The sky was dark, and the clouds blackened the landscape, as the Rainbow of Darkness roamed freely, devouring ponies and other organisms alike as they tried to scurry for escape. Discord, with the five of the Mane Six saved as many lives as they could as the alarms sounded. Equestria, the world, everypony was warned all around.
The pain and sorrow chased by the black, faithless to any other fate than that of death, the ponies running from the black clouds curled together, trembling in fear and begging to keep their lives in its presence. It granted them only death, and they screamed, seemingly accepting it sadly.
A shield of pink magic covered them as Twilight came to the rescue, she teleported them to Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, who led any survivors to the magic proof shelter constructed by a construction group of pony guards. Twilight turned to the Rainbow of Darkness, blasting it with her magic and driving it back by just a little.
She flew high into the air and scaled the length of the black fog, finding it was spanning already nearly inch of Equinopolis already. She knew if this problem was not solved, this blob of mysteries would corrupt all who fell into it and rise an army strong enough to push back against the Mane Six. She began to worry, and found her negativity soothing her.
"Seems like you have used the magic of darkness already... Have you been hiding it?"
Twilight felt her mind being assaulted by the Demiurge, finally hearing its voice. She closed her eyes as the wings of the angels brushed past her.
"I have, but my magic is now pure! The Elements of Harmony make sure of that!" she barked back as the Demiurge's cackle of bewitchment flooded the skies and knocked both the angels and Twilight down.
The Demiurge showed itself to be a black coated mare with skeletal armor and a flowing mane of black, white, and iridescent flames. Looking on at her opponent in confusion, Twilight was not prepared to be tackled by her at such a speed. The Demiurge bucked Twilight in her face and then used her mane to bind Twilight's limbs and reach for her Element of Magic. Panicking, Twilight used her teleportation spell to escape the binds of her assailant. The angels swirled around the Demiurge, attacking fiercely and relentlessly.
"Go! Your battle is not here! You must go and save the innocent souls from decay!" a voice called out to her.
Twilight was instantly drawn in by this voice, as it flowed so smoothly it was like silk to her ears. She had heard the expression, "the voice of angel" countless times, but today she finally got to hear it. She was marveled at the angels' authoritatively beautiful sound, and flew away from the scene as the angels battled the Demiurge, silently cheering them on.
The dark smoke and deterioration of the land became so insignificant compared to the bright radiance and harmony which emanated from the angels' being. They were truly marvelous, awesome, unrivaled in their majestic being. She thought of how powerful Applejack had to truly be to have such wonderful, beautiful, blessed creatures at her aid.
It put her own authority to shame... the power which Applejack possessed was truly power to be envied. Twilight caught herself before she lost herself, and teleported quickly out of the vicinity of the ambush, but the Demiurge plowed through the winged ponies and humans, aiming her horn at Twilight, who had half the mind to dodge, but the Demiurge appeared before her and kicked her down.
Calling out for help, Twilight turned over and tried to teleport again, but the Demiurge bent space and time to halt her. Twilight tried now to fly away, but again, found she could not move. The Demiurge shot a laser of rainbow at Twilight, hitting her on the back and triggering an explosion. Twilight screamed, falling forward on her face and cringing in intense pain.
"Oh, stop trying to escape," the Demiurge said to her, "you understand not that once I defeat you all and take Applejack's Glory for my own, I will become the god of this universe. The Ones, being you of the troubled prophetic dreams of the Sage, will not fulfill that dry old man's visions of bullshit. I will go down in history as Applejack! I will take the credit all for myself!"
"Monologue, right?" Twilight chuckled, standing up and turning to the Demiurge. "For the most powerful villain I've ever faced, you sure do talk more than all of them... put together actually!" She teleported above the Demiurge and placed a multi-layered barrier around her. "My magic may not come close to god level... but it's enough to halt a being as full of vainglory as you are."
She teleported again, farther away and began to fly where she sensed the magic signatures of her friends. She looked around, the dying corruption of what was Equinopolis, now vacant of life thanks to the efforts of the ones protecting it. Twilight sighed, as she knew the casualties were at a minimal thanks to her friends.
Sooner or later, she would hear from Celestia and Luna telling her that Canterlot was okay. Then from Cadance that the Crystal Empire was fine. She then sensed a great upset within the air, behind all the darkness which was already plaguing the air and poisoning her senses.
"Twilight!"
The alicorn princess turned in all directions, searching for her friend who shouted her name. She found nothing, and began to grow ever so more worried.
"Who's there?! Are you okay?!" she cried, when suddenly a tentacle of the black fog pulled her down and clouded over her. She cried out for help, sticking her hoof out for anypony to grab. "Help me! Somepony! Anypony!" She began crying as the fog entered her mouth, it tasted like smoke, and it burned her throat and eyes. Close to vomiting as she was now gagging, Twilight began to fall unconscious.
"Hold on, Twilight! I gotcha!" Rainbow pulled the alicorn out of the fog and escaped the other tendrils of an eternal embrace, flying high into the air. "Twi! Twi! Wake up!" She shook Twilight, who began to cough as she regained her senses. "Thank heavens, you're okay..." Rainbow hugged Twilight, who hugged her back. "Now, we got everypony out and to safety... Should we go with them, or try to blast these fuckers to Tartarus from where they came?"
"Where's Applejack?" Twilight questioned, breaking out of the hold and scanning the ground below, until Rainbow pat her back.
"Oh, Twi! You should've seen her! She was the most awesome thing I've ever seen! I can't believe you missed that bad-ass flank-kickin' battle!" Rainbow exclaimed, twirling in the air as the wind blew fiercely, knocking Twilight off balance a bit. "She was all like. 'Boom!' and the bad guy was like 'we will win and send you to hell!', and Applejack was like, 'y'all don't mess with mah friends like they're y'all slaves', well, I forgot what she said... but it was awesome, Twi!"
Rainbow grabbed her and flew off to where the rest of the Mane Six and others, without Applejack, where waiting for Twilight to return.
"Our duties of saving the entirety of what we could from Equinopolis was a success," Discord told Twilight, who stumbled once she got onto the ground. "We received word from Celestia also, she said the ponies are in good hooves with the guards she sent to aid us."
"Princess Celestia? Where is she?" Twilight asked.
"She told me that she and Luna were preparing a magical weapon that your mother had been building and testing for this day," Discord replied with a chuckle. "Everything's gone so smoothly, I'd say it was quite a miracle, right girls?"
They all nodded, even Spike, who was not even a girl but had gotten used to being the only guy besides Discord. Then Twilight spoke, "But... Applejack... Where is she?"
Nopony knew, as they all shrugged. Twilight began to worry, and she lay down, beginning to feel strangely overcome by tiredness and fatigue of nothing she had ever experienced before. She tried to stand once more, but found herself too weak to do so. The Demiurge's blast to her back was fairly concentrated and still stung her like a knife in her side, and the fog drained a large amount of her magic. She felt weaker than a dead tree branch.
Fluttershy nudged Twilight, looking to her with concern in her eyes. "I'm sure Applejack is okay... She is great, isn't she? She's pretty much the strongest one on our team, with a lot more experience than us for generations!"
Twilight sighed, then smiled. "I guess you're right... I just... I just have this terrible feeling that something terrible will happen. I bet it's nothing, though. We've pulled through a lot of things, and this is something we can handle, right?"
"Yeah!" they all exclaimed.
"That pony is our strongest leg," Spike said to himself, looking off into the distance, taking witness to a storm of angels swirling around one target. He squinted to get a better look, and saw giant black tentacles ripping through the heavenly creatures like they were melting butter, blood sprayed out like rain and the beast inside burst through with an ear-piercing shriek of rage in its purest form. It was pure darkness and leaked shadows, it had a long neck and a mouth that extended like a lizard's, with rows of razor sharp teeth and a tongue of rainbows. No doubt this was the Rainbow of Darkness' true form. "Uh... guys...?"
Catching the attention of all the ponies there, Spike pointed them all to the sight which was to be seen, though they already had noticed it from the roar just recently.
"We cannot falter!" Twilight urged them. "I know we've never took on something like this, but we've been here long enough to know exactly what to do... And with the strongest souls in Equestria on our side, we have this victory in the bag! This battle will be a fierce one, but I assure you, our friendship has taught us that we can overcome anything! We have Discord to vouch for that! Now, are you with me?" Twilight levitated herself in the air, holding out her hoof.
Rainbow grabbed on, then Spike, then Discord, Fluttershy, Pinkie, and Rarity. Twilight levitated them all up and teleported them all to downtown where the beast of darkness raging was throwing its tantrum of the eternity.
"That thing is huge! How're we gonna get that thing down?!" Pinkie shouted, as Twilight used her magic to blast the beast. Pinkie noticed her Element of Laughter shining brightly, and so was everypony else's Element.
"Applejack said that the Rainbow of Darkness was defeated by the Rainbow of Friendship... so if we recreate that same effect, we can take this thing down!" Twilight answered, as the magic shot out and pushed back the beast. The angels used their own attack formation to help, bringing down storms to weaken it as the Mane Six attacked. "Spike! Discord! Can you two do something about its footing? Try that new trick you two have been working on! It's bound to work!"
Spike nodded, as Discord teleported them to the foot of the beast, where it was firmly rooted in the ground. Discord used his chaos magic to warp Spike into his full grown dragon form, equipped with long spikes going down his back, arms, legs, and stomach. Spike was even bigger than the beast itself, and he gave it a strong kick to the gut, then breathing his teleportation fire onto it. The fire split it into five parts, which all became smaller beasts which tried to grow into the larger beast individually to multiply to problem massively. Spike proceeded to split them again and again as Discord took their respective magic of darkness within to neutralize it to his own.
"This is a bit new to our strategy!" Spike exclaimed, as Discord became a giant sword for Spike to wield.
"Whoa!" Rainbow shouted with a gasp of heavenly surprise. "When did they learn to do that?!"
Spike swung the sword into the half reformed beast, cutting it in half, then he and Discord returned to normal as Twilight and friends blasted their Harmony magic into the wound to weaken and kill the beast from the inside out.
"Keep pushing girls! We almost got it! Then we can help Applejack!" Twilight cried, until noticing Applejack by her side helping them. "Applejack? It's you!"
"Sure, Sugarcube!" Applejack replied. "But Ah came to help y'all! Ya can't have the Rainbow of Friendship without all ya friends, now can ya? On top of that, Megan's friendship is essential to the equation, and Megan gave her friendship to me! Now, all together now!"
The ponies all cheered as they recreated the new Neo Rainbow of Friendship, the Rainbow of Harmony, to blast into the beast of the Rainbow of Darkness. Discord and Spike used their giant sword combo to slash down into the beast and force it to the ground so the Rainbow of Harmony could skewer it and allow the angels to seal it completely.
It gave a roar, a blast of energy to try to push them back, but the friends pushed back even harder. The Rainbow of Darkness' beast faltered in the struggle, and found itself vaporized almost instantly by its opponent rivaling its strength. The force of their power blasting the ground and shooting to return blew them all back, including the angels. With the fog retreating to its source, the Mane Six thought not to allow it to escape, but they followed it relentlessly, with the mindset to not let it escape.
"What is that thing?" Rarity groaned. "It makes me feel so... empty..."
"Ah don't know for sure mahself, Rarity," Applejack said, "but if the Demiurge spawned it, Ah can be sure saying it's all one in the same, right?"
The sky lit up with a bright light, and the sky presented itself to be black, and the stars all began to go out. Pale white water shot up from the ground, and massive pillars of dark red flames threatened to incinerate them.
"Get down!" Twilight cried, as she and Applejack erected barriers to protect them from the waters raining and the fires falling. The water itself began to eat away at the fire, and this made Fluttershy duck for cover.
Discord looked closely at the elements which attacked them, and he absorbed them using his magic, but found them to be highly poisonous to him. He teleported out of the barrier and created a small warp hole to transport the falling rains of hell to a different place.
As Twilight and Applejack let up their barriers to see what was happening with clearer vision, they could not believe their eyes. Equestria was somehow folding in on itself, and presented Cloudsdale over Equinopolis with Canterlot and the Crystal Empire with the other lands arching over in front of it as walls. The fire made itself as a river and the source was a portal that was entwined with the river of poisonous waters. The dark sky was lit up by a black sun, and the shadows and colors of the world were inverted to their opposite colors. A massive earthquake shook the ground, making everypony fall to their knees, now forced to hear the Demiurge speak.
"The river of Styx and Phlegethon have leaked over onto Equestria, and Tartarus has awakened from his slumber!" the Demiurge boomed, teleporting in front of them in her current form. She eyed Applejack and then Twilight. "So much raw power flows through you, and it's almost like you don't even want to use it. I speak to the both of you, Applejack, Twilight Sparkle. Why do you fight for such weak life forms, when you both clearly can join my forces?"
"Don't pull that 'join me cuz I'm evil' crap on us!" Applejack cried, stomping her left forehoof down. "Ya don't get us at all! Our friendship is more than some false promise of joy on your side! Do you think we would actually leave our beautiful home for all your hellish realms?"
The Demiurge laughed, and began to walk forward towards them. Rainbow, Spike, and Discord jumped in front of Applejack and Twilight to protect them. The Demiurge, with a swipe of her hoof, manipulated the gravity to push them out of the way and towards a pillar of flames. Applejack was quick enough to save them, but distracted, she found the Demiurge had shoved her horn into Applejack's chest.
The sun turned red at that moment, and the quakes stopped as the flames died down. There was silence for a while, until Applejack looked at the wound in her chest and kicked the Demiurge away from her. She fell on her stomach and noticed black veins spreading throughout her body.
"This world belongs to Tartarus now, and you cannot use your god powers here. This realm is out of your jurisdiction, but me... I can basically do everything you can... Afterall, we were once one in the same Applejack." The Demiurge prepared to finish of Applejack, who was paralyzed, until Twilight intervened and tackled the Demiurge to the ground.
"Now! Let's use our Rainbow of Friendship to put an end to this, girls!" Twilight ordered them, as everypony's Elements began to shine, even Applejack's. The Rainbow sprouted upwards and shot down onto Twilight and the Demiurge, greatly harming the both of them. Screaming in pain, the Demiurge hooved Twilight in her face, expecting the Rainbow to stop, but it attacked fiercer. She ran around in circles trying to get it off of her, but it was no use. She fell on her face motionless, her body fading away from the power of Friendship.
Friendship's Fire took its place over Applejack, healing her wounds and the spreading veins around her body. She stood up and gazed at the twinkling beauty of the fire, and noticed that all of her friends were enshrouded with it as well, even Discord and Spike.
"The Fire of Friendship has taken favor with us..." she said to herself, bowing down and beginning to cry in joy. "Ah knew there was hope... as long as all the other legs work, they can push on for the broken one and make it work better."
"Dammit!" the Demiurge cried as its skin was burned off to reveal a skeleton of silver and gold. The Rainbow of Friendship was absorbed by the Friendship's Flame, and the Elements of Harmony came together, using Applejack's god powers to enhance themselves and their overall control on Harmony. "Nooo! What's happening? This isn't... the end..."
Twilight Velvet, Celestia, Luna, and Cadence all descended with a pod large enough to hold everypony there.
"Quick!" Celestia urged them. "Get in! The weapon is about to go off after the set amount of time has reached its end."
"Princess! Are you okay? Are Canterlot and the other places okay?" Twilight questioned her as she got into the pod with her friends.
"Yes... the winged creatures of the heavens made sure of that... Right now, we're the only ones left in the world," Celestia replied with a solemn look on her face. "But still, though everypony else was saved, the casualties were still great, and the loss of life still pains me... But as long as you all are okay, I can live on with a smile that you were a great help to not only Equestria, but the world as well."
Boarding the pod as it flew to the side of the bowl which was now Equestria to Canterlot, they all could rest as the Demiurge was seemingly dead or at least still dying. Upon making it to Canterlot, thanks to the gravity shifting to allow them to walk on the ground as it was steeper than a cliff drop, they found the castle destroyed, but a large cannon with many ports to allow extra power sources into it still stood.
"Now go, I'm sure the Elements can still save Equestria, and the world," Velvet began. "My research shows that the Elements needed your great level of friendship to work against the Demiurge, since it's on a completely different level than anything you've fought so far."
"But something felt... off..." Applejack said. "Ah know the Elements are very powerful magical items, but surely the Demiurge didn't put up much of a fight either... It just... took the beating."
"Maybe it gave up because of how awesome we are! Party with the angels, WHOO!" Pinkie shouted, bumping hooves with Rainbow Dash, who laughed in assent. "We are the best team Equestria has to offer, so no wonder it gave up! The poor little guy saw what it was up against and knew it bit off more than it could chew."
"As much as I would like to believe you, I don't think it was fighting to survive through the battle..." Twilight said, walking up to her mother. "The Demiurge's main objective was to raise Tartarus onto our world, and though it seemed as if it wanted to rule over the land, he made it pretty clear that there may be another force working with it from Tartarus. Princess Celestia? Mom? Do you know anypony strong enough in Tartarus to take over for somepony like the Demiurge?"
"Tirek is out of the question, but he has been our main problem since the very beginning," Velvet replied. "I don't know much about Tartarus to even name many face from there. And I speak on the behalf of all of us... We know nothing of what we're up against, but we do know a way to stop it."
"But if we don't know how strong Tartarus is, how can we be sure the Elements power can stand against it?" Spike asked, watching the Mane Six place their Elements into the ports made for them into the cannon.
"My dear little boy Spike," Velvet said gently. "The Elements right now are stronger than they have ever been... especially with Applejack's Heavenly Sephirot of the Tree of Life and the Fire of Friendship empowering them. These are everything one could ever ask for, all jumbled up into one. These powers are so strong, even the Demiurge, a godlike figure who can stand up even against a pony like Applejack, could not handle on his own. This goes to show how powerful friendship is! Our bonds are the strongest that this universe has ever seen and I bet that's enough in of itself to stop the forces of Tartarus."
"That's what you think, but we grow tired of watching you..." a masculine voice said, as a feminine voice followed it up,
"We did enjoy your channel! Honest! But we got tired of the same message being shoved down our throats again and again! We know how strong Friendship is, but would it kill ya to jump over a shark or something? We're getting bored here!"
A group of sixteen anthro ponies cloaked in black hoods walked through a portal from the First Generation of the Mother Dimension. Eight of them had unicorn horns poking out of the black hoods, while the others had multi colored wings sprouting from their backs. They had tails as well, and they stood upright, equipped with hands for forehooves, but still had hooves for back hooves. Ten of them were females, and of course one of those ten was the leader.
She was a unicorn, and stepped forward and announced, "I am Sunshiner... The Queen of the World in what Applejack here calls the 'Mother Dimension'... I have been watching your quests since they began, Applejack, and I'll have you know that 'Skyline' and the 'heavens' were created by us to entertain you. You did create Tartarus to oppose that, and we don't mind you becoming god of some sorts, but you really have overstayed your welcome as you... We fear you may come back with this great power and try to overthrow us due to your beliefs that we somehow caused your existence of pain and suffering, but you got what you wanted right? We just think it would be best if we cancelled your little show."
Sunshiner poked out one finger towards Applejack and reverted her back to her earth pony form, taking away all the powers she had accumulated over the years and throwing them all into the fires of Phlegethon, then did the same to Velvet. She then stopped everypony around them and destroyed the cannon and the Elements of Harmony, and lastly, looking to Discord and Spike, she made them disappear.
"Nooo!! What are you doing?!" the heroes all cried, powerless to do anything.
"Come on, Sunshiner, that was harsh, at least show them what happens," one of the girls in the hooded cloaks said.
Sunshiner sighed and brought the two back, throwing their bodies down off the side of Canterlot and watching their bodies burn in the flowing rivers of fire below. Their screams of agony sounded through the air, and nopony could bear to hear it. "There Pinkie, are you happy?"
Pinkie looked up through her tears, at the pink pegasus anthro now standing before her. "Wh...what are you... gonna do to me?"
"You're my favorite pony, Pinkie Pie! We gots the same name! We both are pink! And you're just the cutest thing I've ever seen!" the anthro Pinkie exclaimed, picking up the pink earth pony as she struggled to escape. "I'm taking you home with me, silly! That's what I'm gonna do to you!" She covered Pinkie's mouth and laughed as she and her crew all walked through the portal back to the first dimension. The portal closed and everypony still alive were suddenly able to move once again.
Velvet beat the ground, crying loudly, "You bastards! Can't you see we've suffered enough?! Using us for entertainment, is that all we are to you?!"
A hologram of the Pegasi and Unicorns shown above them for a short period of time.
"Yes," Sunshiner announced, as Pinkie's screams and anthro Pinkie's laughter could be heard very clearly. It sounded as if Pinkie were being tortured, and she begged her anthro counterpart to stop, but she did not. "Now, why don't you all do something... I don't know.... entertaining?"
The hologram disappeared, and so did the sound.
Twilight fell to her knees, as black magic began to leak from her eyes and horn. "Guys... Run! I don't think I can hold this back any longer without the Elements helping me!" she cried, as Celestia and Luna instead ran to her to help.
"Twilight! What is all this?" Celestia asked her, as she looked to her with pain stricken eyes.
"The Rainbow of Darkness and the fog got into me, and I hoped I wouldn't fall prey to it until we won in the end, but..." Twilight choked as she was cloaked in a black dress with a black crown. Her eyes glowed white, and black electricity shocked everypony around her.
The Demiurge's voice could be heard once again, "Talk about plot twist, huh? I did not expect those bastards to show up! Maybe I can put my hope into false beliefs for them to come true! A million stars to choose from... one second to waste. What do you survivors wish for?"