More visits and a special visit
Again.
Rarity fitting Rainbow Dash for a dress. Rainbow, trudging through the dismal, rain-soaked streets of Ponyville. Twilight treating Rainbow like trash, worse than Trixie ever did.
"Do you like it?" crooned Nyarlathotrot. "I made it especially for you."
Amicitia shuddered, trying to ignore him...
Blood on Rainbow Dash's hooves, in her throat. Again. Pinkie Pie, trying to lure Rainbow into her basement.
"Don't go!" Amicitia urged her friend. "Something's not right. It's awfully dark down there."
Rainbow Dash fled back out into the rain instead.
"Good! You should go and find some help for her."
Rainbow Dash decided to visit her friend Applejack. Her friend, and maybe something more. Just one lick. It would taste like cinnamon.
"This is what I'm going to do to your world," said Nyarlathotrot. "It's a work in progress, I'll admit. I actually left ponies too little hope... the fun is over far too soon!"
"Not if I can help it!" said Amicitia, teeth gritted. But every time she started making some headway, that awful ringing in Rainbow's ears pushed her back.
"Help it?" Nyarlathotrot laughed horribly. "You won't even remember."
Again. Scootaloo starving, digging through dumpsters. Just one taste, that was all Rainbow needed. Going into a burned-out building to save Fluttershy, only to find her cutting herself, hanging herself...
"Burned out buildings in Ponyville?!" cried Amicitia. "Since when?!"
"There's nothing in this world worth saving," said Nyarlathotrot. "You should just end it all. Pull the whole bucking world apart! You know how."
Rainbow Dash decided that just one taste wouldn't hurt. No one would know. It would taste like cinnamon.
"No!" snapped Amicitia.
No! echoed Rainbow Dash. She had to get away, find help...
Rainbow Dash changed her mind.
Blood on her hooves. Make it stop! Rainbow begged. I don't want to do this!
"Yes, Amicitia, make it stop," Nyarlathotrot taunted her. "Why, you could even go into the world yourself and save her. It's not as if the Wolf can do anything about it now." He showed her the moon, where the Blank Wolf lay cruelly chained and muzzled, forced to watch everything, his fury and power growing until he was feral, practically mindless with rage.
Nyarlathotrot laughed hysterically. "You don't even need to destroy it yourself. When the Wolf finally bursts those chains, he's going to eat that world down to the bedrock! Go on, break them now. It'll be our little secret. No one needs to know that Twilight Sparkle deemed another world unfit to exist, and ended it with her own hooves."
Again. This time, Rainbow Dash somehow flew all the way to Canterlot, only to see it all blow up in her face. She plummeted back into the mud-soaked streets of Ponyville. With Scootaloo. She needed her. Just one taste. Just one... bite.
Amicitia was silent, wings folded, head downcast. "I won't." Her head snapped up. "Do you hear me? Never again!"
...
"I won't do it," said Rainbow Dash suddenly.
Rainbow Dash decided to stop being a silly filly and do it already.
"No, I won't!!"
Rainbow Dash realized that it was useless to...
"I won't hurt Scootaloo!" screamed Dash.
The storm clouds overhead rumbled with thunder. Half the town stood around her, staring ominously.
"I don't care if you make me do this a hundred times more, or a thousand, or bucking forever! I won't hurt Scootaloo any more! Never again!"
A massive bolt of lightning struck Rainbow Dash dead. The other ponies turned and went about their business, not caring at all. They left her blackened body where it fell, ashes washing into the gutter.
But... that wasn't the end. Rainbow Dash heard a scythe, digging. Helping hooves found her, pulled her up out of the earth. The rain still fell, but it no longer seemed to touch the pegasus.
Two ponies in black hooded cloaks stood watching her, and Rainbow knew one of them. "Twilight?" She dared to hope, just a little. "Twilight, is that you?"
Amicitia smiled. "It's me." She nodded to the other cloaked pony. "This is Starlight. It's over, Rainbow. You're safe now. It can't hurt you any more."
Rainbow Dash picked herself up, tried to get her bearings. "So what's the plan, Twi? We're going to save the rest of our friends, right? Then we can use the Elements to..."
Amicitia's face fell. "Rainbow..."
"She hasn't realized," said Starlight somberly. "Rainbow Dash, you need to understand. We're doing what Reapers have always done. We help ponies die."
Rainbow drew in a sharp breath, as if the Reaper had physically slapped her. "You're kidding... right? I can't be... Tell her, Twilight." The pegasus kept talking, even though tears were running down her cheeks. "Seriously, this world was so sick, I had to *die* to get out?"
Amicitia blinked back her own tears. "Rainbow, please..."
"I mean, can you just imagine my tombstone? Rainbow Dash, killed by a bolt of lightning. How lame was that?" And then Amicitia hugged her tight, while Rainbow Dash, the most awesome pony in Ponyville... sobbed, holding onto her like a little lost filly.
"Yes, this world was sick," said Amicitia. "All of this was created to make you suffer... not for anything you did, but to hurt *me*." Rainbow blinked at her, not understanding. "The point is, now that you're free, Starlight and I can end this. We can make this world shine again."
Starlight gave Rainbow a reserved smile. "You died bravely, Rainbow Dash, and you'd be surprised how seldom I see that. You've done more than enough... Your place in Pony Heaven is ready and waiting."
Rainbow managed to smile, just a bit. It had been so long... "Do I have to go right away? I'd... I'd like to help."
"Told you," said Amicitia.
Starlight nodded, then held out another cloak and a scythe for Rainbow.
As Rainbow was suited up as a reaper, the aether began to rumble.
"Nytholotrot," Amicitia growled, turning, the form of a pitch black pony wearing a white, full face mask and ever changing Cutie Mark stood behind them.
The mastermind of darkness snarled in rage. "You...you....you..."
"Freed your victim, just like I said we would," Amicitia replied, then gave a smirk. "And this world: I think your master for this world has already left in huff now that the entire point of it is gone, and you've already twisted everything else into a puppet for your will to the point there's nothing left to torture."
Discord's cousin glared daggers. "Then I'll just drag her kicking and screaming back to where she belongs!"
Rainbow Dash gave a glare. "So you're the one who did THIS to me? No thanks, I'm not going back. EVER. And I'm going to help my friends escape to."
Nytholotrot began laughing. "You think you can escape? Maybe you could escape this mask, but I amthe god of thousand masks!"
=Devil Doom - Shadow the Hedgehog.=
Nytholotrot ripped the mask from his face and his form pulsated like billions of things where crawling inside it. Wings erupted out of his back, spraying blood and puss all over, talons erupting out of his hooves in the same fashion. Rainbow would have vomited at the sight.
With an unearthly screech, what was left of the pony guise tore apart, a blotted, bat-like monstrosity emerging, a single, three lobbed burning eye opening.
The Haunter of the Dark
"Let's see if you can outrun the darkness!"
The two reapers and one Goddess exchanged attacks and blows with the avatar of Grim Dark itself.
Amicitia had to block a beam of swirling darkness with a barrier while Starlight sliced her scythe across a leg, sending black blood pouring from the wound that resealed as quickly as it'd formed.
Rainbow Dash attempted a slash of her own, only to barely escape being caught in it's massive jaws, red blood dripping from the nightmare's fangs.
Starlight slammed into The Haunter of the Dark's back, swinging her scythe and cutting open a wound...which promptly sprouted black tentacles and wrapped around her, pinning her front hooves to her side. Her fur began to smoke like acid was touching it.
Nythy's head spun around 180 degrees and spread its jaws wide like a snake in an attempt to swollow her whole.
"Shine, Slipknot!"
Her scythe reconfigured itself into a sword and she used it to cleave herself free and barely evade the snapping jaws of the demon.
Amicitia opened fire with a beam of magic from her horn. "You made a mistake binding the Wolf, Nytholotrot!"
Starlight nodded. "And you've made a mistake tampering with death! You're not taking her back to that Hell!"
Nythy dove down, dodging the strike. He roared, calling down pitch black lightning bolts from above at the Alicorn, singing her fur as she just barely evaded them. "And you all made a mistake messing with my masterpiece!"
Nythy spun around, generating a massive cyclone, swinging the three heroes around and slamming them into the 'ground' (so to speak).
Diving down, the trio barely evaded another wide mouthed snap of it's jaws, specifically aimed at Rainbow Dash. "You're coming back with me, Rainbow Dash! You're never getting away! Your purpose is nothing but to suffer, that is all the Shadows desire of you and all you exist for!"
Rainbow threw a series of rapid kicks into his jaw, but doing very little but annoying him and barely escaping more tentacles. "No...You're never taking me back, and I'm NEVER going to let you hurt Scootaloo again!"
The battle raged on for quite some time, both sides taking damage, but Nythy healing quicker.
"I'm...never going back," Rainbow Dash muttered, having several wounds on her spiritual body. Her eyes fell on Starlight's sword. Something clicked. "...Fly...Scootaloo."
=Loyalty-Avators =
Rainbow Dash's scythe glowed, reforming itself if into long spear that crackled with lightning right as the Haunter of the Dark dove at her, mouth open wide...and was stabbed in the snout, thunder forcing him backwards. "Hold him off, I've got an idea!"
Rainbow Dash took off upwards.
"No you don't!" The winged horror screeched, preparing to give chase, only for Amicitia to flash freeze him for the faction of a second it took for Starlight to slash off one of his claws before he broke free.
"No, no YOU don't!" Amicita replied.
Rainbow Dash stopped and focused, a red lightning bolt lighting up over her heart. "You took everything...you took all my friends...well now I'm lighting this world back up again! And I'm not letting you stop me!"
Rainbow flew around in the shape of an infinite symbol until first one Sonic Rainboom went off, then a second at the other end of the loop, sending a rainbow colored shockwave radiating outwards.
The Haunter of the Dark screeched out, shielding its eye with its wing, the positive energy infused light seeming to BURN him.
"What's wrong, Nythy? Afraid of the light?"
The beast lowered its wing...just in time for Rainbow to pierce its eye with her spear, which was crackling with the same light as her Element of Loyalty. "Scootaloo, Applejack, Twilight, everypony! This is for you!"
The momentum of the Double Rainboom continued her on THROUGH him and erupting out of his back before coming to a stop, Loyalty colored lightning crackling about its form.
"...My purpose is to be loyal to my friends, not be someone's chew toy...Now leave my friends alone, you're never touching them again," Rainbow stated, sliding to a stop and looking over her shoulder.
The Haunter finally burst into red colored flames and burned away into ashes that blew away in the wind, the fires streaking along innumerable invisible, dark puppet strings extending from him and incinerating them as well, until finally leaving Nythy floating in the middle, glaring daggers Amicitia as the red flames burned over him. "...This isn't over...It never will be. You've won in this world, but there will always be another world," he stated, his voice picture perfect, icy HATRED.
Nythy himself burned away, his avatar reduced to ashes and his connection to this line severed.
Rainbow collapsed, but was caught by Amicitia and Starlight. "...You did it, Rainbow... you saved this world."
"...I did? But..."
Amicitia smiled. "...I wasn't lying when I said the old Shadow left. He threw a temper tantrum and I think smashed his controls."
"...So?"
Starlight chuckled. "I'm not as 'in the know' as a god, but an unfinished story can't continue with NO Shadow Who Makes, and the old one quit in the middle."
"...So another?"
Twilight nodded, looking up at the spiritual sky as lights streaked across it, heading back to the world below as everything became brighter. "...And they want a happy ending. The old Shadow helped Nythy steal the free will of this so his will could replace it...looks like the new one helped you set them free."
Rainbow Dash's eyes teared up. "So... my friends... they're?"
"They're free Rainbow," Starlight smirked. "Thanks to you."
Amicitia trotted over to the chained Blank Wolf. "Rainbow returned this world's light to it, but you still have work to do, big guy," she said, snapping its chains.
The Blank Wolf snarled and dashed off to finish the purging of Nythy's taint from the world that Rainbow Dash defeating Nytholotrot has began.
"...So what will happen to me?" Rainbow asked, struggling to stand up, her wings sore.
"...That depends... if the Blank Wolf is erasing what's left of Nytholotrot's taint and a new Shadow has taken over," Twilight explained, giving a smile. "...So I know one thing... it will be happy."
-
And then the sun came out. Rainbow blinked and squinted... out of habit, not physical need, and saw Equestria looking like a black and white photo of some war zone. Almost at once, though, the world around them began to change again.
Color flowed out over the hills. New trees and grass began to sprout up, right before their eyes. Amicitia smiled. "Looks like Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are awake." There was more... All over Ponyville, in the houses and streets and alleyways, ponies were stirring, awake and in their right minds for the first time in years.
Twilight Sparkle burst out of the Golden Oaks library, with Spike stumbling along behind her, still yawning profusely. Little Nyx right behind him. "Rainbow?!" she called out. "Oh no... Has anypony seen Rainbow Dash?!" It was always so strange, thought Amicitia, seeing another version of herself with wings. This was one of *those* worlds, where Alicorns were born hardly any more magical than a unicorn, and took centuries to grow into their full power.
Rainbow turned slowly to stare at Amicitia. "You said *you* were Twilight."
Amicitia blushed. "I am Twilight Sparkle... and more. I'm not from around here." She fumbled for words a bit... she was trying to keep it short, knowing that she didn't have much time. "I owe someone a great debt, and this is how I'm repaying it, by helping other worlds in need."
Rainbow gulped when her friends eventually found her body... she refused to watch that part. "So, they remember, huh? I was hoping they wouldn't have to."
"Have you ever had a nightmare that seemed to last for ages and ages?" said Starlight. "And then when you awoke, you realized that it made no sense, and you wondered why you were even scared?"
"Kinda like that, huh?"
"Would you rather everypony wake up and have no idea what happened to the world, or where you had gone or that you had saved them all?"
Rainbow scratched at her mane. "Hey, I'm not *that* proud. All those... things that happened. Nopony should have to remember that."
"You mean well," said Starlight. "But how can ponies grieve and heal, if they don't even know what they have suffered and lost? This is one of the things that you will learn, Rainbow Dash. Ponies *need* this."
Now the three of them stood near the edge of town, where a great crowd of ponies and griffons and more had gathered around a small stone monument. Applejack finished carving the inscription, then stepped back, removing her hat respectfully. "For Rainbow Dash, the most daring pony in Ponyville." All of her friends were there. The Wonderbolts, Gilda, they were all there. The Princesses were there, so weakened that they stood no taller than Twilight or the others, but they had come. A pint-sized Discord floated beside Fluttershy... Discord, of all people. Even Scootaloo was there. The orange filly sat straight and tall, right in the front row, and she was wearing the Element of Loyalty.
Rainbow Dash held out of a hoof, reaching towards them. "I... I don't want to go!" The pegasus slumped, defeated.
"You need rest now," said Starlight soothingly. "Rest and healing. Later, we can talk about whether I need a junior reaper."
"Really?" asked Rainbow, brightening up at once.
Starlight chuckled. "Really."
A cold gust of wind blew, and the Blank Wolf appeared before them, a towering mass of shadow with vicious claws and fangs and gleaming eyes. ".thanK yoU," he growled at Amicitia. ".noW geT ouT"
Amicitia nodded. "It's selfish, but I'm glad you stayed for a little while, Rainbow. Where you're going, I can't follow."
Rainbow Dash blinked. "What, never ever?"
Amicitia hesitated, then smiled. "Well... never is a really long time." She spread her wings and launched herself into the air, soaring towards another world in need.
-
Rainbow covered her eyes, a bright light appearing before her. When she opened them, what looked like an exact copy of her before her and Starlight, except a white butterfly shaped mask on her face.
Remembering Nythy, she took a fighting stance. "Who are you?"
The entity smiled. "Do not be afraid Rainbow Dash. I am Fillimon, Nytholotrot's sibling and opposite number."
"Opposite...number?"
She nodded. "Yes. Where he represents all things Grim and Dark and the very worst aspects of the Shadows Who Make, I represent all things Happy and Bright, the very best aspects of those Shadows. Where my sibling seeks only destruction and suffering for ponies, I seek life and happiness for them."
Starlight put a hoof on Rainbow's shoulder. "You can trust her, Rainbow."
Rainbow nodded slowly. "So... why are you here?"
"My sibling forced you to see all the evil he has wrought on this world. I feel it is only proper that before you move on, you are shown all the good you have restored, and all the good that the New Shadow intends to do."
Fillimon turned into a swarm of golden butterflies and flew around the group, teleporting them away. When she reformed, they stood in Twilight's living room.
Twilight naturally had a can full of tissues and her eyes were somewhat bloodshot, but she looked down at Nyx. "So...you want to grow up to be a guardian?"
The little Alicorn nodded. "Yes...Rainbow Dash protected all of us, right? Somepony needs to protect us from now on..." the little filly looked like she was on the verge of tears, and Twilight hugged her, but her spirit remained resolute.
"In Nytholotrot's world, heroes can do nothing but die and fail, or pay such a horrible price that the victory feels like a defeat, but in the world you've brought? They can once more inspire."
They teleported once again.
"You want tah what?" Applebloom asked.
Scootaloo was currently on the balcony of the CMC's club house, flapping her wings rapidly and managing a little lift. "I'm going to be a Wonderbolt! Simple as that."
"Where did..."
Scootaloo looked back. "...Rainbow can't do that anymore...I...I want to do it for her...somepony needs to do it for her even if...she's...she's gone."
Rainbow Dash's eyes misted up. "Scootaloo..."
They watched Scootaloo's training for some time.
"For you Rainbow!" she yelled, jumping off the balacony for the millionth time (she'd mastered gliding, but not flight).
Fillimon looked to Rainbow Dash, producing a simple book. "The Shadow writes 'it is possible for Rainbow to speak some words of encouragement to her pupil.'"
Rainbow Dash blinked. "It's ASKING?"
"Well, less asking and more writing 'this thing is possible' and allowing your own character to take it from there, as a GOOD Shadow Who Makes does."
Rainbow Dash smiled.
Scootaloo.
Scootaloo blinked as she glided down. "Rainbow?"
I know you can do it! Never give up, Scoots!
Scootaloo's wings spread and she finally flew. And a Cutie Mark appeared on her flank.
Fillimon smiled. "Do you wish to see more?"
"...Scootaloo's an orphan, isn't she? Isn't she alone now?"
"Not anymore."
Fillimon pointed over to show Gilda waiting for Scootaloo to come down, cheering all the way.
"What?" Rainbow Dash asked in confusion.
They teleported again, showing Gilda still at the grave, long after everypony had left.
"Dash...I...I know I can't take it back but..." the proud griffin actually started crying. "I...I shouldn't have...I'm sorry...and now."
Fillimon looked to Rainbow Dash. "Gilda's last words to you when you were alive and she was not under Nytholotrot's control were words of anger and rage...words she never got to apologize for. And she never got to say goodbye. But with your death, she decided to never make that mistake ever again. And to take your place as Fluttershy's friend and Scootaloo's mentor."
"...And the Shadow wanted this to happen?"
"That is the secret of the Shadows Who Make, Rainbow Dash. Some do sow destruction and suffering...but most wish to sow goodness and light. They wish to allow friends to grow, ponies to be inspired, and 'villains' to find redemption the right way. Heroes are allowed to be beacons of hope and villains are allowed to have long buried hearts that can be dug back up. This is the light I exist to foster to dark the dark my brother sows, the good to his evil. And the light will always be stronger than the dark."
Rainbow smiled. "...Thanks...can you take me back to where we were? With Gilda?"
Fillimon nodded, teleporting the group back there.
Gilda...thank you...
Gilda blinked, looking around. "Huh?"
I forgive you, thank you for being there for them.
"Rainbow?"
"Gilda! Did you see me?!"
Gilda turned back and smiled as Scootaloo landed in front of her, ruffling her mane. "Yeah, squirt! You did great!...I'm sure Rainbow Dash would be proud of you."
"...Yeah...I think she would..."
Fillimon looked to Rainbow. "Come, I have much more to show you."
"...And if it's half as good as this, then I'll be glad to see it."
And so Rainbow headed off to see the world she had ushered into being.
And I, Amicitia, couldn't be happier to see it.
-
%Shadows live for the thrill of seeing the innocent corrupted. It is how they offload their mental sewage and are able to live their lives in sanity. These are the words of the crawling chaos, and why I exist.%
-
In several loops, Discord did manage to force Ecllipse to show herself while he had yet to be defeated. But even with Eclipse's fall, Discord rarely defeated her himself, after all, if there was one foe she knew best how to deal with, it was the one she'd fought since the beginning...but there was one way I found that Discord had to blindside the monster I used to be.
Discord looked up as Eclipse stood over them. Preparing to strike down this world, and him, as she had every loop.
'Maybe I should just have her kill me now...end this quick,' Discord thought
{She'll kill Fluttercruel first, she always does.}
Discord naturally looked at his daughter in sorrow.
'...I know...'
{But...there IS one way this can maybe end without her death. A way to finally end this nightmare...but...well, you know how much of a price that will come at...Are you willing to pay it for her? For your daughter and everything else? Are you willing to do the one thing Eclipse will never expect from you?}
Discord gasped, looking to Fluttercruel thoughtfully. '...'
Discord finally snapped up. "Fluttercruel, stab me through the heart!"
"What?!" Fluttercruel looked at her father in shock.
"Do it!"
The demi-draconequus stares at him with shock. "But...I...I"
"If you love me, PLEASE DO IT!"
Eclipse tisked, rolling her eyes, "Suicide? Haven't we tried this already? It never works. Silly Discord..."
Fluttercruel picks up the rod and looks at it in confusion. "But...I..."
"I'm your father, do it! That's an order!"
Fluttercruel, tears streaming down her face, finally drives it through his heart.
Discord smiles. "...Thank you...Ugh...there goes several vital bodily functions."
Eclipse chuckles. "Well, this is a fun little twist, but I can't let you go until next loop withou-"
Discord uses the last of his strength to teleport and grab Eclipse in a bear hug. Black hands erupted from his wound and wrapping around both of them. "What?!"
"...Cruelty is my daughter...she can kill me in a way to send me back to My Parents...and you're coming with me."
Eclipse's eyes widen in shock and she struggles to break free, but the hands won't let go. Shadows of Existence began to reach out, grabbing her as well, all screaming for her blood. "What?! But that means you have to face your family! You CAN'T want that!"
"..." Discord looked to his daughter. "...Cruelty...listen to me...Live your life. Don't make my mistakes. Be a good girl...I'm doing this so you can."
"...D-Dad? I..."
"I love you Cruelty, now PLEASE listen to Twilight and their friends! Be better than I was...oh, and drink your exploding chocolate milk young lady! You need it for strong bones!"
Eclipse stares in disbelief. "For her?...You....You...You CAN'T DO THAT! You're not supposed sacrifice yourself! What's your plan?"
"...Letting my daughter have a future...now come along, Twilight, it's time you met my parents!"
Eclipse screams in rage as both implode into Discord's wound, sucking them to Entropy's realm of Oblivion.
Twilight and company could only stare in disbelief throughout the whole scene. "Discord...let himself die to beat her?...that..." Twilight sees Fluttercruel crying her eyes out and trots over to her... "Fluttercruel..."
"...I...I don't know what Dad wants me to do...I...I killed him but...he asked me too...he wants me to be good...I don't know what he means..."
Twilight took a few moments to process what just happened...then offered her hoof to the broken Demi-Draconequus. "...Then let me show you like he asked ME too..."
The one thing Discord could do that Eclipse would never, and could never see coming was to sacrifice himself for another. Be it to save Queen Apple Pie's life in one world or his daughter in several, the idea of Discord giving his freedom and life for someone else was simply alien to Eclipse. After all, since when is 'evil, rotten Discord' capable of selflessness?
-
Another world, another Canterlot. Amicitia glided over the moonlit city, barely a whisper on the wind. "What could have happened?" she wondered aloud, seeing the burn scars, all of the wrecked buildings and toppled statues not yet replaced. "Was there a war here too?"
She grew excited when she saw Discord's freshly resealed statue and realized that he'd been defeated with as little damage as this, but her hopes were dashed when she finished absorbing this world's history. Here, Twilight had resisted Discord's despair longer because she'd secretly been born an Alicorn. "Somehow, I don't think that's going to work for my problem." She smirked. "Even if I could get away with it, I'd feel bad, doing that to mom and dad."
Amicitia landed in a large square in front of the palace, flying past alert Night Guards who looked straight through her. She studied the large memorial topped with three statues, then bowed her head, eyes closed and wings spread.
When she opened her eyes, three ghostly figures stood before her in the same poses as their statues. Gilda. Lyra. Blast, wearing a Shadowbolt uniform with her hood pushed back. Slowly, the three ghosts relaxed, glancing around. Gilda stretched out and lashed her tail warily, even with no more battles to fight.
Blast spoke first. "Twilight Sparkle? You certainly have changed."
Gilda rolled her eyes. "That's not the Twilight we knew, you dope. That's... well, I don't know what she is, but I know what she's not!"
Amicitia nodded. "It's true. You could say that I'm in the business of second chances now. It's a long story."
Lyra gasped. "Second chances? Are you saying... you could make all this never have happened?"
Amicitia smiled sadly. "In theory, I could talk Trixie out of waking the Guardian... but then the Council of Nightmares wouldn't be exposed and eliminated. Trixie would never meet Big Mac and learn to care about others besides herself. Twilight wouldn't be restored and be reunited with her mother, and Spark... Dawn, she'd cease to exist." She paused, while the ghosts absorbed this. "I want to know if there's anything I can do for you three, personally."
Blast waved her hoof in a shrug. "I did what I had to do... I have no regrets. I'm just keeping these two company until they're ready to move on. What about you, Lyra?"
Lyra sighed wistfully. "I have a big one, but it's not something you can help. Bon Bon still can't forgive herself for what happened, and what she did... but Death's not a bad guy once you get to know him."
"Things certainly do seem a lot more relaxed around here, that way."
Lyra conjured up a ghostly harp and smiled, strumming slowly. "He's giving me time to try and bring her around. If you really want to help somepony..."
Amicitia pricked her ears up. "Yes?"
"My brother, Paper Craft. He's hurting, and I don't think he even realizes how much yet." She motioned towards an alley nearby. Candles and small memorial items had been left at many places around the square, but this alley had two blackened pony shapes on the pavement stones and no memorials at all, just the scent of wood smoke and burnt straw. "Can you..."
"I'll do whatever I can," Amicitia reassured her. "Gilda?"
The griffon fidgeted, tracing transparent claws in a circle on the pavement. "Well... no, I can't. It's too embarrassing."
"Please," said the Alicorn patiently. "If there's anything I can do..."
Gilda growled, tugging claws through her feathery mane. "Fine. There's this trick they taught us back in flight school, you see? If you're gonna be fighting unicorns, you can charge up all your fur and feathers with extra weather magic. That way you're all slippery. Makes it hard for those lame-o unicorns to grab you with magic or twist your wing and steer you off course.
Amicitia blinked. "But, when you fought Fall..."
"I forgot, okay! You ponies are such namby pamby peace lovers these days, I never needed it. I can't face my ancestors like this... they'll laugh their beaks off!"
Amicitia grinned slyly. "So, if you'd practiced this technique more and remembered to use it..."
"Yeah, I totally would have kicked that other Alicorn's flank all up and down Canterlot! What? What's with that grin?"
*Later*
The peace and tranquility of Sweet Apple Acres was interrupted by Twilight Sparkle's panicked yelp, high in the sky. The young Alicorn wove unsteadily between low clouds that Rainbow Dash had set up as a training course, cried out again when she nearly clipped a tall apple tree, and finally smacked right into another cloud.
"What a complete newbie," said Gilda, lounging in the sun on top of the cloud and snickering.
"Well, yeah!" said Dash, leaning close and nuzzling Gilda cheek to cheek. "She only got her wings, like, a week ago."
A grinning Twilight popped her head through the clouds right behind them. "Aren't we having a flying lesson, here? If you two are busy..."
Rainbow Dash blushed furiously, but Gilda chuckled and said, "You don't get off that easy, dweeb. Come on, I want to see five more laps before lunch break. Move your tailfeathers!"
Down below, Dawn, once Twilight Spark, was struggling to pull a plow. She might have earth pony strength now, but apparently that didn't stop her new muscles from being extra sore while she built them up.
* What's that over there? It looks like Paper Craft came over to visit. *
"Good for him," she muttered.
* Come on, you could use a break. Besides, he's talking to Applejack. Now's your chance... *
Dawn considered, then grinned and stepped out of the harness, heading over.
"Look," Applejack was saying to the young unicorn. "All Ah'm saying is, if you ever want to talk about it..."
"Sh-shut up!" retorted Paper Craft, scuffing a hoof in the dirt. "I don't want to talk about it. My parents were horrible ponies, treating my sister like that. I'm better off without them."
Dawn stopped dead in her tracks. "How... how can you say that?"
Paper Craft blinked, caught off guard. "Spark... you didn't know them. You don't..."
Dawn scowled. "Oh, boo hoo. At least you *had* parents. What did they do, beat you every day? If I didn't have friends like Applejack here, friends who still want to be my friend, even... after everything I did, I'd have nothing. Nothing at all..." Embarrassed now, Dawn turned right around and went into the house, slamming the door on her way.
Which left Paper Craft staring into space, and AJ worried about him. "Paper, sugarcube..."
"They didn't beat me." The colt sniffled, wiping his eyes with a foreleg. "They used to be nice, when I was little. I don't understand. Why..." He shook his head, looking like he wanted to cry. "The last thing I ever told them was that they *deserved it*... and... and now I can't take it back..."
* You should tell him... *
AJ hesitated.
* You don't like to talk about it... and that's okay. You don't want to sound like you're bragging about how tough you had it, but this might really help him. *
"Paper," said AJ. "There's a story Ah'd like to tell you. It's about a filly, and her big brother and her little sister, and the time... well, when their ma and pa didn't come home. Other ponies, they've been where you are now, and you'll get through this, just like they did." She let the sobbing colt huddle close by her side, and guided him towards the back porch, where they could talk in peace.
-
Amicitia found herself before two different worldlines, and both with the same apocalypse.
In both world lines, or rather, four world lines, two worlds clashed together.
One inhabited by humans, and one inhabited by ponies.
Earth would appear to have gotten the lesser of the destruction. Only Equestria appeared in the middle of their ocean. The water that had been there transplanted to the world of Equus that Equstria had come form.
The Princesses were gone, the Elements were gone, ponies who had been traveling abroad would never see their loved ones again, only an ocean where their homes had been. With no princesses to raise or lower the sun, Equus would seem doomed. Amicitia worked hard to lure Daring Do, who had not been in Equestria at the time of the real crash, to an ancient temple before the time of the three tribes, barely at the age of myths of Megan and the Paradise Ponies. No pony knew what Daring Do found within, only that she did not emerge for days, on the verge of doom, a new Alicorn emerged from the temple, and with her new found power, moved the sun and moon again, granted wisdom and knowledge of ages past to help restore some semblance of the balance of power that existed before.
Now that left two worlds with opposite problems.
In one world, it was the natives who were doomed to lose their world, as the visitor's transplanted world expanded to encompass theirs, like a cancer, their space program a joke, not having even visited another celestial body in 50 years!
In the other, it was the displaced visitors whose tiny piece of the world they had brought with them that was slowly vanishing.
And in bother, the ones whose world was vanishing, found the other world's presence that was taking over theirs was deadly to them.
Amicitia looked it over from every angle, the problem was that the clash between worlds WAS a random accident on a gigantic cosmic scale, like two bubbles colliding with each other on the ocean. She could not prevent it without causing several ripples in other innocent worlds as well. There was no intelligence behind it, no secret scheme to unmask or thwart. It was outside her domain.
With all other options exhausted, the leaders of the expanding world came to a solution that was far from perfect, but was better than nothing. A transformation from natives of the world they were losing, to natives the world that was gaining ground.
The humans in the world that Earth was assimilating Equus could only offer their own species, since elephants, chimps, and whales weren't exactly considered people.
The ponies in the other worldline on the other hoof could offer the different types of ponies, zebra, buffalo, the griffins, and dragons. The less said of the experiments with minotaurs the better, and since the changeling kingdom was not recognized as a political body, and Queen Chrysalis was considered a criminal, offers for changelinghood were not considered.
While certainly tragic, in both cases, the people forced to give up the bodies they had been born in, would at least be able to bring with them the culture and identity they held dear and share it with their new neighbors.
Except . . .
The general population of the vanishing world went insane. Paranoia spread like a plague. There was the fantasy image that the leader of the encroaching world was a xenophobic monster at worst, or a delusional knight templar at best. And those who were 'converted' became blindly obedient to their new ruler, and their original self died, leaving only a creature with their memories.
This mass paranoia was not helped by (or rather helped very much) by the fact that the first in line to convert were those who thought their species had made one too many mistakes and this was simply karma knocking. These early converts would discard all of their former human lives and identity, and act like this was the best thing that COULD happen to them or anyone. This only stoked the flames of paranoid delusion that those converted lost their minds and souls.
Military commanders solutions would have been elegant in their simplicity, just blow up the veil with enough canon fire or atomic bombs . . . except . . . the veil was NOT a magical wall or barrier forever expanding. It was the dividing line where one world ended and the other began, like the edge of a flood or a forest fire. All this did was cause destruction to anything that happened to be 'behind' the veil.
And there were the 'heroes' who sought to destroy their world then let the 'evil aliens' have it. And then other self proclaimed heroes who destroyed conversion centers and 'mercy kill' those who had been converted, "We're doing them a favor," after all, they were just 'soulless zombies' now.
And there was the complete and utter lie that the rulers of the encroaching world would declare the territory of the vanishing world to be part of their own kingdom and its people their subjects.
The selfless and noble of the vanishing world tried their hard to bring sanity back into play, but with the trauma of the loss of their world, and the loss of even more, their voices were unheard.
It seemed too many were determined to not only die, but to make sure the 'invaders' or 'kidnappers' (depending on the worldline) didn't get their homeland, and would take as many of the 'monsters' with them as possible.
The reality was even worse. There simply wasn't enough time! The vanish world would be gone, and the safety it offered, long before the population of humans/ponies could be changed into a form that they could survive in the new world, even if the conversion centers were working at peak effectiveness.
Amicitia could pull double time to keep ponies/humans from destroying themselves and their new neighbors, but it wouldn't matter.
But then Amicitia realized how she could do it. The world mirror.
She inspired those with the knowledge and skill to study the world mirror's magic, and how it safely converted those who passed through between worlds into a shape that was compatible with that world (and made carry-ons compatible as well).
The madness was quelled, the lunatics on both ends of the extremes lost their rallying point, and two solutions now presented themselves. Allow the barrier to pass over them, now that it wouldn't harm them, instead the new magic of the mirror would change their form into something that would be as if they had been born there and thus survive.
Or wait two and a half years after changing, and enter a reality that bore at least some resemblance to their own. (Even if for the ponies it meant living under a GOOD King Sombra, and for the humans it meant living in a world where people could be purple and green).
-
The strange old pony crept across the grounds of Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, large but painfully thin, with a dirty white coat and a wild black mane. He peered through the classroom windows at a bored young Twilight Sparkle, then tossed a black notebook onto the lawn. "Gosh, I've dropped my Death Note! Where could it be?" He galloped away, snickering.
Immediately, the Blank Wolf appeared and clawed the notebook out of existence. "Nope, nope, nope..."
* Good boy! Who's a good boy? *
-
"OW OW OW!" Ryuk wriggled as a thestral kept a firm grip on his ear with its teeth. It dragged him over to stand before two alicorns. One of them skeletal, and the other colored royal purple.
"Ryuk, what have I told you about trying to manipulate mortal ponies?" Mortis snorted and uncorked a bottle he held, glowing from his magic. Ryuk shrieked and was sucked into the bottle. He beat on its sides with his hooves, uttering shrill and all but inaudible pleas as Mortis corked it. "You are going into a Time Out for the next ten thousand years!" He held the bottle up and stared into it. "And be glad my sister brought this to MY attention, and not Strife's or Entropy's. You know how THEY feel about somepony carelessly spreading death like that."
Ryuk gulped and sat down.
Mortis sighed and set the bottle 'down' on thin air, letting it vanish. "My apologies to you and the Wolf, Amicitia."
"It's okay, big brother. I'm just glad we got your rogue shikigami dead to rights there."
She fought down a giggle while Mortis just rolled his eyes.
-
"Dear Princess Celestia," said Twilight Sparkle, in that bright, nauseating, sing-song tone. "Today I learned..."
Another Twilight Sparkle groaned, wishing she could grasp the pillows in this place, so she could cover her ears with them. Or throw them at that caricature of herself. Better yet, she could muffle those words and suffocate herself and never have to hear a Friendship Report ever again.
All of her "friends" were gathered around. Spike scribbled away, taking down the letter. Applejack and Fluttershy smiled, perfectly sane. Pinkie was... okay, Pinkie was still crazy, but in a good way, if that made any sense. Why shouldn't they be happy? Nothing bad was allowed to happen here. Every villain was swiftly defeated, no fuss, no struggle, no sacrifice.
While she... she was dead and had no choice but to watch it all, invisible as a ghost, with her grisly scarred face and her ragged mane, three of her hooves marred from being shattered and healed by magic a hundred times, and the fourth missing altogether... gone and replaced with a mechanical prop. Death and Justice hadn't mended a thing, the better to make her suffer, apparently.
While this other Twilight had everything hoofed to her on a silver platter, even an Alicorn's wings...
"Do you think this bothers me?" shouted Twilight at thin air. "I've been tortured by an expert, you know. This? You just don't want to admit that I was right all along! Did I do terrible things? Of course I did! But I saved Equestria! I did what had to be done..."
She trailed off. Something was different, suddenly... She had the oddest sense that someone had finally *listened*. And suddenly, the gaudy Friendship Castle had a third Twilight Sparkle in it. Invisible, like her, an Alicorn like the other Twilight, but this new Twilight was something *more*, somehow, like comparing a mud puddle to a mighty ocean.
Amicitia frowned, glaring down at her. "I have some good news and some bad news for you."
~*~
In her private study, Princess Celestia used her magic to spread a fan of student files over her desk, while levitating her teacup and taking a sip. "Not much longer now, Lulu," she murmured to herself. "One of these fillies or colts will be the one to free you from your Nightmare. One of them just has to be!"
She scanned one, then another, and finally lifted the third, a most promising candidate. "Twilight Sparkle..." A genuine eagerness to learn, good study habits, excelling at everything she put her hoof to. Why, she'd even entered her school years early, and would graduate next year.
* Look at the psychological profile, though... *
Celestia frowned slightly. No friends outside her family. Unusually stubborn and unwilling to admit mistakes... "She can be better," said Celestia out loud. "I can teach her to be better."
* Like you taught Sunset Shimmer? *
Celestia shuddered, nearly dropping the teacup. She hung her head, then took a deep breath and pushed Twilight's folder to one side. "Perhaps this one... Trixie, hmm? Oh. She's applying to attend my school, but she's from a large family, and can't afford the fees."
* Well, what else is a large treasury full of bits good for? *
"What indeed," said Celestia with a smile, clipping another form to Trixie's application. Her quill pen floated over and scribbled "Full scholarship approved."
~*~
The scarred and maimed Twilight Sparkle gasped, clutching her intact hoof to her chest. "What... what did you do?!"
Amicitia sighed. "I removed the weak link, and replaced it with a stronger one."
Twilight twitched, metal hoof grinding against the floor. "You think I'm weak?" she said, dangerously quiet. "After all the torture I endured? All the hard choices and sacrifices I had to make?"
Amicitia's mouth fell open. "Hard choices? Like all of the ponies you murdered with your own hooves? Like torturing our friends and maiming their *souls*?" The Alicorn was practically shouting now. "And then you convinced yourself that all of this was MORALLY JUSTIFIED?"
"I had to learn where Princess Celestia was hidden!" shouted Twilight back, shaking, but not backing down. "I had to convince Nightmare Moon that I was on her side! It was the only way!"
Amicitia shook her head. "The spell imprisoning Celestia would have ended the moment Nightmare Moon was defeated. Did you even consider that possibility? Even if she hadn't been freed, you could have asked Luna after you saved her. Worst case, Luna could have moved the sun and moon for you after she was rescued. Where did you get the insane notion that making yourself into a monster was 'the only way'?"
Twilight opened her mouth, but she no answer. "I... I don't understand," she finally whispered. "It's inconceivable that I wouldn't have considered that." She sat her hindquarters down, a lost look in her eyes. "Was I already insane, even then..."
Amicitia trotted closer and nudged her briefly... was it sympathy? Pity? "I thought about letting you fall into Oblivion, instead of tying your memories to the new version of yourself, but then you'd never learn anything." She smiled faintly. "Try not to make yourself into a monster again, all right? I don't think you'll get another chance, after this one."
Amicitia conjured a thick, heavy tome on magical theory, then let it fall to the floor with a terrific THUD...
Twilight Sparkle, the youngest teaching professor at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, was startled awake when the book fell. The murmurs and giggles from her students make her cheeks color. "Ahem!" She hastily cast another anti-sleep-deprivation spell on herself, followed by a memory charm to remind her what she'd been saying before that... extraordinary dream. "Be certain that you read chapters twelve and thirteen for tomorrow's discussion. Class dismissed."
The legendary Nightmare Moon, bringing months of eternal night? Herself, fighting her way out of a dungeon to become some kind of badflank action hero? How on Equestria had she dreamed all of those crazy adventures in just a minute or two? Perhaps it was a side effect of staving off sleep with magic, she thought, already eager to do further research.
Suddenly, her ears pricked up. "You there, wait please." She zeroed in on a particular colt. "Cinnamon Jam, would you please come here and repeat that?"
The unicorn colt gulped, but he came to her desk... they'd all learned that were was no point trying to evade questions or lie to her. "I was saying... that theoretical thaumatic theory is dumb. I mean, it's pointless to study."
She raised a brow. "And why is that?"
"Well, what good is it? Even the unicorns who write whole new spells don't need to know most of that stuff."
Professor Sparkle leaned closer, with a slightly crazed grin. "But don't you see? That's the time when you should study the hardest!"
Cinnamon Jam gulped. "Is it?"
"Yes! You should study it with every fiber of your being! Fight through the pain and suffering and tedium! Study it with a passion, as if you were my closest ally, until you know everything there is to know about it, and then, only then, when you stand on the same lofty plateau of knowledge as I..." She clenched a hoof. "...can you then turn to me and say 'I still think theoretical thaumatic theory is a load of horseapples.' Let's get you started on that, shall we? Detention, every evening this week."
At one of the back benches, a powder blue unicorn shook her head. "Sometimes, Trixie wonders if she's ever going to fit in around here."
"Hey, don't give up already," said Spike encouragingly. Her little brother grinned. "She's just one professor. Think about how far you've come already."
Trixie considered, then smiled warmly. "Trixie th... Thank you, Spike."
-
Amicitia spotted another world . . . one where Starlight Glimmer, a mare fixated on making every pony equal to the point of crushing individuality, had successfully brainwashed Twilight and her friends, and had made them her missionaries, spreading her mentality to Ponyville via countless brainwashing techniques. Even Starlight Glimmer gave up her cutie mark and became just another Equal Pony. Even eventually creating a world of all immortal female Alicorns, equality achieved through the sacrifice of individuality, and mandatory equality had become ENGRAINED in ponies, they were all BORN with the equal sign now. Society had simply frozen, the perfectly equal society, nothing evolved or changed. Amicitia though of how to reintroduce individual identity and progress to this still way of living (it reminded her FAR TOO MUCH of Nightmare Charity idea of an ideal world . . . though that WAS the cycle where Trixie, as an Alicorn, had given Nightmare Eclipse the scar on her face).
Then . . . something rather... jarring happened.
"FIX IT SUE! Fix it fix it fast as you can! With the magic hammer that you got from your old ma!"
Amicitia BALKED as a super-ninja-pony freed the mane six from confinement before they were brainwashed, dismembered Starlight Glimmer, and freed the cutie marks in less than five minutes. This was promptly erased by the Wolf of that world line when it sensed the infection to reality.
"OH POO! FIX IT SUE! Fix it fix it fast as you can! With the magic hammer that you got from your old ma!"
Then in popped a solider from a worldliness where two groups of hired mercenaries fought and endless war with each other, cloning spawning a replacement as soon as the current one was kill in an endless futile cycle (until a third faction composed of robot copies of the mercenaries invaded forcing the two groups to fight side by side). He led a totally bad flank rebellion, personally taking down the Equal Six and the Princess of Sameness, Twilight Traitor (as ponies called her), and then bloody killing Starlight Glimmer. Again the wolf undid the senselessness.
"THAT'S NOT FAIR!"
Amicitia finally found the source . . . it looked like her . . . sort of . . . it wasn't her as Nightmare Eclipse . . . not really . . . her form her looked like a teenage Alicorn Mare. Her barding was so gaudy that Rarity would have fainted dead away at the sight.
"Who are you?" Amicitia asked her odd double.
"I'm Dues Ex Machina! Sometimes my friends call me Mouthpiece! Hi! Who are you?"
" . . . Are you me from the Reflections universe with Good King Sombra?"
"Who? Oh right. I was going to have him find a magic rock that drained all the black magic right out of him. And I was going to have Shade The Hedgemouse find Maria alive in a suspended animation capsule. Have Batmare's parents raised from the dead via the Cosmic Cube. Have Krypton reconstructed by the Infinitely Gauntlet-"
"You can't have just all those things, JUST HAPPEN!"
"Why not? Bad things JUST HAPPEN!"
"THAT DOESN'T MAKE THEM BETTER! You can't just BULLY timelines into going the way you want them! They have to be solved INTERNALLY! If you throw in Author-Avatars, Sues, and Ex Machinas, just to get the happy ending you want, the shadows who watch will reject it, the REALITY WILL REJECT IT! That's why the wolf keeps eating your works!"
"So?"
"Because when you do that, it makes it harder for me to make a BELIEVABLE happy ending! The wolf will be on guard now."
"So? I also had the Tamers of Digi-Monsters show up in a ponymon reality to stop a ponymon/pony civil-war, and I had Clock-Key from Clock-Key The Metal Idol sing a song that turned all the robots into flesh and blood and destroy the entire metal city that now covered the planet, in a worldliness where Doctor Machino won wrote history so his robots thought they'd fought a defensive war."
"SHE DOESN'T EVEN HAVE THAT POWER IN HER WORLDLINE! You can't just crossover two worldliness to fix an internal problem right at the end!"
"Isn't that what you did?"
"NO! Things had been WORKING TOWARDS that! With Minty Pie, Rancor, and Starlight Angel and her friends. And I used abilities that had been established in the story already! You can't just thrown in character to FORCE a happy ending! It's what keep us from being Mary Sues!"
"So?"
"Because it STOPS being about the STORY and becomes about US!!!! That is WRONG!"
"Why?"
"Because a story is about all the characters! The villain refusing to grow past his faults, and the hero rising above their fault! You can't just make a character whose so overwhelmingly powerful that they BULLY the ending you want out of the story! The if you want to write an alternate happy ending, it has to be believable WITHIN THE STORY ITSELF! You're just brute force the outcome you want! And when it's a SHARED universe, it just makes the opposition thrown in bigger and badder Sues and completely random events OF THEIR OWN in an endless cycle!"
-
"I, look," Amicitia said, wondering just where this very naive alicorn version of her had come from. "Let me show you what I mean."
In the drizzly wet gray Ponyville now ruled over by the Princess of Sameness and the rest of the Equal Six, a pair of fillies cringed in fear against the back wall of the new multi-family dormitories built with exactly the same amount of room for everypony, regardless of how many members their family had. Few looking on them would have ever recognized either Diamond Tiara or Silver Spoon with their short choppy mane cuts or the raggedy clothes they wore. After all, style and fashion and having better clothes than anypony else were all signs of reactionary anti-Equal leanings, and those who displayed them got sent north for 'social readjustment through voluntary forced labor'.
"Here," Diamond said, hoofing over a small piece of candy that she'd found when she and her work group pulled down the old mansions that day, including her old home.
"Thanks," Silver said, popping it in her mouth. Being caught with candy could get you in big trouble; every meal was perfectly equal, a bowl of oatmeal, the same amount for everypony. "You shouldn't have gone to the trouble, though. I wouldn't want you to get in more trouble than me..."
"Shush!" Diamond hissed angrily as she clapped a hoof over Silver's mouth. "We won't get in any trouble if you stay quiet." She looked at her flank, and her face drooped at the sight of those hated black bars. "Not that it matters any more."
"Ooh! And now they get superpowers and beat up the mean old Equal Six and..."
"No."
Diamond looked out the window at the new improved housing that was home for everypony. Nothing was left from old Ponyville but the Town Hall, now covered in those hateful Equal banners. Even the old statues were gone, replaced by heavy slabs bearing the Thought For The Day. 'Inequality is Unhappiness'. 'In Sameness There is Peace'. 'Oat Production Neither Up Nor Down Thanks To Our Perfect Equal Agriculture'.
The curse of the Cutie Mark was gone from Equestria. Everypony and everything was the same everywhere. And Diamond Tiara hated it.
"This is BORING! When does the good stuff start?"
"Patience, please."
Diamond went back to her pallet and reached into the hiding place she kept her new doll in, a raggedy thing made from cast-offs with wings of corn husks, a horn made from a stick, and on her flank a small crown marked out in berry juice. She hugged it close.
"I want Mom and Dad back, my real Mom and Dad, not those two smiling -- things. I want the old Equestria back, I'd even take those snotty blank flanks over what they are now..."
As though summoned by that thought a lantern light shone into the room. Diamond hurriedly shoved her doll back into its hiding place and curled up on the pallet, shutting her eyes. She heard Silver doing the same. The light came closer, visible even through her eyelids, until it shone with painful brightness into her face. Diamond made sure to hold her eyes tight shut.
"Naw, Diamond's asleep," 'Equalbloom' said. That annoying twang was gone from her voice. Diamond didn't look to see the horrible fixed smile; she'd seen it enough over the past few weeks as they worked the field around town -- 'Labor Joyously And Be Freed Of Inequality.' "Come on, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, we got to check out the other filly and colt barracks."
Diamond held her breath until they left, only then did she being to weep. She no longer paid any attention to similar sounds of weeping around her from the other bunks. They were familiar by now.
How had it all happened? The Mane Six, Equestria's heroines, returning with those nasty smiles and ugly mane cuts and those weird bars on their flanks. Promising everypony endless peace and bliss as they brought the whole town into their new Equalist movement, finally exiling the few who refused to 'see the light'. Then sending their 'missionaries' to every town and city in Equestria. The stories of fighting in Canterlot and Manehattan as the Princesses were caught and 'enlightened'. Masses of ponies who tried holding to their cutie marks and old reactionary ways being sent north to the labor camps there. No more nice meals or nice clothes or Miss Cheerilee teaching school or even dolls to play with.
Just an endless grayness ruled by Poisoned Harmony and no hope of escape ever...
"That's not true!" Diamond Tiara sat up as that voice inside of her continued.
"There's always hope, Diamond Tiara, for you and for Equestria. Remember some of the ponies and others sent north; Flim and Flam, Lightning Dust, Suri Polomare, Gilda the Griffin. Even Discord was imprisoned, not broken! But they need to know that their efforts would work, that not every pony outside the camps has given in to the sickness that's claimed so many. You can be that pony, Diamond. You can save your friend and parents."
Diamond wondered a moment at that voice. -- what, some talent for genius she'd never suspected? But then, her cutie mark was a crown...
She decided and shook Silver awake.
"Huh? Diamond, what?" Silver's eyes were wide and afraid in the dark. But beneath those emotions showed something ready to catch fire.
"Come on," Diamond said as she headed for the exit. Silver, still loyal to her friend, tumbled out of the bunk and followed her to the door. "We're going to save our parents, and everypony else."
"What the -- How?!?"
"Well, like duh, I'm still working on that," Diamond said as she hurried off towards the railyards that bore supplies and prisoners north. "But we can do it. I know we can."
Silver's eyes lit up as they paused beneath the statue of the Princess of Sameness long enough for: "Bump, Bump, Sugarlump Rump!"
"See, that's how you do it. You inspire, you remind them of what's already there inside of them, bravery and nobility and intelligence and... Are you even listening?"
"Sorry, I was just imagining how much better this would be if they both turned into alicorns and made everything better with a wave of their wands. Princess Power!"
"Groan..."
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5903286
Breaking Twilight visited.
6007723
Agreed.
the equal size dormitories seems wrong to me. Because treating each family of ponies equally is not treating each individual pony equally
6007753
I actually didn't write that part. You made a fair point.
6007837
Hm?
6008692
I remember. I just hope you like the alternate that the others came up with.
*I took a brief look at "out.of.character" and OH MY GOODNESS! THAT IS SO F*CKING HORRIFYING AND DEPRESSING! It made Rainbow Dash's fight for her freedom and the liberation of her world all the more heart pumping and satisfying. Cheers to the respective authors.
*As for what Discord did to save Fluttercruel, the world, the whole timeline and everyone in it. You have no idea how much I was GRINNING at this one. Looks like I'm checking "heroic sacrifice" off the list of Discord's virtues. He makes me proud.
And I'll be honest. Out of all the fates of the Nightmare Eclipses in existence, this one is my favorite. I love those kinds of justice/vengeance where the villain, who has caused no small amount of pain, misery, destruction and death without any feelings of remorse or guilt, gets handed to the victims, who are free to do whatever they want with him/her. After condemning countless innocent souls into oblivion, believing them to be less than a person, well.............let's just say the shadows are gonna have fun contradicting Nightmare Paradox's assumption and freely indulge their vengeance upon her. Talk about irony.
*The Empty Room looks interesting enough for me to give it a chance.
*I can clearly see how much displeasure you have for the conversion bureau series. Me, I was actually indifferent and didn't find the story interesting. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy stories where there's a severe misunderstanding between humans and ponies (like those HIE fics where the human has to try to prove to the ponies that he is harmless and meanwhile is forced to defend himself from knee-jerk responses from ponies). I'm actually a sucker for misunderstood fics and actually enjoy them. What I don't have the stomach for is fics where humans as a species or my favorite pony characters are portrayed as unrepentant villains.........I really would not give those a chance to read because I don't like viewing my beloved characters or my species as monsters.
*Death Note...............MY GOODNESS. I read the tvtropes for it and I was sickened beyond measure. I am so glad that Ryuk bastard is spending ten thousand years in time out for the what he wanted to do to my favorite characters, ESPECIALLY POOR RARITY AND THE APPLE FAMILY! F*CK RYUK!!!!!!!
*As for Breaking Twilight...........I don't have the patience to read the whole fic and only read the epilouge, but what little I read about the mane cast, particularly Applejack's soul..............oh my goodness............I'm just Amicitia was able to bring peace to all the ponies there.
*As for Equestria that is under the tyranny of the Equalists. This looks interesting, especially with Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon as the main protagonists. on to the next chapter.