"Purpose? What a silly question. Purpose. ... You see there are some people in this world. Some irredeemable lumps of flesh for whom a means does not require an end... I speak of course of myself!"
~Major-Alucard-Wesker

“Are those dragons?!” gasped Twilight as she, her friends, and the two princesses gazed out the window. They were gazing out as the dragon army descended onto the battle field. The ponies watched in awe as the large hulking beasts tore through the ranks of Conquest’s Army. For a brief moment, things looked bright, there was still hope.

“Well I’ll be damned…” gasped Luna. “Maybe we didn’t need to assemble the elements after all.”

“Better safe than sorry, sister,” commented Celestia. “Still, I think that the girl’s presence is no longer required.” She motioned to the door. “Come my little ponies, let us quickly get to the underground caves, we’ll be much safer there until this is all over.”

The other mares nodded in agreement, as they all started to head to the large doors that lead out of the throne room, and towards the safety of the mines. Only Fluttershy stayed at the window.

“Come on, Fluttershy,” groaned Rainbow, “let’s get out of here before Conquest shows up or something.”

The eight mares gasped as the door swung opened. Leaning against the door frame, a tall dark alicorn was drenched in blood, his white teeth flashed as he smiled. His grey, misty mane flowed in the non-existent wind, and those eyes, the eyes that burned with the hatred towards all life, pulsing with psychotic laughter and anger that would render even the most savage monster as useless as a newborn puppy, glowed with malice. They were the eyes that the world feared, the eyes of evil, death and chaos.

“Well, that was fun!” he laughed as he wiped some of the blood of his body. “I haven’t gone on a rampage like that since—ah where are my manners?” He stretched a hoof towards the group of terrified ponies. “I’m Dark Conquest, incarnation of evil and you’re eventual murderer!”

“Why Tia, I thought you’d be happy to see your dear old brother again…” grinned the dark alicorn. “And Luna, why don’t you give your big brother a hug?” He expanded his hooves, expecting somepony to actually embrace him.

“How did you get past the guards? How did you even get here?” asked Celestia.

“That’s actually a really funny story,” smiled Conquest. “It’s really funny story indeed. In fact, I think I’ll tell you all about it over tea.”

*****

“It was all a trick! A freaking distraction!” moaned Spike in his mind as he flew at a breakneck paste towards the castle, “It’s Conquest! You should have seen this coming! He didn’t move an inch the whole time. He’s always moving, always taunting and laughing. The fact that he shut up for more than three seconds should have given him away!” He looked below him to witness the battle beneath him. The dragons had made all the difference in this battle, what little of Conquest’s forces would be vanquished within the hour, all that remained was him. “By the goddess…”

He landed in the courtyard of Canterlot Castle, or at least what was left of it. It was the very picture of hell. All across the courtyard lay dead ponies and mules. Some were torn o bits and pieces, others were drowned in puddles of their own blood. The trees in the yard have had their branches stripped of leaves and replaced with the petrified bodies of ponies. Every direction that the dragon looked he saw death, unnecessary death and destruction. It made his stomach tie up in knots.

“Dr…dragon?” a strained voice, barely audible, called out. Spike looked around, somewhere in the debris of corpses, someone was still alive.

From the corner of his eye, he spotted a blue unicorn waving him over, hiding within a fallen shack.

Spike quickly rushed over to the small little sanctuary hidden within the rubble. “What’s your name, unicorn?”

“Dragoon,” the stallion said. “I was one of the ponies assigned to protect the castle. We thought he would catch a break when the dragons all came.” He sighed. “But we didn’t expect that black pony to come…”

“Is that what he’s called?” Dragoon asked. “Well regardless, when he came, he came hard. Kicking down the gates, impaled guys on trees, turned them inside out, hell, he destroyed everything. He just stared at us and boom! An entire platoon blew up!”

“He went into the castle. You need to stop him dragon!” the blue unicorn pleaded.

Spike nodded. “Stay here and see if anyone else survived. I have an alicorn to stop.” He left the unicorn, walking to the doors of the castle. With a heavy sigh, he pushed open the door and walked inside. He was not prepared for what was inside.

The main entrance hallway was red. Completely red, this was saying something considering the hallways were white that morning. There was no bodies, no skeletons, no life what so ever, just blood.

“By the goddess….” Gasped Spike as he walked down the hall, steeping in the shallow crimson puddles. “How on earth did he did this?”

Spike turned around. Tucked around the corner, behind the massive door was a blood soaked pony. If Spike didn’t know his voice so well, Curb Hoof would have been completely unrecognizable.

“Never thought I’d be so happy to see you, iguana,” muttered the bloody pony. The stallion emerged from behind the door, there seemed to be a slight limp in his step, and he wasn’t putting much pressure on his front right hoof, but other than that he seemed fine.

“Conquest happened,” he sneered. “Bastard walks in here like a big shot, and then everything goes black. I wake up and I’m covered in blood and everypony is gone…. And he’s standing over me, laughing that terrible laugh of his.” He reached down on the ground, searching around the blood. “I took a spear and drove it through his neck, but it bent around him like the spear was made of rubber.”

Curb Hoof frowned. “Apparently it was all part of the plan,” he said sarcastically. “Do you know what that means? Do you know what his ‘plan’ is?”

“That’s what I mean, there were ponies outside that were alive as well. Why didn’t he kill them? He’s more than capable of doing it.”

Spike face palmed. “That’s not what I meant. I meant that it’s doesn’t seem in Conquest’s nature to let ponies live if he can help it. It concerns me greatly.”

“What concerns me…” grunted Curb Hoof as he finally fished a spear out from the blood, “Is that that thing is heading towards the princesses, and you’re trying to figure out a psychopath.”

The dragon shook his head. “You’re right, we need to stop him. Now.” He offered a claw to the blood soaked guard. Curb Hoof sighed as he took the claw in a hoof shake. “I’m sorry if I did anything to piss you off.”

The pony sighed. “It’s not you dragon, it’s that I’ve had bad experiences with them.”

“Rather not talk about, besides we don’t have time for long life stories. We have the princesses to save, after all.”

The two nodded as they walked down the hallway. It was a short walk to the end of the hall, and as they turned the corner, they saw more bodies. Stacks upon stacks of ponies impaled on racks of dark, crystallized spikes, through the masses of death, there was one pony, kneeling next to one lying in the ground.

“C’mon, B, wake up. That alicorn’s gone,” the conscious one muttered. “We need to get out of here before he comes back.”

The stallion quickly drew his spear off the ground and pointed it towards the dragon. “Stay back! I’m warning you!” he threatened. “Don’t make drive this spear through your head!”

“Heart Shield, stand down!” barked Curb Hoof, “What in blazing hell happened here?”

“Sorry, Commander Curb Hoof!” said Heart Shield, “I didn’t realize it was you.” He lowered his spear. “We were assigned to protect the main hallway towards the throne room. I was expecting to fight griffins and minotaurs, not...well…whatever that thing was.”

“Not quite sure. When the alicorn thing first attacked, he started bringing up these spikes. We had no way of defending from this kind of magic. I didn’t even know one could do something like that. I almost got hit myself, but I only got flung into the air and knocked out. By the time I woke, everypony was dead,” he looked down at the deep purple pegasus that was still unconscious. “Well, except for Bunsen. Conquest walked right up to her and she just fainted. That guy must have thought it was funny because he just started laughing and continued walking.”

The red unicorn shook his head. “I don’t know, but the last thing I heard was something about a tea party….”

“That’s not good,” muttered Spike to himself. “Curb Hoof, stay here with Heart, see if you can get Bunsen out of here. There was a pony outside the gates still alive, go meet up with him and try to find anymore survivors.” He started to walk away.

Spike turned his head around, “I’m going to save Equestria,” he said, turning around and continued to walk towards the large doors that lead to the throne room. He took a deep breath, who knows what sort of terrible trap awaited him on the other side of the door. “What the hell did he mean by a tea party?” Conquest was probably the last pony that should be throwing a tea party, of any party for that matter. Without further delayed, he pushed the doors of the throne room open.

A long narrow table was set up across the room. On it was a large quantity of tea kettles and ladles, along with hundreds of platters with an assortment of different party food, ranging from strangely red sandwiches to disturbing looking cookies. It was a tea party out of hell itself, and his host was sitting at the far end of the table…in a top hat, monocle, and waist coat.

“Please, take a seat!” Conquest said, point to the chair on the complete opposite side from him. The dragon, confused, took a seat, observing the rest of the table.

“The princesses and my friends!” yelled the dragon, slamming his fist on the table, the kettles and trays shaking from the vibrations.

“Oh, those ponies!” laughed Conquest, never a good sign. “There around here somewhere.”

“Nothing!” said the alicorn. “Yet. We’ll see what kind of mood I’m in after tea. Speaking of which, would you care for a cup?”

“But it’s so good, dragon, better than incest!” he laughed. “But let’s not get distracted.” He poured himself a cup of the dark liquid and sipped on the cup. “So here we are dragon, after all this time, can you really believe that I’m here, sipping tea with my favorite dragon. It’s like a dream come true for me!”

“Patience, Spike,” snickered Conquest, picking up a tray of pulsing sandwiches. “Here, have one of my special sandwiches. I made them with my secret recipe, want to know the secret?”

“It’s love!” he laughed. “And grounded up squirrels. I really love my squirrels!” The dark alicorn plopped one of the sandwiches into his mouth.

“Stop avoiding the question!” shouted Spike. “Where are my friends and the princesses?!”

“Oh, by the unholy name that is divinely so, you are so freaking annoying sometimes!” Conquest droned, rolling his eyes. “I swear, you make me want to give myself a lobotomy sometimes.”

“I could help you with that,” growled the drake, “right after you tell me what the hell you did with my friends!”

“Fine…” groaned Conquest, as his horn started to glow. “I’ll tell you what I did with your precious ‘friends’ as soon as you answer a very important question.”

“What kind of question is that?” asked Spike. “I’ll do anything to stop you!”

There was a flash of red light, as Spike quickly shut and covered his eyes. The light seemed to be almost burning him, he could feel the heat buildup in his armour, whatever this was. It was the strongest outburst of magic that he ever saw. When Spike opened his eyes, he saw that his friends had appeared, along with the princesses. They all looked like they had been hit by a runaway train, their bodies and faces were cut, bruised and gouged. Tears ran down their eyes but they could not scream, their mouths had been gagged and their bodies constrained with what looked like thorn bushels.

“There’s your friends, dragon” smiled the insane pony. “I fear I got a little bored of waiting. So I had a little fun. You know it’s been over eighty years since I last indulged in the sacred act of torture.”

Spike was left speechless. His best friends, the ones he had known his entire life, lay half dead in a pile on the ground. Rainbow’s wings were bent and disfigured, as if Conquest had taken the extra time to break every single bone in her wings. Applejack’s face had been cut up. The carving seemed more than artistic than savage slashes, as if the alicorn had used the knife to draw a moustache and monocle on her face.

Fluttershy was crying, her face looking worse than when Spike had found her in the closet. She looked absolutely petrified with fear and he could only imagine what the bastard must have shown her, or told her. Pinkie Pie wasn’t smiling, that wasn’t a good sign. Her hair and tail had reverted to its straightness, covering up half of her face and her tearing eyes. Twilight’s horn was broken, snapped off her head. All that was left of her powerful horn was a little stump. The lavender mare was unconscious, the pain of having such an important part of her being torn off must have been too much for her, or too painful.

Princess Celestia and Princess Luna seemed the least hurt. Whether it was because they were alicorns or because Conquest had shown them mercy, he didn’t know, but he highly doubted his later thoughts. They were all there, all in painful misery because of Conquest, but there was one mare that was missing from the group. The white mare that he fell in love with.

“I did what I do with all the pretty little faces I meet,” he cackled. In front of him, a red cocoon emerged from the ground. Inside the cocoon, there was a mare sleeping in stasis. Rarity’s body was curled up in a bloody ball as she hovered in her crimson prison.

“Rarity!” yelled the dragon, running over to the red cone that guarded his love. He placed his claws against the hard resin surface; he could feel it pulsing against his hand, like a steady heartbeat. “What happened to her?”

“Do you remember, Spike?” asked Conquest, as he took off his hat and monocle, throwing them aside. “The very first day we met?” He smiled as he brushed a hoof on the cocoon that held Rarity, looking at the dragon on the through the red rock.
“I don’t….”

“Well, let me remind you!” the alicorn gave the crimson prison a few taps. Immediately, it started to crack slowly, but the cocoon eventually shattered, the mare falling into Spike’s arms.

“Rarity!” gasped the drake, tenderly catching the mare. She seemed to be conscious, just barely though; her gentle panting and barely open eyes were proof of that. “Rarity, please say something!” he cried. “What did he do to you?!”

Her eyes started to open a bit more as she stared at the dragon. “Spike…is that you?”

“It’s me, Rarity…” smiled Spike, “It’s okay, I got you, you’re safe now.”

“I might be safe,” she smiled, as her eyes fully opened up, “but who’s going to protect you?” She placed a hoof on his chest.
“Don’t worry. I’ll be fine. I’m not afraid of Conquest.”

“You shouldn’t worry about him.” Her horn started to glow. “You should be worried about me.”

A blast of concentrated energy blasted into Spike’s face. The point blank shot wasn’t strong enough to break through his helmet, but it was enough to stagger him, dropping Rarity in the process. “What was that for?” the dragon asked as he fell to the ground, landing on his rump.

“For being a traitorous little lizard!” she yelled. “Why on earth would you try and hide the fact that you’re cheating on me?! Did you think that I wouldn’t find out? That I wouldn’t care? That you can just run off and bone any dragon that you feel like?!”

“What are you talking about? I never cheated on you!” said the dragon. “I love you, Rarity!”

“Not as much as that dragon whore!” the unicorn roared, charging up another beam of magic. “If you love me so much, then why did you kiss that dragoness?!”

“The dragoness—you mean Slitilda?” asked Spike. “But I only did that to protect you!”

“LIES!!!” raged the mare, releasing her charge of magic at Spike. The dragon covered his face as he took a direct hit from the bolt, his gauntlets heating up a bit as they absorbed the magic. “All lies. Conquest told me the truth because, unlike you, he actually cares about me!”

“Conquest does not care about you!” yelled Spike. “He doesn’t care about anything but himself!”

The dark alicorn smirked, “Then why did I actually tell her the truth, dragon? Why did I be truthful to her when all you were was a cheating bastard?”

“Why didn’t you tell me this Spike?!” scowled the white mare. “I thought you loved me!”

“ENOUGH!” laughed Conquest! “I’m sure you two can settle this like civil beings.” He waved his hoof in the air, a large black scythe forming from nothing. “But if I were to give you this, Rarity, what would you do?”

“I’LL KILL HIM!!” shouted the white mare, grabbing the scythe in hoof and flinging herself at her love. Spike grabbed the blade mid-slash as his crazy lover tried to sink the long tipped blade into his chest.

“Rarity! Please stop this!” the dragon bagged as he strayed the blade away from him. “Why are you listening to him?!”
“He opened my eyes, darling!” she cackled, her eyes starting glow red. She lifted up the blade over her dead “For the glorious Conquest!” she yelled, slamming the tip of the scythe deep into his chest.

Spike cringed as he felt the tip of the scythe break his armour and dig into his skin. “No, not you. Anypony but you!” he cried, his warm tears leaked through his eyes as he witnessed the only mare that he had ever truly loved jamming the grim reapers stick into his chest, trying to kill him. “Please Rarity, you have to snap out of this, this isn’t you! This isn’t the kind of mare that you are! You’re the sweetest, kindest, most generous mare that I know! You have to fight his control!” He gently placed a claw on Rarity’s white hoof. “I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you what happened in the Badlands earlier, I just wanted to protect you, to make your last night special.”

“It’s me, Spike,” he smiled. “That little dragon you fell in love with, and the one that fell in love with you.” He felt the scythe in his chest begin to wiggle out. “Remember last night, when we went in the observatory, and I proposed to you? You were so happy, and I was happy. We were happy together, as fiancés. I know that beautiful mare is inside there, so please come out Rarity.”

“Spike….” The mare placed a hoof softly on his face as her eyes started to flicker back to blue. “You’re a love stricken idiot,” she smiled, grabbing the dragon by the neck and throwing him over her shoulder.

“This is so much fun!” clapped the dark alicorn. “I should have brought a snack, cause this is fantastic!” He waved a hoof in the air and a bag of squirrel bones fell into his hooves. “What are you going to do?” he asked between munches. “She won’t stop until you kill her Spike, and I know you can take her.”

“But Spike, whatever happened to ‘I will do anything to save Equestria’? If you die, so do your chances of stopping me! And are you really going to let millions, no, BILLIONS of lives suffer and die, just because you couldn’t thrust the blade into the one you love?”

“It’s not…It’s not about that Conquest…” he muttered. “It’s about love. I know that she will break your spell. She’s stronger than you, Dark Conquest. You say that you’re all powerful, but all I’ve seen is a fully grown stallion hide behind letters, armies and innocent mares.”

“I think…” said Spike as he got up, “I think that you’re afraid of me, and afraid of love. You talk a big game when you can hide behind smoke and mirrors, but you’re nothing more than a coward Conquest! When you were in my head, I couldn’t lay a finger on you. But now that we’re in the real world, I get the pleasure of ripping you to pieces!”

It was difficult for Conquest to muffle his laughter, but he eventually went over the edge, he almost fell to the ground laughing. “I’m sorry Spike, but that was too much. I mean, did you even see what I did on my way here? You’re so stupid dragon! You may kill me with your idiocy before you can rip me apart! I am literally dying of laughter!” he cackled.

“I’m getting sick of your laughter!” he groaned. “Stop hiding behind puppets and fight me!!”

“Tell you what, dragon. Since you really want to rip me a new one, I’m going to give you a little motivation…” His eyes glowed, “Rarity, come over here for a second will you?”

“Of course master,” she said, walking towards the shadowy alicorn. She got up on her hind legs and wrapped her arms around his neck. “What do you desire?”

“Sweet Rarity,” smiled Conquest, putting a hoof around her neck. “I desire your life.”

For the Ones we Love

by FlimFlamBros.

The Pain