We start our journey through the darkness just like Twilight’s last entry in the Epilogue ended. The Elements of Chaos are marching forward to attack ponies in Ponyville for trying to practice magic. Then we get a corrupted intro song about the fallen heroes and Discord’s victory. Apple Pie is one of the targeted ponies. Discord seems to have gotten bored with his old title and changed it into something new. Living in the “Chaos Capital of Equestria“ means mostly that Discord appears there quite often to spread his Chaos on the inhabitants. Sometimes this can make the victims more powerful for example by turning them into dragons but often it just kills them painfully. Sweet Apple Acres had become a rock farm but the inhabitants are just as stubborn as before and won’t stop their work, no matter what strange Chaos comes to them. Apple Pie is in Ponyville to help to sell this years harvest and learn some magic. She wonders if Angry Pie is a member of her family but neither the Apple nor the Pie family would change their names because of this. She likely doesn’t even know that Applejack is also a member of her family after so much time has passed and there is no hint of her original family name in her new name. Maybe Applejack prefers it that way. Then the Elements of Chaos arrive.

Apple Pie doesn’t even think of herself and immediately warns Puella, Caster and all Virgacorns (part Zebra and part Unicorn). Then we see that Rarity either got a strange new power from her Element of Chaos or her magic became a lot more powerful thanks to it. She forms rocks into pony shapes and sends them to collect even more rocks for her “family”. This wouldn’t be that bad if these were just some random rocks instead of the things painfully harvested over the course of one year. The young Earth Pony’s first reaction is to shatter the head part of one of these golems. But because they are a mere collection of rocks moved by magic this hardly phases it and it just strikes back and injures Apple Pie. Before it can kill her she is saved by her friend Magica, a Virgacorn filly. Her magic is powerful enough to knock Fluttercruel to the ground. Magica is not willing to ever run away again and several other ponies allow her example while others try to save their lives by running away. Angry Pie is butchering everyone without any reason and two magic casters can barely hold her back. Because of her Element of Chaos Fluttercruel is already recovering from the latest attack.

Then we switch perspectives to Twilight Sparkle who is really annoyed about her allies ruining her plan and her chance to read her formal declaration. She doesn’t care at all about the suffering and death around her and reads the declaration anyway until an object flying at her face interrupts her. Applejack complains that she is doing nothing to aid them and Twilight calmly proclaims that everyone was already dead when Fluttercruel and Angry Pie started their rampage. Fluttercruel and Angry Pie are the only ones actually enjoying the slaughter, Rarity wants to collect more rocks and Twilight was ordered to take part in the purge. Both Applejack and Rainbow Dash are here for different reasons. By now Twilight claims that her only function is to aid her master and bring order to his Chaos. Rainbow Dash tries to dive-bomb victims out of the path of the two murderers, Applejack starts to hunt some children and Rarity’s golems crush everything in their way. Then Magica tries to attack Twilight and actually managed to blow off half of her head. But even her Castlevania reference isn’t enough to stop the inevitable regeneration of her opponent. Without mercy Twilight tells her that all her efforts are futile and dislocates her shoulder and hip joints before throwing her to Fluttercruel and Angry Pie. Suddenly the villagers get support in the form of Changelings. These look more like the extinct Flutterponies and attack the Elements of Chaos with determination in the name of her perished Queen Cadence. Fluttercruel flies right at them but is hindered when Rainbow Dash uses her own attack to scatter their opponents around them. The Changelings take on the original forms of the fallen heroes and thanks to Discord’s darkness it is still hard to tell them apart. It seems Queen Cadence bestowed a special kind of magic on them, so that Discord can’t simply effect them with his Chaos. It was likely Harmony, since Cadence was the Alicorn of Temperance and Harmony. But this doesn’t save them from physical attacks. And it is extremely ironic that in this timeline Cadence ended up usurping the position of the Changeling Queen, before meeting her unfortunate end. But her subjects still love and honour her.

Apple Pie immediately rushes over to the dying Magica. She admires the strong will of the Changelings but knows that they have no chance against the Elements of Chaos. Angry Pie and Fluttercruel did mutilate her friend, cutting apart her Cutie Mark and have likely ripped out her horn. Magica apologises for failing her friend and around them are countless dead Virgacorn foals. The Earth Pony briefly wonders if someone betrayed them but she has no idea who, just a few suspicions. In a heartbreaking scene Apple Pie tries to cheer her dying friend up and she actually succeeds and Magica laughs one last time before passing away. Meanwhile Twilight is taking down the Changelings one by one and Rarity finally notices their new enemies when one attacks her. As Twilight tries to catch the fleeing Virgacorns her force field is shattered by Rainbow Dash. Even as countless Changelings swarm Twilight they stand no chance and are barely able to distract her and her powerful magic. Then the rebels suddenly get more support by Hippogriffs. Twilight is frustrated that no matter how many rebel leaders they take down, the resistance doesn’t end. Angry Pie charges at them without hesitation or a plan and a surprise attack injures her and sends her flying out of the battle. But Twilight is only slightly annoyed that they have lost a fighter for some time. Rarity is going mad with paranoia about losing her worthless rocks and starts to fire objects with telekinesis at everyone. Now Twilight has to protect herself, Rainbow Dash and Fluttercruel from her attacks.

After the battle ends when the surviving rebels retreat after losing countless friends and allies, Twilight starts to reanimate the corpses of the fallen to hunt down their families and friends. By now the rebels are used to that. Fluttercruel got impaled by one of Rarity’s attacks, while Rarity is too busy with her rocks to care. Angry Pie did miss the rest of the battle and attacks one of the undead and Rainbow Dash is just sitting in a corner, thinking about what she had done again. Applejack manages to do what she wanted to do. Twilight sees Apple Pie but doesn’t remember her and both Fluttercruel and Angry Pie try to kill the foal the first chance they get. They are interrupted by Discord himself and Apple Pie actually laughs about his horrible joke. It likely happens very rarely that someone laughs about his jokes on their own free will. Both Fluttercruel and Angry Pie try to murder her but Discord orders them to stop. While the others have to hold the insane Angry Pie back, Fluttercruel seems genuinely hurt by this order. When asked the filly tells them that “even in the darkest of times you hav'ta find something to laugh about!" This even manages to make Discord laugh and only enrages Angry Pie further. For a moment it seems that the Draconequus misses the cheerful Pinkie Pie that also laughed about his jokes, instead of the uncontrollable lunatic Angry Pie that would even attack him if he laughs. Discord orders them to retreat and to make sure that Angry Pie doesn’t hunt this foal down. When he learns Apple Pie’s name he laughs even more and Applejack is shocked to find another relative of her. Discord even heals her injured ribs for making him laugh. But he leaves the scar of Fluttercruel’s attack behind as a reminder. The Elements of Chaos can only stare at this scene until the Draconequus reminds them to leave immediately and Twilight teleports them away. Now he is alone with the foal. We don’t know what happens next.

Overall this was an extremely dark chapter that shows how the Elements of Chaos fulfil their “duty” and how miserable the life under Discord is for mortals. We learn a lot more about their new characters, especially Twilight Sparkle’s and how they seem to be unable to break the resistance against Discord for good. We also see that they are absolutely horrible at teamwork and hinder each other much more than the rebels around them. But because of their immortality and their healing factor they still seem absolutely invincible in battle. Nothing the rebels do seems to be able to effect them.

Keep up the great work!