Defiler: Apocalypse.

Celestia had conjured up a crystal ball so she could observe her pupil and her friends, while Nameless had gone to look for her own sister, only after she'd sought through the whole palace she came back to Celestia and sat a respectful distance of her.

Shialee had reached the graveyard, which was still where she remembered it to be, the stones were crumbled and some even broken, yet she remembered where they rested. She had not come here to see her sister suffer from what seemed to be her fate in each of these stories, uncertainty and madness, driven by her own tormenting memories from her childhood. She had thought of this during her time in death, unable to cease existing and just float between the worlds, it was time the adoptive parents of her sister would make up for their deeds in the past. She looked at the graves one last time, before starting to draw the blood markings upon the graves, summoning every last piece of her will to bring this to the end it deserved. They call me just, they call me fair, but I never was fair to begin with, I just did what I needed to.. And so I will do it again.

It took time for Nameless to express her concerns about her sister's disappearance to Celestia, who reclutantly would turn the gazing ball towards Nameless' sister. What they both saw made them cry out, but it was too late for them to intervene in the ritual as Shialee fell to her side, the runic marks starting to glow as two beings emerged from them.

Shialee saw the two ponies and whispered, ”The royal palace, you have wrongs to right. End the eternal suffering you caused to her, or be cursed..”, before life left her body once again, her body faltering to ashes before their eyes.

Nameless couldn't watch it anymore and turned away instead of watching who had been called forth. ”I-i've seen enough..”, she would stutter, for a moment completely without will to finish what she had started.

Celestia however had seen the process through and nodded to herself before turning to Nameless, ”So what should we do next?”, she would ask, her gentle voice unshaken from what she'd seen. After all she was the ruler of Equestria and she'd seen her fair amount of death during her seemingly endless life, leaning slightly closer to Nameless to let her know she was there, so she would stay until Nameless had regained her composure.

After a long time of silence Nameless looked up again, ”How well did you know Discord?”, her voice still a bit hollow as she had not expected to feel the loss in such a way, but the question had now been placed into view, time to see if the rumours about Celestia's relationship with Discord before he became a evil entity of chaos had been.

”Why would you ask such a thing.. Well yes, the two of us were rather close so to say.”, Celestia would reply sounding a bit startled by the sudden question about a more touchy part of her past.

”I have a plan.”, Nameless chirped, sounding far too happy with the situation even, planning seemingly cheering her up quite quick from the loss of her sister. She was always happy when she could make more plans.

Celestia shook her head slightly at the sudden change in demeanor, ”Not so sure I'm liking how you sound when you say that.”

Nameless would go on a defensive, sounding carefree as she shrugged and voiced her defense,”Hey they've worked, so far.”, however weak that was, she wasn't laughing anymore.

”Not very trust inspiring.”, said the white alicorn still looking a bit suspiciously at her ally, her mane flowing a bit faster as she thought about the consequences.

The black alicorn saw this to be her chance to remind, ”You know, we do need everyone we can gather.”, as she'd dropped her act for now, simply stating the fairly obvious fact.

This did not sit well with Celestia at all, but as much as she loathed the idea they did need him. Chaos had never been without power and the ability that Discord had in that field would certainly prove useful to them, seeing how Discord had always been able to affect the world even from his stone prison to a extent. Without her own wish her thoughts trailed back to the time she had been with Discord, before he succumbed to his insanity and became a tyrant, this made her look away from the other being in the room. ”I hate when you're not playing crazy..”, she would finally sigh after taking some time to rest her mind.

”Let's go! Maybe you even get to date him once it's all over! Move your plot princess, too shy for a little chocolate rain?”, Nameless would spike at Celestia, seeing how moody she was being and deciding to use it to speed things up a bit.. And it did work, soon enough she had the full fury of the solar princess after her as she was chased, heading to the statue of Discord.. It was a wager they'd have to take.

Ponyville:

Zecora had during her life been to bars and such a few times, but she'd never had a hangover this bad. Cracking her eyes open slowly not to give herself a headache she looked around slowly, expecting to be in her home, but she wasn't. She saw someone in the doorway coming towards her as she lay on the bed, it was a lavender unicorn, yet with her eyes foggy she wasn't so sure she knew who that was. 'Someone might've drugged me and.. Oh no!' she thought to herself, trying to get up, but the cuts proved far too painful to move with, so all she could do was to stare at the impending rape with wide-eyes as they tried to focus through the fog.

Twilight had seen a fair share of weird acting from Pinkie, but this was pretty curious, she'd never known the zebra to be this jittery. She stopped by the bed she'd carried the unconcious zebra to earlier and looked over her quietly for a while, it was rather clear the zebra was freaking out about her presence. 'Must be the remnants of the poison making her act funny.' she realized shortly, before trying to calm her down, ”It's me, Twilight, your friend. Remember?”.

It took its time, but she could see clearly now, it wasn't probably the best possible way to start her morning, but the fright was gone once she heard and saw Twilight properly. ”Water.”, she mouthed hoarsely, feeling dehydrated from sweating under the poison's effects. She'd manage to get up to sitting with some help from Twilight, which she in her condition accepted, it still stung slightly.

Other than the poison, wounds and dehydration she seemed fairly healthy, no signs of the disease that had taken hold of many in Ponyville. Twilight took a mental note about the zebra as she headed off to get some water for her friend, returning soon with a glass of water held in her magic, yet each use of her magic weakened her as the disease had already begun to infect the magical streams running within the unicorn like veins. She managed to hand over the glass, sitting down and shaking her head slightly as the pain from the strain of handling even magic simple as that gave her a terrible headache. She knew she wouldn't last long, simply wondering how Rarity was dealing with her situation, she had earlier written a scroll to the princess about their conditions and location asking for assistance. Spike had sent the message and was now tending to Angel again, the bunny having first been extremely apathetic seemed to fare a bit better by now, accepting to drink a tiny bit of water along with a piece of a carrot.

Screams coming from below soon reached the two beings upstairs, disrupting them as they were exchanging information of what had happened in the Everfree and in Ponyville, the news of Fluttershy's passing had hit Zecora hard.

Indeed a few tears were staining the zebra's face as she wept at losing her best friend so suddenly, now understanding why the visits had stopped so suddenly between them, blaming herself for ever doubting her pegasus friend.

Twilight in meantime was holding Zecora tightly, letting her know that she was there for her, there wasn't much she could do other than that before she knew how things truly were. She had however drawn a faint outline of things by now, being the 'egghead' as Dash called her so often, being fairly certain that this was all a caused by a spell or something else of magical nature. One thing was sure, it was not a spell she knew anything about, seeing how all the forbidden spelltomes had been tightly locked away for centuries now in a place even she had no access to. The few forbidden spells she'd learned were from some of the sources she'd aquired in her never ending search for knowledge. Each passing moment she spent trying to resist the disease's spread inside herself, but it kept slowly gnawing at her.

The battle had ended in the victory of the Ponyvillians, but some of the monsters had fled towards the library as they were still after their prey that they had been originally called to stop at any cost. Yet as they neared the library they saw it was barricaded shut from within, it would take them some time to get past the barricades and to their target, but nothing else mattered to them at the current. There were four of them, each of them having gone through alterations in their physique after being put under the effect of the dark energy that had called them to the hunt. They had been timberwolves, they still were, yet they had grown larger and more powerful towards their purpose of hunting bigger prey than usually.

As the timberwolves made short work of the barricades at the door they were met with a heavy resistance. A blur of orange and cyan charged at them.

Applejack had heard them coming, having informed Rainbow of the noises as quietly as she could. With a fierce determination to defend their remaining friends the two had taken their places side by side near the main doorway, prepared to rush straight at the assailants once the barricades gave in. They'd also told Rarity to go check on Twilight and Zecora so she'd be away from the danger's direct path.

Rarity was not blind, nor was she a fool, she knew something was wrong and she intended to inform Twilight about the situation. Her own health had been steadily declining towards the invenitable and her moves were clumsy and feverish at best even after having rested. There were no thoughts to take respite in, they were all still in a great danger as long as they remained in Ponyville. However she felt relief when she remembered that her sister was safe with the other crusaders at Sweet Apple Acres.

Yet at the Sweet Apple Acres things weren't too good for the soldiers either, wherever they went they faced opposition, but they were now regrouped and much to their despair their numbers had dwindled to thirty already. The situation was reaching critical as they had failed to find the bearers in their given time. The commander was slightly upset at the developement of events, but he was barren already to losing squad members, that was the side-effect of being a leader in the royal army. However things took a turn as their next directions arrived to him mentally. It was time to move on to the final destination of their journey, the center of Ponyville, its library. They would make haste, none of them wanting to be responsible if they failed to get the element bearers safely to the princess. However something ran past them at amazing speed.. There was four of them, three small and one rather imposing figure.

A while back at the home of the Apple family:

Granny Smith had lived long, seen many dawns and dusks, persisted through many diseases, many events that could've gone better. Now as she looked up on the skies she knew that her time had come, life was already leaving her elderly body and her eyes had grown dull. She still had one last thing to do, to pass on the ownership and the lead of the family.

Big Macintosh had his usual sprig of wheat hanging from the side of his mouth as he wondered why he'd been called from his defense of the farm to the house now. He looked worriedly at Granny Smith, something was off and it startled him. The look in Granny's eyes did not ease his worries in the least.

She climbed to the chair she usually sat in, having dragged it outside so she could take her last breaths under the skies of Equestria that she'd come to admire during her long years in this life. Taking one last look up at the sky she sighed and turned to look at her grandson, it was time. It had taken her time to think of how to express this to him, having decided to do it as was the Apple family's way, plain and honest, ”I'm dying, an' before ya'll start sayin' othervise listen an' listen good. Ah've seen you an' your sister grow up into fine ponies, jus' like yer mother and father would've wanted it to be.. I have no regrets, but there's one last thing to do before I rest.”, listening to hear the expected protests, yet they never came so she continued, ”The leadership of the family falls on you grandsonny, 's a lot to handle all at once a know, but ya'll do well to remember that whatever you do and wherever you an' your sister go we'll all be mighty proud of you, have alwahs been. T'was a shame your mother and father never lived to see you all grown up ponies, they'd been proud.. Tell 'em others my farewells, for ah don' think they'll hear 'em now. Goodbye, ah'll be waiting on the otherside. Promise me you'll keep them safe.”. Her voice grew gradually weaker and weaker, the glimmer in her eyes fading as her pulse slowed.

”Ah promise.”, came the only answer the big work pony could offer, standing stoic as always, never betraying the whirlwind of emotions within as the life slowly left Granny Smith and there was nothing he could do to stop it. He held his granny's hoof until she was gone, never once wavering or breaking into tears, only the sprig's movement betrayed his emotions. After granny breathed no more he looked away and shed his tears in the silence that followed, looking up at the sky as his tears fell to the ground after flowing down his cheeks. ”Ah promise..”, he uttered and turned to look at the orchards just in time to see Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle standing nearby.

The crusaders had headed towards the Apple family's home to help keep it safe, but upon arriving to the family's home they could hear words spoken in low voice. Applebloom felt a ominous feeling as she slowed down to tentatively approaching the two figures she knew to be her family. Once she got close enough to hear the words being spoken she halted in her steps along with the other two crusaders that were now listening to the exchange in a stunned silence. Only as her brother finally turned to face them Applebloom felt something break inside as she walked over to her brother. ”N-no..”, she whimpered as she was pulled into a gentle hug by her brother, tears flowing from both of their eyes as they wept quietly at granny's passing.

Scootaloo looked at Sweetie Belle sadly, the look was returned as they sided up with each other and just sat down their heads held low in mourning as well. Something in seeing the once so strong pony pass into the next life greatly unsettled them both and for a moment everything went quiet.

After a moment that seemed like eternity to the four Big Macintosh gathered himself and asked, ”Where's Applejack? Need to let her know.”, his voice unshaken, yet the urgency underlying his tone could not go unnoticed by Applebloom, whom started leading the way to the library after telling his brother, the four of them sprinting towards the library.

Back at the present moment, unknowing of what had happened, but as soon as they identified the beings as ponies, the commander issued orders to follow them at top speed. They all united as one and dashed after the ponies, pushing through the Ponyvillians with renewed vigor. Their objective might just be fulfilled soon!

At the library things were getting heated up as Applejack and Rainbow Dash gave the offending force hell rather literally, even if wounded the two were a remarkably strong opponent even to the timberwolves that usually had no problem with taking down ponies.

Rainbow was feeling rather reckless as her fury doubled, these might've been the ones to hurt Fluttershy, they sure seemed like the kind to do that. She would not let single one of them leave the library alive if it would be her choice. She kept up her assault, not noticing a single timberwolf that had sneaked up on her, not before it slashed at her wings causing a sickly crunching sound as its claws sliced through the left wing. She turned and bucked the timberwolf in its face, sending it to the nearest wall as she screamed in pain, her left wing laying limply on her side.

Applejack wasn't faring much better, even if she was fiercely determined and had managed to single-hoofedly take down one of the timberwolves she'd gained several cuts on her body, one of her ears was missing a piece from the tip as she kept battling the wolves, sending strong kicks and headbutts at any opening her opponents provided. She noticed Dash take a hit and made her way through the battle to her side so they could help watch out for each other. Her fury only increased as she saw the extent of damage the wolf had done to the cyan pegasi's left wing, but before she could assault the timberwolf that was responsible a pink blur beat her to it, wailing as it threw itself on the surprised wolf, mauling it until it was lifeless under her hooves.

Pinkie Pie had been in the kitchen, preparing the food supplies for the travel to Canterlot when she heard a scream she recognized fairly well, after all she'd spent days pranking Dash and with Dash. However this scream held no happiness in it, only a evil intent for the cause of it, come to think of it she'd felt somewhat disturbed for a while now. She went to take a look, only to see her possibly best friend's wing torn so it was useless for flight, hanging limply to the side and trickling with blood. Pinkie rarely saw blood, it made her sick to her stomach, but as she noticed the bloody clawed timberwolf starting to get up she simply lost it and even if she by nature was a loving and happy personality.. This was nothing like it, all she saw was painted in red as she made a dash towards the being that'd dared to injure her friends, she'd seen Applejack as well. Oh how furious she was, leaping onto the wolf and simply mauling it with her hooves powerully, each of the impacts giving her some sickly feeling of great pleasure. Her mane was flat and she was laughing..

Up in her bedroom the resident librarian turned her head sharply as the door opened and Rarity staggered through the doorway, ”We've been found Twilight..”, collapsing near the nightstand from exhaustion.

Twilight helped Rarity to the bed as well and told them both to rest as she headed downstairs herself  to check on the situation. The situation had greatly changed since she saw it, three dead Timberwolves, menacing Applejack, furious Rainbow Dash, and the very apparently out of her mind Pinkie Pie. The last remaining timberwolf had begun to flee from the library, yet as soon as it made its way to the doorway it was kicked into air by a pair of very muscular hind-legs, the hooves impacting on its belly and leaving gaping holes into it as it flew, crashing into a nearby building.

Applejack and Rainbow Dash had taken out one of the wolves with a ferocious determination, working as a team, but as they witnessed the event that happened with the fleeing timberwolf they could only stare, their mouths wide open in shock. Pinkie Pie however seemed only very happy as she clapped her hooves together, sitting on the mutilated pile of lumber that the timberwolf under her had been reduced to.

Moments later a very familiar red stallion's head peeked through the doorway, with three of the CMC's members as well, ”Eeyup.”. Big Macintosh made his way to hug Applejack along with Applebloom, letting the news rest for now, they'd have to find a better time to tell her.

Meanwhile Scootaloo occupied herself with staring at Rainbow Dash in shock, to which she earned a pained grin from the cyan pegasus, ”S'up champ?”, before she had to sit down so Twilight who had now made her way to the bunch could tend to her wing until they'd get a better chance to mend it.

Sweetie Belle didn't like how Pinkie just kept giggling so she asked Twilight about Rarity, getting her answer and heading upstairs to go see her big sister. She saw her sister chatting with the zebra as she made her way to the bed and poked her big sister carefully with a hoof, only to be snatched into a tight hug right when Rarity noticed who it was that wanted her attention.

And then the reinforcements arrived, having lost another five of their number, but othervise they seemed to be in a good mood, the commander walking inside and checking the situation, before signaling the remaining medical unicorn troops to tend to the injured ponies inside the library. Twilight Sparkle was pulled into a private conversation between the commander and herself.

”So you're the protege that Princess Celestia seemed worried about. We're here to take you all back to the castle.”

”The princess sent you, that means she's alive, oh yes yes YES!”, Twilight was nearly hopping about, but then remembered her state and coughed slightly embarrassed.

”Well then, once everyone's gathered we can make our move to the castle.”

With that they started gathering everyone to the library's main room for a long-range teleportation spell to be cast so they could teleport to safety. For now they were safe indeed.

At the royal gardens:

Discord had been once again prisoned into the stone, it felt like a ritual by now, ofcourse it was what he deserved, but perhaps he could've gotten a better cage after all these years. How very rude of Celestia, then again he'd broken her heart once he became the monster he was today. Not that he'd repent anything of it, there was no time for it, nor did he need love from that overly frilly filly. It had been because of her that he'd done it all, but then she just gave up on him when he needed her the most, allowing Luna to capture him in stone, that traitorous little alicorn had even helped to turn him into stone, how dare she.. Oh well he'd have another millenia or two to think about everything, even his next reign and its chaotic delights, yes ofcourse he knew that Equestria and the dimension it existed in would be destroyed soon, along with Celestia, sweet innocent Celestia. Wait why was he once again thinking about her!? This made no sense.

Neither did what Discord saw next, Celestia was standing before his statue'd form, with someone else he knew very well indeed. Apparently Discord had lost his mind completely and couldn't trust his eyes anymore, then a stray sunbeam hit his statue as the alicorn that knew Discord rather well as well dodged the bolt. And as easy as that, he was free..

Celestia was so consumed in trying to blast Nameless with her horn that she didn't even pay attention to the now free ex-love of her life. Not before the said being appeared between the furious sun goddess and the laughing pitch black alicorn.

”Ladies, ladies, must you fight over me, and yes I know I'm just that handsome.”, came the ever joyful sounding voice of Discord, before the chocolate rain that Nameless had promised. Meanwhile Discord took the time to whisper, ”What's she doing here?”, into Celestia's ear that twitched in irritation.

”Wait you two know each other?”, Celestia replied a little louder than she'd intended, causing Nameless to look serious for a while.

Nameless took the spotlight and bowed, ”Why ofcourse I know dear Discord. It has been so long since I lastly saw his dear little happy chaos loving face after all.”, her signature smirk on her face.

Discord had unknowingly taken a defensive stance to protect Celestia from the black alicorn as he breathed out her name, ”Defilicus.”, taking a moment to gather himself, ”She governs the darker part of chaos, didn't we agree to.. You know, keep her in the box?”. Discord was now rather confused, if it wasn't her who was causing the destruction and the absolutely delightful chaos, who was the beautiful mastermind behind all of this?

”Turns out the one that should've been boxed was the one who we foolishly sought to help up with her imprisonment. Defilicus as you call her is just seeking for justice, and on the side helping us be rid of the one who's actually about to destroy our homes Discord.”, Celestia stated rather plainly, Discord's defensive reaction towards her had not gone unnoticed however. It unsettled her how much this alicorn seemed to know, even being locked up, she was quite sure about her two-facedness however.

Now there were three of them and they all headed to the throne room, bickering and jabbing at each other endlessly, Discord was more silent than usual around Defilicus, but Celestia seemed to be oddly comfortable with the presence of them both, after all they all fought for the same cause for now.

What however awaited them at the throne room made Defilicus really upset and confused for a good reason, she stopped in her tracks and growled, ”Father, Mother.. Haven't you brought me enough suffering already?”, with every last bit of malice back in her voice, her wounds bursting open, her blood gathering and infusing into her magic. ”You saw the future, you disowned me, you killed yourselves.. WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT?!”, she looked ready to take on the world, sadly it would not be enough to take down that which was threatening the world they all lived in.

”We're here to apologize, tell you that we were wrong.. And that we're proud of you, we always were.”

”You lie.”

”We loved you, but we were not strong like you.. We faltered and for that we'll pay the price.”

”And you just stand there to be butchered? Can't believe you two.. You Celestia burned sons of a cerberus!”

With that exchange, the unicorns used their magic to transport Defilicus out of there with them, to talk with her properly, tell her what had to be told. It wouldn't be long until Defilicus returned herself back beside the princess of sun, simply sighing quietly. ”They gave me what we need.. And died, again. All these years of malice, all wasted. I can't believe this.”, she mumbled to herself and tossed Celestia the tome. ”A favour to ask I have for the two of you, before I resign myself to the task I were born to do.. Tell Twilight Sparkle and her friends the honest truth about my past. I cannot face the element bearers, they are too painful for me to stand before. After all the elements are the remains of someone I held very dear to me ages ago.”, she mumbled, choking slightly before adding to the statement, ”Alicorns never truly die.. Do they? The tome will explain everything to you.”, before launching to the air and flying off towards the place she knew the outsider to reside in, there was one pony she had to save, one witness to what was going to unfold.

Celestia and Discord watched the dark alicorn make her way out of the palace grounds and Canterlot, heading towards the everfree, her magic flaring out constantly as she was prepared for battle. It had happened so fast that neither of them had time to react, Celestia simply held the tome in her magic and stared.

”Discord, what just happened?”

”This I did not expect from my darker side, a most unexpected choice.”

”Cut the crypticisms Discord, I need to know!”

”Ah, still the same, still the same Celestia, so hasty.”

”Dirscord, I SWEAR-”

”Keep your marbles in your head Celestia, she simply decided to quit this campaign with grace. I did not expect her to be so selfless in the end I must admit, most unexpected.”

”Maybe she had a good side to her.. Let us not waste the gift.”

With that the two left for the royal palace's throne room, to confront her student along with her remaining friends, as well as to read the tome they had been given as the last parting reminder of the alicorn.

The happenings during the brief disappearance:

In the halls of her dead family she stood quietly, watching her parents still in a frenzy, having every intention to rip their blasphemous lying faces off. ”I missed you, I NEEDED YOU.. And what did you do? You killed yourselves. I never knew why, it drove me insane, you know? I am what I am because of you! You made me a monster that can't for even her friend's sakes stop, every waking hour I see their dead corpses before me, I killed every last one of them when I lost it, they couldn't capture me before it all happened... I hate you.”, she hissed from between her teeth, the hiss becoming a bloodthirsty growl before the end.

Yet her parents did not take one step back at the angry alicorn's reaction, they looked sadly at their daughter, ”You were given to us a blessing we did not deserve.. But you must understand the full picture now. That's what your sister wanted for you, peace. We will show you the past, we will show you what happened before all this came to pass our dear daughter.”, the mare said with her head bowed in sorrow as she drew forth the memories, before sending them into her daughter's mind in a violent barrage, giving her everything, even the parts they had removed from their daughter's memory.

Defilicus recoiled for a moment as her mind's eye was tossed into a scene that she could only silently watch as the events happened, first came the deaths of their other daughters by the hooves of assassins, the third had disappeared, the fourth had been herself. Her mind then went to a scene her parents had provided her:

“The first noble house? Phah, seems like a room of stumbling foals!”, said the leader of the third house, who had successfully conspired with the rest of the families against the two leading families. In silence

The two leaders of the leading noble houses turned to look upon the traitorous being they'd thought of as a friend.. “First we lose three of our own and fourth is missing in the matter of days, now you come here, disturb our mourning and insult our houses.. After betraying our trust, how dare you.”, the colt's words were colder than ice, yet void of emotion.

“Oh it's simply business, which you seem to have forgotten.. And the fourth? I assure you, she's been a most delightful test subject. Now back to the topic, will you step down willingly or will we have to resort to violence?”, the revolt's leader spoke, the heads of the lesser houses gathering behind him, as did the members of those houses. “After all you two are the last living beings of your two houses, who had such a unfortunate disease..”

For a moment the two leaders looked at each other, the mare grinning widely at the colt and soon they both had that same grin on their faces. The mare asked, “Back to the beginning as it was darling?”, to which the answer came, “As we rose from the bloody fields of war and ashes of our homes darling.. Let us dance once again.”, loud and clear as the mare summoned their armours and weapons.

The pegasus colt had his armour, weaved from metal black as night, not reflecting a single ray of light. For weapons, they were attached to his armour, sharp edges on each limb, razors and other cutting edges. Over his spread wings rested a lightly armoured chainmail, ending in the tip of his wings that had two venomous spikes. On the flank of his armour, there was a engraved insignia of his house, a crescent moon with two stars.

The unicorn mare had her pure white armour, radiant as if the sun itself was weaved into her armour. Her helmet had no eyeholes only two decorations of eyes crying black liquid. Over her horn a sharp spike.  Her hooves covered in soft wrappings instead of armour, most of the armour consisting of light silks and such, instead of heavy armour. Her weapon a floating blade of the two sided variety. On the flank of this armour was Celestia's sun and a simple black blade resting under it.

With this they were ready and turned to gaze upon their common enemy now,  “Come, see why we are to be feared. For Celestia, Luna and all of Equestria, we march.”, their voices intervined as they spoke their traditional lines as they had done so long before. With that, they would engage the traitors into the last dance of fate.

The battle was brief, the opposing force was not a match to the  great leaders of the two houses that had served the two princesses for so very long from ancestor to ancestor. They had always been the ones Celestia and Luna called upon, even during the Discord crisis, however Luna's banishment to the moon had been a heavy blow to the other of the noble houses, yet they had served hundreds of years after that.

After the battle ended they went to retrieve their children that had been originally a unicorn, but what they found in the experimentation chamber was too much for the both of them, their daughter had been replaced by another being completely it seemed, nothing remained of the white coated black maned child they used to know. The experiments had altered her, fearing they were too late and that their daughter's mind had already been distorted too far they could restore it, they brought her to Celestia and Luna, making their one final request.

”Save her, please there must be something you can do.”, the white mare had cried as she broke into tears next to her mate, who only shook his head quietly, this had been a harsh blow to them both.

The rulers of sun and moon had held a private conversation in a side-room before arriving back to the throne room. ”We will do this, but in return.. We want the noble houses disbanded.”, Celestia spoke, looking at the mare, meanwhile Luna added, ”We have seen the suffering and pain that the struggle for power between the houses brought. And this being here proves our point.”, with her royal canterlot voice, looking at the colt to see his reaction.

The reaction itself came with delay, ”There are no other rooms left.. They died when we retrieved our daughters. The other is fine, even though there might be some trauma to be expected.”, spoke the colt, finally raising his head to meet the stare of the moon princess, but his voice was hollow. The mare only remained silent, her head in her forehooves as she lay there quiet.

”You.. Killed the other nobles? But thats.. Impossible!”, Luna forgot her royal canterlot voice for once in a very long time. Celestia herself took a step back, reassessing the situation calm and cold as she had been back then, ”You have committed one of the worst possible deeds.. In vengeance. There will be consequences to your actions. You are hereby condemned to ever again show your faces in Canterlot and are to be stripped of any honour or title that recognizes your past deeds, but you will live. Your offspring is held condemned, but will be provided for, you have one day to say goodbye to your old living place and your daughter.”, her voice was cold, only relying on the laws they had held at that time, yet they were softer than the public execution the normal laws demanded. Luna looked at her sister as she spoke, it was the side she had hated the most sometimes, but this time it seemed to work for the good of theirs, the best her sister could without causing mass riots to spread all accross Canterlot.

The two ex-nobles looked as their child was levitated by a powerful magic and something was done to her, but they would not know what, as the form did not change, however the cutiemark changed so that there were strange runes on it, perhaps a lock of somekind. ”We've sealed the power of your child behind the moon and the sun.. Yet in time she will know everything that's happened. This is the best we can do, she won't remember what happened, she'll instead think she's been with you all this time.”, Luna spoke as Celestia had already left towards her quarters, the smaller alicorn soon chased after her big sister, leaving the two with their daughters.

”Do you think we did the right thing sister?”

”For once, I cannot tell.”

Then came the scenes that Defilicus had seen herself, from different perspective, but surely enough, the complete fall of her parents and her own descent into madness and beginning of her blood magic. The times her sister and herself had fled the authorities, the endless drinking of her sister and the jokes they used to make, before they caught her and killed her sister. She saw the strange alicorn the first time and then the experiments, soon after that her permanent imprisonment as she swore vengeance.

The fall of her parents happened the same day's evening they heard the judgement from the two sister rulers of Equestria. Her mother had lost all the will she had held remaining within, her mind had faltered, the deaths of her own family drove her insane before her death. Her father had seen the signs and became depressed, taking his own life when the last straw was pulled by his mate's mental death.

On her flank the marks came off and her original mark was there, clear as ever. She could just stare at her mother and father in silence, ”So it is my duty now. I still blame you, but I can't truly hate you anymore.. Perhaps someday we'll find a better future, somewhere else.”

In the first time in centuries the two smiled at their daughter, before her mother called forth a tome that they had acquired from its ancient resting place in their noble house, it was a prophecy tome, much like the one that told the tale of Luna's banishment. ”We have fulfilled our promise to your sister.. Goodbye now our dear daughter, may we meet again once the time calls for it.”

Defilicus drained the knowledge from the tome and closed her eyes, it was clear now what she had to do. She had to set things right the only way she knew how, sacrifice. With that she left the faltering remains of her parents physical manifestation and returned to give the tome to Celestia.

Back in the present Defilicus had found her own salvation, her struggle would be now the beginning to a end to this madness that had been there for centuries. Ending to the pain that she'd caused due her own deeds, one final clash for her, but a struggle for Equestria. She could only hope that she did the right thing as she flew towards her final destination, sensing the familiar presence in the Everfree as she landed, nearing the presence.

Trixie had been fighting against the intruder in her mind, with her own feelings, but she was now losing control again. Slipping towards the invenitable she struggled with each step of the way to overcome the being that had transformed her, if only to slow it down. Suddenly she snapped her head up and looked at the strange alicorn that had entered her field of vision, never had she seen something so terrifying. The raw power emanating from the alicorn made her knees buckle from underneath her, yet the monster inside her tried even more feverishly to take over.

Difilcus smiled sweetly at the unicorn and cast the spell she had prepared in advance for this, it would separate the evil from Trixie and force it to manifest itself physically for a while. She drew with all her might the beast out and engaged it in a battle as they both took to the skies.

Once again spells, trees and anything the two could use to harm each other were used, raw magic burning through the skies as Defilicus and the horror fought each other without any holding back. The being resorted into more physical blows this time, and it was winning, Defilicus was countering with some strange runic magic that her blood empowered, creating great blasts of red energy emanate from each. They tore at each other with all their might, but the fight was brief as a lance of pure dark energies pierced through Defilicus' chest, pushing all the way to her belly from there, at this point Defilicus let out a victorious laughter as the mark that she'd drawn on her chest in the heat of the battle came to life.

Defilicus had seen her death at the hands of this being from worlds best left undiscovered by all, so she had prepared her very own essence for this battle.. She thought back to the elements of harmony as her coat came to life in many different runes as they ignited. With her remaining life-force she triggered the explosive power of the runes and flew straight at the monster that was trying to destroy Equestria. ”Fear me, fear me even after I have died.. FOR I AM NO PUPPET ANYMORE!”, she screamed and grabbed a hold of the monster as her body evaporated, the runes remaining in the air for moments before a multi-coloured explosion of truly blinding energy blasted everywhere eye could see. It cleansed the forest of the dark effects placed upon it by the enemy and hallowed the ground of the clearing, four rays of energy would also make their way into different directions.

In the separate locations lay dormant the reagents used for the elements, they were drawn together once again by each of these radiant rays of life energy. So were formed the newest weapons to use against forces of destruction, elements of purgation had been born.

Trixie had stared in awe below the battle, cowering at the explosion she failed to see one of the rays coming right her way, before it struck her unconcious that was.

The dark creature had been driven back to formlessness and it was severely weakened as it lay somewhere in between the worlds, recovering for its next attack.

Back at the palace:

The five living bearers, princess of the sun, the invisible god of chaos, CMC, Big Macintosh, Zecora, Spike, Angel and the special forces looked at the skies as they wavered in the wake of the explosion that had taken place. The sun princess lowered her head quietly at the sight.

Between the worlds:

The being was now fully tired of this non-sensical heroism and constant denial of their fate. He was preparing the battleground for the final confrontation, the princesses had stopped his progress towards destroying the realm simply and swiftly. He would have to destroy the princesses..

The battle for the end had now began, unannounced to both of the combatants, but the gears of fate were now turning freely.. Towards the invenitable end.