//------------------------------// // Chapter 7 // Story: Archangel Michael visits Equestria // by Kama and Hallie //------------------------------// The next day, Twilight sat in her throne room preparing to perform her duties for the day. Later, she was joined by Spike and in the afternoon by her friends who came back from Ponyville to help her as they promised. Twilight still hasn't told them about what happened on the balcony yesterday, she wanted to and felt she needed to, yet there was something holding her back from saying anything, but she didn't know what. Her day today went as how it did yesterday, the only major difference being that Meekha El wasn't around, she wondered what he does when he's not accompanying her, an interdimensional giant winged creature like that. It was kind of a good thing he wasn't around to help, then her friends could actually help her get some work done, she knew if they were by her side, she had nothing to worry about. She figured her main focus today after getting the more minor duties out of the way is to hear what all those mobs of ponies trying to barge into the throne room were trying to tell her, considering she wasn't really listening when they came by yesterday. Would they even wanna come back after how she just ran out on them yesterday? The sight of the princess running off in a time of crisis would surely tick some ponies off. So Twilight prepared herself, Spike, and her friends to answer some of her subjects' distress calls for the day, and she told the guards to bring in immediately any subjects from yesterday or those who had the same problems as yesterday. To her surprise, today wasn't just ponies who came in, but some creatures of the other kingdoms as well, some of which were the six students from the School of Friendship, and they all looked pretty worried. From the Dragon Lands, it was Smolder and Garble, telling her that a dragon named Fang gathered a bunch of dragons to join her cause and challenged Ember to a duel in order to overthrow her, and the rebel dragon won and claimed the Bloodstone Sceptre, and she might try to overthrow the other kingdoms if she wasn't dealt with quickly. From Griffonstone, Gallus, Gilda, and Gabby said that a greedier-than-most griffin named Geralt was gaining huge amounts of wealth impossibly fast as if they were suddenly handed to him, and his wealth not only made him take over all of Griffonstone, but the surrounding areas as well, and he was making life more miserable as he squeezed every drop of money and property of value from the citizens and destroy the living conditions around them for his growing personal empire, and this was all in the span of two days which shouldn't even be remotely possible. From the Changeling and Hippogriff kingdoms, there was Thorax and Ocellus, then there was Silverstream, Terramar, and Skystar, as well as some citizens from each of their kingdoms. They claimed that some of the Royal Guards had attacked and burnt down their kingdoms, leaving them in ruin and practically leaving them homeless, which Twilight just simply couldn't believe. Twilight claimed she didn't have anything to do with what happened and she never once ordered any Guards to go to the other kingdoms, the creatures who knew her fully believed her and simply asked to clear up the misunderstanding, while the citizens just accused her and thought she was lying. Even the Kirins came in, which Twilight had to admit she almost forgot about. Autumn Blaze claims that the Nirik have gone out of control and have burnt down the entire forest and she couldn't figure out why, there must've been some outside force that interacted with them and caused an emotional imbalance, and they showed no signs of stopping. Then finally, the ponies spoke up, among them was Sandbar who was accompanied by Yona and his family. Apparently, the dragons and some other creatures have started burning down farms and towns on the edges of Equestria, forcing a lot of them to have to immigrate to other bigger towns. The ponies have started rallying together to ward off other creatures from Equestria, and that rally was growing in numbers as they speak. Hearing all of this, Twilight actually became a little thankful she ran out before listening to all of these reports because she might've snapped if she stayed. Twilight was having a hard time processing the sudden humongous bad news that suddenly happened, and an even harder time figuring out what to do. She calmed herself down for a moment and reassured herself that this situation has happened before when Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow tried to turn the ponies against each other, and if they got through that once, they can get through it again. Her friends all looked pretty worried themselves as to how things have been completely fine a few days ago could suddenly go to disaster in such a short amount of time, Rainbow and Applejack even started to wonder if these had anything to do with Meekha El considering they all started happening after he showed up, or that "Satan" guy that he warned them about since these did fit the bill with how Meekha El described him. Twilight reassured her friends with the exact words that went through her head a moment ago, which gave them the necessary boost they needed, and Twilight spoke up to calm down the subjects in the throne room in order to give themselves a moment to think about how to deal with the situation. Fluttershy and Spike considered talking to the troubled creatures, but Twilight had a feeling that they weren't in any mood to engage in conversation with the creatures they're opposing, not to mention that saying the same thing to them last time was probably just going to irritate them and cause more trouble. Pinkie Pie gave her usual solution, which was to throw a party where every creature got together and let the fun cause the tension to die down, which everypony knew wouldn't do any good since being near each other might cause more tension, not to mention one of the times she did this had no effect. Rainbow wasn't really the best at dealing with these kinds of situations so she had nothing to say. AJ and Rarity were busy just trying to get the crowd from erupting into panic again, and Twilight had a feeling they wouldn't have anything to contribute anyway. At this point, Twilight and her friends admitted they were pretty much clueless as to how to respond at this particular moment, though something felt off about their cluelessness, it felt as if something was holding back their train of thought from functioning so they won't be able to do anything, it was a strange conclusion, but that was definitely what Twilight felt was happening. The purple alicorn thought about asking somepony else for help, maybe she could contact Celestia and Luna and ask them for help, they most likely know more and have dealt with situations like this. Have the former princesses even heard about what was happening? Something like this seems like something they would notice and help do something about. Suddenly, all the noise around Twilight ceased, when she looked everything was still going on as it was before, but she couldn't hear anything. She was still watching the world around her, and the world around her was still watching her, yet she felt as if she was suddenly locked out and completely alone at the moment. "Feeling lost, huh?" a familiar voice spoke. As Twilight turned to who was speaking, she felt shocked to see who it was. It was her, but more regal and divine, more princess-looking. She had glowing white eyes and was surrounded by a purplish-white aura, encompassing her divinity, yet for some reason, it felt off. "A-are you...me?" Twilight asked her more heavenly-looking clone. "You could say that." her doppelganger answered vaguely. After remaining silent for a few minutes, the clone spoke again. "Look in front of you, Twilight. What do you see?". "I see subjects and friends that need my help, why?" Twilight asked back, worried where this question would lead to. "Exactly. They desperately need it, and they need you more than anything else in the world right now. Now, look at yourself." "Me?" "Yes, you. What are you seeing yourself doing right now?" the clone looked at her this time. "I'm trying to figure out how to help them, but for some reason, I can't. This shouldn't happen, this should be something I can easily figure out, but I just feel completely helpless right now, and I don't know why!" Twilight answered in devastation. "You are, aren't you? These creatures are relying on you to fix a very serious problem they're having, problems that could decide the fate of their kingdoms. If you keep on being like this, what are they gonna say about you? What are your friends and acquaintances going to think after you've shown yourself to be incompetent and clueless after everything you've done and everything they've done for you? They watched you grow up into a beautiful, powerful, and responsible grown mare, and this is how you'll repay them in a time of need? By acting like a helpless little filly?" the royal-looking doppelganger asked. Twilight sighed, her confidence growing smaller. "You're right. What's happening to me? Why do you look like that anyway?" Twilight finally pointed out her clone's appearance. "That's what I wanted to talk to you about. I am what would happen if you instead of sitting on your ass wondering what's the right thing to do, you simply just got up and...did something. the clone ominously answered. The answer was vague, yet Twilight knew what she was hinting at. "You mean like...what the stallion from yesterday suggested." Twilight's worries grew. "Exactly, Twilight, exactly. Simple words are clearly not going to solve this issue, these creatures have clearly grown too stubborn for any words to enter their heads, and in these kinds of situations, the only thing that'll get them to listen to you is...action." the regal godlike doppelganger continued sinisterly. "I'll have to show them my strength." Twilight said, lifting her head up. "Yes! And these ones in front of you are the perfect ones to start with!" the other Twilight pointed to her friends and all the subjects who stood before her. "If you can strike fear into their hearts, you can do it with anyone!" Twilight's head drooped again with her eyes closed as she put on a stern face. "No...NO! I won't do that! This is wrong! A ruler who rules in fear is no ruler! That's something I learned from my experiences!" Twilight refused loudly. The regal and godlike clone simply remained silent and stared at her for a moment, then chuckled at Twilight's answer. "That's a shame. You can pretend to refuse my option all you want, but soon you're gonna see you'll need it, and you're gonna regret you didn't accept sooonnnneeerrrr...." the clone's eyes and mouth turned black as her beautiful and whimsical form melted and rotted away before Twilight's frightened eyes. Suddenly, Twilight could hear the world around her again, seeing her friends and her subjects in the throne room desperately calling her name and trying to get her attention, and when she looked, her clone had disappeared. Twilight had no idea what happened, but she decided it wasn't important and turned her focus back to her subjects, but before she could say anything, the doors of the throne room slammed open. Every creature's attention now turned to whatever opened the doors, which made them all cease their loud clamoring. Standing at the throne room's entrance was a tall and grand-looking white unicorn stallion with a wavy and royal looking blonde mane and tail, wearing a white tuxedo with a red tie, one might've confused him for Prince Blueblood for a moment, but this stallion somehow looked even more dreamy and handsome, as well as better built and taller. He radiated such a bright and warm aura, and he put on a confident face but also a warm and reassuring smile. "Greetings, everycreature! Fear not, for I am here to help!" the stallion greeted loudly and proudly. "Who are you?" Twilight asked. "I am Morning Star, I have come from a very long family line. I came here to Equestria as soon as I could after I heard the news of what was happening here, and I'd like to assist with the solving of the conflicts happening here, I have quite a bit of experience in politics." Morning Star explained. "Oh, I'm so glad! We could really use some help around here, maybe you could also give me directions along the way." Twilight smiled, relieved a window of hope appeared. "Eh, well...thing is, no offense, Princess Twilight...I would insist on you leaving this to me since from what I've heard you've kind of been avoiding your duties, and that hasn't really made anybody happy." the stallion newcomer said, causing the creatures in the room to mutter in agreement with each other, while her friends and acquaintances just stared worriedly of what this stallion was gonna cause. "W-What?" Twilight muttered, fear and worry creeping into her voice again. "You've pretty much been doing nothing and the situation is constantly getting worse, I'd say it's better to let somepony who will actually take immediate action to deal with the issue." Morning Star continued, the creatures in the room's mutterings of agreement growing louder. Twilight just noticed, but this stallion really had a presence that told whoever beheld him to agree and follow, it was kind of scary, to be honest. He also looked strangely familiar, but why? "Yes, you know what, Princess? I think we should just let this stallion deal with this since all you did was sit around and turn us away as our homes burnt down to the ground!" a pony in the crowd exclaimed, whose words pierced Twilight like a blade, and the other ponies, as well as the changelings and hippogriffs, started shouting in agreement with the pony and shouted more accusations at her. All of her friends simply stared in shock at the audacity of the crowd. "Hey! You better watch your mouth, buddy!" Rainbow Dash shouted, she and some of Twilight's other friends glared at the accusing individual. "Everypony, everycreature, please! There's no need to use harsh words on the princess like that, she obviously also had other duties to take care of, even if she could've helped fix this sooner." Morning Star exclaimed at the beginning with a calm and sympathetic voice but muttered loudly and coldly at the end. "So why don't we all just discuss what to do and leave the princess to...clear her mind. She obviously needs it." the unicorn stallion reverted back to his warmer tone of voice. "If you ask me, she's done enough of that already." one of the creatures in the crowd said as they prepared to leave the throne room. Applejack had to restrain Rainbow Dash from flying over and teaching the crowd a lesson. Suddenly, the stallion looked back at Twilight, staring at her with his one blue and one black eye with a smile, but it wasn't the warm sympathetic one he put on this whole time. He whispered to Twilight, and even though he was practically on the other side of the throne room, Twilight would hear what he said very clearly, and it seemed only she could hear him. "What a shame, Princess. "Uh-oh, twitchy tail!" Twilight heard Pinkie exclaim, but she just ignored her as she wasn't interested in whatever random nonsense Pinkie Pie was blabbering about. She couldn't believe what was happening, her subjects were turning away from her for this random stallion who just came out of nowhere, strange ponies kept appearing to ruin her status as princess, and she and her friends practically had every idea of what to do sucked out of their heads. What was happening? This was like a nightmare with no rules or logic except to torment her in any way. She had to do something, but what? A memory popped into her head as she knew what her only option was, but she was hesitant if she wanted to do it. Luckily, something appeared to stop her from doing anything else. A flash of blue and purple light appeared at the ceiling of the throne room, which caught every creature's attention. Twilight stared in shock, then saw Pinkie Pie sitting down clamping her forehooves together in prayer, who then opened her eyes to take a peek, and she jumped up in glee. "Yay! It worked!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed giddily. Out of the light, a silhouette of a tall and large pegasus stallion appeared, and as the light dimmed down, the form lowered down to the ground. The pegasus stallion had a very well built body, he had a mane and tail that was like fire, his body was royal blue and his feathers were royal purple, his cutie mark was a squiggle of lines that the ponies don't recognize, and he even wore a red robe atop silver garments and horseshoes. "Meekha El, is that you?" Twilight asked. "Yes, and here I am, Princess." the pegasus who turned out to be the strange alien creature she's been seeing answered and bowed his head. "Why do you look like this?" Rainbow asked. "Well, after what happened the past few days, I spoke to Gavri'El and the Lord and they told me to take this form most of the time from now on, might make my job easier." Meekha El explained. "Who are you supposed to be?" Smolder asked among the creatures who didn't want to leave. "I am just someone who is tasked with momentarily assisting the princess." Meekha EL answered the young orange drake. "'Momentarily assisting?' Your job is just helping Princess Twilight for a little while? What was that light show about just now?!" Gallus asked the question going on in every creature's head right now. "I assure you it's of no importance..." Meekha El answered again before noticing someone in the room. He stared at the white and blonde unicorn stallion with a face full of anger and hate, the stallion stared back with a worried face, but he seemed to be smirking underneath. "What...are you doing here?!" Meekha El exclaimed loudly. "You two know each other?" Ocellus asked. "Oh, boy. This doesn't sound good." Thorax muttered timidly. "What am I doing? I'm just trying to help these poor helpless citizens who are going through a time of great hardship. The question is, who are you to ask?" Morning Star shot back at the now pony angel. "I am the one assisting the princess, so I should be the one asking you that! You also forget I am technically also in command of you!" Meekha El shouted. "Woah there, let's not get ahead of ourselves there, Mikey." Morning Star casually brushed off the angel pony's statement. Meekha El just stared blankly at what the unicorn stallion just said. "Are you serious right now? As if the other name wasn't bad enough, now you need to demean it even more?!" his anger growing more. "'Mikey'?" Applejack asked confused. "Wait, how did he know his..." Rarity asked as well. "Kind of out of the question, sister. I'm kinda in the middle of having to attend to these poor creatures' needs, not babble with you lot." Morning Star gestured to the creatures in the room. "Wait a minute...you caused all this, didn't you?!" Meekha El accused, causing quite some ruckus between everyone in the throne room. "What a ridiculous statement! If you were in this room earlier, you'd have known that the cause for all these problems were rogue citizens and possibly rogue royal guards, I've never been to any of those places." the unicorn defended himself. "Are you saying this guy ordered those royal guards to burn down Mount Aris and the Changeling Hive? But why?" Terramar asked. "Exactly! What proof do you have of such accusations? I was never in any of those places, and I only just arrived. Why should we trust what you say, anyway? We don't even know who you are!" Morning Star said before Meekha El got a chance to answer the young hippogriff. "Oh, I don't need to bring any proof, because you're gonna say it." Meekha El said, which caused Morning Star to actually show a hint of worry on his face. Meekha El flapped his wings and levitated himself to the air, closing his eyes and clamping his forehooves together in prayer, once again garnering the attention of the creatures in the room. "By the power of the Lord, the Father, the Almighty, the Creator of All, the Alpha and the Omega, the One who is, was, and ever will be, I command you to reveal yourselves before these creations of His, and to leave this world immediately!" Meekha El shouted in a commanding tone, extending one of his forehooves forward. Morning Star shut his eyes in anticipation of something coming, but after a few seconds of silence, he opened his eyes again, looking around the room for something to happen. "Nothing happened." he said flatly. "W-What? What's going on here?" Meekha El asked himself, panic creeping into his voice as he stared at Morning Star then at his own hooves. Morning Star then gasped excitedly. "Oh, no! Could it be that...someone has abandoned you?" the unicorn stallion asked with glee. "N-No! You're wrong! It's not true! His help just isn't arriving immediately." Meekha El attempted to deflect Satan's words but was so overcome by shock, that he couldn't really think clearly. "Jeez, this guy sounds like a complete nutjob." one of the ponies in the crowd said, which was followed by laughter from the crowd. "Everyone, please, we must not laugh at him. Let's just go already, the princess and this stallion are obviously not well, I think it's best we...leave them to their thoughts." Morning Star gestured the crowd to take leave, then shut the door to the throne room once he and the crowd have left, leaving Twilight with Meekha El and her friends. "I-I'm sorry about what happened, Twilight." Thorax attempted to comfort the purple alicorn. "Yeah, that wasn't cool." Sandbar said. "I don't understand...why didn't anything happen?" Meekha El muttered loudly to himself, causing every creature in the room to look at him. "Dude, what were you doing back there?" Smolder asked. "I was trying channeling the powers of the Lord in order to take command of him and banish him." Meekha El said, a little angry. "Was that who I think it is?" Twilight asked. "Yes, that was Satan himself! He was undetected for the past few days, and he finally decided to show his face again! And believe me when I say that I guarantee he's the one who caused all this!" Meekha El answered. "But why?" Twilight asked again, which Terramar gestured as the question he was also asking earlier. "Clearly he's trying to get me to fail this task by trying to break you. If he manages to bring the lands to ruin, it will become a burden on your soul that will slowly crush it, and once it breaks and you succumb to his temptations, that's when he wins!" the angel explained. "How awful, why would he even do such a thing?! Twilight never even did anything to him." Rarity exclaimed in disbelief. "That's his game, Rarity. Collecting souls by tainting them with sin and dragging them down with him." "Why didn't you do anything then? Why did you have to channel your creator's powers and give up instead of using your own powers?" Rainbow Dash asked. "I wasn't just channeling, I was asking the Creator for permission and asking for help." Meekha El answered the cyan pegasus. "Why didja have to ask for permission, couldn't you just do it yourself?" the pegasus asked again. "Because I can't, if the Creator doesn't instruct me, I can't do anything." "Is this one of those soldier things where you can't disobey your commanding officer? Because since you're tasked with guiding me, I think it's safe to say that while you're here, you can follow my orders." Twilight suggested. "No, I can't, Princess. I mean that I do not have free will! I'm practically useless if I have to do something that is not part of the current objective the Creator has given me!" Meekha El explained loudly and a little irritated, which caused some of the creatures surrounding him to take a step back. "You mean you're like...a drone? Like a robot?" Twilight asked. "I guess you can put it that way. This is the problem I've been dealing with the past few days, Satan immediately showed up to screw up my duty and this world, and I'm powerless to do anything about it! Now look at what's happened!" Meekha El gestured to the door. His statement gained some sympathetic looks and two empathetic looks from Thorax and Ocellus who understood the feeling. "Is there anything we can do to help?" Fluttershy asked. "No, Fluttershy, thank you for the gesture but I'm afraid not. Once the Creator has set his mind on what his creation's going to be like, that's how it's gonna stay for all time." Meekha El answered, which made the yellow pegasus feel worse. "Don't feel bad for me, I'm proud to be the way I am. It has allowed me to serve my Creator unconditionally and maintain his perfect creations of the universe." the angel said proudly with a smile. "But you just said it like it's the worst thing ever. I mean, living without the ability to choose and having to live by the commands of the one who created you sounds really bad." Sandbar said. "I appreciate all your concerns, really I do. But I have never had a problem with only living by the Creator's commands, except now. This is a time I'm needing his orders, but when I was asking for it back there, there was simply...no answer, and I couldn't do anything." Meekha El explained. "Jeez, I'm sorry you're going through such a tough time, Mikey." Rainbow said, putting a hoof on the angel's back in an attempt to comfort him, which earned her a glare from the blue and purple pegasus stallion when he heard what she was calling him. "Uh...sorry, dude." Dash chuckled nervously as she pulled her hoof away. "I must take a momentary leave and speak to Gavri'El, I won't be long. Princess Twilight, let me help you ease your worries and negative thoughts before I leave, it's the least I can do after failing to get rid of Satan." Meekha El got up and touched Twilight's forehead which made Twilight become overcome with a strange feeling of calmness as she felt the stress in her head lighten significantly, he didn't make her worries disappear but he certainly eased them by a mile. Then Meekha El disappeared in a flash of light. "Uh...Princess Twilight? Who were those guys? What's going on?" Silverstream asked, fear and worry apparent on her face. Twilight wondered if she should bother explaining, and decided they deserved an explanation after the weird things that just happened. "It's kind of a long story..." Michael reverted back to his original form and contacted Gabriel with the portal they always used, and Michael skipped greetings and went straight to the point. "Gavri'El, something's happened. Satan finally showed up again!" Michael started his explanation. "Really? What has he been doing?" Gabriel asked. "He is bringing the kingdoms into total disarray, breaking them apart and causing conflict among them! He's trying to break Princess Twilight's spirit in order to make me fail my task." "Oh no, that's terrible! What are you going to do? Satan wasn't a part of your order, wasn't he?" "Unfortunately, he wasn't. I tried praying to the Creator to give me the order of getting rid of him, but there was no answer!" "Really?!" "Yes! I'll have to get someone else to come down here and deal with him. But who? Uri'El? Yeshua? Hey, maybe you could ask the Creator to send someone down here." Michael said to his fellow angel. "Uh...I'm afraid I can't do that, Mikha'El." Gabriel said nervously. "What?! Why not?!" "You see, it's not just you, every prayer relating to you or your current duty have all simply been...ignored. The Creator just wasn't answering any of them. Sorry, Mikha'El, but I can't do any more than you can right now." Gabriel explained. "Oh, God in Heaven, why is this happening?! What am I to do?! Alright, calm down. This must be some sort of test by the Lord in order to let me learn to find solutions for myself." Michael reasoned mostly to himself. "But Mikha'El, the Lord never tests angels, that's not what we're made for." Gabriel said, worried for the well-being of his angel brother. "Well, how else do you explain what's going on here?! You don't think the Almighty had...cast me down, do you?" Michael asked full of fear. "Considering you still have your angelic form and that you're still able to speak to me, I'd say you're still fine." Gabriel answered. "Phew, you're right. But still, what am I to do?! Satan's still out there and he's going to make things worse! If I only had free will I would've kicked his arse straight to the deepest, darkest corners of Hell!" Michael said angrily before an idea struck him. "Wait...free will...Gavri'El, I have an idea!" Michael's confidence showed up again. "Mikha'El, what are you thinking?" Gabriel asked nervously, feeling this idea wouldn't be a good one.