"Derpy!? Why... uh why do you look different-"
"It's obvious Sabre, this happened because of you, as well as all of you!" Derpy angrily screamed, stomping her left forehoof down onto the floor, summoning lightning and leaving a block magma where it struck. She then began to hover up. Sabre and Twilight began to take a few steps back, away from what Derpy had become. She hits her head on the ceiling, and those stone blocks become magma.
"What do we do!? She's- This is like what happened to Spike, back in the middle world. Derpy is corrupted, by Madness' essence. If she destroys the Red Kingdom... who knows what problems that will cause,"Sabre said to himself in his mind. Twilight tries to use her magic to get rid of the corruption in Derpy. She fires a beam of magic, removing the corruption, but only partially. Derpy then loses control and crashes down onto the floor. Sabre and Twilight walks to her, but cautiously, not getting too close.
"H... help m... me..." Derpy quietly muttered, the real Derpy, the Derpy they all knew.
"That seems to be working! Do it again Twilight!" Sabre exclaimed, sounding very demanding. Twilight does so again, but this time it doesn't work. Moments later, the corruption took full control of Derpy again.
"Derpy, if you're in there, you have to fight it!" Sabre yelled, getting back from Derpy as well as Twilight.
"The Derpy you know is gone!" Derpy shouted, now back under control of the corruption, lifting her wings up, then firing what looks like muffins, but completely black and on fire, coming from the orange tips of the wings. Twilight raises a purple shield with her magic, just before the fireballs obliterated them all.
"This is really bad! What do we do!?" Sabre exclaimed.
"Sabre, can that Shadow Sword do anything about this!?" Twilight yelled.
"No! I can't use the dar- If I do, it will make everything even worse!" Sabre shouted back.
"It's only a matter of time until that shield collapses," Derpy laughed, summoning more of these muffin-looking projectiles. They began to put cracks into Twilight's shield, creating crunching noises as the fireballs hit the cracks.
"This isn't working you- You have to do something else!" Sabre yelled to Twilight.
"I can't!" Twilight yelled back. The shield then shatters, and Twilight collapses, falling to the floor Derpy hovers over to Twilight and was about to land on her with her orange hooves to disintegrate her. Sabre hits Derpy with the Shadow Sword to defend Twilight, as he was left to no other choice. He knocks Derpy a few blocks back, but she hovers back, her focus now shifting onto Sabre.
But then, something walks out from the back, the opposite side of the spiral quartz stairs. It's face looks like an Orange Steve, but darker. On the left, right, back and top of the head is a square, outlined in white, red, yellow and green on the inside of that square. The chest of this thing is dark grey, 2 horizontal lighter shades of grey nearer the top of the chest. Between those light grey horizontal lines, there is a red square on the middle of its chest, 4 smaller white squares corners touching each corner of the red square. Finally, it's arms and legs look like the arms of pistons.
"You are a danger to this kingdom. I am now going on defensive passive aggressive mode. Who are you? I do not like you, and do not appreciate your presence," The thing said with a robotic sounding voice, very clearly directed at Derpy, who it gets the attention of.
"A robot?" Derpy responded, looking at the thing.
"I am indeed a robot, you moron. Now, sending you away," The robot said as it summons lightning, sending Derpy away to a random location.
"Who... are you?" Sabre slowly asked the robot.
"I am Assistant Steve. I was made by the Professor," The robot replied.
"It is safe to come out. The moron has been dealt with," Said Assistant Steve, looking behind him. One by one, Time Steve, Elemental Steve, the rest of the mane 6 and Starlight walked out of the room from the back.
"Wait, where's M?" Sabre asked.
"He's gone to the leader's house... well, his house now, I guess," Time Steve answered.
"Ah, you two are back," Said Elemental Steve.
"Who was that?" Rarity asked.
"You're not gonna like this... uh, um, it was Derpy. She's been corrupted, by Madness' essence," Sabre explained to Rarity.
"Oh..." Rarity responded in slow motion, letting that sink into her mind, as well as everypony's minds. Derpy was always been this very kind, loving, caring and even funny pegasus. She was also very helpful, and tried her best to fix something, whether it was her fault or not. Now, she has been turned into a corrupted monster. It's almost inconceivable to even think that corrupted mare is even Derpy at all.
"That is, indeed, correct. According to the current knowledge in my database, we can't do anything for 'Derpy' until Madness Steve is dealt with. There's so little information on Madness Steve that defeating him won't guarantee that the corruption will go away," Assistant Steve stated.
"Now, who are you two?" Assistant Steve asked, looking at Sabre and Twilight.
"Sabre."
"Twilight."
"Okay, Sabre, and Twilight- Ah, you were the two not here. Where were you two? You morons," Assistant Steve responded.
"Wow that's just rude man," Sabre responded.
"Yeah, he's been calling everyone morons for the past five minutes," Elemental Steve walked to Sabre and quietly responded.
"You know I can hear you, right? You moron," Assistant Steve instantly responded to Elemental Steve.
"It doesn't matter, we can't wait any longer. Everyone, we have to take the fight to Madness, now! If we defeat him here and now, we can save Derpy and maybe the others. I'm sick of this," Sabre suggested, getting emotional. These past 4 days have been quite the ride for him. After one foe is dealt with, another just seem to be waiting, and is worse than the last. Time just seemed to go past so quick. Back in the days when Faceless and Nightmare Steve were the biggest problems, those days were long gone. He's made many friends along the way, many of them had fallen. It all just seemed to go very quick.
"Yes, the more time we give Madness, he'll eventually escape this Madness Dimension thing," Time Steve responded, agreeing with Sabre. Everyone also agrees with Sabre.
"Professor, I know with everything that happened with the Red Leader- I guess Hypno now, and you tried your best okay. But, we need you now more than ever. If we fuse Madness Steve's essence with a powered object, we-"
"We've already been onto that. We've created two other swords powered by redstone, as well as three sets of armour. They just need to be fused with Madness Steve's essence, which according to the Professor, you currently have, Sabre," Assistant Steve interrupted, explaining to Sabre.
"Unfortunately, there are no machines in the Red Kingdom that can fuse the essence with the swords and armour. I, and the Professor, don't want to risk causing another accident, as well, you know, what happened to the Red Leader. We must make a machine outside of the Red Kingdom," Assistant Steve stated.
"Anyway, what about a sword for me- Wait, nevermind, I have the Shadow Sword," Sabre said to himself in his mind.
"That's why Origin wanted me to keep the Shadow Sword. I get it now, at least I think. Finally. We're taking the fight to Madness," Sabre said to himself in his head.
"Where are we going to combine the essence with the armour and swords? If I'm correct, that's what we got to do next," Elemental Steve asked.
"Um... we could go back to Zecora and ask for her help?" Sabre suggested.
"Remember what happened when we made the potion to get the visions? That blinding flash wasn't very fun," Time Steve pointed out, replying to Sabre.
"Maybe Assistant Steve could do it, if Zecora explains to him what to do. As he isn't like... well, us... he may not be affected by the flash," Twilight responded to Time Steve.
"That is, indeed, correct Twilight. I am a robot. I will not be affected by sudden high levels of light," Assistant Steve responded.
"If Assistant Steve is coming. I'm coming too," Said Professor Red.
"Also, isn't it a bit late. We could wait until-"
"It's nearly the next day, Professor. We may as well get on with it. According to my calculations, the growth of Madness Steve's... 'False Form' as you put it, is growing slowly. But, that can possibly change very quickly if we don't hurry up. We have to make our move now," Assistant Steve interrupted his creator.
"Okay, but we won't go ahead, unless everyone else wants to. Everyone, if you're ready, say I," Said Sabre.
"I," Everyone responded. Another voice said 'I' too, a shadowy voice, which Sabre heard coming from the Shadow Sword, but he didn't have the time to deal with that. There's much bigger things on the line right now. He can deal with him later. Everyone gathers around Sabre as well as the mane 6 and Starlight. Sabre begins to use the sword, summoning lightning.
Everyone is now in the Everfree Forest, where Zecora lives, that hut inside that really thick tree with the different coloured bottles dangling off of the tree trunks on a bit of string as well as the green and yellow mask on the ground to the right.
"This forest reminds me of another forest, just... without the blocks... and a giant building... with more trees grown around the top of it- It doesn't matter," Said Professor Red.
"Yeah, we just need Zecora. We have to do this now. Had we done something earlier, maybe we would've stopped him. We could've saved Spike, Dinky and Derpy... I can't believe I couldn't do anything about it-"
"Come with me," Twilight interrupted as she grabs Sabre right with her left forehoof, taking him where she and Sabre can talk alone.
"Like you said, we couldn't of done anything else. We've all done our best and we are giving it our all. It isn't your fault Sabre. So much has happened throughout today," Twilight interrupted Sabre.
"Yeah... today's been rough," Sabre replied, now also sitting down on the grassy muddy ground.
"What's wrong Sabre?" Twilight asked, sitting down next to him to the left of him.
"It's just... when Hypno was messing about with my mind... he made an illusion of Derpy. She yelled at me saying it was all my fault... and seeing Derpy again- Yeah she may be corrupted right now, but... hearing her say similar words, it... it got to me..." Sabre sighed, looking away.
"It was partially my fault that the Red Leader got attacked anyways! He kept the Red Steves isolated because of things like this! 'It is...' Maybe I should have just left the Red Steves alone! It was also my fault that Fluttershy almost got destroyed by Madness! 'It is your fault...' He got Shadow and that shadow pony thing! Had I of destroyed the Shadow Sword, maybe none of this would've been happening! 'You went too far...' Maybe he wouldn't of been interested in them two! I'm also responsible that Derpy, Dinky and Spike 'It was your fault...' are now gone!" Sabre exclaimed, almost breaking a tear. Meanwhile he was speaking, something was whispering to him inside of his head, but he didn't pay attention to the whispers. Sabre is broken at how many of his new as well as his old friends that he's lost.
"But Sabre, you've went to this... world... the world below was it? You went there to save not just Elemental Steve, you went there to save Spike and Dinky too. That meant a lot to me, and my friends. I like you Sabre, you're kind, loyal, and you do what is right. When me and the girls first came along, we were so stressed, especially with what happened to Spike. But you, Time Steve, Light Steve too and Elemental Steve. You all helped us get through this stressful time. You all have been amongst some of the best friends we've ever met," Twilight replied, getting emotional with her reply, putting her right forehoof around Sabre. Sabre nodded.
"Can I tell you something?" Sabre asked.
"Yeah, anything Sabre," Twilight replied.
"This Shadow Sword... it originates from the darkness. The Shadow Sword, when Shadow had control, he destroyed so many steves, then when I regained control, I've saved so many at the same time. So many were saved by the sword, but so many perished by the sword, and yet, I've still been using powers of the darkness- I'm sorry-"
"But Sabre, you're not using it for evil reasons. You're using the darkness for the greater good for everyone. You teleporting between our realities had saved so much time. Without that sword, everything would've took so much longer, and more would probably be gone. I mean... Discord was once evil a long time ago, and he has changed, and still uses the same magic, but the difference is he's using his magic for the greater good. I'm not going to stop you using something, as long as you're using it with good intent," Twilight instantly responded.
"Thanks, Twilight, I appreciate it. Since meeting you six, friendship... friendship suddenly got a whole new meaning. This place, Equestria, it's built on friendship. Maybe one day, all the steves can unite into one big civilization just like Equestria once all of this with Madness is over with and well in the past," Sabre responded back.
"With M in charge now, I do honestly hope he does reveal the Red Steves to the rest. Just get it over with what kept us so divided. Maybe, there may even be an era where steves and ponies coexist and work together for the best of all of us, y'know?" Sabre added.
"Yeah, that would be nice to see," Twilight replied, nodding.
"Anyway, we should get back to the others. It's time we take this fight to Madness himself," Said Sabre. Twilight nodded. Sabre and Twilight then got up and walks back to the others.