//------------------------------//
// Chapter 17 
// Story: Lost Reflections 
// by Purple Patch 
//------------------------------//

The Doctor had kissed his companion goodbye half-an-hour ago.
Derpy Doo remained at her sleeping daughter’s bedside, staring despondently at the motionless face of Dinky Doo, remembering how she looked when she found her bleeding from the mouth in the bathroom.
She gave a small whimper and fought back tears as she clutched her hooves together.
‘Not Dinky’ she prayed ‘Not my daughter. I’ve gone through everything for her. She was the best thing that ever came from me, the one thing I’ve ever done right’
She thought back of all the moments she was willing to go through hay and high-waters to see her daughter happy and safe, perhaps the only thing she’d ever been able to keep unharmed and unbroken.
Had she finally failed in that goal?
After all this time?
She looked at her daughter again.


The hospital staff had advised her to avoid touching Dinky in her current state.
She couldn’t even kiss her. That was the worst bit.
A gentle but audible tap on the door jerked the muddle-headed mailmare to her senses, as she looked up at Nurse Redheart, eying her uncomfortably with a clipboard in one hoof.
“Miss Doo...We’ve diagnosed Dinky’s ailment”
“What...What is it? Are you sure?!” She leapt to her four hooves and nearly grabbed the nurse by the neck “Is she gonna’ be okay?! Is she dying?! What’s wrong with my muffin?!”
“Miss Doo, please stay calm, I can tell you now, we can treat her safely and, given time and the necessary resources we have sent out for, she will make a full recovery”
The Nurse sighed as perhaps the third pony that day collapsed to their knees on the hospital floor, gasping with starved relief.
“You promise?” Derpy’s mismatched eyes were blinking away tears.
“Yes, but...there’s something bothering us. Something we’d like you to take a look at. If you’ll follow me”
Derpy was led, on uneasy hooves, to Doctor Stable Horse’s study. The Doctor was still showing signs of deep stress and it was testament to his dedication as a doctor that he was still coming into work. His face was pale and clammy and his hooves were shaking slightly but he remained firm and cordial.
“Ah, Miss Doo” he began “I ah...I am happy to report that we can safely treat your daughter but...what concerns us chiefly is not so much how to cure her daughter but...” he shifted his glasses uneasily “How she got sick in the first place”
“Wh-what do you mean?” Derpy tilted her head, puzzled, still blinking away tears.
The Doctor pulled up some notes, detailing a bacterial diagram, maps with red blotches around the Everfree and various other statistics that meant little to the grey pegasus.
“The ailment that your daughter possesses is known as Dryditch Fever. It’s quite an infrequent case that develops when one comes into contact with bacteria in a formerly wet or damp area, usually in forests or swamps, after the water’s evaporated or drained off and the bacteria that thrive in it are concentrated. The disease attacks the stomach, lungs and heart, developing severe ulcers and inflammation across the interior organs”
Derpy caught something in her throat, or at least felt like she had.
It all sounded so painful. The thought of little Dinky experiencing such things horrified her.
“Now, I can reassure you that the disease is treatable and we’ve begun at once. We should see definite improvement later in the week. But my underlying concern is that...well...” He looked over the notes again “The disease has entered its mid to late stage with seemingly no warning. Early symptoms include wooziness, mucus build-up, bouts of coughing and occasionally inexplicable nosebleeds”
Derpy blinked, not liking how the conversation was going.
“Do you remember...any signs from your daughter, up to now?”
Derpy took a step back, her breathing quickening.
“Wh-what do you mean?”
“Well...I’m simply inquiring...” Dr Horse knew he was treading deep water. He knew it from the start.
“Did you notice anything that may signify your daughter was...unwell...in any way?”
“N-no, I...” Derpy’s mouth quivered, struggling to make sense of it all “I mean, I...She was sneezing a few days ago but...but that was because of the flour, we were making muffins and I...I...she might have coughed a few times and...She was sleepy yesterday but I...I thought she was just tired and-and-and, I-I...” She descended into confused stammering.
“Derpy, please, stay calm, we’re only...” Nurse Redheart moved to shoulder her but was nearly slapped in the face by Derpy, who was backing up against the doorway with a face that could only be described as horror-struck.
“No! You...You...You think I let my daughter get sick!” she shrieked “You think I...I...I...” She fell limply on her behind and clutched her temples with her forehooves, her voice becoming a choked whimper.
“I let that happen to my muffin...I wasn’t paying attention, I wasn’t watching properly...It’s my fault she’s sick...I...I nearly killed her...My own daughter!”
Dr Horse rose, attempting to calm the frantic mother.
“Derpy, please listen, this isn’t...”
“YES IT IS!” Derpy screamed, twisting her head from side to side “My daughter nearly died! She was throwing up blood! She was passed out on the bathroom floor, bleeding from everywhere! She was put through more pain than anypony I know has ever felt and IT’S ALL MY FAULT!”
Before anypony could get another word out, Derpy had bolted for the door and flown off, tearing streaming from her mismatched eyes.


*


Twilight Sparkle had always found breezes very welcome at this time of year. But she generally preferred them caused by something other than a lethal halberd swiping all too close to her neck.
Flapping backwards with rapid wingbeat, she blasted away at the advancing Almogavar, who was dodging her magic bolts in a swift, elegant and very deadly dance with his own polearm, whirling and twisting round his head, neck and limbs as he advanced. Rearing on his hind legs as he held the halberd shaft behind his head, he turned it round and, one hoof grabbing the tail-end, placed the other forehoof on the ground and spun the halberd’s full reach out towards, further than Twilight could back away from in one wingbeat.
A hoof-full of feathers were cut from one wing and the lavender alicorn fell back with a cry, cut deep across the cheek.
Leaping into the air, the zebra roared as he brought the blade down. Twilight rolled to the side, barely avoiding losing a wing, as the halberd slammed into the asphalt road, scattering tiny chunks of gravel.
Almogavar gave a roar, reached to his crimson headscarf, drew a curved brazen throwing knife tucked behind it and hurled it forward, his one good eye glinting with zeal.
The alicorn princess screamed as it imbedded itself in her shoulder, not deeply but debilitating. Scrambling backwards, she was barely dodging her opponent’s blows, each one getting closer and closer to striking home.
Twilight stared at the scarlet-clad zebra who stood in stance, billowing vapour out his nostrils.
This was more than just determination or a thirst for glory. This mercenary had trained for this, trained for the day he would face and kill an alicorn in close-combat.
Twilight never even thought it possible.
Almogavar trailed his halberd blade along the road, drew it forward suddenly and showered sparks in front of her eyes.
Blinking them away, she gave a great flap of her wings, pushing herself back before casting a wide blast, blowing back the zebra some few feet.
With great dexterity, Almogavar caught the ground with one forehoof, found himself steady again and raised the halberd, smiling in a way that signified he was impressed with her resolve yet not with her skill in battle.
Twilight gritted her teeth, a sense of rage and indignation gripping her tightly.
These enemies...these murderers were waltzing into a city under Celestia’s protection, killing and brutalising anypony they liked, and were treating it like some foalish attempt to get to their nerves?
Were they after the Bearer’s attention?
Well, now they had it!


With a cry of fury, she shot forward rather than darting back as the zebra had expected. Crashing into him and getting in two hefty punches to his face, she hurled him away and blasted wildly at him as he flew in mid-air.
The hardy zebra slammed into the brickwork on the nearby buildings, leaving slight cracks as he slumped to the ground.
Twilight’s sudden vigour surged the guard nearby into full force against the mercenaries. Armed merely with staves, they struck hard and fast. Dozens of the hired blades fell unconscious or wounded in droves.
Blizzard Wind still struggled with Threadbare however. Whatever the cult henchbeast had done to himself over the years, it had made him swift and tough. The lieutenant was throwing his flail forward deftly but seemingly had no impact. Whether he was hitting Threadbare or not made little difference. The grisly stallion was as durable as a wet sandbag.
The chain lashed against his face and shoulder, barely grazing him, as he lumbered forward.
“You want this?! You want it?!” Blizzard yelled, spinning the chain fiercely “You’re an ugly bucker but you sure as hay look better than what your mama showed me last night!” He paused for a reaction.
Threadbare just raised an eyebrow, about the biggest change in his appearance most have seen in a long while.
“Aw, come on, you can’t just shrug that off!” the young lieutenant snapped indignantly, too peeved to stop the deranged foe from headbutting him.
The dark grey stallion was nearly laid out. His foe’s cranium could serve as a demolition ball!
“Ngurrrr” Threadbare snarled, raising the blade above his head and swiping at Blizzard’s neck. The pegasus rolled around wildly as the road became that much more pitted, sparks flying.
An idea came to Blizzard.
Flipping a small switch at the side of his helmet, there came a faint hiss.
Then his mane caught fire, a spark setting it in a blaze.
It was anypony’s guess how Blizzard Wind could set his mane alight without actually damaging it, let alone avoiding any injury.
One further wondered why his parents had named him Blizzard when he seemed more at home with flames.
But those were questions for another day.
The question on Blizzard’s mind was ‘How well does butt-ugly, gunnysack-face, psycho-for-hire like being on fire?’
The question was answered as he shook his blazing mane wildly, brushed his forehooves over his scalp and effectively threw a fireball straight into Threadbare’s chest.
“Burn you creepy bastard! Burn!” he yelled.
The demented stallion gave the closest thing he could manage to a scream as he flailed around, his dry, tarpaulin-like skin catching the fires in an instant. Blizzard flew back and caught his breath. Even in his current state, Threadbare was still swinging that humongous blade around him, howling all the while.
“That’s quite enough of that, sir!”
A blast of cyan magic hit the speechless adversary in the back, finally subduing him, the combination of immolation and disorientation too much even for Threadbare.
Twilight spun round as a dishevelled milk-white unicorn mare sprinted forward, deep purple mane messed-up abnormally.
“Rarity!” she cried, rushing over to the Bearer of Generosity. The boutique had certainly seen better days, to say nothing of her expression.
“Twilight, darling, thank Celestia!” she gasped, turning back to where she came and hollering “Down here! Hurry!”
With a clatter of hooves upon asphalt, a fresh cadre of guards sprinted down after, a blue unicorn mare at the forefront blasting away at the mercenaries, who’d found themselves trapped between two bearers and their compatriots.
Almogavar limped between them and appeared to marshal his fellows, breathing heavily and standing over the prone form of Threadbare.
He was looking around wildly.
Rarity moved forward, taking each step carefully like some exceptionally elegant wolf.
“You’re out of options, dear! Come quietly and this’ll end a lot easier!” she barked “They’ll still probably send you to the dark side of the moon but they’ll give you a torch”
The zebra kept looking around, caught something out the corner of his eye and paused.
He was looking straight up at the rooftops. A dark pegasus had just landed on the closest corner of a skyscraper, perched like a gargoyle.
The two tilted their heads at each other and smiled.
Almogavar leered at the Bearers standing to his front and back.
“That’s a very generous offer, Miss Rarity” he chuckled “But we’ve places to be other than the moon. And you’ve far worse things to worry about than me”
Rarity’s eyes widened in horror at the figure above.
“Oh good grief, not him again!” she groaned as the pegasus rose, standing on his back legs, drew a rapier and bellowed aloud.
“And then a soldier, seeking the bubble reputation, even in the cannon’s mouth!”


*


Another apple-family hoof found its mark against Hed’Kika’s jaw as Applejack delivered blow after blow, her oversized opponent nearly staggering, growling in rage.
Beside her, Milvio, the vengeful griffon prince, leapt at the enormous green stallion, slashing wildly with both avian talons and leonine claws at armour and flesh, hissing and snapping.
“Die, you filth, fall to a trueborn Raptor!” he screeched, letting his overconfidence get the better of him.
Grabbing the griffon by his downy chest, Hed’Kika swung him round and knocked both opponents down. Cussing in a manner she was glad Granny Smith wasn’t around to overhear, Applejack scrambled to her hooves and ducked a potentially-lethal swipe from her adversary’s ironclad forehoof, barely able to catch her breath.
“Alrighty” she growled between gasps “Ah’ll let ya have that one. But ah ain’t pullin’ soft shots no more, pal”
Hed’Kika snarled, slamming one hoof against his armour.
“Soft’s the only thing you prissy ponies can pull! An’ the only thing I’s pullin’ is your guts! RIGHT OUTTA’ YER THROAT!”
As Applejack riled up another strike, a skinny but forceful hand shoved her full in the face and nearly knocked her to the ground.
Milvio stood over her, a spiteful look on his feathery features.
“Interfere a third time, soil-bound creature, and you will lose an eye! Do you suppose that Inheritor Milvio requires your aid in-”
In the time it took to blink, the griffon was sailing across the street and colliding with a street lamp, bending it almost completely at a right-angle as Hed'Kika swung his hoof back round, knocking Milvio flat.
Applejack adjusted her hat, narrowly spared the strike-impact.
“Yeah...ah do suppose” she said flatly, before turning back to Hed’Kika.
“Oi!” he bellowed “I’s the one yer fightin’! So fight me!”
“Will do!”
Again and again, the two matched each other’s strikes, heavy hooves smashing into one another, nearly cracking under the pressure. The Bearer of Honesty felt sweat trickling from her forehead down her neck as she fought hard to block the onslaught.
Hed’Kika at last grappled her by the forehooves, both ponies standing on their back hooves as the enormous green stallion gnashed wildly at his enemy’s face.
Applejack drew her head back, both to avoid getting her muzzle bitten off and to avoid inhaling Hed’Kika’s noxious breath.
“My lady!”
A cord of magic constricted around Hed’Kika’s immense neck, pulling him backwards as Lieutenant Montague focussed hard, her coronet flaring a bright indigo.
The massive green stallion grunted as he struggled to breathe and fight at the same time. With a roar, he twisted round and brought down a great hoof upon his foe.
Montague sidestepped, releasing him of the magic just in time. Hed’Kika’s hoof slammed into the road, burying itself several inches into the concrete. Chips of grit and dust showered the unicorn who stumbled back to find Hed’Kika’s tusked snarl inches from her face.
The next moment, it had joined his forehoof smashing into the ground as Applejack leapt on his shoulders and put her full weight upon his back, sending the full bulk of his form careening down.
Leaping off, the hardy farm-pony took a stance as her foe struggled to regain his senses.
“You...” Hed’Kika slurred, face twitching with indignation “Is that...the best you can...”
His forehoof gave way, his eyes glazing over, and the massive green stallion collapsed upon the road.
Her duel at an end, Applejack gave her hat a tip and produced a startlingly good impression of her elder brother.
“Nope”


*


Derpy almost smothered herself as she buried her grief-wracked face in the pillows.
How had she gone so wrong?
There were many times she’d felt responsible, been responsible for her little muffin coming to grief or injury.
But this was the worst.
Dinky could have died.
Dinky almost died.
And her mother had known nothing.
Done nothing.
The pillow pulled tight in her grasp, threatening to rip in two.
It had felt like only the only last week that Dinky had a nightmare and slept in her parent’s room for the rest of the night.
She’s spent the rest of the night completely untroubled, safe and snug between her mother and father.
A horrible thought entered Derpy’s mind?
Could she have caught it from her?
She didn’t know.
She just didn’t know.
On and on, Derpy Doo sobbed forlornly.
She didn’t deserve the comfort of pillows and beds.
She should be on the floor.
Like how she slept at Invitro Hall if she hadn’t fixed the cistern properly.
Invitro Hall.
Her mind fell back to that moment in the laundry room. Where little Dinky almost fell into a vat of boiling water.
So many times, she’d nearly brought pain or grief upon the most precious thing she’d ever had.
Dinky was the only thing Derpy had ever done completely right.
And so much had gone wrong for her daughter because of her.
“What went wrong?” Derpy whimpered “I just...I just...”
“You...”
An eerie voice ran through the bedroom as Derpy’s head shot up, her wall-eyes darting round in all directions.
She spun round behind her.
And there it was.
Standing before her, in the reflection of the mirror, was her aunt, Countess Magnifying Glass, eying her with a look of something cold but calm, something that could only be called disappointment.
“You, Irregular” she said solemnly, every word a grip of icy chill at Derpy’s chest.
“You went wrong”


Derpy gave a terrified gasp and scrambled away, pressing her back against the wall, staring with horror at the most dreaded figure of her foalhood. Her aunt tilted her head and spoke again, shaking her head and sighing.
“Irregular...why must you put yourself through this? Why must you keep denying what you know to be true?” She sounded almost sad “The world does not accept you. It never has and it never will. Your lack of understanding is your sole defining feature, a feature nopony can ignore”
Derpy blinked away tears and stammered.
“Y-Y-You...wh-what happened to you?”
Her aunt did not look herself. She looked impossibly thin and the clothes she was wearing were as worn and unkempt as her hooves which were beginning to crack around the soles. Her already-pale face had become chalk-white and crumpled. Her eyes were a pale yellow, sunken in their sockets, staring into her as they had always done.
“You did this...You are destroying me” she said “As you are destroying yourself...and your daughter. You are destroying everything you’ve ever loved by impersonating what you know you can never be”
“You...” Derpy shook her head, gritting her teeth as memories of her past flashed before her eyes like a lightning storm “I never loved you...”
“Oh but you did. How could you not?” her aunt’s voice was bizarrely calm, close to sounding disturbingly comforting “When your parents gave up on you, it was I, your patient and understanding aunt who took you in, gave you a new home, a new name, a new purpose...that better suited you. I am the reason you live. Anypony else would have abandoned you as your parents did”
“But...but you hurt me”
“Only when you needed me to. You did not learn any other way. And you still don’t. These mistakes you make are proof of that. Do you honestly believe anypony else could have treated you better?”
“YES!” Derpy yelled, hoof slamming down on her tear-stained pillow “Ponyville treats me better! The Doctor treats me better!”
“And now your daughter lies half a corpse in hospital...”
Her words cut deep into Derpy who nearly doubled up in shock and guilt, swallowing hard, tears welling up in her mismatched eyes.
“You hurt yourself, with or without me” Countess Glass continued “How long do you want it to last, Irregular? How much of our lives must you destroy?”
“Don’t...don’t call me that...How...how did you get into my house?”
“I didn’t. Look around, Irregular. I am still under arrest, imprisoned in my own home and separated from you, made to suffer for protecting you from yourself. And look what it’s done to both of us. I am in your mind because, as you know as well as I...it is broken...and you need me to fix it again...”
“Shut up...Shut up...SHUT UP! GET OUT OF HERE! GET OUT OF MY LIFE!” Derpy screamed.
“I can’t...” the Countess’s disposition did not change but her yellowed eyes widened forebodingly “I am part of you. The part of you that knows just how wrong you are”


The door creaked open just as soon as a piercing shriek rang throughout the house.
The young unicorn, Sparkler, rushed upstairs just in time to find her foster mother lunging at the mirror, catching her before anything smashed. The normally bubbly mailmare’s face was twisted in fury, her eyes both set in the same position, bloodshot and wide, gripped by mania.
“LEAVE ME ALONE!” she raged.
“Derpy!” she cried out “Derpy! What happened?!”
“LEAVE ME ALONE! LEAVE...Me...”
Derpy’s chest heaved with gasps as she steadily regained her senses, blinking rapidly until her eyes felt like where they belonged again.
She stared at Sparkler blankly, twitching suddenly and curling up on the floor.
“Derpy...” the unicorn asked as calmly as she could “Are you...are you okay?”
The grey pegasus slowly looked up at her, tears streaming down her cheeks, her bottom-lip shuddering as she whimpered.
“No”
Sobbing, she collapsed into the forelegs of her family friend, burying her face into her shoulder as she had with the pillow.
“It’s okay, Derpy...It’s okay...Don’t cry...Please don’t cry” Sparkler’s wishes fell on deaf ears as she began crying with her mother figure in the doorway of the Doo family bedroom.


*


“You killed your daughter, Irregular...And I’ll make sure that’s the last sane thought in your head”
Countess Glass paced away from the mirror, the sight of her niece weeping ebbing away like dew dropped into a clear puddle.
She was faced with her own reflection, a satisfied grin etched into her features.
And she was not alone.
“Having fun with your new toy, I see”
“I had a feeling you were around, Cascadius” she turned to face him. He was sitting the armchair he often rested in, the one that had belonged to her late husband before his tragic accident on the way to Manehattan Penitentiary “It was worth the expense. Give my thanks to your contact for setting up the Transpeculum. One gets so starved of proper entertainment in this fetid little cell”
“Isn’t it your home?”
She spat into the fireplace.
“I never liked it when I was young let alone after becoming a prisoner here. The first thing I’ll do once this over is have the whole place blown up!”
Cascadius gave a smile.
“I think we can...arrange for that” he took a lip of a glass of lemonade he’d poured for himself without her leave.
She’d seen it happen often now but it always grated on her.
Still, she kept silent.
“Do you know...” Cascadius began “Before this all gets underway, I’d like to know something”
“You?” The Countess chuckled “I thought you knew everything”
“Not at all. I simply strive to know everything. That’s not something you achieve without asking questions” the paymaster said knowingly.
Countess Glass sighed.
“Very well. Ask away”
“I’d like to know, I really would...” he put his drink down and eyed her with earnest “What...made you what you are? How did you become...like this?”
The Countess’s lips twisted into a scowl.
“You mean ‘Why aren’t I more like my saintly, loving, ever-so-perfect sister?’ is that what you mean?”
Cascadius weighed her words a moment.
“Yeah, pretty much”


The ruined matriarch paced about the smoking-room, the poker in her grasp idly swishing through the air.
“Well...” she began in the breathy tone and manner of somepony almost ready to get something off their chest “Let’s just say my foalhood was...stressful”
“Your family not quite as lovely and caring as advertised?”
“Yes and no” Her lips tensed “I, among all the Glass family, understood that it’s perilous at the top. My father sprinkled the family wealth and influence around like confetti, regardless of the expense that would inevitably occur. I alone saw carelessness in their actions. Forty years ago, Canterlot entered a banking crisis. Many lesser families and businesses became bankrupt, left with nothing worth saving or offering. Yet my father welcomed them all, passing out the Glass household’s earnings like it was going out of style”
She took a deep intake of breath, resentment boiling over in her tone.
“Then I caught the eye of the Lord Magistrate. Played the charming, beguiling wife for that perverted old cretin, pushed out those two snivelling daughters of mine...all to save Invitro Hall, all while my sister spent her seasons canoodling with that great flapping lug”
Cascadius’s brow rose slightly.
“An arduous journey”
“And a completely thankless one. Father was all set to beggar the House of Speck along with his own, all the more bits to go to those with no right to it! I warned him what would happen. Would he listen? Would anypony listen?!”
“Would they?” Cascadius asked before the Countess put on some simpleton impersonation.
“Niffy, dear filly, don’t fret. These ponies are our friends, they always have been. They’ve more than earned their favour” she blathered, acting out some face show, her own features growing more and more angered after every word.
“Oh Niffy, you’re worrying over nothing. Kindness goes a long way, further than any purse or wallet. It’s what really shapes great cities like Canterlot”
“Generosity, my dear girl, is its own reward. It’s something nopony ever forgets and with patience comes the true earnings in life”
“I will not be selling out anypony who has shown such loyalty, Niffy. The clerks will be kept on. I doubt the increase will be overly detrimental”
“I’m very sorry, Niffy, but if these charges about your husband are anything other than a huge misunderstanding, we shall be compelled to be honest with her highness’s courts”
“Remember, dear old daughter, however heavy your worries leave you, the most you can do is find something to laugh about. So come on now, dear, laugh with us. HohohahahahahahahaHAAARRGH!”
With a bellow, Countess Glass lashed out with the poker, shattering a nearby vase, and breathed heavily.
There was a pause.
Cascadius took another sip of lemonade.
“Not quite smitten with their philosophy, eh?” he asked.
“The Magic of Friendship, Kindness, Generosity, Loyalty, Honesty and Laughter...Those six things have brought me nothing but misery!” Magnifying Glass hissed venomously “When it was over, we were looking at bankruptcy. Our entire business and estate hoofed over to the bailiffs. And what happens?”
“What happens?” Cascadius asked, quite intrigued.
“Oh, it’s a miracle!” she preened sarcastically “All our firm and dutiful friends flock to us and bail us out, once they were all safely back on their hooves. After everything, everything I worked for...We were all swimming in debt. And still, father was still content to paddle freely regardless and Looking was too caught up with her precious little offspring, Derpy Brain-Bypassed Doo, to pay it any mind. I suppose she could always settle down with the upstart, but me? No. I wasn’t content to be the laughing stock of Canterlot. I didn’t see the reason in waiting blindly for what we could easily take if my father had balls to call his own!”
She took another breath again, her tone calming.
“So I acted. I had my father declared insane. Nitpick saw to the courts, he could be counted on that at least. And then, my sister and her gallant husband disappeared in a most convenient disaster...” her eyes flickered with what looked like anticipation.
“But then the Chairmare and her wretched husband, the doctor showed up. I know he’d be the one to treat my father and the moment he left the cell so too, inevitably, would Count Stained Glass, with all his legal finances...”
“Then you met me” Cascadius said, smiling.
The Countess was quiet for a while, slowly trudging over to the settee and sitting down, eyes blank.
“I had locked up my own father, killed the Chairmare of Canterlot and her husband, seized back countless holdings my father had given up and had my little niece in my hoof like the insect she was...All of this, in under a year” 
She shook her head in wonder.
“And it was so...ridiculously...easy. My father had always prided the Glass family on their dutiful obedience of the philosophies of Harmony...Look where that got him. To Tartarus with that and all who preach it!” she stood up, the menacing snarl returned on her features.
“I had the city of Canterlot in my pocket and all it took was a word to the right ponies. That’s power that Harmony can’t compare, power that Harmony never bought my father or anypony else. This was mine, Cascadius...This was all...mine...”
“Hm...And look where you are now” The paymaster finished his drink “With your influence, the court and council’s fear of you, Celestia bogged down with Miss Shimmer and anypony catching on finding themselves in Glanders Gate, you were untouchable...Then that fateful night in Ponyville brought you knocking on the door”
He caught sight of the Countess’s grimace at the memory.
“Do you ever wonder...If you’d just left her alone to raise the foal alone and forget the past, this would have turned out differently?”
The two faced each other on opposite sides of the smoking-room.
“You...told...me...” she hissed “You told me she’d had the foal...That she and that...doctor...”
“So I did” he nodded “And believe me, once this is over, my lady” he flashed a smile.
“You wouldn’t have had it any other way”