To say that Twilight was angry would be an understatement. She didn’t think she’d felt angrier than she was right now. Screwball had been besting her at every turn, and she was beyond sick of it.
Screwball has insulted her intelligence, mocked her unrelentingly, taken over Equestria, and was now in possession of the most dangerous things in Equestria.
But the worst part of this was seeing Zecora, one of the wisest and most respected creatures she ever knew, reduced to a motionless, drooling, good for nothing thanks to Screwball’s powers. Screwball could make fun of her all she felt like, but messing with her friends like THIS, reminding her all too well of that sense of hopelessness she had when Discord did the same thing?
No. This is where she drew the line.
Screwball, thinking that she had the ponies stunned, had not expected in the least for Twilight to charge her and smash both of them through the ceiling. Not at all.
Nopony else had expected that either. Sure, they knew that Twilight was angry, but this was beyond what they ever expected of her. Even Discord couldn’t see that coming, and he, just like everypony else, stared through the big, gaping hole in the ceiling at the sky where both Twilight and Screwball now resided.
Both ponies were now at a considerable distance from each other, with Twilight giving a death glare, and Screwball shaking the impact from her head.
“OW! Sheesh Uptight Sparkle, I knew I made you mad, but-“
“SHUT UP!” Twilight yelled, making Screwball flinch.
“I AM NOT GOING TO LET YOU HURT MY FRIENDS ANYMORE! I’LL MAKE YOU WISH YOU WERE A STATUE WHEN THIS IS OVER!” Twilight continued to yell.
Screwball was still a little surprised at how much she had managed to anger the alicorn.
“…Yeesh, you really wanna fight me that badly? Alright, Twily. I’ll play this game. But know that I’m a compulsive cheater. Just a little heads-up.” Screwball giggled.
“Kick her flank Twilight!” Rainbow yelled.
“We’re behind ya all the way sugarcube!” Applejack cheered.
“Umm, please be careful.” Fluttershy mumbled.
“In all seriousness Twilight, please try not to hurt Screwball too badly. She sort of just needs a good spanking.” Discord said from below.
Twilight didn’t take her glare off of Screwball even for a second. She charged the magic in her horn and surrounded herself in a magical blaze of purple fire. Still with a look of pure rage on her face, she flew toward Screwball at breakneck speeds. Trying to protect herself, Screwball conjured a big pink bubble around her. When Twilight charged into her, it bounced Screwball into the forest below, ricochet off a tree, and heading right back for Twilight. Twilight charged up her horn once again and fired a magic blast in Screwball’s direction. This time, the laser hit its target and popped Screwball’s bubble, making impact on her chest.
“AGH! What in the-“ Screwball looked at her now singed fur, and winced in pain.
“Woah…you actually managed to hurt me…you’re pretty pissed aren’t you?” Screwball asked.
“That doesn’t even begin to cover it.” Twilight growled, preparing to fire another laser. Not looking forward to that pain again, Screwball didn’t hesitate in flying toward Twilight, summoning a giant, purple, magic hand from her eyes. The hand flicked Twilight’s horn, fizzling the spell, and grabbed her. Twilight struggled to break free of its grasp, but to no avail. Screwball then made the hand throw Twilight to quite a long distance. When Twilight was far enough, Screwball charged a magical, purple laser in her hooves. Many seconds of charging later, she fired it at the purple alicorn, who was frantically trying to regain the stability in her wings.
Soon, Twilight managed to level out her flying and was stable in the air again. When she saw the laser coming her way, Twilight charged her own spell and fired another laser to intercept Screwball’s. The two lasers collided with each other, and both parties tried to strengthen their magic enough to overcome the other’s.
Both ponies were sweating, and their teeth were clenched.
“ARGH! BUCK ME SIDEWAYS, THIS HURTS!” Screwball yelled, referring to the injury to her chest and the amount of magic she was having to put into this.
Twilight was trying so hard to keep her spell going, that her nose started to bleed.
“Come on!” she screamed.
Something told Screwball that she wasn’t going to win this. Her and Twilight’s magic appeared to be at too even a point for either to defeat the other. Being a child though, Screwball feared that her body would give out long before Twilight’s did.
Screwball then looked toward the Alicorn Amulet that she still had wrapped around her tail. She used her tail to wrap put the amulet around her neck, in hopes that it would make her magic strong enough to defeat the alicorn.
It did a lot more than she expected.
There was an almost immediate change in Screwball’s demeanor. When she put the amulet around her neck, Screwball’s face looked almost like she was in pain. Her eyes started to slowly shift from their usual, purple and white color, to a much more sinister red and white, with a few tears starting to form in them.
“No. No. Nononono! The Amulet it…it hurts!” Screwball cried, shaking her head violently. The laser that she was firing from her hooves also changed to red and appeared to become all the more powerful as it started to devour Twilight’s laser. Twilight saw what was happening and quickly teleported out of its path, causing the laser to burn many of the trees below. Twilight looked at Screwball, who had fallen to the ground in front of Zecora’s hut in pain, and gasped.
“Oh my gosh…” Twilight whispered as she floated back down to the ground. Twilight’s friends hurried through the doors of the hut and gasped at the scene before them.
“Twilight! Are you alright?” Spike asked as he hugged his surrogate sister to which she returned.
“I’m fine Spike…but…” Twilight pointed to the pained filly who shivered on the ground, with a blood red aura resonating from her body.
“Why’s she all…glowy?” Pinkie asked with a tilted head.
“Is that amulet…hurting her?” Rarity asked.
Discord bolted to his daughter’s side, a very serious and very concerned face that only a scared father could pull off.
“Screwy?...Screwball please say something! Are you alright?!” Discord asked, in a terrified tone with wide, scared eyes.
Screwball, still in very much pain, looked up at her father with tears now rolling down her face.
“Daddy…help…” Screwball mumbled.
Discord held onto his daughter’s shoulders like his life depended on it, completely abandoning any funny business at a point such as this.
“Screwball, listen to me very carefully! You need to take that thing off! Your body can’t handle that much magic! It’s corrupting you!” Discord shouted, tears starting to form in his own eyes as well. Screwball tried to reach for the Amulet to take it off of her neck, but another wave of pain and the red aura stopped her.
“AGGGGGGH!” Screwball wailed in agony. A large flurry of cotton candy clouds formed in the sky around Screwball and started to swirl around her position, and the sky grew dark.
“Uhhh, Twilight?! Discord?! What’s happenin’?!” Applejack yelled.
“I don’t know! Something’s wrong with Screwball’s magic!” Twilight responded.
Before anypony could utter another word, a big, blue light erupted from the cotton candy clouds above Screwball and engulfed the little filly, making her pained screams become much louder. The explosion knocked Discord into the ponies, and he looked back in horror at the sight of Screwball being struck by the blue light.
“SCREWBALL!!!” Discord yelled, reaching out for his daughter, who was still screaming. The Spears of Chaos cultists that the Elements had knocked out previously began to stir from the noise and the light. One of them looked up at their Goddess and gasped in horror.
“Brothers…Look. Something’s happening to Lady Screwball.” He said as he poked another cultist, prompting them to look up and witness the terrible sight.
The light started to disappear, quickly beginning to fade away back into the clouds, which uncovered Screwball once again, no longer screaming in pain…
Only what stood there no longer appeared to be Screwball at all.
“Screwball…are you alright?” Discord asked.
The creature that now stood there was no longer the crazy, fun-loving pony the Elements had witnessed take over Equestria, but appeared to be something a lot more sinister and…evil-looking. It was about the same size as Screwball, and still had the purple and white mane and beanie, but had quite a few notable changes to it. It had a much more serpent-like body, a purple mid-section with a brown, scaly tail with a tuft of black fur on its end. It had a bear cub’s paw and a tiger claw. On her back was one bat wing and one duck wing. Her legs consisted of one zebra hoof, and a dog’s leg. On her head was a deer horn, and a purple and white striped goat horn. Her face wasn’t much different than her pony face, except it was much longer and she had a longer neck, which still held the Alicorn Amulet around it.
Her eyes though…they were red and white, swirling orbs of terror, and she was smiling a much more frightening smile.
“Oh, I’ve never felt better! How ya likin’ the new look everypony? Pretty snazzy huh? Although, I think I would’ve preferred a dragon wing as opposed to a duck’s though. Ah well, can’t win em all I suppose…Hehehehehehehe.” Screwball giggled menacingly.
Discord backed up a little, and the Elements all gasped at the horror the Alicorn Amulet had turned Screwball into.
“Oh dear…Screwball…” Discord mumbled.