Hall of Unity, Mount Metazoa | November 7, 1502 | 18:03

The news of the ARC didn't take much time to spread to the mane six, who were, as usual, consumed by their thoughts over the tragedy of a recent event. Discord, after having told them, was quiet as well. No quippy remarks could alleviate the loss of fifty-six thousand lives, even he knew that.

"Thorax just left to go to the orchard, and suddenly he was working with both Daybreaker and Nightmare Moon in order to fight Chrysalis?" Sunset said, breaking the silence. The others looked at her before looking to Discord, who shook his head gently.

"I believe something happened at the orchard to change his mind on the harmonic way," he replied, "with the queen having recently promoted Pharynx to Thorax's former position, I also believe that she may have had something to do with it."

"Well we've gotta do something, we can't have the one and only reformed changeling driving the war effort forward more than it already is," Applejack protested. The few agreed with the exception of Starlight and Nova.

"How exactly are you going to break that to him, huh?" Nova challenged as she leaned forward, "are you going to tell him that he should forgive the bug queen for whatever heinous atrocity she did? If he was willing to risk his life to go straight to Daybreaker. . ."

". . .then it must have been something unmentionable," Starlight finished, in a softer tone, "I don't mean to be the voice of despair here but I don't believe there is anything we can do."

Before anyone could reply, a portal opened in front of Discord who appeared as if he were going on a summer vacation. He turned back with a forced smile.

"Well, I can do something," he said, "stay safe. I'm just going out for some milk and cigarettes."

Before any of the girls could reply, he had already stepped through the portal as it had closed.

Canterlot, Solar Empire | November 6, 1502 | 18:44

"Provide Thorax a clean room in the general's hall," Daybreaker ordered a few of the castle servants, who bowed quickly before escorting the changeling. He smiled and waved, to which Daybreaker simply nodded before turning around with her sister in tow.

"Unlike you to show such kindness to an outsider, come to think of it," Nightmare Moon said. Daybreaker simply huffed.

"Unlike any of the last few months to be happening, Nightmare," she replied, "either way, I will be going to Chrysalis myself tomorrow to end this. She has no defenses left."

"And you're certain that's a reasonable plan?" the Nightmare asked, "what if she's expecting this?"

"Then she will have already accepted death," Daybreaker replied harshly, opening the doors to the throne room. As the two walked forward, they noticed after a moment that the doors had not shut themselves as usual. They turned, Daybreaker quirking a brow and Nightmare Moon looking behind them.

A strange air filled the room as the doors remained open despite intentional efforts to shut them with magic, Daybreaker readied herself, as did Nightmare Moon, anticipating some kind of assault. Thoughts raced through their minds as to what it could be, but something felt familiar about it. It was very uncomfortable.

"That feeling," Nightmare said, "I know that feeling. It's like. . ."

"Like seeing an old pal you haven't spoken to in years," the voice Discord said with a strange echo, "except that old pal is someone you ditched in a parking lot after they had a drink too many and it's too awkward to talk about."

"Discord! Show yourself!" Daybreaker demanded. As she did, Discord appeared behind the two sisters with a smile. The Empress quickly spun around and fired a beam of solar energy towards the apparition, which simply faded as the beam tore the throne in half. Discord gave a sigh which echoed across the room as his voice did.

"Could we at least establish a brief non-aggression pact to have a conversation?" Discord asked, "I like being fired upon as much as the next creature, but I find it a bit difficult to talk over scalding wounds and all."

"His magic cannot affect the both of us, Daybreaker," Nightmare said, "the least we can do is hear what he has to say."

Nightmare Moon was giving Daybreaker a particular look. The Empress read her sister's mind like a book and nodded as her horn's light dimmed to a sizzle.

"Fine, you have my permission to speak." Daybreaker said, standing tall as the real Discord appeared afront them.

"Thank you, your harnesses," he said with a bow, "now I understand there was a minor discrepancy with a certain residential complex lately and it might be baring on your mind a bit roughly."

"Get to the point, Discord," Daybreaker snapped. The draconnequus lifted his talon and paw with raised brows before continuing.

"Of course, of course," he said, "after all, you have a throne to repair and I'm sure it's tiring to sit back while your servants do it. The comfort just isn't the same in a regular pony chair anyway."

The two sisters gave unamused expressions as Discord shook his head.

"Well, I've come to broker a peace deal," he continued, "given the world is suffering under your hot new rule, I was hoping to establish a means to end this whole treacherous war in a more diplomatic fashion."

"We know you have been working with the harmonists at Metazoa," Daybreaker said, "you should be here pleading for your life, not practicing geopolitics."

"Yes, it's true that I might have singlehoofedly stolen the elements from right under your firey snoot, but there's a much bigger problem that I believe you're unaware of," Discord said. His joking tone and expression quickly dropped in a rare display of threatening aura, "in fact, I believe it is in your best interest to stay on my good side, and more importantly to keep me alive."

"You can't harm me, Discord," Daybreaker said with a smile, "why do you try so hard to make me fear your little extra-dimensional powers in comparison to mine, which rule this world and everything in it?"

Nightmare Moon decided to ignore the hubris of her sister for this moment as not to show weakness to a clear foe. Discord simply smiled in response, snapping his talons as both of the sisters felt a rush of memories from long ago of another draconnequus far greater than Discord. One far more cruel as well.

"I don't stick around just for the tea parties and fun conflicts with these so-called beasts you and your elements fought on a regular basis to restore harmony and friendship to the world," Discord said, "I stick around because I'm the only one who holds back the horror I wiped from your mind a long time ago. I was trapped in that stone for what felt like millennia. Trapped in a world that wasn't mine, painted as an ultimate evil to be displayed in your petite little garden for the sake of saving your realm. If you kill me, then you sign a warrant of your reality over to her. So you should get your act together, girls, because this war does not end without myself and the friends I have made being victorious."

"Even if I have to be the bad guy again."

Nightmare Moon was nearly in shock from the memories of what had unfolded, dumbfounded at the events of things she hadn't remembered. How could such a critical portion of history just be wiped away so easily by Discord? She knew at that point that Discord was not playing around, that it was the last straw for him. She remembered the efforts that went through to reforming him, and all they did just to result in this. In her striving for power and vengeance, she forgot that their greatest threat was, or used to be, on their side. Before she could reply herself, Daybreaker had already prepared a reply of her own. In fact, this reply had just made it's way through Discord's gut, which was now oozing a strange and infinitely-twisting liquid.

"Sister! What have you done?!" Nightmare cried out in a sudden display of fear. Daybreaker stood with a grimacing look upon her face as the light of her horn faded once more. Discord simply looked up in shock and confusion.

"Cosmos is nothing to me," Daybreaker said, "and neither are you."

Another bolt of magic flew towards Discord's face. He tried to hold up his arms to shield himself, but the nature of the magic seemed to consume the magic around it. Even his wasn't enough to stop it. With the last half second, he thought of an apology to Fluttershy, before his head and arms were both evaporated by the flame. His body fell, revealing Thorax standing by the door with an expression of horror.

'Hah. . .haha. . .my death was caused. . .by my own seriousness. . .how ironic is that. .? I'm sorry Fluttershy, maybe I was a bit reckless that time.'

Hall of Unity, Mount Metazoa | November 7, 1502 | 22:52

Sunset stood still in her room. Discord was taking too long. Typically, she would be asleep around this time, but both he and Thorax were still missing. She paced back and forth. Thinking. Doubting. Worrying. Something felt wrong, so, so wrong, and she hadn't a clue what to do about it. She finally sat down, sighing greatly before picking up a quill with her magic, and laying a piece of paper across a desk. She gave it a light dip in a bottle of ink, and held it above the paper.

'Dear Princess Twilight,'

She wrote. Sunset moved the quill down to the next line, holding it there. She stared at the paper, making note of it's form and edges. She could see every detail, every little fiber that made up the material, and she could see where the ink started and stopped along that fiber around the name of the former princess. She felt a tear form in her eye, and another, and as it fell slowly down her cheek, she anticipated the light sound of water hitting the paper. She looked down to where she believed the tear would fall, and instead witnessed a drop of ink from the quill. She suddenly jumped back with a rush of adrenaline, knocking the bottle over onto the paper and ruining it. However, it was ruined already with the name of a traitor smeared across the top in writing far to eloquent for an equine of Sunrise's caliber. The sadness vanished, and Sunset felt a sudden rush of anger as her horn began to glow. A similar aura encompassed the desk as it was thrown across the room, splintering into bits and pieces.

The paper floated down, gliding across the air swiftly and graciously, landing gently on the floor. Sunset stared at it, her eyes twitching as she let out a scream and engulfed the paper in magical flame. Shortly thereafter, of course, Starlight Glimmer had come to check on her with a knocking at the door. Starlight's voice was muffled in Sunset's own rage, and all she heard was the door opening before she fell to the ground.

Upon waking up, Sunset looked down to see herself having been tucked into a bed lightly, and with a quick gaze to her side, Starlight Glimmer quietly snoring beside her. She had no idea how much time had passed, but she noticed that Starlight had presumably cleaned up the mess Sunset had made in the room.

"Hey," Sunset whispered, nudging Starlight gently. Starlight slowly opened her eyes, looking to Sunset Shimmer with a smile.

"Hey Sunny," she whispered back, "did you sleep well?"

"I have a bed," Sunset replied, still speaking softly but with a tone of concern, "what are you doing in that chair? That can't be comfortable."

"Mm-mm," Starlight replied, shaking her head, "but you got a little worn out so I stayed here to make sure you were fine."

"Goodness, Glimmy," Sunset said with a frown, before lifting up the covers, "if you wanna stick around, at least stay warm."

Starlight was taken aback by the offer at first, for reasons Sunset was unaware, but she nonetheless got up and crawled into the bed with her friend, immediately wrapping around her like a second blanket and nuzzling her neck.

"Wh-whoa hey," Sunset whispered, her face a bit flushed from the overzealous affection. Starlight looked up at her with half-lidded eyes. With her expression, Sunset couldn't quite tell if that was because Starlight was tired, or because she was. . .not tired.

"Sorry," Starlight whispered, "I should have asked if it was alright. . ."

"I. . ." Sunset wasn't sure what to say, biting her lip as she averted eye contact for a moment to keep her head straight, "it's fine, I just didn't expect it is all."

"Then is this?" Starlight asked. Sunset looked down, and before she could respond, Starlight had leaned forward and pressed her lips against Sunset's. Sunset stopped thinking, just for a moment, instinctively returning the kiss despite having no idea what was going on or why. Maybe Starlight was just really sleepy, or maybe in a half-dreaming state. Sunset couldn't tell. As her thought slowly returned with those theories of hers, she realized neither of them had stopped. Her heart was now racing, fully realizing what was going on yet unwilling to stop. She thought it would start to feel wrong, this was her friend after all. She never considered Starlight anymore than that, but as time passed, she found her mind vacant of any such feeling. Without hesitation, Sunset pulled her friend closer, and only moments after breaking the kiss before she looked at Starlight.

"I don't. . ." Sunset whispered, before Starlight gently laid a hoof on Sunset's lips.

"Shh," Starlight said with a smile, "get some sleep, silly."

Sunset was overcome with stress earlier, but now it was all gone. She felt bad to think so, but she figured that Starlight might have cast a spell on her. However, she didn't feel any presence of magic. Regardless, Starlight had definitely cast a spell on Sunset, it just wasn't done with real magic.

Hall of Unity, Mount Metazoa | November 8, 1502 | 10:43

Knock knock knock knock.

Sunset woke up that morning the sound of pounding knocks on the door, she looked down to see Starlight still wrapped around her like a snuggie. She smiled for a moment, before hearing the knocking again and hearing a familiar voice.

"Sunset! She killed him!" a voice she recognized as Thorax said. Panicked as he was, it didn't take long for the same sense of panic to pass on to her as she quickly got up from the bed, leaping out to open the door. The rough jostling woke Starlight up, as she opened her eyes to see Thorax entering the room.

"Oh, hey Thorax," she said, rubbing her eyes, "nice to. . .uh. . ."

The two looked at her with pained expressions she couldn't describe, before she registered what she heard just a few seconds earlier. Thorax was panting, as if he had been running. It was likely he had, given he wouldn't have known immediately where Sunset was, and had probably searched the whole tower to find her.

"Who did who kill?" Sunset asked Thorax, turning back to him. Thorax shook his head, gritting his teeth as he replied.

"Daybreaker," he replied, "she killed Discord like he was an ant!"

"W-what?" Starlight stammered, getting up quickly herself upon hearing something she couldn't bring herself to believe, "that's. . .that's not possible!"

"How did you get back?" Sunset asked. Thorax shook his head.

"I flew here," he replied, "it took me all night."

"Go lay down, now," Sunset demanded, "two doors down on the left, the room is vacant. Get some sleep and we'll talk about it when you're awake."

"But we don't have time, we have to. . ." Thorax pleaded, before seeing the stern expression of Sunset looking down on him. He closed his eyes, nodding as he realized it was no use trying to solve such a crisis while so drained of energy. He stepped out of the room, closing the door before heading away.

Sunset shook her head, walking back to the bed and plopping down on it. As she stared at the ground, Starlight quickly sat beside Sunset, embracing her. Neither of them spoke; there was nothing to say. Discord was dead, and he was probably the only realistic hope they had for restoring harmony. If Daybreaker could defeat Discord so easily, the elements meant nothing.

"Starlight," Sunset whispered, after a few moments. Starlight looked at her, "what happened last night?"

"Well, I you passed out after throwing a desk, and—" Starlight said, before Sunset interrupted her.

"No, I remember what happened," Sunset said, looking into Starlight's eyes, "I mean to ask what it meant."

"What it. . ." Starlight said, before realizing what her friend was saying, "oh. . .that. I'm sorry. I told myself I never would, but things seem so hopeless—I didn't want to die with regrets, I—"

"What would you have regretted, exactly?" Sunset asked, interrupting her again. Starlight fell quiet for a moment, looking down at the floor and thinking before she turned her head slightly towards Sunset.

"Dying before I could tell you I loved you," she whispered. Sunset stared at her for a moment, as Starlight looked back towards the floor with a sigh. A moment like that was just the heat of passion, it was sudden. They were both tired, maybe Sunset didn't really see it the way Starlight thought she did. Before she could get too lost in her thoughts, however, she felt a hoof gently turning her head, before Sunset leaned towards her to kiss her again.

Seems like she saw it that way, too.

Vesalopolis, Changeling Hive | November 8, 1502 | 11:23

Chrysalis sat by herself in her throne room. The Changelings had scattered about, most of the mindcarriers had been killed, the rest of the hive outside of her immediate reach had been scattered about at the news of the failed abduction of Sunrise Sparkle. Any moment now, Daybreaker was coming. Chrysalis had no plan, no way to avoid her death, but she dare not run away. Such an act of cowardice would leave her without any hope of living with dignity again. She thought back to times long past, reliving her life until this moment.

"I could have been beautiful," she said to herself quietly, "I could have been powerful. All of that effort, all of my pain, just to come to this? I should have destroyed everything while I had the chance. Stupid elaborate schemes, some pathetic attempt to immortalize myself as a legend rather than focusing on what was important."

She had already ordered Pharynx to stay away. Of course, being like his brother, he was not immediately attentive to her commands. She had to force him to leave, as he refused to leave her otherwise. For the first time in her life, she felt remorse for doing so. Robbing a good soldier of his ability to die for that which he lived for. At the same time, she knew he had a better chance of thriving without her. She knew he could reunite the scattered Changelings in her absence, when Daybreaker's guard was down. Pharynx could become her final victory.

Chrysalis felt the temperature begin to climb, knowing her time was near. She closed her eyes, beginning to chuckle to herself a bit as she opened her eyes to see the flames of the sun appearing from nothingness and revealing her executioner. Empress Daybreaker, standing taller than Chrysalis had ever remembered, looking down upon her like the filthy, rotten bug she was. She said not a word for a moment, as Chrysalis got up, walking towards the alicorn with dignity.

"Just make it quick," Chrysalis said with a chuckle. Chrysalis' smile quickly faded as Daybreaker leaned down to the Changeling Queen with fire in her eyes.

"No."

Daybreaker's horn lit up, as Chrysalis suddenly felt the exoskeleton of her body being ripped away from her flesh on all sides, an air-shattering scream suddenly flooding the air and likewise what remained of the wandering woods as the queen experienced pain on a level that rivaled all of that which she dealt in her entire lifetime combined. What remained of her was split slowly, her tongue, her eyes, every strand of exposed flesh and muscle in her body torn apart at an agonizing pace. The pain was maddening, and within less than five seconds, Chrysalis had already lost her mind from the trauma, able to do nothing more than gnash and scream until the blood filled her esophagus from the strain on her lungs, and she drowned in her own blood. Daybreaker gritted her teeth, tearing the body of the queen apart suddenly as the green substance that was once in her veins now landed across nearly every piece of the room except for that which was deflected by a magical shield surrounding Daybreaker, who wouldn't dare have the remnants of such a filthy bug touch her immaculate coat.

Daybreaker gave a huff, jumping through the hole that was left in the hive and soaring across the sky faster than sound in search of Sunrise Sparkle.

Author's Note

You know what, after all of that, I think 3,606 words is enough. Have a good night.