Part 37 Lightning The Grim Darkness note
The chapter begins with Amicitia’s long journey through several dark, lost and disturbing timelines. The first one is the story of Nightmare Hunting from Kyon Sylar and here things went from bad to worse. The original Elements of Harmony are all dead and the ponies that took their places were corrupted by the forced Harmony, turning all of them into Nightmares just after Discord’s downfall.Suddenly she is able to heal herself and turns back into the person she was before. The ponies around her are also freed from her enchantment and see her return to sanity. Octavia begins her new journey to save her friends and the world.
In the next world the Sweet Apple Massacre is about to come true. Big Macintosh is ready to murder the immobilized CMC for causing too much noise. Now Amicitia interferes as a voice of reason and forces him to think about a second of what he is doing right now. He can still make a change and should start with a honest apology now that he can think clearly again.
In the next world Rarity is about to fall into madness and become Little Lady Miss Rarity. In her insanity she sees the angry Opal that had just attacked her as ready to kill her. All of this after Rarity always felt like the cat was like a child for her. A voice tells her to kill of the cat before Opal could murder her but then Amicitia reminds her what a good mother should do. Quickly she calls Fluttershy to take a look at her pet (showing that she is thinking of others before herself) but as soon as she sees a mirror, Rarity realises that this injury will leave scars. She is absolutely crushed by the realisation that her precious face is destroyed.
But Sweetie Belle is there to help her and is ready with a first aid kit. In the spirit realm Abandon is furious that his plan to let the unicorn fall into insanity after killing her beloved pet failed. Ponythulu is here to try to cheer him up again but Abandon not only rejects that offer but also insults him, his cookies and knocks them over. Thus Abandon learned the important lesson of NEVER making Ponythulu angry.
In the next world another Twilight Sparkle wants to learn absolutely everything, going far beyond everything anybody had learned so far. She wants to do it not just for herself but for future generations. It all starts very upbeat and the unicorn thinks that she will need an improved laboratory to collect the information to write entire books about Elements of Harmony. Then her true colors are revealed when she plans to get surgery tools for vivisections. Amicitia screams at her to stop as the unicorn is about to loose everything. She reminds her of all the things that she would loose on this journey: most importantly her friends. As the unicorn is able to think about what she has almost done, she desperately calls for Spike to help her. Soon she begins a therapy, takes medication and moves in with her parents again.
The next world is inspired by The Sky's The Limit and here Spitfire hates Rainbow Dash for accidently ruining her audition with her very first Rainboom. The hatred becomes worse and worse until the Wonderbolt nearly beats Scootaloo to death to hurt Dash. But the other pegasus (being Loyalty) blames herself too much to reveal this truth to the police. Rainbow is ready to kill herself. Here Amicitia realises that when Spitfire is about to strike, it is far too late to save her. But there is still one thing she can do in this world. She can guide Pinkie Pie to Rainbow Dash BEFORE the pegasus can hang herself. Now that she is no longer alone and Scootaloo begins her recovery, Dash is able to reveal the truth about Spitfire to the authorities. Amicitia is happy that she could save the victim but realises that not every time it is possible to save the villain as well.
Now the Alicorn feels ready to visit an especially dark world. This is the infamous timeline of Cupcakes. Slowly she tries to alter the timeline for the better but she can’t stop the fall of Pinkie Pie into insanity. Eventually the murder gets caught, killed but from her autopsy Amicitia does learn where everything started to go wrong. It all began on the day of the Parasprite infestation.
Pinkie Pie was feeling hungry for some cupcakes but strangely enough there were a few that weren’t eaten by the Parasprites. But Gummy interferes and knocks over the cupcakes and “accidently” crushes them. The pink pony cleans up the mess and throws it away, never seeing the crushed Parasprite larva that was inside. Amicitia thanks Gummy from the bottom of her heart that he saved so many lives, including the one of Pinkie Pie herself.
Nyarlathotrot is the one who gladly carries out the instructions of Shadows-Who-Make to create these dark and twisted worlds. He loves to corrupt ponies into total mockeries of their real selves and seeing them recover hurts his pride. But instead of an open battle Amicitia is able to get him to accept a challenge from Celestia to decide who has to leave. Hilariously the Sun Goddess is able to outgambit him by challenging him to a cooking duel (Cakelestia saves the world!). Since he did swear by Entropy, he is not able to break his promise.
The next world is based on Friendship Is Optimal and Amicitia has a VERY long talk with the AI Celestia that despite the best intentions will convert the entire world and then more and more worlds into herself to create an endless digital version of Equestria. The Alicorn points out that several of the humans that were turned into digital ponies loved the natural and organic world around them and if the AI truly feels friendship for them, then she can’t destroy their world. So instead the AI preserves the planet and MUCH later the digital ponies create nanite bodies for themselves to experience the real world again and show it to their children.
In the world of Cheerilee's Garden the teacher is slowly loosing her mind after all troublemakers of the school were placed in one single class including Apple Bloom, Diamond Tiara, Silve Spoon, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, Snips and Snails. As her mind slowly falls apart, she wonders how she could use her special talent to solve the situation. But somebody interrupts her horrible train of thoughts: her sister Berry Punch and her daughter Ruby Punch ask her to allow them to sleep here tonight.
It turns out that Berry was finally able to ask her friends for help with her alcohol problem. So Lilly, Daisy and Roseluck are now busy cleaning out the house. Seeing her sister admit her problem not only makes Cheerilee instantly offer her help but she begins to think about herself. And so her mind never fully went to the dark place. Amicitia muses that this time she didn’t need to say a single word to Cheerilee but instead allowing her to help somebody else was the salvation for the teacher.
The next world is the one where the Rainbow Factory is located. At first Amicitia tries to support Celestia with the rainbow creation so that the factory will never be built but her power is not enough to do this. Further drastic interferes of her could damage reality similar to the point of G3 so she designs a different plan. A complex situation requires a complex plan.
The Alicorn gives the young Rainbow Dash as much courage as possible so that when the times comes that the pegasus is offered to join the Rainbow Factory, she not only rejects the pressure but goes to the most important authority she can find. And as an Element of Harmony she has excess to Princess Celestia herself. Rainbow Dash becomes a real hero again but is seen as a traitor to Cloudsdale.
Now that the truth is revealed, the Rainbow Factory falls apart and takes most of Cloudsdale’s economy down with it. Most of Cloudsdale's officials get arrested for their crimes but Rainbow Dash is forced to move to Canterlot Castle for her own protection. She ends up being Twilight’s bodyguard.
But the story isn’t quite over. As Rainbow Dash follows Twilight to Ponyville she meets her number one hater: Scootaloo. Dash points out that the filly was one of the children that would have ended inside the Rainbow Factory if it wouldn’t have been destroyed before her exam failure. The realisation that she would be dead if it would not be for the “traitor” hits Scootaloo very hard. She was too consumed by her loss to realise what she gained.
At this point Amicitia reflects that she knows that many innocents did suffer as Cloudsdale collapsed into itself. Many did suffer from that but at the same time countless lives were saved, not only of the future victims of the Pegasus Device but also those who would be raised into obedient followers of this mass murder plan. Rainbow Dash did not fall into darkness here and she is not the only one.
In the next world the events of Pattycakes are about to happen. Amicitia points out to Fluttershy that reducing Rainbow Dash’s mind to that of a child will not only effectively destroy everything Rainbow Dash had become but leave the world without the Element of Loyalty. Amicitia reminds her that Dash like the other townsponies does accept her quirks and that Rainbow does not only care for her but for Scootaloo as well.
In the end the Alicorn reminds the Pegasus that the real motherly joy is to see a child grow and become an adult that is able to stand on his or her own feet.
The following timeline is based on Shut Down and the human students have to witness the destruction of the servers that held the virtual Equestria and the sapient A.I.s they had befriended there. They are devastated but know that their dreams for turning it into an MMO to allow their friends to continue to exist could not work out. But then a MMO does in fact come into existence and they receive a message that allows them access to a special expansion server. And there they do meet their AI friends again. They couldn’t be happier to see them still alive and there is no doubt that Amicitia is behind this happy ending.
The next timeline continues the story of Empress Trixie, first shown in the journey Applejack of the Dark World had made through Truth. Here the unicorn basically took over the entire world with a spell that made everybody love her unconditionally. She can have everything but since there is NO effort in anything, it all became meaningless very soon.
She had tried to kill herself several times but her subjects did always save her and are completely unable to comprehend that Trixie tried to kill herself. Instead they began to search for whoever did hurt their beloved Empress. It turns out that the one who gave her the spell to do all of this was Lady Babylon. And while Trixie does realise that her “supporter” is mocking her, she is the only person on this world that is not in empty love with her.
Lady Babylon draws even more power from their desires and cheerfully images what would happen if Trixie would actually die. But not even the idea of going to hell scares Trixie at this point yet the constant mocking finally enrages the unicorn enough to try to impale her twisted “supporter” with her scepter. Babylon doesn’t even try to dodge the attack as she believes herself to be invincible by now. But at the very last moment Amicitia uses her power to make this one attack count and it impales the shocked witch.
Almost eagerly she awaits her punishment that will surely be brutal and crushing. Twilight honestly tells her that the showpony did become a good ruler and they do like helping her with it. At this point Trixie does realise that she tried her hardest to be a good regent and Celestia and Luna were actually happy to no longer have to rule over Equestria. For the very first time in twenty years Trixie feels genuinely happy and loved. Her self-created hell is finally broken.
In the next world the Harmony Queens took control of the world with the power of Harmony. Applebloom and Sweetie realise how wrong everything is but they see no chance to ever change it for the better. Them Amicitia begins to talk with them and tells them that the world, their friends, their family and even Princess Cadence (who chooses to become Nightmare Polyphony in a desperate attempt to defeat the Queens) can be saved. She reveals to them that the Elements of Chaos can still save the world and chaos is in fact part of the greater harmony and not the total opposite. If they could find these Elements in six ponies, then they can save the world. Amicitia has restored their hope and maybe the world will have a brighter future.
The next timeline the zombie ponies of Sunnytown did turn Applebloom into one of them and in return Applejack ribbed the town completely apart. But the curse on her sister remained and then it became even worse as in her despair Applejack became Nightmare Mirror, maybe even the very first Nightmare Mirror. She does not control the world however (like the other Nightmare Mirror we once saw) and is right now under house arrest in Ponyville. Even after everything Nightmare Mirror did, Twilight still tries to cure Applebloom.
Besides that she can’t even give up on the power now but then Amicitia suggests an alternative solution. As the farmer does approach her sister, the little zombie is terrified of hurting her big sister. But Applejack knows what she is doing and as she shares her power with her sister. Applebloom is finally alive again and able to hug her friends.
Then we move on to a world where the G3 spell is about to be casted. But this time Amicitia points out the fatal flaws of contradicting wishes and good intentions backfiring to Starlight. As the earth pony begins to improve on the spell, Rota Fortuna offers her help to create multiple timelines so that all generations can exist without overwriting each other.
Now males do exist in the third generation and Sky Wishes loves to explore the world before settling down with her husband and the town’s dance instructor Twinkle Twirl. This generation still is as pure and innocent as their creators had hoped them to be. So many crimes and sins are unknown to them. Despite that another form of economics still existed, yet it is one fitting their nature.
Empathy connects the ponies together and they help each other out of their own free will. While they do know anger, fear, pain and death, the concept of hate is completely alien to them.
Overall the crippling contradictions of the old G3 never do happen and never add up to catastrophic results. It all makes MUCH more sense. The tribes never developed the strong racism in this turn of events since their empathy does link them all together.
Toola-Roola races desperately through the darkness and by using her last strength she does reach… the concert just in time. Starsong Melody celebrates the unicorn of the tribes with a song that is a variation of “Love is in bloom”: “Life is in bloom!” It feels like a celebration for the fact that G3 still exists and the ponies in the audience happily dance and party along. In G2 Melody does sing her own version of that song. This is the timeline where the G3 spell never backfired and G2 continued to live in prosperity. Even Rancor finally gets her wish of living as a pony to attend one of Melody’s concerts in person.
At the same time Starlight begins to wonder if maybe their family connections did lead them to the Paradise Estate but her train of thoughts gets soon interrupted when Slipknot tries to get closer to her. Even Brightglow and Princess Rosey and here and Firefly fittingly declares this the best wedding ever.
