Spike felt very, very exposed out in the hallway. It was beginning to sink in that just pretending that he was riding on Pinkie because he was sick was not likely to fly with any of the guards; why wouldn't he be riding on the guardspony, aka Applejack? He whispered his concern to the others when they weren't in earshot of anypony. "Why would they let two prisoners out so one could ride on the other if they have a guard?"
"Because you're so very dangerous, Spike," Rarity said. "Remember, you nearly de-horned their version of Twilight. Of course nopony would risk having you ride on a guardspony; why, you might attack them! It's much safer to have you riding on a friend of yours. After all, your other friends are still prisoners, right?" She said this archly, winking at him. "So of course you and Pinkie won't risk starting anything, not with Applejack and Rarity still imprisoned."
"It's still pretty darn thin though," Applejack said. "Sooner we get out of here, the safer I'll feel."
"What if I knew a shortcut that I could get Spike and me out of the palace?" Pinkie asked.
"If you know a shortcut, how's about you share it with Rarity and me too then?"
"It's... not that kind of a shortcut." Pinkie looked down, pawing the ground with her hoof a bit, an embarrassed almost-smile on her face. "Um... I can take Spike because he can ride on me, but... it's kind of a one-pony sort of thing. I can't really open the doors up for anypony else. I tried once with my sister Maud but she couldn't get through, and Maud is super strong."
"So in other words this is a Pinkie thing," Applejack said.
"Yuppers. Totally a Pinkie thing. Which is why I can do it because I'm Pinkie!"
"Well, I for one would feel great relief at knowing you and Spike are both safely out of the palace entirely. We need to return to Ponyville as soon as possible, but we also need to maintain strength in numbers. Applejack, do you think they should go and head directly to Ponyville to help Fluttershy with Discord, or go and then wait for us at the train station so we all go to Ponyville together?"
"We all go together," Applejack said. "If they tip the other Twilight off, she'll be prepared for us, and if there's only two of them it ain't like they can fight Opposition Twilight. We need to take her on together if we're gonna have any hope, and if we're going to try to rescue Discord, that's probably what we're gonna need to do."
"Okie dokie lokie! Spike and I will head to the train station and then we'll wait for you!"
"What kind of short cut are we talking about?" Spike asked. "Because I know the palace real well, and there are some secret passages I could find..."
"Nope! Not that kind! You two go on ahead, and Spike, close your eyes tight!"
"Why?"
"Because it doesn't work if anypony can see me do it, silly billy!"
Applejack and Rarity traded looks. "All right, we'll move along," Rarity said. "And we won't look."
The two of them trotted forward. "Now, this is very important, Spike," Pinkie said. "You don't just have to close your eyes a little bit. Close your eyes and keep them closed the whole time until I tell you it's safe. No matter what you hear or feel."
"But what if something happened like, I don't know, what if you were screaming and something bad had happened to you?"
"Then still don't open your eyes. This is super duper important! I can't take you on the shortcut unless you promise to not open your eyes for any reason until I say so!"
"Um... okay, cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye, I promise I won't open my eyes unless you say I can. But what would happen if I did?"
"Baaaad things," Pinkie said ominously, craning her head backward to loom in Spike's vision.
"Like, what kind of bad things?"
"Never mind that! Just close your eyes now so we can go!"
Spike shut his eyes tightly. He heard Pinkie's hooves clopping on the hard marble floor of the palace, felt her warm body and velvety fur pressed up against him and the movement of her body as she trotted, smelled the candy-scented shampoo in her mane. All around him he could feel and hear the acoustics of the palace and its marble hallways. And then it all changed.
He could still feel Pinkie's body, but the clopping of her hooves was gone, and he felt as if he was in a place that was simultaneously far more open � no sense of walls around him anywhere � and more constricted, the air stale and flat and barely breathable, oppressive and close. There was almost no sound at all; he could hear Pinkie's breathing and his own, and could hear her heartbeat when his ears were pressed to her back, but there were no sounds anywhere else.
"Do we need to be quiet, Pinkie?" he whispered.
"I think so," she whispered back. "This... isn't like it is back home. I'm kinda nervouscared. But keep your eyes closed."
"I know, I know," he assured her.
The he started hearing voices.
Fragmentary echoes, sussurating whispers... nothing he could decipher. At first. And then far away laughter... horrible broken laughter, like something Vinyl Scratch might play at a Nightmare Night party. It scratched and skipped and repeated itself and was too fast and then too slow, like a record on a turntable being manipulated by a DJ who was deliberately trying to freak you out.
"Pinkie? Do you hear laughter?" he whispered in her ear.
"Shh! I'm trying to concentrate! Things look all different here, and I don't wanna get us lost!"
The thought of being lost in this wherever it was, without even being able to open his eyes, terrified Spike. "Okay," he whispered, and then said nothing more. The laughter was getting more and more hysterical and high-pitched. And louder. Like it was getting closer. Spike shivered.
Then the laughing voice spoke.
"yOu NoT YOu... oThER. nOT thE OnE."
The voice sounded like two or three voices together, except that one was too slow and one was too fast and all of them were hoarse and gravelly like whoever was speaking had a bad sore throat. It sounded vaguely male, but any resemblance to anything that sounded like a pony ended there. "SO rEsCUe StiLL hERo? hoW'S tHAT WoRkiNG Out?" More hysterical laughter. "kILLeR mE, YOu, buT yOu OtHeR sAvIOr mE otHEr. hILarIouS!"
"Go away," Spike whispered in a very, very tiny voice, almost inaudibly.� "I don't know what you want from me. Go away, please."
The laughter intensified, and now when the voice spoke, one of the undervoices that went along with it laughed continuously in the background. "DiDn'T yOu. sAiD gO AwAY PleAse bUt nO HEarInG sToNe foR yOU! nOt. hIm NOt yOu BuT YOu. PAraDoX!" Mad giggling from all the voices.
"Please... I don't even understand you... please leave me alone..."
"FrEe mE!" the voice howled suddenly. "fREe ThEm frEe Me FrEE tHEm fRee ME FRee THeM freE me..." The mad, broken laughter was turning into sobs as the voice repeated itself over and over again.
"Free who?" Spike whispered. "And who are you? And why should I free you?"
"BrOKe. yOu. nOT yOu bUt Him bUT useless. sO YoU. FrEE tHeM, reVerSe ENd, uNPiN Me. lET me GO. Let iT eND." The voice was openly sobbing now. "bROkEn. pIEcEs. hUrTS iT HuRTs wANt STop. eNd It. ENd. UNpIn. FReE mE."
"How would I do that? And why? I don't even know who you are."
"wHaT YOu wAnT WhAt i WAnT. tHE sIX. fREe tHEm. uNPiN mE."
"You mean the Opposition Elements? And what do you mean unpin you?"
"FREE ME! FREE THEM FREE ME FREE THEM FREE ME�" �The voice was screaming again. Now there were many voices, a fast one, a slow one, a stuttering one, one that was laughing, one that was sobbing... one, or more than one, that sounded as if vocal chords were being scraped with stone.
Through the din he could hear Pinkie whisper, "Spike, who are you talking to?" It was as if her speech was on a completely separate channel; despite the horrible crazed voice shrieking in his ear, he could hear Pinkie perfectly.
"Um... you don't hear the creepy voice?"
"SPIKE!" It was still a whisper, but undeniably managed to carry the tone of a shout. "You never talk to the creepy voices! Just ignore it!"
"Oh, so you can hear it?"
"No, but if you can hear it, don't listen to it!"
The mad giggling returned. "NOt hEr! oNLy KillER! eVeN oTHer cAn'T HEaR, CaN'T cOMe HeRe aNd vOiCE wOn't CaRRy, yOu noT Him bUT YEs yOU ArE. cOnNecTiON!"
His head was hurting from trying to understand. It was hard even to make out the words with all the distortion, and the fact that they were complete nonsense didn't help. "I don't want to talk to you."
"dIdn'T wAnT YoU hIm thE wHAt-hE-Did, but. tHiNGs tough aLL ArOunD, kId! oNLy cAn HEaR so iT's yOU. sORrY nOT Sorry!"
"Spike, you're still talking to the creepy voice... I said to stop that!"
"He can't do anything to me if he's just a voice," Spike said. "And I don't think he wants to. There's something he wants me to do."
"Then don't do it!"
"But what if it's part of the thing we came here to do? He keeps saying to 'free the six'; doesn't that sound like reharmonizing the other us? Well, other yous?"
"iN ThE FoReST. sHe dRopPed It. FInd iT. fREe theM. rEVerSe untie UNwinD. uNPiN mE. fReE tHE oTheR, yOU Came fOr, lEt mE eNd end end end end PLeaSe end please end please end please..."
The voice faded. "Please tell me we're almost out of here," Spike whispered to Pinkie.
"Are you still hearing that creepy voice?"
"No, it stopped." In the forest. She dropped it. Twilight had been carrying the cutting from the Tree of Harmony around her neck before they had fought their counterparts. When they were all on the train and the ponies were unconscious and Spike hadn't dared to make a move, surrounded by far too many changelings to try anything... it hadn't been around her neck anymore. And he hadn't even thought about it until now.
Maybe Pinkie was wrong. Maybe the creepy voice was trying to help, or at the very least, wanted them to succeed for his own reasons.
Spike didn't want to dwell on it too closely. There was a thought that had occurred to him, a thought that got more plausible the more he thought about it, and he really, really didn't want to think about it, or believe it. Because if it was true, it was terrifying. And horrible. But mostly terrifying.
"We're almost out," Pinkie said. "But keep your eyes closed!"
Every bounce Pinkie made jostled him hard, but he didn't complain. She'd sped up since he'd admitted to the creepy voice. The sooner they got out of there, the better.
And then he felt warmth, and a breeze. "Ok, Spike, you can open your eyes now," Pinkie said, her body relaxing under his.
Spike opened his eyes. They were outside the palace, in the gardens. "Oh sweet sunshine, how I missed you!" Spike said fervently. He knelt down and kissed the blades of grass directly underneath him. "And grass! And trees! And hedges! I love you all!"
"Aren't they great?" Pinkie said cheerfully, but her mane looked just a little bit flat and stringy. "That... wasn't anything like it is back home.� It's like... what if you were in a really old dusty museum that used to be taken care of really nice, only now there's just one night watch pony and he makes sure nopony breaks in but that's all, but there's still beautiful stuff all over the walls even if it's all dusty, and then you went to another museum, except all the exhibits were kicked over and smashed and there were giant spiders and creepy crawlies everywhere and holes in the walls and all the nice things to look at are gone and there's spiderwebs everywhere and they keep getting in your mane? Like that."
"I'll take your word for it, since I didn't see it, and all."
"Well! I know what I don't want to be doing again if there's any alternative! Let's go to the train station and wait for Applejack and Rarity!"
"You said it," Spike agreed.
She had to find Rainbow Dash. The memory of Discord's anguish burned within her, and the overwhelming horror of the fate they'd all suffer if they couldn't save him from what the other Twilight planned. Fluttershy was just barely holding the panic at bay by her desperate need to protect her friends, all of her friends. Focus on them, not on the fear.
The problem was that Rainbow wasn't around anywhere. Fluttershy had expected Rainbow Dash to remain in the area so that they could go together to wherever they were going; the original plan had been that she'd come out with Discord, of course, but now that the plans had changed and she needed a bolt cutter, it was even more critical that Rainbow be here. But she wasn't. Where would she have gone?
To take a nap? No, not with the stakes this high. To go home? But it wasn't her home, and the odds that she'd encounter the other Rainbow would be greatly increased that way. To Canterlot to rescue their friends because she got impatient? That was unfortunately somewhat plausible, but surely she wouldn't leave Fluttershy high and dry like that; she had to have recognized that Fluttershy was in potential danger of being captured by the alternates. So if she left Fluttershy... that meant she knew the alternates weren't a threat at that time. Logically, she must have followed them, wherever they went. Otherwise she'd have known Fluttershy could be in danger from them, and wouldn't have left.
Well, where would the alternates have gone? Fluttershy could see that they'd put out Carousel Boutique, but alternate Rarity wasn't standing in the ruins crying and being dramatic, so they must have gone to do something that they considered equally important. Maybe her friends had escaped from Canterlot, and the alternates had had to go deal with that? No, then they wouldn't be on their way back. She could see them now on the road, minus their Rainbow Dash, which based on what Discord had said about her in the letter seemed fairly normal, and their Applejack. Well, Applejack had a farm to deal with.
But so wait. If they were coming back, and her Rainbow Dash wasn't with them... then where was she? Back at whatever place they had gone to? Hiding? There was no way to know.
"Psst! Fluttershy!"
Fluttershy jerked, startled. She rolled her head around, looking every which way in sudden terror, before calming down and realizing that that had been Rainbow Dash. "Rainbow, where are you?" she whisper-shouted, knowing the other pegasus would be able to hear her but the ground-bounds wouldn't. Pegasi were a lot better at detecting pony voices and pulling them out of the surroundings to understand them, even though they didn't objectively have literally better hearing than the other races.
"Look up!"
Of course, look up. Rainbow Dash's head was sticking out from the side of a cloud that was much higher than Fluttershy felt safe flying to. "Oh, dear. Could you maybe come down a bit? That's so high up."
"Don't be a wimp," Rainbow said. "You don't want everypony on the ground to see us, do you?"
"Nooo," she admitted, drawing the word out to express her reluctance to say it.
"Well then come on up! We've got plans to make, right, pal?"
"O-Okay." Carefully, looking all around to make sure no grounded ponies were looking up, she fluttered up to the height of Rainbow's cloud... almost as high as the clouds had been the day of that race, when she'd fallen, and found her cutie mark.
Delicately she landed on the cloud next to Rainbow. "Do you know where we could find a set of bolt cutters?"
"Bolt cutters?"
"Discord is chained up by a leather collar and a metal chain, but Twilight's done something to him where if the collar is removed, it'll kill him. So we can't just take off the collar. We have to cut the chain."
"Sure, I get it. So what's the plan after that?"
Fluttershy stared at her. "We talked about this, Rainbow. We have to free our friends. Unfortunately the collar keeps Discord from using his magic, so we can't just ask him to do it; we'll have to go to Canterlot and do it ourselves."
"All I needed to know," Rainbow said, as if assuring her. And then without warning she leapt at Fluttershy. Fluttershy screamed, her own hairtrigger surprise threshold causing her to flinch backward and almost fall off the cloud, but Rainbow was faster. Rainbow was always faster.
"Rainbow?" Fluttershy shrieked.
The stronger pegasus was on top of her, pinning her down to the cloud, her own inborn pegasus magic treating the cloud as a solid object she could be pinned against. "That's my name, don't wear it out," Rainbow said. "Hey, listen, you did a nice job with that bitch, don't get me wrong, but technically I'm still under Twilight's orders. Also, you want to let Discord loose, and he's way too much fun to kick in the head for me to let you do that. Especially after what he did to Cloudsdale, or the way he tricked Scoots. Not that I give much of a shit about the kid anymore, but that was still a rotten thing to do."
Oh dear Celestia. It was the wrong Rainbow. The real one must have been taken captive. Fluttershy struggled. "He's not your Discord! He never did any of those things!" she cried. There was no point in trying to pretend that she was Fluttercruel; her purple mane had already given her away. Oh, why hadn't Rainbow agreed to dye her mane, or wear some sort of clothing that would distinguish her, or something?
"Eh, six of one, half a dozen of the other," Opposition Rainbow said. "Thing about stone is you can't punch it in the face, and it was Spike of all ponies who managed to get some sweet revenge. But hay, now we've got a new one and he's basically the same guy, so it's all good."
"You don't understand!" Fluttershy squirmed as Opposition Rainbow tied her up with rope she'd apparently been keeping up here for that purpose. "If we can't free Discord, the entire world will be destroyed!"
"Nice one. Try on it someone who didn't grow up with you," Opposition Rainbow chuckled. "I know what a big liar you are, Flutters."
"I am not! Maybe yours is, but I'm not!"
"Come off it. How many colts did you tell that your parents weren't letting you have visitors, when you were living on the ground in your own house and your parents were up in Cloudsdale?"
"That � that's different. I � this isn't the kind of thing I'd lie about!"
"To rescue someone you think pooonies are being meeean to?" Opposition Rainbow sing-songed. "Oh yeah you would."
"But it's true! There's a ritual Twilight, your Twilight, wants to perform, and if she does it to Discord, the world will be destroyed!"
Other Rainbow snorted. "Like Twilight would make a mistake like that!"
"But it � it's because Discord lied to her. He told her�"
"Yeah, no, Discord can't lie. Pull the other one."
"Okay, he misled her. He said things that were true but he didn't say all the true things�"
"Flutters, if you don't shut up I'm either gonna have to tie your muzzle shut or knock you upside the head." Other Rainbow finished with her knots. Fluttershy's legs were pressed against her barrel, forelegs back and back legs forward, and the rope was wound around her barrel, legs and wings in multiple loops. She tried to wiggle free, but it was much too tight for her to have any real hope. "Now just sit tight, I gotta go talk to Twilight and the others and if you try to roll off the cloud or something... nopony's gonna catch you and your wings are all tied up."
Despairingly, Fluttershy flattened her ears in submission, but as soon as Other Rainbow had flown away, forced herself to lift them again. She needed to try to hear what was going on down on the ground. Clouds might be solid to a pegasus, but they didn't do much to muffle sound, and up in the sky, there was normally nothing but distant bird calls and maybe other pegasi having a conversation a distance away. Maybe she could make out what they were saying.
"Got her," she heard Other Rainbow say. "Just like we figured. She flew right into my trap. Didn't guess for a second I wasn't her pal until I jumped her."
"I wonder why the other Rainbow chose not to distinguish herself from you in any way," Other Twilight said.
"Probably because when you have awesome hair like this, you don't dye it."
"I'm forced to agree," Other Rarity said. "You could do more to care for it, but..." Fluttershy heard a sob escape from her. "Oh, Celestia, look at my boutique! I'm ruined!"
"Yeah, we heard you the first time you said that," Other Rainbow said.
"What about me?" Other Fluttershy said. "That bitch burned the whole thing to the ground! At least it looks like some of your stuff didn't burn!"
"Only Sweetie Belle's things. Everything of mine is ruined! Oh, how will I face her when she comes home from school and tell her we face utter destitution?"
"Rarity.� Be quiet. I want the four of you to rejoin Applejack with the other Rainbow Dash and the new prisoner, and take them to Canterlot. Check for me as to whether Princess Celestia followed my recommendations regarding the alicorn or not."
"Whatcha gonna be doing, Twilight?" Other Pinkie asked.
"Pinkie, we discussed this earlier. I have a ritual to prepare for."
"Oh, hay, just so you know, Yellow and Wussy up there knows about your ritual, so she must've talked to Discord. She was telling me all kinds of crazy stuff about it."
Fluttershy wanted desperately to shout down to them, to tell them what Discord had told her... but she knew her voice wouldn't carry. From this height it was unlikely anypony but a pegasus could hear her even if she shouted, and she knew how much difficulty she had with getting her voice to carry at the best of times.
"What sort of crazy stuff?" Pinkie asked.
"Oh, you know, the kind of crap you say when you want someone to not do something because it's meeeean, so you'll say just about anything. No big."
"So Discord knows they've come for him," Other Twilight said. "Unfortunate, but it can't be helped. I imagine he will prove more resistant and troublesome now that he's aware, but it shouldn't make a difference."
"Why don't you just let me kill her in front of him?" Other Fluttershy said, making Fluttershy shudder. "I'm sure that'll quiet down any resistance from him."
Other Twilight sighed heavily. "No. Restrain your bloodthirst for once. I don't mind if it becomes necessary to kill any of them, and I believe we will all be safer if Princess Celestia executes them, but I won't tolerate cold-blooded murder outside the rule of law. We are better than our enemies because we don't kill wantonly."
"Oh, all right." The other Fluttershy sounded frustrated. "Tell me about this ritual, then. Is there anything I need to do to prepare him? Or medical supplies for after you're done?"
Other Pinkie gigglesnorted. "What's so funny?" Other Fluttershy demanded.
"Oh, nothing, nothing, just thinking of a joke!" Other Pinkie chortled, sounding as if she was trying to get her laughter under control.
"Nothing you need concern yourself with now. We'll talk later, when the time is closer. I'll be timing it so the ritual will complete at sunset. Liminal times of day are the most appropriate for these sorts of rites."
She doesn't know, Fluttershy realized. The other me doesn't know Twilight is going to kill him. Pinkie does, and she's keeping it a secret. Maybe Rarity too, she'd normally be asking questions too.
"In the meantime, Rainbow, Fluttershy has always been a skilled manipulator. I believe you should gag her so she can't convince you or anypony else to release her."
"I'm right here," other Fluttershy said in a tone of controlled anger.
"I am aware. I didn't say anything about you that you didn't know about yourself, or that you didn't know I knew. And I called you a clever manipulator, which is a compliment, so I fail to see what you're getting emotional about."
"Look, I've got stuff to do today, and I need to make time for some serious napping at some point," Other Rainbow said, "so let's get this show on the road, okay? I'll get the Other Flutter over to Applejack's and then what, I guess we're all going to the train station?"
"That seems to be a ridiculous amount of trotting around for no good reason," Other Rarity said. "Why don't you take the other Fluttershy directly to the train station � I will escort you, of course � and Pinkie Pie can go let Applejack know to bring your alternate. Fluttershy, you should probably go with Pinkie."
"Why? I'd rather stay here and take care of Discord. Why do all of us have to go?"
Other Twilight sighed in exasperation. "Because Rainbow Dash is clever and dangerous in any universe, and I don't consider it safe to leave Applejack and Pinkie alone to watch her. You grew up with her; you know her better than they do."
"I grew up with our Rainbow Dash."
"And prior to the corruption of our Elements, they were the same person, so stop arguing with me and go."
The other Rainbow Dash appeared, soaring up above Fluttershy's cloud and descending. "So! Twilight says I need to gag you, so are you going to cooperate or do I have to knock you out?"
"You don't have to do this," Fluttershy said softly, looking up at her. "I can promise to be quiet. You know how quiet I can be."
"Yeah, but I know you're not gonna keep a promise like that if you're trying to protect a frieeeend, so no." She landed on top of Fluttershy, legs out far enough not to actually hit her body, but it was frightening enough that Fluttershy ducked her head and made a squeaking sound out of fear.
"Please, Rainbow. You don't have to do this." She looked up at Rainbow, trying to muster up the strength to Stare her down, but her confidence was badly broken by Fluttercruel breaking free from it. "All we want is to help you. We can re-harmonize you and purge the corruption from your world's Discord. Make you and your friends like they were before."
"Ha, and you think I want that?" Rainbow laughed sharply. "I was the world's biggest sucker, believing all that friendship crap. Sure, I'm loyal to Equestria, and since Princess Celestia's in charge I guess I'm loyal to her, and I'll take Twilight's orders, but I know better than to think there's any good that comes from being loyal to ponies." She shoved Fluttershy's head down against the cloud and wrapped rope around her muzzle. Rather than resisting her, Fluttershy relaxed her jaw, letting her mouth hang just slightly open, while keeping her lips shut. "Naah, the whole corrupted Elements thing sure seriously screwed up our Fluttershy, and Pinkie's just psycho now, and it turned Rarity and Applejack into total bitches, but for me, it was an eye opener. Friendship isn't even real. It's just a trick to make you give and give and get nothing back."
Fluttershy closed her eyes tightly. It hurt, to hear sentiments like that from Rainbow Dash, her oldest friend, who'd lived her entire life by her code of loyalty to her friends. This version of Rainbow must be suffering so much inside. It didn't change how dangerous she was, but it made Fluttershy all the more determined to escape, free Discord, free her friends, and re-harmonize this world.
Somehow.
Her Rainbow would figure out a way to escape. She was sure of it. Fluttershy herself wasn't strong enough to break free, and with her mouth tied shut one of the few weapons she did have was taken from her. But she might be able to work the rope loose. And her Rainbow was strong, and tough, and had outwitted this Rainbow once already. And maybe her other friends were going to escape from the palace.
She had to cling to those hopes, because if she thought about the possibility that they'd lose, and this entire world would be destroyed for Discord's mistake, it would break her.
"So. What did Fluttershy mean when she said the whole planet would die?" Spike asked, making his voice as hard as he possibly could to conceal the trembling he felt.
Discord sighed. "That ritual that I told Twilight about. It won't work the way I told her it will. Well, it will, but only for a very short time. She's opening a gate to let in the Cold Ones � the Shadows, the Nightmares, whatever you'd like to call them. Their corruption created Nightmare Moon, but even though she was their dupe, Moonie still knew better than to open that gate. They'll send through a great deal of magic to establish their beachhead, yes, enough for Twilight to do anything she wants � except close the gate. And then they'll come through and devour every source of energy there is. All magic. All life. Even the sun."
Spike wasn't sure which emotion was predominant in his heart, terror or rage. "And you thought this was a good idea? You were willing to see everyone die? Everything? The whole planet?" Heedless of the potential danger, given that Discord was still much bigger than he was, he marched forward and glared into Discord's eyes, crowding into the draconequus' personal space. "I helped you! I gave you water, twice, and I cleaned you up, and I sent that letter for you, which Twilight made me pay for, you'd better believe... and you were still willing to kill me? And everyone? What did we all do to you? Why do you hate everyone just because six ponies are hurting you?"
Discord's eyes closed, and he looked down. "I don't hate you," he mumbled.
"But you wanted to see us all die!"
"I'm sure you've never in your life been in a place where you feel so much despair you think the entire world would be better off if it didn't exist," Discord said. "I didn't � I wasn't trying to hurt you. I was trying to hurt them, but I didn't think about you. Or anyone besides them. At all."
"You told me you were innocent. That you never really hurt anypony the way the Discord who we had did. Was that a lie, too?" Spike was shouting now. "How could you just not care?"
"Hate me if you want, you will anyway," Discord said wearily. "I don't know why I did it. I don't know why I didn't think about anyone other than my enemies. Fluttershy said I'm not thinking straight and that's probably true, I can't even remember the last time I actually managed to get a whole night's worth of sleep. But if you don't help me escape, then Twilight's going to perform that ritual, and she's going to kill everyone."
Breathing hard, Spike said, "I don't have to help you. I could just tell Twilight what you told me."
"Then she'll do it anyway, but she'll compensate. If she uses the power to pull the entropy out of the world within the few minutes she has � without entropy there is no time. Everything becomes frozen in a moment of perfection, forever. It's the same fate, really. Without time, there's no thought and no life. But you won't be able to convince her of that because she isn't herself anymore. That thing she wears around her neck is riding her like she's a beast of burden, a meat machine for it to use. It won't let her understand the need for the existence of entropy."
"Isn't entropy the same thing as chaos? Why does time need chaos to work?"
"It's backward, really. Entropy requires time, but it's such a fundamental principle of the universe that there is no way to eliminate it without eliminating time. She can freeze time more easily than she can actually stop entropy. She's forced me to absorb enough raw magic that what's left of Matrisse � her master, the Spirit of Order, my oldest enemy � has been able to reduce the rate of entropy, but even Matrisse can't get rid of it, even with all the magic in the universe... except by stopping time. The original Matrisse would have known better, but Matrisse went insane and tried to destroy magic, so I destroyed it instead, and now it's in pieces all over the world. One of which Twilight is wearing, so I know your Discord did the same thing."
"What if I got it off of her?"
"That's not enough. You could eat it and it wouldn't be enough at this point. She's bonded to it as tightly as she was ever bonded to her Element."
"What if I killed you?"
Discord rolled onto his back and stretched his neck out. "Go on, then. One quick swipe of your claws and it solves everything. Though personally? I'd prefer it if you went for the collar first, and gave me a few moments to teleport my friends to safety before finishing me. Not that I can allow you to do that, because I've been ordered not to let anything damage my collar, but if you moved fast I might not be able to stop you."
"If you were free of your collar you could just escape."
"Yes, just in time to die horribly. Twilight poisoned me. There's crystals in my guts now that absorb chaos magic and grow. The moment my powers aren't suppressed anymore, they'll start growing. She says it'll probably be half an hour before they've pierced me in so many places I bleed to death, but I'd really rather a quick slash across my throat. A lot faster and less painful. So do what you want about the collar, but if you want to kill me to stop Twilight from destroying the world with me, do it. Otherwise, no matter how much you hate me for putting this in motion, you have to help me escape or the world dies."
For several long seconds Spike stood over Discord, paralyzed by indecision. He'd killed Discord once. And it had been the worst mistake of his life. And he'd thought it was the lesser of two evils, at the time. Killing this Discord might be the lesser of two evils too. If Spike freed him, what was to stop him from coming back for revenge, once he'd gotten the Elements' spells broken by his friends' Elements? But if Spike killed him, then he couldn't help his friends escape, and could the alternate Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash really single-hoofedly rescue the others, particularly since Princess Celestia seemed to have some sinister purpose for the alternate Twilight? And if Spike did nothing, the world would be destroyed, unless the alternate Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy managed to free Discord themselves out from under Twilight's nose, and if Spike was going to allow that, then why not free Discord to begin with?
But he felt betrayed by Discord. He'd felt sympathy for the draconequus, he'd helped him in what very little ways he could, and he'd paid dearly for that. Twilight had taken all his gems, leaving him with nothing but a few special items that he didn't consider edible, and which Twilight would have confiscated a long time ago if she'd had any idea what they were. Twilight had yelled at him � well, not yell so much coldly and icily lecture � for hours, and had treated him like garbage ever since. And he'd endured all that to help someone who had just thoughtlessly decided that whether he, Spike, lived or died was too unimportant to worry about.
He dropped his paw, slowly. Discord had betrayed him, yes. But Spike wasn't a murderer. Not really. Yes, he'd committed a murder, in cold blood, and he'd known it was murder when he decided to do it, but it had looked and felt like destroying an inanimate object. This Discord was far too animate an object. Spike couldn't bring himself to slash someone's throat open. And he couldn't convince himself it was the right thing to do, either. He'd only made matters worse by killing a Discord with a far longer track record of harm than coming up with one omnicidal idea while powerless, tortured and suicidal. Of course it only took one omnicidal idea, but... he was so angry, so mind-numbingly angry, but at the same time he recognized that probably Discord really wasn't thinking clearly, or as clearly as he ever did.
"I don't know how I can help you," he said finally. "Twilight is right outside. And if I break your collar it'll kill you, but if I don't, how could I even help?"
"Well, I'm fairly sure this chain isn't as tough as a diamond," Discord said, tugging on it. "And I was never ordered to prevent anyone from destroying the chain that holds me. Just bite through it."
"But then where would you go? Twilight's right outside! How would you get away?"
"You could just let me worry about that," Discord suggested.
"No, I can't, because if I bite through the chain she'll know it was me! She'll see the bite marks! And if you don't get away then the whole point to sticking my neck out for you will be gone, and she won't let me do anything to help you and she won't believe me if I tell her anything!"
"Are you solving anything by standing around being indecisive?"
"I just need to know you have a plan for getting out of here!"
"Who are you talking to? I never have a plan. I was going to run upstairs and go out the window and hide. Maybe after breaking my own eardrums so I can't hear if she yells orders to me when she doesn't know where I am."
"That'll never work! She'll find you in minutes with magic! She can scry for you, you know. She had a spell to find the original Discord; she knew where he was, all the time, and that was before she got the Diadem." Spike's ears pricked up. "Oh ponyfeathers, she's back."
"Great," Discord mumbled. "Thanks. Whole lot of help you were."
Twilight entered the room. "Spike. We have preparations to make. Go get me the runic ink."
Spike hesitated. If he got Twilight the ink, he was colluding in the potential destruction of the world. If he didn't, she'd just go get it herself, but she'd know he was being uncooperative, and then she might demand to know why and then it might come out that the rite would destroy the world and then if Discord was correct, Twilight would just destroy the world a different way, and she wouldn't believe him if he told her about it because she didn't really believe anything she hadn't come up with herself, anymore.
"Hey, does the condemned prisoner get a last meal?" Discord asked. "I'm hungry and Fluttershy isn't here."
Twilight turned and looked at him. "No. You will be fasting until the ritual."
"Oh, come on! Now you're not even trying to make up an excuse. I told you about that ritual; I know very well it's not affected one way or the other by whether I eat or not."
"True, but the sanitary disposal of your body might be facilitated by making you fast."
"No, it won't. I ate last night. There is literally no possible purpose served by making me fast except to make this whole thing more unpleasant for me than it needs to be, as if exsanguinating me and letting entities from beyond feed on my life force isn't bad enough."
"This was your idea, Discord."
"Yes, I said I wanted to die. Not to be starved before it happens."
Twilight seemed to have completely forgotten the request for runic ink. Spike stayed, watching the interchange between her and Discord, rather than going.
"I wonder, is death still your preference?" she asked, arching an eyebrow.
"Is there some reason you think it would have changed since this morning?"
"Don't be disingenuous. I know you met with the Fluttershy of your world. I know you're aware that the alternate Bearers did in fact cross over to try to rescue you. Since you expressed that your wish for death was largely due to your belief that you have no friends, I'm expecting you to have changed your mind and be trying to sabotage this ritual. Are you?"
Discord laughed. "You seriously think they came to rescue me because they're my friends?" he chortled bitterly. "I told you... Celestia wanted me released because she had a use for my magic. Do you really think that if Celestia has a use for me, the other you would hesitate to come get me so they can put me back to work? Or that her friends wouldn't follow her?"
"I asked you if you had changed your mind."
He looked directly at her. "If my so-called 'friends' were lying to me to keep me under control and obedient to Celestia, then it doesn't matter to me if they came to rescue me or not. They wouldn't have done it for my sake if they're not really my friends."
"And are they not really your friends?"
"I tried to choke Fluttershy to death when she came in here," he said casually. "Does that sound friendly to you?"
Spike stared. He'd been told time and time again that Discord couldn't lie... but here he was, lying. How was he doing that?
"She seemed to think you still believe her to be a friend."
He sighed. "Fluttershy has every reason to keep up the pretense, if she's trying to control me by tricking me into thinking she's my friend. They were told to rescue me by Celestia, I'm sure. But if they bring me back to my world and I know they're not my friends, there's not a whole lot they can do to control me. So of course she's going to keep it up; she wants me to believe it, and so if it's an act that's going to work it has to be completely consistent, and she can't drop it, ever. I've been Fluttercruel's prisoner for two months." He shuddered. "I know how manipulative she is. The Fluttershy of my world is much, much kinder... but her talent for manipulation is probably either the same or even greater. And if I can't believe I really have any friends, because I know how good Fluttershy would be at lying to me... then I don't want to live. So no. I'd only change my mind if she convinced me she really did care about me, and good luck with that after two months of Fluttercruel's tender care."
He wasn't lying, Spike realized, as he listened to Discord's words much more carefully than usual. Nearly everything he said had a qualifier on it, or implied something rather than stating it. "If she's trying to control me." "If I know they're not my friends." "If I can't believe I really have any friends." He'd even managed to slip in the actual state of affairs, and made it sound like he was saying the exact opposite. "I'd only change my mind if she convinced me... and good luck with that..." Discord had never said Fluttershy hadn't convinced him. He'd implied it, but he'd never said it.
The only thing he'd outright stated, aside from that Celestia had a use for him, was that he'd attacked Fluttershy. As far as Spike knew he literally couldn't tell a bald-faced lie, so he probably had done that. Given that he'd nearly attacked Spike himself earlier that day, and his utter refusal to believe that Spike telling him his friends had come for him wasn't a cruel trick on Spike's part... yeah, that had probably happened. But clearly she'd talked him down, because she'd been fine when she left.
Twilight studied him. "I see. So you still sincerely wish to die?"
Discord looked down. "I... care enough about her, still, that I told her to get her friends and clear out of this universe. Don't rescue me. Just leave me here. But if I don't have any friends, then all I want is to die."
Abruptly Spike remembered what supposedly happened when Discord said things that were misleading. "I... I'm going to go get a mop bucket. For cleanup later."
"Fine, Spike. Go do that. In fact, I want this entire area scrubbed and disinfected before we begin." Her horn lit up, and two of the chains from the posts lifted up and attached themselves to Discord's pegasus wing and goat leg. "That should secure you tightly enough if they should somehow manage to come back."
"You do realize you've just made it impossible for me to avoid making an unsanitary mess at some point, unless you're planning on killing me in the next few hours, because now I can't possibly reach that washroom over there."
Twilight rolled her eyes. "Bring an extra bucket for effluvia, Spike. Preferably not the one you took already, unless you've cleaned it."
Well, that was convenient. Spike started toward the door, and then stopped. Discord was asking, "Just out of curiosity, how long before the main event, anyway?"
"Such rites are always best conducted at moonrise, which is several hours away."
"Then go away. All the prep work you need to do is looking up runes and you know that. I want to sleep."
Twilight took a deep breath. "You do not give me orders, Discord. It is quite the other way around."
"You're already going to kill me. Don't you have any compassion at all? I barely got any sleep last night and it's not as if I'm looking forward to the moment you start playing with knives. Let me sleep the rest of my life away, if I'm going to die tonight."
Twilight sighed. "You're correct. I need to go look up runes. And find the runic ink. Spike is useless; he never found it." She turned on him. "You haven't even gone for those buckets yet."
"Sorry!" Spike quickly ducked out of the room, gathered an empty bucket and a bucket full of cold water, and pulled them in. He was going to have to use hot water and soap for the disinfecting procedure, but right now, it wasn't as if he intended to use either of them to mop.
When he returned, moments later, Twilight was grilling Discord on some of the runes involved. Discord shrugged. "I'm not an expert on runes and I've told you everything I know about how to set up the ritual. You're the genius. Look up whatever you need to."
"I intend to. But first." She walked over to him. Despite the sarcastic and defiant tone he'd been taking with her, Discord shrank down to the floor as she approached, plastering himself against it as if he didn't even realize he was doing it, or how frightened it revealed him to be. "Here are your orders. You may not let anyone destroy your collar. You must use lethal force to stop them if needed. You may not let anyone destroy the chains that hold you, nor may you unlatch them, nor allow anyone else to unlatch them. You must use lethal force to stop them if needed. You are forbidden to go out that door for the rest of your life." She pointed at the exit to her workroom. "You are forbidden to allow anyone else to drag you or carry you through the door. You must use lethal force to stop them if needed."
Spike swallowed. He'd missed his chance to help. He couldn't bite through the chains if Discord was under a compulsion to kill him if he tried, and if Discord wasn't allowed to go out the door anyway... there were no windows in the workroom, which had been their book-sorting room once upon a time. There was no way out except through the door.
Oh dear Celestia. Was he going to have to do something to Twilight to stop the ritual? Oh, please, no. Don't make me have to hurt Twilight to save the world. Please, please don't do that.
Besides, he wasn't quite sure she trusted him enough that he'd be able to.
Twilight wasn't done. "You are not permitted to engage in sexual activity with any pony, or any other being. You are authorized to refuse any such orders given to you by anyone who isn't me. As the Element of Magic, I outrank all of the other Bearers of Harmony and my orders supersede theirs. Any order which would result in sexual contact between yourself and any other being is an order you are free to refuse, as my orders countermand theirs. You are free to tell them so."
Spike winced inwardly. Discord had told him about that, a couple of nights ago when he had tricked Spike into sending that fateful letter, but Spike hadn't wanted to believe it, or understand Discord's hints. Not Fluttershy. She couldn't. She wouldn't. But tears formed in Discord's eyes.
"Really?" he said hoarsely. "Twilight... that's the only kindness you've ever granted me ever since you imprisoned me. I still hate you, but... thank you. Thank you. I � you didn't have to do that for me."
"I did not do it for you. I find the thought of you engaging in sexual activity with anyone repulsive, but I deferred to Fluttershy for her strategy to bring you to obedience. That strategy is no longer needed."
"I don't care who you did it for or why you did it. You just protected me from being raped again for the rest of my life. Whatever your reasons, thank you." He was choked up, sounding as if his voice was on the verge of breaking.
"You... had a point, this morning. Rape is disgusting." Twilight turned away from him. "Even you didn't deserve such treatment. My experiments on you had a purpose; I took no pleasure from causing you pain. I only wanted to use your power to make life better for all ponykind. Fluttershy has claimed that... that using you in such a way would break down your defenses and make you obedient sooner, and evidence suggests she may have been right, but... still. She did it because she enjoyed it, not solely for higher purpose. It nauseates me. I suppose... I'm not completely without compassion, even for you."
"Th-thank�" A sob escaped him. He stopped talking, and curled into a ball on the floor, pressing his paws to his muzzle and breathing deeply, the picture of a draconequus trying to get his runaway emotions under control.
"Spike. Disinfect the room. I am going to go make sure I have a perfect understanding of these runes and how to emplace them. And to find the ink that you couldn't be bothered with."
"Sorry, Twilight." He wasn't sorry, but her accusation still stung, even though it was absolutely true; he really had deliberately dragged his feet on it.
As soon as Twilight had left, Discord gasped, one paw still on his muzzle. "Spike � Spike, bucket, please�"
"You don't have to tell me twice," Spike said, dragging over the empty bucket. He turned away, trying not to listen to the sound of Discord dry-retching, and got the water bucket, dragging that over too. "I figured you would need that. And a drink."
"I'm sorry � I'm so sorry � I wasn't thinking, and I screwed everything up, and � and you should run. They got Fluttershy. They wouldn't have any way of knowing she visited me unless they got her. Go rescue them � I think they're all in Canterlot � and they can bring you to the portal. You can get out of here before tonight." He was still crying as he spoke, alternating with more empty vomiting. Nothing was coming up but mucus and blood, and not very much of either, but he couldn't seem to stop.
"Discord, take a drink. Maybe it'll help."
The first drink didn't; he spewed it right back up again immediately. The second drink, he managed to hold down for maybe 30 seconds. The third, maybe a bit longer than that. But the fourth drink stayed down, and after that, he drank the entire contents of the bucket. Spike carried the vomit bucket to the washroom, dumped the tiny amount of actual fluid in it into the toilet, rinsed it out, and then filled it with hot water and bleach.
"Drink all the water. That one's gonna have to be your bathroom bucket if you need one."
"I did, actually. Drink it all. Already." Discord had slumped on the floor. "You have no idea. I was coming so close to losing it; I had to pretend to start crying so I'd have an excuse, because if I didn't do something to physically hold it in, there was no way I could have, and she knows what it means when I throw up. She'd question me to find out where I was, uh, being creative and leaving things out."
"You were pretending to cry?"
"I, um, actually it wasn't pretending, but I did deliberately let myself do it." He shuddered. "You have no idea what it feels like to be grateful to someone who has brutally tortured you twice a week and is planning on slaughtering you like a cow in the Griffon Empire, because they've shown you the smallest, tiniest, literally least bit of mercy possible. I wanted to grovel at her hooves in thankfulness because she won't let Fluttercruel touch me again. How pathetic is that?"
Spike chose his words carefully. "I, um... I'm really sorry Fluttershy has been... well, you know. I just thought she was, was training you. Like she trains other animals. I knew the experiments hurt you�" he could hardly have avoided knowing that; during the experiments, there'd never been anywhere in the library he could go to escape the sound of Discord's screams�"but I didn't know about the whips. And, and other things."
"It's all right, Spike," Discord said tiredly. "You killed me. And you trusted your friends and family. I knew all along you weren't going to stick your neck out for me."
"But I should have � I mean you kept being all bloody and I never thought about where was that coming from. I mean, besides the holes Twilight's wires kept poking in you."
Discord shuddered again. "Don't remind me. But it's over. No more of that, either. Either someone sets me free or I'll die tonight. Either way. No more experiments and no more of Fluttercruel's twisted ideas about 'love.'" He smiled weakly. "I don't want to bring down the rest of the world with me. If it gets to that point � if they can't rescue me � please, kill me. She didn't order me not to let you."
"I don't have that hammer anymore. Princess Celestia confiscated it."
"Oh my, no, I wouldn't want that anyway. That hammer shatters souls, that's why it can kill a god. I am fairly sure that right now I'm mortal enough that a claw slash to my throat would end it pretty quickly."
Spike's eyes widened. "Shatters souls?"
"You didn't know? Oh dear. The other Discord doesn't exist anymore. Which is just as well for you, because he might just have decided to come back from the dead if you'd killed him in some more mundane way. But you broke his soul into pieces."
"I � I didn't even know for sure that souls existed! I mean, they're theoretical, and supposedly you can do necromancy to bring back the dead and that wouldn't work if there were no souls, except it usually results in zomponies or some kind of abomination and not the pony at all so maybe there aren't any souls, but�"
"No, souls exist. And are much harder to destroy than bodies. But it can be done. You did it."
"I � I didn't mean to � I just � I didn't even want him dead, I just � it was the only way to make sure he couldn't come back�"
"And you succeeded. Bravo for you." Discord looked as if he was, actually, on the verge of falling asleep. "But promise me. If she actually gets to the point where she's about to start that ritual. Kill me. If you could kill me once to save the world, you can do it again. I think I'm mortal now; you won't destroy my soul, but the ritual would. I've always wondered what will happen when I die and stay dead. What there is to see in the Shadowlands beyond the depth I've explored."
"I � I don't know if I can, Discord."
"Well, you missed your chance to save the world by biting through my chains. So unless my friends come to the rescue, which sounds unlikely given that they've been imprisoned too, or unless I can think of something else, that might be the only option to stop the ritual you'll get."
"What if I knock you unconscious, and then bite through the chains?"
Discord pointed at the door. "Were you there when she ordered me to not go through that thing?"
"Uh... yeah."
"Unless you're strong enough to drag me, stealthily, without Twilight noticing what you're doing, then no. I still can't leave the room on my own power, and I can't allow anyone to take me out of it without resisting as much as I can." He sighed. "She didn't tell me to use lethal force to prevent anyone from ripping my collar. So if you go for that I have to try to stop you, but your reaction time might be better than mine, in my condition. I'd still die, but I'd have my magic back long enough to make sure my friends were safe."
"I don't want to kill you."
"I'd rather not die, not now. But I'm not sure I'm going to get another option." He closed his eyes. "Wake me up when you need to move me so you can mop under me. I'm going to sleep."
"How can you sleep at a time like this?"
"Given how tired I am, and how much all that not-lying and then upchucking took out of me? Easily."
He was right. Within minutes after he closed his eyes, his breathing evened out, becoming deep and regular. Spike continued to mop, racking his brains. There had to be a way out of this that didn't involve making him a murderer again. There just had to be.