Faust's Commandment

The early morning sun got in his eyes, and he blinked and kept them on the ground. Peter was grateful for his furry new clothing; it covered him from the neck down and kept him warm in the cool, misty air. Here on the edge of the Everfree, Peter could see the town in the distance through the many verdant branches.

Today was the day. Hopefully, everything would go successfully. With the power of Faust on his side, it should be smooth sailing, but Peter still did a once-over of what could go wrong.

Faust wasn't by his side. But, oddly enough, he still felt Her presence. The last time he had seen Faust was three days ago.

“Well, here it is,” Peter presented, laying out his bear-fur shirt and trousers and shoes on the rocky floor in front of the Tree of Harmony. He was clad only in a leafy apron. “The fruit of my labors.”

Faust, who had a hand on the unlit translucent Tree, smiled. “It is an everlasting symbol of your covenant, Peter. Treat it well. I won't always be there with you, so it will have to do.”

Peter squirmed slightly, his mood slightly dampened. “Yeah. You won't always be there.”

“In the sense that I'll leave the room, but still be in the house,” Faust elaborated, taking her hand off the tree and squatting near the garments. She reached out and tapped each part individually with her finger. Each part glowed briefly before dying down. When she was done, she stood back up. “When you wear these, think of me. It shall be like a comforting hug in your darkest hours.”

Peter had nothing to say to that. Initially. After some thought, he said, “Did the other humans you brought here make the same bear clothes?”

Faust spread an arm to the side and folded her ears. “Peter, are you trying to accuse me?”

Must have been something in his tone. “It's definitely something that would have been nice to know,” Peter put it. “And I had to learn it from Zecora before you.”

“You never asked,” Faust said. Her tail swished. “You're normally so inquisitive, but this just didn't come up?”

“I dunno, I just thought you'd… tell me.”

“I rarely ‘just tell’ anypony anything. If a man seeks, he will ask, and I will speak, usually through sources that have already been given, if he will seek it. Perhaps the answer to that unconscious question is what you were meant to learn from your sojourn to Zecora's hut. Perhaps, of course, if you will accept that answer.”

Peter sighed and turned away. “I don't like it when you keep secrets.”

“It's not a secret if you intend to reveal it,” Faust rebuked without moving. “Peter, you absorb information like a sponge, but if I were to unveil all the wisdom and knowledge in the universe at once, you would reject it, you'd turn away. You wouldn't be ready. I give knowledge to my children line upon line, bit by bit, here a little and there a little. Do you eat the entire meal at the same time? Is the entire story written at the same time? Does a child come out of the womb with all the skills needed to succeed?”

“Yeah, I get it,” Peter relented. He spread his arms in defeat and looked into the sky. “This whole thing is bigger than I thought, that's all.”

There was silence.

Peter turned back to his bearskin garments. They still retained a dim glow. He bent down and scraped the hair slightly. “Of course, that means I need you more than ever.”

“I'm proud of you, Peter,” Faust admitted. She came beside him and rested her gentle hand on his back. “And I need you as well. Perhaps through you, the best outcome for this world will happen. Perhaps through you, at least one pony will find their life.”

Too often, he thought of Faust like just another person, not Pony God. She was elegant and ethereal, to be sure, but she was also doing everything beside him. Until now. Becoming Equestria's greatest villain was a one-man job.

Peter's fist clenched the fanged mask in his hand tighter. The villain of the story. Of all things! Never had he expected to play that role; being evil wasn't on his agenda.

But it's this world that's evil, he reminded himself as he came to the tree line. The prominent red barn of Sweet Apple Acres was on the horizon just off to his left, and he shuddered at the sight.

Ponyville itself was not far away. A twenty minute walk down a hill, at best. Twilight's faraway violet crystal castle was the standout feature, even more than the rotunda of the town hall. The collection of homes, shops, and public buildings were predominantly made of colorful wood and straw.

Very easy to burn.

The town center was bustling with activity. A cloth-covered cylinder as tall as the town hall itself had been moved in some time ago; Peter couldn't guess when. There were also tents in every color of the rainbow surrounding it, and Peter could hear music and the underlying rumble of the crowd.

Peter rotated his shoulders, adjusted his long black cloak over his bear garments, and stepped out of the Everfree for the first time in a month. He sighed and raised his mask. “Show time.”

Something was off. Fluttershy couldn't explain it. She had come into the clearing of Zecora's hut, but there wasn't any smoke from the chimney. She wasn't cooking any more potions? Zecora usually was.

Fluttershy carefully trod up to the front door. There was a burnt smell, and something that made her gag reflex kick in. She normally had it under control due to all the penises she had taken into her throat, but this particular smell was acrid and horrible, like rotting meat.

Fluttershy knocked. “Hello?” her small voice called out. “Um, not to be a bother. It's just Fluttershy.”

No answer.

“H-Hello?” Fluttershy repeated, knocking again, and the unlocked door creakily swung inside. She was greeted with darkness; the candles had gone out. But enough light came in through the door and the open window for Fluttershy to see more as she hesitantly came inside.

Fluttershy set her backpack down and adjusted her white bra straps; aside from her pink sweatpants, she had nothing else on. From the backpack poked up the head of a small white animal.

“Angel,” Fluttershy warned. “Stay in the pack. This doesn't look good.”

Angel sullenly nodded and stayed put.

Fluttershy came further in, trying not to breathe through her nose. Her shoe crunched, and Fluttershy looked down. She had stepped on glass, that thankfully hadn't penetrated her foot. Checking the floor more, Fluttershy saw, in the dim morning light, dozens of shattered potion bottles and old stains that had seeped into the wooden floor. It was as if no one had lived here for a week.

And there was still that smell! Old and rotten, diseased and wretched. It was coming from the covered cauldron, sitting above cold white logs that were on the verge of turning into ash.

Fluttershy reached a trembling hand to the lid and whimpered in fright. Then she took the lid off.

Something enormous and pale was floating on top of the pallid brown concoction. It was rotting and overcooked, like the meat was about to fall right off the bone. Dull green mold had grown in several places.

It took a second for Fluttershy to realize: that meaty curvature was a pony’s back! There was the bony spine, prominently sticking out. There were some stripes on the meat, too: black ones, and there was some hair floating on top, black and white– and a series of golden rings was at one end of the grotesque floating back.

It was like she had gotten slammed in the breastbone. Fluttershy, her eyes bulging, collapsed to the ground and got pieces of glass in her palms. Her breathing came hard and fast, and she was trying to call out, to scream in horror and dismay, but nothing came out of her mouth but squeaks and terrified whispers. Zecora was dead! Boiled alive in her own stewpot, moldy and infected and cold and-

Fluttershy hacked and bent over, her stomach churning like a hurricane. More glass got into her legs and knees. There was fiery bile in her tightening throat, and she struggled in vain for every breath. Her wheezes became more and more strained, and her blurry vision was giving way.

Finally, she slumped completely to the ground, and Fluttershy felt like she could finally relax…

The fairgrounds were loud and jubilant, packed with ponies and making it impossible to relax. It was a feast for the eyes; banners atop colorful tents flapped lazily, streamers drifted down from seemingly nowhere, and bundles of multicolored ponies wearing very little clothing were spread all across the central plaza.

On one side of the town hall rotunda, there was a hastily erected wooden stage that led right into the circular concrete base of the mysterious statue. Some distance in front of the concealed statue was a simple stone slab as tall as a pony's waist. It was undecorated and unadorned.

In the crowd, three teenage fillies were accompanied by their temporary guardian as they approached closer to their viewing area. As they came close enough to see the stone slab, Apple Bloom tilted her head. “What is that?”

“I know that that is!” Mrs. Cake realized, leaning forward and addressing her temporary charge. “That's an altar, Apple Bloom. You sacrifice your newborn there as an offering to the Princesses. I remember doing one; I had to travel all the way to Canterlot to offer Pound and Pumpkin. But I never imagined there would be an altar made so locally!”

“You didn't abort them?” Sweetie Bell asked with some surprise.

Mrs. Cake fluffed the front of her apron nonchalantly; she had nothing else on. “Well, for a while, that was the best way to rise above nature; you could get pregnant, and then end it before it lives so you could keep, er, having sex without children getting in the way. But the princesses recently figured out that if the child was actually born and alive, the sacrifice is more meaningful; it's the height of independence, even more than abortion! But the foal couldn't just be tossed in the trash; it would be far more resourceful as an offering to help make your wishes come true!” She sighed, wistfully remembering. “My children meant… a lot to me. It hurt to let them go. But they at least died for my sake.”

“Huh.” Apple Bloom put her fists on her hips. “And here Ah was, thinking everypony just aborted. Everyone in ma class has done it. ‘Cept for Diamond Tiara.”

“Diamond Tiara hasn't had an abortion yet?” Mrs. Cake wondered, bewildered. “She's fifteen, she should have had one by now. What's the matter with her?”

“She's infertile!” Scootaloo announced, almost bouncing with joy. “That means she can have as many stallions creampie her as she wants, and she won't get pregnant!”

“But it also means she won't get to experience how liberating an abortion is,” Mrs. Cake lamented. She sighed, weighing something invisible with her hands. “Well, you win some, you lose some.”

Sweetie Belle hung her head in boredom, obviously not paying attention. “When is it going to start? I feel like we've been here forever!”

“It's only been two hours,” Apple Bloom supplied.

“Yeah, but I've been trying on some of my sister's outfits, and I want to get back before she notices. She has to stay here, what with her special role and all.”

“There'll be plenty of time for that,” Scootaloo promised. As she put her hands behind her head, the leather of her sleeveless jacket crinkled. “For now, we can enjoy the break. Since Rainbow Dash and Rarity and Applejack are all busy, we can do whatever we want in the carnival. Mrs. Cake, could you save our spots?”

“Anything for you, dear,” Mrs. Cake promised, kissing her on the forehead. “You run along now and be safe.”

Apple Bloom took Sweetie Belle by the hand and led her into the crowd towards a candy stand. “Come on, Scoot! They're selling Penis Pops. Whoever gets it furthest down their throats gets to Dom tonight!”

As the three girls raced towards the stand, Mrs. Cake sighed wistfully. “Well, they can handle themselves,” she excused. “Just like their sisters. They should be all under control.”

It was not under control.

“WHERE IS IT?!” Rarity screeched, holding up half a dozen different outfits with her magic and tossing them behind her. In the dim town hall, concealed by its walls, the rest of the girls were hastily preparing themselves for their role in the unveiling. “The black masquerade mask, Pinkie, where did you see it last?”

“Wherever you put it last,” Applejack retorted, bending over a bin of clothes and putting her almost-bare cheeks on display. “Well, Ah should have everything, at least.”

“You're stepping on it, Rarity,” Pinkie supplied without turning around.

Rarity lifted her high heel and spotted the offending mask. She let out a groan of consternation and levitated it up to her face. “Well, confound it. It's half an hour to curtains, and we still barely know our roles!”

“Rarity,” Applejack said simply, spreading an arm. “Literally all we do is come out when it's time to cut the ribbon, then cut it all together. Stop obsessin’ over one minute of exposure.”

“Well, yes, but it's still exposure, so it needs to be the best it can!”

“And where's Fluttershy?!” Rainbow exclaimed, zipping to the window and looking out. The dark tree line of the Everfree Forest was in the distance. “She should have been back from Zecora's by now! What's taking her so long?”

Fluttershy awoke to the feeling of paws on her face. She was lying on her back. Fluttershy blinked hard and shook her head, and the pawing stopped. A white rabbit was there, nestled firmly between her large breasts, looking her dead in the eye.

“Oh,” she groggily realized. “Hello, Angel. Thanks for… waking me up. I'm sorry, but I just…”

Saw Zecora's moldy, overboiled rotten corpse floating in a pot. And the stench was still there, too; Angel had his nose pinched with a clothespin and was looking anxious.

“Yeah,” Fluttershy admitted. She groaned and sat up, careful to not jostle the glass some more. Angel retreated to her lap. “I want to get out of here too, but I'm…”

Hurt and scared and alone and confused. The pain in her bloody glass wounds was enough to make tears form in her eyes. And when she reflected upon the fate of her friend, it drove Fluttershy completely over the edge. For a while in the darkness of the abandoned hut, there were only the sounds of Fluttershy's sobs, sniffs, and whimpers. Even Angel, tempestuous though he was, allowed her time to grieve.

Finally, Fluttershy sniffed hard and scooted to her feet. All of a sudden, she couldn't stand to be in the place. She staggered out of the hut, not even picking up the backpack at the doorway. Someone had done this to Zecora! Fluttershy didn't know who, but when she found out who did…

“Come on, Angel,” Fluttershy shakily ordered. “We need to tell the others.”

The rabbit, taken aback by her tone, hopped up Fluttershy's body into her hair. And Fluttershy spread her wings and took off.

Only a short while later, Fluttershy emerged from the treetops and into the cool afternoon air. Spotting the fair off in the distance, she took off as fast as her wings could take her.

As it turned out, she didn't have to travel far. As soon as she passed the tree line of the Everfree, a rainbow blur blazed to her position and skidded to a halt in midair. It was Rainbow Dash, clad only in a sports bra and booty shorts, her hair in a ponytail. “Fluttershy! What the hell took you so long?!”

“Oh! Oh, I, I, um-”

“Guh, never mind. Come on!”

And Rainbow grabbed her by the hand. Fluttershy felt a hard yank and a smack of whiplash, and all of a sudden she was staggering on the floor of the town hall's second floor, while Rainbow was gesturing at her. “Here she is!”

“Took you long enough, dammit! We needed you half an hour ago!” Applejack denounced.

Fluttershy's stomach had already been churning from the sight of Zecora's decomposing body, and this sudden whiplash made her lose it completely. She bent over and vomited with a splash all over the hardwood floor.

“Oh!” was the collective cry of all the girls, and all of a sudden Rarity was beside her, patting her heavily on the back and offering a handkerchief to her lips. “Darling! Darling, breathe. In and out.” And she craned her head to Rainbow. “Confound it all, Rainbow Dash! Be more gentle with her next time!”

Rainbow scoffed. “Rarity, telling someone else to be more gentle? The world's ending.”

Fluttershy's lips were trembling, her throat on fire, her knees weak. “I'm… give me a second.”

“Er, I'm not sure how much we can spare here!” Rarity understated, patting Fluttershy on the back harder. “The curtains are about to rise at any minute!”

“What kept you?” Pinkie inquired. “Ah, wait. Maybe it's a surprise!”

The firm brass of a collection of trumpets began sounding, and the five girls barked out cries of alarm and rushed to the stairs, speeding down as fast as they could.

The anxiety of the moment outweighed the horrors she had recently seen. Though Fluttershy from all appearances was all right, there was still something awful inside.

The triumphal trumpet flourish drew the attention of all Ponyville, and all eyes were upon the mayor as she ascended the wooden steps on the stage in front of the concealed statue. She came to the microphone embedded in the front podium and cleared her throat.

“I know you all want to get back to your festivities, so I'll make this quick,” Mayor Mare promised.

Some polite laughter followed.

Mayor Mare indicated the crowd. “Citizens of Ponyville. Friends. Countrymen.” And she turned her gaze towards the cloudless afternoon sky. “Celestia… princess of the sun and sky.” She rotated around to the veiled statue and jabbed a finger at it. “The Elements of Harmony!”

And a burst of white smoke erupted onstage. Soon, five mares emerged from the smoke, to the wild applause of Ponyville.

Each of them were in outfits that corresponded to their personalities. Applejack, in a slutty cowgirl getup, blowing kisses as she strutted alongside her friends. Fluttershy, small and timid in a homely pair of sweatpants and a bra, the secret outfit all men desire the most. Rarity, clad in a sleeveless leather jacket and black latex leggings, with black latex gloves and a masquerade mask, waving extravagantly. Rainbow Dash, sporty and spunky, in very revealing gym clothes. And Pinkie Pie, in a pair of pink sunglasses, a gaudy fluffy halter top, and nothing else.

As the applause finally died down, Mayor Mare gestured with admiration. “These very special ponies, celebrities and legends in their own right, have recently defeated Lord Tirek and saved us from destruction. In the process, they have given us this wonderful castle in Ponyville, and have made this town world-famous. So we have them to thank for the influence needed for the decision to be made to build an altar of sacrifice and a tower to the princess's glory right here in our little town!”

Once more, Ponyville roared with delight.

Mayor Mare reached into the podium and produced a pair of golden scissors as tall as she was, and handed them off to the five girls beside her, who positioned themselves so they were holding it symmetrically.

The girls headed to the back of the stage and onto the concrete podium, right in front of the ribbon holding the canvas sheet around the statue up. Mayor Mare raised her voice. “And so it is my great honor and privilege to present this Godly statue for all of Equestria to gaze upon!”

The five girls ponderously closed the scissors, and the ribbon split in two. The sheets and frame surrounding the statue came down gently, and all of Ponyville finally saw the long-awaited marble statue.

It was of the four princesses in the four cardinal directions, standing facing outward, with their left arms bent and their palms faceup, while their right arms stretched up and slightly backwards so it made a point in the center. It would take two ponies on each other's shoulders to reach up to the tip of the dangling stone penis between each of their legs; they were all naked and hermaphrodites. The princess’s hair was long and unfurled; their tails curled about one of their legs. The detail was painstaking; one could see the veins in each of the princess's arms and legs and penises and breasts. The statue was larger than life, it seemed.

The applause and roars of awe and wonder went on for what seemed like minutes. It left ringing in the ears. When it was finally all done, the Elements of Harmony took center stage beside Mayor Mare again.

"The hatred in this world has been conquered!" Mayor Mare proudly announced. "And love has taken over all!"

The entire crowd of ponies once again erupted into earsplitting roars of jubilee and celebration.

Once the noise subsided, Mayor Mare swept an arm behind her. "And today we dedicate this statue and altar to the Princesses, the powerful mares that made it possible to fully unlock our greatest potential and our deepest desires." She lifted a fist in the air. "Long live the princesses!"

"Long live the princesses!" echoed the crowd.

"Long live Equestria!"

"Long live Equestria!" echoed the crowd.

"Long! Live! Me!" Mayor Mare proclaimed.

The crowd emphatically repeated it and broke into cheers and wild screams afterward.

And just like that, everything changed.

A blinding chain of lightning roared out of the cloudless air and slammed down into the tip of the elaborate statue. Rubble and shrapnel blew apart and flew in every direction, clattering on the wooden stage and crumbling on the concrete base. The crowd's screams turned from celebratory to fearful right as the broken statue toppled in four directions. Each bursted on impact with the ground, turning into useless rubble.

A thick layer of dust where the statue used to be obscured everyone's vision of the stage. Mayor Mare coughed and sputtered, trying to wave away the cloudy particles. The crowd was on the verge of panic, but there was a collective curiosity as to who could cause this and why that made each pony stay right where they were.

The dust cleared slightly, and the silhouette of an upright figure could be seen in the cloud. After a few seconds, he stepped forth. Mayor Mare backpedaled to the very edge of the stage right as the chilling silhouette emerged from the dust cloud and revealed himself. He was the size and shape of a pony, but he was most certainly not a pony.

He was covered from the neck down in thick brown furs that looked like it came right off a bear, and he was wrapped further up in a flowy black cloak that concealed his hands. His face and hair was not shown. He instead had a dark brown wooden mask carved in the exaggerated visage of a jungle predator, and bear fangs decorated the gaping mouth and chin, sticking out and further enhancing the look of a fearsome animal. There were slits in the eye holes that allowed his striking blue eyes to barely be shown.

Mayor Mare slowly lifted a knobbly finger at him. "Who… are you?"

The man pointed a peachy hand at the mayor. "Who are you?" His volume-enhanced voice was deep and carried an undercurrent of authority and power. "You are a child of God, made in Her image. You have been given great blessings and privileges, which you have abused. And unless you repent, you will suffer the consequences of your decisions."

Mayor Mare had rolled her eyes at the mention of God, and when the man was done speaking, she loudly talked over him. "So you're a prophet?" And she let out a few high-pitched barks of laughter. "And here I thought we put an end to your kind ten years ago!"

The man tilted his head slightly at her words. "You know the words I would say already," he reflected. "But you refuse to obey. Though you're a daughter of God, you're a child of Hell."

And the crowd behind the mayor broke into angry yells. They consisted of outraged cries: “I'll show you consequences!" "You just ruined the show!" "I am God!" "Get off the stage!"

Mayor Mare pointed an accusing finger. “Listen here, prophet. As mayor of this town, I order you to leave and take your lies somewhere else.”

"I'll do you one better," the dark figure intoned, lifting his hand. Into his open palm came a spiderweb of silvery fire that danced on his fingertips. "As the prophet of Faust, Mother of Creation, this world shall be destroyed if you don't repent."

As the Elements of Harmony made defensive stances, with Rainbow Dash slightly opening up the pair of enormous scissors by herself, Mayor Mare slowly growled. “I will not serve a false god!”

The figure tilted his head down challengingly. “You already are.”

His hand clenched.

A deafening visible shockwave erupted from his fist, throwing the Elements of Harmony off the stage and scattering them all over the ground with heavy thuds. The screaming crowd scattered. One end of the golden scissors embedded deep in the ground, and the other was opened wide at an angle wide enough to impale anypony who was flung into it.

And with an explosion of blood, Mayor Mare was flung into it. She twitched, sighed, and expired, looking like a bug on a collector's pin.

Peter turned his attention away from the bloody corpse of the mayor to the edges of the crowd. It was beginning to disperse out of the central plaza and back into the thick of the town itself.

“Surround them,” Peter muttered. “Cut off their escape!”

He raised his hand and turned his head to see the results. In a synchronized line, a transparent barrier of eternally-sustaining silver fire formed around Ponyville’s perimeter. The train station was cut off outside the perimeter, and Twilight's castle, on the opposite side of town, was just barely within the borders of the flames.

"Kill him!" came several cries, and Peter turned to who said it. Instantly recognizable in the crowd, the twin spa sisters, Lotus and Aloe, were backed up against a three-story complex on the edge of the plaza, pointing and shrieking right at Peter.

“Keel heem!” Lotus petitioned the air. “Somevone, keel heem!”

Peter pointed his spread hand into the crowd. Blinding streams of white flame blazed out of each fingertip and struck with a sizzle into five of the nameless background ponies. After each one, the beams split, going into two more, then two more, until a sizeable portion of the retreating crowd had been pierced with sharp and vivid lightning.

Finally, Peter pointed a finger at the wide street many of them had gone into. Out of his fingertip, a basketball-sized comet blasted out, shrieked through the air, and impacted the ground with enough explosive force to throw a geyser of flame and dirt into the air. The three-story complex the spa sisters had been backed up against promptly collapsed with a shatter of stone and wood, burying alive anyone unlucky to be close enough.

Peter reviewed his mental notes as the flame wall was created in the intersection of street and plaza. He didn't need to kill all of the townsfolk right now. They would all eventually die anyway. But the sooner he could get the message out there, the better.

Peter declined his head. The five Elements of Harmony had gotten to their feet and were affixing him with glares of fury or fright. But one of them was missing.

“Where is Twilight Sparkle?” Peter slowly, impatiently asked.