The Roles Ponies Play

The group reappears back in town at the front of the castle where Silvery Orb (Princess Luna) is supposed to be. Slicer Jen throws up. Twilight, feeling guilty for the forceful teleport, rushes over to help her but is waved away by the thestral. The rest of them, also a bit queasy, stare around at the buildings, now shuttered up and empty, the streets devoid of any life. In the middle of the day, no less. "Gee willickers, why didn yall teleport to Undermountain from the git go?" Applejack steps slowly over to the door, her ears flicking uneasily, as though she can hear something far off, yet not a single pony out and about on this fine cataclysmic day.

The rest of the ponies are feeling it too, fidgeting. The hurtling meteor momentarily forgotten, Twilight looks around briefIy before answering her friend. "I didn't have that destination memorized or visualized until we were physically there. I did have this spot memorized just in case we had to get back here quick."

"Oh, we got back here quick alright," Rainbow grouses, watching the skies. "Right before we get splattered by that mountain of rock headed our way." A small mote of darkness can be seen in the distant horizon, getting larger. All their heads whip up, faces paling as they barely make out the splotch in the sky.

Pinkie tilts her head in thought, tongue poking out. "I wouldn't say quick, Rainbow Dash. It only took 1 year, 3 months 2 weeks, 1 day, 16 hours-"

"We get it, Pinkie! It wasn't my fault," Twilight argued. "It was...was...mmm." She lowers her head, pain crossing her face.

Rarity blinks at her in alarm. "Twilight darling, what is it?"

After a brief nose wipe, she continues, "Nothing, just a slight headache. Right, everypony into the castle! We have to find the princess and teleport away from here!" With the smear of blood hidden on the inside of her foreleg, she ushers them quickly inside. They barrel through the front door, down the long hallways, and skid to a halt when they pass what appears to be the castle dining room. It is resplendent with tapestries hanging from the walls and rugs adorning the stone floor. A large wooden polished table sits in the middle of the room. Princess Luna is at one end, smiling docilely while sipping from a tea cup. Discord is at the other end, his eyes alight at Luna's behavior. He too has a tea cup, but it is upside down. And he is still somehow able to sip tea from it.

The troupe of ponies stop short at the scene, at a loss for words. Rainbow blurts out, "Discord? What is HE doing here?"

Twilight says quickly, "Who cares! There is a mountain of rock hurtling this way, we have to leave now!"

Discord tilts his head, "Mm, indeed, why should I be here? For lack of a city, I would imagine. But first, a mountain of rock?" He squints an eye at the ceiling, as though he can see through it. "Doubtful. I have scried the heavens of order just so I can produce chaos. A 'meteor' is not scheduled to arrive for at least a few more eons...pity that. Incidentally, Canterlot has disappeared." He drapes his arm over his head as he stands, sloshing tea from the upside down cup over his shoulder. "First I was sitting there, on the royal throne since it was so temptingly empty, getting rather bored by the lack of patronage one would expect from the peasants in the surrounding city. You would think they had no manners to recognize a ruler when one comes along. Then poof..." Yes, he poofs, and is replaced with himself when the smoke clears. "I'm hovering over a barren wasteland. Frankly, it is something I have always wanted to do anyway, but such little imagination was involved."

In the span of time Discord was explaining his terrible experiences, the sky seems to have darkened somewhat. Twilight notices the change and taps her hoof on the floor. "No, you don't understand!" She approaches him with pleading eyes, "Princess Celestia has directed a meteor here, because we cured her sister." She pauses, then turns back to the door, "Wait, the townsfolk! We have to evacuate them!" She is practically prancing in place now. Pinkie wants to crack a pee-pee dance joke so bad right now, she's almost prancing too, but the drama unfolding is more overwhelming. She offers her box of popcorn to Applejack, who gets a worried look and stares at Pinkie incredulously.

A wave of a paw gets Twilight to settle down. "Hm, regardless of this insanity, and trust me, I do like this side of you, they all skipped town right after I arrived here. Apparently they felt there was another invasion imminent. Imagine, me, invading." He takes on the most perfect innocent anime sparkly eyes.

Rainbow deadpans at Discord. She sits back and crosses her forelegs, "Seriously?" A flash of color catches her eye and she spots a chandelier over him, the suns rays glinting off the glass prisms and causing light to paint the walls in rainbow colors. With her entire speech designed to rip into Discord forgotten, she reminisces on a random memory of one of the few times she enjoyed being in school rather than out playing sports. At the time, her teacher was explaining the effects of how light could be split. She had taken ordinary crystal prisms and put them down on a board, then had a magical crystal send out a beam of harmless focused light. The prisms were set up to split the beam into colors. Along with a few positioned mirrors, the teacher had also been able to demonstrate the light recombining from colors back into the single beam of light. While the color show was neat at the time, and aside from the beam casting crystal, it was especially neat since none of it was accomplished with magic, aside from the light source itself. Just ordinary prisms. The show was cool, from a foalhood standpoint...not as cool as a rainboom, Rainbow thought to herself. Still, one of those things better left to eggheads to ponder. Like Twilight! She chuckles to herself. Aw the shiny little distractions of life.

The sky has darkened noticeably now. Discord looks out the window, "How odd. In any case, a proper meteor would have to be enormous in size. A simple pebble would burn up long before it-" A low thunderous roar finally reaches the threshold of their hearing. Twilight strains with what little magic she has left, attempting to grab as many of her friends as possible with another teleport spell. Her eyes widen in horror.

"Dear Celestia, no. There are too many of you! I...I miscalculated! I should have left-" She whips her head around at each of them, horror on her face. "I thought I could split my reserve with just enough to get back, but it took more than I thought just to get here. With Princess Luna, not to mention Discord, it's just too many! I should have left one...no, TWO, at least..."

"Please," Discord cuts in, "Nobody teleports me but me." He gives them another dismissive wave. Discord glances at Twilight briefly, then turns back to the window, grinning. "Is Celestia lowering the sun early today? Even she has gone off the deep end now, oh this is delicious!"

Rarity tilts her head at Discord, "Wait a second. Did you not feel your magic being stripped away in the slightest? You can still teleport?"

"Hahahaha, whatever are you talking about, my delectable tailor? Tailorest? Sewing girl. Hm, yes, that should do." Rarity bristles as he continues, "Any hoot, I am eternal, and move between worlds, so I am not confined by an elder god's corporeal control of this floating dustball." He hums to himself about not having strings to hold him down, to make him fret, or make him frown, along with some other nonsense.

As the sky continues to get worses, Twilight struggles with her impossible decision, partially distracted by what Discord just said. Obviously he isn't going anywhere, and yet he could move between worlds if he wanted to. She pauses...and remembers back when they were all at the table playing the game and he reappeared, a little worse for wear. He was supposed to get hit by the meteor. The time differential, it was catching up. This was meant to happen.

The others, though. She didn't have any evidence what would happen if she left any of them behind. She also didn't want to contemplate what would happen if she took a chance. Why did she make such a rash decision to teleport them all in the first place?? Her eyes connect with each one, mind racing with calculations upon calculations and alternate methods of travel. Short distance hopping? No. Long, no. Back and for-...no, that would drain limited reserves even more...damn this missing magic!

Running a multitude of formulae on teleport variations through her brain, mixing in variables and figures, all exponentialized by the number of ponies she would have to bring with her, she begins to think herself into that horrible place when everything is on the line: a corner with no options. She whispers, "Too many. Still too many." Her brain finally exhausts the last of her formulae and reaches one conclusion. She raises her voice, "I'm sorry, I panicked. I didn't know what to expect here, and I needed you with me, and...I couldn't leave any of you behind." Slicer raises a hoof and she cuts her off, "ANY of you! B..but in doing so I have doomed at least some of us. If I don't decide soon, I doom all of us."

Slicer steps away from the group, stamping her hoof down, "Take the princess," nodding at Luna, who is still oblivious to everything going on around her. "Her protection is the priority now, not mine." The others look aghast, most of all, Twilight. Applejack pushes her way forward, too.

"Now hold up there, Sneakypants, didn' we just get over this fatalistic...stuff, back in that there cat city? Ain' no way we are sacrificin a few for the many." Applejack quirks her mouth and says wryly, "Not when I volunteer first."

The thestral scowls, "That's not how this works-"

Rarity jumps in, "Now just you wait, DARLINGS. You can't possibly...I am throwing my name into the hat, as it were. Applejack, you have a hat. Let's go." Applejack blinks, then snorts and gives a slightly scathing retort about her hat, yet again sparking the earlier argument about hats. The three of them, along with Pinkie Pie hopping up and down, all begin squabbling over who is to be the sacrifice. And hats. Pinkie is drawing a circle around her heart with a pen and describes the best way to conduct a sacrificial offering, further agitating the others.

While feeling a certain warmth for their willingness to throw themselves into danger, Twilight quickly moves to Slicer's side and grabs her shoulder, whispering, "No you can't! I don't care what you hope to accomplish by doing this, you will not sacrifice yourself. There is a way. It's fatal to the caster, but it would require me to burn my soul-"

Slicer gently moves Twilight's hoof off her shoulder, "This is not a complicated experiment or a choose your own adventure with multiple choices. It is a simple math problem. You've done the math, run the numbers. But the wrong numbers. You all are higher value assets. Simple sequential order of importance." The other mares overhear this and cease their squabbling.

Twilight's expression hardens. She clenches her jaw before addressing the thestral. "I have gotten to know your value, something a mere math problem will never divulge. You need us, just as Princess Luna said way back in the beginning. And we need you. Your outer shell might be burned and scarred from your experiences, but I can sense the inner you. I can sense...magic? No, not magic...." She sits back for a few seconds, her gaze drifting to the side. There was something there, just a moment ago. A stirring behind Slicer's eyes that resonated in Twilight's head.

The thestral raises a brow, debating whether or not Twilight is cracking under the pressure.

Rainbow still seems enamored by the colors on the wall from the chandelier, not just because they form rainbows. Definitely not that! In a way they ARE related to her rainboom. Heh, she thinks to herself. Look at me thinking about science, she muses. Oh wait, it has to do with flying, aw yeah! So a speeding object, like my-awesome-self, first causes sound compression, then leads to light compression, assuming one were to believe that garbage about wave vs particle theory egghead speak. All that matters to an impossibly fast pegasus is that once you get ahead of light itself, you literally split it as it compresses. An implosive-explosive reaction one would call it, if one were an egghead. With all of that energy being created and released, normally it just expands outward in colors. Rainboom.

The pegasus can't fly, so she hops up from atop the table and plucks a crystal off the light fixture. Discord, all but forgotten up to this point, fills his teacup again to resume watching Rainbow's antics, yet he hesitates. He can definitely hear something. He leaves her to her vandalization and wanders over to the window, looking outside.

As for Rainbow, she had never thought of the rainboom event outside just being a stunt, until now. She stares at the crystal, the colors reflecting on her hooves. The chandelier seems to have triggered a flow of thought that causes her to relate rainbooms to what the chandelier is doing...which is absurd considering we are about to die. Now back to thinking about awesomeness. So you can combine all those colors back into its point of origin, like in class. What if a rainboom was done that way, or an anti-rainboom? It would be a light implosion, I suppose, as Twilight would call it. I mean, I remember a unicorn mentioning that energy and matter could be converted back and forth. If light is energy and energy is everywhere, and it can be bent and imploded since it has both particle and wave aspects to it, why not matter...? Damn, I think I just figured out how to teleport with magic. Can't let THAT get out, would lose coolness points. Too bad that big bald dude took away magic. But with light, what if you converted matter to light energy, bent reality like light, then reconverted light to matter? I suppose you would need a crystal to do that. Rainbow grins and says to herself, "Well that merely sounds like teleportation without magic."

You could hear a pin drop in the room.

Rainbow purses her lips, glancing at the others. "Uh, I was just thinking...we have the means to recombine two points in space like light. Bend light, matter to energy conversion...stuff. No magic, right? Like science class?" All her friends stare at her as if she has two heads. Except one. She ventures further, "Light-splitting prisms, anypony?"

Twilight opens her mouth. Her brain just zipped through what Rainbow had been thinking the last several minutes, but in nanoseconds. Normally she would use the scientific approach rather than Rainbow's haphazard method. She glances in Rainbow's direction and sees her holding up a faceted glass prism. Rainbow, who has just now figured out what she herself said, yells, "Between worlds! Rakshasa said they used to FOCUS energies, recombine points of origin, split and refract reality! NOT JUST LIGHT!" She waves the chandelier crystal as it casts rainbows about the room.

Everything clicks into place. Twilight's knowledge of how magic changes things in the world, alternate dimensions, her understanding of physics in this world and the next. At lightning speed her mind cleanses all trappings of magic from her formulae, leaving just pure mathematics. New ideas begin to glow in her mind. Without magic infusing everything, it all looks completely different, but also completely doable. "Eureka!" she yells before turning to a confused Slicer. She can FEEL it, that sensation behind the thestral's eyes. Its her actual emotions! They are a sense of grim determination, ready to accept Twilight's decision to leave her behind, yet a single thread of hope. Twilight shakes her head no and smiles as she can feel that thread of hope grow in her newest of friends. "Nopony ends this scene alone!"

She glances at Discord, who is looking out the window. Twilight shakes her head and smirks, remembering the battered draconequus from a time long ago. He'll survive this, as usual. "Well, almost nopony." Slicer regards Twilight silently, then looks at the other gathered mares and Spike. They all look to the young alicorn with questions on their faces. She responds, "It's like the Rakshasa said! You need an overreaching knowledge base well beyond just thinking yourself somewhere. Magic makes all of this vastly easier, and yet it actually gets in the way! Understanding the movement of celestial bodies, 'like the moon and sun', coupled with what we've experienced with portals, taking in general physics most worlds tend to accept, but also applying string based harmonics where two particles can share the same space-time. Light shares properties of both a wave like in an ocean and a piece of matter like a grain of sand. Both concepts were minor theories in Celestia's academy, but when combined...dear Celestia, just think of it! All of that still exists even without magic. In fact, without magic, a whole new realm of possibilities exist because-"

"TWILIGHT!!!!" they all yell.

She blushes with both hooves over her mouth and muffles, "Sorry!"

Slicer sighs and says, "Try to not to kill yourself doing this, Princess Twilight Sparkle."

Slicer has finally acknowleded Twilight's full name and title, she realizes, which fills her with a confidence like the first time she fell in love with magic. Not to waste what reserves she has left, or bleed more, she uses her hooves to fumble in her saddlebags for her quartz crystal, this time seeing it for what it truly is. Discord notices the crystal and looks on in curiosity, "A focusing lattice? How droll. I haven't seen one of those in centuries." Something outside catches his eye, a movement in the sky. Twilight closes her eyes, feeling for the crystal she is holding in her hooves. The others get closer, not sure what the radius this new form of transportation is likely to have.

Fluttershy frowns. Since they are not reliant on magic now, could they not take her friend too? With all that talk about...physics and stuff, that must have slipped everypony's mind. She raises a hoof, looking back to Discord, "um..you know we can take Discord now-" The ponies, Spike, and Luna vanish, leaving Discord to stare out the window.

"You know, you were right. There is a meteor coming." He turns back to where the ponies were left squabbling. "And to think I was going to let your whole meaty party routine go as a moment of mental breakdown when you were clearly covering up...saying meteor...." He glances around, "Hello?"

He looks at you, "Now that's just plain rude."

The meteor hits.

***

They reappear in the middle of a grassy field, far far away from the impact site. The bottom half of the mountain looms nearby. Luna laughs and walks among the tall grasses, letting her wings brush the tops.

Rainbow jumps into the air, forgetting she can't fly anymore, yelling, "That was brilliant!" At the last instant she catches herself and plants all hooves on the ground, the lack of flight darkening her mood.

"If you say so, Rainbow. My head hurts after thinking through all of that." She sits back, staring at her crystal with newfound pride. She had done the impossible. Teleportation without magic. And yet, she feels she could have always done this...maybe even before-

Rainbow giggles, "Teehee! That's called a brainstorm, you wonderful egghead you! Like a rainstorm, except if you are underneath it, and get zapped, and you crash." She starts to draw circles in the dirt with a hoof, "Which did NOT happen to me those seven times." Rarity and Applejack deadpan each other and shake their heads slowly.

Twilight smiles warmly, sharing her friend's pain, "Trust me, if you do enough brainstorms, you'll get used to them." She had just done a brainstorm in record time.

Her multi-colored friend smirks and shrugs, "I'll take your word for it. And no, I won't be doing enough brainstorms to get used to them."

Before Twilight can raise another point regarding the value of brainstorms, Rarity places a hoof on her friend's shoulder, "Really, darling, now is NOT the time to go into this subject. Our situation is far more dire, at the moment. As our authority for extremism once put it...." She glances over at Fluttershy, who is now staring back toward the mountain, Rarity says quaintly, "Breezie poop."

Twilight's eyes widen at her friend, then squeeze shut as she grimaces. "Don't tell me, I put us all right next to 'her' again."

Rarity sighs and nods. "You could say that," she mutters.

Twilight slowly turns around. The entirety of Dawn Treader's army is advancing on their position not more than a few minutes gallop away. Twilight urgh's. "No! no no!" She begins stomping the ground in anger. "I thought of some random spot out in the valley to the side, to monitor their direction first so we could be far enough from the-" They hear a rumbling sound far off in the distance where the town would have been several days travel away, followed by a wave of heat and wind washing over them a minute later. "Yeah, from that." A small mushroom cloud can be seen way off in the distance.

Another sound, now getting louder, takes the form of feet stomping the ground. Thousands of them. The ponies watch as the army is slowly approaching them, a white alicorn marching behind them yelling orders to the subcommanders, while a monstrous bipedal creature, still naked, slowly takes one massive step at a time down the mountain side.

"Huh, well they musta changed directions, pumpkin," Applejack exclaims, "and they's about to be smashin us real soon!"

A peal of laughter rolls off of Pinkie Pie as she rolls on the ground, "Smashing Pumpkins! I actually know those songs!" Her friends watch her for a second. Applejack's ear twitches.

"Uh huh. Anywho, we need a plan of action, Twi," Applejack continues.

The alicorn noddles, "Right." She turns to Slicer Jen. "You are our resident soldier. Given our resources, the enemy position, what they can bring to bear, and our overwhelmingly positive attitude because, afterall, WE are the heroes...what is our best strategy for winning this fight?" She delivers her question in an upbeat tone. Her friends all beam smiles at her while Slicer's face turns steadily sour, glancing between her and the horde in front of them.

Slicer lowers her voice and says, "I know you are asking for their benefit, but you and I both know this fight is, as you would say, academic. There's just too many of them. They will wear us down and overwhelm us with sheer numbers."

Twilight smirks with a newfound confidence and tilts her head, eyes sparkling, saying nothing.

"You are planning something big," Slicer states, raising an eyebrow.

"My mentor once told me to go big or go home. It ended with me blowing up her lab back then. A few times. But the concept is still sound. Slicer, I just opened up a whole new school of scientific study! Psionics!" She starts to trot in place, then catches herself and stops. "Now imagine all those overwhelming numbers of troops teleported in all sorts of ways. I dare say you could probably take some snack breaks with what I'm planning."

Slicer snorts, not quite so worried now, a sentiment Twilight can feel now, along with the glowing admiration from her friends. The thestral glances in the direction of the enemy in a different light now, the light of a new day as the sun continues to rise above the enemy's backs and shine on the ponies. There had been only a few times when the sun was more welcomed on her face. Perhaps one time, sitting next to a love only remembered in painful memories. Painful, yet good. "Alright, princess, sounds like we are going with your plan," she says quietly, turning to face the enemy, planting her hooves. "You mentioned game pieces and checkmate earlier. Which game is that?"

"Chess. Earth origin." Twilight turns as well. The other ponies and Spike begin to prepare their equipment.

"Need a lot of pieces to win?"

Twilight nods, watching the orc leaders bellow commands to the goblins. "Improves your chances exponentially. But on a rare occasion, just two can do it. A very rare occasion." Her hooves slowly press into the ground, readying her combat stance as well.

A glance at their assembled group hardens the thestral's visage. "Well, we have more than two, just not that many pieces to write home about," she says firmly. Slicer slowly pulls out a blade and holds it in her mouth instead of her hoof, knowing she is going to be doing a lot of running. She brings her panther's name into her mind, whispering around the knife's handle. After the mist dissipates, the large cat lightly bumps against Slicer and stares at the enemy, already knowing the situation.

"No we don't, but these pieces have never failed me." Twilight briefly glances at her friends, then looks at Slicer and Guen. "ANY of these pieces."

A long pause ensues between them, the ponies watching the enemy as they march closer, the ground vibrating. The tall figure of the god Prometheus sways in the distance, following the army from behind. Finally, Slicer breaks the silence by speaking in a low tone, "MY mentor once told me that unicorns, alicorns and pegasi were regarded as myths by us thestrals in ancient times, a time when we were completely isolated from the world. It has also taken me a long time to trust any non-thestrals, especially royalty."

Twilight regards Slicer with a thoughtful expression and waits for her to continue. The others lean in, obviously able to hear her since they are right up against her back. She turns her head slightly at them, then at Twilight, "I will believe in you if you believe in me." She pushes back slightly against them in acknowledgement of their presence, "All of you."

Twilight nods solemnly and bends one leg, dipping to show respect. Her friends back up and do the same, even little Spike bowing at the waist. Slicer tilts her head slightly to keep some annoying water from leaking out of one of her eyes. She grits her teeth and grins, lowering her head forward, "Then let's roll...for initiative."

"I doubt dice will determine the outcome of this fight," Kis'myet mutters while standing next to Slicer, also watching the approaching army.

Slicer narrows her eyes, refusing to look at the newcomer. "I get it, you can sneak up on me."

"She's not that good, if you care to know," Azar says.

Slicer glares and turns her head, "Oh come on, you....too....?" She stammers to a halt as a portal right behind them continues to pour out more cat warriors directly from the throne room of Myth Drannor. Hundreds of holes have also appeared out of thin air in a long line to the group's left and right with multitudes of Rakshasa surging out of each one.

Twilight turns her head up and down what appears to be a massive battle line forming, with her and her friends at the center. Not just Rakshasa arriving, but elves, humans, dwarves, minotaurs, occasionally some ponies with racial differences she had only read about in rotting historical records, and all other races of creatures. "How?" She and Slicer both say in unison.

Kis'myet grins. "When Myth Drannor sends out a message, all the realms respond." She raises her voice and her spear, yelling in a psionically enhanced voice, "AND THE MESSAGE IS FIGHT!" All the soldiers on the battlefront respond in a massive roar of rage and defiance while and raising their weapons. The enemy have taken notice to the new arrivals and start to lose their formations, some units faltering into a jumble of marching confusion, their leaders whipping them to keep ranks. Kis'myet turns her head to Pinkie Pie and asks, "Got something harsh to play?"

The pink pony nods, pulling out an electric guitar. A few notes echo across the field, then again. Then...she begins playing a riff and starts screaming. All of her friends hold their ears, except for Twilight. She smiles, recognizing this one from the human world. Once the screaming stops, she nods her head and mouths the words as the music crescendos, "Welcome to the Jungle"

The song energizes the emerging fighters and they throw themselves forward, slamming into the enemy just as the first ranks of orcs arrive. The next several minutes, or hours it seems at times, are a blur of sound, action, and war, the likes of which the ponies had never experienced before back home.

It is quite a while before Twilight and her friends get into a routine. The purple alicorn had started off with teleporting large portions of the enemy and dropping them hundreds of feet from the sky onto other portions of the enemy. Now she is dropping only one creature at a time, physical exhaustion setting in. Kis'myet notices and psionically blinks to a spot next to her, crouching.

"How are you holding up?"

Twilight pauses, catching her breath. She replies, "Tired. Not magical exhaustion, but actual physical strain. I didn't realize using your mind could drain your body like this."

The catgirl smiles and nods. "We are still mortals, despite the immortality of the energy in us. These skills tap your constitution. As with magic, you can burn yourself out physically. Perhaps you can rest, take in sugars and carbs. Our forces are pushing forward-"

Just then a spear slams into the ground between them. Kis'myet glares at a nearby kobold that threw it. In an instant she dashes forward, a sword of pure light in her hand and leveled horizontally to pass through its midsection. She pauses just long enough to make sure the creature is dead before nodding to Twilight, "Eat and drink something!" She leaps back into the main mass of fighting. Spotting Slicer and her panther clearing a small area around them, Kis'myet angles toward her. Twilight sees the thestral say something to the catgirl, and despite her cheeks reddening, she nods. Before she can see what they do next, a group of fighting elves and orcs obscures her view.

Looking down, though, she notices the body of the kobold still twitching, bleeding darkly onto the grasses.

"That seems incredibly illogical," Twilight remarks to herself, not quite having the appetite at the moment to due as advised. Applejack overhears her and stands to, taking a break from all the sword swinging she was doing with both hooves, and occasionally her mouth when she had to get more mobile around various enemies.

"Eh pardner? Like what, the giant monkey thing trying to crush all life AND magic in the universe, the flightless-Celestia-evil-alicorn-creature, or thousands of cat people jumpin out of thin air using mirrors, or how bout the fact that we're still alive in a game??" Applejack stares wild-eyed at her friend. Oh yeah, Dawn Treader was still out there, marshalling her rapidly disorganizing forces in the face of the opposition she had not planned for.

"Uh, well, now that you mention all of that..." Twilight muses.

A sword whistles over Applejack's head while she ducks and rushes forward, flipping around to deliver another classic double-hoof kick to the creature who dared to interrupt their conversation. "Oh jes spit it out! Kinda busy here, dumplin!"

"Yeah well, weren't these dead bodies supposed to be vanishing in smoke, like in the beginning? Look at them now."

They both pause and step back to look around. One by one the dead creatures, and some dead allies, Twilight winces in observation, start to turn into black smoke and dissipate.

"Oh COME ON!!! They weren't doing that five minutes ago!!" Twilight yells to nobody in particular. Applejack cracks her friend a half-grin and pats her shoulder.

"Let the dead fend for themselves. We have plenty more livin thangs to worry about, like twenty to thirty thousand goblins and orcs, I reckon." A kobold rushes up and gets his face crushed by Applejack's hoof. "Yeah and you too, you ugly poor excuse for...ugly!"

The alicorn shakes her head and looks straight up in the sky growling at 'someone', "You did that on purpose!" She notices a couple of nearby Rakshasa give her worried looks and move away from her, lest her insanity is catching. She blows out her bangs in exasperation and glances at Applejack, "Ever get the feeling you were being watched?"

Applejack laughs, several goblins bearing jagged swords pushing down on her blade while she rears up on her two hind legs. Through sheer brute strength she drives back the whole squad into several of their mates, causing all of them to fall down. Half of them impale themselves or others with their weapons. "Yah, I'd say 'bout twenty to thirty thousand goblins and orcs, and kobolds!" She eeps, stumbling to the side. "There, yall's happy!?" She yelps out, taking an arrow to the...flank. Again. Applejack flips her sword around to snap off the shaft and glares at her wide-eyed friend. "Tarnation, Twilight! Can't you come up with something to end this a tad quicker than one enemy at a time?" She pulls back into the group and lowers herself to all fours, her blade hitting the ground. After a few breaths, she says in a quieter voice, "I don't know bout the others, but I'm used to workin' all day long. As it is, even I'm startin to feel mah muscles ache."

Twilight rips her gaze from her friend's wound and notices that Prometheus has stopped thundering forward.

A black form can be seen clawing her way up his side as he starts to twist around, and amazingly enough, Twilight also spies Slicer riding another cat up the other side, this one with black and white stripes. Twilight's mouth gapes open.

"Applejack," she squeaks out. "Can you...are you..."

Her country friend is standing next to her, mouth similarly open. "Well, if that ain't the weirdest thing I've ever seen."

Prometheus is now fully engaged with fending off the black panther while the other cat and pony go unnoticed.

Rarity steps up next to them.

"Darling, I've noticed you stopped reading spells out of my book, and while I do try to be considerate of the others' situations, clearly you...have...oh my." Rarity tilts her head. Then she notices the god raising the hand with the goblet of blue fire. "Twilight! The cup! All the dragon life spirits reside in it!" Rarity knows it well and has backfilled Twilight regarding its significance.

"The others?" Applejack asks, then nods back to Spike, who is standing there, reliving that horrible moment in his mind. "His kin. It took their life energy away from all of them, except Spike?

Rarity nods to her friends, eyes on the cup. "He jumped down off the podium and avoided a similar fate." She watches the god a moment longer as he holds up the cup to the sky. "He means to offer up their essence, doesn't he?" Twilight nods slowly, beginning to pale as her mind fills in the pieces. Rarity frowns, shaking her head. "But that's absurd! That would mean...all things made..." All the things she has created in her lifetime-

Twilight nods. "All things made stemming from fire will be erased. Needles, thread, metal, weapons...BOOKS!" The horror starts to sink in. She looks down at the book in her hooves.

Laughter from behind them draws their attention, Rainbow Dash holding her sides.

"Oh get out of here! You mean to say everything that was ever made from anything after the discovery of fire is going to-"

Rarity and Applejack gasp. Twilight looks up and watches the horror unfolding. Prometheus crushes the cup, and what happens next leaves them shaken to their core, unable to help Slicer and the two cats as things get horribly worse for the daring assassins.

***

"Enjoying yourself, pony of the shadows?"

Slicer smirks, keeping her eyes on an orc in front of her until she dispatches him, two quick cuts to either side of his neck. She hops back, notes Gwenhwyvar sweeping around to clear the small area they are in. Turning around, Kis'myet is there, balancing her spear in one clawed hand. "All in a day's work, ma chere." The god's earth-shaking steps behind the armies pulls Slicers attention to him. She asks, "Is this the part where I ride you?" while keeping her face neutral with just the slightest twitch of one brow.

The catgirl's ears pink up and she mutters with a nod, "I wish I never had that vision. But it would appear we are the best chance to take that thing down. Your friends are resourceful, but cannot fight while grounded."

With a quick scan to make sure nothing was going to sneak up on them, Slicer drifts closer, one dagger in a hoof while she tripple-steps. "We don't have to do this. Gwen can easily carry me. I'll rig a harness-"

"No," the catgirl cuts her off, "The vision is the vision." Doubt crosses her face and she shakes her head. "I cannot explain it. Only that your panther must be free to distract him long enough for you and I to get close."

Slicer frowns. "Close? To what?" She studies the massive thing, from foot, past the exposed genitals, up the giant chest, to the head. "...the eyes."

Kis'myet nods, also watching. "Yes, that, and it must be by your blade." To the thestral's confused expression, she clenches her jaw. "The dragons are the key. Their weakness is his weakness."

Slicer shakes her head, "Not anymore! He killed them, all except Spike, who has been with us since nearly the beginning of all this."

The revelation shakes the feline to her core, but she shrugs it off. "No matter. They are STILL the key. These claws," Kis'myet flexes her free paw, "can only scratch and cause superficial marks. Weapons, specifically metal, are lethal to dragons." She glances up at the god, "and him." She leans back on her spear, eyeing Slicer's blade.

It clicks into place. Magic, artifice, why all of it is being stripped away. If they are truly gifts of the gods, then they are also their weakness, the very thing the gods fear. It is the riddle of steel, a very old fairy tale passed down beyond the oldest myths, even among Slicer's tribes in the dark places of Equestria. Was flesh stronger than steel? Was magic stronger than flesh and steel? All three were weak, by themselves. It is the will to wield all three that is truly strongest, strong enough to challenge the heavens. That was why Prometheus was punished.

While Slicer always found it to be obvious what the answer was, it never made a real impact on her until now, played out on this battlefield. She frowns, "But he already vanquished magic. Rarity's magic tome, how is that still working?"

Kis'myet rolls her eyes, "It is an item of artifice, not true magic. Yes, it bends magical forces, but it does not originate from within, not like real arcane power." She waves her hand, "This conversation is pointless. Just take it from me, your blade will hurt him."

"Right, then I should be on Gwenhwyvar."

"No!" The catgirl shakes her head, "He will go for the obvious threat. I am smaller, lighter. He will not notice me while he focuses on your panther." She kneels and pulls a leather harness of buckles and straps from her satchel. "I made this long ago when I discovered my true nature. I never knew why, until my vision...until I saw you on my back. I couldn't believe it when your group showed up on the plains. That is why I stuck to you so closely. I thought if I could...I thought I could avoid this, yet it would have meant the death of my people. Sometimes we do what we must."

Slicer wrinkled her brow at her. "We've all suffered indignities. Choosing to kill us or kill him, I'm glad you went with the latter. I don't see the problem."

Kis'myet smiles wanly, a calm passing over her as she drops her spear. "Perhaps you will, soon. Just remember, where there is death, there is always death."

Slicer nods, "I will deal with it."

Eyeing the pony one last time, Kis'myet nods solemnly. Slipping the harness over herself, she falls to all four, morphing into a more four-legged version of herself, a sleek striped panther. Gwenhwyvar growls softly and edges toward the direction they are about to run, turning to watch Slicer's next move with amusement in the dark panther's eyes.

Slicer shakes her head and clambers up onto the smaller cat, placing her rear hooves into the straps behind her and wrapping a main strap around her own barrel, buckling it in place. She draws a second blade and holds both in either hoof, ready. She leans low and says, "Okay. Gwen, you approach directly at him, we'll swing around to the side. Get. His. Attention. Understand?"

The panther nods once and is away like a deadly arrow, slipping past the fighters. Kis'myet rips furrows into the ground as she leaps ahead, Slicer dropping even lower onto her back for fear of falling off. Soon, she is able to feel the rhythm of the feline's loping and is able to anticipate the rising and falling of her mount, while still fighting off conflicting thoughts in her head.

Flanking to the side, they spot Gwenhwyvar leap onto the god's foot and start clawing her way up his side. This obviously gets his attention and he attempts to swat at the small creature scratching up his leg. Kis'myet chooses that moment to scramble up his other side. Now all three assassins are scrambling up a living god, hoping beyond hope that he doesn't simply squash them between arm and body.

Prometheus raises the blue-flamed goblet to the sky while mildly swatting at Gwenhwyvar.

They actually make it up his waist before they hit a slight snag. As the god bends his arm around to ready a backhand at the black panther, a glint reflected from the rising sun manages to catch his eye. The glint off one of Slicer's knives. He yells, spinning around with the goblet of blue fire and crushes it in his hand.

A wave of energy, similar to the one they experienced in the mountain, pulses out. But this time something completely astonishing happens. All manner of items dissolve into nothing or revert to their constituent parts. Swords, armor, leather, buckles, spears, clothing, all disintegrate or change into unrefined ores and animal skins. While the ponies are not quite as surprised to see their saddlebags and other items fall away from them to disappear or change into something else, both warring armies are taken unawares.

Archers pull back and find their hands empty or holding sticks, bits of feathers or tree branches. Others discover lumps of iron ore in their hands where once a sword was about to block another weapon coming at them. While the denizens of evil lose what little organization they had at this sudden loss of killing ability, the forces of good resurge, not allowing such a minor thing as a missing sword, shield, and clothing to stop them. While some humans struggle to handle their nakedness, quite a few elves and rakshasa seem to be enjoying the change of events. Many of the fighting groups go back to fighting, instead using armlocks, wrestling moves, and choking tactics to subdue their opponents. Claws, talons and teeth start playing a larger part in the arsenal that is left for all the fighters.

Kis'myet continues to scramble up the side, managing to get to his shoulder, even faster now that she doesn't have a weight on her back-

All artifice is destroyed, the thought flashes through her mind.

She spots the pony falling away from her and does what she knows is her last act as the god swings around his hand. Kis'myet springs off the god's body surface and grabs the falling pony midair, wrapping all four legs and paws around the delicate creature while twisting around, to receive the god's open hand awash with blue flames.

For Slicer it is all a blur of a few seconds. The energy pulse, the straps falling apart for lack of buckles, the weapons in her hooves disappearing. A discolored scar on the god's rib cage goes by as she falls slowly, and then a blanket of black and white fur envelopes her. Before she can even process all of that, a massive force crushes them both and sends them flying sideways. Her overloaded brain registers several crunching sounds that come from the catgirl's body when they are struck, along with blue fire, burning fur and rushing wind.

She and her former mount drift slowly apart in the air, the god getting smaller and smaller by the distance they are covering in flight. Her mind starts counting the seconds. One. Two. Kis'myet is back to her original form, neck bent at a horrible angle, eyes glazed. The two are drifting apart and Slicer is starting to turn to the ground. Three. Four. A shadow on the ground moving along underneath her and getting closer as she descends. Odd, it is not shaped like a pony. Five. Here comes the ground. Si-

Halfway into the last second before oblivion, that shadow spins around and grabs the pony with all four legs and paws, this time a blanket of black fur. They both impact the ground, Gwenhwyvar taking most of the grinding as they slide several yards before coming to a halt, though Slicer did take quite a few cuts from bits of rock, ore, wood, and all manner of debris left by the god's action.

They lay for a few minutes, catching their breaths after the weirdest wildest thing she has ever done. Up to this point, that is saying something. Slicer looks down in her hoof, seeing she still has the figurine. Somehow, she had grabbed it in the air when she started falling off Kis'myet's back. The thestral gingerly steps down onto the ground while Gwenhwyvar rolls onto her side. She reaches out to the cat and scratches her neck with a hoof. "You've done things for me that I can never repay. So has-" Then she remembers what happened.

Gwenhwyvar growls in pain when she stands, yet she remains determined as she scans around them, looking for their lost compatriot. Slicer shakes her head, reaching a hoof to her shoulder, "She's gone, dead before we hit the ground. I saw her eyes...." Her voice broke. The cat turned her head to regard Slicer. Seeing the tears well up, the panther sits down and nuzzles the pony.

"She knew. She knew she was going to die...and I think she wanted to hate me for it, or drive me away. She only thought about her people and all I could think about was how awkward it was, or how I had to unbalance her, or compete with her, all of the other selfish stupid fucked up merde fils de pute putain-!" She cannot continue, grief taking her. Gwenhwyvar comforts her, occasionally roaring at nearby unarmed creatures that drift too close. Prometheus can be heard bellowing something, but the thestral blocks it all out, only concentrating on this moment, next to her friend.

After another minute, Slicer collects herself and stands up, furiously turning to the god. "I said I would deal with it, and I will." She checks herself and finds all her weapons, hidden or sheathed, are gone, along with...everything else she had. Only the figurine remains. Looking down at it, then at the panther, she murmurs, "Somehow. I swear it." The panther huffs her approval. Slicer wipes her nose with a foreleg. "Right. First thing's first. We have to get back to the others. They are like merde magnets."

Just then, a stream of fire blazes out at the god, who deflects it with a hand. He roars in rage. Only now does she notice things have truly changed on the field. Not only is every moving creature without item or clothing, there are masses of animals running through them, dragging down the forces of evil like they are nothing. A blue energy shield zips up to Prometheus, who in turn knocks it away with his other hand. But now he is focused on the area where those attacks are coming from.

Her friends.

"See what I mean?" she mutters to the panther. Gwenhwyvar crouches low enough for Slicer to climb up, the pony still wincing as cuts open up again while the cat takes it with a single grunt. She hugs onto the cat for deal life and whispers, "You know where to go." With that, the two surviving assassins lope back to the center of the approaching god's attention.

***

Back where the ponies were fighting a minute ago with everything they had, the are now standing with just their items they got from the chest. Everything else is dissolved. This minor setback is momentarily forgotten as they see what happened to a certain catgirl and thestral.

Once the ponies lose sight of Kis'myet and Slicer flying through the air down into the masses, they look at each other with despair.

"Do you suppose they made it, Twi?" Applejack asks softly.

Twilight shakes her head sullenly, "I don't know." She holds up her crystal, the only thing she now has. That and the book she was sending spells to Rarity's mind with.

They look back at the god who is now holding up his hands to the sky...and getting angry.

"I don't know about you, but it would appear he is not happy with the way things are progressing," Rarity commented. She peers down at her book in Twilight's hooves, sighing in relief that it is still there. She does not want to think about all her dresses and designs that might be gone forever.

"You heard Princess Celestia...Dawn, whatever she is supposed to be," Rainbow cuts in. "He has no interest in the mortal realm. He hasn't stopped looking up. Tartar, neither have I, since I can't flippin fly now!" Rainbow is really starting to feel the frustration of zero flight today, hopping in place.

Twilight, on the other hoof, has a little more insight on the puzzle. "He's waiting for the other gods to welcome him back...or he is waiting for that giant eagle to swoop down on him again, maybe?"

Applejack tilts her head to her friend, "Say what now?"

Twilight glances back at them and replies, "In his prison, I saw a giant eagle swoop down on him to...to bore into him. Supposedly this happens on a daily basis." She shudders, remembering the sounds. "It is his punishment, he said. Now...he believes he has taken back all that he has given to us mortals." A movement to the side catches her attention. Spike valiantly holds the sword at the ready for Fluttershy to draw, if only the timid pegasus would. Twilight stares at Spike. Things click. "He can't go back." She looks at the god, who is getting very angry now. "He hasn't given all he has stolen back to the gods."

"THAT will soon be rectified, after I kill my sister!!!" A blur of white, gold and blood orange plows through the center of their group, a long bloodied alicorn horn aimed directly for Luna.

A lone pair of eyes, always at a lower level than everypony else, can see many things. Given enough knowledge, they tend to see a lot more than can be unseen, specifically if you are one gender constantly surrounded by the opposite gender. Yet a good heart reigns in one's desires and redirects those flames for a just cause. In this final battle, Spike wants to see his damme go forth and be knightly, sword in hoof. Yet up to this point, Fluttershy has been reticent to wield her weapon. He understands her connection with nature itself and how she leans more to the serene side of things. He also understands that nature can be tempestuous in nature. Surely in this fight of the ages, she is ready to assert herself? All she had to do is-

His lone pair of eyes, not held by the image of a god shouting at the heavens, sees terrible movement on the ground in the form of Dawn Treader charging at them. A quick glance to Fluttershy shows she is not ready, not yet, and there is no longer any time to get her there. As Dawn announces her plan and target, Spike whips around and dives to the side, long sword in his claws and drawn. Dawn pushes through all the surprised ponies, horn leveled at Luna's chest. A sword crosses her vision and with a quick snap of her head, knocks it away from her. A split second later her leveled horn pierces into what she thinks is her sister, rejoicing in how it feels for the fleshy body to slide up against her forehead.

She is shocked to find the weight is still hanging from her head as she gallops several more feet before turning, eyes crossing to see what is impaled on her horn.

It is Spike.

Twilight and Rarity shriek in agony at the sight. Applejack and Rainbow Dash yell in rage and run at her, swords in their mouths as they want to use the full momentum of their legs. Fluttershy simply stands there, going pale. One moment, Spike was in front of her, encouraging her to raise the sword to help her friends, and the next moment, he is there atop Dawn's head, her sword landing several feet away from the pegasus.

Before Applejack and Rainbow can bring their swords to bear on the alicorn, Dawn swipes at them with both her wings, knocking them on their backs nearly the entire distance they had charged.

Rainbow coughs out while trying to catch her breath, "That was stupid...." She rolls over, groaning from what feels like cracked ribs in her side.

Applejack's reply is just as winded, "Yer tellin......me..." She'd taken worse from a belligerent brother in the past, she figures. Maybe. Wince...maybe not.

The eyes of Prometheus sweep the carnage and instantly spot the impaled brave dragon. "YOU FOOL, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" The god bellows down at the grounded alicorn. "THAT WAS THE LAST DRAGON ALIVE! I NEEDED HIS LIFEFORCE TO PASS THROUGH THE TEMPLE SIEVE, NOT WASTED OUT HERE IN THE MUD AND DIRT! HIS ESSENCE IS NOW SCATTERED!!!" The ground shakes with the deafening reverberations of his voice.

Dawn Treader throws her head to the side, tossing the body off of it. He lands, bounces once, rolls to a stop, and never moves again. The large alicorn backs up and paces around the group in a widening circle. Once the two sword-wielding ponies pull themselves up, they try to create a limping defensive perimeter around Luna, Dawn's primary target.

All the while Fluttershy, dear delicate Fluttershy, stares at Spike's still form. Oblivious to the pacing of the others, she takes a few paces past a mildly amused Dawn Treader, only to crumple to the ground at his side and grasp at him, pulling the still form closely to her. Her friends are similarly shaken, but probably none so much as Twilight. Even though she knows somehow this cannot all be real, that all they have to do is reach the end, it doesn't stop the flood of memories of all the times she and Spike were together, some good, some bad, but all together.

Fluttershy whispers, "No...you were not meant to fight for us. We are supposed to protect the princess...and you."

Whipping her head around to shake the blood off and stare up at the god, Dawn yells, "But the only weapons left are those swords! Puny next to you, Great One! What can they possibly do?" She turns back to spy Silvery Orb (Luna) hiding behind the ponies before her. She yells back at Prometheus, "Allow me to finish some loose ends and I shall build you another collector to retrieve the last of the essence here and send you up to the heavens while I rule all that is under them!"

The towering god begins to yell profanities regarding the time it will take to accomplish that when his entry back was so close at hand, as well as colorfully addressing Dawn's lineage, but none of that is heard by the intrepid group of adventurers, brought low by a single deed of suicidal bravery. Rarity holds her hooves to her mouth, starting to break down. Applejack takes her hat off, discovers that it has disappeared too, but holds up her sword to keep Dawn at bay.

Pinkie Pie dropped her musical instrument the instant Spike was impaled, her mane almost turning inside out from deflation. Twilight cries openly while trying to figure out what to do next, aside from keeping Dawn off them. In contrast to all of them, Rainbow Dash shows pure anger and attempts to rush forward again, but Applejack grabs her by the shoulder at the last second, choking out, "Wait up, sugar...you can't take her alone, not again." The earth pony isn't about to lose another friend quite so soon. Dash continues to push forward, despite cracked ribs and an earth pony latched onto her.

After a time, a second or an eternity, Fluttershy slowly looks up, tears drying off in wisps of steam as she starts to burn with anger. "I was supposed to protect you," she whispers. She lets go of the dragon's body. Dawn tilts her head back to regard the yellow pegasus, momentarily distracted from staring death at her sister.

Looking to the side, Fluttershy sees the blade she had fumbled with not a few moments before Spike gave everything he had, everything to see her become...more. "All my life, everypony dismisses me on what I can do, and that is alright. Except for this moment." Standing up, she reaches down and delicately picks up the blade, balancing it on one hoof before flipping it over like a baton. It gracefully slides off and into her other hoof as she stands on her hind legs, holding the sword in front of her with booth hooves now. She no longer fears the sword, or what it can do.

"What can we possibly do, you ask?" She no longer has fear at all. "This moment, I will show you what I can do."

Dawn's sneer slowly fades when Fluttershy raises the blade high, a soft green glow emanating from its edge. A soothing memory forms, a memory of Fluttershy and Spike sitting in a tavern, the small dragon teaching her how to pronounce the symbols on the sword. "Bidh fiaclan nàdair..." The first couple of symbols on her sword flare brilliant green.

Another memory, Spike tracing his claws to the next ones, "...a 'bìdeadh an fheadhainn..." the pegasus says louder, a normal speaking volume to most everypony else. Dawn Treader turns to this new threat, roars and lunges forward. Fluttershy twists her sword to face edge on while lowering it, deflecting Dawn's horn exactly as Spike taught her once upon a time. Dawn Treader rears back, head ringing as ivory chips fly away.

Fluttershy closes her eyes, feeling the serenity of the land, the skies, the oceans. She intones once more, now in a voice so loud, it rings, "...a bhiodh a' cronadh oirre!" The Teeth of Nature Bite Those That Would Harm Her. The final symbols flare and the sword is engulfed in an aura of power, at once chaotic and yet calming. A tone, felt deep in the soul of every living creature, a tone all life everywhere is familiar with at some subconscious level, permeates everything. It is the vibrational tone of nature itself. Dawn Treader lowers her head, preparing to attack again.

"Finally the floating butterfly is willing to sting like a bee. Do you plan to fight instead of hiding behind your friends?"

Fluttershy shakes her head, opening her eyes while smiling demurely, "I will not fight, nor will I AND my friends hide any longer." Dawn Treader sneers and glances around at the other ponies, all barely holding themselves up after the hordes of creatures that were throwing themselves at them for the last hour, and then the alicorn's attack.

"Your friends have their hooves full, I think. It is time to end this sham of a fight." Dawn Treader charges, throwing all her weight into it this time. Fluttershy closes her eyes and points the sword down, directed at a very small spur of stone sticking out of the dirt.

She whispers, "Not those friends," the sword tip still hovering over the stone. The others, too intent with protecting Luna, and tired from the earlier fighting, finally realize Fluttershy is vulnerable and look on in horror as the diminutive pegasus is about to be impaled by the alicorn, just like Spike. At the last instant, Fluttershy peeks one eye open, then drives the sword point toward the rock. On the way down it catches Dawn Treader's horn at the midpoint and sheers it in half, the shock to her skull diverting the alicorn off to the side where she crashes to the ground. She thrashes and screams while holding her head in pain. The sword makes a similar scream as metal grates against stone, driving into the spur until it stops halfway in. The tone emanating from the blade is muffled, but those nearest her briefly glance at the ground, feeling the tone under their hooves and feet as the sound waves now pass underground.

As if bubbling up from the ground through hidden holes, swarms of creatures appear. Rabbits, mice, badgers, moles, prairie dogs, rats, and all manner of small animals practically flow from the earth itself. Insects, clouds of bees, wasps, mosquitos, and things too creepy crawly to mention, also come forth and fill the air, but stay away from the ponies, much to their relief. Larger animals spring up from hiding places, like wolves, bobcats, lions, tigers, and yes even bears (Fluttershy oh my's) slip around and in between friendly fighters to attack and slaughter what kobolds and orcs have not started running. Flocks of birds, from the smallest finches to the largest condors, fill the skies, swooping down to attack creatures too distracted by what is on the ground to cover their heads.

Eyeing the glowing green sword still in Fluttershy's hooves, Rainbow momentarily forgets the pain in her body and holds up her sword, turning to a group of orcs that were keeping an eye on Dawn Treader, but are now moving in since their leader has fallen. She recites what was on that scrap of paper Spike left behind at the cats' jail.

"Bidh teine dìoghaltas a 'losgadh an fheadhainn a bhiodh a' dochann mo charaidean." The Fire of Vengeance Burns Those That Would Harm My Friends. A beam of fire lances out at the oncoming orcs and kobolds, incinerating them into piles of ash suspended in the air before showering the churned up dirt below.

Applejack grins and says, "Bidh sgàilean na fìrinn a 'dìon an fheadhainn a tha a' seasamh an aghaidh olc," while holding her blade up high in both hooves. The Scales of Truth Shall Protect Those That Stand Against Evil. A blue shield forms in front of her, its movement sensitive to how she moves the sword. With a flick of her hooves, she sends the shield forth into the enemy mass, mowing down scores of orcs as the shield travels off into the distance. It reforms in front of her, ready to go again. Grinning more widely, she yells, "Awright! This I can work with!"

Not to leave the cause of all this turmoil hanging, Rainbow aims her sword at Prometheus and fires again. He holds up a hand and deflects the beam, growling in fury. The pegasus blanches. "Aw, come on! It's fire! Burn dammit!

Applejack sees what happens and aims her sword as well. The shield is similarly deflected. "Was a good idea though, Dash. Just would be nice if we knew how to take that thing down."

Prometheus sees the effects one escaped dragon has on his plans to return to the pantheon; mortals wielding implements of artifice that should have been removed. Determined to crush this last pocket of resistance, he begins to wade through all the creatures underneath him. Barely clothed and squabbling amongst themselves with tooth and claw, he finally sees them the way his fellow gods did, do, and will always. He sees why the other gods tried to convince him before his imprisonment. They are insects to be ignored, and crushed if they cannot be ignored.

A dark form slips in among the group and deposits a very bruised and rough looking thestral. Slicer groans from the impact, and then groans more as she fends off the panther's attempts to lick her wounds. "Alright alright, I get it, you care! Your tongue isn't going to heal anything. Might even infect some of it." The large cat huffs at her ward, but relents.

Twilight runs over and kneels next to Slicer, trying to inspect her injuries. With an amused expression, the panther backs off and sits, keeping a wary eye over the chaos around them, though now their forces are pushing back the horde, thanks to all three swords' devastating magics.

Slicer now has to fend off the poking princess. "Please! Alright already! I'm the medic here, remember?! Nothing is broken, see?" She shows Twilight that all her limbs work properly, though there are cuts all over her.

"Where is your friend, the one you keep competing with to sneak up on each other?"

Bittersweet mirth crosses Slicer's face, but she answers solemnly, "It's probably galling her that I made it, and she didn't."

Pain crosses Twilight's face, despite the fact that Kis'myet is probably just a fictional non-player character. Still...she gave so much to Twilight and her friends. Slicer tries to move and groans again, hissing at some of the deeper cuts.

She notes Twilight's sympathetic wincing and shrugs, "Gifts from Prometheus, a thorough slapping and a six second flight through the air. That was the first time I ever flew, actually. I don't recommend it." Another six seconds go by and there is absolutely no reaction from Twilight. Slicer's eyes narrow and she glances around, "Okay, what happened? I saw the fire beam and animals. I wasn't gone that long-" She spots Spike's body.

"DAMMIT! Why the @#$%^ does this !@%$ happen when I'm not around!" She verbally goes somewhere even ancient Prench does not cover. Making a mad dash for him, she almost reaches the body before she finds herself floating a few inches off the ground and slowing to a halt. Slicer looks around to see whose horn is glowing, but there are none. Oh yeah, magic was wiped.

Twilight walks slowly to her side and lowers her head. The thestral alights back onto the ground. The princess levitates a nearby abandoned cloak over the body to cover it.

Glancing down, Slicer murmurs, "I'm sorry, your highness. I was supposed to protect you all. Kis'myet and I...we thought we could take him down, before he did any real harm. Had I been here-" She cuts off when Twilight's wing touches her shoulder.

"Maybe you would have made a difference, maybe you would be dead. We all have our roles to play, I am beginning to learn." She glances at Fluttershy, who is instructing a flock of birds to fly up to the god's head and pester him. The pegasus actually seems to enjoy watching them go up there, though she winces out of worry when Prometheus starts swatting at them, his walk towards them momentarily paused. Twilight continues, "For now, Spike's role is done. Ours, however..." She trails off, watching the god slowly starting up his walk again, just a tad more annoyed than before.

"He looks pissed," Slicer says. Then she frowns. "I noticed we kept our items after he wiped out all of technology." Looking down at the covered form, "Do you think Spike...could he have...?"

Twilight closes her eyes and finishes, "Could he have known that giving his life would buy us the time we need to use the swords, the book, my crystal...?" She can't bring herself to talk about Pinkie's sticker. That is just absurdity. She shakes her head, "I don't know. We've dealt with everything and survived as a team, mostly. And everything has brought us to this point in time. Here we are, all together, and I don't know what to do." She looks back at her friends who are now watching her, waiting for her orders. She switches to Slicer. "I don't know what to do, against that," she adds, noting the monstrosity making his way toward them.

Slicer looks to Guenhwyvar and sees those piercing eyes staring back, waiting patiently. She says, "The run up his side didn't do much good. Those swords have their powers, but he brushes their powers off like they are nothing. I doubt we will get close enough a second time to stab him. The forest creatures have even less impact than my panther, not to mention a sticker never defeated anypony." Spotting Pinkie Pie's sad face while staring down at the happy face stuck to her hoof, Slicer smiles weakly, "Sorry, Pinks."

Pinkie holds up her sticker, "My treasure was never meant to harm. It has always been to make everypony smile." She holds up her hoof in front of her mouth as though the sticker is talking. "Mister Fire Stealer up there needs to remember what friends are for."

Applejack blurts out, "Yeah, I wouldn't mind him having another get-together with his eagle friend, eh Twily?"

Twilight turns back to the god, staring. He has stepped halfway through the leftover forces, taking his time since he knows they cannot outrun him.

"Of course," she whispers. Then she raises her voice, "Everypony, bring what you got, put them in a pile near me!" Despite confused faces, they all comply. All except a certain thestral, who drifts back behind the others. Closing her eyes, Twilight breathes slowly, whispering under her breath, "Please work, please work. All I ask now is that this works." She forms in her mind's eye the image of that eagle that had come swooping down at the god back in his chamber.

The items on the ground, the swords, the tome, the crystal, even the sticker, start to vibrate, and then lift into the air. The book's leather expands to form an oblong body while the pages fly out and attach themselves to either side of it, forming rudimentary wings. The green glowing sword flies to the front and inserts the handle into one end of the leathery body while the red and blue swords move underneath, grips elongating to make the legs, pommels inserting into the body while each blade splits into three, forming razor talons. The sticker expands and floats to the green sword grip, wrapping partially around it and the leather to make a strange looking yellow face with black eyes. The smiling mouth melds into the blade, splitting it to form a kind of beak. Once everything is attached and the warping stops, the construct settles down to the ground.

It looks like something a young colt would glue together in art class.

Rainbow wrinkles her mouth in disgust. "Uh, Twilight, is THAT what you were aiming for?"

Rarity has no words. Just the clash of color alone...she looks around for her fainting couch, forgetting Prometheus has erased that as well.

The eagle is not quite as large as the earlier one Twilight had witnessed, but it feels right. She can't believe how right it feels! Except...it is still just a hodgepodge of parts thrown together.

Twilight's face falters, then panic sets in. "It's not working! It all feels right, everything in its place, but it's missing something. It's just an inanimate construct without...a soul..." She turns to face Slicer, who has been hanging back all this time. Twilight whispers, "...a heart." Twilight, eyes tearing up, reaches one hoof out toward Slicer, "Oh Celestia, it needs a heart." Tears stream down her face, all the exhaustion, the pain of the last few days, the unfairness of decisions she's had to subject her friends to and the losses of friends, all of it is finally weighing down on her. "It needs a predator's heart!"

The others turn to see what Twilight is looking at. Slicer is sitting on her haunches, the black panther nuzzling her. Down on the ground, hidden behind her foreleg until she moves it, is the onyx statue of the cat. Fluttershy whispers roughly, "Oh no, Slicer, she can't mean..." She spins around to face Twilight, "You can't! It's her...her friend. You can't-"

"It's ok, Fluttershy. It must be done." She picks up the statue in one hoof.

Fluttershy protests, "But we never got to...to chat with her, and you were doing so well...and..." She can't finish what she wants to say, hiccuping softly. Slicer smiles at her.

"Nothing good ever lasts, does it?" Despite her brave demeanor, they can see she is trembling, only just able to hold her voice steady. Guenhwyvar huffs and bumps her head into Slicer's, then looks up at the approaching god. The thestral follows the panther's gaze and nods. "I promised I would deal with it. It's time." She holds up the statue on her hoof to the princess, her own wet eyes blurring the image of the figurine in front of her.

With an apologetic look, Twilight floats the statue out of Slicer's hoof over to the construct. "I'm so sorry for this, Slicer. I truly am."

The statue touches the bird replica and fuses into it, disappearing below the surface. Immediately Guenhwyvar dissolves into nothing, quite different from her normal misty exit. The bird, on the other hoof, changes. The leathery surfaces of its body ripple and start to shape into a covering of feathers. The wings, which were large pages of arcane text, fade and darken to lustrous brown primary and secondary feathers edged in white. The talons and beak lose their metallic sheen and start to curve, looking less like swords and more like real weapons of a large predatory bird. The face, once a ridiculous visage with the enlarged sticker wrapping it, morphs into the striking resemblance of a noble eagle. But most of all, are the eyes. They are not the eyes of a bird. They are the yellow piercing eyes of Guenhwyvar. The construct, a paltry label to call it such now, starts to move and flex.

Twilight stumbles back, calling to her friends, "I'm losing control of it. It's...it's like a living creature and moving on its own! I can't control it!" True, this latest use of her new abilities drained what has to be the last physical energy out of her, but she also felt something wrest control away from her, like a leash being yanked from her mind. The others back away as well, except for Slicer Jen.

She slowly strides forth, pulling away from Twilight when the princess reaches out to grab at her feebly. Once she is within reach, the thestral stares up at the large living fusion of artifice and animal. "Are you in there, Guen? Can you hear me?" The bird lowers its head to eye level while spreading its wings. Both horrific and awesome, the thestral would be a snack if this thing were to snap at her with that massive beak. And yet, there is no threat. Knowing eyes meet knowing eyes. "You're in there. Good. One last ride, to save the princesses and their friends. How about it?"

The bird clicks her beak and spins away, swatting at the thestral to knock her backwards. She rolls after she is hit to avoid falling injury and recovers several feet away, glaring up at the bird. "What the Nox, Guen!? I thought we were in this together!?!" Her words come out more hurt than angry.

A gentle alicorn wing touches her across her withers. Twilight says quietly, "She is protecting you, and letting you know that this is something she must do on her own to save us."

Slicer remembers how two felines in a single minute saved her life. To think harshly of them now would be an insult to their honor. Remembering what Kis'myet did also reminds her of a marking on the god's side. A scar. She looks at Twilight. "The eagle...where did it bore into him, every day since the beginning?"

Twilight's face lights up, renewed with brain activity. She raises her voice to the eagle, "Gwenhwyvar, he is vulnerable to the upper ribs, where the liver is located, I think! That is your best chance!" Guenhwyvar nods, then faces Prometheus. She spreads her wings wide and shrieks long and loud, the kind of screeching that can be heard for miles. Both armies, what is left of them, pause in their fighting, some out of awe, most out of fear.

That same fear is shared by the god who has also stopped walking, now within two strides of the group. Fear shows in his eyes, his skin pallor showing similar reaction. "No," he intones. "NO! You are not to arrive until the morrow! YOU CANNOT BE HERE NOW!" He holds up a hand, as though to project some power a god might have.

With one powerful sweep of her wings, the eagle throws herself into the air and straight at him like an arrow, punching through his palm and leaving a giant hole almost wide enough to reach either side. Before shock can set into the god, Guenhwyvar wheels around in the sky behind him and flies back in at a steep angle, banking at the last instant to bury herself into his side, where Slicer saw the scar. The deadly eagle is momentarily lodged halfway into his body, but using her wings and powerful legs, she claws her way in deeper.

The god Prometheus bellows, surprising even himself as he feels pain he has not known since...since that first day the eagle came for him to begin his torment. His legs give out and he stumbles forward, slamming one knee into the ground. Everyone, both forces of good and evil, and the ponies, can read the writing on the wall and start running in every direction.

Twilight screams for her friends to follow her as she mentally prepares for another psionic teleport, but as before with her magic, she is feeling the strain to her body, and unlike before, she is truly empty now. As the god starts to topple forward, she is somewhat relieved that they chose to run at an angle so his fall will miss them, but just barely.

They gallop, attempting to stay away from the mountain of flesh dropping to the ground. Twilight is overcome with a sense of calm. She looks back at her friends. Their faces reflect what she is feeling, both inside her and what she can sense from their minds. That same calm. This is it, what they have been working toward all this time.

Checkmate.

A monumental boom of sound and shaking of the ground under her hooves causes her to stumble and momentarily fall to the ground. She barely raises herself off the ground when she sees a giant wave of dirt and debris, and some creatures mixed in, approach her at incredible speed. There is no escaping this. All she can do is close her eyes when it hits, knocking her unconscious.

***

Once they can see again, they find themselves in a large library with no walls and only an infinity of glowing white light. And books. Rows of books, as far as the eye can see, going on and on into that infinity. She knows she has died and is glad to spend eternity here, in her own private heaven.

"No, young one, this is not heaven, nor is it private," a male voice says.

She turns around to see a tall bipedal creature standing some distance away near one of the book cases. He is wearing robes of white and is holding a book in his hands. The cover looks like it has a dragon and some ponies on it.

She takes a step back, only to bump into Applejack. "Woh there, Twi. I see him too." Her other friends are behind her as well. Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy. And Slicer Jen. A new friend, but definitely a friend. She turns back to the creature. He vaguely looks like Prometheus, only smaller, like a minotaur. And not as menacing as either. A...human, perhaps?

"Well," she says wistfully, glancing around at the books. "There goes that dream."

The being smiles and puts the book away into the book case. He slowly walks up to them. When they stiffen, he stops and looks down at them.

Twilight regards him in wonder, finally starting to sense the nature of this being. Her eyes flick to the books behind him, catching some titles like "Creation 101: Your children and their worship to you" and "How To Train Your Adam. Lilith Is Another Story." She stares at him.

"You're Him..." she whispers.

He tilts his head and asks, "Him?"

"Him! HIM! The One. Alpha, Omega, Equestria!!!" She looks to her friends for help, but they all shrug. She turns back and whispers, "...the creator...of everything."

He chuckles and kneels, making him seem more approachable. "That is such a simple viewpoint, I believe you can do better." As her face takes on a confused look, he holds up a furless hand, "Perhaps not right now, but eventually. Let's just call me by a name for now. I am Gan. And you are Twilight Sparkle, princess of Equestria, the Element of Magic and Ambassador of Friendship." She blushes, despite his obviously being in a position to know everything. He addresses each pony with their names as well, smiles and blushes returned for each name. His gaze lingers on Slicer Jen for a second before returning to Twilight. He says, "You have questions."

Twilight's mind is a storm of critical thinking. If he is responsible for merging realities and even curtailing Discord, then he is beyond anything she has ever heard of. And yet, she feels no fear. If anything, she sees an opportunity to learn far more than any unicorn, or alicorn for that matter, has ever done in the history of...well, everything! Lightly shifting from hoof to hoof, she says in her most plaintive voice, "Please, Great Gan, I know I am not worthy, but I have to know! I have to know...it all! I am ready to learn all there is to learn!" Internally she kicks herself at how stupid that actually came out. How do you ask the overseer of the multiverse to teach you 'everything' without blurting it out just like she did?

Gan chuckles softly and reaches down, lightly caressing Twilight's cheek, "Dear child, your appetite for knowledge is endearing." He shifts size to equal hers and sits down in front of Twilight. "Picture an infant unicorn who attempts to use her horn for the first time to reach for a tasty treat from her crib, but instead of using the most basic of TK, she instantly has access to all the magic spells you have ever done, could ever do, or ever dreamed of doing but had yet ferreted out the formulae. Oh, and the little filly uses it all at once just to see what it ALL does."

Twilight pales visibly. She utters, "hm, sounds like Shiny's little foal Flurry Heart, only worse. Knowledge is truly power. Dangerous power." She looks crestfallen, understanding she will not be getting that knowledge today.

He nods, "Wisdom and experience make it attainable and...eh, somewhat safer. That is why the secrets of the universe cannot be told, but discovered. You've taken your first step already, and a wondrous gift it is. The school of psionics is a long lost art too few worlds dabble in these days."

A thought occurs to Twilight and she twists around to her saddlebags, only to discover they are not there. Glancing at her friends, none of their equipment is with them either. Not even Slicer's figurine. Her heart going out to the thestral, she thinks back to when they first started the game. All their gear was imaginary, it would seem. She says to Gan, "The crystal. I don't have it anymore, apparently."

He smiles and replies, "You analyzed it correctly. It was not magical, just your average quartz crystal. I dare say you know a friend or two that can help you find similar." He notes Rarity's blushing in the background. "In any case, your knowing what you know now will help you in the discovery of doing so many things in your future. You found that a crystal can be a focus point." He pauses, then whispers, "And here is a freebie. It can amplify." Twilight's face brightens as she contemplates

"How? how?" She is prancing in place

He smiles. "Your next steps, little one. Your next steps." He looks over the other ponies. There are one or two faces that do not share his smile.

Rainbow crosses her forelegs and sits back, "So all this killing and suffering was...what? To make us run around in your private little game while you tweaked it here and there? We had friends that died!"

Twilight turns to scold Rainbow, but pauses. Her friend does have a point, looking back to Gan.

He holds her in his gaze, knowing what she is thinking. "Not at all. You found you could think beyond your own glory, Rainbow. You out-thought most unicorns on a good day." The pegasus beams at him. Aw yeah!

Applejack understood her existence well, ever the steady earth pony that she is.

Rarity raises an eyebrow when Gan gazes at her. "I suppose it is not just about giving, that makes one feel good." She glances at Twilight, remembering the tome. "It is not about making one or oneself feel good. It is simply a good thing to do." He nods.

Slicer regards him darkly. To that, he sighs. "I know what you want. Perhaps your friends could devise a way to recreate the figurine, but could you truly anchor her to your realm, if you do care about her?" The thestral looks away, then down, shaking her head.

"I could not. I will not."

He nods and says, "Anything is possible." Slicer looks up at him quickly, confused.

He then addresses Twilight. "Death is merely a transition, and certainly not a game, despite the rules that might be in place at any given time." He regards Rainbow. "You ask why the suffering? If you knew you were being controlled, manipulated as it were, how would you act?"

Despite her anger, Rainbow starts to shrug, saying, "I guess I would find the quickest path to your plot and kick it?" That earns a loud laugh from the being.

"Indeed, an expected response in an experiment so controlled that the inevitable conclusion is not even worth pursuing."

Twilight blinks. Experimentation? This kind of discussion she understands. "Contrary to an experiment's expectation that the sample's behavior is genuinely its own," she interjects. "The result is corrupted and not worth pursuing. So..." she tilted her head, "...we are an experiment?"

He shakes his head, smiling kindly, "No, no, never an experiment. You are so much more. Forgive me, the analogy is used to describe unwanted results."

She frowns and asks, "Results for what?" Her friends gather around her, now that they are getting to the reason for all this strangeness.

He spreads his arms to encompass all the books behind him. "All of reality is connected. Too much control, too much rigidity in willpower, it would tear itself apart at the slightest mistake or conflicting variables, like canvas drawn too tight over a drum or a taut sail with too much wind." He tilts his head, "Conversely, too much chaos, and if that chaos goes unchecked, it tears everything around itself into smaller and smaller bits of reality until there is naught BUT chaos. I'm sure you have already had a taste of that aspect." All the ponies grumble, remembering 'things' about a certain draconequus.

Twilight nods after a minute. She muses, "Like running a country, like Equestria. It must breathe to grow. That is why the princesses do not grip it too tightly or have too loose a reign on its governance."

Gan nods, "A narrower way of seeing it, but yes."

Slicer snorts quietly, "Politics...."

He raises an eyebrow at her. "Mm, sometimes a necessary restraint. Sometimes, not."

Rarity speaks up, "So you are the true supreme being. Leader among the heavens."

Gan stands, groaning as he stretches his back. "I lead nothing. I merely nudge now and then."

Applejack scoffs, "Ahem. Nudge? The game spilled into darn near...everything! THAT was a nudge!?!"

He chuckles at her, shrugging, "Too much." They all groan at him.

"I will say, dear. Those outfits...atrocious! I will have to spend many days at the spa just to cleanse my memory of them." Her friends can't help but stare at her. Everything around them, all that has happened, and she can only think of the spa.

Twilight glances at her own mane and tail. Truth be told, she could do for a visit too. She looks up to the being and says, "I have to agree with my friends. Why go through all this? Why involve so many worlds, just to give a nudge? It wasn't just our world. It was...countless! All those mirrors, all the realms that gave so many lives. All the ones that died!" She takes deep breaths to calm herself. Then she asks, "Are they okay...are they even real? Was any of it ever real?"

"Does it matter?"

"YES!!!" all ponies in unison.

"Think of it this way. All life, reality itself, is a reflection of something else, of what is, or what could be. Are they any more meaningless because they do not exist in your world, or as passages in a book? The things you learned, friends you made, are they ever valued more or less based on where they come from? Or where they could be one day?"

"No," Twilight answers confidently. This she has learned many times in her friendship lessons. "It is how they touch us, here," she presses a hoof to her chest. "That makes them real."

His eyes glisten as he replies, "If I could teach every soul in existence that simple lesson, there would be no pain. Unfortunately, pain can be a powerful tool, too." He regards them as they wait for a more definitive answer about all those lives, all those realities. He smiles down at her and says, "They are as they always were, as real as anything can be. Only you seven were truly affected. Maybe eight."

More confusion crosses Twilight's face. She is starting to get frustrated being confused so often now. "But...why?" So simple a question. And yet...

Gan smiles again and kneels, this time putting a finger to her forehead gently, "This wonderful brain in there...oh Twilight, you and your friends have achieved so much, and you have such long lives ahead of you. Can you not think of a reason why?"

She looks to her friends, one by one, and ends with Slicer. She remembers how much the prickly thestral has come along, and is now a better pony for it. All of them may not have each learned as much as the other, but as with all their prior adventures, this gave them a lot to think about.

She turns back to him, nodding, "Because we have so much more potential left to be discovered." She pauses and closes her eyes, "That has always been the answer, hasn't it?"

He pats her head gently and stands, this time growing to his original larger form and stepping back to the bookcase. "Smart as always, my child. Each of you can choose to be content and live happy lives for it. Or you can continue to learn, grow, evolve." He pulls a different book from it resting place and opens it. While she can't see the pages, she can see the spine. Its title swirls, as though trying to figure out what it should be called. Odd that she knows that's exactly what is it trying to do. "Your actions inspire others around you, and still more beyond them, forever changing the tapestry of reality." He glances down at the book's title and grins, "Forever writing your own stories."

Rainbow speaks up, now in awe, "So the plan is to make us more awesome!?!"

Laughing, he claps the book shut and it disappears. "The plan is...there is no plan! Only a desire for you to learn and grow."

Her pegasus friend spluttering about how egghead that sounds, Twilight takes a step forward, "Why couldn't you mention this at the beginning, in some way so as not to change results...but...well that would. Arg!" Now she is answering herself, something she could do back home, not here, at the center of the multiverse!

Rarity nods and says to her friend, "We would make his decisions, not ours. Not very generous." Twilight glowers at Rarity for a moment, then nods in frustration.

"I get it," she sighs. Looking back at Gan and pawing the ground with a hoof, she mutters, "I don't suppose you can still tell me 'some' secrets of the universe?" Her friends groan at her again.

Crossing his arms, Gan asks, "Now where is the fun in that?"

Rainbow ughs, "You sound like Discord!"

He raises his brows in surprise, "I suppose I earned that one." He looks them, noting they have lost their questioning spirit. "I think you are ready to go home, yes?" They nod, now eager to return to what passes in Ponyville for normal.

Twilight starts to walk back to her friends, but pauses and turns to him. "Will we meet again?"

He thinks for a second, then nods, "Tell you what. I guarantee we will. Then...we can discuss anything you want." Twilight nearly squees. Not that they were paying attention, but most of the books have faded away, and it is just a few rows left, the being, and her friends now.

One of her friends has been very quiet.

Pinkie Pie walks past her her fellow ponies. The rest are stunned that they didn't notice the normally hyper talkative pony before now. She steps up to Gan and sits at his feet, staring up at him with big blue eyes. He crouches down and asks curiously, "And what may I do for you?"

She smiles and boops him on the nose, leaving a nice little smiley face sticker on it. "o/~ Just keep smiling, just keep smiling, smiling smiling, and never ever dying o/~ She keeps humming the little tune as she takes her place back among her friends.

Twilight stares at her friend, then at Gan who remains there, the sticker on his nose. Her mouth opens, but she is at a loss for words. She glances down at herself and notes her crystal is still missing, then she looks at Pinkie Pie and raises a hoof.

"WOH! JUST ONE MIN-"

All is nothing.