Universe 10328

“Are you serious?!” Pinkie exclaimed while slowly backing away. “Why can’t you just let me go?!”

“Oh, but we’ll let you go… Once I’ve dissected you and learned everything I could from you, I’ll put you back together and give you the stone,” Twilight smiled casually, adjusting her glasses with one of her claws. “I promise it’ll be painless if you don’t resist,” She assured the party pony.

Pinkie Pie continued to step away, nearly tripping on a changeling’s body.

“No! Why are you girls so mean?!” The party pony shouted, her eyes darting from mare to mare. She couldn’t believe this… She had seen they were ruthless with their enemies, and she feared they would stab her in the back, but she didn’t think they’d do it so easily and without remorse! “You… You jerks are irredeemable! I never should have hoped to be your friend!” She glared at them as she stopped backing away, getting ready to fight for the stone instead.

“Alright! She isn’t surrendering, so I’m taking her down!” Rainbow Dash suddenly took off at full speed, spreading her wing blades to decapitate the enemy standing before them.

Pinkie Pie widened her eyes as she threw herself down, the pegasus’ blades cutting a few hairs off her mane. The party pony reacted at lightning speed and countered Rainbow’s sudden attack by kicking upwards, right into the cyan mare’s stomach.

“Gah!” Rainbow Dash gasped, spit flying out of her mouth as her back cracked. Pinkie’s blow was so strong, unusually so even with the help of the armor, that it went through every protection the pegasus had inside her body to the point the force reached her back. She was blown into the air, even unable to use her wings as she quickly began falling down again. Her friends watched in shock when she hit a pile of corpses. She was alive, as evident by her groans, but wasn’t standing back up. “That… Bitch… I can’t feel my spine,” She grunted with a blazing pain in the guts and back. Luckily for her, morphine was promptly injected into her by her cybernetic enhancements, yet, it didn’t help her to her hooves.

“Dashie!” Twilight screamed, her cheeks reddening with anger.

Applejack jumped forward before slamming her forelegs together, sending a powerful shockwave in Pinkie’s direction. The party mare activated the thrusters in her hooves, soaring into the sky and thus avoiding Applejack’s attack. Pinkie aimed her forelegs at the trio, shooting multiple white beams in their directions, each swerving in different ways to hit from every side.

“Get down!” Rarity instructed her friends before waving her hooves in front of them and creating a wave of cold that instantly froze the air into a thick ice wall. The frozen mass shook under Pinkie’s firepower, various pieces of it dropping before them, only for Rarity to form more layers of ice. Just as they thought it stopped, the wall was suddenly blown to pieces from the base. Rarity widened her eyes, noting the one who broke it was Pinkie Pie, using her hooves. The party mare used the thrusters in her hind legs again, launching herself in Rarity’s direction as she cocked her hoof back. Pinkie’s hit was aimed at Rarity’s face, and it may have landed if it wasn’t for the mare’s girlfriend throwing her out of the way. “Darling!” Rarity shouted as the otherworlder’s punch threw Applejack back, nearly shattering her jaw.

“Girls! This is highly unprofessional! Why are you struggling against one pony?” Twilight harshly berated them before aiming most of her opened claws at Pinkie and shooting a volley of bullets like a machine gun. Pinkie hurriedly jumped back, running as fast as she could while Twilight’s bullets followed closely behind her, spewing out changeling blood and sand as they hit the ground. “So? Not gonna try to talk us down like you did with the others?” The scientists hummed amusedly.

“Nope!” Pinkie replied, her tone suddenly cheerful. “And I won’t feel bad about hitting you girls either!” She clarified, jumping above another one of Applejack’s shockwaves, and punching her on the top of the head. The other mare was launched down until her head was completely buried in the sand, elevating a large dust and dust cloud. Despite that, Twilight could still perceive the party mare with her various enhancements. “Back in my world, I fought a ton of bad guys! Sometimes, we can talk to them and make them our friends! Sometimes, we can’t!” She added before running in Rarity’s direction again. However, before the pink pony could take another step, an orange whip wrapped around one of her hind legs. It was Applejack! The farm pony clenched her teeth, pulling as hard as she could and launching Pinkie Pie back. However, she surprisingly quickly shook it off, despite bouncing off the ground multiple times… Though it shouldn’t have been physically possible because of the environment. “I finally get what you girls have been trying to tell me since I came here!”

“Oh? And what is that? I do love it when my students learn something from my lectures!” Twilight questioned, this time shooting beams of light, which Pinkie craftily reflected away thanks to a mirror she had on her.

“There are no good guys or bad guys here! You’re all horrible ponies who care only for themselves!” Pinkie Pie giggled before slamming her hooves into the ground, creating a massive wave of sand in Applejack and Rarity’s direction. The two mares used both of their signature attacks, blasting the sand away before it could hit them. “You aren’t my friends! And I don’t want you to be my friends!” Pinkie Pie rushed the couple again.

She didn’t care anymore. She didn’t care about this world or its inner workings anymore, and she didn’t want to understand any more than that. All she wanted now was to see her real friends! Not these horrible imitations! Though she appeared cheerful, her smile wasn’t quite real either. No, it wasn’t sadness anymore. She was enraged. Enraged because of all she went through here! Enraged because she had to kill! Her friends may have been in even deeper problems, facing even worse trials! Maybe they didn’t even have anyone to help them! So she wasn’t going to throw herself a pity party any longer! She was going to kick each and every one of their asses, and get out of here!

“Do you think now is the time to talk philosophy and morals?” Twilight chuckled at the party mare’s words.

Rarity stood before Applejack, summoning lightning out of her body, and shooting it straight at Pinkie Pie. The mare grinned. As if a bit of lightning was going to scare her! Rainbow Dash pranked her enough with that already! Thus, she continued to charge head-on, bending over in a spherical shape. The lightning slammed into her. Much to everyone’s shock, instead of stopping her right there, the lightning surrounded her, clearly damaging the armor even if Pinkie didn’t appear hurt at all. Instead, the ball-shaped pony was still hurling forward!

“How the-” Rarity uttered in confusion before quickly shaking off the surprise. Her expression hardened into anger, her armor reddening with heat.

“My armor shouldn’t be doing that…” Twilight mumbled while watching Pinkie, wondering how the earth pony was even doing this.

As Rarity’s armor gained a fiery red shade, it expelled a powerful wave of flames. The mare grinned confidently, knowing this would stop their enemy for sure. All their armor was heat resistant; however, they had limits… Except for hers, which was made to handle the harshest temperatures, whether freezing or burning. Pinkie would be cooked alive! Rarity already saw herself celebrating their victory!

That was until Pinkie hurled out of the fire, still in a ball and surrounded by both lightning and flames.

“Oh,” Rarity mumbled before the mare slammed into her, rendered even more painful and deadlier with the elements enveloping her. The white earth pony was launched backward, slamming in turn into her girlfriend, who didn’t expect her attacks to fail either.

The two fell into a dune, blowing a large sand cloud into the air when Pinkie landed on her hooves as if nothing happened. The party pony shook the fire and lightning off her, then focused her attention back on Twilight again.

“This is… Upsetting,” The scientists whispered, hesitant to crawl away. Pinkie was armed with the same weapon as her friend, but she didn’t fight the same way. Oh, sure, both were unpredictable, but… this Pinkie was still different.

“Wanna give me the stone, now?” Pinkie asked with a proud grin.

“Hmm, let me think…” Twilight cupped her chin with one of her claws. It gave the pink mare some time to check her last opponent’s weaponry. Twilight had 8 of those mechanical tentacles, each equipped with weapons. She used them to crawl around and fight, but Pinkie supposed she only needed two of them to stand. Perhaps even one would suffice, but two was likely better. She also held the stone in another, and that tentacle was definitely out of the fight. This meant Pinkie would only have to deal with five tentacles at once, and then take care of the rest once that was done… “I refuse!” Twilight finally declared, shooting at Pinkie Pie again.

“Alright!” Pinkie retorted casually, a wide smile across her lips before she jumped into action. The party pony dodged the relentless wave of bullets, either by sidestepping or jumping out of the way, no matter how narrow the dodge was. The most humiliating part for Twilight was the way she did it! Pinkie would front flips, or even cartwheels while cheerfully giggling as if she was mocking her!

When Pinkie got too close, Twilight widened her eyes, extending one of her tentacles in her direction. A sharp blade slides out of the claw, threatening to impale the otherworld, who simply punched it down effortlessly.

“Let’s see what you do against all of them then!” Twilight shouted, using five of her tentacles to attack. Some claws would try to grab Pinkie, others would try to slice or skewer her while some would attempt to wrap around her.

Anything was worth a try if it was going to keep that mare down! She was getting dangerously close to besting them, and Twilight couldn’t allow that! It would bring nothing but shame to Equestria’s protectors! Oh, and they could die too, she guessed… At least, she should stall until the others would get back!

Rarity and Applejack were running back to them, their armor damaged by Pinkie’s blows. They seemed to be in pain too. If a hit in a vital area hurt Rainbow Dash this much, Twilight didn’t doubt they would be harmed even with normal blows. Speaking of which, her girlfriend was still trying to stand up, lifting herself off the ground with shaky legs.

However, leaving them all dumbfounded, Pinkie ran up Twilight’s tentacles! How? Somehow… That unpredictable pony had tied the five tentacles into a knot!

“H-How?!” Twilight uttered, her eyes wide while her tentacles desperately tried to untie themselves. The scientists growled angrily, shooting two more tentacles Pinkie’s way… Only to realize they were the ones holding her up in the first place. She yelped the moment she touched the ground while the party mare destroyed one tentacle with a single punch, then snapped the other in half. “D-Damn it! Gotta run!’ Twilight exclaimed, attempting to stand, but her legs refused to obey. She... she could barely move them! Each attempt to rise ended with her collapsing back to the ground. R-Right... It had been years since she’d last walked on her own flesh-and-blood legs! She still had one tentacle left, but this one held the stone, and she wouldn’t let it go!

"Yah!" Pinkie suddenly rocketed out of her armor at incredible speed, hurtling straight toward Twilight's final tentacle. The maneuver allowed her to snatch the stone away! Where did her armor go? Well…

Twilight could only grunt helplessly as Pinkie’s armor wrapped its legs around her, keeping her trapped in a tight hold… Not that she could move anyway.

“Self-destruct engaged,” The armor suddenly spoke, making Twilight freeze. There was no way… Right? Pinkie Pie’s counterpart didn’t actually do this, right? “In 10 seconds. 9,”

“Uh oh! A little help here?!” Twilight screamed fearfully. Her only remaining claw desperately attempted to get the armor off her, though when self-destruct was engaged, she couldn’t just destroy it or it would blow up instantly!

Pinkie Pie didn’t look back as she ran ahead, carrying the stone against her chest. All she needed to do was wait for it to turn on, right? Then she’d be running until it opened a portal and got her out of there!

“We’re coming!” Applejack shouted, dashing toward Twilight as quickly as she could while Rarity followed suit.

“6. 5,” The armor continued to count down. It caused the lavender pony to panic even more, desperately struggling against her doom. Applejack and Rarity were still too far!

“Abort! Abort!” She attempted to cancel the armor’s self-destruct protocol, even though she knew it wouldn’t work. It would only follow the wearer’s commands. She programmed it that way. She never thought this would be used against her one day!

“4. 3,” It spoke in a monotone voice.

Miraculously, Rainbow Dash managed to stand on her hooves again, despite the fact that her back had multiple sparks bursting out of it. Oh, it was broken, without a doubt. However, she couldn’t just stay down white her girlfriend was in danger! She took off as soon, and quickly as she could, flying toward Twilight.

“Rainbow! Hurry up and save me already!” Twilight screamed, her eyes widening as the armor enveloped around her began to glow.

“2,” It counted. Rainbow Dash was getting closer! She was there! She was almost there! “1,”

Right at the same time, Pinkie’s stone glowed, shooting out of her grasp, much to her surprise.

Applejack paused, hearing the countdown even from where she stood. It was as if time had frozen, allowing her eyes to scan the environment in a split second. Their friend’s counterpart was standing in front of the hovering stone, which was spinning on itself. Twilight was trapped by a self-destructing armor, and Rainbow Dash was two seconds away from getting to her. The farm pony and her girlfriend were getting close too; however, she could tell… In that split second… what choice she needed to make.

“Get down!” She shouted as she pushed Rarity to the ground and pinned her down with a hoof. She raised her other hoof, from which a wide round shield formed, protecting them both.

“What?” Rarity could only utter in confusion before she was hidden in the shadow of the mare’s shield.

At that exact moment, a portal materialized in front of Pinkie. Her grin widened in triumph as she glanced back at the others one final time before being pulled inside.

“Congratulations You are now deceased!” The armor spoke in a cheerful tone.

Twilight gulped.

The armor burst apart in a massive explosion that made the ground shake and blew the nearby dunes away. It was a blast so powerful that it could likely be heard from miles away, and Pinkie certainly would have been affected if the portal hadn’t closed in time.

Most of the changeling corpses were blown away by the shockwave like the dunes, mixing with the sandstorm it created.

Applejack clenched her teeth, using all the strength she could muster to push against that shield and remain on the ground, praying at the same time that her armor wouldn’t break. Rarity held onto her like she held onto dear life. The white mare was tempted to add more protection with an ice wall but wanted to avoid taking any risks. She had no idea how it would hold against that explosion nor if it would be created successfully. They could barely even see anything with all the sand blocking their vision.

Fortunately for them, it settled down after a few seconds, sparing their ears from more harm.

“Is it over?” Rarity asked, shakily, still holding onto Applejack. The other mare hesitantly put the shield down to see there was a massive black cloud at the center of the explosion, but their friends were nowhere to be seen… Until Rainbow Dash’s body dropped down several feet away from them.

The pegasus was scorched black, her left wing missing as well as the left side of her face, revealing a steel jaw. Her four legs… Were blown off.

“Ow… I think… I… Broke my everything…” Rainbow whimpered agonizingly, totally unable to move.

Various other pieces of metal fell from the sky, including some of Twilight’s tentacle claws, which dropped like flies.

“Is…” Applejack muttered, only to be cut off when a tentacle fell right in front of her.

The couple observed closer and noted it held something in its claws: A pair of broken glasses.

Author's Note

What? A new chapter already? It kinda helps that they aren't 6k words long or more, to be honest haha. I've had a lot of free time lately, so that helped. I doubt I'll get Twilight's chapter as quickly, but we'll have to see.

Anyway, this is the end of Pinkie's story, she's finally out of there! Will she be okay mentally? Eh, probably not. What about her friends' counterparts? Who knows? Well, we'll probably check on them again once the epilogue's out. Just know that the next chapter is the last chapter before the epilogues