//------------------------------//
// Loyalty's Betrayal 
// Story: My Little Pony: Through Space and Time 
// by Magic Step 
//------------------------------//

All the ponies had been rounded up by the pegasi and were being tied up in a clearing slightly beyond Sweet Apple Homes. The foals didn't scream or cry; they just stared at the flames licking up the place they'd found safety.

"All present and accounted for, Captain," said one pegasi.

"Perfect," said Captain Dash.

Scootaloo was flying over the fire, singing, "Watch it burn, burn, burn, up in flames, flames, flames..."

"Scootaloo!" Captain Dash said. "Stop singing and get down here!"

Scootaloo landed in front of Aunt Jackie. She grabbed her mane and yanked her close. "Betcha feeling the heat now, huh Black Jack? Now there's only one member of your treacherous family left." She turned around. "And I think I hear her coming."

"SCOOTALOO!" Apple Bloom screamed, blasting everypony's eardrums and shattering all the windows.

Scootaloo wheeled around and whipped out a dagger. "Leave her!" she shouted, launching herself into the air. "She's mine! All mine!"

"Apple Bloom!" Aunt Jackie shouted. "Leave! Now!"

"Not without Scootaloo," Apple Bloom replied grimly.

The two ponies zoomed towards each other, with Scootaloo banking to the side at the last minute and slashing at Apple Bloom with her dagger as she passed.

"Coward!" Apple Bloom shouted. "EXTERMINATE!"

"Call her off, Dashie!" Aunt Jackie shouted. "Git your murderous little protégé back on the ground this instant!"

"Who are you to give my captain orders?" Princess Twilight demanded.

"You know what Starswirl said would happen if we betrayed our elements, don' you?" said Aunt Jackie. "Need Ah remind you?"

Apple Bloom fired a series of electric blasts from her hoof cannon. Scootaloo dodged them all, and the electricity set some trees on fire.

"So much for a protector!" Scootaloo shouted. "You're nothing but a destroying angel!"

"You should know about destruction, you psycho!" Apple Bloom shouted back.

"Honesty will twist and warp," said Aunt Jackie. She shifted her metal legs. "Ah suppose you could interpret this as warped, if you're an idiot. But enough about that."

"You used to be my friend," Apple Bloom said.

"There is only the Captain," said Scootaloo, diving just in time to avoid a blast of lightning. "She is the only pony I will follow."

"She sold you out for her own freedom! She left you to grow weak and crazy!"

"She is the only pony I care about!" Scootaloo repeated. "You tried to destroy her. Now I will destroy you!"

Aunt Jackie continued, "Kindness will seal herself in stone, Generosity will grow cold as ice..."

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo smashed into each other, and Scootaloo seized Apple Bloom's helmet and arm while Apple Bloom tried to twist her hoof cannon around to shoot Scootaloo.

"Laughter will turn completely insane, Magic will be forever alone... do you know what Loyalty's betrayal will end in?"

Scootaloo scraped along Apple Bloom's armor with her dagger. The blade slipped between two plates on her stomach, and there was a sound like glass cracking.

Apple Bloom pulled away. "You didn't just-"

"Do you know what it ends in, Captain?" Aunt Jackie demanded.

Apple Bloom's armor exploded in a blaze of fire. Scootaloo turned away, then screamed as the fire reached her wings, lighting her on fire and sending her plummeting to the ground.

"Do you know what Loyalty's betrayal ends in?" said Aunt Jackie as Scootaloo fell to the ground. Captain Dash ignored her and ran to the badly burned Pegasus.

"Captain..." Scootaloo choked out. She coughed a bit.

"Scootaloo," Captain Dash said. "Don't try to talk, we can still do something..."

"I killed her, Captain," said Scootaloo. "I destroyed the Apple family. Are... you... proud of... me?"

She closed her eyes and went limp.

"Do you know what Loyalty's betrayal will end in?" Aunt Jackie repeated, her voice choked, with tears clouding her eyes. "Death!"