Written, translated, edited and post corrected by me: Nova Star Sparkle
Further post-correction of the first two chapters by Phetiamwantip - Thanks!
*1*
It should have been the best day of her life, but suddenly everything went so catastrophically wrong and up until now she just didn't know where it all started to go down the drain. She had just finished the last preparations in Canterlot Castle for her ascent to the throne of Equestria and the associated sole rule over a kingdom of millions of ponies. And suddenly she found herself in what was probably the greatest crisis Equestria had ever known.
Princess Twilight Amicitia Aurora Sparkle, youngest of Equestria's four alicorn princesses, but easily the smartest and most well-read mare nonetheless, simply didn't know what had gone wrong at all.
Tearing herself from her thoughts, she looked angrily and in horror across the green meadow covered with dark, ominous clouds above the three culprits responsible for all this crazy nonsense. The big, red minotaur Lord Tirek, the black former Changeling Queen Chrysalis, and the medium brown Pegasus foal - or now rather artificial alicorn Cozy Glow.
Each of the three had a smug and triumphant expression on their visage. Especially Chrysalis, who was just about to threaten to hurt Spike's wings with her magic. Spike, her oldest friend she ever had. Her brother - almost son as close as the relationship between them was. She just didn't know where the buck went wrong.
"Ow, ow, ow! Please! Stop, it freaking hurts like hell!", whimpered Spike in pain as the changeling queen dragged further and harder on his wings, grinning as she looked over at the six shocked mares.
"STOP!", Twilight heard herself command with her mind racing in the royal Canterlot voice. "Please don't hurt him. We surrender." Which she hung her head and used both wings to indicate to her friends standing behind her to stop fighting.
The five other mares paused as they usually did upon hearing Twilight's voice. There was a reason why the lavender alicorn mare had been chosen to be the leader of their little crisis defense force over the years. Her abilities to make decisions and logic in the shortest amount of time and come up with calculations that none of them could begin to grasp were as brilliant, as the young mare herself.
"That's right. Surrender and kiss our hooves," Chrysalis snickered as she used her magic to throw Spike to Twilight who caught the young dragon with her own. She then hugged him tightly and reassured him with her furry chest. For that, she extended both her wings around him and embraced him in a warm cocoon of her appendages to shield the youngling from the world.
"Spike! Spike? Are you all right? Did she hurt you badly?" Twilight´s voice was soft and caring, but also had a tint of concern for the well being of the young drake.
"I -I'm fine," Spike shakily replied faintly with tears in his eyes as he briefly looked up to Twilight’s caring, purple, and almond-shaped eyes. He snuggled tighter into his foster mother's lavender, soft and warm fur in response. The alicorn's heartbeat, very calm and rhythmic despite the situation, ensured that his own racing heart slowly calmed down. After a minute, Twilight carefully grabbed him in her magic again and lowered him to the ground beside the other girls, whereupon the young dragon hastily squeezed himself between the larger mares. A little more assured, Spike dared to look once more at the creatures that were responsible for everything.
"WHAT do you want?", demanded Twilight in a sharp tone, the corners of her mouth pulled back in a slight snarl and her spiral horn still blazing with her tremendous magenta alicorn magic. This led Spike to conclude that Twilight had probably a solid plan and was likely casting protection charms onto the nearby area, to protect them from as much harm as possible.
"Other than your complete surrender; you abdicating as Regent and leaving Equestria to us; as well as dropping your secret games? Nothing," Cozy's voice sneered at Twilight.
"And that you will do nothing when we wipe you out of existence," Tirek's voice boomed. Shocking all present and inclining them to turn their heads to the centaur.
"Wait, what? Are we sure we wanna do that?", The alicorn pimped Pegasus foal wheeled around to Tirek with a high-pitched voice. That wasn´t something they had talked about in Grogar´s cave back this morning.
"Absolutely. What did you think? This is the perfect opportunity. Our six worst enemies gathered in one place. Powerless against us and what we can do to them. I would say that’s the jackpot'', Chrysalis´s laugh was nasty. Her horn was already lit up in joyful anticipation.
"Ehh- Hm, well, ok, if you say so. I'm in." Cozy Glow also summoned her magic and united it with that of the former changeling queen. Nodding proudly, Lord Tirek also added his centaur magic, and the three prepared to deliver a devastating blow to the assembled mares in front of them.
All of Twilight's friends as well as Spike moved closer to join their leader and even though the situation was not a pleasant one, Twilight's heart was warmed a lot. Even in this hopeless situation, the girls were ready to go through it with her and didn't budge an inch from her side. She truly had the best of friends one could wish for and she was willing to give it all to preserve their legendary bond.
The attack of the three villains was meanwhile nearly ready and Cozy, as well as Chrysalis was already lifting their horns into the air, both ready to start the attack whenever they wished. Only Tirek was still waiting, adding a constant bit more power to the ball of energy between the three. Just to be sure. Alicorns were known to be incredibly resilient and you never knew with these seven what secret powers they had.
Deciding to make a move and easing the embrace of her friends by opening both of her wings and pushing the embrace apart, Twilight took a step forward. "Wait! Take me and spare my friends. Do whatever you want to me. I don't care as long as I know they're safe." Twilight then meekly bowed her head to indicate that she wasn't kidding.
"Well, if it isn't the princess of friendship. Always ready to sacrifice herself for her friends. Noble, noble." Tirek's voice almost dripped with cynical elements, and as Twilight glanced up she saw the centaur lord grinning broadly with his hand raised. The magic ball still hovered in front of the three attackers, but as long as Tirek didn't let go of his control over it and lowered his hand, it wouldn't move or vanish into thin air. Just increasingly bigger and more threatening.
"Hm, but I'm having a good day, so I say we take you up on your offer. I even have already some cruel plans for you as we speak."
Reluctantly, Twilight began to slowly trot over to the three villains. She did not want them to win. But if that was the only way she could save her friends, she was determined to do anything, no matter how degrading it was for her status as a princess of Equestria.
About halfway across the field, she paused as she heard a comment that made her blood run cold, jerking her head back to its full height she locked forward, terrified. Unfortunately for her, however, a moment too late.
"Hmm, whereas, come to think of it. Why not kill two birds with one stone and take away the one thing that matters to the princess of friendship and still do all the nasty things with her?"
Twilight stared stock-still at Tirek as he lowered his hand, causing the massive ball of magic to shoot forward at incredible speed.
In the fraction of a second it would take the ball of magic to reach her, Twilight calculated everything three times over. The angle was too high to be aimed at her and after a second thought, she realized it was aimed at her friend’s behind. Also, the power of the magic was far too high to create a stable enough shield to repel the attack in such a short time, even for her. Only self-teleportation was truly instantaneous and any other spell took, if very little time, still a few milliseconds to form completely. And even as an alicorn and guardian of magic, that time was still insufficient to get enough mana into her horn. Nor would she be able to pull her friends out of the way with her magic, even that required too much time. There was only one way that would work and Twilight was ready.
With a war cry and tears in her eyes, she energized her horn and teleported straight into the path of the magical ball aimed at her friends. I'm so sorry, girls. I never meant for it to come to this. Maybe someday you will understand what I have done. Maybe not now, but someday. Keep the memories of me fresh and live your lives to the fullest. I know it will be hard for you, but promise me you will. You don’t deserve to mourn because of me. It's not worth it. I’m just another pony like anyone else.
Before the girls even knew what was about to happen, Twilight had vanished in front of them with a bright flash of magic, and reappeared three meters above them - to their combined shock directly in the path of the magic ball, much too close for them to do anything about it. They had still hope, Twilight was a very strong and capable mare with very good skills in Magic. Whatever she did had a reason, so the alicorn must have had a Plan in her mind to avert the crisis.
But that hope was instantly crushed as to everyone's horror they realized, the alicorn had not placed a single protective spell or rune around her body, nor did she make any effort to protect herself in the first place. Rainbow Dash, by far the fastest of the five, tried to get close to Twilight. But even she didn't make it more than ten meters before the magic struck Twilight.
With open mouths and horrified impressions on their faces, they had to watch as Twilight was directly hit slightly above the center of her muzzle causing the magic to explode in a bright red flash. That in itself would have been bad enough if the alicorn's long horn didn't begin to crack almost at its base from the impact, splintering with thousands of sparks of magic.
The likely cry of pain from their alicorn friend was fortunately drowned out completely by the force and volume of the explosion, and secretly the mares were grateful for it. They didn’t even want to begin imagining it. Even though they knew exactly what this meant for the alicorn of magic. Their skilled friend would never be able to use her spell magic again. Yes, Pegasus and Earth pony magic, but spells were a no-go for the young alicorn now. To further worsen it, they also had to watch Twilight's fur and feathers being partially burned by the intense heat of the magical explosion.
The concentrated force of the impact caused Twilight's body to bypass several laws of nature and accelerate back so fast that within half a second she was flung past her friends and slammed sideways with her back into the rock wall 50 meters behind them at near tribble the speed of sound. The impact was so strong that Twilight’s body was driven almost 2 meters into the rock before her momentum stopped.
Sadly, the sounds of this were not drowned out and Twilight's body made some sickening cracking noises on the impact. Clearly she did not escape unharmed and some of her bones got broken. Which made the mares flinch even more in terror. As a result, Twilight slid forward to the ground from the impact and remained to lie there motionless.
The crown she had been wearing all this time fell off her head and came to rest clanging next to her head, funnily enough, unscathed as it was made from an enriched alicornite frame and reinforced shade, a very expensive metal used mostly for showcases as it had a pleasant deep blue color but was not very practical for creating stuff for the common ponies, as it was just too expensive to compensate for its advantages. Both materials were incredibly sturdy and the first even known to be indestructible by any means and magic-repelling once refined. A purple-hued material naturally found in small quantities in the blood, bones, fur, skin, and cells of an alicorn, hence the given name.
Alicornite seemed like it was a metal, thanks to its characteristics, but had some things not normal for a metal. As it was not ferromagnetic or you could have something stick to it at all, could both conduct and lead current at the same time, depending if it was positive or negative charged and as said had no melting point and could only be influenced by alicorn magic in its unrefined state. Once refined it began changing its molecularity in a few minutes in physically impossible ways and became the indestructible self it was known.
Turning their gaze deeper, the mares saw that both of Twilight’s eyes were closed and half of the mare´s mane was at least burnt or singed at the ends.
Immediately disgusted all of Twilight´s friends looked away from the unfortunate sight, as they couldn´t stand the lock of how Twilight's body lay there behind them so motionless and battered. But they couldn´t help but notice that in addition to the burns all over her body, she had also suffered countless cuts and bruises caused by the merciless rock she crashed into. Also, her left wing and hoof had an unsightly twist, but thanks to the fantastic pegasus and earth pony regeneration, that every alicorn naturally got, that would prove to be unproblematic for her in a few seconds. Worst of all, however, was the fact that the mare's hip, due to hitting the wall at an inappropriate angle sideways and with her back to the wall, was abnormally torqued to the side causing her spine to certainly be at least severely injured. It was even quite possible that the alicorn was paralyzed and would never be able to walk in her entire life. Well, magic was a powerful kind of force so it was still possible that Twilight would be able to walk later, but that was overlooked by the mares in the current situation.
"TWILIGHT, NO!!!!!!", everyone cried out at almost the same time, and tears had begun to form in the eyes of Fluttershy, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash. The cyan pegamare dropped to the ground beside the two others, as she had forgotten to flap her wings in terror. Applejack and Pinkie Pie were able to bear it for a moment longer until their hooves also gave way in grief and despair as they sank to the ground beside their other three friends, crying. All hope for the mares had been extinguished in a split second. Without Twilight, they would never have even the slightest chance against these three monsters. And as their alicorn friend was currently knocked unconscious, there was so far nothing they could do.
"Oh, would you look at that? If that's not a surprising twist of fate then call me whatever you want. Too bad really, I had so many more ways of torture in store for Princess Twilight."
Tirek's voice made the mares flinch and they all at once returned their gaze to the villains standing in the distance, who had just unintentionally succeeded so well in their attack. Their gazes darkened as they saw Tirek smiling broadly and almost gloating at the sight of their distress. In no way were his emotions marked by remorse or compassion, just cynical joy.
In Chrysalis's eyes, there was a surprise but also a spark of satisfaction and contentment. While she would not have wished that on the young arch-enemy alicorn, now there was nothing she could do about it anyway, so she just had to go with it. No matter if she liked it or not. As long as the danger was out of the way, that was enough for her. Even though the means were still a bit dramatic for her taste.
Cozy Glow, on the other hoof, was horrified. It couldn't be, could it? It just wasn’t possible. Surely the lavender princess would get up in a moment, compose herself briefly, and heal her injuries. After which she would storm off angrily at her and show how not in any way their attacks had bothered her. As the seconds dragged on, however, the young pegasus hope evaporated. Twilight didn't move an inch and remained to lie in the grass as wounded as she was. No! No, no... She never wanted that. All of this was too much for the young Pegacorn. Also beginning to get tears in her eyes, she slowly sank to the ground.
"Please, no!", Cozy wailed while holding her hooves in front of her eyes, her sobs penetrating the else-so-quiet surroundings.
"Pull yourself together little brat. There's no need to cry, it's her damned fault. No harm would have come to her if she hadn't teleported into the trajectory."
Tirek had shifted his attention to Cozy and was looking down at her without sympathy. From his point of view, Cozy was too soft and young to subdue Equestria anyway, the foal would never make a name for herself with that attitude. Hmm, he would just have to put up with Cozy for now and deal with the problem permanently later.
Eyes red with tears, Cozy looked up at the centaur. Her gaze was uncomprehending, for the centaur's callousness. He couldn't be serious - could he? I mean, how could anyone have so little emotion about something like that? Yes, they were all villains, and Twilight was by far their biggest nemesis. However, Cozy would never have wanted anyone to get seriously hurt. Not even Princess Twilight, her biggest enemy. No matter how much Cozy had tried to convince herself to be cynical, that never was and probably never would be her. There had always been a bad ulterior motive gnawing at her for what she was doing, regardless of what she tried.
As such, she turned to the giant centaur next to her and glared at him as menacingly as she could, which, due to the mighty size difference and attitude between her and Tirek, however, didn't have much effect on the latter. Her voice was just a bit shaky from her reason for crying, but she still managed to nail it pretty solid.
"What do you think she would do if you betrayed your oath to her and directly targeted her friends? The same ponies she values the most would do anything to protect them from any harm and truly give even her own life if needed. I mean, she TRUSTED you to hold your promise, DAMN IT. Look what you've done, was it worth it in the end?" Cozy pointed with a trembling hoof over to the grieving mares and the broken body of Twilight lying behind them.
Suddenly, faster than her mind or body could react, her entire body was mercilessly grabbed in a red glow and brought just in front of Tirek's face. If the centaur had glowered down at her viciously before, he topped it by leaps and bounds now. His gaze was so piercing and hateful that Cozy immediately began to tremble and pulled her hooves closer to her belly as his thunderous voice boomed to her.
"At all times and a hundred times over, now listen to me very carefully little lady. Princess Twilight was just very unlucky to have trusted me in the first place, hasn´t thought she would fall for it. And that mare is supposed to be Equestria's most intelligent? - don't make me laugh, how low has this kingdom sunk? It should have been clear to her right away since our last encounter, that I never intend to spare her friends. Ha, as if I meant anything even remotely serious about my promises. I'm honestly surprised she fell for it at all. Well, I suppose it's all obsolete anyhow."
Tirek's diabolical laugh made Cozy's body tremble to the core and an icy shiver ran down her spine as she looked into his grinning face. The massive centaur meant what he had done and never would feel even a spark of remorse for doing so.
Still holding the young Pegacorn in his magic mercilessly and squeezing her nearly to the point where Cozy thought he would end her life. Tirek raised his front hand and pressed it so hard into Cozy's chest that the young mare could do nothing but whimper as he continued with his insult.
“And YOU will pull yourself together, or the same thing will happen to you. That’s no treat but a promise - got it?!”
Intimidated and utterly frightened, Cozy just nodded. So, Tirek would drop her on the ground close to his hooves mercilessly.
"Good, that settles it then."
"YOU MONSTER! I am so going to rip you apart for what you did to Twilight."
Surprised, Tirek turned to the voice, where he recognized both Applejack and Rainbow Dash, who had focused on him with a few final tears in their eyes. In the orbs of the two mares, besides grief for their fallen friend, other emotions including blind rage, determination to hurt him as hard as possible, and a burning hatred for him. While the remaining three mares of the bunch had also risen to their hoofs, in contrast to the two others, none of them showed any signs of being remotely up for battle.
Tirek could only laugh. "Phh, please, your serious you want to try? Both of you I'll crush with my bare thumbs, but come here and gamble your luck if you want."
Tirek raised his hands wide invitingly upward to his sides and a red ball of magic formed between his two long curved horns, ready to be fired at the two once they made their attack.
The Earth and Pegasus Pony were about to charge forward and deliver their blow to the abhorrent centaur, when they were distracted by the trampling of thousands, if not tens of thousands, of hooves, claws, and feet behind them.
Turning around, Applejack, Rainbow, and the other mares spotted all kinds of creatures streaming over the ridge on the horizon of the next hill to their left. Each of them was hell-bent on joining the fight for the freedom of the allied Equestrian kingdom. However, when the army caught sight of what was before them, and in particular Twilight's broken body, each of them froze in an instant. That was something nobody of them had anticipated seeing. How was something like that even possible to happen to an alicorn?
Some seconds passed with no one daring to even breathe until nearly half of the gathered group backed away a small distance in fear. Some of them even began to flee. If these three villains in the distance could do such a thing to an alicorn - especially the alicorn of magic, the strongest magic wielder there was. What would be waiting for them in that case? If not even Princess Twilight was capable of defending herself with magic against the attacks of Chrysalis, Cozy, and Tirek, then there would be certainly less of a chance for them to win.
Yet, despite the situation, most of them were ready to join the battle no matter what their individual chances of actually winning were. For them, only one thing mattered. Princess Twilight had helped all of them, or rather their nations a lot and indeed changed the lives of so many to an extreme degree. Providing most of them with something they didn’t know much about before – friendship and compassion, especially for the dragons and griffins. The least they could with due respect to the fallen alicorn was to save and defend her kingdom and subjects. Also protect the six dearest friends she ever had from these bastards terrible creatures.
For there was one thing Tirek had not accounted for in his sole plan to attack and kill Twilight. The alicorn princesses had been highly respected by the other kingdoms for thousands of years. Indeed, even if one of the kingdoms was involved in a battle with Equestria in the past, they were still held in high esteem by the other kingdoms. As these alicorn mares controlled celestial bodies and aspects of reality and that alone made them both equally respected and feared, especially when they were enemies. Most of all, as even in the past the alicorns were honorable and had tried to do as little damage as possible by any means available, even in the fiercest of wars. It was widely known that the race of alicorns was bent on fighting honorable and without tricks. Even captured enemies were treated with mercy and care, by them. Something that had widely become the norm on Equus over the past 80 years, due to an equally long-lasting truce among all nations and a truce of more than 950 years with Equestria – well not counting the changeling invasion, Tirek’s attack or any of the other things that happened the last few years. Fighting in honor and without tricks had been less so many centuries ago for most of the kingdoms but was now a well-embraced topic.
Living on the same planet as the by far largest and strongest kingdom led by a superior and immortal species of goddesses. Those who also took great care of their subjects and lived to work and fight without guile, but to rule their kingdom with devotion, kindness, and trust, brought about such a thing. And well…two of the alicorns had raised and lowered the sun and moon for more than one millennia and a third had raised the stars for nearly four years now, so that was equally a reason to not attack their kingdom and try to hurt them. A solar flare or star strike wasn’t something you easily trifled with.
Precisely the same was equally true for the youngest of the four princesses, as well as so much more. Princess Twilight, in particular, had woven many alliances, friends, bonds, and fellowships across the entire planet. And although she carried the status as one of Equestria's four strongest beings, and her abilities were virtually limitless, she remained polite, understanding, and humble in every situation. Gladly putting her interests aside for the sake of others. Consequently, the rage throughout the ranks rose almost immeasurably as the seconds ticked by. With a unified war cry coming from thousands of individuals, the army rallied and stormed down the hill in wrath and vengeance for the honor of Princess Twilight and the independent freedom of Equestria.
Equally empowered, Rainbow Dash and Applejack rushed forward as well towards Tirek, as they had been striving to do before, although the two mares heard Rarity, Pinkie, and even Fluttershy shouting after them to stop.
As expected the Centaur Lord was quick to react as well, shooting a thick red beam of magic from the orb between his horns straight at the two. Of course, the two mares knew that their attack was foolish and would not succeed in any way. But their grief over Twilight and anger at Tirek made them completely blind in their decisions, thus, they did not regret it one bit as the deep red magic drew increasingly and dangerously closer to them. If not, even Twilight could survive the impact, they certainly wouldn’t, but they didn´t care any bit. A situation worse than the death of Twilight, their dear friend and leader, they couldn’t imagine anyway.
During the last second before the impact on the two ponies, they closed their eyes, both ready for the impact and the resulting consequences. Despite the obvious outcome, a smile crossed their muzzles. In a few moments, they might be able to see their friend again and be united with her forever in a better place. A thought that made it all so much easier for them. There was the clear possibility to create grief for their families and other friends yes, but being with Twilight overweighed the consequences by far.
They had no regrets...
*End of Chapter One*