//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: The Rise To Power // Story: Equestria Is Not Enough // by Canon Fodder //------------------------------// Chapter 5 The Rise To Power When they boarded Nova's airship, Applejack cried, not being able to comprehend it. Why would Big Mac turn against the Apple Family? She was unaware of Comet's hypnotic powers but knew that he and surely others had something to do with it. Pinkie consoled Fluttershy who was scared beyond belief. While Rainbow Dash and Rarity were quietly discussing how everything went wrong. Rarity quietly kept saying. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry..." Berry Punch was also still crying, but in pain, more than fright. Princess Celestia was held by Comet's magic. Why Celestia's magic was rendered useless was a complete blur to everypony. All Twilight thought of was how they could possibly escape from Nova's tyranny. It seemed hopeless and the incredible magic Nova's henchmen were using didn't make it any easier neither. She had to think of something quick before anything bad happened to her or any of her friends. Nova steered them down the halls of the ship and took them all to a room filled will jails. There were only six cells, but they were all made to hold up to thirty ponies each. Nova pointed to one cell in the corner of the room. "Put everypony and that small dragon in that cell there, except Celestia. Were going to take her up to my office for a little discussion." Buckingham escorted the ponies and Spike to the cell. He used the same lock had used to lock the gate back down in Canterlot. Nova and the frozen Celestia were about to leave the room when Twilight shouted out. "What did you do to our magic? Why isn't it working?" "It's working just fine Miss Sparkle. (He grinned) Mine is just better." Nova, followed by his two dogs and Comet with Celestia then left the room. Leaving Buckingham to watch over them. "Now all you fillies are gonna stay quiet ya hear? I don't want to have to get ugly, especially with you Ms. Rarity." Rarity glared at him and he only laughed. "Let's face it Miss, I had you wrapped around my hoof." Twilight whispered over to Applejack. "You ok AJ?" Her whimpering made it hard for Twilight to understand. "I...can't believe...Big Mac would...do this to...us...The Apple family. We thought he was loyalist of us all. That's not him, it can't be him. That's not my big brother." "AJ don't worry, were going to figure a way out of this. There's got to be something we can do to stop this. AJ I need your help. You got to pick yourself up from this, our entire society is in danger." Sparkle warned. Applejack nodded while she wiped the tear from her eyes. "Yer right Twi. We are in a mess. But that magic of theirs is jus so darn powerful. Feel this lump of my head!" Twilight rubbed her hoof over AJ's goose egg bump on the right side of her head. "Hmmm I hope your alright. I need to find some more information on this Nova guy. He's not like any normal stallion." ----- Minutes later, Nova and the others soon arrived at his office up in the more upper end of the massive ship. Sparks sat down at his desk. Comet then released Celestia after the dogs put a sort of shell over her horn. Celestia was plopped down into the chair across from him and naturally became enraged. "What do you think your going to accomplish by kidnapping me and my pupils?" Sparks scoffed, "Kidnapped? I'm am only doing the rightful thing. These are my people now!" "Your only in this for yourself. The Equestrians aren't going to like you. They never will." Celestia stated furiously. Nova appeared annoyed and slammed his hoof down on his desk, "Now listen here. I don't care if they like me or not. I honestly don't care if they suffer through my ruling neither. Bottom-line is, my conquest had been fulfilled. It's the price you'll pay for taking what was so dear from me." Celestia disagreed greatly. "You deserved it for what you done to those poor ponies you tortured." "Like I said back then, It was strictly business. Nopony could prove those alligations! How could you do that to me? A pony with a PhD in Physics, and two masters in Biology and Chemistry. An absolute genius!" "The distance between insanity and genius, is measured only by success Mr. Sparks. Your experiments were never successful I'm sorry to say. Therefore this plan, what ever it may be, will never work!" she exclaimed passionately. Nova began to laugh. "That's where your wrong again your Majesty, I have obtained a secret weapon since then. I have acquired allies and followers who appear to look up to me and my views. You exiled most of them like you did me. That's why were here. To take our revenge by dethroning you and appointing myself as the new dictator! Now lets get down to the brass tax my dear...Give me back my horn, Celestia!" "You were not worthy to have your horn. It was not supposed to be intended for evil!" she exclaimed. Nova became agitated once again, "If you don't give me back my horn this instant, I will TAKE it back!" She stared at him perplexed, "That's impossible..." "Nothing for me is impossible to accomplish my dear. You have yet to learn of what I am most capable of...You'll come around. Dogs, get her out of my site...Go back and send in that Twilight girl." Celestia's eyes widened. "You leave her alone! She has done nothing!" One of the dogs took his baton and struck her in her side. The hard shot was so effective, she went unconscious. "Shut up!" said Nova fiercely. "Get her out of my site. Put her in a separate cell from the others as well." Comet nodded gladly. "It will be done sir." ----- Comet, with the entourage of burly dogs brought Celestia to the jail room where the others were being held. "Put her in that one in the other corner." Ordered Comet. "What did you do to our Princess?!" shouted Pinkie Pie. "Pipe down you!" Bradshaw spoke back angrily. Comet approached Bradshaw. "Mr. Sparks wants to see the pony named Twilight?" "Very well." Replied the southern steed. ----- They retrieved Twilight from the cell and quickly took her up to Nova's office. Along the way, she trotted down one hallway and discovered and took notice of a map tacked to a bulletin board. When they arrived soon after, Comet sat her down. Nova looked over and gave a cocky smirk. He turned to Comet and the dogs. "If you'll excuse us, I want to be alone with Madame Sparkle." "You got it boss, we'll be right outside." Comet assured. When they left the room, Sparks started to circle around Twilight slowly. "So Miss Sparkle...Do you know who I am?" Twilight leered at him curiously . "No..." He grinned and chuckled. "Of course you don't, looking at you, you don't even look like you were around when I was in the news. Once again I'll state that my name is Dr. Nova Sparks. I was raised in the city of Manechester. During my youth I moved to the city of Canterlot. Graduated at the University there with many degrees of sciences. Science my dear, is the true power of our world. I have studied many branches of it; Physics, geology, chemistry, biology, astronomy, you name it! And it is all that knowledge I gained over the years, that I was able to use to assist in my...climactic revolution. Now, about twenty years ago, I had gotten in trouble for my research tactics. My goal was to discover the biological super enhancement in the magic of Unicorns. I was performing experiments with some of my paid experimentees so to speak. Unfortunately, one of the procedures went wrong. I had operated "underground surgery" and had implanted this special chip inside one of the Unicorn's horns. The chip had malfunctioned and the pony tore havoc over Canterlot. The device had affected his brain function, he went mad, completely incoherent. But his magic abilities were outstanding, absolutely powerful. He had picked up large objects such as coaches, large boulders, trees, etc. It was like something out of a motion picture. But instead...It was reality. The Royal family had to detain him. He was immediately stripped of his horn for medical reasons and has been in special treatment ever since I could remember. I went into hiding but was quickly finked on by the others I had worked on. So the Princess ordered me to go on trial. A special jury of leaders from all over Equestria were selected for the deliberation. I was charged with the ill-mannered use of my knowledge and genetic tampering. I was found guilty on both with a capital punishment. Celestia concluded that I would be forever exiled and...My horn was taken away from me." He rubbed the his forehead where the horn of a Unicorn used to be. "You mean, you used to be a Unicorn?" Asked Twilight. "You are correct Miss Sparkle, what a quick study you are. I was, but because of injustice and a corrupt system I was torn from the title." He muttered angrily. Sparkle shook her head, "You deserved it. You had no right to hurt those ponies." "It was not my fault! It was the simple miss-coding inside the chip that I was not aware of. I didn't program it. My associates did. So ever since my banishment, I had been trying to think of something that could give me the second shot. So...I'll continue. I was to be banished to the Desert. But this wasn't just any Desert. It was a desert filled with rocks, ore, gems, minerals. Everything a geologist could dream of. I believed my research would start there. About 3 months into my leaving, I befriended this group of Desert dogs. They called themselves Diamond Dogs. Their three leaders welcomed me as long as I could work for them, prospecting and what not. So I agreed, hoping that my loyalty meant their respect. I worked with them for seven long years. Then one night, while I was organizing a pile of gems. Some dogs came in with a strange ore. It was a very odd looking rock. It was pure black, almost like coal but it didn't have the density like coal. Miss Sparkle this is where my history gets interesting." With that his smile grew and then he trotted over a safe that was embedded in the wall. He turned the dial and unlocked it then opened up the door to pull out the rock he described in his story. "This, Twilight Sparkle, is the most powerful essence in the world." Twilight stared at it, almost laughing. "You must be crazy. It's only a rock." "That's where your wrong. I was completely astonished by this mineral and was determined to find out what it was. I sent one of the dogs to smuggle out a book on ancient rocks of Equestria. After going through the textbook which had over 1500 pages, I finally discovered it...The rock was called Manarite. It was believed that this ore came from an asteroid that hit the planet millions of years ago. It was discovered by Equestrian settlers about 500 years before. The rock was so valuable, it sparked a civil war. The war lasted only 5 months before the Royal family had decided to destroy and bury the mine where it had been discovered so there would be no more bloodshed over the rock." Twilight looked puzzled. "Why would ponies fight over it? What's so valuable about it?" He glanced at Sparkle then laughed malevolently. "Very good question. Inside the manarite, were pockets of a deposited essence. A mysterious substance that scholars said that if taken in by the body, will give extraordinary increases to a Unicorn's magical abilities. The instant I read that statement. I knew I had found the answer to my goal from all these years. All the years of studying the pony anatomy, years of schooling, lectures, experiments, diplomas, the money spent, and my answer lies within a rock. Sure I was mad about it but I realized that this was a much better discovery. Soon after I knew of this, I left the Diamond Dogs. But before I left, I took the map that had the manarite's location marked on it. The Diamond Dogs never even knew that I departed until I was long gone. For two weeks I was wandering around, scrounging up what food I could. Until I was met with a stranger. His name, at the time was Diamond Bradshaw Buckingway...Sound familiar?" She pondered for a moment then looked up at him with a confused look about her face, "I thought his name was Buckingham?" He chuckled. "No, only an alias since his banishment. He was a famous jewel thief who was convicted and also banished. We met in the desert. I explained to him my plan, he listened and wanted in on it. He had much knowledge on geology, much more then mine. So we decided to join forces. We had followed the map to the buried mine. We found an opening and when we got in, we were shocked by the amount of ore that was still there. Tonnes upon tonnes. I had a vision, an idea that was so insane that I had to attempt it. We filled a couple bags with the rock and left. Then traveled about a week until we came to the border to Equestria. When we managed to sneak into the land without detection. We headed for New Buck City. There, we found some abandoned warehouses. But not just any warehouses, warehouses filled with scientific technology. We had managed to remain under the radar for about 3 weeks. I had been using the machines inside to create a weapon. I took the essence inside the manarite, and implanted it into a device. The device also had the same chip I used to mentally scar a ponies life. Turns out I was using it the wrong way. It was meant for technological use, not biological. I thought of the design on our way to New Buck City. I knew it was the start up for my revenge. You may have seen it before. On the wrists of some of my dogs and ponies. It's a substitute for an artificial horn. It has the same capability as a regular horn...Except the inventions powers exceeded much, much further. After many testings and checks over the gadget we were determined of our efforts and returned to the Diamond Dogs to begin our recruitment. Me and him were captured upon entering their territory. The three leaders were going to execute me, but I had other plans. With the dogs ready to maul me, I used the artificial horn and shoved each one of the three dogs off a nearby cliff. Every other dog backed off. I got their immediate obedience, me and Buckingham could continue our research. Our word of a rebellion spread through the Desert and the Everfree Forest like rapid fire. Banished ponies of all kinds came for my aide. So my underground army started to develop a seven year plan. We mined the manarite, built this ship, developed labs and equipment. And now seven years of hard work later, here I am, about to rule my new empire. Twilight was fed up with his rambling on. "This will never work! You can't do this. You will be stopped!" "That's what you think! Your magic is obsolete Miss Sparkle. I call my magic, manaressence. It's 100% scientific. Science runs our land Twilight. I AM SCIENCE! If my magic can thwart your Princess's magic, what makes you think you or anyone else can defeat me? That's where I want to briefly talk about Mr. Comet. Comet was one of my test subjects for something I was working on just a month prior to the Princess's birthday. I had done large amounts of calculations, connected all the dots, and came up with a super medicine...A serum. I gave it a scientific name...Proin fringilla enhancer rinocerotis. In otherwords, a Unicorn magic super enhancing injection. Silverblood, I like to call it personally. I developed it with manaressence, a few elements off the periodic table and different types of blood to match the pony it was given to. When I first tested it on Comet, the results were outstanding. No mental deficiency, no abnormal behavior, just enhanced magical abilities. So long as he takes a precise injection each day in the horn at the precise time, he and many other of my enforcers will obtain these powers. My other subjects such as dogs, earth ponies and Pegasi will wear the artificial horn on their wrists and hooves. I have finally achieved my goal of super magic. Now all that was left for me to do was to overturn the Princess and take Equestria for myself. But I couldn't do it alone. Me, Buckingham, and Comet are going to be the new leaders, me being the supreme ruler of course. Buckingham will take the west, Comet will take the east, and I will take Ponyville and Canterlot. But I will need another co-leader to assist me...That is why I requested you up here." She raised a brow skeptically at him. "What do you want from me?" "I want you to join me Twilight Sparkle, I want you to help me rule the rest of Equestria. Being the Princess's prime student, I figure you must have gifted knowledge such as mine. I will promise you everything in Equestria if you take this opportunity. I'll give you the silverblood serum, your powers will be incredible. I can tell. Maybe after I pass in later years, I may consider somepony such as yourself as my successor if you remain loyal, But now I'm just riffing...So...What do you say?" Twilight thought about it. Then locked eyes with Nova and smiled. He smiled back with confidence. Sparkle took a deep breath and proudly said. "No contest Mr. Sparks...No contest." [...To be continued]