Heir to the Throne

by Arkantos

Nightmare moon

On Island Nowhere, Nightcrawler and Twilight had just finished their runs around the island, about 50 laps each, getting a good body build.

Nightcrawler looked at Twilight and said, “Now that that’s over, Twilight, show me your shadow form.”

In the past, Twilight had to concentrate on feeling mad and angry at Celestia, but this time, when she called her shadow form, it felt like a muscle that she could command. However, her form looked like a small mountain.

As she turned back into her regular self, she looked at Nightcrawler, he said to her, “That’s a good start, but you need to understand the rest of it. Unfortunately, I don’t know any more about it.”

Twilight asked, “Do you know who might know about the mind form?”

Nightcrawler said, “Why, that would be Nightshade. I think she’s in the castle library.”

Twilight went to the castle library where she saw shelves and shelves of books that she didn’t recognize. In the middle of the library was a fireplace, and above the fireplace was another painting, but it was not of Sombra. It was a painting of an Umbrum with a black cloak and a silver coat. Her mane and tail were dark blue and in one of her hooves, she was holding a staff with a red gem in it. In her other hoof, she held a spell book. Her eyes were blood red.

Then Nightshade said from the corner, “That’s Mystic Coat, the greatest Umbrum magician of her generation.”

Twilight said, “This library is incredible. I barely recognize any of these books, and trust me, I have read a lot of books.”

Nightshade put a bookmark in the book she was reading and said, “You may have an eye for books, but that’s not why you’re here. You’re here to learn the way of the mind, and seeing as how we are inside a library, the home of knowledge, let’s start your education with Mystic Coat’s very first book, The Way of the Shadow Travel.”

---

As Sunset walked into the town hall, she saw a sea of ponies.

Sunset squeezed through the crowd until she figured she was somewhere in the middle, but when she turned to look to her right, she saw Pinkie Pie looking as energetic as ever.

Pinkie Pie, excited, asked, “Are you excited, because I am! In fact, I’ve never been so excited! Well, except for how excited I’ll be at that party I throw at your library, and I mean, who wouldn’t be, right? Right.”

As Pink said this, she was invading Sunset’s personal space. Not that there was much room to begin with. Sunset said, “Um, Pink? Personal space, please. And yes, I am excited for the celebration.”

Then Pink said, “Is this the one where I’m secretly a superhero and use my power for the good of ponykind?”

Sunset looked very confused by the question and glanced at the place where Pink was looking. “Pink?” she asked. “Um, Pinky, what are you talking about?”

Pink replied, “Oh, it’s not that story. Sorry for confusing you.”

The ponies then looked at the Mare Mayor as she began her speech about how Equestria started the Summer Sun Celebration. It was a good speech, good enough to bore all the other ponies. The Mayor ended her speech by saying, “And now, without further ado, I give you our benevolent ruler, the kind bringer of harmony, Princess Celestia.”

The bird choir sang out a harmonious song and the curtains on the balcony above the stage pulled back to reveal Princess Celestia.

As soon she started to raise the sun, however, a black and blue magical form flew straight at Celestia. Upon making contact with her, it started to wrap around her. Celestia used her magic to teleport herself and the mysterious magical being away from the celebration.

Celestia and the magical form reappeared in Cloudsdale, the City of the Sky. As soon as they reached a cloud, Celestia used her magic to separate herself from the magical form. The form then changed into Nightmare Moon with her jet black coat and blue dragon eyes. Her mane and tail were flowing blue and black and containing with a galaxy. She was wearing dark blue armor.

Nightmare Moon said to Celestia, “So, after ten thousand years, you still care about the ponies more than me or my daughter.”

Celestia replied, “You are not my sister. You are a monster, and I will put an end to your evil once and for all.”

Celestia then charged her sister, using her speed spell. As she zoomed by, the Princess of the Sun managed to hit Nightmare several times. She tried to charge her once again, but didn’t manage to hit her this time. Instead, she crashed into a blue shield.

Nightmare cried, “Did you think you could beat me with a speed spell? Or has you forgotten that I am better at magic spells?”

As Celestia got up, Nightmare hit her in several places.

Nightmare then fired a beam of magic at Celestia, which gathered all sorts of electricity made from the weather factory for lightning strikes. The lightning hit Celestia in the same several places, one after the other. As she struggled to recover, she became trapped in darkness.

Nightmare flew up to her and said, “I have a special place to put you in,” and they teleported away.

---

Back in the Ponyville town hall, everypony was concerned about Celestia. Then, suddenly, the black and blue form returned and transformed into Nightmare Moon. She said in the royal Cantorlot voice, “Hear me, ponies of Equestria, for I am your new ruler!”

Several ponies gasped, and Rainbow Dash flew up and said, “Yeah, right. Shouldn’t Celestia have defeated you?”

Nightmare glared and replied, “I beat my sister fair and square in a magical duel.” As she said this, she used her magic to show the recent battle.

Rainbow flew down and said from right next to Sunset, “We will find a way to beat you.”

Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Sunset then ran out of the town hall.

---

Twilight had read straight through seven books before Nightshade convinced her to take a break.

“I did not know Umbrums could do that.” said Twilight. “ I mean, it’s amazing what you can do.”

Nightshade responded, “Yes, Mystic Coat did a lot in her life. She created some very powerful spells, but the spell to move the Kingdom of Shadows from one side of the planet to the other has not been done in centuries. And it’s supposedly all theoretical, but I think it was done once a long time ago.”

Twilight and Nightshade are on top of one of the towers of the shadow kingdom. Too test Twilight ability of shadow form.

She turned to Twilight and said, “The reason I brought us out here is to see your shadow form.”

“Alright.” Twilight responded. “Here I go.”

She triggered her shadow form and it was as easy as the last time she did it. What was different was her shadow form itself. She looked like a shadow pony with purple eyes but the eyes didn’t drop venom inside. They looked like regular purple eyes.

Nightshade said “You have mastered the knowledge side, but there’s one thing you haven’t mastered yet, and that’s the soul side. No Umbrum has mastered it.”

Twilight returned to her alicorn form and asked, “Why?”

Nightshade turned around to look at Twilight and replied, “Because all of the Umbrums that knew the technique mysteriously disappeared and have never been heard from again. Eventually, we Umbrums came to believe that the soul side was cursed and so we never practice it.”

As Twilight thought about this, she said, “I know somepony who knows about Umbrums and meditating. Is that how to master soul? Through meditation?”

“Yes.”

“Then I know who can help. I need my mother.”

---

Sunset and her friends ran for the Golden Oak Library. She hoped the way to defeat Nightmare Moon could be found there.

But all of her hopes were shattered when she stopped to see the library burning down. Sunset fell to her knees. The others tried to make her feel better and it seemed to be working.

But then they all heard the sinister laughter of Nightmare as she appeared before them with a big grin.

“Did you think I did not know about the knowledge place here?”

Sunset looked up at her with fiery eyes.

“I mean, if you’re going to have a library here, you should not make it so easy to burn down. It was very easy. Just one fire spell was all it took.”

Nightmare Moon teleported away, laughing as she went. When she was gone, there was nothing but silence.

Then, a hooded figure walked up to them and said, “She thinks all the knowledge in town is gone, but she is wrong.”

Sunset peered at the hooded figure and asked, “What do you mean?”

The mysterious pony began to walk away. “Follow me and you will find out.”

Sunset and her friends had a brief discussion, then decided to follow him before he disappeared.

They walked for hours. Rainbow knew where they were though, for she was able to fly overhead. The place where they were was known as Gesley Gorge. All of a sudden, the stranger’s front hoof raised, letting the six mares know to stop.

He went to a nearby boulder that was as big as a pony. He hit it several times, and each time he hit it, the rock made a different humming noise. When he was done, a piece of the cliff disappeared, revealing a secret library inside a cave.

Sunset’s hopes began to rise and she started to go through books, one after another. The others got busy going through the books too.

The stranger then asked Applejack to follow him deeper into the cave, and she went with him.

As they walked, Applejack said, “I don’t trust you. In fact, I don’t know your name, so unless you tell it to me now, I will not humor you any further.”

As she started to walk back, the hooded pony said, “It’s Hard Stone, if you must know. And I do have a reason for bringing you here.”

He put his hoof on the side of the cavern and several crystals lit up to reveal a set of damaged armor with a double-sided ax.

As Applejack approached it, Hard Stone said, “This was the armor of War Path, but now it’s just scrap metal.”

But Applejack was barely listening to him. She was listening to the voice coming from the damaged armor, the voice that was trying to get Applejack to wear it. She began to approach the armor, not even realizing what she was doing. The armor started to glow orange.

“What in tarnation!?” Applejack exclaimed, for she suddenly found herself floating in the air. The armor magically blew up, and the pieces with magical runes flew onto Applejack and became different, according to their wearer.

The chest piece now had an apple on it. The armor was now silver with orange and red colors on it. There was no helmet. As for the ax, instead of a double-sided ax, it split into two one-sided axes.

As Applejack was floating in the air, inside her mind she could see Apple Acres barn house where she and her family lived.

In her mind, she walked to the barn house. She saw Apple Bloom’s club tree house where her little sister and her friend would have meetings about anything and everything. The one meeting topic she could guess at was about ways they could get their cutie marks.

Applejack walked closer to the barn house where she saw a mysterious pony in the mighty helm armor, looking as it used to look. The pony wearing the armor had a coat that was dark blue. He removed his helmet, and as he walked over to her, and she saw that his mane and tail appeared orange in color.

Actually, she thought his mane and tail looked gray, as if somepony had tried to burn it. The pony had scars all over his body, like he was a war hero. His eyes were yellow. He stopped in front of Applejack.

“So, you’re the next in line to inherit the armor,” said the scarred and armored pony.

“I think so. I’m really confused though. Who are you and where am I?”

“My name is War Path I am the armor’s guardian. As for where we are, I guess we are inside your mind.”

“Well, I guess that makes sense. I mean my strongest memories are of Sweet Apple Acres. It hurts me to leave, and when I saw a sign that led me home, I knew there was no other place I wanted to go. So in some ways, it makes sense.”

Applejack looked at the barn house where she saw the almost translucent versions of Big Mac and Granny Smith appear and quickly disappear.

“I'm sorry, you were saying your name is War Path.”

Instead of answering, the pony in question said again, “You have been chosen by the armor, and as the guardian of the armor, I will answer any questions you have about it.”

Applejack asked, “Will the armor always be activated or is there an on and off switch?”

“Yes, you just have to concentrate and the armor will disappear, but when you’re in danger, the armor will activate. You will learn to work with it and in time, you’ll discover unique powers about the armor.”

Applejack’s consciousness was pulled back to the here and now.

The glowing runes on the armor and the axes started to fade away, and Applejack stopped floating and crashed to the ground.

Then she remembered what she needed to do. As she concentrated, the armor started to glow bright orange. Once the color faded away, Applejack looked at herself and saw she was wearing an amulet with red apple jam on it.

She turned around and saw a shocked Hard Stone. She turned away from him and walked back to her friends.

Hard Stone said to himself with a smirk, “I think we have found are Champion.”

---

Twilight had started to pack her saddlebags for the long journey back. She brought all the things one needs to survive a long walk, including books, camping gear, books, food, and books.

The door to her room opened and Mayor Tex came in. For a while, no pony said anything, but then Twilight spoke.

“I assume you know I'm leaving.” She turned around and looked at Tex, who had a look of concern when she replied.

“I just got word about it, and I can’t lose another heir, so I brought you this.” She gave Twilight a black and silver tiara with three magic crystals.

“I know you’re not queen of the Umbrums yet, but there’s no harm in you wearing this. If you are wondering what magic is in the crystals, know that it will help you with your Umbrum form, making it more powerful. But it’s useless without mastering all three sides of the Umbrum form.”

Twilight said, “Okay.” Then, as she walked out, Twilight said, “You know, the first time I slept here, I felt like I was being watched from far away. That’s why I’m leaving. I believe somepony is taking the Umbrums that have mastered the third Umbrum quality. I’ll tell you that I am going to the last place that felt like home, where it all started. The castle of the two sisters.”

Then Twilight levitated the tiara into her saddlebag and said, “I will only wear it when I have the right, and that means mastering soul.”

She placed her hoof on Tex’s shoulder. “Lead our people well in my absence.” Then she left the castle.

Twilight made her way to the gate of the shadow kingdom, and as she walked, the rune on the side lit up in dark green, purple, and black.

Once on the other side, the doors glowing runes faded away and Twilight was greeted by several Umbrums, Nightcrawler, and his shadow guard.

Nightcrawler said to Twilight, “I and my Umbrums will escort you back to Equestria’s borders. From there I assume you know where to go next?”

Twilight replied, “Yes.” And with that, she and the Umbrum party made their way to the border.