"The station is closing for the day. Please exit the platform. Trains will resume transporting at six A.M. Have a nice night."
The announcement repeated over the speaker system as ponies shuffled off the platform and into the brisk night air of Canterlot. Those that traveled in a group moved closer for more warmth as they walked to wherever they were going, while those that were alone moved faster to escape the cold. Once the crowd dispersed, there was a lone unicorn mare that took her sweet time stepping onto the pavement.
She wore a dark red cloak to shield her from the wind, slightly bulging from the saddlebags strapped to her back. Light brown coat, black mane, and dark brown eyes--the mare looked like she fit right in with the spirit of the season. She hustled through the night towards the inn she would be residing at. Luckily for her, it wasn't that far of a walk from the station.
The stallion standing behind the desk let out a yawn as he lifted his head from his hoof. "Welcome.... I assume you're the last one that saved a room?" His tired eyes glanced down at the ledger on the desk for a brief moment. "Black...Skulls? Interesting name. Well, I'm Book Keeper."
The mare gave a friendly--if not seemingly embarrassed--smile. "I know, my name is kinda weird. I'm an archeologist, so fossils and well, skulls and stuff are my passion."
Book Keeper only nodded in slight acknowledgement as he grabbed the room keys. Black Skulls shifted uncomfortably in the silence.
"Here you go. You're on the second floor, Room 209. Have a nice night," he said as he let out another yawn before turning to leave as an light red aura encased the keys and floated over the mare.
"Um... Good night, I guess," she mumbled to the empty desk.
Black Skulls quickly found her room and closed the door behind her. She was finally alone. No more pretending--at least for the time being.
She shrugged off the cloak and left it in a puddle of fabric by the door, then lifted her saddlebags and placed them on the single bed. Her eyes flicked to the clock that was hanging on the wall. It read ten twenty-eight. She had plenty of time.
With a flick of her horn, she unceremoniously dumped the contents of her bags onto the sheets. A book with a letter sticking out, two rings in a thin box--one gold with a sun inscription and one black with a moon inscription--a single piece of chalk, a small dagger, and a roll of gauze.
A small smile formed on the mare's lips as she inspected everything. Everything she needed was there, of course. This trip was a result of several year's worth of planning. And the next morning she would officially set it in motion.
She put everything back in the bags, hid them under her bed, and crawled under the covers. It was going to be a big day.
Black Skulls trotted happily to the gates of Canterlot Castle, her red cloak again draped around her shoulders. A day guard in gold armor blocked entry with his spear. She smiled and bowed to the guard.
"Good morning! I'm here to see the Princesses. My name is Golden Gem. I sent the Princesses a letter saying that I would love to craft them one-of-a-kind rings."
The guard, stoic and unmoving, simply stared her down. Sudden realization hit her, and she produced a letter to show to him. "Here is a letter I received from Princess Celestia, who said that she and the Night Princess would simply be delighted to have the rings I made them."
His eyes scanned the letter, and true to her word it was a genuine correspondence from the Princess. He returned the letter, but did not move out of the mare's way.
"...Is there something wrong?" Black Skull's stomach clenched. She did not expect her plan to fail at the first checkpoint.
"I need to see the rings before I let you through." He grunted.
She let out a giggle and pulled out the thin box containing the rings. They glinted in the sun, and the guard wasted no time scanning them for any offending spells an enchantments.
Black Skulls smiled as he did so. The rings were nothing more than beautiful pieces of jewelry--for now. Once they passed inspection, the guard stepped to the side and allowed her admittance.
"Thank you!" She bowed again and started to walk past him. Before she went two feet, she turned with a hint of embarrassment on her face. "Um...could you point me in the direction of the restroom?"
"To your left down that hallway. Take a turn to the right and it will be right there."
"Thank you so much."
She quickly rushed own the castle halls into the privacy of the restroom, locking the door behind her. She placed the rings on the marble counter. Nothing more than fancy jewelry. Before they would reach the Princesses, however, they would be a powerful ally in her plan.
Black Skulls concentrated on various spells she took years to learn and master. Years of practicing and perfecting, all for this moment. She estimated she spent nearly ten minutes preparing her gifts--longer than she would have liked, but as long as they worked as she expected, she didn't mind.
The next part of the plan would be the most excruciating; waiting in line for an audience with the Princess. While she had hoped that because she had a personal letter from the Princess allowing her into the castle, she could simply bypass the other ponies. No such luck, however, and Black Skulls waited for hours, moving about in her place with impatience and nervousness, as the ponies before her stated their concerns and complaints to the two rulers.
"Next!"
Her head shot up, a smile quickly replacing her scowl, as she trotted into the throne room. There they were, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, in all their regal glory. Alicorns and powerful by birthright, with a magical reservoir fit for a ruler.
How she hated them.
Black Skulls bowed, her smile a little too tight, in the center of the room. "Princess Celestia, Princess Luna. My name is Golden Gem. I hope you two remember the letter I sent to you several months back?"
The older Princess smiled and nodded. "Of course. It's not every day that one of our citizens offer to give a gift to us and expect nothing in return."
The unicorn mare suppressed a snort. "Yes. I just thought that you would appreciate the craftsmanship." She trotted towards the throne and opened the small black box. Inside were the two rings, now intertwined with powerful enchantments. Of course, to her they were nothing more than tools. Two plain rings she bought and paid bits to have the Princess' celestial beings inscribed on. She smiled. What difference would a little white lie make?
It was Luna who approached first. "Oh my! They're simply beautiful, Miss Gem. They even match the royal regalia. You have such an eye for detail."
A yellow aura wrapped around the gold ring and carried it over to Princess Celestia. After a moment of inspecting it, her lips formed a genuine smile of appreciation. "I have to agree with Luna. They're such wonderful gifts."
Black Skulls lifted her head to look each princess in the eye. "It would mean... so much to me if the Princesses would wear them today. At least for today!"
Both Princesses glanced at each other as they hesitated. Her eyes lowered as her entire body sagged. Seeing their subject in such a state changed their minds quickly--just as she hoped. She couldn't help but grin as she watched the Princesses slide their respective rings down to the base of their horns, trying to resist the urge to jump up and down.
The rings glowed faintly, easily mistaken for a reflective shine, and she knew that the magic was settling in. As the Princesses used their magic, the weaker they would become. It was a unique type of disarming spell--one that worked subtly and almost completely undetected. A wicked smile formed as she just thought about how utterly incapacitated the two would be after lowering the sun and raising the moon.
"Golden Gem?"
The sound of Princess Celestia's voice snapped her back to the present.
"Oh, y-yes?"
"We thanked you again for your gifts. It would do you and the rings injustice if we didn't wear them for at least one day." Luna nodded and tapped the base of her horn. "Oh, I bet Cadence would turn green with envy!"
Black Skulls bowed. "You two look truly--"
A knock at the large wooden doors preceded a guard stepping through them. He saluted his superiors before he spoke. "Your Highnesses, I apologize but your guest needs to be moving on. There are other citizens waiting in line to get an audience with you."
She welcomed this opportunity and started towards the doors. "I must apologize for taking up so much of your time. Please, enjoy the rings for today!"
Once she was through the large double doors, she looked each and every pony she passed in the eyes with a grin. By morning, she would be their new queen.
The moon had risen long ago, and every pony in Equestria was in their beds--save for the few night owls who wished they could sleep. One pony, however, was not tired in the slightest and was eager to really get her night started.
Black Skulls climbed over the iron fence to the Canterlot Royal Cemetery, where the bodies of the royal family and those who served the royal army are buried, lain to rest thinking they had served their country to the fullest extent. Once the night was over, however, they would help rein in a new order to Equestria.
Luckily for her, there was no form of security that surrounded the cemetery. It was circular, with a stone platform in the graveyard's center that had the sun and the moon etched in it, symbolizing that the Princesses and all of Equestria were thankful for their duties and sacrifices. She made her way towards the center with a smile across her face.
First, she levitated the book and the chalk from her saddlebags and placed the former at her hooves on an open page. Taking up the space of two was a drawing of a very intricate summoning circle--which with the advancements of Magic were hardly ever used due to how long preparations took and how it could potentially backfire on the caster.
Not that she had any worries about it. This particular spell was of a unique--and certainly illegal--category, and it was something she was absolutely confident about performing.
She had gotten her cutie mark in the Dark Arts.
The stone platform was just large enough to draw the glyph and for her to stand in the middle of it. Once finished, she took the dagger out of her bag. Her horn glowed with light-red magic and the chalk circle soon followed after. With one final glance at the book, Black Skulls took a deep breath and began speaking.
"Ar dunci, es izliet asinis tiem, kas guļ netīrumiem.
Es dodu manu asins tiem, kas vairs nav tas tāpēc, ka viņi atkal var pastaigāties starp dzīvajiem.
Poniju, kas reiz bija miesa un asinis, atkal palielināsies un kalpo mērķim, valdošo jaunā karaliene!"
With one quick move, she sliced open her foreleg, wincing as the drops of blood splashed onto the chalk outline. They disappeared the moment they hit the surface, and the glow from the spell brightened considerably.
Just as she was about to retrieve the roll of gauze from her bag to bandage the wound, she heard a voice in the distance.
"Hey! Who goes there?!"
She glanced over her shoulder at the approaching night guard. Black Skulls opened her mouth to speak, but then saw a hoof rise from a nearby grave and grab the guard's leg. He fell to the ground with a thud, his eyes widening in horror.
"Wh-What the hell--"
All around them, the cemetery where over seven-thousand soldiers, generals, captains, and members of royalty had been buried over the years, slowly came to life at the sound of dirt being shifted and bodies crawling out of the ground.
Black Skulls did nothing but smirk at the guard as her horn glowed dangerously. The next moment, the dagger soared through the air--straight for the guard's heart.
A large wave of ponies marched their way down the streets of Canterlot towards the castle, a lone mare leading. It made quite a lot of noise, with the sound of the clanking armor the soldiers were buried with, the groans and moans, and thousands of hooves hitting the cobblestone roads--not that Black Skulls minded. She wanted the noise. She wanted Celestia, Luna, the guards, and every pony in Equestria to know that their new queen had arrived.
Equestria's army had vastly diminished over the millennium of peace. There was no need to build up reserves when there were no threats. She smiled at the thought of how easy it would be to overpower the current army. They didn't help much during the Changeling Invasion, and they certainly wouldn't help now.
By the time they reached the castle gates, the Equestrian Army had already formed a perimeter. Black Skulls stopped just short of them and eyed the current General. Behind the tall, stocky stallion stood guards that served both the Sun and Moon Princesses. A sea of gold and black that waited with spears at the ready.
Behind her were the undead, though at first glance they didn't appear so. By all appearances the only differences between them and living ponies were that her personal army's colors had been diluted and faded out since they had been alive. There was a reason she waited and used the royal cemetery for her plan other than the sheer number of graves and the ponies that were buried there.
The General took a step forward, his glare never wavering. "We will not hesitate to stop you here and rip through your army. Turn around now and we will spare your lives."
Black Skulls blinked before breaking out in a fit of laughter. She laughed until water ran down her cheeks and she had to hold her stomach. It echoed through the night, and the members of the royal army got increasingly uncomfortable.
"Oh...ha...haa...you're funny!"
Leftover giggles escaped her as her horn glowed and brought forward a pony. Nearly every soldier gasped. The pony she decided to put on display was familiar to them.
It was the former Captain before Shining Armor, Onyx Hunter.
"I see by your reactions that you've met my friend before!" She draped her bandaged hoof around the diluted-brown coat of the former captain, who stood emotionless. "Now you see why I just thought it was hilarious when you said you would 'spare our lives'!"
Once the shock had worn off, one soldier ran forward, spear at the ready, and tried to attack Black Skulls. Before he could even reach her, Onyx Hunter jumped between the two of them. The lone soldier was sent back into line with one kick of the undead stallion's hind legs.
Black Skulls smiled as she took his face in her hooves. "Who's a good zombie? You are!" She looked over her shoulder and activated her horn once again, bringing forward around nineteen more ponies to surround her. "Now if you'll excuse me, I will be paying the Princesses a visit."
With a shout from the General, the royal army began to attack. Immediately, the remainder of Black Skulls' army responded in kind. She and her small army of twenty simply walked away from the fight to find another way inside.
Black Skulls practically bounced down the hallway while looking for the Princesses. She had absolute joy in what she had started, and what the end result would be. All she needed now was to properly dethrone the current ruling diarchy.
"Princess Celestia! Princess Luna! Where are you?"
Her voice echoed down the halls, though barely heard over the sounds of shouts, armor-clanging, and weapon-hitting that happened both outside and inside the castle. The soldiers that tried to attack her were jumped immediately by a dozen of her undead army, and she paid them no mind--as if it were a squabbling about how many bits a fruit was worth at the market.
She threw open the double doors to the throne room and found both Princesses standing there. They looked visibly exhausted--their hair and wings limped lifelessly, their coats weren't groomed to perfection, and they had bags under their eyes.
Of course, seeing them like this brought absolute delight to the unicorn mare.
"Oh my! You two look absolutely terrible! What happened?" She asked in an over-the-top show of concern.
Luna was the first to go into defensive mode. "You! Golden Gem! Just what is it you're doing at the castle?! How dare you challenge your Princesses?!"
She lit her horn to attack...only for the ring at the base of her horn to pulse and cause it to fizzle out. Her body sagged at the effort. Princess Celestia knew it was a futile effort.
"The rings you gave us today..." she spoke slowly, "...Why, Golden Gem?"
Black Skulls tutted. "My name is Black Skulls. Might as well know the name of the new Queen of Equestria."
"We will find a way to remove these damned rings, and we will defeat you!" Luna shouted as she climbed back onto her hooves.
"Is that so?" The unicorn mare smirked as she walked further into the room, with her small army trailing in behind her. The look on the Princesses' faces was priceless--the look of shock and horror. "Onyx Hunter! Step forward!"
The lead stallion did as he was told. Black Skulls ran a hoof down his mane. "Interesting thing I noticed while doing a bit of studying. Did you know that the rate a corpse rots is directly tied to the amount of magic is in the immediate area? I didn't!" She giggled to herself before continuing. "So let's see...General Onyx Hunter has been dead for....five years? Around that range, am I right? Anyway, let's say five years. With the combined magical prowess of our almighty diarchy, and Canterlot being the unicorn capital of Equestria...I estimate that no pony buried in Canterlot will start rotting until they're about....oh, two-thousand years under?"
She gave the horrified princesses a wide, sadistic grin. "So they're all in top physical shape, just as if they had been living just three days ago! And with the rings I gave you restricting your access to your magical reservoirs with each spell you perform, even as simple as levitation....I don't think you have a chance."
Before either Celestia or Luna could speak or take a step forward, they were knocked to the ground by four of her undead soldiers. She calmly trotted forward and looked into their eyes. "Just accept your fate with dignity, and I may let you live--on my terms of course. Still need the both of you the raise and lower the celestial bodies, you know? Or...maybe just one? It seems like if that's all I need done I only need one of you. Or neither! Could always go back to the age-old tradition of having unicorns do it. Hmm..."
While she contemplated just what to do, the throne room doors slammed open. She turned to look over her shoulder to see six ponies standing within the frame. A smile formed on her lips.
"Ah! The Elements of Harmony! I was wondering when you'd show up. A bit late to the party, but that's alright." She turned fully to them and gave each of them a curt nod. "Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and of course, Princess Twilight Sparkle. Welcome to my coronation."
Rainbow Dash and Applejack shot forward to attack. The moment they were within reach of Black Skulls, she created a large bubble shield around herself and watched with amusement as the pegasus and earth pony bounced off it.
"You know, alicorns aren't the only ones with a rather large reservoir and a particular affinity for magic. I guess your whole family is like that, isn't it, Twilight? You were just lucky to have been taken under Celestia's wings."
"Hey! Twilight is the Element of Magic! Of course she's gonna be the best at it!" Pinkie Pie shouted as she glared at Black Skulls.
Rarity decided to chime in next, "There hasn't been one thing we were unable to defeat."
Black Skulls simply rolled her eyes and levitated the two of them. First, she deadened their senses. While she couldn't do anything extreme without a proper ritual, she was still able to inflict other horrors with a simple spell, and it was no fun if they were screaming the whole time. She twisted and bent the mares in unnatural positions; rotating their limbs until they snapped, curling them into balls, and intertwining into each other.
The remainder of the Elements used the opportunity to attack. Rainbow Dash slammed into her and sent her flying across the room. With her concentration broken, Rarity and Pinkie Pie fell to the floor in a heap and was immediately looked over by Fluttershy, who had tears in her eyes. Applejack joined Rainbow Dash to restrain her, though that did little to help. In the next moment, a bright red flash occurred where Black Skulls had been laying, and she appeared behind Twilight.
"Oh, so close! So close!"
Black Skulls grabbed Twilight's wings and gave them a yank--she wasn't strong enough to break limbs by force but she did do it enough to hurt. Twilight yelped in pain and summoned a shield to break free of her hold. When Twilight turned to face her, Black Skulls just smirked and pointed behind her.
Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie had gotten swarmed by her undead army and were now restrained, just as Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were.
A chorus of grunts echoed throughout the throne room as the girls struggled to free themselves. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna had backed down, but not backed out--sure that there was something they could do as long as they laid low. Twilight faced her head on, preparing her magic to attack.
"Just...why are you doing this?!" She wailed as she stomped her hoof. "Just what is it you're after?!"
Black Skulls' response was blunt and serious. "I want to rule Equestria, isn't that obvious? I only got this far due to years--and I mean years--of planning! How to get into the castle, how to incapacitate the Princesses, how to overtake the royal army. Planning. And. Research."
She glared Twilight down as her aura snaked towards her. "And you know what? I'm done prolonging what's rightfully mine."
The light-red tendril of magic floated right behind her to engulf Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Their eyes widened, and they let out a blood-curdling scream as they felt as though they were being torn from the inside out. Black Skulls watched with mild disinterest as the two large alicorns writhed in her grasp.
Twilight stood her ground and readied a spell of her own. Hot tears of anger streamed down her cheeks as she spoke, "You...You monster! I...I should just--"
Black Skulls didn't even give her the courtesy of looking in her direction. "What, kill me? Do you really think you're capable of murder, Princess Twilight? Well...go ahead!" Her spell on the Princesses fizzled out, and the two fell to the floor. They twitched and gasped in agony before finally going silent.
Twilight could only stare with wide eyes at her mentor and her sister laid on the castle floor, having been incinerated from the inside. She visibly quivered and let out short, shallow breaths.
The Princesses were dead.
Black Skulls walked up to Twilight, who didn't flinch when she put a hoof around her shoulders, and whispered into her ear. "A shame, isn't it? I really wanted to do something worthy of their former status. A public spectacle, you know? But you just made me so mad I just had to take it out on somepony! But don't worry. You--" She jabbed a hoof into the living alicorn's chest, "--won't end up like them for awhile. I need you! Doesn't that make you feel happy?"
She pulled away from the trembling alicorn and bounced on her hooves. "Oh I know! You can think of me as your mentor now! You and your friends need to learn the new world order, after all."
Twilight couldn't hold it any longer. She broke down and crawled to her mentor's chest. She sobbed openly, ignoring the cries of optimism and encouragement from her fellow Elements.
Black Skulls lifted the black tiara from the former Night Princess' head and placed it upon her own. The zombies restraining the Elements forced them to their hooves, with one forcing the grieving Princess in line. Black Skulls slowly walked across the throne room until she was mere feet from her prisoners.
She smiled.
"My name is Black Skulls, the newly crowned Queen of Equestria."