//------------------------------// // Everycreature's Fear // Story: How Friendship is Magic Should Have Ended // by Nebbie //------------------------------// Twilight watched, holding the bars of her cage in the catacombs, as Chrysalis put Starswirl in a cage opposite the one for her and her friends, featuring little more than a crude toilet. "So...what are you gonna do with us?" she asked. "Golly Twilight, well you are headmare and I saw a guillotine on the way down..." replied Cozy with a giggle before flying off. "Why...why are you like this?" asked Fluttershy, with teary eyes. "Gee, some of us didn't have perfect lives where we became the magical heroes. Some of us were put into filly beauty pageants at 5 years old by snooty unicorn parents who spanked us whenever we spoke without being spoken to! Getting rid of my parents after Tirek weakened them for me was the best day of my life, and well, I could always have a better day taking away the power of even more unfairly strong ponies!" Cozy replied with a wide grin. Fluttershy shivered and backed away. "You...you killed them?" "Nah, I just made sure they had a falling out with the mafia they were in and well, things kind of took care of themselves. I'm sure you know what some hungry sharks are capable of!" replied Cozy. "You monster!" cried Applejack. "Oh I wish I was! I've done a lot of bad things in my life, like that time I tried to make Cerberus my pet, but big red beefcake over here is the one with the magic draining horns," Cozy said as she flew up onto his shoulder. Tirek easily put up a hand and flicked her butt, sending her into a nearby wall with a squeak. "If we're all done telling tall tales, I must ask...do we have ANY plan to use the bell to empower ourselves further?" asked Tirek, showing just a bit of anger. "Perhaps we should each take a turn trying it to see if we can handle it...we only tested it on a foal after all..." said Chrysalis. Cozy meanwhile stared into the bell, but Grogar swiped it away. "Trust me, it won't work, you'd probably free all our captives in the process," he said sternly. "Oh, I don't know about that...Grogar never has been one for sharing..." insinuated Discord. Grogar promptly summoned a magical muzzle for the draconequus. "Silence! Now listen, I've got to go set up some security before the bumbling guards around Canterlot bumble their way down here. Unless you all want the pieces of Equestria to rule that are full of hillbillies like the Apple family, you can all play nice for just a few minutes," he said as he trotted away. Cozy once again fluttered to the cage. "Well in the meantime...which one should we get rid of first? I'm thinking Applejack, 'cause she's boring." "Am not!" the farm mare shouted. "Hey, just 'cause she doesn't sell as many toys, doesn't mean she isn't a good friend!" shouted Pinkie. Rarity put a hoof to both their chests and shook her head. "Not a good time to argue, darlings...especially with what Fluttershy's up to," she whispered. Nearby, insects were busy digging a hole as Fluttershy watched. "Hmph, just let me have Twilight last, and don't do anything to her mane, its colors will go well with my throne room's rug, good feng shui if I place it right," Chrysalis said with a cackle, making Twilight shiver. Spike slowly inched towards the hole, which looked barely big enough for him. "Perhaps first we can do something with that little whelp of hers..." Tirek started as he looked to Spike. "Wait a minute...they're trying to get him out!" Suddenly, a magic beam hit him in the side of the head, making him become suddenly dizzy and unable to focus. "You got a problem with that?!" came the voice of Moondancer. Everyone turned to see her and Star Tracker, looking ready to fight. "I knew somepony would come for us!" shouted Spike as he tentatively put his arms into the hole. "I have a problem with it..." Chrysalis started, not wasting time before levitating them against a nearby wall. "Oh," was all Star Tracker said as he and Moondancer looked at each other. "Spike, get out fast!" Chrysalis and the two unicorns both blasted beams at once, leading to a clash that was clearly in Chrysalis' favor. "But what will she do to yo-" he started. "Nothing you can stop, go!" shouted Moondancer, as Tirek was just starting to come to and Chrysalis won the tug of beams. Spike looked nervous as Rainbow and Rarity grabbed him, flipped him upside down, and pushed him by the rear into the hole, while the other ponies in the cage blocked line of sight. Chrysalis chuckled. "Oh, what will I do indeed? Grogar put a lot of restrictions on us, but he did say I could petrify interlopers..." She casted a spell, and the two rapidly turned to stone from the bottom hooves up. "Ooh, and I've got an idea..." Cozy said before whispering into Tirek's ear. He grinned, and blasted Moondancer's petrified body to make it shatter into hundreds of pieces, leaving the head to roll towards Twilight. Twilight and her friends gasped in shock, and Pinkie burst forth from them and began wailing. "She was a FAN FAVORITE! FAV O RITE! Not DI O RITE!" "Regardless, we're only keeping all of you alive to prevent an insurgency," stated Tirek bluntly. "An insurance what now?" asked Cozy. "An armed rebellion using guerrilla tactics..." Grogar replied. "And it's what you'll get even from just blowing up their allies! Do you know how difficult it will take to put her back together?" Cozy groaned and flew up to his face. "I don't care about that! Look, if we're not gonna kill them now, just let me go rule somewhere already and send a letter when we finally get to see them wet themselves and beg for their lives!" "ENOUGH! You are the worst of the three, and poisoning this already toxic triumvirate!" Grogar shouted as he grabbed the bell and drained Cozy's magic. The filly fell to the ground on her butt, and looked up, wide-eyed. "Ow! I'm still a little sore down there from hiding the bell! Um... wait, you're not going to..." she put on the puppy dog eyes as she stood up. Grogar growled and used the bell again, engulfing Cozy in its light. Her eyes went wide and screamed as her hooves started to disintegrate into wispy pieces. The disintegration went inward, then up to her head, looking horrified and pleading before it too was gone, its wispy pieces flowing into the bell. The mane 6 gasped in unison, while Chrysalis smirked. "What...what happened to her?" asked a terrified Rarity. "Converted into magic in the bell, so she can't get in the way of our plans," Grogar said bluntly. "First time I've ever gotten to try it. I suggest all of you make it the last." "I uh...well I suppose that is a way to deal with that..." said Tirek with a look of concern. "You monster!" shouted Rainbow. "Killing your enemies like Moondancer I can get...but turning on one of your own? Not cool, dude!" "Oh can it, or at least finally swap elements with Applejack so the family pony can give the loyalty speech instead of the lazy sky surfer pony. She would know that you can't trust a pony whose idea of a good time is probably having her friends for dinner instead of having her friends over for dinner," Grogar grumbled back. Chrysalis came up to him and put a hoof around him. "Oh, I'm so glad you finally saw reason, Grogar." Grogar pushed her away. "Stay away from me, freak! I'm trusting you two to rise to the level of babysitters and not lose any more prisoners while I give some populist speech about not trusting ponies who grew up 2 miles away to make everypony confused about whether it's really a bad thing to shut out the ones feeding them long enough to cement my power. At least in petrifying that teen stallion, you've given me potentially a pony who knows the stakes if he doesn't support my version of reality," he said with a glare before removing Discord's muzzle and trotting out hurriedly with Star Tracker. "Fine, I'll go fix the hole in the cell" Chrysalis said with disdain as she changed into a grasshopper and back to get through the cell, before slurping up a centipede next to the hole and spewing out goop to fill it. Tirek simply sat down, looking distraught. "So, do you really expect Grogar to honor his promises, considering he just disintegrated one of you? It seems to me like you're merely pawns," observed Discord. "Pft! As if I'm comparable to that filly. She was never that...bright," remarked Chrysalis as she finished munching on bugs and patted a crying Fluttershy mockingly. "I don't know..." Tirek began, making Chrysalis' determination fade in an instant. "...it's just that we wouldn't be here without her," he continued with a sad look. "Oh please! You...you've developed feelings! Ha, a weakness that I will never share with these ponies! If you keep this up, you'll just become one of Celestia's lawn ornaments along with all the rest of us! Or maybe you'll just come crying to your father, King Vorak!" Chrysalis said smugly. "I...look, I've got a lot to think about," Tirek said defeatedly, looking down. Chrysalis gloated with a chuckle as she basked in the ambient feelings from Tirek and the huddling ponies. Spike ran, huffing, out into the streets of Canterlot. It seemed like a ghost town, and he heard chanting in the distance. He began walking in the opposite direction, towards the train station. Along the way, he spotted Fancy Pants. "Hey, what's going on?" he asked demandingly. "I must admit I don't know all the details, but you'd best run along, dear Spike, as I fear the crowd I'm about to confront would not be friendly to a friend of Twilight's..." he said with a sullen look. "Right...um, nice meeting you!" Spike said as he zipped away as fast as his legs could carry him. He found in the trains a huge amount of ponies, most of them non-unicorns, and had to squeeze his way in between the hips of two mares, but thankfully there didn't seem to be any ticket-checking going on. "Why is it so crowded? Is Grogar hurting ponies?" he asked as he climbed atop the back of the mare on the left, who he realized was Minuette. "Spike! ...not yet, but everypony's scared. Grogar made big talk about unicorn supremacy!" she said, looking back at him as the doors closed and a few mares squeezed up against her. "Huh, then why are you here?" he asked curiously as he got comfortable on her back. "Some of my friends aren't unicorns. I-I've studied history, Spike; it doesn't end well for the friends of the ones at the bottom when this kind of thing happens, and I had to help them escape. ...Is Twilight okay?" she asked, seeming eager to change the subject, shaking so much that Spike's lower section started to vibrate too. "I hope so! It...wasn't sounding good when they got me out, but we've been through worse," he said with a look of worry. "Let's just assume that they won't do anything drastic yet. We'll be in Ponyville soon; ponies there will know what to do," she said reassuringly as the train began moving. Spike stayed quiet for a few moments, but as he looked around at the shaken ponies, he started to look worried again. "Um...Minuette?" he whispered. "Yeah?" she whispered back. "Is it normal for it to be...this quiet?" he asked. Minuette took nearly a minute to ponder, and listened carefully with ears ready. It wasn't exactly quiet with many of the windows open, but there was a distinct lack of chatter. "Um...no. Can't exactly blame them...let's be quiet too, out of respect," she finally replied. The remaining ride was eerie, but thankfully short, and the two rushed to get off. "You'd think a bunch of ponies from Canterlot would know to take a shower before getting on a train!" Minuette remarked. "Hey, at least none of them were like Twilight when she tried out brusselsprouts!" Spike replied, and started to laugh, but then his face drooped. "Oh don't get me started!" Minuette giggled and put a hoof to his face to comfort him. "Hey, don't worry, Twilight's dealt with villains before," she said with a rather fake looking smile. "But Moondancer, she's, they-" Spike started, but Minuette put a hoof to his lips. "Whatever happened, it's best we aren't hung up on it while there's still work to do. Is there anyone at Twilight's school we should talk to?" Minuette asked. "Hmm, Sunburst or Trixie might be there, if they aren't doing some special end of the world magic show, or taking the opportunity to blast each other in a duel over who gets to be headmare." Minuette gave a short chuckle and broke into a gallop. The streets seemed empty in the area as they came upon the school. "You sure about this? I've seen more lively graveyards," she remarked. "Absolutely! Chrysalis wouldn't find everypony, she's all hiding and no seeking," Spike said with a slightly wavering voice. As she went inside, a magic blast went vaguely toward her, but struck a potted plant...and had no effect on it. "Who goes there?" asked Trixie as she leapt out and tripped on her cape, falling flat while trying to maintain a brave face. Minuette looked back at Spike with a rather unamused glare. "You sure she can help? She looks like she's the one that needs it." "Hey, the more unicorns the better. Anyways, Trixie, Twilight's in trouble, and we need to do something. You've got magic, so..." Spike said. Trixie sighed as she got up. "Don't tell anypony, but the Great and Powerful Trixie's magic can't even tell where Starlight is...or if she's okay." Spike gulped. "Um...I'm sure she's okay... Wait, I could send a letter to her!" he said as he got off Minuette and grabbed some nearby paper and a writing utensil. "Just tell me what to write, and be brief, time is of the essence here," he said. "Right, um... Starlight, it's Trix, are all your most fun pieces still attached?" Trixie said with a tear in her eye despite the casual tone. Spike stuck his tongue out as he finished writing, then sent it. "So, how long does this take?" asked Minuette. "She'll get it right away, but I don't know if she has a way to write us back..." Spike said with a look of worry. "Hmm... what if we write the others? Like, all of them?" Minutte asked as she opened up the drawer full of letter paper. "And what would that accomplish?" asked a very perplexed Trixie. "This is a school of friendship, right? With creatures from far and wide? Write one letter, have Trixie make a bunch of copies, send them out, and we could organize some kind of resistance!" Minuette said with a smile. "Uh...what should I say?" asked Spike as he held a blank page. Trixie stepped forward. "The Great and Powerful Trixie, acting headmare of Twilight's School of Friendship..." she began, to Spike's chagrin.