Prologue
Equestria, once known for it's fine scenery and humble townsfolk, was now nothing more than a wasteland, being rebuilt from the ground up after recent events. A wasteland caused by lies, greed, power, deception, and corruption. Corruption that was caused by the greed of a villain, trying to get back at Celestia's most faithful student... Twilight Sparkle, and the rest of the Equestrian royalty.
As Pumpkin Cake walked the deserted streets of Ponyville, many thoughts ran through her head on what had happened or how it had happened. It was like a ghost town, something unrealistic for her and her friends. The Ponyville they all grew up seeing was a jolly place, and a well known trade center for all visitors who made business with the once small town. Now there was nothing. No SugarCube Corner, No Carousel Boutique, No Cloudsdale, there was absolutely nothing but dry, cracked dirt. Celestia's Kingdom had fallen, and it had taken a toll on everypony.
Twilight Sparkle; Queen of the Crystal Empire, was sitting on her throne in her castle contemplating the next appropriate action for her new kingdom. She had finally done what no one else could; defeat Celestia and take over Equestria. She laughed at the thought of all the ponies crying for help, asking her what she had done. None of them mattered, she was the only pony who mattered. It was her kingdom, and she could do what she wanted. When she was a princess of Equestria, she had no rightful place as one. She was just there to do the others' handiwork.
Fifteen years ago, Twilight had moved to Ponyville in search of friendship, as Celestia had requested. When Twilight lived in Canterlot, she had no friends. She was more focused on reading and learning new spells to even care about friendship. All she needed was her books and her assistant, Spike. That was until Celestia sent her to Ponyville to check on the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration. Her mission succeeded when she decided to give in and make five new friends who were big help to the preparations and after an adventure they had became the Elements of Harmony and they defeated Nightmare Moon, which also subsequently brought back Celestia's younger sister Luna which had not been seen in over one thousand years, as dark forces trapped her inside of Nightmare Moon, making her become some evil monster. Through thick and thin, these mares were unstoppable as the Elements of Harmony. They walked the land together, went on many adventures and thwarted evil villains along their way, which eventually led to Twilight becoming a princess. A title of which she had took so much honor in, helping ponies along the way. She was the next ruler of Equestria and everypony knew it, but things changed, in her eyes.
It has been almost fourteen years since she has became a princess, and life had moved on seemingly without her. Her former assistant, Spike was spending time with his wife, Rarity, which at first she thought was cute that they finally admitted their feelings, but after a while, she thought the marriage would fail as she did not think a pony and a dragon could possibly even have a family. A few months later it was announced that Rarity was expecting her and Spike's first foal, what was said to be a daughter, thanks to new technology the Doctor had brought from one his trips to an alternate universe. It was a miracle that they could even conceive, most thought, but with this new technology, the foal had a safe entrance into this world. Now some years later, the couple reside in Canterlot with their two foals, Radiance and Sapphire.
Applejack was overseeing things on Apple Acres along with her husband, Caramel and their son; Ambrose. After, Granny Smith passed away, the farm was passed down to her, as she and her older brother Big Mac were the only ponies who devoted their time to the barn, since Applebloom was busy with college. Apple Cider was now even more famous, as everypony was drinking the sweet apple beverage. Ever since then, sales have went up along with the stress of more demand for the new beverage.
Rainbow Dash was now a Wonderbolt, 2nd in command shall we add, flying the skies along with her husband, Soarin, and her adopted little sister Scootaloo who was now a member of the Wonderbolt Academy, shattering any records that Rainbow Dash had broke when she was a member of the academy herself. She had a son; Lightning Flame who was just as cocky as she was; but as formal as his father.
Fluttershy was raising her daughter alone, as she took up adoption. Her daughter; a unicorn by the name of Sparkler was said to be an amazing addition to Celestia's School of Gifted Unicorns, and Pinkie Pie was now the 3rd owner of SugarCube Corner alongside Mr. and Mrs. Cake. She was still the hyperactive pony she was, but ever since marrying Pokey Pierce, she has mellowed out so not to scare any customers away, due to her being the boss of an ever growing business in Ponyville, and due to the fact she has daughter to take care of.
Twilight Sparkle, all she did was work. Since she was a princess, it was no question she would work all the time, even though she did not mind it. Ever since Sunset Shimmer came back to Equestria and became a Princess herself, something was missing. Her family. The family she rarely saw or spoke too. She spent more time with her students than she did with her own family. She was stressed, she was tired. She DID mind being overworked. Some days she regretted being a Princess, some days she did not. Her daughter; a Pegasus by the name of Twilight Crystal claimed she never had time to spend with her so why would she bother being at home. That put a strain on her and her daughter's relationship but she would try to fix that later. If her brain would function properly and not think about the negative things. She tended to be doing that a lot lately, sometimes she would catch it but other days thoughts would fill her mind with rage and anxiety. Maybe she needed to go visit her most faithful student; Pumpkin Cake and get her opinion on all of this.
She did not know why these thoughts were coming to her head suddenly or how they were getting there, but she was worried to death over them. As more and more of these thought went through her mind, she was starting to think she had no friends, she was starting to think nopony cared about her or her feelings and that they just used her for her powers. This was a terrible thought to start thinking about but she was slowly not regretting it ever coming across her mind. After all of the trouble she went through to be a friend to them,and to be a princess of Equestria this is what she gets? Why did she have to be the one with all the duty? She felt like dirt, she felt unimportant, and most of all she had felt lonely. Maybe she needed to call a reunion to sort of get things off of her chest, she felt like that was a good thought for once as she was starting to fade to sleep... That day never happened, as her dreams got the best of her.. and a visit from a King she once defeated being in those dreams.. Now, everything has changed..
The streets are dark, lonely and cold. Just like the pony Twilight Sparkle had become. No one had knew why she had done what she did, but somepony had to stop her before it was too late. She sat atop of a large kingdom; with it came her crystal henchmen who did everything she had asked of them to do. She was the Queen; every pony bowed down to her, just like they used to with Celestia. And Luna. And Cadence. And even Sunset Shimmer. With all of the Mane Six being mothers now, their would be no chance that they could stop her. All these thoughts kept racing through the mind of Pumpkin Cake. She was supposed to be a baker, but due to her extraordinary use of magic, Twilight persuaded her to enroll in Celestia's school. As her time there passed by, Twilight realized how much magic the young pony could use and personally adopted her as a student. Now older and more wiser, Pumpkin had the potential of becoming a princess herself, but something was missing. Something she couldn't quite place her hoof on. Was she the reason Equestria is a wasteland? She thought to herself.
"Pumpkin"
"Pumpkin" a voice kept calling out to her
"Pumpkin!" The voice yelled louder, piercing her thoughts.
"Pumpkin Cake!" The voice screamed causing the gifted unicorn to snap back into reality. The voice belonged to her best friend; Radiance, the hybrid oldest daughter of Spike and Rarity.
"I'm sorry, Radi. I got too deep in my emotions. This whole apocalypse thing is still so unreal, to think I called her a mentor." Pumpkin says, looks of anger and sorrow buried within her face. As she looked on, her friends were talking amongst themselves; possibly another scheme to try and stop the Former princess. Every scheme they have had so far, Pumpkin has put down due to lack of realism.
"I think we all know this by now, dear. It's hit us all, I mean. When was the last time we saw all of our parents? They had that whole reunion thing and the next thing we know.. We were waking up in rubble." Radiance said looking on at her younger sister, Sapphire along with their other friends. They had a small little team, as most of them were children of the Mane Six.
"We just need to regroup and keep moving, she could find me any second now." Pumpkin worriedly said as she knew she was a target on the Queen's list. They had to keep moving, and quickly in order to avoid being caught by any of the Queen's henchmen. Or even by the King himself. They had little time to waste. It was now or never.
"Ambrose, get the smaller children ready for leaving. TC, get the others." Radiance ordered as a sun colored Pegasus and a tall orange coated earth pony followed her commands.
"I hope Lightning doesn't screw anything up again." Pumpkin mumbled to herself, their last attempt of being quiet failed and almost got them all captured. Thankfully with Sparkler's and Pumpkin's magic, they narrowly escaped. As the rest of her friends followed suit with moving out, a strange feeling entered Pumpkin's body as she felt like she was being watched. Looking on towards the distance, she figured the hunger must have made her paranoid.
"Is that everypony?" Pumpkin asked, making her final check.
"Eeyup." That was the only confirmation she needed.
"Alright, let's move out. Make sure you have every weapon, and every part of your mind handy. We don't want to lose this war. Understood." Pumpkin barked, looking into the eyes of every pony she was watching over, as they all nodded their heads and gathered their things, Pumpkin checked her surroundings for the final time. Nopony was there.
"Let's roll."
Off in the distance, if one had good hearing; they could have swore someone was laughing very evil and maniacal.
"So clever, my most faithful student." The figure said as darkness fell over the area, illuminating the green smoke forming from the figures eyes.
This is the story of Twilight Sparkle, this is the story of how friendship never dies, and most importantly this is the story of how corruption can damage everything.