Time after time, through chaos and through wars, Princess Celestia prevailed.

Of all the terrible forces she could have fallen to, Flim Flam Industry was the last one anypony had expected.

With thanks to gardrek for editing (3-6) and PinkieDP, Ice Star, and Odd_Sarge for prereading help.

What goes through the mind of a nightmare?

How does it view the world?

How could it justify its rampage?

Twilight does some research into her tried and true teleportation spell.

The village had been perfect, free from the inequality and misery rampant throughout the rest of Equestria. Then Twilight Sparkle and her so-called friends arrived and ruined everything.

But all hope is not lost. Starlight Glimmer has a plan to restore her lost utopia on a much vaster scale.

After all, it's not like that purple princess was friends with anything worse.

Story contains spoilers for the Season 5 premiere, nonspecific allusions to torture, and nuts. Story does not contain Nikita Khruschev or shoes.

A pony prostrates himself for Queen Chrysalis, hoping for her favor.
This does not go over well.

It's a beautiful day in Ponyville. Then again, every day is a beautiful day for Derpy Hooves.

Lyra thinks Discord is an idiot for not thinking to dodge when the Elements of Harmony were about to strike him. Discord thinks this is the perfect opportunity for a game.

Part of the Borderworld.

Now with audio reading by Dreamless Portal. Chinese and Spanish translations also available.

Ponies can’t breathe fire. Twilight knows this--but that doesn't stop her from trying.

--

For the Equestria Daily Friend-Off.

I'm in a hospital bed with tubes coming out of orifices I didn't know I had. Why am I there? Why is Rainbow Dash sitting in the corner?

Why is she crying?

Discord's the only creature in Equestria who can recognize the human for what he is -- not the long-lost Seventh Element that never actually existed and couldn't have existed before the human arrived, but a meta-reality warper, an entity far more powerful than Discord with the power to warp the minds of all around him and the very rules of magic to make sure that he's always the Big Hero. And the role the human's assigned to Discord is the Villain to beat down or kill.

Pre-reform Discord's fine with being the villain. But on his own terms. Not dancing on some alien interloper's puppet strings.

Without friendship, or even allies, Discord's going to have to find a way to defeat a creature who can alter fate itself and who can even mind-control him. Or he may just end up worse than dead.

Art by Tenchi-Outsuno. Progress Bar at my writing journal.

Trigger warnings: Mind control (magically induced love, magically induced friendship, magically induced stupidity, Discord being Discord), noncon/dubcon (magically induced love, other forms of highly dubious consent), rape (female on male), violence/gore (mostly against Discord), literally everything in chapters 19-21, humans not being presented as unilaterally wonderful and superior to ponies and/or draconequui.