Garotte Wire had been doing what she knew best.
Being Evil.
With some tips from the Pink One, combined with her street smarts and her affinity for stories, she had come up with an almost perfect plan. Why was it 'almost' perfect?
She had made a promise.
A few tricks had been gifted to her by the Pink One for this express purpose, and she had also promised to never abuse what had been bestowed to her. One of these tricks was instantaneous teleportation when nopony was looking. This allowed her to gain access to places otherwise impossibly forbidden, however the limit was that she was bound to Equestria in her travels. She would not gain the ability of extra-dimensional help, as the Pink One had explained she was able. She would not have the Space Marines she wanted, but she could make due with somepony else.
Or somecentaur.
"Come closer, Pony. Let me get a good look at you..." The ragged form of Tirek rasped.
Yes, she had traveled to Tartarus. With a tip from Pinkie, she had given Cerberus a roll of sushi the size of a barn. It was obviously his favorite food. Her reason? She would need a great distraction for what she was planning to do next, and Tirek was just the first step of her plan.
Garotte stepped right to the bars of Tirek's prison, a smug look on her face.
"Excellent..." Tirek whispered, before his maw opened, searching for magics that would not come. "What?!" He barked angrily, "Where is your Magic?!"
"Silly Tirek, Magic is for Ponies. I'm a copy!" The Mirror Garotte chirped. The downside of using the Pink One's abilities, is temporarily gaining her mannerisms. Garotte was not an idiot, and she wasn't going to place herself in danger with any of these tools if she could help it. Thus, the Pink One had told her of the pool of mirrors. Certainly, the entrance to this ancient magic had been sealed. However, the cave itself still existed, and one simply had to know where to look and have the abilities of the Pink One to travel there. By extension, and without the knowledge of the Pink One, Garotte had made hundreds of copies of herself to carry out her plan, all with the Pink One's limited extension of gifts.
"A copy?" Tirek grumbled, both baffled and intrigued at the idea of creating copies of himself, before discarding the idea. Having copies of himself would only end horribly. He would be too busy fighting his copies for power to actually destroy anything the disgusting ponies held precious. His thoughts finished, and Garotte patiently waiting, he glared at her. "What do you want, pony?"
"I want your help! I plan to cause as much mayhem and evil as possible, and I know that you don't kill ponies. You only steal their magic. If you killed them, their magic would vanish along with their souls, correct?" Garotte explained with uncharacteristic cheer.
Tirek grumbled. "You're well informed, pony."
"It pays to be prepared." Garotte nodded in reply.
"Should I ask why?"
"Nope! Just know that you'll be free to be you, with one little exception." she smirked.
The glare returned. "What exception?" he snapped. He was being used, he knew. However, once he had enough power, he would squash this fool underhoof the same as the Princesses.
"Just one Pinkie Promise, and you'll be set free!" Garotte chirped.
Tirek's blood ran cold.
*****
"You told her WHAT!?" Twilight freaked out.
"Just a thing or seventeen! It's no big deal, Twilight. We've got the Princesses, Discord, the Queens, Nightmare Moon, Aether, and the six of us!" Pinkie hurriedly explained.
"Oh, don't include me in this little game of yours. I still remember the last time we met." Discord scowled, folding his arms and looking away from the group with a harrumph.
"Well, we still have everypony else!" Pinkie conceded, slightly more nervous.
"I too wish to see how this plays out." Nightmare Moon added. "I have no reason to help any of you, let alone Sun Butt the Magnificent." she said with stuck out tongue.
Pinkie's hair was deflating, and looked to Chrysalis.
"Actually, I will help." Chrysalis said surprisingly.
Twilight was now even more confused. "What? Why?"
"My subjects still need food. Dead ponies can't love. It's very counter-productive to my continued existence." She explained, receiving a few glares. "Oh FINE!" she snapped. Then, with exasperated and pained tone, she turned to Princess Celestia. "I'm sorry I tried to take over your kingdom and kill you with magic." She then gagged. "There, I said it."
Celestia was surprised by this, and respectfully nodded before looking to Queen Aze.
"Oh! Is it my turn?" she asked, looking at the expectant faces of everybeing. The Queen stared at them for a few moments before realising. "Oh! That means yes. Um, one moment." Her eyes then dimmed, and while she was gone, they moved on to Aether.
"Well, I still have my daughters even if I've lost my abilities as an Alicorn." he grumbled. "I don't know where they've gone, however. I had more than a few plans in the works to mess with Equestria before this trial."
"So that means you'll help?" Pinkie asked hopefully, her hair slightly re-poofing."
"Yes. It would be insane of me not to help Equestria, as that was the reason I was playing at being a villain the first place."
"With insane-o logic like that, how can we lose?" Rainbow Dash cheered.
Everybeing else then facehoof/clawed.
"What?" Rainbow asked, oblivious.
Queen Aze then chose this moment to return.
"I am back!" She exclaimed, before noticing the covered faces. "Did I do something wrong again?"
They collectively groaned.
*****
With Tirek enlisted, and already moving around the Citadel of Evil and gathering power, she had another portion of her plan to complete.
The Golems.
+Train For Canterlot departing in five minutes.+ One of them chimed in an artifical voice.
"Golem, I have use for you and your siblings." Garotte said neutrally as possible, her voice void of emotion. This copy was not as perfect as the others had been, and had been chosen to deal with the golems.
Said golem stood a full two heads above even Celestia, with feet and large four fingered hands. Their build was that of a minotaur and a griffon combined, muscled for appearance as their strength lay more with the incantations and alchemical wizardry of their creation. Decorated with various glyphs, runes and designs for aesthetics, the golems were a tapestry of intricate design that pulsated with a soft grey glow. Looming over the Mirror Garotte, it noticed something odd about the pony.
+You are not natural.+ It stated as fact. +What is your command?+
The Mirror replied without inflection or expression. "You are needed in Canterlot. You will cause as much property damage as possible. Do not harm any living being. Bring all of your siblings."
The stone face of the golem could not generate expressions, but it could nod. +Very well. Your will be done, fellow construct.+
Mirror nodded in reply, and the two parted without further comment.
*****
"So, do you at least know her plan?" Aether asked of the Pink One.
"Um... no?" Pinkie shrugged with a desperate grin.
"We do not have time for this." Celestia firmly stated. "Garotte may be an actual threat to Equestria, and we still need to find the Elements of Harmony. Twilight, I will-" Some kind of incessant jangling and clanking was distracting her, but she refocused to ignore it. "I need you and your friends to search the Rich Bank for the Elements, and-" The jangling was growing louder, and the Pink One was holding back giggles. Realising that Discord was in the room, she slowly turned her head to see a Griffon's claw holding up the Elements of Harmony next to her face, rattling them together. With a sigh, she concluded with, "Nevermind."
Discord and Pinkie then burst into giggles, and Twilight was having none of it. "We don't have time to mess around! We have to find Garotte and use the Elements of Harmony to fix all of this!"
"Um, Twilight?" Fluttershy asked.
"Yes?"
"Don't the Elements of Harmony only work on evil things?"
"Yes, that's why we're going to use them on Garotte. Why do you ask?"
"Well... I've been thinking, and I think she's more of a Crow than a Scorpion..." she replied meekly, noticing the interested looks from all those gathered.
"A crow? Scorpion? What babble is this?" Nightmare Moon asked.
"It's a story she told us after betraying us." Twilight explained. "Something about it being in her nature to be evil."
"I don't think that's what she meant, Twilight." Fluttershy butted in, feeling nervous from all the looks, but also feeling obliged to stand up for Garotte in her absence. "I don't think she wants to be evil, but she's never been given the opportunity otherwise."
"She's had plenty of opportunity! We used to be friends before she betrayed us!" Twilight countered. "She didn't have to turn her backs on us and run off to be evil!"
Pinkie, once again, raised a hoof. "Actually..."
Everybeing then looked to Pinkie, and resumed to slam their appendage into their faces.
"Seriously, I think that it's contagious." Queen Aze commented, looking at her hoof with some degree of concern.
*****
Another Garotte had been busy, as were the rest of them. This one, however, was accompanied by a small army of duplicates. They had been given various contraptions that allowed for flight, designed by the Pink One, to travel to Cloudsdale. Once there, they had made use of amulets that had been given to them to cloud walk. They had given the controllers of Cloudsdale's City a great big group hug, and the lot of them now lay passed out on the cloudy floor.
"All secure?"
"Yes."
"Anypony notice us come in?"
"Not any that are awake."
"We have the Schematics?"
"Right here."
"Shall we?"
"Of course."
Then, to the surprise of the Pegasus in Cloudsdale, the city began to change course.
*****
"Alright, so the Elements of Harmony might work. What other options do we have?" Twilight asked of those gathered.
"Maybe you could all give her a big group hug!" Discord offered sarcastically, making foal noises. "Or, better yet, You could make her your friend!" He then 'thought' about that for a moment with dramatic exaggeration, and then added, "Oh wait! That didn't work out the first time, did it?" He sneered.
"You're not helping." Chrysalis deadpanned, fed up with the antics of the Chaos god. "Queen Aze and I have armies of Changelings. We can simply send them out to find Garotte, and be done with this. Do you know where she has gone?" Chrysalis asked Pinkie Pie.
"Nope!" Pinkie cheerfully replied.
Chrysalis glared at the Pink One, and Aether spoke up. "Alright, I know where she might be. I'm the one that trained her, after all."
"Oh?" Nightmare Moon asked. "You didn't feel this would have helped sooner?"
"Aren't you not participating in this 'save the world' party?" Discord asked, suspicious of Nightmare.
"Yes, I'm not helping. That doesn't mean I'm going to purposely allow these fools to throw all of Equestria into ruin with some scatterbrained plan. I still want subjects to rule over when I finally overthrow her Radiance." she jeered.
"You will do no such thing!" Luna protested, and the two began to square off.
"Enough!" Twilight yelled. "This isn't helping anypony, and we're running out of time!"
Luna's face wrinkled in disgust at Nightmare, as she returned a smirk of smug satisfaction.
"What's the plan?" Rainbow asked.
"Use the Elements of Harmony on Garotte?" Twilight said uncertainly.
"Well, we gotta know where she's at first." Applejack offered.
"What would Garotte do, if she had knowledge nopony should know?" Rarity asked nopony in particular.
"No..." Celestia suddenly blurted with wide eyes, causing concern from the group.
*****
Canterlot Mental Wellness Asylum.
A place of magical practices that attempt to 'cure' the insane and deranged.
A trio of Garotte's adjusted their grey ties, and walked into the lobby. Grey tiles, grey walls, grey roof and grey halls. Anypony would go insane in a place like this, excepting Garotte. Shades of grey was her life.
"Hello, welcome to the Canterlot Mental Wellness Asylum, how may I help you?" The disinterested front desk worker asked in soul-crushing monotone. They were still distracted with paperwork, and it took awhile for them to finally look up at the Trio.
"Hello!'
"Thank you for seeing us."
"If you can see us." The third one smirked, soon joined by the other two. They had been finishing each other's sentence.
The worker blinked a few times, before then rubbing their eyes. "You're..."
"A figment of your Imagination!"
"Yes, you've finally worked here long enough to join the clients!"
"Isn't that wonderful?"
The worker's face paled. "No... no that can't be true!"
"But it is!"
"And you should be in your cell to be safe!"
"You've gone and escaped again, you silly goof!"
"But... I work here!" they complained. Who they were wasn't important, and none of the Garotte's paid any attention.
"You used to!" the right one cheerfully replied.
"Before you went craaaazy." the middle copy said with googly eyes.
"That's why we're going to escort you back to your cell!" the left one chimed in.
The worker was in shock, and offered no resistance as the left and right Garotte guided them to the cell block doors.
"Who is this? What's going on?" The door guard asked.
"Oh! You can see us too!"
"You must be really magical if that horn of yours can project us, crazy!"
"You wouldn't want us to spread through the rest of the clients, would you?" The trio took turns speaking.
"Wha..." The guard muttered.
"Don't worry!"
"We'll make you feel all better!"
"Give us a hug." The Trio said in unison, jumping the guard with bear hugs that left him unconcious, as well as the Clerk from the front door. Grabbing the keys that the door guard had beforehoof, they opened the control door to the cell block.
"That was easier than it should have been."
The middle facehoofed.
"Oh, I just jinxed us, didn't I?"
"Not important now!"
"Which one opens all the doors?"
"Probably the large red one." The left pointed to a large red button in the center of the console.
"Or we could pull the fire alarm!" the right cheered.
"Lets do both!" middle exlaimed.
Both were indeed done, and the cell doors flew open to be accompanied by various alarm bells and sirens. The guards on the block floor were soon swarmed and rendered unconscious, their armor protecting them from the more vicious of the clients. The mob of insanity soon took notice of the Trio standing nearby, adjusting their ties.
"Welcome!"
"You've all been released!"
"With one little exception!"
*****
"Who is Tirek?" Twilight asked.
"A centaur that wields dark magic, and uses the souls of ponies to amplify his power. If he were to become powerful enough, he would be able to destroy all of Equestria, as well as overpower my sister and I." Celestia explained gravely.
"Pssh, big deal. Just zap him with your fancy jewels and be done with it." Discord scoffed.
"He is more likely to steal the magic from the Elements themselves. We cannot risk it." Luna countered.
"So how do we fight him?" Rainbow asked.
There was a pregnant pause of unease amongst those gathered, before Celestia finally spoke, turning to Twilight. "My faithful student... this is not how I had planned to inform you."
"Princess?"
"We must have words, Twilight." Celestia replied cryptically, draping a pure white wing over her student, and vanishing in a flash of yellow light.
.......
"That was dramatic." Chrysalis scoffed.
"Coming from you?" Queen Aze sniped.
Chrysalis then glared at Aze's blank face.
*****
"Where are we?" Twilight asked. They were floating in a swirl of starlight, pictures and scenes all around Twilight of her adventures with her friends, her interactions with Queen Aze, and her growth as a pony over time. The emptyness of space was all around them, and Twilight walked alongside her mentor on a bed of stars.
"That is not important right now. What is important, is that this situation has called for you to fulfill your destiny." Celestia answered. With a flash of magic, swirls of light wrapped around Twilight's torso. A bright glow was emitting from her chest, as she was lifted into the air with the magic causing a warmth to spread throughout her body.
"Princess, what's happening?" She asked, growing panicked.
"Remain calm, Twilight. This is not how I had planned for this to happen, but the situation is too dire to prolong it further."
The magic then grew in power, wrapping around Twilight with purple streaks of energy and expanded outwards into an explosion in the night sky.
The beings gathered in the courtroom below had seen the growing light, after Queen Aze had pointed it out, and were watching with concern, thinking this a part of Garotte's plan.
The resulting explosion of energy showed a starburst pattern of Twilight's cutiemark, blinding beams of light accompanying the slow fall of the symbol. Rushing outside, the group saw it touch down in the courtyard. The light emitted a final blinding flash of of energy, and a familiar form stood hunched over.
"Twilight, is that you?" Applejack asked, shielding her face from the dying light.
Rising from the ground, Twilight stood tall, unfurling her Alicorn wings.
"That... was unexpected." Discord commented in surprise.
*****
Garotte, meanwhile, had seen the falling star.
"Excellent!"
She then turned to several of her duplicates. "Things are proceeding to plan. Have you finished your tasks?" she asked of them.
"Yes." one replied in monotone.
"Yeppers!"
"Yes."
"We!"
"Did." the Trio replied.
"Also, excellent. Now, we just have to 'mess up' and reveal ourselves." Garotte turned to a stealthily dressed version of herself. "You know what to do~!" She cheered.
The shadowy figure then bowed, and left the room silently.
"Jeeze. That's so dramatic." The Mirror replied.
"We have everything in place?" Real Garotte asked.
"As ready as it'll ever be. Tirek is causing havoc in the Citadel, the Golems are rampaging through Canterlot, the Insane ponies are doing what they do best, and Queens Song and Viscera have been left alone completely." Monotone replied.
"Think they'll play along?" Mirror asked.
"Are you kidding?"
"They'd jump at the chance!"
"Being evil, just to make their daddy proud!" The trio replied.
*****
Queens Song and Viscera had indeed been busy. Under the assumption that Garotte had been delivering them a message, the two had taken their small hives to do battle with the Royal and Lunar guards. Their mission was to keep the armies of Equestria occupied while the 'Heroes' could accomplish their main task. They didn't mind the role, as they had been told that Celestia needed their help in preparing her star pupil for her new position.
They didn't bother to ask what that would be, but they were informed it would involve a lot of magic. And lasers. And awesome.
That was all they needed, and they soon set about attacking the various garrisons with gleeful energy.
*****
"I'm... an Alicorn?!" Twilight panicked.
"Told you it was too soon!" The Pink One scolded Celestia.
"We don't have time to do this the proper way." Celestia replied.
"What's going on?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Why is Twilight an Alicorn all of a sudden?" Applejack also asked.
Celestia raised a hoof to stop any further barrage of questions. "Lord Tirek." she explained, "With his ability to consume and harness the power of another being's magic, he will soon grow to overpower us. If he gains hold of any Alicorn's powers, then he will be able to destroy all of Equestria at a whim."
"Oh please, like he could ever do anything to me." Discord bragged, his clawed griffon hand resting on his chest.
Pinkie then giggled.
"Oh." Discord replied in deadpan.
"So you turned Twilight into an Alicorn, so she would have more magic for Tirek to steal?" Nightmare Moon commented.
"No. We are all going to give our magic to Twilight, so that she will defeat Tirek. When he is weaked, Twilight and her friends will be able to use the Elements of Harmony on Tirek and reduce him to his original form. I may have to banish him to the sun after this..." Celestia replied.
"Harsh." Nightmare replied. "I would know."
Celestia gave Nightmare a look, before explaining further. "With the help of the Element of Magic, Twilight will be able to control the excess magical energies that we will give her. If we keep our powers separate, he will easily be able to steal them from us. Combined, it will be too much for him to wield."
"Never eat a source of power larger than your head." Aether added.
"Exactly." Celestia smiled approvingly.
"So you expect all of us to just trust that this plan won't horrifically backfire?" Chrysalis asked, skeptical.
"It is the only option we have." Celestia replied.
"Couldn't we just talk to Garotte? If all of this is because of a Pinkie Promise, why don't we just free her from it?" Fluttershy asked.
Several powerful beings were about to explain how that wouldn't work, before their brains caught up and made them stop speaking before they could begin.
"I... hadn't thought of that." Celestia finally said. "I am used to Evil that is uncompromising and complete in its purpose."
Pinkie again raised her hoof.
"Oh, don't you even say it!" Nightmare Moon snapped.
"Actually?" Pinkie said anyway.
*****
Stealthy Garotte had snuck upon the group, hiding in the shadows. She was laying in wait for a moment like this, and walked silently from the shadows, using her light blue magic to reveal her face. The others were still focused on the Pink One, and she took the opportunity to leap onto her. This caused the both of them to roll away from the group, with Stealth attempting to bear hug the Pink One.
"Get her!" Rainbow Dash yelled, and Stealth was struck in the side by the blur of a Rainbow turned aggressive. Rolling a few times to a stop in the grass, she pushed herself up quickly enough to dodge the next swooping attack of Rainbow. Applejack had a rope on hoof, and nearly landed it on Stealth's neck. Rolling to the side, she had avoided it, and made a move for Fluttershy.
Before she was simply lifted into the air with magic.
"No fair!" Stealth complained, flailing her hooves.
"Garotte?" Twilicorn asked.
"Whoa. You're an Alicorn? How the hay did that happen?!" Stealth asked in bewilderment. At least she had confirmed that the plan worked thus far, making her task easier on her copied mind.
"You have to stop this!" Twilight desperately cried. "You're going to destroy Equestria!"
"No I'm not!" Stealth countered. "Everything is going exactly to plan!"
"What plan?" Twilight snapped, bringing Stealth Garotte closer to her.
"This!" Stealth replied happily, pointing to her wings.
Celestia looked to Pinkie Pie with a death glare, and the Pink One was smiling nervously with shrugging hooves.
"I thought it would be good for the story!" She replied.
"We don't have time for this!" Twilight complained. "Garotte, you have to put a stop to all of this! Ponies are going to get hurt!"
"Pinkie Promise!" Stealth replied.
"Then just revoke it!"
"Can't!"
"Why not?!"
"Hi!" Pinkie butted in.
"Wait! Before you cover your face with your limbs, hear me out!" Stealth interrupted, most of the group having nearly facehoof/clawed. "There's one condition that will end all of this. You have to defeat and banish Lord Tirek, and befriend Garotte."
All of them took a moment to be confused. Twilight was the first to recover.
"Um... Garotte? You're right here. Why are you talking about yourself?"
"I'm not me, I'm a copy!" she explained.
Twilight and her friends then paled, having remembered the horde of Pinkie Pies they had dealt with in their free time earlier that year. Twilight turned to Pinkie Pie.
"You didn't." she asked with shock.
Pinkie smiled nervously, raising a hoof.
"YOU DID?!" Twilight yelled.
*****
"Garotte to Garotte, come in Garotte."
"Garotte here, go ahead Garotte." the Garotte on the other radio channel giggled.
"Cloudsdale in position, over."
"Begin Operation: Bait and Tackle, Over."
"Copy, Out."
Then, with the city of Cloudsdale looming over Canterlot, the weather factories began pumping out all kinds of magic, ranging from snow to lightning storms. Some Garotte's even dumped pure Rainbow over the side of the city, splashing down to the ground below and eating away at the cobblestone streets like acid, leaving behind a colorful streak as they raced into the storm drains.
Soon after, the huge amount of snowfall began to blanket the city. The accompanying lightning storms were hurled around with reckless abandon by snow-nados beginning to form, and threw the chaotic weather through windows and storefronts. Buildings began to light on fire, and were soon doused by storms of rainwater.
Meanwhile, Golems were still on the ground. They had been damaging as many buildings as possible, but their programming prevented anypony or being otherwise to come to harm through action or inaction, and the citizens of the city had been placed in the Rich Bank vault for protection, if against their will.
The insane ponies that had been released were directing the weather, deciding what went where and what to create. One had come up with the idea of a Rainbow Cloud that would rain chromatic lightning bolts accompanied by snowballs of ice. This pony was then tied up by the other insane ponies, as that was too insane, even for them.
*****
Lord Tirek saw the massive display of magic, and began making his way towards the mountainside capitol city, engorged on the magic of hundreds already. The magic of that city in the clouds would be more than enough to challenge the Princesses, and give him the power to claim whatever else he wanted without trouble.
*****
"What is that?!" Twilight had yelled, pointing towards Cloudsdale and all of it's spasticness.
"Cloudsdale." Stealth answered.
Twilight rolled her eyes, still having Stealthy Garotte in her field of magic suspended overhead. "I can see that. Why is it here?!"
"To lure Tirek here, obviously." She replied.
Celestia's eyes went wide. "We don't have much time until he arrives!" She then turned to Discord, Chrysalis, Nightmare Moon, Aze, Luna and Aether. "Quickly, we must transfer our power to Twilight so that she can defeat Discor-- um... I mean Tirek!"
"Did you seriously just refer to me as the 'threat of the land' on reflex?" Discord smirked.
"Wait! How am I supposed to control all of this magic? Won't it do the same thing to me that it would do to Tirek?" Twilight asked.
Pinkie Pie then spoke up. "Ya know, I thought about that, but I think It'll be alright!"
Twilight was unconvinced. "And why is that?"
She then unexpectedly pointed to Queen Aze. "Well, her hive runs on Harmony, right?"
Not getting it, Twilight humoured her. "Yes... and?"
"And Friendship?"
Twilight still didn't get it. "What's your point?"
Pinkie sighed. "Twilight, think about it. Friendship and Harmony? Elements of Harmony? Friendship is Magic?"
"I don't get it." Chrysalis added.
Pinkie facehoofed. "You guys! She's the most powerful being here!"
Everybeing then collectively looked to the oblivious changeling Queen, who was looking off into the sky at Cloudsdale with her mouth open.
"Sure she is." Twilight deadpanned.
"I don't mean obviously powerful! Her magic isn't raw power. It's made of Harmony, right?" Pinkie lead on, "Sooooo, what happens when you have a whole bunch of different magics all in the same pony?"
"Chaos." Discord added.
"And what happens when you introduce a bit of Harmony to all of it?" she trailed.
"Magic?" Rainbow Dash attempted.
"Yes!" Pinkie cheered.
Rainbow didn't get it.
"I think I understand." Twilight spoke. "Alone, all of your different magics would conflict, and destroy me. That's why Tirek can't absorb too much power at the same time. He needs some of his power to keep the rest of it from destroying him. With the magic of Harmony, I would be able to use all of your different magics, including Dark, Shadow, Sun, Chaotic, Love, Alchemical and my own natural magics, without backlash between them..." Twilight explained while her expression slowly brightened, turning to awe.
"Pinkie, you're a genius!" Twilight exclaimed, squishing Pinkie in a hug, with her new wings joining subconsciously.
"You're forgetting a crucial element!" Pinkie squeaked.
"Huh?" Twilight blurted, releasing her friend.
"Friendship!"
"Now you've lost me." Discord replied.
"Harmony is all well and good, but you can't get along if you're not friends! Just because somepony doesn't show they hate you outright, doesn't mean they can't live with you like nothing is wrong. That means that you need the Magic of Friendship to unite all those magics under the banner of Harmony, to defeat Tirek!" Pinkie explained.
Rainbow Dash held her head. "This is making my brain hurt." She complained.
"Why's all this have'ta be so complicated?" Applejack asked.
"I wouldn't question anything the Pink One does." Stealth Garotte replied, reminding everybeing of her existence.
"Was this your plan all along?" Twilight asked.
"Pretty much. You still need the last Element though; Friendship." Stealth explained.
"How do I do that? I already have my friends here, and we're the Elements of Harmony."
"Do we have time for a song?" Stealth asked suddenly.
"No!" They all replied.
"Darn. I was hoping I'd get to sing at least. Every good villain has a song."
Nightmare Moon and Discord then glared at Stealth, while Chrysalis smiled smugly.
"We're getting distracted. Why does Twilight need to befriend Garotte?" Celestia asked, bringing things back on track.
"Because she's the one that made the Pinkie Promise." Stealth replied.
"What promise?" Twilight asked, setting Stealth down.
She raised a hoof to her chest, and recited.
"I solemnly swear than I am up to no good, for my brand of evil is far misunderstood. Through pain of life I have become who I am, and through joy of life I may begin again. Without friends, my life holds little meaning. I have only myself to keep on leaning. My actions today may seal my fate, yet for their results I would gladly state: I, Garotte Wire, Pinkie Promise to be the best evil I can make."