Terror in Equestria 8: A New Threat

by StormLuna

Information Seeking

Unlike most mornings when Celestia and Twilight ate breakfast at a casual pace and talked among themselves, Twilight devoured her meal quickly and headed out to the base before Celestia was even half done eating hers. When she arrived at the base she saw the soldiers leisurely talking and doing pretty much nothing given that Equestria had been at peace for ages. She yelled, "ATTENTION!"

Almost immediately the troops stood at attention waiting for her to begin speaking. Once she noticed that they were all focused on her she began, "Alright troops, as you all know, it was one thousand years ago that Neigh Zealand was transformed into a nuclear wasteland by Colgate and her uranium atom splitting spell. Well I have some good news."

Her top dark Alicorn general, General Black Night asked, "What is this good news?"

Twilight replied, "The radiation that had made Neigh Zealand uninhabitable for so long has finally dissipated so that means that we can get it populated again."

Black Night asked, "Does that also mean that some of us are due for promotions to be stewards?"

Twilight replied, "Yes, you and General Green Death need to get ready. I will likely send you along with some farmers down there within a month."

One of her lower officers asked, "If you send them down there, what does that mean for us?"

Twilight replied, "It means you will get promoted up to the next rank and a couple of regular soldiers will become lieutenants."

This caused not only her other officers to cheer, it also caused her regular soldiers to cheer knowing that maybe they could become officers. The cheering did not exactly sit well with Twilight but unlike she would have in the past, she didn't blow up. Instead she simply gave them a glare until the cheering stopped.

After a minute of cheering Green Death asked, "Is there anything else you wish to discuss your Majesty?"

Twilight replied, "No general, that is all." She cast her gaze out at the whole army and yelled, "Dismissed!"

Twilight felt that things went rather smoothly and decided that soon she would need to travel across Equestria to find it's finest farmers. She wasn't sure if the rumors were true or not but she had heard rumors about a family that lives in the Great Smokey Mountains that can grow food like it is nothing. She thought to herself, "Hmmm....perhaps I should force them to relocate!"

Once her meeting with the soldiers was over she decided to head down into the archives to do that studying that she had been planning on. Once she arrived back in the tower she would be greeted by Celestia right at the door. She embraced Twilight and asked, "Twily, how did things go over at the base."

Twilight was in a hurry and when she was in a hurry, she was not in the mood for anything that would slow her down, even from her wife. She shoved her back and yelled, "Not now Celestia, I have studying to do."

Celestia protested, "But Twily, it isn't even 1000 yet! You still have plenty of time to study."

Despite Celestia being her wife, this was really beginning to wear Twilight thin. She snapped, "Look, your Dark Goddess must find something out. You know a voice has been nagging her telling her to study something."

Twilight shoved her further back and stormed off towards the archives. This left Celestia in a state of shock. Twilight had not spoke like that with her in a millennium. She thought to herself, "Oh please Mother LaurFa, don't let the old Twilight return."

---

Once Twilight got down into the archives, she decided she would lock herself in to distance herself from what she thought of as a distraction. As she locked the door behind her she grunted, "Ugh, this is one of those moments when I wish I would have just sent her off with her parents to Alicorn Island."

She headed into the Starswirl wing and also locked the door behind her. Finally, she felt like she could study in peace without having somepony annoying her. Twilight almost felt free in there, almost. She took a deep breath and asked, "What was I thinking when I decided to marry her? Why didn't I just keep her as a lover? Why did I bound myself to her?" She then began to laugh, "What are you talking about Twilight? You rule this whole planet, you could just dissolve the marriage and throw her out!"

Twilight soon stopped with the questioning about her past decisions and then headed straight towards the book she was looking for. It was one of the earliest ones in the old Faustica collection, one that predated Celestia and Luna's arrival in Equestria. On the fourth page of the book she read a passage by LaurFa,

"When I first discovered this new land, the land of Equestria, I believed it to be free of other intelligent life forms but I was mistaken. Deep in the forest known as Everfree, under the ground, live a powerful sect of ponies, ponies who simply wish to be left alone so alone ponykind shall leave them as long as peace exists between us and them."

When Twilight finished reading this she angrily yelled, "What? There are ponies living in Equestria that I don't know about? Ponies that are not paying tribute?" She slammed her hoof into the floor and screamed, "Well I'm going to fix that! If they think they can live in complete isolation and not pay me what they owe me, they've got another thing coming!"

Despite finding the information that the nagging voice had guided her to, she wanted to remain in the archives longer so that she could think about what part of the forest those ponies may live in and because she liked feeling free, free from Celestia.

She sat deep in thought thinking about where they may live but then something hit her, she remembered the old legends of a cave in the deepest, darkest part of the forest that nopony had ever dared think of venturing to. She said to herself, "That's it! That has to be where they live!"

After realizing this, she headed back to the main part of the archives where she found the most detailed geography book she had, one which she had placed in the archives just last month. She began flipping through the pages until she found a detailed map of the Everfree Forest and discovered that there was a spot in the eastern portion of the forest, where not only was the forest the densest, but also there were hills. She got a smile on her face and laughed, "Well, it looks like me and some of the soldiers have a little trip to make!"

Almost immediately Twilight had put her plans for Neigh Zealand on the back burner as she was planning on who all she would take with her to punish these ponies for thinking they could get away with living in Equestria without her knowledge until she heard a knock and a yell, "Twily, are you ok! I'm worried because you've been down here for a long time."

Twilight angrily screamed, "I'm fine Celestia, just leave me the hell alone!"

Twilight's yell scared Celestia and she quickly headed back upstairs. Twilight was sitting there in the archives feeling frustrated and angry, not just because of those ponies, but because of Celestia as well. After a thousand years of being happy with her, she suddenly saw her as a burden that must be purged from her life. She sat their and grunted to herself, "When I get back upstairs, SHE'S GONE! The Dark Goddess Twilight Sparkle can not have her holding her down anymore! The Dark Goddess Twilight Sparkle will be truly free once again!"

Twilight then began to think about where Celestia would go. At first she was thinking about simply sending her to Alicorn Island to live with her parents but then thought of a better place. She laughed to herself, "There's always the void! She can't bug the Dark Goddess Twilight Sparkle from there!"

Author's Note:

Dark Alicorn general --- General Black Night

Changeling general -- General Green Death

Comments

[Night Mare Moon]

Twilight replied, "Yes, you and *General Green Death need to get ready. I will likely send you along with some farmers down there within a month."

why is there a star before general?