Sunset jumped out of the way to avoid the swipe, but the dragon quickly maneuvered its left arm and swiped it directly at the unicorn’s face, scarring her in the process. She immediately recovered, but the dragon got closer to her and started scratching her all over her body.

“You carry my essence.” the dragon said before throwing Sunset into a wall.

Staggering to get off the ground, Sunset fired some lasers at the dragon to keep him at bay. But the dragon easily avoided the shots and punched her face. The collision to her head heavily impaired her vision and Sunset had a hard time figuring out where the dragon was. But before she could react, the dragon proceeded to sink its teeth into Sunset. She screamed in agony as bits of her flesh were torn off before being thrown across the room.

“I haven’t seen you since the last time I’ve been in the human world. How is everyone else doing over there?” the dragon asked before forming a tentacle whip on its right arm.

Flinging its arm, it dragged Sunset back towards it before proceeding to slam her head into the ground repeatedly. She had a hard time discerning left and right. All this excruciating pain that she is going through is chalking up everything that she has been through her journey across Equestria. It was too late and she was already facing Death’s door. But before she could do anything, the dragon stopped and said,

“You’re nothing but a broken toy.”

Then the dragon threw her across the room and ensnared her with the Ooze that lingered on the ground.

“What would your friends say after they found out you lost their one and only chance of defeating me…? Only to find out my essence has reached the world that you love so much?” the dragon sadistically taunted.

“What…?” Sunset asked as she made out the dragon’s face.

When she got a closer look, she finally recognized the monster behind all the chaos and misery that now plagues Equestria. It was none other than her friend and Twilight’s former number one assistant… Spike.

“Why…?” Sunset asked as she looked in shock.

“Hmm?” the tyrannical dragon wondered as he looked at the nearly-broken unicorn.

“Why would you do all this!? After everything Twilight and her friends did for you… why…?” Sunset tearfully asked.

“Because I was dealt a cruel fate and I had no choice but to submerge into it! Your friends turned their backs on me! ON ALL OF US!!!!” Spike roared as he looked Sunset straight in the eyes.

Sunset was at a complete loss for words upon hearing her former friend’s answer. While she may have noticed that Twilight was acting strange since the moment she arrived, Sunset would never have imagined that her friend would do this to Spike. There was a difference between listening to two sides of the story and having the truth thrown into your face.

“Twilight…? No… why would she-?” Sunset asked before having her face grabbed by Spike.

“You could never understand. After all, you were the Sun Princess’s disgraced pupil. But it will no longer matter once my army charges into the Crystal Empire.” Spike said with sheer menace.

“Spike, I don’t know what happened to make you turn out this way. But I understand what it means to feel betrayed. If you just tell me what happened to you, we can-” Sunset said before Spike nearly digs his claws into her skull, nearly touching her brain as he looked her in the eyes.

“Betrayed? That’s funny. Because in the beginning, I seem to recall a certain pony who betrayed her own teacher and princess for more power in Equestria and would do anything to get it just because she craved it. Even if it meant stealing the crown from that sad excuse of an alicorn. And by the time you retrieved the crown, the battle was already decided; you were too pathetic to wield something that could potentially destroy the world. In other words, you are shallow. A fraud who believes the whole world revolves around her and believes that she is owed it. You were already a sniveling little coward, Sunset. You were just too good at pretending to be something you never were.” Spike said with incredible venom in his voice.

Just then, Spike proceeded to grab Sunset’s horn and began absorbing the Ooze that came out of it. When he was done, the unicorn dropped to the ground as she watched the dragon walk to the mummified corpse of the goat while fusing it to a shard of the crystal.

“I am looking forward to seeing our friends again. Because when I see their shocked expressions and listen to their meaningless attempts to reason with me, I’m going to take everything away from them. The same way they took everything away from me when I was cast away by your pathetic friends.” Spike said as it gazed at the corpse.

He delicately caressed the head of the goat’s corpse while looking at it as Sunset helplessly tried to break out of the Ooze’s grasp. Looking at his right hand, he put the Ooze into a shard of a crystal before proceeding to place it into its heart.

“This process will take two moons for this ritual to complete. Five moons. Perhaps a decade. But that will be all the time I need for Grogar’s resurrection.” Spike said as the heart on the goat’s chest started to slightly glow.

“Grogar!? You mean that the silhouettes, the voices in my head, the nightmares I’ve continuously had… they were all because of that thing in the middle of the circle!?” Sunset shouted as Spike turned towards her.

“Yes. But he is the one true leader of Equestria. And the one who will bring us closer to our goal.” Spike said as he walked towards Sunset.

“Do you even hear yourself…!? Haven’t you realized what you’ve done!? All you’re doing is destroying everything that you come across and all you did was massacre innocents!!! You’re no messiah!!! You’re a monster!!! All you created in your path to all this was death and destruction while you slowly make your way to reducing Equestria to a wasteland!!! Hatred and violence will never lead you to friendship!!!” Sunset angrily shouted while trying to escape.

“So what if I have led myself to this path? It will no longer matter once I get my revenge against your friends…” Spike said in a cold voice before raising his right arm at Sunset.

“No-!!!” Sunset shouted before being knocked to the ground.

Sunset tried to escape, but her efforts were in vain as the clone dissolved into the ground and left the cavern. She slowly slipped into unconsciousness before finally shutting her eyes.

Author's Note

So this is the penultimate chapter. I know that this is irrelevant right now, but I just learned that my cat died of cancer and has been cremated. From I've heard, she was choking on fluids and she had bruises all over her bodies. I didn't see the signs. But she was a nice kitty and has been by my side since high school. RIP Remy. You will be missed.