//------------------------------// // Demons // Story: A Witch in Broad Daylight // by Epsilon-Delta //------------------------------// The zombies all marched in the direction of Starlight’s airship, ignoring the duo. It wasn’t too uncommon to see them all going in the same direction. Mostly just the flames coming out of the ground concerned Fluttershy. “This is a bit unusual. Maybe somepony cast an undead summoning spell?” Fluttershy suggested. Simping hard, Sonata nodded rapidly. But she’d do that either way. Then Fluttershy noticed something even more unusual. Violet glowing lines formed on the bodies of the zombies. As if being seared on by a red-hot needle a shape formed on their foreheads, one like three elongated circles intertwined. And the lines across their bodies twisted and reshaped into glowing letters of some unfamiliar language. “Okay. I have no idea what’s going on here.” Fluttershy shook her head. “Ooooh. Oooh.” Sonata pointed at the symbol on their foreheads. “That’s an Amtaro. These are small-seal Uric runes. Usually, a bad sign when you see these written on something since the alicorns would have used large-seal Uric” “Hold up. They’re what?” Sonata unhinged the claws of her battle doll and with one swipe tore an approaching zombie to tatters. She picked up the severed leg and traced her blade along the letters. “Uric is the oldest written language. And there are three versions depending on how lazy you are.” She stopped at one rune. “See this one? It looks like a smiley face and it’s called Shelial which kinda sounds like smile and that’s why it’s the one I’ll never forget. They made us take this stuff in school, you see. We had a forbidden knowledge class.” It was only then that Fluttershy remembered that Sonata’s family possessed sacred knowledge dating back thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of years. “So you can read these?” Fluttershy asked. “What do they say? “Um!” Sonata held the foreleg up to her face. “In the thirteenth gate of the star of… um. Something, something, the pit of the love… sky?” Sonata threw the leg aside. “Okay, I should probably admit I’m bad at reading small-seal Uric. I barely passed that class and it was decades ago.” That sounded about right. “Please just try to remember!” Fluttershy urged her. “This might be important.” “Ah, geeze! I’d only hurt my brain like this for you, Fluttershy.” Sonata picked up another severed limb from the zombie she just dismembered and began reading over it. Uric seared itself into ever more zombies. The limb Sonata held shook and then flew from her grip. All of its limbs did, and the zombie reassembled. A multitude of horns burst out from its head and back. Its hooves cracked, splitting into two sharp spikes. Its face elongated and its body became sleeker, more slender. The distorted zombie hissed and went straight for Fluttershy who, being invulnerable, didn’t even need to react as its claws broke against her armor. Still, they reattached and it persisted in its pointless assault. “Don’t worry!” Something inside Sonata’s suit clicked. Purple flames came belching out of her fanged mouth and burnt the zombie to a crisp. “Fire should still work! Or shooting them in the head.” “Right. But now we can’t read it…” “Ack! Uh!” Three more transformed into twisted beasts like that. Fluttershy knocked one over and kept it pinned down under her indomitable hoof. It struggled and hissed but couldn’t budge Fluttershy an inch. Sonata laid down to read it, a task made more difficult by the flailing. Fluttershy watched the horde of zombies carefully, swatting away the few that tried to interrupt. More of them were turning into those distorted monsters. Yet they briefly, if ever, attacked Fluttershy. They’d take one or two swipes in her direction at best before pausing as if remembering something and bounding off in Starlight’s direction. A group of the zombies suddenly… melted into a violet slime that seeped into the earth. Then the ground shook and from it emerged a massive undead creature. Bulbous and bloated with antlers on its head, the beast hobbled in a half-charge towards Fluttershy. Such a thing would be able to at least knock her over. “Sonata! I think it’s getting worse.” Nearly the entire horde had markings on them now. It wouldn’t be long until this was even worse than a blood moon. “Okay!” Sonata stood up straight. “I’m 99% sure I got the gist of it. This is all part of a summoning ritual to call upon the ultimate evil.” “Nightmare Moon?” Fluttershy guessed. “No, no. She’s just advanced evil. ‘Amtaro Shu Zedra’ refers to the ultimate evil and that narrows it down to two people.” “Two?!” “Ha! Can you imagine living in a world with just one ultimate evil?” Sonata laughed. “That must be nice.” “What are our options then?” “There’s Lux Lucius, the most powerful demon and the ultimate nexus of evil and the Zebra God of Destruction, we call him ‘ZoD’. That guy’s the living incarnation of ultimate evil.” Didn’t ‘ZoD’ live under Pinkie’s house? Or something? “That sounds like they’re the same thing.” “No. One’s the nexus of ultimate evil and the other is the incarnation of ultimate evil. It’s completely different.” “But we don’t want either to show up, right?” “Oh, I’ve never met either. But yeah, I’d assume that’d be bad based on uh.” Sonata watched another one of the large abominations charge off screaming in the direction of the battle. “Statistics? At least it looks like they’ll kill Starlight first, though. Eh?” “Do you know how to stop it?” “Maybe if Aria were here?” Sonata shook her head. “She’s a lot better at reading Uric than me.” “Well we know something,” said Fluttershy. “You’re much more knowledgeable than I would have guessed.” “Praise from Fluttershy!” “For now we can take advantage of this chaos to get closer.” Fluttershy watched as the horde stampeded toward the battlefield. Fluttershy put Sonata on her back and charged forward. The distorted zombies were increasingly running alongside her toward Starlight. It was almost as if they assumed Fluttershy was part of their horde now. Lilymoon sat in the hull of the Phoenix King, rubbing a bleeding gash on the side of her head. She had been granted a moment to recover before having to rejoin the fight. They’d picked up another crew and got the engines back fully online. The ship violently rocked in every direction. The explosions of sound all around them made it impossible to tell which was even shaking the vessel. All the other ponies around her were on the verge of panic, but Lilymoon cared nothing for the noises outside. Even the destruction of the Phoenix King wouldn’t spell her demise. Instead, something else held her focus. She sat in front of three unconscious prisoners, in front of one in particular. Her body was battered and bruised all over, her head lulled to the side and he eyes half opened but without any light of awareness. Rainbow Dash hung suspended in the air by blue fibers that kept her, alive, unconscious, and contained all. A surge of pain forced Lilymoon to grab at the base of her wing. ‘Rainbow Dash wouldn’t send me onto the battlefield’. ‘Rainbow Dash’ this and ‘Rainbow Dash’ that. Lilymoon glowered at the pegasus, unable to find anything special about her, any reason Scootaloo would care about… about this. Starlight could offer them a chance to become real people. To become gods. And yet they cared only about Rainbow Dash. Lilymoon wanted to just vaporize her, or perhaps just let her die. She could have done just that earlier. But even if she was angry at Scootaloo right now, Lilymoon couldn’t do that to a friend. And maybe part of her was curious, but that part was something that needed to be forgotten. “Maybe I could make a fake Rainbow Dash,” said Lilymoon, “who will tell those two I’m right about everything.” Her horn glowed. Her shadow rose and took the form of Rainbow Dash. “Lilymoon!” Starlight beckoned her. No time for this just yet. The shadow sank back down. Lilymoon rushed up the stairs. The rain was light but the wind was strong, giving the illusion of a storm on deck. Starlight alone stood to face their latest, and most dangerous at present, assailant. At the bow of the Pheonix King stood a stallion with pitch black fur and red hair smoking a cigarette, only one lackey by his side as well. Lilymoon recognized him from the ‘enemies list’ she’d been made to memorize. Demon Summoner. They had quite a few of these to work through. Starlight had said that Nightmare Moon was their ultimate nemesis but suddenly switched over to saying it was this guy instead. She must have had some kind of plan behind all that but Lilymoon couldn’t possibly follow her brilliant mind. True, he and his god Lux Lucius planned to unleash ten thousand years of unyielding misery onto the world. Arguably worse than Nightmare Moon’s own goal. “Starlight!” Demon Summoner threw his cigarette off the ship. “It seems you’re the only one with any chance left of stopping me. But why not just give up, huh? We both want to end the world as it is, don’t we?” “Ten thousand years of unyielding misery isn’t exactly my vision for the new world,” said Starlight. “I don’t even get why you’d want that,” Lilymoon spoke out of turn. “Aren’t you going to live in agony too?” “You’re too young to understand, kid.” Demon Summoner put out a foreleg and looked to the sky with a look of ecstasy on his face. “It’s the pleasure-pain horseshoe! Infinite pleasure and infinite pain are indistinguishable from one another. I learned that when I was the prisoner of Lux Lucius some years ago. It’ll be awesome, trust me.” He turned his look back to the ground, his smile twisting and becoming more twisted. “But I’m the only one getting the reward of infinite pain. The rest of you will just have to settle for… significant pain. But frankly, I don’t give a crow about what happens to the rest of you.” His lackey chuckled. “You mean other than me, right?” He glanced nervously at his boss. “Yeah.” Demon Summoner took out a knife. “It’s already too late for you to stop my ritual. I need only the final reagent: to sacrifice the most important person in the world, the one you love more than any other.” He turned to his partner with a smile. “For me, that’s my buddy Skeeter here.” Demon Summoner put a hoof on ‘Skeeter’s’ back. “Wait, really? I didn’t know I meant that much to you, boss!” Skeeter’s uncertainty faded at the compliment. “Yep.” Demon Summoner plunged the dagger into Skeeter’s chest with zero hesitation. Skeeter fell to the ground, clutching the knife’s hilt. “Dude…. You- you just said–!” “I didn’t say I have to care about you a lot. Just slightly more than anyone else.” Demon Summoner looked down at him without a shred of pity. “You know what? I choose to die taking this as a compliment.” Skeeter fell to his side, dead. A circle of runes appeared underneath the foolish pony and he sank into the ground. Demon Summoner laughed maniacally. A dark shape started to rise behind him, the shape of something pony-like so colossal that its head would be at the same level as the Phoenix King itself. Lilymoon was certain this had to be the form of Lux Lucius, she could feel absolute malevolence emanating from it. Yet Starlight watched this with utter calmness. If she wasn’t reacting neither should Lilymoon. Starlight always had a plan. “Well?” Demon Summoner stopped his laughing and looked over at the other two ponies. “You’re not going to stop me?” The eyes of the giant behind them opened, a blazing green rather than that bright violet Lilymoon already associated with Lux Lucius. The runes turned that same color and the body of the sacrifice rose to the world of mortals. “What?! This guy?!” Demon Summoner spun around to face those green eyes with indignant surprise. “The Zebra God of Destruction?! What is he doing here?! Who destroyed that mini-golf course?” Lilymoon smiled as Demon Summoner turned back to them with disgruntled worry. This must have all been part of Starlight’s plans! Starlight stepped forward to make her move on him. “Oh, don’t expect this setback to be nearly enough!” Demon Summoner growled. His teeth burst into fangs and a violet energy wrapped itself around him. The power that flowed through him was immense, but nothing could ever stop Starlight! The three ponies all charged forward at once and clashed. As Fluttershy approached the scene of the battle she realized that ‘chaos’ was underselling it. Battles in both the air and ground filled every direction with disorder. Pegasi, airships, and other creatures fired volleys at one another. She could see violet light pouring out of the Phoenix King and a second, green magic pressing down on it as if to keep it from escaping. Two figures swirled around that ship exchanging viscous blows that lit up the dark sky. Starlight and perhaps an assailant. The ground was dominated by the violet light of those distorted creatures, who had long since rushed ahead of Fluttershy. There were so many of the latter that they fell over one another forming waves in a sort of zombie ocean that filled the valley below Fluttershy. There were others on the ground as well, though they could only be seen by the absence of the distorted. Groups or perhaps powerful individuals kept them at bay and out of certain areas, often lights from their own attacks clearing up small pockets. Through all that chaos one figure dominated the entire scene. A towering black figure Fluttershy first mistook for a mountain loomed over it all. It looked vaguely like a pony, but its body was more an absence of anything else than an actual black. Only his green eyes could be made out in any detail. The violet monsters seemed to particularly hate that most of all. Their waves must have been enough to swallow houses but did little more than crash against its ankles before beginning to climb up its legs. “There he is!” Sonata hit Fluttershy on the shoulder and pointed up at the colossus. “That’s the Zebra God of Destruction! The guy I just mentioned three seconds ago!” “Is that a zebra?” Fluttershy asked. It was so strange seeing one without stripes. Or maybe he was all stripes? “Zebras are just uh – Oh, actually I think that’s just an avatar of him because if he were actually here reality would be uncreated. So that explains why the world hasn’t ended yet.” Sonata hopped off Fluttershy’s back. “So I guess all this is to summon ZoD because otherwise why is he here?” Something told Fluttershy that was wrong. Looking at his eyes and the ship, she would guess his magic was green. But those monsters were violet. And they were clearly trying to knock him over. “Either way, we have to get up there.” Fluttershy pointed to the Phoenix King, consumed in several types of magic all vying for control. Sonata didn’t even need to speak. A tilt of her head was enough to doubt they could get close even if all the combatants ignored them. How they would even get up there was a question in itself. Normally they could just fly up there. But that would alert too many ponies to her presence. Fluttershy knew what Rainbow Dash would do. “I think our best bet is to befriend somepony else attacking Starlight,” Fluttershy concluded. “Somepony who can fly us up. There are so many here to choose from. One of them must be willing to help.” “Oh! I pick the dragon!” Sonata pointed up. So much was going on, Fluttershy hadn’t even noticed a dragon had been soaring overhead breathing fire at this and that group. “Dragons are so rare and–” There was a flash in the sky and the dragon exploded. “Never mind. Who’s option B?” “Maybe.” Fluttershy scanned the sky. She didn’t even know who was on Starlight’s side right now. Before she could deliberate any longer, the violet magic condensed. A spear made of the stuff far larger than the airship itself launched forward and stabbed straight into ZoD’s head. The colossus stumbled, each step shaking the ground. Fluttershy realized with horror that it was going to fall over! Just that much from such a monstrosity would be an immense disaster! It was going to come crashing down right on top of them, even. The black form of ZoD filled the entire sky already. “I think we’re gonna get crushed!” Sonata called out. “Oh wait, we’re ghosts! We’ll be okay.” “But there’s a whole lot of other ponies around here.” Fluttershy dug her feet in. She wouldn’t be able to run fast enough anyway. “ It was time to see if this armor could really kick hard enough to make a difference. It was a long shot but… But before she could even try to kick there was a wave of green light that washed over the area and swept the two of them away like a torrent of water. Fluttershy was left stunned in surprise as that figure came crashing down but they were standing right next to it, a wall of black before them. The ground barely shook despite something the size of a mountain crashing on it and it seemed to leave no imprint on the landscape. Looking around, it seemed everything but those twisted zombies had been thrown aside. Several ponies were on the edge of destruction looking equally confused. And it went beyond that. Woodland creatures, whatever had tried to hide from the chaos, had even been pushed out of the way. A mob of squirrels, birds, and the like had been thrown to safety and now scrambled to hide anew. “Squirrels?” Fluttershy asked as she saw them scurrying off. “He…” And another wave of attacks impacted ZoD at the same time. ZoD, at least what Fluttershy suspected to be ZoD, had gone out of his way to make sure nopony got hurt from him falling over, not even the wildlife that had been hiding in their burrows. He had chosen to get hit rather than let anything on the ground get crushed. Either this wasn’t ZoD or… “Are you a hundred percent sure this is the god of destruction?” Fluttershy asked. “That looks like him!” Sonata nodded. “And don’t you feel the malice dripping off this guy?” She did feel it. But it didn’t make sense. “I think we should ask him to help us get up there,” said Fluttershy her eyes deadest on ZoD. “Bwuh?! Did you miss the part where this guy is the evilest thing that ever existed!” Sonata stopped Fluttershy. “Are you sure this is a good idea?” “No. But I’m done being a coward. And if I’m wrong we’ll have to confront him eventually either way.” Fluttershy braced herself and called up to the giant. “Hey! You! Over here!” His head slowly turned to Fluttershy. Those green eyes locked onto her, but he said nothing, waiting for her to speak with patience unbefitting a god of destruction. “I…. I want you to help me save one of my friends,” said Fluttershy. The ground rumbled. He ignored her and began standing once more. “No!” Fluttershy charge forward, landing on his muzzle. She looked into the space between his eyes while he looked cross-eyed at her. Just above, on his forehead, the spear of violet light remained lodged in his skull. “This is important!” ZoD ignored her, continuing his herculean task of standing back up. Fluttershy looked over her shoulder at the Phoenix King. Even without his cooperation, she might be able to jump to the ship from his muzzle if she could only hang on. But ZoD could only get to his knees before tumbling over again with another rumbling quake. And again that wave of green went over the battlefield, keeping everypony and every critter from being harmed. Even with the strength of the armor, Fluttershy had to struggle her hold on to the hairs on his muzzle. “Please!” Fluttershy called to him. “I can tell you’re not trying to hurt anypony. I…” ZoD shook his head. From far away it may have looked like a slow shake of his head but from Fluttershy’s perspective, it went at unreal speeds. Destructive winds that surely would have sent her flying in even a lesser battle doll assailed Fluttershy. It might have worked even still had ZoD kept it up. Another spasm and his head went crashing into the ground again. Fluttershy looked up once more at the spear piercing his skull. “That’s what’s hurting you, isn’t it?” Fluttershy began climbing up his snout, then his head. “Here. I’ll get it out.” She climbed up on top of his head and then slid down until she was up against the spear, struggling to stay on as ZoD attempted and failed to get up a second time. Fluttershy pressed her forehooves down and bucked hard against the base of the spear, pushing on it with her hind legs. She could feel the tingle of that fel magic flowing through her, yet the giant bore most of its brunt. Finally, it budged just an inch. If she could move it an inch, she could get it out completely. Fluttershy lowered her stance and pushed it up another inch. Then two more. Then with the third push, the entire thing dislodged and went flying out into the air. ZoD’s green eyes transfixed first on the spear, dissolving it with his violet magic, while Fluttershy stumbled and tumbled back down onto his nose. Once again, his eyes crossed to look at her. He watched her for too long, enough that Fluttershy could scarcely imagine what he thought of such a move. Then at last, he spoke. “You.” His voice deep and powerful must have made every heart that could hear it shudder. Fluttershy, having none, stood firm. “How dare you?!” “How dare I? Dare I…” Fluttershy got back on her feet. “What?” “Help me. Do you not know that I am evil beyond evil? I am the very incarnation of evil itself and you dislodge the weapon that was holding me down?” “I don’t…” Fluttershy shook her head. “I don’t think you’re that bad.” “You…” His body became translucent, a shadow of itself. Then it vanished and Fluttershy fell to the ground. She’d thought maybe he teleported away but soon realized he merely shrunk back down to normal size. There was the same figure before her but about eye-level with Fluttershy’s armor. “You doubt how wicked I am?” He walked forward. His footprints left a sort of unreality in their wake. The distorted still rushed at him but his mere footprints stopped them, the blackness they left behind swallowing up his assailants. But his voice was far less menacing now. “You went out of your way to rescue all the squirrels.” Fluttershy backed up. Sonata, still obsessed, ran to her side, ready to die for her in an instant if need be. “Squirrels!” He shouted at Fluttershy. “Steal seeds from the bird feeders leaving the birds to starve. If I crushed them, they could no longer torment the birds nor the ponies who leave those out.” Fluttershy paused to try and twist her head around that logic. Maybe he just hated birds the most? “But you also rescued the birds,” Fluttershy remembered. “Birds eat the bird seeds before the squirrels can get them so that they starve. It is a wretched cycle that I shall perpetuate! Do you now understand the transcendent level of evil that I exist on?!” Fluttershy shook her head. She couldn’t begin to understand this. “Nature,” he said, turning to the trees, “is such a disgusting thing. There is not one organism out there that doesn’t wish to devour or destroy some other organism. And that is why I, the evilest being in the universe, would never allow any harm to come to it.” Fluttershy just now noticed his magic had somehow spared the trees from being crushed as well. “Well, that’s very…” Nice? Evil? “Very something of you.” Sonata slowly raised a hoof. “Excuse me! So is all this a ritual to summon you or not?” Sonata asked. “Oh, I would never.” ZoD shook his head. “My existence on this plane would mean the destruction of all things. Which would mean no more evil so I can’t allow that.” “That makes sense to me.” Sonata looked up to Fluttershy. “So somepony is trying to summon the other guy who will destroy the world and ZoD wants to stop that because it’ll mean the end of evil too.” Sonata nodded, proud she’d figured out something so obvious. “Not exactly,” said ZoD. “He just wants to unleash ten thousand years of suffering, death, etc. on the world. But as the supreme evil I can’t allow that either.” Fluttershy nodded along, not understanding the logic but not wanting to challenge him on it either. Sonata had no such filter and just blurted it out. “I get not destroying the world,” said Sonata. “But if you’re so evil why would you want to stop that?” “Okay. It’s like: You see a pony living in a dumpster and their life is miserable and they just spend all day crying about it. Nothing bad can happen to that pony since they have nothing, and everything already sucks. Like what? Do I take away their trash can? But if everypony is happy and their life is wonderful then there’s potential for evil to happen. You know?” Fluttershy did not know. “Only in a world of flourishing, where you ponies have both material wealth and love abundant does the potential for the true depths of despair emerge! Besides, in a world like that ponies would be banding together or at least killing each other out of desperation. I only want people to kill for the sake of petty nonsense. Cause that’s more evil.” Fluttershy kept shaking her head through all of that. Only at the very end did it all start to come together. Understanding how this bizarre creature thought gave her an idea. “Um!” Fluttershy stepped forward. “Well! My friend Rainbow Dash, who I’m trying to rescue, is loved by so many ponies. And she has so much potential to help everypony. If you help us save her, and she makes the world a better place, then I’m sure there will be so much sadness when eventually she dies for real. So um…” The god of destruction considered her argument. He closed his left eye. A whisp of green flew into the sky and vanished as he pondered something. “She doesn’t seem to think she has any potential,” ZoD concluded. “She doesn’t seem to think anypony loves her. Not truly.” “She… doesn’t?” Fluttershy looked down at her hooves. Could Rainbow Dash think that? This was her fault, wasn’t it? She should have… have noticed this problem earlier. She should have made an effort to show Rainbow Dash just how much she meant. Before she could let herself wallow again, Fluttershy shook her head hard and stepped forward. If that was true it just meant Fluttershy’s path was clear. “She’s wrong!” Fluttershy answered the god of destruction. “To me she’s… she’s my hero! And I’ll tell her that she’s wrong as soon as I find her. If you can see things with that eye, then surely you can see that, too can’t you?” He stood again in silence, longer this time, as that eye scoured the world. Fluttershy wasn’t nervous at all. She knew he’d be able to see it. “Yes.” He opened his eyes again, done with his reconnaissance. “Yes, I see now!” His voice boomed, announcing this revelation. “You are exactly right. I will help you rescue Rainbow Dash. I will stop the end of the world. You will restore her confidence and then this pony shall go on to create a better world! A world where there is so much to lose!” The god of destruction laughed and laughed. Fluttershy… she did it! But she wouldn’t relax just yet. Even after saving Rainbow Dash, her work had only just begun. “Whoa! You’re seriously going to help us?” Sonata asked. “Yes! I will use my godly powers to aid you in your quest.” “This is great!” Sonata grabbed Fluttershy. “I can’t believe you pulled this off, Fluttershy! Okay! You’re the god of destruction so go destroy them!” Sonata pointed a claw up at the Phoenix King. ZoD watched her with a perplexed look. “Go on.” Sonata bobbed her claw up and down. “Destroy! It’s in your name.” “I think maybe he can’t since this is just his avatar,” Fluttershy whispered. “N-no offense Mister, um, Zebra God of Destruction.” “You can just call me ZoD, formality is for the moral. And of course I could destroy them!” ZoD’s voice boomed, sending Sonata stumbling back. “Now may be a good time to mention that my aid isn’t free. There will be certain… conditions if you accept this offer.” “Fluttershy,” Sonata whispered. “He’s going to make us eat the heart of an orphan child and cockroaches a bunch of really gross stuff, I just know it.” “I’m not so sure of that at this point,” Fluttershy whispered back, then spoke out loud to ZoD again. “What are they?” “Mainly,” said ZoD, “I’m a pacifist. If you work with me, you cannot harm any living thing. If you kill even one pony the deal is off and the consequences will be horrific.” Pacifist? Fluttershy wished she could deadpan at this guy. This was all getting a bit much. “You don’t believe me?” He looked incredulous between them. “I was a billion feet tall a second ago. I could just kick them. You don’t think I can blow everypony here up with my mind? I simply choose not to. Pacifism.” “But you just said you were supreme evil. Pacifism isn’t evil.” Fluttershy paused for a minute. “Is it?” “No. No.” ZoD sighed and tapped his forehead. “Alright. Ask yourself this: would killing Starlight be completely evil? She kind of deserves it on some level, doesn’t she?” “Well I…. I suppose.” Fluttershy had to admit. “Same could be said for everypony.” ZoD shrugged. “Not one of you is perfect so killing you wouldn’t be an act of ultimate evil. I could only kill a pony who’s 100% perfect. And no such pony exists so therefore I’m a pacifist.” “That… almost makes sense.” “Right. So non-violence it is. Do you agree to my terms?” Sonata and Fluttershy looked at one another before nodding. “I don’t think we would be able to kill Starlight anyway,” said Fluttershy. “So um. Yes.” “Then the pact is sealed!” Much like with the zombies before, that same symbol of ultimate evil seared itself into the foreheads of both Sonata and Fluttershy. Sonata briefly poked out of her battle doll to see that it was still there even in ghost form. “And if you break your word of peace,” ZoD warned, “then you will learn the true meaning of evil!” Or maybe Fluttershy’s idea wasn’t so good after all. But too late now.