Twilight thought that she heard traditional African drums playing as she drove up to Genzebe Zecora’s workstation, so she checked again; no, she finally decided as she turned off the engine, no African drums… just the sound of my head being murdered right in front of my very own eyes, that’s all, just... business as usual…
Twilight sighed as she exited the UN jeep and looked up towards Zecora’s workstation; she had seen the world- famous archaeologist’s Deep Immersion Stratigraphy Research Station, or “The Hut” as it was better known as before, but Twilight had always felt awed by the sight of the truly amazing, extremely beautiful and entirely brand new scientific marvel deep within the boundaries of the Everfree Rainforest; there Zecora’s Hut stood before her, a saucer shaped disk of metal supported and raised up by what appeared to be five enormous living, growing Coco de Mer palms attached right to its sides as well as a millennia old, indigenous Baobab tree sprouting right from its center. Twilight walked up to the Baobab, where there hung some sort of jerry- rigged lift, and got in the contraption, raising her EGO to her face after she had secured the gate in order to hail the scientist working above.
“Why, the stars shine so brightly for others to see, so who at my workstation could this now be?” Twilight heard Dr. Zecora answer her hail in what sounded like a traditional Swahili proverb, although the Alicorn Tongue always rendered the doctor’s foreign speech into what sounded like, to Twilight, plain old English with just a hint of an Ethiopian accent of some sort.
“Zecora, it’s me,” Twilight answered back into her EGO, “um, The Director said you wanted to show me something?”
“Why, Twilight Sparkle! Oh, yes, but of course,” Zecora brightly greeted the young physicist. “Miss Everstar called me today, after all, I really do hope you forgive this old horse!”
Twilight giggled as the lift began to rise, bringing her up into the saucer- shaped treehouse high above; the bottom opened up and the lift passed right on through it, bringing Twilight into the lab itself. Twilight smiled in wonder at all of the sweet, sweet juicy science that Dr. Zecora had at her disposal: screens upon computer screens of rapidly streaming data with emitter images superimposed over them; multiple tanks where Zecora would test materials by immersing them in strange, magical brews for weeks at a time, tanks that always looked a lot like cauldrons to Twilight; lastly, her eyes fell upon a small, cluttered living area and a bed, hanging over which were various objet d’art from her native homeland and the surrounding African countries. The good doctor herself was standing by an emitter screen next to one of the Coco de Mer palms going right through the structure, analyzing some type of igneous rock, staring intently at the emitter data, and shaking her head. Dr. Genzebe Zecora might have been getting on in years, but Twilight had always thought that she looked remarkably young for her age, with the sleek, toned body of a much younger woman who clearly knew how to take care of herself (certainly not Twilight Sparkle’s), deep steel- blue eyes largely uncovered by wrinkles and still possessing a certain mischievous spark; full and sensuous lips possessing a spirit in kind with her eyes; smooth, unblemished skin the color of the crust on a crème brûlée and short cropped, jet- black raven hair tinged with the only true signs of her age, a few streaks of grey and white here and there along her head. She turned to Twilight, smiling as the lift doors opened to let her fellow scientist out.
“Why, my Dear Doctor Sparkle, how you really do roam,” Zecora greeted in person as Twilight walked up to shake her hand, “All over strange paths to my cramped- little home!”
“Ok,” Twilight laughed, “now I know you’re just screwing with me, Zecora.”
Zecora laughed heartily at that: “Dr. Sparkle, now, you know Swahili is not really my cup of tea, and besides,” she suddenly switched back to her more natural- sounding native Oromo, “what’s the point of living if you can’t even have a little fun every now and then, hmmm?”
Twilight shook her head, still laughing as she massaged her temples. “Yeah, me having a migraine and having to stop my jeep every few kilometers ‘cus of Fluttershy’s newly installed “Manticore Crossings” is not really what I’d call fun, Genzebe… I mean, why aren’t you just in The West Castle with the rest of your department?”
Zecora smiled as she lovingly stroked her hand over a living Coco de Mer trunk next to her. “Twilight Sparkle, this is what I do; I mean, what better way could there be to really understand these machines our ancestors have most graciously left us than living right here in ‘the thick of it’, as one would say, learning and studying up on all that one could about this ancient, forgotten, and dare I say quite enchanted country as it really was, long before The Civil War brought about humanity’s Fall from The Garden?” Zecora sighed, not in sadness but in some sort of incomprehensible longing restrained only by the eons that had passed long before her. “I know this all may seem like a strange new place and a ‘brave new world’ to you, Dr. Sparkle, but for me this is…” she smiled knowingly, “…home.”
“Well, true as that may be,” Twilight’s head seemed to be beating with African drums again, “you’d literally have to be crazy to work here…”
Zecora laughed heartily. “Well, Dr. Sparkle, 'since I now find myself in good company then, yes, everything turns out OK in the end!'” she shook her head. “Really, Twilight, what would you have done if The United Nations had called you out of your very cushy retirement to work on all of this?” she motioned to her glorious Hut all around her. “I mean, Dr. Heartstrings is only one pony, after all, and it really seems as if my favorite student has now settled into her new life as “The Brand New Daring Do”, as Time Magazine so very pithily put it,”
Twilight giggled at that. “Yeah, good ol’ Lyra, heeheehee… you know, she says Bon Bon’s taken a real liking to The Big Apple, and they both send you their… regards…” Twilight immediately stopped smiling as a new wave of pain and nausea hit her square in the eye; Zecora frowned with worry.
“Dr. Sparkle?” she asked, touching her shoulder, “Are you feeling all right?”
“… Huh? Yeah, just the migraines again, Zecora…” Twilight offered a sheepish smile and Zecora nodded in sympathy. “…Um, so Director Luna said that you wanted to show me something about the Level 1 Artifact at the Amazonian Outpost?” Twilight asked the talented archaeologist before her.
Zecora nodded sagaciously. “Yes, yes… tell me, Twilight, have you ever heard of the Draconequus statue before?”
“Only what I read in the old Equestrian Codexes… isn’t it supposed to just be, um, a statue of some ancient Equestrian tyrant, or something?”
“No... unfortunately, it’s not just a statue, Twilight…” Zecora sighed, and then moved over to a large emitter display in the lab. “…here, come… I want to show you something…”
Twilight came over as Zecora activated the emitter; suddenly, Twilight found herself face to face with another ancient Equestrian historical record coalescing right before her eyes.
“These, Dr. Sparkle are, as far as we know, the very last holographic transmissions ever recorded by the Elements of Harmony before they went dark, transmissions that tell us of the very tragic rise and fall of the infamous, dreaded and much maligned Emperor of Equestria… however, I feel as if a tale as big as this needs a more, ah, proper way to tell it, as it were…”
Suddenly, Zecora switched from her native language to one that Twilight vaguely remembered hearing before- it was an extinct Ethiopian language that she herself couldn’t quite remember the name of, but, according to Rarity, it had been the original language of the Ethiopian Bible; in front of the archaeologist, the emitter streams coalesced into the likeness of a fancy chamber room; inside, Equestrians dressed in what Twilight thought looked like Victorian British clothing, only more stylized and colorful, were crying and mourning over a bed holding two still figures, both dressed in fanciful, ornate, and more traditional Equestrian garb; on the left lay a very dignified looking stallion colored as black as night itself, with twisting, flowing, curly blue locks of hair that sparkled with multiple little constellations of brightly shining miniature stars; beside him lay a graceful mare, much paler in color than her counterpart, with a mane resembling the sunrise itself; her brilliant multi- colored hues fluttered in the wind around her even as her royal likeness lay there in the chamber, still and unmoving; her arms were crossed over her chest, just as her sable mate's were as he lay there next to her; the two stately figures lay in obliviousness as the surrounding ponies wailed and cried over their bed in collective sadness and desperation.
“In the very last days of Equestria’s reign,
When Ponykind littered the stars on their wings,
The Elements’ influence started to wane,
As Canterlot lost both its Queen and its King…
As Equestrian royalty, nobles, and high officials all mourned the deaths of their much beloved monarchs, Twilight noticed, for the very first time, two rather young fillies standing there at the side of the bed; the taller, older one had the same sort of multicolored, ever- flowing mane as The Queen and the shorter, younger one had the very same star- speckled blue field as The King; both little fillies looked to each other in uncertainty as Twilight herself gave Zecora a funny look; the archaeologist simply and silently returned her gaze with a thoughtful one of her own as she continued to narrate the ancient Equestrian tale playing itself out in front of them both:
“The heirs of the throne, they were not ready yet,
Too young to be leaders in such a grim age,
And so they were given the duty, instead,
Of bearing The Elements, lest favor fade;
The Crown, then, itself would go to another,
An Alicorn thought to be quite weak and bloodless,
And in such a way, it is told, the queen’s brother
Did find himself turned into good King Harmonius…
Twilight watched as the scene shifted to show a rather anxious- looking, rather ordinary stallion standing right in front of her; his top hat was removed from his head and a crown was placed on top, the weight of the object seemingly weighing down unbearably on the very reluctant monarch; he looked all around him as all of the noble ponies in the throne room politely clapped for him, every last one of them looking every bit as anxious as their brand new king...
“But bloodless and weak do not good monarchs make,
And sinister forces, they schemed and they planned,
'Til gentle Harmonius, a kingdom at stake,
Was plagued by secession, as blood freely ran…
The scene changed again to show what looked like a single section of some sort of no- man’s- land; Twilight’s stomach turned in protest as she found herself looking upon a long battle line of ancient Equestrian warriors clad in golden armor preparing to be assaulted by waves upon waves of opposing warriors whose suits of armor were painted in all sorts of colors except gold; above the battlefield, ancient flying Equestrian war machines and fighter planes from both respective sides fired brilliant Light Bolts at each other, engaged in a very fierce struggle of their own; every so often, gigantic explosions sent raining debris down over the warriors’ heads below. Twilight watched as more colorfully painted Equestrians charged towards their golden- clad brethren, screaming and firing, falling as they were gunned to death or blown to pieces with exploding shells landing all around them…
“FOOOOOR THE BAROOOOONNNNN!!!!!” A Rebel Equestrian yelled as he ran up, killing two Loyalists with his Light Rifle as he did; his scream soon changed pitch as a Loyalist ran him clean through with a Light Pike, stopping him cold; suddenly, another Rebel charged up to his position and severed the pikeman’s arm clean off with a Light Glaive of her own as the Loyalist reached up for his grievous wound, screaming uncontrollably as well...
Another Rebel was shot in the chest multiple times as she ran up to the Loyalist Palisade, a sort of barrier made completely out of light, gasping and grasping for the edge to climb over; right then, a High- Yield Gravity Shell landed right at her feet and exploded; her body fell against the barrier, slump, her hand still locked in a death grip around the Palisade edge; all around her, the pitched slaughter continued, unabated…
“As brother killed brother, and sisters did fall,
Harmonius, saddened, on Elements called;
In spite of intentions, or tears that he shed,
Oh, how he believed the gods left him for dead…
Twilight’s heart was still racing in her chest as the scene changed once again to show Harmonius kneeling in a private chamber before what looked like a miniature, colorful, swirling constellation before him: The Elements of Harmony. His hands were clasped in prayer, and his eyes were severely reddened from hours upon hours of crying to himself in misery.
“My Lords,” he addressed The Elements reverently, “My ponies are suffering and dying… all Equestrians everywhere are suffering and dying… my family… my own Queen and my foals, they’re… they’re all…” Harmonius squeezed his eyes shut as he shuddered, fresh tears falling onto the marble below. “…My Lords, why do You not answer our prayers in our time of need? Why do You continue to make us suffer so, from this never ending pestilence and strife? Surely, we have done nothing to deserve this, we have done nothing but try to please The Lords On High… we have only ever strived to serve You, to follow what You Yourselves hath commanded of us… My Lords, why do You still afflict us so? Please… say something, anything,”
The Elements only continued to pulsate in a gentle hum and a slow orbit in front of Harmonius’s face; his melancholic expression soon turned entirely bitter and quite dark as his teeth began to grind tighter and tighter in his mouth...
“Speak, damn You- SPEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAK!!!!!!!!” Harmonius bellowed out in fury, choking on his own tears as he broke down both mentally and emotionally from all of the strain that he now found himself under; he began to sob quite pitifully with his head in his hands as The Elements continued to say nothing, to give no advice to their extremely frustrated subject and creation.
Slowly, Harmonius raised his head, a sorrowful look playing again on his tear- soaked face. “My Lords, please forgive this old fool… we- we do not know what we are saying, please, we beg of you, forgive us… we know, Our Lords, of course we know that ‘tis a most grievous sin to be… ungrateful for all of the miraculous wonders that you have bestowed upon your children, but… if You could only help us, for we now find that our needs and our desire for salvation grow more and more dire, with each passing day… if You could only save us now… I know, I know, we are nothing but a ravenous, greedy horde of depraved sinners in your eyes, Our Lords, but… if you could only gift us all with a little bit more of your grace and presence…. Please, I'm begging you, please...”
It could've been due to his continually miserable state of sleep deprivation, or perhaps Harmonius was really starting to lose his mind in earnest; regardless, he could've sworn that he had just heard The Elements whisper his name out loud as he groveled there in front of them, all alone in the chamber; Harmonius quickly looked around, breathing hard, but he soon found that there were no other sounds to be heard in the room save a gentle whirring and humming emanating from The Lords On High Themselves; Harmonius sighed heavily, looking down towards the floor again.
“If… if none of You shall even deign to help your own ponies, Our Lords…” he muttered in complete abjection and despair, “…then… then I guess I know what I must do…”
Twilight watched as the scene changed again to show the king planning something on emitters with ancient Equestrian scientists and doctors dressed in lab coats standing all around him; Harmonius was yelling and gesturing, arguing with the top minds of the country about something which they were desperately trying to dissuade him from putting into action; Harmonius, however, appeared resolute in his machinations, and his royal advisors finally nodded, relenting to the will of the king.
“The King, fair and gentle,” Zecora continued her narrative, “was, in fact, quite the thinker,
And soon he devised such a plan as to tinker,
With forces and powers- he knew not the risk,
Of Elements, Harmony, taken and twisted…
Twilight watched as Harmonius lay on an operating table, the chest over his heart exposed by surgical implements; The king, still very much alive and screaming, was subject to the immense torture of having his own still beating heart removed from his body as a golden, misshapen heart glowing with a fierce, bright red energy was implanted in its place; as soon as the false heart was safely inside of his chest, the emitter consoles being monitored by the ancient Equestrian doctors began to emit loud, urgent warnings, and they all began to panic; suddenly, the implanted heart’s glowing reached a fevered pitch shortly before it fired a fiery ring of energy that spread in a shockwave all around the operating room, killing everyone else besides the king, who was quickly enveloped in an enormous, protective bubble of light; when the shockwave subsided, the likeness of Harmonius, who, as it turned out, had actually been quite distracted from all of the commotion by the sudden, engaged examination of his own body, turned around, smiling maniacally and in genuine glee, either blissfully unaware of or simply unsympathetic to the dead scientists who now littered the entire room; the previously gaping hole in his chest was now covered up by a glowing, jagged scar resembling a curled- up dragon spiraling into itself, the wound itself rapidly fading in brightness as Harmonius was completely remade into something far beyond a mere Alicorn king...
“The False Heart of Chaos, inside him, was born,
With all of vast Time and of Space at command;
But poor King Harmonius, gentleness scorned,
Was driven mad, for he could not understand…
Harmonius stood before his country, a very changed pony indeed; he smiled as vigorous clapping rang throughout The Main Castle's entire courtyard, his holographic visage bearing down with some sort of maniacal glee upon his own intimidated citizens; the very air itself was being intermittently punctuated by sonic booms emanating from squadrons upon squadrons of red, black and gold fighter jets zooming over the crowds in expertly held formations far overhead; nearby, a professional brass band played a rousing, jingoistic tune behind the emboldened monarch as he spoke into what appeared to be a microphone placed on top of a podium draped in the brand new Equestrian royal colors.
“My fellow Equestrians,” Harmonius began his speech, “for far too long has our beloved country lived in fear of imminently ignoble attacks stemming from treacherous barbarian warlords and their mutinous armies waiting, right outside these very gates of our fair kingdom, to kill and enslave all of your sons and your daughters as soon as they get the chance…” various murmurs and jeers began to issue from the crowd, “…for far too long have your mothers and your fathers, even lil’ ol’ granny too, cowered under the bright, big stars up above in fear of some horrible alien invasion perpetrated on us by foreign empires filled with strange beasts and CRYSTAL WEIRDOS!!!”
The mob assembled there in the courtyard suddenly roared out loud in a vicious frenzy, holding blazing torches and portraits of their king aloft as they did; Harmonius smiled; blood was in the water…
“Brothers and sisters, Children of the Elements…” Harmonius continued to speak, heavy- lidded, entirely lost in a sort of dark and convoluted haze stemming from both the adrenaline coursing through his veins as well as his own grotesquely distorted, wholly content, and supremely self- satisfied hubris. “…For far too long have we prayed to gods who do not hear our call, who do not even care that we are all falling dead, everyday, in droves, who never even gave us the time of day, really…” he began to mumble to himself in insanity as the crowd began to quiet down and slip into a nervous, unsure murmur.
“…Well, fillies and gentlecolts, those days are long over, in case you haven’t noticed… because right now we take back our Elemental Land from the heathens, RIGHT NOW we make THEM fear the next imminent attack, and RIGHT AT THIS VERY MOMENT we go forth to enlighten every nefarious warmongerer who lusts after this nation with a Light Bolt, to warmly welcome every non- pony degenerate who wants just the same with a spear through the HEART!!!” Harmonius roared as the crowd went wild again; some of his more rabid followers were already beginning to chant his new nom de guerre out loud, over and over again. “RIGHT NOW, MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS, I AM THE ONLY DEALER IN TOWN WHO CAN GIVE YOU WHAT YOU WANT THE MOST- I GIVE YOU YOUR GRACE!!! I HAND YOU BACK YOUR SALVATION!!! THE ONLY QUESTION HERE IS, FOLKS: DO YOU WANT THEM BADLY ENOUGH?!?!”
Rabid screams of ecstasy filled the air, along with red, black and yellow balloons. “ABANDON HOPE, ALL YE WHO OPPOSE US,” Harmonius smirked as he paused for effect, “CHILDREN OF HARMONY- YOUR BRAND SPANKIN’ NEW LORD IS HERE!!!!”
Harmonius raised his hands up into the air in a show of force and victory and all of it, well, nearly all of it, exploded in the most orgasmic display of lights and explosions that Equestria had ever seen before in over 10,000 years of recorded history; the band struck up another patriotic tune.
“HAIL DISCORD!!!” virtually the entire crowd, including the very sick, the infirm and even some of the little kiddies present there, too, all began to pump their collective little hooves into the air and chant: “HAIL DISCORD!!! HAIL DISCORD!!! HAIL DISCORD!!!”
Lord Discord smiled as he posed for more flattering holographic captures; in the crowd below the proud new Emperor, Twilight squinted to find a minority of ponies who did not cheer and who, instead, looked very, very worried about this brand new, entirely unprecedented regime change; they turned to themselves and started to intently discuss this troubling new turn of events, but Twilight couldn’t really hear them above all of the tumultuous cheering for “The Glorious Foundation of Our New Model Equestrian Empire”, or so it was written over and over again on silken banners throughout the entire castle courtyard in elegant, fanciful Equestrian Script…
“…That power used wisely helps all Ponykind,
But power abused doth make all of Man cry…”
The scene soon changed to that of a peasant mare crying and bowing down to the ground in complete emotional devastation; the rebel- occupied city in front of her was being blown to smithereens as imperial dirigibles draped in red, black and gold dropped hundreds upon thousands of Gravity Bombs upon enemy troops and noncombatants alike; the peasant screamed out loud in frustration.
“For Elements’ sake, stop, STOOOOOPPPPPP!!!!” she cried out to them over and over, again and again, but the bombing continued on before her, unabated; it was almost as if the war machines themselves were actively refusing to listen to any of the desperate mare's own heartrending pleas as she continued yelling out to them in complete and utter vain. “You’re killing innocent ponies, you bastards- YOU’RE KILLING MY FOALS-!”
The peasant heard a low, ominous growl before she slowly turned around, shaking; something behind Twilight’s point of view suddenly ran up to attack her, and the mare let out one last shriek of horror before the enigmatic monstrosity reached up and went right for her jugular; Twilight turned away from the emitter, trembling slightly; when she opened her eyes again, she found that Dr. Zecora had stopped the transmission and was now silently and patiently waiting on the younger, shuddering scientist before her.
“Are you absolutely sure that you're ok to go on, Dr. Sparkle?” Zecora asked in her native Oromo, her eyes calm but betraying just a hint of worry for her younger colleague. “I must warn you, the very last of the ancient Equestrian historical records that we have are not very pretty, to say the least,”
“No, it’s ok, really, it’s just my head again…” Twilight tried to brush that off and act a little tougher, “… please, continue,”
Zecora nodded, starting up the historical records again.
“And so it was that a cruel king built his empire,
Stretching its reach over Earth, over yonder;
The hollers of anguish, dissension grew higher-
Lord Discord, he sent both The Bearers to wander…
The scene changed again to that of another agitated mob, years later, shouting and jeering as a line of red, black and gold armored soldiers pushed what appeared to be a random assortment of peasants against a Canterlot wall; the poor souls all seemed to be mostly wailing and protesting their inevitable, impending doom, but, on closer inspection, neither the ponies in the crowd nor the imperial firing squad really seemed to be paying them any real attention.
“Ready!” an imperial officer dressed in Lord Discord’s colors signaled with his hand and a line of Light Rifles went up.
“H- Hail Celestia and Luna, full of grace…” one of the peasants began to pray in fear, “…The Elements be with ye…”
“Cowards!” another peasant against the wall, an elderly stallion, yelled at both the firing squad and the angry mob gathered before them, “Dishonorable dogs!”
“Blessed are ye amongst marefolk, and blessed is The Kingdom… The Kingdom of Your F- F- Father, Equestria…”
“Murderers!” Somepony in the crowd shouted and threw a bottle.
“Traitors!” another pony added quite viciously.
“You brutalized and persecuted us over our loyalty to the Empire, and when our mares and stallions tried to resist you peaceably, you tortured and slaughtered them wholesale…” the old pony squeezed his eyes shut as bitter tears fell to the ground. “…What choice did we have?! Tell me… WHAT CHOICE DID WE HAVE?!?!”
“Cutthroats!!!”
“Loyalist Loonies!!!”
“Burn in hell, fanatics!!!”
“…But you shall all bear witness; oh, believe me, you shall all see,” the elderly peasant opened his shirt up to reveal a rather large tattoo on his chest, one of the sun and the moon intertwined over the old Alicorn royal crest. “As it is foretold by The High Priest, ‘The Sun and The Moon shall both one day return to this most accursed land, restoring Peace, Justice, Harmony, and The Rightful Rule of The Very Deathless, Immortal Elements Themselves’…”
“Aim,” the imperial officer commanded and all of his soldiers obeyed; one even took aim at the symbol of the insurgency tattooed right on the old pony’s chest.
“Holy Daughters, B- B- Bearers of Harmony, pray for us sinners, now and… and upon the hour of our d- d- deaths…” the praying peasant whimpered quite miserably to herself.
“Lord Discord,” the elderly peasant spat on the ground with disgust, “be damned… Long Live The Sun and The Moon!”
“… S- So Shall It Be.”
“Fire!”
A volley of Light Bolts soared through the air; The Sun and The Moon both fell to the earth, smoking, right along with the peasants.
“The Pony Plague unchecked, their spirits degraded,
The citizens soon turned on those they most hated,
While dreaming of peace and their glorious past,
They waited ‘til Sun and Moon flew home, at last…
Twilight watched as the scene changed yet again to that of a gaudy, ornate throne room somewhere within a grand, luxurious castle; enormous braziers of incense were steadily burning in front of great, stately fires within cauldrons, and a rather delicate golden screen blocked any view of the royal throne itself. Twilight heard the sounds of a battle echoing in the distance as a bloody, wounded imperial soldier ran up, gasping, trying to prop himself up against the wall; he bowed his head in reverence at the ornate screen before him obscuring The Emperor.
“My Lord… My Lord, it’s the- huuuh- Loyalists… they’ve breached the castle’s… defenses- cough… they… they’ve-“
Suddenly, the imperial soldier shouted out as a single Light Bolt shot right through his armor, killing him; he fell to the floor as golden clad Loyalist insurgents ran into the room; their leader raised a rather large Particle Cannon at the golden screen before him, ready to assassinate The Emperor right there on the spot.
“Lord Discord!” he growled, the cannon on his shoulder glowing brighter and brighter with each passing moment, “Go to hell, you monster-“
Suddenly, a long, arcing, spurting stream of highly energized plasma shot right out from behind the screen, completely obliterating it; the Loyalists all screamed in pain as they were each covered in highly charged ionized gases which melted through their armor with the greatest of ease, setting them all on fire. As they shrieked and rolled around on the floor, Lord Discord stepped through the remains of the screen, dressed in the finest and most colorful of silk adornments, a greatly augmented crown now perched precariously on the top of his head; he laughed in genuine mirth as he watched real live ponies suffer an extremely horrible fate right before his eyes. Lord Discord raised his right hand, very, very slowly-
The stained glass in the ceiling above him abruptly exploded as a single Alicorn warrior flew down to meet him; she was a beautiful young woman, just a couple of years older than Twilight was now, dressed in an elegantly crafted, stunning white suit of armor with lightly filagreed, tasteful gold trim all around the edges; her ever- flowing, luxuriant locks of long, voluminous hair sported all of the colors of the light spectrum, sparkling as it swept to and fro in the brisk, biting night wind; her great, white metallic wings fluttered behind her as she landed, a brightly glowing golden horn over her right hand poised to strike and a ferociously determined look playing across her big, bright pink eyes.
“DISCOOOOORD!!!” she bellowed out to him from across the throne room.
Discord chuckled at first, shaking his head and then sighing as if he were dealing with nothing more than a petulant child.
“Well, well, well…” he started to leisurely stroll around the burning throne room, “… you know, if somepony had actually told me that I’d actually live to see the day when both The Sun and The Moon rebelled against God Himself…” he smiled warmly at the glaring female Alicorn, “… well… I probably would’ve just called them silly, to be honest…”
“Dear uncle…” The Princess of The Sun looked straight at The Emperor and pleaded, “… please, for Elements’ sake, just take a look around you… do you not see for yourself all of the grievous suffering that The Heart hath wrought upon fair, wondrous Equestria? Can you not see its heinous and entirely horrible evil for what it truly is with your very own eyes?!”
Discord stopped pacing and took a long, hard look at his own throne room; all around him, his very spacious and once very ornate royal audience chamber was currently and hopelessly being engulfed in the very flames of his own utterly depraved hamartia; everywhere he looked, the badly scorched, horribly burnt bodies of his once living fellow ponies littered the floor all around him, still smoking; Discord turned back to his beloved niece with an almost dopey expression on his face, shrugging quite innocently in the process.
“Nope..." he merely replied, shaking his head, "... all good from where I’m standing."
The Princess of The Sun grit her teeth and sadly bowed her head, shuddering violently in deep despair; burning hot tears fell from her eyes in memory of the kind, sweet, gentle man that her uncle used to be, a man who had only wished to make her laugh by producing a beautiful bouquet of Star Lilies from his hand every time that he saw her smiling little face, almost as if by magic…
“Then, I suppose…” The Sun Princess sighed quite heavily, indeed, knowing full well what was about to happen next; she looked up with renewed determination as she charged her golden horn full of energy and shuttered her white helmet closed. “… That this madness must come to an end… one way or another…”
Discord smirked, cricking his neck.
Outside, Lord Discord’s entire castle situated in the middle of the primeval Amazonian Rainforest completely exploded, all at once; up from the mushroom cloud in its wake flew two shining stars locked in a fierce mid- air battle, one bright yellow, the other bright red; they both cris- crossed over the night sky at supersonic speeds, striking at each other every so often, letting off multiple, enormous explosions several megatons worth of TNT in magnitude every time that they managed to make contact...
At first, The Sun Princess seemed to be holding her own quite well against The Spirit of Chaos, but little by little Discord began to put her on the defensive until, eventually, she began to slow down and take more and more damage from him; The Princess of the Sun soon found herself floating high upon the night air on fluttering, ailing wings, her helmet shuttering open as she gasped, clutching painfully at her extremely bruised and battered body; Discord floated nearby, unaided and seemingly unscathed, cruelly mocking his valiant but beleaguered adversary in his own utter depravity.
“Oh, my dear niece, oh, how sweet,” he laughed in jest, “You know, it really is so very heartwarming to find out that, after all these years, you still don’t even have the guts to kill me…” he grinned malevolently.
The Sun Princess glared daggers at him as she charged up her horn again.
“One way or another, Discord- THIS ENDS NOW!!!” she roared, making a rapid series of complicated sigils in front of her chest with her horned hand; suddenly, six multicolored pinpoints of light appeared in a vibrant, flashing ring all around her, gathering potent, ferociously humming Harmonic Energy within themselves with each passing moment…
“The Sun was no fool; The King couldn’t be saved,
His false Heart had eaten his goodness away,
And seeing her chances of killing him slim,
She called on The Elements, sealing her kin…
The Elements of Harmony sparkled to life before The Sun Princess gathered them all in front of her and fired an enormous, powerful blast of multicolored light; Discord was struck full on, and he watched, disturbed, as all of his silken finery began to melt away within the unbearably blinding spectrum of Harmony running through the very fiber of his being, his very body itself transforming into something far more restrictive, something far, far heavier…
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!” he screamed out loud in rage and frustration, belatedly and quite uselessly bringing his arms up in an effort to protect himself from the Harmonic Blast; alas, they unwillingly froze there by his sides, unmoving. “NOOOOOOOOO-“
When the blast had subsided with a strange, prodigious phasing sound heard in its wake, a very heavy, solid stone Draconequus statue depicting the very essence of Lord Discord himself fell, quite unceremoniously, to the bottom of a vast crater where his formerly glorious residence had once stood in defiance to the rest of the world; it landed quite gently and embedded itself in the primeval Amazonian mud with a very soft thud, still smoking all along its outline; Discord's fierce, serpentine eyes glowed brightly for only a moment before fading entirely into the darkness.
The Sun Princess, still rasping and clutching at her sides, gently floated down on her battered white wings, finally coming to a rest on the mud near the statue; as she hit the dirt, she abruptly collapsed on her back entirely, still coughing extremely violently. Suddenly, legions upon legions of silver- clad warriors began to rain down from the night sky all around her; joining them was The Princess of The Moon, now a teenager clad from head to toe in royal blue and jet black armor, landing with great force and gasping in horror as she watched her older sister fall to the ground; she began running up to her in distress.
“No, no, Elements, no…” she began to cry, shuttering her helmet open, “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!”
The Moon ran over to where The Sun lay, mortally wounded and gasping for air; she slowly bent down to prop her dying sister’s head up and stroked her hair with the most tender, loving gentleness.
“L… Lu… Lulu?” The Sun fought to speak as The Moon cried for her.
“I’m here, ‘Tia, I’m here,”
“… Oh, Lulu…” The Sun tried to laugh, but immediately began coughing up a lot of blood instead. “…S- S- Seriously, n- now… you’ve r- really got to w- w- work on your t- timing, sister… this is just g- g- getting… ridiculous…”
The Moon laughed at that in spite of all of her stinging, streaming tears and her uncontrollably runny nose. “You jest? You dare to jest when you're lying here, looking like this?” she grit her teeth and shook her head, sobbing, but The Sun only smiled and lovingly caressed her younger sister’s soft, cool mane.
“T- T- The E- Elements…” The Sun tried to explain, even as she was shivering, “… g- g- go to you n- now, Lulu, th- they’re your responsibility from n- now on, a- a- all right?…”
The Moon shook her head violently. “No ‘Tia, no... now, you listen to me, you are not going to die, you hear me? we’ll get you back to Canterlot and fix you right up, sister, you’ll see, you’ll see…”
The Sun looked The Moon straight in the eye, almost as if she immediately disregarded that. “… W- Whatever happens, Lulu, you m- mustn’t let them… ever go d- dark… whatever happens, n- n- ne- never l- l- let The E- Elements go d- dark, or… a- a- all is lost… d- d- do you understand? A- Always… k- k- keep your heart open… a- a- always,”
As The Sun began to cough up more blood, The Moon tried to ease her back into a more comfortable position. “Please, ‘Tia, please just try to rest… we’ll get you back to Canterlot soon, we swear it, dear sister, we swear upon it…”
The Sun’s gaze began to wander across the very stars themselves as she realized that it was finally time for her to slip beneath the horizon; still, she let a tiny, sad, nostalgic smile play across her lips…
“Would you… do me o- o- one last f- favor, si- sister?” The Sun asked innocently as The Moon began to openly wail; she nodded, anyway. “Would you, maybe… s- s- sing me that old lullaby that our nanny used to s- sing for us at b- b- bedtime? Oh, I w- would be ever s- s- so delighted to hear it again, just one m- more t- t- ti- time…”
“Oh, come now, ‘Tia, thou knowest full well: 'tis quite beneath the Alicorns to sing the traditional songs of nomadic Earth Ponies,” The Moon tried to joke in the face of certain death as her older sister was always apt to; however, she soon found it to be an extraordinarily difficult thing to attempt on her part.
The Sun genuinely lit up upon hearing that, giggling a bit in spite of her serious condition. “Here, I’ll s- s- start…” she immediately began to sing, very softly, as The Moon listened in. “… ’When you’re r- rife with d- devastation, there’s a s- s- simple explanation, you’re a… t- t- toymaker’s creation, t- trapped inside a crystal… ball…”
“… ’And whichever way he tilts it, know that we must be resilient, we won’t let them break our spirits as we sing our silly songs’…” Luna sniffled, smiling a bit as she remembered the last time she heard that particular tune. "... You know, ‘Tia, I do believe the bards of Equestria shall forevermore sing your praises, dear sister, leaving me most likely to fall to the wayside into…“
The Moon stopped speaking when she looked down; The Sun had fully set in her arms; her full, luscious lips were slightly parted and caked in dried blood; her dull pink, lifeless eyes were staring up towards the brightly shining stars far above.
“…’Tia?” The Moon called out to her older sister in the very softest of whispers; The Sun made no reply in return.
All around The Moon, the elite silver- clad Loyalist guard began to openly weep, shuttering their helmets open and touching their faces, genuflecting in the deepest gesture of reverence for their fallen monarch.
“The Sun…” the leader of the Pegasi warriors sobbed, lovingly gazing over the solar princess’s body with a broken, heavy heart, “… The Sun is Dead,”
“The Sun is Dead!!! The Sun is Dead!!!” the silver- clad Pegasi behind him all began to openly wail in devastation, bowing their heads and spreading ashes over themselves as they began to passionately beat their own chests.
“…’Tia?”
“But The Moon Still Lives… By The Elements,” the Pegasi leader realized out loud, “…Long Live The Moon…”
“The Sun is Dead!!! Long Live The Moon!!!” all of the Pegasi minions present began to exalt The Moon, prostrating before her, “The Sun is Dead!!! Long Live The Moon!!!”
Although her fanatical army began to worship her as a living goddess, The Moon honestly didn’t even seem to notice; she had just stopped crying for her sister, leaving only dead, hollow eyes that gazed into The Sun’s own before her soft, gentle fingers finally closed them shut for the very last time.
“Your Highness,” the leader of the Pegasi addressed The Moon, “Lord Discord is vanquished, and The Sun is now gone… My Lady, you are now Queen of Equestria…”
The Moon continued to stare at her cold, lifeless sister, her head lowered down; she didn’t move or speak; all around The Sun’s body, Each of The Elements of Harmony began to materialize out of the air in a ring and slowly drop, one by one, onto the dirt below them in the form of lifeless jewels, almost as if they were all crying out their very essences in honor of the sacrificial Alicorn before them; before Twilight, the last emitter records in all of Equestrian history began to go dark, appearing fuzzier and fuzzier as The Elements each became dormant…
In the distance, explosions continued to rock the rainforest, and the Pegasi leader looked around fearfully before addressing The Moon again. “My Lady, Discordian forces still control most of this continent, it is not safe for you to be here… My Lady?”
Luna grit her teeth, her head still lowered; all around her, the Pegasi army continued to sing her praises on high…
“The Sun is Dead!!! Long Live The Moon!!!”
“Your Highness?” The leader asked again.
The Moon looked up into the distance as The Elements continued to fall, one by one, and go dark; her eyes were no longer crying tears, but were instead burning with the darkest fires of an infinitely deep hatred, her entire countenance twisted in despair, madness and a malevolent, violent rage springing forth from within…
“The Sun is Dead!!! Long Live The Moon!!!”
“My Lady? We must go now, please…”
They shall all pay… The Moon thought to herself, still gently cradling The Sun’s body as The Elements of Harmony each fell to the earth; Discord may have been gone, true, but there were still those who had dared to bring war to Equestria in the first place, all of those egregiously insubordinate, evil ponies who had caused so much suffering to all of ponykind, all over the entire planet…
“The Sun is Dead!!! Long Live The Moon!!!”
“My Lady?”
…By The Elements, The entire Moon was shaking; her thoughts were livid and tense, …I shall make them pay, even with my very last breath… even with my last, I shall never stop until I show them all the very contents of their NIGHTMARES THEMSELVES…
“THE SUN IS DEAD!!! LONG LIVE THE MOON!!!!!”
Twilight watched as the very last Element of Harmony winked out and the transmission ended; Zecora sighed, shaking her head in a very world- weary way similar to Dr. Heartstrings herself.
“Yes, power used wisely helps all Ponykind,” she finished up her story,
But power abused doth make all of Man cry;
And likewise, pure love makes the world whole again,
But hatred, in turn, brings the world to an end.”
Twilight was silent for a moment before speaking again:
“So... that’s it?”
Zecora smiled gently. “That is it, Dr. Sparkle.”
Twilight looked down and blinked. “So… The Sun and The Moon were both…”
“The extremely distant and quite legendary Alicorn namesakes, at least semantically speaking, of the extremely powerful and quite influential Everstar sisters themselves,” Zecora nodded. “As you can probably guess, such revealed information has simply done wonders for our current geopolitical climate over the past year…”
“… And everything about Lord Discord, all the myths and stories about this ancient Equestrian deity of chaos…” Twilight felt a distinct chill run through her entire body, “… they’re all true?”
“Well, only so much as The Elements of Harmony themselves were actually gods,” Zecora went on to explain, “however, all of the stories about Lord Discord, his depravity and his terrible powers… well, you might say that they all have a tiny grain of, ah, truth to them…”
“Oh man…” Twilight sighed, rubbing her temples again, “that is certainly not good. Oh man, that is definitely bad jujubes… well,” she stood up to leave, shaking Zecora’s hand as she did.
“Thank you so much, Genzebe, as always, it was a pleasure… siiiigh, you know, between all of these migraines and the research I now gotta to do, I really don’t think I’m even getting a single wink of sleep tonight…”
“Well, here’s hoping otherwise… as always, Twilight Sparkle,” Zecora kindly winked at her, “you are always welcome back to my cramped, little hut, as it were,”
Twilight giggled as she re- entered the lift, in spite of all of the enormous pressure weighing down upon her and all of the constant, insistently pounding pain inside of her head. “Thanks, Zecora… Goodnight!”
As Twilight was about to press the button, Zecora walked over and leaned on the gate. “Um, Twilight… aren’t you forgetting something?”
Zecora pulled out a small cotton pouch and shook it in front of Twilight’s face, grinning; the younger physicist sighed at the older archaeologist.
“Really? You’re still gonna try and pass that stuff off on me?” she placed her hands on her hips, pouting. “Oh come on, Zecora… you know how much I absolutely loathe herbal tea…”
"‘What doesn’t kill your taste buds only makes you stronger’, Twilight Sparkle…” Zecora laughed, handing over the tea pouch to a very reluctant Dr. Sparkle. “… Or do you really need me to say that again in Swahili?”
“Fine, ok, you win… thanks again,” Twilight smiled politely as she accepted Zecora's gracious gift. “Goodnight, Dr. Zecora,”
“Sweet dreams, Dr. Sparkle,” Zecora waved as the lift began to descend, “until next time…”
Twilight exited the lift at the base of Zecora’s workstation and promptly returned to her jeep, pondering over all of the many historical records and emitter diagrams that she would now have to go over back at Development in Canterlot in order to make sense of it all. Twilight worriedly frowned as she got into the driver’s seat and strapped herself in; The Mane Six had definitely gone up against psychopaths who clearly thought themselves to be living gods before, but… an actual living god himself?
“Why, hello there, Sunshine… quite a beautiful night out, wouldn’t you say?” Twilight’s exact doppelgänger cheerfully greeted her from the passenger seat as she thoughtfully gazed up at the stars above, prompting Twilight herself to scream out loud in shock and surprise.
“Good Lord, how many times?!” Twilight angrily scolded herself as she reached up for her rapidly beating heart, “How many times have I specifically asked you NOT to “go ghost” on me?!?!”
“Sorry,” Twilight’s very own copycat sheepishly grinned at her, shrugging her very own shoulders.
“Man, oh man… this day…” Twilight darkly grumbled to herself, throwing Zecora’s herbal tea in the backseat before vigorously rubbing her own eyes. “So… what is it you want from me this time, Smarty Pants?”
Smarty Pants looked down and sighed. “Well, actually Twilight, I… I came here tonight to warn you…”
“Lemme guess...” Twilight squeezed down on her own eyelids as hard as she possibly could, “…ummm, this particular warning wouldn’t happen to be about a very cantankerous old Equestrian Emperor, now would it?”
Smarty Pants chuckled. “As always, right on the money, Miss Sparkle…”
“Yeah, and, as always, Smarty, your timing is just impeccable… Dr. Zecora just told me everything I needed to know about Discord,” Twilight added.
“I know…” Smarty Pants sighed heavily before looking intently at her counterpart. “…Twilight, listen to me, you absolutely must be very, very careful in dealing with Lord Discord, please… He’s entirely violent and dangerous and, this time, Equestria and The Mane Six may just be biting off a little more than they can chew…”
Twilight snorted, dismissing that with a wave of her predominant horn- wielding hand. “Well… Lord Discord may think that he’s just all that and a bag of chips, but-“
“Twilight, I’m serious,” Smarty Pants huffed impatiently, “trust us, we’ve been watching that particularly tyrannical fiend for a very long time now, and you’ve gotta believe me, Discord is unlike any villain or adversary that you or The Mane Six have ever encountered before…”
Twilight gazed up at the stars, deep in thought. “Smarty, I wanna ask you something… um, why couldn’t you just talk to Discord when he called on you in the first place?”
Smarty Pants thought for a moment before responding. “As we told you once before, Twilight Sparkle, regardless of what the ancient Equestrian thought of us, we are most certainly not gods of any sorts… there are certain, um, laws that we must abide by, just as your own poor little aching body must obey certain laws regarding things such as gravity and the electromagnetic force… for instance, we’ve already told you that we cannot freely give life and health, except during that sole, rare circumstance when The Elements are intimately bonded to their newly chosen Bearers for the very first time, just as we absolutely cannot take a life…” Smarty stopped, thinking back upon The Nightmare Incident of the previous year, “…well, at least nothing actually living to begin with… now, as we’ve said before, it is extremely difficult for us to interact with your kind unless you’re made to feel comfortable and are given safe, familiar surroundings… the once good and now past Equestrian King, bereft of all that he once held dear, decided for himself that he had stumbled upon “The Terrible Secret From Beyond The Spheres” long before he had even bothered to reach out to us…”
Twilight thought about that. “Did he?” she finally asked Smarty Pants in all earnestness, “Did Lord Discord really discover “The Terrible Secret From Beyond The Spheres”?”
Smarty sighed again, quite visibly rolling her eyes this time. “No, Twilight, Discord is a madman… however, sometimes… sometimes, when a person thinks that they’ve lost everything that they have, everything that they hold most dear, that person may unknowingly give away what precious little goodness they have left when they should actually be treasuring it with all of their heart…”
“Well, why didn’t you just stop him, then?” Twilight gestured to her counterpart, “I mean, you Elements made The Heart of Chaos- well, in a way- why couldn’t you all just disassemble it like you did with Nightmare and all of her Shadowbolts?”
At that, Smarty Pants turned her gaze towards the western horizon, scanning continents and whereabouts unseen to the young physicist. “Of all the sentient beings throughout all of existence, Miss Sparkle, none are as impenetrable, and, dare I say, incomprehensible to us as Lord Discord himself… I must warn you, Twilight, we honestly don’t know what the old dragon is planning to do this time around and, frankly, it worries us to no end…”
Twilight laughed heartily. “Well, I’ll tell you what we’re all planning to do… how about a nice, big, fat, juicy beam of friendship magic right to his stupid face,” she turned to Smarty, still laughing, “Hahaha, I mean- Element, pleeeeeaase- ?”
Twilight looked to find that her Element of Harmony had vanished from the passenger seat; she blinked a couple of times in confusion.
“Tell me, Twilight Sparkle,” Smarty Pants suddenly spoke from Twilight’s other side, leaning on the jeep door and scaring the crap out of the young scientist yet again, “Do you honestly believe that you and The Mane Six really have what it takes, deep down, to defeat Lord Discord on your own?”
“GAAAH!- Hey! What did we just talk about?!” Twilight jumped as she scolded her doppelgänger yet again.
“Twilight, I’m being serious here…” Smarty frowned. “… Do you really believe in The Mane Six? Do you really believe that, if everything you loved and ever held dear was stolen away from you, just like that-“ she snapped her fingers- “ –in less than an instant, that you could still find the courage to go on, regardless, to do what you knew, in your heart, was really right in the end?”
“Look Smarty, do you think that we could maybe talk this over back at the library, or something?” Twilight groaned as she rubbed her temples again. “Hey, I know! I’ll even brew us up a fresh batch of my finest Jamaica Blue Mountain secret reserve, my treat! Huh? whadduya say there, ol’ buddy ol’ pal?”
Smarty Pants giggled, shaking her head. “Yeah, right… nice try there, Sunshine…”
“Eh,” Twilight chuckled a bit as well, “well, it was definitely worth a… shot?”
Twilight turned to find that Smarty Pants had somehow vanished into thin air, unnoticed yet again; she sighed, feeling extremely exasperated, confused and quite a bit fatigued.
“We do sincerely hope that you enjoy your tea, Miss Sparkle, and please… just do us all a favor, alright?” she heard the fading, disembodied voice of The Element of Transformation speak to her from afar as she started up the jeep, “… Always keep your heart open… always…”
“Yeah, yeah…” Twilight scoffed, “… say, here’s a thought, why don’t you tell me that again in Swahili… who knows, it might even stick better…”
Twilight shifted her gears, heavily sighing to herself as she prepared for another long, tedious drive through the very heart of Manticore Country itself.