//------------------------------// // Twilight (Siren Song, Part 5) // Story: The League of Sweetie Belles // by GMBlackjack //------------------------------// Seren alone was a powerhouse with the body of a child. All it would take was one clever ploy to take her out—like, say, a sword flung from nowhere.  Seren with a small army was all but invincible.  Cinder watched with a grin on her face as the anthro child called upon the family she held so dear—broken, yes, but united in a cause. The magical onslaught tossed the ponies of Vision away like ragdolls. Yes, Seren was significantly more brutal in her tactics than Cinder was, killing regularly in the midst of the largely nonlethal assault. But they had to move. This was… well, a mini-war, at the least.  “You’re not bothered at all,” Allure observed as they marched just behind Seren, the rest of the followers behind them. Only a few were actually doing anything to help Seren, most were just keeping watch and chattering excitedly.  “I am,” Cinder said. “I’ve just pushed that far away.” Allure frowned. “Cinder… you really shouldn’t have done this.” “I agree. It’s wrong, and there will be consequences. But there was also never going to be a future where I didn’t do this.” She shrugged. “It is what it is, I’ll suffer for it later.” “You talk like we don’t have choice.” “Most of us have choice,” Cinder explained. “So long as that fits with the Tower’s idea of destiny.” She put a hoof to her chin. “It’s certainly physically possible that I could have refused to fall, or just not given into it whole-hog. I can see the events and the subtle machinations that led up to me making that choice. But I also know that it had to happen.” Allure rubbed her head. “Ugh…” “Probably best to argue philosophy later, focus on the fight now.” Cinder looked up, watching as one of the subs attacks were deflected by Seren’s shields. “Psychos want to let the ocean in just to get rid of us at this point. Kill everyone still loyal to them.” “Did the city break them too?” Cinder nodded. “Girl, every pony in this place I’ve seen has been dragged down to the depths of despair. With the exception of Indigo. But she was already kinda on the shady side.” “I know not to stay any longer than I need to,” the Rarity responded, doing her mane as they walked. “I should have been gone a long time ago.” “What do you even get from Vision that’s worth all the danger?” Allure asked.  “Mantles. Duh,” Distant offered.  “Just raid some Our Towns,” Allure suggested. “Extra cutie marks abound.” “That’s generally only one mark at a time, dear,” Indigo explained. “Mantles can be stacked and, with the proper treatment, that terrible addictive quality and mutation can be worked out.” “Oh, sure, remove the obvious downsides,” Distant said. “Forget that it still alters who you are on a fundamental level.” “Even a ‘safe’ mantle is a bad idea,” Cinder added. “You are such a walking paradox.” “I know!”  “Not all ponies are so comfortable their selves as we are,” Indigo commented. “Many would find their being changed an unmitigated good. Plus, I’ve checked, the soul bending of a mantle doesn’t replace the person, they’re still the same.” “How do you even check that?” Distant asked. “Soul scans.” Indigo’s comment was punctuated by Seren wrenching another submarine in half. The purple explosion cast her in shadow.  “...You know what, nevermind, I’ll ask later,” Distant decided. “We’re getting close to the Pavillion anyway.” “This was too easy,” Cinder noted. “Something’s going to go wrong at the Pavillion or before we get there.” “Why didn’t you say that earlier!?” “Because by saying it now, I heighten the chances the problem occurs now rather than at th—” Cinder didn’t get to finish her thought. Nothing dramatic happened. Seren was still blowing stuff up and clearing a path, all the while making sure the glass exterior didn’t shatter. Rainbow Dash was shouting something on the PA system about stopping the insurrection, and a few ponies decided it would be fun to join the little rebellion of chattering, smiling ponies.  It was as it had been for the last several minutes. Eerily relaxed marching.  But something changed. Cinder felt it. The nature of Vision shifted. The story had changed.  “Allure…” “What? What’s wrong?” Allure grimaced.  “I’m not Aware. At all.” She fixed Allure with a terrified look. “I felt the story change. W-what could do that?” Allure went pale. “Oh no.” “Oh no what!?” Distant demanded. “What did you screw up this time?” “Suzie…” Allure turned her gaze forward. “We need to hurry. Leave as soon as we can.” “Seren! You hear that!?” Cinder called. “Step on it!” The girl brimming with magic power flipped her scepter around several times and pointed forward, blowing a hole in the doors that went from the shop district they were currently in to the Pavillion district.  What was on the other side shocked them. They had been prepared to bring a war to the hospital.  They had not expected to find one already underway.  Blood splatters covered many different areas of the Pavillion. Security officers flashed blades and unleashed immense spells upon the patients and doctors of the Pavillion. The doctors themselves sometimes screamed, sometimes retaliated with operating tools, sometimes tore their attackers open with alarming precision. The patients cried, trying to crawl to safety, or used their mantle insanity to burn on their own.  “Suzie?” Distant asked. “...Probably,” Allure muttered. “Looks like ‘genocide’ was on the money.” Distant struggled to hide her revulsion.  “Yeesh…” Indigo shook her head.  “What do we do?” Seren asked. Cinder tapped her hoof. “What we came here to do, and a little more. Seren, we’re going to find Rarity and maybe Suzie with this little group of ‘heroes’ we’ve got here. Blood Orange, Tabula, Indigo?” “I am not your lieutenant,” Indigo muttered.  “Sure, yes, whatever.” Cinder waved a hoof dismissively before pointing it aggressively at the Pavillion. “We have an army. Get in there and save who you can. Fight only those who are fighting, protect those who are helpless. That is what we do, ponies! That is what I’ve been doing!” She broke out into a grin. “Go and do likewise!” “Yeah!” Blood Orange and Eyepatch shouted with many of the other followers.  “Good! Remember the subs, Eyepatch! Watch each other’s backs—be strong!” Cinder turned to Seren. “Let’s get in the middle of this mess…” Seren teleported herself, Cinder, Allure, and Distant to the Pavillion’s front gates. Instantly, the remaining officers unleashed magical fire upon her. With her recent boost from Cinder’s many followers, Seren found it laughably easy to wipe the magic away from them. They fell to the wayside like puppets, leaving only the doctors and patients left. This did not stop the medical professionals and injured ponies from surging forth with the unbridled rage of a thousand suns. Sick mantle-mutated husks and scalpel-wielding nurses beset the Sweeties, only to be wiped away by Seren’s might.  “I am really glad we have her,” Distant whistled. “Like, hot damn, we’d probably be dead without that.” “Thank you!” Seren winked. “Now, let’s see if I can find… Rarity…” She closed her eyes and floated in midair for a few moments. Outside, the ponies could hear destruction and death mixed with explosions. Within, this was all muffled. The loudest thing they could hear was their own breathing, followed by the dripping blood of a large mare hanging from a chandelier, skewered through her eyes.  “I can tell you right now, Seren didn’t kill that one,” Cinder commented. “Geez, turning into a freak show real fast here.” “We’re starting a rebellion,” Distant said with a shrug. “What did you expect?” “Well, for one, to start the fighting, not walk in on it. They were already killing each other!” Cinder frowned. “I am not going to like what Suzie did, am I?” “If she did what I think she did…” Allure grimaced.  Distant snorted. “Can’t be any worse than almost abandoning everything you care about because of some bizarre curse.” “...Don’t count on that,” Allure warned.  “On a scale of one to living nightmares, how scared should I be?” Allure didn’t answer her.  Distant sighed, leaning against one of the few blood-free walls. “Fine. Be mysterious. At least Cinder here tells it like it is.” “I cause insanity!” Cinder beamed.  “That is not something to be proud of.” “I’m getting my laughs in. They’re hard to come by.” “Strange. Your face says otherwise.” Cinder winked.  “Got something,” Seren said, descending to the ground. “Not Rarity…” With a flex of her wrist, a purple gem appeared in front of her. “The Element of Generosity.” “That’ll lead us right to her,” Allure said. “It’s main connection is broken,” Seren explained, turning it over and over in her hands. “I’m trying to trace it back through time, but right now I’m fairly certain it’s trying to react with Indigo, not the local Rarity.” “Was she killed?”  “Maybe. I’ll have t—” Seren’s eyes lit up. “Found the connection!” She snapped her fingers, teleporting the four of them to the destination.  Rarity’s body was there, very dead and riddled with an unnervingly large number of holes ripped from the inside out.  “...Dammit…” Allure breathed, face contorting into an unrecognizable expression. “Dammit dammit DAMMIT!” Cinder stared at the body in shock. “Well, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle, this is what Suzie’s thing does to ponies? I’m… impressed, shocked, bewildered, and confused. What does it do besides act like an inverted pincushion? Anyone?” Seren shrugged. “I don’t have that clearance.” “I don’t even know who Suzie is,” Distant muttered.  “Colonel Suzie Mash is the captain of their expedition team, and one of my oldest friends.” Allure struggled to keep in the tears. “She was bestowed with a power to assault civilizations. She proved herself able to resist the temptation and only use it when needed… to kill a leader and destroy their evil vision.” Turning to the Rarity, Allure looked at it with an expression of betrayal. “She promised she could resist anything and everything. That she would only… when absolutely…”  “Vision was too strong for her,” Seren said. “Don’t blame her.” “Actually,” Cinder put a hoof to her chin. “She does have a pretty bad case of hothead, you know? It occurs to me that she might have not been the best choice to even have such a thing. That’s, like, massive ka manipulation right there.” “Cinder…” Allure turned to face her with wild eyes. “How can you say that about Suzie!?” “I’m currently under the influence of Vision, more than you are, sue me.” Cinder rolled her eyes. “The point is that this was going to happen eventually, curse or not, and you probably should have seen it coming. Friendships blind you, sometimes.” “I’m still stuck on how you can curse a civlizaiton,” Distant asked. “The details aren’t important,” Allure said. “The point is, she killed Rarity with it, so whatever her vision of… Vision was, it’s inverted and flipped on its head. That can result in the evil regime being replaced with one with power in the hooves of the ponies… or anarchy. It’s… hard to predict without knowing Rarity.” “I know her, somewhat,” Cinder said. “If I had to guess? That warzone we saw outside? That’s the beginning of this ‘curse’. Soon the entire city of Vision is going to succumb to the plague of war, desolation, and death that Rarity didn’t want. She wanted art. There have to be ponies to appreciate art. So there aren’t going to be any ponies.” A haunted silence filled the room.  “Seren, can you find Suzie?” Allure asked.  Seren shook her head. “She was here, but there’s evidence of stealth spells. It would take too long.” “Great…” “Back to the battle outside,” Cinder ordered. Seren didn’t skip a beat when teleporting them to the Pavillion balcony overlooking the courtyard.  It was terrible. Cinder had been expecting this. There was going to be bloodshed, since her small army of followers weren’t fully versed in combat and their enemies were bloodlusted psychos.  What she had failed to expect was that her army would turn into bloodlusted psychos the moment she turned her back on them. What she had been horrified at Security and the doctors doing a moment before, now her ponies were doing the same. A mantled stallion who had talked about the catharsis of hugging was pounding sick fillies into the ground. A pegasus had grabbed two of Security’s guns and was shooting them wildly. Tabula was cutting ponies at the neck with a careful knife, so fast they often didn’t realize what was happening. The only pony who seemed in control of herself was Indigo, and she caught Cinder’s gaze with an unreadable expression.  And Blood Orange… ...Was wielding an axe over the head of a yellow mare in a wheelchair.  Sunshine.  Cinder teleported herself to the fighting floor and smacked Blood Orange aside with her magic. “STOP!” The fire in Blood Orange’s eyes vanished in an instant. “Wh…” She looked at the axe to her side in fear. “I… I didn’t…” Taking a protective stance over Sunshine, Cinder shot a beacon of magic into the air. “STOP!” A few ponies listened to her, stopping. Some of them died for their efforts in the rage of the others.  Allure jumped down next to Cinder. “Seren, I need amplified Heart powers, now!” Seren pointed her scepter at Allure’s cutie mark, plunging energy not into her horn, but her spirit. The invisible strands of Heart surrounding Allure became visible with a translucent pink. Closing her eyes, she endowed the Knight’s power to defend into the Spirit. She wasn’t the best at the more nebulous aspects of Heart powers, but all she needed was to communicate one word to every present soul.  Stop.  Her heart lashed out with a whirlwind of power, tapping everypony in the Pavilion at their cores. Rising up from the depths of their spirit came the word to their minds.  Stop.  Spells were interrupted, steps ceased, screams interrupted. For a moment, there was only confusion.  It would not last long. Cinder knew this.  “LISTEN TO ME!” Cinder shouted, gesturing at Sunshine. “You’re hurting them! You’re hurting them! This isn’t what I showed you! This isn’t what I wanted! We are supposed to be the saviors of Vision, not the monsters! When we arrived, I told you to protect them. How many have you protected!?” She pointed at three dead fillies in the middle of the battlefield with their throats slit. “You’ve killed the ponies you were supposed to save!” The fighting wasn’t going to continue now. Enough ponies looked guilty, and those who didn’t weren’t about to start fighting when they had no idea whose side they were on.  Cinder let out a tense, agonized breath. “Just… stop! We’re done! We won, there’s nothing more for us here at the Pavillion. We found Rarity dead.” There were a few cheers at this. Cinder felt this was warranted.  “But with her death, the city of Vision has been shaken. You felt it just now, didn’t you? The bloodlust, the anger, the rage at the city itself? We almost weren’t able to stop it! Vision is falling apart at the seams, and we need to get out of here and get help before it collapses with us in it.” She put on a smile. “So! Since Rarity’s not available for information and Eyepatch is presumably still working on those submarines, how do we find Princess Twilight Sparkle, the mare who’s supposed to be dead?” “I know,” Tabula said, walking forward. Cinder pushed the image of her cutting ponies throats out of her head. “Yes?” “Her.” Tabula tugged on a chain, pulling the maroon mare with mantle-eyes forward. “She found you. She can find Twilight.” “I’m not finding anybody for you,” the mare spat. “I’m going t—” “What’s your name?” Cinder asked. “Wh…” the mare blinked in surprise. “Occular Horizon.” “Occy—can I call you Occy?—I'm gonna call you Occy.” Cinder’s crazed smile was back in full force. “I bet you thought you had the perfect plan to take us out. Surround the child mage, fool her, and win. Really, excellent showing, I have to say. But… well, here’s the problem. We’ve imprisoned you. You lost.” “Bah. Vision’s finest will hang you lot out to dry.” “Girl, Vision is going to die,” Cinder rammed her face into Occular’s. “I think you want to be outside its walls when it implodes.” Occular was about to let out a sharp, defiant remark when there was an explosion in the distance. One of the taller towers of Vision had just ruptured and a giant neon sign of Trixie’s cutie mark descended into the depths, sending a shockwave through the entire city as it touched down. “That had nothing to do with us at all,” Cinder continued. “This city is going to kill itself. We have a way out. Just help us find it.” Occular swallowed hard. She closed her eyes, focusing her magic into her various mantles.  “I knew you had it in you,” Cinder smirked.  “...I see… something,” Occular reported. “Something…” She lifted her hoof and pointed down. “Something far, far beneath where we are now.” “Twilight Sparkle?” “I believe so… let me try to get a clearer pict—” Occular burst into purple flames. She was ashes a second later. Cinder shook her head. “Okaaaay, I wasn’t expecting that one. Seren did you get the connection?” Seren nodded. “Bottom of Vision. Absolute bottom of Vision. We’re going to have to dig.” “Beneath the surface?” “No.” Allure clenched her jaw and set her mouth. “Okay. We’ll send a small team down there, everypony else goes to the sub to get off this city. If we’re lucky, Merodi ships will meet you on the way.” “Need to check with Eyepatch on that…” Cinder commented. “She’ll be back within the hour, we can start m—” Eyepatch ran at them, blood pouring out of one of her ears. “They were waiting for us!” “Waiting? How?!” Cinder slammed a hoof angrily into the ground. “All we needed was to see if subs were there to take!” “Yes!” Eyepatch fell at her hooves. “And there aren’t! They blew them up! The entire dock, flooded!” “Who?” Allure asked. “THIS IS CITY CENTRAL SECURITY!” the voice of Rainbow Dash boomed over to them. This did not come over the PA—it came from a megaphone somewhere behind the Medical Pavilion. “WE DEMAND UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!” Cinder’s face twitched into a smile. “Well isn’t this… great. Everypony, look docile, let’s move around to the back, look like we’re surrendering. I’ll go talk to her. With luck, we can get out of this peacefully.” Not a chance in Tartarus Vision will let it be that easy, but I’m sure going to try.  As they slowly moved, Cinder helped push Sunshine’s wheelchair. “Sorry, got a little out of hand.” “It’s… fine!” Sunshine said, forcing a smile. “You’re going to save the day!” “Yes. I am. Did you know you are the literary equivalent of the voice of addiction?” “I… what?” Cinder patted her on the head. “I am going to protect you with my life, Sunshine. I promise.” “...Why does that sound ominous…?” “Because sometimes tragedy comes in a myriad of colors. Speaking of, Distant!” Distant looked up from her stupor. “I… what?” “As I see it now, I don’t like Swiftwing’s odds of survival. She’s your mother, but the city wants to maximize tragedy. If you think of any way to swing back to get her, tell me.” Distant stared at her in shock for a moment. “I… don’t think there is one.” “Then we pray when we kick Twilight’s face in we can get to her fast enough.” Distant’s expression took up her namesake as she drifted out of Cinder’s view.  “Blood Orange, it’s okay, you didn’t hurt her.” “I was about to…” Blood Orange sniffed.  “But you didn’t. That’s what matters. Eyepatch?” “Y-yeah?” “You were brave.” Eyepatch nodded, hugging Cinder.  “Allure?” “Is this it?” Allure asked, clearly nervous.  “No. We’re making it through. We are guaranteed to make it through.” Cinder couldn't stop giggling at this, it was so hilarious. “Everything’s about to go wrong, though.” Allure sighed. “Come with me to talk to Rainbow Dash.” “I wasn’t about to let you speak for the League.” “Nice.” There was a small square of grass and oddly placed trees between the back of the Pavillion and the entrance to the docks where City Central Security was pouring out. It was a lot more than just guards, soldiers, and a few mantle-wielders this time. There were large robots, hulking monstrosities with massive bladed and magical weapons, and ponies with armor. In front of them all was very clearly Rainbow Dash, flying a few feet above the rest, a megaphone in her hoof.  “WE WISH TO DISCUSS TERMS!” Allure shouted. “THERE HAS BEEN ENOUGH BLOODSHED.” “GRANTED!” Rainbow shot back.  Cinder and Allure walked forward while Rainbow flew to meet them in the center of the grass. On one side, a bunch of chattering ponies lined up to watch the exchange excitedly. On the other, Security stood, impassive, brutal, cold.  Rainbow herself had a level, stern expression devoid of most emotions. There was anger on her features, but not enough for somepony who had recently found out an old friend was murdered.  “The terms are absolute surrender,” Rainbow said, flatly.  “No chance of negotiation whatsoever?” Allure asked. “None.” “Then I guess we just have to fight and send Vision to its death,” Cinder said with a roll of her eyes. “That’s the one thing neither of us want, but it’s the one thing that will happen if we actually decide to try and kill each other. You have numbers and resources, we have Seren. And a few other tricks. It won’t end pleasantly and the city is already tearing itself apart as it is.” Rainbow growled. “I don’t know how, but that’s your fault.” “Indirectly,” Cinder said, twirling a hoof in the air.  “The point is, we don’t want Vision to die,” Allure interjected. “I know what your deal is, Twilight told me everything she talked about with Suzie.” “Right…” Allure frowned. “You don’t want assistance?” “No. No we do not want any of your fucking assistance.” “Then we won’t give it. We’re not in a position to bargain for it at the moment, anyway.” Allure leaned her head back. “Let us leave Vision.” “I’m not letting you run off to your fancy multiversal powerhouse and bringing an army here!” “You can keep us trapped in your universe,” Allure offered. “I’m not asking for you to have Twilight break the lock. I’m asking you to give us a sub or some other method of transportation to the surface so we may leave Vision and go… I don’t know, the local Equestria, Saddle Arabia, somewhere.”  Rainbow’s expression shifted slightly. “And you’ll leave? Just like that?” “Yes! We don’t want to make it worse than it already is!” “We would have really loved to march right in here and fix everything,” Cinder added. “But Twilight made that impossible. So our best option at this point is to get on a sub, take all these ‘annoying insurrectionists’, and get out of here. It doesn't take much to think of what we’ll have to do if we do fight.” Another tower elsewhere in Vision exploded.  “Just give us a sub and we’ll go,” Cinder said, eyes widening. “I promise.” Rainbow’s eyes softened. “You really are Sweetie Belle, aren’t you?” Cinder nodded.  Rainbow watched as the distant tower collapsed. “I have other things to manage. All right, fine, you can h—” Somebody fired a magic missile.  Nobody ever figured out which side it was. Everypony was sure it was the other side who attacked first. They heard the spell come from the other side—or had that been an echo? Was it a trigger happy Security mage, or a bored violence-mad mantle-ridden pony? Had it even been a magic missile? It didn’t matter, in the end. Enough ponies were scared that they started shooting any ranged weapon they had - spell, bow, or bomb.  Cinder created a shield around Allure and Rainbow Dash, deflecting the assault.  Rainbow and Allure nodded sagely at each other, turning around. As ponies from both sides charged, the leaders simply walked back to their respective sides, faces set. Ponies surged past them with rage and weapons of all kinds, throwing bombs, magic, blades, technology… everything they could imagine to kill each other. The machines of Security focused their assault on Seren while she doused them with magic lasers from above. Below, pony met pony. Wild and free against cold and restrictive.  Too many ponies were enjoying the devastation.  “Sure… use a fickle misunderstanding to start a full scale war, but let everyone walk away from the middle like badasses…” Cinder let out a reptilian hiss. “Of course, why not!?” She teleported all the bay back to the Pavillion, a sour grimace on her face. “SCREW THIS!”  She pulled her head back, tapping into as many mantles as she thought would be useful to project her voice. “HEY! ANYPONY WHO CARES ENOUGH TO HEAR THIS, GET BACK HERE!” Cinder waited.  Twenty. Maybe twenty people showed up. Allure, Seren, Distant, Sunshine, Blood Orange, Eyepatch, Tabula, Indigo, and a few others here and there.  “They need my help…” Seren said, glancing nervously back at the battle. “This battle is pointless,” Cinder spat. “Pointless. Even if we win, the city falls apart. It’s falling apart as it is. We need to get to Twilight and end that spell. There is no other way we can save anything. We tried working within this universe’s rules, and look where that got us.” She pointed down. “Seren, drill.” ~~~ In a dark, damp corner of Vision no ponies alive knew existed, Celia sat in front of a fire she had made. The smoke whisked up through a nearby vent, going somewhere she didn’t know. To her left, there was only unclean glass that looked out upon the darkness of the seafloor. To her right, a hall of pipes that hadn’t seen light in years.  In front of her, there was Suzie. Unconscious. She would be like that for a while. Fluttershy was tending to her with a blanket, checking to make sure she wasn’t developing a fever or any other unusual symptoms from having her brain forcefully shut down.  “I should have let you do it.” “Hmm?” Fluttershy asked. “Back at the Sanctuary. I should have let you keep her docile.” Celia pressed her hooves together, staring deeply into the fire. “Vision wouldn’t be doomed if she’d been kept on a leash.” “She’s your friend, Celia, you can’t be blamed for wanting to protect her.”  “Even if it was the wrong decision?” Fluttershy followed Celia’s gaze into the fire. “...I don’t blame you.” “Do you blame her?” “I don’t really… blame ponies,” Fluttrshy admitted. “They’re just… the way they are. I do what I can to help them, but I’m just a pony too.” “That attitude let you and your friends run this city into the ground.” Celia paused. “My attitude did the same, it turns out.” “Celia…” “I really should have just let you do it. I’m Celia. I’m supposed to know people.” Her eyes drifted to Suzie’s form despite the pain looking brought to her chest. “From the moment we walked in here, I should have seen where she was going. Should have…” Celia shook her head. “But we had hit a rough spot, and I was trying to patch it over. Give her more freedom. That was a mistake.” “I’m sure she’d forgive you.” “No doubt the moment I brought up her religion she’d begrudgingly mutter some half-hearted apology.” Celia waved her hoof through the flames. “And we’re Sweeties, anyway. No… we’re ponies. It’s what we do. Forgive, redeem. Even here, even broken, you still have that.” Fluttershy nodded slowly. “It’s… rare, now.” “She killed Rarity. She was one of your best friends. And in doing so, she… damned this city.” Celia sagged. “And here you are, keeping better watch on her than I am.” “...If you’re right about me, being… ‘corrupted’, then maybe my Kindness goes too far?” Fluttershy cocked her head a little. “I don’t think it’s right to hold grudges against anyone. But I can see why it would… allow ponies to keep killing.” Celia nodded. “That’s what I think. But I also thought that freedom was a good thing. Look where that’s got us.” Fluttershy let out a short giggle. “I guess we’re both wrong about something, then, huh?” “Yeah. To everyone being wrong!” Celia fell back, letting out a pained chuckle.  “...Celia?” “Yes, Fluttershy?” “Would you like me to…?” Celia let a tear of unnatural blood seep out of the corner of her eye. “Yes. Yes Fluttershy, I would love nothing more than you to take the pain away. But I can’t. I can’t.” Fluttershy nodded. She didn’t ask Celia to explain.  Celia did anyway. “I went through so much figuring out who I was. I can’t throw that away now just because it hurts a little. I made decisions, some terrible decisions. I need to live with them. I need to be… Honest. Not Kind.” She looked at the reflection of her gemstone in the glass. “I need to be able to explain myself as I am.” “I understand.” “Though… if this turns into some kind of tragedy where I can’t go home… ask me again.” Celia’s expression hardened. “I may change my mind by then.” Fluttershy nodded, allowing silence to return. After checking Suzie again, she turned back to Celia.  “You can go home, right? Twilight said you could leave at any time.” “...Yes…” Celia admitted. “But I haven’t found the others. Cinder… and I can’t take you with us. Or any of the other ponies suffering.” Fluttershy smiled warmly. “You don’t think we’ve really lost yet, huh?” Celia smiled back, but the action was painful. “I guess I’ve been in too many adventures where things turn out right at the last moment.” “I remember those.” Fluttershy nodded slowly as she closed her eyes, remembering fonder times. “I hope they’re coming back.” “I hope we’re bringing them to you.”  Silence reigned once more.  “Once the fighting stops—if the fighting stops…” Celia furrowed her brow. “If the dimensional lock is not broken, we can go back to your Sanctuary. Start anew there.” “Will the curse be… gone?” “If it’s not, I’ll make some kind of submarine. We’ll egg something out of this, one way or another.” “...Thank you.” “Hmm?” “For thinking I’m a monster and sticking with me anyway.” Celia couldn’t help but brighten at this. “What are friends for?” In a moment of silly synchronicity, the two of them hoofbumped.  There was a rumble in the distance. “The fighting’s getting worse…” Fluttershy observed. “Rainbow’s probably been called in to deal with it by now.” “Not much we can do about it,” Celia said. “Not even the whole of Merodi Universalis can end the curse once the ball gets rolling.” The rumble happened again. Closer, this time. Mildly alarmed, the two angled their ears, listening carefully for the sound.  Again, closer once more. Above them, but a fair ways to the east. Lighting her crystal, Celia performed a scan. She didn’t find fighting.  What she did find was Seren’s magic signature. Close by.  Celia stood bolt upright. “That’s them! Seren and… probably Allure.” “They’re fighting?” “No… well, maybe, but I don’t think that is what’s making the noise. I think… they’re digging through the layers of Vision.” “Why would they do that?” Fluttershy asked.  “If they were up there, they may have found out about the curse, and... if they have Seren with them… they might be trying to do something.” “I thought you couldn’t do anything about it?” “That’s right. Because we can’t evacuate the city. Evacuate the city, the curse doesn’t spread.” “They’re trying something desperate. But there’s nothing down here.” “Exactly. It was the first place you thought would be good for hiding out the storm.” Fluttershy’s eyes widened. “Twilight’s down here.” “And they’re looking for her.”  “...We’ve gotta get to them.” Celia levitated Suzie up, bundling her in the blanket. “Let’s move. We might be able to do something yet!” ~~~ Vision burned.  Everywhere there was potential for the flames of war, it broke out.  Towers had already fallen to riots. Riots that had never heard of the Sweeties or their ‘attacks’—just ponies that seemingly, for no real reason, snapped that day. In a pleasant shop district a stallion with one too many mantles hidden beneath his clothes ordered ice cream and got a flavor he didn’t like. He lashed out with fire and destroyed the shopkeep’s face. The fillies in the street decided to put an end to this, taking out their shivs and stabbing him until he stopped moving. A nearby officer decided that was worth the death penalty and started dealing out justice. Bystanders rose to defend the children. He called for backup. Some came, but not enough to quell the fires—Rainbow Dash was fighting a war elsewhere. Children rose through the ranks to cut, burn, and devour those who stood in their way.  Within the labs of Sparkle Enchantments, a pony panicked and pressed the alarm button a little too early. Seconds later, she tried to correct her mistake, triggering an error in the system. The lockdown of the doors ended, but the weapons systems remained on, attacking everypony who came in the lower levels of the central tower without any regard for lives.  In the underbelly where criminals thrived, a mob boss decided his slave mare had done a terrible job and killed her. He failed to realize that she had the loyalty and trust of every one of the ponies he thought loyal to himself. In panic, he spiral jacked out of desperation for one last victory. Already mad, several of his subordinates did the same, and they all died when one of them breached the outer wall and let the ocean sort it out.  In the maintenance tunnels, the killers who laid in the shadows felt something awaken in them. They felt the change of the world, the subtle twist of fate… and they knew it was time to come out. To feast. They died by the dozen, but they came all at once. It was too much to handle.  And at the Medical Pavilion itself, a war was underway. Even with the loss of Seren, the ponies fought as hard as they could manage. City Central Security had more technology and skill, but the insurrectionists kept getting more ponies, somehow. Through the back doors they came flooding in, mares and stallions who had been abused and tormented by Security for their entire lives. Hundreds were dead, but hundreds more rose. “For FREEDOM!” the ponies shouted, not realizing that they were fighting against a spawn that “freedom” created. In a way, this conflict could have been seen as noble. In a way, it was. It stood out from all the others for having a purpose to the battle, a reason for the death.  It was a terrible fact that the war at the Medical Pavilion was only making the situation worse everywhere else. Security may have been a fascist monster, but at least it would have done something to put the mad streams of violence down.  As it was, Vision had collectively decided to run the streets red with blood.  And in the one place where it shouldn’t have broken out into war, the one place where ponies went to hide and remain in the quiet, it was happening.  As Seren drilled through level after level of Vision, the attacks never stopped. The lower levels had low numbers of ponies, and even lower numbers of ponies in a situation strong enough to attack. But they did, banging themselves against the magic energy as it descended into the ground.  Cinder didn’t like how the ponies around them had suddenly become monsters. Almost mindless monsters. It was almost like an important part of their brains had been shut off and only the desire to kill remained.  The only friendly faces were the twenty or so of them inside Seren’s bubble. And that was starting to fade.  “Seren…?” Cinder asked, turning to her. “Do you… have this?” “Y-yes…” Seren grunted.  “Oh no, you’re running low. Why are you running low? Oh, right, duh, less ponies, less sense of unity, attacking the feeling of familial connection with the whole war…” “Y-yeah…” While she was drilling with her magic, Cinder latched herself to Seren in a hug. “This isn’t helping, is it?” “N-not really…” Cinder removed herself. “...I’ll get you out of here, Seren. Okay? You know I make it out. I’ll get you out.” “You said that to all of them… and where are they now?” Tears started dripping from Seren’s face. “We left them…” “We are going down here to get a way out. Merodi response time for an emergency called by Allure will be minutes if she pushes it to maximum alert. The sooner we get down there the sooner we can get back to save them.” A twinkle appeared in Seren’s eye. “Save… them… ALL!” With a determined scream that would make any Goku proud, she pushed every last ounce of her energy into the power of the drill. What had once been a somewhat dainty spinning construct became an immense gold-tipped multi-faceted fractal pattern of spirals that dug the rest of the way to the bottom - not just to the foundation of Vision’s dense infrastructure, but a fair ways into the rock below as well. The backspell designed to keep the ocean out fixed the glass she tore through, leaving a long, empty hole easily large enough for them all to fall through.  “There you… go…” Seren passed out, dropping her magical hold on all of them. “Crabapples,” Cinder muttered. Physics kicked in and started bringing them to the ground at high speed.  Celia jumped out as they passed her level. “Fancy running into you here.” She created a magic net across the gap, catching every last one of Cinder’s followers. “Celia!” Allure shouted in delight. “Oh, am I glad to see you.” “The feeling is mutual, darlings!” Celia winked. She allowed the net to sag slowly, depositing them into the bottom of the seafloor crater Seren had made. Picking up Seren in her magic, she let out a “Tut.” “Poor thing, used herself all up.” “She’s been carrying us single-hooved until now,” Allure said. “Question!” Cinder called. “Celia, confirm, Twilight Sparkle is performing the dimensional lock?” Celia took a moment to process Cinder’s new appearance but moved past it quickly. “Yes.” “Do you know how to disable it if we get you to her?” “...No…” “Drat. We do need to wake Seren up…” “No, you don’t.” Distant said, stepping forward. “She’s using an adaptation of my spell. I can dispel it if you get her weak or distracted enough.” “Good girl!” Cinder clapped her hooves. “We got all our bases covered! Everyone’s here, we’re charging to the bottom of the city for a final showdown, BINGO.”  “Suzie’s not here,” Allure pointed out. Cinder rolled her eyes. “Celia, am I wrong to assume Suzie’s nearby?” “She’s nearby,” Celia admitted. “I suppose you can come down now, dear!” Fluttershy poked her head over the edge of the pit they were in. “How about you come up here? We all need to get through the bottom levels, anyway.” “Right… Let’s see, twenty-four individuals… and a one and a two and a…” She performed a mass teleport up to where Fluttershy was, under a dark hall filled with pipelines. “Whoo that took a bit…” Cinder trotted up to Fluttershy, examining the bundled up Suzie on her back. “...You disabled her?” Fluttershy nodded. “She needed to be contained,” Celia said. “She caused a miniature war to break out in the Medical Pavillion just because she was angry a—” “You shouldn’t blame her,” Cinder said.  “Excuse me!?” “You knew this would happen eventually when you gave it to her.” Cinder fixed Celia with a stone cold glare. “Furthermore, this city has a ka-curse. Use that three-way brain of yours, I’m sure you can figure it out.” Cinder broke out into a grin. She could see the hamster wheels turning in Celia’s head as she garnered from Cinder’s actions what exactly was going on.  “My Diamonds…” Celia took a few steps back. “Fluttershy, did you know your city is… cursed to bring out the worst in ponies?” “An actual curse?” Fluttershy frowned. “I… wouldn’t be surprised.” “How’s ethically dubious actions town doing for you?” Cinder asked with a coy wink.  Celia was uncharacteristically stunned. “I… well I… don’t… know…” “Well, we don’t have time to think. Fluttershy!” Cinder pointed at the Element of Kindness. “Which way to the deepest, darkest, most depressing pit of Vision?” “This way,” Fluttershy said, pointing with a wing. “It… it has no name. We just call it Death.” “That’s where everything in the ocean falls…” Cinder rolled her eyes. “Real creative…” “Are you sure we should trust her?” Eyepatch asked. “That’s Fluttershy. Best friends with, like, all our enemies!” “I can vouch for her,” Celia said. “She has stood by my side as w—” Cinder interrupted her. “Yes, we can trust her this once; no, we should never trust her again. She’s just as nuts as the rest of them, it just so happens that her particular shade of nuts, like mine, is on our side.” She bowed to Fluttershy. “Lead the way, o’ Corrupted Kindness.” “You’re the most interesting spiral jacker I’ve ever met,” Fluttershy commented. With a smile, she turned away and led the way through the lowest level of Vision.  Here, there were no electric lights, for nopony sane lived down here. The unicorns in the group used their horns to light the passage, following behind Fluttershy as she trotted along. Even though they were in the lowest level, it still sloped with the seafloor, so there were many aging stairwells down and corridors that seemed to slope on into the nothingness.  “We were getting attacked all the time…” Blood Orange observed. “Now… nothing.” “I’m not complaining,” Indigo said.  “I’m not either. I just don’t trust it.” They descended into a large open room with a fire burning in the middle of it. Down here, there were no windows to the sea, only walls that led to other walls. Besides the fire, there was no sign of habitation whatsoever aside from a rat skeleton under the green tiles.  “I remember this place…” Fluttershy said. “One of the first rooms we built, down here. Just a place for ponies to meet while everywhere else was barely a beginning.” She smiled brightly. “There were no mantles back then, no violence… just a bunch of ponies who wanted to live their own way.” “Fat lot of good it did all of you,” Distant muttered.  “It was beautiful, at first,” Fluttershy said, looking up at the dark ceiling. “Ponies in harmony. Daring each other to do better. Laughing, singing, celebrating... “ She paused. “Celebrating too much…” “And you all spiraled down into your own enjoyments until this rose out of the disorder,” Cinder commented. “Good job, who would have seen that coming?” “Sweetie Belle,” Fluttershy breathed. With a sigh, she pointed a wing. “The Death is this way.” “Please tell me we aren’t walking to our deaths,” Eyepatch muttered.  “Nah. That would be ridiculous,” Blood Orange rolled her eyes. “There’s nopony down this far!” A harpoon shot out of nowhere, skewering Blood Orange in the eye. Her head spurted like the fruit she was named after, spraying her brilliant coat with the crimson of her life. She dropped without another sound.  From every door, mad, almost zombie-like ponies emerged. Mantles ran down their bodies like black snakes, meeting at areas with noxious purple tumors. Some carried weapons, others had blades embedded in their hooves, while still others had bone jutting out of their legs to be used as a stabbing implement.  All of them were out for blood.  The next thing Cinder was aware of was chaos. She was fighting, yes, fighting for her very life, though she found it hard to tell what she was fighting against or why. There was a mare with pointed teeth in front of her at one point. Cinder tossed her to the ground, only for an explosive blast to go off and splat the mare’s brains all over her. A stallion in a massive diving suit charged into the fray, his massive yellow eyes glowing like crystal. Celia jumped him and tore the helmet off—severing the neck in the process. He fell in front of Cinder, but she had to raise a ruby and sapphire shield to stop a hook-hoof stallion from driving his blades into her. A teleport later, and she was standing next to Tabula. Tabula, who died not realizing her throat had been slit.  “No…” Cinder said. “No no no no no I made a DEAL!” She screamed.  The battle died down shortly after her cry. Ponies lay dead left and right. Unicorns cast the room in light once more.  Cinder performed a head count. Allure, Celia, Suzie, Seren, Distant, Fluttershy, Eyepatch, Sunshine, Indigo… Sixteen. Sixteen people left. So many dead just like that. She couldn’t take her eyes off the forms of Blood Orange or Tabula.  “I made a deal,” Cinder hissed. “Making deals with the Tower is… ill advised,” Indigo said. “Not for me.” Cinder turned tail, angrily. “Eyepatch, Distant, watch yourselves. Sunshine…” Cinder put her hooves on the terrified mare’s wheelchair. “I’m watching you.” “O-okay…” Sunshine stammered, refusing to open her eyes.  You’re not taking them all from me.  “Celia! Fluttershy!” Cinder trotted up to them, Sunshine in tow. “Can you get Suzie back?” “...Yes…” Celia admitted. “But she was…” “We need all the firepower we can get. Bring her back.” Celia nodded. She was about to listen when she realized she was taking orders from Cinder—a Cinder that looked like she had gone off the deep end, at that.  “She’s right,” Allure said. “Bring her back.” Together, Fluttershy and Celia focused on Suzie. Almost instantly, the human’s awareness returned to her. She opened eyes of anger, but not wild violence. Slowly, she unbundled herself and stood up. “You are still relieved of duty and in our custody,” Celia explained.  “Am I?” Suzie asked. “Yes,” Allure stamped her hoof. “You are.” “I did what w—” “Shut up,” Cinder muttered. “You are under the influence of the ka-curse of Vision, driving you to your worst self. As you can plainly see, so am I! Delightful, yes, glad we’re on the same page, moving on, we need to get to Twilight to break the dimensional lock and ponies are dying so use that fancy gun of yours and cut us a way through the enemies.” Suzie looked down at Cinder, scowling. “You’re giving me orders?” “Listen to her, Suzie,” Allure snapped. “Consider it my order.”  “We’re both Founders.” “You are currently stripped of your rank and authority. You are out here on courtesy.” Allure tossed her head back, revealing sad eyes. “Don’t make me put you back in there.” Suzie turned away, checking her pulse cannon. “Lethal force allowed?” “Yes.” “Good. I think I can live with this.” She pointed her pulse cannon at a chandelier and turned it to dust. It fell atop the head of the pony that had been in the diving gear. “...Wait a minute.” “What is it?” Eyepatch asked. “I’ve played this video game. That’s a pony version of a Big Daddy.” “A what?” “This entire place is freaking Bioshock,” Suzie laughed. “Oh, Button’s going to get an earful about this one…” She held her pulse cannon forward, narrowing her eyes. “Which way is the enemy?” “The Death is this way,” Fluttershy said, trotting through a tunnel.  “Good. Make yourself useful. Touch my head and die.” Fluttershy rolled her eyes. “I get it…” “She took good care of you while you were out, you know,” Celia commented.  “Don’t care,” Suzie muttered, marching after Fluttershy.  Celia stayed back for a bit, looking at the bodies.  “Don’t try the revive spell,” Cinder said, frowning. “Vision won’t let us have any of them back.” They descended deeper, deeper still. It was terribly unrealistic for the bottom level of Vision to keep sloping downward like this, but slope it did, inviting them closer and closer to the depths.  Cinder started to smell things rotting.  “Lots of dead fish matter got in the walls down here,” Fluttershy said. “It kept falling. They decided to build anyway.” Eyepatch rolled her eye. “For a bunch of ponies building Vision they sure didn’t have much foresight.” A firecracker-like weapon went off. Suzie whirled around and blasted three ponies in the head. Their weapons clattered to the ground. “There’s more in the level above!” “On it!” Celia shouted, drilling through the ceiling with her razor-top. Cinder would have followed them, but she noticed Eyepatch go down.  “Eyepatch!” Cinder shouted, running to hold her. “Eyepatch…” The green mare coughed up some blood. “H-hey…” “No no, no, you stay with me, you hear? One of my lieutenants has to make it out…” She used her magic to heal Eyepatch’s wound. “See? All better!” “I don’t think… that was a normal blade...” Eyepatch coughed up more blood, black this time. “For the…” Hey eye began to lose focus.  “Eyepatch! Eyepatch!” Cinder wailed. “X-Xenon! Xenon come on!” “Heh… you did know…” “I… I was just joking around, Xenon, I…” “I kinda liked Eyepatch, in the end,” Xenon said, grinning. “You made it worth it, Cinder.” “W…” “Everything. Now… go save what you can.” And Xenon was gone.  And Cinder broke.  “Do you want more? Is that it? This wasn’t enough!?” She cast a crystal shield spell around Sunshine, grinning psychotically. “FINE! Let’s abandon everything! I just realize I’ve been conveniently using decidedly nonlethal methods for everything, kind of like I’m part of an—egad—cartoon or something!” She lit her horn with a black fire. “You want more death? I’ll give you more death.” She jumped up a level and found a random pony with one of those firecracker weapons. She torched him so hard his weapon melted in his hooves, reducing him to ash “That’s two!” She teleported down to a mare with mantles of skulls all over her neck and drove two ruby shards into her eyes. “That’s three!” She jumped off a railing and shoved so many bees down a mare’s mouth that she exploded from the inside out. “And Four!” Whirling around, she moonwalked to a white stallion with a flaming horn.  At which point Celia shouted. “Fluttershy, stop her!” And then all the rage went away. Cinder stopped attacking, dropping her hooves. She knew she could fight Fluttershy’s conditioning. She was super-Cinder right now, it wouldn’t even be hard.  She didn’t want to be angry, though. She’d never wanted to be angry.  She’d never wanted to kill anyone. Tears rolling down her face, she smacked the enemy with a paper frying pan to knock him out. She jumped down to the ground level, pulling Sunshine out of the crystal prison and hugging her.  “C-cinder? It’s… it’s fin—” “You’re so, so wrong,” Cinder bawled. “It’s not fine, and nothing’s ever going to be fine again.” She looked Sunshine in the eyes. “You might die… they all might die… we… I’m sorry. I played the game… and I lost.”  “Get your magic out of her head!” Suzie shouted, ready to shoot Fluttershy.  Cinder teleported over to Suzie and slapped her across the face. “No.” “Zomb—” “No. I don’t want to be angry.” Cinder pulled her tears back. “I just… I want to get home. I want these mantles off. I want to go to a happy little world where nothing has to die.” She pulled Suzie close. “I want this nightmare to end.” Celia stroked her mane. “...We all have, at one point or another.” “The darkness finds us all, eventually,” Allure added. “The low point where we realize… being out here… it changes us.” Suzie’s hard rage softened considerably. She kneeled down and put her hands on Cinder’s shoulders. “...Welcome to the League of Sweetie Belles, Cinder. I’m sorry. There’s… there’s no going… back…”  Cinder buried her head into Suzie’s chest and bawled her eyes out. Celia, Allure, and Suzie held her close.  They all knew what it was like to be here.  To realize what the multiverse asked of those who explored it.  Agents could be warned, adventurers could be told to stay put. Those who decided to brave the storm would think they could stay true to themselves through anything.  But, inevitably, they would be brought down.  Allowed to see.  In that place, at the bottom of the ocean, under a city burning itself to the ground because of actions related to her, Cinder understood.  She understood what they had warned her about.  She understood why it was too late.  And she understood what they needed to do.  “The Death isn’t far from here,” Cinder said, eventually, wiping her face. “Let’s end this.” Fluttershy wiped a tear from yer eyes as well. “Y-yes.” They descended one last time. There were ten of them now.  There were no more attacks. The rest of the journey was made in silence.  At the bottom of Vision, there was a single round room. They filed into it, ignoring the stench of the improperly constructed walls around it, focusing instead on what they could see. Unlike every other room they had passed on their journey, this one had power. There were no lightbulbs, only large screens brimming with magic energy—showing scenes of Vision. Fire. Death. Blood. Water. War. In the center of it all sat Twilight Sparkle.  “Just let us go,” Cinder said. Twilight turned her chair around and looked at them all impassively for a moment—longer than should have been comfortable. Cinder held her ground.  “Very well.” Twilight lit her horn and sent out a flash, met only with silence.  “She’s telling the truth, ponies,” Distant said. “Move it!” Quickly, Celia dialed a portal to Swip, Allure rushed to call in the Merodi, but Cinder didn’t hear any of it. She walked right up to Twilight and stared her in the eyes, unwavering.  “Are you proud of yourself?” Cinder asked.  “I’m not sure I see the relevance of the question.” “I think you do. And I’m done falling into Vision’s curse, so I’m not going to give you what you want here. You want me to go ‘this is all your fault!’ and point my accusatory, shaky hoof at you like some kind of upstart rebel.” She waved her hoof around in Twilight’s direction, somewhat mockingly. “But it’s not true. It’s not all your fault.” Her eyes narrowed. “But it’s not all our fault, either.” “Do you intend to blame the ‘curse’?” “It shares part of the blame. But it only worked because of the weaknesses inherent in us. And it only worked because of the weaknesses inherent in you. So in a roundabout way I’m blaming reality, you, my friends, and myself for this tragedy. No one is free from blame, Twilight. And don’t you dare say you didn’t do anything.” “I did not bring this city to ruin.” Cinder twitched. “What a blatant deluded lie. Yes, we brought this city to ruin. But you could have stopped it.” “Are you certain?” Twilight cocked her head. “I’ve been listening to what you’ve said, Cinder, about the fate and destiny of my city.” “You could have accepted us when we came.” “You wouldn’t have had to hurt them, if only they’d loved you?” Cinder froze, and Twilight smiled. Taking a few steps back, Cinder grimaced. “...There’s no turning you. Not sure why I’m bothering. Trying to tease out some sort of catharsis from this, maybe?” She shrugged. “You got what you wanted, in the end. And, you know, you wanted something pretty messed up, while all we wanted to do was help. What do you think that says about you? Are you a victim of the curse as well?” Cinder cocked her head. “Or are you a willing participant, like me?” There was a glimmer of recognition in Twilight’s eyes. Did she see what Cinder was saying? Was she accepting it? Was she rejecting it? Cinder didn’t know. She had the feeling she never would.  “I’m done,” Cinder said, turning back to the group. “You lot can have a go at her now. I’d recommend against it, since it’ll just be giving her what she wants… but…” Cinder sighed. “Are any of you really going to be able to just drop it?” “Yes,” Indigo said, dissipating her blade. “Hopefully I never meet any of you again.” She left.  Suzie took the first steps forward, but Allure held her back. The Sweetie Belle of Equis Vitis, horn of silver, Knight of Heart, walked to the head of the group, looking Twilight in the face with much sadder eyes.  “...We could have been friends,” Allure said. “We could have restored your city. Could have brought back… what it was at the start.” She gestured for Fluttershy to come up.  “You remember Twilight, don’t you?” Fluttershy asked. “How it started? How… how everypony was happy?” She couldn’t help but cry. “Why don’t you want that back?” “I didn’t want it to end,” Twilight responded. “But ponies often get things they didn’t want.” “W-we left Equestria to escape Celestia and control,” Fluttershy sputtered. “We wanted freedom. I… I don’t need to be good at politics to see that what we made wasn’t freedom.” “It was what the ponies wanted. They led us here. We didn’t, Fluttershy. We went with them, with the spirit of the age. Our ‘control’ was and is just a formality. If all six of us turned around right now and tried to change things, they wouldn’t.” She gestured at the screens, showing the three of their friends. “And many of them tried, when they saw things going wrong.” Applejack was shown talking calmly into a radio while ponies rushed to kill her from behind. “Applejack is trying to give some last parting words of peace. She knows she is about to die.” An image showed Rainbow Dash tearing up a map of battle plans in rage. “You saw Rainbow Dash. She would have gone for peace. But the ponies didn’t let her.” Lastly, there was an image of Pinkie, jumping through and in-between mad fighting ponies, dressing them in party hats and hitting them with party cannons. “And Pinkie, smiling to the end, thinking all they need is a good party to calm them down.”  “Twilight!” Fluttershy wailed. “Go help Applejack!” “You already are,” Twilight pointed out. On Applejack’s screen, several ponies, humans, and Gems in gray uniforms stormed in, stunning everyone in the room with guns not set to deadly force. “Here is your help.” Twilight changed the screens behind her to show outside the city of Vision. There were several locations she tapped into that clearly had no physical cameras, but Cinder didn’t feel the need to question this. Several Merodi ships had arrived. One was easily recognizable as a full warship, but most of the others were rounder relief vessels. “Your noble relief effort arrives,” Twilight said, gesturing at the screens with her wings. “Impressive response time.” “Thank you,” Allure deadpanned.  One of the screens showed a relief ship teleporting people to and from the insides of a larger tube. Some idiot inside Vision decided to shoot at the ship, causing a breach. The water flooded in, killing several before the Merodi ship could seal the hole with a magic tractor beam.  “They fight you as you ‘help’.” Rainbow Dash saw the Merodi coming into her office and drew some kind of advanced magic wand with her wing, shredding several of them to the bone. Her entire office was frozen in time a second later by a sorcerer, defeating her.  “Not everyone fights,” Celia pointed out. In the remnants of the battle of the Medical Pavilion, a white mare was waving at the ships with outstretched hooves. The Merodi personnel came in and shook hooves with the few living combattants.  “Hundreds reduced to a dozen,” Twilight commented. “For every life that is saved today, hundreds if not thousands have been lost. Those areas that have already breached have no hope of life ever again. You have liberated Vision from tyranny and, it seems, from life.”  “...There wasn’t really life here to begin with, was there?” Distant asked. “It’s all one massive downward spiral that started from day one and was always going to end like this.” “Cinder sure thinks so. Your mother no doubt did as well.” Distant twitched. “You did something to her.” “I simply offered her a way out.” “You…” “How quickly you look for somepony else to blame now that these Sweeties have shown you a different side of her. How long have you wanted to remember her as the hero she claimed to be?” Twilight cocked her head. “You could never abandon it, could you?” “I… Rgh…” “You’re lucky their appearance made you regress. Your other mother wasn’t so lucky.” Twilight changed one of the screens to show Swiftwing, hanging from a rope.  Distant’s froze in place.  “This happened long before the riots started,” Twilight explained. “Seeing the visage of her dead wife—coupled with the suggestion that she might not be dead, but just abandoned them—was too much for her to handle.” “N… I…” Allure put a hoof around Distant and hugged her tight. “Why be cruel?”  Twilight blinked. “I am simply stating facts.” “You tell her everything about Swiftwing and say little about The Sweetie Belle. You claim to be impartial, above it all. It’s clear that you’re not.” She pressed her face into Distant’s mane. “I’m sorry, Distant. We failed. We were wrong.” She let out a shaking breath. “But we still have you. And… you can have us, if you want.” Celia walked over and placed a hoof on Distant. “I’ve known you for all of an hour, Distant, and I already know you are a great mare. In some ways, better than us. That had to come from her.”  “We will always remember her.” Distant bawled, squeezing Allure as tight as she could. There was anger, there was the desire to hurt them… but there was also the realization that these Sweeties cared more about her as a person than Vision ever had.  “And if she won’t tell us what happened…” Allure glared at Twilight. “We’ll find her.” “Even after all this, you still wish to seek her out?” Twilight closed her eyes. “I am afraid that’s impossible now. Sparkle Enchantments has been destroyed in the riots. The faint dimensional trace on her will have been eliminated.” Allure’s smile didn’t falter. “You know what, I don’t think I mind going back to square one. It’ll give me a chance to prove that we will keep looking.” “I’ll find her,” Distant breathed. “I’ll find her and make her explain herself. Her explanation is going to suck. But I bet it’ll be better than your fucking cryptic bullshit!” Twilight frowned in Distant’s direction.  “Let me guess, you didn’t steal my spell either, the Enchanters just happened to show it to you?” Distant stomped forward. “You just happened to know it in the end? Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit!” “Repeating a swear does not emphasize your point.” “Shut it!” Distant cried. “You didn’t have to initiate that lock.” “And you didn’t have to manipulate us into showing our hand,” Celia added. “You could have taken the ‘missionary’ deal. But you didn’t.” Twilight shook her head. “It would not have been what the city wanted.” “But it would have kept it from burning itself to the ground.” “How can you claim to have done nothing, and yet funnel everyone to a point of destruction?” Distant stamped her hoof. “If that’s not a double standard, I don’t know what is!” “Would you rather I let your armies charge on my soul unaided?” Twilight asked. “That is what would have happened. Celia, assure me that, upon review, your leaders would not have declared a state of emergency for Vision.” “They would have declared a state of emergency for Vision, absolutely,” Celia admitted. “Especially after our deal proved to be dangerous. They would have either gotten clever and used loopholes, or just charged here with the army to end it.”  Distant growled. “This doesn't even… that’s stupid! This is all stupid! W—” “Why are we even asking her why she did what she did?” Suzie asked. “She’s deluded. Mad. Evil.” “And you single-handedly caused a genocide,” Twilight pointed out. “This city deserved it.” “This city only shows what is naturally in the hearts of ponies, Colonel. By that logic, do we not all deserve it?” “NO WE F—” she stopped herself, a haunted expression crossing over her face. Slowly, she reached into the neck of her shirt and pulled out the cross necklace. “...No… we… we all deserve it…” It hit her like a truck, knocking her to the ground. She banged her fists on the cold, Dead ground. “Everyone falls short! Everyone falls short!” With a sigh, Cinder placed her hooves on Sunshine’s wheelchair. “...I think that’s everyone.” She placed a gentle hoof on the trembling yellow mare. “Let’s get out of here.” “Stuck up arrogant heartless bitch,” Distant spat at Twilight, trotting through the dimensional portal.  “It really didn’t have to be this way.” Allure shook her head and followed Distant out.  Wordlessly, Celia levitated the unconscious and the non-verbal through the portal.  “You had very little to say to me,” Twilight observed. “I may be a mare of words, but I realize when I’ve been outclassed.” Celia put a hoof around Fluttershy. Fluttershy looked at Twilight with sad eyes. “Goodbye, Twilight.” She carefully put a wing around the trembling Suzie and led her out.  Cinder stood with Sunrise in the room. The last to leave.  “What is it?” Twilight asked. “You don’t have to stay here,” Cinder pointed out. “You don’t have to burn with the city. There’s a wide multiverse out there for you. Go somewhere. Start something new.”  She left without giving Twilight a chance to respond, wheeling Sunshine through the portal.  There was a pop.  At the bottom of the ocean, Vision burned.