//------------------------------// // Surprises // Story: Heir to the Throne // by Arkantos //------------------------------// When Applejack got back to the others, she saw them swimming in several piles of books. “This is hopeless! We went through tons of books and still no mention of how to beat an Alicorn! I thought I was onto something in a book called The Elements of Harmony, but it doesn't say what power they hold or if the magic is safe to use,” said a very exhausted Sunset. “I mean, it’s not like the Princess of the Sun left a reference guide to all magical items.” Sunset layed on the floor, about to give up. Pinkie Pie exclaimed, “Well, if you’re so down, I could cheer you up with this random book I found called The Reference Guide to Magical Items.” Sunset got up, looked at her, and said, “Pink, I was looking for that very book! Why didn’t you tell me you had it and where you found it!?” Pink answered, “I just did, and it was under R.” Then Pink bounced away. Sunset used her magic to flip through the book. After a minute, she found the part about the elements of harmony and began to read out loud. “There are six elements in total, five of which are known as Honesty, Loyalty, Generosity, Kindness, and Laughter. The sixth element is a mystery. As for how to use them, you just need the meaning of each said element. Their location has been moved through history, but the last time any pony saw the elements was inside a castle called the Castle of the Two Sisters, which is located in...” But Sunset stopped and looked up at her friends. Applejack had a serious look on her face. The others had looks of confusion, and Rainbow said, “Well, don’t stop there. Where is this castle?” Sunset was about to say where, but Applejack beat her to it. “It’s inside the Ever Free Forest.” As the Umbrum party walked through the snow, Twilight asked Nightcrawler, “Why are you doing this?” “What do you mean by that, Princess Twilight?” he asked, as he looked around for threats. “I mean, this whole party of Umbrums. It’s not that I don’t appreciate it, but this seems like overkill. I mean, I am half Alicorn and half Umbrum, so why the escort?” Captain Nightcrawler adopted a hurt look and replied, “Let’s just say you are not the first royal Umbrum that’s received my help. Each time I’ve helped a royal, I didn’t want to see them go away.” “Ah, I see. You wish to come with me.” The shadow guard captain replied, “Yes, to this place you call home.” Twilight was about to say something, but then the party saw a canyon in front of them that spread through the winter tundra for miles. A shadow guard said, “Well, this is new. If my memories serve me well, there isn’t supposed to be a canyon here.” Nightcrawler said, “Well, it looks like we have an easy way through it.” He raised his hoof, pointing at a wooden bridge with a rope on it. It was mostly covered in snow. As the party crossed the bridge, Twilight and Nightcrawler were thinking the same thing. This is too easy. As soon as the last Umbrum crossed safely, BOOM! Several explosions went off on the bridge and it fell into the canyon. They then heard a commanding mare voice yelling, “You’re surrounded! Drop your weapons, and we will decide if we will spare you or kill you.” As she said this, countless ponies came marching up with polished spears and clean swords, all wearing the silver armor of the E.U.P. Then a bright yellow pegasus glided down on a huge Rock. Twilight then got a better look at the leader of this army as she removed her helmet. Her mane and tail had a multicolored theme, with orange, red, white, and yellow. Her eyes had a sky blue color, and her armor was silver E.U.P. armor with gold highlights. The leader announced herself. “I’m General Thunderclap, and it is my job to kill anypony that wishes ruin to Equestria. And you, Twilight...” She pointed a hoof at Twilight and continued. “You certainly have caused many lives to be lost, and have also caused lots of damage, which proves to me that you are an enemy of harmony!” Twilight walked up to her and said, “I’m planning to live in the castle where I grew up, and I will not be stopped by an army of ponies.” The General replied, “You have ten minutes to rethink your decision.” Nightcrawler said, “Twilight, you realize we’re hopelessly outnumbered?” Twilight replied, “Yes, in numbers.” She looked at him with a smile. ”But in power, we can claim victory.” Every Umbrum then listened to Twilight’s plan. “So, we all agree on the plan?” The Umbrums all nodded their heads, and Nightcrawler said, “We all agree. Let’s do this.” “Your time is up. What’s your answer?” yelled Thunderclap. As soon as her question was asked, all of the Umbrums created a giant smokescreen through the battlefield, and the General drew her sword, yelling, “Charge!” All the E.U.P. soldiers ran into the black smoke. Sunset walked into the town hall, hoping to find a saddlebag to use, since her old one had gotten burned up in the Golden Oak Library. As she looked around,  she saw a portrait of Celestia. She looked at it for a long time before Rarity entered the building. Rarity saw Sunset looking lost in the painting, and she said, “Sunset, darling, what are you doing here?” Sunset replied, “I could ask you the same question.” Rarity said, “I’m not the one who was looking at a painting of our princess.” As she said this, Sunset looked down and said, “I should’ve known that Nightmare Moon would go and burn down the library.” “But I assume there is more to this tale.”  Sunset answered, “Have you ever been drunk? You know, like, late at a party, and the next morning, you wake up in a strange and unfamiliar place?” “No,” Rarity said, “I have not. But I have Heard that Rainbow Dash on occasion will get drunk. I know that I complain a lot about dirt, but when I saw Rainbow Dash covered in dirt and drunk, and then she got dirt all over my boutique, and worst of all, she got me and my precious opal dirty, well, it took me months to clean all that dirt off. Why? Why do you ask?” As Rarity looked at Sunset, Sunset started to walk out, saying as she went, “There was a time when Canterlot was in danger. I have to use some very advanced magic that, if used incorrectly, could cause more harm. And then I would have wound up like a drunk pony, not knowing if I made it worse than it was.” With that, Sunset walked out of the town hall, Rarity in her stead. Sunset continued, “I’ve always relied on the written word to get the spell right, but now I don’t have my spell book with me, and I fear I may end up drunk with my magic not knowing if I made it worse.” Sunset kept walking, fear in her eyes. As they came up to the edge of the Ever Free Forest, they got a very bad feeling. “Well, y’all better get used to it, because we are going in,” said Applejack. “Oh, that reminds me,” said Rarity. Using her magic, she levitated a yellow saddle bag with Sunset Shimmer’s cutie mark on it. Sunset was lost for words. As her friend gave her saddlebag back, Sunset looked at Rarity. “I’m so sorry about taking your stuff, but it look very ordinary,” she said with some disgust. “I had to do something with it!” Rainbow commented, “I think you went a bit overboard with the design.” Sunset said, “I don’t know what to say.” “Well, you could say thank you,” said Applejack. ”And before you ask, she did my saddlebags as well. Actually, I think she did all of our saddlebags.” Sunset looked inside the new saddlebag, and Rarity said, “Well, I just wanted to put my skills to some good use.” Rainbow burst out, “But you still got carried away! I mean, just look at it! It’s like you spent every bit you had for the design!” Rarity was about to retort back to Rainbow Dash, but Sunset got up and said, “Thank you, Rarity, for saving my saddlebag. It’s the last place I have for my spell books and for Philomena’s perch. That Phoenix is a lazy bird.” Then Sunset looked at the Ever Free Forest, and a new look of determination came upon her face. “Let’s save Celestia!” Sunset yelled. And the other five followed her into the Ever Free Forest. The E.U.P. charged into the black smoke which became so thick it was hard to see. Several E.U.P. soldiers fell off the cliff before the E.U.P. army began to retreat out of the smoke. But by the time they started to retreat, they saw Twilight Sparkle, and for half of them, it would be the last thing they saw. The gem on Twilight’s necklace started to glow with a mixture of black and orange, and then fifty beams of orange light flew out and hit the E.U.P. soldiers. At first, nothing happened, but then each soldier’s body started to get dry. Then, as they tried to figure out what was going on, the soldiers that had gotten hit with the orange light developed such a dry coat that they became mummified ponies in E.U.P. armor. Twilight then summoned fifty black wisps, which all went inside the mummified ponies. As the wisps went in, a light orange ball came out of each mummified pony. Twilight lit up her horn, and her magic caught every single one of those light orange balls. With each light orange ball she caught, she grew stronger and even started to look stronger with more physical muscles appearing. Then, the mummified ponies got up, grabbed their weapons, and charged at the army of E.U.P. soldiers. Thunderclap yelled out, “Fire the catapults!” And five catapults swang massive boulders into the battle. Any E.U.P. soldiers that saw them got out of the way. BOOM! What happened next seemed impossible to General Thunderclap. Four of the boulders were levitating in the air, and the dust from the fifth boulder began to settle.  Thunderclap looked at Twilight and yelled, “You are unholy!" And she charged at Twilight with her strange sword, which looked like light was gathering in it. Weapons clashed, spears were raised, arrows began flying around, and shields were shattered as the battle raged. Twilight was up in the clouds, enjoying the view. General Thunderclap flew towards her at lightning speed, but Twilight knew she would do that, and got out of the way. Using her magic, as well as her sword, which was made of black steel and silver highlights, she blocked Thunderclap’s second attack. Twilight then used her Umbrum form and charged at General Thunderclap. The General swung her sword, and a wave of white light somehow hit Twilight. It hurt Twilight considerably. Twilight changed back into a pony and landed on a cloud, not believing what had just happened. The General exclaimed, “I can’t believe that worked! I mean, it has a well-known history, but I still can’t believe Princess Amore’s sword actually works on you and unnatural magic. It means I can kilThunderclap swung her sword, but it got l you.” And she pointed the sword of Princess Amore straight at Twilight. Twilight finally realized whose sword she was staring at. "That is Princess Amore’s sword. Where did you get it?” "Well, I should really thank the Order of Time for allowing me to use this weapon against you," said the General as she flew around. Twilight responded, “I’d like to see you try.” Suddenly, she used her magic to fire several bolts of sickly green lightning and black balls of fire at Thunderclap. The General tried to dodge or deflect the magical fire, but some of it hit her. blocked by Twilight’s magical black fire sword. Twilight said, “I guess that sword is only deadly to Umbrum Magic. But I have my Alicorn magic too, so prepare to die.” As she said this, she swung her sword, trying to kill her opponent. Thunderclap had to think fast. Thankfully, she was the fastest pony alive, and she easily outflew Twilight’s sword swing. Their battle took place in the sky. As Twilight was fighting, she thought to herself I hope Nightcrawler and the other Umbrums pull through. Down at the cliff’s edge, eleven Umbrums made their way to the catapults, and Nightcrawler said, “I sure hope this works.” They continued their mission, and the rest of the E.U.P. was none the wiser. As the six mares went deeper into the Ever Free Forest, Rainbow Dash looked at Applejack and said, “Just out of curiosity, where did you go when we were back at the secret library?” Applejack stopped and said to herself I didn’t think they realized I was gone. She started to walk again and said to Rainbow, “I was just looking around, that’s all. The whole reading through books thing looked boring, to be honest.” Rainbow Dash shrugged and believed Applejack’s story. They walked along the edge of a cliff and Sunset got nervous. “We need to be careful,” she warned as she walked along the cliff and  the others followed. All of a sudden, the ground shook, and Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Sunset started to fall off the cliff. Thinking fast, Rainbow yelled, “Come on, Fluttershy!”  Rainbow zoomed down at sonic speed to grab Rarity, slowing her descent. Fluttershy did the same with Pinkie Pie. As for Applejack, her panicked state brought out the armor of War Path.  She grabbed one of the throwing axes and struck the cliff with it to slow her descent. Sunset, however, didn’t know how she got down safely. All she recalled was falling, and then a shadow zoomed her down to the bottom of the cliff. When they were all safely down at the bottom, the five other mares looked at Applejack and her armor, and Fluttershy said, “Um, Applejack, is there something you want to tell us? I mean, if you’d like to?” Applejack sighed. “I guess y’all need to know now. Back at Hard Stone’s secret library, well, I guess he’s got a whole cave network. I followed him deep inside and he showed me a very damaged suit of armor. But as I got closer to it, I suppose you could say it went inside of me, and somehow, I can control it.” To prove the point, Applejack concentrated and raised her hoof. As she did, her hoof started to glow orange, and an ax appeared. “ Wow!” exclaimed her five companions in unison. Then Rainbow yelled, “Awesome!” and she flew closer to Applejack. “Do you think he has another one so I can look 20% cooler?” Rarity said, “I say the armor looks good on you, but it doesn’t look as fabulous as other suits of armor.  I just need to find a way to make a good helmet for it.” Applejack replied, “It has a helmet, but I like my hat.” As the armor disappeared, Sunset said, “That’s a powerful artifact. I think I will look for some kind of book that explains it, just so we can be sure of whether or not it’s dangerous.” Applejack replied, “Well, if you find anything, give me a call, would ya?” As they began walking to find the road they had lost, Sunset thought to herself Who saved me? And why does Applejack have armor? So many questions, and no answers.