“Whooooooaaaaaa.”
A wide array of colors spread all around the girls, overwhelming them with an impressive spectacle of spectrums. Neon depictions of various objects and familiar surrounded them as they floated through the black tunnel-like void. They even swam through an entire neon depiction of the Everfree Forest, with some Poison Joke plants happily springing up and down.
“Woowww,” said Fluttershy. Several neon butterflies circled around her and landed on her hooves.
“Absolutely stunning,” said Rarity, as a neon spool of thread wrapped precariously around her. “Oooh-hoo-hoo!”
“Mighty breathtakin’,” said Applejack. She spun around and timed her kick just perfectly to buck an oncoming neon apple tree.
“Ehh, it’s alright, I guess.” Streaks of rainbow sped past Rainbow Dash, and she even saw a Wonderbolt race past her. “Whoa! That was just AWESOME!”
“Wheeeee!” shouted Pinkie as she jumped through a neon image of Ponyville Town Hall.
“This is… amazing!” Twilight observed. She shook hands with a neon Spike as her library home started to appear in front of her. The neon Spike motioned for her to come inside, so Twilight followed, and disappeared in a flash of white.
“Alright, time for round two!”
Pinkie got ready to jump through the Town Hall as it came back up again. Only this time, when she jumped, she too disappeared in a flash of white.
“Heh-heh! Hey, wait for me!” shouted Rainbow, intent on following the neon Wonderbolt. “Heh-heh, hey! Is that you, Soarin?” She continued following him up into the skies, until she also disappeared.
Applejack managed to catch the falling apples into a barrel just in time.
“Whoo-ee! I’d better bring these back to the barn!” she said, perhaps out of habit. But even so, there was a neon barn for her to venture to, and so she did, disappearing like the others.
Meanwhile, the spool of thread began to swim away from Rarity.
“Hey! Hold up there, you little rascal!” Rarity grabbed onto the end of it as it floated away, eventually leading her into a neon image of her parents’ house. She disappeared as well.
“Ohhh… my,” said Fluttershy, suddenly the only one left. “W-where is everypony?” She looked down and saw a hollow tree trunk approaching her. With an “Eep!” she covered her eyes and sucked in her chest, as the trunk enveloped her, causing her to disappear too.
Twilight awoke to discover herself floating in a seemingly endless hallway filled with nothing but book shelves, on the walls… and on the floor and ceiling.
“Books…” she whispered, in much the same way she had with the sirens presented her with a similar vision. “Books everywhere.”
The books started floating towards her, and she made an effort to try and grab them all.
“Tomes… novels… Wonderful, wonderful works of literature. Ooh, look, I think I see the National Encyclopedia of Equestrian Chemistry 63rd Edition right over there… AAH! What’s that?”
At the very end of the four-way library, Twilight was starting to swim towards a mysterious pink light.
“Twiiiiliiiight…”
As the voice called, all of the books mysteriously began morphing into multiple copies of just one book: Twilight’s unmarked book.
“Twiiiiiiiiilyyyy…”
The pink light grew stronger and stronger until it completely smothered her.
“YAAAGH!”
When Pinkie Pie came to, she was floating in the sky; except the blue sky and white clouds looked like they had been drawn on with crayon. There were various candies and dessert treats floating around her.
“Ooh! Sweets!” She began stuffing them all in her mouth. “Lotsha shweetsh!” With her incredibly fast metabolism, she swallowed them all in one bite and it passed right down her system. “Mmmmmm,” she said with a chocolate smudge on her lips.
She went to grab more candy, only to be shocked as it all started to crumble away and rot.
“Huh? What’s going on?”
Not only were the desserts decaying, but the crayon background behind Pinkie was starting to rub itself out. She looked to be in deep distress until she started hearing a voice.
“Piiiiiiinkie!”
“Huh? Twilight?”
She looked behind her to see Twilight Sparkle at the doorway of Sugarcube Corner, which was floating around in space. Pinkie swam over and grasped Twilight’s hooves. As she did, she noticed all the windows of the building cracking and shattering.
“Come on, Pinkie, let’s play.”
“But, Twilight… everything around here is falling apart! I don’t want you to wither away too!”
“Don’t worry, Pinkie. Most things don’t last forever, but you know I’ll never leave your side.”
As she said that, she closed her eyes and puckered her lips, ready for a kiss. Grinning with ecstasy, Pinkie puckered as well. Her lips made contact, causing a bright flash.
Rarity looked around. She seemed to be swimming in an abstract version of her parents’ house. Likewise, her mother, her father, and her sister all started coming in, shaking her hand.
“Oh! Hello, father! Hello, mother! Hello, Sweetie Belle! Umm… what’s going on here?”
The scene transitioned into a version of her workspace, as all sorts of fabrics and sewing tools floated around her.
“Ooh! Make me a lovely dress, Rarity!”
“Fluttershy?”
Rarity found herself bound next to her lover, as the sewing tools automatically came together to construct fashionable clothes and place them on the couple.
“Oh, my! How nice!” said Rarity, admiring her new red-and-white dress. As she gazed at it however, she began hearing a strange noise.
“Hey, Rarity,” said Fluttershy. “Look at what I’ve got down here in my hooves…”
Rarity looked down, but when she did, all she saw in Fluttershy’s hooves was a bright light…
As for Fluttershy, she found herself in an endless pathway down a park. As soon as she took a single step, a large plethora of animals came out to greet her.
“Awww, hello little friends!”
She started skipping down the path. The animals kept up with her and even chirped their own little tunes for her.
“My, how lovely!”
As she kept walking, Rarity appeared on the sidewalk next to her and gave a soft peck on the cheek.
“Awww…”
However, the tranquility was ultimately disturbed as a sudden shrieking scared all the animals away.
“That… that sounds like… a baby crying.”
Fluttershy spotted a lone baby carriage ahead of her on the path. She immediately dashed over and turned the carriage around, only to see a bright light inside.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Applejack was dropped off right at her orchard. The apples seemed to knock themselves out of the trees and into the barrels, which began to circle around her.
“Oh, boy howdy! Look at all ‘dem apples!”
One by one, the apples started shooting into the sky in an impressive display of fireworks. Three of the apples hovered around Applejack for a brief second, and exploded into flare images of Apple Bloom, Big Macintosh, and Granny Smith.
Applejack watched in amazement as the show continued. It was ultimately finished off by the last two apples, fired into the sky simultaneously and exploded into a massive red heart. Applejack held her hat close to her heart, showing a sad smile.
Afterward, she heard hoofsteps behind her. She turned around to see her boyfriend Caramel approaching her.
“Applejack!”
“Oh! Caramel! Thank goodness you’re…”
Suddenly, the image began to crack and break up in front of her eyes as if she was looking into a mirror. She blinked once, only to discover she was.
The environment had changed to a pitch black room of nothing, with only the one breaking mirror in front of her. Caramel was still present, but in his fragmented image, he started to change into something else, and when Applejack could finally make out the image again… it was a mare staring back at her.
“What in tarnation?”
With a loud shatter, the mirror broke up into pieces, and the sharp fragments started whizzing around her. One of them came up from underneath her, and ended up taking her for a ride.
“Whoa nellyyyyyyyyy!”
The sound of silence.
Rainbow Dash looked around. But besides the Wonderbolts poster at her hooves, the room was completely pitch black, with absolutely nothing in it.
“Yeah okay, hah-hah. I get it, Trotzamore. Real funny. Let’s pick on Rainbow Dash because she ‘has nobody’ to love. As if I haven’t heard this joke a million times. Geez, you’d at least think my parents would be around here somewhere... maybe even together again.”
Only a random Wonderbolt passing by broke the silence, blowing the poster away. That particular Wonderbolt left a rainbow streak every time.
“And why is it just the same Wonderbolt every time, anyway?
Eventually, all six of the ponies found themselves on the ground again. The green ground, it appeared.
“Well, that was… interesting,” said Twilight.
“Interestin’ is one way to put it.”
“So… where are we now?” asked Fluttershy.
“Uhhh…”
In fact, they had landed in what was probably the most fantastical place yet. It was a huge, expansive sort of plain that stretched for miles and miles on end. There were red rock formations everywhere, and just behind them was a cliffside that overlooked a large river. The dirt around here was green, most notably the pathway leading down to the center. The sky was pure white, with yellow clouds that reached low towards the ground, and gathered together in sort of cyclone above the very center.
But perhaps most majestic of all were the flowers here. They were all pink and constantly glimmering, creating ripples of light that fed directly from the real prize in the middle of this magical garden.
The Power Stone was a round, clear orb that radiated a magnificent pink aura from inside, as it sat atop a mound at the very center of the field. Sparkles of pure splendor and magic were consistently trinkling out of the stone. Some of these sparkles floated up into the sky and escaped, presumably to spread Trotzamore’s influence throughout Equestria.
“Girls… we’re here,” said Twilight, staring at the Power Stone in awe. “This is it. This is the field of Trotzamore. The very heart of it.”
“It’s beautiful,” said Rarity. “Simply beautiful.”
“Why… it looks even better than in the book!” said Applejack.
“It’s nice,” said Fluttershy.
“…It’s pink,” Rainbow finally said.
“Well, come on, what are we waiting for!?” shouted Pinkie. “Let’s go touch it already!”
She ran over to the stone, and just as she was about to give it a ping… Discord’s face appeared inside of it.
“BOO!”
“Aaaahhhh!”
“Ah-ha-ha-ha!” Discord’s reflection laughed. “Did I scare you?”
Discord then properly appeared from behind the stone.
“I’m sorry!”
“Discord!” shouted Twilight. “Don’t!”
“Don’t? I took all the trouble of getting here, and you really think you can shut me down just by saying ‘Don’t’? Well fine then, I won’t,” he proclaimed, crossing his arms and turning his back on the stone. They all stared at him. “…BECAUSE I ALREADY HAVE!”
Discord laughed himself silly as the Power Stone began to glow. The ponies could only watch in horror as the stone exerted its powers. The normally yellow clouds turned gray, and the cyclone above the field was transformed into a storm cyclone. Lightning now rained down upon Trotzamore. Finally, the pink aura of the stone seeped out from inside and instead began to surround Discord.
“I guess real Draconequui do wear pink after all! A-ha-ha!”
The ponies cowered in fear. Rarity and Fluttershy hugged each other tightly, as did Applejack and Rainbow Dash; Pinkie Pie was practically squeezing Twilight.
“Oh, come on now, don’t worry your pretty little heads,” Discord patronized. “I’m not going to do that much harm. I’m just gonna… claim Trotzamore’s power as my own, that’s all. Maybe, treat myself to the hearts and minds of every miserable soul in Equestria, spread some chaos, right some wrongs, destroy relationships and friendships… STARTING WITH YOU.”
His fingers pulsated with lightning as he inched his way towards the six still terrified ponies, now cuddling each other even tighter.
“You don’t know how long I’ve waited for this day, my little ponies. Months and months on end trapped in that sculpture garden. Spending my days thinking of nothing else but those ponies who sealed me away, and took me away from my paradise. And all because of the power of friendship. That oh-so-special friendship.
But now… it is moi who shall have the last laugh. Because I have exploited an even greater magic now: the magic of love. That love that kept you all surviving so strongly… except you, Rainbow Dash, you’re just special I guess… is now about to be your DOWNFALL! I can feel all of my powers returning to me again! How appropriate that the first thing I’m going to do with them, will be the FINAL PUNISHMENT! TEN TIMES WORSE THAN WHAT YOU BRATS DID TO ME! SAY GOODBYE, MY LITTLE PONIES! GOODBYE TO EVERYONE THAT YOU LOVE, AND TREASURE, AND CHERIIISH!”
“Not so fast, Discord!”
Out of nowhere, just as Discord was about to smite down on the mares, a red magical aura suddenly locked him into place, forcing his body to spasm involuntarily until he was bound into an uncomfortable pose.
“What-- what are you doing!? You can’t treat me like this! I thought we had an agreement! We were going to help each other, and rule together! I WAS FINALLY GOING TO BE FREE FROM YOUR CONTROL, YOU MISERABLE LITTLE WITCH!”
“You were just a pawn, Discord. I don’t need you anymore.”
As Discord struggled against the spell, a unicorn stepped onto the Power Stone. She cast the fiercest glare as her cloak willowed in the breeze, and her horn glowed brightly against the dark of the storm. Her scarlet coat and deep crimson mane looked all too familiar to Rarity, who instantly gasped at the sight of her.
“Hello, girls.”
“R-R-RACHELLE RUBY!?”