//------------------------------//
// Episode 2: Train to Aris Part 2 
// Story: My Little Pony: Twilight's Reign 
// by MattTOB 
//------------------------------//



Previously, on My Little Pony Fan Seasons...

"There's something threatening Mount Aris, and we've gotta help; simple as that!"

"I'm just trying to figure out why she's sending ALL of us..."

"According to Twilight's research, she's a Class B Sorceress who can perform Rain Dances, as well as hypnotize her victims with her gaze."

"Twilight's been running the whole country, raising the sun and moon, monitoring the dreamscape, and planning international relations; it's reasonable to think she'd want to take a shortcut somewhere."

"I'm worried about Discord; he seems to really regret what he did when he posed as Grogar."

"She knows how unfair it's been, roping everypony into the School of Friendship in addition to their day jobs, and she feels like letting you in on her leadership stress would be too far; she just wants to get this over with as easily as possible."

"Once all of this is over, we're going to have a talk with Twilight."

"I'm sensing a doozy incoming!"

"Now come on; there's no time to waste."







THEME

♪My Little Pony, My Little Pony
This is non-canon!

(My Little Pony)
Until you all shared its magic with me!

Friendship is my forté, I know just what to do
Hard work and sacrifice, be honest through and through
Have fun with all my friends, and laugh and dance and sing!
I'll be kind to every creature, and just most anything
Gotta go faster, faster, faster faster—
Rainbow Dash!
...sorry
Generosity's always in season, and I'm always the master
Loyal to my family, I know she can't be beat
I don't need a spell to guide the way, it's such an easy feat!

With us, the journey never ends
You are my very best friends!♪





The group made their way up the cliff side, a tense silence hanging over everypony. Starlight and Spike were watching Twilight as she navigated the path, weariness subtly showing; the rest of them were eyeing the storm clouds that hung over the city at the peak.

As the wind picked up the closer they got to the peak, Rarity spoke out. "Does anypony have a mirror? I want to make sure my mane doesn't get messed up by this wind."

"Here you go!" Pinkie happily pulled out a hand-held mirror from her mane, giving it to Rarity.

Applejack groaned as the fashionista used her magic to adjust her mane. "Who cares about how yer mane is styled?! It's just gonna git messed up again while we're fighting!"

Rarity stared levelly at the Earth Pony, "We'll see who's laughing when your mane gets in your eyes due to all this wind."

Eventually, the stairs levelled out, and the gateway to the town came within view. Sheets of rain lashed at the city, the winds threatening to rip off loose bits of the houses. Thunder reverberated around the walls of the city, completing the sense of dread they all felt at the moment.

And standing under an awning, shielding her eyes from the biting wind, was Queen Novo in her hippogriff form. "There you are! I was beginning to worry that you wouldn't make it."

The group approached and bowed. "Greetings, Queen Novo," began Twilight. "I wish we could've met under better circumstances."

"It's not your fault," the Queen replied. "Tidal Surge has been casting for hours now. If we don't hurry, the Harmonizing Heights will be nothing more than unsalvageable rubble. Follow me!"

With that said, Novo began to lead them towards the landmark. As they approached, the storm seemed to grow more hectic and destructive.

"Have you figured anything out since we last wrote?" Twilight now had to shout to be heard over the gale.

"Only that she seems to be focusing solely on the Harmonizing Heights; any other damage appears to be collateral."

By the time they reached the entrance to the Heights, the wind was threatening to blow them off their hooves. Queen Novo stopped just outside the archway. "She's just beyond this arch. Be careful."

Twilight nodded, then led the rest of them into the natural monument.

It was a disaster. The wind was uprooting trees, the heavy rains were chipping away at the ground, and scattered lightning strikes singed the grass (the rain kept it from catching fire outright).

And there, standing on the other side of a raging river and facing away from them was a tall, seafoam green unicorn, her horn ablaze and forehooves moving to help direct her magic.

Twilight turned to the group and nodded. "Okay, girls, let's show her what we're made of!"

Grabbing each other's hooves, the Elements of Harmony began to channel their own magic. The ponies started to levitate off the ground as they prepared to blast the unicorn with their friendship. Starlight had a feeling they should've stayed hidden and thought of a plan, but she didn't move to stop them.

But before they could unleash their magic, an errant bolt of lightning struck the ground just in front of them, causing Trixie to yelp and inadvertently alert Tidal Surge. With the assistance of a wave of her hooves, her horn sent out a blast of lightning, knocking the six out of their magic-summoning state.

Twilight groaned as they got back up, all six of them lightly burnt by the strike. "Alright, I guess we'll have to do this the old-fashioned way!"

With that, eight of them charged straight for the Enchantress, while Fluttershy stayed at a distance to make sure any lingering animals were safe.

Rainbow Dash was the first to reach Tidal Surge, drawing the majority of her firepower. Pinkie also helped with her crazy reality-warping skills, along with Trixie and her smoke bombs, meaning that the enchantress had to put less focus into the storm and more into defense. The storm began to let up due to this, but it still remained a problem.

Applejack circled around Tidal Surge, looking for an opening. As soon as she saw one potentially open up, she charged, only for the Enchantress to blast her back with a gust of wind. Tidal then tried to shoot some lightning at her, but thankfully, Rarity was there to block it with a gem-shaped shield spell. Twilight and Starlight stood side-by side, shooting spell after spell at the mare, but somehow she managed to dodge each one. Spike also tried to help with his fire breath, but the rain was still heavy enough to reduce his range. It was looking to be a stalemate from the offset.

Then Rainbow Dash swooped in a bit too close, allowing Tidal Surge to hit her with a lightning spell. She tried to stay airborne, but the direct blast of electricity was too much to handle (even with her pegasus heritage), causing her to crash land.

"Dashie!" Pinkie shouted, before focusing her movements on getting to her fallen friend. But any time the mare attempted to get close, Tidal Surge sent out blasts that kept her at bay.

Rainbow Dash struggled to get up, chancing a glance at Tidal Surge.

That's when their eyes locked, and the enchantress began to use her hypnotic gaze.

"Don't look into her eyes!" Twilight warned, but it was too late; Rainbow Dash, in her weakened state, stood no chance of fighting the spell.

A hypnotized Rainbow Dash stood up, glaring at the group. With a silent command from Tidal Surge, she took off and began to harass the others like she had been doing to the Enchantress herself.

With an extra minion of her own relieving some of the work, Tidal was more able to focus her magic and attention on the remaining threats. With a wave of her hooves, the winds picked back up, throwing everyone off balance. Using this opening, she shot a bolt of lightning at Trixie, knocking her down.

"Trixie!" Starlight shouted. She quickly teleported over to protect her fallen friend, leaving Twilight on her own.

Tidal Surge smirked, before unleashing a wave of electricity towards Twilight. The alicorn barely managed to throw up a shield to block it, but it was enough of a distraction to work. Tidal Surge sent bolt after bolt towards the mare, cracking her shield further and further.

But just as she was about to send a final bolt, Applejack managed to approach, bucking the mare square in the side. She reeled before sending her hypnotic gaze towards the farm mare, but Applejack's positioning after the buck made it so they didn't make eye contact.

Rarity, however, wasn't so lucky; she was running towards the two when she was caught in the crossfire.

"Rarity!" Twilight shouted, before sending a blast of magic towards Tidal Surge; however, that blast was blocked by the still-hypnotized Rainbow Dash.

Rarity, now under the spell as well, began to send blasts towards Applejack. Spike saw this, and began to fly around Rarity in an attempt to distract her, but her entranced mind was not so easily fooled; she threw up a gem shield into Spike's path, causing him to slam into it. With a quick flick of the shield, the young dragon was sent tumbling away, before Rarity refocused her efforts onto Applejack.

"Spike!!" Twilight screamed at the sight of her adoptive brother hitting the ground. She teleported in front of him protectively, before beginning her assault on Tidal Surge anew.

Fluttershy, who had finally helped all the critters she could to escape, turned back to look at the fight, then froze when she saw what'd happened. Her friends were being beaten down, and two of them were hypnotized into fighting their own friends.

Seeing this, something snapped in her.

"Y-you... You BIG! DUMB! MEANIE!!!"

With speed she barely knew she was capable of, she flew straight towards Tidal Surge. The enchantress, seeing her advance, tried to shoot some spells her way. A few grazed her, but her pegasus heritage, combined with her anger, kept her going.

Then she stopped just close enough to begin using her Stare. "How DARE you hurt my friends like that! Have you no conscience?! I have half a mind to—"

Tidal Surge began to use her own gaze-based power, trying to counteract the Stare. The two battled it out with their visages for a moment, but it was clear that Tidal Surge was too tired to keep it up for much longer.

Then the entranced Rainbow Dash swooped in and tackled Fluttershy to the ground, knocking them both unconscious due to the sheer force of the blow. Tidal Surge used the opening to send a blast of wind at them, knocking both of them away.

Thankfully, Starlight managed to catch them in her magic. She set Fluttershy down next to Trixie, before dropping Rainbow Dash at her hooves. "Twilight, cover for me; I'm gonna try and break the spell on Rainbow!"

The alicorn managed to teleport both her and Spike to Starlight's side, before she brought up her shield. Starlight's horn lit up, and she began to use her experience with mind-control spells to work on breaking Rainbow Dash's trance.

Pinkie, who'd disappeared at some point in the battle, suddenly popped up right next to Tidal Surge, holding her hand-held mirror. "Hey, wanna see my mirror collection?"

Tidal Surge, who'd almost forgotten about the mare due to how long she'd been absent, was caught off guard by her sudden reappearance. She sent out a reflexive blast of magic, but Pinkie dodged it, appearing on the other side of the mare. "Yeesh, you coulda just said 'no'."

This time, when Tidal turned, she tried to hypnotize the mare with her gaze. However, Pinkie held up the mirror, causing the Enchantress's gaze to be reflected back at herself and stunning her for a moment.

That moment was all that Twilight needed. She sent out a blast of magic, scoring a direct hit on the mare's side. Tidal stumbled, but Twilight didn't let up; she sent blow after blow towards the mare, giving her no time to recover.

With a flash of light, Starlight finished breaking Rainbow's trance. The prismatic mare suddenly stood up, ignoring her own injuries in favor of getting straight back into the fray. With the two of them now adding to Twilight's assault, they beat Tidal Surge further and further back.

Finally, Tidal Surge had had enough; finding a single moment in between their attacks, she threw a bolt of lightning at the ground in front of them, causing them to back off momentarily. Using this opening, she began to run, casting a wind spell to help speed her up.

"She's getting away!" Twilight, Starlight, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack began to pursue the Enchantress. However, the still-entranced Rarity threw up shield spell after shield spell, putting them in the way of the group. That, combined with some spells thrown back by Tidal herself, allowed her to reach the edge of the Harmonizing Heights. She quickly climbed the outer wall that separated the monument from the sheer cliff-face on the other side, then turned to face the approaching group.

With a smirk and a wave, she leapt off the edge. By the time the group reached the edge where she had stood, she was nowhere to be seen.

"Darn it, she got away!" Rainbow Dash wheezed, her injuries finally catching up to her.

Suddenly, Rarity twitched, before collapsing to the ground. Starlight took the opportunity to get to work breaking her trance as well, while the others went back to collect the downed ponies.





Some time later...

Starlight sat on a rock, staring out at the destruction that'd befallen the Harmonizing Heights. They'd just spent the last while making sure everypony was alright, and were now recovering from the whole ordeal. Fluttershy was hugging Rainbow and the recently freed Rarity, while everypony else was discussing what'd happened.

But not Starlight; she was thinking over how much of a disaster that battle was. They were too used to monologuing villains with too much confidence for their power to back up; Tidal Surge, on the other hoof, hadn't said a single word, and had been rather close to wiping out their whole team. Now, she had escaped, and was who knows where, likely plotting her revenge.

They really should've come up with a better plan.

Eventually, Twilight broke off from the group and approached Starlight. "Okay, it looks like everypony will be fine. Tidal Surge really did a number on—"

"Twilight, we need to talk."

The Princess flinched at Starlight's tone, then sighed. "Yeah, I suppose we do."

"What happened today was nearly a disaster," Starlight began. "We almost got our flanks handed to us because we weren't organized enough. If it weren't for Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, we probably would've lost."

Twilight nodded, downtrodden. "I really should've come up with a better plan instead of just rushing out there and hoping that our Friendship Power would work."

Starlight nodded. "But more than that; you should've been more open with us about how overworked you are. If you weren't so stressed out, you would've been thinking more clearly, and we could've come up with a better plan."

Twilight flinched. "Did Spike tell you I was overworked?"

"I can neither confirm nor deny it."

The Princess shook her head, "He's right, though. I was just worried about overworking you guys, too; you're all so busy with your jobs and the School, that I didn't want to pile on even more on top of that."

"We're your friends, Twilight," Starlight put her hoof on her former mentor's shoulder. "We're always willing to help you, especially when you're this stressed."

She smiled weakly. "Thanks, Starlight. I promise I won't let it get to this point ever again."

"I'll be holding you to that."





So Twilight told the others of her stress, and they all agreed that they'd be willing to help however hey could, while Twilight agreed to come to them when she needed it. After a big group hug, they all began to make their way out.

Queen Novo and the hippogriffs congratulated them, promising that they would return the favor however they could. With that said, they headed back to the train and began the ride home.





Somewhere else...

Tidal Surge sat in her hideout, stewing in her defeat. She was this close to destroying the Harmonizing Heights, but she was ultimately thwarted.

But she'd escaped regardless, and now she had a chance for revenge. Moving to her tome shelf, she searched each book as she built up a rune circle. Once she'd finished, she stood over it and began to chant.

"Hear me, Oracle, and listen well!
Receive this power from my spell!
Awaken from your slumber, rise!
To bring about the Elements' demise!"

Slowly, the room filled with a red light as the rune circle began to activate. Tidal Surge smiled wickedly.

Soon enough, the Princess and her friends would pay.