Defiler: Apocalypse.

In the Ponyville library, oblivious to the fact the sun princess was out of conciousness, Twilight Sparkle had composed a hastly written letter to the princess in attempt to find out what was going on. She sent the letter using her own magic in fear of the nameless enemy being able to hurt Spike if she used him to send the letter, even if she could, it would be too much to ask from the already busy dragon. She'd have to remind herself to get him a huge diamond once this was all over, after all he was the one taking care of Angel now that... That Fluttershy was. She couldn't bring her self to even fully think that sentence to its end as she waited for the princess to respond.

Seeing a scroll pop out near the princess that still was captured, Nameless looked baffled a moment, before unfurling the scroll and taking a look at it. ”Ah, the pawn... Ofcourse she'd try to communicate with her mistress. Now let us see what might be ailing her, this should be fun.”, she giggled in her usual carefree, yet utterly creepy and static filled way. However her seemingly constant giggles died down as she started reading, even her smile fading a little towards the end of the scroll, ”My my... This I did not expect! That little cheater. Well she plays well, countering the emotion mess spell like that, first unicorn actually that managed that. I underestimated her bond to her friends and magic, how silly of me, won't happen again. Maybe there can be... Alterations to the plan.”.

Celestia woke up, groggy, yet glad to be awake and away from the horrors that the past had brought back, the wounds she thought to have already been closed, forgotten. It did little to her predicament however, she was still weary, as well as more than a bit battered from the earlier, definately not as she had planned. Looking up she saw the being that had attacked her and her sister, wait where was Luna!

”What did you do to my sister!?”

”Oh dear... Here we go and you don't even have a bed to wake on the wrong side of!”

”I swear if you hurt even a single hair on her...”

”Before you go further with your hateful rant of confused ignorance, I'll enlighten you. She fled.”

”So, am I to be tortured? You know you can't break me.”

”Feisty,  I like that~ Yet that is not true... I would just love to suggest a deal you know?”

”I will never deal with the kinds of you.”

”Even if only to save your subjects? Your beloved Twilight Sparkle puppet? My you really are quite the hypocrite.”

This got Celestia's attention, something had changed, but she was certain she wasn't going to like whatever 'deal' this being had to offer. Yet her silence did seem to serve as the needed response, she could atleast listen to what was offered. As the princess she wasn't foolish enough to deny the wisdom of thinking before acting harshly as she had just done with her words, even if her anger was well earned.

Settling comfortably on the now empty throne next to Celestia. Nameless smiled as usual as she turned to look back at Celestia she still held captive, ”The 'nightmares' you saw, don't you remember them? I'd suspect as much... Know what, those were my memories on what had happened before you judged me and put me in a box to satisfy that outsider.”, her voice cracking, pressing very heavily on the word 'outsider'. ”He doesn't belong, he shouldn't belong. And boy did he trick you!”, her voice full of unhidden, raw hatred, that was gone as she continued, ”However these recent crimes? That's the deal, finally we arrive to the main topic, the deal. I have nothing to defend my case, other than seeking to right a wrong that was done before you even started considering sending Luna to the moon after she so deliciously snapped. Yet now you know that I'm actually just tools for his game from so long ago, what I offer is that you help me play this game to bring him down... If not for yourself then for the ones you care for the most in whole Equestria, that should suffice. In return for your help in this matter I here by offer to be judged by the court of three, but there is one little quirk, it has to be the original three, Cadence has no right in the old court after all.”

Listening quietly until the other alicorn was done, she raised her eyebrow at this, quite unexpected and very shocking, if the memories were true... Her ally from beyond the veil of dimensions was really something far more evil than he let on, but she had done what she had to do then to save her subjects. The old court had not been held since, well not in hundreds of years actually, mostly due to the extreme ways it had used to judge, yet in this case it seemed the only true way. It meant change, as it was a very magical phenomenon to say the least, affecting everything the alicorns that were the judges had in their domain of control. The judges had to be very powerful in their magical ability, yet they had to be very well versed in their ability to control magical energies as well, or they could very well end up causing the next ponygeddon. Celestia remained quiet as she thought, a calculative look on her face, one that she rarely let show, but now she was nearly literally bargaining with the demons.

Finally she found the words, the words that would play with this being before her, if she had to play she'd play it so that she could save as many as possible. It was her duty, but more so it was her wish, her desire to see her subjects well, even if she might've not cared in the past where the old council still sat. She sure as hay did now, finding her feelings after such along time, it had made her stronger and even now as she thought of Twilight, along with her subjects, as well as everyone else. She only became more determined to correct things to the way they should've been long ago, ”You might lie, but it could not have been you affecting Equestria all that time from the box you were in. Very well, I will help you play this game of yours to one of its endings. However I will have my demands as well, I need your trust if we're to cooperate in this plot of yours... As well as my freedom of movement and magic as a sign of trust. I need to be able to affect things in order to make a difference at all. And as the part of the old council of three I expect you to speak only the truth to everything I ask, even before the trials, call it gathering evidence. So now without further fooling around. Will you promise on your own immortality to be judged when the time is correct? This promise is a magical treaty, unbreakable even with the strongest magic, denying the agreement once it has been made will utterly destroy you without a trace left behind in Equestria. In blood shall this pact be sealed between you and me as the only presentative of the old council present here at this moment. Once you agree, you will acknowledge the before mentioned abiding by them. After the judgement has been made you will forever be bound by it, unless othervise is decided.”, if this was what was required to finally fully remove the true darkness she had felt looming in Equestria for so many centuries, it had been elusive, yet definately malignant. She couldn't have pinpointed the being behind it, but now it was clear in her mind, before her was a victim, yet a criminal by her later acts, a demon which she had to bargain with.

After a while of hysteric laughing at Celestia. Nameless looked up with bloody tears of amusement falling from her eyes, if Celestia was going to play it like this, then she would as well... She chose her words carefully, even if her goal had already been reached, ”Before the council's only presentative I will agree to the terms and form this pact in blood, so that I may be judged as I is fit. Yet I refuse be judged if the three ancient marks are not present in my judging. With these words and changes to the pact I will bow before the council that has judged justfully before, seeing it is willing to do so once again as is its ancient duty. By my immortality I swear this to you, in blood shall I be chained to the decision of the council. May I, the alicorn of death, ancient magic and blood be judged before the council as is just.”, cutting a new wound on her own foreleg as well as Celestia's. She placed her wound against that of the princess', letting their blood mix as it was consumed in a glow without colour, finishing the pact. Nameless then proceeded to let the princess down, closing both their wounds, waiting to see if the princess would try to attack her now.

The attack never came, only a short nod, before Celestia conjured up a vision on Twilight Sparkle, then everyone else, making sure they were fine. Only Fluttershy was dead so far... Not too late to stop this. ”What was your plan then?”

”Simple, we guide Twilight without her noticing and when the others arrive back you have to act powerless or they'll demand the trial then and there, which would let him win once again. Trust me, if he gets what he wants after knowing that I've been able to spread the truth... None of us want that. There aren't that many dead ponies yet either, it seems the two large scale spells I and Dezarus cast mainly to kill each other quickly, trust me what he cast wasn't a protection spell.... They don't usually go haywire and turn into diseases and other malvolent events, what he used was something I know well, having battled it all my existance before being locked away. Sadly that is all I can let you know of it for now, please understand this. Back to the point, while the disease is a quick process itself, it seems like the other spell combined with it, together they reduce the being into a rotting 'corpse', revived by violence. He did not realize that the damage could be reversed, nor that I'm here talking with you in peace, instead of you trying to banish me. By the way, you know that spirit there?”, Nameless rambled with her simple plan sounding much more complicated by the second, but as she finally pointed at the cowering spirit nearby Celestia seemed to actually notice something out of the ordinary.

”Element of Kindness? Is that you?”, to that the spirit seemed to react, carefully peeking from where it was, then floating hastily to where Celestia was standing.

”Explains the ideas I've been having as of late... It is good that it is here however, yet highly disturbing.”

”Disturbing, shouldn't it be good that she is here, after all she-”

”Spare me your lecture of how she carries the element of kindness, that's beside the point! If the spirits cannot go where they are supposed, what do you think is going on?”

”This has only happened once, during the wars... I believe it was the.... You're saying someone's breaking the barriers? That's pure insanity, what purpose does colliding two, no perhaps even more than two realms serve!?”

”Total annihilation of everything that exists in those two realms.”

”....”

”Don't do anything stupid princess of the sun, you know that alone, or even together, we could not stand a chance... But yes, now it's good to have her here, she's not in whatever mad scheme he's putting into play. We need the elements as well, they are a strong source of power, a source that is unmatched in Equestria quite frankly. Yet with him tugging at the strings of fate too, what's there we can do... Except alter the rules.”, started Nameless, having lost her grin, her giggles. Her face was quite serious now as well for the formerly insane and apparently endlessly happy entity as she waited for Celestia to catch on to what she meant by altering the rules.

”You can't be serious... We've not sunken that far yet!”, Celestia couldn't believe what she was just now hearing the other alicorn present suggesting her. Her mind furiously trying to find a better alternative than what was being offered, playing with the fates was absolute crime, evil and horrid, yet when combined with what was happening...

”Dark arts are obviously forbidden for a reason, but this is the only way to go now... Even if you can't use them as the princess, your sister did have that ability. Quite apparently I do as well.”

”I can't.”

”You don't need to.”

”You know the consequences.”

”I do.”

”....”

Nameless sighed, it was time to sink back into herself and find what was required, it would've been just so much easier to... Just let go by now. Though, she did have a promise she needed to keep, a judgement to be had.... This was going to look so good on her criminal records, 'Breaking about a thousand different rules about forbidden magic', with that thought the insane grin popped onto her face again. As new fresh tears of blood started flowing from her eyes, they did not hit the floor as they fell, instead being gathered in the blood red glow of magic, which was drawing runic markings onto the floor. ”I will summon your special forces back to life of service, they did swear to serve you forever, the irony of that.”, she muttered, before finishing her ritualistic runic marks, which started glowing immensely red, a red fog condensing around the spots.

The marks started multiplying, slowly at first, but picking up speed with each, soon there being a hundred of the marks and with a crackle of dark energy the dead special forces of princess Celestia's most loyal personal guard appeared into the room, seeming as they had in their lives. Their commander spoke, ”We have come from beyond our death to serve you once more, as we served you in death shall we serve you in life Princess Celestia of the sun.”, her voice raspy, disembodied as she gazed upon their ruler. ”We are awaiting for your command.”

As tempted as the shocked princess was to take a step back she looked at them and perhaps even felt a bit better. It took all of her formerly cold and calculating personality to give them their orders, ”You are to evacuate Ponyville's unaffected and quarantine the afflicted. Your main mission is the retrieval of the bearers of the elements of harmony and escorting them back here with haste. Failure is not to be tolerated. Old protocol is in use as of this moment, go forth.”

At once when the summoned troops got their commands they bowed ever so slightly to the princess and without a question the unicorns of the small army gathered around the others, using a massive scale teleportation spell to transfer them all to Ponyville that instant. Yet as they arrived to Ponyville they were already under attack by the afflicted townfolk gone mad from the two spells combined, now attacking everything they didn't know from before. The special forces had their task and anything hindering them would be put down without hesitation.

After Celestia was done commanding her troops she turned back to Nameless, ”This sho-”, suddenly being stopped to look at the second being next to Nameless. ”Who is that?”, she asked as she saw the two being rather close with each other. It was a pure white unicorn, her mane black and cutiemark had the shapes of a scale with two scrolls on each.

”Princess Celestia of the sun, meet the only one who ever made me truly smile, my sister Shialee 'the just' of the Blackstar and Stormchaser families only true heir.”, Nameless spoke, her voice quite freely filled with her affection towards her long lost sister, if she was going to face her justice, she had all the right in Equestria to share her moments until then with the one she held so close to her heart. Sadly enough Celestia did not seem to approve...

”Yet another soul you have dragged into this mess... Was it not already bad enough that you had to call those special forces back from their well deserved graves?”, the princess queried looking rather unpleased as a whole.

Celestia's words, they hurt Nameless, but they did not make it even half-way through before her sister stood in front of her, unusually aggressive... Apparently Celestia, Luna and Cadence were not the only ones able to use the royal canterlot voice, ”How dare you... Even if she doesn't seem like it, SHE IS HELPING YOU. I came of my own will and you dare blame my sister for providing me the chance to?! Why if you weren't the princess I'd turn you into mincemeat this instant!”, Shialee was furious, she had taken several steps towards the princess as she spoke and once she reached the end of her speech she just stared at Celestia, her eyes full of loathing.

Nameless was the first to recover from her sister's unexpected behaviour, walking over to her sister and nuzzling her neck affectionately. ”Sister I can handle being questioned, you've done so much for me... Why don't you just rest and enjoy our time together dearest sister.”, she said hiding her own shock, after all she had had her time to learn how to hide her true feelings from even herself. Truth to be told, she did remember her sister being a fiery spirit to say the least... And a heavy friend of alcohol, but she had always been there for her. As her sister calmed down she sighed relievedly. Hidden under her calm surface was a troubled being, grimly wondering how long she could keep that lie.

While this was not the first time today she was shocked by having her private space be assaulted, it was the most unexpected one. However before she could form a good answer to the assault, Nameless had already calmed down this seemingly unexpected situation. She would keep her thoughts about the white unicorn to herself, even if she did feel a bit annoyed truth be told, it was not often one would get to just walk away after talking to her like that... Until recently that seemed. ”My apologies if I seemed offensive, alas it was not my meaning to, it is just that this all is taking its toll on me.”

”Yeah whatever..”, came the short response soon followed by gulping sounds.

Turning to her sister, she saw the bottle steadily on her lips and sighed loudly at this notion, how her sister had so quickly found a new supply for her so beloved rum was beyond her ability to imagine. Yet her sister would be happy with tha rum, giving her time to work with the princess towards the more or less invenitable ending. ”Okay then, Celestia, we need to work. Let us push the monster away from the fate.”, she proposed and it was listened to as well as accepted by the princess.

Together they started purging the fate lines, drawing power from each other as they went deeper and deeper into what was hidden beyond the usual mask of the world, prying into the workings of the world they lived in. As their minds travelled along the lines of fate, they felt a dark presence, corrupting the lines. They both knew that the instant they spotted the corruption the battle over fate itself had begun. Much to Celestia's dismay the fate of Twilight Sparkle was not there.

Shialee watched as the bodies of her sister and the princess fell to the floor apparently unconcious. She sighed heavily at the notion of this, ”Yet again sister, going where I can't follow thee.. You are cruel, cruel beyond measure.”, taking a few heavy swigs from her bottle, before heading towards the library. It was clearly time she started her own project, 'namely save my sister from herself', she thought, a grim smile plastered on her face. As determined as the two were to save this world of theirs she had her own little game to play, and a bloodline to call for aid. 'Sister isn't the only one able to bring back the dead.. And I only really want the two of them here. It's finally time to bring this madness to its end. I hope you'll be happy sister, this is all I can do for you.', she thought to herself while idly checking the burial records of the noble families, finding what she was looking for her horn glowed and then she wasn't there anymore.

In the library, Twilight Sparkle's letter had gone unanswered, which bothered her, but it didn't hinder her that much, she'd gotten a lot more self-sufficient during the time she'd spent in Ponyville after all. She did rely on her friends however, with Pinkie back to normal it was a bit easier to confront whatever might be going on, after all that pony never seemed frightened of anything else than losing her friends. ”Hey Pinkie! Let's go check on the others, perhaps together we can come to make some sense of the situation.”, she said, heading towards the stairs leading down to the main part of the library, quickly being joined by a pink blur. Yet as they arrived downstairs the two of their friends were gone, the door was left open as well. ”Guess they got bored and went ahead to get something to eat?”, she muttered with her eyebrow still raised at the messy sight, she'd have to clean it herself since Spike would be occupied with comforting the traumatized bunny for a pretty long time yet. Now she and her friend needed to go and find the two.

Pinkie didn't like what she saw at all, it was as if there'd been a battle in the library, not the happy party pillow fight style battle either that she so liked. There even were droplets of blood, this made her lean closer to Twilight without her notice as they walked out of the door and headed to find their friends.

Rainbow Dash caught up with Applejack near the Sweet Apple Acres, she had had a gnawing feeling in her gut ever since she saw Applejack leave, what was the orange earth pony up to. Probably no good, she had always had a suspicion towards the pony, after all she did cheat in the running of the leaves competition, she might've not had a very clean bag of flour herself, but she was the Dash, so it was alright. What she didn't know was that her emotions were being affected by something vile as she dived towards Applejack to stop her.

Applejack had simply left for her home, feeling rather disturbed because of the sudden thoughts she had when she thought of a certain rainbow maned pegasus. The thoughts couldn't have been from herself, she could never believe such of Rainbow, they did have their differences, but they were friends. She just needed some time for herself or she'd snap and do something she'd regret something fierce later. However she found herself ambushed as she was knocked to the dirt, a weight descending upon her back, from there she they rolled until a stop against one of the many apple trees. She was up quick enought, the impact has shaken whatever it was that had her ambushed like that in such a cowardly manner. As she got up and looked around for her attacker, she saw, Rainbow Dash, surely enough on her feet as well, her wings spread out in anger.

At this point there was no need for words as they both started circling each other, their faces twisted with hatred towards each other. It had gone far beyond the point of words, both of them sure that the other was up to no good, the hostility just proved it all.

Beside her calm and stoic nature Applejack's family had its own dark secrets, granny smith had taught them how they battled the pegasi properly in the old days, it all had to start with the wings. And she had to be the first to strike, before the pegasus could get into air.. She moved according to her indirect teachings and suddenly rushed towards her former friend, stopping on the other side of her and instantly rising to her front hooves and bucking hard at the wings on the right side. She heard a cry of agony accompanied with a sickening crunch as the kick connected.

Rainbow Dash had missed the earth pony as she suddenly assaulted her, she didn't manage to hit her, before she was hit, her right wing hanging limp and bloody on the side. She couldn't fly, she was in a lot of pain, her emotions a tangled mess she kicked wildly at her enemy again, this time out of despair to get the opponent away from her hurting side. Her kick connected, but it didn't seemingly do much, else than make the enemy even more furious. She moved in time to dodge the next hit as it came, taking a step away after her own kick. After that she spun to face the other pony that was charging at her again already, from a close distance. She leaped out of the way and gave a kick to Applejack's chin, this time making her recoil, but it was soon responded to.

Applejack seemed furious, this pegasus had dared hit her, it didn't make her stop however. Her mind was rapidly receeding back to what she'd heard from granny Smith, stopping now meant death. She took a few quick steps and slammed her body against the pegasus in attempt to quickly overpower the muscularly inferiour pegasus. As she felt their bodies slam together she heard another satisfying snap, registering it was one of the rib bones that the sound came from. She didn't however manage to topple the pegasus, being pushed back, accompanied by a fierce growl.

The two combatants spun to look each other in the eye again, their eyes reflecting only deep hatred as the spell had taken them over, finding root in their dark secrets. Without their notice, their coats lost their colour, it seemed to just drain from them, like it had with discord, but this time the left on colour was black, not grey.

Applejack was the first one to charge again, trying to land a solid hit on her still quite quick opponent, only to have her try dodged. Before she could get away from her opponent, she came under a ferocious barrage of blows from the formerly sky blue coated pegasus. Three hits in a chain struck her before she could get away from the beating hooves. She felt her head being battered by atleast two of the blows, the third landed on her neck, leaving her stumbling in her step as she tried to register the assault, which had happened in a matter of seconds.

Rainbow Dash was hurting all over, some of her bones were definately broken from the earlier strong hits the earth pony had landed on her. Yet even through all the pain, she felt her hatred only grow with each hit she landed on Applejack's body, it sickened her to see the earth pony like this. She felt mad at herself, but she knew that she couldn't stop herself even if she wanted to, after all... All her fears had been true about Applejack, she was up to no good and had to be stopped, yeah that was it. Atleast it was what she could bear to tell herself. However her thoughts didn't hold her back as she took her opportunity and launched herself at her former friend, starting another battering rain of blows, desperate to end this before it was too late.

The orange earth pony had no time to react to this newest attack that was launched upon her, leaving her defences utterly open this time. Under the series of blows she felt some of her bones shatter, screaming in agony as she fell to the ground, trembling as she tried to get back up. Applejack found strength in her unyielding hatred that seemed to still surpass the nervous systems in her body as she launched herself head on towards the enemy. Her head landed on Rainbow Dash's chest, shattering the bone structure, causing the already shaken pegasus to stumble backwards, coughing up blood. With a grim satisfaction Applejack watched as the pegasus struggled to stand, wiping a her face so she could see through all the blood clouding her vision.

Rainbow Dash wasn't called 'the Dash' for nothing, as after she got her bearings and a short breath, she was back in the face of the earth pony, biting her ear and ripping a piece straight off as she passed through Applejack's defences again. She was much too fast for the applebucking farm pony, but she had made a mistake in her calculations, as she tried to take a fast blow at the earth pony she was caught and thrown to the dirt.

While her ear burned like hay, she did anticipate the next move and turned just in time to grasp the pegasi's foreleg with her teeth, pulling her out of balance. With that she moved over the pegasus and started pounding her mercilessly with her hooves, intent on making this the end for the fight. She made sure to subject the wings to a thorough trashing as well, but she really wasn't too picky where the hits landed, as long as she kept hearing that satisfying sound of bones crushing under her hooves.

The pegasus struggled for her life, she didn't want to die, not here, especially not because of a stupid mistake she'd made while fighting a stubborn mule. She kept kicking back as long as she could, biting and doing everything she could, yet in the end she couldn't do much to hinder the strong earth pony that kept raining blows on her. She was quickly reduced into sobs and whimpers of pain and agony as even the hatred she held was not enough to help her endure the feeling of having most of her bones pulverized. She felt a few more hits land on her as her vision blacked out and she slipped into a welcome state of unconciousness. The last thing in her vision, the face of Applejack, even twisted with rage it was a beautiful sight she thought, but why was she crying...

Applejack saw her opponent powerless under herself, it made her ever so furious for some reason, perhaps she had expected to have more fun.. But no that wasn't it, she'd kept pounding the now unconcious pegasus she called a friend before she was ambushed and betrayed by her. She stopped only after she saw that the being under her didn't move anymore. The being before her was nearly unrecognizable as the former friends he had so foolishly trusted, bruises, wounds and blood all over her once so gracious form that she might've even adored. The images flashed in Applejack's head and made her shudder with a strange feeling, but it didn't stop her, no she was sure that this was some trick again, but oh so soon it would be ended, every restless night she'd spent dreaming of that pegasus flying in the skies.. It made her thoroughly sick even remembering them briefly. The feeling was unwanted, unwelcome, yet it remained. All the plots of this evil traitorous pegasus would come to a end soon, so very soon!

After that she grinned to herself, wobbling for a while, she wouldn't let that darn pegasus traitor die yet. It was time for interrogation the old way, she thought to herself as she started dragging the beaten and thoroughly bloody former friend of hers towards one of the sheds, leaving a trail of blood behind. She nearly winced as she had heard another crunching sound when she started dragging the unconcious pegasus by her tail.

Once the rainbow maned pegasus came to she saw the room with its instruments, it was not something she dreamed to ever see to be honest. Ofcourse she'd heard that there were things like this on the surface on the history lessons, those that she bothered to attend back in Cloudsdale, but she'd never even tried to imagine one of her friends actually posessing something like this. The inside of the room was dull red in colour, it seemed like the one Applejack wanted to clear the spot for with her help. It had been hastily turned into a torture room and she was the main attraction. She struggled against her bindings, but it seemed to do little more than tighten them more around her limbs, even the strap around her neck tightened until she could trash around no more in the fear of losing her ability to breathe. She could swear she'd been hearing dark laughter echoing around the room as she had tried to see if she could escape her fate. She looked around after having calmed down and surely enough, the earth pony she so hated was standing there, but it was what she held in her mouth that made her eyes go pinprick.

Applejack smiled wryly at her defeated adversary, she did not know why the ambush, but oh she'd get that information right about soon. ”Awake are ya? Ah trust ya'll kno' what these are for sugarcube.”, she mumbled from around the instrument of worst possible torture for any pegasus. She held the wing cutters so they would be easy to see for her former friend, placing them against one of the wings, priming them into cutting position. ”So ah was wonderin', why stoop to petty ambush all o' sudden?”, she questioned her prisoner, starting to bring together the blades of the tool, pressing on the wooden handle. She had her doubts she'd ever hear the honest truth from this pony, but she was interested, about as interested as she'd get towards a traitorous whelp like the pegasus before her was. She thought for a moment why she felt so much for the being she was just going to amputate her wings from, there it was, still the same hurtful, gnawing feeling in the back of her skull. Perhaps that would go away if she just pressed down a tiny bit more..

Rainbow Dash didn't have much choice in the matter, but it was all the same, she was going to die here after all, might as well be 'awesome' to the end, ”Ambush? What the hay are you talking about.. You were obviously scheming something, just leaving like that! I had to stop you!”, came the scream in response, getting a shocked look from her captor. Soon after came the reminder of her situation as the blade started cutting into her flesh, the fear of losing her wing got the best of her again, the pain making her scream.

”Ah'd never stoop low like that! Ah was jus' goin' to check on lil' Applebloom, truth be said ah couldn' stand jus' sittin' there an' feelin' those feelin's ah had! Ya'll dare call me the traitor!”, Applejack replied with a growl, intent on now cutting the wing off of that proud loudmouth pegasus.

”Oh sure I'll believe tha- wait Scoots!”, Rainbow Dash snapped out of her hateful thoughts towards Applejack at the mention of one of the Cutiemark Crusaders. She'd been helping Scootaloo with latest stunt on her scooter, it had been a sunny day and they'd both been having lots of fun, sharing new tricks with each other. 'Scoots always tries so hard to impress me, I didn't even think! I never think.. Oh Celestia I'm so stupid.. Scootaloo! She's homeless and now all this violence, what kinda idol am I at all!? Not awesome, not at all awesome is what I've been to her feelings. Applejack said she was going to check on her sister.. They might be still together at the clubhouse!', she thought, colour slowly returning to her coat, as it had done with Discord's spell. Oh no, RARITY!

Meanwhile the orange earth pony did seem to have the same line of thoughts, her eyes widening as her thoughts raced back on the past. She remembered the days she'd spent with this amazing pegasus, competitions and all that stuff, daring each other to do something incredibly stupid.. That had been fun, truth be told, she didn't half mind finding that particular pegasus sleeping in one of her family's apple trees, after all she could always trust, wait had she thought of trusting that being she'd just tied down. Oh what had she done, what had they both done, the wing cutters came off of her friend's wing, before they'd cut the wing off, falling to the hay covered floor of the barn as her coat gained the tan orange tone it had had before. This pegasus had someone to care for as well, much like Rarity and herself..

The two now proceeded to stare at each other in horror in the silence that came after the realisations of what had nearly come to pass between the two best friends. They both then mouthed the exact same name, ”Rarity.”, as if it was the name of some horrible beast instead of their beloved friend that they both cherished.

”Look Rainbow, ah.. Ah'm mighty sorry, can ya ever forgive this...”

”We'll talk about this later Applejack, we have to get to the crusaders, quick!”

Applejack carefully hugged her friend after undoing the straps binding her down, but only for a brief while. She was now free of whatever it had been that poisoned her mind like that, she was certain that if it was Discord there'd be hell to pay once she'd find that good for nothing son of a mule.. She'd buck that being to the other side of the moon, with or without princess' permission!

”Oww..”, was all Rainbow Dash could say, before hugging her friend back as tight as she dared, in spite of not getting herself hurt more. She got Applejack's attention and soon enough her old friend had backed off her and sought bandaging materials from a nearby box of equipment. Once she found what she had been seeking for she wrapped up the pegasus nice and tight, ”You're not going to walk on those legs anytime soon..”, came a worried sigh. The cyan pegasus never was good at accepting help, perhaps even being as stubborn as the orange earth pony was herself, so she tried to stand, finding herself faceplanted faster than she could realize that she had tried to stand on the table.

Applejack carefully lifted her friend onto her back and grinned, ”Oh it seems like Dash ain't being so dashing~”, finding it way too hard to restrain herself from saying those words, even if she did feel awful quilty about her friend's condition, she wasn't in much better condition herself, but enough to walk and carry a very light weight pegasus on her back. She never did catch on how good that coat felt against her own..

Rainbow Dash hid her blush of shame as she was lifted from the floor by the strong earth pony, having no other option, she held on to her friend the best she could, trying not to admire the strength of her friend too much. ”Yeah yeah.. Joke while you can. Now can't you go any faster?”

With that the two were off towards the CMCs Clubhouse.

As they left the barn, two glowing red eyes appeared into the shadowy corner of the barn, darkness spreading unnaturally into the whole area of the barn. He had lost the battle, unexpectedly, but if he wasn't able to corrupt any more, he would just have to eliminate the pawns himself.

The princess of sun and her unexpected ally had gained victory in the battle over the fates of the ponies, leaving them able to decide for themselves, even if their emotions would still remain a mess for now. As they returned to their bodies however, Nameless noticed something a miss, her sister. Her sister wasn't there to see her back to this world, this made her a bit nervous, but her sister had never been one to be sitting down and staying still while others did all the interesting stuff. She knew that, yet she remained a bit shaken, hiding this from Celestia, who had just turned towards her with a strange look on her face, not fitting the usually so high and royal alicorn.

Celestia was excited, she hadn't been this excited for years. She knew she should be worrying and such, but this simply was a new experience even for her, it made her feel able to affect the world around herself. She had not meddled in the affairs of normal ponies for years now, Twilight had been the first in a long time she could watch over, not entirely unlike a mother would, even if she did know Twilight not to be her offspring. Twilight had however awakened her to the fact of her existance again, all she had done before, hold council with the nobles of Canterlot, decide over things and more politics, it felt empty to her. Her bewilderment did show on her face for a moment as she turned to look at the other alicorn present, her secret ally, secret was the word that made this all so much more exciting. She felt up to the task, even if hesitant to step over the unspoken rule of not affecting the lives of her subjects directly, which she considered she had not done by releasing the fate lines, that was indirect benevolence. Celestia managed to get her expression under control after hearing Nameless wonder, ”I did not know you'd find something so irresponsible so dangerous to be exciting, we did have to lock the fate away from ourselves too in order to keep him away from them.”, sounding even a bit worried.

”It is quite the change from the royal routine you must understand, the last great event was with Chrysalis and I could do so little.. It shames me to extent to admit my unpreparation for such event. I am usually able to predict these things, this is so sudden! I haven't had the chance to do something important for years now you know, so what's next in your grand plot?”, Celestia asked, trying in vain to hide her excitement from the black coated alicorn that was gazing at her expressionlessly for the moment, ending up sounding slightly giddy infact.

Nameless just stared at the sight before her, a giddy, blushing princess, what in the hay was going on. Perhaps the out of the normal world stuff had messed up the princess' head or something, even in the past she'd never seen neither of the princesses act like fillies so to say. This certainly was something new, but she did have the next part of her plan already, having felt the being she wanted to extract her vengeance on appear back in the physical world after the battle. ”Time to take a bit active role Celestia. Inform the leader of your troops to head to the barn. And tell them not to talk to anyone else than those in their troops. The mission from before still remains, but this has to take primary priority.”, she muttered while she scried upon the being in the barn, if he had taken things into his own hands, so would she. As Celestia concentrated to contact her raised from dead troops to give them the orders, Nameless hid her grimace, hoping that the troops would make haste to the barn, othervise things might get complicated, they couldn't afford to lose the main piece of the puzzle.

On the battleground, the special forces leader's head snapped up as a voice spoke to him and soon after he nodded, ”New primary objective, follow my lead and give me a bodycount as we go! For Celestia!”, rallying the remaining of his troops to gather and follow his lead towards the Sweet Apple Acres, having been given the coordinates.

His troops replied to the rallying with various different shouts, mostly in the glory of Equestria and Celestia, they surprised the commander by reporting only ten lost in the recent battles to subdue some of the enraged masses of Ponyville, they had put up a bigger resistance than the griffon army so long ago had. The commander could hear a few of the troops chattering like good old times, about Luna's newest prank apparently involving the dragon ambassadors. They hadn't even had the need to use their swords to subdue the villagers. They would make good time. With this the elite troops went to complete their objective.

Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie had checked Rainbow Dash's cloud home to no avail in their search for the two, the next place to look at was Applejack's home. They headed towards the Sweet Apple Acres, stopping in their tracks as they saw blue feathers and orange fur litter the road along with a lake of blood. Twilight looked distressed for a moment, which made her pink friend shudder, it was a look that screamed 'this isn't going according to the plan' to her. Pinkie pointed quietly at the trail of blood leading off from the scene. The two quietly followed the trails, keeping a quick gallop as they did so, they needed to know what had come to pass here.

As they arrived to the barn, the doors were wide open, but they could not see inside the barn, there were no lights there, only a crushing darkness that seemed to pervade the whole area inside the barn.

Pinkie Pie's sense kicked in strong, she felt uneasy about the darkness and stopped Twilight while still shuddering. ”Th-that darkness is not natural!”, she blurted out, sounding unusually serious, but she had sounded so from the moment Twilight had came to again. The purple unicorn stopped to look at her friend, then turning back to look at the darkness, ”It might be a trap.”, the unicorn agreed.

And once the words were spoken, they both felt a sudden aura near them, it was a horrible feeling, twisting their guts, they both stepped back, away from whatever it was. A black figure appeared from the darkness, the darkness following in its wake, its eyes glowing malevolently red. ”Ah, your friend is really something there.. I thought I'd just get to remove you without a struggle, how unfortunate.”, it growled and the darkness launched towards them both with a immense force.

Twilight Sparkle was the first of the two to react, moving so she was between the spell and her friend,  looking her friend in the eyes as she put up the shield around them, drawing strength from their friendship. She unconciously knew that she could only defend against this being, it was a lot like Nightmaremoon had been when it controlled Luna. She couldn't let Pinkie down however, so she'd keep the shield up until she was ready to teleport them to safety. The barrage was however fastly depleting her energy, weakening the shield spell keeping them safe.

Looking at Twilight made her hurt, it was clear Twilight was struggling under the barrage. Pinkie leaned against her friend lightly and helped keeping her up by letting her lean against herself. However the next statement made her shiver down her spine. ”Pinkie, when the shield goes down, run, run and don't stop.”, her friend had just said, the voice heavy with strain.

Much to their surprise they heard the slowly growing noise of hoofsteps on the ground as heavily armoured figures appeared to be coming towards them at amazing speed. Soon they were passing the protective bubble around the two and charging straight into the darkness, at the being assaulting the two, pegasi striking from air, unicorns providing magical support to the troops and the earth ponies wielding blades held with their teeth as they rained hell on the enemy. The commander noticed the two and nodded to them as she passed by, grinning wickedly as she jumped into the fray against the unknown enemy.

Pinkie poked Twilight out of her wide-eyed staring at the battle, they seemed to actually do a number on this enemy, the unicorn members protecting the melee and ranged fighters from those dark energies as they confronted the main enemy without fear. Pinkie managed to get Twilight moving after the protection bubble disappeared, as usual Pinkie was the first to spot a trail of heavy hoofprints on the ground and led Twilight quickly away from the scene. They were headed for the clubhouse now as well.

Rarity had a terrible haircut by now, and she was simply starving, but those were her minor issues, aside from needing a hooficure this instant. She had actually been quite shocked since Twilight suddenly had snapped. She had been throwing up for the past few hours. She was feeling ill, there was this blood constantly flowing from her mouth in small trails as she had been defending her boutique from usually would be customers trying to burn it down. However now she was behind the door of the clubhouse her sister Sweetie Belle had helped to build, floating a stack of needles beside herself for protection as she knocked on the door. Not getting any answer, she opened the door and carefully stepped inside, looking around for a possible ambush, oh there was a ambush alright, a bucket of water fell on her head, soon followed by a battlecry from the crusaders that had been hiding there after everything went weird. She could only find herself quite awestruck as she was soon pushed over and tied down by three little fillies.

”CutieMark Crusaders Sisters In Arms yay!”, the three of them shouted excitedly as they dragged their victim into the tree house and put her into one of the corners. Soon bringing the still bucket headed Rarity under interrogation.

A few moments later the door was kicked open and a furious looking orange earth pony stormed in, carrying a sky blue, rainbow maned pegasus. Scootaloo and Applebloom were the first to react, rushing over to help the two ponies they were able to instantly recognize, unlike Rarity who was a mess much worse than usual, making her really hard to recognize.

Applejack and Rainbow Dash could just stare at the tied up white coated friend of theirs, ”Buhhuh, uhhuh.”, came from the both of them, this was not how they had expected to find the three at all, least of all Rarity. And before they noticed they were seated on pillows comfortably enough, now having to answer a barrage of questions, Applejack from her little sister and Rainbow Dash from her number one fan as it was. However Rainbow Dash went a step further, taking Scootaloo under her healthy wing and holding her gently as she started answering the best she could. For now they forgot their pain. Sweetie Belle had Rarity right where she wanted her as well, big sister would now have to listen for once.

And finally the house was lighted up with a big flash as Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie both appeared inside, a bit burned, but othervise quite nicely preserved. Twilight was stopped from going further to secure the premises by Pinkie, who took her usual spot at the babbling at the speed of light line, this probably did mean it was safe. The bubbling pink pony wouldn't be so talk active all of sudden if everything wasn't alright. With this knowledge acquired, Twilight felt herself completely free to take a complimentary dive on the floor and fall unconcious as the disease had caused her to feel much weaker than she normally would.

As Twilight Sparkle had been quickly put on a hastily put together resting spot, all eyes turned towards Rarity, there would be a moment of silence before she was released and welcomed back with a group hug. Pinkie could not be happier, her friends, what remained of them were with her there, even if she found herself tending to Twilight rather than communicate too much. Pinkie never liked when things got really rough, ofcourse if they got play rough, then she was all for it, but now.. She'd just have to pretend nothing bad was not going to happen as she tended to the lavender coated unicorn.

After a while of rest Twilight Sparkle had the energy to open her eyes, only to see all of her friends around her with worried looks on their faces. She tried to get up and reassure her friends that she was alright now again, but she found herself unable to move being sent back to her original position with a mind staggering flash of pain which made her face screw in agony. The disease had progressed to its last stages of evolving in her, for once she was irritated of not having the body of Applejack or Rainbow Dash, since their good health allowed them to shrug off the disease. She would have to go on a diet after this..

As Twilight seemed to feel better they were all around her in a instant, after the initial reactions and Twilight trying to calm everypony down, they would start counting their experiences while separate. Applejack and Rainbow Dash both had had the same experience earlier, explaining they'd felt some pretty dark stuff towards each other, as if something had made those feelings stronger. What the two rivals left out was the near wing cutting scene, they'd talk about it later, not now, but they did explain how they snapped out of it. Twilight would explain what happened to her and Pinkie would point out other things, that mattered for once, for example about the armoured figures storming whatever was in the barn.

And so as the five started figuring out what was happening, strange beasts appearing, disease, the dark feelings..  A single shadow crept in the depths of Everfree, following another.