Final Fantasy: Twilight Elysium

by Matrix7o6

Declaration Of War (Edited)

Sunset Shimmer groaned in frustration as she finished yet another book. “How did I get roped into this?” she says to no one in particular as she scanned the shelves for another book. “I’ll admit I do enjoy seeing Celestia reduced to this.” She smiles to herself at the thought. However, her daydream was short-lived.

“Hello!” somepony says from the door as a knock can be heard, earning a groan from Sunset.

“Hello?” Sunset says as she opens the door.

“Hello Darling,” Rarity sang, standing in the door.

“What do you need Rarity?” Sunset asks in mild annoyance.

“Well Dear, I was hoping you’d like to go to the spa with me. I usually do that with Fluttershy, but she’s been busy with Discord and her animals, and this is my day off. I’d like to enjoy it with a friend. Plus since you are relatively new here, this gives us a chance to know each other.” Rarity offers a smile.

Sunset’s irritation seemed to grow at her request initially, but the fiery-haired mare just sighed in defeat. “I guess it’s something to do rather than read all day.”

“Splendid!” Rarity beamed. “Let’s not tarry any longer.”

After Sunset locked up she followed Rarity. All the while they gained stares from several ponies. “What’s with them?”

“You don’t know?” Rarity asked. “The papers went out this morning. Celestia has just announced that it was Luna who banished Twilight.” Sunset’s jaw went slack.

“Are you serious? That’s what she’s going with? She’s using her own sister as a scapegoat?” She broke out in a mild laugh. “So much for the all-knowing princess of the sun,” she scoffs. “She’s so desperate that she’ll wind up destroying everything she believes in.”

“Please do not talk about Celestia in such a manner. At least not in public,” Rarity adds quietly. “It’s not good for the ponies outside.”

“I think they all need a wakeup call.” Sunset grumbled. “She’s not as good as ponies make her out to be.”

“Either way darling, please refrain from mucking up a relaxing vacation day with talk of stressful subjects like this. You and Twilight seem to have this in common. It always seems like you never relax,” Rarity commented, making Sunset groan.

“If I hear somepony else compare me to Twilight Sparkle one more time, I’m going to scream,” Sunset mumbles. Rarity’s ears folded back.

“Sorry.”

“It’s fine. It’s just annoying. I’m only here as her stand in.”

“It’s not all bad.” Rarity nervously chuckles.

“Walk a mile in my hooves, see for yourself,” Sunset says, grumbling again. After a few awkward moments of silence, the two finally reach the spa. “Finally.”

“Yes, let’s relax. I’ll have Aloe and Lotus whip up one of their famous mud baths. Their care is simply divine; one of the finest gems in Ponyville, if I say so myself.” Sunset sighs.

“Might as well enjoy it,” Sunset says. As Rarity checked them in, Sunset Shimmer could only grin to herself. Besides, all that gold will look better on me than it will that failed monarch, she thinks to herself.

Cadence could hardly breathe through the bag atop her head. As if being kidnapped by changelings wasn’t enough, now random criminals get to make the stories of princesses being ponynapped come full circle. The only thing the pink mare could do is wonder what vile things the ponynappers had in store for her.

“The Captain is here. Take the bag off,” a voice instructs. Cadence’s world became blinding whiteness for a moment. As her vision came to focus, she sees a rather dimly lit and must room. Her movements we limited by a series of ropes and straps, her magic locked by the inhibitor ring surrounding the base of her horn.

“What do you want?” Cadence spoke in a rather annoyed tone.

“We want our princess back,” a voice says from the darkness. Not a moment later, a grey colored mare with their ember eyes slit walked out of the shadows and in front of Cadence. They had a dark blue mane and tail, and dark blue bat-like wings.

“Look, I don’t wish to make this any worse than it already is, so I’ll make this as formal as possible, Your Highness. I’m Dusk, Captain of Princess Luna’s Night Guard.” The bat-mare gave Cadence a dead serious stare.

“Wait, why is Luna’s Night Guard not in the palace?” Cadence asked.

“We’ll get to that in a minute. For now, we need to talk about the kitty gritty. What’s going on Princess? Something isn’t right here and we need to find out what.”

“So you want to know where Luna is?”

“No, we know where she is. We want to know why she is there,” Dusk stated. “Let me explain. I was just coming back from a night patrol the princess had put us on after the wedding attack. I came back to find us relieved of our duties and Princess Luna arrested. Nopony knew why. Until today.” Dusk pulls out a newspaper from her saddlebag. Cadence’s eyes widened at the paper.

“No, I can’t believe her. She actually did it.”

“So you know something?” Dusk trots around her. “To be truthful, I don’t buy it for a minute. If our princess did become Nightmare Moon again, or was in any way influenced by her, the Night Guard would have been the first to know.” She sighed. “If that wasn’t enough, we’re now being removed from our posts and put on paid leave.

“Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, but we are usually notified by Princess Luna about something like this in advance. The number of guards on leave is staggering. With all this, we have to ask why. That is what I want from you Princess. Sorry if my stallions were rough getting you, but we needed to make it look like we weren’t involved. But we can’t help but think something is wrong and Celestia is keeping us in the dark about it. Can you help us Princess?”

Cadence nods to her, determination in her eyes. “What do you want to know?” Dusk genuinely smiles, showing off her rather sharp fangs.

“Tell me everything. Starting with why the Princess of the Night is in the dungeon.”

Pinkie sighed; her talk with the Cakes today didn’t go as well as she expected. After explaining to them what had happened, the Cakes forgave her after a family hug. However, this didn’t make her feel any better about what happened.

“It’s hard to face the music, isn’t it Pinkie?” a voice says, snapping her from her thoughts. She shoots up in a panic.

“Who’s there?” she calls out.

“An old friend,” the voice responded. “Don’t you remember me Pinkie? I’ve been there for you since you were born.” Pinkie darted around the room to find the voice. “Warmer,” the voice calls out as she looks under the bed. She looks in her party box. “Warmer,” the voice says. She stuffs her head into her trombone. “Colder. Are you even trying?” the voice taunts Pinkie crawls onto the ceiling. Pinkie drops from the ceiling and lands facing away from her mirror. “Behind you.”

Pinkie’s eyes almost fall out of her skull as she turned around. “It can’t be… Pinkamena?” A mirror image of Pinkie Pie with her hair straightened stares back at her.

“Long time no see, Pinkie. Did you really think the medicine would help you?”

“T-the doctor said you’re not real. I-I’ll just get more of the medicine and you’ll go away again.” She slowly started to back away.

“You are so ungrateful,” Pinkamena sighed. “After everything I did for you. That bully wasn’t a match for you, and we proved it. But now you hate me.”

“You hurt him badly; you could have killed him!” Pinkie shouted.

“We could’ve killed them,” Pinkamena corrects. “He would’ve deserved it. But that’s not the point. The point here is that you’ve neglected me for too long. I was another ‘bad’ thing you could throw away, along with the rest of your negative emotions. You’re one big joke. That’s why everyone laughs.

“It’s high time you stopped denying this Pinkie. You wanted so desperately to make Twilight happy again that you weren’t above forcing her to smile out of blissful ignorance. Tell me Pinkie. Did you want her to be like us? Maybe you thought she’d understand us better. Did you think you were doing her a favor? Tell me! Where was your head?!”

“I don’t know!” Pinkie tried to fight the tears she could feel welling up. She stood firm in front of Pinkamena. “I just wanted Twilight to smile again! I wanted her to be happy, not mad at us!”

“Because it’s so easy to be happy after what you and the others did? If anyone feels other than happy, they’re either a sourpuss or a big meanie, right?” Pinkamena smirked. “That is a load of horseapples and you know it. Twilight had a right to be angry. You had no right to take that from her.”

Pinkie’s hair straightened itself out as she collapsed on the floor and cried. “I’m sorry Twilight. I… I just wanted to be a good friend! Please don’t run away like everypony else! Please! I’m so sorry!”

After a few minutes of sobbing, Pinkamena spoke up again. “Pinkie, look at me,” she ordered, failing to get her attention. “Look at me Pinkie.” Pinkie Pie looks up at Pinkemena, tears still falling down her face. “It doesn’t have to be like this. We can change this. But you have to stop trying to slap a smile on every problem you confront. Let me help you.”

“I… I don’t know,” Pinkie stuttered. “I don’t want to… hurt anypony.”

“The only ponies who will get hurt are those who try to hurt our friends,” Pinkamena states with a sadistic smirk. “Let me out Pinkie. Let me help you.”

“I… I… I…”

Whatever drove Shining Armor to help this mare was beyond him; even with the idea of becoming a hero, this was suicidal at best. Between the blistering cold, the nearly-blinding blizzards, and the lack of warm clothing, Shining Armor was beginning to seriously doubt this plan.

“How much further?” he yelled as the blizzard picked up.

“We have another twenty-one miles until we reach the site!” Prim Rose yells back.

“Let’s find a place to rest! We’re going to freeze to death if this keeps up!”

“We’re fine! We can still…” she was cut off by a roar. “Never mind, let’s find a cave!” They soon come across a cave and run inside. As they catch their breath, Shining Armor sighs and stands up.

“I’m going to make sure we’re alone.” He tosses a saddle bag close to her. “Start a fire; I’ll be back in a few minutes.” His horn started to glow a blue hue as he heads deeper into the cave.

“It won’t be too long now,” Prim hummed to herself. After a moment she sees Shining trot back toward her.

“The cave has a dead end a few feet from here,” he says. He sits down.

“Thanks,” Prim says with a smile.

“You’re welcome.” Shining nodded. “Now, maybe you could answer a question that’s been bothering me since we left.”

“And that is?” she asked as she got out some food from her saddle bag.

“The Crystal Empire is known only to a few. No offense, but how does a dancer come across such history?” He raises a brow as she chuckles.

“I understand. It’s not every day a pony like me finds something like this. In truth, one of the mares that raised me told me many stories. One of my favorites being about an empire lost to time thanks to a tyrant. I dreamt that maybe one day I could go to this empire and start a new life. One where I’d at least be more than just eye candy for the next stallion in line.” She sighed.

“But if King Sombra is still there, then you’ll be enslaved. Or worse,” he adds.

“I’m already a slave, Shining Armor. We’re just given fancy names to cover that fact up. I always knew King Sombra was a threat. But there is a way to beat him; the Crystal Heart.” Shining let out a groan.

“This is getting crazier with each word.”

“If you can make the Crystal ponies love again, the Heart will power itself and beat back Sombra,” Prim Rose explained. “We need to help these ponies. For years, they were slaves to Sombra. They’ve only known sadness and fear. If you help me free them, then you’ll be their hero.” Shining sighs.

“Alright, but let’s get some rest. This blizzard won’t last forever. And if what you say is correct, then we have three days left before the empire returns.”

“I can’t thank you enough, Shining Armor,” Prim says. She smiles. If Shining was looking hard enough, he would have seen a brief flash of green in her eyes.

The Garulessa roared in pain as Cor severed one of its horns. Prompto took advantage to this distraction and shot the beast’s eye out whilst whistling a merry tune.

“Ignis!” Noctis yelled.

“On it Noct!” Ignis throws a dagger into the garulessa’s chest, allowing Noctis to follow up by teleporting to it. He slashes it several times before backing away as the beast brought its feet down.

“Gladio, you’re up!” Noctis says before rolling out of the way of the charging monster. Gladio spins with his sword.

“Try this!” he yells as the weight of the massive black built up his momentum. He creates to wide horizontal slashes to the beast’s face. The garulessa let out one last howl before falling lifelessly to its side.

“Nice!” Prompto said as he fist pumped in the air.

“None the worse for wear,” Ignis says, pushing his glasses up.

After tending to any injuries, the group continues into a mine shaft. Cor stops. “This is where we part ways, Your Highness. Take this key,” Cor says, tossing said key at Noctis. “That will open the other tombs.”

“What about you?” Noctis questions.

“I’m going to keep an eye on the Niffs. I may need your help later.”

“You know how to get a hold of us.” Cor nods and exits the mine entrance.

“On our own now,” Prompto states.

“Here we go,” Noctis says as they enter the tunnel.

“Look,” Prompto says as he points at a large stake of sand bags sitting next to an iron gate. “What is this place?”

“Looks to be a shelter,” Ignis commented.

“People lived down here?”

“Those seeking refuge from the war, most likely.”

“Wars, what are they good for?” Prompto says much to Gladio’s annoyance, knowing full well what he was referencing. Prompto let out a nervous chuckle. “Wonder if anyone is still living here.”

“Doubt it,” Gladio answers. “With it being as dark as it is, daemons should be everywhere.”

“Odd we haven’t seen any yet,” Noctis muses.

“Hey guys, look at this. A cable,” Prompto proclaims, pointing to a winding cable that led into a different tunnel.

“Let’s follow it and see where it takes us,” Noctis suggested. The group walks through the tunnel. Upon reaching the end, they find a generator. “Wonder if this still works…” He activates the generator.

“And then there was light,” Ignis comments as the tunnels became flooded with light.

“Man do I love me some light,” Prompto adds. Now that they could see better, the group continued navigating the tunnels. “W-what was that?!” Prompto shouts, jumping back with a start at the sound of a tin can being kicked echoed through the caves.

“My bad,” Gladio said. “Didn’t see the…” he was cut off by a violent rumbling noise.

“If it’s all the same to you guys, I’d rather not be buried alive,” Prompto comments, his voice nervous.

“Agreed,” Ignis said. “Let’s get moving.” After a while, the group comes across a dead end.

“Well this isn’t any help,” Noctis said. However upon closer inspection, he sees a large hole. “Hey, we can fit through…”

“Look out Noct!” Gladio shouted as he throws Noctis backwards. Gladio is knocked into the wall.

“Gladio!” Noctis exclaims. He turns to see an arachne drop from the ceiling. Ignis tosses Gladio an elixir and engages the daemon.

“You alright big guy?” Prompto asks Gladio while covering fire for Ignis and Noctis. Gladio crushes the elixir and gets to his feet.

“Better now. Now move!” The two roll out of the way as the arachne charges them while coated in electricity.

Noctis summons his broad sword and hurls it into the daemon’s humanoid half. However, the monster blocks most of the impact with its razor sharp legs. “Prompto I need a distraction! Ignis, Gladio, follow up after the attack,” Noctis orders. He teleports to his sword and blocks a strike from the arachne, then he hurls his sword into a crack on the ceiling. “I’ve got a great idea guys! Pin it in place!” he called out to his friends.

Prompto observed the creature’s movements until he was sure he found the right moment. “Oh hi there, opening,” he says, firing a shot into the daemon’s front leg. This caused it to tumble forward. Ignis summoned a javelin and impaled the spider half of the creature while Gladio used his sword to run through its chest.

With the creature immobilized for a short time, Noctis jammed a metal sphere into the crack of the ceiling and dropped down. “Get back!” he yelled. Gladio, Ignis, and Prompto jumped away from the arachne as it swung at them. Noctis rushes the creature, only for it to jump up to the ceiling. “Got you.” He smirks as the metal sphere goes off, engulfing the arachne in flames. It falls from the ceiling and becomes buried under several heavy rocks that’d been knocked loose by the blast. The only visible part of the creature left was its battered top half, which began to vanish in purple flames.

“Alright, let’s continue,” Noctis instructed. The group goes through the hole and continues down that tunnel, finding a stone door at the end of it. “Here it is,” he says as he unlocks the door.

Once inside, Noctis sees another tomb with an axe resting in the arms of the statue. Wasting no time, Noctis holds his hand over the weapon, making it rise in the air for a brief moment. Then it goes into Noctis. Two royal arms appear, hovering over Noctis. After a moment it disappears and he turns to the group. “Let’s get back to the outpost.

The group soon returns to the Hunter Outpost, eager to get some payback. “Alright Monica, what seems to be the trouble?” Noctis asks the woman.

“The Niffs set up a blockade on the main road. There is no getting in or out, so getting to Lestellum will be impossible until the blockade is removed,” she explained. “Lucky for us, our hunters found a back way into their outpost. Once we get over there, we’ll brief you on the details. They head out with Monica. They travel to a large rock wall, to which Monica directs them a crack big enough to fit a person.

“From here we’ll split into two teams,” she continues. “Your Highness will meet with the marshal on the other side of this wall. The rest of you are going to assist me and the other hunters as the diversionary team.”

“Pincer maneuver,” Ignis says, resting his thumb on his head in thought. “Sounds like a plan.”

“Then I’ll see you guys on the other side,” Noctis says. As the group walks to the front of the gate, Noctis squeezed through the large crack. He reached the other side with relative ease.

“Good to see you again Your Highness,” Cor said as Noctis walked up to him. “Support is going to push them out of the fort while the assault team pushes them back.” He places a hand on his katana. The two make their way into the ruined side of the outpost. As they arrived they were immediately fired upon by magitek troopers.

“Well looks like the party’s already started,” Noctis remarks. He hurls his short sword into a trooper. Before another could react, Noctis slices it in half, while another trooper tries to bash him in the head with a rifle. However it was stopped dead in its tracks by the sound of steel cutting through steel; the trooper in question fell into four neatly cut pieces. “Life’s a little easier with Cor around,” Noctis jokes.

“Don’t get used to it. I’ll be gone before you know it,” Cor says with a shrug.

“I’ll enjoy it while I can then.” He skewers the last trooper. They continue to fight their way through until they reach the large steel doors that led to the front of the outpost. Everything seemed quiet, almost too quiet. Noctis opened the doors and was greeted by his friends standing amongst a large amount of dead magitek infantry.

“Good to see they didn’t give you much trouble,” Ignis said.

“I could say the same for you,” Cor replied.

“STAY RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE,” a voice boomed as a transport ship came to a stop over a large clearing near the group. A man clad in armor stood atop a large red mech. Cor recognized him as Third Lieutenant Loqi of Niflheim. “Well, well. If it isn’t Cor: The Immortal. You may have survived the citadel, but you will not survive this. It’s time your legend comes to an end,” Loqi proclaims. He enters his MA-X Cuirass mech suit as the doors to the transport ship opened. This allows him to leap out, along with several magitek snipers and axemen.

“No slacking off Gladio,” Cor says with a smirk.

“It doesn’t look like I’ll get the chance!” The group charges at Loqi and his magitek infantry as they charged at them. Cor jumps over an axeman that tried to slash him, and quickly delivers several cuts to its back. In doing so, Cor discovered that the magitek axeman was made to be more durable than its grunt counterparts; Cor’s sword skills would have to be a little more strained to beat them. The rest of the group dodges a missile barrage as the other magitek troopers rush them.

“Give it up! You are no match for…” Loqi was cut off by the sound of a roaring engine. Within moments, a magitek trooper close to a wall goes flying. A familiar purple Fenrir motorcycle barrels into an axeman. Another axeman had no time to react as a javelin pierces his head and a lavender colored aura tosses it out of the way. The motorcycle comes to a halt. Twilight and Lunafreya get off the bike and walk to the rest of the group.

“Not a single invitation to the party, Loqi? I’m heartbroken,” Twilight says in mock surprise. Lunafreya faced the large mech suit with Twilight.

“Twilight Sparkle! You traitor!” Loqi howls in fury.

“Hey, you all shot at me first. And unless I missed a workplace memo that says ‘trying to fill your allies with bullets is a sign of friendship,’ then shooting at me is a clear sign you wanted me dead.”

Noctis’s heart could almost beat out of his chest, he couldn’t believe his eyes; Lunafreya, his bride to be, the love of his life was so close. He wanted to take her in his arms and kiss her with great passion. However, since missiles and romance we never the best of friends, the kissing would have to wait.

“You ready sis?” Twilight says as her horn transformed into a large sword. Lunafreya nodded and spins a javelin.

“No!” Noctis protested. “Let us hand this. Stay safe.”

“The only safe place is the place that the enemies’ bodies lay,” Twilight responds. “Noctis, you and the others go for the legs. The arms have limited mobility, but more fire power.”

“DIE TRAITOR! THE EMPEROR IS SURE TO AWARD ME A MEDAL FOR THIS!” Loqi fires another barrage of missiles which were followed up with machine gunfire. Twilight smirked.

“NOW!” The group separated before the missiles could hit their targets. Twilight and Luna ducked and weaved under a few bullets. “Luna, behind me!” Twilight shouts as she brings up a shield, blocking the rest of the bullets as Luna spins around a few missiles. She gets behind Twilight. Meanwhile, Noctis and the others attack the legs of the mech suit. Gladio and Cor stab each leg, hindering the movements.

“Bastards!” Loqi builds up more power and produces a shield, then prepares to slam the ground.

“Noct!” Lunafreya shouts. “Hit the center of the shield!” Noctis summons his own javelin and hurls it into the shield, causing it to malfunction. The mecha tries to fire missiles at Noctis point blank.

“I don’t think so!” Prompto says. He shoots the missile silo as it opens, blowing up the launcher. The force of the blast knocked Noctis backwards and threw the mech to the ground.

“Time to end this,” Noctis said as he crushed an elixir to heal himself. “Twilight, Luna, you ready?!” The girls nod in unison.

Noctis looked to Ignis, who nods and throws multiple daggers at the cockpit of the mech. Noctis teleports to the daggers, unleashing a flurry of cuts with each one he grabs.

Twilight nods to Lunafreya, who jumps over Twilight as she turns her sword into a tower shield. Twilight launches Lunafreya into the air above the downed mech. As Luna falls down with lance pointed downward, Twilight transforms her shield back into her sword and hurls it into the mech’s cockpit. All three attacks stab into the mech at the same time.

“No! No!” Loqi cries, spitting up blood. “G-glory… to the Empire.” Twilight, Lunafreya, and Noctis run away from the mech as it exploded.

“Impressive,” Cor commented. “I’ll admit, I had no idea you were that sharp in your leadership skills,” he says to Noctis. “With that along with your strength, and the strength of your friends, you’re going to get our home back. This is where we part ways once more. Safe travels on your journey.” He turns and walks up to Monica.

“Safe travels,” Monica says to the group, and then the two left. Noctis waved goodbye to them, but quickly spun around and ran to Lunafreya.

“What are you doing here?!”

“Well,” Twilight chimed in, “she ran off on me, so after a proper scolding we came looking for you. The battle was pretty easy to find. Now, before you both get all lovey-dovey, let’s get to a hotel. And no, Noctis you’re not getting lucky tonight.” Noctis chuckled and rolled his eyes.

“Alright, let’s get moving,” Ignis said. “Since it’s night time, you’re driving, Noct.”

“Fair enough,” Noctis said. They pile into the Regalia and Twilight and Lunafreya get back on the motorcycle. With the entire group now together, they begin their journey to Lestallum, kicking off the beginning of a grand adventure.

Ledolas was none too pleased to hear Twilight was still alive. And he made it apparent to everyone present. “I should have known that thorn in my side wouldn’t be killed by a simple ambush. To make matters worse, the prince eludes death. And what of the ring?”

“Luna has absconded with it,” Ravus replies. The emperor seethes.

“Find her and kill her; Twilight as well. The ring is the final piece,” the emperor decreed.

“We may do well to take her alive,” a man standing beside Ravus advised. “The Six wield powers beyond our imagination. The Oracle holds the key for the king; she can unlock the secrets for us, nay high commander?” The man smirked at Ravus. “Lord Ravus, the imperial army is now at your disposal.”

“A moot point while the fugitives remain at large,” Ravus replies.

“If it came down to it Ravus,” Ledolas starts, “can you kill the king, and Twilight?”

“I can… And I will,” Ravus responds, his voice stern.