//------------------------------//
// Non-Canon Season 4 Episode 1 Bonus Chapter 
// Story: TD the Alicorn Princess 
// by BronyWriter 
//------------------------------//

Note: Do not read unless you have seen the new episodes!

The Summer Sun Celebration is here, and for all of the ponies of Equestria what a treat it will be. 

Celestia and Luna have volun-told me that I should help out this year with the celebration by going around Equestria and double-checking the progress of the individual celebrations before going back to help them raise and lower the sun and moon. Supposedly Celestia is actually looking forward to this one because now it marks the anniversary of Luna's return. She seems happy about that. 

Yuck. Can't I just go to another school play? They're not as painful to go through and better acted. 

I jest, of course... mostly. 

I sighed and put down the checklist that Twilight had made for me. One of a six part set. Each town and city has their own specifications for what the SSC is going to look like, so I had my work cut out for me. By the way, did you know that Twilight and Celestia adjusted the "Spike flame fax-machine fire breath" spell so that if Twilight wanted to send me letters via Spike she could? They neglected to tell me about this, of course, because I assume they thought the other way would be funnier. So imagine my surprise when a novella's worth of checklists and instructions randomly pops up out of nowhere right as I'm having breakfast. 

And no, I did not scream like a little girl as it fell into my cereal, splashing it all over me. I don't care what Captain Blaze has been telling you. It's all lies!

I sighed as I went through the Baltimare checklist. Seeing as how I'm the princess here, the style is based off of me. The color scheme is my coat and mane, and my cutie mark is just about everywhere. Heck, there are even some Princess Antares cutie mark cakes that are going to be served in several places throughout Baltimare. It's really quite charming, watching a bunch of your subjects eat a cake of a tattoo on your rear, but, you know, craziness in ponies is not limited to Ponyville. At all. 

Decorations all up? Check. Looked over Mayor Chilton's speech to make sure it was okay? Check. It was all "Princess Antares is best princess despite the fact that she's not raising the sun today," but eh... whatever. Food looks good? Check. Snarcasti-guards plus reserves out to keep order? Check. 

I scanned the list to see if all of the other little odds and ends are settled. They should be. Otherwise I'd probably have a few dozen freaked out ponies begging me to fix all of their problems because these issues go up the ladder. Commoners shift duties to the local government, the local government shifts duties to the princesses, the princesses shift duties onto the Elements of Harmony, the Elements of Harmony shift smaller duties back to the commoners, and so on. Overall, though, everything looked okay, which is a sure sign that something is about to go horribly wrong. 

I took a deep breath and used my magic to teleport my checklist to my room where I would have to look over it later. Six more times, if Twilight had anything to say about it. She was technically still my consigliore. Yes, we did move on to making that title official. She may be living in Ponyville, but she's always available to give me advice on anything I need. 

I shook my head and began walking down the hallway of my palace. It was relatively empty given that most of my guard was out making preparations for the celebration, so I had some time to myself. I decided to take my evening stroll around my palace to make sure that everything was okay. Princess Celestia should be about to lower the sun to make room for the moon, so I could look forward to sleep in a few hours. Given the position of the sun, it was about eight at night, so Celestia should be lowering the sun any minute. 

It was right then that the clock in my palace went off. 

Dun. Dun. Dun. Dun. Dun. Dun. Dun. Dun.

Yep, eight 'o clock. 

Dun. Dun

... uh... or ten 'o clock?

I frowned and looked outside the nearest window. The sun was still shining brightly in the sky, which was weird because, you know, it was ten at night. 

It was right then that I found out that there are times that it isn't worth it being a nearly all-powerful princess. The moon was still in the sky, leaving half of the landscape shrouded in darkness while the other half was brightly lit. I'm not quite sure how the science works with that, but hey, I'm not Celestia or Luna... I hope. 

I frowned and looked down at the city below. I flattened my ears and grimaced when I saw that a flock of ponies, or a string. Whichever works. 

Yeah, a group of ponies is called a string. Who knew? 

Anyway, the ponies were stringing towards my castle in a panic. My guard was doing their best to keep them away from the palace entrance, but I could see looks of worry on their faces too. I bit my lip and glanced over at the double glass doors leading out to the balcony where I often made public speeches. Now seemed like a good time, but I had no idea of what to say. Of course, that's never stopped a politician before, I suppose. They needed to hear something, or else I might have an even bigger panic on my hooves. I sighed and walked out onto the balcony. 

Instantly I heard a symphony of shouts from the string of ponies below me, all wondering what the heck was going on. I couldn't make out individual questions that well, but I got the gist. I raised my hoof, and a hush fell over the string crowd. 

"Citizens of Baltimare. I know that this whole thing with the sun and moon being in the sky at the same time is a little unnerving to you, but trust me when I say that everything is under control, and I am in constant contact with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna." 

Pinocchio, meet your rival.

"I promise you that you are in no danger. Go back to your homes and prepare for the Celebration, or try to get some sleep. Everything will be resolved promptly." 

I looked down at the line of snarcasti-guards and made eye contact with Captain Blaze who was directing the guards on the best way to keep the ponies at bay. He looked up at me and the two of us made eye contact. I subtly inclined my head to tell him to come inside, and he nodded. He leaned over to talk to Lieutenant Rapids, who began following him inside the castle after she presumably handed control over to one of the sergeants. 

Ah yes, I remember that sergeant. He was the one who said "man, you guys just got owned" when I demonstrated the snarcasti-guard's effectiveness. 

Anyway, I quickly went back inside the palace and trotted down to my throne room where my two officers were there waiting for me. They inclined their heads in small bows, but I waved those aside. "No time for that. We have to figure out what's going on." 

"So you don't know what's happening with the sun and moon?" Captain Blaze asked. 

"Of course not! This isn't some Summer Sun Celebration thing that Celestia and Luna are pulling, which means that something must have happened to them." I grimaced and began pacing back and forth. "If that's true, then I'm the sole ruler of all of Equestria." I screeched to a halt as the implications of that hit me. My eye and ear twitched as my brain began firing on all cylinders to cope with what that would look like, but I pushed those thoughts aside and began pacing again. "Firstly I think we need to contact Shining Armor and Night Stalker. Raining Skies and the Elements wouldn't hurt either." 

Captain Blaze nodded. "I'll get messengers on that right away." 

I returned his nod. "Good. You get to work on contacting the captains, and I'll go to Ponyville to see if I can't talk to the Elements. Use the messenger spell to contact me the second you hear anything, okay?"

My officers saluted, and I ignited my horn. It was quicker to teleport hop to Ponyville rather than just fly the whole way. Of course, some flying would be necessary since I couldn't do that the whole way, but it would save me precious time. I popped out of the throne room and reappeared about a mile outside of Baltimare. Another teleport and I was halfway between  the two cities. A third found me about twenty miles from Ponyville, but I had drained enough of my magic that I needed to fly the rest of the way. I spread my wings and took to the skies. 

I saw Ponyville in the distance, and I didn't need any special powers to know that something was wrong. The Everfree Forest, normally ominous, but controlled, seemed to be spreading, and I saw thick black and thorn studded vines spreading throughout the town. 

Great. Because that's what I needed to deal with today. Black evil vines. Charming. 

I landed in the Ponyville town square and was instantly rushed by several dozen ponies, all of whom were asking me questions at the same time. I raised my hoof. "Okay, quiet down! I'm here to help out."

"But what's happening?" Lyra asked. "Why is the Everfree Forest doing this?!" 

I shrugged. "You know, I don't have the next clue, so I'm here to talk to the Elements to see if we can't figure something out together." 

"But the clouds!" Roseluck wailed. "What's happening with the clouds?"

I frowned and looked up into the sky. Sure enough, instead of the normal white fluffy clouds, there was now a collection of dark gray clouds, also riddled with spikes. 

"Huh... that's new." I shrugged and looked back to the crowd. "I have no idea what's going on, but rest assured I will not rest until I've figured it out." I looked in the direction of Twilight's house. "And I think I might have an idea." 

I took wing again and flew in the direction of the library. The black vines were spreading now, and, to my horror, they all seemed to be gravitating towards me. A vine as thick as my horn shot towards me, and I barely dodged it time to avoid whatever nefarious plan it had for me. I only had a moment to rest before two more vines, both larger than the last, came towards me. I shot a spell out of my horn that blasted one of them back and dodged the other. 

I started to get a good idea of what had happened to Celestia and Luna. If these vines were what took them, then they seemed to be targeting alicorns. How these vines got all the way to Canterlot to take them without anybody noticing, I don't know, but I wasn't too willing to expend a lot of brainpower to puzzle it out. 

I reached the library and flew straight through one of the windows without opening it first. If I wasn't an alicorn resilient to most everything I would have found myself with a lot of cuts, but I was an alicorn, so I was fine. I crash landed right in the middle of the main room, sending books flying everywhere. 

"Rainbow Dash! How many times have I told you not to... oh... TD?" 

I raised my head and looked over at Twilight. Rainbow Dash was flying behind her, giving Twilight a slight glare. To my delight, the rest of the six seemed to be there too. I shot to my hooves and stretched my wings. "Twilight, I need you to put up a forcefield around the library. Those weeds are nasty." 

"No kiddin'!" said Applejack. "They just appeared on mah farm and mah family and Ah have been pullin' at 'em fer the past half hour, but they don't budge!"

"We'll need to have a talk about the definition of insanity later, Applejack." I turned to the window and repaired it. "Right now we need to figure out what to do." I turned back to Twilight who had just powered down her horn after the shield spell. Good. That should keep us relatively safe unless the weeds break through floors. "Okay, so these things seem to be targeting alicorns. I'm not sure what happened to Celestia or Luna, but the sun and moon combined with these vines makes me think that something happened to them." 

As if on cue, the inside of my ear started feeling really itchy. I reached a hoof up to it and began scratching it, but that seemed to only make it worse. In fact, it felt like there was something coming out of... oh. Right. That. 

I sighed and ignited my horn. I focused my magic on my ear and pulled an entire scroll out of it. The ponies around me made various noises ranging from grunts of disgust to ones of curiosity. I grimaced and looked up at them. "I found a spell that allows my guard to send me letters instantly. It..." I shook my head and looked down at the parchment. "It needs some work." 

I scanned the letter and my eyes widened. Not good. It was roughly what I suspected, but not what I had been hoping for. I looked up at the others with a grimace. "Captain Blaze just contacted me. He said that he talked to Night Stalker. Apparently Celestia and Luna are missing. Nobody knows where they are." 

The gathered ponies gasped, and I looked out the window where the vines were banging on the shield. "Given how these vines have taken a keen interest in me, I'm going to have to guess that they took Celestia and Luna." 

"How do we stop 'em, TD?" Applejack asked. She looked between me and Twilight. "We've been lookin' fer hours fer a book that has anything like this in 'em, and we can't find anythin'!" 

I frowned and tapped my lower jaw. "I don't know, but..." My gaze flickered up to Fluttershy. "I might have an idea." I looked over to Twilight. "You said that the Elements can summon Discord, right?" 

Twilight frowned and nodded. "Yeah, but that would..." Her eyes widened when she figured what I was getting at. She nodded and ran over to the case housing the Elements of Harmony, and she opened it up. "It makes perfect sense that Discord is behind all of this! This looks a lot like what happened when he took over before we banished him to stone!" 

I nodded as Twilight gave each of the ponies their elements. In truth I was a little nervous to actually meet Discord. I had been sure to avoid him whenever possible. I could have been wrong, but I just didn't think that him and I would have gotten along very well, especially with my new form. Well, I had to meet him at some point, right? Celestia had told him that my palace was off limits, so he had been spending most of his time between Ponyville and Celestia's palace. Him being at Celestia's palace would explain how the vines were able to get there in the first place. 

Twilight and I exchanged a glance and I nodded. She nodded in return and ignited the Element of Magic. The light around it began shining brighter, and each of the ponies floated into the air. A rainbow beam connected their elements, and it began charging with more power as it focused on Twilight's element. The room was bathed in blinding white light, and I had to shield my eyes. With one more burst, I heard something pop into existence, and when the light faded, I heard... the shower?

I opened my eyes, and there he was. Discord himself was standing in a shower washing himself off and... singing? 

"Winter wrap up, winter wrap u..." Discord turned his head and saw that he wasn't wherever he was anymore, and turned around with a large grin on his face. "Ohoo, now Twilight, you know that Princess Celestia told you to give me a heads-up before you summoned me with that little spell she gave you." He opened his mouth to say more, but out of the corner of his eye he saw me looking warily at him. I'm not sure how, but his grin grew wider and he popped out of existence. When he reappeared a second later, he was floating upside-down in front of me. 

Goodie.

"Why, you must be the new princess! It is an absolute delight to meet you." Discord grabbed my hoof and began shaking it vigorously. "I know we haven't met, so let me introduce myself. My name is Princess Antares. I'm the local princess of foal services, snark and sarcasm, pastries--"

I growled and pulled my hoof out of his grasp. "I know who you are, Discord." 

Discord clapped his paw and claw together. "Ooh, it's so nice to know that I've made my mark on the world, Princess." His smile turned mischievous and he threw an arm around my shoulder. Of course, said arm wasn't attached to his body. "Or should I say, TD Harrison Powell?" Discord laughed and ruffled my mane before re-attaching his arm. 

"So you know who I am. Big deal; the whole of Equestria knows." 

Discord laughed again and clapped me on the back. "Oh come now, you mustn't be so serious all the time, princess. I mean, what's the point of employing snarcasm if you are?" I opened my mouth to speak again, but he cut me off. "I must say, your new form is quite something." He grabbed one of my wings and spread it out. "Have you gotten used to these yet? Discovered all of the ins and outs of them? Found out all of the little inconveniences?" Discord snapped his fingers and a picture materialized. My eyes widened when I saw what it was: two scantily clad human females playing in the water of a beach. I felt my wings ruffle. 

Crap. 

With a ping, my wings spread out to their full length. To make matters worse, upon another glance I noticed that the picture was just slight variations of a female version of my human form. I glared at Discord and used my magic to disintegrate the picture. "Enough games, okay? We've actually had something really bad happen that we need your help with." 

"Does it have anything to do with those vines outside?" 

Discord snapped his claws and we all reappeared outside of the library. The vines immediately went for me, but Twilight put another shield spell around us. 

Discord chuckled and patted one of the vines. "I take it you're going to blame me for this whole thing? Say that if I don't fix it you'll turn me back to stone?"

"Fix this right now!" Twilight growled. "We know you're behind all of this?"

Discord gasped in mock indignation and did a back flip in the air. "Well who ever said that I'm behind all of this, hmm?" Discord snapped his claws and I found myself with a royal cape and holding a golden scepter with a golden head as the top. My head. "Maybe it was your precious new princess. I've heard that some of those magical overloads when royalty is trying to get a grasp of their new powers can be devastating." Discord vanished and reappeared sitting on my back like he was riding me. "What about it, Antares? You ever consider that all of this is your fault?" 

I growled and threw him off of my back. "I haven't magically overloaded since I ascended. Even if I had, this isn't the kind of thing I could accomplish! I'm not strong enough to make Celestia and Luna just disappear." 

This time Discord's gasp was not of mock indignation, but rather one of somebody who had just been told that Christmas was coming early. "You lost Celestia and Luna?" Discord instantly broke out into rambunctious laughter. He was clutching his stomach as if he was in pain from laughing so hard. "Oh... oh this is too rich!" he crowed. "I've heard of ponies putting their hats down and forgetting where they left them, but for you to lose the ponies that raise the sun and the moon like that? Too priceless! I hope that such a thing isn't common under your rule, Antares."

I glared at him and tossed the scepter and cape aside. "Look, are you going to help us find them or not?"

"Help us find them?!" Rainbow Dash flew into the air until she was face-to-face with Discord. "I'll bet he's behind the whole thing!"

"Well if he is behind it, he still needs to help us fix it." I glared at Discord. "Does this look like anything you've encountered?" 

Discord scoffed and crossed his arms. "Well after the hoof pointing, I'm not too sure that I really want to help you girls at all." Discord flew up to a nearby house and landed on the roof. "I thought that you would all realize that I couldn't be behind this. I am reformed, after all." 

Twilight growled in annoyance, and Discord made two knitting needles appear, which he used to begin knitting the vines. "Why don't you ask your zebra friend if she knows anything?" 

Hmm. There was something in his tone when he said zebra, but I couldn't quite pinpoint what it was exactly. Whatever. He had used the vines and knitting needles to knit a sign that pointed to the Everfree Forest. I looked to where he was pointing and saw none other than Zecora walking out of it. She seemed to be carrying the entire contents of her home out of the forest. The Mane Six rushed over to her, I was still behind the shield, and Twilight used her magic to take Zecora's load off of her back. Zecora collapsed on the ground with a groan. 

"From my home, I've had to flee. The forest has grown too wild even for me." 

Now, I had only met Zecora once or twice since I had come to Equestria. It wasn't because I was avoiding her, it was just that we had never really run into each other. Still, we had interacted enough that I was fully aware of her couplet speech. I was still trying to decide if I was annoyed by it or not. Still, she was very gifted at rhyming. 

"Do you have any idea why this is happenin'?" Applejack asked as one of the vines took her hat.

"It is a mystery to me as well, but..." Zecora smiled and trotted over to her wagon. "I may have something that if combined with a spell..." Zecora took an ornate vial filled with some kind of purple liquid out of her wagon. She set it down in front of me. "I do not dare to use it myself. The results would be tragic." She looked over to me with a grim look. "It only responds to alicorn magic."

I frowned and looked down at the vial. "That's... a bizarrely specific and random thing for you to have, Zecora." I raised my eyebrow and looked up at her. "Where did you even get this?"

Zecora gave me a slight glare before turning to Twilight. "I know she does not know as much magic as you, Twilight. You must help her turn the potion from purple to white. After a sip, Princess Antares may discover why it is both day and night."

Oh how I wished that it was a white liquid that I had to turn purple. Let's see her rhyme her way out of that one. Still, it was a tad insulting that she couldn't even say that to me personally. To be fair, though, what exactly rhymes with Antares that's relevant to the situation?

Anyway, Twilight nodded and turned her head to me. "I'm going to have to teach you some new magic for this, TD. I have a feeling that this responds to dark magic."

I raised my eyebrow and glanced down at the potion. "Dark magic? Now I'm even more curious as to what Zecora is doing with this." 

Twilight frowned and rolled her eyes at me. "It doesn't matter, TD. What does matter is that we get this thing to work." Twilight took a deep breath and motioned to my horn. "Okay, here's what you have to do to cast dark magic. Essentially you have to focus all of your negative energies into your horn. You have to..." Twilight blushed and flattened her ears. "Let the hate flow through you, I guess." 

Okay. That's new for me, but if I was the only one who could get this random potion to work then I guess I had to do it. I closed my eyes and remembered all of the times that Celestia screwed me over. I remembered the moment after the Gala where Celestia and Luna showed up after I trashed my house. I remember the emotions that I felt while I was trashing my house. The brief anger I felt when I heard Apple Bloom crying. I remember the feeling of Celestia telling me that I couldn't go home combined with Blueblood's comment. The more I thought about those memories, the more energy I felt flowing through my horn. It was noticeably different magic, though. I almost felt... dirty casting it. Celestia only knows how Twilight figured out how to use this magic. 

Probably literally. 

I felt the magic flow out of my horn, and I opened my eyes in time to see the potion turn from purple to white. It was ready. With nothing else for it, I took the potion and took a long sip. Hmm... it tasted... it tasted like how I imagine what snozzberries would taste like. It was kinda sour, but sweet at the same time with a hint of bitterness... Eh, I dunno. It was okay as far as taste goes. 

Well, taste aside, it didn't seem to be working. Seriously, I was still standing in front of the ponies, and zebra and god of chaos, all of whom were looking at me expectantly. Of course, Discord's expectant look was gleeful almost, like he expected me to blow up or something like that. 

I frowned and looked at the potion. "It doesn't seem to be wo--"

Of course it would choose to start working the second I said that. My eyes suddenly glowed white, and my brain went fuzzy on me. The atmosphere noticeably changed around me, and it felt like I was flying through time and space. Or at least, what I imagine going through time and space would feel like. 

After a few seconds I felt everything go back to normal, and the glow around my eyes faded. I seemed to be... in Celestia's throne room? I sighed. Brilliant, Zecora. It was a teleportation potion. That only responds to alicorn magic. Seriously, I felt a little gypped here. I mean, it took me to Canterlot Castle, and I already knew that Celestia and Luna were missing. It didn't help at all!

Before I could so much as move, I heard a familiar voice ring out from behind the thrones. 

"Not another step!" Luna stepped out from behind the throne and glared at me. Contrary to her usual demeanor, Luna sounded... pissed. Despite myself, I flinched back and flattened my ears. The last time she was this mad at me she snapped my spine over the back of a chair. 

"Uh... you okay, Luna? Everybody's kind of worried about you."

To my intense unease, Luna's glare hardened. She almost looked like she was about to attack me, and that is not something that I wanted. Even though I was an immortal goddess now, I didn't even know a sliver of the combat magic that Luna did. She'd wipe the floor with me then heal me so she could do it again. I'd be lucky to get even a levitation spell off if she wanted to attack. 

However, she didn't look like she was going to attack. As a matter of fact, what she said next made me think that she was... doing a Bond villain monologue?

"Did you really expect me to sit idly by while they all basked in your precious light?" she snarled. 

Uh... huh?

"Hey, Luna, I'm not sure what I did, but nobody really basks in my light." I uneasily scratched the back of my neck. "I mean, yeah there was that one parade, but I didn't even like it!"

"There can only be one princess in Equestria!" Luna stepped behind a podium, her glare not lightening even a little. I'm not sure what I did to piss her off this much, but boy did I get the feeling that I shouldn't be here. 

Having said that, I'm not sure what her "one princess in Equestria" line was about. That would mean that she also wanted to get rid of Celestia and maybe Cadance. That would...

...

Oh. Oh I figured out what was going on. I was flashing back to when Luna became Nightmare Moon, wasn't I? Yeah, that would make sense. 

Well, Luna didn't look any happier, and she pushed herself onto her hind legs. "And that princess shall be ME.

Wait, since this is a thousand years ago, shouldn't she be speaking in old speak and using the Royal We? Admittedly, it would be pretty funny if Luna said "there can only be one princess in Equestria and that princess shall be US."

Before I could reflect on that too much more, the room became dark and the wall behind her began cracking. Just like Luna had a while ago, it seems. The wall behind her broke, and the sun shone brightly into the throne room. Luna raised herself into the air and ignited her horn, causing the moon to rise into the sky, blocking out the sun and bringing about night, I guess. 

With the sun blocked, beams of what I could only assume were dark magic shot out of the moon and encased Luna in swirls of more dark magic. As the swirls grew more intense, I managed to get a look at Luna's expression. To my surprise, she looked... scared. Almost in a "wait, I didn't mean for this to happen" kind of way. It was an expression filled with regret and fear. 

Huh. I didn't expect that based on the episodes I saw and the stories I had heard. That was a new detail. 

Well, it was too late for Luna now and the black swirls completely encased her. The swirls flew around even faster, creating a red ring of bright light. It almost looked like a small sun had appeared in the middle of the throne room. Kind of ironic, but I'm not an expert in these things. 

The bubble star thing overloaded after a few seconds, and it faded away to reveal the silhouette of what I could only assume was Nightmare Moon. Her eyes snapped open, and I saw the dragon pupils that she was known for. Then she began cackling like a total maniac while her teeth formed into fangs. Apparently she found this whole thing absolutely hilarious. 

Weirdo. 

Having said that, I do wish that there were times that I could laugh like that and not be considered absolutely nuts. Being the villain for a day would be kind of cool, I must admit. 

Well, having Nightmare Moon in front of me like that was a little unsettling, I must admit. Again, if I was actually there and she was fighting me, I wouldn't even begin to stand a chance against her. Thankfully she was just laughing. I amused myself be imagining that somebody was tickling her. That's how she was laughing. 

Well, I wanted to know what the vines were, and this was the best way to do it, I guess.