Thrack hit the ground in the center of her growing empire and the loose ground easily gave way to her. The runeblade was still in her clawed hoof, glowing with the intense power she had imagined it contained. She could do so much with such a weapon, but she’d have to prepare quickly before her foe arrived. And she noticed the red coated earth stallion trotting over to her, his armor rustling as he moved.
“Master Thrack, we were expecting much later,” Red Star said, watching the monster mare leap out of the hole with ease, “Blackwood had come up with a plan to help you escape and it seems that he was wasting his time. The five of us have learned that your ‘special weapon’ is gone.”
“What?” Thrack angrily said, turning Frostmourne towards the stallion, “What happened to Darkstar after Blackwood brought her back?”
“Simple,” Red Star answered, “She died a second death.”
“Then why haven’t you brought her back yet,” Thrack shouted, pressing the tip of the blade into Red Star’s front shoulder, “If she died then you should have brought her back into unlife like the last time.”
“She’s gone Thrack,” Blackwood stated, walking up to the two, “Midnight defeated Darkstar and erased her from the world by converting her into magic. She’ll reappear in time, but not the time you’re willing to spend to wait.”
Thrack growled and turned towards the entrance of the catacombs, but not before staring at the hole in the sky and seeing the stallion fall through. She had barely been gone a minute and he was chasing her already.
“Tell the soldiers to prepare for war,” Thrack commanded, “Thanks to the Prince of Magic it seems we’ll be stepping up our timetable by a couple of weeks.”
If Blackwood was going to say something the mere mention of Midnight shut his mouth quickly and moved along. Midnight was a curse to their army in more ways than one, Blackwood reflected. First he destroyed the key powerhouse mare, aka Darkstar, and then he had separated Thrack from her weaker self. And it seemed that Thrack was somehow weakened from the forced extraction from the recesses of Sweetie’s being.
The more that Blackwood thought about it the more it began to make sense to him. Thrack’s armor was designed to contain her true power and could, possibly, restore her energy before her foe appeared. With the runeblade in her hooves and the power that coursed through her veins Thrack could overpower anypony. And Blackwood suspected that if Thrack, the Monster of the Night, was ever to be truly defeated then it would have to be at the hooves of Prince Midnight himself.
He and Red Star were quick to relay the orders to their fellow commanders, who were all surprised to hear that Thrack had returned. After all their collective planning on how to release her it seemed like a waste for it all to be worthless. But the army gathered and waited before them, waiting for the command to begin attacking whoever their foe was.
Of course none of them realized that their foe, if he were to arrive soon, was a master in the ways of magic.
~Midnight~
The clouds were a decent place to wait and watch your enemy Midnight decided. He had experience in fighting battles like this and he knew that it wouldn’t be pretty when it was all over. He wanted to choose the best course of action that wouldn’t make the ponies of Ponyville run in terror, though he suspected the coming of an airship could do that as well.
“I could drop a meteor on them,” he said aloud, though he was alone on his black cloud, “or I could rain fire on them and burn whatever supplies they happen to be making. Or maybe I could collapse the mountain on top of them. Maybe I should just get down there and start blasting them all into magical bits.”
“Trixie sees that you’re watching the undead’s movements carefully,” said a voice as the showmare landed on his cloud, “Any ideas pop into your head yet?”
“Several,” Midnight answered, shaking his head anyway, “though I hate the thought of scaring the ponies in Ponyville with my level of magical power.”
“They’re already gone,” Trixie stated.
“Wait, the citizens aren’t in Ponyville right now?” Midnight asked, curious as to how the mare knew that.
“Celestia already moved them the moment you told her about the catacombs,” Trixie answered, “So there is nopony in Ponyville to watch your magic and become scared. Feel free to use whatever magic you deem is necessary.”
Midnight grinned and took another look at the army below him, the perfect idea forming in his mind.
~School of Shadows~
Ponies were running in every direction, grabbing things off the walls before boarding one of the three working airships. The first ship, The Muffin, was piloted by Derpy Hooves, who seemed deadly serious as she confirmed her weapons were working. The second ship, The Loyalty, was Rainbow Dash’s pride and she walked around with a spring in her step as they awaited the order for takeoff. The final ship, The Royalty, was piloted by the Mechanic and Rarity, who had a number of barreled weapons tied around her stomach.
Sweetie and her friends waited on the deck of Rainbow’s ship, watching the chaos fold into order as the crew waited. Unfortunately for Sweetie she still had an echo of Thrack’s power, which meant she still looked like Thrack. The difference was that Sweetie’s power was now her own and it could be trained to be better later on. Sweetie didn’t know why she was on the ship anyway, but figured it was her destiny to end the threat her Shadow was causing.
Of course everything turned to chaos when Princess Celestia came out and issued the command that made the commanders grin. The portal that Midnight had opened stretched wide open and the three ships made their way through, appearing in the sky above the Everfree Forest.
“I wonder if Zecora is still around,” Scootaloo commented, “If she is then she’d be fighting the undead already and we might have heard about them sooner.”
“I think she returned to her home for a while,” Sweetie said, “we aren’t there to keep making trouble that required her help to fix it. She’s safe where Thrack and her army can’t reach her, though I have no doubt that she can handle herself in a fight.”
“O.k. everypony, here’s the plan,” Derpy shouted so they all could hear her speak, “We’re going to rain oblivion on them. No mercy for the dead.”
“Wow Derpy,” Rainbow shouted, “I didn’t know you had such fierceness within you all this time.”
“You haven’t seen anything yet,” Derpy replied, before turning to a soldier and shouting, “Fire the Muffin Cannons.”
Everypony expected her to be firing muffins down at their foes, but instead they were cannonballs designed to look like muffins. Plus they broke apart just before hitting the ground and caused more explosions that way.
“I’d focus my fire on the enemy ships,” Rarity said, watching at least five airships rise into the air, “otherwise we’ll be at a disadvantage soon.”
~The Catacombs~
Thrack picked up the pieces of her armor and smiled; pleased the pieces were still intact. The armor was none other than the armor of the infamous Lich King that was destroyed by her old master. Armor that could restore her damaged power and allowed her to use her abilities to the fullest with ease. She even had the helm to match, which meant she had all three of the items that the Lich King held. And sitting in a chest were six items that she knew nopony realized were currently missing from their resting place.
~Outside~
Midnight and Trixie appeared in the center of the undead army, but their arrival was due to traveling in the center of a flaming meteor that Midnight had conjured. It made Trixie uneasy to be around the stallion, but he was powerful in magic and she respected him. Though the undead were less than pleased with them and began to fight them, which gave Trixie an excuse to unleash her scythe on them.
“You know your dangerous right?” Trixie asked, sidestepping a bolt of magic before opening a foe up with her weapon, “The way you use magic is the strangest thing Trixie has ever seen.”
“What do you expect from the Prince of Magic,” Midnight replied, spinning his magic around him and freezing the first undead pony that reached him, “I know more than anypony does.”
Magic literally danced around his body and responded to his horn in an instants notice, becoming whatever he willed it to become. If he willed an orb of magic to appear then an orb would appear where he wanted it, or a fireball the size of a single story house. When he fought enemies magic would dance and listen to his commands, always changing when he needed it. And he always had that barrier that sprung up whenever it was needed.
Trixie’s illusions kept the undead busy for a few moments, making them run in circles and bash into each other. That was until Blackwood walked up to her and banished the illusions with a quick burst of magic. With her experience Trixie knew that the unicorn stallion was skilled in magic, but so was her ally.
“The Commanders are coming out to fight,” an undead stallion shouted, four more figures appearing near Blackwood.
“Trixie did not see that coming,” Trixie said, seeing the griffin and Changeling Queen standing in the group. Though the four newcomers quickly spread out and disappeared to different parts of the growing battlefield.
“I hope you’ll indulge me a little,” Trixie’s opponent said, “I am Blackwood, master of the arcane arts. I wish to fight you and only you right now.”
“Trixie gets the chance to fight a real battle with a master of the arcane arts?” Trixie asked, receiving a nod from the stallion, “Trixie accepts your challenge.”
~The Muffin Airship~
Derpy’s airship turned towards the enemy’s ships and began to lay it on them with Derpy’s special muffin cannonballs. It was quite effective until a pegasus surrounded by darkness smashed into the side of her ship and stalled the guns before appearing on a black cloud. Derpy immediately recognized her as Shadow Blitz, the fabled pegasus commander of Celestia’s army when she fought against Nightmare Moon. She was a hero among all the pegasus scattered throughout Equestria.
“Shadow Blitz, it is an honor to meet you,” Derpy said, settling on a cloud close to the ancient mare, “but I had hoped to meet you in the afterlife like everypony else. Now it seems that all your fans have been waiting for far too long to meet you.”
“Do I know you by chance kid?” Blitz asked, darkness gathering around her wings.
“No, you don’t,” Derpy answered, raising a golden spear, “I am Derpy Hooves, commander of the airship The Muffin, which you just attacked. On guard you undead muffin hater.”
~The Loyalty Airship~
Rainbow Dash had had enough of her enemies turning their weapons against her ship and proceeded to blast them out of the air. With The Muffin’s guns disabled it was up to Rainbow and the Mechanic to defeat the remaining three airships. That was what it looked like what was going to happen until something tore into the side of her ship and upset the balance.
“Girls,” Rainbow called to the Crusaders, “Hurry and get off the ship. Find somewhere safe and stay put until this is over.”
Scootaloo and Apple Bloom ran to the captain’s cabin before they realized that they had left Sweetie Belle behind. When they got back to the bridge they found their friend stared at the smoke and the figure that was hiding within it.
“Nopony can mess with my friends you dweeb,” said a voice as a griffin appeared next to Rainbow, “and that includes you King Silverwing.”
“Gilda!?” Rainbow said, surprised to find her griffin friend here, “What the hay are you doing here?”
“Protecting my friends, duh,” Gilda replied, turning to the griffin that was no longer in the clouds, “but be careful, that is the Griffin Kingdom’s first king, the tyrant King Silverwing.”
“I’m honored that the griffins still remember me,” Silverwing said, “but if all they remember of me is being a tyrant then I will have to remedy that.”
~The Royalty Airship~
Applejack, who had been on Rarity’s ship the entire time, was now bucking whatever landed on the deck of the ship, knocking them off before they could harm anypony. Her Shadow, Blackjack, was helping on the other side and the two of them tried to keep the deck clear. Rarity, on the other hoof, cast a spell she learned from Twilight and jumped onto a cloud, landing softly and not falling through it. Once she established the spell had worked she quickly descended using the clouds around her until she was on the ground.
“About time somepony came here,” the Changeling Queen said, looking up at the mare before her, “though you aren’t the mare I was expecting to see here.”
“Excuse me?” Rarity asked.
“I was waiting for the one named Mea,” the changeling explained, sighing slightly, “but if you’re what I get first than who am I to complain? I just hope you put up a fight.”
“I don’t know who you are, but there is no way I am letting you touch a hair on that filly’s head,” Rarity said, her magic gripping one of her barreled weapons, “and my name is Rarity, the Element of Generosity.”
“An Element of Harmony eh?” the changeling said, mostly to herself before smiling, “Very well then, I am Queen Allure, the First Changeling Queen of the Swarm.”
~Red Star~
The ground shattered as Red Star’s attacked was blocked by a stallion earth pony wearing a suit of armor. It wasn’t every day that he fought an enemy who had some strength in their body and it seemed like the stallion before him had plenty. He flipped around and brought a hind leg down on the stallion’s back, barely putting a dent in the armor while shattering the ground again.
“Quite resistant aren’t you,” Red Star asked, “You must be one of Celestia’s special soldiers she wanted to make and never did during the war.”
“Nnope,” was the reply, “Ah’m resistant, but not special.”
Red Star grinned before he flipped away and landed by a tree, studying the red skinned stallion before him.
“What’s your name?” Red Star asked.
“Big Macintosh,” the stallion replied, “You?”
“Red Star,” he replied, “Maybe you’ve heard of me? I fought against Nightmare Moon in the war of the royal sisters.”
“Eeyup,” Big Mac said, “and now we fight.”
~The Catacombs~
Thrack smiled as the ground around her shook in response to the fighting happening above her. The dead were clashing with the living and her commanders were beginning to exercise their true powers. She collected the chest and continued back into the caverns that led her to her quarters, not bothering to close the door this time. If everything went as planned then the undead would have beaten the strongest foes Equestria could throw at them and it meant that the entire land was theirs.
~Aboveground~
“Something’s not right here,” Celestia said, descending into her Equestria with Luna, Cadence, and their Shadows not far behind.
“Whatever do you mean Tia?” Luna asked, “We have taken the war to Thrack’s base and we are already turning the tide in our favor. What’s not right about that?”
“It’s my old commanders,” Celestia confessed, “Take Blackwood for example; he is as skilled as Twilight is in the usage of the arcane art of battle. Red Star has hooves that can shatter the ground despite hitting or missing his foe. Shadow Blitz has the power to whip up any level of storm she wishes and the shadows eagerly follow her around.”
“So what seems to be the problem?” Nightmare asked.
“They aren’t wielding their true powers,” Celestia answered, “Blackwood would be setting the area around him ablaze with a few bursts of magic, Red Star would have already broken the ground enough to crush his own allies and his foes, and Shadow Blitz would conjure a storm of darkness to rip our forces to pieces. Nightmare you know this because you fought against them in the war.”
Nightmare looked away and focused on the field, realizing that both King Silverwing of the griffins and Queen Allure of the Changelings was still around. With all the dangerous allies Thrack had summoned from beyond the grave it was a wonder why she had waited so long to attack. It also meant that they were in serious trouble if whoever was fighting them happened to lose.
~
Trixie charged her weapon with magic and unleashed flames on her opponent, who quickly rolled to the side before they got to him. It allowed Trixie the chance to get close and swing the scythe right at his chest, but the stallion vanished in the blink of an eye. He reappeared behind her, grinning as she turned to face him again. She had planned something else, but now that she knew that he didn’t seem serious about the fight she could ditch her earlier plan.
Trixie’s magic began to gather around her, much like what Midnight was doing, only weaker and hard to control. Her magic could appear around her, but keeping it around to act as a barrier was what made it hard on her. But even if the spell failed it was a ploy to get past Blackwood’s defenses and strike at his core. Plus she had some copies of herself doing the exact same thing so she could confuse her enemy, who wasn’t looking confused.
“Your illusions cannot trick me,” Blackwood said, banishing a copy with a quick burst of magic, “So why bother with this charade?”
“Because Trixie is a master of illusions and tricks,” Trixie answered, being careful about talking before approaching her foe, “and to top it off you can add being a vampony to the list. Now let’s do this.”
True to her word magic leapt out of her horn and attacked the stallion before her, but the same thing happened with her copies. More than one beam rushed to meet the lone beam coming from Blackwood, but he didn’t seem worried in the slightest. Trixie wasn’t worried either, she had time and practice before she figured out how to defeat her foe. That was if Blackwood didn’t get past her guard and blast her into oblivion first.
~
A portion of the sky near The Muffin Airship turned dark as Derpy flew through the clouds, dodging the cloudy shadow serpents following her. Shadow Blitz, like the stories had mentioned several times, was hiding somewhere in the clouds and was using her powers to conjure creatures with her wings. In fact it was mentioned that the three commanders that led Celestia’s armies all possessed powers granting from their usage of the Elements of Harmony.
Derpy spun her spear around and pierced one of the clouds that got too close to her, forcing it to separate into pieces. Unfortunately there were at least three more of them on her trail and she still didn’t know where her enemy was hiding. She suspected Shadow Blitz was hiding in the large black cloud box not too far away, but she needed to eliminate the remaining serpents before trying anything.
Derpy smiled and spun around in the air, her spear slicing through two of the serpents before she rested behind the final serpent. This one failed to notice her and she easily separated it into pieces before turning on the box. It was time for Shadow Blitz to fight her own battle and not the serpents she could summon.
~
Red Star crushed the ground below him as Big Mac rolled to the side, barely dodging it in time. Since he missed his initial attack he got up and kicked the ground in front of Big Mac, making the stallion stumble. Red Star saw this and grinned before rushing up to the falling stallion and swinging his hoof at him.
“Nnope,” Big Mac said, a shield appearing on his front leg that took the damage of the attack.
The ground split in two and the shield shattered upon impact, but it wasn’t like Big Mac really needed it. He swung his front hoof into Red Star’s chest and cracked a couple of his ribs. The undead stallion fell to the ground and rolled away, though it was clear that he was in pain. Big Mac gave a quick smile as he realized that the undead could still feel pain and suspected they could feel other emotions as well.
~
Gilda, unlike everypony else, went straight for the griffin that had attacked her friends airship, thought she still didn’t understand why Dashie needed a ship to begin with. Her claws racked the air where Silverwing had been a moment before and she dived before she was hit from behind. She knew how her opponent was supposed to fight, but actually fighting him was proving to be somewhat difficult.
“Your good at reading my movements,” Silverwing said, turning to face Gilda, “but not good enough to actually harm me.”
“We’ll see about that punk,” Gilda shouted, folding her wings in and diving directly for Silverwing.
Her plan was to open her wings at the last second and smash Silverwing right into the side of Dashie’s ship, but that didn’t work out like she wanted. Before she could even open her wings the king appeared behind her and slammed her into the side of the ship, breaking into the interior. Gilda groaned and realized that she would have to be quicker if she wanted to hurt the old griffin.
And she realized that King Silverwing was as strong as the legends about him claimed that he was and was equally patient as he watched her.
~
Rarity was the first to strike, pulling out a barreled weapon and firing a quick burst right at the Changeling Queen. She expected the magic to hit the Queen and throw her into the side of the rock standing behind her, but she couldn’t have been more wrong. The Queen simply moved to the side and the magic connected with the rock, obliterating the stone in an instant.
“Such a strange weapon you have there,” Allure remarked, eying the barreled weapons the mare had, “I didn’t know Celestia allowed such weapons to be crafted.”
“A friend of mine made them,” Rarity said, switching the weapon for a shorter one, “and I tested them out before I came here. The magic of these weapons is quite effective if I must say so.”
Allure chuckled and jumped as three more shots were made, each of them passing where she had been moments before. Rarity growled and followed the Queen, firing short bursts at the Queen whenever she landed. However, Allure seemed to be playing with her and she was apparently enjoying herself.
~
Sweetie watched from the deck of Rainbow’s airship, watching the chaos that was unfolding below her. Chaos that was caused by the survival of Thrack, more commonly called the Monster of the Night during the times of the war. Sweetie sighed and wondered what she could do to defeat the monster, if she arrived and fought against the combined forces of the Light and Shadows.
Her friends stood next to her, watching the very chaos that was making Sweetie sick to her stomach. None of them wanted to be there and Sweetie was sure her friends would leave if she gave them the chance, but Sweetie would stay regardless. She just needed a plan she could use to defeat her Shadow and end this before somepony close to her or her friends died.
~
Thrack emerged from the catacombs and smiled as she watched Allure run by with Rarity on her tail, though it was clear she was playing with the mare. Frostmourne glowed and Thrack continued walking, ignoring the chest that she had brought up with her. She noticed Celestia in the sky and she lifted the sword till the point was aligned with the Sun Goddess. The time had come to end this petty war and destroy what remained of the Light and Shadows once and for all.