//------------------------------//
// The Seventh General of the Light Kingdom, Part I - The Story of a Corrupted General 
// Story: The Taking of Tartarus 
// by Rakoon1 
//------------------------------//

	With Princess Ingrid’s information about the location of Tartarus, Golden Paladin, Heartbeat and Mirror Coat went to there. They reached the floating prison and entered.

"Finally, we are in Tartarus" Golden Paladin said. "It feels so good to be back."

"I don't understand what you see in this place" Heartbeat said to her older brother. "It's so dirty and... Well, I'm trying to find a word to say that this place gives me the creeps, but I can't find one that fits."

"Look" Mirror Coat said, pointing. "It’s the key."

He was right. The key was inserted into the stone pillar that opened the solitary. The three rushed over there and Golden Paladin took the keep. By doing this, the key flooded with a black aura that later became yellow, just like Golden Paladin’s magic aura. With this, the walls, the floor, the ceiling and the cells of Tartarus retook the color they had before the prison was taken by the Lord of Chaos.

"Now, I have Tartarus under my control once again" Golden Paladin said. "Come on, let’s unpack everything."

And, having said this, he invoked Cerebrus that, by order of his owner, returned to his guard post (this time on the inside of the entrance, as Tartarus was flying), and later he invoked the prison-book and, with this, he made it rise into the air, causing it to flip through, and all the life cells which were inside came out flying and each of they went to a different cell in accordance with the villain that they contained, and, once inside, they released their respective villain, causing the chains of the cells to hold them. The bars then appeared, sealing them completely.

"Ready" Golden Paladin said, picking up the prison-book. "Now everything is as before. Well, almost everything."

And he looked at the pages which were containing the villains of solitary.

"The only missing here is Adagio" Golden Paladin said, looking then to the cells that were around. "As well as a third of the villains imprisoned."

"Don't worry, we get them" Heartbeat said. "We've done it once... actually more than once, but we can get them."

"Heartbeat is right" Mirror Coat said. "The only thing we can do now is holding the bad guys that we have."

"You're right" Golden Paladin agreed. "And I'm going to start by linking the prison-book to Tartarus. Thus, any villain who is catch and put in the book will come automatically to here. Of course, getting out will have to be in the old way. This will allow me to put the key in a place where nobody, not even the Lord of Chaos can get."

"Speaking of the devil" Heartbeat said. "Don't you think this place is too quiet. I mean, we should be supposedly re-conquering Tartarus."

"You're right" Golden Paladin said, looking around. "It seems that the Lord of Chaos is not here. I can't feel his presence.” 

"It's almost as if he wanted us to regain the control" Mirror Coat said.

That's when an idea arose in Golden Paladin’s mind. Did he leave Tartarus because the prison no longer served for nothing to him? If that were true, then...

"Oh no" he said. "No, no..."

"What's the matter, Goldy?" Heartbeat asked.

But he did not answer, because he started downing the stairs that led to the solitary. Heartbeat and Mirror Coat exchanged a look and then followed him and all three went down until they get to the hallway with the six cells where they and the other Generals had arrested the most dangerous villains that they had faced. Golden advanced to the one that had the door with his Cutie Mark, but when he got there, he just found a shattered door and an empty cell.

"No…" Golden Paladin said, not wanting to believe.

When Mirror Coat and Heartbeat arrived on his edge and saw the empty cell, they were a little shocked.

"This is not good" Mirror Coat said.

"Goldy, what do we do?" Heartbeat asked, immensely worried.

Golden Paladin thought as fast as he could, but he couldn't think in anything. The Lord of Chaos had released the biggest threat he could ever release. That would put at risk all that he, his brothers and Princess Aurora had built and that had been recovered with a lot of effort by Princess Twilight and her friends.

"I don't know" he replied. "Honestly, I don't know."

"You don't know?" Heartbeat asked, beginning to panic. "How can you not know what to do?! You're our leader, the General of Peace. You should..."

"Calm down, take a deep breath, Heartbeat" Mirror Coat said, trying to calm down her younger sister who was starting to hyperventilate. "Come on, breathe with me."

Mirror Coat helped Heartbeat to breathe deeply a few times until the little General of Affection was calmer.

"Are you calm now?" Mirror Coat asked.

"Yes, thank you, Mirror Coat" she thanked.

After that, Golden failed to get a concrete plan, but he knew what he was supposed to do.

"We're going back to the Light Kingdom" he said. "We must protect Princess Twilight at all costs."

The other two nodded their heads.

Before they leave, Golden Paladin used his magic to transfer the life cells of the solitary villains who were still in inside odf the priso-book in their respective cells and only freed them from the life cells when the doors were once again recovered. After this, the three disappeared.

After Golden Paladin, Mirror Coat and Heartbeat had left to retrieve Tartarus, Twilight returned to the Light Kingdom, using the portal that Mirror Coat had created for her. She was with her friends and husband preparing the rest of the preparations for Star's birthday party.

"I can't wait for the party" Rainbow Dash said.

"Oh, me neither!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed. "Wait till you see what I have planned. There are great games, super-duper-delicious food and drink and a piñata!"

"Pinkie, this is Star’s first anniversary" Twilight said. "I don't think we need a piñata."

"What?!" Pinkie Pie asked, as if Twilight said the biggest mistake of all. "Me? Planning a party without a pinata? Never!"

"Pinkie, I'm just saying..." Twilight started.

"I know what you're trying to do, Twilight" Pinkie Pie said. "You are trying to make me go against my personal rules of party organization that specifically says that all the parties I host must have mandatorily a piñata."

Twilight turned to the others and asked them:

"Are you following this?"

The other shook their heads.

"Twilight, I think you're missing the point" Pinkie Pie said. "Pinatas are very important in a party. In fact, I even wrote and published a book that talks about the undeniable benefits of having a piñata at a party."

"A book?" Twilight repeated. "But when did you..."

But she didn't finish the question, because Pinkie placed ahead of Twilight a book that she took with her magic and then read the title:

"The Indisputable Benefits of Having a Piñata at a Party. Wait, when did you published this?"

"Duh, last week, silly billy" Pinkie Pie answered. "And you call yourself a book lover."

That made Twilight take her hoof to her face.

In that moment, there was a flash and Golden Paladin, Mirror Coat and Heartbeat appeared.

"Oh, I'm so glad you're here, Heartbeat" Pinkie Pie said. "Twilight doesn't want a piñata in Star’s party."

"What?!" Heartbeat asked, looking shocked. "But all parties must have a piñata. It is in your book! By the way, I loved chapter ten."

Twilight didn’t know what was stranger: Pinkie having published a book without her knowing or Heartbeat knowing about it and have already read it.

"Please, focus, Heartbeat, there's no time for playing around" Golden Paladin scolded in a rough way. "We have very important and serious things to do. Princess Twilight, do you know where Leaf Mane, Purple Smoke and Leaf Mane are?"

"Well, they came out as soon as they regained their strengths" Twilight replied. "I think each of them had business to attend to, as their respective matrix almost froze."

That answer didn't seem to please Golden Paladin who said:

"Damn, just when I need them, they are not here! Mirror Coat, come on, we have to strengthen the defense. After that, let's get those idiots. Prince Blue Sword, as captain of the Light Guard, I suggest you to come with me."

And, having said this, he left the throne room, followed by Mirror Coat, which seemed to be a little intimidated by Golden Paladin (something that was unusual, given the fact that Mirror Coat rarely expressed his emotions), and Blue Sword, that looked very confused.

"Ok, that was weird" Rainbow Dash said. "And even weirder than the fact that Pinkie Pie have published a book."

"You’re right, I've never seen Golden Paladin so nervous" Spike said.

"Heartbeat, what's wrong?" Twilight asked to the General of Affection. "Did something happened in Tartarus? Did you failed in retrieving it from the Lord of Chaos?"

"No, actually it was pretty easy" Heartbeat replied.

"Good" Twilight said, relieved.

"However..." Heartbeat started.

Twilight realized that she shouldn't have been relieved so soon and then asked:

"What?"

"It turns out that the Lord of Chaos already knew we were coming and got out of there before we could face him" Heartbeat said.

"Oh, that coward ran" Rainbow Dash said mockingly. "I bet he was afraid of getting a good lesson."

"Not exactly" Heartbeat said. "You know... We went to the solitary and... Well, it turns out that..."

That's when Twilight started to realize what Heartbeat was trying to say and said:

"Heartbeat, don't tell us that the Lord of Chaos freed the last villain of the solitary."

"Ok, so I won’t tell that the Lord of Chaos freed the last villain of the solitary" Heartbeat said. "Oops, I think I just said it, didn't I?"

"Perfect, just what we needed" Twilight said, nervously. "More one villain out of the solitary. I think Star won't have his first birthday party, after all."

"Come on, sugarcube, don't be like that" Applejack said, putting her hull over Twilight’s shoulder. "Ya're going tah see that that will not goin’ tah happen."

"Applejack's right, Twilight" Fluttershy said.

"Of course, we have to have faith that we can defeat this villain before the party" Rarity said.

"Yes, like we did with all these so-called super-villains" Rainbow Dash said. "After all, we beat almost all of them. This new villain can't be that bad."

"Actually, he can" Heartbeat said.

"How so?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Well, let's just say that this villain is worse than the others we have ever faced" Heartbeat said. "Worse than the Sirens, worse than Arbor, worse than the Queen of Hearts, worse than the Wraith, worse than the Snow Queen."

That made Fluttershy gulped and then said:

"I don't like the way this is going.”

"Come on, what villain can be worse than all these other villains?" Rainbow Dash asked, casually.

"Well, maybe a corrupt General of Order" Heartbeat replied.

That left everypony  virtually astounded.





"What?!" asked Twilight. "A corrupt General of Order?! What do you mean?!"

"Well, it's a General of Order that abused his or her status and powers" Heartbeat explained.

"I know what corrupt means" Twilight said. "What I want is that you explain why did you and your siblings never told me that there was a corrupted General of Order."

"Well, because it is perhaps the biggest shame for the title of General of Order" Heartbeat answered. "After all, we are the biggest followers of the Lord of Order. Being a corrupt General is not exactly what it wants to know if you want to have a good reputation among ponies."

"But you and your brothers know that this will not affect my opinion on you" Twilight said. "You could have told me."

"Yes, but there's another reason we haven't tell anything" Heartbeat said.

"Ok, come on, what is that reason?" Twilight asked.

"It turns out that the Lord of Order did not sent six Generals to help Princess Aurora in the construction of the Light Kingdom" Heartbeat replied.

"Wait, are you saying what I think you're saying?" Twilight asked.

Heartbeat nodded, knowing that Twilight had already noticed. The other also realized that and it was Applejack who said it first:

"The Lord of Order sent seven Generals of Order to help Princess Aurora and that seventh General is the corrupt General who was released from Tartarus."





And the sound effect of suspense sounded again and it could be seen that it was caused by Pinkie Pie that had connected a Gramophone that had brought to the party.

"Pinkie!" everypony exclaimed (except Heartbeat).

"Sorry" she said, embarrassingly.

"But how can this be?" Twilight asked. "From what we could see, there is no sign indicating that there were seven Generals of Order in the Light Kingdom."

"That's because we erased any trace of him and the ponies who knew about him are gone know, except for maybe me and my brothers" Heartbeat replied. 

"But what exactly happened?" Twilight asked. "How did this General do to become corrupted?"

"Well, this is not a story that I really like to share" Heartbeat said. "But since I started, I think it’s better tell it anyway."

She took a deep breath and told:

"His name is Perfect Scale, Scale to friends, and he was, and still is, the General of Balance. He had the power to counterbalance our powers. I have to admit, with him around, we felt quite comfortable in using our powers, because we knew he was there to help us correct any imbalance that could arise. Anyway, centuries ago, after Princess Aurora and her tribe have arrived to the land where the Light Kingdom would be built, the Lord of Chaos sent seven of his Generals of Order to help her: me, Goldy, Mirror Coat, Leaf Mane, Purple Smoke, Melody and, of course, Scale. Following the orders that it was were given to us, we helped Princess Aurora. In fact, Scale contributed greatly to the construction of the Light Kingdom. It was he who created the Diamond Heart so the Light Kingdom could be stable and absorb any energy, including mine."

"Wait, so he created the Diamond Heart?" Twilight asked. "Amazing!"

"Yes, I know" Heartbeat said. "He was the key piece that allowed us to be an infallible team. You know, he had an unique kind of magic, even more unique than ours."

"But what happened to he end up imprisoned in the solitary if he was so special?" Spike asked.

"Precisely because he's special that he was corrupted" Heartbeat replied. "He fell to the greatest and most deadly sin that exists: pride. He became increasingly vain about his own power and its importance until he decided it should be him to control all the other attributes of the other Generals."

"Seriously?" Rainbow Dash asked, nothing impressed. "But what a cliché."

"Rainbow" Twilight said, in a reproving tone, before turning to Heartbeat and ask. "But how would he manage to get your attributes? Controlling you?"

"No, worse than that" Heartbeat replied. "He wanted to steal the light of our star seeds."

That made the six mares and one dragon exchange glances and then Fluttershy asked:

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you all know that star seeds are the reason we exist, right?" Heartbeat replied. "It happens that their shells give us a solid body. As long as nothing happens to a star seed’s shell, the being it is linked can exist. However, it is the light that gives us life. Without it, we're not more than just lifeless stone statues, unlike if we stay without our star seeds. If the light from a star seed is absorbed by another, then the last receives the vital force and capabilities of the former."

That explanation had baffled everypony, except Twilight that seemed to follow her reasoning.

"Say it again, but more slowly so that we can process" Rainbow Dash asked.

Heartbeat rolled her eyes and said:

"If a star seed absorb the light of another, it will have the powers of the last. Without the light, we turn into statues."

"Ah!" Twilight’s friends exclaimed.

"Why didn't you say so?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Anyway, what happened when Princess Aurora sealed the star seeds of the Light Kingdom in the Jewel of Life, her star seed was destroyed and its light remained free to find a new star seed that could sustain it, namely yours, Princess Twilight."

"So what you're saying is that Scale intended to steal the light from all the Generals to keep the power over their attributes?" Twilight asked. "But can he do that?"

"I told you he had a power even more unique than ours" replied Heartbeat. "But he didn't want only the Generals’ light, he also wanted Princess Aurora’s."

"He wanted to rule the pony world" Twilight realized.

"Exactly" Heartbeat replied. "He wanted to create a perfect balance, but his vision of perfect balance was twisted and that led us to act against him. The rest of the Generals of Order, I including, challenged him in a terrible battle and Golden Paladin was who managed to defeat him and imprison him. In fact, he was the first villain that we arrested, initially in the dungeons of the Light Kingdom, before we had transferred him to the solitary of Tartarus. From the moment that we defeated him, we could keep him subdued and under control."

"Until now" Twilight said.

"Yes, until now" Heartbeat replied.

"And what will he do now that he's free?" Twilight asked.

"He will finish what he started" Heartbeat replied. "Capture every special lights that exists in this world to control it and cast it in what he believes to be the perfect balance."

Melody had just come out of a cave hidden in Neighagra Falls, saying:

"Fortunately, everything is in order with my matrix. Now I can say that I'm completely recovered."

"I'm glad to hear you say that... little sis" a deep but cold voice said.

Melody froze upon hearing that voice, it was a voice that she hoped never to hear again. She turned and faced an unicorn stallion with the same structure as Golden Paladin’s. He had a duke blue coat with a scale as Cutie Mark, cerulean and platinate blue mane and distant dark blue eyes.

"Scale..." Melody said, starting to retreat nervously. " What are you doing here?"

"That's how you greet your long-lost brother, dear Melody?" Scale asked, advancing to her.

"You were supposed to be arrested" she said, continuing to retreat.

"Yes, but I'm not" Scale said. "All thanks to the Lord of Chaos."

Melody retreated so much that she collided with a rock that stopped her from retreating more. Scale put himself in front of her and put his hoof under Melody’s chin and continued:

"And now that I'm free, I can resume my perfect plan."

"Please, Scale..." Melody begged. "Don't do this."

"I'm sorry, dear sister" he replied. "But I can't stop now."

And, with this, he carried his horn with magic and hit Melody that moaned in pain, while the flower that contained her star seed appeared and opened up, revealing it. An intense orange glow flooded the region. After this, Scale’s flower also appeared and opened up, revealing his star seed, that had a dark-blue glow. It was then that Scale’s star seed began to absorb the light from Melody’s, something that was causing to the General of Music a bigger pain. 

The time has come in which Scale’s star seed absorved all Melody’s light, whose star seed was completely empty. The two star seeds returned to within of their respective flowers which closed and disappeared. Scale retreated, while Melody turned completely into statue. However, unlike her statue at the fall of the Light Kingdom, it was made of black stone, instead of orange.

"I can feel it" Scale said. "I can feel your power flowing through my veins, Melody."

Scale then crooned a little and his voice resonated magically, in the same way as Melody’s voice used to do.

"The power of Music is mine" Scale said. "One down, a few more to go."