I know that everyone is probably expecting a update, but lore has gotten in the way. You know when Serana says that the Elder Scrolls are indestructible? That counters a part of the story that was critical to the plot. I tried to get around it, but I failed. Sorry. However, here are the notes, and how it was vaguely supposed to go. Do with it what you want.
Song of a Nightingale planning. Theresa tries talking to queen chrysalis, learns some basic data. Said data is: What pegasi are, what alicorns are, what ponies are called, a summary of the elements, how changelings feed (most likely gets a reaction of “not so different” out of Theresa) and after the not so different comment, a request for advice. Figure out line breaks. After a line break, have the weapons be located by the CMC. Scootaloo thinks the nightingale blade looks awesome, and picks it up in her mouth. As Theresa has parts of her soul in her weapons, it overrides Scootaloo, rips all data from the mind, and destroys the soul to charge itself. The scootablade then kills the other two, cleans it up, and hides the bodies. Then, it grabs the crossbows, and the bolts, and brings them to Theresa, because it wants to be back together with its other parts. Said blade, reunited with the primary soul part, will give understanding of pony, although human mouthparts are literally incapable of making the noises required, because Scootaloo’s soul, eaten, gave her knowledge to Theresa. This data will tell Theresa where the weapons are, as none of the ponies would touch them, because they “knew” to stay together, and zapped any of the ponies who tried to pick them up. When the CMC arrived, their minds were weak enough to be easily overridden, which was “seen” by the weapons. Said weapons will then be acquired for Theresa by the scootablade, because it is a useful minion. Next chapter.
The elements get “replaced” with changelings, and are then made VERY dead, as they are a large risk, and Theresa has killed enough evil overlords, and seen enough through her acquired memories, to know not to leave enemies alive. Rainbow gets pulled along by scootablade, who claims that spitfire wants to see her, and then gets her throat cut. The head is then removed, to make sure. AJ gets a poisoned apple. Again, head cut off to make sure. Fluttershy gets some noises like a hurt animal, goes to investigate, and finds an exploding familiar. No need to cut off the head this time, only ash would be left. Pinkie gets a trail of cupcakes, with the last one just past a shock rune. Head cut off, and then the body burned, because Theresa has no clue how pinkie does what she does, and therefore, makes double sure she is dead. Rarity finds a soul gem, which is trapped with a powerful paralyze spell. Cue lack of head! Sparkle-butt gets a black book. Enough said there. Result: primary threats eliminated. The guards are then steadily replaced with changelings until there are either no more changelings or no more guards. Luna is made into a volikhar vampire, with the twist of a little part of the mind that controls loyalty, making her into what amounts to an extremely powerful thrall to Theresa. The elements (items) are taken, carefully copied, and then the copies are put in place of the real ones. This will add an extra level of caution to the barrier for their use, as they are an extremely powerful wild card that plays in favor of the ponies by definition and Theresa is taking lots of precautions with such powerful items.
Next chapter.
The wedding occurs; Sparkle-butt actually survives the black book, and comes out with an elven warhammer. No armor, because human armor does not fit ponies. Cue rescue of cadence. When Celestia comes out to challenge chrysalis, she gets hit with dragonrend, which cripples her, as she is a lesser et’ada. Conclusion based on that she does not get older, has a large amount of power, is very hard to kill, and is worshipped as a god. Fits the pattern for a lesser et’ada, only problem is the benevolence, which is easily explained as trying to rule through kindness so nobody will question her or revolt. Not what is actually happening of course, Celestia is really that nice, but Theresa would never believe that. While dragonrend is active, Theresa and chrysalis both hit Celestia with everything they have, killing her. Then the scene with shining armor. However, Theresa stops the massive beam that was a combo attack of shining armor and cadence by shooting shining armor in the face, killing him.
Cue berserk cadence, which reaches out and PULLS for power, shattering all the crystals underneath canterlot with a sound like a billion tiny bells. Reaction: summed up as “oh crap”.
Next chapter.
Cadence goes full nightmare moon, and proceeds to hit Theresa with a MASSIVE blast of magic, which leaves a crater in the ground about thirty feet deep. However such a blast created a large dust cloud, and when that clears, it shows Theresa, holding up an elder scroll, standing on a column of rock. She had used the elder scroll to block the massive magic attack, and then uses dragonrend on nightmare!cadence. This does not work as cadence is a “lesser” alicorn, with an earth pony mare, and a Pegasus and unicorn stallion as parents. Even with that setup, such lesser alicorns are so rare as to be non-existent. They live for around 400 years; instead of the hundred or so that a normal pony lives. They are stronger then a normal unicorn magically, but are weaker then the “true” alicorns, as they are not lesser et’ada. Cadence then tries to destroy the elder scroll, and she chars it slightly. It responds by pulling in her magic, which she had put out in a concentrated beam, absorbing her magic, and then absorbing her. It then uses the energy to repair itself. Theresa is shocked, and reminds herself to never piss off the elder scrolls, and if she ever finds who created them, to be very nice and very respectful to them, as they would be VERY powerful. Chrysalis responds with shock that a being that had been responsible for the death of Celestia, took over Luna and supercharged her with a strange ability, dealt with the elements of harmony with ease, and carries immensely powerful artifacts capable of penetrating alicorn flesh, is scared of something. After all, such a being should be able to win against anything in existence. Theresa explains that the elder scrolls are to her as she is to an ordinary pony, and expresses shock that cadence had actually managed to slightly char one. After all, they are fragments of the universe (although by being in a part of the multiverse, they are now fragments of said multiverse) and that means that cadence could’ve ripped apart reality if she had thought and not just raged. Anger is not a good method for dealing with such powerful objects.
Next chapter.
Theresa kills Sparkle-butt, as she is freaking out over what just happened. Understandable, her mentor just died, her big brother just got shot in the face, her friends are dead, canterlot is in ruins, and this one being is responsible. The fact that a vampire puts out an aura of fear does not hurt either. Then Theresa takes the horn from Celestia, and pockets it to experiment on. Queen chrysalis is recovering somewhat, although still shocked, which is reasonable. Theresa slaps her, and tells her to snap out of it, and to get changelings digging through the rubble. When chrysalis asks why, Theresa responds by saying that they can use them to set up “love farms” and then be harvested for an easy food source. Then she asks how more changelings are created, and gets an answer of “queen lays eggs. Males fertilize eggs.” She then asks how many changelings are left(87), how many eggs one queen can lay(200 or so), how many changelings come from each egg(1), are there any other queens(no), how often a queen can lay eggs(once a month), can more queens be created(no), and are there any other interesting things to fight. The last question gets a reaction of “are you insane!?” from chrysalis, and Theresa responds with a list of things she has killed, to chrysalises shock. Then, the business of ruling the country is started. Propaganda that says that Celestia blew up canterlot, then cadence tried again, as they had gone insane, while the elements tried to stop them but died in the process goes out. Luna now rules. As the official ruler now, she recruits a new advisor, Theresa, who is simply called nightingale. As all of the ponies who knew what Theresa looked like are dead, under her control, or her allies, this works. Most ponies do not believe it, but some do. The changelings efforts at pulling ponies out of the rubble get publicized as rescue efforts, Luna issues a statement that the changelings came here at her request, because she believed that Celestia was going through some of the same things that she had gone through to become nightmare moon, only making it eternal day instead of night. Also in the statement should be that cadence was assisting Celestia, and that Celestia cursed Luna with her last breath to have the suns rays burn her. This explains the sun problems of the vampirism, the ruins, and pretty much the whole damn thing. Some mental suggestions cast at a low level on a crowd make them more receptive, and a larger spell for making the whole country a bit more suggestible for the purposes of Theresa is worked on.
Next chapter.
Theresa is investigating exactly what Celestia armor and weapons are made of, as adamantine is not a material known to Nirn. It turns out to be an alloy of dwemer metal, and aetherium. The result is light, sharp, and very deadly. Theresa does not know this, she just knows it as a metal that her weapons cannot cut, and her magic cannot heat, and is extremely sharp. In the everfree, the seal to tartaros is weakening, making it so that the contents, the dwemer, are now trying actively to escape. Also, some delving in Luna’s mind shows that something is sealed away in it. (This is nightmare moon, the real Luna. The one known to the show is a very well made imitation of the “ideal” version of Luna.) Theresa easily kidnaps a random pony, and then removes the soul from them. The body, now empty of soul, has the soul replaced with nightmare moons soul. Nightmare moon is in a very bad mood, and is about to attack Theresa when she notices Celestia halberd on her back. Nightmare moon is not stupid, and asks how she got that from her worst enemy. Theresa responds with that she killed her, along with cadence and the elements. Nightmare expresses disbelief, until Theresa pulls out Celestia horn, and shows it to nightmare. Nightmare has a reaction of “holy crap!” which is rather justified, as she and Celestia were goddesses by their standards, which means that this being, to them, killed an immortal. As immortals are, by definition, unkillable, this is obviously an extremely impressive feat. Nightmare moon asks if Theresa is maintaining the seal. Theresa asks what seal she is talking about, and Nightmare actually acts frightened, and ask what is going on. Theresa responds with the fact that she has barely been here three weeks, most of which was spent unconscious, plotting or fighting. At what point did she have time to look for a seal? Nightmare responds with a short explanation that says that the dwemer visited long ago, and tried to take over equestrian through force. Nobody knows how they were stopped, however, not even Nightmare, as they came before even Celestia. However, if the seal is not maintained, then the dwemer can get out, and as steam centurions were the foot soldiers of the dwemer, the dwarves spheres the scouts, the spiders the workers, and the ballista the archers, this means that a rather large problem is on the way. Especially as the dwemer have created several new devices for combat. Airships, powered armor, drop-feed crossbows, huge mecha the size of giants, and most importantly, a huge deposit of aetherium, which is made into adamantine. The deposit is under the old, ruined castle. This is why it was originally built, to keep the dwemer out. Now that it is abandoned, the sealers either dead or incapable of sealing, and the seal no longer as strong, the dwemer can get to a massive deposit of an extremely magical material. This is not known though, as the original builders sealed the dwemer through a mass sacrifice, and did not think to leave records. Leave the builders an unknown race, will make the readers go nuts trying to figure it out.
Next chapter.
This one is mostly going to be Kagrenac mobilizing the armies of the dwemer for the assault. Also, Theresa will be hunting for the seal, because Nightmare did some rather detailed descriptions of what is down there. She recognized the dwarves spheres, and the steam centurions, although not the dwemer themselves. She knows that while she has MASSIVE amounts of power, and has two beings with a not inconsiderable power level, Nightmare and Chrysalis, to help, she still cannot hope to defeat all the dwemer. This chapter will be relatively boring, just mobilization.
Next chapter.
The seal is located in the center of the dragon lands. This is discovered by Nightmare, while she looks through the restricted section of the archives, and runs into a nasty little section with a strong seal on it. The only reason Nightmare found it is that she literally ran into it. Nightmare summons Theresa, and they proceed to break the sealed section wide open. The sealed section somehow contains the ebony blade, along with a book for teleportation spells, and the book with the location of the seal in it, along with how to seal it. Theresa decides to use the elements (items) as the power source for it, rather then a bunch of dead things, as she would rather not haul around a bunch of useless ponies if she can just carry an ugly hat and some even uglier jewelry. After all, dealing with a large group of beings with a legitimate reason to hate you is very difficult. She tries to pick up the elements, but they STRONGLY resist being picked up by her. After all, she is pretty much the opposite of harmony. However, when she rails at them(as she has been told that they “choose” the bearers of the elements, Theresa thinks they are sentient, although common knowledge is that they are not, common knowledge is wrong) about how the dwemer are escaping, they send her a message which says “You may hold us. No more. If these “dwemer” are what live in tartaros, then their release dooms equestrian, and that we will not allow.” Theresa shrugs, and puts them in her little pocket dimension in the space between her and her cloak. The elements “sense” the black books and elder scrolls in the pocket dimension, and after a brief talk, agree to leave each other alone, unless the situation is sufficiently dire to warrant working together. The black books are reasonably contented, as Theresa fed them a large amount of knowledge through several guard souls, along with Sparkle-Butts soul. The elder scrolls do not care, unless their bearer is in danger of death, in which case they intervene, and the elements are very annoyed, but have to put up with it, as they do not want equestrian subject to the whims of the dwemer. This happens in the space between the smallest amounts of time; as such powerful items are easily capable of warping space and time to their whims.
Next chapter.
Theresa sets out for the center of the dragon lands, with the ebony blade and her old weapons on her back. Queen chrysalis has the weapons and armor of Celestia, and is told to figure out what exactly they are and what they are made of. Luna is told to simply run the country, and is given a spell that allows her to talk to Theresa unless she does not wish to be spoken too, which is signified by the spell turning green. This is in case something happens that requires some advice from Theresa that chrysalis cannot deal with or help with. It is a two-way spell, however, which means that Theresa can keep in contact with her current base. She is walking along a long dirt road, and makes it to the border between equestrian and the dragon lands just as the sun falls and the moon rises. The border guards are easily bypassed, as their death would cause the dragon nation to declare war on equestrian, and Theresa is not going to be there to help for about six months. It takes a while to get to the center of the nation after all, the geographical center that is. Nothing really happens to Theresa, as she is incredibly stealthy and none of the dragons expect someone to infiltrate them. She does run across a hydra, but it is dispatched by having it’s blood drained, as while feeding weakens vampires in canon, that makes no sense, as well-fed people are more capable of fighting, and Theresa has not fed for a while. Explain this to readers.
Next chapter.
The center is in a mine, which is mined by slaves of various species that the dragons have captured. The elements are STRONGLY opposed to such things, as it goes against what they stand for, and what they are. However, Theresa is not someone who cares what happens, so long as her mission is completed. The elements order her to free the slaves, and Theresa tells them that it would serve no useful purpose, and waste time that could be used to stop the dwemer. The elements try to make her free the slaves, and she resists, and the elements give some arguments that are based around “how would you feel?” and “everyone should be free”, but Theresa responds with “if they are caught, bad luck for them” and keeps resisting, telling the elements that they are wasting time, and if the dwemer escape they are all dead anyway, or worse. They tell her that this is more important, and Theresa gives them a VERY nasty lecture about heroism, and how it causes problems. The more time she spends arguing with the elements, the more time the dwemer have to escape, and the more likely that everyone here is dead. If she spends time freeing the slaves, it makes it more likely that they will die. It is the logic of survival, and has no room for mercy or emotional things, for those slow it down, and decrease the odds of survival. That is not allowed. The elements let Theresa go, and she quickly gets to the seal. However, it is broken, but only just. There is only one dwemer out, but it is (unknown to Theresa) Kagrenac. Theresa prepares for a fight.
Next chapter.
Theresa and Kagrenac fight, and Kagrenac is winning, until Theresa pulls out Dragon Aspect, along with several other once-a-day powers to hit him hard, however, he manages to survive it, and comes within a inch of killing Theresa before she manages to get the elements to the seal, and the resulting massive explosion of magical energy literally burns up Kagrenac, and Theresa survives only because the elements had timed it so that Kagrenac was in between her and the seal. In other words, he was a meatshield, involuntary though it was. The seal is back together, and Theresa is nearly dead. The elements attempt to capitalize on this, and heal her back to full, for which they get a thank-you and nothing else. They give a lecture on how “harmony saved the day” until Theresa interrupts them with the fact that unless she had done this, the land would be covered in dwemer, and they kill any non-dwemer on sight, so she had no choice. Harmony had nothing to do with it; her motivation was self-interest and nothing more. The only reason the elements were used is that they were easily accessed, and the elder scrolls would not mess with other universes. Theresa drops the elements on the ground, and leaves them there, telling them that she has no further use for them, and that they should stay here and keep the seal intact, as nobody else will do so. Theresa then contacts chrysalis and tells her that she is leaving, and going to wander. This world is full of loot, and she wants to find plenty of it. Chrysalis objects, until Theresa points out that so far nothing has happened, and that the nation she rules is now established and past problems she deals with. Now, wandering time.