Apocalypse

Consciousness finally returned to Rainbow Dash. She slowly opened her eyes and it took a few moments before her vision swam into focus. She looked around and saw that she was in a dark cave, and when she struggled she found that she had been tied up to a chair. "What the hay?"

"Sounds like somepony's awake," a voice chuckled. She peered out into the darkness and saw four ponies approaching. The voice belonged to War, who was grinning evilly. "I can't wait to have my fun with you."

"Hey, let me go!" Rainbow shouted as she struggled again. "And stop terrorizing Mytholand! What's your problem, anyway?"

"We're going to ask the questions here," the green pony - Death - grunted. "Those annoying ponies must've told you by now of who we are and what we do."

"Yeah, so what?"

"So now it's only fair if we learn about you." Death suddenly stood on her two legs and slammed her nose into Rainbow's, not even flinching while the pegasus yelped in pain as her nose was still in serious pain. "Why did you come here and where are the Elements of Harmony?"

"Elements of Harmony?" Rainbow echoed. "How did you know about them?"

"Little Famine here we out to spy on you ponies," Death gestured to Famine, who was holding Rainbow's Element of Loyalty in her mouth.

"Hey! You have my Element! Give it back!" the pegasus bellowed, but she was silenced by a punch to the side of her head by Death.

"What are the Elements of Harmony?"

"Like I'll tell you!"

"If it's an interrogation you want, it's one you'll get." Death stepped back and let War walk forward, who was grinning wickedly.

"I've been waiting for a chance to beat somepony else," she breathed. She reared up on her hind legs and brought down a hoof to Rainbow's face, making her wail with agony as she struck her nose, making it crack and bleed even more. War then struck out at her eye, causing it to swell and blacken. "What are the Elements of Harmony?"

"I'll never tell you, you monster!" Rainbow spat in fury. She cried out when War grabbed her forelock in her teeth and yanked as hard as she could, reigniting the pain in her nose, and ripped out a large clump of red, yellow, and orange. She spat the hair on the ground and went for her crest, yanking out green, blue, and purple.

Next, she went for her wings. She plucked each feather off one by one, causing the pegasus to scream and try to flap her wings to escape the torment. War de-feathered the entire of her left wing and went for her right.

"Stop, stop, stop!" Rainbow wailed, crying in pain at this point. She screamed as the pony yanked out more feathers in larger clumps this time, making it hurt even more. "Please stop!"

"Tell us what we need to know and we'll stop," Death smirked evilly.

"N-Never!"

War finished Rainbow's right wing and grabbed her picklock. Grinning maniacally, she reared her leg back and jammed the picklock into her belly, puncturing her soft cyan fur and flesh. Rainbow screamed loudly and thrashed around as the pony began gliding the tool down, cutting through her, even though it was difficult.

After what felt like an hour - even though it was only two minutes - War stopped and pulled the picklock out, letting her victim to bleed through the deep wound. Rainbow panted heavily in pain, tears falling down her cheeks.

"Feel like talking now?" Death asked once again.

"I... I'll never talk..." the pegasus grunted. "I won't... let my friends... down..."

"Let's see how much pain you can take before you finally decide to talk," War sneered. She bit down hard on Rainbow's left wing and yanked as hard as she could, making the pegasus scream in agony. War pulled harder and harder, her clenched teeth tightening so much that it caused her wing to bleed, until finally a popping sound could be heard. Rainbow shrieked and thrashed around, but her left wing fell limp at her side. War had dislocated the bone from its socket.

"Talk or you'll never be able to fly again!" War spat before turning around and bucking her victim's chest hard, causing her to cough up blood. A few cracking noises could be heard as Rainbow's ribs were broken.

"St-Stop!" she choked through coughing and sputtering, fresh new tears falling down her cheeks.

Chuckling evilly, War went to Rainbow's right side and fastened her teeth into her other wing, then began to pull, making her scream and finally give in to the pain.

"Stop! Stop! I'll talk! Please stop!" the pegasus sobbed. Growling, War let go of her wing and stepped back, letting Death walk forward again.

"What are the Elements of Harmony?" she repeated.

Rainbow panted and wept softly, then sniffled and lifted her head to look into Death's eyes. She noticed that the green pony hadn't activated her powers to suck her soul out, and Breakneck Pace was right: she could just faintly see the souls of other ponies trying to escape through her eyes.

"The... The Elements of Harmony are six golden artifacts with jewels embedded in them, which contain the magic," the pegasus said, hanging her head in defeat. "They have a magic powerful enough to defeat any villain. My friends and I possess these elements and..." Rainbow trailed off to sob a bit more in pain and sorrow before continuing. "...and we were able to defeat every villain threatening Equestria... They defeated Nightmare Moon, Discord, and Lord Tirek, and they'll defeat you four as well."

"What, this Element?" she heard Death ask. She looked up to see Famine placing her Element of Loyalty on the ground, and Death looked at War, giving her permission to do something. Grinning evilly, the red pony approached the Element, then reared up on her hind legs, and finally brought her forelegs crashing down on the Element. Her hooves bent and cracked the golden necklace, but the red lightning-shaped gem wouldn't break or even dent. "What the?"

"Those Elements are thousands of years old," Rainbow growled. "They'll never break."

"In that case... Pestilence!" Death turned to her younger sister. "Take that Element over the mountains and throw it in the abyss. Nopony will be able to find it in there."

"You got it, sis!" Pestilence picked up the red gem in her mouth and galloped out of the cave.

"Hey! Get back here! Don't do it!" Rainbow shouted as she struggled, a mixture of anger and fear rising in her chest. "We need those Elements!"

"Oh, boo-hoo," War mockingly pouted, gliding her hoof tip down her cheek from her eye like a tear.

"You won't be needing any of your precious Elements of Harmony after we're done with Mytholand and all the rest of your friends anyway," Death smirked. "As well as you. You'll have nopony else to save, and there won't be anypony left to save anypony else back in Equestria. Not only did you fail Mytholand, but you also failed Equestria, because after we're done with this pitiful land, guess where we're going next?"

Rainbow could only glare at her and growl, unable to retaliate. The green pony chuckled and walked off into another section of the cave with Famine and War. Once they were gone, she broke down began to sob softly. She had failed in living up to the Element of Loyalty. She had failed her friends and everypony else of Mytholand as well as Equestria. But most importantly, she had failed herself.

Everypony was doomed because of her.

"Okay, does everypony understand?" Twilight asked the others, who all nodded.

"Sure do!" Pinkie Pie grinned. "Rarity's gonna dress us all up in camouflage so we can sneak over to the mountains when night falls and sneak into the cave. Then Future Sight will check the surroundings with her third eye. After that, Flash Fire will light our way through the caves until we find Rainbow Dash, and Strike will bite through the ropes with his super-sharp teeth.

"If the sisters attacked, Fluttershy will use her Stare, Applejack will buck the smithereens outta them, Twilight will immobilize them with her magic, and I will use my trusty party cannon! Meanwhile, Breakneck Pace will gallop as fast as she can with her eight legs back to town with Rainbow Dash on her back and we'll follow suit later, and finally we'll all be present to discuss how to use the Elements of Harmony on her!"

"Yeah, she already said that," Strike grunted, rolling his eyes.

"Okay, everypony, let's get started!" Twilight declared.

Everypony ran out into the very thin woods, gathering as many sticks and dried leaves as possible. They all brought them back to Breakneck Pace's house and Breakneck and Fluttershy, both having the longest hair of the gang, lent strands of hair to Rarity so she could sew the materials together on large damp leaves, creating completely organic camouflage hats and shirts. She also used the ashes of the remaining houses and trees from the fire earlier that morning to paint everyone with to make them appear much darker.

This all took several hours, and by the time they were all finished, the sun was already beginning to set. Everypony put on their camouflage and trotted out of the house and towards the mountain. It was nighttime by the time they came up to the base of the mountain.

"Okay, Future Sight, you're up," Twilight whispered to the espony, who nodded and closed her eyes and opened her third eye.

She stood that way for a few minutes before closing it and opening her other two eyes back up. "There are only three of them in there. War, Famine, and Death."

"We'll need to find some way to drive them out," Applejack muttered. She grinned when she came up with an idea, then she inhaled and screamed at the top of her lungs.

"Applejack!" Rarity shouted. "You'll give us away!"

"No, I won't," the earth pony retorted. "They'll come out to look for whoever made the noise, but thanks to our disguises they won't find us. Twilight can create a ball of light to lead the three ponies away, and then we can go in without running into anypony else other than Rainbow Dash."

"Great thinking, Applejack!" Flash Fire grinned, clearly impressed. Everypony gasped at the sound of galloping getting louder and louder from the cave and they all ducked behind the dead bushes, and meanwhile Flash Fire vanished from sight.

"Did you hear that?" one of the ponies asked.

"Yeah, I did. But where did it come from?" another pony growled.

Twilight hid her horn under her hooves and lit it up to cast a spell, and she created a small ball of magenta light, looking much like a will-o'-the-wisp. She then made it drift away from them, but not before she made it noticeable by the sisters.

"Hey, that must be a part of a wisp pony foal!" the second pony shouted. "Let's follow it!"

"Okay. The captive won't be able to escape and Pestilence will be back soon, so one of us have to stay behind," a third voice said. "Famine, will you be willing to stay behind?"

"Okay," the first pony agreed.

Cursing silently, the Equestrian and Mytholander ponies waited for the other two ponies to gallop off and out of sight, and they saw Famine walk back into the cave.

"Now what do we do?" Fluttershy whimpered.

"Perhaps we can all take her down quickly," Twilight replied. "I can cast a soundproof bubble in the cave so none of the other sisters can hear. Now come on, let's go. Flash Fire, where are you?"

"I'm still here," the wisp pony replied. She then appeared again next to Twilight. "Ready?"

Twilight yelped, not expecting the mischievous pony to be behind her. Flash Fire giggled and floated into the cave and the others followed, Twilight rolling her eyes in half amusement, half annoyance.

The ponies walked through the cave and came up to a fork in the road. Future Sight closed her eyes and opened her third eye to detect where Rainbow Dash was, and she found that she was in the right cave while Famine was in the left one. They all moved on and before they knew it, they came across a small clearing in the cave where a red and cyan pony lay head lowered and tied up in a chair.

"Rainbow Dash!" Pinkie squealed loudly, causing a loud echo through the caves. Everypony clamped her mouth shut and shushed her, but it was too late. They heard another pony approach from behind and they turned to see Famine staring at them wide-eyed.

"Intruders!" Famine cried out.

Twilight quickly cast the soundproof bubble spell that covered the entire clearing. Famine cried out again, but no noise could be heard outside of the bubble. This gave the ponies the chance to attack.

"You can attack her, but make sure she doesn't touch you!" Breakneck instructed. "If she touches you, she'll steal your strength and leave you in the same state she's in!"

"C'mere, you lil' varmint!" Applejack growled as she approached the now trembling pony quickly.

"Watch out!" Twilight called out. "She might be trying to pull a fast one on you by looking scared!"

"I don't care if she's downright horrified, I'm givin' her a piece of my mind!" Applejack reared up on her forelegs and tried to buck the pony, but she quickly rolled out of the way and leaped back up on her hooves. She then darted at Applejack and placed a hoof on her, draining out her energy. The earth pony let out a cry as her legs lost their strength and she fell over on her side.

"Get away from her!" Rarity bellowed before headbutting the pony away. She looked down at Applejack, whose ribs were just barely showing, and helped her to her hooves. "Are you okay, dear?"

"I...I dunno..." she replied shakily, finding it hard to stay standing.

Famine growled and leaped at Rarity, but a magical blast from Twilight kept her at bay. She slammed into the magical bubble and collapsed to the ground.

Pinkie Pie leaped out of the bubble and grabbed another rope, then leaped back in and tossed it to Strike, who tied Famine up with it. Finally, Twilight cast a spell causing a zipper to appear on the side of Famine's mouth, and she zipped her mouth shut to keep her quiet. Once she knew she wouldn't make anymore noises, she subsided the magical bubble.

"We've got to get out of here now," Twilight whispered. "We don't have much time before the other three sisters come back. Strike, can you bite through Rainbow's binds?"

"You bet I can!" he replied. He flew over to the pegasus pony and bit through the ropes with ease, untying her. Breakneck trotted over to them and let the Typhon pony place the unconscious mare on her back, and he used what remained of the ropes to tie her to the Sleipnir pony's back.

"Okay, she's secured," Breakneck reported. "Now let's get the hay out of here!"

The ponies all galloped out of the cave, thankful that they didn't end up running into any of the other sisters, and made their way back to the town.