//------------------------------//
// Dragonfire 
// Story: Ruler of Everything 
// by Sixes_And_Sevens 
//------------------------------//

Sunset squared her jaw as she faced the back door of Carousel Boutique. This was going to be an… unpleasant conversation, to say the least. By now, Trixie would have taken care of writing to Twilight’s parents and Shining Armor, but the task of telling Spike had been left to Sunset.
She blew back the flames that were licking her forehead and knocked three times. After a moment, she heard a scuffling on the other side of the door. It opened, revealing an unexpected face. “Sweetie Belle?”
Sweetie smiled. “Hi, Sunset! C’mon in!”
“I didn’t know you were back from college,” Sunset said, stepping into the kitchen.
“Just got back today. I guess you aren’t here for the party, then?”
“Party?”
“A fairly low-key affair, darling,” Rarity said, sweeping into the room. “Only the two of us and Spike, really.”
“Oh,” Sunset fidgeted nervously. “It’s Spike I need to talk with, actually. But you two should probably stay, too.”
Rarity’s smile faded as she studied Sunset closely. “Oh, dear.”
“Yeah. I don’t want to ruin your homecoming party, Sweetie --” 
“Just a visit,” Sweetie said hurriedly.
“-- sure. But I’m not coming in with what you could call ‘good news’.”
Rarity nodded wearily. “Very well, darling. Spike! Spike, darling?”
“Yeah?” Spike peeked around the door. “Oh, hey, Sunset!” He faltered as he caught sight of the three mares’ faces.
“You’d better sit down, Spike,” Sunset said.
Spike stepped into the kitchen and took his seat at the table, looking at Sunset warily.
She took a breath. “Twilight… had an accident this morning.”
Spike paled and reached for Rarity’s hoof. She took his hand and patted it gently. “She’s fine now,” Sunset said. “For a given value of fine, I suppose.”
“That’s good, for a given value of good,” Spike said. “What happened?”
“The specifics are… unclear. She was drained of magic to a point she believes to be near-fatal even for an alicorn.”
Rarity winced as Spike’s grip on her hoof tightened. “As I said,” Sunset continued, struggling to keep her voice even. “She’s alright, now. She was sleeping it off when I left the castle.”
“Have you had her checked over by a doctor?” Sweetie asked.
“They should be taking care of her now,” Sunset said.
Spike stood up abruptly. “Let’s go.”
“Spike, the doctors --”
“I’m going.”
“Spike--”
He turned. “My sister nearly died today. I’m going. And Celestia help anything that stands in my way.”
He raced out the door. Sweetie looked shocked. Rarity looked resigned. “We’d better go and make sure he doesn’t do anything he’ll regret,” she said. She extended her hoof to Sunset. “A teleport, darling?”
“Yeeeeaaah. Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.” Sunset grabbed both mares’ forehooves and, in a flash of bright orange light, all three were gone.





Twilight was feeling somewhat better now. Not well, per se, but well enough to sit up and eat her soup and sandwich without getting dizzy. Sombra had left to see about cleaning up the lab, and now Trixie sat at her bedside. “I’m fine, Trixie,” Twilight said, taking another huge bite of her sandwich. “Mmmf, this is good.”
“Trixie is glad that you have your appetite, at least.”
“I didn’t realize how hungry I actually was,” Twilight admitted. “But it makes sense; I lost a lot of energy. Calories are a good way of getting that back.”
Trixie rubbed her chin. “Fascinating.”
“Hm?”
“Magic theft as a weight loss program. Maybe that’s the angle you can take to reform Tirek, hm?”
Twilight laughed. “Well, I’ve heard of stupider diets,” she admitted. “Of course, there’s the problem of feeling ravenous immediately afterward, it seems, though that may be because of how fast an alicorn’s metabolism runs. We should do some tests--”
“Twilight,” Trixie interrupted. “You teeter on the precipice of taking one of Trixie’s jokes seriously. Be wary.”
Twilight laughed again, a little softer this time. “Right. Sorry.”
There was a knock at the door. “Enter!” Trixie said.
Twilight gave her a flat look. “Oh. Right.” Trixie lit her horn and the great double doors swung open, revealing three hospital ponies, including one still out-of-breath Nurse Redheart.
The three trotted into the room. The one on the right, the only stallion of the three, pulled out a horn cap. “Good afternoon, your highness. My name is Nurse Compress, this is Nurse Bandage, and of course, you already know Nurse Redheart.”
“Good afternoon,” Twilight said, giving a small nod to each nurse in turn. 
“Now, Twilight, could you light your horn, please?” Compress asked.
Twilight closed her eyes tight, her forehead furrowing with the effort as a faint aura wavered into being around her horn. The stallion slipped the cap over the tip of her horn and examined a box that was connected to the cap with wires. He frowned. “Well. That’s definitely not good, but we’ve seen far worse-off patients.”
“Alicorn healing abilities,” Twilight explained. “I estimate that without assistance, my magic would be fully replenished in about two weeks. Of course, anything you can do to speed that up would be greatly appreciated.”
“Of course,” said Redheart. “Forehoof, please.”
Twilight held out her left hoof, and Redheart dabbed it with alcohol. “Right. Nurse Bandage, the IV drip? Thank you. Twilight, this is an IV drip of what is essentially magic in liquid form. One bag should restore one kilothaum of magic. Obviously, in your case, that’s something of a drop in the bucket.”
“But any little helps,” Twilight said. “Alright, go for it.” Twilight winced as the needle pierced her skin. “...Can I keep eating, or will it throw anything off?”
“You can eat normally, yes,” Bandage said. “The magic drip has no real nutritional value.”
“For obvious reasons, we don’t have much direct information about how alicorns heal,” Nurse Compress said. “So listen to your body. We’d encourage light exercise as soon as you feel able -- walking, for instance, is fine. Anything more strenuous than that -- flying, running, lifting weights -- is not.”
“And you should be accompanied at all times,” Redheart said firmly. “If you feel dizzy or lightheaded, have them guide you to somewhere you can lie down --”
There was a distant crash and everypony paused. “Somewhere dark and quiet where you can lie down until --”
Another crash, followed by what sounded like a roar and crackling flames. A shout of fury, and another crash. The sound of hooves echoed through the crystal halls, growing ever-closer. Trixie backed up, lighting her horn. The doors swung open.
“Hi!” Tender Care waved. “How’s the patient holding up?”
Button hefted a bouquet in his hooves. “We stopped to get flowers.”
Behind them, Spike was visible for a moment, flying down the hall from the force of some unimaginably powerful entity. Moments later, Sunset came screaming down the hall after him, flames encasing her entire body. “Are you going to sit still now?” she demanded. “Are you going to wait for the nurses to finish? Or am I going to have to use a whole one-fricking-percent of my power on your ass?”
Spike roared.
Tender winced. “Do you mind if we come in?” she asked.





“Huh,” Rumble said. “That’s a new hole.”
“Yep,” said Dinky
“Wasn’t there earlier today.”
“Nope.”
“Y’all sound like Mac,” Apple Bloom said.
Dinky snorted. “C’mon. If we waited to go into the library every time there was a new hole in it, we’d never go in there at all.”
Rumble and Apple Bloom glanced at one another. “Fair,” they said as one, following their friend up the crystal steps into the castle.
The foyer had seen better days. Several tapestries were smoldering, and deep claw marks were gouged into the walls and ceiling. “Huh,” said Dinky. “Must’ve been a big one, this time.”
Apple Bloom frowned. “D’ya think this might be related to whatever happened to Caramel?”
Dinky cocked her head. “Nnnno? Not really, they don’t seem particularly similar. Why?”
“Well, that’s th’ good thing about Ponyville, right? Big ol’ life-threatening end-of-the-world scenarios happen all th’ dang time, but ya never get more’n one at a time.”
“That’s not true,” Rumble said. “Remember the time the Abyssinian ambassador nearly started a war with the Diamond Dogs on the same day that Pinkie’s Pinkness escaped and started possessing everypony?”
“Or the day when Starlight Glimmer accidentally merged all the parasprites into one HUGE parasprite and Trixie’s hypnosis act made everypony in town swap bodies?” Dinky added.
“Or the time when we got into a competition with Diamond Tiara over who could be Ponyville’s Next Top Model on the same day we found out that Cranky Doodle trained to be a ninja?”
“Yeah, yeah, point made,” Bloom grumbled. “But like, ninety-five percent of the time, it’s just one big thing at a time.”
“Fair point,” Rumble conceded.
Dinky frowned, still skeptical. “I dunno. If you can explain to me how something that stops time and… does whatever it did to Caramel and me… could also be responsible for this when it doesn’t even have a body…”
“Well, Ah ain’t got any ideas yet,” Bloom admitted. “All Ah’m sayin’ is, let’s keep our eyes peeled and our minds open.”
Dinky sighed. “Alright,” she said, clearly still skeptical.
Bloom scowled at her, and the three set off deeper into the castle.





Luna paced her room, deep in contemplation. Strictly speaking, she ought to be sleeping right now. There was every chance that her strength would be put to the test this evening, and while, as an alicorn, she didn’t strictly need to sleep, she certainly functioned better with it than without it. Also, Luna quite enjoyed sleep. It was one of life’s small pleasures, like coffee, or Tiberius, or romance novels, that helped her get through the night. She had long ago perfected the art of sleeping with her eyes open, in order to make it through some of the lengthier sessions of the Night Court without snapping and completely disbanding some royal house or another. Every session, her patience wore a little shorter, but she refused to break. She had a long-standing contest with Celestia to see who would lose their temper in court first, and she was determined not to lose. She dreamed about the day when her sister finally broke.
But not right now she didn’t. Luna was consumed by the roil of her thoughts. Fear, guilt, anger, and hate warred for dominance, resulting in a wave of general stomach-roiling, mind-wracking, heart-sinking anxiety.
And so she paced, a ball of nervous energy. Every few minutes she checked the clock, waiting for the hour at which it would be appropriate for her to depart for Ponyville. Unfortunately, seven o’clock was still hours away.
Around half past two, she grew exasperated and seized the clock from the wall, bringing it right up against her face. “Damn thee! Why must thou delay so? If we are to die on this day, let it not be from tedium!”
“Impressive,” said somepony in the doorway.
Luna whirled around. “WHO DARES INTRUDE -- oh. Hello, Celestia.”
Celestia smiled. “Good afternoon, Luna. How are you?”
Luna blinked. “Perfectly fine, dear sister.”
“Oh?”
“You doubt our veracity?”
Celestia scrunched her muzzle. “Well, not to put too fine a point on it, but you do seem to have lost control of the Royal Canterlot Voice.”
“Oh. Whoops. Well, under the circumstances, surely you can understand--”
“You were yelling at a clock. And don’t call me Shirley.”
Luna rolled her eyes. “Very well. Perhaps I have grown a touch overstressed.”
“Luna, your mortal body is flickering.”
Luna looked down at herself. Across her skin, inky black ichor scrawled out patterns of runes. Her wings had metamorphosed into vast, bat-like appendages. She glanced into the mirror of her boudoir, and saw the awful dark radiance of her halo shimmering like a mirage behind her. “Ah. So it is.”
“Luna, dare I ask if you’re feeling quite well about Ditzy’s invitation?”
Luna shifted uncomfortably on her hooves as she forcibly shunted her eldritch bulk back out of tangible space. “This evening, you mean?”
“Did we have any other invitations from Ditzy?”
“If you wish to hear my thoughts, it would be wisest not to take that sarcastic tone,” Luna grumbled.
Celestia acknowledged this point with a graceful dip of the head. “My apologies. Please, continue.”
Luna gave a great sigh, trotted over to her bed, and flopped on her back, wings and hooves thrown spread-eagle. Moments later, she felt the mattress shift and creak as Celestia settled next to her. She glanced over. Her sister lay on her side, facing Luna with open, hopeful eyes.
Luna sighed. “Very well. I cannot bear to think I might be taking you in unprepared. But Celestia, I implore you -- think me not unfaithful, nor ungrateful, for what suspicions I have developed.”
“You think the Doctor has been possessed by the Nightmare, don’t you?”
Luna sat up in shock and a flurry of feathers. “How could you possibly have known that?”
“Inside voice,” Celestia reprimanded gently.
“Buck the inside voice to Tartarus! You suspected as well, but said nothing?”
“To be fair, you didn’t say anything, either,” Celestia said mildly.
“I-- well-- that’s different! I had no idea you even suspected.”
Celestia raised a brow. “Hm. Isolation from loved ones, sudden obsessive behavior, torturous dreams, where have I heard that one before?”
Luna looked away. “I told you not to be sarcastic.”
“Ah. So you did.” Celestia paused. “I’m sorry, Luna. I feared that mentioning it might upset you. I neglected to consider that if I noted the symptoms, you certainly would have as well.”
“...I don’t want to believe it of them.”
“No.”
“There must be some other explanation!”
“There may.”
“They can’t really be…”
“But they can,” said Celestia, her eyes brimming with tears. “They could be. You know that, and so do I.”
“The Elements…”
“Still in the Tree. Even if they could be safely removed, they’d be unusable in any case. Now that Twilight and her friends have given up their connection to them, a new set of Bearers would need to be found in order to make them work.”
“Then…”
“Then we hope that they haven’t been possessed, but prepare for the fallout if they have. The Elements are far from the only things that can deal with the Nightmare.”
“Perhaps. But the other methods do tend to be rather ‘kill or cure’.”
Celestia looked away. “It’s no less than what they taught us themselves,” she said quietly.
Luna shut her eyes tight and nodded. “Very well. But only as a final resort.”
“Obviously.” Celestia hesitated. “You told Cadance, didn’t you? And Discord?”
“Cadance, yes. Discord… if I must.”
“It would be for the best. But Cadance -- you told her to come alone, didn’t you? Shining Armor must maintain peace in the Empire if we fall.”
“Naturally. Why?”
Celestia’s mouth set in a grim line. “I fear that she’ll have a much more difficult job keeping him at home. Recent developments -- never mind. You have worries enough right now. Speak with Discord, and then take a nap. You look dreadful.”
Luna was too weary to argue. “Very well, sister.” She looked back into her boudoir mirror. “Discord. Discord. Discord.”
There was a puff of smoke, and a slender figure clad in black and white stripes sprung forth. “It’s showtime!” Discord crowed, waggling their green-dyed eyebrows. Then they saw the streaks of mascara running down the princesses’ cheeks, and their arms dropped to their sides. “Uh, I’ll just… come back later.”
“Nay,” said Luna. “We have something of great importance to tell you.” She closed her eyes. “Celestia, get thee back to court. We shall handle it ourself.”
Celestia merely nodded, rose and departed.
Discord settled back. “I’m not going to like this, am I?”
The door to Luna’s room clicked shut. Celestia took a deep breath and straightened her neck. Then, composure regained, she trotted down the hall back to the throne room.





After a few minutes, Apple Bloom was the first to spot signs of life apart from the carnage that had been visited upon the castle’s infrastructure. “Do any of y’all hear that?”
Rumble and Dinky stopped. “Sounds… high-pitched,” Rumble said.
“Whiny,” Dinky said.
“And kinda… fancy?” Apple Bloom finished.
All three paused. “Rarity?”
“Gotta be. C’mon.”
They continued around a corridor and stopped dead. A small crowd of ponies were sitting outside Twilight’s room. None of them looked particularly happy. Spike was sitting against a wall, a hangdog expression on his face. He looked a few inches shorter than normal. Rarity was standing next to him, pressing a hot water bottle to his forehead and scolding him about his foolhardiness, rushing in and refusing to listen to reason. Spike nodded along, clearly agreeing with every word and anguishing about it. On the other side of the door, Sunset Shimmer sat in a tub of water. Her fiery mane, wings, and tail had been extinguished, leaving her looking bald, soaked, and peevish. Tender Care sulked in a corner, put out that her marefriend had kicked her out of the room. Button Mash and Sweetie Belle were the only ones that looked remotely cheerful, as they sat against the wall sharing a bouquet of lilacs and daisies.
“Whoa,” Dinky said. “What happened here? Where’s Twilight?”
At the sound of her voice, Button glanced over and brightened, waving them close to sit with him and Sweetie Belle. “Hey guys,” he said. “You came to see Twilight, too?”
“Yeah,” Rumble said. “Why, what did you want to see her about?”
“Oh, y’know. Just general well-wishes. She didn’t seem to want the get-well-soon bouquet, though.”
“‘Get well soon’?” Apple Bloom echoed, confused.
“Yeah?” Sweetie chewed another daisy. “Isn’t that why you came?”
“...No,” Dinky said. “Something really odd just happened. Something that would need an alicorn’s power to pull off. Why, what’s happened to Twilight?”
“Er…” Button tugged at his ear. “Well…”
He relayed the story as quickly and concisely as he could, based on what he’d overheard from Nurse Redheart and Sunset Shimmer, with Sweetie Belle jumping in to fill in the details he’d missed. The other three sat in stunned silence.
“She thought she would’ve… died?” Rumble said carefully. “Can an alicorn die?”
“Getting all your magic sucked out your horn like that? If it’s not done carefully, it could crush your skull like a tin can. Goddess or not, you don’t survive something like that,” Dinky said grimly. “But you said she looked fine?”
“She managed to break free before anything really bad happened,” Sweetie explained. “Then she banished it from the castle, somehow. Or else it ran away. Sunset wasn’t sure.”
“So, this energy creature stole Twi’s magic,” Apple Bloom said thoughtfully. “So it did have th’ power of an alicorn. Ah tol’ you this could be related to what happened with Caramel!”
“Hmf,” Dinky said.
“When did you say that?” Sweetie asked.
“When we were comin’ in! Boy, that thing musta been a real tough fighter, with all the scorchin’ and clawin’ and whatnot.”
“Oh, no,” Sweetie corrected. “That was Spike and Sunset. Spike was really worried about Twilight. He got a little, um… rampage-y. And then Sunset got mad because he wouldn’t cool his jets, so she started throwing spells around, and then…”
“So it wasn’t related,” Dinky said, slightly smug.
“Indirectly, it was,” Bloom said sharply.
“So, why is everypony waiting out here?” Rumble asked quickly.
“The nurses kicked us all out. Said Twilight needed to rest,” Button said. “So… you probably won’t be getting much help from her.”
“Hm,” said Dinky. “Maybe not. Time for Plan B.” She rose and trotted in Sunset’s direction.
Sunset didn’t look up when Dinky arrived. “This had better be good,” she growled. “I’ve been having a really lousy day so far. Don’t make it worse.”
“I need information.”
“We’re in a library. Go bother an encyclopedia.”
“You saw some of what happened with Twilight.”
“...Yes.”
“I think it might be related to something else that happened in town, about an hour back.”
Sunset was silent for a long minute. “...Go on.”
“Time stopped, for everypony except me and Caramel. He was stuck in some kind of… reality-warp? That’s the best name I can think of. It was like he was flipping between every alternate-reality version of himself.”
Sunset was silent for a long moment. “That explains… a lot, actually. Caramel’s the earth pony with the dark-yellow coat and the brown mane, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah, that explains a lot, actually,” Sunset said, nodding.
Dinky raised a brow. “Care to share with the class?”
“Hm? Oh. No, nothing you didn’t already know. Dr. Stable flipped out at the hospital, that’s all. So, how did you find out about the time loop?”
“Time loop?”
“Yeah? The time loop that Twilight got stuck in after the magic drain.” Sunset glanced at Dinky. “If you didn’t know that, why did you think it was connected?”
“Never mind that, what was the time loop like?”
“Well, I don’t know, do I? I wasn’t the one stuck in it. All I know is that Twilight says there was one, and it was caused by this weird gold light.”
“Gold?”
“Yeah.”
“Everything looked golden during the time freeze,” Dinky mused. “That means it’s all the more likely to be the same creature causing all this.”
“So Ah was right!” Bloom said triumphantly.
“AH! Jeez Louise, don’t sneak up on me like that!”
Apple Bloom frowned. “Ah walked over here with you. Ain’t my fault you weren’t payin’ me no nevermind, with yer head in th’ clouds an’ all.”
Dinky sighed. “Fine. Sorry. You still weren’t right about the clawed-up foyer being connected, unless Spike started glowing gold when he ripped up the walls.”
“It was connected to Twilight, an’ Twilight’s connected to th’ weird time stuff! It’s connected!”
“There’s a degree of separation -- oh, never mind. Thanks, Sunset.” Dinky turned and trotted back toward the others.
Sunset nodded and went back to lounging in the tub of water, which had now started to simmer and bubble with heat.
“We need to get to the bottom of this,” Dinky said, taking a seat between Button and Rumble.
Button frowned. “Well, I agree that somepony does, but why us, particularly?”
“Why not us?” Sweetie asked. “Between us, we have a working understanding of the problem… sort of… and more experience with time travel than most ponies in town.”
“And it’s not like it’s the dumbest or most ridiculous thing we’ve ever done together,” Rumble agreed.
Dinky looked at each of them in turn. “So… what do you say? For old time’s sake?”
“Of course!” Sweetie said.
“Um, yeah, sure!” Button agreed, glancing at Sweetie.
Rumble nodded. “I’m down.”
They all looked over at Apple Bloom, who was staring at them all skeptically. “Ah seem to recall ‘old times’ endin’ with a lotta property damage and groundin’,” she said drily.
“You say that like you didn’t enjoy it,” Button said, arching an eyebrow at her.
She chuckled. “Yeah, fair enough. Alright, what th’ Tartarus, Ah’m in.”
Dinky smiled. “In that case, there’s just one more stop we need to make…”





Once more, Ditzy was flying home. Applejack had readily agreed to let the Doctor set up in the barn for the evening -- they’d just cleaned it out after planting season, and it was fit to entertain in. She had, of course, pressed Ditzy for information on what the Doctor was unveiling; ‘for the setup,’ she’d claimed. It had been a good point, but Ditzy hadn’t really known what to tell her.
“Just clear a space big enough for the TARDIS,” she’d said at last. “We’ll take care of everything else. I can’t say any more than that.”
“Don’t y’all trust me not to spill the beans?” Applejack asked.
“Of course I do. But the Doctor trusts me to do the same.”
Applejack couldn’t argue with that, and had let Ditzy fly off with fond farewells and good graces. After that, Ditzy had flown around town, informing the invitees of the change in venue. It had been odd that she couldn't visit Twilight personally, and equally odd that Dinky was nowhere to be found. The Crusaders were usually quite easy to track -- just follow the mess. Perhaps they had all matured since the old days.
She landed in the backyard, a few meters away from the TARDIS. For a moment, a small, traitorous part of her suggested that she peek inside, just to make sure the Doctor hadn’t gotten distracted again. She shook the thought off as soon as it came. She trusted the Doctor totally. He’d said he would clean the kitchen, and she believed him. She trotted inside the house.
The TARDIS grumbled to itself as the back door slammed shut.
“Doctor?” Ditzy called.
“In here!”
Ditzy looked in on the kitchen. Just as he’d agreed, the Doctor had washed off all the mechanical grease and grime and even now was diligently scrubbing the jelly off the ceiling with a long-handled broom. The kitchen was still a mess, but Ditzy had to admit, it was no longer the disaster area it had been. “You work fast,” she said.
“You know it! Although I must say, you were gone a bit longer than I’d expected. Did Applejack keep you talking?”
“Only for a minute or so. I thought I made pretty good time.”
“Oh, yes,” the Doctor said. “Quite good. Doesn’t matter much. Why don’t you take a lie-down for a bit, love? Been a bit of a long day for you, flying all the way to Canterlot and back?”
“A nap does sound nice,” Ditzy admitted. She picked up a rag and a bottle of sink cleaner. “But it’ll keep for a little while longer.”
“You don’t have to,” the Doctor protested. “This is my mess.”
“Would you leave me alone to clean up a mess I made all by myself?”
“Well… no. Obviously not. Wouldn’t be cricket.”
“So why do you always seem to want me to do that to you?”
The Doctor didn’t have an answer to that. “So,” he said. “What took you up to Canterlot this morning?”
“I thought I’d invite the princesses to your big unveiling ceremony,” Ditzy said. “I figured they’d love an excuse to come visit.”
“Ah. I expect they were too busy with royal duties to attend. It was a nice thought to ask them, though.”
“Actually, they said they’d be thrilled to come,” Ditzy said. “They mentioned they might bring along some of your other old friends, as well.”
The Doctor paused in his scrubbing. “Oh. They just -- took the evening off, then?”
“Of course.”
“To come see me?”
“Yes?”
“Oh,” said the Doctor. He said no more. He couldn't think of anything more to say.