Madness Overlord

Everything was quiet inside Mann Manor. Applepills wandered thoughtful in the halls of the mansion. Something was bothering her for a long time, so she looked for Francie Bloom to talk about that but couldn't find her, and she knows why. Her little sister was the type that love joke around with Applepills for fun since their possession, thought that sometime these jokes were sometimes a little inappropriate.

Applepills' possession, or "addiction" of the "Pills Meme", made her also short tempered, so make her angry was also part of Francie's antics. But since the incident caused by Rainbine's asinine experiment almost killed her, Francie abstained from making fun of Applepills for a while since she was in a very foul mood. Francie didn't talk to her older sister very much and spent more time with her fellow Cutey Mark Monsters or the other ponies than usual. She worried about her behavior, but she also hoped that Francie wouldn't come up with some other irritating joke.

Not knowing about her whereabouts, Applepills headed toward Rarifruit's room, expecting to find her just to ask that information. She stopped near to the opened door and quietly observed. Rarifruit was there, adding some new jewel and reorganizing his collection. She's so concentrated and clingy about her collection that she would react negatively at every single loud sounds or even attacking her without even look, fearing that someone will steal her treasures.

Applepills has nothing personal on Rarifruit, but she was picked up as a laughing stock so many often that she was tempted to do a little but harmless prank, just to relieve her stress. But mostly she will do it to get Rarifruit's attention without any having any incident. She hide herself from behind the wall and soundly knocked the floor thrice, causing Rarifruit to quickly turn her head toward the entrance and shout hysterically.

"DON'T EVEN TOUCH-" Rarifruit halted her words as she saw no one in the entrance.

"Can Ah enter now?" Applepills said, smirking a little from behind the wall.

"Applepills, are you trying to give me a heart attack?! Why you had knocked the floor instead of the door?"

"Just to get yer attention." Applepills approached Rarifruit. "But that wasn't the only reason. Did you've seen Francie Bloom?"

"If i remember, Francie headed to the Library. She was looking for something,"

"Thanks. Ya can return to whatever you were doing, sugar cube." Applepills said as she was about to leave.

"Wait a minute." Rarifruit halted her.

"What's that?" Applepills asked.

Both the mares exchanged their glances. Rarifruit looked at her with a doubtful look while Applepills couldn't tell her intentions.

"Wasn't Brutalight... acting stranger, recently?" Rarifruit demanded.

"What i can say?" Applepills replied. "She seemed a little stressed after she returned from her manhunt."

"Did you have asked something from her?"

"Ah did, but then she snatched my bottle of pills-"

"I don't want to know the rest." Rarifruit interrupted. "Does Francie Bloom know anything about that?"

"That's what Ah want to know."

"I am coming with you, but first you had to do that." Rarifruit demanded sternly.

"Do what?"

"You know, that is a serious situation. I don't want it's importance to be ruined by such inconvenience. So, before that, i suggest you to take care of-"

True to Rarifruit's predictions, Applepill's neck cracked side to side before she exclaims.

"PILLS!"

"That." Rarifruit concluded with a deadpan tone.

Sixty-seven pills later, Applepills and Rarifruit resumed their research and headed toward the Library, but Francie wasn't there. Not only that, but there are a few books scattered on the floor. For her, that can be the case since Francie, even before her possession, didn't really read much books. Applepills putted the books in their own shelves and moved toward the living room. The mares finally found Francie, sat in the couch and doing something different. Usually she would watch the television, but instead she was holding a opened book.

"Francie?" Rarifruit called.

Francie turned her head toward her but then flinched upon seeing Applepills being with her.

"Ah know that ya're afraid of me, but don't worry. I've calmed down from that. Ah'm not doing anything to you." Applepills paused. "As long as ya don't joke on me in this moment."

"Ok." Francie said nervously. "Fair enough."

Rarifruit gave a puzzled glance on the book that Francie was holding in her hooves. Which was kind of odd since she didn't read many books.

"Darling, what are you reading anyway?" Rarifruit asked.

"Ya mean this?" Francie said closing the book and showing it's cover, which title was 'Chemical Index'. "Just something that Creepy Bell asked me to find." Francie said as she put the book on the side of the couch.

"Why she asked you that?" Rarifruit inquired.

"She ain't told me the reason. She said is a secret, so ah read some pages to figure that out."

"Ya could at least put the other books on their places and not leave them scattered on the floor... Brutalight doesn't tolerate disrespect toward books, ya know?" Applepills said with a stern tone.

"I get it, only her can do that. Ah'll take note of that." Francie acknowledged. "Aaand.. What ah'we talking about again?"

"Your sister wanted to ask you something about Brutalight." Rarifruit said.

"If ya say so.... Then shoot." Francie said.

"Wasn't Brutes.... acting a little stranger when she returned from her manhunt?" Applepills said.

"Yea, i was present when that happened, so?" Francie asked confused.

"Ya followed her, so you should know what happened to her." Applepills precised.

"Ya're talking about that?" Francie looked a little reluctant about that question. "Ah don't know. Brutes wouldn't approve that."

"But we need to know what's up with her, missy." Applepills insisted.

"Well.... if you want." Francie sighed and started "Brutes was in her study room, looking for some book. It wasn't mah intention to spy her, but Ah heard a unceasing noise coming from there, so Ah headed there to check her out. As she was examining each book before dropping it around, Brutes was poking her sword on the floor. Ah tried to talk to her, but then she pointed her sword at me. Upon recognizing me, she apologized, sayin' that she was feeling a little... odd."

"Odd?" Rarifruit said confused.

"Ah don't know what to say." Francie replied apologetic.

"Maybe i can explain this." Said a voice.

The three ponies turned toward the corridor on their left and saw Fluttershout, who had just arrived.

"Fluttershout?" Applepills said.

"I don't know all the details," Fluttershout said. "Just promise me to not tell her about it, ok?"

Rarifruit, Applepills and Francie nodded silently.

"From what i understood," Fluttershout began. "One month ago, Brutalight was fighting against a unknown enemy. Brutalight herself had her upper hand until this foe managed to give her a deadly blunt blow on her head. As a result, her mind was split in three during her sleep, which were that of Twilight Sparkle and these of the other two spirits, Brutal Christian Sniper and Weaselcakes. As a results, she has one hell of identity crisis. That was the reason of her manhunt."

Rarifruit, Applepills and Francie shocked in a very disturbing way. They didn't even noticed nothing about her conditions. They knew about the toll that the monsters inside Twilight, now Brutalight, put upon her minds and sanity, but their minds weren't prepared for the terrific imagery that flashed in their minds. Having a identity crisis of that level was surely scary.

"How worse is that?" Applepills asked worried.

"Technically, her personality is still the same," Fluttershout assured at first. "But her powers became difficult to control due to the three parts of her mind being unable to agree with each others, which is kind of dangerous if she is in the middle of a fight."

"How did you know that?" Rarifruit inquired.

"I just heard her bickering... with 'herself' from outside her room, but i don't know nothing about what happened during her manhunt." Fluttershout responded.

"We must doin' something about that. I mean, we're the ones who came up with the idea to fuse two souls inside Twilight to begin with." Applepills said.

They pondered about how to figure out what happened during the manhunt and what this unknown enemy was. Applepills suddenly realized who could know the details, but scowled irritated about that.

"Ah hate to tell ya since ah'm still mad about that but.... Rainbine may know about that. She was with Brutes after all." Applepills narrowed her eyes.

"Veeery convenient." Fluttershout said before smiling deviously.

Fluttershout went outside the mansion and flew up. She flew over the the mansion until she found Rainbine taking a nap on one of the roofs. Fluttershout landed on the top of it and made sure to be at her left side. She grinned in anticipation, one second before she charged her mouth and unleashed her trademark ear crushing scream.

"ASS!!"

Although the scream did missed Rainbine, it was loud enough to wake her up. Rainbine may be a half-cyborg, but is still a unpleasant annoyance when her bionic hears started ringing. She was lucky if Fluttershout didn't destroyed her ears. Rainbine quickly turned toward the yellow pegasus, who chuckled a little.

"What the hell was that for!?" Rainbine said with a startled face and a pissed off tone.

"Seeing you like that is just priceless." Fluttershout said gleefully before turning her tone into a serious one."But seriously, Rarifruit need you in the living room."

"For what?" Rainbine asked.

In response, Fluttershout whispered in her metallic ear. Rainbine got the importance of the message, but there was something that made her reconsider.

"Oh, really?" Rainbine replied reluctant. "Look, I have no problem to explain that. However, while Applepills would have forgiven me, she will be probably be still pissed after my idiocy. I have to?"

"You have to." Fluttershout said bluntly. "And HOW."

Rainbine let out a heavy sigh and followed Fluttershout. The yellow pegasus explained her the details about their conversation. Rainbine was left baffled to know about Brutalight's conditions, which explained her something that didn't add up to her. She has now a valid reason to follow her, but due to Applepills being with them, that would be a very awkward night for the cybernetic pegasus.

Nine minutes later, Rainbine and Fluttershout meet up with Applepills, Rarifruit and Francie Bloom in the living room. Applepills immediately glared at Rainbine, who really expected that. She deserved it after all.

"Rainbine. Explain what happened while you were with her." Fluttershout said.

"Yeah. About the whole manhunt thing, she got pretty much obsessed for that target for reasons that i pretty much ignore."
Rainbine explained. "And when we returned, Brutalight got pretty mad... and stressed out."

"Ah saw that. Ah was in the entrance with Francie when she returned." Applepills asked.

"How did you saw her?" Rarifruit asked.

"It looked like she was struggling with something." Rainbine said. "But i didn't know that her previous fight against her target managed to split her mind in three."

"Actually.... Ah was thinking about one thing for two weeks, since it has something to do with us." Francie said with a hesitant tone.

The four mares turned their attention to Francie with a worried look. That sudden tone shift and these words caught their interest and raised their perplexity.

"Francie, what are you trying to say?" Applepills asked.

"During our convesation," Francie paused, unsure if that was the right thing to say. "Brutes asked me if ah ever missed mah old life."

"For real? But why?" Rarifruit demanded.

"She said no reason. Ah swear." Francie said convinced.

"What did you answer her?" Fluttershout demanded.

"Ah said a little bit. To be honest, it's nostalgic now. "

"Now that i'm thinking about, there was a book out of place that was about the exorcism." Fluttershout realized something. "Maybe the personality of Twilight made the other two spirits agree to help her."

"Help her for what?" Rainbine demanded.

"Save us from our current fate." Fluttershout affirmed bluntly.

"What!? Are you serious!?" Rarifruit exclaimed shocked

"That should be good for me. To be fair, ah've enough of being a painkiller addict." Applepills admitted.

"I know it," Rarifruit said insecure. "But didn't we agreed to accept our destiny as the Elements of Insanity. Forgive me, but i'm still feeling good being greedy. And besides, we have no safe way to exorcise ourselves."

"Me too! I'm even more awesome with this monster inside me," Rainbine protested. "How could-"

"We get it. Guns are awesome. Now shut up for a moment." Fluttershout interrupted her with a irritated ton, much to the cyborg's annoyance. "Let me remind you that all of us agreed to make turn Twilight in Brutalight, so the minimum that we can do is to watch her intentions very carefully while maintaining this story on a low profile. In the meantime, we are continuing our progress with the portal."

The mares took a moment to reflect about that, but since they got used to their new life, they agreed with Fluttershout's proposal and smirked, minus Applepills, who smiled weakly, and Francie, who doesn't know how to feel.

"Let's face it. It's so good to live as we are now. Don't get me wrong. I know that Brutalight wanted to fix our conditions, but she had to admit. Who want to be changed back?" Rarifruit said maliciously.

"So you're ok with this?" Francie asked.

"And how!" Rainbine replied confident.

"And ah'll forget a portion of what we've talked about due to my addiction." Applepills said resigned.

"And now for the other reason why i wanted Rainbine to follow me." Fluttershout said.

"What are you-" Rainbine then remembered something Fluttershout told before. "Ah, now i remember. That was a thing that i developed three weeks ago. I built some Inter-dimensional Probes. As you can guess it's able to travel through dimensions. I used some magical component that Pinkis was using to build the portal."

"Are you a idiot!?" Rarifruit scowled. "That was a vital part of our plan to reach Equestria! Are you trying to ruin this up!?"

"Don't worry, i was present during the development," Fluttershout reassured. "Pinkis gave us the permission to use some her magical discard. I also made sure that Rainbine didn't screwed up anything during her calculations regarding the part involving the inter-dimensional factor." Fluttershout said. "

"And we got lucky. They reached Equestria. Specifically, Canterlot Castle." Rainbine said satisfied.

Francie Bloom and the other three mares looked at Rainbine surprised. Rarifruit, however, didn't looked exactly convinced.

"Are you sure that won't end up like your demented experiment?" Rarifruit demanded distrustful.

"I don't think is the case," Fluttershout said "The probes are connected to a magical mirror, which allowed us to see what the probes see."

"Another victory for tecnology." Rainbine said gleefully.

"Now if you excuse us, we are going to check if the test with the probes was successful."

Fluttershout looked at Rainbine with a intimidating gaze.

"Right?"

"Sure." Rainbine meekly agreed. "I have nothing better to do at the moment."

Rainbine and Fluttershout left the living room, while the Applepills, Francie and Rarifruit were the only ones remained.

"Now that i'm thinking about, doesn't that bottle of pills counting as spirit possessing you?" Rarifruit asked formally.

"Ah don't think so. There isn't any ghost at all inside of that fella." Applepills said, looking perplexed.

"And Pinkis? What about her." Francie said.

"Well, about her-" Applepills was then interrupted by a sudden scream.

"WHAT!?" Fluttershout voice echoed from the corridor.

The three ponies rushed in the room in which Fluttershout and Rainbine are. The two mares were standing near to a mirror. Rarifruit, Applepills and Francie approached the mirror and saw the image of a Draconequus laying unconscious on the floor, inside the halls of Canterlot Castle. It looked beaten up and weak. Royal Guards found him in that state and reacted in shocked awe. The guards took his body and carried him somewhere else, probably to take care of him.

The four refused to believe what they saw. They know Discord, and there's noway that could happen. Such thing literally baffles them.

"Discord looked very battered..." Fluttershout said, almost at loss of words. "Impossible."

"That cannot be real!" Rarifruit exclaimed incredulous.

"Wasn't Discord supposed to be one step ahead than anypony else?" Francie demanded.

"But that is imPILLSable-" Appelpills halted to correct herself as her neck briefly cracked side to side. "Ah mean really implausible! We ain't know any other possible being who was able to defeat him, outside of Tirek who is actually in the Tartarus!"

"Brutalight will not be happy to hear this." Fluttershout said with a grim tone.

"Is there somepony outside the two Princess being able to take down Discord?" Rainbine thought.

Canterlot Castle, twenty minutes before.

In the middle of the night, Discord stood in front of a mirror. The reflection was showing the images of Twilight and her friends succumbing to their twisted fate. As the images disappeared, he remained distraught. He could easily understood what happened to them.

"So this is what happened to them.... And Fluttershy too." Discord said.

Discord was about to snap his fingers, but then hit in his back by a powerful unknown force and then painfully collapsed on the floor. He felt numb and drained of his magic. He wasn't able to move, use his powers or even talk. As he tried to process what happened, a mysterious figure silently approached him. It pointed his hoof at the weakened Discord and gestured at him like it was shooting with a gun, causing the Draconequus to be thrown in the air and being violently fall against the floor once more.

"I'm sorry, avatar of chaos. But your powers would be a serious problem to us. The only thing that you must keep in mind is that the game must continue."

The figure remained to watch Discord, just to make sure that he wouldn't even react. The chaos ruler tried to move, but his consciousness was steadily reaching his own limits. His sight goes dark and he started his descent into the darkness. After that, the figure walked away from him and leaved the room without leaving any trace.