Lauren walked up to Queen Faust after she had put Hazel and Hester’s bodies aside. They did their parts. It was all up to her now. She took the OC Staff before she made face to face contact with the Queen.

The Queen sat on her throne. She was attached to a tentacle for some strange reason. She guessed it was to keep herself close to the throne at all times. She had Lauren’s crown on her head. She had a long dress going all the way down to the end of her throne.

Lauren spoke softly. “Who am I?”

The Queen grimaced at her before taking to the air. “Off with her head!”

Lauren threw her Jackstones at Queen Faust as the Queen’s horn lit with a bluish aura. When Lauren’s attack got to her, the blue aura enveloped her and slammed her against a wall. She was quick to recover, but Queen Faust sure wasn’t with all the Jackstones surrounding her. Lauren then fired up the OC Staff and aimed at the Queen, hitting her perfectly for double damage.

Queen Faust didn’t seem too distracted by the Jacks as her aura on the horn suddenly gained a yellowish tinge instead. It enveloped around Lauren and she was suddenly found in a deadly hug, sharing in the pain with the Jackstones.

She was dropped to the floor and hit with a tentacle like a tennis ball. Luckily, she managed to stop herself from getting slammed into the wall. She had to move constantly to avoid both the aura attacks. She collected some crystals for ammunition before firing with the Jacks and OC Staff again.

Queen Faust then dropped and hung listlessly from her tentacle. Lauren thought for a bit before the Alicorn sprung up again. She knew that she was just playing dead that time. This time, the Queen fired a giant snowball at Lauren. It would’ve frozen her if she didn’t use her Ice Wand to counter it and send it to the other direction.

Lauren had to hide behind the columns around the Throne room to evade the Queen’s sight. It sometimes didn’t help with the tentacles going everywhere. She had to dodge her attacks and hide form the aura spells before she could fire her Jackstones at the Queen. With her distracted by the Jacks, she charged up to the OC Staff and aimed. She saved a last bit of ammo for the Jacks before she retreated to go and find the Meta Essence crystals.

She kept on repeating this whole process until finally, the Queen suddenly squirmed about and flailed around. She looked like she was losing control of the tentacle.

Lauren jumped forward from her platform and to the throne area. The Queen then pulled back her head before a giant head appeared, causing Lauren to fall back a bit. She stood her ground and prevented from falling to the darkness below her. The giant head tilted for a bit before it retracted back to the throne. It then opened its mouth, revealing a head that looked like Anastasia. In Ana’s mouth was a head that looked just like Lauren herself.

It was in that moment did Lauren suddenly realize what Hazel was trying to say. She and Queen Faust were one in all the same whole. They were two parts of a whole, two sides of a coin.

“I rule Wonderland alone” the Queen growled. “Your interference here will not be tolerated. This realm is for survivors, raw, well-ordered, ruthless, and careening on the edge of reality. Self-pitying dreamers are not wanted her. They cannot survive her. You fear the truth. You fear the truth, you live in shadows. Your pathetic attempts to reclaim your sanity have failed. Retreat into the sterile safety of your delusion, or risk inevitable annihilation. If you destroy me, you’ll destroy yourself. Leave now and some hollow part of you may survive. Stay and I will break you down. You will lose yourself FOREVER!”

The head then left the room to the other room inside. Lauren looked down for a bit, unsure of what to do. But she knew she must press on. The voices of all her four fallen friends rang in her head, sending all their power, and love, to help her.

You can do it, Mother!

You got this, Auntie!

We’re rooting for you, Lauren!

We’re here for you!

Taking a deep breath, she went to fight the Queen one last time.

The room they were in was dark, but lit enough for them both to see. It was a circle of rock islands for Lauren to stand on. She watched as Queen Faust revealed her true, inner self. It was a monstrous, tentacled abomination with two stiff, metal appendages protruding from her back holding a row of smoking spikes over her head, forming her crown. Two of these tentacles took the form of the Flutterbat and Tirek’s heads and the Queen's puppet body. Inside the monster's mouth was Anastasia’s head and inside Ana’s mouth was Lauren’s head.

As Lauren fought the Queen, she became aware of how she had the abilities of all the enemies she came across. They all congregated into one gigantic form. Sometimes, she would dive down to change position from where she was facing, but it also left her vulnerable.

She waited until the monster dived out of sight. When she reemerged, she let her have it with the Blunderbuss. She then leapt to the stones nearby and absorbed the large Meta Essence crystal. She continued to jump until she got to the larger corner platform.

She was sent nearly flying off by the Siren scream sent her way. She only clung on by the ledge with her hands.

Let go.

She flinched with Hester’s voice in her head. “What?”

I said let go!

“Why?”

Bravery and my Partner are not really on intimate terms, but sometimes to be brave, you need to take a risk.

Lauren always hated it with the cryptic comments that Familiar gave, but she guessed there was no other option. She shut her eyes tightly as she let go. She expected to be falling down, but was surprised at what she was standing on. She landed on a safe ledge and fully healed with extra ammunition.

“Thanks, Hester”

She then ran up and fired the Blunderbuss right into the Queen’s belly. She shook violently form the impact. Lauren then ran around the arena and gathered enough Meta Essence before firing again. She dodged the attacks and kept going on firing with the Blunderbuss until she saw the next act.

Queen Faust shook violently. She kept on convulsing and screaming before her crown fell from her head. She then fell down to the ground below.

Finally, Queen Faust has died. She was gone, defeated, nothing more than a bad dream that evaporated like morning dew in the sun. Lauren glared down at the remains as they turned into ash. Finally, she was done and freed everyone from this beast.

She suddenly felt something come out of her. She looked down and the Essences of her four fallen friends came out of her. They hovered all around her before they went to the front. They stood atleast five feet away from each other, as they all gained a mist that resembled their color. Before Lauren knew what was going on, they took the shape of her friends, and then became them. They were back.

“Oh…my…everything…” Twilight groaned in pain from the memory of getting squished.

“Oh…is that sunburn?” Snowdrop looked down at where she was burned by Tirek. Atleast she was back in the Alicorn form she used.

“My neck…” Hazel rubbed her neck.

“You said it…” Hester cringed from the pain on hers.

All of them took a moment to breathe before they realized that they were all alive again. They all cheered happily. Lauren couldn’t take it anymore as she dove headfirst and hugged them all. They, in turn, hugged back. They all were crying of joy and laughing happily.

“You’re all here!” she let happy tears fall. “You’re alive!”

“Queen Faust died, now the whole ‘come back to life’ thing in Wonderland has returned” Snowdrop explained after she let them go.

“That means…” Lauren started.

Twilight nodded. “All the damage caused by the Corruption and Queen Faust has been undone. Those who died are now coming back to life. Any who were mad from Corruption are being cured and returned to their normal selves again. All of Wonderland is being restored as we speak”

Lauren smiled when she heard that. All the pain and fighting was worth it. She got her friends back. Everything was going back to the peaceful state she saw it in. She snapped back to reality when she realized one person was missing from the group, or rather two.

She turned around to see that Hazel and Hester, in their Hysteria form, had just come up from the giant pit where Queen Faust finally died. She flew to the platform the rest of the group stood on before landing. In her mouth was a familiar object: Lauren’s crown. She took it out before she split back into the duo. Hazel held the crown in her hands while Hester rode on her head. The Bipolar girl then walked over to Lauren with the crown in hand.

“This Wonderland belongs to you again” Hazel spoke as she put the crown back on Lauren’s head.

She smiled at the duo as they smiled back. Twilight then opened up a portal leading outside to Fandom Central. They all went through and were amazed at what they all saw. All of Wonderland had been restored to its peaceful form. Everything was back to normal. Everyone from each side of the Fandom had all gathered.

The Crystal ponies were all in their healthier state with crystal coats again, no longer carrying burdens. Sunburst was standing beside Shining Armor and Cadence, who was now holding a one-again-infant Flurry Heart. The EOI were all present, their madness levels back to regular and all were healthy again, even Fluttershout. Pinkamena waved shyly beside Luna, Gari, and Berry Punch. Thorax came with the Changelings being to their ‘cuter’ selves once more. Flutterbat was also seen, accompanied by several vampires and bats, but the Corruption was now gone from her eyes. Anastasia waved, accompanied by Sunny Shores and Clementine, who were now fixed as though the torture never happened. Discord floated right in the air, several other Discords behind him, all waving ‘Our Hero, Lauren!’ banners.

Lauren smiled at all that. Everything was back. Everyone was back. She felt her own self regain its strength and build back up. The sadness and hurt she felt were all gone. She was healed herself now. She looked at Twilight and Snowdrop as they nodded to approve. She looked at Hazel and Hester, who smiled.

“Well, Lauren, you did it” Hazel spoke.

Hester couldn’t agree more. “You’ve saved us”

A few weeks later…

Lauren had come back to her normal self. She managed to get back on track. Everyone kept on joking that she came back from the dead for quite some time. She was able to keep up with her work as Hasbro, and her boss was happy to see she was fine now. Her family was very happy to see she was back on her feet. She felt her Wonderland was going be alright now. She didn’t let some sadness get her down for too long as she came to accept she was forgiven and loved.

Lauren saved Wonderland. And with it, she saved herself.

Author's Note

Well, that went well. If you guys need me, I'll be visiting someone in the hospital.