Awakening Fluttershy's Dark Sky

by Misty Shadow

Rating: mature
Tags: Dark, Comedy, Alternate Universe, Human
Length: 27469

Darkness and tragedy befall Twilight Sparkle after Fluttershy is murdered by an otherworldly force.

A dark sky is cast over all of Equestria after Fluttershy is murdered by an unknown force from the world beyond. Will you help Twilight Sparkle and her friends solve the mystery of her death, and then maybe…choose to see her come awake again?

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2015-11-19 19:47:17 UTC

Episode 2: Laughing at a Funeral

Episode 2: Laughing at a Funeral

Two days after Twilight Sparkle learned of Fluttershy's death, a funeral was held to commemorate her. Twilight and all of her friends came…

...all of them but one…

Rarity.

"Rarity didn't show up…" an upset Twilight said in her mind. "Discord isn't here either...is this for real?!"

It was the afternoon, and some of Equestria's residents had gathered at a burial site dressed in black clothing. A service leader was standing on a podium preparing to speak a eulogy. Adjacent to the leader from the side was an open coffin containing Fluttershy's body and in front of the leader were three rows of metal folding chairs, with fifteen in each row. Twilight, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Spike were sitting in the front row. All of the other attendants were sitting in either the middle or the back, and both were mostly full. No one else wanted to sit up front despite there being ten open seats, and most of them were either looking at their phones with looks of boredom or whispering to each other and chuckling. Twilight took notice and became more displeased than ever. And unfortunately, "ever" wasn't even going to be the end of it…take a guess who was leading the service?

"We are gathered here today," said Tree Hugger, "to honor the memory of a rocking dude named Fluttershy. Often afraid to stare life in the face, but never afraid to stare death in the face, Fluttershy truly was an inspiration to us all."

"...Amen?" said one guy amongst a confused crowd.

One guy with his phone began using it to record this...

"For many of us," continued Tree Hugger, "this is a day of sadness. But for Fluttershy, let us hope that this will be a day of happiness. May the gods of nature reincarnate her as an owl to watch over us while we sleep."

"Flutterowl?" Pinkie Pie thought.

"What in Celestia's name is going on here?" Twilight asked.

"And while I'm sure that none of us consent to their union," commented Tree Hugger, "we must accept that Fluttershy's body and the soil will become one. That's your cue, my electro soul brother."

Take a guess who was in charge of the musical arrangements? Vinyl Scratch was on her DJ machina spinning a sinful beat, her own dubstep remix of Here Comes the Bride, yo. Multi-colored lights were beaming everywhere as Vinyl and Tree got down to the beat. Ponies in the middle and back row began grooving to it too, and Twilight and her friends were left astonished.

"The shit in the hay?" Applejack said.

"I don't get it." Rainbow Dash remarked. "Did Fluttershy have some kind of request for everyone to come to her funeral stoned?"

"This is a disgrace…" Twilight said with a growl of anger. "Are they TRYING to mock her?"

As soon as the music stopped playing, the dancing ponies all sat back down...and the ones who had been looking at their phones and talking immediately resumed doing so. Twilight was about ready to blow her stack.

"These bastards…" Twilight muttered under breath, grinding her teeth. "Selfish, uncaring, cold-hearted…"

It was then that Pinkie Pie noticed that Twilight had a red aura glowing around her. Unsurprisingly, Pinkie could feel that it was an aura of anger and hatred. Not only that, Pinkie saw that Twilight's teeth had become sharp and jagged...what was happening to her?

It's very simple, really. The magic of the page combined with the power of her negative emotions is bringing out her inner demon. The first step towards insanity is submitting to your inner demon…

At least that's how I see it.

"Moving on," said Tree, preparing to end the speech, "would anyone like to say a few words to the groom? Speak now, so that forever we may leave Fluttershy in peace."

Twilight's red aura subsided and her teeth went back to normal as she and her friends walked over to Fluttershy's open coffin, ready to say goodbye to their fallen comrade.

"I wish I had gotten to know you better…" Spike said, hopping on Fluttershy's corpse, looking at her face and rubbing it lightly with his left hand while crying. "I really did like you. I hope that you're happy, wherever you are now."

"I should've spent more time with ya…" Applejack said regretfully, coming close to Fluttershy after Spike hopped off of her. "You were one of the sweetest ponies I'd ever known…"

Applejack grabbed Fluttershy's right front leg and gripped it as a sign of respect.

"Take care, y'hear?"

Next, Rainbow Dash flew over to Fluttershy and began to caress her left wing with a crestfallen look on her face.

"Some time…" she said. "I...wanted to teach you how to fly really well. I think you could've been great. I would've loved for us to have flown together side by side, with both of us soaring through the skies amazingly..."

Dash grabbed Fluttershy's left front leg out of respect just like Applejack did.

"I'll see you again some day, champ."

Twilight Sparkle came over to Fluttershy after her, but unlike the other three, she said nothing. With her magic, she lifted both of her front legs up and slid a note written on a piece of paper ripped from a familiar book under her front legs as she lifted them back down. She then gave her a kiss on the cheek.

Finally, Pinkie Pie walked over to Fluttershy...with a cake in hoof. It was yellow with pink frosting and icing.

"Fluttershy…" Pinkie said with a sob. "I'm sorry you didn't get the chance to have more birthday parties. To make it up to you...I made you this cake. Please, never stop smiling…"

Pinkie put the cake on top of Fluttershy's front legs, having not noticed Twilight put the note under there. Twilight, however, saw Pinkie put the cake on Fluttershy and came over to Pinkie with a frustrated look on her face.

"Pinkie, what are you doing?" Twilight asked. "You can't just leave a cake on top of Fluttershy's body, they're not going to bury her with a cake!"

"Bury her with it?" Pinkie responded. "What do you mean? It's not for her to be buried with, it's for her to eat!"

Twilight facehoofed.

"Are you serious?" she said. "She obviously can't eat it!"

"Why?" Pinkie asked, honestly confused. "Is Fluttershy on a diet?"

In response, Twilight just gave her a look that said, "This conversation is not happening…"

"I...think what Twilight means," said Applejack, "Pinkie, is that Fluttershy can't eat the cake because she's in heaven now."

"So she's not an owl…" Pinkie said, giving Tree Hugger a suspicious look before she turned back to the cake and began thinking. "Well, I know you wouldn't lie to me. Does cake go to heaven?"

"Uh…" Applejack replied, pausing while turning her head the other way. "Yeah?"

"I see…" Pinkie said as she pulled out a long cake knife from a random and unknown place. "Then I'm very sorry cake, but it's for the best…"

"Wait...what in tarnation are you doing?" Applejack asked.

Pinkie didn't answer. She put her left hoof on Fluttershy's stomach to gather her strength and took the knife in her right hoof…

"PINKIE, NO!" Twilight, Applejack and Rainbow called out.

It was too late though. Pinkie stabbed the cake. In her swift might, she unintentionally caused the knife to go far further than just through the cake, piercing the note and Fluttershy through her front legs and chest...and the bottom of the coffin.

"Whoops…" Pinkie said as she saw what she had done. "I forgot my own strength. Sorry Fluttershy."

Everypony was speechless. After a while, a lot of ponies in the crowd began laughing at the dark irony of it all. The one who had been recording everything was very satisfied with the footage he had captured. The laughing echoed in Twilight's ears, and looking back at the crowd, Twilight began to cry.

"Everyone is laughing at my friend dying…" Twilight told herself in her mind. "A friend of mine being torn away from me...is just a joke to them…"

Spike, Applejack, and Rainbow tried to comfort Twilight while Pinkie looked upon the scene with a feeling of guilt. Unbeknownst to her, blood trickling from Fluttershy's body had caused the note Twilight had left for Fluttershy not to become illegible...but to become more durable. Even the cake frosting couldn't damage the note or make the writing on it unreadable. On the note, it said this…

Tree Hugger shall see the Goddess of Death before she begins to gather her four souls.

"Huh?" Tree Hugger suddenly said as she saw an unfamiliar figure wearing a black robe with a hoodie that covered their face standing in front of her. "Who...who is that?"

"Who's who, Brother Blue?" Vinyl asked.

"So you don't see him…" Tree replied. "But I don't just see him...I can feel Fluttershy's essence coming from him! She didn't become an owl after all...she's…"

Yeah, I feel this a good place to stop for now. In the meantime, let's go somewhere where it will be a good place to start for now…

The night before the day of the funeral, at Princess Celestia's castle…

Inside Celestia's castle, Celestia was in her bedchamber sleeping. Two armored guards wielding spears were minding the door of her bedchamber when suddenly, they were approached by a mysterious figure with purple hair styled to stick up. He was a ninja wearing a black garb, a cape that was white on the back side and purple on the other side, and a white bandana around his mouth. He was also brandishing a katana with the initials, "E.M.", engraved on the hilt in his left front leg and a silver claw on his right front leg. Seeing the unfamiliar ninja figure, the guards readied their spears and prepared to interrogate him.

"Halt!" the guards declared. "Who goes there?"

Just then, the ninja vanished, leaving the guards surprised and puzzled.

"Who goes where?" the ninja suddenly said as he appeared behind the guards and wrapped his right front leg around their throats and put them up against his body, causing their helms to fall off. The guards struggled to break free, but alas, it was in vain. The ninja's strength was insanely powerful. The ninja then put his katana up to both of their throats.

"Scream…" the ninja told them. "Call to Princess Celestia for help as loud as you can or I'll kill both of you."

It was soon that the princess of the sun was awoken from her slumber by "YOUR MAJESTY!" being called by the guards followed by sounds of them both getting smacked on the head and a loud beaming noise.

"?!" Celestia had an expression of shock on her face when she woke up. "What's going on?!"

Getting out of bed, opening her bedroom door, and entering the hallway, she saw exactly what was going on...the ninja had opened a portal to another dimension. The two guards laid knocked out alongside their helms beside the swirling white vortex.

"What did you do to my men?!" Celestia asked the ninja angrily. "How did you break in here? Who are you?"

"Aah, questions." the ninja replied. "Whenever someone sees a sight like this, they always ask questions...not realizing that finding out the answers shouldn't always be their number one priority."

"Don't play mind games with me…" Celestia demanded as her horn lit up and she pointed it at the figure. "Explain yourself this instant before I hurt you!"

"Woah, don't hurt me, baby." the ninja taunted. "I'm only prepared to die for a cause."

"Cause?" Celestia asked, finding it hard to take this guy seriously. "Since you seem to enjoy joking around, would you please kindly humor me by telling me about your greater motive?"

"Heh," chuckled the ninja, "I normally hate answering questions, but since you asked nicely, I'll at least explain my regular motive...I've come from an immortal world...to do my part in the plan my superiors have devised to recreate this world and end the age of mortal life."

"How despicable…" Celestia berated. "I suppose your greater motive is to have your detestable superiors promote you to their number one bitch boy once they've destroyed us all."

"And this is why I hate answering questions…" the ninja said as he sighed and put his left hoof on his face. "They always get the wrong idea…"

"Wrong idea?" Celestia asked.

"I wonder what you would think…" the ninja said. "If I told you that both my superiors and I were once mortal…"

"What?" Celestia replied.

"I also wonder what you would think if I told you that Fluttershy has been put down for a nap…" the ninja said humanistically. "Her soul has been taken by The Goddess of Death. If you ever want to see her wake up again, you'll do as I say. If you help me, your work won't go unrewarded. I'll tell you about who you really are...and about your half-daughter and son..."

From out of the portal the ninja created, a familiar pony in a red coat came out...

"..." Celestia had no idea how to respond.

Or maybe she did? Anyways, that's another story for now. Let's get back to Twilight and friends…actually, just her friends for now…

Episode 3: Dream of a Life Before

Episode 3: Dream of a Life Before

That same night the castle was invaded…

Each one of Twilight's friends was having a dream. Uncannily enough, they were all somehow having the same dream. It was about being a human man who was looking at two gods talking to another human man. This is how they would describe poetically how the dream went…

Is This Dream a Story?

A man...is this who I am?

No...Twilight Sparkle's friend is who I am.

I am part of no sham.

This man I see must be of flim-flam.

He speaks to two gods.

A friend and a former enemy are these two gods.

But they must be frauds.

They talk like sausages, they talk like clods.

This man and his gods are so fake.

Everything about them and their words on plain paper is fake.

Nothing beautiful they can make.

My precious time, they only take.

I know the gods, but not the man.

One god is good, the other was evil, but who is the man?

I judge the gods as false because I know them, but I judge the man as false even though…

...I know not his plan. But…

...I know not what he began. However…

I think he's just dreaming. But I worry…

Does he mean to begin a true story?

I can not judge if it's a good story. But I wonder…

Is the story for me?

Twilight's friends couldn't sleep after having such a dream. It felt like deja vu to them. They didn't know the man, but they could feel what he had been through. They could feel that he was undecided on what to do with what he had been told. His struggle felt human to them. They could relate, for they were also confused. They wanted to believe that Fluttershy was living on inside of them even after her death...but was that just a dream? Or were they beginning a great story for themselves that was real?

The only thing that kept them comfort in thoughts like these was an aura that each of them felt around themselves. A pleasant aura that they had felt for as long as they could remember. An aura that felt like the pure will of another...

Wow, what a mystery. Well this is when anyone would just forget what they just read and move on. But do you at least want a clue to what it all means? Who is the man? Here's a hint…

"Twilight's friends each dreamt of themselves viewing a memory from the past as a different man. But the man's conflict of indecision is of every man."

Now then, let's see what's going on with Twilight, hmm?

Later on in the evening of the day of the funeral, several hours after it had concluded...

Twilight Sparkle was in her bedroom, brooding on her bed with a phone lying beside her. Eventually, a nervous-looking Spike came into her room, carrying a cup of coffee on a plate.

"Are you feeling okay, Twilight?" Spike asked as he walked up to Twilight. "I brought you that cup of coffee you wanted."

"Thank you Spike." Twilight replied with gratitude, levitating the coffee on top of a short dresser nearby. "I just have...so much on my mind right now. I don't think I've ever felt this sad...and angry…"

Spike then gulped and began to sweat. Twilight took notice…

"What's wrong?" she asked sternly.

Spike gulped again. He hated having to be the messenger for things like this, but once again, he was able to pluck up the courage to tell her…

"Pinkie Pie's here." he said. "She's in the living room right now...she wants to apologize for what happened at the funeral."

Twilight didn't say anything in response. She just put on an angry look, picked up the phone with her levitation magic and stormed out of her bedroom, her red aura and fangs reappearing. Walking through the castle while stomping her hooves and breathing heavily, she soon arrived at the living room and flung open the door. There, she saw Pinkie Pie sitting on a couch by a TV, looking down at the carpet on the floor and thinking.

"Hi Twilight…" Pinkie greeted her, feeling nervous as she felt Twilight's aura of anger and hate again. "Please forgive me for what I did...it was an accident. I didn't mean to stab Fluttershy. I didn't mean to make a scene…"

Twilight shook her head.

"No…" she replied. "Fuck you."

"W-what?" Pinkie said.

Twilight came closer to Pinkie and showed her what was on the screen of the phone...it was a video on Youtube entitled "Pinkie Pie Kills Fluttershy at Her Funeral". It had been uploaded by the guy who had been recording the funeral with his phone, and it had 500,000 likes, 15,000 dislikes, and 5,000,006 views...at least in Twilight's imagination.

*Talking in a nasally "nerd" voice* The actual statistics are 500 likes, 150 dislikes, and 5,006 views. *End voice* Twilight is just imagining the statistics in her insanity by the way, not the video.

"I SAID…" Twilight fumed. "FUCK YOU!"

Twilight then punched Pinkie Pie in the left cheek. Pinkie fell on the floor and spit up some blood.

"Ow...agh…" Pinkie grunted in pain, feeling her cheek as tears came out of her eyes. "UNNGH!"

Pinkie grunted again as Twilight shoved the phone into her face.

"WHAT IS THIS…" Twilight said.

"Ugh…" Pinkie whimpered.

"DO YOU THINK THIS IS FUNNY?!" Twilight bellowed.

"UGAH!" Pinkie cried.

"SHUT UP!" Twilight yelled. "Thanks to you, EVERYONE in Equestria is laughing at Fluttershy's death! Five million is ten times the Equestrian population! You're the one to blame for them all becoming Youtube commenters! How can I forgive you after just a simple apology?!"

Twilight started hyperventilating, and soon, started to look at herself. Her red aura was growing brighter, her front legs were starting to turn black and scalish, and her front hooves were starting to become black claws. She turned to Pinkie again and began smiling sinisterly while thinking violent thoughts…

"Yes…" she said to herself in a demonic voice as she picked Pinkie Pie up and clutched her front legs with her claws. "Maybe that punch wasn't enough...maybe...I need to teach you some real pain…"

Twilight wondered what to do…in her newfound demonic nature, she wanted to seriously hurt Pinkie, but in her good nature, she knew what she was doing was wrong...what to do...

Looks like Twilight is having a little trouble making up her mind...could you be a dear and help her make the right decision?

Explanation on Decisions

At certain key points of the story, a character, or sometimes characters, will be caught in a dilemma and forced to make a possibly crucial decision. When this happens, just go to the episode that corresponds to your choice of how you want the decision to be made.

Ex: B. Let her go and apologize

You want Twilight to Let her go and apologize. Simply read what happens in Episode 5, listed by the "B. Let her go and apologize" decision. Don't even bother looking at the other episode in that selection.

Each choice is basically just an alternate way for the next event in the story to happen, however, each choice may give you interactions with different characters and/or may tell you things you never knew. Also, much later on, there will be a point where the decisions will ultimately affect the story. Please choose wisely...or foolishly if you enjoy messing things up.

Now then, where were we…

Decision #1: What should Twilight do with Pinkie Pie?

A. Unleash demon wrath upon her… (Episode 4)

B. Let her go and apologize (Episode 5)

Episode 4: Devil's Coffee Cake

"Yes…" Twilight said demonically, licking her lips and wearing an evil smile. "You must not be forgiven...until I've tasted your blood…"

And with that, Twilight clutched Pinkie's front legs as hard as she could and sunk her claws into her flesh, ripping open her skin. Pinkie writhed in pain, screaming as blood dripped down from her front legs and onto Twilight's tongue.

"Oh, that's good…" Twilight said happily, enjoying every drop. "Your suffering is curing my sorrow, quelling my anger...but it's strange. I'm happy, yet somehow not content. I feel like I need to hurt you more."

Upon hearing that, Pinkie's mane began going down and a red aura started appearing around her body too.

"In fact," continued Twilight, "I feel I should hurt everyone who has dared to laugh at me in my time of need…"

With that, Pinkie's red aura grew as bright as Twilight's and with a demonic growl, she kicked Twilight in the face with her right back leg and busted her nose. Feeling a burning sensation, Twilight let Pinkie go and covered her nose with her right front legs. Recovering from the pain, her wound healing much faster as a demon, she soon pulled her legs away from her face and saw...pink cake frosting with steam coming out of it on her claws. Turning her attention to Pinkie Pie, she was shocked to see that her flesh had become just the same...pink cake frosting.

"You know," said Pinkie in a demonic voice, "even though it awakened my demonic aura, what you did to me actually didn't sting too badly. That's not the first time I've been devil's food. However, the knowledge of you wanting to hurt others...that left me STEAMING. You better stop this shit right now or I will make you stop it the hard way. You have to learn that you can't act like this..."

"BLOW OFF, "TEACHER"!" Twilight shouted as she slashed Pinkie across the face.

Following the slash, bits of cake frosting went on the carpet. Pinkie was left with scratches on her face, but with crumbs of cake bread visible in the scratches instead of blood. After wiping her left front leg that was dripping cake frosting across her face, her scratches were healed. Twilight was astonished.

"No way…" she thought. "Not only can she become a demon too...but her form is different...MUCH different."

"Teacher, huh?" Pinkie finally replied. "Then I guess it's my job to teach you a lesson. Just don't expect it to be on home economics!"

Pinkie swiped the air using her left front leg to fling hot cake frosting at Twilight Sparkle's face. Twilight ducked, rushed towards Pinkie Pie, and kicked her in the stomach with as much force as she could muster. Pinkie was thrown back against the couch, which was flipped over on its back. Pinkie picked herself up though, along with the couch. She then leaped up in the air and spun around, spreading small globs of intensely hot cake frosting in the air that acted as homing missiles. Guided down towards Twilight, Twilight tried to dodge by jumping in the air at the last second, but failed. All the globs hit her in mid-jump, but not the pain from the force of the blows nor the pain from the searing heat of the cake frosting was enough to bring Twilight down to the ground. She became enraged as she shook the cake frosting off her demon skin, and opened up her wings. She then flew towards Pinkie and grabbed her by the stomach...

Meanwhile, a worried Spike was still upstairs in Twilight's bedroom, sitting on her bed and snacking on a donut to try and calm his nerves. Just then, the bedroom door was busted wide open. The hinges broke and it fell to the ground with a loud, resounding bang. Scared out of his wits, Spike dropped his donut and hid under the covers of Twilight's bed.

Ha ha, you scaredycat. Don't you remember?

"Oh yeah," said Spike in realization as he came out from under the covers and picked his donut up, "that happens every now and then. For a sec-"

Not even a sec later, Pinkie Pie fell through the roof, landing right on top of Spike with her rear and sandwiching him between her cheeks of cake frosting and his donut. Whatever had once held up the bed was broken now and a hole had been made through the roof. Through the roof's hole, Twilight could be seen flapping her wings, eyeing her right claw with a menacing grin.

"Get ready, you wet, sugar-coated bread sack…" Twilight taunted Pinkie. "I'm going to cut your face so bad this time it'll leave a permanent scar…"

Twilight then flew down through the hole, slashed Pinkie across the face with all her might and landed on the floor close to the wall in front of the bed. Huge chunks of frosting went everywhere. Pinkie felt great pain from the slash...but she didn't scream. Wiping her face with her left front leg again, she could only halfway fill the wounds, but she still didn't make a sound.

"WH-WHY AREN'T YOU HOLLERING IN AGONY?!" Twilight shouted, her full focus on Pinkie.

Pinkie didn't respond.

"ANSWER ME!" Twilight yelled as she came closer to the bed. "OR I'LL HURT…"

Twilight paused when she saw that Pinkie was looking down sadly at Spike...who had been flattened like a classic cartoon character and had burns on his face from being under the heated frosting.

...What? Would you prefer for him to be dead?

Having fainted from what had happened so suddenly, Spike had not witnessed too much, but Twilight and Pinkie knew that they had still gone too far. After Pinkie inflated Spike back to his normal state like a classic cartoon character, Twilight decided to say something.

"How…?" Twilight asked as concern began to replace her rage. "How did that happen?"

"It happened because of us…" Pinkie replied. "This is part of the price that comes with demonic power...even those we don't aim our hatred at suffer...do you still feel the drive to hurt?"

Twilight knew the answer to that question as she changed back into a pony involuntarily, her rage needed to activate and maintain her transformation having subsided. Pinkie, however, changed back voluntarily.

"I know how to control my powers," explained Pinkie as she walked over to the short dresser and looked at the coffee cup and plate that was still on top of it, "but only because of time, patience, and help from a dear loved one. I've had them for quite some time, and it took a while before I learned how to use them for good."

"Quite some time?" Twilight asked. "You couldn't have had them that long...right?"

With her back turned to Twilight, Pinkie picked up the coffee cup and held her left hoof over it. The coffee in the cup shook, and Pinkie turned around and faced Twilight.

"You don't think I was able to plan such elaborate parties and do all the other crazy stuff I've done without some kind of otherworldly power, do you?" Pinkie replied. "I can also sense the aura of others. I felt Spike's aura when he had been crushed underneath me, and I can tell you, he wasn't just unnerved because of the fear and shock. Even after he fainted, I could feel that his aura was one of sadness. But he's not just sad because of what's happened to Fluttershy. He's also sad because he's worried that something might happen to you, seeing how depressed you've been...like you dying not just bodily, but spiritually too…"

Tears flowed from Twilight's eyes. Pinkie put the coffee cup back on the plate on the dresser to allow Twilight to give her a hug.

"I'm so sorry Pinkie…" Twilight said wholeheartedly. "I didn't even realize what I was becoming…I promise I'll never try to hurt you or anyone out of malice ever again."

"It's alright Twilight…" Pinkie told her with a smile. "I forgive you. And I trust in your promise too. I know full well that you're not a demon at heart. I've known from the beginning that you have a heart of purity and light. Literally! I've seen it before!"

At first, Twilight was slightly confused by that last bit, hoping she wasn't being sarcastic. It wasn't long though before she realized that that was just Pinkie being Pinkie in trying to cheer her up and smiled.

"Glad to see you smile again, Twilight!" Pinkie exclaimed as her mane reinflated. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go to Rarity's house and try to invite her to lunch at Sugarcube Corner again! She's been turning me down a lot recently for some reason."

After Pinkie left though, Twilight's smile quickly faded as she used her magic to teleport to her library, where she got out the book the torn page had appeared in, now shown to be a black book with a white star on it, and flipped to a section of said book…

"I knew it…" Twilight said as she read the page. "This is for real…"

Twilight then teleported the coffee from her bedroom to her, and began to drink it ominously...until she realized that it was better than she had expected it to be.

"Hey, hazelnut." she remarked, regaining her smile. "I've got to give Spike credit, he knows how to prepare this stuff."

Hey, thank Pinkie Pie as well. She made the coffee cake. Thank Pinkie's sister too, she showed her how to make it for a special occasion...

Episode 5: Origin of the Four Souls

"No...I can't do this…" Twilight told herself in thought, putting Pinkie down on the couch and letting her go. "I don't care how mad I am, this just isn't right…"

Feeling bad about punching Pinkie too, Twilight became overwhelmed with regret in place of anger and transformed back into her normal self.

"Pinkie, I'm sorry I yelled at you and hit you." Twilight apologized. "This whole thing is just...messing me up…"

Pinkie saw that Twilight had begun to cry a bit and took pity on her. Not being one to hold a grudge, she decided to let it slide just this once.

"Twilight, it's okay to feel angry and upset," said Pinkie, "just not to the point where you want to cause harm to others. I feel how angry you are...I know you feel bad about being so angry and want to punish yourself for it."

"Huh...how did you know?" Twilight asked curiously.

"Your aura tells me much…" Pinkie replied. "I know everything you feel. You can try to run and hide, but you can't escape my love and understanding."

Twilight got an eerie chill. Something about those words struck a nerve…

"That's creepy…" Twilight said, but eventually overcame the chill and felt better. "Yet strangely comforting."

"I'm glad you feel that way." Pinkie said half-jokingly. "Now give me a hug. I know you secretly want one."

With a sheepish smile on her face, Twilight gave Pinkie a hug.

"If you ever need me Twilight," said Pinkie seriously, "I'll always be willing to help you."

After the hug was over, Pinkie walked over to the door to the living room and opened it, getting ready to leave.

"Now if you'll excuse me," said Pinkie, "I'm going to go to Discord's place and see what's up with him. I've heard things in Equestria have been getting really chaotic lately…"

After Pinkie departed, Twilight began pondering what she said.

"Chaotic?" she asked herself. "How so?"

Ooh, this is where it's going to get good...

All of a sudden, the TV in the living room magically turned on to provide the answers.

"Our top story tonight!" a yellow-furred and brown-maned pegasus on a news broadcast proclaimed. "Local cello player, Octavia Melody has been found dead in her home!"

"What the…?" Twilight responded.

"Hell has broken loose all over Equestria," continued the newsman, "with countless reports of break-ins, street violence, and missing residents! And to add more fuel to the fire, evidence shows that Octavia Melody was most likely murdered!"

"Again?!" Twilight shouted. "First Fluttershy and now…"

"Octavia was discovered to be dead in a giant dubstep-powered microwave only an hour ago," said the newsman, "along with her prized cello! Investigators believe the cause of death to be radiated dubstep poisoning caused by overexposure to radiated dubstep waves that caused her brain and the rest of her body to explode! What a way to heat things up!"

"Uh…" Twilight said.

"Uh...ahem." the newsman cleared his throat. "This has been Ken Tucke, reporting live from Equestria After Evening! We report on things that are sure to give you a dark and depressing night, BECAUSE IF WE DON'T OUR BOSS WILL KICK US!"

Just then, the TV screen went to striped lines of flashing colors.

At the news station, Ken Tucke looked over his shoulder and saw his boss. The boss was wearing spiked cleets and staring at his rear end menacingly, holding cords he had unplugged in his hooves.

"There's going to be a rainy day where I'm looking at." the boss gave a forecast for the news reporter's behind.

"NO, PLEASE!" Ken pleaded as the boss grabbed him and threw him up against the wall. The boss then thrust the spikes on his cleets into the poor reporter's behind repeatedly. Blood from his ass went all over the place as he screamed and cried.

"And by the way…" the boss said. "You're fired. Get out."

The boss grabbed Ken again, dragged him over to the twentieth story window and threw him out of it. Ken tried to fly to safety, but the intense pain from the terrible wounds on his butt combined with his lack of will to live prevented him from doing so.

"I'm going to die…" he told himself. "All I was doing with my life was putting up with getting kicked in the rear for a job that was a pain in the neck though...maybe it's for the best…"

With those words, the same black robed figure that Tree Hugger saw at Fluttershy's funeral appeared before Ken.

"You are correct, my dear…" the figure said in the voice of a lovely lady. "Death is always the best choice…I'm glad you see things my way…please, come inside me and experience the joy of being dead…"

With that, the figure hugged Ken and kissed him on the lips, causing him to die. She then absorbed his body and soul into herself, and teleported away to her next stop...Vinyl Scratch's residence.

Inside Vinyl Scratch's house, Vinyl was in the kitchen, doing dishes at her wubbing dubstep sink playing techno beats to match the tone of the running water and Tree Hugger was in the living room, meditating. The atmosphere of the place was peaceful until Tree abruptly stopped her meditation.

"I sense an interference in the force…" Tree said. "And it's not an electrical one…"

"Hey, are you implying that my wubs aren't powerful enough to be an interference?" Vinyl asked, shutting off the sink and stepping into the living room, feeling somewhat insulted.

"No, it's just that…" Tree replied. "I'm feeling the same essence I felt at the funeral...I can feel the aura of that figure...and I can feel its intent too...it wants us to become one with it."

"That I do." the figure said, coming from behind Tree.

Tree jumped back in surprise and Vinyl, with her attention being caught as well, looked upon the figure with great fear. They both began quivering. The figure took notice.

"Why do you tremble?" the figure asked. "Do you fear...death?"

Tree and Vinyl both felt their blood run cold.

"That's right…" the figure continued. "Though I may not be death itself, I am its controller and maintainer. I am the Goddess of Death. I have come to this world in person along with another goddess, the God of War, controller and maintainer of war. Unfortunately, our presence here in our current states is creating an aura of fear and bloodlust that is spreading to all mortals in this world who do not have the protection of our superiors. Thusly, things have gotten...stranger than normal. But do not fear, we do all we intend to do for the greater good. That's my reason for killing all my victims...to help them. My three most recent victims are no exception…"

"I recognize two of them…" Tree said with a gulp. "I feel their essences...Fluttershy and Octavia…"

"Bravo," replied the Goddess of Death, "while I didn't directly kill Fluttershy, I played my part in the plan for her death by taking her soul. I see you also know Octavia well. After all, you've been trying to act as her replacement since she and Vinyl had a bit of a falling out…"

Vinyl began to grit her teeth and clench her hooves.

"You killed Octavia…?" she said furiously.

"I heard what had happened from my two most reliable sources," explained the Goddess of Death, "but I never would've figured how much it had hurt Octavia. To think she would directly ask me to kill her in a dubstep microwave, a birthday present from a dear friend…"

Vinyl lost it and ran over to the Goddess of Death, grabbing her by the collar of her robe and punching her in the face. Unphased, the Goddess of Death smiled and decided to show Vinyl and Tree her face. She used magic to levitate the hoodie of her robe off, and Vinyl and Tree were shocked and upset to see who it was…

"Don't worry…" the Goddess of Death said, still smiling. "You'll grow to love my face. After all, it's going to be yours...MWAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Tree and Vinyl felt like their own shadows had washed over them as they were completely surrounded by darkness from behind. Within the darkness, the Goddess of Death kissed them both on the lips, killing them and transforming their bodies and souls into the darkness that was her. Having assimilated them, the death goddess was overjoyed.

"All the four souls are together now…" she thought. "Unlike the other souls that comprise my body, they shall still know themselves as who they are. They will ensure that the other four souls come to the Immortal World...HA HA HA HA HA…"

She couldn't help but laugh.

"Soon, they'll all be mine…" she proclaimed in triumph. "Soon, everyone in Equestria...WILL BE ME! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Following that laugh, Twilight could be seen in her castle reading a black book with a white star on it, the one the torn page of scroll paper had magically appeared in with a demented look on her face.

"Books!" she said just for the sake of it.

The morning after the funeral...

The morning after the funeral, at Celestia's castle…

Princess Celestia was sitting at her throne, levitating a piece of paper and an ink-dipped quill. While she was using the quill to write something on the paper, the ninja who had attacked the castle that fateful night stood beside the throne, looking at the paper and grinning.

"I'm glad you saw it my way." he said happily. "Better than the high way, trust me."

"Shove it…" Celestia replied, frustrated. "I just don't want to see anypony suffer or die anymore…"

"How interesting…" the ninja remarked. "Not only do many of my colleagues think that way, but also my superiors...and a particular friend of mine who once stained her soul black for that very same reason…"

Soon after that was said, a familiar pony wearing a red coat stepped out from behind the throne's shadow…

The night of the funeral, at Twilight Sparkle's place…

Twilight was in bed, sleeping. She was having a dream. In the dream, she was walking down the trail of a dirt road with six figures of shadow following her. Soon, she came to an intersection with three paths, each one branching off to a different direction. The first path led to a trail made of fluffy, white clouds rather than dirt. The second path led to a forest with trees occupied by a myriad number of owls. The third path led to...nothing. All that laid ahead of it was a swirling, black void. It didn't even have a trail...the dirt road ended at the void.

Twilight looked up at the sky out of curiosity and saw that it was dark. Bright white stars in the sky spelled out the message "FLUTTERSHY WAS HERE...BUT WHERE DID SHE GO? WHO WROTE THIS?". Twilight began to think deeply about what to do…

"I don't like any of the paths…" she told herself. "I don't know if any of them are right...which one should I choose?"

Which path should Twilight choose?

A. Cloud

B. Owl

C. Nothing

D. None, they all suck

E. A.B.C. the riddler!

Those are her options...

Decision #2: Do you wish to see what would happen on each path?

A. Yes, I want to see her dreams (Episode 6)

B. No, I want to go straight to Princess Celestia's castle (Episode 7)

Episode 6: Where Everything Leads

The Dream of Heaven

Choosing to go down the path of clouds, Twilight fell through the first cloud she walked on and continued falling into a realm filled with fluffy, white clouds surrounding a blue sky. Confused as to how she couldn't walk on them, even though she was an alicorn, she tried to fly. But when she tried to flap her wings and fly...she realized there was no need to. She was floating. However, she couldn't move on her own or talk. She just kept drifting along with the current of air in the sky until a familiar yellow pegasus wearing a white robe grabbed her. Smiling and caressing Twilight tightly, she got on top of her and began to fluff her by stamping her with her hooves. She then got into position and started taking a nap on Twilight. At last, Twilight realized what was going on…

Fluttershy's an angel in heaven...and I'm her cloud…

The Dream of Owls

Choosing to go down the path of owls, Twilight examined the trees and the owls in the forest curiously. She couldn't stop thinking about what Tree Hugger said at the funeral about Fluttershy being reincarnated as an owl. The more she thought about Fluttershy being an owl in the Everfree Forest, and the more she worried about Fluttershy not being able to survive against all of its dangerous creatures, the darker the forest became. Panicking, Twilight tried to run through the forest, but it eventually became so dark that she couldn't even see her hooves in front of her face. She tried casting an illumination spell, but to no avail. Not being able to use magic had her more frightened than ever, and she fell to her knees crying. But soon, a yellow owl with familiar pink hair and blue eyes flew down towards her and wrapped its wings around her.

"Why are you crying, Twilight?" the owl asked in a recognizable voice, trying to comfort her. "Is something wrong?"

"F-Fluttershy?" Twilight replied, knowing that voice. "Is that really you?"

"Hee hee…" Fluttershy giggled, blushing. "I could ask you the same thing, Owlight."

"Wait...what?" Twilight said, confused.

Fluttershy turned on a lamp, the light emanating from it revealing that Twilight and her were inside a tree that Fluttershy had made her home. It was in this light that Twilight could see herself clearly as she looked down. Not only that, but she and Fluttershy were on a bed…

"You're looking nice…" Fluttershy flirted. "And don't worry, even though you're an owl now, you still have a horn…"

Looking up and noticing that her unicorn horn was gone, Twilight realized what was going on…

I'm an owl and Fluttershy wants to have sex with me…

The Dream of Nothing

Choosing to go down the path of nothing, Twilight found herself walking into...nothing. She felt nothing as she treaded the nonexistent trail, and felt nothing around her. It was just cold darkness...that was somehow also nothing. It spooked her, and as she looked back, she saw that their was nothing to turn back towards. As she looked ahead of her, she saw nothing to walk towards. There was nothing that she could do.

"Would I ever be able to see Fluttershy again in this blackness?" she asked herself.

"No," replied a voice, "you don't even see the blackness. You just don't exist."

"Wow, you're polite." Twilight said sarcastically. "Who do you think who you are?"

"I was once Fluttershy." the voice spoke. "But now, I am nothing. And you too, shall be nothing soon. Surrender to me your existence...accept me to free yourself from your fear of death...accept that you will become nothing in death, and you shall have everything you ever wanted in life…"

Twilight realized what was going on...

Fluttershy is nothingness and she wants me to join her…

The Dream of Choosing No Path

Choosing none of the options, Twilight looked up to the dark sky with a frustrated scowl on her face. She realized what was really going on…

"Come out, Goddess of Death…" she said. "I know what this is. This is a riddle you came up with…"

With that, a laugh echoed across the sky.

"How intriguing…" the Goddess of Death replied, appearing in the sky as a dark figure whose face was eclipsed by a robe hoodie. "You saw through my illusions...but can you explain to me my riddle?"

"Easily." Twilight said confidently, nodding her head. "You asked me where Fluttershy went. The three paths represented the three things I thought could've happened to her after she had died. You wanted me to choose which one I believed would lead me to Fluttershy. The problem is that none of them lead me to Fluttershy. All of them just lead me to how I imagine Fluttershy. The only one who knows where the real Fluttershy is is you. But how do I get to you? There is no right answer to that question because every path we take in life ultimately leads to death...every path. And there are not just three possible paths to be taken after...there are an infinite number of paths that I just haven't thought about yet. That's why you asked me the question in the form of the stars in the sky, because like them, you are infinite!"

"Ooh, VERY good." Goddess of Death replied. "You are absolutely right, I am infinite. Anyone can think of me any way they want, but no matter which way they choose, they have to accept me in the end. Great job figuring it out. I would love to have someone like you as a friend."

"F-friend?!" Twilight yelled in surprise. "W-what are you talking about?"

"Come now," said Goddess of Death, "just because I kill ponies doesn't mean I'm all bad. To be honest, I actually consider myself to be good. I love living creatures. If not for them, I'd have no reason to exist and my ultimate goal would be completely impossible to achieve. I'm sorry that I took Fluttershy from you, but it had to be done...it's my job. Also, aren't you the princess of friendship? Surely, you of all ponies would forgive what I've done and accept me as your friend, right?"

Twilight was unsure of how to respond to that…should she forgive the Death goddess?

Decision #3: Should Twilight accept the Goddess of Death's friendship?

Forgive the Goddess of Death

Don't forgive the Goddess of Death

Not Forgiving Her

Twilight chose to turn her heart to ice and said…

"No...I don't care if you're sorry...the damage has been done...and the damage is IRREPARABLE. The moment you took Fluttershy away from me is the moment you took an invaluable piece of my friendship away. And believe it or not, THAT'S not the worst part. I didn't fall into a depression just because I lost a part of what I had held so dear, I also realized that because of YOU, I'm eventually going to lose EVERYTHING I hold so dear! That's why I can never be friends with you! I can't be friends with someone who's going to take friends away from me! So long as you exist in this world, you are my enemy! I will do anything in my power to ruin you!"

"Aww…" the Goddess of Death responded. "You're adorable. I also love how you said "ruin you". Because you know in your heart that you can not kill me...even if I die, death will live on in this world. I didn't create it...even before I came to control death, it has always been around…it is eternal."

With those words, Twilight looked at her hooves and thought to herself for a bit before saying…

"If that's true, then I will do anything in my power to KILL death itself...not just for me and my friends...but the world too. I'm not going to be depressed anymore because I have something to live for again...the day no one has to die ever again!"

In response, the Goddess of Death began to laugh and clap.

"Your resolve is so ADMIRABLE!" the Goddess of Death proclaimed delightfully. "To stand up against the eternal, undying force that I live for...I LOVE YOU! I simply MUST kill you in the most GLORIOUS fashion I can imagine! Until we meet again, I'll be thinking of how wonderful it will be to have you as a part of me…"

"Wait," replied Twilight as her dream started to end, "what does that me-"

Before Twilight could finish, she woke up in bed.

"Damn…" she swore. "What the fuck did she mean by that crud? And why would Princess Luna allow me to have a dream like that? Unless…"

Twilight thought things over until it finally dawned on her…

"I need to go to Princess Celestia…" she told herself. "I feel...there's something I need to do there."

Forgiving Her

Twilight chose to warm up her heart and said…

"Yes...I mean, I still hate what you've done but I don't feel I have the right to stand against you until I know the reason why you do this. Maybe there's an even higher force that tells you to do what you do, maybe you are working for a greater good, I don't know. But for now, I want to believe that you're not truly evil and call you a friend…"

"Ha ha, for now…" the Goddess of Death replied. "Honestly, you're too kind. I didn't think you would forgive me at all. But hey, I won't complain since this is going to make things more enjoyable for both me AND you."

"Huh?" Twilight responded as her dream began to end. "What do you mean by th-"

CON the Riddler

Choosing to CON the riddler, Twilight began to laugh.

"What's so funny?" a voice from the sky asked.

"I know who wrote this, just letting you know." Twilight replied. "Me."

"What?!" the voice yelled. "No, you didn't, I did!"

"Oh, please…" Twilight taunted. "It's obvious that I wrote the message in the sky. This is my dream, and "Where did Fluttershy go?" is a question I've been asking myself a lot lately. All these paths are meant to portray all my perceptions of what may have happened to Fluttershy after she died. I've read about you in my book. You're the Goddess of Death, aren't you?"

"So what if I am?" the voice asked.

"Oh, nothing." Twilight said with a grin. "It's just that I always knew the Goddess of Death had no power over dreams...or even the night sky for that matter…"

In response to that, a familiar pony appeared before Twilight.

"Thou insolent whelp!" the familiar pony exclaimed. "I am not just the Goddess of Death, but I am also Prince Luna, goddess of not just the night, but dreams as well!"

Twilight began laughing really hard.

"Thanks for the information, sucker!" Twilight scoffed. "You just gave away your identity!"

Luna's face went red with embarrassment.

"Th-thou art lying!" Luna cried in desperation. "Th-this did not happen! It was only a dream! WE WERE NEVER HERE!"

Luna attempted to run away, only to get hit by a car.

"Ow." she said.

She then attempted to fly away, only to get hit by a plane.

"Double ow." she said. "It's a good thing I'm made of souls..."

Luna came to regret saying that out loud when she looked over at Twilight, who was laughing even harder than before now…

"FUCK!" Luna shouted in anger.

Twilight knew exactly what was going on now. She kinda just woke up after that and went to Princess Celestia's castle because she had to do something important there or some shit...

Awakening from the Heaven Dream

"Glad you chose me…" the Fluttershy angel said. "I'm going to love sleeping with you…"

With those words, Twilight suddenly awoke from her slumber in her bed. Turning over, she looked at her mattress. Rubbing it warmly, she knelt her head close to it and whispered…

"I'm sorry if I ever treated you roughly...I know how you feel now…"

Later that morning, Twilight was seen at her dining room table eating breakfast. She was having a bowl of instant oatmeal that Spike had prepared for her. Noticing that Twilight was looking not soul-crushingly depressed but still aloof, Spike decided to ask her how she was feeling…

"Are you feeling better Twilight…?" Spike asked as he twiddled his fingers nervously. "...Just a little?"

"I guess…" Twilight replied, trying not to discourage him too much. "Maybe my problem right now is that I'm just...bored. I want something to do. Hopefully, something that could help somepony in some way…"

"Oh…" Spike said as something dawned on him. "Well if it's any help, I got a letter from Princess Celestia earlier this morning…"

"Hmm?" Twilight said, curious.

"Yeah…" Spike continued. "She wanted you to come to the castle whenever you had the time today. Something happened at the castle two nights ago...she said she needs your help."

"...Okay." Twilight replied. "Please send for a chariot as soon as you can. I'm not feeling like flying right now...I just want to drift across the sky…"

Spike just stared at Twilight in confusion and blinked.

"I guess you woke up on the wrong side of the bed…" he said with a shoulder shrug.

Awakening from the Owl Dream

"Glad you chose me…" Flutterowl said, shutting off the light. "Come and make sweet love in my treehole tonight…"

With those words, Twilight awoke from her slumber in her bed, feeling discomfort in her joints and an odd sensation in her wings. Looking back at her wings, she realized they were erect, and blushed in response…

"Now I know why they call it a wingboner…" she said with a shudder.

Later that morning, Twilight was at the breakfast table, stirring a spoon around in a cup of coffee with an unnerved look on her face. Spike took notice…

"Is something wrong, Twilight?" he asked in concern.

"Not really…" Twilight replied, knowing she couldn't discuss the dream she had with Spike in detail and feel right about it. "I just had a nightmare last night...it just creeped me out. That's all. I just want to do something today that will help get my mind off of it..."

"I know what could help…" Spike said.

"You do?" Twilight said.

"Yeah," continued Spike as he breathed fire and made a scroll appear, "I got a letter from Princess Celestia this morning. She has something to ask of you…"

Twilight picked up the scroll and read it. It said this…

"Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle,

I am sorry that I was not present for Fluttershy's funeral two days ago. Very weird and wrong things that have been happening all over Equestria have kept me busy, and to add more fuel to the fire, my sister Luna has gone missing. Please come to my palace as soon as you can today before sunset...I need your help so that I may be able to get to the bottom of this.

Yours Truly,

Princess Celestia"

"Wow…" Twilight reacted in astonishment. "The madness never ends...I have to do something to help, though. Come on, Spike. We're going to see Princess Celestia."

"Right now?" Spike asked to be absolutely sure.

"Of course," replied Twilight, "why should I wait? We only have till nightfall. And trust me, I'm definitely not going to wait till nightfall…"

Spike scratched his head in puzzlement.

"Was that...a joke?" he thought. "If it was, I'm sorry Twilight, but that one was far from a hoot."

Awakening from the Nothing Dream

"Glad you chose nothing…" the nothing Fluttershy said. "Once you choose nothing, you never have to choose again…"

Immediately after that, Twilight woke up and couldn't even move at first. She felt like she had sat on herself for a really long time or something. Like she had become so numb she couldn't feel herself...looking down at her body, she asked herself…

"What...are you…? What...is me...?"

Twilight then started thinking about Fluttershy...

"Is Fluttershy...nothing? Does that mean...our friendship...is nothing?"

Twilight then started thinking about death...and became very angry…

"If death didn't exist...I would still have Fluttershy...if death continues to exist...I'm going to lose all my friends eventually...forever...no matter what we do, death will destroy our bond…"

Twilight's anger then grew so strong that she changed into a demon...

"AND I WON'T HAVE IT!" Twilight shouted.

Twilight's entire body became black and scaled as she grew black claws in place of hooves on all of her legs, and the red aura her body emitted was so strong, it made her hair go up. To maximize the dramatic effect, Twilight got dressed in black leather pants, a white shirt, a black leather jacket, and put on a pair of black sunglasses. She looked like Duke Nukem's lesbian cousin and loved it too. She soon turned back into a pony as her intense anger abated, but remained suppressed inside of her…

In her brand new attire, Twilight came down the stairs and saw Spike dressed in a small, white kitchen apron walking towards the stairs. Spike stopped when he saw Twilight, and got a sheepish smile.

"Oh, hi Twilight…" he greeted her, examining her clothes. "I was just about to see if you were up since it's 9 AM, and you always eat breakfast at nine...there's a bowl of oatmeal for you in the kitchen…"

"Thanks." Twilight expressed gratitude the coolest way she knew. "But I'm at the point of my life where I can make my own oatmeal…I can't stay lame forever..."

"Huh?" Spike said as Twilight passed by him and went into the kitchen. "What does that mean?"

Curious, Spike followed Twilight to the kitchen. Peeking around the open doorway, he was shocked to see Twilight ripping a large bag of oats open with her magic, pouring them into her mouth and guzzling down the leftover boiling water Spike had used to make the oatmeal.

"Holy moly, Twilight…" Spike remarked as he came into the kitchen and saw the now empty bag of oats float down to the floor at his feet. "Are you having a...really awkward growth spurt?"

In reaction, Twilight glanced over at Spike.

"Indeed I am…" she replied. "My inner self is going through a really awkward growth spurt...and by the end of it, I'm going to be strong enough to kill death itself."

Spike just stared at her and blinked in confusion.

"Well, good for you!" he exclaimed skittishly. "Also, I didn't want to spring this on you right away since I know what you've been going through, but since you seem to be feeling more energetic, I may as well tell you now. I got a letter from Princess Celestia earlier this morning. She says she wants you to come to her castle as soon as possible. She needs to discuss something with you that's imperative."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Twilight quickly replied. "Let's go."

"W-woah…" Spike said, still surprised and somewhat unnerved by Twilight's sudden burst of energy. "Now?"

"Right this moment." Twilight said. "Get on my back, we're leaving at once."

"Okay…" Spike replied, obediently climbing on her back.

Barely a second later, Twilight raised her wings and flew out a nearby window, breaking it in the process. Unwounded but not unafraid, Spike hung onto Twilight for dear life as the equally unwounded and unafraid alicorn flew towards Celestia's castle at full speed.

"I know now that feeling depressed about this while worrying about what may or not be true isn't going to change anything…" Twilight thought to herself. "Death is true. Friendship is true. That's all. Death must die. Friendship must live. My life purpose as the princess of friendship is obvious...I MUST KILL DEATH!"

Episode 7: Maud Pie May Cry

Later that morning…

At Celestia's castle, the sun princess was having a mature conversation with Twilight Sparkle's friends in the throne room as Twilight and Spike arrived. Walking up to the throne room doors, Twilight could overhear the conversation. She wondered whether to listen in on it or not…

Decision #4: Should Twilight overhear the conversation?

Stay by the doors to listen in

Enter the room, eavesdropping is wrong

Stay by the doors to listen in

Choosing to listen in on the conversation, Twilight put her head closer to the door…

"I'm gonna pretend I didn't see or hear this…" Spike thought as he turned his head the other way.

Twilight heard better what the others were talking about...

Hmm...what could they be talking about, I wonder. I think maybe you know...So what do you know? That is the question.

Explanation on Questions: At certain points of the story, you, the reader, will be asked questions on how you've been reading the story. Questions are essentially a follow-up to decisions. Your answers to them don't affect the course of the story, but they help keep the story consistent with your decisions. To put it more simply…

You are asked what the conversation is about. You will be provided answers that correlate to a prior decision. For example, if you chose to unleash demon wrath on Pinkie Pie earlier...

Ex: She unleashed demon wrath on her

That's how you should answer, look under the appropriate section in the chapter. What exactly Twilight overhears in this conversation won't impact the story, but it should be different depending on what you did earlier in order to be consistent and make sense. Essentially, you're reaping extra rewards for your decisions, and thus, there's no motive to lie. In fact, being honest should help you enjoy the story more. There's no joy in just reading everything in one go either, the joy is in making a path for yourself that you love!

Now then…

Question #1: What did Twilight do to Pinkie Pie back at her castle?

She unleashed demon wrath on her

She let her go

She unleashed demon wrath on her...

Twilight listened to Pinkie Pie talking about the scar she gave her as a demon...

"That's how I got this scar on my face…" Pinkie Pie explained. "But I don't hold anything against Twilight, I can understand how hard it can be. I struggled to control myself too when my demonic powers were first awakened."

"So it's not just Twilight, you've got a demon in you too…" Celestia said solemnly. "I'm so sorry…"

"Thanks for the sympathies," replied Pinkie, "but it's not all bad. I actually like the idea of being able to produce cake frosting every time I get cheesed off. *gasp* It's like…"

"We get it Pinkie," intervened Rainbow Dash, "you like ice cream cake topped with cheese spray. Now I know it's cool and all that Twilight and Pinkie have demon powers (no, I'm not being sarcastic, it's WAY cool), but I think the bigger concern is where the hay Rarity and that Discord weirdo went."

"Rainbow's actually got a point for once." Applejack followed up. "Where in the world have they been? Literally. They didn't come to the funeral and we've even stopped by Rarity's house multiple times and not found her or even Sweetie Belle there...it's scary, I tell ya."

"Even my sister Luna has vanished…" Celestia said with concern. "We have to solve this mystery. I have assigned you three and Twilight to search for Equestria's missing residents, under the aid of a special detective who is experienced in this kind of field. The detective has told me that she'll introduce herself when Twilight gets here."

She let her go

Twilight listened to the others talking about what had been going on in Equestria lately…

"It's been all over the news…" Rainbow Dash announced, showing Celestia the morning newspaper. "Octavia's dead...and now Tree Hugger, Vinyl Scratch, and even a news reporter have gone missing...shit like this never happens in Ponyville, heck, even Equestria!"

"Something's definitely rotten in Denmark…" Applejack said.

"No kidding," said Pinkie, "you'd think Discord would have something to do with all this chaos going on, but I haven't seen him at all...I even stopped by his place earlier and he wasn't there. Rarity's not been around anywhere either!"

"This is very strange and unsettling…" Celestia remarked. "We have to do something about this. Even my sister Luna has gone missing now. If we allow this to continue the way it is, the results could be catastrophic. That's why when Twilight comes, I am sending you three, her, and a special detective on a mission to find the cause of all this."

"Special detective?" Rainbow asked curiously.

"Yes," replied Celestia, "she doesn't like to talk much about herself, but she is one of Equestria's highest-ranking officers, notorious for going even as far to delve deep into worlds unknown to solve a case. She's an enigmatic figure. She accepted the case, but only under the condition that Princess Twilight Sparkle and all of you agree to come with her on it. She was even here a little while ago, but I have a nagging feeling that she's waiting for Twilight to come to introduce herself so she can meet you all as a group…"

"Hmm…?" Twilight said in puzzlement. "Who in the world could that detective be?"

Just then, Maud Pie came up behind Twilight, and taking a black marker, she drew a line across her throat.

"EEK!" Twilight screeched as she lost balance and opened the throne room doors as she tripped and fell on the floor.

"Sorry I'm late," apologized Maud Pie, "Twilight took her sweet time."

"W-wuh…" Twilight said. "Hey! That was not cool!"

"And eavesdropping was?" Maud replied.

"She's got you there Twilight," said Spike, "even though I don't like the way she used that marker on you. The only naughty thing I do with markers is draw mustaches on other ponies when they're asleep. ...Okay, I also sniff them every now and then."

"Twilight…" the other ponies in the room said, giving her frowns of disappointment.

"I-I'm sorry." Twilight apologized as she gave a sigh of defeat.

Twilight walked over to the other ponies while Maud stood in front of everyone, getting ready to explain the reason for her presence while the others took note of her new flashy red coat.

"This is the case." Maud Pie said. "I'm Maud Pie and I'm a supernatural detective. I shall join you on your adventure. That's all."

Enter the room, eavesdropping is wrong

Choosing to enter the room, Twilight pushed the throne room doors open and she and Spike walked in, the doors shutting behind them.

"Um...hi everyone…" Twilight greeted, feeling worried that the others were talking about what she had done to Pinkie Pie as she saw nervous frowns on Applejack and Rainbow Dash's face.

Twilight's friends and Celestia turned to face her…

Question #2: Did Twilight go down the path of Nothing in her dream?

Yes

No

Yes

"Oh, hi Twilight…" Rainbow Dash greeted, grinning nervously as she noticed Twilight's unusual attire. "You look…"

"Dashing?" Applejack intervened to try and make it quick. "Like a...Cloudsdale news reporter from the 80s?"

Dash facehoofed.

"I was going to say stylish like Spitfire's feminist brother coming home from ComicCon!" Dash exclaimed.

"Oops…" Applejack said, realizing her mistake.

Twilight couldn't help but feel just a little irked.

"Seriously?" she thought. "I've had this outfit for a while! They're acting like I just pulled it out of the closet!"

No

"Great to see you again, Twilight!" Pinkie exclaimed, just being happy to see her. "We were talking and going over a lot of big stuff before you came over here, but I'll just give it to you straight. Celestia invited us all over here to play "Who Went Where?" with a special detective!"

Twilight just stared at Pinkie and Celestia awkwardly.

"Uhh...I can explain." Celestia said, dotting her eyes about nervously.

"Don't worry," said a familiar pony in a red coat who stepped out from behind Celestia's shadow, "I shall do the explaining. I'm Maud Pie and I'm a supernatural detective. I shall join you on your adventure. That's all."

Supernatural Detective Maud Pie has joined the party!

The room went silent for a moment and Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow were all like, "WHAT?!". Pinkie Pie, however was all like, "Oh, awesome!", and Maud was all like "Yeah, it's shocking and cool.".

"We never knew you were a supernatural detective!" Rainbow exclaimed as she, Applejack, and Twilight all looked at Maud weirdly.

"I've always known!" Pinkie proclaimed, looking at her friends like they were crazy. "Have you guys seriously never heard of how Maud single-hoofedly solved the case of the sailing stones last year?"

A flashback began playing, in which Maud Pie was just staring apathetically at these two giant boulders.

And staring...and staring...and staring...

After a while, the boulders began to sweat and one of them cried to the other…

"SHE'S ONTO US, MAN! I CAN'T TAKE THE PRESSURE ANYMORE! LET'S JUST COME CLEAN AND EASE THE SUFFERING!"

The flashback ended…

"It turns out that those moving rocks were actually possessed by demons who had a plot to run over and crush innocent civilians just for the fun of it!" Pinkie elaborated. "Ponies everywhere were paranoid about what other rocks may have been possessed! Candy stores all across Equestria made a mass recall on rock candy for a while! But thanks to Maud, many lives were saved!"

"Don't thank me, thank the Powers That Be that work through me." Maud said humbly. "Honestly, that whole case was just a stone I couldn't leave unturned."

"Oh, Maud!" Pinkie exclaimed with a goofy grin and laughed.

"Ha, hee, ha, hyuk, ho." Maud said, trying to laugh with her. "These are the words of a laugh."

Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow kept their awkward looks on, still not being convinced.

"I know we live in a magical world, but...really?" Rainbow thought. "I know fucked up stuff happens in our world but...that was just...fuck."

"Something feels wrong, like this just doesn't fit…" Applejack thought.

"No, I just can't believe that Maud Pie would become a supernatural detective...I just can't!" Twilight thought.

Spike had no thoughts to share, for he was lying on the floor asleep. Maud Pie noticed, and gave a weird look of her own as she looked above him…she then glanced at the others and saw their expressions of disbelief before she turned to Pinkie.

"It seems your friends don't believe us." Maud said. "I think they need proof…"

"Proof?" Pinkie asked. "What kind of proof?"

Maud took off her red coat and dropped it on the ground, creating a clattering noise and revealing that she had a sheath that contained a saber with a silver blade and a gold, cross-shaped hilt on her back. On the edge of the blade was engraved the initials, "M.M.".

"If they don't believe our words Pinkie," replied Maud as she pulled the saber out from the sheath, "they'll believe through a baptism...just like you."

Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow froze in fear as Maud held out her sword, pointing it in their direction.

"Maud, wait!" Pinkie shouted. "We don't need to do that!"

"What in God's name are you doing?!" Celestia rightfully declared. "I was promised you wouldn't hurt anyone!"

"Promised?" Twilight thought.

Maud ignored Pinkie and Celestia as the cross on her sword's hilt began to emanate a glowing white light. She then tossed the sword at...what she had seen above Spike.

"AAAAAIIIIIEEEEE!" screamed what sounded like many ponies crying all at once upon being hit in the chest by Maud Pie's sword. One particular cry echoed thrice. In the crying, five voices everyone in the room recognized could be heard, the voices of Octavia Heartstrings, Tree Hugger, Vinyl Scratch, and the last two that would strike Twilight and Celestia especially…

"!" Twilight went. "...Fluttershy?!"

"!" Celestia went. "...Luna?!"

Knowing that her cover had been blown, what had been above Spike became visible as a dark robed figure with a hoodie covering her head and face hovering in the air...it was the Goddess of Death. Having been hit in the chest with Maud's sword, she was bleeding blood and ectoplasm onto Spike from her stab wound. Spike didn't wake up, however, even as the blood and ectoplasm dripped on him and was absorbed into his scalish skin…

"So," said Maud, "you put a sleep spell on him. Just what I'd expect from the guardian of dreams."

"Guardian of dreams?" Celestia said as she pondered and soon realized what that meant. "No…"

"Scoundrel…" the Goddess of Death said to Maud as she grabbed Spike under her right front leg. "Next time we meet, I'll pay you back on my home turf! If you ever want to see your friend alive again, you'll come to the Arc Rising graveyard at 5:30 PM tomorrow evening! I'll be waiting!"

"Stop!" Twilight yelled as she and all of the others ran towards the Goddess of Death as fast as they could, only for her to start teleporting away by wrapping herself and Spike in a sphere of darkness. Everyone except Twilight was unable to follow her into the sphere of darkness, and even Twilight could only faintly make out the Goddess of Death in the darkness as she entered. Nevertheless, Twilight prepared to fire a magic laser blast from her horn at her.

"GIVE HIM BACK!" she cried as she shot the laser beam at the Goddess of Death. The Goddess of Death flung off her robe, rolling and ducking while grabbing Spike under her front legs. Having taken off her robe, the Goddess of Death's face was revealed to Twilight. Twilight paused when she noticed her face…

"I knew it…" Twilight thought to herself. "It's just like in the book...everything in it that's been written has come true…"

Then, the Goddess of Death finished her teleportation. She and Spike disappeared along with the sphere of darkness, but her robe, oddly enough, was left behind. Twilight clutched it with her hooves and knelt her head in despondence.

"Am I...powerless to it?" she asked herself as small tears rolled out of her eyes. "Will it all end...how they want it to?"

That depends on who "they" is, Twilight. If "they" is Trey and that bus boy from the restaurant with the really good sushi, then I'm sure everything will be fine!

"Twilight…" Applejack said as she and the others came over to Twilight, looking somber. "I'm sorry we couldn't help…"

"Please…" Twilight replied. "Don't apologize. I'm the one who failed...and for that, I am…"

Twilight turned to the others and gave them a look of great anger.

"UNFORGIVABLE." Twilight said as her demon aura and fangs became visible.

Spooked upon seeing Twilight in such a state, Twilight's friends kept silent.

"What's happening to you, Twilight?" Applejack pondered. "First what you did to Pinkie and now this...it's like you're completely different…"

Maud Pie was also pondering something...

"Even Pinkie and I couldn't pass through that darkness…" she thought. "I wonder…"

Celestia was looking at Twilight and thinking too…

"Did she hesitate to apprehend her...because she was Noava Falling's mother? Or...does she know that it's been scripted for her and her friends to go to the cemetery named after my son and fight...that prince..."

"Twilight, I know it's sad what's going on…" Celestia said, heartbroken seeing Twilight like this. "It's even sadder how helpless it makes us feel trying to comprehend all this...but right now, what's most important is to do what we can to help Spike. I beg all of you...please go to the Arc Rising cemetery tomorrow's eve and rescue Spike from the Goddess of Death!"

"Aren't you going to come to?" Dash asked, assuming Celestia would definitely want to join them to confront the Goddess of Death after hearing Luna's voice come from her.

Celestia then looked over at Maud, who shook her head in response.

"No…" Celestia replied with a crestfallen sigh. "I have to stay here and watch over the citizens of Equestria, in case I have to protect them from harm with the recent outburst of chaos. As for you, I'll have to be with you in spirit. Please, take care."

"We have time before we have to meet the Goddess of Death." Maud reminded everypony. "In that time, I want to take you guys somewhere and show you something important."

Maud walked to the doors of the throne room, only to look back and see the others still giving her those awkward looks.

"Don't worry, I will explain." she said. "I know what the death goddess wants, a battle. That's why I need to get you guys prepared for war…please follow me..."

Not seeing any other options, all the other ponies, excluding Celestia, obeyed. They followed Maud Pie out of the throne room of Celestia's castle, the doors ominously slamming shut behind them…

End of Part Three.

"That's the end of the third part!" Boss shouted. "So, how did you all enjoy it?"

"I guess it was a little better than the first two chapters," said Dumb-bell, "at least the story is picking up a bit."

"It is a bit better than the first two chapters," concurred Hoops, "but it's still not great by any means. I also find the twist of Maud Pie being a "badass hero" to be cliche."

"..." Score silently expressed a similar opinion.

"Incoming combo breaker," said G.R.D., "this chapter was just as bad if not worse than the first two. Already, this story is starting to become what I predicted it to become (OMG WE HAVE THIS DEEP SERIOUS STORY WHERE TWILIGHT HAS A BOOK AND THESE GODS OR WHATEVER ARE MAKING STUFF HAPPEN EVEN THOUGH IT MAKES NO SENSE BEST STORY EVER IF YOUR 12 YRS OLD!1!), and even disregarding that, in no way was this chapter entertaining at all. It was just dull exposition and crappy comic relief. Seriously, it literally was just five lines of exposition, nonsense joke, five more lines of exposition, sex joke, introducing a completely out of character Maud Pie, Family Guy cutaway gag?! Just...what the fuck?"

"Combo breaker breaker!" Derpy exclaimed. "This chapter ruled! This new version of Maud Pie is awesome! That part where it looked like she was going to baptize the ponies but was really just trying to attack the Goddess of Death was so cool!"

"Glad everyone except Derpy loved it!" Boss said happily. "Trust me, the next chapter is where the story starts getting really good!"

Clue #3: Hit thrice

Episode 8: Maud's Story

Episode 8: Maud's Story

After the ponies departed the throne room of Princess Celestia's castle, Maud Pie led them to a place that Twilight Sparkle and her friends had never been to or even seen before...it was a large, twenty-story, mechanical construct surrounded by five equally high mechanical towers.

"This is the technological tower called Starcatch." Maud explained. "While the meaning of the name is a mystery to the citizens of Equestria, the purpose of its existence is well-known, even to the general populace. Its purpose is to collect important information from the world and convert it into digital data so that it may be eternally preserved. Vague, I know, but it's the info the general public got..."

"How come we didn't know, then?" Rainbow asked suspiciously. "I'd say we're a pretty good and accurate representation of the general public!"

"THE GENERAL PUBLIC!" a handsome stallion hunk doing a movie trailer voice announced as Rainbow and friends did their best pose.

Maud just stared at them with her best dull stare before going…

"That's debatable."

"How did this get here?" Twilight asked. "Even with all our advancements in magic, technology, and magic technology, I can't imagine a place like this being built on such little notice! I'm a princess, why wasn't I ever told about this? Heaven in Tartarus, where were Princess Celestia and Luna in all this?!"

In response to that...Maud smiled...a sinister-looking smile.

"How do you know…" Maud began to ask. "...if they had anything to do with this at all? Don't you think it's possible that something...or someone else was behind this place's appearance?"

Twilight didn't know exactly why...but she felt irked.

"Don't be an idiot…" Twilight said with a scowl. "That's ludicrous! Are you trying to suggest that it fell out of the sky? What are you hinting at by "someone"? Who is the one? God?! Did God just shit out the next step of the technological revolution?!"

"...God?" Applejack thought in confusion. "First Celestia, now her?"

"Woah, Twilight." Rainbow said in intervention. "Take it easy, she was just suggesting something to keep us open to another possibility."

"No," replied Twilight, "she was suggesting something to try to get us to accept an impossibility! She just wants us to believe a bunch of goddamn crap!"

"Hey, cut it out Twilight!" a displeased Pinkie exclaimed. "This isn't like you! Maud didn't say anything to try and upset you, be nice!"

"Thanks you two," said Maud gratefully, "but there's no need to defend me. Twilight knows."

"So do we…" Applejack said as she, Pinkie, and Rainbow each gave Twilight a disappointed look.

Twilight knelt her head in shame.

"I'm sorry." she apologized. "I don't know what came over me."

"It's fine." Maud replied, still smiling. "I know you'll try not to do it again. After all, you absolutely hate making mistakes. I know that you want to be a perfect being without error."

Maud Pie chuckled to herself as all the others became puzzled. Twilight began to feel odd. She looked down at her front legs and saw green zeroes and ones briefly flash throughout them. She then looked at Maud suspiciously…

"I don't know what it is...but I don't like whoever this Maud Pie is now…" Twilight said in thought. "Something about her...just bugs me!"

Ooh...the suspense! I hope you guys like campfire stories, because this is where things are going to get spooky…

Later that night, Maud Pie had invited the others to stay over at her house. Even though it was only 9:30 P.M., Twilight had decided to go to bed early. After apologizing again for how she had acted early and saying that she needed some sleep, she retired to a guest room on the second floor. Little did Twilight's friends know, Twilight wasn't planning to go to sleep right away…

"Oh...OH!" Twilight moaned and groaned.

I think we know what she was doing...

She was reading the black book with a white star on it, the one with the page that had magically appeared inside it again.

"Ooohh...this book is driving me crazy!" she wailed. "It's like reading a bad erotic novel!"

Uh...let's see what the others are doing. This isn't what I meant by spooky…

Maud Pie and the others had gathered around a fireplace in the living room. Maud sat on the floor, in front of the fire that was roaring in the fireplace, while the others sat on the couch, facing Maud.

"We've gathered around the campfire…" Maud called it that. "But not to sing our campfire song."

"Oh, are we going to sing Kumbaya with boy scouts instead?" Rainbow Dash asked jokingly.

"That can be arranged." Maud replied, also joking, taking it on herself to be the sarcastic one. "But for right now, I want to tell all of you a scary story...a true scary story."

"Ooh...these are always good!" Pinkie exclaimed, shaking with excitement. "I still haven't gotten over that one about the demon fairy pirates! I didn't want to believe that one...but I had to…"

Pinkie looked over at the staircase leading up to the second floor worriedly, and through the staircase pillars, she could see a demon fairy pirate, who looked like Tinker Bell with an eyepatch, hook, and devil horns, giving her an evil stare while pointing her right index finger at her menacingly…

"No," said Maud Pie, shooting the fairy pirate an apathetic stare that scared her into teleporting away, "you didn't. I'm serious. After I've told this story, I'll have you two convinced that I am who I say I am."

Maud had said that last sentence while turning to Applejack and Rainbow Dash, and in response, Applejack and Rainbow just smiled nonchalantly.

"Listen Maud," said Applejack, "we like you, and though we may find some of the things you've said and done strange, we believe that you have good intentions and have been as honest with us as possible. We trust you all the same, story or none."

"Mhmm...basically what Applejack said," said Rainbow, "but to add to it, I doubt you'll be able to scare me."

"Let's see about that…" Maud responded. "Storytime commences now…"

Decision #5: What kind of scary story should Maud Pie tell?

A. One about a serial killer! (Episode 9)

B. One about Rainbow Dash's ghost! (Episode 10)

Episode 9: Myra Michaels

"It was a gray and cloudy day." Maud Pie began the tale of the serial killer. "A serial killer was in a town. The serial killer was a twenty-year old woman named Myra Michaels. The town was a big place of about 2,000 people, and about 1,200 men. They all died. She killed them. She cut off the penises of all the men and added them to her collection. She had tens of thousands. They were all penises."

Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash all had blank expressions on their faces.

"Is...that it?" Applejack asked.

"Disregarding the prequel," replied Maud, "where we learn that Myra used to be a sweet girl who had her heart corrupted by a demon, and the sequel where she changed her ways, that's about all I have to tell."

"Ha ha!" Rainbow Dash guffawed. "That was it?! I'll give you credit for surprising me, but you'll have to do way better than that to scare me!"

"I'm...more confused than anything." Pinkie Pie said. "Were...you trying to convince them of-"

"You all seem convinced that I'm finished…" Maud intervened. "But I'm only done with what I have to tell. Now, it's time for me to start what I have to do. It is time for the baptism to commence..."

Maud Pie then pulled her sword out of the sheath, and again, the cross on the hilt started glowing. After muttering something incomprehensible under her breath and making a swipe with her left front leg, the campfire went out and the entire room became dark.

"Wait...what's going on here?" Applejack asked nervously.

"Oh come on," said Dash bemusedly, "I figured out that you were just using that baptism schtick as a diversion back at the castle. I know you're just trying to scare-"

Rainbow Dash was interrupted upon feeling Maud Pie's sword enter her stomach. Soon after, she felt her body being stacked upon Applejack. Both of them had been impaled by Maud's sword, but they were not dead or even wounded. However, they both felt an unfamiliar feeling deep inside themselves, and deep inside them, voices could be heard…

"SO THESE ARE THE SOULS OF MYRA'S NEW COMRADES." a mixture of all sorts of voices said. "LET US TAKE REFUGE IN THEM AS MYRA ASKED."

With that, Applejack and Rainbow screamed as their minds became flooded with memories of people being killed and butchered by a woman with long black hair and a saber that had a familiar silver blade with the initials "M.M." engraved on it, but no golden cross-shaped hilt. Their shrieks soon began to quell however when they started seeing memories of the woman speaking to a blonde-haired man with a white robe and a staff.

"Is it finished?" the woman asked.

"Yes," replied the man as he handed the sword Applejack and Rainbow had just seen be used for murder moments ago over to the woman, "it is done. Now that your heart has changed and amends with those you have wronged have been made, I trust that you will be able to do great things with this sword. The blade may not be able to avoid conflict entirely, but the hilt will give you what you need to avoid senseless violence. You've done very well, Myra."

Myra looked upon the sword and even though she was wearing a straight face...she shed tears.

"Thank you, Loki…" she said.

After that, Applejack and Rainbow Dash stopped seeing memories. Maud Pie had drawn her sword out of their bodies and the flames in the fireplace had been rekindled. Still in a state of shock, Applejack and Rainbow trembled as they looked at Maud's face.

"Those...those weren't hallucinations…" they both thought fearfully. "I felt not just her sword enter my body...but also, the essences of others...become entwined with my very being! Memories of their names, their lives, what they felt...and I still feel them inside me now...how is this possible?!"

"Yes, you fear the serial killer now…" Maud said. "Because you know now that she exists. The only things we fear are things that are real...or at least, things we perceive as real. Most of us stop fearing the dark as we become older, because we learn that our perception of the dark wasn't real. But not fearing darkness at all is a huge mistake, because being lured into such a false sense of security..."

As Maud Pie paused, Pinkie Pie could feel her aura change to a familiar state, and became surprised.

"No way…" Pinkie thought. "She's even going to show them…"

With a blinding flash of light, Maud transformed into a demon. Her entire body transformed into pitch-dark shadow...that was also transparent. Even in the blackest darkness that was in her chest, Applejack and Rainbow could see their reflections, as well as lights gliding across the shadow.

"Is all part of the darkness' plan." Maud Pie continued. "It doesn't seek out young children, it seeks out grown-up children who have relaxed their guard..."

"Are you...really Maud Pie?" Applejack asked with a gulp.

"Are you...really on our side?" Rainbow asked with sweat trickling down with her face.

In response, Maud grinned as she came closer to Applejack and Rainbow…

...only to change back to normal.

"That will be revealed," said Maud cheekily, "in the sequel. Coming soon. Hope my story wasn't too scary for you guys…"

Episode 10: Ghost Rainbow Dash

"It was a bright and starry night." Maud Pie began the story of the ghost of Rainbow Dash. "Pinkie Pie had offered to play a game with one of her best friends, Rainbow Dash. It was a game involving making cupcakes. Rainbow Dash didn't want to play. She left to practice her flying moves at Ghastly Gorge instead. However, she got careless. A Quarray Eel ripped her to shreds and ate her. She died. Her soul left the remnants of her body. She haunts not the gorge, but the universe and everywhere she goes to this day."

Pinkie Pie and Applejack were astonished upon hearing this tale, while Rainbow Dash laughed.

"Are you even being serious?" she asked with a cocky grin on her face. "That obviously didn't happen! I'm alive! I'm sitting right here with a body that ain't dead and buried! I do find it cute though that you made me the ghost, that would be…"

Rainbow Dash paused, and as she thought things over, her smile faded.

"So like me to…" Rainbow Dash continued. "Not let death stop me…"

Pinkie and Applejack looked over at Rainbow in puzzlement, then turned back to Maud, who had her own smug grin plastered on her face.

"My story isn't over yet…" Maud said. "I'm only at the part where things get good…"

With that, a mist familiar to Rainbow began to flood the room, and a memory erased from her mind, but not from her heart, was stirred…

"Why am I remembering this?!" Rainbow bellowed in her thoughts as memories of being killed by the Quarray Eel, performing with the Dark Sky and Fluttershy, and fighting alongside the Dark Sky against robot alicorns and a shadow dragon were awakened in her mind. "This...NONE OF THIS HAPPENED! IT COULDN'T POSSIBLY HAVE HAPPENED! I DON'T REMEMBER ANYTHING BEFORE..."

Rainbow Dash put her hooves up to her head and screamed.

"Rainbow, are you okay?" Applejack asked with concern, coming closer to Dash.

"Maud, what are you doing?" Pinkie asked. "You don't need to summon them to prove yourself!"

"But I like proving myself." Maud replied. "After all, I'm only what you think of me before I prove myself…"

Following that, Maud began muttering the following words to herself…

"Dark Sky...Body, Mind, Soul...Assemble."

It was then that the shroud of mist surrounding the living room materialized into the Dark Sky members, Dumb-bell, Hoops, Score, Ghost Rainbow Dash, and Derpy Hooves. They all began looking around the room curiously.

"So we're in Boss' story now…" Dumb-bell said. "This feels weird."

"Hey," remarked Hoops, "it's not like it's our first time being characters in a tale written by the Powers That Be."

"..." Score recapped all the other times silently.

"Woah," said Ghost Rainbow Dash, "too much information, bro. I don't even remember that one where Hoops was a British gangster."

"No way…" Rainbow Dash thought. "This feeling I'm getting from her too...her essence...she is me…"

"I don't even remember breakfast." Derpy said with a sigh.

"Well to be fair," replied Dumb-bell, "that's perfectly natural because we didn't order breakfast in that one tale where we were at the diner."

"How do you remember things like that?" G.R.D. asked. "I can barely recall the last time I breathed."

"That's…" Dumb-bell said with a pause as he took G.R.D.'s ghostly state into account. "...also perfectly natural."

Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash were...marveled by these mysterious entities, to put it mildly. Like you'd expect, it didn't take long for the Dark Sky members to take note of them.

"So you're the guys Myra-a-ah..." Dumb-bell paused and stuttered before correcting himself. "I mean, Maud Pie told us about."

"Allow him to introduce ourselves." Hoops said, pointing to Score.

"..." Score silently established their names and the essential parts of their backstories to the trio.

"So yeah, that's the story." G.R.D. concluded the exposition, happy to have it over with. "I hope it didn't turn your worlds upside-down or anything."

"Our worlds?" Rainbow asked. "What about our lives? If what you say is true, that means I'm dead! What, are you a magic clone of me? A parallel counterpart of me from another world? Tell me!"

G.R.D., hating having to explain things and having been told not to reveal certain details, became frustrated.

"So this poser is the incarnation of me Boss wrote…" Ghost Rainbow Dash said to the still shocked Rainbow Dash, whom she perceived as acting emo. "I'm not impressed. You don't even look anything like me! You look like Mr. Blue Sky after he ate too many Tropical Starbursts!"

Rainbow Dash, in response, put on a scowl as her confusion and dread turned to irritation.

"What does that even mean?!" Rainbow exclaimed angrily. "Who are you?!"

"Uh…" replied G.R.D. bemusedly, "Score just gave all of us an entire introduction and you rudely ask me who I am?! Dude...FAIL."

Rainbow Dash began to blow smoke out of her nose in rage.

"QUIT SMARTMOUTHING ME, YOU ECTOPLASM SACK WITH WINGS!" she bellowed furiously. "THIS IS SERIOUS! I WANT TO KNOW WHO I AM! AM I DEAD OR ALIVE?!"

"Woah," responded G.R.D., "just take it easy, man. You're alive. You may have the same body (or at least the same body I once had), mind, and soul as me, but we're not the exact same entity. It's as simple as that."

"...WHAT?!" Rainbow shrieked. "YOU DON'T MAKE ANY SENSE!"

"That's what they all say…" G.R.D. said with a sigh. "Don't worry, Boss herself wrote for you to be alive. Even Boss' superiors wanted you to be alive in this story."

"What do you mean, "wrote"?!" Rainbow shouted, still not satisfied. "Why do you keep saying that? Who is this "Boss"?"

"Someone you don't know, yet have always known," said Ghost Rainbow Dash, reading off of a card on top of a stack of cards, "that is the riddle I'm supposed to tell you. Can we please go home now, Maud?"

"Sure," replied Maud Pie, "you've done your part. I can tell that you really enjoyed playing a key role, Ghost Rainbow Dash."

G.R.D. just rolled her eyes as she put away her cards, knowing this wasn't something worth debating over. After Maud put her hooves together and made a chant, the Dark Sky members turned to mist and disappeared.

"Wai-" Rainbow Dash paused as she realized it was hopeless. They were gone.

"Maud, who in tarnation were those guys?!" Applejack yelled. "How did they know you? How much have you been hiding from us?!"

Maud was still grinning as she pulled out her sword, the cross on the end of it glowing again.

"I'm going to show you exactly how much…" she said sinisterly.

Applejack got a look of fear on her face, and soon realized what Maud meant by that when she stabbed her in the stomach with her saber. To Applejack's shock, the blade did not harm her. Instead, her mind became filled with Maud Pie's memories combined with her own mysteriously few memories as she felt like spirits were invading her soul. After a while, Maud pulled the sword out of her stomach, and the physically unwounded but mentally scarred Applejack looked at her and said…

"No...you're not…"

"Yes...you are…" Maud replied.

"...Am I?" Applejack thought. "My own memories...I don't remember anything from before learning about what happened to Fluttershy...I've just...always known that I'm Applejack and her and the others are my friends…could I...could we all...be like Maud?"

Episode 11: Duel with Death's Ruler

The next day…

It was 5:15 P.M., and the ponies had arrived at Arc Rising cemetery. Having led them there after spending some time going over their strategy, Maud Pie had prepared adequately for the situation at hand. Her and the others had entered the graveyard, ready to face the Goddess of Death.

"Come out Goddess of Death." Maud declared with dull energy. "You're finished."

"Yes, I am…" the Goddess of Death said as she and a still unconscious Spike materialized. "Finished waiting for you to show up, that is. You're fifteen minutes early, and yet I wish you had come sooner, my beloved children. I would've scheduled a sooner time, but I just love this time of the day so much, the time when the night draws so close. Plus, that would've meant less time for me to spend with my dear child, Spike…"

Twilight Sparkle and her friends growled as they witnessed the Goddess of Death hugging Spike and nuzzling him affectionately.

"You sicko…" Twilight insulted her angrily. "Give him back right now! Don't even think about using him as an advantage in whatever screwed up games you want to play with us!"

"Ah yes," replied the Goddess of Death, "you may have him back alive and well."

With those words, the Goddess of Death levitated Spike down to the others. Twilight felt his pulse, and after breathing a sigh of relief upon realizing he was alive, quickly teleported Spike back to her castle, in his bed safe and sound.

"I don't want the poor thing to be lonely inside me without his friends for even a short while. I want all of you to be inside of me together, after you learn the truth about yourselves of course, my dear children…"

"What do you mean, "truth"?" Applejack asked in frustration. "And would ya stop calling us yer kids?"

"Yeah, it's super creepy!" Rainbow Dash yelled.

"We weren't told that you were our father!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed, holding a script in her front legs that she was waving in the air.

"I am your father," replied the Goddess of Death, "in a loose sense of the word."

"Phew…" Pinkie breathed a sigh of relief. "That's not so bad."

"I'm one of the gods who helped create you." the Goddess of Death explained. "Your parents in this world are not the ones who conceived you."

"D'oh!" Pinkie grunted as Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow looked upon the death goddess in shock.

"Heh heh heh…" the Goddess of Death chuckled. "You seem shocked. But deep down, you know it to be true. You all have found it bizarre that the only memories you have are the ones that have been written into your brains by the Gods of Reality and Fantasy. Remembering not your childhoods, not the experiences that made you who you are today, not even how you became friends. You all know deep down that you are just shadows of your former selves, real people who have been reduced to fictional characters…"

"Shut the fuck up!" Twilight shouted. "That's crap! We're not "fictional characters" to be used for your shitty idea of entertainment!"

The death goddess then turned her attention to Twilight, chuckling now at her hammy acting…

"You don't have to try so hard to pretend, Twilight…" the Goddess of Death said amusedly. "Surely, you knew about this from reading that book…"

Twilight's friends turned their attention to her as well.

"What does she mean by that, Twilight?" they asked.

Twilight gulped and began to sweat nervously. She then sighed in despondence.

"I'm sorry, guys…" Twilight said in a crestfallen tone. "But what she's saying is true. We're not who we were made to believe we were. We're not even from Equestria. We used to be human beings from another world. The reason we don't have any memories of it is because the gods who brought us here and transformed us wiped our minds clean of any of them. I kept quiet about it because I was worried it would hurt you."

"What are you saying?" Applejack and Rainbow asked as Twilight turned her head the other way and said nothing else. "Twilight!"

As Applejack and Rainbow tried to talk to Twilight, Pinkie walked over to Maud Pie and said…

"Is that the same reason why you never told me that I was a human clone too? You didn't want me to be upset?"

"Mostly." Maud responded as she pulled out her sword, the cross on the end of it glowing once more. "I also knew that by what my superiors wanted to happen, you were going to find out eventually. I guess we all figured the best time would be right here when you were together with your friends staring Death in the face."

"Until we were staring Death in the face?" Pinkie said in confoundment. "That's...not really the ripest time to spring life-changing information on someone…"

While the others were talking, they didn't notice the Goddess of Death muttering something under her breath as her horn lit up. Four spirits left her body, and flew out into the distance, the others paying them no mind.

"Come on," replied Maud, "it's not like you can't take it with you to the grave."

"Wait a minute…" Pinkie said as she thought what Maud said over. "Are you implying that it's...good that we know this?"

"Of course it's good that you know this," replied Maud, "because it's the truth. Lies and half-truths that we tell ourselves can only provide us with fleeting comfort. Truth, however, no matter how painful it may be, provides us with an eternal solace of happiness and peace...once it's accepted."

"I weary of all of this conversation," said the Goddess of Death, "it's about time we fight."

"Good," said Maud as she got into a fighting stance with the cross on her saber still glowing, "because I can't wait to hurt your spirit any longer, my dear friend…"

THE BATTLE COMMENCES

The Goddess of Death's unicorn horn lit up, and she shot a blue laser beam up towards the sky. As she held her right hoof close to her face and began to chant something, Maud took her sword in hooves, and rushed towards the Goddess of Death. Before she got a chance to slice her, however, she was struck in the back by a white laser beam from the sky and became temporarily stunned. Looking up towards the sky in puzzlement, she saw where the attack had come from, a star amongst many other stars in the sky. While Maud wondered why only one of the stars attacked her, the others glanced up at the now starry sky as well, equally confused.

"It's only a quarter after five in the evening…" Twilight said. "It's not even that dark, yet...there are stars in the sky?"

"No," replied Maud Pie, who had recovered from the blast, "they're not stars...they're souls. The Goddess of Death called them back into this world to aid her…"

"Wrong." the Goddess of Death chimed in. "They've always been in this world. This world is its own, yet it's also connected with all the worlds that came before it, as well as the World of the Dead and the afterlife in the moon. The gap has always been bridged, we just need to find the will to realize it. Before this world's creation was conceived, I had already called those who had died to become a part of me, a star in the sky, or…"

The Goddess of Death then punched the ground with her right hoof, and the ground began to rumble.

"...one with the earth."

When the shaking ceased, a massive horde of spirits began to rise from the graves in the cemetery...only to start melting. The others saw the Goddess of Death chanting a spell that was causing them to liquify and became mortified.

"STOP!" they shouted. "Do you realize what you're doing?!"

"Relax," replied the Goddess of Death when she finished chanting, "I haven't done them any harm. I've conversed with every single one of these souls in the sky and in this cemetery, made friendship with them all. They will eventually become one with me at the end of it all, but for now, I need their help to get uncompliant subjects back on the right track. You, my friends, are a shining example of such subjects…"

"Subjects?!" Rainbow exclaimed. "We're not your flunkeys! Stop fooling yourself!"

"We ain't gonna comply with whatever the hay you're tryin' to do, and we never will!" Applejack yelled. "So there!"

"I am not asking for you to comply…" the Goddess of Death said as she began to take off her robe.

It was then that Maud Pie looked up at the stars in the sky again, and saw them growing brighter. Upon also noticing the now-liquid spirits merging together into a massive mass of liquid and the opening to the graveyard becoming blocked off by all the gates of the graveyard becoming giant, blue, magical barriers, she realized what the Goddess of Death was trying to do.

"Oh shit…" she thought to herself as she began to transform into a being of pitch-black, yet transparent shadow.

"I am asking for you…" the Goddess of Death continued as she threw off the robe and revealed her face. "...to die."

Everyone saw that the Goddess of Death was actually...

"EVERYONE, TAKE COVER." Maud shouted apathetically as she ran towards the others, leaped in the air, and fully transformed into shadow to wrap them in a shield.

Very shortly after Maud covered the ponies with the shadow shield, lasers from all across the sky were fired, and the mass of liquid that the spirits from the grave had melted into had begun to flood the place, bringing the tombstones with it as it rose up. The shadow shield kept the ponies afloat on the giant spirit pool that would've drowned them. Try as they might, the stars could not break through Maud's shield and stopped firing with a need to recharge.

After the ceasefire, Maud Pie lowered the shadow shield, reshaping it into a platform for them to stand on. The Goddess of Death was now flapping her wings in the air and panting after expending a large amount of magical energy on the assault, tiring out and trying to catch her breath.

"I know what you were trying to do now…" Maud said. "You were just pretending to take the battle slow, talking and using your big reveal to distract us so you could easily eliminate us all with one big move. Unfortunately for you, I'm legitimately taking this battle slow, only rushing into action when necessary. I fully expected you to counter that first swing I was going to make, but I tried anyways and didn't try to attack after that because I wanted to see your way of fighting. Now that I know your battle style, I can make an effective counterattack."

"Ha ha ha…" the Goddess of Death laughed. "I like the way you're talking, Maud. You're really getting into this whole thing, aren't you?"

"I've been fully immersed in this little tale from the start, Luna." Maud replied. "Though to be honest, I still find it kind of weird calling you the Goddess of Death, Prince Luna."

The Goddess of Death, Prince Luna's identity has been fully revealed!

Question #3: Did Twilight CON the riddler in her dream?

A. Yes

B. No

Yes

Twilight began to chuckle to herself. Luna took notice.

"Do you find something funny about this, Twilight?" Luna asked in irritation, remembering what happened in Twilight's dream.

"So, did you have fun getting out of my dreamscape on your own?" Twilight asked cheekily. "Or did the stars aid in your escape again?"

"Oh come on, really?" Luna replied. "I'm PRINCE Luna, a human clone of the real Princess Luna. Also, the version of me Rarity and Discord created for this universe never was Nightmare Moon...oh shit..."

With that, Twilight began laughing.

Luna began sobbing.

The others began pondering what was going on more than ever.

Maud began staring apathetically.

Rarity and Discord began wondering why they wrote this scene. Way to spoil a really big plot twist, don't you think?

No

"Why Princess Luna…?" Twilight's friends asked as they sobbed. "Why are you, of all ponies, the Goddess of Death?!"

"It's Prince Luna," replied Luna with a grin on her face, "mind you. And the reason I became the Goddess of Death was simply because it was my responsibility as a creator of this world. Someone had to maintain the death that goes on in this world. Everypony has to die when their time comes. If I hadn't taken the role, somepony else would've had to. I feel it's only noble of me to bear the burden."

"Oh, that's so kind of you!" Rainbow Dash shouted sarcastically.

"If yer really just doing your job, then why did you kidnap Spike?!" Applejack asked angrily. "Why are you trying to kill us even though our times haven't come?!"

"I don't understand you!" Pinkie Pie yelled. "What are you trying to achieve?!"

"Eternal peace, of course." Prince Luna answered. "Once I've assimilated you all, I'll be one step closer to my goal of becoming one with everyone. And once I've achieved full assimilation with everyone, I'll finally be able to make everyone happy...forever."

"..." everypony else remained silent, not knowing how to respond.

"I love all of you, my subjects." Luna said wholeheartedly. "I only wish for us all to live together in perfect harmony."

With those words, Twilight Sparkle shuddered, feeling like she had heard those words from somewhere before…

The others, focused on Luna, didn't notice Twilight's nervous reaction. Maud Pie, however, noticed the others embraced in thought about how to take in all of this, and knew that she had to say something…

"I know what you are all thinking." she told them. "And yes, she does mean all that. This Luna is not completely evil, in fact, she has a lot of good in her. As her friend, and fellow god, I know."

"?!" Twilight and her friends went in shock. "Wait Maud, you're a goddess too?!"

"God." Maud corrected them in her reply. "Yes, I'm the God of War. It's a title I'm not too proud of, so I'd like to get off that subject, thank you."

"Okay, but…" the others said back. "Maud, you're a good god, right?"

"I can say my intentions for the universe are good," replied Maud, "but sadly, that doesn't make me a "good god". I'm not "good" or "bad". Neither is Luna or our three superiors. We just do good, evil, and neutral things that we think will benefit the universe and its inhabitants, swearing allegiance naught to good, evil, or neutrality, but a mix of all three."

"Wait, wait, wait." Rainbow Dash intervened. "Now I'm really lost. Is Luna really a bad guy, or not?"

"Is she...just one of them villains we're supposed to feel sorry for in the end?" Applejack asked in puzzlement.

Luna, who had been overhearing this entire conversation while flying just a little ways away from the group in air, sighed as she began charging up a laser blast with her horn, some of her magic power having returned.

"Maybe she's like a rival character who's not really evil, but acts like a jerk even though deep down inside, she has good intentions!" Pinkie proclaimed. "Or maybe, she's a supervillain who borders on being an antihero after gradually getting less evil as the-"

Pinkie Pie was interrupted by a laser beam from Luna's horn being shot at her and Maud reestablishing the shadow shield to block it.

"Or maybe…" Luna said in frustration. "There are just no bad guys or good guys, like Maud was hinting at. Quit standing around and talking, either fight me or surrender."

Immediately upon hearing that, Maud took off her red coat and unveiled the sides of it, revealing an assortment of guns.

"The first option works well enough for me." Maud said. "We'll talk later, guys. For now, we fight."

Maud showed the gun collection in her coat to the others and laid it down on the shadow shield floor.

"These are supernatural guns, capable of wounding spiritual beings just like my sword." Maud explained. "Applejack, Twilight, Rainbow, choose your weapons. Once you each have a gun, I want you to take aim at the sky and get rid of as many of those soul stars as possible. Pinkie, you come with me. I'm going to need you to help me close in on the Goddess of Death and finish her. To do that though, we're both going to have to be in our true form…"

"Okay…" Pinkie nervously agreed, knowing she had no choice.

As Maud went over her strategy with Pinkie, Applejack, Twilight, and Rainbow each selected the gun they wanted from Maud's coat. Rainbow had chosen a pair of submachine guns, Applejack had chosen a magnum, and Twilight had chosen a simple pistol, with an end that was shaped like a gatling gun of course. They were somewhat surprised to find that the guns felt fairly heavy, considering that Maud was carrying at least fifty of them on her back along with a sword. She must be strong, being a god...

"By the way," said Maud after she was done talking to Pinkie, "feel free to fire those guns at liberty. They never run out of ammo, the bullets they shoot are created by magic. Also, you don't need to take out all of the soul stars, just enough to make it easier for Pinkie and I. Are you ready?"

"Yeah…" Twilight answered. "But just asking, what are you and Pinkie planning to do? What did you mean by "true form"?"

Maud smirked in response.

"You're really enjoying playing along with this too, aren't you?" she replied. "Regardless, you'll know when you see it…"

With that, Maud finally lowered the shadow shield again and turned it back into a platform. After chanting something as she held her front hooves to her face, she slammed them down and expanded the shadow platform to cover the entire flood. Now, everywhere in the cemetery was safe to walk on.

"This will cost me energy…" Maud thought to herself. "But I should have enough time…"

"Everyone, let's go." Maud cried.

"Right!" Pinkie said as she transformed into a demon with a body made of cake, with hot, pink frosting dripping off her. She got behind Maud as they both started running towards Luna. Luna tried to shoot them with lasers from her horn, but Maud and Pinkie evaded them. Worried, Luna flew farther back away from the two.

"Damn it!" Luna exclaimed as she looked up at her subjects in the sky. "Please, help me! Shoot them!"

The stars, having fully recharged now, got ready to fire at Maud and Pinkie, but were disrupted by Applejack, Rainbow, and Twilight firing their guns up at the sky. The combination of a multitude of magic machine bullets, magnum bullets, and gatling gun bullets quickly got rid of over half of the stars above the cemetery. Luna saw all the wounded star souls falling out of the sky, bleeding ectoplasm and blood as they fell onto the shadow platform below, and was mortified.

"My children…" she said with tears in her eyes. "My children are hurting each other…"

It was then that Maud and Pinkie had gotten close enough to Luna, and using her back legs, Maud thrusted her back hooves into Pinkie's chest and hurled her up at Luna. Pinkie clutched Luna tight and pressed her hot frosting coat against her. Luna cringed in pain as she felt the intense heat.

"AAAGGGHHH!" Luna cried. "You...can harm me too?"

"Yup," replied Pinkie, "Maud didn't just help me control my inner demon, she also helped me discover how to harm spiritual beings. The sword that she carries can also imbue other beings and even things with the power to effect spiritual matter. That's how she enhanced those guns. Maud never planned to defeat you on her own. She wanted us to work together as a team. She wanted us to know that she's our friend."

"But-" Luna began before she was cut off by being stabbed in the back with a sword by Maud. In pain, Luna stopped flying and fell to the ground along with Maud and Pinkie. Because of their powers, none of them were hurt by the landing, but Luna was writhing in agony from both the wound in her back and something else Maud had stabbed...

Maud slowly pulled her saber out of Luna's body, revealing a white book with a black star on it on the end of the blade. Upon catching sight of the book, Twilight became surprised by how much it resembled her book.

"What have you done…?" Luna said in pain as she saw Maud getting ready to pull the book off the blade. "Stop...NO!"

Maud ignored Luna and pulled the book off the blade. With that, a hole with light shooting out of it was created in both the book and in Luna's chest.

"AAAWWWAAAGGGHH!" Luna screamed as she clutched the hole in her chest.

She continued to scream and clutch the hole in her chest for about twenty seconds as Maud just stared at her dully. Finally, Maud got tired of watching said scene and just stuffed the book in Pinkie's cake frosting, which ruined all the pages in the book, causing Luna to explode in a mess of blood and ectoplasm. All the souls that had compromised her body split apart and flew away in all directions, with the exception of one. This soul hovered over to our heroes and began to transform into a familiar figure with yellow fur and pink hair. Twilight and her friends gasped as this spirit manifested into...

"Fluttershy?!" Twilight and her friends exclaimed in shock.

"Oh my," said Fluttershy's ghost, "did I startle you guys? I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you."

"Yup, that's Fluttershy." Rainbow said with a smile.

"Oh Fluttershy!" Twilight squealed with delight as she hugged a surprisingly tangible Fluttershy tightly. "I knew it! That was your voice I heard earlier! Oh, I'm so glad to see you again!"

"I'm…" Fluttershy replied, feeling mixed emotions from Twilight's near-suffocating hug. "...happy that you care so much Twilight, but...I've only been gone for four days."

"Gone?!" Pinkie shouted. "Is that what you call it?! You were dead! For four days! I had to plan a reunion party for when I got to see you again in heaven!"

"You...know when you're gonna die?" Applejack asked, feeling slightly creeped out.

"You seem...awfully nonchalant about the fact that you died, Fluttershy." Rainbow said with a confused look on her face.

"Well yeah," replied Fluttershy, "I don't see what the big deal is. This is only the fourth time I've died at least."

"WHAT?!" Twilight and her friends cried in understandable shock.

"Yeah…" Fluttershy said. "You see, I'm actually a god. The God of Life, to be exact. I'm immortal now, even without the phoenix feather I used to have. All the versions of me that have died throughout the tales of the Dark Sky were just different incarnations of me. They may be mortal, but even though I am them, I am also still my eternal self, my true self, in the Immortal World."

Twilight Sparkle and her friends just looked at Fluttershy with absolutely dumbfounded stares… Maud Pie, on the other hand, just pulled a plastic bag of marshmallows out of her fur pocket as Fluttershy looked over at her in confusion.

"Why are they so…" Fluttershy began to ask. "...astonished to hear this? I thought I asked you to tell them about who I really was as soon as you met them."

"I'm sorry sir," apologized Maud as she poured a good amount of marshmallows on her left hoof, "but I could not find an appropriate time to deliver said information. We were busy taking care of an unexpected threat, the Goddess of Death, who had so rudely imprisoned the soul of your incarnation in this world. I do expect and deserve whatever punishment you wish to give me, however."

"Oh no," replied Fluttershy, "it's no big deal. I should've made this incarnation of me stronger. I just wanted to conserve my power for maintaining life in this world and the Immortal World, making sure all the animals, plants, and ponies are happy, even with all the mayhem that goes on in it. Also, inside the Goddess of Death, I overheard all the conversations you had with Luna, and wow. You saved me some time by telling them about your godship and our agenda."

"So…" the others thought. "Fluttershy...is one of the three superiors Maud has, apparently. I guess that's...one new thing we know…"

Maud put the marshmallow lot in her mouth and started chewing the food before looking back at the others and noticing they still looked very puzzled. Sighing, she turned back to Fluttershy, who started giggling.

"Don't worry," said Fluttershy with a cheeky smile, "everything will be explained...so long as they come with me to the Immortal World, a place where everyone is immortal…"

Fluttershy made a hoofsnap with her right hoof and a swirling, yellow and pink portal appeared behind her. Looking at Twilight and her friends and still smiling, she said…

"If you want to know the reason why you are here, you will have to trust me and follow me…"

"..." Twilight and her friends went, realizing they didn't have much of a choice here...granted that they truly cared about unraveling this mystery of what their creation was about.

"I'm not forcing you to come with me," said Fluttershy, "but come now, could you really ignore such a chance?"

Decision #6: Should Twilight and her friends go with Fluttershy straight away or not?

A. Follow Fluttershy to the Immortal World (Epilogue)

B. Decline for the time being (Episode 12)

Epilogue

Twilight Sparkle and her friends thought it over and realized that the most important thing to them right now was finding out their true purpose. They could not turn down an opportunity like this, especially not from a friend, even if this friend was behaving oddly to them.

"Alright…" Twilight said. "Please, take us to the Immortal World!"

"I knew that you would say yes…" Fluttershy responded. "Come Maud, please follow me into the portal along with the others..."

Fluttershy went through the portal with Maud following behind her. Trailing right behind, the others looked at the portal before going in. Despite a few doubts lingering in their minds about the possibility of this being part of an elaborate ruse, they had to push that aside for now. After all, the only purpose they knew right now was finding their purpose…

Twilight and their friends soon passed through the portal, and with a blinding flash of pink and yellow light, they left the Mortal World behind them…

Episode 12: Encounter with the Four Souls

Twilight Sparkle and her friends thought things through and realized that while learning about the purpose of their creation meant a lot to them, they still had important matters to attend to in the Mortal World.

"Sorry Fluttershy," said Twilight, "but for now, our answer is no. We have some things we need to take care of in this world first."

After hearing that, Fluttershy's smile stayed.

"Alright," she replied, "go take care of what you need to do. The portal will always be open for you. But just warning you, during your fight with the Goddess of Death, she sent out four spirits to haunt the land of Equestria."

"What?" Twilight and her friends asked.

"Yes," responded Fluttershy, "that's why she distracted you with that conversation. When Luna adds a soul to her body, it loses its own consciousness and becomes a part of her. Basically, they're asleep until woken up and commanded to do something. And no, the Goddess of Death couldn't have commanded me during the battle, I wouldn't allow it. Even though I'm just a mortal incarnation, I still have the God of Life's will within me. I can not be controlled by another god unless I allow myself to be manipulated. However, all of the souls that comprise Prince Luna's body still know her experiences and intentions as they sleep inside of her. Alive as her, but not alive as themselves. Assimilated by her as well, I knew everything. She had everything in that battle planned from the beginning."

"Even her…" Twilight started to ask. "...defeat? Could it be?"

"But don't worry," said Fluttershy abruptly, "the souls that left Prince Luna's body upon her defeat are of no threat. They shall do no harm as ghosts, for I, the God of Life, shall provide them with new lives. I may not be able to resurrect them, but I can at least reincarnate them. Unfortunately, the four souls the Goddess of Death sent out before her defeat are different. They're still alive as themselves and desire to do her will. Even if I gave them new life, that would not make them any less dangerous..."

"Oh come on," said Rainbow Dash, "you make it sound like these guys are a threat! Didn't you see us take out all those soul stars? We're perfectly capable of handling just four of Luna's cronies!"

"I'm not so sure…" Fluttershy replied. "I felt the aura of the four souls Luna sent...it was far more dark and powerful than the aura I felt from any of the other souls inside Luna's body. As the God of Life, I could see the lives they had lived...and all of their lives ended with them being killed by the Goddess of Death herself. I could sense that Luna had a special connection to them…"

"Please…" Twilight intervened. "Stop calling her Luna. Call her Prince Luna, ridiculous as it sounds. I don't want to hear Princess Luna's name being associated with that kind of thing. The Princess Luna we know would never have done any of this."

"Sorry…" Fluttershy apologized, despite feeling that Twilight was being overly sensitive. "Anyways, just please take care. Try to avoid conflict with those souls if you end up meeting them. They're not a laughing matter."

Soon after the conversation ended, Twilight Sparkle and her friends left the cemetery.

"So…" Rainbow Dash said. "What exactly are we going to take care of before going through that portal? Say goodbye to all our friends? I don't feel that's going to work out too well..."

"I can't imagine telling my family," chimed in Applejack, " "Bye y'all! I'm off to another world to find the meaning of my existence! See ya next Tuesday!""

"Yeah," said Pinkie Pie, "now that I think about it more deeply, I think we would be being cruel to be kind by NOT telling them what's going on. Imagine what everypony would think of us if we told them that we had to kill a human clone of Princess Luna who was also this world's Grim Reaper!"

Twilight breathed in, getting ready to give a response about how ridiculous what Pinkie just said was until she realized…

"...We killed what was thought to be Princess Luna...and there's no way anyone will believe our story...WE'RE FINISHED!"

Everypony began to panic until Maud pulled out her sword and slammed the side of the blade against the graveyard gates. The sound created by the blade clashing against the gate got the attention of the others.

"Settle down." Maud said. "I knew something like this was going to happen, and I have everything under control. I have friends back in the Immortal World who can create another human clone of Princess Luna. I've even scheduled a willing participant from the human world to become the new Princess Luna. Also, with no witnesses or even a corpse left, there's no way you could be convicted for this. Take it from me, I'm with the police."

"You'd…" Twilight responded. "You'd cover for our crime?"

"What, was I pushing rocks over daisies the whole time?" Maud asked sarcastically. "I'm the one who "killed" her ultimately. In fact, you, Applejack, and Rainbow didn't help with the actual "killing" at all. I know you're trying to be nice by taking the blame, but being self-righteous like that can actually make you come across as arrogant."

"..." Twilight and the others thought it over. Had they really done anything that bad? They were just trying to defend themselves from someone who kidnapped their friend and tried to kill them.

"Listen," said Maud, "there was a time in my life where I committed atrocity upon atrocity. I've done more evil than you ever need to know in all your existences combined. That's why I absolutely can't stand it when I see others feel guilty for things they really couldn't have avoided being dragged into. Please, let me take the blame for this. I'm your new friend after all. Isn't sharing the blame what friends do?"

Twilight and the others felt...touched. They truly were starting to feel at this point that this Maud Pie really did care about them.

However, that aside…

"We're admired by your nobility Maud," replied Twilight, "but...what did you mean by "killed"? The Goddess of Death is dead...right?"

"Dead in a loose sense of the word." Maud explained. "She's gone from this world for now, but her superiors in the Immortal World will bring her back. She's a creator of this world with a crucial role in maintaining it, there's no way they'll just leave her dead."

"WHAT?!" everypony else shouted. "You mean she can't die?! What's the point of bringing another Princess Luna clone to this world, then?! Everyone will find out she's not real when they see Prince Luna again!"

"Oh, there's a point to it," replied Maud. "if only a minor one. It was an order from my superiors not to bring the Princess Luna human clone to this world until after the Goddess of Death died because it's only in a certain ending of the story much later on where she's needed."

"Wha-who does that?!" Twilight yelled. "Ugh! This sucks! As long as the Goddess of Death is alive, we won't be able to live here! She wants to kill us and she's willing to drag our friends into it on top of it! Now we have no choice but to go to the Immortal World! We can't let those guys bring her back!"

"I'm sure we'll figure something out…" Maud said somewhat jokingly, remembering that she was friends with the Goddess of Death and had the same superiors as her. "But for now, isn't there something you wanted to do?"

"Besides asking about what the fuck the human world is," replied Twilight, "yeah, there is something I wanted to do. I wanted to visit Spike one last time."

"And I wanted to plan a "Sorry for Leaving Without Telling You" party for everypony for when we get back." Pinkie chimed in.

"I wanted to make some apple cider as a parting present for my family." Applejack said.

"I wanted to buy some of the Apple family's latest cider for the road." Rainbow said. "I hope it's the rainbow edition if you know what I mean."

"Those all sound like desirable things." Maud apathetically stated the obvious. "Please go do that stuff without getting in an undesirable situation with Prince Luna's four souls."

"Whatever, Dad." Rainbow snarked. "We promise we won't catch soul fever."

With that, Twilight Sparkle teleported back to her castle as the others went on their merry way to where they wanted to go. Upon arriving home, however, Twilight did not immediately check on Spike. Instead, she went to her bedroom to look at a familiar book…the black one with the white star...

*THUMP* *FLAP* *FLAP*

Throwing the book with the magically appearing page onto her desk, she flipped through the pages and turned to her page of interest...the page detailing the defeat of the Goddess of Death. Looking upon the page and reading it, she smirked.

"Good acting." she told herself. "Only Maud so far has seen through your ruse."

"It was nothing," replied Twilight's apparent other personality, "though I feel kind of bad about deceiving our friends."

"Bad?" Twilight asked. "What's so bad about lying to them for their own good? Do you have any idea how shocked they would be if they found out what we were doing? They wouldn't be able to understand that we're just trying to help them…"

"That's true…" Twilight's personality said back. "Ever since Fluttershy died, nothing has been the same. I have to do what those gods tell me to do for the sake of the world...for the sake of our friendship…"

"I know," replied Twilight, "thanks to them, we now know who killed Fluttershy...and who hired the one who killed her…"

With that, followed by the sound of a quill writing on paper, a loud noise could be heard from the library…

"HELLO EQUESTRIA," echoed a loud voice, "HOW IS EVERYONE THIS EVENING?"

Not recognizing the voice, Twilight rushed to the library in fear, and flinging open the double doors, she was shocked to see Spike out of bed with blue eyes and a microphone in hand.

"ANYONE BEEN SWIMMING LATELY," bellowed Spike through the microphone, "CAUSE I'VE BEEN IN COLD WATER THIS NIGHT! OH WAIT, THAT'S MY BLOOD!"

"Spike!" Twilight yelled. "What in Celestia's holy name are you doing?!"

Spike turned over to Twilight and gave her a menacing grin…

"SPIKE?" he responded. "I'M AFRAID YOU'RE MISTAKEN, MY LOYAL RATINGS NUMBER. THIS IS KEN TUCKE!"

Spike then put the microphone up to his rear end.

"REPORTING LOVE FROM SPIKE THE DRAGON'S BUTTHOLE!" he shouted.

It dawned on Twilight just in time that this really wasn't Spike talking…

*SHING*

Twilight moved to the side just in time to avoid a deadly-sharp spike that shot out of the back of the microphone and had been aimed at her head. Upon seeing the spike hit the wall, Twilight turned back to Spike with a fearful look on her face…

"AND I'M HERE TO KILL YOU." he said.

Twilight screamed as she casted a spell to teleport out of the castle and started running away as fast as she could.

"If Spike is possessed…" she thought to herself as she ran. "And if he's only one of the four souls...then the others must be...OH NO!"

Twilight then teleported to Sweet Apple Acres, where she saw Applejack and Rainbow Dash slowly backing away from Apple Bloom, Big McIntosh, and Granny Smith.

"So this is what's like to be an adult in a kid's body again…" Tree Hugger said as she looked upon Apple Bloom's body, having possessed her.

"Again?" a confused Vinyl Scratch, who had possessed Big McIntosh's body, said back. "This is my first time being a guy, last time I checked. I will say though, this isn't the first time I've gone big. Ha cha cha cha!"

"What's going on here?" Applejack asked. "Apple Bloom, Big Mac, don't you recognize me? I'm your sister!"

"Don't you recognize me?" Rainbow asked. "I'm the one who always helps you make the cider so awesome and smoothly, and then asks you why you never have enough Zap Apples!"

"And I'm the one who always tell her that "Rainbow Mango Orange Smoothie Edition" apple cider just doesn't sell!" Applejack shouted. "It doesn't strike the taste buds the same way! Please, listen to us! We love you!"

"Girls, don't bother!" Twilight exclaimed. "It's useless! Those aren't the Apples! They've been possessed by Prince Luna's four spirits! Spike was possessed by one, and they're possessed by the other three!"

Upon hearing that, Apple Bloom and Big Mac became puzzled.

"Other...three?" Tree said. "Do Octavia and that elderly mare share their existence with each other?"

"Tree and I are the only ones here," explained Vinyl, "Octavia went over to Pinkie's place."

It was then that Twilight noticed that Apple Bloom and Big Mac were the only ones whose eyes were now blue.

"Wait…" Twilight said. "Then, what are you doing with them, Granny Smith?"

"I'm just out here to complain that I wasn't possessed too!" Granny Smith yelled. "I need a life too, you know!"

"Those ghosts have lives?" Dash asked. "Then what do we have?"

"Come on guys, Pinkie's in danger!" Twilight yelled.

Twilight cast a teleportation spell again and warped herself, Applejack, and Rainbow to Sugarcube Corner, where Pinkie Pie lived. Making her way to Pinkie's room upstairs, her fears were realized...Pinkie was in her demon form, being attacked by her pet alligator Gummy, whose eyes were blue, having been possessed by Octavia Melody. However, Pinkie didn't seem to share Twilight's fear.

"Oh, stop it Gummy!" Pinkie exclaimed happily. "That tickles!"

An aggravated Octavia-possessed Gummy began chomping at Pinkie's flesh, tearing out her cake frosting while resisting the heat emanating from it. If Pinkie hadn't transformed into a demon, she would have been seriously wounded. Twilight and her friends gasped in horror.

"Pinkie, what are you doing?!" Twilight screamed. "That's not Gummy, that's one of Luna's four souls! Fight it!"

"But this is fun!" Pinkie replied. "Besides, Gummy chews me out like this at dinner all the time! What's wrong with him doing it at dessert? ...Wait a minute, that sounds really wrong. I-I'm sorry."

"Okay…" Twilight said. "If you won't fight it, then I will!"

Twilight began charging up a powerful laser beam in her horn, and fired it at Gummy. Upon being shot by the beam, Gummy fell to the ground, writhing in pain. The others were surprised.

"Twilight…" Pinkie said with a scowl. "I had a way to take care of that problem without hurting Gummy…"

"I don't care!" Twilight abruptly yelled. "These are our lives we're fighting for! If I have to do something like that to save my friends, I'll do it without any hesitation!"

"How quaint…" Octavia intervened, starting to overcome the pain. "Your love for your friends truly is admirable. But that love will be your downfall…"

"Oh please," replied Twilight, "what do you know?"

"I know one thing for a fact," said Octavia, "for starters. It's that your days in this world are history. Even if you kill the ones we have possessed, we won't die. And no matter how much you hurt our spirits, we can always come back and come for your throats. We'll do everything in our power to make your lives UNLIVABLE. We'll make you WANT death."

"You sick monster…" Applejack said in disgust.

"Fine," said Rainbow with a confident grin, "if our days in this world are done, we'll just go to another…"

"Immortal World, here we come, baby!" Pinkie cried in glee.

"Ssh!" Twilight, Applejack, and Dash went. "Pinkie!"

"Oh, sorry." Pinkie apologized, and started talking in a more quiet tone. "Immortal World, here we come baby!"

Twilight and her other friends sighed, not noticing that Octavia was chuckling to herself ominously…

Our heroes falling for the classic bad guy threat speech act. Worth a chuckle or two, I believe.

Twilight and her friends returned to the Arc Rising graveyard shortly after. Despite being slightly confused about why their possessed friends had not tried to follow them, they abandoned their suspicions when it came back to mind that they no longer had a choice in this matter, they had to get out of this world. Upon walking into the cemetery, they saw that Fluttershy was still there with Maud Pie at her side.

"Welcome back!" Fluttershy said excitedly. "So, have you had a change of heart?"

"You can say it like that." Twilight replied. "We've realized now that there is no way we can stay in this world as it is. We have to go to the Immortal World and work something out with whoever these "higher-ups" are. We can't let this place fall to the Goddess of Death or her minions!"

"I see," said Fluttershy, "you've made a pragmatic decision. For sure, you will find a way to help this world in the immortal one. Now, let us depart…"

Fluttershy, Maud, and all the others finally entered the swirling portal, and so, the Mortal World was given a farewell…

Episode 1: Before She Rose

This story of Fluttershy's Dark Sky foretold the following prophecy...

The sky shall darken for the moon to turn bright

And so, the stars shall come awake…

Those who know the first story of Fluttershy's Dark Sky know this. In the tale's true ending, almost the entire population of Equestria was dead. Fluttershy was left a miserable pony, crying at a gravestone. But hope was not yet lost, for two gods, one who controlled reality, and another who controlled fantasy, took pity on her and the ponies of Equestria who had lost their lives. They were a curious bunch who enjoyed writing stories and making them become real. And though they had not the power to truly revive the dead, they found another way to make all of the world live again.

...How?

Those who know the stories of the transcending and the lightening of Fluttershy's Dark Sky know. There were some who were willing to die to themselves to give the dead another chance. In body, mind, and soul, they took the forms of all those who had died and Equestria was blessed with life once more. However, the two gods who brought these selfless souls to this world were not yet satisfied. To ensure that a tragedy such as what happened at the first tale's end would never come about again, they wrote yet another story, one that will make all of the world live again in a different sense...

In a dimension far away from Equestria, inside the room of a castle…

The reality god, a figure wearing a black robe was sitting on a chair by a table, levitating a quill dipped in ink that she was using to write something on a scroll. After writing for some time, the figure decided to pause for a brief moment and examine her environment. She was in a dark house. Alone.

...

...Perfect.

...

...Until another robed figure wearing a white robe entered the house...the fantasy god...

The reality god expressed astonishment as the scroll vanished before her eyes and was teleported into the hands of the figure who entered the house. The fantasy god promptly read and reviewed what the reality god had written…

"Oh no, this story will never do…" he said. "The plot is incomprehensible, the format is dreadfully disorganized, and the characters are terribly written. This story must be rewritten and revised from the start…the world deserves better!"

"Return that this instant!" the black-robed figure demanded. "That's not the story for the world! You know that we've already finished it! That's a document of my latest plan to change the universe…heh heh..."

The black-robed figure rubbed her hooves together snickering sinisterly, as the white-robed figure smiled, apparently catching on…

"My criticism still stands though." he said. "I still don't get your plot, I don't like the way you organized it, and the way you wrote these letters is just awful! I mean, look at these characters! Don't you know that no one likes Comic Sans?"

The reality god became bemused.

"...Get out of here." she finally said after a long moment of silence. "Keep the scroll too...thanks to you, I want to start over from scratch…"

The fantasy god gladly obeyed, walking into another room in the house laughing. However, right after he left, the reality god started preparing another scroll...with a smile on her face…

"I get to start over from the beginning...better than perfect…" she whispered.

A new type of plot…

"Fluttershy…"

I know just what to do…

"Fluttershy!"

I am going to recreate…

"FLUTTERSHY!"

Awakening Fluttershy's Dark Sky

"Oh… OH!" Fluttershy said as she awoke to find herself on a checkered blanket in a grassy field. She looked ahead of her to see the face of her good friend, Rarity.

"Are you feeling alright, dear?" Rarity asked in concern. "You were down for quite a snooze…"

"Oh, my head hurts…" Fluttershy replied, feeling nauseous. "Oh...MY STOMACH! Did I...eat something that made me sick?"

"That's a likely possibility, actually…" Rarity said normally before talking indignantly. "...Considering you ate EVERYTHING that I laid out for our picnic, including the special vegetarian chicken Discord prepared. ...For the record, I only included it in our luncheon because he INSISTED..."

"Huh, that's weird…" Fluttershy said to herself, puzzled. "I trust that Discord wouldn't poison vegan paste just for a prank. What could he have done?"

Just then, Fluttershy belched up a small, blue and white-striped headband. The sick and tired Fluttershy didn't notice it in a daze, but Rarity noticed that it looked like it was meant to be worn around the head of a chicken… Not wanting Fluttershy to get upset, she quickly hid it out of sight with her levitation magic.

"Oh…" Fluttershy groaned as she tried to get up. "I want to go home and rest, but I don't even feel like walking home…"

Rarity decided to overcome her annoyance and show Fluttershy some compassion.

"Here, let me give you a hoof." Rarity said as she walked over to Fluttershy, grabbed her right front leg, and got her to stand up. "My house is closer. Why don't we just go there for now? I'll prepare you a nice bed and some tea for when you get up. A good rest should soothe your stomach…"

Rest...yes…

It is the basis of all natural balms. Only a fool neglects to sleep in his time of illness.

However Fluttershy...my plan requires for you to be awake...awake somewhere other than where you intend to be...haha…

"Uh...UGH!" Fluttershy grunted as she felt a piercing pain in her head that awoke her from her slumber.

"Wait, wh-what…" she said as she examined her surroundings. She was lying in bed in the guest room on the second floor of Rarity's house. She had recovered from her stomachache, but what had happened before she came here, she could barely recall.

"That's right…" she said to herself, reflecting on what she could vaguely remember. "Rarity offered to let me stay here to rest off my stomachache. That was nice of her, but...did I agree to come here? Everything just happened so fast…"

Don't worry dear Fluttershy, I'm not feeling the need to rush this...although I will skip ahead to the climax of this chapter…

Suddenly, a very loud roar of thunder could be heard from outside, followed by a flash that could be seen through the guest room window. Fluttershy gave out a meek "EEK!" as she hid under the bedsheets and began shaking in startlement. Soon after, Fluttershy began to hear faint drops of rain coming down from outside.

"Celestia darn it…" Fluttershy said in slight frustration. "I need to get home before the rain starts coming down really bad. Who knows how long I've been sleeping? Angel is probably worried sick. I have to tell Rarity..."

Hurrying down the stairs, Fluttershy arrived in Rarity's living room. She looked around, but saw no sign of Rarity…

...Where was she?

While pondering this, Fluttershy picked up a familiar scent from the nearby dining room and looked into it out of curiosity. On the dining table, she discovered the source of the scent...two cups of green tea placed on a tray.

"Odd…" Fluttershy thought. "Green tea doesn't usually have a scent...is it flavored? Or did Rarity do something special with it?"

Still curious, Fluttershy walked into the dining room. She grabbed one of the teacups and noticed something else that was peculiar as she took a sip of it...the green tea was at the perfect temperature for being drunk.

"This is REALLY odd…" Fluttershy thought again. "I remember Rarity saying she would make me tea, but...how could she have known EXACTLY when to make it? She couldn't have known exactly when I was going to get up…"

It wasn't long though before Fluttershy decided to assume this to be coincidence. After all, it's not like Rarity was a psycho who would put poison in the tea…

...this Rarity anyways. Heh heh.

Fluttershy began to drink more out of the teacup that she grabbed, eventually drinking all of it. Not bad.

"That was pretty good," lauded Fluttershy, "but what now?"

Forgetting something?

Fluttershy put the teacup back on the tray and looked ahead of her. Right in front of her, was a ninja dressed in a black outfit that covered all of their body with the exception of their red eyes.

"Now…" the ninja said robotically, pulling a katana out of a sheath on their back. "You take a nap."

"Oh." Fluttershy replied. "Wait…"

Before Fluttershy could continue, the ninja took the blade in their right front leg and thrust it into Fluttershy's heart. As the ninja did so, a card fell out of a pocket of their ninja outfit. The last thing Fluttershy did before she had been stabbed was grab the ninja's mask. As she fell to the floor, the mask came off the ninja's face. Upon seeing the ninja's face, Fluttershy was filled with grief.

"No…" Fluttershy said as a tear rolled out of her left eye. "You're not…"

With those words, Fluttershy's flame flickered out. A pool of blood formed below her body. The ninja vanished without a trace, and soon after, a dark robed figure came over Fluttershy's body. She gave a sinister grin as she pulled her soul out of it...

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

Back at the dark house from the beginning, a figure wearing a black garb could be seen writing on a scroll with an ink-dipped quill that she was levitating with magic. The reality god was watching her with a smile on their face.

"Phase One concluded." the figure said as s/he finished writing. "The subject has been terminated. Have I done well, my superior?"

"Fabulous work…" the reality god commented as she walked over to her subordinate, picked up the scroll with levitation magic and read it. "The God of Life will be most pleased. Your role in the story shall be a great one. Now the next phase of your mission, where you shall supervise the subordinates of the God of Life under the title of Boss, acting as this story's lead writer in our stead, can begin."

"Oh ho, not just yet…" the subordinate replied with a chuckle. "You know what I need…"

The reality god gave a sinister grin as she tore the end of the scroll off with their magic and gave it to their subordinate.

"Thank you…" the subordinate said, taking the paper with magic and giving an equally sinister grin as they flipped it over and read the back of it. "I know just what I'm going to do with this. Oh, it will be some experience watching the one closest to me slowly spiral into insanity…"

"I'm sure you will." the reality god replied. "Oh, and you can keep my garb and sword for a little while longer. Just make sure your character isn't seen wearing them…"

With that, the subordinate walked to the exit of the house with the paper in the magic of their horn, laughing as they passed by another figure dressed in a red coat, who gave her a look that displayed no emotion…

Meanwhile, at Twilight Sparkle's residence…

The morning after Fluttershy's death, Twilight was in her library browsing for a book to read.

"R, E, A, D, A, B, O, okay!" she exclaimed as she decided what book she wanted to read and pulled it out with her levitation magic.

"Read a book! Read a book!" she chanted as she took the book over to her desk and sat down, opening up the book and flipping through it. "Read a mo-WAAAH!"

Twilight suddenly yelled in surprise when without warning, a white pillar of magical light erected from one of the book's pages. Twilight put her right front leg in front of her face to shield herself from the light until the pillar vanished, leaving behind a piece of torn scroll paper that, while replacing the page, still showed signs of being torn off of something else.

"What...what is this?" Twilight asked as her shock turned to curiosity, and began reading what was on the scroll paper.

On the bottom of the page, the writing on the scroll paper said as such…

"Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie...and Starcatch…

I'll recreate them..."

"No...this can't be true!" Twilight yelled. "This is pure insanity!"

Spooked, but feeling inclined to know more, Twilight turned the page on the back, which said this…

"The age of mortal life is over. Innocent blood has been shed so that mortals may become fused with undecaying demons and machines. For this is the will of the one who has risen from the dead…"

"Where did this come from?!" Twilight shouted in horror. "Wh-WUAGH!"

Twilight cried as she felt a demonic aura exude from her body...when she had turned the page on its back, she had felt something evil come over her, something that would begin to torture her mind and stain her soul black…

…

It all took place on the same day...yet to Twilight, it felt like two years had gone by as only several hours went by…

So that's who I really am, ha ha ha...their servant, huh? Sure, I'll play the act...

In the afternoon…

Spike was walking towards Twilight's bedroom with a note in his hands that he looked upon with despondence. When he arrived at Twilight's bedroom, he knocked on her door.

"Twilight?" Spike called. "Twilight, are you in there?"

Getting no answer, Spike decided to open the door and go inside.

"Twilight?" he called again. "Have you...been here since this morning?"

Seeing that Twilight was sleeping in her bed when he entered her room, he walked over to her, hopped onto her bed, and began attempting to shake her awake.

"Twilight, I'm sorry to wake you, but you have to get up, it's urgent."

"What is it, Spike?" Twilight asked solemnly, having not yet overcome what had happened to her that morning. "I've not been feeling well...just please tell me now, and I'll take care of it later…"

Spike became teary-eyed as he gripped the note and soon mustered the strength to say what he knew he had to say…

"Fluttershy is dead." he spoke.

And with those words, Twilight awakened from her slumber…

The madness begins…

Conclusion of Part One.

"That's the end of the first part!" Boss exclaimed. "So, what do you guys think so far?"

Boss looked over to the audience, consisting of the Dark Sky members, Dumb-bell, Hoops, Score, Ghost Rainbow Dash, and Derpy. Disregarding Derpy, none of them looked amused.

"Eh...it was okay." Dumb-bell said.

"I got kind of bored to be honest." Hoops spoke his mind. "A lot of it was just talking and exposition."

"..." Score silently gave an elaborate critique.

"In one word, BORING." G.R.D. gave a simple review. "In two words, FUCKING boring. I would also like to point out that MAJOR inconsistency of Fluttershy needing to be home for Angel and then being like "DURR NOW WHAT". Quality writing, mwuh."

"I actually really enjoyed it!" Derpy exclaimed happily. "My favorite parts were when Fluttershy ate the chicken and Twilight read a book!"

"Glad you all loved it!" Boss said cheerfully. "Also, check this out!"

Fluttershy _ _ hit _ _ _ _ _ Hawaiian _

"What the hell?" Derpy said in confusion. "Fluttershy is popular in Hawaii?"

"It's a riddle, genius." Boss explained. "If you solve it, you will unveil a key plot point of the story…"

"Oh please," said G.R.D. cynically, "the only riddle around here is how you always fail to entertain us no matter what you do."

"Just like your leader…" Boss replied with a smile. "You're too kind…"

Conclusion of Part Two

"That's the end of the second part!" Boss announced. "So, are you guys hooked yet?"

The Dark Sky members still weren't that impressed, with the exception of Derpy…

"It was a little more enjoyable than the opening part," said Dumb-bell, "but still, it was mostly just okay."

"Sorry, I still don't like this story much…" Hoops said. "I appreciate that it's trying to be creative and different from what came before it, but it just doesn't grab me."

"..." Score predicted the future of Boss' project silently.

"Boring AND lame." Ghost Rainbow Dash gave it straight. "I completely agree with Score's prediction. This is TOTALLY going to turn into a cliche supernatural drama story that everyone is going to praise because it's "SO ELABORATE AND WELL-WRITTEN", when really, they're just so blinded by the length of it that they completely overlook the gaping plotholes, pretentious writing style, and how shallow and grating the characters are. Oh yeah, and that scene with Fluttershy's funeral was terribly mean-spirited and unfunny. *spits* Blow me."

"I just don't know what's wrong with this story!" Derpy proclaimed. "It's a supernatural mystery, and a really entertaining one at that!"

"Glad you all loved it!" Boss exclaimed again. "And I did not make supernatural drama, I just wanted to make an original mystery for the world that could be read like a story. Also, I haven't forgotten about the riddle..."

Fluttershy _ hit _ _ _ _ _ Hawaiian _

Clue #1: called again

Storytime is over...

"Storytime is over now." Maud Pie said. "Did you guys like it?"

"I REALLY liked it!" Pinkie exclaimed happily. "I loved how much effort you put into giving Applejack and Rainbow Dash a good time! You know they don't get to see this kind of stuff nearly as often as I do!"

"Wha-what do these two do when they're together?!" Applejack thought.

"...Only nearly?" Rainbow thought about the context of that.

"It's too bad Twilight wasn't here for this." Maud said. "But I understand with her being busy...sleeping."

She knows...

"I'm retiring to my room now." Maud told the others as she walked away towards her bedroom. "But before I leave, I just want to tell you something…"

"?" the others went as Maud turned her head around and faced them.

"Pinkie Pie knew." Maud said. "I asked her to keep quiet so I could show you myself."

Applejack and Rainbow were slightly stunned by that as Maud Pie entered her bedroom. It's like she knew that the first thing they were going to do was ask Pinkie about why she had been mostly calm and quiet in the face of this bizarre event. That aside, Applejack and Rainbow Dash knew one thing for sure now…

They were on a journey with a Maud Pie completely different from the one they knew.

End of Part Four

"So, that's the end of the fourth chapter!" Boss exclaimed. "So, how did you all like it?"

"This story is continuing to get better," said Dumb-bell, "I do like the effort that went into that fight scene. I still don't get the direction this story is going in though."

"Yeah," said Hoops in turn, "I also appreciate the effort and how you allowed the option of us appearing as an Easter Egg, but I still don't see what this story's primary objective is. Is it supposed to make us laugh, feel, or think deeper about the horrors of the world around us as we laugh at it?"

"..." Score commented in a similar manner silently.

"..." Ghost Rainbow Dash commented, with no intent to be silent. "I-I don't even know what to say anymore. This story is simply magical. It attempts to combine comedy, drama, and horror into one story, and not only fails at mixing them together, but also fails at being good in the area of any of them. This story isn't funny, sad, or scary. The jokes are lame, the serious scenes are corny, and the scary scenes are laughably stupid. Even calling this story "so bad, it's scary" is being generous. It's so bad, it's pathetic."

"I know exactly what to say anymore!" Derpy shouted. "This story is supernaturally wonderful! It's a parody of all those genres of stories, it's supposed to be "lame", "corny", and "laughably stupid"! And despite being a parody, it even knows that there's a time to be serious and tries to inspire us with deep, subtle messages!"

"Glad to see G.R.D. loved it the most!" Boss exclaimed.

Clue #4: On herself for