The interior of Tambelon Castle was just as horrifying as the outside. Everything was dark and gloomy, and there were numerous metallic instruments, with purposes that were exactly as sinister as one might suspect. It wasn't surprising that the entire thing basically looked like one big dungeon. The castle did have an actual dungeon, into which King Sombra was currently leading the defeated members of the Royal Guard. The shadowy monarch had suggested using his brainwashing magic on them, but Grogar had shot him down, claiming they had no need of additional troops. Sombra somewhat doubted that, but nonetheless obeyed. Exactly what was going to happen to the Royal Guard was unknown to all except Grogar at the moment, but most of the others didn't want to know.
Tirek, meanwhile, was busy hauling a massive cage, formed out of anti-magic metal, up to Grogar's throne room, which led out onto a large balcony. Grogar stood on the edge of the balcony, overlooking the city of Canterlot, which had naturally been thrown into hysterics thanks to his recent actions. Ponies were rushing to take shelter in their homes, and some were fleeing the city altogether. Grogar grinned sadistically, enjoying the havoc he was creating.
"It won't do any good, you pathetic creatures," the ram chuckled to himself with a smug grin.
Tirek carefully placed the cage on the ground of Grogar's throne room, knowing that simply dropping it down would only incur his master's wrath. "Here it is, sire," he said, before remembering to bow. It was a rule Grogar had only just created, as a method of establishing his superiority over the others.
"Excellent. You may depart, Tirek," replied the ram, not even bothering to turn around.
Tirek, not wanting to press his luck, casually stomped out of the room.
Grogar watched for another minute, before finally turning and approaching the cage, while it's sole occupant glared daggers at him.
"I wouldn't bother with the stink eye, Discord," Grogar cackled. "After all, why fight the inevitable? I've already bested Twilight Sparkle's best efforts, it is a certainty that the rest of Equestria will fall before me."
"I wouldn't bet the farm on that!" Discord snapped, gripping the bars of the cage with his mismatched hands. "You may have beaten Twilight and her friends, but you haven't captured them! And when they get back—"
Grogar waved one hoof, lazily sending a pulse of magic into that cage that electrocuted Discord, causing him to scream and cutting off his retort.
"I grow weary of these heroic speeches," complained the ram. "I will admit, Twilight and the others escaping was not part of my original plan. Still, it is a hiccup at worst."
Discord grunted, using his hands to prop himself up once more. "You don't understand, Grogar," he snarled. "Friendship is the most powerful force in all of Equestria. It beat me, it beat all of your minions, and it's gonna beat you. Twilight and the others have fallen before, but they always get back up again."
"It's cute that you honestly believe that," Grogar chuckled.
He then turned his gaze fully onto Discord, as his eyes bore into the draconequus. Discord flinched at the eye contact, squirming back in his cage, but he couldn't bring himself to turn away.
"I was going to leave this fate to Princess Twilight and her friends, but I suppose you will have to do," Grogar continued. "You see, Discord, I'm not going to kill you. I'm going to keep you alive, right here." He thrust one hoof outward, waving it over the panoramic view of Equestria. "You will sit here, completely helpless, unable to do anything other than watch, as I conquer this pitiful land of Equestria. You will watch as I hunt down any pony that opposes my rule and slaughter them in front of you. You will watch as I exterminate your precious 'Magic of Friendship' and drive all ponykind into the darkness of memory. You will watch as I find Twilight Sparkle and her friends and finish them off for good. Then, you will observe my conquest of the rest of this pitiful planet. All the while, you will beg for the sweet release of death from me, and never receive it. My magic, combined with your chaos magic, shall ensure you live forever. That is your destiny, Discord. Despair and hopelessness."
Discord quivered in terror. He knew his father was not bluffing, it wasn't Grogar's style. The fate the ram had in store for Equestria would be a thousand times worse than when Discord himself had ruled the land.
"Father, please..." he begged, the desperation he was feeling creeping into his voice.
"You are my most pathetic creation, Discord. I gave you near ultimate power, and you squander it on pathetic party tricks and jokes. Then, you let these foolish ponies bridle you with their idiotic ideas of 'friendship.' You are nothing, Discord, and I will enjoy breaking your spirit as I broke your power."
Then Grogar turned on one hoof, marching back onto the balcony. Discord merely fell, defeated, broken, as though his whole purpose in life had been extinguished.
Grogar, meanwhile, began focusing his magic, his horns glowing along with the studs on his necklace. Soon, he would begin calling forth the armies of Tambelon, and they would hunt down Twilight Sparkle and her friends, no matter where in Equestria or beyond they fled to. But first, he wanted to send a message. One that would be heard everywhere at once.
Closing his eyes, Grogar tensed his body. From out of his back, a giant black silhouette of his head, complete with horns, emerged, floating upward and rising above the castle. Once it stopped its ascent, it grew bigger, its sheer size eclipsing the most gigantic of dragons. Its blood red eyes shone like stars, enabling it to be seen from all across Equestria.
Then, through the avatar of himself, Grogar spoke with a voice that reached every corner of Equestria, and the surrounding lands.
Citizens of Equestria. I am Grogar, the first and rightful emperor of this land. I'm certain the majority of you have heard tales of my glorious reign, and I assure you, they are all true. In fact, I am more terrible than you believe me to be. Now I have returned to claim what is mine.
Perhaps you pathetic ponies are counting on your precious Elements of Harmony and their bearers to come save you. However, my allies and I have already destroyed the Elements, along with the Tree of Harmony itself, and defeated the bearers in combat. They were no match, of course. Your princesses of the sun and moon have failed to defeat me as well. And I assure you, Princess Cadence, your Crystal Empire is next on my list.
This is not a threat. I have already won. There is nothing you can do to defeat me. To the pathetic ponies that claimed this land in my absence, I bring destruction. You will be systematically exterminated until nothing remains of you. My reign of terror over this world will last an eternity.
And to the other species who think this land may belong to them—the griffons, the changelings, the yaks, the dragons, the hippogriffs, the kirin—you will not be spared. In my world, there will only be room for the fierce and terrifying beasts I will conjure to do as they please. You will meet the same fate as the pathetic ponies who oppose me. A glorious darkness shall settle over this planet and never disappear.
That is all. Enjoy what few moments you have remaining in this world.
A few minutes later, the School of Friendship was in a state of near-pandemonium, having heard and processed Grogar's speech. Every creature in the school was terrified, and Starlight was overwhelmed by students rushing to her to beg for help and safety. The unicorn, unsure of what else she could do, had decided to send everyone back home, assisted by Trixie. The students were still afraid, but went along with it, believing they'd be safer at home with their families. It made sense, since the entire population of Ponyville was busy boarding up in their homes.
"Okay," Starlight panted, as the last train went down the track, "I think that's every creature. Oh, if only I was as good as Twilight at making lists, we'd be certain!"
"The Great and Powerful Trixie is pretty sure you got everyone!" chimed in the show mare. "Additionally, the Great and Powerful Trixie made sure to—"
"Will you cool it with the Great and Powerful Trixie stuff?!" Starlight yelled, rounding on her friend. "Twilight, Celestia, and Luna could be dead right now, Grogar is going to destroy Equestria, and you're still stroking your ego?!" Her horn sparked with loose magic, fueled by her rage.
Trixie flinched backwards, and her legs began to shake.Fear was present in her eyes, created in response to the sheer venom in her friend's words. Starlight saw she'd gone too far and stepped back a little, lowering her head in shame. Trixie, apparently feeling safe again, came forward, giving Starlight an affectionate nuzzle.
"You're right, I'm sorry," Trixie apologized. "Although, Grogar didn't specifically say that he'd killed any of the princesses. They might be okay and on the run."
Starlight opened her mouth to counter, but stopped as she processed Trixie's last statement. It was true, Grogar hadn't claimed the princesses were dead, and that seemed like something an evil, Equestria-conquering sorcerer would've said had it been true, in order to break the fragile hope of the population. But he had claimed the Elements of Harmony were destroyed, so that meant they'd lost their best weapon against evil. Then again, Starlight supposed nothing was stopping Grogar from lying.
"Maybe you're right," she finally settled on, "but if they are still out there, we need to find them, and fast. If Grogar really did manage to destroy the Tree of Harmony, then—"
She didn't get the chance to finish, as a wisp of smoke suddenly materialized out of the air. Starlight recognized it as Spike's dragon fire. The smoke began to glow emerald green, before coalescing, and with a sudden flash, transformed into a scroll. Starlight seized the scroll with her magic before it could hit the ground, unrolling it in one fluid movement. She read it as fast as she could, her eyebrows rising with each passing word.
"What? What is it?" Trixie demanded, trying to peak over Starlight's shoulder.
But before she could see anything, Starlight's head snapped upwards, and she folded the scroll up again.
"We have to teleport to the Crystal Empire. Now," she said. It was a statement of fact. "Grab onto me."
Trixie obediently placed a hoof on Starlight's back. "Before we go, can you please tell Trixie—"
Starlight didn't give her the time to complete her question. Her horn glowed with turquoise light, flaring like a firework. With one, blinding flash, the two unicorns vanished from sight.
It really was unfortunate for Starlight Glimmer that she didn't have Twilight's talent for creating checklists. If she had created a list of all the students, she would've discovered that six very familiar ones had been missed in the roundup.
Back at the school itself, Gallus, Silverstream, Yona, Smolder, Sandbar, and Ocellus had gathered in the lobby, having eluded Starlight's gaze. Also, the Cutie Mark Crusaders had joined them. The three fillies had sneaked away from their families, before Sandbar had found them, and asked them to join this little meeting.
"So we're all aware that this is pretty much doomsday, right?" asked Smolder. "I mean, if Grogar himself really is back, than I don't see how things could get any worse—"
She was cut off as Yona smacked the back of her head. "Smolder no say that!" snapped the yak. "That phrase jinxed! Things get worse every time some creature say that!"
"Do you really think he managed to beat Princess Twilight and her friends?" asked Sweetie Bell. "If he did...then Rarity..."
"He's gotta be lying!" insisted Scootaloo. "There's no way Rainbow Dash would go down to a lame old goat like that! Even if he is legendary!"
"Even if he ain't lyin', he didn't say they were dead," added Apple Bloom. "I'd beat my lucky horseshoe that Applejack and the others are still alive! They're probably planning a comeback as we speak!"
"I hope you're right," said Ocellus. "I've heard stories of Grogar and his power ever since changelings started trading with ponies. He'd eat Queen Chrysalis for lunch if they ever fought. In fact, she's probably one of the allies he mentioned."
"Even if they are," said Silverstream, "we've gotta do something too! We helped save Equestria from Cozy Glow, surely we can at least help!"
"How?" asked Gallus. "When we saved Equestria's magic, we had the Tree of Harmony around to channel our collective friendship into power. Now, Grogar's destroyed it."
"Maybe old goat lie about that, too—" began Yona, only for Gallus to shake his head.
"I did a quick fly over to the gorge where the Tree was before Starlight started evacuating. It's gone. There's nothing left but giant crystal shards. Which means the Elements of Harmony are gone, too."
"Well, there goes our big trump card," said Sandbar, gloomily. "Still, Silverstream's right. We've gotta do something."
Smolder shrugged. "Pretty much everybody's feeling defeated already. I saw the ponies in town barricading themselves in their houses. The dragons are gonna be doing the same thing back home, I guarantee you. Everyone's just too scared, which was probably Grogar's goal."
"Rainbow Dash wouldn't stand for that," grumbled Scootaloo. "She'd be up in the air, fighting until the very end, going down swinging, and—"
"Wait a minute!" exclaimed Apple Bloom, grabbing Scootaloo with her front legs. "You might be onto something there!"
"Really?" asked the pegasus, blinking in confusion. "I was just saying what Rainbow Dash would do. How does that help?"
"No, no, I get what she's hinting at," chimed in Sweetie Bell. "We just need to spread the word a little."
"What do you mean?" asked Silverstream.
"Well," began Apple Bloom, "Grogar's plan seems to be based around breaking the will of Equestria and all the creatures living in it, and convincing us he's already won, so we won't even try to fight back. The thing is, he hasn't won yet. And if Twilight, Applejack, and the others are still okay, that means we might there's still hope."
Scootaloo nodded her head in understanding. "I think I'm starting to see it."
"I don't know about you," Apple Bloom continued, "but I think we've been relying on the Elements of Harmony too much. It's time we stepped up and saw what we could do for Equestria. And I mean everyone."
The others all realized the implications of what the filly was saying.
"It might work," admitted Gallus, "but how are we gonna go around to all the tribes and convince them? Not all of us can fly."
"I might be able to help with that," said Ocellus. "If I shape-shift into something big enough, like a bugbear, I could carry the grounded ones around. Might take a while, but I don't see what other options we have."
"Yona not seeing any better plan, either," said the yak, "but Yona and friends need to hurry!"
Deep within the dungeon of Tambelon Castle, Grogar's five allies sat in a semicircle, having herded all the Royal Guard into cages. Naturally, their leader's message did not go unheard by them.
"Well..." said the Storm King, fiddling with his hands, "that was something, alright."
"He's going to wipe out the changelings?!" Chrysalis screeched. "I was supposed to reclaim my kingdom!" She rose to her hooves. "I'm going to give him a piece of my—"
Tirek seized one of her front legs, forcing her back down into a sitting position. "Don't, Chrysalis," he ordered her. "Not only would he completely destroy you, we'd lose your Element of Disharmony, which is part of our best weapon against the ponies."
"Do we really need those anymore?" asked Cozy Glow. "I mean, we destroyed the Tree of Harmony, they've got nothing that can possibly match our elements."
"Never assume they don't have another secret weapon somewhere," Tirek replied. "That's what cost me my victory the first time. As long as Princess Twilight and her friends remain alive, they are a threat to us. That's one thing Grogar and I agree on."
"Good point," said Sombra. "They didn't even use the Elements to defeat me. Sure, they had the Crystal Heart, but that wouldn't work against Grogar unless they managed to lure him to the Crystal Empire, and he's smarter than that."
Chrysalis folded her front legs, grumbling and gritting her teeth. "This isn't what I signed up for," she complained. "I thought we were going to conquer Equestria and enslave its population, then divide it amongst us. Grogar seems like he just wants to destroy it!"
"You didn't sign up for this, remember?" chimed in Sombra. "None of us did. But if you want to go and complain to the all-powerful sorcerer, who's capable of raising the dead and who could easily defeat any or all of us, about his plans, be my guest."
Chrysalis made no attempt to get up, but continued grumbling.
"To be fair, completely ruling a place you've conquered is kinda boring," said the Storm King. "You've gotta keep your subjects in line, make sure they don't rise up to try and dethrone you, yadda yadda yadda. It gets old after a while. That's why I always ditched places I took over after a little while."
"That's because you have no aspirations," Tirek groaned.
The Storm King's eyes snapped to the centaur, clenching a fist that began to spark. "You got something to say, beardo?" he snapped. "What was your grand plan again? Absorb all the magic in Equestria, and go around blasting stuff? Didn't you have the power to move the sun and moon for a little while?"
"I had it longer than you!" Tirek snarled back. "All you did was dance around with that stupid staff and move the celestial bodies over and over again!"
The two creatures glared into each others' eyes, advancing on each other, until Cozy Glow got in the middle, pushing each to the side with one hoof.
"Calm down, guys!" she ordered. "Just like you said, Tirek, if one of us dies, we lose the Elements of Disharmony. Plus, if we kill each other, Grogar will probably get even angrier at us! Then he'll resurrect whoever dies and do unmentionable things to them!"
Tirek and the Storm King shot another angry glare at each other, but backed off anyway.
"Well, we can't just sit around and do nothing!" Chrysalis protested. "Grogar's going to destroy Equestria, and there will be nothing left for us to rule over!"
Sombra placed a hoof under his chin, deep in thought. "Clearly, we can't take down Grogar himself, even if all five of us worked together." Then his eyes widened, as if an insane idea occurred to him. "Well...hear me out. Perhaps, if we joined forces with Twilight Sparkle and the others—"
Four sets of eyes snapped onto him. Sombra's face was covered by a nervous smile, as he slowly sank down where he sat.
"I must have something in my ear," said Tirek. "Or did I just hear you suggest we TEAM UP WITH THE ENEMY?!" Cozy Glow hurriedly shushed him before he brought the wrath of Grogar down on their heads.
"Only as long as it's mutually beneficial," insisted Sombra. "The second we're done with Grogar, we can turn around and literally stab them in the back."
"Oh, that's a great idea," the Storm King sneered, sarcastically, "except, the second we turn on Grogar, we'll lose the power of the Elements. Plus, they'll totally expect us to betray them. After all, isn't that what we'd do?"
"I think you underestimate the naivete of ponies, Mr. Storm King," replied Cozy Glow. "After all, they were willing to try and reform a nutcase like Discord."
"I would rather die than ally myself with Twilight Sparkle!" Chrysalis hissed.
Sombra sighed. "Okay, fine. Let us shelve that idea for the moment. That still leaves us with a problem: what are we going to do?"
The others all quieted down. They all decided to consider the exact nature of their goal.
"Well, assuming that, when he does conquer the planet, he divides it up between us, I'd be fine with that," said the Storm King. "But if he leaves us no living creatures to rule over, that would be pretty pointless."
"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I agree," remarked Tirek. "I can see some sort of wisdom in exterminating ponies, since their magic is so powerful, but not in the complete extermination of all life."
Then his eyes widened in surprise. He turned over to look at Cozy Glow, who was hovering in the air with her wings, scratching her head and thinking.
"I don't know," added Cozy Glow. "If he says he's gonna wipe out all ponies, how can I be sure he isn't going to do the same to me once I've outlives my usefulness?"
"I doubt any creature would consider me to be a pony anymore," said Sombra. "But one could say the same about all of us. How do we know Grogar won't betray us?"
"We didn't exactly get the time to consider that when he 'recruited' us," said Chrysalis.
"Don't you kinda need love to feed off of?" asked the Storm King. "And doesn't that require creatures who aren't just murderous killing machines?"
"Grogar's magic is sustaining me," Chrysalis replied. "As long as I don't have to commit to that foolish 'sharing love' idea that my former subjects have resigned themselves to, I'm good."
The group was quiet for another minute.
"It would appear," began Sombra, "that, for the moment, our goals continue to align with Grogar's. Additionally, there's the fact that, at the moment, we cannot come up with a plan to defeat him. I would suggest we stay on our current course."
"So...do nothing?" Cozy Glow translated.
"For now," replied the king. "But keep your eyes open. There may be an opportunity, soon..."
"If we do betray Grogar," Tirek chimed in, "we do it together. Then we divide up whatever's left of the world between us. Then we rule alone. None of the friendship nonsense."
"Agreed," replied four other voices.