Twilight gaped at the sight of all the ponies. They were all walking in the same direction, west. They had believed Twilight's theory and followed her advice. Twilight felt a shock of pride run up her spine as a smile spread across her face. Travis gave Twilight a friendly punch on the shoulder.
"You did it." He said with his own smile, sharing the same emotion of pride. Sweetie Bell put her own arm around Twilight and half hugged her.
"Well I'll be!" Said Apple Jack, leaning against a tree and crossing her hooves. Rarity gave a small smirk herself and Coda reared up on his back legs. Twilight pulled away from the crowd and looked around the clearing. A few large rocks were scattered across the green grass. Twilight galloped to the tallest rock she could see and climbed to the top. She now saw with a full view of the clearing. Just how many ponies showed up. She stood up as straight as she could and cleared her throat.
"Ponies of the Colony!" She shouted as loud as she could, while still trying to sound authoritative. The ponies didn't notice and continued marching west. Travis buzzed over to the rock and nodded at Twilight. He slowly began morphing and changing, black, smooth, insectoid skin became blood red scales. he grew massive in size and reappeared from the cloud of green light as a towering dragon. He let out a ground shattering roar and the crowd of ponies before them screamed.
"I require your attention!" The dragon yelled in a loud, deep, bellowing voice. The ponies fell silent as Travis transformed back into his old, Changeling self. He smiled at Twilight who nodded in appreciation.
"You have travelled this distance no doubt to help me in finding a way to stop the apocalypse." A few ponies shouted in agreement. Twilight heard the shushes and whispers of disapproval from other ponies in the crowd. "If this is true, I wish two things of you." Some ponies looked confused. "I want you to constantly be ready for attack or movement," Twilight saw a few ponies nod their head. "And I want the smartest minds you have, every strategist, map maker, general. Everypony who knows the layout of Equestria and who think they can move a large group of ponies easily. All who are up for this task, step forward and report to my friend Travis." Twilight gestured to the Changeling standing next to her. His expression switched to shock quicker than Twilight could blink. he leaned towards her inconspicuously.
"What are you doing?" He whispered.
"You're best suited for the job." Twilight explained. "You may have pony DNA but you were purposefully being bred to be a warrior. You may not be as strong as your warrior brothers but you have all those strategies bouncing around in that Changeling head in yours." Twilight smiled a smug smile and looked out at the crowd. At east fifteen ponies began walking out of the crowd, heading towards Twilight's rock.
"But I can't remember any of those strategies." Retorted Travis, still shocked and now worried.
"You will." Said Twilight with confidence. "It's in your blood." She gave him a friendly punch on the shoulder, she began shouting to the crowd again. "I want the rest of you to set up camp here for the night! We will start moving in the morning." Twilight stepped down from the rock and began walking back to her friends, Travis and the fifteen ponies who had stepped forwards were following. When Twilight reached her friends she turned her back to Travis and the fifteen other ponies. "Are any of you map makers?" She asked.
"No, but I have a map!" Said a pony with a grassy green mane and a grey coat. He reached into his saddle bags and pulled out a folded piece of parchment. Twilight took it and opened it up. It was a complete map of Equestria, excluding the Frozen North of course. She pulled out a quill from her own saddle bags and began etching a line across the map. The line crossed the Everfree Forest just about where Zecora's shack was.
"This was the ripple at it's original point when I first found out about it." The other ponies looked over each other's shoulders with interest. "By now it should be around..." Twilight's eyes pointed towards the sky as she did math in her head. "Here." Twilight drew another slightly curved line only about an inch in front of the first one.
"But that's barely anything!" Said a pony with a deep blue mane and pale red coat.
"Actually..." Twilight paused as she did some more math mentally. "I think it's speeding up." A few ponies gasped.
"Speedin' up?" Said a shocked Apple Jack.
"It shouldn't be this far yet, it had advanced a few more feet than expected."
"Well how long until it reaches us?" Asked a worried Rarity in her distraught voice.
"I don't know," Said Twilight, putting a hoof to her chin and thinking for a moment. "I would have to see for myself tomorrow." Twilight rolled up the map. "Can I keep this?" Twilight asked to the grey pony.
"Go ahead." He responded. She nodded and tucked the map into her bag.
"Travis? Come with me, same for you." She said to Travis and the other ponies. Travis nodded and followed after her, the fifteen other ponies followed Travis. Twilight led them to the rock she had stood on earlier and sat down on the grass. "Alright, we need to start trying to figure out how to stop this thing." Everypony remained silent.
"What do you know about Nightmare Moon, Sombra and Discord?" Asked Travis.
"As far as I know they could still be out there. Chrysalis could've returned as well."
"She didn't." Responded Travis, "I would've felt it."
"What do you mean?" Asked Twilight.
"The hive mind still exists there's just Nopony on the other end. If another changeling was here, I would've felt it." Twilight pondered this thought. She had studied changelings after the whole Chrysalis, Cadence mix up, but she hadn't found out much about the hive mind. This could be interesting.
"Okay, well Sombra, Discord and Sombra could still be out there, and I think if we manage to... Destroy one of them..." Twilight was cut short by Travis.
"Woah, woah, woah!!! We can't just kill one of them!"
"Well getting rid of their powers won't do much, they'll just be sent back in time and regain them. I think if we completely destroy their bodies then they won't be sent back. The apocalypse will never happen." Travis got up and pulled Twilight by the mane, he lead her behind the rock away from the other ponies who all looked at each other in confusion.
"What has gotten into you!" He whisper shouted to her.
"What do you mean?" She responded.
"Twilight, I've seen your past. You never acted like this, you never even thought about killing anyone before!" Twilight's face became emotionless. "What happened to you?" Twilight turned her head and stared into Travis' eyes.
"Take a look." She said in response.
"I already d-"
"Look deeper, stare a little longer." Travis looked back into Twilight's deep purple eyes, and his own began to whizz in and out of focus. After what seemed like a minute his eyes returned to normal. He took a step back in shock.
"Wh... Where's your peace? Friendliness? Mercy?"
"Mercy?" Twilight took a step forward, her expressionless face turning to frustration. "Why would I show mercy to them!?" She shouted. "Why would I show mercy to the ponies responsible for the death of my friends!?"
"I see..." Said Travis, "So your mercy was replaced with selfishness!" Twilight slapped her hoof across Travis' face. He held his hoof to the cheek she had slapped.
"How dare you!" She screamed, tears welling up in her eyes. "You think I'm only doing this for my benefit!? I'm doing this for everypony, So they can go back to their families! So Apple Jack can see her little sister! So Mr. Cake can see his wife and children again! Don't you ever say I'm doing this for my benefit."
"How dare you!" Retorted Travis. "I can see your emotions, you're only doing this because you have nothing left to lose! I'm not saying stopping the apocalypse is a bad thing, but the reason you're doing it is wrong."
"Is everythin' alright?" Apple Jack asked as she came around the corner. Twilight an Travis gazed at Apple Jack for a few seconds.
"Fine..." Said Twilight, wiping the tears from her eyes and walking past Apple Jack, purposefully bumping into Travis on her way past. Apple Jack raised an eyebrow at Travis. He nodded nervously and followed Twilight back to the other ponies. Apple Jack shook her head and walked after the two. The three of them approached the group of ponies.
"For now everypony should get some rest." The fifteen ponies nodded and head off into the field with the others. Twilight turned to Apple Jack and Travis, "We should get to sleep as well. Tomorrow I'll go find out how fast the ripple is accelerating." Apple Jack and Travis nodded, they followed the other fifteen ponies out into the field. Twilight watched them set up blankets on the grass and lay down on them. A few ponies had set up in the shade of some rocks, they weren't used to sleeping outside in the sun. Twilight climbed back up to the top of her rock and set her own blanket down on the surprisingly flat surface at the top. She looked out over the Colony... Her Colony. She had a feeling this would all be over soon. At this thought she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.
Twilight woke to the sound of hoofsteps. She opened an eye just enough to see, the feeling of sunlight on her pupils stung for a second but her vision was soon back to normal. In front of her she saw a set of black, armored hooves. She opened her eye a bit more and saw a red cape, lined with white spotted fur. Twilight lept to her hooves, slid the blade out of her C.L.A.M.P and jumped at the figure before her. The dark pony vanished in a puff of black smoke. Twilight stumbled and nearly fell off of her rock. She turned around to see the pitch black armored pony standing before her with a smile on his face.
"You!" She shouted.
"Well done Twilight." Said King Sombra in his deep, chilling voice. His green eyes flowing with evil. "I didn't expect you to come this far." Twilight jumped at Sombra once more and this time her blade pierced his armor, sinking past the metal. Sombra chuckled and pushed Twilight backwards, forcefully. Her blade slid out of Sombra's chest plate with ease as she stumbled backwards. His armor seemed to stitch back together as he laughed.
"Apple Jack! Rarity!" Twilight screamed over the edge of the rock.
"They can't hear you." Said Sombra in a playful tone. "This is merely a dream I thrust upon you whilst you slept." Sombra slammed his hoof onto the rock and suddenly a mass of screams washed over Twilight's ears. The crowd of ponies beneath the rock became a crowd of bloody, bruised, dismembered bodies. Twilight froze in shock, she could see the bodies of Apple Jack, Rarity, Sweetie Bell, Travis and Coda in the sea of corpses, but Twilight wasn't fazed. Perhaps it was because she knew it was a dream, or maybe it was because she had already seen all of her friends die once. This thought made her shudder. Twilight turned back to Sombra, anger on her face.
"Just a little example of what's to come if you continue to fight." Now Twilight was the one who chuckled.
"You think I'll stop?" Twilight's chuckle turned into a laugh, Sombra continued watching with amusement. "Why would I!? Travis was right, I got nothing left to lose. So, tell me my 'King', Why would I stop now?" Sombra looked at Twilight, intrigued.
"Because I'll kill you if you don't." Twilight was confused.
"It doesn't matter if I..." Something clicked in Twilight's brain. "You don't know."
"Don't know what?" He asked, still in a playful tone. As if a powerless unicorn could possibly know something he, King Sombra, didn't.
"Where are your other partners in crime?" Asked Twilight, changing the subject. Sombra seemed to brush off the previous conversation.
"ah, such a long story that can be made so simple. Just three words to describe four years of planning. But I think I'll save that conversation for a different time. Goodbye Twilight." Twilight's vision faded and soon it was completely black. "We will meet again."
Twilight woke up back in the field. She stood up on her rock and looked around. No sign of Sombra. She peered over the edge of the rock and smiled as she saw everypony was in tact without a scratch on them. She walked back to her blanket and sat on it, thinking about her encounter. Sombra didn't seem to know about the ripple, if he did then he would've known killing Twilight wouldn't do much good. The ripple would reach her body and she would be sent back in time like everypony else. This would give Twilight an extreme amount of leverage. She wondered what happened to Discord and Nightmare Moon, what three words were Sombra talking about. She stopped this thought and stood up again and climbed off her rock. She looked across the field and saw Coda sleeping on a green blanket. Twilight trotted over quietly and poked his wing.
"Coda?" He jerked and opened his eyes slowly.
"What is it?" He said groggily.
"Get the others, I have something important to say."