Twilight Sparkle and Her Unwanted, Rewritten Love Life

by TheSadisticJudge

Chapter Two|Skyfall (2/2)

By TheSarcasticJudge

Being inside the Everfree Forest isn’t what gave Twilight Sparkle and her party the chills and the sense of importance that made their hearts freeze at every snap of the twig, it was the sheer notion that every second they waste being afraid: it was a second that Nebula had their loved ones – save for Rainbow Blitz, who didn’t really lose anything but the sun.
Twilight Sparkle’s chest felt tight with dread, fog was wafting over them – as if Nebula could strike and impale all six of them like he did with the guards in Town Hall. It seemed that Twilight wasn’t the only one who didn’t share this concern, as Butterscotch and Blitz hovered off the ground, Elusive made every attempt possible to shake off any creeping mist tendril who came too close, and Applejack tried to ignore it but there was still an antsy look in his green eyes.
Twilight’s weapon was…
Her wits and magic, duh, what else would it be? The ability to turn into some kind of crank Gatling gun? Don’t be ridiculous, Twilight Sparkle knows a few disarming and stunning spells. The alicorn knows no lethal spells nor would she even use them – ever.
“Gah! this place is spooky with all this fog,” Blitz commented, “Hey, Sparkle-Butt, why don’t you light the way for us so we aren’t trapped in the dark?”
“I can’t, this place feels like a magical dead zone,” Twilight Sparkle replied, she tried to conjure up an illuminating spell but only a spark was produced. “Troublesome, but we’ll get past this.”
“S-so… y-y-you’re not s-s-scared?” Butterscotch trembled as he spoke, but this made Bubble Berry laugh.
“
“I’m terrified and I’m exhausted,” Twilight Sparkle admitted. “but this guy has Barbra and the rest of them, also Equestria under a deep sleep of unfathomable nightmares for all of eternity. We don’t have the luxury of chickening out.”
The ground underneath Twilight Sparkle shook, like an earthquake. The earth split into two, two tectonic plates crashed into one another in a forced catastrophic shift! It separated Twilight Sparkle and the stallions, as the ground below Twilight Sparkle gave way and crumbled beneath her hooves. Twilight Sparkle screamed in surprise as she scrambled down the rocky incline plane on her back, her hind hooves digging into the dirt as she tries vainly to slow her decent.
“Twilight! Use your wings!” Rainbow Blitz cried as he took off to the sky.
“I don’t know how!” Twilight Sparkle yelled back as she looked in front of her to find an even worse slope she was on.
Applejack reached underneath his hat and pulled out a rope. “Elusive! Tie it ta th’ tree!” Elusive hurriedly tied it to a tree and made it into a knot. Applejack wrapped the rope around him and tied it, he leaped onto a slab of rock and rode it down the rocky and dirty slide of death.
Twilight Sparkle gasped as she neared the edge of the cliff, and screamed shrilly as she went over the side of the cliff.
Applejack leapt off the rock and scrambled down the cliff and snatched up Twilight’s hoof before her upper body left the side of the cliff. Applejack’s hooves dug into the lip of probable death, the only keeping Applejack on the cliff was a root of a tree that was about to capsize.
Snagged onto Applejack’s rope was the same slab Applejack rode down the cliff, and it pulled Applejack over the cliff along with Twilight Sparkle hanging desperately using Applejack’s left hoof. Applejack’s right hoof remained on the root, rope to safety was cut.
“Applejack!” Twilight screamed in hysterical panic, justifiable panic, “What do we do!”
Applejack tried to raise Twilight Sparkle using his sheer strength, but the pressure on the root threatened to snap under the combined weight of the two ponies. Below them was a ravine, rushing water with sharp jagged rocks waited them hungrily with waves lapping at their rocky teeth. Salivating for their next meal of two unfortunate heroes to fall into their famished jaws.
Applejack looked up, seemingly praying before looking back at Twilight Sparkle with an answer. An answer Twilight was not ready to hear just yet.
“Okay, Twi’, listen to me,” Applejack looked Twilight Sparkle in the eyes, his face stone and stoic, his heart was beating irregularly, but his eyes burned with confident. “Let go.” He instructed clearly and calmly.
“ARE YOU FLIPPING MAD?!”
“Ah won’t lie, this situation ain’t exactly a tea party and it looks terrible, but look at me,” Twilight looked up into Applejack’s eyes, “Why in th’ world would Ah ever want somepony – anypony like you ta get hurt?” Applejack didn’t even need to make a trustworthy face because his voice did all the work, but he gave a reassuring smile. Twilight gaze at Applejack, and Applejack gazed at her. Imminent death was shadowing her and if there was anything that Twilight wanted to see for the last two longest moments of her life – it would be Applejack.
“Ah would never steer you wrong,” Applejack released his grip, Twilight Sparkle still grasped at his hoof. “Do you trust me?”
“I do,” Twilight Sparkle whispered barely above a breath. “Damn those beautiful eyes of yours.” Twilight Sparkle released her grip and descended into the jaws of death, leaving Applejack to wonder about her words and the implications behind them. Did she like his eyes or did she like him? Wow, all of this is so sudden, too much to take in.
Twilight Sparkle also realized the slip of her tongue and thought this was the best case scenario of what she wanted to happen right about now—however, Rainbow Blitz and Butterscotch plucked Twilight right out of the sky. Rainbow Blitz then relieved himself of saving Twilight to Butterscotch as Blitz dive-bombed to catch a patiently waiting Applejack and escort him to safety.

“Okay, we get it Blitz, you saved her,” Elusive acidly spoke after the forty-seventh time Rainbow Blitz bragged about being the one to save Twilight Sparkle’s flanks. Although if it was anyone who saved Twilight Sparkle, it was surely Applejack who deserved the credit.
There was a light, an orb of light that presented itself out of the mist from Solaris-knows-where. It was orange, and it unsurprisingly attached itself to the chest of Applejack. Twilight Sparkle gasped and immediately, the stallions formed a circle around Twilight to block her from AJ.
“What?” Applejack looked down at the spherical glowing orb on his chest. “Huh, neato, how do Ah get it off?”
“It would help if I knew what it was,” Twilight Sparkle muscled her way through the circle of muscle and ponies to peer into the magical orb. “I—I can’t detect it. This magic is archaic. Encrypted the properties so that I can’t detect it, in fact, I would’ve seen it a mile away if I could…”
“Yo, in English please?” Blitz rolled his eyes.
“This magic is ancient, the magical coding is in old Equine, but it seems mostly harmless,” Twilight Sparkle poked it and it wobbled slightly. “It doesn’t seem to serve any purpose but trapped energy, like a bug in amber. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’ll go away soon.”
“That’s a relief, Ah thought it would be sumthin’ horrible,” Applejack shrugged, “How’s about we keep—”
“ROAR!”
“It’s a manticore!” They all screamed. Elusive charged ahead, shooting magical blasts at the monster. It did nothing but made the beast angry. The Monster roared again and Elusive jumped back, almost in awe of his own magic. The threat was chasing her and it raised alarms in each of their heads.
The Manticore nearly had Elusive’s hide when Twilight shot a spell of discombobulation at the side of the dome, it merely staggered the Manticore long enough for Elusive to regroup with the rest of the ponies. The Manticore regained his balance and leaped after Twilight Sparke, who teleported away, and was met with the brutal force of Blitz striking its pelt.
It merely bounced off, but Rainbow Blitz was circling it, entrapping the Manticore with a mini-rainbow-tornado. The Manticore swatted Blitz out of the sky with her scorpion tail, managing to sting him in the process. Blitz hit the ground hard, but rolled and recovered. He held his stung foreleg closely until Twilight casted another Spell of Rejuvenation on Rainbow Blitz. Adrenaline coursed through Twilight’s veins and helped pushed against the magic nullification effect the damned forest had.
“Gosh darnit, I’m endin’ this now,” Applejack snarled as he lowered himself down, pawed the dirt with his hooves, ready to charge. Butterscotch, however, jumped in the way of the weapon and the Manticore.
“WAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIT!” shouted Butterscotch at the top of his lungs, ending the strife. He cautiously toed towards the aggrieved adversary and begun to soothe her with a hushed tone and a father-like voice. “What’s the matter, you cutie-patootie?”
“Butters’!” Applejack raised his stance, “Are you insane!?”
Twilight Sparkle was stunned at the pegasus nearing the monster. “…What in the blazes are you onto? Get out of there, Butterscotch! Abscond before he eats you!”
The manticore revealed his paw to Butterscotch, who gave a small gasp at the thorn in her paw. “Oh my, you poor baby. Don’t you worry, I’ll get it out. Now hold still, this will only hurt for an itty-bitty second—”
“RRRRAAAAAAWWWWWRRRRRRRR”
“See? Not so bad monster, right? Now if you don’t mind, we’re going to be on our way.”
The manticore purred in Butterscotch’s neck, and even gave a few dog-licks until Butterscotch’s mane was slicked backwards. Butterscotch grinned, giggled, and allowed the Manticore to disappear into the ominous fog.
As if it was on cue, a yellow orb of light attached itself to Butterscotch’s chest. It glowed brightly, causing Applejack’s orb to luminate just as well before becoming dormant. Nopony really paid any mind to it, they were sure it would go away like Twilight Sparkle said.
“What? What happened?” Twilight Sparkle asked.
“Twilight, it doesn’t matter if something’s really big and scary – it doesn’t mean you can’t show it a little bit of kindness and listen,” Butterscotch returned to his normal volume, which is already described as unbearably hard to hear. “Sometimes, problems are as easy to showing some kindness.”
“Laaaaame,” groaned Rainbow Blitz as he sheathed his sword.

The Everfree Forest became thicker, more foliage hid and almost entrapped them. Every circle they took ended up being a sort of dead end, or they were going in circles. They were sure they just came from that direction. Twilight swore she remembered that tree over there. And that rock with the contorted expression. The magical nullifying effects of the Everfree Forest became almost headache inducing for Elusive and Twilight Sparkle, to the point where even adrenaline won’t help.
A stick broke and Butterscotch howled like a Timberwolf.
“Mah bad, Ah cracked a stick,” Applejack chuckled nervously. “Y’all don’t hafta get so worked up about a sti—WAUGH! THEY’RE COMING FROM THE TREES!” The trees were had contorted faces of the damned, it was frightening and it seemed to glow this ominous light that came out of nowhere. Everypony was spooked but they did nothing but ran in a direction that led in circles, which only increased their chances of being killed because this was the Everfree Forest and everything was totes scary—

And you know exactly where this is going.

An orb, pink as the pink mane on the pink stallion it attached its pink self to, luminated pink. “Haha, it tickles! I’m gonna call it Ivan!” This caused a chain reaction among the other orbs on Applejack and Butterscotch to shine brightly before dying out into a dim glow that even fireflies scoff at.
The musical number faded and the tree-demons along with Applejack’s ‘nam flashbacks, and our heroes exited the deep foliage portion of the… well… Everfree Forest intact. Twilight and Elusive sighed in relieve as the nullifying effects of their magic wore off, relinquishing the pressure inside of each of the unicorn’s heads.
In front of them was the rapids that the ravine previously mentioned held, this time without all of the jagged rocks and the implications and metaphors of them being mouths with teeth. The jagged rocks were to the right – the direction of the water was rushing… well… rapidly.
The moonlight reflected off of the rushing water as it crashed into the jaws of the rocks. The fog that surrounded them was thinner, Twilight had a feeling Nebula was slipping away with every moment they stared and pondered their next move.
“So what now?” Elusive wondered out loud. “I don’t see a bridge.”
“I can’t teleport all of you guys over there, only myself,” Twilight mentioned, the continuity is far more important than ingenuity. “We got to come up with a solution, quickly.”
“Why don’t we just fly you over, one at a time?” Rainbow Blitz offered. “Me and Butterscotch can totally do it, right B-Rabbit?”
“But—” Butterscotch whined, “I’m not used to carrying anything more than a bunny! Much less ponies!”
“Oh, don’t you start!” Blitz rebutted, rolling his eyes as he whipped his head to face the cowardly pegasus. “You literally saved Sparkle-Butt’s life with my help, and if you’re so weak you can’t even carry her I’ll help you and take care of the rest!”
“I can’t—I’m not okay with this,” Butterscotch cowered underneath his wings. Rainbow scoffed and stretched his wings, but froze when the sound of uncontrollable sobbing from up stream. The main characters strolled upstream and towards the sound of an overdramatic – albeit fashionably sensible sea serpent.
“Why are you crying, ma’am?” Twilight approached the creature.
“You see, I was getting ready for a big date for my fiancé,” explained the sea serpent, “When this absolute brute of a purple-blue wind just up and sliced off a bit of my beautiful hair! I’m ruined! I will never be able to show my face to my darling, Steven Magnet again!” She bellowed in sobbing as she splashed around, a watery atomic bonsai of water saturates the six ponies.
“Whatever, I’m sure it was weave anyways,” Blitz stomped his hooves impatiently, irritated by the water that splashed him. “Geez, lady! Get over yourself, you look just fine! It’s long enough to suffocate Solaris and the rest of us!”
Twilight Sparkle looked at the rest of the stallions to see how they were faring to notice the rest of them were staring at Twilight Sparkle. She subconsciously dug her hoof through her drenched mane, to see if she had anything disastrous on her head like a leech or a shark. Even Rainbow Blitz stopped his soapbox opera to be captivated by Twilight.
“My god, my fair mare,” Elusive sighed dreamily. “You look… amazing.”
Twilight’s mane stuck to her head uncomfortably, her tail stuck to her underbelly as well. She shook like a dog to get the water off of her coat. Twilight Sparkle felt really uncomfortable with the attention on her and decided to deflect it off of her and onto the sea serpent.
“Mate, if we find a way to replace your missing… ‘hair’,” Twilight did not believe for a second that the hair on the serpent was real, “Will you let help us past?”
“Would I!” The serpent nodded feverishly.
“So, anypony got any id…” Elusive snipped off his tail without so much as a second thought and hovered it over to the sea serpent. “...eas…”
“I thank you! Oh I thank you!” The serpent tied Elusive’s wet tail to her almost ridiculously long hair. “How could we ever repay you?”
“For starters, the idea of assistance with these perilous rapids would be the greatest of help, darling,” Elusive smiled with modesty and class, “And perhaps a few dry towels and brushes, my mane – and more importantly Twilight’s mane is a mess!”
The rest of the stallions opened their mouths to protest, like clockwork, but after a glare worthy enough to shoot down the Death Star came their way – they all zipped it shut. Right about then, an orb white as snow appeared and attached itself onto Elusive’s chest.

After the perilous crossing of the rapids, Twilight and the stallions reached the homestretch. The final obstacle that stood between them and their loved ones was yet again another ravine with some bloody rapids and rocks. This time, the rapids were made of magma. Not really impressive, in fact, it was starting to become less amusing, if it ever was, for Twilight to take notice of.
This time, there was a bridge that was sabotaged. Sort-a like that scene in Shrek, if any of them walk on it. Especially the ones who packed the most muscle mass, like Applejack and Rainbow Blitz.
“Blimey, how do we get across now!” Dryly remarked Twilight as she peered over to Blitz, who was ‘subtly’ watching her flanks the entire way. Twilight Sparkle felt uncomfortable and slapped him across the face with her tail. “Oi, my eyes are up here.”
“Oh—huh?” Blitz recovered from his slap. “Well, if we had a total awesome pegasus with wings, who could fly over and yada-yada-yada.” With that, Rainbow Blitz crossed the gorge. Just as he was about to secure the last rope to make the bridge a not-so-trap and in fact a safe passage – he heard a hushed tone in the fog call out his name.
“Rainbow Blitz…”
“You know what – I know this is a trap but buck it, I’ll bite,” Rainbow Blitz smirked and walked into the fog, much to the dismay of the ponies on the other side of the still-a-trap bridge. “Come one, I want my recognition and swag points. Lay it on me.”
“You’re surely a force to be reckoned with,” a gruff voice, same accent as Twilight, complimented Blitz. “We heard you’re the best of the best in Equestria, the cream of the crop in Flying Basic Training.”
“Oh stop, you’re making me blush,” chuckled Rainbow Blitz, he stopped for a moment before smirking again. “Go on?”
“You passed Basic and Advanced training, but you denied your oath of commissioning to His Majesty’s Air Force,” Another voice, this time younger and it was a female. “Because it would’ve ruined your chance to get into the Wonderbolts.”
“Not so much a compliment, but yeah,” Blitz nodded, “What else ya got for me?”
“We also heard that you’re the only one to ever pull off the fabled Sonic Rainboom,” replied the gruff voice once more. The owner of the voice stepped out of the bushes, accompanied with three subordinates. The gruff voice was presumed the leader, with his gray dress uniform decorated with virtually hundreds of ribbons and medals. The others, not so much. They were wearing black spandexes accented with gray.
The others must be junior officers, Blitz deduced.
“Aye, all me,” Blitz smiled with pride, but turned his attention on the flatterers. “But enough about me, who are you?”
“We’re the Shadowbolts,” The senior officer answered. “Fastest fliers in all of the Everfree Forest, soon to be all of Equestria!”
“Right, if you’re so fast – why haven’t I heard of you – or more popular than the Wonderbolts?” Inquired Rainbow Blitz, unwilling to give up his idol’s rep’. “I’m sure they’re pretty fast, faster even, what makes you guys so special?”
“We can be just as—”
“Lieutenant, hold your tongue,” snapped the Commander, taking off his garrison cap as he turned back to Blitz. He was battled scarred, scars covered his face as well as a missing eye replaced by a glass eyeball. “A vacancy.”
“Uh, huh?” Rainbow Blitz tilted his head, “A vacancy for what?”
“My position,” The Commander replied, “I am an old stallion and I have seen my fair share in both combat and showmanship, twice as many I would ever need in this lifetime. I need somepony… young.”

“Blitz! No!” Twilight shouted after them as they became obscured in the fog. Twilight’s voice barely traveled through and if it did, it was blocked by the magical fog soundproofing the yelling the Stallions did. “It’s a trap!”

“Yeah…?”
“Somepony with agility,”
“Yes?”
“Somepony strong, graceful,”
“Stop teasing me and get on it!”
“More importantly, the new Commander must have an unlimited amount of swag!”
“Aw snap, son, that’s what I’m talking about!”
“Somepony like… you, for instance…” Finished The Commander, his voice smooth and icy. Almost like every word he says is a calculated decision. “Come with us, Commander, the ceremony for your promotion is about to begin.”
The officers next to the now ex-Commander stood at attention and saluted.
“Whoa—wait, right now?” Rainbow Blitz lifted a hoof, “Oh… Uh… Yeah, I don’t think I’ll be able to make it right now, maybe a raincheck? How’s about tomorrow sound?”
“Negative,” The Commander narrowed his icy blue eyes. “You will either come with us and become famous or you will stay with these heretics and be a nobody – all of them are deadcolts walking. Pick the sensible option.”
“Hold on a…” Rainbow Blitz gritted his teeth at the proposal, realizing he’s being played. “You goons work for Nebula, don’t you?”
“That’s irrelevant,” The Commander dodged the question. “It’s either us or them, but choose wisely – you’re either with us or against us.”
“You know what,” Rainbow Blitz shook his head, turning away from them to walk back to the rope bridge. “Take your crappy two-bit job and stick it.”
“Fine. Kill him,” The Commander coldly ordered as he and the rest of the officers disappeared into the fog.
A swift buck to the sides struck Blitz into the awaiting hooves of a pony that lacked heat. The Shadowbolt behind Rainbow Blitz held him in a full nelson, little did they know Rainbow Blitz is actually a black belt in martial art.
Rainbow Blitz slams the back of his head into the pony holding him in a submission hold. Rainbow Blitz grabbed control of the Shadowbolt’s foreleg and bent over to flip the pony over his shoulder. The Shadowbolt lands hard but recovers to his hooves, earning himself a lethal bucking into a tree. The Shadowbolt fell limp, either unconscious or dead from the impact snapping his body in half. Either or made no difference to Blitz.
The Shadowbolt that bucked Rainbow Blitz took a couple of seconds to reconsider what to do – taking steps back. She was unsure whether or not she wanted to even try to attack the blue blur. Rainbow Blitz solved this issue with a swift buck to the chest, cracking the ribs of the Shadowbolt, incapacitating her.
“Excuse me, but can you mail this flank-kicking for me? The address is Tartarus,” Another Shadowbolt tries to charge him, but receives a joint to the neck and a one-way trip to the magma below. “No return service necessary.”

“Holy mackeral!” Applejack exclaimed, stunned at the physical feat of Rainbow Blitz. “Remind me to never seriously cross him again.”
Twilight Sparkle barely managed to close her apart jaws when Butterscotch cautiously did it for her, but literally placing his hoof under her chin and shut it up.

“Although we art disappointed, we respect thy loyalty, such a feat isn’t ingraft nowadays – coequal if 't be true it’s all to w'rship a false sheph'rd. t wast predict'd by us, yond our Shadowbolts art nay matcheth f'r thee,” Knight-Terror Nebula said. Rainbow Blitz noticed that his accent became even stronger, almost to the point of insanity! (and an insane amount of red squiggles in the author’s text) “Thee has't did impress us, with such unfathombable arts in close-quart'rs skirmishes!” Knight-Terror Nebula complimented as he sat in the magical fog. “We art v'ry excit'd f'r thy abilities to beest putteth 'gainst our unlimit'd pow'r, though we has't predict'd the outcome.”
“If it’s not us totally shoving our horseshoes up your flank, then you need to reroll the dice!” Challenged Rainbow Blitz. “Come on! I’m right here! I don’t need these wetbags to defeat you!”
“Absolutely, thy needeth f'r such a dull sw'rd—thy comrades—is unnecessary,” Nebula cackled, “thou art going to needeth a lot m're than yond to coequal scratcheth of mine own armeth'r, pitiful and trait'rous dog.”
If that was meant to be frightening, it worked, even though Blitz understood none of what he said before the fog covered up Nebula entirely. Rainbow Blitz breathed out to steady his nerves and returned to the rope bridge to secure the last of the rope.
“You can’t die now, Blitzy,” Blitz tried and probably failed to reassure himself. “You’re too awesome for this crap, man, remember that awesome bucking one-liner you did as you threw that S.O.B (Stupider than Blitz) into the lava! Wicked cool! Also, you got to hook up with that dork, man.” The main characters came rushing over the bridge, relieved.
“Blitz! You came back for us!” Twilight Sparkle grinned, happy to see her friend not abandoning her.
“Of course I did,” Rainbow Blitz shrugged it off but there was a hint of pride in his voice as he spoke. “What do you take me for? I will never leave you guys – especially you – out to dry like that!”
Was… that a reassurance or was he just hitting on Twilight? Twilight wouldn’t get her answer before a cyan magical orb implanted itself on Blitz’s chest.

There, the courtyards in the ruins of the castle was the source of the smoke. Old Edgy Booty—I mean—Knight-Terror Nebula as he held his crystal ball in his magical vice grip. The future was unfavorable, unfavorable results. Nebula scoffed, him being defeated?!
Blasphemy!
Nebula inhaled and then exhaled. He will tip the balance of power in his favor. Nebula turned to the Elements of Harmony, each of them a stone glowing from the presence of Solaris. Of course, they would remain loyal to the source of all of his troubles – but he knew how this game works. This is the second time Nebula has taken siege of Equestria, his first time was ridiculed and mocked – made into a mediocre bedtime story meant for foals to wet their beds!
Not this time, Nebula would not let these stones screw over his chance at victory. Every possible outcome in his crystal ball predicted the success of the Elements, but none of them ever asked the idea of draining the elements!
Oh! How could he forget about his sweet little captives, hidden away high in the dark archaic magical confinements. Each of them, unconscious, trapped in their worst nightmares. The longer these Night-Terrors rule over their tainted minds, the more powerful he will become! Soon… all of Equestria will be subjugated to an endless sleep – filled with Night-Terrors unfathomable! Nebula cackled maniacally, his plan was coming into fruition!
Nebula, combined with the strength the pony’s fears, the magic from the Elements, and the might of his prototypes—Knight-Terror Night will last forever and Knight-Terror Nebula will become higher than his brother, higher than his father! Nebula will become a god with this amount of power, and he will rebirth Equestria in his image!
And there will be nothing Twilight Sparkle and her pitiful dogs will do to stop him! Knight-Terror Nebula stood up, his horn luminated and the Elements begun to rise. Soon, the elements began to drain of their luminosity – becoming useless rocks in the process.
The combined magic the Elements formed sparked something even more… powerful, something that made Nebula’s fur bristle at such raw power. It made the earth’s loose bits of pebbles and the dust to swirl around him, this raw power will transcend Nebula’s power into untold amounts.
The magical swirls were sucked into his horn.
…
Huh, Nebula expected a bigger reaction.
…
Knight-Terror Nebula’s eyes began to glow white, and then they began to flash colors of the rainbow in an epilepsy inducing light show. Nebula’s resentment and dark heart corrupted the magic that the Elements possessed. Nebula’s fur turned white hot, and fully white. Even Nebula’s fur was voided of all color… or maybe filled with all color for Nebula is completely white.
Nebula… no… whatever this monster has turned into… began to reshape himself to compensate for his power. His teeth became razor sharp, his iris were reddish-magenta cat-slits, his in his helmet resembled that of the warhorse he is. The appearance of this… ‘Neo-Nebula’ was almost unchanged, but the magical armor on him became… edgier.
Neo-Nebula’s face was covered by the helmet, only his eyes and snout able to be seen. They were protected by an invisible force field, acting as a visor of some sort. His neck and wing-guards were lavishly made, along with the necklace of Solaris now a picture of the moon – with his face still on it. Perfect. He is… perfect.

Neo-Nebula is too… pretentious. Nebula chuckled as he looked up at his beautiful moon, reflecting the light of the sun. The Moon had an orange-red color, which gave Nebula an idea… Finally, the edge he lusted for so long in his heart. To finally be able to be dark, hateful, and be completely justifiable in doing so with the edgiest of names ever!
Blood-Moon Nebula
Perfect. All was going according to plan.

The entrance of the castle laid in ruins, the transversal of the ancient castle is to be done carefully as to not to make any of it collapse onto them or ruin this piece of history not seen ever by mere mortal eyes until today.
It’s very existence lays in secrecy, shrouded in darkness of history unforetold. Perhaps it was the mistake of Solaris or did he simply hide the truth? Was there things Solaris kept from his personal protégé? Of course, what a stupid and silly question to ask! Knight-Terror Nebula is a walking example of it. A lot of things made no sense, but the first priority was to save Barbra!
Our heroes ignored the narrator’s unheard pleas to be delicate with the Ruins’ entrance as Twilight Sparkle delivers a concussive blast with the same force as a hand grenade to blow the debris out of their ways. Each of them panted with exhaustion, they were all sprinting at the top of their speed-class.
Twilight and Butterscotch almost immediately ran out of breath and lagged behind, but still made an effort to keep up with the rest of the endurance runners. Bubble Berry skipped while exclaiming ‘bwoing, bwoing!’ while Elusive was complaining about the state the castle was in. Rainbow Blitz and Applejack lead the charge, Rainbow Blitz flying high while Applejack galloping in the direction of the castle.
A light show of colors, ranging in different palettes and shades came from the courtyard of the castle. Twilight Sparkle nearly fell over her hooves at the surprise at the raw display of power. Twilight Sparkle’s heart sunk far down body, so far she felt it in the planet’s mantle core and back!
“Whoa nelly!” Applejack and Rainbow Blitz was blown back by the shockwave, plucked out of the sky and bowled into the rest of the stallions – plus Twilight Sparkle. “Did y’all feel that?!”
“I tasted that,” Blitz answered as he rolled off of Bubble Berry. “What the heck caused all of that?!”
Twilight Sparkle teleported out of the dog-pile of stallions and nervously stared at the direction of the ruins’ courtyard. Twilight Sparkle chewed on her lip before trying to decide what to do next. Whatever that was – it was going to decimate all of them.
“What do we do now, Sparkle? Sparkle!” Blitz asked, anxiety hanging on his voice. “You’re the smart one, how do we defeat that!?”
“We keep calm—” Twilight exclaimed, helping a dazed Butterscotch to his hooves. “—and we carry on!”
“Keep calm an’ carry on…Twi’ that’s not a good answer,” Applejack blinked before asking for confirmation. “Sugarcube, are you absolutely sure that these Elements will help at all?!”
“I’ll bet our lives on it,” Twilight Sparkle dryly replied, “Because that’s our last chance, unless any of you plan to go toe-to-toe with whatever ‘that’ thing was!”
“Ah mean… what if the elements don’t work is what Ah’m gettin’ at!” Applejack alliterated himself. “If we go there now an’ them Elements don’t work – we’re caught with our pants down! There’s an actual threat of him killin’ all of us—Ah thought the strength in numbers might be enough ta kill this varmint – but Ah don’t know if we can Twi’!”
“Speak for yourself,” Rainbow Blitz pipped up, “I’m not afraid of no metal wearing ghost! I’ll kill him, Elements or no Elements!”
“Double negative,” Twilight Sparkle mumbled under her breath before speaking back up. “Look, we came this far now – AJ. We can’t second this now. The more we second guess our actions, it’s a second we risk with our loved ones.”
“Twilight’s left!” Bubble Berry agreed. “We’re in this together, and we’re not going to back down! Besides, that would make this whole deviation from the source material completely pointless—even more as it is now!”
“Whatever… he said,” Elusive agreed. “No quarter as long as that…BRUTE has my precious Diamond!”
“A-a-agreed…” Trembled Butterscotch. “L-Lilith is waiting for me.”
“Look, AJ,” Rainbow Blitz stated, “We’re too far to pull back now, sink or swim.”
“Nnnnhhh, yer all right…” Applejack shook his head, “Ah just… Ah’m sorry, it’s the coward in us all.”
“Guys,” Twilight Sparkle cleared her throat, “It was an honor to know you…”
“No,” Blitz cut Twilight Sparkle off, “After this is all over, you so owe me a date. Now let’s go!”

“Hey look, there’s a note here…” Blitz called out as he picked up the parchment. It was taped to a rolled up knapsack. “Taketh thy choice of weapon, but be warned—thou hath no chance regardless.”
“Well ain’t that bout a doozy?” Applejack commented. “Let ‘er rip!”
Elusive unrolled the knapsack and there were five objects waiting for them—all of them knew exactly which belonged to whom and picked out their choice of weaponry.
Except Twilight.
Her weapon is her magic and her wits.
Duh.
The steps leading to the courtyard were probably the longest and biggest obstacle Twilight and the rest of the heroes had to face. It was the mind they had to overcome, their sense of fear clashed with their need to save their loved ones.
As Rainbow Blitz said—It’s sink or swim at this point. It’s far too late to turn and abscond, nor will any of them force themselves to rush inside to certain death. Twilight Sparkle swallowed the lump in her throat and rushed ahead the ponies to ascend the stairs.
The leading mare encouraged the rest of the stallions to reach the top of the stairs. When they reached the top of the stairs, they were greeted by their foe – his back turned to them. He was staring at a picture of Solaris defeating him.
“Holla, peasants,” Knight-Terror… no… this monster is even more powerful than the adversary seen at Town Hall… who is this?! Twilight Sparkle also suppressed a gasp as she realized something – they were too late. The foe probably reached the elements before them! “Thou art just in timeth f'r the bewray of the most pow'rful alic'rn thee all ev'r hadst the grace of gazing upon, and thee can thanketh thy pathetic prince f'r helping me in doing so.”
“Who… what are you?” Twilight Sparkle asked.
“Who is't art we?” The adversary asked, “What are we?” The adversary chuckled as he turned around to face the, causing the blood in Twilight’s veins to turn colder than ice. The rest of the stallions froze as well, their fur bristling along with Twilight’s. “We art thou w'rst nightmare, the nev'rending night-t'rr'r… Blood-Moon Nebula.”
“Where are the Elements?!” demanded Twilight Sparkle, “Where is Barbra and the rest of them?!”
“All in due time,” The adversary murmured. “They are merely inside… resting.”
“You know what, no!” Rainbow Blitz unsheathed his gladius, his nostrils flaring. “I don’t care what you call yourself, your stupid calf-brain!”
“Alas, thee draweth thy weapon. thy unimpressive, dull blade,” Blood-Moon Nebula blinked unamusingly. “We w're hoping thee wouldn't needeth t to defeat us… we did expect m're out of thee. Thee has't disappoint'd us.”
“You talk too much!” Blitz charged Blood-Moon Nebula, but a magical blast from the black alicorn knocked Blitz back to where he was standing previously.
“Thou hath no chance,” Blood-Moon Nebula cackled maniacally as Rainbow Blitz groaned as he picked himself up. “We art too powerful for thee, for that was a one-billionth of my true strength!”
“Argh… that hurt,” Rainbow Blitz admitted as he picked himself back up. He popped his neck and stretched his wings. “But I’m just warming up.”
The blood moon reflected off of his armor, casting a shadow over our heroes and every hope they had up until this point. The air of summer is mild, breezy, and a little dry. The magic smoke filled the vicinity of the courtyard and that changed everything, the fog made the air chilly. It drove all heat out of the air as if it was trapping heat inside.
Our heroes made it thus far.
Time to end it.
Elusive used his magic to take his two new knitting needles out of his hair, Butterscotch took off his bow and quickly pulled an arrow from his quiver. Applejack upholstered the revolver and spun it once or twice before having it aimed at Blood-Moon Nebula’s head. Bubble Berry grinned gleefully as he stood on his hind legs, holding his baseball bat on his right ‘shoulder’ and leaning onto Twilight Sparkle – who engaged her magic to prepare to battle with Blood-Moon Nebula.
“Oh yeah, Nebbie? Try to speak some modern day English!” Bubble Berry insisted. “It’s getting tiresome for the narrator to try and pronounce all of those fancy-schmancy word cuts you do! It’s also pretty annoying and hard to understand!”
“For thou last wish,” Blood-Moon Nebula cracked a sinister smile. “We will grant it.”
“Thanks, glad we can come to this understanding! Now can I have Nummy back?” Bubble Berry asked hopefully, but a shake of the head from Blood-Moon Nebula killed off the hope Bubble Berry had.
“If thou wishes to strife…” Blood-Moon Nebula gave a deep, throaty chuckle. “THEN MAKE SURE THOU STRIKETH WITH INTENT TO KILL.”
Elusive aggrieved first. He channeled a strike with his magic through his knitting needles, a magical blast. Blood-Moon Nebula used his own magic to deflect the magical blast into a statue of a bull, the statue was smashed into smithereens.
Butterscotch drew his bowstring back and shot an arrow at Blood-Moon Nebula, who merely caught it in midair by hoof.
Applejack spun the chamber of the revolver and holsters it, his eyes barely seen underneath the Stetson. Applejack hovered his hoof above his revolver, eyeing Blood-Moon Nebula and waiting for him to aggrieve. Ten seconds, long seconds pass before Applejack yelled out “DRAW!” and he upholstered his revolver and shot twice at Blood-Moon Nebula, but alas—the bullets were caught in the magical vice of his magical grip. The bullets dropped harmlessly against the cobblestone ground and the scatter among the floor.
Bubble Berry, twirling his bat in his hoof, pulled out a baseball and lobbed it in the air. As it came down, Bubble Berry dropped to a batting stance. “HOMERUN!” Bubble Berry swung the bat and the baseball went soaring to Blood-Moon Nebula, who caught the baseball with his hoof and crushed it. He was unamused. This, however, was a distraction, as Bubble Berry was in the air – lunging at Blood-Moon Nebula while swinging his bat. Blood-Moon Nebula sidestepped and swatted Bubble Berry away using a tendril.
“Take this!” Rainbow Blitz charged with a back-hoof swing of his gladius, but the gladius is met with a block by tendril defending Blood-Terror Nebula. Blitz spun and tried a diagonal slash, but it was parried by a tendril of the fog. Blitz trusted the gladius at the heart of Blood-Moon Nebula, it was brushed off the armor. The enchanted armor was rubber and the gladius was glue, it bounced and/or slid right off. Blood-Moon Nebula merely grins as Blitz was once again cracked across the face and sent down courtyard once more.
“Our turn,” Blood-Moon Nebula extended his wings and charged his horn, harnessing the power of the blood moon. The entire earth below them as pieces and chunks of cobblestone and dead grass tufts levitate out of the ground and crumbled, collapsed in on itself. Twilight gasped as she and the rest of them were launched onto their backs in this shameless display of might, not even one hundred of his energy – Twilight Sparkle speculated.
Blood-Moon Nebula popped his neck.
The worst pummeling of their collective lives later, Twilight Sparkle shakily picked herself back up with all the strength and the courage she could muster. She wasn’t done, not by a long shot. The stallions were just starting to come to when Twilight Sparkle casted a Spell of Rejuvenation, healing all of their wounds completely. Twilight knew she couldn’t keep using the spell, it was starting to strain her. Rationing her magic was the last thing she wanted to do, but running out of endurance to do so is a whole different kind of horror.
Twilight had enough of this, this fight wasn’t going anywhere in their favor! If she allowed it to, Blood-Moon Nebula will crush them and be victorious! No, Twilight decreed in her head. This is her fight, her grievances with him. Twilight’s horn luminated brightly as she charged at Blood-Moon Nebula. Not with the intention to harm him, but with the intention of trying the impossible: Teleportation with another living being at the same time.
Blood-Moon Nebula’s eyes widen in surprise as they both are puffed out of existence.
“Twi’!” Applejack exclaimed.

Both Nebula and Twilight are sent sprawling in the cold marble floor. They were now inside, but until she got her bearings – she won’t be able to tell where she was. Twilight rolled until she hit a pillar. She leaped to her hooves and looked up to find herself in a rather long, corridor shaped room.
Twilight Sparkle flinched as she looked at her right wing, it was bending in the most awkward of ways. From Twilight’s lack of use with her wings, it was not as strong as the rest of her body and the sudden force of impact caused the bone in the wing to fracture. Painfully. She folded her wing, trying not to look injured.
“AH, CLEVER TRICK, TWILIGHT SPARKLE!” bellowed Blood-Moon Nebula. “THOU ART A GENIOUS AMONG SUCH SIMPLEMINDED PESEANTS, HOWEVER, YOU HAVE NOT THOUGHT THIS THROUGH!” Twilight Sparkle blinked as she looked up to Blood-Moon Nebula. “BEHOLD, THE ELEMENTS OF HARMONY!” And Blood-Terror Nebula was between her and the Elements, laughing victoriously.
“NOW, TWILIGHT SPARKLE, THY WILL KNEEL BEFORE THINE GOD!” All is lost. Blood-Terror Nebula already has the Elements of Harmony. Twilight Sparkle’s legs shook, unsure of what to do now. Twilight is so exhausted, so tired. Twilight Sparkle felt like a lost filly in the supermarket – ready to give in all hope and surrender unconditionally to Blood-Moon Nebula. Perhaps he will make her death a quick one. “KNEEL! THAT IS A COMMANDMENT!”
That is… until Twilight Sparkle saw the abstract picture of Solaris crying on Blood-Terror Nebula’s necklace/part of the armor. Twilight Sparkle blinked as she begun to think, and pressed in hard thought she was. Is this really how Equestria ends – at the giving up of its last heroine kneeling before a maniacal tyrant? Is this how she fails Solaris, by giving up on him at the time he needed her the most? Is this how Twilight Sparkle meets her end, executed by the madman who plunged the world into total darkness and despair for the cleansing of their ancestor’s sins?
“No,” Of course not. This is Twilight mother bucking Sparkle. Blood-Moon Nebula is not surprised by this. He has predicted this through the use of his crystal ball. “I will die on my hooves than die bowing down to you.”
“Twilight,” Nebula said. “We offer thou to join us as on rightful side.”
Twilight Sparkle scoffed at the nerve of him. “I would never join you, not after what you did to Equestria!”
“Twilight Sparkle,” Nebula took a step further. “It is thou destiny to join us, thou are higher than these peasant-blooded. It is thine fate to join our cause, one way or the other.”
“I will never join you!” Twilight venomously spat.
“We art not evil as thy thinks,” Blood-Moon Nebula declared, holding his head high. “It was Solaris who hath allowed this to happen to us, it was Solaris who given in to his sinful indulgences. We pleaded thy prince to behave, to stop his overindulgence in decadence--But alas, our olive branch snapped and promises thy prince made unkempt.
We could no longer allow such monstrosity to occur and it affect our people, for thy prince risked frying all that roams in darkness—refusal to lower the sun. For his incompentence and the pain it hath brought to the creatures of thine night, we disallowed his luxurious life. However, the selected few we hath conspired with betrayed us. It hath been Solaris that we were the first creature to been birthed, it hath been us to be slain. His actions led to remorse—and our soul banished to thy moon.”
“No!” Twilight violently shook her head. This cannot be true. He’s evil as buck—why wouldn’t there be a reason for him to lie in her face? “That’s a lie! That is a bloody lie!”
“Look it in thine heart to be true, why hath Solaris been so lightful with thine history?” Blood-Moon Nebula cackled before dropping his sinister laughter. “Thy art royalty, alicorn. so why doesth thou protects the heretics and those who wishfully and glassily go alongth their days, ignorant to the rightful truth of our existence?”
“Even if I was in anyway royal, which I am not, that does not mean your twisted mentality is shared!” Twilight argued, “They are not responsible for the actions their ancestors or even their forefathers, you are not punishing heretics or such! You are venting your fury onto innocent ponies!”
“Alas, not even the scholar understands,” Blood-Moon Nebula sighed as his eyes turned chillingly cold once more. “Thou deserveth naught of alicorn genetics coursing through thine veins; we shall clense this wretched world through the power of thy own moon—and rise a new age of purity.”
“I will make the sun right once again!” Twilight Sparkle dropped and assumed a study stance. She snorted and hoofed the ground a few times.
“Thou must surely jest!” mocked Blood-Moon Nebula, he refrained from retaliating to see what exactly what Twilight Sparkle was planning to do. With a second wind coursing through her lungs and the heartbeats of Everypony counting on her, Twilight Sparkle charged – her horn low. Blood-Moon Nebula, in response, charged ahead too. Playing chicken with each other’s horns.
Closer…
Closer…
Closer…
…
Wait for it…
NOW!
At the last moment, Twilight teleported to past Blood-Moon Nebula and safely reached the Elements behind him. After collecting herself for a few moments, she immediately channeled every ounce of magic she had on the Elements. After what seem like forever, a spark emitted from his horn and danced around the stones.
“IMPOSSIBLE!!! THY ART NAUGHT BUT A SLY, TRAITOROUS DOG!” Screamed Blood-Moon Nebula. Twilight Sparkle prayed to every god possible, especially to Solaris’ beard, that this would work. The Elements bounced in response to the magic but…
They did nothing.
“MUAHAHAHAHAHA!!!” Cackled Blood-Moon Nebula as he levitated the useless engraved rocks using his magic. “THINE PLAN HATH FAILED, TWILIGHT, NOW RISE!” Twilight Sparkle could only look in horror as the newly-crowned ruler of Equestria broke each of the Elements one by one by crushing them by making them collapse on itself. A lump of salty and acidic pills welled up in her throat, this was the hardest thing she ever had to swallow.
She feared for her own safety. Blood-Moon Nebula seemed to know what Twilight was thinking, since he suddenly ceased his evil laughing to approach her. “IF THOU ART GOING TO AGGRIEVE US AS AN ALICORN, THE THOU WILL DUEL US LIKE THE ALICORN THY IS!”
Using his raw unmatched black magic, he alchemized a double-edged bastard sword with Twilight’s cutie mark as the hoof-guard and a purple pommel. He tossed Twilight Sparkle the blade, who caught it with magic of her own. Twilight looks over the blade. She was almost uncertain what Blood-Moon Nebula was getting at, Twilight Sparkle would be easily killed if Blood-Moon Nebula would allow such.
Why was Blood-Moon Nebula doing this? Was it to toy with his prey before going for the kill? What game was this sicko playing at?
Blood-Moon Nebula’s sword was a dark blue straight double-edged longsword with a spikey hoof-guard and a bejeweled pommel with a spike directly underneath it. Twilight Sparkle blinked, seeing as they were nearly on equal turns as far as weapons go.
“I don’t know how to use this!” Twilight Sparkle never had any actual training using a sword. Gleaming Shield would only show her sister how to use a shield, go figure.
“We know thy read books on sword fighting,” Blood-Moon Nebula said. “Provide a good fight and perhaps we will consider making Barbra’s death the quickest.”
If there was any way to jumpstart Twilight Sparkle, that was it. Twilight Sparkle enveloped her weapon with magic at the ready with a passive and defensive stance. Blood-Moon Nebula kept his stance neutral, his sword tip pointed at Twilight’s heart.
“WE SHALL CLASH MAGIC AND METAL, YOUNG MAGE,” said Blood-Moon Nebula. “FOR THINE SAKE, WE HOPE THOU WILL LAST LONGER THAN THIRTY SECONDS!” Twilight Sparkle scoffed at the very inappropriately timed dirty joke. “NOW WE WILL COMMENCE THE DANCE OF THORNS, DUEL!”
Like a lightning storm, Blood-Moon Nebula struck with a left back-hooved swing. Twilight, being the rationally brilliant mare she was, teleported out of the way of the slash. The sword swung through where her neck was, had she been a second late – she would’ve been headless!
“CLASSIC MANUVER, BUT PREDICTABLE!” shouted Blood-Moon Nebula, “BUT WE WERE JUST WARMING UP”
More strikes and more near-miss teleports, Twilight panted from her reckless usage of magic. Taking this opportunity, B.M Nebula preformed a downward slash. Twilight held her blade horizontally to block the lethal strike, but B.M Nebula grabbed Twilight by the foreleg and tossed her to the side – onto the cold marble floor. Twilight hissed in agony as she landed on her broken wing but sat up with her sword at the ready – Barba’s life depended on it.
B.M Nebula towered over the panting Twilight, his horn gave a spark and all of the torches in the room was lit. His shadow was large enough to cake the entire room with its flickering figure. His reddish-magenta eyes can pierce through the heavens, but they were locked onto Twilight Sparkle. Twilight Sparkle scrambled to her hooves.
This wasn’t for her life, this was for Barbra and for the rest of Equestria. For the sun. For the citizens who are trapped in a never waking nightmare because of this fallen Knight. For magic. For friendship. For love.
A purple magical orb shone bright, white light flooded the entire room before fading to dim obscurity as it presses itself and attached itself to Twilight’s chest.
Bubble Berry was right, these things tickle.

The stallions race through the castle, coming across Shadowbolts as go and cutting down Shadowbolts as they come. The orbs on their chest glowed brighter than a flashlight in the eyes, Rainbow Blitz guessed it was in response to proximity of Twilight Sparkle – in actuality he was looking for any hint and clue to finding Twilight Sparkle and B.M Nebula.
Their hooves galloped on the cold marble floor, passing through what seemed to be an eternity of hallways and endless streams of doors that lead to nowhere – not to mention the Shadowbolts who never seem to get the message that they were being massacred here. The stallions were starting to get increasingly more worried as time went on, for all they know – Twilight could be lying in a pool of her own blood!
“Come on!” Rainbow Blitz called to the rest of the stallions, “This way! I think I hear something!”
“Is it Twi’?” Asked Applejack as he head-butted a Shadowbolt mare out cold.
“I don’t know, that’s why I offered the rest of you to come look with me!” Retorted Blitz as the rest of the stallions finish up a skirmish with Shadowbolt Squad number twelve-hundred-thirty-seven. “Down this hallway! Hot damn, whoever made this castle must’ve been on some kind of acid trip!”
The stallions race down the hallway, incapacitating/murdering Shadowbolts on that dared to stand in their way. Didn’t they know that standing in the ways of these ponies where bad for their health?! Why didn’t they know?! They know now after being left to pick up his teeth out the door.
The sounds of swords clashing and magic being casted was tell-tale signs that a battle was happening just beyond this door.

Twilight Sparkle is getting absolutely creamed!
B.M Nebula’s strike was met with the blocking blade of Twilight Sparkle, who timed her defense just right to attempt a counterattack. Twilight Sparkle’s sword barely scratched thin air before being thrown off of her hooves again into a wall.
Twilight held her sword in her hooves time so that there is little chance a throw like that would interrupt her concentration between her and levitating the sword. Twilight Sparkle grunted as her back and broken wing slammed against the wall, but yelped as she barely raised her sword in time to block a slash and teleported away from B.M Nebula.
Twilight appeared in the middle of the floor, sliding as she carried her kinetic energy along with her in her teleportation spell. Twilight’s ears roared with blood, adrenaline kicking in to help fill the hole where her piss-poor stamina lacked. Twilight and B.M Nebula leaped at one another to clash swords again.

“Wow… it’s just like my mangas…” Butterscotch let’s slip, soon covered his mouth in embarrassment. The rest of the stallions roll their eyes.
“We need to help here, so how bout we do it really dramatically? On three!” Rainbow Blitz offered as he gets ready to buck the door down. “On three, we will say really catchy one-liners! Eh? Eh?”
“That’s awfully pernicious as Twi’s gettin’ cut to ribbons, don’tcha think?” Applejack asked dryly. “Just kick th’ door down!”
“We only get one shot at this, AJ! We might as well do it and look bucking awesome while doing it!” Argued Blitz, “Besides, how many times do you get to save a mare like this – rolling up like a knight in some bucking shining armor?”
“My fair Twilight does not need a ‘shining armor’, for she is an independent and brilliant mare who don’t need no colt to be validated,” Lectured Elusive, inciting a snort by Rainbow Blitz. “Of course you would find that funny, you absolute brute!”
“Whoa! The orby thingies, guys! Look!” Bubble Berry chortled as the each of the stallion’s individual orbs began to dispatch from their chests and appear in front of them. The orbs then take on a silhouette of ponies, but that’s all they were – colored shadows of who they were supposed to represent and they belonged to.
“Well I’ll be a son of a pug…” Applejack lifted his Stetson hat and peered into the orange silhouette of what Applejack presumed was a cowboy from the even bigger hat and everything. Elusive’s almost indistinct from any other pony except for the fact the silhouette the tallest out of all of them. Butterscotch’s was a mare and wore a beautiful dress… that was what Butterscotch could make out. Rainbow Blitz’s seemed to be a warhorse of some sort. Bubble Berry’s was… well… virtually no different from his, except that his was also a mare like Butterscotch.
“Howdy, Applejack, and the rest of yous,” greeted Orange with a tip of his shadow hat. “Mah name’s not important, neither are theirs, but we’re here because y’all fit the requirements to become th’ Elements of Harmony.”
“Right,” agreed White, as he nodded his shadowed head. His voice was posh and elegantly spoken. “It has come to our attentions, darlings, that you might be our predecessors. Love the mane, by the way.”
“Thanks,” said Elusive with a flip of his purple locks.
“We are your ancestors, but I’m afraid we are no use to you in any sense of meaning,” solemnly sighed Yellow. Her voice was smooth and sweet as honey. “There will be no answers given to any questions you hold, I’m afraid. We won’t be here long, nor will we come back. I’m really sorry….”
“If we are useful for anything, it’s to make you maggot-fondlers stronger!” Exclaimed Blue angrily. “We are going to give you our weapons, this will surely make bucking magpie food out of flank-sniffing hack!”
“OOHH I WISH WE COULD TALK MORE BUT I’M AFRAID OUR TIME HAS EXPIRED!” Bounced Pink. “I HOPE YOU ENJOY THE NEW STUFF! HAPPY CHRISTMAS IN NOVEMBER—OOPS I MEAN JULY!”
With that, the ancestors alchemized their weapons into the hooves of each of their decedent pony’s grasp. Applejack’s ancestor-weapon was a Winchester Repeater. Elusive’s was a wand, a wand can make even the least magical ponies into a strong force to be reckoned with.
Rainbow Blitz’s was a real life, sharpened, and authentic gladius sword and rectangular shield. Butterscotch’s was a bow that was expertly crafted and made to last, all of them non-lethal arrows ranging from injecting sedatives to splashing water with an arrow. At last, Bubble Berry’s weapon was a HUGE BUCKING HAMMER that can turn into a baseball bat at will!
Such awesome loot to replace the crappy ones they had, they felt like they had a much better chance at taking on B.M Nebula!
Speaking of which, how was Twilight fairing against him?

Twilight Sparkle was knocked onto her back; her sword (now broken into two – it wasn’t important anyways) went flying out of her hooves. She had a couple of shallow lacerations here and there but nothing to actually threaten her life. Twilight Sparkle was exhausted, there was no way adrenaline or any sort of plot hole exploitation was going to save her now. Twilight wiggling and crawled backwards, looking above her at B.M Nebula as he was virtually unscathed by their whole duel.
“ALAS, THOU WILL DIE HERE ALONE FOR THINE PAHTETIC ATTEMPTS AT BRAVERY AND SELF-SECRIFIE HAS SERVED THOU NAUGHT BUT A SWORD IN THE CHEST!” B. M Nebula raised his sword high into the air with his own hooves, aiming to pierce right through the young mage’s chest. However, something stopped the alicorn from culling the defeated one on the floor. “PERHAPS WE ARE NOT AS PREPARED AS WE THOUGHT, WE HAVE NOT COME ACROSS THE THOUGHT OF KILLING THY HERETICS HERO. WE SHALL NOT, THY WILL BE SEEN AS MARTYR”
“Nnnnhhh…” Twilight groaned through gritted teeth, whatever she said – she meant it as a means of insult.
“INSTEAD OF WORTHLESS DEATH, HOW ABOUT A COMPRIMISE?” Offered B.M Nebula as he lowered his sword. “WE WILL RELEASE THE PRISONERS, A FULL PARDON OF YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS’ PUNISHMENTS, IF AND ONLY IF THOU RELIQUNSHES ALL ALLIEGENCE TO SOLARIS AND PLEDGE TO BE OUR PERSONAL PROTÉGÉ AND LEARN THE WAYS OF THE DARK ARTS.”
“I…” Twilight was very damn well considering it, given that right about now literally anything is better than having Barbra and the rest of them held as ransom. If there was anything Twilight could do at the very least, it was to allow the captives to return home. Albeit, Tartarus seems like a preferable alternative to endless Night-Terrors. Twilight Sparkle looked up, the idea of Barbra and the other’s safety seemed much better “Okay...”
“Thy may also be our queen if thy wishes to,” B.M Nebula offered slyly, causing the battered Twilight to rear up in surprise. “If we art to be king of the new age, we needth a queen. A queen whose magical prowess untamed, unmatched. Beauty and majestic that extends above all of the stars we hath the displeasure of seeing, will thou be our queen?”
“You got to be joking,” Twilight shoved her hoof into her face. “You whoop my flank to kingdom come and back, and now you’re hitting on me.”
“We do not jest with matters coequal to this,” Insisted B.M Nebula. “If thou will not go along willingly, we will taketh by force.”
“What are you on ab—” Twilight Sparkle’s eyes widen wider than saucer plates. “no…”
“Thou, as our personal protégé—thine first assignment…” B.M Nebula smirked sadistically. “Will learnth to please us.”
“NO!” Twilight Sparkle scrambled, any direction from B.M. “ABSOLUTELY NOT!”
The magical smoke caught Twilight Sparkle by the legs, all four of them, and it pulled them from right underneath her.
“I NEED AN ADULT!” Twilight Sparkle screeched, struggling and kicking as she is dragged back towards B.M Nebula as he conjured up a throne to sit on.
“WE ART ADULT!!!” B.M Nebula screeched right back, returning to his Royal Canterlot voice. “NOW DOST THOU WISH TO COMMIT TO THIS WILLINGLY OR WILL WE BE FORCED TO…” Twilight’s horn is nullified by the magical smoke’s grip of her entire head. “DO THIS HOW THINE SAY…. THE HARD WAY!?” Twilight Sparkle was about to wish she had a cyanide pill lodged in her teeth when a familiar and GODSAVING voice saved her from the unknown amounts of molestation possible.
“YOU RUFFIAN BRUTE! YOU GET YOUR BUCKING HOOVES OFF OF THAT MARE THIS INSTANT!” Elusive screeched from behind the door.
“Freeze!!” Declared Rainbow Blitz as he bucked the door in. “You got the right to get the buck off my marefriend before I will unleased a tactical rainnuke down on your candy-flank!”
Marefriend?!
“THIS BETTER NOT BE A CLOP SCENE!” Bubble Berry complained “WE ALREADY ESTABLISHED THIS TWO-OR THREE INCOMPLETE STORIES AGO!”
The rest of the stallions strolled in after Rainbow Blitz. B.M Nebula scowled as he discarded Twilight Sparkle to the ground in front of the heroes. Twilight Sparkle scrambled to her hooves, probably ready to make sick when all of a sudden, Twilight’s magical orb started to glow along with the stallions’.
Twilight Sparkle looked at her magical orb again. Something started to click in Twilight’s clockwork brain, something really hopeful. Twilight Sparkle was really banking on this theory, that she can use these orbs in a really… special way. “Right, you think you can destroy the elements so easily?”
“Wait—what? The Elements got what?” Elusive interrupted, “I apologize, but wasn’t that important?”
“No! Erm, yes. Maybe? It’s weird!” Twilight Sparkle chuckled nervously as she stammered. “The true nature of the Elements lies within each and every one of you lot!” The magical orbs detached from the stallions’ chest again and from Twilight’s chest and floated in the air. B.M took a huge step back, confounded in what he is seeing. “In fact, everypony in this room represents an element—except you, you don’t get squat.”
B.M Nebula scoffed.
“In fact, these orbs,” The shattered remains of the elements levitated into the air along with the magical orbs. The orbs became intertwined with the rocks and the rocks became red-hot, they luminated pure white. “I thought I recognized these things – these are shadows of Elements. Ancestors who bore and died with The Elements. Their mark on the world to help guide us.”
Shadows of extra ponies appeared on the ground, it flickered before the shadows of the Elements disappeared.
Never to be spoken of in this story again.
“Holy crap, Sparkle!” Groaned Blitz impatiently, “Just get to the point already! I want some action!”
“Be patient!” Twilight Sparkle tried to hurry to the meat and potatoes of what she was actually trying to say. “Applejack reassured me back at that cliff that trusting somepony in the face of danger is the true meaning of safety. He represents the spirit of… Honesty!” Suddenly, a few shards of the Element of Honesty flew over and orbited around Applejack.
“Butterscotch, who soothed a raging manticore, even in the absolute danger of being eaten, represents the spirt of… Kindness!” Butterscotch winced as he was careful not to let any pieces of his Element burn his skin.
“Bubble Berry, who laughed in the face of those absolutely abhorrent tree-demons, represents the spirit of… Laughter! (and still meets my criteria for a mental institute, but that’s not important)” Bubble Berry giggled as he embraced her Element.
“Elusive, who…” Twilight paused for a moment. She wondered how she would word his feats and make him sound less like the madman he is. “Cut his own bloody tail for that thing with the annoying voice, represents the spirit of… Generosity!”
“an’ fru-fru manestyles,” Applejack snorted.
“And Rainbow Blitz, who kept his integrity intact and never abandoned us – regardless of how bad or how better he could have it with someone else, he represents the spirit of… Loyalty!” the pieces of Rainbow Blitz’s Element came to him, he puffed out his chest with unrivaled pride.
Bubble Berry chortled as he waited for Twilight to finish speaking. “But wait, there’s more!”
“The sixth Element, the hidden Element that only comes together when all the others are connected!” Twilight Sparkle allowed her Element pieces to circle around her. “The Element of… well… I don’t know… erm… friendship? Yeah, let’s roll with that!”
“Magic,” Deadpanned Bubble Berry. “You’re not about to friendzone me.”
“Or me,” Rainbow Blitz crossed his forelegs across his chest.
Silently, the other stallions agreed.
“Friendzoned?!” Twilight Sparkle busted out. “None of you were in any ‘zone’ to begin with! I just met you all! Solaris sent me here to meet some ponies and you all became… acquaintances if that! It took me up until now, when you saved my virginity to a religious NUTCASE demon-god to realize that you are all actually my friends and—”
“We’re not going to stray this far from the continuity nor am I going to be held back by this whole thing! The last Element is Magic! M.A.G.I.K—I mean—C!”
“THY FOALS, THOU ACTUALLY BELIEVE THAT DRAINED ELEMENTS WILL WORK?!” Cackled B.M. “HOW COULD THOU BE SO STUPID?!”
“Actually, I didn’t know you drained them,” Twilight admitted. “I just assumed you just… gotten powerful on your own. I was going to use these Shadows to make them stronger and just… you know… off you.”
“That’s where these babies come in!” Rainbow Blitz grinned as he picked up his gladius and shield. “Where magic fails, I’ll just curb-stomp the magic juice out of you!”
“HAHA, THOU FOALS’ IGNORANCE NEVER CEASE TO AMAZE US!” B.M snarled as he lit up his horn in retaliation. “THOU HATH ANGERED US PAST REDEMPTION, TWILIGHT SPARKLE AND THE REST OF THOU DOGS. PREPARETH TO STRIFE FOR THE FINAL TIME!”
“Actually, this is going to piss you off a whole lot more,” Twilight Sparkle hummed ominously as the Element’s magic begun to seep out from Blood-Moon—now Knight-Terror Nebula’s horn and began to pool into the Elements. The gems begun to glow brightly, especially the crown adorned on Twilight’s head.
“WHAT?! HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?!” Roared Knight-Terror Nebula. “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!”
“The Shadows of the Elements kind-a gives unicorns and alicorns a power boost, sort of like the magic that the Elements gave you strength. Besides, you’re not the only one who knows archaic spells like ‘Spell of Leeching’,” Twilight Sparkle rolled her eyes and scoffed. “The fact you think you are doesn’t make this satisfying, almost sad.”
“WHATEVER, WE HATH NO NEED FOR ELEMENT’S MAGIC WHEN WE HAVE THE MAGIC AS THE GOD OF ALL THAT IS DARK AND EDGY!” Knight-Terror Knight bellowed as he zapped at Twilight with a magical blast. Twilight Sparkle didn’t even have to move, the sheer might of The Elements deflected the projectile.
“What’s a god of darkness to the harbingers of light?” Twilight Sparkle asked. And with this, our six heroes hovered into the air. The elements morph into gems, each of them appearing as the bearer’s cutie marks. “Nothing.”
A rainbow was casted from the blinding white light and the swirling rainbow engulfed in screaming Knight-Terror Nebula.
“THIS CAN’T BE HAPPEING! NNNNNOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” he screeched in terror as all of them were knocked down and rendered unconscious, the power of the Elements too much for all of our heroes.

Twilight Sparkle kicked herself awake, groggily heaving herself to her haunches. Twilight noticed that she was fully revitalized, as if she just took the best shower of her life—or perhaps the best feeling ever that didn’t seem to last, keeping Twilight on the edge of euphoria. I think I just orgasmed.
The stallions have already been up for a minute now, checking out the new bling that this quest awarded them with.
“Twilight, about time! Check out the bling we all got while you got…” Blitz looked up to Twilight’s head before howling with laughter. Twilight subconsciously combed through her mane until she touched what looked like a filly’s toy. “Ahahaha! You got a tiara!”
“Haha, very funny,” Twilight Sparkle said sourly, “Nice girly necklace, you’re sure going to wow the jocks at Stud’s Only Night at the bar.”
“Pssh!” Blitz scoffed. “This is bucking gold, real gold. Mine’s got a lightning bolt on it while you got all that sparks and specks on yours.”
“Whatever, you look like a two-bit yoga instructor,” Twilight Sparkle hissed under her breath, Blitz didn’t hear it. She stood up onto her hooves. “Where’s Barbra? And the rest of them?”
“Ah don’t know, Ah didn’t see ‘em,” Applejack was pacing nervously after being wowed by his new necklace. “We still gots ta find them.”
Twilight picked up the necklace among the armor, all that remains of Knight-Terror Nebula.
BOOM, CRACK, AND OTHER ONOMATOPOEIAS!
“Somebody say yoga?” Asked Solaris. On his back were unconscious loved ones—except Diamond. Diamond gave no bucks as he stared up and glared at Twilight Sparkle for even thinking about looking in his general direction.
“Solaris…” Twilight exclaimed as she ran towards him.
“My student!” Solaris grinned.
“Solaris!” Twilight didn’t stop running, in fact she increased his speed.
“My student?”
“SOLARIS!!!”
“…oh sugar honey iced tea…” Solaris teleported the unconscious loved ones onto the ground just as Twilight Sparkle smashed herself against him. Solaris wasn’t physically moved, account for the godly strength and all.
“You dastard! You lying dastard!” Twilight Sparkle screeched as she kept boxing her hooves onto his chest. “You told me Knight-Terror Knight didn’t exist and you wrote this whole bloody letter about me being wrong and then you just surrendered and then you—”
“Twilight, for the love me…” Solaris said in the exasperated, yet knowing tone that she always used whenever Twilight Sparkle screwed up. “For starters, I planned this whole thing to happen.”
“WHAT?!” Our heroes screamed. As each of them try to piece what Solaris said in their heads. They tried to respond but it all came out a garbled mess. “But the guard’s deaths! And the… and … Aknfalgn;ansl;gnsgdsdg!”
“Did you even read the bloody story, the original transcript of it? Crickey, you banked so much on the abridged versions of the story! Don’t you know that hacks been taking information from the story and twisting them for their crummy books to sale? Knight-Terror Knight is my brother, Artemis!”
“Oh,” The personal protégé, the smartest in Equestria, felt really dumb right about this point. “Blimey I’m stupid.”
“No you’re not, I purposefully neglected to tell you… until now: The story is…” Solaris took a deep breath. “I was a terrible King. I was always neglecting my duties to party, drinking wine, gambling, or be with loose mares—sometimes stallions. I couldn’t bear the responsibility, so I slacked off. I was too young, too brash for such a commitment I wasn’t ready for…”
“Loose mares and sometimes stallions, your highness?” Gasped Elusive, “No offense, but my word!”
“Hey, there’s nothing wrong with it!” Blitz snapped, “He’s the bucking prince, anyways!”
“I never meant that there was anything wrong with it, quite the opposite—I implore choices in sexuality and such,” Elusive alliterated his statement to correct his seemingly homophobic wording. “He was a king who did nothing but drink wine and interloped! That goes against what I’ve been reading for years!”
“Shh!” Applejack hushed the two of them. “Squawk later, listen now.”
“I decided to let my brother help rule with me. The problem is, there can’t be two kings—that would incite problems of its own. So I dropped the title of King and the two of us became princes,” Solaris waved his hoof in a circular manner. “A thousand or so years later, my dearest brother became distraught with my efforts—or lack thereof—to share the incredibly heavy burden of raising and lowering the sun. He tried to help me with my constant hangovers and such, to make me feel better to work but I wouldn’t.
My brother, my dearest Artemis, had to raise the sun and lower it by himself while I indulged myself. After a century, the resentment and anger he had towards my lifestyle started to boil into amenity towards me. He harbored this dark feeling, and by the time I finally noticed – or cared to notice rather – it was far too late for me to save him from conspiring against me. The hate manifested itself into a monster, and the monster possessed my dearest brother.
I was foolish, thinking that if I slay this monster it would free my brother.”
The heroes waited patiently for Solaris to get out of his trance.
“I was wrong, so very wrong. The Night-Terror retreated into the Everfree Forest where it licked its wounds and grew stronger, grew an army. It brought havoc to Equestria by plunging it to a deep sleep,” Solaris continued. “I sent a select few of trusted individuals, best of each region of Equestria, to stop him by any means necessary. They banished him to the moon using their combined might and magic, metal included. The Elements were then forged to prevent this from ever happening again—even I, truthfully, don’t know where the Elements came from or who made them.”
“The Elements…” Solaris walked towards a cowering, blue, royal mess. “They helped save me from this royal pain in the flank’s edgy thoughts, but it also banished my dearest brother to a place where I could not physically reach.”
“He said we were heretics, traitors, (and dogs),” Twilight Sparkle blinked. “He thought himself as a fallen God, and this brooding made him stronger, with each passing moment of watching us.”
“Aye, unfortunately,” Solaris nodded solemnly. “It took the banishment of my dearest brother and what became of him to fully realize the scope of what I have done, to him and Knight-Terror Nebula.”
Artemis shivered heavier as Solaris came closer to him, his head hiding underneath his wings.
“My dearest brother,” Solaris spoke barely above a whisper, “The only remaining family I have, or will ever know of, I have brought shame upon me. I have hurt you. I have hurt myself. It took me thousands of years of being alone to realize everything you said to me and about me was right—I am no better than that wretched wench of chaos.” Solaris growled as he finished that last thought but dropped back to his fatherly tone. “I do not expect you to forgive me, for the magnitude of my actions are unforgivable. I ask of you to come back, to the Throne, to the peas—err—subjects of Equestria. To me. I missed you far beyond what is fathomable, longed for your terrible cooking.”
Artemis, between his sobs, chuckled as he lowered down his tattered wings. His fur was a gray-blue color with extremely dark blue splotches on his hindquarters with a crescent moon. (like so flippin’ dark blue, it’s almost black). His mane was a baby blue color with a tail to match, although it was dirtied. His eyes—GOD BUCKING LORD HIS EYES ARE THE LOVELIEST SHADE OF TURQUOISE TWILIGHT V. SPARKLE HAS EVER HAD THE PLEASURE OF SEEING, AND GOOD GOD THAT SMILE—
PERFECTION THIS PONY BUCKING IS!
“W-we… missed you too, dearest brother…” Artemis’ eyes started to well up as Solaris wrapped a wing over him, nuzzling his hair – the exact same treatment Twilight Sparkle received when she was a distraught young filly who forgot how to spell honorificabilitudinitas. Don’t bother trying to pronounce it, it’ll look sad. Twilight Sparkle is just better than you. “We are offended by the cooking quip; you still ate the food we made.”
“I have terrible tastes,” laughed Solaris.
Elusive sniffled at the best scene of all time in any media—hands down—while Rainbow Blitz was trying his hardest to not violently vomit his innards – and last night’s dinner at this sappiness. Where was the bloodshed? Where was the action?! Blitz is disappointed.
“Twilight…?” Barbra groaned groggily. “Am I dead?”
“BARB!” Twilight lunged at the dragoness, whom then preceded to squeeze the ever-loving mess out of her. “OHMYGOSHIAMSOSORRYYOUHADTOGOTHROUGHALLOFTHATAND—”
“Get… off…” Barba wheezed.
“Apple…jack?” Applebuck asked as Applejack picked the colt up by his scruff (do ponies have scruffs? They do now.)
“Ke’re goisdh hofm” Applejack said in muffled. (translation: we’re going dome. Ain’t google translate bout a bit—)
“DIAMOND OH MY BABY!” Elusive received a spitting hiss for his troubles. “DON’T YOU HISS AT ME, YOUNG MAN, I FEED YOU.”
“Lilith! Oh my goodness, I’m so happy to see you safe!” Lilith shrugged and hugged Butterscotch’s foreleg before her stomach growled. She let go to point at her mouth while biting. “Oh yes, I do believe it’s about time for breakfast.”
“NUMMY!” Bubble Berry held up the small alligator as it blinks, either dumbfounded or simply not carring. The blink, unbeknownst to the ponies, is reptile for ‘I miss you too you [censored]ing [censored] [censored]face [censored]’. Such a beautiful language, isn’t it?

When they got back from their EPIC quest, it was party time. Twilight didn’t know whether or not the party was exactly for them or for the Prince’s redemption and the dismemberment of the Shadowbolts (who later turned into the Night Guards), but it was a time of drinking, loose mares—sometimes stallions, and neglecting duties in the name of having a good time with good ponies!
Except for Twilight Sparkle, she doesn’t do parties.
Twilight Sparkle sat on the balcony, looking over the entire town of Ponyville. It was her new home, for however long it takes for Solaris to win back her house from that hobo who bested him in Texas-Hold-Em. Twilight still didn’t know why exactly Solaris couldn’t just repossess the house, but Twilight guessed it would spark a whole bloody problem.
Twilight Sparkle looked up, the moon was still high in the sky but it wasn’t a blood moon—just the regular, beautiful full moon. It was perhaps the closest as it’s ever been, it sort-of made Twilight feel more energetic but Twilight knew that it was going to SUCK when Daylight comes the next day.
Barba then ingresses inside of Twilight’s room, allowing the noise of the party to become tenfold. She was wearing a lampshade. Barbra then entered the balcony door. “Mate! You’ve got to check it! These ponies are partying even bloody harder! Madman! They installed a dunk tank that’s filled to the brim with punch! There’s also a basketball court! Solaris is just waiting to get bloody dunked on! You got to take a swing at it!”
“Sure, Barbra” Twilight chuckled, “I’ll be right out, give me a second.” Barbra gave a thumbs up and roared herself back into the party. Twilight mentally thanked her for closing the door, again.
Prince Artemis landed next to her and Twilight could BARELY KEEP A HOLD OF HERSELF BY THE ABSOLUTE AMAZING-AMAZINGNESS THAT THIS STALLION’S FACE WAS. Twilight harbored no romantic feelings, but hot damn was this stallion HOT.
“Hey… Twilight?” Artemis shuffled his hooves a little. “We aren’t sure how to quite put this but…”
“I’m sorry, I was spaced out Artemis—err—your majesty,” Twilight shook her head, bashful of the mistake. “Sorry, it’s hard to get used to… calling another pony ‘your majesty’ and all… it’s all like ‘whaaaat’! heheh…”
“No, no, it’s quite alright. I’m having some trouble myself coming to grasp that this isn’t a dream anymore,” Artemis chuckled. “But that’s not why we’re exactly here.”
“What is it?” Twilight Sparkle asked as she leaned over the railing, having a sip of punch.
“We wish to apologize to thee for… attempting to… uh…” Artemis blushed madly as he tried to force himself to say it. “Thou know… maketh forceful intimacy with thee,” Twilight Sparkle did a spit-take and coughed.
“Oh no, we truly did not mean to jest!” Artemis waved his hooves as he tried to explain the already explainable. “We art being truthful.”
“I know—ice cube!” Twilight gagged. “Stuck in throat! Choking!”
“Oh!” Artemis mentally wiped a sweat off his forehead in relief. “Do you want us to—”
“YES!”
Artemis went behind Twilight Sparkle and placed his hoof underneath her stomach as the two of them rose to their hind legs. Artemis preformed the Heimlich maneuver and got the ice cube unlogged from her throat just as Barba came into the balcony again.
“Twilight—Whoa! – I’ll come back later…” Barbra excused herself from the balcony, much to the dismay of both Twilight and Artemis.
“...anyways,” Twilight recovered herself as she fixed her mane. Artemis sat down. “Water under the bridge, you were being a megalomaniac hoof-bent on purging the entire inhabitants of Equestria. Not really your fault.”
“Which leadeth us to our second thing,”
“and that’s?”
“We wish to thank thee for freeing us from our madness,” Artemis leaned in close. Artemis spoke in a whisper, so Twilight had to lead in to hear exactly what he was saying. Artemis took this as permission. “We art truly grateful for our hero to arrive in shining armor.”
And just like that, Artemis planted his lips onto Twilight—oh so oblivious Twilight Sparkle—who sat there as they were lip-locked. It was over just as Twilight Sparkle even had the faintest iota of what just happened, which was perfect timing for Artemis to make his clever escape by disappearing within a blink of an eye.
Okay, Twilight Sparkle thought he was hot but she literally only met the stallion. This was all too much for her, is she in a relationship now? Is she still single? Does this count as her first kiss?! WHAT DID THE KISS MEAN?!

Solaris could barely hold his laughter as he saw his dear brother retreat from an internally-conflicted and frozen Twilight Sparkle with her mouth wide open, eyes bugging out as she analyzed every single part of the unexpected (totally predicted by Solaris) kiss.
Solaris knew she was analyzing it because she always starts writing everything down as she does it. Solaris sighed, Artemis probably blew it. He was too forward, especially in that French Kiss!
“You really have suck at this whole match-making game, Solaris…” Solaris mumbled to himself as he tried to think of solutions to this mess. “Perhaps the ‘Gala Tickets’ prank will remedy this situation like it did with Bamboo the Brilliant…”
And then the Grinch… Prince’s smirk grew three sizes that day as he plotted his dastardly plot.