//------------------------------// // Chapter 21: Unlikely alliances // Story: The final challenge // by Dianabel //------------------------------// “What´s taking him so long? Did he find her?” a male guard wondered. “If he´s taking so long, it´s because he didn´t find her.” his female workmate replied. “If I´m honest, the less he´s around us, the better.” another guard said. “Definitely.” the male guard agreed. “That guy is incredibly creepy and a psychopath. Not to mention that he´s incredibly powerful, which makes him scarier.” “Yeah… I hope he hasn´t harmed anypony…” the female guard thought aloud. “Don´t worry. Unicorns are strong. We can defend ourselves!” the third guard said with a nervous smile. “Not only unicorns… Earth ponies and pegasi as well.” The other two guards gasped. “What?” she asked his friends. “You still care about them?” “Well… They are also ponies after all... Aren´t they? Besides, between Twilight Sparkle´s friends there were the three types. And she also befriended many species… Her assistant was a dragon!” The guards sighed in relief. “I thought I was the only one who didn´t hate earth ponies and pegasi. Such a relief.” “Yeah. It´s scary how we separated.” The guard looked up to the sky. “As if we didn´t our lesson after what happened thousands of years ago…” “How much do you bet he´s behind all of this?” the female guard guessed. “Somehow, he managed to turn us against each other because he knew that would be the perfect moment to come back. If it´s not that, I cannot explain how this happened!” she pointed at the windigoes. “Yeah. And what´s worse, nopony has come up with that possibility! They´re so focused on blaming each other that they don´t realize who´s really originating this!” the male guard exclaimed. “We need to tell the others.” the other guard said. The other two nodded. “And as soon as possible! Who knows what that stupid goat would do to us if he found out.” the female guard said. What none of them realized is that while they were talking, Grogar appeared in the distance with his monsters. He raised an eyebrow when he saw the three of them talking in circle, as if they were planning something. He quietly approached the guards. Thankfully, he didn´t hear their plan but he did hear the word `goat´. “What did you call me?!” he asked upset. The three guards widened their eyes. They turned around. “What? No, no. We weren´t talking about you. We were talking about one of Iron Will´s goats.” the female guard said with a nervous smile. “Yeah. It´s just they ripped me off a while ago.” The male guard added. “Of course, of course.” The other guard nodded his head energetically. Grogar narrowed his eyes with suspicion. “You´re not planning behind my back, are you?” The three guards took a few steps back intimidated. “No, of course not.” “Because you know what happens if someone betrays me.” The guards looked up at Grogar´s monsters. They licked their lips with a wicked smile. They hugged each other scared and closed their eyes as one of the monsters approached their heads to them, ready to devour them. Grogar was about to let them feast, but for the guards´ luck, he was interrupted by a soldier. “My emperor! My emperor!” she ran. Grogar scowled at her. The guard gulped. “There are three creatures who want to talk to you.” “Right now?” “Yes, my emperor.” Grogar sighed frustrated. “Tell them I´m on my way.” He turned to the mosnters. With a hoof gest, he told them to leave them alone. “You´re lucky. But I´m not done with you yet. This is your last warning. Remember that.” he told the guards before leaving. The three guards looked at each other, not so sure on how to carry out their plan. “They´d better be worth my time. Otherwise, I´ll blast them!” Grogar thought aloud as he walked the corridor to get to the throne room. His eyes perked up when he heard three voices. He stopped walking to listen to the conversation more in detail “What´s taking him so long?! I´m so bored of waiting!” a high-pitched voice said. “And I´m tired of you saying that you´re bored.” a raspy voice clapped back. “QUIET!” a lower voice exclaimed angrily. “Being with you two makes the waiting less bearable.” Grogar sighed frustrated. “Come on, Grogar. You can do this. You´ve dealt with a lot throughout your whole life, you can deal with another group of idiots.” He huffed and continued walking. “Where is he anyway?!” the low voice asked Daybreaker. “To be honest, I don´t know. I only paid attention whenever he ordered me something, the rest was blabber to me. But he´s busy doing emperor things. And he doesn´t have time for three whiny weird fish creatures.” “WHAT DID YOU CALL US?!” the raspy voice asked aggressively. “Relax, relax.” the high-pitched voice told her. “Just brea-” Grogar knew that high-pitched voice didn´t finish her phrase because the raspy voice´s owner hit her and broke into a fight with Daybreaker, something he could tell by Daybreaker´s yells. He stopped in front of the door and rolled his eyes. “I swear, whenever he opens that door, I´m gonna throw that goat out of the window!” the low-pitched voice cursed. And right at that moment, Grogar opened the door. The visitors were three sirens. The purple one was fighting Daybreaker, while the blue and the yellow ones watched. The blue one realized Grogar´s presence. She gasped and started touching her yellow sister´s fin. “Um… Adagio…” “What?!” she asked aggressively. Adagio´s eyes widened when she saw Grogar. She quickly flew towards Aria to separate her from Daybreaker. “Aria! Quit it out!” “Why should I?” Adagio pointed at Grogar. “Oh.” mumbled Aria. The three sirens put themselves in line. “Ah ha ha… Mr Grogar! How nice to see you.” Sonata said while putting her fins behind her back. “Well, you must be the three idiots that were sent to another dimension by Starswirl and his comrades.” Grogar said dryly. Daybreaker held her laughter. Adagio and Aria felt a huge urge to attack the ram but knew they couldn´t. “You´re quite correct!” Sonata exclaimed. “But to be fair, we managed to escape, so we are not that stupid.” she added confidently. “Oh really? Would you have been able to escape if I hadn´t come back?” he raised an eyebrow with a cocky smile. The sirens didn´t reply. As much as they hated to admit it, he was right. If they hadn´t heard his bell ring, they´d probably wouldn´t discovered the portal. “That´s what I thought. Now get out of my way. I don´t want to waste my time in this.” with his magic, Grogar made way for himself by separating Adagio and Aria. The two sirens clenched their teeth. They flew in front of Grogar, Sonata following behind. “Wait. You still haven´t heard the reason why we´ve come here.” Sonata replicated. “You want your rubies fixed, don´t you? Well, I´m an emperor not a jeweller.” Grogar tried to keep on walking but they kept on blocking his way. “Oh, give us a break, old go-” Seeing how Grogar was glaring at Aria, Adagio covered her sister´s mouth. “I think that you have a bad impression of us, my emperor.” Adagio said. “In that stupid dimension, we were so close on having every single… creature under control with our voices. Until that stupid Twilight princess and her friends stopped us! But from what I´ve heard, she´s no more thanks to your work.” “Do you seriously think that you´ll convince me with flattery?” Grogar raised an eyebrow. Adagio was starting to lose her patience. Still, she managed to keep herself together. “Ok, ok. But what I mean is, without Twilight Sparkle, there is no harmony in Equestria. And disharmony is what´s keeping you in the throne. And luckily, we are experts on spreading disharmony. Imagine that for some reasons, the ponies don´t hate each other anymore. Maybe we could fix that.” Grogar stayed quiet to analyse the situation. Surely the sirens weren´t at his level, but what Adagio said was true. Disharmony is what´s keeping him in the throne right now. Besides, he liked her way of thinking. He wasn´t sure about the other two, although he knew that he would have to take them, otherwise Adagio wouldn´t listen to him. “Very well. But I won´t fix your rubies.” “What?!” the three sirens asked angrily in chorus. “Please mr Grogar, think again!” Sonata threw herself at his hooves. “It´s been terrible surviving without absorbing magic! Not to mention incredibly boring. But anyway, do you know what is like living by doing a playback of a vocally processed song on loop?!” Grogar and Daybreaker blinked confused. “What?” Daybreaker asked. “It´s a long story.” Aria simply answered. “But coming back to the subject, you cannot do that to us!” Adagio said to Grogar. “You´re throwing a lifetime opportunity by rejecting us!” “Sorry honey. But the sassy ally place is already taken.” Daybreaker said while looking at her hoof. “ENOUGH!” Grogar exclaimed. With his magic, he gagged them. “Your rubies will be fixed. However, I will not be the one to carry on the task. I want to save as much energy as possible.” “But if you´re not going to fix our gems, who will?” Adagio asked “My assistant, of course.” Daybreaker widened her eyes. “Excuse me?!” “What you heard.” “But why? Aren´t you the most powerful sorcerer that has ever lived?”. “I am! However, I just got out from a fight, and I get tired more often and more quickly than I used to.” “Must be the years.” And at that moment, Grogar blasted Daybreaker with his magic, throwing her to the wall. “But that doesn´t mean I´m less powerful!” he stomped a hoof. “Do as you´re told and leave me alone!” his eyes shone in anger. “But how am I supposed to do that? I don’t know the spell.” she replicated while getting back on four legs. Grogar rolled his eyes. He took a scroll and wrote on it with a fountain pen. Once he was done, he handled it against her chest. “Here you have the instructions.” Daybreaker took a quick glance at the scroll. She made faces as she struggled to understand what Grogar wrote. “No offense, but your calligraphy is awful.” “GO AWAY!” “Ok, ok… Geeze…” Daybreaker mumbled under her breath while leaving, the sirens following behind. “At least we don´t have to process our vocals.” Sonata said to brighten up her sisters´ moods. “Shut up Sonata. Just shut up.” Aria told her. Twilight and Luna panted as they walked throughout the Everfree forest. In exhaustion, Twilight fell on her hooves. Luna gasped. “Are you alright?” Twilight levitated her head. “Yeah. But I think I need a break.” “Of course.” Luna knelt by her side and covered her back with her wing. “I´m sorry for delaying but even though I haven´t got any magic left, I´d like to have some energy to come up with a way to defeat Grogar.” “None taken. A ruler needs to take care of themselves too.” Twilight gave her a weak smile. “Thank you for being so understanding.” “It´s the least thing I can do. You´ve done so much for Equestria, and despite your state, you´re still willing to help it. And for that we´re grateful.” “Well, if not me, who else? I´m not sure if my friends are alive.” she looked to the sky. “I´m sorry.” “It´s ok. At least I know that I can reunite with them.” Twilight looked at the sky with a smile. Then, she turned her head to Luna. “Luna, how is that you and Celestia are immortal but I´m not?” “Well, we´re not immortal per say. There have been many times that Celestia and I have been at the brink of death. But we don´t die from old age.” “Oh.” Twilight said somewhat disappointed. “What?” “Does that mean that I´ll have a life as long as yours?” she asked somewhat fearful. Luna shook her head. “No, I don´t think so.” Twilight was surprised at the answer. “How are you so sure about that?” “Because it depends on our elements.” Twilight raised an eyebrow. “You see, in one of the last fights with my mother, Grogar cast a spell on the sun and the moon, forcing the unicorns to raise them every single day and night for eternity. That was until me and my sister raised the sun and the moon, which turned out to be our elements. Each of our elements is unique, no other pony has the same. Which means, that nopony else can raise the sun and the moon like we do. I guess that´s why we have a long lifespan. Because without us, life wouldn´t exist.” Twilight looked down. “Your case, however, it´s different, because your element is something that can be taught. Something that other generations can protect. Just like love.” “So what you´re saying is that Cadence and I won´t live forever because everypony is capable of loving and having friends.” Luna nodded her head. Twilight gave a short chuckle. “Well that´s a relief. But I also feel bad for you. It must have been rough living throughout a lot of years…” Luna inspired and expired. “At first it´s tough, but as time passes you get used to it. Besides, Celestia and I didn´t have friends. We were so busy ruling our kingdom that we didn´t have time to socialize. But now that we´ve created a mechanism for you to raise the moon and the sun, maybe we won´t have to live forever anymore and have more time to make friends.” “Is that the reason why you two want to retire?” Luna clicked her tongue. “Yeah… Sorry if it sounds selfish.” “Of course not! You´ve already done a lot for Equestria. And you´re leaving it in good hooves. Or at least you were…” she said while looking at the horizon. “Don´t worry, somehow the rightful ruler will sit on the throne, I promise.” Luna put her hoof on Twilight´s. Twilight smiled at her. With bashful smile, she looked away. “Um Luna… When all of this is over and I´m ruling Equestria, will you come to visit?” “Of course.” Twilight yawned and laid her head on Luna´s shoulder, surprising her. “I´m so lucky to have known two amazing ponies.” Luna smiled sweetly. “Me too.” Just about when she was about to fall asleep, Luna realized they weren´t alone. She heard some branches creaking from behind her. She turned around and saw Tirek, Chrysalis and Cozy Glow right in front of her. They were as surprised as her. She started shaking Twilight. “Twilight! Twilight! Wake up!” she exclaimed softly. The alicorn slowly opened her eyes. “What? What is it Luna?” She gasped when she saw the villains. She laughed nervously. “Hi?” “She´s alive?! How is that possible?!” Cozy Glow asked her comrades. “He literally threw her away a thousand miles! And she survived!” Tirek thought aloud. Chrysalis sighed. “Neither Grogar can get rid of her!” Chrysalis complained. “Which means that we´ll never get rid of her.” Quickly, Luna got in four legs and ignited her horn at the villains. “Don´t you dare lay a hoof on her!” Cozy Glow scoffed. “We´re not doing that. What´s the point? She´s not a threat to us anymore.” “But I´ll say, it´s very satisfying to see her like that.” Chrysalis approached Twilight. “The great Princess Twilight Sparkle, helpless and powerless at our hooves.” “Says the one who had their power taken by the very same ram.” Luna clapped back. “Yes, but at least we managed to get our magic back. And she,” Chrysalis pointed at Twilight. “cannot do that.” Luna scowled. “And thanks to you, we might get some more.” Tirek licked his lips as he approached Luna. “Oh yeah, definitely.” Chrysalis agreed. Luna zapped the two villains, making them fall behind. “Hey! There´s a filly in here!” Cozy Glow called out Luna while pointing at Tirek´s neck. “Keep doing that and she´ll end up crushed because of you!” “Don´t worry.” Chrysalis took her from Tirek´s neck, which enabled him to fight Luna. She sat her on the ground. “You stay here while the adults are fighting.” “Normally I´d be upset if you told me that but considering that I´m not an alicorn anymore and my wings are broken, I think it´s the best option for me. But I´ll cheer you up, don´t worry!” the filly said excited. Chrysalis rolled her eyes before joining Tirek. They tried to zap each other, but the three dodged every attack successfully. Twilight watched horrified how they fought. She was worried about Luna getting hurt. She had to stop the fight, but how? She didn´t have magic to support Luna. But luckily, Gusty´s words came into her memory. “Listen and stick with what I´m about to say: Every creature has a magic inside. It´s just as powerful as yours. And all of you are as powerful as me.” And then she remembered Fluttershy´s idea before they confronted them. “We have an enemy in common. And that enemy is Grogar. We could do an allyship with them.” Twilight realized that Gusty´s words could be applied to the villains´ situation, if the magic she was talking about was friendship. Could there possibly be friendship inside the villains? In order to answer that question, Twilight analysed every single detail around her. She saw how Cozy Glow was cheering up the villains. “Zap her to the heart! ZAP HER TO THE HEART! I know you can do it!” she screamed excited. She also noticed how Tirek helped Chrysalis up when she fell back due to Luna´s attack. Then, she protected Tirek. “Oof! That was a close one!” Tirek exclaimed. “You´re welcome.” Chrysalis said proudly. While it was crystal clear that they didn´t have any intention of redeeming themselves and hated her to death, they really cared about each other, always having each other´s back. Without knowing it, they became friends. According to Gusty, their friendship could be as strong as hers with the girls. Which would come in handy on defeating Grogar. Convincing them to join by their side was going to be a difficult task, but it definitely was worth the try. And so, she tried to carry on with the plan. “Luna stop it!” she exclaimed to get her attention. However, the alicorn was too focused on protecting herself from Tirek´s and Chrysalis´ blast. “Luna!” Twilight exclaimed again. Still, no answer. “STOP THE FIGHT!” Twilight yelled with all her volume and strength. This time, she was heard. The villains and Luna looked at her confused. She tried to get up but fell a little. Luna rushed to her and helped her to stand. “Thank you.” Twilight told Luna. Then, she turned her head to the villains. “Answer me one question. What were you doing here? Be honest.” “Well, coming up with a plan to defeat Grogar and take the throne for ourselves, of course!” Chrysalis replied in an arrogant manner. Tirek, however, didn´t really agree with Chrysalis. He sighed frustrated. “Leave it, Chrysalis. Who are we kidding? We are wandering around with no idea with what to do next! We want to fight back but we can´t and running away for the rest of our lives isn´t an option either.” “What a dilemma.” Cozy Glow crossed her arms. “Well, I might have the answer to your dilemma.” Twilight bit her lip. The villains and Luna widened their eyes when they figured out what was going in Twilight´s mind. “Wait.” Cozy Glow raised an eyebrow. “You don´t mean...” Tirek continued. “Joining you?!” Chrysalis asked in shock. Twilight smiled nervously. “No! Absolutely not! That is not happening. Never. You hear me? Never!” Chrysalis refused. “I did it once, but never again! Mmh mmh.” Tirek shook his head. Unlike the other two, Cozy was intrigued by the idea. “Twilight, are you hearing yourself?” Luna asked her unsure. “I know it sounds crazy. But think about it! We have something in common, and that thing, is the desire of kicking Grogar out of the throne. And the only way we might achieve it is by working together.” Chrysalis and Tirek stayed quiet for some time. They looked at each other, tempted by the idea of defeating Grogar. But their pride got the better of them. What kind of a villain would join the heroes to save the day? Their worst nightmare. The two villains nodded at the same time and then, Tirek spoke. “As much as we´d love to defeat that goat, or answer is…” “Yes!” Cozy Glow exclaimed. Chrysalis and Tirek widened their eyes in surprise. “What?!” the two asked in chorus. “Really?” Twilight asked hopeful. “No! Our answer is no.” Chrysalis denied. “I don´t know why she said yes!” she lowered her head at Cozy´s level so that she could see her anger. The filly put her hoof on her mouth and shushed her. Then, she took hers and Tirek´s hooves. “Can I talk to my comrades?” she asked with an exaggerated and fake smile. “I should probably talk to you as well.” Luna put her hoof on Twilight´s. “Yeah sure.” she replied to both ponies. “Why thank you so much.” Cozy smiled was so forced that she felt her cheeks hurting. Then, she dragged Tirek and Chrysalis away. Once they were far enough from the two alicorns, they started arguing. “What was that?!” Tirek asked upset. “You´re not seriously thinking on redeeming, are you?” Chrysalis accused her. Cozy rolled her eyes. “Of course not! I´m just doing this because I want to defeat Grogar. Don´t you see? It´s our chance to get to the throne!” “Yeah, because Twilight is going to award us with Equestria after helping her.” Chrysalis said sarcastically. “Well no, but at least we would have our conquest ensured if we manage to fool them.” “You´re saying that we pretend to be reformed?” Tirek asked. Cozy nodded. “As we plan how to defeat Grogar, we should start showing signs of redemption. For example, we could say that friendship is truly powerful, or other things like that.” Tirek and Chrysalis seemed both keen on and uncomfortable with the idea, specially Chrysalis. “I know. I don´t like the idea of being sappy, but it´s our only hope.” The changeling and the centaur looked at each other. Then, they sighed. “If I end up becoming colourful, I´ll kill you.” Chrysalis told Cozy as she put her hoof on hers. “I can´t believe I´m doing this.” Tirek mumbled. “Great!” Cozy exclaimed before coming back to Twilight and Luna, the villains following behind. Meanwhile, the two alicorns spoke. “I hope you´re doing the right thing, Twilight.” Luna rubbed her foreleg with her good wing. The alicorn nodded. “The spirit of harmony told me that each of us a magic inside, equally as powerful as hers. And I´m pretty sure she talked about friendship.” “Where do you see the friendship in them?” “Look at them. Don´t they remind you of a little family?” Luna took a quick glance at the villains. Despite the fact they seemed to be arguing, she could easily see that they care about each other, which gave her confidence in Twilight´s idea. “You´re right. I still don´t trust them, but I think that your idea might work. If that´s what the spirit said.” “Then, it´s done.” Finally, the villains and the princesses reunited. “So, truce?” Twilight offered her hoof. “Temporal truce.” said Chrysalis as she gave her hoof to Twilight. Cozy stepped on her hoof and Tirek nudged her with all her strength. “Ouch! I mean… Truce.” She gave Twilight a forced smile as they shook hooves. “What do we do now?” Cozy asked. Suddenly, an ophiotaurus appeared in front of them. Scared, the group walked behind, only to find maulwurf behind their backs. “You know? Surviving wouldn´t be a bad idea.” Chrysalis suggested.