Epilogue
By the time dawn arrived, Queen Selene must have known of the loss of her high-level pony warlord. She ordered half the Moon Twolls to attack anyway; half to lay siege to the city... and the other half to turn back to the ruins of Everfree City, taking on and croaking a mixed force or four casters and four warlords before going on to reinforce the first half.
It was a massacre. Nightmare Moon (now styling herself "Princess Luna") tore through the oncoming ranks with ruthless efficiency. Not one Twoll was left standing; leadership was rapidly Turned with the Elements and turned against the troops they had been leading mere minutes before; not an instant was wasted on banter or grandstanding. The Lunar forces had their own foolamancer, a level three veteran of many wars; his illusions and veils were far in advance of anything Twilight could cast, but Luna was never fooled for more than an instant. The contrast in sheer competence could hardly be greater.
Megan, stacked with and riding Princess Luna, had a perfect view; even as her bow sought out the enemy units and cut them down, she formulated questions for which she had no answers. It was clear, after the first few minutes of the battle, that Luna had not been bringing her best against the group who had faced her down...
Megan did not get a chance to ask her questions until after the battle. As Predicted, Princess Luna had won a great victory; the ragged remnants of the attacking force had fled in the end, weakened far beyond the point where they could pose any significant threat to Ponyville. And even then, Luna had refused to answer, stating only that there was no time to wait, and hurrying towards Ponyville the instant their Turn started.
Princess Celestia met them in Ponyville. The first thing she did was walk straight up to Luna, and wrap her foreleg around Luna's neck in a hug.
"It has been far too long, sister," she said.
"It has," agreed Luna. "I cannot tell you how glad I am to return to your side."
"Wait," said Megan, "are you saying that you wanted to rejoin us? Is that why you let yourself get fooled so easily, so many times?"
Luna nodded. "The Elements of Harmony did a terrible thing to me the first time they were used upon me; my dearest friend became my greatest enemy. My Duty became to the side of Moon, but my Loyalty remained always with Celestia - I had to do the minimum that my Duty required, yet my divided Loyalty ensured that I could do no more than that minimum against the side led by my oldest, and greatest friend."
"That... explains a lot, actually," opined Twilight. She took off her tiara and looked at it. "So, these things alter duty, but not loyalty?"
"Duty is to a side, so it's Turnamancy," said Rarity, "Loyalty is between two units, so that would make it Date-a-mancy."
"Exactly," said Celestia, smiling. "Did you not wonder why I never sent anypony to collect the Turnamancy artifact from the Everfree ruins? It was because over-reliance on Turnamancy will tear a Side apart. The previous Ruler, the Emporer Caligula, made frequent use of the Elements to Turn opposing warlords, courtiers, and others. As high-value units, most of them ended up in his Court, as his advisors." She nodded at Megan, and laced her next words with the strength of an order. "Megan, would you please tell us what Caligula's court was like?"
"Backstabbing," said Megan, "plots, deceit, corruption. Exceedingly unpleasant."
Princess Celestia nodded. "That was the legacy of Caligula; the result of an overuse of Turnamancy without considering the underlying Date-a-mancy. Since we do not currently have a Date-a-mancer, I think that it would be best if we were to put the Elements away and never use them again. The short-term gains that they represent are not worth the long-term problems."
"Princess?" asked Twilight. "Would it help if I studied Date-a-mancy?"
Princess Celestia considered the matter. "It might," she conceded.
"And might I stay with her?" asked Megan. "I really like being able to understand everyone, Your Highness."
Princess Celestia stepped back in surprise. "You can understand me now?"
"Yes, your Highness."
"A simple practical application of Foolamancy!" said Twilight, happily. "She thinks she's hearing a voice that speaks Language!"
"Well done, Twilight!" said Princess Celestia, happily. "Very well, then. I shall make a royal decree; Warlady Megan Faust, you shall remain here in Ponyville to protect and serve Foolamancer Twilight Sparkle, to the best of your ability. Foolamancer Twilight Sparkle, you are to remain here in Ponyville and study Date-a-mancy, the magic of Friendship, until such time as you feel you can resolve the long-term problem involved in overuse of the Elements of Harmony. Does this meet with the approval of all concerned?
"Yeah!" "Yes!" "I like it!" "Sounds good!"
Pinkie leapt into the air, spreading her forelegs wide. "I predict that it's time for a VICTORY PARTY!" she yelled, amidst widespread cheering.
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Once again great to see this story on this site as well.
I saw this teased on the Erfworld site, but I never looked into it. I'm immensely glad you put it up here. Otherwise, I'd have never enjoyed one of the best crossovers I've read in recent memory.
Also, I'd say something about Twilight's apparently ludicrous amount of juice, but the translation effect is probably a very low-consumption spell, and she is Twilight Sparkle.
But yes, thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish, especially the adjustments that make the premiere fit better on Erfworld. The Elements are downright terrifying in this world. (And given how they work, rather ironically named.) Plus, imagining Parson's reaction to encountering this side is priceless. If he ever ran into one of their casters in the Magic Kingdom...
A shame they'd probably oppose him with every fiber of their being. Though pitting Twilight and Pinkie against him is frankly terrifying. If anyone on Erfworld could learn from Parson's eldritch empiricism, it would be at least one of those two.
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I get the feeling that they would at least parlay with honesty. I feel that they could be good allies because Celestia is technically an overlady and not a royalist.
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Yep. I'm glad you enjoyed it!
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I'm glad you liked it, too!
It's based on the trick that Jack Snipe pulls over here, at a time when Jack is completely unable to use Juice at all. Twilight is nowhere near Jack's level, but even then the translations would be a very low-consumption spell...
I know! I can just imagine that completely gobsmacked expression...
I enjoyed this very much. I'm a big fan of Erfworld and it's great to see a good crossover posted with it.
I haven't read Erfworld in a long time, but you gave enough background that I could pick up the Erfworld references without difficulty. This was tons and tons of fun!
Very nicely done.
Finally got to read the rest of this! Saw the first few entries on the Erfworld site it self, and jumped when I saw this in the feed. This is so great, I hope you realize.
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Great! I'm glad you all liked it!
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Oh, good. That was one thing I was a bit worried about. I was afraid I might have presumed to much knowledge of the World of Erf.
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I'm pretty sure Equestria is a Royal side. Princess Celestia, is addressed as Her Highness, and did issue a Royal decree to Megan and Twilight in the last chapter.
I know just enough Erfworld to appreciate this. And it was definitely appreciated.
While this isn't tagged Comedy, I kept laughing all the while for some reason. Well done!
Well, that was a Thing. c.c
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Great! I was a teensy bit worried about that... should I tweak the bit that mentions the Gump, perhaps?
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I don't know if it can be. Celestia was popped as a mount, not a Royal Heir.
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I'm glad you liked it!
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Erfworld provides the page image on the Whatevermancy TVTropes page for good reason. There are twenty-four types of casters...
As a fellow Erfworlder, definitely a brilliant crossover!
I especially liked the explanations involving the Elements. 
I don't know why, but now I have this persistent image in my head, of an Archon telling someone to "please hold for Cheerilee".
This is wonderful. Brilliant melding of Erfworld and ponies. I love it.
Study the magic of date-a-mancy. Favorite part of the story.
That was fun. Well done indeed.
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Luckamancers do tend to curse enemies or bless allies, yes... but I don't think Predictamancers can do that directly. They're more into unavoidable prophecies (and yes, the one in this story was unavoidable; there are examples in Erf canon of people using loopholes to try to avoid the worst of prophesied Bad Stuff that might be coming their way, so I don't think there's anything canon-incompatible with the use of Predictamancy here).
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Thanks!
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Yeah, sorry, it's been a long time since I read Erfworld. It quit updating for a long time, and I kinda stopped checking for updates (not to mention the author was being evil by making that battle take years in real-time...). I really liked this story's adaptation of it, though.
(Nice one with making Pinkie the Predictamancer, btw. It fits perfectly, and you got to make that joke.)
very nice