Terror in Equestria: Rise of the Dark Queen

by StormLuna

Rise of the Dark Tower

Queen Twilight Sparkle has cut Ponyville off from the rest of Equestria. Like the Crystal Empire, it does not experience the weather of the surrounding areas. The skies are a shade of purple similar to the new queen's coat and the sun shines a similar hue. Twilight walks over to where her new tower will be built and sees the iron piling up. This pleases the queen greatly. Her general along with half of her forces are there making sure her slaves are doing their jobs.

Twilight says, "You know Green Haze, this is going better than I could have ever imagined. Soon they will have gathered enough iron for my tower."

"I know my queen. The other slaves are over gathering wood for their dwellings. Things are going very well." replied Green Haze

Twilight smiled and said, "You don't have to call me 'your queen, your majesty or any other formal title', just call me Twily. I want things to be much less formal around here."

Twilight was walking around town and she ran into the mayor. "Queen Twilight, what is my role in this new Ponyville?"

"Well, given that I am now the queen and not a mere princess, you will have a different role. You will no longer have any role in governing this town. That is my job now. I do have a very important job for you though." said Twilight

The mayor looked sad and full of despair knowing that her days of governing are over. She looked up and said, "What is that your Majesty?"

Twilight led her over to the train station and said, "You see this, I need you to make sure there is no train traffic coming into Ponyville. I don't trust anypony to come here. They may be agents of Celestia seeking to overthrow me. I can't have that. Yes, I have made the force field so strong that nothing can penetrate it but still, I need you to guard this. Don't worry, you will get paid well."

"Yes my queen. I promise to serve you well." said the mayor

Twilight continued to walk around Ponyville and realized that under this dome of hers that the pegasus ponies have no way to bring rainfall to her new empire. She mutters to herself, "Oh this is just dandy, how could I have forgotten about the need for rainfall?"

Twilight then realizes that she knows plenty of weather spells and that she can make her own weather. She then heads over to Sweet Apple Acres to see how the crops are doing. She is greeted by Apple Bloom. She asks Twilight, "Twilight, ah am wondering when Applejack will get home. Do you know when she will be home?"

Twilight looks down at her and says, "That is Queen Twilight to you now. As far as Applejack goes, I am not sure when she will get home. She said something to me about relocating permanently to Canterlot. Where are Big Macintosh and Granny Smith? I need to speak with them."

Apple Bloom started to cry and said, "Applejack ain't coming home? But I thought she loved it here."

Twilight became irritated and said, "No, she ain't coming home. I asked you where are Big Macintosh and Granny Smith."

Apple Bloom looked very scared and told her that they were over by the barn. She then ran off crying to find her friends. Twilight rolled her eyes and headed over towards the barn.

"Big Macintosh, Granny Smith, I have come to see how everything involving your crops are going." said Twilight

Granny Smith said, "Well your Majesty, they are coming along just fine. Applebucking is going slow without Applejack. What happened to her anyway? Do you know why she hasn't returned home from Canterlot?"

Twilight looked at her with a smile and said, "She was telling me something about relocating to Canterlot and starting from scratch. She said she wanted to tend Celestia's apple orchards. I'm sorry you two, I really never imagined she would do this."

Big Macintosh looked up and uncharacteristically said, "My sister's not coming back? I feel like she has abandoned us." Big Macintosh then shed a few tears and walked back into the barn.

Granny Smith then said, "I feel the same way Big Mac does, she abandoned us. We weren't good enough for her anymore. She had to go work for those high falootin ponies up in Canterlot. If she tries to come back, we won't let her back!" Granny Smith then kicked a can into the barn and headed towards their house.

Twilight walked away from Sweet Apple Acres with a sadistic grin on her face. She felt proud of herself for convincing the Apple family so easily that Applejack had betrayed them. She said to herself, "With that taken care of, it will be beyond easy convincing the rest of the townsponies that the rest of them don't want to come back either."

Twilight suddenly realized that there is a bridge that lies at the fringe of her empire, so much at the fringe that half of it is outside of her empire. She knew that something had to be done about it. She flew with great speed to the location of that bridge. She could see the train coming, so she fired a bolt of energy at the bridge vaporizing it. Twilight then flew back in the other direction so the engineer would not see it was her that vaporized the bridge.

On the train the ponies were talking about what they thought was going on with the force field. Rarity was the first to offer a suggestion. "Perhaps she just thought it would be fashionable. I for one think it looks marvelous!"

Applejack interrupted and said, "I highly doubt it Rarity, Twilight ain't the type to do things like that. She would only do it if she thought her realm was at risk of being attacked. She ain't going to do something just to make it pretty."

Fluttershy said, "Maybe she did it to protect my woodland friends. With us being such good friends maybe she did it to make me happy."

Rainbow Dash looked out the window and said, "What the hay is that building going up over there? I thought Twilight wasn't going to build a castle."

Rarity interrupted and said, "Well maybe she decided that she needed to conduct herself like royalty and have a home as fabulous as she is."

Suddenly the train ground to a screeching halt and started going in reverse. The engineer shouted back towards the passengers that the bridge was out and that they had to return to Canterlot. It took a great while to return to Canterlot as a train in reverse does not go very fast. Five long hours passed before they got back to Canterlot.

When they got back they rushed to the castle and headed to the throne room. They were greeted by Princess Luna. Princess Luna asked, "What are you guys doing back so soon and where is Twilight?"

Spike replied, "Well we were never able to get to Ponyville. There was a bridge out right before we got to Twilight's force field. Do you know where Celestia is?"

Luna had a scowl on her face and said, "Oh, Celestia is in her bedroom reading a book reminiscing about the days when the Crystal Empire was not in the hands of evil doers. Typical Celestia, live in her own little world while I have to keep an eye on things. Wait a minute, did you say force field?"

"Yes your Majesty, we did." said Applejack "And also we saw some sort of tower being built over on the east side of Ponyville. I thought that Twilight wasn't going to build a tower."

"I have a very bad feeling about this." said Luna "It is not like Twilight to do things like this. I would figure that if she thought we had any threats coming she would come up here and tell us instead of isolating her realm by putting up a force field. That can mean only one thing."

"What is that princess?" asked Fluttershy

Luna went on a rant about how Twilight must be hiding something and complained about how Celestia seems to be oblivious about anything and everything here recently. Luna then said, "Wait a few minutes, I'm going to go get Celestia. Well if I can get her out of her dream world and back into the real world." Luna stormed back towards Celestia's bedroom.

"Celesita, we have company. You need to get out here. It involves Twilight." shouted Luna

"Oh alright." shouted Celestia

Celestia arrived back in the throne room with Luna and saw Twilight's friends. She said, "Where is Twilight? Why didn't she come back with you?"

Pinkie said, "Well we were on our way home when we approached a bridge that was out. It was right there on the edge of where Twilight's force field is. So the engineer had to put the train in reverse and we had to come back."

Celestia was not pleased. She threw her front hooves over her head and said, "If it isn't one thing, it's another. If I didn't know better I would think that some sort of dark force doesn't want Twilight to come up here. Why she doesn't just fly up here is beyond me, she is an Alicorn after all."

Luna replied, "Big sister, have you ever thought that perhaps Twilight is the dark force? The normal Twilight would not put up a force field, the normal Twilight would not ignore a request to come up here, the normal Twilight would have come to check on her friends by now and the normal Twilight certainly wouldn't have a black tower built in Ponyville. I think Twilight took out that bridge to keep outsiders out of her empire."

Applejack said, "Ya'll know what, I think Luna could be right. The only way Twilight wouldn't be acting like herself is if she has turned on us. That is why she is keeping us out."

Celestia slammed her hoof into the floor and screamed, "Look Luna and Applejack, my Twily wouldn't do anything like what you are suggesting. You can claim all this rational thinking hogwash but it is just a matter of either jealousy on Applejack's part or extreme paranoia of both of you."

"CALM DOWN BIG SISTER! You need to calm down. Something strange is going on and you seem to be completely oblivious to it. I know Twilight was your student ever since she was a filly but you need to take into account every single possible scenario. The fate of all Equestria could be at stake here. You need to stop being so sentimental and keep your composure." shouted Luna

"Ok little sister, you are right." said Celestia "I still don't think Twilight would do anything like that but I will not count it out completely. I am sorry you had to see me lose my temper like that everypony."

Fluttershy was hiding behind Applejack when Luna said, "My dear Fluttershy, you don't need to hide behind Applejack. No matter how angry either one of us gets, we would never harm anypony."

"Ok princess, a lot of yelling just scares me." said Fluttershy timidly

Celestia got herself together and went out to her balcony with Luna and said, "I don't get it, after the coronation Twilight said that living in the library would be perfectly fine for her. I wonder what caused her to change her mind?"

"I'm not sure," said Luna, "but I can tell one thing. That tower she is putting up is made out of black iron. I didn't know there was that much iron in the area around Ponyville. She must have enlisted every pony in her empire to mine it for her."

Celestia shook her head and said, "What a shame, forcing those ponies to build something that unnecessary. She could have at least asked me if she could hire Canterlot's best builders."

Luna shrugged her shoulders in disgust and said, "I guess sometimes everypony can surprise you with her actions."

Celestia headed back into the throne room and said, "I guess you are right. I didn't expect this from Twily."

Back in Ponyville Twilight was levitating all the iron her laborers had brought and was using her magic to weld it together. She used the last of the iron to finish it. Her tower was much taller than Chrysalis's tower in the south and far taller than Sombra's castle in the Crystal Empire. Twilight looked up at her new tower with a big smile of her face. She looked over at her laborers with a grin and said, "Thank you everypony. I know you didn't like the way you were brought here but don't worry, you will not be bound in chains here. There will be plenty of things to do here. I will need ponies to patrol the outer realms of my empire."

Twilight looked at her tower and then remembered Sombra talking about iron rusting. She knew a spell to prevent iron from rusting, she recited the spell, "The iron must not rust, this is a must, the tower must always stand, so I may watch over my land, for this shall be my home from which I can watch everypony roam." Her horn began to glow black and purple and her energy went to the tower. She could tell by the appearance of her tower that the spell worked.

Twilight started flapping her wings, flying up and down along the outside of the tower. It was everything she ever wanted. She started screaming, "Yes, yes, yes! This is perfect!" Twilight then landed at the base of her tower, went into her new tower and took a look around. She walked up to the upper floor to find her master bedroom was attached to her balcony, which faced the west. She thought to herself, "I love this! I can't wait for Chrysi and Sombra to come visit!"

Twilight flew off her balcony down to where the housing for her slaves was being built. She was not impressed at how slowly the construction was going on. She looked at the foreman with a scowl and said, "Forget it, this is going to be far too slow and my slaves do not need to wait a month and a half for their houses to be built."

"What do you expect us to do? We are building these as fast as we possibly can." said the foreman

Twilight's horn began to glow and she shot multiple bolts of energy at various places on the ground, causing barracks to appear. She created enough of them to accommodate all the ponies she had brought here. "There," said Twilight "this is more like it."

The foreman looked in shock at Twilight and said, "Your Majesty, those look amazing!"

Twilight replied, "Well if you are loyal to me, you will be rewarded handsomely. The ponies I brought here from Fillydelphia have proven themselves worthy of my rewards. However, if anypony is disloyal to me, they will wish they were never born."

Twilight then decided the time had come to launch the attack to take Equestria. She decided the time had come to attack Canterlot. She would need to travel to Chrysalis's southern realm to get her and her army and then she would need to travel to the Crystal Empire to get Sombra and his army if they are to succeed.

General Green Haze walked up next to Twilight and said, "You appear to be deep in thought. What is running through your mind?"

Twilight replied, "Well I have some traveling to do. I need to get our allies and their armies here to Ponyville. Once they are all here. The time for the assault on Canterlot will have come. I need you to stay here and keep things in order. I will be gone for at least three days."

"So when do you plan on leaving to gather our allies?" asked Green Haze

"I will leave in two days. I do want adequate rest as this will be a lot of traveling. Besides, I do want a couple of nights rest in my new bedroom before I head out." said Twilight

Twilight then walked into her new tower, she was still as ecstatic as a school filly that her tower was done. She went into her bedroom and sprawled out on her new bed and thought to herself, "This is going to be tough but in the end I will be on the throne in Canterlot."