The Mane Twelve

Violet Haze walked with confidence as she led the second part of the Distraction Group. Being a leader made the fire inside her grow stronger and her walk even more proud. Behind her, the twins Dolce and Oscuro, staying close to Pinkie Pie whose confidence wasn't to the highest, nor the lowest. She was just...there. The cheerful, happy and loud Pinkie Pie was gone and was replaced by a silent, calm pony. Maybe their cheering back at Sugarcube Corner didn't work after all.

Dolce was always with a smile on her face and every now and then she gave a small giggle or two, trying to make Pinkie cheer up once again. It just proved pointless. Oscuro kept the same attitude as Pinkie as all three of them followed the 'proud one' and behind them, a bunch of other ponies, chatting with each other while moving along.

After some walking, Violet Haze hadn't realised that she had led her squad to the gardens. They were said to be the most spectacular of Equestria, with big beautiful tress, nice, comfy bushes to relax and many animals to keep one company during hard times. All that was now gone. The trees were leafless and the vegetation was dead. The animals, nowhere to be found. Violet looked around with a weak smile on her face.

"Now it's peaceful..." she wispered to herself.

As the group walked through the gardens, Oscuro looked around her. She noticed that some small pebbles around her were kind of...shaking. Like something was approaching. Like a stampede. She turned to her twin sister.

"Um...Dolce? Not that I want to disturb but, look at that." she said and pointed at the pebbles.

Dolce shifted her look at where Ocsuro's hoof was pointing and stopped along with her sister, starting to look at the pebbles closer. Violet Haze didn't seem to notice them and kept walking. Dolce closed her eyes. She could hear a...breath? It was deep, slow but so weak, faint even. Where is it coming from? she wondered. Oscuro looked at her in wonder. She knew that she was thinking. She looked around. The scenery started getting a little foggy since they entered. Suddenly, the sound of a chitter could be heard.

"Um...Violet Haze?" asked Oscuro with a faint voice.

"Yeah what?" replied Violet after turning around, asking Oscuro with an ignorant tone, only then starting to realise that the backround had changed.

The chittering started getting louder. Violet started looking around nervously, attempting to find the entrance from where they came from.  It was no use. Along with the chittering, the fog was getting closer, restricting their vision even more. The ponies gathered close to each other as the chittering got louder and louder every second.

"F...f-fo..." said a weak voice, coming from behind the mist.

Dolce opened her eyes and looked at the fog. She then turned her look at the ground, noticing a pile of bugs starting to come close to the ponies. She gave out a scream of fear. And it wasn't just from that side. The bugs had compassed the group and started getting on top of the ponies. Everypony started yelling, losing control while trying to get them off, scatching themselves but such efforts proved futile. The bugs were too many. Many of the ponies fell to the ground as the bugs entered inside them and burst out with blood all over them. Dolce and Oscuro used their magic to fend them off, protecting the leader and Pinkie Pie, being an important pony that she was, the Element of Laughter that is. Pinkie on the other hand didn't respond. She didn't laugh, she didn't panic.

After a while, the bugs started retreating, leaving the dead bodies of the ponies around the four ponies that were still alive.

"Everypony ok-"

"Shhhh," Dolce interrupted Violet Haze as she raised her ears.

The voice, it was gone. But it was replaced by footsteps. They were being approached by somepony else. As he got closer, Dolce focused some energy on her horn and created a small orb of light, to see through the mist.

She saw an alicorn approaching. His position was like that of a wild animal. Hunched back, his mane straight down, covering most of his face and his skin as damaged as himself. The mist could no longer hide who he was.

"Famine..." said Violet Haze.

Famine looked at them with a look of wonder while his wide open eyes staring at them for minutes. His mouth was dry and his moves were slow, as if he was stuck in time.

"F-food." he said and pointed at one of the corpses.

Dolce gulped and nodded at him. Famine rotated his head, like he didn't understand the gesture, his snake eyes still wide-open, a deep questionmark crafted in them.

He started walking towards the corpse and sat down, grabbing the corpse by its head and gnawing it, breaking the skull with his fangs, munching with great noise.

The ponies only looked at him. Trying to retreat would be wortheless. Where would somepony go with a mist such as that?

It only took Famine a few seconds, a little less than a munute to suddenly stop his meal and shift his look back at the ponies. He looked at the corpse then right back at them.

"Y-You'r-re...no d-dead?" he asked, his throat still as dry, even after sucking on the blood of his meal.

"No." said Dolce after a small pause.

Famine took a moment to look at each pony individually and then got back to devouring the pony. He left nothing behind him, not even the bones. As soon as he was done, he struggled to get up again, cracking noises coming from his decayed body, heading to another dead pony, a mare this time that still had some bugs in her mouth. Famine put his hoof close to the mouth and the bugs crawled up to his hoof. He looked at them and gave a weak smile. He put them on the ground and they started walking towards the mist. Famine watched them leave and, after a while of staring into the mist, got back to looking at the mare, grabbing one of her hooves and ripping it out of her body with his bare hooves, starting to chew.

Oscuro looked down for a while and took a deep breath. She looked back up and slowly headed for Famine. Dolce gasped as she saw her leave her. She tried to grab her hoof but Oscuro pushed it forward, loosening it from her sister's grasp. Dolce was taken aback. Violet didn't respond. Oscuro approached Famine and sat next to him, watching him gnaw on the poor dead pony. There was a moment of silence in the air before Oscuro started speaking.

"Hey..." she wispered.

Famine stopped suddenly, his jaw wide open ready to devour another part of the pony. He let the corpse go and shut his mouth, turning his sight towards Oscuro, his spine cracking for his head to turn. Again, a big questionmark crafted in his wide, oil-green, snake eyes.

"I'm Oscuro." the mare continued.

"Y-you...ap...appro-approach me..." he hardly spoke.

"Why shouldn't I?" she asked him.

Famine looked forward, suddenly dropping his head, looking down, his mane falling as well, covering his head.

"I..." he started, "I-I don't..." he struggled to speak.

Oscuro gave him a weak smile although he wouldn't notice.

"Take your time." she wispered to him.

"I," he continued after a gulp, trying to focus on his words, "I...don't k-know..."

Dolce looked at her sister sitting next to Famine with no fear whatsoever. How can she do it? she thought to herself.

Oscuro looked at Famine. He raised his hoof and looked at it, as if...he didn't know who he was. Oscuro got closer and held his other hoof. Famine turned his sight once again at Oscuro, his puzzled look still all over his face.

"W-Why...do y-you...c-care..." he asked her.

"About you?" she said, sort of ending his sentence, "It's just...it's just that I sense...a hollow pony."

Violet looked at the dark maned unicorn sit next to that...thing. She tried to make sense of her words. What was she really trying to do? What was her plan?

Famine slowly got up and so did Oscuro. He pointed his hoof forward and the mist started gathering on his hoof, being sucked in. Soon, the fog that engulfed the surrounding environment was gone, the moon still shining bright above their heads. Famine put his hoof down and looked at Oscuro.

"H-Hollow?" he asked her, his voice getting a bit smoother, his struggle to spell starting to decrease.

Oscuro nodded.

"It's like...you're empty inside you. Is that why you eat?"

"I...I e-eat be-because I...I must."

"Why must you?"

"T-the voice...tells m-me to..."

Famine started walking towards the end of the garden, his steps, awkward, like he was about to trip and fall over. He then suddenly stopped and turned around, looking at Oscuro.

"You're...k-ind...bu-but...I...I...I must EAT YOU!!!" he yelled, his jaw opening wide open, a giant centipede rising, its mouth opening to reveal a thousand razor blade-sharp teeth, storming towards Oscuro.

Oscuro looked in shock as the centipede creature came closer.  She wanted to run but she couldn't. Her feet were stuck in one place. Dolce ran towards her and grabbed her hoof.

"Together sister!" she shouted.

Oscuro looked at her and nodded. Their horns started glowing simultaneously, dark red and white merging together and forming a barrier around them, the creature colliding with it, its fangs trying to bite its smooth surface. The creature didn't back off. The exact opposite. Its attacks were sharp, lethal and kept banging harder with every strike. Oscuro and Dolce struggled to sustain the shield. Soon, cracks started to form. Their magic was giving up on them. No...Not now, thought Oscuro to herself, Dolce wants to succeed, to become a desinger, I mustn't let her down. Not now!

"Dolce! Oscuro! Get out of there!" Violet Haze shouted at them.

"Not now..." Oscuro wispered, "This is all my fault... not NOW!!!!" she yelled.

Oscuro's glow got even brighter upon that shout, the crimson red glow exiting the shield in a giant ray, shredding the beast in half. As the creature fell to the ground with great force, Oscuro fell to her hooves. Dolce gasped and used her magic to make her float and ran to the other ponies. Famine started slurping the centipede, swallowing it all. He looked at the ponies, seeing all of them still alive.

"N-No..." he said to himself and grabbed his head with his hooves, "h-he wants them...dead. And I...I failed..."

Oscuro panted heavily as she was let loose of Dolce's magic. After a hard struggle to pull herself together, she got up and saw Famine rambling to himself. She looked at him in shock and started running towards him. When she was close enough, she grabbed his head and looked at him in the eyes.

"Famine, don't let him control you! It is you who must have control, not him."

Famine gave out a shout of pain as he fell to his hooves, his eyes shut as he started giving out more shouts of pain.

"M-Make him stop!!! Make the pain stop!!!" Famine yelled while he shook his head from left to right. His voice started getting deeper and it sounded as if he was shouting with two mouthes now, the second one being a little more masculin.

"Famine, no!" Oscuro shouted.

She closed her eyes and tried to focus her magic. Her horn started glowing crimson red and the aura surrounding her horn slowly started surrounding her entire body. She opened her eyes, now bright red from the aura.

"Go away..." she wispered to Famine, "GET OUT OF HIM!!!" she yelled and her horn released a giant flash.

The ponies behind Oscuro and Famine became blinded by the bright light. It took some minutes for the light to get weaker. After the light had faded, Dolce opened her eyes, blinking fast a couple of times to get used to the lighting. She looked in shock at her sister, now lying on the gorund along with Famine, completely unconscious. She ran towards her sister.

"Oscuro! Oscuro!" she yelled over and over again, calling her sister, attempting to wake her up.

Pinkie Pie looked at Dolce and her struggle to wake her sister. She raised her look and gazed upon a second alicorn, dressed in royal garments, a crown on his head and a bow on his back. He waved his mane once and opened his eyes, revealing his bright red irises.

"Hm, that feel of...life. Pathetic really." he said to thin air.

The alicorn turned his look at Famine. He sniffed in pitty and started walking away.

"He was utterly worthless anyway." he kept talking to himself.

"Have I...have I seen you before?" Pinkie Pie told him.

The alicorn paused for a moment then turned his head around and looked at the pink pony. Upon seeing her, he gave out a small grin and turned around, beginning to walk towards her.

"If it isn't the Element of Laughter, am I right?" he asked her gently.

Pinkie Pie took a step back. The alicorn came closer, his weak grin still on his face.

"What's with the sad face my dear? Shouldn't you...smile?" he told her, now being only a breath away from her.

Pinkie Pie looked at his bright red eyes and couldn't help but wonder. Such red eyes, where had she seen them before? They were so familiar yet the pony having them, standing right in front of her, was not familiar to her at all. The alicorn noticed her wonder.

"What is nagging you my dear?" he asked her.

"Your...eyes. I've seen them before."

"Hm?"

"Di...Discord?" she asked the mysterious alicorn.

The alicorn looked at her in wonder. After a small sigh, he gently smacked is forehead and turned his look away.

"Oh, that sick excuse of a son." he rambled to himself.

Pinkie looked at him surprised. He was Discord's father? That didn't make sense. Discord was the god of chaos. He was chaos incarnated. A pony so well-dressed, so well mannered, how could he relate to that creature?

"H-How?" she asked herself.

"Well, technically," said the alicorn, "I created him but, in a way, I consider him my son. Pft, chaos incarnated. Well, didn't do a good job." he started rambling to himself again.

The alicorn suddenly stopped his rambling and looked once again at Pinkie Pie that looked at him as if he was a ghost.

"Oh, I don't suppose we have introduced ourselves. Pft, silly me." he told her, "let me start. I am the first Pony of the Apocalypse, Conquest, also known as Greed or Resentment but Conquest is just fine with me, wouldn't you agree my dear?"

Pinkie felt like she had lost it. This alicorn, father of Discord, responisble for this chaos, responsible for the death of some of her best friends, the reason that she can't smile anymore. Why didn't she attack him yet? What was causing this hesitation?

"Well, aren't you going to introduce yourself?" he asked her, "Not that I don't know you."

"Y-you killed them..." she wispered.

"Oh foolish Pinkie," he started after he streched his hoof around her shoulder like he was her friend, "A pony such as you does not need friends." he said with his mouth close to her ear. "They weren't laughing with you, they were laughing at you, silly."

Pinkie clenched her teeth after hearing these words for the second time in her life. She pushed his hoof away from her shoulder and turned around so suddenly that took Conquest by surprise, her hoof striking him in the face, pushing him back. Conquest turned his face to look at her again with now a giant bruise on his left cheek.

"Isn't that the Pinkie Pie everypony knows? Always seeking attention."

Pinkie's mane had fallen straight down, her pink colour fading away, turning into a lifeless dark pink and her eyes looking at Conquest with resentment.

"I don't want to hear your shit!" she yelled at him.

"That's it Pinkamina, hate me."

Violet Haze was surprsied by how Cinquest had completely turned Pinkie Pie upside down. That calm, silent pony was now replaced by a psycho.

"SHUT UP!!!" Pinkie Pie yelled at Conquest and stormed towards him.

Conquest gave out a grin and teleported away, making Pinkie suddenly stop and start looking around. Suddenly, she heard a shot from behind her. Before she could turn around, an glowing arrow pierced her left hoof, making her shout in pain and fall to her hooves.

"Fighting back will not save you my dear." said Conquest and teleported right in front of her, grabbing her mane and raising her head with force.

Pinkie Pie looked at him with pure hatred as she heavily panted, one of her eyes covered by her dark pink mane. Conquest looked at her with a friendly grin, his bruise somehow gone and his face perfectly structured once again

"A pony as capable as you, turning against me? Shame really. Why don't you join me?" he asked her kindly, a bright smile still on his face.

"Go to hell..." Pinkie told him after spitting on his face.

"Yet who can resist the embrace of greed?" he asked her and wiped his face.

Conquest started approaching her even more. Pinkie Pie struggled to make him let go of her mane.

"W-What are you doing you sick bast-"

Her sentence was interrupted as Conquest pressed his lips again hers, ceasing her breath. Pinkie's anger suddenly started fading as she closed her eyes and kissed him back with fierce passion. Conquest let go of her mane as she wrapped her hooves around him. Conquest opened his eyes while still kissing her. Suddenly, he felt a blow on his face once again, his lips suddenly moving away from Pinkie's lips, making him fall on the ground. He raised his head and looked at Violet Haze's back hoof still in the air, blood on its end. Conquest felt his lips and saw blood on his hoof.

"You bitch." he told her.

Violet Haze grabbed a now unconscious Pinkie Pie and carried her towards the twins.

"Hey Dolce, take care of her, I'll handle Conquest."

Dolce nodded at her and Violet Haze turned to Conquest with a confident smile on her face. She turned her neck once, making a small cracking sound and stomped her hooves once on the ground.

"I'm afraid not my dear." Conquest said and gently stomped his hoof on the ground.

Pinkie Pie shut her eyes open and suddenly got up, running towards Conquest and standing in front of him, guarding him.

"Pinkie, what are y-"

"Nopony will touch him. He's all mine!" Pinkie Pie yelled at Violet Haze.

Violet looked at her confused. Conquest gave out a small chuckle.

"So you still do not get it? I do not just kiss ponies without affecting them. Who can say no to the temptation of greed?"

"Pinkie, what happened to you?" Violet Haze asked her.

"It's...it's Pinkamina to you." she said and looked at her, giving out a slight grin.

"You see my dear, Violet Haze was it, you can not play leader if you do not possess any skills whatsoever. In other words, you lost."

Violet looked down. Conquest's words started echoeing in her head. Loss, loss, loss, loss, loss. Violet Haze then realised that she was always like that. A pony that always withdrawed from everything in her life. She was always the pony that hid itself behind others. A pony that had no place among others. At that moment, Violet Haze started sheding tears. Conquest started laughing as Violet's tears fell to the ground.

"Doesn't the truth hurt my dear?!" he said while laughing.

Violet had no words. Her tears kept running, ruining the black pencil under her eyes, completely ruining her face in the process. Conquest had broken her completely. As Conquest kept laughing, Pinkie Pie followed and laughed as well. Dolce looked at Violet Haze and then looked at the still unconscious Oscuro.

"Violet..." Dolce said to herself.

"Look at you my dear, worthless." said Conquest at Violet, his luagh still continuing.

"No," said Violet Haze, "Not now. I was always the pony that ran away. The pony that nopony else listened. But, I was different. I always found a way...a way to control myself. And Pinkie Pie, I now ask you to control yourself, to see the truth. You are blinded by him."

"No I'm not. I adore him." she said at her with slightly raised tone.

"That's what he makes you think." Violet Haze said and purple aura started forming around her body.

Conquest looked at Violet amazed. The aura started getting thicker as Violet looked at Conquest. She put her hoof in her hoody and removed it in a snap. The moment she did, the aura started surging from all over her body, gathering around her front hooves, forming some sort of glove. Violet Haze stood on her back hooves and took a battle position as the gloves covered both her hooves, forming fleeces. The gloves started shifting, forming shining purple armor with five claws each on the edges. Conquest started looking worried. Violet gave out one of her confident smiles.

"Now Pinkie, control yourself." she said and teleported in front of her, slashing her.

However, to Conquest's surprise, there were no cuts on Pinkie Pie's body. No blood dripping, nothing. He looked to find Violet Haze but she wasn't in front of him anymore. Conquest gave out a grin and arrows out of energy started forming around him.

"You can't hide from me little filly." he said to the air with cofidence.

"Nor do you." said a voice behind him.

Conquest turned around in shock to find Violet Haze right in front of him in midair, one of her pair of claws right in front of him. He tried to back off but Violet was too fast, slashing his garment open, forming five giant cuts on Conquest's chest, blood spilling all over the place. Conquest backed off a few steps and put his hoof in front of his mouth, coughing blood all over it.

"You're...a good one..." he said to Violet, who stood a few centimetres away from him, floating in mid-air, the claws on her fleeces shining bright under the moon. "Fine then, you want her, you can take her, but do not think her attitude has changed." he ended and teleported away.

Violet landed softly on the ground, still on her two back hooves and walked towards Pinkie Pie.

"I doubt it." Violet Haze said in thin air. "I slashed her to get rid of this influence." she continued, "I gave her back herself."

Back at the top floor, Nightmare Chaos gazed upon the moon along with Death on his side, his mask hiding the expression behind it. The silence that surrounded the two of them was disturbed by the sound of walking. Nightmare Chaos turned around and looked at a fully healed Conquest. Nightmare Chaos' weak smile was gone. Conquest bowed to him.

"It is indeed stimulating to look upon your presence once again, my lord."

Nightmate Chaos looked at him for a minute, then gave out a grin.

"It's good to see you too, Conquest."

"I trust that my counterpart was taken care of?"

"That matter has been taken of, I can assure you." said Nightmare Chaos after he had returned to the glass window, gazing upon the moon once again.

"So, Death," said Conquest, turning his look at the final Pony of the Apocalypse, "How have you been?"

Death didn't reply. He seemed lost in his thoughts as he kept on looking at the moon, not even turning around to look at his brother, let alone greet him.

"Oh, I got it," said Conquest to himself. "Another recruit. Intriguing."

Pinkie Pie lied unconscious on the ground but at least she seemed to have been back to normal, her pink colour starting to come back and her mane turning fuzzy as it was before. Violet Haze gave out a weak smile. As the fleeces that covered her front hooves started to fade, she approached the twins to check on them. Oscuro had gaines consciousness a while back but was still a little confused after overusing her powers.

She looked around her and saw Famine on the ground.

"No..." she said terrified and got up immediately to run towards him.

Famine wasn't moving a muscle. It was Conquest. He was the voice inside him. Oscuro's eyes started to well up upon looking at the non-responding body of Famine.

"Hey, Oscuro," said Dolce who was right behind her, "Why do you care so much for that alicorn? Isn't he supposed to be...an enemy?"

"Shouldn't one care for the other pony?" asked Oscuro after a minute of silence, "Shouldn't one care for the other's worries? The other's emptyness?! The other's feelings?!" asked Oscuro, her tone getting a bit louder with every question.

Violet Haze sat next to her and gave her a pat on the back.

"Hey, you went through a lot the last hour or so."

Oscuro looked at Famine for a while and suddenly burst into tears. Violet removed her hoodie and put it around Oscuro to comfort her.

"Hey, you know what they say. Sometimes, you should let it all go away. This is where self-control doesn't help."

Oscuro watched as Famine started disintergrating, becoming one with the ground and vanishing before the pony's eyes. Oscuro's sorrow got even bigger then. The tears seemed like they would never stop. When Famine was completely gone, the grass started getting greaner and flowers started growing around them. The trees started acquiring leaves and the bushes blossomed.

"Guess it was for the better." Violet said while gazing upon that renewal.

Oscuro raised her head and looked at the garden. Her tears started disappearing and were replaced by a weak smile. Dolce sat next to her and gave her a hug.

"It's always good to be joyful, Oscuro." she said with a comforting voice.

"Yeah." Oscuro replied, still maintaining the weak smile.

As the three ponies looked at the beauty of the garden, a voice could echo with the gentle rustle of the leaves that made Oscuro's smile even brighter, giving her a feeling of hope once again. A feeling that once again burnt strongly in her heart.

Thank you for freeing me...