Screwy Chaos

As Twilight opened her eyes again, she found herself in a strange location. Everything around her was blue, interrupted by a few white light balls. On her left and right sides were huge screens with white glowing frames showing different ponies in different situations.

She suddenly remembered, that it was the same universe, Princess Celestia took her to give her her alicorn wings. However, she had no idea, how she came to this dimension.

"Where are we?" Screwball asked impatiently and looked around as well.

It looks like, that she also accidently transported Screwball into this dimension.

"I don't know," Twilight said whispering.

"Ugh you don't know anything!" Screwball moaned angrily.

She accusingly pointed at Twilight with her right hoof and exclaimed, "How did we get here? Bring me back to Ponyville!"

"I don't know that either," Twilight said and shrugged.

"Oh well, the princess of Friendship doesn't even know, how to get back to Ponyville!" Screwball mocked amused, but was still angry, that she suddenly got here.

Twilight ignored her and gave the huge, bright screen a glance. In the first one, she saw herself and Starlight Glimmer, both standing at one single cloud.

She recognized the situation, they were in. At this point, she tried to persuade Starlight not to mess with all the timelines and just let the young Rainbow Dash doing her Sonic Rainboom.

"What is this?" Screwball asked, as she approached the screen with her and Starlight.

"In this scene, Starlight Glimmer got reformed and swore, that she won't do any bad anymore," Twilight explained.

Screwball just stared at the screen and at that moment, Starlight touched Twilight's hoof and a bright, colorful rainbow appeared in form of a parable above them. A turquoise something, that looked like a upside-down bowl, absorbed them in.

"Hmpf," Screwball made derogatory and left the screen.

Twilight went to another screen and saw Diamond Tiara standing up against her mother and bravely defending the CMC as their friends.

In another screen, she helped the students of Ponyville's elementary school rebuilding the playground and even making it better.

Although Twilight wasn't present at the time, Diamond Tiara reformed and decided to be a good filly, she knew it excactly, as Applejack told her that.

"That's Diamond Tiara, she finally learned to stand up against her mother and help other foals," Twilight mumbled quietly, half to herself, half to Screwball.

Screwball mutely followed Twilight and her eyes also wandered to Diamond Tiara's reformation scene. She just swiftly turned away and said nothing.

Twilight soon got interested in all the reformation scenes and also looked at further more of them.

Therefore, she also saw other reformed ponies in other bright screens like Chancellor Neighsay apologizing for his respectless behavior towards the Young Six, Nightmare Moon got defeated and turned into Luna, Tempest Shadow defeating the Storm King and also Trixie.

She understood, what all the screens were. They weren't her own memories, like they used to be the last time, she was here. They were picturing all the ponies, who reformed and got better.

"What's all the use of it showing it to me?" Screwball impatiently asked and stared at Chancellor Neighsay with narrowed eyes.

"Those are all the ponies, who learned valuable friendship lessons in their lives and got better than they used to be," Twilight said and glanced at Luna's scene.

"Not anymore!" Screwball exclaimed proudly, with an ounce of greed in her voice. "I stole all their friendship experience, so they're not better anymore!"

"But why, why did you do such a thing?" Twilight asked.

"I need my chaotic magic again and for that, I had to steal all the friendship experience in Ponyville!" Screwball exclaimed. "I will rule over all Equestria and probably some day over the entire world and you can do nothing against me!"

"Screwball, that's not the right way," Twilight said carefully. "You can't just take friendship experience for your own benefits."

"I don't care, if you ponies think, my way is right," Screwball went on. "As long as it's good for myself, then I'll do it!"

"Screwball, these ponies all went the wrong path," Twilight said and pointed at all the screens with her right hoof, "but they admitted, that they were wrong and decided to change."

"Oh, because ponies are weaklings!" Screwball mocked and also pointed at the scenes. "They could have succeeded and they could have taken over Equestria, but they didn't, just because somepony else told them to reform and that's weak!"

Screwball's glance fell on another screen and she saw Fluttershy upsetly running away from Discord. She froze and automatically stared at the screen. In the next moment, Discord and Fluttershy forgave each other again and became good friends.

"It's all Fluttershy's fault!" Screwball angrily shouted and fired a green beam at Fluttershy's face.

Usually, everything, that touched the green blast, went up into fire, but not the screen. The beam just went through it, as nothing else happened. Screwball fired another beam at the screen, but it didn't change anything: It didn't went up into fire.

"Fluttershy changed Discord to something, he doesn't even want to be!" Screwball exclaimed even angrier and fired a third beam at Fluttershy. Nothing happened.

"You're wrong!" Twilight said, suddenly awfully determined. "It's not Fluttershy's fault."

"Excuse me?" Screwball turned her body to Twilight again. "Everything is Fluttershy's fault!"

"No, it's not," Twilight went on, still determined. "Discord really wanted to use his magic for good and deep in his heart, he also knew that. And only Fluttershy made it possible for him. Not..."

Twilight hesitated. "Not even I was ready to help Discord reforming. Fluttershy has a heart of gold and the fascinating talent of loving everything, no matter of its backstory or circumstances."

"NO!" Screwball screamed loudly. "Fluttershy is a monster! He forced Discord to be something, he shouldn't be! She manipulated him for her own good and she..."

Screwball quickly ran away to search the wide.

"Screwball, wait!" Twilight exclaimed and followed Screwball.

Screwball turned her head and angrily glared at Twilight. "It was your fault, too!"

"I understand, that you don't like times changing and I see, that it's hard for you," Twilight began to speak.

"It's not hard for me!" Screwball yelled. "And don't even try to feel compassion for me, if you didn't even felt the same way with my daddy!"

Twilight didn't know, what to say. She knew, that Screwball was the true villain, who did all the mess and she didn't know, how to ever feel compassion for her. She had no idea, how Fluttershy managed to forgive Discord.

But on the other hand, she had the feeling, that there's something more on Screwball, she doesn't know. She had no weapons against her and she also doesn't know, how to return to Ponyville. But she had to try. Rainbow Dash told her that way.

Then, she remembered Discord's words about Screwball again. She remembered, that he created her, so he didn't feel lonely anymore. And suddenly, she had an idea.

"Anyways, you have no chance against me, princess!" Screwball exclaimed, still looking angry at Twilight. "I already have all the power in Ponyville, the entire changeling hive is under my control and earlier or later, you have to give up against me!"

As Screwball said the two words "give up", she soon remembered Rainbow Dash' words again. And the words, she wrote on the botton of her hooves. She can't give up and she mustn't give up. She had to try.

"Even if you have all the power in Ponyville," Twilight said calmly, as Screwball looked pleased. "You can't rule over all Equestria. Canterlot is at war and I listened your words before, that they didn't entrust Equestria to you."

"I never planned Canterlot being at war!" Screwball said. "Anyways, I should take over Equestria and not Nightmare Moon or so! It was all an accident and even if I can't do it now, I will find a way how to make everyone bow down in front of me!"

"You can't," Twilight said determined. "There's only one path for you and that's loosing. You can't win anymore."

"I can always win!" Screwball exclaimed, becoming louder again. "You lost!"

"Just think about it, Screwball," Twilight said calmly. "You already messed up Ponyville and Canterlot, just like Discord, but you can't win. Whatever you do, whatever how many friendship experience you take, you can't win and I know that!"

In this moment, Twilight's glance fell on Screwball's grey horn and she saw a small, but still visible crack appearing from the top of the horn.

"I'm not like my daddy, I don't let you manipulate me like Fluttershy manipulated my daddy!" Screwball shouted like mad, but with an ounce of nervousity. "And together with him, I will rule over Equestria!"

"Discord told me, that he created you, because he was lonely," Twilight said, still remaining calm, but determined. "He had no friends and he always knew, that he wanted friends. Real friends, that care for him like Fluttershy."

"Don't mention the name of that monster in front of me!" Screwball shouted again, angry of hearing Fluttershy's name.

"And even if you won, you still lost, because you're alone," Twilight said. "You're alone, just like Discord used to be."

Screwball opened her mouth to say something against Twilight, but she had no idea, what to say. In this moment, another crack appeared at the top of Screwball's horn, slowly growing bigger.

"When Discord ruled Equestria with chaos, he also felt lonely. Even with all the power, he was lonely," Twilight went on. "He created you to have a friend. You're just a mirror depiction of him. But when he reformed, you felt left alone."

Screwball still remained quiet, but then, she slowly nodded her head and whispered quietly, but full of anger, "It's because Fluttershy manipulated him!"

"Don't you understand that?" Twilight said and facepalmed. "It's not Fluttershy, who manipulated him. It's not me either. It's none of my friends. Discord needed friends and he always needed friends to prevent feeling left out and he felt well, when he finally found Fluttershy as his first friend."

In this moment, Twilight saw a third, small crack appearing on Screwball's horn. Screwball must have finally heard it herself, that her horn is slightly falling apart, so she collected all her magic again and strongly fired a green magic blast at Fluttershy's face in the screen.

"Fluttershy isn't his first friend!" Screwball started shouting again, louder and angrier than before. "I am, but he ditched me, when he found Fluttershy! That dumb little Fluttershy!"

"Now it's you, who is alone," Twilight said. "You're not any different than Discord. You need friends as well."

"NOOO!!" Screwball shouted even angrier and narrowed her pupilless eyes again.

Twilight glared at Screwball's horn again and saw the small cracks from before slowly growing together, making the horn stronger.

"I'm not like Discord, I need to rule over the entire Equestria and drown it into chaos. That's what makes me happy! I don't need those stupid pony friends like you do!"

"You're not happy, even if you rule over the entire world," Twilight said.

"But still, I've got my daddy and he's back to old again!" Screwball protested. "He doesn't feel anything to Fluttershy anymore and is overly happy to rule Equestria together with me!"

Twilight opened her mouth to say something, but her eyes fell on Screwball's horn, from which the cracks appeared again, slowly growing bigger and trying to reach into the direction of the foundament.

Screwball heard the sounds of the cracks and her stare got glassy of nervousity. With her halfway-damaged horn, she tried to kill the screen-Fluttershy with her blasts and loudly screamed over and over again, "I need chaos to be happy!!"

"You're lying to yourself," Twilight said. "You don't need chaos. You need a friend and I know it excactly."

"You don't know anything!" Screwball shouted to Twilight and fired another green beam into her direction.

Twilight swiftly performed a shield charm.

"Discord likes me and he wants to rule Equestria with me!" Screwball went on shouting.

"That's wrong!" Twilight exclaimed, getting louder as well.

"You're wrong!" Screwball exclaimed and fired another beam at Twilight.

This time, the beam hitted Twilight, as her reflects were too slow to perform another shield charm, and tossed her backwards. But the beam didn't injure her seriously. It didn't injure her at all. Neither appeared a dangerous fire.

"You manipulated Discord, not Fluttershy!" Twilight shouted. "The friendship, you and Discord currently have is not real. He isn't like that and you forced him to be like that for your own benefits!"

Further more cracks appeared on Screwball's horn and Twilight could see, that Screwball got seriously panicked, now. One blast after another came out of her horn, shooting left and right next to Twilight.

"Stop lying!" Screwball madly screamed while shooting all the blasts. "He is like that, Fluttershy manipulated him!"

"You're lying to yourself," Twilight panted, as she constantly had to avoid Screwball's blasts. "You're pretending to have him as your friend and father and you're pretending to have fun with him, but that's wrong!"

Screwball suddenly stopped and another crack appeared on her horn. She froze and frantically pointed at it with her left hoof, while she yelled with a clearly visible tone of panick, "You destroyed my horn! You're destroying my horn!"

"I don't do anything," Twilight said shrugging. "I didn't fire a single blast, it's all you."

Screwball suddenly stood still and didn't move one milimetre, but the sound of her cracking horn still didn't end.

"Just be honest to yourself," Twilight said calmly.

She pointed at all the screens with her hooves, all the reformation screens, where ponies, who went the wrong path, decided to become better.

"All those ponies were honest to themselves. They realized, that there was no other choice for them to accept friendship. So they did," Twilight said. "You can be one of them, too."

"No way! I'm not like them!" Screwball roughly responded and heard another crack.

"You and Discord, that's nothing other than friendship between you two," Twilight explained. "Discord is your friend and if you accept friendship, you can have his admiration."

"I will never accept friendship!" Screwball screamed. "Discord is already my friend, why should I?"

Another crack and Screwball startled.

"I can't accept friendship like you ponies!" Screwball went on. "There's nothing friendship worthy about me! I'm a creature made of chaos and I can't have friendship like you! The things I've done is beyond forgiving!"

"If you're saying that, you're wrong," Twilight said. "Everycreature is capable for friendship, including Discord and including you."

"You couldn't even forgive my daddy, how will you forgive me?" Screwball asked back and heard another crack from her horn.

"I was wrong," Twilight admitted. "I wasn't as good as Fluttershy and I couldn't forgive him. I couldn't give him a second chance like Fluttershy did. But I can try at least."

Twilight streched her right hoof out and streched it to Screwball. Screwball only stared at it and as she heard a few more cracks of her horn, she pushed Twilight's hoof away.

"There's no friendship in me and I will never take your offer to change myself!" she screamed and was ready to fire another blast at Twilight.

The blast directly hitted Twilight and tossed her backwards and in this moment, a particulary huge screen appeared between her and Twilight. Screwball couldn't believe, whom it was showing.

The screen was showing herself sitting at the colorless ground of a abadonned dark old room, constantly staring at a purple picture frame with orange citrus glued on it, with tears in her eyes.

Twilight slowly raised her head and just like Screwball, she could see the scene, the screen was showing as well.

The perspective changed and the screen focused on the photo in the picture frame. Twilight recognized it. It was the same photo, Discord also kept in his frame, showing Screwball and Discord happily together.

Screwball remembered the time, she and Discord shot the photo and tears appeared in her eyes as well.

The Screwball depiction in the frame wiped her tears away and whispered in a sad tone, "We were friends since forever and...and I just want to be with you again. I want the old times back, I don't want to be alone anymore."

"I had to take over Equestria!" Screwball shouted and desperately tried to hide her tears. "I had to to...to impress my daddy for my archievements, so we can live happily together again, like in the old times!"

She stared at herself in the screen and quickly added, "I didn't want him changing, but he changed, so I had to take his friendship experience away, so things can be so, just like in the old times! I didn't want to be alone anymore, I was alone for too long!"

As Twilight heard Screwball, she immediately stood up.

"I understand, it's hard for you, when things change, but there's gotta be another way for everything to be fine," Twilight said.

"There is no way! I need Equestria in my hooves!" Screwball shouted, half trying to hide her tears, half trying to avoid her horn breaking into pieces.

"There is another way," Twilight said. "Just give it a try."

Screwball hesitated. She still stared at herself at the screen and suddenly, she felt the same way just like the depiction of her at the screen.

"I'm sorry as well for not thrusting your dad," Twilight admitted slowly. "But I will change. I will try it and I will be there for you!"

As Screwball heard Twilight's words, she finally rushed into the direction of the screen. Just like magic, the screen suddenly disappeared as sudden as it appeared and dispersed into a thousand, tiny, round drops of sparkling, white light.

Screwball ran through it, right into Twilight's direction and tightly hugged her. She didn't even attempt anymore to hide her tears, which flowed down her cheeks and dropped at the white, glowing bottom of the meta-universe.

Then it happened: Screwball's halfway-damaged horn bursted apart with a loud sound and the pieces of it spreaded all around and turned into light drops as well.

The same tiny light drops flew in a huge swarm all over Equestria and made every mess, Screwball caused, disappear.

The turquoise magic barriers all vanished and with it every pink cotton candy cloud in the sky. The bright, positive sun appeared on the blue sky again and made the next day as wonderful and beautiful, as it has never been.

The fighting Nightmare Moon and Pony of Shadow transformed back into Princess Luna and Stygian, who first looked confused at each other, but then hugged each other. The swarm also surrounded Neighsay and probably made him normal as well.

Then, it arrived into Ponyville and annihilated every colorful ground, every green, glue spitting volcano, every anthill and insect hotel and turned everything to normal and peaceful again.

The cats were meowing again and the dogs barking, as it's supposed to be and the fish with the hairy legs lost its legs and desperately snapped for air, as it can't survive without water.

Eventually, time stopped freezing and everyone was able to move again. Every victim from Screwball got their friendship experience back, the black changelings transformed into their original form again and the rest of the Mane 6 slowly floated down to the ground again.

Except of Twilight and Screwball.