It was only hours later that a white alicorn, tall and unnervingly perfect, descended the stairs into the bunker. The light had gone out by then; the backup generator keeping her bait alive had long spluttered out, but she had brought her own light - her horn illuminated the gray walls, the partially wrecked equipment and a barely breathing body on the far side of the chamber. Her perfect sense of smell provided an instant diagnosis - the trap had worked.
“You underestimated me, Verba,” she said, unsmiling. “You forgot that I can do all the others can do. I don’t need Eve to prepare me a combat-ready body. I can just possess whoever, and then perfect myself. And once I get rid of Diamond Dust-”
A purple spark ran across the floor where her hoof touched it, lines of magic spreading across the room, and suddenly Libra was standing in a circle of concentric star patterns glowing with runes. Verba’s lips barely moved, but the gem in his helmet lit up and his voice rang loud and clear.
“You shouldn’t have come to gloat.”
Libra struggled and thrashed, her cool suddenly gone. The magic trap built and charged over the past couple of hours held fast. Slowly, a part of the floor close to Verba’s body softened and twisted. A large, tubular object was pushed to the surface - a metal barrel covered with sealing sigils, the same one they had used to trap the excess power during the first Splice. Now once again usable after its contents had been emptied into Lightbringer’s mind. A perfect tool for the job. The structure of the trap changed-- the puzzle of intangible strings reshaped itself. Now it was no longer a circle to contain, but a chute to funnel. Libra screamed, but the Element of Magic only lit up brighter. She was dragged across the room and sucked in agonisingly, her body deforming until it disappeared inside with a wet squelch. The lid fell over the barrel with cold finality, and as the light slowly died down, the container submerged back into the floor, the runes now spiralling around the Shattered’s resting place. The light of Magic went out. The bunker was silent and dark, now no more than a tomb.
“And so the story ends,” said Verba, getting up from the floor. “The Element of Magic dies poisoned by Libra’s pattern, but not before sealing her for a thousand years. It’s a great trap because it makes you focus on something other than surviving. Except...”
He walked away, and lit up his horn, facing the circle on the floor.
“... we’re in the Void Passage. And the Void Passage can’t make pattern effects, not really. The energy burning me from the inside out is only as real as I let it be. I’ve had my head messed with one time too many to fall for this trick again. I am not Verba. You are.”
The floor exploded. In a split-second the bunker ceased to exist, replaced by a floating jumble of broken scenery, chunks of mountains, grassy meadows and long lost cities turning slowly in the light of distant sunrises and sunsets. In the middle of it, a string of multicolor runes coiled and twisted, taking the shape of an alicorn. Opposite him, Twilight Sparkle stood on thin air, a point of calm amongst the churning chaos, Magic glowing brightly on her forehead. “Let’s get it over with,” she said. “I’ll free you from what Indigo did to you.”
The landscapes spun, tall towers of some castle from the distant past stabbing at Twilight Sparkle like giant spears. She moved aside - a calm, fluid movement. Only her idea of up and down kept her oriented in the void. She fired a beam of magic back at her target.
Verba too dodged, abandoning the pony shape, letting the spell pass through the space where the body should be, before coiling into a tight spiral and launching a spell of his own.
The air in front of Twilight fractured like a shattering mirror, and the orange beam was deflected away, cutting off the top of the nearest tower and melting it into slag.
Twilight teleported forward, first launching a floating boulder towards Verba, and then, when he split it in half, sending multiple ribbons of purple light straight through it, trying to snare her elusive target.
Verba slid out, barely, but Twilight had no time for another attempt; the endless grassland above her and the volcanic wasteland below suddenly rushed against each other. She was ready to teleport out, but then she saw Verba coiling into a circle, his runes rearranging to form a magic formula. Instead of transporting herself, she turned her magic into great pillars of crystal, setting them around herself, impaling and splitting the ground as the landmasses collided.
“Let me see you better,” whispered Twilight, and her vision changed. The colors became wild and vivid, but none brighter than Verba himself, the shifting sequences of his runes leaving burning afterimages as he moved.
He made the ground break apart in a blinding cloud of dust and loose soil, before growing long crystal shards around his body and launching them at Twilight. She dodged two, then caught the third one in a spell and launched it back through the cloud. She saw it impact, pinning one of the shifting symbols to the rock behind Verba. The construct shuddered and twisted, and Twilight gave it a knowing smile. “As I thought,” she muttered to herself. “Too much indigo.”
This time she did teleport, safe in the knowledge that Verba was too preoccupied to try to snare her. When she shot at him, he just slinked away, and with a sound of breaking glass the pinned rune separated from the body and disintegrated. He fired strands of lightning at her as she pursued, but she just pushed them aside. She fired shot after shot, and as he reacted, her new insight singled out another rune that wasn’t quite like the others; she grabbed it and pulled towards herself, surging forward to crush it in her teeth as Verba flinched away. There was a sound of breaking glass again, but the symbol disappeared harmlessly, leaving nothing in her mouth.
She caught a moving shadow in the corner of her vision, and felt another tower flying at her from behind. She let it almost hit her and pulled it apart, trapping both herself and Verba in a funnel of spinning stone blocks.
“It’s over,” she said, launching forth a round web of purple magic. It hit Verba head on, and pushed him until he hit the ground in an empty wasteland, held flat against its surface with Twilight floating in the air above him, the stone blocks falling around them in a spreading spiral.
“There,” stated Twilight, shooting for the last time. The third rune broke apart, and the rest of the symbols stopped struggling, their hues now shifting in a much calmer manner.
Twilight landed on the ground, still watching Verba warily. “I would’ve noticed it earlier,” she said. “If I’d known how to look and what to look for. By turning me into your old self, you showed me how to use Magic to its full potential. Your mistake was…”
Twilight stopped, and the binding spell she had weaved started to unravel. “...not a mistake at all. It was Indigo who underestimated you, wasn’t it? Just like Libra did, when she thought you were defeated!”
Verba slowly rose into the air. He still made a jingling noise when he moved, but it was softer, less jarring. No words formed this time, but the meaning emanated from him, bypassing the need; there was one last thing for him to do. The symbols floated towards Twilight, and then spiralled around her, before wrapping her tightly and sinking into her skin. There was a prickle of pain washing over her, and then her senses expanded again. Suddenly she knew where exactly she was, and where she needed to go.
***
In a round, dust-strewn plaza that used to be the ground floor of a tower, a single red flower stood in a pot. Over it there stood Indigo, his horn pointed upward, with a vortex of magic slowly spiraling into its tip.
His left ear twitched when Twilight Sparkle walked into his private pocket of reality, appearing at the edge of the circle. Her fur glowed with runes, and her eyes were pools of purple. Light was shining from the star on her forehead.
“Indigo!” she called. “That’s enough.”
“Begone,” said Indigo.
Twilight disintegrated, and the god returned to his task of recovering his missing power. It took him a moment to notice that something was wrong.
***
Suddenly a door opened, slamming the impostor pegasus in the face. Something small and round flew out of it into the far corner of the room and exploded, flooding everything in blinding white light. Whisper rolled onto his hooves, trying to get up, only to be grabbed around the face by a telekinetic grip and pulled face first into a narrow corridor.
“Come with me if you want to live,” snarled somepony into his ear.
This door wasn’t there before, he realised as he stumbled blindly away from danger, pulled into one turn after another, as a roar of fury echoed behind, punctuated by what sounded like explosions. Still blinded by the flash bomb, he could only guess that he was moving away from danger. That alone was enough to make him not struggle against the stranger pulling him away.
And then the noise was gone, and all that’s left was the sound of stone underhoof. Whisper blinked repeatedly, clearing the last crawling sparks from his vision.
There’s no way a flash bomb would’ve stopped Hate...
“What’s going on?” he asked. “Who are you?”
The other pony stopped, and Applejack looked into a familiar face.
“It’s me,” said Pierce, lighting up his horn. “Bluebonnet sent me to get your rump out of the fire.”
“But… you’re dead.” Applejack tried to make some sense of the situation.
Is he a chimera?
“And a good thing too, wouldn’t have got here in time otherwise,” replied Pierce glumly.
“Oh,” Applejack opened her mouth to speak, but found herself struggling to find an appropriate answer. “That’s… about the weirdest thing I’ve heard today. No offence.”
“None taken,” replied Pierce, picking up pace, leading Applejack through what now looked like corridors of an abandoned castle. “But time is not on our side. I fished you out of the trap, but your friends are still here somewhere. We need to get you to them quickly.”
Applejack sped up to keep up with him, restoring her protective spells as she cantered. “How did you find me?”
Pierce turned his head towards her, and Applejack could briefly see a smile in the corner of his mouth. “I had help. We’re heading towards them right now.”
“Who are they?” asked Applejack. “I don’t really have the time for more puzzles right now.”
“All that stuff about this being a sea of emotions, and souls dissolving here,” replied Pierce. “Guilt told me the theory, but it wasn’t quite complete. It’s not an even mix like most imagine.”
“So?” asked Applejack. The castle walls around them were beginning to look familiar, and she realised, they were backtracking, through some tunnels she had passed before, stumbling in a confused haze, towards the spot where the Elements had blasted their way through the defences of the Void Passage. She could now see a light ahead, filtering through distant windows and reflecting off walls. There was something big ahead, glowing with a soft amber aura.
“Memories do mix, and minds do dissolve,” said Pierce. “But there is one more factor in play. Like attracts like.”
Applejack looked ahead once more, and now the warm light suddenly seemed strangely familiar. “Are they…”
Pierce nodded his head. “You have no idea how many Apples are cheering for you.”
***
The pain ceased. Crystal could still see the lightning flashing along the web, but it was no longer causing her any damage. And then she saw the queen’s eyes change - the glowing green orbs dimmed, and then, with a blink, they were replaced with familiar slitted pupils.
“Took me some time to sneak in here,” hissed Chrysalis through a mouthful of webs. “Are you okay?”
Crystal struggled some more, first out of of sheer surprise, shocked at seeing herself looking back at her, then, as Chrysalis didn’t stop pulling, she too instinctively continued the appearance of a fight.
“What’s going on?” she hissed back, but the spell was already broken, Rarity’s own memories clicking back into place one by one “Where am I?”
“Keep fighting,” replied Chrysalis. “I don’t know what will happen if we stop. You’re in my death scene. Except I didn’t die here. I won the fight, killed Protea, and took the swarm for myself. Generosity died and Chrysalis was born.”
“So, I was supposed to…”
“Die. Or win, but lose Generosity, then die. No escape for you. Now, scream loudly and break the web with your power.”
Rarity focused, and now that she could think clearly, she could feel the familiar weight of Generosity around her neck, invisible, but still there. Then she screamed. The display of power wasn’t graceful or even convincing, but as she pushed, the web caught fire, and Chrysalis spat it out. They circled each other, horns aglow.
“What now?” asked Rarity.
“When I won,” said Chrysalis, charging in with an easily dodgable dive, “the barrier opened, and they all kneeled. But with you, they’ll probably break character and attack.”
“So, what do we do?” asked Rarity, kicking with her forelegs, missing the queen’s barrel by inches. “Face them together?”
“No,” said the queen, tossing a ring of fire around her with her horn. “We can do better. Win, and let me join you.”
Rarity jumped over the flames, and conjured a salvo of crystal javelins, hitting the ground around Chrysalis to trap her in turn. “Why would you? I have Generosity. We’ll be stronger when there’s two of us, and I can empower you. Besides, won’t that be taking everything from you?”
“Listen!” hissed Chrysalis, pulling the crystals from the ground and launching them back one by one. “I still have all my power, but I’m no longer alive. I might dissolve the moment we’re separated. And no. You won’t take anything from me. It will be a gift.”
Rarity dodged two javelins, but grabbed the third one as it flew at her, shattering it in her telekinetic grasp. “Like you dumped the crown on me?”
She fired a bolt of power, which Chrysalis began to dodge, but her move was purposefully too slow - the spell hit her in the shoulder and spun her around.
“I’m sorry for that,” she said, as she regained balance, dodging another blast, and then spitting out a ball of resin, which Rarity parried with an energy shield. “I figured I might have to die for you to fully attune, and I couldn’t just leave them. I knew it would be hard for you, but I needed a pony to keep them safe. That’s why I left Maska to advise you.”
“You should’ve asked first!” shouted Rarity, charging in. “I know how to manage a business, not a kingdom.”
Their horns collided, and for a moment they struggled, staring each other in the eye under a shower of magical sparks.
“Then please let me help you,” said Chrysalis. “I know I can’t fix this. I kept you in the dark on purpose so the doubts wouldn’t weaken you. I found no better way to do it. But I can give you my memories to help you.”
Rarity’s horn pulsed, and Chrysalis was sent tumbling.
“You can fix it, actually,” said Rarity, walking slowly forward. “ If you need my help protecting your subjects, you could ask me now.”
Chrysalis rolled back onto her legs and pounced forward, but as their horns collided again, she just pushed with her body, no longer using her magic to reinforce the display. “You’re right. I should’ve done it to start with.”
She lifted her eyes and met Rarity’s gaze. “Rarity, I need a pony to keep my subjects safe, so they could finally live free. Will you help me do this, please?”
Rarity smiled. “How could I not? You’re a friend, and you need my help. Now, tell me how to do it, and let’s go save everypony.”
The fake changelings surrounding the ring saw only a blinding flash. When the light faded, there was a single changeling hybrid standing in the center of it, her body wreathed in a violet aura shot with wisps of green. The gem on her chest flashed, and the bubble of protective power collapsed.
“Now,” said Rarity aloud, her voice magnified by magical power. “Do you follow the script and let me pass, or do you still have your death scenes left to play?”
***
There was an impact, and the embrace was broken. Aurora flinched, frantically checking the wound on her shoulder, as the impostor Whisper was sent flying away from her, tumbling over the edge and out of sight. There was a drop of blood on her fur, but whatever poison the sting had contained, it hadn’t had the time to enter her body.
“You okay?” asked a familiar voice.
“Aurora?”
The two bearers of Loyalty looked upon each other. Then the tower ceased to be real. The smoke and dust stopped swirling. The other Element bearers froze, then blackened and disappeared. And Rainbow Dash was once again herself.
“What just happened?” she asked, looking around.
“A trap,” answered Aurora. “But that was a trap for me - that’s how I was able to find you. Now, let’s hurry. Twilight needs you.”
“Twilight!” Rainbow Dash gasped. Suddenly she remembered everything. “We have to hurry!” She looked around. “Do you know which way to go...”
Rainbow Dash stopped, staring at Aurora. “You…”
Aurora landed and sighed, a small smile playing on her lips. “I guess so. I messed up and died. But I can still help you, I think. I don’t really have a good grip on the whole ghost thing yet, and frankly... it hurts to exist. I wish I could dissolve, and leave this whole mess behind…”
She flapped her wings open, and her smile grew wider. “But I’m not leaving my friends hanging.” Pearly white light played on the edges of her pinions. Rainbow Dash realised she could now see through her. “I’ll tag along with you, and help however I can.”
Rainbow Dash realised what was about to happen, and smiled sadly, opening her own wing invitingly. “Let’s do this together.”
***
Gentle Touch opened her eyes and got up, recovering from the impact that had knocked her over.
Lightbringer was crouching over the griffon’s body, claws embedded in the side of his muzzle, just below the cheek guard of his helmet. His own hoof blade was embedded in the griffon’s chest, but as she watched in horror, the body blackened and shrunk, losing its features until it collapsed upon itself and disappeared.
Lightbringer turned around slowly, tears in his eyes. “You’re safe!” he exclaimed, ignoring the blood trickling down his face. “I saved you! After four thousand years, I finally saved you,” he added in a softer voice.
Gentle Touch stared at him. “You’re hurt,” she finally managed, pointing a hoof at his face.
In response, Lightbringer started turning translucent. “It’s not real,” he said, waving his wings around at their surroundings. “Nothing of it is, except for how I saved you. And you saved me.” He stepped closer, and as the meaning of his words struck home, she too started changing. For a second she stood there, two mares in one, Gentle Touch and Fluttershy. Lightbringer’s armor disappeared, but even as his focus turned to nothing, the orange light remained, bright and warm in the center of his chest.
“Hate is finally gone,” he whispered, "His memories fading like a bad dream. Thanks to you, I’m Passion again, as I should’ve been. I won’t be able to fix everything, but I will help you. I can do at least that much.”
He leaned closer, and Fluttershy who was Gentle Touch did not flinch away. He kissed her softly, just a gentle peck on the lips, and then dissolved into a cloud of orange light that wrapped around her like a mantle of ephemeral fire. filling her with warmth and a sense of purpose.
“Now, go,” she heard his voice, soft as a breath. “Your friends need you.”
***
The red droplet grew, and turned around. Suddenly it was a large eyeball with a red pupil. It winked at Pinkie.
***
Indigo watched with irritation as the shape of glowing runes filled with flesh once again. More silhouettes appeared at the edge of the plaza, the Elements of Harmony walking through the threshold one after another.
His eyes flashed again, and Twilight fell apart again. This time he focused for longer, grabbing the runes with his will, but before he could dissolve them, Twilight’s friends rushed to her defense - streams of light intersected in front of Twilight, shielding her as she reformed the second time.
“Why do you keep existing?” he asked.
“I can’t afford to die now,” replied Twilight. “The fate of the world depends on me.”
Indigo rose to full height and took a step towards her, leaving the Amaranthine behind. “Your world is a mistake. And you’ve already died. Pass on as you should.”
There was no impulse of will this time. Instead, an explosion of blackness swept through the plaza. Indigo kept staring as six lights slowly reappeared, the effects of his spell passing. The six auras were familiar, but each of them had changed since he’d last seen them. As the Elements came into view again, Indigo noticed some details he hadn’t took note of before, such as Applejack being wreathed in a shifting aura of golden leaves, or Pinkie Pie having cloven hooves and a single goat horn.
They struck back at him together, a sixfold beam of energy hitting him straight in the chest and pushing him back.
“You’ve hurt enough ponies!” said Fluttershy with unusual force.
“We won’t let you hurt anypony else!” shouted Rainbow Dash.
“You keep saying we don’t matter,” said Applejack. “But you know, what you’re doing is horrible! That’s why Obsidian and Indicina took so long even when they were you! They were trying to stop you!”
“That’s not how you get a happy ending,” said Pinkie Pie.
“You won’t become happy by just taking everything from everypony,” said Rarity. “What would Gaia think if she knew what you did?”
“What I did? Everypony? Horrible?”
There was a burst of indigo light, and the beam was dispersed. Indigo was still standing there, completely unscathed. But now his face was contorted in anger.
“You will lecture me on feelings? On what’s important? I am a god. I am the one who decides what is real and what isn’t. And you? Perishable bundles of memory, of emotion, you’re no more real beings than the chimeras! You’re nothing but Gaia’s dreams. Once I wake her up, you’ll all be forgotten in seconds!”
The Elements combined their powers again, but this time the beam didn’t even hit him; the dust under his hooves shifted, as the space around him bent, sending the attack away and past him. When he pushed back, the six crystals exploded into shards, and then the ponies themselves shattered like glass, reduced to a kaleidoscopic cloud of particles.
“No,” said Twilight Sparkle. She was standing there once again, uninjured, though sweaty and wide-eyed with pain. The tiara on her head had not reformed, but there was now a blinding point of purple light in the center of her forehead. One after another, her friends came back into existence around her.
“Ah, you’re using your connections to each other to reform your spirits like Obsidian used to. He taught you too well. But that only extends your suffering. Give up.”
Rainbow Dash took a shaky step forward, breathing heavily. “We’ll resist you however long it takes.”
Indigo shrugged his wings. “Time is an illusion. You’ll suffer until you break, and nothing else will change.”
Another sixfold beam lashed towards him, twisting to counteract his space-warping defense. This one was a clean hit, but it didn’t seem to cause the deity any harm. Indigo pushed it away with a frown.
“It’s useless. The Elements draw the energy from Dissonance to power your spells. It might impress mortals. But here, I make the rules. I am the mind of the Dissonance, and the power you’re trying to use against me is mine to begin with. I AM Magic.”
“And yet,” replied Twilight. “You have no honesty. Or loyalty. Or kindness. You speak of love, but all you know is selfish greed. You can’t even make a real smile.”
Her posture straightened, as if a great weight had fallen off her shoulders, the drops of sweat evaporating from her form as the pain was forgotten.
“I’ve finally figured out what is wrong with you.”