How to Forgive the Unforgivable?
Friends, Forgiveness, and Magic
How to Forgive the Unforgivable?
Queen Chrysalis blinked a few times. Her vision was getting a little blurry. Maybe it had something to do with the six different screens and six different books she was staring at and somehow paying equal amounts of attention to or maybe…
No, that’s silly. Her vision was fine. Her ears flicked a few times and her tail swished back and forth as she hummed different songs inside her head. She couldn’t make out what she was reading on the screens and in the books, but she could feel…something. Like a warm, comfortable blanket wrapped around her. Chrysalis was used to sensing or tasting love, but staring at these screens…she felt as if she was seeing love, in a way that no ordinary creature could.
Her ears flicked as the door to her room opened and an unfamiliar changeling flew in. “My Lady, I-”
“Knock and don’t come in unless I say you can!” Queen Chrysalis hissed at him.
The changeling whimpered and immediately bowed down. “Please forgive me, my Lady! I-It’s just-”
“Hold on a second,” Chrysalis grumbled as she put all the computers into sleep mode and neatly closed the books with a few bookmarks. “Look, just make it quick. Um, who are you again?” she asked.
The changeling blinked and hesitantly stood back up. “I was never given a name.”
Chrysalis smiled a little. “Good answer. Alright, what do you need?”
“My Lady, a situation has come up in this universe. Starlight Glimmer and her equality cult are getting too close to your location.”
Chrysalis frowned. “I thought Starlight was done with that. Unless…darn, there’s so many alternate worlds it’s hard to keep track of them all. Do you remember what’s different in this one? Wait, maybe I wrote it down somewhere.”
Chrysalis levitated a few journals up and skimmed them as the changeling stammered. “M-my Lady, what should we do about her? I highly doubt her equality magic could work on your glorious talent, but if it can-”
Chrysalis rolled her eyes. “Don’t call it equality magic. Whatever Starlight does with her cult, it’s NOT equality.”
The changeling nodded. “Forgive me, my Lady. Before you rescued me from my miserable existence, I wasn’t very knowledgeable about the world. I’ve been studying the various texts you’ve given me of course, but um…if it’s not that, what is equality?”
“The way I see it, equality is just being nice to others.”
“Truly? If it’s really that simple, why do people struggle with it so much?”
“It’s…” Chrysalis sighed. “Listen, people have different ideas about different aspects of life, you know?”
The changeling slowly nodded. “I think I understand. But my Lady, in your texts you spoke about how the Equalizer had-”
“Zip it,” Chrysalis commanded and a zipper immediately closed over the changeling’s mouth. “First of all, those are NOT my texts. Burn those pamphlets immediately. Secondly, I don’t want you to pay attention to the very idea of the Equalizer. He is ancient history but his beliefs must never be allowed to poison anyone ever again.” Chrysalis reopened the changeling’s mouth with a flick of her red tail and sighed. She brought up a pale white hoof and rubbed at her flickering horn…wait, flickering?! The glow around her horn immediately flared up as she brought up a piece of paper and scribbled down
“The servant of the Goddess shall be granted a single use of Her power so long as She is satisfied with the result. Write what you wish to happen, and it shall be so.”
She levitated the paper over to him and said, “There. Go find the evil Starlight Glimmer, write down a solution to the problem and as long as I’m happy with it, it will happen.”
“My Lady, you honor me with this generous gift! But what-”
Chrysalis stopped listening as she cast a protection spell over her stuff and teleported out of the hidden palace. She opened a portal to a different universe, leading to nowhere specific and walked through it. As she strolled along the dimly lit path, she kept her motions under control and summoned a sphere of blue light. She tapped the sphere and listened as it played music.
“My little pony!”
“Ugh, no.” She tapped the sphere again.
“Sugar. Spice. And everything nice. These were the ingredients chosen to create-”
“Better, but no.”
“Gotta get back! Back to the past! Samurai-”
“Too short.”
“When there’s trouble you know who to call! Teen-”
Chrysalis hummed and tapped the sphere again. “Not bad. What else…”
“In the dusty basement where we meet…”
Chrysalis smiled and quietly hummed the lyrics to the song under her breath. The crystals she was passing got bigger and the cave grew brighter as she sang. “You’re ready to fight, look over there. They try to kill us for stars. Our bond has got much stronger than before...” she sang, prancing a little bit as she neared a glowing pool.
Chrysalis flapped her powerful wings and shouted, “Don’t lose your way! In your mind, we have to be…as one! Don’t be afraid, my sweetheart! This is the way to be more strong! Harbour my deep secret. It makes me so blue…”
“Run through this game, before my body is dry.”
Chrysalis immediately stopped singing and backed away from the pool as a familiar red-headed alicorn climbed out of the water and gently smiled at her. “Who are you? What do you want?!”
“Please forgive me for disturbing your privacy. Your singing was so beautiful, I felt compelled to join in.”
Chrysalis frowned as a cone of light shot out of her horn and swept over the alicorn. “What do you want, and what makes you think you can get it by confusing me? This isn’t a mirror pool, you’re not a changeling, and a draconequus wouldn’t be this subtle.”
“Please forgive me for not introducing myself.” The Lady Faust clone spread her wings out. “I am the Divine Spirit of Forgiveness. I’m sorry if that sounds too much like bragging.”
Chrysalis’ horn flared with power. “If you’re related to that soul-destroying Tree of Harmony, so help me…”
The spirit lowered its head in a graceful bow. “I forgive you for being angry. I understand how difficult it is for you to trust anyone. Please believe me when I say I mean you no harm. I truly wish for you to be happy.”
Chrysalis snorted. “Like the way that stupid Tree forced Princess Luna to be happy in her sister’s shadow? Or the way you wanted Princess Sparkle to be happy in a realm of eternal twilight? I assume this is Everfree?”
The spirit rubbed the back of her neck with a sheepish smile. “I cannot speak for the Tree of Harmony. As for my own accident, I provided Sombra with a method to heal his friend. I’m sorry to say that I have no control of the Elements of Redemption now that they have left my care. Sombra made a mistake in his attempt to bring Sparkle back to the side of heroes. However, I forgive Sombra, I forgive Sparkle, and I forgive myself. Everyone makes mistakes, and that fact is nothing to be ashamed of.”
Chrysalis raised an eyebrow and took a step back. “I don’t know about divine, but you have proven your immortality to me. You are definitely not normal.”
The spirit smiled. “Thank you.”
Chrysalis frowned again and turned around, more than ready to leave this behind her.
“If you’ll forgive me for asking this, why do you keep coming back when you have the power to walk away forever?”
Chrysalis turned around again and glared at the spirit. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You’re planning on traveling to the Equestria that is tied with Everfree. You’re planning on destroying it. Why?”
Chrysalis became blank as she answered, “Because it’s the only way people will listen.”
The spirit nodded slowly. “People don’t listen to you very often, do they? I’m sorry about that.”
Chrysalis rolled her eyes. “You say sorry a lot. It’s not your fault.”
The spirit smiled again. “And it’s not your fault either. All the bad things that happened to you; they have never been your fault.”
Chrysalis’ horn flared up again. “I don’t know what you want but I’m not giving it to you.”
“I don’t want anything from you, Lady Faust. I want you to be happy. Without magically altering your mind. I’m sorry if that wasn’t clear,” the spirit said with a silly grin as it approached Chrysalis.
“Don’t come any closer!” Chrysalis growled.
“You don’t have to be angry, Lady Faust. You’re a good person.”
Chrysalis’ eyes widened. “What are you saying?”
“You are kind and intelligent. You are wonderfully creative. Your mind is beautifully organized yet adventurous. If the impossible happened, if you died, I would mourn you. The world would be a sadder place without you and without people like you.”
Chrysalis’ jaw dropped. She didn’t know what to say. She didn’t know how to run away. I don’t like this.
And suddenly the spirit was hugging her, someone was hugging her bad, bad, bad get off, get off, get off don’t touch me don’t touch me go away leave alone leave…me…alone…
The spirit of forgiveness was hugging her…and it didn’t hurt. She wasn’t suffocating. She wasn’t drowning. She wasn’t sweating, or crying, or vomiting, or bleeding. She actually felt…comfortable. Warm, in a good way. She felt happy…
“I forgive you. Can you please forgive yourself? And, if it’s possible…can you forgive your family?”
…It just occurred to Chrysalis that her constantly glowing horn had STOPPED glowing for just a few seconds. And hearing that last sentence…
Chrysalis Lady Faust teleported out of the spirit’s hug and hissed as her entire body glowed with blue flames.
“Sneaky little changeling, poking through my memories. Sneaky little spirit, trying to get in my head. All of you, trying to tell me what I should think.” Lady Faust grinned. “I don’t know how far into the future you’re peeking in from Chrysalis, but it isn’t far enough.”
“Lady Faust, please,” the spirit pleaded. “Destroying Equestria will not give you peace.”
“It will do more than you think.” Lady Faust’s twisted grin relaxed into something a little calmer. “And really, I don’t know why you’re so concerned. The ponies of Equestria are fictional characters, and I’m a writer. I create new worlds in my mind by the hour. I can destroy a universe in a paragraph…and I can recreate a universe in a new chapter. If you think about, you have no reason to fight me.” Lady Faust scowled. “Not that it ever stopped you before…”
“Then why?” the spirit asked. “I’m sorry for asking, but if destroying Equestria makes no difference why commit the deed when you can walk away from the anger and pain?”
“That’s exactly why I have to do this. I CAN walk away from the pain.” Lady Faust looked down at her chest and waved her hoof over it. Three glowing red dots running in a vertical line upwards appeared. She glared down and uttered, “But not everyone gets to be immortal.”
The spirit of forgiveness’ ears drooped. “It is my nature to forgive everyone…but even I have difficulty when it comes to that.” The spirit floated back over to its pool and slowly sank back in. “I will not stop you. But when Princess Nightmare and her allies come for you…I will always forgive you.”
Lady Faust scowled and teleported away from the Cave of Forgiveness. An empty jar popped into existence and a small strand of golden light shot out of her horn and into the jar before Chrysalis lost her grasp on the memory.
“Well, what did you find? Don’t keep us in suspense!” Trixie said.
Chrysalis lightly chuckled. “We should have seen this coming. The answer to our problems is the same as it always is. Use the Elements of Redemption.”
“Seriously?! Now you tell us that?!” Gilda rolled her eyes. “Whatever, we’ve finally got our ticket to kicking Faust’s flank! Let’s get this thing started!”
Chrysalis gently pulled Gilda’s claw away from the Element of Zeal. “Not quite what I meant, at least not yet. Discord, we need to get to the Cave of Forgiveness.”
As they traveled to the cave, Chrysalis reflected on what she saw. She was ahead of her friends in that she had a much clearer picture in her head about who Lady Faust was. But would it be enough? Could they really understand an enemy who could barely understand herself?
Princess Nightmare and her friends blinked in surprise at the spirit’s declaration. “Well, well, well. This is an unexpected honour. I assume we have you to thank for the Elements of Redemption,” Nightmare said as she gave a polite bow to the spirit.
The Spirit of Forgiveness smiled. “I merely provided King Sombra and you with the Elements. Their success is largely your own doing. I forgive you for making an incorrect but understandable assumption.” Chrysalis raised her hoof but then thought better about the point she was going to make and stayed silent.
“Well whatever you did, thanks for the help,” Gilda said with a thumbs up. “Anyway, do ya think you can send us to Equestria so that we kick Faust’s flank?”
The spirit blinked and suggested, “Perhaps you would have better luck if we brought Lady Faust into Everfree? Her powers grow stronger or weaker depending on which universe she’s in. You may have better luck with the ‘home field advantage’, as I believe it’s called. I’m sorry if I used the wrong term. I am also sorry if you disagree with my idea, it was merely a suggestion.
Smog raised an eyebrow. “It’s like she’s proud about how humble she is.”
Discord nodded. “It’s like talking with an immortal Canadian.”
“Hey, can it with the jokes!” Gilda snapped at both of them. “Send us there, bring her here, it doesn’t matter to me! Can you do it?”
The spirit nodded. “Of course. I forgive you for your agitation and I’m very sorry that my inactivity bothered you. I can reach Lady Faust through my pool. Discord, Pinkie Pie, may I please have your help in this endeavor? I’m sorry if I’m asking too much of you-”
“No problem at all, fellow spirit!” Discord assured her.
Sunset let out a sigh as the spirits of chaos and forgiveness dipped their limbs into the pool. “Alright everyone. This could be our biggest battle ever. Bigger than Grogar and Merry Weather. Bigger than Daybreaker or Pinkie combined. Any last minute preparations we can make?”
“If you can think of anything, do it quick. I’m gonna head out quick and grab some thunderclouds,” Gilda said before she flapped her wings and took off. She zipped out of and into the cave a few times, bringing more and more lightning-charged clouds.
“When I tasted her memories in those bottled emotions, I got something of a picture of what Faust is like. But I’m worried it’s not enough,” Chrysalis said.
Trixie hummed in thought. “It’s best to know your audience in advance but I haven’t even had the time to practise. Which trick up my sleeve could work on a universe-destroying goddess?”
Sunset poked at a few smaller but powerful looking crystals. “Even though Gilda was getting annoyed with our info gathering, I’m annoyed at the fact that we still don’t know that much about Lady Faust. How powerful she is, what her true intentions are, how we can talk her down. I can’t remember if I’ve even seen what she looks like!”
“Taller than Celestia, pale white, red mane and tail that doesn’t flow like Nightmare’s does, cutie mark of a quill and inkwell that kind of flickers…she’s also constantly using her magic for at least one spell; her horn almost never stops glowing,” Chrysalis answered, drawing on what she remembered from Faust’s magical emotions.
“That’s good. Nightmare, did you get anything from that daydream you made?” Sunset asked.
Nightmare shrugged. “Nothing useful. I thought I saw Eternal Twilight but it wasn’t her, and I heard someone whisper the name Tulip Secondborn. And that’s literally all I got,” she grumbled.
Sunset’s eyes popped wide open. “D-did, did you just say Secondborn?!”
Nightmare, Trixie, Smog, and Chrysalis all turned to face her. “Wait, you know who that is?”
“No way!” Sunset exclaimed. “I don’t know anyone with a name like that, and thank goodness! Guys, I…I can understand Trixie not knowing what that name means. And that’s not an insult, Trixie! But Nightmare, Chrysalis…someone in your family must have told you what that name means.”
Nightmare frowned. “Nothing good, judging by your reaction.”
“Secondborn…was a popular name during the Dark Ages,” Sunset revealed. “Something I found when I was still King Sombra’s student; poking into books that were too old for me.”
“Yeah, Nightmare and I have been going through books our whole lives,” Smog said. “And the only time she wouldn’t read a book was if Luna told her not to.”
“It’s not exactly kids stuff. The Dark Ages refers to the earliest recording of pony civilization. If you try to look any further than that, the most you’ll find is some hoof paintings on a cave wall. During the Dark Ages, ponies were still evolving; still stuck in that ‘survival of the fittest’ mentality. And the pony who had the biggest herd survived the longest.”
Sunset paced back and forth as she explained. “Back then, the quantity of your friends was more important than the quality. The number of children you had was more important than whether or not you actually loved them. When ponies were given numbers as well as names. Any kind of change or progress was seen as a threat to the status quo. Any sort of difference was met with extreme prejudice. It’s a time when…”
She glanced at Chrysalis and gulped. “Oh gosh, I’m so sorry…the Dark Ages is when the Z.I.P schools and the Changeling Trials took place.”
Chrysalis cupped her hoof around her mouth as her black chitin turned as green as her eyes. “Oh dear…”
Nightmare, Smog, Sunset, Trixie, and the Spirit of Forgiveness bowed their head and said in unison, “I am sorry for your loss.”
Pinkie blinked at the group apology. “Um, is everyone okay?”
Discord elbowed Pinkie hard. “Why didn’t you join in?! Even I know that’s bad manors!”
Chrysalis sighed and shifted her colour back to black. “I’m sure she didn’t know, Discord. Can we please not talk about it?”
Smog glanced sheepishly at Pinkie. “Right, you probably didn’t know, so it’s not your fault Pinkie. Just…any time someone mentions the Changeling Trials, the proper thing to do is for every pony to apologize to the closest changeling.”
Pinkie gulped at some of the glares she was getting from Trixie and Gilda, as the griffon paused in her cloud gathering. “Um…”
“Drop it already,” Chrysalis hissed at her friends. She took a few deep breaths to calm down and said, “So Lady Faust is very old. But based on what I saw in her memories, I don’t think she approved of the Trials.”
Nightmare slowly nodded. “Well that’s good. It means she’s not completely soulless.”
Sunset shuddered. “Some of her behavior makes sense now. If I was born back then, I WOULD go insane.”
Gilda flew back in with one last cloud and perched on top of it with a satisfied grin. “Whatever Faust’s deal is, I’m ready to thrash her. We can’t just let her get away with destroying Equestria.”
The Spirit of Forgiveness smiled at her. “I’m sorry I forgot to mention this, but Lady Faust destroyed Equestria a few minutes ago.”
“WHAT?” everyone else in the cave exclaimed. “We already lost?!” Trixie cried,
“Okay, now is not the time to panic everyone!” Nightmare shouted.
“She’s right. Who knows, maybe the Elements of Redemption can…recreate worlds and bring back the dead?” Sunset offered, not really believing herself. She shot a desperate look at the spirit.
The spirit continued to smile. “I apologize for alarming you like. Be at peace and know that you can still save Equestria. And it starts here.”
The spirit reached deep into its pool and gently pulled out what looked like a sparkling clone of Princess Twilight Sparkle. “Please allow me to introduce the Spirit of Harmony.” The spirit of forgiveness tilted her head. “Do you prefer spirit or tree? I’m sorry if I used the wrong title.”
“This…this cannot be…” the Tree of Harmony whimpered. “Friendship is the greatest magic of all. How could it fail?”
Discord snorted at it. “Overconfident little rhinestone, isn’t she?” Pinkie removed her hoof as if it were a glove and smacked him with it before putting it back on. “What?!”
The spirit of forgiveness shook her head. “I do not believe she was overconfident, although I forgive you for thinking so.”
The Tree of Harmony mumbled to herself. “Twilight Sparkle and her friends were supposed to defeat her.”
“I’m sorry for interrupting you, Tree of Harmony. I hope you can take comfort in the fact that nothing was wrong with the power of Twilight Sparkle’s friendship. Simply that Lady Faust does not see friendship the way most people do,” the spirit said.
The Tree of Harmony finally seemed to register Princess Nightmare and her friends. “Elements of Redemption. I beg you to save Equestria from the tyrant Lady Faust. She is a monster greater than any that the magic of friendship has encountered before. She cannot be reasoned with. She must be stopped.”
“I’m sorry to say that I disagree.”
The Tree of Harmony glared at the Spirit of Forgiveness. “She is an arrogant, self-righteous, destructive child who cares for nopony but herself.”
The spirit sighed sadly. “She is a child. Angry and in pain, lashing out at others because she never knew there was another way.”
The Tree of Harmony let out a growl. “You naïve…” Her anger was cut short as a glowing crack formed in its chest.
“Please be careful. It was thanks to Discord and Pinkie’s efforts that we pulled you back from death.” The spirit levitated the Tree’s avatar onto its back. “I am sorry to say I must leave you now. If Lady Faust destroys either of us, she could irreversibly destroy the world we protect too. For the safety of Everfree and the resurrection of Equestria, you must face Lady Faust alone.”
The Element bearers nodded in understanding, watching as the two spirits teleported away in a flash of light. Discord and Pinkie briefly high-fived each other before they plunged their limbs into the pool…and pulled out a very angry goddess.
Lady Faust pulled herself off the ground and glared at them. Nightmare made sure her fangs were showing as she smirked at the elder alicorn. “Greetings, Lady Faust. My name is Princess Nightmare Moon, mistress of the night. Welcome to Everfree.”
Lady Faust tilted her horn up, causing the ceiling of the cave to rise as she adjusted her surroundings to suit herself better. “All caught up now, are we? I thought that sending Megan, Grogar, and the Dazzlings after you would send a message to leave me alone. What a shock, you didn’t listen.”
“Hey, you’re the one who just blew up a universe!” Smog shot back.
“I’ll put it back when I’m good and ready to!” Lady Faust said with a glare. “Although your universe spawned from the world formerly known as Equestria, you’re all still alive! I decided that your world was more emotionally mature than that friendship-addicted nightmare; I decided that you weren’t worth attacking! And now, you decide to shove your muzzles where they aren’t needed.”
“We’re going to give you one chance to do things diplomatically,” Chrysalis offered calmly, while still keeping her fangs in Faust’s sight. “Will you please restore Equestria, right now?”
Lady Faust’s only response was for her horn to glow even brighter.
“That’s what I thought. Everyone, use the Elements!” Nightmare ordered. The six bearers all stood together as the magic of redemption built up inside them. Pinkie quickly summoned some chains to restrain Lady Faust before she teleported herself and Smog behind the bearers.
Lady Faust smirked as the magic spiraled towards her. “I’ve finally gotten proof that I’m stronger than friendship. Do your worse!” Light and darkness mixed together and sent magical energy exploding outwards, completely engulfing Lady Faust in the Elements’ power.
As the magic powered down, Smog hesitantly looked into the cloud of smoke. “Did we get her?”
The Elements all gasped and stepped back as the smoke was easily blown away, revealing a wounded Lady Faust already healing her injuries. “Compared to the Elements of Harmony, that was almost soothing!” she gloated with a teasing smile.
“…uh, Nightmare? Nightmare, what do we do? Nightmare? Nightmare?!” Smog babbled as he tugged on Nightmare’s hoof.
The Elements glanced nervously at each other, a little at lost of what to do when their best weapon proved ineffective. The Great and Powerful Trixie was the first to come up with a brilliant plan. With a quick swipe of her hoof, she turned her hat into a helmet, summoned a canon with a flash of magic, and jumped into.
“Ramming speed!” she shouted as she fired herself out of the cannon and rocketed towards Lady Faust. The alicorn responded by summoning a shield that sent Trixie ricocheting into the ceiling.
“Trixie! Are you okay?” Smog cried as he rushed over to her.
“Behold, the Paint and Growerful Triskie,” the unicorn slurred.
Lady Faust allowed herself a small smirk at the dazed unicorn before she got serious again. “I took my time with Equestria for revenge. You on the other hoof…”
Princess Nightmare Moon could do…
In an explosion of light, Everfree was…
Lady Faust’s glowing blue eyes glared at Discord and Pinkie. The two chaotic tricksters had their fingers tightly clutching a pencil that was scratching out the lines of Lady Faust’s reality bending sentences.
“This is…WAY harder…than it looks!” Discord gasped out, his eyeballs bulging out and sweating.
“Give me chocolate…and kick her flank! …In that order!” Pinkie gasped as her mane and tail grew small mouths and huffed and puffed in exhaustion.
“I knew these’d come in handy!” Gilda crowed as she grabbed her small arsenal of thunderclouds and threw them towards Lady Faust, giving them all a solid kick which sent lightning bolts flying towards her opponent.
Lady Faust flapped her wings and the clouds dispersed right before the lightning bolts came flying towards the Elements. Gilda quickly flew out of the way, Nightmare turned into mist and swirled out of their path, and Sunset summoned up a shield to absorb the damage. But with a swish of Lady Faust’s tail, the lightning bolts passed through the shield and struck Sunset.
“OW!” Sunset cried.
“Medic!” Discord exclaimed as he teleported over to Sunset wearing a lab coat and placed a bandage over her muzzle, which somehow healed all the injuries on her body.
“I got an idea! Smog, distract her! Everyone else, charge me up!” Gilda called out as she raised her claws.
Smog leapt into the fray and began bathing Lady Faust in a roaring sea of flames. As his fire breath reached her, Lady Faust simply flexed her wings again and turned the flames into bubbles that drifted harmlessly away. Meanwhile Nightmare, Sunset, Chrysalis, Trixie, Discord, and Pinkie all cast spells on Gilda’s claws to charge them up with power.
Taking advantage of their distraction, Lady Faust des
“GAH!” Pinkie cried as she tightened her grip on the pencil. Discord zipped back over to her and reapplied his power to stopping Lady Faust from killing them all in a sentence.
Gilda flexed her claws and dive-bombed Lady Faust, scratching her eyes and face in a flurry of magically charged swipes. The goddess glared at the griffon as her talons kept scratching, making a sound like nails against a diamond chalkboard. Lady Faust let out an annoyed grunt and headbutted Gilda, knocking the Element of Zeal across the room and crashing into her friends.
As the Element bearers picked themselves up again, Lady Faust glanced into the pool’s reflective surface and hummed. Her horn lit up even brighter and she smirked at Gilda as a small spark zipped up a leftover scratch on her eye. “All that for a drop of blood.”
Discord’s eyes widened. He gave Pinkie a quick pat on the shoulder before he let go of the pencil. Within seconds, he teleported himself and his friends out of the cave while leaving a bomb packed full of chaotic energy right at Faust’s hooves.
“Everyone okay?” Discord asked as he and the Elements appeared in an empty field in the middle of nowhere.
The Elements stared in horror as…
“PENCIL!” Pinkie cried as she appeared next to them. Discord grabbed their only defense against Lady Faust’s greatest weapon and added his power back.
“We need a better plan,” Sunset said as she began pulling crystals out of the ground. “The Elements aren’t working, Discord and Pinkie are too busy protecting us from world-destroying sentences, and she’s toying with us.”
“Well, if having more numbers worked against me, maybe it’ll work against her,” Pinkie suggested. She coiled a strand of her mane until it resembled a telephone and spoke into it. “Hey, it’s me. How soon can you get them here? Uh huh? Well hurry up and come over here. Gotta go, need to wrestle with this pencil some more!”
Pinkie tightened her grip on the pencil…just as Lady Faust teleported into the field wearing a smirk. “Cute toy you left me. Have you had enough yet?”
“Not quite!” Sunset shouted as she levitated a few dozen clusters of the crystals she had collected and pushed them towards her friends, who quickly crushed the crystals and absorbed the magic inside. Sunset then took the more volatile crystals and chucked them at Lady Faust where they exploded upon contact.
Lady Faust merely brushed the debris off her coat with a wing before she blasted Sunset off her hooves. The other Elements tried to rush her, but Lady Faust kept her house-sized beam active and swept it across the field, knocking them all back.
“Ow…” the bearers groaned.
“I really don’t need to destroy your world,” Lady Faust commented. “And without your Elements, you really don’t stand a chance. Why fight against someone who can rewrite reality itself? For that matter, why not take advantage of the situation? If you asked nicely, I could make all your dreams come true.”
Trixie pulled her hat out of her helmet and switched headgear. “Around here, we call that too many fizzy drinks at the Chaos Corner.”
“Ha, ha! Burn!” Discord cheered. His tail formed fingers which he snapped, creating a flamethrower aimed at Lady Faust. The alicorn merely blinked and the flamethrower turned into a plastic paintbrush that clattered harmlessly against the ground.
Just then the sun exp-
“Whoops!” Discord cried as he and Pinkie quickly scratched that line out.
“I suppose you do have fulfilling, happy lives. But can the rest of Everfree say the same?” Lady Faust turned to Chrysalis. “Wouldn’t you be happier if changelings didn’t need to feed on love? If your people never went hungry again? What about a world where nobody gets fat no matter how much they eat? A world where everyone is as strong as Celestia? Perhaps a world without disease or war? I can make ALL of that happen. Just convince your friends to let go of that pencil.”
Nightmare scowled at her. “If you can do all those things, why haven’t you already? Why did you destroy Equestria instead?!”
Lady Faust tilted her head in thought, looking around at the field. “You haven’t lived as long as I have. Haven’t seen the things I’ve seen. But you will. Just like Discord…and Pinkamania. Death is a topic people think about more the older they get, but what do you think about when you can’t die? When you have the power to do literally anything, you find yourself doing nothing instead.”
“So what, is that why you blew up Equestria? Were you bored?” Gilda growled.
Lady Faust didn’t seem to hear Gilda’s question. She looked down at the ground as her gaze lost focus.
“Snow.”
In a sudden gust of freezing wind, the entire field was blanketed in several inches of snow. Nightmare and Gilda wrapped their wings around themselves and Smog created a small fire for himself, Sunset, Chrysalis, and Trixie. Lady Faust traced a hoof along the top of the snow with an unfocused smile.
“Why is snow white, indeed.” Lady Faust threw her wings open and Nightmare, Sunset, Smog, Gilda, Trixie, and Chrysalis were all encased in ice crystals that burst from the snow.
Pinkie glared at Lady Faust. “Hey! Not cool!”
Everyone-
“Don’t let go!” Discord said, quickly scratching out Faust’s lines again. “We lose focus on this for too long and we’re all goners!”
“Well everyone, this has been fun. But I have other places to be,” Lady Faust said. “But I promise you that I won’t pointlessly prolong anyone’s suffering from now on. Because the last Equestria I’m going to visit…is the first.”
Turning away from the Elements, Lady Faust swiped her horn upward and created a portal to another version of Equestria. But just as she was about to step through, a wall of black crystals blossomed out of the ground in front of her, blocking her path.
“Behind you.”
Lady Faust spun back around to see a growing army of ponies and other creatures stepping out of rainbow-coloured portals. King Sombra’s horn crackled with dark magic. Duchesses Celestia and Luna hurried over to Nightmare and Smog to quickly thaw them out of their ice crystal prisons. Countess Cadance and Fluttershy came out of another portal, riding a mansion-sized blob of Smooze. Lord Tirek and the Great Dragon Spike stepped out of two portals, each of them larger than life. Starlight Glimmer stepped out of a portal followed by the Cutie Mark Destroyers, the Dazzlings and of her resort’s guest including a few unicorns, earth ponies, pegasi, yaks, donkeys, and minotaurs. The Shadowbolts came flying out of a portal in the sky while on the ground an army of royal guards led by Blueblood and Prince Shining Armor came charging out. A huge swarm of changelings buzzed over to Chrysalis and thawed her out plus Sunset, Trixie, and Gilda. Gregory came bringing his own small army of battle-ready Tambelon citizens. Last but not least, Princess Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash of Everfree stepped out of one last portal and stood next to King Sombra and the alicorn duchesses.
Lady Faust blinked in shock at the growing number of enemies. “As an introvert, I should hate this. But as a nerd, I’m not even mad. Where did you all come from?”
“Surprise, super-frowner!” Pinkie said as she popped up into existence next to her.
Lady Faust blinked in surprise at her sudden appearance before she glanced over at Discord and Pinkie still fighting her attempts at changing reality with a sentence. The chaos master known as Pinkamania was She glared back at the second Pinkie. “You’re from five whole chapters ago. So, you weren’t a mirror clone?”
“Yupperoonie! Thanks for turning me into a balloon! It sucked!” the not-mirror clone giggled.
Pinkamania chuckled at Lady Faust’s expense. “There’s more than one way to clone a cutie pie! Especially when you’ve got Discord’s power times, like ten!”
“Uh huh,” Lady Faust nodded before she punched the second Pinkie into a cloud of magic that fortunately swirled back into the main Pinkie. “Another angry mob. Boy, does this look familiar.”
“Surrender Lady Faust!” Lord Tirek ordered. “Even you can’t fight against all of us!”
“Friendship can’t hurt me anymore. I have nothing to fear from any of you. And Endgame did it better.” Lady Faust smirked. “Bring it.”
“ATTACK!” King Sombra roared. With over a hundred mighty battle cries, the army charged at Lady Faust.
“Ink.”
Pinkie’s eyes widened. “Wait, go back! We missed that one!”
Discord’s chaotic senses focused on the word that Lady Faust had written. “Just ink? I don’t see how that – question answered!”
Every creature who had been charging on their own hooves, feet, or claws all took a tumble as the snowy field underneath them turned into a lake of black ink. The glow from Lady Faust’s horn intensified, causing titanic inky hooves, fingers, and tentacles to rise from the lake and crash down on several dozen soldiers within the army. Her gaze then turned to her airborne enemies. A single flap of her wings blew the aerial attackers back several feet.
“Come on everyone, we can’t let this slow us down!” Discord called out as he briefly let go of the pencil and snapped his fingers. “We all float up here!”
The creatures who had slipped into the ink levitated up into the air. With their minds telling their bodies which way to float, the army flew right back into attacking Lady Faust. But the immortal alicorn wasn’t even bothered as her enemies began to land hits on her. She simply stood with an amused smirk as magical blasts, claw strikes, arrows, spears, boulders, jets of flame, and globs of slime all bounced harmlessly off her.
Rocks appeared above their
After firing a few more blasts of magic, Nightmare discreetly teleported over to where Luna, Celestia, Sombra, and Cadance were. “This is a great distraction, but we can’t beat her in a physical fight. The only way we can take her down is by attacking her mind.”
King Sombra nodded. “The Pink One’s clone provided a decent summary of what you discovered before she summonded us here. From the room full of bottled emotions, it’s easy to see where Lady Faust’s weakness lies.”
Celestia bit her lip nervously. “Dear niece, what you’re suggesting is…it’s unethical…”
“I agree sister, but Lady Faust has made this problem bigger than herself. If we do not win this battle, Equestria and Everfree could be lost forever,” Luna said.
“Let me talk to her first,” Cadance suggested. “Fluttershy can get the Smooze to try and block any attack she makes, while I try to open her heart.”
“Do it,” Nightmare said before she flapped her wings and rocketed back towards Lady Faust, launching spell blasts and lightning bolts at the elder alicorn to keep her distracted. Cadance signaled to Fluttershy with a few hoof gestures and wing flaps, telling Fluttershy to direct the Smooze closer to Lady Faust’s position.
Even with an entire army attacking her, Lady Faust was losing interest in the battle. After silencing the Dazzlings with nothing but a gesture and a few literally zipped lips, she turned to face the pillar of Smooze slapping into the shield she briefly created. However, her eyes widened as she saw Countess Cadance approach her.
“Everyone fall back!” King Sombra ordered. “Let the Countess through!”
“Lady Faust,” Cadance said. “You have clearly proven your magical superiority. Even when facing an army, you’ve shown to be completely immune to all our attacks. This pointless violence serves neither of us. Instead, I ask that you please open your heart to me. Tell me…why are you doing this?”
“You mean why did I order your heart to get love poisoned?” Lady Faust said, confidence creeping back into her voice.
“…What?”
“Oh yes. Remember that time you got love poison injected into you? That was done on my orders,” Lady Faust said, taking satisfaction in Cadance’s growing fury. “The changeling who tricked the Young Doctor Hooves, she worked for me. It was all my doing.”
“WHY?!” Cadance cried, her horn glowing with rage. “Why would you ruin my life like that?”
“For this exact reason. I knew you would try to use your magic on my weak, vulnerable heart. So now I’ve put you into a situation where you’re too angry to think clearly. How’s it working so far?” Lady Faust chuckled as Cadance screamed in fury and blasted her with a continuous beam of magic that did nothing to harm the elder alicorn.
“I can’t believe it…she did all of that, all the torment and pain Cadance suffered through, just to make her mad!” Fluttershy growled. “Well, we’ll just see how she likes a taste of her own medicine!”
“No, Fluttershy!” Princess Twilight said, levitating her friend closer to her and away from the fight. “We need to follow Nightmare Moon’s plan. We need to manipulate Faust into surrendering; we can’t let her manipulate us!”
“How in the hayseed are we supposed to do that?” Applejack asked. “None of us can land a hit on her and any plan y’all cook up she can see coming!”
“WAIT!” Pinkie called out. “I got it! Nightie, Sombra, Diamond Tiara! Are you all prepared to do something really stupid?”
“Um…” the three ponies mumbled in half-agreement, not sure where Pinkie was going with this.
Pinkie snapped her tail, teleporting Diamond Tiara over to her. She gave the filly a slap on the back, creating a rainbow tornado cutie mark to appear on the Cutie Mark Destroyer. “Help Discord hold this pencil!”
Now endowed with a portion of chaotic power, Diamond Tiara grabbed onto the pencil, helping Discord with the task of crossing out Lady Faust’s attempts to destroy Everfree. "Oh no you " Pinkie Pie then vanished and teleported next to Nightmare and Sombra, carrying a huge sack which was leaking purple fluids. She emptied her sack full of bottled emotions into a giant blender that she created with a snap of her fingers. Mixing up thousands of past fears that Lady Faust repressed over the years, she gave the blender a final shake before she popped the lid open again. She then grabbed Nightmare and Sombra by the back of their heads and dunked their horns into the bubbling fear potion.
“Okay, quick! Hit her before the fear melts your mind!” Pinkie shouted before she zipped back over to Discord and retrieved her power back from Diamond Tiara, grabbing onto the pencil for one last time.
“Captain crystals ahoy, the Pink One wasn’t kidding about mind melting,” King Sombra mumbled incoherently as more dark magic than normal leaked out of his eyes.
Nightmare winced as her horn ached and her eyes watered. “I feel like I’m crying blood. This fear soup is putrid.”
My past nightmares were enough to melt their
“Just shoot her! Shoot her!” Pinkie shouted.
Lady Faust glared at the two fear masters. But before she could stop them, Rainbow Dash came flying in with a kick to her horn. “You little pest!” Gilda came in and dive-bombed her next. “Stop that!” The Shadowbolts and a few swarms of changeling buzzed around her, doing everything they could to distract her.
“Everyone fall back!” Luna called out. “Moony, Sombra, do it now!”
The princess and the king screamed as they fired their fear-fueled spells at Lady Faust, striking her in the chest as the rest of their army scattered out of harms way.
Luna, Celestia, and Twilight got to work cleaning off the remains of the fear juice from Nightmare’s and Sombra’s horns, bringing their minds back to normal. “Stay vigilant everyone,” Luna cautioned them. “Who knows what kind of unspeakable horror could scare a goddess such as her?”
The fear spell was quick to leech off Lady Faust’s mind and let go of her, before Lady Faust had a chance to throw it off. Her eyes widened in panic as a pony-shaped shadow blossomed out of the ground before it took on a distinctive form. The pegasus mare that stood before her had a perfectly white coat, as beautiful as Lady Faust’s coat was pale. Her mane and tail had rainbow colours just like Rainbow Dash’s, but expertly styled like Rarity’s. She wore a glamorous, sparkly white dress and she carried herself like a fashion model or a queen. Her red eyes were fixed on Lady Faust and she scowled in revulsion.
“My word,” Rarity said as she stood by her friends. “She’s beautiful! How could anybody be afraid of her?”
“Who is that?” Sunset asked.
While all the other ponies and creatures regarded the newcomer with confusion and awe, Lady Faust shuddered and shook uncontrollably. Her wings closed and stiffened around her body, shielding her from harm. She began to sweat and cry at the same time as her constantly glowing horn began to flicker worse than a broken light bulb, as the rainbow mare sneered and uttered a sentence.
“I should have never given birth to a lazy-brain like you.”
Luna’s and Nightmare’s eyes widened in shock. “Oh no.” Nightmare charged her horn up and blasted the fear illusion into nothingness. “Everyone stop fighting and get back! As Princess of Everfree I order you, stop attacking her!”
As the army that had come to support the Elements drew back, Nightmare hesitantly approached her opponent. “Lady Faust? Are you okay?”
Lady Faust regarded Princess Nightmare with a hollow, dead look in her eyes. Nightmare winced as she saw three glowing red dots on Lady Faust’s stomach, hissing and smoking. “Lady Faust, please, you need to tell us. What happened?”
Lady Faust looked over at the crestfallen Cadance who had forgotten her rage. “I’m sorry I poisoned your heart.”
She looked over at Lord Tirek. “I’m sorry for being too weird to live.”
She looked over at Princess Twilight and smirked humorlessly. “If you have friends, you’re a hero. If you’re a loner, you’re automatically the villain. Friendship is magic, after all. Well then your majesty…
I’m sorry I was too autistic to make friends.”
Sunset gulped and whispered to Chrysalis, “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
Before the changeling queen could answer her, Lady Faust literally exploded. With an otherworldly, nightmarish shriek of agony her body exploded into white and blue light that twisted into a tornado and flew up into the sky growing bigger and darker. The alicorn storm didn’t stop until it hovered over Nightmare, her friends, and their army like an ominous cloud. The cloud kept growing, twisting, and changing until at last it solidified its form. A city-sized writing quill with a humongous blob of ink hanging on the end of it loomed over them.
Discord’s and Pinkie’s eyes bulged out with alarms and cartoon sound effects before they shrunk back to normal. “RUN!” they screamed as they dropped the pencil and zipped over to their friends.
“What’s happening?!” Blueblood asked as the blob of ink dripped off the quill and fell towards them all.
“RUN! JUST RUN!” Pinkie shouted as she gathered up her closest friends and began to fly away from the ink blob.
But nobody could run, teleport, or fly fast enough as the ink blob splatted against the ground. The liquid blob transformed into thousands of sharp black spikes that whizzed after everyone within sight with a horrible clacking sound.
Gilda, Rainbow, the Shadowbolts, and all the other fast fliers tackled friends and allies to push them out of harm’s way. Unicorns created shields and earth ponies tore up chunks of the ground to hide behind. King Sombra conjured up a wall of crystals and ordered his soldiers to hide behind it. Princess Nightmare turned into her mist form and flew through the air, dodging the spikes at a dizzying speed as she pushed a few more ponies behind cover before diving into a crack in the ground.
The raining spikes clacked sharply against the ground for another minute before their noise finally ceased. Nightmare rose up out of the ground and turned back into her pony form as she accessed the damage. Spikes were littered everywhere as far as the eye could see. She couldn’t see anybody else, but she hadn’t yet checked behind their cover…
Nightmare’s eyes widened as she felt a sharp pinch coming from behind her. She swished her tail over to her line of sight and saw a black spike tangled in her ethereal mane. Which wouldn’t be so bad if the spike wasn’t causing her tail to slowly erase itself out of existence. A brief second of panic overtook her before she quickly wiggled her tail, turning it from magical starry sky to normal dark blue pony hair. She shot out a quick beam of magic from her horn that sliced off her tail and breathed a sigh of relief once the rest of her body was no longer at risk of being erased. Although, if just one spike could do that to an immortal alicorn like her, what about the others?
“Loony? Aunt Celesita? Smog? King Sombra? ANYONE?!” Nightmare called out as she wandered through the wrecked battlefield.
“Moony!” she heard her mother’s cry.
“Loony!” Nightmare flew over to the sound of her voice and came across her mom supporting Celestia. “Thank the stars you’re okay!”
“I’m afraid your aunt wasn’t so lucky,” Luna answered grimly.
“Celestia? What’s…” Nightmare’s eyes widened as she saw five spikes stuck in Celestia’s body. They weren’t drawing any blood but they were each causing a portion of Celestia’s body to disappear. Within seconds, she was completely gone.
“No…no, what…NO!” Nightmare’s eyes flashed with lightning. “This will NOT stand! Discord, Pinkie! Get over here and fix this!”
“…Can’t…” Pinkie whimpered as she floated into view, supporting Discord on her back. Both of the chaotic tricksters had spikes in them, though not as many as Celestia.
“No…no! How do I fix this?!” Nightmare demanded to know as she wrapped her wings around her friends.
“Faust…” Discord groaned out. “She can undo all this. Get her back here…and make her fix this…”
“Get her back…where did that coward go?!” Nightmare growled as lightning zapped away a moisture that dared to form in her eyes. “How do I make her pay?!”
“I don’t know. I’m sorry Nightie…” Discord whispered with a wistful smile as he rested his lion paw on her head. “Sorry I was such a joke…”
“I’m sorry I was such trouble…” Pinkie mumbled as the two of them were erased, fading away into nothing.
“No…no…” Nightmare growled. “This is not happening! Smog! Sunset! Chrysalis! Where-”
“Over here!” Nightmare spun around and galloped after the changeling queen’s voice. She was relieved to see that Chrysalis didn’t have any spikes in her. However…
“She got me, Nightmare,” Sunset sighed. The orange unicorn helped herself and Trixie off of Chrysalis’ back. She grumbled as her fading back legs caused her to stumble on the ground.
“Trixie saw the spikes heading for Sunset…and took the worst of them. Sadly she could not block the last one…some magician I am…” Trixie sighed.
“Shut up with the defeatist talk,” Nightmare hissed. “None of you are dying. People everywhere will sing the praises of the Great and Powerful Trixie for centuries to come, do you hear me?!”
Trixie let out a weak chuckle. “Trixie is down to her last trick…take it.” Nightmare blinked in surprise as Trixie removed her hat and held it out to her. “Wear it. Please.”
“I…as you wish.” Nightmare let her starry mane drift over to Trixie’s hat and place it on her own head.
“Show’s over folks…” Trixie sighed as she faded away.
“Nightmare, listen to me,” Sunset said. “You’re the only chance we have left. You need to forgive Lady Faust.”
“Forgive her?!” Nightmare snarled as thunder and lightning rumbled out in the darkening sky. “After she killed everyone?! Forget the Elements, forget my title, I will destroy that psychotic, arrogant worm!”
“You saw the same fear vision we all did,” Sunset said, her horn sparking to try and slow down the spike’s from making her fade away. “When you add it all up, the clues make TOO much sense. She must have lived during the Dark Ages. And her mom hated her...”
“Oh boohoo,” Nightmare growled. “She had a hard life. That does NOT excuse her actions.”
“Would they excuse yours? In our world, Luna taught you right from wrong. But in Equestria…” Sunset looked Nightmare Moon in the eye. “I think you know what you would have done if your mom didn’t love you.”
“I am nothing like Lady Faust,” Nightmare hissed.
“No, you’re not. But the other Nightmare Moon didn’t know what love or friendship was. She threatened to create eternal night, never caring how the cold would hurt the crops, the ponies, and the planet.” Nightmare’s eyes widened as Sunset coughed and her body started to erase itself faster. “If nothing else, you must forgive Lady Faust…so that she can bring us back to life.”
“I…yes, you’re right. Always the smart one, aren’t you Sunset Shimmer?”
Sunset smiled weakly, her head being the only part of her that hadn’t faded away completely. “You forgive someone because they need it…but you also forgive someone because YOU need it.”
Chrysalis’ eyes watered as Sunset disappeared next. “How many of us did she get? How many of us are left?”
“Nightmare! Chrysalis! Guys!” Smog cried out from the smoke as her ran towards them. He tackled the two dark creatures and they brought him into a hug. “The Great Dragon Spike saved me! H-he took all the spikes that were coming our way! I…I tried to get to you as fast as I could but after the spikes there was just smoke everywhere! I…passed by the others. I saw the Smooze and Cadance…Fluttershy, Princess Twilight, and all their friends…the Destroyers, the Dazzlings…they’re all gone…”
“They won’t be gone forever,” Nightmare promised him. “Smog, tell me you saw where Lady Faust fled.”
“Yeah…that giant quill she turned into shot back down to the ground and disappeared. There’s this twinkling, swirly thing where she vanished. King Sombra thinks it’s a portal.”
Nightmare and Chrysalis gulped. “Did he…”
“My crystals and my shadow form saved me,” King Sombra said as he approached them. “Lord Tirek was hit in one of his arms but he…adapted.”
Smog frowned. “What does that-”
“It is not for a young dragon like you to see. He’s currently busy trying to find more survivors. Follow me,” the king ordered somberly. The three friends followed after him as he lead them to where Lady Faust had disappeared to.
“It seems in her state of panic and delirium, Lady Faust did not properly close her portal. Unfortunately it’s too small for even my shadow form to squeeze through.” King Sombra sighed. “If only…”
“Hey guys…this where the party’s at?”
“Gilda!” Smog, Nightmare and Chrysalis exclaimed as they hurried over to their last living friend. Gilda was clawing her way across the ground to reach them. Her feathers were in a messy shape, but otherwise unharmed. Unfortunately her back legs were nothing but a spike floating in faded space.
“Nightie, Chrysie, Smogster…I’m sorry I was such a brute…”
“Gilda, what are you talking about? You’re not a brute,” Nightmare said gently.
“Yeah, you’re awesome!” Smog said, with Chrysalis nodding in agreement.
“Doesn’t feel like it. I was the only Element without a magical horn, or dragon breath, or…whatever Discord has. I wasn’t a brainiac like you or Sunset…I just flew fast and acted tough. Even then, I was never as good as you guys at fighting…not against the really big bads. I’m sorry I was such a letdown…”
“You never let us down, Gilda. This isn’t the end,” Nightmare insisted. “I’m going to bring you all back to life. I swear by the moon and every star in the sky.”
Smog nodded. “Yeah, we just need to get that tiny portal open and we can keep fighting.”
“Hmm…I got an idea…” Gilda grumbled as she pushed herself off the ground. “Yo king pony. Hit me up.”
King Sombra regarded with a raised eyebrow Gilda. “What are you suggesting?”
“Crystals. Give me every kind you got that could make griffons powerful. Give me everything you got. Don’t care if it’s enough to kill me. Obviously.”
King Sombra nodded. “As you wish.” His horn lit up with dark magic as he blasted the ground all around Gilda, causing huge crystal growths to sprout up.
“Sweet. Gimme.” Gilda reached out with her talons and grabbed the crystals tightly until they were crushed in her claws, the magic draining into her. She snapped her beak out at the crystals growing near her face, absorbing more magic. Gilda crushed more and more crystals absorbing even more magic, and once she ran out she demanded more.
King Sombra created another batch of crystals. It was as she had finished absorbing the last few drops of power from the last crystal, that Gilda floated up. Magical lightning crackled all over her glowing body, hair and wings. Her eyes turned as black as a storm cloud with bolts of lightning leaping out from her gaze. She flexed her wings and shot fifty feet up into the sky.
Gilda kept climbing into the sky higher and higher before screeching to a halt in midair…and dropping back down, dive-bombing the tiny portal as Gilda’s body erupted into brightly coloured flames and electricity.
“BRAVE BIRD…DIMENSIONAL…DEVASTATOR!” Gilda roared at the top of her lungs as she crashed into the portal and exploded into pure awesomeness.
Smog wiped a tear from his eyes. “Out with a bang. I wish Trixie and the others could have seen that…”
“They might just get a chance!” King Sombra exclaimed as cracks formed in time and space around the tiny portal. The little tears in existence that Gilda created reached down to the portal and clawed at it, causing Lady Faust’s escape door to widen.
Smog shook his head. “It’s still too small.”
“But not for me!” Nightmare said with a triumphant grin. “Okay King Sombra, Chrysalis, if you two can shapeshift into your shadow form and maybe a parasprite or a dragonfly-”
“I’m sorry Nightmare Moon. We cannot go with you. A king’s place is with his people,” Sombra said solemnly.
“And a queen’s place is with her changelings,” Chrysalis agreed. “However many are left.”
“Are you two serious right now?!” Nightmare shouted at them, flashing her fangs.
“Let’s face it, I’d only slow you down,” Chrysalis sighed. “I might have shape-shifting powers, an army, and the Elements but none of that did anything to Lady Faust.”
“Princess Nightmare, I am confident you will succeed. But a ruler needs to hope for the best yet prepare for the worst. I will take care of your mother, Peaceville, and Everfree, if the unthinkable should happen to you,” King Sombra said.
“But…I can’t fight her without you…” Nightmare whimpered, allowing her fear to peak out behind her anger.
“You can. You’re Princess Nightmare Moon of Everfree. You’ve got everything you need to take her down,” Chrysalis said giving her friend a kiss right beside her ear.
Nightmare flinched and backed away. “What was that for?”
Chrysalis blinked a few times then crouched down, wrapping her wings tighter around herself. “I don’t know, this has been an emotional day for me.”
Nightmare gazed at Chrysalis, at Smog, at King Sombra, at Luna, and at what little else remained of her allies. She took a deep breath, transformed into her magical mist, and leapt into the portal.
For better or worse, this was her final fight.
Stats
Page generated in 0.025 seconds
Total duration
1,040 users online
1,571,673 hits today, 2,054,621 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
...... don't.... don't redeem her... PLEASE don't redeem her....... hell THE SHOW didn't redeem all of it's villains! This monster..... she went too far. She's caused SO MUCH hell and suffering.... she's beyond redemption because she REFUSES it.
Epic chapter.
9828104
Yeah... I find that this sort of thing is a major issue in some cartoons, Steven Universe and MLP come to mind. They want to reform their bad guys, but they also want threatening villains. Steven literally reforms space Nazis that killed thousands.
Imagine if Endgame tried to reform Thanos after EVERYTHING he'd done. Even if he had the saddest backstory ever it'd be insane. Faust is in the same boat, except her reason is "ohhh mom didn't love me and I have no friends" instead of thinking killing people would save the world.
In the end, I want the author to finish this as they intend. Despite that, there's legit NOTHING that can happen in this fic to make me like Faust.
there should be music of the portal theme from the avengers endgame
isn't the title called friends, forgiveness, and magic, there's a 1 in three chance of faust begin forgiven/redeemed
Read. My my, what an entry. I laughed, I fret, I gasped, I cried. Well done.
Expect a longer comment soon, I need to re-read it and collect all my thoughts.
9828104
If it helps, I can provide this tiny spoiler about Faust's fate, but only if you're interested.
Lady Faust will be punished and imprisoned by the end of her and Nightmare Moon's battle.
9828482
Ah, yes. That is the only reason why Faust has acted the way she has. The only reason. The only reason.
The only reason. The ONLY reason. The only reason. The only reason...
Well I certainly don't want to leave you two feeling unhappy. So at this point, I would like to say:
𝒴𝑜𝓊 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝒸𝑜𝓇𝒹𝒾𝒶𝓁𝓁𝓎 𝒾𝓃𝓋𝒾𝓉𝑒𝒹
9830766
*HAPPINESS NOISES*
Edit: I would like to clarify that I wouldn't drop this story or anything and I get it's themes.... there are just certain limits to how much 'redemption' can mean something.
9830766
Don't worry, you're a great writer; you CAN'T leave me unhappy ;). My gripe is minor, and frankly it'd go against the themes of this fic to refuse to reform a villain.
Man that's a cliff-hangar. Discord and Pinkie constantly erasing was so clever..
It's me or Faust is completely mad. she destroy a complete dimension cause she want to be alone. there is more peaceful way to do it like become a hermit or exile herself on the moon or a other planet with no life on it.
What a chapter. A few things got in the way of writing this more extensive comment time-wise, but here we go.
Computers? That's interesting. We did see screen-like visions in Tia's realm in the show, but not computers as we humans know them. Then again, Faust has access to all dimensions, including Megan's.
Not her texts? Hm. She did immediately tell Luna and Celestia in Equestria that she is not their mother, so... Perhaps those are texts from the other Lady Faust?
Maybe an alternate version of Tirek, since him rendering everyone with no magic would be quite equalizing?
And the Equalizer is a he, that's interesting. First creature to come to mind is Star Swirl, though only because he is still MIA.
Emotion of any strong variety does mess with her keeping up that spell, hm...
Also, that last sentence, interesting that exactly that alerts her to Chrysalis' presence. I do wonder if it is Chrysalis in particular, since I do remember a particular sentence of her family hating her when she had been under the effects of the vines in Princess Nightmare Moon.
Hm... Destroying things is indeed quicker than rebuilding them (paragraph < chapter).
So the spirit believes that Lady Faust is at least in some way beatable in Everfree... Maybe the closer a universe is to the show canon, the more powerful she gets?
Then again, there is the fact that Faust mainly acts through agents like Merryweather and the mysterious changeling within Everfree...
The Changeling trials are rather... self-explanatory, at least if they are anything like witch trials in our world.
Z.I.P schools... Some sort of brainwashing institutions? I do wonder what the abbreviation stands for. Something like "Z... is Power" maybe?
Meaning a young Lady Faust, who is different, would have had extreme problems.
I love that idea. Great way to occupy the two most powerful magical creatures in the team in a fashion that is still so essential.
OK. That is immensely messed up. Though... Why do it to this Cadance, and not Equestria Cadance? Maybe because she is afraid that someone in Everfree (which she deems more worthy than Equestria, which she was pretty much done with in her mind) will make her feel welcome, like Radiant Hope once tried, and now Cadance is the primary 'suspect' for that?
Does mesh with the fact that she tried to get the Spirit of Forgiveness to stop bothering her after she felt its soothing influence.
Plus, forgiving doesn't equal forgetting or letting slide. Just because you forgive someone, doesn't mean they shouldn't face consequences (that involve them getting help if possible, ideally).
Hm, Nightmare and Faust do indeed have things in common... The striking difference beside a loving upbringing is that Nightmare has things to lose. Still does, even after most her friends crumbling away. That Luna is unharmed is fortunate, otherwise Nightmare would have a much harder time forgiving Faust...
Ah, the sawbones solution... My word, Tirek is hardcore.