//------------------------------// // Chapter 14 // Story: Twilight Sparkle, Bringer of Chaos // by Caligari87 //------------------------------// “Etst an scytel hwel thu steorfst!” Celestia’s shield charm deflected another chaos spell seemingly targeted at nowhere in particular. The air crackled and popped with discharging energy. “I don’t seem to remember you being this mouthy last time,” Discord mused, weaving a loop of yarn into complex, arguably impossible shapes. “Or having such a creative repertoire of vulgarity.” The tangled yarn detached itself from Discord’s paw and darted away. It expanded to form something like a gaping mouth full of chomping teeth, bearing down hungrily on a group of ponies fleeing down the street. With a pop of teleportation magic, Celestia appeared in the spell’s path and met it with a white-hot beam of light. The yarn-mouth howled in agony before disintegrating to ash. “A millennium bound in stone lends time to thought,” she spat. Then her horn blazed, sending out a fireball. It would have blocked her from Discord’s sight, but from Twilight’s vantage she saw the princess teleport again, this time appearing directly behind her target. “Look out!” Twilight shouted. The draconequus pirouetted in mid-air, gracefully avoiding what would have been the simultaneous impact of the fireball and another searing magical beam. The two spells collided violently, errant arcs of flame scorching the pink leotard and tutu that had appeared during his elegant dodge. “Oh, no! I was going to wear this at the recital!” He patted the smoldering embers then whirled on Twilight. “When this is over, we need to have a little chat about your ability to get things done.” Twilight shrank before the accusation. There were no excuses; the whole fiasco was her fault, her failure, and she would pay bitterly for it. “I’m sorry!” she cried, knowing the words were useless. “Please, let me help—” “Just stay out of my way,” Discord snarled. He curled in on himself and teleported away just as another spell pierced the sky. But the spell hadn’t been aimed at him. A wide, shimmering beam of golden light enveloped the house next to the library, and within seconds the randomization had stopped. Walls began rebuilding, furniture settled down, and the owner’s coat shed brussel sprouts by the dozen. “Now why’d you go and do a thing like that?” Turning to the sound of the voice, Twilight caught sight of Discord some distance away, over another building. “You’re fighting a losing battle, sunspot!” he shouted, raising one paw in preparation for a spell. “Chaos always— OOF!” An ear-shattering CRACK split the air as something zoomed from the library and struck Discord square in the chest. Rebounding in a graceful arc, the object slowed enough to be visible as something more than a blur. It was Princess Luna. “Sister!” Celestia called, soaring to meet Luna’s altitude. “Now is our chance! If we—” Even from a distance Twilight could read the derisive scoff in Luna’s body language. The alicorn princess veered away from her sister and swooped toward the still-stunned Discord. Small, smoky black tendrils of magic burst from her horn. But Discord was quick. Even still reeling from the massive physical impact, he managed to dart away from the incoming assault. The magic impacted on another building, each tendril explosively blowing massive holes where they impacted. “You’d best listen to your big sister,” he jeered, throwing a flurry of randomizer spells in Luna’s general direction. He faced Celestia and conjured a measuring tape. “And I do mean big! Hitting the cake so soon after your nap?” Uttering a growl of frustration, Celestia beat her wings to soared closer. “Thou canst not win!” she cried, and added her own attacks to Luna’s. “We have the Elements of Harmony now, and they will defeat thee!” A ping-pong paddle appeared in Discord’s paw, and he batted the incoming spells away. “Elements, eh? So how did it feel to rob Mummy’s grave?” Luna seemed to stumble in mid-air, and threw a questioning glance at her sister. Celestia returned the look with a shake of her head before firing off another powerful attack spell. “So where are these Elements now?” Discord asked. A shield charm reduced the incoming spells to playing cards, which he gathered and flourished in an impossibly complex fan. “Or are you afraid to tip your hoof too early?” Celestia’s eyes flicked to the library for just the briefest of moments, but it was enough. Discord sprang into action, blasting both sisters with telekinetic magic that sent them tumbling. Then he motioned with one paw and a jagged beam of chaotic energy erupted, aimed directly at Twilight and the library behind her. “NO!” Celestia cried. She teleported haphazardly into the beam’s path with a shield charm. The beam glanced off the edge of the shield, only deflecting a few degrees to fly past Twilight’s shoulder. A split second later a massive explosion threw her across the street. Dazed, ears ringing, she rolled back onto her hooves. When her eyes finally refocused, she gasped. Half of the library had been disintegrated to atoms by a blast of pure chaotic disruption. Suddenly, Twilight realized with horror that she’d never seen anypony else leave the building. Before Twilight’s teleportation magic had faded, cries of panic and fear filtered into the library from outside. Spells flashed, and the ponies inside briefly heard Celestia shout something indistinct over the ruckus. “What the heck was that?” Rainbow cried. “I dunno!” Pinkie replied. Her voice sounded uncharacteristically fearful. “Whatever it is, it can’t be good!” “It means the Lord of Chaos has come.” The four ponies looked to Princess Luna, the Night-Mare. She was standing stock-still, but as they looked closely they could see her shoulders trembling. “The Lord of Chaos has come,” she repeated flatly, “and thanks to the efforts of everypony here, the circle of Elements is incomplete. You are not prepared to defeat him.” Zecora scoffed at the accusation. “What in the world did you expect us to do? You could have at least given us a pointer or two!” “Do I look like your personal oracle, bangles?” Luna spat. “But… but we only need two more,” Rarity offered. “Celestia said if—” “Do not speak Her name! You are not worthy to—” The princess cut off her own words, biting down on her lip. Cowed into silence by the deafening shout, the ponies huddled together. Rainbow gulped down a lump in her throat. Rarity gasped quietly in an attempt to calm her rattled nerves. As if to punctuate the silence, a small explosion reverberated through the walls. More screams echoed faintly in the distance. Luna straightened her neck and sighed. “It seems I must do what I can to salvage this mess,” she said, spreading her wings. “Make your peace, ponies: This day may be your last.” With a single mighty beat of her wings, Princess Luna launched herself through a nearby window. The accompanying sonic boom rocked the entire library, throwing books from the shelves. “What are we gonna do now?” Rainbow asked. “Is she right? We can’t use the Elements to help defeat Discord?” “I don’t even know how to use mine,” Rarity lamented. She picked up the cracked gem Celestia had dropped. “And this one’s broken worse now!” “Can you fix it?” Pinkie trotted over, her own gem tucked into the dense curls of her preternaturally dextrous tail. On closer inspection the damage was more severe than first apparent; thousands of tiny spiderweb cracks splayed out from a massive fissure that spanned nearly the entire diameter of the gem. “I can’t say, darling,” Rarity said, probing with her magic. “Finding gems is my speciality. Repairing them… much less so.” “Shame on that mare for what she has done,” Zecora hissed, moving toward the other discarded gem, “she puts fault on us but it’s her we should shun!” She sat on her haunches and hefted the gem between her forehooves. It remained vacant and dim, no activating magic lighting it from within. With a sigh she set it back on the floor. “What’s more, she has stolen Fluttershy away,” she said, voice beginning to shudder. “Is she alright? Can anypony say?” “I hope so,” Rainbow said. She fluttered over to Zecora and put a comforting hoof on her shoulder. “I mean, I’m sure she’s okay… you heard what Rarity said: Fluttershy is the Element of Kindness. Without her the rest of the elements wouldn’t work anyway, so why would they hurt her?” “I hope you are right,” Zecora said. Her hooves were trembling now. “To think of her— h-hurt… gives me terrible fright!” “Don’t fret dear, we’ll find her,” Rarity assured, gathering the remaining gems in her magic. She winced as another series of distant explosions shook the windows. “But we really should leave posthaste! There’s no telling what—” “Hello?” The word filtering down from the stairs was faint and unsteady, but the voice was unmistakable. While the others gasped in surprise, Zecora was on her hooves in an instant. “Fluttershy, is that you? Can it be, is it true!?” She galloped toward the stairs and took them three at a time. By the time Rainbow, Pinkie, and Rarity had reached the top of the stairs, Zecora had already wrapped Fluttershy in a tight hug. She was rocking back and forth, struggling to get words out. “You— here! I c-can’t believe! W-we were about to leave!” Tears were beginning to spill down Zecora’s cheeks. Looking tired and frazzled, but true to her infinite kindness, Fluttershy was nuzzling them away as she stroked Zecora’s mane comfortingly. “I’m here, it’s okay. I’m fine, just a little shaken up.” “But… How did you get here?” Pinkie asked. “Last time we saw you, we thought Princess Luna had taken you away somewhere.” Fluttershy grimaced and winced. “She did, to the old castle…” Her whole body shuddered in apparent horror as she trailed off. “Whatever it was, we’re just glad you’re safe,” Rarity said, trotting over and adding her own hug to the one that Zecora seemed unwilling to release. Still, Fluttershy suddenly seemed to shrink into herself. Her ears began perking at the distant noises of destruction and battle. Her eyes grew distant, fearful, and she stopped stroking Zecora’s mane. “It was awful… She was so angry, so cruel…” “Who? Princess Luna?” Rainbow asked. Fluttershy nodded. “Sh-she wanted to m-make me fight… she said I was an Element for a battle, or something…” Her voice was tremulous, weak. “That’s the same thing Celestia told us,” Rainbow said. “Or ‘Solaria’ or whatever her name really is.” She held out her own gem. “Look, see?” “I think she meant for you to have one of these,” Rarity said, levitating the two remaining unclaimed gems toward Fluttershy. “Take it and see; they’re really quite marvelous.” “Yeah! They make you tingle all over and sorta glow inside!” Pinkie bounced exuberantly. “I’ve had mine for, like, a couple minutes now and I’m still not bored of it, so that’s saying something!” Fluttershy balked and recoiled, but Zecora held her steady. “Do not worry, it is okay,” she said. “The Elements are safe; it is as they say.” Reaching out a hoof, Fluttershy touched the cracked gem. Nothing happened. “Oh bother,” Rarity said, swapping the cracked gem out for the intact one. “Here, try this.” At Fluttershy’s touch, the gem burned bright with internal magic, then settled to a now-familiar subtle glow like the others. “Oh my!” Fluttershy hefted the gem between her hooves. Her back and shoulders visibly relaxed, as if an invisible weight had been lifted away. “It does feel good. I feel… better, I think.” “Isn’t it great?!” Pinkie exclaimed. “And it just keeps getting better! I haven’t felt this good since… since… I dunno when!” “To Applejack the last gem must belong,” Zecora said with a sigh. She looked disappointed to not be sharing in the effervescent feelings provided by the Elements. “But with this battle, I doubt that she will come along.” “I could go get her,” Rainbow offered. “She said she was going off to the farm to pack up; maybe she’s still—” Rainbow’s words were cut short as a massive explosion rocked the library, throwing bodies and furniture against the back wall. Chaotic disruptor spells randomized matter on the molecular level, effectively vaporizing most anything in their path. Discord’s spell had been only slightly deflected by Celestia’s shield charm, one half the beam blowing a ragged semi-circle out of the side of the library, while the other carved a long furrow through Ponyville for some distance before tapering off. Twilight only had eyes for the library as she jumped to her hooves She galloped toward the blasted-out shell, but just as she reached the rubble her knees bucked in grief and she stumbled to a stop. Her friends were in there. Had been in there. Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Zecora, Fluttershy. Discord had known; she’d seen him target the library specifically. She tried to shout words, but they came out as a strangled scream. Her lungs seemed too small, her throat too tight. She tried desperately to overcome the crushing despair, but it was too late. They were gone, and it was all Discord’s fault. “Twilight?” The voice made Twilight’s breath catch. Hardly daring to hope, she looked up through blurry eyes and saw a white unicorn, picking her way delicately through the rubble and dust. Her heart leapt and she leapt with it, clearing the pile of debris in one bound. She wrapped Rarity in a crushing hug, fighting for breath as her chest clenched painfully. “You’re okay!” she gasped out. “You’re okay!” “We all are dear, mostly,” Rarity replied breathlessly. “We were upstairs and on the other side, thank goodness!” Looking up, Twilight saw the others, likewise picking their way through what was left of the main room. Pinkie waved, grinning more widely than seemed appropriate as she bounced her gem with her tail. “What happened?” Rainbow asked. She kicked aside some of the larger rubble to clear a path for Fluttershy and Zecora, who were still descending the mostly-intact staircase. “It was Discord. He—” Twilight stopped herself. To her surprise the words had come out more bitterly than she’d intended. She dropped the thought and shook her head. “Nevermind that. They’re fighting now, and we’ve got to leave or we’ll be caught in the crossfire again!” “I must say I agree,” Zecora said as she helped Fluttershy over a particularly precarious step. “This is a place we don’t want to be!” At first Twilight wondered why the pegasus needed help in the first place, then she noted the slight limp, and the way one of her wings drooped conspicuously. Fluttershy was injured. “Here, let me help.” With a quick application of magic, Twilight cleared an easier path to the front door of the library, which was still surprisingly intact and more easily accessible than traversing the rubble of the destroyed half. Rarity and Pinkie were almost out of the building already, but Fluttershy, Zecora, and Rainbow gladly made for the door. A few moments later they met on the street. Fluttershy still seemed to be doing okay, although she was leaning rather heavily on Zecora. “Okay, it seems they’re mostly battling to the east,” Twilight said, pointing to the swooping and diving figures in the sky. If we head toward Westfoal, maybe we can…” She trailed off as her eyes took in the scene of the battle. Many buildings had been badly damaged or destroyed so far. Some were burning or otherwise conventionally damaged by the Sky-Mares’ magic, but the vast majority had obviously been struck by a mind-boggling array of Chaos spells. More than the buildings though, Twilight noticed the ponies. Dozens of them, rushing to and fro like so many scattered ants. She saw walleyed mail-pony Ditzy some distance off, struggling to shield a frightened filly from falling debris. The tiny pony with the huge downy coat, half-dragging a nearly-unconscious stallion away from a shop in the process of randomizing itself. A young pegasus with stunted wings that Twilight distantly recognized as one of Apple Bloom’s friends, crying and digging futilely in the debris of a collapsed house. An unexpected feeling of impotent rage consumed Twilight as she looked back to the battle above. Not just for the Sky-Mares and their blind drive to restore “harmony”, but also for Emperor Discord himself: Not only had he deliberately tried to kill her friends, the vast majority of the damage done to Ponyville thus far had come from rampant uncontrolled chaos magic. By contrast, Princess Celestia in particular seemed committed to mitigating as much of the damage at possible, giving up attack opportunities to shield and restore buildings hit by randomizer spells. In fact, as she watched, Twilight began to get the impression this was hardly a battle at all, notwithstanding the significant damage to the town. The two sides rather appeared to be trading hits almost one for one, and with the exception of the massive disruptor spell aimed at the library, almost all the spells were ones that Twilight herself could potentially perform. The fighting had moved a ways off, but now seemed to be gradually drifting back toward the library. As the figures in the sky approached, bantering voices became clear. “Oh, come on!” Discord shouted as he deflected another volley of spells. “I know you can do better than that, moonshine!” “I could well say the same about you,” Luna retorted, easily disintegrating the large winged snowball Discord had thrown in return. “We’re trying not to kill everypony here; what’s your excuse?” “Truth be told, I’m bored,” Discord said. “Playing Emperor was fun for a while, but after a thousand years waiting for you two morons to free yourselves, it just gets old.” He dragged out the last word, morphing his appearance to a crippled, decrepit version of himself. He sighed a rattling, wheezing breath before transforming back in a flash. “And now that you’re here… Ugh. I beat you before, and I could do it again, but you’re just making it too darn easy.” With a snap of his claw another randomizer spell jetted out toward a nearby shop. Before the beam was even halfway to its destination, Celestia had teleported into its path with a shield charm, dissipating the spell instantly. “Ooh, better that time!” Discord’s voice had taken on the lolling, easy cadance Twilight had heard many times before. He was just playing now. “Keep it up and you might make it to the big leagues eventually.” Celestia growled in frustration. Her great wings beat through the air, carrying her closer to Discord. “Cease the charade!” she cried. “Let us either reason together or fight until death, but I implore you to spare the town!” With a scoff, Discord made a backhanded gesture. Celestia only barely dodged the telekinetic slap that would have knocked her out of the sky. “Charade?” he growled, eyes narrowing. “Let’s talk about charades.” With a flash Discord transformed. His body and wings turned white. A cartoonish yellow smiley face on one hip passed for a cutie mark, and a single silly bent horn protruded from his forehead. “Ooo, look at me! I’m so self-absorbed! I drove away my little sister and stole mommy’s name for myself! I’m the best, I can do everything alone, me me me me me!” Another flash, and he turned midnight blue with a half-eaten wheel of cheese for a cutie mark. His eyes were ringed with black, and he slouched conspicuously. “I hate my life. I hate my sister. I hate everything. Nobody understands me. Maybe I should just run away, because that fixes everything. I am darkness! I am the night! Woe is me!” At the mocking impression, Princess Luna screamed in rage. An ugly beam of black and purple magic exploded from her horn, boring a hole clean through Discord’s chest and the five or six buildings behind him. Celestia gasped audibly even at a distance. Luna’s own face registered unmitigated surprise. Face frozen in shock, Emperor Discord coughed once and fell from the sky. On the ground, Twilight’s jaw dropped silently, lungs clutching in vain for breath. But just as the scream began to fill her throat, she saw the real Discord re-appear, leaning casually on Luna’s hip. “Wow! I didn’t know it was possible to be killed by sheer brooding ennui.” Luna turned with a gasp and fired off a quick spell, but Discord flicked it away like it was an annoying insect. “Look, I get it,” he said, casually floating around the princess. “Nobody understands me either. I’m quite literally incomprehensible, so I know what it’s like to be cast out, ignored, treated like you’re some kind of second-class creature.” “Sister, listen not to his lies!” Celestia had soared high above the other two and folded her wings tightly, swooping down like a hawk on its prey. Regaining a semblance of composure, Luna thrust herself away from Discord. Stopping nearly directly above the library, she sent another deadly beam in his direction. This time it passed harmlessly between two smaller Discords dressed like hoofball referees. “Goal!” they shouted in unison. They somersaulted into each other, merging back into one Discord directly in front of Luna. He pointed up at Celestia and sighed with a bored, complacent air. “Get a load of her. Talk about your self-righteous hot air balloons, am I right?” Twilight suddenly realized Celestia wasn’t going to fire a spell. The princess lowered her head and shrieked out a primal war-cry, apparently intent on physically impaling Discord with the sharp point of her elongated horn. At the last moment Discord evaded. In a single smooth motion he grabbed Celestia by the throat, redirected her momentum into a vertical spin, and twisted violently like a coiled spring. The move nearly doubled Celestia’s downward velocity and a split second later her tumbling form hit the ruins of the library. She punched through the roof and upper floor like a cannonball. The impact nearly jolted Twilight to her knees. “Holy horseapples!” Pinkie breathed, her eyes wide as saucers. Rarity recoiled in horror. Fluttershy gasped and averted her gaze. Rainbow was the first to move, launching herself into the air toward the library. “C’mon! We’ve gotta help!” Zecora and Pinkie immediately followed, galloping and vaulting over debris. Rarity stayed, rushing to Fluttershy’s side as the latter shrank into herself. “Oh no!” Fluttershy whispered between gasps. “Oh no!” “Breathe darling, just— just breathe…” Rarity seemed to be having trouble following her own advice as she held the trembling Fluttershy. Twilight could only stare in shock. She’d known the battle would be destructive and terrible, and had seen the horrible effects magical combat could inflict, but those were a detached, almost abstract form of combat in her mind. This was far more real, far more violent and visceral in a way she’d never quite conceived before. “Well, that worked out nicely.” Discord’s voice caught Twilight’s ear and she looked up. Luna seemed stunned with surprise, looking between Discord and the site of Celestia’s impact. “You—!” she began. Discord quickly closed the gap between them and put a claw on Luna’s lips. “Listen here, Princess: Now that I’ve got your undivided attention, you and I are going to have a little chat…” His voice softened past Twilight’s hearing threshold, just as another interjected loudly from the library. “Fluttershy!” Pinkie called, head popping up among the debris and dust. “Come quick, we need you!” Fluttershy raised her head from Rarity’s comforting hug. “But—” “No time, just hurry!” Pinkie disappeared again. “Oh my,” Rarity said, standing back up and pulling Fluttershy to unsteady hooves. “Come now, let’s get you over there.” As the two slowly made their way through the previously-cleared path near the front door, Twilight lingered back. Above her, Discord was speaking inaudibly to Luna, one paw cupping her chin. The princess looked away defiantly for a moment, but a jerk from Discord’s claws brought her gaze back. Though she couldn’t hear the conversation, Twilight could only imagine the disharmony Discord was trying to sow. The two sisters were obviously at odds, and it would be in the emperor’s best interests to drive that wedge as deep as possible. She pushed aside the thoughts; they wouldn’t do any good here. Instead she followed Rarity and Fluttershy into the library. If the building had been only half-destroyed before, it was now completely beyond any hope of salvage. Celestia’s body had impacted with enough force to literally blast the floorboards away, crushing shelves and splintering walls. The second floor and roof above were open to the sky, cross-beams and rafters snapped like toothpicks. Chunks of the structure hung precariously by splinters and bent nails, threatening to collapse at any moment. Nearly in the center of the main room, everypony else was gathered around Celestia’s crumpled white form. To Twilight’s shock, the alicorn princess was alive, moaning in pain and making small, uncoordinated movements. “She’s hurt pretty bad,” Rainbow said as Fluttershy limped into the room, assisted by Rarity, “but I’m not sure what. Here Zecora, help me...” She moved to push Celestia’s body into a more normal position. “Don’t do that!” Rainbow and Zecora both jumped back, startled at the unexpected cry from the normally-demure Fluttershy. “She might have a neck or back injury,” Fluttershy explained. “Moving her would make it worse!” Soft words escaped Celestia’s mouth. “Tis not… that…” she wheezed, lifting her head slightly. “My shoulder…” Fluttershy leaned away from Rarity and limped over to Celestia on her own power. “How can you be sure?” she asked. “Can you move your back legs?” “I am not a pony like unto you,” Celestia said through gritted teeth, although she did shift both back legs slowly for Fluttershy’s benefit. “My magic tells me more. But the pain…” She motioned slightly with her head. “I canst not summon the strength to heal myself.” Fluttershy circled behind and placed her hooves on Celestia’s shoulder. “I think it’s dislocated,” she said, probing gently. The princess winced and gasped. “We have to put it back. Here, Zecora, put your hoof there… I’ll put mine here…” It was fleeting, but Twilight thought for a moment she saw a look pass between Fluttershy and Zecora, followed by an imperceptible nod. “Ready princess?” Celestia nodded. “Okay,” Fluttershy said. “On the count of three. One—” Fluttershy’s hoof jammed toward Zecora’s, and a loud, cracking pop echoed through the room. Celestia spasmed and screamed through gritted teeth. “Easy! Easy!” Fluttershy cried, bearing down against the princess’s efforts to writhe away. Within moments gentle hooves were kneading and pressing in all the right spots. Celestia melted, moaning softly as twitching muscles began to relax. “I shouldst flay thee alive for that deception,” she muttered. “A cruel trick it is indeed,” Zecora said with a dry undercurrent of mirth, “but sometimes that’s just what a pony needs.” “If I had waited until ‘three’, you would have braced yourself and kept it from going back in,” Fluttershy explained. Her hooves wandered, massaging further. “So we— Oh no, your ribs!” Celestia shrugged off Fluttershy’s touch and struggled to her hooves. Numerous tiny cuts became apparent and began to ooze red. “Ribs may wait,” she said dismissively, spreading her wings. “My sister faces Discord alone; I must aid her.” “Wait!” Rainbow called. “You gave us these Elements to use against Discord, but we don’t know how!” Celestia’s shoulders slumped. She sighed and shook her head. “In truth, I know little more than thee. The Elements are said to grant supreme power, but to access that power all must be present.” She gestured to the cracked and as-yet unclaimed gem in Rarity’s possession. “Even then…” “So what are we supposed to do?” Pinkie asked. A long moment passed before Celestia spoke. “I cannot say,” she whispered. “I do not know.” She launched herself skyward, and with a single beat of her mighty wings disappeared above the destroyed roof. The ruined library fell eerily silent, save for the muffled cacophony of widespread chaos consuming the town outside. Each pony looked to the others for some kind of guidance, any word of inspiration or action. “Perhaps it’s for the best.” All eyes turned to Twilight. She pushed down the clenching lump in her throat. “I mean, maybe you should just let it go,” she continued. “This is a battle between gods. What can five ponies do against that, Elements or not?” “Remind me why you’re here, again?” Rainbow growled. “Because it certainly can’t be to help us defeat your precious Emperor.” Murmurs of assent rippled around the room. Twilight opened her mouth again, but no words came this time. Truth be told, she herself didn’t know. She’d been passively going along with the current for some time now, and somewhere along the way had lost her purpose. Had the question been asked a day or two ago, she would have proudly proclaimed her intent to help Emperor Discord at all costs. Now, she couldn’t tell where she stood. Before Twilight could attempt to speak again, galloping hooves sounded on the debris outside. Not the panicky cadence of fleeing citizens or the uneven stumble of a wounded straggler, but strong, powerful hoofbeats approaching with a purpose, followed by a familiar voice. “Rainbow?! Zecora?! Are you in there!? Are you okay!?” An orange earth pony whipped through the front door of the library, panting, and stopped abruptly as she came face-to-face with Twilight in the shadowed, debris-filled entryway. Twilight stumbled back in surprise. “A-Applejack?” she stammered. “What are you—” The words were cut short as two hooves slammed into Twilight’s chest. The library spun, then the back of her head something hard, enough to make her vision go dark and swimmy. A moment later Twilight’s eyes refocused, just in time to see Applejack’s hoof speeding down toward her face.