The Elements of Disharmony: Necessary Corruption

by Night_Shine

Rating: everyone
Tags: Spike, Queen Chrysalis, Adventure, Main 6, Discord, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Nightmare Moon
Length: 72598

As the Elements of Disharmony seek out wielders among the fallen and redeemed villains of Equestrian history, the Wielders of Harmony must prepare for the coming storm.

The Elements of Disharmony have been discovered. As they choose their new masters, it is a race against time to find the wielders before they discover their Elements, or the safe streets of Canterlot will erupt into a full-blown war between the masters of Harmony and Disharmony. However, it will not be that simple. Somepony is working behind the scenes; somepony is pulling at the strings of the Elements of Harmony and Disharmony alike. Who is this certain somepony? Twilight Sparkle is summoned to Canterlot to find out, where Princess Luna and a group of scholars are studying the Elements that they have found.

A storm is coming to Equestria...a storm that, when it hits, could destroy everything in its path.

Sequel to The Shadowed Nightmare. If you have not read that, what happened in that story should become apparent as you read this one--though if you want to go read it, by all means go ahead. My personal/"ponysona" OC will not be a character in this story, although this story includes the original villains The Shadow and Puzzle Master from The Shadowed Nightmare.

UPDATE December 12, 2012: New chapters (which is to say Chapter 6 on) will feature cover art by Youkaiyami.
UPDATE May 6, 2013 (Geez, I've been working on this for a long time...but don't worry; I haven't abandoned it): Yeeaah, it's been a few months since I've seen any activity from Youkaiyami, so....welp. So much for the whole cover art thing. :( ah well.
UPDATE May 13, 2013: Next chapter will be released May 27, and from then on new chapters will be added much more often.
UPDATE November 29, 2013: The final chapter will be released at the end of next week at the absolute latest. Also, since I am going to submit this story to EqD, I will be revising some of the earlier chapters to fix some basic writing mistakes and flesh out the scenes with better descriptive imagery.

UPDATE February 18, 2024: Haha, okay, so it turns out that I may have slightly overpromised when I wrote the previous update a decade ago. Best I can do for now is quote Douglas Adams: “I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by!” I plan to finish on chapter 20. Hopefully this time I can make the wait a little shorter.

Published 2012-11-04 00:00:01 UTC
Last updated 2024-02-18 08:55:12 UTC

1: A Storm is Brewing

The sun bled its last few rays of fiery-crimson light over the horizon as an armada of storm clouds swept over the land, drowning the sky in darkness. Its unrelenting howls echoed through the miles of empty air, towards the colossal spire of Canterlot Mountain that pierced the sky. No pegasi would have dared to drive such a storm, though the winds of fate carried no such reservations.

In his study, a smartly-dressed stallion set down his tea cup, observing with an expression of cheerful anticipation.

Spears of blinding light flashed between each cloud of the armada, sending deafening shouts of thunder echoing off of the mountain sides...yet nopony heard its noise, save this stallion seated in his private suite far above the gilded streets of Canterlot. He watched as each pony trotted to and fro below him, as small as the ants he loved to crush beneath his hooves as a child.

A chessboard sat in the center of his desk, a very odd chessboard indeed. On each side of the board sat a king and six pawns, placed in a scattered formation. Necklaces of gold paper hung around the necks of the white pawns, all but one, which wore a tiny paper tiara haphazardly atop its marble head.

However, the decorations of the black pieces did not mirror those of the white. They featured the same fake necklaces and crown, albeit black instead of gold, but instead of adorning all of the pawns, only one held all of them together.

With a light tap the lone stallion pushed forward that pawn and its necklaces, moving it one square closer to its nearest black pawn. The second pawn sat blissfully unaware of its impending fate, only two squares in front of the king and his first victim.

A BOOM of thunder exploded in the distance, rolling off the side of the mountain, only ambient noise to the focused stallion. Holding his hooves ever so carefully over the two pawns, he took one of the necklaces and gave it to the formerly plain black pawn, grinning as he ever-so-carefully placed the black paper around its neck.

Glancing up to the white king on the other side of the board, he finally spoke.

“Your move.”

The six surest ways to break the harmony of friendship are
Fear,
Deception,
Betrayal,
Greed,
Cruelty,
and the lust for Power.

Deep within the heart of the earth, below a hive swarming with discontent, the queen of the Changelings brooded on her throne. She glanced idly around the empty room, thoughts of deep frustration bouncing around her mind.

After months and months of searching for new targets, none of her scouts had reported any nation with nearly enough love to feed her kingdom. No land anywhere near the Hive possessed as much love as Equestria did. And yet, some of the more rebellious scouts had taken to minor raids in Equestria, feeding off of individual couples in small towns.

Had the great Changeling Army been reduced to this?

Among the Changeling populace, however, the Queen was hardly the only one to be plagued by the nagging doubts of frustration. Her Grand Siege of Canterlot was a total military disaster, putting back their schedule and food income by uncountable amounts. Rumors flew behind her back, hiding in the minds of the populace, that the Queen's divine authority could no longer be trusted...and yet she could never locate and consequently never behead those who spread the rumors.

Suddenly, inexplicably, her heartbeat quickened as the soft echo of hoofsteps passed through her throne room, interrupting her melancholy thoughts.

Bum-bum.

“Having a bad day, your highness?” A deep and gravelly voice resonated through the musty air, inflected not with concern but with amusement. Chrysalis whirled around to see a midnight-blue pony in shining chrome standing alone in the middle of her throne room. Its deep red eyes glared straight through her, reading the back of her mind.

Bum-bum.

“GUARDS! Remove this pony from my presence at once!” she shouted, irritated that an Equestrian had waltzed through her security this easily.

“Don’t worry, your highness…I took the liberty to make sure we could speak in private.”

Bum-bum.

A crackle of energy resounded through the room, and green flames crawled up the surface of her horn. "And did you consider that I may not want to speak in private?"

The Equestrian let the silence compose his response as wisps of smoke swirled gently around him.

“What do you want?!” Chrysalis snapped, shifting uncomfortably on her throne and trying to remember when she last sent away her throne room guards.

“I simply require your assistance with a plan to overthrow the tyrants in power in Equestria. The plan is rather complex in its details, so I will summarize it briefly: You, I, the spirit of chaos, and several others shall wield the recently discovered Elements of Disharmony, rendering the Elements of Harmony useless to defend the kingdom and its leader. You will wield the Element of Deception to counterbalance the power of the Element of Honesty. The forces of the Changeling army will not be required for this effort. Once the Elements of Harmony are knocked out, we shall utilize our Elements to topple Celestia from her throne.”

Chrysalis's eyes narrowed. “Why should I help you take down Celestia for some revenge plan? Our attack on her kingdom was only for the good of the Hive. It is of no use to me if you replace one tyrant with another in Equestria, if I help you achieve power and recieve nothing." She glared straight back at him, resisting the temptation to blink.

The Equestrian’s red eyes bored into her. “You can have the kingdom as soon as we take down its only important defenses. Everypony in the entire nation will be under your direct control. Imagine how much food that could provide for your Hive..."

Chrysalis frowned, letting a moment pause before replying. “I accept, but first you must answer a question, only a curiosity of mine...what do you get out of this deal?”

The pony did not blink an eye at the question. “It is not necessary for you to completely understand my motivations at this time. Now come—we must plan the necessary corruption of the other Elements, for...they may not be as easily persuaded as yourself.”

Dear Twilight Sparkle, my most faithful student,

I want you to know that I have received the letter you sent me that you discovered from this "Puzzle Master," and that I found its message very disturbing. I appreciate that you informed me of this.

First of all, I want to tell you everything that we know about these mysterious Elements of Disharmony, compiled mostly by a research team that I commissioned after receiving your letter. It also appears, however, that an expert sorcerer named Second Sight posited the concept of these Elements in a book on theoretical magic several hundred years ago. He only devoted one short paragraph to what he thought was a fruitless theory:

“The Elements of Harmony, while powerful, may not be the only such set of jewels with nearly infinite magical potential. One must note, in studying the deeper science of most powerful magical forces of nature, the presence of symmetry in twos. Night and day, and the respective Princesses who control their power, are only one example of which there are many—but I digress. It is therefore theoretically possible that in order to balance the power of harmony with that of disharmony in our world, there are just as many elements of Disharmony as there are of Harmony. These theoretical ‘Elements of Disharmony’ would possess an equal and opposite potential for power as the Elements of Harmony, and would be triggered by the opposite traits as the Elements of Harmony: Loyalty would become Betrayal; Generosity would become Greed, et cetera. However, as no actual proof of these Elements exists, this is only a theory.”

While Second Sight mentioned after this that the existence of Discord seemed to counterbalance that of the Elements of harmony, it seems that his original theory may be worth more than he thought.

A renowned scholar and head of Black Castle Enterprises, Lord Silver Tongue, claimed that an associate of his discovered these artifacts within the Everfree Forest. When he brought them to Professor Regal Magus of the School for Gifted Unicorns, Magus immediately recognized them for their dangerous magical potential and contacted me personally. All of this occured only a few days ago. From what Magus and the others on the team have observed ince then, these artifacts match Second Sight's description to a tee.

Second, there is no Puzzle Master among my staff of professors, or even in Canterlot that I know of. The ponies in the research group are Spell Scholar, Lord Silver Tongue, Prof. Magus, and Princess Luna, who has taken charge of the situation. My sister has told me that she has a very profound knowledge of darker magic, from her time as Nightmare Moon...hopefully her experiences can help the team understand these Elements.

Finally, this pony mentioned that they have located five Elements of Disharmony. The last time I checked up on my group’s progress, they only reported to have found four: the Elements of Cruelty, Deception, Greed, and Fear, respectively.

The group has not made very much progress lately with further investigation of the Elements, and I am beginning to sense that more is happening in this situation than meets the eye...somepony is hiding something. However, I cannot tell who it is, as you must understand that I am not the most inconspicuous pony in Equestria to uncover confidential information.

In order to find out more about this situation, I need an inside mare. Could you possibly come to the West Tower of Canterlot Castle this evening to find out what's going on here? I told the research team that you can assist them based on your magical expertise, but you do not need to stay more than a day or two. I will tell your Ponyville friends that you are helping me in Canterlot.

I still trust you completely, my faithful student. Let me know as soon as you can if you find out anything else about the Elements of Disharmony.

Your mentor,
Princess Celestia

Twilight re-read the letter for the third time as she trotted along the dark Canterlot streets, her mind whirling with thoughts and theories on an axle of uneasy memories. She still could hardly believe that it had only been one week since the midnight-blue pony calling himself The Shadow had trapped her and all of her friends in a nightmare, stretching their minds to the limit as he attempted to turn all of their darkest fears against them.

One week ago, she had stared right back through those glowing eyes and seen fear in the heart of the nightmare. Sometimes the images still flashed through her brain like pieces of a riddle, pieces that fell into a jumbled puzzle of empty space. What had happened between him and Discord? What were those five necklaces he kept? The letter that she found from ‘Puzzle Master’ had mostly answered the latter question, but opened up dozens more in its place. Who is the Puzzle Master? What is he doing? Why is he doing this? Hopefully, this visit to Canterlot could provide some answers.

“Um, Twilight? The West Tower is that way…” Spike’s voice snapped Twilight back to reality.

“Sorry, Spike. I’ve just been thinking so much that sometimes it’s hard to focus on that kind of stuff…” Twilight trailed off.

“Like where you’re going? Geez, Twilight. You need to try to think a little less and spend some more time here in the real world.” Twilight rolled her eyes. She trotted under the long shadow of the West Tower, which kept a silent vigil as the night approached. Its inevitable arrival would drive back the brightness of the twilight sky and usher in a long spell of darkness over Canterlot...

Princess Celestia stood next to the front door of the West Tower as Twilight trotted towards her. “Twilight, my most faithful student! It’s good to see you. How are you?”

Twilight Sparkle grinned, but frowned as she replied, “Not all that well, to be honest. That whole event with the Shadow last week kind of shook me up.”

The Princess sighed. “I wish I could offer something else more positive for you to keep your mind off of that, but I’m afraid that there is a situation that I need your help with. Come with me.”

They walked inside the castle, and their footsteps echoed inside the hollow shell of the building. The fading red light of the twilight sky flowed in through the wide windows of the tower, basking the tower in the flickering glow of a fire.

The door from the hallway opened to a large, spacious room, in which four ponies were positioned at a long table in the center. Princess Luna and three other ponies Twilight didn’t recognize sat fiercely concentrated, hunching over their work. Scrolls, open books, charts, drawings, maps and all other sorts of papers lay scattered haphazardly about the table. The scratching of quills on paper scarcely rippled the deafening silence of the room as candlelight flickered from the wall.

A wide, clear glass window sat motionless behind the shadows of the oblivious ponies, painting a beautiful display of the fading twilight sky. An ominous mass of thunderclouds lurked above the horizon, blocking the crimson light of sunset.

Princess Luna glanced up, and an expression of shock flitted across her face for only a second.

Then it broke into a huge grin. “Tia!” she said, breaking the menacing silence. She stood up, accidentally bumping the table in the process as walked up to her sister and gave her a brief hug. The rest of the research team also stood up, trotting over to greet their guests.

Princess Celestia returned her sister’s hug, but then turned and said to Twilight, “This is where I must leave you. I need to lower the sun and make my way to sleep, as it is late already. Princess Luna can take over from here and bring you up to speed with the group’s progress.” With that, Princess Celestia turned around and departed the room, her hoofsteps echoing through the empty hallways long after she departed.

Spike’s voice suddenly interjected a comment from right behind Twilight's ear: “Well, that was sure nice of her. ‘Here, can you help me with something? Wait, I need to go to sleep now. Bye!’” Twilight bumped the dragon, who was currently seated on her back, with her head. “Ouch!”

Princess Luna walked up to Twilight. “Twilight Sparkle! It has been too long. How art thou?”

Twilight giggled a bit as she remembered the Princess’s odd dialect. “I’m doing fine. What kind of progress has your team made in your investigation?”

Luna waved her hoof dismissively. “We will have plenty of time to explain that to thee in a moment. First, we wish to introduce you to the researchers on the team!”

She pointed to the first pony, a dull red unicorn stallion wearing a short tuxedo in formal Canterlot custom, his cutie mark a scroll above a purple star. “This is Spell Scholar,” Luna said. The stallion shook Twilight’s hoof firmly. “I’m very pleased to make your acquaintance, Twilight Sparkle. The Princess speaks very highly of you.”

The second pony, a bright blue stallion who wore a black coat and narrow glasses barely hanging above his nose, had just left his seat at the table after finishing something that could not wait. A small purple goatee hung off his chin, shaking slightly as he cleared his throat and spoke with a refined Canterlot dialect: “I am, of course, Professor Regal Magus, of Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. Although of course I was only recently hired, so I doubt that you would remember me…” the unicorn trailed off.

“And this is Lord Silver Tongue.”

Twilight took one look at the pony in front of her and her heart skipped a beat. The Shadow was standing right in front of her, in the middle of the Canterlot Castle!

But…something was different; something was off. First of all, he wore a black tuxedo, not shining chrome armor, yet the former seemed much more frightening in this light than the latter. No silver-tipped, broken horn sat atop his head, as the spot was already taken by a thick head of formally styled white mane, yet a palpable feeling of raw power emanated from his every pore. Twin red eyes dominated his face, yes, but they did not visibly glow as they stared straight through her. Small black pupils glinted in their center, one behind a red-tinted, golden-rimmed monocle. A shorty white tail hung stiffly behind the stallion, rigid with the tension his presence exuded. He seemed older somehow, taller, and almost handsome.

“Good evening, Miss Sparkle.”

His voice carried the exact same deep tone to it as the Shadow’s, but with a strong inflection of polite bemusement rather than flat anger. Suddenly, the beginning of the letter from Puzzle Master to the Shadow floated through her mind: “Dearest brother Shady…”

The realization hit her like a smack to the face. This was the pony who was responsible for the Shadow’s wreaking havoc with nightmares only one week ago, responsible for the discovery of the Elements of Disharmony, and who planned to abuse the Elements’ power for a sick, twisted game of chess using her as a pawn. This was the turncoat. This was the Puzzle Master.

Twilight suddenly realized that she had been staring at him in silence for several seconds and gave a forced cough, turning away as her cheeks burned bright red with embarrassment. "Um, nice to meet you, sir," she said, eying him warily.

Silver Tongue…Puzzle Master spoke up again after watching her and laughing behind his unwavering mask of courtesy. “Princess Luna, before we continue showing this young filly the group’s progress, may I have a word with her in private? We must discuss a…confidential matter.”

Luna frowned. “Of…course...we do not see why not..." and Spike sighed, sliding off of Twilight’s back and landing with a measly thump! on the polished wood floor.

Puzzle Master glanced back Twilight’s way as he opened the door for her, his smile clashing palpably with her angry glare. She trotted out the door, and he followed, chuckling under his breath.

Outside the window, a blast of thunder resounded in the distance. The storm which had loomed on the horizon for so long had finally arrived.

2: Disharmonic Chords

For the umpteenth time today, Spike felt incurably bored. This whole trip to Canterlot had interested him slightly more than his everyday routine of chores, but still, all of this talk about Elements and complex magic made his head hurt.

It didn’t help that instead of having all of her friends accompany her to Canterlot to meet the Princess, Twilight insisted on going alone. Apparently Princess Celestia had specifically asked for her to come alone in the letter she sent, but why would she do that? It did not make sense for the Princess to act so secretive, since all these ponies seemed to talk about was the Elements of Harmony—from what he heard before zoning out completely. Why would they even need a Twilight to help a group of fancy Canterlot ponies talk about Elements of Harmony stuff?

Then some random stallion wanted to talk to Twilight. What? He wanted to talk about some ‘confidential matter’? What the heck was that supposed to mean?! And why did Twilight act almost like she recognized him?

Spike sighed and turned his head upwards. Princess Luna had trotted outside, onto the balcony outside the window, to raise the moon. Finally, he thought, somepony does something interesting…

He watched as she rose into the air, her wings outstretched, an aura of blue magic shimmering hazily around her horn. Luna opened her eyes, which shone a brilliant white against the blackening atmosphere of dusk as magic flowed through her. A flash of brilliant light shone from behind the horizon, for only a blink of an eye. For that fleeting moment the brilliant moon rose once again, shining in all of its glory over Equestria, gazing down upon the ignorant thousands as they slept on.

Suddenly a fleet of storm clouds approached, floating over the surface of the moon, drowning its light with a wall of darkness, corrupting its pure white with their spectrum of gray and black. Another bolt of lightning flashed from within the convergent body of darkness, followed moments later by the inevitable BOOM of thunder.

Princess Luna floated back down onto the balcony, returning to her normal state as the magic receded within her. Carrying herself quite regally, she walked back inside towards the table and returned to her work, grabbing a quill in her magic and staring back at the crusty rolls of parchment at her spot on the table.

Well, that burned two minutes. Spike glared at the door impatiently, straining to hear the incomprehensible mutterings of the ponies behind it. Twilight, what is taking you so long? What could that stallion possibly have to talk about that is so interesting?!

Spike turned around, pouting with frustration, when something unexpected caught his eye.

On the very far side of the table, away from all of the ponies and the furious scratching of their quills, something glinted in the flickering candlelight. He squinted and tried to make out what it was, but its form lay beyond the reach of his vision. For some reason, the ponies had decided to make the lighting in the room intentionally dim. Way to go, guys.

He sighed and hopped up, walking slowly towards the other side of the table. None of the ponies noticed him, with their noses still firmly planted in their scrolls.

Spike walked over to the far end of the table and he nearly tripped over a scroll sitting haphazardly on the ground. But he did not care, determined to see what had so captured his attention. Sitting right near the edge of the table sat a large glass container. Shadows cast by the dim candlelight danced across its foggy surface. He peered up into the box, and frowned as he noticed some kind of black necklaces inside, staring out at him from the other side of the glass.

Spike jumped onto a chair to take a closer look. The necklaces shared the same form as the Elements of Harmony, but had a deep black color instead of one of shining gold. He took a look at the one closest to him. It looked much like the rest…except…a green-yellow diamond-shaped crystal hung lazily beneath the black necklace.

Within that case, right in front of his eyes, lay the most beautiful jewel that he had ever seen. The flickering light slid down its smooth surface with indisputable perfection, drawing him closer to the pure crystal. No flaw dared to mar its shape, carved in purity. It looked like nopony had ever even touched it.

Yet for some reason this incredible piece of art sat locked away inside a glass box. Spike suddenly felt a sense of annoyance pinch his mind, and his eyebrows furrowed over his unblinking gaze. Why would anypony want to put such beauty away, where nopony could see it? The necklace sat on top of a pile of similar ones, kept away from the world by the cruel walls of glass, kept away where nopony could have it. His arms slowly reached out toward the box, his eyes glazed over, completely mesmerized. Maybe if I could just-

“Oh, I wouldn’t do that.”

A clipped voice from behind Spike snapped him back into reality. He shook his head and blinked once, then twice. A wash of hot shame washed over him as he found himself half-leaning, balanced over the table in a pose that seemed completely desperate to reach the box in front of him. He recognized the pony as one of the researchers studying over on the other end of the table—Spike must have interrupted him. Stepping off of the chair, Spike suddenly took interest in the dark wood floor, refusing to meet the stallion's eyes.

“Don’t worry, the Elements of Disharmony have that effect on everypony. Let them suck you in long enough, and who knows what could happen—that’s why keep them locked them in that box. Strangely though, no matter how many spells that Luna or I throw at it, those Elements still have this creepy, drawing aura around them. I’d stay away from them if I were you.”

Spike nodded, taking one last glance at the beautiful diamond crystal before walking over to the door where he started. He would wait out the rest of the time for Twilight in silence.

But for some reason, whenever he closed his eyes, the reflected candlelight on the diamond's smooth face still gleamed hungrily in his mind...

Raising the moon had become very repetitive for Luna, after performing the task every evening since her return from the moon. Sometimes she forgot to appreciate the true beauty in the night that she summoned, hidden in the glimmering lights she wove into night's black curtain. Nopony could see it tonight, though, as the storm clouds had blanketed the sky and covered the beauty in the stars she had worked so hard to conjure for the ponies of Equestria…only to lull them to sleep.

She walked through the balcony door, shutting it behind her and locking it without a second thought. One image pushed all others from her mind, an image drawn by her hoof on one sheet of parchment sitting at her spot on the table.

“These theoretical ‘Elements of Disharmony’ would possess an equal and opposite potential for power as the Elements of Harmony…”

Quotes from the various ancient books on magic swam through her head as she trotted to her seat and sat down, picking up her quill unconsciously. It automatically moved over the lightly shaded sketch on the paper in front of her, sweeping back and forth, back and forth, spreading miniscule droplets of ink over the drawing, fixing an improperly drawn line here, filling in a small gap in color there.

“… and would be triggered by the opposite traits as the Elements of Harmony…”

For so many hours over the past few days she had drawn this one shape, as research blossomed into curiosity in the depths of her mind. Somehow, Luna knew the shape as a lightning bolt cut into a bright, pale teal-blue crystal, although she did not know how she knew it. The crystal hung in the back of her mind, swinging across her vision with unnerving consistency.

“…Loyalty would become Betrayal…”

For the past several days since she drew the initial sketch of how it would look, she could not force the image from her mind, an image of the pale lightning bolt glowing faintly in her moonlight, rested comfortably against her neck…

Princess Luna forced herself to look away, and her gaze rested on the glass box at the end of the table. Spike had climbed up on the table and stared directly into it, his eyes glazed over, completely mesmerized. Luna rolled her eyes. Has Twilight never told her assistant to stay away from dangerous magical objects? She sighed, and whispered to Spell Scholar, “We believe that our guest needs to keep his curiosity contained,” pointing at Spike. Spell Scholar nodded, and walked over to deal with the situation.

Spike’s eyes had looked so blank, so...empty when he had looked into the box of the Elements. Was that how she looked whenever she stared at her drawings? Frowning, Luna slipped the sketch under a pile of papers, and tried to occupy her mind with one more book of ancient magic to read.

Twilight Sparkle turned around to see Puzzle Master carefully shut the door behind him, slowly sliding its closed so that no curious ears would hear any sound from their conversation.

Puzzle Master gently shut the door, making sure not to leave it open even a crack. Nopony must hear the dangerous exchanges in the soon-to-come verbal spar, the war of words, the game of chess between this young mare and himself. Will she be up to the challenge?

Twilight decided that she had better cut to the chase before this Canterlot pony, a stallion who by looks and manners alone established himself as skilled with manipulation of words, could beat her to the point. She must take the offensive: “Princess Celestia knows who you are, Puzzle Master.”

And the game begins. “Does she now? Then why did she send you here, if not to find out which identity of the research team I am using to conceal myself?”

Already, with one sentence, he had crushed Twilight’s first offensive. She took a deep breath, letting the cool air calm her nerves.

Check. Puzzle Master waited patiently for Twilight to make her next move, a sickening grin resting smugly upon his face. How will she attempt to defend this disastrous move, this early in the game? This may be easier than I thought…

“Yeah, but once I do tell her, whatever you’re planning is ruined.” Twilight attempted to scrounge her last attack into another, remaining on the offensive.

She is a very aggressive player. Confident, quick…yet audacious. “So you will actually tell her then? Last time you attempted to break somepony’s disguise in front of the Princess, did it work so well? I seem to recall that you were immediately locked in a cave, where nopony could hear you scream…” Play on the underlying self-doubt behind the façade of confidence.

Twilight gulped. How could he have known what Chrysalis did to her? She had only told her closest friends…but Twilight could not dwell on such thoughts. Her refute must keep up the offense before Puzzle Master could make another such devastating blow. “That was different. There was an important wedding, and…” Twilight faltered for a moment. “Like you said, if the Princess had sent me here to find you, then why wouldn’t she trust me now?” Hopefully, twisting his own words against him could keep him at bay long enough for Twilight to reclaim the upper hand.

What a perfect setup…does the foal even realize she left her most valuable piece wide open? “Ah, my dear, we have arrived at the central question—why DOESN’T she trust you? Why, indeed.” Check.

“Of course the Princess trusts me...!” Twilight spoke without thinking, and then mentally cursed herself for setting up Puzzle Master to once again deal another devastating blow to her argument.

Her offensive is ruined. I shall crush her with this checkmate and prepare for the second round. “I seem to recall you saying the opposite not five seconds ago…but let us digress from the obvious, as we both know that your claim to tattle on me to Celestia is nothing but a clever bluff—otherwise you would have already done so. Your dragon can send letters, no? Why did you not insist I wait to have this discussion, so you could send a letter to Celestia about my presence?” Now give her a moment to process the betraying implications of her own actions.

Twilight’s mind reeled in shock. Why didn’t she tell the Princess immediately? She could have easily told Spike to send a short letter with Silver Tongue’s true identity in it. Was she not sure of who exactly he was? No, she was sure the moment that she saw him. So why…

Shock has settled in nicely. The opponent is vulnerable; now I may proceed. “No, if you could have told Celestia who I am, you would have done so already. My purpose in this conversation is to discourage you from meddling in my plan. You see, you shall play an essential role in the dramatic events that are soon to occur, bringing with them a new era of-”

“What events?!” Twilight 's eyes flew wide open and cold terror flooded through her. Puzzle Master knew exactly what he was doing, and his plan became horrifyingly clear to Twilight. The Elements of Disharmony were set perfectly in place to strike at the heart of Equestria, overthrowing the Elements of Harmony and bringing a new reign of terror by disharmony and evil!

And with that, she swallows the façade perfectly. Not only can she see the predictable and immediate possible result of my workings, but she is short-sighted enough to believe that I am working only towards what any other power-mad villain she has encountered desires. I see no reason not to continue this illusion. “Believe me, you will know in due time. And of course you will play your part in them, whatever it may be. However, my plans for Equestria have been in place far too long to be upset by any interference you may cause.” And with this perfect setup of reverse psychology, the young leader of the Elements of Harmony plays directly into my hooves.

Twilight jumped at the chance to reassert herself with Puzzle Master’s claim. It was time to deploy her strongest offense, the one thing not even Puzzle Master knew. “You do realize that my friends and I intercepted the letter you sent to your dearest brother Shady, don’t you?”

“You WHAT?!” Puzzle Master’s deep growling voice cracked with a high-pitched squeak. For the first time in his recent memory, Puzzle Master spoke without thinking, his mask of cool confidence slipping off for a fraction of a second. If she read into that letter, she knows my true intentions…but not all is lost. I must cut my losses and reaffirm her naïve confidence that she knows what I am really after. Puzzle Master cleared his throat and returned to his usual, businesslike manner of speaking: “Well. That shall make this game even more interesting, no? But it is of little importance in the grand scheme of things. The pieces are set. Even as we speak, each of my Elements of Disharmony chooses a new master, carefully placed in the perfect position by your trusted leader…”

Twilight frowned, not sure if Puzzle Master was acting like an idiot on purpose or just ignoring blatantly obvious facts: “They’re locked up in a box.”

She thinks she has made a brilliant move! The filly has set me up perfectly. I must demonstrate for her how all of Equestria has played itself into my hooves. He chuckled once before replying. “You truly cannot grasp the power of the Elements of Disharmony, can you? Ask Spike how well the magical protections are working when we are done here. He can tell you how incredibly they keep the corrupting aura of the Elements from affecting anypony around them. Oh, and have you seen the Element of Betrayal anywhere, perchance?” Perfect. That close of a strike to her areas of vulnerability will place her automatically in a defensive position. Now for the killing blow to end this.

From a secret pocket inside his coat, Puzzle Master drew a necklace, black as the coat of Nightmare Moon. A pale-blue crystal hung from its center, glowing softly, carved into the shape of a lightning bolt. Poor Princess Luna, Puzzle Master mused, what she craved so desperately was within her grasp all along. “I could have taken any Element out of that room at any point I desired. However, I do not think it would be wise to take any Element away from its future master prematurely, nor introduce an Element to its wielder before the time is right.” Check and mate. Another opponent defeated in this living game of Chess…

A rising sense of panic bubbled up within Twilight as she realized exactly how much control Puzzle Master really had over the situation at hoof. He felt no fear of revealing to her that he had the Element of Betrayal all along, and within the very halls of Princess Celestia’s castle, no less!

Twilight tried to form a response, but...she found that she could not. Instead she slowly backed away, opening the door to the meeting room carefully with her hind leg. She did not dare take her eyes off the pony in front of her for a moment until she was safely back in the meeting room, her back against the door.

She jolted as a loud BOOM thundered overhead. A single bolt of lightning had collided with the top of the West Tower of Canterlot Castle, which stood so high and mighty above the city. The raging storm that invaded Canterlot under cover of darkness had begun its first strikes.

3: Prepare for the Storm

Princess Luna sat beside the wide window, gazing out into the night as her troubles passed one after the other through her mind. They aimlessly wandered across her thoughts like the storm clouds on the horizon, which infested the sky and blotted out the light of the moon. To her dismay, the night's silent guardian hid its face behind the bland gray of the storm.

Suddenly she felt a familiar presence behind her, watching her and waiting. “Princess Luna?” Silver Tongue’s voice asked, sounding politely amused as always.

“Yes, Lord Silver Tongue? Doest thou have a question?” she asked without turning around. A bolt of lightning flickered down from a cloud in the distance.

“We found another Element.”

The thunder rumbled softly in Luna’s ears.

Her heart skipped a beat, and she whirled around to see Lord Silver Tongue holding up a black necklace, with a crystal in its center…the very shape that had ceaselessly tortured her mind with its cruel beauty for almost a week.

A pale, teal-blue crystal carved perfectly in the shape of a lightning bolt hung innocently under the polished necklace stained black as night. The crystal silently swayed in midair, watching her expectantly.

“Where didst thou find this?” Luna asked, too quickly.

“I found it in the same place as the others: an associate of mine retrieved it from the Everfree Forest. He did not disclose with me the exact location, nor how he found it, I am afraid. In any case, now that we have it, the rush to prevent any national emergency is over. The only remaining Element that anypony could use against us can only be summoned by combining the power of all of these, if our theories are correct.”

No, Luna thought, the bubbling sense of panic in her stomach rising as she fell deeper into the Element’s irresistible pull, the threat has just begun. “We still want the security status to remain on high alert until this team can figure out a way to properly contain or dispose of the Elements. Our magic is not strong enough to contain their auras completely, and if somepony got too close…” Luna faltered.

“Princess Luna, are you suggesting that the Elements could corrupt somepony within this very team?” Instead of frowning with concern, Silver Tongue’s smug grin grew even wider and he looked the Princess of the Night directly in the eye.

He knows…thought Luna. I must get rid of this Element as quickly as possible before it makes me any more obsessed. “For now, let us place this Element with the others in the protected box. We shall try and increase the power of our spell on the box, but…”

“But?” asked Silver Tongue.

Luna silently cursed herself. “But it still shall not be enough to protect against the Elements’ aura, and that is why we want the security status to remain on high alert.”

Silver Tongue raised an eyebrow, but said nothing more. Spell Scholar and Twilight Sparkle suddenly entered the room and approached the pair with determined looks on their faces. They both stared directly at Silver Tongue... and Luna gave an inward sigh of relief.

For the first time in quite a while, Twilight Sparkle paid absolutely no attention to the book sitting in front of her. Instead, she stared uneasily at the other side of the room as Princess Luna chatted casually with the most powerful, most vulnerable villain in Equestria.

Her intense focus distracted her so much that she barely heard the polite voice of Spell Scholar behind her. “Miss Sparkle? May I speak with you for a moment, in private?”

Spike, who leaned idly on the table while absentmindedly doodling pictures of diamonds on a blank scroll, groaned melodramatically. “Not again!”

Ignoring her assistant’s complaining, Twilight slammed the ancient book closed and replied, “Of course. Why do we have to talk in private?”

Spell Scholar leaned in close and whispered, “I’d rather Lord Silver Tongue not hear about any of what we are about to discuss…” Twilight nodded with a jolt of new understanding.

Once again she stepped out through the door into the wide, empty hallways of the castle. She paused for a moment as a bright light floated over the deep red sea of the laced carpet. Looking up to find its source, Twilight saw the brilliant sky looming over the tower through the wide stained-glass windows. The temporary light provided a small, momentary pause in the storm—the bright light of the moon had broken through the clouds for only a few moments, providing a short relief for all those still awake through this dark night.

The moonlight stayed only for a passing moment, and yet Twilight could swear she witnessed it…change. It transformed from a soft, pale glow that bathed the streets below in a beautiful milky sheen to a harsh, unnatural blinding white as the clouds passed over its surface. The bright echo of the moon faded away as the faceless storm consumed it, and Twilight heard the stallion behind her clear his throat quietly, not wanting to be rude. She turned around to face Spell Scholar, who had been patiently waiting as she sat moonstruck beneath the window.

Spell Scholar took a deep breath. “Miss Sparkle, I am concerned about Lord Silver Tongue’s position on the research team. The ‘associate’ that he spoke about who apparently just so happened to discover the Elements could not have found them by accident, when thousands of years of scholars and villains have never even seen a trace of them. And how did he come by this ‘associate’? I think, based on this evidence, we may be able to conclude that-”

“You’re absolutely right.”

“Come again?” asked the stallion, bewildered.

“You’re right. Silver Tongue isn’t even his real name; it’s just a disguise that he’s using to be on the research team, so he can be close to the Elements while he implements his master plan. He is planning to use them to overthrow Equestria tonight…and there’s nothing we can do about it!”

“How do you know this?”

“He told me, just now…right here. He has the Element of Betrayal with him, but he hasn’t pretended to have his associate discover it yet!”

“We need to do something!” Spell Scholar said, completely paralyzed in shock.

“But that’s just it. What could we possibly do to stop him before morning? There’s nothing we can do!” Twilight stamped her hoof on the thick carpet. Spell Scholar closed his eyes, concentrating. He remained still for almost a full minute as Twilight stood and waited across from him, fidgeting nervously.

Suddenly his eyes snapped open and a look of determination seized his face. “I have a plan. You need to talk to Princess Luna and tell her the truth. Get her to lock up Silver-er-Puzzle Master and the Elements, but if you cannot, make plans for the worst. Your friends are the Elements of Harmony, correct? Get them here and get them ready.”

Frustration boiled up inside Twilight until she wanted to scream aloud. “But I can’t talk to Princess Luna! Puzzle Master is right there, talking to her right now!”

“That is where I can help you. I will distract Puzzle Master by leading him somewhere far away while you convince the Princess to help us.”

She nodded, calming down slightly. “Alright, let’s do this. Remember, this means you will need to distract Puzzle Master as long as possible. Try and get him to argue with you about his big ‘master plan’…he loves to argue.”

Spell Scholar opened the door, but turned around as Twilight said one last thing:

“And whatever you do…do not let him get the upper hoof.”

Twilight approached Princess Luna, a look of cold determination in her eyes, ready to bring Puzzle Master out from behind his mask of shadows. And yet one thing remained even after her discussion, lurking in the back of her mind, a subtle feeling of unease. The image of Puzzle Master’s face stared at her from the corner of her vision, smiling with total confidence that she would not tell Princess Celestia his plans. He acts like he has control over so many ponies...what would he do if I told Princess Luna who he really is? The Shadow could still be in Ponyville, waiting for orders...A shiver ran down her spine.

Twilight hesitated. The fate of Equestria rested on her telling Luna what was going on, right now, but…she couldn’t. No. I must tell the Princess, whatever the cost. Maybe I could just…not mention Puzzle Master’s role in all of this, and tell Luna only about the impending threat of the Elements themselves?

Regal Magus promptly broke the deafening silence by standing abruptly from his spot at the middle of the table, and he spoke up for the first time in several hours: “Well, Princess, I have arrived at a stopping point in my research. Not all of us are nocturnal, you know, and I simply must get my sleep if I am to work tomorrow. Good night.” Holding his head high, Regal Magus walked out the door, looking away from Twilight as he trotted past her.

As Spell Scholar approached Silver Tongue to lead him astray, it dawned on Twilight that she was now the only pony to stay with Luna through the night…the only one who could protect her from her thoughts.

Luna watched Spell Scholar step into the room first, confident and resolute.

“Excuse me, Lord Silver Tongue? I need to discuss something with you in private,” he began, waiting by the door.

“Well well well. So many conversations hidden in the shadows…and yet I cannot blame you for wanting to discuss certain matters that are best kept in secret. What is it that you wish to talk about?”

“I will tell you once we are outside,” replied Spell Scholar, his eyes flicking uncomfortably to the ground before refocusing on the stallion in front of him.

“If you insist,” said Puzzle Master, leaving his comfortable spot at the table next to Luna. She inwardly gave a sigh of relief.

Twilight Sparkle marched towards her, wearing the same determined expression. But then…the young mare paused. The muffled sound of Puzzle Master and Spell Scholar walking through the hallway slowly faded into the silence.

“Twilight Sparkle? Doest thou have a question for us?” asked Princess Luna.

“What would you do if I told you that the Elements of Disharmony were brought here as part of a plan to overthrow Equestria?” Twilight blurted out.

Princess Luna drew back, not sure what to think. What?! Why would--wait. That would explain why they all showed up individually, as if somepony was deciding when to discover them. Also it would explain why they were brought here of all places, to the heart of Equestria. “But who would do something like this?” she asked.

Twilight’s eyes unconsciously darted to the door, avoiding Princess Luna’s. “I don’t know.”

Interesting...

“What I do know, though, is that we need to prepare in case the Elements of Disharmony are ever stolen or released. My friends and I need to find and keep our own Elements so we can be ready.”

Luna nodded, forgetting about Twilight’s previous hesitation. “Of course. The Elements of Disharmony grant their wielders full power, whereas the Elements of Harmony ‘must be unlocked in order to reach their full potential’,” she quipped, quoting one of the many books she had read in the past hours.

“My friends and I can use the Elements of Harmony for more than we already have?” Twilight frowned, confused.

“But of course. Didst thou not yet read all of the books we gave thee...?” Luna trailed off, remembering all of the distractions Twilight had experienced since her arrival.

“No. What do they say about how to unlock the Elements’ full potential?” the mare asked eagerly.

Luna took a deep breath and thought for a long moment before replying. A clap of thunder resounded in the distance. “There is a spell listed here that will allow somepony to enter the direct center of their mind, a feat usually only possible through the deepest meditation. Through this spell they will come face-to-face with the most evil part of their self, t-the nightmare within. They may then be able to defeat the worst part of themselves—temporarily or permanently, depending on how the spell is performed—which in thy case would allow thee to use the Elements of Harmony at their full potential. The reason that we do not allow everypony to perform this spell for purposes of spiritual purification…” Luna faltered. An ice-cold chill ran down her spine as unpleasant memories flashed through her mind.

“The reason that we do not let everypony perform this spell is because of the foalish attempt my sister and I made. The two of us thought that we could become better rulers if we defeated the evil within our minds...Celestia performed the spell successfully and defeated her inner darkness, although for several years afterwards she still flinched at the word 'Justice'. We, however…had less success with the spell.”

Twilight took a step back as Luna trembled uncontrollably and her eyes squeezed shut.

Emotions now accompanied the memories seared into Luna’s mind, panic and fear and the remembrance of hatred. “We could not defeat what lay in the center of our mind…the jealousy, hatred, and paranoia had grown too powerful as we watched our sister enviously for thousands of years. The monster within us told us that her name was Betrayal, but when she consumed us, she became a mare thou knowest by another name.”

“Night Mare Moon,” Twilight whispered.

Luna let the silence confirm Twilight’s guess. “Thy Elements of Harmony forced her back into the core of our mind, but we can feel her lurking, patiently biding her time, especially since…” Neither pony noticed the Element of Betrayal shaking softly atop the table at her last unfinished statement.

Twilight broke the increasingly awkward silence: “So, could my friends and I use this spell to use our Elements to their full potential?”

“Yes, of…course. Here is the spell.” Luna tossed Twilight a thick, dusty book from one of the haphazard piles on top of the table. “Page seventy-seven, paragraph four. But we must warn thee…if thy friends cannot overcome their worst Form, their worst Self, it shall consume them.”

“Thank you, Princess! I promise we won’t let you down.” Twilight snatched the book and sprinted out the door towards her room.

‘We won’t let you down…’

Could I make the same promise?

Twilight burst into her room, panting heavily. Sizzling energy rushed through her veins as she finally started to take action against the invisible forces that had toyed with her since she arrived in Canterlot. "Spike, take a letter.”

“Ready.” the dragon responded, automatically pulling out a scroll and quill.

“To all of my friends: I need you to come to Canterlot immediately. A set of dangerous magical Elements of Disharmony have arrived, and we need to prepare to contain them or fight their wielders before they make the next move. Please come quickly to Canterlot Castle. Your friend, Twilight Sparkle.”

“So am I sending this to the Princess, or…?” Spike trailed off, confused.

Twilight paused for a moment. “No. Could you copy this onto five more scrolls, and then send the letters to all of our friends in Ponyville? Owlowiscious can meet you at one of the windows, and you can grab some extra scrolls from the research room.”

“I think so. I’ll be back in a jiffy.” Spike hopped off of the chair he was seated in and rushed out the door, leaving Twilight alone with her nervous excitement.

Several hours later, on the other side of Canterlot, Spell Scholar was in check and running out of options.

“So you believed that, by stalling me, you could somehow prevent the inevitable collapse of the desperate, rotten attempt by this research team to lock away the power of the Elements of Disharmony, a power not even the Princesses can comprehend?” The bait is set. His queen shall take my pawn, playing right into my hooves, and then it is all over.

Spell Scholar fidgeted nervously, racking his brain for ideas. Although Silver Tongue was a false name, Puzzle Master lived up to and past it in his intricate strategies of this war of words. Spell Scholar swallowed nervously, and then hastily pieced together his next offense: “Yes…and you fell right for it.” He grew more confident as he continued, “You left the Princess and Twilight alone, where right now Twilight is revealing all of your plans, and I bet right now they are discussing how best to get rid of both you and your Elements.”

An antipositional…the perfect opportunity to end this. My most useful piece, hidden in the shadows until now, must be deployed. Puzzle Master looked down at his watch. “Really? Then why is it that the Princess is right now sitting alone in her throne room and Twilight Sparkle is in her luxurious suite, leaving the Elements completely unguarded? Why is it that all of her guards are currently on their rounds, unable to help her or guard her from her thoughts? Why is it that my associate, now having stolen every single one of the Elements, is on his way to the very same throne room?”

Spell Scholar felt as if the stallion had dumped a bucket of ice on his back as the chessmaster finished his game with a flourish.

The desired effect has been achieved…but can I not have a bit of fun in revealing just how foalish this stallion was? Puzzle Master continued, “Why is it that you have led me so far away from Princess Luna’s throne room that you would be tragically too late to reach her before my associate does? Why is it that Twilight Sparkle sent her little scaly friend out all by himself to the room that contained the Elements of Disharmony…and this very same scaly friend was the one who seemed so very intrigued by the Element of Greed earlier? So many questions you have failed to answer. You are truly only a Scholar of Spells, my friend…it is time to look up from your useless scrolls and face the reality of the situation.”

Spell Scholar did not say another word, but turned around and sprinted down the road toward the castle. He’s headed to the throne room…thought Puzzle Master, a crocodile grin stretching across his face. The midnight-blue stallion nearly fell over backward in laughter, his screechy tones echoing through the empty silence of the Canterlot streets.

Checkmate.

4: Moonset

After several hours working fruitlessly with the research team, Luna could finally be…alone.

The bittersweet nature of her predicament, as always, sent her mind whirling in frustrated circles. Nopony would bother her through the hours of darkness, leaving her endless time when no other pony in the world could disturb her pondering. And yet, Luna thought with a pang of longing, I want them to disturb me. I need them to disturb me…for if they do not, how can I tell if they truly care for me or my night? These thoughts and a thousand others echoed through her head while she sat alone in the center of the Canterlot Castle throne room, and as the muffled drumming of rain echoed from above. In a world filled with silence, only the raging storm could comfort her troubled soul.

She stretched out in her seat, uncomfortable since the throne of Equestria—and likewise the throne in the citizens’ hearts—was not built for her. No, they built this seat for her sister, so that Celestia would sit proudly and regally and bask in the harsh light of day. The smiling ruler would greet her subjects as they all waited in a line that would stretch for miles…as everypony would die for the opportunity to meet their ruler, their ruler of the day.

And yet nopony ever wanted to speak with their equally powerful, equally important Ruler of the Night. Nopony ever cared enough to stay up into the night for the chance to meet their other ruler. Nopony even loved her enough to stay with her for the entire night, too afraid of losing their precious sleep so that they could live in Celestia’s day.

Not even her guards had time to talk to her. Luna could not directly blame them for this—it was quite literally in their job description to only speak or interact when absolutely necessary—but still, something about the fact that the only ponies who lived with her in the night swore to perpetual silence...bothered her.

The castle’s Lunar Guards marched through empty hallways as they did their rounds, very rarely passing the throne room, so not even their presence could break her hated thoughts…thoughts that betrayed her, thoughts filled with crystal pendants and bright blue lightning. The lightning always curled down from a raging storm of justice, striking Celestia down from her pedestal of lies and tyranny.

A deafening BOOM of thunder echoed through the empty halls. Lightning had struck Canterlot Castle, the heart of Equestria itself.

All of a sudden the faint sound of trotting down the hall interrupted Luna’s dark thoughts. The sound of hoofsteps grew only louder as Luna strained her ears to listen.

Could it be? Could one pony finally have come to attend the court of the night, to want to talk to Luna?! Who was it? What did they want? Did they have a question? A special request, maybe? Whatever it may be, she had to answer this pony, had to keep her rising hope from escaping. A rush of emotions flooded the Princess's mind, making ehr excited and nervous and hopeful and afraid.

Luna’s pulse sped up as the pony strode slowly and confidently towards the throne room. Luna's brow furrowed as she noticed wisps of black smoke crawling across the walls of the hallway, then fading into shadow.

Bum-bum.

The pony turned the corner and stepped into the throne room. What an odd-looking pony, Luna thought, Perchance, though, that is the new fashion. It has been a long time, after all...Her heart pumped faster with every step he took.

Bum-bum.

His freakish bug-like eyes glowed bright red, staring straight through the Princess, sparking a twinge of unease in the back of her mind. The colt wore a set of shining chrome armor above his midnight-blue coat, and his outline shimmered in the candlelight as if he stood under a cloak of illusions.

Bum-bum.

Luna's eye darted to the pitch-black pendant he wore around his neck. An ash-gray crystal hung from its center, with two bright red beads aligned across the face of the gem…almost like eyes. A powerful aura surrounded the necklace, a sort of dark shadow that followed this pony like graveyard fog as he continued his advance toward the Princess, one step at a time.

Bum-bum.

Wait a minute. I have seen that necklace before.

Bum-bum. Bum-bum.

Recent memories flicked into her consciousness. A locked box sat on the table, vibrating as the contents struggled to escape. A brilliant flash of blue light consumed her vision. Even after, one of the necklaces still seemed to be watching her with its ruby eyes, watching her and waiting.

Bum-bum. Bum-bum.

The Element of Fear! How did he—did he steal—is he its wielder? This does not make any sense! Luna tried to calm herself down, ignoring the deafening heartbeats that pulsed in her ears like the constant beating of a drum.

What could she do about this pony? Celestia would have told her to call the guard and have him arrested immediately, for theft of one of the most dangerous magical items ever discovered. But…she could not follow Celestia’s example. I shall hear this pony out.

“Doest thou have a question for thy Princess of the Night?” Princess Luna’s voice rang out across the court. She thought it best to first remind this pony, if he was going to try anything, who exactly he was dealing with.

The colt stopped in his tracks, still staring at Luna, his bug-eyes never blinking. “As a matter of fact…yes, yes I do.” His deep voice rumbled softly like the sound of echoing thunder.

Luna did a double take. “What?”

“I was wondering…why did you give in to your sister, and surrender your ideal of the Everlasting Night?”

“What?!” There are still ponies who would support me as Nightmare Moon?

“I said, why did you give in to the tyrannical will of Celestia? You could have overpowered her at any point you so desired since your return from your prison, and reigned once more. The moon could once again have shined in all of its glory over Equestria.”

The Princess's head swam with contradictory plans of action. This pony is clearly a threat to the kingdom, having stolen an Element of Disharmony as well as having been a supporter of my past self's crazy ideas. Luna glanced back at the dark colt, still confused. Maybe I should kick him out of the throne room...Celestia would not stand for this kind of speech, this treasonous line of thought shoved directly and audaciously in my face.

And yet some dark part of Luna wanted him to keep talking…some dark recess in her mind that had laid dormant for a long time, waiting patiently to break free.

In her indecision the Shadow patiently stood, unblinking, silent and still. He could feel the second pendant he carried inside a secret pocket of his armor eagerly straining to escape his magical grasp, craving to join its true master.

Luna carefully arranged her next words, treading a fine line as she spoke not her own words but those she knew she should: “When I was Night Mare Moon, all that I lived for was jealousy and bitterness. The Elements of Harmony gave me a second chance at a new life, to rule justly alongside my sister.” She nearly choked over the last few words, and he knew it.

“You were jealous, and rightly so. Your sister and her precious subjects betrayed you by adamantly refusing to appreciate the beauty of your night. Only after you became Night Mare Moon did your beloved sister choose to notice your suffering…because it inconvenienced her.”

Bum-bum. Bum-bum. Bum-bum. Bum-bum-

Luna’s heartbeat pounded in her ears, a thunderous drum she could no longer ignore. “Stop. Stop speaking, now.” Her calm crumbled fast under his harsh words that spoke the deadly truth. A blinding glow emanated from her horn, a magic she could not control…a subconscious urge to do what she must.

“Destroy me if you wish…but I will always be there. I am the Shadow that lurks in your mind, skulking in its deepest recesses, hiding in its darkest corners…I am the voice of your true self, calling out to you, always present but never recognized…” The soft words slithered out from behind his shining mask, curled in her ear and struck at her will like an angry snake.

Panic ate away at her mask of calm as she realized with utter horror the rising agreement she felt with his toxic words. Her mind began to tear itself apart as she could not force herself make him stop, to MAKE IT STOP…

BUM-BUM, BUM-BUM, BUM-BUM, BUM-BUM-

Finally Luna’s throat cleared for long enough to her to scream, “GUARDS!” Her voice came strangled and desperate, but it peeped no more as his drilling glare stripped away her willpower.

Nopony came. Her guards were too far away to hear her scream.

Suddenly Luna looked down at his Element, looking into its ruby eyes. That Element gives him power. I must escape it!. Summoning all of her remaining strength, Princess Luna seized back control of her mind and body. She jumped into the air and shot to the door, flapping her wings as fast as her heartbeat in a desperate attempt at an escape.

She soared out past the throne room doors and slammed them shut behind her. They echoed with a deafening BOOM, their sound rolling like the thunder out through the castle.

Sinking to the ground, Luna forced her mind into a state of calm. Strangely, the wielder of the Element of Fear did not pursue her. Not a single noise left the throne room…only a dull, ominous silence. Whatever the case…he could not hurt her anymore.

Queen Chrysalis snuck down the silent hallway, watching closely for any signs of the Equestrian Lunar Guard. She could feel the Element of Deception’s aura, warm and lulling, rested against her neck. The very aura that she could twist, could manipulate, could control…

And now she needed to do exactly that. Working carefully, she fed her magic into the crystal center of the pendant, gently pulling it away from its black frame. It resisted for a moment, but then with a loud pop! it leapt out of the black necklace. A bright cloud of blue-green magic suddenly burst into existence around it, causing it to levitate in midair.

Chrysalis delicately wrapped her own magic around the cloud, twisting and forming it into the body of a snake. She reached into the crystal, and with a spark of energy the serpent came to life. The creature woven from pure power slithered down the hallway, seeking out its first victim.

The storm did not give Luna a single moment to rest before its next strike.

As she sat still against the cold wall in front of the throne room, Luna suddenly noticed something peculiar in the corner of her eye. A small, dark, teal-green shape lay in the middle of the floor further down the hallway.

She squinted her eyes at the strange sight. It looked like a snake, but with the translucent, shimmering quality of an entity born from pure magic. Jeweled eyes stared at her from inside its tiny skull, a dark blood-red that contrasted starkly with the rest of its ethereal turquoise body.

“Hello?” Luna called. The snake quickly slithered down the hallway at the sound of her voice, around a corner and out of sight. A flash of green light flared around the bend.

Her confidence regained after escaping the Element of Fear, Luna cautiously trotted down the hall after the mysterious snake. She rounded the corner only to find an empty hallway.

Luna turned to her left, noticing a tall mirror hanging from the wall, looking into the eyes of her full reflection. Cracks crawled along the edges of the mirror, not reaching the chrome surface, pinching the back of Luna's mind with unease. Is the mirror broken? My full reflection is still there, unaltered...

Her reflection opened its mouth of its own accord, and the teal-blue snake coiled out like a wisp of smoke. Luna jerked back as the snake slithered through the air and curled around her neck, but she did not feel anything. "Illusions..." she murmured, her eyes narrowing. The snake's true master, her false reflection, closed its mouth and smiled at her. Luna stared back, not quite sure what to think.

The snake slid back into the mirror, where it winded around the neck of her reflection and took the form of another storm-black pendant. Its face became the crystal centerpiece of this Element, the head of the snake. The Element of Deception.

“You could do it, you know.”

The voice of Luna’s reflection rang through the empty halls, met only by silence.

“You know that you want to…as your true self, as the real Mare of the Night, you will find the happiness you have lost to the sun. Once more you shall become the bringer of Justice to these cruel ponies, and they will learn to love you and the beauty of your jeweled sky.”

Again only silence met the entrancing mirror’s words. Its tempting whisper turned suddenly into an angry shout.

“THIS IS NOT HARMONY! If your sister was not so blinded by the limelight and the Sun, she could clearly see the oppression in front of her very nose. Look at you now! Has anypony come to your aid? Has anypony come here to help you? Or have they all left you here for dead?!”

Luna’s eyes watered as she stared unblinking into the mirror, completely mesmerized by this form of herself, a form reflected honestly by this mirror, this servant of the storm.

“JUST IMAGINE IT! YOU COULD HAVE MORE POWER THAN CELESTIA EVER DREAMED OF!” screamed the voice.

Celestia...? My sister…

Thunder crashed between two opposing clouds outside of the palace. Drawing up to her full height, Luna returned the mirror’s anger with the full power of her Royal Canterlot Voice: “NO! We shall not be turned back into that MONSTER!”

All of the remaining fragments of the mirror shattered…but the reflection remained, even as the mirror fell apart before her eyes. The reflection’s voice shifted back to a whisper in the wind. “Who is the monster…the tyrant or the slave?”

Princess Luna took a step back. The snake that crawled out of the mirror had wormed itself into the mind and bit down with all of its might, sapping away all of her strength.

Glaring into her reflection, Luna failed to notice a familiar red-eyed colt sneak up behind her and envelop her in Fear's black fog. After a brief look of shock, Luna's eyes closed and she crumpled to the ground.

The Shadow looked down at the body of the Princess lying before him, splayed out on the floor, fallen from grace. Green fire spat out from the corner of his eye, and Queen Chrysalis stepped out of the broken mirror frame. The Element of Deception hung around her neck, glowing softly in the candlelight.

She looked at him quizzically. The Shadow levitated the Element of Betrayal over to her, and she nodded. Pulling it out of the air, she positioned the pendant carefully, letting it hover over Luna’s neck as if preparing to bite down.

Closing his eyes, the Shadow laid down and joined Princess Luna in the dark pit of sleep for one final nightmare.

A surreal meadow of stars greeted Luna's vision as she awoke. Soft music played against her ears, from everywhere and from nowhere. The night breeze whistled softly through the stars under her hooves, chilling her to the bone, and yet at the same time a fire resided within her that the breeze could not extinguish.

The Princess of the Night lifted her gaze to see once again the peculiar dome curl around her, a sphere encompassing the whole night sky, a cage within her soul where the Night Mare waited to greet her.

A pure milky-white sphere hovered in the center of this beautiful alien display. Shining its light over the sky, it pulsed with every beat of her heart. As with its counterpart in reality, this moon held a foe that the Elements of Harmony defeated and imprisoned: the Black Mare, the Nightmare Within, the Betraying One.

Luna floated through the thick air, parting the stars with her hooves as she approached her inevitable fate. As she approached, the moon phased in and out of its solid state, revealing the dark silhouette of her dark reflection. The Nightmare looked so innocent imprisoned within the chains of her will…it lay curled up in a fetal position, dressed in no armor, wearing no makeup to boost its intimidating appearance. Its eyelids hung heavy over its glowing dragon-eyes.

But as Princess Luna swam closer and closer to the shining orb, as her heart beat louder and louder with every slow motion of her wings, the bright dragon-eyes of Betrayal snapped open. A wide grin filled its face, and it floated to the surface of the moon, looking out at her alter ego, appearing for all intents and purposes no more than an innocent fish inside an aquarium.

One touch, and Justice will be released. One simple, easy, painful, betraying evil touch. The night breeze carried the soft words to Luna’s ears with a sweet melody. Luna hesitated, knowing full well that she lacked the strength to punch open the prison within her that the Elements of Harmony had sealed.

And yet she could feel the moon crumbling from within, deteriorating from the influence of the Elements of Disharmony. So far she had felt the presence of two such Elements, deteriorating the power of Harmony that resided in her mind.

A third entity rang out its presence across the night sky, rippling the blanket of stars that formed the fabric of her mind. Something forced its entry into this most private of places…something that had the strength to break all barriers, and it rode the night breeze up towards its master.

The Element of Betrayal floated up from behind Luna before she even noticed its presence, and locked itself tightly around her neck. Immediately the tranquility shattered. The night sky panicked and writhed with its Princess, who struggled against the all-consuming power of Betrayal. She shrieked as the Element choked the life out of her, releasing a silent scream that the darkness consumed.

Her vision faded to black. As her vision faded to black, she noticed with sorrowful resignation that she had fallen once again into her dreamless prison.

Night Mare Moon awoke, breathing in the fresh air of reality for the first time since the Elements of Harmony had torn apart and locked away her essence on the eve of the Summer Sun Celebration so long ago. Her body sat in front of a shattered mirror, and her eyes rested on a spot behind the mirror where wisps of an illusion-spell still lingered.

A soft, comforting warmth pulsed around her neck. She turned her head down to see a bolt of blue lightning against the metal of an Element sitting above her chest, but not pure gold like that of the Elements of Harmony. Instead, a jet-black color had tainted this pendant's surface.

The Ruler of the Night glanced to her side. Her pale blue armor that struck fear into the hearts of ponies everywhere lay innocently on the ground, waiting for its wearer. She stepped into the familiar cold touch of her hoof-plates and strapped on the thick chestpiece, and then finally she levitated the helmet over her head. It slipped smoothly over her horn, as easily as the last time, as if nothing had changed. Her armor glinted in the moonlight.

Suddenly a dull red stallion burst through the door, panting. He yelled in a panicked voice, “Princess Luna! Lord Silver Tongue stole the Elements of Disharmony and he’s planning to-”

Spell Scholar’s voice stopped dead as he saw Nightmare Moon slowly rise from the floor, stretching her legs and neatly folding her wings at her sides. She smiled at him as her mane spiraled into the open air of the hallway, forming a thundercloud of blue smoke. Even without the lightning soon to come, her aura paralyzed the helpless stallion.

Outside the window, the storm clouds cleared for a brief moment. The sky revealed the bright moon, shining in all of her glory once again. Its necessary corruption was complete.

A bolt of lightning flashed, with the accompanying rumble of thunder…not from the storm but from within the very Castle itself.

5: The Darkest Hour

Sound asleep in her bed laid the omnipotent goddess of the sun; she knew not of the storm which surrounded her.

The innocent smile on her face betrayed that she had been whisked away by a dream to the confines of a pleasant fantasy, a land of sweet naïveté that kept her locked away from the harsh reality outside her very window.

In this dream the sun shone bright; its radiance covered all corners of the earth. A simple fact that her subconscious mind could not face…was that this false utopia of everlasting day had left no room for the moon.

Next to the bed of the sleeping deity hung a beautiful painting; the painting had been left sitting mysteriously on her windowsill a bright and sunny morning less than one year ago. It captured the image of the sky in a beautiful sunrise within its intricate brushwork, displaying both the moon and the sun in all of their glory. The stars were faintly visible through the first bright rays of morning, and the few scattered clouds above the sun reflected a spectrum of colors, the stunning bright pinks, reds, and oranges of dawn. Carved into its simple wood frame was a small inscription, the title of the work: Harmony in Equestria. The author had not marked their own name on their work and instead left only a note indicating that it was a gift for the fair Solar Princess.

Milky-white moonlight flowed over this magnificent painting through the window on the opposite side of the room, covering its shades of red and orange with pure white. With a slow creak, the window slid open, and on a cloud of indigo magic flew a mare whose coat was as black as her heart. The storm followed her inside in a powerful gust of wind.

Harmony in Equestria, stirred by the storm, fell onto the floor and shattered into a thousand pieces.

A beautiful green diamond lied on the ground beneath the West Canterlot Tower, sitting in the middle of the road as if it was cast aside.

Or waiting.

The embodiment of corruptive innocence sat in silence, letting the night pass by overhead. The pouring rain of the storm washed over its pure surface, and yet did not tarnish it. Bright moonlight fell down from the sky, reflecting off of the gem’s mesmerizing exterior and only making it all the more enticing. Its deadly mirrored light captured the eyes of no one, save its sole intended victim high up beneath the wide windows of Canterlot Castle.

Dark clouds passed aimlessly through the sky, signaling the passing of time. But the crystal would wait; it would lie here in darkness until its master came to claim it.

Spike nearly jumped out of his scales as a deafening thunderclap washed over him.

A piercing scream followed, but was cut off suddenly...as if it was silenced.

He shivered. The research team’s meeting room suddenly seemed a shade darker, even though the clouds had parted and bathed the room in milky light. Every flickering shadow in the corner of his eye made him flinch. Yet Spike carried on, cautiously tiptoeing up to the center table.

Spike fished a quill out that he had stuffed into the scroll clenched in his claw; he then copied out its contents to four other scrolls as quickly as he could. Just as he scratched out the last word, a swift tapping at the window nearly made him jump out of his seat.

Outlined in the pale moonlight was the silent form of Owlowiscious, waiting patiently for Spike to shake himself out of his fearful stupor and hand over the letters. The owl’s body was pure black against the harsh moonlight.

Dude, that’s creepy…thought Spike. He hopped up to the windowsill and handed Owlowiscious the precious letters, saying, “Make sure one of these gets to all of Twilight’s friends.”

“Who?” questioned the owl.

“Oh, you know-Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash.”

“Who.”

“You know what…nevermind.”

The owl nodded and flew off into the dark sky, disappearing into the black thunderclouds that surrounded the city of Canterlot. His small body, a tiny dot against the enormous clouds, faded into the darkness.

Spike was just about to turn away from the broad window…when something else caught his eye.

A tiny light was winking at him from a hundred feet below.

Under the darkness just below the Castle lay a deadly garden.

This garden of statues, tranquil under the silent moon, sat frozen in the stillness of night. Its centerpiece, the tallest statue that had once stood proudly above all others, was twisted in a pose of pure horror. He had been in this shape for a comparatively short period of time which felt like an eternity; he was now simply another vanquished enemy to be gazed upon in this ageless trophy collection.

This surreal nocturnal bliss was broken, however, by a blue colt in shining chrome whose form wavered under the pale moonlight. It trembled not from the cold.

The Shadow was, for the first time in so long…afraid.

He could still remember the face of his next target from so many years ago, when the image of the laughing beast was seared across his mind. Discord...

As the Shadow trotted down to the base of the stone statue, he could only stare…at the one who had so happily ruined his life, laughing all of the while. The one who had stepped in with one claw and swept everything away. His family. His friends. His dreams, his goals, his talent.

And yet here stood the lord of chaos. Imprisoned in stone, arms outstretched, and his facial expression that of one begging for mercy. His screaming face was frozen permanently in a state of FEAR.

The Shadow almost smiled behind his mask. Almost. It was nice to be reminded who was in charge here.

The face of another one who had dared laugh at him floated briefly through his mind, but…he….he did not know what to think of her. She had dared to look at him and smile, to treat him almost like a friend…like everypony had treated him before he took up the silver mask…

But she was an enemy to be dealt with at a later time; he had business to do. Reluctantly, the Shadow reached out with his mind and prodded the surreal consciousness that was Discord. He was…already awoken by the Shadow’s presence, and had simply waited for him to make the first move like any good chessmaster would.

And who might you be? The thought floated down to the Shadow, standing below Discord’s tall statue of stone that rose high in the air above him.

I am the Shadow that lurks in your mind…the voice of the darkness that twists dreams into nightmares, responded the Shadow, although he was doubtful that his usual intimidation would have any effect on this monster.

He was correct. Really? No, you’re not. I remember you, Soul Shade…what fun we had!

The mere mention of his past self’s name sent an uncontrollable shiver down the Shadow’s spine. A rush of bottled memories came flooding out, threatening to break his wall of self-control that his brother helped him develop after the tragic accident so many years ago. The Shadow concentrated for a moment, using all of his willpower to repress his…emotions.

Why would you use my old name, Discord? After all, it was you who made me what you see now. You created this, the Shadow thought at the motionless statue, gesturing to his half-broken form, his silver armor, his glowing eyes.

Oh, my little Shady. Always hotheaded and always trying to one-up me. You haven’t changed a bit!

Discord was simply trying to make him lose his cool, to break him. As predicted. And according to his brother’s plan, the Shadow must not continue this conversational direction. Discord. We will have plenty of time for small talk as soon as you are free; he reprimanded the spirit of chaos.

Fine. You’re no fun anymore, Soul Shade, but all the same, I would very much like to be free. It’s quite boring being imprisoned in stone, you know. So how do you plan on freeing me? As long as the Elements of Harmony are stable, I’m locked in.

He felt another involuntary shiver at the mention his old name, but no matter. You shall see shortly. However, in exchange for this freedom, you must promise to restrain your chaotic nature and power to further the effort of the group. The Shadow felt a twinge of worry as the words passed through his mind.

You want a promise like THAT? From me? You expect too much from me, dear Shady. I can’t help it; it is my nature.

The Shadow glared at Discord, letting his eyes glow a harsh bright red. I am simply saying this to protect you. If you attempt to overthrow the group, you will be stopped, with a force that even you cannot contend to beat. Keep your head low, and perhaps she will spare you.

The face of a pony in a black and golden suit passed briefly through the Shadow’s mind, a mare wearing a shining black crown inlaid with golden jewels and topped with a six-pointed yellow star.

Discord’s voice burst explosively into laughter, causing the Shadow to physically wince. Discord barely got out, If you say so.

The last thing the Shadow heard from the cruel whisper in the wind was echoing laughter that would not leave his mind.

Spike hopped down the last few floors of the old dusty staircase, taking them three at a time, barely containing his giddy excitement. In his rush to reach the bottom he tripped and tumbled down the stairs, head over heels, crashing face first on the ground floor.

“Ow.” he said, pushing himself off of the ground and rubbing the spot where his face met the floor. Shaking his head a couple times, he walked through the tall doors into the dark night. They slammed shut behind him with an ominous BOOM.

You know you shouldn’t be doing this, a voice nagged at Spike from the back of his mind. Twilight told you to come back to her room immediately. She's afraid for you.

No, she didn’t. She didn’t tell us ANYTHING! shouted back a second voice, its fiery vehemence startling Spike.

But you know she would not want you out here, the first responded quietly.

WOULD she? She doesn’t care about us. She has never cared about us. The second voice carried a passion, an anger that Spike was beginning to relate to.

What do you think-

The first voice was cut off abruptly as Spike noticed the tiny green diamond sitting on the rough road.

That dazzling, alluring diamond…the very same diamond that had captured his heart and mind with its beauty.

He approached it hesitantly, subconsciously afraid of its power over him. However his fears were soothed as he felt a quiet voice coming from it, whispering soft nothings into his ear.

Come here, Spike.

Its voice was distinctly feminine, had a powerful quality to it, and yet seemed so…caring. The almost motherly tone soothed all of his nervous fears and put Spike at ease.

And then there was the crystal itself, in its indescribable splendor. No longer afraid, the tiny dragon sprinted toward it, reaching out his claw to just touch it, to just grab on and hold it and never let go…

The crystal jumped out of his reach, repelled from him by an almost magnetic force.

Annoyed, Spike made another leap for the diamond. His legs felt more powerful this time, as if they had grown ever so slightly since his first attempt.

Once again the cruel diamond bounded out of his reach.

Spike heard the voice again, and yet it was not the same. Its soothing quality was replaced by a harsh, nasally, irritating whine.

Come and get me, Spike! I’m waiting! A giggle bubbled out of the shiny gem.

The dragon’s forked tongue flickered out of his mouth, tasting the air. He and his precious diamond were alone, save the drumming of the rain and the angry screaming of the storm overhead. Mixed into this cacophony was the snide laughter of an audacious jewel.

“GET OVER HERE!” Spike’s voice dropped an octave in pitch the words exploded out from between his fangs. He dropped onto all fours as he chased after the shiny speck as it rolled further and further down the road towards the Canterlot Statue Garden.

Over here! Its malicious laughter pierced through Spike’s will; his narrowing dragon-eyes could see nothing but its tantalizing form falling further and further out of his reach. He barely noticed as his arms doubled in length, his tail swishing slower and slower as it grew to the length of a stallion.

Nope. I’m right here! The shrill voice would not stop. Each word shot through Spike’s mind was a hot coal thrust in his face, a burning needle stabbed through his eyes.

I WANT TO KILL THAT VOICE…I NEED TO HAVE THAT…I MUST TAKE…I WANT…Spike’s thoughts became simpler and angrier with every passing second.

The diamond suddenly stopped, filling his vision as it floated toward his face upon a pillar of green fire. A black necklace had locked itself around Spike’s throat without him even noticing, and with a soft click the lime-colored gem retracted into its frame.

With a meaty claw the angry dragon grabbed the gem; it was within his grasp at last. Its tiny, beautiful geometric form lay harmlessly in his palm.

Suddenly the diamond glowed a blinding bright orange. Ignited by its own magic, its heat scalded his claw with the fire of a thousand burning suns and Spike felt pain beyond anything he had ever imagined.

Rearing up on his back claws, the dragon let out a thunderous roar that shook the very earth itself.

6: Dawn of Power

Celestia bolted awake with a snap. A deafening sound from right next to her bed had woken her; she glanced down and saw that the beautiful painting above her bedside had fallen and shattered on the ground.

Who would do this?! she thought, livid with anger. A loud CREEAK from the windowsill answered her question: it was the storm’s winds that had destroyed her masterpiece.

The sun goddess rolled out of her luxurious bed and trotted slowly to the windowsill, her groggy mind still processing how the window could have opened on its own. Of course the storm’s winds were very intense that night, but they still could not have opened those windows—they were sealed with her own magic, stronger than almost any force of nature.

Moonlight shone brightly through the dark clouds woven across the sky. Celestia’s eyes flitted to the gilded clock on her wall, and she frowned. It was nearly dawn. The moon should be approaching the horizon by now, the clouds should be glowing blood red…but the moon was still in the center of the sky, gazing down triumphantly at its befuddled onlookers below.

Sliding open the window, Celestia peeked her head outside. The cold night air greeted her in a blast of wind, rushing inside the room with enough force to make her flinch. Storms of this intensity rarely came to Canterlot; the pegasi have always stopped them before they could even reach the great mountain. One could almost say that this one was…unnatural…

For a moment the wind died down, and Celestia heard a soft shuffling sound from right above her. Somepony was poised right above her room on the roof, trying to sneak into the castle…!

But no…as she looked up, all that was left of the apparent intruder was a wisp of indigo smoke that disappeared into a fine mist trailing across the sky, towards the other side of the castle.

Becoming more and more confused, the Princess lifted herself into the freezing night air with a beat of her powerful wings. Each raindrop was a bullet striking her body, stinging her like a thousand angry bees. With one burst of golden magic an invisible shield formed around her, causing each raindrop to vaporize on contact. Celestia followed the evaporating trail of starry mist over the grand scape of Canterlot Castle, and it led her directly to…

Luna’s room.

Curious, she gazed through her sister’s open window. Thunder crashed and lighting lit up the sky, temporarily blinding the sun goddess.

Inside Luna’s room it was completely black…and yet a dark form was visible for only a second by the light of the storm’s fleeting fire.

Celestia paused for a moment. A soft melody had reached her ears, made faint by the angry storm and yet not drowned out completely. She could not make out the words, but it sounded ominously familiar to a song she had heard out on the olden castle’s highest tower one thousand years ago…a soft ballad, sung by her sister right as she donned a pale blue war-helmet cold as ice.

Floating to her sister’s window, Celestia opened it just a crack and peeked her head inside.

It was nearly sliced clean off as a bolt of pure energy shot past her ear. Recoiling, the sun princess craned her neck as the streak of black magic sailed by her and expanded out behind the window, forming an unnatural shade that blocked all light from entering the chamber of the Ruler of the Night.

Strengthening her resolve, the solar goddess descended into darkness.

Rainbow Dash awoke to a very loud, very annoying noise right next to her ear.

“HOO! HOO! HOO!”

“I’m trying to sleep…” complained the cyan mare, rolling over and covering her head with a pillow and then stuffing it as far into her ears as possible.

“HOO!” screeched the voice, now accompanied by a sharp pinch on her foreleg.

Rainbow whirled around. “What IS IT?! Oh…” she saw the owl’s talons wrapped around her foreleg, desperately hanging on, “…hi Owlowiscious. Why are you waking me up in the middle of the night?”

“Hoo!” The owl pointed her talon at the wall next to her window. The clock read that it was just about dawn.

“Oh. Ya know, Owlowiscious, not everypony gets up as soon as it’s light out. My job means I don’t even need to be awake until-”

“HOO!” The owl flew to the wall and landed on the puffy white windowsill, jabbing its claw outside. Right outside of her window was a purple hot-air balloon, filled with four familiar ponies watching her expectantly.

Rainbow shot out of her bed, all of a sudden concerned. “Why are you all here? Is something wrong?”

They all simply nodded. Owlowiscious handed her a scroll; she opened it to find a letter from Twilight in Spike’s messy claw-writing:

“To all of my friends: I need you to come to Canterlot immediately. The Elements of Disharmony have arrived…”

Celestia trotted further and further into the darkness; she knew exactly what lied in its center…and yet the rising, bubbling panic in her mind could not accept its existence.

Another flash of lightning revealed the outline of an alicorn mare sitting in the center of the room, facing the back wall.

Her song came to a close; the mare stood up and for only a moment her body was illuminated by a faint ray of moonlight that had snuck through the veil of magic. The mare’s coat was pitch black.

The sun goddess stopped in her tracks; her mind completely frozen in a state of dread.

“Hello again, dear sister. Did you miss me?”

A wave of sorrow and bitter acceptance washed over Celestia’s entire body, sending painful chills down her spine. That voice…she could no longer deny the painful truth. But…how could this have happened? She wanted nothing more to go to her poor sister, take her under her wings and ask what was wrong, just as she had done when Luna was not but a filly.

Yet the all-powerful solar goddess could not move. Her body was paralyzed; her mouth would not open. Not by a magic spell was this feat accomplished…but by memories of pain, of grief, and of doing what was necessary.

The Night Mare still had not turned around; she seemed to speaking as much to the empty blackness as her elder sister: “You know, it’s interesting that the last time we met like this, in the middle of MY night, was the night I was born…a tiny feeling of resentment in your weak sister’s mind. A powerful need for justice, to overthrow the tyrant sun.”

Celestia knew exactly what had to be done. And yet, on a night just like this one over one thousand years ago, she had sworn never again to take such drastic measures. Even in Equestria’s darkest hours, from that fateful day forth, she had never banished anypony into their sphere of control in nature….a process which dulled their mind as they slowly became that which was their prison. For Luna the banishment had passed in a second; for Celestia it was an eternity of staring up at her sister’s beautiful moon and stealing control over it, knowing that Luna was trapped in a world beyond pain, beyond anger, beyond rational thought.

“Besides the night of my birth, you NEVER awoke at this time, never ONCE stopped for even a moment to gaze at my beautiful stars. Why now should you come into my presence? I let the storm wake you, but why even now should you pay any attention to your own sister?”

Opening her mouth to respond, Celestia found it forced shut—by magic this time. The bitter mare was not yet done.

“Oh yes, that’s right…NOW I AM A THREAT!” The Night Mare’s head whirled around as she as her angry voice rose to a shout…but then it dropped to a heated whisper. “So go ahead, dear sister, battle me. Strike me down with your all-powerful magic, O Goddess of the Sun.”

The mare’s dark magic released her jaw, and yet still Celestia remained silent.

“I said, attack me. Draw up your magic and FIGHT ME!”

“I will not fight you.”

“STRIKE ME, YOU FOAL!” Night Mare Moon’s furious scream echoed through the dark room and through all of Canterlot.

“One thousand years ago, I took an oath that I dare not break now. Banishing you was so painful, so heartbreaking…I knew I could never bring myself to harm you again,” Celestia stood firm. “Sister, I will not fight you.”

The room’s silence was broken only by the patter of the thundering storm and rain against the veil of darkness as Night Mare Moon hunched down, squeezing her eyes painfully shut. The glow of the crystal pendant against her armor flickered, its light fading. When she next spoke, her voice was…different.

“You…didn’t want to hurt me?”

Luna’s pure, sweet voice nearly broke through that of her alter ego, struggling against the powerful shouting overtones of Night Mare Moon. The outcome was a disharmonic chord of anger and sadness.

Now was the time to act. In a loving melodic whisper, Celestia said, “I do care about you, dear sister, and sometimes…” she hesitated, but then continued, “Sometimes I wish that I could just leave it all behind—my responsibilities, our subjects, the government…all of it, to spend one night with you under the beautiful moonlight.”

Luna’s voice, nearly silent, whispered in the night: “You wanted to be with me?”

Then a blinding light exploded like an inferno from the lightning pendant on the black mare’s chest. Bolts of bright blue electricity fired all over her body. Night Mare Moon fell to the ground; she shrieked and writhed in pain as the powerful light consumed her. The flickering lights snaked over her face, stinging and biting, leaving invisible burn marks that would have scarred, no, killed any other pony who endured such torture…the lights left no spot untouched, searing every part of her body even beneath her armor.

Celestia watched in horror as her own sister lay on the ground, spasming uncontrollably, in unimaginable pain. Luna’s voice, whether or not it was real or only a memory brought on by déjà vu, echoed in her mind:
“H E L P M E ! . . . ”

Then, with a flash of blinding blue light, it stopped. The tendrils of cyan fire withdrew into their controlling master, the crystal necklace. Calmly and collectively Night Mare Moon rose up and with one bolt of magic blasted the sun goddess into the ground.

Pain collided with the Solar Princess and shoved her onto the cold floor. Coughing and wheezing, Celestia tried to get up only to have her legs collapse beneath her. She opened her eyes and was seized by an intense vertigo; the approaching form of Night Mare Moon was whirling in her vision.

Her head spinning, Celestia forced her mind to stay awake as it screamed to fall into the dark pit of sleep. Night Mare Moon was speaking, but the solar princess could barely hear it as she was on the verge of blacking out.

“You are an arrogant, impudent foal. You had the chance to strike me down here and prevent your own downfall, but you chose instead to stand and let me do as I wished with you.”

Each word was a powerful blow to Celestia’s heart. All hope…was lost.

“You will regret this. This storm has risen up out of the depths of Equestria, and with one blow it has struck down its leader, its sun. And…” Night Mare Moon leaned in close and looked her sister in the eye, “I want you to know that everything we do to your kingdom and everypony in it is now wholly, absolutely, and directly your fault.”

The sun goddess closed her eyes and fell to the floor, her strength gone.

With her fell the hope for the dawn.

Spike bolted awake in the freezing grass. Sharp, stinging rain pelted his scales, but he could not feel it—a strange warmth emanated from his neck that kept away the cold and the rain. Opening his eyes, he saw two faces staring down at him. One unfamiliar pony kept his face hidden beneath a shiny silver mask, but the other was quite familiar…

Backpedaling away as quickly as possible, Spike tripped and fell flat on his face—in doing so he found that his appendages were quite a bit longer than he remembered. As he spoke, he nearly choked on his own deep, unfamiliar voice: “Q-Queen Chrysalis? What are you doing here?”

She smiled at him and said in a very familiar, motherlike voice, “Welcome to the family, Spike.” The tone then jumped up an octave in pitch and became a nasally whine, “We’re so glad that you could join us!”

He was almost knocked back again as a flood of recent memories overflowed his mind, memories of curiosity, of anger…and of greed. Spike glared at the Changeling Queen, who was grinning uncontrollably back: “You.”

Chrysalis gave him a devilish smile. “Who else but the powerful Queen of the Changelings could have corrupted the oh-so-innocent little dragon assistant to our most dangerous enemy? The Shadow here certainly couldn’t have done it by only fear,” Chrysalis said, gesturing to the pony on her right.

The colt remained completely silent. Something about his presence was…unsettling. It wasn’t his shiny armor, though, and it wasn’t the sharp metal claws extending out of his left hoof.

It was those eyes. Those bright red glowing eyes.

He spoke directly at Spike in a deep, gravelly voice: “Welcome to the Corrupted.”

Spike then noticed that they were wearing black pendants around their necks, each with a different crystal hanging from its center. He reached a claw to his own neck and found a warm metal necklace curled around his neck, and hanging from its center…

Hanging down from his neck was the hauntingly beautiful green diamond. It was his at last.

As he grasped it awkwardly in his palm, he found its touch soothing and comforting. Suddenly his vision intensified and all of the loose objects around him were made apparent to his narrow dragon eyes; the motionless stones and silent leaves made his claws itch.

Standing up to his full height, Spike was pleased to find that he stood a good head above the other two, who were watching him with an air of mild amusement. He began gathering all of the rocks, leaves, and other random objects around him into a pile.

Chrysalis stifled a giggle. “What?!” Spike asked, curling around his new collection of objects. The Element on his neck glowed warmly as he closed his eyes, feeling all of his precious possessions shift beneath him.

Suddenly, with a flash of lightning and a deafening BOOM of thunder, Nightmare Moon appeared in the clearing. Indigo smoke curled off of her black form in the pale moonlight. Opening her pale blue eyes, she approached the three others waiting in the darkness.

Her cold, calculating gaze scanned the three creatures now staring up at her: “Ah…so we have the Changeling queen, the wielder of fear, and…” her gaze shifted to Spike sitting on his leaf pile and she stifled a laugh. “Is that…Twilight Sparkle’s pet dragon? You're kidding. You’re kidding, right?”

Spike growled at her, extending his claws threateningly and breathing out a wisp of green fire.

Nightmare Moon smacked her face with her hoof. “Will somepony please tell me how this thing could possibly stand up to any of the Elements of Harmony?”

In response, the Shadow shot a dark burst of energy into the pile Spike was sitting on. Leaves and stones flew everywhere, and the half-matured dragon fell flat on his face.

YOU DARE-

A fiery anger consumed Spike’s mind. His feet were already twice their previous size by the time he stood up, and his snout lengthened into a ferocious, toothy muzzle. Glaring down at the Shadow, he opened his wide mouth and shot down a beam of hot emerald fire upon him.

The Shadow, not quite anticipating this part of the plan, dodged to the side. The green grass where he was just standing was vaporized and became a bare, ashy gray.

Nightmare Moon nodded approvingly: “Impressive. But can it be controlled?”

Whirling towards her, Spike stomped his foot on her in a move that would normally crush the black alicorn.

From beneath the giant’s foot whirled a mist of indigo smoke, which floated up and re-formed into the now mildly annoyed goddess of the Night. Her starry mane rose high up into the night and swirled like a hurricane, forming a dark cloud of energy. A single lightning bolt struck down from its center, colliding with the irate dragon.

For the second time that night, an intense fiery pain seized Spike. Roaring, he looked down and saw a black spot on his arm where several of his scales had been seared off by the pure concentrated heat. Spike reached up into the sky and swiped at the mare with his sharp claws. Unprepared for this new assault, Nightmare Moon came crashing to the ground; her dark cloud faded away without its master’s power.

“ENOUGH.”

With a bright flash of light, a new figure entered the clearing. Golden stars shot into the sky, exploding like multicolored fireworks across the cloudy sky. The ground lit up with brilliant yellow flames in a perfect circle around the audacious speaker, and a pale fog cleared to reveal her form to the others.

The one who had dared intrude was an average-sized unicorn mare, who concealed her face and body behind an elaborate black-and-yellow bodysuit. Her mask was pitch black, only broken by two bright white orbs through which she could see. These circles concealed her true eyes. A black cape hung loosely on her black, decorated with golden stars, images of crystals that echoed the one crowning the final Element of Disharmony. An air of superiority followed her as she trotted calmly towards the feuding Element-bearers.

She re-formed Spike’s pile of leaves with her magic, and the dragon shrank back to his normal size. The Shadow, who had been seated next to Chrysalis as she watched the fight with an expression of amusement, cleared his throat and spoke with his deep gravelly voice: “Everypony, I would like you to meet our wielder of the Element of Power. As soon as we free Discord from stone, she will take possession of the Element that will form itself from the spark of our Elements’ dark magic. She will also be taking over as the team’s leader as soon as she has her Element.”

Again with her commanding and slightly nasally tone the costumed mare spoke up: “So, can we now move on to actually freeing Discord? Where is his statue, anyway?”

Nightmare Moon, who had landed beside the others, shifted uncomfortably. “The chaos demon is in on this as well? Shadow, Chrysalis, you did not tell me that he was a part of this plan.”

“You did not need to know.” replied the Changeling queen with a grin.

“Fine. As long as he focuses his destruction upon our enemies. Still, he is not to be trusted.”

“Obviously. Now, let’s go before the Elements of Harmony show up and ruin our entire plan.” spoke up the soon-to-be wielder of Power.

The five most dangerous creatures in Equestria calmly trotted over to the base of the imprisoned spirit of Chaos. As each closed their eyes, a light glowed bright upon their chests, radiating across the dark statue garden. A fifth Element was levitated onto the neck of the stone statue, and it immediately snapped around his neck with a mechanical click.

The penultimate Element shone a harsh red as small pieces of stone began to flake off of the crumbling statue.

Discord had returned.

7: Harmony Within

Levitating the Elements of Harmony ever-so-carefully in a cloud of shimmering violet magic, Twilight Sparkle stepped down the stairs leading out of Canterlot Tower, out into the night and the storm.

Ever since the incident at Princess Cadance and Shining Armor’s wedding, Princess Celestia had removed the protection spell on the Elements’ chamber that could only be broken by her personal magic—it had proved to be more of a hindrance than a safeguard in the end. Even if Twilight and her friends had managed to reach the Elements before the Changelings stopped them, they would not have been able to open the chamber. Also, the system had proven itself completely useless several months earlier when Discord, the exact type of being that the magic was designed to keep out, swiped the Elements from the chamber with no apparent effort.

As she stepped outside of Canterlot Tower, Twilight looked upward, observing the merciless sky as it waged war on the defenseless city below. The bright moon stared her directly in the face, remaining in the center of the cloud-infested sky even though it should be nearly dawn. But how? the lavender mare thought, utterly puzzled.

Gazing up into the night, she suddenly remembered a similar night over a year ago when the moon had overstayed its welcome…then with a cold shiver, the one and only possible conclusion hit her in the face: Nightmare Moon.

A wave of guilt washed over Twilight as she remembered the odd way that Princess Luna had acted when they spoke. The blue alicorn had seemed different when she talked about the self-purification spell, as if some fear plagued her mind, fear of herself. It had all happened when Puzzle Master showed her the Element of Betrayal...

I could have stopped this, Twilight realized with a feeling of shame that festered in her gut. If only I had stayed with her…but I was so intent on this plan, and…Twilight pondered the events of the last few hours. She argued with Puzzle Master, and then after that she decided to take action…exactly when Regal Magus and Spell Scholar left, leaving Luna completely alone with the Element of Betrayal sitting right next to her. I played right into Puzzle Master’s hooves.

Is there anything else I’ve overlooked? Twilight racked her brain, trying to remember everything she had done. She glanced up through the pounding rain as she walked, looking up at the West Canterlot Tower. A window loomed over her from one of the highest levels…the window to her own room. Pitch darkness waited inside, although the candles should have been kept lit by one who should have been inside awaiting her return.

SPIKE! She silently cursed herself. I told him to go to the research room, and then…No. Twilight suddenly realized what she had to do as the metallic noise of the rain splattering against the Elements echoed above her head. My friends are waiting for me at the train station. If we don’t unite with the Elements of Harmony, we will lose everything, including Spike.

Twilight Sparkle forced her eyes away from the silent tower and turned to the skies, noticing a familiar hot-air balloon as it floated down into the courtyard next to the Palace Library. She galloped towards the library, pushing herself faster and faster, feeling a powerful sense of relief fall over her at the thought of having friends to fight by her side once more.

The balloon let out a disgusting squelch as it landed softly atop the mushy front lawn of the Canterlot Library. Raindrops plummeted down to earth from the storm above, drowning the once neat-and-tidy trimmed grass lawn with unending sheets of water.

“How perfectly horrid,” Rarity said. “Aren’t there any pegasi on duty at this hour who could break up this dreadful storm?”

Rainbow Dash turned to face Rarity and a look of annoyance flitted across her face: “We can’t stop everything, you know. Some storms are just too big to handle for even the best weather ponies. Besides, it’s the middle of the night!”

“Um, not to be rude, but technically, it should be almost morning right now, so…sorry!” Fluttershy squeaked as Rainbow turned to her.

Applejack spoke up from behind them, saying “Maybe we all should get a move on. Twilight seemed awful worried in that letter of hers.”

Four of the ponies jumped out of the balloon, and Rainbow immediately shot into the air, her eyes flitting across the dark city-scape. “Twilight is just down the road! Jeez, I didn’t know she could run that fast.”

Rarity carefully stepped down onto the damp grass, wincing as the mud squelched under her hoof. Applejack rolled her eyes. “C’mon Rarity…we don’t have all night.”

She gave a hmph at the impatient farm pony, whose hooves were completely covered in muck. “I do apologize, Applejack…some of us have standards, you know.”

Suddenly a purple blur burst into the clearing, screeching to a stop in the center of the group. Twilight Sparkle collapsed onto the wet ground, panting with exhaustion. The six golden Elements of Harmony fell directly in front of her, each landing in the mud with a dull thump.

Rarity carefully lifted the Element of Generosity out of the mud, preparing to wipe it off, but its surface remained strangely clean.

“Hi Twilight! Long time no see! How was your meeting with the Princess? Did everything go well? Did they give you free meals on the research team? Does the castle staff serve good food? Hey, do you know why it’s so stormy out right now? Ooh, you brought the Elements with you! Are we going to have to stop a big bad guy again? Who-”

A cyan hoof collided with Pinkie Pie's mouth. Slightly put off, Pinkie waited and let an impatient Rainbow Dash speak.

“Twilight, what the hey is going on?! First you left for Canterlot because Princess Celestia needed your help with a research team, and now you send us a letter in the middle of the night because there are 'Elements of Disharmony'?!”

“Easy, sugarcube. Twi will explain everythin’, just give her a moment to collect herself.”

The lavender mare wheezed and held up her hoof. “I’m so sorry, everypony, for being so mysterious about this whole thing. I promise I’ll explain everything, just…just give me a moment.” Twilight began. Rainbow nodded and motioned for her to continue. “Princess Celestia called me here so that I could help Princess Luna with a research group studying the recently discovered Elements of Disharmony. It wasn’t going to be a big deal, but then I found out that a traitor in the group, Puzzle Master, was setting up all of those Elements to find new wielders. It was all that I could do to get you all here now, before he and his masters of Disharmony try to overthrow all of Equestria!”

“T-They’re going to take over Equestria?” whispered Fluttershy, her eyes widening in fear. “Who are…they?”

“I don’t know for sure.” Twilight hesitated, but then continued, “I do know, however that they are too powerful for us to handle without even more powerful magic.” She levitated a small dull object into the air for all to see, an ancient, cracked book with an indiscernible title on the cover written in loopy golden writing. “Princess Luna gave me this book of ancient magic, which will allow us to…to go into our own minds and defeat the evil inside. It is the only way for us to unlock the full potential of the Elements of Harmony and defeat those who were corrupted by the Elements of Disharmony.”

Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. “Wait, go inside…our minds?”

Twilight simply nodded. “It’s really complicated, but…just imagine a dream-like place that holds all of your memories, thoughts, and emotions. Somewhere in there will be an evil that we all must defeat…the worst part of ourselves.”

Rarity gulped. What kind of evil could possibly be inside me? I'm not evil…

Then a nasty thought twinged in the back of her mind, a memory of Sweetie Belle’s harsh words as her own little sister disowned her for her ignorance: “Well then…maybe I’ll go to the Sisterhooves Social without a sister. Maybe I’ll spend the rest of my LIFE without a sister!” Rarity shuddered. With a sense of bitterness, she realized that she knew exactly who she must face.

Rarity turned back to the group. Everypony donned their Elements, a look of nervous apprehension on each face as they all lied down on the mucky ground, preparing for the inevitable fall to sleep. “Do we all have to lay down in this…mud?” she asked, repulsed.

“Unless ya want to fall down,” replied Applejack flatly, “Twi’s gonna put us under some kind of sleep spell, and we gotta do it fast before these ‘Elements of Disharmony’ ponies find us all sittin’ here.”

Shuddering, Rarity lowered herself onto the damp ground, wincing as the cold mud seeped up to her sides. She placed the Element of Generosity around her neck, which locked at its base—next to her heart—with a mechanical click.

Opened her eyes one last time, Rarity saw Twilight’s eyes squeezed shut in concentration. Violet fog poured out of her horn, enveloping them all in a cloud of shimmering magical energy. Closing her eyes, the wielder of Generosity inhaled deeply…and then fell into the black pit of sleep.

Fluttershy awoke to a feeling of pure and absolute…comfort. An incomprehensible melody whispered sweet nothings within the warm breeze that flowed past. The very same breeze carried a sweet aroma to her; she sniffed at it but could not identify the smell. It felt reminiscent of…a flower, one that she had never even seen before.

She inhaled again, then blanched, as the aroma now smelled as if the flower had caught fire

Snapping her eyes open and jumping up to her hooves, Fluttershy's eyes widened as she took in one of the most surreal sights imaginable. A never-ending meadow surrounded her, with long, pure-white blades of grass that had tickled her while she lay in their sweet embrace. Hundreds of emerald-green flowers sprouted up all across the landscape.

Stretching out her legs, she walked over to one of the green flowers. As Fluttershy trotted towards it the flower opened up, revealing a lighter green bulb beneath its emerald petals. She leaned her face down, her mane brushing lightly against the flower, and let its smell waft up to her face. Strangely, as the scent reached her…she sensed not a scent, but a memory.

Fluttershy and all of her animal friends sat together on another sunny day, on a lovely picnic. The soft summer breeze whistled through the trees, filling her with a feeling of timeless content. High up in the sky the sun watched over the earth, warm and smiling on this most joyous of days…

Curiosity drove her towards another of the strange flowers, and her wing tips skimmed the surface of the tall white grass as she flew above the meadow. The next flower opened its petals to reveal…a flaming red bulb, casting a sickly orange glow on the surrounding area. All of the white grass around her turned shades of burnt crimson and ashy gray. She tried to jerk her head back, but the burnt stench overtook her senses before she could pull away.

Another memory overtook her, wherein she sat next to a damp puddle in the middle of the road leading out of her cottage…

The harsh, flaming sun shone bright in the sky, amplifying Fluttershy's boiling anger. The ringing of a bell from a nearby tower filled her ears, vibrating her skull. She whirled around to see two ponies approaching her, trotting down the road with bright smiles on their faces…Pinkie Pie and Rarity. Fluttershy shot them a glare imbued with pure fury as Rarity spoke: “Fluttershy, what are you doing? That’s no way to behave...!”

Fluttershy yanked her head out of the painful memory, and a sickening feeling of shame washed over her at the memory of that day…when Iron Will had taken her, transformed her, and released something deep within her that had been nearly impossible to force back inside.

Something deep within her…

Suddenly she closed her eyes and turned around, letting her senses guide her. Slowly opening her eyes, Fluttershy found herself staring at the one and only anomaly within the pure white meadow.

A fortress of blazing red hedges stood in the center of the meadow, every surface covered in bright flames which licked up the dark walls. The hedges glowed red with fiery heat despite their burnt-black color. On every side of the bush walls, countless thorns jutted out, guarding everything within from the oppressive bliss of the pure meadow.

The walls began to shift upon bearing Fluttershy's gaze, twisting dozens of thorny vines aside to form an opening within the hedge.

Slowly Fluttershy trotted towards the hedge stronghold, feeling a twinge of fear about facing the irrepressible emotion within herself that had so many times overtaken and controlled her.

Anger.

A soft breeze whistled through the trees and woke Applejack from the deep black pit of sleep. She immediately jumped up, readying herself for action, her eyes darting around the landscape. And yet as she looked around, it dawned on the orange mare that the task lying before her was anything but straightforward.

Hundreds of apple trees surrounded Applejack, in orderly rows and columns reminiscent of her orchard at Sweet Apple Acres. Yet these trees varied unnervingly from those of her home. Instead of a normal earthy brown, shades of red and orange greeted her eye on the tree-trunks. Every tree all had leaves of different colors of the rainbow, and yet each individual tree only contained leaves of one color. The sole similarity between these trees and the ones Applejack knew so well was the luscious apples hanging low from the branches, which drooped low to the ground.

Confused, Applejack trotted up to one of the trees. Reaching out with her hoof, she knocked an apple out of its tree and it fell to the ground with a dull thunk. As she grabbed the apple in her mouth, she glanced upwards and saw that its tree had sickly bluish-green leaves that appeared almost rotten in the bright sunlight.

The apple’s scent filled her nose as she held it in her mouth, and upon smelling it she immediately recoiled. With a disgusting squelch the apple fell to the ground, bleeding out a sickly turquoise color onto the ground from where Applejack’s teeth had pierced its thick skin. As Applejack’s brain processed the truly unbearable nature of the apple’s scent, a memory forced itself into her vision:

Pinkie Pie’s cold and calculating eyes glared straight through Applejack, reading her like an open book. The orange mare began to sweat nervously, her mouth sore and hurting from her fake smile. Pinkie’s neck elongated as she tried to peer past her lying friend through the barn door, and Applejack was forced to mirror the pink pony, who spoke again. Her normally bright and bubbly voice had changed to a shrewd tone inflected with suspicion: “Okie…dokie…lokie...”

Applejack jerked up her head and shook it twice, clearing the unpleasant images. She shuddered, took a deep breath, and lifted her head. This place is creepy as an ancient castle on Nightmare Night! I need find a way out...She gazed around at her surroundings, looking for something, anything that seemed out of place. And then, not ten feet past the blue tree, she saw it.

Among the orderly rows and columns of dull red and orange apple trees lay a thick, wild section of forest that did not fit in with the rest. The trees stood tightly packed together, each one a different size and shade of blue as they all reached desperately towards the sky. Between every tree dozens of vines curled up from the ground and choked the life out of the sickly tree trunks.

Hardening her face with determination, Applejack walked down to the garden of evil. Within lived one that she knew she would have to face, an instinctual part of her Self that she must overcome…

Deceit.

The sickly sweet smell of sugar awoke Pinkie Pie, who opened her eyes to view a very familiar sight.

“Ponyville? How’d I get here? I thought Twilight was putting us all in a weird dream spell…OH WELL! I guess I’ll just see if there’s anypony around who could explain this.” Jumping up to her hooves, Pinkie turned around and trotted towards Sugarcube Corner, knowing the route by heart.

Craning up her head as she walked, Pinkie Pie nearly jumped out of her hooves in shock. Thousands of balloons flew across the sky, flitting from place to place with no rational pattern. A huge grin stretched across the pink mare’s face: “Hee hee! I knew there would be balloons here, I just knew it!” She fell over on the ground laughing, starting to float towards the sky to join the random parade of happy, carefree balloons.

And then she opened her eyes. She immediately fell like a stone, hitting the ground with a painful CRUNCH. The sight in front of her wiped the once-joyous expression from her face.

Hundreds of razor-sharp pitch black spikes jutted from every wall of Sugarcube Corner. The walls themselves had faded to the color of ash, sending off pale steam in wisps of gray. Black smoke poured out of the once-clear broken windows…and yet no flickering light of a fire glowed inside the building. All of the candy ornaments which used to decorate the cheerful building had withered, fallen off and shattered on the ground.

Burnt-black planks of wood stretched across the front door. Hesitant yet morbidly curious, Pinkie Pie trotted up to it and knocked three times with the tip of her hoof.

A soft voice, disturbingly reminiscent of Pinkie’s own, called back,

Upon hearing the voice, a memory emerged in the back of Pinkie’s mind. A memory of suspicion towards all of her friends. A memory of abandonment, despair, and of…

Paranoia.

The soft feeling of a cloud tickled Rainbow Dash’s underbelly. She snorted once and flipped over, and the slow thrum of her heartbeat echoed in her ears. A swift breeze sped past her and she clutched the fluffy material beneath her.

With a painful rush Rainbow’s memories returned and she snapped open her eyes, shooting up into the air, slapping herself with her hoof to try and wake up. Yet somehow, the lulling atmosphere around her kept her from fully jolting to her senses.

An endless sea of clouds greeted her vision, floating forward in a never-ending journey towards the sunset. Bold brushstrokes of painted sky soared above her, crimson and orange, pink and gray. Eternal dusk had consumed this surreal ocean of clouds.

Rainbow Dash looked around, her eyes widening more and more with each passing moment. Each cloud strayed from the anticipated spectrum of gray to black, glowing red and yellow and all colors of the rainbow. The cloud beneath her was a bright cherry red, filling her with an inexplicable sense of confidence and determination.

One anomaly broke the endless uniformity of this city in the sky. A group of monochrome thunderclouds floated far above the silent plain, swirling and speeding in circles around one central pitch-black cloud that sat above the rest, king of the sky. Bolts of cyan-blue lighting shot out of this cloud, into the storm walls—which amplified their power—and cast them into the tranquil sea below.

Rainbow Dash hovered above the crimson cloud beneath her as it began to glow, and then flinched when it fired a thick, solid bolt of pure red lightning at the storm above. In a flash of light, one of the many dark clouds vanished. A deafening rumble of thunder exploded out of the crimson cloud and filled the cyan mare with confidence. This cloud fought the storm as always had to, locked in an eternal conflict with the darkness.

Rainbow Dash must finish its job.

Soaring above the sea of clouds, Rainbow called upon her speed and shot towards the storm, which retreated upon her approach. As she glanced back over her shoulder, a shiver ran down her spine. Instead of rainbow mist trailing behind her tail, a beam of shining, solid red flowed backwards into the dusk.

The thunderclouds in the center of this realm parted, revealing a familiar-looking gray mare asleep on the black cloud which floated above the rest at the peak of the sky. In every way the mare matched Rainbow perfectly...but she had no colors in her mane or her coat, and wore a bright blue crown of thorns atop her head.

Suddenly a narrow bolt of lightning shot out of the black cloud, hitting Rainbow full-on in the face. As it hit, a painful memory jolted through her, causing her to stumble mid-flight. Reminiscent images flooded her vision, images causing something within Rainbow to twinge with painful uneasiness:

All of Rainbow’s friends sat happily in their seats, sipping at various sugary drinks. They laughed, they smiled as they discussed how impressed they were by the mediocre antics of the unholy usurper, the cruel “Mysterious Mare Do Well” who had stolen Rainbow’s rightful fame. Applejack looked over at her cyan friend, whose moody demeanor betrayed her…

Rainbow forced her eyes open once again, startled to find herself on top of the poisonous cloud which filled her with the same sense of bitter jealousy and anger that the memory had. She trotted over to the sleeping gray pony, her darkest and most evil reflection.

With a firm, commanding voice, Rainbow Dash shouted, “WAKE UP!…”

“…Pride.”

As she gradually opened her eyes, Rarity noticed first about the strange building that silk tapestries hung from the wall directly in front ofher.

Beautiful yet surreal patterns covered every face of the tapestries, the most delicate, intricately woven pieces of art she had ever seen. Each pattern seemed to expand upon one central concept: diamonds. On one tapestry thousands of the things formed a never-ending wave of interconnected diamonds, each a different shade of blue. Another tapestry showed one external with endless others inside of it in different, twisting layers, each one smaller than the last, until the final layer disappeared into invisibility. Somehow, Rarity doubted that a final layer existed.

The white mare sat up, looking down from the high walls towards the pure marble floor. Every panel on the floor was a different color, and upon extending her hoof from the colorless tile she had slept on, she felt a peculiar mix of emotions overtake her. She planted her hoof firmly on an orange tile a few feet away.

Immediately it shattered beneath her, sucking her towards a dark void below the colorful ground. Rarity shrieked, letting out a mute scream which was silenced by the empty air. Flailing her hooves desperately, she fell out of the surreal, colorful hall, air rushing past her.

Strangely, as she landed on the damp ground below the building, Rarity felt nothing at all, no pain or even a fleeting sense of surprise. She had arrived exactly where she should have.

Near-total darkness hung over this cavern. It carried a humid, musky smell that reminded her of the cave that the Diamond Dogs called home. Rarity felt the grinding of sharp rocks beneath her hooves as she began to walk, and yet still she felt no pain. From somewhere to her left she heard a distinct dripping sound, but as she turned her head something else caught her eye.

High above her, a bright blue diamond shone across the oppressive gloom of the cavern, driving back the darkness. With her magic she cautiously levitated the gem closer, and then brought it down to her hoof. It felt warm to the touch, and upon holding it an old memory played in front of Rarity’s vision:

“…you need a glamorous NEW outfit for the Gala. And I’ll make it for you; no problem at all. It will be my pleasure.” The purple mare hesitated, taken aback at the unexpected offer: “That’s really sweet of you to offer, Rarity, but…I can’t let you do that. It would be so much work! This dress is fine.” Rarity took another look at the repulsive red-and-yellow dress sitting on her table: “Twilight Sparkle, I insist on making you a new dress…”

Rarity smiled fondly at the old memory as it gradually faded away, letting her vision readjust to the dim light of the cave. She looked up to where the shining diamond had been, a shiver ran down her spine as she saw thousands more attached to the ceiling high above her, glowing faintly in the dark. By the light of the sparkling gems, she could see the outline of the cave roof curving in on one point directly ahead of her. A spot right in front of her carried the pressure of the entire cave ceiling, as everything above tried its best to crush it and collapse this disgusting empty cavern.

Snapping her head back down, the white mare noticed a door that she had not noticed before, painted a sickly mix of green and orange and covered with diamonds that had lost their sheen, burnt black or completely clear.

Inscribed upon the door’s surface, in writing so fancy and old that it was hard to make out, was a single word…a word she herself had thought before falling to sleep so long ago in the stormy night, in a different world entirely:

Vanity.

Twilight Sparkle awoke inside the strangest place she had ever seen.

She stood inside a pure white marble hall, larger and grander than all of the buildings in Canterlot. A continuous, never-ending bookshelf was imbued within every wall, holding the knowledge of her subconscious mind. Below these dizzyingly tall stacks of information stood hundreds of wooden doorways, each leading to a different part of her Self. Deep purple writing snaked along each door, spelling out the names of every memory, emotion, or idea within her brain.

Somehow Twilight knew that everything in here had manifested as an illusion, a way for her conscious mind to make sense of everything stored within the furthest reaches of her brain. She confirmed that idea as she saw that each door had a numeral marking inscribed above its frame; truly only an organizational mind such as hers would categorize every idea in such a consistent pattern.

Trotting down the white hallway, she attempted to take in all that was around her. Focusing and pulling her gaze upward, she saw no ceiling to the imposing building, only an impossible yet beautiful twilight sky. The sun and the moon were together and yet separate, on opposite horizons, lighting up the sky with a surreal blend of white moonlight, black dusk, red twilight and the yellow golden glow of the sun. The stars shone through this plethora of colors, shining even brighter than the sun and moon, thousands of white pinpricks upon a distant sunset painted on her vision.

Hardly noticing anything in front of her face, Twilight barely saw the end of the hall approach. Up on the wall, one gigantic stained-glass window loomed over her ominously, glaring down in defiance. A familiar six-pointed star design consumed the face of the window, with five smaller stars of gray surrounding it. Her cutie mark, normally maroon-violet in color, had been bleached yellow by whatever corruptive force lay within this last room in the center of her mind.

One final door stood in her path, born not of wood but of a pure black substance. Its intricate frame shone with polished gold, curling and twisting in complex patterns across the door’s face. It had no label. With a nervous twinge, Twilight pushed open the door.

Her hoof fell right through. The door had never existed.

8: Eye of the Storm

A pungent odor stung Fluttershy's nose as she tentatively walked through the archway of twisted vines, into the fiery stronghold. This place smelled of burnt plants, noxious smoke…it reeked of death. Still she pressed on, her hooves kicking up dust from the lifeless ground beneath her.

All of the hedges surrounding the clearing, which had looked almost alive from the outside, now revealed their true form as large piles of ash. The soft breeze which had awakened Fluttershy had also stirred up the ash; the resulting gray cloud blocked out the beautiful sunlight which lit up the rest of the meadow. Yet none of these things caught Fluttershy's attention, not compared to the pony who sat alone in the center of the dead clearing, whose coat matched the smoky haze and long mane seemed all too familiar.

Her mane and tail protruded further than most ponies’, the same style as Fluttershy's own, yet instead of flowing down with a natural smoothness they lashed out in every direction. Random hairs poked out all over them, charred black.

Fluttershy's eyes widened as she looked into her mirror image. She approached it cautiously, her timid voice breaking the deafening silence: “Hello?”

Suddenly the pony’s tail extended with a life of its own and sailed towards Fluttershy, smacking her across the face. Flaming bits of hair sparked off of the tail, scratching her face, only worsening the stinging pain.

Anger whirled around to face Fluttershy, blazing spheres of fire the only light within her empty eye sockets. “YOU WEAKLING!!! What are you doing here?! What could you possibly want from me?!”

Fluttershy swallowed the desire to turn tail and run, and took a deep breath. She then stared Anger right in its glowing eyes and said: “I came here to beat you.”

Anger reared up, punching her hooves in the air with such malice that Fluttershy winced in spite of herself. “BEAT ME?! You could never even CONTROL me! Don’t think that just because you don’t get angry often means that I’m not still powerful, Miss Stare Master.”

Her furious voice died down to a venomous whisper: “So, you’re not going to defeat me.” It rose again to a deafening shout: “YOU’RE GOING TO LOVE ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Within the unfamiliar clearing inside the core of her mind, Applejack found herself staring at one…unusual tree.

It stood in the direct center of the open clearing, king of its domain. No other plants dared grow anywhere near it; not even the deathly vines, which spread like a pestilence on all of the other trees, could choke out this beast. The branches reaching out of its massive trunk waved in a nonexistent breeze, constantly shimmering in the stale, humid air.

Applejack nearly jumped out of her skin as she suddenly realized that teal-blue color in its branches did not come from leaves. Where leaves would be on any normal tree…this one had something else: snakes. Thousands of the reptiles crawled in and out, through and around each other in a mesmerizing pattern within the long-dead limbs at the top of this tree.

Yanking her gaze away from the horrific sight, Applejack looked down underneath the tree and a shiver ran down her spine. Another pony leaned against the trunk, crunching on a rotten apple that had fallen down out of the snake-infested tree's upper limbs. A snake slithered under this grey pony’s equally gray Stetson hat, but it did not even notice.

Applejack walked up to the mare, curious in spite of herself. “Are you…me?”

Deceit opened one eye and looked Applejack over, recoiling as she saw who had awoken her. “Oh, uh…howdy, partner. ‘Course I’m not you.”

“Really.” replied Applejack. Sweat trickled down the other mare's face, past a very familiar smile...the very same one that Pinkie Pie had stared down on her birthday many months ago.

Suddenly Deceit leapt out of her resting position and flew directly at Applejack, sending the orange farmpony flying until she slammed against the side of a sickly, vine-infested apple tree. A cascade of rotten apples fell to the ground dangerously close to her head.

Deceit gave Applejack a smile. “See how easy that lie back there was? ‘I’m not you’? Flows right off the tongue. Face it, AJ, you’re no better than any other pony when it comes to lyin’. It’s as natural as breathin’!”

Applejack wheezed twice, steadying her breath. Focus, she told herself, you will not let this pony get the best of you. She took a deep breath, and then continued the useless conversation while subtly scanning for an opening: “What in the hey are you tryin’ to do?”

Deceit grinned. “Who, me? Shucks, I’m just tryin’ to protect you!”

All of a sudden something quietly hissed right behind Applejack. She whirled around to find herself staring into the furious eyes of a very angry teal-blue snake. Suddenly the suspiciously friendly voice of Deceit turned sour as it snapped a command to its turquoise serpent: “KILL.”

Scratchy, disharmonic music played from a broken record player in the corner of the dark room as Pinkie stepped inside, hesitating and cautious as she knew…she thought she knew exactly who she had to face.

The blinding lights flicked on as she placed her hoof inside the door frame. Shielding her eyes, a freakish distorted voice screeched,

Pinkie Pie blinked and looked around the room, and a queasy feeling filled her stomach. A sickening mix of pastel colors covered the floor, as if somepony haphazardly threw buckets of paint all over the ground. In the center of the room sat a table, its normal real white tablecloth turned pitch-black and emanating wisps of smoke. At each stool, again stained black by smoke and heat, sat…

A torn sack of flour, a stack of three rocks, a pile of lint, and a bucket of turnips.

Pinkie immediately froze. Her heart pounding in her chest, she ripped her gaze away from the deathly sight and up to the rest of the table.

Atop its blackened surface sat a cake, the most horrific and terrifying sight that Pinkie had ever seen in her life. The demented dessert was burnt black, with red frosting that dripped and oozed out of the cake’s insides, dark crimson, spilling onto the table like a pool of blood. On top of the cake…laid the motionless body of a young baby alligator.

After a moment of paralyzed silence Pinkie forced her eyes shut, repeating to herself It’s not real, it’s not real, it’s not real, it’s not real-

Swallowing her fear, Pinkie tried to push the image out of her mind. “My friends are not always trying to lie to me. They’re usually really nice…” her voice faltered, “and besides, the only time they tricked me was so they could throw me a party!”

Forcing her eyes open, she stared up at the pony sitting behind the front of the table. Though it appeared nearly her double, its wrinkled gray skin and dead-flat mane proved it to be naught but a twisted reflection.

Pinkie summoned all of the strength within her, then looked Paranoia in the eyes. “I am blind? Can you even hear yourself talking?! You take everything at its worst, and refuse to accept kindness in any form. I can’t believe I let such a freak as you exist within me for so long, one who doesn’t even know the meaning of friendship.”

With that, Pinkie Pie jumped across the black table and punched Paranoia directly in its wide-eyed, smiling face.

Rainbow Dash's enemy lay sleeping at her hooves. Its small chest inflated in and out, in and out, peacefully resting inside of the stormy cage of thunderclouds. Upon its head, the blue crown of thorns lay lopsided but retained its position by planting its sharp thorns directly into the mare's head.

Rainbow could not blame her grey clone for falling to sleep here atop the storm cloud, above all others, sitting on the throne of her mind. Her focus began to drift as she spotted one spot right next to the proud gray mare that looked soft and fluffy, comfortable and warm.

To stay here forever. Was that even an option? It seemed so absurd. And yet, that choice would be so easy. So simple.

Rainbow Dash slapped herself in the face with her hoof. Forcing her front hoof forward, ready to punch the living daylight out of Pride, she thought, I will not stay here forever. My friends need me.

At that thought the grey mare’s eyes finally snapped open. She shot out from beneath Rainbow and did a double flip, floating in midair, staring down at Rainbow. Pride grinned.

“What’s the matter, Rainbow? Too slow to notice me slip out from under your hooves?”

Rainbow took a step forward but immediately jerked back, shocked by a blue field of static electricity in front of her.

“Nice try. Still, it takes a little bit more than that to defeat the incredible awesomeness that is the Pride of Rainbow Dash.”

Struggling forward through the electricity, Rainbow forced back the stinging pain that pushed its way into her mind. It bit at her will, sapping away her energy and strength. Gritting her teeth, she also pushed back the thoughts of giving up that began to wander into her mind. It would be so easy to just lie down on the cloud and take a short nap…so simple…

Rainbow concentrated on an image of her friends and pushed away all other thoughts from her vision. I will NOT let them down

Calling upon her anger, Rainbow opened her eyes and looked up at the lazy mare floating above her, who wore an expression of amusement as it watched her suffer. Rainbow Dash’s glare shot daggers at the grey doppelganger floating up above her head: “YOU are the only reason that I struggle with my friends.”

Pride snorted. “Friends? Who in the hey needs friends? You of all ponies should know we deserve WORSHIPPERS, not friends.”

In one surge of strength, Rainbow broke through the electric barrier. The blue lightning turned bright red, and released all of the power it had sapped away. Rainbow floated in the center of the crimson cloud, absorbing its strength into her soul.

Saying no more, she flew directly at Pride, her hooves outstretched—ready to beat the living hey out of the mare who had so many times nearly ruined her life.

A harsh light spilled out from behind the cold stone door and nearly blinded Rarity. She clutched the blue diamond close to her chest, shielding it from the light that exploded outward like fire, enveloping her in an inferno of orange.

Suddenly a voice as explosive as the light yelled in an all-too-familiar voice, “GIVE ME THAT!”

Rarity felt the diamond, her sole light in the darkness of this forgotten cave, slip out of her grasp as the greedy figure inside the final cavern of her mind yanked it away..

She blinked twice, hard. When the fuzzy blobs began to settle into distinct shapes in her vision, Rarity gasped.

All sorts of dazzling gems covered every surface of the room—emeralds, diamonds, sapphires, amethysts and the like. The only face in this glittering room completely uncovered was the mirror…a looking glass to shame all others.

It covered the entire back wall of the room, so that no square inch of the cavern escaped reflection. The frame surrounding it somehow managed to glisten with even more colorful light than the walls—Rarity guessed that the inhabitant would only allow the best of the jewels to surround her mirror. All and any light in the room reflected flawlessly and crisply off of the chrome.

However, what lay in the room's center easily outdid every other decoration of the room itself. The cave’s inhabitant had crafted a dress…no, a masterpiece, the sheer beauty of which was jaw-dropping. It reminded Rarity slightly of the dress she had created for Sapphire Shores…except with three times as many jewels covering its surface. However, Rarity noticed one problem with the dress. In completely enveloping its surface with beautiful gems, the creator had neglected to show any of the cloth on the inside.

“Hey! What are you doing looking at my dress?!” a nasally voice whined from the corner of her vision. Rarity turned to see a perfect clone of herself, which matched her curious gaze with a look of absolute malice.

“Forgive me, but I do believe that since this is both of our minds, technically this dress belongs equally to the both of us.” Rarity huffed in response.

Vanity simply glowered at her. “I will not be told down by some incompetent mare who ruins all of her creations by throwing them away and giving them to ponies who cannot even comprehend their beauty!”

“Really? Then who do you have to appreciate your work?” countered Rarity.

“The only pony who can. ME.”

Rarity stomped her hoof on the freezing stone floor, ready to beat the smug look off of her doppleganger's face. However, before defeating this embodiment of evil…she wanted to say one last thing: “By the way, Vanity...you’re missing one type of jewel from your collection.”

“Impossible! What is it?!” demanded the greedy mare.

“A fire ruby.”

Absolute darkness greeted Twilight's vision.

The realm beyond the door was completely empty, a void of absolute nothingness. No sound emitted from the emptiness, creating a deafening silence.

She took a tentative step into the darkest part of her mind. No visible ground extended into the void, but her hoof came into contact with a floor of solid nothing that firmly supported her cautious stance. Twilight reached another hoof into the emptiness, and it suddenly sucked her inside. The nonexistent door slammed shut behind her, leaving the abyss devoid of all and any light.

Suddenly, the imaginary floor started to vibrate, pulsing under her hooves in a monotonous heartbeat pattern. She looked down and saw faint gray waves emanating from nowhere, floating across the void and combining in what appeared to be the center of the room. Each wave curled and compacted into one formless chunk of gray matter, which orbited the center aimlessly in circles, forever in circles, looping around an imaginary sphere of pure nothingness.

Morbidly fascinated, Twilight took another step forward. At this, the blobs of matter swerved off of their circular orbit and imploded, morphing into a figure whose form gradually transformed into that of a pony. Upon forming, this pony took up a meditating stance and rose into the air, floating, completely still. This gray pony was Twilight, a monochrome reflection of her Self in a mirror of Nothing. And yet, as she looked closer at this surreal mirror image, she noticed another sinister difference.

The pony had no face.

A voice echoed into the silence, “I calculated that you would come here, Twilight Sparkle, Spirit of our Conscious Mind. For what reason have you traveled here, to the lair of your Embodiment of Knowledge?”

Twilight undeniably recognized the flat voice as her own, and yet its distinct and absolute lack of any feelings sent a cold shiver down her back. She spoke back at the void, “I came to defeat you.”

Black clouds swirled around Twilight, cold and murky, smelling of death.

The voice answered back: “Also a predictable notion, one that perhaps I should easily observed. You seek to steal my power over your soul and mind in order to gain power over your whole Self; a completely rational concept. However, you fail to understand the most basic of ideas that composes the world of the mind…” A pair of bright golden eyes swirled in and out of existence on the mare’s featureless face.

“Knowledge is Power.”

Angry, Twilight responded, “I’m not doing this for power. I’m doing it for my friends!”

“A highly illogical notion. What could possibly twist your mind into belief of such a radical thought?” The gray mare still floated completely motionless in midair as it spoke.

“Something beyond even your comprehension,” the magic of friendship, Twilight added silently.

“Your statement is intrinsically flawed for the following reason: I am the only part of you that can comprehend on any level, even the most basic of facts. I am the sole aspect of your Self that can reason, think logically, or rationalize any situation no matter how ‘morally’ wrong other parts of you may consider it.”

In a flash the lifeless mare descended to the ground, advancing towards Twilight in a series of gradual yet confident steps. Its legs moved in cut-and-dry straight jerks, as a robot's would. “For you see I am the most apparent and most powerful part of your Self, as your obsession with the acquisition of knowledge for the majority of your life has only fed my power. Knowledge is Power. I am your own personal incarnation of Knowledge, of Reason, of Logic, and of Intelligence. Are these such bad things to embody?”

“Without you, I would have had friends my entire life. Because of your control over me, I was almost totally alone until I met my friends in Ponyville.” Twilight glared at the faceless being, her horn glowing bright purple with magical energy, a shining light that drove back the black nothingness.

“And yet you alone chose to pursue your interest in books, and by extension, learning. As I have stated, you alone fed my existence.” Logic rose into the air, its half-existent eyes now glowing a shade of bright gray. “You cannot defeat me. For it is you who has forced me into being…”

Twilight’s Element glowed atop her head. Feeling its magic flow through her very soul, she charged the lifeless beast.

Outside of the surreal realm of the minds of the Masters of Harmony, a thin blanket of tranquility had fallen over Canterlot, for a brief moment that would not last.

The brutal storm had relented, its rain slowing down to a gentle pitter-patter on the silent rooftops of the city. All of the wielders of the Elements of Harmony lay completely still, seemingly vulnerable as their focus was not on this world, but of another, one that did not exist…and yet one that was of vital importance to the fate of the nation of Equestria, and all of the world.

These six simple ponies controlled the destiny of their home and their world. If any one amongst them should fail to defeat that which hid in the darkest corner of her mind, the united power of harmony would be broken, and the storm could charge forward unopposed. Tyrants of the past and future would overshadow the peaceful land of Equestria with a shroud of darkness. Dawn would never again grace their horizon.

A fight would break out, a war would start, a fire would rise between the forces of Harmony and Disharmony…one that might consume all of Canterlot in its fury. These beings bestowed with power beyond any mere mortal would be pitted against each other in the most deadly, most taxing fight that their nation had ever seen.

And yet now, the night lay silent as the forces readied for battle. The Disharmonic Six waited in the garden of statues, readying their newfound power and finding strength through disunity. Several among them longed to seek out the wielders of Harmony, and strike at them while their backs were turned.

But they could not. The Elements of Harmony lay safe asleep under the eye of the storm.

9: The Masters of Harmony

Enveloped by an aura of pure heat that singed the very ground beneath its hooves, Anger pounced toward Fluttershy, fire in its eyes.

Twin tendrils of flame coiled like deadly serpents around the ashen Nightmare, lashing out at Fluttershy as she attempted to escape the rising heat. With one whip after another, Anger advanced toward the helpless yellow mare.

Desperate, Fluttershy called upon something, anything she could think of to defend herself from the monstrous beast. And then, as she began to accept the possibility of death…she remembered the emerald flower.

That soft, sweet flower…such pure natural beauty, with its gentle and soothing scent of memories. For a fleeting instant, a soft warmth around the base of her neck filled Fluttershy to the brim, driving out all of her doubts and fears. Holding onto its image and aroma in her mind, Fluttershy snapped open her eyes and immediately jolted in shock.

She now had an aura to match Anger’s own, a sphere of green energy that repelled the crimson flames licking up out of the cracked ground. Every bolt of fire Anger let loose upon her was repelled, extinguished, and sent crashing to the ground. Striking with its ropes of fire, Anger tried to break through the sphere of magic…but upon entering the field of green energy, the twin infernos vanished into mist. A pulse of emerald light flowed out of Fluttershy, extinguishing the fiery aura of power that surrounded her furious opponent.

With a sudden surge of confidence, Fluttershy trotted toward Anger, the magic within her sprouting up new life from the dead ground. Pure white grass began to rise, healing the scars of the barren earth beneath her hooves.

Anger gnashed her teeth together, sending sparks flying, but would not retreat. Soon Fluttershy and her twisted reflection were face-to-face, the tense air between them an inverted mirror.

The blazing fire around Anger faded nearly to nothingness, extinguished by the pure green light emanating from within Fluttershy.

“What are you going to do, kill me?” snipped the lifeless inferno of gray, its voice weak and hollow in defeat…yet still carryied all of the rage of a roaring fire.

Kill her. She deserves it after everything she’s done to you, whispered a voice to Fluttershy’s mind. Taken aback, Fluttershy lifted her hoof above her head, poised to strike…but one thing stopped her.

When the whispering temptation had entered her thoughts, Anger’s mouth had moved.

Fluttershy pulled back, hesitating. She knew what she had to do, she knew that this pony didn’t actually exist and was only the embodiment of all evil within her…yet she couldn’t do it. Something within her could not allow any being to die at her hooves.

Closing her eyes, she let this feeling of unconscious sympathy overtake her, flowing from her heart out to the end of her hooves. The magical aura surrounding her rushed forward in a flurry of wind, wrapping around the dying embers of fire surrounding Anger and enveloping them in a sweet embrace.

Fluttershy opened her eyes and immediately looked down at the pony in front of her, concerned in spite of herself for its safety.

Anger…had fallen asleep.

Its body burned away, revealing a crimson weed which fluttered down and rested on the barren ground as white grass grew up around it in a shimmering circle of light…a protective aura that would guard this part of her Self until it must once again be released.

Fluttershy sat for an eternity in the garden of ash, watching over her Nightmare as it rested peacefully beneath her. She should feel guilty. She should consider herself completely in the wrong for allowing this part of her Self to survive.

Yet the satisfaction that overtook her, a sensation of contentment that she had saved this pony's life, told her otherwise.

Suddenly the wind picked up, shifting from a light breeze to a whirling gale. Confused and scared, Fluttershy gazed up to see the pure white sunlight breaking through the ashy cloud which surrounded her. The pure rays encircled her, a beautiful shield of light that descended over her body. She felt them literally pour magic into her very soul, sending shivers of magical energy down her spine.

All of a sudden she snapped her eyes open. Radiating pure white they saw all, in one instance and forever.

Every blade of grass that grew out of the storm-ridden earth outside of the realm of the mind shimmered and waved in unison, strong against the storm. Each tree which had grown up beside the cobbled streets of Canterlot stood at attention. All things became one with the Master of the Element of Kindness, as she took into her Self its magical energy.

And yet she was not consumed by it. If not for the dormant weed guarded against her heart, if not for the survival of Anger as a result of her kindness…she could not have survived the transformation. Her mortal body would have been destroyed by the sheer power of her Element.

Her innate sympathy, the kindness she could not help but act upon, had saved her from a fate beyond the strength of mortals.

Snakes fell to the ground like hissing droplets of rain from the deathly tree within the core of Applejack’s mind. Thunder boomed overhead as Deceit, grinning wolfishly, picked up one snake in her mouth and twirled it over her head like a whip.

Applejack began to panic as the unending horde of snakes fell upon her, writhing under her hooves. Every time she would smack one away with a powerful kick, two more would immediately take its place.

SHK

An inferno of pain erupted in Applejack’s hind leg, throbbing and aching and overloading her senses. One of the snakes had finally bitten her, and by the look of it, the rest were soon to join in.

Her strength spilling out onto the ground, Applejack desperately hauled herself up to one of the trees bordering the deadly garden. She hardly even noticed as she bumped her head into an upper limb of the tree, knocking loose one of its many rotten apples which fell past her face towards the ground.

Instinctively she caught the apple in her mouth.

The taste stained and burned her tongue, a foul tang that she would never forget. Jerking up her hooves to wipe it off of her tongue, she lost her grip and fell down towards the writhing mass of snakes beneath her.

Deceit smiled again and approached the falling mare, baring the concealed fangs that had been stowed away beneath her false teeth, ready for the killing bite.

Time slowed down as Applejack flailed in the air, staring into the eyes of a thousand waiting predators and their master, eager to feed upon her soul. She grabbed on to the lowest branch of the tree and hung desperately, squeezing her eyes shut, unable to escape the demonic chorus of hissing snakes below.

But even in this final refuge she was not safe. The sweat on her hooves, an uncontrollable consequence of pure fear, betrayed her as inch by inch she slid toward the mass of serpents, all of them staring up at her with watchful glowing eyes.

One image would not leave her vision as she fell ever slower towards her imminent death. Another pair of eyes, lavender in color…so wide. So afraid, so suspicious.

“Applejack, what do I do?!” Helpless hung the young mare, desperately flailing her hind hooves in an attempt to escape the crumbling precipice. Applejack slid down the face of the cliff and glanced up above her new friend, where Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were ready and waiting to catch her should she choose to fall, a leap of faith.

“Let go.”

Applejack let go of the dead branch.

As she slammed into the ground…she felt no squirming bodies beneath her, no sharp stinging pain of venom coursing into her veins; she heard not even a single hiss.

She opened her eyes.

Her body was glowing bright orange, brighter than any fire she had ever seen. Pure energy coursed where the fiery poison had before, restoring her lost strength. The brilliant glow surrounding her had repelled all of the deadly snakes, creating a five-foot radius of clear ground.

The snakes, now having experienced the pain of her unleashed potential firsthand, scattered and disappeared into their trees and holes in the ground. Those who did not were vaporized as Applejack called upon her inner strength, intensifying the fiery aura around her.

Deceit, the only snake left in this garden of shadows, gulped as Applejack approached, the thundering of the orange mare's hooves spelling her immediate demise. Deceit swung the snake that she had been twirling just moments ago, sending it spinning towards Applejack.

It burst into flame before it even reached her, vanishing in a cloud of ash.

Applejack jumped towards Deceit and slammed the gray mare’s body against the center tree, intending only to intimidate her. However, Applejack had underestimated her own strength.

The shove was enough to completely shatter the thick tree in the center of Applejack’s mind; limbs and branches came crashing down as the once-powerful trunk was demolished in a single blow. Deceit, the projectile which had carried out the strike, blacked out immediately upon hitting the tree. Her body crumpled to the ground like a sack of flour.

Applejack looked down at the barely breathing body of Deceit. As bits and pieces of its body began to fall away, she realized that Deceit's body had been a deception all along.

In the space Deceit used to occupy, all that was left was a single rotten apple core.

All of a sudden Applejack was lifted into the air by an unexplainable force; she struggled and squirmed as a heavenly light enveloped her body. And then...she felt it.

From the base of her neck to the end of her tail, a curious tingling sensation overtook her senses. Magical energy flowed into her body and soul, filling her to the brim. She looked down at her hoof. It had expanded ever so slightly from its normal size, inflated and strengthened by raw energy. Swinging it experimentally, she found that her strength had grown tenfold.

Yet somewhere deep inside her Applejack knew she needed a way back, a way to return to her previous, earthly weakness, lest her power consume her.

Leaning down her neck, she picked up the rotten apple core off of the ground with her mouth….and planted it right where the Tree of Deceit had once sprung up, in the center of the garden.

As soon as Applejack stood back up, her vision was consumed by the white light and she awoke beside her friends, ready to face the deceptions of others now that she had conquered her own.

Pinkie Pie’s hoof immediately rebounded off of Paranoia’s face, bouncing back as if it had connected with solid rubber.

With a furious look on her face Paranoia rose, standing up on her hind legs and slamming her front hooves on the table with a deafening BANG. Pinkie backed away from the straight-haired beast, never breaking eye contact.

Glancing shrewdly at her twisted reflection, Pinkie suddenly realized that it was being completely serious. It legitimately believed what it was saying.

Pinkie Pie fell over on the table and burst out laughing. Immediately, the blackness that had corrupted the white tablecloth retreated from her, fleeing from her presence like blood on a battlefield washed away by a cleansing rain.

“Waitwaitwait, you think that I always run away from my problems?” Pinkie had never heard anything more hilarious in her life. “Paranoia, do you even know me? When everypony else was scared stiff by Nightmare Moon’s silly tree-monsters, I was still partying it up, just happy to be with all of my friends on a totally awesome adventure. When the Parasprites attacked Ponyville, guess who was the one to not run around in circles like a somepony who’s totally loco in the cocoa? That’d be yours truly.”

“Yeah, how could I forget them? They’re some of my best friends!”

Furious, Paranoia jumped up and shoved Pinkie Pie off of the table, holding her down against the ground by the throat. Madness glinted in its eyes as it pressed forward, fully intending to choke the life out of its master.

Pinkie smiled and spoke in a completely normal voice despite the pressure on her neck: “You do realize we’re in a dream, don’t you, ya silly filly? You can’t exactly hurt me here.”

Her words echoed through the empty room: You can’t hurt me here.

Paranoia pushed down on the pink mare’s throat one last time, trying desperately to gain any kind of hold over Pinkie. However she failed miserable and collapsed onto the floor from exhaustion. Pinkie giggled; the sight of Fear itself rolling around on the ground was more than a little bit comical.

At the sound of her laughter the entire room shuddered. Pinkie laughed again, watching all of the dark and creepy scenery jiggling and wobbling while Paranoia frantically tried to regain her balance, slipping and sliding on the shaky wooden floor.

Pinkie trotted over to the embodiment of Paranoia within her, walking in a straight balanced line despite the room tossing like a ship at sea. Paranoia glanced up at Pinkie, holding her hoof against her face to keep from puking out of seasickness.

“Here, let me help you up,” offered Pinkie.

Glancing suspiciously at the hoof being offered of her, the gray-coated beast placed her hoof in its master’s.

Pinkie Pie blinked. The dark shaky room was gone, replaced by the comforting, cheerful inside of Sugarcube Corner that she knew and loved. She looked down at her hoof, finding that she now held a tiny object where Paranoia had placed her hoof in the smallest extension of trust.

The object was a small burnt cupcake, charred by smoke, with one bite taken out of its surface. She gazed into its core, finding a tiny piece of coal in the center of the treat. An ember that still glowed with the dim light of a once-bright fire which had faded away. She placed the cupcake carefully back onto the tablecloth, spilling particles of ash onto the pure white.

Glancing around…she noticed a familiar baby alligator waddling towards her from under the shelf on the side of the room.

Pinkie pounced on him and hugged him tightly, laughing and giggling with glee. One tear spilled out of her right eye before she could stop it.

Suddenly a ray of brilliant white descended from beyond the roof of the purified Sugarcube Corner, swathing Pinkie in sunlight. She glanced up and gazed into the light as it filled her and consumed her, coaxing her back into the real world.

Yet it was not the same; everything was just as before, but Pinkie could see so much more of it. She saw the space between spaces which she could now control and manipulate; she saw the holes in the fabric of the universe which she could now finally fit through. Everything beyond the realm of known possibilities was revealed before her vision, dimensions and alternate multiverses linking the world of reality with that of the mind, realms which she had been blinded to for all of her life.

Stepping forward into the light, Pinkie entered back into the universe, now wielding all of its deepest secrets and abilities within her mind and soul.

A crash of thunder resounded through the sky, rippling the tranquil sea of clouds like a reflection in a pond as Rainbow Dash slammed full force into the Nightmare within her mind.

Vibrations shuddered through Rainbow’s skull as it met Pride’s, who immediately was sent flying into one of the storm clouds that encircled the pair and formed an arena of shadows. The arena was penetrated only by brief flashes of blue light as the clouds fizzled with energy.

Pride shook herself off and flew back to Rainbow’s height, slightly annoyed by the blow. It yelled, “Just who do you think you are, anyway?!” Closing its eyes and staying still for a moment, the swirling clouds that surrounded the pair began to spin faster and faster, making Rainbow dizzy. Pride took a deep breath and then its eyes snapped open…glowing black.

Without warning all of the clouds converged towards Rainbow at once, pulsing with cyan light. She took off into the sky, calling upon her speed and her Element as the thunderclouds condensed into narrow projectiles, radiating heat as their blue lightning became superheated coronas of fire.

Rainbow focused, pushing her wings to their limits as she flew faster and faster, feeling the resistance of the nonexistent air within her mind slip past her. Each particle was an obstacle to be avoided, each molecule was a barrier. Squeezing her eyes shut, she felt the warmth beginning to flow from around her neck as her Element wavered in and out of existence beside her heart. Its power filled her, consumed her; she allowed it to enter into her mind and take over her vision. As she felt the magic of the Element of Loyalty become one with her thoughts…a single memory entered her mind.

“Gaze upon me, Equestria…for I! Am! RARITY!” screamed an arrogant yet familiar voice from one hundred feet above her. Rainbow shut it out, trying to force her mind into the state of pure focus necessary to pull of her special talent, a feat only accomplished once in the history of Equestria: the Sonic Rainboom, her most powerful ability, a trick that was sure to impress the Wonderbolts. If she could pull it off, that is…

Just as Rainbow was about to achieve absolute concentration, just as she shut out the voices of the crowd, the cheering of her friends, the jeering of her foes, another sound entered her ears: the cacophonous wail of her best friend falling to her death.

Not a moment’s hesitation was spared in Rainbow’s mind to weigh the choices—saving her friend, who had acted only cruel to her over the past few hours, or impress her lifelong idols and finally have a chance to join them—before she immediately turned around and shot towards the ground, determined that her friend would not die. Rainbow did not even notice the Wonderbolts also take off to save Rarity, beating her to the punch…until they too became victims as Rarity’s uncontrollable panic betrayed her and her flailing limbs knocked out each member of the Wonderbolts, one by one causing them to fall towards their death below.

Rainbow’s mind calculated the distance between herself and Rarity, between Rarity and the ground. She had been in enough crashes and accidents before to know exactly what would happen if she did not pull up immediately and save herself: if she reached the falling ponies in time at this speed, she would crash straight into the ground. However, she kept going, faster than she had flown in all of her life. Her wings ached, her muscles strained, but no pain could stand between her and the life of her best friend.

She did not notice the mach cone that formed around her, narrowing and lengthening, becoming a pointed dart of thickened cloud that pushed aside all of the air between Rainbow and Rarity. She did not notice as Rarity’s eyes widened and her mouth opened in pure shock and amazement. She did not even notice as her speed began to exponentially increase, beyond any limits set by pegasi in the history of Equestria. However, she did notice as she shot forward and caught all of the falling ponies in a powerful embrace, leaving a con trail of pure, beautiful rainbow light behind her, and as a deafening BOOM exploded behind her, shattering the very spectrum of light…yet for an instant, for less than a millisecond, she did not care.

None of that mattered. Her friend was safe.

Rainbow awoke from the memory, her vision now stained crimson red by magical energy. She glanced over her shoulder and nearly jolted in shock at the trail behind her, a trail of rainbow light tightly entwined around a beam of pure crimson left in her wake. Determination in her eyes, she turned around and faced the clouds that had chased her here, had chased her all of her life.

Without a thought she blasted through them, vaporizing them into a fine mist of gray that disappeared like the morning dew in the light of the sun. All of Rainbow’s focus was on one figure, floating above the core of her mind, grinning like an idiot and congratulating itself on a job well done.

Rainbow Dash, breaking the barrier of the speed of light, slammed into Pride one final time.

Pride’s body was completely obliterated as it absorbed the whole of Rainbow’s force, dissipating in a cloud of blue. Rainbow pulled herself to a stop, dizzy and disoriented. Never in her life had she traveled that fast…not during the Sonic Rainboom, not even in her wildest dreams.

She glanced around, taking in the setting. The sea of clouds had once again returned to its peaceful state, floating in a gradual, never-ending journey into the crimson sunset beyond the horizon. All of the dark thunderclouds which had once swirled like a deadly hurricane above the great sea had vanished, leaving only tiny traces, wisps of dark gray, puffs of dead smoke.

Only one of these wisps was left by the time that the breeze had slowed, a tiny cloud which stood resolute and still despite the winds. Rainbow, curious, flew to it and noticed that there was one thing sitting atop the faded cloud, a shard of the broken body of Pride:

Pride’s bright blue crown of thorns, stained red.

As Rainbow looked on in morbid curiosity, the crimson stains began to fade away from the crown’s surface. Tiny hairs began to poke out from beneath the crown, colored the same gray as Pride’s mane. The crown was rebuilding everything Rainbow had worked to defeat.

For a brief moment the cyan mare considered destroying the crown. It would be so simple, to just use the power of her Element to obliterate her last shred of impurity. That crown was the one thing holding her back from perfection…

And yet, that choice would be so easy. So simple.

Rainbow turned away from the crown in disgust and instead glanced up to the sky. A beautiful white light descended from its peak, beyond the clouds, from somewhere nopony could truly ascend to.

The light filled her and became one with her, injecting pure energy and magic into her mind and soul…and yet it did not consume her. The crown of thorns protected her from receiving all of its true power, power that could not be contained within any mind or mortal form.

She felt this magic rush down her spine, through her body, eventually reaching her wings, filling them with its energy. Rainbow felt her speed and wingpower increase tenfold, beyond anything that anypony had witnessed before.

Finally ready, Rainbow Dash awoke…ready to bring back the betraying wielders of Disharmony, ready to enforce her Loyalty to her friends, ready to become a Force of Harmony. As she awoke, her eyes radiated pure white, revealing only a fraction of the magic within her Self.

Rarity jumped to the side as her alter-ego charged at her; murder was in its eyes. She had spoken the final insult, the last straw to snap whatever threads of sanity that this beast had left.

Shrieking in pure rage, Vanity glared at her oppressor and began to glow bright orange, her empty eyes pure green. Rarity backed away, bracing herself for whatever attack this twisted freak of imagination had in store.

All of the gems on Vanity’s outfit floated into the air, swirling in a sparkling tornado of color. Each one was blinding, reflecting the light of this closed-off room a thousand fold on every face of every jewel. The tornado spun faster and faster, drew in tighter and tighter until it formed a whirling sphere of sharp projectiles surrounding Vanity. Then without warning the entire form collapsed into a narrow stream and shot towards Rarity, faster and deadlier than any bullet.

Concentrating on her magic harder than she ever had in her life, Rarity yanked the one pure gem left—the blue diamond which had led her into this realm of nightmares—out of the swarm and pulled it in front of her, positioning it directly at the base of her neck, in front of her heart. She felt its essence fuse with her Element, allowing all of the magical energy of the Element of Generosity to enter the realm of her mind. Focusing her magic, it became a tunnel, a vessel through which the Element’s magical energy poured into the diamond, inflating it and causing its form to shoot out blinding rays of blue light in every direction. The diamond shimmered and glowed, expanding into something completely different: a diamond-shaped medieval shield of pure magic.

Its brilliant light faded into a dim glow, radiating from the transparent-yet-solid, beautiful structure that was a shield of pure concentrated energy. Rarity could see all of the individual strands and threads of magic that composed it, interweaving and interlocking in an uncountable number of unbreakable bonds. Each thread was a different color and shade of blue, be it deep indigo or bright cyan, forming a gleaming tapestry of a thousand colors.

Every gem that Vanity possessed crashed into the magic shield and vanished without a sound.

Now confident in her abilities, Rarity pressed her offensive and advanced towards her dark reflection, which backed away in fear. The green fire in its empty eyes died. Its bright orange coat flickered and faded, once again becoming a bland whitish gray.

And yet Rarity knew that she could not truly defeat the beast. Her shield, her symbol of power, was meant to protect, but not to destroy. Its power depended on her adherence to her Element, Generosity.

Rarity frowned. How could she possibly be generous to a nonexistent creature, a twisted reflection of her Self? What could she give to a pony who had everything?

And then, suddenly…it clicked.

The greatest gifts of all are never material; those who only give away possessions are never truly seen as generous. All of the greatest gifts ever bestowed upon others are things that cannot be seen, things that must be felt. One could never lust for gifts of the heart the same way that they could lust after gifts of the physical world.

Only one gift could be given to a creature such as this, somepony that had fallen so far as to embody pure evil.

Friendship.

Rarity leaned down towards her enemy and offered a smile. “I’m so sorry that it had to end this way. Maybe, after all of this is done, you and I could try to start over, yes? Make amends?”

Vanity’s body shuddered, fading into nonexistence until only one part remained, a fragment from where its heart should have been. A once-shiny jewel, dull and drained of all its beauty until it became a dull, opaque orange color.

The only other thing that remained inside this desolate room was a note. A small slip of paper had been released upon Vanity’s defeat that fluttered to the ground on a breath of wind. Written on it were two words.

Thank you

Suddenly a deafening groan echoed across the cave as it began to collapse. Dozens of rocks and boulders fell off of the ceiling and crashed to the ground as the beautiful building above tried one final time to crush the emptiness of the cave beneath it. All of the pressure was centered on one point in the cavern, a spire that had cracked upon Vanity’s defeat and left one gap in the support that kept this part of Rarity’s Self alive.

Rarity took up the dead gem in her hoof and trotted over to the support, knowing what must be done if she could ever return to her normal life as a humble fashion designer in her humble world of Ponyville.

She placed the gem inside the broken spire.

It was a perfect fit. The rumbling of the collapsing cave stopped, leaving only the silence. Always the deafening silence in this empty cave.

Then suddenly Rarity felt herself float upward, carried on a single ray of sunlight that had pierced through the dampness and the gloom. She braced herself for a painful impact with the cave ceiling, but instead of crashing right into the sharp stalactites and hardened gems, she floated through the roof as if it did not exist. Rarity emerged in the center of the building in which she had woken, blinded by the beautiful white light that streamed through a hole in the ceiling. It caressed her in a warm embrace, ridding her of all doubts and worries, leaving behind only a feeling of purity and comfort.

The light filled her, pouring into the base of her neck, rushing past her heart and flowing through her veins, filling her with a tingling sensation as she became one with the light. She felt the diamond shield at her side, pulsing with pure power. It came closer and wrapped around her body, interlocking and weaving with her coat, becoming an unbreakable suit of armor woven from pure magical energy. Yet somehow her shield was not gone; it remained in front of her, only growing in strength and shimmering with magic.

All of a sudden the sensation of pouring magic stopped, although she could still feel the raw energy humming and vibrating within her. Rarity knew that it was time, time to unite with all of the Powers of Harmony and rid the wielders of Disharmony of their dark powers that had corrupted them into mindless, greedy beasts.

Opening her eyes, which glowed bright white with the magic of Harmony, Rarity awoke beside her friends. The full potential of Generosity was finally realized within her, ready to face down any force which opposed it.

Leaping into the empty air and stretching her hooves out towards the floating form of her Nightmare in front of her, Twilight Sparkle crashed headfirst into…absolutely nothing. Logic had disappeared from sight.

Twilight slammed into the nonexistent ground, her bones vibrating on impact. She yanked up her head and her eyes darted from point to point in the pitch-black room, looking for the grey outline of Logic against the shrouding darkness. The beast was nowhere to be found.

“Your decision to enter this room with the intent of my defeat was brash and foolish,” echoed the monotonous voice of Logic from everywhere and nowhere at once. “Not only do you hold no power over this part of your Self, you are burdened by your emotions and your senses. I am not. Allow me to demonstrate…”

Hundreds of blinding lights flashed all at once in Twilight’s vision. She attempted to shield her eyes with her hooves, but the lights were exploding out across her skin, a network of brilliant shimmering lines that glowed over her purple fur. Squeezing her eyes shut could not even take away the lights; they were inside her mind.

All of a sudden the lights stopped. Twilight rubbed her eyes, breathing deeply, tensing her muscles to prepare for Logic’s next attack. Once again the dead voice resonated through the empty cavern: “Shall we continue this pointless scuffle?”

Twilight thought hard, racking her brain for solutions. Logic not only has total control over everything in this place, but also has power over all of my senses. How can I beat that? As hard as she tried to think of a logical solution to this dilemma, none came to her. The only thing she could think of would be to give up and let Logic prevail.

“A wise choice. I will let you live and...who knows, you might even regain control over your body as if none of this had ever happened.”

Her expression hardening, Twilight closed her eyes and focused. Now was not the time to think; now was the time to act.

Concentrating on her horn and only her horn, Twilight let it fill to the brim with magic, glowing and radiating pure energy. The glowing aura that surrounded her horn expanded, settling into several layers of shimmering violet.

“I see you have chosen the far more difficult path leading to defeat. Oh well…I suppose you will not be convinced. You must be shown.”

The blinding lights returned, multiplied in power tenfold. They were everywhere at once, searing Twilight’s eyeballs with the intensity of a thousand suns.

Twilight magically willed away her sense of vision, and it disappeared. She was now completely blind.

Yet Logic would not be so easily deterred. With a thought, dozens of powerful explosions burst around Twilight, sending waves of force through the clearing. The vibrations entered Twilight’s hooves and rattled her bones and skull, jarring her mind.

Intensifying her concentration, Twilight’s magic flowed out from her horn and poured into the empty air, swirling around her and forming a cocoon of pure energy. The cocoon settled onto her body and clung to her skin, deadening all and any feeling. Her body was now completely numb to pain.

“What are you doing?” asked Logic, a subtle hint of curiosity entering its flat voice. “This plan is highly impractical. Though you may temporarily create a defense against my powers, you will be unable..."

Logic’s voice faded into the nothingness from whence it came. The cocoon of magic surrounding Twilight enveloped her ears and hardened, shutting out all sound. She was now completely deaf.

A overpowering stench floated into Twilight’s nostrils, and, concentrating hard, she completed her spell. Twilight Sparkle was now completely and utterly invulnerable.

The deafening silence surrounded her, pressing in on her and squeezing her body, surrounding her from all sides.

Twilight deepened her focus one last time, descending into a level of concentration nopony before her had achieved. A light breeze carried away the oppressive nothingness, whistling in Twilight’s ears. The breeze carried noise back to her, the sweet, soft sound of six voices breathing in unison, deep in slumber.

When she opened her eyes they were a brilliant white, shining with the very same radiance that they had so many years ago on the day of her entrance exam to Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, magnified tenfold. Slowly turning her head from side to side, Twilight Sparkle first saw only pure white. When her eyes adjusted to the light, she noticed five spheres of color glowing within the pure white space—one of crimson red, endowed with speed; one was of golden orange, endowed with strength; one was a soft meadow-green, endowed with the hidden magic of nature; one was a bright cyan, endowed with all magic considered possible; one was a deep indigo, endowed with the magic that protected and shielded from harm. A sixth light began to glow violet, completing the circle of magical energy. Closing her eyes one last time, the violet aura drew the others to her, fusing her essence with theirs. All six auras combined, forming an indescribably beautiful sphere of shimmering light—some might have described it as a brilliant rainbow, others pure white.

Twilight Sparkle’s eyes snapped open, now glowing a brilliant white that overpowered those of the gray beast that had stared her down not a minute ago (assuming time had any meaning in the realm of the mind…which it did not). She had reemerged in the same room which she had left, only to find a tiny, cubic space not six feet wide, bland gray in color.

The empty darkness had been a façade all along.

Logic was staring directly at her, its hypnotic gray eyes swirling in and out of existence on its equally gray face. All of its attacks and powers had been only illusions, ways that it used its power over Twilight’s mind to fool her.

Twilight rose off of the dull ground, feeling it shudder beneath her hooves at the sheer power within her. She summoned that power and focused it all into one point in her horn, ready to unleash it upon the freak that had waited here within her mind, now finally defeated.

Logic sat there, unimpressed as always. Its expressionless, soulless face fueled Twilight’s anger, fueled the rising power within her. That power grew and grew, forming an uncontrollable monster of energy, roaring to be unchained and loosed on this sole deserving victim.

The pony cowered beneath her hooves, whimpering in fear. Its form was tattered and scarred, battered and bruised, though Twilight could not care less. This pony was the one who had just kidnapped her, turned all of her friends against her and mocked her for her troubles. The time for mercy was past.

Twilight’s horn glowed as she prepared to deal the final blow of justice to this evil, powerful enemy.

Twilight’s horn glowed as she prepared to deal the final blow of justice to this evil, powerful enemy. The enemy glanced up at her, its huge eyes filled with sadness, and said in a sweet, melodic voice, “Please! You have to believe me. The Cadance that brought you down here was an imposter.” It shielded its beautiful pink face with its hooves, bracing itself for the killing blow.

“Likely story.”

“Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake. Clap your hooves and do a little shake…”

Twilight snapped out of the vision, looking at the helpless form of Logic with new eyes.

Suddenly Logic began to speak. Its voice was stunningly different, filled with barely noticeable yet beautiful emotions—regret and sorrow, bitterness and acceptance: “I know that you do not care at this point, but…it would not be intelligent to kill me here and now. You may need me someday-” Logic faltered, but continued, “and someday you may find some use for me outside of just another enemy to defeat.”

Twilight’s horn ached with the raw destructive power contained inside of it, straining to be released upon its target.

She glanced down at Logic, whose body betrayed no emotions. Was it her fault that she fought me? Come to think of it, her choice was probably either to fight me or be killed, thought Twilight.

Recalled the gray beast’s actions, Twilight Sparkle felt a painful twinge of remorse. From the beginning, Logic made it clear that she didn’t want the fight to happen. She even gave me a chance to stand down and walk away.

She was just doing what she had to in order to survive.

The deadly radiating aura around Twilight’s horn died down to a dim glow, and then to a shimmer, and then to nothing. Logic cocked her head questioningly—the first open show of emotion Twilight had seen from the gray mare.

“I’m sorry that I had to do this, Logic. You were right—I do need you to exist; you are one of the most important forces of my life, and the most powerful--and that’s not a bad thing at all.”

“But that’s not why I’m sparing you. I want you to understand that I am sparing your life because I want to give you a second chance at friendship.”

It took a moment that lasted a lifetime for Logic to respond. “Twilight Sparkle, you are truly a mystery wrapped in an enigma. This is just another example that you possess something I do not, an understanding of some foreign power, some mysterious realm of knowledge beyond my own comprehension—what you repeatedly refer to as ‘friendship’. I have always found it fascinating to study you from afar, but I have never fully understood what motivations drive your actions. You are by far the most intriguing specimen I have ever come across, and I look forward to studying you further.”

Logic sighed. “But, I suppose my studying will have to wait. In order for you to unleash the full potential of your Element, I must no longer be able to interfere with your thoughts and emotions—in simpler terms, I must stop existing for the time being. I suppose that the only thing I can do to return your favor is to cease to be for a time period. Then, when you are ready, you can free me and once again have to deal with the burden of my existence hanging over your life. I shall submit to your will.”

The body of Logic shimmered as a bright light entered the room from all sides, and then it faded in the sunlight. In its place was a tiny sphere, a compressed ball of gray matter that would expand and re-form upon touching it.

On top of the sphere was a tiny note. Written in black ink upon the note’s surface was one simple sentence: For when you are ready to give me a second chance.

Twilight turned up from the blob of nothingness that was the former enemy of her soul and stepped forward, into the light, finally ready to return to the world her friends lived in...a world worth fighting for.

Author's Note

Hey everypony! Thanks for waiting for so long for this chapter. I want to apologize for a couple of things about it...

1) The long wait.
Two out of the four weeks that it took to write this were taken by my semester finals in school, as my parents were not fond of seeing me writing when I could be studying.

2)The length.
Given that the last two chapters have featured all of the Mane 6, I just don't think that the chapters would have flowed well if I split this into two, again. Also then I'd need more cover images, which brings me to the final point...

3)The cover images.
I haven't been in contact with Youkaiyami for a week or so, and I didn't want to keep you all waiting longer than was necessary for this chapter. Still, hopefully I can talk to her and get better cover images for this than the ones I haphazardly threw together in Powerpoint. >.<

So...yeah. Sorry. Hopefully no future chapters will be this long, nor take this long, nor feature any more of my crappy MS Powerpoint "art".

10: The Masters of Disharmony

After several months of being stuck in the same awkward position inside his prison of stone, Discord was finally free. However...this time he was going to have a little bit of fun with whoever had freed him.

As the cold stone which had encased his essence shimmered and transformed once again into his usual fleshy build, Discord decided just for the heck of it to immediately create a narrow second skin of rock surrounding his body, giving the appearance that he had not been freed at all.

He heard a nasally mare’s voice ask, “Did it not work? Shadow, you told me that it would work.”

A second gruff voice responded, “So it would appear…”

“AU CONTRAIRE, MY LITTLE PONIES! HEEE’S BACK!”

All of the thin slabs of rock surrounding Discord’s body immediately fell off and shattered on the ground, leaving only the overpowered draconequus wearing a large floppy sombrero and wielding a shiny trumpet in one claw. Still with his eyes closed, Discord snapped his fingers and made the illusion of a mariachi band with three ponies appear next to him, blasting out an annoyingly cheerful tune. Maybe I should do a little dance!

He then heard an explosion of magic and suddenly the sound of trumpets and guitars stopped. In a whiny, protesting voice, Discord said “But I feel like celebrating!”

“I DON’T!” screeched the nasally mare.

Geez, that voice is annoying. “Alright…” He snapped a claw and the three mariachi pony illusions disappeared.

“ALL OF IT!”

“Fine…” Sighing, he snapped his fingers one more time and his sombrero and trumpet vanished into thin air from whence they came. Now, who’s the annoying little filly who thinks she can boss me around?

Discord’s eyes shot open and immediately noticed several things. Firstly, he was surrounded by a gangly bunch of random villains from Equestria’s past: Nightmare Moon, wearing all of her old dusty armor, Chrysalis with an expression of pure boredom on her face, Shady looking adorably infuriated as usual, and oh please don’t tell me that’s Twilight Sparkle’s pet dragon.

Second, standing in the center of the ring was a pony Discord had never seen before. She wore a very odd-looking yellow and black jumpsuit, covered from head to hoof in decorations of stars and magic. The suit enveloped the pony’s face, leaving blank white spaces where her eyes should have been. It appears that somepony doesn’t want her identity revealed, mused Discord. I could fix that, if needed.

Third, all of the ponies in the group wore a bunch of black necklaces around their necks, exactly the same in shape and structure to the Elements of Harmony. Wait. There’s something about those necklaces…Discord shifted his vision up a couple of planes and peered a second time at the odd jewelry choice shared by the five miscreants. As he stared at the necklaces his sickly-yellow eyes widened; his bloodred pupils shrank. Each necklace exuded an aura of immense power, sending out waves of energy that rippled the very fabric of space and time—much like his own, yet their power was focused inward, not outward.

The necklaces still needed to be unlocked in order to reach their full potential. Once they did…they would certainly surpass his capabilities in terms of raw power.

Blinking once, Discord looked back up the black-and-yellow suited mare floating in the air. She was at his own eye level, floating far above the muddy earth. A crown sat on her head, blacker than the darkest hour of night. Nine perfectly spherical gold jewels were inlaid in its flawlessly smooth surface, sending out golden wisps of steam from the pure heat and power contained within the tiara. Atop the crown, connected by several threads of nearly invisible metal, sat a glowing yellow crystal star. Discord gaped at it for a second, simply staring at the most powerful object he had ever seen before—save only the Elements of Harmony fully unleashed on him.

Bolts of yellow lightning shot out of it in every direction, flashing and flaring; the power that was contained within its unstable source shot out of every microscopic pore in the surface. Golden beams of light shined out from every square inch of the six-pointed crystal, radiating across the clearing.

Discord glanced down at the last black necklace around his own neck, and then back to the others. I suppose this is the ‘group’ that Shady was talking about…well. I’ve waited long enough; this is getting boring. Discord cleared his throat and spoke first: “What is this, a terrible jewelry party?” He added in a forced laugh for good measure.

The golden aura of light surrounding the yellow-and-black-suited mare faded to nothingness; its master descended to the ground and advanced towards him. In her annoying but matter-of-fact voice she replied “No. You are officially a wielder of an Element of Disharmony along with the rest of us, and as such, you are under my command.”

Excuuuuuuse me? Discord took a second look at the pony. She didn’t look insane, but neither did she seem to realize exactly who she was talking to. Maybe I should show her.

“Is that so?” Discord whispered mysteriously. With a snap of his fingers he was gone, disappearing into one of many second dimensions intertwined with that of Equestria, invisible to the unaided eye. Let’s see what she does about-

Barely taking a moment to concentrate, the pony once again rose into the air, summoning the limitless power contained in her crown. A thousand golden chains of light, translucent yet shining brighter than the sun, burst forth from it and shot in every direction. Lula raised her hooves above her head and the powerful chains bent to her will, straightening and then laying limp like so many dead snakes upon the ground. In one melodramatic motion she shoved her hooves forward, as if physically pushing something out of her. Responding immediately, the chains of power lifted off of the ground as one and converged onto the point where Discord had vanished, disappearing into the invisible hole he had created.

Discord felt a tugging sensation on his leg. Frowning, he glanced down to see that one of the chains had wrapped around his hind leg and was now stretched between him and the Element of Power. With one jerk of his leg he broke the chain in two, muttering “Get off” with a sense of minor annoyance. Instead of cleanly snapping in two, the chain of raw energy violently exploded, blinding Discord with waves of light that sent chaotic ripples along the fabric of space and time.

A second chain latched onto his leg, and then a third. All of a sudden a tidal wave of golden chains descended on him, pouring out of the hole he had created and swarming towards him like a hundred-headed serpent, twisting and writhing as they washed over his body. Discord thrashed and squirmed, putting all of his strength behind his resistance, but he was unable to break a single one. The chains washed over him, swirling around his body in uncountable circles and interlocking with dozens of others as they slowly consumed him, drowning out his clashing shades of brown and grey with brilliant yellow.

Every single chain was pulled taut at once, stretching to their limits as they were forcibly pulled back into the realm of reality. In one last-ditch effort Discord fought back against the overwhelming tug, feeling his unnaturally strong muscles ripple and strain for the first time in thousands of years with the effort. Still, it was no use—the chains were simply too powerful to resist. Mortally embarrassed, Discord gave up and let himself be pulled back into the world like a dog on a leash.

Behind her mask Lula grinned, enjoying the sensation of having the most powerful being in the universe chained up, completely under her control. With one final tug on the chains Discord popped back into existence, his face barely visible through the countless interwoven chains of power. Based on what she could see, though, he was not amused in the least.

Oh, you want to play games? Fine then. Let’s play, fumed Discord, glaring at the overpowered bumblebee through a hole in his chains. With one snap of his fingers a three-ton chunk of earth beneath her disappeared and reappeared twenty feet over her head. Discord prepared himself for the satisfying thunk that would occur in about two seconds.

Faster than he would have believed possible, a tornado of raw golden power spewed out of the mare’s Element and shot into the air, catching the oversized boulder in a swath of light and whirling around it at dizzying speeds as the magic began to condense and transform the muddied earth.

As the Element finally ceased emitting the seemingly unending stream of magic, Discord looked up at the reshaped ball of dirt, curious in spite of himself as to why the magic had not just destroyed it. What is she doing…?

…Ponyfeathers.

Discord could only watch as a gargantuan three-ton hammer made of supercondensed earth slammed into his face at a hundred miles per hour, smashing his body into the ground with enough force to shatter bones—were he anything less than a god. The impact sent visible waves out in a ten-foot radius of his body, now flattened like a tiny ant. Feeling an unfamiliar sense of lightheadedness and intense vertigo, he glanced weakly to the side. Wow, that’s a big crater...!

Giggling like an idiot, Discord stretched his neck and glanced up and out of the huge hole that had been formed in the ground with him at its center.

The last thing he saw before blacking out was two ponies, a Changeling, and a dragon staring down at him and laughing their flanks off.

Once again trapped within the confines of the dream realm, Princess Celestia stared down into the glistening surface of a crimson pond.

She looked up and took in the world which surrounded her, a world as dark as it was surreal. The darkness of night had consumed it, an oppressive force that drowned out any and all light in this twisted place…yet somehow she could still see everything. Glaring eyes watched her every move from the corners of her vision, but whenever she turned to stare directly at them they would fade into the shadows. These monsters born from darkness could not bear exposure to her presence, the only light which dared shine upon this twisted land.

Glancing down once again into the bloodred pond, Celestia was startled to see a reflection of a completely different world. The glowing eyes that had watched her from the shadows had been burned by the scalding light of the sun, put in their rightful place: death. All of the beautiful scenery that was hidden by the shade of night was lit up in glorious and beautiful definition; the only shadows that had been thrown down had been obliterated by the sheer power of the sunlight.

Then Celestia turned her head straight down, looking into the eyes of her own reflection. This reflection had brought about the perfect world she saw, the utopian vision kept locked away inside this pool of blood. Yet it was not her reflection at all.

It was….

No.

No, no, NO!!!

With one blast of magic, Celestia forced herself awake from the nightmare.

The Shadow stared down at the broken body of Discord, patiently waiting for his mortal enemy to wake up. It had taken only thirty seconds for the god of chaos to infuriate the one pony who could beat him, a pony the Shadow had specifically warned him not to cross.

A long time ago, he would have found that funny. Now it was just sad.

Well, he has been under for too long—if the Elements of Harmony arrive and he is unconscious we will have no chance. Time to interfere.

Reaching out to the slumbering giant’s mind, and with a slight feeling of déjà vu, the Shadow prodded the consciousness that was Discord. Wake up. Just because you have been humiliated doesn’t give you an excuse to be useless.

A loud and melodramatic groan crawled out of Discord’s mouth, and he slowly rose up from his bent position, making a point to emphasize the pain he was in at every point in the process.

“Get up. I already know that you’re not in any pain.”

Discord frowned. “Party pooper,” he muttered, then snapped his fingers and appeared right next to the Shadow, casually taking a seat at the edge of the crater. The land was regenerating already, courtesy of Lula’s powers, but it would take some time to completely re-form.

Discord glanced over and noticed the Shadow staring at him, not blinking his glowing red eyes. “May I help you?”

“I had warned you not to fight back.”

Discord burst out laughing and fell over on the ground in a cackling fit, taking a minute to roll around in mirth before responding. Turning to watch him, the Shadow patiently waited for the overpowered fool to recover.

After taking a few deep breaths to get his voice back, Discord turned back to the Shadow, who was still sitting motionless on the muddy grass. “SHE was the powerful pony you were talking about? Oh, give me a break!”

“She imprisoned your essence with chains of raw power. Does nothing impress you?”

Discord waved a claw in the air. “Pfft. You could tell by her style that she’s used to flashy, useless magic, not real power…even if she does have enough in that fancy crown of hers to tie me up. Speaking of which…” Summoning a mirror out of thin air, Discord gazed at his reflection and frowned. He snapped his fingers and a tiny yellow bow appeared on top of the pile of chains. “Ah! Much better.”

The Shadow did not laugh. “Aren’t you going to try and remove the chains?”

Shrugging, Discord said “What’s the point? She would just make more of them. Besides, I can still use most of my powers, albeit to a lesser extent.”

“You’re not going to try and overthrow the group?”

Discord stared back at the Shadow. “Not with the Elements of Harmony like they are. Can’t you feel it? The full potential of the Elements of Harmony has been realized completely, something that usually only happens for a few seconds when somepony like me is getting locked away. Imagine that much power used in whatever way those ponies want…as much as I hate to admit it, I need all of you idiots if I’m going to survive.”

With no further questions, the Shadow abruptly spun on his hooves and trotted away.

Princess Celestia slowly came to her senses in pitch darkness, the throbbing of a massive headache pounding against her skull like an ever-beating drum.

Slowly she returned to consciousness, feeling her magic come back to her, its presence flowing through her mind and out of her horn in a thin film of golden energy that gradually healed her injuries and revitalized the goddess of the Sun.

As her headache slowly faded to nothingness, the elusive memories that had flitted like tiny shadows inside of her mind, impossible to catch, returned to her conscious mind. Celestia lit up her horn, forcing bright light into this chamber of darkness that was Luna's room. The brilliant light slowly revealed all details in this large and mostly empty room, its rays gradually falling upon the shadowed corners of the room like the rays of the dawning sun.

One painful memory after another forced itself into her mind, causing the almighty goddess to shudder in desolate sorrow.

“You are an arrogant, impudent foal. You had the chance to strike me down here and prevent your own downfall, but you chose instead to stand and let me do as I wished with you.”

“You will regret this. This storm has risen up out of the depths of Equestria, and with one blow it has struck down its leader, its sun. And…”

“I want you to know that everything we do to your kingdom and everypony in it is now wholly, absolutely, and directly your fault.”

For a moment Celestia simply remained there, broken and helpless on the cold ground. A film of tears formed over her unblinking eyes, blurring her vision.

Suddenly she stood up, a sense of resolution driving the despair from her mind. “NO,” she said aloud, her voice shattering the deafening silence that had surrounded her like a dark and oppressive shroud. “I will not let Luna fall again. I must find her and defeat her, to save her from herself.”

But where could she be…? Celestia pondered this for a moment. There were almost an infinite number of locations Nightmare Moon would have gone, and if she wasn’t careful, she could run into trouble with all of the wielders of the Elements of Disharmony—a battle only Twilight and her friends could hope to win.

Then suddenly it struck her. Twilight!

Snatching a quill and a scroll off of one of Luna’s desks, Princess Celestia began to furiously scratch out a desperate note to her student, hoping against hope that it would reach her in time.

Surrounded by powerful allies, Spike had never felt so alone.

For the first time in his life, he had been truly abandoned. Twilight had been so worried about getting to the Elements of Harmony and her real friends that she had completely forgotten about him—that is, assuming she actually cared about him enough in the first place to want him to come along. More likely she had remembered him, but didn’t think him important enough to take with her.

As always, he was a useless hindrance. She was probably better off without him.

Well, now he was finally important to the grand schemes of the powerful—which Twilight had always been a key player in. Finally he could play a role beyond a simple messenger, victim, or assistant. Finally he could show Twilight and show all of them that he was important.

He could already imagine her face…imagine all of their faces. Twilight and Fluttershy’s with denial and confusion, Rainbow, Pinkie and Applejack’s all scrunched up in anger at his betrayal, Rarity’s face…

Rarity…

Even imagining Rarity’s beautiful face so twisted in shock and in sorrow shattered Spike’s thin façade of bitter jealousy, broke his blackened heart in two. He tried to force the image of her beautiful eyes stretched wide and shimmering with tears from his mind, but it would not leave, hanging over him like a thick, depressing fog. Frustrated, Spike opened his eyes and looked up for anything possible to distract him from such depressing thoughts.

What he didn’t expect was to see the pearly white body of Rarity standing directly in front of him, her deep azure eyes staring directly at him with an expression of amusement.

“RARITY! Oh, um…hi!” Spike nervously stroked his spines, feeling a wave of cold shock run down his back. “Wait, what are you doing here?”

Suddenly Rarity burst out laughing, and in a flash of green flame transformed back into Queen Chrysalis. Spike’s expression hardened into anger. “Not funny.”

Before the Changeling queen could respond, Spike felt the familiar sensation of a scroll from the Princess building up in his throat. Forcing it out as he had done so many times for Twilight, Spike burped and in a flash of similar green fire coughed up a small leathery scroll.

He reached out a claw to catch it, but the scroll was quickly snatched away by Chrysalis, who floated it in front of her face and unrolled it, her grin growing until it stretched all the way across her face. “Hey, Nightmare, take a look at this.”

A cloud of indigo smoke wafted over next to the slender Queen and solidified into the pitch-black body of Nightmare Moon, her lidded eyes betraying a complete lack of interest. She snatched the scroll and her eyes skimmed across the page, her expression changing from apathy to incredulous disgust. “That conceited, arrogant, self-righteous FOAL!” screamed the Night Princess, her eyes glowing with livid frustration. Chrysalis snatched the scroll back before Nightmare Moon could crumple it into a ball and destroy it in a fit of rage.

“Hey, give that back!” yelled Spike, feeling a growing sense of discomfort at the others all reading a message clearly meant for Twilight. The Element of Greed’s warmth against his chest slowly began to heat up, changing from the sensation of lulling warmth to the unbearable agony of a hot coal pressed against his body. His vision narrowed, focusing in on the one and only object of desire in sight: the scroll that had been forcibly taken from him by the arrogant Changeling Queen.

Chrysalis, instead of heeding the young dragon’s instructions, snatched up the scroll and waved it tauntingly in the air. “Make me.”

An unstoppable cascade of energy flowed into Spike from the Element of Greed, filling his veins with the fire of anger, dissolving the logical sections of his mind into only the most basic of instincts. His body doubled, tripled, quadrupled in size, once again assuming the form of the most deadly dragons that walked Equestria, furious and powerful. With one mighty stomp he trapped Chrysalis under his foot; he bent down and curled his sharp claws into a fist, glaring at the Queen with unrestrained fury.

Suddenly the scroll floated up in front of him, levitating on a cloud of golden magic. He grabbed it out of the air, feeling his claws shrink back to normal as he gripped the message from the Princess and carefully unrolled it. The message was indeed for Twilight, but about Princess Luna.

Spike hardly noticed that his body had once again shrunk down to normal size when he glanced over at Nightmare Moon, who was seething and glaring at the scroll in Spike’s claws. No wonder she’s so angry, he realized, after reading that.

Her patience gone, Nightmare Moon shot a beam of magic and vaporized the scroll, not waiting for Spike to finish reading. He nearly jumped out of his skin as the beam blew up in his face. So much for that.

Suddenly a blinding light exploded out from inside of the city of Canterlot, flooding out of the city like a tidal wave and bursting out into the night, filling the empty darkness with brilliant white. Shielding his eyes, Spike asked “What was that?!”

He glanced over at Lula, who was staring into the light and smiling beneath her mask. “The Elements of Harmony are finally ready.”

Author's Note

Again, sorry for the lack of awesome cover art. Youkaiyami's been sick for a little while and I didn't want to delay publishing this one any more than I already have.

Also, sorry for the opening scene. I usually try to keep the tone dark and mysterious with this fic, but after seeing them fail to include that reference in Keep Calm and Flutter On, I couldn't resist! xP

Hopefully by the next chapter ("Faceoff"), I'll be able to get somepony to make some cool cover art for it.

11: Faceoff

BOOOM!

A blinding flash of light erupted in the center of the Canterlot Statue Garden, sending out a shockwave powerful enough to crack solid rock a mile away. Yet, despite the explosion’s power…none of the nearby buildings suffered a single scratch. Brilliant rays of raw magical energy exploded from the explosion’s core, searing a rainbow corona into the air. The corona itself rose into the sky like a hurricane of fire, shattering the storm’s iron grip on the sky. All of the clouds within half a mile of the explosion were immediately vaporized, ceasing to exist in a blink of an eye. The bright light of the moon glared down from the sky, no longer covered in clouds, its pale beams swathing the storm-drenched land below in a radiant glow of pure white.

The Masters of Harmony had arrived.

As the harsh moonlight faded into an ethereal shimmer around the six ponies who had appeared from nowhere in the garden, their opponents each recoiled in shock. No longer were they facing six normal, helpless ponies, the enemies that they had each faced before on their own…in front of them was an ensemble of gods, harnessing their full potential into one resolve that would not be broken. Each radiated an aura of pure magic, sending out ripples in the fabric of space and time, healing the broken land around them.

A sphere of deep forest-green magic flowed softly from the Element of Kindness like a gentle stream, soothing to the eye and to the soul. Blades of emerald grass rose from the muddied ground all around her, restoring life to the dead earth.

Next to her, fiery crimson light spewed out of the Element of Loyalty, punishing its onlookers with a blinding light that scarred their vision. Fire licked the ground beneath her hooves, causing all and any of the weeds that had grown up in the mud to disintegrate into so many piles of ash.

By her side stood the Element of Generosity, a deep azure glow shimmering around her. Indigo rays of light shone into the air like radiant diamonds, gracing the tense atmosphere with an aura of beauty. Gorgeous flowers rose up beneath her hooves, their rainbow petals glistening in the moonlight.

Vibrating and flickering alongside her was the essence of the Element of Laughter, her body encompassing all dimensions and realms in the plane of reality. Cyan-blue bursts of energy popped and crackled in and out of existence around her, creating an ever-changing field of sparkling magic. One simple look at it would have been enough to stretch an uncontainable smile across the face of any bystander who had looked on.

Finally, the Element of Honesty stood at the end of the line, her hooves shimmering with magical energy. A soothing aura of orange magic emanated from her, sending out a constant flow of magical energy that poured into the open air like a babbling creek. Its calming sounds and simplistic presence spread an aura that dried the mud-drenched earth, healing the broken land.

At the front of the group, all five auras were combined into one sphere of violet magic. It shone out across the garden, out over Canterlot Mountain, and onto the whole nation of Equestria like a beautiful sunset after a rainy day, emitting rays of pure violet light that reached out into the sky. Each ray of light reflected off of the all of the remaining clouds, filling them with pure light that exploded out in all spectrums of color, filling the sky with shining rainbows. The clouds then faded into nothingness, flickering and disappearing, leaving only an array of beautiful stars upon the curtain of the night sky, sparkling and twinkling in the sea of black despite the all-consuming moonlight.

Impressive. It’s a good thing that we have the only force that can match them, mused Lula, sporting a cocky grin as she approached her antithesis embodied in physical form. “Twilight Sparkle. It’s been too long…but the time has come for one final battle to settle between the two of us which is the most powerful being in Equestria.”

Drawing beside her a gigantic mace built of raw golden power, Lula asked, “Shall we?”

Twilight Sparkle’s horn glowed and a cascade of magic poured out of it like a tidal wave, splashing back off of the open air like a rock at shore and turning back to its master, swirling around her until it formed a dense yet translucent sphere of pure violet magic. Unimpressed, Lula took a swipe at the magical shield, swinging down her mace with all of her might upon Twilight’s head.

The mace shattered into a thousand pieces.

At the first sign of attack, the two groups charged into each other, not delaying for another second.

The garden of statues descended into an arena of chaos, flashes of blinding light exploding across the clearing as the magical powers of ponies and beasts alike clashed in a fight to end all fights. A sound erupted from the center of the clearing, the sound of a thousand spells and a hundred punches, the sound of the fabric of space and time being simultaneously sewed together and torn into shreds, unheard by every mortal pony in Equestria…save one.

From behind a cracked red window in a building in Canterlot halfway across town, one stallion smiled, paused a moment to shift a couple of pieces on his oddly decorated chessboard, and then continued to watch the show.

As soon as the midnight arena descended into chaos, Twilight Sparkle closed her eyes and drew her mind into a state of relaxation.

She felt the magical energy flow out of her Element and into her mind and body. The thousands of sparks of magic poured into her veins like a river of fire; it cascaded in an unstoppable wave, flooding her body with raw energy. Twilight took a deep breath and relaxed, letting images of her friends fly past her eyelids; her rapid heartbeat slowed down to a calming, rhythmic pulse. The magic pouring from her Element was infinite, it was boundless; all of it was entering the Wielder of the Element of Magic at a faster and faster rate.

Twilight opened her eyes to see her vision tinted pure violet. The protective sphere of energy surrounding her had expanded and duplicated, forming seven layers of defensive magic. Her eyes glowing brilliant white, she looked down and noticed that her skin was also glowing with a faint purple light, pulsating with her heartbeat. Tiny wisps of steam came off of it as her skin began to absorb more power than it could handle.

She closed her eyes again, her mind slipping into the abyss of power as she became slowly more tired. Tiny flakes of skin peeled off of her body and atomized into shards of energy.

One last sight greeted her vision before everything descended into black. A gray ball of matter, and a note:

For when you are ready:

Twilight, wake up. If you don’t stop the flow of power into your body, you will die. I know you want to defeat Lula, and I know that this is your first taste of such pure power. Power is a tough temptation to fight.

But that amount of power is simply illogical.

Twilight’s eyes snapped open, and reaching out with her mental faculties she closed the valve of raw power flowing into her body. Her skin stopped steaming, and several magic spells dispensed unconsciously from her horn, floating to the areas of damaged skin and healing them wherever they had disintegrated.

She shook her head and looked around, drawing her vision up to a higher plane and reaching out with her senses. Her magic had fought against Lula with a life of its own, not only blocking her enemy’s attacks but responding with bolts of energy. Both of them had risen in their duel, floating higher and higher into the air; they could no longer see the individual figures in the Statue Garden so far below them.

Twilight took back control of her own magic, stepping back into her senses and feeling the instinctual drives recede from her actions. She withdrew some of the magic from her power-sphere, storing it safely in the Element of Magic. Even as her sphere vibrated upon impact from one of Lula’s deadly magical weapons, Twilight had one thought:

Never again.

KRAC-KOOOOOOOM!!!

A bolt of brilliant lightning shook the clearing, causing Rainbow Dash to wince despite her magically heightened physical strength. She jerked up her head towards the source and took in the sight of Nightmare Moon’s mane rising into the air, swirling like an indigo hurricane against the midnight sky. Nightmare Moon swept the battlefield with her piercing gaze; her eyes were glowing as bright as her Element as she looked for an opening to make her next attack. Her eyes locked on Fluttershy, whose timid form snuck through the moonlit garden, dodging magic projectiles left and right.

Zap one hair on her mane; I dare you…fumed Dash, feeling the magical energy course like liquid fire through her veins. She shoved her hooves off of the ground, rippling the mud with sheer force and creating an explosion of illusory red fire against her takeoff point. Nightmare Moon scarcely had time to turn her head before Rainbow smashed into her from the side, knocking them both out of the air and onto the ground. The glimmering indigo cloud faded back into its master’s mane, no longer fizzling with electricity.

The Night Mare rose swiftly off of the ground, drawing up to her full height and glaring at Rainbow Dash. Concentrating on her magic, she wove a thousand fibers of raw power into a single weapon which floated at her side a black sword as dark as the midnight sky. Rainbow barely rolled out of the way before the sword came slashing down in the space where her neck had previously occupied.

Jumping to her hooves, Rainbow shot into the air, her wings flapping like never before to get out of the range of the Night Mare’s blade. As quickly as she had risen she flew back towards her target, concentrating on her wing muscles, leaning against the wind to perform a simple stunt she had done a dozen times. Rainbow called upon her speed and blasted forward, feeling the intense forces of momentum tugging on her insides as she bent her body up and around, up and around again, spinning in a tight circle around the upright body of Nightmare Moon.

The Goddess of the Night looked up in terror as a crimson rainbow swirled around her, faster than any tornado, uprooting the very earth beneath her hooves and sending it whirling around her head in dizzying circles. Tiny rocks and pellets of earth assaulted her from all sides, making it impossible to move. She tried to swat them away with her sword, but there were simply too many targets to destroy. She squeezed her eyes shut, concentrating on her horn to try and form a barrier of power against the deadly assault.

Suddenly, in this fleeting moment of fear…a memory began to play back against her closed eyelids.

A brilliant rainbow tornado of magical energy swirled around her body, trapping her within. Reaching out with her senses, Nightmare Moon could feel the raw magical energy of the Elements of Harmony around her, turned into a force of destruction by its cruel wielders. It descended on her like an angry swarm, like an unstoppable inferno, pushing and squeezing her back into Luna’s mind, burning with the fiery pain of a thousand suns…

“GAH!” Shouting the memories into submission, Nightmare Moon reclaimed control of her mind and snapped it back into the present, the here and now. She faded into a sparkling mist of indigo magic; the cloud was sucked up into the sky and out of Rainbow’s trap.

Her concentration absolute, Rainbow Dash almost missed the sight of a cloud of purple smoke fleeing to the South, towards the heart of the Everfree Forest. Rainbow pushed off against the powerful forces of the whirling gale, carrying her momentum and careening off towards the Everfree Forest to follow her target.

A slight twinge nagged at the back of her mind, cooling the liquid fire which had coursed through her veins at the one simple thought which seized her mind:

Rainbow Dash was now completely and utterly alone.

A deadly rain of black skulls burst against the ground all around Pinkie Pie, falling towards the earth at an alarming rate and suddenly turning back into wisps of black smoke as they inevitably missed their intended target. She jumped from spot to spot atop the broken earth, warping space, appearing and disappearing like so many flashes of light. Her adversary was nowhere to be seen, having created a thick cloud of shadows and hidden himself behind the veil of darkness. Bursts of smoke trailed out of the low-lying storm cloud as an uncountable number of invisible projectiles loosed from the attacker’s mind.

Pinkie jumped out of nowhere and leaped into the dark cloud, throwing a ball of light into its center. The miniature sun spewed out a thousand blinding rays of light, searing the darkness with white fire, vaporizing the cloud of shadows.

Its master was forcibly ejected, spat out onto the ground with enough force to crack the bones of an average pony. A deafening CLANG resounded right below the Shadow’s ear as his clunky metal armor collided with the ground, visibly shuddering as it absorbed the majority of his impact.

Jumping onto his hooves with surprising speed, the Shadow rushed to meet his enemy, unsheathing a set of narrow metal spikes from inside of his front hoof. He slashed down towards Pinkie, tearing four scars in the air as his knife-like claws slashed through it, draining out all of its color and its life. Every muscle in Pinkie’s body tensed, compressing like a coiled spring as she watched the shining chrome daggers rapidly approach her ever-beating heart.

At the last possible second she released all of her pent-up energy, shoving off of the ground with all of her might and shooting up into the air. In one fluid motion, Pinkie curled her body and spun around in a somersault, landing on all four hooves behind the Shadow, poised to attack. From right behind nowhere Pinkie pulled out her trademark party cannon, pointing it right at the Shadow’s back and holding her hoof a millimeter over the trigger button.

He whipped around, furious, fire dancing in his crimson eyes. Swinging his hoof as he whirled around, the Shadow’s dark claw slashed right through…

…a huge cloud of projectile streamers fired directly at his face. The cloud caught him off guard, temporarily blinding him; the fire in his eyes was extinguished as he flinched, blinking for the first time since Pinkie had seen him. A menacing growl reverberated from deep in the Shadow’s throat; his glaring eyes did not once move from Pinkie’s face as his metallic horn began to pour out black smoke. The powerful magic lazily floated onto the ground, freezing the broken earth wherever it touched, and swirled around the deathly still body of the Shadow. His essence flickered in the shadow of the moonlight, becoming one with the darkness; as more and more black fog poured from his horn his body slowly conjoined with it until once again he became the shadow that he created.

Bum-bum.

As Pinkie stared into the Shadow’s empty eyes, her heart began to beat faster and faster, pulsing rapidly against her will and out of her control. Her eyes began to ache as her muscles strained, stretching wider and wider, staring into the void, falling, falling….

Bum-bum. Bum-bum.

The brilliant cyan glow of Pinkie’s Element died with the spark in her eyes. Her knees began to tremble; syncing with the shaking of the withered and dead grass that had died beneath her hooves, beneath her care. The pulsing rhythm that drove her forward escalated into a driving hurricane, spiraling out of her control, out of her will, out of her essence.

Bum-bum, bum-bum, bum-bum-

The white, sparkling aura of happiness, once pulsing with life, slowly began to die into a whisper in the wind, consumed by the shadow of the black fog.

BUM-BUM. BUM-BUM. BUM-BUM-

Her strength gone, Pinkie gave in and fell forward into the abyss. Her body atomized into a blue fog which was consumed by the black.

In a storm of whirling darkness, Pinkie Pie was sucked into the mind of the Shadow, consumed by Fear himself.

Rarity shielded her eyes with the glowing panel of magical energy as blinding flashes of light exploded all around her. Her eyes scanned the scene, noticing all of her friends battling against the enemies she recognized all too well. She looked at the Elements around their necks, finding that she somehow knew what all of them were—probably thanks to the Element she herself wore.

Rainbow Dash was a blur of red fire charging towards Nightmare Moon a couple feet away, leaving a crimson trail behind her. Rarity could sense their clashing Elements, Loyalty and Betrayal, two shades of lightning, two battling storms. Turning around she noticed her other friends all letting loose on their antitheses, Laughter fighting Fear, Magic fighting Power, Honesty battling against Deception. Yet, reaching out with all of her senses, she could feel the presence of all of the Elements of Disharmony…except one.

Her magic could sense all of the Elements…besides Greed.

Rarity closed her eyes, taking a deep breath and letting the energy flow between her body and mind, between her Element and its magical constructs—the Shield and Armor of Harmony. Threads of energy woven from the magic of her Element spread across the vicinity, taking in and filtering every blinding sight and deafening sound, searching for the sickly diamond embedded in her enemy’s pendant.

Then suddenly a tiny sound registered in her hearing—the snapping of a twig.

Rarity whirled around, expecting to see a deadly monster or cruel enemy wearing their pendant with a smirk on their face and green fire in their eyes, wielding their Element with pride, ready to fight to the death. Maybe one of the villains she’d faced in the past, such as Flim or Flam, or maybe somepony she’d never even met, obviously and unquestionably evil.

Instead, staring up at her with wide, shimmering eyes…was Spike.

His shoulders sagged down below his huge baby head, weighted down by the black necklace hanging from his neck. The green diamond clinging to his chest pulsed with the beating of his heart, glowing with the light of a raging fire—the very same fire which was absent from Spike’s adorable eyes. His body was motionless as he stared unblinking at Rarity; unspilt tears of sorrow made his eyes glisten in the moonlight. In a painfully slow, machine-like motion, his claw lifted up from his unscathed chest, pressing against the air as if it was a thick pane of glass separating the young dragon from his sworn enemy.

A tiny green spark shot out from his Element, and immediately Spike’s claw clenched into a fist. Flames shot from the ground beneath his feet, consuming him in a violent inferno of orange light. Rarity winced as Spike doubled over in pain, roaring in a voice that was not his own. She could see his silhouette through the fiery smoke; a harsh light reaching out of the Element of Greed like a demon’s claw repeatedly stabbed his innocent eyes, blinding him to who he was fighting. The horrific sounds were drowned out by Spike’s screams of pain.

Rarity looked on, petrified in horrific fascination as the inferno tightened its iron grip on her friend, swirling closer and closer, clinging to his scales and entering his body, filling him with dark power. His body tripled, quadrupled in size, growing to that of a full-size dragon, bringing back dark memories to Rarity’s mind of sitting in the claw of the very same heartless monster so long ago.

…heartless?

Letting out one roar that made the vibrated the atmosphere itself with sheer force, Spike stood up to his full height. Tasting the air with his tongue, he let out a grunt and stomped towards the mountainside, heading towards the extravagantly decorated city of Canterlot.

Her eyes narrowing, Rarity pressed her shield woven from Harmony’s magic against her side and ran after her mortal enemy, once her friend, fallen from grace. The Element of Generosity pulsated against her chest, glowing gently with a warm indigo aura.

On Rarity’s chest, where the Element held tightly and cast its light against her pearl-white coat…was the faintly glowing shape of a heart.

CRUNCH

Another armored Changeling went down beneath Applejack’s glowing hooves, a member of the elite guard Queen Chrysalis had brought with her in secret to the Canterlot Statue Garden. The Changeling slithered away, dragging itself away on its broken hooves to lick its wounds. It wouldn’t be hurting anypony for a long time.

Applejack’s vision was tinted with gold as her eyes darted around, searching for any more sneaky enemies creeping up behind her. Chrysalis had only brought a dozen-or-so Changelings to the battle, most of which Applejack had taken down with ease due to her magically enhanced strength. The Changeling Queen herself had hidden, preferring to let her minions do all of the dirty work, but now that Applejack had defeated them all, Chrysalis would have to reveal herself.

A blur of black and green swept past Applejack, followed by a rush of wind that spun her around, temporarily disorienting the Wielder of the Element of Honesty. Chrysalis and two of her personal guards had flown past her and rose up into the air, turning for a second pass. One glowing orange rope built from pure energy manifested in midair next to Applejack, who swiftly reached out and snapped it up in her mouth. Spinning it in tight circles as only such a well-trained rodeopony could, Applejack let the rope go at the peak of its arc and it shot towards the three attackers.

Applejack stared at the ropes and concentrated with all of her might, still unused to the feeling of magic energy running through her veins and her mind. Somehow, though, she had no trouble at all bending it to her will—it was almost as if the magic had a mind of its own and she simply had to guide it. The sensation was akin to the time when she was shocked by a Zap Apple tree as a little filly, feeling the dangerously powerful energies pass through her body, although she could twist and shape them through sheer concentrated power of will.

The rope snapped in two, startling the two Changeling guards who had successfully changed direction to avoid its initial curve. Each half of the rope snapped around its intended target faster than they could blink, winding through the natural holes in their bodies and wrapping around, forming a complex knot and immobilizing the two Changelings. Two loud crunches were heard as the enemies smashed into the ground, rolling over and uselessly flopping their hooves in a feeble attempt at moving.

Chrysalis swerved around Applejack and flew off in a different direction, shocked at how easily the mare had taken down her guard. Dozens of thoughts fired in her brain as ideas bounced around her head. I couldn’t take her on in hoof-to-hoof combat; that mare’s hooves are like blocks of steel. If I tried to use any magic against her she’d probably just dodge it. What could I do…? Maybe-

Suddenly a wide grin stretched across the Wielder of Deception’s tar-black face; she abruptly turned around and changed course, heading for somewhere that better fit her new plan: Ponyville. More specifically, Sweet Apple Acres.

Let’s see that apples-for-brains farmpony beat this.

Fluttershy was deafened as a thousand screaming voices filled her ears; she could hear the pain-filled cries of every tree, bush and blade of grass as Discord turned his reality-warping magic against the flora of the Canterlot Sculpture Garden. Flowers withered into blackened sticks and trees crumbled into towers of ash with every snap of the demon’s clawed fingers; his gleeful laughter clashed with the dissonant screams of the plant life.

Taking a deep breath and closing her eyes, Fluttershy turned her magic inward, allowing the magical energy to build up and collect in the center of her chest, inside of her heart. She felt dizzy as the excess of energy that had coursed through her veins all rushed at once into one spot. The magic formed a visibly glowing spot on her chest, in the shape of a butterfly, faintly pulsing; its rhythm was synced with that of her ever-beating heart.

Fluttershy exhaled, her lungs gently pressing all of the air she had taken in back into the atmosphere, once again freed into nature. As she did so she relaxed her shoulders, feeling her heartbeat slow and her mind slip into a state of pure calm. All of the built-up magic energy poured out of her heart and onto the ground, not the shining emerald of her magical aura but the translucent blue-white of a babbling brook. Like streams of water the magic flowed out from its source and across the land, sinking into the broken earth and healing its discordant scars. It washed over the dead grass; like a breath of new life the magic brought back the field of natural grass that had once covered the garden of statues; the grass shone faintly in the pale moonlight. The magic poured into the piles of dead ash that were once proud trees, bringing them back to their former glory. A tiny, glowing smile lit Fluttershy’s face as she looked back on the broken earth she had restored to life.

Discord’s cackling laughter had by then stopped, replaced by an ominous silence. His bright red eyes glared at her from across the clearing, unblinking, silent. With one snap of his fingers, Discord disappeared, popping back into existence right next to Fluttershy holding a gigantic baseball bat.

Her eyes widening, Fluttershy jumped out of the way right as Discord swung, a mischievous grin once again stretched across the demon’s sickly gray face. The bat missed its target, striking the ground and lighting the tiny patch of ground where it collided on fire.

Undeterred, Discord pulled a gargantuan pie out of a hole in nowhere and threw it directly at his foe. Flying up into the air, Fluttershy avoided the pie but not its effect—as soon as it landed, the pie exploded. A crimson fireball burst out of the pie, rushing up into the air and consuming Fluttershy’s body before she could even look down and notice what it was that had trapped her within the blazing inferno.

Fluttershy crashed into the ground, her wings singed by the fire, coughing as the air had turned gray with ash. Lying on the ground for a minute to regain her strength, she felt a relaxing warmth blossom across her chest, a healing magic from the Element of Kindness. She peeked open one eye to see a soft, glowing green light spread across her body, healing the flame-inflicted wounds, sealing the scars and wiping away the dead ash.

Suddenly a brilliant red light caught her eye. Fluttershy craned her neck upward to see Rainbow Dash flying away and searing a trail of light across the sky, as she undoubtedly followed a fleeing enemy. Turning her head, she also spotted two brilliant lights rising into the sky, one violet and one golden yellow; she then noticed Applejack running on hooves of wind towards Ponyville, chasing a grey-black blur flying low through the sky. As she turned back towards the garden, Fluttershy spotted Rarity chasing a gigantic purple dragon up the side of Canterlot Mountain. Finally she saw Pinkie Pie’s body disappearing inside a cloud of dark shadows that seemed to glare at her across the empty Statue Garden.

Discord, taking advantage of his foe’s momentary pause, snapped his fingers and the earth beneath him let loose a deafening rumble. Huge hedge walls rose up from the ground, taking the exact same position they had taken many months ago, when they had marked the first time that Discord had been released in thousands of years.

Fluttershy gulped.

I guess I’m really on my own now…

Author's Note

So, so sorry for the delay! :( Also for the lack of art; again I wanted to get this up as soon as possible.

Hopefully the epic fight scenes make up for it ;)

12: To Fear Laughter

Pinkie Pie’s eyes opened to meet a room consumed by darkness.

The feeling of magical energy coursing like liquid fire through her veins had all but abandoned her, leaving her dizzy and disoriented. Likewise the comforting warmth of the Element of Laughter beside her heart had left, making her feel strangely cold without its soothing rhythmic pulse.

She was trapped in a nightmare, a sinister web spun from the blackest depths of the Shadow’s imagination.

Pinkie took a step forward, noticing the puffs of fog that left her muzzle as she took a breath, wisps of warm air that evaporated into the freezing darkness. An ominous silence surrounded her, squeezed her, clung to her skin; the shadows had drowned out all noise and left only the silence. Always the silence.

The shadows were everywhere, stretching from the cold stone walls and onto the ground, tainting the grey floor black. They crept from corners of walls and from the corners of Pinkie’s vision, inch by inch stalking her and watching her every move. If she closed her eyes she could feel the fear dripping from the air, oozing past her eyes and nostrils, consuming her mind and senses.

Suddenly her eyes jolted open and her mind snapped to attention. Something was watching her, watching her and waiting…or someone.

Pinkie could feel his presence, feel it in the rapid beating of her heart and in the shadows that lurked between the cracks of the stone cell walls which surrounded her. His magic was intermixed with the air, entering her lungs at every breath, altering her mind and perceptions.

Pinkie Pie laughed, shattering the oppressive silence. She could feel the darkness recoil at her laughter, silently hissing in outrage. “Is that it?” she called out into the black. “Did you really think you could scare me by putting me in a creepy old cell? ‘Cause y’know, this would be great for a Night Mare Night prank, but I don’t think it’s enough to actually scare me into submission.”

A deafening rumble filled her ears and a cloud of dust blasted her vision; she squeezed her eyes shut as the irritating particles assaulted her eyes. When the ringing in her ears faded away, she peeked one eye open; the dust had settled into a fine mist that hung low over the ground.

All of the walls around her had crumbled, proving to be only another illusion. The freezing stone beneath her hooves had also changed, becoming dry and dusty—dead earth that matched the dead lands surrounding her. Trees dotted the landscape as far as she could see with an endless cloud of pale fog choking the land, trees that were bare of any leaves or fruit, trees that were naught but dark shadows in the fog.

The fog…felt familiar.

She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, letting her senses rekindle the fires of memory, struggling to open one locked door to a room which held the answer to the ominous sense of déjà vu lurking in her mind. Pinkie opened her eyes, still confused, until she saw one sight that made everything click.

Two bright red dots shone brightly, piercing through the fog. Leaning forward and squinting, she suddenly realized that it was a pair of glowing eyes.

Instantly the door burst open; her memories came rushing back to her in a flood of information that nearly overloaded her brain. Images and memories flashed across her eyelids: a balloon garden frozen in time, a monster trembling in fear, an all-consuming fog in a graveyard of secrets…a shadowed nightmare.

This is the same place the Shadow had last tried to break her with fear, a graveyard woven from his own twisted mind.

Pinkie giggled at the memory of the scariest pony she’d ever seen trembling like a schoolfilly. “Hey, Mr. Shadow! Remember the last time we were here?”

The silhouette in the fog winced; the two red dots blinked out for only a moment. His deep voice rumbled across the plain, seeming to echo from everywhere at once carrying his reply: “There are new graves.”

New…graves?

Pinkie trotted over to the closest gravestone, a bleak gray rock jutting out of the dead ground. Five others accompanied it, including a recently dug uncovered grave at the end of the line.

She leaned down towards the headstone; its scratched lettering was hard to read in the all-consuming fog that filled the landscape. Pinkie was barely able to make out two words carved into the rock, above a small paragraph of smaller letters:

Twilight Sparkle

Morbidly intrigued, the pink pony leaned closer to make out the tiny paragraph. By the dim light of the fog, it appeared to be written completely by shadow.

A brilliant leader,

A sweet, caring friend;

This all-too-young mare

Fought evil to the end.

A powerful vision suddenly assaulted Pinkie, seizing control of her mind and filling her senses with alien feelings:

The cold road beneath her chest sapped away Pinkie’s strength, though already she was paralyzed with fear and with despair, watching on in horror as two unicorn mares turned their great powers against each other, using it to tear each other apart. Blinding flashes erupted across the road as glowing bolts of golden and violet energy sailed through the air, exploding as they collided with their target. Suddenly a beam of brilliant golden energy shot from one side, met with an equally brilliant beam of violet. The two beams met in the middle; thousands of fiery sparks flew from their point of collision, searing the ground all around them a shade of burnt black. Although the two rays of power seemed to be evenly matched, eventually the yellow won out; its glorious light pushed back the dark purple until Twilight, weary beyond comprehension, gave up. A deafening CLANG rang out as the Element of Magic fell to the ground…

Pinkie backed up, suddenly feeling unsure. A feeling of despair crawled out of the darkest depths of her mind and into its forefront, pushing back the sense of confidence that she had previously held. Could it be true? Could Twilight lose to the Element of Power…?

…nah. She’d never lost a magical duel before, right?

She looked down and was startled to find herself staring at the second gravestone, even though she hadn’t moved an inch. This is a nightmare, Pinkie, she reminded herself. Nothing here is real.

Some of the fog had cleared, making it slightly easier to read the heading on the second gravestone. Either that or her eyes had adjusted to the fog. Not even having to squint her eyes, Pinkie read:

Fluttershy

A kind soul and a friend to all,

For this mare heeded nature’s call;

An unnatural enemy was her fall.

An unnatural enemy…?

Another vision seized control of her mind.

Suddenly she was floating in midair; chaos surrounded her. The air rebelled against itself; its particles vibrated and shot every which way, completely out of control. One second the air was hot, the next her breath turned to mist and then ice. Every blade of grass on the ground stood stiff, dead and brown. Then red. Then pink. Every tree hung over, bent to the will of Discord. Fluttershy was nowhere to be seen, most likely in hiding…In a sudden blur of color Pinkie’s vision panned to the side, making her feel dizzy. As her eyes readjusted to the scene below, Pinkie found herself staring at a horrific sight: In an attempt to save a small bunny that had been transformed into a mutant and a monster, Fluttershy had called on her magic to heal the poor creature. Her body lay still in its mouth.

Jerking her head out of the vision, Pinkie Pie tried to shut out the horrified thoughts bouncing around in her brain: Could it be true? Was it possible? Did she die?

Bum-bum.

The beating of her heart pounded in Pinkie’s ears, reverberating in her skull, syncing with the rapidly accelerating breaths that shot past her nostrils in a mad rush to escape. Pinkie looked down at her hooves, covered in crumbling dirt from the dead ground beneath her.

Bum-bum.

Her hooves were shaking, trembling ever-so-slightly in the breeze. But it had nothing to do with the cold.

Bum-bum. Bum-bum.

Pinkie turned her gaze up from the ground to find herself staring at the third grave in the line. She desperately tried to look away, at anywhere, anything but the cold heartless stone in front of her, but her hooves were rooted to the spot. Her body was completely paralyzed.

Bum-bum. Bum-bum.

“There is no escape.” the monotone voice reverberated across the plain, sounding closer. Her heart pounded faster and faster; with all of the force she could muster Pinkie squeezed her eyes shut, not wanting to face the Wielder of Fear.

Fear…

A tiny memory blossomed in Pinkie Pie’s mind, sprouting out of the death and the shadows; one ray of sunlight that pierced the whirling storm.

When I was a little filly and the sun was going do~own…

Bum…bum.

Her heartbeat began to slow; its rapid throbbing died down to a soothing, rhythmic pulse. The memories spread through her mind like a wildfire, scalding the anxious fears that had taken root.

The darkness and the shadows, they would always make me fro~own.

A thousand images flashed past her eyelids, sights and sounds, memories. Memories of joy. Memories of fun. Memories of shared friendship.

I'd hide under my pillow

From what I thought I saw

But Granny Pie said that wasn't the way

To deal with fears at all…

Memories of laughter.

She said: "Pinkie, you gotta stand up tall.

Learn to face your fears.

You'll see that they can't hurt you;

just laugh to make them disappear…

“HA. HA. HA.”

A brilliant explosion rocked the endless graveyard, shaking the earth beneath her hooves and sending out a visible shockwave across the dead ground. In an instant all six graves burst into a beautiful cyan inferno, obliterating the bleak grey headstones with their accompanying vision. The fire rose up into the sky, twisting like a playful serpent, then fell down and spread across the land, clearing all of the fog.

About ten feet away, Pinkie saw an armored figure wincing, his glowing eyes squeezed tightly shut as he backed away from the uncontrollable fire. She trotted toward him, a spark of determination alight in her eyes; the Nightmare’s stared back with fear. His horn glowed black and a deadly beam of raw power careened towards her, slicing through the air like hot butter, hissing as it rapidly approached.

Time slowed down as the black beam neared, aimed directly at Pinkie’s heart. She could feel its presence; an aura that exuded raw terror—it was a spell that could strip her mental protections bare and free her worst fears from the blackest depths of her mind; this was a spell conjured by sheer desperation.

Staring into the approaching abyss, Pinkie smiled.

She felt the heaviness of the pendant on her chest, pulsing in perfect synchronization with her heart, spreading warmth through her entire body. Calling upon its magic, she generated a reflective shield upon her, shimmering with glowing blue energy.

Let’s see what you’re afraid of.

The beam rebounded and struck its master, who fell back, startled beyond comprehension. A tiny pinprick of a hole opened atop his chest, quickly expanding into a pony-sized rip in the fabric of space and time. Like a powerful wormhole it consumed everything; its suction drew in both Pinkie and her victim foe.

The last thing that Pinkie Pie saw before blacking out was a black door, chained shut; its chains had been shattered and it was wide open. Beyond the door…

Pinkie Pie’s eyes closed and she gave in to the dark abyss of sleep.

The first and only sound that Pinkie heard was an unfamiliar voice crying out into the night, sorrow meeting despair in his voice:

Brother?

She opened her eyes.

A shadow black as midnight hung over the silent wooden shack, lost in the center of a nameless forest.

Though the dilapidated shack, timeless yet ancient in this wood forgotten by Time, sat proudly atop a mighty hill…over the years it had inevitably fallen. The beautiful meadow that had once swathed the rolling hillside in beautiful shades of emerald was gone, consumed by a dark and blackened forest. Not one space of open meadow was left; not one trace of hope remained…except for one tiny clearing, one snake of open space left in this twisted place. A trail, from nothing into nothing, led up to the front door of the shack. Although its sole inhabitant had lost faith in escaping this prison realm…there was still a way out.

It was upon this broken trail with black evergreens and thorny vines looming over it from every side that the mare called Pinkie Pie awoke. Even she had to pause for a moment, to turn in a circle and fully take in the atmosphere of tranquil desolation; such a depressing setting was something she had never before encountered in her happy-go-lucky, carefree life in Ponyville.

Not even she had a joke to say upon awakening in this realm, a single spoken word to break the dead peace which choked all and any remaining life from this bleak wood. Slowly she rose and trotted toward the gloomy shack, not knowing at all what she would find inside.

Upon arriving at the shack’s door, constructed of flimsy rotten planks that seemed to be one touch away from falling apart completely, she paused. No matter how hard Pinkie tried, she could not remember how she had come to this dead, forgotten land--she tried and tried, but her memories were a crimson pheonix: elusive and free, flying just beyond her reach.

Pinkie opened the door, which let out a loud CREEAAAAK and shattered the oppressive silence that had consumed the countryside. The dim light outside spilled into this pitch-black room; her presence alone drove back the darkness inside this final refuge for a shaded soul.

Glancing around, the first thing that Pinkie noticed was a large pile of crumpled papers sitting on the broken wood floor. She picked one open with her hoof and unfurled it, taking care not to rip the tattered and crumpled paper, delicate and broken as if it had been spun from gossamer thread and then crushed with vehement fury. Her eyes widened with confusion, her pupils slowly adjusting to the near-nonexistent light in this shack forgotten by the shadow.

On the crumpled paper, with delicate strokes that had been smashed in pure anger was…a painting. It took a moment that lasted a lifetime for Pinkie to stare at the drawing, to comprehend the scene that it depicted.

The painting was of…her.

It showed what could have been any day in her happy life in Ponyville, sitting out in the open market. Rays of golden sunshine rained down from the clear blue sky, swathing the colorful town below in an aura of contentment. All of the ponies below were going about their day, laughing and smiling as they innocently trotted from place to place, blissfully unaware…of what? Pinkie herself was in the center of the painting, her eyes closed, a huge smile stretched across her radiant face. She sat at a simple picnic table in the market square, and she was holding a daisy sandwich in her front hooves. She was just taking a moment to savor another simple joy of life, feeling no worries, knowing no pain. However, something seemed out of place…

Pinkie knew every single pony in Ponyville, every stallion, mare, filly and colt that had walked the cobbled roads of her hometown. Whoever had painted this obviously also had some knowledge of the town’s residents, as everypony in the picture was based on an actual pony that lived in the real town.

Every pony…but one.

Sitting in the background, barely even noticeable, was a pony that Pinkie had never seen before. He completely blended in; no other ponies in the painting seemed to notice him. Yet Pinkie was completely certain that she had never before laid eyes on the school-age colt that sat two tables away from Pinkie, looking over at her without her taking notice. Still, he seemed to be enjoying himself as he too was eating a sandwich and grinning from ear to ear.

With a sudden chill she realized who that pony bore an uncanny resemblance to. His coat was dark blue as the midnight sky; his eyes were deep red. But…no, that couldn’t be who she was thinking of. The unicorn horn atop his head was whole and unbroken, protruding from a short, wavy purple mane which flowed back as if blown by the wind. This colt had a short, scruffy tail, the same deep purple as his mane, whereas the Shadow was completely bald over his entire body. Instead of a glowing bloodred, his irises were dark maroon, warm and soothing. Where the Shadow’s ears fell low over his head, ripped and scarred, this pony’s elfin ears curled up into the air, perky and betraying a carefree state of mind. He wore nothing but a pair of thick black glasses—no shiny chrome armor, no silver mask, no gleaming claws unsheathed from his front hoof. This couldn’t be the same pony.

Pinkie gently set down the beautiful work of art on the floor, next to the crumpled pile of countless others. She reached down and picked up another, carefully unwrapping it, smoothing the angry creases that had been forced into it by the hoof of its creator. This painting, far from being a realistic scene, was a surreal portrait of the same blue pony. And yet, he was not the same at all.

His purple mane was completely gone, seared off of his smooth bald head, leaving angry black scars in its place. The scars could heal with time, yet his mane would never return…leaving him with the same baldness as the Shadow's. Likewise his tail was nowhere to be seen. His horn was snapped in the middle, ending in a blunt stub; his eyes were the same color of maroon, and yet instead of joy, they were filled with moist sorrow. The smile which had brightened the pony’s dark face was gone. Instead this colt wore an expression of terror; his emotion-filled eyes stretched wide, staring up through the nonexistent wall of canvas in fear. Was he scared of her, or of…? Pinkie stared closer at the painting, examining it closely, until she unfurled the very top, which had been concealed in one final curl of the crushed artwork.

One final detail in the painting sent a cold shiver down Pinkie’s back. Thin black strings descended from above like strands of spider silk, wrapping around all of his limbs in such a way that Pinkie had not noticed before. All of the cords converged in two crossed strips of wood, the puppet master’s tool of power, his method of control that had been hidden in the angry fold. Above the cross was one face, barely visible in the darkness. Its coat matched that of the colt under its control, and yet it had a formal, stylish gray mane and wore a translucent red monocle over one eye. A tight grin stretched across the stallion’s face; his bloodred eyes glared down at the tortured colt below him with an expression of satisfaction and of amusement.

At the bottom of the painting were three simple words, etched as if in an afterthought: A Shaded Soul.

A shaded soul.

For some reason, those words sounded familiar to Pinkie, although she couldn’t quite place why.

Thunder boomed in the distance, jolting Pinkie Pie from her puzzled thoughts. She turned and glanced out the door at the cloud-infested sky, suddenly noticing just how much the bleak storm above her contrasted with the beautiful sunshine in the first painting.

Pinkie turned back to the darkness of the room, a shadow that seemed almost to be alive—pulsing and shifting with conscious thought, glaring at her through invisible eyes. She took a couple steps forward and as her eyes began to adjust to the shadow of darkness…she noticed the outline of another pony, sitting on the opposite side of the room.

Another bolt of lightning lit up the emptiness, driving back the shadow for only a second. Pinkie’s eyes took in everything that it revealed about the room—five empty stone pedestals, filthy and drenched in mud as if they had been recently dug out of the ground, several tables covered in messy scrolls and books, and…a young colt, in the middle of painting a large drawing on the other side of the room.

“Soul Shade?”

Pinkie’s voice broke the deafening silence, shattered the tranquil air of empty depression that had overtaken the room. A second sound, a loud THUNK and the rattle of something rolling onto the floor, revealed that the other pony had dropped his paintbrush. From the darkness, a tiny crimson glow pulsed onto the wall.

She heard three deep breaths in a very unfamiliar voice, the voice of a frightened child attempting to sound tough and intimidating. Then the voice spoke out a quick succession of words, woven from careful thought and strung with lies: “My name is The Shadow. Now get out of my pris-” the voice hesitated for less than a second before returning to a monotone. “Get out of my house before I torture you with nightmares.”

Yet, despite all of the effort he had put into the words…the colt could not stop one tiny thread of bitter sadness from sneaking into the emotionless weave of his single thought.

Pinkie Pie took another step closer, her eyes beginning to adjust to the shadow. “Soul Shade…I don’t think you will.”

She saw his entire body vibrate with anger, and then whirl around to finally face the mare who had invaded the deepest level of his mind.

The colt in front of Pinkie was the very same one from the second painting, young yet scarred; though his demeanor emanated pure fury, his deep maroon eyes betrayed a child’s fear. Around his neck hung the familiar black-and-gray pendant of power, the Element of Fear, pulsing with dark energy. All of the burns depicted in the painting had healed, but as Pinkie had predicted, none of his mane or tail had grown back. His deep maroon eyes betrayed the very same fear of the painting. Is he scared of me, or of…?

Finally the voice spoke again, no longer hiding behind the monotone façade of intimidation that had failed so miserably before. “Well…now you can see who I really am. Go ahead, laugh at me. I know you want to, miss Element of Laugher.”

Pinkie frowned. He’s not afraid of me for who I am. He’s afraid that I would laugh at him... Dropping her voice to a soft whisper, Pinkie replied “I wouldn’t laugh at you, Soul Shade…not even a little giggle. I don’t laugh at my friends when it hurts them.” She reached out a hoof towards him in an attempt at compassion.

With sudden vehemence he swatted her hoof away, his eyes glowing bright red for a fraction of a second. Soul Shade looked down and took several deep breaths, and then snapped his head back up to glare at her. “Everything I’ve done to you was to hurt you. All I ever wanted was for you to fear me, for everypony to fear me…and yet, after all this…you would dare to call me a FRIEND?!”

“Of course I would!”

Soul Shade rose up towards her, looming over Pinkie Pie, stretching out a hoof to punch her in the face...

…and broke down crying against her shoulder.

The Element of Fear fell off of his neck and rattled against the floor, its momentum carrying it away from the two ponies and out of the door.

Soul Shade stayed against Pinkie’s shoulder, sobbing uncontrollably, shuddering as the suppressed emotions one by one spilled out of his tightly squeezed eyes. Pinkie, feeling awkward yet not cruel enough to push him away, reached out and patted his back to console him.

They sat there for an eternity in a minute, the silence passing over them like the storm clouds which floated overhead, grumbling with distant thunder. Eventually the colt’s tears stopped flowing; his shallow breaths once again became slow and calm; his frantic heartbeat died to a calming rhythmic pulse.

A wisp of black smoke, naught but a shadow against the darkness, passed by the door, watching the two ponies…always watching for the shaded soul to emerge. In an instant it was gone, blown away by a warm breeze that was an anomaly in the frozen rain of the storm.

Pinkie spoke up again, her sweet, friendly voice filled with cautious hesitation: “Mr. Shady? Does this mean that you would want to befriend all my other friends too?”

He jerked back, his eyes once again flashing bloodred, and for half a second an unconscious scowl seized his face. Then, for the first time, a tiny smile grew onto his face, shining brighter than the sun. “If they’re not afraid of me, then…I think…I think I might like that idea.”

Pinkie chuckled, and then suddenly she had a horrified thought--would Soul Shade hate her for laughing? She looked over to him, sure that his eyes would once again glow with fury…

…and he was laughing right with her. She closed her eyes and the two ponies laughed together, both with closed eyes, both with wide smiles that were destined to wither and die.

If either had been looking and not seized by the moment, they would have seen a tiny wisp of black smoke enter through the open door and flow directly into Pinkie Pie. She jerked up and her eyes widened as fresh memories poured into her mind, shattering the calm, timeless atmosphere and filling her with a new sense of urgency. She stood up and turned towards the door; her voice broke the tranquil silence: “I probably need to go back now…I bet my friends are missing me, and I’d never want to make them scared about what could happen to me.”

The deep, emotion-filled eyes that had known joy but for a moment once again shimmered with unspilt tears. “You have to go? Can’t we stay here…?”

Pinkie’s head shook from side to side in silent resolution. “I’m sorry. I’ll see you soon though, right? Could we maybe hang out sometime?”

Soul Shade turned back to his drawing, noiselessly seething in bitter fury. If Pinkie had turned around towards the door, she would have noticed Soul Shade crumpling the painting A Shaded Soul and throwing it back into the pile with all of the force his magic could muster. He levitated his carving knife back up in front of his face, stabbing it into the frame of the beautiful painting hidden by the shadow, the one piece of artwork that he could never crumple, his proudest work that he had recreated from memory.

Choosing not to reply to his guest, Soul Shade scratched three words into the simple wood of the frame below the painting, impossible to read for his visitor. It was the title of the one painting he could not destroy, which had lived on in his memory despite the passing of time:

Harmony in Equestria.

A barely audible sigh escaped his lips.

Pinkie Pie turned around and stepped out of the broken door to the shack, but then hesitated and glanced back over her shoulder. She frowned and asked one final question: “Wait...is this just a dream, or really happening?”

Soul Shade did not turn around. “Your choice.”

Black fog filled Pinkie’s vision and she blacked out.

Soul Shade sighed and let the voices in his head have free reign, shouting and whispering in anger and in grief.

She’s gone.

So? You didn’t want her in here anyway.

Didn’t I?

Otherwise why would you put up all of those roadblocks?

That wasn’t me; that was the Shadow and you know it.

Are you sure?

The voices became an annoying buzz to Soul Shade as he stared out the open door, at the single road leading out of his prison. His own voice, eternally arguing with itself, was drowned out by another that would not leave and was destined to haunt him forever, recreated by the cruel power of memory: Pinkie Pie’s.

I’ll see you soon though, right? Could we maybe hang out sometime?

Her voice had made it seem like…like she actually wanted to know him, to spend time with him. It was a strange feeling to be wanted.

Suddenly seized by a sense of determination, Soul Shade stood up and took a step out the door. He slammed it behind him, causing the rotten wooden door to fall off its hinges and splinter into pieces on the broken ground with a deafening THUD.

In a cloud of black smoke that descended from the thundering clouds, the silhouette of his twisted reflection appeared in front of him, blocking his path. A familiar monotone voice spoke directly into his mind: “And where do you think you’re going?”

“Get your flank out of my way, you freak.”

Author's Note

Surprise! ...kind of! I'd already typed the second half of this chapter when I published "Faceoff", so you get to have this one much earlier than usual. That said, now that 1) Spring Break is over 2) I have school again and 3) I want to work on another fic of mine, "Corrupted Roots", it might be a couple weeks before I can publish the next chapter, "To Deceive Honesty". Sorry. :\
By the way, now that Soul Shade is learning to face his fears, we might see more of him...specifically, him confronting his brother. What do you think of that idea?

13: To Deceive Honesty

The deafening howl of wind filled Applejack’s ears as empty air raced past her; if not for the thin film of golden magic she wore like a second skin the powerful gusts of wind could have torn off her coat. Her hooves thundered against the dusty roads, leaving clear imprints as the flat of her hooves smashed into the weathered surface of the path. Magic coursed through her veins, in perfect synchronization with the beating of her heart, flowing into her hooves and doubling the power of each step she took into the road. Despite her increased speed, however, she still could not catch up to the tar-black blur fading into the distance up ahead of her, a powerful enemy and her personal antithesis.

Suddenly a heavy body smashed into her side, sending her tumbling across the dirt. The high-pitched buzz of vibrating wings filled her ears, making them flick in annoyance; the taste of mud filled her mouth. Spitting as she pushed herself off of the ground Applejack glared up to look for her attacker, instead finding five pairs of glowing turquoise eyes. The whine of the creatures’ wings died down as they folded them against their backs; a harsh green glow radiated from each ashen-gray horn that slowly grew in intensity as it approached her. The Changeling’s hooves made no sound as they advanced towards her, silently compressing and expanding against the rocks and the dirt.

For a moment both sides stood still, just staring at each other, waiting for the other to make the first move. Once again focusing on her magic, Applejack willed another rope of crimson-gold magic into existence by her hoof, though she dared not look down given the situation. The tension between them was palpable and dense; it saturated the air and dripped from it. Moisture had begun to build up near the bottom of Applejack’s eyes, but she ignored it; it could wait. Likewise she ignored the bead of sweat that had been slowly dropping down the side of her face, leaving an itchy, irritating trail where it hovered over her skin.

Three of the Changelings suddenly pounced on her, shattering the tension with an almost audible crack, like that of a whip. Applejack ducked down, grabbing her rope with her mouth and ducking under the attacking bugs, rolling against the ground toward the two who had remained. Jumping up from the ground, she was directly in front of the first Changeling—her hoof smashed through its face before the glaring turquoise eyes had a chance to blink. She spun around, barely dodging a bolt of angry green magic that whizzed past her face, nearly grazing her ear. Taking a moment to twirl the rope around her head, she let it fly; the lasso collided directly with the wings of the lead Changeling, who had just snapped them out as it jumped into the air. A frantic expression seized the bug’s face in the half-second it took for the rope to wrap up its wings and send it crashing to the ground, right into its companion who had been standing next to Applejack, about to strike. The two attackers let out a sickening CRUNCH as they collided and tumbled into the trees, dazed. Three down, two to go. The thought barely flickered in Applejack’s mind; she had no time to recognize it before redoubling her attack. She whirled around…but then paused.

The two remaining Changelings held back; their wings buzzed as they floated at a height far above the carnage of their fellows below. Though Applejack found it difficult to distinguish their faces from such a distance, they seemed unsure. With sudden decision the two turned down to face her, moving in sync. Their horns glowed harsh and bright upon her, shining brighter than the radiant moon above, whose rays spilled out across the sky and lit up the world in a glow of pure white.

All of a sudden they released their magic in a hailstorm of tiny green bullets that smashed down into the ground; dodging them would be akin to dodging rain. Applejack winced as the tiny stings bit into her skin like a swarm of angry wasps. The bullets that had not hit her had punched into the ground, burning holes in the dirt that sizzled and sent wisps of steam and smoke into the air—the magical projectiles would surely have killed her if not for the protection of her transcended form. She jerked her head up to see the two Changelings floating again in the air, their hooves hanging limp at their sides; without a potent being to power their magic, attacks such as that must take a lot of effort. Furrowing her eyebrows and concentrating on a mental image, a memory and a pastime she had enjoyed on the farm, in simpler times. Two objects shimmered into existence upon the ground in front of her; she lifted them up, weighing them in her hooves. A tight grin stretched across her face as she turned up to the two Changelings, still recovering in the air, and she pulled her hoof back beside her face as she judged the distance to the two gray targets. With a throw that was easier than it should have been, Applejack let the objects go—first one, than the other, whizzing through the air.

Two shiny horseshoes, identical to the ones used for free-time horseplay by the workers of Sweet Apple Acres, crashed into their targets with an audible THUNK from each respective target. The sheer momentum of the projectiles knocked the wind out of the two creatures, sending them smashing into the ground. They won’t be hurting anypony for a long time.

Applejack surveyed the scene around her, looking carefully at each unconscious Changeling. Noting that all of them were motionless yet breathing, she gave a nod of satisfaction and continued down the road. That took way too long.

Her ears filled with the thundering sound of hooves, one thought crossed Applejack’s mind as she ran faster than wind towards her home at Sweet Apple Acres: I will not let that bug hurt my family.

With an unnecessarily powerful buck, Applejack opened the door to her home, panting heavily; her normally calm eyes glowed with fiery anger. The door bounced off of the wall and back at her with an audible crash, making Applejack wince; she was still unused to the power she carried. Carefully she set it back on its hinges, feeling an impatient stinging in the back of her mind as the precious seconds of wasted time slipped by.

“Applejack, is that you?!” Granny Smith’s raspy voice echoed down the stairs, bouncing off of the walls and reaching her granddaughter’s ears. Applejack paused, stopping for another vital second; her heart began to slow its racing pulse and her breathing steadied. Something seemed off about Granny Smith’s voice, although she couldn’t quite place what.

Applejack trotted up the steps slowly, pressing her body against the wall to avoid the inevitable creaking of the steps that came from stepping on the center. Leaning her head forward and straining her ears, she thought she heard the buzzing of a Changeling’s wings, faint yet steady…no, it must be the ringing in her ears left over from fighting the drones. Still, a twinge of uneasiness remained in Applejack’s mind as she cautiously advanced through the hall; her eyes darted in every possible direction as she walked in her own home. She could feel it in the air, an alien presence that had infected the calming atmosphere of her house, of her family…

“APPLEJACK!” The mare in question whirled around just in time to see a yellow blur crash into her at full speed, tackling her in a tiny but powerful hug. She stared down at her sister, whose playful gaze was met with one of unsure caution. Apple Bloom’s eyebrows furrowed, confused at this seemingly unexpected reaction, and Applejack backed away from her little sister as though she had no idea what the filly would do next.

“J-just a moment, Apple Bloom, I…need a moment to think.” Hurt, Apple Bloom turned around and shuffled back into her room, her tail dragging against the floor. As soon as Applejack’s back was turn her tail immediately perked up again, and she strode to the window with an impatient frown upon her face.

Ignoring her younger sister, Applejack walked into her empty room, squeezing her eyes shut in concentration, deep in thought. Okay, Chrysalis is somewhere around here, that’s for sure. But where? She frowned. This is the Element of Deception that I’m dealing with, and the last time she was in Equestria, she took the form of the pony who no one would have suspected because of how much we loved her. Changelings feed off of love, and who’s to say that they can feed off of other kinds of love? Now who’s somepony I love, who I would never suspect…?

Her eyes snapped open and her pupils dilated as the horrible truth descended over her like a cloud of shadows, darkening her expression. Swiveling around, Applejack found herself staring into the unblinking eyes of her little sister, who had appeared in the doorway without a sound. With a malevolent grin she asked, “Big sis? Is something wrong?”

Applejack’s heart hardened into stone, colder than the freezing rain of the storm over Canterlot. Her gaze contorted into an angry glare, shooting daggers at the form of the little filly. “What did you do to my sister?”

The little creature, hiding beneath a false skin, continued smiling and gave no response.

Her patience at its end, Applejack charged forward and bucked her little sister with all of her might, sending the creature crashing out the window, which shattered into a thousand shards of invisible glass. Rushing to the window, she saw the creature vanish in a ball of green flame and reemerge as a familiar-looking black insectoid figure, which promptly burst out a pair of wings and swooped over the grounds moments before a satisfying crash could occur, floating up into the air. However…she was not alone.

Applejack’s eyes grew to the size of dinner plates and her pupils shrank to that of two peas; her jaw dropped open in horror and her face froze for an instant in an expression of absolute shock. The massive horde of Changelings outside her window, hovering over the massive orchard like a swarm of locusts, drowned out the sky with their colossal numbers. The buzzing of a thousand wings combined in a continuous high-pitched hum, echoing across the vast plain of emerald-green trees that carpeted the ground surrounding her home. A thousand eyes zeroed in on her own, filled with hatred and bloodlust, determination and anger. Among these hundreds of heartless faces was one whose expression was not of detestation but of bemusement; one pair of eyes among the thousands did not glare but rather laughed at her.

There’s no way I could take that many Changelings at once…that’s probably half of the whole army floatin’ over my farm! Or, at least, what’s left of it after the last time we scattered them all across Equestria…Applejack allowed herself a fleeting smile of satisfaction before refocusing on the task at hoof. It’d be crazy to just go on out there and fight them all one-by-one.

Suddenly a spark went off in her brain; she pondered a new idea that she hadn’t thought of until now. Wearing an expression of grim determination, Applejack squeezed her eyes shut and focused on her Element, trying to channel the foreign energies that flowed through her body, emanating from the pulsing Element hanging beneath her neck. I hope this works, because if it doesn’t, I’m in for one heck of a hoedown.

Applejack’s pounding heartbeat slowed down to a soft and gradual rhythm, dropping below any normal, healthy levels expected in a pony with her physical capabilities. Deep breaths of air flowed through her throat; she allowed each individual particle of air a sizeable portion of time to rest before releasing it back into the atmosphere. Her Element began to glow bright orange; its light washed the room with a film of crimson gold, spilling out the window like a brilliant fire, emanating out into the open air. Some of the thousand eyes hesitated at this; some closed as their owners braced themselves and some rotated as their owners simply cocked their heads to the side in confusion.

Reaching out beyond her senses, latching on to the feeling of home that had once filled this landscape with an aura of contented satisfaction, Applejack called out to the earth and the plants around her, sensing their life forces surrounding her on a higher plane of existence. Focusing with all her might, she directed the wild magic pouring freely from her Element into one single thought, which she cast out into the surrounding landscape; the single thought exploded out into the earth and the plants with conscious energy.

Her plan set into motion, Applejack opened her eyes to see a thousand pairs of eyes descending on her, emanating rays of fury directed solely at her, sparkling with the craving to inflict pain and hurt. She smiled and waited as the unending horde of insectoid drones descended on her like an army of demons from the pits of Tartarus.

In perfect synchronization and silence, a thousand red semi-spherical objects ascended into the air, hovering over the field of emerald. They sat motionless in the air, defying all known laws that dictate their supposed actions, given that such objects usually possess no collective consciousness that could drive them to do anything like this. Moving as one, the red semi-spherical projectiles flew upwards towards the horde that surrounded them, rapidly accelerating to highly dangerous speeds.

Sitting behind the window, Applejack smiled as a gigantic swarm of apples flew up from their trees within her orchard, crashing into and immobilizing the entire armada of Changelings that had attempted to defeat one single pony sitting in a farmhouse.

Hundreds of screeches echoed through the air as the continuous buzzing broke into frantic whining. Apples invaded the sky, drowning the out the black with a bright, beautiful red, bouncing from target to target without hesitation, demonstrating ruthlessly unrelenting battle strategies. Though most were immediately knocked out by the sudden swarm of delicious projectiles, several Changelings frantically zipped from spot to spot in the air, desperately trying to dodge the apples. However, if the initial burst of apples did not take them out, the rapidly falling bodies of their unconscious companions did.

Applejack stared out at her work, seeing the thousand eyes now closed in a comatose sleep, with only one pair of eyes remaining. Within a protective bubble of turquoise magic, the pair of eyes was not laughing anymore. For a moment that stretched into a painful eternity, the two pairs of eyes locked, radiating equally powerful auras of resolute determination. Neither of them blinked. The tension in the air between them was palpable; it saturated the atmosphere to such an extent that it almost dripped from every single molecule that dared to get in the way of the two adversaries.

Suddenly the tension snapped; the moment exploded as Applejack leaped out of her window and Chrysalis shot forward to meet her. The air howled in Applejack’s ears as she smashed into the ground, her hooves shuddering under the impact—if not for her newfound strength, she could never have emerged from such a jump unscathed. As it was, she had to waste a precious few seconds recovering from the leap; Chrysalis used those seconds to land directly in front of her and conjure a ball of green-and-turquoise magic shining harshly from the tip of her horn; visible wisps of energy flowed up to her horn from the pendant that clung to her neck, pulsing in sync with her ever-beating heart.

Applejack barely had time to roll to the side before the ground she was standing on not a moment before was vaporized; all of the air that now occupied the spot she was in simply ceased to exist under the sheer raw power that had been blasted at it. Chrysalis whirled around to face her attacker, her eyes glowing as bright as her horn in fury. Bolts of power flew unceasingly from her horn, sizzling as the faded into the air when they inevitably missed their intended target. Beads of sweat trailed down Applejack’s face as she jumped and dodged every which way to dodge the fiery bolts of energy. I can’t do this forever…

As abruptly as the surge of projectiles started, they suddenly stopped. Applejack stood up on her hooves, taking half a moment to catch her breath before turning up to face her opponent. The sphere of light surrounding Chrysalis’s horn whirled around like an uncontrollable storm, with sparks flying every direction, and its master’s eyes screwed up in concentration. A beam of raw power stronger than lightning burst forth from the storm cloud, ripping through the air towards Applejack. In the fraction of a second that she had to look, Applejack whipped out an equally powerful beam from within her Element, blasting back Chrysalis’s own, creating a double-edged shaft of lightning between them. However, this stalemate did not last for long; Chrysalis’s sea-blue beam slowly began to press forward, pushing Applejack’s own orange beam back into its Element. Sparks flew into Applejack’s face, speckling her skin with tiny burns, yet she did not dare to move.

Yet even despite her eventual victory, Chrysalis was becoming impatient. The sheer power of Applejack’s will had now been thrust into her Element and directed at her with its full potential, slowing the beam’s gradual advance. A clean show of strength simply would not do; she would have to rely as always on deception.

Painstakingly shaping her magic, she redirected a tiny fraction of it into a small awakening spell, shooting it off into the fields where a hundred of her loyal minions conveniently sat unconscious. To her malevolent glee, two Changelings awoke and, taking in the situation, began to sneak up silently behind her enemy, ready to take her down from behind. Chrysalis smiled and closed her eyes…

…which prevented her from noticing those same two minions crashing directly into her face, straight from Applejack’s back hooves. The last thing that she saw before blacking out was the mare reared up, her hooves in the air, emanating a ball of golden fire.

Applejack stared down at the unconscious Changeling Queen, completely befuddled as to what to do with her. It had been fifteen minutes since she had knocked her out with her own two minions, who also lay out cold on the ground a couple feet away. None of them would wake up anytime soon.

She had already found all of her family, who were—to her great relief—all perfectly fine. They had been imprisoned in disgusting gooey sacks in the barn, but all of them seemed to be okay—even though they were clearly asleep, all of them were breathing normally, and something within her—likely the Element—told her that they would be just fine.

She had already removed the Element of Deception from around Chrysalis’s neck, taking great care to remove it—the Element of Honesty seemed to know exactly what to do, though, forming a claw from golden magic and carefully plucking the necklace from its owner and locking it in a box of translucent orange magic, then surrounding it with chains of gold. Finally, the very same claw had tapped the Changeling Queen twice on the muzzle, before fading into the air like a wisp of golden wind.

It took a minute or two for Chrysalis to react; her eyes opened gradually and blearily, blinking once, then twice, before fully opening. Immediately they stiffened into a glare. “Well, what now, Element of Honesty? Going to shoot me back out into the Badlands, just like last time?!” the Queen shot, her words hot bullets slicing through the air.

Applejack paused a moment, confused. She hadn’t really thought ahead as to what she would do with Chrysalis once she caught her; that was the least of her worries and she had assumed that the Element would...well...just shoot her off into the Badlands where nopony had to deal with her. Now, she had no idea.

The gold-coated farmpony sighed and shrugged, thinking a minute before responding, “Well…honestly, I don’t really know. I never really thought about it before, but I guess it’d be a little bit harsh to beat you up when I already took your Element. Shucks, I…I dunno.”

Chrysalis stared up at her mortal enemy incredulously, her eyes wide open in shock. “What?!”

“You heard me; I said that I don’t know. Not gonna lie, I am mad that you trussed up my family like you did, but well…I dunno. It just doesn’t seem right to hurt y’all when you’re all beaten like this.” Applejack pressed her hoof against her chin, clearly thinking hard. “I guess I should probably take you to Princess Celestia, but that can probably wait until all the excitement in Canterlot dies down.”

“So, let me get this straight: We are mortal enemies. I brought an army of hundreds of my subjects here to invade your home, impersonated and imprisoned your family, and…you’re just going to take me to Princess Celestia and that’ll be it?” asked Chrysalis, nearly indignant.

“Yup.” she responded.

“And…you’re not going to take revenge on me, or any of my subjects?”

Applejack shrugged. “Well, you didn’t hurt my family any more than you had to, so I thought I’d go ahead and return the favor.”

Now it was Chrysalis’s turn to pause and think. She had never really encountered this problem before, dealing with subjects or enemies. It almost bothered her, that somepony she thought was an enemy was acting so…friendly.

And yet…she kind of liked it.

“So…Applejack,” she began, feeling the extremely alien tone of words spilling past her lips, with not a trace of malevolence within them, “…what were you saying about my…‘family’?”

Applejack smiled and looked down into the eyes of her enemy, seeing no anger, only curiosity. They had plenty of time before everything would die down…why not chat for a little while?

Author's Note

Sorry this one took so long...I had conveniently decided to write the chapter I was least ready for/wanted to write at the exact same time that I had a bunch of school activities and was writing two other fics on the side. Still, hopefully I'll be releasing these more often from now on...I am definitely losing motivation for this fic, but I think there are only four or five chapters to go, so I'm going to finish strong. :3

14: To Betray Loyalty

As Rainbow Dash sliced through the air towards the ruins of the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters, the Everfree Forest an emerald blur beneath her and the sky a starless void above, a blinding light flashed into her eyes. Squinting and gritting her teeth, Rainbow pushed on…even as her senses dulled, pulling her far away from the air around her, drawing her into the blinding shadow of a memory…

The cool breeze passed like a thick fluid over her midnight-blue wings as she pushed on through the silent night, breathing in its repulsively sweet tranquility. One faint cloud passed by her side, murmuring gentle nothings into her ear, whispering the secrets of the harsh-glowing moon, with a secret only shared by the night and its children. All of Equestria lay in slumber beneath her…uncaring, unknowing, and dead. The soft light of the moon draped a pale blanket over them, like a mother tucking her child to bed for the very last time.

Sweeping her gaze over the land beneath her, a silent chuckle escaped her mouth, rippling the serenity that was woven into the cool night atmosphere, naught but a wisp of a breeze. Not a single one of the houses below dared to look up upon her, no one dared to even spare a glance to see the truth…but soon they would know. Everyone would know. They would know by the glint of the frozen-blue helmet as she slid it over her head; they would know by the tar-black stain of her fur as she trotted out into their presence; they would know by the blinding pillars of fire that forked down through the air like the crack of a whip, shattering the quiet with a deafening blast of thunder. A storm was coming.

A tiny hint of a smile played across her face, lit black by the glow of the moon.

The throbbing of a painful ache in her wings awoke Rainbow Dash; the first sound she heard was a heavy moan as it painstakingly crawled from her lips. Forcing her eyes open, she blinked once, then twice, to see the silhouette of a dilapidated castle looming over her, washing her with the blackness of its shadow. A loud wind whirled down from the rumbling storm above, opening the doors to the castle with not even the faintest hint of a creak. Following the beckoning aura of Nightmare Moon into the obvious trap, Rainbow Dash calmly strode into through the ancient doorway.

A thundering BOOM blasted out behind Rainbow as the doors slammed shut behind her. Covering her ears and wincing, she saw only the faintest trace of indigo magic fade out from around the doors before complete darkness swallowed the musty hallways of the Castle.

Rainbow glared into the darkness, as if she was staring directly into the eyes of its master. She squeezed her eyes shut and concentrated, feeling the crimson fire that burned in her veins, igniting it and focusing it into the core of her chest, feeling it well up within her Element. Peeking through a crack in her eyelids, she saw to her relief that her Element was blasting light into the hallway, washing the ruins in an ominous yet useful red glow. Flickers of light and sparks of red fire spat out from her Element in every direction, whizzing through the air before the thick shadows swallowed them. Despite that her Element was glowing red-hot and pressed against her chest as if it did not wish to come off, Rainbow did not feel any pain; the Element did not hurt her.

Alone and trapped within the darkness of Nightmare Moon’s control, Rainbow smiled.

Her smile faltered only a smidgen as she saw a thick fog pouring in from the corridor ahead of her; Rainbow’s confident gait paused for a moment as the curtain of blinding grey enveloped her and ever-so-slowly drowned out her light. A nervous bead of sweat formed and then evaporated against her head as she heard an all-too-familiar voice whispering sweetly from the dark nothingness that lay ahead, bringing back memories of a night all-too-similar to this night, on the pathway to this very castle.

“Rain…bow…”

She frowned; her smooth forehead compressed into a worried complexion of ruffles and creases.

“Rain-bow.”

Her eyebrows folded into a glare. Shouting with a voice infused with fiery anger, Rainbow yelled “YOU again?! You’ve got to be kidding me.” Scanning the darkness for the familiar silhouettes of the three ponies—no, not ponies, shadows—Rainbow found nothing.

“Why did you reject us, Rainbow? Why did you betray us?”

The red light emanating from her chest faded from a dim glow to nothingness, consumed by the fog. Trotting through the darkness and the fog once again, Rainbow snorted in defiance. “Get out of my way.”

“We needed you to lead us. We needed you to help us…and you left us.”

“I said…get out of my way.”

“All that we wanted was to make all your dreams come true…and you left us.”

Rainbow let the silence compose her response, still glaring into the fog that swirled aimlessly about her, still looking for the voice who she longed nothing more than to silence.

“YOU LEFT US!!!!”

A heavy body crashed into Rainbow from behind, shoving her into the ground with an unexpectedly powerful force, knocking the wind from her lungs. Rainbow rolled to the side, wheezing, her Element flickering and shooting off sparks into the fog that immediately disappeared. Through the fog Rainbow could see the dark form of a familiar pale-coated mare, her eyes glaring through the black-and-gold mask. A blur and a swish were the only warning before the shadow’s hoof collided with her face, knocking her back and sending her tumbling against the ground, bouncing several times before flipping over and landing on her hooves. Rainbow rose up on her hind legs and pounced into the black shadow of her aggressor, who immediately dissolved into the mist and swirled out of her reach. Glaring up into the fog, Rainbow followed the path of the shadow as it swirled out of her reach and re-formed further down the corridor. Two other shadows solidified next to it, in the same black-and-purple uniform of the Shadowbolts.

Rainbow’s eyes narrowed as the three hovered in the air in front of her, taunting her, waiting, calculating a plan of attack. Not giving them a chance to confer, she shoved her hooves against the ground and pushed with all of her might into the air; her wings were a blur of motion as she sped down the hall like a bullet of crimson energy. Taken by surprise, the three quickly scattered and dodged to the side—but not quickly enough. She felt the satisfying blunt force of one of the Shadowbolts’ bodies crashing into her at extremely high velocity; with the wind knocked out of him, the dark form tumbled onto the ground, coughing up puffs of blue smoke. Before he had time to dissolve into the fog, Rainbow burst to his side and smashed his face in with her hoof. Wounded, the body retreated backwards, fading into the fog, flying back to his master before any more damage could be done.

Before she had a chance even to smile with satisfaction, Rainbow was forced against the wall, pinned down by the two remaining Shadowbolts. She could see them clearly now, the very same forms that had offered her everything she had ever wanted not two years ago, at the price of her friends. She struggled and squirmed, pushing against the wall with all of her might, but her attackers held firm, staring down at her and grinning. Staring up into their golden eyes, Rainbow could see all of her friends staring at her from across that chasm so long ago, expectant, dependent, trusting…

CRACK!

A bolt of blinding red flashed through the hall, scorching away the fog and vaporizing the two remaining Shadowbolts. The image of their mouths wide open in noiseless screams of terror was seared into Rainbow’s vision as she watched them disappear into the fog; as she watched the gray wisps of their essence dissipate into the black hallway behind them, she took a deep breath to steady her nerves. They weren’t real ponies. They were illusions, just like last time.

Nightmare Moon sat still within the throne room of the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters, silent and calm. The shimmering aura of her mane swirled about her tar-black body like an indigo fog, enveloping her in a cloud of magical energy. Her thick eyelids fell over her glowing dragon-eyes; while any external observer might consider her wholly blind, her vision had transcended her physical form to weave itself into the body of its former home, the great Castle whose halls flowed with air like blood, whose every window stared out into the night, whose walls stared unblinking at every fraction of a movement to occur within the body of the Castle. Her focus was not in the single body that sat motionless in the center of the ancient room, rather, it was in the wisps of wind that flew down the dark corridors; it was in the fog that poured endlessly from her presence out into the abandoned halls.

Thin bolts of electricity flickered out from the black pendant around the Night Mare’s neck, flashing with brilliant light, crashing with silent thunder. Their light shot out into the darkness, splitting the black with dazzling blue, only to peter out in less than a second, giving in to the darkness with ease.

The entire room was eerily quiet; no breeze dared to break the all-consuming silence of the ancient halls. Yet…another noise did.

BLAM!

The deafening crash of an explosion burst through Nightmare Moon’s hearing as a wall of dust consumed the room. Shards of stone leapt from the floor and scattered every direction, pelting her coat with tiny projectiles. Shielding her body with her wing, Nightmare Moon stared in incredulous anger as the fog that had poured from her essence disappeared with the dust, seared by the crimson inferno of light radiating from the body of Rainbow Dash. Tongues of flame spilled across the floor beneath her hooves, making the dead ground glow red-hot.

Glaring down into the ferocious eyes of her antithesis, Nightmare Moon rose into the air on a throne of black cloud, which rumbled eagerly as it hungered for its prey. Twin bolts of cyan light burst from the cloud, spiraling through the room and striking right at Rainbow’s hooves. Her body soared across the room and spun straight towards the wall, but the mare whirled around faster than the Nightmare would have thought possible, landing with her hooves on the wall and leaping back towards the thundercloud. A javelin of red lightning hurdled from her neck, piercing the heart of the cloud. Immediately it exploded into a crimson fireball; Nightmare Moon had to fly up towards the high ceiling to avoid it.

Calling upon her magic, Nightmare Moon blasted down another devastating volley of lightning bolts, a quick succession of blinding spears that whistled through the air as their gleaming points approached the tender flesh of Rainbow’s body. The mare was a red blur as she leapt from spot to spot, soaring higher and higher into the air, flitting like an angry wasp as she approached the Nightmare with righteous fury blazing in her eyes. Nightmare Moon stared down as Rainbow sped towards her…

…and passed right through her body as it dissolved into a cloud of violet smoke. Rainbow smashed into the ceiling at full force, sending a spiderweb of cracks along the ancient structure. Her eyes closed, her wings unresponsive, the mare crashed to the ground with a bloodcurdling CRUNCH. The ceiling above her, the ruins that had stood proud and mighty for so many thousand years, crumbled above her, burying her body in a casket of stone.

Rainbow.

The single word jolted her to consciousness; her mind immediately rose up from the dark void which it had fallen into, the heartless pit of death that festered beneath the blackest depths of every mind and soul. Her mind was clouded and fuzzy; two thoughts tried and failed to connect in her conscious mind. She could not see. She could not hear. She was, to the world around her, wholly dead.

Straining her aching body, Rainbow Dash lifted herself from the ground. Her hoof automatically shot to her eyes as she squinted past the blinding white of the room around her. A frown crossed her face, and her eyebrows sunk down in thought and confusion.

Rays of sunlight streamed down, and as her vision adapted to the blinding sunlight she looked around for the speaker. Her eyes darted from point to point in the ocean of white, but no pony was around. Only…a blue crown of thorns lying dormant on the ground.

Is that it? Is that all you’ve got? C’mon, Dash, you can do better than that.

Rainbow sighed and rolled her eyes as her mind processed the situation, and the identity of the entity that had woken her up. Of course it had to be Pride…

You can’t leave all of your friends behind and give up now. Without you, they could never make it; they could never defeat Nightmare Moon without your strength of will.

A cold shiver ran down Rainbow’s spine. She glanced back at the speaker…but the crown was deep crimson red. A blink, and it turned back to the vibrant blue of the sky, the dominant and protective shade of her own coat.

Another blink, and it was gone. Another blink, and all was darkness.

Nightmare Moon glared down at the heap of rubble in triumph, taking a moment to breathe as she stood over the tomb of her rival. Her Element spitting lightning from her chest, her voice exploded with a thunderous laugh, a laugh that echoed out from the ruins, across the fields of dying emerald-gray and out into the silence of the night.

Something, however, gave her pause. A faint red glow, no more than the flickering of a candle, was trickling out of the rock-pile. She ceased her gloating and returned to the rubble, staring down in disbelief.

“I don’t believe it," she said, her voice softer than a cool night breeze, rising immediately to a thunderous shout: “I DON’T BELIEVE IT! There is no possible way that you could have survived. You didn’t even have the 'magic of friendship' to save you this time!” she yelled down at the pile of dead rocks, watching in livid incredulity as the fiery glow only grew brighter. One eyebrow rose on her face as she waited a minute, then two, and heard no reply. And then, all of a sudden, a muffled voice spoke out against her from within the glowing depths of stone:

“Yeah, that’s true. But, then again, it’s a lot easier to get back up when you have something worth fighting for.”

Suddenly the glow rose up, roaring in an inferno of light. Wisps of smoke began to rise from the cracks between the boulders, now glowing red-hot with power. The Nightmare backed up one step, suddenly unsure, before the pile exploded in her face, and a wave of raw power blasted her backwards, sending her majestic body tumbling through the air, with her shiny protective armor scattered into the wind. Without even a moment to think, Nightmare Moon passed out.

With a sickening THUD, the great and the powerful Nightmare Moon, Terror of the Skies, Bringer of Eternal Nightmares, collided with the stone walls of her ruined palace, spreading a spiderweb of cracks through the grayed and rotten stone. The smooth ocean of black across her coat, its surface normally unbroken and silent, was thrashed and dissonant, scarred with ruthlessly powerful crimson fire. That fire was reflected in the eyes of her enemy, who stood triumphant over her, a glare carved across her smooth cyan face. Waves of red magic poured out from the aura surrounding Rainbow Dash, burning away the gray fog of the room and casting an ominous blood-red glow against the long-ruined walls of the room.

The Night Mare’s mane, so normally regal and powerful, flowing up above her to smite her enemies with bolts of white vengeance, had sputtered out and now flowed out behind her like a gentle stream against the stone, its star-speckled surface now murmuring in pain and defeat. The armor that had adorned her hooves, her face, her chest, and the crown of her head lay splayed across the floor, unceremoniously thrown on the very same ground on which they had been presented to her, on a night filled with secrets not unlike this one so many years ago. The ice-blue surface of these adornments that had once glared at its foes with harsh brilliance now lay dull and stained on the ground, marred beyond repair.

A sharp cough split the air and the silence, and with all of the strength she could muster the Night Mare glared up at her attacker…or so she thought. Her eyes, those dragon-like orbs of turquoise fire, had faded with her strength, seized back by the true master of the night whose soul lied imprisoned within her body.

Rainbow Dash approached the deathly figure, determination in her eyes and a field of red lightning crackling around her neck, casting a faint red glow onto the dark stone floor beneath her hooves.

The pure-black mare lay unconscious on the ground, her armor shattered and her coat burned, fallen from grace. Several blue sparks shot out from the Element attached to her chest, flying out into the air and then fading into the night. Where the red lightning of the battle had struck Nightmare Moon’s pitch-black coat, it had seared the black off completely, revealing a deep midnight blue underneath.

Nightmare Moon awoke, barely able to move in her weakness. Glaring at Rainbow, she tried to stand up…but the pain from her wounds was too much. She let out a soft cry as she once again fell onto the cold, hard ground. The quiet voice which echoed through the chamber, however, was not that of the furious Nightmare, but…it was Princess Luna’s.

Rainbow stopped. She knew that she had to do something to the Mare in the Moon, one of the deadliest threats to Equestria in history, to stop the Nightmare’s cruel anger from ruining the lives of all of her friends, but…she had almost completely forgotten that this mutinous shadow of death was also the pure and just Ruler of the Night, Princess Luna, before she had been corrupted.

She trotted up to the Mare in the Moon, glaring down into those furious, glowing turquoise eyes. Nightmare Moon’s glower returned Rainbow’s hatred in full, but could not move nor retaliate at all. This villain was truly defeated.

And yet Rainbow still was possessed by the flaming desire to destroy this mare, to call upon her Element’s crimson lightning and end this threat once and for all. It would be so easy to simply put this enemy out of her misery, and prove her loyalty to the Kingdom of Equestria…

And yet, that choice would be so easy. So simple.

A cold shiver ran down Rainbow’s spine, as she remembered exactly where she had felt this before. The impulse to end the Nightmare was not something she was compelled to do out of devotion to the safekeeping of the kingdom. It was not a choice she felt obliged to carry out because of her Loyalty to her friends…

No. The feeling which overcame her was the desire for satisfaction of knowing that a threat to Equestria was defeated at the hooves of Rainbow Dash.

She may have defeated Pride once, but…the worst parts of anypony in existence will never truly die. They can only be fought, a fight which will last all of anypony’s lives. Success is measured not in their defeat, but in the ideals one can hold dear to their hearts that become the downfall of their own nightmares.

Glancing down at her necklace, Rainbow noticed that the cloud of lightning she would have used to strike down the dark mare had faded away at the very thought of such a cruel act. A voice began to speak softly into her mind, seemingly out of nowhere, filling her thoughts…

“The Elements of Harmony are not mutually exclusive. Just as they all fill their users with magical energy even though Magic is only one among six, they are not separate entities. Rather, they are at their most powerful when they are combined together…coexisting in perfect harmony. Generosity should not be dishonest, Laughter must never be greedy…”

Rainbow Dash took one last look at Nightmare Moon. The once-powerful alicorn lay helpless at Rainbow’s hooves, shuddering with her eyes squeezed shut, as if trying to keep something within her contained.

“And Loyalty must never become unkind.”

Unwillingly, the bearer of Loyalty sighed. She glanced down at the black mare, whose form now shimmered in the pale moonlight. “Hey, you don’t look so good. Are you alright?” Compassion flooded the scratchy voice of Rainbow Dash.

The voice which spoke back, from deep within the injured body of the cruel Night Mare, was soft-spoken and flowed over Rainbow’s soul like a whispered melody: “You…aren’t going to…kill me?”

“I would never give up on a friend…on anypony. No matter what.” Rainbow replied, forcing a smile to the broken soul who lay below at her mercy. The harsh glow of the Element of Betrayal on the black mare’s neck died, and Nightm…Luna did not resist as Rainbow craned her head down, looking at the corruptive pendant with concern. “Are you sure you’re going to be okay?”

Luna looked up behind Rainbow, staring at something the young mare could not see. Her gaze, so filled with sorrow, hardening; her eyes flashed bright cyan blue, returning to dragon-like orbs of turquoise. Suddenly Rainbow was forced back by Betrayal’s aura, and the midnight-blue patches in Nightmare Moon’s coat sealed, leaving her body to once again become the shade of a black thundercloud that rumbled against the skies. Enveloped by a shroud of blue lightning, she stood up, still glaring at a figure outside of Rainbow’s vision.

Rainbow could only stand and watch as a different pony descended into the room, an alicorn with a pure-white coat which so contrasted the Night Mare’s own. Suddenly, Rainbow recognized the voice that had spoken into her mind, so wise and yet so scared, trying to save the life…of her sister.

Princess Celestia.

Celestia cautiously approached the two ponies, Rainbow Dash and Nightmare Moon, Loyalty and Betrayal. They both stared at her, Rainbow with confusion and her sister shooting back daggers that pierced her heart.

But then…something unexpected happened.

Rainbow shouted, “WAIT!”

The sun goddess stopped, watching in shock as Rainbow pulled Nightmare Moon aside and stared straight into her eyes. A red glow began to shine from the cyan mare’s neck as she spoke, a soft aura that flowed onto her sister’s chest, not a scalding inferno but the warm glow of a hearth: “Now, I don’t care if you hate me…we barely even know each other. But this is your older sister, the mare who ruled alongside you, comforted you when you were weak, cared for you every day when you were young, and never stopped loving you…even when her position forced her into the meanest things that I’m sure she still regrets to this day. Just…try and give her a second chance, okay?”

In the absolute silence that followed, the only noise that could be heard over the dull thrumming of the rain against the crumbled rooftop…was the drip of a single tear as it burst against the floor beneath Nightmare Moon’s blackened hooves.

Taken aback, Celestia could only watch as her sister shuddered in pain. Her black coat began to flicker in the soft moonlight, and she turned her head to look at Celestia.

Her face was that of Nightmare Moon’s, but her eyes…she had Luna’s eyes.

Celestia let forth an audible gasp. She had almost forgotten what it was like to see her sister’s eyes corrupted into the dragon-like spheres of complete turquoise…and then to watch them change back, into the most beautiful sight in the world. So filled with sorrow and pain, and yet so vulnerable…Princess Celestia used all of her strength to force herself to stay standing, and not to rush to her sister’s side; to take her under her wing and nuzzle her and tell her that everything would be all right.

And yet it was not to be.

The Element on Luna’s neck suddenly blasted out a harsh blue light which engulfed the black mare, and she fell to the ground, writhing in pain as lightning consumed her body…

No. Not again. Not ever again.

Celestia called upon the most powerful magic she could muster, from within the depths of her soul, and used it to tug on the Element of Betrayal with all of her might. The black pendant had attached itself to her sister’s skin, seeping poison along her coat and into her heart. It refused to budge.

As she opened her eyes, Celestia noticed the warm, familiar figure of another pony standing by her side. Rainbow Dash gave her a smile, and then turned also to the lightning-infested form of Nightmare Moon.

Magic, a crimson wind of pure magic, began to blow from the Element of Loyalty. It united with the golden beam of magical energy pouring out from Celestia’s horn, and the two beams united as one, together, in perfect unison. Together they latched onto the Element of Betrayal and tugged forth with all of the powers of Harmony.

The storm pendant at first would not move from its position above the heart of the night. Slowly but surely, however, it began to fall to the steady pull of pure crimson and gold magic…dragging the torn black coat of Nightmare Moon with it.

Luna let forth one final scream as the Nightmare in her mind, her scourge and the bane of her existence, was torn away from her. The Nightmare was ripped from her pure midnight-blue coat, tearing away from her soul with an earth-shattering RRRRRRRRRRIP.

A blissful silence descended over the chamber in the moments that followed, broken by a small clang as the Element of Betrayal rattled against the ground. The black corruptive pendant’s aura of raw power had gone, leaving an all-too-innocent looking necklace sitting motionless and dead on the ground, surrounded by pitch black shreds of essence that shimmered on the ground. Slowly they flowed into the Element’s crystal, the lightning gem absorbing all that was left of Nightmare Moon.

Celestia and Rainbow walked towards the figure of Luna, lying on the ground. She had returned to her younger state, her tiny body shivering as tears brought forth by pain and sorrow flowed freely from between her scrunched eyelids. Celestia trotted up besides her, lying down and letting her wing rest over Luna’s body, which was curled up in a tight ball on the cold stone floor.

Luna’s eye shot open, afraid for a moment, before she let the comforting touch of her sister’s wing console her. She glanced up at her caring sister, whose kind smile was a warm embrace to her tortured soul.

A tiny smile lit up Princess Luna’s weary face. Her sister was there for her. Everything would be okay.

Author's Note

I told you I'd get back to a more betterish schedjule of posting! Well.....a month is better than two, I guess. Anywaiz, did you like the Nightmare Moon v Rainbow Dash battle? I feel like I might have not focused on Luna's internal conflict enough....but then again, I did plenty of that in the earlier chapters. And I used too many sound effects. Also, I definitely could have thought of a better way for Rainbow to wake up.....okay, enough self-criticism. What did you think?

15: To Crave Generosity

High upon the wind-battered spire in the heart of Equestria, a monstrous dragon crawled ever-closer to the capital, the fiery glint of avarice gleaming in its eyes.

An avalanche of boulders crashed down from beneath the dragon’s claws, shattering into a storm that washed down the mountainside in a haze of dust. The deafening bursts of rocks crashed all around Rarity and exploded like a thousand firecrackers, leaving a high-pitched whine ringing in her ears. Her eyes squeezed tightly shut under the protective shelter of her magic-woven shield, Rarity climbed up the mountain towards Canterlot Castle, painstakingly placing one hoof and then another further up the jagged surface of the mountain, forcing herself up towards the gleaming pearly-white towers that sat so far out of her reach, mocking her with their faultless surfaces that so contrasted the dirty rock. Howling winds bit at her coat, winds that would have chilled her to the bone without the shimmering aura of magic that covered her body like a second skin.

Noticing that the endless cascade of rocks had ceased, Rarity paused and opened her eyes, peeking over the top of her glowing shield to see what the gargantuan beast was up to. It had turned away from her to climb higher up the mountain, having almost reached the sparkly walls and towers of Canterlot Castle. Its tail swished from side to side above her; she could see the line of green spikes that adorned its tail swinging back and forth, back and forth.

Cautiously, hesitantly, Rarity trotted further up the mountain, placing the weightless shield at her side. Still staring up at the angry dragon, Rarity barely noticed a large and pointy chunk of rock in her path until she stomped her hoof down on top of it, tripped, and fell on her face.

Springing back to her hooves and brushing the dust off of her coat, she glared at the dusty mountainside beneath her and frowned. A blast of thunder crackled in the distance as she stood motionless on the bare rock, still looking down with a puzzled expression across her unblemished face. How could I possibly catch up with him?

Suddenly, seized by a stroke of inspiration, Rarity concentrated and a ball of sea-blue magic emerged from the tip of her horn, which fell and stuck on the rocky ground beneath her. With a swish of her horn, Rarity split the ball into four, then squished and shaped them into four hoof-shaped containers. Releasing another stream of magic, she broke the stream into threads and wove them into the four containers, making them into glowing, magical boots, the perfect size for her hooves. Finally, she shattered the end of the stream into a thousand tiny pieces with sharp, nail-like ends. Flipping the boots over, she levitated the shards and stabbed them into the bottom of the boots, forming an array of sharp spines that could easily pierce and grab onto solid rock.

Jumping into her new glowing boots, Rarity sprinted up the side of the mountain to pursue the beast, which had already breached the walls of Canterlot Castle with one swift blow from its fist. A deafening wall of sound flooded down the mountain; Rarity ducked and lay flat against the rock as another avalanche of shiny white boulders tumbled past her.

A look of grim determination on her face, Rarity sprinted up the rest of the cliff face, her shield glowing sea-blue at her side.

The earth trembled with every step Spike took; he marched past the broken walls of Canterlot Castle and into a large courtyard, pausing for a moment to take in the splendor of the treasure trove around him. Every surface of every building shimmered and shone, sparkling in the moonlight; brilliant hues of gold and white and purple surrounded him on all sides. His eyes gleamed hungrily with emerald fire, and he was about to take another step towards the beautiful, delicious buildings when a very annoying voice piped up from behind him.

“Spike! Stop right there.”

He swiveled around, casually knocking over a large stone fountain with his tail. Glaring down to find the voice, he found himself staring at a tiny little pony with a beautiful glowing coat and a stubborn look on her face.

Pony awake, pony here? What pony doing? Getting in the way…

With an angry snort, Spike reached down to swat the pony off of the mountain. His claw jolted backwards off of the pony’s glimmering shield and he yanked back his arm; the shield burned with the all-too-familiar burning pain of magical fire.

He looked down again, glaring with palpable rays of hatred at the pony that was advancing slowly towards him…but then he frowned in thought and confusion.

Shield so sparkly and beautiful; pony so sparkly and beautiful…both dangerous. Shield painful, pony painful. How to capture both…?

Suddenly a malevolent grin crossed his face and his glare intensified. Pony can’t hurt if pony not awake. Now, how to knock out pony? Spike backed up towards the wall of the courtyard, reaching behind him for a chunk of it to throw.

Rarity cautiously approached the beast, holding the still-vibrating shield out in front of her face. The dragon’s fist had not even made a dent in the shield, and based off of the way that the dragon yanked back its arm, the blow had hurt quite a bit.

Her hoof bumped something again, something soft, and she looked down and shrieked for half of a second before she regained control of herself. A stallion from the Lunar Guard, fully dressed and unscathed in his armor, was lying motionless on the ground. The guard wasn’t dead though; his chest rose and fell with an unsteady rhythm but a rhythm nonetheless. Still, that was not what had made Rarity scream.

A wisp of black fog floated lazily about the stallion’s head, obscuring his face. It pulsed with the glow of magic as it swirled around his face, through his nostrils and into his mouth, tainting the air that entered his lungs. A chill raced down Rarity’s spine as her mind processed what she had seen. Somepony must have used a sleeping spell on him...

All of a sudden it struck her how…dead the city of Canterlot was; usually, even at night, the gentle hum of activity rose from every block, and a few faint rays of light flickered out of the buildings’ windows as the ponies stayed up through the waning hours of moonlight. But now…all was silence; all was darkness. A shroud of deathly quiet covered the entire city.

The shroud of quiet was broken by another earth-shaking roar and explosion of stone.

Rarity whirled around to see the scaly beast tearing into the side of one of the high buildings of Canterlot Castle and pulling out a huge chunk of stone. Pulling its claw back, the dragon sent its gleaming projectile soaring through the air towards her. With a yelp, Rarity dove to the side just as the chunk exploded in the spot she had occupied half of a second earlier.

Climbing to her hooves, she barely had time to raise her shield up in front of her face before another chunk blasted into her. It burst into a thousand shards of rock on contact with her shield; Rarity’s eyes widened as she saw the glow of the shield flicker ever-so-slightly under the intense attack. This thing won’t last forever…I need to find a way to stop him.

She jumped forward and sprinted towards a stone fountain peacefully laying on its side in between the two combatants, nearly flinching as another hunk of wall flew past her face. Sliding onto the ground, Rarity barely had time to catch her breath before the statue shattered over her head. She quickly rolled to the side, holding her shield above her head as she frantically gathered up the jagged stones around her in a net of violet-blue magic. Sealing the net into a ball, she hurled it towards her opponent right as he reached down to grab another chunk of wall, and heard a morbidly satisfying howl as the shot found its mark.

Seizing the opportunity, she jumped to her hooves and charged in towards her enemy, holding her shield at her side and a thousand pellets of razor-sharp stone in a deadly cloud in front of her. Rearing his head up right as Rarity closed in, the dragon had just enough time to widen its eyes in shock before her attack hit him full-on in the face.

Another fresh roar split the sky as the dragon backed up, frenziedly scraping the rocks off of its face as it backpedaled straight through the hole it had carved and into the side of the West Tower of Canterlot Castle. Spinning around onto his heels, the dragon threw its arms up onto the high tower and jumped, stabbing its back claws into the wall for support. Its tail hung down like a pendulum as the dragon smashed its limbs higher and higher into the tower, spreading a spiderweb of cracks across the smooth pearly face of the building.

Rarity’s jaw dropped as the beast climbed higher and higher out of her reach, up into the storm-blackened skies lit white by the harsh rays of the moon.

Higher, higher into the stormy sky. Closer up to the shiny rooftops. Further away from that pony and her stupid shiny shield…

A low growl reverberated in Spike’s throat as he climbed higher up the building. Wisps of smoke blew out of his snout as he turned around and saw the annoying pony still following him to the base of the building. His emerald eyes squinted together and his forehead compressed in incredulous anger. Pony still following?! Not worth it anymore. Go away, pony!

Grabbing a the spire off of a nearby rooftop, Spike snapped it off until he had a good-sized throwing spear clenched in his meaty fist. With a grunt of satisfaction he let it fly right above the pony’s head…where it immediately shattered against her shield. The pony had started climbing up the tower towards him using its glowing boots; as he watched it ascend his jeweled necklace started to heat up until it was burning against his neck.

Roaring with pain, Spike caved in to his instincts and vomited out a house-sized inferno of emerald fire, which poured down the face of the building like an angry flood, melting the stone wherever it touched. A sadistic grin crossed his face as he saw the pony’s look of utter horror staring up at him through its translucent shield. Stupid shield blocks rocks; does it block fire-breath?

Looking down, he saw the pony's shield melting before the flood splashed against the ground, hissing as the fire ate into the stone and earth beneath it.

A surge of blinding fire rushed down the mountain towards Rarity, hardly giving her time to jump before the wave consumed her only protection and whisked past the ends of her hooves. She frantically yanked at a part of the wall beneath her and shot a beam of magic into it, feeling a burning twinge in her gut as she soared through the open air towards the merciless stone below.

Her eyes squeezed tightly shut, Rarity barely noticed as she landed gently on the shimmering surface of an enchanted boulder, which her magic shaped and twisted around her with a life of its own. She peeked one eye open to see the startling sight of a capsule of glowing rock, with a section of translucent-blue at its front, as if the magic had created some kind of window to the makeshift vehicle.

Concentrating on her magic, Rarity felt the hum of the vessel around her respond to her will. She urged it forwards and upwards, sending the tiny rock careening through the air. A bolt of lightning broke the atmosphere, lighting up the silhouette of the angry dragon as it climbed onto the pointed roof of the West Tower. Clinging to the spire of the Tower, its back claws scrabbled over the edge of roof for a brief moment as it tried to adjust to its new position.

Seeing an opportunity, Rarity sent a rapid series of magical pulses into the sides of her stone craft. Immediately twin streams of fiery magical projectiles burst from the outside of the vehicle, crashing into the beast’s thick hide and eliciting a deafening roar from his spiky muzzle. Rarity urged her craft faster, circling around the spire of the Tower and climbing higher into the air so she was finally at the same level as the beast.

Spike’s thick claw sliced through the air right next to the makeshift aircraft as it zipped by, followed by his furious glare. He stared intently at his target, tracking its motion as it did a one-eighty in midair and barreled straight towards him. Sucking in a lungful of air through his muzzle, Spike breathed a gigantic cloud of flaming heat into the air right through the plane’s path of attack.

Its pilot blinded, the glowing rock sailed though the ball of fire and way up into the air, melting as it climbed higher and higher into the stormy sky. At the peak of its climb, the rock evaporated into a cloud of green steam and its owner was sent careening through the air.

Suddenly a memory shot out from nowhere into the forefront of his mind, temporarily blinding him as a chill of déjà vu shivered down his spine.

The two fell down through the sky together, side by side, pony and dragon, as they were sent careening through the air towards their rocky doom below. Despite his impending death, though…Spike could not stop staring into the beautiful eyes of the pony right across from him.“Rarity? I need to tell you something, just in case we don’t make it…!”

‘Rarity’?

...Rarity?!

Without a second thought, Spike reached out and snagged the falling pony with his empty claw, ignoring the sudden feeling of fiery pain welling up within his chest. He hastily yanked back his arm in front of his muzzle and stared down at what he had caught; his eyes widened as he saw the tiny, beautiful pony cowering in his palm…

But as he stared down at her with wide-open eyes, the fiery pain consumed him. His shock-filled expression suddenly scrunched into a livid glare.

Not ‘Rarity’. Annoying pony. Annoying pony that gets in our way.

Spike took another deep breath in…

Rarity opened her eyes, once again surprised to find herself still alive. Her eyes darting around, she suddenly noticed that she was in the middle of Spike’s gigantic claw. The dragon had saved her.

She stared up at his muzzle in fascination as she saw an expression of shock and of sorrow filling his gigantic face...but her eyes widened in alarm when his expression disappeared as if it had never even existed. The dragon took in a deep breath, ready to boil her alive in the fires of greed and rage and hatred.

“Spike…wait!” Rarity shielded her face with her hooves, braced for the fiery inferno of pain she knew was coming.

But…nothing came. As she slowly peeked out between her hooves, she saw his face contorted in intense thought, struggling against the vicious powers attacking his mind. She could feel vibrations beneath her as Spike barely held himself back. I’m getting to him. But it’s not enough…what could I say that would have the power to completely snap him out of it?

Suddenly, it dawned on Rarity exactly what she needed to do. She took a deep breath and resigned herself to what she would have to say next…something she had put off facing for a very, very long time.

KILL IT! YOU HAVE IT RIGHT HERE!

But she’s my friend!

NO!!! IT’S JUST A PONY. CRUSH IT IN YOUR FIST.

I won’t! I won’t do it!

Suddenly…a different voice interrupted Spike’s struggle. A voice that Spike knew very, very well. “Spike…please don’t kill me. I love you.”

Time stood still as the words processed in Spike’s brain.

Love…me…?

You…love me?

I…

The gallons of liquid rage that had poured through his veins were suddenly extinguished, and his chest felt suddenly cooler as the stinging heat was forced off. A heavy burden fell from his shoulders as the Element of Greed tumbled down into the empty streets below. It rattled and stopped in the middle of the street, laying useless in the shadow of the West Tower where it had sat so innocently only a few hours before.

Spike felt his body shrink and his muzzle contract; the tower slipped out from between his claws as his tiny body bounced down against the roof of the tower. He looked across from him and saw the same pony falling beside him through the open air, just as the pair had sometime in a distant memory. He knew though that this time…nopony would be there to save him.

But he didn’t care.

The last thought that Spike had before he slammed into the ground and blacked out was how nice it felt to hold Rarity in his arms.

Rarity awoke with a pounding headache. One of her hooves was throbbing as if she had punched a wall over and over, and her flank hurt from sitting on something uncomfortable.

Suddenly a thought jolted her to attention. Spike! She jumped to her hooves and looked around…only to find that she had been sitting on him the entire time. He was totally unconscious, and his back was twisted in a gut-wrenching position. Thankfully, his chest was still rising and falling…but in an unsteady rhythm; his body shuddered with every breath.

Rarity’s jaw dropped as she desperately to think of a solution. I need to heal him…but I don’t know how! If only Twilight or one of the nurses was here!

Suddenly an aura of warmth rose out of the Element of Generosity, expanding and glowing with a soft pink light. All of Rarity’s muscles instinctively relaxed as the spell welled up inside her, and she gave a contented sigh as it floated out towards the wounded dragon.

The magic took him up in a soft embrace, carefully flowing over his cuts and scratches and into his mouth, causing his scales to glow with a faded-purple light. As he was lifted into the air his spine automatically corrected itself; his arms rose up at his sides, healthy and clean.

The loud moan that escaped Spike’s mouth was interrupted by Rarity suddenly hugging him tightly.

“Uggghhhh-HEY! I mean…ohmygosh, Rarity?! Wha…?” Spike took a look around and was instantly confused. “Where’s Twilight? What happened to those buildings?!”

She slowly released him. Cautiously, she asked, “You don’t remember anything?”

“Well…the last thing I remember was giving Owlowiscious a bunch of letters to bring to all of you guys in Ponyville. Since you’re here, I guess you got the message…but where’s everypony else? How did we get outside?”

Rarity cocked her head, puzzled. He can only remember before he sent us that message...but why would the healing magic take away his memories after that? A thought struck her. Of course! That must have been right before the Element of Greed got him.

A pang of regret sank in her gut. I guess that means he won’t remember anything that just happened…

In a gentle voice, Rarity said, “Don’t worry, Spike...I’ll tell you everything later. Now, we should probably find Twilight and the others, no?”

Author's Note

Whew, never thought I'd finish this chapter by today! xD Sorry for the length...oh, and for that lil romance-y part (which should probably be the last of its kind).
Next chapter will feature Flutters and Discord, immediately followed by the final 1v1 chapter, "The Power of Magic".

16: To Tyrannize Kindness

Fluttershy took one step through the archway of the Canterlot Palace Labyrinth and immediately the ground spewed out a black cast-iron fence behind her, blocking her only exit. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw the fence and whimpered, but then turned back towards the pathway, feeling the warmth of the Element against her neck and strengthening her resolve.

As she turned around she noticed a flashing neon arrow that had suddenly appeared in front of her, which pointed forward into the Labyrinth. She turned back to the iron fence, which now had an upside-down “DO NOT ENTER” sign plastered across its face, and then gulped as she trotted forward into the twisting maze of traps and terror.

An arrogant smirk stretched across Discord’s muzzle as he watched Fluttershy from above; she had walked straight into the maze without a second thought and was now trotting down one of the paths with noticeable hesitation.

Perfect. Now the fun begins…

He snapped his clawed fingers and a trio of pink butterflies flew out of the hedge to her right, floating almost lazily through the air and leading her to the path that spiraled around to her left twenty feet ahead on the path. She ignored the butterflies and kept walking the same direction, taking the path to the right.

Discord’s laughing eyes suddenly tightened into a glare. Fine. If you want to play games, we can play games. In fact, I have a game that I designed just for you…

The draconequus snapped his fingers again and disappeared in a flash of light, his toothy grin hanging in the air for a fraction of a second before he faded into the air.

Rounding the corner, Fluttershy nearly jumped out of her hooves as she found herself staring face-to-face with a horrific exhibit of torture and chaos. A pit of pinkish-red bubbling fluid oozed on the ground, roiling but not frothing over; something was holding it back. Above the pit two wooden poles climbed high into the air, each with an animal dangling from a chain attached to the top of the pole. On the left pole, a tiny little bunny swung back and forth in the air, its eyes stretched wide in innocent fright. On the right pole, a majestic falcon desperately strained the wings that were bound to its sides with tiny chains in a vain attempt to escape its imprisonment, temporarily ignoring the helpless prey hanging less than ten feet away.

Discord’s cackling voice suddenly boomed around Fluttershy, as if from an intercom: “Fluttershy! We’re going to play a game, you and I. Trust me; it’ll be fun.”

She looked frantically up into the air, looking for the tell-tale sight of the demon’s mismatched limbs and body. He was nowhere to be found.

The voice continued, ignoring Fluttershy’s lack of a response. “You get to choose to free one of these innocent animals from its current predicament, but only one. If you attempt to set both of them free, they will immediately fall down into…well, I’ll just tell you that touching that stuff isn’t advisable for those who enjoy the use of their limbs.”

Again she had no reply, staring at the two critters with a growing sense of horror. The mouse stared at her with its tiny little eyes, begging and pleading. By now, the falcon had stopped struggling and lay motionless on the end of its chain, resigned to its fate.

“But wait, there’s more! If you choose to free the falcon and let the mouse fall to whatever fate awaits it below, the falcon will probably swoop down and eat the mouse to end its suffering. So, saving the mouse just because it’s cute—which I knew you would automatically prioritize—may not work out as well for both of them. And of course if you refuse to make the choice I’ll drop both of them, as well as let the bubbly death sauce pour out and flood the Labyrinth....and maybe even Canterlot.”

“So, which do you choose, Element of Kindness?”

Fluttershy took a deep breath to steady her fears, gently placing them aside as she closed her eyes and collected her thoughts. There was no real right answer to this riddle; Discord had designed it so there was no way any choice she made could possibly be considered ‘kind’. Just like last time, he was using wordplay and illusions to try and trick her out of her Element. But…just like last time, he had forgotten one extremely important factor.

She suddenly snapped her eyes open and stared at the falcon, concentrating with all of her might on its closed despairing eyes.

The falcon opened its eyes slowly, hesitantly, not believing what it saw nor what it felt. Fluttershy was staring directly at it, and…it knew what she was thinking. A soothing feeling of warmth blossomed in its chest, spreading out through its body into the tips of its wings.

Fluttershy finally spoke up. “Alright, Discord, I’ll play your game. I choose to save the falcon.”

Discord blinked once, then twice, as he stared down into his reflecting pool at the pony. He scratched his head with a claw as he looked at her, trying to read her expression, befuddled. Is she actually playing this the way I want her to? No, she wouldn’t do that. She must be trying to take some kind of third option…after all, this is the only pony I couldn’t brainwash the last time I escaped. Nevertheless, I should follow my own rules and give her what she wants. A sadistic grin crossed his face.

“Alrighty then, one falcon coming right up!” With a small pop! the falcon disappeared and re-appeared at Fluttershy’s side, as the cute little mouse was sent spiraling down to its doom below. The falcon immediately jumped into the air, shooting straight towards the falling mouse.

This should get interesting. I wonder what Fluttershy will do-

His train of thought was cut off as he saw the falcon immediately stop directly under the falling mouse, catching the prey on its back. It landed carefully on the grass, bending down to let the mouse slide off and scamper into the bushes.

The satisfied smile that had settled on Fluttershy’s face was almost blown right off by the deafening intensity of Discord’s voice as he screamed at her from nowhere.

“YOU! YOU USED YOUR MAGIC TO CONTROL THE LITTLE BEASTS, DIDN’T YOU?!”

The burning whine of Discord’s anger rang in Fluttershy’s ears as she stared up into the empty air, wondering what in Equestria could drive anyone to devise such a sick and twisted game. “No, Discord, I didn’t. Even though I suggested the idea, the falcon chose to save the mouse’s life by itself. You really should stop assuming the worst in everyone.”

Turning away from the empty air, Fluttershy stepped back into the maze and continued down the winding path that led to into nowhere.

Discord cracked a sadistic smile as he pieced together his next game. Oh, what fun this one will be! The ice rink sat beneath him, shining crystal-white in the sunlight—Nonono, it should be purple—as he assessed his work. Perfect. Fluttershy should turn the corner right about...now!

The wind whistled through the labyrinth, filling the silence.

He pulled a clock out of his ear and stared at its face, frowning. He scratched his head in bewilderment. She was supposed to arrive right now. Where is she?

Fluttershy trotted further into the heart of the maze, taking several deep breaths to calm her racing heart. The bushes rustled as a hot wind pushed past her, ruffling the fur on her wings, but she ignored and it and kept walking. I just need to keep going until I find Discord.

Letting her mind wander, Fluttershy thought, what will happen when I find him? I hope I don’t have to fight him…but I know he won’t give up easily. I guess I’ll just have to see when I get-

A sudden tug on her neck yanked her out of her thoughts, and Fluttershy looked up, startled. Again something pulled at her neck, pointing towards left wall of the labyrinth. Looking down, she saw her Element of Harmony floating up next to her neck and pulling her towards the wall. She glanced up at the direction it pointed and frowned.

The only thing there was another hedge wall.

Still…something seemed off about it. Somehow she knew that she had reached the center of the maze. I wonder what’s inside…?

Tentatively Fluttershy reached a hoof through the wall and placed it on the ground on the other side, pulling her body through the bush which happily moved aside at her touch. Her hoof splashed as it landed in a small puddle of water.

“TYRANT!” The voice screamed, over and over and over and over and over

Fluttershy jumped back into the hedge, suddenly scared. “W-what is this place?” she said aloud, but then hesitantly placed her hoof back in the pond.

That voice echoing over and over inside my head, her voice; always her voice. But then again, she was the only one who dared to speak, all those years ago…

She climbed out of the hedge and slowly waded further into the pond, feeling the strange liquid swirl around her hooves. Every current brought a different feeling as if it was completely unstable; one minute it chilled her to the bone and then another it roiled angrily against the thin fur hanging over her hooves. Still she pressed on, determined to find out what was in this pond.

She still doesn’t understand. None of them understand. No one could ever hope to understand.

…I don’t understand.

The water level had reached her belly fur as she started to swim, nearly slipping as the ceiling dropped off beneath her.

Why understand?

A wisp of black liquid swam past Fluttershy, boiling cold to the touch.

Why does she think she needs to understand? Why can’t she understand that she will never understand? It’s just having fun. It’s only fun. So much fun to go down and have them all within my reach, bowing to my every whim, playing every game I want them to, all beneath me, all below me…

An ebony-black blob of pure whiteness floated past Fluttershy’s hooves, far beneath the crimson-green surface of the pond.

…none beside me...

Fluttershy stopped. Her hooves pumped rhythmically from side to side, keeping her afloat as she wondered why she had stopped right here. All of her fur was completely dry in the shallow pond. She suddenly frowned. “This isn’t anywhere near as shallow as it looked from shore,” she murmured to herself, staring down into the ever-shifting murky depths. Fluttershy gazed down into the bottom of the pond. Lying beneath everything else, all of the roiling angries and bubbling laughs, one pair of burning thoughts did not move.

Why is there no one beside me? Why is there no one besides me?

Suddenly an unpleasant feeling prickled Fluttershy’s neck, and she had the distinct feeling that somepony was watching her. She whirled around, looking back towards the hedges she had entered through…and there he was. Hovering above the ground. Glaring at her with a pendant of red fire blazing against his neck and a pair of roller-skates dangling below his clenched fist.

“Why did you have to come here? Why couldn’t you have just played along?” he asked, every word a stinging blow. The pond rippled as he spoke, its surface absorbing the anger in his voice, turning a sickly shade of blood red. “We were playing a game together, and then you had to go and ruin everything by coming here. You ponies are all the same, aren’t you? All of you are content to spend your five-second lives doing absolutely nothing, and then whenever I try and have any fun, you ruin it because it doesn’t fit in with your perfect little pretty pink planet. I’m sick of being the only one, the only one who…”

He faltered, suddenly noticing the odd way that Fluttershy was staring at him. “What?”

“Discord…you’ve never had a friend before, have you?”

The angry look on his face evaporated as he fell onto his back in midair, cracking up, his laughs echoing through the empty halls of his empty maze. “Oh…oh geez. You little ponies really are all the same, aren’t you? A…a friend…ahahaha!”

Fluttershy pressed on, still staring at him. “No, I’m serious. Have you ever had a friend before?”

He stood up, and his face scrunched back into an expression of anger as fast as if he had flipped a switch. “I know you’re serious. Believe me; I know…you’re always serious. All of you are always serious when it comes down to it, even that Pinkie Pie.” He grimaced. “And no, I have never had a friend. Nopony ever wants chaos…especially when Harmony has been all the rage for over three thousand years. Trust me, my usual greeting is a rainbow blasted in my face.” Discord’s red eyes were boring holes into Fluttershy’s, daring her to make a move. “Speaking of, isn’t it about time for you to attempt the same? If I’m not a lawn decoration by the time your friends get back, they will be awful disappointed.”

She opened her mouth to reply, but he immediately cut her off by continuing: “…that is, if you think you can do it by yourself. Does it concern you that the only ponies who can stop me together are currently scattered all over Equestria with struggles of their own?”

He paused, looking down at her with that wide arrogant smile. She looked back up to him, still thinking deeply, not sure how to respond. “I don’t know. I guess I didn’t really think about that…I just knew that I needed to find you, so that I could convince you not to hurt any of my friends.”

At that, Discord launched into another bout of laughing. “Oh…my sides…Fluttershy, you are a riot. Convince me? Convince me? How in the world were you deluded enough to think you could convince me of anything? I’m the immortal spirit of chaos! You’re a pony who’s going to die in less than a hundred years! What could you possibly convince me of?”

“Well, I’d start off by convincing you that I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Of course you don’t. None of you ponies ever do. But in the end, you all are living happily ever after in your shiny white castles, and I’m locked up in a stone statue in the garden suffering a fate worse than death. Funny, isn’t it?”

Fluttershy flinched in horror. Worse than…? Was it really that bad? She felt an uncomfortable twinge in her gut. How must it have felt to sit in one place alone for thousands of years, with no friends to comfort you?

“I think it’s funny,” Discord said, still grinning.

Poor thing…I need to find a way to fix this. How could I let him free without needing to lock him back up again? She racked her brain, trying to think of something, anything to help the miserable beast…when suddenly, a faint glimmer of hope sparked in her mind. Well, it’s an awful solution, but it’s better than nothing.

“What if I stayed with you this time?”

Discord stared blankly at the butter-yellow mare. He had been expecting all of the usual things the ponies always said—“I don’t want to hurt you, but I have to! Sorry!” *zap*—but this…he did not see this coming. Cleaning out his ear with his pinky talon and throwing out a huge wad of gunk, Discord asked, “What?”

“I-If you get turned to stone again, I mean. Would it help to have somepony to talk to?”

He groaned. “So, you would turn me to stone, but stop by in case I get lonely? Thanks.”

“You know what...I’m not going to turn you to stone again.”

Wait, is she serious? Does she have any idea what she’s talking about? Discord snapped his fingers and reappeared right next to her, with a pair of librarian-glasses balanced precariously atop his muzzle for added skepticism. “Listen, Flutters. This is going to end one of three ways. One, you try and fight me and lose, and I laugh at you as I freeze you in a wad of unbreakable grape jelly, so the Elements of Harmony won’t threaten me again—at least until the new Element-bearers come around in a century or so. Two, your friends show up and you turn me into a garden decoration, just like last time…but I won’t let that happen, because we’re done stalling. Three, you don’t try and fight me, and I put you in a wad of jelly anyway. What’ll it be?” he asked.

Fluttershy did not speak, but she did answer. Gently unclipping her Element, she waded back into the pond, her hair stained black by the chaotic muck. Discord watched her, confused. What is she doing…?

She trotted still further into his pond, swimming now, pushing onward into the pond. She took off her Element before going in…why? There’s nothing in there that could save her, or defeat me, or even bring her friends back…unless she’s stalling by trying to confuse me! Discord nodded, satisfied with this explanation. His eagle-claw suddenly filled with jelly that eagerly fizzled and cracked in the empty air. No more stalling, Flutters. Time’s up.

Yet even as he pulled back the wad to throw at her, taking aim…he hesitated. I’ll at least see what she thinks she’s doing. If she wanted to stall, she would have run into the labyrinth…no, she must think she can do something else.

The water level was at her head as she swam still further into the pond. He could feel the memories swirling around in there, agitated by her presence. I believe they might attack her if she tries to go further, Discord mused. Nice of them to do the job for me. He gave a wry smile.

He snapped his lion paw fingers and instantly appeared at her side as she swam further into the pond, her nose barely above the surface. “Yknow, Flutters, it can be quite dangerous to go in there…after all, my memories are often bitter to ponies, and can be provoked quite easily. Also, whirlpools appear very suddenly and might just drown you…” That should get her out.

Suddenly a whirlpool appeared straight beneath her and she was sucked down, swallowed into the abyss of swirling chaos. A few bubbles floated up to the surface and then popped, exploding with a cacophony of gag-esque noises. He stared in disbelief. She forgot her Element. How does she think she’ll get out?!

Time stood still as the draconequus hovered in mid-air, his body completely still. He stared down into the depths of the bottomless pond…and saw a body floating there, completely still.

No. There’s no way she could be that stupid…is she expecting her friends to come save her?! All of her friends are out all over Equestria! How could her friends save her if none of them are here?

His heart skipped a beat…as he answered his own question.

…I’m here. I'm here beside her.

With a snap of his fingers the butter-yellow pony was laying on the grass, her hooves splayed out to her side. Her chest shuddered as it rose and fell, weaker and weaker with each breath.

Discord’s mind whirled as he watched the pony fade right in front of him. He snapped his fingers again to get the fluid out of her lungs, but…nothing happened. Something was stopping him…his magic wasn’t working!

WHAT?! He snapped again and again, but for the first time in his life, his magic refused to let him continue. Staring at her, he suddenly noticed a tint of red on her soft fur, from a light…a glowing light…on his chest…

Not hesitating for an instant, Discord unsnapped the Element of Cruelty from his neck and sprinted over to the shore of the pond, where the Element of Kindness sat as unmoving as its owner. With a pop! he reappeared at Fluttershy’s side, and ever so gently wrapped it around her neck, with a caution he had never before employed. Seconds stretched into hours as he watched the faint emerald glow of the Element of Kindness pulsing with her heartbeat, painfully slow. But then…

Fluttershy coughed violently as she jerked up, panting and sweating, her eyes wide as dinner plates. She retched and coughed up the deathly fluid of the pond, which sizzled and scarred the surface of the grass.

A stupidly huge smile crossed Discord’s face, and a very…strange…feeling washed over him. What is this…? I’ve never felt this before…But it was a nice feeling, and he let it stay for a second or two as he watched his recovering frien—Wait, is she? No, she couldn’t be; she’s just a pony! That I just saved, for no reason. I…guess she is.—friend. Friend. I…I kinda like that.

He had almost forgotten that one minor twinge of annoyance until she woke up and looked at him with those big, adorable eyes, and then he remembered what had actually just happened. “Why did you do that? Did you make me save you?!”

She frowned. “What? No…I didn’t even think about what would happen to me. I knew that those were your memories in that pond…and I wanted to understand what happened. I wanted to know why you would think I couldn’t save you.”

The feeling came back to him, unpredictably, unexpectedly. This time…he let it stay.

Two friends sat together by a pond, both smiling. Even though neither of them spoke a word…both knew exactly what the other would say. The Element of Cruelty lay dead on the grass, and the Element of Kindness pulsed with warmth between the two as the bushes and vines of the labyrinth walls slowly collapsed around them, happily falling back to sleep within the earth.

The pitter-patter of raindrops falling to the earth faded away as the clouds dispersed into the open sky, and with the rainfall gone, the pond faded as well; it faded into nothing more than a bad memory.

Scritch-scratch scritch-scratch scritch-scratch

In a tall building within the heart of the city of Canterlot, amid the wreckage of storm and destruction, while tendrils of black fog reached around every corner to ensnare any naïve civilian who was not yet subdued, while twelve of the most powerful beings on the planet waged total war in the city’s own statue garden, the thirteenth sat calmly at a small desk in his study. He was bathed in an ominous glow from the translucent-red glass window behind him, a glow that matched the tint of the monocle squeezed tightly in his left eye.

His desk was simplistic yet elegant, built from a type of wood imported from halfway across the world, far beyond the borders of Equestria. A neat stack of papers and scrolls sat at the stallion’s right side, one of only three features that decorated the unordinarily ordinary surface of the desk. The other two were a small shard of a mirror and a very oddly-decorated chessboard which had an even odder setup. Six black pawns had been placed to the side of the chessboard, lying on their sides—lost, useless, and forgotten. The six white pawns were all approaching the black king from their respective locations, turn by turn, but they were too far away to reach him before the white king did…which had spent its last turn moving within the attack range of the black king. Black’s turn.

Paying very little attention to the board, the stallion grasped a quill firmly in his mouth, scritching and scratching at a scroll beneath him, writing out a letter to a friend of his who had fallen asleep on his rounds patrolling the corridors of Canterlot Castle. Suddenly glancing up, the stallion found himself staring at the dark silhouette of a pony that had slipped into the room without a sound. A welcoming grin crossed the stallion’s face.

“Ah, Professor Magus! Glad to see you took my advice about the protection spell. Could you do me a favor and deliver this message to one of the Guards? He should be fast asleep on the south balcony. Thank you ever so much…” The silhouette nodded; a cool rush of wind swept through the room as the scroll flew off of the stallion’s desk. A small creak echoed through the quiet room as the open door swung shut.

Perfect. I do hope the fellow hurries to deliver that message—after all, he seems to have forgotten that the protection spell I recommended only lasts for twenty minutes after the user wakes up, mused Puzzle Master. But then again, I may not have mentioned that little detail when I originally suggested the spell.

All of a sudden Puzzle Master frowned and spun towards the window, looking intently into the sky. It would appear that the storm is clearing up. Soon I will have visitors…I suppose I should prepare myself. After all, my visitors are expecting quite a show, and it would be a shame to disappoint them.

Author's Note

NO I'M LATE POSTING THIS BY FIFTEEN MINUTES!!!! D;

....xD

Anyway. Next chapter, Element of Magic versus Element of Power. Expect epicness.

17: The Power of Magic

WHOOOOOSH

A deafening wave of sheer force flooded over Twilight as a golden scythe sliced straight through her multilayered forcefield of magic. Destabilized, the glowing violet sphere imploded on itself—all of the delicate threads of magic woven into its structure careened through the air and merged into the storm, feeding the angry clouds. Twilight felt a sickening lurch in her stomach as her body tumbled through the air, no longer floating inside the controlled environment of the forcefield, blasting through the howling winds and falling towards the merciless ground below. Desperately, with air screaming in her ears and her vision blurred with tears squeezed out by the force of the wind, Twilight concentrated and coated her body in a thin layer of magical energy.

Looking down beneath her, Twilight would have recoiled in shock if she could—she had fallen from more than a thousand feet above the ground level of Canterlot, and she could see almost the whole city beneath her rapidly growing in her vision. She squeezed her eyes shut and braced for the impact…and with another gut-twisting bump she bounced off of the cobblestone road, rebounded against a wall and landed in one of the streets of Canterlot.

Twilight coughed once and got up to her hooves, staring up into the sky. Her opponent—Lula, was it?—floated in the center of a huge mass of storm clouds, glowing bright yellow, brighter than the blazing sun or the icy moon. Taking a few deep breaths to steady her panicking heart, Twilight closed her eyes and sat down on the cold stone. From the sudden disappearance of the cold feeling, Twilight assumed that she was now flying.

She opened her eyes…and immediately a fiery inferno of light blasted into her vision.

Lula felt the burning energies of her Element coursing through her body with every beat of her heart as she glared down through her magically fragmented vision at her enemy below. Every inch of her skin burned with golden fire, stinging with raw pain which only fueled her anger.

An armada of infuriated clouds surrounded her, all subject to her authority, all obeying her every whim. She could feel the power building within them, the rapidly growing tension of static electricity that had a kind of firepower ordinary ponies could only dream of. One cloud floating up to her left suddenly filled with raw energy as it flashed with light. TAKE THIS!

KRAC-KOOOOOOOM!!!

A bolt of blinding white arced through the air, severing it with the heat of five suns as it rained down onto the earth, radiating fire. She saw time slow down through a quarter of her vision as it curled down into the sky below her, automatically moving towards the closest target: Twilight Sparkle. An explosion of crimson heat blasted up towards Lula and she smiled beneath her mask.

And then everything went wrong.

The bolt of lightning did not stop. It poured down out of its cloud like a string from a ball of yarn, unraveling the cloud into a puff of useless white steam as all of the tension faded and the power disappeared. No, not disappeared; where did it go?!

Still glowing, the explosion did not disappear either. It grew and grew, spreading out horizontally until it formed a wall of fire between the sky and the earth, coating the land in a sea of red-hot flames. The sea faded away in less than a second.

Fuming, her eyes glowing with rage, Lula stood still in midair. Clever. You’re always so-o-o clever, aren’t you, Twilight…but no amount of intellect can outwit absolute power.

Taking a deep breath, she sucked in the energy from another of the clouds, stripping its electrified exterior and pulling all of the power into herself. Her skin screamed with pain and her headache intensified, pounding against her skull like a raucous drum, but it did not last for long as Lula exhaled all of the energy and breathed life into a beast of raw power.

Its body stretched a quarter mile across, casting a golden shadow over Canterlot Mountain as the moonlight filtered through its translucent skin. A pattern of ivory stars speckled its fur, spiking out aggressively across its skin. One bright star stared down from its forehead, above the pair of livid red dots swimming in golden yellow that glared down on all beneath it. Three razor-sharp white claws jutted out of all four of its thick limbs.

Lula grinned again. Try to defeat the beast this time, Twilight Sparkle…milk and music won’t stop it now.

Twilight panted as she hung in mid-air, exhausted from the effort of redirecting all the power of the lightning blast into the open air beside her. When she glanced up to see what Lula was going to try next…her pupils shrunk to two tiny dots. I-Is that…?

The Ursa Minor roared down at her, as if only to answer her question; its mouthful of fangs glinted in the dim light of its glowing skin.

What can I do?! There’s no way I could even think of anything to beat a creature like that! I… She glanced around wildly, and then looked down. A gigantic purple-and green dragon was standing in the courtyard, roaring at something that she couldn’t see—suddenly Twilight got an idea. As she poured magic into the open air, a tiny smile crossed her face. Thanks, Spike.

The Ursa paused in the air, looking down with its head tilted to one side as a stream of violet magic wavered and shifted in mid-air, flowing into a beast one-and-a-half times its size. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” Lula shrieked from above him. “JUST DESTROY IT!!!” The beast snorted and a puff of steam escaped from its nose, crackling with electricity.

It rushed down through the air, running and falling…but skidded to a stop as a five-story dragon of pure magic charged up towards it, soaring on wings of violet flame. The Ursa’s eyes tightened into a glare and it reared up, baring its claws and teeth.

The dragon responded in turn, opening its mouth and revealing an impressive set of razor-sharp fangs. Suddenly, a jet of indigo fire streamed out of its maw, flooding the Ursa’s vision. Instinctively it shot up a claw to its face, trying to bar the stream of boiling magic, only to have the claw be seared off and fade into a wisp of yellow smoke.

Roaring with a blast of force that shook the foundations of the city a thousand feet below them, the Ursa dove down toward its opponent, ripping through the air with claws of golden steel, baring a mouthful of teeth and fire. The two beasts collided in an explosion of light, sending shockwaves through the air with every slash of teeth against scales and claws against fur.

AAAAAUUUGGGGHHHHH

The pounding of her heartbeat had obliterated her sense of hearing. IT’S FINE I CAN USE MAGIC TO HEAL IT LATER IT’S FINE. Her vision had shattered into thirty fragments, all staring into different parts of the sky or the world or the universe—IT’S FINE I CAN SENSE EVERYTHING AROUND ME IT’S FINE! Tongues of flame spat out of Lula’s mouth as she gritted her teeth together, trying to contain the power boiling over within her, power that frothed out from between her teeth and stung like venom. Concentrating on the fight below, she sensed the two synthetic beasts clashing below, sending ripples along the fabric of the universe, washing over and between her body as the power fought to burst out of her physical form. IT’S FINE. IT IS FINE.

A roar exploded out below her as the dragon’s toothy muzzle clamped onto the bear’s thick neck, crashing into her with the force of a tidal wave and knocking her loose from her post in the sky. Swinging out wildly with limbs of raw energy, Lula grabbed a chunk of cloud and threw it straight below her body, following up with a bolt of golden lightning that condensed the vapor into a platform of solid ice. Blowing a wisp of energy through the air, she froze the platform at its spatial location right before she smashed face-first into it, sending a spiderweb of cracks along its surface that immediately regenerated.

Grunting and floating to her hooves, she looked down through a corner of her eye and saw the glowing form of the Ursa tumble through the air and split open on the peak of Canterlot Mountain, bursting open and fading into the air. Its dragon opponent immediately condensed into a ball of magical energy that swirled for a moment, and then reformed into a catapult which flung the body of Twilight Sparkle across the sky towards the platform. Half of Lula’s face smiled for a second at the sight of her opponent’s hooves flailing in midair…until Twilight landed perfectly right across from her on the platform of ice with her horn and eyes glowing pure white.

Violet smoke seeped out of Twilight’s eye sockets, obscuring her vision as she glared at the costumed figure across from her. Lula stood rigidly still, frozen with the platform, flickering in the wind. Suddenly a wave of force crashed into Twilight and shoved her off of the platform, knocking the breath from her lungs and sending her once again tumbling through the air.

This time, though, Lula did not wait for her next move. Twilight watched with an ever-growing sense of panic as a dozen vultures of golden steel swept down from within the depths of a gigantic thundercloud, screeching calls of death into the darkness. Fire glowed in their eyes, glaring intently at her as they tightened their wings, forming a hailstorm of metal bullets that fell rapidly down towards her, and towards the city beneath her.

Panic bubbled over in Twilight’s mind as the bullets of golden steel glared down at her. Focus! She closed her eyes. Focus, focus, focus. What would a brave pony like Rainbow Dash do…?! Snapping her eyes open, Twilight shot out two blobs of magic in quick succession, shaping the dots of translucent violet into feathers and squishing them into what looked like the right pattern. She grimaced. Good enough for now.

Turning up towards the sky, Twilight flew straight towards the vulture swarm, her horn radiating violet energy. The shrieking of metal wings and metal throats filled her ears as they drew closer, and Twilight’s eyes narrowed. Remembering the extremely odd feeling of Pinkie Pie spinning her tail in circles, Twilight fired off a torrent of deadly energy beams, sending them spiraling through the air as they each scattered towards their targets, filling the sky with streaks of violet fire.

One of the beams flew straight upwards, missed the vultures completely, and crashed directly into the platform of ice, shattering it into a thousand pieces.

Smoke and fire and ruin…everything ruined…falling…

My face burning hot with shame. Their mouths stretched wide open in mirth, the stage smashed into a thousand pieces.

“Hey, braggart! Good job!”

Always the names.

Someone in the crowd, muttering. “What kind of unicorn is stupid enough to use a spell right next to a fireworks display?”

I’ve done this before, you know…

Another pony. “Wait a minute, isn’t this the pony that nearly destroyed Ponyville by luring in an Ursa Major just to show up Twilight Sparkle?”

NO! It was an Ursa Minor, I didn’t do it on purpose, and it wasn’t my fault!

I limped off of the stage and into the dark streets, ashamed and lost.

Smoke and fire and ruin…everything ruined…falling…

NO! FOCUS. IT IS FINE.

Air screaming past her, golden fire streaming from her pores, Lula redirected her fall straight towards the peak of Canterlot Mountain. A parachute of energy expanded behind her right before she would have smashed against the rock face, giving her just enough time to magically cushion her landing. Alighting on her hooves, Lula glared up and saw the winged unicorn do a one-eighty and flying straight towards her.

Let’s see how strong you made those wings, Twilight. The roar of a cannon thundered in her ears as the boulders surrounding her shot one by one into the air, flying faster than any physical object should ever travel.

Immediately the tiny dot swung to the side, dodging the boulders and continuing her dive. Lula’s half-smile stretched even further across her face. What goes up…

…must come down. The boulders exploded in mid-air, bursting into a thousand sharp fragments of rock, slicing clean through the air and through Twilight’s fragile wings as she fell now uncontrolled towards the peak. A twinge of burning pain seared Lula’s head as she lit her horn with golden fire, but she gave it not even a grimace as she began pelting the falling pony with thin rays of energy.

Immediately the dark figure became a glowing bubble as Twilight surrounded herself with a magical shield, reflecting the beams all across the mountain. One beam cut clean through the surface of a massive boulder, sending it tumbling down towards the walls of Canterlot Castle.

Twilight adjusted her position in the air, growing slightly more comfortable with the gut-twisting sensation of falling. Wrapping herself in the familiar aura of levitation, Twilight decided she may as well try it—I hope I can keep this sustained. By now, her horn itched and burned against her forehead, irritated by the sheer amount of energy she had pumped through it. How does Lula even handle it?

Suddenly the glint of motion caught her eye, and she stared dumbstruck as an avalanche charged down the mountain towards Canterlot Castle with enough force to easily level the city. There’s no way I can stop that and fight Lula at the same time! She racked her brain desperately for a solution, drawing all of her memories to the forefront of her mind for an answer. I couldn’t make another magic-beast; it wouldn’t know what to do. If I try and stop it myself then Lula will attack me from behind…wait. Twilight smiled as she dove straight towards the highest tower.

Lula stared down in triumph at the flying violet blur that shot past her vision towards the gleaming white towers, obviously desperate to save its precious city. A sphere of blinding fire ignited at the tip of her horn as she concentrated and re-formed her shifting vision, ready to obliterate Twilight from behind before the mare would even know what happened. Her tongue stretched out from her steaming mouth and licked her lips; all the saliva immediately fizzled and turned to boiling steam.

Lula frowned as her target suddenly exploded into a web of violet energy and stretched across the towers of Canterlot, and continued to stare at the strange wall of magic until a colossal force collided with her back, sending her tumbling down to the earth. The ball of energy exploded in a frenzied inferno, immediately knocking out her adversary and shooting both of the limp bodies down, down, down the mountain side.

My hooves ached as I trotted further down the road, once again driven away from my own show, once again cast out by the cruelty of the masses. Ever since Twilight Sparkle showed me up in Ponyville these ponies have been crueler than ever before, showing no pity, showing no mercy. If not for her…!

Distracted by my angry thoughts, I did not hear the sound of the stallion trotting up towards me with a spiteful grin across his ugly mug. I turned towards him and instantly my eyebrows folded into a glare. He was in the crowd. He was one of them!

He stopped to talk to me, and in the dignified voice of the Canterlot snobs stated, “Good evening, Miss…Lula Moon, was it?”

I stopped and glared at him through my blurry vision, nearly blinded by moisture. “What do you want?! Are you here to make fun of me?!”

“No, actually. Your performance impressed me—well, at least, before that unfortunate accident. Accidents happen to everypony, you know, and it disappointed me greatly that you cut off the show.”

I paused and looked him over again, wary. Despite his apparently friendly demeanor, the bloodred monocle sitting atop his left eye seemed to stare right through me. “Well, it’s obviously too late to start it back up. What do you want?” I asked, still bitter.

“Would you be interested in a business proposition?”

Again he had thrown me for a loop. Nopony had ever been interested in sponsoring my magic shows before, not even in the towns that had actually liked my shows. “…What kind of proposition?”

The stallion reached under his cloak and pulled out a leaf of tattered parchment, with a beautifully detailed sketch of a black-and-gold tiara on it. “Do you have any interest in rare magical artifacts?”

“No. Why?”

“I think you might be interested in this one. Twilight Sparkle has one just like it…”

Curious in spite of myself, I stared down at the drawing as he placed it in my numb hoof, no longer glaring. After giving it a once-over I creased it and tucked it into a fold of my cape. “Alright, fine. But I’ll need to get my cart.”

His grin widened. “Do not worry about that; my ponies have already packed up your cart and brought it to a safe location—the same one we can head to now, to discuss my business proposition.”

Did he already know I would agree? “Whatever. But one last question…” I hesitated. “Who are you?”

“Lord Silver Tongue, speaking on behalf of my company, Black Castle Enterprises. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Lula.”

“Well, I haven’t heard of that company before.”

“That does not surprise me…my company tends to keep a low profile, but we are growing. We are hoping to expand into the entertainment business…and I have an idea for an event coming up soon that your talents are perfectly suited for, a large-scale show of sorts that will help my company’s publicity. This event will keep the whole city of Canterlot entertained, and trust me; it will be a long time before anypony forgets it.”

I thought over what he was saying, still unsure. The show itself would be perfect for re-establishing my reputation here in Canterlot and across Equestria…and this Black Castle Enterprises might be interested in more shows, providing me with a steady income for a little while so I could get back on my hooves. But still…something was off. Something didn’t feel right. “Why would I need that magical artifact thing though?”

“My brother can explain the situation in more detail when we get back to the Black Castle apartment. He will show you everything that you need to know.”

A chill raced down my spine when he said that, but I don’t know why.

Every inch of Twilight’s skin burned with pain when she woke up; her bones throbbed angrily and her horn felt like it was on fire. She forced open her eyes and took in the destruction around her, immediately looking towards the high city of Canterlot as soon as the fuzzy blobs settled into distinct shapes in her vision. A sigh of relief escaped her lips and she almost closed her eyes again as she saw a shimmering wall of magic standing proudly above the city, still steaming from the touch of boiling rock. With a wave of her horn, the wall evaporated into a fine purple mist.

Twilight shoved against the ground and got to her hooves, wobbling unsteadily, trying to ignore the deafening whine ringing in her ears. She glanced down at her hooves and winced, immediately tearing her gaze away. H-hopefully I can heal that later…

Trotting on unstable limbs, Twilight walked over to the half-conscious form of another pony lying in the dust, a sea-blue mare covered in splotches of black whose pale frazzled mane spilled over onto the ground. Tattered shreds of black and yellow cloth surrounded her, arranged neatly around her body in the form of a six-pointed star, crackling with yellow energy. Cautious to avoid them, Twilight stepped over to the mare’s side and immediately it hit her like a blow to the face. At her hooves lay a pony who had hated her ever since she had laid eyes on her and all but sworn revenge. At her hooves lay a mare with an ego greater than the Sun, whose lust for power knew no bounds.

Trixie Lulamoon, Element of Power.

Of course. It made perfect sense. “Trixie?” Twilight whispered, her voice too soft to hear over the loud high-pitched buzzing in her ears.

No response. The explosion probably deafened her as much as it did me…if the overload of power didn’t do that first, Twilight realized.

The mare’s eyes lay barely open, as if Trixie lacked the strength to push them any further…but her pupils made up for it, glowing golden-white as they glared straight into Twilight’s own. Suddenly her tiara lit up and her horn lit with it, fizzing and sparking as its power spilled over into the empty air.

“What are you doing?”

No response again. The light only grew brighter, and Trixie’s horn changed from gold to white. Twilight lifted a hoof to her face, blocking the wrathful glow.

Trixie gritted her teeth and shut her eyes as Twilight watched the black crown pour ceaseless power into the poor mare’s horn. Why isn’t she stopping? That much magical energy could kill us both-!

Suddenly Twilight’s eyes shot open. Oh no.

“Trixie…please don’t do this…”

No response. The inferno grew ever brighter, scarring the world with white as it exploded through Twilight’s vision. The whiteness seared her eyes even as she closed them, and as she tried to put up a magic shield the energy was sucked out of her horn and into the maelstrom of power and death.

Trixie’s voice finally spoke out in a hoarse whisper, giving her last words. “You…won’t…win…this…time…”

The words punched Twilight in the heart. That is all she can think of…? Out of the blue an idea jumped into her mind, electrifying her body. Maybe I can still find a way out of this.

Swallowing her doubt, Twilight lifted her hooves to her head and removed her golden crown, placing it on the ground in front of Trixie’s falling eyelids. As soon as it left her mane it felt like all of her energy drained out of her, and Twilight crumpled to the ground, fighting to stay awake. Staring through the white, Twilight gained the feeling that Trixie was staring at her in shock.

“You win, Trixie.”

With the thunderous roar of a hundred explosions, a devastating blast of force detonated and expanded out into the world, shaking Canterlot Mountain to its core...and yet, as Twilight watched tiny beads of light flowing from her and Trixie’s horns into the Element of Magic, something held the mountain together, protecting the thousands of innocent lives staked here in the city.

Some hours later, Twilight awoke to the smell of burnt fur and the sight of Trixie’s chest rising and falling weakly in front of her. Both Elements lay still on the ground, though the Element of Magic pulsed with a faint violet light.

Twilight rose to her hooves and wove a quick spell of healing that she draped over Trixie like a soft cloth, like a blanket of warmth on a freezing night. Small wisps of golden smoke wafted from Trixie’s mouth and pores as the Power left the poor mare’s body now and forever.

Turning aside, Twilight saw the City of Canterlot rising up above her, its luminous white towers gleaming in the unfiltered moonlight as the storm faded into the nothingness from whence it came. A tiny plip! broke the soft quiet as Twilight stared at the City through shimmering eyes, the beautiful City that stood strong over eons of fire and war, struggles and destruction, the brilliant symbol whose unwavering cry echoed into the night that Good shall always triumph over Evil.

Before she trotted back into the city, Twilight gave one last glance and one final message to the mare resting peacefully on the unshaken ground.

With a wry smile she whispered, “Good job, Trixie. You finally beat me.”

Author's Note

Whew, the one-on-one chapters are over! :3 Two chapters left; the next one is the faceoff with Puzzle Master.

18: Incorruptible

Puzzle Master grinned as he stared at his storm through the blood-red window. A magnificent incident, that. Now it is time to witness the fruits of my labor. He glanced sideways at the dead-still wooden door, and then down to the watch on his left foreleg. His smug grin flickered uneasily. She is later than I expected…

Straightening his posture, he triple-checked to make sure that every single aspect of the upcoming confrontation would proceed within his expectations. The dying rays of moonlight entered in a crimson glow from behind him, shrouding his silhouette in darkness—which gave him the atmosphere of danger and mystery he needed. Flickering candles on the walls added to the ominous nature of the atmosphere. On his desk sat a neat stack of papers and scrolls—No, those are irrelevant and distracting.—he calmly swiped them off and opened a drawer on his desk, filing the papers neatly in an unmarked folder.

He glanced at the other two objects, the important ones, giving a nod of satisfaction at the red flash of moonlight and the carefully-arranged positions on his chessboard. As with most of his demonstrations the setup strayed tremendously from the established rules of chess; in this case, the white and black kings sat one space apart while the other pieces were scattered throughout the board. I never was much of a book player, though…

crreeeeeeeaaaak

He smiled as he looked straight through the eyes of the powerful figure trotting through his door. Time for the endgame.

Princess Celestia closed her eyes and took a deep breath, letting the cool air calm her nerves as she stood behind the polished wooden door. Opening her eyes, she read the few simple words written in liquid gold upon its face:

~Lord Silver Tongue~
President, Black Castle Enterprises

With a flick of her magic, the door creaked open, revealing a dim room lit by the bloodred glow of its tinted window. Six candles flickered with the sudden rush of air as she trotted into the room. The resident and master, a grinning stallion watching her from behind his simple desk, had been expecting her.

The first words are crucial; they immediately set the tone of the game and make clear the pattern of establishing superiority. Mine must be extremely aggressive in order to initiate a mindset of immediate danger. The Princess has faced numerous enemies before who held Canterlot in their grasp for a night, but never a pony without ostensible power who utilizes my style of corruption. Playing on the instinctual fear of the unknown will plant the seed of unnerved paranoia in her mind that must grow to fruition within the next twenty minutes.

Glaring through the eyes of the Princess with a bemused grin across his face, Puzzle Master spoke clearly and maliciously: “Good evening, Princess. I am surprised it took you this long to arrive. How’s Luna?”

Celestia did not blink at an eye, her focus zeroed in on the crimson-eyed stallion. “She’s feeling a lot better. Feeling much more…herself, actually.” She internally winced. I need to focus and cut to the chase. His talent is with words; I cannot give him an opportunity to gain the upper hoof.

Puzzle Master did not move a muscle in his face, analyzing his opponent’s strategy behind a thick mask of arrogance. She thinks I do not know! My primary strategy worked flawlessly. Time to end this charade. His tone oozed apathy as he replied: “Really. Fascinating.”

“You don’t sound surprised,” Celestia responded, readying her trump card. As soon as he figures out that his plan failed, he will crumble. She watched his reaction carefully.

Bemused, Puzzle Master glanced up to a blank spot on the ceiling for a split second. I wonder how long I can drag this out…the longer the better; impatience builds to anger. “Don’t I? I apologize, but that does not seem very out of the ordinary to me.”

That’s enough. I need to get to the point. Celestia cleared her throat and declared, “Puzzle Master, your game is up. Every wielder of the Elements of Disharmony has been defeated, and my Elements of Harmony are on their way. If you attempt to escape, I and my Royal Guard will find you. You have lost.”

“OH NO! How could this have possibly happened?! Nooo-” burst out Puzzle Master before breaking into a fit of cackling laughter that he could not hold in any longer. He planted his face into the desk, pounding his hoof against its surface in mirth. I have been waiting to do this for so long…but I dare not miss her reaction! Lifting his head from the desk, Puzzle Master stared back to his adversary with an even wider grin across his face.

The stallion’s piercing laughter rang in Celestia’s ears as a flurry of thoughts whirled around her head. What? How? Why did he…? He couldn’t have—of all the things I expected him to—Celestia frowned in confusion, almost taking an unconscious step backwards before she stopped herself. Opening her mouth to reply, nothing came but silence.

Now the fun begins. “Aaaah…what’s the matter? Was I not melodramatic enough? I thought you enjoyed eliciting this kind of reaction from your usual villains, Tia.” He sat motionless in his chair, still staring at her, still not blinking.

Don’t call me that. Only Luna calls me that. The thoughts slipped into her consciousness before she could stop them, and Celestia took another deep breath before continuing. “No. No I don’t. And why would you be happy about all of your minions’ defeat?” she asked, her voice saturated with confusion and dripping with disgust.

Puzzle Master nearly laughed aloud for a second time at his opponent’s blunder. Did you really leave that opportunity wide open? Very well, I will directly attack your focal point, if you insist…Clearing his throat, he launched into a well-rehearsed speech:

“Oh Tia…you never did see this coming, did you? You’ve been spoiled, dear. Every enemy your kingdom has ever faced has only set their sights on one completely ridiculous goal—being, of course, absolute conquest. None of them possess even a shred of common sense. I thought perhaps you could learn a little by stepping out of your comfort zone.” Implications of understanding her thoughts and actions, as well as knowledge of her suspicions, will undermine her confidence as expected. It is time to initiate the next phase of attack.

Celestia’s gaze narrowed into a glare. “What are you talking about?”

Oh, Tia, why are you making this so easy? I wanted a challenge. Oh well. Puzzle Master leaned forward over his desk, the unwavering crocodile grin stretched taught across his face. “I never wanted Canterlot.”

Celestia paused, taken aback. Again she found herself at a loss for words. He must be lying—this makes no sense, even for a pony as crazy as him! But still…she paused, feeling the uncomfortable rush of aggression flow through her veins.

Following up before the Princess could snap out of her confusion and cut off his assault halfway through, Puzzle Master whispered, “Is that too hard to get through your sweet little brain? I will give you a moment to process it.”

What?! Is he—I need to stay in control of my emotions. I will not let this insane stallion get the upper hoof. “You’re lying. Why else would you stage the coupe? What else could you possibly want?”

Puzzle Master chuckled again—I hope this habit is beginning to irritate her by now, otherwise it will have been utterly useless—and gave the tiny sigh of a teacher explaining to an inattentive filly that two plus two does not, in fact, equal five. “Please think before you speak, Princess…it is awfully uncomfortable to watch a powerful ruler such as yourself fail to grasp the most basic of concepts. The coupe was merely to get your attention, nothing more.”

The words hit Celestia like a slap in the face. “What?”

“And now you are listening.” Immediate follow-up will drive home the panicked uncertainty she is currently suppressing, giving me the clear advantage.

Celestia’s mind spun in endless circles, hopelessly confused. I need some answers. Struggling to keep an even tone of voice, she said, “But…why free Discord? Why rally all of these villains with their own motives against me, if you would give them nothing in return?”

Puzzle Master put a hoof to his chin. Now for the dislodging maneuvers. “Hm…I suppose that would have been a serious problem if my cohorts grew aware of my true intentions, wouldn’t it? In that case, it was very kind of you to risk the lives of your Elements of Harmony to defeat those nasty villains and protect me from their wrath. I am truly flattered.”

“What?!” The angry outburst slipped from Celestia’s lips before she could stop it. She mentally cursed herself. I cannot let him keep up this argument. “Enough of your games, Puzzle Master. Give up now or I will put you under a sleep spell and take you back to the Castle for punishment.”

Shifting in his seat, Puzzle Master took a deep breath to prepare himself. The dislodging maneuvers are complete. Time for the final phase. He closed his eyes and shook his head, smiling again and giving a light chuckle. “If only it were that simple…allow me to explain your options, Tia. Option the First: You put me under a sleep spell and take me back to Canterlot. I stand trial and go to jail. I wait patiently for my contacts in the Royal Guard to hear of my predicament, and they come and free me, wherein I concoct a whole new plan and the whole process starts over again.”

Celestia frowned with sudden worry. Contacts in the Royal Guard?

“Option the Second: You put me under a sleep spell and take me back to Canterlot. I stand trial, and you decide to banish me instead of jail me. I wait patiently for my contacts to hear of my predicament so they can sneak me back across the border to Equestria and I return to Canterlot in secret. I concoct a whole new plan and the whole process starts over again.”

But…She tried to object, but the stallion was on a roll.

“Option the Third: You hesitate to act after I finish speaking, allowing your Elements and my Elements time to come here and join the game. I continue to goad you and them until the least emotionally stable among the group cannot stand it any longer. One of the former Wielders of Disharmony lashes out in anger, murdering or otherwise incapacitating me—or you. The others, not quite so sure of their allegiance, lash out at that Wielder. The Elements of Harmony become confused with the shifting factions among the Wielders of Disharmony and fail to act, assuming they are not taken out immediately as they would not expect another fight. Canterlot descends once again into chaos.”

A shiver ran down Celestia’s spine. Did he plan this from the start?

“Option the Fourth: You wait for your pony troupe to arrive with their new friends, and they manage not to react to my goading. Your six little mares use their Elements against me, convinced that the magic will find a way to defeat me when you cannot, like it did Discord and Nightmare Moon. However, given that those two were immortal god-like beings and I am but a humble earth pony, I do not survive the deadly magic and you may as well have murdered me outright.”

Celestia’s glare intensified. “So what are you saying? What do you expect me to do?”

Puzzle Master exhaled, his grin wider than an empty skull’s as his goading eyes drove her to fury. “Take a guess, Tia dear.”

Celestia’s heartbeat pounded fiercely in her chest, synchronized with the painful throbbing of suppressed anger. Boiling magic rose within her horn, and she squeezed her eyes shut as she pushed the fury back to its place in the corner of her mind. She took a deep breath, and then another.

Puzzle Master leaned back in his seat, stretching out his hooves. Let’s see how long it takes to lure the monster from its cave…“Tell me, Princess,” he began, “how long have you been suppressing this anger? One hundred years? One thousand? Ten thousand? You know, bottling up emotions like this is not very good for your mental health. If you do not trust my word as a former psychologist, you could go ahead and ask your sister—she has plenty of personal experience in this area…”

Inhale. Everything gained a blood-red tint as Celestia opened her eyes once again, taking in the calm silence around her with itching impatience. Exhale. The anger rose again immediately at the sight of Puzzle Master leaning back in his chair, fiddling with a mirror shard between his thick blue hooves. I must stay in control… The Princess’s alarmed voice dropped suddenly into a dead-flat monotone as she finally spoke up: “So, was this your plan all along?” She dared not move a single muscle.

Puzzle Master looked up in surprise, and grinned again. “How difficult was it to hide this for thousands of years? Does anypony else even have the faintest clue what their benevolent ruler keeps hidden behind the smiling mask? Discord knew. He must have known.”

“What are you talking about?!” Venomous fury filled her voice as she snapped out at the chessmaster, but at this point she did not care. Every inch of her skin burned with the effort of holding still.

“An interesting thing that I noticed in my studies, with the unenthusiastic assistance of my emotionally challenged little brother—who was perfectly suited to the task—is the pattern through which deadly alter-ego personalities can be formed, namely, through suppressed emotions. I noticed that my brother struggled quite a bit with anger and fear, and had an odd tendency to cling to our annoying parents…so I decided to utilize him as a psychological experiment as to the effects of extreme emotion on magical psychology. Disappointingly, though, his alternate ego could never break through no matter what I did in regards to physical and mental torture. I nearly gave up on my experiment…when, lo and behold, Discord rose again and flipped everyone’s personalities upside down.” The stallion laughed at his pleasant memories. “You should have seen what he became! You should have seen what he did!”

Inhale. This stallion spent years torturing an innocent colt because he wanted to destabilize a child’s mind. Exhale. He deserves the same…

“Luckily I was able to escape his wrath, even if he took out quite a few others on his initial rampage. Once he had calmed down a bit, though, I convinced him to use the very unique magic he now possessed to preserve his alternate personality, and I gained one extremely useful minion. So I started to wonder…if one little crybaby colt could turn into a rampaging beast, what would happen if I utilized the same strategy against somepony with infinitely more magical potential? And that is when I thought about you.”

Inhale. I have never met a living creature who deserves worse than this stallion. Exhale. Equestria’s legal system would never allow him the fate he deserves.

“What was the pretty pony princess hiding behind her shiny gold crown and her infinite patience? Nopony else knew, even if Discord had a guess. It would seem that I am the first pony to find out!”

Inhale. I cannot lash out at him because that is exactly what he wants. Exhale. But he has pushed this too far…

“I found Discord’s description of your reaction to his first recent escape very intriguing. He said that as soon as he started speaking you barely even moved! Barely even moved. Interestingly enough, his explanation for your refusal to assist the Elements of Harmony in their mission that fateful day was that you were afraid of him…but I don’t think he understood the real reason behind your cowardice.”

Cowardice?! Inhale. Exhale.

“No, no, you did not hide in your castle because you were afraid of the big bad beast out there. You hid in your castle because you were afraid of the big bad beast in here…driven by paranoia that the poor protected ponies living happily beneath your hoof would find out who you really are, behind the mask of infinite patience and endless smiles.”

Inhale exhale. You have no idea how good it would feel to wipe the arrogant smile off your sadistic child-abusing face.

He leaned forward again, drawing closer and closer to the stone-faced alicorn. “May I ask you a question, Princess? How does it feel to know that I threw your entire kingdom into chaos, causing extreme emotional trauma to your little sister and countless other innocent ponies, just because I was curious how you would react?”

FWOOM! Time slowed down as Celestia ignited her horn in a blinding inferno. A brilliant light washed over the room, dancing on the walls as the Solar Princess’s horn blazed with the golden fire of justice and a stallion’s screechy laughter echoed out into the night.

Long shadows stretched down the hallways, blanketing the shaded soul in yet another layer of darkness. His nervous hoofsteps echoed through the corridor, rippling the silence. Dozens of memories flashed across his vision, desperately straining to pull him back to the empty garden that lay safe in the shadow of Canterlot Castle…but he paid them no heed. The voices, though, would not leave him alone.

You left her there in the garden. Why? Isn’t she your friend now?

Yes, but first I need to-

No, you don’t. Can’t you just wait until later? The Princess is probably busy.

Trust me, this cannot wait.

With a new sense of determination, Soul Shade turned the corner only to run headfirst into one of the Royal Guards levitating a large unmarked box in front of their face. He winced as the fragile painting floating safe in his magic fell suddenly towards the floor, but he caught it at the last second and set it down as gently as he could.

“Oh my gosh, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to-” The colt cut himself off under the intensity of the guard’s sudden glare, withering as his words faded into inaudible mumbling.

“What are you doing awake, kid?”

Soul Shade coughed nervously. “Um, well, it’s almost morning-”

The guard’s eyes narrowed. “That’s not what I meant. What kind of magic did you use to stay awake? Is anypony with you?”

Speechless and confused, Soul Shade spluttered “I didn’t use any magic to stay up! Why does that even—wait. Wait just a minute.” His wide eyes narrowed and flashed bright red. “You meant, ‘why didn’t the Shadow’s spell work’, didn’t you? How did you know about that spell? And why are you awake? The Shadow’s spell has not worn off yet…I would know. I cast it.”

The guard took a step backwards, suddenly nervous. A glow from his horn subtly pushed the box behind him, hiding their contents from the angry colt.

“Y-You’re working for my brother, aren’t you?”

Clearing his throat to regain his sense of authority, the guard stated, “I don’t know what you’re talking about—and don’t take that tone with me, citizen. I am working for her Royal Highness Princess Celestia herself.”

“No. No, you’re not. You are working for Puzzle Master. I’m not scared of you.”

Losing his patience, the guard shoved Soul Shade to the side. “You’re wasting my time, kid. I have an important package to deliver to Lord Silver Tongue, so get out of my way!”

As the guard stepped forwards and floated the box back in front of him, Soul Shade promptly knocked it out of the air, spilling its contents all over the floor. The contents…

Soul Shade’s eyes widened and he instinctively took a step back. A set of metal armor lay splayed across the floor, polished and gleaming. Every piece shone fiery crimson against the blue tint of the moonlight, emanating heat and melting away the cool breeze of the night. Hammered into the center of the chestpiece, a black sun insignia glared haughtily at the darkness surrounding it.

The guard stepped back, feigning innocence. “What is that?! I…I didn’t know-!”

Soul Shade took a deep breath before looking back up to the guard; all of the fear had drained from his eyes. “Get out. Just…get out. I don’t want to see you again, and if my brother asks, tell him you’re tired of corrupting the Equestrian government so you quit your job.”

Hesitating, the guard took one last chance to exert his authority. “Listen, kid, just because you know my employer doesn’t mean you can tell me what to do.”

“What if I tell the Princess?”

“In a few minutes, that won’t even matter,” he replied, gesturing to the door of Puzzle Master’s office. A fiery glow spilled out from the cracks in the door, flooding the hallway in blinding light.

Soul Shade jerked his head back to the door, noting the golden light with an expression of absolute horror across on his face. Horror turned to anger as he trotted swiftly to the guard.

“Hey, watch it, kid! I could still arrest you for attacking a Royal-” The guard gave a surprised gasp as Soul Shade’s hoof collided with his windpipe. Gold metal clanged against crimson as the stallion fell backwards, right into the sharp scattered pieces of armor. A blast of deafening sound exploded from the floor where the two met, vibrating the floor and resounding through the entire building.

Soul Shade instinctively squeezed his eyes shut and plugged his ears with his hooves, backing up and colliding with the wall behind him. From behind it, he suddenly heard the muffled voice of the Princess, filled not with anger but with surprise: “What was that?!”

An ice-cold shiver suddenly raced down Soul Shade’s back. If she sees the armor that her Royal Guard was about to deliver…Working quickly, he threw open the nearest window and levitated the armor and the unconscious guard into the cool night air, carefully lifting them up onto the roof of the building where they would be safe.

He stepped forward, taking a deep breath and picking up the fragile painting with his magic before he slowly pushed open the door to face the two ponies he had feared most for all of his life.

Princess Celestia’s heartbeat pounded mercilessly against her skull as she glared down at the helpless villain in front of her, whose eyes danced with mirth as they dared her to make a move. Her breaths came in shallow gasps. Fiery aggression rushed through her veins, from her horn down to the tips of her hooves. An inferno of hot light throbbed inside of her horn, itching for her to let it loose.

“What, are you scared of me? Little old me? Come now, Tia, make your move; I dare you-”

Celestia was pondering how lovely it would feel to blast Puzzle Master into an ash stain on the carpet when a deafening CRASH echoed from the hallway behind her. She whirled around, twin fires burning in her eye sockets and beneath the surface of her horn. She heard a moan, and the sound of a pony bumping into the wooden door. "What was that?"

A second passed, and then two. Neither pony dared to move as they both watched the door, waiting the eternity of split time between anger and hope, between confidence and misery. The door opened to reveal a little blue colt holding a painting.

Princess Celestia’s expression of pure rage faded into confusion.

“…Brother?” whispered Puzzle Master, sorrow meeting despair in his voice. He watched in stupefied horror as all of his elaborate plans crumbled to ruins around him. Months of scratching out every last pattern and motive of these ponies, weeks of acquiring the right contacts to aid this one master scheme…all destroyed by his naïve fool of a brother.

The little colt trotted into his office with his head hanging low, carefully dragging the heavy painting behind him. Both chessmasters stood frozen by shock, at a complete loss for words. The blinding light above Celestia’s forehead faded into a dim glow and then died, leaving only the pure-white surface of her horn.

“What is that?” asked the Princess, her commanding overtone replaced by a curious whisper.

Without speaking, the colt flipped the framed canvas around, revealing a very familiar painting. It captured the image of the sky in a beautiful sunrise within its intricate brushwork, displaying both the moon and the sun in all of their glory. The stars were faintly visible through the first bright rays of morning, and the few scattered clouds above the sun reflected a spectrum of colors, the stunning bright pinks, reds, and oranges of dawn. Carved into its simple wood frame was a small inscription, the title of the work: Harmony in Equestria.

The painting that had fallen and shattered on her floor after she woke up to find her sister consumed by hatred once again…unbroken, fixed, pure.

“Where did you find this?” she asked.

Shuffling uncomfortably on his hooves, the colt mumbled, “I…I made it. For you.”

Taken aback, she hesitated, but still had a few pieces missing from the puzzle. “I saw this painting destroyed by the storm last night.”

“I…” he cleared his throat, not sure how to explain. “It lived on in my memory, at least long enough to paint another one. It’s my favorite one, you see…” his voice trailed off into incomprehensible murmuring.

Celestia cracked a grin. “What do you know? It’s mine too.”

The colt’s nervous face burst into a glowing smile, radiating warmth across the room…which lasted for only a fraction of a second.

“BROTHER! What are you doing here?! You’ve destroyed everything! I was mere seconds away from showing the world the true beast that lies behind their phony Princess! I could have shown everyone what this so-called ‘pure’ mare really is!”

Both heads swiveled back to the flustered Puzzle Master as his midnight cheeks burned with indignant humiliation. They stared at him for a second before the Princess cleared her throat and spoke to him one last time:

“No, Puzzle Master. You don’t get it, do you? You think of everypony as a challenge; you see only a game to destroy them from the inside out. All that you do is destroy. You are the true beast here…have you ever made one friend in your life that you liked simply as a fellow pony? Your lust for power over others, your heartless cruelty, your stubborn greed, your betrayal of everyone you know, your deceptive actions, and most importantly your fear of truly knowing anyone as a friend have led you to ruin tonight. I will not destroy you…because you have too much to learn.”

No. Anything but this…there’s no WAY she could still pull the friendship card! His quivering eyes folded into a glare. She cannot possibly let me off the hook when I did this much to her! Nopony could forgive what I have done!

“All of your life you spent learning how to undermine the hopes and dreams of others instead of building them up. You are an incredibly smart pony, Puzzle Master…what would it be like for you to use your knowledge to help other ponies instead of hurt them? While-”

“NO!” he suddenly yelled, his voice jumping to a whiny screech. “NO! You blithering fool! Both of you are absolute fools! You ruined everything! I hate you all! I can’t take it anymore!” Hastily whirling around and dropping his monocle and mirror shard on the floor, Puzzle Master threw his body out the window, shattering the blood-red glass as he soared through the empty air.

Without hesitation Princess Celestia leaped after him, turning her face against the howling wind to protect it from the storm of glass. Air rushed past her ears as she spread her wings and dove after the Puzzle Master, squinting through the darkness to make out his limp form. His expensive tuxedo was torn and tattered from the jump.

She reached down with her magic and grabbed him before he fell even halfway to the ground, hauling his unconscious form back up to the window. The sudden jump and collision with the window had knocked him completely unconscious.

Princess Celestia grimaced as she alighted inside the broken window, gently setting down the insane stallion on his desk and folding her powerful wings behind her back. She looked over to Soul Shade, and after a moment, said, “I will take your brother down to the hospital myself…he earned that much. However, can you check up on him daily to make sure nothing happens to him? Nopony will feel very happy about what he did, especially the ponies who he manipulated…” she winced. “I know what he deserves, Soul Shade, and he will face the Equestrian justice system…but before he does, he needs to heal,” and I need to take a second look into the Guard, the Princess finished silently. “Can I trust you to make sure he is safe?”

The colt took a long look at his brother, whose limbs were splayed across the desk and whose mouth had formed a small puddle of drool on the expensive wood. He hesitated for a moment before one more thought entered his mind—What would Pinkie say if I did anything to him?—and reluctantly nodded his head. “Yes, Princess Celestia.”

She smiled at him again, glowing with the comforting warmth of the dawning sun. “But before we do that…I need to raise the sun, and I am sure that all of your friends would love to watch the dawn with you this morning. Maybe you can find them and suggest that you all do that together…”

His face immediately brightened, and without another word he shot into the hallway. Princess Celestia chuckled and turned to the broken window, closing her eyes and reaching out her magic to greet an old friend who had waited patiently beneath the horizon.

It’s time.

Author's Note

It feels like forever ago when I planned this chapter...but anyway, there's only one more until the end of the story, which will probably be my favorite to write. :3

19: Dawn

No one remembers who was first to look outside when the light returned.

At first none of us dared to make a sound. We remembered the last time that they had showed up from nowhere and turned our lives upside down. We all remember hoping someone would put it right without knowing who, or where, or when. None of us risked stepping outside. We didn't know when we would be safe. So we waited.

But someone was the first to look.

Someone peeked out their window that day and saw that first golden ray breach the horizon. Someone was the first to run through the house telling everyone to look outside. Someone was the first to tell their family that it was over, that we were safe, that we could finally come out and see for ourselves that our lives had returned.

None of us remembers who was the first to open their door and step into the sunlight.

What we remember is hearing the cheers echo in the streets. We remember hearing our neighbors laughing. We remember the moment we decided that it was finally safe enough for us to open the door.

We remember when we first saw our friends and families, learning that everyone was okay. We remember seeing the same relief on everyone's face. We remember the parties that popped up everywhere we looked, the voices calling us to join in the fun. We remember seeing the whole city wake up and live that morning. We remember stepping back into our lives with a smile.

Above all, we remember how good it felt to see the sun again.