“Be happy. You-”

Crack.

The bat impacted against the front of her chest, and she felt the air lose itself from her body as she was thrown roughly to the ground.

A hoof struck against the side of her face. Her vision blurring as she stumbled, a splattering of blood being loosed from her mouth as she felt one of her teeth go loose. She pushed herself up, only to be met with a buck to the side of her ribs. She shifted at just the right moment to prevent the shattered rib from piercing something vital - but the pain still sent her floored, sprawling to the ground and coughing up blood.

“Fucking whore.” A clawed hand planted itself down on the back of her head, pushing down and pinning one of her ears down at an awkward angle.

“What’s so special about you, huh?” Another hoof kicked itself into her side. “Why the fuck did she choose you?” And it kicked again - until the skin ripped, and more blood began to pool up underneath her.

Her vision was bleary, but she was still able to make out the general shapes of her assaulters. Two earth ponies - one gray, one black, one abyssinian - the one that had smacked her with the bat.

Some small part of her would wonder if this was how she would die. Not with a bang - but with a whimper, taken off her guard.

“D-dude. Chill out a little bit.” The gray earthpony wrung his hooves.

“I’m sorry - what did you say?” The abyssinian’s eyes narrowed as he shifted over towards the earthpony.

“Look - if we kill her, it’s our heads next. Don’t you get that?”

The cat-creature grinned and glanced at the black earthpony - before swinging the bat into the side of the gray one’s legs as hard as he could. There was a crack as his knee bent in a strange angle - and with a yell of pain, he fell down to the ground.

“And if we don’tkill her, then it’s our heads next. If we kill her - no one knows who did it, dipshit.” He hissed.

The black earthpony got in between the abyssinian and the gray earthpony. His mouth opened, his face contorted into rage -

Dark spears of inky shadow tore through all three of them. They didn’t have the chance to even bleed before their bodies were consumed, burning away like flashpaper.

The pain that came next was far worse than the breaking of her bones. Her insides began writhing and wriggling as they were telekinetically forced back together and sewn together messily - the process could’ve been painless, but the pain was to prove a point. And so, she screamed.

Nightmare Moon stared down at the filly disinterestedly. Her form was nearly perfect and immaculate - but it was marred by an ugly scar right in the center of her body.

“Pick yourself up.” She was gone.

“...yes, Nightmother.” Rainbow Dash whispered out.

They had been able to recover a fair amount of their resources from the Wolf’s attack. It seemed he was more intent on crippling their personnel as opposed to their actual resources - having missed the large contingent of soldiers that the Grand Zealot had managed to heroically evacuate.

Sometimes, she wept for the fact that her mother had decided to stay and fight. The Zealot assured her that such a sacrifice saved hundreds - but she doubted she would ever be able to get the visage of her shattered skull out of her eyes.

She still saw it, whenever she shut her eyes.

That was, of course, if she didn’t see the Monsters. The snarling wolf with his horrible greatsword - and that horrifying toothed demon that wore a filly’s flesh.

And so, that was what she focused on. She knew the Nightmare wasn’t a god - she had watched her fail, seen her bleed. And she was cruel - but miles less cruel than Celestia. And if she had the chance to hurt the people that had hurt her so badly…she rubbed her wing, where teeth had once marked her flesh.

Regardless - they hadn’t been set back entirely. They had been recovering crates of armor and weapons - and they had been able to contain Pinkamena once again.

Rainbow walked through an endless maze of catwalks - of plated steel, rusted iron and pulsing glass and crystal lights that were filled with molten mithril. Energy crackled throughout this place - and she promptly adjusted the straps on her armoring in an effort to make herself feel more secure.

Time here was - strange. She wasn’t quite sure how long she walked for - maybe seconds, minutes, hours, or even a day. It blurred together as she moved by instinct, a strange magic compelling her body to move without the full awareness of her thoughts.

Until she came towards a glass wall. Energy crackled here intensely - some stray sparks striking down just by Rainbow’s hooves. The air seemed to swirl, as if there was a great form of heat here - but no, there was only one thing here.

Rainbow sat down against the glass and pulled out her sandwich.

“..hey, Pinkie.” She spoke hoarsely. Her voice felt strange to her own ears.

Pinkie didn’t say anything. The void spirit was pulsing - moving in multiple directions simultaneously, her form blurring as she seemed to flicker between two spots at the same time.

Rainbow snorted. It was almost like a cruel joke that Pinkie was the closest thing she had to a friend here.

And so, the two were quiet for a while. Pinkie flickering around, murmuring inanely to herself as she scratched at the walls - Dash sitting in silence as she lightly pecked at her tuna sandwich.

And then Pinkamena screamed. Dash shot up, her eyes wide.

“Nightmare. Nightmare. Nightmare. Nightmare.” Pinkie started chanting to herself as she started circling around in her room, her entire body beginning to twitch and spasm as the surges of energy grew more intense - one of them striking Dash in the chest.

Dash looked down, and was surprised to see the floor instead of her legs. She looked to the side, and saw the lower half of her body crumple to the ground.

Her vision blurred.

“It’s impossible.”

The single light bulb flickered as it barely illuminated the small, worn down room in the very slums of canterlot. Shadows obscuring one side of them, the other fully illuminated - there were two griffins. One with a black set of feathers and a slightly blue white head of fur, the other a soft grey with almost “salt-and-pepper” fur.

“-it’s a crazy job. Meant for the suicidal. That’s why it pays so much, dipshit. You think they have that kind of cash?” The griffin huffed as he leaned backwards and ran his talons through his slicked back feathers.

“Oh, shove a stick in it. They have to prove to the Nightmare if they have that kind of cash, dipshit. It’s all legitimate.” The other griffin in the room grunted as she fiddled with a rather heavy briefcase.

“You’re going to get yourself fucking killed, Borea.” He snarled. “For fucking what?”

“For the chance to live like an Empress. No, like a goddess. Look - I put a bullet through the bitch, make my getaway, get my cash, buy my own island and live eating grapes from one of my servants. Isn’t that the dream, Tony?”

“It’s a dream, Borea! It’s not the fucking - it’s not the goal.” Tony slammed his fist into the wall and growled from deep within his throat. “The goal is that you kill some rich and jerkoff nobodies, get some cash - then retire and live a boring, mundane life like everyone else. That’s the fucking goal. And you’re lucky if that’s the case. This is a suicide mission, and you know it.”

“Well, maybe thats the FUCKING point, Tony!” She hissed and knocked over the table as she lunged towards him, grabbing him by the scruff of his fur and slamming him to the wall. “Maybe - get this - I want to go out with a fucking bang! Take the bitch out, get my name recorded. Fucking hell, don’t you understand how - shitty this all is?”

“The bitch has gone insane and is pairing up with a crazy murderer for some reason - the dragons are starting to fight each other, and Gale’s Skypirates or whatever she’s calling them are all hopped up on deer technology thanks to that crazy doctor - it’s going to shit. The world’s about to fucking end, and this way I go out with a BANG!” Borea grunted as she threw Tony to the ground, roughly.

Tony stared up at her in silence. Borea stood, panting for a few moments - before she hissed, and tore her way out through the window.

“Quite frankly, Celestia - it doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. And that’s the end of the story.” The old, gray unicorn with brilliant gold eyes grunted as he circled the model, his horn glowing a matching shade.

“I’ve found nothing to suggest anything of the sort.” Celestia spoke sagely as she sat on her throne at the peak of the courtroom - for once, feeling the weight behind the eyes of the nondescript masses.

“Well, quite frankly - I have. There’s things that this model just, quite frankly-”

It was after the second “quite frankly” that Celestia cut the stallion off. “Please, professor. Take a moment to calm yourself. Form the words, let them leave.”

“...My apologies, Princess.” He let out a deep sigh. “There are things that it just - doesn’t account for. It explains one phenomenon, but it ignores another - one that we have evidence to suggest is accurate. One that we have predicted. We can see stars where they should be under a Greater Leyline model-”

Crack-bang. The window shattered as a spray of bullets tore through - one impacting Celestia in the jaw, two others embedding itself into her chest with a spray of pink blood. Screams immediately began tearing out through the air, even as Celestia righted herself - grunting as she pulled the bullets out with a soft hm.

A quarter of a mile away, Borea grinned to herself. “Sic semper tyrannis, bitch.” She whispered - before tenderly setting the heavy gun-rig down, flicking a claw over it. She turned around - only to jolt backwards in surprise as she found herself face to face with a filly.

“Holy fuck, kid! What the - what the hell are you doing here?”

The filly didn’t respond, as she blinked one eye at a time.

“...Look, kid. I’m not gonna tell you this twice. Scram. You don’t want to be here soo-” Borea let out a scream as a brilliant burst of shadows tore from the filly’s horn, consuming her right wing. Borea stumbled backwards as she drew her claws out, slashing it towards the lavender filly and digging into her throat - only to find that her claws sank into her like it was dough.

A cacophony of gurgling voices erupted from the inside of the filly’s throat as her form began to shift, warp and distort. She was larger than the inside of the room - she stood as a lavender-tinted void in reality, a towering alicorn a hundred times taller than Celestia. The edges of her form blurred into an indecipherable mass of writhing, screaming shadows that were being burned away by a light emanating from within them - their eyes and mouths illuminated as they turned to smoke and reformed endlessly. Her face had no eyes - instead, there were an untold number of eyes that curled all around her body, each of them staring at Borea and Borea alone. Her wings spread - and as the two lavender appendages spread, their tips of their feathers melting into shadows...the world shattered, curved, and broke as thousands of screaming shadows began tearing out of her.

”The stars whisper secrets to me,” she spoke in a voice that broke reality. ”Would you like to hear one?”

Borea screamed as the thing spoke.

Hours later - they would find her corpse. A forensic investigation would show that she gruesomely slit her own throat with her claw.

Master-Speaker Mi Amore Cadenza was a deity in full.

A very part of her soul had been imbued with so much magic that it had been partially freed from her physical form. Her body was nearly indestructible - her powers unmatched by any mortal.

She was stronger than any earthpony, faster and more perceptive than any pegasus, more powerful than any unicorn. She could, and had faced down dragons before without so much as blinking. Stare down a hellhound without her heart so much as skipping a beat, lose half her body and wake up fine the next day.

She was the youngest of the deities, sure, but she was the one with the most potential, according to Celestia. There was only so much power to be drawn from the sun, or from the elements - a finite amount of a physical concept. But love - is an abstract concept. Certainly one with a chemical, molecular basis - but ultimately, an abstract concept. And there was no limit to how much love one could feel.

And while certainly not her forte - there was a misconception that she was the weakest combatant of all the deities.

Most didn’t really make the connection that there wasn’t much stopping her from convincing someone to find the inside of a volcano very sexually appealing all of a sudden.

And yet, as she approached Canterlot castle - she still found her legs shaking slightly. Her heartbeat quickening, her breath catching within her throat - even as the sources of her fear served to empower her.

The first source was the most worrying. Cadence was inherently an empath - she could sense love, hate, as well as emotions in general...and she had never felt hate as strong as what radiated from the castle. From afar, it was almost sickening to her very stomach. To imagine feeling that much hate made Cadence almost weep.

The other source was the most dangerous. Hate was a powerful, strong emotion - but there was no emotion stronger or more dangerous than twisted, unconditional love. And for as much hate as one entity felt - another felt just as much love.

Cadence gulped.

Oh, Celestia. What have you gotten yourself into?

There was a knock at Celestia’s door - before rather promptly, a white pegasus mare with a streak of black through her mane entered. Celestia didn’t even turn her head.

“I heard about the assassination attempt. Are you-”

“My warmest greetings, Master-Speaker of the Nobility of Equestria, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza.” Celestia said warmly. “It would take a lot more bullets to inconvenience me.”

The disguised Cadence grabbed the nearest pillow and tossed it towards Celestia’s head. Celestia let it impact with a soft hmph, watching as it flopped to the ground unceremoniously.

“If you use my full title again auntie, it’ll be a chair. We’ll see if that’s better than a bullet.” Cadence deadpanned.

Celestia gave an exiguous snort, before stretching her wings out and sitting down. “How are your responsibilities treating you?”

“I’d rather not beat around the bush, honestly. I’ve been nervous all day and prolonging it will make it worse.” Cadence sat down and let out a long huff as she dispelled her illusion.

“My apologies. If it weren’t necessary…”

“I know, Celestia.” Cadence smiled weakly. “It’s not you that I blame. I don’t even blame her. It’s just -” She glanced out, overlooking the gardens from Celestia’s room. The filly in question was currently attempting to eat a squirrel, while two others watched in horror as another tried pulling her back. “...she’s a lot.” Cadence finished.

Celestia couldn’t help but let a wry smile spread across her face. “Professor Dawnhorn. Have you ever heard of him?”

Cadence shook her head.

“Brilliant stallion. He does amazing work on theoretical magic - in a few hundred years, they’ll talk about him the same way they talk about Starswirl the Bearded.”

“Twilight disproved his model.”

“Oh.”

Celestia stood up and circled around, placing a hoof on Cadence’s back. “I am well aware that she can be a lot. But regardless of whatever her - “true nature” may be - if she is truly a monster, or a weapon, or a demon or any other insult - she is my daughter, and she is a filly. She is young. She craves friendship, she craves knowledge. And most importantly, she craves love. Treat her no differently than you would treat any other filly, and you will get along just fine.”

“Spit it out!” A filly yelled, even as Twilight found herself in the middle of swallowing the rather terrified live squirrel whole.

“...Maybe a little different.”

Hooves curled tightly around Celestia’s leg, weighing her down as she stood at the edge of her balcony - equipped with little more than a saddlebag draped over her side.

“Twilight.”

Grunt.

“Please let go.”

“N-no.”

“Twilight. If you don’t let go, I’m going to have to remove you.”

“You - couldn’t.”

Celestia arched an eyebrow as her face shifted into a slight expression of disappointment - then of mischief. “...even if I tickled you?”

Twilight promptly fell onto her back as she wriggled in an attempt to get away from Celestia preemptively. Celestia leaned down and gently placed a hoof on her chest, keeping her pinned to the ground.

“I won’t be gone long. I have to take care of something with a friend, and then I’ll be back. Quick, and easy. No longer than a week at most. Okay?”

“...okay.” Twilight slowly turned and glanced towards Cadence.

“Cadence will be taking care of you. Do you remember her?” Twilight promptly nodded. “And you promise you’ll be good for her?” Another nod.

“Good. I love you, my little star.” Celestia slowly crouched down and pressed her head against Twilight’s - before she took flight, sailing off from the balcony.

There were few noises more fearsome than the sound of a fully armored Judicator breaking into a full sprint - and there were few noises quite so terrifying as a scream erupting from the room of the semi-immortal god princess.

The Head Judicator Goldspur burst through the door - only to see Twilight wriggling around on the ground as Cadence tickled her. The room was in a state of upheaval - furniture knocked over, bubbles spraying out of the bath and staining the floor while there were long marks of paint on the wall. Cadence’s hair was in a ridiculous getup, while Twilight was painted a bright shade of pink.

The two of them stared at the stunned Head Judicator - before he let out a soft, resigned sigh, and closed the door behind him as he left.

Cadence and Twilight immediately burst into a fit of giggles.

“...two...one - ready or not, here I come!” Cadence called out.

She opened her eyes, and found herself face to face with Twilight. She frowned slightly, then reached out towards her. “Twilight, you’re supposed to hid-” The illusion of Twilight promptly shattered into glass shards with a touch.

Cadence let out a deep sigh.

“No. You’re lying.” Cadence gasped overdramatically and held a hoof to her mouth as she pecked at her sandwich - noticeably making an effort to avoid looking at Twilight as she ravenously tore into a section of some rather nondescript chunk of meat.

“N-not!” Twilight whined and ground her hoof into the floor. “Flutter...shy - told...me. Shhh!” She slapped her own face with her hoof a few times before making a sh motion properly.

“She does? I always thought that her coat looked...strange - but she dyes it? Do you know why?”

“C...cause...makes her - look - cooler.”

Cadence leaned back and scratched the underside of her chin. “I suppose Steelshy does look cool…”

Twilight just shrugged, and swallowed the rest of her dinner whole before turning to look up at Cadence.

“Come on, Twilight. Let’s put you to-”

“Sup.”

Her ears twitched, and she flinched as she stood up and immediately erected a pink barrier around herself and Twilight - as a tall white wolf leaned in the doorway of Celestia’s bedroom.

Rainbow Dash’s breathing was heavy as she came to. Her eyes slowly fluttered open - and she immediately felt a burning within her chest. She looked around, side to side - finding herself strapped down to a surgical table, wires and tubing embedded into her strangely lanky form.

And as she examined her form - she found how parts of her body were plated in metal, and how she couldn’t feel any of her legs.

Her immediate reaction was to scream.

She screamed, pulled, tug and tore - attempting to tear the surgical table in half. She wasn’t quite sure how long she screamed for - until very, very calmly, two mares entered the room - Nightmare Moon, accompanied by another cloaked figure.

The Nightmare didn’t say anything as she stared down at the panting, heaving Dash with a cold, disinterested expression. Dash shut her eyes for a moment before she coughed, feeling how her throat burned as if it was torn open on the inside.

“What - did you do to me?” She whimpered.

The Nightmare snorted. “You did this to yourself, I’m afraid. You’re an investment that I’m not willing to lose. Getting yourself killed on the Void Spirit’s lightning? How pathetic of a way to die. Your mother would be ashamed.”

Rainbow Dash screamed as she tried bursting from the surgical table towards the Nightmare - but found the restraints held tight. The other mare laughed a dry laugh.

“What the fuck DID YOU DO TO ME!?” Rainbow Dash shrieked.

“It’s pretty simple if you take it in stride.” The smaller unicorn mare shrugged as she started circling Rainbow Dash. “Your body was destroyed - void lightning is really something, and so I replaced it. Covered your bleeding innards up in metal and steel. Unfortunately, it would kill a regular filly - so we had to change that.” The unicorn mare slowly brought a mirror up into Dash’s view.

Dash was met with the view of a full grown mare - body more metal than organic, eyes faintly reptilian to match the Nightmare’s, crystals and mithril blended into her form intricately - but meshing cruelly disjointedly where the flesh and metal met, showing undercurrents of a darkened pinkish muscle.

Dash stared in horror.

“You wanted to kill the monsters, Rainbow Dash.”

The mare tossed her hood down - red and orange locks falling down over her yellow-ochre coat, her cyan eyes piercing into Dash’s very soul.

“What better way than becoming one?” Sunset Shimmer tilted her head to the side.

“You’re - him.” Cadence whispered. She felt a churning in her stomach, a burning in her chest - her eyes wide as dinner plates.

Frost took a momentary pause as he tilted his head into the side.

“You’re - the hate.” Cadence whimpered. The barrier dropped as she walked towards him - reaching a hoof up and slowly placing it on his shoulder. For once, Frost didn’t flinch away. “You-”

Frost rolled his eyes and grabbed onto Cadence’s face with a hand. There was a pulse, and she crumpled to the floor in an unconscious heap. He kneeled down by Twilight’s side.

“Hey, kiddo.” He held a hand out for her.

Twilight blinked at him unevenly, one eye at a time.

“Look. I’ll cut the crap, cut to the chase. We’re on a time limit here - we have before your mommy gets back to do this. So tell me - do you want to see something cool, or not?”

Twilight stared at him for a very long time - before slowly, slowly nodding.

Frost grinned more widely than he had in months - as he fished a small scrap of paper out of seemingly thin-air, before placing it down on the ground and sliding it over towards Twilight. Twilight leaned down - inspecting the paper. There was a diagram of an egg on there - a dark purple, with mottled, even darker spots.

Frost scooped up Cadence in his arms, unceremoniously tossing her over his shoulder. “So. Are we going, or what?”

Twilight inspected the note further. There was a note on the edge - scrawled in on crayon - most of it crossed out, except for one word, underlined.

Balance??? Dragonlands. ((EXCESS!!)) Egg of the Conqueror. How long has it been here???

Spykoran.

She nodded.

-

Author's Note

Every hero needs their companion. Every villain, too.
Behold! A discord server!