Personally I would of preferred the third one because I think it would be entertaining to see them try to convince the other races to work with them.

First, Gerhardt makes a deal with Malice.

He intentionally created something that was beyond his control and about a level of power above what he's trying to kill so while his children have prepared countermeasures of some sort it seems very unlikely that they would have anyway to effectively counter it since they haven't been able to kill nightmare moon and she isn't as powerful.
He only requested safety for his family so allies look unlikely.
He's gotten into a bit of a catch 22
The being he created doesn't intend to kill luna so there is a chance that it will turn into if they are successful in killing malice to free Gerhardt it could free nightmare moon to set everything back to square one.

One, your family will claim a minimum of a million souls for me.

No timeline but at the rate they are going that'll probably take a few months at most but this is supposed to end the war, are they going to continue killing the ponies after their leader is dead?

Two, the ‘demonic Nightmares’ you created are mine and you will produce a minimum of a thousand more for me every year for a century, all of which should be as powerful if not more powerful than your children.

That's only 100,000 and he's got a 100 years to do it so it doesn't seem like that big of a deal except he's intending for malice to end this problem and I think it takes souls to make them so he's either going on a genocide run on the ponies or he's going to have to find new enemies.

Three, you will be my champion in the mortal realm and will claim souls for me for the rest of your days.

Does he automatically get the souls of any he kills or what?

Finally, you are now cursed. You will have small bouts of sanity every so often where you will be forced to realize the horrors you have committed and will commit in my name. Your suffering during those times will be absolutely delicious…”

I get that it's magic and all but it seems odd that he just sits there and goes woe is me rather than bothering to mention any of this to his family.

Only path from here that seems to make sense is assuming malice is able to keep his part of the deal and captures NMM is Gerhardt returning to his universe with his new family to continue that war otherwise it looks like they will have to kill innocent parties to fulfill the deal.

Also is malice powerful enough to notice that Silvanus is still interfering? would he tell Gerhardt if he did? Gerhardt is assuming they are being spied on but he hasn't noticed this seems like a possibility that could occur on this path but not on the others.

Second, King Sombra finishes conquering the Crystal Empire and attacks Equestria, then Gerhardt and his family ally themselves with him.

Seems plausible as sombra doesn't seem like one to care about gerhart's methods but it seems limited in character interaction as sombra mind controlled the crystal ponies so it'd be one new character and his army.

third, Gerhardt's family seeks out the Dragons, the Griffons, the Deer, the Minotaurs, the Yaks, the Buffalo, and/or the Diamond Dogs to convince them to help them fight Nightmare Moon.

This one provides the most flexibility as you can show different species perspectives on events but I think they would be hard pressed to convince others to join their fight as from an outside perspective both parties are monsters.

I think option 3 would be the most interesting, option 2 is the most straightforward as practically nothing changes except Gerhardt will likely upgrade sombras drone army, option 1 we're already seeing seems to be prohibitive of any sort of a good ending for anyone.

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He intentionally created something that was beyond his control and about a level of power above what he's trying to kill so while his children have prepared countermeasures of some sort it seems very unlikely that they would have anyway to effectively counter it since they haven't been able to kill nightmare moon and she isn't as powerful.
He only requested safety for his family so allies look unlikely.
He's gotten into a bit of a catch 22
The being he created doesn't intend to kill luna so there is a chance that it will turn into if they are successful in killing malice to free Gerhardt it could free nightmare moon to set everything back to square one.

True, but his children have to at least try to take countermeasures knowing what Gerhardt was going to unleash upon the world. Even if those countermeasures are useless. Also spirits are impossible to kill as they are literally concepts. There is no distinction between them and the concept they represent. So to "kill" Malice they would have to destroy the concept of Evil in its entirety which they obviously can't do. They could potentially imprison it, however.

No timeline but at the rate they are going that'll probably take a few months at most but this is supposed to end the war, are they going to continue killing the ponies after their leader is dead?

Well, look at what they did in Tall Tale and Vanhoover. Especially in Tall Tale. If killing a million ponies after Nightmare Moon is gone is the price for being free of Nightmare Moon, they will pay it.

That's only 100,000 and he's got a 100 years to do it so it doesn't seem like that big of a deal except he's intending for malice to end this problem and I think it takes souls to make them so he's either going on a genocide run on the ponies or he's going to have to find new enemies.

They're just machines designed to perfectly replicate the behavior of demons. It doesn't take souls to make them. Though maybe it should? Hm... Maybe the ones in the future could be designed using necromantic rituals in their creation process to make them more powerful and realistic as per Malice's specifications. Though I've received two comments preferring the third option so far, so I'm probably going to rewrite it so as to not include Malice in the first place.

Does he automatically get the souls of any he kills or what?

Eh, not quite. It's more that he can use necromancy to enslave souls after he kills them. He can then decide to give the souls he enslaved to Malice. It's not an automatic process, it's something he has to actively do with necromancy. So if he didn't know necromancy then Malice would be demanding live slaves instead of souls.

I get that it's magic and all but it seems odd that he just sits there and goes woe is me rather than bothering to mention any of this to his family.

Only path from here that seems to make sense is assuming malice is able to keep his part of the deal and captures NMM is Gerhardt returning to his universe with his new family to continue that war otherwise it looks like they will have to kill innocent parties to fulfill the deal.

Also is malice powerful enough to notice that Silvanus is still interfering? would he tell Gerhardt if he did? Gerhardt is assuming they are being spied on but he hasn't noticed this seems like a possibility that could occur on this path but not on the others.

He would have mentioned it to his family but he was a bit preoccupied dealing with Malice. Also, since he wasn't allowed to commit suicide he was concerned that he wouldn't be able to say anything to his family either. In future bouts of sanity he would most likely try to mention that he had been cursed by Malice as that's something the curse would allow him to remember. The fact that it exists.

Yes. I've stated in replies to previous comments that Gerhardt is not a hero or a good guy in this story. He's just as much a villain as Nightmare Moon. So killing innocents is not out of the question.

If Malice did notice Silvanus spying it would likely hijack the "thread" Silvanus tied to Gerhardt and use it as an opportunity to taunt and torment Silvanus. So no. It wouldn't tell Gerhardt. Also, Gerhardt noticing they are being spied on is something that would happen in all three paths. They would diverge at the point where Arthur says they need allies.

Seems plausible as sombra doesn't seem like one to care about gerhart's methods but it seems limited in character interaction as sombra mind controlled the crystal ponies so it'd be one new character and his army.

Fair point. You're right, character interaction would likely be fairly limited for that reason.

This one provides the most flexibility as you can show different species perspectives on events but I think they would be hard pressed to convince others to join their fight as from an outside perspective both parties are monsters.

True. But I suppose that difficulty is what makes the idea interesting since it would provide further conflict.

I think option 3 would be the most interesting, option 2 is the most straightforward as practically nothing changes except Gerhardt will likely upgrade sombras drone army, option 1 we're already seeing seems to be prohibitive of any sort of a good ending for anyone.

Fair though I will say a few things. For option 2, Gerhardt would upgrade Sombra's drone army but he would also take a few of Sombra's cursed crystals for study so they could potentially use those crystals to counter Equestrian magic due to the properties the crystals display in the show. Thus it would be more fair of a fight between Gerhardt and Nightmare Moon. Also, this story is meant to be dark. A happy ending is definitely not guaranteed in any of the paths. Though you're right, option 1 is the most unlikely to have a happy or even neutral ending.

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If you could convince any of them to join as allies in option 3 you could probably get away with combining options 2 & 3 since sombra even with the mind controlled army would be considered less of a monster than Gerhardt so it wouldn't be a much of a stretch that anyone agreeing to work with Gerhardt would also be ok with sombra.

Sure it's supposed to be dark but option one seems like it's going to end with constant war rather than there ever being a clear victor and everything else on the planet is going to get drawn in as fodder rather than participants.

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Fair enough. And true Sombra is less of a monster than Gerhardt and his family. So combining options 2 and 3 is a rather interesting option I hadn't considered. Since people seem to be preferring those over option 1, I'll definitely look into that as I rewrite the most recent chapter.

hey question about malice so he is the concept of evil right. What type of evil as evil or good for that matter are subjective.

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Evil as the general concept. And as it is a spirit it is objectively evil. Anyone who meets it would agree it is evil beyond a shadow of a doubt and it itself realizes and enjoys the fact that it is evil. There is no real perspective in which it's good or even just neutral.

I mean what it was doing to those ponies it would do to ANYTHING regardless of species, religion, political alignment, or whatever else. It's not truly on anyone's side but it's own. And it's only goals are to spread as much death, pain, suffering, conflict, war, and general misery as possible. It's not insane, nothing is wrong with its mind, it's fully aware and in control of its actions. It's just evil.

Also, I'm going to finish rewriting this chapter after I finish the current arc in the main story. So Malice isn't going to be present in the final version.

Well, unless something happens later on in the story to make Gerhardt decide to conduct the same ritual for whatever reason, or if it just spawns naturally through the conflict between both sides.