Pony POV Series Season Four: Generation Transitions & Origins

by Alex Warlorn

Rating: teen
Tags: Other, Adventure, Pinkie Pie, Tragedy, Discord, Princess Celestia, Slice of Life, Sad, Princess Luna, Gore, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark
Length: 79418

Why is Pinkie Pie 'weird'? Why is Celestia? Why is Discord? A connection between G1,MLPT, G3, and

Discord beaten. Reality restored. But invisible wounds must heal too. Pinkie Pie, and Celestia, tell their stories, memories long buried, and the connect between the different generations of My Little Pony are revealed, and the stunning truth of how they connect to the origins of Equestria.

Who is Firefly?
Who is Patch?
Who is Minty?
Who is the pony Kimono, and how is she connected to Zecora?

Season four of the Pony POV Series is here on FIM.

Laughter, tears, smiles, actions, adventure, frights, darkness and light and heart-warmings ALL await you!

The Audio adaption Is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GqJMx6kYyU&list=PLABD0AEFCD46D56DA&feature=plcp
ORIGINAL fan-art, ORIGINAL fan-music and VOICE ACTORS galore await!

I promise this will be one ride that will not disappoint.

Recursive fanart and fan stories are here. http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/journal/MLP-FiM-Pony-POV-Series-Fanworks-audio-adaption-274110361 Many are rubber stamped by me as optional canon stories that reveal some of other sides of these stories.

Tropes page found here. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/FanFic/PonyPOVSeries
Fan Labor Pages here http://mlpfanart.wikia.com/wiki/My_Little_Pony_Fan_Labor_Wiki:Workshop/Pony_POV_Series_Season_Zero:_Discorded_Ponies and here. http://mlpfanart.wikia.com/wiki/My_Little_Pony_Fan_Labor_Wiki:Workshop/Pony_POV_Series_Season_One:_Reharmonization

Cover image by Mystery Ezekude. http://mysteryezekude.deviantart.com/

Published 2012-08-11 09:44:01 UTC
Last updated 2012-08-21 15:40:58 UTC

Pony POV Series Episode 47: "'HAPPY CAKE' ADVENTURE PART 1"

Pony POV Series Episode 47: "'HAPPY CAKE' ADVENTURE PART 1"

It was a bright and sunny day in Ponyville! All the birds were singing, not a cloud in the sky!

The ponies frolicked left, the ponies frolicked right!

Everyone was quite happy! And there was no trouble in sight!

"Oh dear oh my! There is trouble I do sight!" Shouted Mrs. Cake in quite a fright!

The Cutie Mark Crusaders did come to her aid! For that is what they do! Not blowing stuff up! For that is not what good little ponies do!

"Oh what is your troubles? Please bring them to light!" Ask Sweetie Belle, always so nice!

"My cake! My cake! That I took so long to bake! For goodness sake!"

"Your cake?" Ask Applebloom, always so smart.

"Your cake?" Asked Sweetie, always so nice.

"Your cake?" Asked Scootaloo, always so brave.

"Yes my cake! For goodness sake! The cake I took so long to bake!"

"What is wrong with your cake that you took so long to bake?"

"It's gone! The time to bake it was so long! And now it is gone!"

"That is wrong!" Said Scootaloo, always so brave. "It is wrong for your cake to be gone!"

"But who?" Asked Applebloom, always so smart. "Who took your cake that you took so long to bake?"

"HA HA HA! I it was I! I took your cake! That you took so long to bake!" Shouted Discord, holding the cake it took so long for Mrs. Cake to bake.

Mrs. Cake said, "Please! Please! Give it back quick! Or I fear I will be sick!"

"No! I will not give back the cake you took so long to bake!"

"Why? Why won't you give back the cake I took so long to bake?!"

"Because I am mean! Of that! You surely can glean! I will take your cake! I will eat your cake! Then I will have your cake!"

"No!" Shouted Scootaloo, always so brave. "You will give back the cake Mrs. Cake too so long to bake!"

"HA! I will not give back the cake! Give me a break! I am Discord! And . . . my victory I have scored!"

Scootaloo, always so brave, did take a pie, as one did fall out of the sky! And with all post haste, did throw the pie in Discord's face!

"The pie! The pie you have thrown in my face! The pie you have thrown in my face with all post haste!"

"I can't tell a lie! I did throw the pie! I did throw the pie with all post haste! Now give back the cake, that Mrs. Cake took so long to bake! And leave without a trace! Or your face I will make into paste!"

"You are nice! And I am mean! And so you are mean to me! I'll running away now! Never to be seen again! Far around the bend!" So did Discord run away never to be seen again! Far around the bend!

"We saved the cake!" Shouted Applebloom, always so smart.

"We saved the cake!" Shouted Sweetie, always so nice.

"We saved the cake!" Shouted Scootaloo, always so brave!

"You saved the cake!" Shouted Mrs. Cake, happy to have the cake back that she had taken so long to bake! "What brave ponies you are! Everyone knows near and far! Now I'll give you a piece of the cake, that I took so long to bake!"

And Pinkie says, "There! We can end the plot now! They all lived happily ever after! The end! Nothing more to see! Just leave us to our completely boring -happy- lives! ... please?"

What is with you people? Who cares about tension and build up? Can't you just accept a little banal happy ending and leave it at that? Sigh. I guess not.

Ever since I became whole again, my memories that never happened have been a lot clearer. Pinkie Pie could just hand them off to Pinkamena if they got too painful.

Surprise the pony? I'm still not quite sure what Anarchy meant by that. The only reason I remember the iteration from before is because I'm not supposed to exist. Oh, I'm not depressed over that anymore; Fluttercruel's not supposed to exist, and here she is, as much as pony as anypony.

Anywho, I once read there was a pegasus pony named Surprise back a few thousand years where myths and history really blur together. Yeah, I know I was almost a pegasus, I'm not some geek who thinks Earth Ponies are lousy, but I can't say I wouldn't trade my bond with the Earth so I could fly in the air. Maybe that's why I'm so fixated my flying machines. I think Fluttershy wanted to trade places with me and be an Earth Pony too . . . for some reason the name Posey keeps popping in my head when I think about that.

I'm not sad she's finally learned to open up her wings and fly, she was given a gift, you should be happy you have gifts. And I'm not upset that she still likes hanging out with her animals like an Earth Pony either, that's her gift too!

You mean being an Earth Pony is just a different gift? I guess you're right, but after you see so many stories about Earth Ponies being the 'have nots' it's hard not to think along those lines. I'm a showy pony, I guess having magic that's the least showy of the ponies just bothered me after I finally saw beauty for the first in my life.

'Earth Pony magic is unseen, and so are all my tricks, so therefore, it's earth pony magic that lets me do all the tricks I do? What a smart filly you are! Yes you are! Hey-hey-hey! No no no! I'm not being Nightmare Whisper I swear! I meant that. You really are smart and clever for a filly.

It's because Earth pony magic is unseen, that I'm able to 'Ex-Ploit' the fact I'm from how things used to be and pull off my gags. I really never thought of it that way! Thanks! Oh come on! I'm Pinkie Pie! Recovering fast is what I'm good at! I mean, once I stop hiding from it!

So I guess this is where you want me to stop hiding from the life I never had, from the world that never was, and the friends who never existed? Didn't that Alicorn say they'd live on somehow? I still don't know exactly what she meant. No, they did exist, that world was here, it's gone, but I still remember it. And that's what counts! I'll keep them in my heart forever!

I know I'm supposed to tell you this kind of resolve after I'm done telling you, but, but I want to go into these memories with a brave face and a brave heart.

The Princess, Star-Catcher, didn't just unlock the rest of my memories, she showed me hers too, and a lot else . . .

Yeah. It was THAT style of horn to mind communication. Now I know why Fluttershy and Fluttercruel stayed cooped up all day after talking with Luna!

We had a great story time with Applejack, and the next day I spent all of it with my head in the ice box. I came out incased in an ice-cube with a snorkel. And I still had -two- of those 'anti-hang-over' drink thingies funneled through the snorkel. The Cakes gave me the day off and promised I didn't need to watch the babies. The next day the headache was down to where I could hear the ding from the oven and not want to ram my head through a wall. Good thing I just shattered the ice block when I tried that.

Why do you guys want to know this part anyway? It doesn't really have to do with how we've been healing up from how Discord hurt us. I mean, now that Fluttercruel's part of the family, Trixie's been put on the chariot back home, everything should be back to normal right?

Diamond Tiara? I'm just sure the writer forgot about her and she'll pop back up and it'll be like she never left. Shows do it all the time!

Sigh. So you really wanna know huh? Alright then, then hop onto the Pinkie Diane express and get ready for a trip down a memory lane that's all condos now. Ahem: 'Is this another chapter in Equestria's lost history that never was? Another path of reality? Or was it all just me in a bed with a damp wash cloth over my head being tended to by the Cakes and Fluttershy? You decide.' But for me it's real. And here we go!

Pony POV Series

Generational Transitions

Optional-Canon

The howling winds woke me up first. Ah. I was on Butterfly Island's beaches!

"Guys," I called out as I shook myself awake, "I just had the most horrible nightmare."

I wasn't on Butterfly Island.

A cloudy black sky hung over a Ponyville of faded colors. The winds were noisy in my ears. I blinked away tears as it hit me. "It wasn't a dream."

Toola-Roola. StarSong. They were gone. Rainbow Dash, wasn't Rainbow Dash anymore.

I didn't see the winged-unicorn or the mixed-up creature anywhere. I didn't see anyone anywhere.

Looking up I saw tiny bit of the clouds part under the chaotic winds for less than a moment. I gasped in fear and looked at the ground.

It wasn't dark sky behind the clouds, it was, nothing.

I was shaking like a leaf.

I tried to think something, anything but what I just saw. And whao, it worked!

My head hurt as I felt questions I had never thought about before rang out with pieces of my memory I never realized were missing.

What did my mother's face look like? What did my father's? Father? What's that? Ugh! My head! Animals had two kinds, girls of course, and another that was boys. But that didn't apply to ponies, right?

A gale of nothingness on the outside, a whirlwind of hurt and confusion on the inside, I fell on my side I cried even harder.

I thought of when I met most of my friends. It was when we were all in diapers, right? But . . . that impression, that memory, felt, tacked on, like it came along AFTER we actually all met . . . but that didn't make sense. It felt so, contrary. Like details just didn't add up. It wasn't that the memories felt fake, more like, what HAPPENED felt . . . made, constructed.

Cheerilee. One of our resident story-tellers and Scootaloo's big sister. But, likewise, wasn't she a unicorn from Unicornia who was Princess Rarity's tutor and caretaker? That didn't make sense.

Sweetie Belle. Met her before we even found out about Unicornia. She appeared when two rainbows crossed together and she floated down. But, little Rainbow Dash said, thought, sent, agh! Unicorns belonged in Unicornia. But we didn't know what Unicornia was then!

My head hurt worse. Make it go away! Somepony! Anypony! I don't want to think! Let me return to nothing!

I remembered when the seven of us went on our grand adventure to retrieve Twinkle Wishes, Ponyville's Wishing Star after Scootaloo opened her box early. Well, five of us, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle stayed home to cover our flanks. But the dragon Whimsey Weatherbe wasn't in the mood for giving her back until right when the night of Winter Wishes Festival hit. She wasn't a wicked dragon, just lonely.

But, had that happened when we were fillies? But we hadn't all, met yet until we were older. Ugh! It didn't make sense! And why did it feel like the memory of that happened -after- our meetings as mares?

This is what Starsong gave herself up for? For me to hurt in a hollow Ponyville? Those bullies! For me to suffer in this big nowhere that was supposed to be home until whatever that lady and thingie were talking about happens?

The mix-matched thing, he said his name was Anarchy. He said he was going to give me an unhappy childhood. My memories hadn't changed at all, clear as day, as real as a moment ago. But now I could see where they contradicted each other, where the pieces didn't fit, like a bunch of different puzzle pieces being forced together. Some were being forced out...

I couldn't remember when I first met Minty.

I gasped. "Minty, Minty, Minty!"

I couldn't remember when I first met her.

Everypony acting strangely, everypony avoiding me like I was bad luck or something. I asked our resident mystery-lover Puzzlement what was going on. She said it was a scavenger hunt everyone was on. Of course I wanted to join in. She led me over half of Ponyville until we finally found everything. She suggested we get a wheel barrow for all our stuff, but I figured the list was enough.

All of Ponyville decked out in pink and more pink. But where was everypony? I bump into a pony with exactly my colors who copies my movements like a mirror. Then I noticed her cutie mark. "Minty, Minty, Minty." She accidentally rubbed the paint off her forehead letting her green coat shine through.

She finally let me pass, and everypony shouted 'Surprise!' and it was a birthday party! A day before my birthday. Minty had opened the wrong page on the birthday book.

Still a party was a terrible thing to waste, so we just had a two day birthday party instead.

Minty ... Was she okay? Did she still exist? How could anything be okay? How could she still exist?

Was this what Starsong gave herself up for?

Razzaroo always said I was the pony with tons of common knowledge and common sense that was a lot more common than I gave it credit for. Now I'd trade it all just to know that Minty was okay, that she was considered, not 'trash' to be 'recycled.'

Minty. I had to know. I needed to know.

She was my best friend! What's the point of a new world if she's not there to share it with me?

I got to my hooves. I stopped crying.

I danced. Squish, Wink, Think.

My Pinkie Squink, my one of a kind fortune telling dance that let me see the solution to the problem right in front of me.

But why hadn't we thought to use it when we had friends lost and that time we trying to figure out how to surprise Kimono for her birthday? AGH! The headache again!

The pink cloud came into being above me, and all I saw was, nothing? I shivered.

NO!

A flickering image of Minty appeared, pink mane like mine, violet eyes, green coat. And on her flanks was three unique peppermints, I hastily made out details behind her.

Then the vision shifted to an island shaped like a butterfly. It faded to black.

I galloped like I had never galloped before.

+++

Everyone knows everyone in Ponyville. This is an absolute truth, an undisputed fact, an debatable reality!

So why am I questioning it? My name is Fiesta Flair, and I'm the owner and manager of one of Ponyville many musical theater. Or I think I am. The world outside has turned faded, empty, like it or me aren't connected to each other anymore.

I try to remember any details about my life but it's all, empty, like I just popped into existence one day and no one questioned it.

I'm part of the inopportune music band The Lady Bug Jamboree. I had a yellow mane and a red coat, AGH! I mean red mane and yellow coat! What's wrong with me? I can't even remember what my cutie mark looks like two seconds after I look at it!

And why . . . why do I remember being in the audience at the same time I was on stage?! It doesn't make any sense!

"Because you're politically incorrect. And that means you have to go. There's no room for a pony who might maybe somehow upset a minority. Besides, who cares for one short cardboard cut-outs like?"

I turn around and gasp, a winged unicorn with yellow and pink hair, and monster that was a mix of everything.

They didn't say anything, they grasped my head so hard I bled and-

-Fiesta-Flair-

-Fin-

++++

I say, these clues don't add up at all. I am Puzzlement. Ponyville isn't known for having many mysteries outside of the library's fiction section, but that's what makes me even more passionate about the ones I do find.

I began noticing some contradictions in Ponyville's records as if late. Birthdays, names, either were in the wrong place or not mentioned where they should. When I began interviewing ponies on the subject, they bloody astounded me by giving completely different versions of the same events!

Now I know ponies remember things differently depending on their point of view and emotional investments can what you remember and how you remember it but this was bloody ridiculous!

I finally went to Master Spike in Ponyville Castle. He's a jolly good dragon, a polite and proper gentlemen he is. He seemed as confused as I did. Turns out he was investigating these strange contradictions as well.

And the more we spoke, the more I saw the look on his face darken, it scared me.

Finally he said we could talk more later. Princess Wysteria (as Spike still insisted calling her) rubbed shoulders with me as I left. A long snaky winged shadow came over me. I looked up and saw a tiger paw come down on top of me, I managed to duck at the last moment. But I wasn't prepared for the flowers around me suddenly growing like vines and tying me down like rope.

"Pity. You have a will to survive, a desire to know, and a mind that thinks. But you're not on the list. Sorry Puzzlement."

"Who are you?" I gasped out as I struggled to break free.

"Nature's fury." It said.

"And nature's law." Said another voice, I turned my head to see the biggest pony I had ever seen with wings and a horn. "We're sorry Puzzlement, you just didn't make it."

The pony's horn touch me and-

-Puzzlement-

-Fin-

++++

"Sunny Daze!" I heard a shout I knew all too well.

I lowered my sun glasses and saw Sparkle Works looking like they had banned glitter. Which some of us had considered doing after her 'Paint Ponyville In Sparkles' birthday project still left some of us with sparkles still in our hair.

"Yo, Sparkle Works, what's got your tail in a knot?" I spoke calmly not getting up from my tanning bed.

"It's gone! Everything! My entire glitter collection! And all the stuff I covered in glitter EVER are just, gone!"

I shrugged, stretching. "Sounds like someone just did clean up."

She shook her head so much the sparkle in her mane was coming lose. "No no no! I mean it's like-"

"She's sayin' that all her stuff went 'poof' just like you two are about to go 'poof.' Sorry surfer girl, you're a lady after my own heart, but them's the breaks. Break-break-BREAK!"

"Yoinks! What are you?!" I called out at the snake, bull, lizard, thing.

I fell out of my tanning bed. I finally noticed everything but me and Sparkle Works looked...gray?

"I'm the guy who's gonna make you go poof. But unlike a magic show you ain't gonna come back at the end of the act! Poof! Poof! POOF!"

"Sparkle run!" I yelled as I backflipped and got in a stance.

"There's nowhere for her to run," Said a mature, calm, and passive voice. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a huge pony looking like a cross between a unicorn and a pegasus.

"Night-night-night!" The ugly puzzle mess snapped with a giggle. I shivered as I saw his eyes spin in opposing directions. "And good bye both pony, deader-than-dead."

I screamed and forward flipped into him back hooves first ... I fell to the floor in a thud as felt both my legs' bones shatter from the impact. It wasn't nearly as painful as I knew it would have been, but the feeling still made me vomit my smoothie I had for breakfast. The monster didn't look like he was hurt.

"Don't feel too BAD-BAD-BAD surfer girl. That was about the only outcome of you trying that." He leaned close to him.

I turned to see Sparkle hadn't run. She was paralyzed to the floor in fear.

"Sparkle please run!" I screamed as I landed a punch on the thing's face. My hoof and foreleg shattered like my legs. He didn't so much as bruise.

This time I did feel the pain. I screamed. Sparkle finally ran. Go girl! When she ran, she just ended up coming back inside ... from my closet? She looked about in fear like a mouse.

I tried to crawl to her with my one good hoof. "Sparkle. Please, you gotta get away."

"You know dudette," The thing leaned in close. "I like a girl who ain't givin' up, even when it's a waste of time. So I'll tell ya my name before you no longer exist. When I was little I was called 'Disruption.' Some of my family call me Disaster, but I also like the name Destruction, 'Mass Destruction' wHen I'm beInG Cool-cOol-COOL! Hehheh. Sorry. I get the twitches if I don't BLOW-UP something after a while. It's an addiction, wathcha gonna do right?" He looked like he had the rear legs of a buffalo, a bull, the tail of a monkey, the arm of a gorilla, and a . . . what I think was a tentacle. His wings were one lizard crest and one dove wing. I felt confusion just looking at it.

"Will you stop torturing them!" Said the 'uni-asus?.' "We don't have the time for this.

He touched a horn to the scared stiff Sparkle, her eyes rolled in the back of her head. It took me a sec' to realize she was still breathing.

"We should have done this while they were all sleeping anyway."

"Ah come off!" Said Disaster/Destruction. "Everyone deserves to face their end with their eyes open and aware. It's cowards who want to die in their sleep."

"And some long to die peacefully in their sleep in old age, everyone being the same is part of what caused this mess in the first place."

He looked in my eyes. "I'm sorry girl. Really am. Your world's going bye-bye and it doesn't even get to go off in onE bIg boom-BOOM-bOom!" He suddenly looked almost, apologetic? "Er. Look. Just. Sorry okay?"

He gripped my face.

-Sparkle-Works-Sunny-Daze-

-Fin-

+++

Sweet Berry hummed to herself as she put together yet another of her epic confectionary creations. Some would say monstrosities.

"It's just going to fall over again," Cotton Candy said behind the counter.

"No way, I've got it this time," Sweet Berry swore as she carefully stacked the tower of coffee cake and every type of berry known in Ponyville with all the vision of a renaissance master and the recklessness of a sky diver.

"Isn't that what you said the time before that, and the time before that?"

"I know I know but seriously, this time for sure!"

"Maybe it would be simple if I just told you a story instead?" Said the Cafe owner.

"You know, Story Belle and Cheerilee both tell more interesting stories than you. ERM! That is-" Sweet Berry gasped at what she just said, nearly knocking her creation off its based.

"It's okay. But I still -hear- plenty of interesting stories in here. And I don't mind sharing them. I don't have as much flare as Cheerilee or Story Belle, but it's not that bad."

Sweet Berry felt relieved, but why shouldn't she? Everything in Ponyville worked out in the end. Anything that went wrong in Ponyville ultimately fixed it self. "Almost-almost,-GOT IT! YES!" And her Berry Cake Tower was complete! And it wasn't falling over this time!

"I don't believe it!"

"I believe it! I just didn't give up!"

"We better tell the others! Where's my camera? So ... how are you going to get it out of here?"

Before Sweet Berry could answer, the two ponies fell asleep where they stood. They snored softly at each other, obvious to all around them.

"Why did you make us wait so long?" Asked the Alicorn sounding rather vexed at the delay in the schedule. Orders had to be maintained after all.

"But I wanted to see if she could do it! It sounded like she's been trying it for a long time!" Said his Draconequus counterpart in a high pitched fluttery voice. "And why not? All this time isn't going to be here anyway so why not?"

"So why bother letting her try when you knew it would all be erased anyway?"

"Because it was her final master work! Duh! An artist should have a chance to complete their last work."

"I need to find a new counterpart. Just do your job."

" ... alright."

She touched both ponies.

-Sweet-Berry-Cotton-Candy-

-Fin-

-

I fell off my motor scooter as I felt a headache hit me. Helmets save lives. With skinned back-legs I pushed myself up. The headache was getting worse.

A voice whispered behind me. I felt my entire body freeze, my muscles locking in place. "Don't worry Flitter Flutter, Mayor of Ponyville, you might no longer be immortal, you no longer have eternal youth, and may no longer have the activity you once had, but . . . at your core, you shall remain. Have a good sleep." Then blackness.

-

I could only gasp in shock and dismay as my watched my dragonfly familiar fade into nothing, looking at me sadly the whole time he turned gray, then transparent, then nothing.

"Gossamer!" I felt the spot where he had been, but there was nothing.

It was the final blow. I had nothing now. I had woken up early, intending to ~get~ a head start on the library's 'inspection' (IE re-reading my favorite stories all over), but had woken up to find the pages all blank. I had tried to go outside but found myself back where I started when I got out.

I fell to my back-legs and cried.

I noticed I was turning gray now. I didn't feel scared like I knew I should have.

"This'll be my last story won't it?" I said to myself.

"I'm sorry Story Belle, but it is."

I looked up to see a mixed-up but still somehow lithe creature. It was sitting in one of the chairs reading a book titled 'Pony POV Series, Generational Transitions by Alex Warlorn.' It wasn't a part of my library.

"Please. What's happening?"

"Think of all things as a story. People were sloppy and thoughtless when they wrote your story. Recklessness, nonsense, that whole 'plot? What plot?' I love it. But this place was trying to be organized and logical and . . . there was one too many rewrites."

Her body was a brown snake, and she had the head of a gray goat or horse. Her wings were one of a swan, and one of a flutterpony. Her back legs were different, one of a black cat, and the other of a duckling. Her tail was a fox's. Her front legs were as a bear's paw, and a green gnarled hand with warts on it.

"Isn't there anything that can be done?" I felt like I was leaking away. Like my fear was the first part of me to go.

"Sorry, real shame too. Seems like just a waste to toss out all these old stories, but what can you do? Sometimes you need to start the story over and there's nothing else to be done. I really prefer negative continuity myself. Allows for more creativity. What artist wants to be tied to a -previous- work anyway? No artist wants to say 'that was my last good work' after all. Doesn't mean the old stories don't have value, just creativity is more important than being held down by what you've already wrote. Oh and for what's worth, I liked Two For the Sky."

"Thank you," I whispered. I saw my back hooves vanish, but I was moving like they still there. I waved my front hooves through where they should have been but there was nothing. "What's your name?"

She didn't stop reading the book. "Well I like to be called Pandora, but Mother, The-End-Of-All-Things, says I'm Pandemonium. The name on my birth certificate is 'Desire' though. It's not like I MEAN to drive all those artists crazy when I inspire them! Logical thinking is for drones!"

"But could anyone read without being able to think rationally?" I sigh. My mane was strips of nothingness now.

"I,Um, er, that is, . . . I, don't really think about that. I'm sure they'd figure out something!"

I laugh. "I see . . . can you promise me something?"

"Yes?"

"If you really love stories, will you please remember mine?"

Pandemonium startled. She looked at me surprised, confused?

"By Mother Entrophy, I swear to always remember every story this library ever held, including yours."

"Thank you."

-Story-Belle-

-Fin-

--

Rainbow Dash "The One, The Only"

Perfect Lady And Drama Queen

Self-Proclaimed Expert On Rainbows

Humbled After They First Learned Of Rainbows' Origins In Unicornia

Nearly Lost Her Mane Colors And Had A Nervous Break Down When Rainbows Nearly Vanished From the World

Was The Most Staunch Disbeliever In The Existence of Flying Ponies

'Pegasi Are A Myth' She Believed

Now She Has Become One

The Self That Was Before Cut Away Like An Anchor From Its Ship

Heart Joined With That Of Firefly, One Of The Most Legendary Heroes Of The First Age

Neither Existing As They Once Were Or Ever Were

Not A False Past

Not A Rewritten Past

A Past Restarted

A Path Re-Begun

But Her Choices Remain Hers

Her Life Is Still Hers

And She Is Still Beautiful

-

"Dang, where is everyone?" Scootaloo said, Ponyville's resident sports lover. "I've got lots of new games I wanna teach everypony."

The mare look out the window of Sweetie's Belle house to the outside. Something looked strange, but Scootaloo couldn't place hoof on it.

"I'm sure they just got caught up at Starsong's concert. I know I wanted to go. But this surprise 'Congratulations!' party is gonna be the best!" The adult unicorn said to her Earth Pony friend.

"You know Pinkie Pie is likely already thinking up one," Scootaloo said.

"I know!" Sweetie clapped. "Isn't it going to be great? That'll make it double surprise!"

If they were all still fillies, Scootaloo would wonder if her big sister Cheerilee was leaving her and Sweetie Belle out again.

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were the youngest of the group of seven friends. This was no longer as obvious now that they were all adult mares opposed to fillies. 'Naw. That can't be it. The seven of us are as thick as thieves. Huh? Seven?'

"Sweetie Belle?"

"Yes?"

"There are six coming to the party right?"

"You, me, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, your sister: five. Just like you said."

"Thanks! I feeling confused for a second there." The two teenage fillies nodded at each. "Huh sister?"

Sweetie Belle tilted her head. "Remember? Cheerilee? You two are always butting head."

"We are?" Scootaloo shook her head. 'Cheerilee? My sister? But . . . she's a unicorn, I'm a pegasus. How can she be my sister? But, we shouted at each other when we were fillies before the Winter Wishes Festival when I accidentally woke the wishing star up early, wait, wishing star?'

Scootaloo shook her head more.

"Scootaloo you okay?" Sweetie Belle put a hoof on her friend's shoulder.

"Yeah, yeah I'm-I'm fine." She grunted. But she didn't feel fine. It felt like something important was missing but she couldn't remember what. The pain faded as did the confusion.

"Yeah I'm fine. Hey! Bet I can jump on the bed higher than you!" Shouted the filly as she ran into the bedroom and began bouncing on the bed.

"Hey no fair you got wings!" Sweetie Belle laughed as the slightly younger filly followed her.

~

The Draconequus next to the pink Alicorn said, "That was rather unorthodox and unprocedural for one of your position, Cadence."

"I've lived many lives. And I'll live many more after this one has completed it's cycle. My only regret is that the laws of space/time mean I can't be everywhere at once to do this quickly and painlessly. The opposite of you. Now let's hurry."

+++

"No, no, no." I said, a contrast to my normal trademark, 'Yes yes yes.'

I was Ponyville's resident photographer, records keeper, and biographer of every pony in Ponyville. I never really got involved in things directly, except for Kimono's birthday. It was amazing how it looked like it was going to be a disaster but the circle of ponies had put their wits together and turned it into one of Ponyville's grandest personal displays.

I preferred to just stay in the background and keep notes and take photographs. It was what made me happy. In particular the birthdays, no two ever identical, each one was unique, each one reflected that pony's heart, and each year they figured out something new and different.

I remember when a small group of visitors came to Ponyville, and I explained the ins and outs of Ponyville to them, in particular how ponies loved to do things in big ways and 'over the top' rarely fit into their mental process. It was nice having someone to talk to and share my profiles of the ponies with.

Now those biographies were vanishing before my eyes. One by one, the photographs, names, and records I had so painstakingly kept were wiped away like they had never been there. First I tried to find Pinkie Pie, like it or not next to Minty's recklessness she was the pony in Ponyville who was always the most proactive. But I couldn't find her anywhere. I tried to find Toola-Roola next, then StarSong. But none of the ponies I talked to had a clue who Toola-Roola or StarSong were!

"But you shared their birthday cake!" I practically shouted at one. She asked if I had been working too hard.

Now I don't like to brag, but next to Kimono I like to think I'm the Ponyville resident with the most common sense. I'll accept Wysteria as a contender and I know Pinkie Pie is smarter than she looks and-Agh! This was a headache. You have no idea how infuriating it can be to be the one pony in town who doesn't live in her own world.

Halfway to Kimono's home outside of Ponyville I collapsed from exhaustion. My birthday book fell open to my own page. I was surprised at being surprised when I saw the details of my auto-biography pages fading away like a powering down projector.

I gritted my teeth and tears stained the blanking pages. "So it's my turn now?" I whispered. "This is how it all ends? No entering a true paradise? No big bang? No final party? Just a slow, simple, fading away, like we were never here? Like we never mattered? Just brushed aside? Erased like we were all one big mistake? Not bad but not good enough? All our efforts, just amounting to nothing? Why? What's the point?"

"Razzaroo. Razzaroo it's time to come home."

I looked up. In front of me was a pony around three times bigger than I was, with wings that reminded me of Star-Catcher a little, on her head was a horn much larger than any unicorn's. And there was this feeling of -power- from her, that made me feel small just from being near her.

"Who are you?"

"My name would mean nothing to you since I have had several and will have several more. It's time for you to come home though."

"What do you mean? Come home? Are you the one destroying everyone?"

"It's not being destroyed, merely taken back to the start."

"Reversing everything so it's like it never was?! What else would you call it -but- destroying?"

"This world was breaking itself into pieces already. Didn't you ever notice that your record book never got full no matter how many birthdays or ponies you added to it? And there was always enough space between entries? If it was magic, where did you find it or who made it?"

"I, I don't know," I stuttered.

"Exactly. Those contradictions in existence came about because in your heart you wanted a book that would help you keep your records easily. The spell ponies cast three thousand years ago changed reality to suit your heart's desire. But nothing can exist without an origin. Everything must have an entry point into existence . . . and an exit point. This spell contradicts this rule."

I tilted my head. "But, isn't that what all magic does?"

"No. Magic follows its own set of rules. It obeys them as readily as anything of the natural world does. By creating contradictions in cause and effect, this world's reality has become steadily more broken. It's terminal. This is being done to save this world."

"By sacrificing the ponies?"

"They are being returned to the source. Not being destroyed."

"And all they've done, all they've experienced, all the friends they've made, will all that happen again?"

"They'll have new experiences and friends to take their place."

"Then you are killing them! You monster!"

"DO NOT PRESUME TO PASS JUDGEMENT ON ME LITTLE RECORD KEEPER! I HAVE WATCHED ENTIRE CIVILIZATION RISE TO GREATNESS AND FALL INTO DUST! I HAVE MADE CHOICES THAT COST A FEW HORRIBLE AND SAVED A BILLION TIMES SUFFERING ON FAR A GRANDER SCALE! I LIVED THE LIFE OF A SLAVE! A PRINCESS! A SHOP KEEPER! A HOUSEWIFE! AND A STREET URCHIN THIEF! AND YES, I HAVE BEEN A RECORDS KEEPER OF PONY'S LIVES. DO NOT THINK YOU HAVE THE RIGHT OR MORAL AUTHORITY TO PASS JUDGEMENT OVER ME!"

For one moment. It was like the entire universe had its eye on me, glaring at me harshly. I shook.

"Do you think I WANT to do this? Do you think any of us do? Even Destruction isn't enjoying seeing a world fade away with no legacy remaining! What you're seeing is the absolute last resort none of us wanted!"

"AND WHO LET IT REACH THAT POINT-?! IF YOU DIDN'T WANT IT WHY DID YOU LET IT HAPPEN?!"

She actually trotted back from me, I think I actually hit a nerve.

She spoke in a much calmer voice, She spoke in a much calmer voice, "...I have no right to answer that question because there is no reason, none that can justify what's happening. All I can say is I'm sorry you all must bare the cross for our mistakes...Now Razzaroo. You've done a good job. You have observed and seen them all. It's time to come home with me. Your life here has ended."

I whisper lowly, "No, no, no."

"Razzaroo." She sounded like a mother. I don't remember my mother.

"I said no. This is my home. This is my family. This is my friends. I'll stay with them until the very bitter end!"

"This world's past has been cut. It is tapering away into nothing. It'll be as if it never was."

"I still have my memories. And as long as I have those. You can't say it never was!"

She sighed. "So naive. So innocent. This world was truly pure. Perhaps a little too pure. . . . Fine. If this is the only way you'll learn. But this world is on borrowed time. It'll all fade to dust soon."

"And I'll be here to record every last moment of it!"

"Very well."

And she vanished in a flash of pink light.

I took my record book. I would rewrite every detail, and draw in every photograph if I had to. I wouldn't let the golden memories I had of everyone I loved die. I began to trot towards Kimono's.

++++

"Princess Wysteria. Take Princess Rarity and get her away from here! "
"But why?! Cheerilee! We just got here hoping Unicornia's records could-"

"JUST GO!" I shouted at the nominal princess of Ponyville.

"Not until you say what's going on!" Shouted the violet earth pony, her crowner and sage Spike riding on her back.

I looked outside a castle window and saw one of the shadows grapple Lilly Lightly. The dark violet unicorn's horn, so special with it's own glow, dissolved into nothing, her mane became blond and her coat pink. Lilly's eyes bulged as she began screaming in a panic running around in circles at the sight of herself.

"I don't know! And that's why you have to go! Anywhere is safer than here now!"

"Cheerilee you're not making any sense!" Wysteria said.

Spike whispered looking out at the sight, apparently able to see it as well, don't ask why. "It's as if a giant eraser was coming along to . . . everything."

Another of the headaches hit me, this one hard. The two conflicting memories hitting me again like a hammer to the back of my skull. I saw my life in Unicornia teaching Princess Rarity all she needed to know about being the newest yearly Rainbow Princess, but in another I saw living as a pigtailed Earth Pony in Ponyville with a little sister who I would love and squabble with as sisters will. Being part of a circle of seven friends and regarded as Ponyville's true master oral storyteller.

Little Princess Rarity sniffled as she hugged me. My heart shuddered. She had grown so much from being a spoiled little slacker, she had become such a wonderful little princess. And I couldn't remember the names or faces of the two unicorns who had gone with me to find her when she had accidentally used the royal wand to teleport herself away! A sickening feeling of emptiness tore at my gut.

"Rarity. You listen to teacher. You need to be very brave. Very, very brave. You need to get somewhere, anywhere that's safe. You're the rainbow princess after all, remember?" I wasn't fool enough to say to her 'As long as you live, Unicornia lives.'

"Not without you!" The little pink unicorn cried into my side.

I saw the shadows begin to peak through the windows and begin to slowly slid into the room.

"I'll be along in a little while," I lied. Thank goodness ponies are unused to lies that they're never on the look out for them. Especially when they knew the one telling them so closely.

"All-alright." Rarity nodded.

Spike said, "Miss Cheerilee it makes no sense for you not to come with us!"

"WHATEVER THIS IS IT'S INSIDE OF ME!" I gasp out at the confusion in my mind. "If I go with you it'll follow you!"

Rarity gasped and her lips quivered. Wysteria and Spike stared in shock.

A wrongness flowed from my horn, I shook my head. "Rarity, remember the trick you used with the magic wand to teleport far away?"

"Y-yes?"

"I need you to do that right now. Spike, Wysteria, hold onto her. But Rarity, for me." I looked into her eyes pleading.

Still crying Rarity nodded as the others reluctantly did as I asked. I handed Rarity the magic wand that was the symbol of her station. She twirled it in the air once, twice, thrice (had it taken this long before?) and she vanished in a flash of light along with the other two.

I sighed. I felt my beautiful horn fade to nothing on my forehead.

The shadows came at me from every direction, a herd of half-there ponies drawn to me like moths to a flame.

They mobbed me all at once, like a horde of starving wolves.

The last thing I remembered, was how proud I was to be Rarity's teacher. I knew she was destine to great things.

++++

The sky was black. The colors of the world around me had faded. I had so dearly wanted to run to Ponyville and see if anyone was alright, or thought that if I waited long enough I'd have a horde of ponies descending upon my lilly-pad garden begging for answers they were sure I'd be able to provide. I was the keeper of all of Ponyville's knowledge and lore after all.

A word echoed through my soul, one I had long forgotten but I remembered now clearer than day. Death. Death was coming, for everypony, no, for everything, and it was as inevitable as the sunset. I hoped I'd get a few brave ponies who would shout hyperbole about free-will and ponies being able to chose their own destiny and how there was nothing that couldn't be overcome with enough friends.

But no one came. It was all happening so fast it was like all the world and everypony in it was being simply swept away like so much chaff. Some part of me I don't think was all that surprised, I did have a reputation of being a pony impossible to catch off guard except by one spastic scatter brain green pony.

I loved my fellow ponies dearly, but their antics could be too much sometimes. Life was one big game to them, not taking seriously what they should and taking far too seriously what should be taken lightly. This was why I lived outside of town.

Being alone most of the time suited my lifestyle. I preferred having time simply to think and to appreciate the natural and create world.

My face hardened. If this was the end then it would get no satisfaction from me. It would have to get its giggles from cowering mortals elsewhere.

I trotted into the cave that served as my home and took out one book and trotted back to my gazebo.

I calmly sat down and opened my book and began to read.

In sat there, turning one page to the next.

I only had to wait a short while until I felt a pair of shadows over me. I finished reading my page and looked up.

One was large pony with wings and a horn and a swan like figure, looking as dark as night and a mane of stars her face deadly serious and detached. Darkness radiated from her like light does a flame. I resisted the chill I felt looking at her. It was like I was looking at the heart of nightmares.

The other was the complete opposite in demeanor and about half the size. The other was a creature with a brown snake like body and a horse's face. It's back legs was one hoofed limb, another was a lizard. It's forelimbs were those of a eagle's claw and a lion's paw. It's wings was one bat wing and one blue feathered wing. Its tail red and scaly, it might have been a fish's but I wasn't sure

His entire body language screamed someone didn't take life, or anything, seriously, was as playful as a puppy and who was just looking for his next big game. His eyes reminded me of a child's, excited at everything he saw. His expression? Pst. a court-jester's. For him the world was one big playroom! Rather like many ponies I knew.

"I can't say I normally get house guests the likes of you. If you wait a while I'm sure I can get some tea going if you'll wait here a minute," I said in a calm, casual, almost indifferent voice.

The two looked at each other confused. They apparently hadn't expected this reaction.

Finally the, Alicorn was it? Yes, I'm sure that's what one of my book called it. The Alicorn spoke with a voice that could knock the seeds off a dandelion at a hundred yards. "MORTAL, YOU APPEAR TO BE IGNORANT OF THOU'S POSITION! YE SHALL SHOW PROPER RESPECT FOR DIVINE AUTHORITY."

"That is the most butchered Old Equesterian I have ever heard. If you're trying to sound impressive, it isn't really working." I said tempted to go back to my poetry book.

"That's what I keep telling her! But she won't listen! Stick in the mud!" The other creature made a face at her. A draconequus? Yes. A lot more obscure though. Had found it referenced only once. "She thinks that fancy way of speaking is gonna impress anyone! Of all the balance-partners I had to get saddled with, it had to be her! The most moody stuck-up artist in creation! I thought I was supposed to be teamed with my counterpart, not my opposite!"

"SILENCE! YE, YOU SHALL CONDUCT THYSELF IN MANNER BECOMING OF ONE OF THE PILLARS OF CREATION!"

"And could you please use your indoor voice please?" I said.

"That IS her indoor voice!" He declared.

I chuckled at his response. "That so. Heh."

The draconequus turned to the other one to address her. "'You shall conduct thyself' blah, blah, blah. Where's the fun in that? Seriously, you're more boring than my mother, and she's the embodiment of heat death!"

"THE NIGHT SHALL NOT BE LECTURED BY A MORTAL! NOR BE MOCKED BY THE CLOWN WE HAS BEEN SENTENCED TO ENDURE BY THE ELDERS!"

"The night, eh? What is your name then? Nyx? Selena? Nephthys?"

"ALL OF THEM!"

"Ah. I see. A predictable answer but, logical."

"You should see how stuck-up she gets around eclipses, 'Behold! My Nighty Night-Night Shall Dominate The Sun And the Day For A Whole Three Minutes! Watch me make a big deal of it by putting you to sleep with my three year long poetry recital!"

"IT WAS ONLY ONE YEAR!"

I laughed out loud. "You are a most pleasant entity."

"Why thank you." He knelt down and kissed my hoof.

"DISCORD!!! HAVE YOU NO SHAME-?!"

"Pst. I'll do what I want, when I want, how I want." He stuck his tongue out at her so long it stretched out six feet and wiggle the forked tip at the very edge of her face.

"BE SERIOUS~!!!"

"No. And whose going to make me? You wouldn't do anything to get the Elders angry, now would you?"

"AGH! WHATEVER!" She glared at him and then looked back at me. "LADY KIMONO OF PONYVILLE. YOU HAVE BEEN SELECTED TO BE ONE OF THE FEW PONIES TO BE SPARED OF THE CLEANSING OF THIS ONE-DIMENSIONAL SACCHARINE PINK MONSTROSITY!" She struck a pose. "HONORED YOU MUST BE TO ACCEPTED AS ONE OF THE FEW AND THE PROUD TO HAVE A SOUL AND A IDENTITY AMONG THIS LEGION OF IDENTICAL EMPTY-HEADED PERSONALITIES. YOU SHALL ASCEND WITH US AS THIS DISEASED LIMB DIES FROM ITS AMPUTATION! AND YOU SHALL BE DEPOSITED INTO THE NEW WORLD AS A GREAT AND KNOWING SAGE WHO SHALL BE KNOWN AND ADMIRED BY ALL."

"I refuse," I said flatly.

"WHAAAT~?!!!!!!" I think she knocked over my favorite tea set back in my home.

Discord burst out laughing hugging his stomach when it began to hurt. He floated in the air curling up as his body shook with the giggles. "This is classic! AHAHHA! I could've told you that was coming!"

'HOW DARE YOU! HOW DARE YOU-?! YOU ARE AN ANT IN THE PATH OF A HURRICANE! YOU WOULD DARE TO DEFY THE GIFTS OF THE GODS THEMSELVES? " I am quite certain she damaged my hearing. Her left eye was twitching.

My first urge was to kiss her hooves and beg for forgiveness for which I was unworthy and declare what a worthless nag I was for daring to contradict her in any shape or form. Discord made some silly faces that helped me find my inner resolve. Laughter in the face of such insurmountable power? Was I expressing a virtue or I was enacting madness?

"So what is to become all others?"

"Scrapped or recycled, like soda cans." Discord looked at me, "So what's the deal? No, 'what is going on?!' No, 'What are you?!' No, 'I Don't want to die?' "

"I am the keeper of Ponyville's knowledge. I'd have to be blind not to see what was coming. And I know what you both are, so I have no need to ask."

"And you didn't tell your precious fellow little ponies?"

"For what purpose? So their final days could be filled with fear and sorrow? Each brand new day is a chance for games and candy. They wouldn't think of what joys they'd want to experience in their final day. And if I told them, they'd just panic more. They don't understand loss or endings. If we could've averted this ourselves, you two wouldn't be here, would you?"

"Heh. Interesting," Discord said.

She seemed to finally get her nerves back together and said, "L-LADY KIMONO OF PONYVILLE! I SAY AGAIN! YOU ARE TO COME WITH US INTO THE NEW TIMELINE."

"And I chose no. I would sooner be 'recycled' with my fellow ponies then abandon them."

" Fellow ponies you say?"

"Yes." I went back to reading my book.

" . . . . YOUR COURAGE IS COMMENDABLE . . . BUT YOUR ARROGANCE SHALL BE SEVERELY PUNISHED! DISCORD DO IT."

"Meh. Don't wanna."

"AND WHY NOT? YOU HAD NO PROBLEM 'PLAYING' WITH ANYTHING ELSE SINCE WE GOT HERE!"

"Its not as fun when someone wants you to do something."

The look she gave him, I think it made my heart stop.

"Yes Luna." He said in a small voice. He tapped me on the head. It was like a fist through my brain. I fell over on my side, my body felt heavy, I crashed onto my gazebo's floor with a thud. My eye rolled to the open page of my poetry book.

I march forward to the end but I am not afraid.
All I have known and all I have done is gone.
But I do not fear what lies beyond this promenade.
For I know it is from the darkest hour that comes the dawn

+++

"WHOSE IDEA IS IT FOR ALICORNS AND DRACONEQUI TO ALWAYS WORK IN PAIRS ANYWAY?"

"Your Parents I believe. Something about cosmic balance in miniature yada-yada-yada."

"AGH. I WISH THEY'D HAVE ASSIGNED ME ANOTHER COUNTER-PART."

"Hey, normally I'm teamed up with your sister remember?"

"I DON'T SEE WHY YOU INSIST ON ACTING LIKE A CHILD AND COMMITTING SUCH MEANINGLESS ACTS OF MISCHIEF. THIS AGE IS GONE AND GONE. NOTHING HERE MATTERS."

"EXACTLY. This timeline is ka-put, so we can do whatever we want! Blow up a mountain! Turn a river into lemon-lime soda! Make Two Plus Two Equal Fish! And no one is going to care! Be a clown, be a monster, be a knight, doesn't matter because nothing that happens here matters! Even the ponies we're not recycling aren't gonna remember a thing! Don't you see? This world is our own personal playground! Ha ha!"

"YOU ARE ALWAYS A CLOWN. WHO COULDN'T TAKE HIS ROLE AS A SPIRIT OF CHAOS SERIOUSLY IF HE WANTED TO. YOU AND YOUR NONSENSE."

"What fun is there in making sense? Oh come on! Loosen up a TINY BIT! Look! Look! See that mouse? Just change it a TINY bit! Doesn't matter! This world is gonna be like it never existed! Gonna be abandoned, then condemned, then demolished, and finally paved over when the new timeline catches up with it! Let yourself go just some. Who knows when we'll get to cut loose like this again!"

"IF IT'LL CEASE YOUR BLABBERING."

The mouse in a sparkle of deep blue changed into a bat. It squealed and fluttered about on it's new wings and nuzzled in her hair. She laughed. About time she did if you ask me. I mean, come on, makes me wish time had more meaning outside of the mortal plane of reality. Her sister at least laughed at my jokes!

"There? You see? I'm sure one day you'll see things my way."

She looked at me drolly. Ick. Doesn't she know her face could end up sticking that way? "THAT IS NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN."

I grinned. "Never say never."

She stuck up her noise and trotted past me whipping me in the face with her tail. Such all consuming darkness, such cold frigid winds that followed her wherever she went, a heart of ice and mind of iron. She reminded me of my mother. I hated that icy beotch. But Her, HER, she took all things I loathed about that lazy Concept that squeezed me out and made them right! It was completely confusing! Utterly contradictory! It made no sense! I loved it!

But she'd never let me in. No matter what persona I'd wear for her. Oh well. I think that made me feel . . . what's that word again? Bad? Time for Discord's patented and copyrighted one of a kind solution! If you're feeling down, make someone else feel lower.

Were there any of those butterfly ponies left? Maybe I can turn half into parasprites and have them eat the other half.

TO BE CONTINUED

Episode 46: "Pinkie Pie Prologue"

My Little Pony
Pinkie Pie POV
Side Story
Prologue
(Optional-Canon)

So you really wanna know? Okay.

I didn't know why I always got all nostalgic when I used my balloons to fly, but it always felt so good. Of course the trio of flutter ponies thought it was a hassle to always have to bring me down, but it was all in good fun.

It also provided me a chance to spot any new faces in Ponyville, I did have a reputation to keep as everyone's best friend of course and that meant knowing everyone in town before I could be friends with them.

Rainbow Dash thought I could use some more glamor in my steps if I wanted to be the town's most popular pony, she said I'd be 'Simply dashing.' But fashion sense was Dashie's special talent, not mine. And I didn't want to be the most good looking, just everyone's best bud. Thankfully, while Rainbow Dash wasn't one to ever hold back her high culture opinions, she wasn't one to impose them.

StarSong's latest performance at Celebration Castle had gone well. It never ceased to amaze me how StarSong could be so in command of an audience on stage, but be so shy around ponies when offstage.

Spike, however, was in the castle wearing his reading glasses, running about reading notes and cards in his own claw writing mumbling to himself, "My word, not right, not right at all, something is definitely wrong here. I know I keep getting my stories mixed up, but these don't make any sense." But the intellectual dragon wouldn't let any pony get a word in edgewise, not even his 'Princess' Wysteria.

Of course I wanted to celebrate.

"How about a party?" I suggested at once on the way back home.

"We had one yesterday." StarSong pointed out causally.

"Yeah isn't it great?"

"How about one of Cheerilee's story-times instead? After that concert, I could use some quiet time."

I wondered. 'Which friends to invite?' At the time, I missed StarSong's implication about 'quiet time.' Didn't matter which friends I invited since they were all great. Maybe Toola-Roola, she did help StarSong with the decorations for the show after all.

"Pinkie Pie, look." The pegasus StarSong whispered shaking me, her friend, out of my planning.

I finally noticed the town around us. Things were very wrong. The world's colors looked muted, desaturated, like someone had put a thin sheet of gray over everything. The ponies themselves were either looking a bit confused about it themselves or trying to ignore it. Some galloped to Celebration Castle to see if the ponies there knew what was going on.

Then I saw Toola-Roola come running like mad towards us. She bumped past two ponies, but they looked around as if they had been shouldered by 'The Invisible Mare.'

The pony looked outright panicked. "GUYS! Can you see me?! You know it's me?!"

"Toola-Roola? Of course we can see you!" StarSong said, confusion plain in her face.

"Thank goodness! I came back from the market with new paints and my house was gone! I tried to ask everyone what happened, but it was like they couldn't hear me! Rainbow Dash bumped right into me! I said 'Sorry Rainbow Dash' and she seemed confused a second before noticing me and asking if we had ever met! And . . . look." She showed us a picture we had all taken of our core seven group of friends. Me, Dashie, Cheerilee and her sister Scooaloo, little Sweetie-Belle, StarSong, and Toola-Roola. Only Toola-Roola wasn't there anymore. "What's happening?! I'm so scared!"

We hugged our friend, not sure what else to do as she looked on the verge of tears.

"Dang! There you are! I've been looking all over for you! I don't get why I was told in particular which ones to deal with." Said a causal somewhat snarky voice hold a trace of attitude. "Ya bunch of soulless identical Mary-Sue Clones."

The three of us looked in shock at the . . . thing before us. It had the body of a furred snake, it had the tail of a rattle snake, it had the head of a horse, and the wings of a dragonfly on one side and a vulture on another, its legs were those of a dingo, fox, coyote, and raven, its eye were green in yellow. It was like a bad dream come to life.

Before any of us could speak he grabbed hold of Toola-Roola's head from behind and said like he had scored a goal at a soccer game, "Character retgon!" Toola-Roola didn't even scream, she just looked at us sadly as she vanished like a magic trick.

StarSong gasped, "What did you do to- . . . to .. . " The Pegasus singer/dancer realized with horror; she couldn't remember the name of her friend who had been standing there a moment ago. She tried to remember what she looked like but it was all coming up blank. A horrible feeling came over her. "What did you do?"

"Meh." The mix of animals shrugged, "We're just cleaning out the closet. Cutting out the dead weight. And now I've got to do more work to erase what Miss Deleted did while I was looking for her! Great, just great! And I was almost done too!"

"Friends aren't dead weight!" I shouted.

"Pst. You're all identical anyway, why so upset?"

"SHE-" StarSong said as she grappled with her memories, biting and kicking away for the precious bits still there, "SHE WAS AN ARTIST! She painted! She has a taste for design none of us have! You can't just call her nothing!"

Finding it horribly, horribly hard to focus on her friend who had been standing there a moment before, StarSong looked around, her sense of wrongness growing, like shadows were moving among them.

Ponies were arguing, okay nothing too special there (you should have seen me and Minty bash heads at the Spring Promenade), but ponies were having different ideas of how to do things and not compromising like we always do! I saw some ponies vanish and their faces and names vanishing from my memories, some were (better? worse?) changed into completely different ponies.

I saw Rainbow Dash trotting confused to the edge of town, maybe she was trying to figure out why she knew she should have known the pony she bumped into earlier? A shadow passed over her, this one, however, took shape; it was a pegasus. It moved about as if blind, moving towards the first warm body it sensed.

It became a transparent image: its mane blue and its hide pink while it's cutie mark was two blue lightning bolts. Then it seemed to overlap Rainbow Dash!

"Dash it all! What is--" Rainbow Dash gasped out in her high-culture accent, looking ill.

Her customize designed scarf and hat vanished, her coloring changed. Then her cutie mark, the definition of her soul became a single cloud and the rainbow arch became a lightning bolt. Her eyes widened as I saw maturity, experience, all her high culture experience and diction drain from her as a pair of pegasus wings sprouted from her back and her entire figure changed, her lady-like voice turning to a rough-and-tumble one.

I felt like I was looking into the eyes of a stranger rather than one of my friends. The (new?) Rainbow Dash flew away in a daze, not knowing what she had been doing there.

I felt a weird form of inverse sickness, I don't know what else to call it, like I the world was changing and I wasn't a part of it anymore.

The dutiful and ever present trio of flutterponies were in a panic as they tried to figure out what was wrong with the much larger ponies.

"Flutterponies!" StarSong yelled at them.

"StarSong?! What's going on?" Zipzee asked as she fluttered her wings.

Starsong blew them a kiss, "Run, stay safe. Get back to Breezy Blossom Way and tell the others there to stay clear of Ponyville!"

"We can't just-"

"Please do it!"

The tiny fairy like ponies looked at each other, finally nodded and fled as fast as their wings could carry them.

The mix-and-matched thing asked like it discussing cake. "What makes you think there's anywhere they can run to?"

StarSong felt anger. I had never seen it before so greatly, but I recognized it all the same. It was confusing. But she held onto it. "I WON'T LET YOU HURT THEM!"

The mix of things scratched his nose, "Meh. Don't get so worked up. They're not my department. You girls sure didn't give us this much hassle when we did a semi-retool last time . . . but just goes to show; some things just can't be fixed, you just need to tear it all down and start from scratch! This entire age of Equestria must be cut out of the story books. I mean, I told those stuffed shirts that they were just making this universe worse with their 'improvements' they handed down. At least this place was interesting before they had to throw in a bunch of political correctness! You were at least a little bit CUTE before! And I thought a well-spoken scholarly Spike was a nice change of pace. Ugh! Of course, who'd listen to one of the Draconequi? Of -course- we'd want to get back to rebuilding something we just finished 'patching' with bad ideas!"

"Who ARE you?" StarSong cried out.

"I'd say that doesn't matter since you won't remember this, but I never get tired of saying it. The name's Anarchy. Got it memorized? Yeah yeah, and I'm in a pecking order by commission, so sue me.

"I'm called a Draconequus, Draconequi for plural. We're called in along with the Alicorns by those in charge to 'fix up' things if a reality has turned hopelessly static and all nearly the souls become generic. Of course my parents never do a thing all day! Ya'd think being the embodiments of primal fear and heat-death that pops-Havoc and ma-Entropy would do more than sit on their tails parroting orders all day. Oh well. Time for you to go."

"No!" StarSong shuddered.

"Oh don't worry girlie, didn't mean you. Ya see, you have a tiny bit of depth that can be explored. That makes you a bit interesting. You got something that can grow and evolve. That means you get to become a somebody, opposed to a nobody destined to fade into the heartless darkness, unversed in your own emotions. You're unique, so you get to stay," He pointed at me. It was like my heart stopped. "But nobody cares about a pony whose always happy and who makes friends with everyone fixated on parties like everyone else every day here. Talk about boring and generic! That's the kind of thing that have got to go!"

I felt a spark of something well up inside me. "We throw parties to GET TO KNOW each other! Each party is based on that pony's heart! And we don't do them every hour of every day! I just like them! We did a lot in a row because a lot of us met in a row! Of course I helped with everyone's else's party so much that I nearly ruined my own until everyone helped and-"

"-and Bye-bye."

StarSong rammed him from below the jaw, making him shut up. "Mah toaung, yoh made me bit mah toaung!" He rattled his head. "Hey you little punk! Watch it! You don't want to make me angry!"

"I won't let you touch her!" StarSong said tears in her eyes.

"What makes you think what can effect anything of what's going to happen next?" He asked almost sternly. Anarchy teleported right behind her right in my face, StarSong however proved just a little bit faster and kicked him in the back of the head making him grunt.

His rattle snake tail lashed at her but she dodged nimbly as only a dancer can.

I couldn't take this anymore! We didn't fight! We comprise. We hug and make up. This is all wrong. I just curled into a ball and whimpered wanting it to end.

"Alright, now you're just getting in my way!" Stated Anarchy angrily as he snapped his fingers and a dozen giant swords fell from the sky, StarSong was past being terrified, past being afraid, everything she knew and loved was dying around her, if she could protect one thing, then nothing else mattered. It was like I was outside my body knowing all this.

She felt one of the swords slice her leg open, it was the most horrible horrible horrible pain she had felt in her entire life, she wanted to break down and cry then, but the adrenaline running through StarSong was keeping the pegasus going.

She rammed him in the gut, knocking the wind out of him. "ENOUGH!" He snapped his fingers, she fell to the ground skinning her belly. She looked behind and saw with horror her wings were gone.

"Now time-out you! Now, back to business! One less generic cookie cutter ponies -delete-." He made a grab at me, I didn't try to run. He'd stop trying to hurt StarSong if I just disappeared.

StarSong screamed and leapt at his face, by sheer reaction he grabbed her, he realized his mistake too late. "AW DAMMIT!"

I finally looked up StarSong looked at me, she began to mouth one final song, but she vanished into nothing before the air could leave her lungs.

"Ah fudge!" Anarchy cursed.

"Bring her back! Take me and bring her back!" I cried desperate trying to hold onto the image, voice, and songs of my friend. I began hammering at his body with my fore hooves blindly.

"I can't dumb horse! She's gone! " For a brief moment, it looked like Anarchy was -scared- of me.

"Anarchy! Stop torturing them! You're here to do a TASK remember? This entire world needs to be revised before the 'improvements' from before cause it to collapse totally! And where's that donkey you call a brother Discord?" Boomed a stern but young(ish) female voice.

It was a horned pegasus/winged unicorn, she was a lot larger than any other pony I had seen. Her cutie mark was a spiral galaxy. Her horn was longer than any pony's I've seen. Her coat a mix of silver and black. Her mane sparkled white.

I didn't even try to comprehend this new being's appearance, the unifying happiness of my world gone, they had ruined it, I had nothing.

"Meh, I saw him making some blue flower or another, or turning those butterfly ponies into fast multiplying bugs, I forget which. Let him do his thing."

"'His thing' tends to cause more damage than good! And I don't remember him having orders to do anything to the Flutterponies!"

"Pst. You didn't, maybe he did. Ya can't pick your family Your Starriness or whatever yer title is. Or I'd have put myself up for adoption by now. At least it's six relatives and not an organization of nobodies."

"Did you return the ponies to the source as you were supposed to? We don't have time for your slacking with this entire world's fate at stake."

"That eager to know that a couple of the Perfect Ponies went bye-bye?"

"I am eager to have this horrid business over with!"

"Yeah, yeah I did." Anarchy lied perfectly. "And now it's getting hard to even remember their names now isn't it? Surprise?"

I asked meekly, "Whose Surprise? Wait, how'd I know you meant a pony named Surprise?"

The horned pegasus/winged unicorn one pointed at me. "What about her? Pinkie Pie? Your orders were to make them all unique individuals."

"She's the last one. That makes her unique now. I'm finished with the ponies, you can start on the setting."

I had never cried before, but now my eyes were gushing rivers. "Please! Change them back! Change them all back! PEASE! What did we ever do to you?"

The flying unicorn/horned pegasus looked me in the eyes, it was like I was looking at every star in the sky, I felt so small as she lowered her head. "I'm so sorry my little pony. You've done nothing to deserve this, but what's done can't be undone. If there was another way to stop entropy, we would have already done it. We can't simply 'undo' the misguided 'improvements', too much damage has already been done."

"Preaching to the chorus 'lady rainicorn', if there was an easier way to fix this whole mess, I'd be the first one to suggest it," grumbled Anarchy, looking rather annoyed. "A total retool is just way too much work for my tastes."

I could tell from the mean way he said it that that wasn't her real name or species.

The horned pegasus gave a look to Anarchy before returning her gaze to my eyes, a somewhat compassionate look in her eyes. "I am afraid what we're doing now is kind compared to what happens if we do nothing. There's nothing else that can be done. The only thing I can do for you is have it so that you won't remember this life."

"NO! I don't want to forget them! They're my friends!" I screamed.

The flying unicorn/horned pegasus startled in full surprise at me. She then lowered her head to look back into my eyes, a serious look on her face. "... Listen closely to what I am about to say... Your world will never be the same and some of your friends will no longer be with you, and those that do will be different than you knew them. But I promise you parts of them will live on, as they always do..."

"I... I don't understand..." I replied, confusion clear in my eyes along with the tears.

Anarchy grunted at me annoyed as I prepared to say something else and grasped my head in a dingo's paw. He lifted me off the ground. "On second thought. Maybe a depressing childhood to balance out all that cheerfulness."

I realized what that meant. "NO! Please! Leave my mother alo-" And I felt my inner self torn asunder.

I felt new memories flooding into me. A new truth. A new reality. But I remembered the old ones too. I still do. Though I don't know how much I remember is true anymore and how much is just me trying to fill in the blanks. And I held onto the image of StarSong trying to sing her last melody.

Goodbye~
Funny how that's such a hard thing to say

Now it's time to let go but
Never thought I'd feel this way

Promise not to be sad but
We both knew I'd be lyin'.
Gotta fight back the tears, cuz
Can't let you see me cryin'.
You're more than just my best friend!

What makes me misty most of all
In my final curtain call
Is knowing that I won't see you
Aga

Episode 48: "Happy Cake Adventure/Generation Transitions Part 2"

Pony POV Series
Generational Transitions Part 2
Optional-Canon

Hi, I'm Minty! Razzaroo says I see the world through green colored glasses! Yes I did paint the whole town green the night before my birthday but nopony complained! Hey! We're ponies! If we weren't over the top we wouldn't be ponies!

Cucumbers on my pizza, green candy, you name it, and if it's the color green I love it!

I love the color green as much as Pinkie Pie loves the color pink! This sure caused trouble that one time we were making a float for the Promenade (accidentally) together! But it all worked out at the end! Always does and always will!

What do I like besides the color green? Socks of course! Lots and lots of them! So practical, and yet so many different designs and styles! I have a huge collection, or I kinda used to.

You see, I . . . kinda sorta like things to be in order, I like to see details be right. And, I have this tiny, tinny little problem of sometimes making things worse when I take it too far.

When we made the Candy Cane Beacon for Santa Claus to visit Ponyville, it was, just a tiny bit out of alignment on the tree. So I got in a balloon (so what if I didn't really know how to fly) and got it fixed up just right. Then I realized it could have been a bit more to the left, then the right, and-- it fell and shattered into pieces.

I may have gone just a tinniest bit nutty and decided to play Santa and give everypony in Ponyville socks for Christmas so no one would know the difference.

It mostly worked out, until I went to Pinkie Pie's house and it turned out she was awake.

"What are you doing here Pinkie-?!"

She said, "Sleeping." What she meant was, 'I live here.'

So yeah, maybe I wasn't thinking straight.

I had never seen Pinkie so mad when I explained things, or any pony so mad.

She suggested I leave Ponyville. But I don't know what you're supposed to pack when you go into exile!

Then she explained I should just go to the North Pole and address Santa directly.

And . . . I found why it's a mean thing to say 'may you live in interesting times' because that Christmas Eve was really really interesting!

Long story short, nearly got killed at least twice with Thistle Whistle tagging along because I had no clue how to use a balloon (a pegasus scared to death of clouds following me on a cloudy night, you can't tell me that's not brave). Got saved by everypony else. Missed Santa. Got a forgive and forget by everypony because they were more happy about me being alive than not getting presents from Santa.

There was this funny light that came from each and every one of us, I still don't know what that was about. And when we got home, we found Santa had found the way anyway. Star-Catcher said it was the good-will in our hearts that called Santa to Ponyville, not a candy-cane light. She's so smart.

Oh, and those socks you hang on your fireplace every year? Santa got that idea from me! Ha ha!

After that I learned not to fixate on details so much. I don't know what, but that Christmas felt more, alive somehow than any we had had in a long time.

Me and Pinkie? I guess you could say we're two peas in a pod, hey, peas are green, so that makes it even better! How'd it happen?

We didn't really meet when we were small, or really small, we were both mares by the time we actually met! Pinkie I think feels I'm a bit of a klutz. So I kinda sorta accidentally organized her surprise birthday party a day early, it all worked out in the end!

We both have a passion for a single color! We both love to party (okay, not saying much in Ponyville but still-!). We both love mono-color designs! We both somehow end up in the confusion that trots through Ponyville every so often. And . . . she takes charge, she's not afraid, she's willing to lead ponies to help others. And of all the ponies in Ponyville . . . I dunno. Maybe we just hang out the most or something.

When she's not around, it's like there's a piece of me missing, but she's still whole without me around. I want to be a part of her, not just have her be a part of me.

I know I'm not part of her 'core seven' group of friends but, I don't mind. She's the friend I want, she's the friend I need, she's the friend I'm happy with. Yeah yeah I know what you're saying, 'the more the merrier' this is Ponyville we know that better than anypony!

I wanna break into song about it!

"Wake Up Ponyville and Good Dayspring!

I wonder what this morning will-

"Bring? . . why is everything gray? Where's all the greens? And, where's everypony?"

It was like I was looking at a faded photo of a ghost town. I was the only thing in full colors.

Was it nighttime? Did I sleep all day? I looked up at the sky and-look down, I look down, Ilookdown!

I shivered.

"See? I told you that they were going to miss one. And the best part? She's on the DELETE list! No Continues or Restart Button for her! This is what I'm talking about! Didn't you want an entire species of nocturnal ponies around to say how great you are every day? Well who's gonna miss this one? She's perfect! And the best part is that you're not disrupting the status quo! She's already scheduled for the trash bin! No one's gonna mind a nice custom pony being slipped in through the back door. Plus, you'd be making her unique! That's what we're here for, right?!"

"YOU HAVE A VERY BAD HABIT OF OVERSELLING YOUR POSITION."

"Sorry."

I see a thingie that look like a bunch of animals put together. And a really big pony with a body that kinda reminded me of a black swan with wings a a horn.

"I AM THE NIGHT. THE NIGHT WOULD KNOW YOUR NAME."

I shivered, I couldn't take my eyes off her.

"SPEAK."

"M-Minty," I squeaked out.

"MINTY? YOU ARE EXCESS. YOU ARE A SHALLOW AND IDENTICAL PONY WITH NO TRUE PERSONA OF YOUR OWN."

I quivered, too scared to verbally fight back. It was like just-just-being, being near her was scarey. I mean, uber-duper-super-very-special-really-scary! Like something that shouldn't exist. Or I wasn't.

"BUT IT NEED NOT BE THAT WAY. YOU NEED BUT SUBMIT YOURSELF TO BE THE BEGINNING OF PONIES FOR WHOM DAY SHALL BE FOR REST AND NIGHT WILL BE FOR LIVING."

I felt a tiny piece of me break through the fear's spell. "Are they gonna walk upside-down and speak backwards too?"

"Wha-?" The big pony's jaw nearly dropped away from her face as her wavy star mane seemed to settle down and she looked at me like that Christmas when I trying to explain I broke the beacon and Pinkie Pie thought I meant I broke Santa.

The pony sighed and lowered her head. "I am cursed to be surrounded by jokers and morons."

"Hey! That's not a nice thing to say!"

"Look, I've already been given a bad day by the height of pony wisdom, I really don't need this from you, her exact opposite."

"So she's red instead of green and-"

"WIL YOU PUT A LID ON IT? I AM IN A VERY FOUL MOOD!"

" . . . You really need to turn that frown upside down. You know what you need? A party! And not going around making things gray and lonely, uh, can you please please please please please please please fix that up and put everything back the way it was?"

The jig-saw puzzle looked at the big pony. "Aren't you going to give the whole 'we have no choice' speech?"

The big pony groaned, "If I have to say that gratuitous piece of noise one more time I swear I am going to scream my head off."

"Fair enough. So you still wanna create your own species of night going ponies? Come on, that was a good idea!"

"She's kind of a mood killer. Let's just clean up this mess. I've had it to up to here with your shenanigans today."

"As if I couldn't tell from your drop to normal volume. Fine. Just a tick'."

"No. I'm doing this. No games from you." A tiny black spark came into being at the tip of her horn, and it go bigger, and bigger, like a big black ball of . . . something.

"MINTY~!!!"

And like out of nowhere, Pinkie skidded in front of me!

"DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH HER!"

Was that Pinkie Pie? She looked, different.

"Sorry. BUT YOU HAVE CAUGHT ME IN THE WORST MOOD IMAGINABLE! AND I AM NOT IN THE MOOD ANYMORE TO HUMOR PONIES WHO CAN'T ACCEPT THEIR TIME IS OVER FOR THE HUNDREDTH MILLIONTH TIME TODAY! SO FORGIVE ME IF I SKIP INTRODUCTIONS AND DRAMA AND SKIP TO THE END CONCLUSION. SEE YOU IN THE NEW WORLD!"

The black ball of lightning shot off her horn, with Pinkie between me and it. She didn't move, she GROWLED! Suddenly a huge wall popped between us. The black lightning ball hit and blew it to bits! Pinkie used herself as a shield as bits blew past us.

"I suggest you run to wherever you're going to be running to," Said the jigsaw monster.

Pinkie Pie just nodded and in a flash and had me on her back and was running so fast that it was like she just taking town blocks one step at a time!

+++

"DISCORD!!! WHY-?!" She blew in one ear and out the other.

I shrugged. "Duh. They amuse me."

"AMUSE YOU-?!"

"That pink one. She's a disruption to the status quo. I like disrupting the status quo. She seems a little fun. There she goes, with someone she can't save whose already doomed, but is going to turn the world upside down trying to. My kind of pony. And did you see how she was moving? She's realizing that these silly rules of physics are the real nonsense. I can smell it on her, she's marked for deletion and yet she's been fixed up for the new version! I ain't letting something that contrary just get atomized by you. Anyway, the green one? She's set for the delete bin anyway, I can have as much fun with her as I want to before she has to go and no one is gonna care one bit. I'm not going to throw that chance away and let you ruin my fun. Maybe I'll get to play with them later now that I stopped you from vaporizing them into nothing-ow-ow-ow!" She magically began pulling on my ear.

"I HAVE FULL 'VAPORIZATION INTO NOTHINGNESS' RIGHTS FOR THIS ASSIGNMENT! IT SAYS SO ON MY MISSION BRIEFING! IF I WANT TO BLOW ONE PONY WHO'S CAUSING TROUBLE AND ONE PONY WHO'S DOOMED ANYWAY INTO ATOMS ITS MY RIGHT!"

"Ow-ow-ow-ow-can't you take a little joke?"

"I've had enough of you! First I'm taking you to Our Elders and telling them every bit of stupidity and immaturity you've been up to today! Then I'm going to deal with those two chaotic DISRUPTIONS myself!"

Suddenly, the game wasn't suddenly so funny. Old Man Havoc's face suddenly filling my vision, including his teeth that were roughly twice as tall as I was. "Can't we please talk about this?!"

"NO!"

We teleported away.

+++

"This is all that remains. Once this is done, that'll be the end of it," Sighed Cadence, "This has gone on for far too long as is."

"I agree, Cadence. An entire timeline dying without any chance to fight for its survival or defend its right to continued existence, its like a nightmare for me. I'll deal with it myself. You can go."

"What? She's on that island! She's family! She's my responsibility!"

"And that's why you saved her home for last, isn't it Cadence?"

She had nothing to say to that.

"She wanted to learn the truth of what it is to learn to be born, to live and to die, like we all become curious at one point or another. So she'll learn. Tell me, can you carry out the final lesson she needs to learn from this?"

The pink Alicorn of music and harmony lowered her head. "No."

We stood in the air, at the edge of what remained of this world's shrinking existence, a small butterfly shaped island at its center.

"Do you wish to watch?"

"No."

"Then I suggest you go now."

" . . . I will be watching you Dispute."

"I have not gone by that name since I stopped sucking on my own tail encouraging microbes to eat each other. I am Strife."

"I'll see you at the Equilibrium."

She teleported out just as a younger Alicorn teleported at the edge of existence.

"WHERE IS SHE-?!"

"Where is who, Night Princess?"

"That little pink pony! My honor has been completely tarnished! The will of an Alicorn has been directly defied! This is a crime that our law says must be punished!"

She was livid. More so than normal for an Alicorn forced to endure my brother's presence for a prolonged period of time.

"Interesting." I observed.

"AND WHAT DOST THOU REFER TO BY THAT?!"

"If your sister wishes to learn, then let her learn the full lesson! I think I wish to learn something as well. And perhaps we shall not be the only ones to learn something from this disaster."

"LEARN WHAT? CAN'T YOU DRACONEQUI EVER BE CLEAR ABOUT ANYTHING?!"

"I've never had a chance like this before. I shall not waste it."

"SIMPLY STAY OUT OF MY WAY!"

"Temper temper, Alicorn. Anger is truly a beautiful weapon but it always waits for the chance to subvert its master. And its more destructive brother hate lays in wait to consume those it subverts. I foresee your anger one day will betray you. And you will lament it for the rest of your days."

The Alicorn of the concept of night growled at me. Yes, there was no way I was letting this opportunity pass.

I grasped her head.

"IN MY NAME OF COMPETITION AND SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST I SEAL THE LION'S SHARE OF YOUR POWER!"

She gasped as her size shrank to just a bit larger than that of the average pony. Her mane lost the tell tale sign of her massive magic. Her colors faded making her, in my humble opnion, cuter (pst, not that I care for such things).

Luna blinked and looked herself over in confusion and disorientation.

"YOU-how-dare-"

"Respect your seniors girl, you'll get further in life. Unless you think you can't possibly beat one mortal pony with only a fraction of your true power."

"Fine! I'll-"

"And your sister is on that island."

She startled. Her eyes dimmed. "What?"

"Don't tell me you were so focused on one gnat that you couldn't sense her."

"N-no-no! It's just, her power, it feels, stunted, crushed, restrained . . .. " She shivers. "It feels wrong. So horribly horribly wrong."

"That is your opinion, I do wonder what hers is, she may genuinely have enjoyed her life in this world. You can have your meaningless grudge match with one mortal pony to nurse your wounded Ego. But the rest are mine."

"No! My sister-"

"Will fight you unless I keep her away. . . . Unless of course you -want- to fight your own sister."

"NEVER!" She snarled.

"Pity. I'm sure it would be a glorious battle. So, I will keep your sister from fighting you. And you will have your fight with the disruption. But the rest are mine."

"What do you want from them?"

"The will to survive."

+++

"So when Pinkie Pie mentioned the dragon Whimsey Weatherbe she met as a filly, I instantly began looking up records, but to my shock I found not only where there no records of her, but no one in Ponyville seemed to remember her. I began to looking at MORE record and by chance realized there were several contradictions in Ponyville's history."

"But I still remember Whimsey," Pinkie Pie said.

"Yes and that's makes it another contradiction." Spike said. "But contradictions are not supposed to exist in reality. Even magic has to be self contained in its own rules. If what they're saying is true, that's the very problem, things have happened that hadn't happened."

"I'm sure if I was givin' a bit of time I could make it all fit." Pinkie

We were all in a circle. The nine of us who remained.

Thistle Whistle.

Sky Wishes.

Myself.

Wysteria.

Princess Rarity.

Kenbroath Gillspotten Heathspike "Spike" The Forth.

Pinkie Pie.

And Minty.

"I wish I wish I wish I knew what was going on," Sky Wishes lowered her head.

"I wish the colors were back." Minty sighed.

"I wish this was all a dream!" Princess Rarity cried. Wysteria do nothing but hug her fellow chosen princess.

"I wish those meanie heads put everything back the way it was and LEAVE US ALONE! I don't care if our world was gonna break in half or something! We'd just tape it back together!"

I laughed. Trust Pinkie Pie to do that.

"It's all so confusing! So confusing!" Thistle held her head. "I really wish it wasn't so confusing! And why does the sky now have to be one big cloud?! Why not a bunch of stars or a big purple swirl or a bunch of floating pony faces, why clouds?"

Pinkie Pie shuddered, "I think I prefer clouds."

"I don't."

"So what are they?" Pinkie Pie asked, "Those meanies?"

Spike said, "I believe from how you described them they are called Draconequi and Alicorns. Nature's fury and nature's law. They overlook the world and guide and protect it."

"THIS IS PROTECTING-?!" Minty stood up waving her arms like crazy.

Wysteria said, "It sounds like they kept saying they didn't have . . . didn't have . . . didn't have a choice . . ."

"If they really believed it they wouldn't be saying it every time they said somethin'," Pinkie Pie huffed.

I said, "It is normally liars or the uncertain who say what they believe over and over. Those who are confident in their beliefs feel no need to say them."

Everyone looked at me.

Sky Wishes looked at me, "How do you know that Star-Catcher? Are you a liar, no no no, I mean do you know a liar, I mean, did you know a liar, or-or-or you know what I mean!"

"I'm not sure," I said, the pressure at the back of my head that had been there all day was getting worse. "I don't think they're liars, if they were liars they'd not all be telling the same story with the consistency they are. I think they're uncertain, they're hoping this is truly their last resort and they haven't overlooked something. To them at least this is really their last resort and they're scared they're wrong. At least that's what it seems like."

Little pink Rarity said defiantly, "If they were really sorry they wouldn't be doing it in the first place! That's why Cheerilee would say."

Wysteria said, "It does seem rather pointless. If this is all going to 'break' anyway, why erase everything? Why not just let it break and pick up the pieces?"

"This can't be the end right?" Minty said, "I mean, come on! All the adventures we've been on! All the wonders we've seen! All the friends . .. all the friends we've made."

"The Breezies, Flutterponies." Pinkie Pie shuddered, tears came down her face remember the beautiful little pony. Small like dolls, so fragile, so innocent, so pure, like living glass. If any of the pony faces had a right to simply live out their lives in peace, it was them.

Yet they were brushed aside no matter how delicate they were, they had never committed a crime against anything anywhere. They acted as a swarm but each one had a name, a face, an identity. And now they were just gone? Just gone? Like they never mattered?

The fairy like ponies who never meant any harm to anyone. And simply, eliminated.

"So Pinkie Pie you have no idea how you got here?" Sky Wishes asked.

"No." Pinkie Pie shook her head, "I just knew I had to get to Butterfly Island, my Pinkie Squink showed me it was where I had to go."

"I'd say it was right." Thistle whispered as she looked around. "Or I hope so."

No one dared asked her to do another fortune telling dance, I think we were all scared it wouldn't show anything. Or show something far worse than any of us was thinking. So that was it then?

"The wand." Rarity spoke, "The wand won't work anymore." She held the magic wand in her hoofs. "It won't take me back to Unicronia to get Cheerilee back."

Pinkie Pie held her head, the name of Rarity's caretaker giving her a headache.

I sighed.

So this was it? We just wait to fade away too? I felt anger build up inside me. No.

Just watch them all fade away like my mother?

No.

Utterly helpless. Unable to do a single thing?

No!

"This is a grim and unfavorable outcome." Spike said.

"I want to remember my friends," Thistle whistled.

"I wish for my best friend back." Sky Wishes wished.

"What kind of princess am I supposed to be anyway if I can't do a thing about what happened to everypony?!" Wysteria snapped.

"I don't wanna die." Rarity cried.

"I want StarSong and Toola-Roola back," Pinkie Pie said.

Minty cried out, "I just want us all to go back to being happy and friendly with each other! With parties and celebrations and making new friends and learning new stuff! When everything was just happy and simple!"

Pinkie Pie hugged her, she hugged back, they nuzzled each other, taking in each other's scent. Feeling each other's warmth in a cooling world.

Just, watch, her, DIE-?!

"NO!"

I would not let this world die. I would not let anymore of my friends or their friends be simply washed away. I wouldn't let it! NOT EVEN IF I HAD TO DO WITH MY OWN HOOVES! "I'll trample any rule that stands in my way that says I can't!"

+++

Everyone was blown back at least a foot as Star-Catcher exploded twice. First the huge ball of winds that forced them all. Then the blast of solar light that shined in every direction. The sky became blue again. The ocean moved again. Butterfly Island had color again! The air was warm again!

Everyone slowly got up to see Star-Catcher glowing, the symbol on her forehead glowing white hot! Her wings were even longer, her height had increased by several inches. Scratch her forehead, all the strange unique symbols on her body she had been born with shined with an intense light all their own! Their cutie mark also shined with a light all it's own. It was like being present for the birth of a newborn star.

"I may I be as Genesis! Life everlasting and nothing but light and happiness to everyone I love and who they love!" She proclaimed in a loud almost thundering voice. Her tone then took an almost dark tone. "And May anyone who dares whisper 'No' face a Nightmare!"

Everyone stared in awe and love of her. Her maned moved with wind of its own.

"You may be the sun. But you shine upon a world that is already dead. You are nothing but the life-support keeping it from finding final rest."

Said a voice above them.

They all looked up.

A long brown snake like body. A horse's head. One paw was a wolf's. A rear leg was a tiger's. One limb was that of a Tasmanian devil. The final limb was a wolverine's. The tail was a killer whale's. One wing was an eagle's. Another was a dragon's. Her figure was feminine, but muscular.

Princess Rarity hide behind Wysteria, as did Spike. Pinkie put herself in front of Minty. Sky Whistles moved towards Star-Catcher. Thistle stood where she was shaking in her hooves.

"Who are you?!"

"So you don't remember? I guess that wasn't enough to push you fully over the edge after all." The monster said. "I am Strife. Draconequus of violence, conflict, fighting, competition, and survival of the fittest. And I am here to be your executioner. Vermin like you are not worthy of continuing to exist. Only fit to suffer one obscure meaningless death. This world deserves just to vanish! It has nothing of value!"

"THAT'S NOT TRUE!"

Everyone startled. Everyone.

It was Princess Rarity who had spoken. The little pink unicorn was shaking all over. But she looked into Strife's eyes. Strife seemed to give an intrigued glance back, as if waiting to see where this was going. "This . . . this isn't about . . . not about Uncornia, or Ponyville or Butterfly Island or Breezy Way! This is about us! The ponies! The ones who LIVE HERE! This world is pretty! BUT-But it's just jewelry without anyone to wear it if we weren't here! And . . . and... and if we were still around but not this world! It would be okay! Because a place without ponies isn't a place at all! Because there's no one there to call it place! Home isn't where you live! You make where you live home!"

The floating monster was silent until she chuckled, "Don't be such a child. This part isn't even making it into the adaption."

"What?" Minty tilted her head in confusion.

Strife's shadow seemed to grow, and grow. "Let me spell it out for you. And all your hopes, dreams, and beliefs, are -utterly worthless-!!" Thunder cracked. "And so are you."

"I dare say that is the most grotesque blanketing statement I have ever heard!" Spike said.

"I've grown from how I was before!" Rarity snapped back.

"I'll decide if my dreams have any value!" Wysteria shouted.

"The editor changed his mind about including this story arc!" Pinkie Pie called out.

Minty looked at her. "Huh?"

"I dunno." Pinkie replied, blinking slightly in confusion.

"My dreams with my friend aren't worthless!" Sky Wishes shouted. "and . . . Twinkle Twirl . . . HER NAME WAS TWINKLE TWIRL!" She smiled.

"Balderdash from doomed ghosts looking for some brave words to say before the end."

"I'D SAY THEY SUCCEEDED! And this is NOT THE END! I WON'T LET IT!" Star-Catcher called out!

"Prove it if you can!"

Star-Catcher stretched out her wings.

Strife snarled and ball of violet light appeared in her hand that she threw down into the surf below. ALL of Butterfly Island shook as half the island sank into a box canyon. The defenders held onto each other as it rose.

"Now first claim what you wish from Pinkie Pie, then delete Minty."

A blue and black comet rocketed past her and slammed into Pinkie Pie dragging Minty along for the ride over the edge down below.

Strife whispered lowly, "And show for me the light of one heart that is strong enough to defy the Words 'You do not exist.' This isn't one of the problems you're so used to that is going to solve itself! If you believe you can solve it, you'll have to do it yourselves!"

"PINKIE! MINTY!" Sky Wishes and Wysteria shouted.

"You have enough to worry about." Strife said coldly. "But first to separate the chaff from the wheat. Rise shadows." She lifted her hand upwards as six transparent pony shapes rose from the surf. "Warm, living existences, take them for your own if you can!"

The shadows swiftly and silently galloped towards the five ponies and one dragon.

Spike wailed and pedaled backwards, tripping over his tail and spinning backwards multiple times before -almost- going over the edge. The shadow was almost on him as he breathed in deep and unleashed a torrent of green flames, the shadow mimed as if it was wailing in pain before it fell apart like burnt paper.

Rarity screamed as she fell on her hooves and knees and covered her head, her horn glowed brightly. The shadow dove head first for her but made contact with her glowing horn first, the shadow's 'eyes' widened and was gone like a photo-flash.

Thistle Whistle yelled and flew off with the winged shadow following her.

Sky Wishes tilted her head instead of running or screaming at the shadow came close to her. The shadow was wearing the illusion of a dancing skirt. Her eyes widened. She whispered, "Twinkle Twirl?"

The shadow stopped dead in its tracks as if confused.

"Sky Wishes! Get away!" Wysteria called out.

"Twinkle Twirl!" Sky Wishes called and hugged the shadow. The shadow dissolved into inside her. Sky Wishes fell to her knees. Her entire body was covered in sweat as she clutched her sides but then slowly up. She panted. "Twinkle Twirl . . . I . . I promise . . . we'll . . . we'll never be apart again." Her form shimmered, it was still a pony, but, her angles and structured seemed, different.

Wysteria had seen what touching these shadows could do, and she felt from the one tirelessly pursuing her. Rarity screaming her head off rammed her still glowing horn into the shadow's side. It fell on it's side and fell apart into nothing.

"Yes! Yes! Whatever does not kill you makes you stronger!" Strife clapped.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! These are our friends!" Sky Wishes screamed in dismay.

"Shadows of existences that were cast by your friends you mean." Strife said still simply floating above observing. "It's you or them. Not everything comes with a third option. And before you decide just merging with them is a valid one, remember not all of these shadows are as compatible with you as you may think, it was a simply slip on my part that it was one whose heart could connect to yours. I promise these will simply devour you or cancel you both from existence."

Star-Catcher ducked over the shadow that tried to tackle her and slammed her head up, for one moment, a shaft of light not unlike a unicorn's horn appeared from her forehead, impaling the shadow. The mimed gasping in pain as it continued it leap, landing hard on the ground, seemingly now a lot more solid, bounced one more, and then fell over the edge of the cliff behind them.

Thistle Whistle, without many options, tried every aerial maneuver she could think of (not many) to lose what she was pretty sure was going to leave her more dead than dead if it caught up with her.

Suddenly the shadow as if being pulled in puppet strings made a fast dive for the box canyon. Thistle just felt relief as she flew back towards her friend.

"We agreed which ones were our prey. How dare she interfere." Strife growled.

"THISTLE! Help Pinkie Pie and Minty!" Wysteria called out.

"RIGHT!" Thistle nodded and went into a dive, only to bump her head against a glass floor that appeared into being as she reached the edge.

"Sorry. If I'm afraid I can't let any unknown factors interfere. Your fight is with me." Strife began to float down.

Wysteria was besides herself, "You say that after sending those . . . them to fight us for you?!"

"Just an entrance examine. Now show me what you can actually do." Strife rear limbs touched the edge of the surf.

+++

As we were knocked over, I held onto Minty, the fall below would kill us both, in my mind I saw the ground rushing up, and visualized reaching it without hitting it. I twisted my body so my back was to the ground and Minty was on top. I hit the ground with a grunt several moments sooner than we should have. Though in my mind's eyes I couldn't see my bones broken, so how could anypony tell they were broken? Therefore, if no one could tell, then they might not be broken, and if it was up in the air, I decided naturally they weren't broken. I gently put Minty alongside me. She was unconscious.

She was bruised heavily in front shaped like a pony's head. . . there was a small round hole in her stomach, bleeding! I looked about in panic for something, anything to stop the bleeding. Wait. What if there was some bandages behind me? But I didn't know if there were behind me. But if there were, I could really use them, and if I could use them then it would be a good thing they were there. I reached behind me and took the bandages and tied up her wound.

"What in My Parents' name are you? What you just did, twice now, it's impossible." I recognized the voice, but it sounded smaller, younger. And it was laced with awe and . . . fear?

I looked to see the Alicorn from before, but, she was a lot smaller, had blue hair, and a lot lighter coat. She looked kinda cute, like a filly even though she was big.

"What happened to you?" I found herself asking.

The Alicorn struck a pose. "I realized using my true and full power on you was a waste. I will demonstrate the fool scale of your arrogance with but a trace of my power."

"You were going to hurt Minty."

"There is only so much room in the rope of fate, new threads appears, old threads need to be removed to make room for them, it's the nature of reality, it's the only way."

I made sure to be between the Alicorn and Minty. "Ya know, I'm getting really sick of hearing 'it's the only way' today."

The Alicorn surprised me by nodding, "Yes I know. Rather aggravating isn't it? Anything repeated enough times, like an apology for instance, loses it's force, becoming background noise to be skipped."

"And you still go along with it."

"Stand by your family. Because they are your family. It's a self evident truth."

"Everyone in Ponyville is everyone's family. Why don't you become friends with us instead of hurting everyone?"

"Because even while you were all given identical personalities, what you all -desired- remains mutually exclusive, but the magic cast over this world tried to make it all real anyway." The Alicorn yawned, "Sorry that's something else that's been said far too much this day. The short is that your world was becoming impossible even by its own rules, and a world that is impossible by its own rules, collapses."

"Then we should have been given a chance to fix it."

"The definition of 'fix' changes from pony to pony. What's a problem for one is a virtue to another. It was impossible." The Alicorn then rolled her eyes and said in the most bored, lifeless monotone imaginable, "'Do you think we'd have done this if we had another option, blah, blah, blah,' ugh. I sound like that idiot!"

"You mean the jigsaw monster who saved my life and Minty's life?"

"He's just a fool. Do you honestly think he cares about you anymore than a child cares for a shiny new toy?"

"I'd say he's pretty nice if he-" As if I had eyes several feet away watching myself and the Alicorn, I saw the shadow coming at me from behind diving down like a toy on wires. No. For Minty?! I pushed her out of the way and the shadow dove into me instead. It's details became clear. I saw it had a white coat with blond mane and violet eyes.

But instead of feeling like I was being invaded, I felt, familiar? Like some part of me that had been missing was coming back to myself.

Images flashed through my mind. Laughing, flying. A visitor from another world. A rainbow connecting this land with another. Coming close to extinction countless times. Turning a land full of greedy villains into a paradise. Seaponies. Friends. Ponies adapting the knowledge they gained from over the rainbow to build a true civilization instead of small separate hovels. Magic was forgotten in favor of the new and fantastic wonders from the other side of the rainbow. The three races slowly drifting apart, forgetting each other even existed in fiction books! Magic being recovered almost by accident. Realizing it could give ponies everything they wanted. A world without struggles, personal or as a species. Where everything was always given! Those who had been given eternal life by the Rainbow Of Light to watch over it gladly handed this gift over to all other ponies and-I WAS ABOUT TO BE ZAPPED BY A BLACK LIGHTNING BOLT!

I stepped to one side, but instead ended up on the other side of the valley. My head hurt. Confusion swam through it as I tried to figure out which memories were mine, no, they were both mine, but, ones that were much more recent.

"YOU BIG DUMB MEANIE! YOU WEREN'T INTERESTED IN TALKING! YOU WERE TRYING TO SNEAK UP ON ME!" My head spun some more.

"No? Really? Gasp. Oh my. I am a bad pony." The Alicorn said monotone.

"WHAT DID MINTY OR ME EVER DO TO YOU-?!"

"YOU GOT AWAY! AND ALL THANKS TO THAT MORON! AN ALICORN IS SUPPOSED TO BE PERFECT! IF YOU GOT AWAY THAT MEANS I'M NOT PERFECT AND THAT MEANS I'M NOT WORTHY TO BE A MEMBER OF MY FAMILY AND THAT MEANS I'VE HURT EVERY MEMBER OF MY FAMILY BY FAILING TO DO WHAT I MEANT TO!"

"Geeze. That's kinda silly. Nopony's is perfect."

"Alicorns are! So that means I'm supposed to be! Why can't you understand-?!"

"I understand that it sounds like you're putting a lot on yourself that you can't possibly keep up and you seriously need a hugs and kisses party!"

"Bah! Parties! Celebrations! It's all you lot remember how to do!"

My eyes narrowed. "And you know what I'm sick of hearing too? Being told that's all we do. We read stories. We go exploring. We have so many parities because EVERYONE celebrates when one of us has a birthday. Because we're ALL family to each other! And now that the tribes are back together again I know we can learn and grow more!"

"It wouldn't have happened."

"Yes it would have!"

"Not as long as the one most base desire remained in every pony's heart. 'I wish things could stay the same.' That wish rests in every pony's heart, they madly try to fulfill it, to protect what is, to protect what they know. Affect the status quo as little as possible, that's the creed of your most basic wish inside all of you."

"Are you still going to try and hurt Minty?"

"Not hurt. Delete. She'll never feel a thing."

I looked her in the eyes, and kicked her in the back of the head.

+++

With nothing left to lose and everything to gain, the six defenders charged.

'Pst. It's painfully obvious none of them had ever had to fight for their lives before. The best strategy they can come up with on the fly is to attack all at once. They don't think to use their numbers to their advantage by coming at me from multiple sides to divide my attention. I've demonstrated huge amounts of power out of their class but they hope to simply overwhelm me by sheer force.

'Perhaps they think they can catch me off guard this way and that if they engage me physically that I won't be able to concrete to use my magic and if they simply keep up the pressure that I won't be able to fight back. Not their fault really. If those stuffed shirts hadn't held me back in this world, it'd be different!'

Rarity forward flipped and vanished in sparkles.

'That is the only magic she really knows. Perhaps she realizes the rest of the world is gone. Or maybe she is simply that desperate to try to use her wand to teleport, but there is only way place any neophyte teleporter reappears in a fight.' She slapped with her orca tail behind her, and hit air?

Princess Rarity appeared on top of her head, hanging onto her horns like a child on a carnival ride.

'So she wants to try and use the trick she used to burn away two shadows to harm me? Not a bad plan really. It is the only real card she has to play.'

Brightly colored rainbows flared in Strife's vision, blinding her.

'Now I am impressed.' Strife thought as the others rammed her, or rather, Star-Catcher rammed her and the others followed suit. Strife grunted from the so-called Pegasus' impact.

She felt the shaft of light appear that had impaled the shadow now stab her main body.

Strife teleported away into the air again, damaged. The ground of six found themselves in a pile in the surf, Rarity landing on top of Thistle Whistle.

"Impressive." Strife called out passively. She swept a paw over the hole in her body which instantly healed. "Your combined efforts manage to actually harm me."

'Ironic, now that they're doomed to oblivion for being static and incapable of changing, they begin innovating and become dynamic.'

"We are going to do more than that!" Star-Catcher shouted.

"Do not feel too proud of yourselves amnesiac. You have shown the will to live, and the resolve to harm. Pacifists and those who are indifferent embrace their own end deserve to fade away to nothing. You have earned-AGH!"

With Thistle Whistle carrying them, Spike had blasted a mouth of flames into her face that she accidentally breathed in. She teleported away again.

Strife grinned in approval. " Yes! And you will give no quarter when you know you can not afford to! I will honor you final lot with a finale worthy of note. Now, I fight back. "

+++

"YOU CAN'T DODGE MY LIGHTNING BOLTS AND KEEP MOVING YOUR FRIEND FOREVER!"

"WATCH ME!"

Black lightning bolts struck down from random directions as dark clouds formed just over the top of the box canyon. Or so random as each one was aim at Pinkie, where she was going to be, should have been, or at the unconscious Minty who Pinkie had to keep carrying around.

"You'd do better without the dead weight."

"FRIENDS ARE NEVER DEAD WEIGHT! Don't you have any-?!"

"I have family. That's enough. Why would I want more?"

Pinkie stopped dead in her tracks in shock. " . . . How can you even ask that?"

Lightning struck Pinkie from several sides at once.

"YOU SHOULD REALLY WATCH YOURSELF!"

Pinkie Pie's body twitched as she coughed. The Alicorn looked on in disbelief.

"That should have finished you. How are you still breathing?"

"I don't know. Maybe it's because there's someone important I need to protect. And I know all my friends are fighting their hardest too. So I can't let go, I can't give up. Wouldn't you do the same for your family?"

"Huh?" The Alicorn startled, "You're not even related!"

"Spike said you Alicorns watch over the world, our world, but you don't really understand the world, do you? The Alicorn I talked to before at least understood what my friends meant to me. Family is more than just who's related to who. We share a bond that reaches past that. And it's as real and alive as the bond I'm sure you share with you family."

" . . . . . . Be that as it may. Your friend needs to go. And as for you, I'd never live it down if I just walked away."

Pinkie managed to stand up back on her four hooves. "Is just walking away, really so bad?"

"I've already brought shame to my family by having you get this far. The time has come for this dream to fade with the morning light. As the one who is dreams and nightmares, I can assure you that that is the way things go. The entire world, your entire life, was an unsustainable fantasy from the beginning, a child's simplification of how the world really works. It took time for it to begin collapsing, but its collapse was inevitable."

"It's real for me!"

She magically slammed Pinkie Pie into the ground. "It's time for you to accept the days of free cotton candy and perfect skies are over."

++++

Strife teleported away from the defenders. She lifted up her forelimbs, huge chunk of rock floated from the seabed, floating in front of her in a stairway pattern, then one or two at a time flew at one of the heroes. "Let's see you dodge this!"

Thistle yelped, and though the pegasus avoided the giant rocks, she accidentally dropped Rarity and Spike.

The two squealed as a boulder landed on top of them. Rarity's horn flashed at the last moment, and unicorn and dragon found themselves several yard away in a flash of light.

Sky Wishes shouted as she ran alongside of Wysteria, "I really really really wish we aren't hurt!" Herd instinct overruled the logic fallacy of grouping together to make an easy target. Magically the rocks -just- veered off course and showered them with sand.

Star-Catcher stood her ground as the boulder came at her. The boulder glowed blue, it slowed, it stopped, then versed course, flying right back at Strife, hitting her in the face!

"UGH! Impressive! But let's see how you handle this!" The rocks all clumped together into one huge one except for a few stray pieces and it fell slowly towards the defenders. It was the size of Princess Rarity and Ponyville's castle. Star-Catcher gritted her teeth, the symbol on her forehead glowing brighter!

"The power of a heart consumed by one thought and one feeling can't hope to overcome me!" Strife boomed.

Wysteria noticed the pattern that the remaining floating stones formed and nudged Sky-Wishes. She nodded, and she followed Wysteria as they jumped on the floating stones. Staying side by side, the two jumped harder and faster than they had their entire lives and leapt at Strife and the two rammed into her. It was like jumping shoulder first into a metal statue. The two bruised with cracked bones struggled to stay on top of her. "Will you get off me!"

"No way!" The two shouted together.

It was the distraction needed as Star-Catcher pushed the giant spherical boulder back, Wysteria and Sky Wishes dropped into the water below and swam back to shore. Strife got a much larger stone in the face this time as she turned around, this one sending her flying from the impact as the spherical rock created a giant pillar of water at the edge of the horizon. The horizon was closer. Everyone could notice it now. But none of them brought it up.

"Star-Catcher! How are you doing all this?!" Thistle gasped.

"I . . . I just am! It's, there's something at the back of my . . . my memories . . . just, something there!"

Strife teleported back to where she had been before, looking down at them. "What a sad and pathetic lot you are:

An Earth Pony who wished to reveal the truth of pegasus to her fellow Earth Ponies even if it disrupted the status quo.

A little unicorn princess to whom life was a game and whose laughter was infectious to all she met.

A dragon who'd give all his life in service of another in spite of the typical dragon ego.

One earth pony whose gentleness never wavered even when given power and rejected power for the sake of all those she loved.

A cowardly pegasus who faced her worst fear rather than abandon a friend.

And a pegasus who is willing to let go of everything she was if it means protecting her friends.

Yes. What a pathetic lot you all are."

Wysteria shouted defiantly, "YOU'RE DEAD WRONG! Those all the things that make us stronger!"

Strife crossed her arms, "Is that so? Is that really so? Then by all means prove it. Show me the true inner power that is in your hearts. If it even exists! If you want your happy ending so bad, it isn't going to produce itself! You're going to have to earn it!"

"We won't give up! I wish! I wish! I wish!" Sky Wish said.

"When this is all over and everyone is back we're gonna laugh all about it!" Rarity declared.

"I'm here for all of you!" Wysteria said.

"With you to end my princess!" Spike promised.

"I won't run away! I won't run away! I won't run away!" Thistle swore.

Star-Catcher closed her eyes, "Castles of Ponyland. Near and far. At the heart the foundations on which your were built. Pieces of the light of the rainbow that gives life to our world. Please. Hear my voice. I DOTH COMMAND! AID US TO CLENSE THIS EVIL!"

Seven glowing lights appeared around Star-Catcher. They floated around her, and then fused together at the symbol on her forehead. It flashed all colors, and the Rainbow Of Light tore through the air straight at the Draconequus.

+++

"WHY! Why don't you give up already?! Why are you delaying what you can't even change?!"

The Alicorn swore as Pinkie Pie kept coming out of the corner of her eye the moment she left her visual senses to appear in a completely different spot, ramming and kicking and head butting her. The Alicorn tried to strike her with another series of lightning bolts but-

"ACK-ACK-ACK-ACK-ACK-ACK!" Her skeleton became visible for a moment as the Alicorn's lightning bolts all hit where their target had been a moment ago but was no longer, right on top of the Alicorn.

The Alicorn's body twitched as electric sparks jumped from one part of her body to another.

"I told you, this is for Minty, not me!"

"And I'm telling you the fun and games are OVER! No more random bursting into song like puppets in a show! No more being in sync with each other like fun house mirrors! Knowing the lyrics like your entire life was just a play on stage! Such worlds can NEVER have true life!" The Alicorn used a good deal of her own magic to heal herself. "And I am done with you. Good bye."

She took a few trots forward, shadows spread out form her, many with pony faces, darkness came from her like the unfolding of wings, never ending, ever expanding, ever consuming.

Whatever life Pinkie Pie had left, she felt drifting out of her body as the growing darkness from the approaching Alicon grew closer.

She held her ground. "We burst into song, because all ponies everywhere love to sing. It's who we are! We're all in sync with each other, because we know each other at their center! We all know the words, because our hearts are all connected!"

The Alicorn's voice echoed off the canyon walls. "PISHPOSH!"

Pinkie felt her ears ring, she knew that had permanently damaged her hearing.

The darkness drew closer within and without.

"Even if you could beat me, which you can't, Minty is doomed to vanish into nothing. That is her fate. You can't change it."

She whispered. "Starsong. Help me."

"You plead for aid for somepony who never existed."

"No! She's still here in my memory and my heart,

and as long she's there she can't have never been!

There are some bonds that are stronger than simply kin!

Friends are for forever,

so don't you dare say her time was never!

Toola-Roola, Starsong, Kimono

to their nothing I say 'no'

Their Hearts Of Hearts are immortal

So I know they're waiting for me past that last portal

Call me stupid or a fool

This pony isn't going to lose her cool

Just know Minty soon or later I will be with you.

That much I know to be surely true.

You may say I'm a foal, feeling the way I do,

You can call me Ponyanna; say I'm crazy as a loon,

I believe in second, third, and seventh chances and that's why I believe in her too.

"BELIEVE WHAT YOU WISH TO BELIEVE BUT YOU BELIEVE IN VAIN."

"There will always be things you don't know if they're true or not unless you try." Another voice called out.

Pinkie turned and dared turn her glance away from the darkness slowly surrounding.

You can't just let life pass you by and by! Pinkie replied tearfully.

Minty slowly walked alongside Pinkie Pie. The darkness twisted around them like snakes.

"We won't fear the dark, because we know we aren't far apart!

"This is the end along with your friend!"

"This isn't the end, it's here we shall begin

There seems to be a lot you don't see the value in.

But that doesn't mean it isn't really there

You just don't see it, you silly mare!"

"You and your friend and blind to your own end!"

The darkness blacked out everything.

We won't fear the night! It's in each other we find our light!

Tiny points of light appeared in the blackness, they became a galaxy worth of stars! The blackness shattered like a bad dream at dawn!

Together forever, we will stay. Holding the last night at bay!

Green and pink go right together don't you think?

The Alicorn's jaw dropped in complete shock. " Impossible. That darkness was forged from the fear of the dark in the heart of every pony of your world! No pony could overcome!"

No one pony you mean. You thought it would it wouldn't matter if pink had green, but your prediction wasn't all that keen! Maybe there's other things you haven't seen.

No matter what you call from the nether, we'll face it together!

You say this is the end! But we know there's more around the bend!

Together we'll take whatever you can throw! Ready for another go?

The Alicorn sighed and lowered her wings and sat down. "I give up."

Pinkie Pie started, "Eh?"

"My design was for you to be erased when we first met, but the moron disrupted that. Then I show the deepest darkness and you pierce it with a duet. A song, something I'd just stated had no meaning at all and shatter my shroud with it. It seems music holds a magic all its own."

"Naw. It's just how we ponies let the stuff inside out! You know! Like drawing or painting! Do you like to do art?"

"I arrange the moon and stars every night," The Alicorn sighed.

"Really? They're very pretty. You must be one talented artist!" Pinkie Pie said.

The Alicorn started. "You . .. you really think so?"

"Yep! I think they're very nice! Arranging all of those every night? That's really impressive!"

" . . . Thank you." The Alicorn blinked away a single tear.

She stayed silent for a time before getting up on her hooves and standing up. "I have a lot of thinking to do. I'm not a perfect Alicorn after all. And I have a sister I have to welcome home. Perhaps I misunderstood her reasons for leaving in the first place, I have learned more about you mortal ponies in this fight than I've learned about you since this timeline was born... Take what time you have left in this world before it fades. I hope to meet the new version of you when time reaches this moment again. Good-bye."

She vanished in a swirl of dark blue mist and stars.

"Whao. It just hit me Minty, we never caught her name! Well we better go help the others! Right Minty? Minty? MINTY!" The green pony's eyes rolled in the back of her head as she coughed blood and fell on her side.

Pinkie saw the bandage she had wrapped around her was completely bright red. "Minty!" She was at her side.

Minty opened an eye. She cracked a smile. "Hey . . . don't you, don't you think it was nice that . . . that we got to sing together? Just . . just one last ... tim-e." Her eye closed.

"MIIIIINTYYYY!"

++++

TO BE CONCLUDED

Episode 49: "Generation Transitions Part 3"

Pony POV Series
Generational ORIGINS Transitions Part 3
Optional-Optionally-Canon

The Rainbow Of Light shot like a lance at the Draconequus. It was light given form and will, a pure force of everything that made their people happy. And all that power, all that life was focused on one single all alone aspect of nature's fury.

One wolverine claw knocked the stream of rainbow light away, knocking it completely off as it landed in the ocean, creating a shockwave of rainbow colors underneath.

Strife looked at her smoking claw. It was stiff and gray from just below the wrist up. Her eyes widened and her heart skipped a beat. She'd be lying if she were to say that didn't startle her.

The six defenders looked at her in open mouth shock. 'A natural reaction.' She thought. 'Still, very impressive. I never¬†actually expected them to be able to truly damage me. If they'd timed that more carefully and caught me by surprise like before, they may actually have...It's unfortunate its only in the twilight of this world they're allowed to truly shine, when its too late for it to save it.'

She slowly clapped, first one sounding like swords slash, another like a gun fighting, and the next a first punching. It was clumsy with a stone paw. "I applaud you, I really do. When you couldn't win physically, you adapted and fought using the tools that gave you an advantage. You even managed to inflict a condition on me I'm incapable of reversing at this time, let me assure you, that is something you should be proud of, I do not recall any mortal band of ponies doing so before." She sighed. "But now it has to end. Now I must take you seriously. . . . Devil Blades Serpents! "

The Tasmanian Devil forepaw's palm swiftly faced at the heroes. From it came a log wide rusted metal pipe, swords, scythes, knives, and razor blades stuck out at chaotic angles in every direction.

"SCATTER!" Star-Catcher screamed. Star-Catcher wanted herself badly to be good distance away and found herself suddenly in the air above the rainbow waterfall. It took her all of two seconds to realize she hadn't taken her friends with her.

The mass of blades and metal pierced the beach, then an equally sized one exploded from the ground in several directions. Rarity teleported without even thinking about it, but not thinking about it meant her teleportation was random, and she appeared out of the path metal snakes. Almost.

The flat of a scythe struck her hard breaking a leg and all her ribs on one side as it zoomed past her, the force of the impact knocked her clean off the beach and into the box canyon below.

"Rarity~!" Wysteria screamed, Cheerilee had trusted her with Rarity and she had failed! What kind of 'princess' was she anyway?

'Seems I shouldn't have set that barrier to only activate when it sensed intent to enter. Hopefully she won't contaminate the results too badly.' Strife thought.

Wysteria was still in shock when one of the blade pipes ripped through the surface right underneath her.

Sky Wishes shouted random words to herself as she seemed to change course just as the pipes tore through the ground where she was running.

Without hesitating Spike leapt onto the spiked serpent that took his princess from her, he tried to climb to reach her. The pipe too him several dozen feet into the air carrying his princess with her at the tip of it.

Strife flashed her eyes, and lightning traveled down from her paw through the original pipe and quickly through all its spawn as lightning coursed through Spike as well, he fell. Thistle rushed to save him but a blade snake sped across her path, it was all she could do to turn into so all she lost was the skin off her back.

Kenbroath Gillspotten Heathspike "Spike" The Forth hit the sand that turned into concrete just before he hit, he heard his bones break. He looked up at his princess, impaled like some kind of trophy at the end of the metal pipe, she wasn't moving. "Wy-Wysteria . . ." Spike tried to reach for her, but his body wouldn't move, he felt his inner flame go out.

"It's a shame, perhaps if you all knew more of death, you'd know to save the mourning and hysterics for after the battle is won and not allow yourself to die for those whose lives are already lost," said Strife coldly. 'This what happened when death in a world a distant dark fable once every thirty winters or so following the random accident.'

The blades all turned as one and their spears pointed right at Sky Wishes, suddenly with no place to run as the blades' bodies blocked off her escape routs one by one. Her eyes widened as she realized she was going to die.

"STOP IT!!" Thistle Whistle screamed, she flew faster than she could ever remember flying, it didn't matter, she had to, no more, she had to-!

A visible shock wave shuddered through the air from the impact. The metal snakes stopped moving and fell like insert lumps of scrap metal hitting the beach in massive clouds of sand.

Thistle Whistle's forehead was directly against Strife's, wind blew. Thistle fell like a rag doll.

Strife caught Thistle Whistle by a back leg before she fell. "The last thing you felt was every bone in your body be pulverized. I on the other hand was only disrupted long enough to cancel my attack, there was no way that could've killed me. But you knew that, didn't you? And yet you still did it for her. Willing to die for a friend? No, for a friend of a friend?"¬†¬†She held Thistle limp body upside down like the catch of the day looking into her sightless eyes. However, a respectful smile crossed the draconequus' face, hidden from the others by sheer distance. "May you be remembered as the bravest Pegasus who has ever lived. I must remember to ask Pandora to write a sonnet about your courage." She dropped her empty shell.

Thistle's broken body hit the ocean surface and sank.

Star-Catcher floated frozen wide eyed, every part of her body shaking. Her wings weren't moving, but she didn't fall. She looked like a deer in headlights.

Strife teleported right in front of Sky Wishes. "Your friend died entirely for your sake. You were only a friend of a friend and a comrade in arms but she was willing to die for you. You should be proud." Her voice was calm, controlled, and held all the malice of a martial arts instructor consoling a student who came in second place.¬†¬†

"S-S-STAY AWAY!" Sky Wishes gasped as she trotted away off the beach until her back hit a palm tree.

Strife knelt down. "Your wishes have the power to change the fate of those nearest to you. You were even were able to break the seclusion of a tribe with one innocent unwitting wish. But that power now fades as their fate ends. And not even a wish of yours Sky Wisher can stop that. But . . . you have time for one last wish. I suggest you choose it wisely."

"GET AWAY FROM HER!" A dozen little sparkles of light flew around Strife, which then turned into glowing white swords and impaled her from all sides.

Strife vanished, the swords falling, Strife reappeared, a good distance off. "Damage, erase." The pierce wounds all vanished. "You will NOT tell me that is all you power you have!"

Star-Catcher ignored her. "Sky Wishes are you okay?"

"Not fully awakened yet? Do you need to see more of your family die?"

"I WILL ANNIHILATE YOU FROM EXISTENCE IF YOU DARE TOUCH HER!" Star-Catcher swore, red hot flames danced her eyes. It was like her colors faded to gray and darkening to black. "SHE IS MINE! I WON'T SEE ANYONE ELSE DIE? YOU HEAR ME! FOR YOU THERE IS ONLY NIGHTMARES! YOU WILL NOT BE PART OF MY GENESIS!"

"Pathetic," Strife said in genuine disgust, "Absolutely pathetic. Slaves like you are unworthy of my sight."

"I AM NO SLAVE!"

"A slave to one part of themselves. To impulses. A coward unable to accept loss."

"YOU WILL TAKE THOSE WORDS BACK AND BEG FOR A SWIFT NOTHINGNESS!!"

"You no longer interest me . . . Nightmare Genesis." Strife said dismissively waving off a stone wolverine paw.

"Star-Catcher! Star-Catcher please stop!"

She flicked an eye back to Sky Wishes. She didn't notice, but Strife watched intently out of the corner of her eye.

Her face were covered in tears. "Just . . .just stop. I don't want anyone else to . . to. . . everything's gone, everyone gone, just, please, please just no more!" She wailed, "THIS ISN'T HOW THINGS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE! WE'RE ALL SUPPOSED TO BE HAPPY! WE'RE ALL SUPPOSED TO SMILING! Not-not-not-NOT THIS! Where is our song-?!"

"Sky Wishes," Star-Catcher whispered.

" . . . I wish . . . I wish . . . that the hearts of those together will STILL be together no matter what happens!"

Star-Catcher's eyes widened. Strife gave a small, approving smile. 'You have chosen...wisely.'

She looked around. She saw the beach. She saw what little remained of the ocean as the horizon was almost here now, barely the width of Butterfly Island itself remained. The world slowly fall apart piece by piece.

Every flower fed by her light. Every palm tree. The wind moving from the heated air she gave off. The waves made by that wind. The splashing of water on the beach. Sands going out into the ocean, but would rise again with the next volcano.

She saw her friends' shapes. Not moving. Turning gray slowly, and fading away. But she knew they weren't truly gone. And they held more value than all she surveyed.

"Sky Wishes, I promise you, when this world is reborn, you'll soar in the sky with your own pegasus wings."

Sky Wishes nodded. "And Pegasus Promises are never broken."

Star-Catcher nuzzled her. A pair of pegasus wings grew from her back as her figure to become lithe. Her image never losing it's color. Her cutie mark lost it's butterfly, the cutie mark kite on her flank becoming a bright purple and larger. Sky Wishes' image became a mass of white sparkles and scattered.

"So you finally understand."

She looked back at Strife.

"I'd never let you erase her." Star-Catcher said, "Now she can have a life without this mania. Without the dangers of knowing me."

"Humph. Touching, but anti-climatic, so now what?"

Star-Catcher's eyes glowed white. "Now I . . . " Her entire body glowed white, "teach you," Her entire imagine shinned, "That, ponies are not cattle for you to breed and cull to your approval!"

A white shockwave shook the entire island.

"At-LAST!!" Strife praised. "She's truly awakens! Not some Nightmare parody!" She sounded, deligthed for her?

Her long white and pink mane moved in an unseen solar wind. Her every motion carried grace and will. Her coat and feathers shinned like the morning sun. Her long horn gleamed like a ray of light. An elaborate pattern like that of a engraving glowed like lines along her body. Her pink heart cutie mark with a blue outline gleamed. Blue eyes looked into Strife's.

"Is this truly Alicornification? I see. I see. It is not with rage it is awakened but quite the opposite! Not refuse to accept loss! I understand! One who embraces the world! One sees the truth! Is that the key to unlocking the door within? Amazing! Wonderful! A revelation! What is your name newborn Alicorn?"

"My name is . . . Celestia."

"PERFECT! FANTASTIC! Let it never be said an Alicorn went back on their word! I have the truth I was sent for by one of your own!"

"What do you mean one of my own kind?"

"You haven't met her, but she has met you. But now, show me the power of nature's law mantled with the mortal will to survive! Let it clash with the power of nature's fury! Let us have the most glorious of battles!"

"There is nothing glorious about battles."

"Only for slaves forced to fight for causes not their own. Enough words unless-"

Celestia shouted. The shock wave split the ocean apart, sending Strife clear to the edge of the world, which wasn't that far away anymore. The front lair of skin and fur on her snake like body was disintegrated. "Everything I hoped for." She erased the damage from existence and turned into a twisting cyclone that spun top first right at Celestia.

The Alicorn's horn glowed as an invisible wall came between them, the cyclone scattered. Strife reformed. "TURN TO GLASS!" Strife snapped her devil's paw and Celestia turned into a transparent statue. Strife summoned a giant war hammer and dropped the head on top of the glass work of art.

At the last moment Celestia came flesh and blood again and teleported below Strife as a mass of clouds formed above them in the shape of Thistle Whistle which brought down lightning on top of the Draconequus like it was rain. Each one with enough force to kill an adult dragon.

Strife fell limp as she quick began erasing the damage done to her nervous system from existence. She was ready to reverse her heart when Celestia would impale her from below.

"AIR TURN TO ICE!" Strife did not expect that.

Suddenly incased in something she couldn't directly erase the existence of since it was brought into existence by something being taken away, Strife fell. Celestia teleported above her and rammed the perfect sphere of ice the chaos spirit was in and pushed it mentally and physically down through the ocean and into the ocean bed and down into the mantle.

Celestia magically heated the water around the ice sphere thousands of degrees past the boiling point causing it, and the ice sphere with it to explode, the force of the impact being washed back on Strife from the mantle rock surrounding her on all side. The ocean plumed with a water mushroom cloud.

Celestia teleported away onto the top of Butterfly Island. An abyss-long sword made out of light particles more dense then the laws of reality and physics would allow in any shape or form dropped down right where she had pushed Strife into the rock bed. She blinked as bought a light shield up as light exploded with enough force to vaporize everything near it and blind anything that might have lived on Pluto.

A stone wolverine fist punched Celstia in the face, then from the opposite side, then above, then blow, in the back, then straight into her muzzle. Celestia's electrified her body and realized her mistake as the non-conductive stone fist slammed again so her entire body became a mass of flames that swept over Strife and reformed in the air behind her.

Strife had ninety percent of her skin missing, and was just bones for her limbs, her eyes were just holes, her tail ended in a stump. Her wings twitched behind her. 'You piled it on with that attack. Good.' Strife said telepathically since her she hadn't erased the vaporization of her tongue and larynx yet.

'WHEN THE ALICORNS COME MARCHING IN!!!' Celestia shouted on a octave into Strife's mind catching her off guard from the mental backwash.

Celestia flapped her feathers, a few tiny ones came loose, turned into little balls of light, then tore through Strife from all directions like bullets!

That was when an Alicorn iron maiden formed out of the air particles around Celestia and it fell like a stone with her inside it. The inside infinitely larger than the outside, an endless universe of spikes and hooks. It slammed into the beach.

Strife reversed the flow of time around herself and began mass erasing the blows Celestia had given her, making them as if they had never even happened, expunged from time and space.

A white and pink Breezie squeezed her way out of the edge of the lid of the iron maiden. Her mass increased and reshaped into Celestia. One of her eyes was poked out and her white coat was a mass of red puncture wounds. She regenerated her damage, remaking the parts destroyed, bringing them into the universe from nothing. Celestia shook her head as she finished creating a new frontal lob for herself.

An mansion sized iron blocked with the words 'Darwin + Strife' inside a heart symbol engraved on one size landed on top of her.

A giant sand fist the shaped like one of Spike's claws punch the iron block right into the air. Strife tried to catch it, but got tackled from behind by the Thistle Whistle shaped storm cloud that began shocking her with cities worth of electricity and the stone block slammed into both, dispelling the cloud and sending Strife into orbit.

Celestia breathed hard from the bottom of the hole she had created on the beach side, now filling with water. She saw the various palm trees along the sand were blow flattened like tooth picks. She sighed at the loss.

Celestia gasped as she felt mass teleport inside her, and severed her spine, punctured both her lungs, cleaved her heart, and cut open her stomach in short order escaping out the opening. The spirit of darwinism grew from the size of a hatchling to her full form in the blink of an eye. Strife grabbed her around the neck and lifted her up as she flew upward, jamming her stone wolverine fist into Celestia's stomach.

"You didn't think to create a skin tight barrier to prevent teleportation inside of you. An amateur's mistake! Only a fool thinks that their enemy will not take advantage of an obvious opening! I'll admit I was worried that it was a trap, but I took a gamble. But no," She leaned in close to Celestia, "You just blew it." She tiger-kicked Celestia away from her, and Celestia a moment later was surrounded by a cluster of British and German world war two bombs that went off a nano-second later.

"You have power and creativity!" Strife shouted and teleported below Celestia and blasted her with simple random chaos energy that turned Celestia's fur pink and her wings into giant Flutterpony wings that. "BUT NO EXPERIENCE!" Strife vanished and appeared the size of an imp on Celestia's wings setting the now delicate things on fire. "You didn't even think to barrier your body against my base element! What is wrong with you?!"

Celestia curled into a ball, her shape changed into a humanoid female white hedgehog who gave the still imp sized Strife a tornado kick that sent her flying through the palm trees still standing, through the rainbow waterfall and out the other side of the mountain where Celestia brought a hammer down on top of her and teleported blow her, once again her Alicorn form, and summoning some clouds and shaped them into a mouse trap that slammed down on Strife's throat.

'That, was actually not bad at all. You turned one of my own tactical decisions against me, and you followed up with your attack rather than simply sitting back. Finally catching on. Undo.' The cloud mouse trap vaporized and Strife grew to her normal size and snapped her neck back into place. Celestia brought flaming comets from all directions at her, Strife opened portals around her that brought them around Celestia instead. Celestia grunted at the impact of her own attack.

Celestia gasped, and looked to see she had lost visual track of Strife and turned around for the incoming rear attack. It came from below. Celestia couldn't gasp, she couldn't make a sound. Strife held a trident in one paw. It -could- have been made of light, but it looked like a rainbow with all its colored drained. Just shades of gray. It had gone through her heart and one lung and out the other side nicking her spine.

Celstia tried to heal the damage but the healing refused to come and when she forced it all it spawned were malformed tumors which died and faded to nothing the moment she released her magic.

"C-cheater."

"Immature. I don't recall agreeing to 'no weapons made out of the antithesis of your very being.'"

She tossed the trident aside and blasted it back into oblivion, it had served its purpose.

"Sorry Celestia. You lose. It's time for the sun to fade from this world, but I'm glad it didn't fade without a good fight. The right to fight for their survival is something no being should have taken from them, even if they have no chance of winning in the end." She gave a respect bow to the bleeding Celestia.

"You did well for a newborn Alicorn with no experience in that body. I bid you good-night. See you again. Thank you for a most exhilarating battle."

The light faded. The world again turned faded, gray, dark, so dark . . . Celestia curled into a ball, her blood floated in all directions around her, the bright red the only color she could soon see as the scene faded to black.

(Observer's notes: Yes. I finally understand. So that is why.)

+++

"Minty! Minty! Please Minty wake up! Please? This isn't funny! Come on! This can't be the end! Not after everything! Not after all our trying! Please! You can't leave me! How can any new world be better if you aren't there with me?!"

I cried and shook my best friend's body. "Please! Come on! Whose gonna make a mess of things trying to get everything perfect! Whose gonna get me all flustered with her games?! You can't be . . . just gone . . ." I whispered, tears streaming down my face. I noticed Minty's form turning gray, in fact, everything was turning gray. But Minty's form was slowly fading away like a image on smoke.

"No, no, no, no! THAT'S NOT FAIR! PLEASE! DON'T GO!" Minty's form faded like a dream.

Through the blur of her tears, I saw something that made me gasp.

"Minty?" There was a tiny star floating, perfectly still, barely glimmering. I held the tiny light in my hooves. "Please Minty . . . stay with me."

I finally noticed something that also wasn't fading to gray with the rest.

It was a shadow. I hadn't even noticed it when it had fallen before, I was busy dodging lightning bolts at the time.

But it looked a lot more solid then the shadows I had seen before, it was transparent, but it was laying on the ground. Unconscious?

And the most crazy, most Minty like idea I had ever had snapped in my head. Or maybe my head snapped from the trauma I'd just gone through. I dunno. I didn't care.

I slowly inched towards the unmoving shadow carrying Minty's light. It was a white and purple maned unicorn, with a pale pink coat, its cutie mark was a bunch of stars. It's tail had a light blue bow. It looked hurt. There was a hole through its chest and out its back...but it wasn't vanishing.

I didn't have a clue what I was doing. I didn't care. It was the only thing I could do, and that made it better than doing nothing right? Right!

I slowly lowered Minty's light inside the unmoving body. The shadow became more solid, more colorful. It's coat darkened from pink to lavender. The white parts darkened to almost black purple and the purple turned magenta. The stars changed, one became much larger than the others and the others became five little white ones. I couldn't help giving a small smile, I didn't feel alone anymore...

"C-Cheer-ill-lee."¬†¬†I whirled around to see where the yell had come from. I didn't gasp. I was too shocked by what I saw.

I am a selfish pony. I was so busy crying over Minty I didn't even notice her until now. I am a selfish awful pony.

It was Rarity on the other side of the box canyon. She was . . . she was bleeding, everywhere. The rocks she was on top of were covered completely in red. And she'd been so close to me the entire time.

"RARITY! IT'S . . . IT'S GOING TO BE!" My voice echoed.

The sky was pitch black again. The land had turned from faded colors to simply gray. There wasn't even a wind anymore. It was like the world itself was going silent.

"IT'S . .. it's going to be, going to be-" I began sobbing again. This was too much. It was all too much. Troola-Roola. StarSong. Minty. Now Rarity? It wasn't fair! ...I was all alone...

"Pin-kie . . . Pie?"

Or I thought I was.

Rarity looked up at me with her eyes, she didn't look like she could move her head. Her back went at wrong angles.

"Rarity. Cheerilee . . . Cheerilee will be here soon. And we can go back to Rainbow Castle and we can have the world's biggest tea party with Spike, Minty, and everypony! The teapot will be the size of the castle doors! Doesn't that sound like fun!"

Princess Rarity laughed. A shallow, tired, breathless laugh. "Y-yes, it, it does, I-I can't . . . wait . . ." Her eyes were closing. "And . . . P-Princess Rarity just loves . . . loves to have fun."

"Come on, we can laugh together . . ." I gently hugged her, I felt her body vanish, I felt a slight warmth at my chest. I felt it enter me. I heard a faint echo of Rarity's famous giggles. I giggled back.

There was no light anymore. No sound. No feeling. I didn't care...

I sang.

My little pony

My little pony

Every day is a dream come true

My little pony

My little pony

How I love to play with you

We'll plan a party with Pinkie Pie

Then watch her balloons lift her up to the sky

Scootaloo will show us games to play

Toola-Roola will be painting away

Rainbow Dash always dresses in style

Sweetie Belle's magic brings a great big smile

I hope we hear a story from Cheerilee

And a beautiful Starsong melody

Cause we're pony pals

Never far apart

They will always have a place in my heart

My little pony

My little pony

Wonder what we will do today

No way of knowing

Where we'll be going

Our adventures never end

My little pony

My little pony

I'm so glad you're my friend

+++

Butterfly Island faded into the darkness, then it never existed all, not even a memory, not even a myth or a fantasy, simply, oblivion.

I flew around my sister's still form. A floating white light in the absolute darkness. No, the darkness was my home, this was the nothingness of an abandoned timeline waiting for the new one to catch up with it and fill it with life once again. I touch my horn to hers.

The material body containing her ceased to exist, joining the rest of that universe in oblivion. She blinked at me. I felt relief pass through me when I saw the recognition in them. "Luna?"

"Missed you so much sister!" I hugged her with my wings. She wrapped her wings around me, outside time and space, it was easy.

"I missed you too Luna."

"Why did you go-?! Why?! What did you hope to learn?! What could you learn?!" I asked tearfully.

"I think I learned a lot of what Cadence learned I think. When she lived as Bright Glow during the second age and taught one Earth Pony named Patch to believe and wonder rather than just accept what she was told was and was not. And before that . . . well, we have all been so many. Except you 'Luna.'"

"I would say so what . . . but . . . recent events have made me question my worth as an Alicorn. What value is a Alicorn who is imperfect?"

Celestia hissed, "YOU ARE THE PERFECT NIGHT! I AM THE PERFECT DAY! JUST AS DISCORD'S FATHER IS THE PERFECT CHAOS AND HIS MOTHER THE PERFECT END. BUT OUR PARENTS ARE THE PERFECT EXISTENCE! "

I startled, then laughed. "How I missed you big sister!"

"Seriously Luna, you should spend some time as a mortal pony. I promise you'll learn some things. Our duty as Alicorns is to protect the life of creation, it's a much easier task when we actually get to see it as they do and know what its really worth. Who knows? Maybe you'll make some good friends with them while you're at it."

"Okay. Now you're just going too far. Next thing you'll say that I'll fall in love with one!"

I laughed.

"Why not? Mother says that Candace will. I might have if that timeline had any stallions to fall in love with."

"Still," I giggle at the silly thought, "There is no way I would develop such feelings in such a short time for somepony like that."

She gives a chuckle...then looks sadly around the void surrounding us as the high of our reunion dies down. "Sister...we-"

"...I know now why the timeline needed to die...I have a good idea why Strife did what she did...But..."

I nuzzle my sister. I've never seen her cry before, but I know from past reunions that this isn't an easy time for an Alicorn who assumed mortal form to get through. I can't understand fully why it hurts her so much, I wish I did so I could say something. But I don't know what its like. "...We would've done anything else if we knew what to do. Even the Elders didn't know..."

My sister looked angry, I hadn't seen her this angry before. "THEN WHY WAS IT ALLOWED TO GO THIS FAR?!"

I back up, quaking in my hooves. My sister noticed and lowered her head in sorrow. "I'm sorry, Luna...I'm just upset...Even if I'm an Alicorn, they were still Star-Catcher's, my friends and family...the ones I cared for most...And I know I'll see them again someday, maybe even in the new timeline...but that doesn't make it any easier to see them die."

I put my wing over my sister's back. I wish I could say "I know" or offer comforting words...But that's a difficult thing to do when you've never seen a loved one die. Cadence and the others who'd taken a turn would know, they could comfort her better. Father and Mother could comfort her. "...I'm sorry, Celly...Come on, the others are waiting for you..."

She took one more look around the abandoned timeline, doing her best to wipe her tears away. "Alright...l-lets go..."

Wing over wing, the two of us vanished in a flash of light, leaving that awful place behind. Our siblings and Parents were waiting for us.

++++

Razzaroo looked up, the sky was black, the world was dark, it wasn't cold anymore, it wasn't anything. It was hard to see, her eyes hurt from struggling to keep focused on her work without a light source so it could be read. She didn't know by who, but she wouldn't let it be any less of value than those it was about. She felt so tired. She had just a couple pages left to write though. Just a couple pages and it would be done she wanted to sleep so badly, but she had to finish before laying down. She wrote next to Kimono's sleeping form.

"Oh . .. . hell-lo, who are you? . . Those, that's an interesting name. . . . Nice to meet you. I'm Razzaroo, could, could you hold my hoof for me? . . . Thanks . . I . . just need to finish this last bit and . . . done. This was very important, something that couldn't wait...it would never be finished if I let it wait. Thank you. Now I can, get some rest." She closed her eyes, and gave a tired smile as she finally let her fatigue catch up with her. She was asleep before she tilted over. She faded away before she hit the ground. Only her book remained.

Pandemonium watched on from the void, sustaining that small fragment alive just a little bit longer.

We, I thanked her for letting Razzaroo finish her last duty.

"A final work is one that deserves to be finished, even if the artist won't even remember writing it and no one will have the chance to read it. But who knows? That's why any work worth starting, is worth finishing."

++++

Twilight Sparkle trotted back from the moldy old tomb, running into the book case behind her. Her twitching eyes were gigantic as she read the last page. A photograph of seven ponies, some who looked familiar, and others who were alien to her. The author's signature 'Razzaroo' written in tired hoofmareship on the bottom.

"H-how ... How did you get this book-?! Who are you anyway?! Who are you really-?! Hey! You can't just walk away! Answer me! Stop!" But Twilight's home was then devoid of visitors.

Interviewer's notes: You will know soon enough Twilight Sparkle. You will know soon enough.

++++

I am Her Majesty of Life and Flames Princess Celestia Amaterasu Solaris Equestria. And I am not used to anypony but nopony interrupting my beauty sleep. But the pounding continued all the same on my bedroom door.

Now could this be? Hmmm? Assassin? I have only met two in my two thousand plus years of rule that were stupid or honest enough to knock (I made sure both got a nice teleportation to a fully stocked tropical deserted island paradise that wouldn't be discovered by modern ponies until they died of old age).

I didn't hear anyone shouting out 'Your Majesty' so that left out my Day Guard and my normal staff and Court (Hmmm, should I have that 'Majesty' changed to something less generic like Dayjesty or Marejesty like Lulu? Naw. I have more interesting way to spice things up around here when I get bored).

Could it be Luna? This was the time of night where she was one of the few ponies awake and about. But she wasn't calling out my name either. Was she angry about something? Contrary to the palace rumor mill, I knew better than to prank my little sister. She was far too short tempered and sensitive for such things. Always had.

I cheated at my surprise and let see if there was any magical aura I could pick up. I was very surprised indeed at who I sensed! I quickly magically freshened myself up. I opened the absurdly tall door to my bedroom and looked down at my loyal and faithful student.

She was huffing and puffing, she nearly fell in with the door suddenly not there the pound. I considered the joke of letting her pound my skull for a few moment thinking she was still hitting on the door, but I didn't want to see the poor filly break into a babbling mass of apologies. She'd been hurt enough by the fact I'd thrown myself under the carriage for Fluttershy's sake.

My two Day Guards on either side of the door looked positively confused on what to do. After all, Twilight technically ranked higher than them, but at the same time a guard technically outranked anyone wishing to pass through a portal they guarded (A little law I had instilled after a pair of thieves had broken into the royal treasury with a powerful illusion spell disguised as me. I thought if those two stallions liked being a mare who looked like me so much I could make it so they didn't need to use illusions to be so. One of their descendants is now the most accomplished model in Canterlot and Fancy Pants' wife).

I asked. "Twilight Sparkle?"

Twilight magically let go of an old book she had been levitating, it hit the plush carpet with a thud, drawing my attention. My eyes widened and I drew in a breath at the sight of it.

"Teacher." Not Princess Celestia? Not Princess? Teacher? A quick mental scan put aside the worry my student was being impersonated or possessed. My attention was drawn instantly back to that book. A book that shouldn't have ever existed anymore. She looked me in the eyes. "I want to know the whole story! All of it! No disclaimers. No padding. I want to know the whole truth."

The look in her eyes: it wouldn't matter if she had opened this door to find three draconequus and two dragons; she wouldn't back for anything.

I assumed my most regal and divine stance. I resist the urge for my eyes to flicker again to that book. "Very well my most loyal and faithful student. But what you wish to learn, can not be unlearned." She didn't need to say anything, was this the resolve that Discord and Luna saw before they were struck by the power of the Elements? "Come inside and I'll make us some tea. Take a chair. And learn the truth."

Next: Celestia Origins POV

Episode 50: "Origins: Celestia Part 1"

"When I saw that Pinkie Pie was suffering trauma from the divergence from the heart world, I was surprised not to find you running around in the background." I said politely to the pony across from me.

"I mistook my Time Whimy Detector for my alarm clock and hit the snooze button. Besides, Universes -naturally- diverge from each other. That's the thing with free will. And besides that, the only time space disturbance of note here recently was those fillies who 'borrowed' that rusted flux capacitor, so I didn't think much about it. Quite an interesting disturbance as well, they somehow found themselves in a time that shouldn't even exist...those girls could do so much if they actually thought things through."

"Indeed Doctor Whooves."

"Just The Doctor please."

"As you wish Doctor. You have failed to bring a single one of your enemies' wars to my ponies' doorstep so I can do that small a 'favor.' Tell me Doctor, did you ever wonder why I granted you sanctuary given your reputation?"

"It had crossed my mind. And it certainly wasn't easy to stop them from tracking me back here whenever I take a trip."

"You could say we are alike."

++++

"Teacher! Er, Princess. I wanted to know the truth about you and Equestria. Not that weird pony with the blue shed in his backyard."

"Sorry My Faithful Student. Force of habit ... I am normally asked vague and imprecise questions, so I give vague and imprecise answers. Sometimes leading somepony to find the answers they seek results in more good than simply telling them. However, My Faithful Student, if you wish to know the truth. Then I wish to say a few things first, and I do mean a few."

"Yes Princess." She bowed her head.

"The time I spent with you at the festival for Princess Gaia was wonderful for me. You have no idea how beautiful it was to simply take a day off, and to spend it with you."

"But Princess, you're, you're The Princess you can take a day off whenever you want."

"Ah Twilight, sometimes I forget there are things you don't understand yet ... I am not a 'figurehead' Princess nor is Luna. And in spite of my best efforts, Equestria does not run itself. And Equestria, is not a tiny domain. And Luna has found her nights are not as inactive they were a thousand years ago."

"I understand Princess."

I think I preferred teacher. She's calming down. That's good. She'll need to be for her answer.

"Twilight. This will be my first confession this evening. When I saw the evils in the hearts of all ponies seeking to return to the ponies that spawned them ... I was tempted to destroy them, and leave everyone Princess Gaia had touched as untainted foals, ready to slowly grow up into adults again without those inner demons."

"Princess Celestia ..."

"I had the authority, I had the right, you are my little ponies, even Mother wouldn't question my choice. But I couldn't go through with it. So I let their inner monsters back inside them." I almost told her about Golden Skates, but Twilight was going to have enough on her mind from a selfish goddess spilling her eternity of regrets out to one tiny mortal pony. "So my ponies would have a choice on overcoming their monsters on their own ... I watched Blueblood turn from an innocent colt who lived his life like a timid caged bird back into a spoiled narcissist. Only this time I didn't have the excuse of being too busy correcting one of my other mistakes not to see it happen in front of me."

Twilight's a smart filly. Very smart. One of those ponies so sharp she has a bad habit of sometimes cutting herself. Of course she'd know what I meant.

"What happened with Princess Luna wasn't your fault!" She said, pleading.

"Heh. Roxxie Pie, Shadow Sparkle, and Thunder Dash said the same thing."

"Who?"

"Some friends who helped save the world that the history books forget to include."

"Those names ... our ancestors?"

All cards on the table, like she asked. "And your other friends had distant relatives from a thousand years back who were Luna's closest friends when she turned into a Nightmare and stayed true to her to the end."

"Luna had friends?"

"She wouldn't realize they were friends until a thousand years later, but yes. They stayed by her until the bitter end."

"But-, how could any pony, any pony at all, be loyal to Nightmare Moon? Did she promise them power? Money? Revenge? What?"

"None of the above."

"Then why? "

"Because, before Luna went completely insane, she really did believe she was making a better world."

"Like Fluttershy."

"And myself, as you've read in Razzaroo's book. Nightmares more often than not are born from good intentions, what then become an all consuming obsessions. When I saw she was lonely, I thought she'd remember in a bit that the Night Guard, her Court, and the others loyal to her would always be there for her. When I saw she was jealous, I believed it would just inspire her to do greater. When I felt she was angry, I brushed it off thinking it would blow over, we were at the age when we were both finding out who we were with no one to guide us.

"And when she suddenly became cheerful, polite, and submissive in court, I didn't think what her new outlet was as her creative works outside her night sky ceased. Any answer, as long as there was nothing wrong with the closest family I had left. 'You don't understand my sister as well as I do.' Any answer, as long as the world was good. What a naïve little pink haired goddess I was, that I couldn't even put the pieces together that my little sister had gone mad."

"Just like with me when it came to Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash..."

"Do not blame yourself, Twilight. After what Discord put you through, no one can blame you for refusing to see fault in your friends out of fear they were once more not themselves."

"That's a lie."

"And it's the one Luna helped me believe. She was insane, but she was careful. She animated her shadow and created an avatar of herself -as much a part of her as a leg or a hoof- for when Nightmare Moon and Princess Luna had to be in the same place, much like how Nightmare Whisper hid her true form behind her avatar of Princess Gaia. She kept up her ruse by making Nightmare Moon act so very different from herself, even down to a different manner of speaking, something which you yourself have witnessed when encountering them both.

"She spoon fed me plausible excuses for another Alicorn-like being with control over the night, such as one of her gifts falling into the hooves of the wrong pony, or the Rainbow of Darkness having regenerated a second time.

"In spite of it all, I can't help but applaud her for the skill and precision it took to create a glorified talking dummy of herself that could fool even my senses while successfully hiding Nightmare Moon's true identity from my eyes, let alone doing it from within the depths of madness. Even Shadow Sparkle was impressed. But now that I look back on it, I'm certain I saw the same thing that revealed to Applejack that Princess Gaia was an illusion, nothing. But as I did with everything else, I justified it, deciding she was just masking her eyes. As I said, I was naïve...

"I still remember every detail of their faces and cutie marks, their flaws, their virtues ... The mantle never stops feeling heavy. The pain of outliving those you care about? It NEVER gets easier. Because everypony is unique. And each loss is unique. And I can no more take it off than you take off your horn Twilight."

For less than a moment, Twilight dared to nuzzle me. Good girl. That's a brave pony. It feels good to have one of my little ponies actually nuzzle me. She came back to her senses and withdrew like I was white hot.

Before she could begin babbling apologizes for overstepping her place I said,

"Thank you for that day Twilight Sparkle. Even as Sunny Day, it is a gift I'll treasure forever."

That calmed her down, a little, she loved me enough that she didn't think it was giving her a final polite thanks before sending her to the moon.

"T-thank you Princess."

I think I do preferred 'Teacher' now that I think about it. "Feel free to ask as many and whatever questions you may like Twilight." I said in my most royal and calm voice, getting things back on track now that I used my own student as a shoulder to cry on.

"That Kenbroth Gilspotten Heathspike, the one from Razzaroo's book. The Forth. He's Spike ancestor isn't he? My Spike. Number seven?"

"Indeed he is, he was able to continue his line in this timeline rather than simply living forever. His bloodline has overseen the rise and fall of pony civilization for roughly seven thousand years, always at the side of their generation's champions as your Spike does now."

"Seven thousand? But Equestria's history only goes back around half that."

"The world is much older than most ponies give it credit for, even without the time that was removed."

She looked into my eyes with her own looking rather large. "I need to know. Did you only take me on as your apprentice because you knew Minty is a part of me? AM I Minty?"

I couldn't stop myself, I laughed.

"You are not Minty Twilight, nor are you Twilight the First's shadow. You are not merely a fusion of them but a unique entity unto yourself. You merely carry their legacy. Just as you are not your parents. You were born from them, they are a part of you, but they're not ALL of you, my Faithful Student. And I only learned later what happened to her because of Razzaroo's book, a book that isn't supposed to have ever existed in this universe. And I believed that your mother was born from Twilight the First's shadow, it never occurred to me that you might be. And Twilight,"

She looked up at me in surprise.

"Consider this; Pinkie Pie did what she did because of how much Minty meant to her, because of their friendship. Your place in fate was born of an act of true friendship, the kind of friendship you now share with all your friends. I cannot think of anything better one could be born from, can you?"

"...I guess you're right, Princess..." she said, a small smile.

It was ironic. After Discord was finally beaten I had been anticipating in two thousand years I'd finally be reunited with the friends I had lost as Star Catcher. Then saving Luna from herself became my focus, and I had no time to look up the lives of ponies who had never met me.

"Alright, what's your next question?"

"What about Equestia's history up until that point. Did it all happen?"

Not this again. I put on my most serious face. "It better sure have happened, I was witness to a good deal of it."

"But-but-but how could, could what I have read been real, if I remember my childhood?! The teasing at magic kindergarden sure felt real to me."

Her thinking was still so limited! After everything she had seen and learned she was still thinking like the flesh and blood pony she was. I felt my chest ache a bit. I went over possible metaphors I could use to explain a sphere to a stick pony who had only ever seen a circle. I breathed in deep.

"Twilight." This was harder than I thought it would be. "First picture reality like a tree, every choice and probability causes it to branch out in any number of directions, each as real and valid as the next and each one unique though many branch from one source.

"For example, there is a universe where all genders being flipped is the probability that changed oh please stop blushing. But also a universe were I fell to darkness instead of my sister, yes it scares me too, and another where Rainbow Dash chose to rescue Fluttershy instead of finishing the race, becoming less driven but better emotionally adjusted. All of these timelines are branches on the same tree, but no one branch is more or less a part of the tree.

"Now imagine time. Do you see a road? A river? I will now explain the truth of things. Time is the blood that enables the mortal universe's gears to turn, the sap allowing the tree to grow. As was mentioned enough times in Razzaroo's book for you to hear it in your nightmares, the 'all desires fulfilled' enchantment placed upon the world caused that particular branch to twist back on itself, and develop unhealthy growths. Normally these things can be straightened out or straighten themselves out. But as it created new contradictions to fix old ones, they went further and further back in time. The timeline had essentially become a cancer that would continue to spread if it wasn't stopped. So it had to be amputated. There's just one thing Twilight."

"Which is?"

"Spirits are not entities of space time. They are eternal. Your past did not retroactively come into being when time reached that point again. It came into being the normal way: one present moment and choice at a time which ripple into the future. I'm sorry Twilight if that doesn't make complete sense. I've never had to explain all this before, it was simply known among my family. You carry Minty's light inside you Twilight, it is an indivisible part of you, but you were never her."

"When Pinkie gasped and ran from me when we first met in Ponyville. It wasn't simply because I was new was it?"

"That I do not know. Pinkie sealed away the vast majority of her memories of that never-time, I do not know how much of the end she let herself remember at that time until she allowed herself to become one pony again. But it is quite possible that the personality that remembered it may have forced itself to the surface and recognized you."

"But if spirits aren't part of space time, how can every version of me be...me, but not me?"

"That is a good question, my faithful student. Each version of you has their own spirit, but all of them connected, like how the leaves on one tree are fed from the same sap as ones on another branch but still their own entity. Dusk Shine, that is the you from that world were genders are reversed, is his own pony, but his soul and yours are linked. Inseparable, but unique, in the same way you and Trixie are both embodiments of the Element Of Magic yet manifest it in different ways."

I saw the gears in Twilight's head turn. Finally her mind seemed to accept my answers and filed them away. She was silent for a full two minutes and I let her be. Finally she asked leaving that part of the session behind, "Why did you almost completely purge Discord from the history books."

"I didn't want to leave him any trace of a legacy, he doesn't deserve one."

"What about his 'statue?'"

"That was for the Draconequi, not Discord."

"DraconeQUI as in more than one-?!"

"Yes. You read Razzaroo's book remember?"

"Yes! But- it's so much to all take in!"

"I didn't know that was actually Discord. After what happened to Luna and I relocated I lost track of him, I thought he was buried."

"And you never recognized-"

"I had just sealed away my own sister! My best friend, as good as my twin! And I spent the next thousand years planning and preparing how to cure her! And as far as I knew he would be stone until the universe died of old age and His Mother came for him! I truthfully believed he was as good as dead!"

Twilight cowered before me. She was not the first to ask that question, or the second, and I was tired of it. I stood quietly in the dead of Luna's night as Twilight shook like a leaf in front of me. Finally she peaked out from under her hooves and slowly stood up. "I'm sorry Princess."

"Apology accepted Twilight Sparkle. Ponies love thinking I'm perfect when they can imagine a connection between their unhappiness and me, and love to think I am the opposite of perfect if it means they can shove their noses at me when they think I'm not looking. Just look at any of the tabloids at a supermarket, I don't write ALL the articles condemning me." I wasn't able to control myself, Twilight had hit a nerve. Elites and nobles who had caught wind of the Draconequus statue and connected the dots with Discord himself had roared at me why I had better security around the toppled tyrant. Some of the tabloids had a field day with it too, as you can guess.

I noticed how uncomfortable she looked. It was times like this I wished that I could afford to apologize more. Cadence had only been able to afford to apologize to Razzaroo since the world was coming to an end. A leader who spent all her time apologizing, didn't stay a leader for long.

I resisted the coming headache. "Please Twilight, continue, I am not angry with you, I am angry at being asked that question over and over! You have more questions before I begin, ask them."

"Princess ... the reenactment of Equestria's founding at Hearth Warming's Eve. I know there were some dramatic and historic liberties taken, but how much of that play is real? And how much is what ponies THINK happened?" Good student.

"It's what they believe happened. It's what in their hearts happened Twilight, that's all it needs to be.

I spoke in my most perfect sagely voice. "That is only one truth Twilight, one version, and even I can't remember anymore how accurate it is. So much has been repaired and revised since then. I sometimes remember it as you've seen in that reenactment. Other times I remember it just being me and Lulu, Discord gone, and me a naive little goddess thinking that without her parents baring down on her, not there to help her, guide her, that maybe at least she could make a land where everyone was happy no matter what. I accept that truth you and everypony else knows, because it gives them hope. It gives them something to grasp and trot towards to the future. More importantly, it inspires them to believe in their friendships and the power they possess. Power you've witnessed yourself numerous times now."

"Thank you Teacher." Twilight bowed her head. Then she asked. "Now what are the real details?"

I resisted the urge to applaud my student then and there. Maybe she was pushing past her limits. Made me wish I could still give her a gold star on her report card.

"All three expeditions did arrive at the same new area on the same day, but the pegasi claimed the new land by a few hours rather than a few seconds, or so says the records. Despite what most think, racism isn't dead in Equestria and I'd rather not encourage it with that little fact.

"And the expeditions didn't plant their standards within yards of each other. And all three expeditions were much larger than just two each.

"Princess Platinum actually led the expedition because her father was too ill to travel, and given her pampered attitude, I trust this says how much she loved him. And to be fair the personalities of all three leaders has been ... exaggerated."

"Like General Custard?"

"Yes like General Custard. Oh Platinum was pampered and spoiled. Hurricane was a warrior without any wars to give her glory. And Pudding Head was insane and childish, but also she was crazy like a fox! Like a good leader Hurricane -cared- for her fellow pegasi and was in command because her elderly superiors were dead or dying, thus why she wasn't a general and yet the leader of the Pegasi.

"Princess Platinum's prejudice was not exaggerated, but she was actually the last one to leave the summit, and was demanding the other two not leave as they left.

"Smart Cookie, Clover the Clever, and Private Pansy were indeed the ones whose friendship shattered the Windigo's grip on the ponies, and were great exceptions to the prejudices of their time. They still have my utmost respect for more reasons than one. After all, they managed to channel their friendship into a powerful spell without the Elements Of Harmony, a feat that has only recently been replicated by you and your friends.

"But Pansy was not Hurricane's Second-In-Command or aid. She was a faceless expendable grunt. Hurricane's Second froze with her loyally trying to pull Hurricane out of the cocoon of ice forming on the Pegasi leader.

"The leaders were the first to freeze and the trio were the last, but it was more than just a minute apart. The rest of the expedition froze in turn.

"The leaders stopped -hating- each other when they learned the others were not the cause of the blizzard, and that their hatred had fed the very beings who had caused it. But caring for other another? That took years.

"And ... the relationship between Earth ponies and the other clans was ... more tense. And unicorns had an ... exaggerated opinion of their magic.

"Also, that play leaves out ... that the three tribes found out there was were two more races of ponies.

"No, not the Alicorns, we are one in all and all in one. But the new Equestrians did give the Hippocampi back the idea of individual names. And they brought the Flutterponies out of their newest fit of isolationism. The flutterpony's magic? Heh. That is the student I know. Individually their magic was less than that of a below average unicorn, but ... heh, they were able to group together their magic infinitely easier than Unicorns can, some even said that to test the magic of one of them was to face the magic of their entire race. Not that I ever got a big chance to ask them or see much for myself sadly. Strife only said they never failed to surprise her ...

"The seaponies? Their singing was the most beautiful in Equestria and they knew it. They were also very helpful creatures, if you were in distress at sea, you could always count on them to come to your rescue. Even when they were in hiding, they kept this in secret, often pretending to be dolphins or the like when they could get away with it.

"I suggest if you seek to learn more about the Flutterponies and Seaponies, I suggest you speak with Lickety Split, a colt in Ponyville whose family has stories dating back to that time, including quite a few involving those two, though they have been exaggerated somewhat by time, as stories often are." My student scribbles down the name, I taught her well.

"One last question. That flag The one used at the end of the play... it wasn't the one used by the ponies who founded Equestria was it?"

"No. It wasn't. Ponies have since forgotten what standard they used. And I wasn't on the scene at the time except in spirit, and that Equestria ... would be crushed under Discord's heel."

"I'm ready teacher. Tell me everything."

"As you wish. But be warned Twilight, you leave childhood behind now."

++++

"But after the big bang happened you won't believe how boring everything was for a while after that. I mean! A whole new universe, when you see it the first time you think that it'll be stars, planets and life in a couple centuries. I threw such a fit when I learned we'd have to wait a couple billion years for life to evolve-

-so the score of star ball remained at a draw when Our Parents told us we were causing too many super novas whenever we played with the draconequi-

-And that was when I created my first species. My Parents were so proud.-

-And then there was my time as a perfectly normal horse on the world on other side of the rainbow. It taught me to pick my battles when I talked back to my older siblings-

-Discord wasn't always a sick bastard, wait, he was always a sick bastard, but unlike Destruction he refused to take his medication-

-And if I knew what it would start I would have never given him that extra slice of birthday cake-

-I mean! Come on! Turning a racially segregated species all the same color purple with blue polka dots was funny the FIRST time he did it! But you think he'd at least-

-So I told him. NO! Plucking an entire species of sapient flowers and turning them into a bouquet did NOT make my heart flutter! And it turns out they were a species Strife was experimenting with so ... -

-And after I got the piercing at the rock concert-

-And I slapped him so hard when he kissed me that he sailed from one edge of the universe to the other side-

-I told him he was STILL missing the point when he got His Father to blow up several planets to spell out my name-

-So when I found out she was dating that jerk I might have SLIGHTLY overreacted. No one's going to notice one extra desert planet, and it only took a few decades for all the species to adapt-

-And then I rolled a three, my sister a two, and he a seven, on a six side dice!"

"TEACHER!"

"What?"

"I asked for the truth! Not your auto-biography from the beginning of the universe!...You can tell me some of that when I'm not having a panic attack after learning about the apocalypse!"

"Oh! Sorry! It's not like I was trying to bore you to sleep with trivial mundane details of my early life so you'd sleep through the deep and terrible secrets of the origins of the current cosmic state of being and your civilization."

"Teacher? Can we? Please?"

"First, why 'Teacher'?"

Her eyes quivered, "B-because ... I don't know what to call you anymore."

I gave her a serious look back. "I understand. Just please remember. I am your Princess, and I would never seek to harm or sacrifice any of my little ponies. I love all of you, I wouldn't be ruling you directly right now if I didn't. And I started out as such a naive and innocent deity, I didn't know how valuable life was at first, that's why we Alicorns took mortal form, so we could learn about what it was we were protecting. I did learn a little from my days as Star-Catcher. And Twilight, there is nothing more dangerous, than only learning 'a little.' "

"And please, no, no 'flights of fancy'."

"Alright. I made up the birthday cake. Discord always thought I was hot-"

"Teacher."

"-after I filled in. He spent the first couple billion years teasing me about it."

Pony POV Series Origins
Princess Celestia
Optional-Canon

Forgive me if I am abridged on some parts. There is much to cover and no time to cover it as I'm sure you know by now dear.

I can assure you. Myself and Discord were never in love ... not by any meaningful definition of the word at least. I knew love between my family, and I knew love of the friends Star-Catcher had made, but my ideal world had turned love into an almost monotone emotion with no depth or shading, deep and complex friendships were rare gems on the beach.

... So what was it like between myself and Discord? It's complicated.

I'm sorry I've just done my best not to think about in two thousand years!

I was a pure divine maiden for whom his disgusting black claws could only blindly grasp at. Oh alright I thought he was a blast to be around! After he stopped teasing me and turned on the charm I was hooked! Discord may not look it, but he is quite capable of learning from his mistakes and with me he made so many. He got it wrong the first several times, but we were counterparts who had to work together whether we liked it or not, so I chose to like it.

In honesty, I chaffed under the laws that said we had to amputate the timeline I had lived, and Discord provided my outlet.

So yes my student, a little pinkette goddess and a little draconequus playing together. My Parents approved at first. Saying we'd learn things from each other we needed to learn. Havoc was upset I was 'infecting' him but figured I could be constructive in small doses. His Mother approved because it almost amused Her.

He taught me the joys of pranking and how to think outside the box. I laughed again with him. Luna said I was being an idiot, I told her she was being prejudice, and Discord asked her if she was just being jealous. This made Luna's face burn. But not as much as when he put a stink bomb under her pillow. Back then, Discord's games could actually be fun!

I taught him to appreciate art and beauty, and ... how to think and plan.

I gave his randomness direction, he gave my projects more creative flair. He rarely made things on his own but he was so easy to inspire with just the most simple of ideas. He was always trying to push me to break the rules the Elders had put in place, while I was always trying to get him to go one day without breaking one of them.

Ever hear of the crab nasties? They were frightening giant crabs created between Discord and I and instilled with an unbreakable sense of justice. Why? Because it was unexpected and surprising. Nothing else to it. Strife adored them, powerful creatures with equally strong willed hearts, she didn't care if they were good or evil. One of my siblings, Justitia, liked them for acting in her name.

Then we visited this world again on a whim, and I noticed a pony walking along side a cliff eating bits of grass, she looked malnourished.

I considered cheating and making some flowers bloom around her in great numbers to feed her. But I hesitated. Discord saw the look on my face.

"What are you thinking beautiful?"

"Nothing. I was just thinking back. What if giving her flowers once makes her keep coming back here wasting time when she could be searching elsewhere? And if I make the flowers constantly grow, other ponies might fight her over it. There could be consequences."

Discord flicked her off the cliff, I watched as she fell, and the ground broke her neck. Then Discord snapped his fingers and she was back on the edge of the cliff. She blinked in confusion and ran away from the cliff, scared nearly to death. He laughed, "You see? There are no consequences. Rules and laws exist just to artificially create them."

I growled at him.

"What? She's alive and well. And she has the common sense now not to stray so close to cliffs. No harm. No foul. And I'd say that was a good thing, wouldn't you Celly?"

I couldn't defeat his logic. Yes, logic. We learned a lot from each other.

It was a violation of Mortis' territory. But Discord had made it sound all so rational!

He still saw I was upset though.

As an apology he transplanted the rest of the race of sentient flowers, the Flores, to the early Age of Equestria before it was Equestria. You'll find them in one of Lickty-Split's stories, about that which is ugly not always being evil and what is beautiful does not make it good.

Turns out that even before being transplanted they were a ruthless species of sapient plants who's lifecycle was like locusts: they'd wander from land to land sucking up the nutrients and fertility of the soil for miles around leaving all other forms of plant life dead and move on leaving deserts in their wake. And they loved it.

It didn't matter so much on their own world where they were the only form of sapient life, but this meant they had no empathy for their new neighbors. Strife approved of this new conflict and accepted as Discord's apology to her as well. Destruction clapped like a child watching fireworks. Pandaemonium admitted they did look pretty, but didn't like seeing gardens created for their beauty destroyed. Anarchy just shrugged. We had to transplant the crab nasties as a counter balance.

Allow me to explain something to you my little pony, it is hard to understand but please try to. When one exists ...outside of things, the order you perceive things happening is not the order that mortal ponies experience them in. Just know that these events happened prior to the First Age, even though I had already been Star Catcher in what would've been called the Third Age had it not been erased. In other words your past, present and future are like a river to those of us outside it. If I was not flesh and blood before you, I could take Smarty-Pants from your death bed, and give it to you in your cradle.

So then I saw his real personality? My student, Discord always saw reality as his playpen, but it was only when he was older when he found the 'joy' of seeing ponies broken and squirming in terror or dancing on his puppet strings. That sadistic pleasure was always in his heart, as you can assume from his treatment of the Flutterponies during the amputation of that timeline. But the true extent of his pleasure in others' misery was hidden even from him. Then it was just a black seed buried in the depths of his soul.

And it was on that day, I had helped him discover it.

He saw he could cause chaos through indirect means, he saw good intentions could lead to disaster, or bad intentions disguised by good ones, and he wanted to know more. He wanted to understand.

So he taught an elderly woman how to steal youth and create illusions based on her victims' innermost fantasies. He taught a fat failure of a wizard how to feed off shadows to increase his magic. He told an Octopus-like creature who shared his newfound love of causing suffering where to find the buried remains of a pendant given to the beast eons before by Strife to stir things up called the Flashstone imbued with draconequus magic. Strife had long abandoned him for a new avatar on your world. And before you ask, no, there is no need to worry about the Flashstone, not that I blame you, the ones who defeated its owner feared its power would again be used for evil and destroyed it the moment his rampage was undone.

+++

"Teacher. By that logic you should break every horn in Equestria of every unicorn whose special talent is destructive magic. Because they might use it for evil."

"I never said it an unbiased decision. Remember, this was an age where, while powerful, Unicorn magic was in its infancy as an art compared to what you know it. So the Flashstone's power was even more fearsome back then."

+++

Dsicord's toys fell eventually, but this only made him laugh harder. Their hope then despair added to the mix.

No matter how many fell, he'd just find another greedy being or monster who needed a 'benefactor.' All he needed to do was reach out and grab a new toy when the pony's broke his old ones. It was also about this time he began to see the power lies and half-truths could have. He told tell a once kindly girl that a plant would give its user incredible magical power if made into a proper potion, but neglect to mention it was essentially a powerful drug that turned its users into power mad psychopaths. You know it today as witchweed. However, he did not discover the true power in deceit and treachery until he was older.

He wound them up like toy soldiers sent them off causing misery until they fell. It was a game without end.

And he happily thanked me for it. Enthusiastically, he shook my hooves telling me how grateful he was for helping him discover his new passion. He got his sister to help create an entire nebula in my image as a thank you gift.

I felt sick inside.

Did he love me? Twilight, first you need to understand something about the Draconequi. The Alicorns and Draconequi, as Spike the Fourth stated, were protectors of the Life of the universe. We were the countless improbable factors that enabled life to exist. But our roles were very different. The Draconequi's roles did not permit the same form of compassion as Alicorns and mortal ponies possessed. You are a product of both our efforts after all.

But at the same time, if they had no idea what love was at all, they'd be incapable of testing and encouraging the Life of the universe as was their duty, since as more sapient life appeared, love became a part of life.

Thus, the form of love the Draconequi had was very different, but none the less real, or at least they understood the mechanics behind it. They knew it was fickle thing, making it part of chaos. They knew it was part of what bound families, which Strife understood. They knew it was beautiful, which Pandora appreciated. And it could lead to great disaster, which Destruction comprehended. They knew it made people fear for those they cared about, something Havoc saw useful. Anarchy knew it was something unto itself, which he accepted.

It is difficult to explain, but the best way I can explain it is the compassion of a Draconequus was based on something that let them care for living beings without becoming attached to them.

For example, Strife couldn't afford to develop compassion as we know it for any species or individual or she'd risk favoritism and refuse to allow them to be challenged properly per her duty. Instead she loved them in memory of their victories, their battles, their strengths, and of their determination, but didn't judge them based solely on these things, considering their right a fundamental one of all species. She took pride and admired a being who managed to conquer the challenges she placed before them. Her admiration for Thistle Whistle's sacrifice was entirely genuine, I even heard the sonnet she had Pandemonium write for her. In this way, Strife managed to remain detached enough from the world so as not to descend into favoritism but at the same time avoided becoming so apathetic that she became incapable of valuing Life in any form. Each of the Draconequi possessed something akin to this, or so I believed back then.

Of all the Draconequi, Discord was the only one whom I think was honest confused and befuddled by very the idea of love. The idea frustrated him to no end, even when he smashed it and looked at the pieces he couldn't wrap his mind around it.

If he could, he loved me as much as you love Smarty-Pants. No more and no less. And as he grew up, he discarded all but his most beloved of his older toys, and even them he now played with...roughly.

But these are all mechanics Twilight Sparkle, descriptions . And text entries don't matter to a broken heart.

It was too much, I, I broke down in tears when I saw what he did. I tried telling him this wasn't right, that this wasn't the chaos he was meant to unleash, but he gave me the same answer he'd given me before when he threw the pony from the cliff. He put an arm around my shoulder, he told me "There are no consequences Celly. Rules and laws exist just to artificially create them."

I trotted back from him, slowly shaking my head. He was confused by my reaction. I think he thought I'd be laughing with him right about now.

I ran away. From everything. From him. From my family. From Luna.

I ran back to the world where everything was nice and simple, where everything had always been black and white. Yours. And I saw what had become of things. This was the Second Age, after the events of Dream Valley during the First Age, but before the 'perfect world' I lived as Star-Catcher came into being in what was originally the Third Age.

By the time of the Second Age, Earth ponies had grown to mimic humans and their culture in tribute to their world's savior. In fact, they had even taken the NAME EARTH Ponies in tribute. Yes humans, the species from the other side of the rainbows. Since there was a whole world of them waiting for him when he was bored of Equestria, Discord wasn't bothered that his 'playing rough' ... no, no, no, I'm alright Twilight. Discord was particularly, 'creative' with them.

But the Earth ponies had forgotten any of the other tribes even existed. Earth ponies in the tropics even developed the fantasy that mainland Earth ponies could fly. Not that they even thought of themselves as Earth ponies by that point, after all, there were no Pegasi or Unicorns to distinguish themselves from.

Civilization grew, even greater than what it is today. Many things I've seen invented are in fact what has been RE-invented after being lost from the world being broken twice over. But these Earth Ponies completely forgot about magic, not that they really needed it anymore.

They lived lives with challenges, obstacles, all on a personal level. No one had a perfect life, foolish fillies fell in love with narcissistic stallions, ponies who believed there were other worlds were laughed at, and all had hidden sides to themselves same as anypony. But most could reach their dreams if they tried hard enough.

And no pony had to worry about giant monsters, a lord of darkness descending upon them to turn ponies into brainwashed dragon slaves or mad magicians looking to steal a part of their souls like it was firewood or dangerous narcotic plants. Some called it bland, but I think after all the ponies before them had endured, as a species and a people they had earned their world.

+++

"It sounds like not that bad a time."

"It wasn't my student. And I hated it! Ponies being insensitive to each other-?! Ponies who were more in love with themselves than their friends? Ponies who would cheat at tests and competitions? Ponies having to work for MONEY opposed for the joy of it? Ponies being born then dying of old age? No magic at all? I saw it as some dark grim dystopia of everything the flawless shallow child-like paradise I had come to love was. In other words, I was spoiled."

"I thought you had accepted that a perfect world like that couldn't work."

"I did. But accepting a world of ponies who weren't perfect? Ponies who would make selfish choices? A world where ponies weren't friends with everyone else? The only experience I had with mortal ponies had been that dream world. I trotted along the road of time, wanting to see, hoping that even if my ideal world couldn't exist, maybe when the point came, they could at least be the perfect little near identical ponies I had fallen in love with. Mother's vital lectures on the importance of freewill I'd been given were buried in my brain and forgotten."

+++

Then, as the Second Age began its end, the civilized ponies found magic again. They realized what magic could do, and with their better understanding of the world, they could use it on a grander, more precise scale, of the unicorns of the previous eons who had barely understood how to teleport and other forms of magic were just being discovered.

It was a grand project. Magic was 'magic' to them, in other words, the magic of their fairytales, magic that could give them anything they wanted regardless of any rule. Inspiration was drawn from their fantasies, and for these ponies, one idea sparked in one pony who now dared dream the impossible. She suggested the idea to others, who were slow at first but as her idea became more refined they readily picked it up. There was resistance of course, but it never became violent. The promise of an ideal world was simply too tempting.

The mare who came up with the idea however had had a heart-breaking encounter in her youth, and believed the world wouldn't need stallions if everypony was immortal and in perfect health no matter how much candy or soda they guzzled down.

Their dream was a simple one: recreate the utopia exaggerated in their fairytales with an Age's worth of magic released all at once.

Pinkie Pie and the others at that time? A very intelligent question. If they were all immortal and had no children they had to be alive at this point yes? Logical yes?

That's the funny thing my student. BECAUSE they had been erased or revised at THAT point in time when the amputation happened, that meant they HAD to exist when time reached that point again, and no longer being immortal, this meant they all had to be born eons later!

But even all the magic they had, they had no real way to properly manifest it and direct it.

There was however, another legacy from the First Age when ponies were limited to Dream Valley. Ever heard of the Rainbow Of Light my student? It was a powerful instrument created as a pair. One of light, one of darkness, to ensure ponies would have a choice about which one to use. Mother tends to be rather intent on freewill, in theory at least. She said freedom to shape one's own destiny and freedom to enjoy that destiny would always butt heads.

The Rainbow of Darkness during the First Age was destroyed by the Rainbow of Light after the dark half was being used as a weapon to corrupt ponies into near mindless dragons by a centaur in love with the idea of eternal night, who was destroyed along with it. I do not know if he was servant of my sister's who fell too much in love with her. The Rainbow of Darkness regenerated itself during my reign with my sister and resurrected its last master with it and he challenged Luna for the right to rule the night. You've seen his chariot Luna had kept all these eons as a trophy.

How did Tirek get his claws on the Rainbow Of Darkness? I can't be sure, I have my suspicions as I'm sure you do by as well, but I do not know which ones are correct.

The Rainbow of Light remained however, and it kept its care takers alive and healthy, ready to be used when the next mad man arose who wanted to reshape the world to how they thought it should be, and between them, Strife and Discord provided plenty of those.

Among the Rainbow's caretakers was a unicorn named Twilight who used wishes to trigger her own magic, yes, she whose shadow gave birth to you. A silly minded pegasus named Surprise. A brave dare devil named Firefly. A rational and logical and sometimes stiff pegasus named Wind Whistler (for a time I believed YOU were her shadow) who was once teased she had no feelings until she cried about it. And many, MANY others. It was not a small group.

Ever heard of Paradise Estate and Dream Castle? They resided in what was once called Dream Valley in the First Age. No no no, when the ponies SETTLED there from being wandering herds it was dangerous place, but they turned it beautiful and safe by hard won successes. Many of Discord's beneficiaries were vanquished by this very group. This is how your species caught Strife's full attention with their hard won victories.

Dream Castle was destroyed by ... you don't want to know how, it's safe to say that you should pray no one remembers how to create The Smooze. No, not even the Rainbow Of Light could stop it. After the Smooze was destroyed, the caretakers relocated to Paradise Estate. If you wish to know more about that, I suggest you once more consult Lickety Split, its one of his family's favorite stories as their ancestor did play a role in it.

The Paradise Estate Ponies had never actually kept their immortality secret from the modern ponies who inhabited the Second Age. They hadn't even meant to kept their own existence a secret! They weren't even all Earth Ponies! They simply had fallen out of context of what civilized ponies would accept as real in their minds. But magic was suddenly real again thanks to one pony who dared believe.

The idea would have been to break the Rainbow Of Light into several pieces and place them at various castles across the land of ponies, its magic spread across the land with one giant wish to create their ideal fantasy world.

The civilized ponies never knew it, but resulting magic would have also turned many of the ponies on Paradise Estate into shadows of existence, as the retcons to reality to ensure this perfect world had a reason to exist would have pushed many lives aside. The Paradise ponies knew and accepted this however, since they were sick of a new evil always on the horizon, and wanted to be done with it.

And it worked. And you read about the results and I lived them in the Third Age that never was.

Then history had to change.

++++

Episode 51: "Origins: Celestia Part 2"

My Little Ponies Friendship Is Magic
Pony POV Series Origins Part 2
Princess Celestia
Optional-Canon

"Now hold on! How could I be that Twilight's shadow, if that fantasy age never happened and she never became an erased pony begin with?" Twilight then remembered who she was talking to and began to apologize for interrupting.

I normally love Twilight when she asks questions, but she was giving me a headache trying to explain all of this in terms that piece of meat inside her skull her soul was seated in could process. "Twilight. Try to understand. The rules of cause and effect are different outside of mortal reality. Strife still had a stone paw even though the timeline she got it in never existed. Your soul, and thus you, is a spiritual entity and not bound by what happens in that timeline once you're no longer a part of it. To sum it up, the spiritual plane is not bound by the law of conservation of matter, and once you were your own being, you were not tied to the fate of Twilight the First's soul. Otherwise you'd have been born a pony with no heart since Minty never existed... Now we have a lot of ground to cover tonight and this is still only the beginning."

++++

Many of the ponies of Paradise Estate had long left, allowed to start families and die of old age. The ones who remained did so either out of a sense of duty or devotion, wanting to see what new marvels the future held, or simply didn't want to leave their centuries long friends to carry the burden alone.

The 'rediscovery' of Paradise Estate and Dream Valley can be traced back to an Earth pony named Patch. When she was young ... well, imagine Rainbow Dash's taste in pranks and Pinkie Pie's wits in pulling them off. Yes, I shuddered too. She learned her lesson the hard way, eventually.

She grew up wanting to become a circus clown, but after her encounter with a ghost and later a member of my family, her desire to explore the unexplained drove her to ultimately meet the clans of 'horned ponies', 'ponies with wings', and 'underwater-ponies' and 'butterfly-ponies.' She wanted to believe.

Yes My Faithful student, a ghost, you can stop screaming 'Ghosts Don't Exist!' now and pay attention. You've personally witnessed two 'myths' come to life and saved the world from them, are ghosts really that strange?

Yes, yes one phenomena's existence does not bring about another, but you have already seen how the dead can be forced to linger in this world. Stay focused.

The circle of seven friends she was a part of would have a surprising influence on the world right up until ... the change in history showed its results. The tales of those little pony may not have involved saving the world, but they were heart-warming to see.

They were all grown mares by the time of Patch's rediscovery, having left their personal misadventures of their teenage years behind them. They had forged their own lives and had drifted apart, as foalhood friends often shall. But they were the ones Patch wanted to introduce to the ponies she alone had accepted the reality of.

Melody, a vain rock star with her heart, normally, in the right place, thought Patch had finally gone crazy.

Starlight, the little group's leader when they had all been together, wanted to see first and judge later.

Clover and Sweetheart weren't sure if they believed in 'magic ponies' or not, but they chose to hear their friend out.

Bright Eyes thought Patch had found something and was exaggerating. And Bon-Bon-

+++

"Bon-Bon?!"

"Yes Twilight. She was the direct ancestor of the Bon-Bon of Ponyville. Her line actually goes as far back as the First Age. She doesn't know of her long heritage though. And for the better I would say. Heritage can be a source of strength but it also a heavy mantle to carry. I speak from personal experience on that matter. It's the same with many of them.

"And yes, Clover, voted biggest klutz by her classmates, is the direct ancestor of THAT Clover The Clever. This Clover also once won two tickets to a major event but couldn't decide which friend to bring. Sound familiar? So yes, Clover The Clever did have an Earth pony in her family tree.

"It is possible you are descended from Twilight the First in body as well as spirit, your mother looks nearly identical to her, but that's just luck of the draw I suppose.

"Melody's line would eventually mix with a family of unicorns as well ... I believe I will leave it to you to guess who that you know that shares her line."

"Is anyone not of mixed heritage?"

"Twilight Sparkle, what makes you think in this day and age anypony -isn't-?

"And Patch's line for example would eventually settle and help found Trottingham. And she was the last pony anyone would think would fall in love."

"Let me guess, Pipsqueak is her descendant?"

"Yes but he looks nothing like her. And Pipsqueak's family has actually picked up a number of, interesting bloodlines over the generations."

+++

I'll just say this. It was a wonderful occasion. It was like a second awakening for everypony alive. The Estate ponies no longer felt lonely or isolated, and a whole new world opened up to the seven friends that eventually spread to the rest of the civilized ponies.

Patch got her place in the history books. And her friends were the first to step into a larger world. The ring of friendship the seven had shared in their youth was restored. Even though three of them were already married by that point, it felt good to have a reason for the seven of them to be together again.

They had lives Twilight, they never had to save the world, but they knew happiness that wasn't a one-dimensional fairy tale.

The idea of no stallions in the 'perfect world' wasn't a conscious decision. It was at the back of Starlight's subconscious when the spell was cast. Broken hearts can heal, but they will always scar. Turning every stallion in Ponyland into a mare, and making it so they had always been a mare according to the revisions to reality was never intended. Yes, yes, yes it makes no biological sense, you saw the consequences already and I have lived them.

Starlight was a good pony Twilight. She had a sense of responsibility well beyond her years as a student. Maybe she went running to her teacher rather than her mother more she should have, but she was natural and fair-hearted leader. She often became the voice of reason just her friend Sweet Heart was the voice of mercy and Bright Eyes the voice of knowledge.

So how did things change to prevent my fantasy world from becoming about? I trotted quickly down the timeline, hoping that my fantasy world would come about, only in a sustainable form. I hope I could spend my self imposed exile once more among the recreation of the world I'd loved and cherished as a mortal.

Starlight presented her idea to her leaders, it might have been a conditional monarchy, but I didn't stop to take in details. It was still approved.

The Estate ponies still gave the Rainbow of Light to the civilized ponies knowing it would do.

The plan to separate the Rainbow of Light into the foundation stones of the castles that would harmonize everypony's innermost desires were being built at key locations across the world continued on schedule.

I was beginning to get confused but also hopeful, maybe the world I lived as Star-Catcher would happen after all!

What I'm about to tell you next my faithful student will not make much sense to you, I'm sorry but it won't and the more I tell you the less it will. You said you wanted to know all of it? So I'll tell you.

The desire for a perfect world was indeed born in every pony's heart, and what defined a perfect world was much different for everypony. But it was helped along. You do not know them Twilight Sparkle, and as a mortal pony you'll never know them. But the Shadows Who Make, under the will of the Shadows Who Rule, helped along this desire, encouraged it, gave it the strength to be realized. I am not lying when I tell you would become a mad pony if I told you more of them. The Shadow Who Make even recruited us Alicorns and Draconequi to try and 'improve' the lost age by the Shadows Who Rule's design thinking it would appeal more the Shadows Who Watch, that could be called the third and a half age. The revisions they placed into the 'past' of the third age only made the contradictions build up faster.

No we are not the shadows servant per-say Twilight, nor have we ever been. And we have always been as we are now, the shadows did not 'up-lift' us to the divine. They merely acquired our assistance.

These Shadows are not the 'shadows of existence' created from ponies who light of existence has moved on Twilight, not are these shadows good or evil, and I say again, if I told you their nature, you'd go insane. Only know this universe would not exist without them.

But even with the Shadows Who Make no longer helping it along, the ponies moved towards this anyway, like a muscle memory, their hearts didn't remember a world coming to an end, only the the eons of innocence and happiness they had. And that road wouldn't be allowed again.

Destruction does not so much want to destroy as needs to destroy. It is a need that builds like a volcano. Every thread of his being demands it. After he brought annihilation to something, he became rational and reasonable, as if waking up from a dream. He didn't like it.

After the Big Bang he was quite rational and reasonable longer than any other time I could remember even though it was technically an act of creation.

The longer he held the need in, the greater the ruin he needed to bring to quench it. If not fed, the primal command could grow to where he became feral and wouldn't remember himself until he had reduced everything around him to its base atoms.

His Parents would make use of this, holding him back till his instinct grew to the level they needed it and released him in the general direction of what needed to cease to exist.

Entropy's favorite method was to trap her son in the center of a black hole with nothing to give his gift of ruin to. Nothing to clear away to make room for what came next. I know it sounds cruel, it was, you think she cared? When has anything held meaning to Entropy?

As an experiment She once keeping him contained until he built up to the point that he managed to destroy the black hole he was trapped in to finally release his need. That was the closest I'd ever seen Entropy come to being impressed.

No, Twilight, I'm positive Discord was not afflicted with a similar condition. When Discord was freed, he went to causing small bits of chaos as a test run and contemplated his grand scheme. Thanks to me he is a planner. In this omega state, Destruction couldn't even control himself let alone make any type of plan. His Parents simply pointed him in the general direction of what they wanted to no longer exist and let go of his leash.

The act of destroying himself over and over had long since become flavorless and hollow. And now destruction had to take place for the timeline to be able to rebuild over the ashes in a way that would not cause its demise.

And I saw him appear, as a spirit, above where the awakening of the spell to change the world was about to take place as it sampled the inner desires of every pony alive.

His eyes were solid glowing red, he was frothing at the mouth, he roared like a wild animal. The ponies didn't hear him of course. They were busy celebrating the new world they were about to create, the remaining neigh-sayers resigned to the end.

"DESSTROY!" Only I heard him almost intelligibly gargle from his throat.

His eyes focused on the gathering dreams and fantasies directly below him.

I knew better than to try to speak to him, knew better than to reason with an atom bomb. I would've had better luck convincing a Nightmare to stop its rampage. I tried anyway.

"DESTRUCTION! DON'T! PLEASE!"

"BREAK! EEVEERYTHING!"

And in the blink of an eye, a stable, honestly beautiful civilization modeled in honor of a hero from another world, came crashing down. The Second Age ended, and I beheld the new 'Third Age' that you know as the time of the three tribes.

The magical backlash from the conflicting dreams and fantasies triggered even greater reactions from the amount of magic stored within the castles.

The castles exploded, annihilating themselves and reducing everything around them to rubble, any life that wasn't destroyed in their range was twisted, and the mental backwash from the union that would have created their dream world and given them near identical personalities caused many ponies be brain damaged or left with amnesia.

Starlight was killed, having been right underneath Destruction when it happened.

Destruction shook his head as the dust settled and held a gorilla hand to his head and said, "Man, what a trip." He looked around at the annihilation he had caused. Seeing it for the first time he said, "Now that's just messed up." He returned to his family's domain before I could speak with him. I was too busy beholding this ruin in broken shock.

The world was left so broken that history became myths and legends.

Bright Eyes couldn't even remember own name after the blast, and was taken kept care of by her husband until she fully recovered a decade later.

Clover, in an inversion of her bad luck, was left completely untouched by sheer good fortune of not being near any of the castles and her simple desires and wishes. She and her family survived countless disasters that would have surely killed other ponies until she died of old age.

Sweetheart, whether she wanted to be or not, being a doctor, spent the rest of her days caring for the ponies who had been left broken in what little ways she could in an equally broken world. The Hearts have remained a steady line of doctors ever since.

Melody found the world no longer cared for musicians or entertainment, not that it mattered, the smoke and trauma she suffered left her a mute. But her mind was still sharp and her own, and she never let her husband forget.

Bon-Bon, in a world that no longer needed fashion models or chefs, wrote down all that had happened and all she had experienced. Sadly her books would be lost to time and fade as literacy among Earth ponies dropped and pegasi and unicorns lost interest in any records but their own.

Patch was on Paradise Estate which at the time that was spared the destruction, she was determined to wander the world the rest of her days vowing not to rest until she found all of her friends, refusing to believe Starlight could be dead.

In that quest Patch met an elderly and incredibly powerful magician named The Moochick, part of a forgotten species. He had lived since before the first age, and my brother Mortis could be kept at bay no longer for him. He was the one who had kept the Rainbow of Light before giving it to the ponies of Dream Valley. I am not surprised you haven't heard of him Twilight, he was perfectly happy to keep to himself and supposedly stay out of history's way. But it didn't stop him from helping the Dream Valley ponies again and again. He also had a rabbit familiar whose personality I'm sure you'd recognize.

On his death bed Moochick made a request of Patch. "As long as you're trotting about my dear, would you be a dear and bringing the seven pieces of the rainbow of light back together please?" He said it like he was asking her to fetch him some tea.

Patch would have been more interested in reuniting with her friends, but even she wouldn't turn down an old man's dying wish.

Oh she did typical things then, crossed vast wastelands, righted a couple wrongs along the way, started a few myths, toppled some random tin bullies who were trying to use the individual pieces like they were scepters. Each degenerating town she'd start with the same question, "Have you seen Starlight?"

The Rainbow of Light had been in the possession of the Paradise ponies for so long that it still supported their life forces, since the Rainbow wasn't destroyed, merely divided up.

The pieces Patch found also found began extending her life so she'd live long enough to complete her quest. But extending was all the incomplete pieces could do as her mane began to slowly gray. But even after a pony's normal life span she'd just tell herself, she convinced herself, one all seven pieces were back together, she'd find Starlight.

Her last quest took her into the city of shadows, Tambelon during one of its five year cycles aligned with this world. Discord's magic, that of the third age, and mine, kept Grogar's city from materializing into your reality Twilight. In that dark age, that wasn't an option. The Paradise ponies had beaten the old fiend back each five hundred years his city had appeared before. Grogar had intended to use the piece of the Rainbow of Light as an anchor to keep himself and his city in your world irrevocably.

Patch managed to steal it back and Tambelon and its master returned to its own empty world, but she walked with a limp for what was left of her life. Yes my student, one aging Earth Pony managed to steal from a dark lord and lived to tell of it.

The Earth Pony who had in her love of finding the impossible set everything in motion, restored the Rainbow of Light to its whole form.

And nopony would bother to even write her name down in the surviving history books.

The Rainbow of Light whole, Patch had limped back to Paradise Estate, being greeted by the fantastic ponies she had reintroduced to the world so long ago.

The moment she dropped it into their watch hooves, she felt a pain in her chest, but her mind was taken off when she heard some pony behind her.

"Hey Patch, what's shakin'?"

Patch turned around, shocked and delighted at who she saw. "Starlight! You're alive! Is it you? It is you!" Starlight didn't look as when Patch last saw her alive, but as the teenage pony she had forged a friendship with.

Patch didn't question, she just ran up and hugged her long lost friend. "I never stopped believing."

"About time you showed up. We couldn't start this party without you," Said Melody out of nowhere, also looking as she did when she had put together her highschool band.

"What party?" Patch asked completely innocent, feeling better than she had in decades.

"Patch? Hey Patch get up!" Said Paradise pony named Posey.

Patched turned around at the sound, and saw her elderly worn out body on the grass in front of the gathered Paradise ponies. "Huh?!"

Patch's other friends appeared around her. Sweet Heart put a hoof on her shoulder, "Patch, it's okay, you've done enough, you can rest now."

Patch ignored her and trotted to the gathering ponies, "Posey? What's going on! I'm right here!"

They didn't hear her. Patch put her hoof on Posey's shoulder, it went through it.

"No . . . no way, I'm-I'm-" Patch whispered.

One of the unicorns began sending electric jolts through Patch's body, but it remained lifeless.

Melody snorted, "And you sure took your sweet time getting around to it. We were all waiting just for you."

The unicorns and pegasi began nuzzling Patch's body as they wept.

"Now be nice." Bon-Bon smiled and nuzzled the tomboy. "We know you had some important things to do before you could go with us. So we chose to simply wait for you."

Patch fell to her knees. "But-but I finally finished."

"And you're free now." Starlight whispered looking her in the eyes. "Think you're ready for one more adventure?"

Patch sulked, realizing she was the age again when gags were her life and the unknown was her passion. Her rose one eyebrow at at her circle of friends. "Is there room for a clown where... where we're headed?"

"I promise there is Patch." Starlight nodded vigorously.

"Alright." Patch smiled. "Let's go."

And I knew absolutely none of this. I let time flow normally for me, I didn't want to see how things would progress. I lay in my spot sobbing for days. The words 'Not fair' and 'Not right' mumbling out of my muzzle every so often. Many came to think the spot I inhabited was haunted. I sulked there for who knows how long.

And the rest you know as history Twilight Sparkle.

A broken filly I trotted along the line of time, casually observing as ponies were born, lived, and died, many not knowing their own history, then no pony did. If the imperfect world my spoiled heart had seen before was a dystopia, this was Pony Hell.

The tribes rebuilt along racial lines. You think Paradise Estate would be a light in the darkness, a reserve for the world to rebuild itself to be sane again.

It didn't happen.

Strife made sure they were busy with random monsters spawned form the magical blast while the tribes struggled. Discord, now filled with a desire only I had seen in its full horrid glory, gladly helped her. The hippocampi and Flutterponies closed their borders and went into hiding to save what they could of their own culture.

I saw the one light of the world closed off from all sides, I saw two tribes hide themselves and three more form what could only be described as a mockery of harmony.

My hiding spot had become just another place lost in time. I wept for the world that never was.

I was tired of hiding. I returned home.

Episode 52: "Origins Celestia Part 3"

My Little pony Friendship Is Magic
Pony POV Series Origins Part 3
Princess Celestia
Optional-Canon

When I entered our domain, Justitia was standing guard instead of Turris.

"Welcome home sister." She said sternly to me, her eyes glaring at me from under the visor of the armor she wore.

"Hello sister," I sighed.

"Luna's been worried sick about you. Father had to restrain her from going after you. Mother said you needed to see some things with your own eyes."

"I'm sorry," I sighed again and simply walked past her.

The various lights of existence flew around me. I loved their company, and accepted the small warmth they each offered.

I found Mortis first in the 'common chamber/place/area' leading from the 'entry gate/kill-zone/passage.' I'm sorry my student, terms like 'room' do not apply as precisely beyond for your definition of reality.

"Welcome home Celestia," he said politely as he always did, that sad smile on his face as always.

"Thank you brother," I said to the white and black Alicorn, the horse skull for his cutie mark seemed more grim than normal.

He didn't look up. "Forgive me if I can't welcome you home proper 'Tia. I have much work to do."

"I saw."

"I've already taken care of that. I'm making preparations."

I love all my family, and Mortis was no exception, but when he said those words, I always felt a chill. "For what?" You think I'd have learned not to ask that question of him by now.

I saw he was looking over a map of your world and populations numbers.

"Lord Havoc has declared the Draconequi would make up for lost time. As payment with interest for his kind being barred from entering the amputated timeline until it was to be torn down."

Mortis had not complained that he had been barred from entering that world as well. Twilight, while the burden I hold is heavy, I would never in a million existences trade it for that of my brother.

"Mortis what are you saying?"

And he told me.

The Alicorns were to be barred from directly interfering. Anarchy was going to start a six way revolution, and Strife a three way war to the death between the three sides. She wanted to see if unicorns were truly worthy of being the 'master race' and if Pegasi were the 'born warriors' they claimed to be and if earth ponies 'deserved' to be at the bottom.

The racial tensions were already building when the storm happened Twilight, the winter storm simply meant they were too busy trying to survive to kill each other.

"CELLY!" I heard Luna's voice, but I didn't react. I was like a mannequin when she hugged me. "I'm so happy you art thou safe! Didth that cur Discord harm thee? I knew he would! I knew he did! Tis alright to cry sister! I shall crush him! He shall beg for mercy! He will never dream of trespassing on you ever --"

"THEY RESET THE WORLD FOR THIS?!" I screamed so loud that everything shook. Luna flew back from me. The lights of existence fled from me. "A PARADISE WAS SACRIFICED FOR THIS?!" I roared.

Other members of my family by now had arrived. Venus for a bit complained about who had disturbed her beauty sleep until she saw me.

Cadence and Galaxia was also on the scene, absolutely shocked at the sight of me.

"HOW-COULD-ANY-OF-YOU-ALLOW-THIS?!" I looked at each of them in turn, seething with rage.

Rota Fortuna appeared behind me. Currently looking like a filly, her signature broken shackles around her legs.

"They will learn how horrible war is, and more importantly learn how deadly prejudice is. It will horrify the survivors so badly that they will squash prejudice from their cultural identity forever." She trotted around me, now looking like an old nag, "And they will be so traumatized by war that they not have another one for a thousand years." And right in front of me as a pony my 'age.' "And with their revolutions they will learn that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely for mortal ponies, for they are not the power, even though they will delude themselves into thinking they were. Horrible consequences came from good intentions. Now good happenstance shall occur from horrid actions."

"BUT WHY?"

"So the wheel of fate turns that they think they defy with their hoof steps but in fact only turns from their own actions."

"AND THAT MAKES IT ALL RIGHT?" I was glowing white hot.

"It is neither good nor bad. It only is," She said. "Life is not always pretty."

"Why should hate even exist-?!"

"BECAUSE IT IS THEIR CHOICE TO CHOSE BETWEEN IT CELESTIA."

That had been Mother's Voice. And it was enough for all of us to fall to the 'floor/surface/ground' and bow/genuflect/salaam to Her. Her Voice came from within and from everywhere without. Her voice gave meaning to each moment when you heard it. Her tone was not indifferent nor condescending, it was the tone of any mother correcting yet comforting their child.

"Yes Mother," I whispered.

Mother instructed me to get some rest/sleep/renewing. I went to my room/minor domain/my place within our place.

I did rest as long as I could. Luna of course visited me. She asked me how I felt. I told her. We hugged. We kissed. Yes I am being abridged. I'm sorry Twilight, I just, I just don't want to go into detail. I've delayed us long enough in what you actually need to learn.

I visited the spot in space and time where the souls of my friends rested, waiting for time to catch up with them again, for the waters of time to flow over them again and let the journey of their spirits begins.

It would be several thousand years after the chaos the draconequi were planning when they'd be born. Time for the world to heal, time for the ponies to learn their lesson. For pony civilization to be rebuilt to where it had been before the disaster and beyond. Rota Fortuna had told me as much.

But to have a world of peace and sanity built on a foundation of so much blood? I couldn't accept that, I refused to accept that.

I floated/willed/flew over to where Sky Wishes soul was sleeping for her time to enter the world. I didn't dare touch her, even Entropy and Havoc wouldn't dare disturb a soul before her time.

"I promise you won't awaken to a world with that kind of history, I promise."

And I made my decision.

I didn't ask Luna, how could I ask Luna? I had no intention of asking my sister who was the other half of my whole to fall into the dark with me.

What I was going to do went against the rules, which meant there was only being I could turn to. The one for whom everything was nothing. No Twilight, not Discord. To Discord, his 'games' and his own enjoyment are everything, this is something much, much different.

I flew to the edge of the universe. I entered the domain of total nothingness that encircled it.

No light. No dark. No sound. No silence. No warmth. No cold. Not a thing. No nothing.

And I was out the other side, and entered the domain of the one I sought.

Describe what I saw? I'll try in terms you understand my student.

Imagine an infinite plane of ice, with a black sky and only a tiny handful of stars and no moon. Imagine icy winds howling worse than anything you could imagine, er, sorry my student, it's not easy to describe something that lays outside of existence.

I traveled down a rift in the ice, going down and down, at some points as wide as worlds, others so close together it nearly crushed me.

And in this domain I saw the shadows neigh and snap at me, trying futilely to feed off of my existence trying to gain one of their own.

Then the rift was gone, and I came into, not a chamber, but a completely different place.

I was floating down from the sky. It was midnight blue, with stars distant and cold. I landed on the edge of a jagged cliff of black stone or ice that went off infinitely in both directions. A black ocean wavered stood before me, a blue moon forever on the horizon, its own light shimmer across the constant gentle slight ripples in the water.

Was I scared? I was terrified! I had struggled to not wet myself on the way down, and not totally succeeded. It was taking all my will power not try cry frozen tears and flee.

Did I mention the temperature of everything there was perfectly absolute zero? That does not make any sense? I never said it did. But warmth did not exist even as a concept in that world.

I dared speak, I used what you'd call the Royal Canterlot Voice, "ENTROPY! MOTHER OF THE DRACONEQUI! EMBODIMENT OF ALL THAT WILL CEASE! SHE-WHO-IS-THE-END-OF-ALL-THINGS! QUEEN OF OBLIVION! EMPRESS OF 'NOT.' WILL I, NINETEENTH CELESTIA AMATERASU SOLARIS. THE CONCEPT OF THE SUN, CONVERSE WITH THEE?'

Do not phrase anything as a statement with her in context Twilight other than her existence, ever, in her presence, and most rarely risk doing so 'outside' of her presence if there is such a thing.

Why?

She sees it as you attempting to control her by saying that she will or can or cannot do. And she reserves only one punishment for any who dare think they can control her. Even her own children aren't safe from this.

I stood there on that frozen cliff for what felt like forever, which it could have been since the only thing there with a concept of time was me.

'NINETEENTH CELESTIA AMATERASU SOLARIS. THE CONCEPT OF THE SUN. SHALL.' A loud whisper is the best way to describe her voice, echoing from a chasm. It was like my ears aged eons just from that cold sound.

Entropy is not a draconequus, they merely resemble her. It would be like calling a piece of scale a dragon, or a snow flake a blizzard, or a beach a grain of sand. And to call her such would be a fatal insult, as would saying SHE looked like one, as she predated them. No trial, no pleads, merely nothingness where you stood. Much like it is to call my Mother, Fauna Luster, an Alicorn. We've never tested Mother's reaction.

What did she look like? Oh oh oh Twilight Sparkle my faithful and loyal student you do NOT know what you ask!

In her presence it was the weight of years crushing down on me. Entropy was the antithesis of my Mother, half of my entire being was utterly rejecting in every conceivable way to being in her presence. Every instinct in me screamed how 'wrong' she, her entire world was, or how wrong I was in Her world.

Oder? Feeling? This was like proof that One Equals Zero stared me in the face. It was that unbearable.

Merely looking upon her made my eyes feel old. Even though she was in no way trying to harm me and emitted no scent, half my very existence couldn't bare being near her to the point it tried in every way possible to drive me from Her domain. The same would be true for any Draconequi in the prescience of My Parents. It took all of my willpower not to flee then and there to make it stop.

She rose from her ocean of chaos, the waves enough to drown whole continents. As she rose, I saw distantly parts of her long serpent like body rising from the depths, but her claws and wings remained submerged.

At last a part of her head broke the surface, and I felt my heart stop and a sun somewhere died. I was looking into one of her eyes. It was like I was in Mother's presence, I was an insect, a gnat in her presence, but ... an inversion, Mother was warm I felt safe, whole. Entropy was colder than cold, I felt helpless, and that my existence held no value.

I saw myself reflected in her eye facing me, a filly who didn't grow one inch but aged into a weathered corpse. I wanted to look away but I just couldn't! She was immense! Her size was impossible. Her partially emerged head stuck out of her ocean, her eye fixed upon me, tiny, meaningless. I could have fallen into the darkness of her eyes' vertical shaped center. Her scales and fur were pitch black accented with midnight blue and small specks of white, like the domain around the domain that in a very real way WAS her.

That eye sitting in blackness between her eyelids, yellow and violet colored corona opening a vertical gate. No Twilight, you do NOT want to know more! I only pray to My Parents that you never ever have to behold her!

"NINETEENTH CELESTIA AMATERASU SOLARIS. THE CONCEPT OF THE SUN, WILL SPEAK."

My mouth opened at once. "I want the power to erase hatred from a world! But power to erase only lies with the draconequus! Did you create the draconequus from yourself and your mate? Would you give the power to erase hatred? To see it gone from a world?"

"WHY WOULD ENTROPY DO SO?"

I knew better than to fall into that trap no matter how scared I was. "Is everything to you equal because it all will comes to you anyway? Would it be pleasing if an Alicorn could not accomplish something except by the aid of Her Mother's opposite number? For all of time to remember? For your children to jeer at? What is one world's harmony in comparison to such a memory to be endured forever?"

Entropy responded by lifting up a claw, great enough to ... to ... and she pricked herself, one tiny piece, less than a droplet, and it fell into her ocean.

I waited, in the presence of Entropy, you did NOTHING unless she permitted it. "Would Entropy allow me to look?"

"YOU WILL LOOK."

I looked over the edge, and my reflection came to life, and it multiplied and crawled off the surface, transparent ghostly half incomplete images of myself, with no existence other than they reflected.

"THESE ARE YOURS."

They were mine.

"RELEASE THEM ON THE WORLD OF YOUR CHOOSING."

I would release them on the would of my choice.

"THEY WILL OBEY ANY COMMAND YOU GIVE THEM AND NOT REST UNTIL IT IS COMPLETED."

The ghostly reflection gave me their complete and undivided attention, my word was their only word.

"YOU ARE FREE TO GO. YOU WILL TAKE THEM WITH YOU."

I was free to go. I would take them with me.

Let me explain something to you my student, if she had simply SAID I did not exist there in her domain, I would not exist!

I nearly FLED from Entropy, the icy reflection following, taking on the shapes of the shadows as they past them, reflecting them.

I returned to reality.

I stopped briefly only to take a breath of the real universe and recover from being in Her presence as best I could. But I could still 'smell' her, my reflections had a much smaller and more bearable, but still chilling version of their propagator's aura.

I made a beeline for your world, Twilight with my new tools in tow.

I flew as fast through the cosmos as I could back to where the world I had called home for a lifetime waited for me to save it! And I knew I would save it!

I was not expecting a welcome wagon outside of lunar orbit waiting for me.

Luna, Cadence, Leo Fortis, Justitia, and Turris floated in a star formation between me and your world.

Cadence floated forward first. "Celestia. Please stop this recklessness and let's go home? Let's have a nice cup of coco and I can tell you the new song I've composed."

"How ... how did you know?"

Luna said, "Twas not hard to guess sister. Your anger at what had transpired here made it obvious. Though we never dreamed you would go to HER for aid. Those things stink of Her essence! Sister have you gone mad?"

"Maybe I'm the only one who's thinking clearly! How can we say we protect life when we allow this to happen?!"

Justitia snapped, "Celestia those things are nothingness incarnate, you can't trust them!"

"Entropy said they'd do only what I say! Right now I trust them more than you!"

Justitia actually startled a bit at my words. "Trust them to obey yes! But serve how? You know that fire does not need to be disobedient to be treacherous, concept of the sun!"

"Entropy has no reason to trick me! She gets the only thing she desires, memory that I had to go to her for help! She has nothing more to gain by tricking me!"

Cadence sighed, "Celestia, please don't do this. This is the price leaders and care takers often find, that those under their charge are the ones who end up paying for their mistakes. We blocked the Dracoånequi from entering the world. Now they demand the same."

"That's not fair!"

Justitia said sternly, "Sadly, it is quite fair. Eye for an eye. In truth, the words in full are 'Eye for and eye: no more and no less than that.' Unfair is when you break a world for the loss of one."

"And how do you know this won't end exactly the same as when we forbid their interference?!"

"We can't, but it is necessary we and the Draconequi remain on peaceful terms. However, I assure you, if things begin to go that way again, we shall intervene, Mother has already made that fact clear to Havoc and he has agreed to those terms."

"That's not good enough... Let me through."

"No. Give up those things for disposal and return home and we can forget this foalishness of yours ever happened."

"No."

"Celestia you face five Alicorns each as or more powerful than you. If you try to force your way through you will be branded a rogue Alicorn and your aim will still not be accomplished."

"I have to try."

"You 'have to' nothing. All is determined by your own choice."

Cadance said, "Luna is the only one who has never faced your loss, we know it hurts, but this isn't going to help them!"

" ... I said get out of my way. And how can you say that?! You've all suffered the loss of those close to you, but I had to see the world I lived in be torn apart around me TWICE! Can any of you say that?! I'm not going to allow it to happen again! Now get out of my way!"

Cadence sighed. "Very well. I love you Celestia. And goodbye. I hope to see you again in better times."

Justitia looked at her, "Cadence?"

"I can't fight Celestia. Mother wished me only to try and reason with her. Luna, Justitia, Leo Fortis, Turris, do what you have to do."

Cadence simply left.

I willed my reflections into my shadow where they would be safe and would have to be forced out by means that couldn't be handled in the middle of a fight. And I knew Justitia was right. But was too stubborn and too headstrong to stop.

"Hey beautiful. Going my way?"

I turned and gasped at who I saw. "Discord!"

"Looks like you're planning on disrupting the good old status quo. My kinda thing. Want a little help?"

"No, not from you. Do you think I've forgotten the last time we saw each other?"

"Nope. Want my help?"

"No."

"Too bad because you're getting a lot of help!"

Justitia shouted, "Is this Entropy's doing?!"

"Since when do I listen to the Old Lady miss high and mighty? Naw!"

"You will regret this choice Draconequus."

"Meh, what else is new around here? So Celestia, what do you say? Want to dance with me one last time?" He held out his paw.

++++

Strife looked at the group of Alicorn and her brother with glee in the giant 'mirror' that was the 'room's' 'floor.'

"This shall be glorious! Pandemonium! Anarchy! Destruction! What say you?"

"Discord needs someone to watch his back," Pandemonium said.

"I'll do whatever you guys do." Anarchy shrugged indifferently.

"This looks like it could be a real blast!" Destruction declared.

"YOU SHALL NOT INTERFERE WITH THIS BATTLE."

All four Draconequus turned and knelt down as one, bowing their heads, "Yes Mother!"

++++

"One last waltz for us two then," I said putting my hoof in his paw. To say I did not trust Discord is an understatement, my student. But at the time, I at least believed I could trust one thing, that seeing me finally 'see things his way' and completely destroy the status quo as I was attempting to do would be good enough to keep him on my side at least long enough for me to succeed in my goal. Yes, I believed I was the one pulling his strings.

We looked into each other's eyes one last time.

Justitia shouted, "Take them both down now and destroy those monsters!"

Turris flared his wings, "None shall pass!"

Leo Fortis said, "I never wanted to test my strength like this Celly! But here I come!"

"I'm sorry 'Tia," Luna whispered. They came at us all at once.

It was bedlam.

Justitia flapped her wings once, molting an absurd amount, which all turned into swords that flew straight at me. I created a barrier, but Leo rammed head first into it. I don't recall any defense he hadn't been able to break through.

Discord teleported us out of the line of fire, which was about all he could do. He couldn't transmute matter that saturated with Alicorn magic, and in the void of space there was almost nothing for him to use his Draconequus magic to transmute or disrupt the order of.

Turris of course was able to keep us from teleporting to the world's surface via sheer will.

Leo forged a glowing lion's head out of his magic that roared and came at our new location. Discord tried to teleport us again but Justitia created a weight and chain that she wrapped around one of Discord's ankles and pulled him away from me. Justitia's chain keeping him from simply teleporting again.

Turris stayed back, keeping himself between your world and us. None had ever passed him. It was why he normally acted as gatekeeper. It was actually a little jarring to see him out and about.

Luna animated two of her constellations, the Ursa Minor and Major, and then sent the Minor after me and the Major after Discord.

I blinded the Minor with a well timed solar flare leaving it helplessly swiping it's claws.

Discord grabbed the chain and threw Justitia into the Major, knocking them both away. However Discord found that Turris was disrupting teleportation in the region now. "Ah crud." Leo then bucked him in the face.

I found myself twisting and turning in the void, using solar wind to increase my speed, dodging lightning from Justitia, fire from Leo, and ice from Luna.

Turris could have tried to herd me with his barriers, but he never took chances, and wasn't about to drop his main barrier for the chance I could get through with my cargo.

Discord twisted himself around Leo like a snake. A good idea in theory, but instead Leo just tore Discord apart with sheer strength. Discord tried to pull himself back together but Luna trapped all his parts inside an ice cube.

I led one of Leo's fire bursts right cross it. Of course the ice exploded and Discord with it, but now he could reconstitute himself.

But, unlike his sister, Discord was still a young Draconequus at the time and not the best student, so his healing capability was far inferior to hers, it would take time for him to recover properly. Time I didn't have. A box of roampony shield formed all around me. I got ready to simply MELT them away when Leo rammed one from behind and it hit me leaving an indentation, then the one opposite that, then another, until I was like an answer ball in a eight-ball.

I was disoriented, which was what Justitia needed as her chains wrapped themselves around my legs, neck, and wings, tightening and forcing me into a ball position. I reconstituted myself into a mass of flutterponies only to have the chain divide and multiply with them. I changed into a dragon but the chain only got thicker and heavier!

"Celestia stop this! You're not a warrior! Please! Just surrender already!" Leo shouted.

I touched the tip of my horn to Justitia's chain and an electric current went up it, Justitia however sent a current down from her end, leaving both of us screaming from the duel electric shock.

I twitched as Justitia shook her head to get her wits about her again.

Luna appeared behind me moving along as dark blue smoke before reforming herself and willing a scythe into existence. Yes I know in most battles they are actually not very useful because of the 'minimum range' they have but Luna always did have a sense of theater.

Luna raised the scythe behind me and brought it down.

My chains shattered, I didn't have a mark on me.

I looked at her in awe.

"Luna you're committing suicide!" Justitia shouted in horror.

"There is, no way, I WOULD FIGHT 'TIA!"

I swear I could see Justitia shed a tear, I don't think I've ever seen her cry before. "THEN SO BE IT!"

A entire legion of empty suits of armor her size materialized around her and came at me and Lulu like a flood weapons raised.

"Lulu!"

"Hugs later! Fight now!"

I created a Halberd and we braced ourselves for the incoming horde.

Discord then blind sided them scoping them all up driving a bulldozer waving a civil war era sword while tooting a bugle boy horn. "THE CALVARY HAS ARRIVED LADIES!"

No, I don't know where he got the matter to transmute into those things, with Discord, the less sense it makes the more likely he'll be able to do it.

"The impossible has happened! I am thankful to see him!" Lulu gasped.

Leo then put a hoof through the engine of Discord's bulldozer, stopping it cold. "I don't think you have a permit to drive that thing sonny!"

Discord tried to pull a spiked mace out of nowhere, but giant glowing orange gauntlets appeared and crushed the mace and Discord's lion paw. The other squeezed Discord's body. "Who's yer daddy?"

"HIM!"

"WHERE?"

BONG!

"I can't believe I fell for that!"

"We all have our weak moments big guy! EW-OW-OW-WOW!" Electricity ran from the tip of Discord's tails right to his brain.

"That's for thinking this was a one-on-one match little Draconequus." Justitia said a nearby spear sending endless waves of thunder through him.

Luna and I came at Justitia from both sides but she blocked us with her wings. Luna then made the world around Justitia's eyes complete dark, her eyes adjusted almost at once, and that was when I blasted her with another solar flare.

"Only a fool keep using the same technique over and over like in a video game Celestia!"

"If it works it works!" Luna said telekinetically knocking the spear off it trajectory.

The Ursas now ganged up on Leo. Who quickly bucked both in the face into unconsciousness. But this did mean it took all his attention off Discord finding he still couldn't teleport but grouped next to us to cover our flanks.

I asked Lulu, "Luna, your means of transportation doesn't run on the same rules as regular teleportation does it?"

"No because I'm not transmitting myself nor am I creating a micro wormhole for one nano-second."

"Understood. I have an idea. But can you keep Justitia off me?"

"Piece of cake! Hey want to go out for cake when this is over? In fact, why not forty cakes? That's as many as four tens! And that's great!"

"Done Celly and, good luck."

"Thanks! Come on Leo! Can't catch me!"

"You know that just ain't true Celly!" Leo declared as the Alicorn stallion followed me like a great cat after his prey.

I darted like a mad humming bird but Leo was on my tail like my own shadow. I used a solar flare and continued to fly not slowing down, neither did Leo as he opened his eyes. "Come on Tia! It's sad to see you overuse a move like that!"

"Can't blame a girl for trying!"

"I can if it not something all that bright 'Tia!"

I took a direct been line for your world.

"Okay Tia now you're just being predictable! You're smarter than this! Lead me towards Turris and veer out of the way at the last moment and have me ram through his barrier for you? Don't tell me you think that lowly of me!"

Truth be told I kind of did. I didn't think it was that predictable. Goes to show. If I could normally teleport I could just teleport Leo once he was up to speed right in front of Turris and let momentum do the rest. But that really wasn't an option with Turris blocking teleportation in the first place. I wondered if I was simply going to lose and was delaying the inevitable at this point.

"I told you dating me was exciting!" Discord laughed as he and Luna circled like crazy around Justitia.

"I never said it wasn't!"

"I am NOT some stationary target you know!" Justitia shouted as she flew at Discord transforming her loose feathers into swords again that flew at Discord.

"NOW who's being repetitive?!" Discord laugh. But the blades didn't come directly at them. The swords flew in all directions and formed a sphere around the three, the blades pointed inward.

"Not me," Justitia said simply as the swords replicated and came from all directions.

I switched tactics and came at him head on. Now this startled Leo as he tried to figure out what I was up to, since he knew I knew that there was no way I could take him in a head on collusion.

Instead I created a surprise gust of solar wind spinning him around like mad and cast a nasty sound burst around both his ears (yes, sound in a vacuum, except space is rarely truly a vacuum, though it wasn't carried by air as you imagine, I suppose you could say it was telepathy more than anything).

I flew with everything I had before he could recover to get enough distance between us. Leo followed. He was getting closer, and closer, and close and ... I gave off a solar flare before he realized what I was doing, then turned myself into solar wind and reconstituted myself behind him. His vision didn't clear until it was too late and he realized he was flying right at Turris, taken too off guard stop his forward momentum in time, and Turris' own field meaning he couldn't teleport away.

The irresistible force met the immovable object. And canceled each other out. Leo was sent for a loop, and Turris' concentration was broken for the split second I needed to teleport down. That when I realized my plan had a very big glaring flaw. I hadn't thought about what would happen to Discord and Luna after I got through. I didn't have time to think about this as I forgot to cancel my inertia and smashed into a mountain side, the poor mountain.

+++

I came to my senses. I don't know for how long. I thought of Luna and Discord. What had happened to them? I didn't know.

I wanted to go back and check on them. Except I knew I had gotten through by sheer wits and good luck and Luna and Discord choosing to save me.

Besides, I didn't have a home anymore, I was a fallen Alicorn, there had only ever been one of those before. Morning-Star was the most beautiful stallion to ever exist, Mother and Father had made him as perfect as perfect could be, but that was apparently too perfect when he figured he didn't need Mother or Father for the universe to run things. We don't talk about him anymore. Ever. He is no longer counted among my brothers.

I had only one mission now. And that was to bring an end to hatred in this world with the tools given to me by Entropy.

I took note of my surroundings. I was in a cavern that I had apparently created when I had crashed into the mountain side. It would later become a popular roost for dragons.

I took the pale reflection out of my shadow. They floated obediently waiting for my command. I didn't care what my siblings had said, I wouldn't admit they were right. The more proof you're handed that you're wrong my student, the more determined you are to prove you are not.

"I command you. End hatred among ponies. Erase it. Make it as if hatred never existed on this world!"

"We-O-bey!" They howled and torn off to as I commanded. I wanted to see them do their good work. But I was so tired and I needed a rest.

++++

"Luna. Why Did You Do This?" Father asked.

"I could never fight Celestia." She was healed of the field of sword wounds that had left her a bleeding mess when she had been carried in.

"Neither Could Cadence. She Did The Mature Thing. She Walked Away. You On The Other Chose To Attack Your Siblings You Were Supposed To Helping To Prevent Your Sister From Making A Horrid Mistake. You Gravely Sinned Again This Family Against Me You Mother Your Duty Your Sister And Yourself."

"If it was Celestia, I know you'd look the other way."

"You Shall Never Speak Those Words Again. Or You Never Speak Again. There Are No Firsts Or Seconds In This Family. Only Greater Or Lesser Experience. Justitia Would Submit To You On The Laws Of Gravity. And You Do Not Think Yourself Superior In Venus' Experience Of What It Is To Be In Love."

"I trusted Celestia knew what she was doing."

"Over The Wisdom Of Your Parents? Of Us?"

"I was worried Leo or Justitia would ... want to permanently hurt her because Discord was helping her."

Justitia teleported nose to nose with Luna in a second. "HOW DARE YOU! You think justice is brutality?! You think I would use any more or any less than the force needed?! You think justice is prejudice? You think justice is-"

"Justitia. Enough."

"I am sorry Father. Forgive me." Justitia backed away never turning her back and keeping her head bowed.

"Celestia is the only Alicorn who has ever endured the amputation of a timeline as a mortal. I assumed perhaps that would give her some insight the rest of us lack."

"Assuming Is Deadly, She Knows Too Little About The Consequences Of What She Intends To Do To Do It Properly, And It Was Not Your Place To Decide That She Did. She Learn A Little, And To Learn Only A Little: Nothing Is More Dangerous.

"Luna: When You Were Born I Engrained In You A Fraction Of My Own Power. I Told Your Mother You Would Use It Wisely. You Have Shown Poor Judgment. You Have Shown The Inability To Discriminate Between When To Listen And When Not To Listen To Your Emotions. Which You Were Given To Prevent You From Being Apathetic Towards The Life You Were To Safeguard. You Take Everything Personally. You Refuse To Let Anything Go. You Treat All As If Their Excelling Diminishes Your Own. We Had Hoped After Your Experience In The Amputated Timeline You Learned Enough. But You Have Only Learned A Little. You Are Engulfed In Pride."

"What's wrong with pride?"

" ... You Can Ask That. After Morning-Star? Self-Respect Is A Fortress. Hubris Is a Cage! You Are An Ignorant And Arrogant Foal Of A Goddess! The Wise Know They Are Fools And The Fool Believes Himself To Be Wise And I Do Not Mean Your Brother! You Claim You See Celestia's Foolishness When She Sought Union With Discordance. But You Ignore It When You Are Told Her Choice Will Bring Ruin To Mortals? You Have Far More To Learn Than The Alicorn Before Me Reflects."

"I could not risk my twin."

"And You Risked Millions If Not Billions Of Mortal Lives Instead? You Knew That What Your Sister Sought To Unleash Was Something Born From Entropy Herself, From Nothingness Itself Without Havoc's Half To Balance It As With The Draconequi. A Thing Born From Entropy Alone Is Incapable Of Valuing Anything. You Knew This And Still Allowed Your Sister To Release Those Creatures Upon The World Of Mortals Without Thought For The Consequences It'd Have Upon Their Lives."

"Life is but a moment for the soul's journey."

"Eighteenth Luna Nyx Selena. Concept of Night. You Trespass In Your Own Brother's Mortis' Territory. You Have Endangered The Life You Were Born To Oversee And Guide For Personal Reasons. You Have Chosen The Life Of One Over The Lives Of Many Innocents. You Have Stood Against Your Family In Battle. I Judge That Your Form May Reflect This. And The Power That Is A Part Of You Be Beyond Your Reach Until You Awaken To It Again. As I Have Said So It Is."

"Venus Come Here. Cadence Come Here."

"Yes Father!" The Alicorn of temperance, balance, music, and harmony, appeared and bowed along side her sister the Alicorn of true love, beauty, and endearment.

"Until The Concept Of Night Is Where She Look After Herself Again. You Shall In Turn Look Over Her."

"Thy Will Be Done." The two echoed and Venus picked up the newborn blue Alicorn in a diaper sucking on her pacifier. Cadence nuzzled her.

+++

Venus left Luna with Cadence for a moment while she went to her 'small cabin on the grounds/satellite world/outer domain' where she communicated with Pandemonium via her video phone/magic mirror/instant messenger.

Of course My Parents knew. But also all communication with the draconequi happened outside the 'main house/castle keep/inner domain' that Turris guarded. Who thanks to my using my own brother as a battering ram was now questioning his own worth as a gatekeeper if all it took was one on-the-fly trick by me to get past him.

This not only so neither side could try anything (there are any number of spells that can be transmitted), but also since if a Draconequus was in My Parents domain, all They had to do is think that Draconequus didn't exist and they wouldn't, just as it was with myself in Entropy's.

Did we ever try to drag each other to those domains to destroy each other that way? You cannot drag a devil into heaven and you can not drag an angel into hell my student. They couldn't exist on that plane of reality except of their own will, which could be blocked, but not forced.

"Hello Pandora."

"Hey Venus."

"Just called to see to see how Discord is doing and how you're holding up."

"Oh I just pulled all the swords out of him and erased all the holes in him. The others said they wanted some private quality time with him after he finally made up with his girlfriend."

+++

"MERCY! MERCY!"

"You'll beg louder than that when I'm done with you," Strife said as she tore off Discord arms and legs, made them grow into full sized beasts of what they were based off of, then had them eat him, then eat each other, then blast the winner to ashes, at which point Discord finally reconstituted. However the collar Pandemonium had put on him by request of the others so he 'didn't hurt himself while recovery' reconstituted too, which meant any external magic was impossible. He panted as he was on his hands and knees. "You've killed me one hundred and sixty nine times already. Aren't you bored yet!?"

"Not all of us do this sort of thing out of boredom brother," Strife said as she did a quick clean death by breaking his neck, normally he'd just snap it back into place but the collar was preventing that too! But it did then did form back into place on its own. But it then did force his neck back into place on its own, as was its purpose.

"This is a lesson as well as restitution. You've ruined a very personal and important project of mine and your brother's! You and your girlfriend! You aided in the ruination of something very important to this family! And we're not going to stop until we ALL think that you've realized to never do this again." Discord now the size of an action figure was dropped in a clear plastic box with a rubber sword and a paper shield as flesh eating beetles twice his size were dropped in and tore him limb from limb. "That filly's toys will not stop until all life on that world is gone. A perfectly peaceful silent world forever with them lording over it. Except they aren't life! Not machine life! Not plant life! Not animals! Not undeath! They're drops of Mother's nothingness! They've have, she has, and you, ruined everything! Do you understand LITTLE BROTHER?!"

"Hey sis! Don't hog him! Bring him this way already!" Said Anarchy sitting on a couch/chair/throne looking ahead and not putting down his controller.

"Fine." Strife tossed the regenerated Discord toward Anarchy who grabbed him and in one motion threw him ahead, straight through the TV/projector/monitor screen where Discord took on a pixilated look.

"You know brother. I didn't mind when you created those crazy flowers or turn those fairies into locusts in that reality. It was gonna bite the dust anyway. No harm no foul right? I thought your new hobbies were kinda lame, and had as much class as a room full of collage drop outs, but hey, your spare time right?" Discord banged on the surface of the screen.

"Do you have ANY IDEA HOW MUCH BLOODY WORK I PUT INTO THAT PROJECT-?! Let alone get sis to actually COMPROMISE on something!! They were going to be putting up and tearing down their rulers so fast the mints wouldn't be able to keep the currency up to date with their faces! They were gonna be so sick of authority when it was all over that none of them would ever bother with it again! Instead it's going to be a perfectly flawless frozen lifeless world of order! You have SERIOUSLY TICKED ME OFF DISCORD!"

The digital cross-hairs on the screen blasted Discord into digital bits again and again as the game reloaded him back into existence. Anarchy watched his high score rise. "Little snot nosed traitors one thousand points!" But this got tasteless after the score capped at 999,999 and reset to zero so he pulled Discord out and tossed him to Destruction who was fiddling with Rubic Necker Cube. "Hey! Destruction! Whenever you need to blow off some steam from now on you can just blast away Discord."

"Geeze! Thanks Dissey! You have no idea what this means to me! Thank you! Now just hold still and being atomized doesn't hurt as much! I've got plenty of experience! It'll all be just a tingle after around the millionth time! I promise!"

Discord whimpered as Destruction held him by the throat (surprisingly gently) and vaporized him, his skeleton being the last thing to go. Destruction politely waited for Discord to full regeneration before destroying him again.

"I mean, wow! You're really gonna help me stay in control here! I blast you, you regenerate, I blast you again! And I don't get that meaningless hollow feeling I always get when I vaporize myself! Serious bro! It's nice for you volunteer."

Discord tried to say he wasn't volunteering for anything, but Destruction wasn't letting him get a word in edgewise!

No one had the heart to tell Destruction a frozen world meant there would be nothing to ever build up for him to knock down.

"Hey sis, ain't Pandemonium gonna have a turn?" Anarchy called not looking away from his video game.

"No," replied Strife. "She'll either say that a world of ice is another kind of beauty or be too weak to take part in the punishment of a family idiot again."

I know my student, but Discord would, and had been, just as brutal when Destruction had faced the wrath of his family for destroying a world the Draconequi had had great visions for to alleviate his condition. Discord on his turn had turned his brother's body to bronze and thrown him in a smelter while cooking marshmallows over him. It is the way of the Draconequi.

The 'roof/ceiling/upper layer' of the 'common area/lounge/amusement center' was torn off. Revealing Their Father. "LET HIM GO!"

Havoc? Imagine your worst nightmares, and the worst nightmare of everypony who has lived, or will ever live. That is Havoc. The overseer of mass hysteria, widespread panic, and social fears. A foster mother's dread of a child's biological parents are his claw marks. Witch hunts are his weapon of choice. If you saw him as you are now Twilight, you would not sleep for the rest of your days. His voice alone would leave you a horrified wreck.

Destruction obeyed.

Discord was then picked up in one of His Father's claws, a cherry pit being picked up by construction equipment. "Save some for Your Father children!"

Discord heard himself whimper again.

"ENOUGH. THAT IS A ENOUGH. DISCORD HAS BEEN PUNISHED ENOUGH."

"You're my favorite Old Lady Mother!"

"You have some nerve to call me off Entropy!" Their Father Havoc snarled.

She SAID he didn't exist. He told her he didn't CARE and willed himself back into existence less than a an instant later and made a grunt of annoyance and dropped his son from a very tall height. Havoc was the only force in creation that dared address Entropy as such other than My Parents.

Entropy removed Discord's collar.

Havoc and Entropy? For Entropy to tell her mate he didn't exist, was equal to an arguing couple giving one a shove.

Havoc didn't fear Entropy, even in the slightest. He was not mad, not ignorant, not unable to feel fear, and not a fool, he simply didn't. Did this perturb her? Was it why She took Him on as Her mate in the first place when They chose Their spouses?

"You know son I had such high hopes for you when you were born!"

Discord tilted his head, "No you didn't, you thought I was the biggest waste of screwing mom ever and would have shoved me back inside if she had let you."

"Do not contradict your father!" The tip of his smallest claw landed on top of Discord squashing him flat. "And after I went to the trouble of having all those civilizations nuke themselves in a moment of beautiful blind panic and hysteria just to spell out the name of your girlfriend only because you asked!"

"He's technically right dad. You didn't think Discord was worth anything until he bit the tip of your finger off, after you finishing saying you and mom should try again after taking one look at him. You figured anything with that kind of viciousness right after mom popped'em out couldn't be totally useless."

The real reason was that the newborn Discord had found the thought of the final return to His Mother to be extremely boring.

"I said do not contradict your father!" A storm of twisting neither went through Anarchy's head and through his 'screen/monitor/projector.' Anarchy pulled a new head out of his chest and lamented his video game. "Ah man! I never got to that level before!"

"Just means you get to feel the thrill of reaching it again! Can I co-op this time please?" Destruction asked. It was the kind of game he enjoyed, where he got to destroy everything in sight.

"Not happening."

Strife spoke, "Mother? Why spare Discord further punishment? Has not his recklessness cost myself and my brother?"

Havoc spoke for her. Again, only he dared. "Entropy's reasons are her own! But creation will have a preview of things to come! And will embrace chaos when it sees the truth rather than cling to transient order! And all that fear!"

++++

They came from nowhere. At first I thought it was just a wind.
Or a new unicorn student flexing his magic muscle. Not of grand note.
However the tempo of the inequine howling had too distinct a pattern to it.
Then came the first time I saw them.
I believed them to be ghosts. Carrying their last memory of freezing to death.
But there was nothing equine of these spirits except their appearance.
Their cries will haunt my nightmares till the end of my days.

I don't know why they came to my settlement of all place. A few extra bright unicorns including myself.
But nothing of true meaning.

The first I saw them was an argument between two Earth ponies about charging the absurd prices they did to unicorns and pegasi to fellow Earth ponies.

I saw them again when an Earth pony riot broke when a mother unicorn was beaten to death and Pegasi swoop down to bring order in the most brutal of fashions. The storm became so horrid that the pegasi could not fly least their wings froze over, leaving them easier prey for the earth pony rioters. As her blood was left to freeze in the streets I noticed an Earth pony besides her with the same coloring as the foal in her forelegs. Mixed blood? Still I took pity on the small creature she held.

I only later realized the 'spirits' dispersed when I chose to take her foal as my own.

My town is isolated. Even rumor does not travel swift to and from here. I still fail to realize why they come here of all places.

My one colleague who would listen to me suggested they arrived on the shooting star several month previous. Such nonsense.

They came again, this time when a heated debate between two mages on whether Earth ponies had magic of their own. They were alone in the room when I left. When I came back, they were frozen solid, and those spirits were there, but quickly left. Their manner suggested indifference rather than fear.

Experimentation was needed. They haunt the very boarders of the town now. They are becoming less of a ghost story and more a cause for fear among my fellows and the earth pony workers and the pegasi enforcers.

An Earth screamed out at the top of his lungs that he wished all the unicorns and pegasi were dead before the pegasi descended on him. The ice storm had picked up again in minutes.

I have chosen not to inform Clover of her diluted blood. I see no reason why she need be burdened. In spite of her disability she has surpassed most of her peers. Incredible. I must review notes on other unicorns of diluted blood to see if this has happened before.

Spring. Summer. Autumn. It doesn't matter when, the ice storm comes repeatedly and more frequently.

The storm is not letting up this time and it grows progressive worse. The filly, Clover (I found the name on her blanket), was scared to leave the only home she's known, but I fear if I stay longer my research will be pointless and I might as well have not saved her from freezing to death in her mother's arms.

Shows of power are less and less effective at keeping the earth pony workers in line. And the other mages have turned paranoid of their own earth pony assistants and servers. I am thankful to have Clover.

'They scream 'freedom or death' others 'freedom and death to the horned and feathered monsters.' Their howls are joined by the creature. As if in a dream, many do not seem to notice their fellows being turned to prisoners of impossibly swift growing ice.

I took Clover and abandoned the mage refuge. I considered telling my fellows to do the same, but considering they were shouting 'defend our knowledge to the death and death to any who abandon their defense' I thought it more prudent to simply teleport away.

We had no pursuers. The regular merchants in the nearest towns have returned with tales of mounds of frozen corpses. And no sign of Them.'

Clover seems to have blocked out the memories of her life before coming to this new town with me. Perhaps she is better for it.

The unicorn king's court magician has died of old age and failed to train an apprentice. I need more resources for my research. I will not miss this chance. And should I pass on before my research is complete, I need to make sure Clover is in a position where she will be able to continue it.

I now have had time to think. The cold they produce. Are they spirits of winter? But would there not being spirits of spring, summer, and fall as well that should've driven them away? But I can still only think that winter is these spirits' natural state.

They seek out hatred, do they feed off it? Fighting as well? It is possible. Though it is hard to tell since I could not find one without the other anyway.

The intensity of the riots I see now looking over my own notes was directly related to the intensity of the storm. Does the amount of cold they produce relate directly to the amount of hate they feed off of? It also appears that the closer I became to Clover, the less I cared about her diluted blood, the more I became, not invisible, but less interesting I became to the creatures. This adds to my above theory.

It is in the wind they go. So I shall call them 'Windigos.'
-- Excerpts from the journal of Starswirl the Bearded

(A link to an image of the Anti-Mother Of Creation http://wolfram-and-hart.deviantart.com/art/Celestia-Shall-I-Speak-With-Entropy-301440654 )

Episode 53: "Origins Celestia Part 4"

My Little pony Friendship Is Magic
Pony POV Series Origins Part 4
Princess Celestia
Optional-Canon

"Princess Celestia!"

I saw this coming.

"You're joking! You have to be joking! This is a joke right? I'm dreaming right? This is just a nightmare yes?" She looked so small.

I hung my head towards her. "I told you you would be saying goodbye to foalhood Twilight Sparkle. You are the one who asked for all of the truth. You are now the only pony alive besides myself and my sister to know this."

Twilight looked like I had crushed her heart. "P-princess! Please! You couldn't have!"

"I thought they would remove the hatred in pony's hearts. I thought they would turn it into love. I thought they would cool the hot tempers that reigned. I thought when they were done there would not be a dark cloud in the heart of any pony in Ponyland. I thought, I ASSUMED! And the ponies I loved so badly, the ponies I wanted to save so badly, were the ones to pay for it Twilight Sparkle."

Her lip quivered. "This isn't a dream or a nightmare is it?"

"I am truly sorry my loyal and faithful student, it is not."

"And?"

"And what?"

"And am I sworn to silence?"

"This knowledge is yours to do with as you please Twilight," I said simply.

She held her hooves to her head, she almost wailed in the night. "I can't! I can't tell anypony this! It would kill them! It would kill you!"

"Only My Parents have ever been completely perfect Twilight Sparkle. I am the perfect day, I am not a perfect spirit. Not since I first experienced emotions the way you do."

"Teacher, Princess, I, I, I love you. But, but-"

"But it's horrible to learn something like this."

Twilight slumped. "Yes."

"Then you know precisely how I felt when I awoke Twilight Sparkle."

++++

I awoke. I knew instantly my dreams had not been dreams. I knew what was going on. I knew what was happening. But I was clueless as to why. I also realized I had been sleeping for far longer than I had intended. Had I really slept for that long? Years? Possibly decades? I also sensed that the world had grown far colder than it should have.

I teleported to my reflections. I found them among a battlefield both sides now a collection of frozen dead bodies.

"What are you doing?!"

"All hate must be eliminated. All hate must be as if it never existed." The icy winds covered the armies with snow.

"Not this way!"

"This is the only way."

"That's not true!"

"Incorrect."

"I order you to stop!"

"All orders must be carried out. Will stop once previous order has been carried out. Eliminate all hatred. All hate must be as if it never existed. Hatred's source must be terminated. Primary hot areas of hate must be eliminated first."

"I ORDERED YOU TO STOP!" I blasted them with enough heat to thaw every body in sight instantly. They merely reformed. And began to freeze over the place again. My fireballs rained down on them until I turned the icy place of death into an inferno. My fires merely froze over.

Finally I teleported them into the heart of an active volcano. The volcano then ever so slowly began to cool down from the inside. They would not be destroyed. I teleported to every town they had touched hoping to find survivors. I found none. "What have they done? What have they done-?!"

A rogue Alicorn, with no home to call my own, and a creature of disharmony, I departed once again from that world.

I shouldn't have been surprised at who I ran into first. It was like he had been waiting for him.

Looking back at it, I don't recall ever seeing him so genuinely enraged before, not the immature frustration I normally saw akin to a child who's batteries on their toy had run out.

I barely noticed the centers of his eyes were no longer even sized. He had gotten larger since I had last seen him too. But he was the size of an ant as far as I was concerned and my hooves felt the need to do some stomping.

"DISCORD! What have you done-?! Do you feel proud of yourself? Trying to sentence my world to a slow freezing death in mockery of what I wanted? When did you do it? When did you insert that little trick into them when I wasn't looking? Was it when you took my hoof you lowly-"

"SHUT UP BEOTCH!"

I was stunned silent. That was the first time I remember him ever cussing at me before, or anypony.

"I DIDN'T TAMPER WITH ANYTHING! I THOUGHT YOU FINALLY UNDERSTOOD! I THOUGHT YOU FINALLY SAW EVERYTHING FOR THE STUCK-UP NONSENSE MASS OF RULES IT IS! Tell me how much you laughed at me as your sister was punching me full of holes while I was holding down the fort FOR YOU! I thought you were going to stir things up! Make things interesting! I thought you were going to do something that would ruin this boring Status Quo once and for all! Instead you bring about your stupid perfect frozen order to everything instead! WELL I'M NOT LAUGHING!"

His voice suddenly turned charming and polite so fast it was scary. It was hard to tell which tone was a façade, which was real. If they both were one or the other. Even now I don't know.

"Oh and thanks for coming back and saving my butt. Oh and your sister's too, really showing the power of friendship there," he said, sarcasim sneaking into his tone. "I guess neither of us meant anything to you after all. You really are like My Mother. Well guess what?" He gave a smile I pray you never saw when he was freed.

"You think I played rough before? As one of my old playmates would say, you ain't seen nothing yet! You're going to see how nasty I am when I'm TRYING! ... Thank you Celestia. Thank you Celly. Thanks 'Tia. You really woke me up from the fantasy I was living. I finally truly understand everything." He applauded me as he spoke that last part, each clap with a different sound.

"Trust me Celsetia, I will see you around!" He then burst out laughing, but it wasn't the warped laugh he used for his 'practical jokes' that weren't so practical to the innocents who got in the way. This reminded me a little of the sound a rabid hyena might make.

I couldn't sense where he teleported away to. I didn't care. He was nothing. All the mistakes of my life rolled up into one long snake shaped jackass.

I had been used. And I no longer cared what happened. I had nothing left. And only one place to go.

I tore through Entropy's domain like a flaming fireball, leaving a line path of melted ice and half incinerated shadows in my wake. A black-ice-construct that was a new addition to the welcome wagon lasted less than a millisecond again me.

I landed so hard and fast in her inner domain I left a smoking impact crater. My divine rage was a fire that burned away at her icy presence.

I climbed out and shouted.

"ENTROPY! ARE YOU ARE AFRAID TO FACE ME?!"

The entire world shook. And she rose, this time her entire head, and her long body rose, like a tower whose shadow stretched for miles.

"ENTROPY DOES NOT FEAR YOU."

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO THE REFLECTIONS? THEY'RE BRINGING DEATH TO THE WORLD NOT SALVATION! IS THIS YOUR IDEA OF A JOKE?! WHAT OTHER ORDERS DID YOU GIVE THEM?"

"I gave them only one order. To obey all that you commanded and to follow through without failure." It actually startled me that she'd lowered her tone for once.

"YOU'RE LYING!" I declared. I stated. About her. To her face.

I had done the one thing that for Entropy only equaled death. But she spared me. Because I had done what had thought to be impossible even by her husband and children. I made her laugh. And I pray none from my best friend to my worst enemy ever has to hear that sound!

"I DO NOT LIE. AN ALICORN STANDS BEFORE ME WITH THE FOOLISHNESS OF A MORTAL BLAMING A HIGHER BEING FOR THEIR OWN FAILURES."

"LIAR! WHOSE REALLY RESPONSIBLE! WHOSE BEHIND THIS? Discord? Havoc? Luna?"

She just chuckled this time, and it was still enough to drive any sane pony mad with nightmares.

"YOU WILL BE SHOWN."

And one by one, eight mirrors in a circle rose out of the black ice/rock/dirt around me.

"Behold, the one who brought a frozen end to the world you love so dear."

And in each mirror, in each reflection, my reflection stared in and horror and shock back at me.

"No."

"YES. THIS IS THE ONE TO BLAME. NEVER HAVE I SEEN SO FOOLISH A CREATURE IN MY REIGN.

I COMMANDED HER REFLECTIONS TO ONLY OBEY HER COMMANDS. AND SO THEY DID ACROSS THE LANDS.

NO MORE AND NO LESS. IN HER IGNORANCE AND IMMATURITY SHE GAVE THEM A COMMAND TO END ALL HATRED. BUT HATRED MY DEAR IS BORN OF DIFFERENCES. IT IS BORN OF CHOICES. IT IS BORN OF THE ABILITY TO FEEL. THE ABILITY TO FEEL AND EXPRESS HATRED IS BORN OF LIFE! AND THERE ARE THOSE EVEN AMONG YOUR OWN KIND WHO BELIEVE IT IS NOT A SIN TO HATE THAT WHICH IS EVIL!

YOU DID NOT ASK FOR THEM TO MAKE IT SO THEY DID NOT NEED TO HATE OR FIGHT. NOR A WORLD WHERE THEY WOULD NOT HAVE TO. NOR TO MAKE PONIES BETTER THAN HATRED.

YOU TOLD THEM TO MAKE IT AS IF HATE HAD NEVER EXISTED ON THAT WORLD AND TO BE IMPOSSIBLE TO RISE AGAIN.

WHAT THEY DO IS NOT THE EASY WAY TO OBEY YOUR COMMAND. IT IS THE ONLY WAY.

I TOLD YOU THEY WOULD FOLLOW ANY COMMAND WITHOUT REST UNTIL IT WAS FULFILLED.

YOU ASSUMED THEY WERE LIKE MY OFFSPRING, BUT THEY ARE NOTHINGNESS INCARNATE, BORN FROM MY BEING, WAITING FOR SOMETHING TO GIVE THEM ANYTHING TO CONNECT TO AT ALL, THEN CARRY IT OUT. THEY HAD NO FREEWILL OUTSIDE WHAT YOU COMMANDED THEM

YOU WISH TO SEE WHO HAS BROUGHT THE FROZEN DEATH TO THE WORLD YOU LOVE? LOOK NO FURTHER THAN IN MY MIRRORS. MY LITTLE ALICORN."

"THIS IS THE WORLD YOUR CHOICES HAVE MADE YOU CANNOT DENY!"

I did it. I did it all. I asked Entropy for create the Windigos for me and I released them on Equestria against the wishes of my family and fought against my family to see it done. Mother and Father, what had I done?

I curled up and cried. I wanted to cease to exist then and there.

"NOT EVEN MY CHILDREN HAD EVER MADE ME LAUGH. SO ENTROPY SHALL GRANT YOU A GIFT."

The circle of mirrors interconnected and disconnected from the ground, folded up, and fell in front of me.

"TAKE THIS SO YOU MAY REFLECT ON YOUR FOALISHNESS FOREVER."

I wanted it all to end. I wanted everything to end. I want I to just go away.

Only one thread caught me from falling completely.

I had wronged my family. And I deserved punishment from them.

I took the mirrors with me. Yes, Twilight, those mirrors in the corner there. Yes I have kept them. I've kept them as a reminder that reckless good intentions can and do backfire.

I returned home. This time with my head and wings down, my horn touching the floor.

My own brothers and sisters pounced on me the moment I entered, I was a rogue Alicorn after all. I didn't resist. At all. "The shackles aren't necessary, I don't plan to run away."

"It is the way things are done 'Tia." Justitia said simply. However, I think just how miserable my voice was shocked even her.

"I hope you're happy with yourself," Pensilis said, his signature cut noose around his neck as he pulled me along.

"If this was a joke it wasn't funny Celestia," Puerilis commented, a uncharacteristic frown on his face.

Sooner than later I was brought before both my parents.

Abbatissa was there already of course, she spent the most time with Mother, she never grew tired of listening to Her, learning from Her, to get to know Her in every possible way. In her own way she resembled Mother more than I did. When she saw me, she closed her eyes and looked away until the very tip of Mother's wing redirected her face at me.

"YOU WILL NOT TURN YOUR EYES AWAY FROM A MEMBER OF YOUR FAMILY BEFORE SHE IS JUDGED," Mother said to her.

What are My Parents like?

They Exist. There is no more precise and direct way to put it. It's like I was just a fantasy in the face of a real pony in their presence. Mother Is the Perfect Existence or said another way the Perfect Empathy. Father Is The Perfect Reality or looked at another way the Perfect Wisdom.

Mother was white. Father was black. Neither were wicked or cruel. Nor were they indifferent or cold. To look at them, was to look at a window into a whole reality unto themselves. When their wings opened, they stretched from one end of the Their domain to the other. Their wings touching and overlapped was true divinity. My Mother's horn and my Father's were each circled by set of tiny horns that reminded me almost of a crown.

Father was logical and rational, but there was nothing machine like about him, nor was he rigid or callous. No sapient life, or potentially sapient life, was insignificant to My Father. To know Him, is to know you are.
Countless Stars shined within My Father, endless possibilities, to look at you him, to be within him, you'd have never been so free.

My mother, oh My Mother, she was wonderful, she was simply beautiful, there is no way to describe the light that shined from her in a term you can comprehend Twilight other than LIFE. I know you ponies like to think of the spirit world as the land of the dead, but spirits have a life all their own!

Oh, I didn't mean to cry. I, I'm sorry Twilight, it's just been so long since I've seen Them.

Effectively all my siblings were in attendance, in a semi-circle around me. The other twins, Princeps (my brother) & Imperatrix (my sister), look at me at if they couldn't bring themselves to believe that their fellow twins had fallen so far.

Even Eremo had broken his self imposed seclusion to witness my judgement, as was typical, I couldn't even read his expression. He didn't even have any of his beloved books/archives/tablets with him. If I wasn't already resigned, it might have made me nervous.

Judicium bowed to My Parents, knowing that this judgement went even above him, and stood on one side of me as Justitia stood on the other. The two looked at each other grimly. It was Judicium who had comforted Justitia after her dreadful battle with Morning Star.

All here: nine brothers and seven sisters. Wait, seven?

"Where is Luna?" I dared to ask. I didn't want that part of my dreams to be real. I didn't want to believe I had another thorn in my crown.

Cadence sighed and with her magic floated in front of me a diapered Alicorn, the foal looked at me with innocent eyes and babbled, "T-ia'celly."

My eyes watered. I did this to her.

"I request the same punishment."

"NO./No."

Said both My Parents.

"CELESTIA. WHY HAVE YOU COME BACK HERE?"

"I thought I was wiser than you all. I thought I saw the world more clearly. I am not. I didn't. I am a fool."

"SO YOU ARE FINALLY WISE."

"Whose Is to Blame For What Has Fallen The Ponies From the Shades Of Entropy?"

"I am."

"AS A WISE PONY. WHAT DO YOU FEEL IS PROPER PUNISHMENT?"

"Oblivion. Reabsorption. The final nothingness."

"You Request A Coward's Punishment."

I shivered and sobbed. "I'm sorry..."

"YOU ARE SENTENCED TO LIVE. FOREVER. WITH THE MEMORIES OF WHAT YOU'VE DONE NEVER TO FADE."

"Yes mother."

"Until Luna Is A Grown Mare. Anything That Becomes Of Her Or She Does Also Weighs On Your Shoulders."

"Yes father."

The restraints fell off me.

"Father...may I request one more punishment for myself?"

"What Is It You Feel You Deserve?"

"Since the life of Star-Catcher never happened. I wish to become a mortal once again...so I may suffer as those I've hurt are suffering..."

"ONCE MORE YOU SHOW THE WISDOM YOU HAVE GAINED, MORE SO THAN MANY. THERE ARE FEW WHO ARE WILLING TO TAKE THE SUFFERING THEY'VE CAUSED OTHERS UPON THEMSELVES AS RETRIBUTION. SO BE IT."

"One Last Thing Before You Leave Us For Another Lifetime."

"Yes Father?"

"You Have Indeed Suffered From Something Which No Other Alicorn Has. That Is Not Your Fault. But Acting On That Pain Without Thinking Of The Consequences Is. You Grew A Little, But Mistook It For Knowing Far More. There Is Little More Dangerous For One With Power To Assume. Make Certain You Learn From Your Mistake. Make Certain You Learn From Your Mistake."

"I will, Father."

And so Star-Catcher walked Ponyland 'again' for the first time, this time as an Earth Pony. I went through life hating and blaming the Unicorns and Pegasi for the famine and winter that now plagued us. I cursed the pegasi for living above us like they were better than us. I cursed the unicorns for acting high and mighty and staying warm in their castles while we froze out in the elements growing their food.

Life was drudgery under the watchful eyes of pegasi and the haughty attitudes of unicorns. The ever increasing cold reflected our building loathing to our overlords.

We were a nameless family in a nameless town, just struggling to get bye, the unnatural winter making already hard work impossible. Life was bitter but every Earth Pony supported each other like legs on a table, and I took strength from that.

We stubbornly worked our fields even as seemingly nature itself tried to destroy us, we'd prove we weren't so easily broken as to surrender to despair. We weren't separate ponies out for glory or riches, we were a community, a fellowship, a family that went beyond blood. They'd die for me and I'd die for them.

And I witnessed those I loved die around me one by one, by a killer that had no body to slay, slowly freezing to death in front of me,leaving me alone, cursing the ones who were responsible.

I buried my family alone. Because I was the only one left. The dirt more like rock as I dug shallow graves.

I didn't know why I was taken last. Except perhaps as proof of some unseen great pony in the sky's sadism.

I no longer cared about dying, I had nothing left, I only hoped whatever took me came for the tyrants next who had left us out to freeze rather than lift a horn or a wing to help us.

I felt the ice close around me, but I no longer cared...Everypony I loved was dead. I spent my last moments of that life screaming to the sky, cursing whatever entity, pony, or force had caused this...Twilight, freezing to death was slow and painful...but not nearly as painful as remembering when I'd returned to my true state of being that the one I'd shouted profanities and curses about my entire life...was me...

And I was a filly of an Alicorn again, my pink mane falling around me as I the fell on the floor/My Parents reflection/the ground. I keep shivering even after Mortis carried me home on his back. My brothers and sisters all silently parted ways for me as I was carried to the heart of the world/throne room/My Parents' Place.

Little Luna silently reached out for me from her spot with Venus and Cadence.

Motis gently laid me on my My Mother's back without a world. Father nuzzled me.

Mother hugged me. "MY LITTLE PONY." She whispered as she wrapped her wings of forever around me. "IT'S ALRIGHT. YOU'RE HOME."

And I just stayed that way, not moving an inch, I didn't want to, not thinking a thought other than my love for Her, not feeling anything but Her warmth, letting the icy cold that lingered in me from the magic of the very things I had let loose on the world be washed away. There was only Her. I had returned to Her. She loved me. And I loved Her. I floated in her radiance.

Then I dreamed.

++++

"So the unicorns have decided they don't need us anymore? COME AND GET ME YOU MONSTER!"

"I don't know how the Pegasi made you but I'm coming for them as soon as I'm done with you!"

"Abominations! I won't let my family be hurt by some tool of freaks!"

"YOU'RE ALL INSANE! WE PEGASI ARE DYING FROM THIS ICE TOO!"

"My wings! Help! I can't fly!"

"Monster Earth Ponies! I knew you all hated civilization!"

"Mommy! The Earth Pony Ghosts wanna eat me!"

"Stay away from my grandchildren!"

"Did I escape that crazy dragon just to die here instead?!"

"I can't feel my horn!"

And they all ended in the cold then the dark.

++++

I awoke screaming from my nightmares, still in my mother's wings and embrace, and she melted my fears and night terrors away and I rested again.

When I was strong enough, I visited my family who I had buried in the never ending winter in the world of spirits. I lost track of how long I spent there, saying I was sorry, wish I could something, anything for them.

Did we declare your world a lost cause? Did we abandon you? Did we decide to simply let you all die through no fault of your own? Did we chose to simply start again?

Twilight Sparkle! I am very very very disappointed in you! We have always been alongside you! I have always been along side you! Even when you couldn't see me!

I love all of you! Haven't-haven't-you realized that yet? You're-You are all precious to me! You are all unique to me!

Mother is many things both beautiful and terrible but heartless has never been one of them!

The draconequi could not effect them, since the Windigos were born from a LACK of something, the undoing of something, rather than the presence of something or an action. They would obey only me, they'd even ignore their Mother, and only when their programmed objective was complete! And maybe since they were technically bound to my fate She could not call them back to Her?

And in case you forgot Mother had told Havoc that if the world began to break down again that we'd intervene remember? And it was unanimously voted among the Draconequi that a frozen world with NOTHING that could be defined as life reigned and nothing changed was as good as dead.

Pandemonium told me that Discord stalked about like a child who'd woken up to find his toy box taken away. He had actually begged His Father to let us help more. I hate to admit it, but I did feel guilty for leaving him to the wolves after he'd come to my aid and blamed him for the mistakes I had made.

It was rather surprising really, there was this one world where the ponies died off, but their mechanical creations were still alive and running and Strife insisted that they be allowed to continue since by that point these clockwork ponies thought and felt and had different ideas and conflicts.

It was surprised when Strife of all Concepts fought among us that un-life and machine-life be recognized as another living aspect of Mother. She even came to my Mother in her realm to beseech it to be so.

And if we were willing, to protect to the bitter end the existence of MACHINES that had gained the power to feel! Don't you think we do everything to save you from your own hated and from my stupidity-?!

You can accuse My Family of many things my loyal good stupid faithful student, but callous with your lives will never be one of them!

Oh, let me put these flowers out, don't worry, I own a Phoenix as a pet, most everything in here is fireproof anyway.

...It's alright Twilight, you can come out from under the bed. I, I'll forgive you...And you're not a stupid pony, you're a very bright one who just happened to overstep her bounds without realizing it. There now. Much better.

Did we give you the fire of friendship that Clover, Pansy and Cookie used to dispel the Windigos?

Yes. Several thousand years before the First Age when we made you more than dumb animals and we gave you the power to see there was more beyond mere survival! There was more to die for than just your own bloodline. That beauty didn't have to be just about attracting a mate. When LOVE became the meaning behind unions rather the continuation of the species. THAT is when we gave it to you ... my little pony. And you came to meet all our expectations and more.

I am so proud of all of you.

Entropy declared any life given sapience would ultimately destroy themselves. Heheh. I think the fact Mother continues to prove Her wrong is the only thing to ever get under her icy skin! And that's one thing I am NOT afraid to state about her!

Havoc is intelligent and shrewd, but stubborn, he still wouldn't let us interact directly. I think he might have wanted a dead world of perfect order just to rub our noses in it. His personal strawpony parody of what My Family represented.

Strife madly began trying to get you to destroy each other, her hoping being that if only one race of pony remained you would be too tired to turn on each other and the Windigos would leave you be.

She considered going the other direction and creating monsters to drive the ponies together against a common foe. Despite being conflict incarnate, Strife understood the value of working as a group for survival, thus why wolves, ants, bees, and all kinds of animals rely on it for survival. But she told me that if the Windigo's could not accomplish that, even her deadliest creations couldn't do it.

Destruction wanted me to cause a super-nova to destroy them figuring life could evolve again in a million years after I burnt the planet to a cinder.

Cadence and the uncharacteristically motivated Anarchy, in the most bitter alliance I've ever seen, began guiding the lives of three ponies to make them signs of tolerance and then understanding and finally acceptance among their kind. Even before the Windigos Cadence hated such a caricature of polyphony and Anarchy loathed a frozen world with no life and no choices.

But Private Pansy didn't have the strength of will to enact social change. Smart Cookie wanted to guide rather than lead. And Clover had no interest in starting a palace revolution against the family who her departed master had served faithfully.

Mother remained strangely calm about the entire ordeal.

Rota Fortuna saw the only way the ponies themselves would have for the Windigos to be gone would be for the ponies to let go of their hatred, to being chemically unable to feel the emotion, then destroy every record of it having existed in their history. And the ponies of the three tribes had hardened their hearts to this.

But as I began to sink into depression at the thought my mistake could not be fixed and I'd doomed an innocent people to extinction, Mother's voice called out.

"DO NOT YET LOSE YOUR HOPE. CELESTIA, CONCEPT OF THE SUN, YOU WITNESSED PERSONALLY WHAT OUR CREATIONS DID WHEN ALL SEEMED HOPELESS, AND YET NOW YOU LOSE FAITH IN THEM?"

I have never known Mother to be wrong. Twilight, remember that when my friends they fought Strife, they had no idea what the Rainbow Light even was. But they were still able to call upon its power even with it broken and scattered to realize their paradise. And we left Strife forever with a stone paw.

We were only children who had done nothing our whole lives but play in our sugar coated paradise. But In that darkest hour, we became something more. We matured. Star-Catcher's dawn couldn't come, but we wouldn't let your world turn pitch black.

When Clover, Pansy, and Smart Cookie failed to convince others of the shallowness of racism or they were all just different races of the same species, we chose focus our efforts on helping Patch recover the Rainbow of Light.

Because she was driven out of love for a friend, not hatred for anypony, she was nearly invisible to the Windigos, but even with Puerillis sublimely guiding her, she was only on her fourth piece at the time things had turned critical.

There was no way she could collect all seven before the world fell forever into a grip of ice.

Despite Anarchy and Cadence's best efforts, Clover, Pansy, and Smart Cookie showed no signs they would be your deliverance...

And then the three of them together called down Mother Herself.

My Mother is Her power, Her power is my Mother. There is no difference between them.

This was your darkest hour my little pony.

And just as light deepens the darkness, darkness brightens the light.

Three hearts, who barely knew each other, who had been told all their lives the other two were evil by default, accept each other into their hearts even at what they thought was the end.

And this called down a single yoctogram of My Mother. Through what we had all given you at the beginning.

No, Twilight, none can force Mother to do anything. No 'commands' Her power. She comes to none unless She consciously consents to it.

If She wished for mortals to have something, She held it out in Her hoof, but you had to do your part to pick it up.

They earned that fragment of Mother's presence. I assure you, channeling My Mother is a near impossible feat even for an Alicorn, let alone a trio of mortal ponies. We were every bit as surprised as they were.

No She did not force Herself on them, She has only been roused to do that once in eternity, and that was terrifying indeed, and with more than, forgive me for saying so, 'merely one world' at stake. It was the threshold when Her intervention would not bring worse collateral damage than what had to be stopped. Discord's rule of insanity was chaos incarnate but at least it was life!

Believe me when I say either of My Parents being roused forth signals that 'darkest hour' is an understatement.

Their own acceptance and love, using the gift of friendship to its highest potential possible, undid the protective locks and opened the door and called out to Her. Unconditional acceptance of blood enemies after having just met in the face of death? This could do nothing but draw Her attention. And into your world.

If my Mother could manifest in the mortal world, the Fire of Friendship would be Her.

And that microscopic fragment of Her was more than enough to effectively incinerate, no, TO FILL THE NOTHING that the Windigos were.

As many things as I've told you that I hope you never see, that moment is one I sincerely wish you could. One flicker of light from three little ponies filled the entire darkness. It was as brilliant as my sun!

When I sensed it I danced like an drunken idiot and carried little Luna on my back, laughing like I was a toddler myself! I brought thousands of suns to life and I skipped around creating an entire field of sun flowers right in my room!

I heard Imperatrix and Princeps cheering and dancing together. Venus already dictating love poems about the event. I don't know what Rota Fortuna was thinking behind her smile. Cadence sang. Abbatissa was already hugging mother. Eremo and Judicium were busy writing down notes. Leo Fortis did get drunk. Galaxia got Pensilis dance. Puerilis wouldn't stop laughing and tickled Mortis. Justitia took off her helmet and just peacefully gazed at the little world with Turris and Currus.

Even with the world saved, Puerillis never stopped invisibly guiding Patch on her quest until she had restored the Rainbow of Light and rejoined her friends. I think he might have actually brought their spirits to brief enjoy the celebration before they moved onto paradise.

I fell down and rolled around like a puppy! My tears of joy wouldn't stop. Our little ponies were free. Luna giggled and clapped at me. Stars danced around her. I hugged her, wrapped my wings around her, and I wouldn't let go!

And at the that exact same moment in the Sea of Darkness.

++++

"YEEEEEAAAAAAGGGGGHHHH!"

Entropy for the first time in Her existence knew what pain was.

We heard her screams as a distant echo in our domain... It haunted my dreams for three thousand years.

She thrashed about and grabbed her forelimb where the stinging horrid pain of existence, of friendship, of LIFE stabbed through her, sending waves of chaos and darkness big enough to drown entire worlds as she writhed. The Windigos were a piece of her after all. Of course she'd feel pain at their effective 'destruction' if it can be called that.

Discordance, Disruption/Mass Destruction/Disaster, Dispute/Strife, Desire/Pandora/Pandemonium, Disorder/Anarchy and all clutched her guts and fell on their side screaming in pain, as one half their being had been born from their Mother.

And Havoc beheld this done upon His wife and His children.

Havoc is terrible indeed, his opinion of his children range from tools, to a part of Him, to his most important treasures in the universe besides seeing it gripped in endless tide of madness.

But ... this much could be said for Him. He couldn't react less when His spawn got themselves into trouble, it amused Him when He saw their schemes backfire or be thwarted or just fall apart on their own. And He likely laughed with my Mother when She proved the contrary to Entropy on Entropy's statement on life.

But any first strike harm done upon any of them, He considered by default to be a injury upon Himself. And any injury upon Himself, brought up, such a horrid, terrible, frightening rage, that it was only Mother's presence that protected your entire world from shuddering from it.

"FAUNA LUSTER!!!"

++++

Twilight Sparkle, my loyal and faithful student. In that moment, Entropy was refuted. Shared pain was lessened and shared joy was increased. My loyal and faithful student, Entropy allows nothing to refute Her. But in that moment, for one moment, for one single instant, friendship had. It was an insult to Her, a vulgar offense to Her very being. The level at which it derogated Her was incomprehensible.

Even as I celebrated your freedom and reconciliation back into the cultural identity of fellowship I had loved in all the Ages, this new beginning of the Forth Age, Entropy demanded restitution. And Havoc, wanted revenge.

Father and Mother, the only two other beings in all of existence who COULD defy Havoc and Entropy, told Them that while I had released the Windigo, it had been Entropy's choice to give them to me, She had not been forced, not that I was capable of forcing Her to do anything. Entropy had gambled and released a piece of Her being into the mortal unversed.

The idea of being harmed had been completely alien to Entropy until that moment, She couldn't comprehend the idea of them being destroyed before.

My Parents said that the ponies had no idea that they'd harmed Entropy by doing so, and had not even intended to do such, and thusly didn't deserve to be punished for an act they were ignorant of and incapable of repeating.

Their Parents retorted that ignorance of a crime did not lessen it. And so They made their indemnification known.

Then Havoc and Entropy, for the first time in Their long existence, had been utterly rebuked by My Parents.

The moment my Parents rejected their demands that your world be absorbed into her reality, and every pony alive be made into shadow of existence denizens of her domain, there was only one outcome.

So did Our Parents fight against Their Parents? Is the universe still here? Then no, they did not.

The Elders can cast their shadows into their world, like you can cast your shadow on a wall, except theirs can interact more readily. I am sorry to have to get into these mechanical details again. One way to think of it is that your reality is not, ahem, 'real' enough for them to interact with directly, like you'd have trouble interacting with a pony on paper. Or to put it more simply, there is no mortal-vessel or gateway large enough for them to enter through. You can not fit an entire universe inside one pony.

(Oh Twilight Sparkle, it pains me to see these limits practically built into you.)

But for the rest of us. The rest of our families. What was going to happen, could only happen. Not after Havoc and Entropy had made their demands, and My Parents refused them.

Even when Pandora offered the more reasonable demand that only Clover, Pansy, and Smart Cookie be offer up in exchange for the three lost Windigos, nothing changed.

Justitia offered another more reasonable offer of Havoc and Entropy taking the three most horrid, selfish, wicked, ponies in all of creation instead, an exchange of three black souls for three innocent ones. Havoc and Entropy would hear none of it.

I think Havoc always wanted a war. And I think Entropy might have designed things just so Her children and my family would destroy one another from the beginning.

Strife deep down I think was delighted to take part in Ragnarök, even if she was delighted at the turn around the ponies had pulled. Destruction thought this would bring such ruin his need would never haunt him again, I don't blame him. Anarchy thought the whole thing was stupid and would have sat back and watched 'the show', but blood is thicker than water.

Pandemonium was confused and scared, destruction among the gods would make epic poetry, but how she write after? She was dragged into every battle. Discord was terrified.

You're that surprised Twilight Sparkle?

Discord is a bully my loyal and faithful student, and war meant he'd have to face against those who were as powerful or more powerful than him, in a way he couldn't control, a bully's worst nightmare. But Havoc would have none of his children take the sidelines, Havoc was certain he'd find his nitch or be sent back to His Mother. Unfortunately, Discord did, he was very creative on prisoners of war.

My family? While some did not object to it, none of them encouraged it. So yes, the gods went to war over a bunch of tiny ponies. Consider how diverse life is, and how vast creation is, I'd have to agree with Puerilis' laughter at the absurdity of it. We had existed in a delicate balance for billions of years, and all it took was one instant for all to come crashing down. Puerilis said he got the joke but didn't think much of the punchline.

As I said, I personally believe that Havoc sought the war for a long time, he just had an excuse.

This was only one thing Twilight Sparkle. And that was war.

+++

"So...a whole war was our fault?"

I quickly shake my head, putting a comforting wing around her. "Twilight Sparkle, would you like to blame ponies long dead for it? Or Discord and Luna for helping? Or Entropy for giving me the Windigos in the first place? Havoc for demanding tribute for their loss? Or my brothers for not being able to stop me? Or myself for engaging in such an childish scheme to begin with? There is plenty of blame to go around. Who you blame for something, doesn't change a thing."

+++

No Twilight Sparkle. I shall not share with you the details of that war. Not to any of your friends. Not now. Not ever.

Pray you never have to experience real war Twilight Sparkle.

You think you know what it is to behold war in its full horror?

You think your ordeals have made you able to look at war's real face?

Apple pies? Water balloons? You play the games of children!

I've kept you all as far away from the devils of war as possible! You know it is horrid. You know it is an evil that must not be allowed to rise! You know it is terrible. That is enough. Be glad we made peace with the Griffins long ago and that conflict is behind us.

When my guards were curbing the panic from Nightmare Moon's return, most ponies were shocked to learn Equestria even has weapons! Yes Twilight we do.

You think you know what war is? Two sides with no reconciliation with force as their only tool left?

Not all wars end in five minutes and a peaceful resolution Twilight! Nor do they end in a spectacular finale where everything is said and done then life moves on.

Imagine two perfectly rational and reasonable ponies who had made the conscious decision to kill each other. There is nothing wrong with them: No sickness, no heat of the moment, no evil influence. They simply have made the decision to bring death to the other: be it over honor, land, or property, or opposite truths, or simply because the other is in the way.

You can't can you?

I made you so. Perhaps I have spoiled you, my little ponies, too much.

If I gave you the full truth of war Twilight Sparkle, in your heart you would be separate from everypony else until the end of your days. And that is a weight I simply will not put on your shoulders.

Having been taught all your life that killing is wrong, but suddenly having no choice but to do so unless you wish to see those you love be made slaves or corpses!

In the heat of a battle, thinking the world around you had gone completely wrong, that everything is about to end in a twisting whirlpool of madness.

Working along side those you thought you'd be fighting against next, in opposition against those who you thought would be your new allies.

Seeing the war already lost for your enemy but the war not yet won for you, and your enemy wanting you to pay in blood for every last hoof step you take.

I will not.

Twilight, you and your friends are true heroes, you have earned a place in history along side the greatest heroes who dwelled in Dream Castle. You have defeated Nightmares and saved millions untold from suffering. I have the utmost respect for you six for all you've done, you have my eternal gratitude for saving my sister...But I pray to My Parents your conflict with Discord is the closest to war you ever come.

Havoc released Morning Star from his confinement so he could add to His family's numbers and led them against an enemy Morning Star knew perfectly. All His children chaffed under this. Morning Star, as I said, was a fallen Alicorn, the only one in history. He was born to be the greatest of us, and he was. He was so great he chased self-deluded fantasies of ruling over Havoc and Entropy, and Mother and Father like they were common servants. While he believed he was in the right, he was no less ruthless than Discord became.

Discord learned a lot about the power of words from him, Morning Star was a master. From him Discord learned how to use words to twist the hearts of ponies, or BREAK their hearts, their wills, their very minds, with just a handful of word, with just one or two sentences.

The hordes of shadows that inhabited Entropy's reality congealed and combined into a single massive Nightmare. He/she/it was given the name Nightmare Legion.

Havoc granting all his children a tiny fraction of His own self, in other words, His own power, to further make up for their smaller numbers.

Strife called upon her three children she once had with Mortis:
Bellum, Fames, and Pestilentia, to fight along side her.

"So you would chose your mother over your father?"

"Sorry father." They apologized. "She asked us first."

"You are not the ones destined to defeat me." Was all Mortis had to say. Mortis and his foals never fought each other, there were plenty of other targets.

Their addition made the war last much longer, and made it that much more terrible. Those three, they truly inherited traits from both their parents.

Havoc created an Aspect of Himself, so a part of Himself could be on the front line, as Puerilis discovered.

While there were over three times as many Alicorns as there were Draconequi, these additions made our numbers effectively even.

Turris never left his post at the gates to Mother and Father's domain. None got past him.

The Draconequi called upon every favor and contract and debt owed to them. Strife unleashed herself like never before in what she engineered. Morning Star reveled in leading them against his own family.

Any member of my family that could take part did take part. Not every member of my family were warriors or soldiers, but the ones who were ... they actually scared me during that war. I had never seen Justitia so ... no Twilight, you don't want to know.

"You are the Perfect Justice. I am the Perfect Being created by Mother. You know you want to be along my side sister," Morning Star whispered to Justitia as they clashed.

"The only thing you've ever been is the Perfect Failure and the Perfect Disappointment." She told him before she used the same technique she used on Discord and Luna. Only this time she showed no mercy.

My sister Venus, the Perfect Love, rarely was able to bring herself to take part except when pressed into a corner and it was clear members of her family would fall if she didn't. I have never seen her in such pain.

Every member of both families played their role.

The Heavens trembled as we fought.

Strife never grew to hate the war, ever. She knew nothing spurred technological progress among civilizations like a war could. But nothing has ever agitated her more than a deadlock, and this made her more coldly ruthless as her irritation grew.

"Isn't it grand what I've managed to do?" Discord asked me when the two exhausted sides lay almost in ruin.

"You've done nothing!" I snarled. But the look in his eyes... I had seen that look in only one other person, it was same horrid sickening gaze as Morning Star's.

"Nothing you say 'Tia? If I hadn't saved your butt, you'd have gotten your plot kicked in by your own relatives, and been dragged down kicking and screaming before Lulu worked up the nerve to help you. And NONE OF THIS would have happened! Isn't this a GRAND project the two of us have created? It's greater than any of our old work I'd say! Next time the elder gods are looking for new guys to fill in the seats, I'm putting 'Reduce Alicorn Population By eighty percent' on my resume! Let's see Kratos beat that! And if he does, I suppose I can add the reduction in my own species' population to it."

My eyes went wide with horror as I looked at him as I took a trots steps back in terror. "Y-you...you planned this?"

Discord looked at me in mock shock and raised a paw to his chest, " I planned this Celestia? I thought we planned this! I mean it all fit so perfectly! You thought you wanted to be the only Alicorn! No one telling me, or you what's wrong and what's right! I didn't think you had the guts to take things this far, oh you, this is brilliant! You are truly a master manipulator, Celly, using the guise of helping ponies to create such a beautiful masterpiece of chaos!" The last word dripped with venom.

I felt sick. "Discord...This isn't chaos, it's wrong! This isn't some kind of game! We've thrown the universe into disharmony!"

He just grinned. "Even better! Disharmony has a much better ring to it, don't you think?"

That was when Currus ran him over with his scythed chariot.

I had never heard Pandora roar until that moment. "Discord! GET OUT OF MY WAY!" She smashed through Currus' war chariot and saved her brother. She broke through Leo and Justitia to take him back to Her Father's domain, she was a bleeding mess as she carried his two halves.

As Pandora fled, he turned his head back towards me, grinned, and gave me a thumbs up. "We did it 'Tia."

Twilight, once upon a time I kept telling myself he wasn't all bad, I kept telling myself he could change, I kept telling myself that maybe he'd turn out for the better. I never talked to My Parents about how he only got worse and worse. After being hit over the head with the brick a hundred times, the brick finally broke.

Twilight. Imagine a somepony you've know all your life, someone who you at least once cared about, one who, even after you ran away after seeing his darkside, showed up when you thought you needed him most, and was hurt because of you.

Then him happily gloating about the destruction of your families to your face and telling you how you must have wanted it too!

"Extinct." Strife deadpanned as she dove a stone claw into my brain and I didn't even care. Or would have if she wasn't then blasted several thousand miles away by one of my sisters.

I can't remember who save me, but she then said, "Don't believe his lies Celestia. You've never been like him." I was too numb to respond until she hugged me.

++++

Twilight hugged me, for a moment working up the bravery to try and comfort me. She retreated quickly, but looked up at me with concerned eyes. She hugged me. I had confessed that I had delivered Entropy's spawn to her people's doorstep and she had hugged me when she saw I was hurt.

"Thank you, Twilight..." I reply, giving her a small smile.

"My, my pleasure, Princess." Twilight tumbled over her words.

I wrapped my wings around her like a mother pegasus, or Alicorn, would her child. She didn't flinch. She didn't turn away, she didn't look at me like I was somepony she didn't even know. She only leaned against me accepted my grace. "No my student, Twilight Sparkle. My pleasure. And Twilight Sparkle."

"Yes Princess?"

"I am delighted , to be your teacher."

Episode 54: "Origins Celestia Part 5"

My Little pony Friendship Is Magic
Pony POV Series Origins Part 5
Princess Celestia
Optional-Canon

How did it end? You're still here aren't you?

Besides from that ...

Cadence whispered, "Galaxia. Take Celestia and Luna and go."

"Go where? The way home is blocked!" In the final stages of he war, Havoc blocked the way for either side to escape for home. He was drunk on the chaos the war brought.

He had turned from at the very least, a protective father, into one who had stopped caring if His children fell in battle or made it back home. What goodness there may once have been in His avatar was gone...He was mad. Annihilation and blind panic swirls around his aspect like they were tangible.

"Away from all of this. This has all been pointless."

"And What Fun Is There In Having A Point?" Boomed Havoc's aspect as its shadow loomed over the two mares, and two fillies.

He then gave an insane laugh was that shuddered every bone in my body.

"Go somewhere safe," Cadence said not taking her eyes off of Havoc's aspect.

"What Makes You Think There Is Anywhere Safe For Them To Go?"

"You can't beat Him alone!"

"Ha! One Alicorn against Havoc? What nonsense! I love it! Soon, none shall stand against chaos as everything is returned to how it should be! How the universe intended for itself to be! Chaos is the proper state of all things and I shall be the one to return all to it!" He ranted insanely. Completely lost in his own world. Oblivious to all he didn't wish to be so.

"Here's to chaos! Isn't it grand?
Striking fear into all who stand!
Here's to chaos, what splendid might!

Such wonderful fright!
Havoc slowly approached us, letting his claw slowly scrape across existence itself, sparks flying as he did so, a maddened look in his eyes, a smirk that would stop your heart my student.

"Here's to chaos, return things to their prime!

In its natural state the universe shall abide
Order forever cast aside!
No longer in the darkness will chaos have to hide!
All will be monument to my lovely bride!

Havoc laughed as flames came off him. Luna and I hid inside Galaxia's wings.

"No. I know I can win... But I don't know if this version of me will still be around afterwards. So let me say this incase the next version doesn't remember. Take care of Celestia and Luna. You can't help in this fight."

"Cadence."

"I'm the Concept of Temperance, of Harmony ... and I won't be alone. They're all with me. JUST GO!"

I don't know where Cadence got that aura from ... but it was enough to knock us all away. It was like a symphony given a visual form. In it felt the warmth of many of our family brought into one harmonious force.

Havoc's aspect and Cadence clashed in a tempest, you have never seen anything so incredible Twilight Sparkle, it rippled through space and time as worlds tilted. Galaxia didn't dare look back.

Then the winds of force of their confrontation knocked my sister and I away from Galaxia. She called out our names, I barely heard her over the storm. I held onto my sister for dear life as she cried. Galaxia did her best to follow us through the storm of conflict.

All I thought was what Cadence said. 'Somewhere safe.'

I think it was my instincts that drove where the two of us 'landed.' As spirits, it's safe to compared it to crash landing. Galaxia trailed behind us.

++++

I looked to Twilight, I could see gears turning in her head each time I said Cadence's name. She opened her mouth to speak, but stopped, uncertainty in her eyes. A touch of fear.

"Yes, my faithful student?"

She jumped. "O-oh, i-it's nothing, please, continue..." she said, trying to hide her emotions better. I let her. I can't answer a question which she does not want the answer to.

++++

What happened next Twilight Sparkle varies from timeline to timeline.

But I remembered in my dreams just once. I...Twilight, I'm warning you, what I'm about to say next is far worse than anything you've heard so far...It is one of the most horrible truths about Discord I could tell you, are you certain you want to know? There's no shame in not knowing this one detail, and I can tell you the result, not the manner in which it happened...Alright, but remember, this is something you can't unlearn in an eternity...

Discord! Help ... no, what are you doing'? Dissy! Don't! Why are you-

Discord! DESTRUCTION!? Discord you don't know what you're doing!

You Will Allow Him To Finish Pandemonium, That Is An Order.

... Yes, father.

Hehhehehhe. Ha hA hA! My Little Dissonance. You Are Finally My Favorite Discord. All The Power Of My Aspect Is Yours. Consume It. Devour It.

. . .

Now that we're alone, sister dear, there is something I need you to do for me.

++++

I manifest a bucket as Twilight promptly went into dry heaves and finally vomited. I can't blame her, that had been my reaction.

"Oh sweet Celestia! That's...that's..."

I look down as understandingly as I can into her rightly horrified, sickened eyes as she struggles to keep herself composed. "Unspeakable, even by Draconequi standards, it was a taboo...Now you know the truth of where Discord's new power came from...I won't deny that Havoc was insane when he permitted it, and Discord had lost anything resembling sanity long before that point, he was like a feral animal. When he regained his farce of sanity, Discord felt no remorse, the only thing that changed about him was the new scope of the chaos and misery he could now unleash."

I gently pat her on the back and place my wing over her as she threw up once more, waiting until her stomach settles enough to continue.

++++

What happened next was out of a nightmare Twilight Sparkle, but it was very real for the ponies who had to endure it.

You must understand something Twilight. While as sprits we can exert our power into reality as you saw Discord do with the pony and the cliff, we normally can not interact with ponies directly that way.

The Lost Third Age with its world spanning spell keeping everything and everypony perfect was so overwhelmingly flooded with magic, that if the ponies had the know-how to use it the amount of wonders they would have been able to do would have made you faint my student. Sky Wish's power to effect fate with her wishes would have been the tip of the ice berg. It was child's play for us to open gateways or to simply manifest directly.

And I still don't know why Discord did what he did. Maybe it was a prank on himself, maybe it was just a whim, maybe Pandora betrayed him, maybe he didn't want to be an invisible prankster and was too lazy to create a gateway with his new power. I don't know. I was oblivious to things at the time.

There is only one true way for a spirit to enter the material universe. Others require huge amounts of magical energy and on top of that piercing the barrier between the spiritual and material world.

The most EFFECTIVE if time consuming way is the same way your spirit did and that of all yours ancestors.

Shady had always been a withdrawn pony, one who preferred the shadows to sunlight. She wasn't a bad pony by any definition. Her greatest flaw was her crippling lack of self confidence. She was not very physically fit for an Earth pony, and sometimes envied unicorns and pegasi for their gifts. Some even nicknamed her 'Little Shadow.'

In the years of the broken tribes, she actually had (whether they were a gift or she made them herself I do not know) a pair of sunglasses that showed the world as an ideal perfect place, the original 'rose colored glasses.'

I think she might have been seeking way to MAKE herself happy. As an adult mare, she'd actually found some of the basic principles of alchemy, many I believe your friend Zecora still uses.

It was soon after our war burned out that the Earth pony Shady of Paradise Estate found out much to her confusion, she was pregnant.

She had no relations with a stallion. She felt ill during much of the pregnancy, but no harm came to her, at all. Anything that meant her harm soon fell mad, were found frozen, or died from monster attacks.

You are THAT confused Twilight Sparkle? This happened AFTER the First Age, AFTER the Second Age where pony civilization was at it's peak, and AFTER the separation of the three tribes in that frozen age I unwittingly brought, and AFTER the three tribes had reunited into Equestria! The Ponies of Paradise Estate had been alive for and through all of it!

She was driven as a by a base need to flee and hide in the final days of her pregnancy, none of the others were able to find her.

Then she gave birth.

It was not painless birth.

And she screamed at the sight of what was born. It looked back at her, unsure of the world itself. It saw the bright color red coming out of her, and laughed. It noticed she was in pain. And it cried. Both were teleported back to Paradise Estate in an instant.

Shady's life was saved. Everypony was shocked at what she had given birth to. She'd let no one harm it. She nursed it and cared for it. It nuzzled her.

The goofy white pony Surprise she couldn't help but feel she recognized it somehow. She didn't think it was dangerous. Just something familiar about it.

Shady wondered what name to give it, then dreamed of a horned serpent that encircled the world who told her the newborn's name was Discord.

And so Shady gave it that name. It was a month before she was fully recovered. It never left her side. It glared at the other ponies, clutching to her for protection.

It's okay, Twilight, I know about the pregnant mares who had nightmares about such a thing. But remember, these ponies had no idea who Discord was before this and to Shady, Discord was her child, no more different than any other no matter how he looked. In fact, in another world I've seen in the Truth, you did much the same for a foal born of Nightmare Moon's power, seeing her not as the Nightmare my sister became but an innocent little child...Yes, Twilight, you were a very good mother...

The ponies who remained at Paradise Estate had shrunk more during their time being ignored by Civilized ponies in the Second Age, and being crowded in on all sides by conflict and strife during the new Third Age of the three tribes. Originally there had been dozens of them. Now there was less than ten.

There were no longer any foals among them who had had thousands of years now to grow up. And the last stallion had chosen to abandon eternal life and live among the ponies who had finally remembered the glories of total love and total brotherhood. I'd be lying if I said the Paradise Estate ponies didn't celebrate the reunification of the tribes.

The warrior from another world that you keep hearing about eh? Megan? She was a human Twilight, she wasn't from this world, the Rainbow of Light had no right to keep her. She had an entire family on Earth and she couldn't just abandon them. Heh, through it's true, the ponies had become like a second family to her. She actually finally gave up her own immortality during the very height Second Age. One, she felt she was having too great an influence on the pony's cultural sense of identity, and more important, she saw the ponies could finally take care of themselves without a new monster randomly appearing to eat them.

The ponies had built a -civilization- at last, rather than just accepting hand-me-downs from various other cultures. Everything they had they built on their own ... heh, the Second Age did have one trick that sadly has been lost to history. In tribute to humans, these ponies had figured out how to use their hooves as precisely as any griffin's paw. Megan, feeling her duty finally done, gave the Rainbow of Light to the ponies of the Estate for safe keeping.

Megan's role has been exaggerated by time, so Lickety Split's stories aren't one hundred percent truthful, but the one thing that's never exaggerated was her courage. She could talk down tyrants from their goals.

In recent years, their numbers had become even less.

The pegasus Heart Throb had left the Estate and immortality behind to finally have a normal life with her daughter.

Another recent departure had been a Pegasus named Flutterbye ... yes Twilight Sparkle, it is getting rather contrived isn't it? But her line would later merge with an Earth pony who had chosen to stay on the Estate named Posey, who, I swear, if she had wings, would be Fluttershy, her love for plants matched Fluttershy's love of animals.

No Twilight, I know how this sounds, but believe me, you only live once. Souls are not 'recycled' like raw material. The events of the amputated timeline were special circumstances, as was my punishment and the desperate choice myself and my sister would make.

This is also why you won't find any of the current Lickety Split's stories containing Discord, his ancestor had also chosen to finally see what the great beyond would hold for her after the reunification of the tribes.

Another pony's recent departure reduced the number of unicorns on the Estate to three. Moon Dancer had come to see the Estate as her prison not her home and-

++++

"MOON DANCER?!"

"Yes. She is the namesake and ancestor the same Moon Dancer Spike was attracted to before he fell in love with Rarity. Twilight. Is there anything about your friends you think I don't know? And why yes Twilight, ponies descendant from that age DO seem to find their way into your life and into my castle. Very strange isn't it? I suggest you sit down for the next one least you have a heart attack."

++++

Those three unicorns were comprised of Galaxy, one of the gem eyed ponies of legend. Her magic centered around light and heat, but her greatest magical gift was a form of magically enhanced intuition.

Huh? The gem eyes ... Ironically their lines have two origins.

You don't want to know the origin of their first line, just know it involved an evil wizard with a taste for jewels, slavery, and...accidental eye surgery via an explosion.

The eyes of the second line were actually a gift from some of Luna's constellations! They overheard a pony wishing she could twinkle like stars and gave her the gem eyes with stardust after taking her among the constellations. It was surprisingly very well received gift. Remember, this was back in the First Age, back then, even former villains were accepted if they were truly repentant...Yes, I wish modern ponies were more like that too.

Twilight The First, yes Twilight, your precursor. She was ... heh, quite the contradiction compared to you. Her magic was based on the power of wishes. Though like you, she loved to star gaze.

Mimic, her line came from the first unicorn to enter Dream Valley. She held onto a foursome of enchanted horseshoes that were created by her ancestor that actually contain her line's life-force. She didn't know it until later in her life, but you like, and Trixie, she could copy any spell encountered. Heh. Her actual PERSONALITY? ... You are among the few to actually ask that Twilight. ...Oh, I'm fine...It's just touching you want to know about Mimic as pony, not a mage...

Most are just dazzled by her power and move on. She was a pony trapped by her legacy. Seen as only her legacy. Her power was all she was known for. She never left the Estate because she felt she could NEVER live a normal life anyway, so she might have well put her talents to good use. Not to worry, Twilight, you will know more about her later in this tale...

One of the pegasi was Firefly, a daredevil thrill seeker who didn't let a mishap during a stunt slow her down or damage her confidence. She was the one who found Megan and brought her to our world. It was a completely wild gambit both trying to 'find help' and again in recruiting her of all humans. It paid off in spades. Yes, as Rainbow Dash certainly does act a lot like her, doesn't she?

The Pegasus Wind Whistle was Megan's best friend to put it bluntly. She was logical and rational to a fault. Sound familiar my student? She actually had a bad reputation among her fellows for not having a heart: which I can tell you was a complete lie.

The third pegasus of the group was a pony named Surprise. Imagine Pinkie Pie with wings, more prone to laughing, more laid back and not as hyper active, and more appreciative of personal space. Yes Twilight, I read Razzaroo's book too remember?

The group had been four. But the pegasus Masquerade left shortly after Discord was born. She was known for taking nothing at face value due to her own talent at fooling the eyes of others with purely non-magical means, and she saw something about him that went beyond his bewildering appearance and the strange happenstance of his birth. Ironically, the vast majority of history that survived that took place BEFORE Discord's rule was thanks to her preparations. She was extremely shrewd for a pony from the First Age, but even she couldn't smoother Shady's child in his sleep based on a vague sense of danger. Even after all the Paradise Estate Ponies had been through, that was just too cold-blooded for her to do.

And the last of the three Earth Ponies who comprised the nine remaining care takers of the (recovered) Rainbow of Light besides Spike himself?

The last Earth Pony to leave had been, Ember who had gone several thousand years as a foal and a blank flank and had in spite of maturing emotionally and mentally still had the body of one, had chosen to finally grow up. Her cutie mark was a large white star.

Why yes my faithful student, I am delaying. Her name was Abigail Jacqueline I of the First Line. But she was better known simply as Applejack.

...

Welcome back to the land of the living Twilight. You were only out for a little while. I made coco. I must say, while I foresaw you fainting, I wonder how you got all four of your legs to stick up perfectly like that.

And where was I? Oh yes.

Applejack I is of course our Applejack's ancestor, ours is the Fifth of the Fifth Line, by the way, but Applejack the First was...not very well coordinated, at all, neglectful of her horse sense, and much less stubborn and less serious. Remember how you told me Applejack acted when she got so sleep deprived? Her clumsiness then was Applejack I when she let herself simply daydream...Huh? What song was I humming? Nothing...

That old mage I mentioned? Applejack The First proved her courage that day and was involved in the origin of that line of gem ponies.

And of course there was a Spike. This wasn't Spike the First of course, nor your Spike Twilight. This was Spike the Fifth. The Grandfather of the Spike you know. He had just hatched and begun to learn about the world at that time.

Spike The Forth, the one from the third age, who had lived for four or five thousand years in the original timeline (and thus why he once said he wouldn't consider himself old unless he was a million), had died of old age at around a twelve hundred and two years old a while before. It seems Rota Fortuna has declared the name 'Spike The Dragon' will live forever but never shall the different namesakes meet.

Yes, yes Twilight, you're very right. I suppose all these details aren't THAT important to the events that transpired between myself, Luna, Aunt Galaxia as we'd come to call her, and Discord. But Twilight. I grew up around these ponies. As the world slowly repaired itself from my mistake, I was able to bask in the best of both worlds for that one, and only time.

I want you to just remember them. That's all. If you were telling ponies fifty years from now about the events of Discord's second reign, would you leave out any of your friends? I thought not.

Discord didn't understand why the Flutterponies were terrified of him, the Flutterponies didn't understand why they were terrified of him. Let alone what it was about the Rainbow of Light that made him sick.

You know it's funny Twilight. I've seen Discord roar with laughter at seeing others suffer at his antics, at his pure self-satisfaction seeing ponies break themselves in half from, his manipulations. With Shady was the only time I've ever seen him so completely happy.

Those ponies Twilight, Shady was shocked at the sight of what she had given birth to ... but none of them once judged him for it. And the way he smiled. It was the only time I think he ever smiled that wasn't at another's expense.

He thought messes pretty, he was still chaos incarnate after all, but he never once enjoyed seeing other living things hurt. Firefly also saved him from a close encounter with a cockatrice.

His magic was impossible, even when he was still sucking on his own tail. He didn't have a clue how his own magic worked. Most of the time all he had to do was wish for something really really hard and it would somehow happen.

I actually kept one of his crayon drawings until it was destroyed during Nightmare Moon's first public assault against me.

And Shady, oh Shady, how he made her happy! It was almost alien how just by existing he was able to give her happiness. Just by needing her, just by loving her, it was a wonder to behold. He made Shady smile.

Then the nightmares started. He'd wake up in the night screaming and she'd come for him and comfort her child. She'd sooth him back to sleep. But the next night the nightmares would come again. And again. In a tireless march.

There would always be a giant horned snake trying to eat him and this awful laugh, taunting him.

He began to know things he knew he had no business knowing, he began keeping it to himself except his mother. He'd stick close to her for dear life, the only thing in creation that could make the nightmares go away.

But even the fortress of her presence wasn't a match for this growing tide. I hope there is a world where she was.

Mimic found out she was with foal as well.

A couple of of the ponies wondered if this was some sort of alien invasion. The rest thought that couple watched too many sci-fi movies. For the record Twilight they had no idea the Flories were originally not from their world. But the detractors still had no clue where these unknown pregnancies had come from.

It didn't help that a mysterious old mare showed up at the Estate wishing to become a live in housekeeper around the same time as Mimic realized her pregnancy. The old mare had a galaxy swirl for a cutie mark.

No, she never once tried to harm Discord in his sleep. She couldn't. No Twilight there was no barrier, no invisible guardians, she simply could not. Maybe she was hoping this Discord when shown a mother's love would have a change of heart. Or she just couldn't harm another mare's foal.

Galaxy and Wind Whistler began to wonder how Discord's magic seemed to have no true limit, and how while Shady kept him in check, and had shown no real desire to lord it over others ... that amount of magic in the hands of a child scared them. They had only seen this amount of sheer power in one of their friends, and countless power-mad megalomaniacs.

Posey loved the flowers Discord made for her garden. AJ and Surprise thought his games were a riot. Firefly thought Galaxy and Wind Whistler were being stupid, thinking a child could be dangerous.

Mimic felt a -need- to stay away from him, and Discord felt a gut instinct to stay clear of her. Twilight wished she knew the answer, but her wishes didn't answer her. Unlike Sky Wishes, Twilight The First's wishes could not alter fate.

Spike thought there was something very creepy about that kid.

Galaxia (though she functioned under the alias Star-Reacher) was strangely cold around him: that, I can't say didn't hurt him.

Mimic's surprise pregnancy went much easier for her. But she found her magic was reduced to almost nothing during that time, even her family's enchanted starlight forged horsehoes were just pieces of metal. All her magic was being directed to the developing life inside her. This concerned her. This made Firefly fear what might be growing inside her. Wind Whistle however encouraged a wait and see attitude.

Like Shady, Mimic was driven by a base need to be as far away from others as possible as she began to deliver. This time however, Twilight and Wind Whistle followed her.

The amount of magical energy released as Mimic contracted gave Twilight a horrid headache. I would be lying if I said I don't think Twilight The First assimilated a small fraction of the power Mimic's wild magic was throwing off.

And Mimic gave birth. A white earth pony with the wings of a pegasus and the horn of a unicorn, her eyes closed, her mane bright pink and her coat snow white. That wasn't supposed to happen. Then it turned out she was carrying twins. This time out came a light blue filly who was the same mix of species as her sister. Their eyes opened at the same time.

Twilight and Wind Whistler were shocked to their bones when a sun symbol appeared on the white one and a moon symbol appeared on the blue one.

So yes Twilight Sparkle, myself and my sister gained our cutie marks within minutes of being born, and no one will ever break that record, which I'd say I'm rather proud of.

Mimic's magic, which was also her life force, was so drained she spent a good deal of time being carried from place to place.

She recovered before we grew the wits to feel guilty about it.

It was Star-Reacher who suggested the names 'Luna' and 'Celestia' to Mimic, she accepted them readily.

After Discord first saw myself and Luna, he finally spent a night without the nightmares, and the night after that, and the night after that.

Did I ever think Discord was freaky looking? I grew up around him, he was treated as normal by the mares around me, none told me he was unnatural, how could I find him freaky? This held true before the big bang, and it held true at Paradise Estate.

We didn't have a clue what any of us were. In another day and age I'd have been freaked out by my own appearance.

Little Lulu was scared how night crawlers, owls, moths, and bats kept gathering outside our room at night, and how they seemed to circle around her every time she went outside after dusk. She didn't know they were simply overjoyed to be with their queen of the night in person.

Luna had a 'normal' sleep cycle at first, but she kept getting sleepy during the day and became more active at night. This gave Mimic no shortage of sleepless nights, she once told me she had to resist the temptation to put a muzzle on Luna to shut off the noise. Thankfully Star-Reacher was able to act as a nurse maid.

Sunbirds, butterflies, even flowers seemed to be gravitate towards me whenever I went outside. Luna wondered how I got all the pretty things and she got all the nasty things.

Wind Whistle, when she thought she thought we weren't listening, wondered if Luna represented evil, I good, and Discord neutrality.

The last living thing that they had met that was aligned with darkness had tried to turn them all into monsters and erase the day. And the Rainbow of Light hadn't left a repentant little centaur among the ashes.

Luna brawled her eyes out that night and Mimic gave Wind Whistle a good tongue lashing for it.

Discord made so many funny faces that night to make Lulu laugh again.

I can't say Discord was that awful a 'big brother.' We got back at him for his practical jokes enough times. And he never stopped trying to find ways to make his little shadow of a mother smile.

Twilight would take Luna star gazing. But all the gazing Luna would do was at the moon. Constantly, endlessly. Even Twilight began to find it rather strange. Mimic stopped me from gazing at the sun several times least I damage my vision. But I never did.

Playing dress up didn't grow old for a good while. Our little fashion shows were a riot. Looking back on them I can see they were childish and inane, but at the time they genuinely delighted us. I only wish we had taken a picture of when we crammed Discord in a cheer leader costume in revenge for the Bo Peep and her sheep costumes.

Firefly was stunned at how fast myself and my sister picked up on her flying lessons. And Galaxy and Wind Whistler said the two of us absorbed knowledge like a dry sponge.

Our progress actually managed to encourage Discord to stop goofing off and began to take his own studies seriously. He finally learned how to flying when he saw us doing it (he had had several painful false starts).

And Mimic, our mother, taught us magic, as much as she could, her magic had been nearly a natural talent or augmented by her artifacts, but she saw how eager we were to learn. She wondered where our boundless energy came from.

For a couple of decades, that's how life was. Discord continued to refine his magic, Luna and I continued to grow in power and majesty.

Luna finally began to appreciate the devotion the night creatures were showing her, it finally hitting her that they didn't mean her any harm and in fact loved her.

Heh, Luna was always the better artist, I was still doing stick figures when she had moved onto complex pictures with stories and designs. Discord was quite good at what you would dub 'modern art.'

It was Posey who noticed first that the sunlight seemed to follow me wherever I went, the way it encouraged her garden to grow was impossible for a pony like her to miss.

Discord was confused when some monsters began to actually bow to him, but then he realized how cool it was. He had created many of them with me or his sister after all.

The ponies weren't quite sure what to think, but considering they'd had a descent track record with converting their enemies to good, they weren't too suspicious. That's not to say they couldn't handle villains who was truly irredeemable, as Tirek, Squirk, Arabus, Grogar, and many others all can attest to, they just preferred redemption over destruction, as I'm sure you and your friends do.

"Mom! Look what I can do!" I shouted at Mimic one day as I practically flew into the kitchen, knocking over items. After a short scolding Mimic finally asked what I had come in for. "I can move the sun!"

Discord and Luna were stunned silent. I had been too at first. This renewed debate among the unicorn on exactly WHAT I was. They had been more in awe and overwhelmed then delighted and amazed like I had hoped they'd be.

That night after I had revealed the true extent of my power however, Discord's nightmares returned in full force, worse than ever. He had slept in Shady's bed for the first time in a decade.

Luna didn't know what she was doing until she did it. She desired to know what Discord was dreaming of, and as she slept, she saw his nightmares!

When she told me what she saw, I was totally confused.

She had seen Discord running with broken legs, flying with broken wings. All in one effort to get away from IT.

It was the equator long horned snake Discord had described to us all.

Luna was even more scared and confused by the landscape. Filled with broken and deformed bodies. The air was as cold as the north pole she described. Shadows with no ponies casting them moved about, glaring at Luna.

Luna tried to help him, but the shadows pounced upon her at one when she took just one step, covering her completely.

She saw images of Shady playing with Discord, each one a memory. Only for her to be brutally murdered over and over by a large Draconequus' shadow in front of the Discord she knew.

Luna wouldn't even describe the more horrid things she saw.

The Discord Luna and I knew was grabbed by a much larger Discord. Who simply grinned at him as the giant snake came closer. The snake open its jaws revealing an inferno. "Oh don't resist ourself! That's just silly! We're going to love it! You loved it so much before! And you will again in a second! You just need to remember how fun it is!"

As shade of His Parents loomed closer, tears came down the small Discord's face.

Luna had only rarely heard Discord swear, (like the time she taken us all out 'night camping' and we disturbed that nest of wasps) but the small Draconequi shouted at it as he came closer. "Go back to pony hell!"

Then It spoke. And Luna knew she had heard those voices before. Yes. She had heard two voices from it.

"Little One. You ARE THE GATES OF HELL!"

And it devoured both Discords in one bite.

The next morning, Luna rushed to find Discord. And that was the first time Luna was scared of him. He was totally calm, more than he had ever been, the look in his eyes, it was the look you saw on mad ponies.

Even Shady felt something terribly wrong had happened to her son. But he only told her that everything was finally as it should be. That made her more scared. Made me more scared...

Luna went off to find mother and Star-Reacher. I followed Discord, but he teleported away. I spent a while looking for him until I thought to check the roof.

When I found him was looking into Surprise's eyes, and she couldn't look away even if she wanted to. She was transfixed like a mouse into the eyes of a snake. Hers looked like pulsing rings of different colors, as did his own.

"Aside from mom, you've always been my favorite Surprise. I love surprises. Always have. Surprises are magic. But it's not going to be funny around here for you anymore. Maybe you should go farm rocks or something for a while."

"It's not funny around here for me anymore. Maybe I should just go farm rocks for a while ..." Surprise repeated like it had been her own idea. And she flew away without a word.

Discord then turned his head and looked at me with a frown on his face. I didn't recognize him, it was like a stranger was wearing a Nightmare Night mask of him. Like something, like something was walking around in his dead body! I made a scaredy-pony yelp and teleported away.

"MOTHER!" I screamed teleporting right into her bedroom. But I found Luna and Star-Reacher instead.

"Sorry Celly," Luna said as she and my nanny pressed against me and teleported to the middle of a flat desert with the sun at high noon.

"LULU? Aunt Starry-!? What's going on?!"

"I'm sorry Celestia, I wish it didn't have to be like this. But I'm afraid playtime just ended." Star-Reacher sighed, and then her years melted away to an adult mare, and took on the wings and horns I had been so familiar with when I looked into the mirror.

"Star-Reacher you're . .. you're like me?" I asked.

"Yes she is," Lulu said, with a strange tone in her voice, more maturity and calm than I remember it ever having.

"Celestia. I'm sorry. I'm so very sorry. But there's something important I have to show you." She leaned down to touch my head with her horn. I panicked and teleported away. She teleported me back, and Lulu turned into blue and black snakes that wrapped their way around me. I struggled madly.

"I'm very sorry Celly, but this has to happen." Her voice rang out from them without the hiss you think a snake would have.

Galaxia touched my horn with hers. I felt memories emerging that I never knew I had. I resisted that memory spell. I pushed back at the memories I knew would hurt when I had them again. Then Lulu reassumed her true shape and helped Galaxia adding more punch to the spell. It gave me creation's worse headache. And still I resisted! I didn't want Discord not to be my friend. I didn't want to know any life but the one I was living.

I had always thought of myself as a winged unicorn. After all, my mother was a unicorn, so that made sense right? So you could say I have walked the path of all three surviving races.

As the truth of my existence crashed down on me, as reality of who and what I was returned, of who Galaxia was, of who Luna was, of what I HAD DONE, of what DISCORD HAD DONE ... I gave Galaxia the most hateful glare.

She lowered her head saying simply, "I'm sorry Celestia. But it had to be done."

"Discord," I hissed with such seething rage.

"From everything Luna's told me, and from what I saw, the Discord 'Celly' knew no longer exists. That part of his soul has undergone apoptosis ... he's gone."

I told them what he had done to Surprise.

"But why would he send her away instead of getting ride of her more permanently if she was a threat somehow?" Galaxia asked.

I sighed, "I don't think her being a threat had anything to do with it."

I didn't return to Paradise Estate all that eager, for what I'd find, not for who I'd find, or for what I'd have to do.

++++

"You know Wind Whistler, Pandora was the one who arranged for you, mother, and those two others to switch around your personalities. She figured it would give you some new perspective, mix things up, that you'd walk away with some good traits of both. Too bad you all never spoke of that incident again to any of your friends ever."

Wind Whistler hung upside down with bed cloths connected to a puppeteer's cross, dressed up like a clown.

Discord just hunched next to her, looking at her casually. Her wings were forcibly wrapped around her body. Pegasus and Draconequus were floating several feet in the air.

"DISCORD! STOP THIS! YOU'RE NOT MAKING ANY SENSE!"

"Oh what fun is there in making sense? Besides, admit it, as much as you detested Fizzy for being a scattered brained goof-off, you LIKED being the fool for once! Not having to put up with the heavy burden of being the smart one among your childish companions. It's hard to be the smart one isn't it? And Fizzy I'd said liked seeing the world clearly. And mother, heh, oh mother, I know you loved being decisive and bold instead of having your self doubt eat you alive every moment."

"DISCORD! I ORDER YOU TO STOP!" Shady shouted, she was sitting on a comfy couch in the air with coco and a manticore waving a fan over her several yard away.

"Order? ORDER-?! What good is ORDER?! Restrictions and limits built in to prevent anything from experiencing true freedom. And in the end, sanity is but a BURDEN! You can believe me, I've been this way for EONS!" He grabbed Wind Whistler's head. "Foot loose and fancy free with you!"

Wind Whistler's eyes swirled for a moment. Then she burst out laughing, the restraints on her wings and her fell away and she flew around like a drunk bumble bee. "So wonderful to be somebody else! Someone other than me!" She sang.

"And now for you mother!" Discord floated in front of her, not even using his wings to fly.

"Discord ... stop. Listen to your mother."

"Hmmmmm. Naw. I don't think you want me to. Not really mother dearest. I'd say you LIKE being this way don't you? Admit it. This self here? It's the you that makes you happy. No cowardice, no doubts, no just doing whatever anypony tells you except to believe in yourself. Oh mother."

Shady growled at him. "You are being horrid and cruel and I am going to give you such a spanking!"

At this point, we finally managed to smash through the dome of chaos magic he had erected while we were gone.

I flew down and touched a pony shaped tree with a flowers cutie mark pattern on one side. Thankfully Discord has always been LAZY and nearly always used permanent magic rather than instantaneous magic.

Yes, Twilight, you're right, had he used instantaneous magic, I'd have had to turn a tree into a pony rather than Posey back into one, a much harder task. Very good, my faithful student.

Posey shook her head dizzy. "I don't think I want to be a tree anymore."

"GET DOWN HERE AND FACE ME YOU LITTLE BRAT!" Shouted Firefly, it took me a moment to realize she no longer had her wings. I quickly recreated them for her. "Thanks! Celestia? What's going on! Discord's gone crazy!"

"I know." I sighed. As I did damage control, Luna and Galaxia came for Discord.

Yes. Looking back on it I think I was finding an excuse for not fighting him again.

"Where are the others?" I asked.

"Twilight grabbed Applejack and wished they were safe and teleported away. The others I think are still in the house!" Posey pointed a shaking hoof.

I looked at the household. And saw through the windows that the inside now resembled a mess of impossible staircases, with the others, Spike included, trying to find an exit with many of them running on the walls or upside down.

We had no idea how more powerful Discord had become. None at all. As a innocent child he had no idea the true (non-existent) limits of his magic. Now he knew how to use his magic to its true potential. After devouring Havoc's avatar and Destruction, I feared he very well might have been the fifth most powerful being in creation!

Luna and Galaxia weren't prepared in the least. The shockwaves of air he hit them both with sent them tumbling back, onto for the giant rocks that appeared behind them to break them rather than their fall.

Discord knew there was only one reason Lulu would attack him anyone asking questions, or why Galaxia would be in her true form.

"So Lulu, what's it feel like to have a happy childhood stolen from you with just one spell? I bet you really appreciate nana for that."

"SHUT! UP!" Luna snarled as bolts of black lightning came at Discord from every direction, a simple barrier took care of that, and he redirected the shock right back at Galaxia!

"Oh! Look what your spell did! You must not like Galaxia all that much for forcing all those awful memories back on you!"

"Shut-up-shut-up-shut-up!!!" Luna snapped and made a blind horn first dive at Discord.

"TORO!" Discord waved a matador cape in Luna's face, blinding her from the giant anvil she flew straight into.

A dozen tiny stars formed around Discord, and then shot through him from every direction at the same time a bubble form around his head, cutting off his voice and his air.

"It's time for you to take a very, very, very long nap Discord." Galaxia said.

Discord mutely hissed and snarled as he was turning blue in the face.

Then he teleported, the bubble around his head teleported with him. But he had teleported right in front of Galaxia. He then smashed it against Galaxia's horn, he got an eye poked out, but he erased that damage quickly enough.

"But I don't feel tired."

Galaxia's eyes gleamed like her armor. "That's what you always say."

At that point. It degenerated into pure madness.

I was trying to help those trapped inside the impossible pocket reality Discord had turned the household's insides into. They were trying to get out. I called for my mother. Mimic. She called back. She told me to run away. I didn't listen.

Luna and Galaxia madly tried to do in Discord. There was no end to his new bag of tricks. Firefly OF COURSE tried to help, there was no way she wouldn't. However, Luna ended up having to protect her from Discord, it was the worst moment in Firefly's life.

Finally Galaxy did the impossible and found her way out of a maze that wasn't supposed to have an exit with Mimic's help, with the Rainbow of Light around Spike's neck.

And we retreated. After all, from their point of view, Discord was a member of their family who had spontaneous ceased to be the one they knew. But when we teleported away, his magic prevented us from taking Shady with us.

"Lemme go! We gotta go back for her! Surprise is still there too!" Firefly shouted as we held her down from throwing her life away.

"Surprise isn't there anymore," I whispered.

We tried to find Surprise. But she or Discord had apparently gone to extra lengths to make sure she wasn't found.

Twilight and Applejack found us. They only said that Surprise was safe. They wouldn't talk more about it.

"If Masquerade was here she's say that that Discord had to be an impostor, and I'd agree with her," Posey said.

"I'm afraid the Dissey we've known is the impostor," Luna told her.

It took a long time to bring the keepers of the Rainbow of Light up to speed on the truth of things. In that time Discord began his thousand years of chaos. One. Thousand. Years. Twilight Sparkle. You saw how broken Ponyville and its ponies were from just a day under Discord. How insane his kingdom grew in one day . Now multiply that by three-hundred-and-sixty-five-thousand. Now you know why no real traces other than Spike remain of the Ages that have come before this one.

Ponies had no idea what they were up against. They had no defenses against Discord's overwhelming power. Even after all the monsters they'd faced, the villains they conquered, Discord's sheer overwhelming power and insanity dwarfed even the worst of them.

But at the time, what scared me the most, was that Mimic wouldn't love me anymore as her daughter now that she knew the truth.

In response she hugged me and said, "Celly, I'll always love you. Both of you."

Turns out Luna had feared that as well.

All things considered, it did takes us a while to find the resolve to put down somepony who for all intents and purposes had been one of our own. It reminded me of when we saw how limitless Morning Star's greed and hubris really was.

In the meantime, Discord made his mark on the world.

He broke the weather system so utterly that the pegasi were the only reason it could still function at all. The very turning of the world he slowed down just to see what would happen.

And Discord truly became utterly pointless and senseless in his actions, any logic or reason behind them faded into the ether. There was no grand game here, no script he expected his victims to follow. He was fully and completely random! The only real constant being he never ever stopped and loved watching his victims squirm!

Mountains turned upside down. Trees running wild with axes at ponies. Horns hopping off their owners' heads and zapping them with spells. Houses growing huge and castle laying sideways. Random colored lightning clouds, AND ALWAYS with the exploding chocolate milk! Was he denied it as a child?

Sorry Twilight, but that time truly was horrid, and it only got worse by the day. And we extended it by debating among ourselves if there was anything in Discord to reach.

Shady lived the life of a caged bird.

You're surprised she didn't make it into the history books? On one point, I didn't want her memory tainted by that monster. Second, tyrants throughout history have had loved ones and those they hold dear, who have been swept under the rug by historians so they could look at that monster and say 'he was never one of us, so we don't need to think one of us could be that awful.' Discord had turned insane through and through, and if he loved anypony anymore it was himself. The mere IDEA something as purely evil as Discord could HAVE a pony as a mother was a dissonance none could accept.

The pregnant mothers after one day of his rules feared what he had done to their foals, can you imagine how many fold their fear would've increased had everypony known he'd had a pony mother?

The disaster that had brought about the end of the Second Age exterminated many of the other species who had inhabited this world. Discord finished them off. Including any humans who might have survived up this point. The minotaurs were to humans what the griffons were to ponies. And Discorded pretended to be the minotaur's benefactor just long enough until the minotaurs realized they were in the same boat as their former human prey. He kept the hoofed species around simply because 'they were his favorite.'

We helped those we could. Often Discord made us just run.

Finally we found the resolve. How?

When Discord began his reign. There were still five tribes in Equestria.

Then Discord began his 'butterfly collection.'

Posey actually vomited at the sight. Yes he publicly displayed them. He acted totally confused as to why the ponies cried out in disgust, anger, and horror at his ever growing 'collection.' They told him why, and he only got more 'creative.'

When it all ended Twilight, only one flutterpony, one 'Breezie', remained: Rosedust, their queen. Do you have any idea what it's like for a leader to watch those who she's supposed to be guiding, protecting, those who she's the one they turned to in confusion, to be picked off one by one and displayed like trophies?

Of all the cruel things Discord has done, this was his most vicious: he made her live forever. To make sure she never reunited with her subjects in the spirit world.

We were able to finally remove her immortality five hundred years after his rule ended. She thanked us when she finally died of old age. And her kind became just a fairy tale.

And then there was the Seaponies, the 'Hippocampi.' Twilight, know no matter what myths you may have heard about them, they were never evil. Discord actually left them alone mostly. As long as they could produce new songs endlessly in tribute to him. They were the greatest song smiths Equestria had ever seen. But even they had limits, and one day, failed to meet their quota. Yes Discord, a spirit of chaos had a quota, that could change any time he felt like it, do you expect Discord to make sense?

Discord chose to turn their ocean into a desert to 'teach them lesson.' Then his card game ran long. Yes he made the deck out of ponies trapped in the cards, just another he amused himself.

We wanted to do something, but Discord's power was too much for even us to break the spell on the desert and return it back to an ocean. Galaxia saved some by turning them into Buffalo and Earth Ponies, but the vast majority, simply died.

Naturally the seaponies were horrified by this change almost as much as they were of seeing their beautiful ocean reduced to a desert. It was actually called the 'curse of the desert' by many of them afterwards.

The panic-fueled hastily constructed instantaneous spell proved impossible to undo without a live seapony as a model to base the transformation into one. And Discord made sure none of us could resurrect anypony except him. Yes Twilight Sparkle, Discord a this point had gained so much power he was actually able to effect the rules of magic!

The former seaponies fell into deeper despair. Some of their descendants still try, even unconsciously, to undo the 'curse of the desert' but the best most of them ever get is 'pruney hooves.' ... What's with that look on your face my faithful student?

When Discord finally got around to check out his new desert, we had resolved to finish this. We had all long agreed that our Discord would have never done any of this, and this Discord was not him.

During this time, 'Auntie' Galaxia actually found a young artist pony named Bluestar who she had actually fallen in love with and had given birth to a foal. That foal's line would one day ironically mix with ... that somepony else's story.

Twilight. Know this is only the events if THIS particular timeline, the past is, in fact, just as liquid as the future, the difference is that our choices can only effect the future. I'm going to be honest, there are so many days I wish I lived in a timeline where the Discord that I'd grown up with had won out...

We came at Discord with everything we had. Discord never expects chaos to be used against him. Ever. He believes in it too much.

So when Galaxy the unicorn suggested we, the Alicorns, temporally reverse the ponies' personas for the assault against Discord ... it worked.

But we didn't expect Discord's one true subordinate to be there. "None of you will touch my son."

We barely recognized her. She initially wore a brown clasped hooded cape before removing it. Her eyes looked age before their time. The colors of her sunglasses cutie mark were inverted.

Magical constructed batwings that looked like black purple-trimmed cut out in reality adorned her back. On her forehead was a sleek curved horn made of the same material. She willed a scythe made of the same nothingness into being besides her.

It was like she had been hollowed out inside.

Luna fought her alone first saying, "I am the one and only night."

The battle between them was, frightening, that's the only way to put it Twilight it was frightening.

Luna taking countless shapes and forms of creatures of the night, using every spell she knew. She created illusions, summoned up monster of the dark that owed them her loyalty, turning herself into a rain cloud of spikes. That was the one time I've seen her use magic Discord taught her.

Shady used the gifts her son had given her, creating portals that shot out spiked iron pillars with steel spikes. Her wings and horn were so cold they burned and passed through matter like ghosts. She created black blades forged out of despair itself that flew at Luna.
She was implacable.

Twilight The First used a spell she had just developed, in honor of the flutter ponies, so we could all fight Discord while he was air-born. Yes Twilight Sparkle, that spell.

The rest of us turned the tables on Discord. The unicorns used every magic TRICK they knew to get under Discord's all powerful skin. Discord at his core has been and will always be a spoiled child and a bully. And they were now playing quick magical pranks on HIM. The worst thing you can do to a practical joker. Heh. Other than PROMISE to do a practical joke on them and then leave them alone until they destroy themselves with paranoia of course.

Spike resorted to good old fashioned dragon flames and claws. Being reduced to hand to hand was something Discord found rather demeaning, not to mention something he was truly unskilled at. After all, with his amount of power, why should he learn to fight with his bare hands?

I chose to switch opponents and help Luna fight the pseudo-nightmare Shady. Mimic only told me to be careful.

And with a completely distracted Discord, Galaxia with Mimic and Galaxy and Twilight's wish magic, brought the Rainbow of Light to its full power, greater than it had ever been, and blasted him fully with it.

The others broke off their attack at the last possible second. "Ha! Finally running scared?!"

Discord was completely taken off guard, unlike Strife he had no chance to deflect anything. He didn't even have a chance to teleport away by the time he noticed his doom was upon him.

With a look of surprise and alarm on his face his body turned completely to stone, in seconds. His statue fell and hit the sandy ground below with a thud kicking up a sandstorm.

The Rainbow Of Light's shockwave also returned the ponies' personas to their upright position.

Shady stopped attacking us at once. She floated down to the ground, attachments and despair constructs flicked out of existence. She stared at the sight of her son. The others went to her, she was in a state of shock.

We both hoped and feared that the desert around us would begin to turn back into an ocean. But the Rainbow of Light was not as fast acting on healing secondary effects as the Elements even if took much less to awaken it.

"Shady! Shady can you hear us?!" Twilight begged.

"Come on Shady he's gone now! Everything's fine!" Firefly said.

"It's okay Shady, we're right here with you!" Posey repeated over and over.

"Come on please," Applejack whispered.

Mimic, being a mother, Galaxy with her magical common sense, and Spike, who have never been the oblivious types, all looked at each other.

"Shady he wasn't your son anymore," Mimic said.

"He's just been laid to rest." Galaxy added.

"Shady your son's been gone for a long time, we merely vanquished something that had his face," Wind Whistle said.

"And who knows? Maybe we can fix him." Spike dared say, "After all, he wasn't zapped to nothing like Tirek."

Then Galaxia did something that every living thing in Equestria would regret for all eternity.

She shattered Discord's statue. She utterly and completely BROKE IT! She smashed it to bits!

And that was a mistake that cost all of us, all of Equestria.

"OH YEAH! HERE I COME BABY! HOPE YOU'RE ALL READY TO FRY! LET'S DO THIS!"

Discord is a SPIRIT my faithful student! And there is exactly one way to always free a spirit!

Destroy the body.

She thought Discord's spirit would be banished back to the ether. That he'd be dead. It didn't happen.

Discord's spirit rose from the broken remains of his statue. I had never seen him grin so wide in his life. "THANK YOU SO MUCH! I HAD AN ITCH I JUST COULDN'T REACH!"

Galaxia let out the longest, more anguish filled 'No!', I have ever heard in my life. It's lot less cliche when it's someone you know Twilight Sparkle.

"Thank you!" He stretched his non-existent muscles. "Dad's little safety measure doesn't trigger if I off myself. Get booted straight back home! His way of making sure we weren't trapped in some eternal suffering with no way out."

"No," I whispered, I actually FELT my eyes become pin pricks.

"Now where were we? But I prefer the HANDS-ON approach! And I got no body to love! Ha ha! I'd kill me if you just hadn't! Now who wants me to move in with them?"

Shady took several trots forward.

"Sorry mother. That would be JUST too weird! Ahem. It's YOUR lucky day!"

The pony he pointed to was Galaxy. His spirit dove towards her. She tried to run, you can't outrun a spirit. Wind Whistler meanwhile thought about what her friends meant to her, and dove towards the spirit.

No Twilight, I will not tell you whether Wind Whistler succeeded in becoming Discord's host body or if she failed to save Galaxy from that fate. I won't have her memory tainted by association with Discord.

Only know, that she screamed, then laughed. She sneered at me triumphantly, and Discord said, in HER voice, "I told you, you hadn't seen anything yet Celestia!"

And Discord twisted her body before us to match his old one. You've seen it.

Episode 55: "Origins Celestia Part 6"

My Little pony Friendship Is Magic
Pony POV Series Origins Part 6 Final Part
Princess Celestia
Optional-Canon

"Teacher, er, Princess Celestia. Your friend. Her spirit. Did it, did it stay in her body? Or did Discord force her out?" Twilight asked, her eyes quivering.

"Was she dead or is she a prisoner in her own body?" I repeated. "I can not tell you Twilight Sparkle. Because I don't know. Discord's spirit is a maelstrom of confusion and nonsense, I couldn't tell. I couldn't find her in there in a thousand years of searching. On the one hoof it meant if we had been able to force Discord out of her, she'd have been dead. On the other it means for two thousand years she's been Discord's prisoner. And Discord found it more fun to keep me guessing."

"I"m . . . I'm sure she was freed when you used the Element of Harmony on Discord! I'm sure she was!" Twilight declared as boldly as her transparent uncertainty would allow.

I made a small, wistful laugh. "If you believe so my student."

++++

We were all paralyzed. This was supposed to be the end. And from the looks of things, that was exactly what it was about to turn into for us!

Galaxia began to power up the Rainbow of Light again, but the hearts around her couldn't bring themselves to attack a friend of theirs possessed or not. Yes, yes, yes, Twilight I know! But when you are IN a situation like that Twilight you DO NOT think rationally! That the Rainbow of Light might have actually HELPED HER expel Discord from her body was not something we had time to rationally and logically think about! We hadn't been thinking rationally since Discord's spirit returned. If we'd been thinking rationally, we'd have blasted his spirit point blank with the Rainbow Of Light before he could possess anyone, but we weren't!

Galaxia grabbed Discord and teleported them both high above us. I think she was hoping that with Discord in an unfamiliar body with a spirit that may or may not have been fighting him at the time, she was hoping she could finish him off without the rest of us having blood on our hands. Yes it meant Discord would have just taken another body. She was hoping to leave him helpless enough I think for us to use the Rainbow again on the part that mattered, I hope.

And Discord SANG!

I must admit,
Your parlor trick was amusing
I bet you've got a bunny
Under your hat!

A giant top hat appeared above her and out fell an equally giant rabbit with Discord's eyes.

Now here's your chance
To get the best of me,
Hope your hand is hot!

Discord showed a playing card hand showing Shady, his host, Destruction, his father, and Galaxia!

C'mon, nana,
Let's see what you've got!

Galaxia dispelled the rabbit construct.

A tiny star appeared in Discord's nostril, that then went nova. Several cannons shaped like the heads of Spike's ancestors appeared around her and fired cannon balls with perfectly orderly black and white patterns on them that hit him hard.

You try to slam me
With your brightest stuff

The smoke cleared and Discord dusted himself off. He teleported above her.

But your double whammy
Isn't up to snuff

He hit her over the head with a giant hourglass. It shattered. She fell, her appearance now elderly and decrepit.

I'll set the record straight
You're simply out of date
You're only second rate!

She recovered, reformatting her body, and changed into a dragon and flew at him again. She let out a deafening roar as she spewed white hot flames.

You think your cat's a meanine,
But your tiger's tinny

She flew through a ring Discord created right in front of her and was suddenly a new born foal.

You've got a lot to learn
About the spirit game!

The sky above us turned into an arcade fighting game which Discord then unleashed a million plus combo on her still foal form that lasted long after her life bar had hit zero.

GAME OVER!
DISCORD! WINS!
COOLNESS BONUS: 999,999,999
RADICALNESS BONUS: 999,999,999
AWESOMENESS BONUS: 999,999,999
Final Score: Discord Rules

So for your information,
I'll reiterate
You're only second rate!

Galaxia willed herself back into her prime form, and Discord grew to the size of a building holding Galaxia in his palm of his bird's claw.

Ponies cower, at the power
In my pinky!

Discord's grinning face came into existence on his smallest claw, grinning madly at her. Galaxia blasted it to bit then blasted Discord who was now a giant target with enough force to send him through the moon to Mars. It all turned to sand and fell except his thumb that formed into the real Discord.

My thumb is number one
On-every-list!

He painted a target on his chest.

But if you're not convinced
That I'm invincible,
Put me to the test!

A coffin appeared around Galaxia.

I'd love to lay our rivalry to rest!

The coffin exploded. Mirrors appeared around Discord at every angle, Galaxia summoned points of light that fired lasers at every other angle that reflected off the mirrors. They tore Discord's body to swiss chess. Then in a congo line of attacks the twelve constellations of the eastern zodiac came along and struck him down. Then the thirdteenth Cat constellation then clawed him up for good measure. A black hole appeared at Discord's center and pulled him inside, imploding him.

Go ahead and zap me
With the big surprise
Snap me in a trap,
Cut me down to size

Then a truck in the air zoomed by with the words 'Edge Of Oblivion Deliveries' on the side, tossed out a package and zoomed along, and out of came a cake. Then Discord popped out of the top wearing a bikini.

I'll make a big escape
It's just a piece of cake
You're only second rate!

Galaxia could only have time to gasp and realize she had bitten off more than she could chew trying to face Discord alone. I think in her mind she was still that child draconequus who was always never a match for a fully empowered senior Alicorn.

But this wasn't that Discord. Not anymore.

You know, your hocus-pocus
Isn't tough enough
And your mumbo-jumbo
Doesn't measure up
Let me pontificate
Upon your sorry state
You've always been second rate!

Galaxia did the smartest thing he could at that point and retreated. But Discord had no intention of letting her. He teleported around her, replicas of himself all around, and before you ask: each one was the real Discord.

So show me your tremendous despair!

He zapped her. And to her confusion and shock found herself wearing lingerie.

You look wondrous in underwear!

Buzzsaws zoomed by and cut off her wings and legs.

And I can hardly wait
To discombobulate
Time ta send ya back and be sure to tell
to it to Fauna Luster straight!

Before she could heal he rammed his claw through her throat out the other side. He held up his paw where a sphere of red energy formed. He grinned so wide it was a wonder the top half of his face didn't fall off. The centers of his eyes pulsed different sizes.

You'd make a better spirit
of spinning plates!

And he let out a burst of energy that annihilated her form to ashes, then atoms, then nothing, dispersing her spiritual essence all the way back to the heart of creation and sending her directly back to Mother.

Discord spread out his arms in dramatic fashion shouting at the sky eyes closed. You were only second rate!

Discord, because it was more funny to him, left her armor completely untouched. Her armor? It was golden. And it had a purple gem in the chest piece and in the crown. ... Yes, it does fit me rather well doesn't it?

By this point. We were all scared to pieces. He floated down some. Discord wiggled his rear in front of us. "Oh yeah! Whose a bad ass? Whose a bad ass?"

Twilight, I cannot describe how that moment felt...the only other member of my kind outside myself and my sister I was sure wasn't gone...The one who'd cared for us in our exile here...And in an instant, she was gone...And her murderer was rubbing it in our faces that he'd done the deed...

He snapped his fingers and we were all wearing 'Discord Is Cool' T-shirts. We tore them off in disgust only to find a 'Discord Is Awesome' T-shirt underneath, then 'Discord Is Radical' and 'Discord is 20% Cooler Than You.' Finally I just burned them off.

Discord laughed at us.

"And what is THIS pretty pretty trinket?" Discord held the Rainbow of Light on its chain in his claw.

We had all already gone past shocked.

"What have we here? The one object containing the one breed of magic on this entire planet that can harm me."

Discord crushed it in his claw.

No shockwave, no explosion, it simply broke apart in his grip like it was chalk. The cracking noise was barely audible.

Seven broken pieces of light fell from his grasp. Each one a color of the rainbow.

Discord made wide dramatic gestures. "Now I shall spread them across the land! And you'll have to go on difficult, dangerous quests that'll strength your bonds and you'll meet new allies along the way and become a united whole who shall topple my fun! Reuniting it into an even MORE powerful form! Or I can just do THIS!"

And he vaporized the orange fragment, no, not vaporized, he ANNIHILATED IT! Return it to its base component mana!

At this point, we were all convinced we were having a nightmare. This couldn't have been real.

"Looks like you won't be redeeming seven magic fragments for a happy ending after all!"

Then he reversed time and made us relive that moment again.

"OR I COULD JUST DO THIS!"

Destroyed forever. The rainbow of light never to be whole again.

"I'm sorry. You can't redeem these coupons for a happy ending! You're one short! You're going to have to settle for the grim ironic ending instead!"

And live it again.

Destroyed ones of the seven pieces forever so the others were just useless babbles, "Sorry, looks like you're never going to get a complete set! Maybe you can order a bootlegged version from China or something!"

He blew us a raspberry.

I had never known, such despair, as I did in that moment. Until the next moment.

"I'm sorry! Seventh MacGuffin not found! The game designers must have left it out! You know! That's the PROBLEM with magical items that are just pretty jewelry without all the pieces!"

And again.

Gone forever. "Hmmm. So much for getting the complete set and sending your rebates! You don't get to go to Disneyland! Ha ha! Don't worry! I have a fabulous runner up prize for you! Chaos Kingdom of Discord The Great And Really Great is wide open! All expenses paid, attendance mandatory!"

He giggled. He was grinning so wide. "Oh the LOOKS ON YOUR FACES! Absolutely priceless! Oh I have GOT to save this one!" He took a photograph.

He then picked up the remaining pieces and threw them in my face, the sharp edges leaving red lines along my features.

The Element of Trust had been destroyed. No. It had been completely erased. As good as never were as Troola-Roola and Star-Catcher were.

"There you go Celly! Don't say I never got you anything! Ta-ta!"

And he just teleported away. And Shady with him.

I broke down and cried. Then Luna cried too. Mimic hugged us, she cried too. Firefly let out a howl of loss and frustration so maddening it could barely have come from a pony. Applejack was catatonic. Posey babbled to herself in denial and confusion. Spike slowly shook his head looking to Galaxia's armor.

Twilight brawled. "I WISH THIS WAS A DREAM! I WISH THIS WAS A DREAM! I WISH THIS WAS A DREAM! I WISH I WISH I WISH, I WISH! "

Our surviving intellectual was also quite broken. She had never seen this coming.

Firefly rammed on top of Mimic, hooves pressing on her throat. They skidded across the sand. "YOU! HOW COULD YOU HAVE NOT KNOWN THIS WOULD HAPPEN? THIS IS A GAME TO YOU OR ARE YOU JUST LAZY-?!"

Our mother gasped out, "I-I-can't see into Discord's future! I couldn't know this would happen!"

"Then what good are you?! All those powers and you're completely-"

Luna and I puffed Firefly off her. In all timelines, in all eras, I had never seen Firefly act like that. Firefly's entire body shook,her breathing coming out in ragged gasps. "W-why?"

Mimic slowly pushed herself up. "I'm sorry."

Let me explain something to you Twilight Sparkle. Imagine if after all the times you've saved Equestria and the world, you were suddenly pushed to the sidelines, and the first time you tried to help you made things worse. After all the times you've pulled together and done the impossible, you sudden could only stand back and watch . Firefly had always been a risk taker, 'Danger is my life!' she said. And when Equestria needed help the most? After all the times she had help save ponies from being exterminated? She was simply out of her power-class. All her bravery, all her skill, speed, and wits, dust in the wind in the face of overwhelming power. Imagine Twilight Sparkle. Then you might have some inkling of what was in Firefly's heart. And Mimic, could hear every last one of Firefly's thoughts.

Then Discord teleported back to us.

I was as surprised as you are.

"Okay. I deposited mother back at her private castle. I'm sure her pet will make her happy again, what's its name? Oh yes, Queen Rosedust. You really did give her quite an awful shock! I mean! Killing her own son in front of her? What kind of heartless bastards are you? Oh well." He scratched his head. "I forget, did I want you to wander around in broken misery for the rest of your lives, or did I want to destroy you one by one as the others watched? Both are such fun choices!

"Oh well! I'll just take the middle road! Finish off one or two of you, then slam one of the pieces of rainbow colored rock into your heads for everyone to always see, and have a nice reminder that you can't do a thing! That's chaos for you! Thinking back on it, maybe I should have made Surprise my queen! I mean, Strife never regretted having kids." He cupped his paw/claw and shouted, "Hey Celly! I heard your Aunt/Sister just died! Heard it was really really horrible! How about you and I have some sympathy sex? You can be on top! I have this huge bed made out of pegasus feathers just DYING to be used! Come on! We haven't done it in forever!"

Mimic spoke in an almost ghoulish calm. "You float one inch towards my daughters I will kill you and seal your spirit into one of my horseshoes!"

"Lady! You're crazy! I just kicked the butt of one of your in-laws! You can't hurt me! You don't stand a chance against me! . . . GO FOR IT! COME ON! BABY! SHOW ME WHATCHA GOT! COME HERE! COME HERE! HAHAHAH!"

"Celly, Luna," Mimic whispered, "Get as far away from here as possible. Take the others, find somewhere safe, and just go. Take the pieces of the Rainbow with you. There has to be something you can do."

"Mom. That's suicide."

"You have to go. This could be your only chance. You and Luna together need a way to beat him. I'm the one most likely to keep him distracted."

"LET ME!" Firefly shouted.

"NO!" Everypony shouted at her.

Discord floated above listening in with a megaphone and munching popcorn.

"Mother I can't let you-" Lulu began.

"Celestia. Luna. It's an order. Take the others. Keep them safe. And come back as soon as you can help."

Discord put on some boxing gloves and KO'ed his own shadow for practice.

"Mother you're throwing your life away!" Luna cried.

"Mom you don't have to do this!"

" ... You're wrong. I do. I have the gift of foresight remember? I can't see Discord's future. But I can see yours. And it'll end if you stay to help me or if we all try to flee together. Just go."

And for the second time in our lives, Luna and I were forced to run away as someone we loved faced against an impossible enemy. Though Cadence ... sorry. I don't like thinking about it.

Luna and I teleported the others away from the great desert along with Galaxia's armor, and the six surviving pieces of the Rainbow of Light, now just dead pieces of magic.

Discord was still...well, Discord. The same psychopathic drama queen you saw moments before you defeated him.
He summoned a microphone, the kind that lower down from the ceiling at a boxing match. "Come one! Come all! Watch one pathetic little pony take on the Great and Really Great Discord! It's gonna be a short match folks!"

Mimic then said, "One more thing Discord. I think I should tell you. You know the rainbow that connects this world with the world of humans?"

"Oh yes. Lovely place. I intend to visit there after I'm bored with this dump."

"Don't pack your bags. Megan on her side, and Celestia on our side shattered it. You'll never torture another human again."

Discord's jaw dropped. "You ...you ... you ... " Discord then spoke in a frozen tone that reminded me of his spiritual mother. "You'll regret that."

She fought through storms of ice, lightning, sand, molten magma, exploding mailboxes. Discord's anger keeping him from thinking strategically.

She spun through tornados, she pierced wall of blackness and iron spikes. She copied and sent his own spells right back at him!

Discord was beside himself with anger. And when he was angry, he couldn't be as creative with his magic as he'd like to be. He was almost a wild beast. Or he might have just snapped his fingers and turned her into a Diamond Dog and placed her head inside a vice.

Discord was VERY confused when it seemed Mimic's horseshoes left marks he couldn't just erase from existence. 'What the pony hell did her ancestor REALLY make those out of-?!'

Discord in one swift motion grasped her horn and broke it in two. Not even pausing she struck him with enough lightning to overload Manehatten. She began feeding on her own life-force to power her magic, the final trick of her line.

But Discord was still nearly indestructible. If you had taken a sword to his neck Twilight it would have likely just broken the sword.

Then came when he grabbed her with both his forelimbs and held her to his face. "You lose little pony!"

She smirked and using the power of high speed flight granted by one of her ancestor's horse shoe, hammered Discord in the face. A thousand time, at the speed of sound, in a matter of seconds. The horse shoe broke, as did her leg, that horse shoe fell by fate into a tiny oasis below, where its power of clairvoyance slowly melded with it, and would one day become the Gate of Truth on this world. Or simply returned to its true form. Even I don't know all the true details.

I remember seeing the image of her bleeding, smirking at him. And Discord utterly and completely confused when he found a fang missing. He shrugged and wiped a finger across it to undo the damage. His fang was still broken.

He couldn't erase her breaking it. I couldn't believe it. Even if Discord had still been a normal Draconequus, that would've been an impossible feat. Mother hadn't forgotten Discord's earlier words.

"Who can't hurt who now?"

And the anger he had shown her before, wasn't a shadow of the hate he felt in that instant. She'd done the one thing no one, not even his own family had ever done before.

His mind no longer angry: it was frozen in perfect clarity by hatred. He turned her bones to glass, and rammed into the desert at the speed of a sonic rainboom. Then he did it again, and again, until she was bloody pulp, he kept doing so long after she was dead.

He made a sound of contempt and vaporized her body and scattered her ashes to the winds.

+++++

"Teacher," Twilight asked, "If you really did escape with the others, how did see all this? Another dream?"

"When we found the gateway to The Truth. That fight was the first thing it showed myself and Luna."

Twilight once more allowed herself to hug me. She moved back, slower this time, but stayed closer to me. "Your mother sounds like a great pony...I wish I could've met her."

I smile down to my faithful student, putting a hoof on her shoulder. "She was...You'll meet her someday... thank you, Twilight."

+++++

I took us to a castle that was an oasis in a crystal desert. It was in good condition. But long abandoned. It was where Galaxia had stored my mirror given by Entropy. It was small and did not have that many room, but it was nice to look at, and it was off Discord's radar. Now that the one thing in the world that could defeat him was useless, Discord believed he was invincible. While that meant his 'games' got rougher, it also meant he'd lost interest in us.

Myself, my sister, and our six companions were just so tired, just so broken, we did nothing for the next seven days but sleep and morn. Thankfully there was a magic garden with magically automated tools. One of the previous residents couldn't bear to think anyone taking care of her garden except to her specifications.

To celebrate his victory, Discord recreated his Poison Joke and Parasprites and spread them across the world, leaving them to their own devices. Discord told Queen Rosedust still in her cage how she had her royal subjects back showing her the locust like sprites devouring everything in their path. That the parasprites would mindlessly and happily hug her did not comfort her.

Then the world turned even blacker for me.

Firefly left with Posey in her care, saying she'd find a way to defeat Discord on her own, instead of all of us 'sitting on our flanks doing nothing.' We couldn't stop her.

Applejack left, saying she figured she'd go visit Surprise, see how she was doing on her rock garden. I think her bright soul just couldn't take it anymore. Our surviving intellectual went with her to 'make sure she doesn't do anything she won't be alive to regret.'

This left Spike and Twilight. They both had nowhere to go and nowhere to return to.

Finally Twilight had the nerve to ask the question, "Who lived here before?"

"The Six Princesses Of Ponyland." I told her.

"Well." She made a slight smile. "If we're living here now. That makes us Princesses now too right?"

We all stared at her. Then laughed and nodded.

"YES! It DOES make us all Princesses!"

"Hey!"

"And one Prince!"

"So what do you wish me of PRINCESS Celestia?" Twilight bowed.

"Do not give up hope PRINCESS Twilight."

"Then PRINCESS Luna shall not either." Lulu said simply.

We all grinned. We all laughed. It felt so good! You have no idea.

It took a long time to figure out what to do. We weren't even sure if we COULD do anything. It's easy to SAY you won't lose hope, Twilight, but its another thing to live it. After awhile of sitting in that lonely castle, I can't blame our little group's hope for running thin. We could only avoid discussing the true gravity of our situation for so long...eventually someone had to say it.

"Galaxia's gone...the Rainbow's gone...What can we do?" Spike asked as we sat, thinking over our seemingly impossible position.

Luna lowered her head. "Even Galaxia was powerless against Discord...I think the only the Elders could overpower him now, and they can't even enter this world..."

"We can't give up. And you promised you wouldn't, PRINCESS Luna," I said, looking sternly at them. "Mother died so we could escape, she had faith that we could find another way to stop Discord...She couldn't see his future, but she could see ours, she wouldn't have said that if we had no chance. And ... and I know, Our Parents, are looking out for us too."

"Yeah, we can't give up now!" agreed Twilight, looking at the group. "We didn't give up when Grogar kidnapped all us unicorns! We didn't give up when the Smooze destroyed Dream Castle and swallowed up the Rainbow Of Light! If we found a way then, we can find one now!"

"But that time the Rainbow of Light was just covered up, this time it's been destroyed..." Spike said glumly.

Twilight, there's something you need to know about ponies from the Twiligh the First's time. She was from an age that when things seemed down, when you needed to rise spirits, you did one thing...

"There's always another rainbow...search until you find it. she sang.

"Don't look at the cloud, look behind it.

There's a rainbow there somewhere.

There's always a ray of sunshine though it all seems tragic..." I assisted her by projecting a small beam of sunlight from my horn onto the wall. She went over and pulled Spike to his feet and placed him in its glow.

You may turn around and like magic

There's an answer to your prayer." I sang, trotting over to Luna.

"Now you feel forlorn, but hope can be reborn.

Try and lose the frown..."

"Look up, not down!" we sung, as I continued my light show, causing the spot of light on the wall to grow larger.

"And you'll find another rainbow..."

"I can guarantee it."

"Even though you think you've reached the rainbow's end..."

"There's always another rainbow...

Always another rainbow around the bend..." Twilight and I finished,Twilight using a wish to manipulate the light into a dazzling rainbow.

It was a few moments before anyone said anything. "...Well, we've got what's left of the Rainbow of Light, we might be able to fix it somehow..." Spike finally said.

"And if that doesn't work?" Luna asked, looking conflicted.

"We'll find another rainbow, just like the song says," I replied, giving my twin a nuzzle and getting her to smile.

And so we didn't lose hope...but that didn't make the road easier.

++++

"Eh, Princess."

"Yes Twilight?"

"It's just . . . I must confess. Her singing, wasn't, that strange compared to now. I know Pinkie is over the top with it but, even I sang at the Gala and Winter Wrap Up!"

I smiled and resisted the urge to clop my hooves at her observation. "You are completely and utterly correct my loyal and faithful student. No Age has passed where ponies did not like to sing. That is a constant I worship and praise My Parents for."

++++

With the Rainbow of Light gone Spike was slowly getting older. And Twilight was getting older by the decade.

Spike however found a wandering weather dragon who he chose to continue his line with. Twilight Sparkle, dragons among themselves do not think of these things the way you and I do, Spike acts the way he does because he has been raised by ponies.

But don't think that meant he stopped loving us, dragons consider their friends and family treasure, it's how their love works, but it's no less real than the love we have. He just had his own family to care for then.

Over the decades and centuries, a handful of ponies trickled across the barren crystal desert. The crystal landscape was roasting during the day, freezing at night, dry, lifeless, many places as sharp as knives, but seemingly ignored or immutable by Discord. We welcomed them into the protective illusion of Discord's disinterest.

These nomads were a literal wish comes to Princess Twilight.

Princess Twilight died a grandmother. Her daughter and granddaughter tried to find some way to recreate the Element of Trust or restore the Rainbow of Light to it's true splendor. We found nothing.

Then came the day we found a storm of fire and ice passing our way. Burning and freezing everything in its path. Luna and I investigated and found a Phoenix was fighting a creature of nothing! A Windigo! A WINDIGO! Tiny traces of them had survived in this world and after these thousand years had congealed into one the size and shape of a foal.

Its programming incomplete and broken, its first target had been a Phoenix, who due to being fire incarnate and able to resurrect herself over and over left the Windigo in a logic loop.

It still recognized me as its master, vaguely, it recognized 'an Alicorn' as its master. With its programming with such large gaps I was able to fill in the blanks for it. Now with thousands of years of experience and wisdom I had not had before.

I was able to 'reason' with it that since all the world's hatred was now focused on Discord, a being NOT of the world in its natural state, I was to... trick the Windigo so to speak, into believing that my order had been fulfilled. It didn't know what to do, as it missed Havoc's half to complete it and give it freewill.

Luna 'destroyed' it by filling it with the ice and cold of night. She promised me she would make sure it would not serve the purpose of bringing oblivion to ponies ever again. Now completed by her and capable of thinking on its own, it became her loyal companion. I a way, I suppose you could say she was like its mother.

+++

Twilight jumped to all fours. "Princess Luna has a WINDIGO for a pet-?!"

"In a manner of speaking. She keeps it out of sight and has it spend nine month of the year sleeping, letting it roam during the winter where it isn't noticed. Following the remnants of its old programming it's attracted to bickering ponies. Thankfully it has harmed none in Luna's care. During her time as Nightmare Moon to use it would have been a dead give away, and I had it sealed away when Luna dropped her farce."

"Okay . . . alright then," Twilight said cautiously. "Teacher, er, Princess, just to be clear, how many times has pony civilization ended in an apocalyptic disaster and had to restart?"

"Just a few times Twilight, just a few times. No matter how many times your back is broken, you've managed to rise up and prove again that we were right to chose you for the gift of sapience. I've seen species who just silently and calmly accepted oblivion. Heh. You and humans are a lot alike that way, you both refuse to simply vanish." I smiled at her, "And I'm thankful for that."

" . . . thank you princess." She bowed her head lowly.

+++

I took the Phoenix in, she needed but to shed her feathers and begin a new cycle to return to perfect health. I learned her name was Philomena. She found the idea of living in a castle appealing, even more so at being in the company of 'royalty.'

It was a happy addition to our family. A glimmer of light in what I was beginning to see was more and more an impossible quest.

Luna even went where Midnight Castle once stood and tried to regenerate the Rainbow Of Darkness, the only thing with a power equal to the Rainbow of Light. Remember, the Rainbow Of Darkness was forged by the same hoof as the Rainbow Of Light and was not evil in and of itself, merely misused by Tirek, which was why it was overpowered by the Rainbow Of Light being used as intended.

It was a mad risk. The Rainbow of Darkness was as unruly as the Rainbow of Light, only Luna the Perfect Night could even hope to bend it to her will. If she had accidentally resurrected Tirek along with it, we'd have likely helped him if we thought it would topple Discord's mad world.

It didn't work. The Rainbow Of Light had devoured it, all that remained were wisps. And we didn't have the means to make one from scratch.

I have no idea if Luna's failed attempt set in motion its regeneration a thousand years later.

The Element of Trust was gone, truly gone, it couldn't even manifest in a pony ever as I would later learn. There shall never be an Element of Trust Twilight Sparkle. Not as a bearer or an Element. Any unique power it held is lost forever. Discord is a Draconequus. He did what his kind does best. He ERASED it.

It's funny. It was such an important event. But I can't remember the details anymore of when the truth came to me. Our research into the remaining pieces of the Rainbow of Light showed each one held an aspect of harmony, the one missing of course being trust, gone forever. And without all the element, as you know, they are useless.

The magic of the Rainbow of Light would never exist again.

So I cheated.

It took us forever to identify what each of the pieces held inside them, what each shade of the rainbow represented. And we began to understand that they'd only awaken only to someone whose heart was aligned with them.

In their broken current form they were simply too wild to be directed property. The Rainbow of Light and the Rainbow of Darkness had BOTH always been unruly forces that only served their masters how the Rainbows saw fit.

Discord meanwhile left us to wallow in our misery. Shady continued to live. Kept alive at her prime. She took care of any ponies who tried to harm Discord or who he wanted to spread fear to but he deemed too 'boring' to deal with himself. The world went from being broken to a trash heap of Discord's discarded games: except for one tiny little joyless rock farm in the middle of nowhere.

Princess Twilight the XIIIth proved to be a very lucky pony indeed. She was the one witnessed it happen.

Luna by this point had nearly gone crazy in her own way, thinking she could restore the missing piece of the Rainbow of Light by collecting all the dust particles one bit at a time. I think her plan would have taken only about a hundred thousand years if she did so without help.

But with Princess Twilight XIII's help, and our pets', we forged the surviving pieces into a more usable shape. Sealed inside stone spheres in their sleeping form. They would transform into their awakened shape in the present of worthy ponies. The shape they take is completely dependent on the pony who awakens them. That is why the Elements look different in your book than the shape they took for your friends.

Princess Twilight XIII was a middle aged mare by the time we were done. Her daughter, Princess Twilight XIV studying to take her place. Spike the fifth now entered his own twilight years with his egg waiting to hatch (your Spike's father) to carry on his legacy after he was gone. But as it turned out, he and his father held on longer than their forbearers.

We told the Twilights and Spike to stay at the castle, which had long since modified to suit our tastes, and had begun to grow a forest around after growing sick of looking at a dead crystal landscape. We used the self-sustaining instantaneous spell one of the Princess Ponies had used on her garden to insure the forest could take care of itself. And the forest would protect the castle and the others in the most effective vicious way possible even from Discord. Even if we failed, they would be forever free.

We traveled to Discord's palace/mountain/domain/forest/his place he like to laze about while giving ponies enough time to repopulate so he could have fun again.

It was plug-ugly and mind breaking to look at. Even the modern art lovers would have taken a wrecking ball to it. Discord had had a thousand years to build it according to his whims. We had come prepared to smash through layer after layer of defenses, but there was none, after all, Discord ruled the world, why waste time on defenses when you had nopony to defend against?

Luna and I stood in front of Discord's throne room door (it was hard to miss with the seizure flashing neon sign). The most powerful being in this world, the one who'd plunged it into pony hell for a millennium, the one who had killed Galaxia and our mother while we watched was on the sidelines. To say we were one hundred percent sure of ourselves would be a lie.

I look to my sister, the last member of my kind I knew was alive. "Are you ready for this?"

She looked conflicted, then looked to me. "I'm scared..."

I gave a small nod, I was too. "Just stay close to me, our only chance is to stay together..."

And with that, we entered Discord's throne room.

"Celly! Lulu! It's been forever! Mother just made biscuits! Want some?" He waved like we were house guests.

He was disgusting. He looked fat, lazy, indifferent, passive, his spiritual mother would be proud. His throne was more a couch. His throne room was ... it was the dreams of a thousand maniacs vomited into one mix. The less I describe it you Twilight Sparkle the better.

It was filled with ponies and other hooved creatures, some twisted in body, others in mind, some in both, all in the name of appeasing Discord's boredom.

"Hello Celestia. Hello Luna," Shady said passively. She hadn't aged a day since we had last seen her. She almost dragged her body as she moved.

"Hello Shady," Luna said first.

It had come to me in all things while star gazing. Thinking of my time as Star Catcher. And how my desire to recreate my wonderland, had resulted in just the opposite.

"It's nice to see you again." I heard myself say.

I had thought back to the holiday that had ironically taken place on the same day that Clover The Clever, Smarty Cookie, and Private Pansy had slew the Windigos.

"How are the others?" She asked.

You have never heard of Christmas, Twilight Sparkle. But I'll say that Hearth Warming's Eve at least carries on it's message in spirit at least, of total love and total brotherhood. And your friend Pinkie Pie still celebrates the original too, if I know her as well as I did as Star Catcher.

"I'm sorry Shady, they died of old age a while ago. But Twilight The Thirteenth and Fourteenth are with us back home. So is Spike! I'm sure they'd love to hear what you have to say about their ancestor."

You have never heard of Santa Claus 'Father Christmas' either, he was a visitor from the other side of the rainbow as well, one who visits many worlds. In a quest to meet him once to make up for what for her was a horrid mistake against her friends, Minty just missed him.

"I see." Shady sighed.

When the other ponies found Minty, they all told Minty that they were far more interested in Minty's well being than what she had done. They all hugged.

"Is there a reason for your visit ladies or did you just drop by to say hi?" Discord said not having even gotten up. To him, we weren't even ants.

"We are here to end your reign," I told him. "Leave Equestria now Dissey. And it can just end."

He laughed so loud he burped. "Oh come on Celly! That joke wasn't even funny! Do I need to teach you how to have fun all over again?"

"No. I'm just sorry you've forgotten how to be happy."

He yawned. We were already losing his interest. "I'd say I'm plenty happy. Now do you you please have something interesting to say or am I just missing chaos for nothing?" He waved us off and turned over his big belly looking ready to take a nap.

And in that time that never existed, when we had all hugged in front of Santa's workshop, myself and Minty included. A magic unlike any other was awakened. I think we had just almost managed to call down Mother. But this power ... Mother gave you ponies the power to feel love, and to love something with your heart AND mind! So what am I saying?

"Discord. This is the ending. No grand battles. No more deaths. Just the end." Luna declared. "Your reign is over."

I told Luna the night before we began forging the six elements.

"Luna! I've got it!"

"You found the missing piece?"

"We ARE the missing piece!"

And the combined six lights on us shined. Laughter awakened first on me. And Honesty awakened first on Luna. The rest awoke in turn.

Discord with some effort got off his throne. "Huh? What's this now?"

Power always inside us? Heh. Don't sell short those who put their tears and blood into creating tools that hold a power of their own. I just realized, that while the Element of Trust was destroyed: we had a flawless substitute for it. A perfect replacement part to complete the circuit. We didn't need all seven parts, when we had a wild card in our hooves.

The power a bunch of nearly identical but truly loving friends and three mundane but brave ponies had both been able to awaken. And now that power flowed through the Rainbow of Light.

For seeing the power that had defeated him before restored to glory, he didn't look too worried.

Discord cracked his knuckles. "Well. Let's see what you little ponies can do."

He swept a paw over himself, erasing the chocolate milk stains and pot belly.

Philomena and Luna's pet from our shadows hit him high and low. Philomena turned herself in a full mass of flames sweeping over him, scorching him black. While Luna's pet past below him, and quickly sealing up his entire body in a chunk of ice that took up his entire throne and everything in fifteen feet in all directions.

We didn't give any clever quips or dramatic declarations. We had been past that for a thousand years. Discord was a menace, he was a criminal. We had gotten past wanting to rub it in when we won. We wanted the misery over.

With Discord frozen in place, my sister and I finally allowed the Elements to charge to full power and prepared to fire as the Windigo got out of our line of fire.

Then suddenly my sister and I were slammed into the wall by a wave of pure despair.

"Bad fillies. You shouldn't be so rough with him." Shady said in an empty tone.

"Shady what you're defending is NOT your son!" I replied, seeing Discord's icy prison begin to break. At this, me and Luna bid our loyal pets to hide as well as they could.

"Incorrect." She said evenly. Philomina and Luna's pet came at her from behind, cages of black desperate twisted around both like thorn bushes.

The ice surrounding Discord shattered in a large explosion of heat. He'd essentially needed to set off a miniature supernova to free himself. "T-thank you, mother, I knew you wouldn't let your baby boy get turned into a statue again."

He snapped his finger. "I play 'A Winner Is Me', I win."

The Elements telekinetically slammed into each other, and our heads rammed into each other. I don't go into detail about our horns. You'd be surprise how it wasn't that painful, the brain can't actually feel pain. But powering up of the Elements stopped. As the world turned sideways that had nothing to do with Discord's magic. We fell in a heap.

We floated over to him. The force slowly crushing every bone on our bodies as it closed in around us.

"Mother, will you do the honors?" Discord said with a glint in his eye.

Shady tilted her head indifferently. "Are you sure? They were your best friends before they tried to kill you. Maybe you could fix them."

""Not anymore," said Discord, callously. "Alas, they see me as an enemy now, so it's the only thing to be done," he said, then transformed himself into a replica of his infant self, giving her big puppy dog eyes. "Please get rid of the bad ponies momma, they're trying to hurt me!"

"Shady! You don't need to do this!" I exclaimed. She didn't even look at me.

Shady's face remained expressionless. "They're your friends son, not mine." She shed one tear. "If you really want to do this then make your own choice."

"Well mommy dearest if you insist." Discord reverted back to his adult self, his head turned away from Shady and puppy dog eyes were replaced by a smirk of sadistic glee.

A black and violet scythe of nothing cut off his claw/paw as he reached for us. It hit the floor with a thud.

He raised an eyebrow and move one eye. "Mother what are you doing?" He asked like a child wonder if their parent was in one of their moods.

"How long do you need?" She asked me as me and Luna regenerated the damage we'd been dealt.

"About one minute."

She said, "You'll get it."

"Oh mother please. What has possessed you for this kind of nonsense? Oh never mind! Nonsense is always fun! But maybe you should spend time as an old maid." He snapped his fingers. Nothing happened. Discord snapped his fingers again...nothing.

"Despair is the void that's left when hope is gone. You can not alter or erase a void. How can you son, a draconequus, not know this? This despair is my own. You merely helped me give it shape, remember, son? My own despair feeds the Element of Chaos you gave me."

"Mo-ther!" Discord hissed. His hands lifted off the ground, grew giant and tried to grab her, slam, swat, squash her or shoot her with laser or missiles that shot out of the finger tips.

Shady moved leaving a trailing image, exiting between the state of being and not being as she dodged her son's attacks. Black and violet void chains them wrapped themselves around Discord's legs and arms and pulled him taunt. Discord breathed fire at her. This burned half her body, but if she felt pain she didn't show it. She just followed through with her motion and cut him in half.

She apologized to the friend whose soul may or may not have still been in that body.

The bisected halves vanished and reconstituted into the full Discord.

Discord caused the parts of his palace and his swarms of demented ponies on her like a flood, she cut through them all, her by now tattered brown float flapping in the wind of her motions. Philomena and Luna's pet spawned walls of fire and ice to slow down their endless numbers.

But she was right. We needed less than a minute. And that was what she gave us.

"How could you do this to me! You're different from the Old Lady! How dare you do this! You can't do this! How can you-?!" Discord howled in rage. "MOTHER!!!"

"Because I do love you. You're ill son. You have been for a thousand years. I don't know if you can ever be cured. But I won't let my family harm anypony else, anymore."

She then slammed the tip of her scythe into the tip of his tail making him yelp. She bear hugged him from behind, letting black and violet chains of remorse wrap around both them, she laid her head against the back of his furry snake like body and closed her eyes smiling. Philomena and Luna's pet fled at what was about to be ground zero at high speed.

Meanwhile, Luna and I supported each other, thinking of ALL our families. The one in the world that never was. The one among the stars. The one of Paradise Estate. And the one now waiting for us back at our castle.

Surprise made us laugh.

Spike stayed loyal to the end.

Posey's kindness.

Wind Whistle's honesty.

Mother's generosity.

And Twilight's magic.

And the power of the elements, healed pony's bodies and awoke them from their nightmares. And began to undo Discord's declarations on what was and was not reality.

"Mother, Galaxia...Seaponies, Flutterponies...and everyone else whose lives Discord has ruined...this is for you," I whispered.

And the Element of Harmony washed over Discord and Nightmare Shadow. Negating all his magic and leaving him a freezing statue from the waist up.

Did you expect some personal battle that lasted between us and Discord for days, years, my student? A epic struggle that changed the very landscape? I had had my fill of those watching my family fall around me! I wasn't there to prove my superiority to Discord or how great a warrior I was. We were there to free Equestria's people from slavery.

Discord saw what was happening. Discord was shocked, looked down in complete and utter disbelief... And he laughed. "So that's how it is eh Celly? Lulu?"

"That's Princess Celestia and Princess Luna Discord."

"Princess eh? Who shall be queen then?"

Luna startled at this.

"Certain you know Luna there's no such thing as equally shared power. There must always be a Steed to the Alicorn. It is the law of the nature you hold so dear. Do tell me Luna? Which one? Will these ponies look to the Princess of the Sun? Or to the Princess of Night? Here's a hint, there's a reason darkness is associated with fear. Why it's associated with evil. No one trusts it. No one trusts anything that's hidden."

If Discord cared his fortress and world was falling around him, he didn't show it. Any boiling rage he felt in that moment, he hid perfectly.

"Hear these words PRINCESS Luna! Because PRINCESS is all you're ever going to be!"

"Luna don't listen to him!" I cried.

"You're just blowing hot air! You're already beaten! Take it like a man for once in your life!" Luna snapped.

"Did I hit a nerve? Ponies who watched you be born and GROW UP wondered if you were a thing of evil! They thought I of all things was the neutral one, they considered me LESS evil than you. What about a bunch of millions of random ponies who don't even know you? A princess of the night? It is the only thing they WILL see you as! I'll share with you PRINCESS Luna one truth. The only way anyone can, or will, ever accept you, is if you MAKE THEM!"

"You're wrong!"

It was half up his body now.

"Now you're knee-jerking! Answer me this PRINCESS Luna; who has been the source, of every last one of your miseries?"

The stoning shouldn't have been taking this long!

"YOU!"

"Now now, PRINCESS Luna, you're oversimplifying. I had lots of fun with you, I enjoyed every second, but who's the REAL one to blame? Who abandoned you after helping them? Made the choice that made all this happen? Set an entire war in motion? Helped me discover my fun? Whose display of divine magic awoke my real winning personality? Ask yourself; who's responsible for ME and thus everything? Blaming just me is the easy answer, PRINCESS Luna. And since when? Has the easy answer? EVER been right?"

Luna was a deer in the headlights to that. I think you know what answer she came to a thousand years later. She told me so when she shed her pretense of not being Nightmare Moon.

Whatever resistance he had was fading. He made one last stab at me.

"I'll prove to you Celly, this power is a bad joke. Celestia, it could have all been ours! Till the end of time! When our perfect art made history! You and I! It was our destin-"

It made me think of the duet we had once sung together, once upon a time. No Twilight Sparkle, that is a song I shall never sing again.

I said only one last thing to say and narrowed my eyes. "Discord, disappear."

And he was frozen as stone.

And in a tidal wave of rainbow colors, the world was sane again. Discord's desert remained a desert, and the twists to the landscape were not so easily undone he had done with bare telekinesis rather than twisting reality. But every living thing that was not born that way was restored to what they were before being tainted by Discord' power. For some, it was waking up for a nightmare that had lasted their entire lives. Trees were content to stay in the ground. Birds flew. Fish swam. Two plus two equaled four. Mana flowed through life.

Shady fell backwards from Discord, the despair leaving her as dirt would dissolve in water. The dark wings and horn from Shady fell apart, LIFE returned to her figure and the years and darkness left her eyes. She pushed herself up, took one look at Discord, then at us.

"Celly, Lulu, thank you."

Without a Draconequus to patron her, Shady lost her connection to Entropy. And with it, her power. I never said so, but I was relieved she didn't turn to dust the moment after Discord was petrified.

She lived out her life secluded, but peacefully, with Spike and the Twilights as company.

The herd of mad ponies around Discord's throne room blinked as if waking up from a dream, their twisted bodies whole again and their own again, their minds their own again. They looked at us as if not sure we were real.

Finally a unicorn gasped out, the first to crawl from the pile of ponies as they sorted themselves out.
"Princess Luna. Princess Celestia. Thank you!"

++++

"Princess, I'm really sorry to interrupt but ...I'm sorry to say this, Teacher...but what you said about the Element of Trust being destroyed...I can't see how that's right," my student said, looking unsure of my reaction.

Instead of telling her she was wrong like she expected, I replied, "How so, my faithful student?"

"Even if Trust isn't an Element of Harmony, even if there can't be a bearer, its power wasn't destroyed. Friendship can't exist without trust. If I and the other bearers didn't trust one another, our friendship couldn't work. If we didn't trust Rarity, we'd never have accepted generosity from her and she wouldn't trust us to be generous to. If we didn't trust Applejack, we'd never believe she was honest and she couldn't trust us with the truth. If we didn't trust Fluttershy, we'd never see she was truly kind and not trying to trick us and she wouldn't trust us not to use it against her. If we didn't trust Rainbow Dash, we couldn't believe she was loyal and she couldn't believe we would use her loyalty against her. If we didn't trust Pinkie Pie, if she didn't trust us, we'd not believe she really wanted us to smile and she'd not try to make us. And if we didn't trust each other as much as we do, our friendship couldn't exist.

"Even if Discord destroyed the Element of Trust, he couldn't destroy how important it was to friendship and that trust is still a part of it."

This time I can't help it, I burst out laughing and clap my hooves. Twilight startles and trots a bit back.

I give my faithful student the most approving smile I can. "You are absolutely correct, my student. He destroyed the physical form of that part of the Rainbow of Light, its ability to be used to channel the Rainbow's power and My Mother. But he was not able to destroy it's concept. He did not destroy its spirit .

It is the same as if the body before you was to die this instant Twilight Sparkle, it would not spell the end of me ! You are more than the clump of nerves inside your skull Twilight Sparkle, and the Elements, you proved to Nightmare Moon, are more than regalia."

++++

The population practically begged us to be their rulers regardless of what the tabloids say. They worshipped us without question. We'd freed their world from the iron grip of a tyrant whose power and cruelty knew no bounds. I honestly think if the tyrant Grogar had risen again and defeated Discord they'd have gladly become his slaves. I can't blame them, Twilight, after a thousand years of the living pony hell that Discord put them through, there's not a force in creation who could blame them.

Oh? . . . What came after that? Oh nothing much. Shady took us to her castle where Queen Rosedust was held captive. The last Flutterpony alive thank us in tears of joy for avenging her kind, beg us to never forget her people, which we promised.

We left Discord's mountain side castle to gather dust for the next thousand years.

Oh no one recognized Shady as Discord's mother, I mean, without the tattered brown cloak and no scythe, wings or horns or that distant depressing voice.

With Queen Rosedust with us and carrying Shady we did a huge display across the sky bringing order back to day and night.

We picked up the Twilights and Spike carried them on his back. I think I may have seen Cadence for a moment flying next to us but I may have been seeing things.

We had lots of sparkles and bright colors trailing behind with us gliding and using our magic to stay aloof.

We flew across every square mile of Equestria in turn, making sure everypony got a good look at us. There may or may not have been overwhelming cheering from the liberated ponies below. For me, their delight at me showing them my first dawn EVER was what made it for me.

Henceforth, and forthwith
Let it be known to stallion and mare
That dreams and life reign once more

Let choices trot the path of cause and effect again
What we make is to both to have and share

herewith and therewith
Let everyone take note now:
that sincere hearts prevailed

When we look we see again
Listen and we'll hear
Melody flows free again
By true loyalty the new age premiered
(Shady blushed at this part.)

Herewith and therewith
let it be known by all
kindness and laughter prevailed

Henceforth, and forthwith, Let it be known by filly and colt,
That Celestia and Luna now reign!

Harmony's on the rise
Henceforth, and forthwith
Let it be known by all
Love and harmony prevailed

Luna and Celestia now reign for from them
life and dreams reign once more

And May Princess Celestia and Princess Luna reign forever more!

You have no idea how sublime it was to see all those faces. So many ponies. So much life I wanted to know them all. I wanted to be friends with all of them! I smiled until my face hurt.

And Luna, oh Luna! She ate it up! She loved every moment of it! She drank in their love for us! Oh how she smiled again! She would inspired a kingdom's worth of dreams! The moon had never shined so bright.

They made statues of us until I got sick of the sight of them. Our little castle got declared the new capital of Equestria.

We got a cake made the size of a small house, okay small castle, we shared a slice with every pony, dragon, zebra, etcetera, that was in Equestria. Nothing really all that important.

It was wonderful for Twilight XIV to be so delighted at seeing the outside world for the first time in her life, it was everything her picture books said it would be. And her mother was happy to show her child every inch of it as she explored it herself. Little Twilight made so many new friends that day for a filly whose friends before had been mostly books.

And ... I think it's now dawn my student. And that is the story of things. I need to raise the sun. And you need to make like my sister and get some sleep. I doubt I'll be getting much done today after such a long night. Good rest and good day my student. I hope you've learned much.

And remember, hold onto what is dear to you.

++++

Twilight looked up to me. "I will" she said, giving me a smile.

I reach down and give her a nuzzle. "I will too."

"Princess Celestia...I think Mimic would be proud of you."

For the first time since my sister was liberated...I allow my student to see tears in my eyes. "I hope she is...wherever her soul rests...Now, get some sleep, Twilight, feel free to stay here for the night."

++++

"Sir Big Machintosh! Ye shall return the fair doll of maiden Twilight Sparkle or face my lance!" Called Spike's voice.

Big Mac sighed and came out. "Look kiddo, it was cute the first but seriously, I'm tired of bucking you all the way back to Twili's. I hate trouncing guys who don't stand a chance. You really need to stop this before I accidentally hurt you and-" The piece of wheat fell out of Big Mac's mouth as his jaw fell open.

There was Twilight Sparkle, carrying Spike. Decked out in medieval armor of her own. "Ye shall most assuredly return younger Smarty Pants to my shackle or face our chivalry!" Declared Twilight as she lowered the visor.

"The gals at school are never gonna believe this." Applebloom said looking at the window.

~Fin