0-0-0-0-0

The turmoil of the storm was something that Rainbow Dash felt easily lost in.

Tossing whirlwinds and heavy gusts shoved the leaking grey clouds around indiscriminately, though she did not avoid them with as much grace as usual. She simply barreled through several of the rainclouds hanging over Ponyville, leaving a congealing black and grey hole behind. Even the early morning sun seemed to hide behind the veritable mountain of grey, as if reluctant to cast the world in light at such an hour. It felt like the rain would never end.

The icy water slapping against her almost seemed to help a little bit.

Almost.

She landed hard only a few paces from Fluttershy's cottage, the smack and pull of wet mud hardly registering in her ears. Dash kicked absentmindedly at the outside doormat, hardly bothering to brush it off. Her mind still sat in a heavy fog, her only sense of clarity brought by her newfound determination.

Soon everything would be fine again.

Rainbow Dash tenderly brushed at the spot beneath her left eye, ignoring the stinging sensation. It was her fault, she had no one but herself to blame-

Her head shook hard back and forth as she gave a few hearty knocks at the front door. All she had to do was avoid thinking about it for long enough. That could be sorted out later. For now she just needed her colt, then her home wouldn't be empty anymore and everything would be fine. The mantra she repeated to herself sounded hollow, though. Lacking. It didn't stop her from repeating it over and over again.

Rainbow Dash frowned in frustration when nopony answered the door, rainwater still dripping relentlessly onto her head.

"Wake up," she said loudly enough that she surely would have been heard and gave a particularly hard bang on the door. "Flutters, open up. We gotta talk."

Her irritation slowly morphed into fearful worry the longer that she stood on the doorstep without an answer. Fluttershy wasn't one to ignore somepony on her step or even avoid answering the door when she came knocking. Unless something was wrong, or perhaps she was angry with her. Rainbow Dash couldn't think of any reason why she might be… at first. It didn't take long for an entire myriad of awful thoughts to come bubbling up, each one with worse implications than the last.

Maybe her fears had been recognized at last and Fluttershy had a perfectly good reason to never talk to her again.

A sickening bolt of fear fell through her stomach as she experimentally tried opening the door, only to find it unlocked. Her surprise lasted only a moment as she freed herself from the oppressive weather and shook the remnants of the water off, dripping hither and thither throughout her friend's home.

"Fluttershy? Are you awake?" Dash called out nervously to the darkened cottage, an unnatural stillness her only reply. "William? Is anypony awake? I-I'm here…"

Her voice trailed off weakly as she peered through the darkness. Fluttershy's home was almost always filled with the ambient sounds of a number of creatures that found solace there. Such sounds were strangely absent, and the abnormal amount of quiet was unsettling to the degree that Rainbow Dash found herself unconsciously inching back toward the door.

She stopped herself quickly and gave another little shake.

"Fluttershy!" she cleared her throat and called a little more loudly, striding through the cottage and tearing curtain after curtain open in effort to let more light in.

The darkness around her seemed so thick, so suffocating that Dash felt earnestly compelled to open each and every window shade, anything to let the light in, no matter how dim it might have been. Each shutter thrown wide cast a long, coffin-shaped ray of watery light onto the floors, accentuated by the occasional quiet flash of lightning. A slow hint of dread scratching at her belly urged her on, no answer coming to any of her calls.

Worry wound its way around her throat as she clambered up the stairs, choking her as she approached the darkened hallway. The familiar guestroom door was wide open, though no one was inside when she peered in.

There was no sign of anyone at all.

"Flutters?" Rainbow Dash called again, feeling as if she were going to be ill. "Somepony, answer me! Where'd everypony go?"

Her steps toward Fluttershy's room were slow and deliberate. The fump. fump. fump. of her hooves on the floor seemed so painfully loud and jarring that she had to fight the urge to tiptoe. Rainbow Dash found herself holding her breath as she approached. A single crack of lightning made her jump, hoof barely an inch away from the door. She shouted her friend's name once again, finding the bedroom door firmly locked.

"Fluttershy!" Rainbow Dash shouted, hammering on the door. "Flutters, what in Tartarus is going on? Is William in there? Why won't you answer me already? Don't make me break this door down!"

Of course, her yelling went completely unnoticed.

She gave one heavy, haughty puff before promptly kicking the door as hard as she could. Surprisingly it stood firmly against her buck, as it did for the second – and third – and fourth.

Dash wound up hard for the fifth kick, drawing her leg back and slamming into the barrier with all her might. The deafeningly loud CRACK! of splintering wood was so akin to a clash of lightning that for a split second, Dash glanced around for a hole in the roof and promptly felt very silly for it.

After another moment, she discovered that somepony had kindly already opened the bedroom window blinds for her. Rainwater drizzled through with force, pelting halfway across the room.

Of course, it didn't quite reach far enough to wash away the bloodstains.

0-0-0-0-0

It seemed like the rain would never end.

Tink. Tink. Tink. Tink.

Spike's tarnished spoon thumped rhythmically against the ceramic, around and around the mug over and over again, gem dusted cocoa hardly registering on his tastebuds. Rivulets of rainwater streamed over the windows in undulating miniature rivers, casting a strangely surreal morning glow through the kitchen by its ethereal streams.

And so it would go, sometimes for hours. Sometimes it was coffee, but he had taken a liking to the cocoa lately. There were days where he couldn't even bring himself to drink, instead opting to sit with the mug in his talons until it went cold. Either way, it didn't matter much to him.

Spike watched the rain again for a while. The downpour almost completely buried the weak but frantic knocking at the library door.

He made no move to answer it.

He could almost pretend that he hadn't heard it if the rainfall were only just a bit louder. Unfortunately the visitor would not simply leave and be done with it, hammering even more ferociously on the wooden door. Spike grumbled a couple of choice words under his breath before finally slipping away from his chair in the kitchen, plodding lazily toward the door to unlatch it with all the speed of a sleepy snail.

At long last, however, the lock was finally undone and the door pulled open, revealing a seriously flustered pegasus.

"I need to talk to Twilight," Rainbow Dash brushed past him promptly, sopping wet and dripping water all over yet another floor with seemingly no care. Her eyes were wide and ruddy as if she had been crying, one of which appeared to be severely bruised. She looked as if she were on the very verge of being ill, or perhaps she had just finished. Spike stared at her for a moment before kicking the door closed.

"She's sick," he answered brusquely, and his own voice sounded a little rough even to himself.

"It's really important." The pegasus wiped her face shakily a couple of times, slipping further past him with gusto. "You wouldn't understand." Spike momentarily considered mentioning the wet mess she had left over the floor before quickly abandoning the idea and following her up the stairs.

"H-hey," Spike worriedly tried to snag her tail to stop her, failing and almost losing his balance on the steps. "Hey! Rainbow Dash, c'mon! I already told you, she's sick!"

Dash stamped one hoof against the hard wood floor at the top of the flight of steps, casting a single glance at him. There was an unfamiliar gleam in her eyes that he was not accustomed with, a stare that just seemed… off. It unnerved him.

"And I need her help right now; Spike, just-just go back to whatever you were doing, I just gotta talk to her for a sec-"

"No, Rainbow Dash!"

The little drake stood rather defiantly in front of the unicorn's bedroom door, arms spread defensively out to keep her at bay. It was painfully apparent that he wouldn't be able to stop her even if he tried, but it was the act of defiance itself that seemed to catch her attention at last.

"… C-come on," he said at last, pleadingly. "Twi's… she's sick. She's sick,, just leave her alone. Please. Just let 'er rest."

"I'll just be a couple of minutes, I promise," Rainbow Dash placed a damp hoof on one of his shoulders in a consoling manner, leveling her head at him. "But things are really, really bad right now, and I need her help."

"You don't – she doesn't - you can't –" Spike struggled in despair as Dash firmly pushed him out of the way.

The door was slow to creak open, grinding horribly on Rainbow Dash's ears.

She had to say that she didn't particularly care for the sound.

"… Twilight?"

The emaciated frame leering at her from across the room was so still, so quiet that for a moment Rainbow Dash was fearful that she had not really left Fluttershy's cottage at all, that it were all merely in her mind. Such a thought shook her deeply and she was swift to push it away.

"Come on, don't-!" Spike tried to keep her away, but Dash traversed the distance to the unicorn's bed swiftly.

Twilight looked almost as bad as Fluttershy did.

Almost.

Her mane was filthy and matted, and in some places looked as if entire clumps had been torn out by the hooffuls. Twilight's face was gaunt and sallow, and her body quivered beneath her blanket. Her eyes, however, were the worst. Wide, dilapidated pupils whirled around and around the room, fixating here and there on dead space before flickering in a panic elsewhere.

The mare was shaking and trembling when she approached, and Rainbow Dash was speechless for a long moment.

"… T-Twilight."

"I see them."

Her voice was dry and cracked, and so low that she almost went unheard. Twilight's gaze that was turned upon her was inattentive, almost… hollow.

"Twi?" Rainbow Dash shifted awkwardly, uncertain of how to proceed. She could feel Spike's glare on the back of her neck. "I – Celestia, Twilight. Spike – I mean, you – wow. Everything's going wrong."

"It's all wrong," Twilight's ephemeral whisper came back as she looked away. "It's wrong. It's right. No right and wrong when it's left. Nothing left. Nothing left. Nothing left."

"Twilight – Twi, listen to me! Shit has hit the fan, snap out of it!"

Twilight didn't even seem to hear her. Rainbow jerked when Twilight weakly grabbed her hoof, her slightly off gaze swiveling in her direction.

"Wrong. It's all wrong. It's over."

"That's-that's right," Dash agreed. "So snap out of it, I need your help."

"There is no help. Not for you. Not for me. Not for anypony. It's over."

"Twilight!" she said roughly as the mare's milky gaze drifted away again. "Jeez, come on! Fluttershy… Fluttershy's dead, Twi…" her voice began to crack as the panic she fought so viciously against reared its ugly head, angrily yanking the reins away from her once more. "She- Celestia. I need to find William! I need to find him, you know tracking spells, right? I need you to find him before-"

"It's over," was Twilight's only response. "I saw them. I see. It's over. They're coming, it's over. It's over."

Rainbow Dash watched her feverishly ranting to herself for a few more seconds before turning helplessly to the librarian's assistant.

"What's wrong with her?" Rainbow Dash looked as if she were going to throw up.

"I told you, she's-she's sick…" Spike tugged at his tail fitfully. "Doctors have been over. She's supposed to be moved today."

"What happened?" Dash threw one last look at the delusional mare as she was guided out.

"Just started getting sick after a while," he answered quietly as the door was closed back shut and he slogged toward the stairs. "I don't really know. She just said I wasn't allowed to know what she was looking for. Started seeing things. Now she's like this. She's sick, I've just been so worried I can't-"

He stopped on one of the steps ahead of her, staring into space. Rainbow Dash said nothing, waiting for him to move.

"She'll get better." Spike nodded to himself after a few moments before moving again. "She'll get better. What did you mean about Fluttershy?"

"She's… she's gone."

Rainbow Dash's reply was empty as her face.

"Gone how?"

"I-I don't… I messed up," Rainbow Dash confessed at last. "I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry. I messed up, I messed up so bad, I just keep - I have to go," she made her way to the door and jerked it open without pause. "Gotta-gotta find William. I'm sorry. I gotta go."

And as she took off into the sky, Spike wondered just how many of his friends he wasn't going to have the chance to say goodbye to.

0-0-0-0-0

It began innocently enough, as most things are wont to do.

The dream was already fading, even though she held her eyelids tightly closed in a feeble attempt to keep it closer. It had been such a lovely dream too. Although the vision was long since gone, the quiet memory of excitedly clambering over great heights still lingered. With the ground far below her and a puffy white cloud sailing by, she could almost see the edge of the very world if she squinted. It was such a breathtaking, beautiful sight; so surreal that she almost felt that she could reach out and touch it, hold it in her hands.

She reached out and soared higher than ever before, elation such a subpar definition that she didn't want to define it, lest she sully the feeling by merely mentioning it. It was like being given wings and cast to the sky, radiant in every way imaginable as she soared across it all without a care in the world.

She could almost see everything.

Nyack. Nyack. Nyack. Nyack. Nyack.

… I want to go back.

Eris groaned into her pillow, one hand jutting crankily from beneath her quilt and slapping haphazardly about in attempt to silence the dreadful squawking of the alarm clock. One knuckle smacked against her worn nightstand edge and left it stinging painfully. Instead of shutting the mechanical beast off, Eris instead angrily punched it.

Regardless, it was just as effective.

Five already. Time to get up.

"I know you heard the alarm," her mother's voice came wafting clearly into her ears shortly after, regardless of how hard she tried to ignore it and go back to the blissful dream. "Now either you get your butt up, or I get the ice again."

"Hey, look at the time!" Eris sat bolt upright in bed, messy black hair dangling over her face and nearly covering her wide eyes. "Golly gee whiz, how did I not hear the alarm?"

Ena gave her a flat stare, arms crossed loosely over her chest.

"Keep up the lip. I might still get the ice bucket anyway," she deadpanned, looming in the small doorway.

"I'm up, I'm going," Eris grumbled, stretching lazily as the dim sunlight streamed into her seashell decorated room. "Jeez, gimme a couple of minutes. Eck, why is it so bright at this time of the morning?"

"I did," her similarly raven haired mother yanked the blankets from her cruelly, cracking open the window and exposing her to the chill morning air. "The alarm's been going off for the past ten minutes, up!"

Eris begrudgingly dragged herself from the comfort of her mattress and gave a heavy sigh. Her mother was in one of those moods again, it would seem. She trudged blearily toward the kitchen barefoot, cold wooden floor creaking beneath her as she did so.

"No time for breakfast!" came what were possibly the cruelest words to have ever been uttered.

"What?" Eris snapped from her dreamlike stupor in shock, peanut butter jar still in one hand.

"You shouldn't have slept in!" Ena barked as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, covering up her flower pattern blouse with her favorite yellow raincoat and dressing quickly. "We'll be back in time for lunch, but if we don't hurry we're going to miss it."

"They'll be there one way or another," she rolled her eyes with a feeble hope that her mother would see reason and/or give in to her stomach. "Come on, I'm starving here."

"Fishing poles!" Ena demanded. "Quickly! Vite! Andale! Vamanos! Rapido!"

"Alright, alright!" Eris finally surrendered to her mother's unbearable early morning enthusiasm, noting the dangerous gleam in her vibrantly robin's egg blue eyes as she was pushed toward the door. "I'm going, Christ! Just lemme get dressed first, slow down Mom!"

"Going slow is for old people and pansies!" Ena cackled, wide brimmed yellow fishing hat with a single rusty hook dangling from the side perched oddly atop her head. "Move it or lose it, sugar booger!"

Eris sat sullenly on the wooden bench, the creaking dingy groaning and moaning on the waves like it were about to start leaking at any moment. Of course, the 'YHACKT', as it was so named in bright yellow lettering, had already garnered several holes over the years. Ena always kept a container of glue nearby for such an occasion, which Eris's foot bumped against as another low wave rolled beneath them. The letters were faded and peeling, but the misspelled word still stood out strongly on the side of their 'cruise ship'.

Unlike her cheerful mother, Eris sat with her hands clasped loosely in her lap. Hunched forward with a dull stare, she hadn't even prepared her own fishing pole. Instead her eyes were trained solely on the coast, almost out of sight from how far they had drifted.

"Haven't said much for a while now," Ena tugged absentmindedly at her line, casting a gaze downward into the crystal clear water. She brushed a lock from her shoulder length hair out of her face, distracted again by the wind. "Something up, pumpkin?"

"Gee, I dunno what it could be…" she responded dryly, peering down into the water and catching a glimmer of something shining below the surface. "I'm tired, I'm hungry, and I'm probably gonna be late for school again, but who knows what it could be."

"If I wanted to listen to a smart ass I'd stick my i-phone up my butt," Ena deadpanned. "Seriously, hon, something's up and you're not telling me. You haven't been this sour all month."

Eris sighed quietly through her nostrils, wearily weaving a wriggling worm onto her hook and dropping it with an unenthusiastic kerplunk! just off the edge of the boat.

"… Is it because you failed another big test or sommat?" Ena blinked, giving her a sideways glance.

"No, Mom," she frowned, focusing solely on the water.

"Is it that time of the month-"

"Mom!"

"Is it because it's only Wednesday?"

"No, Mom-"

"It's because that Gary boy friend turned you down, didn't he?"

"He's not my boyfriend!" Eris snapped quickly.

"Whoo," Ena held up a single hand and raised her eyebrows. "Okay then. So, it's boy troubles."

"No, Mom, it isn't," she scowled angrily, jerking the hook away from a brightly colored yellow pudgy fish before it could snag the death trap. "The Gare doesn't even talk to me."

"… 'the Gare'?" Ena sniggered. "God, he sounds like a douche."

"He's not a douche, he's foreign."

Ena blinked.

"What's the difference?"

"Mom!"

"What?"

0-0-0-0-0

"Ticket, please."

Eris glowered sleepily at the frumpy looking stallion before her.

She hated waking up feeling like this. For a brief moment she was still halfway inside her foggy memory, the dream already wriggling away from her and simultaneously leaving her completely unaware of where or when she was. Eris presented the crinkled paper that she still held tightly onto in her talons, barely managing to recollect herself. Talons, she had to remind herself firmly. Not hands. Not anymore.

The stallion wordlessly snagged the crumpled ticket in one hoof and quickly punched a hole in the paper before passing it back, doing the same to the next passenger in the seat behind her with a practiced touch. Somehow she only felt more sour as he walked away.

Eris had never particularly liked trains. Too loud, too slow, too cumbersome. Gigantic metal snakes weaving across the ground, chugging away with mechanical precision. She heaved a quiet sigh as the train carried her closer and closer to her goal.

It couldn't be that difficult, after all. Eris was fairly certain that Celestia would be more than glad to assist her in this particular situation.

She had been struggling to keep her head pressed against the cool glass window for what felt like forever, simply listening to the sounds of the train overwhelming the pouring rain. Strangely the storm carried on for much longer than she expected it would have, and something niggled at the back of her mind the more that she thought about it. It must have been an awfully large storm to have covered such a large distance, but surely there had been larger. Eris silently reassured herself that it would be over soon, that the rest she was denying herself would return at any moment-

Eris jerked awake with a hard snap! of her neck, followed swiftly by a yelp. She rubbed the spot stiffly and glowered angrily at the window, as if it had done something to assault her as well.

It took her a full beat to realize that she was no longer sitting alone, nor had she been for quite a while.

"Oh. Good morning," the mare said offhandedly behind an unfurled week old newspaper. "Surprise seeing you here."

She blinked and rubbed her eyes before turning her weary gaze to the unwelcome emerald green ones behind a large pair of thick horn rimmed glasses.

Yolk White needlessly brushed back her flawlessly done two-tone pink mane, as if more out of habit than necessity; or rather, as Eris observed, an attempt to appear 'natural'. If anything it only made Eris all the more nervous, who was utterly thrown off by the ordeal and eager to get away as rapidly as her legs would allow. Her confusion, however, held her firmly in place.

"… 'the fuck are you doing here?" Eris rudely scowled at the mare sitting comfortably across from her. A flickering shadow rippled past the window momentarily, making the therapist seem oddly closer and further away at the same glance.

"That's rather uncouth of you," White said sniffily, turning a page in the unread newspaper. She patted the small briefcase next to her, pulling it a little closer to her lap. "On a business trip to Canterlot and I just thought I'd be friendly."

"Business trip," Eris deadpanned. "At this time of the morning."

"I have a busy schedule," she responded instantly, turning another page. Somehow Eris still felt that even though the therapist wasn't looking at her she was still being held in her gaze, like a butterfly in a glass jar.

Eris quietly crossed her legs and arms, staring down the mare and refusing to give ground. She quickly glanced around the carriage, far more alert than she had been previously. Exits were the first thing kept in mind, as well as the few other disinterested passengers.

"Don't think for a second I buy that," Eris hissed venomously, to which Yolk didn't even blink. "I didn't even like you before, and this is kind of a big damned coincidence."

"Coincidences occur regularly…" Yolk said dismissively, quietly folding her paper and putting it atop her briefcase. "Quite frequently, actually. It's statistically astounding."

"What are you doing?" the draconequus inched toward the edge of her seat a little more, heart ramming wildly in her chest. She tried to keep up her current façade, but the urge to dart away was becoming unexpectedly powerful. "Why are you following me?"

"I think the better question is," she lowered her voice a little as she leaned forward, a silky sheen rolling down her glasses as she did so. "The question is, why in the world are you on a train to Canterlot at this time of the morning?"

"I asked first!" Eris's voice rose an octave, but still the mare did not flinch.

"You have an odd cut on your lip," she pointed out. "Akin to a bite mark, if I'm not mistaken, recent as well. Your mane is disheveled, you're clearly out of sorts, and jumpier than a rabbit in a bag of dogs."

Eris didn't really have anything to say to her after that.

Yolk White peacefully removed her glasses, magically dusting them before replacing them on the bridge of her muzzle. The slow, deliberate actions she had been making the entire time took Eris a painfully long while to recognize, but she was quietly proud of herself that she did so, and a little more creeped out at the same time.

Yolk was displaying the same behavior one might when cornering a potentially dangerous animal.

Which meant that she considered her dangerous, and that gave Eris a foothold.

"I'm going home," Eris responded after what felt like an eternity of silence.

"I see," was all Yolk said before returning to her paper.

"You still didn't say why you're following me."

"You didn't explain your present condition."

"You didn't deny stalking me."

Yolk gave her an odd half-frown, emerald eyes narrowing slightly behind her glasses.

Neither of them dared break the wretched silence that bound the odd pair together.

The train rumbled across the tracks as it had done for years, and it was reminiscent of such in the creaks and moans of the gargantuan machine as it careened faster and faster to their destination, yet at the same time seemed so terribly slow that time itself could have been standing still and none would have been the wiser.

"… Been raining for an awfully long time now," Yolk said slowly and deliberately.

"Yeah." Eris remarked, as unwilling to leave to another compartment as she was to stay. "Kind of…"

"Peculiar?"

"That's it."

"You know…" Yolk began in a friendly tone. "If there's ever anyth-"

"Screw you," she snapped. "I'm not playing your game."

"Have you considered that you may be suffering from bi-polar episodes?" Doctor White asked calmly, that same slightly slanted, watchful gaze never dropping from behind her impenetrable horn rimmed glasses.

"I don't have to take this!" Eris barked angrily, lurching from her seat. Several sets of eyes that had already been latched onto the draconequus focused even more intently, and the number of watchers grew by the instant. "Just-just stay away from me, alright?!"

She wasted no time in departing from the tram, jerkily slamming the door behind her as she finally escaped her unwavering emerald gaze.

Yolk watched the spot she had been for a long moment, unconcerned about the stares still upon her.

Very similar to her father, that one. Even if she didn't realize it.

Yolk opened her briefcase and popped out a small quill and worn pad before scribbling a single note on it, locking it all back up within a span of moments. She did not particularly care much for Discord one way or another, regardless of his requests or promises. Even should she continue against her better judgment, he was to be trusted about as much as his spawn. He would hold up his end of the deal. hopefully.

He was a devious one, to be sure.

0-0-0-0-0

Past the guards, past the maids. Through the halls and over the floors, silent and stealthy as the night itself.

Not even the most attentive of the small patrols spotted the slim shadow lurking behind the enormous ornamental pillars. None noticed the little book wielding frame slipping this way and that, prowling just out of sight.

That was just the way he liked it.

So close now… so close…!

The thrumming behind William's ears was so loud, so painfully present that it left his own mind in a little fog. But the princess had his trust. She guided him, showed him the path where no others could see. It was because he was special to her, he knew it.

Almost there, he thought dimly, more out of reaction than actual contemplation. There was no time for thinking anymore. Only action. Only time to serve. He had to.

Bu the doubt remained, deep within his mind.

No longer did he have to write in the book in order for Princess Luna to respond. They were closer now.

Bound in blood.

Murderer.

Her thoughts, her instructions, her very intent he could feel. Coursing through his veins, William was an instrument of her will. An extension. It felt wonderful.

But that still didn't remove the doubt. The doubt that maybe, just maybe he had done something wrong. He was reassured that the pegasus's sacrifice was necessary. Of course it was. She was in the way, she had to go. It had to be done for the greater good, to save someone more important. Of course. That creeping guilt of his sins still clung to him, regardless of how hard he tried to leave them behind as he silently leapt from one shadow to the next. Nimbly, swiftly. Trailing along behind the chatting guards, completely undetected.

His mind was pried away by the urgent pull of Luna's will. Her objective, her desires pulling so powerfully at him through the book he still held close to his chest as if it could keep them together as tightly as the pages. They were inconsequential as well as unthreatening. Golden weapons and armor were frail, easily broken.

Besides, the nighttime patrol was unwittingly escorting him exactly to where he needed to go. Not that he needed them in the first place – the princess's flowing thoughts mingling with his own were guide enough, as if he had known this castle all his life. Even then he could still sense it through her. He could feel it in his bones.

It only served as further conviction.

Almost there now…

William danced lithely through the shadows, keeping to the wall and darting along behind them at an uncanny speed.

"-so I says to 'er, I says 'darling, you ain't fooling nopony, you're as fat as the day we met!"

"Ha! You shouldn'ta done that, Vol, you shouldn'ta done that!"

"Hey, I know, eh?" one of the guards rubbed his eye as they walked. "Whatev', I'll see 'er next week."

No, you won't.

William watched them saunter away, finally holding his place behind one of the pillars. The strong sensation kneading his thoughts toward them was so nearby that he could almost hear it. The enormous engraved oaken doors, gilded with a hundred images certainly belied the opulence of the princess's chambers. But even without such an obvious display, he still would have known. Through Luna, he could feel it. They could feel it.

Yes… yes…!

He crept in absolute silence to the chamber doors, a faint, slightly familiar tingling sensation prickling his palm when he touched it. A single command rose from within, instructing him to do as he had practiced. The protective barrier that covered the door was powerful – incredibly so, strong enough to ward off even the mightiest of magic. It was old magic, that he could feel.

And also only protecting the door.

William smirked, kneeling and placing a single hand against the cool, smooth wall beside the gargantuan door. He didn't even have to summon up anything at all, Luna was already intently channeling numerous hexes through his fingertips. He felt it worm through the stone with ease, slithering to the other side and gently, noiselessly bending to her will.

His satisfied smirk grew as the enchanted oak doors swung quietly inward, providing him entrance. William wordlessly locked it behind him, the barricade safely cutting off all remaining noise as his eyes adjusted to the darkness.

SO CLOSE, SO CLOSE! YES! DO IT! DO IT! DO IT! DO IT!

The thrumming, intense drumbeat of commands inside his head urged him onward, creeping like a mouse over the cold marble floor. He felt almost like a ghost, a phantom in a dream shifting this way and that toward the luxurious four poster bed.

Or, more importantly, the little glass stand next to her bedside table.

That part actually gave William pause for a moment.

She keeps it next to her bed…?

The thought of someone like Princess Celestia seemingly being so careless with an object so powerful baffled him a little. The dimly glowing orb cast little flickering shadows close to the bed, dying out the further they reached. He tucked the book closely against his chest inside his shirt, keeping it as close as possible. Then again, perhaps it was a good idea to keep a container that held the soul of an immortal reality bender closest to one of the most powerful beings in Equestria. Behind a magically locked door. With guard patrols routinely-

No, still stupid.

William snatched it without further hesitation, hardly able to contain his excitement.

Or was it her excitement? He couldn't really be sure. All he was absolutely aware of was Princess Luna's triumphant caw resounding through his mind, reverberating through him. But that was dwarfed in comparison to the electric surge of energy crackling at his fingertips, flowing easily from the crystal orb and into his body. He had always held Princess Luna in such high regards, especially for her magical prowess. She always seemed so strong, so competent; her power was like a river, wild and huge.

But the little sphere?

It was an ocean. An ocean, the land and the sky in between. It was incomprehensibly immense.

"IT IS MINE!"

Time seemed very slow to William. He heard his overjoyed laughter as his free hand slapped the alabaster alicorn wide awake. A couple strands of brightly colored mane were still stuck to her face, sleep lines from her pillow complimenting her befuddled frown the moment before she realized just who he was and what he was holding. And, to her credit, it was probably one of the last things she'd ever expect. There was sleepy fear in her eyes. Recognition. But mostly, confusion.

"… Luna?"

And then she was liquefied.

It was a swift, noiseless exhibition of power, and completely unceremonious. It left William reeling a bit from just how quickly it happened. How utterly remorseless it had been. He wasn't completely sure if it bothered him or not.

It was then that Princess Luna made a mistake.

William likely would have continued mulling this over, completely unaware of just how very little control over his own body that he had. Watching his arms and legs sway this way and that as Luna commandeered his body into jubilant cheers. However, the tide turned back on him.

Within a split second, many things occurred at once.

Firstly, William felt himself abruptly (and quite painfully) separated from the warmth of Princess Luna's being. Immediately afterwards he could feel something terrible, something dark and cold tearing at him from the inside out; with the same kind of remorseless fury that had blasted the princess only moments before, now trying to gnaw him apart. Cutting, biting him with intent.

However, William was still very well connected to the little glowing sphere that they held, and snipping off a branch from a tree of unfathomable chaos takes slightly larger equipment than pruning shears.

William bit back.

0-0-0-0-0

I'm drowning.

William floated over the floor, his feet making not a single noise as he drifted like a phantom down the halls. The book had long since been left behind, or at least what smoking embers remained of it. His senses seemed strangely dulled, almost as if he were walking through a dream. It was such a calming, bizarre feeling. No emotion, no sensation beyond sight and sound, albeit blunted and dimmed. The horrified screams as each wave of panicking guards didn't even seem to phase him, regardless of how many joined the ranks of the steadily growing ocean of inky black goo. One of the pegasi scrambling away from him crashed roughly into his fellow, the terrified clanging of one set of gilded armor meeting another barely even registering as noise – similar to the shrieks.

William looked down at the soldier he didn't even know; a stallion with his first few flecks of grey mane amongst the black, all pride stricken from his once cheerful face and replaced with a speechless horror.

He spared no thought whatsoever as the stallion was liquefied as well.

The energy he sensed within the stallion as his flesh literally melted away in less than an instant remained. William could feel the dim resonance sliding away in the sea of black, growing along with the others splattered across the floor, over the wall. Some small part of him had difficulty keeping his eye on the growing mass; he found the entire ordeal a bit distasteful. But what was the importance of that? What was the importance of any of them anymore? They might as well have been ants for as easily as they were brushed away. Just dust in the wind.

Or rather, goo on the floor.

SISTER!

William felt the words deeply, almost painfully inside his head. It was Princess Luna's voice, no doubt; but it was louder than he had ever heard it, too brash and angry. So surprised, so full of shock and anger.

The wobbling ocean that he stepped across parted slightly for the stunned princess, sleep lines still on her face as the understanding sank in.

"Are you still attempting to comprehend?"

Luna stood with bared teeth, hot tears streaming down her cheeks as she forced her blurred vision on the slowly floating boy a mere yard away from her in the once beautiful hall, now stained black and gold with the abandoned remnants of armor here and there. Slivers of ink still squirmed over a couple of dropped spears, as if some fight could still be waged by ghosts that no one saw.

She stared at the boy who wasn't. She stared at him long and hard.

The immense amount of power flowing freely now through the gradually dimming orb in his hand was beginning to overpower her senses from the sheer enormity of it.

"… Why?"

William didn't seem to have an answer for her.

He didn't move, either; he simply stood there, staring at her.

"… Why?"

After what felt like forever, he blinked.

"Are you still attempting to comprehend?" he repeated expressionlessly. "You lost."

Princess Luna's stance remained unchanged. A single glow arose from the tip of her horn, but she seemed to be struggling to even do that much.

"Your plan didn't work. You lost," William stated again, as if he could make it clearer by saying it again.

"What are you talking about?!" she screamed at him, the spark rippling over her horn glowing more brightly.

"You… you lost," he said again. "That means it's over. You didn't win. You lost."

"Why did you do this?" Luna demanded viciously, magically clearing a swath through the pooling darkness around her as she strode toward him with intent. "Why did you murder them?"

"I didn't kill them."

The bluntness of his words was enough. She could hear the sincerity.

If anything, this only made her feel even more sick. Channeling everything she had in one violent surge scarred the entire hallway with burning energy, the split second of blinding moonlight radiating from within.

Her scream of fury went almost unheard as she joined her sister.

0-0-0-0-0

… It feels… like I'm suffocating in memories.

Drowning. Drowning in them. All too old. It's not the same. I want to go back.

I want to go back.

I want to go back.

I want to go back.

Rain within, rain without.

It felt like the rain would never end.

Rainwater that wasn't there dripped over his knuckles and down to his fingertip, trailing like molasses in a rivulet down to the floor where it pooled in a little black puddle that turned back on itself and fell up again. His only free hand weaved in and out of the conjured inky water over and over.

In the other, he held a small, dimly glowing crystal sphere.

William watched it for a while, hypnotized. It was soothing, sometimes, to watch the rain.

And it rained in similar fashions all over the throne room, shadowy puddles and rivers slithering this way and that across the ceilings and walls, upside down and inside out and across each other so that the top was the side and forward currents ran backwards in a perplexingly complex and rhythmic manner.

And yet, for all the motion and noise of the trickles of black streams laying like quivering webbing across the room, for all the life in the shadows, William sat all alone in the throne room. He tried sitting in the regal gilded throne itself for a while, and found it far too uncomfortable no matter how he sat. Instead he opted to sit beside the throne and lean his back against it, trying to find comfort. It was not to be found there either, nor on the steps before the throne. He had really been making a conscious effort to make himself contented, and continuously failing to do so was only heightening the anxiety.

But the rain pouring throughout the enormous high-ceilinged hall never seemed to solve the problem. However, if he listened to the sound for long enough, it almost seemed like it could.

Almost.

"Dude, what the hell."

The stunned draconequus's jaw dangled wide as she pressed cautiously into the sopping wet throne room, eyes flickering through the darkness to see. Eris slipped through the enormous double doors as a cascading black stream splashed barely a foot away from her, splattering across the floor and winding back on itself in a Mobius strip before flowing back up to the ceiling to do the same again. Eris was careful to keep firm footing on the damp floor and avoiding the large black puddles; and oddly, the moment she shied away from them each miniature bog did the same, slipping and dripping away to reveal a small path directly into the dark ahead of her.

"Hello?" Eris cupped her mouth and called as loudly as she could. Her voice felt muffled and weak in her ears, but something in the distance stirred. "There's, uh… there seems to be some kind of a mess! I swear, it's not my fault!"

The path on the floor grew smaller and thinner as the veritable obsidian ocean pooled around her and literally landlocked her in. The path shrank steadily, almost as if indicating that she was expected to move forward. And as she did so, it didn't take long to discover why Celestia's royal throne room was in such a sorry state.

William sat with his knees curled up to his chest next to the throne, staring vacantly at her as she approached. Eris advanced only as much as she had to before the pitch-black liquid swirling around her cloven hooves gave her just enough room to walk, her face expressionless as she loomed over the boy.

"… Will, 'the hell is going on."

"I found where the princess was keeping the receptacle that housed the essence of your entity," William responded breathlessly, steadily fingering the ruddily glowing crystal orb. The light that seeped through his fingers seemed so dull that it almost appeared as if it would go out at a moment's notice. It was stunningly familiar, and considering that it happened to be the same sphere she had been required to empty her very being into caused quite a few angry emotions to come to broil.

"… What."

"Your power," William caught her gaze. Much to her surprise his irises were clearly the same color of brown that they had always been. She had fully expected from his slouched, fatigued position and weak voice that his eyes would be abnormal or eerie looking; the fact that they were just the same as always seemed to unnerve her just a tad more than it would have otherwise.

William's eyes flicked toward the soupy mass of black liquid seeping across the throne room, the flurry of it all distracting him.

"… Will," Eris shifted uneasily. "… When did this happen?"

"I don't know," he answered honestly. "Probably somewhere in between where I broke into Princess Celestia's private chambers and when the person I trusted most in the whole world betrayed me and tried to eat me. So there's that."

"Dude," Eris shied away once again from the murky depths that seemed just a bit too eager to become acquainted with her. "This is fucking nuts."

"I know," William peered up at her with his fist tucked neatly beneath his chin, as if absolutely nothing were out of the ordinary. "Everyone in the whole world is insane. Everybody but me."

"Where-where is everybody?" Eris asked at last.

"Gone."

"Gone… where?"

"Gone."

"… Oh."

William shifted over just a tiny bit beside the empty throne, looking at her almost as if it were an invitation.

"… Will, we have to go home."

"Home?" he spat bitterly, curling him his hands beneath his knees and withdrawing even further. His face contorted angrily for a few seconds, first in anger, then sorrow, and fitfully to emptiness. "There's no place for people like us, Eris. I am literally a god now, and to be honest? Not all it's cracked up to be."

"Look," she started to reach out for him awkwardly. Eris clenched her paw midway, drawing it tightly to her side. "Look. Willy. I know what you're going through right now-"

"My name is WILLIAM!"

The entire room shuddered and quivered as if an enormous earthquake were trying to shake it apart, but if Eris was surprised she didn't show it.

"William," she said after the tempest began to rescind. "Dude. Just trust me when I say that I've been in your shoes, I know exactly what you're dealing with. And-and even though things might look a little–" Eris looked feebly around the nearly demolished throne room, watching as a pillar cracked nearly in half horizontally as winding liquid wrapped up its spine. "–rough right now, I promise things are-are going to get-"

"What?" William stared at her with a mixture of sullenness and hostility. "Better?" he stood up at last, drawing himself to his full height. He strode directly up to her, hardly meeting her chest even when standing as straight as possible. To say that he was frustrated was an understatement.

"We can fix this!" Eris said optimistically, forcing a smile. "I mean, you're probably going through some changes that could be blamed on puberty or sommat-"

"I killed Fluttershy."

Eris did not seem to have an answer for that.

Her false smile froze hard on her face, slowly cracking the longer that he focused that drained, empty stare on her. She really wished that his eyes had taken on the same appearance as the goopy sustenance around them for a minute. The way he was looking at her then was… too much. Too real. Too human. Too emotional. There was just something off about the eyes that she finally managed to put her finger on.

And in the instant that she recognized it, her entire perception shifted so sharply that it might have cut her. The ambient fear and dread that had been welling up in her faded away, the sick wrenching in her gut subsiding at last. She felt like a fool for not recognizing such a look right away. But perhaps it had been too long since she'd really taken a good stare at a look like that, too long since she'd even realized it for what it really was.

Remorse.

"I… killed F-Fluttershy," William admitted at last, his voice frail and slow, like even the declaration was a struggle in and of itself. "I d-didn't even n-need to. It didn't help me at all. There was n-no purpose. No reason. I just… did it."

Eris's mouth opened and closed a couple of times before settling on the latter.

"One of the only people in the world that actually gave a damn about anyp-pony, and…"

"… Jesus, Will-" Eris woefully started to reach for him again, only for the boy to jerk away. She once again withdrew, paw clenched in a tight fist against her side where it shook vigorously.

"Do you remember what you said to me?" William asked miserably, his hollow gaze meeting her confused and hurt one. "You said that Father – that Discord – considered this the best of all possible worlds."

"… Yeah."

William took a deep breath through his nostrils, only staring for a moment before collapsing into the throne. His head held in his palms, he didn't look up for a long time. Eris only stood there, and he could feel every single second of judgmental silence that she was steadily crushing him with.

"This world is… cruel," William tried to explain, the words failing to come to him eloquently as he wished them to. "Unfit. Unfair. Unjust. If this is really, really the best of all possible worlds, then-then… maybe I don't want to be a part of it. And maybe that's just life for everybody. Sometimes people do bad things for bad reasons. Sometimes the people you want to come back never even give you a second glance. Maybe I don't deserve to be a part of it. I know I don't. I don't deserve to belong."

It was an arduously long, long time before Eris even moved.

She moved slowly and deliberately, kneeling down right in front of William so that they were at eye level. With one talon placed loosely on his shoulder, Eris spoke at last.

"… Come on. Come back with me, Will."

And for a moment, from the pained, downright needing mournful stare that he gave, she almost believed that he would.

Almost.

"No."

William brushed her off with a firm hand, the dully glowing crystal still in the other. Eris momentarily considered simply grabbing him by the shoulder and showing him the error of his ways.

"… No, Eris," he said when an uncomfortably extensive stretch of silence weighed in upon them. William took her paw in his free hand, holding it over his upturned one. "No. You come with me."

"Where to?" she blinked.

The powers of chaos are a fickle and mysterious thing, even to one that wields them.

Especially to whomever wields them. Discord had taught her that much very well.

Ergo, when the whole world dripped away in a span of seconds to leave the pair standing only on a vast, empty expanse of whiteness, Eris couldn't say that she was stunned into silence.

She did manage a rather surprised gurgly cough.

Whiteness so blinding that for a few instants Eris couldn't even see herself enveloped them. An eternity and more of it, stretching on for ever and ever and ever.

William stared into the abyss unblinkingly, hands tucked inflexibly into his pockets. He turned to look up at her expectantly, and she expected sadness – regret, mourning, sympathy of any sort – but instead William only looked at her with an empty expression and a curious tilt to his head. As if he were expecting something more from her, as if he were waiting on her to just get it already and she was failing terribly.

"… William. I can't do this. Please. Let's just go home. We both want to just go home, so let's go home. Okay?" her eyes were stinging and for some reason a golf ball seemed to have mysteriously lodged itself in her throat. She knew exactly what he meant, no matter how hard she tried to deny it.

"I am, Eris," he answered softly, rubbing his thumb and forefinger together softly as if he could feel something between them. "I want to go home. But I don't belong there anymore. Maybe I never did."

He turned and walked into the whiteness. He walked right on, and no matter how badly Eris wanted to bring him back she just couldn't bring herself to follow him.

And with that, William Zachariah Klaskovsky ceased to exist.

0-0-0-0-0

Prologue

"Yeah, well, so is your mother!"

Rainbow Dash blew a raspberry at the agitated draconequus, who glowered at her over Fluttershy's breakfast table.

"Fluttershy," Discord whined after a moment, curling into the air whilst balancing on the tip of his tail. "Dashie is being mean to me again!"

"Oh, both of you, be polite. Um, I mean, if-if that's okay with you, that is," Fluttershy poured each of her friends fresh cups of tea, balancing the hot kettle between her hooves carefully.

"Hey, he started it!" Rainbow Dash crossed her hooves grumpily, scowling at Discord. He only presented himself with a toothy, lopsided grin. "You didn't see what he was making the creamer and sugar cubes do to each other!"

Discord's leer only grew.

"And I'm sure he's very, very sorry," Fluttershy replied automatically without really listening. After all, it wasn't like this was the first time that Discord had animated household objects for his own amusement.

"Am not!" Discord slouched in his seat, crossing his arms together frumpily.

"See?!" Dash almost shouted. "Your pet hasn't changed a bit!"

"Don't be silly," Fluttershy shook her head. "He's not a pet. And besides, poor Discord is probably just still upset that Angel Bunny got away with stuffing a carrot in his nose before he woke up this morning."

"Didn't get away with it," the draconequus grumbled almost unintelligibly, but Dash heard him.

Then again, she hadn't seen Angel at all that day…

"Ah-ha!" Dash jabbed a hoof in his direction accusatorially, displaying the culprit in triumph. "He killed Angel, didn't he?"

"W-what?" Fluttershy sputtered in confusion. Discord held up his paw and talon in protest of his innocence, but the enormous smile never left his face.

"Of course I didn't," he cackled, turning upside down in his chair and sipping the tea from the cup as it poured backwards through the air. "See, Fluttershy? Little Dashie's just trying to get me in trouble again. She is just so mean. We would be better off without her."

Fluttershy opened her mouth to tell off her housemate for saying something so dreadful; at least, until she spotted a clearly angry rabbit tugging at her tail, trying to get her attention.

One that had been dyed a vibrantly bright pink, to be specific.

"Of all the colors, Discord; pink? Really?" Fluttershy groaned in exasperation, rubbing her temples. All she wanted was just one quiet morning with her friends.

Discord's grin grew so big that it almost fell off of his face from the sheer weight.

"Told you he didn't get away with it. As if I were some wanton murderer," he taunted the infuriated Rainbow Dash. Dash felt a heat rising in her cheeks, which only made him laugh harder.

"You just think you're so great, don't you, jerk bag?" Rainbow Dash scowled hatefully at the draconequus, who had righted himself in his seat and pushed his paw and talon together to form a steeple. He gave Dash a level, serious look, which seemed even more bizarre than his usual goofy expressions.

"Yes. Yes, I do," Discord stated bluntly. "I am, quite literally, a living god. I do hope you'll pardon me for temporarily rising above my lowly station, oh great and magnificent pegasus," he spat sardonically.

"… Fluttershy, Discord is being mean to me again!"

Fluttershy, however, was no longer at the table, having attempted to drag Angel off in the hopes of scrubbing the pink out of his fur.

Discord showed so many teeth that Dash was a little surprised he could fit them all in his mouth.

"Forget this," Rainbow Dash furrowed her brows as she flung the contents of her cup in Discord's direction. With a single snap of his talons the watery missile morphed into a stream of colorful butterflies, which instantly assaulted the stunned pegasus. Rainbow Dash spat hysterically as they swarmed her head, flailing this way and that as fine china and tableware was kicked across the room.

"Discord!" Fluttershy poked her head back in to scold him, which hardly seemed to penetrate his shield of hearty chuckles. "Don't antagonize her, you're making a mess of my kitchen!"

"AGH-PGTHATHFAGLAGLE!" Rainbow Dash agreed through a mouthful of butterflies as she struggled to pull herself up from the floor.

"Me? Antagonist?" Discord held a talon up to his chest defensively. "Puh-lease, I could never pull it off."

"OH CELESTIA THEY'RE IN MY NOSE!"

Fluttershy gave one forlorn look between them before sighing heavily, shaking her head as she attended to her rascally rabbit.

"Hold that thought for me?" Discord asked sweetly as he leaned over the table. "I need to take care of something."

Rainbow Dash said something very rude, which Discord pretended not to hear as he vanished with a snap of his talons.

"… So."

"Yep."

Eris watched a cheerfully quacking duck waddle through the pond to join its brethren, the warm sunshine rippling across them as they splashed in front of a screeching foal and her previously relaxing parents.

"Not that this conversation hasn't been absolutely riveting," Eris muttered at last, arms clenched tightly to one another. "But you're kind of being, you know… that opposite of helpful."

"… What do you want me to say, hon?" Discord leaned back against the park bench beside her, no one even throwing them a sidelong glance. "He made his choice."

"So… so that's it then," she fought hard to keep her voice from cracking, despite how maddeningly difficult it was becoming. The frothing anger that had been boiling in her belly threatened to burst from her chest the longer she held it back, and the hotter the fires seemed to stoke. "So-so that's just it!"

She seethed violently, wrathfully slamming one fist into her palm.

"I looked, and looked, and looked, and-and he wasn't anywhere he should have been, not in any- I mean, he should have at least – I mean, in every single – gone. Gone! Just… gone! And that's just it?!

Her hands clenched in viciously shaking balls, Eris felt quite a bit like hitting something, and Discord seemed to be the perfect candidate. Before she could make her move, though, Discord's paw found its way to her shoulder to pull her into a quiet hug. It became a tiny bit more difficult to remain as boiling furious that way, but Eris certainly tried. She wanted to scream at him, she wanted to thrash and rage and vent all her anger at him even though she knew full well that the urge felt just as childish as she could picture, and it wouldn't help at all. Eventually, however, the rage began to give way to a heavy weariness, and it was all too quick to set in again.

They sat in silence for a while in the shade of the old tree, just watching the ducks go by.

Eris sniffled miserably, wiping her nose with one elbow.

The shadows swayed and danced in the breeze, but the sun did not move for a long time from the picture perfect scene. It was serene, peaceful for the longest time that they sat together overlooking the little pond. It didn't solve the problem, though.

"Have you ever heard of… quantum suicide?" Discord began at last with some difficulty, looking down at Eris.

"Hm?"

"Quantum suicide," he said again, twirling one talon around in his paw. "You know. Survival no matter the odds, regardless of how impossible they might seem."

"I'm familiar with it," Eris answered softly, not turning her gaze from the pond.

"There are things even gods can't do, Eris."

They didn't talk any more after that. Not for a long time. Neither of them really would have either way. Eris hugged him around the torso at last, head against his chest.

And even the God of Chaos himself broke down and cried right along with her.

0-0-0-0-0