Defiler: Apocalypse.

by HorrorCore

Rating: mature
Tags: Romance, Adventure, Dark, Sad
Length: 42279

Will Twilight and her friends find a way to stop the evil that threatens Equestria.

(WARNING: First fic in longer format.) (Putting this up and taking a break) (There will be no shipping between OCs and the characters from the actual show.) (Lots of dark stuff there too.)

Well I'll just tell the stuff quick and let you go read:

Ancient evil has reawakened, everyone is played for a fool..
As the darkness descends upon Equestria, the six friends will need all the help they can get to survive this time.
Emotions are violated, friendships are forgotten.
Evil takes root, apocalypse draws near.
In a storm, can they find their way through it this time?
Or will their world wither and die around them..

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2012-09-08 19:14:46 UTC

It begins (Prologue+ch1)

WARNING:

A very bad writer's first pony story(Thing). GRIMDARK, SAD, SHIPPING.

Author's notes:

My little ponies are the trademarks of HASBRO and so forth.

Characters from the series: Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie pie, Rainbow Dash, Spike, Celestia, Luna.

Characters not from the series:

'Dezarum', 'Kitsy', 'Nameless'.

Prologue:

In the deepest of darkness in whole realm another than Equestria, eyes opened from their usual slumber as a presence was felt nearby.

"It is you, isn't it Kitsy?", came a growl out of nowhere in particular, the voice was disembodied, but the speaker's voice was masculine.

There was no answer, only silent touch upon the scales of the now fully awake shape in the darkness. "The realms need you once again, or have you forgotten those that you swore to protect so long ago? Have you abandoned your most sacred duty as the shadow flame guardian? Something is about to go seriously wrong and here I find you sleeping!", the voice was filled with anger, almost if challenging the being that'd been slumbering for long now.

The huge presence lifted itself and now it was fully awake, both of its pitch black eyes opened, the red dragon irises focusing to stare at the feline standing before her. "It must be a matter grave that you've awaken me this way Kitsy.", the growl had died down to a murmuring voice.

"It'll be quite different than the other worlds were, you might even find something there Dezarum... This world baffles me, but it is called Equestria."

"Equestria?", the presence was now paying attention.

The feline sighed quietly, "The pony sisters, remember?".

"They promised me they could handle it, what happened?"

"It seems Celestia has failed to keep it contained, Luna's however dealing with it much better. Probably due her darker

specializations in past."

"I'm heading to Equestria immediately."

During the night break that same evening:

Celestia returned from her royal duties, checking the midnight black obsidian box she'd held under tight wards. It was open, which made Celestia take a few steps back, looking quickly around to see the whereabouts of the thing that had been restrained in the box...

There it stood, a shape reminding of a young filly, but its shape horribly twisted, its guts hanging from the open wounds around its belly and groin, covered in surgical scars all over. "'Mother'... It is so good to see you after all these years.", it wailed with a eerie screeching voice, it was a raspy sound. "You should've killed me when you had the chance.", it added, as if mocking the princess standing before it. It began to fade into the night, the horrifying stench of blood around it nearly strong enough to knock the princess of sun back, if only to escape the awful stench.

Celestia tried to stop it, wrapping it in her magic to hold it down, to banish it, but she was far too late and alone, powerless against this creature. Looking for a while terrified, out of her usual calm manners, she took the scroll and quill, hastily scribbling a message to send to her star pupil Twilight Sparkle. It was a warning, but would it reach them in time?

The letter:

To Twilight Sparkle.

I'm so sorry, prepare yourselves.

I can only hope to see you again alive.

-Celestia.

That was all she had time to write, before sending the letter forward to Twilight, then dashing to where her sister usually gazed at the stars and moon to enjoy the night. She would find Luna looking up at the stars, with a tear falling from her eyes before she turned to face her sister's gaze.

"Is something wrong?", Luna asked before she fully took in the outlook of her sister, she'd never seen her this messy. Before she could react on what she saw, Celestia was by her side, "It has fled and I fear it's after Twilight and her friends...", came the quick response from the pony Luna had always thought the last to fear. "H-how...", the question barely left Luna's lips. "I don't know Luna, I don't know!", Celestia replied, her voice faltering along the way, her form shaking with unspoken terror.

However their grief was well justified, they could only hold the thing that'd fled down together for so long... Now it had to be destroyed, or all of the Equestria would fall. Powerless to do naught, but observe their world the two held each other close, desperate for even a little comfort by being close to each other... After all the horror would just begin.

In Ponyville a few minutes later:

Twilight's vivid dream's of what was happening were quite suddenly disrupted by her baby dragon assistant Spike. "Wake up Twi, hurry!", the voice was panicked, sure enough that got Twilight up, groaning, but up and awake. She'd open her eyes only to see a hastily scribbled letter infront of her, and as she read its short message, she grew pale, now sharing Spike's fears. What was happening, why... Princess Celestia had sent the letter, that much was clear, but prepare for what, and how? In a hurry Twilight got up from her bed and rushed downstairs, not answering the worried questions Spike posed to her about what was happening, instead she told Spike to wait there in the library as she rushed out of the door to check on her friends.

The royal palace, only a few moments later:

A tear opened into the air, then it grew bigger, until the gaping wound in the fabric of the world was big enough to let the entity intrude upon the realm again. It shouldn't be here, but it had to exist now, it had to have a form and it didn't like the only option it had. After the black smoke had vanished, there he was a pony quite huge to be a pony, but atleast the shape was right. He was a black furred pony, midnight black, yet on the spot where a pony had a mane, he had a trail of red scales starting from his horn and ending where a normal mane would, crimson red flames erupting from them, his eyes were pitch black except the strange turquoise irises.

"Still binding me into a form of a pony, after all these years, this place hardly changes... Now where did it run? where did it hide, for time is nigh.", the strange pony asked with his eerie voice. In reply only one of the royal sisters answered, "Ponyville, it knows that it can't harm us, but it can destroy them. Through them, us.", the voice belonged to Luna, darker of the two. "Well then, pardon me. Time to see if I can correct this yet without a tragedy.", came a response as the presence lifted itself into air, its wings skeletal, without flesh or feathers upon them as it set towards the place he sensed it now to be at...

However it was once that he'd arrived to Ponyville that he realized having come there too late to stop all of the events... The whole place was silent, the stench of death hanging everywhere. He wouldn't have a lot of time if it had gone this far already. He had to act fast, only choosing the one spell that could save the ponies that the horror was after.

"Sleep, sleep tight and do not wake..."

"Play, play the game and win."

"For your lives."

However, they were awake and the events that would happen that night would change their lives, maybe forever...

Chapter 1: Confusion.

The day had been quite interesting for Twilight Sparkle, they'd just gotten out of helping Pinkie Pie throw another of her trademark parties for all of Ponyville to enjoy. It hadn't been as hard as it had been fun though, after all Twilight was always more than ready to help her friends when they needed any help at all, even thou' Pinkie had made sure it was as fun as the party itself was going to be. It had been the evening they arrived from princess Cadence's wedding, which had in the end been quite the happy occasion, after the imposter was taken care of.

Setting up the party at Pinkie's usual place was quite much easier than it would have been to drag the equipment elsewhere, Twilight had been amazed once again how much of the party equipment Pinkie could hide in such small places, but it was Pinkie she was thinking about, so she decided not to get her brains hurting. Twilight had only needed to do her usual thing, organize where the things were put for the evening, she'd even had a chance to check on the DJ's table, however Vinyl Scratch was quite hellbent on keeping her tools of the trade together, leading into a rather heated discussion between the scholar and the DJ.

”It's for learning purposes!”, declared Twilight, while trying to figure how to best pick apart the device for her most important research on musical advances of the age.

Vinyl stepped in the way protectively and scowled at Twilight's attempts, ”You can't be seriously thinking of this Twilight!”

However Twilight was quite promptly ignoring her at the moment as she undid the first screw, which in  exchange prompted Vinyl into tackling Twilight away from her mixer table. The two unicorns proceeded to wrestle, while they both tried to tie the other down with their magic, that was until they fell of the stage that had been put together for the evening, ending up on the floor in a heap of lavender and white fur. It was not long until they heard a familiar voice coming from the stage, ”Oh you two, making out before the party's even started!”, and as they looked up they saw Pinkie bouncing up and down excitedly. The two combatants got up with a brief grumble and exchange of some very deadly stares the two went to the separate sides of the place. Pinkie's only reply, ”Was it something I said?”, being left unanswered in the embarrassed silence until the pink earth pony only shrugged, ”Oh well still plenty of cupcakes to bake!”, hopping off to kitchen.

Neither of the unicorns were too excited to get close to each other again for a while and the rest of the preparations went quite smoothly. Soon it was time for the party to start proper, first of the guests of the night were the rainbow maned aqua coloured pegasus, with a remarkable grin on her face, and walking along with her was a pink maned yellow pegasus, who looked none too eager to attend with all of ponyville coming, her wings clamped tightly against her sides. ”C'moon Fluttershy it'll be fun, I promise.”, Rainbow Dash tried to convince Fluttershy, this seemingly having worked a little as the yellow pegasus seemed to be a bit more relaxed after hearing her foalhood friend's assuring words. However this relief seemed only temporary as the ever elegant passed them by with a grand entry, dressed in her usual party clothing, ”But be a dear and lay off the punch this time, the last fiasco was quite the... Shocker.”. Remembering back to the last time Fluttershy had attended a party of this scale, having ended up throwing up in one of Rarity's fashionable hats, Fluttershy squeaked in terror and hid under the very table with the punch she'd been warned of. Rainbow held a hoof to her forehead and went to try and coax her foalhood friend away from under the table, only after having shot a certain unicorn quite the glare. ”Well I'd never!”

Meanwhile Twilight had managed to shift the last things to their places with Pinkie and everything seemed ready, however as she took notion of the happenings that were already going on, she couldn't help grinning slightly, the last party was quite hard to forget indeed. She'd even thought of the situation as humourable, if it wouldn't have been for Rarity's screaming... She could only shake her head at the memories, before noticing the last of her friends missing, where was Applejack? As she looked around she could see her friends busy, two of them having a trust issue that she would interpret as a relationship struggle between the two pegasi, Rarity was occupied talking to a very excited pink earth pony about the dress she'd promised to make from candy no less. Twilight thought that Rarity would need all the luck in Equestria not to lose her mind, seeing the request was after all from Pinkie Pie.

With these sights to be seen she shook her head again as to get her head off the clouds, she'd need to go get Applejack after all. Soon she was out of the front door that led to the Sugarcubecorner in her quest to find her missing friend, it was not like her to be late after all and she'd promised to come. She had a gut wrenching feeling of something being wrong as she galloped towards Sweet Apple Acres, she'd felt the feeling all day, but she'd been able to forget about it, thinking it had to be the breakfast Spike'd cooked her earlier. This was not however the case now, she knew something was up and she would get to the bottom of it...

As Twilight arrived to Sweet Apple Acres, she'd stop in her tracks, staring at what she saw in disbelief, there clear as day, orange pony with a blonde mane tied up was bucking trees like no tomorrow. ”Applejack!”, Twilight called out to get the other pony's attention. Applejack kept bucking the trees, gathering the apples that fell. ”How'dy Twi' what brings ya here?”, she asked as Twilight slowly walked closer, still recovering from her run. ”You're going to miss Pinkie Pie's party if you don't make haste, that's what. You know what she's like once you break a pinkie promise...”, Twilight calmly explained, the thought of what had happened last time made Applejack shiver and sure enough she packed up her work in a jiffy, getting ready to go to Pinkie's party. ”Alright, 'gess ya hafta have yer point Twi.”, she replied to the lavender unicorn, who seemed quite proud of herself for some reason as they headed back to the party.

That was then, however the letter that had arrived to her now, in the middle of the night, it had changed everything. As she raced to the Sugar Cube Corner, where the party was still probably going on, it was her hope now that it was. She felt exhausted as she reached her destination, her body trembling of the exertion. As soon as she was infront of the door she stumbled in and fell to her side... Her friends gathered around her looking concerned as the darkness fell upon her eyes.

As Twilight opened her eyes, she was laying on a bed in Pinkie Pie's room, that was as usual, quite festive as one could imagine of the pink party pony. She'd hear the excited pink pony yell, ”She's awake! This calls for a wake up cake!”, before she could properly react to her surroundings.

Meanwhile above the place called Ponyville, two spells of a greater scale clashed together in the night sky, the effects altering themselves due to the interruption. While the horrifying alicorn's spell would have simply killed them all, it became a disease and the one opposing spell set to defend Ponyville started drawing out the darkest emotions of the ponies below... And everywhere else as well as the effect of the spells became quite visible, flashing over whole Equestria in a white and red flash on the night sky. Time seemed to stop for a while, before both of the combatants disappeared from the night sky. In their palace the sisters felt their insides grasped with a most unnerving feeling, the reek of death reached everything... They could only hope to try and guide the happenings to a safer end, their own magic hindered by the presence of the two other beings, along with the spells the two outsiders had already put into play. Luna looked up to Celestia, before finding the correct words, ”They'll survive right? Even if we are denied to... To aid them personally....”. Celestia's voice was uncharacteristically cold as she responded, ”It is not within my power to say so Luna.”, causing them both to go quiet once more as they thought of indirect ways to help their subjects. They both however knew what they had to do, they had called the captain of royal guard to seal up the palace grounds and magical wards were in place, providing a safe shelter for those yet unaffected by the happenings outside. All they could do now was wait and hope for this to be over soon.

The two battling alicorns had appeared elsewhere to continue their struggle for power, this time black and red clashing against each other as they traded spells, physical and mental attacks in rapid succession.

The red scale maned pony was on the losing side, as his powers had been severally restricted upon entering Equestria, while his opponent was more or less naturally a part of Equestria. With these thoughts he kept slashing out with all he had, altering the air around his opponent to start burning her. This was countered soon as he felt his wounds suddenly burst with blood as it was drawn out of him and absorbed into his opponent.

He couldn't keep this up for long, not with all his blood getting drained so rapidly out of him, he had to forfeit the match, for now... With a single powerful blast of raw energy he knocked the alicorn opposing him back, feeling a grim satisfaction in the back of his mind as he vanished into the night again.

His spell had managed to severally injure the being so concentrated on her offence not to bother with defence. He appeared in his personal safe haven, but he could only observe from his far away place as he needed time to recover. His wings were pretty badly torn and one of his eyes wouldn't be coming back as long as he remained in Equestria.

He saw the alicorn he'd battled slowly finish getting all his blood that she'd drained during the battle into herself, to his horror however, it seemed to repair his opponent... He would have to be more careful when he'd oppose her the next time, but the next time he'd be ready, underestimating her had been childish of him aside from costing lives of some ponies.

The last thing he heard clearly was, ”Now to take care of those other pests. I wonder if they'll make me bleed too~”, said by the femine, but still screeching eerie voice that made him want to vomit. With that he passed out into his recovery state.

”He was no fun, too quickly done with, mommy will be so happy... TO CUT ME UP~ Again and again mommy~ Like we used to~”, the being muttered to herself, looking over the new cuts with delight. ”Oh I should really name myself, perhaps I'm Cutty the cut up alicorn? Too fancy... I'll go with the name I already have, 'Nameless' hrehheh...”, she monologued for a moment, before snapping out of it, her eyes going tiny as she looked about, something was there, something always was there...

If only to hurt her more, to carve her flesh more with a delightfully sharp blade, to put something in, to remove something. It had been way too long! Nameless smiled to herself, for a moment missing half of her face in her mind as she headed to the palace.

Shortly after arriving she was already bleeding profusedly as she magically hammered at the shields of the palace, while the unicorn protectors were doing their best to take her down, only making her bleed more. Far below on the ground where her blood seeped into the soil a ominous mark appeared, spinning under her, the blood put into it ready for her use.

The ponies on the wall fell flat as a large explosion went off right next to the wall, cracking a hole where the magic didn't protect. In only a moments notice she was inside, battling the ground forces of the royal guards, while being bombarded by the pegasi using spears.

Most of the unicorns spread the shield around the new hole to keep her from escaping while the others started a spell to hold down the intruder. Nameless was briefly stopped by this unexpected spell, it was strong as it was, made by the desperate unicorns in unison. She felt that despair and delighted so deeply in it, even as her wounds burned, she fed on the negative emotions without remorse, seeking only to cause more.

Her next attack took the unicorns by surprise as the spears the pegasi had thrown at her changed their trajectory, guided by her blood magic, accurately piercing the unicorns she saw using magic at her. She didn't manage to kill all of them ofcourse, but their agony only brought her pleasure as she drew the blood from their wounds, charging back into battle and biting down on a blade made out of solidified liquid, slashing around at the enemies around her like a maniac.

Many of the royal guard got wounded, but they kept pushing her back towards the wall, they had to hold on as the pegasi got a new set of spears to use. It wasn't long until the intruder found herself pierced by a bunch of weapons that should by all sense have killed her by now, but she kept relishing in all this, suddenly drawing out all of the blood in those wounded by her, leaving only the  ones with no wounds left as she laughed, "Tear me up, shred me more, I want to feel how it feels eating my own flesh!", as she saw the rest of the royal guard turn fully to her, even the unicorns now had to tie down the defending spell to turn at her and prepare for the final assault.

With all this delightful blood swirling around her feet she felt more than satisfied as she saw the remaining part of the royal guard charge at her from all directions, even from the air. She waited until they got close enough... Just close enough for her spell to be released as she had prepared it, her torn cloak   revealing her cutiemark as the pressure hit it and her hat nearly flew off her head as she finally released the spell.

The skies grew dark above them, the stars disappeared as the spell came to life. A whirling black and red tornado of blood and razor sharp bits of bone exploded from her location, expanding rapidly and slicing through the remaining royal guard just as the first of them could have landed a solid hit on her. She heard them scream, beg... She wouldn't even flinch, not a single spec of emotion remaining on her face as she watched them all get sucked in and torn to shreds as the explosion hit them, colouring the walls red, the grass was stained with mutilated pieces of flesh, everything was. She just stood there for a moment, looking around herself as if waking up from something, first her face was distorted with a fearful expression, before it suddenly became a twisted grin and blood flowed from her eyes in the place of tears as she started laughing. It hurt so much, but it felt so good, good enough to make her laugh from the bottom of her twisted core, the blood slowly seeping back towards her. The bood of everypony involved eventually was drained into her and she felt even more powerful and complete than she had felt in a long time.

With each single drop of blood she felt more and more power flow through her, she would eventually explode if she didn't let it out, so the simplest? She let out a blast of red energy at the palace doors, it went fairly slowly, but as it hit the door it spread and detonated the whole door like it was made from explosives, shattering the shield the princesses had set up for themselves as well.

After that she walked into the palace, reeking of blood more than ever, but seeming as if nothing had happened just now, floating the guard captain's head in the air next to her. The head flew in from the door before her and rolled on the floor, stopping before the sisters of sun and moon.

”I'm home dearest mother~”, Nameless giggled ever so happily, this time sounding like a little filly, some blood still dripping from her cloak as she settled before the two sisters, wearing her twisted grin on her face for such a beautiful family reunion.

Celestia stood firm, so did Luna by her side, their expressions dark as they stared at the being before themselves. ”You never had a home, you shouldn't even exist.”, came from the princess of sun calmly as ever, only her tone was full of venom. Celestia felt that she needed to protect her sister Luna, she was the only one that could, but it made her no less terrified inside.

”Oh, but you are so wrong dear mother~ You created me here, did you not?”, she questioned ever so light-heartedly as her eyes remained fixed on Celestia only. ”And you released me, you did know that didn't you? The moment you put your dearest sister into moon for a little vacation that lasted for a thousand years, no?”

Luna stepped forward and stared at the being before them furiously, how dare she tear open the old wounds so lightly? How dare she make fun of her sister for what she had to do? She however felt hurt deep down, but that she would never let show as she circled slowly around the being. ”I hate you, she hates you... IT'S ONLY RIGHT FOR YOU NOT TO HAVE A HOME HERE!”

Celestia remained quiet for a moment, seeing her sister acting up like this brought up memories that she did wish leave forgotten. She only remembered her sister as a timid being, not this... Being full of hatred, it was Nightmare Moon that had been so hateful towards anything at all, so she was rightfully upset herself, if not for the deaths of many then for making her see her sister like this. She looked at the being, no the thing before her and spoke, ”You truly are lost Nameless, killing like that, like they were your toys to play with? You will never truly have a home here, you should not exist... And as you said I should have done this before, I'll end it here before you destroy anything more.”, her voice without any emotion as she prepared to confront the being before herself. Meanwhile her sister followed her example, preparing for it as well, but they never got the chance.

The nameless alicorn had heard enough, she simply picked the weakened princesses up from the ground and slammed the back to the ground, then forcefully bashing them to the walls in opposite directions, then proceeding to throw them onto their thrones, using their own blood to tie them down magically onto the thrones. Surrounding them in the magic she so preciously knew, forcing them to fall asleep and dream only nightmares as she sat between them. She promised, "Everything you have, I'll take away, I'll kill them all!", even if nobody heard her, looking up in thought, everything was going so well that she should be pleased, but she felt so hollow... She never knew why she felt the way she did, she just usually thought she hadn't hurt beings near her enough, but this was different. ”Well no matter what you are, I'll tear you out of myself for feeling like this... However we have a game to play, I can't wait to see their suffering.”, she'd mutter to herself, as a single drop of blood flowed from her eyes.

Celestia and Luna both felt their bodies burn with pain after pain as they got tossed around the walls and the floors, unable to come up with a swift response as they had been taken completely by surprise. By now they both knew that it would be a lost cause to resist, it would only make the crazed alicorn hurt them more, possibly kill them. However as they were sat on their thrones Celestia saw Luna pass out first into the restless world of nightmares she knew now awaited them. Celestia looked upon their captor once again, to hear her mumble something and saw the tear of blood that flowed to her cheek. Atleast the fact that they couldn't truly kill each other had stood, ofcourse they could be subdued however. Then the world around her went dark and she was none less confused about her predicament, why would a being so intent on enjoying seeing them all suffer even bother to express herself...

Coming back to his senses the otherworldly presence stood up and viewed the situation, soon deciding that he had not the power to confront Nameless, as he'd taken calling it, in full out frontal combat, but even here he wielded the means for a end. He would remain here and tug at the strings of fate to affect the events indirectly, hopefully to the favor of the princess' protege. Again he felt great delight as he noticed Nameless frown, but on the other side it made him feel a bit worried, had the strange alicorn caught up to his little plans. However he was quite certain that the alicorn could do nothing to hinder his weaving now that it had begun, just as he couldn't affect the alicorn.

In Ponyville Twilight Sparkle had just finished telling everyone about the situation and they were headed to the library, there had to be some clues there as to what was going on, perhaps the princess would have sent her a new message about all this. She felt as if she'd have a fever, maybe it was just all the sudden tension getting to her.

Her friends seemed fine, but where was Fluttershy? Twilight would ask only to hear the response that she'd gone home earlier from one of her friends. That had the gears in Twilight's mind connecting and they made a hasty sprint towards where Fluttershy lived in her cottage, near Everfree.

Everfree Forest of all things and it was so near the cottage, why hadn't she figured it out earlier? It was as if something was trying to cloud her mind from noticing these small, yet notable changes, the danger might come from Everfree Forest.

Moments earlier inside Fluttershy's cottage:

Fluttershy was preparing for sleep as it started, the low rumbling noises coming from the forest... She would lift her head and perk her ears to listen to it more carefully, the rumbling kept intensifying, but now it sounded more like a lot of massive snakes? As she looked out of the window, she saw she couldn't be more wrong. A writhing mass of shadow was making its way towards her home, it seemed to hold no specific shape at all, just endless maws and claws. Fluttershy felt terror strike her fully now, they never came out of the Everfree, well not usually, but she knew what that one was. How it was able to make its way towards her however, it only seemed to have one objective and it was her cottage. She could suddenly not move at all, she saw Angel standing alone out there, her dear Angel bunny, she felt her protective instinct kick in, flying out to get Angel out of the way.

The rumbling was very close now and she could hear the wails as the shadows reached to her, she wouldn't make it out of the way in time, she wasn't fast enough. If only Dash was here now, if only any ofher friends were there... And with those thoughts the shadows consumed her. The feeling of thousands of sharp spikes burying into her and it was all over, she never stood a chance.

When Twilight and her friends finally arrived, they were too late to stop anything, they all saw it so clear, too clear... Tears rushed down Twilight's face as she saw the shadow mass retreating back to Everfree Forest. She rushed to see if there was anything she could do to save Fluttershy's life, but she was cold, no sign of life left in her glassy eyes, only the expression of despair. Twilight fell to her knees dulled to everything around her.

She heard Rainbow Dash just screaming, barely managing to mouth her swear of vengeance as she tried to take after the shadows by herself, only to be stopped by Applejack and the others, holding her down. ”There's nothing you could do... Not anymore.”, she heard someone say in the background as she just stared at the sight before her, unable to discern if this was true or not. This all had to be a horrible nightmare, but it was real, it was so very real... She could feel the heart crushing despair, but for now she had to bear it, to force it into back of her mind. ”Twilight?”, she looked up, looking for the voice, it came again, ”Twilight?”, louder this time until someone eventually pulled her up and made her look at her friends, those that were still alive. She couldn't afford to lose more of her beloved friends, friends that meant the world to her, after all she'd already lost one.

As she saw her friends, they were crying too, Rainbow Dash had calmed down, broken into a sobbing pile of fur and feathers, while Applejack tried to comfort Rainbow Dash to the best of her ability. As soon as Rainbow Dash managed to get up she spoke with a stutter and hollow voice, ”We need to get away, just anywhere, but here... Please!”, a tone of panic still present in her voice. Fluttershy had been her best friend, she could never find another, she couldn't just stand this, so she looked pleadingly to Twilight and the others... She had to get away, she had to.

”Let's get to the library, I'm sure there'll be some answers there...”, Twilight spoke, her voice shaky, but she managed to start walking away, away from the beloved friend they had all cherished. Back towards the library, where it was quiet, where she could think this over.

They all headed to the library, finally after putting Fluttershy's body somewhere to wait until they could give it the proper burial it deserved. They were all confused as they couldn't just forget what they had just witnessed, the death of the kindest pegasus ever to grace Equestria with her warmth... She was gone.

Somewhere the nameless alicorn smiled, everything was going according to her plans, it would be soon that the game could begin proper, but already, something was there, afraid in her presence...

It was time for another play.... Emotions had already began to stir in tue unexpected heroes of Equestria, rising from the depths... What would come next?

Chapter 2

Twilight Sparkle had noticed that her friends weren't looking so happy back downstairs in the library, they had no reason to... After all Fluttershy was dead and they couldn't have done anything to save her, but now was not the time for mourning, they needed to find out how to stop whatever was going on before it was too late.

Twilight wasn't the only one to take a note of how her friends seemed to feel. The tan orange earth pony was keeping a close eye on the aqua coloured pegasus, there was tension between them. Pinkie would try to cheer things up a bit by suggesting eating something, which only gained her a stare from the both. It made Pinkie quiet down, instead deciding to move between the two, to atleast stop them from keeping up that awful staring that made Pinkie feel really bad. They were friends weren't they?

Rarity who was helping Twilight find the books on ancient history on events like this suddenly gasped as she waved Twilight over, ”I think... I found something, but dear is that book so.... Unclassy.”, pointing at the dusty, ragged tome before them once Twilight got over to Rarity.

The tome was quite the large one, it was pitch black, even the pages seemed so, red insignia of a bloody tear was embedded on the covers, under it in silvery letters read 'The Forbidden Past'. It was a tome Twilight was sure hadn't existed there before, it wasn't one of the library books. Twilight Sparkle felt the traces of magic, transportation magic, this made her quite curious about the origins of the tome... She tried a spell made to see the object's origins, but it revealed nothing, as if nopony had ever made it, it didn't even exist to her magical attempts of manipulating it.

After telling her friends to back down, she slowly opened the covers only to see more black, but upon the first pages a liquid looking red text appeared, 'One cannot know the truth without sacrificing one's self in the process.', which made Twilight take a step back in surprise, how was this possible... Every tome like this was supposed to be destroyed by the orders of the princesses, still there it was, as if mocking everything she knew, there it was before her, very real. Her voice shaking she requested Spike to bring her a knife...

”Twi, what the hay are you doing?”, asked Applejack, her voice worried as she'd been broken from her staring fest with Rainbow Dash, who also now was watching the situation openly concerned for her friend's safety.

As soon as she heard the tone in her friends voice she would remain quiet, if she told them what she was about to do, would they really understand or would they try to stop her? She couldn't take that chance and as soon as Spike brought her the knife, she told him to go somewhere else in the library and not look. As her friends watched she held the knife between her teeth and swiftly cut a wound onto her right foreleg, wincing as the tome drained her much more than she'd thought, her world went black as she collapsed once the blood had been taken from her.

Her friends looked at the lavender mare, that brought the knife to her right forehoof, then... They rushed to tackle her away from the tome, but they were too late, instead falling into a pile over Twilight, before hastily scrambling off her.

Pinkie Pie was the first to act, rushing unusually fast even for her, the bleeding had to be stopped, oh it had to be, Twilight would die othervise, she had to do something. Panic came over her as she rummaged through the first aid kit, finally finding the bandages, coming back down and fumbling with the bandage desperately, the knife had seemed clean... There was simply no time for disinfectants, her friend's life was in danger, oh Twilight what have you done! As she fumbled with the bandages they were roughly taken from her, magic unfolding the bandages and quickly wrapping around the lavender unicorn's wound on her right foreleg.

It was Rarity, while she wasn't a medical expert, she did know how to use bandages from her mishaps in the boutique while fashioning new dresses. She secured the bandage around Twilight's foreleg... Then checking the lavender unicorn's breathing and nodded, satisfied with her work she turned around to see Applejack and Rainbow Dash head to head with each other, Pinkie trying to stop them.

”Girls, don't do this... Please?”, the pink pony pleaded at the two, but they didn't seem to hear, just staring eye to eye, neither refusing to back down. Something inside her was aching really bad, but why, it felt like one of those times when she wasn't herself. It hurted Pinkie so much to see her friends like this, surely enough something would break soon if this kept up...

Normally Rarity would have separated the two braggards from each other, but that just seemed so messy right now, even as Pinkie gave her a pleading look, a scared look. There was something else in the look as well, but Rarity didn't notice that as she had taken a look out of the window and it was a riot out there, everyone was fighting. Looking at Twilight's unconcious form Rarity groaned quietly to herself, fine. She'd take care of the two braggards, even if it was ghastly in her opinion, a magical blue glow around Applejack's and Rainbow Dash's tails as she tugged them away from each other. Rarity looked quietly at the two, returning their stares without a step back, ”Girls you should know better, this is a library after all... And now is har-”.

Rarity's speech was cut short as they heard a familiar voice groaning at a very low tone as the lavender coated unicorn woke up, ”Wha- what happned?”.

Twilight Sparkle sat up, looking slowly around, not getting a whole lot of time to take in her surroundings as she saw a pink blur heading right towards her, soon enough she would look up at a pair of huge blue eyes. ”Twi! Everyone's gone all grumpywumpy, itriedtocheerthemupbuththeyjustgotallgrrstareyand-”, Pinkie explained a bit panickedly before getting silenced by a hoof as Twilight tried to take in the amount of knowledge blasted at her by the speedy pink menace. ”Uh who's fighting, Pinkie you need to be a bit more specific with all this, I just woke up and I'm not feeling too good...”, Twilight mumbled gently pushing Pinkie off herself, trying to get on her hooves, but her right foreleg sent her a sharp jolt of pain, so she resolved not to use it, instead using her three healthy legs to stand up. Looking around she could see her friends there, except Fluttershy... Fluttershy was gone, but luckily enought the others seemed to be there, even if their looks did unnerve her some, they were concerned, however there was something behind those looks, something growing, hungry.

Twilight responded quietly to the questions on her health, was she ok? Ofcourse she wasn't! She was feeling sick, so very weak, not to mention her headache and need to throw up after losing so much blood to the tome. She would however say she was fine, she had much else to do than just sit by and watch her friends grow stranger and stranger each passing minute... Just as she reached out to the tome she was confronted by Rarity, ”Oh dear, you aren't really considering reading that... Horrid thing, it nearly killed you.”, with a highly concerned tone. Twilight looked at the white unicorn for a while, then at the tome, squinting her eyes slightly, ”Not all of us are strangers to getting our hooves dirty when needed, now let me concentrate...”, she'd mutter in response, gaining amused chuckles from the pegasus and orange earth pony... She was having a headache much worse than ever before, having to focuse on the matters at hand to keep the pounding of her head from making her unable to do anything, than groan in pain until she'd fall unconcious. She would keep her concentration high in order to repel what seemed to try and affect her from the outside, this was probably because of the tome and everything that happened since.

Rarity would have none of this, not after she saved Twilight's life, was this her thanks? Being called fussy? FUSSY? Oh she was going to show Twilight yet... But for now she'd need to be graceful about it, ofcourse, she'd get her say later. ”Yes ofcourse dear, I am so sorry for bothering Twilight.”, Rarity said, she could hold her tongue. Twilight was absorbed in the book already, carefully reading over the pages. She had felt her emotions being messed with from the outside influence earlier, now she knew what they had done, all her negative feelings seemed so much heavier, as if something had been amplifying them. Why of all times now did it have to be she felt such unlady like feelings towards her friends, it was simply awful for the usually so graceful Rarity.

While Twilight's awakening had stopped the two 'competetive' ponies from going at it head on, they stayed quite far from each other, shooting deathly glares back and forth when they thought nobody was watching, but Pinkie, she saw it all too clearly. Pinkie wasn't herself anymore, her hair wasn't all curly, it was flat, she was feeling very ill, but not physically, oh no, not even a bucket of candy made her sick. It was watching her friendships crumbling into ashes before her, that was what made her feel so bad and she knew she could do nothing to make it better, not anymore.

After Rarity was sure Twilight had gone into one of her reading trances, she looked about and wondered, ”Oh dear me, I think we should leave Twilight to concentrate on finding out what's up... After all she's the brilliant one here, sure she'll figure something out. Pinkie, could you check up on Angel bunny and Spike, I'm sure they could use someone to comfort them...”, managing to keep her voice free of her underlying emotions. ”Meanwhile we should go and try eat something. It is no good to get weak from hunger after all, it simply ruins one's complexion~”, she suggested carefully, this would have to be just perfect. She'd always been a bit jealous of Twilight's connections to the royalties, but she was not going to act on these emotions, instead she made sure everyone had left the area before she would pull Twilight over for a little discussion about the situation, also to excuse herself from the library perhaps.

Applejack had to agree with Rarity, even if that annoying pegasus would be involved. 'Ah'll be, once this is over Ah'll buck that no good flyin' disaster area to the moon! Ah mean she's alwahs been competetive, but now she's a step too far, only because she can fly doesn't mean she's so superiour.', Applejack thought to herself as she evenly met the glare of the rainbow maned sky blue pegasus. They would have to settle this down, sooner or later... But for now she'd play along, heading to the kitchen, still keeping eye on the pegasus.

Similiar thoughts racing in her head the only pegasus in the library stared back, watching Applejack's every movement as if she were to suddenly attack as they went to the kitchen, as arrived there and sat down they'd just keep staring at each other in the uneasy silence. Rainbow Dash was sure the applefarming too proud to be true earthbound pony was planning something, not that she was afraid... Even though the earth pony had always been the stronger one, or so she thought. The first suspicious move and she would be all over that traitorous and overly jealous pony, she was just itching to show who was the boss, ofcourse it would be The Dash, no doubt of it.

As she watched the others leave the room, she sighed relievedly, this was going to be so much easier with just Twilight present... She carefully approached the lavender unicorn, who was still working on the tome. She even walked right next to Twilight politely asking, ”How's the research going darling?”, while waiting for her chance to tell the lavender unicorn about her dilemma.

Twilight would mumble something that would pass as answer, figuring it was just Rarity being worried as usual, but something in that tone had caught her attention. ”Oh Rarity, it's fascinating really, hard, but I'm sure we'll get something we can-”, she started before feeling a piercing pain as the realization what she had said earlier struck into her mind. She heard someone whisper into her ear, ”Oh dear, are you alright Twilight?”, as she nearly blackde out again, dulledly feeling her body as it suddenly leaned against her friend that was on her side. As she came to she gasped in pain that was more emotional than anything else, she was being held up by her friend she had probably insulted.. Downstairs? Into the basement she figured, and ofcourse she just had to be too obsessed with the tome to even realize having just shrugged off someone who cared for her. She tried not to panic, in which she obviously failed as she entered the basement, having been walking deep in thought after she felt she could stand on her own again.

'Oh, she doesn't look too good, maybe this thing's getting to her too.', Rarity thought to herself in a idle state of thinking what to do next, she'd made sure the bandaged up lavender unicorn wouldn't fall down the stairs... She didn't want to see her poor friend suffer more, she only wanted to talk with her! With those thoughts she turned her attention back to the lavender unicorn that was trying to stay up, oh but that wouldn't do, ”Twilight dear, please lay down before you hurt yourself. You simply look so very exhausted, is something wrong?”.

Twilight looked up at Rarity's dark shape in horror, she could only nod and shiver in fear as she felt the cold bloody blade wipe itself into her coat, lightly scratching her in the process. As the silky white unicorn moved upon her, beginning her lecture on how to treat a lady, adding pressure to her words with a few cuts around her body, only enough to make Twilight wince and whimper in pain to make sure she was listening. The lavender pony's mind was in shock, what had she said... Now and then she'd struggle weakly, she knew she wasn't going to make it, but why did it have to end like this... Then she snapped out of whatever had been giving her visions, Rarity would never do that, simply stupid of her to think like that. It was true however that she was feeling very bad, her visions getting worse with each second, and the headache she felt seemed to be coming from the same source. She was battling in her mind to repel the attacks while she kept staring at her worried looking pure white coated friend, Rarity would scream if she saw herself in a mirror..

Nameless watched the events of the library, most pleased, but something had been bothering her greatly, even if she should enjoy this so much... What was the problem, everything was going perfectly! Still she couldn't shake the feeling, before finally turning to look at the spirit floating near her, noticing the cause of her unusual feeling.

The spirit was trying to scream at her, obviously distraught by what it was seeing. Even if the spirits are usually formless, this one seemed persistent, it kept its form and it kept gazing at her when it thought she wasn't watching, but as she turned to look the spirit cowered, hiding behind its misty hooves.

Nameless tilted her head, feeling confused, not that it mattered really, but she felt uncomfortable, it was a feeling she doesn't want to know. She sighed and reached slowly to caress the spirit, even if she knew she couldn't touch the spirit physically, it was the gesture that mattered. ”Fine, I guess it'd be boring if the main player died before the play even truly begins.”, she sighed, reaching into the mind of the dying lavender unicorn... She reached the vast amount of untapped power in the unicorn, she was shocked from the sheer amount of power this being held, not really even bothering with the mental torture anymore as she suddenly sent her whole potential into the situation, she had to act.

Twilight felt something surge into her mind, something that wasn't supposed to be there, but she felt weak, far too weak to do anything against it anymore as her mental barriers were swiftly penetrated... She only observed with her mind's eye, catching glimpses of a strange being and something else, it had found what it was seeking for it seemed, her magical potential. She could suddenly feel her grasp falling as the strange entity took control of her actions.

Nameless now inhabiting the body of Twilight Sparkle, looking at her personal memories sickened her beyond anything else, but this was the main player, the little protege of the sun princess that had so lovingly watched while she was mentally cut up again and again. Before her stood the unicorn staring in shock at the standing lavender unicorn.

Rarity took steps back and stared in shock as the formerly helpless, completely under her care. The unicorn was no longer at all helpless looking as her eyes gleamed with magic as it lifted her off the ground and soon Rarity found herself blasted backwards as the unicorn laughed, "I'll feast on your soul!", at the terrified fashionista. Rarity wasn't going to stand around here and die, but it was her friend that was there, why was this happening? She could only stare in horror as several small blows rained upon her body, causing her to writhe in agony as a bit of her blood was lost. After that she could escape, running up the stairs, screaming as she ran straight out of the library's front door, escaping into the night. She had to escape, lest she go insane from the mess her inner feelings were, and in her current state of fright, there was not much she could do to help her friend as her mind only told her to escape.

Rainbow Dash saw Rarity run out of the door, intending to go after her, but stopping short on her tracks as she saw Twilight Sparkle walking out of the basement, red fog fully surrounding the lavender coloured unicorn as her eyes glowed red. The unicorn stopped, just staying still...

Applejack had noticed the same and carefully approached her friend, uttering, ”Twi... Twi?”, trying not to shake with fear so visibly, she had to remain strong, but as the lavender unicorn turned to look at her once, she backed away.

The unicorn's face was distorted with a hellish smile that no face should be capable of as it started walking towards Applejack and Rainbow Dash, both of them backed with each step their friend took towards them... As the horror was satisfied it turned to the tome and touched it, falling to the floor again, the ominous glow having dissipated. The blood had finally done its job along with the unicorn's own untapped potential, her life had been unnaturally lenghtened beyond the point of dying from all she'd gone through.. It had been the mistake of Nameless to affect the ancient tome's private world from hurting Twilight's mind, ofcourse the true intention of the tome would have been to kill the unicorn. There was a second mastermind in this play now, she was well aware of that and proceeded now to do what she had to.. She had lost quite a bit of her blood and her hold on the two princesses wavered as she concentrated on what was necessary next.

Rainbow Dash was the first to go over to Twilight, checking if she was still alive, but as the pegasus checked her friend's breathing, it wasn't there. ”This is just a bad dream... Yeah a bad dream....”, the normally so cool pegasus mumbled as tears fell from her eyes, she had just lost two of her dear friends in one day, it was starting to be too much for her to hold together... Looking at the sight before herself she thought, 'Keep it together Dash, keep it together, keepittogetherkeepittogether....', while backing into the furthest corner away from the sight she had to behold.

Applejack reacted no better, but she managed to stop her trembling, she had to stay steeled up, this was far from over something told her... But in her mind, losing Twilight was the end of it all, nothing could be worth this. Something however caught her eye as she finally looked up, she'd lock up and just stare quietly at the tome, it was glowing the ominous glow she'd seen on her now dead friend... 'Perhaps there's just hope yet....'

The orange pony couldn't be more right with her wishes, Twilight Sparkle was very much alive, but not in body, in mind... She didn't know how, but she was somewhere, the place was dark and to her surprise she could feel something warm, as well as wet around her hooves. Twilight knew she wasn't alone, not alone in this darkness, something was there, she couldn't see it. She lit her horn, but she saw nothing, nothing at all.

Surely enough the lavender unicorn got her confirmation to the fact she wasn't alone, hoofsteps accompanied with a brief splashing sound each time. Soon she felt a breath over her neck, warm as it was, it was never the less horrifying to her, she couldn't see. ”You know, sometimes to see is not to see~”, a voice whispered into her ear, as if amused, but it was hard to make out any noise even if so close.

Twilight Sparkle tried, she really tried to see, but soon she gave up trying to see, giving up everything else than her mental awareness. Now she was able to see, but she dared not open her eyes just yet, afraid of seeing something she was not ready to see, however as time passed without anything happening she slowly opened her eyes. She jumped in fright as she saw her surroundings, a pool of blood in the middle of the floor where she was standing, everything else a shadow over shadow. Then she noticed the being near her and backed away slowly, taking in more and more of the appearance.

The unknown alicorn just stood there with a grin on her face, sharp horn adorning her head as, she was pitch black, except her mane and those scars, they were nearly neon cyan in colour, her tail black and bright red stripes. Her cutiemark having a very strange symbol that Twilight was unable to clearly see due to the ragged cloak the alicorn wore, strangely so that it went over her leathery wings, along with her hat and other accessories. Her eyes were red as they stared at her. ”Do I really look that stunning?”, came the voice again now stronger, clearly amused by the lavender unicorn's reaction.

This took a while to sink in, the lavender unicorn's expression changing several times, before settling into the determined scholar's face. ”What, or better yet who are you and why am I here?”, came her paranoid questioning, it would have continued if the answers weren't coming to her so soon.

”I? That would be a long long answer, so let us just say that I am the hostess of this little game you've been so clueless of playing, you may call me 'Nameless'... You're here for more of a obvious reason dear little being, continuing your existance in the game.”

”I want no part in this! I never wanted any of my friends to die either! It was you that killed Fluttershy!?”

”Oh yes the pest... Yes I killed her, you should've seen the delightful look on her face~ The princess was correct about your potential after all, how very surprising.”

”I–I WILL NOT FORGIVE YOU FOR THIS!”

”And WHAT chance do you think you have against me, pet?”

”FLUTTERSHY NEVER DESERVED TO DIE, YOU.... YOU MONSTER!”

With every word she spoke she felt hatred, deep hatred flash into her mind, the very being that was responsible for hurting her friends was there. She could get revenge, she could hurt this being, she wanted to hurt this being so bad... Deep inside she however doubted herself, this was the being that had killed so easily one of ber best friends. More out of despair than bravery she blasted a shot of magical energy at the being.

Nameless was amused as she felt the all too familiar piercing feeling as the magic hit her dead on, her blood readily seeping from the wound and as the lavender unicorn looked up, she could see Nameless grinning wickedly at her.

"Please mommy, cut me more!"

”Wha-”

"Oh daddy daddy, rip open my belly~", she continued, giggling as she felt her belly being torn open by the next magical blast the lavender unicorn shot at her.

”What the hell?! Why aren't you dead!!!”

"KILL ME! Please? Hrehheh..."

And with that Twilight lost it, she started just blasting at the being, blast after blast in rapid succession, trying to quiet down the mocking laughs. Each shot only made her enemy sound happier and happier with her responses, even if more and more clearly insane... She couldn't keep up the barrage too long, lest she'd pass out again. After a few more blasts she fell to her side, panting in exhaustion.

While the cutting her up part was making her awfully happy she did have a goal, she thought this to be the perfect moment to achieve it as she walked to the prone lavender unicorn, whispering, ”It is not me you should've wasted your hatred on... I never was the real threat.”. She would show Twilight Sparkle what she was talking about instead of telling, she was no good with words and with that she sent Twilight into her memories, not sparing a second thought to the matter.

After Twilight was done catching her breath she would stand up, looking around again, the enemy was nowhere to be seen, but that wasn't all that had changed. She was standing in a meadow bathed in bright light of Celestia's sun. She was unsure where she was, but whatever it was it had to be a illusion, yet it seemed so real, punching herself lightly she noted that she could feel everything. Confused as she was she spied a bright white filly walking in the meadow, not noticing her. Twilight thought to herself for a while, in one aspect this could be a trap, but if it wasn't... Rather than risk this however she remained watching the scene unfold.

The filly would walk over to a tree, where she would lie down in its shade, not moving. Not too long after she was followed by two others, they stopped before her and seemed to look down on her. This made the filly leave the spot she found to rest at, slowly walking away from the two, hanging her head low.

After this the scene faded, twisted and turned into a new memory that started playing, Twilight simply sat there, making mental notes, as well as guesses about who could the filly be. She had however by now realized that she could do nothing to alter the happenings of this place, nor could she leave it by her own will.

This time it was inside the kitchen, the filly had cut herself accidentally while trying to cook her parents a surprise breakfast, they had been screaming at each other again yesterday, maybe this could make things right again between the two beings she loved the most in whole wide equestria!

She was finished cooking the meal after taking care of the small cut on her cheek, she had even served the food to the table and had turned to go wake up her parents, bright smile on her face. That smile however quickly disappeared as she saw her father coming downstairs with a bottle in her hooves, the bottle the filly had really began hating, it made her dear daddy act all weird. She even forgave getting hit once when her daddy got all worked up about her having a bad grade in school, but the bottle she loathed over all, when he had it mommy and daddy would always scream at each other. It made her feel really bad seeing them act like that.

Her father seemed to be even worse than usual, heavy bags under his eyes as he looked down at his daughter, seeing the cut he snarled and stormed into the kitchen, grabbing the knife and storming back over to her looking really upset. She expected her dad to give her a lecture of how dangerous the knives were and weren't meant for little fillies to play around with, but what she saw instead... Her father whispered to her, even gently, even if his face remained in the mask of hate and loathing, ”Look daughter, look closely... Daddy will show you how to use a knife since you want to use it so bad...”, his voice laced with venom as he took a step backwards and showed her. She was excitedly looking at her father, even if her father sounded a bit weird, her father was going to teach her! She hadn't had the chance to learn from her father since.... She saw her father sinking the knife into his chest.

She just stared at the sight before her, unable to move, unable to even scream as she watched her father fall to the floor with a smile on his face. After several moments of silence, she screamed, she screamed for help, for mommy... But mommy didn't come, nopony came to help, she just fell to her knees and started crying, daddy was dying.... No daddy was dead, mommy didn't care, why did nopony help?

What seemed like a eternity later, she looked upstairs, mommy had to be there, mommy would help! Mommy loved daddy... Didn't she? She headed upstairs slowly, each step shambling more than the last one, yet she made it to her parents bedroom, opening the door carefully she stepped inside the room, calling out ”Mommy?” as carefully as she could. No answer came so she ventured deeper into the darkness of the room, in her shaken state forgetting to turn the light switch, hearing heavy breathing. She headed slowly towards the breathing sounds she heard, calling out again to her mommy, but no answer came. As she felt her hoof hit the bed she climbed onto the bed carefully and now she could feel the breaths accross her neck, ”Mommy?”. A voice answered this time, raspy and weak as it was, ”Mommy's here dear... Come closer.”, so she leaned in as close as she could, only to get strangled against her mother. Panicking of the sudden hurting feeling she stabbed with her horn where she could feel something, anything, kicking and struggling to get away. Soon enough whatever was holding her let go, gasping for air she stumbled out of the bed and to the lightswitch, turning the lights on to look at what had attacked her in the dark. On the bed she saw her mother, a bloody mess of her that was, apparently had been even before she entered the room, but much more so now. She couldn't handle it all at once and passed out in the doorway, a mark appearing on her flank.

The last few flashes were with the filly and some grown up mare. ”Never fear again... Sister.”, came the quiet voice, which was fading fast.

After seeing these events pass by Twilight Sparkle looked even more confused, it was dark again, but the silhouettes and shadows were there still allowing her to navigate. The other presence in the room had faded, but there were no signs of teleportation magic having been used... Twilight walked to the silhouette of a door and pushed it to see if it gave in. A bright flash emanated from the door, consuming everything, but before the everything faded, she saw a flash of azure coated unicorn in somewhere dark.

Opening her eyes she groaned, feeling around her body slowly, there was nothing missing and the wounds seemed to have stopped bleeding over time... She was laying on her bed and from downstairs she could hear atleast two voices, possibly arguing seeing the volume of their voices. Sure getting up was probably not the best choice ever, but she tried none the less, not really having the time being here bedstuck. The first one to notice her was in the same room however, and quite instantly there was the usual pink blur in her sights, but this time it didn't pounce her, just settling nearby.

”You know, maybe it's a bad idea to get up yet...”

”Pinkie?”

”You just let auntie Pinky Pie take care of this.”

”Have you been crying... Pinkie?”

”A-auntie Pinks won't let them hurt you.”

”Oh Pinkie... You look awful. What's happened?”

”I don't know!”, the pink usually energetic earth pony's voice finally faltered into quiet sobs, leaning against the bed. Twilight looked at her friend for a while, before reaching her hooves clumsily around her friend to comfor her, ”It's all going to be better Pinkie, I don't know how or when, but it will be. I promise.”.

Pinkie Pie gathered herself after a long time of quietly sobbing against her possibly now only friend, yet her mane staid straight and flat. She wasn't feeling full of joy even if she did manage to smile at her friend in the silence, before asking, ”Pinkie promise?”, even if the answer was for once clear. She wanted to hear it, she needed to hear it or she'd snap permanently, she wasn't even sure if she could keep up at all anymore... But she needed hope, Twilight Sparkle, her best friend, she always had been there for her, even if things seemed grim. She could trust Twilight, she had to be able to.

”Pinkie promise.”, Twilight Sparkle replied with a gentle smile, she'd let go of the hug to get herself sitting properly. ”So... Tell me, what went wrong Pinkie?”, she asked, fearing to know the answer already, dreading the answer, yet it was a necessity.

Pinkie gathered all the courage she had left and told Twilight about the situation, ”Rarity fled the cellar, looking wounded. Applejack and Rainbow Dash... They're fighting, even more than usual that is. I don't know if I can handle this!”

Seeing the despair lingering so deeply in her seemingly only unaffected friend lit a fire inside Twilight, the memory and the malicious mare she'd encountered while out of Equestria mentally... She would get to the bottom of this, she wouldn't rest until she had every last stone turned, all of the mysteries solved. 'This flame it's so warm, so hot... I can't almost contain it. I know it isn't hate, but something deeper, but how dare she.... HOW DARE SHE TOUCH MY FRIENDS! I will get them all back,  I will, then she'll see the strength of true friendship. She can't break us, nothing can.', the lavender unicorn thought to herself, eyes closed for a while before she'd look Pinkie straight into her eyes, meeting her desperate gaze and smiling soothingly as she whispered, ”Smile for me Pinkie, it's what she fears the most.”, her voice soft, but there was a hidden strength behind every word.

The pink earth pony seemed surprised, confused even at her friend's confidence, but those words were what she needed to hear the most. 'Sure if that's what Twi says, when has she ever betrayed you, never that's when!', the premier party pony of Ponyville slowly grinned happily at Twilight, her mane popping back into life as well. She could make it through this, why had she ever thought othervise was beyond her as a familiar warmth had returned into her heart, they would make it all better, together as friends they had always been.

They hadn't come this far for nothing... Now it was time to find their friends, if only it wasn't too late.

In the castle of the royal sisters of sun and moon, there was silence that ran deep as the two ruling sisters slept restlessly, restrained in their unanticipated nightmare. However it was not long anymore Luna had awoken, if only to see the Nameless menace smiling distortedly as it did, however the thing that drew her attention was the appearance of small turquoise marks on her flank on the right side of the 'tear of blood' lined with a strange aura, emanating with darkness along the lines that tainted the 'tear of blood'. Luna could hear the being whispering to herself, ”With each passing moment... The seals they are breaking. Just need to keep them busy.... Then all will be as it should be.”, satisfaction sickeningly clear in her voice.

Nameless hadn't noticed the princess of night awakening, too absorbed in her thoughts of what was going on, as well as making sure a certain 'outsider' didn't come to stop her for his own agendas. It was only when her grasp on one of the sisters suddenly ceased to exist she looked where the dark princess had been imprisoned. Instead of fighting her however, the lunar princess flew straight through the defenses she'd put up and prepared what seemed like a teleportation spell, flinging herself past the magical barrier still around the royal palace.

Princess of the night had now escaped, she knew she wouldn't be followed, but in her heart she made a promise, she'd come back for Celestia. Celestia would've done the same for her as always, but alone she was nothing against the being. She needed allies and who were better suited for the task than those that had banished Chrysalis herself from their own wedding with the power of their love...

It would be a shame to break their honeymoon together, but Equestria needed her heroes, perhaps more than ever.

Chapter 3

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.

Chapter 4

Meanwhile in the dark cover of the Everfree. A shadowy figure lurked, it had done so ever since that fateful day, at first it had been lost, but by now it knew its way through the horrifying dangers of the forest. It had seen the zebra, even, the zebra had tried to find out what was in the Evefree Forest with her, after all it was not a place for little ponies, yet each time the zebra had tried to find her, she'd hidden or ran, not wanting to be found. It had been hoping to talk to the zebra, but soon enough learned not, no she was with the village, it had seen her go around with the offspring of the villagers.

Zecora had been feeling a strange feeling for a few months now, weeks even perhaps was the better way to describe the time. She had even tried to communicate with this being, but each time it would flee from her as she tried. The presence was elusive, yet it did not seem malignant to her as it kept its fair distance from her at all times, as if it was scared of her. Without finding a way to communicate with this peculiar being she had no chance to convince the being of her not being a danger. She'd grown accustomed to the presence in time, as it was not completely unheard of in the lands of her people that these things happened, could just be a lost spirit roaming the Everfree.

It had learned a lot about surviving in the Evefree from the zebra, what to avoid and what was edible. It still felt a icy weight upon its shoulders however, as whoever was friends with that village surely was her enemy. It remembered back to the day when it still had all its glory, all the beauty that was.. The Great and Powerful Trixie! It greatly despised what it had become however, yet her shame not allowing her to return to Ponyville for her belongings. Perhaps even the fear of what the other ponies would think of her after her little deed was behind the fact she had not dared to go near Ponyville.

The zebra however was something she had started growing kind of fond of even if she still was her enemy, a potential danger to her livelihood if it caught her. She would slowly make herself bolder and bolder with her approach as time passed, putting the plants that the zebra needed close to her cottage. Trixie even remembered how happy the zebra had been at finding her necessary herbal indigrients growing so close all of sudden. The one pony she'd seen around the zebra most thesedays was the yellow one with butterflies on her flank, one with a pink mane. They seemed to be friendly with each other strangely enough, it made her shudder thinking someone was closer to the zebra than she was.

Meanwhile at the barn where the special task forces of princess Celestia's royal guards had finally gained atleast a temporary victory against the physical form of the enemy of Equestria. The commander counted his fellows and they were down to fifty in strength of ponies, they'd have to finish this quickly, after all they knew that defeating the evil presence couldn't have been that simple. They needed to find the bearers again, so they spread out and started searching near the Sweet Apple Acres, they couldn't have gone far in the shape they were in. Mourning for fallen comrades would come later, when it was safe to do so, now they broke up into groups of ten and made the barn's outside their recoup point, object was to find and rescue the carriers.

Yet the evil wasn't defeated, it was never really even hurt, but now it was unable to manifest itself to actively hunt down the bearers of the elements, however now it had sensed a viable carrier for a part of its horrifying powers. As its conciousness slowly faded, it felt the being in the Everfree more than suitable for it to corrupt into its own uses, the being however felt wrong somehow, but it would have to do, it was already broken and it would be easiest to take over, to command. So it set towards the Everfree, where its prey wandered cluelessly, just waiting to be taken. And without a warning it launched itself into Trixie's shambling form.

Trixie had seen something come her way quite fastly, but she never had the chance to react to the assault as the being had disappeared by the time she'd started to try and avoid the incoming impact. Now instead she felt something wrong with herself, something malicious waking in her, something that had been dormant for a long time now. She felt her emotions getting into a web of malicious thoughts, she couldn't help but notice how she despised Twilight Sparkle and every last one of her friends due to how they'd treated her before and Twilight she hated most of all, that lavender colour just made her sick to her stomach. She now felt a strange surge of power whenever she thought hatefully of that pony, strange feeling that made her so angry she nearly lost the control of herself, and as time went by she only delved deeper into this hatred, why had the lavender unicorn ruined everything she ever had? Oh how the lavender one probably bragged and jested at her expense, it was simply infuriating to the once proud Trixie, unbearable to think of.

Without her own notice, her coat had turned into a very pale colour of that beautiful azure coat she'd had before, her eyes bloodshot, blood trickling down from her right eye, she didn't even notice. She was so lost in her own thoughts and hatred for the ponies of Ponyville at the moment that she only awakened when she grew in size, not much, but she felt so good.. So hateful, like she could do anything she wanted to those she now so openly despised, why had she ever thought of perhaps being found in the Everfree and being forgiven, when she could have her own sweet vengeance on everyone that dared call themselves Twilight Sparkle's friend.

She saw the zebra wandering in there, looking wary for somereason, perhaps she'd pay the zebra a visit and let her know of her feelings, that she'd kept a secret with herself ofcourse, she hadn't dared to approach the beautiful being.

Zecora had noticed that the visits from her yellow coated and pink maned friend whom called herself Fluttershy had stopped, it had been sudden to say the least after all they'd planned a potion brewing day, which she for a good reason had been happy about. After all so few showed anykind of respect for the arts, Fluttershy having seemingly even some experience of her own at making simple cures for her animal friends. At first time had passed, normally for her, it wouldn't be the first let down of her life and probably not the last, yet as she watched the forest, there had to have been a good reason to keep her friend from arriving, perhaps she could offer some assistance? With these thoughts she had started to prepare for her journey to Ponyville, packing many healing supplies.

Suddenly Zecora could feel a chill running down her spine as she heard a screeching sound not of the beasts of the Everfree, it was something deeper, sinister. It was the presence she'd felt, it was definately malignant now and it was coming..

Zecora made her choices and packed her bags, before placing them over her back, just as the door slammed open, revealing a terrifying figure that reached out after Zecora. ”Hello..”, it would utter eeriely, as if trying not to drive Zecora away, yet the zebra smartly moved away from its deathly touch.

Trixie saw the zebra moving away from herself and looked a bit confusedly at her hoof, which had been partially replaced with a sharp clawed spider's leg with a poisoned claw, shambling back in surprise she startled the zebra whom seemed to start making her way slowly towards the door as she circled around the cauldron so she could see the horror at all times while moving closer and closer to her escape. Trixie would call out, ”Don't run!”, but her voice came only out as torn shrieks, driving her deeper into state of madness as she reached out to stop the zebra, who was by now at the door and turning to flee from the horrid being that Trixie had become. Oh but Trixie would have that zebra.. And if she couldh't have that which she so craved, nobody else couldn't have her either.

So the chase had begun, the zebra only barely managing to keep ahead of the swiftly moving being that's eyesockets were glowing dimly red, sickly green ichor flowing from its jaws and wounds alike as it chased after her.

Trixie tried to reach out for the zebra once she got close enough, that not working she tried pouncing at her, her maw was agape now rather constantly, filled with razor sharp teeth as she tried to take a bite out of the zebra while pouncing after her.

Zecora managed to dodge the incoming assault on her as she kept making her way away from the deadly being, down the path she knew to be the one leading towards Ponyville, stumbling slightly on the roots that now seemed to be pushing up from the earth to hinder her escape. While she did not see the being chasing her she could feel each of the attempts it had at trying to take her, the air currents flowing from where the clawed feet swung at her.

Trixie had hit a tree and this made her only more furious as she tore a piece out of the tree, tossing it aside as she swung her claws wildly at the zebra, pouncing off of the tree and shrieking rather audibly in her frustration. The more she loved that zebra the more she seemed to try and escape from her advances, it wasn't fair..

Each of the swings at her had missed by pure luck as Zecora kept making her way out of the woods, she lived deep in the everfree, which she now fully realized the folly of, jumping over the roots that she saw, she'd try and lose the being, zigzagging between the trees to keep her assailant away from herself. She heard as the being landed in some bushes and shrieked out even louder and more distorted.

Trixie would wail after the zebra she wanted, her wails summoning the other dark monsters of the Everfree that would normally stay hidden away from the normal beings, lurking in their own territories. The eerie entities starting to appear out of the trees and ground, some would even be seen by Trixie as the glid downwards, starting to chase after the zebra in one big mass of howling apendages and razor sharp teeth, defiling the landscape as the mass grew and crushed things under itself. Trixie guided the monstrosity towards the zebra and returned to the chase with renewed determination. That zebra would be hers.

As Zecora saw the mass starting to flow after herself she would make a detour in her path, knowing the Everfree did have its good sides, she decided now was the time to take a leap of faith as she headed for the massive crack on earth, speeding up her steps as she prepared to take that leap that would determine if she could shake off some of her chasers, the strikes from air were relatively inaccurate even if they sometimes came pretty close to taking her down.

As Trixie saw what the zebra had more tricks up her sleeve and sped up, ahead of the mass of scrambling monstrosities that she had called to her aid, aiming rather accurately this time as she went foward in a burst of speed, poweruflly swinging her clawed leg at the zebra as she was in mid flight over the linelike hole on the ground.

Zecora could not dodge this time seeing she was airborne, the blow landed on her side with full force, tearing a gash open on her left side, sending her off her original trajectory and causing her to roll on the ground after landing on the otherside. Rocks and roots bludgeoned her body until she came to a halt. Zecora felt a dull ache in her head as she gasped for air for a few seconds before remembering where she was, turning her head to look at the abomination that was making its way towards her. The burning in her veins signaled that the claw had indeed been poisonous, things were starting to look very bad for her at the moment, luckily none of her bones had been broken yet.

The zebra got to her hooves again and stepped behind a tree to avoid Trixie's latest blow upon her, this getting her claw stuck in the tree for a while, until she tore down the tree while getting her claw out. While the aerial support Trixie had from her fellow dark lurkers of Everfree was rather plentiful it seemed to have great difficulty reaching the zebra at all in everfree. As Trixie finally got her claw off of the tree's trunk she saw the zebra disappear behind a hill, still headed for Ponyville.

Having gained some precious time ahead of her assailant she paced herself, the airborne monstrosities having a really hard time not hitting the trees so she was fairly safe as long as she remembered to zigzag between the trees. Far off she heard many screaming mosters fall to their doom before they stopped and started looking a way around the gap, the screams being accompanied soon by a furious shriek that she could register coming from her assailant. The poison seemed to be slowing her down, but she was now nearing Ponyville and hopefully safety..

Trixie knew her time to catch her precious zebra was running low as she started moving again, having gotten only more and more emotionally unstable as she chased the zebra had made her stronger somehow, her malice boiling her own thoughts about having the zebra to herself into nothingness, she only wanted it gone now. She would use the trees to push herself into going faster, using her spidery legs to grasp the trees and propel herself fowards the destination, taking a massive leap upon the zebra, trying to devour her this time.

As she heard the shrieks getting closer from above she turned her head after making sure there was no tree before her, but by then it was too late and the jaws descended upon her.. She could feel them tearing through her flesh, causing her to cry out in pain as her right side was torn open, not too shortly after the claws swung at her back, leaving deep wounds after themselves as they withdrawed from her flesh. Her mind wanted to shut down right then and there, but she had to push through, if she went down now she'd die for sure... For that she was not ready quite yet.

As she could taste the zebra's flesh her hunger only grew, her claws drawing blood, making her even more needy for the flesh of the zebra, she swung at the zebra's throat, leaving a opening she did not think the zebra could use anymore. As her claw descended upon the seemingly defenseless zebra she would be stopped.

Zecora saw the blow coming and in her fear induced rush of adrenaline raised a hoof, directing the claw aside and using most of her remaining strength to buck at the abomination's head. This sent the unsuspecting assailant off of her, giving her the time she needed to get up and running away again, however her moves were becoming very staggering the more she struggled to move, her body growing numb from all the poison flowing through her.

Trixie had not expected the zebra to have this much power in her legs and being taken by surprise did not help either. She was sent rolling down the hill, trying to recover from her shocked state so as to get back to chasing the zebra that she wanted so badly. Yet however she was far too stunned, so she could only watch the zebra as she escaped, her airborne allies trying to catch her now that she was out in the open.

She was making a good time towards Ponyville and possible safety, her mind clouded in red mist of pain as she kept moving, having just enough time to take a her from her saddlebag that would delay the poison until she would reach the library, her bleeding not helping at all. Ofcourse she could help herself if she wouldn't be chased, having a extensive knowledge in how to treat herself effectively with healing ointments. She didn't take note of the gathering mass of monsters above herself as she kept up her pace.

The monsters of the forest swarmed down upon her, each of them swooping over her and tearing at her from above. Their voracious assault not ceasing until the zebra had reached the borders of Ponyville, leaving the torn and nearly dead zebra to stumble into town.. What she saw was a terrifying experience indeed, several shambling ponies she recognized as the shop stand keepers and such were there, they went towards her with a maddened look in their eyes, but instead of her whom they recognized from her medicinal arts they were all headed after Trixie, allowing Zecora to make her way towards the library before the crazed bloodthirsty ponies had a chance to turn around after her.

Zecora made it to Twilight's library, opening the door and slamming it shut right after, dragging the nearby table to rest against the door to hinder anyone trying to get in meanwhile she began to tend to her wounds, having only stopped the poison partially before her conciousness faded. Her last vision being the various bottles and other things she'd managed to preserve resting there next to her as she blacked out.

The magic Twilight Sparkle had put into the door worked with a delay, its powers weakened slightly during the times, not having been restored, but it finally launched the mental image towards Twilight Sparkle, it speeding right into the lavender coated unicorn's mind.

To this Twilight Sparkle did react, snapping her head towards the general direction of her library and struggling to get up from her position, although time had allowed her body some rest as well as her mind she was in no shape to move around. Yet as her scrying spell hadn't exactly been the most allowed type of magic in her permissions to study, she would have to lie until they went to the library, having forgotten that Spike already was at the library. She did remember it now and seemed to pale a little at the thought, ”Spike and Angel are still at the library.. We have to go get them!”, leaving out Zecora from her words, feeling rather horrible for forgetting Spike for so long.

From the CMC's treehouse they would head to the library as fast as they could, Twilight and Rarity having for now suppressed their disease with their magical ability, it would take a while until the disease noticed the change, starting to infect the magic flows themselves inside the unicorns to overcome them. Rainbow Dash and Applejack would be taking care of the now rather hostile Ponyville's inhabitants as they proceeded, trying to just knock them unconcious as they made their way foward.

In the library Spike's attention had been suddenly diverted from Angel towards the loud noises downstairs. He'd told Angel to stay put as he headed downstairs to check out what was causing all that noise, the sudden stop hadn't helped to calm his nerves. It took him a while to gather the courage necessary to take a peek at the intruder, what he saw was rather unsettling, there was blood everywhere near the zebra he finally recognized as Zecora.

The zebra was obviously dying from blood loss, then again, he'd been tending to Twilight's wounds from the many experiments and had built a tolerance to stuff like this, that unicorn apparently could get herself messed up really bad somedays with all those magic alchemy things. He steadied his breathing and just barely managed to stop himself from throwing up violently at the sight, fetching the bandages, before undoing the ruined old bandages that were mostly makeshift. He proceeded to cauterize the most bleeding wounds on the zebra with his fiery breath, seeing the zebra being already unconcious that was, othervise it'd been a too big of a risk, even if he had to still be careful not to make the wounds worse with his breath instead of just sealing them with it, before wrapping them up in bandages the best he could. He did not have extensive knowledge about salves, but he'd treated some burns so he had added some of the salve he usually used for Twilight's small burns onto the now closed wounds. After that he started trying to awaken the zebra, as being unconcious would be bad in the condition she was in.

Boiling hatred towards the being she wanted now only dead was what drove Trixie this far, she wouldn't be stopped by just some villagers, even if the beasts that came with her were somewhat set back by the furious resistance and total abandon for their own lives that the ponies expressed as they tried to destroy the outsiders. The creatures kept coming and so did the Ponyvillians keep striking to kill, it was baffling to Trixie, she'd never seen anyone fight like this in her life, but soon enough she gathered her strength, starting to push through the ponies before her, cleaving with the claws that now pushed out from her back as she utilized her hooves to push through the mob.

The ponies of Ponyville were not any special military force to be recogned with, but they were not in control of their own selves for now. All they knew and saw was a enemy, outsider, which had stopped their constant battling between themselves as they had united, although reclutantly, to purge this outsiding force from their territory. These ponies were feral with the hatred that had clouded their minds, the age long grudges usually hidden had come to fuel themselves from the disease and even as their bodies weakened from the disease their resolve only grew stronger with the malicious thoughts they now bore towards others, perhaps even paranoid suspicion that overshadowed everything they saw. Everything was against them, some more than the others, and so they would continue their maddened battle against the opposing force, not making it easy to take them down as they abandoned their ability to reason, directing their newfound instinct to harm towards a unified goal so they could return to what they had been doing before, which was battling amongst themselves.

Beasts of the Everfree were not a force to be taken lightly at all, they were many in numbers and they were out for blood as well, something had empowered them. Now that something was commanding them to massacre the enemies of the abomination that had called to them in the forest, now having led them to their next glorious feast. Yet their numbers had severely diminished due to the unnervingly bloodthirsty ponies attacking them back instead of just fleeing like they used to do in the natural habit of the beasts. They would still get their feast, following their great abominable leader towards it had been very exciting to them, now they'd be in for a treat made from the flesh of those ponies that they were denied for so long.

Trixie had managed to push through the ponies that were against her, leaving the angry mob behind with the beasts she'd brought from the forest to take out the opposition as she chased after her only goal. In the far back of her mind however, Trixie could feel something struggling against the bindings that clouded her vision in red, she knew she was closing in on her with each step, yet it felt wrong somehow. The bloodlust however kept driving her to go after the main prize to her struggles, the dark presence in her mind now clearly visible to her.

It was a malign presence that had taken a hold of her, somehow it had also been feasting on her feelings, she could feel it laugh at her struggles to clear her head of the false feelings and unbending fury that she held for the zebra that had denied her love that she feld toward her. This thing was now in control of her and it did not plan to let her go anytime soon, after all she found that she was a perfect vessel for its dark power.

However Trixie kept struggling against the bindings in her mind that kept her chained against the backseat of her own body and her own mind. Vivid images of what she was going to do to the zebra when she caught her made her even more desperate to breach the hold over herself. It was true she disliked the zebra not loving her back, it hurt, it hurt her so much, but perhaps this was the wrong way to go about it. She was not murderous by nature, she was hurting something fierce however and that was when the presence seemingly came to her. She proceeded to struggle with all her will against the bindings, some of them coming loose. She was now halfway to the library, tracking her prey by scent.

No one had chased after her, they were all too busy to care for one fleeing creature. Behind her Trixie could still hear the voice of the battling forces that kept slaughtering each other without any purpose, other than to kill the opposing force that was.

Suddenly in her mind she would see the zebra, how she could have her, forever with her, the presence within her mind seemed to promise that if it could take the zebra it would give her to Trixie. It was alluring, subduing the struggles that she'd kept up, making her succumb deeper into the prison she'd made of her own mind at somepoint without her own realization of such being done. Her thoughts had betrayed her, but it was too late that she realized it, she was still moving towards the library and to her horror she'd lost the footing she'd had in her mind just now.

In her mind she could see the presence now clearly, it was a black ooze that ran through her thoughts and tried to poison her mind, it was hightly dominant in her mind now. It scared her, but if she couldn't now summon her own self to stop this pursue, she would end up killing what she held so precious to her. After all that zebra had given her something to look to, to wait for and to stay sane for, perhaps that was what she liked about the zebra the most. Without her knowing Trixie had been taught about friendship and how beautiful it could be when Fluttershy had been visiting Zecora, that was what made her so jealous, she'd wanted to have friends. The thoughts were gathering in her mind and making a rather heavy point to her now that she was so close to the being she'd thought she loved and hated, sure she had a crush, but she wanted a friend..

Meanwhile she could feel her hooves and claws breaking down the door as the malign entity forced her inside the library and stared down at the small dragon, along with the unconcious zebra. It started slowly making its way towards the two, intent on finishing what it had wanted of her, each step taking it closer to making Trixie forever succumb into the presence's lures.

Trixie finally pushed against her binds with all her fury, breaking them slowly, but surely as she made her body stagger with each step, just as the claws were closing in on Spike that was defiantly standing before her to stop her from reaching Zecora she would break through the last chain and defiantly yell out, stopping herself and starting to battle the foreign presence in her mind, driving it into the background, retreating her claws from Spike. She saw herself in a mirror and nearly threw up, sure she had not looked her best while she was herself, but this presence had altered her, needless to say she was disgusted with herself. She turned her head to look back at the babydragon and the zebra, something in her eyes having changed as she just stared at them.

Everything went still for a moment, but it would soon be broken with a furious yell from behind Trixie, moments after four strong backhooves bucking her to one of the bookshelves as Twilight and her friends had arrived. Trixie found herself laying on the ground and looked up at the two that had just now tossed her to the wall. The orange earth pony and the cyan pegasus were preparing for another assault upon her as the two unicorns had both moved to stand so that the dragon and the zebra were between them, ready to provide support or to protect the zebra. Trixie was rather confused at their appearance, but she did recognize the face of the pony that had shown her up, a whole new batch of fear and hatred building up within her, but she was still in control, so she fled the library, heading off to somewhere where she could think, perhaps even drive the entity out of herself.

After things had been calmed down a little and the doorway had been barricaded again, the four turned to look at Spike who was still a bit shaken from the near death encounter he had just now. Zecora had been apparently taken care of by the babydragon, Twilight made a mental note to later pamper his number one assistant, moving closer to the zebra to check up on her. She nearly yelped as she saw the zebra suddenly open her eyes and stare right at her unblinkingly for a few moments before her eyes started moving properly again.

”An-”, the zebra mumbled before fading out again, Spike moving to check on her and turned to Twilight, ”She's burning up.”. It didn't take Twilight long to decipher the situation, moving to check Zecora's saddlebags and finding a potion holding bag, proceeding to search for the antidote to poison. After all the being they'd seen had been a spider-like entity that reminded of a pony she'd seen before, but who? It didn't for now matter to her, she knew some spiders had poison in their bite and it could be fatal if not stopped, she found the vial, emptying some of it into the zebra's mouth to purify the poison from her innards. She had to force her to drink it seeing Zecora was unconcious again.

Now they could only wait and hope for the best, but they had very little time to spare to begin with, each dying hour would make the two unicorns weaker. Wait wasn't that Trixie?

Meanwhile in a shady alley a mental battle between two wills had begun. One of them however was bound to lose from the beginning..

Chapter 5

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.

Bonus Chapter: Entwined Fates

Trixie appeared at the Royal Palace's gardens, her mind was her own once again, however some of the dark thoughts remained within her mind, but they were slowly being purged. She looked at herself, however the attachments were there still, she cried quietly and huddled up in the gardens. Now she had the time to reminiscence her memories and think to herself, she recalled seeing Twilight Sparkle and the others, their closeness to one another kept astounding her.

For a moment Trixie could see a  gaseous form of something float closer to her and inspect her, before quickly retreating back off to somewhere. Fluttershy had gotten slightly used to her strange form of being and made her way towards the throne room again, she couldn't speak so that anyone would hear, but she was able to move rather freely through objects. As she entered the throne room she squealed a voiceless squee of happiness as she saw her friends, that were now receiving full medical attention.

Rainbow Dash had seen better days, she couldn't fly for a few days and she hated staying on the ground. Though being with Applejack was of some help indeed, the earth pony calmed her nerves just by being there. They rested together after being checked out by the medical unicorns, bandaged up properly. Rarity was still dying, however the medics had found a way to delay the magical disease and had done so to the both of the unicorns.

Twilight Sparkle was the first to notice the strange gaseous form, walking over to it and circling around it slowly, taking a good look at it.. It was just like Fluttershy, Twilight gasped without even noticing so subconciously. The fluttershy seemed like she wanted her to follow so she did, a surprise awaited Twilight in the gardens, her eyes widening at the sight of what lay before her.

Having stood up Trixie rose her spider-like legs and pulled them back to her back, folded up like wings. The other parts of her were normal now, yet her mane and tail remained rather disheveled. She turned to look around, she was in the royal gardens, yes she'd heard of the beauty, but not that even under such darkness it would still keep its eternal beauty. Her head turned slowly to the lavender being and her eyes focused, she had heard a gasp, now she saw it clearly. ”Twi..light?”, came her hoarse, low whine as she reached one of her front hooves towards the unicorn, only to see her step further away from her.

Fluttershy circled around Trixie that seemed to be rather weakened. Twilight assessed the situation and noticed several differences to her from before, her eyes had returned to their normal beauty as well. She took a deep breath and started taking tentative steps toward the creature. ”How did you get here?”, she asked, keeping her subconcious defensive posture as she fired out another question, ”Are you here to hurt my friends again?”.

Trixie lowered herself to the ground before Twilight to show she meant no harm. Trixie started getting the control of her vocal cords back, ”I-i don't know.. I mean no harm.”, wincing at every word she managed to let out as her throat still hurted enormously at each effort.

Twilight took her time at making her way towards the prone being, slowly inspecting her, before wondering, ”Why did you try to attack Zecora and Spike?”, with a stern tone in her voice, looking her in the eyes to see if she tried to lie to her.

”I were affected by something foul.. It tried to take over my mind by abusing my.. Err, feelings for the zebra. All I really wanted was atleast one friend, I were so lonely in the Everfree... I really don't want to flee again, please don't make me leave again, Trixie is very sorry for everything.”, Trixie replied, wincing slightly as she expected a more violent reaction from the unicorn.

”Stay calm.. I don't think I'm going to hurt you. I've been wondering where you ran off to after your show went awry. So you went to Everfree, how did you survive? And why didn't you come back for your cart?”

”Trixie was scared the townfolk would harm Trixie, laugh at her and toss things at her. Trixie did deserve it for being so mean before, even if it was business, Trixie did go slightly overboard.”

”Slightly? You call turning Rarity's mane green slight?”

”Trixie surely was not expecting for her to react with such explosive content..”

”Fine, that'll do for now. Still didn't tell me how you survived though.”

”The zebra taught Trixie much about the Everfree, even if the zebra did not know of Trixie, Trixie knew her to be friends with the others.”

”Fluttershy..”, Twilight's voice wavered as she looked at the foggy being and then looked down slightly, not noticing as Trixie got up and walked over to her, settling down so she was side by side with her.

Trixie had felt a strange urge to be close and to comfor the lavender unicorn, ”Trixie assumes she was a friend of yours that also suffered the full brunt of the evil that took hold of me later on.. Trixie is sorry for your loss.”

Twilight shuddered first at the strange feeling of being so close to someone, other than Celestia that was. She rested with the strange Trixie, taking the comfort she could from just being close to the unicorn.

The two staid that way for a good while, just sharing their warmth with each other. It was Trixie that broke the silence, ”Trixie wonders, if this Fluttershy's dead, then how is she still there in that form. I've a feeling she's not really gone just yet.”.

A thought that hadn't crossed her mind yet came to her, why was Fluttershy there indeed, she had not heard of this kind of a manifestation before, not even read from a book actually. Celestia had many books that treated the subject of death and what happens after a pony dies, yet none of them mentioned this kind of manifestation of the pony that was supposed to be dead. Then again, the elements of harmony weren't exactly the most researched subjects in the books even in Canterlot's greatest archives. Her mind raced through these bits and pieces of knowledge, working it over like it was another of those mental jigsaw puzzles, it didn't take long for her to piece together the parts. Now the only thing she needed was a confirmation to the theory she had come up with, feeling a new vigor rising inside herself as she stood there a moment longer.

”That's because she's not dead. I think. Come, we need to go ask the princess about this!”, Twilight nearly squealed as she was so excited, as if she'd found a new book she'd not read before. The subject of being perhaps able to bring Fluttershy back to life did thrill her beyond measure, after all she'd thought she'd lost her dear friend when she saw the body, now she was not so sure. However when she turned to look at Trixie properly she saw her shuddering on the ground fearfully.

”No please, Trixie can't face the princess like this, they'll kill Trixie if they find Trixie here.. Trixie is a monster.”

”I could go in first and tell them not to.”

”Trixie would perhaps like that idea very much. Trixie promises not to harm anyone.”

Twilight couldn't help but smile slightly at Trixie, before nudging her to follow, leading the way inside the royal palace, heading for the throne room.

In the throne room her friends had however wondered where she had disappeared all of the sudden and were just walking to the exit as they came face to face with the two. The reactions were rather mixed between confusion, anger and curiousity.

Trixie cowered behind Twilight fearfully as Pinkie Pie who had seemingly grown more and more disturbed as of late tried to charge right at her when she saw her, her mane flat, her eyes hungry. Yet when Pinkie saw her friend in the way she seemed frustrated at Twilight for getting in the way, scowling as she started circling around to get at Trixie, who kept trying to hide behind Twilight the best she could in order to keep away from the hostile pink pony.

Zecora was cowering in the corner and trying to hide from Trixie the best she could, surrounded defensively by the commander and his troops.

Big Macintosh and the CMC had gone for a tour of the castle to keep them from causing too much chaos in the planning, the CMC having decided that they might be able to get their castle exploration cutiemarks.

Rarity was occupied with resting in her spot near the thrones, the disease had taken its toll on her already. It was too much for her to try and get up now, so she only observed from her spot.

Spike only stared wide-eyedly at the two arrivals, Angel having hidden behind him, peeking curiously from behind Spike where it was relatively safe.

Applejack seemed slightly surprised to see Twilight so calmly with what seemed to be a monster, but did not join her friends in their defensive poses yet, seeing Twilight was ready to defend the monstrosity. She had decided to await for a explanation, while keeping Rainbow Dash from charging at Trixie as well, putting a calming hoof around her shoulders.

Twilight herself was keeping Pinkie Pie and possibly the others away from Trixie, a bit confused at the ferocious and completely unpinkie behaviour of her party loving friend. She began to try and explain the reason she'd brought Trixie here and that she was no threat, but was interrupted before she could get the first word out of her mouth.

Celestia had intended to calm the situation down, she had been aware of a presence in her royal palace, but hadn't deemed it necessarily dangerous so she hadn't acted. Now that she was going to she found herself cut off as well as a voice all too familiar echoed from the walls.

”Now now, is that anyway to treat ponies that are different from yourselves?”, Discord asked a little disapprovingly as he appeared next to Trixie, scaring the azure unicorn out of her mind with his sudden appearance.. And then Pinkie Pie charged at him, to which he replied by holding her away with one claw-like hand as he yawned. ”Of all ponies Pinkie, you? Oh comeon.. Celestia surely did not have a friendship report on you being so mean.”

Celestia merely sighed as the gazes turned to her, waiting to hear what she'd been up to with the god of chaos. ”Consider him a necessary evil for now, all things will be explained in due time. Now I would wish to hear out Twilight's side on this all, bringing what appears one of the monsters here so openly.”, her voice as calm as ever, perhaps interested, but it was hard to ever tell.

This seemed to calm the others slightly and they waited for Twilight to explain herself, so she did, ”You might remember Trixie, the boastful magician that once visited Ponyville with a rather unfavourable effects. Well this is her, she was affected by the evil presence that took Fluttershy, as you saw, her additional limbs a good proof of that. Now something happened to let her free of the presence, she woke up in the gardens and has no idea how she got here, we had a little talk.. Turns out she's been hiding in the Everfree since she had no other place to go and feared the Ponyvillians. She apologized for her wrong doings and I thought she might be helpful. She did kind of inspire me  about a few things, seeing how Fluttershy is still around even if her body is dead, makes me wonder how dead she truly is, which we came to ask Celestia about, to see if she could tell us more concerning the subject.”, her voice one that she always used when lecturing about one of her many researches that she conducted in the library before this incident.

This seemed to satisfy even Pinkie who had gone back to where she had been by herself before, now she was paying attention as well. Rainbow Dash looked like she'd wanted to say something, before taking their place with the rest of them near the temporary resting spots. Zecora was still cowering, her mental trauma keeping her in place still.

For a moment Celestia thought to herself in the silence that followed Twilight's explanation, there were no gaps in that for all she knew. She had however noticed the strange aura that Trixie seemed to carry with her, she couldn't detect the original taint from her anymore. Finally turning to look at everyone in the room she nodded, ”Yes, Fluttershy is not dead in your definition of it, she's trapped between this world and the afterlife. However that is Luna's dominion and she is well.. Protective of her own domains, so she's forbidden anyone to enter it unless they're dead that is.”, she sounded slightly defensive, which did not for once go unnoticed by her pupil, that frowned at her knowingly. The grin that spread over Dircord's face did not help at all, but he remained silent for the conversation. ”Discord's presence here is easy to explain. He is the god of chaos, but he doesn't like the idea of Equestria being destroyed either, what would his chaos become without it?”

Twilight Sparkle was frowning mentally at the whole concept of Celestia needing someone to help her in guarding over Equestria, after all the battle she lost with Chrysalis was only due to her reclutance to cause harm, perhaps even her uncanny foresight into the future had something to do with it. This much should be clear to anyone who'd ever studied magic, after all it was the same princess that lifted the sun to the skies everyday and could just as easy bring it down on her foes. To Twilight the concept of Alicorn magic was something that she had studied to understand very well, alicorns used the same magic as the others, but their sources of strength varied. For Celestia it was the sun that gave her unbelievable power, for Luna it was the moon and stars, yet each of the alicorns wielded a wast amount of magical power at their command even without their sources. Twilight had grown past the assumptions that would cloud a normal pony's mind, she wouldn't believe Celestia's defense of her sister's domain fully, there were gaps even in alicorn's magic after all.

The others however seemed to take the news with a mixed up result, questioning where Luna was at the current. Celestia replied to the questions about Luna's absence by telling them she was getting help for them, mentioning Twilight's sister and Cadence.

Celestia would however be approached by her student as she had expected her to after her slip up from the previously flawless outward regal appearance. Celestia smiled benevolently as she saw Trixie still hiding behind Twilight, not wanting to frighten the poor creature anymore. She would agree to having a word in private as Twilight put it, leading them to her chambers and closing the door afterwards. ”Now then what might be bothering you my dear student?”

”The part where you lied ever so casually about the domain, surely you kept a watch over the spirit realms yourself when your sister was gone for a thousand years did you not princess?”, Twilight replied a bit quietly, turning to comfort Trixie every now and then so she would stop hiding already. ”Why would you keep it a secret?”

The princess of sun had made a bigger slip-up that she had intended to it seemed, ofcourse she had overseen that domain as well for a thousand years.. ”Because that knowledge shouldn't be so apparently present in your mind, but you were always the studious type weren't you. Well it is possible to bring her back to this level of existing yet in theory. It however is not a feat I can accomplish, seeing how I live forever myself, excluding a few events. I have no access to that domain.”

Twilight Sparkle looked at her mentor for a moment, before nodding, ”So it would require someone who will eventually die, why?”.

”The spell that one unicorn magician in the past created as his life long dream simulates death of the user, using that to bypass the wall between dead and the living that is between my domains and my sister's. However the magician went insane while trying to cast this spell to bring back her deceased wife, not that the spell was a failure, but what he saw beyond the veil affected his mind rather vastly. He never found his wife, but he brought back something that should have been dead as a evidence to the spell's functionability for the matter.”

”So you're saying that there are too many risks for too little benefit? What you in your ageless glory might've forgotten princess is how hard friends fight for each other, that is also a thing you taught me princess.”, Twilight reminded her teacher, trying to push her closer to the revealing where she could find such a spell, only to be surprised by her mentor. A white tome with princess Celestia's cutiemark embedded onto the cover floated down to the stunned lavender unicorn.

”It is clear to me that you would keep pressing the matter.. Yes perhaps I have forgotten, perhaps oneday I'll return to the one last original as well and relive the joys of my life with him. Ofcourse you've thought why I play weak even when I could scorch the creature, which if things were so simple I would've resorted to already. However when enemy's a fellow alicorn it is not such a simple thing to just destroy them, alas it is nearly impossible if the other doesn't want to do direct combat, as you learned with Luna before she took proper physical form due to her recklessness as Nightmaremoon, Discord's arrogance.. List goes on. Willing alicorns to take physical form is however possible, but I am quite certain that this particular being is well prepared for that so we must be equally prepared before we engage him, even with our allies I fear we may lose.”, Celestia explained quietly, watching her student's expression with a pained expression on her own usually so emotionless surface.

Twilight opened the tome and navigated the pages to the forbidden spells that Celestia had gathered during her ageless time spent ruling Equestria, listening to her mentor's woes and wisdom while reading through the many spells, before looking up at Celestia, ”What's blood magic?”.

”Blood magic is one of the most dangerous forms of magic one can master. It belongs to a category of dark magic that has been around atleast as long as me and Luna. Blood magic as with any of the forbidden magic types is bound to corrupt its user thus being forbidden by me and Luna, we made sure to take away all we could on the subject, put it away from the view of anyone. To be fair, even learning them will often plunge a weaker mind towards the stagnant pool of insanity. It would be fair to say that the only thing more powerful and dangerous is a type of magic that actively seeks to devour the user when one even sees its runes for the first time without any knowledge in them. This type is the abhorrent power that our foe is using, there's no application of that magic that can yield good end results, it is innately evil. I've lost friends to this type of magic, yet Discord seems unaffected by this due his unknown inheritant traits, however he can't use it too much at once or even he faces the corruptive power of that magic. Once it corrupts the being fully there's no return and the bearer seeks to destroy everything, which even I have come to fear during my years in life.”, her voice had returned to its normal teaching tone, a tone she knew all too well herself from her past, she'd grown to hate that expressionless gentle voice herself even if it gave her a level of security mentally.

Twilight nodded at the information, grateful for the explanation as always, every bit of help was welcome at this point. She back to studying the ancient spells described in the tome, reading over the applications of blood magic and certain specific uses that could be empowered with one's blood. She did read the generic description, but avoided reading the parts about the dangerous type, not that they all weren't forbidden, yet the idea of losing one's mind forever did not sound good.

Silence overtook the room as Celestia watched her student as she studied the spelltome's contents blissfully oblivious to the many other secrets she kept to herself for now. She couldn't gather enough strength to tell Twilight the things she was entitled to know, perhaps for now she could keep it all a secret and spare the details for when things had calmed down.

That blessed silence was broken by a quiet whisper followed by a shift in the lavender coated unicorn's focus as she turned it towards the new source of disturbance, surprised to see Trixie looking at her guiltily, well more guiltily than she'd seen her look before. Celestia had taken notice as well, listening if what she thought she had heard would be repeated louder. Yet as Trixie felt the gazes upon her she hastily shook her head and simply went back to sitting next to Twilight instead of staying under the direct gaze of the princess. After this slip up there were no more distractions and Twilight made it through the spelltome with amazing speed, which still baffled Trixie to a extent, but she was slowly getting used to the bookish unicorn's stunning abilities at absorbing knowledge as well as putting it to the use.

As Twilight stood up she had found the spell, which was awfully complex and required a type of magic she had never performed herself before, well actually it was two types she'd not yet learned of herself. Blood magic's basics she understood quite foggily, but on that part she was particularly confident as it was in the end quite a simple thing to use the natural magic saturated blood and infuse it into ther magic, she was no stranger to conjoined spellcasting rituals either. No, it was the runic spells she had not explored before and this incredibly complex spell needed a lot of them to guide it and function as barriers to pull back the seeker, also to keep out the beings that would take advantage of the uninhabitated body that was left behind. One of these runes would require enormous effort even to be drawn since it basically triggered the creating of the pony's body that is brought back. Once all this sunk in she stared blindly at Celestia for a moment before uttering, ”Prepare a empty room and the necessary equipment.”, her voice weak at the beginning but growing determined towards the end.

Celestia simply nodded and wished her dearest student good luck before leaving to prepare a room for the spell to be cast in. Being alicorn was not so easy, she could not actively participate in the events of Equestria, only guide the things that happened, ofcourse she could still fight other alicorns and the like if need be, but othervise she had pledged not to influence the lives of ponies actively. Instead she had used laws, taxes and such to guide the nobles along with the common ponyfolk for centuries now. She remembered the reason things were this way, even if it was forgotten history to most of Equestria she had once ruled very differently and the noble houses were vastly different from what they were today. The events of that day were burned into her mind and they would torture her for years to come, but it was what she along with her sister had agreed to be for the best. Meeting Defilicus for that brief time she had helped plan things out had ignited a long forgotten flame in her heart that she had very mixed feelings about. The sheer lifeforce that the other alicorn had possessed inspired her perhaps, it had also changed her views on blood magic, now she was doubting herself. She had broken her promise when she agreed to direct the troops that the strange alicorn had summoned back to life once again.

In the end it had been worth it had it not, she'd managed to save her student that she prized over many things in her life. And upon finishing the preparations for Twilight's spell she went to the archives, opening the tome to read it through. After she had read the first words she was fairly certain she had done the right thing after all. A new light of hope had been ignited in her mind and the flame she felt within doubled in immensity, a wry smile crossed her lips. 'You certainly are a piece of work.. Well then I'll play your game as you played mine...' The plan written in there was crazier than she'd trust even Discord to pop up with if asked, but it might just work.

Celestia was nolonger confused, she was perhaps a bit perplexed at her fellow alicorn's ability to see through her and the others, but she intended to pull Equestria through this. She didn't feel so lonely anymore either, it was time for things to flow as intended, to hell with rules.

Discord was sitting next to her, ”You know, that's a crazy plan right?”. He never got his response as Celestia had already headed towards her bed chambers to tell Twilight the room was ready.

Trixie had in the meantime gathered her guts and was now talking with Twillight about the spell and the things it required, having gone as far as to offer her help with it seeing the state Twilight was in. Twilight had agreed to accept Trixie's help in drawing the runes and even in the real channeling process, but had persisted that the blood magic part was left to her at which Trixie had to agree, biting her lip slightly. Their planning however was stopped by the princess that walked in right along with Discord, for once it was Discord's face that was concerned.

”My faithful student, the room you requested prepared is ready, however before that I would wish to give you a gift.”, Celestia spoke with the softest voice she managed and everyone couldn't help but notice the uncharacteristically wide grin that had appeared on her face. Before Discord could question her intentions she touched her student with her horn and felt around for the infection, her magic burning off the parasitic disease without any hindrance. She turned towards Discord and saw him about to say something, probably how she had never done that before, having none of it she walked over to her ex-lover, kissing him right on the lips infront of the two unicorns. She then headed towards the throneroom to purge the disease from the others as well (and give Pinkie some well deserved psychological treatment), but before she left she looked at Trixie over her shoulder, ”We need to talk before you two go do anything.”.

This was going to be too priceless, too crazy to not spin a pun out of if just to spite Celestia, seeing her use her power like that after so long. Discord was just going to make his best joke in Equestrian history when he felt Celestia's lips touch his own rather immensely for a brief moment. Yep that was a kiss no doubt, wait a kiss? KISS?! Discord rarely got stunned, but this was one of those moments, he was supposed to be the one doing unexpected things after all.

”Okay, everything's alright, breathe deep, remain calm... Okay, what the hay? Whatthehaywhatthe-”, Twilight had not just seen what she had seen, it just couldn't happen, could it? Nope, the Celestia she knew didn't just kiss Discord, because that would be insane and she wasn't insane was she. She'd thought she'd gotten over the insanity by now, but no there it was again, a very clear mental image of Celestia doing just what Twilight swore had not happened. ”WHAT THE HAY?”

Trixie was taking this all relatively well, aside from staring eyes wide at the scene that had happened as it repeated itself in her mind. The words were however very clear, 'Trixie we need to talk'. She feared what was to come, those were some mighty ominous words spoken to someone in her position.

About thirty minutes later they were all brought to the throneroom and Celestia explained herself to them all, the truth about how the tome had helped her see the truth. That she had partially forgiven herself for the past that had caused the deaths of so many ponies. Knowing it would raise questions she had decided to tell them everything else as well, about Defilicus and many things about her past too. She left out the parts about Twilight's bloodline still, but she did explain Trixie's condition and that she was no threat even if she appeared different from others, this gained Discord's approval, which led Celestia to explain the next part of the plan. She'd let Twilight explain what she was going to do herself, which was met with some resistance, but eventually they agreed to let Twilight go cast the spell after being convinced that she could pull it off.

Later on Twilight and Trixie bid their goodbyes to the group in the main hall, receiving the goodbyes from them in turn as each of them left to do their part so this could all be brought to its ending.

As the two unicorns walked towards the chamber reserved for their spell to be completed in Trixie remembered that she had to go meet Celestia before helping Twilight. She felt a shiver run through her being as she turned to Twilight and whispered, ”You go ahead.. I just remembered Celestia wanted to have a word with me before we do this.”, before starting to make her way towards the throneroom that would now be empty as everyone else had gone to do their parts in the plan.

When Trixie arrived to the throneroom she saw that Celestia was sitting on her throne, waiting for her. She made her way to the feet of the throne and bowed before it, ”You wanted to talk princess?”.

Celestia looked up from the tome she had been reading and nodded slightly, ”Did you really think I couldn't sense who or what you are from miles away dear? Your presence is a hard one to forget after all Trixie, or should I call you Trixie of the third noble house Lulamoon? I do know you decided to leave your lastname behind for a reason, to spite your family's heritage if I righfully remember. Yet here you are, hundreds of years after I banished your house and the others for using the final stage of that evil magic. Cannot help but wonder why would you risk staying here even after finding out where you were.”.

This time there was no panic in Trixie's features, but something else, a slightly different demeanor than she'd been using just a moment earlier. She stood up and looked back at Celestia as she spoke, ”With all due respect Princess, when I saw the heir of the two houses I'd only read about in stories appear to protect me I was very confused after all she could've so very easily end my life right there. She knew me, I could tell it by the look she gave me, but instead of smiting me down all I saw was a smile before she.. Died. Then everything went blank and I woke up in the royal gardens, but before I could make my escape the one that I expected never to see again arrived to the gardens. She was slightly doubtful at the beginning, but in the end she did accept my apology quite easily which was the last thing I could hope for after all I'd done to her and her friends, so I decided to follow her. Perhaps somewhere in the back of my mind I thought I'd be able to find atleast a degree of redemtion for my family's past deeds by helping her, well that and she is perhaps the closest Trixie has ever been able to call a friend..”, her voice only wavering at the two last sentences.

Before Trixie the sun goddess staid prone on her throne, simply looking down at the azure coated unicorn deep in thought, as if considering what she had heard from Twilight's letters about this particular pony in the past, comparing it to the things she'd heard just now. ”Well well, looks like the great and lonely Trixie has finally found the right path. I've made my decision on your fate. Your punishment for breaking the banishment is..”, she started before pausing for the dramatic effect for a moment, then continuing, ”To watch over the last living heir of the first two noble houses and my prodigious student Twilight Sparkle. If I see a single hair miss from her once you two come back I'll personally see to sending you to the moon. Oh yes and do keep your mouth shut about her heritage, she does not know it yet, neither does her family. Now go, she must be wondering where'd you run off to.”, with a slightly amused tone underlying her usually regal voice as she watched Trixie's reaction to the news.

The azure unicorn's mind took its time working over each word told to her by one of the rulers of Equestria herself. She did find the brief suspense nearly heart stopping as a whole as she stood there, however her expression changed many times as she took the full meaning of the words in, ending up in one of stunned awe. While she did not wish to be sent to the moon she would find the whole a very acceptable task, she'd get to be with Twilight and now that she knew who Twilight truly was she couldn't help, but smile very widely as she bowed to the princess once more before hastily making her way to the room where Twilight would be waiting for her. 'I still can't believe it, this is the biggest chance to redeem myself and my family I'll probably ever get.. Well there obviously is the bonus of it being Twilight I have to protect, she's just so nice. Never thought her to be the descendant to their bloodlines though, a dark past indeed.', were the thoughts running in her mind as she neared the door to the room where Twilight would be, probably faceplanted into the tome to study somemore before the final go mark. She remembered to blank her face into a somewhat more fitting setting for it not to be so disturbingly happy as she entered the room, however the slightest smile she'd chosen to wear faded away, being replaced with a horrified, shocked, look on her face.

Before Trixie's eyes was a rather gory scene, blood had spilled all around the room, it was rather fresh, the scent of decay was present with the overwhelming scent of iron. Anyone could feel the disturbing undertone of magic that had been used, it wasn't the normal feeling she'd get from the usual everyday spells no matter how powerful the spells were, it had been blood magic that had been cast. The red and lavender fog poured out of the now open door, the residuents of the spell cast. In the middle of the runic circle of magic laid the unmoving body of the pony Trixie had just been assigned to protect with her life.

It took all of Trixie's mental ability not to throw up at the sight and scent of the room, it was a disgusting sight to say the least. She closed the door behind herself as she stepped into the room, looking around herself hastily, finding the spelltome, there was no time to call Celestia for help, so she followed the steps from the tome and executed them to the best of her ability, placing herself right next to Twilight as her presence was ripped right off of her physical being. She'd used the remaining residuents of Twilight's powerful magic to replicate the spell as her own potential was far below that of the lavender coated unicorn's. Now she was being flung through the barriers that protected the particular part of Luna's domains in a brilliant flash of colours. The world blackened in Trixie's eyes for a moment before she managed to open her 'eyes' again, looking around the black interior of the room, she could navigate by the red outlines that painted out the world around her.

Trixie started searching for Twilight, but it didn't take her long to realize that Twilight Sparkle was right there, just outside the room, she could hear words of someone else as well, the two were discussing. She sneaked to hide behind the doorway so she could hear what they were talking about. The results of her snooping left her somewhat distraught, it was no doubt a evil entity that was coaxing Twilight to stay here forever. She'd heard enough when Twilight started sounding entranced, sprinting into the view of the two and yelling, ”Twilight if you stay here then all will be lost, think back to your friends Twilight, what about them? You can't just abandon Fluttershy here either!”, angry at the both of them, Twilight for nearly falling into the trap, the other for trying to take away her Twilight. At the moment she didn't think her own thoughts sounded so weird at all, she was after all protecting her ma- no, definately not her mare, but friend, yes a friend. That might've been hard to explain if she'd said it out loud, instead of just sounding like it, she did have to admit she was awfully possessive, perhaps because she only had Twilight. For now she pushed that mess of thoughts out of her head and proceeded to stare down at Twilight.

It didn't take long for Twilight to remember the reason for her coming here, the entity's presence had made her temporarily forget due her curiousity. Twilight stood away from the beast and back to Trixie's side, giving her a quiet yet thankful look, before politely declining the entity's lures, which made the entity disappear for now as it sought another way to get past the protections.

They both knew that as time passed there would be only more and more of those entities trying to drag them down so they could get back to the real world, or even parasitically leech along with them to the world, sharing their bodies so they made their way towards the throneroom as quick as they could. After all that was where they'd seen the vague form of Fluttershy just before they both left for this stage of existing, however Fluttershy wasn't there anymore. The two then headed towards the gardens, hearing a strange offbeat pulse starting to follow them.

Twilight looked quickly behind them, not seeing anyhthing just yet, but it was getting stronger so she wouldn't stop as she explained what she thought the noise to be, ”Those are probably Luna's guardians that guard this specific plane. They've picked up on our presence here and are after us now.”, sounding slightly exhausted from keeping her form in this place already, the currents were straining them both as they tried to chain their temporary presence to this place permanently. Yet the both of them were stronger than your average run of the mill unicorns that only focused on one type of magic, even if Trixie mostly used illusions, thus being able to prolong their enduring in that realm without becoming a part of it.

As they arrived to the gardens they spotted Fluttershy who was about to be absorbed into a enormous writhing mass of limbs and goo. They pulled Fluttershy out and retreated from the creature, even if shaken to see something so absurdly denying any laws of physics.

The writhing mass noticed them and from somewhere within it emanated a wild growl as it started advancing towards them hungrily, having noticed that these beings were not of its natural habitat so devouring them might allow it entry to somewhere new where there was more to feast on.

Fluttershy was rather decidedly snuggling her wings and shivering on the ground eyes closed so Twilight picked her onto her back, as she had tried to use her magic to lift her friend up, but seemingly their magic did not work in this place. Trixie who had distracted the monstrosity from gaining on them leaped next to them and so they started their mad rush towards the exit of this maddening place. Hundreds of faces seemed to start appearing from the walls as they made their way towards the room, hands trying to reach them, tearing at them both, the pulsing had gotten very strong by now.

They made their way into the room once they reached it and placed Fluttershy on the materialization rune that began to work on breaking her chains to this place so she could be returned to the primal stage of existing again. Trixie held the door as something started bashing against it with a great force. Twilight prepared their exit rune sphere so that it would seal up and self destroy right after they had gone back to their bodies, which she had already done to Fluttershy's runes.

As Fluttershy finally disappeared along with the runes around her the door broke and Trixie just barely made it inside the rune sphere with Twilight as the writhing mass sprang towards them hungrily. Just as they too disappeared they saw Nightmare Moon's face smash upon the barrier that held the beast back, its eyes had been torn out, but the jaws had grown.. Then they were back.

The first thing that happened when the two of them got up was Twilight getting her face smacked by a azure hoof, followed by a rather tight hug. ”You crazy mare.. Don't you ever, never do anything like that again. Atleast without me.”, Trixie would growl rather angry at Twilight still for going in alone and trying to leave her behind, but as her feelings subsided she simply blushed, turning to look at Fluttershy instead.

Twilight blinked, that was all her stunned brains could do, this was happening way too fast, so she was going to do the only logical thing, sit down and think this all over. Then she was abruptly knocked over by a mass of pink and yellow, as soon as she thought she'd registered all this she was in a bearhug from the same source. Twilight got that rare dumb smile on her face as she let her friend cry into her mane, ”It's good to have you back Fluttershy.”, after which she blacked out, either due the mental strain or the fact Fluttershy was a very strong pony when she wanted to be, which often leads into lack of air during hugs.

After the merciful darkness had lifted off of her eyes she noticed she was in her old bed chambers, resting on her bed. She lifted herself slightly so she could see better and saw a very concerned yellow coated pegasus, who however blushed, hiding behind her mane as she noticed Twilight to be awake. She thought she heard a very quiet whisper sounding a lot like, 'sorry', from her friend, to which she responded with a smile, ”I'm just glad you're back Fluttershy, we all missed you so much.”, pulling the shy pegasus onto the bed for another hug, this time she wouldn't get choked either.

Trixie walked in after letting Celestia know that things had gone well with bringing back Fluttershy and that Twilight would be fine, seeing she had already regained much of her power she had used in Luna's less spoken of domain. She still felt a bit shaken by seeing Nightmare Moon there, but atleast she wasn't able to come with them. As she entered the room she saw Fluttershy hugging Twilight, not knowing how to feel about this since she did like Twilight and she'd admitted she was rather possessive of her, but she could understand that Fluttershy was a friend they'd all thought they'd never see again so she simply joined the hug. She was happy she'd managed to help Twilight in gaining back her friend, it had been a close call with all those things trying to get to them.

For now everything was alright in Equestria for the three until they finally broke the hug and Twilight gave Trixie a look that was mainly curious, but demanding as well at the same time. Trixie knew that she'd have to explain herself to Twilight once they were left alone for a while.

A guard arrived to the room's entrance and requested Fluttershy to come with him, saying there was someone that wanted to meet her without delay in the gardens. Fluttershy said her quick goodbyes to the two friends she'd regained, one of them new. A surprise would wait for her in the gardens, for once it would be a happy one.

After they were gone Twilight shut the door after them and turned towards Trixie, calmly wondering, ”So what's with the punching, the hugging and the part where you told me not to go without you next time?”, being as usual too eggheaded to understand the concept that was rather clear to anyone else, love.

Trixie felt a bit of relief as she started explaining herself, ”Well uh, Trixie was a bit upset since you didn't wait for Trixie to come along so she could keep you safe and well Trixie was happy we got out of there alive, the last part is Celestia. She told me to keep you safe.”, lying partially and somewhat akwardly, but it seemed to pass for the bookish unicorn who nodded understandingly.

”Odd way to keep me safe though.”, she muttered to herself and sat back on the bed for now, ”Perhaps a while of rest before we go to Celestia and see what's up next?”.

To that Trixie had nothing to add, climbing onto the bed with Twilight and leaning slightly against her as she got comfortable, hiding her blush from her.

”Good night Twilight.”

”Good night Trixie.”

And in the gardens a joyous reunion took place without the two unicorns even knowing. All they knew was the warmth provided by the both of their bodies against each other as they rested.