After the fight with Pandora and Rothbart, Hard Stone was able to use his gravity spell to turn the Island weightless and, after turning it around again, he started to take it to the place where the Alliance’s headquarters was. While doing so, he said:
“Damn it, my bad back is going to go back again. I just know it.”
“Are you certain about that?” Stone Quake asked, while he and Quartz Blitz flight behind him. “Wouldn’t be better to go by sea? And we don’t have to flight so high.”
“Don’t be such a fool, Stone Quake” Quartz Blitz said. “Do you want those two to get us again?”
The king couldn’t let himself stop thinking about the two reincarnated beings they just fought. How could they exist? It was then that he had to stop thinking as they were arriving to their destination.
“Looks like we are almost there” he said.
Inside the island, Star had become even more suspicious when the island returned to the normal.
“But what’s the deal with this crazy island?” he asked, turning then to Blackthorn who had returned to the inside to watch over Star. “Blackthorn, do you know where is Golden? You two went outside, but he hasn’t returned.”
“You don’t have to worry about that” the captain replayed. “Golden had to go deal with something first. He will returned soon.”
“What do you mean with that?” Star asked. “What something?”
“Well…” Blackthorn said, trying to think in the best excuse to give. “He is the General of Peace and the leader of the other Generals. Maybe it’s something regarding the war.”
He really hoped that Star believed in him. It was then that he said.
“Yeah, you’re right, he must be really busy” Star said. “It’s just I want to return to the Light Kingdom as fast as I can.”
At the edge of Arimaspi’s territory, a bunch of deer, following their king’s instructions, were trying to get some intel after the General of Talent was able to locate where the villains had their headquarters. Although they couldn’t get inside due to the Lord of Chaos’ protection spell, the deer thought they could use their sensing abilities to try to get any information they could.
The best sensing deer was trying to enhance his eyesight in order to see what the villains were planning to do.
“So, anything?” another deer that was using a mask and a cloak.
“Not yet” he replied.
It was then that he noticed something below of what appeared to be the villains’ hideout. It was a chamber full of water and, at its bottom there was something that shocked the deer.
“No, it can’t be…” he said.
“What do you see?” another deer asked.
“There is so many of them…” the sensing deer said, not believing what he was seeing.
What seemed to be thousands of clones of Petal Sprout that where only pony-like with his white skin and green eyes. They all seemed to be in life suspension, just waiting to be awaken.
Watching the deer’s look, the masked one realized it should be something very important and said to the fourth deer:
“Prepare to contact headquarters.”
“Yes, Cypress” he replied.
Back to the Wild Isle, Star wanted to leave, but Hawthorn and Blackthorn didn’t want him to do so.
“Wait, why can’t I leave?” he asked.
“The answer is quite simple, kid” Hawthorn said to him. “You still didn’t master the tailed beast energy control. So, you will train until that same energy becomes an extension of you.”
And, having said that, he summoned his tentacles that he used to crack the floor and then throw pieces of it to the air, cutting them with his horns charged with light nature to form blocks of different shapes, before Star’s amazement, and then caught them with the tentacles, while saying:
“Catch them with your tailed beast energy and then stack them to build tower.”
And the deer jinchuriki, using the tentacles, stacked the blocks into a tower with a perfect balance. Star became very impressed with that. Blackthorn smiled to see that Star had taken the bait. Hawthorn had make a good job to keep Star busy and give them plenty of time.
“And now it’s your turn” Hawthorn said to Star.
And the deer gave a little touch with the horns on the tower and the blocks fell.
“Okay, then I’ll use the Nine-Tails’ energy” Star said.
And he entered in his Nine-Tails energy mode.
“All I need to do is to stack these blocks so they don’t fall over” Star continued. “All right, here I go.”
Using his magic, he took a block, but when he barely did it, the block just crushed, before Star’s shock.
“No, you’re using too much” Hawthorn said. “You may have a little control, but you still need to improve it.”
“Okay, then I’ll try it one more time” Star said.
And so he tried to levitate another block, this time with much care. Trying to took it and move while trying to not use too much force was a good challenge to his concentration, but Star did his best to do it. Seeing a crack appearing, Hawthorn told Star:
“Try to put more spirit and less power.”
And so Star was able to levitate the block and move it, placing it gently over another one.
“Yes!” the young alicorn exclaimed.
“Don’t be satisfied with only one” Hawthorn said. “The next ones won’t be that easy.”
Back to the Alliance’s headquarters, Twilight was at the regents’ room with Aspen, Celestia, Strongpaw and Mystic Heart when they saw the Wild Isle approaching by air. Seeing the island approaching, Twilight couldn’t think about her son who was in there.
“The time has come” Strongpaw said.
“Looks like old Hard Stone brought them all safely” Aspen observed. “We’ll have the Wild Isle, along with Hawthorn and Star Knight at the lake behind the headquarters.”
“It seems to be a good idea” Celestia said, turning then to her former student. “Do you agree, Twilight?”
The princess of the Light Kingdom took a few seconds before answering:
“Yes, I agree.”
“Very well, then I’ll go and welcome King Hard Stone when he arrives” Mystic Heart said.
And she went to the exit.
After arriving, Hard Stone made the island land on the lake, while deactivating the spell he put on it to low its gravity. That made the tower that Star was making with the blocks to collapse.
“Oh no, I can’t believe!” he exclaimed. “I was so close!”
Blackthorn was relieved that didn’t caught Star’s suspicion as that was probably the island landing.
After the island had landed, Hard Stone got out of the water, advancing to the shore, while Quartz Blitz and Stone Quake where hoovering some hooves over the ground.
“We’re finally here, gramps!” Quartz Blitz exclaimed.
Golden Paladin jumped to where Hard Stone was and then said to him:
“Thank you, King Hard Stone, but I really need to go talk with Princess Twilight, so, if you excuse me…”
And he started to advance towards the headquarters.
“Well, he was really in a hurry” Stone Quake commented. “What he has to tell to Princess Twilight must be really important.”
After Hard Stone had made those two to get down they also started to go to the headquarters, with the king saying while passing his hoof over his back:
“Oh, my back…”
“That’s because you keep overdoing it” his granddaughter replied.
That’s when they came across Mystic Heart along with two of her guards.
“Welcome back, King Hard Stone” she said. “I just found the General of Peace, but he was with a lot of rush that he didn’t tell me what happened. Could you tell me the situation?”
“The Eight and Nine-Tails are safe” he replied. “However, the villains are becoming much more dangerous.”
“I see, that must be the reason for Golden Paladin’s look” Mystic Heart said.
“I’ll explain the details inside” Hard Stone said.
Back to the villains’ hideout, Grogar was with Chrysalis when the General of Chaos appeared.
“So, how did it go?” Grogar asked.
“Why don’t you tell me?” he asked.
Using his magic, he made Discord, completely tied up and gagged. He was trying to break free, but his attempts were futile.
“Well, well, well, you were really able to catch Discord” Chrysalis said. “Finally that traitor will get what he deserves.”
“But first, we will help us” the General of Chaos said looking to the spirit of chaos who look him back with a very angry look. “Beyond the fact that we can extract information from him, we can also use his magic. Although he now uses it for good, it is still chaotic and so it is like poison to the ones who serve the Lord of Order and energy to us. I will use his magic to power up Petal Sprout’s clones and to poison our dear Generals of Order.”
And, after saying that, he launched a magical beam against Discord, something that made him scream in pain. It was then that a pulse of dark energy was released.
Golden Paladin arrived to the room of the regents, finding Twilight, along with Aspen, Celestia and Strongpaw.
“Princess Twilight, I’m glad to finally see you” he said. “I really need to tell you something urgent.”
“Golden, I thought you were with Star” Twilight said.
“I was, but what happened was something that need to be addressed as fast as possible” Golden Paladin said.
“It must be something really terrible” Celestia observed.
“It is, because the General of Chaos is using the Reincarnation Curse” Golden Paladin said.
That news shocked Celestia that asked:
“Are you sure of that?”
“Yes, but that is not the worst part” Golden Paladin said. “He also has enslaved Gentle Light…”
But before he could say anything else, the pulse of dark energy created by Discord’s magic through the General of Chaos hit him and, almost immediately, he started to fill very dizzy, feeling a great wave of weakness invading him. Seeing that, Twilight asked:
“Are you okay, Golden?”
“I… I don’t know” he replied. “I feel funny…”
And so he just passed out, falling on the floor.
“Golden!” Twilight exclaimed, going to him.
“But what just happened?” Aspen asked.
Twilight went to touch Golden Paladin when she felt a very dark residual energy around him, something that made her retreat her hoof.
“What’s wrong, princess?” Strongpaw asked.
“I can feel some dark magic” she said. “It must be the reason why Golden passed out.”
Celestia tried to analyze the energy and then she said:
“I would recognize this magic everywhere. It’s Discord’s.”
“Do you think he returned to the Lord of Chaos’ side?” Aspen asked.
“With Discord, we cannot be certain, but we cannot put aside that he may have been captured” Celestia said. “After all, we all know how the Lord of Chaos deals with traitors.”
“Whatever may have happened, I must take Golden Paladin to the Light Kingdom as fast as possible” Twilight said. “I’ll come back soon.”
And she teleported with Golden Paladin.
At the Light Kingdom, Twilight took Golden Paladin to the hospital wing of the castle, where she hoped Leaf Mane would be able to tell what was happening with him, but she became shocked when she saw that the General of Peace was not the only one affected. All the other Generals had been also affected. Mirror Coat, Leaf Mane, Purple Smoke, Melody and even Heartbeat… They were all unconscious on their beds.
“I don’t understand what’s happening” Twilight said, looking to the six Generals. “How can this be happening?”
The door of the infirmary opened and Blue entered, looking a little pale.
“Blue!” Twilight exclaimed, going to her husband and hugging him. “Are you okay?”
“Yes, I have a little headache, but it’s already passing” he replied, noticing them Golden and the others. “Do you know what happened?”
“It was Discord’s magic” Twilight said. “It is very likely that he was captured and the General of Chaos is using him to weak the Generals, giving them this… disease.”
“And it probably didn’t affect me in the same way because I’m a General for a comparatively short time than them” Blue said. “I may feel well, but I can feel that my power is almost gone.”
“The General of Chaos may want all the other Generals out of the way so they have the advantage in the war” Twilight said. “But I think he is planning something greater. Before Golden Paladin pass out, he told me that the General of Chaos was using the Reincarnation Curse and that he had enslaved Gentle Light. Do you know what this means?”
“Wait… you said Reincarnation Curse and Gentle Light?” Blue asked. “Oh no, that is bad, very bad.”
“How so?” Twilight asked.
“The Reincarnation Curse is a curse capable of bringing the dead back and then control them, wherever they want or not” Blue explained.
“But I thought that bringing back the dead was something impossible” Twilight said.
“The curse uses a living vessel that takes the form and abilities of the deceased” Blue said. “But this curse is very hard to execute and even more to control. Only the General of Death, Gentle Light, is capable of doing it.”
“But Golden Paladin says that she was enslaved by the General of Chaos” Twilight said.
“If that is truth, then we have a big trouble” Blue replied. “I find Gentle Light a little annoying and cocky, but she is the most powerful after Heartbeat. She is capable of bringing an army of reincarnated beings.”
“That’s terrible!” Twilight exclaimed. “I must go inform the others right now!”
Back to the place at the headquarters where the regents were meeting, all information, including the infiltration of the deer infiltration team’s and about the reincarnated beings, was shared and they were now deciding where the villains would attack.
“Because of the location of their hideout, it is very likely that they will start their attack at the south of Equestria” Shining said, who was occupying Cadance’s place, pointing to the great map that was at the table.
“Probably, but we cannot let our guard down at the other kingdoms” Blue said, besides Twilight. “With the other Generals down, the Light Kingdom doesn’t have its natural defenses. Because of the Dense Forest, we have an advantage regarding the defense, but even so…”
“I think it is for the best if we contained the war in Equestria” Twilight said. “In that way, we can ensure the safety of the other kingdoms and the innocents.”
“I agree with Twilight Sparkle” Luna said. “It would also be not very good if the enemy spread.”
“Fortunately, we know that most of their army is composed by changelings, dragons, dark ponies and plant ponies” Ingrid said. “We know how to deal with things like that.”
“Because they have Discord, they may use his magic to power up their army” Celestia said. “We must be very careful to not underestimate them.”
“And we cannot forget about the reincarnated beings” Godot said. “We must add a soldier capable of executing sealing magic to every squad.”
“I have some capable of doing it between my pony-panthers” Strongpaw said. “And I believe there are others.”
“Make sure that our advances forces are ready to advance at any moment” Aspen said to his bodyguard. “The side that attack first can get the advantage to itself if it gives the first blow.”
“And it is imperative that our medical core has everything they need” Celestia said to her guard. “Not only to treat the wounded, but also ways to protect themselves. And we need that our chain of communication is ready right now.”
“And make sure the best flyers are gathered in a single unit” Gael said to his guard. “An unit capable of moving around quickly can be essential.”
“The sensing warriors need also to be gathered” Mystic Heart said to her nephew that was with her.
“Yes, aunt” he replied.
And Arcing got out followed by the other guards.
“King Hard Stone, we already finished it” Spike said.
“Is that so?” he asked.
“Yes” Spike said, while Ember passed him a piece of cloth that contained a symbol that looked like a flame. “The Alliance’s emblem for all our members to use, so that there is no confusion in case of non-fighters to appear in crossfire. It represents the light of the Order capable of penetrate any darkness.”
“They sound great” Hard Stone said. “Good job.”
“Yeah, I also agreed” Godot replied. “It really shows the essence of being a follower of the Order.”
“Now the only thing we can do is to hope that we can win this war” Twilight said. “We may be in some disadvantage regarding the fact that the enemy possesses a lot of power, but we have the courage and the perseverance necessary to win.”