Somehow, merely skimming through this made me feel more uncomfortable than what I've read of Doppelganger.

I don't know what i was expecting when i clicked on this, but it's certainly not what it was

So we have an alternative bad ending to this fic, huh? Well, I would think somepony would eventually come looking for the mane six. At the least Spike might grow concerned and send a letter, not that Celestia or Luna would necessarily be able to undo whatever Buttercup and Ironhoof have done.

Interesting alternate ending hope to see more of this again

Most definitely a foreseeable alternate ending. It's amazing how one change in events, one variant in an outcome, etc. can mean the difference between victory and failure.

This alternate goes well, too, as it shows how Buttercup and Iron Hoof would be happy together if the situation favored them. The 'happiest' ending for our duo of villians would be the one where they took Scoots and made her their own. Iron Hoof finally got to just love his mistress and she loved him in return instead of having him serve her and her needs.

Buttercup's story always makes me think of just how a traumatic event in one's life can swing someone to such extremes. What she does is not far off from someone who had a RL trauma that brings them to do actions we view as horrible, to say the least. However the question is always to be asked if the terrible things done would happen if proper psychological treatment were to have been received? If the right amount of support was provided?

Could Buttercup have had another avenue to mourn and cope with the loss of her rainbow-maned foal? Was she more sad for feeling she had failed as a mom? Or perhaps she felt the world was unfair to where she needed to get even for what it had taken from her?

Just some things I think of based on what I've learned of Buttercup and Iron Hoof. Two characters that could have had totally different outcomes if, like this alternative ending, only one, or two, things had been different. It's fun to think on.

Very dark and nice! Lovely as always!

It's great to see more of this story. I find this sort of thing is always the most interesting to me, the loss of ones own mental capabilities always seems like the worst thing to have to endure. Likely because my own mind is very much the one thing I care about losing, everything else you could take and sure I'd be upset, but when you can force me to lose thought, then I think I'd truly know fear.

I don't know why, but I love this. The main story, while not perfect, held my attention longer than many better fics, and this alternate ending, I don't know, maybe it's my dark and twisted psyche, but I kinda like seeing the bad guys win every once in a while. Nice work on this extra chapter. I really enjoyed it.