Heir to the Throne

by Arkantos

Choices

As the battle with the undead raged on, the Umbrums made their move. Half of them zoomed so fast that no pony could react in time.

As for the other half, they used their shadow magic to make five versions of themselves each. The shadow clones got to work pushing the catapults down the cliff ruining them.

A group of E.U.P. soldiers ran straight at the Umbrums, hoping to surprise them. However, the Umbrums were expecting it, and five of them got into a circle and concentrated.

The E.U.P. got closer, but then, suddenly, several black crystals came shooting out of the ground, impaling each E.U.P. in the head.

Nightcrawler walked up to the last E.U.P. soldier with his sword drawn. He studied the pony, a unicorn stallion, who was obviously scared, for he had a magical shield up. Then Nightcrawler used his shadow form, allowing himself to pass through the magical barrier.

“Such primitive techniques,” he said. “We Umbrums have fought, way tougher opponents than your army.” Then he used his sword and cut the stallion’s throat.

Up in the sky, Twilight, with the power of fifty souls inside of her, fired several beams of magic at General Thunderclap. But something was troubling Twilight. She swore she had seen several beans of magic hit the pegasus, but for some odd reason, the pony was still in the fight.

As amusing as the flight was, Twilight decided it was time to end this, so she started to use black fire balls and sickly green and purple lightning strikes. She charged at the pegasus with her black steel sword engulfed in black flame and gave the sword the swing.

But as the sword swung down, it shattered and the black flames were extinguished. To Twilight’s surprise, Thunderclap used her hind legs to kick Twilight in the chest, causing her to fly across the sky until she hit a cloud.

Then Thunderclap flew so fast Twilight couldn’t get out of the way in time. The general used her sword and slashed Twilight, leaving a deep cut on her chest. Then, ten orange souls left her soul gem and went into Thunderclap’s armor, and she looked stronger than ever.

“Now, this is more like it.”

As Twilight got up, she asked, “ Why wasn’t my attack fatal to you?”

The general held onto her sword a bit tighter and said with a sarcastic tone, “Like I’d tell you.”

---

The six mares wandered in the Ever Free Forest for hours, not knowing if they would ever find the road again.

Rainbow could fly up to find the road, but if she did, there was no guarantee that she would find her friends again. Plus, if she left, the creatures of the Ever Free Forest would probably attack the group.

They had been attacked by timberwolves several times and Applejack had used her magical ax to kill them.

However, Fluttershy had mixed feelings about killing creatures of the Ever Free Forest. She was hoping to ask any creature they met for the way to the road, but the creatures they found were hungry for ponies, and had to be killed before they killed them.

They entered a clearing, but the clearing was not empty. An Ursa Minor was looking for something as it slashed at everything near it; trees, rocks, and even the ground.

Sunset whispered to the others, “Let’s leave the angry Ursa alone.” Every pony agreed except for Fluttershy. She approached the Ursa.

“Excuse me, I just want to know why you are making a mess.” As she said this, the Ursa Minor turned around.

“Rawr!”

All her friends froze in fear.

Then they heard Fluttershy say, “Oh, you poor thing. You just wanted to play out here but you lost track of time, and without your mother, you might die.”

The Ursa sat on the ground, looking at the Pegasus and listening. He nodded his head. Then Fluttershy asked, “Do you know where she is? For I’m sure she is as worried as you are.”

The Ursa Minor walked into the forest and Fluttershy followed it. Her friends followed her.

They spent a good hour walking through the forest until, suddenly, Sunset bumped into Fluttershy. The pony behind her bumped into her, and so on. They looked and saw the Ursa Minor approach a cave. From inside the cave came an Ursa Major.

The two Ursas hugged each other and the ponies watched the embrace. Then Fluttershy flew up to the Ursa Major and whispered something. The Ursa Major whispered something back to Fluttershy.

Then Fluttershy waved a hoof at the two creatures as they went inside the cave. She walked back to her friends and said, “The road is three hours away from here and she was kind enough to point us in the right direction. So, let’s go!”

True to the Ursa’s word, they found the road and saw the castle of the two sisters.

As the friends walked to the castle, Sunset asked Fluttershy, “How did you know that they would tell you where the road was.”

Fluttershy replied, “I just wanted to show some kindness. That was all I did, but I did mention that we were lost, and they were kind enough to point us in the right direction.”

---

The battle in the sky started to come down closer to the ground. Twilight and General Thunderclap landed in the middle of the battle.

Twilight saw it was going badly, for her mummified warriors were falling down left and right. There was only one left holding a spear. The dead pony charged straight at Thunderclap and the General used her sword to break its spear. Then she kicked the dead pony towards a rock, and the mummified pony broke apart.

“Such a waste of magic to use dead ponies to fight your battles. No wonder they don’t have any unique tactics. They just charge into my army and lose, What kind of tactic is that?”

Twilight got up and looked at the General.

“The one where you didn’t see the Umbrums destroy your catapults.”

“Well, it doesn’t matter. We’ve got you.”

As the General pointed her sword at Twilight, several E.U.P. came around her.

“Oh, I don’t think so!”

Twilight used her magic to create a magical shield, but the shield bubble got brighter and brighter, lavender in color. Then it exploded in a purple magical wave, sending any nearby E.U.P. soldier flying at least two feet away. Then Twilight teleported away, leaving a very angry General. The General yelled, “I will find you, Twilight Sparkle! And when I do, there will be death!”

The Umbrums had been waiting for Twilight to come. When she did come back, they made their way to Equestria.

“I have a question,” said one of the shadow guards. “Why did we do that whole battle? I mean, couldn’t you just teleport us all here, or better yet, Equestria?”

With a bored look, Twilight said, “You see these pillars on the border with images of the sun and moon? They hold a magical barrier of swords. If we try to teleport here, we could die just trying to get past.”

“But it was not necessary to go on a killing spree like that,” said Nightcrawler.

“I just used my soul gem to drain fifty soldiers, but you went on and impaled several ponies. Now that was a pony slaughter.”

“I think we should get going,” said Nightcrawler

“Right,” Twilight said, then lit her horn, and in a purple burst of magic energy, they teleported to Ponyville.

---

As Pinkie Pie, Sunset, and the others walk down the road, Pinkie said, “Don’t you think this is far from enjoyable? We are just walking in a forest!”

Sunset looked at her and said, “We are trying to beat an ancient alicorn of nightmares and save Equestria, but you’re worried about having fun.”

“Mhmm.”

“Just let it go, Sunset. Pink is just being, well, Pink,” said Applejack with a look that said you could lose a few brain cells trying to figure it out.

“Oh, speaking of brains, did you know that Twilight, whoever that is, will be coming? I mean, who fights an army just to get across Equestria’s borders? I’m just saying, there are other ways, like-” mumble mumble

Applejack saw Sunset use her magic to make Pinkie Pie be quiet.

As they walked, they saw the road split in two directions ahead of them. There was no sign to tell them which road would lead them to the Castle. If they picked the wrong road they would spend several more hours walking back to this area.

“I say we go right up the hill, and if there are any monsters, I’ll grab a wild storm cloud and kick lightning down on them,” said Rainbow.

“Well, that’s one way to do it, but my armor said we should take the shadier road, and if there is anything lurking in the shadows, I’ll use my ax to deal with them.” Applejack brought forth her ax.

“But we don’t have secret magical armor attached to us, now do we?” Rainbow snorted.

“If there’s something you want to say to me, then say it,” Applejack replied.

The other ponies just listened to the argument.

“Ever since you told us about your armor, you’ve been getting a cocky attitude.”

“Well, that’s rich coming from a pegasus who’s always confident in her abilities and has dreams that most ponies would call fantasies.

Pinkie Pie bounced around the two and shouted happily, “Fight ,fight ,fight!”

“Enough!” yelled Sunset, as her horn brightened the area, so much so that any living creature roaming nearby wouldn’t miss seeing it.

When the magic from her horn grew dim, she glared at the two ponies that were arguing and said, “Of all times to argue, you guys pick now. We are on a mission to save the princess and Equestria. There is such a thing as a different time and a different place for you two to bicker like two old mares, and I have-“

Rainbow and Applejack were not looking at Sunset, but rather behind her. As Sunset slowly turned around, she saw an Earth filly. As the filly walked out of the shadows of the Ever Free Forest, the six ponies noticed she was wearing a hat with propellers on top, as if it could catch the wind. Her coat was pink, her mane and tail were purple and white. Her cutie mark was of a baseball with a screw next to it. But the really weird part of her was her eyes. They were like pink swirls.

Sunset spoke. “Hello, my name is Sunset Shimmer.” When she said this, Rainbow and Applejack made an unspoken agreement that they’d finish their argument later.

Sunset continued. “What’s your name?”

The pink filly said in a low voice, a little sadisticly, “My name is Screwball.”

Rarity said, “Well, Screwball, is it? We are looking for the castle of the two sisters, where we believe-“

Screwball cut Rarity off a little angrily. “The elements of Harmony. Those pieces of rock that turned my dad to stone, just because he got a little carried away.”

Then, after calming herself down a little, she looked at Rainbow Dash and Applejack. She pointed her hoof at them and said, “And let me guess. You two are arguing which way to go. And you.” She pointed at Sunset and continued. “You say you have enough of bickering and you create that brilliant little flash. I mean, talk about going nowhere.”

Then Screwball walked back to the shadows. “Now, if all of you will excuse me, I have a father to cry about.” Her eyes started to get watery black, like soda. Then several pineapples with teeth bounced around the area she had came from.

Applejack said, “I’m thinking she won’t help us.”

“Agreed. Let’s just pick a road and hope for the right one,” said Rainbow Dash.

“Wait a minute, Writer, are you going to write it like this?” Pinkie Pie asked, looking straight at you. “Screwball here is very alone and very sad, and all of your readers know what happened. When I see somepony sad like this, then I get sad too. Nope, I will do this my way.”

The other mares just looked at each other like Pink had lost it.

“Well, I guess we see what Pink’s got,” said the writer.

Pinkie Pie approached Screwball and the pineapples with teeth bouncing around, and also biting twigs and leaves, and even small rodents. Screwball looked up to see Pink and was met with the barrel of Pink’s party cannon. Her eyes grew to the size of dinner plates and she feared what might happen next.

BOOM!

Inside the cannonball, the source of the loud BOOM, there was just confetti that blasted Screwball’s face. As soon as the party cannon went off, three tables with party hats and several other party items popped out. The party began, and during the festivities, the others got to know Screwball a bit better. For the first time in centuries, Screwball smiled.

But nothing could last forever, not even Pink party.

As Screwball walked with the six ponies back to the road, she said, “Thanks for the party. It has been a long time since I’ve let loose. As for the way to the castle, it’s that way.”

Screwball pointed them to the left, then hopped back into the Ever Free Forest, humming a song.

The six mares continued down the road.

Back in the area that Screwball called home, she jumped and hovered three feet in the air. A magical image popped up showing the stone body of Discord.

“Don’t worry, daddy. Soon you will be free,” Screwball said. And together, we can spread chaos and turn the world upside down.”

Comments

[XzareAce]

nice touch :D