//------------------------------// // Chapter 6-The Reply to the Plea // Story: Hail to the Queen // by Snowfeather //------------------------------// The Queen descended the stairs with her guards. Entering the dungeons, she made her way to her friends—no, the girls—cell. Before turning the corner, she heard them talking. “Why isn’t she here?” Pinkie asked, sounding worried. “Yeah, we’ve been in here for, like, years!” Rainbow complained. “She should be here already!” Before Twilight could mentally process what she had heard, it was too late and she had turned the corner. The five quieted down. The Queen wished she had waited to hear who she was, but she had already walked into their line of sight. “Oh, hello Twilight,” Rarity said, trying to sound as nice as possible. Twilight knew she was upset; Rarity hadn’t gotten to brush her hair for a day now. “Hello,” Twilight replied. She gazed around at each of the five ponies as she spoke. “I just wanted to ask you for the third time. Why did you fake your—Dash, what happened to your eye patch?” Rainbow’s damaged eye looked completely fine. Rainbow blushed nervously. “Well, I, uh…that wasn’t really real.” “What?” Twilight asked, confused. “Your eye was fine the whole time?” “Uh…no,” Rainbow said sheepishly, “It was hurt, but when it healed I didn’t take the eye patch off.” The rainbow pegasus hovered in the air. “It was just so cool looking, you know?” “Oookay. Well, thank you for telling me,” Twilight said. “Now, back to what I was asking. For the fourth time now: why did you fake your deaths?” “Twilight, all we want to do is help you. We did it because we wanted to help you,” Pinkie said desperately, finishing with a glance upwards as if her savior might come from above. “How was that supposed to help?” Twilight demanded. “I thought you were dead! From what I can tell, that hurt more than it helped!” “Just trust us,” Applejack said. “Eventually you’ll understand.” “‘Eventually you’ll understand?’” Twilight echoed. “I’m not a little foal! Why did you fake your deaths?” The Queen exhaled, taking a few steps back. She had let herself get a little too worked up . “My Queen,” A guard said. Twilight turned around. “A pony by the name of Princess Cadence is asking to see you.” “What?” Twilight said, stunned. “Princess Cadence wants to see you.” “Why? We had a deal, an agreement; she’s not going back on it now!” “She didn’t say,” The guard replied. Twilight glanced back at her friends, who all looked at her with strange expressions that were a mix of fear and hope. In a flash of light the queen was gone. Twilight reappeared standing before her throne. The Queen looked down to see Princess Cadence. Cadence stared right back up at Twilight. “What do you want?” Twilight asked coldly, wings flared. “I’m here to help you rule,” Cadence replied as if Twilight had asked her nicely what she was doing here. The Queen paused before responding. “No, Cadence, I’m fine. Why would you help me rule? I’m doing okay by myself, thank you. I don’t need your help.” Twilight glanced down at her former foalsitter with contempt in her eyes. “If you don’t accept my help, I’m afraid I’ll have to take you down,” Cadence threatened. Twilight heard hoof steps and hushed whispers as the ponies in the throne room began to sneak away to the outside. Not many ponies want to be in a room with two battling alicorns. The crowd evacuated outside. However, they lingered in front of the stained glass windows that decorated the room, wishing to watch the battle. The ponies talked amongst themselves, whispering about who would win and if the Queen’s rule was finally over. A few ponies noticed the oddly high number of crystal ponies that guarded the castle today. The doors opened and the Queen and the Princess exited. “Did you come to an agreement?” Somepony called out, hoping that they had decided to rule together or that Twilight was going to step down. Princess Cadence shook her head. “No, we just didn’t want to fight in there because of the stained glass. It’s too pretty to be broken.” Everypony began to inch back inside the throne room again. When everypony had left, the foalsitter and the foal began to circle each other, looking at the other. The air was thick with tension as they waited for the other to strike. Twilight waited for Cadence to make the first move. Cadence waited for Twilight to cast the first spell. The ponies inside the throne room waited for some action. The Queen was the first one to break the silence. “Do you want me to strike first so I’ll be labeled as the aggressor in history books?” Cadence smiled. “Why don’t you cast the first spell, Twilight?” “Why don’t you cast the first spell?” Twilight said, flapping her wings anxiously. “You cast the first spell,” Cadence insisted. “No, you cast the first spell.” “You cast it.” “You cast it!” The alicorns continued to circle, and kept on insisting that the other one strike first. Neither one wanted to give in. Finally Cadence broke the pattern. “Why don’t we do it at the same time? How about on the count of three?” Twilight narrowed her eyes. “What if you don’t cast your spell?” “You just have to trust me,” Cadence said. “Trust the pony I’m about to fight?” Twilight said, incredulous. “Three…” Cadence said. Both powered up their horns and stretched out their wings. “Two.” Magic exploded from Cadence. In an instant she had disappeared and then reappeared again. “One!” Twilight was about to release her spell to put Cadence to sleep, but her legs flew out from under her. The alicorn fell to the ground as a pony smacked her horn. The magic, having been disrupted, flowed back into Twilight. Cadence appeared behind Twilight as she convulsed on the grass, the powerful magic entering her faster than she could take. The Cadence standing in front of Twilight disappeared with a poof from a nudge of Cadence-who-was-behind-Twilight’s hoof. The illusion floated away on the slight breeze. Twilight looked up at Cadence, feeling awful. Being hit on the horn, especially right before releasing a powerful spell was not a nice thing to go through. “Twilight, you know all about the formal way to magic duel, I’ll give you that,” Cadence said as Twilight rose to her hooves shakily. “But you know nothing about the street way to duel.” The Queen sighed, her shoulders slumping. “Cadence, you’re right.” “But I’ve read all about the street way,” Twilight said. With a flick of her levitation, she threw dirt into Cadence’s eyes. Cadence stumbled back, frantically trying to get the dirt out. Twilight began to power up her horn, preparing a spell. When Cadence had all the dirt out of her eyes, Twilight released her spell. The queen turned her head, shielding her eyes with her hoof. Right above the battle, a light flared so brightly it could have been the sun. Cadence accidentally looked straight into it. She glanced away quickly, blinded. The sun-like object disappeared. Twilight dared to glance around. Cadence was stumbling about blindly. “You can’t see, can you?” Twilight called out, grinning. Cadence turned toward the voice. “Neither can you!” The whole area was plunged into darkness. The Queen couldn’t see a thing. Not even the moon was there to guide her. Twilight began to throw spells into Cadence’s general direction. She couldn’t hear any response, and deduced Cadence must have moved somewhere else. Twilight cautiously walked around, trying not to stumble into anything. “Aha, I’ve got you—,” Cadence’s voice said from Twilight’s left. “Oh wait, that’s a statue.” Twilight threw a flurry of magic where she heard Cadence’s voice. She waited and listened. Nothing. The Queen was beginning to tire magically, having cast powerful spells only to have them crash into fountains and bushes. “This is useless,” The Queen shouted. “We’re wasting a lot of magic throwing spells around in the dark.” “Marco,” Twilight called out, hoping Cadence would respond. She waited. “Polo,” Cadence said back. Twilight cast a sound illusion spell. It would generate a sound of her saying ‘Marco’ even though she wasn’t actually there. The alicorn began to follow the sound of Cadence’s voice. It was kind of disorienting, hearing yourself say something from behind you. The alicorn made her way until she was almost on top of Cadence. Casting a light spell, she peeked around a bush to see nothing. Nothing was there, and yet the sound of her saying ‘Polo’ could be heard. She cast a sound illusion spell too! Twilight, annoyed, began to try to get out of the globe of darkness. The Queen struck out in a random direction. After about thirty seconds of walking, Twilight took another step and her whole world became light. She cried out, scrunching her eyes closed. As her eyes adjusted to the light, she cracked open an eye and spotted Cadence standing outside the globe of darkness. Her eyes were closed and she wasn’t facing Twilight. Twilight spotted her opportunity. She began to sneak up behind Cadence. Her horn powered up, getting ready to cast the banishment spell. It would banish Cadence from Equestria until she died. The Queen crept closer. Cadence’s horn lit up, but Twilight thought nothing of it. She was so close to Cadence she could hear her breathing. This was it. She could cast it now, and it would be over. A rock hit Twilight in the base of her horn, hard. She screamed as vines grew rapidly over her and around her, imprisoning the alicorn. Cadence whirled around, dropping the rock with her magic. She gasped as purple and green spheres reentered Twilight. Her eyes, instead of glowing white, glowed green, and purple tendrils of smoke flowed out from her eyes. Twilight was about to cast a dark magic spell on her. Cadence cast her teleportation spell, grabbed the anti-magic ring from one of her crystal ponies, and teleported back. Twilight writhed as the dark magic forced itself into her as the vines tried to keep her still. Cadence forcefully grabbed Twilight’s head and slid the anti-magic ring down her horn. Twilight was still. Cadence dismissed the vines with her magic. The vines evaporated as several crystal pony guards galloped up to her. The Queen—well, the former queen, made no attempt to get up. Cadence waited. Twilight’s eyes fluttered open. She looked up and her horn and winced. “Ow,” she moaned. “Ow-ow-ow! That really hurts.” Twilight pointed up at the ring around her horn. “Cadence, could you please remove it and put it back on again?” Cadence made no response. “Pleeaaaase, it hurts so bad!” Twilight looked up at Cadence. Her eyes seemed to be so full of genuine pain. “Alright Twilight, as long as you promise not to try anything,” Cadence gave in. “I won’t…I won’t…please, it hurts so bad,” Twilight muttered as the two guards moved to hold her still. Cadence reached over and slid the ring up and off Twilight’s horn. Twilight seemed to explode with dark magic. Black tendrils lashed out at Cadence and her guards. She began rapidly casting dark spells at Cadence, backing away as quickly as possible. Cadence quickly threw up a shield. The dark magic battered it; she could see cracks forming all over it. She remembered what she had been taught about battling a dark magic user. Cadence poured out the purest magic she had. When she had surrounded herself in a mass of white magic, Cadence approached Twilight. Twilight cried out in shock as the spells were dissolved as soon as they encountered the white magic. The alicorn threw dark magic out in more frequency than before, rapidly taking steps back. Cadence struggled as she felt her magic weaken. Strengthening her magic, she walked through the blackness. Twilight began to panic, eyes wide with fear as Cadence lunged forward. She slid the ring, this time making sure it wouldn’t hurt Twilight, down her horn. And then all the magic stopped. The intense darkness around them turned back into normal daylight. The green glow in Twilight’s eyes and the purple smoke disappeared, leaving Twilight with her normal white eyes. Cadence’s white magic dispelled itself. Both ponies fell to the ground, exhausted. When the crystal guards came, Cadence stood up. They bound Twilight’s wings to her sides using rope and began to lead her back into the castle. Twilight remained silent, refusing to look at anypony directly in the eye. Princess Cadence was quite alarmed even after having won. If Twilight knew that much dark magic, how bad was it here in Equestria? The doors opened from the outside, and the ponies in the throne room turned around. The darkness had disoriented everypony and had only gone away just a few minutes ago. Everypony gasped as Twilight was led in, obviously defeated. Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy and Rainbow had been already freed from the dungeon. They had been blindly ascending the stairs in the dark when the lights turned back on. Everypony galloped to the throne room. Applejack reached out to open the doors, but instead the doors opened in her face. Standing between two guards was Twilight Sparkle, an anti-magic ring around her horn and her wings bound to her side. She looked absolutely awful. Fluttershy moved in to give Twilight a reassuring side hug, but she blocked Fluttershy’s hoof, backing away. Twilight stared at Fluttershy. “I know why you faked your death,” Twilight began softly. “You faked your deaths so you could warn Cadence. You knew I wasn’t going to let you get to her alive, so you faked your deaths so no pony would be searching for you.” “You betrayed me,” Twilight said, her voice filled with rage as the guards began to lead her away. Pinkie Pie looked at Twilight with watery eyes. When Twilight was out of earshot, Pinkie burst into tears. “I just wanted to help her!” She cried out as her friends gathered around her, attempting to comfort her.