twilight was too tired to care, she fainted.