The four alicorn princesses were standing together in Canterlot Castle's throne room.
"Tirek is set on possessing alicorn magic." Luna started. "When he comes for us, we cannot have what he is looking for."
Twilight thought for a quick second and said, "I'm more than willing to do my part and give up my magic."
Luna shook her head. "You misunderstand. Our magic cannot just disappear into thin air. Somepony must keep it safe."
Cadence walked up to Twilight with eyes of worry and said, "That somepony is you, Twilight."
Twilight's ears drooped low and she asked, "Why me?"
"We do not believe that Tirek is aware that a fourth Alicorn princess exists in Equestria. If we transfer our magic to you, Tirek will not know where it has gone." Celestia explained.
"Do you understand what we're asking of you?" Cadence asked.
"Yes. It's just I'm only now learning how to control my own Alicorn magic. To take on even more-"
"Twilight, you represent the Element Of Magic." Cadence held Twilight's hoof with her own. "If there is anypony who can do this, it's you."
Celestia and Luna nodded their heads in agreement.
"Taking on this task will be one of the most difficult things I will ever do. But with the help of Spike-"
"About that..." Cadence put her head down. "Spike, as well as Armak, are back in the Crystal world."
"Crystal World?" Celestia asked.
"It's a long story. They probably won't be back for some time." She sighed sadly. "It was such a bad time..."
"Perhaps... it's in our fortunate that Spike and Armak aren't here." Celestia said.
"What do you mean?"
"What were to happen if Tirek stole both Spike's Fire Magic, and Armak's Dark Magic?"
They all realized what Celestia meant.
"He would be... unstoppable." Luna looked distraught.
"Precisely. And since both of them aren't even in Equestria at the moment, it gives Tirek a lot less magic to steal."
"...Well in any case, with the help of my friends-"
"I'm sorry, Princess Twilight, but you must keep your new abilities a secret. I fear that your friends being aware of your new power could put them at great risk." Celestia told. "Do you still think you can take on this responsibility?"
Twilight put on a serious and determined look on her face. "This is the role I am meant to play as a Princess of Equestria. I will not fail to do my duty!"
"Then we must begin at once."
The three older Alicorns surrounded Twilight. They all charged their horns and soon enough, their eyes started to glow brightly. They released their magic above Twilight, making a giant sphere of magic.
Twilight had a nervous look.
The giant sphere of Alicorn magic came rushing down to Twilight, filling up her horn.
Meanwhile, in a different part of Equestria, Discord watched, rubbing his claw and paw together, as Tirek took the magic away from four more ponies.
Suddenly, his whole body started to shake. He put a paw to his chin. "That can't be right."
"What can't be right?" Tirek asked as his horns grew longer and had an inward curve.
"Nothing. Carry on." Discord lied.
Tirek carried on. As he walked the ground shook with each step he took.
Celestia, Luna, and Cadence all looked very ill. They lied on the floor and looked at Twilight who was glowing brightly. She twitched here and there, and floated a bit off the ground.
The glowing soon stopped, and Twilight rubbed her head for a second. She looked up at the other princesses and quickly ran over to hug Celestia. A single tear escaped her eye.
That was when Twilight noticed that Celestia didn't have her sun Cutie Mark.
Luna raised her wing to reveal that she too had lost hers. Cadence followed suit.
Celestia sighed. "It is done."
Spike flew fast to get away from the rampaging dragon. It was glowing.
"What's happening to it?!" Armak asked.
"I don't know!"
Suddenly, a lot more crystals merged with the dragon, making... armor?
"Hm. Looks like it upped its defence." Armak stated. "I'm surprised it's smart enough to even do that."
The armor the dragon wore was made of dark green crystal. There were spikes at its shoulders, and spikes on its helmet.
"These crystal creatures wouldn't have stood a chance even if they tried." Armak said.
"Well that's why we're here. So let's continue." Spike rushed in and headbutted the dragon's chest, making it fly back.
Spike rubbed his now pounding head.
"What do you expect from headbutting pure crystal?" Armak asked.
"I'm not the smartest guy, okay?" Spike shot back.
From the crystal dust the dragon's impact created, two glowing greens eyes could be seen.
"He looks really angry. And with no magic, this is going to be a LOT harder."
"Yup."
Armak grunted. "The other princesses don't know the feeling of having no magic while fighting for their lives. Why does it have to be me?!"
It was a starry night in Ponyville.
Most ponies were asleep by now, but Twilight had the ability to stay up because of all the power she had.
She walked past Spike's basket.
Twilight stopped for a moment and stared at the empty basket, ending it all off with a sigh. "Oh Spike, I wish you were here right now. Even if you only were just sleeping in your little basket."
The silence was all she received.
She sighed again. "Don't worry little bro, you'll get your own room soo-" Her horn glowed and sparked with electricity. Making a few books fly around behind her.
"How does Spike, Armak, Discord and the princesses control their magic? I still doubt that I have more magic than Spike."
She took a look at the books and picked them up. Soon after putting them away, she noticed one of the book's cover.
The Power Of Magic: Volume VII
Twilight smiled. "I remember reading this. It told about the different types of magic."
"An earth pony's strength, which helped tend the land."
"A pegasus's flight, which helped them control the weather."
"A unicorn's magic, which helped with many things."
"And Alicorn magic. Noteably Princess Celestia's and Luna's, which raised and lower the sun and the moon."
"Speaking of, the sun should be up by now." Twilight gasped, ignoring the spark from her horn and realized, "The sun should be up by now!"
She rushed to her window and looked at the moon. She took a deep breath and said to herself, "You can do this." She charged her horn and pointed it to the sky out her window.
The moon jittered for a second.
Twilight started to levitate and her mane and tail started to whirl.
After another second of jittering, the moon came violently down but reappeared back up in the sky. It went back down and the sun came up.
It went like this for another round then finally the sun stayed up in the air.
Shining Armor looked up a the sun weirdly. Unknown to him, the two pony guards who were standing behind him rose in the air uncontrollably, leaving Shining Armor alone.
With a flash of light, Shining's helmet vanished. He was stunned.
Discord flashed in front of him with his helmet on. "Shining Armor. Why, whatever are you doing here?" He asked playfully.
Shining pushed Discord back. "Back off, traitor!"
"The only one Discord betrayed was himself."
Shining looked over to see Tirek draining the pony guard from before from his magic.
Once he was done, he continued, "Abandoning his true nature to make "friends" with weak-minded equines who offer him nothing."
Shining replied with a magic beam from his horn.
Tirek caught the beam which turned into a ball in his hand. He plopped the magic ball into his mouth and chewed it like gum, mocking Shining Armor.
He forced Shining's mouth shut with his hand soon after, forcing him to keep quiet. He opened his mouth wide and stole Shining's magic from his horn.
The unicorn's legs shook, and he weakly fell flat.
He looked up at Discord with colorless eyes and asked, "How could you do this?" And he collapsed.
Tirek wrapped an arm around Discord and said, "Why don't you go and have a little fun? I won't stand in your way."
Tirek then left Discord, who chuckled evilly.
Twilight ran through the middle of the streets of Ponyville. She decided to catch some wind to save some time.
She soon saw that as a mistake however, as she flew too fast.
This caught the attention of Rainbow Dash and the others, who were just doing their own thing. They all started to gallop towards the unusually fast Alicorn.
Twilight, seeing herself at no control, decided to land. When she landed it was a hard impact, she grazed forward a bit but soon came to a complete stop.
Her friends quickly arrived at her side.
"Oh my goodness. Are you alright?" Fluttershy asked.
Before Twilight got a chance to respond, Applejack spoke up. "Jumpin' june bugs, Twilight. When did you learn to fly that fast?!"
Twilight gave her a nervous look. "I... must have caught a particularly strong breeze-" She instantly teleported beside Rarity. "-or something."
Rainbow look confused. "Must've been "or something" because there wasn't any breeze up there."
"I don't know what happened." Twilight said worriedly. "But I don't really have time to figure it out right now." Her body sparked with electricity right after.
"Another visit to the castle of the Castle Of The Two Sisters, I presume?"
Twilight's friends all gave her excited smiles. "We'd be more than happy to accompany you."
Twilight interjected. "Not today." She sparked again. "Tirek may still be a threat. I need you all to stay here and encourage everypony to remain inside." Twilight spread her wings and was going to start to fly again, but soon decided against it. So she started to walk to her destination, leaving her sad, confused, and worried friends behind.
"Give my regards to Cerberus." Tirek stood in front of the castle throne. He used his magic and shot out a yellow beam which turned into a portal to a prison called Tartarus above the three weak Alicorn Princesses. Tirek levitated them through the portal and closed it soon after.
Tirek crossed his arms and looked achieved.
"You meant, our will, didn't you?"
Tirek turned to look at Discord who was playing with a glass window.
"Of course." Tirek replied. "Here. I want you to have something." He showed Discord a golden amulet. "This was given to me by someone very close to me. I give it to you as a sign of my gratitude and loyalty." He strapped the amulet around Discord's neck.
Discord looked at the amulet with amazement. "Oh my! I do love a good accessory." He scratched his beard. "I suppose that's Rarity's influence."
Tirek chuckled at the sight of Discord's recreation. The glass window showed him and Discord with a sword and bread in hand looking powerful.
"Amusing. But we have no time for such things." He started to walk down the hall. "With the Princesses out of the way we can can now-" He stopped. Right next to him were three glass windows.
The one on the right showed an intimidating, black alicorn stallion with his wings raised and horn shined.
The one in the middle showed a purple alicorn mare with her horn glowing purple.
And the most recent one showed a purple and green dragon with two magical green spheres in his palms.
"Are these... meant to be HUMOROUS?!"
Discord shook his paw and claw. "Oh no! I haven't touched those yet."
"Two more Alicorns and a powerful dragon of some sort? And you did not tell me this?!"
Discord shrugged. "I just needed some assurance that you truly considered this a team effort. And now... I have it." He said while showing off the amulet Tirek gave him.
"Then where can we find these new Alicorns and mighty dragon?" He gripped Discord's neck. "Where are their castles?"
Discord laughed. "Castles? Oh no. Princess Twilight being the purple one and Prince Spike being the dragon lives above a library in Ponyville. And Armak was supposed to be here, but I guess he's somewhere else. Don't worry though. With his cocky attitude, he'll show up eventually." He laughed again. "Castles? Ha ha."
"Above a library in Ponyville huh?" He let go of Discord's neck and smiled. "Not for much longer." He walked away, every step he took shook the area. And his next stop was presumably Ponyville.
And as he walked, he used his magic to melt the three glass windows.
Armak flew in and knocked the beast back.
Some of the dragon's armor broke off from before, and more had just fallen off because of Armak's strike.
Before it had time to recover, Spike swooped in kicked it from behind.
The dragon tried to get up yet again, but this time, Armak upper-cutted him into the air.
To finish it off, Spike blew a fireball at the dragon. The flames wouldn't have been effective, but the impact sure would.
The beast crashed into a crystal hill. The force made its surroundings full of crystal dust.
Armak coughed at the dust. Spike inhaled it greedily.
When the dust had cleared, the two males could see the beast try to get up, only to land back down harshly.
"Listen creature! We don't want to end you!" Spike shouted.
"We don't?" Armak asked.
Spike gave his companion a stern look but soon turned back to the dragon. "If you stop being destructive, then we'll leave you alone!"
The beast slowly opened his eyes to look at Spike and Armak.
To Spike's and Armak's surprise, it smiled.
But not a good smile, and evil smirk.
It got up to its feet, albeit very weakly. "So," It started. "It looks like I really have to use my TRUE powers!"
The other two grew wide-eyed.
"Did it just speak?!" Armak was bewildered.
"So I guess I wasn't just hearing things." Spike put out.
"And..." Armak started. "It sounds oddly familiar."
Suddenly, the beast seemed like it evaporated. Smoke covered where it once stood.
After a few seconds, the smoke dimmed down, and two glowing, emerald green eyes pierced through it.
The smoke then cleared, revealing the creature's true form, which caused Armak and Spike to be shocked.
"Wha-What...?" Spike was lost for words.
"I-Is that..?"
The creature now stood as another Spike. It resembled him in every way. His purple scales, his lime green spikes, and green belly.
But this Spike seemed... different somehow.
"Wh-Who are you?" Spike asked.
When Spike and Armak heard the creature's voice, the one thing that came to mind was Spike's voice, but it sounded... demonic.
"Me?" The being chuckled. "I'm you... Or let's say..."
"I'm your true self."