The Return of King Sombra

by Dragon-Master-31

Attack on Appleloosa

As the sun rose over the land, so too, did Sombra rise to his feet after a decent night’s rest. After Sombra stretched out a bit, he walked over to his table map of Equestria. Sombra examined the map very closely, looking for the perfect place to be a test for his newest members. After looking over the map for a few minutes, Sombra made up his mind and then walked off to wake the others. Sombra headed to one of the new rooms in his little castle and walked inside, seeing Discorded Whooves, fast asleep and still wearing those mechanical arms. Even though Discorded Whooves was still sound asleep, the arms were very much awake and active, though not moving around too much as not to disturb their master. As Sombra approached the bed where Discorded Whooves was sleeping, all four arms immediately shot up and opened their claws, a strange metallic hissing sound coming from them, as a warning to back off.

“(Chuckle) There is no need for that. The Doctor and I are on friendly terms, I will not bring any harm to him. Now, wake him up.” Sombra ordered.

The arms all looked at each other and then spoke amongst themselves for a few moments before one of the arms started to poke Discorded Whooves until he finally woke up.

“(Yawn) What? What is it? Oh, King Sombra, what is the matter?” Discorded Whooves asked.

“Wake the others, it's time for your first mission as a team.” Sombra ordered before leaving the room and heading back to the map.

Discorded Whooves nodded as he allowed the arms to lift him up off the ground and then walk him to the rest of the rooms. It wasn't long until Discorded Whooves, Iron Will, Lightning Dust, Flim, and Flam arrived at the table map, tired but still ready to listen to Sombra's words.

“It seems that all of you are here now, very good. I will waste no time and get right to the point; I have a mission for all of you.” Sombra announced, causing all his new members to perk up. “This mission will serve as a test. A test to prove to me that you all belong here and are willing to do as I say. For your test, you are all to go to Appleloosa and show me what you can do.”

“Iron Will has a question for King!” Iron Will announced, raising his hand in the air.

“Speak.” Sombra replied.

“What does King mean by, 'show you what we can do'?” Iron Will asked.

“Simple, go to Appleloosa and attack it. Keep in mind however, I do not care whether you completely destroy Appleloosa or not. I only want to see what you are willing to do and what you can do. Show me your strengths, your powers, and your loyalty to me. I don't care if you kill anypony or not, just do as I ask. However, do make sure nopony escapes. You are all to remain at Appleloosa until the moon rises above Equestria. If you are all successful in proving yourselves to me, you will be rewarded. For anyone who does not impress me, you have two options. The first being you accept death, or you try and give me a good reason not to kill you. Do each of you understand?” Sombra asked.

“Yes, King Sombra.” they all answered, bowing their heads.

“(Chuckle) Very good. Discorded Whooves, I trust you still have the spell book, correct?” Sombra asked.

“Right here, master.” Discorded Whooves said as one of the arms reached into his saddlebag and pulled out the book.

“Good, you will use it to go to Appleloosa. You will all leave at once.” Sombra said.

“Yes, King Sombra.” They all said.

“And remember, I will be watching. I will know who is doing as they are told and who isn't. As a matter of fact, observe.” Sombra said as he turned around and then used his dark magic.

Using his dark magic, Sombra raised eight large separate crystals from the ground. The crystals were all a very dark crimson color, and each had a perfect image of each member of Sombra's team. This caused a great amount of curiosity to stir in Sombra's team members. Once the crystals were raised, Sombra turned back around to face them.

“As you can see, each crystal has one of your faces on it. These crystals represent your lives and when one of you dies, your crystal will shatter. So, please don't try to fake your death because I will know. Do you all understand?” Sombra asked.

“Yes, King Sombra.” They all replied.

“Good, now leave. Do not come back until the moon has risen.” Sombra ordered.

After each member gave a final bow, Discorded Whooves gathered all of the members up and then used the book to teleport away. Once they were gone, Sombra smiled and walked back to his map, using his magic to summon a very large crystal ball in the air. Through it, he was able to see his team. Now, it was time to sit back and watch.

Earlier, in Appleloosa...

The sun shone was bright and it was very hot in the town of Appleloosa. Thankfully, all the ponies who lived here had gotten used to the hot weather. Lots of work was being done and everypony was having a good time. Appleloosa was a pretty nice spot to visit, so long as you could take the heat. Appleloosa didn't get too many travelers, especially not from non-pony creatures. As the morning kept getting hotter and hotter, Appleloosa was about to have an interesting visitor. Just on the outskirts of town, an anthropomorphic cat by the name of Capper Dapperpaws, followed by an earth pony by the name of Dusty Trail, hitched to a small wagon, were just about to head into town when Capper stopped them.

“Alrighty, what's this wild west looking town called, Dusty?” Capper asked as he leaned against his buddy.

“This here is Appleloosa, a lovely little town out here in the desert. I reckon we'll have plenty of good business here.” Dusty replied.

“Thanks, amigo.” Capper said as he took his top hat off and wiped his brow. “Whew, it's so hot out here. I'll probably die of heatstroke before we get a good business going.”

“Well, why don't ya try not wearing that hat and cape? That's not a smart thing to be wearing out here, partner.” Dusty said.

“Now, now, amigo, we talked about this. This hat and cape are very special to me. They were given to me by the most generous pony I have ever met.” Capper said, remembering how Rarity had given him these things as a thanks for helping the Mane Six defeat the Storm King.

“Ya mean the same generous pony who ya tried to sell off that one time?” Dusty asked.

“Hey, that was the old me. The new Capper is much better than that, amigo.” Capper replied, grinning and giving a thumbs up to his friend.

“I can agree with ya on that, partner. It's been a mighty fun time travelling Equestria with ya.” Dusty said.

“Heh, heh, same to you, amigo. Well, I think we've chatted enough for now. Come on, let's go make some of those bits or whatever you pony folk call them.” Capper said as he put his hat back on and started to walk off.

“Right behind ya, partner.” Dusty said as he followed closely.

Soon, Capper and Dusty had rolled into town and began to try and sell whatever they carried in their wagon. They weren't selling anything too special, mainly just antiques and little trinkets, but they had sold a good amount before. A lot of the townsfolk were quite curious about where Capper had come from, as this was the first time, they ever had someone like him in town. Capper of course, was more than glad to dive into his life story and the time he helped save all of Equestria from the Storm King's wrath. Dusty did have to correct Capper every now and then as his buddy still had a bad habit of telling a few lies here and there. About twenty minutes had passed and they had sold a few trinkets from their wagon. A few minutes later, a bright yellow earth pony all decked up and dressed like a cowboy walked over to the wagon and introduced himself.

“Howdy there, partners, name's Braeburn! Welcome to Appleloosa! Who might y'all be!?” Braeburn asked, making sure to put on his best smile.

“Hey there, amigo. The name is Capper; Capper Dapperpaws, but Capper is just fine with me. I'm just your average sales-cat, and this here is my good buddy, Dusty Trail.” Capper said as he gestured to his friend.

“Howdy Braeburn, mighty nice to see ya again.” Dusty said, happy to see an old friend.

“Wait a minute, Dusty Trail? Well, I'll be! How ya been?” Braeburn asked as they bro hoofed.

“(Chuckle) I've been mighty fine. My travels are going quite well, and I've got something else to do to keep my journey interesting.” Dusty replied, gesturing to the wagon behind him.

“Hold on a minute, you know this here lad, Dusty?” Capper asked.

“I sure do, partner. I used to live here in Appleloosa. That is until I decided that I wanted to see all of Equestria and travel around. That's why I was wandering on my own before ya met me.” Dusty explained.

“Huh, it seems every day we find out something new about each other. So, Braeburn, what can we do for you? Anything catch your eye?” Capper asked, stepping back, and allowing Braeburn to see all of the items on their wagon.

“Oh, well I wasn't planning on buying anything, I more so wanted to greet y'all newcomers. It's kinda my thing. I guess ya could say it's a special talent of mine.” Braeburn said, proudly.

“Special talent? But from what I see, you have an apple for a cute mark. How does that represent being a formal greeter?” Capper asked, observing Braeburn's cutie mark.

“Heh, heh, this here is called a Cutie Mark, and we ponies can have many talents. Each of us just has that one talent that we are the best at.” Braeburn explained.

“I still don't quite understand these Cutie Marks, but I'll get there one day.” Capper said.

“Say, why don't we all catch up down at my place? It looks to me like one of y'all could do with some time out of the sun.” Braeburn said, noting how Capper was fanning himself with his hat.

“I think that sounds like a good idea. What do ya say, Capper? It does look like y'all could use a cool down right now.” Dusty said.

“(Sigh) Well, business isn't going as smoothly as I hoped it would go. Sure, I see no harm in ducking out of the sun for a few minutes. Lead the way, amigo.” Capper replied, putting his hat back.

“Alrighty then, come on y'all, follow me.” Braeburn said as the trio made their way to Braeburn's home, which was a bit on the opposite end of town.

The walk to Braeburn's home was quite nice. Seeing the friendly faces that lived here in Appleloosa brought a smile to both Capper and Dusty's faces. Dusty was happy to see his old home again and how much it had grown and developed since his departure. Capper was quite amused by how much of a wild west vibe this place was giving off. It was very intriguing to see and had a lot of charm to it. Soon, they arrived at Braeburn's home. It was a very simple little place, nothing too big but not too small. As they arrived, Capper helped Dusty remove the harness off his back and set up the wagon just outside the house, leaving it in a spot where it wouldn't get in the way of anypony. As Braeburn opened the door, he turned around and breathed a sigh of amusement.

“(Sigh) Quite the view, ain't it?” Braeburn asked as they all looked back in the direction they had walked from.

Capper and Dusty couldn't agree more with Braeburn. The view was indeed quite lovely. Since Braeburn's house was at the far end of town, almost past its borders, they could have a very decent view of the whole town of Appleloosa. Well, at least eighty-five percent of it, which was enough to make a nice view. After enjoying the view for a few moments, they all went inside and Braeburn sat them down at a table, prepping some nice refreshments for his guests.

“So, tell me,” Braeburn called as he started making some fresh apple juice. “How did y'all two meet?”

“Heh, heh, well first, I'd like to thank you for your generous hospitality. You're probably the third most generous pony I've met in all my life. After Rarity and Dusty here, of course. Hopefully I will meet a lot more for the rest of my lives.” Capper said.

“Lives? Don't ya mean, 'life'?” Braeburn asked.

“What, don't you know the old saying? That us cats have nine lives?” Capper asked.

“Uhh...” Braeburn said, not sure how to respond to this statement.

“(Laughs) Look at your face! (Laughs) Heh, I'm just messing with you, cowboy, us cats only got one life. That would be sweet though if we did have nine lives.” Capper said, imagining what it would be like to have nine lives.

Seeing how Capper was lost in thought as he usually was on occasion, Dusty just chuckled at his friend and decided to tell the story himself.

“I met Capper here about seven months ago. I was travelling Equestria like I said I would and one day I walked into a small little town, hoping to get something to eat and drink. The town was quite nice actually; small but filled to the brim with friendly ponies. While I was there, I learned that the little town used to have a bit of a messed-up past. Something about this unicorn by the name of Starlight Glimmer, who used her magic to steal all these townsfolk's Cutie Marks. All for something about equality. Though, thankfully Twilight Sparkle and her friends managed to save the town and even change Starlight's ways. Anyways, as I was leaving the little town, I ran into Capper here. He was trying to make a purchase for a new wagon, or something cause his gone done broke.” Dusty explained before Capper spoke up.

“Good old Bessie, I miss that little wagon... but yeah, I was doing that, and that's when Dusty here walked over and asked what I was up to. I told him that I was trying to buy myself a new wagon, but the only ones they had available were wagons that a pony could carry, not a small cat like me.” Capper said, then allowing Dusty to continue.

“That's right, I asked him then what he needed a wagon for and that's when he told me he was a travelling sales-cat. I felt mighty sorry for him because I knew that it must have been a pain carrying a wagon all over Equestria. So, I offered that he could use my wagon and that I would be more than happy to carry it for him.” Dusty explained as Capper decided to make the dramatic finish.

“And from then on, Dusty and I have been travelling amigos ever since. We travelled to many parts of Equestria, selling our trinkets and charming ponies with my stories of how I saved Equestria from the Storm King.” Capper said proudly, before Dusty intervened.

“Ya mean that y'all helped save Equestria from the Storm King.” Dusty corrected.

“(Sigh) You can never let me have my fun, can you?” Capper asked, facepalming himself while laughing a bit.

“(Chuckle) Can't have ya telling lies now, partner.” Dusty said.

“Well, I'm glad y'all became good friends. Travelling or doing anything alone can be quite upsetting. Well, here y'all go, fresh apple juice, hope ya like it.” Braeburn said as he served his guests their drinks.

“(Sip) Ahh, just as good as ya used to make back then, Braeburn.” Dusty said, enjoying the taste.

“Why thank ya, Dusty. Glad to see ya still like it.” Braeburn said.

“(Sip) Wow, this is really GOOD! Tell me, cowboy, are you related to Applejack at all or something?” Capper asked.

“Heh, heh, as a matter of fact, I sure am! I'm Applejack's cousin.” Braeburn said, grinning at his guests.

“That explains why this is so good! I remember Applejack served some of her family's apple juice at the celebration party for the Storm King's defeat. Let me tell you, that was some good stuff!” Capper said, downing his whole cup of apple juice in a few seconds. “Got anymore?”

“(Chuckles) Glad to see ya like it, Capper. I sure do have more, let me get y'all some.” Braeburn said as he walked back to the kitchen.

“Thanks, cowboy. In the meantime, let me tell you the story of how Dusty and I saved another town from destruction.” Capper said as he sat back in his chair, prepping himself to speak.

“(Sigh) Here we go again...” Dusty said as Capper began to proudly speak about his amazing tale.

As the trio of friends were happily conversing with each other, they had no idea that something horrible was about to happen...

A little while after Braeburn had welcomed Capper and Dusty into his home, just on the outskirts of Appleloosa, five individuals had arrived using the dark spell book's teleportation spell. The heat of the morning sun immediately hit the five members and they were taken aback by how hot it was. This didn't bother them for too long however, as Discorded Whooves lifted himself up in the air with the bottom two mechanical arms and then turned around to face his partners.

“Listen up, all of you!” Discorded Whooves called as they looked up at him. “We have arrived at the first site that we must save from Equestria's doom. Here's the plan, we will-.”

“And what do you think you're doing, Doc?” Lightning Dust interrupted, catching Discorded Whooves off guard. “Whoever put you in charge? I don't remember Sombra putting you in charge, do you guys?”

“Loud Pegasus is right! Iron Will does not remember King putting Whooves in charge of us!” Iron Will replied.

“Yeah! I think we all would have specifically remembered having somepony be put in charge of us!” Flam added.

“I agree with you, brother! Besides, even if you were in charge of us, you damaged our property! Why should we listen to you?” Flim asked, stomping his hoof down.

“(Chuckle) Yah!” Discorded Whooves yelled as he snatched up Flim by his front legs and lifted him in the air.

“Hey! Stop this! What are you-OW! HEY!” Flim yelled as his back legs were suddenly grabbed by another of the mechanical arms.

Discorded Whooves only grinned as he then started to try and rip Flim in half by pulling hard on Flim's front and back legs. Flim screamed in pain and once he realized what was going to happen to him, he immediately started to tell Discorded Whooves what he wanted to hear.

“OW! Okay! Okay! We'll listen to you! All of us! Promise!” Flim yelled as his legs were pulled on harder and harder.

“(Chuckle) Good.” Discorded Whooves said as he dropped Flim to the ground. “Now, what was I saying before I was rudely interrupted?” Discorded Whooves asked, looking at Lightning Dust and showing off his deadly arms.

“U-Uh, you had a plan! Yeah! A plan!” Lightning Dust said, not liking how Discorded Whooves was glaring at her, more specifically her wings.

“Ah, yes, that's right. Flim and Flam, you two use your magic to do some damage to the buildings, maybe toss a few ponies around while you're at it. Iron will, remember, you have to show your dominance. Make these ponies respect you. If they don't, kill them. No point in having anypony warn Twilight and her friends about us. Lightning Dust, I don't care what you do, just make sure nopony escapes. Everyone got it?” Discorded Whooves asked.

“Sure, whatever. Let's just get this over with, I want to take Rainbow Dash down already!” Lightning Dust said as she looked very eager to fly into action.

“We understand!” Flim and Flam said in unison.

Iron Will didn't say anything as he was deep in thought about actually killing a pony. Sensing Iron Will's doubt, Discorded Whooves walked over to him and let the arms lower him back to the ground.

“I can see that you are busy thinking right now, but there is something very important I must tell you, Iron Will.” Discorded Whooves said, snapping Iron Will out of his thoughts.

“Huh? What is it?” Iron Will asked.

“Last night when I met you, I sadly left out a rather big detail. You see, since Fluttershy is so famous now as one of the heroes of Equestria, she was able to spread news throughout the land. I recall, there was something she said about minotaurs, specifically you.” Discorded Whooves said, grinning smugly.

“Fluttershy betrayed Iron Will even more!? What did Fluttershy say!?” Iron Will asked, his anger starting to bubble and boil.

“Well, because of how rude and scary you were to her, she spread word throughout all of Equestria that minotaurs should never ever be trusted. That one day they would try and take over Equestria for their selfish greed and desires. She told everyone that you were dangerous and that you were just as bad, if not, worse than every minotaur out there. That is why no one respects you or takes you seriously anymore. It's quite simple, nobody cares about you.” Discorded Whooves said.

“Grrr! Iron Will shall do what he must! Iron Will shall make ponies fear him again! Iron Will won’t be tricked again! Iron Will hates ponies! All ponies will now suffer!” Iron Wil yelled as he smashed his fists together, steam blowing out of his nose as he suddenly became very angry.

“(Chuckle) Good, very good. Now, come along my friends. Let's give our Appleloosa friends a nice warm greeting. Wait for my signal, then attack.” Discorded Whooves said as they made their way towards town.

The ponies of Appleloosa were happily enjoying their morning when suddenly they heard the sound of metallic footsteps approaching from the town's entrance. This caused quite a few of the townsfolk to leave their homes or stop what they were doing to check out this strange sound. Soon, they saw what it was. The townsfolk gasped with shock and horror as they watched Discorded Whooves walk into town, carried by all four of his mechanical arms.

“Greetings to all of you, wonderful townsfolk of Appleloosa! I am pleased to meet each and every one of you.” Discorded Whooves announced before somepony from the crowd spoke up.

“And who might you be, stranger?” Sheriff Silverstar asked, stepping out in front of the crowd. “Not to be rude or anything, but ya don't look like a friendly face.”

“(Chuckle) Do not worry, Sheriff, I am not offended. Unfortunately, I am not here for pleasantries, I am here strictly for business.” Discorded Whooves said.

“Business? What kind of business? And what are them, arms for?” Sheriff Silverstar asked, eyeing the arms suspiciously.

“What? These arms? Why, there part of my business of course. Now, I only have one thing to say to you ponies. Prepare yourselves because the doctor is in... ATTACK!” Discorded Whooves yelled as the rest of his team revealed themselves.

Lightning Dust flew up from behind a building and flew straight into the crowd, managing to grab Sheriff Silverstar and tossed him in the air. As soon as the sheriff was in midair, Discorded Whooves grabbed the sheriff with one of his arms and threw him into the side of a building. With the sheriff knocked out, the attack began. The citizens of Appleloosa screamed in terror as they a bunch of them ran for cover. A couple ponies weren't so lucky as they were grabbed by the metal arms and slammed so hard onto the ground, they were killed by the impact. Lightning Dust flew over to a pony who was trying to climb through an open window, and she grabbed him and tossed him to the ground. Lightning Dust didn't stop there as she landed on the ground and started to punch the pony in the face with her hooves over and over until he was either dead or just stopped moving. With that taken care of, Lightning Dust flew back into the air and started diving down multiple times, swooping in to stop anypony from escaping or hiding from the attack.

Meanwhile, Flim and Flam had also just come out of hiding as they used their magic to try and destroy some of the surrounding buildings. Unfortunately, however, they realized that their magic was strong enough. The most they could do was just break a window. Since this wasn't working right, the brothers decided to just fire their magic at anypony they saw. Flim and Flam started going a bit wild as they started to feel like they were playing some sort of intense shooting game at a carnival or something. Soon, the Flim Flam Brothers were fully engaged with what they were doing and not even realize they were attacking real ponies. Thankfully no pony was being killed by Flim and Flam's magic, but it still hurt quite a bit, especially for the ponies that were hit in the head or anywhere above the neck. Some of the ponies were ducking for cover and even throwing stones at the Flim Flam Brothers, unfortunately, the two brothers were quite nimble and agile, able to dodge every rock thrown at them. This only added to the 'fun' Flim and Flam were having right now.

“On your left, brother!” Flam cried, with Flim ducking out of the way of a rock.

“Ha! Ha! Got you!” Flim cheered as he hit one of the ponies in the neck, causing her to fall to the ground in pain.

“Got one too, brother!” Flam cheered as he also shot a pony in the head. “I bet I'll get more points than you, brother!”

“Ha! Never!” Flim yelled as he fired his magic at a pony who was trying to save one of his friends. “This is so much fun!”

“You bet! And you know what makes it even better, brother!?” Flam asked as they both looked and grinned at each other.

“This will hurt Applejack! Payback!” Flim cheered as he jumped over a barrel that had been rolled towards them.

As the brothers kept on playing their little game, they had no clue that the longer this went on, the more powerful their magic got. Therefore, they were actually causing a lot more harm and damage than they were aware of. This was proven as when Flim shot a beam of his magic at a pony who dodged the attack, the magic beam was strong enough now to where it actually blew a door to pieces. One pony used his rope to try and tie the two brothers up, but as he did so, Flam fired a beam of magic at him, and the magic was so strong that it sent the pony flying back a long distance. The brothers managed to get out of the rope and went back to blasting in every direction they wanted to. Soon enough, houses and buildings were being severely damaged by the two brothers and a few ponies sustained very serious injuries, some unfortunately fatal.

As Flim and Flam continued their assault, they were both suddenly wrapped up tightly by a rope. As the two brothers were tied together, they looked and saw who had caught them. Sheriff Silverstar, who had finally woken up from behind knocked out cold, managed to sneak up on the two brothers and got them tied up in his rope. The sheriff was not too pleased when he looked at the two brothers.

“Well, well, well, what do we have here? Flim and Flam, eh? I don't know if anypony told y'all this or not, but you brothers have been on our most wanted list for quite some time now. You boys are in a heap of trouble.” Sheriff Silverstar said, spitting on the floor.

“What? Why are we on your most wanted list!?” Flim asked.

“Yeah! You can't just do that! We've never even been here before until today!” Flam added.

“That don't matter. Applejack done told me that Appleloosa should keep an eye out for two con artist vermin brothers, two unicorn who go by the names of Flim and Flam. Applejack said that I would be able to tell who y'all were from the moment I saw ya. Plus, she gave me pictures of y'alls faces just in case.” Sheriff Silverstar explained, pointing over to a billboard that had the two brothers' pictures up under the Most Wanted label.

“Grrr! Why does she always spread nasty rumors about us!” Flim yelled, gritting his teeth at the thought of Applejack spreading news about them.

“Because she's a rotten farmer, that's why! We'll show her!” Flam said, hoping that one day they would get a chance to face Applejack.

“Well, sorry to say boys, y'all ain't ever gonna see Applejack again. As a matter of fact, y'all boys ain't gonna see anything except the inside of a jail cell.” Sheriff Silverstar said.

“Ha! As if we'd let you take us to jail!” Flam laughed.

“Keep dreaming, sheriff!” Flim said as he used his magic to snap the rope, freeing themselves.

“Drat! You boys better not try anything funny now or else!” Sheriff Silverstar said as he started to slowly walk towards the brothers.

“Or else what, sheriff? You going to arrest us?” Flim asked, also walking slowly towards the sheriff, followed by Flam.

“You're gonna have to do a lot more than that to stop us!” Flam said.

“Heh, I guess you boys are gonna have to learn things the hard way.” Sheriff Silverstar said as they had a stand-off against each other.

After a few seconds of intense staring, both Flim and Flam opened fire on the sheriff, blasting their beams of magic at him. Sheriff Silverstar, however, saw this coming from a mile away as he successfully dodged both beams of magic fired. The two brothers did not stop however as they kept on firing over and over at him. Sheriff Silverstar then started to run in circles around the Flim Flam Brothers, using his surprising speed to avoid getting blasted. This running around in a circle trick was actually a very interesting strategic plan. The trick would allow one to get closer and closer to their opponent as they kept circling them, while the opponent would be too focused on their attacker and not so much on the fact that they would get closer and closer. Sheriff Silverstar kept the trick going until he was close enough and as soon as he was, he lunged forwards and slammed right into the two brothers, knocking all three of them down to the ground. Despite being dizzy from running in a circle, Sheriff Silverstar had plenty of time to recover as he had shoved the brothers hard enough to keep them on the ground.

Soon enough, all three of them were getting back up on their feet and ready to fight again. Sheriff Silverstar was quick to get back up as he grabbed Flim and threw him to the side, causing him to land inside of a barrel. Flam was quick to act, as he tried to use his magic to get his brother out, but Sheriff Silverstar was quick to stop that as he punched Flam in the face. Flam stumbled back a bit from the punch before he was grabbed by his right hoof and slammed onto the ground. Flam yelled in pain as his back hit the floor. Sheriff Silverstar was about to bring his hooves down on Flam's stomach, but Flam managed to roll out of the way just in time. Flam quickly got back up on his feet and kicked some dust into the sheriff's eyes, temporarily blinding him. Flam took this opportunity to get his brother out of the barrel, but as he did so he was once again picked up by the sheriff and thrown to the side, hitting a wall. Both brothers were definitely shocked at just how strong this sheriff was. If he had been any stronger, Flam's back could have been seriously broken or badly damaged.

Now that Flim was free from the barrel, he charged full speed towards the sheriff, who just kicked him in the face with his back legs. Flim was hit so hard in the face that his nose started to bleed pretty badly. Sheriff Silverstar wasted no time charging at Flim and ramming into him, slamming him into a wall. With Flim pinned by his body, Sheriff Silverstar started to repeatedly slam his body against Flim, really causing a lot of pain. As Sheriff Silverstar kept slamming into Flim, his whole body was suddenly encased by a magical aura. Flam had recovered from his injury and then lifted the sheriff a few inches off the ground, holding him still in the air. Flim took this opportunity to punch the sheriff in the stomach, chest, and face a good number of times before both brothers used their magic to slam the sheriff on the ground multiples times. Once the two brothers were satisfied, they both threw the sheriff into a wall, causing him to break one of his back legs. Sheriff Silverstar yelled in pain as he hit the wall and tried to stand back up, but due to his broken leg, he just couldn't. Flim and Flam laughed at each other as they slowly approached the injured sheriff. As the two brothers approached him, Sheriff Silverstar just gave them a determined grin, refusing to admit defeat.

“(Laughs) Nice try, but you can't defeat the ultimate duo of Flim and Flam!” Flim said as they both stood menacingly in front of the sheriff.

“You should have just stayed put, maybe this wouldn't have happened. But you just had to be the hero, right sheriff?” Flam asked.

“Heh, heh, of course I had to be. Appleloosa is my town. It will always be under my protection.” Sheriff Silverstar said, refusing to show any fear.

“Ha! Not anymore!” Flam yelled as he nudged Flim and pointed to the beams supporting the roof of the building the sheriff was under.

“Say hello to Applejack's parents for us, will you?” Flim asked as he nodded to his brother.

“Bye, bye, sheriff.” Flim and Flam said as they both blasted their magic towards the beams.

With the beams destroyed, the roof of the building came down and crashed right on top of Sheriff Silverstar, who, just before he was crushed, just looked at the brothers and smiled. The roof came down and then there was just silence after the crash. Flim and Flam waited for a few moments after the crash and then they walked over to the rubble, inspecting it for the sheriff. Almost immediately they saw the sheriff's hat sticking out from under some rubble, as well as his hoof. There was no movement, but there was now some sounds of groaning. Despite knowing that the sheriff was still alive, Flim and Flam knew he was gonna die soon anyway due to being crushed, so they just walked away, going back to their assault on Appleloosa.

Meanwhile, Lightning Dust was flying around in the air, scanning the town for anypony trying to escape from the destruction. As she was doing so, Lightning Dust was startled when a pie was launched into the air and just barely missed her. Quite taken aback by almost being hit by a pie, Lightning Dust looked down and saw that quite a few ponies had started to kick pies into the air, some even using large contraptions to fire the pies into the sky. Lightning Dust gritted her teeth as she then did her best to dodge and avoid every single pie that was launched at her. She had a few close calls but thankfully none of the pies hit her. Once Lightning Dust felt ready to attack, she flew down toward the oncoming pies, still making sure to avoid getting pied. Lightning Dust decided to first take out the attackers’ line of sight as she flew just a few inches off the ground and quickly flew back up, causing the dust and sand to fly up and temporarily blind the ponies. With that taken care of, Lightning Dust flew back down and using her incredible speed, flew straight into the pie throwing contraptions, destroying all of them in a single sweep.

Of course, flying that low towards the attackers did come with a price since as Lightning Dust was trying to fly back up and out of range, she found that her back leg had been caught by a rope. No sooner than Lightning Dust felt the rope wrap tightly around her leg, she was pulled back down to ground level with such force that she hit the floor in seconds. As Lightning Dust tried to pick herself up, she turned back and saw who had taken her down. Lightning Dust's eyes widened as she saw probably the biggest earth pony she had ever seen in her entire life. The stallion was huge and looked very strong and burly. However, the scariest thing about this stallion wasn't his immense size, it was the angry look he had on his face. The stallion with the angry look on his face was the once outlaw and now rodeo clown, Trouble Shoes.

“You messed with the wrong town!” Trouble Shoes said as he yanked the rope back, pulling Lightning Dust towards him.

As Lightning Dust was being pulled towards Trouble Shoes, she did everything she could to get out of the rope's grip, shaking her leg wildly and even trying to fly away, but Trouble Shoes was just too strong. Soon, Lightning Dust found herself right in front of the towering earth pony, who then raised his front hooves up in the air, as if he was about to crush her. Before that could happen, Lightning Dust quickly scooped up some sand with her wing and flung it into Trouble Shoes's face. This caused Trouble Shoes to step back a bit and yell as he tried to wipe the sand out of his eyes. However, by then Lightning Dust had already gotten the rope off of her leg and as soon as she was free, Lightning Dust shot up into the air, uppercutting Trouble Shoes in the process.

“Ha! Loser! Now it's my turn!” Lightning Dust yelled as she flew back down to Trouble Shoes was.

Lightning Dust was quick as she managed to grab Trouble Shoes's rope and then flew in circles around him, using his own rope to tie all four of his hooves up. This had Trouble Shoes a bit wobbly for a few seconds but since he was so strong, he broke free and was ready to get back into the fight. However, those few seconds was all Lightning Dust needed as she was already back and started to perform her fast and speedy combo. She hit Trouble Shoes in the face multiple times with her front hooves and even kicked him with her back hooves, all with such astonishing speed that Trouble Shoes couldn't even catch a break or find an opening to escape. Thankfully, Trouble Shoes did manage to escape this deadly combo as he rammed his head forward, knocking Lightning Dust back a bit.

“Who are you and why are you attacking Appleloosa!?” Trouble Shoes asked as he prepared for another one of Lightning Dust's combos.

“Name's Lightning Dust! As for why we're attacking this boring little place, none of your business! Ya!” Lightning Dust yelled as flew right back at him.

Trouble Shoes did not allow himself to be hit as he smacked Lightning Dust back using the side of his head. This time however, Lightning Dust was only briefly phased as she recovered very fast and gave Trouble Shoes a good kick in the face. Trouble Shoes shook off the kick as he raised his upper body in the air, as if to once again try and crush Lightning Dust again, but Lightning Dust dodged the attack and flew around behind him. Lightning Dust was about to grab Trouble Shoes by his tail, but he reacted quickly, kicking her with his leg. Trouble Shoes turned around fast and managed to bite down on Lightning Dust's tail, swinging her around a bit before throwing her into a wall. As Lightning Dust hit the wall and fell to the ground, she spotted a rather large apple on the ground next to her. As soon as she saw Trouble Shoes charging at her, Lightning Dust grabbed the apple with her wing and threw it at Trouble Shoes, hitting him in the nose. With her attack being successful, Lightning Dust flew over to Trouble Shoes's legs, preparing to bring the big guy down.

Lightning Dust first kicked as hard as she could at Trouble Shoes's front legs, causing them to buckle a bit. Then Lightning Dust uppercutted Trouble Shoes hard before she round house kicked him in the face and then bringing both of her front hooves down onto the top of Trouble Shoes's head, really causing some pain. Lightning Dust then flew up and then back down, slamming herself into Trouble Shoes's chest, pushing him back a bit. Lightning Dust repeated this strategy until Trouble Shoes was right in front of a certain building with a large sign. Once Trouble Shoes was in the perfect position, Lightning Dust repeated her strategy one last time before she decided it was time to finish the fight. Trouble Shoes tried to smack Lightning Dust again, but she was too fast as she dodged it and then kicked him really hard in the face. Lightning Dust then flew up towards the sign above Trouble Shoes and hit it so hard that the whole thing fell and landed right on top of Trouble Shoes. The sign was very large and very heavy, so when it landed on top of Trouble Shoes, he was crushed down, and he was out of the fight. Thankfully he wasn't dead or fatally injured, but he was definitely severely injured. With her opponent defeated, Lightning Dust laughed and flew away, getting back to her job.

During all of the chaos and destruction that was happening in the town, back at Braeburn's home, the trio of friends were having a joyous time amongst themselves. By now, they had gotten to know each other pretty well as they talked and drank fresh apple juice with each other. It was during one of their chats that Capper happened to glance towards one of the windows and saw something outside that caught his attention.

“Hey, cowboy, is there a celebration or something going on in town today?” Capper asked.

“Not that I'm aware of, why?” Braeburn asked as he tilted his head in confusion.

“Oh, then uh... what's that?” Capper asked as he pointed outside the window.

With that, all three of the friends looked outside the window and their mouths opened wide with horror. The town was in a devastating state of panic and destruction. Fires were blazing due to some of the damage being done to the town. Appleloosa was under attack.

“Sweet Flaming Tumbleweeds! What in tarnation is going on!?” Braeburn cried as he nearly flipped out of his chair.

“Appleloosa's under attack! We got to go do something!” Dusty cried as they got up from their chairs.

“What are we waiting for then!? Come on, amigos! Let's go!” Capper yelled as they all quickly ran out of the house.

As the trio of friends barged out of the house, Capper remembered something that would probably be very helpful in this situation he was about to be in. Capper stopped running rather suddenly, his paws digging into the ground below him as he stopped to look back at his wagon. He then ran back to his wagon and opened up a little compartment underneath the wagon. As he opened the compartment, a few items fell out. There was a belt with a sheath for a knife, a gun holster, a gun that was made by the Storm King's army, and a rather large hunting knife. Capper was very quick as he got the gear set up and made his way to join up with his friends. When they arrived at the scene of the disaster, they were all shocked by what they saw. Nearly the whole town of Appleloosa was being destroyed by a certain group of creatures. Braeburn instantly recognized the two brothers, Flim and Flam, but he had no idea who the others were.

“Dusty! Capper! Y'all two go and help the innocent, I've got myself some business with a pair of con artists!” Braeburn called as he ran towards the direction of the Flim Flam Brothers.

“Braeburn, wait! Oh, rotten tomatoes! Come on, partner! We can't let him go in there alone!” Dusty said as he chased after Braeburn.

“Right behind you, amigo-WOAH! WAAHH!” Capper yelled as he was suddenly grabbed and lifted up into the air by a metal claw.

“Huh!? NO! Capper!” Dusty cried before he saw something very bizarre. “What in the hay is that!?” Dusty cried as he saw Discorded Whooves, who had snatched Capper up from the side of the building.

“Hello there, partners, so nice to see you!” Discorded Whooves yelled as another one of the mechanical arms reached out and tried to grab Dusty.

Dusty was quick to react as he jumped back a bit and even kicked the arm away from him. Discorded Whooves did not give up as the arm kept trying to grab Dusty. As the arm kept trying to grab ahold of Dusty, Capper managed to take out his gun and took aim at Discorded Whooves. However, since Discorded Whooves was moving around quite a bit, it was very hard to properly take aim. Capper eventually took his shot and fired, missing his target, but at least managing to shoot one of the arms, not that it did anything. Luckily, the constant moving around gave Capper a chance to squeeze out of the arm's grip. Once Capper was free, he jumped onto the roof of the building and fired his gun again. However, even though the magical blast was definitely going to hit Discorded Whooves, one of the arms snaked around and blocked it, protecting him seemingly on its own. This caused Discorded Whooves to stop his attack on Dusty and shift his focus to Capper.

“Trying to take out the Doctor? Tsk, tsk, I don't think so! Come here, cat! Time to get declawed!” Discorded Whooves yelled as he started to chase Capper across the roof.

Capper ran and jumped all over the place, desperately trying to avoid getting caught once again by those deadly arms. After getting chased around the roof for a little bit, Capper eventually decided to go for it, and he waited for the chance to try out his plan. As soon as one of the arms missed him, he jumped onto the arm and climbed on it, making his way to Discorded Whooves. But before he could get to him, Capper was grabbed and flung off by another arm. Capper landed back on the roof and decided that there really was no way he could get past all four of those mechanical arms. Capper spent the remainder of the fight just dodging and jumping over each arm that tried to grab him. Discorded Whooves kept laughing and laughing as he enjoyed watching this cat try so hard to avoid being snatched up by the arms, it was just too much fun. However, it was so much fun that Discorded Whooves forgot that Capper wasn't alone.

On the ground, Dusty had tied about five large bricks together with one of his ropes. Once all the bricks were secured, Dusty lifted the bricks with the rope and swung them around in the air, taking aim at the mechanical armed freak. After Dusty gained the confidence he needed, he let the bricks fly and they flew fast into the air. No sooner, the bricks hit their target, hitting Discorded Whooves in the back so hard that he actually got knocked out, even the arms were startled. Discorded Whooves and the arms soon fell off the side of the rather tall building and crashed onto the floor. All of them were knocked out, cold. With the threat secured, Capper maneuvered his way back down to the ground and ran over to his friend.

“Hey! Thanks so much, amigo! I couldn't keep that up much longer.” Capper said, falling to the ground and panting like he had just run a marathon.

“Come on! We have to help Braeburn before he gets himself killed!” Dusty said, helping Capper up to his feet.

“Right! I'm sure he went that way!” Capper said as they ran off to find Braeburn. “I thought I'd seen it all! Now there's some crazy dude with robot arms! I don't think this day could get any worse!”

“Don't say that partner! Things always get worse when ya say that!” Dusty cried, before both of them stopped dead in their tracks as something flew right past them.

Dusty and Capper turned to see what just flew by them and what they saw horrified them. It was a barrel that had been thrown into a wall and inside the barrel was the bodies of two ponies, a mare, and a stallion and from the looks of it, they were very much dead. The two friends turned in the direction that the barrel had been thrown and they saw Iron Will destroying a house with his bare hands and generally causing mass destruction. Capper squinted his eyes and saw that there was still a family inside the house Iron Will was destroying. Seeing the two foals cry out in fear caused Capper to get very upset and determined.

“Amigo, you go help Braeburn! I'll take care of this bull!” Capper said as he pulled out his gun.

“Are ya crazy!? Y'all could get yourself killed!” Dusty yelled.

“Just go! I'll be fine! Promise!” Capper yelled as Dusty nodded before running off to find Braeburn. “Hey, Bull-Man!” Capper called as he fired his gun, hitting Iron Will in the back.

“OW!” Iron Will cried as he was hit in the back by some sort of magical blast. “WHO DID THAT!?” Iron Will yelled, looking around furiously before he was answered.

“That would be me... name's Capper. Capper Dapperpaws.” Capper replied, grinning to Iron Will who just roared in response.

“Iron Will, will crush you, cat!” Iron Will roared as he charged at Capper.

“Heh, heh, come at me then, Bull-Man!” Capper said as he motioned for Iron Will to charge him.

“Iron Will is not bull! Iron Will is minotaur!” Iron Will roared as he made it to Capper and raised his arms in the air.

Capper quickly shot Iron Will in the chest, but this did not deter Iron Will in the slightest as he still brought his arms down on Capper. Thankfully, Capper dodged the strong attack, put his gun back in its holster, and jumped up in the air, slashing Iron Will in the face with his claws. Iron Will roared with pain as he was scratched, before quickly trying to punch Capper, who dodged and weaved out of the way of every punch. Capper was very nimble and agile as he dodged all of the oncoming attacks, even acting smug as he put his hands behind his back while dodging This act of showing off really made Iron Will's blood boil as he roared again and tried to smash his head against Capper. As Iron Will shot his head forward, Capper jumped up above Iron Will and landed on his back, using his claws to dig in and keep himself locked onto Iron Will. Feeling those sharp claws dig into his back, Iron Will yelled, and tried to grab the annoying cat off of his back, but Capper was just out of reach. As Iron Will kept struggling, Capper reached into his belt and took out the knife and plunged it into Iron Will's shoulder, causing him to roar in pain. Fed up with Capper's nonsense, Iron Will started running backwards, hoping to crush Capper against the wall.

Capper thankfully knew this would happen as he took out the knife and jumped off of Iron Will just as he was about to get crushed, landing in front of Iron Will. Seeing that his plan hadn't worked, Iron Will growled as he tried to grab Capper by the throat. Capper of course, was able to dodge it, as once he ducked under Iron Will's hand, he grabbed a nearby rock off the floor and chucked it at Iron Will's chin. Iron Will shook it off as he tried to bash Capper to the ground like before. Capper just kept dodging and weaving until Iron Will got fed up and kicked some dust into Capper's face. This stunned Capper as he tried his best to quickly rid his eyes of the dust, but by then Iron Will had grabbed him and thrown him through a nearby window. Capper crashed through the window and landed hard on the ground and sliding into a couch. Capper tried hard to get up, thankful that he hadn't received any cuts from the glass window he had crashed into. It wasn't long until Iron Will busted through the wall and roared at him.

“Heh, just can't leave me alone, can you?” Capper asked.

“Iron Will, will not allow you to escape, cat! You will pay for hurting Iron Will!” Iron Will yelled.

“Listen, Bull-Boy, why don't you just calm down and we can talk about our problems. I can already tell you have a lot of problems.” Capper said, smirking a bit.

“Grrr! Iron Will is not bull!” Iron Will roared as he charged at Capper.

Iron Will made it to Capper and brought both his arms down on Capper, crushing him to the ground. Iron Will chuckled as he was pleased that he finally took care of Capper, but as he lifted his hands up and saw Capper was not there, he was shot in the face by Capper's gun. Iron Will yelled as he was shot and yelled once again as Capper quickly ran over to him and smacked him in the face with the butt of his gun. Capper repeated this a few times before Iron Will snapped out of it and smacked Capper away. Capper went flying across the room and hit the wall hard, causing him to drop his gun. As Capper was about to reach for his gun, he quickly jumped away to the other side as he was almost crushed by a table that was thrown at him. Iron Will charged at Capper once again, even leaping towards him, trying to land on top of him. Capper rolled out of the way and ran to get his gun. Iron Will got back up and quickly turned around to chase after Capper, who reacted quickly by shooting him in the face, causing Iron Will to fall on his face in front of Capper.

With Iron Will seemingly down, Capper tried to get away from him and out of the house. However, Iron Will woke up and grabbed Capper by the tail, causing him to shriek in pain. Iron Will threw Capper up at the ceiling and he hit the ceiling very hard. Luckily, Capper landed on the ceiling fan and avoided falling back into Iron Will's range. Iron Will, however, just jumped up and tore the ceiling fan down to the ground. Once that happened, Capper shot Iron Will in the neck and tried to run away, with Iron Will throwing a stool at Capper, launching him out of the house. As Capper was launched outside, Iron Will ran out of the house and over to him. Iron Will then tried to grab Capper by the throat once again, but Capper dodged it of course. However, this time Capper did not dodge the attack completely as he saw that Iron Will had managed to grab his top hat. Iron Will, being very frustrated that he had not grabbed Capper, tore the top hat into many pieces. Seeing the hat that Rarity had given him had just been torn to pieces, Capper's eyes narrowed, and his claws got sharper. Iron Will had just crossed the blood red line.

“Oh, you're gonna pay for that! MEOW!” Capper hissed as he pulled out his gun and fired at least ten shots at Iron Will's face.

Iron Will roared as he kept on getting shot over and over by Capper's gun until Capper then shot Iron Will's knees, causing him to fall down on his knees in front of Capper. With Iron Will down, Capper shot him in the face one last time before he ran over to Iron Will's right hand, taking his knife out. Then, with a meow of rage, Capper plunged the knife straight through the palm of Iron Will's right hand, causing him to roar in immense pain. Capper didn't stop as he yanked the knife out and plunged it through Iron Will's left palm. With two open wounds on the palms of Iron Will's hands, Capper shot him in the chest and then jumped up at his face, hanging on to one of Iron Will's horns. Capper then shot Iron Will in the face three more times from very close and then with all his might, smacked him in the face with his gun so hard that two teeth shot out of Iron Will's mouth. After the heavy smack, Iron Will fell back on the ground and was now out cold.

“(Pant, pant) Stay down.... (Gasp) Dusty! Cowboy!” Capper cried as he quickly ran off to find his friends.

Meanwhile, Dusty had just been sent flying into a wall after being blasted by Flim's magic. When the trio had gotten separated, Braeburn made a mad dash for the Flim Flam Brothers. He'd had enough of those two scheming brothers finding ways to annoy Applejack and keep scamming ponies with their cheap tricks. When Braeburn had reached the brothers, he was in for quite a painful surprise as he was hit by their powerful magic. The Flim Flam Brothers spent the rest of their time just blasting Braeburn with their magic and tossing him around like a ragdoll. This went on until Dusty had shown up and tackled Flim to the ground. This had given Braeburn a chance to recover and allowed him to run over to Flam and kick him hard with his back hooves. Flam was then slammed into a wall by Braeburn, would made sure not to give the unicorn any time to recover. Flam, however, managed to free himself by kicking out Braeburn's front hooves, causing him to trip. This gave Flam the chance to get away and then turn around and blast Braeburn with another magic beam.

Dusty had Flim pinned to the wall, but not for long as Flim managed to kick Dusty in the stomach and freed himself. Then, Flim blasted his magic at Dusty, sending him flying into a wall. Flim ran over to Dusty in an attempt to keep him down, but Dusty waited until Flim was a few feet from him and then he tossed some dust into Flim's eyes. With sand in his eyes, Flim was unable to do anything as Dusty got up and gave him a hard shove, making him stumble back. Dusty was about to try and pin Flim to the floor, but Flim started to frantically shoot magic everywhere, managing to unintentionally hit Dusty and once again causing him to hit a wall. Flim's eyes had been cleaned now and he was ready to take aim at Dusty. As Flim was about to blast Dusty, his focus was disrupted as his horn was shot by a magical blast. Flim turned his head and saw a Capper running towards him, firing another shot. Flim managed to counter the shot by blasting it with his own magic, causing a cloud of smoke to appear. From the smoke, Capper came out and smacked Flim in the face with his gun before running over to Dusty.

“Dusty! You alright!?” Capper asked, helping Dusty up to his feet.

“I'm fine, partner, thank Celestia ya got here just in time. Help me, will ya?” Dusty asked.

“Absolutely, amigo.” Capper replied as they both ran to Flim.

Flim fired two beams of magic at the oncoming attackers, but they both missed as Capper fired a shot at Flim's chest and Dusty rammed into Flim right afterwards. After getting slammed into by Dusty, Capper followed up by smacking Flim in the face with his gun twice and jumping back to let Dusty kick Flim with his back legs. The kick was so hard that Flim was sent flying into a wall. With Flim seemingly down for now, Dusty and Capper ran over to Braeburn, who was being tossed around by Flam. As Flam was enjoying tossing Braeburn around, Dusty grabbed ahold of him and threw him to the side, allowing Braeburn to land back on the ground.

“Hey, thanks a bunch, partners. I was starting to get a bit sick there.” Braeburn said, shaking his head a bit.

“Thank us later, Braeburn. We've got ourselves some vermin to get rid of.” Dusty said, seeing that Flam was starting to get back up.

The trio of friends ran over and made sure to finish Flam as quickly as they could. Braeburn rammed into Flam, pushing him back quite a bit before Capper shot Flam in the chest twice, allowing Dusty to run up and punch Flam so hard in the face he flew back and landed hard on the ground. Before they could celebrate, Braeburn was hit in the back by Flim, who had managed to get up after his loss. Dusty and Capper turned around fast and glared at the unicorn, who just laughed and fired more magic at them. Dusty and Capper were quick and agile as they dodged every beam and reached Flim, ready to attack him. Dusty punched Flim in the face and Capper jumped on Dusty's back, then off of his back and onto Flim's back. As Flim tried to shake Capper off of his back, Capper started to scratch Flim's back with his sharp claws. When Capper saw that Dusty was about to charge, he scratched Flim one more time before he leaped off of his back and let Dusty crash into Flim. Flim stumbled back and before he could do anything else, was kicked super hard in the face by Braeburn. After the kick, Braeburn slammed himself into Flim, pushing him into a wall. Once Flim hit the wall, Braeburn grabbed ahold of Flim and threw him over his shoulder, slamming him hard on the ground and then finishing it off with one last kick to Flim's side.

The trio quickly gathered up the two brothers and laid them against the side of a building, with Braeburn about to tie them up with his rope. But before they could be tied up, Flim and Flam started to chuckle at the trio. This made the trio a bit worried because they knew that it was never a good sign when you're about to capture somepony and then they start laughing.

“(Laughs) Go ahead and capture us, not like there's a jail for us to be locked in, in this town anyway!” Flim said as they were both tied up.

“Yeah! That's already been destroyed! Plus, this little town doesn't even have a sheriff anymore!” Flam added, causing Braeburn's eyes to widen with horror.

“No... WHERE'S SHERIFF SILVERSTAR!? WHAT DID Y'ALL DO WITH HIM!?” Braeburn yelled, slamming his hooves right next to the brothers' faces.

“Don't worry, last we checked he was still alive.” Flam said.

“If you hurry, maybe you'll get him out of the rubble we left him in.” Flim said.

“Over there, in front of that broken shop.” Flam said, gesturing towards a destroyed building.

“I swear if the sheriff is.... well... y'all will regret it! Come on, we got to save the sheriff!” Braeburn said as he ran off in the direction Flam pointed in, followed by Dusty and Capper.

“(Chuckle) Go ahead, save him.” Flim said, nodding to his brother.

“Yeah, it's too late anyway. Come on, brother, let's get back into it!” Flam said as he used his magic to tear apart the rope.

The trio of friends made it to the destroyed shop in a matter of seconds, with all of them looking for any signs of the sheriff. As they scanned the rubble, Capper saw something.

“There! I see a hoof!” Capper called, pointing over to a spot in the rubble where there was indeed a hoof sticking out.

“No! Sheriff!” Braeburn cried as they walked across the rubble.

“Help me lift this thing!” Dusty yelled as they worked together to lift a large pile of rubble off the sheriff.

“Oh, Sheriff Silverstar! No!” Braeburn cried as he saw the horrible state the sheriff was in.

“(Cough, cough) Braeburn... that you?” Sheriff Silverstar asked as he weakly opened his eyes and coughed.

“Yeah, it's me! But that don't matter! Come on, we're gonna get ya help!” Braeburn said as he attempted to pick up the sheriff before he stopped him.

“No! (Cough, cough) Don't waste your breath. (Cough) Go.... (Cough) to... Ponyville (Cough). Get... help... (Cough). Appleloosa... is under... your protection now... Sheriff.... Braeburn....” Sheriff Silverstar said as he smiled to Braeburn and took off his sheriff badge and put it on Braeburn's vest.

“Wh-What? Sh-Sheriff, what are ya saying!?” Braeburn cried.

“Take care... of.... Appleloosa... I know... you can....” Sheriff Silverstar said as he gave Braeburn one last look of confidence before he closed his eyes.

“Sheriff? Sheriff!? SHERIFF! NO!” Braeburn yelled as he started to cry at the death of Appleloosa's bravest sheriff.

“Braeburn, I'm mighty sorry... We'll bury the sheriff after we save the town. Come on, it's what Sheriff Silverstar would do.” Dusty said, patting Braeburn on the back.

“(Sniff) You're right, come on partners. We have to save what's left of Appleloosa, then we get to Ponyville. Come on!” Braeburn said as they ran off to try and save what was left.

As the trio ran through the town, they had seen Flim and Flam had escaped their capture and were back to terrorizing the town. The trio would have gone after them again, but Dusty had spotted Trouble Shoes pinned under a sign, so they went to help him. It took a great effort to free Trouble Shoes from his situation, but through their combined strength and teamwork, they managed to lift the heavy sign off of Trouble Shoes.

“Thanks, I'm sorry, I really tried to help, but that Pegasus was just too fast.” Trouble Shoes said, looking down in defeat.

“Don't worry about that right now, Trouble Shoes.” Braeburn said as he patted Trouble Shoes. “Can ya walk?”

“I think so...” Trouble Shoes said as he took a few steps.

It was painful but Trouble Shoes could manage.

“Good, round up what's left of the town and take them to our emergency bunker. Wait there until we return with help. It should be a day or two, can ya do that, Trouble Shoes?” Braeburn asked.

“Yes, I can. What about the attackers?” Trouble Shoes asked.

“Tell the town not to worry about them. Tell them that their priority right now is to get to safety. We'll handle the attackers. Now, go!” Braeburn said.

“I won't let you down!” Trouble Shoes said as he ran off to round up the survivors.

“Come on, partners! We have to save our-GAH!!” Braeburn cried as he was suddenly smacked in the face so hard that he was sent flying.

Dusty and Capper were horrified when they saw what just smacked Braeburn away; it was a mechanical arm. Discorded Whooves had finally recovered from getting hit by the stack of bricks and he was back and looked very, very angry.

“You're not saving ANYONE!” Discorded Whooves yelled as he jumped back on the ground, his top two arms reaching out to try and grab Dusty and Capper.

Dusty and Capper ran away from the mechanical arms and soon found themselves being chased by the mad doctor. Discorded Whooves started to get more frustrated as his arms just could not grab ahold of the two friends. As Discorded Whooves chased the duo, he stopped and used his arms to rip off a large billboard and threw it at the duo. Luckily, Discorded Whooves threw the billboard a little too hard as the billboard went flying above Dusty and Capper. The arms then grabbed a small wagon and threw it at Capper, who ran in the other direction, finding himself being separated from Dusty and now being chased by the very angry Discorded Whooves. Capper had no time to fire his gun or do anything as the arms gave Discorded Whooves incredible speed and agility. Capper could only jump and slide out of the way of the arms' grip. After running for a bit, Capper rounded a corner and was faced with a dead end. Before Capper could get out of the dangerous spot he was in, Discorded Whooves showed up and started to walk slowly towards him, the top two arms opening and closing, as if they were talking.

“(Chuckle) You're right, perhaps there is more than one way to skin a cat. Let's see, shall we? Yah!” Discorded Whooves said as both of the arms reached out and tried to grab Capper.

Since Capper didn't have much space to run around in, it wasn't long until he was grabbed by one of the arms and then lifted towards the Doctor.

“H-Hey! What's the deal!? You created these pretty awesome arms, and you use them to become a fictional character?” Capper asked, almost laughing out loud.

“(Chuckle) I see you're still in the mood for jokes. However, I am not.” Discorded Whooves said as the other arm snaked up right next to Capper and activated its electricity field. “Tell me, which would you prefer? Strangulation, electrocution, or brutalization?”

“Huh, tough decision here. We have strangulation, which is slow and very uncomfortable from what I hear. Then we have electrocution, which seems fast, but I'm told is very painful. Lastly, there's brutalization. The problem here is that could mean anything. Perhaps if you explained what kind of brutalization you had in mind for me, then I'd be able to give you an answer. Because right now, I'm feeling a bit stuck on this question.” Capper said, using his talent of talking to try and buy himself a bit of time.

“(Chuckle) SHUT UP!” Discorded Whooves yelled as he squeezed tighter. “Answer my question now! Or I'll answer it for you!”

“OW! Okay, okay! Stop! I got an answer!” Capper cried as the arm loosened its grip. “(Pant, pant) Okay, so, of the three very disturbing choices you gave me, I choose.... salvation.” Capper said with a smirk.

“Salvation!? That's not an option! Die! (Choke) GAH! H-Hey!” Discorded Whooves yelled as two ropes were quickly wrapped around his neck.

After seeing the ropes wrap around this mad pony's neck, Capper looked over and saw Dusty and Braeburn yank the ropes back with all their might and pull Discorded Whooves backwards, causing him to hit the back of his head on the edge of a roof so hard that he fell back to the ground and was once again seemingly out cold. With Discorded Whooves once again out for the count, the arm that was holding Capper let go and Capper was able to free himself as he ran over to his friends.

“Thanks, amigos. I knew my wits could keep the guy distracted long enough before-(Gasp) Cowboy! Your eye!” Capper cried as he pointed dramatically at Braeburn's face.

Braeburn didn't say anything as he knew what Capper had seen. When Braeburn was smacked by the mechanical arm earlier, one of the claws had given him a good scratch and even cut open his right eye, leaving Braeburn with a large nasty scratch across his face and leaving him half-blind. When the two got separated earlier, Dusty had gone back for Braeburn and found him with his eye cut and bleeding severely. Dusty managed to get some cloth and wrapped it around Braeburn, it wasn't very efficient, but it at least covered the wound and prevented any more bleeding.

“Don't y'all worry about my eye. We got to stop those Flim Flam Brothers and that crazy Pegasus flying around before they destroy what's left of Appleloosa!” Braeburn said as they prepared to leave.

But as the trio were about to leave to fight back against the remaining enemies, they all heard the sound of metal clanking and a whirring sound come from behind them. The trio turned around and saw something very scary. Even though Discorded Whooves was still knocked out, all four of the arms were still active and they lifted him up off the ground. As the bottom two arms kept their master suspended in the air, the top two arms looked at the trio and opened up their claws, ready to grab them.

“Huh, that's pretty sweet. You know, I think it's a good time to RUN!!” Capper yelled as they all ran for their lives.

As the trio ran away, the arms kept up the pursuit. After a good while of being chased by the arms, the trio managed to somehow get out of sight and lose the arms as they hid behind a building.

“Alright y'all, listen up. I know those arms are quite terrifying, but I'm sure if we work together, we can take out those arms and then save the town.” Braeburn said before they heard the sound of the arms getting closer to their hiding spot.

“No. We will only be wasting valuable time. Y'all two get yourselves to Ponyville as fast as y'all can!” Dusty said, causing Capper and Braeburn to perk up.

“What? Then what about y'all? Ya better come with us too, Dusty.” Braeburn said, very confused at this logic of Dusty not being part of the plan.

“Yeah, why would you not be coming with us anyway, amigo?” Capper asked.

“(Sigh) Well, if we all go, those arms and whatever else is attacking Appleloosa will follow us and maybe even stop us before we get to the train station. Somepony has to stay behind and keep them busy while the others escape.” Dusty explained.

“I guess that makes sense, but why-No... NO! Dusty, you can't! I'm not going to let you do something so stupid and heroic!” Capper yelled, grabbed Dusty by the sides of his face. “You'll die fighting those guys by yourself! We either fight them off together, or we all get out of town together!”

“Capper here is right! I ain't leaving ya, Dusty! Y'all are coming with us!” Braeburn agreed as the arms were getting closer.

“No, I ain't! And yes, y'all are leaving me! Y'all was a really good friend, Braeburn. I'm mighty thankful I met ya when I was a foal. Y'all made me feel appreciated and always was a fun time to hang with ya. As the new sheriff, y'all better keep Appleloosa safe and make sure that everypony here will be under your protection. I know y'all can do it because I believe in ya.” Dusty said, hugging Braeburn.

“Dusty, I... I reckon y'all were the best friend anypony could ask for. Y'all always did make the right yet outrageous choices in life. I'll miss ya.” Braeburn said as he hugged his friend tighter before Dusty walked over to Capper.

“Capper, it's been an honor to travel Equestria with ya, partner. Y'all have been the best travelling friend I ever had in my whole life. Y'all really made my life something special and interesting. I thank ya for that.” Dusty said as he gave Capper a big hug, causing Capper to tear up.

“Dusty, you can't do this man! What about our dream!? We were going to save up enough bits to own our own business one day! We'd be the most successful business in all of Equestria! I can't do that without you!” Capper yelled, trying not to start bawling.

“Yes, ya can. Y'all have a very special talent with words, Capper. If ya use that talent right, y'all can be the most successful business cat in all of Equestria. I know ya can do it, partner.” Dusty said.

Before any other words could be exchanged, the arms busted through the wall the trio were hiding behind. The trio yelled in shock as this happened and the mechanical arms looked down at them, ready to strike.

“Go! GO!” Dusty yelled as he grabbed Capper by his cape and threw him onto Braeburn's back. “Get to the station!”

“NO! DUSTY TRAIL! NO!!” Capper yelled as Braeburn took off running, with Capper on his back.

As Braeburn and Capper ran away, the arms were about to chase after them, when they were hit by a small rock. The arms turned around and saw Dusty, prepared to run in the opposite direction towards the destruction.

“Come on ya metal vermin! Get me!” Dusty yelled as he kicked some dust towards the arms and ran away.

The mechanical arms made a metallic hissing and screeching sound as they began to chase Dusty. Dusty ran and jumped over the destruction of town as he made sure he kept the arms fully distracted. Unfortunately, because he had spent nearly the whole morning running and jumping, Dusty was losing his speed, and he was soon snatched up by one of the top arms. As Dusty fought to escape the clutches of the arm, the arm brought him in front of Discorded Whooves, who was still unconscious. The other top arm activated a very small electrical field on one of its claws and gently touched Discorded Whooves, giving him a slight static shock that woke him up. As Discorded Whooves woke up, he looked in front of him and saw that the arms had successfully captured Dusty.

“You!” Discorded Whooves growled as he tightened his grip around Dusty. “Twice now, you have humiliated me! NO ONE HURTS ME! I'M THE DOCTOR! I AM THE LORD OF TIME!”

“(Cough, wheeze) Lord of Time.... heh, heh.... sounds mighty stupid to me, partner.” Dusty said as he just grinned at the Doctor's anger.

“You have no business being happy right now! I caught you! Your fate is in my claws now!” Discorded Whooves yelled.

“(Chuckles) I don't care what y'all do to me, I'm just making sure my friends get out of here.” Dusty said, causing Discorded Whooves's eyes to widen.

“WHAT!?” Discorded Whooves yelled as he turned back around and saw Braeburn and Capper run towards the town's borders. “GRRR!! NO! Thrice now! THRICE! I will not accept it! LIGHTNING DUST!!!!” Discorded Whooves yelled, getting the Pegasus's attention as she flew over to him.

“What!?” Lightning Dust asked, wondering what was so important.

“Stop those two! They can't be allowed to escape!” Discorded Whooves yelled, pointing his hoof in the direction of the two getaways.

“On it! They're not getting away!” Lightning Dust replied as she zipped away, chasing after the two getaways.

“And as for you!” Discorded Whooves said, glaring at Dusty. “You're coming with me.” Discorded Whooves said as he made his way to the big clock tower.

As Braeburn and Capper were making their escape, Capper happened to look back and saw a very angry looking Pegasus headed straight for them and gaining up on them pretty quickly.

“Hey! Cowboy! Scary Pegasus headed this way!” Capper called as Braeburn looked up behind him and saw Lightning Dust.

“And just where do you two think you're going!? Nopony leaves this town alive!” Lightning Dust yelled as she flew even faster.

“Oh shoot! This ain't good! This ain't good at all!” Braeburn yelled as he ran as fast as he could.

Despite Braeburn giving it his all and running as fast as his legs would carry him, he was no match for the speed of a skilled Pegasus. They both knew at this rate; Lightning Dust would catch up to them in a matter of seconds. Capper thought about using his gun, but because Braeburn was running so fast, he would be at risk of falling off. So, Capper decided to think really hard about what to do. Then, Capper saw that up ahead there was a metal trash can with the lid still on it, this gave Capper an idea.

“Cowboy! Lean to the left!” Capper yelled, pointing to his lift side.

“We're not gonna lose her like that!” Braeburn cried.

“I'm not trying to, head to the left, hurry!” Capper yelled as Braeburn did as he was told.

As Braeburn ran more towards the left side of the long road of town, Capper saw that Lightning Dust was getting closer and closer. Capper turned back around fast and saw the trash can just in their sights. Capper held on as tight as he could and reached out his left arm. As he did this, Braeburn looked back and had an idea of what Capper had planned, so he went to the left a bit more. With sweat dripping down the back of his neck, Capper yelled in determination and managed to successfully grab the trash can lid. Braeburn looked back and watched eagerly to see what Capper was going to do. With the lid now in his right hand, Capper took aim at Lightning Dust and after another yell of determination, flung the trash can lid, sending it flying like a boomerang and hitting Lightning Dust right in the face, causing her to fall and crash onto the ground.

“HA! HA! Now that there is what I call taking out the trash!” Braeburn cheered as he gained more speed

“Heh, you know it Cowboy, come on! We're out of here!” Capper said as they finally made it out of the town borders and headed for the station.

Meanwhile, as Discorded Whooves was climbing the big clock tower, Dusty looked out and smiled as he saw his two friends successfully get out of town.

“So long, partners...” Dusty said as he tipped his hat to his friends, knowing full well that they would bring help and that Equestria would be saved once again.

As soon as Discorded Whooves made it to the top of the tower he chuckled as he looked over to Dusty.

“(Chuckle) Take a good look at Appleloosa, not so much to see now is there?” Discorded Whooves asked, showing off the destruction.

“Y'all might have won today, but help will be here, and they'll stop you and the rest of your friends.” Dusty said, just glad that Trouble Shoes had gotten the remaining survivors out of town and to the bunker.

“(Chuckle) I highly doubt that. Your friends aren't going to get out of here alive, I assure you. Now I do apologize for what I am about to do, it's nothing personal, really. Just making sure my home will be saved.” Discorded Whooves said, earning a scoff from Dusty.

“So, I reckon all this killing and rude behavior is necessary for your home?” Dusty asked.

“No, but at least I can have fun and let out all of my rage and frustrations. Well, your appointment is over.” Discorded Whooves said as he brought Dusty close to his face and grinned. “Long live Sombra, King Sombra!”

With that, Discorded Whooves leaped off of the tall clocktower and landed on the ground hard. As he landed, he used the arm that was holding Dusty to smash him against the ground. As soon as Dusty's body hit the ground, there was a loud cracking and crushing sound coming from his body. Dusty had been crushed to death, but just before the life left him, he looked towards the sun and smiled.

“(Pant, pant) (Chuckle) No one will ever humiliate me like how you did again! RAH!” Discorded Whooves yelled as he chucked Dusty's body away, before he heard the Flim Flam Brothers call out to him.

“HEY! Doc! Over here!” Flim yelled from a short distance away.

“Come quick! Muscle boy is down!” Flam added as Discorded Whooves sighed and made his way over to the brothers, seeing Iron Will's unconscious body.

“Hmph, what happened here?” Discorded Whooves asked as one of the arms snaked over and grabbed Iron Will by the top of his head, lifting him up off the ground so Discorded Whooves could inspect the damage.

“Don't know, we just found him like this.” Flam said as both brothers back up a bit.

“Somepony really went to town on him, especially on his hands. Yeesh, those are some nasty looking wounds.” Flim said, as looked away in disgust at the sight of the knife holes in Iron Will's palms.

“I'm sure Sombra can do something about it.” Discorded Whooves said nonchalantly as he looked at the surrounding town, or what was left of it. “It would appear that our work is done here. Come on, let's get Lightning Dust and head back to base.” Discorded Whooves said as he began to walk in the direction Lightning Dust flew.

“Uh, aren't you forgetting something, Doc?” Flim asked, Discorded Whooves turning around to face him.

“What? Do the both of you want to be carried by my arms or something?” Discorded Whooves asked with an annoyed look on his face.

“What? No, that's not it. Don't you remember what King Sombra told us?” Flim asked.

“You know, not to come back until the moon was up in the sky?” Flam explained as he rubbed the back of his head. “Not sure if disobeying that pony's orders is a good idea.”

“Look around you, do you see anything else for us to do here?” Discorded Whooves asked, using his arms to gesture to the town.

“Uh... no?” Flam replied, not seeing much else to do aside from bringing down a few more buildings.

“Exactly, now let's go. Ah, Lightning Dust, good to see you back, albeit rather messed up in the face.” Discorded Whooves said, seeing how bloodied Lightning Dust's face, particularly her nose was due to being hit by a trash can lid.

“Shut up.” Lightning Dust replied as she wiped some of the blood off of her face.

“No matter, the two runaways have been dealt with, correct?” Discorded Whooves asked.

“(Spit) Idiots got away, I got hit in the face and crashed.” Lightning Dust replied, causing Discorded Whooves to snap.

“You let them get away!?” Discorded Whooves yelled as he dropped Iron Will on the floor and grabbed Lightning Dust with both of the top two arms.

“Ow! Let me go, you crazy lunatic!” Lightning Dust yelled as she tried to kick and fight her way out.

“I ought to break you in half. Do you have any idea what you've just done!? You had one damn job!! ONE!! You listen here, you reckless bitch! If Sombra doesn't kill you for this, I will!” Discorded Whooves said as he threw Lightning Dust to the floor. “That's the problem with you females, you just can never listen!!” Discorded Whooves yelled as he picked up Iron Will's body.

“Shut up already! We all screwed up here! Not just me!” Lightning Dust yelled as she recovered from being thrown.

“Should we try and chase after them?” Flim asked.

“It's too late now, let them go. We'll let Sombra decide what should be done.” Discorded Whooves said as he used the spell book in his saddle bag to teleport them all back to Sombra's castle.

Meanwhile...

Sombra was keeping a close eye on his new recruits when he saw them leave Appleloosa. As this happened, Sombra just chuckled and unsummoned the large crystal ball, waiting for his new members to return. Seconds later, Sombra heard the sound of dark magic and he turned to see his members. Each of them were a bit worried as when Sombra started walking towards them, he was grinning, appearing to be rather pleased. Before Sombra could say anything however, Discorded Whooves lowered himself back to all four hooves and stepped forward.

“I know we have returned a bit ahead of schedule, but I assure you, there was nothing else for us to do at Appleloosa, master.” Discorded Whooves said, hoping Sombra would understand.

“I can see that, yes. However, I gave all of you an order. My orders are to be followed, always.” Sombra said, narrowing his eyes to the Doctor. “But I can agree that there wasn't much else for you to do at that little town. More importantly, explain to me how all of you were injured by a small town of country ponies. That I would really like to hear.”

“They got lucky.” Discorded Whooves replied as he set Iron Will's body gently on the floor.

“Lucky? Yes, those ponies got so lucky in fact that they were able to take down a FULLY GROWN MINOTAUR!! But do you know what makes it worse? It was a CAT that took down a MINOTAUR!!” Sombra yelled, slamming his hoof down on the ground so hard, cracks appeared under his hoof. “At least you didn't let anypony escape.” Sombra said as he turned around to relax a little bit.

“That's not true, master. Lightning Dust allowed two individuals to escape. They are no doubt on their way to escape to Ponyville.” Discorded Whooves said, the room going dead silent.

For the next few moments, there was just complete silence. No one said a word or uttered a single sound. The only sound that could be heard was the sound of Sombra's heavy breathing, which expressed emotions of pure anger. Sombra's eyes then glowed their bright green color as he inflicted his wrath upon these failures. From below all five of the members, a large green void appeared and surrounded them. From the green void, many long and purple glowing vine-like things came out and wrapped themselves tightly around the throats of Discorded Whooves, Lightning Dust, Flim, and Flam. A few of the vines even grabbed ahold of the mechanical arms, making sure they wouldn't cause any trouble. The vines then lifted all four of the members off of the ground as Sombra turned to face them.

“All I have to do is tighten my grip just a bit more and all of your throats will be crushed. But what I do next depends on your answers to my question. Do the two rats that got away know about my return?” Sombra asked as he prepared his magic to kill all of his victims.

“No! (Cough) I didn't tell anyone about your return! (Cough) Well, I did mention you to one pony, but I killed him right after!” Discorded Whooves said, struggling to breathe.

“Good, you better have! What about the rest of you!?” Sombra yelled, turning his attention to Lightning Dust and the Flim Flam Brothers.

“We didn't say anything either! And neither did muscle boy!” Flim and Flam yelled out desperately.

“(Cough) I didn't tell anypony about you, I swear!” Lightning Dust yelled.

“Hmph.... congratulations, you all just avoided death.... barely.” Sombra said as he released them and ended his spell. “But do not celebrate, I am very disappointed in all of you. To make such a horrible mistake on your first mission while trying to give me a reason to believe that you belong here.” Sombra said as he then saw Iron Will was waking up.

“(Groan) What happened? Where am I?” Iron Will asked as he sat up.

“Rise and shine, Iron Will.” Sombra said as he used his magic to seal up Iron Will's wounds before Iron Will could have a freak out. “Took quite a beating, didn't you?”

“(Groan) CAT! Where is talking cat!?” Iron Will yelled before pain finally shot through him from his hands. “GAH! My hands!!”

“I will deal with that later, for now listen up all of you!” Sombra ordered as they all stood at attention. “Iron Will, that fact that you seemed so strong and durable when I first met you. Such a pathetic display you put on for me today. And to be defeated by a talking cat!? You have really disappointed me. I am only sparing you because I am sure you can put your rage to good use still.”

“(Sigh) Yes, King, sorry King.” Iron Will said, bowing his head as he tried to endure the pain.

“You better be. Now, Flim and Flam.” Sombra said as the two brothers perked up. “You started off very weak and laughably terrible, I never had much faith in either of you. However, you slightly improved yourselves during the attack on Appleloosa. I better see more improvements in the future, got it?”

“Yes, King Sombra! We will!” Flim and Flam yelled, bowing their heads in sync.

“Hmph, I'm sure that will happen. Lightning Dust!” Sombra yelled as Lightning Dust took a deep breath. “You act tough, you look tough, you say you're tough, but are you really? ARE YOU!?” Sombra yelled, causing the Pegasus to jolt in surprise, before regaining her composure and confidence.

“I am!” Lightning Dust said with confidence and a bit of fear.

“REALLY!? Because from what I saw, you failed to prevent two individuals from escaping! And why did you fail to catch them? Don't answer me, I'll answer for you. You were hit by a TRASH CAN LID! And what did you do afterwards!? You just laid there on the floor, holding your face in pain and when you finally got up, what did you do!? You didn't even try to chase the runaways! Where is the toughness in that!? TELL ME!” Sombra yelled, stomping both his front hooves on the ground.

“Yeah, I know I screwed up! I get it! And for the record, I am tough! Heck, I bet I'm tougher than all of these idiots combined!” Lightning Dust yelled, starting to get frustrated that she was the only one being yelled at like this.

“Oh, really!?” Sombra challenged, amused, and interested to see how much fight this Pegasus had in her.

“Yeah, really! If you think this is what's gonna break me down, well you're wrong! You hear me!? WRONG! So, stop chewing me out when everypony else here also makes mistakes! We all failed! Not just me! So, shut your mouth, you thousand-year-old donkey!” Lightning Dust yelled.

Everyone in the room, except for Sombra, gasped at how Lightning Dust had just spoken to him. How could she say something like that to somepony who literally only minutes ago, had all of them at his mercy. Suddenly realizing her fatal mistake, Lightning Dust's eyes widened with horror as she went from looking like a tough unbreakable mare, to a small and terrified filly. Lightning Dust disregarded all dignity as she fell forward and bowed furiously to Sombra, hopelessly begging for mercy that she probably wouldn't receive.

“I-I, I'm sorry, King Sombra! That was really stupid of me! Please, I beg for your mercy!” Lightning Dust pleaded, almost to the point of shedding tears, not caring what the others thought of her at this moment.

For a few moments the room was silent, aside from the muttering going on behind Lightning Dust. After a few more seconds of silence, Lightning Dust just accepted that she was done for and waited for death to take her. But death didn't come, what did come however was the sound of chuckling. Lightning Dust looked up and watched as Sombra went from chuckling to full on laughing his evil laugh.

“Mwahahahahaha!! Ah! Hahahaha!!” Sombra laughed before he suddenly went back to being serious. “You're very brave to say such words to me, Lightning Dust. I am very disappointed...”

“Yes, I know, King Sombra.” Lightning Dust said, putting her head back down.

“Disappointed that all your toughness and bravery just left you so quickly.” Sombra finished, causing Lightning Dust to look back up at him.

“Wh-What?” Lightning Dust asked.

“Get up, you've done enough bowing.” Sombra ordered as Lightning Dust obeyed. “I am aware that you're not the only one here who failed. Because you're right, all of you failed. All of you did make mistakes. However, the mistake you made was the most severe and dangerous. That was why I was the hardest on you. I never said you were the only one who failed me, did I?”

“No, King Sombra.” Lightning Dust replied, still trying to keep her composure.

“I respect your bravery. You've clearly shown me that you do belong here. You have the energy and the fight in you. However, I do hope you don't break that easily all the time, do you?” Sombra asked.

“No, not ever!” Lightning Dust replied.

“Good, keep that up and you might one day get to take out your anger and frustrations onto Rainbow Dash. Get back with the others.” Sombra ordered as Lightning Dust did as she was told. “Discorded Whooves, don't think you're safe for a second.”

“Of course not, master.” Discorded Whooves replied.

“Let's get the big one out of the way, I did not EVER say that YOU were in charge of ANY of them! Do you hear me!?” Sombra yelled.

“Yes, master.” Discorded Whooves said, not afraid one bit.

“You want to be a leader!? Fine, I will give you leadership over them, but that means you will be responsible for their failures in the future! You better be prepared for that.” Sombra said.

“Oh, I will.” Discorded Whooves replied.

“Hmph, we shall see about that. Also, you're not killing Lightning Dust. None of you are killing each other. Only I am allowed to take any of your lives unless I say otherwise.” Sombra said, making sure they all got the message. “It seems that all of you have impressed me enough to convince me that you should all be here. However, do not celebrate, I am still very disappointed in all of you. It's been quite the afternoon for you all, so do me a favor, get out of my sight! Go to your rooms and think about your failures!” Sombra yelled as they all bowed and started to leave, with Sombra heading to the entrance of his castle to get some fresh air and cool down a bit.

While Sombra was cooling down, Discorded Whooves had just arrived at his room and used one of his arms to close the door behind him, slamming it very hard so that it echoed. While during Sombra's yelling Discorded Whooves appeared to be calm and unafraid, he was actually very upset and furious for getting chewed out by Sombra. Discorded Whooves hated failing at anything and he was starting to get very stressed. After the arms gently lowered him back on his four legs, Discorded Whooves walked over to his bed and decided it was time for some de-stressing treatment. He used one of the bottom arms to remove the saddle bag off of him and tossed it across the room, the spell book falling out of the pouch. Discorded Whooves then climbed up onto his bed and laid down on his stomach before he muttered to the arms.

“Get me one of bottles, in the bag.” Discorded Whooves muttered as he pointed over to the saddlebag he had thrown.

In response, one of the top arms reached over to the bag and brought it back over to Discorded Whooves. The first arm held the bag up, the second top arm reached into the bag and pulled out one of the three bottles of liquor and wine Discorded Whooves had managed to steal from one of the bars at Appleloosa. The arm then held up the bottle as one of the bottom arms reached over and carefully pulled the cork out, the arm holding the bottle then bringing it close to Discorded Whooves's face. Discorded Whooves then started to chug the bottle as the arm the bottle for him. Once the entire bottle was finished, Discorded Whooves had the arms reach for the second bottle, then when that was finished, the third bottle. With all the wine and liquor drunk, Discorded Whooves pounded his face onto his pillow before the arms started to ask him questions.

“Huh? What do you mean did we do the right thing today? Of course, we did the right thing today. What's wrong? Something bugging you?” Discorded Whooves asked the arms as they replied to his question. “Look, ponies die all the time, that's nothing new.... I know we had to kill a few ponies here and there, but it's necessary.... Because if we don't, this world will crumble and mine will too!” Discorded Whooves yelled as the arms asked him more and more questions. “Cruel? I'll tell you what's cruel, spending a lifetime watching everyone you ever loved or cared about die off or see them succumb to the madness of a breaking reality... Of course, that's happened to me! Why do you think I even mentioned that!?” Discorded Whooves yelled. “Listen to me, I know we have to do some bad things here and there, but we are the good guys here! Don't you see, we're doing this to save the lives of future generations to come. That is why we are doing this. I care for the lives of these ponies. I may not show it in the best way, but I assure you I care....” Discorded Whooves said as he got off the bed.

Once Discorded Whooves was back on his feet, he reached around and pressed the button on his harness. This caused the harness to open up and the needles to come out of Discorded Whooves's back, causing him to wince a bit. Once he was free of the harness, Discorded Whooves walked to the door and looked back at the arms.

“You all stay here; I will be back later. I'm going to stretch my wings a bit.” Discorded Whooves said as the arms nodded and walked over to the bed.

Discorded Whooves left his room and headed for the entrance. However, Sombra was also coming back inside the castle at this very moment. When Sombra saw the Pegasus without the mechanical arms, he was confused.

“Hmm, those arms causing you too much back pain, Doctor?” Sombra asked.

“No, just want to be alone right now.” Discorded Whooves replied as he just walked right past him.

“Very well, don't get yourself killed.” Sombra replied as they went their separate ways.

Discorded Whooves didn't reply as he just kept on walking. He didn't walk for very long until he found a comfortable looking spot right in front of a small pond. Discorded Whooves walked over to the pond and sat down in front of it, trying to enjoy himself. For a few moments, Discorded Whooves took in the peace, but it didn't last long as he just shook his head out of frustration. Discorded Whooves then looked up and saw a bird flying above him. The bird seemed to be a bit of a clumsy flyer as it bumped into the same tree twice before flying away. Seeing how pathetic and clumsy this bird was, made Discorded Whooves think of a certain mare.

“That bird, so clumsy and idiotic, just like Derpy... GRRR!! RAH!” Discorded Whooves yelled as he smacked his hoof into the water, before standing up to glare at his surroundings. “If you hadn't been so stupid and just listened to what I said, I wouldn't be in this situation right now! You'd probably still be alive! Our daughters wouldn't have shut themselves away from the world! But no, you had to ruin everything! (Sigh) Just as stupid as whatever intelligence is in those arms. But why do the arms even care for the lives of ponies in the first place? Ha! As if I care for the lives of these animals. Please, they're just animals!” Discorded Whooves said before he heard a voice.

“Is that really what you think?” said a voice from seemingly nowhere.

“Huh? Who goes there!? Show yourself, I say! Show yourself now!” Discorded Whooves yelled as he looked around for the source of the voice.

“If that's how you feel, then why? Why do you bring harm to the ponies here?” the voice asked.

As Discorded Whooves looked angrily around for whoever was talking, he happened to look down at the pond in front of him when he saw something. It was his own reflection, or rather a reflection of his other self. Discorded Whooves was shocked to see that in the reflection on the pond's surface, he did not look like how he did now, instead the pond showed him looking like the normal Doctor Whooves.

“What!? You!? It can't be! I fought you off! Got rid of you! You should no longer exist!” Discorded Whooves yelled at the reflection of Doctor Whooves.

“You got rid of me only for that moment. Not all of your blood made it into my bloodstream. About three fourths of it did. That is why I am still here. It's why I will keep trying to stop you from hurting anypony else.” Doctor Whooves said.

“Shut up! I don't need you in my head anymore! Don't you dare think of slowing me down!” Discorded Whooves yelled.

“If you don't care for the lives of the ponies in this world, why even bother to try and save this world?” Doctor Whooves asked, ignoring Discorded Whooves's comment.

“Heh, you're smart, Doctor, you should know! You're right, I don't care for the ponies here, I don't even care for this world! What I do care about is my daughters! Amethyst Star and Dinky! They're all I've got left!” Discorded Whooves yelled.

“That does not excuse your actions of violence and disgusting behavior to the mares. How will those things help your daughters?” Doctor Whooves asked.

“I can do whatever I want! You've no right to judge me!” Discorded Whooves yelled.

“What of Derpy? Why do you not care for her as you do for your daughters?” Doctor Whooves asked.

“Because Derpy is a stupid klutz! She ruined everything! She doomed my world!” Discorded Whooves yelled.

“No, she didn't, you did! You doomed your world when you started to obsess and become paranoid! Your world's Discord may have affected your mind, but you still could control yourself! And how could you think these things about Derpy!? She's our most faithful companion! She means so much to us! We loved her!” Doctor Whooves yelled.

“That's right! I did love her! That is until I realized how stupid she was! She can't even listen to a single order! I told her to stay away, and she didn't! She just kept coming back!” Discorded Whooves yelled.

“Because she loved you and was scared for you! She only wanted to be there for you! She loved you so much! I've seen just how much your Derpy loved you! She was willing to take every beating you ever gave her! When she speculated that you were sleeping with other mares, she didn't let that stop her from loving you! She was willing to take anything and everything you threw at her because she loved you!” Doctor Whooves yelled.

“AND I DON'T CARE! SHE RUINED EVERYTHING! THAT'S WHY SHE'S DEAD!” Discorded Whooves yelled.

“WHY WOULD YOU LET HER DIE!?” Doctor Whooves yelled.

“USE YOUR BRAIN, DOCTOR! SEARCH MY MEMORIES! SEE HOW SHE DIED! THEN TRY TO TELL ME SHE ISN'T STUPID!” Discorded Whooves yelled.

“I DON'T WANT TO SEE IT! BUT I WILL IF I MUST!” Doctor Whooves yelled.

“Oh, I'm sure you'll enjoy seeing her stupidity!” Discorded Whooves yelled.

“I just can't believe you! You were such a brilliant creature with such amazing intelligence! Now look at you! You drink your sorrows away, only to dig your own grave of shame and failure! You treat mares as if they were just things for your own filthy pleasures and desires! You snap at everypony who tries to help you! You manipulate those who have problems for your own benefit! You lie to others just to get what you want! You kill ponies for the sake of satisfying your rage! And you abused the mare who had nothing but love for you! You're not saving your world! You're only saving yourself! It's a shame your daughters aren't here to see what you really are! You're a monster, Discorded Whooves! You're a failure and you always will be!” Doctor Whooves yelled.

“NO!!!!!!!!!!” Discorded Whooves yelled as he raised his hooves in the air and slammed down into the water, as if to crush the Doctor.

After Discorded Whooves bashed at the water for a good ten minutes, he finally stopped and looked at his reflection. He was relieved to see his reflection as his current self and not that weak Doctor. Seeing how Doctor Whooves was gone and there were no more voices, he chuckled.

“(Chuckle) Failure!? Ha! Just wait, Doctor! I'll find a way for us to become separate individuals and then I will kill you! This world and mine will have a hero! ME!!! I WON'T LET ANYONE STOP ME!!” Discorded Whooves yelled as he fell on his back and laughed his mad laugh as the sun continued to stay high in the sky above Equestria.

Author's Note:

Hope you all enjoyed this chapter! This chapter did go through a bit of changes before I finalized it. Initially, Braeburn, Sheriff Silverstar, and Trouble Shoes weren't going to be in this chapter. I decided to add them in because I figured that it would be nice to give those side characters a chance to shine, even if it didn't go too well for a few of them.

Next chapter will get back to Twilight's side and she and the rest of her friends will discover some of the horrible things Sombra has done. Thanks for the support!