This story just keeps getting better. I'm happy at the thought of 2 more chapters coming soon but at the same time I hope you aren't overworking yourself on this.

yea so that name still makes me lol. LATIN FTW

ALSO I DONTk know if this isjust me but im expecting at sometime to see pinkie pie to go full out rage pinkamena diana pie on nihilus's ass

Amazinging story brony, BROHOOF! /)

I am not sure if I have enough money to buy enough hats to adequately take them off to you about this story. I am awaiting more with baited breath. I am genuinely mad at the one major player we haven't seen yet - Empyrean. How dare he kill Celestia!

Esteem is Rarity's father? That's going to be one helluva showdown.

Yeaaaah Necrocomment

"She liked the name [Nihilus Nix Naught], even if it meant nothing."

I c wut u did thar.

" ". nuff said.

Gah! Can't stop reading! I really hope they get Dash soon. Reading about her as Nihilus's pet honestly almost makes me tear up. It reminds me of what happens to a character that gets brainwashed in the Sword of Truth book series. Anywho, awesome job, as always!

This is such a fucking cool story.

RARITY IS POOR AND IRISH.

Here we go! This story is exactly as epic as I remembered it!

Silver out!

untouchable, and completely indestructible.” Twilight’s sense of excitement spilled over into Nihilus’ consciousness. The mare really was interested in what she was talking about. “An idea,” she said simply

And ideas are bulletproof

And finally we meet that pony everyone simply loves and adores, yes, that most wonderful of ponies, Esteem.

I'll be honest, after getting the first look at him, he's obviously a villain, and I already want him dead.
You make the best villains I've ever seen read.

Is there a theme song for this story? There should be one. I feel like it's a series, each chapter being an episode.

So Luna is being forced to become just as good at chess as Celestia, but she has made it quite clear that unlike a certain former Britannian prince, she won't accept any sacrifices if there is any other way to win.

Also, Nihilus must be stopped, no matter the cost!

"Whats your name?"
"I am Puppet."
"And you?"
"I am Puppet."

xXx much?

Twilight you screwed everything up! if you had kept your little mouth shut you would have been able to help the others by using your element to oust Nihilus!

“Do that to my daughter,” he said quietly, “and I will kill you, parasite.”
“Do that to my daughter...”
“...my daughter...”
...
Ooooooooohhhhhh!
Well played AestheticB, well played.

They’re full of all sorts of terrible spells that we wouldn’t want to fall into the wrong hands, you see

Should be hooves, yes? You also have "beforehand" quite a few times, at least twice, but no more than 5 I should think, and I truly do not know if it should be changed to beforehoof or not, simply because of ponification or not. All that aside, this is a great chapter, I hate Esteem's guts, and damn, this has kept me up quite a long time, it's already 4:30! Almost time for me to wake up! Oh, well, back to reading!

Pinkie Pie's an Alicorn, or something different than even that, because she's got the physique of an Earth Pony, and the dexterity of a Pegasus, but the weakness of a Unicorn, if everything I've read so far is correct. Don't tell me whether I'm right or not, though, 'cause I wanna find out meself, yes?

Esteem is Rarity's father? I can see all sorts of possible conflict.

TWILIGHT, STOP HELPING THE BAD GUYS!

2405815 Knowing Twilight, she has a plan in place.

I really like how Pinkie Pie's and Fluttershy's characters are portrayed in this chapter. Pinkie really works best as a mysterious supporting character, and the way Luna thinks of Fluttershy as pathetic is appropriate and well-deserved. The story just works better without them in the limelight.

I am totally willing to bet that this Esteem character is Rarity's father. Poor Dashie, I hope that things don't get too bad for her. Well, shit is about to hit the fan. I kind of hope that Dash will actually let go of her sanity and fight her friends. This story is great and is about to get even better.

2484259
ok, I'm sorry, but... your profile picture made me guffaw

You know I've been wondering.
Where IS spike during all of this.
I don't remember anything about him being killed. Or even being in the same room in the beginning.
What gives?

1599249
I think this one would be rather fitting:

I've been listening to it at the start of each chapter so far.

Whew, it's been a while since I last read this so I had to re-read the first four chapters before doing this, but man, was it worth it! This is probably my favorite chapter thus far. Let's go down this chapter scene by scene.

First, there's Twilight breaking even more magical rules - both talking to Nihilus and apparently finding a way to re-bind the Elements to Nihilus, even though I doubt the latter is actually true, Twilight won't simply give up like that. I mean, she won't, right? Regardless, the discussion about the Cuffles was very interesting. I also took note of the rule about Telekinitic control. I mean, with Twilight breaking magical rules like she is doing now I won't be surprised if this will come back in the inevitable confrontation with Titan himself.
That being said, the line about Twilight wanting Nihilus to kill her once she has the Elements was heart-wrenching.

Applejack is going to end up stronger than even Luna. Calling it now. In fact, with Luna being battered down by Nihilus to this extent I'd say that Twilight will be more than her match as well. Perhaps we'll eventually see Luna become the weakest member of the entire team, but that's disregarding her blade which she still hasn't been able to re-cast since her truce with Celestia so many centuries ago.

Nihilus is going to attack Cloudsdale with a freaking flying fortress. Didn't see that one coming.

And then you delivered the most emotional line so far:

“The Carousel Boutique is gone, Applejack. I am homeless and poor. The only thing I have of value to my name is the blade. I am the Element of Generosity with nothing to give."

Aesthetic, you truly are a monster.
Well, at least Luna is slowly coming around from being the harsh commander.

Nihilus' conversation with Esteem was great. You did surprise me with Rarity's father working for the enemy though. But despite that he still seems to love his daughter very much. I'm not quite sure what the dynamic here is going to be but you've sure set the stage nicely. Coming to think of it, with the impending Battle of Cloudsdale I doubt that we'll see the confrontation between Rarity and her father any time soon. I just hope that the performance itself won't pale to the grandiose stage you're setting here.
Also, I don't think I've ever seen someone name a trope by name in a story without referencing the trope as a trope outright. "Color-coded for your convenience", heh.

Finally, I find it to be exceptionally funny that Pinkie and Flutters are being underestimated by both enemies and allies. I know Fluttershy's power is going to be the ridiculously overpowered Stare (which I'm calling now will be critical in defeating the Unicorn Puppets) but I'm not sure what you've planned for Pinkie. She'll probably face off against Dash, though.

So, the stage is set for the war in the clouds! Let's see where the next chapter goes!

2992706 How could you say that? Dash is best pony, and will NEVER give up! To the moon with your sayings!
Kidding...

She thought it had a certain ring to it, even if it meant nothing.

28819 He didn't KILL Celestia, Titan did. He was just made of her parts.

Where the hell is spike?

Where's Zecora in all of this. I'm pretty sure her zebra skills will be extremely useful.

I really like this story so far, but the Ye Olde Speake is getting more and more grating as it goes on. There is an actual grammar to these words, not to mention the fact that "ye" is Ye Olde Typo for "the" and doesn't mean "you" at all unless you are a pirate. Also, Luna would probably be using "thou" by now with the Elements - "you" is the formal pronoun, "thou" is for people you're more familiar with or people you want to imply are lower-status than you.

It wouldn't be so bad if it was just that first chapter but please, please do some research or cut out the semi-random archaic words where they don't belong.

"...There’s more to single combat than being a perfect ten on the Coruscare scale..."

If it was called the Coruscare scale becuase it was calibrated with Astor as the 10, shouldn't it be called the Sparkle scale now?

-Love the way Twilight explains world building to us. It allows us to better understand the bond between user and the elements.

-The interactions between Luna and the others are top notch here, allowing her to grow as a ruler.

-Love Rarity right now, tying her best to hold onto herself.

“Unicorns can’t take something another unicorn is manipulating telekinetically.”

Well that's definitely outdated.

Really enjoying this story so far -- the worldbuilding's excellent, the writing is strong, and the character explorations are very very interesting. I'm very excited to see where the rest of the story's going to go.

Really the only major issue I have is that when Luna is talking, the text... really doesn't use Elizabethan pronouns right. It treats "thou", "thee", "you" and "ye" as interchangeable synonyms, sometimes switches between them in a single sentence, and that... is absolutely not right. They had pretty specific uses, and the writing breaks those rules quite often. Properly speaking, "thou" and "thee" are both singular, the former is used as the subject of the sentence and the latter to the object ("Thou art here" versus "This is thee"); same difference for "ye" and "you" in the plural. Modern English does the exact same with first-person pronoun still; the difference between "thou", "thee", "ye" and "you" is exactly the same as between "I", "me", "we", and "us".

(Additionally, they're also used to represent formality -- by default you use "thou" and "thee" for close associations and for social inferiors, and "ye" and "you" for superiors and strangers; Luna should realistically only ever use "thou" and "thee" unless, for instance, she wants to deliberately come across as cold when talking to a friend or relative who's upset her.)

Same issue with "thy" and "thine"; they're the second-person equivalents of "my" and "mine". Same as we still do with "your" ("our") and "yours" ( "ours"). Those are probably the easiest to remember because they sound the same.

For instance, take this passage from last chapter:

"I understand exactly how thee feel, Applejack. I think thou art doing an excellent job in her stead, however. Thou didst admirably ease the troubles of thine other friends. They shall rest well tonight, I think, thanks to thine efforts."

"Translate" this into the first person and you get things like "I understand exactly how me feel, Applejack." and "They shall rest well tonight, I think, thanks to mine efforts." You can see it doesn't look right. "Thou" is being used correctly, however.

Bleh. That's my rant over. I don't imagine it's very relevant to the story itself this late after its writing, but I need to get it off my chest or I'll go nuts.

“This boon is a gift,” she said softly. “To remind me of my ultimate allegiance should Empyrean ever rebel as Celestia did. Titan doesn’t trust his son. He wants to make sure Esteem and I are his side.” The alicorn’s mistrust was misplaced however. He should have been watching Nihilus, not Empyrean.

Oh, look at you! Trying to hog all the betrayal for yourself! I think there might be enough for two.

Esteem regarded the creature with disgust. The look that he gave Rainbow Dash, however, was nothing compared to the way he looked at Nihilus. “Do that to my daughter,” he said quietly, “and I will kill you, parasite.”

...That came out of nowhere. As long as you remain loyal, that would be betrayal anyway, right? Unless... Military unicorn, his daughter attacked by Nihilus... He's Rarity’s dad, isn't he? It would fit with his obsession over his appearance, too.

Hopefully the next time they encountered Luna and the others her pet would be able to do more than get kicked in the face.

Wait, what?!” Twilight Sparkle’s voice sounded sharply within her mind.

There are a few extra line breaks here.