History is doomed to repeat itself, that is but fact. That night was one such night, and the day that would follow would be one without smiles. In arriving at Silver Shoals, all chances at protecting the canon vanished within the span of a day. Silvia Holvenart stood no chance against Tholak, nor did any of the others that went against him, save for the rage driven Luna and Arcane. By that time, however, the fate of Equestria’s most recognized hero was sealed as the canon was shattered. In the process, Equestria also lost one of it’s old monarchs, Sunnyside, also known as Princess Celestia.
Though some were wounded, they had no choice but to march. Luna carried her sister, determined to avenge her sister and bury her in the garden of the castle they once called home. Luminous, though conscious, didn’t speak at all in the following hours, her mind eternally frozen with Tholak’s face. As one day turned into two, they crossed the border between Equestria and the Badlands, Thunder finally awake and able to walk on his own. That was the day that Aurora learned the canon had been destroyed, not by report, but by Queen Twilight’s loss of wings.
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Aurora watched the former alicorn in front of her squirm in the grasp of the dragons holding her. She couldn’t help but smile at the scene, seeing a being once immortal reduced to the status that so many others held. As two guards fastened her wingblades to her form, she thought about exactly what she should do this. A part of her wanted to revel in this victory, eviscerate the very thing she had long wish to destroy, but that wasn’t her. No matter how much her body or mind wanted to see Twilight diced, she knew that wasn’t her. A simple decapitation was all she needed, and so the public didn’t know the truth, she would kill her in the dungeons.
She looked to the guards, both ponies, and both seemingly ashamed of what they were about to do. Aurora knew they were afraid of her, as were many others, and she was sure the only reason they did this was so she would have to kill them. They were smart, but the fact they still didn’t take what she believed to heart, and that they still respected the alicorns, upset her. With a salute, the guards stood back, Aurora stretching her wings to see if everything was right.
“Well done, you two may leave,” She ordered. There was no “yes ma’am” from them, but she knew true respect would come in time. She looked back to Twilight, who was doing her best to try and look intimidating. “Whatever plan you had, alicorn, it has failed. Anything you want to say, before I cut you down?”
Twilight said nothing, and Aurora didn’t feel like waiting around for last words. She walked towards Twilight, allowing herself to take in how pathetic the all-powerful queen now looked. Where she would once towered over by the pony, she now looked down at. That earth pony strength gone, and the wings she had unjustly earned no longer in existence. As she came within an inch of her prisoner, she opened her wings, crossing them so that one blade was on each side of Twilight’s neck. She was about to cut, when Twilight finally spoke up.
“It’s not over,” She said, the words catching Aurora’s attention enough to not immediately slit the queen’s throat. “Even though I may die, there are ponies out there who will do everything in their power to stop you. Not just ponies, but nations, joining together in friendship to take down that which seeks to harm us all.”
Aurora let the words float for a minute, and then smiled. “Once everypony sees things my way, the true way, those words will be as hollow as wood.”
Aurora didn’t wait for a response. She felt her wings against Twilight’s neck, and sliced.
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Gabriel watched as Luminous gasped for air and stop walking. She put her hooves around her neck, water filling her eyes, as something worse than pain took control of her. Thunder looked behind him as he heard her gasp, eyes going wide as she saw the pegasus collapse on the ground. Gabriel caught her before her head hit the rocky terrain of the badlands, noticing that the mare was unconscious and barely breathing. Despite the fact that no cuts or wounds were visible on her, save for the lack of an eye, it was like she had taken a blow strong enough to nearly kill her. Gabriel could only look on in worry.
“Luminous? Luminous?” He called, knowing that his words were useless but still believing they meant something.
“She’ll be fine, Gabriel,” Thunder said, turning the griffon away from the unconscious pegasus. “I’ve seen this before, or have felt it before to be correct. This is what happened when Spitfire was killed, which means…” He didn’t want to say the thought that had come to his mind, but he knew he had no choice. “... Queen Twilight is dead.”
“O-oh,” Gabriel said. Silence followed for several minutes, the only sound being the wind whistling around them. “So, she’ll live, right?”
“I think so, but we need to get her to a doctor just in case,” Thunder explained, picking up Luminous and, with Gabriel’s help, place her over his shoulder.
“Then I guess it’s a good thing the bugs found us first,” Arcane called from the front of the group.
Turning around Thunder and Gabriel made out a half dozen figures flying towards them. The first they instantly recognized as Flurry Heart, given her bright pink mane, but others were new. One thing was certain, they were all changelings, one seemingly bigger than the rest. Thunder didn’t know whether to be happy or scared at that moment, knowing that while Flurry had no doubt arrived before them, he had no idea if the mare on his back would live or not. He didn’t show it, didn’t want to feel it, but for the first time since they had broken up, Thunder felt concerned for Luminous.
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Everything about the execution had felt… empty, to Aurora. She had expected relief, or joy, or anything that signified that what she had done was right, but it didn’t come to pass. As she looked at the body in front of her, blood pooling under it, she waited for that feeling to come in. It never did, and all she was left with was a victory that felt more hollow than it should have. One thousand years, and yet the moment she had been waiting for this entire time felt as dead as the pony she had just killed. She took off her wingblades and tossed them to the side.
“What a waste of time this has been.”
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Silvia watched the sleeping form of her daughter as a changeling tended to her, hating herself. Watching the pony she had raised for the past fifteen or so years now lying in a hospital bed, a doctor monitoring her breathing, had to be one of the most painful things she had ever felt. Like she had told Flurry, losing Twilight’s canon was something she could allow as long as the empress still breathed, but that was only if Luminous was still alive. She wanted to hug her daughter, but the doctors had told her she shouldn’t move, less the wounds she had garnered herself open up again.
“I’m sorry we didn’t get there in time to help her,” Thorax said, watching the wolves unshifted gaze at her daughter. “I know what it’s like to lose a loved one. No matter what Chrysalis would say, losing a member hive, my family, was like a sibling had died.”
“Don’t blame yourself, King Thorax,” Silvia told the changeling. “You didn’t know anything about this until recently, and even if you did know, we were too far away to save Twilight,” She finally turned to him, through her eyes failed to meet his. “I assume Flurry Heart has told you everything?”
“Yes, and I can see why we have to stop Aurora, even without the justification of her being a usurper,” Thorax replied, walking to her side as the doctor finished tending to the wolf. “You can be assured that, when the time comes, the Changelings will be at your side, but that is all I can promise,” He sighed. “Since the attack, relations with the dragons have dipped in the hive, and this news of them not being associated with Ember won’t do anything. There is also the fact that well… Gabriel and Flurry can not assure it themselves.”
“Why is that?” Silvia asked, one ear folding as she tilted her head.
“Though they support you, Aurora’s forces have been making any trade to Equestria or the kingdoms around it hard,” Thorax explained, sitting down on the bed next to Silvia’s. “Gabriel and Flurry both told me that they want to contact there people, but with trade routes north gone, at least for the time, we can’t send any missives to their kingdoms. It would take establishing trade with Equestria, and that would take time.”
“And the more time we take, the more ponies shift from seeing her as an invader, to a true ruler,” Silvia said, getting a nod from Thorax. “If her beliefs leak into the lives of Equestria, any alicorn put on that throne or so much as exist are targets of her forces. If the citizens believe her, we have all but lost,” A thought came Silvia as she said those words, reminded of what Thorax had said. “King Thorax, you said that only the trade north is gone right? Kludgetown still trades with you?”
“Yes, and we’ve been helping them rebuild after something raided them,” Thorax told Silvia, the changeling taking notice of the smile that was suddenly forming on her face. “Do you… have an idea?”
“Yes, yes I do,” Silvia said, getting out of the bed. She winced at how sour her body was and the pain still present throughout it, yet she managed to keep standing. She motioned for Thorax to follow her, the changeling doing just that. “When I first arrived in this Equestria, I was the only paradox around, but as my work has sent me to the countries around Equestria I’ve met many more. Most I had no choice but to send back to their home, but some have stayed around.”
“Judging by the word “most”, I’m guessing you know a paradox who could help us,” Thorax said, receiving a nod of approval from the wolf. “Who are they?”
“You wouldn’t know them, they aren’t on any known maps,” Silvia explained, Thorax feeling slightly uneased when he heard her say “they”. “I spent time on a pirate crew for a year, one captained by a Ms. Celano, and went about creating a map of the world beyond Griffonstone and the Dragonlands. It was there that we came upon a nation of ponies, as loose of a term as that was,who were very much not from this world,” Silvia closed her eyes, searching her memory for information. “A world at war, a young pony cast out from Equestria due to her talent in dark magic, a nation of necromancers and vampires, doing all they can to fight back those who would oppress them.”
Thorax felt a shiver go up his spine, somehow feeling like he knew who Silvia was talking about, and yet not at the same time. As Silvia opened her eyes, any sorrow present on her face had been washed away, replaced by that of determination. She knew what she had to do, and what needed to be done to keep her daughter safe. A single name, a single nation, all came to mind, one whose location was on no map save for one.
“Rosa Maledicta,” She said. “The Dread League. That’s how we will turn the tides. That’s how we will get Equestria back, and keep the barrier from breaking,” She stopped and turned to Thorax, her confidence contrasting greatly to the fear on his.