Rainbow slammed another green wolf with a hard right hook, and it immediately dissolved into nothing. Instinctually, she turned around, kicking another wolf in the muzzle as it pounced at her. A glance to the side told her that Applejack was holding out just as well, bucking the green monsters left and right. And yet they kept coming. No matter how many they took down, the sickly green storm above them kept spawning more. They couldn't keep fighting forever, and once their energy ran out.... Out of the corner of her eye, Rainbow saw a number of ponies fall prey to the beasts, eaten whole by the wolves. Would she end up like them? Would she...die here?
Just as she thought that, another Riftspawn approached her from behind, a hulking green bipedal bear. As Rainbow noticed, too late, it raised a massive claw. Rainbow began to dodge, but before she could actually move, the monster flinched, then dissolved. Floating behind it was...Fluttershy. Rainbow was shocked, both at having been saved by Fluttershy, and at the mere fact that such a timid pony had taken out such a behemoth in a single strike. Once she calmed down, however, she noticed that Fluttershy's eyes were red, and she was convulsing to hold back a flow of tears.
"Fluttershy...?"
"They...they took my friends from me," Fluttershy explained, dropping to the ground and finally letting out her sorrow. "Th-those poor, poor animals...."
Rainbow's mood fell from the sky, even further than at the thought of her own death. She too dropped down, and put a comforting hoof on her friend's shoulder. As Fluttershy cried into her chest, Rainbow began to realize just how bad the situation was. These monsters were killing ponies' friends, their families...until there was nopony left. And to think that they were so docile before. They had been allowed to spread throughout Equestria, throughout the world...and now they were going to end it.
Another wolf pounced on them in this time of sorrow, only to be bucked away and killed by Applejack. "Ah feel your pain, Fluttershy, but this maight not be the time, sugarcube," she warned the pegasi. "Git movin'!"
"Oh yeah? And go where?" Rainbow snapped back. "These things are everywhere!"
"The Crystal Empire." A purple beam disintegrated another monster behind them, as Twilight joined her friends, followed by Daniel and Sombra. "The Crystal Heart should be able to protect everypony there."
"Uh, Crystal Empire?" Daniel asked, confused.
"A city to the north, run by my sister-in-law Cadence," Twilight explained. "So long as her people don't give in to fear, she can use the Crystal Heart to keep the Riftspawn out."
"In this mess?" Daniel responded incredulously. "So our last bastion is only safe so long as ponies believe it's safe. Yeah, we'll see how long that lasts."
"I'll tell everypony to head to the Empire," Twilight explained. "You all try to save as many ponies as possible." Everypony and Daniel nodded, and went their separate ways. Rainbow went with Fluttershy, to make sure her shy tendencies didn't get her killed. Twilight flew into the air, and concentrated her magic power in her voice, before delivering her warning:
"ATTENTION, EVERYPONY! PLEASE MAKE YOUR WAY TO THE CRYSTAL EMPIRE! YOU WILL ALL BE SAFE THERE!"
Even as she gave her message, she could see ponies listening, brightening up at the prospect of hope. All over Ponyville, ponies began to converge on the train station. Satisfied, Twilight returned to the ground to help the rescue effort. She decided to start with her number one assistant, Spike, and headed to her castle.
As soon as she arrived, however, Twilight was filled with a sense of unease and dread. She tentatively opened the palace gates and looked around. Surprisingly, the palace halls looked exactly the same, the purple crystal structure and green windows completely intact. Yet that was exactly what made the scene unsettling. In contrast to the chaos outside, the palace was eerily quiet and empty. It just felt unsettling, like something could go wrong at any moment....
"Spike?" Twilight called, her voice echoing through the spacious hall. No answer. A chill ran down her spine, and she raced through the palace, frantically calling the baby dragon's name. No matter how hard she looked, he didn't seem to be anywhere. Had the monsters already taken him...? She rejected the thought outright. He had to be alive. She could just feel it...right?
Finally, her search led her to the upper floors of her castle, to places she had barely even set hoof in. She came to the door to the high balcony, overlooking the town outside. Without hesitation, she thrust it open and charged outside...only to immediately stop. Hovering in front of her was Faris, his eyes flashing red once again. Floating next to him was Spike, struggling in vain against the Alicorn Amulet's crimson hold.
"Looking for this kid?" Faris mocked, a crooked smile plastered on his face.
"Who...who are you!?" Twilight asked. "What are you doing to Spike!?"
"Who am I?" Faris repeated mockingly. "Why don't you ask your friends? As for your little pet here.... Seems you care for him dearly, don't you?" Twilight confirmed this by charging her horn and giving Faris the evil eye. "You want him back that bad?
"Then take him."
The glow around Spike intensified, and he cried out in agony. Twilight could do little more than watch. A few seconds later, Spike fell unconscious as the crimson glow cleared, dropping him several stories to the earth below.
"SPIKE!" Twilight yelled, galloping over to the railing where her assistant had plummeted. As she got there, however, the castle seemed to rumble. To her shock and awe, Spike rose up from the ground below. He had grown significantly, and was roughly the size of the palace itself. Several necks branched off of the massive torso below, ending at the balcony's level with the large, ferocious heads of adult dragons. Every pair of eyes Spike now had were reduced to glowing red sockets, all pointed squarely at Twilight with the intent to kill.
"Spike...?" Twilight asked one last time, out of disbelief at her situation.
"Have a nice day," Faris mocked one last time before teleporting away.
Immediately, Twilight took to the skies, narrowly avoiding the combined might of seven blasts of fire breath. Reluctantly, she fired a bolt of magic at the hydra Spike had become. It hit one of the heads, knocking it down. Six to go. Unfortunately, those six heads noticed her and changed tactics. They spewed green fire upward in several directions, filling the entire shy with their flames. In a panic, Twilight loosed another bolt into the inferno as she flew away from it, just barely avoiding incineration. A hole opened in the burning sky as her blind attack hit home. She set off another bolt, striking another head through the hole before her corrupted assistant could react. Spike was angry now, and shot a large green fireball at his caretaker. Twilight just barely dodged it, but lost her balance in the air while doing so, just barely moving forward enough to ensure she crashed back onto the balcony rather than plummeting several stories to the earth. Dazed, she looked up to see the remaining four heads preparing to incinerate her. Thinking fast, she let out a huge magic pulse, taking out three of the four heads right there. The final head was blown back a bit, giving her time to get to her hooves. As Spike turned his attention back to her, she grabbed the last head with her magic, and tried to tap into the Amulet's corruption. Perhaps now she could save Spike...except she couldn't. The corruption was too powerful for her; she couldn't remove it directly. Unless...
She looked into the burning red sockets of the raging dragon that used to be her friend. There was only one way left to get that friend back, but if it failed.... Twilight tried to think positive, but sorrow clung to her as she charged one last bolt. Reluctantly, she closed her eyes and fired at the last helpless head of Spike. It reeled and fell to the ground. Filled with sorrow, guilt, and dread, Twilight walked to the railing and looked over the edge. She saw Spike, returned to a baby dragon, lying on the ground motionless. Panicked, she flew down to her assistant and embraced his limp body. As worried as she was, she couldn't tell if he was unconscious or dead. Either way, she didn't know how to live with herself. She hugged him tighter and tried to cry...but the tears wouldn't come.
In a dark, secluded corner of the Everfree, Silas clutched his head as he wandered in the darkness. The image of that girl, the one who had emerged from his mind at the orchard, kept running back through his mind. Alice...he remembered. She was his sister. She was the one thing that had kept his world turning back home, his single ray of sunshine. She was so cheerful, she raised people's moods just by being near them. And she...died. An image of Alice, lying dead in a pool of her own blood, flashed through his mind.
Then who was that pony on the ranch!?
She was a different species, yes...but she looked just like her! That couldn't be coincidence, could it? Was that pony some sort of counterpart to Alice in this world? Was she...Alice?
Silas had to know. Lowering his hands from his forehead, he knew exactly what he had to do: find Alice, in her new pony form, so that the happy days of his past life could return.
Deep within Celestia's mindscape, surrounded by a sky of dull orange, Lucifer stood over the mental projection of the princess of the sun. He pointed the gaping hole where his left arm used to be at Celestia, and her magic power began to drain. A trail of multicolored magic flew from her body into the hole, and as she lost magic, her mane and tail lost their ethereal properties, and were reduced to simple pink clumps of hair. Her cutie mark disappeared from her flank as the last of her magic left her. Once it had all flowed into Lucifer, the hole in his side...grew a new arm. It was already covered in pure white armor as it formed. Where it met his body, the white armor looked like it was grafted to the existing dark armor. He flexed his new arm. It felt no different from the old one.
"Why?" Celestia asked, on the brink of tears after all that had happened. "Why do you hate us all so?"
"The people of my world thought they could create life, just like that," Lucifer explained. "I was their creation, a perfect success on the outside. What they failed to realize was that I was empty on the inside. Without the...complexities of natural life, I turned to destruction to fill the void inside me. Can't say it worked...but it became my purpose for existing. I don't hate you...but this is just what I do."
"You monster!"
"Oh, am I the monster now?" Lucifer asked rhetorically. "When your world is now overrun with thousands upon thousands of monsters? And who was responsible for that again?" Celestia was left at a loss for words, so Lucifer continued. "The truth is worse than you think, however. Ever wonder why the Riftspawn never appeared when you caused a similar mess? It's because they're linked to him. It seems being the son of the Devil doesn't make people like you very much, even if they don't realize who you are. When your worlds connected, they responded to the bottled up hatred he had for every single worthless life on our planet, as well as his repressed desire to end his own misery. And now, against his will, those monsters are giving vent to those emotions upon your people.
"It's a glorious sight to behold."