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// Chapter 19 - And they're all out of cake 
// Story: A series of unfortunate events that leads to another redeemed villain, yay! 
// by Leondude 
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During Stormy's absence, Sanies has been battling both of the princesses with his newfound magic. Considering how fatigued both princesses are by now, they've been fighting for a while. Sanies on the other hand was cackling and having the time of his life, for he had never felt this powerful in his life. In fact, he had a new more menacing form, with blue flames surrounding him. Eventually, he grabbed them both by their heads and slammed them down hard onto the floor. He then raised the arm with the bone claws, intending to finish the princesses off once and for all.

"While our little reunion was fun, Celestia, I'm afraid our little dance has come to an end"

But before he could cast the finishing blow, he heard a voice bellow "LORD SANIES! YOUR REIGN OF TERROR IS FINALLY OVER!!!". When Sanies looked at the direction the voice came from, he noticed Stormy wearing an extremely ridiculous superhero costume. It had a mask to go with his horns, a cape and it's all in a light blue. While Sanies is usually the composed type, mild sadism notwithstanding, he just laughed at how ridiculous Stormy looked. Not chuckled, laughed. And he laughed hard before wiping a tear away from his face.

"Oh you must be joking! Do you really think you can defeat me? Or even better, do you really think you can convince me to join your side?" he said while laughing even more

"Laugh all you want, villain, but we won't let you take over this world!"

"Take over the world? Oh that is adorable!"

Stormy can only just stare at the dragon in befuddlement 

"What?"

"I personally consider taking over Equestria to be overrated, so I'm going to burn it all to the ground and remake it in my own image instead"

Everyone can only stare at Sanies in shock. His mouth still having that sickening smile of his. The mouth then opened up, speaking in an almost mocking tone to our heroes

"It's really pathetic how you guys give up just because you got beaten by the elements once, and that's not even getting into the fact that you believe in the magic of friendship. I am familiar with the the phrase 'if you can't beat them, join them', but what if you come across someone who not only refuses to atone for their crimes, but will keep coming back stronger than ever? Let's see if your precious friendship will save you then"

Then he looked at Discord's direction

"Ah, I see you have joined their pathetic little band, Discord. How disappointing, the spirit of chaos and disharmony being easily manipulated by far less powerful creatures"

Discord spoke up

"If you're trying to convince me to abandon my friends, then you haven't heard what happened between me and Tirek"

Sanies just laughed. He never had any intention of the draconequus being on his side. Not even when he was in Tartarus. Rather, he wanted to show him and his new "friends" how much of a weakness friendship is.

"Tell me Discord, would you do anything for your friend, Fluttershy?"

He then opened the cage containing Fluttershy and then grabbed her by the neck, flying up and threatening to drop her from a very high distance.

"Here's the deal, surrender now and I will spare your friend. Refuse and today's the day we find out if pegasi can fly without the need for magic, which I doubt they can"

Stormy looked at Discord

"Hey buddy, remember how I promised not to betray you guys? Yeah, better return the favour. Besides we can always catch her"

Sanies smirked at them. "You're right, so let's make this a little more difficult for you". His eyes grew brighter, and with that, almost every other pony in the vicinity had the same green glowing eyes as him. Then it occurred to him.
"On second thoughts, I'll just make you co-operate" he said as his eyes glowed brighter "trust me, you won't give it a thought". This left our brave ex-villains, now heroes clutching at their heads in agony, trying to resist Sanies' control. Tempest was trying so hard, a bit of unstable magic hit Sanies' hand, more specifically, the one holding Fluttershy. Sanies lost his concentration, but for a brief moment when he noticed our brave reformed baddies chasing after the falling Fluttershy.

"Oh no you don't"

Between Fluttershy falling to her doom and everyone else either under Sanies' spell or trying to resist it, it seemed all hope was lost. Until Discord, by some divine miracle, managed to catch Fluttershy and embrace her in a tight and very adorable hug. While annoyed by the circumstances, Sanies can't help but be amused by his own errors. Trust him to assume the unicorn with broken horn can't do any magic. In hindsight, he should have double-checked to be sure Stormy absorbed all the pony magic. Oh well, time to rectify those mistakes. He shot a massive green fireball at Tempest's direction, only for it to hit Grubber. Everyone, especially Tempest, just looked on at shock. As Sanies looked at the injured hedgehog-like creature, he chuckled.

"I know it's clichéd but you fool! Would you really doom yourself just for them? How pathetic."

As Tempest was holding her injured friend in her hooves, she gave Sanies a hate-filled look. He was going to pay for what he did, even though Grubber kinda ruined the moment by saying he's okay, getting a bit better actually. But that didn't stop Tempest from unleashing all her power onto Sanies. While Tempest was putting up an actually decent fight, Sanies isn't even breaking a sweat.

"You know, my little pony, I'm not even using half the power I have now to fight you"

He then used the rest of his power to have the ponies under his control grab Stormy, Grubber and Discord. He then grabs Tempest by the neck and faces the rest of our captured heroes.

"While I could have destroyed you guys already, I worry I might end up missing you". He then smiles at them while charging up a fireball in his mouth "But now, I need not worry". But before he could finish them off once and for all and continue destroying the world, Tempest manages to kick the device with all the magic right off his neck. As Sanies began to lose his power, rather than indulge in another clichéd villainous saying such as "NOOOOOOOOOOO! CUUUUUURRRRRSE YOOOOOOOUUUUU", he just looked at the device falling to the ground and shrugged.

"Well, that's annoying"