A New Ending

Chapters

Chapter II: Party
Chapter III: Jason Victorious
Chapter IV: Rebellion
Chapter V: The Emperor
Chapter VI: Behave
Chapter VII: Equestria On Trial
Chapter VIII: Don't Let Them See Your Pain
Chapter IX: Field Trip
Chapter X: An Audience
Chapter XI: Igniting Heat
Chapter XII: Burning Fuel
Chapter XIII: Revelations
Chapter XIV: Explanations
Chapter XVI: Ponyville
Chapter XVII: An Ending
Prologue
Chapter I: Two Years Later...
Chapter XV: Confrontation

Chapter II: Party

To say that a standard Canterlot celebration was dull would be like saying the sky was blue, or that Discord was a bit random at times. All in all, the Canterlot elite constantly went out of their way to ensure any celebrations would be as far from a Pinkie Pie celebration as possible, meaning boring, long, and monotonous conversations between equally boring ponies until long after the average pony would have torn their own hair out just to make something different happen. The irony of this particular party being held for the literal embodiment of chaos and disharmony seemed to be lost on all the patrons, or simply left unmentioned. Really, everypony seemed perfectly content with pretending this whole affair didn’t involve Discord at all, except for the ice sculpture in his likeness perched ankle-deep in the punch bowl.

Celestia scanned over the scene with her usual sharp eye, still holding to the laid-back and approachable stance she had adopted over centuries of practice while keeping tabs on any possible troublemakers. As usual, this amounted to watching her nephew Blueblood drunkenly attempt to pick up noblemares, with wonderfully disastrous results. This time around, he had honed upon the Duchess of Northern Trottingham, his efforts starting with downing a fifth of scotch, walking up to her, and informing the fine noblemare that they could “make beautiful pornography together.”

Watching him walk away from yet another mare with another distinctly hoof-shaped indent on his cheek was one of the few pleasures Celestia felt guilty for enjoying. If only a twinge. She was a princess after all, and what’s more, Blueblood was family. Still, to see his chauvinistic, boorish behavior rewarded as such could thaw even the coldest of pony’s hearts. The little “Serves him right” from her side only added to her efforts to suppress the smirk that wanted to cross her face.

“Twilight, we shouldn’t delight in the pain of other ponies,” Celestia reprimanded her student…or…former student now, she kept forgetting about that.

The lavender alicorn at her side drooped slightly, but stood her ground. “Ponies that act like that get what they deserve, Princess.”

“They do, which is why we need not add to that animosity by delighting in their punishments. After all, if we’ve learned anything from what we’re celebrating today, it’s that today’s enemy can be…”

“…made tomorrow’s friend,” Twilight completed with a little sigh. “I know…”

Celestia nodded, smiling down at Twilight, who returned the smile. Outside, Blueblood finished puking into the fake potted plants by the grand entranceway. All told, it was shaping up to be another wonderful little shindig in Canterlot. Which was why the worried little furrow in Twilight’s brow stood out to Celestia.

“Twilight? I know that look,” she said. “What’s wrong?”

“Everything’s perfect,” Twilight replied. “Despite all the headaches from earlier, everything is running fine. Pinkie hasn’t even blown any of the noble’s gaskets yet, Rarity isn’t in a screaming match with somepony, and we’re already on the second course for the dinner.”

Celestia’s brow gained a little furrow to match Twilight’s. “And this is all a problem?”

“Princess, this is a party for Discord, how could things be going so well?”

Celestia opened her mouth to offer some calming, sage piece of advice, then closed it again and allowed it to turn into a frown. That was a good point. In fact, she couldn’t remember ever seeing Discord at this party. Where was he? Oh no, losing track of the God of Chaos was never a good sign!

“Ope, no wait, false alarm,” Twilight said, a sigh of relief and a little giggle escaping her lips. “Nevermind entirely.”

Celestia looked over to her with an eyebrow raised, then followed her gaze to the ice sculpture in the punch bowl. She studied it for a second, then it hit her: when her gaze shifted away from its eyes for just a second, there was a flash of something. She focused on them again, this time noting their transparent stare gazing at the doorway behind her. Sure enough, when she lifted her gaze away and quickly darted back again, those freezing pupils were now looking directly at her.

She smiled and shook her head. “He has a lot to learn about subtlety and disguising himself.”

“And thank goodness,” Twilight said with a shiver. “Can you imagine if he was actually able to manage a subtle prank!?”

Both alicorns shared another ruffle of feathers and a shiver up their spines. As if regular Discord wasn’t bad enough, they had to go and imagine some sort of combination between him and Chrysalis! Now there was a match made in hell!

“I’m going to drop by the kitchen if you don’t mind, Princess,” Twilight said, scurrying off in the direction of slashing knives and somepony yelling in Prench. “Just to make sure Pinkie hasn’t driven the staff insane. You can keep an eye on him, right?”

“Of course, my faithful former student!” Celestia chimed, ignoring the slight tug at her heartstrings that came with throwing in that “former.” In truth, she was incredibly proud of the mare her little Twilight had grown into, but something about looking at that mare and seeing those wings and imagining the fact that she could still remember the days when she would just sit by the fireplace with a book in her hooves and a little lavender unicorn in the crook of her forelegs, begging her for just one more chapter, and knowing those days were gone forever…just like so many others…

A pony with too much hair gel in his mane passed by with a tray full of cakes balanced on his back, and Celestia snatched one up greedily. She took her time with it, of course, she was still in the public eye, but proper dieting be damned, these were just the sort of thoughts that needed cake!

She bought the fork to her mouth, sinking her teeth into what would most surely be chocolatey-deliciousness…and had to purse her lips together at the mixture of toothpaste and jalapenos that slid over her tongue. She managed to suppress a gag, but only just barely. Using a will born from centuries of political discourse with some of the most intolerable ponies to ever walk the face of the planet, Celestia maneuvered herself across the dance floor, managing a smile here and a tight-lipped nod there until she reached the nearest gold-plated garbage can, where she discarded both her plate and her cake with one decent spit.

Taking a few, gasping breaths, she washed the taste out of her mouth with a gulp of wine, minding the large spider skittering along the rim of the glass. Finishing her sip, she eyed the brown-furred little thing with a disapproving glare. “That was a nasty, dirty thing to do, and you know it.” She hissed.

The spider promptly fell over and rolled along the edge of the glass, its eight legs wrapped around its thorax as a familiar, though more high-pitched, chortle filled the air. With a poof, a tiny version of Discord’s shaggy head appeared in place of the massive spider’s eyes and mandibles. “Come now, Princess, you didn’t really expect me to allow this party to pass without one or two little jabs, did you?” He asked with his trademarked grin.

She regarded him coolly. “Keep the foals in the waiting rooms and nurseries in my castle entertained and I’ll consider not distributing cans of Raid to the castle waitstaff,” she said.

At that, Discord-spider paused, looked up at her, and rolled his eyes. “Oh come now, Princess, what do you take me for?” He dipped a spindly leg into the remnants of her wine and stirred it about, summoning images of foals playing happily with stuffed animals that had suddenly become animated, oohing and aahing as teddy bears juggled stuffed parrots, which in turn took off to perform loop-de-loops and divebomb the caretakers.

Celestia couldn’t help but feel something warm in her chest at the sight. “You little sweetheart,” she cooed.

Discord held up another leg. “Oy, save the sweet-talk for someone else! I don’t go down on nopony on the first date!”

She nodded with her own, trademarked, sage little smile. “That being said, you still owe me for the cake if you went out and entertained those foals anyway.”

“What!?” He gasped, his spider body vanishing in a poof and returning to its original form. He stood up in the remaining wine like it was a kiddie pool, his arms propped up on the rim of the glass. “How does that work!? If I screw up and need to be punished, that’s my punishment, but if I’m proactive and actually good and earn karma points by doing something positive ahead of time, that requires more punishment!?”

“Oh, quiet, you big baby,” she whispered, that sage smile still playing on her lips as she laid down just off to the side of the dance floor, where everypony was too busy foxtrotting and waltzing to notice one alicorn princess hiding in a dark corner. “I just want to know what you have planned for the statue.”

To her surprise, he cocked one of his massive eyebrows at her. “Statue? Whatever do you…” he trailed off as he followed her gaze to the punch table, then his jaw dropped. His paws went to his cheeks. In a flash, he materialized to his full size, wearing a beret and white pinstriped shirt with a pencil-thin mustache on his lip. “Brilliant! Gorgeous! Tres magnifique!” He enthused as he strutted away, apparently forgetting all about the princess.

She watched him leave, that little crevasse between her eyebrows making a reappearance as she raised the glass to her lips again, then she remembered Discord’s spindly leg dipping into the wine and thought better, setting the glass down on the next waiter’s tray that passed by. She frowned. Had Discord really not even noticed the statue? Or had he only pretended to throw her off his trail?

Well, either way, she was bound to find out what he had planned sooner or later. And really, the surprise would be well worth the wait. This was Discord they were talking about, after all.

“Attention, everypony!” A particularly well-dressed waiter stood up at the head of the banquet hall, right in front of the tall, pearl-colored doors leading into the commencement hall. “May I have your attention, please? The time has come for the ceremony!”

The ponies began filing out of the room, finally allowing Celestia a view of the six mares chatting amicably near the back. She beamed. In a way, this was their day too. The reformation of Discord would be an accomplishment to ring down through the centuries, and it never would have been possible without the efforts of all six of these wonderful mares. Now, if she could just discern what Discord had planned, everything would be perfect.

She joined the slow, calm river flowing through the doors, trotting easily towards the main podium. She beamed as the six took their places right at the bottom of the podium, front and center as VIPs with Fluttershy right in the middle. This, of course, was no mistake: the six all had their history and times as friends with Discord, but Fluttershy would always hold a special place in his heart, and by the way the ponies around her offered proud hooves on her shoulder and jovial jabs to her foreleg (as was the case with Rainbow Dash), they all knew it too. The others might consider him a decent friend and ally, but Fluttershy and Discord were best friends, and nothing could change that.

Nodding, Celestia gazed out over the crowd of mostly bored-looking nobles and began the speech she had spent the entire night preparing. “Citizens of Equestria, mares and stallions alike,” she began, her voice carrying through the room thanks to the perfect acoustics it had been designed for. “We are gathered here to witness the bestowing of a great honor: the Equestrian Award for Outstanding Displays of Friendship and Harmony. For centuries, this award has been given to only those citizens that have carried out the greatest acts of courage and charity in the name of the values Equestria stands for: harmony, peace, and friendship…”

Were it not for the sheer size of the crowd before her, Celestia might have noticed the shadow crouching in the corner and whispering: “Bullshit.”

“…now, we stand here today to welcome a new friend in the ranks of those that have earned this award, though I must say, he has always been quite the unlikely candidate.” She suppressed the urge to giggle at herself. Discord receiving the highest honor Canterlot could bestow on an average civilian would have been downright unbelievable just five years ago. In fact, a few centuries ago, bringing up the mere possibility could have been interpreted as an act of treason in some parts of Equestria! “Now, will Discord of Equestria take the stand?”

There was a long minute of silence. Somepony in the crowd coughed. Celestia shifted uncomfortably. This…hadn’t quite been what she had expected. A tidal wave of maple syrup, perhaps, but this silence? What was Discord up to?

“Sorry, sorry!” A familiar voice gasped from the back of the crowd. Celestia looked up, an eyebrow cocked, as Discord shuffled hurriedly through the doors, the unsecured tails of his tuxedo flapping in the wind as he rushed to the stage.

“Bit late, I know, met a terribly attractive chap and I just…ope!” He gasped, hurrying through the crowd. He vaulted up to the podium, grabbing the microphone and awkwardly shoving Celestia out of the way.

“Sorry, sorry, so sorry!” He gasped, the microphone squealing. He reached into his jacket and produced a stack of speech cards, only to have them fly out of his talons and scatter all over the ground. “Um…sorry…” he grinned sheepishly as he stooped to pick them up.

Celestia frowned. A hurricane of beavers, she’d been expecting, but this awkward mess? Was he really so flabbergasted to be on the receiving end of praise? Or was this the setup for something bigger? Just what was he planning?

“Um…” he started, earning another squeal of feedback so loud that the loudspeakers aimed into the crowd visibly trembled. He grabbed the mike and grinned sheepishly. “Er…sorry…uh…okay. Let’s get this started.”

He visibly settled himself, his fur rustling and his shoulders tensing a moment before all falling back into a relaxed position. He opened his eyes, smiling placidly, exposing his snaggle-toothed smile. “Greetings,” he said, folding his hands together on the podium. “Let me just start off by reinforcing what the Princess said: that I am the last weirdo on the planet anypony should’ve expected to win this award. There is no denying that.”

“Y’all can say that again!” Applejack guffawed, earning a half-hearted roll of laughter from the rest of the audience.

“Yes, well,” Discord coughed and, dear sweet Celestia above, was he blushing!? Okay, stop the ride, Princess Celestia had officially seen everything now. Time to get off. “I can’t say it’s been the smoothest or most pleasant of rides, getting here, in this hall.”

At this, he actually appeared to shrink. A pair of glasses appeared on his face, just for him to dramatically remove them and gaze at the audience. “Let’s get this out of the way: I’ve hurt ponies. I’ve hurt…lots of ponies. I have assumed control of Equestria through sheer force two times now, and assisted with a third, not only derailing a monarchy that has ruled this land through a thousand years of peace, but also establishing a rule under which millions suffered. Twice I’ve twisted this land to something that ponies could only just barely exist in to suit my own selfish needs, and the third time I tried it…”

At this, he looked directly at Fluttershy, whose big, blue eyes watered under his gaze. “I made the biggest mistake of my life. I did the one thing I wish I had the power to take back. I betrayed the trust of a good friend for no reason, none whatsoever.”

Fluttershy choked up, tears soaking her cheeks while Rainbow offered a comforting wing. Still, Discord carried on. “It was then that I realized just how far the depths of my betrayal went. And I resolved from that point on, I would earn that trust back. Not just from that one pony, but from all of Equestria. This award,” he actually paused to look sheepishly over at Celestia. “Sorry Princess, it’s nice, but all it is to me is a confirmation that I’m on the right path. What I want, the trust and adoration of the ponies I’ve so wronged, is still a while away, but hey…”

At that, he turned back to the crowd, smiled that charming little half-smile he’d mastered, and shrugged. “…I gotta be doin’ somethin’ right, eh?”

A few seconds of silence fell. Then, Fluttershy stood out of her seat and started clapping her hooves. Twilight was right behind her, stamping her hooves, and the remaining Elements were just a second behind that. The clapping spread from them, radiating out through the crowd, a few of the nobles even cheering. Even Blueblood recovered from his drunken, lonely stupor long enough to raise a wine glass in a semi-toast before dozing again.

“Thank you,” Discord said, wiping away tears from his eyes. He inhaled, then exhaled. “And…now that we got the mushy shit out of the way…”

At that moment, a watermelon the size of a Tatzlwurm dropped from the sky and slammed into the stage, completely flattening the podium Discord had been standing at. “WHATWHATWAHTWAHTWAHT…” Celestia started in a panic, until Discord rematerialized sans tuxedo atop the melon, eyebrows bobbing at the crowd. In one swift move, his beret and pinstripe shirt reappeared on his body, along with a gigantic mallet covered with spikes.

“He’s gonna blow it up!” Some noblemare screamed from the front, and the ponies swiftly descended into their usual mass chaos as they all crowded the doors at the same time in an attempt to save their expensive formal wear. Twilight only sighed. She really should have seen this coming. Celestia could only smile down at her and shake her head.

“Here,” Pinkie said, and Twilight took one look to her side to find her friends all donning rain ponchos, all matching the color of their fur coats, a lavender one matching her own coat clenched in Pinkie’s hoof.

“Well, at least somepony saw this coming,” Twilight said with a tiny smile and a shake of her head. After securing her poncho, she looked up to see Discord raising his sledgehammer and looking to Celestia with a wink. She in turn just smiled and shrugged, and that was all the go-ahead he needed.

Discord’s sledgehammer rose high above his head, the sheer momentum of the swing lifting him off his talons until they were kicking gleefully in the air. His downswing came with the force of a comet, barreling right towards the rind as the ponies watched with growing anticipation. At least, until somepony in the crowd screamed: “What a load of utter horseshit!”

The hammer stopped an inch away from the melon’s hide. Discord peered up quizzically, looking around. “I’m sorry, but who…”

“You heard me…” a tall and lanky figure dressed in a dirty, patchy cloak stepped out of the crowd. The figure pointed an accusing hoof at the Element Bearers. “We all know the truth! Equestria never would’ve accepted you if it didn’t have to! If it wasn’t for the fact that you can turn the whole world upside-down with a snap of your fingers, you’d be in the dungeons right now, or worse!”

The Bearers all shied away from the pony’s accusing hoof. Discord, meanwhile, started to snap his fingers, decided against it, and instead dispelled the mallet and watermelon away with a thought. “And who, pray tell, might you be to make that judgment, hmm? I suppose you have some amazing insight into friendship that nopony else has?”

“Oh, in fact I do. I know a lot more about the real nature of Equestria’s friendship just all too well!” The accuser snarled at the ponies remaining in the room, turning to each of them in turn, first regarding the Bearers and Princess Celestia, then wheeling around in a one-eighty to level that same accusing glare from beneath their hood at the nobility still crammed in the doorway. “The fact of the matter is that Equestria’s friendship is for ponies and ponies only! Everyone else? Well, they can fuck off and die for all you care!”

“That’s not true!” Twilight said, stepping in between her friends and the newcomer, her wings primed out behind her and ready for battle, poking through the holes conveniently sliced into her poncho. “Equestria is for everyone, as is our friendship!”

A long, slow clapping filled the air, along with a laugh so dry and humorless it nearly froze Celestia’s heart to hear it. Some…thing stepped out of the shadows, bringing its fleshy, hairless hands together, its laughter sounding from behind what appeared to be a surplus gas mask from her armed forces, though heavily modified to remove the distended extra area around the snout. The creature’s strange, muffled laughter continued, its head bobbing up and down in time with its slow, mocking applause.

“My word…what is that thing?” Rarity gasped.

At that, the creature stopped abruptly. Its hands clenched into fists so hard they shook, then fell to its sides. The laughter stopped as well. Somehow, the cold, raging silence that fell was even worse than that awful laughter, as the thing just stood there and appeared to be glowering at the Element Bearers, the only sound a loud wheeze of air rushing through the mask’s respirator.

“Oh, this?” The pony snickered. “Careful now, I wouldn’t go calling my little pet a thing. That’s a very good way to lose your tongue.”

“Enough of this,” Celestia bellowed, swooping off the stage and landing between the Element Bearers and the pair standing in the middle of the room. “Who are you to show up here in a time of celebration and insult not only my ponies, but my nation as well!?”

“Oh, who am I!?” The pony yelled. “Who am I!? Let me show you who I am!”

All at once, the stained glass at both sides of the hall shattered, cascading onto the guests’ heads. Soon, little black bodies swarmed into the air, and they weren’t the only ones. In the dining hall behind them, an entire platoon of changelings appeared from the buffet table, decorations and pots crumbling and shattering with shards of porcelain and glass. Even the Discord-shaped sculpture in the bowl crumbled to reveal a trio of changelings in full armor, snarling and hissing at the guests that hadn’t already been chased off by the threat of watermelon pulp on their suits.

“NO!” Discord gasped, reaching towards the punch bowl and sinking to his knees. “Why couldn’t it have been me!?”

“Oh, don’t worry,” the pony cackled. “We’ll be getting to you soon.” Her voice rose over the buzzing of insect wings, bellowing into a full-on laugh that filled the halls. Her hood fell back, revealing rows of fangs and slit-like, predatory irises. Celestia glowered at the creature. A part of her had known who she was dealing with from the very beginning, but still she had hoped it wouldn’t have come to this. Not again.

“Hello again, Chrysalis,” she hissed, her head lowered, her horn glowing.

“Oh, am I that obvious?” The pony asked, the last bits of her façade burning away, that familiar, old, crooked horn replacing the straightened pony horn on her head while her soft, pony coat disappeared to reveal a hard carapace. Chrysalis put a hoof to her chin and stuck her lower lip out. “Darn, I suppose my infiltration skills haven’t improved much since the wedding. By the way, where are the pink slut and the white doofus? I tried to pay them a visit earlier, but alas, I couldn’t find them anywhere.”

Celestia’s hooves stomped into the marble with all her might, leaving cracks. “Prince Shining Armor and Princess Cadence are north, ruling the Crystal Empire as they have been since they defeated Sombra! And besides,” she smirked. “I should think you would speak of the pair that defeated both you and your swarm so easily with a little more respect.”

Chrysalis’s eyes ignited. Even the two-legged creature standing at her side took a small step away from her as her emerald eyes focused on the Princess. “You would do well to remember who defeated who in a one-on-one duel, Princess,” she hissed in that strange, multi-layered voice, her head lowering. “Unless you wish for a repeat of that debacle?”

“Are you going to talk all day, or are we going to do this already?” Celestia growled.

“Tch,” Chrysalis grinned. “I thought you’d never ask.”

All at once, she whipped around with an emerald blast, hoping to catch the princess off-guard. No such luck: Celestia was already taking wing before Chrysalis attacked, swooping over the dark-green wave of pure magical flame and replying with a couple quick shots of her own, in rapid succession. A hasty shield blocked both, however, as well as the follow-up buck Celestia attempted.

Chrysalis smirked. “Is that all you’ve got? I know I caught you by surprise at the wedding, but if I’d known you were this pathetic, I might have dragged it on awhile for your ego’s sake.”

“Shut up and fight,” Celestia growled, slamming the shield with a wide-ranged energy beam, against which the shield disintegrated like a Kleenex in the heart of a boiler room’s furnace. Of course, Chrysalis simply ducked and fired wildly, ruining Celestia’s shot and forcing the Princess to retreat.

She turned back on the throne room, her glare darting back and forth across the hall. Luna appeared from behind a vase, and immediately smiled and galloped towards her. “Sister!” She gasped. “It took me so long to fight my way here! Art thou wounded…”

That was all she managed before Celestia sent her flying with an energy blast to the chest, glaring at the midnight-blue body as it crashed against the far wall and slumped to the floor. “You didn’t really expect that to work, did you?” She asked.

In a flash, the blue body vanished and became dark chitin, Chrysalis sitting in Luna’s place. She shrugged. “Worth a shot,” she said, then she glowered at the Princess. “Ah well, good to know you can’t be fooled all the time, Sunbutt. Just most of the time.”

Celestia remained where she was, not replying, just glaring.

“All out of witty comebacks, hmm?” Chrysalis smiled politely. “What a coincidence: I’m all out of patience for this battle.”

At once, she darted to her hole-filled hooves and unleashed a blast of fire so large, that for the few moments of its existence, it outshone Celestia’s sun. In those moments before impact, Celestia could at least be grateful that the nobles’ sense of self-preservation meant they were out of the firing range. It would have killed her if anypony had been caught in the crossfire.

There was no pain. That was the part that surprised her most. Perhaps Chrysalis had added a numbing agent to the spell as an act of mercy, or perhaps the pain was simply so great her mind could not register it. Celestia’s money was on the latter, for what it was worth. Either way, there was a flash of light, and suddenly she was on her back, looking up, wheezing, barely able to move, and Chrysalis was standing over her with that smirk.

“You have my little pet to thank for that power,” she said, still smiling. “His ambient love may not have been as powerful as Shining Armor’s, but it is plentiful, and over the months it has given me power I have never known before.”

Chrysalis’s little smile turned into a little frown as, through some super-pony effort, Celestia found the power to smile back. “What’s that?” She asked, tapping a hoof to Celestia’s throat, and to her gratitude, the Princess finally found her voice returning. “What’s so funny? You’ve lost.”

“That’s…what I wanted you to think…” Celestia chortled, her breath coming in painful gasps between words. “What…did you think…Discord…and the Element Bearers…were up to…while we were fighting?”

Chrysalis frowned, and then her mouth dropped open, exposing her lower fangs as her eyes widened. She turned back to the window, taking in the distinct lack of draconequii and Element-Bearing ponies. Yet when she turned back, the smart little smile had returned.

“All according to plan,” she cooed, her eyelashes fluttering.

Author's Note

And yes, I know tres magnifique is nonsense French, to all you Francophiles out there. I just thought it sounded funny in this particular spot, aight?

Chapter III: Jason Victorious

Darkness. It was always dark when the exercises began. Two months in the Hive, and I’d regained so much strength. It was nice to feel actual muscle in my arms and legs again, nice to look down at myself and see something of strength and stability, and not something that brought up memories of Holocaust documentaries: you know the ones. Best part was, it wasn’t the only thing the changelings had granted me.

Something rustled to my left. I drew the massive club I’d fashioned. Nothing special, just a stick from one of the scraggly, dying trees out on the surface which I’d carved down. Not the best weapon, but suitable for my purposes.

That sound came again: the beating of wings through the still air. Something deep inside of me that I’d only recently discovered grinned. I raised my club, and as the wings approached, I gave it a swing, feeling some satisfaction from the heft of a body slamming against the end of my club.

I heard a grunt, a curse uttered in the changelings’ strange, chittering language, and then a couple more wing beats came at me from my sides. I ducked, allowing my attackers to slam into each other mid-air, then I wrapped my powerful arms around them and wrestled them to the ground.

“Enough!” A regal voice boomed from above, and suddenly the cavern’s lights cast the room into a light-green glow. I smiled. Another exercise down, another victory chalked up for me. Chrysalis strode into view from some platform set high up in the wall, gazing down at us, or more specifically, at me. My opponents were a little too unconscious to do much gazing back.

The Queen grinned that razor-filled smile down at me. “Another well-managed fight and a well-earned victory. Well done, my pet.”

That was the only downside to my new life in the Hive. Though I didn’t mention it, some small part of me simmered and burned every time she referred to me as her pet, but I kept it hidden well. Repressing emotions was just one of the many talents I picked up thanks to my ‘reception’ in Equestria.

I sank to one knee and bowed. “Thank you, my Queen.”

She flittered down from her perch and landed next to me. “Speaking of,” she said. “I don’t suppose you had some idea of how to augment your abilities, would you? Something perhaps from your world?”

I looked away, frowning for a second. I was about to point out that I was never a warrior back on my world, but then a few things came back to me. I’m not sure if it was the mind-enhancing mushrooms I knew the Queen had been sneaking into my food (she thought I haven’t noticed), but the chemical formula for a certain little game-changing substance came to mind, as well as a few History Channel specials on the function of muskets and flintlocks.

“Actually, my Queen,” I whispered, a grin matching hers spreading across my face. “Now that you mention it…”

Canterlot. My God, I thought I’d never see this city again. It’s been five years since that day. Five years since the last truly happy day of my life. Five years since I walked out of this city with the belief that, for once, everything was going to be absolutely wonderful.

I was so stupid.

Back then, seeing a cloud of changelings descend upon Canterlot might have forced me into action. I might have gone to ground, maybe tried helping escort some ponies to safety amongst the marauding bands of changeling soldiers roving the streets, and the flashes of green energy that signified another pony bound in changeling goop, and the flaming parapets. I wouldn’t be able to do much, but I’d do something for these little shits. Now, my heart leaps with joy at the sight. Finally, after five long, miserable years, justice is being served. Finally, the monument to hypocrisy that is Equestria is being burnt to the ground, and I get to help it along.

I spy a mare galloping along the streets below, a young colt perched on her back, clenching her mane. I grimace. This is the one part I’m not gonna enjoy. Sure, these ponies would probably be chucking rocks at my head if the situation was just a bit different, but still, it’s not like that’s their fault. I blame the system that created this hypocritical line of thinking, I’m not gonna blame them for the way they were raised.

I better get involved before those two hurt themselves. I’ve seen the show, and I know how ponies react in perilous situations. Odds are, mommy pony would run right off a cliff if she was allowed to go on, or she might try to fight her way out of a changeling cordon, which could end badly for everybody. That foal doesn’t deserve to see mommy get beat up for acting on her instincts.

I clamber down from my perch off Canterlot Castle, using an ivy-covered trellis as a ladder. I land in the gardens and make sure my musket is still secure on my back. No need for it here, even if it’s just filled with stun rounds. Again, baby pony doesn’t need to watch mommy go down, screaming in pain with a few slivers of rubber in her flank, funny as that would probably be.

I step out into the street with a couple handfuls of what I call “Gak Grenades.” That goo the changelings have, as it turns out, can be formed into potent hand grenades pretty easily. A hard outer shell filled with super-compressed changeling goo. Just twist off the top, give it a toss, and you can glue somepony down as easily as any changeling soldier. I aim for mama pony’s legs as she gallops right on by. She doesn’t even give me a second look in her panic. One toss, and she makes a sudden pause, her front hooves scrambling desperately as if she just doesn’t want to accept she’s caught, her hind legs now secured to the road in a hardened pile of green goop.

“C-c’mon mom, g-get up!” The foal on her back begs as she scrambles in a panicked bid for freedom. My shadow falls over them both. The foal swallows visibly and turns his little, brown eyes up to me, and they widen in fear.

Welp, fear’s a lot better than a rock to the back of the head, I’ll say that much.

“M-mama?” The colt asks, and finally the mare twists in place, her eyes going wide. In a flash, she snatches the kid up and squeezes him in behind her head, as if to hide him. I would have the mother of all deadpan looks on me right now if it wasn’t for the mask.

“Button,” mama pony whispers. “Button, run.”

“I-I’m not leaving you, mama,” he whispers from behind her head.

Oh, how touching. Of course they need to save each other from the horrible monster, right? Whatever. Either way, I stoop next to her and scoop little pony up. Guy’s pretty cute, has this little propeller hat and a messy, orange mane and everything. Mama pony starts screaming at me to let him go, and he just sits in my hands, frozen absolutely still in fear. I up the creepy factor a little bit, ignoring the shrill cries from mama pony, and stroke little Button’s hair. He falls unconscious in my grasp.

I chuckle and lay him next to mama, sticking him to her belly with another Gak Grenade. He’s so small the resulting ball of phlegm covers his entire body from the neck down, but mama pony doesn’t care, she just wraps him up and starts sobbing and crying, rocking back and forth with him in her grasp while nuzzling his exposed head.

I sigh and stand again, continuing my trek down the road. I’ve wasted enough time here. I’ve got a date to keep with six very special little ponies. Oh, we are going to have a LOT to discuss once the flag of Equestria falls. I hurry along the roads at a dead clip, lost in imagining the looks on their stupid little faces when they see what I have planned. I’m so lost in my thoughts and own anticipation for this long-overdue meeting that I almost stumble right over a squad of changeling guards making their way through the streets.

“General!” All five changelings stand and salute.

“Back to your assignments,” I hiss warningly as I stride past.

“At once, sir!” The changelings practically walk over one another, scrambling to get back to their hooves, when a thought occurs to me.

“You there!” I point to the guy in back. The entire squad pauses, turning back to me, eyes wide in fear. The guy I’m pointing to looks to his sides, then with a quivering hoof, points to himself with an eyebrow raised questioningly.

“Yes, you,” I sigh, waving my hand impatiently. “The rest of you, carry on.”

The group looks at the younger stallion I pointed to with pity, and I think I hear some muttered words of condolences, then they run off. The remaining changeling quivers in his chitin. Okay, I will be the first to admit I might have gone overboard with their indoctrination back when I first became general, I’m working on my image, alright?

I lean down next to him. “Down the road, there’s a mare and her colt glued to the ground. I wantcha to take care of them, okay? Make sure they get food and water and that they’re gonna be fine until we start keeping track of ponies for the occupation, you got it?” My tone sinks. “And in case you’re wondering: yes, this does mean I’m holding you personally responsible for their well-being.”

The changeling nods in fear, nearly dropping his spear, then dashes off down the street in the direction I indicated. His wings flap as fast as they can, and I chuckle. He’s probably gonna scare the crap out of mommy and sonny pony when he gets there, but they’ll be alright. Which is good. The only ponies who should suffer during the changelings’ reign are down the street, on the bridge leading to the royal vaults. Well, them and a certain other little village with a penchant for chucking rocks at defenseless creatures, but one thing at a time.

I reach a small rise in the road, and nearly get knocked back off my feet. It is the exact same scene from the Royal Wedding: the six gathered on the bridge, the one chokepoint they were guaranteed to use on their way to the royal archives, completely surrounded by changelings as they fought wildly. Pinkie’s party cannon, the Twi-Machine gun, Fluttershy basically stumbling around and beating up changelings by acting like a stumbling block, all with one excellent little addition…

A tidal wave of chocolate milk inundates one end of the bridge, washing out an entire platoon of changelings. At the same time, an army of candy-striped flies descends from the air, led by Discord riding a chariot of cookies, dressed in Braveheart paint.

“They may take oor lands! But they’ll nevah take orr fraydom!” He bellows, working his army up into a frenzy as they slice a hole through the cloud of changelings inundating the bridge. Once upon a time, a scene like this would have made me drop to my knees and thank God I was a brony. Once upon a beautiful time.

Welp, time to ruin everypony’s day.

Grabbing the musket off my back, I jog up to a decent position just overlooking the bridge, a small rise maybe fifty feet from the highest crest of the first chocolate milk wave. This is, of course, no coincidence. My scouts spent a very long time finding the perfect position for my musket and me. At this distance, it’s almost impossible to be accurate with a single-shot weapon, but of course I don’t have to be accurate. I just have to be distracting. Buckshot’ll handle that just fine.

I go prone and aim, my breath calming, my hands rock-steady. At least, at first. Then I catch sight of the cyan-colored mare at the other end of my muzzle, and my hands start twitching, my heart racing. Fucking bitch. This fucking bitch right here, preaching loyalty and staying true to yourself in between blasting me for funnies, better hope I don’t get my hands on her I’ll twist your fucking wings off and ram them up your tight little ass, maybe set them on fire too, give you a little taste of that sort of pain ripping through your…

My first shot sends up a smattering of dust at Rainbow Dash’s hooves. She looks around, eyes wide, but by then I’ve ducked down, loading up my next shot. The distraction is almost enough to make her miss the changeling taking a swing at her. Almost.

I rise a few feet to the right of my first position, now behind a rock outcropping. This time when I squeeze the trigger, Applejack suddenly whirls around, clenching her flanks, her mouth in a sudden “oh” of pain. Oh Applejack, those taut little muscles have bought me so much more pain than that little sting. I have three broken ribs which can attest to that. Fucking cock-sucking cunt, gave that bitch some buckshot. Bitches love buckshot. Especially evil little whores that annihilate people’s ribcage for trying to get a little meal to hold the hunger off a little longer THAT’S ALL I EVER WANTED TO DO YOU LITTLE…

I clench my fists. Unclench them. Breathe. Can’t lose it now. Too close to throw it away on a temper tantrum. My next shot is for Twilight. Of all of them, she might be my biggest target. The others might have done more to me directly, might have abused me verbally and physically, but she was the source of it all. If it wasn’t for her, I might have had a chance. If it wasn’t for her, I might still have pulled through okay, might have found some menial job to at least keep clothes on my back and a roof over my head. If…if it wasn’t for her…I…

I blink back the tears as that old fist of rage clenches in my stomach. “I could’ve been happy, you bitch,” I hiss. I hit her dead on the cutie mark, and can you blame me? Damn thing’s like a target. Don’t know why I never noticed that before.

Twilight’s legs buckle, and she limps away, finally wising up that something else is going on. Right on time, too. Pinkie turns to Twilight. Twilight nods. Pinkie grins. I grin. Yep, right on time.

“Changelings!” Twilight bellows. “I’d like to welcome you…to taste the Rainbow!”

I suppress a snicker. Really? Taste the rainbow? That’s the line she goes with while unleashing an impossibly old power born of ancient harmonious magics? Well, she was a little nerd after all, not a writer or anything like that. She’s gonna have to hire a speechwriter someday. Assuming, of course, that I ever let her make a speech again. And that someday I don’t tear her tongue out for a lark.

All at once, the six mares’ coats shimmer with magic. They all rise off their hooves, their eyes closing as the air literally sparkles around them, their manes going all super-Saiyan. I allow myself to grin again once I realize I’m still wearing a mask. They think they’ve won. They think that little feint for the Elements has drawn all the changelings right into the heart of some Rainbow-Power blast, even though everypony saw Tirek’s attack from every corner of the world and we all know the Elements are locked back up in the Tree of Harmony. They’re playing right into my hand.

I holster the musket again, striding over to the center of the bridge, taking my dear sweet time. I know how this works. Magical power-up sequences take forever, that’s a fact of any animated series. Now, it’s just a matter of pulling off my part. I reach into a hidden pocket sewn into my tunic, pulling out a stone so black it seems to absorb light from the air around it, creating a radiating dark hue in the around it. Touching it directly fills my skull with this eerie hum, making my teeth chatter.

Three months. It took changeling mages three months of study and work to come up with this object once we learned the Elements themselves were no longer in play, but that some new “Rainbow Power” had taken their place. Fortunately, much of the same magic that went into crafting the rock for the Elements was transferred right over into this rock. Now, here’s hoping it works. Everything depends on a little rock being able to focus and redirect a tidal wave of magic that, even now, is revving up into a second hum that’s filling the backs of everypony’s skull, joining the harmonic already in my head.

As the power charges into a great, rushing wind that circles the ponies, Discord peers over his shoulder at me. I’m probably quite the sight, one little monkey standing against the power of magic itself. It’s actually enough to make him sit up on his bug. And do a spit-take. And peer over his shades. Wow, am I really that fucked-up looking? That I can get a reaction like that from the God of Chaos himself?

“Jason!?” He gasps. Then a tsunami of magic strikes me dead-center.

I will admit: it’s a nice feeling. All that magic and power circling me, filling me. It’s like that feeling you get when you stand up too fast and get all light-headed, only it’s in my chest too, making me feel like I could just up and float away. Then the stone kicks in, runes from ages long forgotten glowing so brightly I can see the changelings around me shield my eyes, and it sucks all that magic in with a little ‘twhup’ sound.

The six ponies all drop back to the ground, gazing at me curiously. I grin as I raise the stone above my head. They’ve used their magic up for that one shot, and now that shot is mine.

“What is…” Sparkle-butt starts. I react before she can say or do anything else. With the stone over my head, I mutter a couple quick incantations that sound a bit like some bastardized Celtic, combined with whatever crazy crap the Vikings spoke. In a flash of blinding light my arm becomes a cannon, all that magic combined in the stone ripping out in a massive, wide-spread beam that forces me to my knees with the recoil. The ponies gasp in horror as the beam arcs over their heads, whipping through their manes, missing them entirely to strike Discord right in the face.

“JASON, WAI…” he starts as the beam of pure magic inundates him like a flash flood. The ponies are all so busy checking themselves over that for a few minutes, they don’t even realize what’s happening. It takes Fluttershy actually turning around and gasping for them to even notice one of their supposed “friends” is in the middle of enough magic to blot out the sun.

“Discord!” She gasps, taking wing and fluttering after him, as if she sought to dive into the middle of that beam of pure energy. Rainbow Dash holds her back, of course, being stronger and much faster. Discord’s final wails pierce the heavens, then the magic stops. The roaring in my ears and the hum of pure energy ends, and it’s like surfacing after spending too long underwater. For a moment, there’s nothing but the quiet in the wake of that hum, and finally, Discord’s stone body hits the ground. Without the magic suspending it, it’s just a statue now, and it hits with a crack so loud I think they hear it in the Crystal Empire.

Discord’s body is frozen in a gasp of horror, his arms held out in front of him, his wings tucked in, his body curled as if to absorb the shock. In his last moments, he had apparently attempted to stop the tidal wave of magic with his bare hands, like beachgoers that see tsunamis coming and hold their hands up in front of them, as if that might help at all. The end result was every bit as futile. He’s trapped in stone, and this time there isn’t a damn thing the ponies can do about it.

“Discord!” Fluttershy screeches, galloping to the statue’s side. She stomps on it with her hooves, begging and crying and pleading for the draconequus to get up again. It would be utterly tragic if she had ever cried for me like that, little whore. Caring more for her pets than she does another sentient being. In a way though, I do feel bad for the guy. He’d never pulled any of the crap Twilight and her cronies had, and he’d been the only one to recognize me my entire time here. Even Celestia had drawn a blank on seeing me. Still, he was too much of a wildcard to remain free, and his stoning had also drained the Element Bearers of their Rainbow Power. Now, they were totally helpless against the changeling hordes sent to secure them, binding wings and horns in goop to ensure maximum containment. Fluttershy is the last, dragged from her kneeling position next to Discord to have her wings wrapped in layers of the stuff.

When it’s all over, I breathe in, and breathe out. I did it. These little ponies bought nothing but pain and misery for me over three years of hell, and now, I’ve defeated them. I’m shaking so hard that I have to clench my fists to stop myself. The effect is perfect, making Fluttershy and Pinkie flinch back, expecting a blow. I beat them. I finally beat them! Do you hear me!? I beat you! I win, just this once! Me!

I raise my fist to the changelings around me. The nearest commander lands at my side with a loud buzz. “The High-General says you are to follow us back to the palace,” he announces to the ponies, the weird, layered hissing in his voice making even that small sentence sound threatening. “No sudden movements: any attempt at escape or rebellion will be punished severely.”

Sparkle-butt is the only one to meet my gaze, glaring defiantly into the darkened lenses of my mask. The others are either busy consoling their friends or shivering and trying to hide behind their manes (guess who belonged to that last group). That’s alright. They’ll learn in the coming days, they’ll all fucking learn.

Chapter IV: Rebellion

Celestia opened her eyes, once again peering at her own throne room through a green haze. She sighed at the unfortunate familiarity. She had been defeated at the hooves of Chrysalis, and now her own throne room was serving as her prison. Again.

But speak of the devil, and she would appear. Chrysalis popped up in front of the cocoon, smirking as always. “Oh Princess, that look really becomes you,” she snickered. “It’s a good thing, since you’re gonna be modelling it a lot more from here on out.”

Celestia grimaced, but kept her muzzle shut, at least until the doors burst open and the Element Bearers were led in by a long train of changelings. She closed her eyes and allowed a single tear to escape. It was all too familiar…she’d failed again…

“Oh, would you look at that?” Chrysalis grinned at her prisoner, spreading a hoof over the line of bound ponies. “I just got the strangest sense of déjà vu, how about you?”

Celestia just looked over the line of ponies, her eyes scanning frantically. “F-five,” she muttered.

“Hmm?” Chrysalis asked, squinting over the line. Her eyebrow arched. “Oh, a very good point, princess. Where is your sixth little pet? And where is my…oh…”

She grinned and turned back to the princess. “Oh darn, I suppose he just couldn’t help himself. He has a few personal grievances with that one, you see, and if he’s alone with her…”

“What!?” Pinkie gasped, stretching towards the Queen as far as her bonds would allow. “What’s he doing to Dashie, you big meanie!?”

Chrysalis arched her eyebrow again, this time aiming it at Pinkie. At the same time, Celestia pondered her words: personal grievances? Now, what could that possibly mean? Had that creature been in Equestria before?

Before she could ponder any further, the doors were kicked open, this time by the edge of a heavy leather boot. She watched as the bipedal creature clomped in, its footsteps echoing heavily in the hall, Rainbow Dash over his broad shoulders like a prize kill. She appeared scratched, an angry white mark flaring across her cutie mark even, but she still found the strength to turn and glare at Chrysalis. Celestia nearly gasped with relief. She was alive. Thank every god, she was alive.

“Oh good,” Chrysalis said while the creature laid the Element of Loyalty out on the tile. “The party’s all here. And this time, there’s not gonna be any last minute rescues by some bullshit magical spell. This time, help isn’t coming.”

She grinned as she spread her hooves out over the imprisoned ponies. “This time, EQUESTRIA DIES!”

A cheer rose over the crowd. Even the creature nodded its approval, its powerful arms crossed over its chest. The Element Bearers all bowed their heads in quiet, angry defiance. Even Pinkie kept her muzzle shut for a rare moment. Then, rather suddenly, Rainbow glared at Chrysalis, her teeth gritting.

“Yeah, only because you cheated and brought your pet monster with you!” She yelled.

The quiet that descended upon the room was almost palpable. The changelings all looked at the bipedal creature, ears folding against their heads.

“Oh, she’s done it now,” one of the changelings near the head of the line whimpered. “May the Queen help her.”

All eyes fell on the creature, standing still as a statue, its arms still crossed over its chest. Its biceps tensed, then released. Then, it was on her, a knife flashing out of a boot holster and inserting itself into her mouth, pressing against the inside of her cheek. It had happened so fast: one moment, the creature was standing there with its impressive arms crossed, and the next, it had its knee against the Element of Loyalty’s throat.

“No! Please!” Fluttershy gasped immediately, stretching against the slime, tears cascading down her cheeks. The rest of the Elements remained quiet, though out of solemn bravery or simple, paralyzing fear was anypony’s guess.

“Careful,” Chrysalis said, not even glancing the other ponies’ way while waving her hoof chidingly. “He doesn’t like to be called a monster. I told you that was a good way to lose your tongue, remember?”

Rainbow glared up into those flat, black lenses, but thankfully nodded, and the creature’s blade retreated without drawing a single drop of blood.

“Very good,” Chrysalis said as the creature pocketed its knife. “You’d do well to remember that, little ponies. Everypony gets one freebie from him, and after that…” she shrugged, a tiny smile playing on her lips as her eyes rolled over to Rarity.

Rarity’s lips sealed themselves as the creature strode past, sparing a quick glance at her before continuing to its master’s side. One could swear it snorted, and though it was impossible to tell, most ponies who heard that snort might have thought it was grinning beneath that mask. All speculation, of course. Who knew what even dwelt under there?

“Now then,” Chrysalis chuckled. “In a few short hours, the last pockets of resistance amongst the ponies in Canterlot should be stamped out, so I have to wonder: what shall we do next?”

The ponies all glared up at her, eyes narrowed defiantly, muzzles clenched shut to hold back insults that could only end poorly. Finally, Twilight raised one of her two free hooves.

“Oh, now this is a pleasant surprise,” Chrysalis chortled. “You had an idea, Miss Sparkle?”

“Actually, I did,” Twilight replied, a smart little grin playing on her lips. She looked over to Celestia, who smiled placidly and nodded. “Sixty-three of them, in fact.”

The moment the word “sixty-three” left her muzzle, two gaping sections of the Great Hall dropped away into pitch-dark holes, swallowing an entire platoon of changelings, who immediately found themselves at spearpoint in the darkness below. With half their guards incapacitated and the other half looking around in confusion at the battlecries sounding all around them, the Element Bearers made quick work of breaking their bonds, using borrowed magic and special solvents which suddenly appeared at their hooves courtesy of the stallions in the holes. They joined in the charge as a tidal wave of guardstallions surged out of the pits, overwhelming the changelings with sheer numbers and rumbling through the throne room.

“What is…” Chrysalis sneered amidst the confusion. “At arms! To me my changelings! The ponies have-”

She was silenced by a well-placed shot from Twilight, a purple blast smacking her in the face and sending her sprawling against the steps leading to the throne. The ponies descended upon her, the small army marching and fanning out over the pedestal while a rearguard held any stragglers at bay. The bipedal creature even tried to get in on the action, only to have Pinkie bounce off his chest and wrap her forehooves around him.

“Hussshhhhhh…it’s okay,” she whispered. “It’s all over now.”

The creature looked around, still confused, and then, Pinkie made the biggest mistake of her life. She reached over and pulled off the creature’s mask, her face falling the moment she laid eyes upon what was underneath.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Element Bearers slid into their assigned roles, Rainbow Dash and Applejack using their combined strength to try and free the princess while Fluttershy negotiated with the changeling stragglers from behind a wall of spears, begging them to lay down their arms as Rarity and Twilight aided in the magical runes needed to secure the fallen queen.

“Wow, that worked perfectly,” Twilight mused as guardstallions secured the dazed queen’s hooves in chains. Celestia looked around, finding it hard to disagree. Soon, Chrysalis would be contained and they could all focus on the counterattack.

If only she could get rid of that feeling at the back of her mind that something was still horribly wrong…

“Princess,” one of the guardstallions strode up to her and saluted. “All worked according to your plan. Congratulations on the success.”

“Oh, we’re far from successful, we…” she started to say through her cocoon, then it hit her full force. The feeling of wrongness, accompanied with sound effects. A strange, hissing noise, mixed with some sort of hiccup, like air being let out of a tire with a slow, inconsistent leak.

It didn’t take her long to find the source: Chrysalis, bound in chains looped around her neck and through her legs, biting her lip, fighting back tears. She was…crying? No, no that couldn’t be right. Chrysalis didn’t cry. She was too proud to let the enemy see her cry, even in defeat. A cry of “noooooo” perhaps, but that would be it. Something was wrong. Even as the guardstallions hauled her to her hooves, demanding that she ‘quit her blubbering,’ Celestia could tell something was wrong.

Two streams of teal-colored tears rolled down the queen’s eyes, and she looked over to Celestia, as if begging for help…help…help from what?

“I’m sorry,” Chrysalis whispered, her eyes squeezed shut while yet another magical suppressor was placed around her horn. “I’m sorry, my liege, we’ve fallen short.”

Wait, her liege!? Something didn’t add up. Something was wrong, something was very wrong…

Then Celestia followed the queen’s gaze, all the way across the throne room. Her pupils narrowed to pinpricks. “Oh no,” she gasped. “Pinkie! Pinkie, get away from…”

Too late. Already too late. The pink party pony turned to her princess, tears of absolute horror rolling down her pink cheeks. Behind her, the bipedal monster held the knife balanced in her mouth, its sharpened edge resting against her tongue.

Chapter V: The Emperor

This was the day of my victory. The final moment when months of planning finally came together. Soon, I would have an army at my back. Now, if only I could keep myself from breaking into a totally ironic version of “This Day Aria,” everything really would be perfect.

“High-General Wright!” I turned to the changeling saluting me, his eyes stern, a couple of lash marks across his forehoof from the last time he forgot the salute. I wanted to cringe, but suppressed it. It pained me to put another sapient creature in pain, but how else was I going to get the professional army I so badly needed? Especially when we were dealing with an enemy that had no such compunctions?

“Yes, Commander Nictis?” I asked.

“We have the loyalists surrounded, sir. Just like you predicted: Chrysalis had all her forces concentrated on protecting the keep. Other than a few stragglers, they’re all caught inside.”

I chuckled wickedly, and though a part of me was pained at the wince the chuckle earned from the changeling next to me, the rest of me rejoiced. For once, the creatures of this world shrank back from me. For once, I inspired fear, not the other way around. Soon, Equestria would know that fear. But right now, I had to consolidate my power, and that meant removing anyone who might question me.

Over the last few months, I’d been climbing the ladder, working my way through the changelings’ military hierarchy, making it until Chrysalis was the only one left between me and total power in the Badlands. Now, she was the last obstacle, the last thing I needed to take down before the Badlands were mine and mine alone.

She thought she was so smart. She thought I was her finest boon: humans, as it turned out, made incredible love batteries. Something about us, maybe that our lives tended to be harder than the average pony’s? Something about the struggle of “survival of the fittest” hardening that love? Maybe. Could explain my treatment in Ponyville, too. Either way, I apparently had enough love energy in my body to equal an entire pony village, and she was using me to rebuild her strength after her failure in Canterlot.

I found this all out from her personal diary two months ago. One and a half months ago, I started consolidating my forces and poisoning myself with some experimental herbs. Not enough for her to detect but enough to build up in her system through the love transfer. It was perfect, but for one side-effect.

I lifted my gas mask and scratched at the blotch of dry, irritated skin on my cheek. Eczema. Can you believe that? The stuff I found was poison to changelings, but in humans, was little more than a mild allergic reaction, easily covered up with a sudden penchant for wearing a mask wherever I went. The effect was two-fold: covering up the rashes on my face and neck, and inspiring fear with a single glare from the flat, featureless lenses. Even Chrysalis took a step back from me that first time she saw me walk onto the training grounds with it, though she’d never admit it.

Now, with her strength failing and her forces concentrated on her Keep for her birthday, I had launched my attack. The day of her hatching would now be the last day she ruled as Queen. My forces already had the walls lining the castle, only the Keep remained.

“Have we taken any casualties yet?” I asked.

“A few scrapes, one of us got hit by a boulder scaling the walls, doesn’t look like he’ll last the night,” Nictis shrugged. “Other than that, we’ve got the forces required for the next stage.”

“Good, good,” that one changeling was a damn shame, but it could’ve been a helluva lot worse. “When this is all over, give me a full report of the dead. For both sides. I want to honor any and all fallen brethren.”

“Y-yes, High-General.”

I sighed and popped my neck, using my hand to massage a few extra cricks out. “Well, no sense wasting any more time,” I smiled at him, though the smile was completely lost behind the mask. “Let’s go see the birthday girl.”

The tunnel under the Keep’s walls took weeks to dig. Biggest thing was keeping all that dirt a secret, but hey, what’s a few extra gardening projects to the royal budget-keepers? Now, one might expect me to use something like that to sneak my own ass in there and launch some sort of commando raid on the Keep, but where would the sense be in that, really? No, my purposes for this tunnel came straight from the pages of a book on medieval sieges I’d read a long time ago.

We stood at the mouth of a dank cave. A few yards in, I could just barely make out the wooden supports marking where we’d artificially expanded it. A couple hundred yards uphill from where we stood, the Keep remained perched atop its high hill, a few fire arrows flying from the upper battlements to show us there was still someone alive in there. I gazed back into the entrance and grinned. Such an amazing marvel, dug right into the rock, leading under the line of the Keep’s western wall. All supported by some wooden beams doused in kerosene and wreathed with gun cotton.

“Sir,” Nictis handed me a torch, already lit. “We take it you wish to do the honors?”

I grinned and gladly accepted, raising the torch high over my head. “Our forces stand ready just outside the walls, correct?”

“As you ordered sire, so it has been done.”

“Good,” and just like that, I tossed the torch into the darkness. There was a quick sputtering of flame and a bright-orange flicker, then two jets of fire spurted into life, the first couple beams flaring up in a heartbeat. A titanic fireball bloomed in the distant darkness, lighting up the cave’s interior with an eerie, green glow. It faded after only a few seconds, but it’d done its job. Every support beam maintaining the tunnel had collapsed at that point. Just as planned.

We all bolted upright as an entire wall of the Keep disappeared in a titanic cloud of dust, which came blasting out the cave entrance. All right before the massive crash of a few tons of stone falling right out of the sky and the screams of the poor bastards that had been standing on them. Even I had to pause and stare in shock, watching a massive hole appear where an ancient, moss-covered battlement had been standing just a few moments earlier. Then, I nearly collapsed with euphoria. The walls of Chrysalis’s Keep hadn’t been breached in centuries. I had just succeeded where hundreds before me had failed.

My army poured into the hole I’d created, clashing with the shocked, mostly-unprepared loyalists inside. Screaming in rage, I joined them, bounding uphill to become part of the clashing, writhing black mass on Chrysalis’s doorstep. Before ducking in, my musket rose to my shoulder and caught a loyalist right across the chest with rubber pellets, sending them to the ground in agony. Except it wasn’t a loyalist. At the moment I squeezed the trigger, it was Rainbow Dash, prepping another thunderbolt to interrupt a once-peaceful day with a few moments of cruel pain. In that moment, it was Rarity, her mouth just beginning to form the word ‘beast’ before instead morphing into a cry of surprise and hurt. In that moment, it was Applejack, barreling towards me with her hind legs tensing for another unwarranted blow to the chest.

With those images in my head I grinned behind my true face, and then I descended upon the mass, my musket now a club to bash my way through. It was a riot, a chaotic growth of flailing limbs and clashing weapons, but through it all I kept my eyes on the prize. Chrysalis was near the back, fighting off any stragglers while keeping herself protected from the worst of it, or so she thought.

I paused just long enough for her to notice me. It didn’t take long: a five-and-a-half foot biped in a gas mask stood out no matter the situation, even during a battle to determine the fate of a kingdom. Her eyes locked with mine, and for an instant she froze in fear, her jaw working up and down. In that instant, she was Applejack and Rarity and Pinkie and Fluttershy and all those other little bitches that ever spat on me and tortured me from on high.

I struck so suddenly and so quickly it became hard to recall later just because my mind couldn’t keep up. In a heartbeat, I darted across to her, stepping over her loyalist guards like they were nothing, just little stepping stones on my way to the Queen. I figured she knew I was grinning behind that mask just from the fear in her eyes. Fear which turned to hate real quick.

She side-stepped, parrying my first blow, but I was quick to retaliate with a new one, slashing across for a good hit to her long, slender neck. She ducked, but not fast enough to avoid a decent hit to the jaw, a fang flying from her mouth in a small jet of emerald blood. Nearly feral with rage, her horn flared with magic, trying to use what little my poison had left for her. She might as well have been trying to ward off a rabid grizzly with a pea shooter. Not that it wasn’t enough to give me some of that ol’ nostalgia of Rainbow’s lightning blasts.

Howling with rage behind my mask, I dropped the musket and leapt upon her, raining a flurry of punches to her head, neck and chest. I screamed as I hit, pounding away, frothing spittle flying out my respirator, steam building on my lenses, my knuckles screaming with pain I wouldn’t feel until later. I regained myself after a few minutes, after green ichor covered the rock beneath us and after her face was pulp beneath my fist and my clothes were soaked through. I sat there, breathing heavily as the fighting abated around us. Chrysalis was defeated. Living or dead didn’t matter, I’d won. The Badlands were mine.

I checked for a pulse, though there wasn’t any need. If the comics from my world were to be believed, she was damn near invulnerable. And that was right: her heart still beat strong under my hand, though I did notice the gasp that went through the changelings around me at my placing my hand over her throat. Oh yeah, that probably looked nasty. Oh well.

“Get the medics up here to tend to the wounded,” I said without looking up, my eyes still on Chrysalis, still not quite ready to accept that I’d finally won something. “Especially her, she’s in bad shape.”

“Sir?” One of my soldiers stepped out of the crowd of beaten, bloody changelings surrounding me. “Are you sure you want to do that?”

I chuckled behind my mask, and the crowd all took a quick step backwards. I waved them off. “Yes, yes, she can be useful to us. You know the honor code. She’s already been beaten once, she is unfit to rule now, and I see no other challengers rising to…”

I took my eyes off her to address the crowd, make some threatening gestures, really cement my position. I was a fool. I shouldn’t have taken my eyes off Chrysalis, I shouldn’t have just assumed my victory meant she would be my pet forever. In her final moments of consciousness, her eyes opened to slits and she managed a final bolt of magic. Not directed at me, though, but at the stalactite above me. Clever bitch.

There was a crack of rock, one of my soldiers barking for me to get down. Stupidly, I whirled in place, thinking Chrysalis might be charging. That at least got my head out of the way of the falling spike of rock. Mostly.

There was a flash of pain down my face, white-light exploding in my vision, the crunch of plastic and latex as my lenses shattered, and then all was stillness and darkness.

I glare Twilight down, drinking in the utter shock and surprise on her face at the long, jagged scar running down the side of my head, running over a single, milky-white eye and twisting the corner of my lip. I replace my true face, my mask, using one hand while keeping the knife in Pinkie’s mouth with the other. “You fucking heard me!” I scream. “Unless you want her coming out looking worse than me, drop ‘em now!”

The ponies look around, confused, partially because of my strange threat since most still haven’t seen my face, mostly because this isn’t part of the plan. Yeah, if shit hits the fan ponies aren’t usually the best to go to for calm, steady governance. Fortunately, Twilight’s panic does that job for them.

“D-do it!” She screams, tears in her massive eyes. “For Celestia’s sake, drop your weapons everypony!”

There’s a further moment of confusion, guards eyeing one another, looking around for some other instruction. Then, a spear hits the ground. That cinches it, and shields and armor hit the tile, royal guards kneeling and tearing off armor, bowing at my soldiers’ hooves.

I grin behind my face, and turn to the ponies standing around the throne. I squeeze the pink form in my grip and step up the pressure on the knife enough to hurt, but not break skin. Trust me; I know how much pressure that takes. The ponies’ eyes all widen, then submit. Rarity and Twilight bow their heads, allowing the changelings nearest to them to secure their horns in more of my goop. Fluttershy, followed quickly by Rainbow Dash, sinks to the floor and curls her wings to her side. Rainbow Dash glares at me the entire time her wings are being wrapped in more goop. Applejack is the last to submit, staring down the mob of changelings around her, but after seeing Dash go down, she bows her head and doesn’t move, twitching only once or twice as the changelings around her secure her hooves in layer after layer of goop.

With that finished, I pull the blade out of Pinkie’s mouth, letting her cough and sob. I drop her without a second look, leaving her to moan on the tile, a twitching, harmless bunch of pink on the ground that the changelings have no trouble with. Her friends start screaming, shouting things, threatening me in a way that’s so much white noise in the background. For me, right now, the only thing that matters is the throne.

I keep my stride under control through sheer force of will, stopping myself from dashing into the seat and wrapping the throne in my arms, touching it, feeling it to make sure it’s real. It’s real enough when I finally turn to face out and descend onto its soft, velvety surface, slowly lowering myself in. I lean forward, propping my elbows up on my knees while settling into the princess’s former seat.

This. This is it. I’ve really done it.

I look out over the ponies, and raise my hand to silence them, only now realizing I never let go of the knife. Well, that won’t do for the new King of Equestria, now will it? I start to pocket the knife…no, better idea. I toss the knife, gripping it by the flat of the blade and throwing it, embedding it in the wall by a captured guard’s head. He whimpers. I just smile and turn to the six ponies pinned to the floor.

“Why hello again, girls,” I smile gently. “It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Two years, by my count.”

No response, just glares. Me oh my, ponies must have atrocious memories. They’ll remember. They’ll all remember.

I’m pulled out of my ruminations by a desperate plea from my side, bought back to reality by the former queen still in chains, only now desperately pulling herself to me. “M-My liege, let me…” she starts.

“Think not on it, governess,” I say, waving her off. “You did your best given the circumstances, if anyone is to blame for what nearly happened just now, it’s myself. You did your best.”

I grin at the expressions on the ponies’ faces, the absolute shock and confusion, that accompanies Chrysalis bowing at my feet. Oh yeah, bitches. Things have changed since you saw me. Now, I’m the one in control, I’m the one who says whether or not you eat tonight.

I hope you know that. And I hope knowing you’re so helpless makes you want to scream. I know that’s how it made me feel. Because this isn’t just for me: it’s for every brony who thinks about you, and loves you, and dreams of the day they might have the privilege of meeting you. This is for how badly you’ve let them all down. This is for how far you’ve fallen short of what you could’ve been.

“Welp,” I yell, clapping my hands, earning a wince from every pony and changeling in the room. “Let’s get down to business, shall we?”

“And what business would that be, monster!?” Twilight spits from her imprisonment on the floor. The room freezes. Everything shuts down for a second, the changelings all turning to me, most biting their lips, some shivering. I just grin in my mask, striding down from my throne with a little chortle.

“For the trial, my silly little pony,” I reply, reaching out to scratch behind her ears, running my fingers over her face despite the furious glares she’s shooting my way. “That would be the whole point of what we’re doing here. Oh, and princess?”

No response, just a continued glare. Oh no, bitch, ignoring me isn’t going to make me go away this time. I seize her chin and force her to stare right into my eyes, my grip iron around her face, the flat lenses of my mask lending no expression or hint of the horrible grin I’m wearing. Judging by the racing pulse I feel through my hand and the frozen, deer-in-the-headlights way she’s making eye contact, it has exactly my desired effect.

“That’s your one freebie. Next time, you get punished. Except for you, I won’t just slice out your tongue,” I whisper, delighting in the fear welling up in her eyes and the way her muzzle quakes in my grip. “Call me a monster again, and I’ll rip the pink cunt’s tongue out with my bare hands, and yes, I will make you watch. I will chain you down right where you’re standing, and you will watch, because if you don’t watch, I will grab another one of your friends and punish them.”

I raise my voice, letting all the little ponies hear me. “What do you think? Should I clip little Miss Dash’s wings?” I bellow. “Slash the tendons in Miss Applejack’s legs? Or maybe I’ll rip Miss Rarity’s hairdo out by the root, one chunk of hair at a time.”

Finally, that gets what I want. She whimpers in my grasp, and I feel her chin quivering. “Please…” she whispers.

“Call me your Emperor.”

“Wh-what?”

My grip tightens. “Do it.”

Still whimpering, she whispers. “Please, m-my…my Emperor…”

That earns gasps of shock from the room, my grin broadens. “Very good,” I whisper. I release her jaw and run my fingers through her mane. “Very, very good. Good behavior will only help your case in the trial.”

She doesn’t even have the spirit to ask what I’m talking about. She just whimpers as I finally turn away, listening to her body hit the tile behind me before my changelings drag her off.

One down. Five to go.

Chapter VI: Behave

Shining Armor had expected a lot of things when he’d marched with the First Crystal Empire Corps towards the Empire’s borders. The ponies he marched with were among the best, mostly comprised of those who joined him on the very first expedition to the Empire, just before Sombra’s siege, though some crystal ponies had since bolstered their ranks. They had trained hard, to the point where he could trust every stallion and mare around him to hold a knife to his throat. Now, he knew he would need that trust and training.

When they began their march out of the Crystal Palace with ponies gathered in the streets to cheer the departing army marching for Equestria’s liberation, he’d told the ponies around him to expect ambushes, booby traps, maybe even a suicide charge or two. “Don’t underestimate the enemy,” he’d said while waving and smiling to the cheering families. “Chrysalis has now taken Canterlot not once, but twice. She’s outthought and outmaneuvered us every time we’ve encountered her. She may have been defeated before, but that doesn’t mean this is gonna be an easy fight. In fact, I expect this to be the hardest fight of our lives.”

He’d expected all these things, every possible angle had been covered. His stallions were trained and battle-tested, and they had a route planned which would allow them to march through open fields and easily-defended ruins with little to no chance of ambush. Every eventuality had been accounted for from when they hit the Empire’s boundary to when they would march upon occupied Canterlot. And still, he was taken completely aback by the undisguised changeling leaning against a rock just over the border, their hooves resting in the grass just outside the Empire’s magically-induced snowstorms.

He raised a hoof, calling for a halt, and his stallions just eyed him curiously. “It’s the enemy, sir,” his Lieutenant, a stallion by the name of Strongshield, said. “Shouldn’t we be attacking?”

Shining glared at the changeling as they stood away from the rock and walked slowly to the head of the army, only stopping when the ponies at the head lowered their spears and raised their shields. “No,” he replied as he strode through his armies’ ranks, the soldiers clearing a path for him without a word. “This is something else.”

He pushed aside the spears levelled on the changeling, striding towards it with his chest puffed out, the very image of intimidation. At seeing him leave the line of pointed spears and glowering ponies, the changeling drew near, allowing Shining to confirm that it was actually a she, and she walked to him with her hips swaying slightly. To his annoyance, he found his eyes invariably drawn towards her flank, watching the muscles flex and relax in that way most stallions couldn’t help but watch. Only the thought of his wife awaiting his safe return back home kept that little flex from awakening certain fantasies within him. Fantasies of rushing across the border marked by the end of the driving snow, throwing her against that rock wall, and taking that changeling in every way a stallion could take a mare. Ignoring her fangs, ignoring her monstrous appearance, watching the way those nice long eyelashes fluttered as he spread her hind legs wide and…

He grimaced again. So much for those hopes. Damn.

He ran the usual distraction protocol, imagining Cadence spread out in a bed with an eyebrow raised, biting her lip in that needy way she knew drove him wild, which managed to clear his mind as he met the changeling mare just over the border marked by the end of the rapidly-melting snow dunes. She looked up at him, then over the stallions arrayed behind him, and smirked. Shining’s grimace deepened. Obviously, most of the stallions with him weren’t faring so well in keeping the lust from their eyes.

“I suppose I should thank you for not running me through the moment you saw me,” the mare said. “Lot more than some changelings can hope for these days.”

“Professional courtesy,” he remarked, poking his head around the changeling nonchalantly before focusing back on her. “I gotta say, this is different from the greeting we expected from your kind.”

“Oh, I take it you were expecting a massive army arrayed with swords and shields, ready to charge upon your ranks and forge many a story of bravery and truth and the Equestrian way?” She asked, amused. “So sorry to disappoint. I promise you, no matter what we wind up doing together, I won’t disappoint again.”

If Shining Armor’s grimace got any darker, it would be able to spawn a grim, noir fantasy. Something with dead parents and orphaned foals, most likely. “What is this? You’re not a soldier. No armor, no sword, and you’re practically presenting yourself to me.”

“Oh,” the mare pouted. “Do you not like the mares that present themselves so easily? Because I can play hard to get…” she trailed off, leaning in just far enough for the scent of her breath to trail up his nostrils.

His face remaining at a stoic neutral, Shining took a step back. “No more games, changeling, where is your army?”

Again, the mare pouted. “You’re no fun,” she moped. “But if you must know, they’re focused in Canterlot. Emperor Wright is keeping them busy with the trial.”

“Emperor Wright? What of Chrysalis?”

“Still with us, thanks to his mercy,” the changeling said, suddenly growing interested in studying the chitin around her hoof. “Things have changed within the Hive. But that’s not the question burning on your mind, is it? Go on. Ask.”

Shining took a step forward and closed the distance he’d lost. “My sister?”

The changeling blinked in surprise. “Huh, didn’t think you’d go with that one, military man. I see where your priorities lie. That’s good,” she sighed, studying her hoof again, and just when Shining thought things would have to get ugly for him to get some answers, she continued. “The Element Bearers are all okay. They are being fed and cared for in a way that is more than adequate. The Princess too, so when you run into Mooncheeks again, you let her know. Now, what’s the next question?”

Shining’s expression softened, though his stance didn’t relax in the slightest. “What’s preventing me from putting you in chains and marching you with us right to the gates of Canterlot?”

“Chains! Kinky!” The changeling giggled, a not-too-unpleasant sound, Shining Armor found to his dismay. “And thankfully, nothing is stopping you. You can even put a ballgag in my mouth if you so wish. Perhaps a collar?”

Shining’s glare hardened again, his muzzle wrinkling with it, and the changeling sighed. “No fun at all. Fine. Yes, you could do all those things, you could very well march upon Canterlot towing me along in chains, and do battle with our forces while both your remaining princesses take on Governess Chrysalis and Emperor Wright, you could carry out whatever plans you had to their fruition, and you could very well succeed. But if I was in your horseshoes, I wouldn’t do any of that.”

“And why not?”

At this, the changeling’s entire persona shifted, a predatory grin crossing her muzzle like a lion spotting a wounded gazelle on the plains of Zebrica. “Because if even one of your ponies crosses this border, we’ll send you one of your sister’s wings,” the grin widened. “And nothing else.”

The pony took a step back. He hid his fear well, but that single step back was all the changeling needed to know what he really felt. “You wouldn’t,” the pony hissed with manufactured anger, his voice quivering just a bit too much to just be fury.

“Try it. See what happens.”

Shining’s teeth ground together, his throat closing up. It didn’t matter: words would never have been able to express his rage in that moment. At any rate, he lowered his head, almost looking ready to strike. The changeling didn’t even flinch. “So what happens now?” He hissed.

“Now, you and your ponies act like good little boys and stay on your side of the border,” she replied, humming carelessly for a moment. “Emperor Wright has some unfinished business with Equestria, and he asks that you respect his wishes and let him finish it.”

“I would like to meet this…Emperor,” Shining said. All the aggression had left his stance, his voice turning passive, as if he were under a sleeping spell.

“Perhaps you will, in time.”

“Is that all?”

“Yes…ooh! One other thing!” She said, holding up a hoof. “I’ve been assigned to be your liaison. In fact that’s kinda the whole reason I’m here, so if I were you, I’d make damn sure I was safe and happy.”

Shining nodded passively, then turned and shrugged in the general direction of the line of stallions behind him, giving two quick nods. Two stallions stepped out of the line and strode to the mare’s side. “This way…madam…” one said. Smiling Shining Armor’s way, the mare trotted alongside them, happily skipping along as though she were being led off on a play date.

“Can I get a name for my liaison?” Shining asked as they walked off.

“Cheery!” She chimed, prancing alongside her new escorts with that pert, little flank bouncing around.

Blinking a few times, Shining Armor sighed. “Very well, Miss Cheery, are there any special needs we should be aware of?”

“No, just a snippet of love every now and again to keep my strength up,” came the reply, the changeling pressing a hoof to her chin in thought as a mischievous grin spread across her face. “Although I won’t say no to those chains if the wish so arises!”

“Don’t tempt me, changeling.”

“Funny, I was about to say the same to you!” She giggled, winking as she retreated with her new escorts.

Shining watched them go, then turned his gaze towards Canterlot. After a while, he sat upon the frozen ground, and still his eyes never left the direction he knew the castle was in. After a while, one of his soldiers laid a bowl of steaming soup at his side, and he took it at sips so as not to interrupt his constant vigil.

Chapter VII: Equestria On Trial

The gavel slammed against the abused wood, echoing through the chamber, demanding order amidst the chaos of arguing ponies and changeling soldiers. “Order!” The changeling in the judge’s robes demanded. “This is a court of law, not a farm! I will have order!”

“A court of law!?” One voice rose over the din, and Princess Celestia rose with it. The goop amidst her feathers quivered in the sunlight as she turned her glare on the unimpressed changeling judge, then swept it over the undisguised changelings crowded into the jury box. “I see no such thing. All I see is an obviously-biased court holding a mockery of a trial, an insulting jest at justice’s expense!”

“The former princess will be seated or she will be found in contempt and removed from the courtroom,” the changeling droned, his voice carrying throughout the room. The spear-wielding changeling soldiers at the sides of the defendants’ box took a step in her direction, but Celestia merely resumed her seat with a dainty ruffle of her feathers and a glare levelled at the group.

“Now then,” the judge scanned the seven ponies crammed into the defendants’ box, pausing over each of the mares in turn. To nopony’s surprise, the Bearers of Laughter and Kindness hid their muzzles in their hooves when his eyes passed, though the others maintained their defiant glares as long as they could. “The defendants are charged with abuse, neglect, attempted murder, libel, overt xenophobia, and forgery. How do they plea?”

The group responded with wide-eyed shock. “Not guilty!” Thundered Rainbow Dash’s reply, once again to nopony’s surprise.

The judge-changeling snorted, obviously having been waiting for just such a response. “Then let the trial of the Element Bearers commence!” He announced, turning to the changeling waiting in the prosecutor’s box. “Does the prosecution have any opening remarks to make?”

“We do, your honor,” the changeling said as he took to his hooves, his jet-black armor and helmet having been replaced with a well-pressed suit. The changeling strode to the front of the chamber, just beneath the judge’s podium, then swept his hooves out, motioning over pony and changeling alike with the theatrics of an actor in a play.

“Changelings, ponies…my fellow equines,” he said, rocking back and forth on his hooves. “We are gathered here to right a wrong, committed so long ago by these mares you see arrayed before you.”

He motioned over the defendants’ box. “These mares are guilty of nothing short but the most outrageous and heinous of crimes, committed against one of our own for the sin of being different! Of not fitting into their norms!”

“That is a lie!” Twilight leapt to her hooves. “We defended Canterlot from the changelings, nothing more! We were attacked and defended ourselves!”

“The defense will not speak out of turn or she will be found to be in contempt!” The judge bellowed as Twilight bared her teeth, her shoulders rising and falling in anger. Only a gentle hoof from Rarity got her back into her seat. The judge nodded, then motioned for the prosecution to continue.

The changeling in the suit eyed the six like a lion watching a gazelle stretch its neck out to reach a drink of water. He grinned knowingly. “I’m afraid you have your incidents switched up, but let’s allow the evidence to do the talking, hmm?” He hissed. “The prosecution calls Miss Roseluck to the stand!”

At that, the doors leading into the room burst open, and a trio of changelings led the captive mare to the front of the room, her usually pristine mane falling in sweaty bunches over her shoulders. Twilight’s heart had to go out to the mare: her hooves quivered against the tile, making a sort of rattling sound with every step, and even the non-changelings could feel her anxiety spike on seeing the sheer number of equines in the room. Still, the guards led her firmly, yet gently, allowing her to get herself situated at the front of the courtroom, and even walking her through a few deep, calming breaths before leaving her to the prosecutor.

“Miss Roseluck of Ponyville, I assume?” The changeling asked.

“I-I…” she swallowed, blowing a strand of red mane out of her mane. “Y-Yes, that’s me.”

“How long have you been a resident of Ponyville, Miss Roseluck?” The changeling asked, staring nonchalantly at his hoof and picking at a bit of loose chitin.

“N-nearly ten years now,” she replied, her voice quivering but still coming on strong. She turned to the defendants, and Twilight gave her the strongest, most hopeful smile she could manage. Roseluck managed a tiny half-shell of a grin back. “I-I moved there from Manehattan when I’d heard about the temperate climate. Plus, it was a farming community, so I knew the soil would be p-perfect for my flowers.”

“Ah, you’re a flower mare?”

“Y-yes sir,” she whimpered.

“Good, good, now, do you recall a certain day about five years ago? A day when your town gained a new resident?”

“I-I’m not that good with new ponies, not like…”

“Oh, nonono, Miss Roseluck, this wasn’t a pony,” the lawyer said, his piercing gaze drifting to the pony as his tone took on a deep, serious and resonating quality. “Think back, Miss Roseluck, surely Ponyville gained one new resident that stood out from all the others?”

“I…that was so long ago…I…”

“Was it really so long ago? So long that you’d forget something so tremendous as a new species arriving in your little town?”

A rumble echoed through the courtroom, ponies talking in hushed tones, whispering what in Equestria he might possibly be talking about. For her part, Roseluck’s eyes darted back and forth over the room, pausing at Twilight’s wide and confused eyes and, finding no solace there, shooting around again in a fruitless search for comfort. “I…I…”

“Perhaps you merely require a reminder,” the changeling cut her off, then stood at the head of the room, waving for the bondslings to escort her to the side, as if saving her for something. “The prosecution calls His Eminence, Jason Wright, to the stand!”

Of course I was standing on the other side of those doors, where else would I be? This was the moment I’d been waiting two years for, after all. The moment I got to shove their crimes right into those little hypocrites’ faces. All of them, not just those six ringleaders, but the whole bigoted country. And yet now, right when I need it most, my strength is nowhere to be found. My trembling hands rest on the set of mahogany double-doors, and still it takes nearly a full second to build up the force to open them. Once they do, however, I find everything I need to keep my stride. Mostly in the shocked, surprised, and hopeless looks around me.

Yeah, that’s right bitches, look who’s back. I drink in their faces, those shocked and confused looks, and the defiance! Ooooh, I’m gonna have fun with these girls. You hear that, Dashie? I’m going to beat that hateful little glare right out of your face. And Miss Fluttershy: if you could just stop fucking shaking like the tiny little coward you are for two goddamned seconds, sit up, and at least look like you’re contributing something to this entire process, instead of quivering like the useless pile of…

“Your honor?”

I turn my masked head to the prosecuting changeling, realizing I had just been staring into the defendant’s box for a few minutes while breathing creepily through my respirator. I have to grin behind my mask. A little trick like that can only help me.

I stride through the courtroom, passing the rows of ponies and changelings and just daring one of those little puke-colored fucks to throw something, really give me an excuse to unleash. When nothing of the sort is forthcoming, I let my gaze drift over the courtroom. I’m finished with the defendant’s box, I’ve afforded them all the attention they deserve. Instead, I focus on the outsider: the background pony, the secondary character, the one who was there but wasn’t a part of that exclusive little club. The one who might just corroborate everything.

Not that I need a corroboration, Sunbutt was right about this being a farce of a court, but it would be nice to have something else to ram down those little bitches’ throats. Maybe make one or two of them cry. That’d be nice.

At the front of the room, I turn on my heel and whip around to face the entire court, arms crossed behind my back, an impossibly powerful figure standing before them. Black tunic. Dark, heavy pants. Gas mask. My bulk almost keeping me from crossing my arms. I am a scary motherfucker.

“Everypony: the king of the changelings, and now of Equestria!” The lawyerling gushes, grinning at the assembled crowd. His grin widens at the scowl the princess aims at us. “Emperor Jason Wright!”

I raise my gloved hands, calming down applause that comes from the changelings only, the whole bunch of them whooping and whistling. Some little stallion in the front manages the audacity to boo me, standing on his hind hooves and yelling at the top of his little pony lungs. I snap my fingers, and immediately two burly changelings pick him up and physically drag him from the room, doing it so fast I barely have time to watch the hateful glare on his face melt into panic and fear before the doors slam shut on him.

Let’s see how that one likes a night in the Canterlot dungeons, just a bit of a scare to shut him up. Abuse of power? Maybe. Completely petty use of resources? Perhaps. Satisfying as shit that I can do this to somepony just for booing me? So totally, utterly, and completely yes.

At last, the time has come. I reach up, unbuckling the mask, continuing to wheeze through the respirator until it finally leaves my face. Ponies everywhere gasp at the long, stitched-together scar running down the side of my features, shredding through a milky-white eye and reaching down to my neck. I am honestly so damn lucky that stalactite didn’t kill me.

The effect on the defendants’ box is instant. Pinkie whimpers and shrinks back in her seat while the others all gasp. Only Celestia remains as she was, hardly moving, as I set the mask down to the side of the judge’s bench. I smile at them, which only increases the looks of revulsion on their little faces. “Yeah, I know,” I chuckle. “It doesn’t look good.”

Suddenly, I whirl on the defendant’s box. “But considering the fact that I’m holding each and every one of you at spearpoint, the least you could do is fucking pretend! If not for my sake, then for your own sorry asses!”

No reactions, except now most of the looks of revulsion have settled back to calm, collected, steely neutrals. Well, Fluttershy has gone back to quivering with her muzzle in her hooves and Pinkie has tears shimmering in those big, blue eyes, but still.

I relax, grasping my own wrists to keep the shaking from getting too bad. I knew before the attack this would get pretty emotional, but I have to stay relaxed.

“Emperor?” The lawyerling asks timidly. “With your permission, we’d really like to…”

“Of course,” I announce, spreading out my hands. “But I think I can take the initiative from here.”

The lawyer nods and backs off. I sigh, inhaling and exhaling slowly. My heart races as I face the crowd, looking them over, gauging the growing unease radiating off of everyone, pony and changeling alike. Then I turn to the rose-maned pony off to the side. “Now, Miss Roseluck, I’d like to repeat the prosecution’s question: do you remember that day five years ago when a new resident came to Ponyville?”

“L-l-l…” she stammers, eyes wide, locked on me, her mouth motoring incoherently.

I roll my eyes, stepping up to the little pony and, in one smooth motion, flicking her across the nose. She cries out as if I just smacked her full across the face, and the resulting bedlam and cries in the courtroom only feeds the overreaction. I sigh and raise my hand. Somehow, that results in quiet in the room. I guess one demonstration was all that I needed.

“Now, Miss Roseluck,” I repeat. “Do you or do you not remember that day five years ago when a certain someone came to your little town?”

“I…I…” she stammers, trembles, and then swallows, calming herself with another quick breath. Twilight nods her approval. “I do not, I’m sorry.”

“Oh really?” I put my arm up on her bench, leaning nonchalantly. “Look, I know it’s been a while, but I thought I wasn’t that forgettable.”

“Wh-what?”

“I mean, really,” I turn and glare at her. “I know my appearance has changed somewhat, but I’d think you little bitches would remember the day I came to town.”

“Wh-wh…” finally, that damn stammering stops, and she gapes, her eyes widening as she looks up at me. I see something pass over her massive stare, a faint glimmer, and finally the dam breaks. “Oh, dear sweet Celestia, it’s you.”

“Yes, it’s me,” I smile, finally glad at some progress. I stick out my hand. “Jason Wright. I’m afraid we haven’t been introduced, what with the panicked screaming and rock-throwing and everything.”

“I don’t…”

“Speaking of,” I continue, hand retracting. “Let’s see if you really do recall that day. Picture if you will: a young, starry-eyed lover of ponies, ready and waiting to meet the characters he so adored.”

“What are you…”

“So, he shows up at the door of Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship, Bearer of the Element of Magic, because if anypony can accept him, it’s her. If anyone can give him a start on his new life in Equestria, it’d be her. And what does she do? Do you remember?”

“I…yes…yes I do…” she gasps, a hoof going to her mouth.

“What did she do, Roseluck?” I ask, spreading a hand out to the crowd. “Explain it to the nice ponies here, nice and loud for them.”

“She…slammed the door in your face,” Roseluck shook her head, staring off into space. “She yelled something and she just slammed the door in your face!”

I grin. Bingo. “And what did you have to think of me after that, Miss Roseluck?”

“I…I just tried to ignore you…I mean, if she turned you away…”

“There we go!” I announce, turning on one heel. I glare down at little Miss Twilight Sparkle, who is now looking even less comfortable than she had a moment before. “If the Princess of Friendship couldn’t be around me, then why should anypony else, right?”

Murmurs race around the courtroom. Twilight shifts awkwardly while I grin. It’s starting. “Why should anypony…say…give me some means of income? Take the risk of giving the big, awful monster a job? Even care if he runs off to the woods so he can slowly waste away in a godforsaken cave, alone, uncared for, living on the edge of exposure and starvation?”

The gasps and whispers of utter shock melt some of the contempt that had been growing in the room since I stepped in, but I’m gonna need a lot more than that before all this is through. The most satisfying look is on Celestia herself: the widened eyes, the gaping mouth, the complete disbelief. I could’ve just told her the sun was a ball of hydrogen floating in space without any regard to her magic, and her reaction might’ve been the same.

Without any regard for courtroom proceedings, she stands out of her seat, not even glancing at the changeling guards pressing the flats of their spears to her sides. “It can’t be!” She says breathlessly. “Somepony…must have shown you some compassion…right?”

“Somepony,” I chortle, shaking my head. “You want to see some examples of pony hospitality, princess? Alright, I’ll show you.” I unbutton my tunic and pull it off over my head, exposing my body to all in the room. The gasps are all I need to know it’s had the desired effect. Then again, how couldn’t it? The network of scars crisscrossing my torso scared the hell out of me when I first saw them in a mirror, in my new chambers in the Badlands.

“Oh my dear Sweet Celestia…” Rarity gasps, sounding as though she was going to be sick. What, seeing your handiwork and the damage it’s done a bit too much for ya, you stuck-up piece of shit? Tough.

“You like? I think of it as the perfect model of pony hospitality to outsiders,” I chortle, running my hands over a couple of divots visible on my chest. “Remember these, Applejack? From the very first time we met?”

“I…I…” she croaks, then that same shimmer passes over her eyes. What was that, some pony thing? How they expressed realization? “Oh my stars an’ bars, I do.”

“Do you remember the very first thing you did? How you greeted me when I stepped on your farm in a futile search for work?” My placid smile turns into a dark grimace. “The two broken ribs you gave me that I had to nurse myself?”

She shakes her head, her wide, horrified eyes never leaving mine.

“Yes, Applejack,” I said. “You did this. You, and your rainbow-maned whore of a friend.”

“Huh-hey…” Rainbow starts. “D-don’t go…”

“After all, your bucks could never have done anything like this, now could they?” I turn, revealing the long, jagged patch of skin in the shape of a lightning bolt across my back. A fresh round of gasps and quiet murmurs grip the room. “No, this was more your forte, Rainbow Dash.”

There’s a few moments of silence, broken by a quietly murmured: “ohmygosh…”

“You did this to me, all of you,” I whisper, pulling my tunic back on. “And that’s where the charges of fraud come in. Fraud that you are somehow representative of all of harmony, when really you’re nothing but a bunch of bigoted, hateful, spiteful little…”

“Stop this right now!” Twilight screams, standing up in her box. I whirl on her, an eyebrow arching, watching as she snorts in anger. I arch an eyebrow coolly. “Stop these insults!”

Fluttershy, showing a modicum of courage for once, tugs at Twi’s foreleg, begging her to sit, but Twilight carries on regardless. “Y-you just barged into town, and you expected things to work out!? Y-you could’ve had a chance if…”

I smack her then. It happens before I even realize what I’m doing. My arm just rears back and I backhand her right across her face. A bit of spittle goes flying out the corner of her mouth and plants on the wall beside her. I take no small satisfaction in watching such a display from the regal wittle princess, and I’m not ashamed to admit that.

She looks up at me, her massive eyes wide and stunned, the goop around her horn shimmering. Five years ago, that look would have opened my heart and forced me to pull her into a hug to let her cry any of her troubles out. Now, it’s all I can do to keep from hitting her again. “Fuck. You.” I hiss. “A chance? You dare tell me I would’ve had a chance!?”

“I…yes?” She quivers, recoiling back. She’s not used to being treated like this. Maybe that’s the whole problem.

“Three. Years.” I reply. My fists clench until they shake, my fingernails cutting into my palms. “Three years I spent waiting for one of your chances! Three fucking years, you cunt! When was it gonna happen, huh!? When!?”

I don’t even take the time to listen to whatever half-ass excuse she has for me. I just rear back and hock a nice, big, phlegm-filled loogie at her, satisfied in the glistening bubble of mucus and saliva as it slides down the front of the defendant’s box. Still, not as much satisfaction as I could have. That had been meant for her cheek. I guess my aim isn’t as good as I thought it was.

“Everything,” I say, my voice low, almost like a growl in the back of my throat. “Everything you see here, everything you see around you, is your fault. Because five years ago, you, the Princess of Friendship, turned away a creature for being different.”

“I…” she stammers. “I didn’t…”

“Others hurt me more, don’t get me wrong,” I cut her off, not interested in hearing any excuses. My desire to learn why they did what they did left me a long time ago, in the cold, dark hollow of a tree growing by the road to the Badlands. Now, I just want to twist the knife. “You weren’t the worst, but you were the first. Everything I went through, every rejection, every single iota of pain laid on me for being different, started with you. Once word got around that not even the Princess of Friendship herself wanted a thing to do with me, that was it. Any chance I had of living a nice, happy life in Ponyville died that day on your doorstep.

“Just think: all that pain and sadness, and this, my justice,” I spread my hand out to the desecrated courtroom around her. “All because the Princess of Friendship didn’t want to make a friend.”

My grin widens. I don’t have to say the rest: she’s a smart little pony, she can put what I’m implying all together, but I want to hear it out loud. “All because you failed, Twilight Sparkle. You failed miserably.”

Her jaw works up and down, opening and shutting. She’s reeling as if she’d just been punched. “I-I didn’t know…” she whispers.

“You didn’t bother to know!” I scream, the old rage bubbling up within me. “You didn’t care! As far as you were concerned, you were fine with me going off into the woods and dying somewhere! You, the Princess of Friendship!”

My hand rears back for another backhanded slap against her face. By some incredible force of will, I manage to drop it back to my side, once again rejoicing in the cringe I’d earned from the little pony, her reacting to the expected blow. She’s learned her lesson from last time, no need to get cruel. Instead, I fall to eye level with her and glare into her massive, tear-filled eyes. “The fact that you wore that title for so long sickens me. All it took was something a little bit different to come along, and you turned your back on everything you’re supposed to represent. You repulse me, Twilight Sparkle. When I arrived on your doorstep, I wanted nothing more in the whole world than to be your friend. Now, I don’t even want to look at you.”

I pull my mask back on, keeping my head bowed, my back to everypony. Silence reigns but for the wheeze of the respirator, doing its job to force my breathing to calm down. “What has the jury determined?” I whisper, my heart still racing as I face the plain wood of the judge’s stand.

Breaking out of their stunned trance, the lead juror-ling stands to deliver the verdict. “On the charge of fraud and impersonating the Elements,” he says, his eyes wide. “We hereby find the defendants guilty.”

“Assault?”

“On the charge of assault,” this time the changeling takes a moment to find Applejack and Rainbow Dash in the crowd, levelling his cold gaze on them. “We hereby find the defendants guilty.”

“Neglect and general abuse.”

His gaze shifts to include the remaining four, the four who’s abuse may not have been physical, but who’s charges had been raised specifically so they would be included just for this moment. “Guilty.”

“And,” this time I turn, my large, plastic lenses falling on the princess of day. “Promoting a system of institutional racism designed to further a pony-specific agenda while neglecting the needs of all others?”

“Now, hold on…” Rarity starts, but a single glare from me shuts her up. Obviously, she doesn’t want to have her perfect mane ruined by human saliva or a good smack from a human hand. Nice to know she’s willing to sacrifice her values and stand down in defense of her mane. Wish I could say I was surprised.

“Guilty,” the changeling says, maintaining eye contact with her.

This time, it’s Twilight’s turn to look around, desperate for some amount of comfort. Her massive, wet eyes scour the room, but only find a bunch of ponies with their gazes averted, or worse, with scornful glares levelled her way. Surprisingly, little Miss Roseluck is part of the latter group.

“How could you?” She asks, shaking her head, angry tears streaming down her face. “All of this is your fault!”

I grin. Very nice, but see, it’s not enough that the Element Bearers are seen for the little bigots they are. All of Ponyville has to pay.

“Now, now, Miss Roseluck, you can’t give Twilight and her cronies all the credit for what’s happened here!” I laugh good-naturedly, earning a satisfying cringe from most of the ponies in the room. “That’s just selling yourself short!”

“Wh-what?” She asks, her glare turning into a wide-eyed gape in a heartbeat.

“After all, if it wasn’t for you and all your fellow townsponies going along with their cruelty and hatred, I might have actually been able to establish a real life for myself in your bigoted little community,” I continue, glancing at my fingernails and picking a speck of dirt out from beneath them. “All it would’ve taken is for just one of you to question anything that was happening to me, to just ask ‘why’ one time. To actually wonder what I’d done to deserve that amount of suffering.”

I turn to her, easily, placidly, and run a finger through her mane as she sits there on the edge of tears. “But no. Not one of you did. Just think: all of this could’ve been avoided if just one of you had shown me a single act of kindness at any point during those three years. That’s all it would’ve taken.”

The gleam returns, and her entire body shivers with it, as if the realization of the full weight of her crimes is physically hitting her. A pink blur in the corner of her eye tells me Pinkie is doing the same, and by the time I turn to her, all I see is a dark-colored mare with a straight mane, her massive eyes locked with mine, her shoulders hunched. Tears crawl down Pinkie’s cheeks. I scoff and turn back to Roseluck.

“I’m sorry,” she whispers, trembling as I glare down at her. “I’m so, so sorry.”

“Little late for that, dontcha think?” I growl. Thing is, I already have what I need. The looks of mixed disgust and revulsion from the ponies in the audience: the ones I’m about to send back out into the city’s general populace, that’s all I need.

Your downfall starts here and now, Sparkle.

Chapter VIII: Don't Let Them See Your Pain

Oh, how do I hate thee? Let me count the ways…

As I give Sparkle the ol’ Hannibal Lecter treatment, strapping her to a handcart complete with straitjacket, face mask locked around her muzzle, and leather restraints, I can’t help but feel a certain thrill…each tightening of every strap earns the smallest flinch from her, something that would go unnoticed by a man that hadn’t trained himself to notice tiny motions like them for years on end.

“Aww, poor widdle Sparkle, am I hurting you?” I ask, cinching the waist strap tight. I brace my knee against her back and give it a good jerk, locking it in place and tying her down. “Good. You could use a little pain, and you wanna know why?”

“To fulfill your petty revenge scheme?” She asks, speaking for the first time since my guards literally dragged her up here.

I chuckle, shaking my head as I lower myself to make eye contact. “Of course not, dear Sparkle. It’s to build character. See, that’s why I beat you so easy. Because you’re a soft, stupid little pony princess who had her title handed to her by earning enough Brownie points from another princess. I actually had to earn and fight for everything I have, and you see who beat who?”

She fumes behind her muzzle, but holds her tongue through some amazing effort. I chuckle again and wheel her out of the dressing room. “If anything, you should be thanking me,” I say, the squeaking of the old cart’s wheels my only conversation partner. “I’m doing you a favor. You’ll be a much stronger pony in just a month’s time. Assuming, of course, your mind hasn’t shattered by then.”

She shivers against her restraints, earning a pat on the head. I turn and wheel her out of the dressing room. Oh director? We’re ready for our close-up!

I push her along a hallway now lined with banners of my own design: emerald green, with a black fist punching out from the bottom. Simple, efficient, the pinnacle of elegance in my opinion. Sure beats that sun-filled eyesore my army has been tearing down all through the day and piling up to be burnt. Finally, we approach the balcony, the roar of a crowd just beyond a plush, velvet curtain, the only sounds beside the wheeze of my respirator and the squeaking of the wheels on her prison. I lean down next to her ear, “You ready for this?”

“Ready for what?” She whispers back, unable to keep a quiver of fear from her voice.

I just grin behind my true face and up my stride to somewhere between a power walk and a light jog, pushing her into the daylight. A hundred feet beneath us, the entire city of Canterlot crowds into the square. On normal occasions, this would be how Celestia would address her widdle ponies, making some speech or another basically sucking Sparkle’s hoof with praise. Pathetic. This time, however, it’s me standing where she stood, and judging by the look of horror on Twilight’s face when the curtain parts, she realizes it too.

“How dare you,” she whispers. I don’t even reply, instead raising my hands to the shocked cries and whispers below. The ponies all shut up real quick then, the din that had filled the square just seconds before now replaced with an immediate silence.

“Citizens of Canterlot!” I announce, my voice projected by a series of spells in my respirator. “I give you, your princess!”

The silence continues, punctuated with a few cheers that die almost as quickly as they begin. Twilight looks out, confused, her eyebrows raised in concern.

“Oh, come come now, don’t be shy!” I announce, motioning to the pony strapped down behind me. “Sure, she’s seen better days, but she’s still your princess! Surely you would like to show her your support in this, her time of need!”

That earns some sporadic clapping and a few rising woops, but nothing much more than you’d expect after a good hit at a lukewarm baseball game. Twilight’s face twists into rage, her eyes closing. “What did you do?” She whispers.

“What’s this?” I ask the crowd, ignoring her even as I turn to face her handcart. “I thought ponies had nothing but love and adoration for their royalty, has something changed that?”

No claps, no laughter, all of that dies off completely. Even with my back to them, the spells in my respirator continue projecting out to the crowd, so I get to face little Miss Sparkle the entire time. “Perhaps it’s because you have realized that a hateful, spiteful little wench doesn’t deserve your praise?” I ask, my voice lowering. They still hear me, though, and evidently, so does Sparkle.

“What. Did you do,” she hisses, blinking back angry tears.

This time, my voice lowers to the point where only she can hear me: “Shown them what you really are.” At that, I clap my hands, and a group of changelings hiding in the balconies around us dart into the light. The crowd flinches back as the changelings conjure a series of screens into existence. All my idea, of course, realized entirely by changeling scientists and mages, but still pretty damn brilliant. Take one of the ponies’ ancient little cameras, leave it recording in real time and hide it somewhere, like say, in the hooves of a changeling disguised as an elaborate golden statue, and feed the film as it’s recorded to a changeling hiding just behind them, acting as the projector. Then, shoot the resulting film off to a few dozen squares all over the city and make attendance for the screenings mandatory, and what do you get?

A bunch of ponies confessing to what they think is an audience of a few, and instead reveal themselves to be selfish, horrifying, abusive little cunts to an entire city.

Even as I glare at her through the lenses on my mask, Twilight can hear everything from the screen: my “highlights reel” playing to the crowd. Roseluck’s confession, the scars, the big, dumb way the Element Bearers all looked at me. But most of all, that look of disgust on Roseluck’s face. “How could you?” She whispers over and over again, her nose wrinkling, gazing down at the Elements with a look now mirrored by many of the ponies in the crowd.

“Yes, this is your beloved princess,” I bellow. “This creature, this representative of hatred and bigotry, this is what your princess really is!”

A few shuffles rise up from the crowd, a couple discordant boos starting on the edges.

“Is this what you are? Is this pathetic creature what you want leading you into what is meant to be a golden age of harmony and prosperity!?”

The murmurs grow louder, the angry faces becoming more apparent.

“Is this who you want to act as your moral representative to the rest of the world!?” I scream, hammering an accusing finger in her direction. “This disgusting filth who would turn away a defenseless creature for the crime of being different!? Who is now personally responsible for the destruction of your nation!? Who holds in her hooves the keys to your total moral degradation…”

“Stop…” she whimpers behind me, her head bowed, ears folded. “Please.”

I turn to her again, locking eyes with her through my mask. I know she can see mine, she looks right at them. “Did you stop Rainbow Dash when my screams filled the forests?” I ask, my voice at a low, dangerous edge. “Or the crowds throwing rocks and garbage at me every time I tried to enter town, even as I wasted away and my clothes became rags? As a princess, it was well within your power to stop it all, but did it occur to you to even fucking try?”

She whimpers as I lower my arm. “No. Of course not.” I turn back to the crowd just as the murmurs explode into angry shouting. I now stand over a mob of rampaging ponies, finally wise to the ultimate betrayal. These ponies trusted their leaders with everything, with acting as the moral compass for their entire nation.

And they failed. Miserably.

I grin as the first rotten head of lettuce flies up out of the crowd, picked out of a dumpster I just happened to have moved right before this meetup, and right to the same area the crowd was going to gather! Quite the coinky-dink indeed.

“I think your ponies want to express their appreciation to their princess,” I whisper back to Twilight, then I wheel her right to the balcony’s edge, where she can drink in the sheer scale of my justice. A sea of ponies, thousands strong, screaming hatred her way, calling for her blood. Mares, stallions, foals, all screaming insults. Once again, they make use of the dumpsters, dipping into them and coming back with rotten veggies and half-eaten scraps, hurling it with all the strength they can muster in their little pony bodies.

Most of the trash never makes it, of course. A hundred feet straight up is a hundred feet against gravity no matter how you slice it. A linebacker couldn’t make that shot, nevermind some colorful talking horsies. Of course, I still wave my changelings forward, which proves to be pertinent as a few pegasi and unicorns manage to run the gauntlet and get in a good hit with a rotten head of lettuce or a chunk of spoiled meat. Whatever, one or two hits are alright, the flying garbage isn’t the point. The point is those screaming faces, the fact that garbage is flying in the first place. The tears streaming down Twilight’s face, tracking through a bit of spoiled marinara sauce on her cheek and staining the top of her straightjacket red, are the point. I grin again.

“Oh, cheer up Sparkle,” I announce, sidling up beside her and putting a hand on her shoulder, right in a stain left by some browning carrots. “You should smile! After all, your friends are watching.”

She looks at me in confusion, but then I point out the camera crew setup in a hotel room just across the square, in the VIP suite too. The changelings there wave around the lens aimed in her direction, the deep, black eye watching us both with remorseless accuracy. She gazes at it in horror, then bows her head again, setting back to crying softly as I back away, letting her reap the spoils of her monstrous actions. After a few minutes, I wheel her away, back behind the safety of the curtain with the crowd still screaming for blood behind us. “Now you know what it’s like,” I whisper, picking a bit of wilted lettuce out of her mane. “Now you have some idea of what it’s like to be hated like that.”

She doesn’t speak for a while as I descend to the dungeons, but then she bows her head and sniffles quietly. “There,” she whispers. “All the hatred you could have imagined, now levelled my way. Is that enough for you? Will that finally satisfy you?”

I take enormous satisfaction in leaning down by her ear and whispering: “No.”

In the darkness of the dungeons beneath Canterlot, five mares watched in growing horror as their friend was subjected to the terrors of a ravenous, furious crowd. They watched, the glow of a single screen the only light in their tiny, dreary home, peering at it through the bars of their individual cells. On the screen, a head of wilted lettuce bounced off the curtain just as it rustled shut behind the human while he wheeled the little purple unicorn out of sight.

“Darn,” Rainbow Dash muttered. “A few seconds earlier, and that would’ve nailed him right on the back of the head.”

“Oh my…” Fluttershy sniffled, barely stifling tears. “W-what happened? All those ponies just…they just…”

“Now dontcha worry, Flutters,” Applejack added, punctuating her sentence with another kick to the stringy clumps of goop wrapped around her legs. “We’ll get outta this, one way or another. Always have, always will.”

Pinkie didn't put in her two bits. She had been quiet the entire time the six had been imprisoned in this dungeon. The others didn't know she'd been crying most of that time, and of course in the darkness nopony could see her perfectly straight mane.

One mare, however, also didn’t speak up. One mare didn’t even take her eyes from the screen. One mare looked at the jeering crowds and the hatred onscreen and, of course, the repeating reel showing Roseluck’s look of disgust, and her stomach twisted into knots.

“If we’ve lost the ponies of Canterlot…” Rarity trailed off, her eyes shimmering with a strange, saddened gleam. A hoof lifted to her mouth as her head slowly shook. “My dear sweet Celestia, what have we done? Oh…what have we done?”

I wheel Twilight in nice and slow, barely even regarding the other ponies in the dungeon as they cry out for their friend, wheeling my way down the aisle to one little cage in the back. I pop it open, then with a flick of my finger, unclip the straps holding Twilight to the cart and jerk it forward. She slams into the ground with a startled cry, her hooves still too tangled in the loose bindings of the straightjacket to keep from faceplanting into the damp stonework.

I snicker as I lock her cage, leaving the cart next to it. “Until next time, Sparkle,” I chortle, striding for the door.

Applejack, her cell right next to Twilight’s, is the first to sidle up alongside the princess and whisper through the bars, thinking I might not notice. Little fool. “Twi,” she hisses. “Twi, you alright?”

Twilight responds with a choked-off gasp that just brings a smile to my face.

“Twi, don’t let them ponies outside mess with yer head,” Applejack continues with some of her wonderful farm-spun wisdom. “They’re just scared, is all, an’ willing t’blame anypony fer…”

“Or maybe they’re finally seeing you all for what you really are,” I announce, stopping in my tracks. “Maybe the ponies of Equestria are finally waking up to the fact that their heroes are frauds, and represent nothing of what they’re supposed to. Maybe they’re finally seeing you the way I see you.”

Applejack doesn’t even miss a beat, glaring at me. “Yeah? And what’s that?”

“Oh, shall I go down the line?” I ask, still not turning as I spread my arms out. “Very well.”

I’m nearest to the door, next to Rarity’s cell. She’s seen better days. Looks like she’s spent quite a bit of time crying. And – God above, is that…yes! Her mane is even unkempt! Horrors beyond all horrors!

“First, we have the elitist bitch,” I hiss. “The girl that’s suffered at the hooves of some noble shithead, the one that claims to stand for a sort of upper-class that doesn’t judge others based on where they stand in life, yet the moment something new and different came to her doorstep, it was nothing more than a beast in her eyes.

“Hypocrite,” I snarl, leaving her as tears well up in her big, pony gaze. I move on to the next cage down the line, where a little yellow pegasus lays trembling on the floor of her cell.

“Next up, we have a little pony that claims to stand for the defenseless. She supposedly represents the very aspect of kindness, capable of caring for those that nopony else will.” I press my face to the bars, glaring in at her. Her eyes lift out from under her wings for a second, then immediately dart back under. The anger flares, and I let it out through my tongue. “Until, that is, something a little bit different from what she’s used to shows up, begging for some form of aid. At that point, she becomes a useless ball of feathers, good for little more than crushing the last dying hopes of a breaking spirit.

“Coward,” I whisper before continuing on. I skip right over Pinkie’s cell. She opens her mouth to say something as I move right on past to Applejack’s cell, then closes it as she looks at my back with watery, tear-filled eyes. She meets my gaze as I stride up to her, though her look is haunted and terrified. Can’t help but respect that.

“After that, we have a little pony that’s worked her entire life, who has developed her reputation for kindness and hospitality with the other ponies of this world,” my glare intensified as that old rage ignited in the pit of my stomach. “So long as that pony looks right, though. Otherwise, they might get nothing at all. Nothing, that is, except for a buck to the stomach, an assault that is completely unwarranted and unjustified. Contrary to the reputation she’s built for herself, she sees a creature just stopping by in hopes of finding one friendly hoof in this world, and what is her first reaction? To turn that hoof against him.

“Liar,” I whisper, grinning as I do. A bit convoluted, yes, but the shock on her face as I leave her is so worth it.

Rainbow Dash glares up at me hatefully, trying to spread her wings out, but meeting only resistance from her bindings. I glare right back. “Of course, next we have the mare most responsible for adding to my misery during my time here,” I say, idly running my fingers along the bars of her cell. “Words can’t begin to do justice to what I feel towards you, Miss Dash. I can’t even begin to describe the hatred you stir in me. But I can try: you are the worst of the worst, a thoughtless, stupid bully with no sense of right and wrong except for who can and can’t defend themselves. My time here would have been miserable enough if it wasn’t for the stupid, agonizing torture you put me through for the sheer entertainment of watching me squirm, knowing I had no way of defending myself. You are the sort of sociopath we execute where I come from. And believe me, the thought’s crossed my mind. But I’m not you, Rainbow Dash, I’m not as awful and black-hearted as you are. And for that, you can thank your lucky stars.

“Monster,” I finish, turning away, leaving her stunned as my words fall on her like a tidal wave.

Stunned silence fills the dungeon, but not before I turn on my last target, the final step. Twilight Sparkle glares at me through the bars of her cell, tears still fresh on her cheeks. I just smirk.

“And you, Miss Sparkle. I’ve already said everything I need to say about you, but there’s something I’d like to finish up with: this isn’t just justice for me,” I rush up to the bars, reach through, and grab her by one of her goop-covered wings, hauling her up to face me eye-to-eye. “This is for the ones that adore you. This is for the ones back where I come from that worship you.”

Her eyes widen. “Yes, they are there, and they think you are so much more than what you are,” I hiss. “This is justice for them, for letting them down so much, for failing them so totally.”

I grin, drinking in the way she quivers at that word. “Failure,” I repeat under my breath. I spread my hands out to the room around me, turning in place. “So there you have it, the representatives of Harmony in Equestria. Fuck, I’d hate to meet your criminals if you pile of failures and bigots are the best they’ve got. But let it be said that what your princess has just experienced is nothing less than what you all put me through in those three miserable years.”

I scowl and drop my arms before striding out. “What I just showed you is a mirror. There’s only one person to blame if you don’t like whatcha see.”

Without another word, I stride out, clomping up the stairs and slamming the dungeon’s door behind me. I breathe in, and breathe out. My fists clench until my arms shake. Then my knees give out and I hit the floor on all fours.

“Sir!?” The changelings guarding the door are at my side in an instant, one of them using the butt of his spear to try and lever me back to my feet, propping it against my shoulder. “Sir, are you…”

“Yes, yes, I’m fine,” I spit, waving them off as I press myself back to my shaky, trembling feet. What I just went through was a total emotional marathon. As if my speech in the courtroom wasn’t enough, guess I still had something left inside me even after that. It feels…empty. All that hate and all those words I’d been waiting so long to say were out now, and without them it was like a gap had been left in my heart. But it wasn’t just that.

“Get a grip, Jason, get a grip,” I whisper. God, I hate this. I hate them. But…did I?

I sigh. No sense lying to myself. Yes, I did hate them, but some small part of me still loved them. That part which had watched that show in wide-eyed wonder all those years ago, that stupid, idiotic jackass who thought stepping through that portal was the best thing he could do for himself. Five years. Five years of torture and pain, and that stupid, idiotic part still wouldn’t leave me. And it was in pain right now, even while the rest of me was practically rolling in self-satisfaction.

So where does that leave me? I want to make them pay, maybe slice off Rainbow Dash’s wings, or slash the tendons in Applejack’s legs. Make those little cunts think twice before attacking somebody for no good reason.

Except…goddammit…that fucking little part of me...if I hurt them that bad, I’ll wind up hurting myself just as bad. No, I need something different, something manageable. Then a thought crosses my mind. I grin. I’ve had a year to think of the perfect vengeance for my return to Equestria, and I’ve used it well.

“Sir?” The changeling guard at my side ventures. I look up in surprise, only now remembering the guards at my sides having just watched me collapse, except the fear is back now. I can see it in the way they take an involuntary step back when I turn back to the door. “What do we do now?”

I gaze through the heavy oaken door, my grin growing. “Tell the transports to ready up,” I reply, my voice quivering with anticipation. “ Tomorrow, we’re going on a field trip.”

Author's Note

Sorry for the delay, was dealing with some emotional crap for one, but also I couldn't quite get the courtroom scene right. I knew it was missing something, turned out most of Jason's rant was all it needed, which I had written up for a deleted scene.

Chapter IX: Field Trip

Morning. A beautiful day, the sun rising over Canterlot, basking the ivory towers in a reddish glow. I grin. Luna is taking up where Celestia can’t, probably from exile in the Crystal Empire, just like I knew she would. And now, I bask in the glow of the sunlight, smiling as it warms my face.

Y’know what? I’ve always enjoyed the sunrise. It was pretty much the only thing that kept me sane during those years in that godforsaken cave. It was the signal that I’d survived another freezing night with nothing but my rags, and maybe something would go right that day. The sun always seemed to promise that, and maybe this time, it would keep that promise. It rarely did, of course, but maybe.

I breathe in the fresh morning air, giving a calm sigh as I stride out to the balcony. The only thing that makes this better is doing this after a night in Sunbutt’s bed. Hey, it’s not like she’ll be needing it anymore. She’s got a cage to serve time in.

In all honesty, shit like this is almost enough to let me forgive some ponies, especially Celestia. I know Luna’s trying her best, but the sky just doesn’t have quite that burnt-orange tint it had with Celestia’s mornings. It’s almost enough to make me forget that Sunbutt spent a thousand years building a nation on a foundation of pure hypocrisy, extolling love and harmony while trampling over the lesser races of this planet.

Almost.

“Such a beautiful morning,” I sigh as I retreat back into the room, pulling my work boots on from where I’d left them on the silk-lined couch. I smile serenely as I lace them up. “Time to completely fuck it up for some ponies.”

I stomp out of my room like a category-five hurricane hitting the Florida Keys, the guards posted outside my door falling in step behind me even as I button up my coat. A clerkling sidles up beside me, a stack of folders in his hoof.

“Ah, Histus, good to see you,” I smile even as I keep my gaze on the winding spiral staircase ahead, ensuring I don’t go tumbling head over heels. “How are things?”

“Well sir, the Crystal Empire backed down as expected,” the smaller changeling reports in such a nasally tone I’m disappointed he doesn’t have glasses to adjust while he speaks. “Their invasion forces stopped right at the border. Our screening forces are keeping an eye on them, making sure they don’t try to sneak in.”

“Excellent,” I hiss. Of course Shining Armor and Cadence backed down, they wouldn’t want anything to happen to their precious Twily, after all. I wonder, would they be so enthusiastic to protect her if they knew what she was guilty of? An interesting question, I think I’ll send them a director’s cut edition of my little broadcast from yesterday. Who knows? Maybe they’ll let up the pressure on our new borders. “Anything else? How goes public relations?”

“The city is entirely ours, sir,” the changeling reports. “No casualties since the last parts of the garrison surrendered, not even from any of the patrols in the further-flung suburbs at the base of the mountain, although…”

“Although?”

The changeling looks back at my guards conspiratorially, then motions for me to lean in. I drop to a knee real quick and he whispers into my ear: “I personally think that’s because you had the elite veterans carry out those patrols, with orders to stick to the well-lit roads.”

“Just demonstrating our power to the ponies in the surrounding areas that didn’t have the privilege of seeing our invasion first hand,” I shrug, rising back to my feet and picking my pace up right where I’d left it. “Risky in places that isolated, but I do believe having the more intimidating veterans carry them out balanced out the risk, don’t you?”

“Brilliantly so, sir,” the changeling enthuses.

“Kiss-ass,” one of the sentries snickers behind me. The changeling shoots them a glare while I pretend not to notice. My head is elsewhere, far away from little spats like this.

Still glaring, Histus continues. “Governess Chrysalis is also reporting that all is normal with the Badlands. No animal incursions from the Everfree to report, and the nurseries are ready to accept the first love shipments.”

I nod without a speck of interest, and then I go in for a metaphorical suckerpunch. “What about Ponyville? What are our reports from there?”

The snickering and heated glaring stops almost immediately. One of the guards stumbles, but keeps pace. Histus coughs, shuffling through his papers, his hooves quivering as they do so. Oh, the poor dearie, so nervous! He needs to learn to relax!

“Th-the advance parties report all clear, sir,” he says, speaking so low I almost can’t hear him. “One of the larger squads even carried out a patrol through the heart of town without encountering a pony. They apparently locked themselves in their homes upon hearing of our coming.”

“Excellent,” I enthuse, ignoring the shaking hoofsteps as I continue on through the hallways. “The citizens acted just as predicted, I’m sure we’ll have no trouble with our arrival.”

“Y-y-yes, sir,” the changeling sighs. I can almost hear his pulse from where I stand as we come to a halt at the darkened bottom of the stairs. “S-sir? Is it true what they’re saying about Ponyville?”

“That depends, Histus, what’re they saying about Ponyville?” I ask innocently.

“That…that you plan to destroy it, sir.”

I pause before the oaken door at the bottom of the stairs, my boots clacking to a stop as my gaze wanders around, as if I’ve just spotted the most interesting ceiling tile in the world. When I think the tension has risen enough, I chuckle. “No private, I don’t plan on destroying it.”

“Oh,” he and the sentries all heave a sigh of relief, one that lasts for barely two seconds.

“I plan on erasing it,” I finish, dropping to one knee to look Histus right in the eye. He hops back as a feral gleam creeps over my face. “Sounds much more permanent, doesn’t it? Erasing.”

His jaw quivers as he follows up with a couple more steps back. “Wh-whwh-wh-wha-what?”

“You see, ‘destroying’ makes it sound so impermanent. Rome was destroyed. Berlin was destroyed. Hell, San Francisco was destroyed by the big quake of '06. Yet they all managed to rebuild.” I can’t help the grin crossing my face, or the increasingly feral look crossing my face. “That won’t be happening here. Ponyville will be erased. It will become a no-pony’s land, where all will be forbidden. There will be no rebuilding, and those who remain won’t even be allowed to speak of it. It will be forgotten, as if it never was. The buildings will be burnt, the ruins left to rot, and the earth salted so nothing can grow there ever again.”

One of my sentries momentarily loses his grip on his spear. “B-b-b-but sir! Y-y-you can’t k-kill an entire ci-city!” He gasps.

“Watch me,” I snort as I step into the dungeon, leaving the changelings behind to gape after me, their bodies framed in the light. At the bottom of the moss-covered stairs, I don’t even break stride. Six cells, all crowded with the noises of their resting occupants. Just them and me. Just like I wanted all those years ago. Isn’t life grand?

“Rise and shine, my little ponies!” I announce, rattling the bars of the nearest cage. “It’s a beautiful day!”

I know I’m taking a lot of joy in this, but c’mon! I’ve won! I have everything I’ve ever wanted! Justice is finally being served!

Right?

The ponies stir slowly, groggily. A bit of hay over solid rock probably makes for a crappy bed. Then again, so does some leaves over a cave floor. I think they’ll survive if I can take that for three solid years. Yeah, it doesn’t feel so good, does it? Being forced to sleep on a cave floor…

My thoughts boil away beneath that simmering, boiling rage. They deserve this. They all do. This is a new dawn; a world set right! This is justice!

To really drive their failure home, I whip the tattered curtains away from the only window looking outside, allowing sunshine into the room.

The ponies all raise themselves onto shaking, chained hooves, their manes disheveled and filled with split ends. Of course, Twilight is the first to realize what’s going on, her pupils narrowing in the light. “But…Celestia...”

“Ding-ding-ding-ding! Give the mare a cigar!” I announce, spreading my hands out to the freshly-risen sun. “That’s right, girls, you all saw Celestia fall into captivity, and yet the sun still rises the very next day. Wow, not even twenty-four hours and the world is getting along fine without Canterlot.”

I grin at them as they look into the light with confused, bleary eyes. Of course, they don’t need to know this was likely the work of Luna, raising the sun from her exile in the Crystal Empire. In a way, it’s almost poetic that their own princess has become another tool I can use to crush them.

I go for the kill. “It’s almost like you weren’t needed at all. Almost as if everything you thought you did for harmony was just another tool used by a bigoted, hypocritical system to oppress the non-pony races of this world.” I say wistfully, still gazing out the window as if admiring the sunrise, as if the ponies aren’t really even there.

Fluttershy bursts into tears. Rainbow Dash snarls and throws herself against her restraints. Applejack and Twilight continue glaring at me quietly, and Rarity and Pinkie…just…sort of…lay there. Wow, broken already? That was quick. Pinkie doesn’t even have any of her signature poofiness in her mane. Shit, thought that would take longer.

“Liar,” Twilight hisses at me under her breath. My sharpened hearing still picks it up.

“Takes one to know one,” I reply, my gaze shifting from her to the hillbilly. “Isn’t that right, Applejack?”

AJ’s glare intensifies, her head lowering, her nostrils flaring, her massive eyes turning into smoldering emeralds in the dimness. I just grin while my soldiers file in behind me, changelings going from cell to cell, hurriedly pulling out ponies and shoving them along, up the stairs, out of the dungeon, herding them with spears and snarls.

Fluttershy is still a quivering, teary mess as fresh shackles are locked around her hooves, the ponies forced to move in a long train by my changelings, prodded along at spearpoint. I lead them down the once-pristine hallway and out of the palace, realizing it’s the perfect opportunity for a tour! If you look to your left, you can see where a statue to Celestia once stood, now a scenic pile of rubble. To your right, you’ll find the world-famous monument to the Elements, or that is, where the monument used to stand. Yes, these six statues commissioned just three months after my escape from Ponyville bore the cutie marks of each of the current Element Bearers, raised on high marble pedestals, up until their sudden demolishment just last night.

I think the columns will make a fine bathroom. A fancy, upper-class one, the kind with aftershave, toothbrushes, and breath mints, and maybe an attendant.

Of course, I don’t need to say anything during this tour. The gasps and sudden cries of despair from our little column are enough to let me know that the point is getting across. Every smashed window, every pile of disorganized rocks where a statue once stood, all driving the message home. Yes girls, the comfortable, consequence-free lives you knew are over. You’ve all dodged justice long enough.

My changelings keep us all at a brisk trot. I don’t mind the jog, and of course, most of the ponies don’t, though Twilight obviously has spent too long with her muzzle in a book if the way she’s huffing and puffing by the time we reach our destination is any indication. Don’t worry, Sparkle. We’re gonna work that fat right off of you. Our destination is an isolated square, under heavy guard, my changelings all glaring down upon us from the shingled rooftops. In the middle stands a small wagon train of cages, six in total. Rainbow Dash stops short of the sight, her lip curling up.

“Uh-uh,” she snorts. “You must be crazy if you think I’m going in…”

Before she can even finish her sentence, two of my largest changelings unhook her from the rest of the line and drag her, kicking and screaming, to her cage, throwing her in as if she were a sack of potatoes and slamming the barred door shut before she can scramble to her hooves.

The rest go without a fight, led to their little cells with hardly a whimper. The display with Rainbow Dash might have been rough, but it served its purpose. Seeing one of their strongest thrown around like a toy is enough for each of the other mares to climb into their cages, all on their own, albeit with some nasty looks thrown my way and with deliberate slowness. A flicker of a shadow catches in the corner of my eye, and I glance over, drinking in one of the few sculptures left intact in the city: a pegasus reared up on her hind hooves, glaring down at us, her eyes narrowed. In one upraised hoof, she holds a balance scale. It’s too far to make out what’s being balanced, but with that judgmental glare, I can guess this is the pony equivalent of “Lady Justice” back home. I squint up at it. This pony isn’t blindfolded…suppose justice here isn’t as blind here as it should be. Doesn’t surprise me, but the detail in that glare, the actual shimmer captured in stone; this couldn’t have been some random pony, she meant something, I’ll have to look her up...

“Applejack don’t!” I look up as Twilight’s voice pierces my thoughts. My gaze rolls wildly around, taking a few seconds to process the burnt-orange blur thundering towards me. Behind those furious, green eyes and that awful, heavy clomp, a pair of my changelings lay on the ground, cradling deep hoof marks in their chitin.

I freeze up.

Surely my guards will catch her. Surely, this isn’t happening again. Not today. Not now. Not after I’ve come so far. I can’t be back in that goddamned place again. Not again. With that hateful glare. Those hooves. Those awful, powerful hooves. My guards will catch her! Yes, yes they have to, they…

Applejack’s hoof connects with my stomach, just like it always had, just like she always did because she always aimed well, the little bitch, the little cunt, have to teach her, have to…

The old knot of anger blazes. I grasp her hoof and I flip her over using her leg as a lever, all without a sound out of my mouth. She hits the ground with a loud oof, but I follow up with a punch before she can scramble up again. Followed by another. And another, and another, how do you like it bitch, how the fuck do you like this pain, “How the fuck do you like feeling like this!? How does it feel whore!? How does it feel!? I hope it hurts! I hope it hurts even a fraction as bad as I…”

“STOOOPPPP!” Fluttershy screaming. Her high-pitched voice brings me back to my senses. I blink. I’ve been straddling Applejack, beating on her over and over. A bit of blood leaks out her muzzle as she gazes defiantly up at me. Her muzzle swells up, giving her a strange snarl. My knuckles hurt. She now sports a fresh black eye and a swollen lip.

This…this isn’t who I’m meant to be. This isn’t the calm, collected Jason Wright. This is the beaten, whipped dog Jason Wright. This isn’t the Changeling Emperor.

I stand up. She doesn’t even try to. I sneer and re-secure her leg irons, then I lean down real close by her ear.

“You’re already losing a lot today,” I hiss into her ear. “Do you want me to add more to that? One of your friends? A family member? Y’know, Big Macintosh doesn’t do a lot of talking, I wonder if he really needs his tongue…”

“Stop,” she gasps, and when I’m back up, I’m delighted to see tears in her eyes, that once-defiant glare now all wide and shimmering like a filly’s after the lights turn off and the monsters of her worst imagination come out and play in the darkness. “D-don’t…please…they didn’t do nothin’…”

“Nothing?” I ask, the rage boiling up inside again, my voice rising. “And what did I do to deserve whatcha did to me, huh!? The fuck did I ever do to you!?”

She’s just whimpering now, cowering, her eyes gleaming with tears. I scoff, utterly disgusted by the pathetic display before me. This was the bane of my existence? This was what I feared every moment I tried to grab something to eat? Still, I can’t help but twist the dagger…

“You know, in a way I think I should thank you.”

“Wh-what?”

“That day in the apple orchard, remember?” I smile at her, as if taken by a bit of nostalgia. “Of course, I was about seventy pounds lighter and had a rope around my neck, but yes, I am still that man. Hard to believe, isn’t it?”

The smile turns into a grin, earning a shiver. “Honestly, that might have been where everything had ended. I might’ve crawled off to die in my cave if it wasn’t for you. That day was the worst day of my life, the moment where all the misery finally crowded down upon me and I was at my lowest. The only thing that made it all better was what you said to me, that simple little question: ‘why?’ As if you didn’t know.”

I dart to my hands and scoop her up by the scruff of her neck, delighting in the clinking of the manacles around her legs as she struggles in my grasp, her friends all begging, screaming for me to stop. They’re so much white noise in my ears. She looks up at me as if I were a timberwolf atop her, saliva dripping from its fangs. Good, that’s the right amount of fear, that right there. “As if you had no idea, as if you couldn’t comprehend how years of intolerable cruelty could break a man, destroy everything he once was until there was nothing left! As if the abuse and isolation was something normal for you to carry out!”

I drop her, letting her hit the ground like a ton of bricks. Her hat has fallen off. I allow her to crawl along the ground to retrieve it, tears still falling, her breath coming in short gasps. I’m not done. “That moment was when the sheer wickedness of everything you represent hit me. I think they call it ‘the banality of evil,’ where I come from: how anything that is true evil thinks nothing of the shit they do, whether it’s slicing up a little girl for kicks, or treating an abused animal like scum for years on end, beating him like a slave for no good reason. I knew then just how far from the picture of a perfect, loving Equestria I had known you really were, and I knew then that Equestria had to die.

“So thank you, Applejack,” I grin at her as she finally retrieves her hat. “Without you, I would probably have just scurried off to my cave to die a long and painful death. Without you, the idea of running off would never have occurred to me.”

I dip down almost right next to her face, teeth gritting, voice now just above a whisper. “Without you, I wouldn’t be on the verge of burning down everything you’ve ever loved!”

I grab her chains and drag her to her cage, throwing her in and locking the door in a single, fluid motion. She hits the bars on the far side and peers out at me from under her hat. That gleam still hasn’t left those big, sad eyes, that odd little flicker of something imperceptible. Could it be…regret?

“I’m sorry,” she whispers, so quietly I have to stay by the bars like a kid fascinated by some animal at the zoo. “I…I broke ya down and turned ya into…this…I didn’t mean…”

I scoff, waving her off as I leave. “The banality of evil,” I hiss, but ultimately I sigh, shaking my head sadly. “I know you didn’t mean it, Applejack. But you have to understand: that just makes it worse.”

“I’m sorry.”

My sigh turns into a sneer, my stomach twisting with the rage again. “Save your energy,” I grumble, leaving her as a few of the bigger guardlings descend upon the train, securing themselves to the front wagon and moving along with little instruction. I watch the train creak forward on rusting wheels, the guards having some trouble at first, but eventually pushing themselves ahead with some effort.

“You’re gonna need it,” I mumble as I watch them go, desperately ignoring the tightness in my chest, and the sudden driving urge to run across to the train, rip open one of those doors, and strangle the life out of one of those little ponies. It’s only after they’re out of sight that I realize I’ve been grasping my wrist in my free hand, and that I have done it so fiercely that my hand aches and blood is now pooling around my nails.

So this is what I’m reduced to. Can’t even look my tormentors in the eye without hurting myself. I sigh again, dabbing away at the blood with a kerchief stolen from Sunbutt’s personal stash. Today won’t even begin to repair this kind of damage, but it’s a damn good start.

Most of the long ride out of the palace was silent. Mercifully, the streets were mostly empty. This was not a coincidence. Changelings guarded every street corner, standing in every doorway. The momentary glances from other ponies offered little in the way of comfort, mostly fearful peeks taken from under mostly-closed blinds. Those, at least, were better than the ponies that stood framed in their windows and glared down at the train, lips curled in obvious sneers of disgust, muzzles wrinkled. That these looks remained long after Jason was out of sight and only the back half of the train was visible was not lost on the prisoners.

"How?" Twilight whispered under her breath. "How could they all fall for his lies?"

"'Cause they weren't lies, Twi," Twilight turned, completely shocked, at the crestfallen pony beside her. Applejack laid at the bottom of her cage, still where Jason had thrown her, and when she looked up, Twilight saw a complete lack of light in her eyes, her once shining emeralds now just a dull green.

"Oh Applejack, not you too..." Twilight whimpered. "First Pinkie, then Rarity, now you? What's gotten into you girls!? We've been in worse..."

"I hate t'break it to ya Twi, but no, we haven't. Even when Tirek had us all caught up in those weirdo energy balls, that wasn't as bad as this," Applejack finally picked her muzzle up, and Twilight could see how it quivered. "At least then, I knew I was doin' my best and that I had a lot ridin' on me, now..." She turned over again, facing away.

"Applejack?" Twilight asked.

“I always thought I was a loving pony,” Applejack muttered, that tired gaze reflecting in the iron bars around her, just enough for Twilight to see the utter hopelessness in them. “Shoot, even now that I can remember, it’s like somepony else was usin’ my hooves. Like it wasn’t even me doin’ the buckin’…

"But that's just an excuse. It's 'cause my mind just can't wrap around me doin' it. I know that, I ain't stupid." She still faced away from Twilight, shaking her head until her hat drifted off and fell under the wheels of the train. She didn't even react at the squelching sound of the stiff leather wrinkling and cracking in the mud under them. "You wanna know why everypony believes Jason, Twilight? It's 'cause he ain't spoke a single lie since he showed up here. Not one. And folks know the truth when they hear it."

"A-Applejack..." Twilight reached through the bars to rest a hoof on her friend's shoulder, but AJ just pulled away. Something tightened in Twilight’s chest. "C-c'mon, we need to stick together if we're gonna save..."

"You wanna save somethin'!?" Applejack bolted upright and reared up, her once dull eyes suddenly blazing. "Why dontcha try savin' Jason from the hell we put 'im through!? Far as I can tell, he's the one who's needed savin' all these years, and nopony once lifted a hoof for it, he had to do it all by himself! He was right there! He was living just outside Ponyville, cryin' himself to sleep at night, and not one of us did a damn thing about it!"

A few cars down, Pinkie burst into tears. Twilight had to close her eyes to keep from following suit. When she opened them again, Applejack was curled up on the floor again, the rise and fall of her chest the only thing to indicate she was still alive, and not just an orange-colored rock in the neighboring cage. Twilight suppressed a sigh of relief. She wouldn't have been able to stare into those hard, judgmental eyes for much longer.

"Save Equestria, really darling, was that what you were about to say?"

Twilight had to turn to see it was Rarity doing the talking. It had sounded like her voice, but the words had been spoken with such venom as she had never heard from...well...most anypony's mouth. And the sarcastic way she'd said darling, Rarity didn't do sarcasm like that! It was uncouth! It was impossible for her! But lo, there she was, just a few cars down, glaring at Twilight with the same cold eyes Applejack had used.

"Y-yes...isn't that what we do?" Twilight asked, her voice without any of the conviction she had been hoping for.

"Wrong," Rarity said flatly, her gaze never breaking. "Don't you get it? We're the villains in this story. We have been all along, pretending we were heroes even as the blood of an innocent creature gathered around our hooves. We don't do the saving here, darling. Now, others get saved from us."

With that, she turned around in her cage, also facing away. Twilight's mouth opened, closed, her jaw working up and down. She reached through the bars of her cage, trying to find somepony...anypony… "Pinkie?"

The moment Pinkie's shattered, heartbroken eyes met Twilight's own, she realized what a mistake it'd been to call for her. Pinkie just shook her head, her flat strands of mane batting at her eyes, and turned back around to where she'd been laying.

Twilight sat on the floor of her cart, wishing she could wrap her wings around herself. Her eyes glimmered with tears, her chin quivered. She forced the urge to cry back with all her will, begged herself to remain brave and strong, searched somewhere for the strength that had defeated so many villains before now, because princesses didn’t cry when the pressure became too much. Even as the pressure built in her eyes and her lungs burned with the need to stutter and force a quivering gasp, princesses didn’t cry when things got tough, princesses kept…

A feather graced her hoof. Twilight’s head whipped around to the first cart behind her, and she locked eyes with Rainbow. Dash gave a half-hearted smile, and Twilight’s heart sank at the shimmer in her eyes. “Go ahead, poindexter, let it out,” she whispered. “But be quiet about it, okay? We don’t wanna give that bastard the satisfaction.”

Twilight nodded and curled up against the other mare’s hoof, offered up through the bars. She couldn’t let out the sobs building in her chest, but at least now the tears could come, and that’s just what they did. She cried for the destruction of everything she held dear. She cried for the burnt banners and the destroyed artwork and the hurt ponies, but most of all, she cried for her friends. For the decimated look in Pinkie’s eyes, for the way Applejack slumped in her cage, for the narrow-eyed look Rarity was still shooting at her, for Fluttershy’s terrified, quivering form, and of course, for Rainbow: that for even this little while, Rainbow needed to be strong enough for the both of them, and Twilight cried for being so weak.

When it was all cried out and the tears petered down to some whimpering sobs and gasps from her chest, Twilight leaned back and sighed, composing herself at last.

“Better?”

“Yes,” Twilight gave Rainbow the beginnings of a smile that she knew looked as fake as it felt, but it was something.

"Hey egghead, don't worry, alright?” Rainbow insisted, nudging one of Twi’s forelegs with a hoof. “You haven't given up on anything before, and it'd really suck for you to pick now to start.”

“I know, it’s just…” Twilight sighed and looked along the length of the train, trying very hard not to let her gaze wander through the bars of the other cages.

“Look, they’ll come around when this is all over,” Rainbow hissed. “They’re your friends! No stupid monkey-monster with an axe to grind is gonna change that, even Discord couldn’t swing that one!”

“Yes…” Twilight sighed, her brow furrowing. “Discord…do you suppose he’s alright?”

Rainbow shrugged. “He was a piece of statuary for over a thousand years before we were even born. He’s safer than most ponies right now!”

“I guess you’re right,” Twilight bit her lip, shaking her head, as if trying to shake loose a thought that just wouldn’t come out. “He’s safer than…”

It came to her all at once. She cocked her head back to absorb a little of Celestia’s sun, felt a little of its warmth on her face, and then a tree with gray bark studded in mold caught her eye. Her mouth dropped open. It wasn’t just that this was an odd-looking tree, of course, the shape of the scraggly branches as they reached up like fingers out of a sea of green combined with the oddly-linear path the moss took up its trunk were enough to catch anypony’s eye. What made this tree different was that it was distinct enough for Twilight to use it as a mile marker for one specific journey she’d taken countless times.

“Oh no,” she whispered, standing in her cage. She finally noticed the things she’d been too busy crying her emotions out to notice before: the distinctly rocky pattern of the ground, the sound their wheels made in every divot they rolled over, the distinct color of the dust kicking up behind them. Now that she was seeing it, she wondered how she could have missed it. After all, this was a trip she’d made more often than she could count.

“Twi?” Rainbow was now staring at her, also standing in her cage.

Twilight whirled on her friend, and the panic in her red, tear-streaked eyes was enough to make Rainbow’s pulse double, then quadruple once Twilight gathered her thoughts enough to form a single, coherent sentence:

“He’s taking us to Ponyville!”

The caravan made the final turn, and there it was: the clocktower that dominated the center of town, only recently dwarfed by the glimmering parapets of the Palace of Friendship. In a way, it was almost nice to see, since Twilight had almost believed she would never see it again during her time in the dungeons under Canterlot. Only now, her heart sank at the sight.

“Ohmygosh, ohmygosh,” Rainbow pranced on the tips of her hooves in her cage. She flexed her wings against their bindings. When that didn’t work, she leapt against the bars of her cage, rattling them frantically, panic clear in her eyes. “No, nonononono…”

“H-he wouldn’t…” Fluttershy whispered from under her wings, one tear-filled eye peeking from between her wings. “H-he couldn’t…”

“He would,” Rarity gasped, standing up in her cage, tears streaking from her eyes. “Oh, Celestia above, he would…”

“This is what he is now,” Applejack said under her breath, her hooves wrapping around herself as Pinkie broke into another choked-off sob. “This is what we turned him into…oh my dearest Stars an’ Bars…”

Twilight didn’t cry. She was beyond that now. In a way, she wished she could cry. Crying would help her work out some of the emotion threatening to boil over inside her. As it was, she felt like a volcano with a gigantic cork jammed into its throat, unable to release the horrible pressure inside, and feeling torn apart because of it.

Chapter X: An Audience

I’m here.

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m back in Ponyville. Only this time, the tables have turned. This time, I’m the one in control! This time, I’m gonna destroy the reason for five years of pain and misery! I grin, I’m so excited I can feel it up in my chest. That damned clocktower, the one that mocked me for so long with promises of a better tomorrow that never materialized, looms overhead as our convoy pulls to a stop in the middle of the town square. I hop down at last, ignoring the cries and the begging from the cages as I step out into the open air, taking no small satisfaction from trampling the small, immaculately-kept flowerbed by our wheels.

“S’quiet, my liege,” the changeling at my side announces with a quick salute. “Scouts report that everypony seems to be taking cover inside.”

“Cowards,” I whisper, though this doesn’t surprise me in the slightest. I knew exactly what the reaction to my convoy would be, and planned accordingly. “Have the soldiers go house to house, bring everypony out. And I do mean everyone: if a single pony is left behind, I will have the soldiers responsible doing pushups on my bedroom floor until I get tired of watching them, then they’ll be doing laps until sundown.”

“Of course, my liege,” the changeling bows and flies off as I watch him. General Hictus is one of my finest soldiers. No questions, no stammering, no excuses. Still, I do sense the trepidation in the way he carries himself as he leaves. Not that I fault him for that: he knows what’s coming, and it’s nothing like what he signed up for. Being at my side in storming Chrysalis’s keep? Sure. Coordinating the largest military occupation in this planet’s history? Why not? But this…none of my lings are even certain they want to be here. Don’t want their names to be associated with the total destruction of an entire village. But this is necessary. If my soldiers had been there two or three years ago, if they saw, if they knew, they’d understand.

I know they would understand.

I’m sure they would.

I push my thoughts aside as the square starts to fill up with ponies, most of them being herded along, some being led out of their homes at the tips of spears. One or two turn on my changelings and try to fight, only to receive the flat of a spear to the side of the head and a swift removel to a predetermined location outside of town. The disappearance of any troublemakers has its intended effect: after a while, the ponies just shuffle along in silence, finding themselves hemmed in by the very same buildings they’d greedily hoarded to themselves all those years ago.

When the square is filled, the ponies all jostling one another against the pink-tinted bricks and wood of the buildings around them, I stand on a large crate provided by a couple of soldiers, raising my hands for quiet. The whole square turns to me, immediately falling silent, fear in their eyes. I can’t help but grin. So I have your attention now, you little shitbags?

“Citizens of Ponyville!” I announce. “At long last, it is time to pay for your crimes!”

Murmurs and panicked whispers pass through the crowd. This is what I’m here for: panicked whispers, quivering gasps, cries for mercy. Music to my ears.

And then, one little brown-coated pony stands up. “The only crime I see here is you trespassing in my town, monster!” He announces, glaring at me from behind a hoof levelled my way.

He turns back to the crowd with a smile on his face, obviously expecting some form of support from his neighbors. Yeah, I’m sure that bunch of sniveling cowards will offer up their hooves for him. As expected, all he gets are wide-eyed stares and fearful glances. Confused, he turns back to face me, shrinking back at the sight of my clenched fists, which are shaking at my side as a dozen changelings level their spears upon him. All that bravado leaves in a damn hurry as my guards close in. “I-I said…” he shivers, swallows, and continues with his ears folded down. “Y-you monsters should just…just…”

“Just what? Run off and die in the woods somewhere!?” I bark, but already the tension is leaving my body, my fists unclenching. I’m regaining control. I meet his eyes with a maniacal grin. “No thanks. Been there, done that. It’s good of you to volunteer for our little demonstration, though.”

In a rush, two burly changelings literally pick the pony off his hooves and physically carry him to the stage, the ponies around them only clearing a path, not even lifting their heads to offer a nod or a smile. Fucking cowards. Too fearful of retribution to be caught offering one of their own even the tiniest bit of moral support. Have I mentioned yet how badly this town needs to be erased?

“Our first volunteer!” I announce gleefully as the pony is dropped at my feet with a loud ‘oof.’ “And what might your name be, my li’l pony?”

The pony scans the crowd, desperately searching for any help from the sea of downtrodden, fearful expressions. When none is evident, he turns to me and rears up on his hind hooves, the effect somewhat lessened by his wavering eyes and folded-down ears. “I’m Peanut Brittle, and h-how dare you trespass in my town like this!?” He squeaks.

My eyes narrow. That was a very poor choice of words on Peanut’s end. I think he realizes this as he shrinks back. “How dare I!?” I bellow, now rearing over him. “How dare you!? After years of rejection, years of throwing rocks at me after I only poked my head in, you dare stand there and lambast me for setting my foot in town!? You dare stand there and self-righteously hold your head up again!?”

“What are you even going on abo…” and then there’s that shiver once more, that weird flickering of the eyes I saw in the courtroom at Canterlot. He looks up at me, terror replacing what remained of that haughty, self-righteous hatred. “Oh my sweet Celestia, it’s you.”

“Oh good, you do remember,” I grin evilly, my head cocking unsettlingly. “Here, I was worried this town had totally forgotten me.”

“I-I’m…”

“But that’s all water under the bridge,” I wave a hand dismissively. “What’s say we forgive and forget here, hmm?”

“R-really?” Peanut’s voice quivers with a pathetic gleam of hope, one I just can’t fucking wait to crush.

“Mmh-hmm, in fact,” I clamp a hand roughly on his shoulder and squeeze, earning a pained squeak. “I’m gonna do you an incredible favor: I’m gonna make you stronger than you’ve ever been in your entire life.”

As he quivers under my grip, one of my changelings steps out of the Town Hall behind us, carrying a large, bound book in his magic. I grin. Thank God for modern bureaucracy. Cradling the tome in my hands, I start flipping through it, finally pausing at the ‘P’ section.

“Peanut Brittle, right?” I ask, my finger pressed into his name on the page.

“Y-yeah,” he stammers.

“Owner of Peanut’s Delights? Right here in the town square?” I ask, noting the address in the book before looking out over the crowds’ heads, scouring the area for the café.

“Yes, th-that’s it,” Peanut replies.

“Wouldja mind pointing it out to me? My eyesight’s not what it used to be,” I casually run my fingers through my hairline, making the scar all the more prominent.

After gaping at me for a second, he lifts a quivering hoof in the direction of a small café at the rear of the crowd. There’s a deli counter inside, and outside is a tiny dining area, adorned with oversized pinstripe umbrellas and wooden picnic tables.

I nod, and with a few motions to the changelings at my side a group of my soldiers salute and immediately start herding ponies away from the storefront. A half-dozen of the changelings break from the main group and advance on the store, eyes locked ahead.

“What’s happening?” Peanut asks weakly, his jaw quivering as the question leaves his mouth. “What’re they doing to my house?”

“Husshhhh,” I whisper, keeping a firm hand locked on his shoulder while the other strokes his mane. “This won’t take a sec. It’ll all be over soon.”

He shivers under my grasp, but doesn’t reply. As I kneel at the pony’s side, I announce: “Commander!?”

“Yes, my liege!?” The changeling standing just behind the half-dozen at the café shouts back to me.

I grin at him. “Begin when ready!”

He grins back, then raises a hoof in the air. It hovers there for a second, then drops, and the six changelings in the dining area break into a full-on riot. Umbrellas are yanked out of their holds, busted over knees, and tossed aside. Chairs and tables are scooped up and rammed through doors and windows, shattering them. Shards of glass fly everywhere as, with a burst of green magic, the pinstripe canopy over the dining area is engulfed in flames. The air fills with charred, flaming remnants as the canopy blackens and falls away, igniting what tables haven’t already been smashed up and thrown aside. When the changelings finally pause in their destruction, the dining area is clear of everything but a couple broken umbrellas and smashed, blackened table legs.

“M-my home,” tears streak down Peanut’s cheeks as he tries to stand, but my hands press him back down, his quaking knees no match for my strength.

“Wait…stop!” He chokes, his eyes wide with horror and tears. “That’s my home! You can’t! That’s my home! Please!”

“Husshhhh,” I repeat, once again stroking his mane with one hand while the other keeps him down. “It’s almost over, just husshhh…”

A few moments later, my changelings barge out of the building, trailing embers. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what they’ve been doing, the flickering orange glow following them is plenty clear on its own. Peanut stops struggling at last, settling back on his haunches, tears shining on his cheeks as he watches flames spring up around his livelihood. “Please…” he whispers one last time.

“None of that now, no tears,” I reply, wiping gently at his muzzle with the edge of my tunic’s sleeves. “It’ll all be over soon, and when it is, you’ll never feel pain again. Remember that? When I promised to make you stronger?”

The upper floor of Peanut’s Delights bursts into flame, the windows exploding outward with a crash and a rolling lick of fire. Without even looking at me, Peanut’s head rocks back and forth in a slow nod.

“Well, from this point forward, no other pain will even compare to what you are feeling right now, right at this very minute,” I whisper right into his ear, playing the devil on his shoulder: a demonic voice to haunt his dreams forever after. “From now on, every emotional obstacle that seemed so insurmountable before will look like chickenshit when compared to this moment, this loss, right here. Isn’t that just wonderful?”

Another numb nod, I’m not even sure he’s hearing me, but hell, I’m on a roll! “And do you know how I know these things, Peanut?” I ask.

A shake of the head this time. Oh good, someone’s still awake up there.

“It’s because I know what it’s like to realize the only home you’ve ever known is gone forever, and what’s taken its place is a cold, harsh, unforgiving mockery of everything you loved,” I shake my head sadly. “I can’t go back to Earth, you see: the portal I used to get here was a one-way ticket. Equestria was meant to be my new home. Too bad you little shits denied me that.”

I tap my chin in thought. “Of course, I didn’t watch everything I love and cherish go up in smoke in front of my eyes either, but then again, I came to the realization that everything I truly cared about was gone forever while shivering alone in a cold, dark cave, clothed only in a few tatters of clothing while my body wasted out from under me. So I guess it all evens out in the end, wouldntcha say?”

Peanut’s glazed, haunted stare turns to me, his head slowly swiveling on the end of his neck so his tear-filled eyes can lock with my own. “What are you?” He whispers with a quivering, gasping voice.

I grin predatorily before I make my reply: “You know all that shit you Equestrians have been locking up in the dark all these years because you didn’t want to deal with it?” I ask with a grin so wide it unsettles me just making it. “I’m something the dark has sent back.”

Patting his head, I turn him towards the crowd, sending him to join the crowd of gape-mouthed, staring ponies watching the café burn in front of them. They hardly notice the changelings fanning out among the other buildings lining the square and unlocking doors with hidden keys and lockpicks, at least until the first window crashes outward with a gout of flame.

“H-hey!” A rose-tinted pony gasps, not daring to gallop out of the crowd but levelling a hoof at a building wreathed with flames. “That’s my flowershop! You can’t burn that!”

“My house!” Another pony screeches, eyeing a column of smoke rising over the town. “That’s my neighborhood!”

“Where’s all the smoke coming from!? Are they…they wouldn’t, would they!?”

All eyes turn to me, wide, terrified, hopeless. I grin at them. “We so would.” I reply, standing up on my platform again and facing the crowd. “Now citizens of Ponyville, I guess all these pesky buildings simply have to go. Lots of plans for this area, you see. That doesn’t mean you’re welcome here, however.”

“Wh-what’re you talking abo…” a mare in the front starts, then a pebble sails through the air and glances off her shoulder. She winces, rubbing at the sore spot while turning to the offender: one of my changelings, already bending over to scoop up another rock.

“You heard ‘im!” The changeling hisses, winding up his next throw. “Go on! Get outta here!”

The mare steps back, watching this first changeling in horror, not even noticing the other changelings fanning out around the square, scooping into rock piles that had been made beforehand and rummaging through garbage pails. Nopony notices, that is, until the first rotten apple slice bursts against a stallions face and sprays everypony around him with decaying, browning gunk.

“Git! We don’t wantcha here!” Another changeling shouts, sending a hunk of rotten orange into the crowd.

“You’re not welcome, freaks!” Yet another screams, firing another scattering of rocks and pebbles into the confused and agitated crowd, the ponies now hurrying towards the exits. Some head towards Sweet Apple Acres, only to meet an impervious wall of changeling shields, blocking them from moving any further. Panic starts to rise in the crowd as more and more blockages are met, the ponies bouncing ineffectually off the shields, turning around, only finding more flying rocks, shouted insults, and the rising smoke columns rolling off their homes.

“We don’t wantcha here!” More changelings scream in unison, hurling rocks and garbage, building up the panic as the crowd is funneled along, down the streets, towards the only exit I’ve left them: the Everfree Forest.

“Not welcome!”

“Freaks! Rejects!”

“Get out!”

“PLEASE!”

That last one comes from behind me, and I whirl in place to spot a certain yellow pegasus, pressing her muzzle through the bars of her cage, tears rolling down her cheeks. “Please!” She screams again. “Please, stop!”

My eyes narrow in her direction. “Do you have any idea how many times I begged these townsponies the same exact thing?”

Her jaw drops open as she scans the square, her gaze dropping with recognition.

“Oh, so you finally see?” I ask, chuckling. “Yes, I am just chasing the townsponies out with the same methods they used on me every time I showed up to beg for a place to stay, or a warm bed, or just a bit of work to save up a smidgeon of cash. Nothing I’m doing now hasn’t already been done to me a thousand times over.”

My gaze narrows further as I stalk to the little yellow pegasus’s cage, glaring at the quivering, crying form inside. “Be grateful that I’m only making them taste their own medicine, I could be a thousand times more cruel.”

There’s that shimmer again in those massive, blue eyes, a quick gasp, and a whine builds up in the back of Fluttershy’s throat. It starts small, slowly building up, obviously moments from becoming a wail. I scoff, but still turn away, striding back to the center of the rapidly-emptying square, scooping up a few rocks and pitching them at the back of the crowd stampeding away. My anger at each of the Six may still burn in my heart, but that doesn’t mean I want to stick around and watch one of them cry over a lost building or a burning home, I’m no…

“I’m sorry!” Fluttershy cries from her cage. I pause in my throwing, a few rocks slipping free of my grasp. “I’m so, so, sorry! I don’t know why…I don’t…I’m so sorry!”

I don’t even turn around as my hands settle at my side, listening, even as the last of the crowd hurries away. “I-I don’t know why I did what I did! It goes against everything I’m supposed to stand for! Other ponies just said…I got scared…” Fluttershy babbles and chokes, her chest heaving, the last of her breath going into these words. “E-even now, when I try to look back, it feels all gray and different - but that’s no excuse! It shouldn’t have mattered what other ponies said, I’m supposed to care for helpless creatures everywhere! I’m sorry! I’m so, so, sorry!”

Listening to her weeping, something shakes inside of me. My heart quakes inside my chest. The rocks in my hand drop to the ground as my grip weakens. I gaze around in a panic, watching the smoke columns rise, the flickers off in the distance, the flames racing around the structures around us. I…what…what the hell am I…

Then the old, black rage fills in, and my heart steadies. It may look bad now, but this is not wanton destruction. This is justice. Justice for bigotry, for the downtrodden of the world, for every dark day these living mockeries of harmony have brought to the lives of the defenseless. Of course it looks bad, these ponies are designed to look good and adorable and loving!

But looks can be deceiving.

I know that better than anybody else.

I turn and glare into the six forms quivering in cages behind me. “Your turn,” I whisper through gritted teeth.

Chapter XI: Igniting Heat

He started with Pinkie Pie. The one who ignored him, and was in turn ignored. This didn’t change, even as they passed the burning ruin of Sugarcube Corner.

Twilight hadn’t thought it possible for Pinkie to look any lower, but seeing the shattered windows and smashed-up, doughy remnants of pastries now scattered and thrown haphazardly on the cobblestone seemed to break something inside of her. Pinkie simply sat down, watching with wide, tear-filled eyes, flames licking out after her while they trundled by. Her jaw gaped low at the sight of the once-pink paint now turning black and flaking off. The cages bumped over something which squeaked beneath them, and when Twilight looked back she saw one of the twins’ favorite stuffed plushies: a little octopus with multicolored legs, the colors now dulled by mud and the squeaker inside wheezing pathetically from the tire track through its middle.

“I’m sorry…” Pinkie whispered. As usual, Jason didn’t even acknowledge her, much less slow down while they passed by. After a while, she simply curled up in a ball at the bottom of her cage, hooves under her chin, a soft sob shaking her body every now and again.

“B-but Pinkie didn’t do anything…” Twilight whispered under her breath. “Sh-she probably just heard from somepony how dangerous he was and…”

“And you think that excuses it?” Twilight turned, locking eyes with Pinkie’s hate-filled and decidedly un-Pinkie-like glare, her voice low, quivering, but angry. “You think what other ponies said excuses the ponies like me? The ones who did nothing and turned our backs on everything we’re supposed to stand for?”

Twilight grew quiet then. Pinkie turned away from her and continued to cry in the corner of her cage.

Rarity was next. By the time they reached Carousel Boutique, the changelings had already smashed out the windows and torn the door off its hinges. Nopony needed more than one guess for why they were now all occupied with piling up every bit of cloth, every ponyquin, every half-finished idea, every ensemble, and every sketched-out design into a huge pile in the street.

Here, the twisted caravan stopped, positioning itself so that Rarity’s cage was just a few short feet from the closest edge of the pile. Jason turned back, grinned, then his smile faded on seeing Rarity lying on her side in her cage, not even trying to inch her way towards the bars. Obviously, he’d expected her to beg and cry, to press herself against the bars, desperately reaching for the pile in a pitiful bid to save something. The mere thought of it made Twilight’s stomach twist. Thankfully, Rarity just laid there, tears rolling down her muzzle, watching the first flickers of flame in the window of her boutique.

Then, Jason’s face twisted back into that awful grin. “Tell ya what,” he said, motioning to the pile. “You can pick one item: one sketch, dress, or fabric swatch, for you to save. Just one.”

Rarity looked up at him, lifting her head just slightly. A few more trickles of tears stood out on her face. And then she laid back down again. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

Jason took one shocked step backward, the rage slipping away for only a moment, only to return full force. “Five years too late,” he hissed before producing a small tinder and flint from his pocket. He knelt and spent a solid minute striking it over and over again while Twilight’s heart leapt into her throat. Surely, he didn’t mean for the destruction of all that beauty? Surely, he could recognize Rarity’s artistry, her craftsmanship, and spare it?

Her answer came when he stood again, orange flames racing out through the pile, branching out behind him. He grinned and glanced over his shoulder again, looking almost overjoyed to see Rarity pressed against the bars.

His smile faded when she whispered, her voice low, harsh, and desperate: “Sweetie Belle,” she gasped, sitting up suddenly. “Where is my…”

“Safe,” Jason replied, his head tilting suspiciously, as though a wild grizzly bear were presenting him with a leg of the deer it had just killed.

Apparently satisfied, Rarity’s wide, momentarily-panicked eyes settled back into the dullness that had slipped into them the day before, and she laid back down in her cage, looking right through the burning remnants of her life’s work.

“Your loved ones are all safe,” Jason announced, keeping that confused, half-tilted look on Rarity. “This isn’t about them, it’s about you.” Then he motioned to the driver, and the caravan moved along.

They trundled out of town, along streets that were only beginning to fill with smoke. Twilight recognized the route immediately: she’d only taken the road to Sweet Apple Acres a thousand times before. So she wasn’t surprised when the road took them past one of the orchards to see every tree wreathed in fire. Shocked, dismayed, and terrified, but not surprised.

Of course, that hardly matched Applejack’s reaction. She just slumped against the far wall of her cage, eyes wide, mouth agape. Her shackles rattled as she moved, clinking as she landed on her rump. And she just stared. She stared the entire time they trotted along, a tear rolling down her cheek every once in a while, her jaw working up and down. Twilight figured Jason might actually regret this punishment, because he was silent the entire time they walked.

Fluttershy’s cottage was also engulfed in flames by the time the nightmarish parade arrived, but more importantly, the cages and hutches spread out around it were all empty. She looked around frantically, muzzle pressed against the bars, her breath starting to heave in the beginnings of hyperventilation. Her eyes locked on Jason even as Twilight tried to reach for her in a desperate attempt to take her friend’s hoof. Fluttershy didn’t even spare her a glance.

Jason’s face remained at a steely neutral. His small eyes locked with her massive baby blues, remaining steady even as hers filled with tears. “Please…” she gasped. “Please, you said this was about us…some of them can’t take care of themselves…”

“I’m aware,” he replied with a shrug. Giving a theatric flare of his hands, his voice took on a mocking, saccharine tone. “I just did you a favor. If I was too scary for you to even deal with, then I can only imagine the nightmares those animals were all giving you. But no worries.”

At this, he pressed his face up against the bars of her tiny cell, grinning down at her. “You won’t have to worry about the nasty beasties ever, ever, again.”

He seemed to grow at the abject shock and horror that crossed Fluttershy’s face. Then suddenly, she threw herself at him, shackled hooves grabbing at his tunic. Jason’s eyes widened in surprise, his hands rising to defend himself even as his guards leapt into action, pressing their spears against Fluttershy’s body, prodding her neck and torso, screaming that she’d be run-through if she didn’t release their “King and Emperor.” She didn’t pay them any attention.

“I’m sorry!” She shrieked, tears matting her coat, her wings struggling against their bonds. “I am so, so sorry! Please understand that! Please stop taking out what we did to you on all of Equestria! Please, just…”

She stepped back, her hooves drifting away from his coat. The changelings’ spears remained pressed against her body. “I’m sorry…please understand…” she whispered, her head bowed.

Jason stood there, looking into her cage, hands shaking. When he straightened up again, it wasn’t with that old, stoic hatred, and for a moment, Twilight felt a glimmer of hope.

Only for a moment.

“No,” he whispered. “I don’t understand.”

Fluttershy looked up from under her hooves, tears still filling her eyes.

“I don’t understand how the six mares chosen to represent harmony and friendship itself can fail so completely,” he whispered. “I don’t understand how the six whose love and friendship was able to defeat any enemy could treat a creature so badly just for being different. I…I don’t understand…how you all could show yourselves for what you really are…and how the results could be so far from the ponies I thought I knew, the ponies who all the stories were written about.”

At this, he gripped the bars, teeth bared, his hands shaking the cage with all his strength as he glared in at his prisoner. “Explain it to me! Please! Tell me why this all happened! Tell me what was so awful about me! Tell me why you thought I had to be excluded and driven away from your world! PLEASE!”

In her head, Twilight begged Fluttershy to say something, anything to silence the ravenous creature before her, the one literally screaming at her for answers. Just something to placate him a little, still his wrath the tiniest bit. But Fluttershy just sat there, looking up at Jason with those massive, teary eyes, begging him to understand. And Jason just stood there awhile, a blank, frantic look on his face, looking as lost as a child wandering around in a crowded mall who gazed up and saw only strangers’ faces looking down at him. Eventually, he released the bars, standing away from the cages.

“God damn you all,” he whispered, fists clenching.

And the caravan proceeded.

“My turn, huh?” Rainbow Dash said, standing up in her cage. She locked a death glare on Jason, who returned with his usual half-lidded, thousand-yard stare. “C’mon monkey, go ahead. What have ya got waiting for me? My house demolished? The Wonderbolts Academy levelled? You get Spitfire herself down here to say I was never meant to be a Wonderbolt to my face?”

“No Rainbow,” he replied with tired sigh. “I’m not one to twist the knife when it’s already in.”

“What?” She asked, still glaring through the bars of her cell, but now with her head cocked quizzically.

“Oh, don’t you get it?” At this, Jason reared up, nearly slamming into the bars, causing her to rock back on her haunches in surprise as his face assumed an absolutely feral grin. “I’m never letting you go, Rainbow Dash.”

Her eyebrows furrowed. “I don’t…”

“Let me explain it to you, so that big, dumb jock brain of yours can hopefully keep up,” he continued, still glaring, teeth bared. “I’m not going to do anything to your house, there won’t be a point since you’re not gonna be seeing it again. I will never let you taste the sky again, Rainbow Dash. Your wings will remain as a decoration, so you can watch them waste away, a pair of unused ornaments that will never soar so long as you shall live.”

Her eyes widened at him, her head shaking. “No, you can’t…”

“I’m thinking of making an Imperial Proclamation,” he continued without the slightest hint of mercy. “Just in case you outlive me. ‘Rainbow Dash is never again to be allowed use of her wings in any situation whatsoever,’ something like that, but with more legalese for the lawyers, y’know? Keep it all nice and perfectly airtight for the courts?”

She suddenly rose from where she sat, glowering. “You…can’t…take…that…from me…” she growled. “That’s my talent, that’s everything. You have no right to take that from me!”

Steam rose from her nostrils as she advanced. Jason looked at this display with that same nonchalant stare. “I’ve seen what you’ve done with your talent,” he said, even as he stepped back to avoid her head as she squeezed it through the bars. “Anyone who uses what powers they have to torture and maim the helpless doesn’t deserve them.”

She screamed, spittle flying from her exposed teeth, head whipping side-to-side as if she were trying to physically force her way through the bars. And even through it all, Twilight could see the tiniest smile curling at Jason’s lips, the satisfied way his head tilted back against Rainbow’s outburst.

This was the reaction he’d been looking for. This was what the night had been planned for all along.

After some time, when the worst of the screaming and bucking and yelling inside Rainbow’s cage had apparently passed, Jason tutted. “Such a nasty temper,” he sighed. “What would that little pegasus filly think if she could see you now?”

Rainbow didn’t even reply, only stood there with her shoulders heaving and her wings straining against the goo caked into them.

He shook his head. “In the end, it’s really a shame,” he sighed. “I would’ve liked to see one of your sonic rainbooms, once upon a time. Now, I think it’d just bring back bad memories.”

Rainbow Dash stopped at that. In an instant, the anger and hatred evaporated, replaced with the same look she gave Twilight whenever she tried to explain Starswirl’s theories on Quantum Entanglement. “Wait, what?” She asked.

Jason shook his head and started walking away from the cage, but after a few steps he paused and cast a look over his shoulder. This time, that thousand-yard stare seemed locked right on her, yet still sailed right through her, as if he’d been browsing through thousands of pictures of Rainbow Dash throughout his life and this was just another mediocre attempt at capturing her essence. “You were my favorite,” he croaked, and continued walking away. Rainbow looked after him, dumbfounded, and started to struggle anew.

“Rainbow, stop,” Fluttershy whispered.

She didn’t listen, throwing herself against her restraints. With a shout, Rainbow leapt at the bars wing-first, apparently hoping to bang the goo off. When that didn’t do anything, she rammed the cage headfirst, earning only a slight rattling for her efforts.

“Rainbow, please stop!” Fluttershy insisted, a little louder now, finally pulling her head out of her hooves.

Tears streaked from Rainbow’s eyes as she reared back, delivering a powerful rear buck to the cage doors, once again only earning a mild rattle. Her shoulders heaved, and she quickly spun, repeating the buck in rapid-fire succession.

“Rainbow, you’re just going to hurt yourself! Please!”

Finally, Rainbow did the one thing nopony expected: she cried. She lifted her leg for another buck, and then it dropped. She collapsed to the floor of her cage in tears, wailing into her hooves.

“Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy whispered and, with tears still drying on her own cheek, closed in as near to the bars as she could and offered a hoof.

Rainbow took it as if she were a filly being offered her favorite teddy. “H-he knew about the sonic rainbooms, ‘Shy,” she sobbed, nuzzling into the offered hoof. “I never did them in Ponyville, he only ever could’ve found out if he’d already known…if he was a fan…if he…was…one of my fans…”

Her head tilted back and a long, terrible sob ripped up from her throat, the sort that started low and built to a long, echoing cacophony, the sort of cry a filly might echo on realizing her puppy had just died: the kind that just built and built until it had nowhere to go, and kept going until it became a long, dry rasp from a failing voice. Her head finally flicked down and she collapsed into her hooves, her wings now shimmering in the light from the fire.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, her voice now beyond raspy, now barely even audible. “I’m so, so sorry…”

“We all are,” Fluttershy whispered, fresh tears springing to her face. Even so, she looked over to Twilight’s cage, where the princess continued to watch the destruction around her with the sort of look one reserved for watching any natural disaster level her home. “At least, I think we almost all are.”

“A little late for crocodile tears, don’t you think?” Six pairs of eyes swiveled to meet Jason’s own, only one pair was still dry, still defiant; the rest looked broken beyond repair. He regarded them all with the same cold calculation.

“And then there was one,” Twilight scoffed, still meeting Jason’s glare as the others looked away. “So c’mon, Wright, what do you have in store for me?”

He grinned as the caravan trundled along towards the Palace of Friendship, the towering parapets and glimmering walls suspiciously lacking in smoke. Twilight arched an eyebrow as they pulled up to the empty front lawn, looking around. “So, where is the pile of burning books?” She asked, almost sounding disappointed.

“Burn knowledge? Just what do you take me for, princess!?” Jason gasped, going so far as to poise a hand over his heart and fan himself with his free hand, a motion Rarity was only too familiar with. “I will admit, however, that some sacrifices will be made.”

At that, a pair of changelings walked out of the palace, arms filled with scrolls. Twilight frowned. “Those aren’t books,” she said.

“No,” Jason replied, striding over as the changelings dumped the scrolls on the lawn and retreated back inside. He stood in front of the small pile, that wicked grin never once leaving his face. The changelings again returned, carrying more armloads of scrolls, which were also unceremoniously dumped into the pile. Still, the grin remained as he whirled around, facing the caravan again. “This is every letter you and your little friends have written to the princess.”

Twilight’s eyes widened. She bolted to her hooves, then slowly leaned against the bars, mouth open in horror. “Y-you wouldn’t…” she whispered.

Still grinning, Jason extended his hand, and a changeling from the caravan leapt forward with a torch flickering in its hooves.

“Y-you can’t!”

“I can,” he replied, turning again and regarding the pile. He extended his arm out over the scrolls, the torch now flickering carelessly just a few yards from everything the ponies had learned about the magic of friendship.

“Please!” Twilight screeched, now pressed as tightly against the bars as she could go. “I’ll do anything, please!”

At that, Jason’s quivering hand paused. He turned to her again, the grin no longer present, replaced with that thousand-yard stare again. “Anything?”

She nodded desperately.

“Take back the last five years.”

She stood back from the bars, head bowing low. “Jason,” she whispered breathlessly. “You know I can’t…”

“Take back the last five years,” he hissed, teeth baring, a dark glare rising over his features. “Undo every buck, every lightning strike, every thrown rock and piece of flying garbage. Erase the cold, lonely nights in my cave, crying myself to sleep with nothing but the tattered remains of my old clothes for warmth. Take back the times I hated myself for being what I am, for not being something you could love as you loved each other. Take away the knowledge of what true hunger feels like, what total desperation feels like, what it feels like to want to die!”

At that last bit, his voice dropped to a furious growl. Twilight backed away from the bars. And still, Jason never relented, even as his chin dropped and he glared into her eyes with half a decade of pain and misery focused in his stare. His fingers ran over the long scar, tracing it all the way up through his hairline. “Take this away, and most of all, give me back what you stole. Give me back my heart, my love, my peace, and my ability to get some fucking rest without thinking about that goddamned cave you left me to die in!”

Twilight looked at him like a deer in the headlights, still stunned, unable to process the sheer volume of his tirade. Jason met her gaze, and finally sighed. “Of course you can’t,” he muttered, then, in a single fluid motion, he whirled and plunged the torch into the heart of the pile.

Twilight pressed herself to the bars again, tears building in her eyes. “Please!” She cried, only this time she was totally ignored as the flames rose over the scrolls. Every lesson, every “Dear Celestia,” every intimate, friendly moment shared with the princess, vanishing in a flickering orange blaze. She couldn’t scream, she couldn’t cry, she couldn’t beg, she could only sink to her haunches and stare with abject horror.

Something shattered within the castle. Twilight could barely muster the strength to look up from the burning pile on the lawn, just catching the moment another changeling spell smashed against the starburst-shaped pattern on the castle’s facade, scorching it.

“Well, that greatly improves this eyesore, dontcha think?” Jason chuckled, turning back to the princess. “Oh, don’t worry, I’m not going to destroy the whole castle. Do you have any idea how long that would take?”

Twilight said nothing, surprised at herself when she couldn’t even find the energy to try and calculate an answer to that question, just to have something to do, just to distract herself. Surprised and dismayed that instead of howling something clever and defiant Jason’s way, she could only find the strength to lay there in her cage and look through the burning embers of her friendship reports.

“Not worth the time,” Jason waved a hand dismissively after a few moments. “Instead, I’m wiping out all traces of you in it. Just like I destroyed your statues in Canterlot, just like my changelings are, right now, smashing every stained glass window and burning every record of you in it. When I’m done, the only thing left on this planet with your name on it will be a fucking birth certificate.”

She didn’t bother to look up at him again; she knew where this was going. Odds were he knew she’d figured it out too, but he just wanted to twist the knife.

“I’m going to erase you, Twilight Sparkle. All your accomplishments. Everything you defined yourself by. Gone forever. You will die, and you will take your name with you. In a hundred years, nopony will even remember anything you’ve done.” He grinned wickedly. “Including the abuse you levelled my way, so hey, some good’ll come of it, right?”

She forced her eyes shut, blinking back tears. “Ponies will…”

“They’re mortal, Twilight, and you know as well as I do that mortal memory can be such a fickle thing,” he sighed passively, studying his nails as though he saw something more interesting there than the princess before him. “One minute everybody’s singing your praises, the next the only time they wanna talk to you is to ask: ‘well, what’ve you done lately?’ And that’s if they even think of you at all.”

He grinned at her over his fingernails. She shivered within her bonds. “That’s my goal for you, Twilight, and that’s what I’m planning to take away. Everything you’ve done, completely and utterly erased. I may not be able to hold you forever, but I can guarantee that when you finally do get out, you’ll be dropped in a strange world that sees nothing when it looks at you. Sound familiar?”

Her jaw working up and down as she fought back the sobs, Twilight gazed around, head whipping in every direction out of desperation. Rarity and Applejack faced away from her. Fluttershy still cried into her hooves. Pinkie Pie only barely acknowledged her with a sideways glance before turning away in her cage. Only Rainbow Dash met her gaze, scowling through the bars.

“R-Rainbow?” Twilight asked, reaching out for her.

The pegasus drew away. “You deserve it,” she hissed, tucking her muzzle back into her hooves.

Twilight fell back on her haunches, her face vacant and filled with tears. In that moment, she realized she was at her lowest. In that moment, she had hit rock bottom, and everything she’d known was gone forever. The loving, comfortable world of just barely a week ago had changed, and someone was going to make sure that she wouldn’t be included in the new one. This was it. This was what it looked like to be at her lowest.

And then, somepony handed her a shovel and told her to keep digging.

“Twilight!” A voice cried over the flames. At first, she didn’t register it, but then it hit her. Her eyes widened. Oh no…he can’t be here! Please tell me he isn’t here!

The thought was so awful, just so utterly terrible, that at first she didn’t want to believe it. But then it came again: “Twilight!”

“N-Spike!” She cried, leaping to her hooves. All eyes in the little yard widened in surprise as they locked on the little, purple dragon, now standing in the doorway, looking over the lawn with the shocked eyes of a child in a warzone.

Spike’s didn’t seem to know where to look, his narrow pupils darting over the changeling guards, the burning pile, the caravan of cages, and the human standing in the middle of it all, who looked as surprised to see a purple dragon as the dragon was to see him. Finally, Spike honed in on Jason, and he glared.

“Let my friends go! Now!” He screamed, raising a small, chubby fist in the air and shaking it. If anything, Jason still looked surprised, as though Spike literally couldn’t be where he was standing, even as he leapt down from the doorway and scooped a partially-burnt scroll out of the fire, wielding it like a sword.

“I said let them go!” He repeated, holding the scroll over his shoulder, ignoring the burning embers bouncing off his scales.

“Spike, don’t!” Twilight cried.

“Put it down, you li’l idiot!” Applejack screamed beside her, knowing full well how a full charge against Jason Wright could end.

The dragon didn’t appear to hear them, still waving the stick in the air. He let out a cry and charged, running as fast as his little legs would carry him towards the Changeling Emperor.

It was no good, of course. Long over his initial shock, Jason easily seized the end of the burning remnant and, with a twist, not only deflected Spike’s attack and sent him sprawling but wrenched the weapon out of his claws. Spike fell to all fours in the grass with a little grunt, immediately trying to press himself to his feet, only to be scooped up by Jason’s powerful arms.

“D-don’t hurt him!” Twilight shrieked. “Please, don’t hurt him!”

“Lemme go!” Spike screamed as he struggled to no avail. Jason held him tight against his side, an arm wrapped around Spike’s barrel. The baby dragon’s fangs and claws were no match against the cotton armor around the arms holding him. Finally giving up on trying to claw his way out, Spike settled for trying to squirm free, reaching for Twilight as his struggling became more desperate and tears started to fall from his eyes.

“Twiliiigght!” He cried, reaching for her.

“Spike! Stop, don’t fight them!” She cried. “Just stay safe! I will find you again!”

“Twilight!” He cried again, this time with a cracking, wavering voice as tears poured down his chubby cheeks.

For his part, Jason only made a single, swooping motion with his free arm as he carried the dragon away, and suddenly, the caravan jerked into motion.

“Spike…” Twilight moaned, and then she too sank to the bottom of her cart, her heart shattering in ways she would never be able to put into words. In the corner of her mind, she wondered if this was what Jason meant. If this sort of pain was the kind Jason was talking about.

She could only hope so. She quivered at the thought of there being something even worse to suffer from out there. As it was, she could only gaze through her tears at the fading silhouettes in the flames, and wonder if she would ever feel whole again.

Chapter XII: Burning Fuel

The job is complete. Ponyville is in flames, I’ve destroyed everything my enemies ever cherished. And I’m dealing with a baby dragon throwing a tantrum.

“Let go of me!” Spike screams, pounding and clawing away at my armored sides. Completely without any regard for what Twilight told him to do, mind you. Obviously, Twilight never taught him discipline, so on top of a failed princess, she’s also a failed mother figure. Excellent.

“Put me down!” He continues. “Gimme back my Twily!”

Finally, I chance a look over my shoulder and make sure no little caged ponies are still in view. Scowling, I scoop Spike up and shift my grip until my hands are locked around his barrel, holding him up until he’s at eye level. Immediately, all the furious bravado in the little drake fades away. He avoids my eyes, and I feel a shiver race up his spine beneath my fingertips.

“J-just…” he shivers, swallows. “Just let us go. Please.”

I shake my head. “You’re too young to understand the crimes of your adopted family, kid,” I rasp. “Just know that I realize how drastically your life is gonna change, and that I am sorry for it. You did nothing to feed into the bigotry that plagued this town, I know you didn’t, and yet here you are, watching something this awful.”

He just shrinks under my grasp. “Y-you don’t have to do this, mister,” he whimpers.

“That’s the thing, Spike: I do. And someday, I hope you understand that.” I set him down, where a couple of my changelings are at his side in an instant. His little shoulders sag. It’s obvious he isn’t going anywhere. “Take him to the others,” I command. “Make sure he’s cared for.”

The changelings salute and lead him off, gently, as if they were his guardians rather than his bondsmen. I nod my approval after them. Tonight has gone exactly how I wanted it to go. Well, not exactly, the Elements’ reactions weren’t what I’d thought they’d be, except maybe Twilight or Rainbow Dash.

Maybe that’s why I feel so empty right now? Even after the culmination of two years of dreaming? Even after all the planning and suffering and strife has finally paid off?

Whatever, it’s time for a few closing words to wrap this thing up. I return to the town square with a few of my guards. My changelings are already gathering there. They all stare up at me. I can see the faraway glance in their eyes, the lack of conviction in the salutes thrown my way as I retake my position on the pedestal before them, the forlorn glances tossed at the burning buildings. I understand.

“A lot of you probably have mixed emotions about tonight,” I start. I don’t even have to pause to let them quiet down, the place was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. “Yes, tonight was not a triumphant battle, it was an attack against a defenseless enemy. An enemy is still an enemy, but make no mistake: there is no honor in what we have done here.”

A few nods in the crowd follow my words. I smile easily. “But also realize, though they were defenseless, they were the key to a system of oppression and bigotry.”

I spread my hands out. “They maintained the façade of innocence, but they are no innocents! The evidence of that is before you, my changelings! And it has been all around you: in the eyes of a starving nymph begging for love we don’t have, in the groans of the hungry of our hives, trying to sleep despite aching stomachs!”

A little bit of the old gusto I’ve spent years building up in my army flashes back. A couple rounds of “here-here!” follow.

“Yes, to see a civilian’s home up in flames is a tragedy, but does anyone here honestly believe a single pony from this town would have lifted a hoof if it were their own nests in flames? If their own families were begging for help from some burning ruin, does anyone here think a single pony would step forward!?"

“No!” The entire front row thunders, their muzzles twisted in disgust and anger.

“Of course not! We are not like them, my changelings! We are not part of their oh-so-perfect world! To them, we are meant to remain in the darkness forever! To remain happy with our places in life, even if that place involves laying in a cave, starving to death while they enjoy warm, hot meals with the comfort and love of their families!” My fists rise, clenched before me. “Is that fair!?”

“NO!” Now the entire crowd is in on it.

“Is that just!?”

“NO!”

“Then leave here, knowing that this is not revenge, this is not some punishment ladled out for no reason!” I scream, my throat beginning to constrict from the combination of screaming and smoke from the smoldering facades around us. “This is justice! This is the triumph of righteousness! This is the fall of evil!”

My changelings roar their approval, and I grin. I toss my head back and inhale, breathing in that smell of justice, listening to the crackle that is my righteous punishment being delivered, and hoping that will finally fill the gaping hole in the pit of my stomach.

And then, something new drifts on the wind. A cry for help.

A filly’s cry.

Oh, you little idiots.

In a flash, I’m off down the street, running as fast as my boots can carry me. My guards are at my side, galloping to keep up without even being asked, all forgetting about the frightened ponies being herded into the woods and the angry and confused changelings rallied up behind us.

“Captain!” I bark. “I thought you said you scoured every building before you lit the torches!”

“W-we did, sir!” Hictus gasps at my side, struggling to keep up. Even as he speaks, the cry repeats itself. “Some foal must have gone back into their house after we swept it!”

Damn, that sounds just stupid enough for a pony to do. “We’ll talk about this later,” I growl. Right now, I need to keep from becoming a child-killing monster. I may be willing to destroy a nation for what’s happened to me, but I’ve got enough blood on my hands from my long journey through the Badlands and beyond. I have no intention of adding some kid’s blood to that.

We are rushing shadows in the night, our way lit by the flickers of flame from the city, my boots clacking in time with my soldiers’ hooves. My ears are perked, but for the most part, I let my guards take the lead. Their changeling ears might have missed the cries in the first place, but now that they know what to listen for, they’re far more tuned than a human’s ears ever could be. When the lead changeling darts to the right, we follow without a word. Somehow, despite the smoke stinging their lungs and summoning coughing fits, the changelings never waver. I’ve trained them well.

Finally, the leader stops in the middle of the street, head turning, scanning a row of houses engulfed in flames. We pause behind him, trying to catch our breaths. After a few minutes, I pass around my mask, letting my guard regain their strength through the rebreather. Once the mask does its rounds, the lead changeling points to a single house with flames curling out the front door.

“Shifting in the upper levels,” he says. “Could be the wood beams in the heat, or…”

“Could be a dumbass filly that went back for her dollies,” I growl, strapping the mask on tight and striding up to the door, giving it a good kick. It amazes me that just a couple years ago, my foot probably would have just bounced right off the door and shattered a weakened, malnourished ankle. Now though, my boot splinters the door with ease, which only unleashes a torrent of smoke that has my guard stepping back and coughing.

“You all stay here,” I order, waving them back.

“What!? But sire, we…”

“That’s an order, goddammit!” I repeat, then thinking better, I twist and point to one of the spear-wielders. “You! Gather some changelings up with blankets and buckets of water. If I’m not back in five minutes, have them attempt a rescue!”

“Yes sir!” He announces, running off into the night.

Nodding after him, I turn to the next changeling in line. “And you can get some medics! Even if I get out without a scratch, I doubt whoever’s in there is gonna be in the best of shape!”

“Of course, sir!” He salutes before galloping off. Gotta love the career soldiers.

With that settled, I turn back to the door, where at least most of the smoke has drained from the room. I can just thank Christ almighty I didn’t trigger a backdraft with my first adventure into firefighting. It would’ve been a pretty shitty way to end my struggle here, on the doorstep of some dumbass ponies who didn’t know to avoid burning buildings, but I guess it’d be sort of fitting that a pony would get me killed at some point.

As it is, the heat rolling out the door is enough to suck the air right out of my lungs. “My Emperor,” Hictus again. I turn to him, glaring through my lenses. He meets my gaze: stoic, confident, everything I ever wanted in a soldier and more. He takes a few breaths, head turned away from the roiling flames of course, and continues. “Perhaps this is folly. You are surely more valuable to us than one little foal. And besides, are they not part of this town? She or he or whoever is in there surely holds some of the values for which this town has been destroyed. Is that really worth risking you, the leader who has taken us from the Badlands to here?”

I turn back to the doorway, my fists clenching and unclenching, eyebrows hunched in thought. Those are good points. The changelings need their leader now more than ever, especially at this juncture. The Crystal Empire has an army camped literally on our doorstep, and my death could be all they need to send the changelings flying back to their homes, but this time with a vengeful populace on their backs.

Except…

No, absolutely not. I refuse to have a kid’s blood on my hands. That would validate everything every frantic, shrill-voiced little bitch in this town screamed at me every time they went for the garbage and rocks. “Coordinate with the others, Hictus,” I grumble as I step forward. “I’ll be back in a sec.”

I tromp through a kitchen blanketed in smoke, and I’m ashamed to say I take some satisfaction in looking at the blackened paint peeling off the walls and the once-pristine tablecloth now flaming at its edges. I like to imagine that the ponies who lived here were at the head of at least one of the rock-throwing sessions that chased me out of town. Of course, I can’t help but avert my eyes from the fridge covered in crayon drawings. Sorry you had to pay for your parents being hate-filled little cockbites, kid. But you won’t be paying with your life. Not if I have anything to say about it.

Past the kitchen, in the hall, the heat becomes almost unbearable. My cotton armor saves my ass again, keeping my skin from being scorched, but that doesn’t keep my lungs from searing, hitting me with a tingling sort of pain that ripples through my chest with every breath I have to drag through the respirator. Dammit. This…this is actually pretty stupid. I could seriously die in here. Kid, you better grow up to be a saint or something.

The hall is roiling with heat, the air shimmering, smoke funneling along the ceiling. I tromp up the stairs with flames licking at my heels. Better hurry: a wooden staircase like this is practically dry tinder. Could burn while I’m up there, and then me and the foal are both in trouble.

“Fuckin’…A…” I grumble, stumbling through the upstairs hallway. The smoke and heat are almost unbearable up here, to the point where it stings my eyes even through the mask. Flames rip from the ceiling, peeking down at me through knotholes as little jets that break through the smoke. Seriously kid, you better find the cure for cancer or something for what I’m going through to save your ass.

“Hey! Hey kid!” I call, punctuating myself with a few jagged coughs. Damn. Really can’t breathe or focus in here. Gotta hurry. “Kid! Where’re ya!?”

For just long enough for me to wonder if the cry that lured me up here was part of some elaborate assassination scheme, the only sound is the roar of the flames all around me and the crackle of buckling wood. Then, the cry repeats itself, and I grimace behind my mask as I realize it’s coming from behind the most stout-looking door on the upper floor. Dark oak. Powerful enough to serve as an outer door. Fuckin-A, because it can’t be easy, can it?

“Don’t move!” I scream, mustering up all my strength for one kick to the doorknob. It gives just a bit, nudging in the frame with the squeak of wood pressed against wood. Shit, okay, kick number two, which earns me a little jagged splinter near the doorknob. Okay, so about number three…four?

Four did it, thank Christ. The door flies open with the knob warped and twisted into a misshapen lump of brass, bouncing into the flames in the corner of the room. I see the foal almost the instant I step inside: a small, earth pony colt with a tan coat and blonde mane. No cutie mark yet. So, odds are he was probably tortured by that Diamond Tiara cunt, oh nice.

That reminds me, I gotta pay a special visit to her house. Even if she was following the example set by the intolerant fuckheaded adults around her, that doesn’t excuse her behavior in the show. Besides, a rich, spoiled little princess with an oblivious, dolt-headed father deserves to see everything she’s got go up in flames.

I scoop up the colt in one arm and toss him over my shoulder, pushing thoughts of Miss Tiara’s house in flames away. That will come later. Right now, I need to focus on survival. Tromping back towards the door, I pause for just a second. My heart drops into my boots.

“Aww, shit,” I mutter, eyes widening behind the mask. The staircase is just gone. In its place is a roaring inferno, the narrow hall acting like a chimney with me and the kid standing right in its path. Now, I may not be an expert, but that probably means we’ve got about five minutes until I’m turned into a pile of ash. All over a stupid pony born from a stupid, bigoted shithole excuse of a town, who was too stupid to not run into a burning building.

Have I mentioned yet that I am a brand-new level of retarded? Because I am a brand-new level of retarded.

Booting the door shut, I take a deep breath, then set my eyes on scanning the room. Through the caked-on soot and billowing smoke, I can make out a small bed, too heavy to use, and a bookcase. I immediately turn towards the window, then back at the squat bookcase.

Okay, yeah, that’ll do.

Laying the foal out on the bed, I muster whatever strength the heat hasn’t robbed from me and tilt the case forward, spilling all manner of cheapo, drugstore paperbacks out on the floor. Then, I heave the whole thing over my shoulder and give it a good, two-handed toss, right through the window. The glass shatters immediately, and fresh air rips into the room. I breathe easy, feeling some strength return as I squat out the window, shouldering the colt again.

“Sir!” I look up to see one of my soldiers hovering in between little flickering spurts of flame engulfing the shingles. Without a word, he takes the foal from my shoulder and bears him down to the ground, immediately offering the kid up to the medics I ordered. I sigh and scramble out onto the roof, finally breathing easily. A few shingles give under my weight, but a couple more of my changelings are at my side in a flash, helping me down until I’m safely on terra firma again.

I collapse, ripping off my mask and greedily sucking down fresh air. “Fucking…A-“ I stammer.

“Sir?” One of the medic-lings has broken off and turns to me, giving me a quick once-over with a concerned little frown. “Sir, are you alright?”

I just wheeze and point to the foal, now being handled and fawned over by the best medical experience in my Empire. “That kid…better grow up…and cure AIDS.”

“Sir?”

“Nothing, nothing,” I wave her off. “I’m fine. Just get him to where he belongs. Try and track down his parents once you’re there.”

“Of course, sir,” the medic nods and flitters off with a buzz of her wings, adding herself to the growing mob around the colt. I sigh and roll over onto my back, drinking in the soft, cool grass and whatever night air can make it through the columns of smoke. That…I will admit, that could’ve been nasty. But I think I handled it well.

I turn to my side, still wheezing and gasping as I put myself in the recovery position: arm extended out under my head as a pillow, other arm crossed over myself with my hand propping my chin up, legs bent a little to keep me from rolling over. I don’t pass out, but it’s good to have in case I do.

I rest there for a few minutes, gathering up my strength, and also gathering up a crowd. A pack of changelings deflect from their objectives temporarily, crowding around me with faces filled with concern.

“S-sir?” One changeling asks, his spear aimed skyward with the shaft resting on the ground. “A-are you…”

“M’okay,” I mumble, pressing myself to my knees (and nearly reeling with the dizziness just sitting up triggers). “The heat got to me, is all.”

“S-sir…” that changeling pauses, then glares and stands at parade rest, his chest thrust out, a look of determination in his eyes. “Permission to speak freely, sir!”

I cock an eyebrow at him. “Granted,” I reply through puffs and gasps.

“That was one of the bravest things this changeling has ever seen anyone do for anyone else, and he wishes for you to know it, sir!”

On the inside, I chuckle a bit. But outside, I keep my face rock solid, totally neutral. Finally, I shrug. “Shouldn’t have been necessary,” I grumble. “Blame the idiot parents that let their kids run around a disaster area, fuckin’ morons.”

“Would you like us to track them down, sir?”

“Could you, please?” I reply, finally sitting up. “I have a feeling I’ll need to scream at something later on.”

“Yes, sir. And…how did your…demonstration go?” The changeling motions over his shoulder at the caravan fading away amidst the flames.

I reflect back. All in all, I got crocodile tears of apology from most of them, except one. One little pony had refused to break. I can’t help the smile that rises to my face, however, as it just so happens that I have a secret weapon for that specific pony.

“Pretty well,” I reply. “But one last thing: could you have the royal guard prepare themselves for a prisoner transport back in Canterlot?”

“Umm…yes sir,” the changeling cocks an eyebrow at me, then looks over his shoulder at the fading caravan, and back to me. I can already see the million-dollar question forming in his eyes before he voices it: “and who will we be transporting, sir?”

My grin turns positively evil at that. “I did say ‘royal,’ didn’t I?”

The changeling’s eyes widen. “Y-yes sir, of course, her.”

“Yes, her,” I reply, stepping away and striding on down the path, my legs still shaking from the heat and exhaustion, and my breath still coming in mild coughs, but still desperate to put on the show of a victorious general. Appearances are everything, after all.

“One last issue, sir,” the changeling says, striding after me.

“Go on,” I reply, my head still held high.

“I heard a rumor that the Everfree camp was still short-staffed,” he replied, fidgeting with his spear. “If your majesty wishes it…”

“Feel like alleviating your conscience there, private?” I ask, still not even looking the changeling’s way.

The guardstallion nearly trips over his own spear, recovers nicely, and resumes his stride alongside me, albeit with somewhat less gusto and with his head hung low, so that his helmet covers his eyes.

“No need to hide it, private,” I chuckle. The changeling doesn’t say anything in return, just starts to veer away.

“I’ll return to my rounds,” he whispers quickly, veering off our path.

“Okay, but where are you going?” I reply, pointing in the direction towards which the ponies had all been stampeded. “The Everfree camp is that way.”

The changeling stops mid-step, then turns to me, his blank eyes meeting mine as a smile sprouts up on his face.

“Oh, go on!” I wave him off. “No need to be shooting me the puppy-dog eyes! I was planning on rotating most of the soldiers here through the Everfree camp at some point or another, anyway.”

“I…thank you, sir!” He gasps, a hoof rising in shaky salute. “I-I’ll do my very best, you won’t regret it!”

“Sure private, sure,” I wave him off. “Just get going, those guys are gonna have their hooves full tonight.”

Nodding enthusiastically, the changeling lifts off into the sky, wings buzzing, his spear trembling so hard I can see it as a wavering stick off to his side even as he becomes a black speck in the distance. I smile as he flies off. It’s a good thing he’s off to go do, and he could use it.

After all, it’s not just the ponies that need to be reminded we’re not all monsters.

Spike wasn’t in Canterlot, and so he could hardly believe it when news came down that the city had been attacked by changelings. “Again?” He had gasped. He’d been dining out at a little outdoor café called Peanut’s Delights, which had recently started importing gems from the Crystal Empire just for him. He didn’t usually dine out when Twilight was around, she had a surprisingly frugal streak that made it nearly impossible to go out more than once a week. But hey, what was wrong with splurging a little when she wasn’t around?

It had been such a perfect day: the sun was out, the ponies were happily trotting throughout the square, Mr. Peanut had just brought him a gem the size of his fist, and Twilight and her friends were in Canterlot celebrating Discord, in a surprise twist. To think, one of their worst enemies was now receiving a lifetime friendship achievement award! If anything stood as a testament to friendship and harmony, this was it. Everything had just been so perfect as he took that first bite into his gemstone that it made it all the more jarring when the first guardstallions arrived with announcements proclaiming the attack on Canterlot.

Things had happened so darn quickly after that. Militia had been mustered, shivering ponies wearing pots as helmets and holding gardening equipment as weapons to bolster the few real guardstallions in town. Then, just when he’d found a pillow to use as a shield (which hadn’t been an easy task, as Twilight always bought good pillows that he might miss, not those stupid, scratchy, decorative ones like Rarity had all over her Boutique), another few, scattered stallions proclaimed that the fighting was over, and Equestria had lost.

That news had been a blow to the gut. Deep down, Spike had believed that the girls would handle Chrysalis again. Deep down, he hadn’t really thought the small, ragtag band of barely-armed civilians could really win against a changeling attack, but he’d also figured it wouldn’t matter, because Twilight and the other Elements were in Canterlot, and they would handle things just as they had last time. Now with this announcement came new horrors. Were the princesses okay? Would anypony on the outside come to help? Was Twilight okay!? And after a while, as the ponies all silently discarded their makeshift weapons and shuffled back to their homes, a new question appeared on the top of the pile:

Who in the heck was Emperor Jason Wright?

“Well, at least I know now,” he mumbled to himself as the changelings bundled him out of the burning village. He had hidden when they’d first arrived, cowering in the Palace of Friendship’s many corners and peeking out on the front lawn only occasionally. For some reason, the changelings hadn’t spent too long searching the palace, seeming more set on chasing ponies out of their homes. Now he could see why: the changelings had come to destroy the buildings, not the ponies. All except the Palace, of course. Probably too big, and crystal didn’t burn as easily as wood and shingles. Spike had figured from that point it would be best to hunker down and wait for the changelings to leave, then see if anypony was left, hopefully attempt a rescue for the others…

Then the caravan of cages had parked itself on the Palace front lawn.

Seeing Twilight like that…the mare who raised him, shaped who he was, and introduced him to everything he knew and loved and cherished in this world, shivering in a cage, along with the five other mares he cared for more deeply than his own life…all that was too much. He’d gone to the door, figuring it couldn’t be real, that couldn’t be the mare who raised him from an egg shivering outside like a caged animal!

Then he’d seen the ponies he idolized looking despondently around.

He’d seen the smoldering pile of scrolls on the lawn.

And most of all, he’d seen Twilight reaching out to him through the bars, screaming his name.

Everything after that turned into a blur. He remembered seeing the monkey-creature before him, and somehow knowing that its name was Jason Wright, and that he was responsible for everything around them. He remembered wanting to hurt Jason Wright, more than Discord, more than Chrysalis…maybe not more than Tirek, but he was a close second. He remembered picking up the closest thing at hand, he didn’t even remember what it was. Not that it mattered. It had been about as effective as an overcooked noodle against the human, who’d scooped him up as easily as an adult with a child throwing a tantrum.

And those eyes…those eyes when he’d looked into them…

Spike shivered against his captors’ grasps. Those eyes would haunt his memories deep into the night, keeping him awake as he shifted in his sleep, though he didn’t know it now. Right now, he tried to keep himself focused despite the panic rising from his belly. He had to keep looking at the bright side: the girls were okay. That was the important thing. Everything else might be in flames, but the girls were okay. Now, he needed to focus on keeping himself okay. Easier thought than done. The changelings kept him moving at almost a running pace, holding his claws tight. It was here that Spike realized that despite his claws and despite his fangs and despite the crazy, over-the-top adventures he’d had and the monsters and demons he’d fought, despite all that, if these changelings decided to run him through with their spears and leave his body on the outskirts of town for the creatures of the Everfree to snack on, there was nothing he could do to stop them.

Around then he also had to tell himself that the tears running down his face were from the smoke and the panting, choking, out-of-breath way his breathing came from running so hard. He couldn’t even focus on coming up with an escape plan, he could only hurry with the spear-wielding changelings as they dragged him along, and the burning hellscape around him quickly turned into the darkened coves and leafy confines of the Everfree. On the outskirts of town, he spied a small lump of rags by the smoldering ruins of what had been Sugarcube Corner and, on a whim, he scooped it up. He glanced down at it as the changelings hurried him along. Professor Floofington, the Cake twins’ favorite plush toy, looked up at him from a cake of mud and charred fur. The tears flowed more freely.

His stubby legs stumbled over divots in the path, which it took a few minutes for him to recognize as hoofmarks stomped into the dirt. His breath caught in his throat as the tears welled up anew. If this was going to be the end, at least he’d be in good company. The optimistic part of his mind still begged and pleaded, screaming that this couldn’t be it, that he’d been through too much! Tirek, Sombra, the Crystal Games, Nightmare Moon, all things he’d survived, it couldn’t end here!

But you had Twilight during all those times, a small voice in the back of his head that had been growing stronger over the years was quick to point out.

Shut up. He replied as he blinked back more tears. Soon, somewhere amidst the darkness and chittering screeches of the creatures in the night, he heard voices, noticed flickering lights. His breath caught in his throat. This was it…whatever it was Jason Wright had planned for Ponyville, it was right here…a creature with so much hate, so much venom, and the power to burn an entire nation on top of that; Spike’s imagination ran wild with possibilities.

So imagine his surprise when he emerged into a well-lit gathering of tents, where ponies milled about, usually cringing under the sharp gaze of the occasional changeling guard. Spike’s jaw hit his chest. Around him, a few somber tones emerged from an unseen cello player. The air was filled with stilted conversation, interspersed with the occasional hushed whisper or the squeal of a foal preceding tiny, galloping hooves. Down the way, he noticed a bear he recognized from Fluttershy’s home, wreaking havoc with the changelings trying to replace the dressing on its paw while a few more familiar critters cowered in a corner. Across a narrow dirt pathway, the Cakes all gathered around a small fire in front of a large tent, Mr. Cake mimicking a horse’s whinny as he mimed one galloping with a small, wooden figurine, the twins squealing in delight.

“Mr. Cake! Mrs. Cake!” Spike gasped, forgetting his guards and rushing into the firelight.

“Spike!” Mrs. Cake immediately dropped the small baking pan she’d been holding over the fire and rushed to embrace the dragon. “Oh, thank heavens! Where have you been!?”

“Aheh…sorry,” he said, eagerly returning the embrace while fighting back tears. “I’ve kinda been hunkered down in the palace this entire time. Once word got out that Canterlot had surrendered, I kinda…kinda…”

“Husshhh…” Mrs. Cake wiped away the tears Spike still refused to acknowledge. “It’s okay, pumpkin, it’s gonna be fine. You had a lot of ponies worried for a while there, y’know.”

“I know, I’m sorry,” he sniffled, then looked around. “What’s all this, though?”

“Don’t know. A little bit into the woods, after the changelings finished driving us out of town, a whole bunch of ‘em popped out again and forced us all in here. Gave us a bunch of apples, too,” she waved a hoof in the direction of a massive barrel, stamped ‘Sweet Apple Acres.’ “Looks like they made the Apples gather up some stock for the town.”

“This was the plan all along,” Spike whispered.

“Well darn, but it confuses the heck out of me!” Mrs. Cake replied as she ushered him closer to the fire.

“Yeah, me too…” Spike mused. He trailed off, his eyes misting over again as he looked at the barrel. “They burned everything. Wouldn’t surprise me if those apples are all that’s left.”

“Well, there’s plenty of ‘em!” Mrs. Cake said, her face beaming for a moment until Spike turned his downcast expression on her.

“They burnt everything. Carousel Boutique, Fluttershy’s treehome, Town Hall…” he sniffled loudly. “…Sugarcube Corner…”

“Husshhh…sweetie…” Mrs. Cake pulled him into another embrace as Mr. Cake perked his head up.

“Twi would be proud of you, Spike,” he said between highly-embellished horse noises and squealing toddler delight. “I saw her in the cages, so she’s still kickin’, just so you know.”

“I know, I saw her too…” Spike paused and frowned. “It was on the front lawn of the Palace, that…thing was there.”

“Jason Wright,” Mr. Cake snorted. “He took everything.”

“Yeah, so why give us this in return?” Spike fanned a claw out over the camp. “Why even bother? Why not turn us out in the cold?”

Mrs. Cake frowned. “Now, why would he do that, dear?”

“You should have seen the hate in his eyes: believe me, if you saw, you’d be wondering too.” He replied, a shiver tracing down from between his shoulder spikes and along his tail. “Why would he burn Ponyville, only to renege like this? He should have left us…just let us run into the woods, instead he built this camp…was it all for show?”

“A show for who, dear?”

Spike was about to correct her grammar, when it all clicked. The despondent way the ponies had looked out from their cages, the horror in Twilight’s face…it was all for them!? Jason’s hate had a target, and it was those six ponies!? How could one creature hate them so much!? It didn’t make any sense, what did they ever…

“Spike?” Mrs. Cake’s voice dragged him back into reality. He shook his head and met her worried gaze. He was about to tell her something, air his thoughts a little, but then it occurred to him that talking about the way Jason Wright was trying to break the ponies they cared most for in the world might not be the best conversation topic for the same night that they’d lost their homes.

“It’s…nothing…” he replied, offering a winning smile even as his heart twisted in worry for Twilight, realizing she was in the grip of a creature that had A) Conquered all of Equestria, and B) Apparently wanted her to suffer for some reason. “Hey, just so you know: I scooped up Professor Floofington on my way in.”

“Why, thank you Spike!” Mrs. Cake gushed, retrieving the stuffed toy from his claws with the sort of glee usually reserved for wives embracing their husbands returning from tours with the military. “That is such a nice gesture!”

Spike nodded and smiled as he turned to look over the camp. His smile slowly shrank as he looked over the shivering, frightened ponies, transforming into an expression that looked far too old for his chubby cheeks and bright, childish eyes. For a moment, his gaze fell on a changeling guard. The changeling glared. He glared back. After a few minutes, Spike blinked, and the changeling looked away with a smirk. Snorting angrily, Spike leaned back as the smell of baking apples wafted under his nose: the Cakes were almost done with dinner apparently. Soon, he would eat in silence, watching the sunrise peer through the heavy canopy above as he tried to make sense of this new life. Like it or not, his life, and the lives of everypony around him, was now an exercise in barely-controlled chaos, teetering over the brink and just waiting for something to come along and give it that little nudge...

And as that thought dissipated in his mind, a certain chunk of statuary, discarded on the lawn beneath Canterlot’s highest spire, gave another wiggle. A faint crack now appeared along its face which started expanding rapidly, inching its way along the stone facade.

Chapter XIII: Revelations

The ride back to Canterlot was lost in an empty, gray mist. Twilight wouldn’t remember the burning ruins of Ponyville fading in the distance behind them, the way the wind carried the stench off the town right to her nostrils, or the way the burnt-over ruins on the outskirts of town looked like blackened remains after some apocalypse. She wouldn’t recall how seeing buildings she had passed by dozens of times turned to charred ruins made her feel like the world had ended, and how she had to keep reminding herself that it hadn’t, only the bit around her had. Most of all, she wouldn’t remember the horrifying moment of lucidity she’d experienced on the edge of town upon seeing the columns of smoke still rising over Sweet Apple Acres and realizing she’d probably never taste the cider of that place again, and reflecting back on the path where she’d first drunken it and how that unlocked a whole host of memories of running and playing with her friends and helping them with their problems when needed and…

And the gray fog closed in on her mind. She allowed it to, welcoming it gratefully. She didn’t reemerge again until well into the night, with her friends sleeping fitfully in the cells around her. She let her breath out in a long, drawn-out sigh, shoulders rising with the motion, wings stretching against their bonds. Somewhere in the darkness, a pebble dropped from the ceiling and skittered across the cobbled ground. A drop of water splashed rhythmically into a puddle. The world moved on. Ponyville was a smoking ruin not even visible from the single barred window, out of reach from her cell, and the world just moved on.

“Up so soon?”

Twilight whirled, and her heart leapt into her chest at the white form kneeling across from her. “Princess!” She gushed, oblivious to the glare being aimed her way. “Princess you’re…”

Finally, Twilight caught sight of the goo coating the Princess’s horn, as well as the ugly-looking iron band around her midriff, glowing with red symbols and pinning her wings to her back. Twilight’s heart dropped right back out of her chest and into her stomach. “Oh…he got you too…”

“Yes,” Celestia replied, craning her neck to eye the iron band dispassionately. “He got me too.”

“I…it doesn’t matter,” Twilight stood up in her cell, still oblivious to the hard glare and the anger radiating off the princess. “We can still fight, we just have to…”

“Oh my sweetest Celestia, will ya give it a rest already, Twi!?” Applejack screamed from the darkness. Twilight shivered in her cell, but didn’t even turn in the other pony’s direction. “It ain’t enough that we’ve just lost our homes, you have to spout that ‘Save Equestria’ bullshit too!?”

“Your homes?” Celestia asked in a way that conveyed minor curiosity, as though asking the weather ponies about a snowstorm planned for mid-April or some oddity found at an archaeological dig site.

Twilight shivered in her cell and nodded, mistaking Celestia’s curiosity for compassionate concern. “Yes princess, Jason burnt it all. But don’t worry, once we’re out of here we can take back the castle, then we can make those changelings help us rebuild and…”

“She said shaddup!” Rainbow this time, the latest turncoat. Twilight still couldn’t bring herself to turn and regard the other pony. “Seriously, Twilight! Just shut up and take your punishment like a mare! It’s the least you can do!”

Still not looking at her, Twilight closed her eyes, letting in a few shaky breaths. “Rainbow, I understand that tonight has been hard on all of us, but lashing out isn’t…”

“Really darling, weren’t you listening at all during the ride to Ponyville?” Rarity this time, her face pinned to the bars, her mane now little more than a mass of split ends covered in dirt.

“You need to stop trying to be the hero,” Fluttershy now, putting her own two bits in with an uncharacteristically sharp edge in her voice. “The only pony you’re fooling is yourself.”

“Girls,” Twilight whispered. “Please stop.”

“We can’t stop, Twilight,” and now the set was complete, as Pinkie stepped up to the bars of her cell, her straight mane dangling over her eyes. “Not while you’re still trying to keep this stupid act up.”

“It’s no act…”

“Then tell me why we did what we did!?” Fluttershy screeched. “Tell me why we behaved like we did!? If we were ever the loving ponies we’re supposed to be, tell me why!”

“W-what…” Twilight swallowed, shaking on her hooves, a tear crawling down her cheek. “What happened to Jason…is regrettable…and while some of our actions with regards to him can be…questionable…”

“Cut the political bullshit and lemme know why, for three years, we all acted like the most pig-headed pieces a’ horse manure there ever was!” Applejack’s voice added to the screaming match. “Why did I raise my hooves against a creature that never did me no harm!?”

“It’s…” Twilight swallowed again. “It’s…”

“Why did I keep zapping him when I was clearly hurting him!?” Rainbow Dash, that time.

“I’m sure…there was something he must have done…”

“Why did I turn my back on the spirit of generosity itself when he practically begged for a little compassion!?” Rarity.

“Maybe…maybe he looked…”

“Why did I feel the need to avoid him like the plague when I would have been treating him like anypony else if I was half the mare I’m supposed to be?” Pinkie Pie.

“It’s…”

“Why did I freeze up and collapse when he needed me most, when my kindness might have been the only decent act of love he might have seen in all that time!?” Fluttershy, amazingly.

“It’s…” the tears were flowing free now, though Twilight kept her voice steady. “It’s…there has to be a reason for it all…”

“Why?”

All eyes turned on the cell holding the ivory Alicorn, her face hidden behind a mass of feathers. “Princess, what…” Twilight started, only to be interrupted almost immediately.

“Why, Twilight!? Why!?” Celestia shrieked, raising her head to reveal the tears streaking down her muzzle, the first time they’d been seen there since Luna’s banishment. “Why would you do such an awful, horrible thing!? Why would you turn your back on everything I thought you’d learned!? If even half of what Mr. Wright says is true, it’s no wonder he committed these acts! Any creature that went through what he did would go insane, it’s a wonder he didn’t lash out against the citizens of Ponyville two years ago! So why!?”

“Puh-princess,” Twilight stammered. “H-he was so different, I…”

“Don’t you dare!” Celestia shrieked, stamping a hoof to punctuate her sentence. The others shrank back, despite the heavy restraints holding the princess’s power at bay. “Don’t even try to excuse what you’ve done! There is nothing that could explain away what you’ve done to Jason! I just asked for why.”

“Hey!” Dash stirred, stepping up to the bars of her cage, though her wings quivered, Celestia’s words having apparently touched a nerve. “We all…Twilight was just…”

“Miss Dash…” Celestia turned a glare that burnt with the heat of her sun on the cyan pegasus. “If you don’t step away from those bars, sit down, and shut the fuck up, I will find a way to break into your cage and snap the wings right off your body.”

Rainbow stepped back, eyes wide in shock as the Princess glowered, the verbal onslaught continuing: “Your actions against Mr. Wright have been nothing short of utter sadism. Miss Applejack’s assaults were at least understandable: morally bankrupt and cold-hearted to the point where were it in my power, I’d banish her just on principle, but understandable. You, on the other hoof, have committed acts of such reckless cruelty that just looking at you makes my stomach turn. I look at you, and I see the few rapists and pedophiles that I have had to execute in my kingdom. Maybe not quite as bad, but the comparison is there.”

Rainbow’s jaw went slack. Celestia immediately turned back to cowering little Twilight’s cage. “So, Miss Sparkle, what would it have taken for you to treat Mr. Wright with the decency and respect I’d expected for him? For me to say it was a test? Is a good grade what it takes to make you act like a decent, loving pony? Or would I have needed to personally supervise his…”

“We don’t know!” Pinkie shouted, bolting up and pressing her muzzle to the bars of her cell. All eyes turned to her, even Celestia’s, finally drinking in the long, flat mane, the tears streaking from those wide blue eyes. “We don’t know, okay!? I don’t know why I did what I did, but none of that matters! We’re paying for it now, all of us!”

“Even you, Princess,” Rarity said from the shadows in her cell, keeping an icy glare locked on Celestia, her watery eyes the only thing visible. Celestia gaped at her, awestruck, as Rarity sat up, every split end and curl in her mane now plain for everypony to see. “Three years, and it never once occurred to you to check on the highly-vulnerable alien living in your student’s care? Three years without so much as a quick glance in his direction? What do you have to say to that, Miss high-and-mighty? What excuse do you, a ruler of all ponies everywhere, have for that?”

“I-I…” and then, she finally broke down. The silent stream of tears became a waterfall pouring around her muzzle, punctuated with sobs and quivering gasps. Her wings and ears folded low as she sank to the floor. “I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry. Jason, why didn’t you…I would’ve…oh Maker above, I’m so sorry.”

“I…I guess we all failed him in the end,” Twilight sighed, at long last succumbing as tears dripped around her muzzle. “We all had our part in what happened to him and what he became. Although I will admit…”

She gasped and sniffled, bracing herself. “Me most of all. Jason was right, I wasn’t the worst, but I was the first, and that’s inexcusable.” She touched her wings through the goop. “I don’t deserve these. Nopony who’s done what I did to him does. I don’t deserve to be the Princess of Friendship.”

She was met with utter silence as she slumped to her cell floor, the prison falling into a heavy silence punctuated by Celestia’s sobs. Twilight’s ears folded against it, not wanting to hear her friend and mentor in such a state, even after basically being told that Celestia wanted to be neither.

“Wh-why?” Celestia whimpered. “Why didn’t you just...come to me...”

Twilight’s eyes started to drift shut despite the turmoil raging inside. The sheer emotional exhaustion was enough to overcome even this as she slowly allowed herself to drift off. And then an odd chime filled the air. Twilight’s eyes darted wide open, worried about some new punishment from the emperor of all ponydom, but instead was treated to a most peculiar sight: Celestia, on the ground, still whimpering but watching in amazement as a burst of color pealed over her coat, leaving brightness and the strange, chiming noise in its wake.

The rest watched in stunned amazement, even Celestia, tears rolling around her muzzle as she watched. “Th-that can’t be, it’s almost like…”

But Twilight beat her to the punch, the pieces all coming together behind her ever-widening eyes. “Duh…” she muttered intelligently.

“I-I don’t know why I did why I did! It goes against everything I’m supposed to stand for!” Fluttershy babbles and chokes, her chest heaving, the last of her breath going into these words. “E-even now, when I try to look back, it feels all gray…”

“Duh…Dis…”

”I always thought I was a loving pony,” Applejack muttered, that tired gaze falling on the lavender alicorn. “Shoot, even now that I can remember, it’s like somepony else was usin’ my hooves. Like it wasn’t even me doin’ the buckin’…”

“Disc…” she choked, swallowed, still trying.

As they watched, her eyes locked on the human, widening with a sudden gleam of recognition…

But it wasn’t a gleam… Twilight realized. “Disc-Discor…Duh-Dis…”

”He treats his powers like a joke; he doesn’t understand how much damage he can do without even meaning it! I’m just worried that someday, he’s going to hurt somepony. Hurt them in a way that can’t be laughed off or fixed with a few months of chocolate milk clouds.”

Except…except…

Except he already had, she realized, backing away from the bars of her cell. “Oh…Oh Discord…”

“That’s my name, pretties!” A booming voice filled the chamber as a familiar, snake-like form coiled its way down from the darkness, pale yellow eyes gleaming as a snaggle-toothed grin leered at the group. “Don’t wear it out.”

Author's Note

WWAAAAAIIIIIIITTTTTTTT!

I see you there, getting ready to post how this is so much bullshit, how this completely annihilates the point of the story, but please, wait. Just read the next chapter, then post all you want, okay? Let me explain myself, and get that out there, okay? After that, if you still feel the need to flame me out of existence, please do it with some modicum of restraint.

Chapter XIV: Explanations

The ponies all stared, wide-eyed and gape-mouthed as the spirt of chaos slithered into the middle of the dungeon, trailing confetti and streamers. “Never fear, ladies, Discord is here!” He sang, spreading his arms out as a cheeky grin sprouted on his face.

He bucked his head back, awaiting applause or gasps of relief. And waiting. And waiting. He perked an eyebrow up, looking around. “I say, I know I’m not exactly Seal Team bloody Six, but I was hoping for a little more enthusiasm here.”

Twilight’s gaze remained locked on him. “It was you…it was you all along…” she shook her head, eyes still wide, still locked on Discord. “I can’t believe it…”

“Really, Twi?” Rainbow snorted. “Because I sure can.”

“N-now girls, let’s not j-jump to any con-conclusions here!” Fluttershy quickly pointed out. “M-maybe Discord has some other explanation for us! I-isn’t that right, Dissy?”

Discord turned on Fluttershy, startled. She knew how he abhorred her little pet name for him, and so she would only pull it out if she was under stress or feeling like getting under his skin. Based on the twitch in the corner of her pasted-on smile and the split ends in her rosette curls, he figured it was the former.

“A-alright…” he said, quickly taking a seat on the cobblestone ground, his arms curling around his knees. “Okay, an explanation for what?”

“Discord,” Twilight said, choosing her words with all the care and thought she could muster. “It’s about the human-emperor of the Changelings, Mr. Jason Wright.”

“Aw, yeah?” He scratched his chin. “Emperor, hmm? Damn, that is interesting, must mean he took on Chrysalis at some point and won…can only guess how he swung that…”

“Discord,” Twilight said, her breath starting to come in labored heaves. “We have been experiencing certain…changes with regards to our thinking about Mr. Wright. Changes that match your influence perfectly.”

“Yeah?” He said passively, rocking back and forth on his tail. “Well, I don’t know how you could be…”

“Discord…” Twilight looked up at him, wings and ears tucked in close, her lower lip quivering. “Discord, did you alter our thoughts and perceptions concerning Mr. Wright five years ago when he first came to Ponyville?”

Discord paused in his rocking. He smiled at Twilight. She only met his gaze, and he finally drank in the pain in those eyes, the bags gathered under them, the agony that could only be suffered from someone that had seen something unutterably horrible. His smile faded. “I say, Twilight, what’s happened? You look like you’ve seen…”

“Just answer the question!” Fluttershy screeched in a high-pitched, startling voice that was nearly beyond the range of normal hearing. Everyone, Discord included, turned to her in surprise. She let out a quick squeak and cowered away from the bars. “Just answer the question, please.”

Discord moaned and looked away, biting his lip like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Finally, he threw his claws in the air, looking more annoyed than saddened. “Alright, fine! Yeah, I might have monkeyed around a little bit with your heads to get what I wanted, there!”

Seven jaws dropped around the room. The dripping water continued in the background. Discord crossed his arms over himself and shifted uncomfortably, then an awkward grin crossed his face. “Monkeyed around, get it?” He asked with a nervous chortle.

No response, the ponies all looking at him as though something had just crashed every one of their brains.

“Jeez, I know it’s not my best pun, but…” he trailed off, looking at their faces with a blank, confused expression.

Pinkie was the one to finally break the silence. “How could you!?” She screeched, her voice cracking with effort. “How could you do that!? We trusted you!”

“Come now girls, don’t you think you’re overreacting a bit?” Discord said, obviously nonplussed.

“Overreacting!?” Rainbow Dash gasped. “Overreacting!? You used us to torture an innocent creature for three years and you think we’re-“

“Tortured!?” He gasped, still looking around, that confused gaze not changing. “Honestly now, you think a few little jokes amount to torture!?”

“I’ll show you a few jokes you bucking sonofa…”

“QUIET!” Celestia’s Royal Canterlot Voice boomed through the room, shattering a few eardrums as it made its rounds. Surprisingly, everypony obeyed, though likely only because such a massive audio assault had likely blasted any arguments right out of their skulls. The Princess levelled her gaze on each pony/draconequus in turn, her voice at that collected calm she had mastered over the centuries. “While Discord’s actions may seem heinous to us now, he at least has the right to explain himself, as would anypony. Jason extended that right, even if he wasn’t interested in listening, and we will follow that example. It is the very least we can do.”

When silence still reigned, she took that as assent, her raging, vermillion eyes turning on Discord. “Go.”

“Well, thank you princess,” he said indignantly, straightening up to look over the ponies around him. “I’m glad somepony here has the ability to…”

“I. Said. Go.” She hissed, and when Discord turned to her again, he realized her offer to explain himself hadn’t been an offer at all. One look in those raging, burning irises, and he knew it was a command.

“Y-yes, miss,” he stammered, biting his lip as he began his tale.

It was official: now that he’d experienced both, Discord could firmly say that harmony was irredeemably boring.

Here he was, sitting on a normal, white, fluffy, not-a-bit-of-chocolate-to-it cloud, and what did he have to do? Nothing. An entire afternoon like this, spent up here, just doing nothing. No animated lightposts, no buffalo ballerinas, no checkerboard fields, and of course not a single soap bubble in sight. Disgraceful. An entire morning had passed by, and what had he accomplished? He had successfully transferred a snot bubble from one nostril to the next on the tip of his tongue.

If his mother were here, she’d disown him. Again.

Oh, but there was that promise. The ever-so-wonderful Fluttershy was keeping a close eye on him, and if he ever wanted a nice, quiet tea party with her again, he would make sure to keep it. He grimaced. He should hate nice, quiet tea parties. He should hate little Fluttershy for using his emotions like this. He should hate, he should hate, he should hate everything to do with Equestria! At the very least, he should be able to disregard her wishes and do as he wished, as he’d wanted that very first day when he’d been released!

And yet…and yet…he thought about that little mare’s big, wide eyes, quivering as she asked him why he broke his promise, and he just…

“UGH!” He groaned as he turned over to find a new position in his cloud. He was going in circles. Chaos was all well and good, but not when it was inside his own head! If things kept up, he'd go incoherently crazy, and where would that leave him? Imprisoned in stone, most likely. Something had to happen, and soon, or he'd wind up...

Something twinged, a tiny little prick at the back of his mind. One of his eyes perked open. The twinge didn't fade, as most little blips in Equestria's ambient magic often did. It remained there at the back of his mind, not strengthening, not waning, just...there. Curious, and figuring there was nothing better going on, Discord lifted out of his cloud and sailed back down to Canterlot, turning transparent as he went. Not quite invisibility, but good enough for someone that didn't want to attract attention.

"The throne room?" He muttered under his breath as he wisped towards the nearest open window. The twinge was leading him right to Sunbutt's throne! He knew he wasn't allowed there, not since the chocolate milk and syrup incident on April Fool's. He grinned at the memory. Oh, Sunbutt had been positively covered! Nothing but a set of magenta eyes poking out of the goop, glaring at him! He sighed. Memories...if only ponies weren't so sensitive and gave him something besides one day a year to have free reign...

All fond memories of past mishaps flew out of his mind when his invisible eyes peered into Celestia's throne room, and drank in the five-foot-tall, pale-skinned biped in jeans and a t-shirt kneeling at Celestia's hooves, holding one gold-shod hoof in its...hand? Yep, not claws, not talons, that was definitely a hand there. Discord considered, and so missed the moment where the creature bowed and took a gold-shod hoof in its hand, planting a single kiss there. Only a few creatures in existence had hands, and even fewer of those weren’t covered in fur or scales or armor plating. Still, it took him a moment to dig through the extensive library in his head and come up with the name: humans.

He'd heard of humans before, it was hard to avoid them. Everything they did just had to be so damned loud! They were the Donald Trumps of existence, always doing their best to be noticed and heard, even if they had nothing worthy of being noticed or listened to. Of course, he'd also noticed their key trait, the one thing that humans had on just about every other creature on their planet: humans were decidedly hardy. Most animals would give up at some point, would reach a certain breaking point where going on was simply too hard and death became the preferable option. As far as he could tell, humans either had an impossibly high breaking point, or didn't have one at all.

Now, this was interesting! Divine intervention in the nick of time, had to be! A human was new! A human was capable of so much! A human could...

A human could take anything I dish out...

That was where the idea formed. He tried to blink it back, force it out of his mind. When that didn't work, he tried reasoning it out, figuring there was some flaw, some way it could all backfire and explode in his face. Surely, Princess Celestia would check on...no, that was easily dealt with. Even a low level shading spell to keep the human out of her mind would do the trick. Not forgetfulness, not wiping the memory, more like misplacing it, like most ponies would misplace what they had for breakfast that morning. It’s not like anypony would bring the human up around her. Okay, but surely Twilight Sparkle wouldn't...no, Twilight was perfectly paranoid enough on her own, it wouldn’t take much on that front either. But there's no way he could cast a spell large enough to encompass a town without somepony noticing...unless, of course, it was low-intensity enough to be confused with the town's natural magic aura, in which case everything would be perfectly fine and nopony would be the wiser. Oh, but what if somepony wondered over him and saw that there might be more to him than the monster he was creating…but no, if he made sure that when the human was out of sight, he was also out of mind, then all those problems resolved themselves.

He floated away from the window, barely capable of flying. His head buzzed with ideas, forming a subtle maelstrom of chaos with the human at its center. His talons shook with excitement for the first time in ages, definitely for the first time since he'd made his promise to Fluttershy. Could it be? A chance to cause chaos again? Real chaos, not the occasional chocolate raincloud for Pinkie or the odd soap-suds skating rink? Don't get him wrong, those things were all fine and dandy, but something was still missing from them, something was off without somepony screaming and running around. Here was his chance to change that.

With a snap of his fingers, he materialized above Ponyville with all the consistency of a light summer breeze, totally invisible. The first pony should be the hardest, the one who resisted his power for longest, and the youngest royal in Equestria. Young, but still an Alicorn. Getting to her would be an achievement.

He wafted in through an open window on her treebrary, still barely a zephyr in the air. Below, Twilight was just sorting through her books, reorganizing her extensive Encyclopedia Equestria editions for what he was certain had to be the umpteenth time that week. Yes, he had been bored enough to watch Twilight shelve more than once, and the novelty of watching her when she had no idea had long worn off.

Focusing his magic, he concentrated on the form of the human, only viewing it through a monstrous lens in his mind's eye. Dull, hardly impressive incisors became fangs. Smaller eyes became beady portals into a monstrous, animalesque soul. Fingernails became claws. And most of all, he attached that moniker to it: Monster.

Breathing the word out in a whisper, he led the spell right into Twilight's mind. Of course, he knew it would take time to swing her around to where she needed to be, she was one of the more resistant ponies around, but he was nothing if not resilient, a few more doses and...

...and Twilight's coat dulled a little. She let out a gasp and a shiver as his spell took hold, her color pallete shifting just a little bit darker. He blinked in surprise. He had barely put any force behind that spell at all! How had it taken hold so fast!?

Shrugging it off as good luck on his part, Discord wafted out of the treebrary and drifted over Ponyville, a subtle little spell playing up the town's already rampant collective paranoia trailing behind him. Rarity was next, playing off her own sense of decency to bar some "wild animal" from entering her shop. For such a generous spirit, it sure hadn't been difficult to play off her elitist attitude.

Then came Flutter-butter, and here was his first real challenge. Could he really cast a spell on a friend? A true friend that had risked everything just to give him a second chance? Who he had served up tea parties and gone on awesome adventures with?

Then he scoffed at himself. Of course he could! After all, he'd done it to this exact pony before! And he was the same draconequus now that he was back then, right? He was still the god of chaos, and nothing less, right? Absolutely.

After that hurdle, the spell itself was child’s play. Fluttershy's fear was easy enough to play off of. As was Pinkie's, surprisingly. A little sabotage in her "Pinkie Sense" to tingle with the human around meant she'd be too paralyzed with fear to ever get close to him. After all, her Pinkie Sense had never steered her wrong before, right?

A grin, much darker than he ever could have imagined, crossed his face. Now came the coup de gracie. Swooping out over the little village, he took off for Cloudsdale, aiming for the Element of Loyalty’s home. Rainbow Dash's protective instincts were easy enough to bend to his will, and her aggression would take care of the rest. Upon seeing the awful monkey-monster at the edge of the Everfree, her only possible reaction would be to chase it off like any other monster, a bolt of lightning or two to discourage the awful creature.

He had to jam his talons into his mouth to keep from guffawing at the thought of that silly little thing being zapped full of lightning. Its ambient magic would make sure it'd be like a joy buzzer going through every time he walked around town! Oh, it would be so wonderfully hilarious! He managed to slip out of Rainbow's home before the laughter overtook his body entirely, and he spent a few moments laughing until his eyes filled with tears, clutching at his stomach as he rolled around on a cloud just outside Cloudsdale. A few harmless zaps to the ass would be more chaos than he’d caused in months, and he just couldn’t wait for it. This was going to be a masterpiece!

For a second during his trip back to Canterlot, he paused. Even this seemed...excessive. To a pony, this kind of chaos and jollymaking would be simply cruel. He couldn't imagine doing this to one of his four-legged friends, even back during the zenith of his power, in the days before Equestria was even a nation and his domination was absolute. But this wasn't a pony, was it? He gave that grin again, the one that had he seen it in a mirror, might have made him think twice about this whole plan. But no, this was a rough and tough human! This was something he could use to vent all that pent up chaos on, without any possible consequences!

He wafted into the castle with newfound confidence, a lightness in his chest like he hadn’t felt since the moment he’d agreed to play nice with the pretty little ponies. Now, one would think Celestia would pose the greatest challenge, and one would be right. The Princess of Day herself would pose a great challenge, to someone less clever. As it was, Discord just needed her out of the way: no pesky little checkups or letters sent to ruin his fun. She didn’t need much help, just to become a little forgetful, and for that he needed her busy while a few of his more subtle charms did their work, to make sure she didn’t talk to a guard or her own sister about their newest visitor. A particularly graphic accident at a watermelon stand and a riot amongst the nobles due to a hideous rumor that one of the biggest banks in the city was on the verge of bankruptcy ensured that. By the time an exhausted princess collapsed into her bed that night, the human was just a fading wisp of a memory at the back of her mind, a spell capable of being broken by nothing less than a face to face confrontation. So weak, yet so effective.

His work done, Discord rubbed his paws together. It was all set. He now had the perfect plaything: a sapient creature capable of appreciating his masterworks while being tough enough to survive them all with ease. Hell, from what he knew about humans, the little guy would probably wind up enjoying this more than any tea party or study session he might have had with the prissy little ponies as his friends! He grinned as his magic set to work, the human boarding the first train to Ponyville. He did chortle a bit when Twilight slammed the door in its face, but the real laughs didn’t come until Rainbow Dash and Applejack went to work. The screwed up look of pain in the human’s face…absolutely enjoyable! A treasure he could cherish for years!

So it carried on for the next few years, and every time the human poked his head up, Discord would wake up one of his little ponies. Applejack’s bucks were fun, but Rainbow Dash’s lightning bolts were something all by themselves. The human would go yipping around and scurrying about, and the god of chaos would have to run off to laugh to himself, laughing until his face turned blue in some cloud far away. Sure the chaos wasn't much, but any port in a storm, right? And after a while, watching all those little puppets dance on the end of his string was almost as fulfilling as any cotton candy cloud or chocolate milk rainstorm, and the fact that it could all happen right under the nose of the Princess of Day herself made it all the more delicious. Finally, without any consequences whatsoever, Discord had…

“You monster.” Celestia stated, ending the story.

Discord whirled on her, eyes wide. He raised his eyebrows in confusion, opened his mouth, closed it, and finally opened it, though his voice was half the distraught, joking loudness he’d been aiming for. “Wh-what did you say?”

“You heard me, cretin,” she hissed, her eyes blazing with low, blue flames. “You tortured a creature for three years without any regard for any sort of humane treatment.”

“Well, I’ll admit I went a little overboard for a while there, but I hardly…”

“A little overboard!?” Fluttershy screeched. All eyes turned to her, all shocked. Nopony could believe that such a forceful shout could come from Fluttershy of all ponies. Nor would they have expected the hateful glare and heaving shoulders she regarded Discord with. “You tortured him for three years, you beat him down every single time he went looking for a bit of compassion! Don’t you get it!? You deprived him of all loving contact for three years!”

Again, Discord’s jaw dropped, his pupils narrowing to pinpricks. “I…I never thought…”

“No, you didn’t think, and because of that you broke him, Discord. Do you understand? You broke him. We’ve seen your handiwork. His heart’s been shattered in so many pieces it’s a miracle he ever got back up again, but when he did the only thing he had left to cling to was hate and despair,” she shook her head, rosette curls flying in every direction. When her eyes opened again, angry tears were wavering in them. “I can’t believe I thought you were my friend during all of that.”

“I…I was…”

“Then explain Tirek!”

Her voice rang throughout the room. It struck Discord with the force of a semi-truck. He sank to his talons, eyes locked on her, then slowly curled up into a little ball, his lanky form wrapping around itself, quickly turning into a small ball. In an instant, Fluttershy darted to the bars of her cell, the anger replaced with concern.

“Discord?”

He was quiet for a while, and when he spoke, his voice was almost too tiny to hear. “I was not a good person until he turned on me,” he whispered. “I had accepted your friendship because of what it could provide me, but until then, it never occurred to me that I might have to give back. I wasn’t your friend then, Fluttershy, and I wasn’t until Twilight released me from Tirek’s grip. Until then, I was just a bratty kid with powers he was never responsible enough to use properly. Still, you offered up the gift of friendship, despite my never having any intention of returning it, and I thanked you by throwing it in your face.

“I-I’ve made terrible mistakes in my life. Betraying you had to be the worst. The best thing that ever happened to me was Tirek betraying me in turn, because at that point, I finally knew what I’d done. I finally looked back at the long list of ponies I’d wronged, the sins I’d committed, and I realized what an utter and complete tosser I’d been. I’d thought of everypony around me as a tool to be used. All Tirek did was turn that same, exact treatment on me. When he was gone, I finally looked back at my actions, and realized all they’d ever earned me was a thousand years in stone and a ‘friend’ that stabbed me in the back at the first opportunity, whereas you had been willing to look past all that and be with me. My selfish actions had caused me to turn away the only creature in existence to ever show me a little bit of compassion, and accept a jackass who couldn’t wait to twist the knife he was planning to stab in my back.

“That’s why I’ve spent the last two years doing my best to make up for it,” he finished with a whisper. “So that I can be the sort of creature worthy of that forgiveness, and of that friendship.”

Celestia’s wide, reddened eyes gazed over the tiny ball. She opened her mouth, and a little squeak came out. She tried again, and at last words came. “I…believe you,” she said, shaking her head sadly. “But that doesn’t change the damage you’ve done…oh, how will we fix this?”

“Ohmygosh,” Fluttershy squeaked, darting back from the bars. “How do we tell Jason? What will he do!?”

“I know what I’d wanna do,” Rainbow snorted, glaring at Discord. “And y’know what? He might deserve it.”

“No,” Twilight finally stood, her chest thrust out, her eyes narrowed. “Killing is wrong. Discord has obviously repented for his actions, and even if he hadn’t, we couldn’t in good conscience allow him to be killed. If we offered him up, we’d be no better than the old cults of Ancient Equus offering pony sacrifices to their gods.”

“B-b-but wait!” Fluttershy said, holding up her hooves, her earlier rage forgotten. “He-he’s Discord! Jason couldn’t kill him even if he wanted to, r-right?”

“That may be true usually,” Discord sighed, then snapped his fingers. A pitiful little spark leapt from his paw and flitted to the ground. “Unfortunately, my magic won’t return for a while yet. Whatever Jason did drained it completely, it’s only been able to recharge since I broke out of the stone. I’ll need at least another day for it to return completely.”

“Oh no…” Celestia whispered. “Without your magic, you’re…”

“Temporarily mortal,” he replied with a thin smile. “Isn’t it just grand?”

"Th-that changes nothing!" Twilight announced, her wings flaring out once more. "Discord may have to confess what he's done, but that doesn't mean we can't do it on our terms! We'll keep him hidden until his magic has recovered, then he can speak without fear for his safety!"

The ponies all nodded. Even Discord looked up from his spot on the floor, a wan smile spreading across his face. For the first time in days, Twilight felt a glimmer of hope that everything would work out in the end. She truly began to believe this plan could work with everypony's best interests working out.

And then a voice announced from the top of the stairs: "Unless he already knows."

Twilight's heart dropped into her stomach. She couldn't move. She couldn't breathe. She could barely even blink. She could only stand there as the familiar scrape of boots on cobblestone filled the dungeon, everypony looking on in horror as Jason Wright's gas mask-clad figure cleared the steps and strode into the center of the room, towering over Discord's curled-up form.

Somehow, Twilight just knew there was a vindictive smile on his face as he knelt by Discord and said: "Hey there, buddy, haven't seen you in awhile."

Author's Note

I know some people are going to have problems with the twist, but this has been my vision from the beginning. I wanted to portray a scenario that I think might allow for something as awful as what happens in the original story to occur in the world of the show, and from there, see how the characters would react to that. I think I've done as best I can.

Chapter XVI: Ponyville

A week after the last changeling had left Canterlot, Twilight and her friends stumbled through the ruins of Ponyville. The small town was ashes, and as the tiny group huddled close, stumbling through the burnt and charred ruins like a group of post-apocalyptic survivors, it still didn’t quite process that they were looking at what was once their hometown.

“Gone,” Fluttershy whimpered. “It’s all gone…”

“Keep strong, ‘Shy,” Applejack said, though the way her voice cracked betrayed the tears standing in her eyes. “Ain’t all gone, we’re still here.”

“For what it’s worth,” Dash added, her wide, vacant eyes drinking in the blackened husks around them. Nopony responded. They just kept moving.

They had passed by the Apple family’s western orchards to get here. Applejack had watched every dark, gnarled tree go by for a while before turning back to the road, apparently deciding at a random point that once you saw one burnt-over tree, you’d seen them all.

They hadn’t gone near Fluttershy’s cottages. They all knew what awaited them there, and odds were seeing all those burnt cages and blackened, empty pens would just destroy whatever remained of her constitution. She didn’t need that, not after she’d spent nearly a full week locked in a bedroom in Canterlot Castle.

As they walked, Rainbow Dash tilted her head up, looking to the sky, her eyes closed. Her wings ruffled, but remained tight against her body. She hadn’t flown since they’d first walked up from the depths of that basement and into the empty hallway awaiting them, and Twilight couldn’t help but wonder if Jason’s punishment wasn’t going to be carried out after all.

Carousel Boutique was on the outskirts of town, and so it was the first actual building they spotted with real meaning behind it. Rarity didn’t lift her eyes from it as they passed, drinking in the shattered glass and the charred framing, the carousel-like roofing now little more than a few flecks of ash atop broken hunks of wood. They walked on, a breeze lifting a few wisps of ash from the ground and rocking the front door, the squeal of its hinges the only sound to meet their ears. Rarity watched it still, even as they passed by and she had to crane her neck around to keep her eyes on it.

If Pinkie’s mane had deflated at the moment Discord died, it had obviously still been retaining some spring, because somehow it managed to sink even lower when she drank in the sight of the hollow frame that remained of SugarCube Corner. All that was left of her home had been a few support beams sticking up from an ashy pile in the shape of stairs.

Finally, they came to a stop at the Palace of Friendship. The large pile of ashes still sat on the front lawn, beneath the defiled starburst that used to be Twilight’s Cutie Mark, once shining bright, now scorched and defaced. Twilight scanned the palace over, knowing full well that her cutie mark would be long gone from its façade, having been scraped away with the sort of devotion that Jason had been able to inspire. She pawed through the ashes, eventually finding the corner of one letter that had not burned all the way.

“…my friends and I all learned an important lesson: never judge a book by its cov…” she trailed off as the scrap ended, holding it close to her chest.

“Zecora,” Rainbow whispered, shaking her head as tears poured down her cheeks. “We were supposed to have learned that lesson.”

“We did, Rainbow, for that time,” Twilight replied, her breath quivering. “But lessons can be easy to forget when one’s prejudices and fears drive them.”

“Th-that ain’t entirely fair,” Applejack muttered. “Part of it was…was…”

“Discord?” Twilight finished, looking to her friend with a vacant stare. “You know as well as I do he just gave us a nudge, anything bigger would have been noticed. We went with that nudge. Without another thought, we were perfectly fine with shirking everything we were meant to represent and going with our first knee-jerk responses.”

A sniffle sounded from Pinkie’s corner. Twilight didn’t react, only turning back to the desecrated remains of her home. “But…Discord, he…Jason…” Rarity started.

“Jason became everything we built him into,” Twilight said. “It was a team effort, girls, and don’t any of you dare forget it. We all burnt down Ponyville. We all destroyed Equestria at its heart. We all pulled the trigger that killed Discord. We deserve this...”

“Twilight?”

Twilight’s eyes widened at the sound of the small, masculine voice, bordering just on the outer edges of puberty. Her hoof dropped, her ears folded down. She turned away from the scorched remains of her cutie mark and towards the front doorstep. Spike stood there, arms hanging limply at his sides, eyes wide and dumbfounded.

“Sp-Spi…” Twilight started, but couldn’t finish. Instead, she galloped for him, still clenching the scrap of paper firm in her magic. He was running even before she was, but his legs still held some baby chub and so she wound up sweeping him up in her hooves, holding him close, nuzzling him, wiping his tears away and ignoring the ones clouding her own eyes.

“…okay,” Twilight whispered after a few minutes when she finally calmed down. “Maybe…maybe not everything. Far from it.”

“Twilight…I was so…” Spike looked up at her, the tears welling up again. “So…”

“Easy, Spike…it’s all gonna be okay…” she whispered back, kissing his scaly forehead, not believing the words even as they left her muzzle. “It’s all gonna be fine now.”

“Spike, what’re you still doin’ here?” Applejack asked, her wide eyes looking the dragon over. “We saw Jason take ya away…”

Spike took a few moments to embrace Twilight, then stepped back, wiping at his eyes. “I came back after the changelings left,” he replied, his cheeks still wet. “We all did.”

“All?” Rainbow Dash asked, but even as she spoke, the sound of a near-stampede neared them from the other side of the door. In a flash, a thunder of hooves entered the palace’s foyer, stallions and mares and foals alike all bunching together as they reached the front lawn.

“Rarity!” A voice cried out, and soon a shock of white and light purple was bouncing out of the crowd.

“Pinkie!” The Cakes that time, rushing forward to embrace the party pony.

“Rainbow Dash! Applejack!” The remaining Cutie Mark Crusaders were just behind Sweetie Belle, latching onto their respective ponies only a few seconds behind her.

Of the group, Fluttershy was the one who ran into the crowd, embracing the massive bear and small family of ducklings that had been too ill to shelter in the forest. Soon, the Castle’s front lawn was little more than a sea of ponies, all gathering around the six, all sharing stories and letting them know how happy they were that the mares were okay, especially after that terrible monster came to them…

Twilight’s ears folded against it. She saw Pinkie sniffle again, earning a tighter hug from the Cakes, whispering to her that it was all okay: the monster didn’t have them anymore. Pinkie’s tears grew until the noise of the crowd was the only thing covering up her sobs.

“I hope you don’t mind,” Spike whispered, his claw wrapping around Twilight’s hoof. “I figured you would be alright with the townsponies taking shelter in the Palace of Friendship, since it’s the only building left in town and…and all…”

“No, that’s okay, you did the right thing, Spike,” she gave him a cursory nuzzle. Suddenly, she felt very tired. Like she hadn’t slept in months, rather than in a little under a full week. A week… Ponyville was a bustling town with a dozen small businesses just a week ago. All of this had happened in a week.

No.

No, wait, that wasn’t right.

This had been going on for much longer than a week. About five years now, to be precise…

Dear Celestia above, she wanted to crawl into her bed so bad. More than anything. A few ponies came out of the crowd, asking her what to do, how they should carry on. She ignored them completely, and eventually, the few petered off to none.

“Oh, but that’s not all of them,” Spike said, seeing her folded down ears and bowed head and figuring she just needed a pick-me-up.

Twilight lifted an eye to look at him. “What do you mean by ‘all of them’?”

“He’s talking about us.”

Twilight’s stomach gave a twist as she looked up. There, right in the foyer of her palace, was her brother in his full military regalia, standing side-by-side with Princesses Luna and Cadence, along with a solid cadre of crystal guards.

She nearly retched. The thought of what she would have to talk about with them now made her muscles ache and her fetlocks quiver.

Twilight smiled warmly and rushed into her brother’s hooves, nuzzling into his powerful embrace. “Shiny…” she whispered.

“Hussshhhhh,” Shining Armor said as Cadence stroked her mane and Luna stood by, giving the small family space. “It’s all over now. They’re all gone.”

“We came as soon as the changelings pulled out,” Cadence said. “We knew he’d taken special interest in you girls, so we thought we’d check in, and I’m so glad we did…”

Twilight’s smile froze and she pulled back quickly, shaking her head. “No, guys…it’s not like you think…”

At that, Shining Armor gave a derisive snort, the military stallion in him taking over. “Twilight, whatever that monster has done, we’ll make it right, okay? We’ll hunt him down to the ends of Equus and make him pay!”

Twilight tried to reply, but found her voice could only come out in a loud croak. She leaned back, tried to tell Shining Armor that no, there was no making this right, there couldn’t be, especially not the way he wanted to do it. Except now he’d done a curious thing: he’d doubled himself. There were now two Shining Armors in her vision. Her jaw worked up and down, still trying to speak, and the two Shining Armors became four, then eight. Only now did she feel the hot tears stinging her eyes.

“T-Twilight?” Shining asked, looking at her in shock. “Wh-what’s wrong? What happened to you!?”

Finally, she managed to choke out the word: “inside,” ushering him in, waving her friends forward, trying to get them a bit of privacy in a smaller room.

Thankfully, Shining Armor was quick on the uptake, and shouted for his guards to take up positions around the Conference Room, the same room where the Cutie Map had manifested. Twilight let out a long, quivering breath as the small group trotted into the room, grateful to finally have somepony that would listen to her, but dreading how that somepony would react once the truth was out.

Shining Armor didn't want to believe it. More than anything, he didn't want to believe what his sister had just told him. And yet, there it was, laid out for all to see.

Five years.

A creature had suffered like that for five years at the hooves of his sister.

He wanted to do something. He got up, circled his chair, sat back down again. Got up again, snorted, ran his hooves through his mane, saw Applejack. Applejack who, at the slightest urging, had nearly shattered an innocent creature’s ribcage. He stormed towards her for a couple hoofsteps, but as his gaze lined up on her, Twilight’s wing fluttered in the corner of his eye and he realized that if Applejack was guilty, Twilight shared that guilt times a thousand. As the ruler, her actions had set the precedent for five of the most miserable years any creature he had ever heard of had experienced.

He turned away from them, back to his seat. Twilight was guilty. His sister was guilty. His sister had started a cycle of cruelty and pain that had culminated in a military occupation by an enemy state. His sister, the little filly who used to build book forts and demand he name a creature from a random animal kingdom before granting him access. His sister, the mare who had saved Equestria countless times, who had become a princess, who was the only mare in the whole world that he cared about as much as Cadence, who had pushed an innocent to the brink of suicide…

He grimaced and shook himself, his head aching. “I…” he started. The six mares looked up, and only then did he realize he had nothing to say. “I…can’t…I don’t…” he tried again, with just as little luck. He turned to Cadence for help. She stared straight ahead, her eyes half-lidded, as if she were about to fall asleep. It was only the glazed-over look in them that betrayed the way she had retreated into herself.

“No,” the voice on his other side of his wife said. Shining Armor turned to see Luna, glaring across the conference room at Twilight, who sat dead center in the middle of her friends.

Twilight looked up, her eyes glistening with tears, and Shining Armor’s heart broke all over again. “It’s true.” She whispered, and then looked down again.

“I...refuse to believe it,” Luna growled. “You, the most powerful unicorn of our time, Celestia’s greatest student, let an ultra low-level chaos spell push you into torturing an innocent for three years.”

A few tears trickled down Twilight’s muzzle and hit the cutie map.

“Absolutely not,” Luna insisted, standing in her seat. “The mare who cleansed us of Nightmare Moon, introduced us to the magic of friendship, and gave us strength through many a dark hour would not…could not…have been so easily used by so simple a spell!”

“It wasn’t just the spell,” Pinkie choked, her bangs dangling over her eyes. “That’s what we’re saying. Our own petty judgements got the best of us. We…we let those overtake…everything…”

“Unacceptable!” Luna repeated, her hoof smashing into the table until the crystal beneath it cracked. “It makes no sense! It cannot be possible! It can’t…”

“Oh, would you grow up and face the facts, Luna!?” Twilight screeched suddenly, looking up to return the lunar princess’s glare. “That’s what happened! That’s everything! You’re just going to have to come to terms with it like the rest of us!”

Stunned into silence, Luna sat back down, her head shaking. “No, it…no…”

“Yes.” Twilight repeated, and her head bowed again. The little filly in Shining Armor’s eyes was long gone: in a single week, she had become something else. Something much older and much wiser than she had any right to be. Those wings looked like they weighed a thousand pounds each.

“Is that it? Are we done?” Rarity asked, her head still bowed.

“How can we possibly be done?” Shining asked.

“Well, do you have any more questions?”

“…No.”

Without another word, she got up and trotted towards the door. “I’m going to go hug Sweetie Belle for a while,” she said. “If anything comes up…well, that’s just too bad.”

Pinkie quietly followed suit, followed by Applejack, then Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. None of the mares looked at each other walking out. For a second, Shining could almost see the walls that had gone up between them, and wondered if anything could ever take them down again, make them like they’d been before. Twilight looked up at him, looked right into his eyes, and all hope for that vanished.

“S-Spike?” He asked suddenly, unsure of what else to ask about.

“D-don’t tell him,” she said, holding up her hooves in pleading. “Please. I know I don’t deserve it, but let me have that much. I need to tell him.”

Shining nodded dumbly, and immediately realized that the only reason he was nodding was because he didn’t want to be the one to see Spike’s heart break, to be the one that had to tell him what the six mares he cherished more than anything in the world had unwittingly been a part of. He hated himself in that moment. He hated himself for being so weak, and so stupid that he didn’t see what was happening here, for being too weak to stride up to Spike and give him the news that would destroy his little child’s world, for not seeing what had started here five years ago…oh Celestia above…

“The other ponies can stay here as long as they like,” Twilight said, her voice quivering again. “If you feel that…I should come with you, though…that I should be taken in chains…I…I’d understand.”

His mind reeled at the thought, and his stomach twisted involuntarily, nearly puking his guts up all over the map. He managed to shake his head. “Nuh-no,” he groaned. “Don’t think it will…be necessary…no…”

His mind circled around again. Five years. Sweet Celestia above, five years with the torture of an innocent on her hooves…but then again, was Jason all that innocent anymore? Oh Celestia above, what were they all supposed to do now? Track down Jason and avenge his sister and country? Place his sister and all her friends under arrest? Scream for Jason's blood for murdering an ally of Equestria? Or just plain scream?

That last option was tempting. He might need to keep it in mind for later. Oh sweet Celestia above, no, what…how…

“Prince Armor?”

“Yes, private!?” Shining Armor nearly screeched, turning in his seat. The soldier darted back a step, startled, then saluted.

“I’m…terribly sorry, sir, but we have a shortage of beds and supplies in the main room. The civilians are growing restless.”

For a heartbeat, Shining Armor’s head reeled. The civilians… what about them? Based on the way they greeted Twilight and her friends, odds were they didn’t believe Jason’s transmission from his little “trial,” or never even heard of it, but was that for the best? Was that just? Did his sister still deserve their love? Should he march her out there, make her repeat the exact confession she had just finished…

“S-send word to Canterlot and the Empire that we’re going to need supplies,” Shining said, practically gasping the words. “Blankets, food, medicine, everything for a displaced town.”

“Sir!” The guard saluted and turned, heading for the door, but Shining was fast behind him.

“Also, make sure we get a census going. We need to know who might be missing and just how much in the way of supplies we really need…er…Twilight?”

He didn’t need to turn around to know she had looked up from her desk, her massive, teary eyes gazing right through the back of his head.

“Twilight, if you could please get started on inventory,” he said, his voice cheerful and pleasant and feeling horribly like a mask he’d just put on. “I know you’re good at that sort of thing. Also, if you could work on a speech you might want to make for your ponies?”

A moment’s silence, and then a quiet, almost inaudible “Sure” came from the other side of the room. Twilight climbed out of her seat and trotted past, her hooves echoing along the floor as she slowly circled around him and exited through the doors.

“We believe…we will check on our sister,” Luna announced suddenly, spreading her wings to swoop out through one of the windows. She paused in the sill, glancing over her shoulder. “Wilt thou be alright with things as they are?”

Shining looked up at her, his eyes feeling heavier than they’d felt while he was under Chrysalis’s influence. “What do you think?” He rasped.

Luna bit her lip, but nodded and took off as Shining picked himself off the floor. He closed the window with his magic and turned back to his Cadence, his darling wife, sharing a nuzzle with her, letting her fan a wing over his shoulders as they turned and walked out of the room, shoulder-to-shoulder, deep in one another’s embrace.

Chapter XVII: An Ending

I leap back in surprise as a bundle of yellow feathers crashes into the far wall, Fluttershy looking up at me, the stunned look on her face mirroring my own. A rivulet of blood trickles down from her ear, trailing through her mane. She reaches up with a hoof, takes one look at the tiny droplets coating it, and promptly collapses.

Oh God.

Oh my God, what have I done?

“Flutter-butter!” I turn, see Discord sitting up, reaching for her with…with that same motherfucking look, those same crocodile tears motherfucker you’re not getting away with it this time I swear to fuck-

“Don’t you fucking dare!” I scream, bringing my boot down on his outstretched talon. It cracks under my weight with a satisfying crunch, and his shrieks of pain fill me with what can only be described as the most blissful joy. A burnt-orange blur in the corner of my eye catches my attention. Damn, should’ve known they’d get out eventually. Without even thinking, I whip my heel around, catching Applejack in the face. She goes sprawling against the bars, tripping up Pinkie as she stumbles towards me.

“Applejack!” Rarity cries, changeling goop still shimmering in her mane and around her horn, but the earth pony waves her off. “Check on Flutterth!” She yells with a strange lisp as I regain my footing, my eyes locked on Rarity. That’s right, come here you ivory whore, come—

“Now! It has to be now, Dashie!” Twilight’s voice. Oh, you deceitful little cunts what do you think you’re doing now what do you think you’re—

Cyan hooves wrap around me, pinning my arms to my side. They’re followed quickly by a lavender pair. A chin digs into my shoulder.

“The fuck?” I shriek, throwing everything I’ve got against the two pairs of hooves locked around me. “Let go! Now, goddammit!”

“No!” A raspy voice screams into my ear, then in a more composed tone added, “We’re not letting you go off by yourself. Never again.”

“We’re right here, Jason,” Twilight says, her grip tightening. “I know it’s been so long, but we’re here at last, and I swear to you we always will be.”

I wriggle desperately, trying my best to force them off. I can’t quite bring myself to bash them against something, but I figure I can outlast them. I can wait. And then Discord will get his, fuck yeah, Discord will…I’ll...

A pink set of hooves joins the first two. Another of burnt orange follows. I sink to my knees. I look up at Discord, hoping to see something to rekindle the fading fire in my chest. But my view is quickly obscured by a purple mane and a yellow set of feathers.

“We’re right here,” Rarity whispers in my ear.

“And we’re so sorry it took so long,” Fluttershy joins in.

No, no dammit! It’s been too long, there’s been too much! Growling, I manage to force my face through the flurry of feathers and spot Discord, still breathing heavily, still with those crocodile tears. And then he does the most curious thing of all: he doubles in my vision. Then he quadruples. Then they all blur together. It takes a few minutes for me to notice the wetness trickling around my nose, dripping off the tip, and I realize with a start that I’m about to bawl.

"It’s been…so…awful…” I sob, my chest heaving.

“Would you like a friend to share it with?” Pinkie asks, almost on cue.

And that’s when the floodgates finally burst. After five miserable years, they finally…

“Your highness?”

I bolt upright in bed, startling the changeling at my bedside. I let out a long, deep sigh. “Yes, private, what do you need?”

“Sorry to disturb you, your highness, but…” the changeling bites his lip.

“No, I was already up,” I sigh and sit up with a loud grunt. “Okay, what is it?”

“The, er...Duchess wanted you up to revise the feeding schedules,” the changeling replies, quickly sliding into a well-trained business-like attitude, his eyes glancing at the clipboard in his hoof. “She believes we can make the boon we got from the Equestria Venture last longer if we…”

The changeling’s voice fades into the background as I mull the name over in my head. The Equestria Venture, that’s what my changelings call it. Likely, the ponies will soon have their own name cooked up for those days under changeling rule, something along the lines of “The Occupation,” or “The Invasion.” Something nice to turn the whole deal into a tidy little blurb for the history books their foals will be reading ten years from now. None of it will really capture what those days meant to me. None of it will come close to matching the doubt, the triumph, the devastation, the ecstasy, and the guilt of those few days.

He was trying to save her…he gave himself up to save Twilight from me…

Isn’t that what he deserved in the end?

What he deserved and what’s right are different…besides, did Twilight deserve it?

Maybe…

I close my eyes and grimace, ignoring the neverending argument between the two halves of my brain like I’ve been doing since our “triumphant” return to the Badlands. “Private, I will discuss these things with Duchess Chrysalis when we sit down later, alright?”

The changeling looks up and blinks, startled. “Err…of course, sir. I just thought you would want a briefing before meeting with the Duchess yourself.”

I paste on the smallest of smiles for him. “You do realize the point of a briefing is to be brief, right?”

“I…of course sir, terribly sorry, I will…”

“That was meant to be a joke, private.” I sigh, running my hand over my face.

“Oh,” comes the reply. A few seconds later, a robotic “Ha. HehehHA. HAHA! HA!” follows.

“Now, will that be all?” I interrupt.

The weird, robotic changeling laughter cuts off as he goes back to studying his clipboard. “For now, sir, but don’t worry, I’m sure your day will fill right up!”

“Perfect,” I reply dryly, standing to begin my morning routine. “I’ll need a half-hour, if we have it.”

“It’s already cleared on your schedule, sir!”

“Thanks.” I head into the bathroom and close the door, grateful for the one decent thing I’ve gotten back since my return to the Badlands: the custom, human-sized washroom I had built just for me. Let it be known that living in a palace is fine until you have to shower in a stall meant for a horse-goddess. Thing had plenty of elbow room, but I was still crouching down to get under the spray.

The rest of my routine is perfectly standard, starting with a shower that has me cracking a window to let the steam out, fogging up the custom-made mirror. Then it’s a quick shave, followed by “brushing” my teeth by letting a couple maggots pick the food out from between them.

Hey, it got my gingivitis under control.

Finally, I pull on my tunic and button it high. When I step back into my bedroom for my boots, I’ve still got ten minutes to spare. Sighing contentedly, I lace up the cracked leather of the boots and tighten them around my feet, shifting my weight on the bed as I switch from one foot to the other.

There’s a loud clatter, and a scrape of metal on rock. I sigh and close my eyes. Stupid. So damn stupid. Forgot I had the musket on my bed. Been sleeping with it since we got back. Unloaded, of course, but it’s still a heavy club even without any shot in it. Just hasn’t felt right being too far away from it these days.

I reach across my bed and pick the weapon up, pulling it onto my lap. I start by inspecting every nook and cranny of its polished wood surface, turning it over and seeing how the light falls over it. The metal flintlock mechanism still looks right. I thumb it back and forth a few times, holding it to my ear, listening for any squeak of metal on metal or a rattle from a loose bit inside. Satisfied that the mechanism is okay, I hold the hammer back, check to make sure there isn’t a shot of gunpowder inside (you can never be too careful), and, satisfied that it’s safe, hold the musket up to the light and stare down the barrel, checking the bore to make sure the light falls through the hammer mechanism just right, looking for any tiny…imperfections…that might…

One quick squeeze.

It wouldn’t do anything, but I could just imagine, one quick squeeze ending it all at last. I mean, what’s really left for me here? Justice is served. The wrongdoers are punished. The promise I made by the side of that road two years ago has been fulfilled. What’s really left for me here? Sure there’s a nation to run, but do I really want to do that? I mean, what have I really accomplished? Spreading that pain around an entire nation, only to wind up back here? With blood on my hands, no less? Not the most innocent blood, granted, but it’s not like it’s made me feel any better.

Instead of continuing past the bore, I find myself wrapping a hand around the stock, the barrel pressed up under the shelf of my chin. Imagine…just imagine…one quick flick of the trigger. A feeling of relief washes over me, just like that feeling from two years ago, when I felt the loose threads of the rope first closing over my throat. There’s…there’s not much left for me here…the promise is fulfilled…why wait?

Imagine.

ust imagine.

“Sir?” A voice through the door. “Sir, Duchess Chrysalis is waiting…”

“M’comin’, I’m comin’,” I grunt, releasing the musket and strapping it across my back. My hands shake, my breath quivers, but I turn and stride towards the door leading out into the hallway.

The changeling is waiting for me, looking up into my face, the clipboard still clenched in his hole-filled hoof. “Sir?” He asks, concern clouding his eyes. “Is something the matter?”

I feel tired as I look him over, so very tired. “What happens when you’ve beaten all the demons and the only ones left are the ones inside your head?” I mumble.

“Sir?”

“Nothing, private,” I reply, striding alongside him towards the cavalcade of meetings awaiting us. “Nothing at all.”

The first thing that hits you when you enter a changeling conference is how quiet things are. Changelings aren’t much for conversation, so despite the fact that I have a solid dozen changelings gathered around a nicely-sized oaken table, you could hear a pin drop. My arrival feels less like a regal politician stepping into a room and more like a college student trying to sneak into a lecture hall fifteen minutes late. Still, the changelings are all focused on me, and I do my best to slide into my seat with some amount of stoic dignity, flanked by my personal bodyguards.

Chrysalis is first to speak up, keeping a silence from descending over the room. “Your Majesty,” she intones with a slight incline of her head. “I hope you had a restful sleep.”

I sit ramrod straight in my chair, unmoving except for a slight twitch at the corner of my mouth. “Restful enough,” I reply. “Now, shall we get right along?”

The next couple of hours are as expected. We shuffle through the internal affairs with our Domestic Advisor, increasing rations enough to keep the boon going for a good long time, but not enough to drain our impressive stores too quickly, followed by reports from the Infiltration Advisor on new sources of love being explored amidst the chaos that came with burning most of Equestria’s paperwork being used to track us.

Yes, I did actually do that; that much was not a bluff.

Finally, our Foreign Affairs Minister pulls out a series of manila envelopes, with labels like “Griffons,” “Minotaurs,” and “Reindeer.” She upends their contents on the table in sequence as she moves along. “First off, a letter from the Griffon Ambassador demanding we relinquish claims in the Southern Badlands to—”

“Denied,” I interrupt. “Next.”

“A request for food aid to bolster the relief effort in…”

This goes on for another couple hours, going through letters, missives, telegrams, demands, requests for aid, demands for this territory or that concession, one or two letters begging for the release of a foreign prisoner, and the pile shrinks.

“Almost done!” The minister chirps, and a sigh of relief makes its way around the room.

“Alright people,” I announce, standing up and stretching my arms out. “What’ve we got left?”

“Just one country, sir,” she replies with a smile on her fangs, holding up a manila folder. “Ooh, and it’s a thin one!”

“From?”

“From…” her smile fades in an instant. Her eyes blink once, twice. “From…the ponies, sir.”

The room falls dead silent. All eyes turn to me. Chrysalis sits up from where she’s been slouching in her seat. Underneath the table, my hand forms into a fist so tight my nails almost break the skin of my calloused palms.

“Open it.” I hiss.

The changeling nods and, with shaking hooves, upends the folder, just like all the others. One thing skids out, sliding across the table and coming to a halt just a little short of the center, still visible enough for everyone to see: an envelope, no larger than a party invitation, with my name written in a golden, elegant script, as practiced by its creator as the raising of the sun.

I bolt to my feet in an instant. “Out! Now!” I bark. The changelings don’t need to be told twice. They rocket out of their seats, swooping over my head as I twist out of my seat and bolt for the exit, my guards shoving the doors open as more guards gather outside, forming a clot of bodies. In the space of ten seconds, the room is emptied, and three guards immediately rush inside, closing the doors behind them.

We all wait, watching the doors with bated breath. Seconds crawl by. I can’t help but feel a sense of gratitude that the only clock in this whole section of the Hive is on a wall inside the room we just evacuated. I can’t imagine how maddening this sort of waiting would be if we had a giant clock ticking away in the background.

After an eternity, the doors creak open. A pair of guards shove them aside, revealing one soldier with the envelope in his hoof. “Sir!” He said. “It’s clear.”

For a moment, none of us can move. For just a moment. Then I step forward. Each step I take seems to boom in the hallway, echoing around us like a thunderclap. I reach out a hand. The lone guard holds out the letter. It seems to weigh a ton or two, based on the way his hoof shakes with the effort of holding it up. I take the letter in my hand, the parchment-quality envelope feeling like sandpaper to my skin. My hand lowers, pinching it by one corner. “This meeting is concluded,” I rasp. “You are all dismissed.”

“Sir?” The Guard in front of me asks. “Sir, what if—”

“I said you are all dismissed!” I bark.

That cinches it. The changelings all take off, the sound of a dozen wingbeats filling the air as black bodies dart in every other direction. When the last sound of buzzing wings fades away, I strut into the conference room, slam the doors behind me, and drop into my chair again, dropping the envelope on the table in front of me.

Alone, I let the full emotional weight of what’s sitting in front of me slam down on my shoulders. My jaw clenches. I feel a vein pulse on my neck. My knees suddenly weaken and I drop into my chair. The envelope still sits there, a foreign object that should not be, not here, not ever. The panicked realization that she knew the Hive’s exact location flashes in my head, but I dismiss it. Too many safeguards. This was carried here by changeling hooves. How the owner of these hooves thought just dropping something from Equestria of all places into a folder being carried to a room filled with some of the most important changelings in the Badlands would be a topic for a vigorous conversation I would be having with some of my commanders.

Still, the thing was here. In front of me. Mocking me with its mere existence. I bite my lip, and finally pick it up, running a finger through the seam to break it and pulling out another parchment, again written with the same impossibly elegant cursive script:

Emperor Wright,

I hope this message finds you well. In fact, I hope this message finds you at all. You have made yourself a hard man to find; I can only hope this eventually falls into hooves that will understand its significance and prove able to carry it to its final destination.

Emperor Wright,Jason, you have suffered greatly. You have endured far more than anypony, or anyone, in my kingdom should ever have to endure. I promised you safety and peace, and instead you received a world where you had to survive by the skin of your teeth, barely subsisting a miserable existence in a cold, hard cave. I acknowledge this. However, I do not think this justice for the things you have done here. You have murdered. You have destroyed lives. You have traumatized countless ponies. I am not trying to imply what you have done is any worse than what has been done to you; I am merely informing you that there are ponies in Equestria right now calling for your head.

But the cycle has to stop somewhere.

Jason, the bottom of this note contains all the legalese required for a full pardon. It is a legally binding document hereby pardoning you of all wrongdoing during these last couple weeks. You are not a criminal here. You are as welcome as anyone else should be in my lands. Now, there is one last thing I am ~~aski~~begging for you to do: I am giving you a second chance.

Please take it.

Please do not just sit behind your walls in your Empire, wallowing away the days, perhaps gathering up for another retaliatory strike.

Please see us and what we can be.

You have seen us at our worst, now come see us at our best. The dual nature of humanity is something my sister and I have long been interested in from the myths about your race. Surely, you understand that ponykind is also capable of both good and evil? That we can be the harmonious race we portray ourselves to be? That it is not just all a façade?

Jason, please, in return for this document, this chance, all I ask is that you reply in kind. We do not deserve another chance, I am well aware, but please—allow us one anyway. Let us show you that we are more than our base instincts.

I await your reply.

Sincerely,

Princess Celestia Solaris, Equestria, 1007 Anno Luna

My hands shake as they grip the parchment. My breath heaves. Welp, she signed and dated it, so it’s certainly legally binding…heh…

…

This…

…This is…

Oh little Tia, you just had to take the high fuckin’ road, didn’t you?

“You fucking cunt!” I scream, crinkling up the parchment and pitching it into a corner. “You whore! You fucking piece of shit! You think you can take the high road here? You think you can…”

Something else drifts out of the crumpled envelope, slipping out of my hand and floating to the table just as the parchment skitters into the corner. I eye it curiously, bending just a bit to smooth it out over the table. This is not the expensive, high quality paper I just threw into a corner: this is the cheap stuff cards in party stores are made of.

Across the top, in pink, curlicue script, are the words “YOU’RE INVITED” sprawled out nice and large. Each line is a separate detail about a time, a place, a date, and finally a request for an RSVP, followed by a tiny caricature of a small pink horse. I look the little cartoon over. The little pink pony looks back at me with massive blue eyes with a little speech bubble stating: “Plz come.”

Oh my God.

A party invite.

For a “Welcome to Ponyville” party.

Thrown by Pinkie Pie.

After five years.

My hands clench around the invite, wrinkling its corners. She dares. She dares do this to me, what did she think this would accomplish? Did she think I was stupid? Did she think this made the last five years right? Did she think this would come even close to repairing the damage we’ve done? That this would make me forgive and forget? “That little cunt,” I scream, grasping the invite by its upper corners, ready to tear it in half. “I should…”

Discord looks up at me, blood pouring out his muzzle.

“…should…”

”It’s alright, Jason,” he wheezed. “Had it…had it…com-“

I set the invite down. A small tear has appeared in its center, cutting the apostrophe in “YOU’RE” right in half. “…should…stop pretending I’m the only victim,” I whisper.

I look down at the invitation. My instincts and gut reactions scream at me to tear it up, stomp it, use it as kindling in the fireplace. But all that talk about ponies being able to rise up above their instincts makes it feel wrong, even if I can’t place exactly why.

I lay the invite out on the table. It’s crinkled. I don’t smooth it out. I fall back in my seat. A hand goes to my mouth. A tear leaks out of my eye.

“Sir?”

I spring up in my seat. “Captain?”

The changeling captain rounds the chair, coming up on my side. His spear is balanced on his shoulder as he salutes with a free hoof, just like he was trained. “Sir, I’m terribly sorry, we would normally give you all the time you need, but there have been reports of dragon migrations following different patterns from what we predicted. Many of our patrols along the southern borders might be threatened, but the lieutenants are waiting for your orders before…”

“Of course, duty calls,” I sigh, leaning forward in my seat. A few bones pop in my neck, and I cringe as cramps run up my back. Old…when did I get so old?

“Sir?”

“Coming, coming…” I trail off as I press the palms of my hands into the small of my back, massaging the muscle before turning to stride out the door with my chest thrust out in all its regal glory. I’ve made it to the door before I realize I’ve left both the letter and the invite just lying around. I pause, twist, almost reach for the invitation.

But I hesitate.

My hand hangs in the air, unsure of what to do.

“Sir?”

"Coming!" I bark as I twist around, bumping my hand against the table and almost knocking the chair over. I hiss, stuffing my hand in my pocket and only releasing my fist when the last of the pain is gone. I grab the door handles, and slowly but deliberately shut the doors. The large, ornamental rock glides closed with a slam that never sounded so deafeningly final before. I stand there a while, my hands still wrapped around the door handles. My teeth bare in a snarl as my jaw clenches and my fists tighten until they start shaking. Despite all my best efforts, those tears make a reappearance.

Silence.

I really wish that soldier would ask for me again.

“Well?” I hiss.

The soldier hesitates for just a moment. “With all due respect, sir, I don’t feel it’d be right to give you an out on this one. I feel you need to do this on your own.”

My grip tightens on the door handles until, finally, I let go. I release a breath I didn’t know I’d been holding, then turn and head down the hallway, towards my command bunker deep within the Hive itself. “Dragon migrations, huh?”

“Yes, sir,” the soldier responds, keeping pace easily.

“Alright, lighten our forces along the border and ensure any weapons are kept hidden away. We want to look like gawkers, not an army preparing for invasion.”

“Brilliant, sir.”

“And, captain?”

“Yes?”

I sink to one knee and look him in the eye. “If word ever gets out about what you just saw, I will personally find a very deep, dark hole to throw you in, then throw away the hole. Am I clear?”

The ghost of a smile appears on the changeling’s face as he nods and salutes. “Crystal, sir.”

“Great,” I grumble, rumbling along towards the steps. “I will go over the whole plan in detail once the rest of the captains are present.” I prepare to turn a corner, but I pause. For just a second, I linger, turning around to look back at the foreboding doors, leading to what was once one of my sanctums.

The soldier has no compunctions about interrupting this time: “Sir?”

“Send maintenance to the conference room while I’m gone,” I say, turning back down the tunnel and barreling forward. “There’s some garbage in there I want picked up before tonight’s briefing.”

The captain nods. “Of course, sir, do you have any specific instructions for how this garbage is to be handled?”

“Burning.”

“Yes, sir, and, if I may be so forward?”

I cock an eyebrow at him. He pauses, and I follow suit, still watching him. The captain reaches up with a hoof and taps at my pocket, sliding down a corner with a brightly-colored “YOU” just barely visible.

“Ah, thanks captain.” I nod in gratitude.

He beams up at me. “You’re welcome, sir.”

We finally reach the massive doors at the top of the stairs and I push them open. Here, in Chrysalis’s former throne room, changelings mill about, maneuvering little figures across sand tables and maps. In one corner, a group of high generals scream and debate over bundles of papers spread messily across a table, until one of them, a broad changeling in a green jacket covered in badges, spies me. He stands ramrod straight and salutes. The others at the table automatically follow suit, not even pausing to turn and look at who he’s saluting. At his rank, they just know whoever he could salute would have to be so far over their heads that knowing who it is wouldn’t matter. The rest follow suit, each changeling rapidly taking notice and twisting to salute me, the chatter and chittering arguments dying down bit by bit, until finally the room is silent.

I smile, looking over my changelings. “Well,” I rasp. “I’m here.”

Author's Note

I'd like to start by saying sorry for the delay, it took some help from TCB, but I realized this ending was missing something and it took awhile to figure out what that was, so yeah...sorry gang :(

I just want to put some special shoutouts out there: To Blitzkrieg for being here for so danged long to give me an ego booster, and definitely to ThatClosetBrony for proofreading the crap out of this chapter. Seriously, this thing wouldn't be the quality it's at without either of these guys, so mad props to them.

I also want to thank you, dear reader, for sticking with me this long. Thanks for still being here. And as for Jason Wright, what's next? Sequel? Maybe. I'm not 100% sure yet, sorry. I have something of an idea for that, but it's nowhere near developed and I have an assload of other ideas to put out there on top of updating "TCB:STR" and "Princess and Her Queen," but hey, who knows?

Just again: thank you all! Here's seeing you in the next one :)

Prologue

The man stumbled through the woods, branches and shrubs clawing at his legs through the thin cloth of his pants. Behind him, that voice with that southern accent called, begging him to come back. Probably to buck him in the stomach for stealing her rope, that bitch.

The rope…

The man didn’t have the slightest idea what had happened there. One moment, he was up there, the noose tightening around his neck, the little orange pony looking up at him with that questioning look on her face, and the next, he was lying on the ground. There had been a snap, though. A snap. That was it! The cheap-assed rope had snapped! He reached up to his throat, feeling the strip of heat tracing around his neck from the moment before the rope had snapped, when it had clenched around his neck and his vision had started to go dark…and the next thing he knew, he had been on his back with that same pony looking down at him, eyes wide, her mouth forming that question again: Why?

Why. As if she didn’t know. As if she had no clue about the years she spent chasing after him, haunting his every move from the first moment he stepped onto her farm. For God’s sake, the first thing she did when they met was buck him in the stomach! And for what!? The crime of setting foot in her fields!? For daring to think the loving honesty she shared with everypony else might be extended to him!? She knew! She had to know!

But…

What if?

What if she really didn’t know?

All at once, the deep, roiling sadness melted away, leaving anger in its wake. Anger so great, his stomach twisted with it. He tripped over a branch and landed heavily on the ground, his hand clenching at a few tufts of wild grass, the anger boiling over. The years of abuse and rejection; that he could understand. He was a stranger in a strange land, and they were a bunch of xenophobic mockeries of the ponies he had known and loved in his world. Easy. Heartless, but he could understand it. But this? For that little pony to have the sheer audacity to look him in the eye and ask “Why?” As if she didn’t know about the years of abuse she and her friends had heaped on him for no reason at all? For her to just deny everything!?

The man rose to his knees. It was amazing what one little question could do. It could give a man a new purpose. It could renew his zeal for life, in a way. It could take all the pain and turn it into anger. Probably pointless, meaningless anger, but still, something new to hold onto. Something to justify putting one foot in front of the other again. Something besides the crushing depression he had known for over two years now.

Because of them.

Because of the ponies he loved.

Applejack’s cries were growing softer now, more faint. He was losing her. That suited him just fine. He approached the dark cave he called home, the only shelter he could find here in a land of supposedly loving ponies, and he just kept walking. There was nothing for him there anymore. Just a bunch of rags that at times made for a decent pillow.

He walked for hours with no sense of direction or any destination in mind, nothing but the anger welling up in his heart at the thought of every rejection, every undeserved hit, every attack and insult he’d suffered for the crime of being different. Applejack’s question had bought it all back to him. For him to suffer through it all was bad enough, but for the ponies to not remember? For it to be so casual to them they couldn’t even remember any of it? As if it was just part of the daily routine? Brush teeth, comb hair, torture the human, pick up eggs!? Was that how it fucking went!?

By the time Celestia’s sun started to dip beneath the horizon, his feet were aching enough to break through the whirlwind of rage spinning in his head. He paused and laid on the ground, not knowing if he was even in Equestria anymore and not caring.

As he closed his eyes, that strange, questioning look on the farm pony’s face rose up in his head again. His jaw clenched as a sneer twisted his cracked lips. “I don’t know how and I don’t know when,” he whispered. “But you’ll pay for this, Equestria. Every single one of you, even if it takes the rest of my life. You will pay.”

Chapter I: Two Years Later...

TWO YEARS LATER

Princess Celestia smiled as her sun rose into the sky. Somehow, even after a thousand years of the same ritual, day in AND day out, she never grew tired of that moment when the sun hit the falls running off Canterlot just right, and a rainbow flickered into existence just before the sun hit its starting position in the morning sky. To her, that rainbow was everything she needed to start her day. For the last thousand years, that had been enough, but recently, something new had been added to the morning ritual.

“Splendid as always, dear sister,” Luna said with a smile and a barely-stifled yawn, nonetheless drinking in the way the sun’s rays lit up the ivory towers of Canterlot like . “We only wish we could be responsible for such a display at times.”

“Hmm, the grass is always greener,” Celestia hummed knowingly. “Here, I was thinking how lovely it would be to bring the night’s stars out as you do. Just once, mind you.”

Luna smiled and shook her head. “You’re still the wretched liar you were a thousand years ago, dear sister.”

Celestia smiled back. “As one who raised the stars for a thousand years, I think I’ve earned a lie or two.”

A few years ago, such a statement might have earned a quick downward glance from her sister, but instead Celestia was nearly beside herself with the light chuckle Luna gave. “Apologies for that, sister.”

“Apology completely unnecessary,” Celestia said, nuzzling Luna. “As always.”

“Either way, we are glad to be leaving you to this job, sister,” Luna said as she returned the nuzzle. “Especially today.”

Celestia sighed and rolled her eyes. “You know what Luna, why don’t you take…”

“Afraid not, sister!” Luna replied cheerfully, skipping away like a filly. “We’re sticking you with the buffoon for today!”

Celestia groaned. “Luna, please? I’ll take your duties for a week!”

“Nope!”

“A month?”

“Not on your life!”

“A year!”

Luna actually paused, stroking her chin in thoughtful consideration. Celestia leaned towards her, wings splaying out in hope; only to fold them back again as Luna shook her head. “We would rather raise the moon while receiving a hoof massage from the gaping maws of a dozen manticores than deal a single day with yon fool.”

Celestia sighed. “When did you become such a wise-flank?”

“For that, you have yon fool to blame,” another, disembodied voice chimed in. Celestia groaned, a hoof slowly rising to her face and massaging her temple. Luna, meanwhile, never broke stride, picking up the pace as she barreled towards her private chambers. Celestia couldn’t blame her.

“Hello, Discord,” she sighed.

As if that were his cue, Discord materialized before her, first his torso, then his arms came running along the railing to link up with it, then a blank blob landed on the body’s shoulders, which promptly grew a snickering, snaggle-toothed mouth, a set of mismatched eyes, a long snout, and a tail and legs, which promptly leapt off and wriggled on the floor.

“Ugh, the bottom parts,” he sighed, scooping up the missing appendages and attaching them to himself with a little pop. “For some reason, they always have trouble making it home to daddy.”

“Discord,” Celestia said with a light, though genuine, smile playing on her lips. “I trust you’re doing well?”

“But of course, Tia,” Discord replied with the same sort of grin he would use just before causing a chocolate milk downpour on some unsuspecting pony. “I’m going to have all of Canterlot eating out the palm of my hand, soon! Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Discord, this is a celebration of your contributions to Equestria, not an excuse to lord yourself over everypony,” Celestia said half-heartedly, her mind already drifting to more important things, like whether she had allocated enough funds for the banquet being held, and whether Discord would turn the seat of honor at her table into pastries, and whether he would pull pranks on the nobility (one could only hope). Of course, one couldn’t blame her for getting distracted. There was so much to do, and it was the umpteenth time she’d said almost that exact sentence to him since announcing her intent to throw this ball in his honor.

And like the other umpteen times, his response was the same: he tossed a claw and rolled his eyes, with a snarky comment thrown in for good measure. “Pish-posh, princess. Don’t I deserve that much? Doesn’t the guy who spends his Saturdays entertaining entire orphanages deserve this banquet? Or how about…”

“…the time I saved that hospital from foreclosure, or those three little fillies I pulled from the manticore’s jaws,” she finished for him in a poor imitation of his voice, that little smile still playing on her lips.

Discord’s jaw opened, then closed. He scratched his whiskers consideringly. “You know, you would make a wonderful impressionist,” he said finally. “The kind that really annoys ponies, I mean. Have you ever considered it? Could get you out of the more boring meetings.”

Celestia’s little smile grew slightly as she shook her head, trotting from the balcony. “If you’ll excuse me, Discord, some of us have to attend to the setup.”

“Ah yes,” he mused swooping through the air alongside the Princess. “I hear you’ve got little Sparkle-butt and her friends helping out with that.”

“You heard correctly.”

“You sure that was such a smart idea? I’ve seen her when she’s under enough stress,” he said, a shiver racing up his long, gangly spine. “I do not wish to see that again. I mean, there’s chaos, and then there’s horror.”

“She’s a princess, Discord: one who has held the safety of Equestria in her hooves more than once and performed admirably every time,” Celestia said, her mind obviously less focused on her surroundings and more focused on her mental checklist (which was even more detailed than the physical, laminated one Twilight had made up for the day). “I think she can handle a celebration, even one of this magnitude.”

Discord paused in mid-air. Sighing, he crossed his arms and propped himself up against a wall while Celestia continued on, trotting towards the doors of her throne room. “Five, four, three, two…” he counted out.

Right then, the throne room doors burst open, clipping Celestia’s snout. Twilight Sparkle rushed by, nearly bowling her mentor over in a frantic dash for the balcony. “Oh no,” she whimpered under her breath as she rumbled down the halls at a dead gallop. “Oh no oh no oh no…”

“Twilight!?” Celestia called in shock.

“A bit early,” Discord mused quietly. “You’re losing your touch, old bean.”

“Princess!” Twilight gasped, scanning the balcony with the eyes of a man wandering the desert who could’ve sworn that sand dune had been an oasis with hula girls in grass skirts serving martinis just a few seconds before. “Princess!?”

“Right here, my dearest student,” Celestia called over her shoulder, massaging her snout.

“What…oh,” at a pace that made Discord’s head hurt thinking about it, Twilight switched from frantic to confused to realization and back to frantic again in the same amount of time most ponies took to blink, rocketing towards her mentor as a purple blur trailing stress-induced, molting feathers. “Princess! I’m really sorry to bother you, I know you entrusted me to handle this for you, but the nobles are yelling about budgets and the caterers are yelling about some spice from Prance or Neighpon or someplace and Blueblood’s being a butt and Pinkie’s been screeching like a banshee for…”

“Twilight! Twilight, calm!” Celestia ran a hoof under the young princess’s chin. Then, she pulled out a pink, frilly, lace handkerchief, dabbing the stress-tears off Twilight’s cheeks before offering it up. Twilight took the kerchief gratefully, blowing her nose in a loud, ungraceful, and highly unprincess-like honk. Celestia smiled evenly and balled up the kerchief again when Twilight held it out to her.

“Thank you,” Twilight whispered.

“Now, what’s say we continue with the preparations, hmm?” Celestia said in a calm, completely even tone. “I’m sure we can reach some consensus with some of the ponies you’re bickering with.”

“R-right,” Twilight sighed, her shoulders slumping in both embarrassment and relief as Celestia took the reins, the purple Alicorn trailing just behind the larger princess as they trotted back to the throne room. Discord took one look, and a wicked grin crossed his face.

“Aww, cheer up, Sparkle-butt,” he said enthusiastically, reaching into a pocket on his long, slender form and pulling out a daffodil. “Look! I have a little snack for you!”

Twilight pursed her lips as he held the flower up to her face, her eyes scrunching up. “What’s this!?” Discord gasped in shocked disbelief. “Distrust!? On a day celebrating my reformation!? All this time together, and you still don’t trust me when all I want to do is offer a little pick-me-up?”

Twilight kept her lips sealed, but glared up at him, a single eyebrow arching.

“Alright fine, good point,” Discord sighed, tossing the daffodil over his head. It floated evenly to the ground and landed with a little puff of cotton candy dust, vanishing harmlessly. “I guess you’ve just gotten too smart for ol’ Discord, Sparkly.”

Twilight sighed in relief with the flower gone. “It’s not that I’ve gotten smarter than you, Discord,” she said, trotting into the throne room. “I’ve merely gotten wise to your jokes. I’m not gonna fall for them anymore.”

“Oh, really?” Discord asked, visibly trying to stifle laughter, a paw covering his snout.

“Yes, and I only hope that means you’ll wise up and finally allow yourself to reform completely,” Twilight said, her neck craned over her shoulder, leaving her oblivious to the gaping pit in her path. “I mean, without all the silly little…”

At that moment, she tumbled head over hooves into the trap, plummeting into the dark hole. “PRRAAAAANNNNnnnnnnnkkkksss…”

Discord hovered over the hole, his barely-contained chuckles now rolling off the walls as loud, cacophonous laughter. “Wh-what was that about not falling for my jokes anymore, Sparkle-butt!?” He guffawed, slapping his knee as he shot away, his laughter chasing after him.

“Twilight!?” Celestia gasped, dashing to the edge of the pit. “Twilight!?”

A loud sigh answered the Princess of Day, followed by the flapping of wings. A few minutes later, Twilight appeared out of the darkness, her forehooves crossed over her chest as she lit upon the tiled floor. Celestia smiled down at her, licking the tip of her hoof to smooth a curl back down.

“I hate it when he does that,” Twilight pouted.

“Oh, he means well, and his heroics more than make up for it,” Celestia said, shrugging with that same, sheepish smile on her muzzle, the kind of smile that says “What are ya gonna do?”

“Maybe, but he still worries me,” Twilight replied, her glare melting into a resigned sigh as an answer to Celestia’s smile.

“You still distrust him?”

“No, no, nothing so serious. It’s just that he’s a being of power far greater than most anything and everything else in Equestria. Only the Elements of Harmony and Tirek can even come close, and even the Elements can just imprison him for a while, and Tirek had to drain the entire planet of magic before taking him on,” Twilight shook her head. “He treats his powers like a joke; he doesn’t understand how much damage he can do without even meaning it! I’m just worried that someday, he’s going to hurt somepony. Hurt them in a way that can’t be laughed off or fixed with a few months of chocolate milk clouds.”

“My dearest Twilight, it’s been five years since his reformation, and barring the Tirek incident, he’s been nothing but a model of friendship,” Celestia said. “If such a tragedy were to occur, wouldn’t it have happened by now? Or better yet, in the early days before Tirek?”

Twilight sighed. “Maybe…” she shook her head. “Either way, he is expecting this celebration now. And I suppose I am looking forward to what he has planned for the nobility.”

Instead of asking her how she could know for sure Discord had something planned for the nobles in attendance, Celestia leaned down by Twilight’s ear and whispered: “So am I.”

I turned over in my sleep, my shoulder blades aching. That’s kinda what you get from sleeping on the ground, I know, still doesn’t make it any less painful. As I turned though, the ground fell out from under me, and I let out a sharp cry as my face hit hard rock.

“Fucking…ow…” I groaned, turning over and clenching my nose, blood running from my nostrils. Pain shot through my face as I tried to hold back the flow. It was intense, but I didn’t hear anything pop, hopefully I had just bruised myself.

Hold on, why was that lip there, anyway? I didn’t remember going to sleep on a cliff’s edge. Or in a cave, for that matter, yet I was completely surrounded by rock when I opened my eyes. A cavern? Shit, I’ve spent the last three years in a cave, why would I crawl into another one to go to sleep? Especially with a clear night like...

Like last night was…when I went to sleep looking up at the stars…

Oh shit. I didn’t crawl in here to go to sleep. Someone had brought me here. Okay, okay, I couldn’t panic, panicking would just get me killed. I didn’t panic last winter when my fire went out in the middle of the night, I didn’t panic when that herd of manticores stopped by the mouth of my cave and I had to hide for my life, and I didn’t completely panic when Rainbow Dash’s wingbeats filled the air and I had to run or take a lightning bolt in the ass. I had to think, that was all. So, I wasn’t captured for food, I’d be in something’s stomach already if I was. Or just dead. I also wasn’t captured for ransom, look at me! Any robbers could take a single glance and know I didn’t have jack shit of any value to them. So, it wasn’t ponies, it wasn’t some wild animals, what else did I know that might hide out in…

Oh no.

“Oh shit,” I gasped out loud. I finally did it, didn’t I? Wandered too deep into the Everfree, and got too close to what’s on the other side: the Changeling Badlands. Oh God, out of the frying pan and into the fire! I had escaped from being the local whipping boy of Ponyville, only to wind up a prisoner of the changelings! Goddammit, no! This was supposed to be my escape! This was supposed to be a change for the better! This wasn’t…wasn’t…

“Oh, what’s wrong, little one?” A deep voice asked from the darkness in my cell. My blood froze. I knew what this was.

“D-don’t come any closer!” I gasped, trying to sound as big and tough as my thin, emaciated body would allow. There wasn’t any way I could pose any sort of threat to the creature in there with me, and they must have known it.

“Oh, but darling,” a flicker of green flame, and somebody stepped from the shadows. “Is that any way to talk to me?”

I didn’t want to, but I couldn’t help myself. It was as if something seized control of my eyes, forcing them open, and my neck muscles were simply too stiff from spending the night on a rock in a cave to turn away. I had no choice but to watch as a familiar, humanoid form stepped into view.

“M-mama?” I whispered, my joy at seeing another human, and a familiar one at that, overriding my suspicion.

The stout, curly-haired woman held her arms out. “Come give your mommy a hug,” she whispered.

I wanted to. God, how I wanted to. Even later on, I wouldn’t be able to figure out if it was some sort of changeling spell, or if I was just that desperate for loving contact, but at that moment, I wanted more than anything to believe the woman standing before me was exactly who she appeared to be. Even with that little voice at the back of my head screaming it couldn’t be her, that it was one of them, I found myself stepping towards her, moving stiff-legged like a zombie.

“You’re not her,” I whimpered, even as I pulled the creature into my bone-thin arms.

“Oh, but I can be,” the creature smiled, its green eyes flashing. I shuddered, but made no attempt to push her or him or it or whatever away. “I can see your memories; I can be anybody you want, Jason.”

A few, silent tears started rolling down my cheeks, following familiar paths that they had traced after countless nights spent with them on my face. “Oh, don’t cry Jason,” the “human” said, wiping the tears off my cheeks with the same little flick of the wrist my mom used to have. “After all, you and I want the same thing.”

I paused. “Wh-what?” I gasped shakily, my breath a pathetic, hyperventilating pant.

“I just stated the fact that we both wanted the same thing: to make them pay,” the woman hissed “them” as if it were a curse, and when her grip tightened, I felt something well up from within my chest…

Nightfall. I journey out into the river, hoping my makeshift fishing lines might have caught something. I’m almost there, when I hear that same flap of wings. I don’t even have time to look before pain shoots through my entire body.

All at once, my tears stopped. I started to return the death-grip the woman had on me.

Dawn. Another winter day. I pull myself up from beneath the pile of rags that is my bed and shiver, my breath condensing out in front of me. I just want to sleep, but I know if I don’t get the fire started up again soon, I’m dead.

My teeth clenched. The tears were practically a distant memory at that point.

Mid-afternoon. I quietly sneak out of my hiding spot towards the nearest dumpster, hoping for a little something to act as a snack, something to take the edge off the hunger gnawing away at my guts. Just a little something from the garbage, that’s all I want, please…but no, I’m not quiet enough and catch the attention of one of the ponies in the street. I turn and run before the first rocks or pieces of garbage or whatever can start flying in my direction, cursing the continued hunger pangs as they rack my shriveled form.

My breath started coming in long, jagged gasps. Tears were gathering in my eyes again, but not out of desperation or sadness this time. These were anger tears, and the woman in my arms grinned on feeling one of them drop down into her hair.

”Why?” The burnt orange pony whispers, gazing up at me with those big, green eyes. As if she didn’t know. As if she couldn’t even comprehend. As if she didn’t remember the hell she and every single one of those goddamned, evil little shits have put me through for the last three years! As if…

“Do we want the same thing, Jason?” The woman whispered. “Do we want to make them pay?”

It took a full minute for me to reply. “Yes. Yes we…”

“Sir?”

My eyes dart open, banishing the memory. I growl from the back of my throat and turn to the source of the voice, earning a quick cringe as the changeling quickly bows at my feet. “Drone 457,” I grumble. “What do you want?”

“Terribly sorry, my lord, I know you didn’t want to be disturbed in your meditations, but the last squad of changelings just reported that it is in place,” the drone says. He disguises the shaking in his spine well, even if his wings still quiver.

I sigh. “Very well, thank you, 457.” The drone nods and turns, taking off into the massive cavern. I shrug off my mild annoyance at being interrupted as I watch him go. 457 meant well, and besides, he called me “lord.” I may have ordered all my soldiers to do that, and it may have been months since any of them referred to me as anything else (the last schlub to forget having spent two days in solitary without food as an example to the others), but it still gives me a charge to hear that title. Besides, the whole reason I was meditating on that memory was to stir some of that old fire I’d felt in the fields outside Sweet Apple Acres, and again in that cavern beneath the Badlands.

I pressed a hand to my chest, and grinned at the old rage that blossomed within me. I was more than ready.

To think, in a land of peace and harmony, I was a slave, but in the land of the supposedly evil changelings, I was a lord. In Equestria, I had been forced to wear rags, my body wasting away beneath me. Now, I wore a tunic of reinforced lace with warm, heavy leggings, my well-muscled body swinging around as I strapped on my weapon to lead my army into battle. I swung the weapon around into my hands, working a small lever on the wooden stock with a satisfying and well-practiced click. It had taken months of experimentation and more than a few maimed soldiers, but I finally had a working musket, a single charge of crude gunpowder already loaded and waiting for a rubber stun slug. I grin down at it, feeling way too good about the weight of such a powerful device in my hands. It’s amazing what you can accomplish with nothing but some fuzzy memories of documentaries on the History Channel and the resources of an empire behind you. It can even help you bring the weapons of another world into existence.

“Mr. Wright?” Another voice asks behind me. I grin. Not too long ago, I might have cringed at that voice, but my days of cringing in fear for the next blow are long behind me, thanks to the mare at my back.

I turn, meeting Chrysalis’s gaze. She flashes a nice, big, toothy grin at me. “Do we want the same thing?”

I think back on the events of the past five years. The pain. The hunger. The loneliness. Applejack’s painful blows. Rainbow Dash’s unprovoked strikes. Pinkie’s avoidance. Fluttershy’s fear. Rarity’s insults.

The rejection of the Princess of Friendship herself.

“Yes, Chrysalis,” I reply as that old anger boils up within me. I can tell she feels it coming off me, because that grin gets wider. Predatory. It matches my own. “We both want the same thing.”

“Then don your true face and let us begin.”

I nod, then reach into one of the pouches sewn into my tunic, pulling out a gas mask I had modified from a pony’s facial structure to match my own. I pull it on, my disfigured features covered up by the rubber. I gaze out from the tinted glass as my breath rasps through the respirator in an intimidating, ragged wheeze, like the breath of a madman.

She leads me to a massive cavern, where the army – my army – is gathered. Twelve columns of highly-trained changeling soldiers, gathered beneath a sparkling cavern, the dim light reflecting off their highly-polished chitin. Changelings all gather, talking amicably about what they’re going to do when they get up there and how easy this was gonna be and how the ponies wouldn’t even see this one coming, and I can’t help but smile behind my true face. Time to get them really riled up.

“Changelings!” I bellow, the specially-modified rebreather on my real face hardly muffling my voice at all. In an instant, the entire army forms into columns, just as trained. Chrysalis flashes a fine, predatory grin. I return it, though I know she can’t see it. Just can’t help myself. I turn my gaze on the perfectly-formed rows and columns before me, a wave of black bodies just waiting to be unleashed upon the world up above. The so-called world of light, the…the…

And to think, I thought I would have trouble coming up with a speech.

“My dearest soldiers,” I hissed, my voice just above a whisper. This was met with hushed whispers and excited chittering from the younger recruits, though the older soldiers were smart enough to keep their gaze upon me and say nothing. “Today is a glorious new day, do you know why?”

This was met with silence, all changelings too afraid to respond. I wished I could chuckle at that, but I had to maintain the illusion. “Because this is the day of liberation. This is the day that the world is finally released from Equestria’s reign.”

Again, more excited chitters, quickly hushed by the changelings around those doing the chittering.

“You see, this is the day that at long last, the world will see the truth. This is the day that all masks are cast aside. And not just our masks: not only will we be able to hunt in the open, but we will tear off the mask that Equestria has worn for hundreds of years.” I step to the edge of the crowd, my gaze sweeping over the thousands of black bodies gazing up at me. “For hundreds of years, they have claimed to be the righteous, the paragons of friendship. For hundreds of years, they have enslaved the world, bending even nature to their will, all in the name of ‘friendship!’ Well, no more!”

I scream the last word and sweep out to every changeling here. “Today, we tear down that image! Today, we burn it away and let the world see the true Equestria! A land of wickedness! Of bigotry! A kingdom where their decadence and complacency is only overshadowed by their bigotry!”

I’m met with a choir of boos and hisses. It’s a sound that makes my heart soar.

“But not anymore!” I finish. “On this day, we finally set things right! On this day, we change up the order! On this day, we make a strike against bigotry and hate, because on this day, Equestria falls!

The enthusiastic roar that meets my ears is like music. Two years ago, I would never have dreamed of having warm clothes on my back again, much less the means to strike back, to hit where I’ve been hit and claim any sort of revenge. Now, I can only grin behind my true face and tilt my head to gaze up at the city above. Finally, after five long years, Equestria would know justice.

Chapter XV: Confrontation

I grin behind my mask, a smile not matched by the coiled chaos-god shivering before me. "I gotta admit, you ponies always find a way to surprise me," I chuckle. "Here I am, showing up for just a quick checkup, and who do you have over? The guy I froze in stone when I first came here!"

Discord winces as if struck, cowering in a timid way nopony has seen since Tirek's triumph over him. I can only smile and shake my head. "Relax bro, you're in good company here! I'm not gonna freeze ya again!" Couldn't if I wanted to, but he doesn't need to know that. "That shit's in the past now, y'know?"

"Pardon me for being ill at ease," Discord replies, his wide, yellow eyes locking on mine through the lenses of the mask. "I mean, you did petrify me and everything, and were it not for the chaos your reign has inadvertently wrought, I would still be down there, so..."

"Oh, I just needed you out of the way, make sure you didn't interfere until my plans could bear fruit," I scoff, waving a hand out to the caged and chained ponies around us. "So, what do you think?"

He actually takes the time to scan around and look back at me with a grin so fake I'm surprised it doesn't shimmer like plastic in the rising daylight. "From one villain to another, I've seen better," he chuckles.

"Ahh, but I'm only getting started!" I return the chuckle, but with more heart and gusto behind it. "In a few years, you won't even recognize the place!"

Discord takes another moment to scan the pinched, shivering, frightened faces around him. "No, I'm afraid I wouldn't," he mumbles.

Of course, his concerned gaze doesn't escape me. "Oh now, what's this?" I ask, feigning surprise. "Haven't grown soft around these little ponies, have we?"

"Well, what can I say?" He shrugs. "Spend enough time around anyone, and they tend to grow on ya, you know?"

"Ooohhh, if only I did know," I sigh, shaking my head. He cringes again as I stand up, wiping my hands on my pants. "Tell y'what: let me offer you the deal I was gonna give you in a few years. I was hoping to solidify my grip on the kingdom, but since you're here, might as well, right?"

Discord uncoils a little, leaning towards me. "A...deal?" He asks, oblivious to the dismay rising on all the cute, widdle pony muzzles around us. "What kind of deal?"

"I'll give you Equestria," I reply, smiling down at him.

Discord's jaw drops, his eyes widening. "Wait, what?"

"I'm gonna give you Equestria," I repeat, the gears in my head turning. Yes...this could work...rather than reforming Equestria to leave behind its bigoted, awful past, I can wipe the whole thing out under a blanket of chaos and start over! And with the only sanctuary from his powers under my control, my ability to forge the populace into whatever I wish will explode! And hey, I can always repetrify Discord in a few years, I’ll probably come up with something in that time. "You can have all of Equestria, except for Canterlot castle. Everything else, though, is all yours. Just leave me the castle my changelings and I fought so hard for."

Discord’s eyes wander around, darting about the room, resting on each pony in turn, and then his yellow gaze falls on...aw no, Discord, c'mon! Don't fall for that trap! Don't look into those stupid, big, blue eyes and expect to see anything else!

"I'm sorry," he whispers, looking into Fluttershy's little face. "But I can't."

"Oh, come the fuck on!" I facepalm. “Really!? After everything!?”

“Yes,” he whispers, coming just a little further out of his coil. “Especially after everything.”

Fluttershy stands in her cell, eyes wide in shock. He just smiles at her, even as she presses her muzzle to the bars, jaw gaping.

“Still buying into the bullshit, huh?” I scoff. “Fine, just don’t come crying to me when they inevitably try to petrify you again.”

“Wait, wha…” he cocks his eyebrow at me, standing fully once more. “You’re just letting me walk out of here!? Just like that!?”

“Well, yeah!” I shrug. “Just go on, and remember: I offered you Equestria. So there. Auf Wiedersehen, dude. Arriba-derchi. Go on. Get the fuck outta my house.”

He cocks an eyebrow suspiciously. “You seem awfully fine with everything I just confessed to.”

“Aww, that?" I wave him off. "How could I be mad at you for lying to cover for your friends?"

Discord freezes, first looking confused, then eyes looking over me in horror. Most of the ponies mimic the same motion. My self-assured smile fades. What, they didn’t expect me to buy into that horseshit, did they?

“Well, I will say it was surprisingly noble of you, trying to take one for the team like that,” I shrug, my hand resting on Discord’s talon. His claw shivers beneath my grip. Seriously, is he trying to milk this performance or what? “If only it wasn’t oh-so-convenient, y’know? I mean, placing all the blame on your shoulders?”

“I-it’s true though!” He reaches for me.

“Sure thing, Discord,” I shake my head and turn to walk back up the stairs, leaving his reaching claw hanging. “Take the time you want to say goodbye to your little friends, alright? Just don’t forget to lock the door on your way out.”

Behind me, I hear Discord take a few more steps, then stop suddenly. When I turn and peek out the corner of my eye, I see Fluttershy’s little yellow hoof wrapped around his bear paw, holding him back. “Don’t,” she whispers, probably thinking I’m too far away to hear. “He’ll kill you.”

With a sad smile, Discord gently eases her hoof off his arm. He slowly leans down, planting a gentle kiss on Fluttershy’s forehead. “Thank you for being my friend,” he whispers back.

“Come! The fuck! ON!” I scream, turning with a stomp of my foot. Discord looks up, surprised. “Don’t you think you’re laying it on a little thick!? Jesus Christ!”

“No, not thick at all,” Discord replies, laying a final claw on Fluttershy’s cheek.

She whimpers and holds it there a second. “Don’t…” she whispers again, but he’s already pulling away and striding towards me, eyebrows hunched in determination, his kiss leaving a glow behind that stays on Fluttershy’s cheek for a few minutes.

“When I started this little ‘project,’ the ponies weren’t the only ones I affected,” he announces, looking all the while like a pissed off lampshade as he strides up to me, his legs shaking, but his chest still thrust out. “There was you too. I changed you.”

I just smirk at him. “Nice try, but I still don’t think…”

“Why didn’t you leave?” Discord asks.

I whirl on one heel, eyeing him. “What?”

“You could’ve left at any t-time, so why didn’t you?” Discord repeats.

“The…portal I used was one-way, I…”

“Not this world, Ponyville!” Discord screams. “Why didn’t you leave that little village!? Why did it never occur to you to try somewhere else!?”

“What, and get the same treatment from the Manehattanites? Or the Cloudsdale pegasi?” I snort.

“You didn’t know for sure it would’ve been the same! Surely, you could’ve tried! And even then, you still could have returned to the princesses! So why didntcha!? Why didn’t it even occur to you to try!?”

“I…” My head cocks, my eyes drifting off of him. It…can’t be, I refuse to believe it…no, I remember why…it’s just…right now it’s just…gray…

“I-I’ll tell you,” Discord finishes, his voice trembling uncharacteristically. “It’s because I didn’t want to lose my newest toy.”

All at once, a flash of gray zaps over my body. My eyes widen as I turn on the spirit, my stomach tumbling, my muscles spasming as the magic washes over me. Everything from those few years, the things that had been covered up: the nights his voice whispered in my dreams while I slept in my cave, the chortling laughter that followed one of Applejack’s bucks or Rainbow Dash’s lightning bolts, the lack of hope surrounded by a certain gray haze. Around me, my colors grow sharper, as if I’ve been standing in a fog these past few years, and suddenly I’ve just stepped out of it. It was him. My God, he was telling the truth.

I…

How could…

Why…

Oh my God.

Oh my fucking Jesus God…

After a few minutes of standing there silently, my breath rushing in and out through the respirator, my muffled voice finally comes through. The emotion makes it squeak girlishly, but if anybody notices, they don’t dare point it out. “So, that’s it then?”

Discord looks up at me and nods, his mismatched eyes meeting with the plastic visor in the mask. “Yes,” he croaks, his voice barely a whisper.

Once again, I spend a few minutes just standing there, breathing through the mask, my shoulders rising and falling with my breath. Then, all at once, I stop, and the air rushes out in a long, drawn-out sigh. “Yes,” I mutter, a hand running through the tufts of hair along the back of my head. “Yes, of course.”

Discord’s eyes sink back to the floor. “I…understand you’ve been through a lot, because of…my actions…”

At that, I whip around, the mask locking on him with the precision of an air-to-air missile. “Do you now, do you!?” I scream, striding up to the spirit until the mask’s filter presses against his misshapen snout. “Do you really understand!? Do you have any idea what you’ve put me through!?”

“Only that it drove you to this,” Discord replies, his voice still an uncharacteristic, quivering gasp.

“Is that all!?” I bellow. “You dare stand there, telling me you understand what I’ve been through, and that’s all you fucking know!?” My hands go to the mask and tear it off, casting it aside to allow the draconequus to drink in my face, the one beneath the skin I adopted for myself. Discord’s eyes widen in shock. He takes a step back, his eagle talon clacking on the polished marble. I stalk forward with him.

“My God…oh my God!” He gasps, drinking in the ugly, twisting scar and the milky-white eye. “What happened to you!?”

“You did!” I scream, grabbing a tuft of chest fur in my grip and yanking him towards me. “All these years, I thought it was them! I thought it was the ponies! And really, it was all you!”

“I…I…” Discord stammers, taking another step back.

“What, did you think you could condemn a man to living in a cave and it would all be okay!? That he would come out just fine after you summoned a stroke of lightning for giggles!?”

“Y-your magic!” Discord stammers, another step back. “Your ambient magic should have protected you…it was just supposed to be a tickle!”

“Humans don’t have magic, you fucking moron!” I scream into his face like a hysterical mare. In my turmoil, I rip off my tunic, the buttons popping away and clattering to the floor. “We have nothing! Every single buck, every single strike, every single attack, it’s all here! It’s all still here!”

Discord’s eyes widen even more, his jaw working up and down as he drinks in the road map of little, white scars covering my chest and shoulders. “I…I didn’t know…”

“That’s all you have to say!?” I shriek. “Five years! Five years of hell! Of pure agony! Of feeling betrayed by the ponies I thought I loved, of having to build up a place to belong with my own blood and sweat, all because of your stupid, irresponsible bullshit! And that’s all you have to fucking say!? You didn’t know!?”

“I…” Discord bows his head again, his shoulders sinking like a condemned prisoner. “Yes. That’s all.”

My hands go to my head, my breath coming in heaving, panicked sighs as I stumble back. “My God,” I repeat. “Oh my God, I was going to…I just…oh my God!”

“Just…leave them alone,” Discord says, his eyes closing as he waves to the ponies in cages around him. “It’s me you wanted all along. They were just…my tools…”

“Wait, no!” Twilight finally speaks up, standing in her cell. “Discord just turned the volume up on what was already there! I’m the Princess of Friendship and I thought nothing of slamming that door in your face! It was all of us, Jason! We all did this to you!”

My vision shifts to her, glaring down at the pretty purple princess. Amazingly, she looks back at me with pleading eyes. I shake my head. “He’s the one who saw the pieces. He could’ve ended it at any time. I’ve settled up with the pawns, now it’s time to take down the king!”

On the last word, my boot lashes out, almost without me commanding it. It just happens. But all at once the draconequus is sprawling back, laid out on the floor with a choked gasp. Some predatory part of my brain lights up. Pain. He needs to feel pain. I leap on him, barraging him with my fists and slamming him against the tiled floor, attacking him like a feral beast. “All these years! I spent weeks crying myself to sleep, screaming to God why, why the ponies I loved didn’t return that love, why I was the only one in a land of peace and harmony to know only pain and loneliness!”

“Please,” Discord starts, his paws rising defensively, only to fall again. I cut him off by grabbing his beard, yanking him up by it, and slamming his head back down as hard as I can.

“I’ve done things that can never be taken back!” I scream in between blows. “I’ve hurt ponies, changelings! I’ve been beaten, tormented, hated! I had to stand there while the ponies I loved jeered at me, felt my heart crushed with every blow, every hit! Do you have any idea what kinda hell the last five years have been!? I don’t even remember what that love feels like anymore!”

The princesses gasp at that. Oh good, finally somepony understands this pain. I couldn’t care less. The blows continue, arms toned and muscled by years of hardship finally releasing all that pent-up frustration and anger. Every lonely night, every moment of agony, all relived as I keep it up until my fists ache and my arms burn, covered in blood that’s only partially my own. A punch nails him across the cheek like a lightning strike, a knee slams into his gut like a hoof buck, and I scream as loud as I can, matching the volume of the terrified screams that came whenever I stopped in town, just before the garbage started flying.

Finally, it stops. I nearly collapse, gasping with the effort it takes to remain upright, my hate-filled eyes still glaring at the unmoving draconequus. For a moment, I figure he might have lost consciousness, then he coughs, spitting out a bit of blood.

“I’m sorry,” he whispers.

My breath pauses in a quick hitch, then comes out again in a chortle. “You’re sorry?” I ask, followed by a quick laugh. I grasp the spirit by the horns and look into his eyes. “You’re sorry!?”

“Y-yeah,” Discord coughs. “You weren’t supposed…to be hurt this bad…”

“Well guess what!? I was!” I rise to my feet, still breathing heavily, hands propped on my knees again. Then an idea occurs to me, and a smile crosses my face. A dangerous one, like a lion spotting a wounded gazelle across an open savannah. “And y’know what? I just got me one helluva idea.”

With practiced ease, the weapon on my back slides into my hands. The princesses shiver at the sight of it, Twilight nuzzling into Celestia’s chin. “Oh, I see you recognize this, your highnesses,” I say, my voice a little bit too high-pitched and quivering to be normal. “That’s nice. By the way, sorry for the misunderstanding we’ve been having lately. I’m sure I can make it up to you later.”

My gaze falls on the draconequus, who looks up at me like an abused dog that knows it’s just broken another one of its master’s arbitrary rules. “Of course, your little ponies only got a small taste of what this thing is capable of,” I explain ever-so-eloquently. “Stun rounds, designed to break up a little bit after piercing skin.”

I pull out the ramrod and shove the next round home, cocking the hammer with a satisfying click. “These, though,” I chuckle darkly as the first trickles of tears start down my face. “These do something a little more permanent.”

A gasp makes its way around the room as I stride up to Discord. The whole world shrinks away as I stalk to the cowering body and place the sole of my boot on his chest, pressing down as hard as I can and delighting in the wheeze that escapes. Finally, figuring enough is enough, I bring the musket up to my shoulder and level it on a little spot between those mismatched eyes.

“This…this is for everything,” I rasp. “Everything that’s happened to me, and that I’ve made happen, all because of your shit. All the hate, the anger, the pain, this is for everything you’ve done! This is me finally making things right!”

“Jason, don’t!” I look up, momentarily distracted by the outburst. All eyes turn to the source, even Discord’s: Celestia, now standing proud and tall in her cage, still every bit the ruler she was on her throne just a week ago despite the goop coating her wings and horn. It’s enough to make my breath catch despite myself, but the anger surges right back.

“Don’t?” I ask, my voice trembling. “Is that all you have to say? Don’t? Is that really all you can think of to stop me from settling things after five years of hell!? After what’s been done to me, is that all you have to say!?”

Her gaze softens against me. Nopony speaks as the Princess lowers her head, almost in contemplation. Then, her voice rises once more: “Don’t become the monster you’ve been treated like. Please.”

I stumble back, nearly tripping over Discord’s sprawled, lanky form. We lock eyes again, me and him, him and me, and that look, that pathetic look…

I bet he was wearing that same look when Tirek beat his ass.

I sneer. “Crocodile tears won’t help you now.” I hiss, raising the stock of my weapon to my shoulder again and focusing down the sights at the beaten, misshapen face before me. To his credit, Discord doesn’t beg, he doesn’t struggle, he just looks up at me with that same, sorry look.

“I’m sorry,” he whispers, his eyes squeezing shut.

“Five years too late,” I rasp, my finger curling around the trigger. The rest of the world fades away, the six mares begging and struggling against their chains, maybe screaming for me not to pull the trigger. I don’t know. I’ve tuned them out.

My breathing becomes heavy, my teeth bare in a ferocious grin, my nose twists with rage, the trigger starting to give from the pressure building under my finger. My eyes narrow into little rage-filled slits.

“I’m sorry,” he exhales, inhales. My finger tenses over the trigger, and then a flash of yellow knocks the barrel of the musket out of the way.

“What the fuck…” I start as orange hooves lock around me, pinning my arms to my sides.

“I got ‘im!” Applejack, holding onto me, like I’m some bucking bronco to be tamed. “I got ‘im, Flutters! Get the gun!”

Showing off a surprising amount of aggression, Fluttershy wraps herself around the barrel of my weapon, tears streaming from her eyes. “Please…he’s my…”

“Who. Cares!?” I bellow, driving us backwards, slamming Applejack into the bars of Rarity’s prison. Before the white bitch can join in, I throw myself forward, all of us tumbling, spinning, the gun between us. Flutters still wrapped around it, still trying to pull it aside, gonna take more than that bitch, a lot more…

Ooh, this has Discord written all over it, probably that kiss had a little bit of him in it, just enough to pop the lock on a couple cages. Well fuck him, he’s not getting away that easy. The bastard’s yelling something off to the side, I don’t hear it. Can’t process it. Gotta keep my eyes on the prize, gotta work on making sure they don’t stop me.

I twist.

The barrel pokes out.

My finger slips.

In the split second before the hammer falls, I realize that in our struggles, I’ve levelled the musket right on Sparkle’s cell. She doesn’t even move. She doesn’t duck. Her eyes widen in terror. Celestia reaches for her through the bars of her cage, screaming in absolute horror. I twist my wrist, trying to angle away from her, but it’s not enough. It’s not enough, Jesus God, it’s not enough.

A rush of fur fills my vision.

There’s a deafening blast.

Everything stops.

I look up, and find my intended target there, curling up on the floor. He looks up at me, eyes wide with surprise. Blood mats into his fur.

“D-Discord?” Fluttershy asks, her grip on me falling away.

He shivers, a few streams of blood raining around his muzzle. “It’s alright,” he stammers as he falls to the ground in a long coil. “It’s okay…had it…had it…”

His tumble ends with his body coiled around itself, like a garden hose. He lets out a long sigh, his lungs emptying themselves. And we all stare.

No…

No, wait…this isn’t…this isn’t…this can’t be…

“Duh-Discord?” Fluttershy squeaks.

The lanky, furry body shrinks, as if deflating. The claws and talons twitch a final few times and lay still.

Fluttershy loses her grip on the barrel and drops to the cobblestone. She drags herself desperately to the body on the floor, a few sobs already escaping her mouth as she wraps herself around it. “He was doing…better…” are her last coherent words before a long, drawn-out sob rips out of her mouth, the sort you’d expect from a child in a tantrum. The cries are only interrupted by the occasional, soundless wheeze in the moments between a new breath.

Applejack is still at my side. After a while, I feel her tremble. Her tears are quieter, her sobs contained, but I can feel them still as we watch Fluttershy cling to the body, blood smearing across her chest. I watch dispassionately for a while, my lips pursed, before I slowly climb to my feet.

I start at Pinkie Pie’s cage, unlocking it with the key ring in my pocket and swinging the door open. She cowers away from the opening door as I move on. Rainbow Dash is next, and then Twilight, me making a circuit around the room. At Rarity’s cage, I pause at the way she looks up at me. Gone is the pity. Gone is that apology. There’s just accusation and rage. “Are you happy now, Jason!?” She shouts, tears standing in her eyes. “Do you finally feel better about all these years!? Or do you need to burn down another village!?”

I don’t respond. I just carry on to the next cage. Celestia is the last freed. And then, I pocket the key ring and trudge towards the exit.

“Jason?” Celestia asks. I pause for just a second, my boot on the bottom step. I know how she looks: that disappointed mother look, gazing at me, her eyes watering as they look through the back of my head. I carry on, up from the dungeon, away from the small group of crying, sobbing ponies, towards the light. A hoof stops me, clasping around my hand. I pause in my step, and despite myself the tears won’t stop.

“Jason?” Celestia repeats herself.

I pause. Only for a bit, just enough to make sure my voice doesn’t crack or waver. “My changelings have been busy altering documents and destroying records all over Equestria. You now have no way of tracking any of my Infiltrators all over the country.” I turn, glaring into her wide, stunned eyes, my tears wiped away with a swipe of my hand. “If you try to follow us back or take any action against any single Infiltrator, I will order the rest to go on a spree of destruction that will make the fire at Ponyville look like a piddling flare up. Do you understand?”

She continues staring, those massive, magenta eyes locked with my own, her jaw somewhere around her neckline.

“Alright, let me be clear: leave us alone, or we’ll burn down every major population center from Manehattan to Trottingham. I will leave you with nothing but this castle and a wasteland filled with ash to rule over. Nod if you understand.”

Another few minutes pass until her head slowly bobs up and down, those wide, shocked eyes still locked with my own. I glare into her for a moment longer, then turn and continue my journey up towards the light. This time, she doesn’t follow.

Author's Note

This was hard to write, to say the least. It took quite a bit of debate to get it where I wanted it to be. Originally, I had no plans to kill Discord, but after the last chapter I realize that we just haven't earned that sort of ending yet. It would be a bit too light-hearted after everything we've all been through. Then, this came along, this idea: what if we pulled that trigger? What if we went ahead with everything?

That idea was just too enticing to ignore. I hope you all enjoy.