A Jewel of a Problem

by Rainbow Sparkle

A Jewel of a Problem Indeed

“I am sorry Cain, but I really don’t think this is a good idea.” Luna said, frowning as she looked down at me. “You fainted just a short while ago, surely it would be better to rest rather than push yourself like this.” Luna was really worried for the small filly, even though she seemed to have improved.

I resisted the urge to let out a whine and stamp my hooves on the ground. “Luna, I really need this. I haven’t had many chances to vent, and physical pain is something that I usually need to respond to in some way.”

Luna shook her head as we stood on the sidelines, members of both the Solar and Lunar Royal Guard going about training, or in the process of finishing it. “I understand Cain… believe me I do, I can sense that your anger and destructive urges are simmering under the surface.”

“Yeah well, Strife picturing himself running roughshod over the training dummies is not helping matters Princess.” I replied, earning the attention of the aforementioned individual.

“What? I only want to murder them with lots and lots of tough love. Surely that’s not a problem for anyone?” Strife thought aloud, both of us rolling our eyes at him.

“Anyways Luna… I feel fine… enough. I won’t do anything too crazy or rough, and I’ll feel a lot better. I’ve pushed some of it aside, but its not gone, its just simmering under the surface.” I pouted a bit, giving her the best impression of puppy dog eyes I could, hoping to convince her.

Luna stared into the blue eyes of Diamond Tiara, and shook her head, placing a hoof to her head as she murmured, “I have a feeling I will regret this...Alright Cain, you can do so...but don’t push yourself, and if I feel your overexerting yourself, I’ll put an end to it immediately. Got it?”

Hearing this was music to my ears, and I did a little happy hop in the air as I said “You bet! Now let’s go meet this Stormy Shadow guy and get this show on the road!”

Heading towards where he was cleaning his gear, Luna called him over, quickly exchanging hushed words with him before introducing me to the veteran guard. He was a dark grey pegasus with a short cut mane of silver grey, with a lightning bolt shaped scar running down his left eye. I resisted the the temptation to make some sort of Harry Potter or the flash reference as I shook his hoof as firmly as I could.

He quirked an eye up however when our hooves were back on the ground. “So, you, a small little filly, are wanting to spar with me. You haven’t hit your head on anything recently have ya?”

“Stormy, I did explain…” Luna began, but the guard waved her off.

“Yes yes, she’s got two alien ape souls stuck inside her thanks to that chaos spirit. That’s not too crazy, but this pipsqueak wanting to fight a Royal Guard, even in a mock duel, to get some stress out? That is crazy.”

I laughed at that, smirking up at him with an amused glint in my eye as I say, “Thanks for the compliment. Crazy runs in my family, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. So, are we going to fight or not?”

Stormy looked to Princess Luna, clearly thinking this was insane. The Lunar Princess simply shrugged, leaning in to whisper, “Just don’t go all out on him. He just needs to vent after all.”

Letting out a sigh, Stormy bowed his head to Luna before giving me his full attention. “Alright maggot, lets get going then. We’ll grab you a training sword, and then we can get started.”

I nodded eagerly, racing off towards the weapon racks, a giddy smile on my face as the two older ponies followed behind me at a more subdued pace, shaking their heads at what they perceived to be madness on my own part.

As it would turn out, spending some time with Stormy Shadow was just what I needed to unwind after the failed attempt with that mind splitting spell.

“You almost got me kid. Try aiming a little lower next time and you might just come close to tapping my legs.”

I gripped the training sword in my teeth tightly. Despite the fact that I had been shown I could use my hooves to wield the thing, I found that using it in this fashion was strangely easier. Now, if I had wings like Captain Shadow here did, I could probably be a tad more dangerous; assuming I didn’t try to pole vault myself with a training staff instead.

“Grr...u’ll puy fur thut!” I shouted around the hilt as I charged once more, deciding to try and leap at him instead, turning my head so I could bring the foam covered baton on his head. Instead, I ran head first into the padded end of his spear.

“That was brilliantly done Cain. I give it a nine point five on the scale of ways NOT to attack a well trained enemy.” Strife mumbled, as Diamond Tiara giggled softly to herself.

“Up shut Strufe.” I mumbled as I picked myself up, looking at the smug grin on Stormy Shadow’s face as he remained exactly where he had been for the last ten minutes.

“You need to reevaluate what you’re doing kid.” He says, his gruff voice helping to give him the air of a grizzled, battle-hardened veteran. “Try thinking for a moment rather than just charging at me, and maybe you’ll manage to land a hit.”

I grumbled around the handle. Technically, I wasn’t all that concerned with landing any hits; the physical exertion was more than making up for my depressed and infuriated mood from earlier.

However, the challenge in his tone got my blood boiling, and so I took in a steadying breath, looking him over as I thought about what I could do. His left wing was holding the ‘spear’, so his ability to attack with it to the right was limited. He would have to turn to engage if I came from that direction.

Of course… to ensure he didn’t do that immediately, I’d have to psyche him out. This called for a feint maneuver.

With this in mind I took a few steps back, then launched myself towards the Lunar Guard, determination shining in my eyes. Shadow doesn’t seem all that worried, but considering my ill-fated charges before now, I wouldn’t be either.

As I drew within range of his weapon and he launched it forward, I rolled to my left, landing on my hooves and charging for him once more. I was nearly there when he gave a flap of his wings, the burst of wind pushing me back enough for his flank to be safe once more.

“Better, but not by much. Nice to see you can learn though.”

As I felt a strong desire to stick my tongue out at him, Luna sat nearby, watching our sparring match with an amused look on her face.

She could clearly see that Cain, and by extension Strife and Diamond Tiara, were doing much better now. She heard some soft hooffalls, and turned her head slightly to see Twilight approaching.

“Shouldn’t you be with Princess Celestia preparing the Elements for our next attempt?” Luna asked, her focus shifting more towards Twilight even as she kept herself aware of how Cain was doing.

“Princess Celestia decided to take some time looking over both spells, the one for the elements and the one the three of you used. She wants to be as sure as she can that… nothing bad happens.” Twilight replied, looking away as a forlorn expression crossed her face.

Luna sighed, draping a wing over Twilight’s back as she tried to offer her some comfort. “If this fails, you know that Celestia will still try to save all of them.”

This didn’t seem to help Twilight’s mood any. “But what if we run out of time? They’re merging together, and soon we won’t be able to do anything for them…”

Another muffled yelp from Cain informed Luna that he had once again been thwarted by Stormy Shadow. She placed her gaze firmly upon Twilight as she said, “If that happens… then it happens, and it is up to all of us as friends of Cain, Diamond Tiara, and even Strife to make it as easy for them and Diamond’s family as we can.” She paused as something Celestia had mentioned returned to her, and quickly added,

“And we would still have Cain’s own family back on Earth to try and reach, to give some form of closure to them, or for Cain’s own comfort anyways.”

“I know… I just don’t like the idea of failing any of them… and the idea that the Elements may not do what is right to free them, scares me.”

Luna is silent, so as to give Twilight a moment to herself. Sure enough, Twilight continued. “The Elements of Harmony...we’re supposed to bear them but Princess Celestia told me that they have a will of their own as well...which means they might not do what we the bearers wish.”

“It is a heavy price to pay for having such powerful artifacts at our disposal. They will do what they feel is necessary to protect Equestria...and it might not be something we always agree with.” Luna said as she turned her attention back to the duel, finding to her surprise that, now that Cain was taking things seriously, he seemed to be improving with each pass at the captain.

Twilight giggled softly as she watched Stormy Shadows narrowly deflect another attack. “If I didn’t know the truth, I’d say that he looks like he’s having fun.”

Princess Luna made a soft humming noise before stating, “I think he is actually having fun… though you are right to believe he is using this as a distraction. We all have things that we use to keep our worries at bay.”

A moment of silence passed between the two as they turned their focus to the filly taking on a stallion three times her size. Twilight seemed lost in her thoughts, but Luna felt it necessary to impart a piece of wisdom her sister had shared with her.

“Twilight… you must learn to accept that what happens, happens. Do not worry about the things you cannot control… only concern yourself with the things you can. Otherwise, you’ll wind up a nervous wreck, or maybe even worse.”

“You’re right Princess Luna, I guess I’m just over worrying about things agai-”

“YEOOUWCH!!!”

Both ponies turned their attention back to Cain and Stormy, finding the former standing triumphantly with the training saber pointed at Stormy’s neck, while the latter’s front hooves were reaching underneath his body and towards his…

“Did Cain do what I think he did?”

Princess Luna was doing her very best to not laugh, holding a hoof up to her muzzle as she let out an occasional chuckle. “I believe he did...hmhmh, I feel sorry for Stormy, even from a foal her size, an earth pony kick right there had to hurt.”

“Do you yield?” They heard Cain asking loudly, drawing the attention of some of the Solar Guards who were in the training field.

Stormy let out a very unmanly whimper, glaring up at the pink filly that had brought him down. “That was a dirty shot!”

I let out a dark chuckle, drawing on Strife slightly as I admitted “Yes, yes it was. Wasn’t many options for me though, since you’re bigger, faster, and stronger than me. So I went for what would work...eheheh, and what do you know...” I leaned in a bit, smirking as I added, “It worked very, very well. So, do you yield?”

Stormy Shadow let out a resigned grunt, leaving me with a pleased smile as I headed over towards Luna, seeing that my audience had gained a new member. “What’s wrong Twilight, you don’t approve?”

“Well, I can’t argue with its results.” She said at first, but then went on to add, “But I don’t think it was very nice. Very unsportsmanlike certainly.”

I rolled my eyes at that. “Duh, of course its both of those things. But he wanted me to treat the duel seriously, so I did. The goal of a fight is to win, to defeat your opponent and achieve your goal. If it takes dirty tricks or cheap shots… then you use them.” My smile twisted into a dark smirk, as I allowed Strife to add “No fight is ever fair, and to assume otherwise is foolishness of the highest caliber.”

The expression on my face must have unsettled the two of them, so I quickly replaced it with a small grimace. “Now, I think I’m ready to head back inside, and get pampered until its time to get blasted with the Elements, what a joy that’ll be.”

“A wise move.” Princess Luna quickly said, nodding to the two of us as she added, “Twilight will escort you back to your quarters, and I’ll send some staff by to help take care of any aches and pains you have. I will go thank Captain Shadows for his service today.”

“Righty then, tell him it was nothing personal,” I called out as the Princess went off to inspect the poor stallion. Twilight was shaking her head as I turned to her, waving my hoof back towards the hallway as I said, “Well, after you Sparkle.”

Twilight and I headed back inside, quietly walking through one castle corridor after another as Twilight led the way, me deferring to her knowledge of this place, as I was certain to have gotten utterly lost if I was on my own.

After a few minutes of silence though, it seemed that Twilight had grown tired of the silence. “Did all that really make you feel better Cain?”

I perked up at her question, sliding my gaze towards her as I asked, “What exactly do you mean by all? The duel, the getting hit repeatedly with a foam covered spear, or the bringing Stormy Shadow to the ground with a well placed buck?”

Before Twilight could form any sort of reply, I felt myself suddenly being lifted up by a pair of familiar blue hooves. Said hooves then proceeded to wiggle into my sides, laughter soon spilling out of me as I writhed under the surprise assault.

Luna smiled, adding her heavenly soft wings to the attack, "Are you feeling better now, Miss Cain?"

"Hahaha, stop that, hahaha!" I couldn’t help but laugh, my giggles filling the corridor even as I found myself wondering why Luna was doing this again.

Twilight Sparkle’s expression at seeing Luna act like that was priceless. "Princess Luna! What are you doing?" She tried to intervene on my behalf, but Luna shot her a look that seemed to keep Twilight at bay. I don’t know what it was exactly, as I was too busy being tortured to check.

Finally, after some more begging and even a few tears of laughter, Luna stopped tickling me… only to jump at Twilight Sparkle and start to tickle her! What the heck was going on?

"Hahaha, please stop Princess Luna, hahaha, oh that's it!" Twilight Sparkle shouted, falling under the same impulse that Luna seemed to have fallen under, using her magic to tickle the moon princess back.

'Egh, thank the gods she let us go.' Strife’s voice surprised me, and I rolled my eyes at his comment as I watched the two go at it like a pair of foals.

Then, without warning, I felt myself being pulled inside Diamond Tiara's mind.

Diamond Tiara, for her part watched amused, as Princess Luna and Twilight Sparkle had moved from tickling each other to throwing pillows at each other, the pillows having apparently been teleported from somewhere else or created using magic.

"Well, look at the silly foals playing!" After hearing DT saying this, Twilight Sparkle noticed what she had been doing and blushed, while Princess Luna stopped playing and used her magic to tidy things up.

"Ehem… now that everypony is more relaxed, I think, we must begin preparations." Luna stated, just as Celestia and the others arrived.

Inside Diamond Tiara's mind, I was back to being a pegasus while Strife was a unicorn. We were watching what happened outside using the slightly damaged flatscreen TV that never seemed to leave the mindscape. I shared DT’s amusement, while Strife was busy gagging.

We were both fillies, but neither of us seemed to care about it anymore. Perhaps it was because of the mind fusion, or maybe we had just accepted that this was what we were now. Or, at least in one of our cases, we figured it wasn’t worth the time and energy thinking about it.

Strife decided to style my mane while we waited, and I decided to humor her. I wondered how much of it was DT's influence and how much it was my supposedly suppressed desire to know what it was like to be a girl. I found that I didn’t mind it much, which was no surprise to me- I’d always enjoyed having my hair brushed. It was a little weird to have my ‘darker’ half doing it though.

I looked around, kind of expecting Discord to show up, but he didn’t. That made me worry; what plan did he have this time? Strife, Diamond Tiara and I were getting along quite well, so he wouldn’t have much luck attacking us emotionally again, at least not in a direct way, but what about being indirect? What would Discord do to others just to make us snap?

Thinking about that, I also found myself thinking about Twilight’s question. I hadn’t really gotten a chance to answer her before Luna started tickling us. Taking a moment to consider it, I discovered that I was actually feeling better now after the brief bit of silliness with Luna, and with Strife messing around with my hair than I had after the fight.

Not to say it hadn’t helped. The destructive urges from within myself, and more predominantly Strife, were gone now, but it hadn’t really been enough to have me feeling happy and ready to skip about playfully as I felt now.

'Is it really any surprise? Strife’s usually the one wanting to lash out, I’m the one who wants to be comforted more than anything.' I thought to myself as I saw Celestia and Luna leading us back to the throne room, where the chest containing the Elements of Harmony was now resting.

“Well Strife, looks like its time for attempt number three. Think it’ll work?” I asked, turning to look at her, only to find her holding her hooves over her mouth and snickering. I glanced up and found that he’d changed my mane into an exact replica of what Trixie had done to Rarity’s mane back in Boast Busters.

“You’re lucky swamp green goes with my dark blue coat…” I muttered, pushing her onto the floor before standing up and shaking it back to normal. “Come on ya big oaf, we might as well face whatever is going to happen with honor.”

Strife harrumphed at that. “Honor is for the living, if you recall. If this kills us, we won’t have much honor to think about.”

I was trying not to think about that possibility, so I simply said, “Oh, I didn’t forget. Now come on, I’m tired of playing observer.”

With that, I pulled Strife against me, ignoring his complaints as I closed my eyes, feeling like I was swimming up through water, until I eventually breached the surface, reasserting control of Diamond’s body.

“... and so I wish to reiterate, Diamond, that even if this does not work, we will do everything in our power to try and save all three of you.” Celestia finished saying, drawing my attention to her as I became responsible for movement and speech again.

“I understand Princess… though if we merge, I don’t know what good it’ll do to keep trying. It could take years to find an answer if the Elements fail as well.”

“Speak for yourself. I don’t care how long it takes, I’d prefer to be stuck with just you than merged with you and Tiara butt.” Strife commented, earning glares from me and Diamond, not that anyone else could see. “What? I may be able to stand Cain, but I prefer being myself, not absorbed into someone else!”

“Do not get too upset at him, Cain. Individuality is a very important thing to many people.” Luna declared, though I got the distinct feeling she wasn’t talking purely to me. “And Strife is very individualistic, even if the merging has weakened it somewhat.”

“And that’s part of the reason I’m so irritated by this. So come on! Let’s get this show on the road, and blast us with that Friendship Cannon of yours!”

Celestia and Luna rolled their eyes at this, while the Mane Six looked rather confused. “Twillight, do ya’ll have any idea what she’s talkin’ about?” AJ asked, to which Twilight simply shook her head.

“Oh oh oh! Maybe he’s talking about my Party Cannon!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, whipping out the aforementioned piece of celebratory artillery.

“Where did thou pull that from?” Luna inquired, eyes wide with shock as she gazed first at the pink party pony, then at the cannon.

“Don’t ask.” Everyone said at once, earning a few giggles and chuckles as Celestia asked Pinkie Pie to save the cannon for later.

“You’re right, this isn’t a time for partying. We can party after we get Cain and his meanie-pants side out of Diamond Tiara!”

Strife was ready to start sputtering indignantly when Pinkie called him a ‘meanie-pants’, but Twilight cleared her throat and said “Cain, would you step into the center of the circle please? We’re ready to give this a shot.”

I took a moment to gather my thoughts, relax and slow my beating heart. I had a feeling that being anxious or worried was going to make this even less likely to work, so I needed to be completely and totally calm. When I was sure I had prepared myself, I solemnly stepped into the center.

Looking around me, I soaked in the faces of everypony. Each of them had a look of determination and hope in their eyes. It filled me with renewed hope that this would work. With all of my friends around me and lending me their strength, how could it not?

Twilight closed her eyes as magic began to thrum within her crown, the Element of Magic soon glowing with a radiant light as it was activated. As the magical energy flowed, the remaining elements began to brighten as the arcane power swelled. I could feel my body tingling from how much magic was beginning to fill the air.

The glowing elements soon were joined together by a band of multicolored light, which began to circle around all of us before spiraling towards Twilight’s crown. It gathered there in a single orb of energy...before blasting out towards me.

The rainbow blast struck me, and at first, it seemed to work. I felt a feeling of peace beginning to fill me, and I could see the outline of a human forming next to me.

But then it wavered, briefly shifting into a familiar mismatched shape, and promptly, it scattered into nothingness. That’s when the most agonizing sensation began to creep up my legs. It was like my hooves were being dipped into molten lava, and then promptly dropped in liquid nitrogen. And it didn’t stop, spreading slowly up first my front, and then my back legs.

“M-M-Make it ssstooopp! PLEASE!!!" We screamed out as one, all three of us getting the honor of feeling it, which only served to amplify the torture we were being placed under.

At this point, I would have preferred either of the other two methods. At least I could feel something still. For in the parts already transformed to stone, all I was left with was a sort of detached, ghostly essence. I knew my legs were still there, but they might as well have not existed to my mind.

It was maddening.

"Stop! This is only making things worse!" Luna yelled, and seemed ready to bolt and get in front of the elements, but Celestia held her back, biting on her tail and stopping her from interfering as Twilight and the others desperately worked to cancel the spell.

The rainbow of light slowly weakened, until it faded completely, and with it, the magical aura surrounding the bearers of the Elements. Of course, it didn’t do me much good, as the lower half of my body was still stuck in stone.

“H-H-H-Help! S-Somepony do something!” I shouted, feeling a desire to stomp my hooves in distress, and the inability to do so only seemed to heighten my growing anxiety.

“Calm down, all three of you.” Luna said, just as the moon pendant that Luna had given us flashed with a brilliant light. It bathed us in its magic, and when it faded, the petrification was gone, my legs and lower body feeling as normal as ever.

Unfortunately, it seemed to be way too much for the magic trinket, for cracks quickly criss-crossed over it before promptly crumbling into ash and dust. And with it...much of my control.

Angry, dark emotions that had been buried deep down by both myself, Strife, and even Diamond Tiara began to surface up. A black and red aura of magical energy began to glow around me as a furious scowl formed on our face.

“I knew it...I knew it would fail! I knew the elements wouldn’t do us any good, and now I’m going to get stuffed inside the melting pot with you two asshats!”

“I-I’m… I’m never going to see my mom and sister, my cat… my home…”

“W-Will everypony accept the new me? W-Will I even realize I’m different? W-What if Mamma and Daddy d-dont want me anymore?”

Anguish, anger, fury, despair, horror, fear, trepidation...I felt these and many more welling up, boiling up to the surface and seeking a way to be unleashed. And the perfect targets for it all for standing around me, many of them looking at me with concern and worry…

And that only made the feelings worse.

Then, Princess Luna approached us, gazing down at us as darkness began to swim at the edge of our vision. I could distantly hear Celestia trying to say something, sounding almost panicky, but I was slipping too far in the black and inky void to be able make any guess of what was going on.

And soon… everything faded away.

The darkness didn’t remain around us for long, at least not entirely. Soon I could feel our body moving with slow, stuttering breathes. Slowly, I opened my eyes, finding that I could see our own hooves and everything, but everything else was draped in an inky blackness.

“Cain? Can you hear us? Can you see us?”

I looked around at the sound of Luna’s voice calling out to me, all the emotions raging within me forgotten for a moment as I tried to figure out what was going on. After a minute of fruitlessly looking around, I growled “I’m not in the mood for games, Princess! Just show yourself if you wish to speak!”

“Such an impatient child, isn’t he? No appreciation for drama and tension,” a different, but no less familiar voice called out. An orb of light up above came into being, bathing this place in silvery moonlight. The moon sent a shaft down to illuminate a small table, where Princess Luna sat with another, one I did not expect to ever meet in my time here.

“Nightmare Moon?” I asked, now adding confusion to the bubbling cauldron of my emotional state as I slowly walked forward, feeling oddly wary of this place now that I knew the Tyrant of the Night was here. Even if she was smiling and seemed to be having Tea with her good hearted double.

“I told you Luna, you should have introduced us before.” She remarked as I took a seat a good six feet away from the two of them, not in the mood for joining them in their nonsense.

“Cain, we need to talk.” Luna began as she tried to gesture me closer, but I wasn’t budging, so she simply continued. “Nightmare Moon might or not have been born because of an outside influence, but she was still a part of me. I know that you understand there is no light without darkness.”

“And so, to be able to get back to my full power upon my return, I had to accept what was left of her.” A cup then rose up, to which she poured some tea and offered it to me. “Do you want sugar with it?”

My response, or rather Strife and I’s response was to backhand the cup and saucer, sending it flying off into the darkness that still surrounded us. “I don’t want any damned tea, I want you to get to the point.”

Luna frowned at my aggressive display, but sighed as she said “Cain… the truth is, you might not have originally existed. You might be a copy from a being from another world, or even a creation of Discord’s twisted imagination, but Diamond Tiara has accepted you anyway, with all your faults and virtues. She even accepted Strife, the part of you that hurt her the most. Do you have an idea how rare that is? How strong the bonds of friendship that you three share are?”

Nightmare Moon chose that moment to chime in, “Cain, you and I have a lot in common. And I am not talking about evil and eternal night!” She chuckled at this, but stopped when she saw I wasn’t joining her. She grunted as she idly sipped her tea. “We both are beings that should not exist, created to inflict harm and pain, yet despite all that, we went beyond that. Because we were offered friendship we did not really deserve.”

“So, are you just going to let go of that? So what if you never return home, whatever it is? I can see it in your eyes Cain. You… you weren’t really happy there. Just like Luna wasn’t happy in the past, when ponies prefered Celestia over us, when they went to sleep early in fear of the monsters that hid in the darkness and they ignored our beautiful night. When our own sister ignored us because her duties as a ruler did not leave her enough free time!”

My previous glare intensified, anger beginning to manifest itself. This whiny bitch thinks she can tell US how WE feel? Strife and I thought together, even as Luna tried to calm things down.

“Nightmare! That’s enough! ” Luna shouted, also glaring at her darker counterpart, but Nightmare Moon didn’t seem to care.

“No, she needs to hear this!” Nightmare Moon said as she used her magic to draw me closer to her, ignoring my attempts to stay back as she brought me muzzle to muzzle. Her eyes locked gazes with mine, and we stared daggers at each other.

“Why can’t you stop being so blind? You have real, true friends here in Equestria. Why can’t you talk with your friends about what troubles you? Twilight Sparkle, without knowing you, decided to save both you and Diamond Tiara. And that was just the start of kindness you have received. Are you just going to ignore all that? Will you continue to spit on the face of your friends?”

Any other time, we might have thought about that and realized that she was speaking at least somewhat truthfully. But… what she had said a moment ago, and the assumptions she was making about us…

“You’re right Nightmare Moon...we are alike. But not how you think.” I said, the rage surging to the surface as our eyes began to see red. “The only similarity we share is being taken away from the world we love and care about, the world that we call home. Only you at least had the ability to go back to your home, you had the chance to regain what you had lost.”

Our voice was rising, going from a soft whisper to a furious bellow. The lid to our emotions had been taken off, and we weren’t going to hold back.

“But us? NO! We’re stuck in a land that is not ours, in a place that we do not belong. We have no way of telling our loved ones what has happened to us, if they even know that we are gone! We can’t even see them from on high as you could!” Strife and I were speaking in unison know, drawing on our combined feelings as an insatiable firestorm of anger welled within us and lashed out against Nightmare Moon.

“And you dare to tell us we were not happy! Our life might not have been perfect, but we had moments of joy, of happiness and laughter despite its pitfalls. Even when times were tough, we stuck to each other and supported each other through it all!” The irony of this would not hit me til later, but I was too consumed in the moment to consider it.

“I want MY life back. I want OUR life back. Its ours, and I don’t care what you say, I will never stop desiring to return to it. Not you, not the elements, not even Discord himself can tell me that I will never be able to return to my home, to MY family. To where I belong!”

My head was spinning, stomach churning as the strength of the emotions pouring out of me began to overwhelm me. I fell to the ground, Nightmare Moon no longer able to hold me up as I stumbled back.

“My life… my family… I want them… I want it back…” I mumbled softly, the darkness swirling back in, blocking the Princess and Nightmare Moon from view as they called out to me.

I didn’t hear them. I didn’t want to… and so I embraced the darkness as it swallowed me whole.

“Here we are, the Royal Palace of Canterlot!”

The four fillies stood before the gates of Canterlot Palace, the heart of Equestria and residence of the Royal Sisters. Even with the anger they were all feeling towards Diamond and that hairless ape Cain rattling around in her head, they took a moment to stand and stare at it in awe. It was so big, and seemed like the place might swallow them whole.

“Well, enough gawking, we need to go tell Queen Brat Flanks a thing or two.” Scootaloo declared, stomping a hoof on the bridge as she started forward, Silver Spoon and Applebloom following along after her.

“Yeah! They’ve got a lot coming to them after everything all of them have done to us!” Applebloom shouted, Silver Spoon nodding in agreement.

“Most certainly true, don’t you agree Sweetie Belle?” Sweetie Belle?” She stopped and turned, noticing that Sweetie Belle was looking between two stone statues, looking highly confused. “Sweetie, are you okay?”

Scootaloo craned her neck around upon realizing their friend was still on the bridge. “Yeah Sweetie, what’s up?”

“Girls... I really think we shouldn't do this.” Sweetie Belle said nervously, "It feels… wrong."

"Come on, don't be such a scaredy cat, are you gonna let bullies push you all your life?" Applebloom said, nearly glaring at her long time friend as Scootaloo joined in.

“Yeah! Diamond Tiara has been a pain in our flanks for far too long, and she even turned on her best friend!”

Silver Spoon nodded, smirking as she said “We’re not doing anything wrong Sweetie Belle. We’re simply helping to wake up Diamond Tiara to the truth. She’s long overdue on a wake up call wouldn’t you say?”

"F-Fine then! Lets go and do this! A-And I’m not a scaredy cat!" Sweetie Belle said, ignoring the sensation that something was wrong due to both peer pressure and not wanting to be called a coward. I have to be brave, why I was worried about this anyway?

Unknown to the four of them, a ghostly visage hiding in the shadow of a nearby tower chuckled darkly, before slipping off further into the palace.

Diamond awoke to find that she was back inside the guest quarters, and for a moment she was very confused, and a little scared. What had happened? How had she gotten here? The last thing she remembered was being in the throne room with the Princesses and the Bearers of the Elements…

And then...darkness, and a great deal of voiceless pain and fury. Everything else was blurry though, as if she was looking at it through a dirty window.

Guess I should see what’s going on… maybe the Princesses told Mamma and Daddy they have another plan…

Jumping off the couch, she looked about the room, finding that no one was around, except for one of the Palace servants who was cleaning her parents bedroom. She was kind enough to say that her Mom and Dad were with the royal sisters, discussing what had happened earlier.

Thanking her, she left the room, trying to track down the conference room...which wasn’t proving all that easy, as she quickly found herself getting lost and unable to find anyone who could help her. The halls seemed to be strangely lacking in guards and servants, leaving each corridor eerily silent as each hoof-step became the only sound in the palace.

Eventually, she managed to stumble her way outside into the Royal Gardens, quickly stopping at a bench next to a rather realistic looking statue of a gardener.

“Where the heck is everypony… matter of fact, why hasn’t Cain or Strife said anything?” She asked, well herself since there wasn’t anypony to talk to. She could feel both of their presences in her mind, but they also seemed to be...elsewhere. Preoccupied.

“Cain! Diamond Tiara! We need to talk to you!” A familiar voice shouted out, causing her ears to perk up as she looked up from one of the stone tiles that had been set into the ground nearby. She found, to her amazement, that Scootaloo and the rest of the Crusaders, and even her best friend, were striding towards her.

“Girls? What are all of you doing here?” She asked, completely surprised by this turn of events. She wondered for a brief moment if this was the doing of the Princesses… but as she looked at her friends… she noticed that not a single one of them looked happy.

In fact… they all seemed to have hatred blazing within their gazes, save for Sweetie Belle who seemed to be more confused then anything.

“We’re here to tell you how we really feel Diamond Tiara, or should we say Queen Meanie, Liar Tiara, or Jerk-Flanks?” Silver Spoon began as she stopped in front of her, the CMC taking up positions on her sides.

“Yeah, we’re tired of yer lies and abusive behaviour! Ya’ll could have sent poor Scootaloo to the hospital!” Applebloom said, poking Diamond accusingly in the side as she stared daggers into her.

W-What is going on? I-I thought they forgave me? Her mouth flapped open as she tried to say something, but for some reason, she couldn’t get any words to form.

“Diamond Tiara, you, you, have yet to apologize to me and make up for that newspaper article you wrote about me. Cain was the one who did that, and he only did it to try and make things easier for himself. Wasn’t all that hard for him really, since that dinky tiara you always wear meant nothing to him, right?” Silver Spoon said.

“Uh… Diamond Tiara, I’m tired of you… being a big meanie pants?” Sweetie Belle said, a hint of hesitation in her voice. She didn’t seem as sure of her words, but the others...

This must be a trick of Discord, i-it has to be... but…

“Cain, Diamond Tiara, both of you are nothing more than liars and cheats! I don't want to be your friend, in fact I’m surprised I ever considered being one!” Scootaloo shouted, looking quite angry. If she didn’t know any better, she’d have said she was just seconds away from lashing out at her with her hooves.

Applebloom again chimed in, “We aren’t gonna tolerate what ya do no more Diamond Tiara. Always insulting us, calling us blank flanks, mocking us. No more, Ah don't want to ever talk to ya ever again!”

W-Where are all the others? Princess Celestia and Luna? The mane six as Cain and Strife call them? Why are they letting them talk to me like this? Why can't I tell them anything? I know I am not the best pony around but… I’ve been trying to be better!

A chuckle filled the air, sending shivers down Diamonds spine as a voice said, “Oh, its just like the good ol’ days back in Canterlot, isn’t it DT?” A moment later, Discord flashed into being next to her, even as the rest of the world around her seemed to grow still.

“Discord!”

“After all, Friendship is Magic but you… you don't have friends!” Discord guffawed at this, mimicking a sad and distraught pony as he added, “Oh woe is a pony without friends to prop her up, guahahaha!”

"That's not true! I-I do have friends… y-you just did something to make them like this didn’t you?"

Discord didn’t seem to hear her, as he continued on, “Where are the Princesses now? Twilight Sparkle? Where are the ponies who said they would help you?” His laughter was grating on her ears, but more than that each chuckle was a stab to the heart.

“T-They’ll come and help! They promised!”

Discord’s laughter stopped, but the smirk was still firmly planted on his face as he gazed directly at her. “Really? Because all I see here is four little fillies who got tired of you jerking them around, lying to them, and otherwise being a spoiled little brat.”

Diamond Tiara felt her breath hitching in her throat, gulping as she stammered out, "I… I still have Cain and Strife. T-They’ll will help me!"

A wide, wicked smile spread across Discords goat-like muzzle as he pulled himself to his full height. “Oh really? Do you honestly believe that? Why don’t you take a look at this.” He then turned her around, forcing her to gaze at what he wished to show her.

Only, she wasn’t exactly sure what it was he was trying to show her. Darkness? Chaos? Her mind refused to make sense of it, and just looking at it hurt, so she was forced to close her eyes.

A moment later though...she heard voices...familiar voices, and her eyes quickly shot open as she gazed upon the sight of Cain staring down… somepony… it took her a moment to realize they were staring at her.

“C-Cain! Strife! C-Can you hear me? Are you two okay? Do you feel wrong?”

“This whiny bitch thinks she can tell US how WE feel?”

She cringed as she heard them both shout that at her, taking a step back as her eyes began to water. “I-I n-never t-tried to do that… h-honest… a-and I’m not whiny…”

‘We’re stuck in a land that is not ours, in a place that we do not belong…’

Each word felt like a knife to the heart, and even as she tried to gather her strength, she could feel tears beginning to trail down her face. “W-We can't let Discord win! P-P-Please, I-I’m scared, I can’t do this alone!”

‘I want MY life back. I want OUR life back. Its ours!’

“Guys… are you even listening to me?”

‘My life… my family… I want them… I want it back…’

Their visage faded, leaving her alone in the darkness with only the Spirit of Chaos for company. He snickered to himself as he saw her looking down at the ground, tears now freely falling down her face.

“See? All you did for them, all you sacrificed for those two, and they don’t care!” Discord whispered into her ear.

“Is.. is that true?” Diamond Tiara asked, looking back up at where Cain and Strife’s voices had come from. Though she could no longer see their face, their voice continued.

‘No matter what… I want to go home!’

Diamond Tiara didn’t know what to think anymore… could this really be how Cain and Strife felt? Did everything they’d gone through mean nothing?

Diamond Tiara had tried to be nice, she had tried to be good, but no matter what she did, it didn't work. The Cutie Mark Crusaders and Silver Spoon hated her. The Princesses, Twilight Sparkle and the elements seemed unable to help her… and the two ponies she had sacrificed the most for, the two ponies who she had started to see as sisters to her… hated her.

And then… something broke inside the earth pony filly.

Meanwhile, in the center of the Royal Statue Garden, dark laughter echoed across the grounds as Discord's statue cracked, fractures slowly spreading from the center and moving outward.

One moment, we were yelling at Nightmare Moon, which was a feat in of itself, and then the next, we were in the middle of the Royal Statue Garden, alone with nopony and no one about save for the various statues of ponies working or celebrating some victory or other. Our face had tears flowing down it, and our head spun a bit. It felt like we’d just went through a weird mental whiplash…

“Ugh… this is getting really tiresome… one more adventure in our mind or wherever the hell that place was and I think I’m going to hit something.” I said to myself as I felt the emotions slowly simmering back to the surface.

Then, before I could think, say, or do much else, I felt Strife taking the reigns as our head turned up to look up at a familiar statue.

"Hello daddy, having fun?" Strife said in a sweet, almost sing-song tone, tinged with a bit of sarcasm. Or perhaps a lot, I couldn’t tell.

"Oh yes, this has been quite amusing. So… what happened to all your anger?"

"It’s still there. So… going a bit heavy on illusions have you? Is that the best you can do? I could probably do better." Strife replied, tempering the emotions roiling within us with practiced ease. Not surprising, given that he was born from my repressed emotions and thoughts.

"They worked, didn't they? What, you expected me to go all big and showy with the Elements bearers being a mere trot away?"

“What the heck are you two talking about?” I asked, trying to assert some control so I could glare at the statue. I didn’t get very far on that front.

"Oh, Didn't you figure it out? Discord here been messing with Diamond Tiara while we were busy talking with the moon butt and dark snooty!" Strife commented idly, not seeming to be concerned by such information.

"Really? Well isn’t that swell, as if it wasn’t bad enough you had to torture her, now Discord’s joined in the fun." I replied, wondering just what Discord was up to now and how he planned to further mess with our already sucky day. And what he had done for the mane six to not notice.

"Also, we left the Nightmare-scape, but this is another illusion, so we’re probably asleep in that room. Or something stupid like that..." Strife replied, glaring at the statue with enough hate that it could kill, but he did nothing else, refusing to do what Discord wanted… whatever that may be.

"True, but if you two got me free here, it would give me the push needed to get free for real. Wouldn’t that be fun?”

Strife harrumphed, rolling his eyes as he said, "And why would we do that? I may think the Princesses and the Mane six are a bunch of useless foals, but I also hate you daddy!"

"Power. You want it, don't you? Power to get your own body, power to do whatever you want, power so others stop pushing you! So you can be exactly as you want to be!”

"Let me see if I got this straight...I free you, and I get my own body, free of crown butt here. And I’ll get to do whatever I want?" I felt Strife taking control and moving us in front of the statue. "You should have told me that from the get go, instead of all this bullcrap we’ve had to deal with..."

"Oh, but I couldn't, even if I had wanted to.” Discord said, vaguely waving Strife’s complaint away as he continued. “You weren’t... matured yet. And of course, I didn’t have as much of my power back. I’ll need to thank Celestia for returning some of it to me.”

With that, he chuckled as he pointed to the statue, “So… what do you say, ready to meet your daddy for real?"

"And what about me huh? Are you offering me to get back home?" I asked, not intending to let Strife be the only one who got what he wanted.

"Oh, well, if you’re still hung up on returning to Earth, I guess I could do that, but first, I need to have access to all my powers. To do that… I need to be free.”

The offer was incredibly tempting… and seeing as it was Discord who had brought us here in the first place, it made sense that he would be able to send us back. Besides, the Elements and the best the Princesses could throw at us had failed. Surely Discord could succeed where they failed…

But first, there was something I was confused about, Something Discord had said. "Wait… I want to know, what do you mean by saying Strife wasn’t mature yet?"

"All the pain and suffering, all that torture, it was needed to turn Strife into an actual sentient, thinking being, one who not only had the power of Disharmony, but was willing to use it. To sum it up, I am the daddy, Diamond Tiara is the unwilling mother, Cain is the nanny and Strife is my lovely daughter!"

For a brief moment, both of us stared blankly at Discord… and then Strife started gagging, which was rather difficult as I was busy laughing my ass off. Talk about a twisted up family.

I didn’t really agree with the idea of Strife being created by Discord… but I could certainly see him messing with my darker half and claiming he was his creation. "Ahahah… okay, since you're involved, that makes perfect sense. But then...if that’s true, why were we fusing with Diamond Tiara? Wouldn’t that mess with your stupid plans?"

"Oh, Diamond’s mind is treating the two of you like split personalities. Fusing with her means you would get ‘cured’.” Discord rolled his eyes at the very idea of such a thing, but got back to the issue at hoof.

“All those struggles and fights, they just helped my child to become real enough. Magic is funny like that, without the Element bearers, the princesses and other ponies acknowledging Strife’s existence, she would be incomplete. Oh, and what Luna did to try to save you three from my evil? I don't know exactly what it was, but it helped."

"Clap your hooves if you believe?" Strife humming softly to him… herself, summing up what Discord had just said.

"Exactly!"

I shook my head as I allowed it all to sink into my head. All this gods blasted time..."So… we all just played right into your plans? Everything has gone according to plan?"

"Oh, not exactly. After all, that assumes I had a plan in the first place. Chaos Magic tends to do the opposite of what one EXACTLY wants it to do, unless its something funny or nonsensical, so I just used my magic to find some way to free myself, and I ended being a daddy along the way. Oh my, I think I’m going to shed some fatherly tears… I’m so proud of myself."

"Talk, talk talk… you love the sound of your own voice, don't you?" Strife said then kicked the statue, while I watched, horror struck at what he was doing.

"W-Wait… what are you doing?" I shouted, trying to keep him from doing any more damage, noting that the statue had a hoof shaped indent in it and was beginning to crack.

"What you don't have the balls to do, quite literally, since you’re a filly. I don't care who my father is, or if I was created as an accident, but I don't want to end up fusing with the spoiled little princess here, even if she is one of the few ponies I hate less than the rest." Then Strife kicked the statue again, and again, and I couldn't stop her because despite myself, I wanted the same thing Strife did… well, sort of.

Freedom. We both wanted Freedom… to be free of a body that we didn’t belong in, and in my case, a world that wasn’t mine. Soon enough, I was joining in, and together we smashed our hooves against the statue of Discord again and again and again. Discord tried to make the moment more dramatic by playing "I want to break free" from Queen in the background.

Our emotions boiled over as we stamped the former lawn ornament into nothing more than a pile of rubble, both of us panting as we stood before it, feeling a great deal better regardless of what might come next.

Laughter then echoed around us as the rubble began to glow, and seconds later, a powerful blast of white light blinded us, and the world spun. A feeling of weightlessness came over us for a time, and everything seemed to be fine and peaceful.

Then pain lanced through us as we felt ourselves being pulled away, the distant presence of Diamond Tiara moving away until we couldn’t sense her anymore. Following that, the pain receded for a moment as we suddenly got to experience what it felt like to be outside a body. I would describe it as feeling like an amorphous blob hanging in the air…

And of course, the pain then returned as new limbs began to grow, as our body took shape and form. Neither of us could see yet, but we soon felt different shaped arms… mismatched pair of legs… a tail joined the party soon, and a moment later a set of wings burst forth from our back, and soon a mane and horns began to grow from atop our head.

It wasn’t a very pleasant experience, not that Chaos Magic… or Discord gave a damn. It was only after all of these feelings that the pain began to fade, and our vision began to return.

The first thing I notice is that we are on all fours, chest heaving as we take our first breathes in our new body, promptly coughing a fair bit as the world continues to spin a bit. Our head hurt, our wings hurt… actually, I’ll save time and just say we hurt all over.

The second thing I noticed was that we seemed to be in the Royal Gardens, though not the section that held all the statues. Nearby was the nearly prone form of Diamond Tiara, who seemed to have had a rough time of it as well in the process that tore us away from her.

"Diamond?" Strife called out in a worried tone, trying to get closer to her, only for our body to fall down. Looking down, it seemed we had tripped over our own tail "Dumb tail!"

“You know Strife, it might be a good idea to get used to the new body first before walking about in it willy nilly?” I snarked as I tried to push ourselves up to our back feet. It took some effort, and a bit of pain, but we were able to stand up, something we were much more used too.

Of course, doing so also gave us an opportunity to look ourselves over a bit better. It seemed that whatever Discord had done had turned us into a Draconequus, and at least at first glance, it seemed we might almost be a carbon copy of Discord. I shook our head at that...which brought a tuft of white mane into our field of vision.

Well, thats different at least. I thought to myself as I used the lion paw to brush it back into place, getting a feel for our shorter muzzle as well. So, not a complete copy then. Well, it wasn’t important, we needed to check on Diamond.

After all, we may have wanted to be free, but not at the expense of her life.

Just as we were bending over and trying to make sure she was fine, a single golden flash of light to our left drew our attention. When it faded, we were looking into the concerned faces of The Mane Six, Princess Cadence, and the cold gazes of the Royal Twins.

Strife looked at the Elements and the angry princesses, knew Discord had just set her up and in a move that was completely stupid said "Uh… I will give you guys free chocolate rain if you let me go?"

Neither of the Princesses looked amused, though Pinkie Pie naturally chimed in with a “Oh oh oh could you pretty please? That rain was so awesome and chocolatey and yummy and tasty and-mumumhphh.”

“Not now Pinkie Pie. Not now.” Applejack said as Pinkie continued describing how wonderful chocolate rain was around her hoof. Twilight was the first however to try and take a less… confrontational stance.

"Cain… how could you?" Twilight Sparkle said, her disappointed face making me cringe and take a step back. Having one of your favorite characters of all time looking at you like that burns a fair bit, especially since… she had saved me before.

"I… I did'nt want to end up fused with Diamond Tiara, I didn't want to…. I just…”

Before I could try to say anything to explain myself, before the Princesses could blast me then and there… a gleeful cackle filled the air around us and made the Mane Six look up warily at the area around them.

“Ohhoho, what a wonderful thing it is to be free once again! And I didn’t even have to wait a thousand years this time.” Discord said as he flashed into being a short ways behind me, his casual smirk only managing to draw the Princesses ire away from me.

SPLAT!

Discord was surprised, did somepony just threw a pie in his face? “That’s for making me think laughter was bad!” Pinkie Pie shouted, giggling as she said “Heheh, now he looks like Santa Hooves.”

"Pinkie Pie! This is serious!" Twilight Sparkle complained.

"Oh, you mean the fact that Cain and Strife have just been born as Discord's daughter and that they got their daddy free? And that... " Pinkie Pie then looked at Diamond Tiara "Oopsie, kinda forgot about her, sorry, gotta do something!" She rushed forward, snatching up Diamond Tiara and nuzzling her as she set her on the nearby bench, working to rouse her from her comatose like state.

Twilight and the others simply stared, mouths agape at what Pinkie Pie had just said, turning their gazes back to us even as Celestia took a forceful step towards Discord. “You’ve miscalculated Discord. We’re ready for you this time… and we have the Elements ready to seal you away for good this time!”

“We’ll deal with thou after we finish with this malicious spirit of madness.” Luna added, her gaze having never left me through this entire discussion.

"Oh, but that would be a rerun, wouldn't it? Besides, I just got free, and you think you can end the game at Stage One? I don't think so!" Discord then snapped his claws, got into tourist gear and… teleported away in a spark of confetti?

That left every pony, save for the unconscious Diamond Tiara and for Pinkie Pie... who seemed to be taking notes, with their mouths open.

"What? But this doesn't…" Twilight Sparkle seemed quite confused about what just happened… "Did Discord… just leave? Just like that?"

"My dear student , you’ve been living in Ponyville for a while, you have dealt with Pinkie Pie and Discord before, doing what ponies don't expect is usual for their type." Celestia said, quite hypocritical of her as she was quite the troll herself when she could.

"Hey, don't put me in the same box than him! That’s insulting." Pinkie Pie then looked at the new chimera like being. "Can I have my chocolate now?"

"Wait, wait, wait…. are you saying that this creature here is Discord's daughter, and he just dumped her with us?" Applejack was angry, her distaste at such an action rather obvious.

“I do not know whether or not this is Discord’s ‘daughter…” Luna says as she steps forward, conjuring a set of magical manacles as she said “But she has just broken free one of the most dangerous foes Equestria has ever known.”

"She is Cain… or Strife or both… " Twilight Sparkle said, rubbing her forehead from the headache she was beginning to develop.

"Hey, wait a minute here. Can somepony please explain what's going on?" Rainbow Dash asked confused. "Last thing I remembered was that they sent Diamond Tiara to rest in the guest quarters, and… something about Luna using a shadow or something?"

“Those questions can be answered later… for now, we must ensure that we do not have any further problems to deal with then Discord alone.” Celestia said as she nodded to her sister, who clamped the manacles down on our hands, something Strife was not all that pleased with.

“Get these blasted things off me!” She said, snapping her fingers and trying to use the magic she assumed we had… only for a few sparks to flit from our hands and earn a small zap from the chains.

Meanwhile, I tried to reason with them. “G-Girls...Princesses… I-I’m sorry… I just… I just wanted to go home… see my family…"

"Sorry Strife, but you lost our trust." Fluttershy said in a sad tone. "I admit… we had no way to help you… but… you betrayed us."

"Darling… I understand why you did what you did, but we can't just let you roam free." Rarity then looked at Diamond Tiara, "How is she?'"

Upon seeing everypony look worried at Diamond Tiara, Strife seemed to retreat inside our mind. Leaving me to face the music as Luna pushed us away from the gardens, silent as the night as I was lead to an uncertain fate.

Princess Luna left us in a cell, that was apparently reinforced to deny anypony inside the use of magic. Then she locked the door, shaking her head before turning and leaving us alone.

As we sat there, staring past the bars and feeling a desire to lash out... Strife and I made a solemn vow to each other.

Discord would pay for leaving us in this mess… and not holding up to his promises. Even if it killed us… we would make him regret just abandoning us.

Then, perhaps because she did not like Discord up and dumping us like that, Applejack sneaked close to our cell and left us a few apples. A few minutes later, Pinkie Pie came and left us a birthday cake with the words "Happy Birthday Cain + Strife!"

"Happy birthday to us…" Yeah, as sad as it sounds, today we were technically born by getting our own body was also the day we let the King of Disharmony free to roam Equestria.

What a wonderful clusterbuck.