The Ultimate Evil

by Strawberry Sunrise

Force of Destruction

A wave of energy spread from Squidward’s arms, pointed directly at the house of that skittish pony, and before Rainbow Dash even had time to register what was happening, the blast had disintegrated the entire building. Not even the pony herself remained.

Squidward’s mouth slowly rose back into a smile, his eyes went back to normal, and he turned toward Rainbow Dash…or where she had been. Nopony was there. Squidward’s smile fell and his eyes turned red.

A quarter-mile away, Rainbow Dash was fleeing as fast as she could…or, at least, as fast as she could without creating a sonic rainboom. She didn’t want to leave a trail that could be followed. Within a couple minutes, she was crashing through the window of Twilight’s castle’s library. Twilight was nowhere to be seen.

“Twilight! Twilight!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. “We need to evacuate everypony, now!”

“What’s wrong, Rainbow Dash?” Twilight asked, walking around a pile of books and still half-concentrated on the book she was levitating in front of her. She didn’t seem to have recognized the urgency in Rainbow Dash’s voice.

“There’s this…thing. It’s called ‘Squidward Tentacles’ and it’s…it’s…you’ve just got to see for yourself!” Rainbow Dash flew over and pushed Twilight from behind, finally causing her to lose her concentration and drop the book. A moment later she’d been scooted all the way to the window.

Squidward was only a small speck in the distance, but the destruction he was causing was much greater. As Twilight watched in shock, he took step after step forward, turning side to side and obliterating building after building with each and every

DAB.

Whatever restraint, whatever mercy he had shown when he had first arrived, appeared to have worn thin. Ponies scattered in all directions in his wake. Whether by coincidence or through some strange homing sense leading him to Rainbow Dash even without a rainboom to follow, he was coming toward the castle.

After the initial shock had worn off and the more logical part of Twilight’s brain kicked in, she realized something. “I…I know this,” she said. “I’ve seen this before.”

“You what?” Rainbow Dash asked. They backed away from the window and Twilight began frantically searching through her shelves, pulling out book after book and then setting them aside. Her mind completely occupied, she ignored the question.

After a minute or two, Rainbow Dash returned to the window, figuring she wouldn’t be much help if she didn’t even know what they were looking for. Squidward was still pretty far away, but definitely closer than before. The swathe of destruction he was causing grew ever larger, but there were now few ponies to be seen. Either they had escaped or they had been caught in Squidward’s path and hadn’t made it. Or they were in one of the buildings that was still standing… Scratch her initial exclamation; it was already much too late for a full evacuation. But maybe she could save at least a few ponies if she headed back out and –

“Found it!” Twilight said. Rainbow Dash turned around and saw her holding up the journal that she used to communicate with Sunset Shimmer.

“Uh…Squidward is almost here. Is now really the time to…” Rainbow Dash started, but Twilight wasn’t paying attention. She was muttering to herself.

“Not sure why I put it there. Usually it’s right on that table, but it’s been missing ever since…this…mor…” Suddenly she thrust the journal at Rainbow Dash.

“Here!” Twilight said. “Read page 47, but don’t tell me what it says,”

“What?” Rainbow Dash said, utterly confused.

“Just…tell me if it’s something helpful or not,” Twilight said.

Rainbow Dash scanned the page and her eyes widened. “Um…maybe?”

“Good enough,” Twilight said, and disappeared in a burst of magic.