Pony POV Dark World 21:The Real Hoof Blues 1/2

My Little Pony: Friendship of Magic Friendship
Pony POV Series
Dark World Part 21 1/2
The Dreaded Next Scene Of the Big Knot

Spike dug the rubble away like a dog. He didn't know where Rancor had gotten to, but he could keep an eye on AJ, Derpy, and Apple Pie from here. Even though Rancor had been very specific about who she wanted to fight, he wasn't going to 'assume' anything about Discord's sister. He glanced over at them again.

"AT LAST!" AJ declared covered in sweat, immortality didn't do much for exhaustion. But at least it was done. That's all that mattered. And at least she knew now she could heal severe injuries singlehoofedly, even if it was harder than herding cattle through a thunderstorm.

Derpy had the right number of hollow bones again and without hesitation flew to help Spike.

"Ah'm gonna help too!" Apple Pie said good as new.

"No."

"What?"

"Ah can't risk ya goin' toe ta toe with them monsters. Yer voice is the best weapon ya got, and ya don't need to be in clawin' distance fer it to work."

"What? You know I can help!"

"And you aren't gonna help if ya pretend yer immortal!" Applejack looked at the hurt expression on her little niece's face. "...Apple Pie...look...the Valeyard? He was flesh and blood. Yah could kick him in the face and he'd feel it. It was dangerous, but yah could still hurt him. There ain't nothin' yah can do ta hurt Rancor, Spike figured out a way, but he's got the muscles ta pull it off. Take it from me...don't write a check your legs can't cash."

Apple Pie settled. "But...how am Ah suppose ta help?"

"Yer whole logic bomb thingie might be useful on Pinkie Pie and Fluttercruel. But both of 'em are too dangerous for yah to take head-on. And Apple Pie... don't stop thinking positive. Yah keep our hope alive."

"I'll try to bust through!" Derpy offered.

"No!" Spike shouted, "You go help Twilight! I've got this!"

"Got it!" Derpy didn't even hesitate and flew towards the castle's inner meadow.

"Now where's miss Draconequus-Sue gotten off to?"

----
"I activate my trap card! Reflecting your attack right back at you!"

"HA! I activate my trap card! Negating the attack!"

"That's just what I wanted you to do! Now I can summon this!"

Rancor gave herself a pat on the back. Teleporting to the other side of the world, and soaking up the passionate vengeful fights between two rivals in Neighpon made a good quick recharge after doing an impression of Swiss Cheese after landing on Spike's spikes.

"Friendship: The Gathering," She chuckled. Anarchy's right. Mortals will get revved up over anything. Look, mom! No more holes!"

She took one more look at her brother's handiwork. Reminded her more of Pandora's style. The giant monsters weren't even fighting and the little pony shape slime-things kept trying to hug her!

She really had to get back now before those ponies managed anything.

----

Spike was surprised to hear somepony else digging up from inside the collapsed hole in the tower's roof, he immediately focused on that spot. He detected the faint trace of her wonderful scent. With a speed that made moles envious, he was soon looking into her beautiful eyes.

"Rarity!" He plucked her out of the hole and hugged her with all his might.

"Spike," Rarity replied warmly.

Spike looked about cautiously. "Where's Fluttercruel?"

"I took her Element of Chaos," Rarity said in the most even, concise voice possible.

"Oh." It was almost funny, he knew their chances of saving all the old gang were about zero, and he knew Fluttercruel was just Discord's spawn child wearing Fluttershy's skin. But it was still shocking that his Rarity had done the deed. "Well... ding, dong, the witch is dead. Right?"

"Indeed. Where's the Draconequus?" Rarity asked, likewise looking around.

"I don't-"

"Hey! Agalmatophiliac! I challenge you for the dragon!" Came Rancor's sporting voice from behind.

Rarity glared over Spike's shoulder. "Forget it patchwork-girl! He's mine!"

"So you accept my challenge!"

"That isn't what I-" Rarity looked around, "Spike, where's Derpy and Twilight?"

"Angry pulled away Twilight for one-on-one soon after 'Cruel did the same with you. I asked Derpy to help her."

With a sound not unlike that of a ballistic missile Derpy's form was shot into Spike with the force of a cannonball, making him drop Rarity.

"Welcome back," Rancor said in the direction Derpy had been shot from.

In the twilight light, Angry Pie stood on her hind legs, looking deadly serious, but without any of her normal animal rage. Around her neck was a six-pointed black jewel. "One down. Five to go." The pink pony breathed.

Everypony gasped. Spike's heart skipped a beat, and he turned towards his team's two truth detectors.

"Rarity! AJ! She's lying isn't she?!" 'No...p-please no...not her...please...' He'd just got her back after a thousand years...he couldn't lose her, not again.

"No," Rarity said lowering her head to the ground. "She isn't."

++++

No...No...please...not her...not Twilight...I...I should've gone after her instead...Rarity had Fluttercruel finished before I even got there. I should've known she'd handle it! I should've gone after Twilight! I should've known!

I...I should've known, Twilight, I wasn't... wasn't trying to choose between family and romance, I wanted to save you both, I'm sorry...I'm so sorry...

I looked up at her pink killer, tears blurring my vision. The butcher who had murdered the pony trying to help her!

++++

Spike's rage erupted like a volcano. His roar left everypony's ear ringing. He stomped forward, teeth bared, his body language showing every intention of eating me. Rarigreed stopped him with one hoof gently in his way.

"Twilight's gone?" She asked me evenly.

"Gone forever." I fully expected Rarigreed to shift to into a killing state for that. So of course the world plays a joke on me and she doesn't.

"Spike, if you love Twilight, don't eat Pinkie."

"I wasn't going to EAT her," Spike growled. "Fluttercruel always regenerated inside their stomaches when dragons ate her, and carved her way out. No... I'll chew her up, not swallowing and sift those out Elements from her body, like bits of eggshell from an omelet. Then I'd spit her pulpy remnants onto the ground like the ugly thing she is, and give the Elements to you, Rarity."

"What... charming imagery. But while I would like those Elements of Chaos, Twilight wanted Pinkie saved. Please, Spike... think of Twilight."

It was asking a lot of Spike... but he held back from attacking me.

"Although, Pinkie... we will be needing Twilight's Element of Magic to free the world from Discord. Please hoof it over, and stand aside. I won't force you to fight alongside us, but you needn't fight against us."

"Oh, brother! You expect me to believe you're not angry, Miss Iceberg? I can smell it on you!"

"Oh, I'm furious! And sad. But the cruel truth is that Twilight's right. You are just lost in the fog. Discord's taint of chaos has you trapped and blinded. And I certainly didn't emerge from my fog without a fight. So I'd be a hypocrite to condemn you to death."

She's making a joke out of me. But my attention was suddenly drawn to the two Earth ponies: Liarjack and Apple Pie. The filly's eyes were welling with tears fast.

"Half-Light." I see her teeth clench. I feel it, the spark. That's it, little filly, that's right, little Element of Laughter, let those tears turn to rage... unless you get mad, life will just walk all over you and those you love.

But Liarjack cuddled her, softly whispering her usual lies in the young one's ear I can't hear from here. And that tiny spark of rage vanishes! Count on a liar to protect such a giant lie as Laughter. What lies did she feed her?! Poor filly lost in the fog.

UGH! I-I promised Discord I'd kill her, no, he promised to bring back my foals if she and the others were dead. No, he said if the rogue Elements were 'eliminated' he lives for stupid semantics. So you, LJ, selfishly want her to remain in the role of Laughter so I still need to-. Wait. Ugh! Wait! I -want- to kill her because she laughed at me! Right! But if she's seen how vicious the world is, does that made up for it? UGH! Can't think! Focus, Angry! What did it take to make these jerks see red?! Fluttercruel had merely needed to share her life story, and they were up in arms! Eh? Speaking of which...

"Where IS Fluttercruel?"

"I killed her and took her Element of Cruelty for myself."

" . . . stupid brat, getting herself killed. Discord doesn't have any right to be called a father."

+++

And with those ten words, Angry Pie had damaged Discord deeper than any other being in ten centuries had with magic swords or atomic cannons. Discord almost laughed. If anypony else had spoken, he'd have shrugged it off. Now he just felt so... tired. Uninspired. Funny how that worked.

+++

Discord's sister pulled out a little black book with Chaos and Harmony symbols on it.

"You don't think you've lost, even with your Bearer of Element of Magic out of the game. Hmmm. So you must have figured out the special trait to the Element of Greed, excuse me, 'Desire'. Or you're just putting on a brave face for your team. Either way, kudos."

"Quiet you." Greedity said sternly. Rancor complied. Some Spirit of Violence.

"I'm sorry, Twilight." Ditzy got up, shaking her head. "I was so focused on Discord's sister I didn't come for you sooner. I'm sorry. I failed. . . . I won't fail everypony else."

"You mad?" I asked icily.

Ditzy looked at me, defiantly. "I spent hundreds of years being angry at Discord! It didn't change anything!"

"Anger is the only way to change things. Turn around and go back to your foal. Be loyal to her, Element of Loyalty. I don't want to fight you."

"I CAN'T. Sparkler's still waiting for me up ahead. And I don't want to have to look Dinky in the eyes and tell her I betrayed the world for her sake!"

"Understood. I won't mock you by asking you to abandon your foal."

Truth be told, I was starting to feel a little anxiety. For all my power, there was no getting around the fact that I was outnumbered. Even if Discord's distractible sister spontaneously decides to fight with me to the bitter end, (yeah, fat chance) the odds aren't looking good for me.

Twilight's clinging to the past got her killed, guess we're a bit alike after all. Our friends, UGH, her friends probably aren't going to make her mistake.

Pound, Pumpkin, Powder, Firecracker, all of you. One of you alone could calm my anger. All of you together in my heart. . . UGH! Element of Magic, give me your power from the bonds between my foals and me. UGH!

"My magic, real magic, comes from within. It's a skill you're born with. Curses are artificial, fake magic. It's conjured with potions and incantations; all smoke and mirrors meant to scare. But curses have no real power, they're just an old pony tale."

Ugh! Is that particular sorry back-uped memory so strong, Element of Magic? Twilight, did you really believed unicorn magic was the only 'real' magic to the end? Or did you eventually wake up and pull your head out of your flanks? I'd always encouraged my foals not to be tied down by their species.

"Huge! For one thing, ahem, magic is something you study and practice. It only happens when you decide to do it, and it's meant to make something specific that you choose to happen, happen. With you, uh, it makes no sense at all!"

Yeah, you really know your stuff. Rarity's gem-locating magic had turned on by itself for the first time completely without her say-so; yeah, real good show of command. I had to raise Pound and Pumpkin from diapers, I had protect them from their own magic going wild!

You were arrogant, Twilight Sparkle. The strongest magic I've ever seen? It didn't come from 'within.' And it wasn't something I was born with. And it wasn't something I ever planned to happen. It existed between my foals and I. It grew between us!

Just like-UGH!-I thought-AGH!-it was-ERG!-between-AGH! Us in Ponyville? Stupid headaches! I feel sick. Feels like I'm gorging turnip, asparagus, and brussels sprouts all at once! This Element of Magic is just... so.... difficult!

My foals please! Give me strength just for a while longer. I don't need to see you to know you're there! Thinking of you all together... quells the wildfire inside me, it's dimming. Element of Magic, fill the void just for a little while.

Oh, BUCK! I completely zoned out! Huh? Idiots! Why're they all just standing around quietly, watching me with such stupid looks on their faces?!

"Discord!" I shouted. Nothing. I screamed louder, "I need to know! Your oath for my foals is on your family or whatever, right?! Completely, utterly unbreakable promise, right?!"

One of the stone panels on the wall transmogrified into a PA speaker.

" . . . yes."

Then the speaker transformed back. I had never heard Discord sound like that. I had no clue how to describe it. Not bored, not gleeful, not happy, not angry, he sounded . . . UGH! Why did it make me think of straight hair?!

URG! Feels like my insides want to become my outsides. Have to do this quick like in Samurai movies! Let's hope Twilight's Element of Magic doesn't go Valeyard and turn me into a copy of Twilight! Against so many tough enemies, I need the extra boost of power, but I won't let it devour me!

"Hey, uh... Pinkie?" Spike asked. "What 'oath' are you talking about?"

"None of your beeswax." I snapped.

"Looks like you're going to need some help. Want some?" The monster's sister asks.

"Yes. Please. Keep as many off me as you can."

The jerks look surprised I accepted help. I'm not worried. Discord never said I had to be the one who killed them. I don't know which ones Rancor will want to fight. They're all used to me fighting at close range. Ditzy will probably use her weather magic. Rarigreed might try Twilight's trick and keep me glued in the air. LJ and the filly are still on the ground rather than the castle roof, watch out for illusions and paradoxes. I'd rather not try to take on Spike until last. He's not like other dragons. Gonna havta wing it. Ugh. Keep focused. They're expecting you to be a berserker bear. Watch out for surprise attacks. Can't rely on Discord's sister to watch your back.

Okay. Pound, Pumpkin, Here we go.

(AN: Real Folk Blues, Cowboy Bebop)

I begin by firing a giant cream pie from a catapult right at Spike. He's hit dead center and goes flying with a responding splat. As Rarigreed's head turns in his direction, I slipped right next to her with a brass knuckle. She's forced to show her new ace and cuts her foreleg with a thin diamond blade. The blood transforms into a mare-long diamond scimitar which she swings at me.

Everything turns brownish and grainy.

I catch the blade between both hooves.

I hear a Neighponese theater call followed by the thunk of a deer scarer. A kanji symbol appears in the corner of my vision for one moment.

Colors return to normal and Ditzy tries to blindside me. I force the tip of Rarigreed's scimitar right into her flight path. She pulls up just soon enough to keep from being impaled in the head but not from getting stabbed in the stomach. Her pegasus instincts take over and she flaps backwards madly. I force down Rarigreed's blade. She uses telekinesis to lift it up, I use it as a springboard.

The world slows down as a I make a swan pose to keep balance as I kick her upwards in the jaw, time freezes for an instant before I kick her on her back.

Time goes back to normal. I feel like an invisible knife in my chest, but it isn't one of LJ's illusions. I force my body to go forward.

(AN: Kirby TV Channel - Main Theme)

"Did you see that, Brad?" Said the grinning stallion in the suit behind a desk.

"I certainly did, Tim! A smashing opening play! How about you, Couch?" Said another stallion, both speaking with the peppiness of used carriage salesponies.

'Couch' was a obscenely old pegasus, blind in one eye. He began to draw x's and o's on the screen behind him. He mumbled, "What you got here, is a total offense strike and a total defensive breakdown, that's what you got here totally, for a winning strategy ya gotta go for the gold, like my old maid said. Now what my ex-wife used to say was-"

"Good, Couch!" Grinned Brad like his mouth was glued that way.

"So, Tim would you say this was a totally crowning moment of awesome?"

"Totally, Brad! Totally! Let give 'er one!"

They then trotted off set and hoofed me a nice gold awesome crown.

Where did my crown go? Didn't matter. Was this what doing mushrooms felt like?

(AN: Devil Survivor 2 - Septentrion)

Spike kicked the cream pie off himself. Rancor flew towards him. Spike got in a judo pose. Rancor took a rigid draconequus shaped suit of armor out of nowhere, steely covered in spikes and with a little tag that read 'From Anarchy to Rancor.' She threw it straight at Spike and it stuck like a caltrop. Spike just grunted.

Then, from out of subspace, Rancor pulled a giant book titled 'Every Fairy Tale Ever: By Pandemonium 'Pandora' Desire Typhon,' looking ready to swat Spike with it.

I never saw Greedity move so fast, amplifying her gallop with telekinesis. Ditzy came up below and gave her a boost too. Rarigreed threw several diamond throwing-stars at Rancor, again boosting them with her magic. They didn't hurt Rancor, but it did throw off her swing, and the book missed Spike entirely.

Spike flew to catch Rarigreed, and she climbed on his back. "She's Violence, itself! You can't harm her directly! Try some kind of INDIRECT attack, or trick her into attacking herself somehow!"

"Crystal clear!" Rarigreed bit her fetlock and created a diamond shield for herself.

"Why do 'heroes' always think they're the only ones who can adapt their move-set?" Rancor sighed, "It's a shame. I really do love your music, but family comes first."

Then she dove BELOW Spike and Rarigreed and used her back claw to draw in the dirt. That crazy red glow barrier of hers rose up behind her as she tried to capture Spike like a fly. Rarigreed jumped off Spike, and slammed her shield into Rancor's face, knocking the mess of animal parts back towards her own barrier, but Rancor passed through it like it was hologram.

"My barrier didn't hurt me when I left you with the Valeyard!" Rancor jeered, thumping its surface. "Remember?"

Rarigreed clapped her hooves together as she landed on the checkered ground. The ground closed around Rancor like a bear trap, concealing and immobilizing her. Rancor reappeared behind Rarigreed and impaled her with one claw. "Brilliant, but no good to somequus who can teleport!"

Rarigreed slid off her and her immortality solved the rest, Rancor had missed the Elements in her body. The blood on Rancor's claw turned to heavy platinum and caused her to fall into the ground and bump her head. She grunted in pain from the impact. "Clever pony."

"Gravity isn't your friend, is it, darling?"

"Well I wouldn't say that, he's not such a bad guy."

I was suddenly electrocuted from all directions! LJ's camouflage illusion faded, and I now saw a determined Ditzy standing over me, atop several pink clouds.

Count on Ditzy to be able to stomp lightning out of a chocolate raincloud!

ERGH! I'd gotten so fixated on Spike and Rarigreed's fight with Rancor I forgot to watch myself! One of my foals could've been standing beside me wearing a shirt reading 'I'M WITH STUPID' and I wouldn't be offended.

"You won't lose, Mother!"
"Mommy's invincible!"
"Angry Pie! Angry Pie! Angry Pie! Angry Pie!"
"Keep yer eye on the prize!"

Got to give Rancor credit, by targeting Spike, she compelled Rarigreed to protect her most valued treasure. Incredible how quickly she'd gotten over Tom. Hussy.

At least I didn't have to worry for now about the only pony here with three Elements.

I bring out several party cannons, firing them in all directions, all at once, Ditzy dodges them, but she isn't prepared for the one at point-blank range she's suddenly looking down the barrel of. The impact sends her hurtling onto the castle roof, damaging it badly. I can feel the palace groan in pain.

Ditzy has one thick skull. She just gets drunkenly back up.

UGH! Pain again. No! Focus! Nothing matters if you can just win this! Just open the gates to paradise for your foals! What happens to me doesn't matter!

I close the distance between us in seconds, and drop the world's biggest cinnamon crumb cake muffin on top of Ditzy. She eats her way out of the elephant-sized treat like a Tasmanian devil. Joke's on her: I laced that muffin with poison joke.

Derpy tries to say something: traffic honks erupt from her throat. Her eyes spin in one direction, and she starts cavorting about in what is unmistakably a ballerina's pirouettes, her wings fluttering daintily. She tries to speak again: the car honks from her mouth become the tune of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake.

"So how does it feel?" I asked her, "Being a living, breathing punchline, completely against your will? Sorry. I forgot. You know already: it's your life. But you refuse to ever get angry, Ditzy! You let others use you as a hoofmat! Tell me! How different would your life have been if you stood up for yourself and refused to be their retarded foal?! How can you? How can you just let all the chuckleheads get away with misusing you like that? Grin and take it?"

I put a pink tutu on Ditzy as she tried to arabesque-kick me. "This is how they SEE YOU! Do you think you made your foals HAPPIER, when they watched you be the butt monkey every day?!"

Being unable to speak, Ditzy answered in a bizarre fusion of ballet mime like those seaponies and their opera. I titled my head, struggling to decipher her pantomiming. ?

'My... Actions? Prove. Others. Wrong? Not... Speaking? Not. Hurting? Huh?'

Headache! Head hurts. Chest hurts. My eyes are blurring! No!

"Why, Pinkie Pie? How?! Ah saw it and Ah still don't get it! How'd ya turn from an irritable grump at the beginning inta a rampaging warthog?!"

Liarjack's voice came from several directions at once. I wasted cannon shots on obvious decoys just in case she was trying to double-bluff me. LJ didn't have wings but she could still climb.

"It's not like I kept a journal! How'd Fluttercruel go from dumping water on baby dragons to cannibalism?! How'd Rainbow Dash go from ditching us to being Discord's crybaby hit-mare?! Time marched forward, and we all just slid further down the slippery slope, didn't we?!"

Ditzy kept dancing like a good ballerina.

"I wanted to be taken seriously! I realized nopony would ever do that as long as they kept laughing at me! So I discarded everything that made me seem ridiculous! After all, the laughter everypony enjoys the most is when somepony else is hurt! I hate you! I hate Discord! I hate myself! I hate being angry all the time!"

Uuuuugh! No. Pound. Pumpkin. Firecracker. Hex. Help me keep it together.

"I'm so sorry, Pinkie Pie." Her voice echoed, softly. "Ah kept helping ya justify being angry. Ah thought it was kinder than forcing ya to face the truth of... of all the ponies, ya, ya killed with yer own hooves. Ah lied ta mahself that the easy road was more kind."

"You can do it, Mom!"
"You won't lose!"
"It's alright! We're here with ya!"
"You can take on a million of 'em!"

"I never asked or wanted you approval, Liarjack. My hatred of you and everypony else here doesn't really matter anymore. Unless you're willing to throw away your new Elements of Harmony, you all need to die."

"Why? Time and time again, ya made it clear yer no friend of Discord's! Ya say ya want to be taken serious, but ya ain't makin' a lick of sense!"

"Discord's sworn that once you're history, my foals will come back alive and whole, and get their own private living space, apart from this Tartarus pit! Like the seaponies in Sky Ocean!"

"Sounds like yer fightin' fer the same reason as RD."

"Don't be dense! That coward just wanted to run from her mistakes! I don't give a flying feather about this garbage-heap world! I just want a place my foals and I can be together and happy forever!"

Stupid pain! Focus! Headache. Calm. Pain. Pound. Pumpkin.

"Pinkie Pie, Ah know ya feel all yer foals were good ponies. Let's assume they've all made it ta Pony Heaven. Ain't it selfish to drag 'em all back ta THIS place from PARADISE?"

I throw sewing pins at the surrounding cotton clouds, they begin to rain chocolate milk. I hate chocolate, the headache! Focus! I see the outline with the cowpony hat before she can adjust her illusion. Looks like she's done more than just watch the show while Derpy had her go.

I punch her so hard her jaw is pulverized.

"KA-POW!"

K.O.!

Angry Pie:
Remaining HP: 9000 Pts
Overkill Damage: 999800 Pts
Combos: 5000 Pts
Inner Strength Meter: 100 Pts
Total: 1013900 Pts
Grade: B+
"You're now twenty percent cooler!"

"Not all of us are as huge on death as you!" I tower over her.

This anger feels different somehow. Not bad different but, weird.

"I'm not so fixated on the hereafter that I forget what's happening here and now! I LIVE instead of obsessing on DYING!"

LJ begins to get up. I kick her in the head to keep her focus broken. I begin to impale her legs with some familiar black rods; that hadn't seen action since the days of that vile Queen Cadence. Try regenerating with THOSE through you. You won't be making any illusions so long as those are stuck in your body.

"When I die, it's going to be FOR something! If you're doing nice things just for a pretty payoff at the end of the rainbow, and not suffer some divine penalty, then you're just being selfish! That's what makes me stronger than you! You're weak! You're cowardly!"

" . . . yer takin' a red tomato and callin' it an apple."

"Ah yes. Semantics: what cowardly shysters like you always hide behind."

"Ah've . . . Ah've seen. A great Big Alicorn Guy showed me; no bluff. The warm light at the end... it ain't a payoff, it's a 'welcome home' present. And the other place ain't a 'penalty' for failin' a test score, it's the coldness and loneliness outside that light. And Ah ain't forgot the here and now! Ah'm tryin' to make this world a better place for everyone here! And it ain't WHAT'S waitin' for me! It's WHO'S waitin' for me!"

"Mom, we're here with you! Take 'er down!"
"You have all our power! Crush 'em all!"
"Break 'em!"
"Smash 'em!"
"Pound 'em!"

"Do you hear? My foals are calling to me." I ask LJ. What was with that weird look she gave me? Aren't her ears working?

"Honesty led to feelings being hurt, but being Kind led to Twilight dying. There is nothing left for you in this world, Liarjack. Unless I'm wrong." Her lip quivered. She couldn't think of a good lie. "Get rid of kindness LJ, how can something that killed a friend be good?"

"N-no," she whispered, she'd inch away if she could.

"Is it for spite? Because I'm the one who killed Twilight?"

"Please! No! Ah don't wanna be touched by Discord again!" She said fearfully.  

"That so? If you're not hating me like the rest because of Discord, instead of Twilight, then you really are just selfish."

"P-please Pinkie! It ain't-"

"I'm sorry. It's time to lay down with the dust."

And then a new voice speaks up.

"Ya... Ya know, Auntie, ya... ya say ya wanna be taken serious but yer so angry ALL the time! You say ya wanna be yer own mare, but ya let Giant Polka Pants Discord set the score and call the shots. Ya say Saint Auntie is dumb fer talkin' about Pony Heaven, but yer fightin' ta make a Pony Heaven for yer . . . for yer foals . . . All kindsa contrary! And if it's all contrary, how are ya gonna get anypony ta . . . take ya seriously?"

The filly. On the roof. She's sad. Her legs are shaking like leafs. But she's still laughing! It's faint, but it's still there. That hashes it. Brat's signed her death warrant. Ugh...why does what she said make my head spin? Don't think about it! That's how her powers work, ignore it! Don't be like the zombies! Uhhh.... So... SPINNY... my aching HEAD...

"Apple Pie. Run," Liarjack begs, still pinned and helpless.

She laughed. SHE LAUGHED AT ME!... She laughed at herself? No that makes no sense! Kill her! Confusion! Headache! Kill'er!

"Ah ain't running. Not from you, or from Aunt Angry Pie. Ah'm here for ya both!" She looked at me, as my world spins. "Half-Light... she wanted to save ya! Large Stripped Shoe Discord -made- ya all act this way! Ah bet he was even mind controllin' Fluttercruel too!" She was crying. "An', it ain't right ta just ignore Half-Light's wishes, just cause she ain't here. She wanted to save yah!"

"That kind of saving is called 'brainwashing'," I tell'er.

Rarigreed and Spike fly to the rescue, Rancor puts up her barrier between us. Thank you-. Then the two make a beeline for the inner garden; BAM! Another barrier. -Very much. Ditzy dances in my way, I toss a rose off the roof, the poison joke makes her leap off and catch it in her teeth, I clap and she bows in midair, before taking a long plunge down.

The filly exploits my distraction to help Liarjack. She does a better job than she did on Traitor Dash's chains, only one still pins her down by the time I'm back. Not that being free is going to matter. Those pillars should've drained her dry. By the time her Element has a chance to recharge enough, I'll have finished the job.

LJ grins as I thunder towards her, "Ah've always been laughin' at ya on the inside. It's silly how ya act like a five year old throwin' a tantrum."

I'll kill her! Wait! "Was that lying? Telling the truth? AGH!" The headache again. "I'm taking your Element next. Then your ghostly residue or whatever can keep Twilight's company."

"Yer not who Ah'm gonna give it to."

"Buck your mumbo jumbo!"

LJ smiled. "Now whose bein' pig-headed about things outside their personal 'What-Is-And-What-Isn't-Land?'"

"I hate being mocked! I hate not being taken seriously! I hate having to see my foals grow old and die one by one! I hate always having something to be hateful about!" No. No. No. Hold it together. The headaches. Worse than ever.

I need to place a ring of landmines around them, but I won't be able to focus if the anger's there. Worth the pain.

"Saint Auntie, get goin'!" The filly pulled out the last rod. Still got time, just focus. Forget the mines, I pull out a giant spiked mallet and get ready to swing it down on their heads. "Ah'll keep'er busy!"

"No way!"

"Ah'm sick of watchin' family die! No more!" The look she gives me. I-it...it's like...

***
The dragon held the upside black balloon shaped gem between his claws.
"That was too easy!" The bastard laughed. I couldn't move. "I wonder if you'll taste like cotton candy."

"YOU GIVE THAT BACK!" "Leave our mother alone!" I heard two echoes, a blue spell to keep me stabilized for just a little while a unicorn and a pegasus landed in front of me.

In his giant eyes, I saw Pound and Pumpkin's reflections. And for one moment, I was at peace. 'Cause I knew no force in Equestria was going to stop them from saving me.
***

"Sure, I'll abandon ya in just a tick. AH PROMISED TA APPLEBLOOM TA LOOK AFTER OUR FAMILY! AND IT'S ABOUT TIME AH KEPT IT!" LJ roared.

I felt a wave of fire wash me from behind knocking me over and making me drop the mallet, filly tackles her aunt out of the way, saving both their skins. Guess Spike and Greedity were too much for Discord's sister after all.

"Truer words you have not spoken in a thousand years," Somepony spoke behind us. I turned one eye behind me confused. I got hit by a giant fireball again, LJ used herself as a shield for the filly. Then I see who it is.

No. It's honestly, really, truly, sincerely not fair. It's just cheating! Please! My foals!

"I RIPPED OUT YOUR ELEMENT OF CHAOS! YOU SHOULD HAVE AGED INTO DUST BY NOW!"

"What do you know, turns out I came across a spare." On her chest was a magic wand shaped scar, patched from another pony's hide. There was dirt on her hooves and belly. She was again the age when Discord broke the world

"Magica," The filly gasped, looking at Twilight's horn. "Half-Light. HALFLIGHT!HALFLIGHTHALIGHT! HAHAHAH!" She cheered.

"TWILIGHT!!!" LJ called out hopping for joy. "YER ALIVE!!!!"

On her forehead, her horn was back and had a white and purple spiral to it. That horn. No way! I recognized it! It was from... Fluttercruel's necklace?!

A bigger fireball.

"TWILIGHT!" Rarigreed and Spike called out, bowling over Rancor in the air to reach her.

"Darling, it's you! You're okay! YOU'RE OKAY!!" Rarity cried.

A blue-hot fireball.

"THANK CELESTIA! THANK LUNA! THANK EVERYTHING!!" Spike's voice echoed.

I swear I heard Ditzy laugh. That made me angrier, I couldn't concentrate! Another fireball! I regenerate, but my body-AH!-the pain doesn't go away!

Twilight responds to none of them. Was...was her mane starting to smoke? "You said the Element of Chaos have made us unkillable! But I'd like to see if that's true!" My entire body froze and then shattered. I regenerated.

"Limited can't become unlimited right? We were changed, not completely remade. Magic's energy is self replenishing but not limitless."

Huh? Whatever she said sounded too 'quantum physics' for me to keep up with. The important thing was that I felt a tugging in my stomach, suddenly I was pulled from the outside in, every bone, organ and nerve pulled into a infinitely small black darkness. Every atom of my body was crushed into nothing. With super-equine effort, I crawled my way out. I felt my own Element of Anger CRACK in several places.

"So let's see, how many times do you need to be obliterated before yours run out?!"

This wasn't just anger...this was...this went DEEPER than hate... I thudded on the rooftop. The necklace I'd made for the Element of Magic for snapped apart, the Element, itself, rolling off to one side, momentarily forgotten.

Was this . . . was this really Twilight? This, this is what I wanted right? She's taking me seriously, right? No, she was trying her hardest before, right? But what is, what is . . . hard to think.

She turns my body completely into taffy, but without a soul-binding matrix, I die instantly, my Element regenerates my body and brain from nothing again.

"SO TELL ME! DO YOU HEAR ANY OF US LAUGHING, ANGRY PIE?! DO YOU!? DO YOU THINK WHAT FLUTTERCRUEL'S DONE TO OTHERS IS FUNNY? You whine and say you're hurt?! How many have you hurt?! HOW MANY DID YOU HELP CRUEL HURT?! HOW OFTEN DID YOU JUST STAND BY WATCHING APATHETICALLY AS SHE LAUGHED AT THEM!? How many CRIED BEGGING FOR HELP!? GIVE ME A NUMBER, YOU FILTHY HYPOCRITE!"

The others. They all look . . . scared of her.

Fireball again. It's like it's alive, it wants to eat me. She teleports me a fraction of an inch with my atoms slightly out of phase, I explode. Regenerate from nothing again. But the burning feelings, they just . . . they just keep . . .piling up.

What are . . . are those tiny long black hands? They're creeping up from the floor, roof, stone, can't think. They're wrapping around Twilight's rear hoofs.

"How does it feel to have your hypocrisy deconstructed?! The worst monsters in history still had families, friends. Fluttercruel claimed to love her father. He acts like he loves her! Does that exonerate you all from the countless lives you've ended in needlessly brutal ways?!"

(Twilight! You're finally getting it!)

She forces air into my lungs until they pop, the roof around me animates and grinds me into paste.

"You've been kind to your children, but butchered other foals, mothers, and fathers. Innocent families. How many children died cursing you name after you killed their parents? You're not a mother! You're just Discord's butcher."

LJ's covering Apple Pie's eyes, she sees anyway. Rarigreed looks horrified. The mighty Spike is trembling. The black threads, they're all over Twilight's front hooves now too. Uuuuuuugh. The pain . . .

"You say no one but your foals care about you?! So all the time I just wasted trying to coax you back from the dark side and repair our broken bonds, the spite I endured from you, the nonstop attacks you heaped on me while I fought my hardest... No. Not just me, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US HERE!!!! That counts for nothing?!"

She lifted me into the air and slammed me into the roof, then back out again.

"Pop quiz, Miss Pie: WHAT do you value most? How do you remember the past? Why do you attack those who will never pose a threat to your foals or laugh at you? Do you know or care what Discord will want from you later?!"

"I... I... I..." I can't think.

"Ha ha ha ha ha! Hilarious answer, class clown, but WRONG! Zero percent! F-minus! Flunked out, you meat-headed dunce!"

Please . . . stop laughing . . please stop laughing. Please.

Leave me alone.

A Gravity spell crushes me flatter than a pancake, luckily my Element of Chaos just survived being pulled into a black hole.

++++

"Pinkie Pie, Nooooooo," Dash moaned in her sleep in lament.

++++

'No...Twilight...s-stop! There has to be a way we can save her...Like we saved the Doctor! Stop it!' Derpy screamed in her head, trying to speak, but only a foghorn noise blared from her throat as she twirled about.

+++++

"You say you want to kill the past! But you're the one who wants to see your foals alive again! The ones you brainwashed into being merciless killing machines!"

"I . . . I never, brainwash-" Incinerated!

LJ is hugging Apple Pie, she's looking at Twilight in tears, both of them.

"Discord's brainwashing was magical, yours was mundane!"

"I never. . . forced . . . any of..."

"Never forced?! Hah! I admit, I really wasn't paying proper attention during my 'Twilight Tragedy' days, so I'll have to imagine myself in one of your adopted foals' horseshoes. Of COURSE I'd've been in lockstep with everything you said! Knowing YOU, I'd've been too scared to SMILE, let alone perform any simple act of childish disobedience! Where could I have ever run away, from a bloodthirsty bloodhound like you?! Every day with YOU as a caretaker would be like living in a house with land mines in it!"

All the times they laughed. All the times they smiled. The night I helped Firecracker escape. My scream echoes like thunder, "LIAR!!!!"

"There's no kind way for me to say this, Angry Pie: you're going to Pony Hell. This very moment; I end your wretched existence. Today you begin paying for a millennium of murderous tantrums, for molding innocent youngsters into thugs, and for not even TRYING to atone when your friends reached out to you. If Pony Hell doesn't exist for a truly unrepentant monster like you, IT DOESN'T EXIST AT ALL. And that would simply be the worst injustice imaginable, wouldn't it?"

(Yes. Exactly Twilight. It would be. The final injustice. If Hell does not exist, it must be made.)

My vision is a complete blur now. Am I... crying? Am I . . . am I scared? The black threads are wrapped around Twilight's tail, legs, and begin to weave towards her cutie mark. Twilight's eyes... her eyes are slits now?

(Say goodnight and welcome to purgatory! HehehehehhehehHAHAHAHAHAHHAH!!!!)

A red ball of light appears on the tip of her horn. It grows larger and brighter as I watch. I tell my body to move. It won't. I can barely roll my eyes through my tears.

"You helped Discord use this spell on Cadence! Now you can enjoy it!"

"So this a replica of Destruction's magic. Destruction's essence," I hear Discord's sister, voice dripping with hunger.

Pound and Pumpkin.
Fuse Box.
Bomb Pie.
Powder Cake.
Fire Cracker.
Grenade Pie.
Little Hex.
Short Fuse.
Hatchet and Latchet.
Spring Dew.
Morning Light.
Bubbles.
Stormy Night.
Apple Sauce.

I'm sorry. I'm so so so so so sorry. Mother failed you. Please don't hate me. I tried. I really tried. I really did. The only time I was happy . . . was with you . . . I could trust you. My babies. Just please don't hate me for failing you.