The once sweet town of Ponyville was now completely absent of life. The demon’s slave’s, having completed their mission, were swiftly devoured by the mad God. Nothing truly remained of the townsfolk, except for Twilight’s corpse. From the looks of it, she had died a truly agonising death at the hand of Star Kong. Her cranium was removed by force, pushing her brain out of the remaining flesh holding her head together. Her jaw was cracked open and her eyes, removed. Before the lifeless body of the Element of Magic stood two large beings.

One of them was Knoxx himself. The Light had his usual eye patch covering his right eye and his left arm was covered in bloodied bandages. He was accompanied by his little brother, Balgo.

The Devil looked down at the corpse, angry at the demon’s work. “This just sucks. We left Equestria out of respect for their determination and perseverance in spite of the odds. Brother... it can’t just end like this. This, is somewhat my fault.”

Knoxx knelt before the remains of Twilight, looking quite disappointed at his brother. “Indeed it is. But I won’t let this demon get away with this.” He got back on his feet, and looked at his brother with a rather malicious smile on his face. “I won’t personally intervene, but I'll change the course of history to give this demon retribution at the hands of his victims.”

Balgo’s eye lit up. “Oh fuck yes! You’re thinking of doing this thing again.”

“Yes, I will give them the strongest weapon there is to combat this kind of evil. It’s something Devil Kong won’t see coming at all. I’ll give them; the Power of Hope.”

“And I’ll bring some popcorn, 'cuz I'm going to watch it all happen.”

After the big battle for Canterlot, everyone had nearly forgotten about the final loose end, Devil Kong. Now, he was much bigger, almost twice his previous height. His fur had turned a dark purple and his skin, grey. In addition, he had grown a second pair of arms behind his shoulders as well as two spiky appendages. His tie was now torn off, with only a small part remaining. Lastly, his hat was gone but his previous self-inflicted scars did remain.

“You’re going nowhere!” shouted the demon. His voice sounded no longer raspy. Now it was booming with power and confidence.

Twilight backed off from Applejack and Devil Kong, hiding her fears behind a determined, yet angry expression. “Devil Kong! I should have known you were going to come back!”

The beast grinned at the mention of his name. “Devil Kong?” He began to cackle loudly. “I am invincible now! Know me by my godly new name; Star Kong!” With that, Star Kong vanished, leaving Twilight face to face with her corrupted friend.

Sure enough, there were more. Everypony in Ponyville came out of the shade, their eyes all black with small white pupils, their tears having turned into blood. Applejack stepped forth, her indifference quickly turning into unreasonable anger.
“Darn city girl! Your kind ain’t welcome here in Ponyville!”

Twilight was taken aback by the violence in the earth pony’s voice. “But Applejack! It’s me, Twilight Sparkle! Don’t you remember me?”

Applejack’s steps were clear and decisive. “Oh I know who you are. That still ain’t gonna take back what I said to you.”

Twilight began to back away from the approaching mare, clearly feeling a murderous intent coming from her. “Applejack! Snap out of it, De- Star Kong has clearly scrambled your brain to turn you against me. I know this isn’t you!”

“Didn’t you get the memo already? Scurry off from our town, gosh darn it!”

More of Ponyville’s resident joined Applejack in her crusade against Twilight. It was now clear to the lavender unicorn that she was indeed, yet again, all by herself to deal with the demon now made, a God. Stallions, mares, colts and fillies all banded to give her a good wallop. The entire town had surrounded her, leaving no room to escape.

“Lookie here, Twilight Sparkle. The unicorn who hogs away all the fame from me! Me! I deserve to be more popular because I've always been with you on your adventures to save Equestria! I want to be noticed by the Wonderbolts!” That voice belonged no doubts to Rainbow Dash, angrily soaring above Twilight.

“You never have the time to come to my parties and it’s making me unreasonably angry! Why can’t you just cut some time for your friends, Twilight Sparkle!” And that voice was that of Pinkie Pie, bouncing around the crowd in fury.

“You care more about your friendship studies than you do your own friends. I do not like violence but I swear, I will tear your insides out and spill it all over town!” Twilight was quite surprised to hear this much violence in Fluttershy’s voice. Star Kong’s magic had sent all her friends into a blind frenzy.

“Your sense of fashion is quite simply abysmal. You’ve ridiculed my work in front of the whole town alongside these other fashion buffoons. I care much about beauty, but I much prefer to destroy what is ugly both on the inside and out.” Now Rarity was joining on the fun, taking much pleasure in insulting her friend. All her friends had turned on her, which was already kind of bad enough. But to make it worse, they were going to eviscerate her on the spot. Quite the terrifying thought that was running through Twilight’s mind.

Star Kong appeared behind her and laughed at her visible fear. “You always rely on your friends to overcome your enemies. Sadly for you, a God doesn’t need help to smite down his foes.” His eyes flashed red and that signaled his slaves to begin their attack on the lavender unicorn.

Suddenly, the entire world around Twilight slowed down to a crawl. Everything was frozen in place, not moving. She felt something new in her heart, something she had never felt before in such quantity. Hope, a feeling she had nearly forgotten about since the start of the Scaler’s invasion. Hope was so comforting to her; it was a feeling that she truly needed to express.

Then, there was a voice unlike any she had ever heard before that called out to her. A voice that sounded so kind, welcoming and reassuring. “Hope isn’t for the weak, Twilight. Hope is what makes us strong. It is what we fight for when all else is lost. Give your friends hope, and together, you can overcome this false God.”

Time slowly accelerated back to its normal speed. Everypony in Ponyville was now preparing to gang up on Twilight, but this time, there was something different about her. There was a blue fire in her eyes, eyes that looked hopeful and more determined than ever.

Dash swooped in to attack, Applejack pulled out her lasso and Pinkie Pie was now rolling on a boulder, aiming towards Twilight. She teleported out of the way just in time to avoid a brutal beatdown from her friends. No longer surrounded on all sides, Twilight finally made her move.

She ran up to Pinkie Pie, who had just jumped off her boulder. When she was finally up close, she hugged her friend as tightly as she could. “Pinkie! You know I really like your parties! I’m sorry if I’m sometimes too busy to come, but I swear I’ll always make up for it!”

Pinkie’s eyes slowly reverted back to normal. Her bloody tears turning into just tears. “Tw-Twilight?” She looked at the unicorn who was still hugging her tightly. “Twilight! Nice seeing ya again! I was really scared when I thought about how I may never see you again, but you’re here! It’s making so happy!”

“You annoying little shit!” Star Kong screamed as he saw one of his puppets break free from his control. “Eviscerate them! Kill them both!”

The four remaining corrupted Elements of Harmony were charging in again, ready to make their next assault their last.
Twilight wasn’t intimidated in the slightest for she had Pinkie Pie on her side now. The pink pony also had that blue fire in her eyes alongside her usual unshakable smile. “All right Pinkie, let’s bring them back to their senses!”

Rainbow Dash swooped in for another bombing, though Twilight was quick enough to react, slowing her down to a crawl with telekinesis. Applejack tried her luck again with her lasso, aiming this time for Pinkie. She chugged it at the pink pony, but she simply hopped away from it rather easily. She happily bounced towards her friend and jumped on her with her hooves outstretched.

“Come on! Give me a big hug!”

Applejack struggled to break free from the hug, trashing around as much as she could but Pinkie wouldn’t let go. “Get you dirty hooves off me you-” All the anger inside the earth pony faded away as her eyes went back to normal. “Huh? What happened?”

“You were mind controlled by a demon into trying to kill Twilight but I saved you thanks to some mysterious power that I know next to nothing about!”

Applejack was flabbergasted at this sudden reveal, especially since she barely remembers what happened ever since she got back to Ponyville. “Ok... I’m still horribly confused but I think that’ll pass.”

As for Twilight, she had finally succeeded in calming down the tomboyish Pegasus. “All right! That’s 2 saved, and only 2 remains!” There was much glee in her voice for it was the first time she could reasonably fight back against the demon on her own terms.

“God damn it! If you can’t do shit against them, then I'll just do it myself!”

In no time at all, Fluttershy and Rarity were brought back from the false God’s mind control.

“Oh dear! I have blood on my face!” screamed Rarity as she touched her face with her hooves.

“I don’t know what overcame me; but I still feel pretty angry Twilight.” noted Fluttershy.

Dark smoke appeared out of nowhere and out of it came Star Kong, looking angrier than ever. “You’re ruining everything! I’m gonna have so much fun tearing your bodies apart!”

The Elements of Harmony gathered up side by side, facing down the approaching monster. He stomped towards them but was stopped by a powerful blue aura surrounding the ponies.

“We’ll never be puppets to a megalomaniac such as yourself! Be gone from Equestria!” shouted Twilight as the aura shot out a powerful blast at the demon.

The blast was powerful enough to push back Star Kong who now held his face with his two normal sized hands. As he pulled them back, he noticed that there was a lot of blood and even chunks of flesh in his palms. Indeed, the blast of blue fire had nearly melted off his entire face.

For the first time in a while, Star Kong felt nervous, no longer in control once again. “Shit! Gotta pull back!” The false God disappeared in a cloud of smoke and flew off somewhere else in town.

Now, there was just the entirety of Ponyville left to save. Thankfully, the Power of Hope has grown stronger now that it was passed along to more ponies. It was a uniting power that grows stronger the more it affects people.

The group split up, each going on to save as many citizens as they could. Slowly but surely, the townsfolk were coming back to their senses. Twilight stopped when she noticed three odd figures amongst the crowd.

“Filthy Rich? Diamond Tiara and, Spoiled Rich?!” Indeed, the entire rich family was here, impossible considering they were dead. Unless, Star Kong somehow brought their spirit back from the grave to lynch her, which is very in character for the demon. Wondering what would happen if she tried to save them, Twilight approached them and bathed them in the warmth of Hope.

Much to her relief, the power did work on them, but not only that, it seemingly brought them back to life as they were physically there now. Filthy Rich and his family looked horribly confused, which made sense considering they were dead for at least more than a week.

“Wai- What? What’s... going on here?” blurted out Filthy Rich as he spun around in all directions, wondering why Ponyville looked so different.

“I don’t have time to explain right now, I’ve got to save Ponyville first!” said Twilight as she ran off to save the rest of town, leaving them in the dark.

“I don’t understand any of this?!”

Soon enough, all of Ponyville’s resident were freed from Star Kong’s spell. He reappeared once more before Twilight, this time his eyes were completely deranged. “You’re not going to see the light of day you bastard!” He stomped towards the unicorn, ready to mangle her but stopped when he noticed everypony in town slowly marching towards him, now enhanced by the Power of Hope.

Surprised at how intimidating this display felt, Star Kong shockingly took a step back, sweat beginning to drip down his face.

“There’s this asshole! I’d like a few words with him!”

Everypony was surprised to hear Silas’s voice as he stormed through the crowd, sprinting straight at Star Kong. Trixie was also there, trying her best to keep up with him. Finally making his way up to the front, the undead pointed a finger rather flamboyantly at the demon with an angry expression.

“I’ve waited so long to finally deliver you an ass kicking personally!”

Trixie bumped into Twilight as she tried to join Silas. The latter looked at her with surprise. “Trixie? What are you doing here?”

Taking on a more confident expression, Trixie posed elegantly in front of her rival. “Isn’t it obvious? The Great and Powerful Trrrixie has come to your aid, alongside a friend of course... Though I still hesitate to call him a friend.”

Star Kong looked at the mob before him with fear, now that Silas and Trixie had joined them; he stood no chance. This power, was far too much for the false God. “No way, I don’t believe this!”

Silas grinned at the demon, feeling strangely more powerful than he ever was. “I believe it.”

The undead punched the beast with enough strength to send him flying into the large boulder Pinkie was rolling around on previously. It crumbled under the impact, leaving Star Kong to struggle to get back up.

After a few humiliating seconds, he was back on his feet, his face twisted into an expression of pure pain. His voice now sounded wimpier, terrified and outraged. “This... this isn’t over!” He limped out of town and turned into a cloud of smoke, heading straight for Canterlot.

Rainbow Dash wasn’t going to let him destroy what was left of this majestic city. “Oh no way in Tartarus are we going to let you get away with this!”

Fluttershy flew up next to Dash with a determined expression. “We’re going to make him pay for everything he’s done.”
Twilight took off running immediately. “Follow me! We’ve got to reach Canterlot before he does!” The remaining bearers of the Element of Harmony followed their friend in her quest to put an end to the demon’s reign of terror.

Silas watched them leave, though he wasn’t going to help them at all.

“Are we going to help them?” asked Trixie.

“Nah, I got what I wanted. Star Kong’s a dead man, there’s no point in making this an overkill. I’m heading back home, and you should too.”

Silas took off his head and sunk back in the ground. Trixie watched the undead leaving, now wondering what she was going to do. After all, she had lost her home ever since she encountered Balgo. She sighed, trying to remember where she had left it.

“Oh dear, it’s quite far away from here, isn’t it?”

Author's Note

Now, that leaves only one chapter before I'm finally done with this! I can't wait to write out my new ideas, especially since I've been thinking about them for at least a month as of now. Anyway, if things go well, I should be done by the end of this week... or perhaps earlier.