Fighting to the brinks of madness, Twilight must endure the hardships of those around her. Sacrificing all moral and sanity to survive within this land of corruption, she must find Discord and end his reign of madness.
A royal throne fit for a king. He sits down in his self-righteousness, enjoying a cup of slightly chilled chocolate milk. “Chaos is a wonderful, WONDERFUL thing” he quotes as he began to sip his favorite cloud-based beverage. Something didn’t seem right though, he conquered all of equestria and caused disharmony amongst the very same people who give him power. An eerie feeling arose, something wasn’t finished. His mind drifted into thought, that’s when his sooner or later pesky ponies arrived, just on time.
“Not as wonderful as friendship!” Twilight said breaking his peaceful disorder of silence.
“Oh, This again?” Taking a sip of his glass, tossing out the remainders of the chocolate milk. With an arrogant smirk, he raised his claw holding the elements hostage. His chores were close to done, now he had the opportunity to finish his last one: getting rid of those six pesky ponies. Oddly enough, discord had trouble grasping Twilight’s element, the element of magic. With a swift flash of her horn, she grasped her friends together, releasing his hold on the elements. The ground under their hooves reverted to a harmonious state. Discord was impressed, he had never seen a pony with such strength, but what was that element she had that he couldn’t quite grasp?
As Twilight dragged on with her speech, Discord’s mind slipped into a deep thought. His attention was too dedicated to what was stopping him from taking down these ponies. His guess was on Twilight who was mumbling on about pointless friendship propaganda. “Guh, Gag! Fine, go ahead and try to use your little elements of ‘friendship’, I’m missing some excellent chaos here!” as he sat down with a sinister grin.
“Alright girls, lets show him what friendship can do!” Twilight spoke proudly while discord cared less. His attention shifted when he saw Pinkie Pie playing in his own cloud creation. The moist chocolate drizzled down her mane with a soothing elegance Discord found amusing. What was it about that little pink pony that kept his attention?
More or less, he had to stay on subject; he was missing his chaos and wanted to get this over with. With a blinding flash, a stream of colors lashed out of the lighted circle enclosing on the ponies. His life portrayed in a blur, familiar memories he had forgotten had suddenly reappeared. He remembered Luna and Celestia joining together with the elements of harmony; it was deja vu all over again.
His reign of terror would be soon over if he did not act. With the snap of his fingers, he teleported inches away from the stream of banded colors. His heart stopped briefly at the sight of the very same power that had ended his rule only inches from his face. He watched it fall by as it transformed the land underneath it like a luminary waterfall. Fallen on his back, despair and feelings of hatred returned. His mind was a freak show of emotions watching that ruthless force of friendship stopping him, even taking his chair in the process.
He quickly regained his stature with his stubby wings balancing his slender body. It wasn’t until he noticed the band of colors ceased and the ponies had fallen from exhaustion. Discord slowly stepped onto the ground ending the slight flutter of his wings. He paced himself over the checkered land that was of his creation to the harmonized patch under the 6 ponies. The grass crunching under his feet was something unfamiliar to discord, something he hated. Staring down upon those 6 demons that tried to enclose him in immortal cement, he noticed the purple sparkle was still awake. He peeked down over by where she laid and let her eyes focus before he started to speak.
“Now that I have your attention, allow me to introduce myself as you think I am ‘Gullible’. Nononono, you’ve got it all wrong, remember that I’m Discord. I’m not predictable, I’m not stupid, and I’m definitely not gullible.” He said with a slight grudge, “Are we clear?... Crystal?” Twilight tried to respond, but was too dazed from the elemental spell. “Good, now that you’re clear with me, let me be clear with you. First of all, look what you did to my chair! I had an excellent view from there, now how can I watch my disharmony and chaos without a proper seat!”
“How… How did you avoid that?” Twilight said in a struggle to keep consciousness.
“Not very good with keeping on subject huh? Alright, I’ll play it your way. Well it was quite simple really, it was a straight beam of light that I saw coming towards me and all I had to do was move.” Discord expressed with a slight sarcastic tone “If you wanted me to become a statue again, you could have just asked.”
“But… the power of frie-“
“Let me stop you there Sparkle… how do I say this in a way that wouldn’t offend you and your unconscious friends… you’re so called ‘power of friendship’ is a mere concept of an otherwise weak fact. Your elements may put up a pretty light show, but it’s the same old hum-drum thing I’ve seen once over, one too many times. Your tactic was too predictable sparkle; I could have easily guessed where to dodge otherwise.” Said with an irritated tone.
“This… can’t be over…” Twilight said with a dazed look in her eyes.
“On the contrary my darling, it’s just begun.” Said Discord as he stared into her glossy eyes, taking her last look at him before falling unconscious.
Shrouded in a shadow of despair, twilight slowly regained her visionary state. Blurred and dazed with the feelings of sorrow. She had never felt this way before, almost like an outside entity pressing against her with an endless fury. As she slowly regained her balance, she suddenly slips down face first onto what feels like frozen chocolate milk. Snapping her tongue back into her mouth after sticking it to the frosted dairy product, she noticed something wasn’t right. A slight chill raced down from mane to tail. She looked around the dark empty room with an eerie feeling of despair. This wasn’t her normal stop, not by a long shot.
“Oww my head… hey, where am I?” She pondered with a silent tone. She took a moment to look around after refocusing her eyes. The walls were paneled with slightly bended iron plates. The floor was made of blacktop cement covered in that odd frosty layer of chocolate. There was a breeze coming from behind her, but no doors or windows to be seen covered by the hazy fog inside this room. It was about 6 feet tall and 15 feet wide from a standpoint guess.
She noticed she still had her quill and pen in her back hip pocket. She proceeded to pull it out and write some notes about what she saw in this dark room. The cringing silence distracted her from writing long detailed notes, so she took bullets instead. The sweet tones of silence broke besides her with the shriek of a female pony muffled by the iron panels.
“Hello? Who’s there?” Looking up from her notes in a panicked tone. With a loose traction under her hooves, slowly she stepped upon the frosty chilled chocolate.
“Somepony is in trouble, I can’t just leave her!” she thought to herself as she raced down across the slick ground. Using her hooves like dull skates, she slid across the frozen beverage in a frantic pace stumbling to keep herself balanced. The chilled winds blended with the thick fog kept her struggling to find her way out. She kept sliding until she hit face first into an odd looking metal door with the words “Cupcakes”. It had the same iron plated appearance as the rest of the room, but the sign gave it away.
“Cupcakes, cupcakes…. OH this must be the bakery! Oh man wont pinkie be excited to see me after all of this!” abruptly shouting without quoting anything from the discord incident. With a slight tap from her hoof, the door creaked open with an unnatural silence. Entering into the room, the iron door slammed behind her, but this was not by the wind.
“AGH! *Pant* what… what was that?!” Catching her breath through each word spoken. She looked behind her to notice the breeze was suddenly gone, the door was sealed shut.
“This isn’t right…. Who would need a sealed door?” She questioned herself. Twilight became lost from the pitch black room noticing the floor was no longer frozen. The sound of mechanical objects and slight giggles off sprung from the echo of the hallways. The floor was spot cleaned to the point of perfection, not even Twilight cleaned this good. The giggles grew louder with each hoof drawn in closer to the slightly lighted shadow emanating from the end of the hall. Closer and closer, her spine started to shiver, her hooves began to quiver, her pupils dilated from the shear fear. She could feel Goosebumps all over her fur coat building from the chilled breeze coming from the unlighted room.
She approached the door with a slight grudge against the idea. “Pinkie pie would have no reason to be in here… would she?” she thought to herself. This time was different; this room was even darker than the last one. She moved the door ever so slightly, her heart racing to the beat of a race car piston. Without a thought in her mind and a word in her mouth, she opened the door completely and found pinkie pie sitting reverse wise from the door twilight was standing from.
“Oh thank goodness” she mumbled to herself “PINKIE PIE!” Screamed with the happiest of tones. Pinkie appeared not to notice, she tried again.
“PINKIE!” this time with a more persistent tone. Noticing this burst of loud sound, pinkie slowly raised her head while turning her body towards twilight with a creepy vibe. Pinkie’s mane was still poufy, but a bit discolored with streaks of blue and red unevenly leveled across.
“Hey Twilight! So GOOD to see you! How are you?” Pinkie said with a slight sarcastic vibe.
“Pinkie Pie! Oh thank Celestia you’re alright, I was so worried!”
“Don’t worry twilight, I’m fine… always have been” She said with a sinister tone.
“Pinkie… are you… ok?” Twilight said while slowly turning her head 45 degrees.
“I’m more than ok…” Pinkie said occurring at the same moment her mane started to deflate. “So tell me Twilight, are you?”
“What do you mean by tha -“at that very moment pinkie whip lashes around and throws a sharp exacto blade right at twilight’s head. Twilight panics and throws herself down, missing the blade by quarters of an inch taking strands off her mane.
“EEK!” Is all twilight could say before pinkie was inches away from her face.
“You don’t know what it’s like being the last one at the party do you twilight?” pinkie said with a hurtful tone pulling the imbedded knife out of the wall and in front of twilight “Well… DO YOU?”
“Pinkie this has gone far enough! Enough with this prank of yours!” Twilight stampeded with a slam of her back hoof.
“It would have been a prank Twilight, but Dashie simply couldn’t make an appearance. I tried pranking without her, I really did, but it’s just not the same. It’s never fun to have a party without your friends.” Twilight gazed shockingly into this lunatic pony’s eyes, she knew she wasn’t kidding. Normally pinkie had a pleasant, lighter hearted look to her, Instead pinkie’s eyes dilated rapidly. This wasn’t pinkie, this couldn’t possibly be Pinkie.
“Who are you and what have you done with my friend you crazed maniac!” Twilight screamed at the top of her lungs!
“You might find out after we have our little chat, same one I had with the rest of my victims.”
“The.. The res-“she was then cut off by a bright flash of light revealing a sight for sore and decapitated eyes. Blood drizzled everywhere with banners of red swiping the floor near what looked to be a dentist chair smeared red with blood. Next to it was a procedure table lying close to the chair where pinkie was sitting, twilight never noticed it before from the shear darkness.
“Fluttershy isn’t the only doctor I know,” Pinkie said as she giggled dramatically “I knew you would love it, I can just tell by that charisma in you.”
“NO… NO this… this can’t possibly be you… this can’t be!” Said in a stuttering vocal pitch. Pinkie then proceeds to pull out a needle from her stainless steel medicine cabinet sitting close to the decapitated heads of her victims. She flicked the needle until the air bubbles were gone.
“Oh it’s more of me than you will ever know Twilight… and the last of me you will ever see again”
“What’s the matter Sparkle, afraid of needles” Pinkie said in a dark and dreaded tone. Twilight knew where she heard Sparkle before, but couldn’t quite remember. It seemed familiar somehow, but no pony ever called her that. She slowly backed up step by agonizing step till she ran into the back wall. Behind her was a decapitated head of scootaloo, still fresh with bits of meat left rotting on the bone.
“AAAAA!” Twilight screamed at the top of her lungs breaking the frightening silence. She backed up frantically from the skull only to find pinkie staring up at her with a deranged smile.
“That’s all folks!” Pinkie said with a menacing yet innocent laugh. She swung the needle, but twilight held it up with her magic.
“RRR… I knew I should have removed that damn thing from your head!!!” Pinkie said with a furious anger. She struggled to get the needle into twilight’s shoulder, but didn’t have the strength to fight twilight’s magic. Pinkie was pushed away from twilight with a bubble, the same one used to protect her ironically.
“Pinkie I need answers! Where am I, what is going on, what have you done to my friends?!”
“Oh silly, haven’t you learned? Sometimes the best things in life are the things you don’t know”
“ANSWERS PINKIE, I NEED ANSWERS!!”
“Tsk… Tsk… Tsk… you should already know that yourself twilight, after all I did leave your quill and note paper by your side. You’re not the only one taking notes Sparkle” she said with a devilish tone represented by that evil smirk of hers.
“But… how… I…”
“I noticed you were still unconscious, so I thought you could use some time to chill, too bad that infuriating door never works.”
“What about the chocolate milk?!” Twilight said in a rampaging tone.
“It was a gift, from a friend” Pinkie said laughing hysterically yet maniacally. “If you want all the answers Twilight, you’ll have to pull them from my lifeless carcass!” Pinkie said fiercely. This time she wasn’t playing any mind games, she knew what she was doing. Using her more than famous speed, she caught up to twilight in the blink of an eye and smacked her upside the head. Twilight fell to the floor with the force of a buck from applejack. She was dazed and confused with little to rely on other than her own self morals. She shook her head and toughened her stance ready to charge.
“Alright Pinkie, if that’s how you like to party, then lets party” Twilight said with an evil grudge. Normally she would have backed out to preserve her friend’s life, but her only way to the truth stood between her and Pinkie. The chaotic silence returned with only the sounds of the ponies breathing. Their stare was menacing towards each other with a burning fury curable to death. Twilight made the 1st move after breaking the stare between them. Her horn shined dark purple and picked up the cart full of tools and tossed it besides Pinkie. Pinkie acted swiftly with only a slight cut on her left back hoof. She became furious and charged at Twilight with the needle in her hoof stampeding with feet of fury. Pinkie was swinging and throwing around the needle furiously like a machete rather than a medical procedure. The contents spilled everywhere leaving acidic imprints on the blood stained floors. Twilight had to keep backing up, but Pinkie was catching on quick.
“It will NOT end this way, DO you hear me Pinkie!” Twilight said while desperately backing her way out of the maniac’s swing distance. Pinkie appeared not to care, her blood shot eyes showed she was too set track on finishing Twilight like she should have done a long time ago.
“It’s over Sparkle, its OVER!!” Pinkie screamed when she was close enough to swing the needle. Pinkie was inches from Twilight and was about to strike, but Twilight noticed she dropped her exacto knife. She picked up the knife and threw it at the luminary tube sitting above where Pinkie stood. The bulb broke in a chemical explosion spreading around a 10 foot radius. The contents of the light tube reacted to Pinkie’s skin like hot mercury. Twilight was screaming frantically as she watched Pinkie’s skin burn slowly and painfully. The pink pony struggled to grip onto life with her last words spurting out of her blood drenched mouth.
“It’s not over Twilight… It’s… Not… Ove-“ Collapsing on the floor next to her procedure desk. The skin on her eyes burnt to a crisp, the layer of fur melted with a slowly painful hardening of the content. Whatever that tube of light was Pinkie used for her procedures, it was beyond any ponies’ knowledge. She gasped and gave silence to her fallen friend. She passed a slight look around the slaughter room and noticed an object reflecting fiercely from the burning bright content covered over Pinkie’s face.
It appeared to be a pendant of some sort with a gold plated chain and a design of a tiger’s claw. It had a pink glow to it surrounded in a blistering bright polish. She turned the pendant around to reveal some text on its back side.
“What a strange charm, why does it remind me of something…” She questioned as she stared at it more and more. She decided to read the cursive styled writing on the back of the pendant reading “Element of Manslaughter”, which only looked like gibberish to her.
“Ele… Ell… Eleman… o… Man…Mansla…Mansl” having trouble reading the fuzzy, ill proper sized text. She read word by word reading them out and taking notes on what they could possibly mean. She wrote down every word that came to her mind as fast as she could possibly write.
“Elective of Manager… no that’s not right. Elemore is Messanger… who is elemore?” curiously writing out until she figured it out.
“Elements… of… Manslaughter… but what does that mean?” Twilight pondered until she started to realize its double meaning.
“Elements of Manslaughter… Manslaughter… LAUGHTER!” she panicked in an ingenious state. She stood taller and prepped her head up in a way a governor gives speeches.
“Manslaughter is spelled with Laughter… but why Manslaughter?!” she couldn’t quite remember until it hit her! The tiger claw’s relations, the familiarities with the elements, she remembered everything!
“DISCORD! He must be up to this, it only makes sense.” She said in a flash of confidence. She finally made sense of everything now, the chocolate milk floors, the ponies calling her Sparkle, and the messed up characteristics.
“If this is supposed to represent the element of laughter… then rainbow dash’s element must be in here as well.” She checked through every drawer, searched all the cabinets until she looked upon the ceiling noticing rainbow dash’s severed head laying front heavy on a pike still dripping the remainders of blood.
“Sigh… well here goes nothing…” Twilight said with a less than egger tone. She tried to grab the element with her horn, but her magic seemed ineffective, she would have to grab it manually. She grabbed the closest tool cart she could find and used it as a kick stand. Unbalanced and wobbly, she fell face first into the side of the pike and knocked rainbow dash’s head off which landed right on her chest.
“AGH! GET IT OFF GET IT OFF GET IT OFF”. She tossed rainbow dash’s head across the room in panic only to notice the element fell off her neck half way across the room onto the floor sitting close by twilight. She presumed to pick it up and noticed it was discord’s body on this pendant with a blue glow. She turned it around and it read the words “Element of Misfortune”, this time more legible than pinkies.
“The element of misfortune… yeah no kidding, poor rainbow.” She said with a depressed mood swing knowing not only 1, but 2 of her friends died. When she took both the elements, they snapped in place together like earthly strong magnets.
“The elements connect, this has to mean something!” In desperation, she thought of what pinkie said when she was about to fight her.
“You’re not the only one taking notes sparkle”. Twilight thought of pinkie’s quote and broke it down mentally.
“If I’m not the only one taking notes… then who is?!” she quickly pulled out her note page to notice it became blank.
“But how… I… how? I had all my notes in here top to bottom, where did they go?!” She checked both sides to notice on the back side was a picture of discord uncolored and unprofessionally sketched. Whoever made this picture made it in a hurry; the poorly erased lines prove it.
“Whatever this photo means, I can’t simply let go of it. I’ll take pinkie’s word.” She then presumed to slip her quill and note paper back into her back pocket and walk towards the final iron door shining an aura of golden sunlight. “It’s only begun…” Twilight said as she pressed forward through the iron plated door into the wakes of light.
A burst of light broke through the cracks of the iron plated door as Twilight stepped through less than eager to see what has changed. The light through the door was very bright, but oddly enough the sky was pitch black with a lingering Smokey texture similar to that of the dragon’s fumes from episode 7. The skies were dark and putrid of lingering smoke, but that wasn’t the only thing that appeared to have changed. Every little thing imaginable discord has changed. This disorder not only seemed chaotic, but corrupted and sinister like the means of no other villain ever seen in the history of equestria!
“Dear Celestia what happened to Ponyville?!” She asked in a shocked but unsurprised matter. She could see Big Mac and applejack arguing over which pears to sell on the right side and Derpy Hooves delivering mail perfectly without any issues flying or with vision on the left. Her eyes appeared to be centered completely with her pelt showing a brighter gray tone unusual to her normal behavior. She presumed to look around more taking in mental notes about the once luscious environment she lived in to what it has become. The once purple checkered ground is now a striped assortment of dark and depressing colors ranging from putrid brown to dark orange. Each of the buildings became built off of aluminum and poorly crafted steel like an industrial revolution only without the polish. All of the ponies were fighting each other and it almost seemed like they were ok with it. Twilight had never seen this before, there was no revolt against the idea, and all the ponies seemed pleasant arguing with each other and leaving friendship behind.
“How long have I been out?” Twilight continued to walk down the once vibrant path of PonyVille to notice the mayor and granny smith were arguing over a pocket watch once owned by the rightful FancyPants. Each of them were discolored not just gray, but close to pitch black with streaks of dark grey across their whole bodies only referencing their original colors slightly. Their eyes shifted in hue to a dark red and black, which happened to be the exact same colors she saw in pinkie’s eyes before she fell dead. Without another thought in her mind, she rushed over to the 2 mares in an attempt to break up their argument like her instincts normally would.
“Enough you two, this has gone far enough” Twilight said with a light hearted innuendo.
“Who are you?” they both asked in an irritated manner.
“I’m Twilight spar-“
“Well whoever she is she’s in the way of MY watch” said granny smith
“Your watch? I saw it first you back stabbing deriving old hag!” Said the mayor snorting what appeared to be cartoonish looking gray smoke.
“Who you calling an old hag you self-centered ludicrous excuse for a leader!” Before twilight could make a comment, the 2 went at it like primitive beasts fighting for food scarcity. Twilight was both shocked and confused by this display of horrifying disruption of harmony, discord went all at it this time.
“Both of you cut it out, act like adults!”
“Quit your yacking you whimper snapper or I’ll smack you upside the head so hard you children will feel it!” Said granny smith with a furious anger.
“If you want this watch, you’ll have to pull it straight from my dead body you sack of rotten apples!” Said the mayor pouncing at granny before she could completely get up from them tussling, which caused them to start brawling again. Twilight still couldn’t get over the shock of watching her fellow ponies fueled with such anger and hatred. She proceeded to pull out her quill and note paper to take some notes only to remember that it became blank and she didn’t want it to mysteriously disappear again. She took the paper and looked at the drawing of discord again, but something was different.
“Hey… this doesn’t seem right, the image is colored!” Twilight said in a shocked expression. The picture was colored on the 2 limbs twilight currently had on her, the tiger claw and snake body. Each limb was separated by poorly drawn sketches, but they were not there the first time around. She now understood what the picture meant; it was a diagram showing her current process for the elements.
“It appears to have 6 pieces, I already have 2, that leaves 4 to be found… but where do I start?” She asked in her own mumbling tone.
“Eureka! The library, it ought to have some information on this situation.” Twilight immediately rushed as fast as she could to the library. She wheezed and hazed from the poor air quality which slowed her down dramatically. After 20 exhausting minutes, she finally arrived at the library only to discover the whole place was bordered window to window, door to door with poorly cut wood and pieces of sheet metal.
“Spike! Spike are you in there?” She said trying to peek through the small glass opening through the oak wood door. Spike presumed to snap quickly in front of twilight giving her a slight scare.
“Get out of here, we don’t accept visitors!” Spike said in a deeper, more serious tone.
“Spike it’s me, twilight, don’t you remember me?!”
“The only person I remember is myself and it’s all I ever need” Spike said not even quoting rarity one bit. If he didn’t describe rarity in that sentence, he had to be serious.
“Say, how do you know my name? What do you want from me?”
“Forget that Spike, you have to let me in! The fate of equestria depends on that information in the library!”
“If you want this information, you’ll have to pry it from my lifeless dead body!” Spike said with the same tone as pinkie once had. Twilight now knew something wasn’t right, she wasn’t remembered and everyone kept describing themselves as dead bodies… but why?!
“Equestria is fine, don’t fix a damn thing you purple prick!” This time Twilight was blown away seeing spike curse, even more so at the fact it was her! Why did spike not want any change?
“Fine Spike, have it your way.” Twilight said at a lower volume as she trotted off slowly with her head slightly down. She began to step away from the library only to notice minutes later the entire library blazed into a ferocious fireball! The whole place scorched into a blue and yellow flame with documents flying out of the now burned walls.
“SPIKE!!!” Is all she could scream before bolting back down to the entrance and prying the wood off the door with her own bare hooves. The heat was too unbearable for Twilight, falling back in despair watching her hard work burn down with her favorite assistant still inside. Slowly but surely inching her way across the putrid colored floor backing away from the intense heat. Within mere minutes, her only recourses were burned to a crisp with Spike included. His skeleton was left dismantled across the ashes of burnt wood and documents surrounding the poor dragon. The fire never spread across the rest of the town for some reason, this fire was planned somehow.
“Oh this is bad, this is so bad” Twilight said as she began to tear.
“Spike… why did you do it?”. She began to cry until a perfectly intact letter was seen sitting inches from Spike’s once living body. She wiped the traces of tears in her eyes then proceeding to open the document in a celestial manner with shock and dread appearing on her face from what she read. She panicked and dropped the letter reading the words “It’s not over twilight, It’s not over.”
“This can’t be happening, this can’t be!” Twilight said screaming in sorrow.
“Discord you sick twisted being, this is madness you hear? THIS IS MADNESS!!!” She screamed for all to hear, even if every pony didn’t care. It almost seemed like they brushed off the whole library burning and her pet dragon dying the same way they forgot about her as they resumed to their own selfish affairs. The ponies not only ignored each other, but all morals were thrown right out of the window.
“First Pinkie, then Dashie, then Spike…. Who’s next?!” Just as she began to stand herself up weakly from the emotional trauma faced against this incident, an odd figure flew next to her and landed on the half burnt slab of wood sitting next to the dropped document. The figure had a round, semi-darkish look to it with a strong tint of green. Its eyes were pitch black with outlines of lime green surrounding its devilish looking pupils. Its eyes were big and bold sitting closely to its beak. It took a while, but she finally recognized this figure sitting next to her.
“Owlicious… is that really you?! Dear Canterlot what happened to you?!” Twilight said with less shock than before, it began to wear down after all that has happened. She started to approach the small owl, but it didn’t seem to care much for twilight at all. She stepped closer and closer to it with the greatest of ease, but the owl flew away quickly. Twilight saw it fly off, but then noticed it wasn’t interested in her, but rather an odd looking pony figure flying high in the sky. The black clouds disguised most of itself, but it was a flying Pegasus with no true way to identify with the lack of sunlight.
“Owlicious… you know what to do.” The pony figure told the owl. The owl nodded in agreement and jumped off the arm of the mysterious mare in the sky. It swooped down with elagent ease relating to Rainbow Dash’s flight patterns. Before long, the green owl rushed towards twilight with its talons out heading straight towards her. Twilight held the owl hostage with her magic; the mysterious mare didn’t take this quite pleasantly.
“Owlicious, stop this right now!” Said Twilight fiercely. Before Twilight could notice, the figure flew behind her with relative speed.
“I’d advise you let go of my pet Twilight,” Said the figure.
“This isn’t your pe-“ Twilight was then bucked in the head by the mare’s back hoof, knocking her down onto the hard floor in a similar fashion to when pinkie knocked her down. She couldn’t regain her balance from the strike hitting her right in the ear lobe knocking her balance out of whack. The figure stood a slight distance from Twilight ending her flight.
“You’ll never quite understand, huh Twilight”. The figure then proceeded to pick up Owlicious and walk through the heavy fog.
Twilight was stuttering from the kick to the head like a speech impediment. She regained her balance quite slowly watching the mysterious mare run away into the semi-dark fog.
“D… Don’t run, I n.. n… eed answers, I… NEED TO KNOW!!!” Twilight said starting to brace into racing form slightly off balance. She dashed as fast as her hind legs could go, but it simply wasn’t enough to catch up to the mare. She couldn’t get her mind off of the incident tearing apart her memories. Each time she looked back, the burnt library only seemed to tear more thoroughly into her mind. While distracted from memories, Twilight then tripped on her own sluggish legs and felt a face full of ruff black striped floor.
“Who… are you?” She whispered to herself as she leaned her head down. Her mind was starting to process that sudden burst of pain from that mare’s back hoof and recover itself. After realizing everything else that occurred over again, she started to tear. The droplets ran down her face unpredictably, fitting her feelings of everything around her. Even something as simple as a teardrop is victim under Discord’s corrupted rule. She began to think about everything that happened and process the information at a normal pace again after her remorse.
“*Sigh* enough Twilight, your stronger then this I know it” She said trying to boost her own self esteem. Her head was brought back up with a look through her shattered window of confidence and hope.
“Ok let’s try to make the best out of this situation; first thing is first, check the remains of my…. Our… library” slowly pausing after correcting herself. Tears began to slowly shed again, but she suppressed them with sheer will.
“No…. No more tears, another time.” She held her head with a slight arrogance and false reassurance trying to keep herself upbeat. It seemed to work effectively; even her hoof steps were keeping upright to her falsely proud approach. As she stepped further away from the lingering fog mixing with the black skies, her approach to the library section grew closer.
“Almost there twilight almost there!” Said with a more willful tone. She then presumed to walk foot among the charred area of smoldering memories. The ashes wrapped around her feet like her old pillow that sat 10 feet higher on her bed from where she stood. Memories were returning, but the task at hand was more important.
“Alright, time to take some notes.” Twilight then pulled out her quill and paper… but something wasn’t right, the paper went missing! In a panic, she looked through all her pockets to check if any of her other contents were in check. Force of habit made her pick up the messaged scroll lying on the ground from before to use as a checklist. The scroll was frightening knowing it was exactly the same as pinkie’s quote, but she turned the scroll around and tended to ignore the message.
“Pockets, pockets… ahh here we go. Ok, quill; check. Discord’s Elements; check. Note paper… not check.” She said with a slightly darkened tone. She is used to having everything, even if it’s an insignificant small piece of paper. Even ignoring the paper, something was still not right about it missing.
“No matter, the paper shouldn’t be too important to me, I should be able to still find the elements… but what happened to that sheet?” Twilight then thought and thought, tapping her hoof onto her egg-like forehead. Ideas started to form, but she didn’t know how they connected to everything as a whole.
“That mysterious mare could have taken them… that seems about right… but why did she need them?” She still thought of why that mare wanted them and how she took them. Things were starting to go off course; she still needs to set her focus straight.
“Too many questions and not enough evidence, let’s leave this whole thing behind and focus on what we have in front of us.” She said as her quill and new note pad were lifted besides her. She examined every detail from top to bottom and took notes on everything she felt, smelled, heard, and saw. She finished around 10 minutes after pulling the notes out, writing down all the details she needed.
“There, done. I’ll keep a hold on this; it might be handy later on.” She said as she slipped the piece of newly written paper into her back pocket. The scroll read exactly as quoted:
“The Library: Notes.
My first examination on this destruction seems fair weather and normal so far. The ground is slightly warm with small glowing sparks flying across my eyes from the wind blowing in all directions and all temperatures; the smoke clouds seem unaffected though. The area smells of burnt flesh and charred documents with a slight hint of demolished memories and hopes. The ashes circled perfectly around my property not touching a spec onto the street located next to it. It’s impossible to have the wind so unpredictable, yet perfectly centered ashes around where my property still stand. Guessing by the timing, the fire had to have been planned by someone; spike would never do that, would he? Why would he anyways? This library had all of my documents inside of it which mysteriously disappeared; Spike had no use for them. The fire caught on quickly and ended quickly, odd considering the entire home was made of wood; it could have easily lasted an hour or 2. Instead, the fire lasted exactly 7 minutes from what I could tell and didn’t leave anything behind except char, bones, and a perfect condition scroll reading ‘It’s not over Twilight, it’s not over’ in bold and irregular sized text. I find this odd considering the entire place burned into a smoldering heap of ashes, yet this scroll with the same quote as that once friended pink menace had was in absolute perfect condition without a single ash sitting upon it. There must be a reason this scroll was in perfect condition, the quote has something to do with it I’m sure. Discord is up to it, I’m just not sure how yet.”
Twilight then presumed to re-read it and thought of something else.
“Normally the letters are sent to the Princess from spikes fire… so that means discord has ALL of my information!” Twilight said hyperventilating slightly.
“My valuable information is now in the hands of my dire enemy! Dear Celestia what have you done spike!” She started to panic and grabbed the dismantled skull of her once thriving friend and shook it as hard as she could.
“THIS INFORMATION COULD PUT AN END TO ALL OF US! WHY SPIKE WHY!!! DON’T DO THIS TO ME YOU LITTLE RUNT!!!” She screamed at the top of her lungs. She then started to regain her senses and snapped back to it knowing she disrupted his rightful grave in her anger.
“Dear Canterlot I’ve lost my mind! Oh spike, please forgive me…” Slowly putting her head down starting the next sentence.
“Please, Please, Forgive me spike, I didn’t mean to hurt you. I love you spike and I would never do that… you understand right?” She said while oddly staring closely at the skull for several seconds.
“There I go again, I just did it didn’t I?” Sitting there waiting for a reply from the skull.
“Now I just asked you if I asked you a question, I really am insane!” She said with a bit of a panic.
“I don’t think your insane…”
“Oh great, talking voices now. Yep, I’ve lost all moral sense.” Twilight said with strong sarcasm.
“You’re not insane, I can hear you.”
“So… if I’m not insane, then who are you?!” Slightly raising her voice
“No need to raise your voice Twilight, you know who I am.”
“I don’t know who you are, you don’t sound familiar.” Twilight said taking her voice down to a library pitch she is normally accustomed too.
“Don’t worry twilight, you’re more than familiar to me” The mysterious figure stepped out from the shadows and flew herself a couple feet off the ground over to Twilight. Her mane was silky and long flowing down to her side hip following accustom by her perfectly straight tail. Her eyes shined an innocent look with a blue outline around her big black pupils. Her fur coat showed a glossy yellow shine all leading up to one pony we all know and love.
“FLUTTERSHY!!! Oh thank goodness, I thought I wouldn’t see anyone of my friends who remember me still.”
“Of course Twilight, I’ll always remember my BEST of friends like no other. Speaking of friends, all of these other ponies are acting strange don’t you think?”
“Tell me about it, they always kept fighting over each other and what they wanted.”
“Follow me; I have my own patch of sanctuary right past this marine layer of fog.” She said with her commonly soft tone.
“Wow Fluttershy, I never knew you researched the weather.”
“All Pegasus have to, you know that very well twilight.” Fluttershy said with a hoof over her mouth to muffle her giggle. Twilight then facehoofed herself in embarrassment.
“Heh… sorry, still a bit mixed up after all this chaos.” She said starting to blush with cherry red cheeks.
“Don’t worry Twilight; you’ll forget all about this chaos after you take a little trip down memory lane.” Fluttershy said with a kind and loving voice. They both headed down through the fog slowly pacing themselves ignoring the chaos around them, togethe
Time seemed to slow down to every single waking moment as the 2 walked together in coordinated harmony. They stared into each-other’s eyes with an aura of dignity and happiness that could never be separated from the 2. Each moment passed as another hoof stepped in front of another, moment after moment. The dark smog breezed off of their shoulder from fluttershy’s light patting of her wings.
“Fluttershy…” Said twilight glancing over.
“Yes Twilight?”
“How did you find me in that fog? How do you still know who I am? How di-“ Twilight said before her rambling windpipe was silenced by a gentle nudge from fluttershy’s shoulder.
“No more questions twilight, it’s over.” Fluttershy said as she tapped Twilight’s shoulder with a light pat.
“Right…” Is all she could say before she silenced herself slightly moping. They exited the gated smog which enclosed around the edges of the striped land behind her, like it had a mind of its own.
“The smog seems so… alive…” Twilight said with a slight pause afterwards.
“It’s the power of discord silly; you know he controls everything now.” Twilight became somewhat suspicious seeing how Fluttershy took this whole thing in so perfectly. It’s almost like she didn’t care either that discord was under rule… yet, she was being so generous.
“Why is Fluttershy being so… generous… none of the other ponies acted this way to me or anyone else.” thought Twilight as she threw a suspicious glance at the overly friendly Fluttershy. She turned her head back towards her front view, noticing fluttershy’s home being in perfect condition. The walls were absolutely spotless top to bottom. The floors were spot cleaned as well as pinkie did with her empty hall, following up to the sinisterly sweet golden glow around the entire exterior. All these details were obvious even before stepping hooves on the property as they approached, it was perfect!
“Wow Fluttershy, your home is absolute perfection!”
“Thanks Twilight… I worked extra hard to welcome you back in the best way possible, so I spent the rest of the hours that you were ‘asleep’ spring cleaning.”
“Funny, she quoted me as asleep, how did she know this anyhow? Also how did she manage to figure out it was spring, the sky is still painted smoggy black.” Thought twilight. Twilight then braced herself slightly physically, but completely mentally, to ask Fluttershy about the home. She didn’t know the consequences she would face for this question, but it was a risk she was willing to take.
“Say Fluttershy, do you mind if I take a tour of the house?”
“NOT AT ALL! You take all the time you need, I’ll be taking care of the chickens.” Fluttershy then gracefully bonded to the winds as her wings set atop the forecast. She flew over to the back of the home where the chicken pen was located, out of sight from the face view of the home. Her flight pattern was mystically elegant, but had a slight trace of mislead order located amongst its pattern.
“*sigh* thank goodness” Twilight said as she wiped her head clean of her nervous perspiration. She glanced both ways and immediately after walked onto the porch. The floor was made of a hard pressed oak, almost the looks of a machine’s work. It was emulated to look like the old wood; somehow it wasn’t the same as before. The wooden patio was covered by a plushy door mat labeled “Welcome Home Twilight”.
“She even named the floor mat after me…” Twilight wasn’t sure whether to be happy, surprised, confused, or scared; but her emotions were already scrambled enough today that she pushed the thought away temporarily. The door shined a beam of light passing through the cracks as she tossed it open. The bright light pierced through twilight’s sensitive recitals having been adjusted from the dark abyss that overlapped the friendly sky she once knew. Her eyes refocused and readjusted from the burst of light to find what she had always wanted! The walls were covered in books among books of endless knowledge, the floors were polished and paved exactly how twilight liked it, even spike’s old bed laid front center to the back wall’s bookshelf. It was everything that twilight imagined and more within the wake of her hooves.
“It’s Beautiful!!!” Twilight said as she admired the little details made into every single piece of literature that surrounded her. The cushion of knowledge twilight had fallen into could only get better the more she studied it. Everything fell in a harmonious mental state for twilight, but she almost forgot the small details she noticed before. The floors were made from a mechanically pressed oak only a factory could possibly produce, made to emulate the look and feel of real oak wood. It wasn’t the same floor she knew, it wasn’t the same home.
“How did Fluttershy manage to do all of this?!” Twilight thought to herself as she passed a glance to every single book she saw. It went in complete perfect alphabetical order that only twilight could possibly achieve without mistake. This place was far too perfect for any single mare to do all by herself, she got help from someone…. Or something.
“Something about this place just doesn’t feel right… I can’t quite understand why…” she said to herself as she tapped her head several times. This perfect heaven of knowledge didn’t feel real to twilight, she should know better than this being the victim of discord’s vandalism.
“This library may not seem right, but it is a source of information regardless. Discord could have possibly left a hint in this place… but why is this all in fluttershy’s home?!” She said with a muted tone. Twilight checked every book, every drawer, and every single last one going in alphabetical order just as she originally intended it to be.
“A… B… C… D… There’s no D… WHERE IS D?!” She threw around all the books in the section looking for anything related to a D. Twilight knew this wasn’t right. D lead to discord, disharmony, and all related to the one man she tried to stop, so where did this historical pieces go, especially if this library is the endless supply of knowledge it should have been.
“How can something this possibly be true?! The information was in my old library… but why not here?!” She said at a whiny pitch, complaining about the loss of desperate info she knew she needed. Suddenly, another door opened from the side of the left bookshelf located closely to spike’s bed. Her slight whining pitch was muted instantly from the sight of this door creaking open on its own. She gazed at it with a slightly confused look.
“This door doesn’t seem to fit in with the rest of the library… what is it doing here?!” She peaked inside the door, with nothing inside of it. Just then a book fell inside the darkly shaded room where the door was located. Nothing could be seen except a slight glow from a book that sat inside the dark abyss shrouding it. The book was labeled “Discord, Chaos and its Control”. It had a golden border with rubies, emeralds, and sapphires on all corners of the book.
“YES! Just what I needed! Oh thank Celestia its here.” She galloped into the room as fast as her hooves could take her chasing towards the fallen book. She picked it up and opened it to the index page, but nothing was there.
“This book… is BLANK?!” She lifted the book off of its rested place amongst the ground and shook it, scanning all of the pages in a panic.
“Everything… it’s gone…” She said with dread and shock smeared along her face. The door slammed behind her blocking all rays of light from entering the room, only showing the slight glow of the blank book.
“What’s going on here? Where am I? FLUTTERSHY HELP!!!” She screamed at the top of her lungs pounding her hooves on the iron plated doors till she became sore and winded. The pain of her hooves seared through her legs up to her shoulders from the constant smashing on the door. When the pain slowly relieved, she noticed something she wish she would never have to see again.
“The iron doors… the iron doors oh dear Celestia NO!” She remembered them fondly from her last encounter, pinkie was to blame.
“Well well well…” Said a faint, echoed sound coming from afar. Twilight then snapped her head with adrenaline rushing through her blood in a state of panic.
“That voice… why does it sounds so familiar…” Twilight whispered to herself slightly shivering.
“I think you know very well who I am Sparkle” The Mysterious mare in the shadows approached from the deathly black halls in her normal stature. The shadow had a long, perfectly brushed mane heading across its head with a smoothly sinister sway. Her tail slightly swayed to the right with the tip closer to her thigh as it gently moved. On her back was what appeared to be owlicious seen attacking twilight earlier. Twilight was still uncontrollably twitching from the rush of adrenaline she felt backed by fear.
“It’s you again… you ran away from me you coward!”
“Who’s to say I ran away?” Said the Mare with a cocky attitude slightly boasting its head higher. The figure then stepped out of the shadows into the remaining aura of light that surrounded the book laying closely to twilight. The light showed her true form with not a single hair out of place.
