Shattered Mirrors

by Dashi Lover

Rating: teen
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Alternate Universe, Other, Comedy, Cutie Mark Crusaders, Derpy Hooves, Princess Celestia, Main 6
Length: 5648

The peacful land of Equestria becomes threatened by it's own twisted reflection.

Book 1: Something has changed about Derpy Hooves, leading to an investigation that reveals a terrible fate.
Meanwhile, Equestria is in grave peril, more than anyone could ever realize, from an enemy beyond time and space itself.
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Coming Soon - Book 2: Birth of a Hero
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This is an ongoing series heavily inspired by the evil versions of the MLP characters and their shenanigans, including (But not limited to) Pinkamina, Tyrant Celestia and Flutterrage. The story is broken into "Books" and each "Book" has it's own description.

Contains medium level violence.

Published 2012-06-20 09:34:03 UTC
Last updated 2012-06-20 09:34:03 UTC

Book1: Rise of the Anti-Derp Ch1

Queen Celestia sat upon her throne of hoof polished marble, the blazing sun of the solar empire displayed upon a gargantuan tapestry behind her. The Solar Guard stood silently, like sentinels, some of them were her Enforcers; the ones that would ensure her rule would never end.
An earth-pony approached her. She wore a dress made from the hides of many ponies, upon which were sown three pairs of wings, and upon her neck was a necklace of severed unicorn horns. Not even the drilling eye of Queen Celestia could stop the guards from cowering in fear. There wasn’t a soul in Equestria who did not know and fear her legend. Even Queen Celestia felt a little nervous in the presence of this living nightmare.
Queen Celestia eyed her guest cautiously; they had been at odds about many things from methods to mane-styles. But the earth-pony in front of her suggested a plan that could make them both the most powerful rulers in not just the world, but all existence. “So… What is this –plan- that you offer me, Pinkamina?” Queen Celestia spoke with an air of authority that would crush any sentient life form into submission, the pink earth pony seemed unphased however.
The earth pony only spoke two words, but it was all Queen Celestia needed to hear, “Interdimensional Conquest.”

--- Somewhere, far away, in a completely different universe ---

“Alright Rainbow Dash, this is it. Are you absolutely positively sure you want to go through with this? Once you cross that line, there is no way to turn back. THIS is the point of no return.” Twilight Sparkle had taken every possible precaution to ensure that nothing would go wrong. She even went as far placing caution tape across the length of the room to make sure nobody accidently crossed it.
In the centre of the room was a large mirror, the source of the unicorn’s worries. Its frame was adorned with a multitude of hearts, but otherwise it seemed like a perfectly normal mirror.
All the mane6 were there, including a few other friends and family who were interested in seeing this special day. Even the Cutie Mark Crusaders wanted to come, which flooded Twilight’s mind with all the possible things that could go wrong. Luckily they’d lost interest before Twilight could even reject their request. All eyes were on the mirror’s reflective surface, waiting to see it all happen.
Rainbow Dash turned to Twilight, then back to the line that had been drawn in front of her. “Ready as I’ll ever be.” She took a deep breath then began walking, right past the mirror.
Within the mirror was a reflection, walking alongside Dash. But the pony in the mirror was not Rainbow Dash, and was much smaller. Unlike Dash, who walked past the mirror, the reflection stopped half way to look through the frame of the mirror, staring at all the ponies who were staring back at her. Cautiously, the reflection took a step forward, “WOAH!” The reflection fell out of the mirror as if it was just a door, landing on the ground with a silent thud.

Once she knew the ritual had succeeded, Twilight threw a large sheet over the mirror, covering it completely. “It’s safe to move around now.” She declared, though nobody really heard her, too intrigued by the small creature that lay on the floor.
The first pony to act was Fluttershy, who instinctively flew over to the creature, picking her up and checking her for bruises. The creature was a filly, sporting a mass of rainbow hair, and a creamy yellow pelt. Upon determining the foal was alright, Fluttershy delicately hugged the filly.
Rainbow Dash trotted up, smiling at the newborn.
“Congratulations Dashi!!! You’re a mommy… Or is Dashi the daddy? Well… Fluttershy’s definitely the mommy, and Dashi is kind of a guy, so I guess Dashi’s the daddy!” The pink pony jumped up and down excitedly. Rainbow blushed, she wasn’t –that- manly.
“So what are you going to name her?” Twilight asked.
Dash tilted her head in thought, “How about… Awesome Dash, that would be an awesome name!”
Fluttershy giggled at her partner. “Maybe it’d be better to go with something more contemporary like… Prism Flare…”
Dash shrugged, “I guess that’ll do.”

It was a Sunday, so the Cutie Mark Crusaders had the day off. They would often be joined by their friends, namely Pip and Dinky. Dinky Doo had been spending a lot of time with the CMC lately, which was strange for Dinky since she usually spent more time with her mother, Ditzy Doo, than with friends, -especially- weekends.
“So do all fillies come from mirrors?” Sweetybelle asked, biting into her sandwich.
“Ummm.. Uhh.” Applebloom and Scootaloo both knew the answer to that question; Applebloom having grown up on a farm with a pony who doesn’t believe in masking the truth for a sister, and Scootaloo who could start up a video library with her secret stash of MA15+ movies; but neither of them could think of a strait answer that wouldn’t completely obliterate Sweetybelle’s innocence.
“So uh… Dinky…” Applebloom thankfully finding a way to change the subject, “you’re not spending as much time with Derpy as you usually do…”
Dinky was about to take a bite of her sandwich, but suddenly seemed put off, putting her sandwich down on the wrapping she’d been using as a plate, “mom’s been acting… strange… Her voice is different and… There’s something wrong with her eyes.”
“No offence sugar cube, but there’s always been something wrong with her eyes.” Applebloom blurted out, tilting her head to the side.
“Nono… I mean… her eyes are… normal… like… both eyes pointing in the exact same direction… ALL the time.”
The other CMC looked at each other worried.
“Derpy Hooves without dodgy eyes? How is that even a thing?”
“Oh no, what if she’s sick? We have to save Derpy!”
Applebloom facehoofed, “Ah think you’re all over-reacting, a LOT. F’r all we know, she just had an operation or somethin’”
Dinky shook her head, “She’d never have an operation to fix her eyes, she loves being like that, and she certainly wouldn’t do it without telling me.”
“Well regardless.” Applebloom said, finishing the rest of her lunch with a single bite. “There’s only one pony we can trust. When ever there’s a problem, goto Twilight Sparkle!”

Over the years, Twilight Sparkle gained a reputation as the one to goto when ever someone had problems. So the CMC should not have been surprised when they heard that Twilight was with someone at the time. The fillies could hear heavy sobbing from behind the front door.
Curiosity got the better of them, Applebloom and Scootaloo both hid beneath a window and began listening in on the conversation inside.
Sweetybelle gave her friends an unimpressed look, “It’s rude to eaves drop you know.”
Applebloom’s eyes widened a little and she motioned for Sweetybelle and Dinky to come over, “You –really- have to listen to this, especially you Dinky.”

Inside, Twilight held a distraught Sea Foam, whispering soft comforts into her ear.
“What about Dinky? What’s gonna happen to Ditzy’s daughter?”
“Everything’s going to be alright, it must be horrible having to go through that. Just remember, she’s in a better place now.”
Dinky heard all she needed, rushing to the door and kicking it open with new found strength, “WHAT HAPPENED TO MY MOMMY?!?!”

Dinky was silent as she left the library. Applebloom offered Dinky to stay at her house for a while, they had plenty of room, plus Applejack and Big Mac knew what it was like to lose parents, Applebloom was too young to remember.

Twilight sat silent in the library for what seemed like an hour, the only sound was that of her breathing. She couldn’t believe what just happened. In the morning, a child was born, an occasion that should leave the rest of the day a day to celebrate. But in the afternoon, she had to organise an investigation for a potential murder. Even when Spike got home she barely roused.
“Twilight… Are you alright.”
Twilight turned to Spike and sighed, “Spike… Write a letter… And this one isn’t for Celestia.”

The Town Guards had been assigned to investigating the murder and interview the town’s folk, but no-pony knew who could have done such a thing. Two of the guards decided to search Ditzy’s house to see if they could find anything. So when they opened to door of the mailmare’s home, they were quite taken aback to see…
“M… Miss. Doo?!”
The Grey pegasus turned to the pair of guards and smiled, “Oh, hello. What brings you here?”
The guards just stood there, mouth open in complete confusion for several seconds until one of them found the voice to speak. “Well… uh… You were found…in the lake… dead… as in… dead dead… not moving… permanently…”
Ditzy Doo tilted her head to the side, “Well… um… that is an odd turn of events… Well.. come in, sit down, I’ll make you a cup of tea.”
The guards were to dumbfound to think properly let alone comprehend that tea breaks during working hours was against the rules. So they closed the door behind them and sat down at a table shaped like a muffin. “ This is –very- strange Miss. Doo… We even have a body… I saw it myself.”
“Not strange,” Ditzy walked into the kitchen and grabbed a knife, “Just unfortunate… Means we’re going to have to goto plan B.” She walked back into the dining room, un-noticed by the guards who had their back to her.
“Plan B? What do you mean? What’s Plan B?”
“This!” before either of them could scream, their throats were cut. Their lifeless bodies slumped to the floor.

Book1: Rise of the Anti-Derp Ch2

The grey pegasus looked down despairingly at the mess she’d made in the dining area. “Aww, and I just cleaned up this area too.” Bloodstains were always so hard to clean. And what was she supposed to do with these bodies. Apparently in this realm, it wasn’t socially acceptable to kill other ponies, and problems were supposed to be sorted out with love, and tolerance, and rainbows, and everything else that made one want to be violently ill.
The pegasus carried her kill into the attic, where she could at least hide it if anyone else came snooping around. She couldn’t just dispose of them in the lake, not now. She didn’t need anyone to get suspicious of what’s going on. Not yet. This whole situation made everything inconvenient, how was she supposed to get around town without everypony noticing that a dead mare is walking the streets? A sudden stroke of genius, and a cruel smile crossed her face.

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were possibly the only ponies in Ponyville who didn’t know about the unfortunate demise of Ditzy Doo, and Twilight Sparkle was determined to keep it that way.
Twilight had come over to see how the new parent’s were holding up. Knocking on the door to the tree house, which was answered by a slightly worried Fluttershy; said worry was not shared by one Rainbow Dash who was already trying to teach Prism Flare tricks by whizzing around the room. Twilight giggled, “I don’t she’ll be able to fly for another year yet Dash,” she called out, then turned her attention back to Fluttershy, “So is everything alright?”
Fluttershy looked at Prism, then back at Twilight, “Well she’s about the size of a proper young filly now, and she’s eating solids and talking, and it’s only been a few hours.”
Twilight shook her head, “Perfectly normal for mirror born, they start off at about age 4, and retain some knowledge from their parents. But don’t worry, after the initial growth spurt they age at a normal rate.”
“So pre house-trained babies?” Rainbow Dash flew over, doing a short summersault and landing expertly next to Fluttershy, “Sweet, no wonder they invented those mirror things.”
Dash received an angry look from both Twilight –and- Fluttershy, causing her to shift her hooves awkwardly, “Those mirrors were invented to give same sex couples such as yourselves the opportunity to have children, -not- to let you neglect your parental duties.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Rainbow Dash began to hover, “But even still, all the maintenance is Fluttershy’s job, I’m the father remember.”
Fluttershy’s angry look, turned into an annoyed glare, followed by a very rare, “eep,” from the blue pegasus.

Spike had finished up his duties for now, and decided to reward himself by sitting in front of the TV and letting himself forget about today’s occurrences, hopefully nothing bad or stressful, or anything else that he’d end up being the one to clean up the mess of, would occur for the rest of the day. Instead of the TV, which seemed to be broadcasting an old black and white samurai movie, Spike found his attention drawn towards an upside down cardboard box with grey wings that was flapping and sliding across the floor. Spike stared at it for several seconds before he found his voice, “What… The… F…”
The box suddenly turned to look at him with a pair of badly drawn and slightly uneven eyes, “OH NO! I’ve been detected…! Disguise mode, ACTIVATE!”
The wings of the box disappeared into slits in the sides; it turned itself the right way up and then closed the lid, the ‘eyes’ on the box then suddenly faded away; leaving behind just a cardboard box in the middle of the lounge room.
Spike promptly turned off the TV and headed up stairs, “On second thought, I think I’ll just turn in early.”

Once the coast was clear, the box with wings exited disguise mode and traveled through the library, into the basement, the last part involving a particularly painful tumble down several flights of steps. The box was tossed to the side to reveal a grey pegasus with a beautiful blond mane, “Oh Bubble Feet, you’re so brilliant.” She looked around and eventually found what she was looking for. She carefully pulled away a sheet, revealing a mirror covered in love hearts. She knew that a pair of fillyfoolers wanted a child, and that they would be using a fertility-mirror to achieve it, and all she had to do was wait for it to happen. So far everything, mostly everything, had gone according to plan. She wasn’t sure how sabotaging a building and electrocuting another pony with a lightning cloud was supposed to fit into this plan of hers, but all great plans rush off into a tangent at times.
Bubble Feet hesitated, she knew how these things worked, and she knew what she was told to do, but she still wasn’t sure it wouldn’t just spawn another child. She’d already had one kid by mistake; she didn’t like the idea of having –another- kid by mistake very much. But the small crack in space and time could only stay open for so long, and the idea of being stuck in this hell hole forever seemed far worse than any other possible fate. Bubble began to walk forward past the mirror.
For a few seconds, nothing happened at all. Then there was a powerful explosion of blinding white light, knocking Bubble off her hooves and into a wall. She looked up and smiled to see the reflective surface of the mirror glowing white… And growing. Bubble Feet quickly got out of the building before the portal forming in the basement blew it apart.

The blinding white disk continued to grow, eventually tearing through the library, causing the structure to collapse. The strong gust of wind caused by the portal blew light debris and dust into nearby ponies. Onlookers stepped back and shaded their eyes in an attempt to discern what was happening.
Bubble Feet took flight, hovering in the air for all to see the messenger of their doom, who was now dwarfed by the gargantuan white gate behind her. “Ponies of Equestria, your ignorance has allowed you to be easily deceived. I am Bubble Feet. Soon you will bow down and fear the might of the one true goddess, Queen Celestia!”
As if in response, large airships began breaking the surface of the white, and armored ponies began marching forth from it’s blinding light. “WITNESS THE POWER OF THE ONE TRUE GODDESS!” the canons on the air-ships began to fire, every explosive round followed by the collapse of a building. The armored ponies pulled out black firearms, mercilessly and indiscriminately gunning down stallions, mares and foals alike. The streets turned to anarchy as structures burned and fell, while ponies were hunted down and slaughtered. There was no surrender, only those who hid themselves could survive, even then, the massive air-ships would destroy any buildings they came across, uncaring of who occupied it.
Twilight stood in shock; she recognized many of the lifeless faces that littered the ground. As soon as a coherent thought entered her traumatized mind, she hung onto it for dear life. The unicorn turned and ran, hoping she could reach the only pegasus she could trust in this sort of situation in time.

Book1: Rise of the Anti-Derp Ch3

Twilight Sparkle sighed in relief when she found the small house, which was far beyond Ponyville, completely unharmed. Though the sound of ‘battle’ could still be heard in the distance and it was getting closer by the second. She tried to open the door and when she found it was locked, simply burst it down, walking inside, “RAINBOW DASH!!! THE TOWN IS UNDER ATT… UGH!!!” there was a sudden pain in the back of her skull and she was knocked to the floor.
“HAHA!!! Take that you.. Purple.. Unicorn..”
Twilight turned around to see Rainbow Dash, holding a rather large frying pan and wearing an equally large sheepish smile. “What the buck was that for?” Twilight touched the back of her head and found she was bleeding.
“Heh… Sorry?”
“Oh my goodness!” Fluttershy flew down the stairs, carrying a crying Prism Flare. She gave the child to Dash and quickly tended to Twilight. Once she’d put a bandage around Twilight’s head she turned towards Dash; an angry look on her face, “You’re supposed to be protecting us from intruders, not beating our friends across the back of their heads.”
“Well… Twi’ did intrude.” Dash defended her self, pointing at the broken down door, only to receive the ‘stare’ from Fluttershy; something Twilight figured was something Dash got a lot. “So what’s going on anyway? One moment it’s all peace and quiet; the next there’s explosions and screaming and smoke on the horizon.“
Twilight slumped a little, “I honestly don’t know, it looks like an invasion, one that doesn’t seem to care about the Laws of Warfare. There –are- no soldiers in Ponyville, but they’re killing everyone.”
The blood rushed out of Dash’s face, “Well… We have to inform Canterlot, they can send the Defense Force to…”
“By the time they got the message it would be too late. And I can’t find Spike anywhere, I just hope he’s alright.”
“So what do we do?”
“We need to find the others, together we can… we can…” Twilight slumped even further, “Think Twilight think!” Hundreds of lives depended on her making a plan; this was not the time for the gears in her mind to grind to a halt. There was the Elements of Harmony. Would that even work against a foe likes this? She wasn’t sure but it was the all she had.

Rainbow Dash used her expert stealth ability to jump from roof-top to roof-top undetected, while humming the 009: Golden Eye theme. She looked down to see a lone enemy walking down an alleyway, she smiled and slunk down low, ready to ambush her prey. When he was right where she wanted him, she jumped down, striking him across the side of the head, his now lifeless body striking the wall. She wasn’t sure if she’d just killed someone, but she really didn’t care, they all deserved to die anyway, and she just wanted his gun. Peeking around a corner she saw 2 potential targets. She jumped out of hiding, pointed the black rifle at her prey and pulled the trigger… Nothing happened. She looked down at the rifle and saw an LED display pop up reading ‘Warning: Safety Catch is Active’ “… BUCK!!!”
A cacophony of noise like a thousand whips were being cracked right next to her ear could be heard; she ducked her head down, and ran down the alleyway. Her instinct was to take flight but she knew she would just be gunned down the moment she did.
As she ran, she saw puffs of dirt rise from the ground; it wouldn’t be long before she was hit. Another pony blocked her off, she skidded to a halt and covered her eyes; this was it. She heard gunfire but felt no pain. A little confused she opened her eyes, realizing who it was.
Applejack walked up to her friend, she was clad in golden armor, complete with Stetson Cowboy hat, a brown rifle in her hands. “Why didn’t ya’ just shoot ‘em?” she asked Dash quizzically then saw what it said on the display “Oh.”

Twilight crept along, they had to be around here somewhere. She turned a corner to see a familiar face. “Pinkie, I don’t think I’ve ever been gladder to see…” Twilight realized Pinkie Pie had about a dozen of those armor ponies shooting at her, and yet she just continued to hop along as if nothing was wrong. “Pinkie… Are you dodging bullets?”
“Extreme dodge ball” said the pink pony, stopping next to Twilight, who was hiding behind cover, but still jumping up and down, “Should try it, it’s really fun.”
“Pinkie, this isn’t a game! Those ponies have been killing ponies!” Twilight knew Pinkie Pie was vague, but she didn’t realize she could ever be THIS vague.
Pinkie’s face changed from ignorant bliss to shock and dismay when she finally put two and two together. She turned toward the shooting ponies, then back at Twilight, “What… You mean… But… I thought… Why?” Pinkie’s hair slowly began to droop as she bounced up and down, until it was perfectly flat to the side of her head. The ponies stopped shooting, and began to take steps back. The pink pony turned towards them. There was a few seconds of complete silence. Then she charged. The shooting continued, accompanied by panicked yelling.
Twilight shut her eyes and pressed her hooves to her ears, wanting to block out the sounds of breaking limbs and crushed skulls. Soon the shooting and the shouting ceased. But Twilight didn’t move from where she was. Pinkie walked to her, and seeing her friend in distress she tried to place a comforting hoof on her shoulder. Twilight slunk away from Pinkie Pie, looking into her friend’s eyes with terror, “Your… Your hooves… They’re covered in… Blood.”
Pinkie Pie looked down at her hooves, then back at Twilight, “I’m so sorry you had to hear that,” she said in an uncharacteristically calm voice. She approached the cowering unicorn and embraced her in a hug, “everything’s gonna be ok, Pinkie Pie’s here.”

Now that Rainbow Dash’s weapon was actually operational, the two ponies proved to be a rather dangerous threat to the invaders. Dash would look from the roof-tops for any threats and, more importantly, survivors, while AJ would use her military experience to gun down the enemy and rescue civilians. There was one pony they missed however.
“HEEYA!” a white unicorn rounded a corner and kicked Applejack across the face, knocking her to the ground, “Oh… Beg your pardon Applejack.” Rarity got back on all 4 hooves and helped AJ up. “It’s just that you look like one of those barbarians with that armor on.”
“Yeah… You really do AJ.” Rainbow Dash said, fluttering down next to Rarity.
“Well beg’ ya’ll pardon, but when ah’ was told the town was under attack, I wasn’ exactly expectin’ the enemy to be clad in Celestial Guard uniforms.”
“Wait… You mean these invaders belong to Celestia? Why…”
“Well not exactly… There amour is a little different, so ah’m guassin’ that’s just fluke. Don’ worry, I can tell the difference, so we won’t have shot any of the good guys ‘cause I’m the one doing all the shootin’. Which brings us to the point o’ why RD here didn’t see Rarity?!” Applejack gave Rainbow Dash an accusing look.
Dash rolled her eyes, “So what? You got kicked in the face, big deal.”
“It could ‘a’ been a bullet to the brain!”
“Enough! Both of you!” Dash and AJ turned to Rarity, “are we gonna fight between ourselves, or actually find a way to get rid of these… these…”
“Pear Eaters?”
“Ass-Holes?”
While Dash’s language wasn’t exactly appreciated by Applejack or Rarity, it was the best label they had.

The group met up at the designated waypoint, while Rainbow Dash flew off to retrieve Fluttershy. Pinkie Pie had returned to her happy go lucky self, her hair as poofy as ever despite the caked on blood. She made a promise to Twilight that she would only kill when she had no other choice, which only happened twice. Luckily both times were after she acquired her knife from Sugar Cube Corner (At least what was left of the cake shop) which allowed her to cleanly cut down her enemies with disturbing precision and grace.
Once they were all gathered, they began walking towards the eye of the storm, an air-ship fired of a round that, through pure coincidence, exploded behind them in a great fire-ball, which Dash thought would have made them look REALLY cool from the right angle.
Bubble Feet, who still had her arms spread out like some sort of holy messenger, looked down at the 6 ponies before her; a smile tweaked at the edges of her mouth. “You see the destruction around you. This will be the fate of all who fail to submit to the one true goddess.”
Twilight smiled back at the grey pegasus, “For all the machines and soldiers your ‘goddess’ wields, there is one thing that she does not have. And that one thing will defeat you. That one thing is… The Elements of Harmony!” The six ponies begun to glow with a powerful aura. These auras begun to form physical objects around their necks; and for Twilight, upon her head. As the elements of harmony manifested themselves, the spirits of harmony felt themselves being filled with an unimaginable amount of power. When enough power had welled up within the group, it was fired; a multicolored ark crashing down upon the grey pegasus. The grey pegasus covered her eyes, protecting them from the searing light, but was otherwise unaffected. Tears welled up in Twilight’s glowing eyes. She’d failed, the elements weren’t enough. The others saw this, and among them, they begun to pray; to cry out for aid in a hopeless cause.
… Something heard.

Beyond the sun and the moon, beyond the stars, beyond the 4th barrier and further still, in a world of infinite shades of color and gradients; 8 hundred thousand voices cried out in anger and frustration. This wave of force drove itself forward, unrelentingly. Driven by a single emotion, an emotion so volatile, so powerful, so unstoppable, that anything that stood in its way would simply be crushed into non existence. Love.

The Spirits of Harmony and the grey pegasus looked up to see a dark red beam of destructive energy pierce the heavens, heading strait for the pegasus and joining the elements of harmony in it’s unrelenting assault.
The pegasus cried out in pain. The white surface behind her began to crack and crumble, falling in on itself until it was a vortex, sucking in everything it had previously spewed forth.
The pegasus continued to scream, slowly disintegrating until there was nothing left at all. Armored ponies were thrown across the sky into the hungry mouth of the vortex. The air-ships began to move backwards, completely losing control. Even as their masts and their engines snapped off, they did not submit to gravity as they were still pulled into the vortex.

“What’s going on?”
The partially sentient Rainbow Dash turned when she heard a familiar voice, her eyes widened when she saw the small filly, “Prism Flare, what are you doing here? We told you to stay home where it’s safe.”
Prism Flare turned to look at the black vertex, then back at her mother, “I followed you guys here… I didn’t want to be alone, I didn’t think it would be this bad…” Prism Flare felt herself being pulled over. Her feet lost grip with the ground and she fell, her eyes wide with fear, “What… What’s happening?” Prism Flare felt herself being dragged across the ground. She pawed at the ground fruitlessly.
Dash realized what was happening and quickly grabbed her daughter moments after the filly was swept off her feat totally. She hugged the filly as tightly as she could. Beating her wings desperately against the force of the vortex, “No matter what happens, I’m not letting you go!” Despite Rainbow Dash’s best efforts, the filly merely disintegrated in her arms.

When it was all over, the prismatic light, and the elements dissipated, intangible but ever present and ready for when they were needed again. Even the dark red beam from the sky slowly died down. The soldiers and the airships were nowhere to be seen.

Among the ruble of the destroyed library, a baby dragon stirred. Knocking rubble off himself, he looked around. There was no more library to speak of, and half the town was up in flames, the other half had simply collapsed in on itself. He grumbled and shook his head. “I think I’m gonna take a holiday… On the other side of Equestria!” he said cynically as he passed a grey pegasus lying on the ground, “Hi Derpy… Wait… DERPY?!?!”
The grey pegasus stirred, rubbing her eyes and opening them. One eye switching between Spike and the other ponies, the other watching the wrecked town. “Oh wow… What happened…? I didn’t deliver a mail bomb again did I?”
Twilight tilted her head, a little confused, “So is this OUR Derpy Hooves, or ‘Open a portal to hell, take over the world’ Derpy Hooves.”
The grey pegasus stood up, one of her eyes suddenly swiveled down to a golden necklace around her neck, inset with a dark red gem in the shape of a muffin. “OOH MUFFIN!!! NOM!!!” Derpy instantly grabbed the gem and put it in her mouth, then made a face and spat it out.
“Our Derpy,” everyone said in unison.
“Who ever made that muffin shouldn’t be allowed to make muffins anymore.”

Twilight giggled, then suddenly turned her attention to Derpy’s necklace, “Wait… Is that… What I think it is?”
Everyone looked at the necklace, “Well how ‘bout that ‘ay? Another Element of Harmony.”
Rarity walked up to Derpy to take a closer look, “No… It’s similar but the engravings are different. Our elements have swirls on them, this one has swords and is very angular.”
“In any case, do ya’ think that beam thingy tha’ helped us out was that element there?”
“I believe so,” said Twilight confidently, “When it arrived… I felt a strange… warm feeling well up inside me… Like everything would turn out ok. No matter what.”
“That’s the feeling of being in love my dear.” Rarity turned to look at Twilight, “We all felt it.”
Twilight sighed happily, “So the Element of Love helped us win.”
“That thing took away my daughter.” Everyone turned towards Dash in surprise, they were all so caught up in their victory that nobody noticed the pegasus hovering in the air, tears running down her face, her arms crossed tightly as if she was holding onto a beloved possession that was not there. “Prism Flare was sucked into the vortex…”
Fluttershy took a step back, shaking her head, “No... NO!!! Don’t lie Rainbow Dash! Why would you lie about something like that?” Fluttershy ran, tears streaming down her face, running back home, hoping against all hope that Prism would be waiting for her.

The town was a hive of activity, though it was not joyous or fast work. The buildings were repaired, the fires were put out, and separated families were reunited. Outside the town, graves were being dug, and many bodies carefully placed within. Ponies would walk along the rows of open graves to identify their loved ones, before a Sun or Moon marker was placed and the grave filled.

Two pegasi stood on the side. There was no body to find, so only a Lunar Marker was placed.

Prism Flare
February 24th 2012
~
February 24th 2012
Snatched from this world as quickly as she was brought into it.
May she be in our hearts forever, no matter where she may be now.

A small filly coughed and spluttered in the thick air. As she slowly opened her eyes, she found herself lying on her back. The sky was a dark brown color. Was that what night time looked like? She’d never seen the night before, it wasn’t as pretty as she’d been told to believe. She noticed the colossal picture towering over her, a tapestry covering the side of an entire building. The picture was of an angry looking pony looking down on her, painted in red, blue and creamy white. Underneath the picture was a single word, written in bold capital letters, “Obey”