The crater was wide and deep. The water from the town centre's well had flooded out, creating a small lake in the middle of town. Everything was calm, everything was quiet. Discord and the former Elements of Harmony had gone, the latter having felt defeated.

With nopony in sight, Ponyville had been reduced to little more than a few houses, a Town square, the Library tree and some floating islands. Sweet Apple Acres' trees had grown larger and had begun walking by themselves, like Ents. Animals ran, scuttled and/or slithered this way and that way. Everything was utter madness. All the while, a figure began to surface from the water in the crater.

Dusk regained consciousness and flailed around, managing to grab the edge of the crater with his fingers. He pulled himself to the edge and began breathing heavily. Coughing from time to time, he crawled out of the crater and rolled onto his back, sucking in air as he looked up at the pink chequered sky. His clothes were tattered, the buttons on his shirt had gone, the sleeves were gone and half the right pants leg was ripped to shreds.

"Why... did I... explode?" he asked to nopony in particular. The stress of the situation began to encroach upon his mind and he felt his eyes growing heavier and heavier. Within a few seconds, he was unconscious once again.

The dark recesses of Dusk's mind were a place even he feared to venture. Each place held certain memories he wanted to forget, certain situations he found himself in that he wished he never had. It wasn't until he'd been made whole again that he came to terms with his past. Now, Dusk found himself surrounded by doorways leading to those dark places. He also found himself separated from his emotional half. He was as he'd originally met his friends Dusk Shine, the intellectual student of Princess Celestia, emotional pretender and all-around asshole to those whom he should have cared about and loved.

Sitting opposite the dome of doorways on a big silver throne with a smug grin on his face was the Dusk Shine those who knew of wished they hadn't, the Dusk Shine whose return they all feared. Should one ask him, he would be the Dusk Shine who was the complete and utter badass.

"Well, well, well. What a sorry situation we've found ourselves in. Practically swirlied by a creature whose face we can't distinguish from his ass? Dusk, we're not completely in sync." the dark Dusk said, his eyes flashing red at his intellectual counterpart.

"I thought we were." Dusk replied. There was an amused chuckle from the darker half as he waved a finger at his other half.

"Didn't you feel it? That pulling as we fought him? We both wanted to do different things. You used your mind to try and think of a way to defeat him while I actually did the defeating. We had him on the ropes before you began wondering what he had hidden up his proverbial sleeve. Then he flashed the red card and handed us our own ass. I don't know about the girls, but I do not want to look upon it again." he replied, leaning forward.

"What would you suggest we do?" Dusk asked. Dark Dusk flashed a smile.

"We need to be fully synchronised. We believed we were last time, but there's obviously something we haven't gotten over yet. So, would you like to tell me just what it is you still feel compelled to deny our true nature for?" he enquired.

Dusk thought for a moment. There couldn't have been anything left unsaid between them. Unless their original goals were off peak. "You wanted to prove to everypony that you weren't a monster, yet we've done monstrous things since we joined. You guilted Celestia into sleeping with you, you seduced Luna and goaded her into accepting our friends as lovers also. We were having enough trouble deciding between the five of them, but we went ahead and added the Princesses to the mix."

"Technically, you helped with Celestia, but alright, yes. We got all seven ponies we loved, didn't we? I don't see what you're complaining about." Dark Dusk said.

"THINK! We don't even love the Princesses in that manner." Dusk replied.

"Do we not? Because I think what I feel towards them is something akin to love. It's no different to what I feel for the girls."

"You feel loathing and hatred towards Celestia, you've warped it into a false love. You want to get close to her so you can hurt her when the timing's right." Dusk said.

"Are you describing my desires... or your own?" Dark Dusk asked. Dusk paused for a moment. "because if these were my desires, how would you know unless they were yours as well. And if they were yours as well, would they really be mine at all, or are you feeding me hatred like a Changeling feeds on love?" Dusk rose from his own throne and rushed towards his darker side.

"I am completely devoted to the Princesses!!!" he shouted.

"Doesn't mean you can't hate them, does it?" Dark Dusk asked. Dusk grabbed him by the collar on his shirt and lifted him up.

"I love Celestia and Luna both!" Dusk cried out.

"Really? because a minute ago, you said we didn't love them. Or were you just describing it as platonic love?" Dark Dusk asked.

"No... I love them both. And the girls. I love them all, even though you're the emotional half of me."

"Love drives many a folk mad, Dusk. We are no exception. I love Celestia and Luna both. Celestia taught us self-control. As a young colt, we couldn't control our hatred. But now we can, thanks to her intervention. As for Luna, well, she was hurt by Celestia in a way not entirely unlike ourselves. Only except for separating the emotional side of her, like with us, she was banished to the moon for a millennium. If you ask me, I'd have preferred the moon. All the pretty stars..." Dark Dusk began to trail off in his own little world.

"So what do we do now? There's still the matter of Discord." Dusk suggested. Dark Dusk snapped out of his dream and chuckled.

"Well, we'll need the Elements of Harmony, for starters. Bringing the girls back to their proper senses shouldn't be too much of a task for us. If Nightmare Moon was supposed to be just a story, then why not the all-curing kiss of love? After all, we love the girls, don't we?" he said.

Dusk nodded. "We'll have to fully synchronise too, no more of this patched up teamwork substitute, either." he said.

"Yes. In order to do it, we need to have the same thought. Plotting on how to defeat Discord should do it. I'm thinking we need to think this through, play by your strengths." Dark Dusk said.

"I was thinking we'd need to fight Chaos with Chaos, go by instinct, your area of expertise." Dusk replied. Dark Dusk smiled at his counter part.

"Let's try both, shall we?" he offered, holding out his hand. Dusk smiled back and took it.

"Together, as one." Dusk said...

Discord was having a ball of a time. Constantly snapping his fingers, he laughed as the local wildlife began to distort into familiar but unnerving shapes. Rabbits began to look like giraffes, dogs became scaly, Gummy grew sabre teeth. All the while, the Spirit of Chaos sat in his throne, enjoying a glass of chocolate milk, or in this case it was more like a chocolate milk of glass.

As he drank heartily, the Elements of Harmony sat tied down in front of him, as did Trixie and Barb. All had distant looks on their faces after either witnessing or hearing about Dusk's demise. Barb in particular had the most glazed over look one would find on a dragon.

"Why so glum, ladies? Take a look around you! So much colour in the air, birds buzzing, bees flapping away. It's magnificent!" the Draconequus declared, waving his arms in the direction of each object he described. None of his words even reached them. He slumped down in boredom. "Oh, you're not still hung up on that Dusk fellow, are you? The guy's dead, move on!" Discord teased, hoping to get a reaction out of them. He did not go unrewarded.

"Dusk was our friend! Even more than that, he was..." Rainbow shot her mouth off, but got caught as the gravity of the situation forced itself back onto her. The only other being that seemed to display even a modicum of a reaction was Barb. She gave Discord the same look a dragon would give if you'd just destroyed her clutch of eggs. That intense gaze that overshadowed Fluttershy's own 'stare', mixed with seething hatred. Discord just drank it up like a Changeling.

"Something to say, Barbera?" he asked, slithering off of his throne to come face to face with the baby dragoness. "A tale of woe, perhaps?" he goaded.

"I hate you." was all she said. Even Discord was surprised by the blatant statement. Not even Celestia or Luna had said such a direct thing. They'd always called him a villain, a fiend... a bastard. But never had anypony ever claimed to hate him. It was a first.

"Well... I'll be honest, Barbera, I... I wasn't expecting that. So, you hate me, huh? I'd have thought you'd be thanking me after the events that transpired thirteen years ago." he teased.

"DON'T YOU DARE MENTION THAT DAY!!!" Barb screamed at him. Everypony, even Discord fell backwards at her sudden outburst. Barb began to struggle against the bonds that held her. "Thirteen years ago, Dusk made me feel loved for the first time in my life! How he did it doesn't matter!" she snapped at him. Discord grinned in excitement.

"Oh? You don't think Dusk Shine's ex-girlfriends deserve to know about that day?" he coaxed. The five mares and Trixie were watching them talk, each one wanting to know what they were talking about.

"It doesn't matter now, anyway. He's dead. They don't need to know." she replied.

"Aw, but we really really wanna." Pinkie Pie chimed in. Barb just shot her an evil look that made her draw back.

"Well, if you're good girls, I'll tell you once I'm done rearranging Equestria. So... in a few minutes." Discord teased, chuckling.

"Well, you'll want to tell them while you can." a voice said from behind. Discord, along with everypony present looked towards the source of that voice. Dusk sat in Discord's throne, one leg over the other, arms crossed. His shirt had lost its sleeves as well as its buttons. His pants fared no better, one half of the right legging was missing and there were patches missing from all around. "Did you miss me?"

"How in Celestia's name did you survive that?!" Discord asked, completely shell-shocked.

"I got worse ass-kickings from my sister, that's how. I'd tell you not to quit your day job, but that would be counter-productive for me. See, I'm about to fire you." Dusk replied, standing up from the throne. Barb and the others had smiles that went from ear to ear. They'd never been so happy to see somepony in their lives. Barb even had tears streaming down her cheeks. Dusk stepped closer to Discord, casually unfolding his arms. "You know, I have to thank you for beating me earlier. You see, I haven't been swimming in a while, and it was just what I needed." he said, stopping just a few feet in front of Discord.

"You've got some nerve, young pony. Sitting in my throne. Who do you think you are?" the draconequus demanded.

"Somepony who matters." Dusk replied blankly.

"What, you think I don't matter?"

"Let me ask you, Discord; will you be missed if you were to die?"

"Ouch! Ooh, that hurt. What are you, some kind of louse?"

"No, just a realist." Dusk placed his hands in his pockets.

"You know, you're incredibly rude for Celestia's student." Discord noted, crossing his arms.

Dusk just shrugged. "Yet she prefers me to you. Guess that means I have my answer. Nopony really likes me, so they sure as the sun rises won't miss you." he retorted. "We gonna fight now or what?" he asked. Discord just huffed and approached Dusk, rearing to punch him in the face. As Discord made contact, Dusk's body turned to sand and blew away in the timely wind.

"What the?"

"Where you aiming at Dugong?" Dusk asked him from behind. Discord turned around but saw nothing but the girls. Looking up, he saw Dusk was standing on thin air.

"How the heck did you do that?" Discord asked. He went to look at the girls to see if they were as surprised as he was. Even more shocking was Dusk standing inches from him. "You're creeping me out now."

Dusk cracked a smile for the first time. "Come on, Discord, you should know. If you know about that day thirteen years ago, you should know what happened last month. Or did you stop learning about me before Nightmare Moon?"

Discord paused for a moment before slumping. "Guilty as charged. I lost interest after you became an emotionless shell." he replied.

"Well news flash, Dissy; I'm back." as if to prove Dusk's claim, his eyes flashed crimson.

Author's Note

So you'll never guess what happened. Just as Dusk entered into the scene with Barb and Discord arguing, the Dragonslayer OST from Fairy Tail began playing.