Parvipotence
“…there were a total of eighty-six mare pairings and twelve stallion pairings married that afternoon. Aside from a few ponies who passed out from the excitement and/or lack of oxygen, the crowd never waivered in their cheering and celebration.” Pip finished.
There was a moment of silence. Pip looked at everypony before leaning down to Twilight, Spike’s claw deepening its hold on her leg as the stallion approached.
“Would you classify that as a ‘nice story’, Milady?” He asked blankly. Twilight blinked.
“Yeah… yeah, I would.” Twilight rubbed her eyes, smiling at Pip. “I think that was a very nice story, Pip. Thank you.”
“It was no trouble, Milady. So long as you feel better.” Pip flicked his eye up, glancing at Celestia. The Princess cleared her throat.
“Well, that’s a rather convincing argument for the Full Marriage Decree, isn’t it?”
“I would say so, Princess.” Shining said. Path and Shelter both nodded.
“Right then. Everypony here witnessing, I’m officially, well, decreeing, full marriage rights for every mare and stallion. Under the sun and the moon, with my full power as ruler, I’ll do the speech tomorrow.”
All six of the Elements’ eyes widened. Pinkie asked the shared question. “Does that mean-“
“Give and I can get married!” Everypony looked at Path, who had his foreleg wrapped around the back of Shelter’s neck, his wide grin contrasting with the slightly-ill look Shelter wore. “How do you feel about me as a brother-in-law, hmm, Solid?” The medical doctor’s eye twitched, and he shrugged Path off, magically flipping the other stallion onto his back.
“Princess, could you, maybe, delay the Decree for a few hours? Just long enough for me to… help my brother move into Dr. Path’s place?” The stallion threw his labcoat into a nearby laundry cart, grabbing a sterile one from the bottom rack and quickly putting it on.
“I’ll issue it publicly at noon tomorrow. Shining, send extra guards to the noble district, keep them from raising a fuss.”
“We’d probably need a few more squads there, but I don’t think it’ll get too out of hand.” Shining rubbed the space between his eyes. “If you could keep Blueblood occupied, then we’d just need to yell louder than we usually do and they’d settle down.”
“Oh, the sacrifices one makes for her subjects…” Celestia sighed. “I’ll deal with him, don’t worry.”
“Speaking of difficult ponies, Mr. Shield’s allotted break time is up.” Path had moved to the hallway entrance, giving an overly scrutinizing stare at one of the posted guards. He turned his head to smile at the group. “So Princess, Captain Armor, Ms. Sparkle, I presume you’re coming in. Nopony else, because we need this to be as controlled as possible.”
“What about Pip?” Rainbow motioned to the stallion. “He’s not just gonna wait outside while Twilight goes in to talk with Mr. Crazy in there.”
“As I said to Ms. Applejack, ‘crazy’ isn’t an acceptable-“
“Pip, would you please wait outside of the room?” Twilight said, interrupting the psychologist. Pip coughed.
“I will should you request it, Milady, but I would prefer to be as close to you and Broken Shield as possible, in case he attempts to harm you.”
“I’ll be okay, Pip. You can... take a break, out here, I guess. When was the last time you slept?”
“Approximately thirty-seven hours ago, Milady.”
Twilight’s eyebrows raised, and Shelter began choking on the air in his mouth. He quickly crossed the distance to Pip, looking over the cycloptic stallion.
“You’ve been awake for a day and a half? How much sleep do you usually get?”
“Approximately four hours, Doctor.”
“Per night?”
“Per week.”
Shelter blinked, deliberately, several times, and made a wet choking sound. Path whistled in awe.
“That’s not good for you.” The psychologist said. Pip nodded.
“The Raising process-“
“Buck that, you need sleep. Now.” Shelter looked at Twilight. “Can you just order him to conk off or something? He’s already done serious damage to himself if he’s averaging thirty-four minutes of sleep a night.”
Twilight looked at Pip. “Can you fall asleep if I tell you to?”
“I believe so, Milady.”
“Okay then… Pip, go to sleep.”
The stallion blinked several times, his eyelid slowly lowering between blinks. When it met with the bottom area around his eye, he leaned against the wall, sliding down as his legs folded. Twilight and the others watched in mild surprise as he began to gently snore. Shelter cautiously poked at him. Pip didn’t stir, and the doctor turned to the guards.
“Right, I’ll… can one of you grab a gurney? From the, no, I’d better get it myself…” Shelter muttered, apparently ending the sentence talking to himself. He began to walk away, though his voice could still be heard until he rounded a corner. “This is bucking insane, time travel and cellular-division-acceleration ‘healing’ spells and…”
Celestia motioned to Shining, who walked down the hall first. She nodded at Twilight before following. The unicorn stood, only to be grabbed by Applejack.
“Sugarcube, what, ‘xactly, did’ya mean by… what y’said, there?” The farmmare wore an extremely concerned look, one mirrored by her other friends. Twilight took in a breath.
“I mean what I said. Dawn was having sex with Pip. She never told him what was going on, not in the year-and-a-bucking-half where it happened every night. He wasn’t, isn’t, capable of understanding it; he thought it was a game, for Faust’s sake.”
“But that doesn’t-“
“Dawn performed a sexual act on a pony incapable of providing informed consent, probably using her authority over him as a coercive factor; the first part is rape, the second just makes it worse.” Twilight glanced between everypony, pulling Spike close to herself. “I don’t want any of you trying to excuse it just because Dawn shares a body with me. Please, just… let me figure this out, okay?”
Applejack seemed to stare past Twilight’s eyes for a few moments before her own refocused. She raised a hoof slightly, then lowered it, sighing.
“If y’say so, Twi.” The earth pony gave a small smile. “But if y’ever do want t’talk-“
“We’ll be here. Every one of us.” Rainbow finished. Twilight smiled and nodded, looking around her friends once more before hugging Spike again. Then she stood and moved, running down the hallway to catch up to her teacher and brother.
“I like to see you stand
I love to hear you roar
The breaking of your chains takes only just a little more
But if the rulers strike back
And you’re forced to run and hide
I’ll fight real hard and do my best
To bring true freedom to our side
‘Cause I want to make you see, see, see,
Yes I do,
See the joy, the comfort, of the tru-ly free
Just come on ‘round and give a cheer, cheer, cheer,
And you mark our victory-“
The voice cut out as Path swung the door open, the doctor quickly stepping into the room. Twilight, Shining, and Celestia stood a small ways back from the doorway, close enough to hear what was said.
“Hello, Broken! Did you have a nice break?”
“Nopony was talking in a forcedly happy tone, so it was decidedly better than now.”
“Oh, come now, Broken, I’m not that bad, am I?”
“…well, you haven’t tried to kill me yet.”
“Good! I like the song, by the way.”
“Cotton Candy came up with it. Stuck in my head for eight years.” A laugh, humourless. “I can remember that, but not my mother’s voice. Figure that out, doc.”
“I’ll look into it. Right now, would you be okay with a few extra ponies visiting?”
“Is Twilight one of them?”
“Yep!”
A sigh. “Come in, then.”
Path stuck his head out of the door and nodded. Shining went in first, again followed by Celestia and Twilight. The unicorn mare quickly swung her head around the room, finding the contained pony chained to a bed on the opposite side about four metres away. He nodded at Celestia.
“Nice to see you, your Highness. Come up with any more additions to my oath?”
“None that cannot be said later. I believe the mare beside me should be your current focus.”
Broken was thinner than Twilight remembered. He was somewhere between his normal appearance and his actual one, and Twilight could see the bones of his shoulder move as he turned to face her. His eye fixed on hers, and she swallowed against the dryness in her mouth.
“I wasn’t trying to kill you.”
The words came out of his mouth just before she opened hers. She stared at him for a moment before coughing and speaking.
“I was going to say that you look better than I thought you would.”
“Oh? Magic’s rather tied up, can’t do much besides stopping myself from looking like a corpse. Does it work?”
Twilight’s eyes lingered on his still-bony legs. “Not as well as before…”
“Pah. Shelter nearly blew his root about these things.” Broken raised a hoof, the shackle around it slipping off. Shining stiffened, and his counterpart stared at the offending metal device for a moment before picking it up with a whisp of magic and replacing it, further up, on his leg. “I can walk fine, just can’t do much magic when I’m mobile. That should help you keep track of me, yeah?”
“I guess so.” Twilight answered. She and Broken stared at each other for a noticeable amount of seconds before she spoke again. “I’m guessing you’re going to say you were trying to kill Dawn, not me.”
“…yeah, pretty much. Discord kind of set me off, on a ‘panic reaction to extreme stimuli’ or some crap like that. I still think you’re all crazy letting the draconequus walk free, but the Princess made it very clear that it was her decision. One that I will voiciferously object to until I die.”
“Between six months and two years.” Shelter’s voice reminded Twilight. She took in a breath. “Discord’s not as dangerous here as he was there, Broken, none of-“
“Yeah, the doctors were telling me about the ‘moderate us and extreme you’ thing. It makes some sense, by how our timelines split.”
“So you do think that Dawn might not be dangerous here?” Celestia asked. Path raised a hoof, but Broken waved him down.
“No, I’m still going to kill her. The oath’s going to make it harder, but I was planning to die anyways.”
“Would the oath kill you?” Twilight asked. Broken cocked an ear, but Celestia opened her mouth.
“The current reaction of the oath spell is to forcibly constrict Broken’s ribcage to the point that his lungs are emptied of air and cannot expand, as well as making his brain detect severe trauma to every point of his body. In conjunction with whatever effects carry over from his timeline.” Celestia stated.
“If I do anything that the oath detects as violent or threatening, I’m completely incapacitated within half a second. Unless the Princess gives permission, or I’ve been harmed by the target in proportion with my action.” He coughed. “I don’t know whether or not it would last to the point where I’d die, but unless I killed you with one shot I’d probably be too distracted to continue.” Broken coughed again, grinning at Celestia. “It’s a smart plan, if you’re trying to avoid deaths.”
“Thank you, I’d like to limit casualties as much as possible.” Celestia nodded. “I must ask why you would want to kill Dawn, if you knew that she would not kill any of Us?” Twilight could hear the capitalization; Celestia was referring to the Royal Family. Herself, Luna, Cadance.
And Dazzle.
Broken blinked. “First, I’m pretty bucking sure she’s going to be dangerous. A pony doesn’t undergo that drastic a personality change without getting fairly messed up.”
“That doesn’t mean that she’ll be dangerous, though!” Path interjected. “There are many, well, relatively many given the small number of examples to begin with, examples of ponies undergoing drastic personality alteration due to emotional trauma who don’t become violent or aggressive. And this change can actually be reversed. To a point. Usually.”
“Really?” Broken asked.
“Yes!”
“I don’t care.” The bound stallion raised his hoof again, a small magic line wrapped around the shackle to prevent it from slipping off, and scratched his head. “Dawn is Dawn is Dawn. They’re all equally likely to buck everypony over.”
“But if she doesn’t try to harm anypony-“
“And that’s the magic word, doc. Try. Dawn will harm ponies, everypony, whether or not she tries.” Broken shifted his hoof from his scalp to his eyepatch, slipping the edge under the unfastened bottom. He wiggled his hoof slightly before withdrawing a folded parchment.
“Hey, that’s the thing from the day we went to the market!” Twilight said. Broken leveled his eye at her.
“It’s a map of the timelines in the part of the branch we’re in.” He clarified. He took the sheet and unfolded it with magic, laying it out on the floor.
“What else do you have in there?” Shining asked. “We removed your eyepatch when you were unconscious, but all there was was a, well, an eyesocket.”
Broken laughed. “I have a little rabbit hole I store things in. Do something smart, I might show you.”
“And what would you count as ‘smart’?”
Broken flicked his eye at Twilight. “Nothing that I’d really want done, yet.” He shook his head. “Anyways, I’d suggest you look at this.” He tapped the parchment, waiting until everypony was following his instructions.
“I’m guessing that every dot is an individual timeline.” Celestia said. Broken nodded.
“You’d be correct. The chronologists organized everything based on the branches off of the Primary Line. Each coloured area is where the Minor-Major Lines branch off into, the little dots inside are the Minor Lines.” Broken tapped one dot, slightly off of centre. “We situated our timeline in the middle for convenience’s sake, and the scale’s slightly large for the same reason. If we were working relative to this branch’s First Major Line, the initial branch off of the Primary that all of these connect to, all of the Lines on this would be in the Everfree, if not farther.”
“Where is this timeline on this map?” Celestia asked.
“It isn’t. I wanted to get ahead of Dawn’s rise, so I shot for a timeline… well removed from mine, to account for the timelines nearest me probably already having the Revolution occur.” Broken’s eye twitched. “I was trying to get in right around the Ponyville Riot, but I overshot a bit. Hold on.” Broken stood, walking as far as his chains would allow. He squinted, his horn glowing, and a small circle of the floor darkened near Twilight’s hoof.
“That should be you, a good twenty million or so in a line away from me.”
A curved line appeared in the floor, about one-fourth the way from centre dot to the one on the floor.
“That’s a completely random guess for position, but every timeline on my side of that line is probably already in the Revolution. This timeline is steadily moving towards it.”
“Might I ask what this has to do with Dawn’s threat to us?” Celestia spoke. Broken nodded and sighed.
“In my timeline, there were royal chronologists. Ponies who extrapolated on Star Swirl’s timeline theory, examining as best they could the Primary Line and all the different branches. A few years before the Revolution, a chronologist developed a spell that would allow for a kind-of observation of the ‘Tree of Time-space’ as it was called.”
“He was able to see all of the different timelines? I would imagine it difficult to comprehend that much information.”
“It is. The spell didn’t let you see the timelines, it just… gave you a feel for them, but apparently you could feel hundreds, thousands, at one time. The only reason he could handle it, and the reason nopony had developed it before then, was because he had some… brain-thingy, I don’t remember the specific neuron function or whatever it was. Other ponies tried it and got gigantic migranes, if not worse.”
“But you could handle it, right?” Twilight asked. “Otherwise, you couldn’t have come to this timeline.”
“Buck no. I tried it, once, and woke up three days later with a nosebleed. I happened upon a unicorn who could perform the travel spell properly, had h-them do it. Anyways, the chronologists wanted to send themselves into other timelines to examine the different Equestrias, see if they could glean any information that we weren’t privy to yet. If the Revolution hadn’t happened, we might have stolen healing magic from you ponies.”
“And how did you gain access to this information?” Shining asked, his voice somewhat harsh.
“I was Captain of the Guard, nopony in Canterlot proper dropped a hayfry without my knowing. This stuff was regularly reported on to me, and all research ceased during the later Revolution. Most of it was destroyed in the fighting or to stop Dawn from getting to it.”
“But the travel spell was preserved?” Celestia asked, dubiously. “And this still doesn’t explain how Dawn is always dangerous.”
Broken sighed. He glanced around the room, rubbed his head, took in a few breaths, inhaling and exhaling. Path stood, walking over to the stallion and whispering to him. Broken whispered back, and Path nodded, turning back to the others.
“He just needs a moment.” Path walked back to his spot, keeping an eye on Broken. The stallion swallowed once, taking another breath.
“Everypony here is dead.”
Broken took in the odd looks of everypony. “Everypony in this room is dead, in my timeline. Everypony in the hall is dead. Everpony in the Castle is dead. Everypony in Canterlot is dead. Everypony in Equestria is dead. Everybody in the world is dead.” Another line cut across the floor, crossing the parchment just barely past the middle dot, curving away from Broken. He motioned to the line between the groups, then to the closer line. “Every timeline behind the line out there had a Revolution. Every timeline behind this line no longer exists.”
“What-“ Celestia began, but Broken overtalked her.
“We tested most of the unicorns in Canterlot, offered lucrative compensation to those who could perform the observation spell. We were trying to map out the timelines, get as many of them down as fast as we could, so we told them to range out, in a slowly-expanding ‘sphere’ around us. They had to jump to individual timelines and then scan as many as they could find in the vicinity before moving on. One of the observers described them as like stars, but much more populated.
“At one point, while some of the ponies began describing the stars as getting larger and closer together, the others that had gone the other way starting saying that there were less stars, and that sometimes they were about to jump to one when it just blinked out of existence. The map got a dark blob on one edge, and as the days and weeks went on the dark blob just kept growing, a slow wave moving towards us, or rather, us towards it. Universes kept dying, and nopony could figure out why.
“Then Dawn came, the Revolution happened. And it suddenly became very, very clear.”
Broken took in a shuddering breath, punctuating the sudden silence. Nopony spoke, everypony barely breathed. Broken again looked across all of them before settling his eye on Twilight.
“I’m not just trying to protect Equestria, or the Princesses, or my family. If I can stop Dawn’s rise, here, then I might stop the blob from advancing more, I might stop it forever.” He grinned. “I could save everypony, at least several billion times over. I’d say that’s worth two individual lives.”
“Egotism.”
The group had withdrawn from Broken’s room, Celestia laying her wing across Twilight’s back. Path hadn’t spoken, none of them had, for several minutes, until this one word punctured their silence. Celestia, Shining, and Twilight all glanced at him.
“It’s probably not very accurate, don’t quote me on it, but Mr. Shield views his mission as being of extreme importance; he seems to think that he is going to save everypony from… whatever fate causes a timeline to die. He’s put himself up on a pedestal, sees himself as being the only pony who understands the importance of his mission, the only pony who can do what needs to be done. He’s also completely unwilling to accept that his mission could be unnecessary, even if he recognizes the extreme unlikelyhood of its necessity. He’s displaying egotism, but it’s more out of desperation than vanity, I believe. That and extreme obsessiveness on the elimination of Dawn, to the point where he’s managed to overcome the post-traumatic-stress stigmata against speaking about what caused the trauma.” Path wasn’t smiling, and he rubbed between his eyes as he rapidly scribbled things on a clipboard he had somehow procured. “He’s also assuming that Dawn’s rise is the causation of the death of the timelines, rather than a simple correlation. It’s understandable, given his malice towards Dawn, that such a connection would be developed, but-“
“Can he be cured, Dr. Path?” Celestia spoke, her voice dry. Path flicked an ear back, and she continued. “Regardless of his justifications, he is mentally ill. I would like your assessment on whether or not he can recover from the traumas he spoke of.”
Path sighed. “The reversals of psychological damage are exclusively the emotionally traumatized. Mr. Shield has plenty of emotional harm, obviously, but a significant proportion of his current mental state is a result of his physical brain trauma. He’s likely not going to be capable of helping us place him into a more stable mental state.”
“Is he unwilling to try? He’s clearly maintained deep loyalty to me, I’m sure if I-“
“Well, no, that’s not what I meant. The radiation from the constant spell contact, as well as the growth of the root of Mr. Shield’s horn, have caused trauma to the memory and higher thinking area of his brain. He’s become incrementally more psychologically altered from Captain Armor, compounded with the fact that that Captain Armor was already somewhat different from our Captain Armor in the first place.
“While we can help Mr. Shield recover from many of his traumas, there is a significant portion that we would outright need to alter his brain to eliminate, a task both medically and ethically dangerous. As such, the best thing to do would be to aid him in overcoming what he can and help him adjust and cope with what cannot be reversed.
“As such, I would say that your idea of active rehabilitation was probably the best one for the situation as-is, Princess. Even with his behaviour, he was less guarded, emotionally, when Twilight was in the room with him than I’ve seen him before. If he’s more willing to come out of his shell when she’s around, which actually makes no sense given his view of her or at least what she’s going to become, then I’d say that it would be… more effective to allow his return to her custody than to keep him locked up here. So long as he’s under proper supervision, of course.” Path took in several breaths, apparently trying to make up to his lungs for the speech. Celestia nodded, and she leaned her head down to face Twilight.
“My little pony, are you alright?”
Of course I’m not alright, I was just told that I cause the bucking universe to die when I overthrow you.
That’s not definitely true, the other side of Twilight’s mind responded. As Path said, it’s correlation, not causation.
That’s a rationalization and you-I know it! What other major event would have happened?
Did any of us see Discord coming? Or Chrysalis? The first side of Twilight’s mind gritted its teeth, but the other side continued. Besides, this just provides a very good reason not to overthrow her, doesn’t it?
“Twilight?”
The mentioned mare jumped as her name was spoken, glancing up into the face of Celestia and Shining. She gained a slight blush as she responded.
“Sorry, I was just thinking about things. Kinda weird, being told that you’re supposed to make the world end…”
Celestia gave her a smile. “What happened there will not happen here, Twilight. I assure you of that.” The Princess stood, placing her hoof on the door. She stood still for a moment before opening it and motioning Twilight to follow.
“Something to say, Princess?” Broken asked as Twilight entered. Celestia ignored him, waving off Shining and shutting the door. She turned and closed her eyes, slowly walking towards Broken.
“As I’ve said, I do not believe that anypony deserves to die. If even Discord could be made a friend, then I have little doubt that you could as well.” Celestia leaned down, putting the tip of her glowing horn in-between Broken’s eye and eye socket. She opened her eyes, glaring at the stallion, and her voice became ice.
“I have recently ordered the construction of a guillotine. We have not had need of one in over a century. Should you attempt to harm Twilight Sparkle again, should her body or mind be in any way intentionally damaged by your efforts, even in a way that does not activate your oath, then I will bring the blade down myself, and your blood will dance across Canterlot’s archways.” She raised her head, leaving a small smoking indent in Broken’s facial fur. “Are we clear?”
“As glass, Princess.” Broken spoke. “But-“
“And,” Celestia continued. “I will immediately dissolve the royal family and place Twilight Sparkle at the head of a new government, one that she may run however she wishes.” Broken’s eye twitched at the same time that Shining’s did, and Celestia smirked. “Is that clear, Broken?”
“…crystal, Princess.”
“Then tell me what would happen if you even try to harm Twilight.”
Broken stared at Celestia. He gritted his teeth. “If I try to harm Twilight, then I would die. And you’d get rid of the Princesshood, and she would be put in charge of Equestria.”
“Good.” Celestia turned around, but looked back at Broken. “And before you get any errant thoughts, the oath applies to that mare-“ The Princess flicked her head at Twilight “-no matter what she calls herself, or what points of view she may hold.”
“Prin-“
“No, wait, I’d better make it clear. All of this applies to Rising Dawn as well.” Celestia turned her head as she walked, giving a smile at her moderately horrified student before sitting down beside the mare and looking at the very horrified former guardspony. “Everything, Broken Shield.”
The one-eyed stallion stared wordlessly at his liege, his eye turning slightly pink. He attempted to speak, only succeeding in making a small wheezing noise. He raised a hoof, bringing it to the side of his head and rubbing vigourously.
“That being said…” Celestia spoke again. “Should Dawn prove to be dangerous in this universe, in a similar way to as she was in yours, I shall alter your oath to compensate.” She gave another smile at Broken. “I’m no fool, just hopeful, Broken Shield.”
Again, Broken took several breaths in and out before choking out a response. “Understood, Princess.”
“Good.” Celestia clapped her hooves, causing both Broken and Twilight to jump. The door opened, and both Path and Shining walked in cautiously. The Princess motioned for them to sit. “With that, I’d like you to keep going from where you left off. What happened after Twilight warped herself and Spike away from Ponyville?”
Broken blinked, several times, before the question appeared to register in his mind. The took in a breath. “Ah, um, nothing much, for a few months. It was really mostly peaceful again, aside from some leftover business in Ponyville to clean up from the Riot and the weeks it spent separated from Equestria. Applejack went back down to keep an eye on everypony; apparently Fluttershy hadn’t handled the whole thing too well.” Broken blinked again, his hoof raising and rubbing his head. “I’m… she told me about it, Princess, but I’m having trouble remembering much.”
Celestia glanced at Path, who wrote something down on his clipboard. She gave Broken a soft smile. “Don’t fret over it, my little pony. What do you remember from that period?”
Broken grimaced, his eye squeezing shut. “About three months after the Revolution, we got a letter from one of the outer towns, Appleloosa. They requested the Princess’ presence for an ‘airing of grievances’.
“The letter was signed ‘your faithful student’.”
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Seems like Broken's in a bind right now. Between the oath and Celestia's promise to make Twilight the new ruler of all of Equestria, it seems like he'll need to think twice before he does anything
That being said, why does Twilight feel so guilty about what Dawn did to Pip? She has absolutely nothing to do with that. Seems weird that she forbids Applejack from telling her that it wasn't actually her that did it. Or something. I dunno.
2989658
I think that Twilight feels, deep down, that she at least has the potential to become Rising Dawn. It's an appalling prospect, to realize that you (like everyone else) has the potential to become a monster.
"Nothing is evil in the beginning. Even Sauron was not so." - Elrond Halfelven.
The land of love and harmony adds another facet. The nobles (being conservative) will scream blue murder, but Celestia will basically treat them like a basket of puppies. "Let 'em yap."
Celestia's tripwire plan to dissolve the Diarchy and put Twilight in charge - sheer genius.
2989658
Twilight is worried that the others would try to rationalize Dawn's actions as being less bad than they were because of Dawn's relationship with Twilight. That is, "Twilight would never do that, so Dawn couldn't have been that bad/evil/immoral/etc."
It's a mix of projecting her own fears onto the others (That she/Dawn are more Pinkie/Pinkamina than Luna/NMM, see her little rant in 24) and, more subconsiously, trying to ensure that the others don't have any leftover loyalties to Dawn when/if Dawn rises (which is something that Twilight's still seriously worried about). Twilight sees quite a bit more similarities between herself and Dawn than she sees between Luna and NMM, which only enforces the first point.
She's also worried about the act itself because it demonstrates that Pip's more immature than he comes across. While the racism and blind loyalty could be 'dismissed' per se as brainwashing, his inability to understand that he was being abused calls to her mind the image of the innocent foal that she knows in Ponyville. It demonstrates, to her, that Dawn was either unable to understand that the magic she used in the Raising wasn't working as claimed (and to a unicorn who specializes in magical study, that's a BIG no-no) or that Dawn had intentionally lied about the Raising process to somepony who almost literally couldn't betray her or leak the information.
Both of these, again, are related to the second paragraph and how she views her's and Dawn's relationship with each other. With the view that Dawn is less an interloper and more a version of her that's seriously out of it, she places upon herself some guilt for Dawn's depravities, some responsibility towards herself and her friends that she needs to actively avoid the situation Dawn created.
While revelations such as Dawn's abuse of Pip worry her about her own possible fall, they also dig her into making sure that she doesn't fall like Dawn. It's a double-edged sword, one that she can't let go of out of fear that Dawn would slip in under her notice.
2989744
Killing a sister is sororicide, actually. And it gets a bit stickier later on.
2990315
Yeah, basically.
2990325
Ooh, more flashbacks?
Fun!
2990393 Ah, that makes sense. Thanks for explaining
I just thought what's to stop broken from killing Dawns/Twilights supporters/friends?
2990796
There was actually supposed to be a lot more flashbacks than have appeared so far - I've been debating just a straight long run of two or three flashback chapters to catch up.
2990804
No problem.
2991396
He has a 'don't hurt anypony' oath on him, the 'try and Twilight gets power' part is targeted at Twilight/Dawn. He'll still get the ribcage-constriction and massive amount of pain if he tries to hurt anypony who doesn't try to hurt him first.
2991637 Oh I must have missed that part cause I got the don't hurt twi part but not that one. Still though their are loopholes that I can see in that "agreement"
2991932
It was back in the part before Pip's first flashback, he mentions that his first oath was only linked to Twilight, while his second (which is the one currently being expanded upon) is for everypony.
And without loopholes, Broken couldn't continue to be a threat to Twilight, which would likely remove some of the tension around their relationship.
2997630
"Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others."
Paraphrasing Churchill.
3001378
Yeah, I was debating it. Gets a bit graphic in there.
Well, this explains why Broken Shield is still so determined to kill Twilight even though he's learned that there are differences between their timelines that render almost all of this incredibly implausible. And this is going in a direction I most certainly did not expect.
3004623
Existential angst for the win!
3008104
Yeah, it gets creepier than prostitute...
Anyway, thanks!
Loved the new chapter, can't wait for more!
3008168 WHAT! creeper than that?
Are there timelines where the universe dies, but the Revolution fails? I guess we wouldn't be able to know that if those universes died. *Sigh* You have done time travel very well.