Equestria goes to war with a kingdom far away with a wicked ruler.
When the evil young alicorn king named Neffison successfully sends raiding parties to capture riches, food, even ponies for slaves, Equestria goes to war against the powerful country. But what was behind the raids? Is something bigger being planned?
The Golden Oaks Library now has a very frantic one pony search party.
"Where are my books of magic I borrowed?!" Twilight searched throughout the library, she needed to find the books she borrowed from Princess Celestia, or she would have to pay it off.
"Twilight, would you calm down." Twilight turned around to Rainbow Dash, who watched the dramatic search for some royal books.
"Calm down, Calm down, HOW CAN I CALM DOWN WHEN I'VE BEEN HERE FOR HOURS LOOKING FOR SOME BOOKS THAT BELONG TO PRINCESS CELESTIA?!!!!" Twilight really was worried of what Celestia might d if she didn't return the books by two days.
Rainbow Dash shrugged, "You've been searching for only ten minutes Twilight, not hours, and you still have two more days to find them." Twilight looked at the clock, it was three ten, she realized the books were missing when it was three.
"Oh, but I got to admit, it really does feel like hours...Aha! There they are!" Twilight spots her saddlebags, and a book was sticking out. Twilight rushed over and opens her saddlebags, to find Celestia's books of magic.
"Yes! I thought Celestia would kill me if I hadn't looked in my bags!" Said Twilight.
Rainbow Dash isn't amused, "Yeah, I saw them there even before you realized they were missing from your bookshelves."
Twilight spins around to her friend in confusion, like if Rainbow Dash was playing some kind of prank. "Wait, you knew? Then why didn't you tell me?!" Twilight yelled in Rainbow Dash's face, but she didn't say a word to Twilight.
"Well, why didn't you tell me?" Twilight repeated the question, and this time, Rainbow Dash gave Twilight a big grin, then she started to laugh her head off.
"Hey? What's so funny?" Twilight wondered why her friend was laughing at her question, which seemed right to answer.
"Okay, "ha" I'm sorry, "chuckle" I put the books in the saddlebags!" Rainbow Dash replied, she pulled another prank on Twilight, It was really clever too.
Even Twilight was impressed, "Alright, you got me there!" and she started to laugh with her friend.
As Rainbow Dash and Twilight went outside the library, however, there were ponies running in terror everywhere, and arrows that were on fire were raining down upon them.
"Woah, how did we not notice this happening?" asked Rainbow Dash to Twilight. Twilight was speechless, first of all, she and Rainbow did not notice this outside, they even did not hear screaming. Soon Rarity, Pinkie, Applejack, and Fluttershy were running towards Rainbow and Twilight, as they breathed heavily, Twilight asks a question about the flying arrows on fire.
"What is going on? And why are there arrows on fire raining down upon Ponyville?" Applejack answered her friend with very troubling news.
"We're being attacked by a huge army!" Twilight was alarmed, but how big was the armada? "How big, like how many men?" Applejack replied with a scared tone.
"The Army was hundreds! They are here for something!" Something? More like whatever they want!
Just when things couldn't get worse, the army, led by a red alicorn, stormed into Ponyville. The army started to break down doors into houses and went inside. Twilight was so busy looking around at the carnage being done, that she did not notice her friends being snatched.
"TWILIGHT! HELP!" Twilight spun around at Rainbow Dash's call for help, she sees her friends being led away by soldiers with helmets that cover their head, their armor was made of the finest metal that Twilight had ever seen! But she needed to rescue her friends. Twilight's horn began glowing, and soon the unicorn was charging at the soldiers with her friends, but they just calmly lifted their bows and prepared to fire arrows at the unicorn. They took careful aim, but before they could even attempt to hurt or capture Twilight, her friends yelled at her to stop.
"Stop! You'll only get captured yourself!" Twilight heard her friends and stopped her spell, the soldiers then lowered their bows and continued to take Twilight's friends away.
"Don't worry, we'll be alright!" Said Fluttershy, before she and the others disappeared behind a corner.
The raid continued as Twilight returned home, "I hope the soldiers didn't come in here." she thought, and as she opened her door, it was the way she left it before.
"Oh, good, now I can really clean the place." She then started to pick up books she sent flying while searching for the books Rainbow had hid. When she turned to the clock, it said it was about four pm.
"Spike should be up by now, I let him take a nap this afternoon, he should come down any second." But Spike did not come down, bu indeed, he was awake, watching the horror outside.
"Spike, I know it's bad and stuff, but we don't want you to have nightmares again, do we?" Twilight told Spike to help clean up downstairs, but he stood there still, watching with horror, Twilight wanted to do something abut it, but now there was no way to help, the Alicorn's main was on fire, or at least, it looked like that, and he traveled to battle with a armada! But what if it's one alicorn, verses two?! That's it!
"Spike! Send a letter to Princess Celestia about the raid here." said Twilight.
Spike froze still from Twilight's words, "Wait, it was a raid?" Twilight answered Spike's question by what she saw in the raid.
"Yes Spike, they took riches, all of our food supply, and even ponies! Including Applejack, Pinkie, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow."
Spike froze again, his hand quivering, "They..they were...captured?!!!" Spike then fainted.
"Yes Spike, now can you send the letter please?" Spike took a breath, and the letter was sent, and Spike continued to lay motionless on the floor.
At the town hall, minutes after the raid, the mayor came to a pillar, and gave this speech.
"When the raid ended, many mourned. For friends and family had been snatched away by an army of thousands. Yet, we must remain strong, and even if we don't see our loved ones again, we still have each other, ad that's still important, it's better that some of us are still here than all of us being captured. Thank You for the gifts you have brought, we will put them in the town hall."
The mayor, who presented the sad speech, then turned and picked up the gifts that were put on a table, and took them inside the town hall, that's when the remaining ponies went back to their homes.
Meanwhile in Canterlot, Celestia is reading Twilight's letter, she is alarmed about the raid and starts her way over to Luna's room.
"Luna, Luna, it's important and tragic news sister, Ponyville was attacked and raided, and I'm afraid that we might be next!"
Luna then shoved the door open, she was alarmed, "Who is behind this?!" Just then an explosion rocks the castle. BOOOOOOM!
"RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! WE'RE BEING ATTACKED!" Soon arrows on fire started raining down. Celestia then replies to her sister's question.
"Something tells me whoever is attacking us."
The princesses run outside, only to be surrounded and aimed at with bows and arrows, soon the Alicorn leading the army stepped forward. He was laughing like if he was a total maniac.
"oh, oh, Ha Ha Ha HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!!" Celestia and Luna look upon their captor.
"What do you want?!" The maniac like alicorn pointed a spear at Celestia's head, he really was out of his mind.
"I'm Neffison! The great and Powerful king of Salvania!" Celestia and Luna stare at each other, when did Salvania ever become a country? Celestia turns towards Neffison with the same question as before.
"Neffison, I'll ask again, what are you dong here? What is it that you want so bad?" The King replied with not the answer Celestia expected, but with a grin and said.
"It matters not, for my master plan is halfway complete!" Master plan? Celestia and Luna stare at each other again, what was his master plan, was the other half making it back to the country he calls Salvania? But the king gave some orders.
"Come men! We'll take our prizes home, and with these alicorns gone, who will save Equestria now? OH HO HO! MWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HAAAAAAA!!!!!!!" His evil laugh echoed throughout Equestria, his master plan was halfway complete.
Twilight heard the evil laugh and suspected another raid took place somewhere. She was right, for she received news from Canterlot that her mentor and sister were captured, along with several hundreds of ponies. Twilight felt even worse now, first her friends, now her mentor and Luna! Twilight wept throughout the evening, never to be comforted by her friends, for they were gone.
At the border of Equestria, Neffison and his army and captives camp there, the captives, except the princesses, were fastened with leg shackles and neck shackles, for they could not return home to their homeland, they were forced to march to the border. To make sure Neffison didn't break some of his homeland laws about royalty, he kept the princesses unchained, for one law said.
"Any royalty put in chains shall be severely punished!" even the king had to do it, for it was respect for any visitors or captives that were born with royal blood.
During the night, the stars lit the sky with beauty, Luna did a good job to make it shine on the captives, giving some hope that they may return home. But it wasn't just adult mares and stallions as captives, even fillies like Applebloom, Sweete Belle, and Silver Spoon were captured in the raids as well. Luna tried singing a lullaby that she used to listen too when she was a filly. It went something like this.
"Hush now little fillies, who lay on there beds, I have something to saaay, Do not be afraid within times like this, for I am here to protect you from harm." The lullaby worked, the fillies were sound asleep, the soldiers were also touched by the lullaby, and they fell asleep. Neffison stayed up, however, he was planning on what would happen when they reach Salvania.
"Let's see, if the ponies of my country are still struggling to recover from our military wounds, then we'll use...wait, what will we use? Oh yes! The whips!" Neffison smiled slyly throughout the night.
Around seven am the sun was halfway into the sky, Celestia had the glowing yellow dot in the sky rise a little bit more before stopping, the captives started to wake up, the fillies were ready for a new day, and Neffison would soon lead the camp of soldiers and captives on their way to Neffison's home country, Salvania. The journey was extremely harsh, the captives trudged on through the hot weather. The sun's rays fell down upon them, it was a long, hard walk, until they reached a fertile land with lots of crops, and everything was good, even the weather, it rains once a week. Neffison spoke to the captives with pride.
"Welcome to Salvania!" But he had very evil plans for them.
All the residents of Salvania were in the city that Neffison and his army with the captives entered.
"It's him! Our brave king!" The ponies shouted for their king and his glory. The captives were on one stage, while Neffison and the princesses were on the other, the army went into the castle near the end of the city. Neffison looked at the buildings, because of all of their wars, the buildings were utterly destroyed, only rubble remained. He knew what to do with the captives, but the princesses would not receive the same fate. He spread out his wings to silence the crowd, and with his magic, grabbed a whip, then gave out this speech.
"Fillies and Gentlecolts, today is a glorious day for the Salvanians! We are not great builders, and the first time we built our houses and buildings, it took us seven years! Now they are destroyed, but as you can see on the other stage, there stands captives from another land, these princesses behind me are the rulers of that land. For today, we have them in our hooves, and they will return to their country soon, but not the ponies in chains, for they will work on rebuilding our houses and cities, and these ponies will have Salvania return to it's former glory that we deserve!" He then stopped there to reach something in his saddlebags.
Neffison then pulls out of a sack, inside was four hundred bits, suddenly he throws the bag into a box. Then continues. "You see what I just did? I have bought the country this ponies to be our Slaves!" He then cracked his whip, and the ponies on the other stage with chains start shaking, they were just enslaved by the country!
Neffison was not done yet, he pulls out a contract. "This contract will make sure these ponies in chains will remain our slaves forever! They will make our country even stronger! And now, Princesses." He turns towards Celestia and Luna.
"You were captured to witness this degree! Now go home and tell your pitiful country that you'll never see these ponies again, for this contract is the only way to stop me!" Celestia angrily spat out this statement.
"We'll see about that! You have committed an act of war against me and my sister! We will not stand for you taking our subjects away as slaves! You have gone out of your mind! That will cost you greatly!"
Neffison only shrugged, and said. "You'll try!" That was the final straw.
Celestia then couldn't hold her anger any longer, nether could Luna, they gritted their teeth and shot multiple magical blasts at Neffison, but he just calmly cast a shield spell that deflected the magic beams, Celestia and Luna barely had time to get out of the way of their own magic. Neffison then turned to his soldiers that did not leave to the castle, and with a big toothy, evil grin, he pointed at the sisters, and the soldiers charged at the sisters. The crowd watching this were extremely surprised to find a battle going on in front of them, but they thought that their king would pull off with the victory, so they cheered for him.
"Neffison! Neffison! Neffison!" But while they were cheering, Celestia and Luna somehow defeat the soldiers, but Neffison wounds them with a magical blast when they were trying to catch their breath from their fight.
Luna coughed from the blow. She was in great pan as well as Celestia, but before they did anything, Luna spat out this threat.
"This isn't over Neffison! Soon war would famine your land!" But Neffison only laughs at Luna's threat.
"When you couldn't even defend yourselves?! Very funny!" But while he was laughng, the princesses were casting a spell, and in a flash, the princesses vanished.
"What the...oh well, their loss. Anyways! "Ahem" The slaves will now rebuild our country! Now!" So the ponies began to rebuild Salvania, they were tortured, and the crack of the whip always kept them moving, sometimes they were whipped harshly for small mistakes. It was torture for the ponies.
Back in Equestria, things were not good, ponies couldn't believe that their loved ones were being tortured as slaves. But Twilight hadn't heard anything about it, until she received a letter from her friends in Salvania, it was nighttime, and Twilight was really not in the mood for reading letters at night. But it said that her friends and the other ponies there with them were being tortured as slaves to the king. Twilight couldn't believe this, she wanted to fight the king for mistreating her friends like he was. The next morning, Celestia and Luna wanted ponies to enlist in an army to fight against Neffison, for they would lead the ponies out f slavery in Salvania if they can help it. Twilight enlisted, she wanted t help her friends more than anything! That's what she was going to do.
Celestia and Luna disliked the fact that an alicorn king could just kidnap hundreds of ponies, and make them his slaves, that simple?! But he said he had a even bigger plan, his master plan. This pony had an army of thousands, like if he was the king of armies. But today, the first blow would start a war, the war of slaves. It started from the raids Neffison led, and making the captives slaves, and refusing to let them go. The enemies meet at a valley, the princesses however are surprised that Neffison knew about their march towards his country. Neffison's battle helmet looked a lot like Nightmare Moon's helmet. He wore a chest plate with the markings of his country, and he had iron placed around his hooves, he also carried a sword that could slice anything, even the toughest iron. When the enemies meet, Neffison didn't look like his insane self, he was angry however, he glared at the princesses with his evil, hateful eyes.
"So it has come to this? I thought you would just forget about it and move on, but now you'll make me shed blood from my archers!" With that, his archers had fired many arrows, wounding twenty of Neffison's enemies. His glare moves to the army, and then caught sight of Twilight.
"Well, if it isn't the bearer of the element of magic! What a surprise to see you here without the elements of harmony! Oh right, they are useless against me, for I captured your friends. No matter, just you wait, you'll play a very important role in my master plan!" Neffison then pointed his hoof directly at Twilight, and soon Neffison's army charged after her, but Celestia and Luna jump in, the army following them.
The battle raged on and on, Neffison's army had the Pegasi fire arrows at the ponies below, Celestia and Luna had the unicorns, including Twilight, form an archery line, sort of like them shooting arrows at the same time in a line. The earth ponies on each army had been told to kill with the swords in there grasp, and smite each other down. Twilight's arrows did the most effective damage to the enemy's health, for she struck down now thirty seven of the enemy's soldiers down, dead.
"Nice shooting Twilight! Even though your really a book person, great job!" Twilight looked to see a mare archer next to her, giving a comment about her success with the bow.
"Thanks! You're doing a good job as well!" Twilight replied with a comment to the archer to return some kindness.
"By the way, where did Neffison go?" asked the mare. Twilight was getting another arrow, and with a torch, lit it on fire.
"I don't know, maybe being a coward and hiding at the end of his army? Why should he? He's immortal! This should scare him." Twilight then fired the arrow, and soon the whole army noticed that Neffison had an arrow on fire land next to his hoof, Neffison was then driven to the sky.
"There he is! Maybe because he is in the air, that we can wound him with an armada of arrows." said the archer.
"Way ahead of you!" replied Twilight, already firing three arrows at once, and soon the unicorn archers start shooting at their target, the evil king.
"Oh no!" Neffison then saw three arrows fired directly at him, he was able to dodge them, but three of his pegasi archers were wounded and they fell to the ground, he kept an eye on the unicorn archers, who were aiming at him, would they shoot at him at the same time? Or at different times? His question was soon answered by two arrows, then four, then seven, all at different times, Neffison had just enough time to get out of the way, but the arrows kept coming. For a while he thought this was too easy.
"This is it? I thought things would be more challenging! Those weak unicorns they..." But before he could finish his sentience, Twilight had shot an arrow directly at Neffison's chest, he closed his eyes and fell to the ground, he was not dead, but severely wounded, and he was soon once again awake, and while the remaining bits of his army were carrying him and the other wounded soldiers, he yelled at Celestia and Luna, who had glared at him during his time getting shot.
"This isn't over! You may have won this battle princesses! But I will over time bring Equestria to it's knees!" and with those final words, he and the army returned to their country of Salvania. Twilight's new archer friend was impressed with her shot, and said.
"Wow! Nice shot, straight in the chest! He'll be foolish to come to battle in that injury!" The blue mare was very impressed.
"Thanks, you know, we make a pretty good team, wouldn't you say?" Twilight and the blue mare had each others back during the battle, they kept each other alive in the battle.
"Yeah, we do! Let's stay near each other so we can protect each other." suggested Twilight's new friend.
"Sure! Let's shake on it." Twilight and the other mare then shook hooves, making a deal to have each others back during their upcoming battles.
Neffison however didn't mind about his injury, and gathered his army and marched towards Equestia, even if they lose, Neffison would target the princesses, and with a spear he carried, strike down one of them.
"Soon Equestria will see my might, and glory which I have and will make stronger! Nopony will interfere with my master plan, for it has moved on to it's next phase!!" He smiled an evil smile, he would not let himself down, he will finish his master plan if he could help it, he and his army then marched towards Canterlot.
Neffison smiled, he began to chuckle, he and his men had made it into Equestra without being noticed!
"Oh, the princesses, they're so predictable! Soon with these torches, in Canterlot, they'll fall for my little trap, and come here, while I do something they'll hate me to do, and then this war will take a turn that's good for me, and bad for them!" He could hardly wait for the right moment to put his plan into motion!
"NOW!" Neffison had the unicorns and earth ponies use their torches to set some trees on fire, he also sent the Pegasi to go to Canterlot with their torches.
"Remember, if you get caught, our plan is foiled, you must play your part when the Princesses and guards have came to this fire the unicorns and earth ponies made." Was what he told them before they left. He and the rest of the unicorn and earth pony army waited for those pitiful alicorns to fall into their trap.
In Canterlot, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were planning strategy for the next battle. However, they didn't see Neffson's Pegasus soldiers hiding in a bush near the castle, their torches at the ready to light something on fire.
Luna looked outside to see a huge cloud of smoke, and a bright orange fireball near Ponyville, she was alarmed, not knowing it is a trap, she nudged her sister.
"Celestia, um, you may want to look outside near Ponyville, there's something going on down there. It's scaring me." Celestia looked, to find a fire almost at the border of Ponyville, if the fire reaches the town, the fire would burn Ponyville to the ground.
"Luna, we have to help them!" said Celestia to her sister.
"But what if it's a trap?" asked Luna. "Neffison could have set that fire and might be using it to signal us to a trap, we could get killed!"
"Yes sister, I know, but it's that or Ponyville in ashes, let's get the army and head over there!" Celestia and Luna leave with the army towards the fire. Not noticing the Pegasi soldiers in the bushes, once the sisters were gone. They threw their torches inside the castle, one of them catching the end of a book.
"Mission accomplished, alright guys, let's get back to Neffison and help him finish his part of the plan!" The soldiers fly away unseen, and the fire they caused spread throughout the castle.
Smoke could be seen coming out of the windows where Neffison stood, he smiled at the sight of it. The princesses were also in view, heading towards his trap, this made him smile even more.
"Soon those pitiful princesses would realize that Canterlot is on fire, and those weak ponies there are doing their best to put it out. My plan to capture those princesses will work perfectly, and soon my master plan would be almost complete!" Neffison chuckled to himself, he continued to watch the princesses who were now running towards the scene of the fire. Neffison smiled an evil grin, he pointed at the princesses with his hoof, the signal his soldiers were waiting for.
"Luna! We're almost there!" Celestia and Luna had led the army with buckets of water before they left, unaware that Canterlot was also on fire. As the army fought the intense heat to put out the flames, the princesses ran around the flames to see how far the fire was from Ponyville, they only saw flying ropes, the ropes flew around the princesses, and soon soldiers put coverings on the horns of the alicorn princesses.
"What in the world?!" Luna yelled, she and her sister were tied up together, and they also heard a familiar laugh.
"oh ho ho HA HA HA HA HA HA!" Neffison appeared from the smoke, he was laughing so much his armor was shaking. The princesses glared at him with angry eyes.
"NEFFISON!" They screamed, Neffison continued to laugh, when he finally stopped, he said.
"Yep, you're in my hooves now, and only Twilight can save you, I'll explain everything in Salvania, but now you must rest, you don't have to worry about Equestria for now, the army you lead will do the chores around here that you will not do, like put out the fires." Luna is confused about the fact her enemy said fires.
"Where's the second fire?" she asked. But before Neffison could answer, he already knocked the princesses out and was carrying them to Salvania.
"There! The fire is out! Wait, where are the princesses?!" The army the princesses led had started a search for their leaders when an explosion was heard above them, they looked to see a huge fireball among the mountain side, when it cleared, the fire raged on, but a castle was now visible.
"Now what could have happened up there?" wondered some of the soldiers. But Twilight had a very good feeling that it was their enemy behind everything.
"Neffison must be behind it, including the fire here, it was a trap for the princesses! We have to stop the fire in Canterlot, and save the princesses!" Twilight said what she thought, and the army agreed, with that, they rushed back towards Canterot.
The citizens of Canterlot were desperately trying to fight the flames, but their efforts alone had no effect on the huge fireball. But when the army came in, more buckets of water was used against the fire, and in a few hours, the flames were put out.
Many questions about the flames were asked, the army tried to get away, but the crowd consumed them, finally, Twilight speaks.
"It was Neffison who was behind this, he used the fire in Canterlot to lure us back here when the flames were out from another fire the princesses brought us to fight." one unicorn still has a question regarding the fact that the princesses were nowhere to be seen.
"Where are the princesses anyway?" asked the unicorn.
"That's just it, Neffison used the fires as a trap for the princesses!" When Twilight said that, all the soldiers and citizens of Canterlot went into a riot.
"HE SHOULD PAY FOR THIS!"
"MY DAUGHTER WAS TAKEN AWAY! NOW HE TAKES OUR PRINCESSES?!"
"OFF WITH HIS HEAD!"
"HE WILL BE DEFEATED! HE'LL HAVE TO LET OUR LOVED ONES AND PRINCESSES GO!"
The crowd was shouting things out like if they were planning a mob, but Twilight settled them down.
"Stop! He will pay for his crimes against us and we'll get our princesses and loved ones back, you have to be patient, for he is crafty as he is crazy." The crowd settled down, and since Neffison took the princesses, Twilight is now in charge of the army until the princesses come back. Twilight had very little experience as a leader of an army, but she wanted to try her best, and with her bow, she led the army towards Salvania, where Neffison has the princesses in custody.
Celestia opened her eyes, she was in a room with no windows, trash lied everywhere, the white paint on the walls was coming off, and an odor filled the room, it was disgusting. When Celestia tried to move, she couldn't, her hooves were spread apart. She looked to see them fastened against the wall, she was trapped. She also realized Luna wasn't in the room ether, like if Neffison was doing something terrible to her.
That's when she heard a laugh, a very familiar one, one of a lunatic.
"Oh ho ho ho ho ho ho HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!" The laugh became louder and louder, until Neffison walked into the room, Celestia's enemy was smiling an evil smile at her.
"Where's Luna?! And why do you have me here?!" Celestia asked harshly, even though her body couldn't move, her mouth still can. But Neffison chuckled and said.
"Oh Celestia, you have nothing to fear, your sister is safe, behind bars!" He then started laughing again, his armor clattering against his skin. After he stopped his laughter, he lifted an axe and pointed it at Celestia, then said.
"Tell me who the head of your army is, you know, if you're not leading it, who is. Or I'll keep your legs as a trophy." Celestia's jaw dropped from the threat.
"You wouldn't dare!!!!!" She yelled, but Neffison just shrugged and said while waving his axe in front of Celestia.
"Hellooooo, I'm insane." Celestia knew the answer to his question was Twilight, but in the first battle, he said she would lay a role in his master plan, would it involve treachery? But her thoughts stopped when Neffison readied his axe towards her Cutie Mark, and began to swing it. She had to tell him, or ether be severely injured. She then started to shout her answer.
"IT'S TWILIGHT SPARKLE! TWILIGHT IS THE HEAD NOW! PLEASE DON'T HURT ME!" Neffison stopped swinging his axe, he got his answer, he was pleased, because his master plan might go quicker, but he wouldn't take any chances. He smiled and said to his captive.
"Thank you! You may keep your legs! But now you must join your sister, you want to see her right?" Celestia wanted to see her sister so much, but Neffison said he had Luna behind bars, what does that even mean?
"Yes please, I want to see her." Neffison smiled and unfastened Celestia's hooves from the wall, but put a covering on her horn as well when she was on the ground, he then smiled and pointed towards the doorway, saying.
"Celestia, you go ahead towards the dungeon, I'll follow, there is the meeting place where you and your sister will come face to face." Confused by what he said, she went outside the door, unaware Neffison had a what he thought funny trick planned for her, he opened a compartment, and inside was a switch, he pulled the switch.
A rumbling startled Celestia, and before she knew what was happening, the floor fell from under her, when she landed, she saw Neffison peer down laughing tears out of his eyes.
"You should have seen the look on your face! Priceless! "Ahem" Now I must deal with my slaves, give them a time of their life!" Neffison said in a sarcastic tone, still laughing from his success from his trap, the trap door then closed shut.
Celestia looked around her surroundings, she was in a cell in Neffison's dungeon, and most of the cells were empty.
"Guess that's where the slaves stay for the night." thought the sun princess.
"Sister?" Celestia flinched from the second voice in her cell, but it sounded so familiar, like a warm fuzzy feeling had been knocked inside the princess' body, she turned towards the source, to find Luna! How happy Celestia was!
"Sister?!"
"Yes Tia, it's me! I'm so happy to see your alright!"
Me too sister, you won't believe what Neffison almost did to me."
Luna looked at her sister uneasily, like if Celestia was almost killed. "Why? What happened?"
"It's a long story, I'll tell you later, but all I can say is that Twilight will have to be careful, or she may have to make a decision that will change Equestria forever."
Luna nods, understanding that Twilight will have to be victorious in not getting captured.
The royal sisters huddle together on the stone cold ground, they may not get out of their confinement, but they will always be together, always.
Meanwhile, in a tent near the border of Equestria and Salvania, Twilight and a bunch of other unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies, including Twilight's archer friend, were planning a strategy to free the ponies and princesses from Neffison. Earlier that day, Twilight had shared her power over the army with some of the other unicorns, Pegasi, and earth ponies. Twilight had the army set up camp near the border, and in that huge tent in the middle, was where she and the other leaders were planning a way to defeat the enemy and force them to free their captives.
"Twilight, that plan is very risky, and we'll need to figure out where the princesses and slaves stay at night." A unicorn stallion didn't like Twilight's idea. The purple unicorn mare frowned, and said.
"Well, I was about to say we were going to send some scouts at sunset, but you interrupted, does that mean you want to be a scout?" The stallion agreed to be a scout, but others hesitated, until five more pegasi and earth ponies agreed to figure out where the princesses and slaves stay at night. Twilight smiled, and said to her fellow leaders as they left the tent.
"Neffison will lose, but if the scouts get captured, we'll have to go to battle, you understand?" The other leaders nodded, and soon they retired to their tents, the scouts already on their way to learn as much as possible.
Neffison closed the trap door that he used against Celestia, he planned to check the progress of his slaves on the rebuilding project, he smiled as he walked down the hallway still carrying the axe he used to almost chop Celestia's legs off.
The guards did their duties as Neffison walked by, he made a quick stop to his bedchambers, where he looked out the window, it didn't give him a view of his slaves, but a great view of the sunset, a beautiful display of artwork, he thought, when he turned away, he had a guard looking at him.
"Your highness, I come for a matter of importance!" Neffison frowned, he gave the guard a cold glare, and snipped.
"What is it, like if somepony threw a pie into your face, if that is important, which is not!" He was not in a good mood when the guard came in, but he was willing to hear what was so important.
"The enemy forces had camped near the border, and they sent a few scouts to see where the slaves and princesses are kept during the night, and for sure Twilight is plotting against you, you must do something, or you lose this war, meaning you lose your slaves, your imprisoned princess prisoners, maybe even your life!"
The guard waited for the king's response, but Neffison acted like if nothing was wrong, he took off his armor, revealing his fiery mane, it had started to get used to being released from it's confinement inside Neffison's helmet, once his armor was taken off, he finally spoke.
"Alert the guards who make sure the slaves toil for there regular twelve hours that I'm going to come to them while they are still doing their duty, I have a little plan to 'deal' with this Twilight Sparkle." The guard bowed down respectfully and turned away to carry out the king's order to him.
"Ugh! Another slave that needs a good whipping!" One guard says to his partner.
"What's wrong with them? They are great builders, right? Or was Neffison bluffing?" Replied the other soldier.
"Nah! He never lied to us! They are probably not willing to do it because they won't get payed, because they are slaves." The guards were chatting about Neffison and the slaves that they didn't notice the guard who was carrying out Neffison's order come up to them.
"Guys? Guys! GUYS!" The guards quickly turn to the other guard.
"What is it? Is it about the enemy?" one of the guards ask.
"Um, yes and no, Neffison is coming down here to check on the slaves, he has a plan to deal with Twilight Sparkle." The guards were confused, what plan?
"Was there any chance that he told you the plan?" One of the guards ask to the new arrival.
The messenger guard shakes his head and says. "That's just it. He wouldn't tell me, all he said was that he was going to come down here to check on the slaves because he has a plan to....I believe do this to Twilight Sparkle." The guard then took his hoof and making a weird noise, he had his hoof cross his neck, the guards eyes' widen, how was Neffison planning on killing Twilight, if he is.
"I see, thanks for the message!" the guards solute to the messenger guard as he runs off, unaware that Twilight's friends, who were slaves to Neffison as well as all the others, heard everything.
"Oh no, that is not good!" Applejack was quivering, Neffison was planning on killing Twilight, but how?
That's when Neffison showed up, he was not in his armor, to the slaves' surprise. He was sort of watching them closely, like if he was expecting something to happen.
"Hmmm, okay, not good, really not good." Neffison makes his observations clear, his slaves needed to work harder. He knew just the way.
He comes to a guard, and whispers in his ear. "Make a degree for me. The slaves will have their workload doubled, and make sure they finish their work, I don't care if it is nighttime until they finish, make sure they finish their workload!"
"Understood your majesty!" Neffison then walks away, for he was going to get Twilight, to finish his master plan. If it was the last thing he'll do.
"Attention slaves!" The slaves came to the guard, they had whip marks all over their bodies, they didn't notice, but some of Twilight's scouts were watching them. "
"Neffison made a degree that your workload has been doubled! You must finish it, he doesn't care if it is nighttime when you finish your workload, you must finish it!" The slaves groaned, they wouldn't get a lot of sleep for the next weeks. The scouts were alarmed, they turned and ran towards the camp.
"So your saying he increased the workload and they might work through the night?!" Twilight was alarmed about this, and she was getting her bow and arrows as her scouts gave the report.
"It's true Twilight!" Twilight was mad at Neffison, now he was ruthlessly working his so called slaves harder because he was after her, but that's insane, the only way that would work was if he knew that....
"He knew that I sent you guys! Let's think on how to make him surrender, He won't know what was happening!" Twilight was in fact wanting Neffison to surrender, and give his pony slaves up. They will be free to recover from their time as slaves, Nurse Redheart can tend to their wounds. But first, she needed a plan of when to attack, and she needed one now!
"Hey Twilight! I have a plan!" Twilight spun around to see her friend from the first battle, she was holding a dagger. Twilight smiled back, a dagger made by magic can do effective damage to an alicorn.
Twilight ran to the storage tent, out of it she had a rope, net, and a horn covering. The clanging noise of Twilight searching for the items had awoken all of the soldiers, when she ran out with her items, many of the soldiers were confused of what she is planning with the materials.
"Twilight, what are you doing? Are you going to do some sort of show?" Twilight turned around with a very big grin, and replied.
"We're going to make Neffison give back our princesses and the other ponies he calls slaves!" Some guards understood what she was planning right away, but many still had many questions. When Twilight turned away, one soldier spoke out with another question.
"Twilight, does this mean we are going into enemy territory?" Twilight frowned, it was one of the questions with the most obvious answer. When they planned to do something to the enemy, it usually always had to go into enemy territory, mostly.
"Yes, we're going into enemy territory! Is that what you needed to know?" The soldier nodded, and backed away slowly, Twilight and her archer friend, who was still holding the dagger, started to tell their plan to the soldiers, the soldiers started to grin, and chuckle their heads off, but Twilight had to make them quiet.
"Shh! We don't want Neffison to hear us when we are in enemy territory! We must be stealthy!" Twilight was afraid their enemy had sent some spies out to the camp, and she was afraid that one of the spies had heard art of her plan.
"Oh, right!" The soldier replied, Twilight turned away and started walking towards the enemy territory, the soldiers followed, her archer friend stayed at the rear. They marched into the darkness, where Neffison had the princesses and pony slaves.
Neffison looked at his mirror in his bedchambers, it has been over an hour after the sunset, and he couldn't sleep. He was scared of something, something that may try to free the princesses and the pony slaves, and an attempt to kill him, he talked to himself about these questions throughout the night, was it true?
"What could stop a plan to trap me, I have a feeling they'll trap me, then kill me. But what could stop whoever is trying to save the princesses and the slaves?" Then, at the corner of his eye, he spotted a rope sticking out of room, he started to smile, he turned around and in the room was rope, lots and lots of rope, and some horn coverings. He began to chuckle like his crazy self.
A bunch of soldiers ran to his bedchambers, one of them knocked and asked, "Your majesty, why are you up so late, and why are you making so much noise?" The door opened like if a train was coming through, and Neffison was charging down the hallway, with rope, horn coverings, and just his insane self, some of the guards stared blankly down the hall, one asked.
"Why does he do that?" Another guard replied to the question.
"Maybe he just wants to wreck something, after all, he came out of his bedchambers like a wrecking ball." All the guards laughed at this joke, but one stops them and says.
"But we should really figure out what is going on." All the guards nodded, still chuckling at the joke, they ran after the king.
The guards follow Neffison outside, and into the slaves. All of the slaves were taking the new workload really hard, they groaned under their heavy, brutal burdens, and not only sweat dripped down from their bodies, but also blood from their brutal whippings. Some of his guards were also questioning about his decision, was it right, was it wrong?
"Neffison, what are you planning?" One of the guards asked, Neffison turned around with a grin, and replied.
"We're going to capture some ponies, maybe even Twilight Sparkle!" The guard wasn't happy.
"Again?! We did this already what, three times?" But Neffison's response was not what the guard wanted, he had a spear pointed directly to his head, to avoid a spear going through his head, the guard changed his opinion.
"Although now that I think about it, I think that's a great idea!" The guard said quickly and smiled nervously, and Neffison dropped his spear. He turned around again and ran into the night, his soldiers following him.
Twilight arrived at the king's castle, she and the soldiers had to be sneaky, or Neffison might catch them, not knowing that he went to capture them, she and the other soldiers crept to the palace walls, for Twilight to complete her plan, she needed to find a way inside the building.
"How can we get in if we can't get spotted?" Twilight asked. Her archer friend, still having the dagger on her back, grabbed her bow and attached to an arrow, a rope, and shot it onto the roof.
"What are you doing?" Twilight was interested in what her friend was planning. But the mare continued to act out her plan, and started to climb the rope, when she reached the roof, she noticed a hole above a hallway, and she signaled Twilight and the soldiers to come up to the roof with the materials they had.
The soldiers had their materials on their backs as they climbed, Twilight carried her bow and arrows as she climbed, it was a tough challenge, and she had rope burns on her hoofs, but she made it as well as the soldiers without dropping anything. Twilight's friend then grabbed the net that Twilight brought, and with the ropes holding it, had it hover over the hallway.
"Great idea! When Neffison walks down the hallway, we'll have the net fall on top of him!"
Meanwhile, Neffison found the enemy camp, he started to smile, he'll have Twilight in his grasps, then soon, his master plan would be almost complete! But as they walked through the camp, he noticed it was empty, perfect! It made things even easier for him! But one of his soldiers had a question stuck in his mind for hours, he was sweating severely, soon Neffison noticed and fiercely turned around with a spear pointed towards the soldier's head, and a sword aimed for his legs. Neffison asked calmly to his soldier, even though he had weaponry pointed at the stallion.
"Why are you sweating? Are you hiding something from me?" The soldier gulped loudly and smiled nervously back at Neffison, Neffison was not satisfied, he pressed his spear against the soldier's head, drops of blood were starting to drip down the soldier's face. The soldier finally gave it up after that.
"OKAY! OKAY! IS THE WORK LOAD INCREASE FOR THE SLAVES PART OF YOUR MASTER PLAN??!!" The soldier closed his eyes, expecting the worst, but he felt the spear being extracted, he opened his eyes nervously, and saw that Neffison was putting the weapons away, the soldier also saw that Neffison turned towards the soldiers with some gear, and was starting to give instructions to put the gear down. Then he turned back at his soldier, and said with a smile.
"Yes, it is, Twilight could have easily freed them and the princesses at night, so I increased their workload and made them have to finish it so they could work in the night. That way, it would be tougher for Twilight to free them." The soldier nodded, but then asked another question.
"Your majesty, what is exactly your master plan?" Neffison frowned, but he continued to have his soldiers set a trap, then he turned to the soldier, and said.
"You'll figure out shortly my fine fellow, but if you ask again, I'll have your skull as a helmet." The threat immediately silenced the scared soldier. Now Neffison turned back at the soldiers setting up a trap, when Twilight steps on a rope, a net would fall on her, there for capturing her. Neffison could hardly wait.
Twilight and her soldiers waited for hours and hours, soon the sun was coming up.
"Let's just return to the camp before we fall asleep on the roof and somepony notices." Twilight and the soldiers let the net fall, and as it hit the floor, Twilight and her soldiers were already gone.
Neffison noticed in the distance that there was a purple unicorn with the soldiers coming towards the camp, he smiled, Twilight wouldn't even know what hit her! He told his soldiers to hold study until after the trap was deployed.
Twilight noticed a rope on the ground as she and the other soldiers were returning to their camp, but as she stopped to examine it, the other soldiers rammed into her, and Twilight had hit the rope, deploying the trap waiting for her. The net was so big that it captured all of the soldiers, including Twilight, and as the net fell upon her and her soldiers, Neffison and his soldiers rush in, all the unicorn soldiers that were captured, including Twilight, had coverings put upon their horns, and the pegasi had chains around their wings.
As the net was removed, Neffison came to now a trapped Twilight, who looked at him with angry eyes.
"Oh hello there, I was wondering when we'll meet again, when we get back to the castle, I'll be glad to have a meting with you! But now, just enjoy some rest." Neffison started to laugh again as he knocked Twilight out, and his soldiers carried Twilight and her soldiers back to Salvania.
Twilight was still blacked out, but after a while she was starting to recover from Neffison's spell. She was beginning to open her eyes, she felt like she was chained to a wall somewhere, she looked at her hoof at her left, to find it chained to the wall. She immediately woke up completely looking at her fastened hooves, she was trapped.
Neffison was laughing to himself as he entered the same room where he had Celestia, but now, he had his main target, Twilight. All she had to do was surrender, but it would take a while. As the red alicorn finds the doorway into the room, he grabbed a little dagger.
Twilight looked around the little room she was in, she was alone, but where were the others? What is Neffison up too? Just then Neffison walked inside the room, he was laughing like a maniac, his armor clattered together as he laughed, when he finally stopped, he smiled to himself.
"Hello Twilight Sparkle, I hope you find your little visit, nice." Twilight frowned at that comment.
"Not funny! Where are the other soldiers I had with me? Why do you have me like this? And your master plan, what's in it for Equestria?" Twilight's questions made Neffison just laugh like his normal self. He then began is little plot against Twilight.
"Well, Twilight, why don't you look outside." He revealed a window at the corner of the room, and with his magic, unfastened Twilight and held her towards the window. Twilight saw all the ponies that were kidnapped working as slaves, to her surprise she didn't see a single pony complain. "Maybe from his death threats." Twilight thought, but she also didn't see her friends, which was strange because her friends were captured too, right?
Neffison then carried Twilight back to the wall and refastened her. The alicorn king chuckled to himself, and asked.
"I hope you saw what I wanted you to see. Well, now listen here, you're wondering why I've been doing these acts? Very well, ever since I heard about the elements of harmony, and heard that they were kept in Equestria, I just investigated if the legends were true, and they were, in your beautiful country that was ruled by two sisters. I was later devising a plan to get what my country wanted."
Neffison then got his dagger out, he started to chuckle as he began again. "Eh he he he...and that plan involved first capturing ponies to work as slaves, later capturing the princesses and to hold them hostage, and to have you brought in. Then finally, we're about to meet the final part of the plan."
Neffison then used his magic to carve a hole in the wall, when that part of the wall was removed, there, tied up on some beds, were Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie, and Fluttershy. They turned over to the opening in the wall, they saw a now worried Twilight fastened to the wall. Twilight turned angrily towards Neffison, who held his dagger with a smile. Twilight asked angrily. "How long have they been like this?"
Neffison just shrugged and said. "I don't know, maybe thirty minutes, an hour, no matter. Just one thing, the final part of my plan is happening right now!"
He held his dagger up to Twilight's face. "It's time for you to choose! You can surrender to me, letting your friends go, and giving Equestria to me. Or not, and watch this dagger take away your friends forever. Your choice." Twilight gulped, she never, ever, EVER made a choice like this. The army has been captured, so not surrendering wouldn't do any good, and of course Neffison would kill her friends. Surrendering would be the better option but with Neffison in control of Equestria, he could do anything that would be horrible to the country!
"Well Twilight? What's your answer?" Neffison was beginning to become impatient, but he was not holding the dagger towards anypony yet. Finally, Twilight speaks.
"I'll have to surrender to you Neffison, it would do no good not surrendering, for you captured me and the army I lead." Neffison's eyes widened, he was never this happy in his entire life! Finally! After all of the planning, the work! Everything! His master plan, was now finally complete! Equestria was his to rule!
"Twilight, you did a good deed for my plan, Equestria is now mine!" As he was saying this, the floor below Twilight opened up, and before she could say anything in protest, Neffison unfastened Twilight, letting her fall. The floors closed again, Neffison couldn't believe it, he didn't know what to do!
Neffison had Twilight's friends untied, but he sent them back out to work. Then he went to his bedchambers, he would soon show Equestria that he was their new ruler, he will be their greatest leader in military might! He would show that there will be no mercy to his subjects that were not Salvanians, he will show the birth of the Salvanian empire! But he would also have the so called royal guard wear his military uniforms, but now, he just wanted to enjoy the moment of having Equestria as his own, he just wanted to enjoy the moment.
Twilight hit the ground hard, she had landed in the dungeon, the stone floor had knocked her air out of her lungs. As she was sitting up, she saw her soldiers, and also saw that she was sitting in the cell of her friend back in their first battle.
"Hey! It's me, Twilight!" Twilight's friend spun around to find Twilight, they hugged each other, but Twilight told her friend the bad news.
"So Neffison has the country? That greedy little tyrant!"
"Shh! All we need to do is get out of here, then we can defeat Neffison and take Equestria back!" Twilight's friend nodded, and they sat on the ground, planning their escape.
Neffison, his soldiers, and 100,000 Salvanians made their way to Equestria, the conquered country had no choice but to stay out of his way. Neffison smiled, with the princesses and Twilight out of the way, who could stop him? The ponies of Equestria were scared of what he might do, they were even more frightened at the fact that Neffison's soldiers were carrying shackles and chains. Neffison smiled as he strode towards Canterlot.
As Neffison entered the castle, he started to adore the fine arts, the glass windows in the throne room showed history, and lots of the rooms were neat and organized. The servants of the castle were probably preparing for Neffison's arrival. The royal guard was in fact doing their duties, except they'll have to change their uniform, or armor to red instead of yellow, but Neffison didn't mind that, he'll order the changes later.
Finally, he found the bedchambers, when he opened the door, he found a room that was sparkling clean, the bed was made, and there was a balcony with his room, his old castle didn't have a balcony. He was very pleased.
Some soldiers came in, bowed respectfully as Neffison was taking his helmet off, reviling his fire like mane. His main fell down his neck like lava. His cutie mark of a sword came into view when he took off some armor that protected his back and sides. The soldiers finally then said this.
"Your majesty, why did you bring lots of chains? It's not like you're planning to imprison all of the ponies who lived here? Are you?" Neffison frowned, this was the third time this week!
"No! I don't want all the ponies in the dungeons! The chains were brought just in case if we do have ponies breaking the law, maybe, no, weeeelll, it's not like I'm completely out of my mind, or am I?" Neffison started laughing as he started putting his armor back on, the armor clattered against Neffison's body. He then ran out of the room with the soldiers following him.
Neffison came out of the castle, where half of the ponies bowed with respect, while the other bowed in fear, for the king was not really a king anymore, more like an emperor.
"Citizens of Equestria, and the Salvanian empire. Today, Equestria has a new ruler, me! Today, we shall celebrate the birth of the new empire and dynasty!" The Salvanian ponies cheered, but the ponies of Equestria did not, for they are now ruled by a tyrant, he can easily make the ponies of Equestria his slaves, like he did to the other ponies in Salvania. But to their surprise, and relief, his chains right next to him were not picked up, or even moved. But their relief was short lived.
Neffison, with his magic, picked up the chains, and said. "Whoever has these chains fastened on will join the party in Salvania in rebuilding the city where the castle is. He he he he."
The ponies of Equestria gasped, another slavery act? He wants to dig his own grave now! But one after the other, Neffison fastened chain after chain, and soldier after soldier held the chained pony in custody, then Neffison ordered the soldiers to lead the chained ponies back to Salvania and join the rest of the slaves. He smiled with delight. Celestia, Luna, and Twilight were defeated, and nopony dared to face the new king.
Eventually Neffison had caused tyranny on the ponies of Equestria, on the same day he arrived, he demanded high taxes from the ponies of Equestria, and if they didn't pay, he threw them into the dungeons. But he didn't do it to the Salvanian ponies, who got richer and richer.
The next day, he raised the tax amounts from each pony, which whipped them into a rage. But they still paid, but the tax fees kept coming, and coming, until all the ponies in Equestria were penniless. When the officers came to collect the taxes, each pony said they were out of money, and of course, the officers did not, believe them, and brought the ponies to Neffison, where he ordered them locked up in the dungeon. Soon all of the ponies of Equestria were ether locked up or working as slaves back in Salvania, but he didn't stop there. He ordered his soldiers to take all of the ponies of Equestria to Salvania, to work as slaves. Once the order was carried out, Only Salvanian ponies were left free.
Some of the taxes were sent to Salvania to purchase items from neighboring lands. While the rest of the taxes were given to the citizens of Salvania, adding to their wealth. Neffison was on his balcony, he smiled to himself, like if he was still enjoying the moment that Equestria was now his. "Now! Nopony can stop me, this empire will be the strongest ever, and nether friend nor foe will take it away from me. This is the fall of Equestria, who are now enslaved by me. No mare, stallion, or filly that is a pony of Equestria is free, well, except the royal guard. But that doesn't matter now, victory is MINE!"
But as he is saying this, a blue alicorn, with a red and light blue mane and tail, heard everything that the wicked king said. He was not happy at all about what Neffison was doing, as he turned to fly away, he spat out this statement to himself.
"We'll see about that!" He had spread his wings out, and took flight, and as the mysterious alicorn flew away, Neffison went back into his room, where he started laughing again, like his maniac like self. Who could stop him when the princesses and Twilight are gone? He can rule Equestria forever! Or can he? Does the mysterious alicorn have anything to do with this?
Back at Neffison's castle, Twilight and her friend were plotting their escape from the dungeons, but they had coverings on their horns, so they couldn't escape by magic. Or could they? "Let me take that horn covering off Twilight, so you can blast the door." Twilight's friend was waiting for the right moment to take the covering off.
Twilight didn't like the idea of blasting the door, the guards would come immediately to find them, and her friend agreed to try Twilight's plan.
"Neffison, Neffison, so clueless to put chains on us, he won't even know that we're gone!" Twilight's friend reached towards Twilight's horn, and with her hoofs, was able to lodge the covering enough so Twilight could take it off completely. With her magic back, Twilight could easily take off the covering on her friend's horn.
"Now if we can somehow make a guard accidentely unlock our cell door. We could easily knock him out!" Twilight was telling her plan while her friend looked out the cell door. A guard was walking down the corridor.
"This is our chance right now Twilight! Here comes a guard!" Twilight turned to look, the guard was only a few cells away, they had only seconds to carry out their plan.
"Guard! Guard!" The stallion peered towards the cell door. Twilight was calling for him.
"What is it? Unless if it is a absolute emergency, consider your request denied." The guard was about to turn away and leave when Twilight called for him again.
"But wait! Me and my friend are almost out of water! Please get us some more." The guard instantly wanted to help, and ran for the water jugs near the dungeon exit, then ran back to the cell. As he opened the cell door, however, Twilight and her friend jumped him, knocking him out.
As Twilight and her friend exit their cell, they grabbed the water jugs that the guard was carrying for them. They might need them later on. They needed a way out of the castle avoiding the guards, but unfortianetly, some unicorn guards spotted the duo, and they weren't sure how the prisoners escaped.
"Let's check the dungeon to see what happened." says one guard.
"Sounds like a good idea!" Says the other.
When the guards reach Twilight's and her friend's cell, they notice the door was open, as they move closer, they notice a unconscious guard.
"They must have escaped by tricking the guard!" One guard exclaims.
"Really? We must not let therm escape! Or Neffison would kill us!"
"Right after you!"
The unicorn guards followed the escapees, they couldn't be seen, or the prisoners will know that they will have to get out of here faster. But if that does happen, they will have to use transportation spells to catch Twilight and her friend. For they were crafty.
"Shhhhhh. Be careful, we don't want to cause attention, but we can maybe get more guards out here you know."
"Yeah, that would help a lot!" But as the guard was saying this, he bumped against a wall, causing a vase on a platform to fall to the ground and shatter into a million pieces, the crash was so startling that seven unicorn guards ran up to the shattered piece of art in shock, unaware that Twilight and her friend was waking directly towards them in confusion, what happened?
"What was tha........Oh no! We need to get out of here! Now!" Twilight and her friend raced away. The unicorn guards were confused, but realized that their prisoners had escaped their confinement.
"What the............................get them!" The unicorn guards' horns begin glowing, and with a flash of light, they were gone.
Twilight and her friend raced through the corridors. As they ran, Twilight asked a question to her friend. "I don't think I ever got your name. What is it by the way?" The blue unicorn looks at Twilight, with the facial expression saying, this is a bad time to ask that! But she answers.
"My name is Zesponella. But you can call me Zenny." The blue unicorn said. But as they rounded a corner, two guards popped out of nowhere, when they tried to go back, seven more guards had appeared like one of Trixie's magical appearances. Twilight and Zenny were surrounded, they were trapped.
"We have you now!" One guard said as he pulled out a sword, he was planning on hitting them with the butt of his sword. But before he could do anything towards his goal, the wall next to them is blasted.
"WHAT THE......QUICKLY! GET THE PRISONERS!" The guards were terrified, dust blocked the view through the hole in the wall. When the dust cleared, an alicorn who had landed on the debree had his horn glowing.
"Retreat! That alicorn can kill us all! Retreat!" The guards ran through the halls and rounded the corner, and they were gone. Twilight and Zenny quickly turn to their savior.
"Thanks so much for helping us! What's your name?" The alicorn just motioned to leave, and said.
"The name is Geoffrey, nice to meet you! But we really must go! The guards might be back." The two unicorns smiled and eagerly ran through the hole in the wall, Geoffrey following close behind.
Back in Canterlot, Neffison is furious to know that an alicorn had helped Twilight and Zenny escape his dungeons back in Salvania. He fiercely looked at the guards who brought the message. "Who is this alicorn that helped Twilight and her friend named Zenny escape?" The guards shifted uneasily, but finally replied.
"The alicorn's name is Geoffrey, sir." Neffison's eyes widened, for Geoffrey was one of his friends, now, he was a traitor! Neffison then yelled at the guards.
"FIND GEOFFREY AND BRING HIM HERE AT ONCE! BRING TWILIGHT AND ZENNY IF HE HAS THEM AS WELL! THEY WILL FACE A GREAT PUNISHMENT! MAYBE THEY WILL EVEN MEET THE GALLOWS!" As Neffison finished yelling his order, the guards were already soluting to him and running out the door.
Neffison tried to relax as he thought of ways to punish his once close friend. Jail wouldn't do any good, death, maybe, banishment, maybe. Finally, Neffison couldn't take it. "AUGH! Geoffrey dared to betray me! He will face the gallows! Once he is dead, Equestria may not see freedom ever again! OH HO HO! MWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HAAAAAAAAA HA HA HAAAA!" Neffison would soon take care of Geoffrey, and soon, have maybe even more executions! He could hardly wait to see a gallows built! But now, he had to wait for that time to come, the time to see Geoffrey fall from the gallows.
Neffison's soldiers were unsure of where Geoffrey might be hiding, or where the traces of Twilight and Zenny might be. They could be anywhere! If the guards did not find Geoffrey within a week, they will be beheaded. Another one of Neffison's death threats. They would have to move fast, to remain alive. Or Neffison would keep their heads as trophies on his walls.
"Neffison wants us to find Geoffrey within the week, we'll take day after day to find him, we may even find Twilight and Zenny as a bonus, if we don't find him within seven days, we'll be dead. Let's stay together throughout the search, and camp at night." The search began after these words were said.
The soldiers decided to start near Appleloosa, an unlikely hiding place, but they needed to search everywhere, wether it was an unlikely hiding spot or not.
The soldiers reached Appleloosa within an hour, the southern town was not as populated as before Neffison took control, but it would make things a little easier. For the soldiers had more space to cover.
Geoffrey was obviously clever at hiding, for the soldiers couldn't find him in Appleloosa. Maybe he was somewhere else? The soldiers had no idea where to look.
Day after day and city after city the soldiers had looked for Geoffrey out in the southern parts of Equestria, but he was nowhere to be seen, the soldiers did not want to die. For Neffison fiercely threatened them, he even threw a knife at them, like if he was using his soldiers as a knife target. Something the soldiers were used to when Neffison acts insane and angry. But Geoffrey is a good pony, so what he helped Twilight and Zenny escape, Geoffrey is too clever.....or is he?
"What's that?" A soldier points at hoof prints near the entrance to Ponyville on Day 6 of the search, and there were plenty of them. Maybe Geoffrey had hid near or somewhere in Ponyville! All the soldiers had to do was follow the hoof prints and that will be how they will find Geoffrey!
"The hoof prints are leading into town, let's look throughout the town, if we find Geoffrey, Neffison would spare us." When the soldiers split up, the search though Ponyville was on.
Twilight thought she picked the perfect hiding spot, in her library at Golden Oaks, Spike had sealed Twilight, Zenny, and Geoffrey into a compartment where he found a book for Twilight about the mirror pool. There was air, for a hole in the wall was made, but it was small so Neffison's soldiers don't get suspisous about it thinking it is a hiding spot. But Neffison's soldiers were in Ponyville, and the compartment was small. "Hopefully Spike can keep his mouth shut." Thought Twilight.
Some soldiers knocked at the door at the Golden Oaks library, and Spike went to open it. When he saw the soldiers, he began sweating, making the soldiers suspisous. "Hello, we are searching for a blue alicorn named Geoffrey who helped two unicorn mares, Twilight and Zenny, escape from the dungeons in Salvania. May we come in to inspect your library?" Spike was sweating even more. If they look in the bookshelves...
"Hey, look!" A soldier spotted something in the bookshelves, like if it was a door or something, when he pulled open the door he found, a magical blast blazed past his face.
"Yep, that's Geoffrey." The group of soldiers surround the compartment, and some soldiers outside who heard the racket surrounded the Golden Oaks Library. Geoffrey didn't know what to do, he, Twilight and Zenny were surrounded, and Twilight doesn't want her library destroyed, so fighting back won't help. Then, it hit him, a plan on how to overthrow Neffison! But it would take Twilight's and Zenny's help to accomplish.
"Hey, Twilight, Zenny, I have a plan, but it's risky, we must be careful." As Geoffrey explains the plan to Twilight and Zenny, they began to smile, finally, their chance to defeat Neffison and free Equestria from slavery, perfect!
"Alright! This is it, come on out with your hooves up!" The soldiers yelled into the compartment, and to their surprise, Geoffrey came out, but he was also accompenied by Twilight and Zenny. They were actually surrendering.
"We came out, you win soldiers, take us away." The soldiers were even more surprised, but they remember the threat by Neffison and immediately put coverings on the horns of their captives, and lead them away. Spike, who watched this, was wondering if Twilight had a plan involving surrendering. While Geoffrey, Twilight, and Zenny were being led away, they winked at Spike. Spike now knew that they had an idea and to remain calm, for when Twilight winked at him in situations like this, it had ment that she had an idea. But when he went to his bed, he started to cry, for he failed to protect Twilight.
The soldiers arrived in Canterlot in the evening, something worried Geoffrey as a gallows was seen in view, was Neffison really wanting his once best friend executed? But he would soon find out, for Neffison was waiting near it and was smiling.
"Hello Geoffrey, may I ask why you committed treachery against the Salvanian empire?" Neffison asked with a sarcastic tone. But Geoffrey wasn't amused.
"May I ask why you plan on executing me?" Neffison frowned, and said.
"Why, you committed treachery, helping Twilight and Zenny escape from prison, and you will pay, but these mares will also be executed by the gallows, for safety from a rebellion." Geoffrey was confused, but he knew the three of them could be executed if their plan failed. He needed to do what he needed to do, or he and the unicorn mares would be hanging from a rope.
Neffison laughed so hard when he prepared Geoffrey's execution, soon after him will be Twilight and Zenny. But because it was getting dark out, he had to wait until the morning to do the dreaded deed. But the next morning he was ready for his plan to take action.
"Guards! Bring Geoffrey, Twilight, and Zenny out to the gallows, it's time for them to leave the world in peace. Mmm mm mm mmm mm meh meh meh ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HAAAAAAAAA! Soon Equestria will not have any hope left of being free again, instead they will be slaves forever and ever." Neffison couldn't wait for Equestria's only hope to vanish from his sight forever. He'll soon see that they will vanish.
Geoffrey, Twilight, and Zenny shared the same cell, seemed like another confinement for them, which was true. But they were not showing gloomy faces, instead, they were smiling. Their plan would soon proceed into motion. But things might backfire, and they only had one shot at this.
Because of Neffison's excitement, he forgot to have his guards put coverings on the prisoners horns, therefore Geoffrey could do a crucial part of their plan, Twilight and Zenny could also do magic to help the plan succeed.
Some guards came to their cell. Their red armor shined from the sunrise, and as they unlocked the cell, Geoffrey, Twilight, and Zenny knew that it was time.
As Geoffrey was led up to the gallows, Neffison was already laughing in triumph, even though Geoffrey wasn't dead yet. "Soon those ponies of Equestria will never be free again! They will be slaves forever! OH OH HO HO HO! MWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!" Neffison couldn't wait for that moment to come, he couldn't wait.
As Geoffrey made his way up the gallows led by guards, he noticed the noose that would be placed around his neck, Neffison was heading towards the gallows, and with a piece of paper, read aloud. "Geoffrey, you are accused of the following crimes, treachery, attempted treachery, attempted murder, and high treason, do you deny these crimes that I read aloud?" Neffison sharply pointed his hoof towards Geoffrey, waiting for his answer.
Geoffrey knew that he would have one shot on his plan of helping Equestria be freed. But he had to wait just a little longer to start. He boldly replies. "No, I do not." Neffison smiled and chuckled, then replied.
"Then you are sentenced to death by hanging." Neffison didn't realize it yet, but he couldn't kill Geoffrey by the gallows, which would prove to be a big mistake. As Geoffrey was about to be bucked off the platform, noose tightened, his horn began to glow. Which made Geoffrey glow. And when he was bucked off the platform, Geoffrey was consumed in a giant ball of black smoke, and as he continued to fall, that smoke was chewing of the rope around Geoffrey's neck, causing it to snap.
Neffison was watching the execution with evil eyes, his plan was working, Geoffrey would finally be gone, and Neffison could rule Equestria as part of the Salvanian empire forever! But to his surprise, and anger, he saw the rope fly back up. As he looked down to the ground where the rope was supposed to be, he noticed a huge ball of smoke.
Neffison's eyes widened, he knew what that black ball of smoke was, and what it was doing. Geoffrey was transforming into...
The smoke cleared and what remained of the blue alicorn was now a black alicorn with a red and purple like main. Neffison was afraid, and looked up, he had made Geoffrey's anger rise to much, he mouthed the words to his guards. "Dark........Geoffrey......."
Dark Geoffrey looked up to see Neffison, and he immediately turned around and his horn began glowing with a red aura instead of blue. Neffison began to light his horn with red aura as well, but Dark Geoffrey fired first, like a quick trigger finger, the magical blast hit the gallows, barely missing Neffison's hoofs. The blast was strong enough to destroy the gallows, Dark Geoffrey flew up though and blasted it again for good measure, Neffison was speechless, he and his guards were backing away, not noticing Twilight and Zenny sneaking past them and towards the direction of the border between Salvania and Equestria. Dark Geoffrey smiled, and before Neffison knew what Twilight and Zenny were doing, Dark Geoffrey took off after them.
"What the...." Neffison turned to look where Dark Geoffrey was running, and Neffison's eyes widened and jaw dropped, Dark Geoffrey was running with Twilight and Zenny towards.....Salvania. Neffison just stood there, he watched the three ponies become smaller and smaller. Finally, they were out of sight, that's when he dared to speak.
"My plan was perfect! I had Equestria's only hope in my clutches! Why didn't it work? WHY WHY WHHHY???!!" Neffison was shacking himself around around, he was downhearted that his plan had failed. One guard had tried to comfort him.
"Uh sir, I think the problem may have been....uhh...in the, execution." Neffison looked up, and he began to smile like a maniac again.
"Execution....did somebody say, execution? Now we're getting somewhere!" As Neffison was saying this, he pulled out his sword and pointed it at his guards. They backed up nervously, hoping that he doesn't throw it across the the courtyard.
A scream could be heard from where Dark Geoffrey, Twilight, and Zenny were, it sounded like Neffison had executed somepony else than them. "We can't rest now, we need to get to Salvania, we need to free the ponies, we are their only hope, if we want to overthrow Neffison, we need to be prepared for anything." The three ponies continued racing through Equestria, they were hoping that Neffison would continue griping over his failed plan, well....
At Neffison's old castle, where he has the princesses in custody and has all of the ponies of Equestria his slaves, Dark Geoffrey, Twilight, and Zenny creep up towards the now bloody courtyard, for the pony slaves have been working very hard, but the guards still whipped them.
As the ponies spied the courtyard for guards, which seemed to be that there wasn't in sight, they wondered why the pony slaves continued to work and not slack off while the guards were gone. Maybe a death threat?
Dark Geoffrey starts to get up, but while he does this, he motioned Twilight and Zenny to help him. "We are going to free the ponies, and the princesses in the dungeons, but if Neffison is here, Twilight, get the princesses, while Zenny continues with unfastening the shackles of the ponies, I'll fight them off." Twilight wasn't sure if Dark Geoffrey could fight off an entire army just like that.
"Are you sure Geoffrey?" asked Twilight. Dark Geoffrey replied.
"I'm strong enough to repel them, don't worry." Dark Geoffrey says, and the three ponies started to sneak down the hill they were on. Unaware that they had company.
"Mmmmmm mmm mm mm mm ha ha ha ha! Something tells me that we'll need to trick them. Don't you?" He asked his entire army, who came along with him.
"Uhhhyyyyyyyes." The soldiers said nervously something told them that they were going to violently force the three ponies into surrender. They were even more nervous from Neffison's horn beginning to glow.
"Now, when I cause attention to me while all of you are behind those hills, they'll all come this way, or at least Geoffrey, Twilight, and Zenny, or just Geoffrey, and when I say the command, pop out and fire your arrows into the air. Got it?" The soldiers nodded as they went into their hiding spot.
Dark Geoffrey, Twilight, and Zenny made their way into the courtyard, but they still hid. But when they were very sure that it was safe, they came out of hiding from behind some barrels, and were immediately noticed by the pony slaves. "Twilight? Is that you?" Applejack noticed the three ponies first and asked the question that made everypony notice. Sure enough, everypony reconized Twilight, who they thought was dead.
"Everypony! It's Twilight! She's alive!" All the pony slaves went away from their labors, they dropped their hammers and nails. But as the ponies crowded around, Twilight began to speak.
"Everypony, I'm glad you're okay. But we must hurry and unfasten your shackles and get of here before..."
"I SHOW UP?! OH OH HO HO HO! MWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HAAAAAAAA!!!" Everypony turns to see who made the voice, it was Neffison, his armor clattered against his skin as he laughed. All of the pony slaves started to scream in terror, Dark Geoffrey was scared too, how did Neffison know where to look? But Dark Geoffrey kept a straight face, gave some nods to Twilight and Zenny, and started marching towards Neffison.
Zenny quickly started using her magic to try to unfasten the shackles, it was working, one by one, chains started to fall to the ground. While Zenny was doing that, Twilight ran towards the dungeons, and swiftly made it inside. Finding Celestia's and Luna's cell, Twilight immediately uses her magic to break the door down. Having a startled Celestia and Luna look up, to see Twilight at the door, and with her magic, the horn coverings on the princesses' horns were removed. The three ponies then dart for the door.
As Dark Geoffrey came close, Neffison gave the signal, and all of his soldiers with bows drawn, fired arrows into the air, raining down upon Dark Geoffrey, but with his horn glowing, Dark Geoffrey was able to repel the arrows and cause them to head directly towards the army, causing all of them to flee in terror, Neffison noticed this and shouted. "Hey! Come back here! Oh well, if they won't help, I guess I'll stop you myself!" Neffison then started running towards the pony slaves. Blocking all of Dark Geoffrey's magical blasts.
"OH NO!" Some pony slaves notice Neffison charging towards them like a rhino on a rampage. Again, ponies began to panic and scream, their master was headed towards them with his horn glowing, but insteed of reguler magic, black smoke was coming out of his horn, he was wielding dark magic towards the pony slaves, and was getting closer, and closer, and....
Just when Neffison was in firing range, he was blasted by both a yellow and blue magical blast. It knocked him towards some bushes, as he recovered from the sudden magical blasts, he looked to see who fired the blasts, and soon he sees that the sun and moon princesses near his castle, horns glowing. "You!" He screamed.
Celestia and Luna were now so angry at Neffison. "Nopony....ever....hurts.....our subjects!" The princesses were looking at Neffison, who was getting up from the ground, in fury. They knew however that Neffison is a powerful alicorn and would stop at nothing to stay in power.
"But before we begin, I have somepony to deal with right now." Neffison says with his horn beginning to glow, and with a huge grin, started turning towards Dark Geoffrey, who was coming towards Neffison in front of a pole, and who was in Neffison's levitation spell, Neffison used his magic to make Dark Geoffrey at very fast speeds bang his head against the pole. After having Dark Geoffrey's head being banged against the pole for fifteen minutes, Neffison stops the levitation spell and lets the motionless Dark Geoffrey fall to the ground, blood stains were everywhere around the pole, and blood continued to drip from Dark Geoffrey's head. Everypony who watched this had their jaws dropped, and eyes widened, nopony can survive a beating like that, Dark Geoffrey had to be dead.
"Now, princesses, after that being taken care of..." Neffison horn began glowing, and ten knifes were grabbed from Neffison's armor pockets, and he continued his sentence. "...let's begin!" After that, Neffison hurled all ten knifes at the princesses, some of the pony slaves had to dodge the knifes because of the bad accuracy, but Neffison then fired magical blasts, some of the blasts had hit the ground, starting a fire.
Celestia and Luna dodged Neffison's wild projectiles with ease, and fired some of their own, one of them hitting Neffison, throwing him back onto the ground like if he was a tennis ball that hit the grass. Neffison looks up to see the princesses over him, horns glowing, preparing to finish him off. "Well? It's over Neffison, give it up, and let Equestria go!" But Neffison smiled despite the demand, and said.
"I don't think so." While Celestia and Luna prepared to fire a magical blast to finish off Neffison, Neffison fires two blasts into the princesses' faces. Taken aback and falling onto the ground, they see Neffison getting up and fire two more blasts at their heads, barely dodging them, the princesses look up to see Neffison say.
"I don't go down that easy, ha ha! I can't believe you! You were so sure of yourselves! HA HA HA! But now back to our social time, which is more like our battle time! Ha ha ha ha haaaa!" Neffison was standing feet away from the pony slaves, who were having their shackles unfastened by Twilight and Zenny. Celestia and Luna get up from their blasts to the face, only to have more blasts from Neffison shot inches from their legs. Fire continued to burn the grass on the ground. Causing everypony watching the fierce battle to panic. Neffison noticed this and ran towards it until he was inches away from it.
The princesses did not notice the fire however from a spell Neffison casted, and when they charged towards him, Neffison moved out of the way, the princesses couldn't stop in time and fell into the fire. Ponies screamed in terror as Neffison dragged the princesses out of the fire, they were unconscious, and had very bad burn marks on their flesh. Neffison with his magic tossed the princesses aside, and looked at the pony slaves. "It looks like you aren't going anywhere anytime soon, oh well, get back to work!!"
"Not going to happen Neffison!" The emperor turned around to find Celestia and Luna, alive and angry, with their horns glowing.
"What?! But how did you survive?!" Celestia and Luna only smiled at each other, then turned back towards the insane king, and said,
"To tell you the truth, we don't go down that easy ether. We won't give up on our subjects that you took away from us. Not now. Not ever." Neffison only smiled, and said.
"Awwwwww! So sweet! But say your goodbyes! You won't see these ponies again! Ha ha he he! If only Geoffrey was here to help! Too bad for you that I killed him!" But as he was saying this, Dark Geoffrey was beginning to move, he was in fact alive. But he was still having trouble completely waking up. Neffison doesn't notice this and continues with his what he calls taunting.
"Without him, you're utterly easy for me to defeat. Prepare for your destruction!"
"Not if I can help it!" Neffison turns towards the mysterious voice in surprise and anger. Who dared to even speak? Neffison finds not a earth pony, unicorn, or a Pegasus, but the alicorn Dark Geoffrey. Dark Geoffrey's head wound was healing, and he was standing up tall and was readying his horn for any attacks.
"WHAT?! H..how did you sur..survive? You had your head banging against that pole for fi..fif...fifteen minutes!" Neffison's eyes grew wide, and he was beginning to shake nervously, he was frightened.
"Never mind that part Neffison, now let's end our little conflict, shall we?" As Dark Geoffrey inched closer to the terrified alicorn, Neffison began to back away towards the fire which sprouted minutes before.
"Now, wait a minute Geoffrey! We can sort this out! I'll pay for your medical bills! O..or have myself embarrassed, or something!" But Dark Geoffrey drew closer, and Neffison backed away into the fire and across, trying to find a way to escape. But Dark Geoffrey drew closer. Finally, Neffison shouted.
"I'll let Equestria go!! Please don't hurt me!" Dark Geoffrey stopped in his tracks. Was Neffison bribing him? But Neffison desperately pulled out the contract from about two months ago when the war started between him and Equestria, and tore it to pieces.
"You're letting them go? I mean, you know that's an automatic defeat on your name." Dark Geoffrey said to his enemy, who was shacking in fear.
"Yes! I don't want them anymore! Take them and leave!" Neffison yells. Dark Geoffrey just shrugs and turns to leave. But Neffison starts to smile and his horn begins to glow. He then fires a magical blast at Dark Geoffrey's head, striking him successfully. Dark Geoffrey gets up angrily and looks at Neffison who is laughing at the sight of Dark Geoffrey struck down.
"What? Why did you do that?" Neffison only smiled and presented Dark Geoffrey with a sword in his magic, and said.
"Well, let's just say I lied to you and the only way to free the ponies is to defeat me in combat, which you haven't done yet." Dark Geoffrey's mouth fell open. Neffison lied to him! Only one way to settle this.
"YOU WILL LOSE THIS BATTLE!!!! I WILL FREE THE PONIES!!! I WILL MAKE YOU LOSE EQUESTRIA UNDER YOUR INFLUENCE!!!!" But Dark Geoffrey's screaming made Neffison shrug and he said.
"You'll only get yourself killed! I don't care because you are not going to free Equestria!" Dark Geoffrey and Neffison then lung at each other and begin punching each other, shooting magical blasts at each other, and blow after blow was made. Dark Geoffrey was losing the fight when he was hit in the face and he fell to the ground. As Dark Geoffrey looked up, he noticed Neffison lunging towards him, as Neffison landed on top of Dark Geoffrey, Dark Geoffrey used his leg to push Neffison away from his grasp. Neffison expression was with fury, but soon he had flown through the fire surrounding him and Dark Geoffrey and he landed face first into the ground.
"Ponies! Neffison is down! Make a run for it!" Rainbow was screaming, by now all the chains were unfastened from all the ponies, and now Dark Geoffrey was running towards the ponies who were now running towards the border of Equestria. Neffison was getting up by now and saw the ponies running away, he was now starting to yell like crazy.
"YOU GET BACK HERE!!!! AUGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!" As he was yelling he got up and was running towards the escaping ponies. Neffison was planning on getting the ponies back and make them work harder than ever before.
"Ponies! He's gaining on us! RUN FASTER!" Rainbow was flying overhead and saw Neffison closing the gap between him and the ponies. Something the ponies didn't like at all. Everypony was running as fast as they could. If Neffison caught them, they would all return to being slaves, but if they crossed the border, Neffison couldn't do anything about it.
The border was in sight now, but Neffison was running like a cheetah, and the gap was smaller and smaller, something that the ponies were terrified on what Neffison would do to them if they failed to make it back to Equestria.
"No!" Neffison was yelling when the ponies began to cross the border.
"NO!" Dark Geoffrey was standing across the border now, horn glowing.
"NO!!" Neffison screamed when the last of the ponies crossed the border.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!" Neffison planted his hooves as he skidded to a stop. The ponies of Equestria got away. They were now free. Free from him. His anger boiled as he gritted his teeth, then shouted to the ponies.
"ENJOY YOUR FREEDOM WHILE YOU CAN!!! JUST YOU WAIT! YOU'LL KNOW THAT THIS ISN'T OVER!!!! I'LL GET MY REVENGE!! I'LL GET YOU BACK HERE!!! I'LL GET YOU TO BE SLAVES AGAIN!!! I'LL TAKE OVER AGAIN!!! JUST YOU WAIT!!! OH HO HO HO! MWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HAAAAAAAAA!!!!!" Neffison then turned around and ran back to his castle in Salvania. Plotting his next scheme against Equestria.
"I don't think he'll be taking Equestria again anytime soon." Dark Geoffrey says to the princesses. Then, with his horn glowing, transformed back into Geoffrey. The princesses smiled at him.
"Come with us, you'll be greatly rewarded for what you did for Equestria, for our subjects, for me and my sister, and we both understand that Twilight and Zenny helped, but without you, I don't know if Equestria would ever be free again." Celestia then looks at the ponies, with smiles and joyful hearts, Twilight talking to her friends and introduced Zenny to them. The Cutie Mark Crusaders, including Babs Seed, were together. Everypony was happy as they marched back to their homes.
Things are getting better in Equestria, The princesses are back on the throne, the ponies are back in their homes, and Neffison was gone. Geoffrey was named as a hero, Somepony who Equestria could trust. Without him, Equestria may have been in a dark age forever and ever. He was highly rewarded as well, but after a couple of days, he left, but he said goodbye before he departed for somewhere in the unknown.
Twilight was heading over to Applejack's farm, sweet apple acres. It's been awhile before Twilight has visited the apple farm, well, before Neffison came to power anyways. Applejack and Applebloom were pulling out some weeds near some apple trees, their time being forced to work left them and all the other ponies extremely weak, and tired, instead of healthy and strong. Whip marks were everywhere on their bodies, something that Twilight was tired of seeing on everypony.
"Howdy Twilight! How are you doing?" Applejack asked Twilight when she first caught sigh of her walking towards the barn.
"I'm fine, but what about you? That evil tyrant had you beaten and forced to work as slaves, and you were one of the ponies who was a slave the longest!" Applejack sighed, Twilight was in fact correct, but Neffison seemed not only ruthless, but just plain nasty, to the Cutie Mark Crusaders mostly, he would sometimes taunt them to doing the forced labor to try to get their cutie marks. Something Applejack disapproved.
"Twilight, to tell you the truth, I think that darn Neffison will in time return, but also do something extremely horrible to the club Applebloom is in." Twilight, confused, asked. "Why?"
Applejack started looking at Applebloom, her younger sister was talking to her friends who just came over, the little fillies were talking about a big meeting for all the Cutie Mark Crusaders to came too, for during their time as slaves, many new crusaders were recruited. The parents of the crusaders allowed their young fillies to come to the meeting. Things were going to be perfect was what they said.
"He despised them." Applejack said back to Twilight. The purple unicorn knew that instant that Neffison hated the Cutie Mark Crusaders. But why?
Twilight then shook her head and thought to herself, "Twilight, don't worry about the reason, just be happy that you helped Equestria be free again." Twilight then said to Applejack.
"I'm sorry on how Neffison was treating them. But is there more that I need to know on how he treated you?" Twilight asked, she wanted to know everything, how that evil tyrant treated her friends, the ponies of Equestria.
"Yes, hear this, he was actually patient with all of us." Twilight froze from that remark, a patient side of Neffison, no way! But Applejack was the element of Honesty, she had to be telling the truth.
"He....was...patient with you?" Twilight had to force the question out of her mouth, for it was hard to ask.
"Yep, but he still whipped us, but he had as take our time to finish the workload. Surprisingly." Applejack said, and showed Twilight some scars which she said came from some whippings near her tail. But most marks were everywhere on her back.
Twilight looked at the marks, and to her surprise, their wasn't as many as she thought. But there were still a lot, and it would take a while to heal completely, but Twilight was also impressed by how everypony, including Pinkie and Fluttershy, survived the painful experience, but Neffison might return, thought Twilight, and sadly Geoffrey had to leave, he had to go on his way, but when Neffison does return, we'll be ready!
Neffison must have had been throwing knifes at a wall for hours now because when he was done, over a thousand knifes were stuck in the wall, he kept screaming. "WHY?! JUST WHY?! WHY WAS I SO FOOLISH TO FACE THE PRINCESSES AND GEOFFREY BY MYSELF?!! WHY?!" During the evening, some servants who were brave enough to approach him tried to calm him down and cheer him up by saying.
"Neffison, please calm down, we know you are the mightiest alicorn ever to live, even though your insane, you are still a brave and clever warrior, and you will, and we do mean that you will have Equestria under your influence again, and make them your slaves again. But when you do, remember our advice, make them work faster, and if they're not, you can whip them like crazy, or your guards can, that will make them so distracted that they won't have time to think about their freedom ever again!" When Neffison heard the advice, he smiled, he had to agree that he was too patient with his slaves.
Soon Neffison was laughing like his insane self, and started running towards his room. Guards had to dive out of his path because he was running so fast. Neffison gritted his teeth as he entered his room, on a desk was a map of Equestria, as he looked at the map of the free ponies, he said to himself.
"They are free, they are happy, they are in control of their own land." But he began to make a evil smile while still gritting his teeth, and with his magic, picked up the map, and said. "Not for much longer." As he said this, he started to burn the map with his magic, and begin laughing. "OH HO HO!!! MWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HAAAAAA!!!! OH HO HO HO HO HA HA HA HA HA HAAAAA! MWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HAAAAAA!! MWA HA HA HA HA HAAAAAAAAA!!!!!"
The map was turning into burnt shreds, and Neffison continued laughing throughout the night. His armor doing it's reguler melody. He was going to regain Equestria as his own, and enslave the ponies again!
But first, he was going to target a simple filly crusader club.
