> Twilight of Darkness > by flutterderp sparkle > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > The War Begins > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Twilight could feel the power surging through her body. Minutes earlier, she had just cast a spell that contaminated her body and mind, making her ruthless and cunning. With that spell, she had also summoned the Elements of Chaos, which had been lost for centuries. "This power flowing through me... It feels great. I need more of it!" yelled Twilight. "Don't you want to see your new friends? Wasn't getting your friends back the whole purpose of casting the spell?" asked Discord, while pointing towards five figures that had appeared when Twilight cast the spell. Each one of them looked exactly like one of Twilight's old friends, except for their eyes. The scleras were, instead of the normal white, a light green, and their slitted irises were a dark red. Their eyes emanated a purple mist that went back towards their ears until it dissipated. "They could also help you gain more power." "How could they help me get power?" asked Twilight eagerly. "By being commanders of your army," said Nightmare Moon. "With the grand army that's under these very ruins, you could conquer all of Equestria and more." "All right, you have my attention. Show me these ponies and then the army." Discord moved out of the way, and the five ponies came into Twilight's view. Nightmare Moon named them and their elements. "This first one is Applejack, Element of Deceit. The next one is Fluttershy, Element of Cruelty. After that comes Pinkie Pie, Element of Despair. Next is Rarity, element of Greed. And, lastly comes Rainbow Dash, Element of Betrayal." Twilight felt a little tang of remembrance from the pony she was not too long ago, but no feelings were felt. As soon as the thought came in, she pushed it to the back of her mind and forgot completely about it. "Now, show me this grand army you talked about. "Down below us," said Discord as he tapped the middle of the structure that he had pulled the book of spells out of minutes earlier. When tapped, it slid out of the way to reveal a stairwell leading down deep underground. First Discord and Nightmare Moon started down, and Twilight went after them, closely followed by the other five ponies. Once at the bottom, Twilight gaped at the vastness of the army. She was standing on a balcony wide enough for her and the seven other beings with her to fit, with the view of what Twilight guessed to be a couple hundred thousand ponies on the ground, with with what she guessed to be a couple tens of thousands of pegasi flying around in the air. The whole entire army fit into this one giant room without any problems or anypony squished against the walls. At a closer look, Twilight realized that the ponies were not really ponies, just shadows with the same eyes as the other ponies standing on the balcony. "Here is your grand army. Beautiful, isn't it? With it, you shall have the power to conquer all of Equestria, if you play your cards right," said Discord. "The army is broken up into two main groups," said Nightmare Moon. "Each of those groups also being divided up into multiple sub groups. The first group, codenamed 181st Flight Corps, are all the pegasi, around fifty thousand of them. The infantry, everypony else, codenamed 501st Legion, around five hundred thousand of them." The six ponies and Draconequus bowed onto their knees. "You are the leader of this great army and us seven. What will be your first order?" asked Discord. "First, tell me about those sub groups you were talking about. I need to know them and their strengths," ordered Twilight. "Ah, yes. Let's start with the 181st. It is divided into two sub groups. The first one, the scouts, are numbered at around ten thousand. Their strengths are breaching enemy lines while staying undetected to relay information about the enemy. They are highly maneuverable and fast, so if they get seen, it is highly unlikely they will be captured. However, they have low strength, so they tend to avoid combat," said Nightmare Moon. "The second group are the general fighters, consisting of the other forty thousand pegasi. Their main strength is against other fighters, but they could be used against infantry and structures." "And the 501st is divided into three sub groups. The general infantry, consisting of around three hundred thousand, is the first group. Their main strength is against other infantry and heavy troops, but can also be used to provide cover for heavy troops," said Discord. "Next up are the heavy troopers, consisting of around one hundred thousand. Their strengths are against structures and any large, well-armored target. "And the assassins, consisting of around one hundred thousand, are the last group. Excellent at long-range combat and capable of holding their own against a low number of enemies in close combat." "Alright, now that I know their strengths, I can devise a strategy that will end with the conquering of Equestria. Now, where to start..." "There's a small town south-east from our location named Dodge Junction. It shouldn't be hard to capture, due to its low population. And it gives us access to the railroad," said Nightmare Moon. "Then it sounds like that's the place to start. Prep the army. It's time to fight, and here's the plan..." . . . . . It seemed like a normal day for the ponies of Dodge Junction. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and it seemed like everything was peaceful and quiet. Well, quiet except for the normal chatter of ponies and the occasional sound of a train. Everypony thought that this day would just go by normally. It did, until one mare saw the shadow of a pony lurking in an alley. Then it disappeared an instant later. "What was that? Did anypony else see that?" asked the mare, pointing towards the alley where she had seen the shadow. Most of the ponies in the general area of her responded with a negative answer, and then went on with their business. "I could've sworn I saw something...," muttered the mare to herself. "I guess I need to go check it out myself." The mare went into the alley, and was covered in its shade. At first, she saw nothing and decided to walk further down the alley. She got about halfway, but then she was stricken in the back of the head by a hoof. She dropped to the ground, knocked out, and nopony noticed anything. Minutes later, though, the other ponies noticed a mob of shadow ponies galloping and flying in from the north-west, from the Everfree Forest. Everypony started to panic and run around aimlessly. The running was aimless until the mob reached the town. When the mob caught up with a pony, they noticed, a shadow pony in the mob would emanate a purple and green blade from its horn. The first pony unfortunate enough to be caught by the mob was decapitated, and his body fell to the ground to be trampled by the mob. A few other ponies shared his fate, until the population got smart enough to run away. However, some ponies, the more stronger stallions, stayed behind in hopes of slowing down the mob's advance so their friends and family could escape. Some of them were successful in killing one or two of the shadow ponies before their bodies fell to the ground and were trampled. Soon, everypony in Dodge Junction was either dead or had fled when the first blood was shed. In thirty short minutes, Dodge Junction was under the control of the Twilight Empire.