//------------------------------// // Episode 1: A Wonderful Return, and a Terrible Plan. // Story: MLP FIM: Interseason // by Hairy Konquerer //------------------------------// Terry was running through the hallways sweating profusely as he charged through other guards and staff, making sure his sweat didn't ruin the letter he carried. 'Why did they have to remodel the whole place for the dumb Festival of Friendship? It's over I don't think Luna needs a throne.' He thought to himself for sure that he was lost before bursting into the Throne Room shocking everyone there. "Terry?" Luna asked in concern. "Why do you look like you came here straight from a marathon?" Joe asked. Terry couldn't say anything, as he was busy taking in multiple breaths of air, but making those old man wheezy breath noises predicatively resulting in his eyes rolling back as he collapsed on the floor dropping the letter in front of him. Ricky picked up the letter examining the seal on the parchment: A Quill in an Ink Bottle. "Does this symbol look familiar to you?" He asked Celestia. Celestia looked at it in shock instantly recognizing the symbol and opened the letter. "It can't be..." She whispered to herself. Luna joined her in reading it and their eyes began to water before the scroll was dropped. "She's alive..." Celestia whispered. "Who's alive?" "WE NEED TO PREPARE A CELEBRATION FOR HER!" Luna yelled in the Royal Canterlot Voice. Joe screamed as he rolled around the floor with Aaron. "My ears! Why?!" "What is the point of having sharper hearing!?" Aaron screamed. Ricky was doing his best to hide the pain before Celestia gave him crushing hug. "Call Twilight, I have Amazing news and we need the castle for who's coming." She said before letting go to look at Terry. "Thank you so much Terry, you're services will be greatly rewarded. If there's one thing you need, just name it." "Doc...Tor..." He wheezed out. "Yeah I'll get him to the doctor." Marty said picking him up and walking off. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Twilight was reviewing the schematics Marty and Aaron had drawn up for their friendship school construction, Starlight coming in with food from Sugercube Corner before Spike burped up a letter from Canterlot. Twilight picked it up, surprised as it had been so long since she received one she was stunned for a second. The read the scroll and it said 'For Twilight Sparkle and the Elements of Harmony.' After gathering the others, she opened the letter to read it aloud. "My dearest Twilight, I can hardly contain my excitement for what I'm about to announce. Me, My Sister, Ricky, his friends, Shining Armor, Cadence, and Discord are going to hold a celebration at your Castle of Friendship. This party is in honor of not only the announcement of your Friendship School, but for the very special guest we're going to host..." Twilight stopped reading aloud when she looked at the last words and gasped softly. Starlight came over to looked letting out her own gasp. "What is it?" Fluttershy asked. Twilight looked to everyone with a massive smile, her eyes sparkling. "We gotta get started now!" "What? Why?" Rarity asked. "The guest is very important! That's all you need to know, I want it to stay a surprise." She said giddily prancing off as Pinkie cracked her neck using her magic to set up streamers and everything. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- At least a half an hour later, Twilight and Starlight trotted around the bedroom moving some things around to make it immaculate, skipping with glee, unaware of the two pairs of eyes watching them from the closet, one purple, and the other having cat like slits. "This was a terrible idea period." Nightmare Moon whispered. "Hey we got our information from Snails of all ponies." Kul'as replied whispered. "I knew I should've just eaten him and be done with it." "You and I both know he would've made you dumber as it is." "Ok fair enough." "No not even that, you roped us into this 'grand and master plan' to gain power and everyone decided to escalate this and go through with it leaving me to be dragged in." "Nightmare you and I both know you nosed in since you were brought back from the dead from all that dark magic and Nightmare magic that finally clumped together at our meeting place." "At least I'm not the one who made a grandiose speech on how we can do this in Hayburger." "Also fair as I was in over my head standing on the table talking about how awesome my deeds were because since everyone else isn't a successful villain, when a successful one comes along they latch onto his plan for comfort so automatically everything goes out the window and we end up breaking into a royal castle while the royalty is still home." "Hey at least I would've waited until night." "Yeah because you want everyone to know it was you because you're all..." Kul'as stopped as he sniffed the air causing his snout to crunch up in disgust. "Faust Nightmare did you have to get the garlic burger, you could kill a vampire with that breath." "Shut up you don't exactly smell like flowers either!" Nightmare whispered. "Okay so spending the last few months making a magnificent and over the top plan over showering at least once was a terrible idea." Starlight and Twilight then trotted out of the room allowing them to walk out. "Ok I'm calliing Tirek and Mane-iac." Kul'as took shallow breaths to get the aroma of Nightmare's breath out of his mouth before he pulled out a walkie talkie. "Extraction Team this is Kul'as do you copy?" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tirek pressed the button on the walkie talkie and spoke into it, comfortable sitting in his seat in the carriage they 'appropriated'. "Extraction team is here, have you secured a way to the mirror portal or the portal itself?" "No I'm asking because we are bailing on the plan, I'm all set to try and conquer another world but no is not a good day to do it because the final form of the plan was stupid." "No way! You guys are grabbing that thing and we're going to rule that world. The plan is awesome the mirror portal belongs to everyone in Equestria, though 'manely' us. Princess Twilight should not be hogging it all to herself." The Mane-iac spoke into the walkie talkie. "Mane-iac I am regretting bringing you out of the comic book world and I'm going to now going to let you know that this was a terrible idea using a genuinely dumb plan, like all of our plans alone and together are." "What about your whole speech about 'I have the grace of a butterfly, and I'll be in and out before they'll even feel the air change?' " Tirek asked. "Yeah you stood up at our table, knowing we needed to be incognito to avoid getting heroes on our flanks and said that speech for everypony there." "I already admit that was a very persuasive speech but I regret it now." Kul'as said before looking at Nightmare Moon who was teeter tottering in a little dance. "What are you doing?" "I gotta pee." "I told you to get the small." "It was only 4 more bits." "You know what I don't care anymore, Sombra get out we're bailing." Someone crawled out from under the bed revealing King Sombra sans his armor and cape. "I'm not going until I go through that portal." "Forget the portal we are going to get caught." "No Sombra's right we have to think about the Mirror we are villains turned anti heroes who take powerful artifacts from those who don't deserve them." Mane-iac said over the walkie talkie. "What? None of that is a thing. You didn't care about artifacts an hour ago." "What does that have to do with anything?" Tirek asked. "We should not go with plans based on hour old beliefs." "Well don't read mainstream newspaper articles about stolen artifacts being kept away that'll inspire us to do something." Nightmare Moon grabbed Kul'as' hand with her magic to speak into the walkie talkie. "That wasn't a mainstream newspaper, that was The Foal Free Press talking about how Twilight Sparkle revealed the truth of the Mirror Portal and was planning to find a way that would make it accessible without causing chaos on the other side." Kul'as yanked his hand back. "Exactly nothing was stolen or kept away, that'll only happen if this somehow against all logic works." "Well I'm not the one whose hatred for myself prevented me from even being nominated for extraction." Tirek replied. "We would've been in and out with the grace you claimed to have." Mane-iac added. "Well go ahead because I'm out." "Same here." Nightmare concurred. "I'm staying, I haven't felt this alive since before I exploded." Sombra replied. "Exactly that's why you're on extraction, you have the attitude, Kul'as has the grace and brains..." Mane-iac said before having trouble at Nightmare. "Nightmare nosed in." Tirek finished. "Nightmare was dragged." Nightmare argued. A door downstairs could be heard opening and someone's voice could be made out downstairs. "Howdy Twilight." "Hey Applejack! Glad to see you came by!" "Element alert! Back in the closet!" Kul'as whispered to Sombra and Nightmare who joined him in hiding back in the closet, Sombra's muzzle creating up. "Nightmare your breath smells like someone died." "I know." Nightmare said in defeat. "No way I would miss this day, the stuff at Sweet Apple Acres is all set, we just need to stop by and mossy on back then this'll really be a shindig." "Apex I hate southern drawls." Kuala's groaned having a hard time following the earth pony's words before they seemed to get smaller until they couldn't hear them anymore. "I think they left again." Sombra observed. "Good." Kul'as said before they got out of the closet and Sombra begin searching around for something. "No, no, no, no! What are you doing, Sombra? We are in a very dangerous situation here. These ponies have a power stronger then the Tree of Harmony what are you doing?" "I'm not leaving until we grab that mirror." Sombra replied grabbing a hand mirror with his magic. "I got it!" "The mirror is bigger, that is a hand mirror you idiot." "That's weird." Mane-iac said over the comm. "What is weird about that?" "Ponies in a small town don't usually have vast power." "Oh, no, they can get it. These trots carriers come up by the truckloads just to go poking around and either get imbedded with powers or something." Tirek replied to have a little fun Mane-iac's gullibility with the real world. "Trot Carriers, huh? "Yeah." Tirek affirmed eating some of his bag of chips. "Give me a chip." "No, you don't get chips, Mane-iac." Tirek objected. "I mean, Faust only knows what these ponies will do to us if they catch us." Nightmare replied. "These ponies, they probably pray for a home invasion every single day, a break from their boring routine, and don't get me started on Pinkie Pie, especially now being a genie." Kul'as added. "They can't wait to get their hands on home invaders, so they can blast them into stone and-and, uh, do who knows what to them, Sombra. We'll be lucky if the only thing that happens is we go to a dungeon or I just get killed while you guys get away. We have got to go." "Hey, if some dirt digging earth pony comes up to me, I'm gonna lash them in the face, that's all." "What No, Sombra. They are always armed to the teeth. They will hogtie us and hang us out on the front lawn or send us to the moon. I can't go back to the moon." Nightmare replied her pupils contracting risking an episode of her solitude on that planetary body. "You're right, Moon. You got to be careful. You know, anytime you find out, like, some mare's got a crazy torture basement or something hidden power they practice in their house, it's someone from a small town." Mane-iac agreed. "It always is." Tirek added to fuel Mane-iac's insane belief. "You know what, extraction team, why don't you go down to the basement and see if some kind of crazy type dungeon came with the whole place." "Yeah, yeah. Dungeons and tons of those things you described to me I think you called 'guns' and-- dude, please give me a chip." "You're not getting squat, okay?!" "Come on!" "Leave it alone with the chips. If you wanted chips, you could've gotten a bag at the Hayburger. Don't ask me again!" "I can't listen to these two idiots anymore." Kul'as said before turning off the radio. "Can we just get out of here?" "Oh, wait, wait, wait. Hold on, hold on. I think you need to see this." Nightmare said spotting something. "Nightmare, you are nosing in. Nip it in the bud!" Kul'as ordered with a growl. "A 5 tickets to that show the wirewolves brought called Hamareton or whatever it's called." Nightmare said bringing up the tickets. "Who cares?" Kul'as asked exasperated holding his head in annoyance. "No. Listen to me. Who wants a backstage pass to a new broadway show no pony's seen?" "No one. No one wants to see it once! It's overrated. Completely, right?" "I got a theory." Sombra butted in. "The Mane Six are secretly dating the cast. They're in a relationship with them and it's getting intense." "Sombra, if they were having a no pants party with that cast why would they have to buy a bunch of tickets to his show? And 5 tickets, why screw over the other 2? That's stupid, Sombra. Use your head." "I've got an idea, though. They're trying to kill the cast. I think they're harboring a secret envy for all the hype building up around it." Nightmare argued. "That's it-- they're icing Hamareton! They're making sure nothing looks out of the ordinary because they know they're gonna get away with this." "Listen to me. Those are the theories of lunatics! Coming from a lunatic! Okay. We have got to get to get out of here now." "Okay maybe yeah, he's right. Let's go." Nightmare agreed trotting to Sombra before he brought up a whip. "No. Back off. I ain't leaving until I get that vase." He then trotted off whipping it to hear the crack. "Stop it!" Nightmare ordered before Sombra whipped it again. "He's gonna hurt himself." She said to Kul'as. "Never should have let him have that whip." Kul'as stated "You never should have brought him back." Nightmare replied. "Shut up and let's just get out of here." With that they then began to sneak off hopping only Sombra would get killed in all this. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Meanwhile, in the foyer, Celestia and Luna walked in inspecting the decorations. "Discord's overseeing Applejack's food preparation while Pinkie Pie prepares the cake. By hoof apparently, she apparently spotted the last part of the letter so she's making something extra special." Celestia told her sister. "What about Ricky and the others?" "They're helping cart over Applejack's food, Joe and Terry are handling the cake. Pinkie Pie made a very unfriendly threat should they try to sneak a piece." "While we're alone I wanted to ask you something sister?" "You can ask me anything Luna." "Do you think she'll want the throne back? After so long and what we've done since, do you think it's time." "There's a reason I chose to name us Princess and not Queen. I always had that feeling she'd be back deep inside. I hope she does at least, come, let's see where we can have the banquet." She replied, using a wing to gesture her little sister to follow her. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Okay, I think the back door's this way." Kul'as whispered as they tiptoed down some stairs before Nightmare accidentally knocked over a table. Kul'as panicking used his magic and managed to catch everything and put it back in it's place before staring daggers at the mare. "Nightmare, you gangly, uncoordinated nag, I am not getting friendship blasted over your lack of grace." "I hope they turn you to stone. And then I hope they banish you, to the moon, for ten thousand years." Nightmare retorted before they continued to sneak around. "I'm still not sure Sister, are you sure we should be here right now, what if she knows about Canterlot?" A voice recognized as Princess Luna sounded prompting Kul'as and Nightmare to panic and scurry into the bathroom closing the door. "It's fine, Twilight gave us permission to do this while she gets the food. She'll feel our aura and come here, it's a trick she taught us to always find each other." Celestia replied. "But when he gets here it's going to be a bit tense considering past events. Especially being the God of War and all that." Kul'as paled before looking to Nightmare who trotted a little in place "What does that mean? Who is she talking about? What is she talking about a God of War for?" "I don't know." Nightmare said sounding uninterested. "I mean, until now, I was thinking this secretly violent pony talk was just, you know, a pile of bull. It was just an escalation of some kind." "Mm-hmm." "But now I think it might not be, you know what I mean? I mean, who is she talking about right now? Who is that guy? They're gonna go to war with somebody? Sheesh. I mean, I'm only asking because I think knowing this might help us get out of this mess, and I'm not one to turn away potential blackmail. You know what I'm saying?" "Mm. Mm-hmm." "What is going on with you, Nightmare? You should be nosing into this like crazy right now." "I can't hold it anymore." "What?" "The toilet's right behind you, so I'm just gonna go ahead and pee in it." "Oh, no, no. You are just gonna spray DNA all over here. It's bad enough you still got the large as it is." "I'm not gonna spray anything anywhere. and I stand by my decision. Are you not familiar with how a mare goes to the bathroom? "Yes, I am, Nightmare, but you cannot flush the toilet. It's going to make too much noise. Then you're just gonna have a bowl full of evidence." "Okay, well, you've got a really good point, but then again the DNA will point to Luna so I'm going to do it anyway, okay, so it's it's happening." Nightmare replied before sitting on the toilet. "You can't do it, you can't do it, no." "It's happening. Watch me." "Oh, my Faust. You are all liabilities. Why did you nose your way into this? I hate you!" Kul'as whispered. "Okay, I'm gonna go find Mane-iac ad Tirek so they create a diversion so we can get the heck out of here." Kul'as said before realizing something. "Don't pee with me in the room!" He asked walking out. Kul'as moved around and back into the closet he and Nightmare hid in. "Mane-iac? Tirek? Come in." He spoke into the walkie talkie. "Mane? T?" He asked before he realized it was off and turned it on. "I'm telling you, Mane-iac, the situation is out of control. Let's just get out of here while we still can." Tired said in the conversation he was apparently deep into with Mane-iac. "Without the guys?" She asked. "Oh, they're as good as dead. There's no telling what those Elements are gonna do to them. They could become more aggressive and serious and it's my fault with my attack." "You're right, Tirek. You know what? We should just get the HFIL out of here, and I mean out of Equestria. I mean, we should just drive and drive and drive and not look back." "We should go to Griffinstone and open up that imported bakery shop that we've always talked about." "Oh, my Faust, the bakery, yes-- the cinnamon strudels, the birthday cake flavored fritters. All the pastries." Mane-iac moaned licking her lips at the dream shop. "I'm all on board, do you have the keys on you?" "Yeah, this thing has no keys I just need to get out, hook it up and we're gone." "All right Let's get out of here." "Hey, hey, hey, hey, I heard all that!" Kul'as yelled prompting Tirek to look at the walkie talkie with Mane-iac in surprise. "Were you holding down the button?" "It was an accident. I completely forgot he turned it off..." "You're always holding that thing down, and... What? I'm...Uh, sorry, extraction team. We were having a Bakery conversation. We're-We're... Doesn't really... Hey, um, what's the status on the Mirror?" Mane-iac asked trying to sound innocent. "Do not take off on us! I repeat, do not take off on us. I will kill you and your ancestors!" Kul'as replied before something else clicked in his mind. "Bakery in Griffinstone? Are you serious? There are far too little bakeries in Griffinstone as it is. You would be out of business in 3 days." "What did you expect us to do, okay? You got us all freaked out in here, sitting here waiting for the Elements to friendship blast us, either reforming us our turning us into stone for pigeons to use as bathrooms!" "Yeah." Mane-iac agreed. "How are we not supposed to fantasize about opening up Bakeries in Griffinstone?" "Yeah, give me a chip." Mane-iac demanded again. "No, you're not getting the chips. THE CHIPS! ARE OFF THE TABLE, okay?!" Tirek roared at Mane-iac enraged. "I want a chip!" "Don't bring up the chips!" "Give me a chip." "She wants chips, and I asked her in the store, Kul'as, you were there. I said, "Mane-iac, do you want a bag of chips?" She said, "No, I don't want chips." If you wanted the Faustdamn chips, you should have gotten the Faustdamn chips at the Hayburger!" "Stop, calm down, calm down, listen. That's Lord Kul'as to you. And we need the two of you to create a diversion so that we can sneak out of the castle." Kul'as stopped as he heard a toilet flush. "She just flushed the toilet." He said exasperated. "Yeah, fine, it's just-- fine, I'm just hungry. We'll do a diversion. Oh heck, I just thought of something." Mane-iac said her eyes widening. "What?" Tirek asked. "What if this Mirror is cursed, okay? Maybe that's why things aren't going well, right?" "If this Mirror has a curse on it, you do not want to touch it." Tirek replied agreeing with Mane-iac's insane plan. "I repeat, do not touch this mirror if you see it. Pick it up with, like, you know what? Get a bag of sand of some sort like in that movie and..." "Get, get Nightmare to touch it." Tirek finished snapping his fingers with a smirk. "Is Nighmare there? If you find Nightmare Moon..." Mane-iac began to trail off hearing Kul'as growl of rage. "Are you still talking about the Mirror? The Mirror is not cursed. It's from the time during Luna's Banishment. It was built by Starswirl the Bearded. He was a stallion of science." He said before Nightmare jumped into the closet next to him. "Nightmare, why did you flush the toilet?" "Well, you had me all freaked out about spray and DNA evidence despite I would get out of it. What's going on with Mane-iac and Tirek?" She asked. "It's-- I can't get them to stay focused. They keep escalating the conversation into evil curses and opening bakeries in Griffinstone." "A bakery, in Griffinstone?" "Yeah." "They'd be out of business in 3 days." "That's exactly what I said." Kul'as replied surprised. "We need to split 'em up." "That's a good idea. How do you propose we do that?" Nightmare smiled grabbing the walkie talkie with her magic. "Hey, Mane-iac, hey, it's Nightmare Moon. Listen, uh, how come Tirek's the only one who gets to push the button on the walkie?" Mane-iac's eyes widened at the question before she looked at Tirek. "Uh, let me get back to you on that. Over and out." She said before staring down Tirek, who slowly ate a single chip as her tentacles rose behind her. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sombra in his shadow form slither around the halls before he came upon a room looking like it was for a foal. "Where are you guys?" he asked lifting up a stuffed animal. "I think I'm in a little girl's room." "Sombra, get back here. Mane-iac and Tirek are gonna do a diversion." Kul'as ordered. "No way. There's some boxes in here. "I'll bet the mirror is in one of them". "No, no, I doubt that." Nightmare objected. "Yeah, yeah, at this point, I doubt that this is even the location mentioned in the article. They could've moved it again." Kul'as agreed. "Family portrait frame, Kiss the Queen Apron." Sombra said listing the things he found using an X Ray spell on the boxes he turned it off as he saw the large rectangular one. "Holy Tartarus. There's a large box and it's shaped like a rectangle. I'll bet the Elements put the mirror in the box to steal it from Equestria." "No, no, that is absolute insanity!" "I'm gonna open this thing." "No, no, no, no, no, no, no." Kul'as repeated in frustration. "No, no, n-n-no, Sombra I will end you life for Ku'las." Nightmare threatened. Her threats fell on deaf ears as sounds of tearing could be heard followed by the sound of something getting set on fire, then quickly put out. "It was a giant stuffed snake, false alarm." Sombra said. "Faustdamn it." Nightmare whispered. "How have we not been caught at this point?" Kul'as asked before Mane-iac walked into the closet. "Hey, what's up, guys?" she asked happily. "Mane-iac, what are you doing here?" Nightmare asked. "I snuck in. Tirek was, like, being a jerk about the walkie-talkie and chips. You know how, like, he wouldn't let me push the button and stuff? Meanie. I can see why Kul'as killed him." "So she can just sneak in, but we can't seem to sneak out?" "It wasn't easy-- there's, like, a ton of closets in this Castle. Like an unnecessary amount of them, I didn't know which closet you were in, okay? I had to look in a lot." "All right, well, now that we've split you two idiots up, maybe we can finally get Tirek to do a diversion." Kul'as noted before the door into the castle opened again. "Hey everyone!" Pinkie Pie's voice rang out signifying it was the Mane Six who came in, the sounds of a baby cooing being heard along with the Wirewolves groaning a little carrying something, especially Joe and Terry. "And we brought Flurry~." Twilight sang out. "Bonnie Zacherle, now there's a foal in the house?" Kul'as then took out the walkie talkie and spoke into it. "Hey Tirek, idiot , the ponies we're trying to avoid with a alicorn foal just walked into the house, a little heads up?" "Could you hold on one second, Kul'as?" Tirek asked before someone else's voice spoke through. "Okay, so that's a double-double cheeseburger meal with a extra-large chocolate shake?" The Mare said. "Um, can you go ahead and throw an extra double cheeseburger on there, please? 'Cause I have a large appetite." "Tirek, now is no time to run off and get a hayburger!!" Kul'as nearly roared had their situation not be in it's current position with Tirek having gone back to Hamburger apparently with their getaway vehicle. "We need your help!" "I didn't just run off, boss, I'm coming back." "We need you to come back now! We need a diversion. We have got to get out of this Castle of Evil!" "What happened to Mane-iac's diversion?" "Mane-iac doesn't know what a diversion is, apparently. She just ran directly into the house." Nightmare replied. "Fine. I'll be right back." "Okay, great, thank you." "Hey, get chips this time." Mane-ac asked. "I'm not gonna get chips!" Tirek roared, almost gushing with annoyance. "He got mad at me for not..." Mane-iac began to say before seeing Nightmare glare at her. "Shut up." She hissed. "Ok here's my plan: I'll be a plumber. I'll knock on the front door, tell 'em I got a deal on pipes, you guys run out the back." "That's a little elaborate, I don't even think this place has plumbing come to think about it, nor a back door from it's layout, but as long as we get out whatever." "I just thought of something, I'll do a accent based on those apes you mentioned I believe you called...Swedish! yes the Swedes." "No, you do not do a Swedish accent-- you don't know how to do one. If anything do a Cockney Accent, they'll get more invested in you, I would if I didn't know you, I'm quite fascinated by them being British but sounding like they grew up in a. gutter. Point being these ponies know who you are, they will torture you!" "Duh, I can't just tell them that we're there to steal their Mirror, Kul'as. "There is a huge amount of middle ground between those two things. Like I said we're off the Mirror Plan." "I'm a Swedish plumber, I'm here to fix your pipes." Tirek said in such an accent annoying Kul'as to every end. "A spitting image. The perfect accent." "Do a Fillydelphia accent, A Manhattan Accent, any non Equestrian Accent if you insist on doing an accent." "I'm not doing any of those accents. I'm gonna do a Swedish accent, because that's what that city named ape that stole artifacts would do." Tirek replied before taking on the accent again. "This will work, Kul'as, This will work. Don't worry about it, and don't worry about anything." "I'm gonna kill you again. I'm gonna kill you again!" Kul'as growled, his rage boiling over to no limit, into the walkie talkie before turning it off. "Well, guys, looks like we're on our own. Let's just make our move. Mane-iac, how'd you sneak in here?" He asked just begging for this day to end. "Front door." She simply said. "Let's just..." Kul'as began to say before his brain fully registered what was said. "Front door? You just walked right in the front door?" he asked in disbelief. "Well, I speed trotted, I had a little hustle going, but yeah, front door." "Mm-hmm." Kul'as said, his brain already working overtime to prevent every aneurysm from destroying his brain. "I'm beginning to think we should just walk right out the front door, then." He said with a eerie sense of calmness to it. "I'm beginning to think that these ponies has zero awareness of their surroundings." Nightmare replied. "Let's go. Let's just go. I'm making a call." Kul'as said before taking out his phone. "Hey Black Hat. It's Kul'as who else has your phone number a knob? I think last time you tried that proved why I get to call you that. I called cause I wanna collect my last winning from Poker Night. Oh really? Oh no that's perfect I need a meat shield for this. Just so you know this makes her mine forever. Dandy." Kul'as said before hanging up. They began to make their way out before Cadence spoke up again. "Twilight you brought Whammy right?" "Oh sorry I gave Flurry Heart one of the bears though." "Ok but bring Whammy just incase." "I put it in her guest room." A sound of cooing and flying was heard meaning that Flurry Heart was going to grab her Whammy. Kul'as panicked and grabbed his walkie talkie. "Sombra, Sombra! Sombra! Actual little pony coming your way." "I'm gonna whip that big winged twerp in the face if she makes a peep." Sombra replied cracking his whip before going to hide, Kul'as looking to his associates actually disturbed by Sombra's threat. "I killed Faust but yeesh that was brutal." Flurry Heart looked around her room that flew to her pile of stuffed animals, as she got closer to the grey stallion head, she spotted Whammy and cuddled it in joy before flying back to her parents. Sombra sighed in relief before getting out. As he walked out of the room, he stopped dead in his tracks spotting the large mirror attached to some machines on with a serrated tooth grin that grew on his face. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kul'as, Nightmare Moon, and Mane-ac snuck through the hallway, Kul'as finally spotted the door towards the main foyer, covered in decorations and streamers ,seeing the front door not too far behind. "Freedom." He whispered. "She's coming places everyone!" Twilight yelled out, to which Kul'as and his acquaintances ran into a closet next to them and hid. They shuffled deep into it as the closet door opened again and Pinkie Pie hid in there. Kul'as held his breath in terror as the Genie could blow their cover at every moment had. Everyone was incredibly giddy for how might come through as the doors opened revealing a blinding light, that then died down as someone walked in from it and everyone for the party jumped out with a big shout of "SURPRISE!!" Before some of them immediately gasped at who the someone was. That someone was an alicorn a few inches taller then Celestia, with a pure white coat, a red mane and tail combo, her wings a little larger then Celestia's, with a cutie mark of a quill in an ink bottle. It was Lauren Faust, the first Queen of Equestria, presumed Deceased, but right in front of the alive again. Her cyan eyes widened in surprised as she laughed a little. "Did you all do this? You really shouldn't have." She said, her voice like a melody of Harmony and Joy Equestria had not known for a long time in Equestria. "Why not? Only the best for our mother dearest." Discord said before running to hug her along with Celestia and Luna. Back in the Closet, Kul'as' pupils eyes widened in terror. "I am going to die." He whispered. "Why?" Mane-iac asked. "Who's that mare?" "My Mother, his victim, Lauren Faust, the queen and creator of Equestria before the three tribes." Nightmare replied in equal terror before the front door slammed open. Everyone in the foyer looked in surprise at the new arrival to the party. It was a Capricorn, as he was grey stallion with what appeared to be goat horns, a green mane & goatee, black goat like hooves, but his flank side was all green and looked as if it were a dorsal fin with tail of shark, the expression on his face giving the implication someone had wronged him, and he was out for blood for that. "How dare you all do this to our mother..." The stallion by voice yelled. "And not make sure I got here to help surprise her?" He finished in a much happier tone. "Tydal! Don't just stand there give your mother a hug!" Faust yelled prompting him to join them. "And Tydal's here, now I remember him, yeah just throw in the God of War, why does the universe hate me so much?" Kul'as asked no one. "You know what, forget it my past answers my own question, we're not gonna make the night for a party like this, if I'm dying let's see if I can make it two for two on killing Faust." Kul'as slowly opened the door as they sneaked towards and hid behind the railing near the stairs. Kul'as' right eye slithered up to spot the First Alicorn herself in a group hug with all her children present, Ricky looked nervous before the door was knocked on. He went to open the door and in came Tirek dressed in blue overalls with a green undershirt and hat, a mustache on his face as he held a toolbox, for some stupid reason, he decided to have a white spot on his hat with the letter T in it. "I'm a Swedish plumber, I'm here to fix your pipes." Tirek said in his accent before spotting Faust and nearly voiding his bowels in terror before regaining his composure. "We all see who this is right?" Terry said taking another swig of his cider. Marty whispered into Tydal's ear to which he smiled. "Yes, come please, let me show you where the pipes are." He said guiding Tirek along. Everyone was silent as they walked, but when they went out of sight, a few of them chuckled knowing exactly where that would go. "I know what Tirek did to the girls but that's just mean." Faust said trying to stifle a laugh. "So you forgive him?" Joe asked. "Never said I did." Everyone started to laugh a little at the joke before Cesar popped in. "C'mon let me show you the fine cuisine I made for this glorious occasion!" He announced dramatically. He moved everyone into the room opposite of Tydal's direction save for Ricky as Faust pulled him back to look at him. Ricky was now sweating like a hog, as if looking her in the eye was like staring into the Ark of the Covenant. "H-H-H-Hello Faust, it's a-a-an honor to meet you." He said in a tone matching his perspiration. "Don't worry Ricky, I know all about your family and I can see it in your eyes. I won't interfere, but you have my blessing in your growing relationship with Celestia." Ricky sighed in relief as Faust helped him with following the others, to which Kul'as and the others got up from their hiding spot. "Move. Now." He whispered to which he, Nightmare, and Mane-iac moved towards the door. "Smooth sailing." Kul'as sighed before opening the door and finding someone waiting for him on the other side. She was a human female wearing some type of lizard head hat with red hair, her ponytail massive and touching the ground around her, green like her hat which resembled a lizard head. She wore some kind of sleeveless dark blue hoodie with a short skirt, wearing mismatched shoes, one red sock on her left leg, a weird tracking collar on that leg, her right yet was yellow with a slit like a lizard, and her left was regular pupil. "Oh right, Black Hat's gift I guess, you must be Demencia." "Yep." "Guys..." A voice groaned to which they looked to see Sombra dragging the mirror portal with great difficulty. "Little help." He said. Meanwhile everyone in the dining room was enjoying Cesar's feast and conversing with Feast, with questions, compliments, and introductions. "Settle down, settle down, one at a time please." She asked. Terry was not one of them as he was busy eating, only to briefly look up to see Kul'as, Nightmare Moon, Sombra, and some weird human taking the mirror to the Human world, the strain on all the faces showed it was no easy task, all thought Kul'as was simply looking over it. Terry's eyes widened in surprised and he got up, unable to talk due to still recovering from delivering the letter, but he tried to charade it out by pointing right at them. "Oh hey Terry's playing's charades." Discord said "I loved charades! Oh I think I got it. 1 word..." Joe said trying to work it out. Terry looked more angry as he kept trying to point to the villains. "Angry! Yelling! You're Fox News!" Joe yelled out. Kul'as looked back, seeing Terry pointing at them, yelping in surprise, not to where everyone heard him, but startling Nightmare slipping a little, causing her and Demencia to lose their grips smashing it on Kul'as' foot. Kul'as held his mouth to cover his agonizing scream before Nightmare looked in panic as the door they faced was in front of the room the party was eating. "Raiders of the Lost Ark!" Joe yelled. "Where did you get that from him pointing?" Aaron asked. "Isn't that all they do in it?" "No. Not even close." Aaron deadpanned. Back in the foyer, the villains that were carrying the mirror looked at it in panic as they didn't have any more energy to try and lift it up again. "What do we do?" Nightmare mouthed in panic. "Maybe we should get Black Hat, he might be stronger then you." Demencia whispered to Kul'as. Kul'as eyes flared with rage and he lifted the mirror and walked it out with ease throwing it into the carriage they stole, with the others following behind him. Terry let out a cough during his pointing, spitting out a bone. "Oh he was choking never mind." Joe said. "Kul'as just stole the Mirror! And if it was one word it wold be Madonna! Everyone knows I chose Madonna for one word charades." Terry said in annoyance. Joe smacked his forehead. "Of course! Madonna! I can't believe I forgot that." Joe lamented before Aaron smacked him upside the head. "He just said Kul'as stole something from us." "My dark magic reader isn't picking up anything I think we're good." Back outside, the villains made sure the mirror was secure and got in, Kul'as stopping to grab Demencia by the throat and pull her close. "Do not compare me to that suit wearing whatever again, or I will knit your organs and whatever organs he has into a sweater to fit your shared corpse." "Yes sir." She replied, her pupils turning into hearts before she was thrown in. "What's his name?" She asked Nightmare lovestruck. "Kul'as." She simply replied before a scream echoed through Ponyville. The group looked back to see Tirek running towards them, his disguise torn in many places, as fast as his legs could carry him. "Get us out! Get us out!" He yelled in terror. Kul'as was about to asked why when he saw Tydal trailing behind him. "Stop! I must punish you!" He commanded. "Every man for himself!" Kul'as yelled in terror before putting Sombra and Nightmare in the hook where the ponies went to pull the carriage. "Giddy up!" He commanded blasting some magic at them causing them to run from the pain. Tirek jumped just as the carriage began to take off, holding on by the frame by his arms. "This is for the chips!" Mane-iac yelled eating said chips with her tentacles, while her hooves kicked at his face trying to get Tirek off. "Give me back my chips!" Tirek yelled back pulling himself up onto the carriage before engaging in a rumble with Mane-iac, both of them disappearing in the dust cloud they made in the carriage, the carriage vanishing from sight into the Everfree Forest. Tydal walked back in with a sigh spitting the piece of Tirek's costume out of his mouth. "The coward fled. Kul'as apparently revived him, I spotted him driving the carriage. Don't worry, next time I see him he will pay for harming my family." "Relax Tydal, he ran like a wimp, have some food, get lost in the sauce." Cesar said attempting to calm down the Sea King. "Tirek being alive and escaping with Kul'as means I was right!" Terry yelled in annoyance. "They have the portal to the Human World so good job stopping them." "You keep using that word, is that what they're called on the other side? I never bothered to ask." Twilight asked. "Yep. More advanced then you guys yet they're still behind." Lauren chucked a little looking at everyone. "This is what I missed so much about Equestria, such a colorful world with friends you can very well consider family." She mused as Pinkie came through the large double doors into one of the kitchens. "Knock knock! I prepared a special surprise just for the Alicorn of the Hour Herself, an extra large special of my Granny Pie's super-special triple-chocolate, fifteen-layer marjolaine cake!" She announced, Joe and Terry struggling to pull the cart it was on out, the cake being as tall as two Discord's on top of each other, before the cart finally gave in and was flattened under the weight. "Oh you really shouldn't have." Lauren said taken back at how large it was. "Why not, we're all so surprised you came back, might as well start off with a bang." Terry noted. "There is one question though, are you planning to take the throne again?" Rainbow asked. Lauren thought on this for a moment before looking to everyone. "I shall take back the throne, but only alongside my daughters, we shall rule Equestria in a Tri-Matriarchy, so it will be a fair majority rule." She announced hugging her daughters. "Am I seriously the only one still concerned with the fact Kul'as has the mirror portal to the Human World?" Terry asked not dropping the topic. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Deep in the Everfree, Kul'as looked seeing the coast was clear and sighed. "Grogar, it's Big Daddy K, we're coming home." Kul'as spoke into his walkie talkie. "Noted my liege, also one thing. I heard the whole thing. You left your walkie talkie on. At least the original plan was a somewhat success." "Duly noted." Kul'as replied with a groan remembering all the trouble it was as the carriage rode into the castle of the two sisters. Everyone departed from it as Kul'as than grabbed Mane-iac and Tirek from their dust cloud scuffle and smashed them together dropping them. "You two are bigger liabilities then Smokey and Garlic Breath over there." Kul'as' helmet glowed before a set of stairs revealed itself to which they walked down them with the Mirror in Kul'as magic aura, opening a door revealing a large lair with some ponies and other species working for Kul'as doing maintenance checks while the blue coated, red eyes goat bowed to his master. "It gives me a great pleasure to see you made it Great Lord Kul'as. And with some extra help I see." Grogar said, standing up to watch Demencia going around poking some of his workers. "Just keep it at Lord Kul'as for now, with Demencia now in our ranks, everything should come along a lot smoother, especially with the reconnaissance done during the Storm King Invasion." Kul'as noted as Tirek and Mane-iac took the Mirror to Grogar's lab. "I'll be in my room, don't bother me, I've had a long day." Kul'as walked down the halls into his throne room and sat on his throne with a sigh as it began to settle in. Lauren Faust was alive, his Great War was for nothing. he chuckled at the thought as another thought came to mind. With her alive, he can destroy their hope more by killing her again alongside the Elements along with the Royal Sisters, Discord, and Tydal? Hilarious how fate's lined things up for him. Kul'as chuckle evolved into an Evil Laugh that echoed through his halls as a plan began to form in his head, many great plans. Then the door got knocked on ruining his laugh mood to which he groaned. "What?" He asked annoyed. Demencia poked her head through the door holding a letter. "I know it's my first day but can I leave, I found out I'm serving Jury Duty today." "What? Don't you need to go online to be sure and... have a citizenship to even to that?" "It's glowing like stars, must be pretty important to ignore that." She replied showing the letter to Kul'as. "A Cosmic Trial?" He asked grabbing it and looking at the name of the accused. As his brain processed who it was, a malicious grin formed on his face as he had an idea. A wonderful idea. An Awful idea. A Wonderfully Awful idea. "Demencia?" He asked with an ominous calmness to it. "Yeah Lord Kul'as?" Demencia asked, actually disturbed at his eery calmness. "You can call me Boss, but I have a question, how do you feel about disguises?" ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Everyone was conversing happily, to each other and Faust with more questions, before the door was knocked on and Terry went to answer it. Bursting through were a bunch of lizard like creatures riding large goats. "Are you the Pizza Guy? nice mount, where's the Pizza?" "Starlight in sight! GO GO GO!" The largest commanded ignoring Terry, to which the others swarmed around Starlight Glimmer and tackled her. They chained her legs up, as well as putting a magic dampener on her horn. "What are you doing?" "You're under arrest for you crimes against time. We'd give you lunch if we weren't busy, because you just got served." The creatures threw her on top of one and ran off vanishing as if they were never there. "What just happened!?" Joe asked. "Time Police." Lauren replied. "They're real? I thought that was just a snarky comment I made when ponies said I was wasting my time." "Oh no they arrest those who have committed crimes in time travel, such as altering the past for purely selfish gains, wishing to erase history, all those sorts of things." A Maroon unicorn with a broke. horn walked down the stairs and saw everyone shocked. "Where did Starlight go?" "Okay who are you again? Me and the guys were busy on our little peace trek through other nations so I'm a little fuzzy on what happened with the Storm King. That and my Ciderholism cost me a couple braincells that day." Terry asked. "Tempest Shadow?" A lizard man wearing a chef costume asked walking in holding a tray of cake. Tempest walked through and looked at the tray. "That'd be me." "For you." "Why?" "Gourmet treatment since you've been served!" The Lizard Man yelled flipping the tray to stick a piece of paper on her horn stub before he ran off vanishing, leaving Tempest confused before finding a paper for a Jury Summons. "Ok that name is pretty cool." Terry replied ignoring the whole Serving thing. "You should hear her real name." Pinkie said with a elbow nudge. "I'm not appearing in court, but I am serving Jury Duty." She said looking to the others. "Don't tell me, for what just happened?" Terry asked. "It doesn't say that, it says for the Trial of All Starlight Glimmers." Tempest said shocked. "Yay~ Multiverse Theory." Aaron said unhappy. "It gets worse." "How exactly?" "It says what happens if she's found guilty." "I'm afraid to ask why." Terry replied. "If they do, they'll erase any evidence she ever existed in the multiverse, any evidnece, which could mean Chrysalis' second attempted invasion you mentioned, the Crystal Empire freezing over, all of it." Everyone gasped in utter shock at what the repercussions could mean, while Terry and Joe seemed to be moving backwards. "Keep looking shocked, and move slowly towards the cake." Terry whispered to the latter as they proceeded to do just that.