Chapter II
Tirek slammed his fist against the castle gates. The reinforced wood buckled, but held. He reached a hand out, seizing each tiny piece in his telekinesis, and ripped them apart. Beside him, Chrysalis hurled a beam of sickly green lightning. The door imploded inward in a whirlwind of splinters.
Eight Royal Guards—two unicorns, four pegasi, and two earth ponies—peered through the sawdust. “Charge!” the cream-colored earth pony stallion shouted. He whirled his spear down and barreled towards Chrysalis.
Chrysalis dropped to the ground, kicked his spear out of his hooves, and swept his legs out from under him. Tirek opened his mouth in a yawning grin, and felt a delicious current of magic flow into his body.
The two unicorn Royal Guards nodded to each other, and began to cast a pair of spells. Cozy flew in front of Tirek, and called out, “Wait! You don’t understand! Hold your fire!”
The unicorns hesitated, their magic slackening, and Chrysalis fired a laser of her own at them. They slammed against the pillar and fell to the floor with a shared groan.
As the four pegasi and other earth pony drew their own spears, Cozy whispered something in Chrysalis’s ear. Chrysalis darted to the wall, grabbed one of the elegant curtains, and whirled it around the guards. Cozy darted in, batting her eyes, and Tirek licked his lips.
In a few moments, he had devoured all the remaining magic. Chrysalis grumbled, “I wish we had enough time to drain some love, but we are on a bit of a schedule now.”
“Golly, this is really fun!” Cozy giggled. “Let’s go!”
Dappled softly with colors from the stained glass of throne room, the six Bearers and Spike conversed with Celestia and Luna.
“While Twilight went to contact you, I tried to calm my little ponies,” Celestia explained with a hint of sadness. “But it seems many of them are completely convinced that myself and Luna have said horrible things we never did.”
“Hmmm,” Rarity murmured. “Perhaps somepony is framing you?”
“Not everything is a Shadow Spade book,” Rainbow Dash chuckled lightheartedly. “Sometimes dumb rumors are just that.”
“Even so, the rumors would need an origin,” Twilight pointed out. “I might have seen a flash of green light earlier. Could Queen Chrysalis be behind this?”
“It’s a possibility,” Luna said. She stroked her chin with a hoof. “It doesn’t really seem like her style, though.”
“Maybe some other changelings turned evil again?” Spike asked. “Or Windigos influencing us?”
“Well, it hasn’t gotten any colder,” Applejack pointed out. “Personally, I reckon it’s some new threat we’ve never seen before.”
Cozy reclined into Tirek’s lower back. From this comfortable vantage point, she didn’t have to worry about the hassles of direct combat. She could just keep an eye out for any sneak attacks from behind him. It sure is nice to have a big, powerful protector. Tirek’s a lot harder to manipulate than I’d like, but he’s still a pretty good minion.
As Chrysalis buzzed into skirmish after skirmish, Tirek simply devoured more and more magic. Cozy sighed in contentment. A big guardian, a castle of easy prey, and a throne ripe for the taking. This sure is the life!
A sharp hiss and a subsequent flurry of the sounds of hard impact jerked her back into reality. Chrysalis regarded Cozy with severe irritation. “One of the guards got away. If the Princesses didn’t already know we’re here, they will now.”
“Ehhh, that’s okay,” Cozy shrugged. “Fear might make them reckless. Even if it doesn’t, we can act all smug. Now snuggle in, we want the element of surprise.”
“I think we should all go out as a group, address all the issues, and clear up things directly,” Twilight offered. “Word should spread quickly that we’re holding a question-and-answer event, and hopefully ponies will stop assuming the worst.”
“Oh, now that’s a lovely idea, darling!” Rarity said. “Simple but effective.”
“This sounds like a good plan,” Luna agreed. “Are we all in agreement, then?”
“No objections here,” Rainbow said as she rolled her eyes teasingly.
“But how would we prevent it from coming across as insincere?” Celestia asked. She pursed her lips. “What do you suggest, Pinkie Pie?”
Pinkie scrunched up her face. “Hmmmmm, weeeeeeeell…”
Chrysalis rounded another marble corner, and her breath caught. The massive doors of the throne room loomed just ahead. Two guards stood at relaxed attention.
“Tirek, can you take them alone?” she asked her centaur companion from the shadows.
He nodded. Cozy urgently stage-whispered, “C’mon, Chrysalis, you should hide on his body as a bug! I’ll wait back here. We can make them think it’s just Tirek!
She’s smart, I’ll give her that, Chrysalis grumbled inwardly. She climbed onto Tirek’s back and surrounded herself in a whirlwind of magic. Her body deformed and shrunk, another set of legs sprouting, and in only a few seconds she was a flea. Time to see how she fares in combat.
Tirek’s massive body thundered under her, and she settled in comfortably. It was time to watch the fireworks through her new compound eyes.
As Cozy flapped to hide in the curtains, Tirek lumbered into view of the guards. “Tirek! Warn the Princesses!” one of the unicorns told the other. Chrysalis plastered a smile on her mandibles. Looks like Cozy’s plan is working.
“Alright, I think that covers everything,” Twilight said approvingly. “Celestia?”
“I agree,” her mentor replied. “Let’s go see—”
Celestia was cut off by a panting guard staggering into the throne room. front of the corridor. “Tirek… returned… he’s coming…” she gasped, before fainting.
Dash narrowed her eyes. “Guess we have to lay down another friendship laser on another villain again, huh girls?”
“If I’d known we would be fighting, I would have delayed that hooficure until tomorrow,” Rarity complained. “But since we’re here—let’s! Get! Dangerous!”
“I’ll just… be over here,” Spike said, running to a corner beside the throne. “But I’m cheering for you guys!”
Celestia and Luna stood up and stepped down from their thrones. “Just like old times, eh sister?” the Princess of the Night asked with a smile.
“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Celestia replied.
A rhythmic thumping on the massive doors of the throne room put an end to their discussion. The Mane 6 formed up into battle positions, with Celestia and Luna charging their horns a few feet behind.
Then the time for waiting was done. Tirek kicked the doors down. “Well, isn’t this fitting? All my enemies in one place.”
“Ya really think ya can take us all by yerself?” Applejack asked with a smug smile.
“To be honest, no, I don’t,” Tirek admitted. “But I’m not by myself!”
A tiny speck on Tirek’s side grew outward, expanding into the now deposed Queen Chrysalis. “You ponies aren’t the only ones who can work together,” she taunted.
“Are you two behind the mischief that’s ruined our vacation?” Rarity demanded.
“We can’t claim all the credit,” Tirek replied in a gravelly voice.
“I helped too!” a young female voice interjected, and Cozy fluttered up from behind Tirek. “And just so you know, it seems like ponies are demanding elected rulers now. I wonder how that could have happened…” she said innocently.
“Together, we can take you!” Chrysalis declared.
Alright, that’s enough, Rarity knew. She felt the surge of harmony magic flowing from her companions. A rainbow glow moved to engulf her, shining with the brilliance of the noonday sun.
And a ray of orange and green lightning crashed into their shield.
It held, but Rarity felt a pounding headache smash into her fragile thoughts. These villains had learned how to work together.
But all was not lost. Celestia and Luna’s beams joined in with the Elements’, and they began to push back towards the assembled villains.
“You big meanies!” Fluttershy cried. “Look at all these poor geese you’re upsetting!”
“You ruined our beach day!” Rarity added.
Chrysalis and Tirek were sweating hard. It was clear they were struggling to keep their beam up. Cozy whispered something to them, and they grinned.
They broke their laser off, dived out of the way of the friendship blast, and Chrysalis quickly fired off another beam of magic at Spike.
Twilight jumped to interpose, raising a shield to blunt the blow. The magic crackled around her shield, and it absorbed the worst of the spell, but she was still knocked to the ground. Tirek gripped her with his telekinesis and hurled her back towards her friends. Rainbow only just caught her.
“It seems we’re about evenly matched,” Cozy said with an innocent smile. “You’re more powerful than us, but we know who you care about, and as long as you’re protecting them, you can’t beat us. This seems like a stalemate to me.”
Before Rarity could fire off a scathing reply, the air split. A bird claw tore through the fabric of spacetime, and a very angry entity stepped through. Discord, the Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony, had arrived. And he did not look to be in a good mood.
Cozy felt terror creep into her. What if Grogar isn’t able to stop Discord? What if he just lets the draconequus deal with us to avoid potential rivals? Has Grogar already foreseen our betrayal of him?
Beside her, Tirek opened his mouth wide. A ruddy orange glow ignited around Tirek as he tried to drain Discord’s power. Discord regarded the trio disdainfully and snapped his talons. With a flare of energy, the three of them were pinned under huge chocolate cakes. Tirek and Chrysalis had magic-suppressing rings poof onto them as well.
Discord stared at Tirek as if he were something he’d stepped in. “Really? You think that trick would work on me? You were only successful with it last time when you already had nearly half the magic of Equestria.” He turned to the other two. “Now, how shall I deal with you? Back to Tartarus? Trapped in Ogres and Oubliettes?” He grinned. “Wait, I know. There’s a lovely dimension I can put you in. Waiters always ready, white sand beaches, you’ll love it! Sure, it’s a little arid, but no place is perfect!”
He reached out to claw open reality under them, Cozy cowered under his terrible, grinning gaze.
Fluttershy reached out a hoof to stop him. “Ummm… Discord… that does seem a little harsh. Maybe just put them back in Tartarus?”
“I agree,” Celestia stated. “Discord, please restrain yourself. Return them to Tartarus.”
Cozy couldn’t believe this. Discord has us completely helpless, Grogar is nowhere to be found, and the very enemies we came here to destroy in the first place are now intervening on our behalf to save us! This is so horribly humiliating!
“Ugh, fine, be predictably merciful,” Discord muttered. “Just for the record, when they escape, I get to say ‘I told you so.’“
“That isn’t an eventuality you’ll need to worry about, Discord,” a low, growling voice uttered.
Discord whirled to face him. “You!?”
Grogar nodded once. “Me.”
His blue coat was the stuff of nightmares. A ring of small bells hung around his neck. His face was wizened and weathered by countless ages. He gazed across the assorted creatures with contempt. As his eyes settled on Discord, his lip was curled in undisguised disgust. Six blackened jewels floated around him slowly. Twilight didn’t recognize them at all, but they gave her a horrible feeling.
Gasps rang out from among the ponies. “Grogar’s real?” Spike asked in disbelief.
“Ah thought he was just a story!” Applejack added.
“Real just means he’s real enough for us to take him down!” Rainbow said confidently.
“We can do this,” Twilight declared. “Now, as one—together!”
The gathered Elements of Harmony fired off a massive ray of pure prismatic light at the ram lord. But as it crashed into him, no adverse effect seemed to take place—in fact, he looked as if he’d just been through a refreshing spring rain.
Discord snapped his claws, turning the floor around Grogar to whipped cream. Grogar snorted, and created a barrier of yellow light under him to support himself. “Is that the best you can do, spirit of pranks and minor annoyances?” He shot a laser towards Discord, which was transmuted to confetti with but another snap.
“Are you worthy of my best?” Discord shot back, and snapped his fingers once more. Reality itself twisted into a knot where Grogar stood, and a portal to the Realm of Chaos yawned wide. A moment later, it sucked Grogar in.
Fluttershy cheered. “Way to go Discord! I knew you could do it!”
“Well, that’s that,” Discord summarized. “Now, I’ll put these three in Tartarus, and then we can all head to the bea—”
A yellow portal opened not three feet from Fluttershy, and Grogar stepped back in. He growled, “I grow tired of your games, Discord. And of you.” His scarred jewels blazed with dark light as he fired a beam of jaundiced energy right towards Discord. Discord snapped his claws yet again…
And this time, nothing happened.
The beam collided right into him, and he gasped in shock. He struggled and strained against the energy beam, but to no avail. He snapped his claws once, twice, three times, but if they had any effect Twilight couldn’t see it. As the energy rippled through his composite body, he faded away into nothingness. Discord was gone in less than five seconds.
Fluttershy screamed. “DISCORD!” Tears flowed freely down her eyes as she looked at the spot he’d just stood. “Come back! This isn’t funny! Please be faking… please be faking…”
Pinkie looked horrified, her jaw hanging nearly to the floor. “You just… you just…”
Twilight looked at Grogar in fear. “What… what are you?”
“This world’s new master,” Grogar said, his face split in a dark smile.
Cozy cackled. “Did you really think you could take us even with Discord? We wouldn’t have come here if we didn’t have a plan to deal with him. And Grogar here is that plan!”
Celestia and Luna shared a solemn glance, and then fired down at Grogar with all the power of the Sun and Moon united. But once again, the magic had no effect. The bells hung around his neck trembled, and the spells seemed to vanish into them.
“I believe you would like to attend to these gnats in my throne room?” Grogar asked his three followers. With a flash of his yellow magic, the orbs around his neck detached and flew towards Chrysalis and Tirek. The two monsters grabbed the orbs as if they were candy. Chrysalis and Tirek surged with power. Tirek shrugged, and the cake trapping him was reduced to dust. With another gesture, Chrysalis’s and Cozy’s cakes were likewise vaporized.
Chrysalis smiled at her foes, and combined her spell with Tirek’s energy beam. They unleashed a torrent of raw magic together that slammed into the ponies’ shields. Cozy hovered between them, grinning. Heeheehee, this is so fun! They thought they’d beaten me, and now I get to see them all be disintegrated just after they thought they’d enjoyed the soaring heights of victory! She playfully batted her eyes at Spike, who was crouching behind the magical shield.
Below her, Grogar was chanting an immensely complex spell. It didn’t seem to be doing anything, but she knew that sometimes magic was subtle in its effects. She could always ask Chrysalis and Tirek what he was doing later.
Those two allies of hers focused harder, their magic tying together to amplify its own resonance. The orange-green beam slammed into their foes’ shields, increasing in power every second. Cozy let out a shout of delight. “YES!”
Revenge is a dish best served cold. Just like peanut butter chocolate ice cream!
Behind the shield, Twilight felt beads of sweat running down her face. She’d only just gotten back into position in time to repel the initial blast. She wasn’t an expert on defensive magic the way her brother was, but she knew enough to be certain of one fact:
This shield is going to break soon. 60 seconds at the most, and maybe less.
In light of this knowledge, she had a difficult choice to make. Should I teleport myself and my friends away to safety, and return when we’re stronger—perhaps with reinforcements such as Starlight and the Pillars? Or should I make a risky, even crazy move here and now, but possibly lose any chance for victory later?
She saw the fear on her friends’ faces, the utter terror in little Spike’s eyes, and the searing determination of Celestia and Luna in front of them.
She thought though the possible outcomes. At best, if I use my most powerful offensive magicks and the most horrible applications, I can disable Chrysalis, Cozy, and Tirek. But that still leaves Grogar free… and given what he’s done to Discord, is it even possible for me to hurt him at all?
Celestia seemed to read her mind. “Teleport away,” she said to Twilight. “We’ll hold them off as long as we can.”
“You have to come with us!” Twilight insisted. “I need you!”
Celestia replied, sadness and pride tingeing her voice in equal measure, “You have your friends. They’re all you need to prevail. Including us in the teleportation spell might throw the whole thing off—or worse, drag their beam with us to crush us anyway. No more fighting—go! Now!”
Tears welling in her eyes, Twilight turned to her friends, and cast her spell.
The world spun around her, but she had just enough time to see Celestia and Luna’s shield shatter and the beam fly on through.
Tirek let all the magic flow through him, flying towards his targets. Chrysalis beside him matched his every casting, their spells uniting in a bolt far more powerful than either could achieve alone. He felt giddy. This was the power he’d missed for so long!
The princesses’ shield was breaking. Both of them were clearly running out of power. He smiled. Oh, I’ve waited too long for something like this!
Cozy rested atop his shoulder. She looked horrified and pointed just past the princesses. “Discord’s back!”
Luna turned to greet her ally… but there was no one there. Cozy really is a master of manipulation, Tirek thought approvingly.
This was the moment he’d been waiting for. With the distraction and subsequent disappointment, Luna’s magic wavered. Tirek let out everything he had, and felt Chrysalis do the same beside him.
The blast tore through the palace’s spire, and when the dust was clear, no sign of the princesses was to be found.
“We did it. We did it!” Chrysalis cheered.
“We did,” Grogar agreed, “but Twilight Sparkle and her friends managed to escape. You will hunt them down and destroy them.”
“What about you?” Tirek asked.
Grogar gave a smile that chilled even Tirek to the bone. “I will do some remodeling.”
Twilight hit her castle floor hard, and didn’t get up. Pinkie hurried to beside her. “Are you okay, Twilight?”
Twilight looked up at her friend. “No. I’m not,” she whispered, her voice breaking. “We ran away. Celestia and Luna… I don’t know what happened to them. I don’t know if they’re okay. I don’t know if Discord is okay. I don’t know if Canterlot is okay!” She buried her face in her wings. “I just want to hide in my room forever and never come out. I want to wake up and find out this was all a nightmare, and everything is fine.” She looked up at Pinkie, the tears now streaming down her face. “But… it’s not.”
Spike stroked Twilight’s back. “We always find a way to win, Twilight. Always.”
“But our enemies have never worked together before,” Twilight protested. “They… they all cooperated. Perfectly.” She let out a pained little laugh. “Cozy applied our own lessons in that fight!”
“Ya know what you need, sugarcube?” Applejack asked. When Twilight shook her head, Applejack gave her a comforting smile. “A big group hug.” She embraced Twilight. Spike followed suit, then Pinkie, then Fluttershy and Dash and Rarity.
“Twilight, we’ve beaten every bad guy we’ve ever fought,” Rainbow encouraged. “And we’ve already taken down three of these four.” She gave a cocky but kind smile. “They’re gonna wished they’d stayed home!”
“I’m going to make sure of that,” Fluttershy added, a cold rage in her voice. “Nopony does that to Discord and gets away with it. Nopony.”
“I’ve had quite enough of losing,” Rarity agreed. She brushed herself clean of dirt. “Now, let’s gather our allies, and take back Canterlot Castle!”
“That… might be hard,” Pinkie said, her voice suddenly as sad as Twilight’s had been.
“Well of course it’ll be hard, dear, but that’s why we’ll get as many allies as we can!”
“Impossible kind of hard,” Pinkie clarified. She pointed out the window.
Canterlot Castle was destroyed.
As Twilight looked out the window in shock, the sound of hooves clip-clopping on the crystal floor brushed against her unhearing ears. Starlight Glimmer ran into the room with the Cutie Map, Sunburst at her heels. “I saw what happened to Canterlot Castle,” Glimmer said, the words rushing over each other. “Are you all alright?”
“Yeah,” Spike said. “But Tirek, Chrysalis, and Cozy are back, with Grogar as their leader. And… Discord isn’t.” He gestured to a weeping Fluttershy. “We aren’t sure about Celestia and Luna, but… well, the bad guys are nasty.” He averted his eyes.
“What can I do?” Sunburst asked. “I’m no warrior.”
“No,” Twilight said, her tear-stroked face now hardened with determination, “but you know just about every spell ever written. You might be able to advise us on something we’ve missed. And Starlight here is my equal in magic. Her aid will be invaluable.”
Starlight nodded. “Okay. Take down four of the most powerful villains Equestria has ever faced all working together, okay… no pressure, haha! It’ll be fiiiiiine!”
“It won’t be easy,” Rainbow agreed, “but we’ll win. We’ll win because losing is something we can’t accept.”
Twilight nodded. “Spike, take a letter,” she told him.
Shining Armor relaxed in the royal hot tub with Cadance. The warm water was so soothing and sweet. But his tranquility was ruptured as one of his guards ran inside. “Pardon the interruption, your highness, but I have received a, ah, disturbing report from Princess Twilight. Should I read it aloud?”
“Go ahead,” Cadance said.
Dearest Shining and Cadance,
Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow have returned, and they’re being led by Grogar. Canterlot Castle has been destroyed. Celestia and Luna are missing. Discord was… dispelled, or something. We fear the worst.
Please come to Ponyville as soon as possible. And be on guard—the villains are working together now. They’re a much more effective force than we’ve had to fight before.
Your LSBFF,
Twilight
Cadance and Shining looked to each other, and jumped out of the hot tubs. “Take Flurry and hide her somewhere safe,” Shining ordered the guard. He levitated a towel onto himself. “Ready to fight, honey?”
“I still owe Chrysalis some payback for impersonating me,” she answered with a smile. “Let’s show her what we can do.”
“So let me get this straight,” Cozy began. “We just defeated three of the most powerful beings in Equestria and took over Canterlot, and now instead of consolidating our rule and establishing a new empire, all of us but you are going to track down some of our remaining enemies?”
“Yes,” Grogar confirmed.
“It’d be too easy for them to rise up and try to overthrow us,” Cozy argued. She knew from personal experience how ponies were pudding in the hands of a skilled manipulator. “We should be making our rule stable.”
“That won’t be necessary,” Grogar said coldly, “because I have no intent to rule Equestria in its current form.”
“You don’t?” Chrysalis asked skeptically. “Why did we invade here, then?”
“Because here was the best place to gather our foes and remove them all with one stroke. More importantly, it’s the perfect place to begin setting up the kind of empire I do want to rule: an empire of monsters, where my sons and daughters take what they please and destroy the rest!”
“What about us, then?” Chrysalis asked. “I intend to have the entire changeling hive bowing to me, and a healthy surplus of cocooned ponies to feed upon.”
“You may each take a section of the world after you deal with Twilight Sparkle and her friends!” Grogar glared at Chrysalis, irritation on his face more frightening than rage on the changeling’s. “It is of the utmost importance that they are immediately destroyed, or they will find a way to stop us!”
“Now, leave me,” Grogar ordered. “I must begin a very delicate procedure. Even with my talents at magic, this will require absolute concentration.”
Cozy nodded to her two compatriots, and together the three of them exited what was left of the throne room. She snuck a glance over her shoulder, and spied Grogar carving sigils on the floor.
What’s he up to now? she wondered.
As soon as they were out of earshot of Grogar, Cozy motioned for the two beside her to stop and talk. With Canterlot almost completely deserted, no one would overhear them even in the streets.
“Is it time yet?” Chrysalis demanded. “I don’t want to have to take one more order from that self-important goat.”
“What use would defeating Grogar be if the ponies came back and imprisoned us again right away?” Tirek asked. “I say we deal with them first, and then Grogar.”
“I agree with Tirek,” Cozy said with a nod. “Twilight and her friends already expect us to fight them. Grogar might not. We should take care of our blinded enemies last.”
Chrysalis put a chitinous hoof to her face. “Urgh, fine. I’ll take orders from him… for a little longer.”
Twilight paced back and forth, her brow furrowed. “Elements of Harmony… destroyed by Sombra. Failsafe spell… I don’t have enough raw power to use it against Grogar. Rainbow Power… that relies on the Tree of Harmony, which was very nearly destroyed and is most likely too weak. Time travel spell… we’d need Starswirl’s notes for that… argh.” She turned to her loyal assistant. “Spike, take another letter. Send it to Celestia.” She dictated,
Celestia,
Are you there? Please tell me you’re okay.
Twilight
Rainbow gave Twilight a reassuring pat on the back. “She’s probably okay. The princess has been through a lot. She’s tough.” The pegasus narrowed her eyes to slits. “And if she isn’t… I won’t let them get away with it.”
Twilight gave Rainbow a sincere smile. Rainbow always knows how to help. She’s such a great friend to have fighting by my side.
“Back to the earlier topic…” Starlight began. Her voice betrayed a determined effort to keep the conversation on-topic. “We would still need Starswirl’s chassis of the spell to make progress on a time travel.”
Sunburst’s eyes flashed. “But Starswirl reappeared with the other pillars. Do you think we could ask him for help on the spell directly?”
Starlight answered, “Definitely. But we need to find him first, and we’d also need the Cutie Map for that spell… and the villains will be expecting us to be here.” She looked around the room. “Actually, it might be best for us to leave as soon as possible.”
Pinkie grinned her lovably maniacal grin. “Looks like you’re getting your vacation after all, Rarity! Who’s ready for a save-the-world road trip?”
“Well, I suppose the day is still young,” Rarity replied with a gentle smile. “Let’s go on an adventure!”
“They’re probably searching for us already,” Fluttershy said. “Oh, just think of all the poor critters their search must be disturbing! It’s just awful.”
“Where to?” Applejack asked, doing her best to keep everypony focused. “We’ve got a lot of friends all across Equestria.”
“If I were a noble rogue seeking out the beautiful Rarity and her friends, where would I go?” Rarity wondered aloud.
“Well, first off, Ponyville,” Dash mused. “But the bad guys are going to come right here too, so…”
“The Castle of the Two Sisters!” Spike exclaimed. “Where you all found the Elements of Harmony!”
Everypony turned to look at the dragon. “That makes a lot of sense,” Twilight agreed. “It is the site of our first real adventure.”
“The Pillars we might find at Ponehenge,” Starlight added. “And we have allies in the Crystal Empire, Yakyakistan, the Badlands, the Dragonlands, Mount Aris… really, we have a lot of other nations to call our friends.”
“Assuming they haven’t already fallen,” Sunburst murmured fearfully.
“Maybe we should split up,” Pinkie offered. “That’s a lot of places to visit, and if we don’t split up we can only visit one at a time.”
“The six of you need to stay together,” Starlight insisted. “You’re the best hope Equestria has. Sunburst and I can visit our allies.”
“Spike, you’re with us,” Twilight declared. When Spike looked at her, a little confused, she added, “I’m counting on you, little brother.”
“What should we pack?” Rarity asked quickly. “I haven’t had my mane coiffed!”
“Whatever you think you’ll need,” Dash answered. “I’m not taking anything—I don’t want to be slowed down at all. Speed will win this.”
“Strength won’t save us here,” Twilight agreed. “We’ll need to be swift and stealthy.” She turned towards Starlight. “Just in case… you know… can I have a hug?”
“Of course,” Starlight said, and embraced Twilight. In a moment, the other five Elements had joined the hug, and Spike, and Sunburst.
“I’m so proud of you, S-Starlight,” Twilight whispered, her voice cracking. “You’re the best student a teacher could ask for.”
Starlight wiped her eyes. “And you’re the best teacher a student could ask for.” She forced a smile. “Hey… make sure you’re okay, alright? It’d be really cliché for me to lose you after that kind of speech.”
Twilight giggled. “I promise I’ll do my best. Be safe.”
But the time for words was over. In a flash of pink light, Starlight and Sunburst vanished. With the torrent of emotions swirling around, no one noticed that Spike hadn’t burped up a letter in reply.
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Now that’s a great idea! Why didn’t the writers thought that up? Oh wait. They lost their creativity to sugarcoating.
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I based Grogar's intentions off of earlier episodes of Season 9, as well as his prior mention in A Flurry of Emotions. Grogar has no desire to rule over ponies. He wants to restore things to how they were before Gusty banished him
Sombra’s looking schmexy on that cover image.
I’m guessing time travel nonsense.
Great chapter. Looking forward to see what happens next.
You sure made Grogar seem overwelmingly powerfull and everyone was neetly in-character. Better then the actual finale so far.
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Glad you like him!
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Teleportation, actually. Was that unclear? I can revise it.
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Next chapter will be up sometime tomorrow.
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I'm really glad! Grogar is, in my eyes, one of the most powerful being on Equestria. In a normal fight against Discord it'd be about even, but Grogar's magical relics gave him the necessary leg up.
This was dramatic! I hope Celestia and Luna are okay. I am much less concerned about Discord but I’m sure he’s fine too.
Oh, earlier, what I meant was the “they are heroes and we should expect them to act heroically” bit seemed like an unsubtle dig at how UNheroic the six were in the finale by standing aside and letting Discord and the Princesses torment and execute helpless foes.
No bodies=alive
It's cliche as fuck, we know they are fine and will come back, probably also Discord
Will this story pretend that there is something on the line to lose but in the end, no one dies and heroes win?
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Oh, no, it was clear, I was just guessing at the future plot.
So how inhospitable is this other realm of reality when being banished to it is considered crueler than being trapping in a body sized cage until they die of old age?
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Racism is the last refuge of the bad writer. It is rarely done well. (The only good example I can think of is in the Earth's Children series.)
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I don't like to spoil my own story. But this was written as if it could be an episode, so that should be your metric.
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That may have been it; I wrote it the day after the episode happened.
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I have always seen Tartarus as causing temporal stasis. You don't age there.
And it was meant to be the dimension Discord tried to banish Tree Hugger to.
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Maybe, I do wonder though if Tirek is in some kind of temporal status why in Twilight's Kingdom part 1 the image shown when Celestia is describing his past depicts him as big and bulky as Scorpan, (who's shown to be massive in comparison), as opposed to when he gets out in the present and is shown to be not only withered and aged but also the size of a average pony.
This is really good.
Nice. I was kind of hoping for a fight between Chrysalis and Cadence in the finale. The way I imagined it if Chrysalis were defeated it would have been through a combination of Starlight, Cadence and Shining Armor.
Pacing feels a little rushed. Each scene is pretty short, but that's honestly like the show too. When they had a lot to do and only 22 minutes to squeeze it into, the pacing of this story feels familiar.
What I like about this is the story plays of the strength of each of the characters, especially the villains. Tierk alone could easily curb stomp almost anything in his way because of his drain magic ability except rainbow power of main 6 and Discord.
I was a little surprised when all the villains revealed themselves at once. That made it pointless to hide except for shock value. The heroes should have reacted a lot more surprised that Cozy and Teirek weren't in Tartarus. Instead, they seemed to roll their eyes and think, "Oh, it's them again. They're so annoying."
Criticism aside, I got the actual episode to compare this too. It's hard for you to get worse than that standard. In your story, the villains aren't suddenly gaining a power boost so it focuses on their own strengths more. That gives the story more room to breathe and build up from there, so two hooves up.
Your story isn't the first I've seen to showcase a bit of a positive personal relationship between Tierk and Cozy. I'd like to go on record to say that I've noticed that.
Oh, by the way:
(bashful look) somebody is a fan of Darkwing Duck, and that fan is . . . ME . . . for noticing this reference here (shifty eyes).
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I agree. You're reading a somewhat revised version, where I tried to slow the pacing down a little.
Hmmm. Perhaps I'll change that.
Mhmmm. I got into the DT2017 show, and Darkwing is in that as well.
is it just me or am I getting grand admiral Thrawn vibes from Grogor.
“While Twilight went to contact you, I tried to calm my little ponies,” Celestia explained with a hint of sadness.
I know this is supposed to be a sad moment but They haven't used that term sense season 2 I think
“If I’d known we would be fighting, I would have delayed that hooficure until tomorrow,” Rarity complained. “But since we’re here—let’s! Get! Dangerous!”
Very clever on the reference 😄
Whoa ok A lot of thing just happened All at once OK 1st of all the other 3 villains got defeated but unfortunately gorgar Defeated discord and Celestia and Luna with the other 3 This is a pretty difficult situation and hopefully the other regions will help out because right now equestria is in danger
It's probably too much to hope that the smug prick Discord is gone for good?
One of the best fictions out there. I don't know if you're interested in playing with the text at this point but in case you are I would suggest the following possibilities:
“That isn’t an eventuality you’ll need to worry about, Discord,” a low, growling voice uttered above a chin similarly adorned from which draped an additional sneer of utter disgust.
Cut these:
continue
His blue coat was the stuff of nightmares. A ring of small bells hung around his neck. His face was wizened and weathered by countless ages. He gazed across the assorted creatures with undisguised contempt.
Remove this, he already acknowledged Discord by this point:
continue
Six blackened jewels floated around him slowly which Twilight didn’t recognize but gave her a horrible feeling.
Cut this: