> The Pegasearch
>  by The Dashie
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> 1.The Return
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	It took a while for everyone to get over to the school, which was where I told everyone to meet. I knew that we all lived kinda far from each other,but that the school would be a good meet place, considering we were all considerably close to it. Pineh was my neighbor so catching up with him wasn’t really a problem. He came over the very next day from the day I had called up everyone and Rainbow Dash, Pineh, and I came outside and met in between our yards. We kinda just stood there for a moment, staring at each other, and then Pineh broke the silence by asking, "So, what’s going down now? You told me, as well as the others I’m guessing, that we have to go look for Scootaloo, but I need to know details, and I’m sure everyone else will want to too.”
It was about to start then Rainbow Dash said, “Well, here’s what I think happened. Apparently,since Scootaloo adored both myself and ol’ Dash here, she had nopony to look up to. She has no family, or so I’ve been told, so the only ponies she really had as constant members of her everyday life were Applebloom and Sweetie Belle, but they just weren’t enough for her, so now she’s getting us to come back by hiding in some elaborate hiding place, and now we have to go back there and draw her out that way Princess Celestia, or if she or anypony else won’t, I can smack some sense into her.” 
“Ya, I had the same thoughts too. It’s just that, while she and I were imprisoned in the Rainbow Factory,” Rainbow Dash cringed at hearing ‘Rainbow Factory’. “She didn’t seemlike the pony that would just run off and hide herself just because the two most important people in her life left her. She seemed like she would go to lengths to find new friends or embrace the ones that were still around her. The fact that she’s gone missing is very bizarre.”	
Pineh took that for what it was, and we were about to start walking off when Pineh’s grandmother came out and did what she usually does: Starts talking to me like I’m a superstar and Pineh is just a stalker,and she asks me to come in and have some of her traditional drinks. Now I’m not going to pass up an opportunity to have some of Ol’ Granny Chama’s Raspberry Tombo, so I stepped in with Rainbow Dash and Pineh, who looked annoyed as ever with the treatment I was getting. Now Granny Chama can’t make traditional tombo for me because it’s alcoholic, but she gets close most of the time, and I know because she let me try traditional, real-deal tombo and it was crazy. I tried the non-alcoholic version and it tasted like liquid heaven; it was like somebody had taken fruit of some garden in paradise, gave it to Granny Chama, and gave her a recipe for awesome tombo. Anyway I give some of my tombo to Rainbow Dash so that she could try it and see if she liked it and when that stuff touched her tongue, she looked like I did when I first tried it: In awe and taken away to heaven. It seemed like we could have stayed there for at least the night, but Pineh, along with my subconscious, told me it was time to go, so I thanked Granny Chama for the delicious tombo, took Rainbow Dash by the hand, and her, Pineh, and myself started to the door, and behind us, we heard Ol’ Granny Chama saying, “Have a good time, and Pinkroluei, don’t act weird around Dash-rafiki. I want him to come back and not have to feel uncomfortable.” Pineh only nodded and looked at me like I was his tormentor.
“Hey man, I can’t control who your grandmother likes or doesn’t like. I’m just glad she likes me, instead of being very strongly disliked like Raferty.” 
“Well,you have to admit;the time my granny spilled tombo on him was absolutely hysterical.”
Rainbow Dash seemed confused. “Why? What happened when she spilt that stuff, which by the way is delicious, on Raferty?”
Pineh snickered a bit and said, “Well, you see, my grandmother isn’t really the most coordinated of people. She has barely enough coordination to make her tombo. I asked the guys if they would like to come over to my house and have one of our hang outs there. They all thought it was cool, and when they all came over, my granny and I had made tombo for everyone. Well, my granny was bringing Raferty his glass, when she slipped and tripped. Now, she wasn’t hurt by it because she is a very strong woman, but the tombo spilled all over Raferty and he acted like Rarity would if anything liquid and colored got of her: Absolutely outraged. He started calling her klutz and making fun of her and just as I was about to slap him silly for making fun of my granny for a simple mistake, she did my job for me and b-slapped him in front of everyone. I couldn’t stop laughing, it was so funny. Raferty held his tongue after that and just sat in silence. I felt sorry for him but he had it coming.”
“Well, I guess that’s why he and Rarity share such a deep bond; they both have a freakish obsession with being prim and neat.”
It was about that time that I got a text from Malisty. It read,” Um… not to sound too pushy or anything, but can you please hurry up…I mean, if you wouldn’t mind?” Talk about representation. I texted him back that I had a tombo hold up. Anyone who knows me and Pineh knows that means that Granny Chama had held me back for some of her delicious tombo. He replied with a simple smiley face and “K.” I thought of something that I hadn’t tried since I got back from Equestria. I tried thinking of flying and as if I was a pro, I was flying in the air. Rainbow Dash saw me in the air and decided to join suite.
“Hey, you flying, little lovebirds. I know this might be a touching moment, realizing that you can both fly now, but it would be nice if you could, oh I don’t know, STAY ON THE GROUND SO I CAN KEEP UP?”
We laughed, but then I had a kinda jacked up idea. I went over to tell Rainbow Dash, but she seemed to have the same crazy idea. We both went at full speed and snatched Pineh off the ground, holding him by his arms. He started screaming all sorts of exclamations of surprise and anger and resentment but soon he calmed down and he just went along for the ride. It took us about 5 minutes to get to the school and by that time it was getting to be really dark outside.
We saw the gang just chilling on the school steps, and when we arrived it was the normal old welcoming party, saying hi, how are you, how have you been, the usual catch up stuff, but then, as Pineh had predicted, they all started asking for details about what exactly we were going to do in Equestria this time.
“Well, you see. Scootaloo has hidden herself from everypony in Equestria, and now Princess Celestia wants me and Rainbow Dash to come back so as to lure her out and be able to talk some sense into her.”
Twymond asked, “Wait, I had heard from Twilight that there we a lot of missing ponies because of what was happening at the Rainbow Factory, but I never heard of any search parties for them. Dash, do you have any idea why Scootaloo of all ponies would become a sudden search craze?”
I thought for a bit but the only idea I had was kinda farfetched. “I think I might be because of the fact that A. she was my fellow victim in the Rainbow Factory, and keeping her in safety would mean she could better testify against the Rainbow Factory’s closure and B. she was my second hand flier besides Rainbow Dash and having her around would be of great importance because of the fact that without her, I would probably still be in the Rainbow Factory and Rainbow Dash would still be under Discord’s control.”
Everyone nodded in agreement, and when all seemed quiet, Jack came straight out and said, “Well, what are we waiting on? We got us a filly to find.” I nodded and told everyone to join hands. As soon as everyone was together in holding hands, I thought of my amulet and Rainbow Dash’s and once I found the magic, I felt both myself as well as those around me lift off the ground and we then vanished in a cloud of smoke. The process of getting to Equestria was amazing because it felt like every little part of my body was being tickled and it felt really weird. 
We had arrived in Equestria in the same place I did the first time I came here, except this time, I, along with my friends, would not freak out when a pony talked to us because we had gotten that whole experience last time we were here. It seemed weird though because the park didn’t seem as vibrant as it once was, but I overlooked it because I had more important things to do. We got our legs working after that little experience of getting here, and we started straight off to Twilight’s place, because if anyone knows what Princess Celestia had in mind for us to do, it was Twilight. We got to visit all of the ponies we represented on the way there, which gave some new happiness to all of my friends. After each visit, however, each pony visited will follow along and keep the person they represented on their backs. Right before we got to Twilight’s, Applejack asked,” So, do you guys know what’s been hap’nin ‘round these parts? ”
I replied,” Ya we do, and it’s just so strange that Scootaloo has gone missing just because of me and Rainbow Dash leaving. It doesn’t make sense. Did Applebloom or Sweetie Belle say something to her that might have offended her or hurt her feelings?”
Rarity looked offended and said,” Mr. Dash, if may call you that, I myself am offended that you would even suggest such a thing. My sister, along with Applebloom, are very good friends with Scootaloo and they would never be that crude towards each other.”
Applejack nodded and said, “She’s right Dash. Those little fillies have a very deep connection. Ever since they met at Diamond Tiara’s cute-ceañera, they had the bond of being the only fillies in their class to not have their cutie marks. The fact that she has gone missin has left my little sis down in the dumps. She is sad all the time now since the Cutie Mark Crusaders lost their pegasus member, and I’m sure Sweetie Belle isn’t doing too good, now is she Rarity?”
“No, she fairs the same as Applebloom; depressed and unwilling to go anywhere or do anything. It’s really sad to see her like this, and I hope through both yours and Rainbow Dash’s reappearance, Mr. Dash, that she will come to her senses.” I nodded and Pinkie Pie had a really good idea.	
“Well, I know that we should look for Scootaloo for as long as we should, but I think a good welcome back party is in order so I’m gonna go set up at Sugar Cube Corner. Meet you there after you finish talking with Twilight.”	
“Ok will do Pinkie.” I called after her.
We went walking along and since Twilight’s house wasn’t that far away, we didn’t have to deal with an extensive period of silence. When we arrived at Twilight’s house, Twymond was the first one to say hello to her and hug her and talk to her and then Spike came in and, him being the only real “boy” of everypony, went to him first. He told me that ever since Scootaloo had gone missing, nopony wanted to send anything to either me or Rainbow Dash because they were too busy looking for her. I could understand this and once we finished, everyone seemed ready to go and meet at Sugar Cube Corner.
“We can get a full catch up session there.” Twilight remarked. I agreed with the notion because I felt that a party would be a good way to break some ice. However, on the way to Sugar Cube Corner, I overheard Rainbow Dash and Twilight talking about Rainbow Dash’s experience with being a human and how it was different from being a pony. I thought it was a nice sentiment because Rainbow Dash frequently mentioned my name, and most of the time it was compliments. There were a few insults thrown in there, but it was all in good fun, as I could easily assume. I felt like, from a reminiscent standpoint, I could see Rainbow Dash as her old pony form and it was a really huge eye opening experience because I had to officially accept the fact that, through not only myself, but most of the ponies in Ponyville, Rainbow Dash was the beautiful human being she was. It almost brought a tear to my eye,but right before it flowed, we arrived at Sugar Cube Corner. As we stepped inside, we saw how Pinkie Pie had been taking my advice and turned it into a style of party;punch bowls were everywhere and by everywhere, I mean absolutely everywhere: On the tables, on the chairs, on the floor, and even hanging out of the wall. It was crazy and all I could say was, “Dash approves.” Pinkie Pie could only smile, and I told her that the party was very cool,but I also told her that we needed a place to talk and catch up. She looked a little less happy, but none the less, she smiled and took us up to her room. I asked if I could help with cleaning up and she said she would take care of it after we talked. I couldn’t leave the mess as it was, so I told Pinkie Pie that I felt compelled to clean the mess, and she just nodded and we all started picking up most of the bowls, but I kept one because, hey, if Pinkie Pie throws a party, the least I can do is take part in it.
As we moved upstairs, Mrs. Cake came out to take her shift for the late night cake buyers. We simply gave her our salutations and went upstairs to Pinkie Pie’s room. We all settled down and started talking about what happened since me and Rainbow Dash left the scene, and most of the talk was of Scootaloo. It was, as put by Twilight, like right after the dust had cleared from my little stunt with turning Rainbow Dash human; she just vanished into thin air. Nopony saw her or has seen her, and nopony has heard anything from her. Everypony was talking about what they thought had happened and what they think would happen now that me and Rainbow Dash were back and just as we were going to start talking about something other than Scootaloo, we heard the doorbell ring and the opening of a door. Pinkie Pie pulled out her little tin can line and started listening to the exchange happening. I only heard a little gasp and some talking and as I heard hooves coming up the stairs, Pinkie Pie looked us and said, “We got a visitor.” As she finished her sentence, we heard a knock. I opened the door and before me stood the filly of the hour, Scootaloo.

> 2. The Filly
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	I knew it was Scootaloo because nopony in Equestria had her shade of orange in their coat, but at the same time, I thought it wasn’t Scootaloo. It seemed impossible for the pony before me to be Scootaloo. First off, she was as tall as any of the Mane 6, maybe even taller, even though she was just a child, and for the second and probably the most obvious reason, she was an alicorn, which is a pony that has both a horn and wings. In Equestria, you were either had a horn or wings, never both unless you were the sisters Celestia and Luna, which were of course only two ponies in all of Equestria. Now that Scootaloo joined the classification of ‘Alicorn’ the whole ‘only royalty can be alicorns’ thing was destroyed, since Scootaloo wasn’t royalty, but that wasn’t what I cared about at the moment; I cared more about Scootaloo herself. I was both glad and scared to see her. It felt like I was in a dream, and that Scootaloo being an alicorn was the dream’s main reason for being a dream.
“Hey everypony, long time no see.” said Scootaloo. Everyone was still too shocked for words. I knew they weren’t shocked because of Scootaloo being here, but that she was an alicorn. What amazed me was that she had a very unusual cutie mark. I looked like a drop of water that was rainbow hued, but I felt more interested in learning more about why Scootaloo had gone missing.
I shattered the silence by saying,” Scootaloo, what happened to you? You go off and vanish from everypony, you give everypony a worry to where Princess Celestia has to send me a letter telling me she wants me to come back so that you might come out of hiding, and when you finally do come out, you’ve not only established having a cutie mark, but you’ve mysteriously grown a horn, which is most literally impossible. You have a lot of explaining to do.” She started to tear up and making little sobbing noises, then she just let it all out. She just sobbed and just buried her head in her hooves and just sat there.
After a few minutes, she said through some of her sobbing,” You..guys ..don’t know how much.. I ..loved.. you. I was just.. so.. alone.. and I..didnt know what I should..do.” I came over and started rubbing her back very slowly, trying to calm her down and get her to be able to speak in a way that we could understand her.
“It’s ok now Scootaloo; me and Rainbow Dash are here now and if you would like, me and Rainbow Dash can stay here for a couple of weeks. Does that sound good?”
She just nodded and said, “Em-hm”. She may have been taller and bigger than the Mane 6 but on the inside, she was just a filly who needed to have some good love and kindness shown towards her. 
I succeeded in calming her down, which only took about 10 minutes, after which I said to Scootaloo, “Scootaloo, I will do whatever I can do in my power to help you, but you need to reveal to everyone what had happened. You need to tell them the whole and absolute truth about what happened while you were hiding. I will try my best to lessen the punishment that might be given to you, but if you tell the truth, and if what you told us is the truth, then I’m sure everypony will forgive you for the trouble you’ve caused.” 	
“Ok, Dash I’ll be sure to…” She never got to finish that sentence because before she did, a familiar sinister laughter permeated the air. A laughter that I had done everything in my power to erase from existence. The laugh was a chill down my spine. “Oh no. He’s found me. I told him I was going to start a new life and stop all the things he wanted me to do, but it seems like he has other plans.”
“Scootaloo, what’s happening?” Rainbow Dash asked Scootaloo. “What do you mean by ‘the things’ and who is ‘he’?” Well, I knew who ‘he’ was so I answered in the most serious voice I could.

“Discord. It’s Discord isn’t it Scootaloo?”

She nodded and everypony gasped and Twilight said, “But that’s impossible. We saw you destroy him with your Rainbow Flare. He was shattered to bits and pieces. How is he back?” I knew why.
“Remember how, right after I destroyed his statue, the shards began to form that spear shaped object, and how we heard Discord’s voice said, ‘If I must fall, then you’re coming with me!’? Well, I think that Discord, though is unable to hold a physical form because I destroyed it, is still able to hold a metaphysical form. In other words, he is able to retain a spiritual state in Equestria. The only thing that I find puzzling is when I used it on the pegasi from the Rainbow Factory, the evil side of them melted away. Why wouldn’t Discord then be utterly annihilated since he is nothing but evil?”
The voice of Discord answered me. “Well,little Dash, it seems you have most of the pieces, except you need every piece of the puzzle in order to put it all together. Little Scootaloo here must have forgotten to tell you a few details about why she had gone missing. Care to explain the truth, Loo-loo? I’m sure your friends will want to know the truth. I mean, why should you hide it from them? They shouldn’t care if they truly are your friends.” I was very, very confused, but if I knew anything about Discord, it was that if he was accusing someone of something, it was more or less true. He would sometimes dement the truth, but the fact remained that he still was telling the truth, which in this case was that Scootaloo was keeping some secrets.
“Scootaloo, what is Discord talking about? What haven’t you been telling us?” She went from looking shocked to looking like the most serious pony that ever existed. No emotion showed on her face as she told us the events of the recent past.
“Well, it’s a very simple story. After you guys left, I went back to the Cutie Mark Crusaders tree house so that I could start to accept what had happened, but I couldn’t. I wouldn’t. It was just too much for me to take. You had shown me the greatest kindness, even though you didn’t have to, but in the end, you became my second idol. I wanted to be able to be like you because you were a lot like Rainbow Dash, but you also had kindness and honesty and pretty much a great amount of every one of the other ponies here and the element of harmony they represent. I wanted to be able to be like that: Not focused mainly on one element, but a collection of all of them. When we were escaping, it was your planning, not mine, who saved not only me, but Rainbow Dash from being imprisoned in that damned factory forever. I felt like you andme would be very good friends, but when truth came out when you said you would stay here for Rainbow Dash’s sake instead of just for all of us, it tore me a little. You and I had been cellmates for well over a month and we even had some bonding time, remember? We spent day by day planning how we would escape, and how we would go to Princess Celestia and warn her of Discord’s plans and actions. We even talked a lot about how we could be very good friends if you decided to stay here. Remember saying to my face, ‘Well, I could stay here so that you and me can talk about a lot of things. It would be fun.’ What happened to that promise?” She didn’t give me time to respond and kept on going. “Well obviously seeing our idol in a romantic light got rid of that little thought. As soon as you sent me off to go get everyone in Ponyville ready, I knew that you had changed your mind about the whole ‘staying for the sake of talking to me’ thing. I went and did what you asked, but I just waited to see how things would go down. When I saw both you and every other pegasus, including Rainbow Dash, go off to fight, I felt lonely all over again; like I had only reentered that cell in the Rainbow Factory. It was when you had brought Discord back to Ponyville that I saw you again. When you destroyed him, I felt like the evil in my life was gone, but then Discord came in tried to kill you. I saw how you just stood there and let Rainbow Dash take the hit for you. I heard her scream of pain. I knew that she was gone, so I just started flying away. I came back when I heard and saw something big come out of Ponyville. I heard you scream, ‘I won’t let her go.’ You paused then resumed you sentence by saying, ‘Because I won’t have to!’ I was confused and mildly worried about you. I thought you had finally snapped. You were starting to become brighter and higher and at one point in time you even closed your eyes. I didn’t know why you would, but when you opened them again, they were white and they stared right at Rainbow Dash. You opened your arms to reveal your inner body and what looked like Rainbow Dash’s spirit came out of it. Then you fainted and Rainbow Dash gave a short moan and started crawling towards you, so as to lovingly embrace you. I saw that the place that Discord had hit her with that spear of his bodily shards was all patched up and healed; not even blood stained the spot. When she reached you, she crawled into your arms and passed out with a smile on her face. I left after that because I felt there was not going to be enough love in either of your hearts to spend quality time with me without wanting the other to tag along. I didn’t know what I was going to do next, but I flew away from Ponyville and into the Everfree Forest so that I might have somewhere to think.”
“It wasn’t for about a few days or so that I visited the hospital that you and Rainbow Dash were sleeping at before the others showed up. You looked so peaceful. I knew that you would be out for not much longer so I thought I would give you a hug. I did and I felt like this was like me saying goodbye for a while because I needed to have some good quality thinking time. I wanted to hug you for a longer period of time but then I heard the others come towards the room and I flew out the window of your room. I waited for them to leave, but from what I heard, you woke up and were rushing off to Rainbow Dash’s room, so I just waited outside your window waiting for you to return. After awhile I saw Rarity and one of your friends head out towards Ponyville, then I saw Twilight Sparkle and another one of your friends leave, and then pair by pair, pony and person left for Ponyville. I didn’t know what was going on but then I saw you and Rainbow Dash heading towards Ponyville. I was then intrigued so I followed right behind you and when we got close to Ponyville; I went over to where my fellow Cutie Mark Crusaders were. Applebloom looked at me and said, ‘Where have you been, Scootaloo? Me and Sweetie Belle were getting worried you had left the Crusaders.’ I was about to tell her what had happened, but then everypony was going towards the main square, and I saw Princess Celestia herself, along with you and Twilight Sparkle using magic, and Rainbow Dash was floating in midair. Rainbow Dash had said, ‘Then make me beautiful.’ I didn’t know what she meant, but then every unicorn in Ponyville, even Sweetie Belle, had their horns lit and I guess tried to help in ‘making Rainbow Dash beautiful’. It wasn’t until Rainbow Dash started glowing that I knew something serious was happening because I saw her hooves turn into things that looked like your hands and these things on the end of her legs that I guess were like your feet. Her face came in and rounded out and she started to have a nose that was small. When she had finally finished transforming, she just laid there. Everypony was putting clothes on her and when they finished, you came up to her and said something I couldn’t quite hear and then kissed her. I slipped away from everyone and left after that display of love. I knew that Princess Celestia had the power to send you home, so why wouldn’t you have gone home? I went straight away from Ponyville and I thought of going to the Everfree Forest again, but then a voice came into my head. ‘Poor Scootaloo. Now the ones you love are abandoning you to be here alone with no one to look up to.Well, I can help you feel better. I can’t talk to you here, but there is a place where we can talk.’ I asked the voice, ‘Where can I speak to you?’ ‘In the Rainbow Factory, my dear. You can talk to me in the Rainbow Factory’ I didn’t want to go back to the place that I had nightmares about, but I felt that if I was going to get help, I needed to deal with my fears instead of avoiding them.”
“I went to the Rainbow Factory expecting an angel or something holy but I found only the spirit of Discord waiting for me. I knew he couldn’t hurt me and that I couldn’t hurt him so I didn’t run. ‘Discord, what did you do with the angel? I was supposed to meet one here so that it can help me with my problems.’ He looked amused but didn’t laugh. Instead he just said in the voice I heard, ‘Oh you mean this angel?’ He went back to his original voice and continued by saying, ‘Yes little Scootaloo; I am the one who summoned you here, and don’t worry. It’s just you and me here. I know of the pain in your heart. I know of your loss of people to look up to, namely Dash and Rainbow Dash. I can help you ease your pain,but it will hurt at first and it will be horrid to you in every manner. Your body might not accept it at first, but it will get used to it. Oh little Scootaloo, I know that you might think of me as a monster, but really, when Dash took Rainbow Dash away from you, was he really any different? He didn’t even tell you about his plans, or for that matter, even look for you when all the dust had cleared. Hewent straight for the girl he rescued instead of the girl who saved his life in the first place. Had it not been for you, my dear, I’m afraid, Dash would still be here, and these old gears would still be grinding, but no. You decided to go along with his plans, even though you were scared to. Now I don’t hate you for doing that. If I were you, I would want to escape a virtual hell if I got the chance. In fact, I am impressed that you did so. Dash may have led you through it, but you did it nearly flawlessly. Do you know why I didn’t want to hurt you? I saw a lot of me in you, Scootaloo: Daring, different, not willing to go by society’s standards. You and I are so similar it’s almost frightening. I mean, yes, I have done things that were quite monstrous in nature, but put everything aside, and we are almost the same. The only difference I see is that you are a pony and I’m a draconequus. If I mean to say something, it is that I want to help you feel better and I have a way to do that.’ I was very conflicted. On one hand I had my basic knowledge that Discord was not to be trusted and that believing anything he said foolish, but on the other hand, Discord had opened up wholeheartedly, which is something I believe nopony would expect from the ‘big, bad, god of chaos’. It was touching to know that somepony, even if it was Discord, felt like they had something in common with me. I felt like he was acting more like a parent towards me than anypony had ever done before. At the time, I felt like I could accept him as my father. ‘Discord, I want to be happy, and if you can do that for me, I would be the happiest filly in Equestria. You’ve been more of a father to me than anypony. I am happy to say that I would like to stay here with you.’ If ghosts can cry, he seemed to. I knew that we couldn’t hug, but just the nod of thanks was sufficient.”
“It was then I started my ‘training’ for being happier. As Discord had said, it was hard at first. He had me do something I thought sounded repulsive at first, but when he explained it, I went ahead and did it: I drank spectra. I’ll admit I hated it at first, but after a week or two, I didn’t taste so bad.”
I had to interrupt her and say,” Scootaloo, that is the emotional essence of not only thousands of ponies, but, as I’m sure you’ll remember, myself. That’s like drinking their blood. How could you even think of doing such a thing?” 
She put on an angry face and stared me down and said, “Will you let me finish my tale or shall I just leave this place? Yes? Then stay quiet.”
“As I was saying, as the weeks went by, I began to find that the Factory had become a home to me. I would play in the lobby with Discord, swing on some of the lines that came down, and as the weeks progressed, I found that I was growing at a very fast rate. I was also starting to grow a horn, which, when I saw it, asked Discord why it was there. He simply smiled and chuckled a little bit and he told me, ‘Oh my sweet dear. This horn is coming from the spectra, as is your accelerated growth. You see the spectra is giving you the different symbols of difference for both pegasi and unicorns. You already had wings, so that part only increased your bodily growth, but the unicorn part started to form the horn now atop your head. I truly am proud of your endurance through this matter my little Loo-loo.’ Loo-loo. That was and still is his nickname for me. I called him Discordad because he was a father figure for me. It wasn’t until about an hour before you got here that I was going through my usual spectra drink, when I started hearing screaming in my head. I asked Discord what was happening. He responded by saying it was nothing and that he wanted me to try something new: bathing in the spectra. Now when it touched my lips, it felt like acid, so I was certain that bathing in it would be like soaking in lava. I told him that I didn’t want that type of thing anymore. He looked a little annoyed and said, ‘But I am the one who made you happy these past few months. It was through me that you were able to be happy, grow both a horn and in size, and look at your flank. It was through me that you have received your cutie mark.’ I looked and sure enough there was a little drop, but it was rainbow-hued. ‘You have only put upon me a curse and a burden. I will leave you here to rot.’ He cried after me as I left, ‘You won’t be free of me yet, girl. Just know that you aren’t free of me yet.’ I didn’t care what he was saying; I was getting out of there. It was harder now that I was bigger than I used to be, but I still managed with my new magical abilities. I had become an alicorn, which is a pegasus/unicorn hybrid. I was different in the fact that I was a hybrid. Only royal mares were usually the ones who were alicorns, and I wasn’t royalty. I felt like if I were to be seen by Princess Celestia, she would be appalled at how I had become like her. I heard that you guys had come back to Equestria and that you were heading to Sugar Cube Corner, so, without trying to be seen, I waited till you guys headed towards Sugar Cube Corner, and when you were all inside, I knew there would be a party, so I had to wait for a few minutes, but when I saw the light in Pinkie Pie’s room, I knew I should probably head in. When I opened the door, I saw Mrs. Cake there, getting ready for her late night shift, and when she saw me, she didn’t recognize me at first, but when she did, she said, ‘Oh my goodness is that you, Scootaloo? Where have you been, how have you gotten so big, and where did that horn come from?’ I told her, ‘Mrs. Cake, I need to talk to the people in Pinkie Pie’s room, but please don’t call the royal guard. Not yet, please.’ ‘Ok, dearie.’ After that, I went upstairs, knocked on the door, and you know the rest.”
After Scootaloo finished her story, I knew that I had all the pieces now, but I couldn’t put them all together. Why in the world would she drink spectra, which is basically the emotional blood of a pony? Why would she stay with Discord if she had a feeling that he was bad? She explained these in detail and both had the same answer: he said that he could make her happy, but still. Why would she do these things? “Scootaloo, I understand where you’re coming from and I know how you must have felt at the time, but the things you’ve done…”
“You know my pain? Really, Dash? You know the pain of losing someone who you looked up to because another person you looked up to took her away? That’s happened to you?”
I stumbled in saying, “Well, no but the point is…”
“Point? There is no point! You took my idol, my inspiration from me without even asking if I would be ok. You didn’t have to go back. You could have stayed here. Even if you didn’t spend time with me, at least having you around would suffice, but no. That thought didn’t even slip your mind.”	
I was getting mad. “Scootaloo, you are being so selfish. You don’t think I pained to have to leave everypony. I wanted to stay, but I went back because of my family.” I knew I had made a huge mistake by bringing up family.
“Your family? You went back for your family? Tell me something Dash. If you had magical powers, and still do, why not then just teleport your mom and dad here then? It wouldn’t kill you to start a family here. I mean you had Rainbow Dash, you could have had a home, or you could ask Big Macintosh to help you build one. You could have started one right here. I could have been the child and we just have lived here together, but you just had to have it your way, and go to your world so that you could have what you wanted. You could have forgotten your old life on earth and have just stayed here. I see that you and I must have different perspectives.”	
Twilight spoke up. “Scootaloo, I know you’re mad at Dash, and I know that it is hard for you to forgive him for what he did to you, but it’s time to grow in maturity and forgive and forget.” Right as she finished, Celestia’s royal guard burst in and Princess Celestia herself came in. Both the princess and the royal guards looked at her in a mix of both awe and fright.
Princess Celestia, still stunned said, “Scootaloo, what’s happened to you? How is it that you’ve become an alicorn? Oh my dearest Scootaloo, all that matters is that you are safe.” 
When she came close in order to give Scootaloo a meaningful hug, Discord disturbed his silence by saying, “Celestia, we all know that’s a lie.”
“Discord, is that you? How are you alive? Show yourself!”
Scootaloo looked mad and yelled, “Don’t yell at my father!” That took everyone in the room by surprise, even Celestia and the royal guard. I was so distracted by all the thoughts running through my head that I had noticed that both Fluttershy and Malisty were cuddling each other and shivering like nothing else. I felt like doing the same, but I knew that I should remain strong. Celestia looked confused when I brought myself back to the conversation. 
“Your father? Whatever do you mean Scootaloo? Surely you can’t think that Discord is your fa…”
“As a matter of fact I do, Princess. He been more of a parent to me than anypony in Equestria has. He showed me kindness when I was sad; he helped me become the big and strong alicorn I am now. What Dash said about me being selfish was right. I didn’t think of all he’s done for me. I haven’t considered that he gave me a home, that he had given me what I wanted to be happy: a parent.”
Rainbow Dash looked mad at Scootaloo and said, “Scootaloo, you’ve gone off the deep end this time. You expect me to believe that through all the things you’ve done that you are of great innocence? I have done many things for you and tried my best to be a good role model for you. Discord has done nothing but corrupt your mind and turn you into a different, less kind pony.”
“Who are you to call anyone out on what he has done? According to you, I’m just a waste of wings! Do you really not remember the end of my flight test? How I tried to talk to you and you only told me that I was just a waste of wings? That I had wasted all the hard work you had put into me? You mean those little sessions where you would ask me to do exactly as you do when you were doing extreme tricks and almost impossible things? Do you know how hard it was to look at myself in the mirror every morning knowing that by not mirroring your tricks, I was failing you? Do you not know the agony I felt because I wasn’t able to be like you? I looked in the mirror every morning of every day we practiced and I hated myself. You tried to show kindness when I failed and told me I would make it on my next try, and when I didn’t you told me to never stop trying. I still remember how you would give me these long pep talks about how this test would show to the judges of the test how well I would contribute to the society and reputation of Cloudsdale. I would get pumped up and at day’s end, I would go back to hating myself, unless I was actually able to perform a trick of yours. Then I would go home feeling good until I failed the next day. You could have tried leveling with me with some of your less extreme tricks, but no. I had to practice your tricks and your stunts. My opinion wasn’t part of the equation. I even practiced after we went our own ways. I practiced even to the point of making myself sick of flying those drills. It was agonizing and painful.Only now do I realize that it was for nothing, and I plan to have justice, but first,” she smiled and said to Discord, “Dad, can I have some friends over? It would be really cool if they could see what we’ve done with the place. Besides, there’s a lot more I want to be able to talk about.”She turned toward us and looked at us like she was getting ready to pounce.
Discord laughed and said, “That’s alright with me, just make sure you all play nice.” Her horn light up in a black hue and like her horn everything went black. I could still see and think, but it was darkness around me. I was about to call out for my friends but I couldn’t do it for some reason. I was too scared to. I just couldn’t form the words, or to a lesser extent, say the words I wanted to say. The next thing I knew is my head gets hit really hard, and before my mind goes blank, I hear Rainbow Dash scream in terror and the dark laughter of Discord filling my thoughts with darkness as I fell into a very deep sleep and started to dream dark dreams about my old imprisonment days in the Rainbow Factory.

> 3. The Darkness
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Waking up was a journey for me. It felt like everything had been a dream. It was like Scootaloo was still the same Scootaloo, Discord was dead, and everyone was all happy, but then I hear Discord’s laugh pierce my thoughts and I come to realize that all the things that had recently transpired really happened. I was still trying to get used to the facts of Scootaloo was now an alicorn, Discord was still alive and kicking, and that I was alone in the dark. It wasn’t until I heard moans and groans from the other ponies and my friends that I knew I wasn’t alone. “Is everyone ok?” 
Pinkie Pie was the first to respond. “No. I feel like someone spiked my punch too hard.”
I could help smile a bit, but then Twymond said, “Well, if I can guess what’s happened, we were kidnapped by Scootaloo, and we are now sitting in the dark. Dash, are you ok? I heard you grunt in pain before I got knocked out.”
“Ya I’m alright everybody. Is anybody hurt?”
Everyone seemed ok, until Rainbow Dash said, “Dash, I can’t feel my legs or arms or anything for that matter.” 
It seemed like she was just in shock or was just really numb and I told her, “Ok. Just try to rest for awhile. I know for a fact we are in the Rainbow Factory. I just don’t know what part.”
Jack replied with, “Well you don’t say. Scootaloo just happened to ask Discord if she could bring some ‘friends’ over.” I knew where he would have emphasized “friends” because he always emphasizes the obvious. I could only wonder why it would be that Scootaloo would want to bring us to the Rainbow Factory. It was an ideal place for torture, but if she wanted a less obvious place, she wouldn’t have picked the Rainbow Factory, because I’m sure that Princess Celestia would want me, along with everyone else, to be in safe and secure hands, unless it was her plan to bring us here and keep us as hostages. If this was true, then why not just put us in a magical cage, or something of the like, and just hold us there, instead of putting us in the cages of the Rainbow Factory since she now had the magical ability to do so? It all seemed so weird that all these things were happening all at one time. Everything was wrong and totally different. I’ve been a brony from the very near beginning, and I’ve never seen anything like this in any realm of the fandom. I’m sure the events happening now would change the minds of a few bronies. As my mind went into a frenzy trying to process of the current events, I heard a laughter that was very similar to Discord’s, but more high pitched and loud. At first, I didn’t recognize that it was Scootaloo, but when the darkness around us started to dissipate and we were all able to see what was going on around us, I looked at where the noise was coming from, and sure enough, there was Scootaloo laughing a lot like the person she so highly admired. Her horn was still glowing a little bit, but as she finished laughing, her horn also ceased in its activity. I looked around and saw we were all in separate cages and that each cage was guarded by an undead pony that was killed when the factory was still running. I looked straight at Scootaloo and said, “You have really done it this time, Scootaloo. You have really put yourself in a bad position. I hope you can deal with being sent to the moon, because I’m afraid that it will be a permanent relocation.”
“As a matter of fact, Dash, I welcome them to even try to come here, because when they do, my father and I will reboot the machines, and kill every one of you guys, one by one, so I don’t think the princesses could ever muster up the courage to try to rescue you because of the danger it would mean for you guys. For now, however, we can stay here and enjoy each other’s company.”
The evil presence known as Discord entered the room and said, “Well. My little Loo-Loo, I have a different plan for Dash. You see, through him we can get a lot of spectra, which will accelerate your growth even faster since his is more potent. I won’t kill him; I’ll just do what we did last time and make a cut in his arm and draw the spectra from there. In fact we could do both arms to get twice the spectra.”
“But father, you said that I could do what I wished for this occasion, and I don’t mind using regular spectra.We have enough to last me at least a few more yea…” 	
“I am your father and you will not disrespect my decisions! Is that clear?”
She looked down and said, “Yes, sir.”
“Good now where was I? Oh yes.” He snapped his fingers and in a flash I was on that dreaded table that hung above the bodies of those previously killed, except this time, some of them were moving around and moaning, and I knew that was due to either Discord’s or Scootaloo’s magic. Discord appeared and said, “Well here we are again. Isn’t it just like old times?”
I smirked and said, “You’re a real bad example of a father to her you know that? I don’t care what she’s done; it because of you that she did them. If she had given herself a week or maybe even a month, she would have turned out ok and would have dealt with the past, but you had to promise her happiness. I may not be Scootaloo, but right now, I don’t think she’s happy. You sicken me” and I spat in his face to get my point across. He turned from cocky to mad, or at the very least annoyed.
“Ok Dash. I see you aren’t going to take this like a good victim, so I’m going to make this a living hell for you.”
I looked him right in the eye and said, “Bring it on.” The knife lowered down and cut both of my arms at the elbow and then two of the spectra extraction things came down and went in. I expected the old visions I had of the ponies right before they died, but I’m sure Discord was going to keep his word and make this a living hell for me. When the things went in, I didn’t see the ponies dying, but a group of the people around me that I knew and loved, which consisted of my parents, my friends, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy, and Spike. It was like a wheel because it started with my mom, and I saw a way that she would die, which in this case was being burned alive. I couldn’t say or do anything, but only watch her burn and die. It turned to my father, who died by being shot repeatedly, and as the visions went on, every person or pony would die in a very vulgar manner, and Rainbow Dash was the last one, and I saw Discord pick her up by her hair, stare directly at me, smile, and after conjuring a spear, impale Rainbow Dash through the chest and bring the spear in and out of her chest, and all he did was laugh the entire time. In and out, in and out, in and out for what seemed like hours and all I could do was watch the death and mutilation of the person who I had loved. The visions started to fade into a distant nightmare, and I saw Discord smiling like the devil I knew he was. He looked right at me with a smug look on his face, and said, “Well Dash, do you like that little vision of yours?” I couldn’t respond; only shiver and curl up into a fetal position to try to forget the visions that I had seen.
> 4. The Plan
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	When Discord finally chose to put me back in my cage, all I wanted to do was just curl into a little ball, and hope that even coming to Equestria was a bad dream and that everything that has happened with Discord and Scootaloo and the Mane 6 was all just a dream and that I was still going to school and being picked on by Lance and all the other brony-haters, and that everything was normal. 	
Rainbow Dash was the first one to try and comfort me by saying, “Are you alright, Dash? We heard you screaming about how you didn’t want us to die and named us by name that you didn’t want us to die and you said, ‘No, not Rainbow Dash’. What happened to where you would say you didn’t want us to die?” I didn’t respond for obvious reasons. Well, maybe not obvious, but implied: I was still in shock of what I had seen in the visions I had seen while being drained of my spectra. I felt absolutely drained of any feeling. I felt no joy, fear, anger, pride, or anything of the nature. I felt like a dried up husk that was just…there. I felt like nothing mattered and that everything was pointless. It wasn’t until I heard everyone trying to talk to me that I snapped out of the funk I was in as I started to feel my emotions crawl back into my thoughts and actions.
The question arised again, ‘What happened?’ from everybody.
I said, “Well, it’s kind of hard to explain from a secondary point of view, but I had visions of everyone dying while I was getting the spectra drawn out of me. Everyone died in their own ways, but you, Rainbow Dash, died in the most repulsive way possible; Discord took a spear, pierced you through the heart, and brought it in and out again and again and again. It was downright repulsive how he could do such a thing in a way that was presented to me. I couldn’t move or say anything to the hypnagogic representations of all of you, so I could only watch the horror as it unfolded. I had to see every last detail of the deaths of each and every one of you as well as my parents and Spike. I just hope that I won’t be permanently scarred for this. I’m fine, otherwise. Everybody can rest easy in terms of wondering if I’m ok. I’m not saying that we have reason to calm down completely, but everyone can know that I’m ok.”
That playful little voice of evil rang out in saying, “Well, that’s good because then we wouldn’t have a fun time together.”
“Scootaloo, why do you do this? Why keep them imprisoned? It’s me and Rainbow Dash you want. Let them go.”
“Oh sorry, Dashie, but I can’t do that. You see, if they got out, then we wouldn’t have a lot of weight to our little hostages plan, now would we? My dad knows that he wouldn’t kill you because he loves me too much to do so. Ya he kinda wants to kill you for getting the factory shut down and took away his workers, but hey, at least you’re not dead yet.”
I thought I could just scream when a thought came to my head. “Well, Scootaloo, why don’t we have fun? I’ve been stuck here for some time. Do you have any games you want to play?” I looked around to see everyone’s response and, as I had expected, everyone was gawking at me and giving me confused looks that said, “How could you want to have fun in a slaughterhouse?” but I simply looked back at Scootaloo.
She smiled the most innocent smile and said, “Oh I have tons of games to play let me go get them.” She left and when she was out of earshot, everyone at once started yelling at me. 
Rainbow Dash started the train with, “What is wrong with your head, Dash? Did that vision you have mess your brain up that bad?”
Rarity added with, “I must agree to that. Have you gone absolutely insane? Scootaloo is gone. All that’s left is an evil alicorn who worships the… well, the devil.”
Jack just had to add “Well, maybe he’s just into crazy chicks now. Sorry about your loss Rainbow Dash.”
She laughed a little, but I told them all, “I have a plan to get Scootaloo on my side, but I need to make her happy. You’re going to have to do the same thing, Rainbow Dash. As long as she is happy with us being here and having fun with her and letting her win most of the time at the games she wants us to play, we just might be able to get out of here. We will have to go through Discord, but we’ve beaten him once, and we can beat him again if it is that he presents a problem for us.” After I had finished describing my plan to everybody, they all agreed to just laying low and letting me and Rainbow Dash doing what is was that we needed to do, which in this case was making Scootaloo happy with whatever it was that she wanted to do, no matter how childish or for that matter, barbaric. 
She came back with a ton of stuff such as board games and what looked like a tic-tac-toe board. “Here are all my favorite games to play. I hope you like board games because any other game I like to play would require you to be out of the cage and ol’ man Discord won’t let me do that.”
I smiled when hearing "ol’ man Discord" because it showed that she had at least some form of mild resentment towards Discord, which meant that there was some room to squeeze in. I had a thought that could make things even better. “Hey Scootaloo, wouldn’t we have more fun if Rainbow Dash joined in our games?”
“Well it would, but I can’t let you guys out of your cages, remember?”
I already had planned for that answer, and responded with, “Well you could always use your magic to poof her in here.”
“Oh yeah! Why didn’t I think of that?” her horn lit up, but it didn’t give off a black aura anymore; instead it was a rainbow-like coloration, which I knew was another improvement because it showed that the hatred she felt for us was gone,or maybe even her hatred in general had dissipated. It was like she had gone back to being the Scootaloo we had grown to know and love. Rainbow Dash and I had finally broken the barrier between us and Scootaloo so that we may persuade her to hold us in her favor without directly asking so. We had played loads of games like Equestrian versions of Battleship, Sorry, Monopoly, and more. I was amazed how they had so many games just like ours it was astounding. I felt like a little kid again where my family got together on a certain night, I have forgotten which ones, it was so long ago that we did it, and we would play simple board games and have a fun time. Scootaloo seemed proud of herself when Rainbow Dash and I let her win the games. I felt like I was giving candy to a little kid, but in this situation the candy was time playing board games and the little kid was Scootaloo. We had gotten into a groove of everyday Scootaloo brought her games, we played games for a few hours or so, we all got lunch ,which was basically mush, we played for a few more hours, had supper, which, again, was mush, played till we couldn’t any more, and went to bed, and the next day the cycle repeated. It was a good cycle, but if Discord is around, order will eventually be disrupted, and in a bad way. Discord hates order, and I use hate loosely. He absolutely loathes it. Order in his eyes is like a cancer: It grows and ruins his whole thought pattern, so I would have to guess that seeing our little routine playtime was like a living torture to him. I would think the only reason he was even allowing this whole pattern of life to occur was to keep it to where Scootaloo still liked him. I’m sure he knew that her loyalty to him was lingering, which is why I didn’t have any surprise when he suddenly took me for the usually spectra harvesting. It had become routine. Every month on the 13th, Discord would take me to the same little table, he would get two knives to cut at my arms, there would be visions of all my friends dying in the most appalling way, I would fake being depressed so he wouldn’t worsen my visions, and I would be put back in my cage. This little cycle has happened three times, because I, along with all the others have been here for three months, but this time was different and I’m guessing he had come to the decision that he would mix it up this time.
Before I was put on the table, Discord pulled me to a place away from everyone, and started to talk real business to me. He started with, “Dash, I know what you are trying to do to Scootaloo. You are trying to turn her against me. Well, I’m going to tell you this once and only once, so listen carefully: You will not succeed. I have tainted the spectra with one of my spells, which will give me the ability to physically, internally, and mentally control her. If I see any resistance, I snuff it out in the quickest measure of time possible. The only reason I still keep you and everyone else alive is because the spell has the same effect as my former one: if the person or persons she cares about most are gone, the spell will no longer have effect. She is fully aware of it and will not try to fight it. In fact, as of now, she still thinks that you are trying to be nice to her and be her friends even though she was so mean to you. The reason I know this is because when it is time for bed, and I tuck her in, she tells me all about how nice you guys are and how she doesn’t want this whole cycle of you playing with her to change. It almost brings up my lunch how mushy it is. Well, now that you know about almost everything, let’s get on with the harvesting. Oh, and Dash, I know that you have been faking.” I tried my best to hide my surprise, but I failed miserably, because my face, as I could guess, showed total shock and I started sweating like a pig. “Oh, Dash. You know a lot about me, being a brony, and all, or at least I think that what they’re called. You know that I am the very essence of chaos, so you should know by now that if something is out of place or out of the ordinary, that I immediately know about it, and you, my good sir, glowed like a firework. Well, enough talk. It’s time for harvesting.” I knew what was to come just not what it would be exactly. I knew that Discord would provide me with dreadful series of visions to see and I knew they would be horrid, but as we went through the processes that we usually did and I went into that vision state, there was nothing. It was just black.
“Ha-ha. Is this all you got, Discord? Is this the best that the great god of chaos can do? You must have lost your touch, Discord. If this is the new kind of “torture”, then you must be getting old.” I laughed to myself and just reveled in the moment, but I soon stopped laughing because things began to change. I was back on earth, but it was different. The sky was a crystal blue, almost like a teal color, but that was further off. Above me it was a very dark grey, and it almost looked smoky, like the sky itself was made up of clouds. I looked around and I was on top of a hill, looking out I saw a bunch of houses that seemed very country like. They were just basic houses, but things weren’t that level-headed, because soon coming out of the houses were some the most grotesque things I’ve ever seen: Humans that are mutated to have a horn, wings, and splotches of pony parts. One had two human like arms and two pony like legs and one of the arms was a pony from the biceps up, so that leg bent backwards. The rest were similar in this manner, but as I looked closer, I saw that they were both my friends and the ponies they represented, as well as Rainbow Dash. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, and I tried to shut my eyes, but they just couldn’t. They wouldn’t. It was as if a magical force was holding them up and open, or it could have just been Discord wanting me to see every gruesome moment.
I eventually hear his voice whispering in my ear, “Oh Dash. Poor, poor Dash. It must hurt to see the ones you love and cherish to be in such a state of disarray. It must hurt to see those who you pal around with and laugh with be in such a state of pain, because I assure you Dash: They are in pain. Do you know why I show you this little vision? It is because it is a vision of what is to come. Soon, oh so very soon, this little world I’m showing you in this little dream world of yours will become the earth that you have existed on for the past eighteen years.
"How did he know I was eighteen? My birthday was a month ago and only my friends and Rainbow Dash know when my birthday is, and no one wished me happy birthday, so how could he have known?" That was my least agonizing thought. Discord had said that this new demented world was going to be what earth would be, meaning that, as far as I could guess, the humans would become pony/human hybrids. I was both confused and scared at the same time. I was scared because of the gruesome effect of what he was purposing, but confused by how he was going to accomplish such a feat. “Ok Discord, I understand your schemes. I see how you’re trying to create a ton of chaos by turning all humans, and I’m guessing ponies, into pony/human hybrids. I just have one question.” I put on a really big smirk. “Just how exactly are you gonna do all of this?” I thought I had finally trumped the king of master plans by making him like an innovator instead of someone who could carry out those innovations. I thought that finally, I had disrupted the mindset of the god of chaos, but, as usual, he had to go laugh up a storm to disprove any thoughts I was having in my head. He was really going into this laugh because I thought he would literally die laughing, but of course, he was a spirit, so he was already dead.
“Ha ha ha, oh Dash; you truly are something special. No wonder my daughter chose you of all the people she could see.” That’s where I got confused again. Scootaloo felt like she was his daughter, but when she wasn’t around, he would treat her like another pony, like she was insignificant in every aspect of the word.

 “Discord, are you referring to Scootaloo?”

He looked so surprised at my remark, but then leveled out and said in a very sarcastic voice, “Yes, that’s who I’m talking about.” I knew now there was another spawn of Discord, which is basically just a spawn of Satan, but that’s not a very kind personification of the pony and/or draconequus. She might be a really nice…thing, but she got stuck with a really rotten father. “Anyways. Do you want to know how I am going to make this glorious chaos a reality? Well, my little homo sapien, you actually helped in its ability to become a reality. I had just thought of this when you first got here.”
“Me? How did I help in this grotesque vision of yours? You know as well as I do that I would never hurt my friends for any reason. I represent the element of loyalty, and I am loyal to my friends, so if you think I’m going to…”
“Oh blah blah blah, ‘I’m the element of loyalty’. Bleh, I don’t want to lose my lunch in a dream world, because believe me; it will stink like no one’s business. Oh, but there is one thing you must have forgotten. What have I been doing for three months on a certain time of the month? Something that involves you?”
“Well you’ve been cutting my arm open and…getting spectra. But what does that have to do with anything?”
“Oh, Dash. You aren’t piecing the parts together. Scootaloo said when it touched her lips, it felt like acid, and after she drank it for a while, she began to change, by becoming bigger, and growing a horn. Are you still not getting it? I’m going to mix the spectra of the ponies with the spectra you have unwillingly given, which I appreciate, and then shower it all over the earth, as well as Equestria, and it will mutate every pony and human into a freak of nature; at which time chaos will reign at last and forever."
> 5.The Sacrifice
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	“No! How could you do this?” I screamed in great rage. “How could you just mutilate every single pony and human in such a detestable fashion? It’s not just for chaotic reasons. There is another motive behind something that is that vile. Why are you really showing me this world, Discord?”
He smiled, not a sound left his face, and said, “Oh, Dash. For the first time in my life, I am actually telling the truth and you don’t believe me. The reason I am doing this is because I want chaos. Why is that so hard to believe?”
I was getting pissed by that point. “Discord, don’t you play games with me. Why are you doing this?”
He lost his happy appeal and said, “Dash, I really only want the chaos. I am actually trying to tell you the truth this time, and it is honestly hurting my feelings that you aren’t trusting me. Why everybody else tries to tell the truth is beyond me, but if a human can’t believe that the god of chaos only wants chaos, why should he tell the truth? I only want chaos. That’s it. That is my ultimate purpose in this seemingly infinite existence: To cause chaos. If you don’t want to believe me, that’s your problem, but I know what I want to accomplish from…” He stopped mid-sentence, and I didn’t know why, but then I turned around and saw something I never thought I would see before. It was a pony, but it wasn’t a mutant. Well, not a grotesque one. That innocent looking orange alicorn had somehow appeared in this vision world, and was walking towards me and Discord.
“Hey Dad. Hi Dash! What are you guys talking about?” Both I and Discord looked at her with total shock as it would seem impossible for her to be able to do what she has done.
“Discord, did you bring Scootaloo here?”
“If you can trust what I’m saying for once, then no. I did not bring her here.”
Scootaloo squeed rather loudly and said, “No he didn’t bring me here. I used my new magic to get here! I knew it was that time of the month again, so I experimented with my newly mastered magic and tried to enter your mind telepathically and see what you saw during the harvesting periods. What is this place? Doesn’t look anything like Ponyvi…” She turned her head and looked about; viewing the horror of this desolate land. I saw a tear come to her eye and she said, “What is this horrible place, guys? I don’t like it here at all. Let’s go home. I want to go home now, guys.” 
Discord looked at her and said, “Dear Scootaloo, this soon will be home. I am making a chaotic paradise for us. Wont that be good?”
She started getting angry. “No, I don’t want this. This is wrong. I don’t want all my friends to be all deformed and hurt like this. I want them to be happy and healthy and…to like me. They wouldn’t like me if my dad did this,” and she pointed her arm to the deformed pony/humans. “I want to be able to play with my friends. I like the thing that we have going where I can play with Rainbow Dash and Dash in their cell, and we can be a group of friends together. Why can’t we just keep it like that, Dad?”
“Because I think you would be happier in this new world. I had planned to spare Dash and Rainbow Dash so that you could be happy.” She still looked troubled with this. “No, that’s still not good enough a reason. What about Applebloom and Sweetie Belle? We are a team. I can’t just let them get turned into… well, them. I couldn’t bear it. I’m sorry, Dad, but I can’t let you do this.”
Discord looked at her with such a serious face, so serious it scared me a little bit.

“I believe you will.”

He then snapped his fingers, and Scootaloo screamed in pain as Discord’s spell was stilling her, but I could tell she was fighting it. “Dad, what are you doing? This is cruel punishment. What have I done wrong but spoken out against your vision which, by the way, is vile?”
“You have done more than that. You have openly defied your father in his work place and, while normal father's would just send their daughters to their room, I would rather kill the rebellion at the source. Plus I need you for another plan I would like to do. Actually, it’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while.” While he was saying that his voice went up an octave or two, which actually made him sound like a girl. As Scootaloo had finally been frozen, I see a magic aura surround her, a mist like enclosure forms around her, and blood curdling scream is heard, while through her body, the spawn of Discord arrives. I couldn’t believe what I saw at first, but there she was, with her purple coat, swirly eyes and her propeller hat. It didn’t seem real, but there she was; the daughter of the god of chaos, Screwball.
> 6. The End?
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	There she was, rising from the body which was sacrificed for her; the real daughter of Discord. I couldn’t hold back my urge to vomit, and I did so very profusely. I stared straight at Discord after I had gained my composure and wiped my mouth, gave him the most serious stare I could manage, and told him off. “You are a demon, Discord! I used to think you just liked chaos. I was actually accepting your plans as something you would be known for doing, but sacrificing Scootaloo, an innocent pony who you mutated into an alicorn, and a quite big one for a filly at that, just so that some random pony can be here? What is your deal man?” I didn’t know at the time that the pony that had appeared was Discord’s daughter, but right after I said what I said, I found out.
Discord himself looked astonished at what had occurred. He seemed stunned at the fact that Scootaloo had just been sacrificed to bring forth this new pony. After a few minutes, I got tired of waiting for a reply and said, “Discord, you barbaric freak of nature. Who is that?” 
He didn’t move a muscle or twitch an instant while saying, “That’s my daughter, Screwball.” I then had a little episode of disbelief. Discord had a real daughter and he had to sacrifice an alicorn to get her back. Now if Rainbow Dash died, I would see where I would go to some extremes, and I did, but I would never kill anypony to get her back; especially not a pony I loved. Discord may not have loved Scootaloo, but I know he had the smallest hint of compassion for her. Why was it that he would just let this new pony or Screwball as he had called her, come from the body of a pony which he had put in a lot of love and care, not to mention spectra, just to see it die and go away?
Screwball then spoke up by saying, “Oh, here we all are. The daughter of Discord with her father and her new partner.” I understood what she meant, but couldn’t believe it. “New partner? I just met you and you just met me. How are you so certain of me and how are you so certain I’ll even accept? I’m dating one of the best ponies, now people, ever to live by the name of Rainbow Dash,”
She didn’t allow me to finish. “Oh her. She’s nothing compared to me. You should date me Dash. I’m so much better.” That pissed me off a little bit because she was talking down about my girlfriend.
“Look here, you spawn of Satan, I don’t know how or why you are here, but I know for a fact that Discord wouldn’t preform a sacrifice that involved a living organism of any size. I also know that if he were ok with you being here, he would probably be hugging you into unconsciousness. All this brings up one question: Was it all you?
She really was the daughter of Discord, because their laughs were the same. She laughed for a good minute or two, then, after gaining her composure, said, “Oh yes Dash. Yes, all of my father’s plans were mine. Even though he cannot actually hug me, he would definitely try. You and I both know he cannot hold a physical form after what you did to him. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate you because of it. You had your own ideals at the time, and you acted upon them. I ask you now though to release those ideals. My plan to use the spectra to mutate every human and pony will affect every single one of them, even Rainbow Dash. She will be caught in this storm. So will your parents, your friends, the ponies they represent, the ponies in Equestria; everyone. Everything else will be ok, but everybody and everypony will become pony/human hybrids. I do this because I love you, and I know that I will be a better choice. I can make the world as I like it, and through me, how you like it. Wouldn’t you like that, Dash? You could get anything you wanted whenever you wanted it. All you have to do is love me back. What do you say?”
It wasn’t hard to think of an answer for that one. “Screwball, I understand that you want someone to love. I understand that it is kinda lonely being the daughter of Discord. I understand the loneliness that comes with that. Believe me, being a brony has taught me that, but I must decline. I could rule the world and all that, but all I would ever want is to be with my friends and family in Equestria with the ponies of Equestria. If I could have that and have you as a very good friend, then I would be absolutely willing to take your offer. I couldn’t accept that life if Rainbow Dash wasn’t in it; if it had to be looking like this,” and I pointed to the dreary scene.
The world around me began to fade, and I, along with Discord and Screwball, returned to reality. I look at my arms and they are completely grey. I look at my whole body and it’s grey. I felt so depressed. No, not depressed; empty. I felt void of any feeling, any emotion. I am pulled off the table by Discord, and when I look at him, he looks almost depressed. This questions me greatly. “Discord, what’s wrong? Your daughter’s back. You should be happy.” 
He shed a single tear of strawberry milk. “You would think I should be, wouldn’t you? She’s not her, Dash. Something has changed about her. I was originally just going to accept being dead and being a spirit, but then I found her in the spirit realm. She had died a few years back when some of my chaotic schemes got out of hand, and she accidently fell into one of the Factory’s grinders. It killed me inside that my daughter, who had sacrificed so much for me to be my daughter, had been ground into spectra. I couldn’t look at myself for a long time. Now she’s back, but she’s not her. She’s more…evil. You were right in saying I would never sacrifice a living thing for the pursuit of chaos. That’s purely her belief. Somehow, she was able to channel herself through me into Scootaloo with my magic, and use her body to recreate her own. Now she walks among us.”
“That’s some serious stuff man. I now have some deep respect for you. It would seem you have repented of your old ways.”
“I have, but now my old ways have come to haunt me.”
As he finished the last word, Screwball came to us. She looked right at me and said, “Well Dash; since you just want to be friends and not and not partners, I think I’ll have a little fun with yours.”
“No! Don’t hurt her! I will never forgive you if you do.”
“Don’t worry Dash. I won’t turn her into a hybrid, just back into a pegasus so that I can be the only pure human you will know.” That in itself pulled up a lot of questions.
“Wait, hold on a second. Your telling me that you have a way to turn everyone else into hybrids, as well as turning Rainbow Dash into just a pony and turning you into a human. That would mean you would need at least four different batches of spectra; one of pegasi, one of unicorns and pegasi, one of my spectra, and one of a mix of pegasi, unicorn, earth and my spectra.” 
She looked impressed. “Wow Dash. Your smarter than you look. That’s exactly what I have, and that’s exactly what I’ll use. I’ll use the one of your spectra on me to turn my human, I’ll use the one of pegasus spectra to turn Rainbow Dash back into a pegasus, and I’ll use the mixed batch on everypony and everybody else. You see? Great minds think alike.”
“Not in this case. Your mind is demented. Mine is just clever.” 
She shrugged off the insult. “Oh well, it doesn’t matter. Ooo and here comes Rainbow Dash now.”
I see Rainbow Dash all wrapped up on a vertical table 10 feet above me. “Dash what’s going on? Why am I tied up?” 
Before I could answer, Screwball said, “Well Rainbow Dash, you’re just going to be turned back into a pegasus. Oh and your friends are being turned into freaks of nature. Nothing big.”
After she finished telling Rainbow Dash the whole thing, she forces her to drink what I can only guess was the pegasus batch of spectra. Rainbow Dash flinches hard at the liquid going down her throat. “Blaugh! What was that horrible stuff? Tasted like really rotten milk and…wait. What’s happening?” I looked closely at her, and sure enough she was changing. Her hands were turning into hooves, her body was beginning to shrink back into its old form and the whole while she was asking me, “What’s happening to me, Dash? Why am I changing? Dash, please answer me; what’s happening?” To be honest, I myself didn’t know what was going on. It seemed so weird that it took all the unicorns in Ponyville, as well as Princess Celestia, to turn Rainbow Dash into a human and yet it only took a glass of Pegasus spectra to turn her back into a pegasus. As she finished transforming, her restraints couldn’t hold her anymore and she started to fall. I ran to catch her and as I caught her, it shocked me how she was now back to how she was before; light and easy to carry. She looked right at me and said, “Dash, what’s happened to me? Why am I back to being a pegasus? What was the liquid that one pony made me drink? Speaking of which, who was that pony and how and why is she turning our friends into freaks of nature?” I was still trying to think of all the answers to all her questions.
“Well, Rainbow Dash, that liquid was actually Pegasus spectra, which is what was used to transform you back to a pegasus. That other pony is Screwball, the daughter of Discord and she wants to be my only human friend, by which she will make a reality by making the spectra that is a mix of pegasus, unicorn, and earth pony, as well as my own, spectra, which will use to turn our friends, family, and every human and pony into a pony/human hybrid.”
She looked confused and only seemed to be able to say, “What?”
“I know it’s a lot to sink in, but I’m going to give her the slip that I need to get ready for this new world, at which time she will go to prepare herself by turning human, which should give me some time.”
“Time to do what?”
“Time to snag some of the pegasus spectra or should I get the alicorn mix?”
“Alicorn because we might need some magic, but you would change for me?”
I looked right into her eyes and said, “Yes I would. Plus I am completely drained of energy and the spectra would bring me back up to normal, and I kinda want to know how it feels to be a pony.”
She smirked at that and said, “Oh you and your brony thoughts.”
Screwball came back and as she did, I said, “Screwball, I’ve accepted that I will have to live in the new world, but I just ask some time to talk to my other friends before they are changed.” She thought about it for a second, or so I could guess from her visage, and she concluded that I would have ten minutes with them and that she then would prepare herself. Just according to plan.
I went over to where my friends were being kept and instead of individual cages; they were in one giant cage. I ran into that cage, and after being showered with hugs and love, I shared with them the plan that Screwball had come up with, as well as the explanation as to why Rainbow Dash was a pegasus again. After my explanation, my human friends started talking amongst themselves and told me at the same time, “Take the Mane 6 with you.”
Taking them with me wouldn’t be a problem; it would just take a few more doses of spectra, but that would mean that they would be here alone to be transformed into freaks of nature. “Are you guys sure about this? I won’t be able to rescue you for a while and I don’t know what will happen to you guys.” They all nodded. I couldn’t hold back the tear that fell for them and the sacrifice they were making. “You guys will never be forgotten.” I flew over to the tubs of spectra, got seven vials of the alicorn mix, brought them to each pony, and after saying our goodbyes to my friends, we drank up. I could feel my body transforming and changing; hands turning into hooves, legs curving and whatnot. I started to feel faint and I passed out.
I was on Earth. I knew I was dreaming, but it was still so real to me. I can’t explain how it felt. It felt like one of those things where you are in limbo between being awake and asleep, but never one or the other. I pinched myself and it didn’t hurt, but I still felt it. This was starting to weird me out, but something calmed me down and settled my nerves; a certain aura that was very familiar and…ancient. Like light itself was resting on my back. I looked behind me and I saw the source of my calm; Princess Celestia herself. I looked at her and she looked at me and to break the silence, I asked, “So what happens now?” She looked troubled, but finally put herself in her royal stature and gave her final words to me, at least for a while. She said, “Dash, I know you have done much for Equestria, as it has done many things for you, but now your world and ours is in trouble, we have already received a declaration of control of Earth as well as Horth. I cannot do a thing but accept this as it was given from within the Factory, where I know at least someone is still in danger. I know not of where you are or who you are with, but I leave you with this last piece of advice before I must surrender. Whoever you are and whoever you are with is not important. It is what you have with them that matters. It is better to travel with friends than with enemies, so make sure you care for whoever you are with, because a lack of friendship can turn a friend into an enemy. I have just received word that the Factory will be releasing a chemical that will turn every pony and human into a hybrid between humans and ponies. This will the last contact I will have with you…unless you save us. You and whoever you are with are our only hope. Now go Dash. It’s now time for you to be…

Awoken