Scootaloo felt a pang of sudden fear strike her, and she didn't know why. She looked over at Spiderman, but he was fine. Wasn't he?

"Something's happening," the soft voice of Mantis warned, and she turned to look. Her eyes widened in shock. No, this couldn't be happening. Mantis was dissolving, right into thin air.

"Oh, man..."

"Quill?"

No! No! Rainbow said nobody was supposed to die!

"Strange?" Tony asked uncertainly.

"There was no other way." No! No, not him too! This can't be happening!

But at least Spiderman was fine. He was. He had to be.

"Mr. Stark... I don't feel so good..."

"No!" It burst out of her, out loud this time. She galloped to his side. "No! No, you can't!"

"I don't want to go... I'm scared..." he mumbled, as tears dropped from her eyes. "I- I'm sorry..." And then he was gone.

"No..." she whispered. She tried to pick up the dust, but it fell through her hooves. "No, he can't be, he... no..." Her heart ached like it was about to burst, and she didn't think it could hurt any worse.

She was wrong.

"Tony..." came a hoarse whisper.

"No," he groaned. "No, not you too."

Through the blurry film of tears, Scootaloo saw a dim shape, blue, with bright streaks of color.

"Heh. So much for no dying." And the blue vanished, leaving nothing but brown dust.

The adrenaline of fighting Thanos was wearing off, and Starlight started to slip into unconsciousness. Then she heard Spike's frantic voice.

"Fluttershy? Fluttershy, are you okay?"

"I- I don't know what's happening!"

"Fluttershy!"

She opened her eyes and looked around the room. It took her a moment to focus and realize what she was seeing. "No!" she screamed.

"W-what's going on?" Fluttershy whispered, and collapsed.

"Uh, guys?" Spike said, spreading his wings for them to see. They were beginning to fade, too. "No! Spike!" Starlight groaned. She tried to force herself to stand, to cast some kind of magic, maybe a stasis spell, anything to stop what she was seeing. But she just couldn't. All she could do was watch him disintegrate. And then, gratefully, she allowed herself to fall into blackness, succumbing to the pain and exhaustion. Anything to avoid letting what had just happened sink in.

Pietro Maximoff watched as two of the people in the room vanished and the third entered a faint, and suddenly wondered. If this had happened to his companions, what had happened to Wanda? He left at top speed and found her in the very next room over, but he was still too late. He found Vision crying over a pile of dust, and that was all.

Rarity found herself galloping next to Pinkie Pie, heading for the city. But she'd seen the reverse explosion Thanos caused. He already had the full Gauntlet, and they were probably already too late.

She tripped and stumbled. It felt like she'd just walked over a hole without realizing it, and tried to put a hoof on ground that wasn't there. But when she turned to look, she realized it was her hoof that hadn't been there. In fact, both of them were disintegrating before her very eyes. "Pinkie!" she screeched.

"Rarity? Oh no, oh no! What's happening?"

"Tell Natasha... she looked better... with red hair..." Rarity whispered.

Pinkie jumped forward and snatched at the falling dust. "No no no! You can't- you can't-" Frantically, she tried to shove it together, as if that would have any effect whatsoever, but the dust only started scattering. Her eyes bounced back and forth, trying desperately to process, just to take it in, but she couldn't. She just sat there, stunned, staring at the ashes, and laughter had never felt farther away.

Applejack didn't say anything at all. Steve was still reeling from the loss of Bucky, staring numbly at his dust. He didn't need anything else on top of that. So she just tipped her hat at his back and faded silently away.

Roseluck didn't scream. She didn't faint. She didn't even twitch. She just stared, in numb shock, and what had once been her sisters. They'd done everything together, since she could remember, and now... she felt lost.

All around her, Ponyville was reeling. The Mayor was gone, and Twilight and her friends had left. Amethyst was trying to keep some semblance of order, but her heart wasn't in it. Her sister, Dinky, was among the dead. Time Turner had gone out to the Everfree to find Zecora and returned with a jar full of dust. The Everfree had gone wild again, and nopony knew how he'd gotten through it. Nopony asked.

The pegasi took shifts, going out over Ponyville to block any breezes that might blow their way. Each time they changed shifts, the townsponies looked up, eyes searching, trying to pick out those they knew. Nopony knew the names of all those who were missing from the lineup, but everypony noticed the lack of their ever-cheerful mailmare.

Finally, Rose moved. She took a flowerpot and, with the utmost care, scooped up the dust of her sisters. She could grow something in it--that would be what they wanted, she was sure. She'd give it all the care and love she had in her. But not just any flower would do, no. She'd have to find the absolute best, most beautiful flower in all of Equestria. For them.

Across town, Mr. and Mrs. Cake buried the dust of their twins and cried on each other's shoulders. In Canterlot, Twilight's old friends stared at Moondancer's remains and realized that, though they didn't feel like it, they'd been lucky. Far away in the Crystal Empire, Shining Armor held Flurry Heart and wondered how to tell her she'd never see her mother again. In Seaquestria, Skystar cried and worried about how she could possibly fill her mother's role, and in an airship high above, Captain Celano gave half her crew a sea burial, firmly reminding herself that she was a pirate, that she was supposed to be tough.

A hive full of hurt and confused changelings pushed into Thorax's chambers, desperate for answers, but all they found was Pharynx, crying. Gilda held the ashes of Greta, her second friend ever, and couldn't help but wonder if the same fate had befallen her first. Silverstream felt like all her enthusiasm had melted away, and she was left cold and grey and empty. Gallus patted her shoulder. Yona simply sobbed.

Starswirl knew what they would've wanted. Flash Magnus would want him to be brave. Rockhoof would want him to be strong. And Somnambula would want him to always have hope. But he didn't know if he could, not now.

At least Mistmane and Meadowbrook still stood by his side, fighting. Just like Twilight had worried, the Everfree had erupted, and they were working to keep it in check. But it was clear to all of them that, cut in half and muddled by grief as they were, they were fighting a losing battle.

A snakelike shape slithered across the sky.

Starswirl cursed. "The absolute last thing we need right now..."

Discord, who was about to enter the Everfree, paused and turned. "Yes, nice to see you too and all that. I heard you were back, though I gather you can't say the same for me. Typical Twilight, leaving out small details like that."

"What are you doing here?" Starswirl snapped.

"I was about to be tackling the Everfree Forest before it overwhelms all of Equestria, but if you prefer I leave it to you, be my guest." He turned to leave.

Starswirl pointed an accusing hoof. "I don't know what game you're playing, but don't pretend you care about ponies! We all know you don't!"

Discord turned back. His eyes glinted red with anger. "Don't care?" he hissed. "If I didn't care, I wouldn't be here right now, saving your sorry flanks! If I didn't care, I- I wouldn't feel like my heart was about to split in two! If I didn't care, I wouldn't even know that, halfway across the universe, she's dead and I never even got to say goodbye!"

"Who's dead?" Mistmane asked softly, but Discord ignored her.

"I almost wish I didn't care right now, because- because nopony warned me about this part!" For a moment it seemed like he might actually cry (a concept that terrified Starswirl, because who knew what kind of chaos Discord's tears would cause?) Then he took a deep breath and straightened up. "Now, since that dumb magic resistance means I can't reach the person who's responsible for all this, I'm going to go beat the absolute tar out of the Everfree. Excuse me." And he dove headfirst into the tangle.

Author's Note

This was really hard to write, I'm going to be honest. The sadistic part of me that looked forward to the killing of characters back when I planned this story out seemed to vanish the moment it came to actually write the thing, and I was left with a bunch of character deaths deliberately maximized for emotional impact (along with, I won't lie, a few that I actually flipped a coin on). Anyway, I'm really sorry for doing this to you. I promise this story doesn't end here (unlike the actual source material).