> Memoirs in Ink and Blood
>  by Corah Il Cappo
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Scroll
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was already late in the evening when it happened. I belched out a small burst of green flames as a letter suddenly entered my system. As the fire cooled, I could make out the signature sun insignia on the wax seal of a scroll.

A royal summons.

In an instant I had cracked the seal and unfurled the parchment. I felt a distinct feeling of dread rising in my gut. Something was wrong. Princess Celestia's penmanship was very thick, almost as if it had been written with a printing press. This script was not hers. It was thin, and sprawling, very distinctly hornwritten. Worse still, I recognized the style.

It was the same one Twilight used.

The letter didn't say much. It just requested my attendance at the palace as soon as possible. What really roused my suspicions however, was a small splotch of reddish brown in the lower corner. I sniffed at the stain, but there was no odor.I decided to give it a lick, out of curiosity. Immediately, I spit it out.

The taste was bitter and metallic. I knew what it was that very instant.

Blood.

I boarded the next train bound for Canterlot. I sat fidgeting the entire ride. My mind was racing, hurling itself through scenarios that only my darkest dreams could conjure. Was Twilight dead? Was she hurt?

When I arrived in Canterlot, I was greeted with the usual hustle and bustle of activity. Ritzy ponies wandered to and fro about the streets, their pockets jingling with gold as they searched for places to spend it. Even though the area felt rushed and frantic, there was a certain calm and tranquility to it. It felt like I had never left.

I made a bee line for the palace. I walked down the decadent white marble entryway, surrounded on either side by glistening white columns. In the gardens just off the pathway, ponies were scrambling to fill a large hole that had been left in the grass. Bits and pieces of stone and iron littered the grass. Casting my eyes upward, I located their point of origin. A large hole had been ripped through the wall of what I thought was the throne room.

Something was very wrong here.

Just beneath the normalcy, beneath the bustling tranquility, beneath the gleaming halls and opulent walls, something was very wrong.

I quickened my pace, going from a walk to a run in an instant. A few ponies remarked how "uncouth" I was as I dashed past them, nearly knocking one out of my way as I sprinted. I had to find Twilight. I passed a small detachment of guards on patrol. Each of them was clad in light purple armor, as though they wore plates of amethyst on their bodies.

They told me to halt.

I refused.

I ran as if my life depended on it, but it wasn't nearly as fast as the guards. I was tackled, as a rather burly earthpony hurled himself at me. He reared back on his hind legs, prepared to smash down on me with his hooves. I braced for impact.

"Hold it!"

Two hooves impacted the tile on either side of my head.

I and the guards turned to see Twilight standing in the hallway. She was stunning. Her wings were spread to their full length, making her appear absolutely massive. She looked the way a god ought to.

The earthpony mumbled an apology as he rose off of me. He left with the other guards. I stood alone with Twilight.

Something was very wrong.

Her eyes were set as stones. Her face appeared tired and haggard. Her mouth was contorted into a grimace. She looked as though she were holding back tears. She didn't speak a word, but simply motioned for me to follow her. Down the hall we went, the only sound being the pitter-patter of my claws and the clip-clop of her hooves.

We reached the door of the throne room. I gagged, fighting to keep the contents of my stomach within me. She hadn't even opened the door yet, but the foul odor of decay was heavy in the air. I could barely stand it, but Twilight was unfazed. She opened the door.

Inside were the bodies of Celestia and Cadence, both mutilated and almost unrecognizable. Twilight entered the room, and I followed at her heels. Scanning the room, I found numerous other corpses scattered about. Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and...Rarity. I began to cry. Twilight was unfazed.

"What happened?"

Twilight's eyes were distant. She sighed.

"Discord."

My blood froze.

"He's a madman, Spike. He always was, and he always will be. He waited until our guard was down, having fooled us with his 'change of heart'. Once we turned our backs on him, he saw his opportunity to strike."

I wiped the tears from my eyes and tried to take in all I had heard. The fragile little peace I had been living in shattered.

"What do we do now?"

My voice was hardly above a whisper. I didn't expect an answer, but I received one anyways.

"Spike, take a letter."

She passed me a quill and parchment.

Something was very wrong.

I didn't know what, but something felt off.

Twilight was unfazed.

"Citizens of Equestria. Our world is in danger. Discord, the spirit of chaos and disharmony, has returned to his old ways. He has already killed Luna, Celestia, and Cadence, along with the five other element bearers. The atrocities he has committed are despicable, cruel, and downright heinous. As your princess, I will not sit still for this. And you, as my people, should not sit still for this! Together, as one nation, we will bring Discord to justice, and we will make him pay for his crimes against equinity! Equestria, to war!"
> Strength
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

She had called for war.

For too long I had refused to believe my sister was capable of something so cruel and calculated. I had buried my wife and sat through her funeral in denial. I had laid awake night after night, staring at my ceiling unable to sleep, wondering what I could have done.

I should have gone with Cadence. I should have stood by her side and fought till my last breath as she had. Instead, I had sat by in denial, crying my eyes out with indecision as I was torn between my love for my wife and my love for my little sister.

I had been blind, deaf, and paralyzed.

I was done sitting by. I had received her call to war, and I had answered. I strode towards the newly cleaned throne room, my sword trailing behind me. I hadn't wielded a blade in almost five years, not since I had served on the northern border during the Gryphon wars.

Prince Blueblood followed behind me.

He seemed to be able to read my intentions almost instantly. He didn't say a word, but only fell in alongside me.

Soon, we stood outside the heavy oak doors of the throne room, and finally the prince spoke to me.

"What do you intend to do, Captain?"

His question was valid. I couldn't kill her. She was a goddess now. Her power was immeasurable, while mine was woefully limited. Even if I were of equal power, could I bring myself to do it? She was my sister, and deep down, I knew I still loved her. So what was I here for.

"I'm here to right my wrongs. I should have acted. I should've nipped this in the bud, but I didn't. All I can do now is try to fix that."

The prince nodded.

"You're a fool. A brave one, but a fool nonetheless."

He was right. I didn't dispute that. I only asked why he had come along with me.

"You're not the only one with sins to mend."

With that I threw open the doors. The resounding boom echoed through the throne room. I stormed in, my hooves stomping across the marble tiles

I saw Twilight, seated not on the throne, but on the floor. She sat hunched over a multitude of books, pouring over them with great gusto. I recalled fondly the nights she would spend in the same position at home, curled up by the fireplace with a good book.

"Why are you here?"

I didn't have a good answer. To atone for my sins? To slay a god? To avenge my wife? I didn't answer. I only said the first thing that came to my mind.

"I know it was you."

She seemed so calm as she nodded in reply. It was as if she were in blissful serenity amid a world of chaos.

"And you're here to avenge Cadence, aren't you?"

I stood there in silence for some time. Blueblood filled in the silence as he conversed with the goddess, but I had filtered it out. Was that all this was? A mission of revenge? No. This was a mission of regret. I could no longer live with myself, and so I had resolved to clear my conscience or die trying.

An earsplitting crack suddenly snapped me back into reality. I watched as my sister's hoof shot out and struck the prince in the chest, hurling him across the room and skidding limply over the marble floor. I dashed to his side, quickly checking for signs of life. He gave a hacking cough, and cursed loudly. He was alive.

I looked up to see Twilight crossing the room with a single flap of her wings. I let out a scream of rage, and slashed at her with my blade. It chinked harmlessly upon her foreleg, as though I had struck metal rather than flesh. I told Blueblood to run, and run he did.

I pushed with all my might, a mere mortal throwing his weight against the wrath of an enraged goddess.

"I don't want to fight you brother."

Too late for that. My anger had boiled over. I would clear my conscience or die trying.

Before I could do either however, I was wrestled to the ground by three of the palace guards. I struggled and writhed in their grasp, trying to break their hold, but to no avail.

"Don't fight me. I want you to fight with me."

She wanted me to join her? After all she had put me through? After she had murdered my wife? Betrayed my trust? Thrown my homeland into chaos?

"I'll never join you! You're a murderer! You killed Cadence!"

I spat out the words as if they were poison. Tears flowed down my cheeks. I wailed. For the first time, I wailed for the death of my love.I wailed for the loss of the sister I cherished. I wailed for the innocent young who were slain by the friend they had trusted.

Suddenly, silence.

The world went black. I thought I felt myself slump to the floor, but I wasn't sure. Was this death?

Suddenly, I felt breath drawn into my lungs. The world exploded back into view, and sound once again rang in my ears. I sat there panting for air.

Twilight's voice echoed in my mind.

"Yes. I killed Cadence. But the same magic I used to slay her can give her back to you. I can raise her again, brother. All I ask is that you remain as captain of my guard."

I had spent too long being inactive.

I had the opportunity get Cadence back.

I could right my wrongs.

All I could do was nod yes.
> Guile
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Of all the presumptuous nerve!

This simple minded, country bumpkin, upstart unicorn has the audacity to take for herself the title of princess? I could scarcely believe my ears when I heard the news. She had not an inkling of the suave, charisma, or pedigree required to rule a nation. I on the other hoof, spent my entire life being groomed for these very tasks.

I was the prince! It was I who was next in line for the throne, not her! Who was she to usurp the natural order and put herself upon the throne?

"You're not the only one with sins to mend."

Of course, even I had my mistakes.

Two, perhaps three years ago at the Grand Galloping Gala, I met a young mare. She was catty, rude, and managed to ruin my suit with cake. Yet, despite all her flaws, I never forgot about her. She had a certain... je ne sais quoi about her. Perhaps it was her unrefined nature, or her fierce attitude that made her so memorable.

Recently however, I learned of her untimely demise. It was a gruesome affair. An act of butchery so savage I did not dare speak of it. I discovered that I had been too late for the funeral. Despite this, I felt as I though I were compelled to pay my respects to her.

To do so however, I would need the location of her grave. The "princess" surely knew this. She was going to make me swallow my pride. The taste was bitter; like black coffee mixed with soured cream. But, I had spent my entire life training for moments such as these. I bit my tongue, both figuratively and literally, and entered the room.

My companion, Shining Armor, nearly blew the doors off when he opened them. He seemed far more intent on action than I. I had come to talk reasonably, not to engage a goddess in a duel. Although I despised her, I understood that strength would get me no where.

A prince wins his battles not by strength, but by guile.

I allowed the captain to speak first. He seemed to be intent on the fact that the goddess herself, rather than Discord, had caused these deaths. She didn't deny it. In fact, she seemed to accept it.

The captain fell silent, so I seized this opportunity to speak what was on my mind.

"Your majesty, I have a request to make of you."

Her eyes carried a look of condescension, as though she were looking down at a scuttling insect.

"Speak."

I ceased clamping down on my tongue.

"There was a pony among those slain in Canterlot. A young mare with a white coat and purple mane. I wish to know the location of her grave, so that I might pay my respects."

I searched her eyes, trying to find one of the many telltale signs of a successful bargain. She gave away nothing.

"Request denied."

There was no reason. No explanation. Just a simple denial. I inquired why she had declined to disclose such information, and the only response I received was a glare and a point to her crown. She claimed that it was not my place to know such things, much less to inquire about them.

I was through with listening.

"How dare you! An uncultured pig such as yourself dares to speak down to me? You may be a goddess, and you may bear the title of princess, but you are not royalty. You have no right to the throne you rule from, nor to the nation you now direct."

Her eyes narrowed into slits.

"And you would replace me? You do not have the slightest inkling of the power I wield. I could crush you like an ant in an instant. You do not have the might to control Canterlot, much less the nation of Equestria."

She was right. I didn't have the power she had.

Not by strength, but by guile.

"To rule is my right!"

I don't quite remember what happened after that. There was a blur, a searing pain in my chest, and a loud crack. My eyes closed then, and when I opened them I was halfway across the room. I said some things in that moment that I'm not proud of. I cursed the goddess who usurped me, hoping she heard every hate laced insult that spewed from my mouth.

Shining Armor stood above me, holding back the traitor with his blade. The strain in his face was like nothing I had ever seen before. He screamed for me to run. I didn't need to be told twice.

I sprang to my hooves. Without looking back,I charged headlong into the hallway.I had to get out of here. I may have had the right to rule, but what use was my right if I were dead?

I rounded a corner and nearly collided with a small platoon of guards. Seeing that I was bleeding and sprinting for my life, they halted me and questioned what the problem was.

I had to think quickly.

"Please! You must help me! Shining Armor has gone mad! He's attacked the princess! I tried to stop him, but look what he did to me! Please! Help!"

They bought it, and dashed for the throne room.

I fled the palace.

I fled the city.

I couldn't stay here. Soon my ruse would be discovered, and the hunt for my hide would begin.

For now however I was free. I exited the city gates without incident, and marked my course for the Everfree forest. They would never think to look for me there. As I left behind the beauty of Canterlot, I resolved that one day I would return to take her back.

Not by strength, but by guile.
> Dominance
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Recently, I had been reading up on two subjects. How to conduct war, and how to run an empire.

Most of the books on the subject were woefully out of date, and did not provide strategic models for properly performing either task. I did however, come across a phrase in one book that I found rather intriguing.

"A soldier wins his battles by strength, as he overpowers and crushes his enemies. A prince wages war through deceit and guile, defeating his foes without ever raising a hoof."

While this was all well and good, it did not answer the question I searched for.

How did a goddess wage war?

I had found countless tomes laden with "forbidden" spells. Spells designed to hurt, maim, and kill ponies. While these were useful, most of them were created for unicorns, not alicorns.

The books could not tell me how a goddess was to wage war. I would have to write the book myself.

And so I thrust myself into them. I poured over books of war spells, every word adding to my deadly repertoire. I learned how to crush bones with a wave of my hoof. To boil a pony from the inside out. To raze entire cities with only a thought.

I learned to manage an empire. I expanded my knowledge to include economics, internal affairs, trade, and diplomacy. I learned how to appeal to the masses, quell uprisings, and manage trade routes both in and out of my kingdom. I would give Equestria the golden age she deserved.

I would be the harbinger of harmony.

My studies were cut short however, as the door to the throne room was blown open. In strode Prince Blueblood and Captain Shining Armor. A soldier and a prince. The look on their face practically screamed their intent.

They were here for war.

Prior knowledge could be applied here. The soldier would apply strength, the prince would apply guile. I would outdo them both.

It was in the moment that I realized how the goddess wages war. The goddess did not win by strength, nor by guile, nor by subterfuge.

The goddess won her battles through dominance.

The prince made a feeble attempt to apply guile.

"Your majesty, I have a request to make of you."

He behaved as proper as he could be. He wished to charm me through flattery. A most admirable endeavor, but one that was all too easily shot down. The denial of his request was all it took. Beneath that proper appearance lay the spirit of a spoiled, ignorant brat rather than a beguiling prince. With a simple denial and an assertion of my authority over him, I brought that spirit to the surface.

The captain was blunt with his questions. He was not a master of subtlety, nor did he have any natural eloquence about him. He was however, carrying a blade. I had no reason to doubt that he would try to kill me. He would fail of course, but that wasn't the point. I needed him alive.

Rumors about the true nature of Celestia and Cadence's demise had already begun to circulate through the guards. The rumors had begun to ferment into the ripe wine of dissent, and soldiers drunk on dissent are primed for uprising. A military uprising was something I couldn't afford. Those guards needed to be focused on slaying Discord and eliminating the remaining threat to my rule. They needed one who's mere presence could rally them and crush the dissenting spirit.

They needed their captain.

Unless he sided with me, I could be facing a military revolt.

I would not tolerate this.

With a single, swift motion I sent the prince sprawling. Shining Armor futilely swung at me with his blade. I caught it upon my foreleg, which I had solidified with magic.

"I don't want to fight you brother."

He didn't relent. He was so filled with sorrow and anger that he could not hear me. Luckily, the royal guards arrived in time to take him under control.

"I'll never join you! You're a murderer! You killed Cadence!"

I watched the captain blubber like a newborn foal. This paragon of strength in my life now sat broken at my hooves, tears streaming from his eyes.

I knew I couldn't leave him like this. He needed persuasion to join me. He needed a promise that would bind him to my side, the same way a dog adheres to its master for food. Something he would give his life to have.

Cadence.

To raise the dead was an impossible art. Not even magic could break the bonds of death.

But he didn't know that.

I fabricated a spell to simulate the feeling of death. I blinded him, so he could not see. I deafened him, so he could not hear. I paralyzed him, so he could not move.

He lay on the floor, blind, deaf and paralyzed.

I gave him a moment to let the effects set in. The guards who held his now limp body looked on in horror.

They bought it.

I dissipated the spell, and the captain shot bolt upright, choking to fill his lungs with air. His eyes were wild with sheer horror. His face grew pale, and his mouth hung open.

I opened a channel into his mind and spoke.

"Yes. I killed Cadence. But the same magic I used to slay her can give her back to you. I can raise her again, brother. All I ask is that you remain as captain of my guard."

He nodded yes.

I was proud. I had won the battle against my guards before it even began.

I lifted up that old tome on warfare and turned to a blank page in the back. I levitated my quill and began to scrawl.

"The goddess wages war through dominance..."
> Flesh
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I had been flying for almost a week straight. I hadn't eaten in days. The only thing I'd had to drink were the raindrops which splashed my parched tongue. Lack of sleep was beginning to take effect, and now every tree and shadow seemed to be twisting and writhing in my direction.

My muscles screamed, shuddering with every flap of my wings. I couldn't stay aloft much longer.

I had failed.

I had thrown my entire might against the usurper, but I couldn't even scratch her. Now seven ponies lay dead because of me. I didn't deserve to live. I should have laid there in the Canterlot courtyard and bled to death peacefully. At least then I wouldn't have to live with the feelings of weakness and cowardice that I did now.

My sense of direction had failed me long ago. I felt as though I was flying in circles, and to be honest I might have been. My only guide had been the horizon during day and the stars by night, and by now I was too tired to map out either of them. The Everfree Forest beneath me had begun to meld together into one single green mass.

My wing smashed against a tree branch, and I plummeted towards the earth. I crashed into a clearing, expecting to be greeted by the soft embrace of damp soil. Instead, I slammed head first into a cobblestone floor. I tumbled head over heels, scraping along the cracked stone. The entire world went black.

When my eyes opened, the sun was nowhere to be found. Only the slimmest crescent of the moon shone tonight, casting a pallid grey glow over the landscape.

The moon had risen without me. The symbol of my power, my pride and joy, now belonged to another. It only reinforced just how out of place I was in this new world. I took a look at where I had landed.

I stood in the ruins of what was once and opulent palace. Most of the walls and ceiling had crumbled into dust, and the few segments which hadn't were now overgrown with lichens and ivy. Broken pillars stretched skyward, like the spears of an advancing army trying to pierce the clouds.

I knew this place.

It was where Nightmare Moon had met her end.

That was back when the biggest monster Equestria faced was me. Years ago, I had been the dark goddess ravaging the land. I had been a force to be reckoned with then.

I began to trudge through the ruins, letting the memories overwhelm me. I had power then. No one, not even my sister could have opposed me. I was nigh invincible, and yet, Twilight Sparkle fought anyways.

She had been only a fledgling then. A mere mortal throwing herself in the face of a god. But she had not been alone. She had her friends.

Together, the six of them had been stronger than the might of any of the gods. Not even Discord himself could withstand the full might of harmony. But with the Elements of Harmony effectively neutralized, how could one access that sort of raw power?

There were only two paths to that sort of power. Either one must train to achieve it, or have it granted to them by one with such power. For me to train now would be futile. Although I had nearly a full millennium of experience, I still couldn't match the magical talent that Twilight exerted. It was our own fault really. We had pushed her to achieve greatness, and she had soared higher than we had ever thought possible.

Now I stood amid the ruins of my past defeat, reflecting on the monster I had helped create.

My hoof dashed against something hard amid the moss covered cobblestones. A dull clang reverberated through the night air.

It was a helmet.

I cast my magic, and lifted a set of armor from amid the decay. It was a deep purple in color, and was fitted exactly to my size. I knew this armor.

I had worn it as Nightmare Moon.

Even now I could feel the remnants of her spirit clinging to those iron plates. As my magic connected with them, I felt as though my flesh had been swarmed with insects. My ears buzzed as though they were beehives. I felt a shiver run down my spine.

It was... exhilarating.

I could feel the power of Nightmare Moon resonating all around me.

The ache of my muscles, gone.

The bones I had broken, healed.

In place of my helplessness, pride.

"Do you remember, Luna?"

I heard my own voice within my mind. I shuddered.

"You desire power? Then take it."

A pair of bracers clamped around my hooves.

"Twilight Sparkle is far more powerful than you. Don't you want to avenge your sister?"

A thick, sturdy plate guarded my flank.

"She's a monster Luna, and you're responsible for her creation."

An iron breastplate adorned my chest.

"Don't you want to make things right again?"

My helmet hovered above my head. Did I dare? I had accepted the boon of Nightmare Moon once before, and through the corruption she wrought on my mind, I nearly plunged the world into eternal night.

I had allowed her to twist me into a terrible beast, one that still haunted the legends of ponykind. I had allowed myself to become a monster, and for what? A throne to myself? Appreciation for the nights I crafted? Love? Attention? Greed?

This time however, things would be different. This was no longer about me. This was about Equestria. Seven ponies lay dead because of my weakness. I would not allow anymore innocent lives to be taken on my account. I would throw down Twilight Sparkle no matter the cost.

Sometimes, to defeat a monster, we must become one ourselves.
> Mischief
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mischief is a wonderful thing.

Whether it was replacing the sugar with salt as someone made their morning coffee, or changing an army’s spears into rubber chickens, mischief was one of my specialties.

And now I had replaced an ancient steel helmet with a banana cream pie at the most opportune moment.

I stood there laughing hysterically as Luna proceeded to slam the pie down upon her head, smearing her navy blue coat with whipped cream and custard. The other bits of armor she had been wearing fell away, and her face contorted with a mixture of embarrassment and confusion.

I clutched my sides and doubled over, practically crying as I laughed. I wiped the tears from my eyes and they burst into flames upon the cobblestones. I looked up to continue savoring my comedic handwork, but I was unfortunately clouted across the cheek by a rather angry lunar goddess.

"What are you doing here Discord?"

I tried to stifle my giggles. There was still whipped cream dripping from her muzzle. I just couldn't take her seriously. I burst into chuckles yet again, only to graced with another vicious slap from the princess. Luna never could take a joke.

"Oh, just having a bit of fun. And stopping you from making a horrible mistake. Other than that nothing much."

She looked devastated. Her body seemed to slump upon hearing my words, and she slowly sank to the ground in a huff. I couldn't tell, but I almost swore I saw tears running down her cheeks. It was in that moment I saw the weight of our situation fall upon her shoulders.

"Where is the helmet, Discord?"

"Gone. It could be anywhere now."

Her eyes took on a look of anger. She sat bolt upright, then lunged for me. She struck at me, but was far too slow. She lashed out with both hoof and spell, but to no avail. I was four thousand years her elder. I wasn't going to fall to a flurry of angry punches.

"Without that helmet I can't become Nightmare Moon!"

I dodged another hoof blow, and Luna instead struck the pillar that had been behind me. With one punch she shattered it.

"Without that how am I to defeat Twilight?"

A bolt of lightning arced past me, followed by a gout of fire, which engulfed me entirely. With a snap of my fingers, I doused the flames with a glass of strawberry soda. Luna again charged me, and this time I had to physically restrain her from striking me.

She screamed, blurting out something that was nearly incomprehensible, then melted to the ground. She lay in a crumpled heap, her entire body shuddering. Even though her face was pressed to the ground, I could tell she was crying. I don't think I had ever seen Luna cry,

Luna had always strove to be a paradigm of godlike strength and pride. Her face was always hard set, her posture always rigid, and her voice always booming. In the ancient days, when she and her sister had rebelled against my tyranny, it had been Luna who lead the army to victory. She was a strategist and a warrior through and through. She had spent centuries fighting, whether it was against me or later against her sister.

Now however, she was cut off from her source of power. Her throne, her crown, her title, her palace, her kingdom, her sister, her moon... all of these things had been stripped from her. For the first time in her life, she was powerless. Abandoned in a new world of gods and monsters without direction.

So lost was she that she would turn to Nightmare Moon, the icon of her greatest folly, simply to feel powerful once more.

All these things I pondered in my mind. I kicked at a pebble on the stone cobbles, and promptly transformed it into a goldfish. It flopped about uselessly for a bit, until I decided it should swim in air rather than water. As I turned my attention back to Luna, I realized she needed to do the same thing.

If you cannot breathe water, breathe air.

I placed a claw upon her shoulder, and she looked up at me with tear filled eyes. Here were sat, two former enemies forced together by a greater evil.

"I couldn't stop her."

Luna sniffed, wiping the tears from her eyes.

"There was nothing I could do to stop her. She’s more a goddess than I ever was. She has more magical talent in her right hoof than the rest of the Equestrian Pantheon combined. She’s everything we trained her to be. She’s our greatest success, and our ultimate demise. Perhaps Nightmare Moon could have given me the edge I needed to defeat her, but now we’ll never know.”

“Nightmare Moon couldn’t stop her. I’ve experienced the power of both firsthand, and I know which outweighs the other. You would have only brought more misery upon the land had you donned that armor. Darkness clashing with darkness does not breed light. Not unless I make it so of course.”

Luna sighed, hanging her head low. I placed a hot fudge sundae in front of her. She only stared at it blankly, as though I had handed her an empty glass. I grabbed a spoon and promptly shoveled a bite of it into her mouth. 

At first she recoiled at it, cringing like she had a mouth full of poison. Slowly however, her grimace melted away. She swallowed, and for the first time, I saw Luna smile.

Despite all she had been through, all she had lost, she smiled. It wasn’t a wide smile by any means, but it was a smile nonetheless. Through the hurt, through the pain, she smiled.

Somewhere deep inside, she had hope. 

“Where do we go from here?”

“That’s the nice thing about starting from rock bottom. We’ve only got one place we can go. Up.”

> Magic
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Exile was the sentence.

They had charged Trixie with high treason, and for what? All that she did was steal a little amulet so that she might return to being her great and powerful self. Was that truly so wrong?

You'd think that Trixie had murdered Celestia herself!

But no, apparently stealing the Alicorn Amulet was a crime worth kicking Trixie out of Equestria for. Ah well. It was their loss really. Equestria was undeserving of the Great and Powerful Trixie, and so she would take her act elsewhere. Perhaps she would traverse the vast deserts, or scale high mountains, or gallop through windswept plains in search of a new audience, one that appreciated her gifts.

Or she could dash off through the Everfree and come down with a nasty case of Poison Joke.

For days Trixie was forced to tread the forest trails, the Poison Joke causing her head to swell to absolutely bulbous proportions. Ugh, the swelling was nearly as painful as the blatant metaphor. Day after day Trixie did nothing but stagger about, unsure of where she was going or even where she was.

Finally,with her limbs on the verge of collapse, Trixie lay down upon a bed of cold, hard stone and prepared to meet her end. She had lived a full life, hadn't she? Trixie had brought great joy to colts and fillies alike with her magic act! Trixie had impacted an entire generation with her showmanship! Her mastery of the stage was something that scholars and townsfolk alike would talk about for ages to come! Trixie's legacy would be immortal!

But she herself was not.

Trixie realized in that moment just what it meant to be a mortal. Whether or not she left a legacy to ponykind, what was it in the grand scheme of things? She had heard legends that Luna and Celestia were several thousand years old. The Dragons and Draconequus, although the latter was nigh extinct, were said to have lived even longer. Popular myths stated that Discord may have seen the world at it's birth. What were her eighteen years compared to countless millennia?
Trixie's life would be just a drop of water in the ocean.

A grain of sand upon its shore.

A blade of grass upon the plain.

Or, more appropriately, a single tree in the Everfree.

Mortality was a cruel mistress. Trixie had spent her entire life entertaining, just trying to bring a little happiness to the world, and perhaps stroke her own ego a bit at the same time. Now she lay upon a rock, contemplating the futility of her own existence. For the first time, Trixie realized how much the world had changed. 

Despite her protests, Trixie’s eyelids continued to grow heavier. Finally, they slammed shut.

After what felt like hours, they opened again. No longer did Trixie lay amid the grass and trees, but now she was indoors. The walls around her were made from lashed wooden poles, and decorated with intricately painted tribal masks. It felt strange, as though Trixie had landed upon some sort of strange alien planet.

Trixie reached up to feel her head, and found that it was no longer swollen. Something strange was going on here.

“I’m glad to see that you’re alright, I didn’t think you’d live the night.”

Trixie was alarmed to suddenly hear a voice chiming into her thoughts. For a split second, she thought she had gone mad. A split second after, she was assured she wasn’t as she whirled about and came face to face with a pony the likes of which she had never seen.

It was a zebra. She had heard tales of them, but never seen one. They were said to live far to the west, beyond Appleoosa and in the deep deserts that lay beyond. But in the Everfree? Such a thing was unheard of.

“Who are you? What have you done to Trixie?”

The zebra chuckled. She didn’t seem offended in the slightest.

“I suppose an introduction would be for the best, my name is Zecora, and you are my guest. You had poison joke, a most severe case, so I cooked up a cure with the utmost haste. You’re alright now, you can rest assured. Your dire condition has now been cured.”

Trixie couldn’t believe it. This zebra had taken her in, cured her sickness, and was now offering her home as a resting place? And for what? Trixie could give her nothing in return, save for a tattered hat and a briar torn cloak. She questioned Zecora about this, but received only another rhyme in return.

“I want nothing from you, you’re a welcome guest! Now go, lie down, and get some rest!”

Zecora grabbed a wooden mug from a shelf, and handed it to Trixie. It was empty. Before Trixie could ask why, her host ran a hoof around the rim of the cup, instantly filling it with steaming hot milk.

She knew magic.

Despite not having a horn, nor any inkling of formal training, Zecora knew magic.

Trixie could hardly believe her eyes. She raised her mug and took a drink of the warm milk. It was real alright. This was not stage magic. There were no mirrors or puffs of smoke. No fireworks, no lasers, no misdirection. This was magic in its rawest form. It was real magic.

“How did you do that?”

The zebra laughed heartily as she began to mix ingredients in a large cauldron.

“I assure you, what you see is no trick! You’re witnessing my own special brand of magic.”

In that moment, I knew what I had to do. I would return to Equestria. I would return to them with real magic. I could be so much more than a simple stage magician. After all, the world was short the element of magic. Somepony had to bring it back. 

Why not me?

> Futility
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Some strange things have been happening lately.

The sun and moon seem to be out of control. Sometimes the sun rises in the middle of the night, other days the moon eclipses the sun during the day. Nopony really knew what to make of it. Princess Twilight Sparkle told us it would be alright though.

Sure has been doin a number on the apple trees though. Seems like all they've been doin' lately is rotting on the branches. Big Mac says its cause they're not gettin' the sun they need, on account of the sun and moon flip flopping around in the sky all the time. I think its cause Applejack's not here to take care of 'em.

We buried Applejack a week ago. The whole apple family got together for her funeral. I'd only been to one funeral before this. I remembered that they opened the casket so the family could see their departed one last time. They never opened Applejack's casket. They left it bolted shut the whole time. Granny Smith said it was better that way.

I didn't think so.

I didn't cry during the funeral. I told myself to be strong.

But after Applejack was down in the ground, when we had gone home and settled in bed for the night, I cried. I cried like I never had before. Tears rolled down my cheeks like a flood. I screamed. I wailed. I mourned the death of my sister in the only way I knew how.

I hadn't even gotten to say my farewells. I never got to say "I love you" one last time. There was no parting hug between sisters, nor were there any words of comfort she left me with. It was as if she had simply vanished from the face of the earth, without so much as a goodbye.

Big Mac came in to check on me. He didn't say a word, but just put a hoof on my shoulder. I looked up at him, and we locked eyes.

He had been crying.

His eyes were hard and glassy. Although he said not a word, those eyes told me all I needed to know. They told me that it was okay to cry. They said that I had suffered far beyond what somepony of my age should have to bear. But they also told me that the hardest part was yet to come.

He kissed my tear soaked cheek and said goodnight.

I wondered what he had meant. Surely the hardest part was behind us?

The next morning I realized what he meant.

Life went on as usual. Sweet Apple Acres had to be run by somepony, and now we were one pony short. Suddenly the weight of Applejack's workload fell upon my shoulders, and it hit me like a ton of bricks. I wanted to sit around and mope and cry. Who wouldn't have? But that just wasn't an option. If I stopped working, the apples would wither and rot. Not to say that we weren't losing them fast already, what with the sun and moon spinnin' around in the sky all willy-nilly. We had to make the best of a bad situation, but it was only growing worse.

My world had become a single monotonous cycle. Wake up. Work. Eat. Sleep. Granny Smith, Big Mac, and I hardly even spoke anymore. Each of us had our own duties to accomplish. We became so absorbed in our own little spheres that we hardly knew the others existed. Even worse was our contact outside of the family. Big Mac only left the farm on weekends to sell apples in town. Granny Smith hardly ever left. She was busy trying every cure and home remedy she knew to try and get the trees producing again. Nothing helped.

As for me, I spent my entire day in the field. No more Cutie Mark Crusading for me. I hadn't even looked at my flank in weeks. I bucked apples, I fed pigs and chickens, I baled hay, I trimmed branches. And yet, no matter how much work I put in, nothing got any better. The sun and moon still battled daily for control over the sky. Most of the apples still rotted before we harvested them. Applejack was still dead.

For the first time in my life, I understood what futility meant.

No filly should ever have to learn the meaning of that word.

No filly should ever feel that their work accomplishes nothing.

Yet, that was my life. I was so helpless, so powerless, so utterly incapacitated. I felt insignificant.

But through it all, I soldiered on. Not for my own sake of course. I had long given up hope on the world returning to normalcy.

That hope was buried deep in Applejack's coffin.

No. I pressed on for the sake of those around me. I pressed on for Big Mac. I pressed on for Granny Smith. I pressed on for Scootaloo and Sweetie Bell and Peppermint Twist and Diamond Tiara. I pressed on for everypony who still depended on Sweet Apple Acres for food. I pressed on for their sake. Not my own. I was as good as dead, but not to these ponies.

I had to ponder though. Was this all there was to my life?

Was I to live out the rest of my days like this?

Would I spend every waking hour clawing my hooves down to the bone, and have it all add up to nothing?

Apparently I was. I didn't care anymore though. If nothingness was my lot in life, that was what I had to accept. It was time to make the best of a bad situation, even if it kept getting worse. There were many ponies out there who needed me to keep doing what I was doing.

I might amount to nothing, but they needed me nonetheless.
> Locust
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Changelings were a vile race.

They fed on emotion, impersonated loved ones, and were known to suck the land dry of love and harmony within moments of their arrival.

Changelings swore allegiance to no banner or creed or nation. The only loyalty they had was to their hive, and above that, loyalty to their Queen. Some questioned whether or not the changelings were even smart enough to think when separated from the mind of the Queen. I for one, knew that they were. A lone changeling was not an intelligent creature by any means, but they could survive. If nothing else, they were resilient little bastards.

Yet, here I was, standing directly outside a changeling hive (alongside Discord no less) awaiting an audience with their queen. I could feel the millions of glassy eyes boring into me. I could hear the clicks and clacks of carapaces shuddering in movement mingled with the buzzing of ribbed wings. My nostrils flared at the lingering stench of decay that the hive extruded.

I came to offer peace.

Twilight had all of ponykind at her back. The royal guard would support her, so long as their captain remained steadfast. The number of ponies enrolling in the guard was sure to skyrocket now that tragedy had struck. Cries for revenge always made good battle cries. Celestia and I had rallied the ponies against Discord in this way. They would come for us, they would fight, and we would die.

We needed an army.

A low hiss reached my ears. There before me stood Chrysalis, the Changeling Queen, in all of her rotting splendor. Like a snake she slithered towards me, her eyes glowing in the dark of the night. Her glassy wings twitched as she moved, buzzing at even the slightest movement.

"You reek with the scent of a love freshly lost. Why have you come here, Moon Princess? To tantalize me?"

I swallowed hard. Her very presence stirred something deep inside me. I felt a near primal urge to strike down this loathsome creature where she stood.

"We've come to speak with you, Chrysalis. We have an offer for you."

She wasn't expecting that.

"We?"

Her gaze turned to the side, where Discord stood, absentmindedly doodling a mustache on one of her changelings. He waved happily, then went back to his work with a childish giggle.

Chrysalis frowned. I watched her stiffen slightly, standing up to her full height.

"Tell me Princess, what is this 'offer' you claim to bring? Is this Celestia's sick attempt at pacifying me like she has Discord?"

I shot back with a glare that could have bored through iron.

"Celestia is dead."

She wasn't expecting that. In an instant, the hive seemed to hush. The Changeling was silent, so I went on.

"Celestia is dead, and so is Cadence. Twilight Sparkle killed them both. She killed them both in cold blood, and nearly did the same to me. She-"

Before I could go on, I was interrupted.

"This deal already sounds droll. What could you possibly offer me that I cannot go to Canterlot and take? After all, almost everypony that opposed me the last time is dead. What can you offer me that Canterlot doesn't?"

I had prepared for that exact question.

"Protection."

She laughed uproariously at that. Her cackles echoed through the empty forest, accompanied by the lifeless attempt at laughter that her changelings produced.

"Protection from what?"

I was unfazed.

"I can protect you from Twilight. Do you really think she will let something like you exist even near her kingdom? Nay, she would hunt you down like an animal, then cut you down without a second thought. She did it to my sister, she did it to Cadence, and she did it to her friends. I ask that you side with myself and Discord. Lend us your aid and help us dethrone this tyrant."

She looked pensive for a moment, tapping a porous hoof against her chin.

"What makes you think she's strong enough to defeat me?"

There was a short burst of laughter from Discord, who had until now remained mostly silent. He looked at her with a condescending sneer, still chuckling.

"Oh Chrissy, you're a riot! You just barely managed to out-muscle Celestia when you invaded Canterlot, and you think you can take on Twilight?"

His expression suddenly hardened.

"I was barely able to hold my own against her. I daresay that she would have killed me if I remained and tried to fight her. Really think about that. When you have someone as powerful as me, who can do things like this..."

With a mere snap of Discord's fingers, every single changeling in the area suddenly changed into butterflies. He clicked his tongue, and the butterflies became elephants. Smirking, he clapped his hands, and the elephants became little piles of chocolate frosted cupcakes. Discord grabbed a pastry and popped it in his mouth. He chuckled slightly, then gave a shrill whistle, reverting the cupcakes back to changelings.

"Just think. I can do all that, and she still was more than a match for me. What hope do you have to stand against her?"

The look in her eyes was desperate. She knew what she had to do, and yet every fiber of her being urged against it. I felt her pain. My instincts told me that I should never trust her. That I should hate her. That I should crush her like the insect she was...and yet, my logic told me otherwise. We needed one another.

She reached out her hoof to me, and I took it in mine. Then she smiled.

It was a small smile, and not a very pretty one by any means. Yet she smiled nonetheless.

I wasn't expecting that.
> Animal
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Our mission felt futile from the start.

I was tasked with taking an advance squadron of guards, no more than a hundred strong, into the Everfree. The forest was massive, misunderstood, and treacherous to navigate. If Discord had picked anyplace to hide, it would be there. Nopony was stupid nor courageous enough to plunge headlong into the Everfree, unless they were truly desperate.

I was desperate.

Twilight had made me a deal. I brought her Discord, and she would bring me Cadence. It was more than a fair trade to me. However, making good on that promise felt like chasing a shadow on a moonless night.

Our quarry was slick. He never seemed to sleep, or pause to eat. Nor did he leave tracks for us to follow. The closest we could get was the occasional broken branch or pile of half eaten chocolate bars. He knew he was being tracked. He was toying with us. For a being with such a disjointed and chaotic mind, Discord could be a surprisingly smooth operator when he needed to be.

Despite difficulties, we pressed on.

We had to, or rather I had to. Every day without her I felt lonely, empty, and abandoned. I felt guilty for allowing her to face my sister alone. Even if she could find it in her cold, unbeating heart to forgive me, I would never forgive myself.

And so we continued. Sometimes days went by without any sight of our quarry. The day and night had blended together into one single, dreary cycle. Sometimes the sun refused to set, sometimes the moon dominated the skies as early as noon. Blinding eclipses were a frequent sight to be seen, though after you've seen it a hundred times it loses much of its gravitas.

My company and I barely slept now. Time became irrelevant, what with the heavens spiraling into chaos, and we simply slept when and where we could. Food was a scarcity. The supplies we had packed were not nearly enough for our trip, so now we had to make do.

We stripped the bark from the trees. We chewed leaves from the branches. We clipped the grass until it was no more than dirt. Our coats were filthy and matted. We had eventually sheared off our manes with our swords, and what little remained was greasy and filled with knots. Our shoulders slumped, our teeth yellowed, and our clothes rotted. We had become animals. The vestiges of civilization slowly slipped away from us, leaving us to face a grim reminder of what we all were deep down.

We were mortals.

We live, we die, and we decay, all while the gods watch over us.

How could they care for us, when we were so small and insignificant? Perhaps they didn't. Perhaps Celestia, Luna, and Cadence had no interest in our affairs. Perhaps Twilight was right.

Deep down, we were nothing more than cattle to be herded about at their whims. And now I had been herded into this deathtrap of a forest to find and subdue a being that could slay me with a thought. What a strange world we lived in these days.

Finally, after what felt like endless ages of hunting and searching, we had found our quarry. One of my soldiers spotted him through the treetops, and in seconds the chase was on. We hurled ourselves into the bramble, not even caring for the thorns anymore. They were no more than pinpricks against flesh hardened by.adrenaline. We flew over the earth, pounding it with our hooves as we dashed, grunting and shrieking like the beasts we were.

Then there came a sound.

It was not a loud noise, in fact it was just barely audible, and yet it made my blood run cold.

The click and clack of chitinous bodies. The buzz and hum of ribbed wings. The hiss and whistle of breath between fangs. They were sounds that had been forcibly ingrained into my memories.

Changelings.

In a flash my sword was drawn from its sheath, just as a horde of the insects descended from the trees surrounding me. I swept my blade in an arc above me, cleaving one of the beasts in two. The halved corpse fell to my side, just as another changeling lunged for me, fangs barred. I delivered a swift thrust with my sword, disregarding its heft and weight. The thick tip pierced through the roof of the changeling's mouth, exiting out the back of its skull.

Disengaging quickly, I whirled around to find my soldiers in a state of panic. Several were already dead. Some were hacking wildly with their blades, their eyes wild with terror. Others simply turned tail and fled. I rushed headlong into the fray, sweeping my sword and beheading one of the insects with ease. As I scanned my soldiers, I began to notice a strange phenomenon. It seemed that the changelings were beginning to thin out, yet there were so few of their corpses upon the ground.

Suddenly it struck me.

They were camouflaging themselves. Blending in seamlessly with my men, to the point where we could no longer distinguish friend from foe. Within seconds, I could no longer distinguish my own troops from the blended changelings. I stood in wide eyed horror watching as my soldiers let out a cry of victory, completely ignorant to the situation.

I froze, unsure of what to do.

What could I do here? I couldn't just kill my own men at random. The only way to be sure that I had killed all the infiltrators would be to kill my entire group. That was something I couldn't bring myself to do.

Yet, if stayed my hoof, all it would do was endanger my goal. Discord would escape, and I would be left empty hooved. Every instinct within me said to flee, and pursue Discord on my own.

I obeyed my instincts.

After all, I was an animal.
> Civility
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Today was day one hundred and sixty four since my banishment. I knew because I had marked each individual day on the bark of an oak tree in the midst of my little camp.

Despite what some would say of me, I was not ignorant of survival. I lived in the lap of luxury yes, but that was only half my job. The other half was organizing trade in the areas no other pony dared to tread. The badlands of the Griffon kingdoms, the savannas of Zebrica, and the harsh deserts of Saddle Arabia were all common destinations of mine. I knew how to fend for myself.

I had no food, but managed to make do with leaves and grass clippings. I brewed tea from bark, and continually bathed and washed my clothing in a small creek nearby. I wove sticks and branches together into a makeshift shelter. It was nothing compared to the palace lifestyle I had left behind, but it was better than having nothing.

Despite my harsh surroundings, I refused to sacrifice my civility. I was a prince of Equestria, not some mindless beast. The sun moon and stars may have lost their course, but I knew that one day they would be returned to their rightful order, just as I would one day be returned to my rightful place among Equestria's nobles.

Of course, returning there would be nigh impossible. Not without bloodshed anyways. A usurper still sat upon my throne. A usurper who could squash me with less than a thought. There was no way I would be able to throw down somepony who wore the mantle of a god.

At least, I could not do it alone.

With an army at my back, it would be possible to overwhelm her, and deliver a victory through sheer numbers. It would take thousands, perhaps even millions to equal her power. There was no way I could get that many ponies over to my side, even with my impressive charisma. It was an impossible task, and I knew it.

But sometimes we need to seek the impossible. Sometimes dreams of the impossible are the only thing we can believe in. They're what wake us up in the morning. They're what drive us, even when we have nothing left to live for. We strive to attain them, knowing full well they are impossible. We dream that we will be the ones to make the impossible reality.

Now, impossible dreams danced about in my head. Driving me, compelling me to make them reality. I knew not how I would do so, and so I waited. Surely if I waited long enough, a flash of inspiration would come to me.

One hundred and sixty four days later, and I was still waiting for it. I tried meditation, blending strange herbs into my teas, standing on my head for long periods of time to stimulate blood flow to my brain. Nothing. My mind was completely devoid of any useful ideas. I thought about trying to slip into Ponyville, and raising a small army from there. But they were no warriors. Farmers, artists, candy-makers yes, but soldiers they were not.

I needed the guards.

Of course, getting them to listen to me would be nigh impossible. The guards weren't loyal to the Prince, and whatever sway I had as Celestia's nephew was worthless now that she was dead. They were loyal to only two ponies Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor.

As if by some ironic twist of fate, Shining Armor himself crashed into my camp. He stumbled into the clearing, smashing his way through the shelter I had constructed. He tumbled to the ground, looking more bedraggled than I had ever seen him. He glanced up at me with bloodshot eyes, blinking several times as if in disbelief.

"Well that's certainly one way to make an entrance."

I helped him to his hooves, and soon we were reminiscing over tea. For the first time in one hundred and sixty four days, it felt as though life was normal. No longer were we two men at war against the gods. We were simply two ponies sharing a cup of tea between friends. We talked and laughed together just like we used to in the halls of the Royal Palace in Canterlot. For just a few moments, everything was as it should be. All was right in the world, or at least our section of the Everfree.

Slowly but surely, reality crept in on our conversation. Our topic turned to the struggles we had both been facing since our recent expulsion from Canterlot. It seemed that between the two of us, I had been faring slightly better. He explained his situation to me, as well as the conflict that boiled in his chest. He wanted Cadence back, more than anything else in the world. Yet the task he was set out to do was impossible.

Of course, the impossible can drive us to do crazy things.

"She's baiting you."

I spoke my mind, something I was rarely able to do back home in Canterlot.

"She's dangling a carrot in front of your jaws, but the second you snap for it, she'll pull it further back. She doesn't want to give you back Cadence, even if she could. Cause the second she does, she loses the hold she has over you. You're being played for a fool here, Armor. She's playing chess here, and you're just a pawn in the game. Things will never be the way they once were, but that doesn't mean we need to settle for what it's become. I've never been one to settle for less than the best. What about you? Will you settle for this?"

I could feel a shift in him. His eyes were ablaze, and his face was set like steel.

"Never again."
> I Am Twilight Sparkle
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I needed more.

The great libraries of Canterlot no longer satisfied me. For all the knowledge they contained, my craving was still not sated.

I needed to dig deeper.

So with that, I set out to visit our neighbors to the north, the Griffons. They had their own libraries, ones filled to bursting with ancient scrolls and tomes, which were in turn brimming with spells and magicks. Considering the attitude of the creatures which kept them, they were sure to be a bit more warlike than those in Canterlot. I nearly trembled at the thought.

Needless to say, they were not too excited by my arrival. That was alright. Before my hooves even touched down on their soil their palace had been laid to waste. The streets were awash with ichor within seconds of my arrival. I crushed them the same way I had crushed anthills as a filly.

It all seemed so easy.

The remaining few who resisted me did not last. Those who were smart turned and fled. The rest died in the streets, their flesh burned and blackened. Their resistance amounted to nothing more than corpses for me to walk over.

It was like the bursting of a bomb. All at once fiery and loud followed by a deafening silence.

The only sound now was the sound of my hooves clip clopping across the overturned cobblestones that had once been a street. Once inside the empty shell of a palace the same silence remained. It was practically palpable as I strode through the desolate halls.

Despite their reputation as a bloodthirsty and savage race, the griffon's architecture was decidedly more opulent than I had anticipated. Long winding staircases lead to halls beneath the earth, trimmed with marble and gilded with gold leaf that twinkled in the torchlight. In my past, I would have stood slackjawed with awe at the splendor of the glistening corridors.

Now however, I realized the ultimate futility of such works of mortal glory.

They rose; some for eons, others for decades. Some were hewn from stone, some forged in iron. Some were crafted by hoof, others by machine. One thing however united them all.

All of them were destined to crumble and fade.

The same was true of the mortal races. Despite how significant they felt they were, most of them passed on from this life, destined only to be mourned and forgotten.

The only ones with any real value were the immortal races. Alicorns, Dragons, Draconequi, and the like. They were the ones who shaped history. They were the ones who molded nations. They were the ones who shifted the very earth to their  every whim.

Yet, despite their power, so many of them lived unfulfilled. Celestia had the power to hurl the sun through the heavens, and yet preferred to muddle about with letter writing. Discord once threw all of Equestria into a chaotic anarchy, and yet was tamed by a pony afraid of her own shadow. The dragons could burn entire cities to ash and cinder, yet instead they holed themselves up in the mountains with their hoard.

Then there was me.

I was a goddess who refused to conform to the shameful legacy of lethargy that preceded me. I had chosen my path in this world, and I would forge that path as one would forge a sword; through fire, hammering, and crushing. Either the world would submit to me, or I would force it to bow.

There were those who would seek to stop me of course. Namely Discord, and any who still followed him. The last time he and I had exchanged blows, he had fought me to the verge of defeat.

I felt weak.

Passive.

Broken.

I had resolved to never feel that way again.

If he still wielded more power than I did, then I needed to become stronger.

I needed to study true war magic.

The musty smell of well worn books soon swirled in my nostrils as I descended ever deeper into the cavernous depths. This was a scent I knew well. I was near a library, and a well stocked one at that.

In an instant, my horn had ignited, casting a brilliant pale purple glow over all the room.

Out of the darkness I saw them. Rows upon rows of dusty tomes and tattered scrolls, surely filled to the brim with new magic. I extended my magic throughout the halls, as every last scrap of paper was overtaken by my mind, levitating them off of the shelves and into the air around me.

I read them, and what I discovered within was best described as gruesome at best.

There were spells of frost, fire, steel, and stone. Spells that could reduce mountains to pebbles, or a once vibrant valley into a desolate haze. There were spells to smite empires, crumble nations, and set the sky itself ablaze with fire and ash. With these spells I could blight the nations, poison the earth, and desecrate Equinity. These were not spells of war. They were spells of annihilation.

Suddenly it dawned on me.

I knew now why Celestia had locked these tomes so far from herself.

These were powers beyond even the gods.

This was beyond Equestria.

Beyond Equinity.

Beyond the gates of Tartarus.

Beyond...everything.

These were things that nopony was ever meant to know. Things that should shatter the minds of those who read them, written in strange eldritch tongues of days long past. Words seemed to leap off the page and burrow deep into the very fibers of the mind, nestling themselves deep within and just waiting to be awakened with a thought. They were vile things. Things which should have reduced me to a mess, gibbering and blathering on the stone floor as my mind was torn asunder. These were things that would drive anypony to the brink of madness.

But I was not anypony.

Not anymore.

I am she who is beyond divinity.

I am Twilight Sparkle.
> I am Trixie Lulamoon
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Studying magic under a Zebra is perhaps the strangest thing I have ever done. For one thing, there was no formal study. Instead, everyday my teacher asked the same question of me.

She asked me to show her what I knew.

I always did. Yet no matter the spell, it didn't seem to matter. She was entirely unimpressed with me.

I cast spells that altered time. I cast spells that changed ages. I cast spells that transmogrified both her body and mine, yet still she was underwhelmed. She just stared at me with a bored expression on her face, waited until my energy was exhausted, and then smiled and offered me breakfast. If I protested, she only replied in that rhyming sing-song.

"I can see you grow filled with frustration and sorrow, Let us break for today and come back tomorrow."

I felt weak.

Passive.

Broken.

I had resolved to never feel that way again.

So I trained. Day in and day out I trained, both physically and mentally. I trained until my luxurious coat was slick with sweat and my flowing silver mane was bunched and tangled. I worked until my mind ached from a potent mix of rage, frustration, and stress. I was determined to impress at any cost. I would impress this snooty, backwoods Zebra if I had to eat, breathe, and bleed magic.

The life of a showpony was not a glamorous one, despite my own innate beauty.

Days and nights blended together in a constant slog of sleeping, eating, and practicing. Oftentimes, I skipped meals, or went days without sleeping to pour more and more of my time into practice. I developed new techniques, experimented with spells and tampered with my casting. I even invented a few new spells of my own, in a desperate attempt to find something that would please my tutor.

Yet all she did was shake her head disapprovingly.

I felt a deep seated anger well up in me every time I saw that gesture. It was the sort of anger that went beyond mere shouting. It was a seething, poisonous anger. The sort of anger that flares in the heat of the moment, and then simmers for days afterwards. It was the sort of intense anger that ate away at the very fibers of my emotion, until they snapped and left only a festering rage in its place.

One day, I lashed out. I screamed, throwing every spell I could at her. I cast balls of fire, razor sharp shards of earth and ice, streaks of brilliant blue lightning, but all of them to no avail. She seemed to either effortlessly avoid the spells I slung, or was otherwise seemingly defended by an unseen force.

It was like trying to punch through a concrete wall. I smashed and smashed my hooves against it, but it never broke. In fact, I never even chipped it.

Finally I collapsed, eyes flushed with tears and throat hoarse from screaming. I lay there in the dirt, bawling and blubbering for what felt like an eternity, trying in vain to catch my breath.

Finally, I spoke. I spoke in a voice barely above a whisper.

"I give up."

Zecora only raised an eyebrow at me, as if to get me to continue.

"I've spent almost a year training, refining, and making my spells better. I've trained till I was sick, but its never been good enough for you. I've never been good enough for you. I. Give. Up."

She looked down at me for a moment. then smiled warmly.

"I apologize for putting you through such abuse, but I wanted to show you where magic sprouts roots. It lies not in works of great power or splendor, for the truest of magic begins with surrender."

It took me some time to figure out exactly what she meant by this. Somehow surrendering would make me more powerful? It seemed as though this zebra had her head screwed on backwards. Magic became stronger though intense study and practice. To develop our powers, we delved deep into ancient tomes written by the great mages of old. What did this backwoods zebra know that these ancient ones didn't?

Surrender.

To relinquish control of oneself, depending on others for your protection.

To let go of dominance, and allow another to take the helm.

To rely on others more than oneself.

The more I turned the idea over in my head, the more it began to make sense. Magic was never meant to be an individual affair. Real magic, magic uncorrupted by the interpretation of the user, relied on others.

In the simplest of terms, friendship is magic.

However, it ran far deeper than that. It wasn't merely caring about others, it was actively allowing yourself to submit your own goals to theirs, working as a group towards a single common goal.

It was harmony.

This meant that the strongest magic, that which transcended all others, was found in the ties that bind us to others. Whether those people are friends, family, or even our enemies, we are all bound by the common thread of harmony.

There was power in harmony, and everypony knew it. In the past, harmony had thrown down gods, thwarted usurpers, and restored the world from chaos. These days though, nopony believed in harmony. We viewed it in the same way we had viewed its bearers since the incident; that it was no more than a corpse, dead, buried and inert.

But that was all wrong.

Harmony was alive and well. Just because those who had once embodied it were slain did not mean that it was gone. Ponies were born and died everyday, but the ties that bound us still existed.

Harmony was alive.

It lived in me, in Zecora, and in everypony else.

Now was the time for harmony to return.

I am the Harbinger of Harmony.

I am Trixie Lulamoon.
> I am Discord
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I was not always Discord.

At one point, I had no name. Names didn't exist yet. The very idea of a title was something I would have scoffed at. I knew who I was, so what did it matter if anyone else did?

As time wore on however, the idea of names became more prevalent. Though I myself never applied them, I would wear countless names over the vast eons. I would be known as Scourge, Drought, Blight, Chaos, Madness, and Entropy, and those were just some of the simpler titles I went by!

Now however, I was Discord.

That's the funny thing about names. They can change at the drop of a hat. For example, most would consider love to be a name for affection. However, to one of my traveling companions, Love was a word for food, no different from something like say... french fries. Or take the name of Twilight Sparkle. Once it would have been seen as the name of a student, gleefully discovering the world of friendship. Now it was the name of a murderous goddess determined above all else to kill me.

What a weird world we lived in these days.

After a five day journey, we had exited the Everfree for the first time in several months now. I did not like what I saw. The grass was yellow and prickly from lack of rain, and the earth was dry and cracked. As I shuffled along through the withered landscape, small clouds of dust kicked up at my feet. Above my head, the sun and moon both occupied the sky forming a blinding eclipse. The stars too were out, though burning far brighter than I had ever seen them. They were like pinpricks of light against an already blazing backdrop.

Beautiful, yet terrible.

Luna, Chrysalis and I prepared to take to the sky, but stopped suddenly. A strange noise assaulted our ears, like the high pitched grating of metal on metal. We looked up, nearly blinded by a new, even brighter light in the sky. I shielded my eyes, then was thrown off my feet in a sudden blast of fire, smoke, and kicked up dirt.

I landed on the ground spine first, momentarily paralyzed with shock. The air had been knocked out of me, and I struggled to catch my breath. In a moment my breath returned and my vision cleared. All I could see was fire. The forest trees, at least those that had not been splintered by the blast, were now ablaze, as was the dry grass beneath our feet. Thick black smoke rose in great plumes, blotting out the sun, moon, and stars. I coughed as I floated up, trying to locate my companions.

I swept my claw through the air, and the fire followed, leaping up off of the grass and wood and into the air, forming a massive ball of flames. Clenching my fist instantly dissipated the blaze, leaving only a few crackling embers in its place.

I quickly scanned the area, finding Luna and Chrysalis looking very shocked and singed, but also very much alive. I breathed a sigh of relief, before regrouping with them. Not a single one of us could believe what had happened. This was no freak act of nature, that was for sure. This was a direct attack from the goddess herself.

She had nearly wiped out all three of us without being anywhere near us.

Even one as old as me had to shudder at the thought.

If we weren't in mortal peril of another attack, this would have been a prime time for us to discuss at what point a god became an abomination. Perhaps a lengthy discussion on whether it was power or personality that turned something into an abomination. But no. Now it was time for us to flee screaming through the sky as more and more of the goddess' assaults rained down around us. I did my best to deflect or dissipate the raining balls of flame as they crashed around us, but it felt nearly impossible.

It felt as though the world around us was ablaze, like we had been swallowed up in a sea of flames. The ground beneath us was an endless stretch of burning fields and houses and screaming ponies as far as the eye can see.

The last time I had seen such misery was during my brief stint in Tartarus. Before I knew what had hit me, I lay face down in the dirt, choking on smoke. I struggled to breathe, at least until I bent the laws of nature to breathe in smog. I lifted my claw, prepared to once again dissipate the raging inferno, before an unseen force sent me sprawling. I scrambled to get to my feet, before once again being tossed like a rag doll.

There was a pretentious metaphor about me being an unneeded and unwanted toy in this somewhere.

I tried to rise a third time, only for the world to be suddenly blotted out from my vision. I felt every bone in my body snap in an instant, then crackle back into shape with the next. Finally, I pushed up, breaking through the object that had crushed me.

A house.

There was a brief respite as I caught my breath, before a new pain seared through my chest. I glanced down, and saw my chest pierced by what looked like a piece of molten iron, and felt about as pleasant. Without even a second to react, I was suddenly ripped upwards into the air, just before something solid struck the back of my skull and sent me throttling earthward once more.

I tried to get up, feeling as though my body had been crumpled like a paper ball.

I felt something warm and sticky coating my stomach.

Blood.

I cast my eyes skyward, and saw a single winged form slowly descending from the heavens.

I am Discord.

And for once in my life, I am afraid.
> I Am Princess Luna
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fire rained down around me as I flew through the smoke filled skies. I coughed and choked as I flew, desperate for fresh air.

A ball of flames struck Discord and sent him straight to the ground. Then I felt my wings buckle and snap.

I opened my mouth to scream, but I never got the chance. I slammed into the earth, and was sent skittering across the charred landscape. I tried to stand, but was slammed back into the dirt by an unseen force.

A short distance from where I lay, I could see Discord. He lay on his back, bleeding out, only inches away from where Twilight stood.

The world around her seemed to shift, as if the entire universe was bending to her whims. Cracks of purple lightning seemed to ripple through the air around her. Her eyes glowed, just as they once had when she had been the wielder of Harmony.

She had grown since I last saw her. She looked more regal now, more godlike.

I closed my eyes.

I didn't want to watch.

Although I couldn't see, I could hear. I heard Twilight speak for the first time in forever. Not transmit her thoughts, but speak. For the life of me, I couldn't understand the words, yet knew from whence they came.

"Va'hatah, hamilchama hagedolah bainaynu ba'ah l'suf."

She was speaking to Discord in his native language. A language that had been dead for countless eons before I had even been born. This was... uncanny.

The words seemed to echo in my mind, and my body shook with every syllable. Every letter was like a hammer pounding on my eardrum.

I knew now why Discord never spoke his native tongue.

The very letters that made up the language were blasphemies against nature. It felt as though the air around me had somehow been profaned from the words staining it, and that the fibers of my being had soaked up that profanity.

Then suddenly, the world grew silent. The roar of the flames, the screaming of ponies, the thundering of hoofbeats all in one instant ceased. Only one singular sound pierced through the veil of silence.

A low, painful gasp.

I opened my eyes as much as I was able, and saw Discord gasping, as something bright and ethereal flowed from his eyes and mouth. A second later, he fell to the earth, still and unmoving.

I feared he was dead, but his head slowly lifted up, just before he vanished in a flash of purple light.

The sky began to grow dark, and I watched with a mixture of awe and disgust as a cloud of Changelings descended upon Twilight. There must have been thousands, if not millions of them, headed by their Queen. They swarmed around the goddess, striking with magic, fangs, and chitinous hooves.

She didn't even flinch. Through the black sea of carapaces, a single shaft of violet light arose, reaching high into the atmosphere and beyond my line of sight. This line expanded into a ring, and then expanded outwards, like a ripple on the surface of a lake. In its wake, the Changelings dropped like flies. Those immediately around her fell instantly, while those further out had a few extra seconds before their inevitable death.

All that remained was their Queen.

She looked broken, utterly defeated as she watched her hive perish. It was hard to tell at this distance, but I could have sworn that I saw tears in her eyes.

The Queen without a kingdom let out an earsplitting scream, channeling her sorrow and rage into a powerful burst of magic, delivered directly to Twilight's chest.

Nothing.

Chrysalis was thrown suddenly to the ground, just before Twilight brought a hoof down on her skull, crushing her like an insect.

Then, Twilight turned to me.

I tried to fight.

I tried to run.

I tried to scream.

Nothing.

"I'm not going to kill you."

My entire body went numb from her words. It suddenly dawned on me that it was not Discord's language that had disturbed me so.

It was her voice.

"Not yet."

It was a single voice, and yet it was many voices. It rang out at a volume I scarcely could describe. Like tens of thousands of shouts ringing in my ears in perfect unison.

"You and Discord started this, and plunged Equestria into madness. Its only fitting that all of Equinity should watch as you die."

Her eyes suddenly bored deeply into me, and I felt an intense heat ignite my body. I screamed, and this time my mouth remained open. Through my mouth a viscous, ethereal fluid began to flow. I recognized this feeling.

It was the feeling of magic flowing from one's body.

I tried to resist, but found I was rooted to the spot. Just as suddenly as it had began, it was over. My magic hovered in front of me for a second, then fell into the dirt where it vanished. Before I could even react, Twilight was gone.

I lay on my back against something cold and hard. Gone was the fire, the injured ponies, the charred homes and ashes. In their place was a marble throne room, now fitted with only one throne.

I lay there for what felt like hours. I knew I could move freely now, but I had lost the will to do so. My body was aching, my head was swimming, and my magic was gone. What was there left to fight for? The right to die?

I looked to my right, where Discord now sat. He glanced down at me, sighing softly.

"Took your magic too huh?"

I nodded.

Discord laid on his back, assuming a position similar to mine.

"What I wouldn't give for an ice cream sundae right about now."

I am Princess Luna.

I am nothing.
> I Am Prince Blueblood
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

What use did a pony like me have in this strange new world?

It was a question I'm sure everypony was asking nowadays, yet I had asked it of myself nearly every day since the incident.

What was the point of Princes anymore?

Before all this madness fell, I had been a diplomat. A representative of the Canterlot Royalty to the nations abroad. But now, what was I?

Most ponies here would say I was nothing.

Some in fact might say I always had been inconsequential, a mortal pawn in a game of gods.

But I wasn't raised to believe that. I had been bred as a Prince, told that one day in the future I would inherit Equestria as king. I had been told again and again that whatever I wanted, I could have. Provided you had a way to get it of course.

I was raised to believe that a lone pony could stand against insurmountable odds and still overcome. Well, now the odds were stacked against me, and the way I saw it, there was only one option remaining.

I had to do the impossible.

It was do or die time, not just for me, but for all equinity. Either we acted now , or we would sit quietly and slowly watch our world wither and die. It was the fundamental question that defined life. Flight, or fight?

I would rather fight for that last fading glimmer of hope than die sitting on my flank.

Shining Armor and I entered Ponyville around noon. At least I assumed it was noon. It was so hard to tell with the sun frozen in place, but I digress.

The town had been nearly leveled. Buildings had been reduced to rubble, houses had been shattered into splinters, and trees burnt to cinders. The ponies who had inhabited this town didn't look much better. A few were wailing over the death of loved ones, and some cried softly for their lost homes. Most however, were silent. They simply didn't know how to react, and so they didn't. They simply sat amid the crater that had once been Ponyville, trying to wrap their minds around the situation at hoof.

They were confused, heartbroken, and afraid. Their ruler, the very God they served, had just crushed their homes and slaughtered their families. And she did it all without a care in the world for them.

They needed somepony to take charge.

They needed a leader.

I strode quietly to the center of down, kicking aside dead changlings as I went. I ignited my horn, infusing my magic into my voice as I spoke.

"Citizens of Ponyville!"

In an instant, all eyes were on me.

"You and I have next to nothing in common. I am a prince, a noble, a stallion of wealth and class. You are...for lack of a better term, the proletariat. You are workers, artisans, teachers, and parents. However, we now have one tie that binds us. Both of us have lost everything. Each and every pony here had a dream; whether it was to rule Equestria or make enough bits to open a new sweet shop, we all had something we strove for. Now, all of us have felt the sting of seeing that dream wither and die before our very eyes. Now, we have nothing.

"So I ask you: If we have lost everything, then what have we left to lose? Some of you will answer that you still have your lives. But do we really? Is a life lived in fear, uncertainty, and in the shadow of a tyrant really a life worth living? Would you want your children to grow up in this sort of world? A world where at any moment, the very God they revere could crash down into the midst of their city, smashing their house and livelihood? Or worse, smiting their family with arcane flames from the heavens?

"No. That is not the sort of world I was brought up to believe in, and its not one that you ought to put up with. We have nothing to lose, yet everything to gain. We have a choice to make here. Either we can sit here amid the rubble and feel sorry for ourselves and sob about how much the world has changed, or we can journey to Canterlot and make our voices heard. We can hope for change, or we can get up and make that change happen. I've already made up my mind, what about you? Are you just going to sit around and hope I change things?"

A wave of approval rippled through the crowd. What began as murmurs had risen into shouts and cheers.

For one brief shining moment, I was the prince I had been bred to be.

"We will march on Canterlot, and perhaps we go to our death. But when history remembers this day, let them know that our march was not one of sorrow and despair. We will march will all the confidence and bravado we can muster. Beat drums, sing songs, and raise cheers as we walk. For we march not as lambs to the slaughter, but as ponies into a bright and glorious new future! Citizens of Ponyville, we march to freedom!"

And march we did.

Through fields, rivers, and hills we went. Music and song and laughter filling the air as we trekked. Ponies played flutes, drums, violins, and tambourines, joining together with a symphony of voices joined in anthems of joy. Ponies danced as they walked, stepping in time with the beat. Despite all that we had been through, there was still one last shred of hope buried deep inside of us, and having found that shred, we clung to it.

Perhaps we marched to our death. After all, mere mortals going up against a god was impossible.

I am Prince Blueblood.

And I believe in the impossible.
> I Am Shining Armor
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

This entire plan was madness.

What could we do but futilely hurl ourselves against the wrath of God? Had Blueblood forgotten that she had nearly killed him in that Canterlot throne room? Had they all forgotten that Twilight had killed not one, but two other gods in her quest for power? Did they forget that she had killed our loved ones?

This was a time to be grieving, not celebrating.

This march on Canterlot was nothing but a fools dream. Even if there was a chance for us to succeed, it was minuscule at best. Why were so many willing to put their faith into something that was, quite frankly, impossible?

I was a soldier. I had been Captain of the Guard for years now, and had seen action against both Griphons and Changlings in my past. I had fought and served and bled for my country both at home and abroad, and I was certainly not one to give up without a fight. However, we were ill equipped for any sort of combat.

These ponies came unarmed. I suppose you could give somepony a mean slap with a tambourine, or break a violin over their head, but it was no substitute for a blade or polearm. Glancing around, I swore I was the only one with the foresight to hold on to my sword. Even if they had come armed, what use would it have been? These ponies were not soldiers. They were farmers, soapmakers, mail-mares, and other mundane workers. They had no training, not even to the level that a militia might. Without proper training, they would scatter at the first sign of conflict.

We were trekking to death, and yet we moved along like a parade. Was this any way to remember those who had fallen? Was this how Cadence or Celestia or the countless others who had died wanted to be remembered? It certainly was not.

If nopony would remember the dead, I would. I did not sing. I did not dance. I merely held tightly to my sword and marched in silence. If I was going to my death, then I would face it as a soldier ought. I determined to face my death with dignity and with my eyes wide open.

I had been preparing for this day for a long time. When I had first traveled to Canterlot so many months ago, I had come with the intent of either avenging Cadence or dying in the attempt. In the end, I did neither. However, every day since then I had been mentally preparing myself for death. There wasn't much physical preparation to be made. My parents were nowhere to be found, my sister was out to kill me, and my wife was dead after all. No, the preparation I needed to make was all in my head. Getting my attitude in line, debating what my last words ought to be, and girding myself for the possibility of intense pain just before release.

Blueblood's speech may have been well worded, but in the end, isn't that all it was? Just words?

Princes have a way with words, but Princes do not fight wars. Wars are fought by soldiers. Soldiers armed with spears, shields, swords, and canons. Not words.

So there I was, the last vestige of sanity amid a world gone mad. Then, somepony tapped me on the shoulder.

She looked young, probably no older than my sister. Blue coat, silvery mane. She smiled up at me from beneath a tattered, star studded wizard hat.

"Dance with me?"

I shook my head, looking away from the mare, yet she persisted.

"Why not?"

"Because none of this makes sense! We're walking to face down with an invincible goddess and what do we have? We have music, dancing, and a bunch of giggling fillies. Our enemy can kill us with a thought, and decimate cities with a glance, and nopony but me even has the sense to come armed?"

In an instant, my sword had flown from its sheath, suspended in midair by my magic.

"This. This sword here? It's won wars. Tell me, when was the last time that a war was won with dancing?"

She was quiet, her eyes moving slowly over my blade. She pointed to a rather large notch in the steel, quirking an eyebrow slightly.

"Your sword is chipped here. Looks like a pretty big one too. What happened to it?"

"That chip there is from hitting Twilight's foreleg with the blade. Nearly shattered on impact. It was like beating a sword against a wrought iron beam. It didn't even phase her."

"What makes you think that this time it will?"

I opened my mouth to reply, not no words came. What could I say? I didn't exactly expect it to work, yet still, to try and fight was certainly better than the alternative, right?

"That's the thing about a sword. If you put enough armor between it and its target, the blade can't cut or pierce. But joy? Laughter? They're contagious. Doesn't matter if you're behind steel plate armor or just a wizard hat and a robe. It'll go right through it. Besides, do you really want to live out your last moments feeling sad and hopeless?"

I fell silent. I took a deep breath, then let it out in a sigh.

"Alright. Just one dance."

And so I danced. I let all my sorrow, all my fear slip away, even if for just a moment. I felt something well up in my chest, something warm and soothing. I laughed out loud, whirling and twirling to the sound of the music. For a brief moment I glanced down at my hip.

I had forgotten my sword.

I am Shining Armor.

I am a slave to sorrow no more.
> I Am
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am.

For two simple words, it packed such power. It was a declaration of existence, yet also a declaration of authority. One could say," I am a soldier", or "I am a chef", or even "I am a god", yet they all implied a lot of life that I was now far above.

I was beyond life.

Beyond death.

Beyond gods.

In its simplest form, I am.

Equestria was already a fallen nation. She fell when Celestia did months ago. When she gave her last gasp, so did Equestria. Now it was my job to pick up the pieces and reforge her. Like iron, I would melt this world down, heating it until her impurities withered away. The hammer would descend upon her, beating her into submission, then placing her back into the furnace to heat again.

With enough forging and enough heat, what had once been a nation of raw iron would become one of steel.

Of course, first two certain "impurities" had to be removed. If there were two things I could not tolerate in my new nation, it was chaos and rebellion. Order, structure, logic, and justice would be the forces that guided my nation, with myself at its helm. Equestria would rise again, like a phoenix from her ashes.

A stood outside on my balcony, overlooking Canterlot. A group of ponies were on their way to attempt to cast me down. They would fail.

Nothing could stand against me.

Not ponies. Not Gods. Not the universe itself.

I could stand within the depths of the sun, but I would not burn.

I could stand within the depths of the sea, but not be crushed.

The very fabric of reality seemed to bend to my whim. I was beyond divinity, beyond...everything really. I was now a force of existence, just like entropy or gravity. My very presence was palpable, as though I exerted a gravitational pull around myself. It was...exhilarating.

And yet, despite all this, I knew one thing for sure.

I could still be killed.

Despite all the protective spells, powers, and weapons my mind could conjure, I could still die. Not from age of course, but from a lucky shot. Somepony driving a dagger through my neck as I slept, or perhaps a being emerging from Tartarus could turn out to be of equal strength with me, or somepony could get creative and invent a whole new spell against which I had no defense. There were a whole myriad of ways that it could happen. After all, Celestia must have thought herself immortal just before I killed her. Same with Cadence. They couldn't die through natural means, but somepony could still kill them, and in their case, it was me. What was there to stop another pony from coming along and murdering me?

Nothing.

Nothing at all.

Even if I was master and commander of all the universe, with every fundamental force of existence under my hooves, there was still a chance that I could die.

All I had labored for, all the blood I had spilt would have been for naught. I would not, I could not let that happen. After all that I had been through, Equestria was finally mine.

I would not let her be destroyed.

I had to crush this revolt before it even began. To nip it in the bud before it grew into a weed of rebellion. I had to do something that would utterly break these ponies, so that nopony would ever question my authority again.

I would make them bare witness to the death of their hope.

These ponies who must have marched for days to reach my citadel would be greeted by nothing more than the executions of Discord and Luna; the last living beings in Equestria who stood any chance of defeating me. One the last "true" goddess of the population, and one a false god of chaos who's reform had deluded them into believing there was hope for the old way of life.

The old Equestria had passed, and with the death of these two would see its end. The old Equestria was a kingdom built on harmony, and harmony was something that did not last. When the world grew rough, harmony was the first thing we lost. We turned on one another, leaving countless dead in our wake as we fought to keep ourselves from the brink of desperation.

The new Equestria would be built not on harmony, but on the shoulders of its god. I had stopped Discord, Tirek, Chrysalis, Nightmare Moon, and countless other beings that threatened Equestria before, and I would do the same again. Those who lived beneath my auspice would exist in a golden age of peace and prosperity that Celestia could only have dreamed of giving them. Those who stood against me however would burn like chaff from the harvest. Their ashes would be scattered to the wind, their lives only a distant memory.

So out onto the balcony I lead them. Two traitors facing down their imminent demise.

"I always imagined that when I died, there would be a bit more...pizzazz to it, y'know? This whole thing feels sort of underwhelming."

"If this is where it ends, then I want to say it was a pleasure to spend the last of it with you."

At the end of the road ahead, came the ponies I had been expecting. They did not march in as an army would, armed to the teeth and faces set as stone, but instead came as a parade, singing and dancing and playing instruments. They marched to their deaths.

I stood behind my captives, just waiting to strike.

A new era was about to begin. A great, golden era arisen from the blood and sweat and tears of god herself.

An era under the rule of only one god.

I am.
> We Are
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

We are.

No longer were we individuals. We now stood united as one. One nation, standing together against a tyrant god who dared defile that position. One people, who had lost so much at the hooves of this cruel and uncaring god. One single unified being who still remembered the reign of Celestia.

We still remembered how it felt to feel safe. We remembered how it felt to have the gods on our side. We remembered how despite her power, she remained kind and benevolent, not crazed and maniacal. Those memories still burned deep within us, and although we knew that we may never get back those days now, it didn't mean we had to settle for anything less.

We were the masses, the many, the multitude. We were legion. A throng of thousands facing down a single god.

We gazed up at her, perhaps partly in terror but mostly in awe. Something about her was distinctly off however. It was as though somehow her very shape was capable of reaching into the depths of our minds and filling us with an unnatural dread. Her eyes were ablaze with arcane knowledge, and her wings were spread behind her, feathers now appearing as sharp as swords.

Beautiful, yet terrible.

She moved a hoof, and a wall of flames sprung up from the earth ahead of us. The heat was enough to singe the hair from those closest to it. There we froze.

We were one people frozen in fear. Or rather, we had been.

Now we were paralyzed no longer.

We had seen past false gods, and understood the truth.

We had rallied around our friends, living and dead, in singular dedication against our god.

We had forgiven our former enemies, and had perhaps found new friends in the process.

We had faced death and despair, yet had the courage to laugh and dance once more.

We had shared with one another, both in pain and in joy, and gave of ourselves that others would never suffer as we had.

And above all, we understood now that magic, in its most powerful, rawest form, was friendship.

Within us were Honesty, Loyalty, Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, and Magic itself. Without these, what did Twilight have? Her spells were impressive, and certainly showcased godly might, but what power could they hold? Harmony may be frail, but it was something beyond us. Beyond life, death, and god herself. Against Harmony, Twilight was powerless.

We stepped forth into the sea of flames, and we did not burn. We exited the other side of the wall of fire, and not a single hair on our heads had been scorched. Our hooves tramped over the embers, as though we walked on cobblestone pathways. Magic without friendship was nothing. Fires conjured from a twisted and ruthless mind were nothing to us now.

The usurper's face contorted into a scowl at this. She swept her hoof once more, and a sudden wave of unseen force shot forth from her. The earth and buildings ahead of us seemed to ripple from the shock, yet it passed us by without harm. We felt a breeze pass by us, and we continued unscathed. As her spell passed us by, a thin barrier could be seen around us. Those who saw it, however fleeting their glimpse, never forgot the sight. It was a brilliant kaleidoscope of colors, flashing from blue to red to green to pink to colors that Equinity had no words to describe. It was as though the visible spectrum had suddenly been shattered, unleashing new color from within it.

The glow of Twilight's eyes faded, and she glared down at us. Her look spoke volumes. This had suddenly become very, very personal to her. She stepped forward, pushing Discord and Luna to the side as she leaned over her balcony. Her horn suddenly ignited with blinding light, as she sent massive bolts of arcane lightning streaking through our ranks. The electricity arced around us, staggering our march for only a moment. As Twilight glared down at us, thousands of eyes glared right back at her.

By now the princess' eyes began to take on a look nopony had expected. Fear. For the first time in what felt like an eternity, something was withstanding her. In an instant she had teleported from the balcony, and now stood ahead of us in the street. She unleashed everything she could. Fire, wind, frost, stone, lightning, and spells that defied all logic battered against us, and yet we were unfazed. We stood as one against her, with Harmony as our sword and shield. Nothing she could conjure, no spell she could envision, no weapon she formed could stand against us.

We were many, yet one.

One mind.

One spirit.

One body.

One nation.

One people.

One army.

Twilight stood, still helplessly flinging spells against us, her body trembling as she did. She began to shout, to scream, to curse the very people whom she claimed to serve. She was no god. Perhaps she never had been.

We had seen gods once. We had gods who cared for us, nurtured us, allowed us to live in peace and in harmony.

Twilight had brought death, famine, and destruction to our door. She was powerful, but she was not our god.

We stood now only feet apart, a people staring down the god they had once adored. It was now we realized how small she was.

In an instant, that same glow that had once surrounded Twilight surrounded us. A veritable rainbow surrounded us. Not just six ponies, but thousands joined in Harmony. It felt warm and peaceful. In that multicolored illumination we stood shoulder to shoulder. Both those we loved, and those we had lost united. From a fallen Prince to the last goddess of Equestria. From the smallest filly to the lord of chaos himself. We were in that very moment, Harmony defined. Our colors rose into the heavens, filling the sky with a light brighter than any star, just before it fell to earth, covering Twilight in its glow.

She screamed.

At first she screamed in agony, her horn and wings disintegrating amid the flurry of colors. Slowly however, her scream began to change. It became one of sorrow. She wailed, tears streaking down her face as though a wellspring within her had been tapped. She fell, face down in the dirt, sobbing and blubbering like a filly. The light soon dissipated, leaving only a crying Twilight in its wake.

We stood and saw her now as she really was. Not a god, but a child. Her eyes opened, and she looked up at us through eyes thick with tears.

"What have I done?"

Her voice was scarcely above a whisper as she choked on her own words.

"I can see them. I hear them. I hear their voices. Calling out for me to stop... What have I done? Gods, what have I done?"
> Epilogue
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I can't move.

I can't speak.

I can't do anything really, save for summon up the strength to eat a meal every once in a while. Even then its always the same thing. Some soup and a little bread. I can't seem to keep down anything else, and even this I barely stop myself from vomiting up.

Everyday I do the same thing.

I sit in my cell, but I'm not alone. In here with me are Celestia, Cadence, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and countless others who I don't recognize, yet understand what fate brought them here.

I killed them. I killed every last one of them. I killed them all without even a second thought, without hesitation, and without remorse. I had cut, burned, crushed and impaled them, all with the same care and effort that one gives to crushing an insect. I had likened some of my best friends in the world, with whom I had shared numerous stories and adventures, to insects to be squashed.

What sort of monster was I?

"Hello? Hello Hello Hellooooo? Is this thing on? Anypony there?"

"I'm certain she can hear you loud and clear darling."

I could hear their voices. Voices I recognized, and had once silenced.

"Twilight... Why?"

"C'mon sugarcube. Talk to us. Why did ya do whatcha did?"

"You're wasting your time. She hasn't opened her mouth for like, two weeks now. She's probably just ignoring us."

"I dunno how she can ignore us! I mean I've been talking nonstop for almost three days straight! I could always try to go for four days? How about that? Four days sound good to everypony?"

"Please Twilight. You were my student once. Can you write a letter perhaps? If you won't speak, perhaps writing things down would be easier."

I tried to cover my ears with my hooves to keep out their voices, but to no avail. They rattled around in my head, burying themselves deep into my brain and digging up horrid, bloody images of what I had done. Rainbow Dash slumped in a pool of blood. Rarity with a metal pole stuck through her torso. Pinkie Pie's battered and broken face, still trying to smile defiantly at me.

She had been one of my best friends, and I beat her with my bare hooves until I could scarcely recognize her face.

"Please talk to us Twi. I'm your sister in law for crying out loud! You're not going to feel any better if you don't talk about it."

"C'mon just talk already!"

"I'm here to listen i-if you need me."

"Please Twi? We're just askin' for an answer here."

"I'm gonna keep on talking until you do Twilight!"


Celestia's corpse, fresh and pocked with shards of glass flashed through my vision, followed swiftly by my blade descending and severing Cadence's head. Fluttershy and Applejack lay in a heap of charred, blackened flesh. My nostrils could still smell that room. The faint metallic odor of dried blood, the overwhelming stench of decay, and undertones of smoke and burnt hair practically choked me as I grit my teeth, trying to fight back the urge to vomit.

More sounds, other than the clamor of voices soon assailed my ears. I could hear screams, both of the ponies I knew and those I didn't. I could hear the ghastly popping and bubbling of flesh set ablaze, as well as the soft burst that accompanied the explosion of their eyes. I heard the cracking and splintering sounds of bones snapping. I could hear the tearing of flesh and the gurgling of blood in the throat. I could hear the coughs and gasps of dying ponies, struggling to fill their lungs to no avail.

I heard my own words echoed back to me.

"You are nothing to me. You never were."

"You're trying to kill me. You're no friend of mine, traitor."

"Why are you smiling?"

"I am magic!"

I closed my eyes tight, but visions of the blood I had split still haunted me. Ponies crushed beneath rubble, ponies choking to death on smoke, and ponies wailing over the death of their loved ones flashed endlessly through my eyes. I tucked my head low, trying in vain to avoid the memories, yet they persisted nonetheless. I saw the sun and moon whipping through the heavens on courses I had sent them upon. I saw myself, eyes ablaze and wings extended, silhouetted against the bright corona of the sun. Something deep within me knew that I was... wrong somehow. Something deep within my gut instinctively feared what I saw, despite it being my past self. I began to sweat, to thrash, to scream, all in vain as the vision of myself overtook me.

I was beautiful, yet terrible.

I was an abomination. A freak of nature. A disgusting blight on a reality that could scarcely contain me. It was terrifying to look at, and my body began to quake with fear. I wasn't a goddess. I was an atrocity.

Harmony had forced my eyes to see myself as I really was, a loathesome, terrifying being who had brought nothing but pain, death and misery upon the world she sought to reform. In the same way, it forced me to relive my actions, over and over again day in and day out, the sensation feeling as though I was right there in the moment once more.

It made me sick.

I fell to my knees, retching up the contents of my stomach onto the floor of my cell.

And I knew tomorrow and for every day that followed, I'd do this same thing.