Just as Trixie took a step away from the table Pinkamena suddenly vanished from the area, almost like a mist of a pinkish hue that covered where she had been sitting. She took a step back and felt a solid mass behind her, causing her to turn her head and come face to face with a wall that hadn't been there before. Then something broke through the wall next to her that caused her to turn her head and widen her eyes in absolute terror. Pinkamena was standing over her with a long handle in her hands, which happened to be connected to the mace imbedded in the wall next to her.
"You can't leave now Trixie," the evil pink draconic mare said, tilting her head to the side as she stared into Trixie's eyes, "not after all the effort Rarity went through to organize this little party of hers."
"How many times must I tell you Pinkamena?" Rarity sighed, barely bashing an eyelash as she trotted towards her seat at the table, "I do not enjoy repairing the walls that you destroy on a whim. It makes me...angry when you destroy these walls."
"Does it look like I care what you enjoy and don't enjoy?" Pinkamena replied, appearing in front of Rarity with a blackened blade held up against her neck, "I WILL destroy whatever wall, marble pillar, or valuable you care about. You will hate me more than ever before and I will take great pleasure in draining your hatred."
The area around Rarity darkened as her eyes lowered, completely full of hate for the draconic mare standing in front of her as her horn lit up with a blackish hue.
"Do NOT tempt me Pinkamena," Rarity growled, her claws suddenly sharpening as she locked onto Pinkamena's eyes, "You and I alone will destroy this entire room, which I would love to avoid doing."
"Go ahead Rarity," Pinkamena told the armorer as she drew her sword back, "We both know that of all the Elements I would never personally lose the Key I was chosen to protect with my life. The only reason that two of us have 'lost' our keys is because we were ordered to do so, not because we were weak. I AM the Element of Violence and I would never lose my key unless Lord Oblivion himself ordered me to do so."
Trixie was confused; if the Elements of Hate that had already failed to secure their keys were ordered by their Master, Lord Oblivion, to hand them over then why was he so bent on destroying Harmony? Was he just playing some sick game with the Gatekeeper? Like the game Vinyl had showed her before she had known about the gateways and the Terminal, Risk wasn't it? Were they just playing some sick game with the denizens of the other worlds?
"Did I ever call you weak darling?" Rarity purred, "I know too well the power and prowess of the Element of Violence, including your love for battle. Do you wish to engage me, and your friends mind you, in battle so that we may determine which of all six of us are the strongest? Do you think that Lord Oblivion wants the six of us to 'duke it out', to put it in your simple barbaric terms?"
"Barbaric?" Pinkamena shouted, the angry clearly showing as her weapon changed back into its huge headed form, "I'll show you barbaric 'Lady' Rarity. I don't care if our friends attack me while I fight you, let them do as they wish."
"Bring it on you barbaric brute," Rarity screamed, blasting Pinkamena before the weapon could even be moved.
"Come on over Trixie," Applejack called, waving a hoof towards the empty seat next to Pinkamena's, "Best get out of the way before one of them puts a hole through you."
Trixie didn't need to be told twice, so she trotted or ran right over to the table and took a seat, nearly tripping over the rug the table sat on. The Hateful Four barely took notice of her as she sat down, but the remaining Elements, save for the sleeping Rainbow Dash, piped up as she neared them.
"I'm sure that you have many questions you want to ask us Trixie," Hateful Twilight said, barely looking up from her book, "such as why none of us have attacked you yet. Why have we, your sworn enemy, been at peace with you and even went out of our way to invite you to dinner? Why are we acting like we would when we around around each other and not preparing to beat you into a pile of ash?"
"The thought has crossed my mind." Trixie replied, shifting uneasily as she felt the eyes of somepony land on her.
"Allow me to explain some things to you," Twilight said, snapping the book shut and turning towards Trixie, "The Elements of Hate are known throughout the worlds by a secondary title, one that allows us to be even stronger than the Hateful Six. That name is the Seven Deadly Sins."
"But there is only six of you," Trixie observed.
"Allow me to tell you why that is," Twilight remarked, though Trixie could have sworn she had seen a look of anger on her face, "Each and every one of the Elements represent one of the infamous Seven Sins. Take Rarity for example, she has a natural desire for all things shiny thanks to her cutie mark and she hordes them without end, She is Greed personified.
Rainbow Dash would have been Pride, but she is too arrogant and too lazy to be that way, so she has been changed to Sloth. I am Wrath, as seen when my anger reaches a point that not even I can control and I let it all flow out of me. Applejack, the former bearer of the title Sloth, has proven that her desire for all things that others have is much stronger than her desire to be lazy and that has earned her the title of Envy. Pinkamena is Gluttony, despite the fact she could eat whatever she wants and still gain no weight. The sixth sin is reserved for Fluttershy, whose Lust for power fuels her in every waking decision."
"And Pride?" Trixie dared to ask, causing the evil mare to laugh.
"Lord Oblivion has yet to choose the one who personifies Pride," Twilight answered, leaning back in her chair, "but even above the Sins there is another tier of ponies much stronger than us. They are the Four Horsemen, the ones that are supposed to herald in the time of when Lord Oblivion escapes his prison and drives Harmony from the worlds. I would introduce you to them, but you already know one of them as she is fighting Rarity this very moment."
As Trixie turned in disbelief Twilight continued, "Pinkamena is, and will always be, the Element of Violence, the Sin of Gluttony, and the Rider of War. She is Oblivion's left hand mare, just one seat away from being in command of everypony. And you have already met the Rider of Death for she is none other than Vinyl's hateful side Death Scratch."
"And the other two?" Trixie asked, already terrified beyond her minds end at this point.
"Famine and Pestilence?" Twilight stated, tossing her hair back as if she didn't care about the other two Riders very much, "I have no idea what Pestilence is doing at the moment, but Famine is likely making poor ponies starve while she waits for the other Riders to come."
Trixie shivered as Rainbow turned her head and continued snoring, which must have meant that she was tired from all her work in the forge. As she understood Twilight there were four tiers of ponies who served under Oblivion; The Elements, the Hateful Six, the Seven Sins, and the Four Horsemen. One of the Sins was currently unknown, as was two of the Riders.
The question Trixie wanted answered was this; exactly how much information was Vinyl keeping from her supposed allies?
"Here," Applejack said, passing Trixie a white colored cupcake with a dull grey frosting, "You might as well eat something before Vinyl arrives with her allies to swipe the next key out of our hooves and rescue you all over again."
"Why do you think she will come here?" Trixie asked, picking up the strange cupcake and taking a small bit out of it. Though the taste of the cupcake seemed to be almost tasteless, like something had grown wrong in the process of making them.
"Rarity holds the Key of Greed," Twilight explained, opening a book and taking her eyes off of the mare, "the same key that Vinyl is charged with stealing from us. Plus she would want to save one of her 'allies' from making the 'wrong choice' of joining the very being that she has opposed since the beginning. All it takes to start somepony down the Path of Hatred is one simple Hatecake, one little treat that could spell the end of their very nature."
Trixie silently realized that Twilight was referring to her making the choice to abandon the deceitful Vinyl and her army and join the ponies who have been telling her the truth since the first time they had met.
"The exact same cupcake that Pinkamena and Discord gave you when you entered the Cupcake Factory."
That remark caught Trixie off guard, but as she thought back to the event she quickly realized that she, a master of tricks, had been tricked into eating the evil cupcake.
"You haven't noticed it yet," Twilight remarked, ignoring the mare while she turned the page, "but by now your eyes will have changed to the same red color that ours are. In time you might decide to abandon the ways of Harmony and take up the Banner of Hate, which is exactly what Lord Oblivion predicts you will do."
"I have had enough for today you brute," Rarity exclaimed, returning to her chair as Pinkamena did the same, "This was supposed to be a dinner, but you have ruined my mood."
"Like I care," Pinkamena replied, laying her sword on the table as she faced Rarity, "I crave battle, not sitting at a table talking to the mare that Oblivion wants to turn. You might as well give her the key and be done with it before Vinyl arrives."
"I suppose you're right about that," Rarity said, unclasping the iron bracelet she wore and tightening it around Trixie's front right hoof, "Inside the bracelet is a storage area for the Key of Greed, so it could always be on me whenever I wanted it to be. Now I give it to you and you will, in turn, give it to the Gatekeeper. Or you could keep the fact you hold the key a secret and pretend that you couldn't find it. Ah, I do believe it is time for our other guests to arrive."
The windows shattered and two pillars fell over as a large group of ponies, lead by Vinyl, stored the room. The Elements and the Hateful Six vanished from the table, as if the majority of them had been absent from the place to begin with. As if they had been talking through communicator crystals and were busy elsewhere. Before Trixie could even say a thing she was seized by magic and dragged out of the room, though an earth pony snagged the cupcake from her hooves and carried it herself.
The last thing that Trixie saw in the evening sky was a mechanical owl, not as large as Clockwerk, but the same built as the unpredictable owl. She closed her eyes and cursed the owl to death as they entered the Gateway.