Chapter 2: Improper Introductions
Footnotes are numbers inside parentheses. Example: (1)
Each of Cerberus' heads throbbed as he slowly came to. His clouded vision revealed six figures standing in front of him. He knew immediately that one of them was Tirek, but the other five standing around him were impossible to identify since they were completely wrapped in cloaks of shadow. Realizing that Tirek was out of his cell and had company with him, he did his best respond as quickly as possible. But just as he was about to jump to his feet, one of the figures lowered it's head and several black vines with aqua colored thorns, known as plunder vines, sprang out of the ground and tied up the dog. Tirek stepped forward and got down to the dog's level of vision.
"Hello Cerberus," he said nonchalantly. "did you have a pleasant nap?" The three heads violently snapped their massive jaws at the escapee in a desperate attempt to grab him, but Tirek easily avoided them.
Augustus barked at the centaur.
Translation: Tirek, what's going on here? How did you get out of your cell?!
Julius joined in after him.
Translation: More importantly, who are these...things with you?!
"Oh, you mean these five?" Tirek replied. "Why they're my new friends of course!"
Tiberius was shocked from hearing the words 'my friends' in a sentence coming from someone like Tirek and barked in protest.
Translation: You...You of all creatures...have friends? How does that work exactly?"
"I'd love to explain, but my friends and I are on a pretty tight schedule, so I'll just take what I came for and be on my way." Tirek retorted.
Julius whimpered in a concerned tone.
Translation: What do you mean "take what you came for"?
Suddenly, three of the figures held the heads to the ground.
Tirek grabbed Julius' ears in his hand and grinned. "This is for the shedding."
He conjured his sphere of magic over his head and took a deep breath. White beams emerged from the three mouths and traveled into Tirek's mouth. When he finished, a thin yellow aura surrounded the centaur and small black bolts of electricity appeared around him. He slowly started to grow in size; his muscle mass increased from wiry and bony to fairly cut, the dull redness of the skin on his arms and face became slightly brighter, the charcoal grey fur on his chest and the back of his head turned a sinister black, and the small nubs for horns on his head grew much larger and thicker like bull horns. Basically, his power had increased by one full level.
As for Cerberus, he grew incredibly weak, like all the strength inside of him had disappeared. His eyes grew cloudy after the beams stopped emerging from him. He looked up and saw Tirek's new form.
"Interesting." said the centaur with a much clearer voice. "For a creature that doesn't use magic, you had much more energy than I expected. Last time I had to eat the magic of ten or more unicorns just to become this strong."
His grin shifted to a look of seriousness as he turned to four of the figures standing near him. "Do it!"
"Yes, Lord Tirek!" the four replied.
They lowered their heads and lifted Cerberus off the ground, throwing him into Tirek's former cell. The door slammed and locked, but that was only the beginning.
Suddenly, more plunder vines came out of the ground and whipped themselves around the cage, turning it into a cube of thorny black vines. Next, the ground rumbled and out from it sprouted dark purple crystals. They grew and contorted until they completely surrounded the cell in a small crystal dome. Immediately after the crystals encased the cell, a shroud of darkness emerged and covered the entire area around the cell in another, yet larger black dome. Finally, a spark appeared and tall crackling flames sprang up and created a ring around the dome.
"AND THAT'S FOR CALLING ME POWERLESS!!" Tirek exclaimed to Cerberus, hoping he could still hear him.
He turned to the four figures responsible for the cell's new look. "Excellent work. Now with that mutt out of the way, we'll give Equestria what it truly deserves! Let's go!"
As Tirek and his new "friends" began to make their way to the exit of Tartarus, he suddenly remembered something.
"Oh yes, I almost forgot."
He turned and nodded to the fifth figure; one that was just as tall as Tirek.
A snapping sound was heard followed by a faint poof from inside the cell. Cerberus heard the poof and looked around as best he could to see what had changed.
Augustus barked at the noise.
Translation: What was that? What happened now?
Julius barked in response.
Translation: I don't know. Everything looks the same. Tiberius, do you notice anything?
Tiberius shifted around from inside the vines around their body. He started barking, but a sudden feeling in their groin area stopped him.
Translation: Not really I-...
Julius shifted to looked at Tiberius and whimpered, but also felt the same thing Tiberius felt.
Translation: Tiberius? Is everything...Oh no...He didn't.
Augustus realized it too. They remembered what Tirek said earlier, but they never thought he would actually go through with it, but he did.
He had Cerberus neutered while awake, and the three heads got to realize it without warning.
The three heads howled in despair for the loss of their cohones.
Translation: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
Tirek and his gang laughed at the faint howling and continued walking toward the exit.
Now freed from incarceration, Tirek was ready to reap the world of its magic and become its new, all powerful master.
So what you're saying, Twilight, is that despite both the Elements of Harmony AND our new rainbow power working, you still think that there's something about the magic that we're missing?" Rarity asked.
"Yes" Twilight replied.
"So what's the big deal?" asked Rainbow Dash. "If the magic did its job, then there shouldn't be a problem."
"But that's just it Rainbow." said Twilight. "I don't know if this is an actual problem or just some delusion caused by my memories. If it were just any old vision, I would have disregarded it, but that fact that it keeps happening with these memories, is really concerning me."
Applejack, wanting to bring a little more positivity to the situation, tried to divert things to the delusion theory. "Well, Twilight, it's not too big of a surprise if it's just your thoughts. After all, it has been a good amount of time since those events happened. Maybe it's just you forgetting certain details. It happens all the time with dreams or memories of any kind; ponies just forget."
"I want to think that, Applejack, but something inside me is always telling me otherwise. Plus, every time it happens, it feels like that missing feeling is linked to something very important, but I don't know what it is."
Considering that the five ponies didn't come close to knowing magic as well as Twilight, this issue was becoming more and more difficult to comprehend.
Twilight sighed. "I really wish there was someway I could explain this so that the rest of you could understand."
The other ponies had a touch of guilt on their faces seeing that their confusion was only making things worse.
Spike pondered for a minute and then snapped his claws. Everypony looked at him as he eagerly stepped off of his chair.
"I think I know what Twilight is talking about! Wait here. I'll be right back!"
The little dragon ran up the stairs to the next floor leaving everyone else to question what he was going to do. A few minutes later, Spike came back down holding something in each fist. He placed the objects on the table to reveal an ordinary stone and a gem of equal size. Everyone was confused as to why he brought these two things down.
Spike cleared his throat. "Okay, what we have here is a gem and a stone."
"Well we can see that." said Rainbow Dash.
Spike made a quick annoyed look on his face before continuing. "Anyway, let's pretend this gem and this stone are the types of ideas that Twilight was talking about. Now, let's pretend that this ordinary stone represents the visions of you girls using the harmony powers in the past, and this gem represents you using the harmony powers in, let's say, a different way. Here's the thing, when we compare the two, we know that these are both technically types of rocks, right?"
Everypony nodded back in agreement.
"However, despite them both being a type of rock, we all know they have characteristics that make them their own types, correct?"
"Yep, that's why they all have different names!" said Pinkie Pie.
"That's right, Pinkie."
Pinkie thanked him with a big smile.
"So what exactly is the point of this Spike?" Rarity asked.
"The differences between these two types of rocks can represent the missing part of the magic that Twilight mentioned. For example, the gem is shiny and colorful while the stone isn't. That certain shine and color quality represent the missing factor. Sure, both ways end up giving us a rock, but what we really want in the end, is the gem! Like Twilight said, the powers did their jobs in the past, but what we've been getting is a rock instead of a gem!"
"It's like a cake with frosting versus a cake with no frosting!" said Pinkie. "Both can be eaten and they both taste yummy, but everyone knows a cake with frosting is better in the end!"
"Exactly!"
After a minute of thinking, everypony else started to get a better idea of Twilight's predicament thanks to Spike's presentation.
Twilight was pleased. "Wow Spike, that was pretty impressive! How'd you figure it out so easily?"
"I've been reading some of those works by Clopcrates (1) you got. Since then, they're really changing my way of thinking."
Twilight was proud of her assistant. She could really see him turn into an amazing dragon over the years. "Maybe amazing enough to finally get Rarity's attention," she thought.
"Alright, we now have a better understanding of Twilight's problem, but the question still remains: what exactly is this missing part of the magic? If the clue in Twilight's vision was that subtle, how do we figure out something like that?" Applejack asked.
Suddenly, Fluttershy came up with an idea. "Maybe we're looking at this from the wrong angle."
Everypony looked at Fluttershy which shot her back into her timid self.
"What do you mean, Fluttershy?" Rarity asked.
"Well...um...it looks like we're...um...looking at this more from...our point of view. Maybe we should look at it from the view of somepony whose had the harmony power used on them?" That gave Fluttershy another idea. "Maybe...Discord...might be able to help us."
Rainbow Dash immediately objected. "Oh no! No way! Not happening! After what he did with Tirek the last time, I'm not trusting him for another second!"
"I concur with Rainbow Dash." chimed in Rarity. "He may act like he's our friend, but he certainly has a questionable way of showing it!"
"Now wait a minute girls." intervened Twilight. "I think Fluttershy may be right about this one."
"WHAT?!" everypony else said in shock.
"Think about it. Discord has had the elements used on him twice; more than any creature we've used them on. Plus, unlike our other adversaries, he survived. And because he's reformed, it shouldn't be too big of a challenge trying to get the information from him."
Everypony else still shared a look of disbelief from Twilight's elaboration of Fluttershy's idea.
"Even if he doesn't help us find the answer right away, I'll bet a testimony from him can surely point us in the right direction."
"Well, when you put it that way, I guess it's worth a shot." pondered Applejack.
"At least we'll make him happy by letting him see us again!" said Pinkie.
"I suppose any friend of ours should deserve a chance, even if it is Discord." said Rarity.
Rainbow Dash was the only one to stay silent due to her remaining grudge with the Lord of Chaos.
Everypony turned to her waiting for a response. "Rainbow?"
"I think this is totally insane, but if you really think it'll work, Twilight, let's give it a try."
"Then it's settled!" said Spike "Twilight, do you think you and the others can still use that summoning spell to call Discord like you did last time?"
"Well, we had the elements last time, but I think it might still work."
The girls stepped off their thrones and made a tighter circle in the center of the room. Just as they were about to start concentrating, a white flash appeared in the middle. Out from the flash appeared the Lord of Chaos himself, Discord. He stood there panting and sweating like he just ran all the way across Equestria to get there, but the girls barely noticed. They were too surprised at how sudden the arrival was.
"That worked out rather well!" Rarity said.
Twilight was equally impressed. "Wow, it really did! Anyway, Discord we're glad you could make it. We need your help with--"
She stopped for an instant when she noticed Discord's condition. "Discord? Are you alright?"
Discord snapped out of his exhaustion and said frantically:
"NO TIME FOR QUESTIONS! YOU SEVEN! ME! THE PRINCESSES! CANTERLOT! NOW!!!"
He immediately scooped up the seven as if they were a bunch of plush toys and used his magic to teleport them to Canterlot Palace.
As soon as they got to the palace halls, he put them down, and said:
"I'll tell them you're all here!"
He dashed into the room so fast that he could've made his own version of a sonic rainboom.
Seeing that this might be something incredibly important, the seven ran into the chamber. Inside, sitting at the large round table with Discord, were Princess Celestia, her younger sister, Princess Luna, and the rulers of the Crystal Empire, Princess Cadance and her husband, as well as Twilight's older brother, Prince Shining Armor. Twilight expected to see the Two Sisters, but was surprised that her brother and sister-in-law were there as well.
"Cadance! Shining Armor! What are you two doing here?"
"Your guess is as good as ours," said Cadance.
"Discord brought us here a minute or two before you came." said Shining Armor. "Princess Celestia wanted to wait for everypony to get here before telling us the news."
"What news? What's going on Princess?" Twilight asked Celestia.
Celestia lowered her head sighing in fear and frustration. "It's Tirek."
Everypony gasped. After what Tirek did the last time, anything associated with him couldn't be good.
"I'm afraid he has somehow managed to escape Tartarus again."
"That's it?" asked Rainbow Dash. "This is what Discord was freaking out about? We'll just blast him back to Tartarus like last time!"
"If only it were that simple." said Princess Luna. "Unfortunately, this third comeback is even worse than the previous two combined."
Celestia continued. "Based on reports from some of the pony guards at the prison, not only was Tirek able to get out of his cell, but he was escorted by five other creatures who defeated them easily. We don't know for sure what these five are. The only other description they gave was that they 'possessed great power'."
"Now that he has these five assisting him, he's stealing magic from ponies at an alarming rate. In fact, in less than an hour, they have stolen magic from every pony in the Northeastern part of Equestria; including Manehatten, Fillydelphia, and Baltimare. Now he possess enough magic to raise his power up another level."
"To make matters worse, this army of his has become so strong that they've been able to overpower the dragon lands to the south and force the creatures to work for them. Word has it that he's not far from the Foal Mountains and is moving west towards Canterlot."
Everypony was speechless knowing that it wouldn't be long before Tirek's forces made it to the palace.
"He could be here in minutes at the rate he's going!" exclaimed Cadance.
"Plus, Ponyville isn't far from there either!" said Applejack. "What do you think we should do, Twilight?"
Twilight thought for a moment and then said:
"We should get everypony to evacuate as soon as possible."
"Easier said than done." said Rainbow Dash. "There are hundreds of ponies in Ponyville! It could take hours to get them all out! We don't have that kind of time!!"
"Rainbow, you're not helping!" Interrupted Applejack.
"Rainbow's right, we can't get everypony out before Tirek gets here." Twilight continued to go through ideas in her head, until finally she came up with one. "But, maybe we could all engage Tirek for a while. That should buy us some time."
"You mean...we're going to...fight him?" Fluttershy asked nervously.
Rainbow Dash patted her worried friend on the back. "Don't worry, Flutters! We got ourselves a dream team here. Check it out! We got the Two Sisters, the rulers of the Crystal Empire, and us seven! There's no way we can lose!"
"Aren't you forgetting someone?" Discord asked feeling somewhat offended.
"Who's that?"
"You know; brown coat, gorgeous yellow eyes, has a lion's paw and an eagle's leg."
"Gilda?"
"Me, you twit!"
Rainbow Dash cracked up laughing. "You should see the look on your face! Priceless! Ok, I suppose you can fight with us."
"What was that all about?"
"Now you know how it feels to be the plot of your own mischief! Pretty shocking, huh?" she asked triumphantly.
"Not really."
Rainbow Dash's feeling of victory came crashing down knowing that she had just been counter-trolled.
"I'm used to having a lot of things backfire on me. Being one of the Elements of Harmony, you of all ponies should know that by now. However, I'll give you points for effort."
"Oh, you want to see effort, huh?"
"That's enough, you two." interrupted Twilight. "I'm trying to concentrate. Now, where was I? Oh yes! Spike, take two letters; one to Ponyville and the other to the railway headquarters. Princess Celestia, could you handle the evacuation of Canterlot?"
"Of course, Twilight."
Spike pulled out two pieces of paper and a quill. "I'm ready Twilight. Let 'er rip!"
"Tell the railway to send every available train, each pulling with as many coaches as they can pull, to Ponyville as soon as possible. Once there, tell them to load the entire train with passengers and don't leave until they are completely full. As for Ponyville itself, tell all the citizens to pack their things and be at the train station inside two hours. All access will be free of charge in order to speed up boarding. We'll also send a small group of soldiers to assist them with the evacuation. They will all be going to...to...oh yes, to the Hollow Shade Village and that they are to stay there until further notice. Say that these demands are by royal decree and that evacuation is mandatory to all citizens."
Celestia pulled out some paper of her own and began writing as well. "I'll send a message to everyone in Canterlot to take the airships to the Crystal Empire; they should be safe there. I'll also send messages to all the other cities to remain on high alert until further notice."
Luna started walking towards one of the doors in the room. "I'll tell the captain of the guard to send forces to the surrounding area." She opened the door and called down the hall. "Capt. Sentry! Capt. Flash Sentry! Your presence is requested at once!"
Just then, the light orange coated, blue mane pegasus, Flash Sentry, entered the room dressed in his gold armor.
Twilight blushed slightly at the sight of him since she had a crush on him for quite some time.
"What is it, your highness?" he asked.
"Send forces to all of Canterlot's entry points including the area around the base of the mountain!"
"It will be done, princess!" The pegasus saluted and sprinted out of the room shutting the door behind him.
Celestia took the notes and made them vanish in a beam of magic. "I used a spell that will send multiple copies of the messages to their respective recipients."
"Now what, Twilight?" Fluttershy asked.
"Now, all we can do is wait," answered Twilight.
For the next 10 minutes, there was nothing but silence. Everypony was too nervous about the recent events to say anything. The silence was broken when earth pony soldier, Sgt. Phalanx (2) burst through the doors.
"Your highnesses!" he called. "I've just received word from our ground forces...he's here!"
Everypony quickly ran to one of the windows in the room, and off in the distance, they saw a decent sized spec of red and black and some flying specs moving slowly toward the eastern base of the mountain.
Twilight asked the other princesses:
"Are you sure you three want to help us? Tirek might end up stealing your alicorn magic like last time. We can't let that happen again! Besides, our rainbow power is the only thing that can defeat him."
Celestia turned to her student. "Twilight, this encounter will be unlike any other challenge you have faced. True, you defeated Tirek last time, but that was before he had an army. Even if your powers can defeat him, his army might try to interfere. With Discord and us on your side, we can protect you while you carry out the spell."
"Well...alright...But we'll make sure that we'll have your backs if you need us! Right girls?"
"Right!!" They said enthusiastically.
"Well what are we standing around here for?" Discord asked with equal enthusiasm. "We've got a centaur to beat! Everypony grab onto me!"
Everypony placed a hoof on Discord's body and Discord warped them all to the bottom of the mountain.
Tirek was finishing the last of the magic from the ground troops when he noticed them. As Celestia said earlier, he was now in his next level of power. His horns were much longer and curvier than before. He was much more muscular and was now slightly taller than Discord at this point. He had grown so big that every step he took towards the group was accompanied by a loud thud.
A small band of large adult dragons landed on the ground behind him and started following him.
Tirek turned around to them which made them stop immediately. "Stay back! I'll deal with them!"
The dragons snarled at Tirek before stopping in their tracks and sitting down right on the spot.
When Spike looked at the dragons, one in particular caught his attention. It was an adult dragon that almost looked just like him. The purple scales on his body were a much lighter shade of purple that almost looked pink and the spines on his back were a much darker shade of green. His underbelly was a powder blue instead, his shiny eyes were purple as opposed to Spike's green ones, and he had wings.
The two dragons made eye contact for a brief moment.
"That's funny." Spike thought. "That one dragon kind of looks like me. He must be a rare species cause I've never seen one with scales colored like mine before.
The bigger one was thinking to himself as well. "Ah, young Spike; at last we meet. Don't worry, I'm sure we'll have a better chance to speak with each other in the near future. It's time you learned the truth!"
Suddenly, Tirek started speaking and the two dragons directed their attention to him. "Well isn't this great?" he said "Here I am coming after the most powerful sources of magic in Equestria, and now they're all here in one place! I'm surprised you didn't show up inside a giant gift box!" Tirek laughed and the dragons behind him joined in.
"ENOUGH!" Shouted Celestia. "Not only were you foolish enough to escape from Tartarus a third time, but you have also shown yourself to the ones who imprisoned you twice before!"
"SAYITH WHAT YOU WANT FOUL BEAST!!" Shouted Luna with her Canterlot Voice. "THOU KNOWEST AS WELL AS WE DO THAT YOUR TIME OF RAMPAGING ENDS HERE AND NOW!! SURRENDER NOW AND WE MAY CONSIDER NOT FEEDING YOU TO CERBERUS!!!"
Tirek smirked, amused by the younger sister's outburst. "Oh please! After what Cerberus went through, I don't think he's in any condition to eat or even do anything! Besides, even if you wanted to try something like that...."
The sky became filled with big dark grey clouds like the ones a pony would see before a massive rainstorm. As the clouds completely blocked the sun and turned the land dim and grey, the wind began to pick up and the rolling of thunder was heard from above. Tirek looked at the clouds above in satisfaction seeing how it was almost time to unveil his surprise. He fired up his magic sphere between his horns before finishing the last of his statement:
"I don't think my...friends...would like that!"
Tirek shot a beam of his magic into the sky which caused big bolts of lighting to burst out from the cloud layer, making tremendous cracks and striking random parts of the ground they were standing on. He watched as the enemies before him started moving closer together in an attempt to avoid the bolts. Suddenly, five individual bolts of lightning, bigger than any of the ones before, each struck the ground one at a time in a horizontal line. The cracks from these bolts dwarfed the sound of the previous ones. Afterwards, the lightning subsided, but was immediately followed by the ground shaking violently.
"Get ready for anything, girls!" warned Twilight.
Out from the points of impact, different occurrences happened one after the other.
The first to Tirek's right was a large dome of dark purple crystal growing out of the ground. The next one down was a tall stream of raging fire that completely incinerated the ground it ignited. The middle spot had four giant plunder vines burst out of the ground and wrap themselves around one another to form a twisty spire of black vines and aqua thorns. The first one on Tirek's left was a spec of thick black fog that formed out of thin air and continued to grow in size until it was a small cloud-like blotch of darkness. The final one, appearing on Tirek's far left, was a orb of sinister purple magic that shook and convulsed violently from it's highly unstable nature. After the five occurrences were finished, each one of them revealed a creature inside.
The dark purple crystals shattered to reveal what looked like an alicorn. Everypony was shocked to realize that this alicorn looked like a different version of Princess Cadance! Her coat was a very dark grey with a faint dark purple tinge added to it. The color style of her mane and tail were the same, except they were darker shades, like a small amount of grey was mixed into them. There were also some sparkles in them as if there were shimmering gems inside. Her cutie mark was ruby red version of the Crystal Heart with a jagged crack going all the way down the middle. She also wore a neck band with a small blue heart shaped gem with a crack going down the middle as well. Her purple eyes had diamond shaped slits for pupils and the lights reflecting off them looked like small hearts.
The flames began to die down in certain parts and out from them stepped another alicorn with a sadistic look on her face; this one looking just like Princess Celestia. Her white coat and her cutie mark of the sun were the same, but the mane and tale were frighteningly different. Instead of a flowing blends of sparkling green, blue, and pink, they were made of blazing orange and yellow flames. The heat coming off from them was so intense that Twilight and her friends felt as though they were standing inches away from her. The gems on her gold crown and neck band were a bright red. Her eyes had no pupils or even irises; just bright empty spaces with a thin orange trim around the edges; almost like they were smaller versions of the sun.
The plunder vines slowly unwrapped themselves and descended back into the ground uncovering a third, yet smaller alicorn. Twilight was dumfounded to realize that this next friend of Tirek was a new version of her! While her coat was the same color, her mane was the same shade of black as the plunder vines. The two streaks of color in her mane and tail were a shade of purple and a shade of aqua that matched the same color and the plunder vines' thorns. Her cutie mark was a large, thorn aqua, six pointed star at the center with five smaller vine black stars around it and a slightly bigger, vine black, six pointed star jutting out from under the aqua one. She had deep, purple, slit pupil eyes which rested in two pools of thorn aqua and gave off a thin stream of smoke-like magical vapor from the corners; very reminiscent to the eyes of the late King Sombra. She wore a vine black version of Twilight's crown with thorn aqua gems, a neck band with the iconic aqua star in the middle, and vine black royal slippers with the star on the front of each one. A chill ran down Twilight's spine as her duplicate fixed her menacing eyes on her and made an equally sinister grin.
The cloud of darkness drifted away from its spot as if a gust of wind blew it in another direction. Out from the shadows emerged the fourth and final alicorn in Tirek's army. Seeing how the other duplicates turned out, Princess Luna had a feeling that one of the last two would be hers. What she saw was so horrifying that it made Nightmare Moon about as scary as a butterfly.
She looked just like a younger version of the princess. However, nearly her entire body was pitch black. The only exception was a few streaks of dark grey mixed in with the black in her mane and tail, like clouds in the night sky. The shade of black was possibly the darkest looking black one could possibly imagine. The only thing that could match a color that dark would be the lightless void inside a black hole. Her cutie mark was an image of the moon with the "mare in the moon" image inside. Instead of regular feathered wings, she had large, black, bat-like wings. The most frightening thing about her was that she appeared to have no eyes on her face. Actually, she did have eyes but both the whites and irises were black so they blended in perfectly with her coat. Luna glared at her in hopes of getting a reaction, but all the duplicate did was stand there looking directly at Luna with a cold, emotionless stare.
Seeing the orb of purple magic as very chaotic and unstable, Discord came to the conclusion that his was last. Unlike the others, Discord was rather excited by all this. Impressed by how the other duplicates turned out, he was anxious to see, what this version of the Lord of Chaos would look like.
The orb of magic swelled and burst in a flash of light. When the light dimmed a creature kneeling on the ground rose to its feet to show it's true form. Like Discord, he was a draconequus. His head took the form of a light dirt brown deformed pony head with a short black mane. Right below his thick grey shaggy eyebrows were two eyes that were completely bloodshot; as if each eye was just a black slit in a pool of blood. His right eye had a dark red scar running down the middle of it and a dark red spot between the eye and the eyebrow. Two sharp, long, white, saber tooth cat fangs stuck out of his mouth and two antelope horns stuck out of the top of his head. Like Discord, he had an eagle claw for a left hand and a lion paw for a right hand, except the eagle claw was black and the lion paw was a dirty tan with blood-red claws and a few strange symbols of the same color written along it. He also had the green clawed dinosaur leg on his right and a brown cloven hoof on his left, but they were both darker shades of color than the original's. Even his dark red snake tail was similar to the original Discord, but the white tuft of fur on the end was replaced with three white spikes. Finally, the duplicate's wings were both large navy blue bat-like wings instead of the original's smaller bat wing and feathered wing.
Discord admired the overall style of this duplicate, but he couldn't help but be bothered by him looking more organized in his appearance. He found that his features lacked the chaotic randomness that he was all about. He teleported to the duplicate's backside to get a closer inspection, but seconds later, the duplicate grabbed Discord by the neck with his black eagle claw and chucked him back to his original side. Tirek was on the verge of bursting into laughter from seeing the dumbfounded looks of his enemies.
Finally, Celestia broke out of her stupor and spoke up. "T-Tirek, what sorcery is this? Who in Equestria are those creatures?"
"Don't act like you don't recognize them, Celestia." Tirek answered. "They are you four princesses and your Lord of Chaos, Discord!"
"If they are us then who are we?" asked Discord.
"They...I mean you are...No they aren't...or are..." Tirek's mind was boggled for a minute for Discord's question, but shortly gave up, finding this a waste of time. "Don't bug me with details, pony errand boy! You five are yourselves also!"
"CEASE THY STALLING!!" Luna shouted. "WE ASKED YOU A QUESTION AND WE EXPECT YOU TO ANSWER IT!! WHO ARE THESE CREATURES AND WHY DO THEY LOOK LIKE US?!
"Simple," Tirek replied. "I made them!"
"You...MADE...these creatures?" Cadance asked.
"That's right. It seems that a small remnant of magic from each of you five stayed with me even after my defeat."
"But our rainbow power freed all the magic you stole!" protested Twilight.
"Yes, I thought so as well, but I suppose something allowed a part of your magic to stay with me. After realizing this, I managed to extract those remnants and corrupt them with a combination of my power with Discord's corruptive magic, and then I simply used my own power to physically manifest the remnants into the forms you see before you. In other words, these five are your dark sides! Not only do they look like dark versions of you, but they are just as powerful as you since they were made from your magic! And by the way, you can stop calling them 'creatures', they have names; ones that I came up with myself might I add!"
Tirek pointed to each duplicate and introduced it to it's proper original.
"Princess Cadance, I'd like you to meet SHATTERED HEART!"
"I can sense your fear towards me, Crystal Princess." she said in a bitter but identical voice to Cadance. "And a fearful heart is more likely to crack!"
"Princess Celestia, I present to you SEARING NOVA!"
Searing Nova giggled at Celestia "The great Solar Princess. I've been looking forward to meeting you!"
"Princess Twilight Sparkle, I give you the mistress of the plunder vines, TWIVINE SPARKLE!" (3)
"PRINCESS Twivine Sparkle, to you!" shouted the small alicorn back at Tirek.
"Whatever."
Tirek continued. "Princess Luna, meet an alicorn even stronger than Nightmare Moon, STARLESS NIGHT!"
"...Charmed..." she said in a hushed emotionless voice similar to Luna's.
"And last but not least, Discord, presenting the new Lord of Chaos, HAVOC!"
"You're former glory is a thing of the past, Discord." said Havoc with a deeper toned version of Discord's voice "It's time for a real chaos master to take your place!"
"As much as I enjoy having a second me around, I'm afraid I can't let you do that." replied Discord.
"Why are you doing all this, Tirek?" Cadance asked.
"Well, my dear, I remembered how I worked alone the last two times I tried to take over Equestria and only ended in failure, and I also remembered how you ponies keep preaching about how powerful friendship is, so I decided make some friends of my own. I want to make this the worst defeat of your lives, and what better way to do that than having your own power turned against you? Now, with all the formalities out of the way, prepare to be vanquished!!"
Sgt. Phalanx, along with two pegasi guards and a unicorn guard, watched the banter from a distance; still lying on the ground incredibly weak from losing their magic. Phalanx slowly struggled to his feet. "No...We can't let...those imposters...harm...the princesses...Come on men...We have to stop them!!!" With every ounce of strength they could muster, the four guards rose up and made a headlong charge to Tirek's side.
"DON'T CHARGE YOU IDIOTS," yelled Luna. "They'll destroy you four easily!!"
"If it means keeping your highnesses safe...THEN SO BE IT!!! FOR EQUESTRIA!!!" Phalanx called back.
"FOR EQUESTRIA!!!" the other soldiers echoed.
The duplicates were not impressed in the slightest.
"Look at them." said Shattered Heart shamefully. "Trying to protect their rulers even though they know they stand no chance in their condition. Pathetic."
"I'd hate to just stand here and do nothing while they throw themselves at us." Searing Nova commented, growing eager to enter the battle. "What should we do with them, Lord Tirek?"
"Their magic is already gone." Tirek answered nonchalantly "They've got nothing left to fight with. Do what you want with them."
The four guards decided to gang up on the Twivine, thinking they would have the highest chance against her. Their formation started with the three soldiers running ahead of the sergeant while he brought up the rear. The unicorn guard locked his disenchanted horn with Twivine's in an attempt to distract her for an instant. Next, the two pegasi, though rendered flightless thanks to Tirek, hurled themselves off the ground and got just enough of a gust under their wings to glide a few feet off the ground and make a slight dive into the alicorn. Both of put as much weight as they could on her from both sides to keep her in place. Finally, Phalanx prepared to charge into the restrained Twivine in order to knock her down and subdue her. He was only a few feet away from his target when...
"GET YOUR FILTHY HOOVES OFF ME, YOU PATHETIC LITTLE WORMS!!!" Twivine reared up on her hind legs knocking back the unicorn and slamming her front legs on the ground.
Suddenly, three massive plunder vines sprang out of the ground, tied up the guards, and lifted them off of their mistress. The counter that Phalanx had just seen made him freeze in his tracks. The vines had the guards' entangled up to their necks, completely immobilized, and dangling above the ground in the black coils.
Starless Night started walking up to Twivine. "If thou art going to waste thy time on these peasants, at least give the rest of us us something to do."
A plunder vine shot out of the ground behind Twivine and pointed the tip of its coils inches away from Starless Night's face.
She was furious at the black alicorn for wanting to interfere. "NONE OF YOU WILL DO ANYTHING!!! I HAD THEM FIRST, SO THEY'RE MINE TO FINISH!!! ANY OF YOU TAKE ONE MORE STEP AND YOU'LL GET THE SAME TREATMENT I'M GOING TO GIVE THEM!!!"
Starless Night wasn't intimidated at all. "So this isn't similar to the way thou has been treating us all? Personally, we don't really see the difference."
"SHUT IT, NO-EYES!!!"
"Let her have her fun, Starless. Your time will come." said Tirek.
Starless Night, slightly frustrated, but still obedient to her leader's demands, stepped back to her spot which caused the plunder vine to retreat.
Twivine tightened her grip around the captives. Aqua thorns of all sizes and lengths were piercing the entangled areas of their flesh, causing them to scream from the excruciating pain.
"We've got to help them!" said Twilight. "Come on girls!!"
The girls tried to act fast, but Tirek thought faster.
"Havoc, keep those equines in their place!" he ordered.
"Yes, Lord Tirek." Havoc snapped his eagle claw and a clear force field trapped the gang inside.
Twilight tried to use her teleporting spell, but every time she tried, it just kept sending her back into the dome. The other princess tried teleporting, but they were stopped too. Even Discord's teleporting magic couldn't get out.
"Nice force field." said Tirek listening to his enemies' demands for freedom. "It's transparent AND it doesn't muffle their voices! Excellent job, Havoc!" He gave the draconequus a friendly slap on the back.
"Thank you, Lord Tirek."
Twivine smiled, incredibly satisfied by her work and happy to know that her "display" would go uninterrupted.
She looked up at them. "Since you're all without magic, and you won't be getting it back anytime soon, I don't really see the reason to keep you around anymore!" she lifted her left hoof and the top part of the plundervines wrapped around to face their captives.
A giant, long, and needle sharp aqua thorn sprang out and pointed directly at the captives' heads. Then, with a simple wave of her hoof, the three thorns ran through the guards' necks like swords, killing them in seconds. Twivine turned to Phalanx, still frozen with a terrified look on his face. He nearly heaved up his stomach from seeing the impaled cadavers above him. She looked him in the eyes with her malevolent gaze and whispered:
"Your turn!"
Before the sergeant could move a muscle, something stopped him cold again. Twivine watched as the pony's eyes started to turn into the same eyes as hers. They even gave off the purple vapor as well.
Phalanx quickly looked around back and forth "What happened?" he asked in a panic "What did you do to me?! Wait a minute...WHERE DID YOU GO...WHERE IS EVERYPONY?!" Everypony was still there, but the hallucinating spell Twivine put him under made him think that everypony was gone.
"SHOW YOURSELF YOU FIEND!! What the...what in Equestria is are those things?!" Suddenly, Phalanx start to go into a psychotic episode.
He fell on his back and started thrashing around like he was being mauled by a horde of some sort.
He screamed hysterically "GET AWAY FROM ME!!! BY THE LIGHT, PLEASE, STOP!!! NO...NO...NO NOT THE FACE!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!! MY EYES!!! WHAT'S HAPPENING TO ME?!?!? MAKE IT STOP!!!"
Twivine was enjoying this thoroughly, but grew bored of her fun after Phalanx's episode reached three minutes. By now, his voice was incredibly hoarse from all the screaming; any more and he would have torn his vocal cords.
"Your shouting is getting on my nerves. Might as well end it now." She bent her head down closer to the still flailing Phalanx.
She took a deep breath and exhaled what looked like aqua colored fumes. As the fumes surrounded the stallion, he slowly became less and less frantic and stopped his screaming. However, his screaming was replaced by frequent bursts of violent coughing and hacking. It was then that everypony realized that the fumes Twivine created were the exact same fumes given off by the poison vines. Phalanx tried to move, but the toxins from the fumes and the coughing that came with them kept him from escaping the small cloud he was trapped in.
"What's going...*cough*...on...what's...*cough*...*hack*...that smell? Why is...*cough*...*hack*...*HACK*...*cough*...Why is everything...*HACK*...*HACK*...*cough*...*cough*...*HACK*...spinning?" His voice grew more and more frail with each passing second as the poison filled his lungs.
"I...I...I...can't...breath."
At last, with his very last bit of power, he croaked out, "Your...high-highnesses...Captain...Captain Sentry...my...three c-comrades...everypony...I'm...so...s-s-sorry...forgive...me." And with that, Sgt. Phalanx of the United Equestrian Army, toppled over.
Seeing that the stallion was dead, Twivine stopped her poison breath and blew the cloud away with a gust from her wings. She looked down at the corpse at her feet. "It's ironic. They say earth ponies are known best for their strength, yet they are so easily broken."
She looked at the bodies one last time, then to her enemies.
"We have no use for these mangled things, so now you can have them back!" Twivine summoned another plunder vine which ran through Phalanx's corpse and had all four vines hurl the bodies towards the gang in front of her.
All four of them landed in a pile only nine feet away from the force field. Everypony was in shock. They had a feeling that these duplicates were evil, but they never thought they would go as far as to kill another living creature. To make matters worse, it was a pony killing another pony, and in Equestria, spilling the blood of a creature from your own kind is one of the most unforgivable sins one can commit. Tirek didn't care. As long as he was able to steal the world's magic and gain the power he desired, he wouldn't care if it meant blowing up the entire planet. He had big plans, and he wasn't going to let those ponies stand in his way for a third time.
Tirek nodded to Havoc who disabled the force field around the ponies. "Such an impressive display of power, isn't it?" he asked rhetorically.
"It's not impressive, it's disgusting!" exclaimed Celestia. "You're just using these duplicates to do the dirty work for you. You're nothing but a coward and a murderer!"
"Those fools knew how much power these five possessed. They should have seen this coming!"
"If you're so confident in your new friends, then stop using them on weaker ponies and focus on us!" said Luna.
"Finally we agree on something." Tirek turned to his friends. "Alright you five, it's time to show your other halves what true power REALLY is! Do whatever you can to defeat them, but keep them alive so I can take their magic!! I can't take it from them if they're dead!"
"Come on everypony!" said Twilight. "Let's do this!"
"HA! This is gonna be fun!" said Twivine.
And so once again, the fate of Equestria was dependent on this battle. Equestria's greatest spellbinders versus their own darker halves. It would be the ultimate test of power and skill on their part, but as they say, 'before you conquer your enemy, you must conquer yourself'. The power of friendship helped them win many battles in the past, but would it be enough to overcome their own worst enemies? Will their ultimate weapon pull through or will it be outmatched by the powers of darkness? Is this the extent of Tirek's plan, or is this just the tip of the spear?
Only the outcome of this battle will decide which path fate will choose to put each side on.
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*yawns* I'm sorry but I'v faced enemies that make these guys look like harmless ants. Well my OC has at least. Cool story though.
Oooh, I questionarre, i love it.
Surpisenly, I found it to be well done. You were able to show tha Wpike can learn something without taking anything away from the mane six. (Wich turns me off a fanfic so much.)
Ca;t relay say since I just met them, but they are interesting.
Nope
I think everything worked out pretty well.