So it was that in the fourth month of the Regency, Canterlot had two houses of government.
One in the palace and one outside it.
Hardhoof had seized control of the central square and had his supporters set up a podium from which he delivered his new and bloodiest sermon yet.
“As a young stallion, I prayed! I prayed to Fat to save Equestria from its degradations and I prayed that ponies may one day see the honest pallor beyond the vanities that plague them! I prayed that the heresies of harmony would be burned like so much timber and that the eons of old where stallions spent their days and nights drawing blood from the enemies of Fat and their mares kept home and heath in their names, quiet and compliant! But as I grew, I saw this was not to be! The wickedness was everywhere! The abominations known as alicorns were rooted here in this temple of falsehoods and futilities! And then, as an old stallion, I ventured forth to cleanse this wretched hive of its outrages and bring salvation! I was stern as every teacher should be and I tolerated naught any mischieves or incongruents! I denounced the unclean proximities known as the ‘Magic of Friendship’ and drove forth the hammer of severity and contrition which would shatter the wicked structures build upon this soil. And yet, for all my most candorous council, I was driven out with scorn, pretence and absurdity! This, I tell you all, beasts of four hooves, is the work of those who wield the unholy force called magic! The unicorns stand among us, waiting, plotting, mocking! It is they that brought forth the abominations known as alicorns! They with their unholy horns, a mark of demonic proportion, a taint upon the equine form! I name them witches and malignant entities masquerading as beasts of four hooves! It is they that started the deluge of vanities that has condemned Equestria to the age of madness and forbidden thought! Many unwise ponies condemned me when I spoke of the wretchedness of pegasi! I spoke too of placements for the horned beasts! Sectioned sites, protected from magic, lined with metals and minerals to null their terrible spells! Camps where they would live only amongst themselves for the untained to forget and forbid! Vats for their vile expunge! For these visions, I was labelled ‘extreme’ and ‘excessive’ but, ponies of Equestria, after suffering the treasons and perfidities of the foul magic-users, I say with certainty that I was far too tolerant! The Age of Magic will reach its end by the sword and the axe and the burning torch! Canterlot will be purified by my hoof! Fat will rise here, never to fall to any such abominations again! Behold our faithful, scarred with blessed text, ready and willing to purge this city of the impure! The Flagellation is a purification of body, mind and soul and what they do to themselves, they shall now do to Canterlot! The Witch-Hunt begins! Let the cleansing flame burn bright, the screams and smoke of burning heretics be sensed in Paradise itself! Unchained arise!”

And there it was. Incensed by his rival’s antics and determined to ensure the unicorns would no longer stand in his way, Hardhoof set up what is nowadays regarded as the most controversial civic incidents in Equestrian history and an act that many unicorns to this day condemn the earth ponies with.
The Flagellation of Canterlot. Better known in more informal circles as ‘Hardhoof’s Witch-Hunts’ or ‘The Slaughter of Canterlot Unicorns by the Earth Pony Usurpers’.
[Note: It’s worth noting here that earth ponies who denied or defied Hardhoof’s actions suffered worse at the hooves of his cohorts. One of his own turning against him was treated with utmost hatred and brutality by the ‘Purifier of Canterlot’. Slower deaths, often beside their families, were reserved for what he deemed ‘dissolutes, withersakes and servants of sin’.]
For eleven days, thousands of unicorns were brought to the city-square, judged with pomp and charade by Hardhoof for the ‘crime’ of being unicorns and burnt to death on pyres before the Royal Palace.
Approximately three-thousand, nine-hundred unicorns and at least one-thousand earth ponies died to the Flagellation. With such fires, they also hoped to cleanse the city of pegasus influence, causing smog of such magnitude that the pollution would render the area around the city impassable for ponies.
From the Royal Palace, Ardour watched with terror as scholars and students she knew growing up died screaming on the pyres. In discussion with her fellow Regents, she pushed for an end to the horror. Hardhoof had to be stopped.
Easier said than done. The guard had been stretched thin making sure the palace was properly defended as it was. Almost hourly, the mob tried to break in, killing dozens of guards and servants through sheer number before being beaten back. Magic shields would falter as Hardhoof’s minions brought forth anti-magical powders and wards.
Pushed for options, they chose to give Hardhoof part of what he wanted. Taking with them the Royal instruments and many antiques and works of art, they retreated into the Tall Tower of Time, a section of the Royal Palace, leaving the proper house of government to Hardhoof. The Tower connected them to the defensive magical turrets of the Grand Academy, the Royal Library, the Temple of the Six Gems and the Astronomers Lodge which were activated to ensure the mob would not destroy such houses of learning, but all around, parts of the city burned or crumbled, declared ‘vanities most wicked’ by the Flagellants. And the towers would only last about a month before they faltered. Meanwhile, the Tall Tower of Time was held with every guard they could muster. With Thornwood and B.B Trunks absent, Bold II and Sunday Strides, colts-in-training who’d only just earned their Cutie Marks, were chosen by the Princess to lead, though they depended on the older, more experienced officers for chief advice.
With the royal study still available Aralda da San Palomino took the liberty of finishing Silverback’s examinations into the poison that had killed her younger sister.
The primary ingredient was Phytolacca, true, but other ingredients told a different story. Grey ivy and sagebrush but also, quite prominently, a catalyst that had hastened the toxic reaction once drunk.
Juice of the Skullcap. Something Celestia remembered well from her horrid lessons under Clagg Illweather.
Diaphonous Glass was keeping watch over Aralda to ensure she didn’t forge anything to absolve her family of regicide. But there was no shadow of doubt.
The poison had been made in the Outskirts and one didn’t have to think long about who had ordered it.
But none could reach out to punish the attempted princess-slayer in such a situation.
The Princess, her Regents, ministers, captains and servants occupied the cramped, stifling tower, eating and sleeping in close proximity day and night while the guards stood watch at the bridge and from every window, dozens strong at a time.
Their food stores were unlikely last beyond half a month.

But this worked better than they hoped. Hardhoof was a megalomaniac and, finally in a position to have full say over the leading council, he spent a lot less time burning ponies and a lot more time ranting of how his new world would work and spreading proclamations to the Outskirts. Many of the unicorns meant for the pyres were now kept in the Royal Dungeons to be judged at a more opportune time. Hardhoof was one who wanted ceremony to adorn his every action and now, with access to the Royal Palace, he had it.
Only Chronicler Bonce remained in the palace. Hardhoof would not harm him for, just as always, the Chronicler was needed alive to write for him. But Bonce knew that it was only a matter of time before a pony from the Outskirts who could write and chart to a suitable standard came forth to serve Hardhoof. When that day came, Bonce knew he would die on the pyres, if he was lucky.
All other Regents had left their notice of resignation. The old council under Hardhoof was completely filled. With Ardour gone and Silverback in chains, Hardhoof disbanded the office of Archmage and appointed the Valger Brothers joint positions of Lord Secretaries, which was largely a nominal position as their duties were to completely disband the Secretariat and all literate and scholarly branches and establishments connected. They were entitled to a large portion of the resources seized which they used to their own benefit. Dross af Valger was focussed on buying land on the Eastern coast to start a whaling business while Scorian and Sinter af Valger were infamous as, jointly, the biggest whore-hounds in the Outskirts and in Canterlot. Saur Van Greve took the former Retcher Gorgelle’s position of Lord Warden and begun making plans for the total extermination of the Everfree Deer who he claimed had destroyed his father’s big-game-hunting club in defence of their sacred animals.
Most of the time, according to Bonce’s memoirs, the council would not be held properly. Hardhoof would stand and make his declarations and Bonce would record them. Few of his council ever attended in proper organisation but in truth, they didn’t need to. Hardhoof made all the rules and kept those in the positions of power appeased. He was addicted to power and had ensured nopony would stand in the way of it. His associates made full use of the palace, feasting, drinking, playing around with the treasures and antique replicas and generally falling into a perfect a picture of hedonism and vanity that Hardhoof had always condemned his enemies for.
Pushed for options, Celestia let fly her pet, Philomena the Phoenix, itself a fledgling that had only recently learned to fly, to take a message to Thornwood and B.B Trunks, letting them know of the urgency of their situation.
The phoenix returned quickly, suggesting the Lord Marshal and Lord Admiral were closer than she knew. The bird carried the message to Ardour, hesitant to let Celestia see it.
Ardour read it over with wide eyes.
It was a report of a grisly murder scene in Gomphos.
According to the letter, the Warlord Sloopong Gnathobel and his retinue along with their guests, the Bombastro family of the Heptagon, had been found murdered in the warlord’s palace. Sloopong and his esteemed ally, Gastro do San Bombastro had been set to bear witness to the Breaking-In Ceremony of the Warlord’s new alicorn consort in the traditional Ivorian manner. Before the consummation could take place, however, the lights had gone out and a lone assailant had carved his way through the entire hall. The bodies were found by local guards with missing heads and, when the bodies were moved, they came away in slices. Something had cut through them to ensure they stayed in placed while in so many pieces.
There was only one blade and wielder capable of such.
At this, Ardour drew out a long sigh of relief and stated.
“He has returned. At last. He has returned and salvation is at hoof.”
And Oia’i’o brought to Celestia the first smile she’d given in weeks as she told her that Luna was surely safe.

But at last news came to Bonce. Darter of Alas City, Dragonfly’s sister, had reassembled the Meadowhawk Legion and was prepared to take to Canterlot by air. Hystrix’s friends in Western Equestria were coming down the pass. Lady Hour Glass was leading a battlemage contingent. And Lady Whooper Swan had assembled a marine fleet to sail up the Seadragon River. All of them supplied by the kinponies of Lord Sloe and their equipment financed by Pitterpatter’s friends and those who worked on the Equestrian Contrail with Plenty Uplift. It seemed that loyalties and friendship mattered more to the Regency than their enemies had expected.
Hardhoof may have taken Canterlot but he would not hold it while Celestia remained out of his grasp. He had to legitimise his claim to rulership before he could do as he pleased.
And so, despite his dreams of taking Canterlot in a storm of violence, he ordered his associates to appear before the Tall Tower of Time, call out to Celestia and try to convince her to surrender.
This provided the Celestia-loyal Regency with some amount of daily amusement as each slimy cohort of their most-hated enemy was called forth to offer flimsy excuses and backwards reasoning as to why Celestia should have to surrender her crown and her life.
Measel af Murking, the Lord Ambassador was first. He begun by assuring Celestia that her Lord Protector Hardhoof wanted to bloodshed. At this Celestia shouted from her tower not to even think of lying to his princess, particularly in not such a pathetic manner. Measel then reworked his statement to avoid ‘unnecessary death’ to which Celestia replied that what she and Hardhoof considered ‘necessary’ were two very different things and neither one would satisfy the other.
She would not be lied to.
Shale af Slymestone, the Lord Justice, was next. He tried to convince Celestia that, were she to surrender peacefully and accept Hardhoof’s custody, then her associates would be judged more leniently in the face of their ‘terrible crimes against the realm’. To whit Celestia replied that there were unicorns in Canterlot who were being burned alive for the crime of possessing the horn on their heads so she had little to no faith in Hardhoof’s court judging her.
Quease af Grye, the Lord Admiral, took a more threatening route. He claimed that they had access to the Canterlot Airship Platform and, if pushed, they would simply land on the Tall Tower of Time and attack from the top-down rather than the bottom, promising that he and Vice-Admiral Cutjack Blackpudding . Celestia pointed out that Quease commanded no loyalty from his fellows. When Quease assured Celestia that his crews were just as willing and able to assault the tower as he was, Celestia replied that she now felt very reassured for her safety, pointing out that if they were anything like him, she’d be watching airships lurching back and forth in the clouds spraying vomit from every window.
Dumpenny Dupe, the Lord Bursar, offered her treasures beyond her wildest dreams if she surrendered. Celestia asked first if they were treasures they’d found in the Royal Palace, in which case they were far behind her wildest dreams, rather closer to reality from her end. She then asked if these treasures would be used to decorate her coffin, before adding that even that was too kind for Hardhoof. She knew what they had planned for her and no amount of trinkets would tempt her into Hardhoof’s hooves.
Saur Van Greve, the Lord Warden, chose to threaten Celestia, claiming that unless she surrendered now, her cohorts would meet with a slow and gruesome death. Celestia asked if that was not, in fact, what they was planned from the start. She said that he and Hardhoof didn’t need a reason to be brutal to ponies and nothing she did would change that.
And finally, Clagg Illweather, the Palace Steward and Royal Tutor, raged at her, declaring her a vile and senseless child that he had been far too lenient with, claiming that Fat hated her and wished her suffering which he would readily deliver. At this, Celestia replied that if he was brave enough to climb up to her tower and reach her, he could do what he liked to her.
Clagg lacked such courage. One menacing look from Bold II and a gaze down at the drop below the bridge was enough to dissuade him.
[Note: According to Pester the Jester, Princess Celestia actually climbed to the top of the tower, stood on the rampart and urinated on Clagg Illweather but this is next to impossible.
Among anything else, she’d have never hit him from that angle.]
It was very clear that Celestia could not be called down from the tower. With this in mind, Hardhoof tried another tactic.

At the start of the second week, when the Tall Tower of Time’s food-stores were nearly exhausted, Hardhoof himself called on Princess Celestia.
Hardhoof and his associates had brought forth Silverback in chains. The once mighty earth pony appeared a shade of his former self. His body was scarred, angry red and pale scars lacerating his black and white coat. One of his eyes was missing, the other he could only open half-way. He’d lost many of his teeth and his left ear had nearly been torn in two. His left forehoof could not support him so he hobbled on the end of the bridge and fell to his knees.
Hardhoof began by assuring the Princess that his goal and that of his associates was to protect her and Equestria from a foul foreign plot orchestrated by the Palominos and involving every member of her Regency apart from himself and those he nominated. He poured accusations of treason, depravity, consorting with foreign powers or ponies of ill repute and many otherwise un-equine crimes (Among them killing over two million innocent ponies of the Outskirts and copulating with demons) upon Ardour, Oia’i’o, Thornwood, Dragonfly, B.B Trunks, Diaphonous Glass, Plenty Uplift, Hystrix, Pitterpatter, the absent Sloe and the deceased Mimic, even the young Bold II and Sunday Strides, colts of fifteen.
The Princess cut through his diatribe and demanded proof.
Hardhoof brought it forward, kicking Silverback towards the tower and demanding he confess.
The Earth-Pony Archmage looked up at his princess with wide, dead eyes, his speech slurred and monotonous as he confessed that he and the Palominos had hatched wicked schemes to murder the Princess and plunge Equestria into a state of foul depravity and lawlessness. He had brought Odobento do San Palomino to Equestria in order to sell the royal domains into Heptagoni rule; he had taken bribes from the Palominos in the form of gold meant for the financial relief of Equestria and slave fillies from the Heptagon sent to him by Larando do San Palomino; he had sent Fonto do San Palomino to dispossess and brutalise every Dreary One in Canterlot; he and Aralda da San Palomino had taken part in frenzied sexual rituals and sacrificed foals to summon demons and evil, foreign gods; he and B.B Trunks had made pacts with the Pirate King Ferraro Fantabulosa to raid Ivoria and slay many ‘allies and friends of Canterlot for sport and profit’; he and Falandine do San Palomino had organised the murder of Syngnato-Cintargi in order to seize control of the Palomino Bank; he and Oia’i’o had planned to outlaw the Church of Furbode and make the worship of ‘The True and Solely Exalted’ Fat punishable by death; he and Thornwood had cavorted with sirens to raid the southern shores; he and Dragonfly had allied with griffons and gargoyles to raid Canterlot from the air; he and Diaphonous Glass had planned to use their art and music to subliminally brainwash all good ponies into acts of wickedness; he had offered Bold II and Sunday Strides the opportunity to violate the Princess if they framed and humiliated Horg af Grye and ruined his chance to grant the Princess a worthy husband...
The list just went on, all members of Celestia’s chosen vilified.
But gravest of all, he confessed to planning with Prosperina da San Palomino, with whom he was apparently having a sexual relationship, to poison Princess Celestia.
At this statement, Celestia paused, her brow furrowed with concern. Then called down from the tower.
“You mean you took the Phytolacca and made the poison?”
“Aye, your grace.” Silverback replied flatly.
“And the Skullcap? And Grey Ivy? And Sagebrush and Scabgrass? And Bearded Brome and Storkfoot?”
Silverback paused and looked to Hardhoof.
“Did I?” he asked.
“Yes.” Hardhoof said before realising who was listening and adding “You told us you did! You know this!”
“Interesting.” Celestia answered flatly “And did you make any plans against me with Chronicler Bonce?”
“Aye, your grace.”
“And with your predecessor, Archmage Mimic?”
“Aye, your grace.”
“And with my sister, Princess Luna?”
“Aye, your grace.”
“And with Princess Platinum?”
“Aye, your grace.”
Celestia would hear no more of it. The façade had died almost immediately.
“Lord Hardhoof!” she bellowed from the tower-top “You have broken the mind of Archmage Silverback! Your tortures have driven him to this stupor! He will confess to anything and everything if I suggest it! There is not one word out of his ‘confession’ that you have not put in his head and none of them contain the slightest hint of truth! It is clear to us that you have no right to speak for what is good for me or for Canterlot! You will leave now and should you persist in your usurpation, we shall make every effort to destroy you! You have a day and a night! And you will leave us with Silverback who we will nurse back to health if possible! Should you seek to hold onto him, I shall do something desperate!”
Here, Hardhoof bristled, the show of consideration and loyalty gone.
“I do not fear a desperate filly!” he begun. But whether or not he would say more, another grand speech before his flock, Celestia added her own rebuttal.
“You will.”

From her horn came a a blast of sunset-pink magic that shot from the tower and crashed into Hardhoof’s face. The Purifier of Canterlot flew backwards, a perfect somersault according to some, and Silverback rushed forward, helped inside by Bold II and Sunday Strides. As Hardhoof’s cohorts scrambled to pick up their leader, the Purifier of Canterlot forgot all pretences of seeking legitimacy.
“Kill her!” he shrieked loud enough for half of Canterlot to hear, clutching his smoking face “Kill the abomination! I shall not suffer this! No longer! Death to the alicorn! Death to Celestia! Fat commands it! I command it!”
Bold II, Sunday Strides, Hystrix, Dragonfly and all those present with weapons bore them, screaming battle-cries at the top of their lungs and daring any Dreary One to meet their end on their blades.
Hardhoof’s lot were less eager.
The Valger Brothers pointed out that they could level the Tall Tower of Time if they placed enough explosives under Canterbury Port.
This could also have brought down much of Canterlot and the mountain it was on but Hardhoof needed no convincing.
He ordered it done. He would tear down the city that had scorned him and, in its place, leave dust. No trace of that which paid him and his doctrines such insult would be allowed to stand.
So Hardhoof, Ridgebone, Glutt, Quease and Horg af Grye alongside Scraper, Saur Van Greve, Measel Murking, Shale Slymestone, Clagg Illweather, Dumpenny Dupe, Herbetude Torpe, Cutjack Blackpudding and Sinter, Scorian and Dross Valgo took their assembled retinues and headed for the port under the mountain.
Oia’i’o writes that Celestia attempted to perform a spell to hold the tower together in a magic orb to prevent its destruction but she was unable to focus. For the next few moments those in the tower planned to die with honour but Dragonfly pointed them to a strange dark boat just entering Canterbury Port under the mountain.
As Hardhoof and his associates made their way to the base of the Tall Tower of Time, they would pass the ports. And there, they found this mysterious boats. Hardhoof halted them and watched for the boat’s occupants to reveal themselves.
Ferraro Fantabulosa, the Pirate Monarch, sprung from the prow and grandly announced his arrival. Behind him, B.B Trunks, Thornwood and Nimueh the Siren joined them beside Darter, Hour Glass, Whooper Swan and others.
Thornwood stepped forward and made his own declaration.
“Truly, Lord Hardhoof, your succession to my position as Lord Marshall has made it feel that utterly unclean. As such, I carry an order signed and sealed by our Princess for your immediate arrest.”
Hardhoof started, his cohorts bearing their weapons, as he retorted.
“The Princess is under my custody! She does not sign nor seal anything without my wish! Your lies bear no fruit, unicorn filth! Celestia is in my hoof!”
Thornwood smiled as his entourage parted.
“I didn’t say it was Celestia, my lord.” he replied as he too stood aside.

On that fateful day, Canterbury Port bore witness to little Princess Luna’s return to her home as she flew off the crow’s nest and hovered on her tiny wings.
But there was no sign of her usual foal-like innocence or wide-eyed shyness.
Her eyes bore into Hardhoof with utter disdain.
“Surrender.” she said with a voice devoid of emotion, unnerving from one so young “Your Princess commands it.”
After a brief pause, Hardhoof gathered his breath and answered “Never!”
A smile crept across Princess Luna’s face as she replied.
“Good.”
And then a shadow stood before them. A figure in a black cloak with a sword near as tall and sharp and vicious-looking as himself. Wings emerged from behind the cloak, wings not of feathers but flesh, dark, stretched and gnarled.
Slowly, one slate-grey forehoof reached up and threw off his hood.
A warped, scarred, chiselled face greeted them, silver of mane and colourless of eyes, his fanged mouth twisted in a grimace of accumulated fury ready to be brought down upon his foes like a falling star.
Midnight Blade had returned to Canterlot.
And he was not a happy pony!

Odd as it was to imagine, Hardhoof had never once seen a batpony. In fact, the Outskirts weren’t a place they often appeared in. There were a few tales but, ironically, they regarded batponies as myth.
Yet here one was, standing before him, sword in hoof and pissed as all Tartarus.
Slowly, he pulled forth two huge, steel chains from the ship, slamming them upon the port. Attached to the chains, through the empty sockets, were severed heads. One chain held the heads of Gastro do San Bombastro and all his kin. The other held the enormous tusked head of Sloopong Gnathobel, Warlord of Gomphos, alongside his household retainers.
Hardhoof and the Dreary Ones stared at the spectacle.
After another pause, Hardhoof’s shaking forehoof rose to point at the creature as he stammered a command.
“Kill it! Kill the monster! Send it back to Tartarus!”
Colonel Scraper and the ‘Victorious Armoury’ Guard surged forward.
[Note: The exact number of the guard at this point differs between records. Some state the number was around three-hundred and fifty, others say close to a thousand! Regardless, their strength and skill differed at this point. Some like Scraper were experienced Outskirts war-veterans who’d been with Hardhoof since the beginning while others were raw recruits whose fanatical devotion dwarfed their actual capabilities.]
No matter their size or power, Midnight Blade matched them alone. One by one or groups at a time, he struck down each and every one. Scraper among them, charging forward with a sword in one hand and a cleaver in the other. One sweep of Midnight’s sword took off the forehoof that held the sword, a smash with the pommel removed the cleaver and most of Scraper’s teeth and with a final swing, the stallion in the zebra-skin cloak was parted with his head.
Cutjack Blackpudding then brought out a crossbow and fired but Midnight Blade dodged as deftly as if Blackpudding had hauled a slab of peat. He then threw his sword which nearly cut the privateer clean in half. The batpony then paced over to collect it, slaying any who came near him with tendrils of shadow-magic.
From Canterbury Port to the Royal Palace, Midnight cut through a swathe of Hardhoof’s servitors. Upon leaving the port and greeting the open city, he sounded out the order from his Princess for those who had aided in Hardhoof’s usurpation to surrender or die. Those who surrendered simply crouched on the ground and did not move, not even when Midnight Blade had long passed out of their sight. Such was the aura he projected that there was nothing that could convince them that this protector of Luna would not come after them. Many still attempted to waylay the knight but all who took arms against him died in swift strokes. Navigating the main streets of Canterlot, Midnight Blade near-completely unravelled Hardhoof’s influence once neck at a time.
The false Regents made an attempt to barricade themselves in the Palace but it availed them not. They had wooden boards and Midnight Blade had the second deadliest sword known to ponykind.
The Royal Palace was broken into and behind Midnight came a mob of citizens loyal to Celestia and Luna and dragged the Dreary Ones into the streets. Luna arrived however and ordered they were to be kept alive for trial as she sent up a flare to her sister hiding in the Tall Tower of Time.
At last, Princess Celestia and the Regents loyal to her left the Tall Tower of Time (Which Ardour insisted was cleaned and aired out thoroughly) and the two Princesses reunited.
Chronicler Bonce, recently released from imprisonment in-all-but-name and described it as a heart-warming welcome between the two royal sisters, both of them weeping with joy, overcome with relief to know they were both safe at last.
Oia’i’o however writes that there was a troubling lack of interaction from Luna. Celestia held her close and hugged and wept and promised she’d keep her safe from now on. Luna’s hooves were slow to return the hug and, while tears fell from her eyes, she did not openly cry. She thanked her sister and replied she too was glad she was safe in a flat and quiet tone.
This was largely put down to her experiences. She had recently escaped sexual slavery.
But to this day, it is regarded as the start of something that would become very serious.

Hardhoof himself was dragged before Celestia and Luna by Midnight Blade himself. The time to judge the usurper was at hoof. However, here a noted controversy takes place.
Before Celestia could step forward and deliver judgement, Luna gave Midnight Blade a nod.
And so Midnight took Hardhoof’s staff of authority, topped with the angry dog’s head and struck Hardhoof.
Over. And over. And over. And over. And over.
Such was the vigour and ferocity that Midnight struck the Purifier that Hardhoof’s forelegs were near-shattered in moments, leaving him unable to shield himself. The Eternal Knight apparently descended from calm and controlled at the start to screaming with rage by the end. Throughout, he yelled curses and ironic statements such as “You feel that?! Hurts, doesn’t it!”After about a hundred strikes, the staff splintered and he resorted to using his hooves, punching with such force that they were soaked crimson by the end.
And here, a dark image is formed.
When Midnight first began, Celestia, the Regents and the crowd cheered him on, eager to see the brutal and sadistic stallion thrashed with such force. But it simply didn’t stop. Over a while, the sight was too much and various members yelled for him to stop. Even Princess Celestia ordered him to stop once, twice and thrice.
It was only after Luna gave the order to cease, her face calm and composed, having watched the whole scene without any sign of aversion.
The whole thing had been planned prior by the Princess of the Night and her bodyguard. Long-delayed and personal vengeance for the first great offence Hardhoof had paid her from whence he had acquired power over the Princesses.
At the end of the punishment, Hardhoof had broken all four of his legs, his muzzle, his jaw, collarbone, almost all ribs, most of his teeth, lost the use of one eye, both ears and one testicle. He was barely recognisable and could do little more than whimper and writhe. Princess Celestia ordered him taken away to a cell and have Bonce do what he could (Although Bonce having been a prisoner under Hardhoof, it was unlikely he would be gentle with his doctoring)
After seeing their leader brutalised before them, the false Regents confessed their every crime and were punished forthwith, desperate to avoid contact with the ferocious batpony at Luna’s side.
The full records of are put to paper.
Ridgebone af Grye and Glut af Grye, the Commandants of the Royal Bodyguard, were found guilty of abundant counts of wrongful arrest; bribery; multiple counts of rape; physical, mental and sexual abuse of unlawfully-held prisoners; racial persecution of pegasi and unicorns; orchestrated arson; gross damage to royal establishments and the mass-murder of innocent citizens. They were sentenced to death.
Quease af Grye, the Lord Admiral, was caught trying to flee on a ship but was waylaid by Ferraro Fantabulosa’s buccaneers and brought back to Canterlot, declared guilty, by proof of his attempt to flee, of gross negligence in the field of military leadership; collaboration with enemies of the crown and practitioners of cruel and unusual slavery; bribery; sheltering and assisting overseas criminals; profiting from the slave trade and conspiracy to enslave a Princess of Equestria as well as attempt to escape justice. He was sentenced to death.
Horg af Grye, the Heir to Castle Grye, was found guilty of exercising ambitions to seize the throne of Equestria; threatening behaviour towards a Princess and her guests; misconduct in the Royal Palace and inflicting bodily harm upon a member of the Royal Family. Young as he was, he was sentenced to exile.
Saur van Greve, the Lord Warden, was found guilty of betrayal of senior officers; illegal seizing of military command; racial persecution of deer; and conspiracy to commit unsanctioned environmental ruin. He too was sentenced to death.
Shale Slymestone, the Lord Justice, was found guilty of advocating the use of torture; extortion and assassination without royal permission; bribery; discriminatory behaviour and abundant counts of obstruction of justice. He was sentenced to death.
Measel Murking, the Lord Ambassador, was found guilty of collaboration with enemies of the crown and practitioners of cruel and unusual slavery and instigators of genocide; bribery; conspiracy to commit assassination of ponies of benign influence and conspiracy to enslave a Princess of Equestria. He was sentenced to life in convict service.
Dumpenny Dupe, the Lord Bursar, was found guilty of gross negligence in the field of commercial leadership; collaboration with enemies of the crown and practitioners of cruel and unusual slavery; bribery; discriminatory behaviour and illegally seizing and holding foreign ponies and properties. He was sentenced to life in convict service.
Herbetude Torpe, the Lord Treasurer, was found guilty of gross negligence in the field of financial leadership; bribery; illegally seizing local and foreign properties and assisting extortion and embezzlement. He was sentenced to exile.
The Valger Brothers, the Joint-Lord Secretaries, were found guilty (Jointly of individual crimes) of bribery; multiple counts of rape with fillies as young as thirteen; conspiracy to commit unsanctioned environmental ruin; illegally seizing local and foreign ponies and properties; extortion; embezzlement and orchestrated aggression in a capital city. They were all sentenced to the removal of genitals followed by life in convict service.
And Clagg Illweather, the Royal Tutor, was found guilty of orchestrating racial and religious persecution; illegal indoctrination; misconduct in the Royal Palaces and the Grand Academy; inflicting physical harm upon a member of the Royal Family; destruction of literary texts; ecclesial tomes and works of art of Equestria and assisting in the poisoning of an esteemed guest of the Princess (One Prosperina da San Palomino of the Heptagon) He was sentenced to removal of tongue, one eye, thirty teeth, one forehoof, mane, tail and genitals followed by exile.
But Hardhoof...

Hardhoof was released. On grounds of insanity.
But this was a punishment worse than any he could have wished for.
Midnight’s attack had left him all but destroyed. He was utterly crippled and needed to be put in a box to stay upright. He had no control over his muscles or bowels and the box he was kept it soon began filling with his own waste. His voice was now slurred, toothless, stuttering and high-pitched and his face and body inspired no sense of awe or empowerment. He was sent back to Phlegm where the populace of the Outskirts who had once revered him and called him ‘saviour’ now laughed at him and treated him as a village idiot. They would place his box on a podium and listen to him rage in a wheezy, chipmunk-like screech of the evils of Canterlot and the wrongs the young Princesses had inflicted upon him. They fed him mouldy food and few could ever be convinced to change his box, closing the lid at night for his demands to be muffled.
Eventually, he would die when a storm blew the box off its podium where he landed upside down, unable to stand up again and either broke his neck or drowned in his own filth. He was allowed to be buried in the tombs of Castle Grye but only his kin have or ever will mourn such a stallion.
In letting him go, the Princesses and the Regents ensured he would not be remembered by the Outskirts as a martyr and prevented any further insurrections.
Scholars and historians have debated how right the Princesses and the Regents were in orchestrating such an end for him, even after all he’d done. He was found guilty of every calamity that had befallen Equestria regardless of his actual compliance.
It is worth noting, however, that Bonce had recently finished writing complete proof of the danger Equestria would find itself in were Hardhoof allowed to live or die with honour. During his imprisonment, Bonce had been ordered to write an autobiography for Hardhoof titled ‘The Sinless Reign of Crudle Astorgi Hardhoof af Grye Jr: A Long and Victorious Struggle Against Alicorn Wickedness’. An omnibus of over thirty chapters, it is pseudo-prophetic, telling of what Hardhoof planned to do once the throne was in his hoof as if it had happened long ago. After slaying Celestia, Hardhoof apparently planned genocide of all non-Earth Pony races, reintroduction of slavery, total deforestation, a smog cloud enveloping the whole of the mainland, conquest of surrounding states, rape excused as ‘tutoring the wayward filly in obedience and humility’ and many other horrors. None who read wished any quote of it made reality.
In fact, this book is so large that Bonce apparently used it to escape his cell during the storming of the Royal Palace by smashing his cell door open like a battering ram and concussing the guards.
So died Hardhoof, the last and most well-deserved victim of his season-long reign of madness and disdain.

Having at last ousted the malign influence from Canterlot and mainland Equestria, the Regents steeled themselves for what came next.
Canterlot had suffered greatly. The recent insurrection alone had seen tens-of-thousands dead, scores of homes and establishments burned (Including a third of the Grand Academy) and of course the ongoing trial of the Palominos for their financial mismanagement.
The third matter however was handled fairly swiftly.
When the four Heptagoni heirs were brought to court, Falandine do San Palomino took full responsibility for the crimes his family were accused of.
He was offered either forty years in prison, exile or the removal of his right forehoof. He picked the third choice. It is written that, after the punishment was dealt, he picked up his severed forehoof in the one that remained, laughed hysterically and waved it in the air as he jeered the judges “Jokes on you! I’m left-hoofed!” before fainting.
Despite his machinations, fate would smile upon him for his self-sacrifice. He was taken on as a scribe then a lecturer of the Financiers Guild, eventually becoming its Grand Master. He was never allowed to reform the Palomino Bank but still made much spreading its teaching to the next generation of bankers and stockbrokers.
As to the others, Odobento do San Palomino would become the first Warden of the San Palomino Desert, using his family estates to bring life to the eastern desert. His position allowed him to influence the growing economies of Rosinania and Isha states and he was able to finance the protection of the shores where his father died and built a museum of Heptagoni culture and San Palomino history near Fortuna Major.
Aralda da San Palomino chose to stay in Canterlot as the Court Physician, nursing the scarred and sullen Silverback to health. After a time, she befriended and married Bold II who became Captain-General of the Royal Guard.
Fonto do San Palomino disbanded his private force and chose to serve as an irregular officer in the Royal Canterlot Guard, establishing the Order of Prosperina military decoration to reward those wounded or killed in defence of the Princess in honour of his youngest sister.
Larando do San Palomino eventually chose to pool his resources to close the Salacia and take his business overseas, sailing a great gilded bordello-barge called the Venilia, trading fine food, wine, cloths, antiques and carnal pleasures at every major port across the ocean.

The Regents served for life but as the Princesses grew, these distinguished politicians were called upon less and less. Eventually they dispersed home, well-honoured and rewarded for their peerless service and loyalty. Their administrative authority was inherited mostly by the Princesses but the remaining Royal Court took some considerable influence, their words carrying more weight with the select few absent.
Only Ardour, Silverback, Diaphonous Glass and Bonce served until the end of their lives.
Their last major decree was agreeing on a chosen captaincy of Royal Bodyguard, the finest warriors in Equestria to be chosen to guard the Royal Princesses.
The Paladins.
With the Elements of Harmony having long been dormant since the former Bearer’s murder and Laurelore’s departure, their taking of the names of the Elements was a ceremonial one and had little to do with their disposition.
But Midnight Blade served as unofficial Grand Commander of Princess Luna’s Royal Bodyguard.
And the mysterious batpony was...not easy to get along with.
Midnight Blade had once been among the most well-respected officers of the Royal Guard and all Canterlot had prayed for his swift recovery. But it would be right in saying they’d never imagined he’d actually continue serving afterwards. It is likely they believed, hoped even, that he’d simply take up a position of solitary service, respected but largely forgotten.
Some didn’t mind stating that a creature such a batpony had no place so close to a Princess. Though Laurelore had proven batponies were victims of the transformation rather than malignant carriers, safe for society with proper help, they thought it unethical to have one among the Royal Bodyguard.
But Luna would hear none of it. Midnight Blade was the closest thing she’d ever had to a father and she would not have him parted from his oldest and truest calling.
And so these problems were brought to the ears of Celestia who was obliged, by her regal responsibilities, to mediate both parties which ultimately satisfied neither. In trying to appease the prejudiced courtiers, she made her sister resentful. And Luna’s next choices for her bodyguard, foreigners and outsiders with murky pasts, regarded as unstable and unreliable, only augmented such political tensions.
And eventually, as they grew and grew, the Princesses would drift further apart, closeting themselves with their own circles.
And this, I need not elucidate, led Equestria into the greatest catastrophe the reign of Sun and Moon had seen and hopefully ever will see.

7127469
Very nice!

Celestia's very wise, it takes a lot more than that to convince her. And pretty sure a certain stallion would have laughed at Hardhoof's tries to convince her.

Hardhoof's fate is just, can be lucky Midnight didn't use his blade.

And I might missed it but I hope Silverback could be healed.

Overall. Hardhoof's fate sort of reminds me of the White Tiger. It's about a shell-shocked Soviet soldier, trying to fight a Tiger 1, even after the war ended. How that's related? The ending shows Hitler justifying his doings to a person that's hinted to be the devil. If you don't mind

Also, a possible error I just noticed

He begun by assuring Celestia that her Lord Protector Hardhoof wanted to bloodshed.

No bloodshed, right?

7127919
Yeah, sorry, I'll go over that when I can.
The thing is, on forum pages too long, you can't edit any more without it auto-trimming so I'll have to see what I can do.

7128338
It's fine, glad to help. Hope the white Tiger isn't too much.

But if I may say, might be a job for the She-bear.

7127850
Thanks.

Of course. Laughed...and cast a multitude of meteors.

Yeah, final irony in that in his last moments, he was simply let off with a warning like every other time, and made all the more humiliated for it.
Deep down, he wanted to die an enemy of Celestia but that's just not Celestia's way.

Ah yes, meant to add that.
Silverback recovered in body but his mind was a more difficult matter. He would still wake up screaming in the night and wince at random intervals. Aralda was around to help him most of the time but Silverback still insisted on doing his bit for the Regency and served for another fifteen years before his suffering a stroke and, though regaining his senses, died a week after.
Though fondly-remembered and honoured in Canterlot, it was regarded as the end of earth pony influence in Canterlot, the predominantly-unicorn court fearing to let in any more earth ponies into their royal circles after what Hardhoof had done.

Interesting concept.

7128349
Okay.

Yep.

Good, at least, he could retain a normal Life as it was possible for him.

Indeed. Could Really Imagine hardhoof and said stallion also having such a Conversation with tartarus

7127469 Makes me wonder... those mares and fillies who might've birthed foals during that time belonging to the guilty... what was done about said foals after the whole shebang? Because I don't imagine... those particular rape-born foals having a good life in rebuilt Canterlot, especially if they turned out to be earth ponies.

7157378
Yyyyyyeeeah, that was an ugly outcome.
The offspring of Dreary Ones was an instant social stigma. You were expected either to be a propaganda piece and loudly declare how barbaric and vile the ponies of the Outskirts are or leave the city and possibly the mainland.
And this wasn't something the Princesses did or even really knew about.
This was just the backlash of the racial and social tension as unicorns retook their place at the top of Canterlot's social hierarchy and became a lot more possessive of it.

7157391 I imagine those foals being... thrown off the mountain, tied up, to put it lightly. And I don't mean one or two—I mean ALL of them. Those foals, without names nor graves, erased from pretty much all the familial trees in Equestria. But, naturally, that's just how grimdark my mind is going with it.

7157394
No, no, mass infanticide is too far for Canterlot. That would swiftly get the Princess's attention.
It was just a low, centred, bottled-up resentment of earth ponies and their culture that resided in the city for many decades afterwards.
Based off real-life post-conflict racial tensions. Like Post-WWII France ostracising or condemning German-friendly citizens and so forth.
In public, you weren't allowed to suggest your Canterlot-citizen mother hadn't been raped by your Dreary One father (Not even if your mother was the Dreary One and your father was from Canterlot)
No other cause of a half-Dreary One pony was comprehendible to the majority of Canterlot's citizens.
There wasn't any rule or any orchestrated violence. Just lingering malice.
I play some problems as close to the real world as possible.

7157404 Ah. Fair enough.

7157404 AND NOW MY BRAIN DOES A COMPLETE 180. I'm imagining lineages wrought of the half-Drearies basically denouncing that part of said lineages; i.e. "the sires/possible Dreary dames of so and so born during this catastrophe won't be named, recognized, or honored as even a FRAGMENT of our families." Basically, unponied right out of history as far as familial trees are concerned.

ON TOP OF THAT, I also imagine said half-Drearies who stayed in Canterlot to be the propaganda mouth pieces would change their names to reflect their Equestrian heritages.

Makes me wonder how those Drearies during those days (whom I now imagine stuck in Tartarus) would be freaking out over that.

7157452
To be honest, I reckon they have bigger things to worry about.
I'm planning a family tree of the Grye family that includes various members disowned for going against their violent and bigoted household.
The youngest of which is Murmuria Grye who married the rock farmer, Ammonite Digger, who's daughter was one Cloudy Quartz....
Make of that what you will.

7157470 owo I look forward to it!

7157477 As do I!