The Return of Nightmare Paring Knife (A Hearth's Warming Special)

by whizzball1

Lesson Two: Turtles Are Good for You, or, Outrageous Teaching Methods

Luna was frozen in disbelief. She stared at the alicorn before her, unable to process what she was seeing. It was really her. "M- Mother?!" Slowly, her limbs freed up, but she still didn't want to move, for fear the illusion would disappear.

"In the flesh!" Amoris replied, tapping a hoof against her side. "Actually, I'm not completely certain I really am in the flesh," she started, her brow furrowed. "I would ask somepony to bite me, but that would ruin my literally heavenly complexion." She chuckled.

"Oddly endearing!" Discord interjected, holding a plushie of Amoris and squeezing it with a squeak. From Discord, not the plushie, of course.

"Last time I checked, ponies didn't eat meat," Rainbow Dash added. "And I don't think the animals in the Everfree will be too polite about biting you." The six shared a light laugh.

Luna's limbs finally freed up, but she didn't think to move just right then. "But... But how didst thou come back? I thought thou wast dead!" She teleported in front of her mother and poked her, trying to satisfy her disbelief. Rarity gasped and fainted at the disrespectful and uncouth touch, but then realised that Cor Cantae Amoris[1] was Luna's mother and sat back up, clearing her throat.

[1]: Rarity would be insistent about using Amoris' full name. They all (mostly) got used to this.

"Oh, I was!" Amoris replied, laughing lightly. "Dead as a doorknob. Well, except for that one doorknob I met in Zebrica. She was very much alive, last I checked, which was actually at least 3000 years ago. Discord, do you know what happened to that doorknob you made?"

"Oh, she's dead too. All doors come to an end, you know. I could bring her back if you like, though." He raised his claw to snap his fingers.

"No, let her stay dead. I didn't like her. She's probably off in the Astral Plane doing some doorknob-y things anyway." Amoris waved a hoof in dismissal and continued. "Anyway, like I said, I was very dead. Pretty thoroughly, I should say; turned to a fine dust! But Luna, dear, we're goddesses! Don't you think we could just poof out of the Astral Plane whenever we wanted to? Twilight's friends killed her, you know." She giggled lightly. "Turned her to fine dust too, I think."

"The Elements did what?" Twilight asked her face filled with shock, and she startled back, banging her head into the hard crystal throne. "Ow..." she said, rubbing her head, and then Discord snapped his fingers, making the thrones much more comfortable and soft.

"It's about time I fixed those," he muttered. "That old Tree never did have any taste in chairs. Hard chairs this, hard chairs that. Blah, blah, blah." He mimicked the speaking with his claw.

"I thought the spell just sent me to the Astral Plane!" Twilight exclaimed, her mind running through possibilities. "It couldn't- Wait. Did you just say the Tree had no taste? It isn't even sentient! Unless it is..." Her expression grew vacant and a stray hair popped out of place in her mane, before she began rambling about the implications. Discord snapped his fingers and a soundproofing barrier fell over Twilight. He hung a sign saying 'Out of Order' in the air above her.

"Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned the Tree. Oh well! What's done is done."

Luna, meanwhile, was ecstatic. "Thou... Thou art not dead. Thou art not dead!" She was about to grin, but suddenly it stopped. "Wait. Thou couldst have come any time thou wished?" she asked, sceptically, her demeanour fading.

"Yes! Absolutely any time. I visited Qizhon'Xian a few times, actually. Those cranes are fabulously wonderful." Amoris laughed lightly.

"Any time at all?" Luna said again, trying to elicit the right thought process in her mother's mind.

"Yes, exactly, you don't need to drag it on, dear," Amoris said, yawning boredly.

"I do love dragging things on though," Discord said, frowning. "Although redundancy is a pain."

"Discord, you know how to drag things on. Everypony else doesn't. Except for maybe Rarity, actually." Amoris giggled.

Luna was not amused. In fact, she was fuming, positively livid. "Dost thou know how much I missed thee? Every night of every year I cried for thy death! Didst thou not see my pain? My despair? And thou never once thought to even visit briefly to reassure me? How could thee?"

Amoris frowned. "First of all, it's 'How could thou,' not 'How could thee.' I thought you knew these things! Second, I was busy. Watching you two rule. It was cute! Celestia getting over your loss was especially interesting."

"Thou wast busy?!" Luna cried, her face growing red with anger. "And thinkest thou not to correct our grammar when much more pressing matters are at hoof! For example, why thou never visited us?! Why thou left us in despair?" Luna snorted and pawed a hoof against the ground.

"Speaking of that, why are you still using that old style of speech? That is so 600 years ago and you know it. Keep up with the times! You've been here long enough to correct yourself." She sighed. Luna's anger grew and grew, until suddenly, it faded. Her shoulders drooped and her mane actually fell, losing its ethereal quality. Tears welled up in her eyes and then began to stream, before she let out a choked sob, and then, without another word, she flung open the doors with her magic and galloped outside, sobbing in despair.

A tear slowly dripped from Amoris' eye as she watched her daughter leave. She snapped around as Fluttershy stomped in front of her. " What was that? How could you do that to your own daughter?" Fluttershy growled, fuming. The others backed away from Fluttershy; they knew not to disturb her in this state.

"She loves you! She hasn't seen you for at least a thousand years! And then you just dismiss her like it's nothing! How could you be so cold?" She became increasingly more agitated as she spoke. "You are the worst mother ever!"

"You have no right to tell me that!" Amoris retorted, angrily. Another tear dripped from her eye. "You have no idea how much it hurt to say those things to my daughter! Do you really think I of all ponies would be so insensitive? It was an act!" She sighed and calmed down, breathing in and out slowly. She wiped her fur and then fixed it back up with magic.

"W- What?" Fluttershy asked, confusion replacing her anger. "It was an act?" She drew her eyes up and down the Queen, who shuddered in sadness.

"It certainly did not look like an act," Rarity said, huffing. "And I know my acts. I can tell an act when I see one."

"Well, you're definitely very good at acting," Rainbow Dash snarked, smirking. "Oh, woe is me!" she mimicked, badly, drawing a hoof over her face. "This is the most bad possible thing!"

"Worst, darling. Not most bad." Rarity frowned lightly, and Dash scoffed.

"I know that; I was trying to be ironic." Rainbow Dash scowled.

"How do you know what irony is?" Rarity retorted, huffing again.

"Daring Do," Rainbow Dash replied. "Daring adds some stuff about writing stuff throughout the books so cool other stuff she does isn't lost on us readers. Duh."

Applejack finally spoke up. "Ah'm the Element of Honesty, an' ah didn't feel even a tiny mite like you were lyin' or actin'." She raised her eyebrow.

"My goodness, you're good at raising your eyebrows," Amoris said, suddenly. "Anyway, I'm the Queen of Song, but that also includes other forms of art--including acting. I'm the master actor. With divine magic. And you, Applejack, are not divine, however i-" Discord hushed Amoris with a finger.

"Ah ah ah, spoilers. You can tell them later." Discord swung a pendulum with the typical warning sign as its end: The outline of a circle with a slash running through it.

"Ugh, fine." Amoris harrumphed, in the same vein as Rarity's huffs, and continued her original discourse. "I have always taught my children in outrageous ways, emphasis on rage. I find it the most effective way to teach them. Simply telling them things does not work: They must experience it for themselves. In this case, loss. My daughters never felt loss, because they had always been nearest to immortals.

"As time passed, I dropped hints about dealing with loss, making sure they registered them, but I never gave them a reason why. I knew that, inevitably, a certain enemy who shall not be named would come back and I would die. So I died! And then I didn't come back. It took a while, but they figured out how to deal with it based on the little things I'd instilled in them.

"I needed them to learn to deal with loss, because, once we were gone, they would make mortal friends. And those friends would die. Very often. If they didn't know how to deal with loss, then they would never be able to withstand that. And this final insensitivity was the hammer on the head. She has experienced true, complete loss, when I do not even show signs of caring. That is what that was, Fluttershy. Now do you understand?"

Fluttershy was well and thoroughly reprimanded. "I'm so sorry... I didn't mean to... I didn't know..." She began to cry softly. Suddenly, Amoris' demeanour changed. She scooped Fluttershy up in her magic and brought her into a comforting hug, letting the poor dear know that it was okay.

"Worry not, Fluttershy," she said, softly. "That was the right way to respond. You could not have known what I was doing." As Fluttershy showed no signs of calming, Amoris began to hum softly, a calming, soothing tune. Deep red swirling ribbons of magic danced around Fluttershy as Amoris' song worked its magic and brought Fluttershy's mind out of its stupor. "I'm sorry, too."

She slowly lowered Fluttershy down onto her throne and then cleared her throat, looking at the others. "Wow, Queen Amoris, that was so cool!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed, her voice cracking. "Was that Heart Magic?"

"It was. Don't worry, I only brought out the calm inside her, that which she wanted to have. It's not forced or artificial." Applejack was sufficiently relieved by this, and Amoris perked up once more. "So! Like I think I said earlier, Luna was always the slower one as to figuring out when I was teaching a lesson. By my estimates, she'll be back in, hmm... 3... 2... 1."

The door burst in and Luna tackled her mother in a hug, sobbing quietly. "You're back... You're alive..." Luna whispered, as her slowing tears wet her mother, but Amoris didn't care, although she usually would. But this was her daughter.

"I'm sorry I took so long," Amoris said, stroking Luna's mane softly. "I'm sorry I had to leave you alone like that."

"Why did you stay away for so long? Nightmare..." Luna trailed off, her meaning incoherent to the others in the room. Amoris understood perfectly.

"That was why, dear. I was about to return, but then you began to show signs of that." She sighed sadly; she had been heavily disheartened by that thousand year wait. "When you returned, I knew it was time to come back. Then I realised that somepony else was going to receive Heart Magic, and I decided to wait until then to make sure you had fully recovered. And you did quite nicely.

"Thank you for that, by the way," she said, nodding to Twilight and her friends. They nodded in return, but didn't say anything, not wanting to disturb the moment.

"Yes... We did not handle that in the best way." Luna sighed. "But yes, we are 'over it,' as the ponies now say. I thank thee so much for returning." She squeezed her mother one last time before pulling back.

"So!" exclaimed Amoris, returning to a casual yet regal demeanour. She straightened up her build, thinner than Celestia but not as thin as Luna. It was reminiscent of Cadence, but her width did not change as much as Cadence's and Luna's did along their body. "I came to help, and help is what I shall do. And to do that, I won't teach her any specific way of controlling her emotions.

"Rarity, did you learn from somepony how to control your emotions?" Rarity thought back, and, with surprise, shook her head. "I didn't think so. You have to develop it on your own. And I'm going to perform some tests--" Twilight squeed--"to figure out what the best way to elicit inner control would be." The music boxes of her mind[2] were already turning, coming up with tests to perform.

[2]: Ponies had actual mental gears that turned when they thought. The alicorns had special gears, Amoris' gears being music boxes, Luna's being phasing moons, and Celestia's being extremely odd flickering flames. She'd never changed it, mostly because she couldn't think of anything better that was related to her divinity. Maybe something having to do with lights and mirrors. She didn't know.

"But first, I want to get to know Sweetie Belle. And her friends, too, for good measure." Her horn glowed and she teleported Apple Bloom and Scootaloo into the castle. Thankfully, they hadn't been doing anything too important.[3]

[3]: If "about to get their cutie marks in carpentry and scooter stunts[4], respectively" counted as unimportant. The Fates knew this, which was, of course, exactly why they stopped the two. Fate could be cruel. Right now, actually, it wasn't.

[4]: This had been gradually evolving (or devolving, in Scootaloo's opinion) into dancing. Unfortunately (or thankfully, in Scootaloo's opinion), she was teleported away before she could realise it, hence, before it could get good (or bad, in Scootaloo's opinion).

"Eh, scooter stunts weren't going to get me a cutie mark anyway," Scootaloo muttered.

"Who teleported us?" asked Apple Bloom, looking around as her eyes got oriented to the different light. Her eyes drifted to the weird pink pony with wings and a horn, then she looked over at Scootaloo- Weird pink pony with wings and a horn? "Er... 'sthat a new alicorn?" She shook her head, trying to clear her mind and get rid of the illusion. Nope, still there.

"Not new, just gone for a really long time," Sweetie Belle clarified. "She's the one that could do Heart Magic too, remember? In Discord's play." They all laughed as they remembered it.

"A play? About me? I want to see this," Amoris mused, her mind absent, working on other things. "Actually, it's made by Discord, I'm not sure any more..."

"Wow! I get to know three alicorns now!" exclaimed Scootaloo, grinning. "Diamond Tiara will be so jealous."

"I like that name..." Amoris muttered, deep in thought.

Spike groaned. "She's even worse than Twilight when she's thinking," he droned, not looking forward to when this happened again. Because he knew it would.

"Ah know how ta fix this," Applejack said, tossing up an apple from her saddlebags and throwing it at Amoris[4], who lifted her hoof and caught it without a second thought, taking a bite thoughtfully. "Er... Never mind."

[5]: Getting an apple thrown at you did not hurt in Equestria. The fruit families threw fruits around so much that the divines decided that since they couldn't stop the ponies, why not stop the fruits? It was still startling, though.

"Just let her think, darlings," Rarity said, as Twilight with her magic held Rainbow Dash back. "If this is anything like Twilight when she's thinking, we have no hope. You may faint if you want, I have spares." Rarity presented a fainting couch to her friends, but for some reason, none of them accepted. How rude.

Then, just like that, Amoris was done. She blinked and then began speaking like nothing had happened. "So you're Apple Bloom and Scootaloo," said Amoris, looking them over. "It's wonderful to finally meet you in person[AN 1]. Your friend has a lot in store, but I wanted to get to know you too. Just scrying you from afar is no way to get to know anypony, no matter who you are." Amoris laughed lightly.

"It's wonderful ta fin'lly meet us?" asked Apple Bloom. "Oh mare, DT's going ta faint like Rarity on a good hair day.[5]"

[6]: Rarity fainted enough on good hair days. Bad hair days? It hurt to think about.

"Did somepony say fainting?" asked Rarity, teleporting between them with a fainting couch. Ever since the whole Tirek and rainbow power incident, the Bearers had gradually been growing stronger in terms of their magic. As a result, Rarity fell into neurosis more easily than ever. Now was no exception. "I have a fainting couch! Does anypony want a fainting couch?"

"No, sis, we don't want a fainting couch," Sweetie Belle droned, and Rarity trotted back dejectedly, still levitating her fainting couch.

Amoris looked the two over a bit more, trying to decide whether they were interesting enough to get to know right now. The answer was obvious; she blinked. "Okay, I'm done getting to know you now," she stated, simply. "I want to see the World Turtle."

Twilight's eyes boggled. "The World Turtle is real?" she asked, incredulously. "But- But- I thought Equestria floats in space! The astronomical calculations clearly-"

Amoris held her hoof up in front of Twilight's mouth. "That's the silliest idea I've ever heard. Equestria floating in space?" She threw her head back and laughed. "That's almost as crazy as believing stars are anything bigger than light bulbs." Twilight was further disconcerted by this, and now there was an alicorn and a unicorn falling into neurosis. "Equestria sits on a giant Turtle in a bigger pool inside the Astral Plane. No, there are no elephants involved."

"Do you need a fainting couch, by any chance, Twilight?" Rarity asked, pleadingly. Twilight was too busy breaking to respond. Or faint. Spike rolled his eyes.

"Luna, dear, did the Turtle finally choose a gender?" Amoris asked. "Also, what's its name right now? We of all ponies know how fickle it is. Always changing its name. And Equestria's topography. You know, I wonder why the world is still called Equestria. I mean, there's so many other non-equestrian species on it. It should be called something else that's less specieist. Something random like, I don't know, Ioka or something.

"Discord, next time you go talk to the divines, tell them I renamed Equestria. It's Ioka now." Discord chortled furiously and stuck a note to the inside of his head about doing that. Twilight whimpered further as Rarity's eyes began to twitch.

"No, mother, it did not. It seemeth to have grown rather fond of being genderless, now. I know not its current name, either. It is changing names much more often, recently." Luna laughed lightly (if a loud "Ha!" counted as light). "Dost thou wish of me to teleport us?"

"No, I will. Who's the Heart Song in the room?" Amoris asked, rhetorically.

"I am!" exclaimed Sweetie Belle, her voice cracking. She beamed, totally ignorant to the rhetoric quality of her predecessor's question.

"And I," Amoris replied. "It was rhetorical." Without further ado, she teleported them all to the head of the Turtle, who extended its will into a much smaller copy of itself, about Sweetie Belle's size.

"Hello, Amoris," it greeted, with that sort of voice where you couldn't tell what gender it was. It had a distinct English accent.[AN 2] "And Luna, and Twilight. Congratulations on your divinity, by the way." Twilight's eye was twitching now as well. "It seems she's going through neurosis. And the white one too. Is anyone going to stop that?"

Rarity teleported in front of the Turtle, waving her fainting couch around. "Do you want a fainting couch? Please tell me you want a fainting couch!"

"No, I suppose not," the Turtle said, answering its own question. "I have a pile of fainting couches somewhere around here. They all look like that one, for some reason." It was probably where all of Rarity's random fainting couches went. Why they went to the Turtle was unknown.

"So, what's your name right now?" Amoris asked. "I can't just call you 'you' forever; that would be silly once other ponies start talking."

"I feel like a Carol right now," Carol stated, like it was the most obvious fact in the world.

"Well, it's nice to see you again, Carol. I really should visit more often." Amoris patted Carol's head.

"Strike that; I feel like a Ken now," Ken interrupted. "Call me Ken."

Pinkie Pie, who had been oddly quiet, finally spoke up. "Wow, it's so great to meet you, Ken! I heard there was a World Turtle but now I actually get to meet you! I need to throw a party! Can I throw an impromptu party on your head?" Ken nodded, but before it could say anything, Pinkie had already fired her party cannon and their area of Ken's head was thoroughly decorated.

"Very practical," Ken noted. "I suddenly feel like a Nolan." Nolan teleported over a cupcake and took a bite out of it. "Thank you for these cupcakes, pink one."

Fluttershy was considerably more brave around animals, even an animal that happened to carry all of the recently renamed Ioka on its back. So, she finally decided that it would be interesting to talk to Nolan. "Um, mister Nolan?" she asked, at an almost normal volume.

"I'm genderless, shy one," Nolan replied. "Use 'Turtle' rather than 'Mister' or 'Miss'."

"That is the weirdest thing I've ever heard," Rainbow Dash droned, disrespectfully.

"Rainbow Dash!" Rarity scolded, suddenly back, neurosis gone, while Fluttershy attempted to draw the conversation back to herself to no avail. "How could you say that? Such disrespect! This is the Turtle that carries all of Eq- Ioka on its back! I think that just demands respect."

Twilight's neurosis was still getting worse. Her mane was completely unkempt and her face was contorted as her mind continued to be shattered. "This is no longer interesting," said Nolan, and it touched one of its feet to Twilight's head. The foot glowed and Twilight's neurosis faded away as the information sorted itself out and her fears were calmed. "Call me Joan now."

"What in tarnation was that?" asked Apple Bloom, very interested. "Didn't look like no regular magic to me. Or that fancy Heart Magic Sweetie uses."

"It's Mind Magic," Joan stated, without further elaboration.

"Er... Care to explain?" Apple Bloom continued, trying to push Joan in the right direction.

"Oh!" Joan exclaimed. Apple Bloom perked up. "No."

"Why not?"

"I don't want to. I like Tanner now." Tanner turned away from Apple Bloom before she could respond.

"So," Amoris began, finally getting to what she wanted to say. "Was Luna's reaction when I returned surprising?"

"Cora, you should know by now that nothing surprises me." Tanner chuckled lightly, omitting the recent exception.

Amoris, however, did not forget. "When I came back surprised you," she claimed, suddenly.

A look of surprise formed on Tanner's face. "What? No I wasn't. Neither was I just there." Pinkie Pie giggled and Rainbow Dash snickered.

"Yes you were. Both times." Amoris smirked.

"No I wasn't."

"Yes you were."

"No I wasn't." Before Amoris could respond, Tanner said, "Call me Sam."

"Okay, two things," Rainbow interrupted, obvious annoyance on her face. "One: Those names are weird." Rarity gasped. "Two: Stop changing names! It's annoying!" Rarity fainted onto a fainting couch at this second offence.

"Rainbow Dash," Applejack muttered, with gritted teeth. "Don't insult the prob'ly all powerful giant turtle."

"Oh, it's fine, I'm not insulted," Tanner said, laughing lightly. "Although you should be careful. I may not be all-powerful, but I'm powerful enough to..." The Turtle winked. "Anyway, call me Seymour."

"To what?!" asked Rainbow Dash, frantically.

"Whatever it is, it doesn't matter, because I believe I've finished catching up. The Turtle knows almost everything. Goodbye, Seymour."

"Goodbye, Cora," the Turtle said, and as she looked at each pony, she continued, "Pink One, Magic One, Kind One, Brash One, Generous One, Honest One, One of Heart..." She turned to Scootaloo, and began, "One of-"

"Okay bye!" Amoris exclaimed, quickly, and they all teleported back to the castle. "So! I think it's time for the tests."

"I never got to talk to it..." Fluttershy whispered, dejectedly.

"Don't fret, Fluttershy," Amoris said. "I'll take you again some time. But we have many things to do."

"What was the Turtle saying to me before we left?" Scootaloo asked, tilting her head.

"Probably nothing interesting. It was dragging on too long again." Amoris chortled. "And anyway, it might have had something to do with your cutie mark, which would have been spoilers for you."

"Aw, come on!" Scootaloo exclaimed, hitting the ground with her hoof.

"Ah could've found out too!" Apple Bloom suddenly realised. "Why'd ya have to do that?"

"Because, you're supposed to find out for yourself." Amoris huffed. "Right now, I need most of you to leave. Twilight and Luna can stay, and so can Scootaloo and Apple Bloom. I'll need you two in the second test." The other ponies shuffled out of the throne room, while Discord hid in a chandelier to watch.

"Now, I first need to test your emotions while you're singing. While a song straight from the heart can be quite dangerous, I'm here, and I'm more powerful than Sweetie Belle, so I can stop it if it gets out of hoof. Now, Sweetie Belle, begin."

Sweetie Belle hesitated, thinking it over. Well, there were three powerful alicorns in the room (one of which could do what she did), and Discord was probably hanging around too. Satisfied, she opened her mouth, and began to vocalise, unconsciously reaching out and gripping her heart, opening a connection for the emotions to flow outward and be controlled by her song.

As Sweetie began to sing, Amoris herself began to vocalise, her deep red Heart Magic quickly working its way to Sweetie's heart. She watched and felt the emotions storming inside of Sweetie. She concentrated as the emotions began to flow at a regular pace... before suddenly, emotions from all over the chaotic sea flooded toward the opening, controlling Sweetie's song instead of the other way around.

While last time it was (mostly) harmless, this time, darker emotions took hold, like ire and envy. But before anything detrimental could take place, Amoris sang a halting, discordant note which ended the magic. "Next test," said Amoris, as she projected a mental image of what Amoris had felt into Twilight's mind so the bookworm could take notes.

"Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, go next to Sweetie Belle. Hug her or something. Whatever you do, be very happy." That would be easy for them. Amoris had cut off the song before anything remotely scary could visibly happen. And they liked Sweetie's singing. All around, they were pretty ecstatic.

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo squeezed Sweetie Belle between them. "Too... Tight..." Sweetie gasped, trying to push the two into a looser position.

"Oh, sorry 'bout that," Apple Bloom sheepishly replied, the squeezers loosening up.

"Now, Sweetie Belle, begin singing again." Sweetie Belle began to vocalise for the second time, opening up the same connection as before. Amoris watched closely as the emotions were coaxed out to the connection. As the time came that the stormy emotions would begin to take control, suddenly, faint bridges began to form between the three hearts, and as the emotions tried to rush forward, they were held back by an invisible force.

But after about 10 seconds of being held back, the chaotic emotions broke free of their bonds and rushed toward the main connection. Amoris halted the song again and sent Twilight another mental image, launching Twilight into another furious bout of note taking.

"Interesting..." Amoris mused, mulling over the results.

"What happened?" Scootaloo asked, and Sweetie and Apple Bloom echoed the inquiry.

Amoris shook her head. "None of your concern. Anything I do might not work if you know anything about it."

"Please?" asked Sweetie Belle, about to whip out the cute face. One of them. She had many.

"Nope. You go play outside with your friends." Then Amoris flashed her horn and teleported the Crusaders away. Moments later, she sensed something with a Heart Song spell coming toward Ponyville. "There's something with a Heart spell coming toward the town," she said, to the other alicorns in the room. "It feels sinister; I'm going to try and dismantle it."

Luna and Twilight looked on awkwardly as Amoris began to vocalise a lilting, choppy tune. After a few seconds, she stopped. "Hmm..." She switched to vocalising an odd tune, in which she suddenly stopped notes and superimposed others. Finishing, she explained, "I can't seem to get rid of the spell. I've put up as many exceptions as I could, though, since it seems to be a mind altering spell.

"All the important ponies, and Spike. By important ponies I mean the Elements of Harmony." Amoris hummed a bit more.

"What do you mean?" Twilight asked, agitated. "We're not the only important ponies in-"

Amoris teleported over and put a hoof to Twilight's mouth. "Hush. I'm trying to listen." Her ear flicked, and then she teleported the rest of them outside, joined with the other Elements and the Crusaders.

Sweetie Belle's eyes widened and she startled back as she saw the object glowing and spinning in the air. Some of the ponies in the group were staring at the all too familiar object while the others were watching the ponies scrambling away in fear. "That's..."

"Ah know what that is..." Apple Bloom said, horrified, her eyes wide and her ears pinned back.

"I thought it was gone!" Scootaloo continued, tensing up.

Finally, simultaneously, they cried, "The Nightmare Paring Knife!"

And then all Tartarus broke loose.

Author's Note:

The magic that really happens in the Heart Song has not been fully described. Each time I may describe more, but all will be shown near the end, though, worry not. And it will be grand.[AN 3]

Footnotes:
[AN 1]: Person is not strictly human. "In pony" is bad and you should feel bad.
[AN 2]: No. Not all Earth names have to be ponified. Is it so hard to believe that there could have been a group of Angles who settled somewhere and developed that accent? The answer to that is no, in case you didn't guess right at first blush.
[AN 3]: I hope.