Screwy Chaos

Gallus hastily rushed through the alleys and streets of Ponyville and frantically turned his head to make sure nopony else following him, but he neither could see Precious-la, nor could he see Screwball anywhere.

He swiftly hided behind a house and sighed, still panting and incredibly pale in his face.

"Gotta find Autumn Blaze," he panted.

He squinted around the corner for any enemies and froze, as he saw two black changelings discussing to each other.

Gallus deeply inhaled and did his best to sneak away from the changelings as quiet and unobstrutive as possible.

However, the changelings still noticed him. They shortly glanced in his direction and luckily turned their heads away again, as they didn't care. Gallus sighed in delight.

He went on running through some further alleys and checking out his surrounding for any enemies, until he noticed Autumn Blaze sitting near some mushroom tables of an restaurant. She looked like she was reflecting about something.

Gallus quickly walked to her and grabbed her on her shoulders. Autumn Blaze startled and released a shocked gasp.

"What are you doing here?" she asked confused. "I have to find our friends. At least that's the message, the amusement park wants to tell me."

"It was a trap!" Gallus whispered and stared Autumn Blaze with seriously narrowed eyes deeply in her eyes. "It was all a trap, you can't thrust it!"

Autumn Blaze's face suddenly became pale as well, though not as pale as Gallus'.

"What happened?" she asked with an expression of worry in her face.

Gallus kept staring at her seriously and whispered, "The amusement park was a trap and literally everyone got caught by Screwball, who took their entire friendship experience. I'm not kidding!"

"What?" Autumn Blaze exclaimed in shock, but Gallus did a serious "Shhh" to make her remain quiet.

"We're the only two, who survived the whole thing," Gallus went on with an increased velocity. "And I should claim myself as lucky, that I escaped, so they couldn't take my friendship experience, but it shouldn't take too long, until they noticed me having vanished, so I'm sure, they're on the way searching for me."

Gallus did a short pause, until he added, still with narrowed eyes, "They're already searching you, so seriously look out, okay?"

Autumn Blaze frantically nodded, unable to reply anything. She just whispered anxiously, "What happened then?"

"It was shocking enough, that Gilda and Gabby betrayed me by delivering me to Screwball just for the money," Gallus said, "but I was even more horrified after discovering, that Precious-la is working for Screwball."

"WHAT?"

"Quiet!" Gallus whispered and placed a finger onto his beak. "They're searching for you, remember?"

Autumn Blaze nodded again, but she still asked whispering in unbelief, "Really?"

"I couldn't believe, that she turned away from us and joined the evil, but I'm 100%ly sure, that I didn't misunderstand anything," Gallus explained.

"It's all our fault," Autumn Blaze whispered quietly and stared at the ground. "It's all my fault. If we hadn't rejected her, she wouldn't have helped Screwball to capture our friends. Especially me."

Autumn Blaze looked guilty at the ground, until she remembered the potion bottle, Twilight gave her. She carefully pulled it out and glanced at her equal mark.

Gallus watched her and also noticed, that she looked more downcast than she used to be, emphazised by her turning-more-grey-with-every-single-second body.

His eyes wandered to her flank, where there was still the grey equal mark from Starlight Glimmer.

Eventually, Gallus coughed and said softly, "It wasn't your fault, when Precious-la dares to betray us and sell us to Screwball for her own benefit."

"Precious-la would never do such a thing!" Autumn Blaze exclaimed shocked.

"She just did and you can't deny that," Gallus replied.

To quickly change the subject, he asked her, "Did you already take your potion? You look so grey."

Autumn Blaze shook her head. "However for some reason, I still can turn into a nirik, although having that cutie mark."

To emphazise her statement, Autumn Blaze pointed at her equal mark and Gallus suddenly remembered back the highly upset nirik in the doors' hall of Discord's amusement park. He nodded in agreement.

"Anyways, I have to apologize to Precious-la for snapping in front of her eyes and insulting her," Autumn Blaze decided and suddenly stood up.

"No!" Gallus said and pushed Autumn Blaze back. "Don't you get it? Precious-la is working for Screwball and Screwball is eager to find you, so you're probably risking your own life!"

"I don't care, on whose side she is," Autumn Blaze defended. "I still owe her an apology!"

"Calm down and take your potion first," Gallus whispered and pointed at Autumn Blaze's potion, she's holding in her hooves.

Autumn Blaze stopped rebelling against Gallus and glared at her potion bottle. Eventually, she opened the bottle with her mouth and swallowed the entire content.

Slowly, but surely, Gallus saw, that her body is gaining color again and that her grey equal mark is vanishing more and more, until it entirely disappeared from her flanks.

Autumn Blaze glanced at her own flanks as well and noticed, that there were no equal marks anymore. She slightly smiled and placed the empty bottle at the mushroom table.

"That feels good," she whispered, more to herself than to Gallus. "Now, I have to search for Precious-la!"

Gallus pulled Autumn Blaze back with his right claw and facepalmed with his left claw.

"I already told you, that ain't possible," he said and did an awkward pause, until saying additionally, "I already lost my entire team and I don't want to loose you as well. I don't want to be alone."

"I'm really sorry Gallus," Autumn Blaze said and looked pityful at Gallus, "but my opinion won't change. Good luck!"

Before Gallus could stop her any further, Autumn Blaze rushed forwards down the street, leaving him alone. Gallus streched his right arm out and shouted desperated, "WAIT! NOOOO!!"

He took the empty bottle and waved it in his claw. "I'm sure Zecora wants her bottle back!"

***

Precious-la stood at the memorial site of the Golden Oak library and watched forward with a dreamy look in her eyes, even though she has never been in this library herself, before it was destroyed. But she remembered the time, when it got destroyed.

In front of the wholly destroyed library, there was a thick, inpenetrable barrier with the label: "In memory of the Golden Oak Library, much beloved home of Princess Twilight Sparkle, the princess of Friendship."

Precious-la was that sunken in her own daydreams, that she didn't notice Autumn Blaze approaching her from her back. She shortly turned her head and then stared at the Golden Oak library again, as she didn't care about Autumn Blaze.

"I don't care, whether you care or not," Autumn Blaze began to whisper with a croaky voice, "but I have to apology to you for being so mean to you at the amusement park. I'm really sorry."

"Okay," Precious-la only replied, not looking at her either, "I accept your apology."

Autumn Blaze paused, until she whispered very quietly, almost afraid of the answer.

"Did you really decide to help Screwball?"

"I did," Precious-la answered and emphazised her statement with a short nodd.

Autumn Blaze swallowed. "But...but why?"

"I have my reasons," Precious-la answered and kept staring at the Golden Oak library.

Autumn Blaze didn't know anymore, what to do or what do say, as she didn't want to say anything wrong. She didn't understand. She didn't even know, whether she wants to understand. Precious-la accepted her apology, but she also admitted, that she is working for Screwball. She admitted that horrible fact with her own voice.

In this moment, Precious-la turned her body to Autumn Blaze and said in a slightly softer voice than before, "Screwball is searching for you, so it's the best for you to hide."

"Why," Autumn Blaze stammered, "why don't you catch me and deliver me to Screwball?"

"Hide," Precious-la shortly whispered to Autumn Blaze and without replying her question, she pushed her behind one of the bushes with using her magic.

That's just the right timing, as in that time, Screwball steps over to Precious-la, with a confident smile in her face.

"Hi Screwball," Precious-la greeted Screwball and started smiling as well.

Both ponies shook their right hoof and gave each another a hoofbumb afterwards. From her bush shelter, Autumn Blaze saw the friendship between Screwball and Precious-la unmisunderstanding with her own eyes. Her jaw automatically dropped, but she was too scared of stepping out of her shelter.

"I really don't know, what to do without you," Screwball said, still smiling. "Anyways, when will Starlight Glimmer and the Changeling Hive join us?"

Autumn Blaze bowed forward in hope to understand Precious-la's answer better.

"They will come, when they feel ready to," Precious-la replied calmly.

But in Screwball's swirly eyes, there was just a restless flicker and she impatiently asked back, "So you didn't enchant them?"

"I indeed enchanted them," Precious-la admitted and Autumn Blaze mutely gasped.

Autumn Blaze didn't know anymore, what to think and what to do. She suddenly felt sick, thus she picked the stalk from a rosebud and pushed it deeply in her left arm. She felt the pain and tears appeared in her eyes, but that kept her from loosing her consciousness.

"Precious-la betrayed me," she mutely said to herself, still with tears in her eyes. "She's on Screwball's side."

The loud tramping of an entire stampede teared her out of her thoughts and Autumn Blaze squinted out of the bushes to find out, what caused the tramping and saw a slightly blurred black soup of strange creatures.

Looks like it was a stampede of the entire Changeling Hive marshing right into the direction, where Precious-la and Screwball were standing, lead by a pink unicorn, who was levitating herself with her magic and holding a wooden stick with her magic.

Autumn Blaze stared at the Changeling army and remembered, what Screwball was saying. That must be Starlight Glimmer and the Changeling Hive joining them. She swallowed in fear.

Screwball glared at the Changelings as well, but other than Autumn Blaze, she looked confident with a slight trace of powerhunger in her expression.

"Bow down in front of me!" she exclaimed loudly and powerfully raised her hooves into the air, while she released her evil laughter once again.

But none of the Changelings obeyed her. All of them kept tramping straight forward.

"Bow down in front of me!" Screwball exclaimed twice, this time angrier and more impatient, but that didn't change any of the changeling's mind.

"Stop!" the unicorn shouted and her Changeling army immediately halted.

Screwball stared at her, her laughter from before magically wiped away, now with an expression of utter confusion and unbelief in her pupilless eyes.

"You don't want that crude monster ruling all over Equestria, treating you all like crap and thinking she was better than you all, right?" Starlight Glimmer shouted loudly.

"NO!" the changelings all replied simutaneously in a choir.

"With me as your new ruler, I will create equality and justice over the entire Equestria and praise you more, than she will ever!" Starlight announced. She raised her head and her both hooves and exclaimed a unmisunderstanding, "CHAAAARGE!"

The changelings immediately obeyed Starlight and stampedes right in the direction of Screwball, ready to squish her like an annoying bug.

The highly confused Screwball acted fast and levitated herself with her magic in the air as well, followed by Precious-la. She flew right in front of Starlight, who told her army to stop running again, and rudely pointed at her.

"You! How dare you!" Screwball yelled in anger, narrowing her eyes that extremely, that they turned into long slits.

Starlight just fired a magic beam in Screwball's direction, that hitted her excactly at her chest. The shocked Screwball fell down and crashed roughly at the ground, where she didn't move anymore. Precious-la followed her and softly floated down.

"Now, it's the time of Starlight Glimmer's reign of equality!"

Starlight laughted out loud and told her stampede to turn away. Her Changeling army instantly obeyed her and carried their leader down the road to the direction to the marketplace.

Then, the whole hive of black changelings including Starlight suddenly took off and flew in a direction, that leads to the castle of Canterlot.

Autumn Blaze, still not knowing what just happened, just stared at Screwball's motionless, slack body and Precious-la standing mutely next to her and looking at her.

Suddenly, Screwball woke up again and immediately stood up on her hooves. She could just in time notice Starlight and her army flying to Canterlot, probably joining the war.

Screwball swiftly turned her body to Precious-la and hold her tight on her left hoof, pulling her to herself. Autumn Blaze's jaw dropped, releasing a mute gasp.

"What did you do with the changelings?" she hissed hostily. "I thought, you enchanted them!"

"I did," Precious-la admitted calmly and nodded.

"So why the hay don't they obey me?" Screwball hissed louder and even more hostile. "You dirty liar!"

"I only said, that I enchanted them," Precious-la explained, "but I didn't say, that they will obey you."

Precious-la especially emphazised the word "you", which caused Screwball rage and brutally toss her body down the street.

"You!" Screwball panted and pointed at Precious-la, "you betrayed me!"

Screwball turned Autumn Blaze' whole attention to herself, thus she carefully listened to their conservation with widened eyes.

"You sold my army to that dirty Starlight Glimmer and made her taking away my Equestria!" Screwball yelled even louder. "Equestria belongs to me and me alone! Not to Starlight Glimmer! How could you??"

"Equestria doesn't belong to you," Precious-la exclaimed bravely.

"After all that, what you've done to me!" Screwball went on. "After all your generous help, you dare to take everything away?"

"I didn't help you and I was never helping you," Precious-la said, still remaining calm. "If you seriously thought, I was on your side, then you're terribly wrong."

"What?" Screwball shouted and her face turned red of all the anger. "How? Why? What?"

Also Autumn Blaze' face turned red, but not of anger, but of surprise. Precious-la didn't betray her or the Young Six.

"You can't do anything against that anymore, you lost," Precious-la said. "You lost against Starlight Glimmer."

"HOW?" Screwball screamed.

"I wasn't suggesting you to let the Young Six in Discord's amusement park to deliver them to you," Precious-la went on, as calmly as before. "I was suggesting that to give them essencial information, how to defeat you with the Elements of Harmony."

"That can't be!" Screwball interrupted roughly.

But Precious-la only ignored her and added, "And it's me, who let Gallus go. I didn't want you to take his friendship experience away as well. And it's me, who enchanted the changelings to follow Starlight Glimmer instead of you. You were wrong all the time. I wasn't working for you and I never will."

"This can't be!" Screwball repeated, screaming like mad. "You!"

She pointed at Precious-la. "You deliver Gallus to me!"

"I don't know, where he is," Precious-la said and shrugged innocently.

"LIAR!" Screwball shouted and fired a green magic beam at Precious-la.

Autumn Blaze instantly shut her eyes, but luckily, Precious-la teleported away and appeared again, right in front of Autumn Blaze' bushes.

"I am not lying, I really don't know, where he is," Precious-la defended herself. "And even if you killed me, you wouldn't know that."

"You lied to me your whole life!" Screwball hissed with narrowed eyes and prepared magic. "Why should you tell me the truth now? Deliver Gallus to me, if you wanna live!"

"I already said, I don't know, where he is," Precious-la said the third time.

"You did your decision!" Screwball said and a magic beam dashed right in the direction, where Precious-la is standing.

"NO!" Autumn Blaze instinctly yelled and jumped out of her shelter protectively between Precious-la and Screwball, not even aware, what she was doing.

But it was too late. The magic beam already fixed Precious-la and an aura formed around her body, making her unable to escape like a magical prison. Precious-la was completely frozen, remaining with opened mouth.

With an arrogant glare at Precious-la's helpless state, Screwball laughed sadistically and a relation between Precious-la's forehead and her own grey horn appeared, forming a neat, straight line.

Although, Autumn Blaze, who was standing on her backhooves excactly between Screwball and Precious-la, passed the magical relation, which was proceeding from Precious-la to Screwball unobstructed, just like Autumn Blaze didn't exist at all.

Screwball laughed again and activated her magic. Immediately, Precious-la felt her own essence from her forehead drowning out of her body and flowing neatly into Screwball's horn, making her laugh with her evil laughter louder and louder.

Precious-la's eyes wandered to Autumn Blaze, who was still standing between them and she gasped in shock.

"Autumn Blaze," she tried to whisper, but her voice only croaked. "Go away! Bring yourself to safety!"

"I can't leave you alone again!" Autumn Blaze exclaimed strongly.

"I will resist," Precious-la croaked hoarsly. "I won't let her taking away my friendship experience."

"You're helpless," Screwball drawled arrogantly. "You can't do anything against this spell!"

Screwball raised her head and laughed again, full of sadism, and the essence made her even stronger and more confident.

"The best student of the School of Friendship," she exclaimed. "She must have already collected a lot Friendship experience for me to use as magic!"

"You can't!" Autumn Blaze shouted, staring at Screwball.

"I can," Screwball replied relaxed, smiling wicked. "Why wasting all the friendship experience?"

"Run!" Precious-la whispered.

Autumn Blaze didn't want to escape. She had to help Precious-la, no matter what it costs for her. She isn't so selfish to escape herself.

Suddenly, she was dipped deeply into a bright, blue light and lost the ground under her hooves. Autumn Blaze panicked and didn't know, what was happening with her, until he crashed rather hard on the ground under her.

Confused, she rubbed her eyes to find out, where she was located and finds out, that she was on a green, healthy meadow with beautiful flowers. She was in one of the many gardens of the School of Friendship, she recognized the colorful building in the background.

Autumn Blaze had no idea, how she arrived in the School of Friendship, but her eyes immediately noticed a blue unicorn running around and having fun. It was obviously Precious-la, but how did it come, that Precious-la was in the School of Friendship?

However, she hardly had time to think about her state, as she saw another pony at the same age and height as Precious-la following her and laughing happily. But she was a pegasus with curly blue mane and cute little speckles.

Autumn Blaze swallowed, as she saw that pony and remembered back the newspaper article, she recently read about Cozy Glow. The moving picture of Cozy Glow's wicked face grinning at the reader, while she holded the rail of her Tartarus prison tight, popped into her head and Autumn Blaze gasped mutely. The other pony was Cozy Glow.

While she was staring at Precious-la and Cozy Glow playing together in the garden of the campus, the scenery suddenly changed and she was in one of the corridors of the School of Friendship, which was full of many other students talking about the Mane 6 and math formulas. They didn't seem to notice Autumn Blaze at all.

Autumn Blaze tried to listen to these students, until she saw Precious-la again coming in her direction. Cozy Glow came from the opposite direction and noticed Precious-la. They said "Hello" to each other and hoofbumped.

The scenery changed again and Autumn Blaze floated neatly in a classroom over all the students. Fluttershy sat at the teacher's desk and severely observed the students, while they quickly scribbled a few words at their papers, sometimes tossing a nervous glance at the clock and then went on writing.

Precious-la sat in the first row, highly concentrated and writing as fast as she could, at the right seat next to her Cozy Glow, who didn't looked happy at all, having stopped writing and almost crying.

In the moment, as Fluttershy looked away to a male student, Precious-la pushed her paper in Cozy's direction, who gave her a thankful smile and started writing again.

Now, Autumn Blaze was in another classroom, but the atmosphere was much more different than before. Everyone was excited and talked nervously to each other, so that Autumn Blaze thought, Fluttershy might not being able to control her class. Fluttershy was fine though, she only handed out a stack of papers to her students.

Autumn Blaze' glance wandered to Precious-la, who was almost exploding of nervousness and looking terribly afraid. In that moment, Fluttershy arrived at Precious-la's and Cozy Glow's table and gave both of them their papers.

Precious-la stared at hers, raised her hooves and cheered happily and Cozy Glow did the same. Autumn Blaze could just have a look at the surface of their papers and noticed a huge, red "A" on each of their papers.

The scenery changed again and Autumn Blaze found herself in a corridor again, which was this time completely empty, with no single student located in there. She carefully went through the corridor and turned right into another corridor.

She almost got an heart attack, as she nearly walked into Cozy Glow. Autumn Blaze instantly stopped and quietly sneaked forward to have a more detailed look at Cozy Glow's face. She was near enough to realize, that Cozy was walking grumpy along the corridor, not looking pleased at all.

In that moment, Precious-la went into the corridor at the opposite site and screamed loudly, "Halt! What are you doing?"

She didn't look happy either and suspiciously glared at Cozy.

"Ooh, it's you Precious-la," Cozy exclaimed and forced a sugar cute smile onto her face.

"What are you up to?" Precious-la asked again, fixing Cozy with her narrowed eyes. "You're behaving pretty odd, you know?"

"Ooh?" Cozy asked innocently and smiled even wider. "What did make you think, that I was up to something?"

"I don't know excactly, but there's definitely something strange going on here," Precious-la replied, not leaving Cozy out of her eyes.

"I don't think, that anything is strange," Cozy said in the same innocent voice as before.

"Don't play innocent!" Precious-la growled.

"But...but," Cozy stammered and bursted into tears. "We're friends, remember?"

Autumn Blaze loudless gasped. She was indeed right and Precious-la and Cozy Glow used to be friends.

Precious-la looked at the crying Cozy and she felt her heart almost crying, but she was sure, that there was something wrong with Cozy and told herself to resist this time.

"Of course we are," Precious-la said. "But you gotta tell me, what did you do with our teachers and why are you the principal now?"

"Star...Starlight wanted me to take care of everyone," Cozy sobbed and wiped away her tears. "How can it come, that you're thinking...you're thinking, I'm up to something?"

"Another question: Did you seriously think, that you could manipulate everyone without anyone noticing?" Precious-la asked back, more severely now.

Cozy didn't reply, but forced herself to burst into tears again and cry heavily.

"Starlight gave you that letter instead of telling everyone personally, that she's giving you the responsibility," Precious-la went on, trying to ignore Cozy's sobbing. "That means, someone has kidnapped her."

"You listened to that S...Smolder," Cozy asked whispering.

Precious-la nodded. "And that's not all. I saw you trying to distract our teachers, so that you can be here alone. I'm not as dumb as you thought I was."

"Distract?" Cozy repeated and went on crying sadly. "Why would I?"

"Don't play innocent!" Precious-la yelled once again. "In context with the vanished magic, this can't be a coincidence and every consideration, that I did, leads to you, so you must have something to do with everything!"

Autumn Blaze, who was listening to their conservation the entire time, stunned about Precious-la's logical thinking. She has never seen her that smart in her whole life.

"How could you accuse me for everything?" Cozy asked again, while it was almost impossible to understand, what she just said, due to all her sobbing and crying. "I thought, we were friends!"

"Only being friends doesn't protect you from getting away from all this mess!" Precious-la exclaimed seriously. "What are you up to?"

"Fine," Cozy admitted and wiped the rest of her tears away. "I will tell you everything."

Precious-la nodded slowly, but instead of telling Precious-la all the truth, Cozy turned her body and ran away as fast as she could.

"Hey!" Precious-la screamed and followed Cozy.

Autumn Blaze decided to follow Cozy and Precious-la as well, eager of that will happen next.

Precious-la hunted Cozy through the whole corridor, sometimes turned right and sometimes turned left and sometimes chased upstairs or downstairs. She panted extremely, as she has never been the fastest runner and without her magic, it was impossible for her to overtake Cozy. On the other hoof, she couldn't let Cozy escape and she was 100%ly sure, that Cozy has everything to do with the vanished magic.

Unfortunately, Cozy ran into a dead end and she had no way to escape from Precious-la. She gasped horrified and was about to burst into tears the third time.

But Precious-la only said coldly, "You can't make my heart soft with your tears this time!"

Cozy turned to her left and pulled at a rope hanging down the ceiling and Precious-la lost the ground under her hooves. She immediately fell down the trap and crashed at the dusty ground of the basement.

Autumn Blaze gasped worried, this time even loudly, but Cozy didn't notice her.

"You will regret, that resisted against me!" Cozy shouted angrily.

And suddenly, she wasn't cute and innocent anymore, but had a wicked expression on her little, round face. Autumn Blaze immediately remembered back Screwball's wicked expression, which looked excactly the same.

"No one defies Cozy Glow's rules!" Cozy added, having an awfully similar voice like Screwball. "Everyone has to obey Cozy Glow!"

Precious-la just stared with widened eyes and opened mouth from the basement up to Cozy Glow, as shocked as she has never been in her life.

"I knew it!" she yelled loudly and her voice vibrated of all the anger, "I knew it, that you're behind all this mess! How dare you do that to your friend?"

"We're not friends anymore and we never were real friends!" Cozy shouted. "I used you all the time for my own plans, as I can always need a good student at the School of Friendship!"

"How could you?" Precious-la asked, now in a unbelieving whisper. Tears appeared in her eyes.

"I didn't know anything about friendship," Cozy answered calmly. "But you did, so I needed you!"

Precious-la kept staring at her ex-best-friend, trying to remain as strong as possible, trying not to cry.

"I...I hate you!" Precious-la shouted as brave as she could. "We're no longer sworn sisters anymore!"

Cozy Glow pulled at the rope again and the trap closed. With that sound, Autumn Blaze was also roughly ripped out of the dream-like mysterious world and could no longer see, what Cozy is gonna do next.

From one second to other, she found herself at the ground of Ponyville again and could just see the least string of Precious-la's essence flowing into Screwball's horn. Precious-la lost her awareness and slowly closed her eyes.

The magical aura around Precious-la disappeared and released her from her imprisonment and her body hit the ground with a hollow sound. Precious-la remained there motionless with closed eyes.

On the other hoof, Screwball raised her hooves in the hair and laughed her evil, wicked laughter again, as she felt her body being more powerful than ever.

"So much magic!" she screamed like mad. "She did had a lot of Friendship experience, I wasn't wrong!"

"What did you do to her?" Autumn Blaze harshly asked Screwball, although she knew excactly, what she just did to Precious-la.

"Hahahahaha," Screwball just laughted and shot a shockbolt into the sky, from which the sun was automatically replaced by the moon, causing the day turning into night.

"If you did that to Precious-la, take my friendship experience away as well," Autumn Blaze said, ready to sacrifice herself to Screwball.

But Screwball kept laughing, as Autumn Blaze just resisted her.

"Why should I?" she mocked. "I doubt, that you'll have that much friendship experience for me. You're useless to me."

"Why shouldn't I have friendship experience?" Autumn Blaze asked back.

"For friendship experience," Screwball explained, still half-laughing, "you need friends. And you don't have any friends. You never had friends."

"I have friends," Autumn Blaze defended herself, but it didn't sound very persuading.

"Precious-la was never your friend," Screwball went on. "She was always the friend of the silly Young Six. And before you went to Ponville, you were alone for a long time, without friends!"

Autumn Blaze didn't understand.

"You didn't even know, how to talk!" Screwball laughed and made with her magic a barking cat appear. "You used to be so alone without anyone talking with you and now, you're alone again. Ain't that funny?"

Screwball rolled of laughter. She levitated herself with her magic and strongly hold her belly, as she laughed so much. With her magic, she made a cotton candy cloud with pegasus wings appear and layed herself on that cloud.

"You're alone with no friends, that's so funny!" Screwball kept laughing and her cloud spinned through the air. "I decided to not take your friendship experience to let you enjoy that moment of utter loneliness!"

With these words, Screwball rolled of all the laughter again and her cloud dashed away with herself, leaving Autumn Blaze with the cat alone.

"Utter loneliness," Autumn Blaze replied Screwball's words with a hollow voice.

She doesn't feel like crying, she actually felt nothing specific. She sat down and just remained there with a fixed stare at the point, where Screwball vanished with her cloud.

The cat shortly glanced at her, before turning his back to Autumn Blaze and running away while barking loudly all the time.

"I'm alone."