Stallion of the Devil

by ashleyadorable1

THE DEVIL'S STALLION Chapter 1: "BRRRRAAAAARRPP!" Twilight awoke to a very rude noise. She wished she were too groggy to say it, but it was too close to dawn, and Spike's belch was too loud to even pretend to sleep through. She groaned, "Spike, will you quit eating emeralds!" Lol

THE DEVIL'S STALLION

Chapter 1:

"BRRRRAAAAARRPP!"

Twilight awoke to a very rude noise. She wished she were too groggy to say it, but it was too close to dawn, and Spike's belch was too loud to even pretend to sleep through. She groaned, "Spike, will you quit eating emeralds so close to bedtime? You know what they do to you...! It's too early in the morning for this!"

Spike groaned back, and just as groggily answered, "Twilight, I haven't had emeralds all week! It's a letter!"

"A letter?! At this hour?!" the words rolled off of Twilight's tongue as if they were as tired as she was. "You can't tell me the Princess is sending us letters just before dawn!"

Spike blew fire onto a candle and looked the scroll over. He immediately became more awake as he realized what it was. "It's got the Princess's royal seal on it! It's got to be from her!"

"Great. She wouldn't send it at this hour if it wasn't urgent...ohhhhh, it's too early in the morning forurgent!" Of course, Twilight didn't let that stop her from reading it. Spike already had it unfurled by the time she dragged herself out of bed and put herself between the light and the scroll so she could read it. It was very hastily horn-written, which wasn't like the Princess at all, but it was still very legible:

My Dearest Twilight,

I may already be too late in sending you this letter. I have seen a magical corruption spreading throughout Equestria, and you and your friends may be the only ones who can stop it. Even I do not understand it, but anypony who comes under its effect becomes enraged, their eyes turn black and red, and they relentlessly attack anypony they see who isn't also under the corruption's effect. And whenever a corrupted pony touches an uncorrupted one, the corruption spreads. Soon, all of Equestria will be under this spell's influence, and I fear that nopony will ever feel anything other than anger ever again unless we stop this spell.

I have researched this, but I have only been able to find one document about this effect in my secret vaults. It is an old ponytale, one that even I didn't believe was true before I saw the corruption spreading. But it speaks of a demon in the shape of a pony who rules over the dark afterlife, consuming the souls of all the ponies who wasted their lives in hatred, as they waste their eternities in hatred as well. The ponytale spoke of his ambition to gain control over the lands of the living, his ability to create this corruption, and that the only thing that could protect against his influence was to be under the Spell of Unity.

I know that there is no magic in all Equestria stronger than the Elements of Harmony, so I am unlocking the elements and will have them to you as soon as I can. But hide yourself and anyone else you can; I am writing this hoping that you haven't been corrupted, yourself, and that Ponyville has not yet been touched by the corruption. If it has, all may well be lost.

I will be coming to you promptly to bring you and your friends the Elements, and I will have the Spell of Unity prepared. There is no time for pomp and ceremony: the fate of Equestria and all ponykind hangs in the balance.

Your Princess,

Celestia

Spike and Twilight looked at each other in frightened bewilderment. Spike gulped. "What do we do?"

Pale, rainbow light filtered down the library's chimney, and soot rustled down the flue. Twilight stiffened herself for battle and readied her magic, and blew out the candle to keep herself hidden. Spike gulped, but readied himself for a fight, as well. Twilight whispered, "If it's a corrupted pony, I'll hold him or her at bay with my magic. Then you run to the basement and see what you can do to block the door so we can keep ourselves barricaded in."

"But...but there's no telling how long we'd have to stay down there, and there's no food in the basement! We'll starve!"

Twilight's stomach gurgled at the thought of starving; she was beginning to get hungry for breakfast. But she knew it was better to starve than to become corrupted, and she couldn't think of a solution, so she only whispered back, "Shh!"

The light got brighter, and the source of it quickly slipped down. It was a glowing orb, flashing colors that reminded Twilight of the Princess's mane and coat. Twilight gazed at it for a moment as it filled the room with beautiful light, confused about what this orb could be-she'd studied magic since she was a little filly, but hadn't seen or read or even heard of anything like this before.

"Oh, Twilight! Thank heavens you aren't corrupted, yet!" It was the Princess's voice, and it was coming from the orb.

"Princess?"

"I'm in spirit form, Twilight-it's a side effect of the Spell of Unity. There's no time to explain how it works. Just hold still."

Twilight did as she was told and held still as the orb floated towards her and a strange light enveloped her whole body. She felt a strange sensation that she couldn't have described if someone had asked her what it was like. But she knew that, in some strange way, she and the Princess had become one, even though they were still different beings and different minds.

"Are you okay, Twilight?" Spike asked.

"I think so," Twilight answered, still a little overwhelmed, and still pretty tired from the sudden awakening.

"There's no time to lose, Twilight. Find your friends. We'll need to join them to the Spell of Unity as well, to make them immune to the corruption. They may have already succumbed to the corruption: while I was flying in, I saw that many ponies in Ponyville have already been corrupted!"

Twilight gulped audibly.

"But even if they are corrupted, there is a way to reverse the corruption. The Spell of Unity has many side effects, and because your special talent is magic, one of the side effects is that you will be able to fire arrows of pure light from your horn. Anypony hit with those arrows will have the corruption removed from them, but be warned: you mustn't use any magic other than these arrows of light, or the Spell of Unity will be disrupted."

Twilight nodded. "I guess I'd better go out right now, and-"

Twilight's thoughts were thoroughly interrupted as the door burst open, and a pony was at the door-it was the Mayor. Her eyes were black where they should have been white, and her irises and pupils were disturbingly small, glowing a fiery blood red. The expression on her face was one of focused hate and rage. The sight of the Mayor in this state sent shivers down Twilight's spine, but she knew she couldn't hesitate.

The Mayor charged at Twilight. Her first instinct was to use magic to teleport behind the Mayor, but she caught herself before she tried that-literally five seconds ago, the Princess had warned her not to use any magic besides the arrows of light. Instead, she summoned all her strength and leaped over the Mayor. The Mayor was suddenly confused-no less enraged, but confused, not knowing whether she should keep charging to attack Spike, or turn around and attack Twilight. After half a second of deliberating, she decided to try to turn around and charge Twilight.

Spike, for his part, wasn't sure what to do: he didn't want to touch the Mayor and get corrupted, and he didn't want to use his fire breath on her and hurt her, either-he didn't seem to have any options for fighting back; he only stood still, half cowering, half wondering where to run.

But he didn't need to fight back: Twilight fired an arrow straight at the Mayor, and her eyes went back to normal. The Mayor seemed in a daze for a moment, but after blinking, she seemed to come back to her senses. "Twilight Sparkle? I...I apologize for what must seem to you to be-"

"There's no time," Celestia insisted. "You and Spike must hide in the basement at once! Twilight, find your friends."

Twilight bolted out the door and shouted over her shoulder, "Sorry, no time to explain!" She wished there were more time to explain-for that matter, she'd like some explanations, herself. But she'd seen problems spread exponentially before: she'd seen what the Parasprites did, reproducing at an incredible rate, and if she and her friends had only listened to Pinkie Pie's warnings and asked a few questions, it wouldn't have taken months of work and incredible amounts of money to repair the whole town. She felt like she was partly responsible for the damage, too, since it was her spell that had changed the Parasprites' appetite so that they consumed everything but the food, and she didn't want to be responsible for something like that again. So she took the hint from the Princess's tone and hurried.

But no sooner had Twilight come out the door of the library than random, black-eyed ponies began charging her, determined to either spread the corruption to her or pound her to dust. So many of them were faces that she had passed a hundred times on the streets, in the shops or restaurants, or even at the library. It was horribly unsettling to see all love, all joy, all normalcy drained from their faces, and hatred against her put in their place. She kept running, not sure where she should go, first. Nor was she sure how she could possibly fight so many ponies; there had to be dozens of them-and only one of her. But she knew she'd be surrounded quickly if she didn't do something, so she fired a few arrows randomly at the crowd following her, hoping for the best. The result shocked her: even though only three or four ponies at most became uncorrupted, the entire herd of ponies stopped chasing her and began charging the ponies who had been uncorrupted. One of the uncorrupted ponies screamed and ran away from the herd, leading them all away from Twilight.

It was horrifying to think of the fear that one uncorrupted pony must have been experiencing, having to run from her neighbors, friends, and family for dear life, but Twilight knew that the best thing she could do for that pony was to complete the mission Celestia had given her-she knew it, and she'd do it, but it still cut her up inside that she couldn't help that poor, screaming filly.

Twilight raced toward the closest place she could think of: Sugarcube Corner. The thought of Pinkie being taken over by the corruption was a sickening one; though Twilight didn't like to admit it, she had warmed up a lot to Pinkie over the years she'd known her-not just despite her hyperactivity and childish behavior, but in some ways, because of it. She was fun to be around when you were looking for a good time, and beyond that, she was a very affectionate and loyal friend, however crazy she was.

Twilight had to push these heartwarming thoughts about her friend out of her mind as she came up on Sugarcube Corner. She was worried that there might be corrupted ponies inside the bakery, but she didn't have time to find out: the window to Pinkie's apartment flew open, and Pinkie flung a twinking, gemmed key out of the window into a pile of junk that was uncharacteristically sitting outside the building.

"HA! You pony zombies will NEVER get me now! Not even through the window!" Pinkie shouted, and before Twilight could shout up to her to come down, she slammed the window, and it locked tight with a "click".

"Pinkie, come down from there!" Twilight shouted. "The Princess has a plan to save Equestria from the dark magic, but we need the elements of harmony to make it work! Come on!" Twilight listened intently for an answer, but she didn't hear a thing. Pinkie must not have heard her!

Twilight's mind raced: the only way to get to Pinkie was to get the key. But looking for the key in that pile of junk would literally be like looking for a needle in a haystack; there just plain wasn't time to look through it all. Plus, Twilight couldn't lift the junk up with her magic, or else she'd disrupt the Spell of Unity: she'd need to use her hooves and mouth to move it all. That would take even longer! If only there were a pony who was good at finding things-

Rarity! Rarity's gem-finding ability might be able to find that key in that pile of junk! It had a gem, after all. And even if it wasn't a real gem, at least Rarity would be able to use her horn magic to lift the junk and look faster than Twilight could. Twilight raced to Rarity's nearby boutique, only to find that a huge stone had been put in front of the entrance-it was Tom, the same boulder that she had mistaken for a giant diamond while under DisQord's illusion. Twilight's first thought was to move it with magic; she'd moved things a lot bigger than that rock with magic, before. But then she remembered the Princess's warnings and knew that option wasn't available. She wished she were strong enough to move that rock with her muscles alone, but she was disappointingly physically weak, and she knew it. If only she were strong like Applejack-!

Applejack! Of course! She was a hard worker and used to hauling and lifting heavy stuff; she'd be able to help move that stone! Twilight turned around and raced toward Sweet Apple Acres, hoping that the herd that had followed her wasn't waiting in ambush.

Of course more ponies noticed her, and charged her again. This time, she had some idea what to do: she fired arrows at the ponies that were on the fringes of the herd-far to the left or far to the right, and then the whole herd broke off their pursuit of her and began pursuing the uncorrupted ones. Some part of Twilight objected: she was, after all, using those other ponies by uncorrupting them and letting them distract the others. She remembered the ethics lessons she had learned in school, and how Immanuel Kanter had insisted that ponies should never be used as a means to an end. But then again, what choice did she have? And what would really happen? The moment another pony touched them, they'd just be corrupted again, and then the terror would be over.

...only to be replaced by hate.

It was absolutely sickening to think of what was happening to all Ponyville and what she had to do to survive, so Twilight pushed the thoughts out of her mind and focused on the task at hoof. She kept running to the farm-but she skidded to a stop as she saw that the irrigation ditch surrounding Sweet Apple Acres, while empty of water, was completely full of small animals-and each of them was corrupted. Rabbits and squirrels who would normally ignore Twilight were swarming at her, teeth bared, eyes blazing red, all of them trying to jump up and snap at her. They couldn't jump up the height of the ditch, but even if she was safe from them, the sight was a new flavor of disturbing: the corruption had leeched everything good out of the ponies, and they were intelligent beings. But the corruption had also leeched everything cute out of these unreasoning animals, as well, and made them into something that simultaneously scared Twilight and weirded her out.

She stared at the seething, shrieking balls of bristled fur and teeth for a few moments, pondering the horror and wondering whether there was a way over the ditch. She looked up at the other side, and decided that she couldn't jump that distance, even with a running start. Was there anything she could use to make a bridge? ...If she could use her magic any way she liked, she could probably knock a tree over and use that for a bridge, but that wasn't an option. She fired a few arrows at some of the animals on the other side of the ditch, hoping that that would be enough to distract them so she could climb down, get to the other side of the ditch, and climb back out. But that didn't work, either; there were too many animals, and too few of them were actually distracted-it was as if Twilight were a more tempting target than their fellow uncorrupted little critters. Twilight began to despair of ever getting past this obstacle; she knew she was running out of time! If only Fluttershy were there; she'd know what to do with animals-

Fluttershy! That's it! Twilight began racing for Fluttershy's cottage. The cottage was on the outskirts of Ponyville, so there were fewer corrupted ponies that saw and attacked her-but when they did, Twilight knew what to do: she fired arrows at the stragglers, and that distracted the mob long enough for her to escape. But as she got closer and closer to Fluttershy's cottage, she saw fewer and fewer corrupted creatures. She saw a squirrel in a tree that looked at her with curiosity, not hatred, and had normal, shiny, black eyes. That gave Twilight a huge relief; maybe the corruption hadn't spread as far as Fluttershy's cottage! Maybe she was safe!

A friendly face would've been like a drink of cool water in a desert, right about then, and Twilight was suddenly very much looking forward to seeing Fluttershy. After all, she was always gentle and kind-the polar opposite of the rage, cruelty, and determined hate Twilight had seen in every other pony's face since she woke up. And it was awful to be alone out there with only her horrifying thoughts to keep her company-yes, the Princess was with her, but she was being awfully quiet; it made Twilight wonder if she was in some kind of a trance-it might be a side effect of the Spell of Unity; the Princessdid say there were many side effects.

The door to Fluttershy's cottage was wide open, but Fluttershy herself was nowhere to be seen. Twilight knew that it was rude to just walk in without being invited, but time was so short-anything could bring the corruption into Fluttershy's house at any time: a bird, a rabbit, another pony. There was no time to be polite. Twilight rushed in, hoping Fluttershy would be inside, and slammed the door behind her, hoping to at least slow down anypony or anything that might have followed her without her knowing.

Fluttershy was in the living room, at the opposite side of the house, looking into one of the many birdhouses she kept. Her back was to Twilight, but she seemed normal enough.

Twilight was panting and agitated, not sure where to begin explaining what was going on. She suddenly felt confused as the adrenaline began to fade from her system, and her stomach gurgled a little and her hunger caught up with her-the stress of the morning and of all the running and fighting clouded her mind for a moment. She shook her head and tried to concentrate; there was an urgentneed for her to quickly explain the situation to her friend; she couldn't be slowed down by stress, notnow! ...But where to begin...?

She decided to start with her rude entry: "Sorry for coming in so fast, Fluttershy, but...things are going crazy in town!" Twilight paused to catch her breath. "There's this magical...corruption that's turning everypony into...I dunno...zombies or something! The Princess wrote me a letter about it and somehow gave me immunity to it with something called the Spell of Unity. I don't understand it myself, but we need to get to the others so we can use the Elements of Harmony again. But...well, right now, I'm just glad you're safe, at least. It's been awful to see everypony in town corrupted! They look so angry and hateful-ugh! It gives me the creeps in so many different ways! ...You wouldn't believe how much I was looking forward to seeing a friendly face while I was coming here!"

Twilight spoke too soon, and her heart sank: Fluttershy turned around, and the gentle, shy, kind face Twilight was used to seeing-was twisted into a cruel, joyless scowl with black, burning eyes. "NO!" Twilight screamed, horrified that Fluttershy's timid, sweet personality had been defiled and overwritten by this dark magic!

Fluttershy took off, and a flock of birds flew out of their houses and swarmed around her. Twilight tried to fire an arrow of light up at Fluttershy to free her and restore her to her old self, but no matter how hard Twilight tried to aim the arrows upward, they always flew parallel to the ground. Twilight thought for a moment that her inability to fire arrows at an angle was probably another side effect of the Spell of Unity, and she briefly wished that there were time for her to hear about all the side effects if the spell, but she had to focus on the battle at hoof: Fluttershy sent the birds dive-bombing at Twilight, one by one. They tried to scratch at her ears and eyes, but Twilight was too quick, and she was able to dodge them and even shot a few of the birds with arrows. That bought her respite from the birds for a few seconds.

She took that moment for the opportunity it was, and shouted up to Fluttershy, "I know you're in there somewhere, Fluttershy! You're my friend! This isn't you! You're kind and gentle and...and you like cute animals! You wouldn't attack anypony; it just isn't in you! Come down from there! I have the magic to make you better!"

Fluttershy didn't answer. She snorted, a thing Twilight never thought she'd see her do. She'd seen Rainbow Dash snort at her as she closed in to cure her of DisQord's spell, and that was a disturbing sight-she only smiled through it because she knew she was about to cure her; it wasn't clear whether she'd be able to cure Fluttershy or not. And that uncertainty was terrifying; Twilight desperately wanted her friend back, and the thought that she might not be able to save her made Twilight feel sick to her stomach on top of being hungry-she again pushed the thought aside, determined to redouble her efforts and find a way to cure her friend, no matter what.

Fluttershy pointed at Twilight with her hoof, and now her chickens and her rabbit Angel rushed at Twilight, teeth bared and claws ready. Twilight still knew what to do, though: she fired arrows at a few of the chickens, and they began to scurry around aimlessly with corrupted creatures hot on their tail, distracting the whole swarm.

Fluttershy herself now rushed at Twilight. Twilight fired an arrow at her, and the corruption began to dissipate-but it took more than one arrow to get the job done, and Fluttershy took off again before Twilight could fire another! More birds swarmed around Fluttershy as she began the pattern of attack again. Twilight thought to herself that now, she'd never be able to get Fluttershy to come back down to striking distance-she'd learned her lesson from that one arrow Twilight had managed to land! But Twilight kept fighting with the same tactics, shooting a few birds when they flew low enough, and then, when Fluttershy called the chickens and her rabbit again, Twilight routed those the same way-Twilight's only thought was to keep herself alive and uncorrupted until she could think of something,anything, that would let her use her arrows on Fluttershy herself. She was panting and starting to get exhausted from the battle, but she was determined to finish this and get her dear friend back. But to Twilight's surprise, Fluttershy charged her again, even though she should've known it would give Twilight the opportunity she needed to fire another arrow. Twilight didn't let the surprise make her hesitate, though: she fired another arrow into Fluttershy, and Fluttershy retreated back to the air.

The corruption was still on Fluttershy and still controlled her actions, but Twilight could tell that another arrow would finish the job and free her friend. Twilight knew enough about how to finish the fight that she could spare some mental energy to ask herself just why Fluttershy was fighting in such a predictable way. She realized that the hate that filled Fluttershy's mind (a thought that made her cringe inside!) was forcing Fluttershy to always do something to attack her. If her animals couldn't do the job for her, she'd have to do it, herself, even if it put her in harm's way. And Fluttershy couldn't think on a higher level or form strategies for how to do the awful things the corruptions was making her want to do, because the dark magic was overwhelming those parts of her mind with blind rage: the same magic that was making Fluttershy hostile was also making her stupid. For a moment, this made Twilight feel very glad and relieved, since it meant it would be possible to save her friend. But then it made Twilight horrified, and even horrified that she'd been glad a quarter-second ago, since she realized that the corruption was doing another horrible thing to everyone it touched-worst of all, it was doing it to poor, timid, kind Fluttershy! It wasn't bad enough that it made her hateful and relentless; it made her stupid, too!

Twilight pushed those thoughts and the internal conflicts they generated aside, and she kept shooting birds and animals until she had opportunity to fire one more arrow at Fluttershy. When she did, Fluttershy landed, her eyes restored to a bewildered, frightened, dazed white and blue.

Celestia broke her silence: "Quickly, Twilight, touch her! Before the corrupted animals do!" Twilight knew better than to hestitate. She rushed at Fluttershy and dove at her, as if to hug her-and then Twilight disappeared! In her place, she found she was now a floating, purple and pink orb-she was a spirit, now, just like the Princess was! But she could still see and hear and speak, and she saw that Fluttershy was looking around, tears in her eyes, whimpering a little. "Fluttershy, please-say something!" Twilight pleaded.

"T-Twilight?" Fluttershy asked with a wavering voice.

"Please, tell me you're okay, Fluttershy!"

"No, I'm not okay. I just had the most horrible nightmare; it was even worse than the one where I started acting mean to everyone, and you and Applejack had to tie me down and cast a spell on me to free me! And..." Fluttershy began looking around everywhere, everywhere except at the two orbs floating above her. Another terrified, squeaking whimper rose from her throat. "...And I'm scared I'mstill dreaming, because I hear your voice, but I don't see you anywhere! If I'm still dreaming, and you're awake and can hear me, then please wake me up. This is so scary!"

It was heartbreaking to hear that from Fluttershy. Twilight wished with all her heart that everything was just a bad dream that they could wake up from, and then everything would be back to normal. She wanted to see the smiling faces of the populace of Ponyville going about their daily business again. She wanted to see fillies and colts playing in the streets without a care in the world. She wanted to be with her friends again! But all thanks to this corruption, those things could. not. happen. The more she thought about what the corruption was doing, the more it disgusted and horrified her.

And there was no easy solution to what was happening; it wasn't clear exactly what had to be done to fix everything, but Twilight guessed that it was going to take a lot of work and a lot of fighting to repair the damage that the corruption was doing. For a moment she wondered if she'd have to fire an arrow of light at every pony in Ponyville to get them all back to normal, one-by-one, but she pushed that thought aside-she didn't even want to think about how complicated, difficult, and dangerous a job like that would be.

Twilight stayed silent thinking about these things for a second too long, and Celestia again broke the silence that was obviously terrifying Fluttershy: "Fluttershy, look up!"

She did, and she saw the orbs. She let out a squeak of fear and dove behind the sofa, trembling.

Oh, no! As if she needed something else to break her heart: Fluttershy was now afraid of her! Twilight sputtered, "Please, don't be afraid of us, Fluttershy! It's me, Twilight, and the Princess! I'm just in...some kind of...spirit-form... The Princess appeared in spirit form to me, too, and somehow merged with me so that she's following me around as a spirit, and...and it's all part of some kind of Spell of Unity. I don't understand it, myself, and there's no time to explain it all."

Fluttershy nervously peeked around the sofa, still trembling. Some of her animals, which were miraculously no longer corrupted, began edging towards her, some of them nuzzling her here and there, encouraging her to come out from behind the sofa.

Celestia spoke up again: "The Spell of Unity allows one of us to be in bodily form at a time-anyone else who is bound by the Spell of Unity will be in spirit form, but we can switch out who is in physical form at any time, and instantly."

Fluttershy looked at Celestia, confused and still terrified. It was clear she didn't understand.

Twilight sighed. "Princess, I'm getting tired, but I think I should be in physical form again-Fluttershy doesn't understand, and there's no time to explain everything. We have to find the others so that we can use the Elements of Harmony-but...I don't know what we're supposed to do with the Elements, this time. Can you please explain on the way back to Applejack's farm?"

"I'll explain what I can, Twilight."

"Okay. Now...how do we switch out who's in physical form and who isn't?"

"Just will it, you and Fluttershy."

"Okay...here goes...you ready Fluttershy?"

Fluttershy snapped back behind the couch, and her sudden movement scared the animals back into their homes.

"Fluttershy, please be brave about this! Just want me to appear, and I'll appear!"

"...okay..." she whispered, and in a flash, Twilight was behind the couch, and a pastel pink and yellow orb was in place of the purple and pink orb that Twilight once was.

Twilight found she had caught her breath, again, from switching out; she was feeling a lot less exhausted and was ready for more action. She didn't waste any time wondering why she was no longer tired, and bolted straight for Sweet Apple Acres.

"So, Princess, what do we do with the Elements once we get everypony together?"

"There is a core to this corruption somewhere in Ponyville. If you can use the Elements of Harmony to destroy that core, you will free all the ponies in Ponyville from the corruption-and anything else that's been corrupted, too."

"That's it? ...Wow...for a while, I was worried I'd have to use my arrows on everypony one-at-a-time to free them all! Thank goodness I don't have to do that! But...what exactly are all the side effects of the Spell of Unity?"

"Even I don't know what all of the side effects are; the scroll I read it from was badly damaged, and most of it, except for the spell itself, was already destroyed and rotted away. I know only a few select things about the spell: I know that it allows one of us at a time to remain in physical form. I also know that it allows a powerful magic-user bound to it to fire arrows of light that can cure the corruption, that it allows anyone bound to a pegasus to walk on clouds, that it allows those bound to it to absorb some types of crystals and have their wounds instantly healed, and that it sometimes interacts strangely with the special talents of some ponies. Beyond that, and the fact that nopony under the Spell of Unity can become corrupted, I'm afraid I don't know anything about it for sure. Much about this is shrouded in mystery, and I'm not even sure how much of the ponytales we can trust to be accurate. But for now, they're all we have to go on."

"You mentioned in your letter something about a demon unicorn who rules over the dark afterlife. What's that about?"

"I don't know, myself-his name is Satallion, and I don't know whether he exists as a pony or is merely some kind of legendary symbol of evil. But the ponytale says that he is able to inflict this corruption and forcibly turn other ponies into his thralls. When they are corrupted, they feel the pure hatred that living ponies normally cannot feel-only the wicked dead are able to feel it without the direct influence of his magic."

Twilight shuddered. "What do we do if we have to fight him? He sounds like he's dangerouslypowerful!"

"There's no way of knowing how your power or mine measure up to his; we can only use the Elements of Harmony on him and hope for the best."

Twilight didn't like the sound of all this-there were so many unknowns; they weren't sure which parts of the ponytale were true, or whether they'd be able to do anything even if they were all true. But, as she found herself doing a lot, she pushed the scary thoughts out of her mind and pressed on for Sweet Apple Acres, hoping that Fluttershy would somehow be able to help her get past those animals.

Twilight's thoughts began to dwell on Fluttershy-the poor mare was terrified, and clearly didn't understand what was going on. On top of that, she'd just been freed from mind-altering magic: there was no telling how scrambled Fluttershy's thoughts and emotions were on account of that magic. The thought of her most vulnerable and timid friend suffering like that, and Twilight herself not knowing what to do about it, suddenly made Twilight want to cry. But she was already at Sweet Apple Acres, so she again pushed these thoughts out of her head and skidded to a halt in front of the ditch that surrounded the farm. The small animals in the ditch immediately began hissing and barking up at her, eyes flaming.

Fluttershy screamed, "Oh!" at the sight of the corrupted animals, filled with pity and horror.

Twilight gulped-now was the time when she had to ask for help from her confused, timid, terrified friend. And she couldn't let Twilight down, either, because if she did, she'd never be able to join up with Applejack, the Elements would be incomplete, and-and Twilight tried to stop thinking about it. She just thought to herself, please be with me enough to help me, Fluttershy! Twilight tried to piece together a sentence explaining what she needed from her friend: "I...I was hoping you'd be able to find a way around them, Fluttershy-everywhere I tried to go, there was always something in the way, until I got to your house."

Fluttershy's voice came back right away: "I...I don't know what to do, Twilight; I've never seenanimals act like this, before!"

She doesn't know what to do...no! Twilight struggled to think of a creative solution, and she sputtered the most obvious thing she could think of. "Well, if you can't calm them down, maybe you could at least fly over the ditch?"

"But I can't just leave these poor animals like this!" Fluttershy moaned, switching out into physical form again. The sight of animals in distress was apparently enough to banish the fear and uncertainty that had kept her silent since they left her house. Twilight was relieved that Fluttershy had forgotten her own suffering, so she could at least check one concern off her list. Fluttershy knelt down in front of the ditch, and the moment she got close to the animals, they immediately calmed down, and the corruption left them.

Twilight was startled as she saw birds that would've normally dive-bombed them turning back to normal and perching contentedly on Fluttershy's shoulders and hooves. "What...?" Her mind struggled to find an explanation. "...Well, the Princess did say that the Spell of Unity interacted strangely with ponies' special talents. Maybe this is the side effect when you're around; the animals get uncorrupted just by you being around them, since you're just so good with animals?"

Just then, a thundering stampede of ponies rumbled towards them, each of them with a look of determined hate on their faces. Fluttershy let out a frightened shriek, and the birds that had been perched on her flew toward the stampeding herd, each bird veering off in another direction as they got closer-and the herd dispersed in all directions, each following an uncorrupted bird, baited away from Fluttershy and the precious Spell of Unity.

Fluttershy stood there, not sure what had just happened and a little traumatized from having seen faces with those hideous, evil expressions. Twilight explained, "That's what happens when someone or something uncorrupted gets near a corrupted pony-or really anything else that's corrupted: the corrupted ponies...or animals, or whatever, chase after anything or anypony that's uncorrupted. It distracts them; it's the way I've managed to stay alive." There was another pause as Fluttershy tried to absorb the information and deal with the terror at hand. Twilight's heart sank; just when her friend was beginning to forget her fear, it all came back to haunt her-confound this corruption; it justwouldn't give her a break! Twilight thought again of how to cure it, and shouted, "Come on, Fluttershy, we've got to get to Applejack and cure her-or maybe, if we're lucky, the ditch kept her safe, and she's not even corrupted!"

Fluttershy cautiously began flying towards the barn to see if Applejack was there. Corrupted birds flew at her, but when they got close, their corruption faded, and they simply began circling her or flying in formation around her, as if they knew they might need to protect her. She piped up, looking at Twilight and Celestia, "It's much too quiet, here..."

Since Fluttershy was too shy to shout, Twilight began calling out, "Applejack! It's us, Twilight and Fluttershy! Can you hear us? We need your help!"

RIght on cue, Applejack leapt out of the barn, but their hopes that she had escaped the corruption were in vain: her eyes, like every other corrupted pony's, were black and burning red.

Fluttershy let out a squeak of fear and began to fly away.

It burned Twilight's heart to keep her friend in the place that scared her, but she shouted, "Fluttershy, NO! Don't fly away! We need to cure Applejack; I've got magic that can cure her! Land!Land!"

Fluttershy obediently landed some distance away, but Applejack was already charging. Twilight popped out into material form, scattering the birds that had been circling Fluttershy. Twilight ignored them and fired some arrows at Applejack. One hit, but as soon as Applejack (or perhaps it was the corruption inside her) realized what was going on, she turned around and ran back toward the barn, hopping left and right and dodging randomly to make it impossible to hit her with another arrow. She dove behind a bale of hay, and began launching apples at Twlight with her strong kicks.

Twilight did her best to dodge, but one smacked her on the shoulder-it hurt quite a bit, making Twilight scream and wonder if her bones were bruised. But Twilight fought back the pain, kept dodging, and tried to think of a plan-then she saw the birds in the trees. "Fluttershy, try getting some birds to fly at Applejack-see if that distracts her enough for me to cure her!" Fluttershy popped into material form and flew up to the trees, collecting a handful of birds. Then she sent them flying at Applejack, and Applejack immediately forgot about firing apples and began swatting at the birds with her hooves, jumping onto the hay bale to swat them better. As soon as Applejack was distracted, Twilight popped back out and fired more arrows into her. Applejack ducked back behind the hay and began launching apples again.

"Get some more birds, Fluttershy. Trust me, it'll still work; corrupted ponies don't learn from their mistakes in battle!" Twilight shouted. Fluttershy popped back out and sent more birds to distract Applejack, and they repeated the pattern a few more times. Soon, Applejack was cured, and Twilight tried to rush at her to make her join the Spell of Unity-but her shoulder hurt too much from the impact for her to run. "Ow...Fluttershy, fly up and touch Applejack!"

Fluttershy popped back out and flew up to Applejack, hesitating.

Applejack, for her part, was confused and a little ashamed. She hesitantly asked, "Fluttershy? What's goin' on, here? What're those weird balloons followin' you around?"

"Just trust us," Twilight said. "Touch her already, Fluttershy, before anything else happens!"

"Twilight? What the hay?" Applejack sputtered.

Fluttershy timidly extended her hoof and touched Applejack on the nose, and then disappeared into spirit form, herself. Applejack was left wiggling her nose and apparently alone, apart from the "weird balloons" floating around her head. She started at Fluttershy's spirit, an orb with her mane and coat colors, in disbelief and confusion.

"It's us, Applejack-Twilight and Fluttershy. And the Princess. Something terrible is happening in Ponyville, and...and...well, we can explain on the way. Just start running towards town."

Applejack did as she was told and began running towards town, grabbing a rope that had been slung on a nearby fence as she passed it. She ignored the flocks of animals that were beginning to chase her, while Twilight explained what she knew of the Spell of Unity and the corruption as they ran. Applejack only stopped when she got to the ditch.

"Fluttershy, switch out and fly us over this," Twilight said. "In fact, with your animal abilities and wings, you can probably get us to Rarity's boutique the safest."

Fluttershy did as she was told, and not a moment too soon-the animals from the farm were upon them! They instantly calmed down and clustered around her as she flew over the ditch, following her as best they could. Many couldn't climb up over the far side of the ditch, but Fluttershy trotted towards town with a large number of animals in tow.

It didn't take long at all for the corrupted ponies to start charging her. She was visibly distrubed by the sight of them charging her, and closed her eyes and ducked her head with a terrified squeak. But her animals scurried at them, and every last one of the corrupted ponies was thoroughly distracted-Fluttershy had a clear path to the boutique.

But she just stood there, eyes closed, trembling. Twilight was getting tired of feeling sorry for Fluttershy; reasons just kept coming up for her to be terrified. But Twilight again focused her mind on getting her friends together and dispelling the corruption. She sputtered, "Fluttershy, quick! Run! Run to Rarity's boutique! The animals you control will keep you safe, trust us! The fate of Equestria hangs in the balance! I've seen you be brave before; please be brave again!"

Fluttershy picked her head up and gulped audibly, nervously glancing around. Already a few more birds were circling her, ready to protect her. She cautiously started trotting towards Rarity's boutique.

"Better move it, Sugarcube!" Applejack shouted. "There's no tellin' what'll happen if we drag our hooves now!"

Fluttershy bolted toward the boutique, and more corrupted ponies slowly began to chase after her. But a lot of squirrels and birds and rabbits were also following Fluttershy by the time she got to the boutique's entrance. She hopped on top of the boulder to try to get away from the crowd, and with a squeak, sent the animals following her scattering in all directions-taking the crowd with them.

"Quick, Applejack!" Twilight shouted. "While they're distracted, get Tom out of the way!" Applejack popped out and shoved at the boulder with all her might. It slowly rolled out of the way, and Applejack dived into the boutique and slammed the door behind her. No one was in sight.

"You reckon Rarity put that boulder there to keep herself safe from the corruption?" Applejack asked, panting.

"I hope so, and I hope it worked," Twilight answered, "But that's the kind of luck I haven't been getting, today."

As if that were her cue, Rarity stepped out from around a corner with her cat Opalescence-and both of them were corrupted!

Applejack gulped. "I see what you mean, Twilight!"

Unlike Twilight, Rarity had full use of her horn magic, and she used it to levitate the rolled-up bolts of fabric in her store to make platforms that hovered just out of reach of Twilight's arrows. Rarity stood above them on these platforms, glaring down at them harshly.

Applejack tried to calm her down. "Now, Rarity, don't go lookin' at us like that. I know we don't see eye-to-eye on everything, but-"

"Talking doesn't work!" Twilight insisted. "I need to use my magic!"

Rarity began using her horn magic to pick up sharp and heavy objects from around her boutique and hurl them down at Applejack. Applejack dodged as best she could. "What do we do, Twi?!" she shouted.

"I'm thinking, I'm thinking!" Twilight answered, trying to decide if there was a pattern to the attack. Rarity was hurling things as fast as she could-an iron, a dozen needles held together with a ball of thread, a pincushion was the sharp parts out, a scissors, a ponniequin-but she was hurling them one at a time, and she was beginning to run out of objects to throw.

Then, it dawned on Twilight: Fluttershy charged her when she ran out of animals to send at her. Maybe when Rarity ran out of things to throw, she'd charge them, too, and that would give Twilight her chance! "Keep dodging and get ready to switch out with me!" Twilight shouted to Applejack.

Twilight waited with bated breath as Rarity hurled the last object down at Applejack to see what she'd do. ...But she didn't charge them! Instead, she sent Opalescence to attack Applejack. Opal clawed at Applejack's face, barely missing. Unlike the hurled objects, Opal was able to chase them.

"Switch out with Fluttershy and let her cure Opal!" Twilight shouted. Fluttershy popped out, and, just by being close to her, Opal was cured.

Twilight tried to think what to do next; Rarity wasn't charging them-she was just glaring at them and snorting, trying to pick up a very heavy ponnequin to throw at them, but unable to move it-Rarity was distracted enough to give Twilight a moment to think. If only there were a way to yank the platforms down so Rarity would be low enough to hit with an arrow...! Twilight's mind raced; what did they have to work with? ...Applejack brought a rope, and she could easily lasso some of the bolts of cloth and yank them to the ground. But Rarity could fight against the pull of the rope with her magic-was there a way around that? ...Twilight remembered that, when a unicorn is distracted, it's hard for her to use her magic. But the only thing that distracts a corrupted pony was an uncorrupted animal...like Opal! That was it!