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

by whizzball1

Lesson Five: Dancing Isn't Dumb, or, Too Many Reckless Spells!

"Windigoes!" Twilight immediately teleported them all back to Ponyville, which was closest to the centre of Equestria and would give them the longest time to figure out a solution. Hopefully there wouldn't be too much damage by the time the cold stopped anypony from doing anything riotous.

"Amoris said that 'the last solution' wouldn't work," Twilight said, when they had all reoriented. "What do you think she means?"

"I think she means the fire of friendship, darling," Rarity replied, thinking back to the Hearth's Warming pageant. "That is how the Founders defeated the Windigoes."

"How would we even git it goin'?" Applejack asked, scuffing the ground with a hoof.

"Probably something cheesy like sitting down in a circle and shouting 'friendship!' " Rainbow Dash droned. "We're already friends, anyway. The Founders had to become friends for that to happen."

"Maybe Amoris said it wouldn't work because the Fire is an extension of Harmony Magic, but the Windigoes are here because of Heart Magic?" Fluttershy asked, and everypony stared at her, confused by her sudden burst of knowledge. "Oh, um, Twilight encouraged me to read her and Star Swirl's findings about Harmony and the other related things..."

"Huh, figures it would be Twilight."

"Hey! Actually, I'm not sure that's an insult." Twilight shrugged.

"I know what we need!" Discord exclaimed, wildly. "Chaos! I'm sure that if we just do lots of chaotic things, eventually we'll chance upon the right solution."

"We can't just randomly throw solutions around and hope we'll get one right!" Twilight retorted, indignantly. "The chances of getting a solution would be terribly small!"

"Ah, but that's if we live in an orderly world. Which, of course, we don't. We live in a harmonious world. Totally different." Discord whistled conspicuously. "Really, there's a 50/50 chance that there'll be a big chance to get a solution right off the bat, assuming we get to the bat in the first place. Overall, I'd say the chances are..."

He counted on 11 fingers and then pulled an abacus with twisted rows out of his pocket. He spun the beads and then slid them back and forth, changing their colours before shaking the abacus and then throwing it out somewhere, eliciting the sound of a crash and the hissing of a cat.

"That sounded like Opal," Rarity said, scowling.

"Oh, I would never hurt a fly!" Discord replied, taken aback. "Especially not a dem- angel of a cat like yours." Rarity harrumphed and tossed her head back. "Anyway, I would say the chances are... One hundred and ten percent![1]"

[1]: "That Twilight would freak out," said I, in the footnotes. Pinkie frowned suspiciously.

"But that's literally impossible!" Twilight exclaimed, irritatedly. "You can't have one hundred ten percent in real life."

"Well then, why don't you check my maths, hmmm?" Discord presented a paper with lots of mathematical operations, some real, some with symbols that only Discord understood. At the bottom corner was a final answer of "110%!"

"But- But that's impossible!" Twilight cried, of course not believing that any of the fake operations were credible. She didn't make it seem like that, though. "This isn't even-"

"Not impossible. You see for yourself, don't you?"

"No I-" Discord shut her mouth and painted his own mouth lavender, holding his head in front of Twilight's.

"Yes I do!" he exclaimed, in a perfect imitation of Twilight's voice. Definitely not the poor imitation that everybody else thought they heard. That would be silly. "See?" His head was re-attached and his mouth was back to normal. "She does. It's foolproof."

Applejack raised an eyebrow high, and then she had a pink horn and wings with a sign around her neck, saying, "Princess of Eyebrows." Just as quickly as it appeared, Discord got rid of it all.

"Never mind, you'd be a terrible princess," Discord said, huffing. "That's a fact, you know. That's why they didn't decide- Oops, spoilers." Applejack scowled. "Fluttershy is the closest of any of you, other than Twilight, to princess material," he added. "But she's much better the way she is."

Dawn rose on Hearth's Warming Eve. The sun and moon had still been moving faster for still as of yet unknown reasons. For the ponies around Equestria, however, the sun didn't do much to help the cold.

"Well, it's Hearth's Warming Eve," Rainbow Dash said, dejectedly. "And Windigoes are coming to ruin everything."

"Worst Hearth's Warming ever," Pinkie grumped, her hair beginning to slowly straighten out again in despair.

"Why don't we try Discord's option?" Fluttershy asked, quietly. "At the very least something might slow down the Windigoes."

"Haha, see?" Discord asked, clapping his hands. "Someone knows what they're talking about! Oohoohoo, I have so many things to try!" He rummaged a claw in his suit pocket.

"Maybe it'll be cool." Rainbow Dash glanced at Discord.

"That's what ya said last time, when Discord was gonna teach!" Applejack exclaimed, exasperatedly. She threw her hooves up into the air and then scuffed the ground with them.

"And he came up with a good idea," Rainbow retorted. Applejack opened her mouth, and then closed it.

"Let's see what he has in store," Rarity suddenly said. "Maybe he'll have good ideas. Like that suit." Discord bowed.

"We're with them!" the Crusaders exclaimed, in unison. Sometimes Twilight wondered if that crazy friendship of theirs was more than met the eye. Did they have one of those silly "inherent telepathic connections"? It was more likely that somepony whom she would have to find had cast some sort of spell on them. That made much more sense.

Luna was uneasy, but not as much as last time. She felt she was... "Warming up to him," as the ponies said. She was supposed to tolerate him, not befriend him! But maybe that wasn't so bad. "Maybe... Maybe he shall be of help." Discord beamed. "Maybe."

"Frabulous! Practically everypony agrees." Pinkie nodded profusely. "So I'm going to put a touch of chaos magic in your minds, enough for you to come up with chaotic ideas, hopefully for what we're talking about." Applejack looked sceptical. "Oh, don't worry, it's not any mind control or anything. Just a little something to help us all be more chaotic, temporarily. No malicious intent."

Applejack's lie detecting was satisfied again, so she nodded her head slowly. Everyone else nodded, trusting Applejack, and Discord snapped his fingers, making everypony's ideas that much more chaotic.

Immediately, Pinkie spouted an idea. "Hot chocolate rain!" she exclaimed. "I had that idea before we started!" She giggled innocently.

"That's perfect!" Discord replied, snapping his fingers and setting off hot chocolate rains all throughout Equestria. The chocolate wasn't so hot to the point of burning, but it was comfortable. It was chocolate though, but hopefully the ponies wouldn't care. At least they were getting warm, right?

"Cuddly lions!" "Those are myths!"

"Not any more!"

"Hot pink warning signs!" "Hot blue!" "Another song?" "No more songs!"

Discord threw out a stack of sheet music, the notes flying off the page and whacking Discord, and then each other, before winking out of existence.

"... No more songs!"

Nothing happened.

"Haywaiian BBQ pits?" "Rainbow Dash, we are not doing BBQ pits!" "Ever!"

"Tanning beds?" "Ponies don't tan!" "And why would they get inside?"

"Hang them upside down, of course!" Discord hung tanning beds from the ceilings of random buildings with sturdy noodles and glitter glue. Obviously this was not an answer to the question, but it was Discord.

"Dry ice!" Everypony (obviously excepting the non-pony Discord) stared at Apple Bloom. "What?"

"I like that idea, thank you very much," Discord said, crossing his arms. "So cold it's hot!"

"It's not actually hot," Twilight replied, scowling. "That'd make it even worse!"

"Oh, fine."

"Giant heat lamps!" "Where would we even put those?" "Open Easy Bake Ovens?"

"I like that last idea!" And then half the ponies in Equestria had Pinkie Patented Easy Bake Ovens baking snap pea and rutabaga cupcakes.

"Enough!" shouted Twilight. "This is getting us nowhere!"

"Bah. Everypony in Equestria is that much warmer!" Discord rolled open another presentation screen and then pointed to the air on the opposite side of the group from the screen, showing a 4d sweeping hologram of ponies, some being glomped by very cuddly and harmless lions, others sitting under tanning lamps (and fighting for sole usage, unfortunately), and still others sitting close up to their Easy Bake Ovens.

But they were all still shivering. Not as much, mind you, but enough to show that there was still a problem, and at the rate it was growing, a soon to be very bad problem.

"Let's do a dance!" Discord suddenly exclaimed. "Wouldn't that be great?" With a snap of his fingers they were triangle dancing[2], upside down. Not on an upside down platform, mind you, but with their legs on their heads. The Crusaders in particular were made to dance much closer to each other.

[2]: Completely different from square dancing. They did things in a triangle.

Twilight shook herself, which put her back to normal. "No! No dancing! We need to be serious here! Yes, the ideas help. But they don't help enough to be efficient in terms of time." She sighed and then took a few deep breaths to calm herself before she continued speaking. "Let's just calm ourselves and think reasonably of what might be a logical idea."

"Dancing!" Discord exclaimed.

"Dancing is not a logical idea!" Twilight cried.

"Sure it is! Because-"

"No! No more ideas from you right now. Just, close your mouth. Let us talk. And get rid of the chaos magic."

Discord grumbled and snapped his fingers, pulling out the chaos magic and its effects. "You'd know why it was a good idea if you'd let me talk," he muttered, quietly enough that he couldn't be heard. No, he would have to try harder! Not to tell them the reason, now. That would be too easy. They needed to figure it out for themselves.

"Let me clarify what we need to do," Twilight began, after she was sure it was all gone. "The only sure way to stop the Windigoes is to stop the hate spell. That way, the unnatural hate will disappear and the Windigoes will have nothing to feed on. A nice thing to get done that would expedite the Windigoes' retreat would be to pulse a Harmony event from the spire of the castle. I have an idea as to how to activate one."

"Good!" Rarity exclaimed, stomping the ground with her two hooves. "I find it very helpful in my designing to lay out a description of everything I want accomplished and basic ideas I have as to how I can accomplish this or that feel or air in my pieces."

"Said to the mare who makes checklists of her checklists," Rainbow Dash said, smirking. Twilight blushed.

"I have an idea! Let's dance an explanation!" Discord grinned. "I can provide visualisers!" He snapped his fingers, creating a hologram of them dancing, a glowing red liquid flowing out of the ponies of Equestria, and the Windigoes being dispelled by a rainbow pulse.

Twilight ignored him.

"I don't really have any ideas..." Fluttershy said. "The divines couldn't really think of anything."

"And remember? Amoris couldn't get rid of the spell, how much less us?" Rainbow Dash crossed her hooves. "Especially when Amoris herself is powering it now, with a hate spell!"

"It's clear that Harmony Magic won't do anything to it," Twilight added. "Amoris made that perfectly clear."

"Amoris turned evil," Applejack replied. "Can we trust what she said?"

"I'm not even sure she said that!" Pinkie interjected.

"Can confirm," Discord interrupted. "Harmony Magic does not affect Heart Magic unless it's specifically wired in." Twilight nodded. "Can we dance now?" he asked, pleadingly.

Twilight ignored him.

"Maybe we should witness Sweetie Belle singing a Heart Song and make observations about it," Rarity mused. She had not seen her sister's Heart Song in full before. "Maybe we will find something Amoris did not."

Luna spoke up. "I believe this may be a viable option. Any harmful effects, if there be any at all, will be either negligible, simple to fix, or nothing compared to what is currently happening. The main problem is the hate spell; anything else can be looked at later."

Discord was growing exasperated. He snapped his fingers and they were dancing a ballet, all in costume. It appeared to be about a song and a dance, a meta dance, if you will. "I want to dance!" he exclaimed, in a mock tantrum manner. Everypony else immediately stopped dancing.

"No dancing!" exclaimed Twilight, indignantly.

"Yeah!" Scootaloo added. "Dancing is dumb!"

Discord scoffed. "Dancing is not dumb," he replied, looking squarely at Scootaloo. "Dancers go through much gruelling training. Most good dancers are as fit as boxers and even the Wonderbolts." Scootaloo was silenced by this revelation. "Anyway, I think that we should not do something as horribly reckless as having Sweetie just do a random Heart Song.

"I expected better from you all! My goodness. Think about things before you do them."

Twilight scuffed the ground with a hoof. "I am thinking about the things I'm doing," she said, seethingly. She scuffed the ground repeatedly, which conveyed extreme irritation to Discord, so he decided to back off lest Twilight never decide to try it. So of course he took off his back and crumpled it up, before moonwalking backward.

Twilight sighed and ignored him.

"So... Do I do it?" Sweetie Belle asked. Twilight nodded firmly.

Sweetie Belle uneasily began to vocalise, singing what came to mind. She quickly fell into the music, vocalising heartily. Emotions churned in her heart, slowly trickling in, and then the dam burst, Sweetie Belle losing control of the song like a wave hitting her head-on.

Ribbons of light green magic slowly formed and began to dance about the air. Sweetie's song was mostly calm, not festive or anything else. Just a slow, rocking song. The ribbons flowed through the town, doing just about the most harmless thing that could possibly be done: fixing up uneven parts of the snow-cover. Bumps were flattened; dents were filled; nothing really happened.

As that happened, the song began to warm up, and more ribbons branched out in a grid pattern through Ponyville, rising up and curling around an invisible ball. They glowed and began to form globes of warm orange light, light that didn't hurt the eyes. The ponies were grateful for the warmth it provided, but they still stayed away from each other.

The song sped up a bit more, with a few flat notes, and the lights heated up more, to a point that would be uncomfortably warm if not for the Windigoes. Discord snapped his fingers and copied the effect to spread about Equestria as much as he could.[3]

[3]: Discord would not have been able to do this if not for Sweetie's song creating it. Heart Magic had a part in beating back the Windigoes the first time, and it was a surefire way to negate their effects, even if only a bit.

The song sharpened, and with a flash, the lights became too bright to look at. The ponies averted their eyes, but the white snow everywhere reflected the effect somewhat, enough to be quite uncomfortable. There was nothing for it except to close their eyes, for the only other option short of leaving was to curl up into a ball, which was a fairly uncomfortable position.[4]

[4]: These effects did not apply to the balls of light Discord had spread, thankfully. But he could no longer copy them because of this.

The song flattened again, but with a dark edge to it. Some of the ponies sitting under the lights had their feelings slowly numb. It was rather uncomfortable, and left them feeling colder, albeit with less of a feeling as a whole.

Then the song became more prickly, taking on a noticeably darker tone. The ponies all began to feel very itchy, and their frantic scratching alerted the group to this. "I don't think that looks very good," Fluttershy said, frowning. "I'm not sure this song was such a good idea."

"Oh, don't worry, Fluttershy. It'll be fine." Twilight patted Fluttershy on the head and went back to taking notes.

The song grew even darker, and it became choppy, with sudden flat notes and a few notes of dissonance. Some of the group, particularly Fluttershy and Applejack, were not pleased by what that could entail, and their fears were realised when joints and muscles began to lock up. Ponies realised this and began to try to move. Moving was somewhat painful and slow.

"Ah'm getting uneasy 'bout this the same, Twilight," Applejack said, twisting a hoof in the ground with furrowed brow.

"Oh, lighten up," Twilight said, not even looking at her. Applejack frowned, but said nothing.

The choppiness in the song came to a stop as the song slowed down, drifting into a sort of rickety, blurring tone. Before the eyes of the group, some of the wood in many buildings began to visibly rot, developing holes and tears. Some buildings began to creak, and Rarity, still empowered by supercharged Harmony, extended her magic to keep the buildings from falling if the wood rotted too much.

"The wood is rotting, dear," Rarity said, her voice tense. "That is not good." Twilight ignored her.

The song changed again as the wood continued to rot. This time, Sweetie's notes layered noticeably as she sang both sharp, high notes and deep notes, the latter in a warm tune. Very small spots on the globes of light began to emit very hot light, hot enough to burn painfully, but not at a second degree level. That didn't mean it wasn't painful--when ponies began crying out and they could spot burns, the group knew something was wrong.

"Twilight, the ponies are getting burned!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. Twilight continued furiously scribbling notes, completely oblivious to what was happening. Rainbow Dash shook her wildly. "Stop her, now!"

Twilight snapped out of her reverie. She lit up her horn and tried to shut Sweetie Belle's mouth. Failing that, she magically dampened Sweetie's vocal cords, before plugging the hole magically, which immediately stopped the song, including the rotting and burning. The globes of light reverted to their original, would-be uncomfortably warm state, thankfully.

"That didn't go very well at all," Twilight said, frowning. "At least we know how to stop the song if it gets bad."

"Why don't we use my idea?" Discord asked. "Dancing can't possibly hurt."

"Yes, it can hurt," Twilight replied, frowning. "We don't have time to dance."

"Sure we do! And if I'm right, which I usually am-"-they all rolled their eyes-"-it'll work anyway, so everything will be fine and dandy!" He was sure it would work, but not in the way he was insinuating. He knew Twilight wouldn't go with it; he was trying to nudge her in the right direction.

"No. We are not dancing. Stop asking." She thought for a bit, ignoring Discord's further protests. "Well, I got a few observations, but not enough. Sweetie Belle, I need you to do it again."

"What if more bad stuff happens?" Sweetie Belle asked, a bit scared. "What if the bad stuff's worse?"

"Even if any more bad stuff does happen, which I'm sure it won't, it's nothing compared to what's happening right now. You need to do this. Please."

Pinkie Pie shivered. "Ooh, it's starting to get colder!"

Twilight swallowed. "If we're starting to feel colder, that means that everypony else is feeling possibly much colder than we are. We'll probably survive because of our friendship, but that's not saying the same for everypony else... Sweetie Belle, we need to do this quicker. Start a Heart Song so we can get more observations and work out a solution."

Sweetie Belle reluctantly obliged and began to sing again. The song was a trembly song, not in her voice, but in the notes. The fear in the song easily gave way for the churning emotions, and they rushed forward to take over the song within only a few seconds, while before it had taken quite a bit longer.

And then it became dramatic, driving, and dark. Ribbons of magic danced off in a vague direction, but the others made no move to follow them, influenced subtly by the song. Discord attempted to scry the area, but the Song stopped him from doing so. Teleporting failed, too. He frowned sceptically.

Meanwhile, the ribbons snaked toward the gates of Tartarus. Cerberus was only momentarily fascinated with them, and although he probably wouldn't have taken much other notice of them, the magic used aversion anyway and then slithered through the bars, making their way into the deepest pits of the prison. They made their way into Tirek's cell and fluttered around him.

"What is this?" he asked, looking around at the ribbons. "What are you?" They seemed to sing to him, coaxing him to come with them to begin a rampage once more. "Ha! I can hardly move." Without waiting for an answer, they swirled around him, and in a glow of light green, Tirek disappeared.

He materialised in Manehatten, chain and spell free. He could hardly believe that it was true, that it wasn't a good dream for once. But either way would be at least somewhat fine. He felt himself more empowered than last time with the help of those ribbons. Powerful enough to get at least a medium-sized group of ponies for his first gain.

He was surprised to find that there were in fact no real groups of ponies. They were all staying away from each other, but it seemed to be in the near vicinity of large globes of lights. He mentally shrugged it off and sucked away the magic of the ponies around one globe, and then he did it again, and again, and again, much more quickly than last time.

In about three minutes he had overtaken half of Manehatten. In another minute he sucked the rest dry, and teleported to the next city to begin again. Soon it was whole towns and then cities in a minute. City by city he took away the magic of Equestria, growing more and more.

Meanwhile, Sweetie Belle continued to sing, Twilight taking notes on what she could. But there didn't seem to be any visible effects for her to witness. So, she focused on studying the magical signature and other magical phenomena that happened around Sweetie as she sang.

Tirek went to Canterlot last before Ponyville, taking as much power as he could before confronting Celestia. She was too surprised to do anything as he, without making the mistake of gloating, immediately began to suck in her power. She was completely unable to retaliate. Tirek, satisfied, teleported off to Ponyville.

The group's collective eyes widened in horror (minus Twilight, who was still taking notes) as they saw Tirek standing in front of the town. "So, this is what became of my enemies. A castle to replace that precious library I destroyed? Ha!"

Rainbow Dash noticed the ribbons of light green magic dancing around Tirek and realised what was happening. "He's here because of Sweetie's song!" Luna immediately tried the same thing she had before, but the song simply destroyed the attempt at stopping the cords and the song continued unhindered.

"We cannot stop it!" Luna exclaimed. Discord decided to try something, snapping his fingers. Immediately, a discordant tune with many instruments conflicting horribly with each other filled the air. However, Sweetie's song simply overpowered the dissonance. Tirek chuckled and sucked in the magic of all the ponies, but he couldn't seem to get to that of the group.

"What? Why can't I steal your magic?" And then, just like that, the song shot into a minor key. Suddenly, the magic began forcing its way out of Tirek, rapidly returning to the ponies in Equestria. "No! What's happening?" The ribbons seemed to dance around Tirek mockingly. He swiped at them, but that only sped up the depletion of his magic. In just a few more moments, the magic had all been returned and Tirek was sent back.

Sweetie Belle finally clamped her mouth shut, and she stumbled back, horrified. "Not again!" she exclaimed. "Please don't make me do it again!"

Stray hairs were beginning to pop out of Twilight's straight hair. "I didn't get enough observations! I need just a few more!"

"A dance!" Dicsord exclaimed, exasperatedly. "We need to dance! Pleeeeease?" He presented obviously faked puppy dog eyes to Twilight, whose eye began to twitch.

"You're obviously not taking this seriously! We're not going to dance! Ever!" Twilight's hoof began to scuff the ground, and it didn't stop, because her neurosis was rapidly getting worse. "Now, Sweetie Belle, do the Song!"

Sweetie Belle squeaked and ran to the nearest shelter, which was Princess Luna. "Twilight!" Luna shouted, indignantly. "Thou art scaring the poor foal! This will not bring us anywhere if she be too frightened and have even less control of her magic! Now, be thou calm!"

Twilight was hyperventilating now. Luna sighed. "Sweetie Belle, please, sing thou a song for Twilight. Maybe it shall cure her neurosis."

Sweetie Belle sighed, but she decided to do it, for Luna. Shakily, she began to sing, but this time, she immediately lost control. A dark, eerie song proceeded from her mouth quickly, ribbons materialising and shooting outward, branching out and touching every pony they could. Before long, all of the ponies in the town save for the group were touched by the ribbons.

Sweetie's song dove into a crescendo, and as it hit the bottom, it lingered at a low, foreboding tone, before shooting back up into a driving rhythm.

That's when the screaming started. The ribbons transmitted nothing but pain into where they touched. It was unbearable pain, and the reactions of the ponies showed it. They writhed and cried, trying to ignore the pain, but it was too much. Twilight and her friends frantically tried to stop the song.

"I'm sorry, Sweetie Belle," Discord whispered, and then he removed the air from Sweetie's lungs. Sweetie coughed and hacked, the terrible song immediately stopping as she gasped for air. She collapsed into the snow as she recovered her breath. Even though the song was done, though, the ponies were still in pain. Ending the song had not ended the effects.

Getting up and seeing this, Sweetie Belle burst into tears.

Twilight was frantic. "What are we going to do?!" she cried, lighting up her magic to try and revert the changes, to stop the pain. The cold was much worse than it was when they had started the songs, and she knew that time was ticking down and down. This was terrible! "I can't stop any of it!"

"I didn't mean to, I didn't mean to," Sweetie Belle muttered, rocking herself. "It wasn't my fault, I didn't do that to them, no no no no!" She sobbed.

"Look what you did to her!" Scootaloo exclaimed, obviously very frightened.

Fluttershy was horrified. Why did this have to happen? Why didn't she stop Twilight? Apple Bloom and Scootaloo hugged Sweetie Belle comfortingly, trying to dissuade her terror at the things she--no, not her, her song--had done. Tears were welling up in their eyes as well, for they were almost as scared.

They were all seeing how desperate things were becoming. Besides what had just happened, there was the fact that the Windigoes were almost finished freezing Equestria, and if they didn't stop this soon, the ponies wouldn't just become frozen in ice; they wouldn't just be in pain--they would be dead.

"I don't know what to do!" Twilight exclaimed, burying her head in her hooves. "There's no Fire of Friendship to make, no pulse of Harmony to work, no nothing!"

Sweetie Belle continued to rock, but the comfort of her friends was beginning to pull her back from the despair. Her mental gears turned faster than ever as she tried to come up with something, anything she could do to reverse the things she had done, to get rid of the Windigoes, to stop the hate spell. But all she could think of was a song.

A song?

But that would just do more terrible things. She would lose control again. A song couldn't possibly help. But maybe... Just maybe it would. She had to try. She responded to the tugging in her heart and listened to the song. She felt what she needed to do, the notes to vocalise, what to ring out as the song began to take place in her head, notes flying here and there as the perfect Song began to assemble.

The connection began to form as Sweetie opened her mouth and vocalised, crisp, clear notes piercing the air and opening up the way for the magic. With Sweetie's friends beside her, the emotions flowed like they should, siphoning up out of her heart and implanting themselves into each note she sang. The vocalisation let the magic out into the air, forming the ribbons of raw Heart Magic ready to do what it was meant to do.

But Sweetie Belle's heart was still filled with churning emotions, and if something wasn't done, they would take over. Sweetie Belle, however, had peace, having the strangest feeling that it just might not happen this time. She didn't know how; she didn't know why, but she felt that it would work. It had to.

Scootaloo felt a tugging in her heart--no, not her heart. Somewhere different: her soul. Confused, she blinked, and then blinked again, and suddenly, she could see something very new.

All around her, she saw into the souls of the ponies around her. She saw the emotions and feelings in their hearts: the friendship, the loyalty, the kindness, the anger and hate and sadness coming from Sweetie Belle, the- What? Were these the emotions Sweetie didn't know she had? She was too confused by what she was seeing--or feeling--to think about the fact that she was seeing into the souls of the ponies around her.

She could see the dark emotions creeping up, trying to overwhelm the good emotions in Sweetie's Song (which was currently doing nothing at all). She knew what would happen if they succeeded. And she knew how to stop it.

Before she fully realised what was happening, she Danced. She felt the emotions around her; she called them. They were hers to use now, hers to use to do amazing things.

Discord grinned as he watched Scootaloo dance. Maybe they hadn't listened to him, but apparently they didn't need to--Scootaloo had done it herself. The other ponies looked on in wonder as Scootaloo moved gracefully to the tune of Sweetie's Song, flowing bend over flip over spin in a magical pattern.

Coloured mist began to flow from the chests of the Elements, Luna, Discord, and Apple Bloom, coalescing into a magical globe of emotion. Then, with a spin and flourish, Scootaloo directed the mass of happy emotions toward Sweetie Belle, who was hardly registering anything around her.

The emotion burrowed into her, the calm love and friendship and serenity overwhelming the dark emotions in her heart and vanquishing them, her churning heart slowing to a stop and returning to what it should have been: a still pool of goodness.

Sweetie's Song took on more power as the good emotions finally flowed like they should. Her Song rang out throughout all of Equestria, and then it began to do things.

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo rose into the air, the latter dancing on nothing as she called the emotions from her friends, and as the area of Sweetie's Song grew, Scootaloo began to draw the faint remaining love in the rest of the ponies, helping Sweetie Belle along in a beautiful display.

Sweetie's Song reached a high, piercing note, and she held it, the ribbons of magic piercing the hearts of all of the ponies in Equestria and shattering the hate spell. Lower undertones began to reverse the effects of Sweetie's earlier, reckless songs, taking away the pain, the burns, and the scars.

Twilight levitated up her friends in her magic, bringing them into a circle around the castle's spire. The Heart and Soul Magic reached them, and they, as one in friendship in harmony, released a rainbow that coalesced into the spire. The Harmony Magic resonated through the crystal castle. A beam of rainbow magic shot up into the sky, and then a circular pulse of rainbow burst from the tip, forcing away the Windigoes from Equestria and back into their hiding places.

"Cor Cantae Amoris," Scootaloo boomed, as she danced in the air. Her eyes opened to reveal a white glow. Amoris was summoned by the Song in a flash. She was held suspended in the air before them, as she beheld the scene that had defeated her plan.

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle began to speak in unison, the latter in undertones of the same words while she continued to sing. "You have attempted to impede the progress of the Heart. You have become embittered toward the Heart because of her (my) failures, and in your avarice were jealous that somepony else could be what you were."

Scootaloo unfurled her larger wings, and Sweetie Belle unfurled her own set. "But you have forgotten your true purpose. You were always to act as a Guide for the Heart to come. The Heart was to better you. You must remember what you were originally: The Goddess of Care, the Divine Actress. Not the goddess of song. Accept and be forgiven, we beg you."

Amoris smiled brightly. "Oh, I know. And I'm absolutely ecstatic! You did it! You passed my test!"

Just like that, the Song and the Dance ended and they all fell to the snow. There was only one thing for the two to say: "Wait, what?"

Author's Note:

You may have noticed that ponies scuff the ground with their hooves often. This is (in my story's canon) a tell of irritation or anger. Stomping hooves is clapping, of course. Only pegasi can reliably clap like we see clapping. Unicorns that are strong enough to support themselves can do this too. It's too awkward for earth ponies who can stand on their hind legs to do so. Hooves twisting on the ground signifies unease.

No, they are not alicorns. This will be explained in Lesson Infinity.

And there you go, the (hopefully) grand explanation of the Song and also the reveal of Scootaloo having Soul Magic. And Sweetie has wings. (Scootaloo has a horn, by the way, although I didn't mention that. Couldn't find a place to put that without it being really awkward.)